mikethemadbiologist

Rightwing lunatic and Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who has been exploring a presidential campaign run, was giving a speech in New Hampshire, where she uttered the following (italics mine): "What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty,"…

Sunny. Kinda warm. Seems like a good reason for links. Science: Small Beetles Massacre The Rockies' Whitebark Pines Why the grass is always greener once you hit grad school Nuclear Reactors A More Ancient World: Bird Evolution for Birders Part II (WARNING! Super long and photo rich) Other: Some…

And I'm not talking about the four-legged kind. As I've noted before, whenever some right-wing associated nut shoots someone, we always hear it described as the actions of a 'lone wolf.' Because members of another militia group were arrested for planning to kidnap and murder police officers and…

Ok, so it's not real. But this is an awesome proposal and post by a teacher: I have used a bank many times. I have a checking account and a savings account (although I do admit I haven't added anything to my savings account for the past fifteen years since my pay has been frozen.) Nevertheless,…

Links for you. Science: Corner piece Palm Oil Plantations Equal Deforestation Elephants give each other a helping trunk What Killed Europe's Hyenas? High (school) honors Other: Vilsack: 'I took it as a slam on rural America' (Good for Klein. I'm so sick of this self-righteous heartland bullshit)…

I haven't been able to track down the specific bill, but, if this report about legislation in Michigan is true, this is essentially a corporate coup d'état (italics mine): NAOMI KLEIN: Well, I just found out about this last night, and like I said, there's so much going on that these extraordinary…

What a fabulous combination. This week, Congress has held hearings on the direct-to-customer ('DTC') genetic testing industry. It appears, based on previous statements by FDA officials, that they have publicly contradicted themselves--or been willfully ignorant--about the larger scientific…

Links for you. Science: The Reinvention of Silk Strong Beliefs About Vaccines Work Both Ways The Young and the Perceptive Social Networking's Newest Friend: Genomics Other: Doesn't Anyone Remember Christine Whitman? (I'm afraid the same thing will occur with Romney) Infographic: Tax Breaks vs.…

If you haven't heard, a NPR executive was forced to resign after an undercover recording by the minions of James O'Keefe. I don't see why anyone's getting bent out of shape because said executive called the Tea Party "racist"--some of them are quite bigoted, and other are scary, gun toting people…

Detroit Industry by Diego Rivera To put this post in larger context, Paul Krugman stirred up quite a ruckus with a column that argued that a lot of jobs for college graduates are being rendered obsolete by technological change. For scientists, this is not a new phenomenon. At a recent…

For some of you, access to ScienceBlogs has been wonky. It's not because our Seed Overlords have neglected to feed the hamsters that power the Blogerator 9600. Turns out it's a denial-of-service attack: We have been forwarding reports from bloggers and users to our hosting service, Rackspace,…

Happy Wednesday. Links for you. Science: Genetic Genealogy and the Single Segment Fungi Developed to Fight Malaria in Mosquitoes What a real astrobiologist at NASA has to say You can increase your intelligence: 5 ways to maximize your cognitive potential Other: Why employee pensions aren't…

A while ago, I was pleasantly suprised--and stunned--to read a Marketwatch columnist (the online market site for The Wall Street Journal) point out the obvious, yet rarely recognized, reality that we are no longer on the gold standard. As I noted: One of the key innovations of the last century--…

Consider this the post wherein I channel my Inner ERV. During the last week, I've come across a couple sensationalist article about E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus being found on common surfaces. Here's one article about shopping carts and E. coli: Researchers from the University of Arizona…

Just realized we lose an hour of sleep this weekend. Better get the links out soonest then. Science: Gender Differences and Casual Sex: The New Research How technology makes ideology irrelevant Waiting around as transferable skill We have no idea what we're missing Other: A Look at State and…

I like constancy. Knowing that, come spring, the forsythia will bloom is a good thing. But I don't like knowing that, when Newsweek columnist Robert Samuelson writes something about Social Security, it will be error-filled and disingenuous. Sadly, this too is a constant. A few years back,…

There's been a lot of interesting discussion about the poor job prospects of post-docs, much of which was sparked by this Nature News column by Jennifer Rohn. I responded with the idea that we need more research centers (although if what you want to do is teach, you should continue in academia).…

Links for you. Science: Ag antibiotic use: Risky -- but also sloppy and wasteful A Nature chain retraction for Arabidopsis paper, and some unanswered questions Mate magnet madness: When the range of possible explanations exceeds your own hypothesis More Twitter Nonsense Other: Does running schools…

Movement conservative Grover Norquist is famous (or infamous) for his slogan, "Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub." (There are different versions of this saying). In response, some on the left will quip, when discussing the theopolitical right, that the…

One of the supposed key innovations in educational 'reform' is the adoption of value added testing. Basically, students are tested at the start of the school year (or at the end of the previous year) and then at the end of the year. The improvement in scores is supposed to reflect the effect of…

Links for you. Science: How is a mantis shrimp like a punching bag? The way it takes a hit. Scientific acupunture Other: Ten Years Of Library Internet In A Small Town Feds to investigate possible racial bias in Boston school closing plan Bardella Email Scandal Reveals Sorry State of DC Journalism…

It's a little bigger than an iPhone. A while back, I came across this Wall Street Journal article about the Computer Museum. I found this handy-dandy computer to help housewives cook a delicious meal! It's very practical: (from here) Sure, it takes up half the kitchen, but look at what the…

Sadly, I'm not talking about the desire to learn. A recent survey of teachers (pdf) revealed the following about hunger in the U.S. classroom: â¢When K-8 public school teachers consider a list of problems they face in the classroom, they rate discipline as the top problem (83 percent), with…

Links for you. Science: So you think you knew Templeton? A new report. (Not really shocking: The Templeton Foundation: Lie Down with Templetons and End Up with Lawsuits Against 'Climate Hawk' Politicians) Psych-Out Sexism: The innocent, unconscious bias that discourages girls from math and science…

Kirsten Powers attempts to debunk the claim that increased access to contraception prevents unwanted abortions: In the U.S., the story isn't much different. A January 2011 fact sheet by the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute listed all the reasons that women who have had an abortion give for…

It's supposed to be warm tomorrow! Let's celebrate with some links. Science: When Iron and Bacteria tragically collide: From the Middle Ages to the University of Chicago Systematically Biased Beliefs About Political Influence: The Working Paper (I would love to see some neurosciency type blog…

I haven't gone after creationists in quite a while, because it just starts to feel like picking on the slow kid. Both PZ Myers and Kele Cable attended a seminar by Answers in Genesis High Wackaloon Terry Mortenson. I don't think you could pay me enough to wade through that morass of unadulterated…

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) recently announced that it will shut down the Short Read Archive (SRA). The SRA stored the semi-processed data for genomics projects, so researchers could examine the raw data for a genomics project. The reason given by NCBI is "budget…

A balmy....27 degrees. At least the link supply isn't frozen. Science: Reviving 100-year-old resting spores of diatoms Electric Vehicles: Myths vs. Reality Nobel Prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis offers a radical new way to treat infectious diseases as the effectiveness of our current antibiotics…

One of the things that has gone unnoticed during the Wisconsin troubles is this piece of legislation that passed: Madison - Today, Governor Scott Walker signed Special Session Assembly Bill 5 which requires a 2/3s vote to pass tax rate increases on the income, sales or franchise taxes. "I went to…