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
April 2, 2011
You might remember the recent assault on Planned Parenthood by the rightwing. Well, I forgot that former congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave also got in on the act:
Former Congresswoman and anti-abortion rights advocate Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) suggested Planned Parenthood covers up sexual assaults…
April 2, 2011
I guess I'm so inured to wealthy conservatives complaining about how financially hard they have it that Republican Congressman Sean Duffy's complaint about money wasn't what bothered me about this utterance:
At a town hall meeting in Polk County, Wisconsin earlier this year, Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI)…
April 1, 2011
Links for you, and that's no April Fool's. Science:
Beauty
Watch Out Below: Wasps Battle Ants by Dropping Them
Is Bigger Really Better?
It's a pretty sweet gig, if you can stomach it (on creationist 'science')
Other:
Review of Closing the Racial Achievement Gap
Is progress in Florida schools…
April 1, 2011
...hopefully, they won't murder anyone. Speaking of Research has documented the anti-medical research threats by an organization known as Negotiation Is Over (italics mine; no direct link to terrorist organizations on this blog):
Students also need to understand that making the wrong choice will…
April 1, 2011
So my post about why biomedical scientists suffer more than others in STEM fields seems to have received some attention. ScienceBlogling Chad Orzel writes:
That's true, but here's the thing: it's not unique to biomedical science. The same problem afflicts physics-- every time I post something…
March 31, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Livestock-associated Staphylococcus aureus in Childcare Worker
New paper: Staphylococcus aureus ST398 in a childcare worker
"Castrated" Spiders Are Better Fighters, Study Says
The spread of superbugs
Other:
Greg Mankiw: Budget Arsonist Screaming for a Firehose...…
March 31, 2011
I've written before about the effect poverty has on educational performance. From the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, PA, we read this heartbreaking account of the violence many poor kids face in the classroom:
A yearlong Inquirer investigation found that young children - from kindergartners…
March 31, 2011
One of the issues I've discussed repeatedly is how resources--money--need to be shifted from data generation to data processing and analysis. This report about the Earth Microbiome Project, which will characterize 10,000 environmental (e.g., soil, water) samples is encouraging. Someone must have…
March 30, 2011
Merry Wednesday! Links for you. Science:
The Real Reason Women Quit Engineering
Antarctic lake hints at a world of virus-attacking viruses
The flat and the fit
Other:
A reason to cheat
Beyond Erase to the Top: The Myth of Michelle Rhee Continues
Illustrating How Infrastructure Deals Result in…
March 30, 2011
In a very interesting post about political power and economic equality, William Hogeland recounts some uncivil exchanges between Thomas Paine and John Adams:
Here's John Adams on Thomas Paine's famous 1776 pamphlet "Common Sense": "What a poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous mass."…
March 30, 2011
Science Professor makes what I think is an entirely accurate assessment of the misery of many in the biomed academic world (emphasis original):
However, much of what I have learned, although fascinating, has been second-order compared to this:
People in the biomedical sciences seem to suffer a lot…
March 29, 2011
Links for you. Science:
The High Water Mark of American Science
Ancient America: The Mammoth Hunters
A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students
Other:
Abusing Open Records to Attack Academic Freedom
Public Pensions and Arithmetic Problems at…
March 29, 2011
I'm a big fan of Brad DeLong's blog even when I don't agree with him. But one of the things that's bothered me is when he reprints posts in full. For bloggers, professional or amateur, links are currency. Reprinting the post in full means people won't be inclined to click through to your site.…
March 29, 2011
Whenever a new discipline, especially one using a 'sexy' technology, is brought to bear on human disease, it seems to be oversold in what it will actually accomplish. In addition, every problem is suddenly viewed through that lens, that if we understand how phenomenon X influences something, then…
March 28, 2011
Links for you. Science:
We need to work together to save the Statistical Abstract of the United States
China pig crisis: Drug residues in pork
Elizabeth Taylor: Beautiful Mutant
Other:
The trouble with fund management
Nonprofits Must Stand Up and Fight for Themselves, or Perish
It's Tracking Your…
March 28, 2011
Matthew Yglesias makes a good point about budget negotiations--their intransigence on tax increases means that, at least in the House, the budget is entirely up to the Republicans:
Under these circumstances, there's nothing to negotiate about and nothing presidential leadership can achieve. If…
March 28, 2011
Because that's not been his MO so far. A long-time reader emailed and asked me why I haven't commented on Libya. Well, it's simple: as far as I can tell, the U.S. government has a long-standing policy of doing the opposite of what I want when it comes to matters of war and peace. Nonetheless, I…
March 27, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Big dust-up about kin selection
Writing Popular Science Books Doesn't Make You a Scientist
Why are these trees completely wrapped in spider webs?
Other:
Humanitarians of the Year
The Gang That Couldn't Lobby Straight
Bachman For President (the Tea Party is the theopolitical…
March 27, 2011
Republican Massachusetts senator Scott Brown is such a disgrace, he can't even beg for money correctly:
At the public dedication of MIT's David H. Koch Integrative Cancer Institute last Friday, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) effusively thanked conservative billionaire David Koch for supporting his…
March 27, 2011
The whole CDO binge (aka Big Shitpile) led to a whole slew of perverse incentives to not help a borrower who is having difficultly paying the mortgage, even though, in the era before mortgages were treated as commodities to be sold, banks routinely went out of their way to avoid foreclosure--…
March 26, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Congress and Science Education: Wolf Berates NSF on Overdue Report
Inclusive Fitness: Return to the Wrestling Ring
Researchers Challenge E. O. Wilson Over Evolutionary Theory
Robert Trivers and colleagues on Nowak, Tarnita, and Wilson's "The evolution of eusociality"
Re:…
March 26, 2011
It sounds like
the Boston Public Library will be closed year round on Sundays
:
Boston Public Library trustees have signed off on a $39.3 million budget that does not include branch closures or layoffs, but that does call for shuttering the Copley branch on Sundays....
The proposed library budget…
March 26, 2011
A few weeks ago, Glenn Greenwald gave a speech where he discussed the climate of government intimidation in the U.S.:
I received a lot of comments from people via email, from people in person telling me at my attended events, from people in my comment section, American citizens who said the…
March 25, 2011
Happy Friday! Links for you. Science:
We need to work together to save the Statistical Abstract of the United States
At odds with disease risk estimates
The other weaver ants
Unauthorized medicine: Leave important clinical testing to the professionals
Other:
What the Baby Joseph cases tells us…
March 25, 2011
Because that's just good speaking. Chris Mooney has a very good post about the civic obligation scientists have to explain their work and its implications to the public. I recommend it highly. But one small part of the post rubbed me the wrong way (italics original; boldtype mine):
When it comes…
March 24, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Study finds reports of domestic violence rise 10 percent after NFL upsets: NIH researchers suggest unexpected disappointment may underlie loss of control and violent behavior
A Guide to Smarter, Safer Antibiotic Use
Rat Race
Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love…
March 24, 2011
By way of Roy Edroso, we unfortunately come across this Washington Times gay-hating screed that masquerades as religious-based love. So ordinarily I would give it a pass, except for this idiotic doosy:
And what about the Creator of the Universe? It is God's moral code that has undergirded Western…
March 24, 2011
Because we are human after all. Jason Collins at Evolving Economics, in response to my post about one economist's misunderstanding of biology, asks a very good question:
On the flip side, did Dawkins or Gould (or their respective supporters) ever concede to the other side that they were wrong and…
March 23, 2011
More, um, snow expected. Sigh. Links for you. Science:
Virophage, the virus eater (this is really cool)
On Baby Harp Seals, Coal Plants and Nuclear Power
Let's do the numbers. Again. (every three Tomahaw cruise missiles equal two NIH R01 grants)
Bacterial Burglary
Other:
It's not structural…
March 23, 2011
A recent change by Harper Collins Publishing regarding library-owned eBook has met with a lot of criticism:
The value of this magically convenient library book -- otherwise known as an e-book -- is the subject of a fresh and furious debate in the publishing world. For years, public libraries…