mikethemadbiologist

Merry Friday. Here are some links for you. Science: Tyrannosaurus Suffered From Bird Disease Irving Kristol and Evolution Blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) "Gentlemen Shall Lean to the Left" More CongressCritter Meddling in the NIH Grant Process Other: How to talk to complete idiots: Three basic…

And they don't appear to actually fix anything either. From The Washington Post: But Duncan reiterated his commitment to testing and accountability: "I will always give NCLB credit for exposing achievement gaps and for requiring that we measure our efforts to improve education by looking at…

...for about $2.50 a day. Over at Age of Autism, there's a DEVASTATING two part series about how ScienceBlogs has been bought and paid for by Big Pharma (and I don't mean Rush Limbaugh). I've always been amazed when people accuse me and my fellow ScienceBloglings of being bought off. Most of us…

I know I've posted about the misuse of the concept of irrationality before, but a recent Robert Frank NY Times column is a ridiculous exercise in irrationality storytelling. Frank writes: A second problematic assumption of standard economic models is that people are properly attentive to all…

One of the thing we need to pay attention to during TEH SWINEY FLOO! is the role of bacterial infections in flu-related mortality: a fair number of the deaths ultimately could result from a secondary bacterial infection by organisms like Staphylococcus (including MRSA), Streptococcus, and some of…

Keep in mind as you read this news item, this takes place in a country that spends thousands of dollars more per person for healthcare than other countries, including those that have a comparable per person GDP and median income. From Diabetes Health: For most young adults, May is a month of…

Last week, you might have read about the stagnation of wages. If you didn't, here's Felix Salmon: There's no good news in today's data from the Census bureau. Unless you're the kind of person who worries about inflation, that is: in that case you're probably reassured that real median household…

..inscribed in the Book of Life. And if you're fasting for Yom Kippur, have an easy fast. (no, we don't really think God is up there, deciding whether or not to write our names in the Book of Life. It's a metaphor)

...it takes a lot of money to buy his vote. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million, give or take: Arkansas Rep. Mike Ross -- a Blue Dog Democrat playing a key role in the health care debate -- sold a piece of commercial property in 2007 for substantially more than a county assessment and an…

...make sure you check out the Darwin exhibit and the ant exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History. The Darwin exhibit (TEH DARWINISMZ!!) has a really good introduction to natural selection that's readily accessible for non-biologists--I hope school trips take advantage of this exhibit…

It's still unclear if the murdered census worker with "fed" written on his chest was killed because he was a census worker, but the bashing of the Constitutionally-mandated census by Michelle Bachmann and other conservatives is having an effect--and not a good one (italics mine): I work in the…

While I think making swine flu vaccination mandatory for healthcare workers is bad policy, since it feeds into anti-vaccine paranoia: people forced to take the vaccine will assume that they are guinea pigs and this, in turn, will lead others to think something is wrong with the vaccine. Having…

ScienceBlogling Drugmonkey has some good info about the new shortened NIH R01 proposal. There are a lot of interesting comments over there, so I suggest you head on over and read the whole thing. What I wonder about is if the shorter format will end up 'compressing' the proposal scores, and…

Argh. The post got borked because I'm using a very old computer with weird keystroke habits. The article is from here: The Oklahoma House of Representatives Education Committee has just approved House Bill 2211. The bill is expected to pass the full House, and then to go to the Senate. Its…

Whenever drug legalization is raised, the anti-legalization side always raises the specter of increased addiction. That is, the argument is framed as a choice between legalization and the harm due to increased addiction. But this ignores a key factor--the death toll due to the 'War' on (Some…

And I don't mean that as a compliment. Leon Wieseltier has an excellent response to the NY Times Magazine editor Gerald Marzorati who described the magazine's ideology as: Call it Urban Modern. That is, I think it reflects not a left-or-right POLITICAL ideology but a geographical one, the…

...you should go out of business. I've meant to get to this, so in Internet years, this news is like a gajillion years ago. Anyway, one of the galling things about the bank bailout is that, even though in many cases the taxpayers basically own the banks, nothing is being done about various forms…

I'll be on the road for the High Holidays (and a much needed vacation). But the blog will keep rolling on. Gut Yontif to all.

Bestest public service announcement EVAH!: Seriously though, www.flu.gov has some good information. And someone at HHS was being very clever when he or she thought of soliciting videos for a public service announcement.

This might seem a ludicrous statement of the obvious, but defining aging as a risk from an insurance standpoint is absurd. First, this summary of the premiums for the Baucus plan: Key relevant provisions of Baucus' bill [pdf] are called "Rating Rules for the Individual Market" (pages 1-2). These…

Well done, Max: People in Massaschusetts are by and large satisfied with the Connector. It's toughest on the fairly small number of families earning just over 300% of FPL (of which there aren't that many), and on the larger number of young individuals who make just over 300% of FPL (which is $32,…

This is not good public hygiene ...WASHING YOUR DAMN HANDS! From the NY Times: In one study of four residence halls at the University of Colorado, two of the dorms had hand sanitizer dispensers installed in every dorm room, bathroom and dining area, and students were given educational materials…

Warren Buffet, the world's second richest man, met with some senators and told them that the wealthy need to pay more in taxes: "He said rich people are not paying enough taxes," said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). "It was interesting to see someone who is such an aggressive capitalist, who…

My colleagues have all heard of the Mad Biologist's Rule of Base Ten Numbers: when you see too many numbers that end with zero, become skeptical. That's because only one in ten numbers should do should end in zero. So, if you read news reports that routinely say, "Today, American forces blew the…

...the rest of us. Shorter version: you are an ambulatory germ dispersal unit, so be responsible. I try to make it a regular habit to go through the ScienceBlogs 24-hour feed, and in doing so, I came across this post by ScienceBlogling Jason Rosenhouse talking about his experience with what might…

Economist Brad DeLong criticizes an economics reporter from ProPublica who claims "his job is looking for 'gotcha' stories about stimulus money going for 'lion cages at the National Zoo.'" In DeLong's comments, I asked: What's wrong with lion cages at the National Zoo? I like the National Zoo,…

Happy Saturday! Some links for you. Science first: The depressing math of swine flu, ICUs and ventilators War against H1N1 likely to be fought in intensive care units Beware of Velociraptor Attacks from Above Missing from healthcare reform: the autopsy Medicine's Dangerous Guessing Game Other:…

From Think Progress, we learn that Newt Gingrich's American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF) group is choosing people for 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year awards by his Business Defense and Advisory Council. One little problem though: Pink Visual is a porn DVD superstore -- not the type of…

I've often said on this blog that everything I know about movement conservatives, I learned from watching (and opposing) creationists. One major lesson is that words have no intrinsic meaning: they are simply means to manipulate people for your own goals. Well, Margaret Thatcher, an icon of anti…

One of the things that everyone has been talking about, including Obama, is slowing the growth in healthcare costs, what some have called 'bending the curve' (and if we bend it, will we Bend It Like Beckham?). But consider these per capita healthcare expenditure data from the OECD: In case you…