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
January 22, 2011
Whenever some right-wing associated nut shoots someone, we always hear it described as the actions of a 'lone wolf.' Well, if that's the case then them wolves have formed themselves a pack:
-- July 2008: A gunman named Jim David Adkisson, agitated at how "liberals" are "destroying America," walks…
January 21, 2011
It's snowing. Big whoop. Links for you. Science:
Meet Dicty the amoeba - the world's smallest farmer
On sharing genes with friends
The rise of genetic architecture
Are synthetic associations a man-made phenomenon?
Other:
Americans Are Far Less Conservative Than the Right Wing Claims: New…
January 21, 2011
Note: I wrote this before stumbling across this post which provides pretty good evidence that President Obama's recent sale of his house was also signed by a robosigner. Brazen doesn't even begin to describe the situation....
It's beyond trite to state that the foreclosure crisis has had a huge…
January 21, 2011
Daniel Lende has been doing a fabulous job of discussing the difference between mental illness and the propensity to be violent. Lende writes (italics mine):
It would be easy to conclude that politics have nothing to do with what he did. This view is wrong. What Jared Loughner did was inherently…
January 20, 2011
We have ice, ice, baby. Also, some links. Science:
The Antibiotics Crisis
Time for Astrology to Sign Out (for the Huffington Post, astrology seems to be a woo too far)
Superbugs, Agricultural Antibiotics, and Farm-Worker Infections: A New Study Connects the Dots
Sit. Stay. Parse. Good Girl!
Other…
January 20, 2011
By way of Thers at Whiskey Fire, we read that the evangelical movement has recognized that sometimes homeschooling doesn't quite get the job done:
Suppose you have home-schooled your advanced blastocyst in the best evangelical wingnut way, to the age of 18. And suppose you recognize that no matter…
January 20, 2011
That's not very civil of me, but it is honest. Having said that, behavior is obviously based in biology, and it does stand to reason that some behaviors will have been influenced by natural selection. Admittedly, I'm biased against evolutionary psychology: I think, in general, the claims made…
January 19, 2011
Rain, rain, go away, come back....NEVER. Oh well. Links for you. Science:
The Ivory Ceiling of Service Work
Martin Luther King, Jr., on science and religion
Bull sharks spotted swimming down the main street in Goodna - 30km from the coast
The Assyrians and Jews: 3,000 years of common history…
January 19, 2011
From, Robert Bentley, the Republican governor of Alabama:
"I was elected as a Republican candidate. But once I became governor ... I became the governor of all the people. I intend to live up to that. I am color blind," Bentley said in a short speech given about an hour after he took the oath of…
January 19, 2011
I've written many times that everything you need to know about movement conservatism can be understood by observing creationists (not surprising, since the theopolitical right is a major element of the conservative movement). I'm glad to see NY Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman has…
January 18, 2011
A Tuesday that feels like a Monday. Ugh. Links for you. Science:
Opening science
Homeopathy: Cure or Con?
Local Health Department Costs Associated with Response to a School-Based Pertussis Outbreak --- Omaha, Nebraska, September--November 2008
New User-friendly Resource Connects Human Genes To…
January 18, 2011
Not me. I said a good blogger. I've been remiss in many things blog-related, but an important thing I've been meaning to do is drumming up some support for Lance Mannion. He's a superb writer, and brings a much-needed human perspective to blogging, which is, for the most part, technonerd-driven…
January 18, 2011
Matthew Herper rounds up some of the discussion about the decreasing cost of genomics. But one thing that hasn't been discussed much at all is the cost of all of the other things needed to make sense of genomes, like metadata. I briefly touched on this issue previously:
A related issue is…
January 17, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Antibiotics do indeed relieve kids' ear infections
Farm worker infections with MRSA -- the first numbers
Genetic Soldiers? Advisory Group Urges Pentagon To Map Genes Of All Personnel (interesting, although eugenics claim seems overblown)
We're not ready for do it yourself…
January 17, 2011
Reading the prepared text of Obama's speech at the Tucson Memorial Thursday night, there was one part I really liked:
And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse, let's remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility…
January 17, 2011
As the ongoing assault against public sector employees continues, it's worth remembering why Martin Luther King was in Memphis when he was assassinated: he was supporting striking sanitation workers. Due to conservative revisionism, we seem to have forgotten the radicalism of King, that he…
January 16, 2011
Happy Sunday. Links for you. Science:
Private ICU rooms in hospitals aren't just a luxury -- they could be a lifesaver
National Zoo's Anteater Pup Thrives after Rocky Start
Do private ICU rooms really reduce HAIs?
Does the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" exist?
Next generation sequencing…
January 16, 2011
By way of Tim Smith, we come across this description of living in Boston by novelist Dennis Lehane:
...More than one friend had suggested we move to the suburbs -- homes were cheaper, schools were safer, property taxes and car insurance premiums were lower.
[We] grew up together in the city, though…
January 16, 2011
I found this comment to a Bob Herbert column by a teacher who works at a school attended mostly by poor whites. I'm excerpting it in full as comments have a tendency to disappear into the ether, but also because I don't think many people have (fortunately) any idea what poverty really means for…
January 15, 2011
It's cold. Very cold. Warm up with some links. Science:
The House Anti-Science Committee?
My, Oh My, Oh MiSeq!!
Genomes too cheap to meter (not sure I agree, but worth reading)
Other:
Where Is the Love
Quote of the Day: Jenny McCarthy Helps Kill Children
Gabrielle Giffords' Arizona shooting…
January 15, 2011
From the Great State of Arizona (not to pick on the sane people trapped there):
Then there was Sylvia Allen, a real estate broker from the town of Snowflake, who, in 2008, was appointed by the local Republican Party to finish the term of a respected conservative who had died in office. Allen, who…
January 15, 2011
There have been a lot of proposals floating around about protecting congressmen. One suggestion is to use local police as security:
According to a federal official who is preparing the advice, the Capitol Police will recommend that when members hold well-publicized outside events with uncontrolled…
January 14, 2011
It's Friday. Here are some links. Science:
Why you CAN have your $1000 genome - so long as you learn what to do with it
A Physicist Solves the City
Algorithms Take Control of Wall Street (Got Transaction Tax?)
How does bleach work?
Other:
"Don't politicize this tragedy!"
Let's Get This Straight…
January 14, 2011
...getting an abortion. Because that seems to be the message from the presidents of the third-year class of the UC Davis veterinary school--with the apparent approval of the Chair of the Department of Medicine & Epidemiology. By way of ScienceBlogling Dr. Isis, the enlightened solons:
Dear…
January 13, 2011
Thank goodness it's...Thursday. Crap. Some links to get you through. Science:
Oldest Homo sapiens fossil? Journalistic vaporware
A Fistful of Teeth - Do the Qesem Cave Fossils Really Change Our Understanding of Human Evolution?
How many species of elephant? (with bonus rants)
Other:
How a…
January 13, 2011
If you haven't heard by now, Sarah Palin compared criticism of her to "blood libel", the disgusting medieval falsehood that Jews used Christian blood in religious rituals. While some have chalked this up to paranoia, I don't think that's correct (besides, Palin's paranoia stems from the bursting…
January 13, 2011
Microbiologist Julian Davies once said that the world is bathed in a dilute solution of tetracycline (an antibiotic). Between human use and production in the environment by naturally-occurring bacteria, there's a lot of tetracycline out there. In spite of all of this tetracycline, most soil…
January 12, 2011
It's snowing! Nuthin' to do but read some links. Science:
Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?
Next Generation Sequencing adds thousands of new genes
African Wild Dogs and the Allee Effect
Other:
The Economics of Economists' Ethics: If they read their own research, economists might…
January 12, 2011
Obama has finally gotten around to choosing a replacement for Larry Summers, and named Gene Sperling director of the National Economic Council (why he didn't prioritize this with nearly 10% U3 unemployment is puzzling). This has been controversial since Gene Sperling, like many of Obama's closest…
January 12, 2011
I would ask if movement conservatives have any decency or shame, but that has an obvious question. By way of Jamison Foer, we find that Erick Erickson, CNN contributor and rightwing conservative, has definitely discovered what ails this nation:
Through it all though, well meaning people on both…