mikethemadbiologist

If you think the title is goofy, watch the video: Brilliant.

Over at Hullabaloo, Tristero describes this conversation with a respected journalist about the manufactured smear of CBS reporter Lara Logan's coverage of the Haifa Street battle: Well, recently, I was at dinner with a friend who is a major journalist at a major media outlet in New York City. (I…

Never doubt the prognostication of the Mad Biology. A couple of days ago, I wondered if the Mighty Conservative Wurlitzer would unleash its awesome fury against the Edwards campaign bloggers. Turned out I was right. First, there was some hardhitting investigative reporting from the National…

I want to follow up on a point Amanda made in response to my post about the Texas plan to immune all girls against HPV. (Maybe between the two of us, we'll rub some good points together and come up with an idea...) Amanda writes (italics mine): ...it's true that the opt-out policy does mean that…

There's a Super Bowl to watch, but here are some links anyway. First, the science stuff: The terrifying predations of the Short Big-Eye. Public health notice: you're supposed to wash your hands with alcohol gel, not drink it. Russia has a outbreak of smelly, yellow snow. Maybe a giant dog was…

...so we can fight among ourselves here? I don't think the Iraq War was supposed to work that way. The Sunday edition NY Times has a story about Sunni-Shiite conflict in... Dearborn, MI. Fortunately, it's only reached the level of vandalism. What adjective do you use when events surpass surreal?

...panda cuteness. In honor of Amanda of Pandagon becoming a famous and financially compensated blogger, I present you this photo montage: Edwards blogging headquarters Staff photo Check out the panda on the right. What's he doing? Let's hit the bar Office cubicle action photo Office…

It should tell you just how loony the Christopath right is when a conservative Texas governor gains admission to the Coalition of the Sane (for the time being, anyway). How did Texas governor Rick Perry do it? By mandating that schoolgirls receive the HPV vaccine, and that the state subsidize the…

There's a very interesting poll about Iraq from The Financial Times. In short, 72% of U.S. troops want the U.S. to leave Iraq within twelve months: Most American troops in Iraq believe the US should withdraw within the next year, according to the first poll of US military personnel there.…

I'm thrilled that two of my favorite bloggers, Amanda of Pandagon and Shakes, are going to be part of the blog campaign for John Edwards. It's about time that they're recognized for their great work. While they, and others, have addressed the issue of what working for the Edwards campaign will…

The right wing furor over vice-presidential daughter Mary Cheney's decision to get pregnant and (hopefully) have a baby with her lesbian partner led Cheney to issue the following statement (italics mine): This is a baby. This is a blessing from God. It is not a political statement. It is not a prop…

I never knew that Niagra Falls had frozen in 1911 until a friend sent me some photos. Here they are:

Molly Ivins died this morning at age 62 from her long-running battle with cancer. She was one of the best damn things about Texas. Damn.

Not that it seems to help. But, by way of Gadflyer.com, I came across this table which lists national weekly gas prices. 2006 is the only year from 1993-2006 where gas prices dropped in the first week of November and then rose dramatically (one percent per week). Every other year prices either…

Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major public health threat. Currently, there are only a few antibiotics that are effective against it, and resistance is even a problem with these antibiotics. There is a potential treatment that might be effective against MRSA:…

Bush is trying to do an end run around the newly elected Democratic Congress. Because we all know the American people spoke clearly in the last election, and they said, "We want to gut environmental and worker protection!" From the NY Times (italics mine): President Bush has signed a directive…

I recently posted about creationists who want their 'biology' courses to be taken seriously by universities. Josh takes to task a libertarian who states "if we chose to mandate what is taught about human origins, and we are true democrats, we should mandate equal time for creationism and evolution…

I write often about irresponsible antibiotic use. But I want to make one thing clear: antibiotics are critical, life-saving and health-improving drugs. In the U.S., every year roughly two million people contract hospital-acquired infections (this ignores infections contracted outside the…

Here are some weekend links for you. First, lotsa science: Here's a post of mine about group selection. Also, I'm mentioned in an article about the rapid diagnosis of influenza. If you're sick, you should wash your hands. Of course, you could do us all a favor and not show up to work sick...…

Here's an excerpt from an essay by Albert Camus "The Unbeliever and Christians." It was originally given as a speech to Dominican monks of Latour-Maubourg in 1948. Just imagine giving this speech to the Southern Baptist Convention. It would be...interesting. Here's the speech (translation by…

Sara Robinson raises an interesting solution to "end the Intelligent Design fiasco", one that has been discussed here at ScienceBlogs before. Her suggestion is to have universities declare: "Teach what you like, it's all fine with us. But if you put ID in your science courses, we will not accept…

Because a good healthcare system isn't like the Manhattan Project or putting a man on the moon. When you read articles, blog posts, and books about trying to change the healthcare system, often an argument is made about how difficult finding a solution is. Well, I call bullshit. We're not trying…

This is not George Bush (image from here) The Peter Pan syndrome is in full effect at the White House. After meeting with George Bush, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the meeting (italics mine): In an interview, Pelosi also said she was puzzled by what she considered the president…

Commenting on this post by John Horgan about religion and defeatism, PZ writes: John Horgan criticizes Francis Collins for his defeatism in thinking that human beings will always be evil to one another: Christians castigate atheists such as Richard Dawkins for propagating a dark, nihilistic view of…

I compliment Sen. James Webb on his post-State of the Union speech, and he goes and votes against Sen. Dodd's amendment to require Congressional approval to increase troop numbers in Iraq. Also voting in surprising fashion were Democrats Casey, Cardin, and Nelson. Republican senator Hagel showed…

A while ago, Bora referred to a short article about David Sloan Wilson, whose research program examines group selection (among other things). Any discussion of group selection is almost always contentious, largely because there is a fundamental confusion (or conflation) of two different phenomena…

Well, kinda sorta. I'm mentioned in a UPI article about rapid diagnosis of influenza and antibiotic use. Rather than repeat the UPI story, here's the abstract (don't worry, I'll translate): Background: Rapid influenza testing decreases antibiotic and ancillary test use in febrile children, yet…

No, I'm not referring to Bush's State of the Union, but Senator James Webb's response. What's interesting is how hard he hit the economics: There are two areas where our respective parties have largely stood in contradiction, and I want to take a few minutes to address them tonight. The first…

Let's just say, for sake of argument, that Bush's proposed tax plan for healthcare would actually lower premiums. There's something rather obvious that his plan seems to miss. If insurers make less money through premiums, they will find other ways to recoup their diminished income. How would…

Update: I was in error (long day at work). The article was published in Wired magazine Seed Magazine, the meatworld Overlords of ScienceBlogs, has an article about Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacterium which can be resistant to virtually every antibiotic used to treat it--and in some cases, all…