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
May 12, 2010
I'm recovering from two days of Human Microbiome Project meetings. But that's no excuse to not have any links! Science:
Letting Go
World's biggest beaver dam can be seen from space: This woodland construction is the world's biggest beaver dam, which at 2,790ft is more than twice the length of the…
May 12, 2010
While I think many supporters of the charter school and privatization movements are well-intentioned, albeit terribly misguided, they have attracted, as all bad ideas do, the bottom feeders--in this case, banks that lend charter schools money for building facilities (italics mine):
There's a lot of…
May 11, 2010
ScienceBlogling Revere calls for an open data policy for federally-funded research (italics mine):
We've inveighed often here about the shameful practice that many senior and well-respected flu scientists have of keeping their sequences private until they publish -- if they publish using them. If…
May 10, 2010
Oy. Anyone who thinks Jews are smarter than other people, well, that's because we gave all of the stupid to Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve). Last week, in The New York Times, Murray had an op-ed about charter schools wherein he scribbled about the failure to find differences in…
May 9, 2010
Sunny but unseasonably cold. Time for some links. Science:
A new understanding of the evolutionary path of modern humans: Researchers find evidence of interbreeding between Neandertals and modern humans
Climate Change and the Integrity of Science
E. coli forces lettuce recall; 19 ill in 3 states…
May 8, 2010
(from here)
Occasionally, The Boston Globe isn't worthless and actually increases stuff the Mad Biologist knows. Take this piece about Newfoundland:
As recently as the 1940s, Newfoundland was a self-governing British dominion completely independent of Canada. When it became clear that…
May 7, 2010
Impeach Cuccinelli. Impeach him now (to steal Brad DeLong's phrase). Earlier this week, I discussed Virginia Attorney General Cucinelli's subpoena envy harassment of climatologist Michael Mann. ScienceBlogling Tim Lambert describes what this fishing expedition entails:
Cuccinelli isn't just…
May 7, 2010
(from here)
A while ago, Ezra Klein posted an interview with an anonymous Harvard graduate who works for Goldman Sachs ("Why do Harvard kids head to Wall Street?"). Before I get to the interview, I'll answer the question--and it might not be what you think it is.
Ultimately, students from elite…
May 6, 2010
By way of Digby, we come across Atrios' excellent summary of the TARP program:
It's a little weird that reporters are hesitant to clearly spell out what happened. Basically the Fed printed a huge amount of money. Some of that money they used to do what TARP was originally supposed to do, buy up Big…
May 6, 2010
Forget about measuring student outcomes. Can we even measure student numbers? A couple of weeks ago, I started pulling data from the NY Times website that displays the citywide testing scores (I was interested in exploring the relationship between poverty and test scores at a finer resolution…
May 5, 2010
It's beautiful out. But if you're stuck inside, here are some links for you. Science:
The real reason why Steve Jobs hates Flash
Research suggests flu vaccine doesn't prevent deaths among the elderly
Antibiotic Use and Environmental Exposure are Key Factors Affecting Antibiotic Resistant…
May 5, 2010
Last week, we looked at how the Obama Administration's "Race to the Top" education 'reform' legislation screwed over Massachusetts because MA had the silly idea that changing the curriculum (dumbing it down, actually) of one of the most successful educational systems in the world should be…
May 4, 2010
If you want the short version, Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA is a must read. While I have a couple minor quibbles (more about those in a bit), they don't detract from either the importance or the style of this book. While there has been a lot written about methicillin resistant…
May 3, 2010
For those who haven't heard rightwing extremist Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has subpoenaed all of the documents related to climatologist Michael Mann's state-funded research while Mann was at the University of Virginia (italics mine):
In papers sent to UVA April 23, Cuccinelli's…
May 2, 2010
Water, water everywhere, but none to drink. At least I can provide you with a flood of links--but mine don't break. Science:
Found Alive: The Loch Ness Monster of the Northwest Prairie. Alas, It Disappoints
More from Eyjafjallajokull
Halted construction pollutes waterways: Buildup of silt floods…
May 2, 2010
Clive Thompson nails it when he describes the importance of statistical thinking (italics original; boldtype mine):
Statistics is hard. But that's not just an issue of individual understanding; it's also becoming one of the nation's biggest political problems. We live in a world where the thorniest…
May 1, 2010
(from here)
Obama's kinder, gentler "Drill, baby, drill" is looking very short-sighted. We can only hope he has learned that when you use your party loyalists as foils and adopt a center-right compromise, so that you can claim to have boldly discarded the "the tired debates between right and left…
April 30, 2010
By way of Yong Zhao, we find this Economic Policy Institute report, "Let's Do the Numbers", about the false precision in the award process of the Obama Administration's signature school reform initiative. Anyone involved in a grant award process knows that the design of the scoring metrics can…
April 29, 2010
I came across this excellent article by Jerry Coyne, which is part book review, part defense of natural selection. I recommend it highly. But, in reading the article, I wondered why people are so threatened by natural selection. Because that's not the philosophically challenging part. Unless…
April 28, 2010
Like InstaPutz, I too am tempted to do horrible things if I read another post about the 'epistemic closure of the conservative mind' (besides, the obvious joke writes itself). Instead, I want to discuss Marc Ambinder's recent post, "Have Conservatives Gone Mad?" To his credit, he's one of the…
April 27, 2010
I've had serious doubts all along about the anthrax investigation, but the latest turn raises even more questions about the government's case. According to former co-worker of Ivins' and former USAMRIID microbacteriologist Henry Heine, the science doesn't seem to support Ivins' guilt (italics mine…
April 26, 2010
Happy Tuesday. Links for you. Science:
Science teaching: real and imagined problems
Oil Leak from Damaged Well in Gulf of Mexico
Uncertainties Greatly Reduced
Wind's latest problem: it ... makes power too cheap
Pellets over petroleum
Scientific Society Revises Climate Change Statement: science…
April 26, 2010
I think The Huffington Post has outdone itself on the bullshit factor. We now have all-encompassing metawoo. Consider this about the supposed harm that our current methods of teaching science inflict upon the young:
When educators try to inculcate children with the scientific method, the main…
April 25, 2010
I've always thought that the primary reason for tenure at the collegiate level was economic. Intellectual freedom notwithstanding, without academic tenure, universities would either have to pay more for their faculty or wind up with worse faculty. Consider an undergraduate who might have loans to…
April 24, 2010
On April 28, there's a conference being held to counteract the conference held by the 'fiscally responsible' Peterson Foundation:
"The Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter Conference will be the important event in Washington on April 28. Unlike the other meeting, this one will feature…
April 23, 2010
In case it's not sunny where you are, here are some links. Science:
Clever New Caledonian crows can use three tools
Several Different Species of Killer Whales Likely
Borneo's biological treasures
Disposable Genomes: When Reading DNA Becomes Cheaper Than Storing the Data
Killer fungus seen in…
April 23, 2010
By way of Echidne, I came across this article about WellPoint's cancellation of insurance policies belonging to women with breast cancer (italics mine):
Shortly after they were diagnosed with breast cancer, each of the women learned that her health insurance had been canceled. There was Yenny Hsu,…
April 23, 2010
Or, if you prefer, the housing bubble that started well before the onslaught of CDOs. First, let me point out for readers that ScienceBlogling Mark Chu-Carroll's description of the latest Vampire Squid Goldman Sachs scandal is perhaps the clearest and most concise description of the whole CDO…
April 22, 2010
Merry Thursday. Links for you. Science:
But is it science?
It's a microbial world: Worldwide census ups diversity estimates for marine microbes one-hundred-fold.
Is this the end of migration? Climate change is affecting bird behaviour at a staggering rate. Some 20 billion have already changed…
April 22, 2010
I came across this post by Digby about the narcissism of CEOs, which is worth a read. One of the things I think a lot of academics have a hard time understanding is how common antisocial personality disorders can be in positions of power outside of academia. In my experience, sociopaths and…