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 2, 2009
A recent article that examined the relationship between antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance in Finland made me realize one very sad fact: what is easy to do in Finland is nearly impossible in the U.S. because we lack a national healthcare system (note: I'm not talking about how healthcare is…
March 1, 2009
The green globs, inside the head, are the eyes
Imagine a fish with eyes that slide around in its head--which looks like a fighter cockpit. Meet the barreleye fish, Macropinna microstoma:
Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently solved the half-century-old mystery of a…
March 1, 2009
One good thing about the election is that I don't instinctively flinch every time the White House releases new policy initiatives. Case in point: tax expenditures. What's a tax expenditure?
Tax expenditures are "preferences and concessions in the income tax that [have] the nature of expenditure…
February 28, 2009
From former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich:
It's about time a presidential budget unequivocally redistributed income from the very rich to the middle class and poor. The incomes of the top one percent have soared for 30 years while median wages have slowed or declined in real terms. As economists…
February 27, 2009
If you want to know what a housing bubble is, you only need look at Maricopa, AZ:
In 2005, her husband, Zachary Campbell, accepted a transfer from San Diego to Phoenix to manage a recreational-vehicle store. For the first time, the Campbells figured, they could afford their own home, though that…
February 26, 2009
In the commentary about LA Governor Bobby Jindal's disastrous response to Obama's speech Tuesday night, we keep hearing how smart he is. So what do we call a supposedly bright person who is a creationist and believes that an exorcism cast out cancer? And this is personal:
Jindal and I both…
February 25, 2009
Here are some links for you:
Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street
Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger To Congress: My Pay Has Been Cut 40 Percent In Recent Years, Pension Terminated
The Looming Crisis at the Pentagon
Friendly Fire
No, actually, I don't "need to get on Facebook"
The…
February 25, 2009
Creationists say my head will explode. OH NOES!!!!
Driftglass bravely dove into the shallow end of the gene pool that is the Conservative Political Action Conference, which he describes perfectly:
For all nine-minutes of bullshit, faux-introspection chin-music that came from the Right about…
February 24, 2009
It drives me nuts when Democrats, often anonymously, pontificate in the press about What Democrats Should Do (as opposed to actually doing something). This Washington Times interview almost makes me sympathize with Republicans:
The Republican governor of Utah on Monday said his party is blighted…
February 24, 2009
Digby makes a very good point about the real world effects of conservative propaganda:
I'm convinced that one of the mistakes we've made over the years is not telling enough stories of real people who were affected by the conservative movement's deregulation fervor. When they can keep it all…
February 23, 2009
I think before everyone gets excited about the effectiveness research that was funded in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act--basically, using the scientific method to find out how well different medical treatments work--we need to realize that the medical industry might have scored a coup here (…
February 22, 2009
Some links for a rainy Sunday. Science:
"Evolutionary Psychology" Is A Load Of Fucking Shit
Greatest Poll Ever To Start On March 5th
The Man Who Lets the Bedbugs Bite
Other:
Chocolate Covered Cotton
Why the Banks Won't Lend
States on The Brink
Funding For States In Economic Recovery Package Will…
February 22, 2009
Over at Beat the Press, economist Dean Baker describes his plan to deal with the wave of foreclosures:
1. Gives homeowners facing foreclosure the option of renting their home for as long as they want at the fair market rate. This rate is determined by an independent appraiser in the same way that…
February 21, 2009
That's actually true, and pretty funny. Here are some other things liked more than Republicans:
--Opposing stricter gun control laws (40%)
--Congress (26-40%)
--The war in Iraq (39%)
--Decreasing immigration levels (39%)
--Privatizing Social Security (36%)
--Opposing investigating the Bush…
February 21, 2009
We should make gas taxes part of a car's purchase price. It would certainly beat Transportation Secretary LaHood's proposal of a vehicle mileage tax (and is there any stupid idea that Republicans won't embrace?):
Some surprising news out of the Department of Transportation today as Ray LaHood…
February 20, 2009
One of the more promising trends I've seen is that the various forms of denialism that scientists regularly decry (including those of us here at ScienceBlogs) are starting to be recognized by non-scientists. I don't know if there's a direct cause-and-effect here, or if like-minded people are…
February 19, 2009
Patients without healthcare make bad self-diagnoses. I'm shocked.
The NY Times has a heartbreaking story about people under 30 who can't afford healthcare. It's pretty horrific: juvenile diabetics who have to switch from insulin pumps to injections (which lowers blood sugar control), a woman who…
February 18, 2009
More linky goodness. Sciencey stuff first:
Why birds collide with airplanes
How religion generates social conservatism
Louisiana boycotts science; scientists boycott Louisiana
Note to Journalists Covering the AAAS Meetings: Stop Teasing Us!
Other:
Huge Public Demand for Investigation Into Bush…
February 18, 2009
This is not the Mad Biologist
Or how the Boston Phoenix proves they missed the point of Shepard Fairey's work (Fairey made the iconic Obama poster). I'll get to that in a moment, but Sunday, I went to the ICA in Boston to see the Shepard Fairey exhibit. For me, it was a blast from the past: I…
February 17, 2009
...at one point, anyway. It was good to see Pelosi and the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party hold the line against the Blue Dogs. Anyway, here are some science-, health-, and education-related stimulus increases:
Pell grants for higher education: $15,840,000,000
School improvement grants…
February 16, 2009
Here are some links for you. Science first:
Great Moments in Human Evolution: The Invention of Chipped Stone Tools
How the common cold evolves - full genomes of all known human rhinoviruses
Man appears free of HIV after stem cell transplant
Virginia GOP Chair goes all Cro-Magnon on Darwin, on his…
February 16, 2009
ScienceBlogling Dr. Isis has an interesting post about the ethical obligations of junior scientists regarding animal research. Dr. Isis asks two questions:
Does a graduate student/postdoc have a moral imperative to report non-compliant research, even in the face of potentially risking one's…
February 15, 2009
While I'm reasonably happy with the passed version of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, I'm still having deja vu all over again (to steal Yogi Berra's phrase) regarding Obama's attempt at bipartisanship. Virtually every Democrat, regardless if they were liberal or conservative, and a bunch of…
February 14, 2009
In the midst of all of the financial turmoil, it's good to see that municipal bonds can be a good investment--especially if you bought them in 1868:
Anyone who has failed to keep track of a winning lottery ticket for all of 12 months may want to consider the efforts of 39 bondholders who have been…
February 13, 2009
Merry Friday! Some good links for you. Science goes first:
Fisk, Interrupted (the Forbes creationist edition)
Wasps use genes stolen from ancient viruses to make biological weapons
Routine whole-genome sequencing of babies by 2019?
Other:
The internet made me a potty mouth
We're All Nebraskans…
February 13, 2009
A recent paper in PLoS argues that variation in genes that regulate dopamine (5-HTTLPR) and serotonin neurotransmission (DRD4) influences financial risk taking: at the 5-HTTLPR gene, one homozygous form (two identical copies or alleles) took on 28 percent less risk, while those who had the '7-…
February 12, 2009
From Speaker Pelosi's office:
Transform our Economy with Science and Technology: To secure America's role as a world leader in a competitive global economy, we are renewing America's investments in basic research and development, in training students for an innovation economy, and in deploying new…
February 12, 2009
But he's not willing to let the rest of us know what this vital information is:
So we called Barnes and asked him what he was referring to.
At first, he cited the fact that it's been cold lately.
Perhaps sensing this was less than convincing, Barnes then asserted that there had been a "cooling…
February 11, 2009
Yves Smith lays out just how stupid Treasury Secretary Geithner's proposal is. I think these are the key points (italics mine):
Let's start with the basics. The US banking system is insolvent. Got that? Insolvent. That does not mean every bank in the US is toast, in fact quite a few are probably…
February 11, 2009
...does it make a sound? On Sept. 18, 2008, the banking system almost collapsed--no, really. A while back, I noted that there are at least two classes of media bias: one involves the interpretation of a set of agreed upon facts, while the other involves decisions as to what those facts are, or,…