mikethemadbiologist

R.J. Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch Ezra Klein nails it: There is an impulse to honor the dead by erasing the sharp edges of their life. To ensure they belong to all of us, and in doing, deprive them of the dignity conferred by their actual choices, their lonely stands, and their long work. But…

There are two legitimate reasons for health insurance copayments (that is, you pay for part of a treatment or drug). The first is that copayments provide ownership: by requiring a nominal payment for those who are not indigent, it reinforces that idea that this isn't charity, but a common social…

More stuff I'll never be able to blog about. Science: Let God sort them out The Three Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Natural Selection Noncaloric sweeteners might not be the solution either Viruses are going to save our butts. Missouri bans wrong plastic from rivers Other: A Short Post on…

You might find it hard to believe, but determining whether restricting antibiotic use leads to decreased resistance is actually not very straightforward. That's because antibiotic resistance genes can be linked to--that is, they travel along with--other resistance genes or even genes that are…

Senator Kennedy died late last night. From his family: "We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. "We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last…

If you're wondering who Arthur Frommer is, he's the chief author of Frommer's Travel Guides, which can be found at virtually every U.S. bookstore. So when Frommer argues that people should reconsider visiting Arizona, that's not definitely good for Arizona's tourism sector. But Frommer's reasons…

More stuff I'll never get around to blogging about. Science: On learning from "doing the math" Officials Brace For An H1N1 Resurgence No more 'alpha male'! Bonus Dinosaur of the Week--Dinosaurian Death in Decidedly Drenched Dirt. Other: The Republican Party Is Turning Into A Cult Right-Wing Cranks…

As readers might guess, I get a lot of junk mail from Democrats asking me to save America by giving them money (although some are worth giving to). The newest sales pitch is to raise the specter of Republicans being able to filibuster. For instance, Senate candidate and current congressman Paul…

In various posts refuting the creationist canard that we can't explain everything, I've argued that if biologists knew everything then we wouldn't need to do biology. Comedian Dara O'Briain makes a similar point and many other hilarious ones too: What does it say when the best observers of our…

Happy Saturday. Here are some links. Science: Francis Collins' "Five Themes" for the NIH Who's a scientist? Intelligent Design Question: What Is a Scientist? Other: The View From My Recession THE PENANCE HAS NOT BEEN PAID, PART II.... What's Wrong WIth The Democratic Party, Part #74,397 There Are…

For a bunch of guys who are supposed to be politically smart, Obama's team sure is stupid. You're probably wondering what the hell the agricultural bill (the bill that gives farmers lots of subsidies) has to do with healthcare. Once upon a time, people always used to joke that Senator Bob Dole…

Or something. The healthcare debate is making movement conservatives completely unhinged. Bachmann: "That's why people need to continue to go to the town halls, continue to melt the phone lines of their liberal members of Congress," said Bachmann, "and let them know, under no certain…

One of the frustrating things about health insurance reform is that those opposing meaningful reform are completely beholden to insurance companies. Well, there is something you can do: reward the behavior of the House Democrats who are holding the line on the public option. Since Tuesday,…

A couple days ago, while waiting for the T, a guy about ten feet away sneezed several times without even attempting to cover his face; he didn't even make a 'matador', bullshit fake effort. Because of the angle of the light and what not, I could easily see the massive spray of mucus flying out of…

In the ongoing Democratic Party effort to alienate rank-and-file Democrats, along with those non-aligned voters who supported Democrats, an weasel-dick cowardanonymous White House official expressed surprised at the support for the public option (italics mine): "I don't understand why the left of…

Of course, it's not bad policy either. Anyway, Paul Krugman is exactly right on target: If progressives had real trust in Obama's commitment to doing the right thing, the administration would have broad leeway to do deals. But the president doesn't command that kind of trust.... So progressives…

While I'm loath to disagree with ScienceBlogling Daniel MacArthur about genomics, I can't really agree with his assessment of genetic risk prediction: Wright provides a balanced review of the implications of the article, and finishes with a paragraph worth quoting verbatim: However, far from…

...I was wrong. African-Americans and Latinos are already showing elevated numbers of swine flu hospitalizations in Massachusetts: Since its arrival in Boston in late April, swine flu has proved to be a particular source of misery to the city's African-American and Hispanic residents, causing…

One of the more successful healthcare interventions has been home nurse visits to families that have recently had a child: "Optional Coverage of Nurse Home Visitation Services" certainly doesn't sound controversial. The initiative, which has existed in various forms at the state and local level…

Here are some links for you. Science: Disease and Disadvantage in the United States and in England Next Generation DNA Sequencing does more than sequence DNA Rooks Are Smarter Than Many Americans Other: "2007 was an incredibly good year for the super rich" WHAT ARE THEY SO MAD ABOUT?.... Why I…

What's $24 billion of potential losses among friends? If you want to know what a zombie bank is, the foreclosure situation in California is textbook: Later on they add, "The increase appears to be primarily due to the fact that lenders are willingly postponing foreclosure sales." Why postpone?…

Following on yesterday's post, we read that Rick Perlstein has similar thoughts: Conservatives have become adept at playing the media for suckers, getting inside the heads of editors and reporters, haunting them with the thought that maybe they are out-of-touch cosmopolitans and that their duty as…

One of the things that has enabled the mainstreaming of various idiocies, from altie woo, to creationism, to global warming denialism is mainstream corporate media's inability to accurately describe lunacy. For obvious reasons, 'family-friendly' newspapers and teevee can't call creationists,…

Here are some links for you. Science: Why Exercise is Not the Best Prescription for Weight Loss Book Review: Unscientific America Another rich white guy sequences own genome Anthrax bacteria get help from viruses and worms to survive "Is it the pot that made him lazy DM?" Dinosaur of the Week--…

...shitty. I don't see how the economy will substantively improve without getting rid of the zombie banks--those banks that are insolvent, that have more debts than assets. Since they are unable to make loans, they're essentially non-functioning banks. The federal government for the first time…

I'll get to Whole Foods in a moment, but one of the reasons I wrote about the misuse of heritability by Megan McArdle last week is that I can't stand it when people misuse biology to push a political agenda (and hopefully, I'll be able to get back to that next week). As I argued in a previous post…

I know it's weird, but I like a good obituary. The really good ones approach high lit status. Molly Ringwald has a nice obit about John Hughes; it's worth the read.

I've posted several times about how confusing a slowdown in the rate at which things get worse (the second derivative) with an actual improvement (the first derivative) has led to some ridiculous claims about economic improvement. Keith Hennessey has a similar complaint: He [Obama] said this first…

In the midst of the concern about TEH SWINEY FLOO!, very few people (other than the Mad Biologist), have been discussing the double whammy of influenza followed by bacterial infections. A couple of years ago, I first started describing reports of KPCs: No, KPC isn't a new fast food restaurant. It'…

Not a pro-health insurance company thug If you peek over at the sidebar, you'll notice that my photo is a copy of Norman Rockwell's Freedom of Speech. I'll turn the description over to driftglass: He's nervous. Really nervous.By his tan and his hands and his clothes, you can tell he's a working…