mikethemadbiologist

Recently, I described how the most frequent killer of children in the developing world wasn't 'the Big Three' (AIDS, malaria, and TB), but boring old pneumonia. Well, the second greatest killer is diarhhea. And several factors are leading to increased treatment failure of diarhhea. Actually, it's…

Here's some Sunday links for you. The sciency stuff: If I were a fish, I wouldn't want to live in an echinoderm's anus, but I suppose the Intelligent Designer works in mysterious ways. Can viruses make you forget stuff? Empty Pockets whips the vote count on stem cell research. The politics of…

It's not Blogger. From Joe at AmericaBlog: NOTE: Blogger is down AGAIN. We, like every other blog on Blogger, are only able to post intermittently - literally we're publishing each post a good 50 to 100 times before it shows up. We are frantically trying to launch the new blog, with a new non-…

A while ago, I described how I feel estranged from the internet Progressives: Bloggers like Kos constantly remind people that the lefty blogosphere isn't liberal (sounds kinda like the DLC doesn't it?). Actually to say that the internet progressives don't stand for much of anything is unfair. It's…

Billmon has a superb post on the failures of journalism due to Compulsive Centrist Disorder: But no one in the corporate media, to my knowledge, has even come close to putting an accurate lead on the story -- which would look something like this: Faced with the likely loss of one if not both houses…

Recent estimates suggest that the dollar cost of the Iraq War and Occupation will be over two trillion dollars. The horrible irony is that, had Bush not fought this war--or very quickly declared democracy and 'cut and run'--the amount of money Bush would have added to the federal debt would have…

I stumbled across this great creationist parody site: The reDiscovery Institute. You'll definitely have a few laughs with this.

At least that's what Tristero of Hullabaloo says: Actually, science isn't that hard, even the fuzzy math. Because as difficult as it may be, say, to wrap one's mind around the details of stem cell biology, it can be comprehended, if you're willing to spend the time to do so. What's really hard is…

More than a few conservatives are upset about the Michael J. Fox commercials because they're unfair: how do you respond to the emotional pull of someone who has Parkinson's disease? If you watch the full-length CBS interview, Couric cruelly hammers Fox over and over with the question of if he…

Lance Mannion notes that Rush "Big Pharma" Limbaugh uses words in the same way creationists do: as weapons. From Mannion (italics mine): Fox's offense was making campaign commercials for candidates who will vote to expand and fund stem cell research, but Limbaugh doesn't care about that. What he…

Michael Schiavo reports on a truly weird campaign event held by gay hating family values protecting Republican congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave. She was so terrified of Schiavo, the husband of Terry Schiavo, that she tried to have him arrested. And that's not the weird part.

From Billmon, comes this little factoid hidden in the latest Gallup poll: That's right, 14% of Americans think the Republicans are too liberal. That's one in seven. This explains a lot of things...

I have discussed the "search and destroy" strategy for controlling and reducing methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) before. Search-and-destroy involves the screening of every patient and hospital worker for MRSA. Patients with MRSA are isolated to prevent spread to other patients…

(from oldamericancentury.org) Conservative activist keeping a sharp eye out for Democratic Google Bombers Majikthise reminds us to join Operation Google Bomb. If you want to join, the html code is here. You'll find some very interesting articles about some not very nice people in the next…

In the Tennessee Senate race, the Republicans have been viciously playing the race card. They have been referring to Democrat Harold Ford as 'Fancy' Ford because he, a single black man, has dated...white women (note: 'fancy' is an old Southernism for, at best, a lothario, and, at worst, a pimp).…

Over at Uncertain Principles, Chad writes: He [Dawkins] rubs me the wrong way when he talks about science (I wish I could find the old post somebody on ScienceBlogs did about the vapidity of the whole "meme" thing), and really gets up my nose when he talks about religion. I don't know if he's…

When the Lancet study first came out, I argued that conservatives couldn't just criticize--they had to offer their own alternative, credible numbers for the civilian death toll. Matt Yglesias goes one further: why not a second study using credible methods of which conservatives approve?

The NY Times recently had a very good article about strep throat, which is caused by group A streptococci (which, if I'm not mistaken are near and dear to fellow ScienceBlogling Tara). Sore throats are one of the leading causes of the overprescribing of antibiotics (it's been estimated that 20% of…

Here's some good links from the weekend. First, the sciency stuff: Radiolytically produced hydrogen gas powers subsurface microbial ecosystems. Coturnix links to three good posts about antibiotics In light of the discussion by my fellow ScienceBloglings about the state of scientific journalism,…

Political ads are hardly great film making. But this ad about the Idaho congressional race will make anyone laugh, regardless of his or her political leanings. Nobody likes Republican Bill Sali...

From The Independent: In an interview with al-Jazeera, Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the US State Department, also said the US was ready to talk with any Iraqi group - excluding al- Qa'ida in Iraq - to reach national reconciliation in the…

PBS' Frontline has made their special "The Lost in Iraq" available on line. This is TV that makes you smarter, not dumber. Check it out.

Marlon Perkins' "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom." Long before the Croc Guy, Perkin's trusty sidekick Jim was getting treed by rhinos, and other fun goodness. Ok, the show wasn't very sciency, but it had really good natural history. Actually, it's really the only science-related show that I can…

...and Donald Rumsfeld? From the AP: "He [Rumsfeld] leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country," said Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ordinarily, I would simply think that this is more Republican cynicism about religion, but I'm not so…

A friend asked today, "Why is there no one seriously critiquing the Gates Foundation's priorities?" Given the influence that "Gates" has on the setting of public health priorities, as well as the massive sums spent, these priorities need to be critically examined. For example, I've heard on the…

Some stupid is so powerful that it can only be viewed safely through the StupidViewer 9000 (from here) Here's a joke: a Republican staffer of a conservative Christian Republican goes into a synagogue and tells the congregation that his candidate is more Jewish than they are. It's not very funny…

At least when it comes to killing young children in the developing world. A recent Lancet article describes the devastation pneumonia causes among children: Pneumonia kills more children than any other illness, more than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined... More than 2 million children under 5…

By day, I work for an organization that combats the spread of antibiotic resistant microorganisms. One source of antibiotic resistance is the misuse of antibiotics by patients. Often patients will stop using antibiotics early because they feel better. Not only does this make it more likely that…

Did you ever think in 1999 that Congress would pass a bill, and that a President would sign a bill that eliminates habeas corpus at the whim of the president? I sure as hell didn't. This is why the utter warping of our political system by the mindless Christopath Uruk-hai, the anti-gay bigots,…

A while ago, I posted about "The List", which was a list of gay Republicans being shopped around to various news media, of all political persuasions. I noted that this was going to get really ugly. Well, someone just outed Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho. And if the allegations are true,…