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
August 8, 2011
There's been a lot of excellent posts debunking Standard & Poor's recent downgrade of U.S. debt on the merits--it is poor assessment of risk. Yes, there are substantive economic arguments against S&P's evaluation. But S&P is also fundamentally corrupt. The Coalition of the Sane must…
August 7, 2011
Links for you. Science:
What a selfish little piece of...
Bacterial Traitors
Notes from an E. coli "tweenome" - lessons learned from our first data DOI.
Leaving the Game
Other:
Why Van Halen demanded "no brown M&Ms"
Day by day the evidence mounts
And another thing ... (about why deficit…
August 7, 2011
About the decrease in U3 unemployment (the 'strict' measure) from 9.2% to 9.1% (which, of course, beats the alternative increase): well, that's the good news. The bad news is that the employment rate actually dropped 58.2% to 58.1%. Among men, we hit another all-time historical low. So how do…
August 6, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Wasps Turn Ladybugs Into Flailing "Zombies"
Scientists always anger those who prefer the Earth to be flat
In which my heart goes out to Postdoc B
Resistant Salmonella: Deadly Yet Somehow Not Illegal
Other:
White House blames lib groups for deficit deal debacle at secret…
August 6, 2011
Not that either the SEC or the Holder-led Justice Department would do anything about it. This happened July 21:
Jack Barnes writes : Someone dropped a bomb on the bond market Thursday - a $1 billion Armageddon trade betting the United States will lose its AAA credit rating.
In one moment, an…
August 5, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Will Carrots Help You See Better? No, but Chocolate Might
A theory that could finally explain how the Great Pyramids of Egypt were built
Crested rat slobbers tree poison on its fur, dares predators to bite it
Honey I shrunk the Kids! Daily variation in Height and Weight and…
August 5, 2011
Recently, I described how the out of control Tea Party Fort Sumter conservatives were created and encouraged. Athenae dispatches conservatives like David Frum who are SHOCKED that this could possibly happen:
I feel about this the way I feel about people who keep grizzly bears and gorillas and…
August 4, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Blinded and Blindsided
Is Polio Eradication Slipping Out of Reach?
Don't forget the parasites! Reevaluating the pyramid of numbers
Hunting Pathogens in Siberian Permafrost Graves
Other:
Scott Fullwiler: Coin Seigniorage and Inflation
My comment, in moderation at Hullabaloo…
August 4, 2011
Guess who Mitt Romney picked as co-chair of his "Justice Advisory Committee"? Robert Bork. Yes, this Robert Bork:
Banning Porn, Art and Science : Bork also called for shrinking the size of the First Amendment until it is small enough to be drowned in a bathtub. "Constitutional protection should…
August 4, 2011
Enough depressing current events. Let's look at duckies...with SWAN-INDUCED TERROR!!!
Last year, I described how the pair of swans, Juliet I and Juliet II*, living on the lagoon** in the Boston Public Garden would mercilessly pursue baby ducklings. Well, now I have video proof (it starts getting…
August 3, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Operation Cat Drop
Possible Key to Life's Chemistry Revealed in 50-Year-Old Experiment
Evolution Right Under Our Noses
The Amazing Spider Wasp
Other:
The Grand Crap Sandwich (Willis was a huge Obama supporter. Not so much anymore)
Because the Bible Tells Me So: Why…
August 3, 2011
I do so wish we still had Democrats who bring the righteous thunder instead of sounding like mealy-mouth technocrats (although "Satan-sandwich" was kinda funny). Sadly, you're stuck with me instead.
Anyway, by way of Bill Mitchell, we come across a report (pdf) that has the rather dry title of "…
August 2, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Private companies own your DNA - again (I guess the sun can be patented)
Coin tosses don't really give you fifty-fifty odds
What's Up With Conservative White Men and Climate Change Denial?
Yet another "post-Darwinism"
Other:
Good news day, as hard as it is to believe
Matt…
August 2, 2011
Actually, it will probably be several decades. While details of the budget ceiling negotations haven't been released, the initial reports sound pretty awful, with $2.4 trillion of cuts over ten years with $1 trillion in discretionary cuts (that's stuff like NIH and NSF, by the way). It's pretty…
August 1, 2011
Links for you. Science:
My front yard is a battleground
Myth of the climate science gravy train: scientists studying Greenland forced to pay their own airfares
Targeting an audience of monkeys: Ad seeks to plumb roots of human behavior
The World's Only Analog Blogger
Other:
Even Peggy Noonan of…
August 1, 2011
There are a lot of progressives whom Stalinists would have called useful idiots. I present to you Greg Sargent:
Could Obama have adopted a far more aggressive posture while negotiations were going on? Absolutely. But the simple fact of entering into talks inevitably reinforced the sense that Obama…
July 31, 2011
Some fiddling while Rome burns. That is, links for you. Science:
FFS: TVC's new NIH boogeyman - CHINA
Friday Weird Science: Knights in Shining Armor, Not as sexy as you might think
How Greedy Corporations Are Destroying America's Status as 'Innovation Nation'
A quick dive into the protist world (…
July 31, 2011
One of the things to remember about the Tea Party Uruk-hai who run the Republican Party make up the shock troops of the GOP is that they were manufactured--just like the orcs in the Lord of the Rings. Comrade Driftglass explains:
Conservatives built this monster.
It didn't just wander out of the…
July 30, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Facts vs. Skills and Content vs. Pedagogy Expertise: Tensions in Science Education
On Green Dread and Agricultural Technology
True single-molecule DNA sequencing of a Pleistocene horse bone
Battleship Island & Other Ruined Urban High-Density Sites (pictures of a post-…
July 30, 2011
With apologies to RFK. Cullen Roche makes a cogent observation about the state of economics:
It is based too much on pie in the sky thinking and not based on what is happening on the ground, in the trenches. Warren Mosler, widely regarded as the founder of MMT, created the theory because he was…
July 29, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Scientists Retract Report on Predicting Longevity
On idiocy
Genome data sharing goes global - how not to let the most selfish publish the sexy bits
Annals of Stupidity Update-More on the GOP Hates Science beat
Other:
The Burger Economy
It is the official position of this…
July 29, 2011
A vote to resolve the debt ceiling political crisis failed last night because House Republicans--who hold a majority in the House of Representatives--opposed the bill. Here's a major reason why--Pell Grants, which are federal scholarships for low- and lower-middle income students:
House…
July 28, 2011
This is why all the concern about the fake crisis of the U.S. budget deficit is so harmful--it has real effects on people's lives, including scientists:
Both Republican and Democratic proposals would cut more than US$1 trillion in spending over a decade, amounting to a budget reduction of at least…
July 28, 2011
David Wogan brings up an important point--if we're serious about global warming, we need to lower the amount of energy buildings use:
Consider this: according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, our nation's buildings consume over 40 percent of the energy consumed across all sectors -…
July 27, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Small amounts of antibiotics generate big problems
Vaccine has nearly eliminated chickenpox deaths in children
L'Eau Pour Chien: Why do dogs rub up against things that smell bad?
Rule Changes Proposed for Research on Humans
Other:
Black Student Can't Be Valedictorian
How a…
July 27, 2011
Update/clarification: I want to clarify something critical. This is not about picking on a researcher or a country. It very well could have happened in the U.S. or anywhere else. I, nor you the reader, have any idea about the internal constraints these groups experience, or what was communicated…
July 26, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Friday Weird Science: The Lion Eats Tonight
Behind The Horse's Ass
Painting Bill Clinton's "white roofs" into reality
Post Publication Peer Review: Blogs vs Letters to the Editor
Other:
Why "progressive" is getting progressively worse: part II
Cenk Uygur and the ethos of…
July 26, 2011
I probably shouldn't read two excellent and critical genomics posts back to back. But this excellent post by Daniel MacArthur about the issues surrounding the sequencing using Ion Torrent of a human genome got me thinking about this post by Marian Turner about the pettiness issues surrounding…
July 25, 2011
Links for you. Science:
E-mail Address Harvesting on PubMed--A Call for Responsible Handling of E-mail Addresses
The autism generation
Adapting evolutionary psychology
Other:
Barack Obama: The Democrats' Richard Nixon?
Intro Econ for WAPO: Foreign Holdings of U.S. Debt Depend on the Trade Deficit…
July 25, 2011
From The NY Times:
Marc Sageman, a former C.I.A. officer and a consultant on terrorism, said it would be unfair to attribute Mr. Breivik's violence to the writers who helped shape his world view. But at the same time, he said the counterjihad writers do argue that the fundamentalist Salafi branch…