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 13, 2011
Rightwing lunatic and Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who has been exploring a presidential campaign run, was giving a speech in New Hampshire, where she uttered the following (italics mine):
"What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty,"…
March 12, 2011
Sunny. Kinda warm. Seems like a good reason for links. Science:
Small Beetles Massacre The Rockies' Whitebark Pines
Why the grass is always greener once you hit grad school
Nuclear Reactors
A More Ancient World: Bird Evolution for Birders Part II (WARNING! Super long and photo rich)
Other:
Some…
March 12, 2011
And I'm not talking about the four-legged kind. As I've noted before, whenever some right-wing associated nut shoots someone, we always hear it described as the actions of a 'lone wolf.' Because members of another militia group were arrested for planning to kidnap and murder police officers and…
March 12, 2011
Ok, so it's not real. But this is an awesome proposal and post by a teacher:
I have used a bank many times. I have a checking account and a savings account (although I do admit I haven't added anything to my savings account for the past fifteen years since my pay has been frozen.) Nevertheless,…
March 11, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Corner piece
Palm Oil Plantations Equal Deforestation
Elephants give each other a helping trunk
What Killed Europe's Hyenas?
High (school) honors
Other:
Vilsack: 'I took it as a slam on rural America' (Good for Klein. I'm so sick of this self-righteous heartland bullshit)…
March 11, 2011
I haven't been able to track down the specific bill, but, if this report about legislation in Michigan is true, this is essentially a corporate coup d'état (italics mine):
NAOMI KLEIN: Well, I just found out about this last night, and like I said, there's so much going on that these extraordinary…
March 11, 2011
What a fabulous combination. This week, Congress has held hearings on the direct-to-customer ('DTC') genetic testing industry. It appears, based on previous statements by FDA officials, that they have publicly contradicted themselves--or been willfully ignorant--about the larger scientific…
March 10, 2011
Links for you. Science:
The Reinvention of Silk
Strong Beliefs About Vaccines Work Both Ways
The Young and the Perceptive
Social Networking's Newest Friend: Genomics
Other:
Doesn't Anyone Remember Christine Whitman? (I'm afraid the same thing will occur with Romney)
Infographic: Tax Breaks vs.…
March 10, 2011
If you haven't heard, a NPR executive was forced to resign after an undercover recording by the minions of James O'Keefe. I don't see why anyone's getting bent out of shape because said executive called the Tea Party "racist"--some of them are quite bigoted, and other are scary, gun toting people…
March 10, 2011
Detroit Industry by Diego Rivera
To put this post in larger context, Paul Krugman stirred up quite a ruckus with a column that argued that a lot of jobs for college graduates are being rendered obsolete by technological change. For scientists, this is not a new phenomenon. At a recent…
March 9, 2011
For some of you, access to ScienceBlogs has been wonky. It's not because our Seed Overlords have neglected to feed the hamsters that power the Blogerator 9600. Turns out it's a denial-of-service attack:
We have been forwarding reports from bloggers and users to our hosting service, Rackspace,…
March 9, 2011
Happy Wednesday. Links for you. Science:
Genetic Genealogy and the Single Segment
Fungi Developed to Fight Malaria in Mosquitoes
What a real astrobiologist at NASA has to say
You can increase your intelligence: 5 ways to maximize your cognitive potential
Other:
Why employee pensions aren't…
March 9, 2011
A while ago, I was pleasantly suprised--and stunned--to read a Marketwatch columnist (the online market site for The Wall Street Journal) point out the obvious, yet rarely recognized, reality that we are no longer on the gold standard. As I noted:
One of the key innovations of the last century--…
March 9, 2011
Consider this the post wherein I channel my Inner ERV. During the last week, I've come across a couple sensationalist article about E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus being found on common surfaces. Here's one article about shopping carts and E. coli:
Researchers from the University of Arizona…
March 8, 2011
Just realized we lose an hour of sleep this weekend. Better get the links out soonest then. Science:
Gender Differences and Casual Sex: The New Research
How technology makes ideology irrelevant
Waiting around as transferable skill
We have no idea what we're missing
Other:
A Look at State and…
March 8, 2011
I like constancy. Knowing that, come spring, the forsythia will bloom is a good thing. But I don't like knowing that, when Newsweek columnist Robert Samuelson writes something about Social Security, it will be error-filled and disingenuous. Sadly, this too is a constant. A few years back,…
March 8, 2011
There's been a lot of interesting discussion about the poor job prospects of post-docs, much of which was sparked by this Nature News column by Jennifer Rohn. I responded with the idea that we need more research centers (although if what you want to do is teach, you should continue in academia).…
March 7, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Ag antibiotic use: Risky -- but also sloppy and wasteful
A Nature chain retraction for Arabidopsis paper, and some unanswered questions
Mate magnet madness: When the range of possible explanations exceeds your own hypothesis
More Twitter Nonsense
Other:
Does running schools…
March 7, 2011
Movement conservative Grover Norquist is famous (or infamous) for his slogan, "Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub." (There are different versions of this saying). In response, some on the left will quip, when discussing the theopolitical right, that the…
March 7, 2011
One of the supposed key innovations in educational 'reform' is the adoption of value added testing. Basically, students are tested at the start of the school year (or at the end of the previous year) and then at the end of the year. The improvement in scores is supposed to reflect the effect of…
March 6, 2011
Links for you. Science:
How is a mantis shrimp like a punching bag? The way it takes a hit.
Scientific acupunture
Other:
Ten Years Of Library Internet In A Small Town
Feds to investigate possible racial bias in Boston school closing plan
Bardella Email Scandal Reveals Sorry State of DC Journalism…
March 6, 2011
It's a little bigger than an iPhone. A while back, I came across this Wall Street Journal article about the Computer Museum. I found this handy-dandy computer to help housewives cook a delicious meal! It's very practical:
(from here)
Sure, it takes up half the kitchen, but look at what the…
March 6, 2011
Sadly, I'm not talking about the desire to learn. A recent survey of teachers (pdf) revealed the following about hunger in the U.S. classroom:
â¢When K-8 public school teachers consider a list of problems they face in the classroom, they rate discipline as the top problem (83 percent), with…
March 5, 2011
Links for you. Science:
So you think you knew Templeton? A new report. (Not really shocking: The Templeton Foundation: Lie Down with Templetons and End Up with Lawsuits Against 'Climate Hawk' Politicians)
Psych-Out Sexism: The innocent, unconscious bias that discourages girls from math and science…
March 5, 2011
Kirsten Powers attempts to debunk the claim that increased access to contraception prevents unwanted abortions:
In the U.S., the story isn't much different. A January 2011 fact sheet by the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute listed all the reasons that women who have had an abortion give for…
March 4, 2011
It's supposed to be warm tomorrow! Let's celebrate with some links. Science:
When Iron and Bacteria tragically collide: From the Middle Ages to the University of Chicago
Systematically Biased Beliefs About Political Influence: The Working Paper (I would love to see some neurosciency type blog…
March 4, 2011
I haven't gone after creationists in quite a while, because it just starts to feel like picking on the slow kid. Both PZ Myers and Kele Cable attended a seminar by Answers in Genesis High Wackaloon Terry Mortenson. I don't think you could pay me enough to wade through that morass of unadulterated…
March 4, 2011
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) recently announced that it will shut down the Short Read Archive (SRA). The SRA stored the semi-processed data for genomics projects, so researchers could examine the raw data for a genomics project. The reason given by NCBI is "budget…
March 3, 2011
A balmy....27 degrees. At least the link supply isn't frozen. Science:
Reviving 100-year-old resting spores of diatoms
Electric Vehicles: Myths vs. Reality
Nobel Prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis offers a radical new way to treat infectious diseases as the effectiveness of our current antibiotics…
March 3, 2011
One of the things that has gone unnoticed during the Wisconsin troubles is this piece of legislation that passed:
Madison - Today, Governor Scott Walker signed Special Session Assembly Bill 5 which requires a 2/3s vote to pass tax rate increases on the income, sales or franchise taxes.
"I went to…