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, 2009
Maybe...biology? Uncharacteristically, I'm going to, in vague terms, talk about my career trajectory because I think it offers an important lesson (maybe. Perhaps not. Fuck it, it's my blog...) An anecdote in a post by John Hawks about the potential overemphasis on bioinformatics in the…
April 1, 2009
Actually, he didn't. He interviewed anti-vaccinationist Jenny McCarthy. Which is worse. Here's one small dose of stupidity:
Most people who blame autism on vaccines point to the mercury in the shots, yet mercury has been removed from most vaccines and autism rates continue to climb.
We don't…
April 1, 2009
By way of Open Left, I found an interesting poll from Rasmussen, although the results scare me. They asked people three questions:
-- Generally speaking, when it comes to important national issues, whose judgment do you trust more - the American people or America's political leaders?
-- Some…
March 31, 2009
There's been a lot of talk about the Newsweek article on economist Paul Krugman. But this part seems particularly relevant:
With dry humor, he once told a friend the story of attending an economic summit in Little Rock after Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992. As the friend recounted the…
March 31, 2009
A small bill could have huge implications for preventing the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Every couple of years, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA) is offered for consideration. Two weeks ago, Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter proposed PAMTA again for…
March 30, 2009
It's a trite saying to "follow the money", but, in the case of Senator Evan Bayh's (D-Goldman SachsIndiana) decision to oppose serious mortgage readjustments on foreclosed properties ("cramdowns"), it seems to fit. Here's the background on Bayh's opposition to cramdowns on foreclosures:
Senate…
March 30, 2009
The GOP has officially entered a self-parody feedback loop. Case in point, House Minority leader Rep. Boehner's spokescritter on Obama's tax reform commission (italics mine):
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) offered tepid support for the concept of tax reform but was leery of what he…
March 30, 2009
...and both Helmut and the Mad Biologist told you that would be the case over a year ago. From The Washington Post (italics mine):
When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in…
March 29, 2009
Here are some links for you. Science firstest:
Farah Babbles Incoherently About Fossils
The "Phantom" of Heilbronn and Negative Controls (Or the Lack Thereof)
Media distortion damages both science and journalism
Other:
Just When I Thought Texas Politics Couldn't Get Any Dumber
Ask Not What You Can…
March 29, 2009
At this point, diversity in the Obama administration means you've never worked for Goldman Sachs. Meet the newest Obama nominee, Gary Gensler for head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (italics mine):
Gensler helped create this financial crisis when he was in the Treasury Department back…
March 28, 2009
It's a dancing revue:
It beats other things they could have done with the sheep.....
March 28, 2009
I've argued before that nationalizing financial institutions the way the Obama Administration has done is incredibly stupid. If you're going to nationalize chunks of the economy, get some people who are partial to doing so. Which brings me to this little story from the New Deal era:
...a special…
March 27, 2009
While I think Bernie Madoff is a real slimeball (what Jew steals from Elie Wiesel?), putting him in super-maximum security is ridiculous:
Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff is being held in a super-max wing of the Manhattan federal lockup - a unit so tough it drives hardened criminals mad, the Daily News…
March 27, 2009
...that is the question--along with some thoughts about being a blogger and not a writer.
I've been asking other science bloggers if I should start using Twitter. The answers have ranged from the formation of a blood pact sworn to never (EVAH!) use Twitter to a belief that Twitter 'communities'…
March 26, 2009
Some good genomics and AIG links. Science stuff first:
The combat veteran as sheepdog-turned-wolf: PTSD & medicalization
The Problem of the Problem of Motherhood in Science
Hey kids, want to sequence a bacterial genome?
The next level in genomics term papers
Other:
The virtues of public anger…
March 26, 2009
The reason the AIG bonuses are upsetting isn't the amount of the bonuses--although the bonuses are larger than the entire National Endowment for the Arts budget--it's the complete impotence of and cooptation of the government by the financial sector (yes, we need banks and a financial sector, but…
March 25, 2009
My thanks to the readers who noted that I accidentally used adjusted income in my calculations of the ratio of the median house price to the median wage. Below are the updated figures:
Below, on the Y-axis, is the ratio of the median house price (not adjusted for inflation; from here) to the…
March 25, 2009
LA Governor Bobby Jindal is looking dumber by the day:
Thanks to "something called volcano monitoring," to use the denigrating language of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, passenger jets did not fly into ash clouds when Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupted earlier this week.
Volcanic ash creates conditions…
March 25, 2009
Update: Thanks to the readers who caught my error. I've updated the post here.
A tale of two graphs. But before I get to them, I have to admit that this post by Amanda gave me the needed kick in the ass to write about the huge increase in housing prices relative to annual income. Amanda writes…
March 24, 2009
Mr. Spock is Not Logical (book draft excerpt)
How questioning PTSD rates makes me an apologist for imperialist violence
The fertilized egg is not a human life
McLeroy Endorses Idiotic Anti-Evolution Book
Texans, please don't let this flat-earth BS happen
Other:
Love Me, I'm a Conservative
Bristol…
March 24, 2009
Can we please stop claiming that prices and wages are determined by the invisible hand? This supposed inscrutable force is often quite scrutable and goes by the name power. Consider this hate email liberal activist David Sirota received after a TV appearance (boldface original):
I made a simple…
March 23, 2009
By way of ScienceBlogling Sandra Porter, we discover that Cofactor Genomics has announced that they will sequence some genomes for free to enable students to learn about genomics:
In response to a great post on Keith Robison's "Omics Omics" blog which highlighted how Next-Gen DNA sequencing…
March 23, 2009
Paul Krugman succinctly lays out why the Geithner/Obama* plan won't work:
Yes, troubled assets may be somewhat undervalued. But the fact is that financial executives literally bet their banks on the belief that there was no housing bubble, and the related belief that unprecedented levels of…
March 23, 2009
After reading these two posts by ScienceBlogling Sheril (and the many comments) about scientific literacy, I suppose I'm in the minority about what scientific literacy. Unlike most of the commenters, I think scientific literacy revolves primarily around a core set of knowledge, and not 'critical…
March 22, 2009
Merry Sunday! Lotsa links for you:
Cramer/Stewart, The Right, The Wrong, and Democratic Loyalty.
The GOP Is Right, It Is Clinton's Fault
Don't worry! Stab yourself in the eye!
"Poor girl": Bristol Palin, and the chagrined pity of the right
The Right to Bare Arms
There's nothing unique about Jim…
March 22, 2009
Always listen to the Mad Biologist. By way of Joe Windish at The Moderate Voice, we find out, just as I predicted, that the pork lobby would claim we don't know enough about the MRSA ST398 problem:
Livestock scientists call the opinion piece "highly speculative", and point to the Centers for…
March 21, 2009
By way of Jesse Taylor, imagine that you had $16,000 of bills due to an appendectomy:
If it's not paid in fourteen days, it'll go to collections. (Keep in mind that my yearly budget, courtesy of the law school, is a little over $15,000.)
I call the hospital, and am told that the claim was…
March 20, 2009
I have to disagree with ScienceBlogling Mike Dunford about the proposed plan to tax 90 percent of bonuses paid out since Jan. 1 by any company that had accepted more than $5 billion in government bailout funds. I think it's a perfectly acceptable thing to do.
So far, no one, conservative or…
March 19, 2009
Always listen to the Mad Biologist. By way of Joe Windish at The Moderate Voice, we find out, just as I predicted, that the pork lobby would claim we don't know enough about the MRSA ST398 problem:
Livestock scientists call the opinion piece "highly speculative", and point to the Centers for…
March 18, 2009
Here are some posts for you. Science first:
What? The Great Lakes Too Obvious?
Make All Academic Research Databases Free For Everyone
Perverse Incentives
Palaeowomaen: Barbara Isaac, Women in The Field, and The Throwing Hypothesis
Other:
Left And Right Working Together
Please, spare us from the…