Mad rantings about politics, evolution, and microbiology. Comment policy: say what you want, but back it up with an email address. I don't like anonymous trolls.
mikethemadbiologist
Posts by this author
March 29, 2007
That's according to Republican congressman Randy Forbes, member of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. Personally, I think exercising Congress' oversight role and passing some legislation worth a damn might help a bit more, but then again, my prayers wouldn't count for much anyway according to the…
March 29, 2007
In response to us foul-mouthed evolutionists, Casey Luskin asks, "Yet for all their numbers and name-calling, not a single one has answered Egnor's question: How does [sic] Darwinian mechanisms produce new biological information?" I've never liked the whole "biological information" concept.
As far…
March 28, 2007
Blogger Mike Stark recently debated Myron Ebell about global warming. Apparently, Mike Stark did more than just hold his own, which is pretty impressive considering the debate was hosted by the ultraconservative Federalist Society. Stark had this interesting point about credibility, which is…
March 28, 2007
Hunter has a superb piece on the declining (or perhaps negligible) authority of the punditocracy. Hunter writes:
I have never (and I do mean, never) gotten the impression that anyone among the upper echelons of the press understands just how badly their long-term credibility has been damaged by…
March 28, 2007
By way of Seeing the Forest, I came across this Zogby poll from Sept. 2006 about the Iraq War. The stoopid is really painful.
Half of American voters (50%) say there is no link between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 terror attacks, while 46% believe there is a connection. However, just 37% of…
March 27, 2007
I ask this seriously. Among rank and file Democrats, there is a common belief that Democratic politicians are being dragged to right by the need for compromise. But I don't think that's the case with Clinton: she is a conservative Southern Democrat without the regional accent. And the southern…
March 27, 2007
One of the few predictable statistics in American public health is that between 35,000-40,000 people will die every year from 'ordinary' influenza. Most of these deaths are preventable. Yet we do nothing.
In the U.S., influenza kills approximately the same number of people every year as breast…
March 26, 2007
I usually stay away from the various pissing matches that occur between big name commentators. Watching Hollywood actors and actresses is far more entertaining, and unlike the famous and beautiful people, pundits are definitely NOT TEH HOT! But in the midst of a clash between Eric Alterman and…
March 25, 2007
Here are some Sunday links for you (with extra linkyness since there won't be one next week). First, I blind you with science:
E. coli, chimps, and antibiotic resistance. Oh my!
A crocodilian with a fish tail! Watch the creationists deny that this is an important fossil...
Speaking of fossils,…
March 25, 2007
A story in the NY Times about a very interesting Israeli group, Breaking the Silence (Shovrim Shtika), finally got me motivated to blog about it (I've been meaning to for a while). Here's one bit from the article that was interesting (italics mine):
At the recent talk and discussion session, one…
March 24, 2007
...in Stasi-controlled East Germany. An anonymous internet service provider writes in the Washington Post about the 'national security letter' he or she received:
Three years ago, I received a national security letter (NSL) in my capacity as the president of a small Internet access and consulting…
March 24, 2007
It's about time someone told the warmongers on the Washington Post editorial board to go fuck themselves. In the words of Democratic congressman David Obey:
Speaker, yesterday a number of members on the Republican side of the aisle sought to belittle the legislation before us because in addition…
March 23, 2007
...never mess with the Jewish grandmothers (Intelligent Designer man, what were you thinking?). Wednesday, Sen. Boxer smacked around Republican senator Inhofe but good:
(wait for the 1:15 mark)
No one ever listens to the Mad Biologist...
March 23, 2007
The subprime loan disaster is starting to hit suburbia. And as you might guess, the taxpayer is left to pick up the externalized costs of lenders. From the NY Times (italics mine):
In a sign of the spreading economic fallout of mortgage foreclosures, several suburbs of Cleveland, one of the…
March 22, 2007
In a recent post that's made it's way around blogtopia (and yes, skippy invented that phrase), I referred to willful ignorance. I've used that phrase before, and one troll decided to get hung up on that phrase (even though I then explained it). In one of those internet tubes, I found an excellent…
March 22, 2007
The more you stare at this scandal, the more you feel like one of the proverbial blind men trying to figure out what the hell that elephant is. From ThinkProgress, here is what fired US Attorney Carol Lam might have been investigating:
To recap, the White House awarded a one-month, $140,000…
March 22, 2007
Yesterday, I was a little miffed about the coverage of the growing US Attorney scandal. During said crankiness, I asked how we have reached the point where the legality of an action is the only criterion to use when judging if that action is ethical:
...is there any doubt that the reason these…
March 21, 2007
In scientific publishing, one of the important things is what is known as the "impact factor" which is the the average number of citations a journal receives over a 2 year period. The impact factor is often used by librarians and researchers to determine which journals to purchase and where to…
March 21, 2007
The good news is that the Senate overwhelmingly rescinded Bush's ability to appoint U.S. attorneys without Congressional approval--one of those 'terror-fighting' 'improvements' that somehow found its way into the Patriot Act. But the coverage of the investigation is awful.
MSNBC is headlining…
March 20, 2007
In response to my latest post about Michael Egnor, I received a couple of comments lamenting my intemperance towards Egnor. Below is the long version, but Mark sums up the short version quite nicely (bold original; italics mine):
But his illness is the result of the actions of many doctors -…
March 20, 2007
Just watch: the Republicans are going to blame the Democrats for fouling up the Justice Department. From U.S. News:
"You have no idea," said one Justice official, "how bad it is here."
The fear that virtually any piece of communication will have to be turned over has paralyzed department…
March 19, 2007
There's an interesting news story about antibiotic resistance in wild chimpanzee populations that claims to have found transfer of resistant Escherichia coli from humans to wild animals.
According to the article:
To do the study, the UI researchers, working with colleagues from Makerere University…
March 19, 2007
Yum. Theological conservative tastes GOOOODDD!
Full disclosure: I have never bought into the belief of the Compulsive Centrists that John McCain is a moderate. A detailed look at his voting record shows that he is often very conservative, with the occasional moment of lucidity (e.g.,…
March 18, 2007
Happy Belated Evacuation Day! Here are some links for you. The sciency stuff:
There's been some interest in a guy named Michael Egnor who said some silly things about evolution. The Mad Biologist chimed in too. Afarensis used Egnor's IDiocy to have a very nice discussion about tooth decay.…
March 18, 2007
Many of you will know of Freeman Dyson as a world-class physicist. But he was also assigned to RAF Bomber Command during World War II. Here are his thoughts on bombing of urban areas, from Disturbing the Universe:
At the beginning of the war, I believed fiercely in the brotherhood of man, called…
March 17, 2007
By 'End Times', I'm not referring to the significant global decrease in food production, or the Far East trade war over sand (I'm not kidding--Indonesia has declared a sand embargo against Singapore). Putting those two news items together does have an apocalyptic feel to it. No, what I'm…
March 17, 2007
This is from the ACT UP protest against Joint Chief of Staff General Pace's bigoted remarks:
Not exactly a position paper, but if you're not laughing, you need a humor transplant.
March 16, 2007
Hear the Mighty Roar of the Peter Pan Conservatives: those conservatives who think that policy failures are not due to strategic, tactical, or logistical flaws but solely due to to a lack of will. It appears that this way of thinking has completely permeated Little Lord Pontchartrain's brain.…
March 15, 2007
To prevent brain damage, the Surgeon General recommends that statements by Michael Egnor be read using approved devices such as the StupidView9000
Orac bravely dives deeper into the Discovery Institute's creationist drivel, and reports on the continuing ignorant idiocy of Michael Egnor. I don't…
March 15, 2007
Seriously. Lindsay of Majikthise is holding a fundraising drive. Not only is the commentary good, but she actually goes out and does very good investigative reporting. So go give her some money!