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
October 23, 2008
I've found a good post that does a very good job of laying out some of the long range and immediate factors that lead to our current economic woes. David Paul lays out how credit default swaps (CDS's) lead to the collapse of AIG (italics mine):
...AIG's collapse came as a result of the following…
October 23, 2008
The National Republican Congressional Committee is pulling its ad support for Michelle Bachmann (italics mine):
Five days after Rep. Michele Bachmann went on a McCarthy-esque rant suggesting Barack Obama was unpatriotic and urging the major newspapers of the country to investigate anti-American…
October 22, 2008
Apparently, Digby and I are thinking the same thing. In a response to this post about the anti-Obama bear killing, I wrote that I was worried about violence against Obama supporters.
But, by way of digby, apparently the government is concerned that black people will riot if Obama loses. I'm far…
October 22, 2008
McClatchy Washington bureau chief John Walcott recently received the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence. While doing so, he called out Compulsive Centrist Disorder. Walcott's remarks:
Relying on The Times, or McClatchy or any other news source, for all the truth is dumb, but it's…
October 21, 2008
...and the internetz should get the credit. From thereisnospoon:
First, the DCCC has taken notice and decided to up the ante in a big way by spending $1 million on the race:
The race for the 6th District just keeps getting bigger and more national. Thanks Michele Bachmann!
The Democratic…
October 21, 2008
More specifically, I think more of the NIH budget needs to be much more focused and targeted, and less researcher driven. In a post about NIH proposal revisions (i.e., resubmissions after a proposal has been rejected and critiqued), ScienceBlogling DrugMonkey writes (italics original):
The reason…
October 20, 2008
...people. A chilling story from Cullowhee, NC:
A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.
Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout…
October 20, 2008
Recently, a McCain campaign spokescritter used the phrase 'real' Virginian. Anyone who has lived in the South has heard the phrase 'real Southerner' before. What's despicable about that phrase is that it always refers to white Southerners--African-Americans are completely marginalized and ignored…
October 20, 2008
From Fayetteville, NC:
Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.
Sheriff's deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown…
October 20, 2008
Hilzoy has a very interesting take on E.O. Wilson's essay "On Biology and Morality":
He takes the view that morality is a human contrivance to imply that we can answer moral questions only by understanding the biology behind our moral sentiments. It is worth noticing the implications of this…
October 19, 2008
Say hello to Princess Sparkle Pony. Because commentary like this is priceless:
See, you let Sarah [Palin] outside her bubble, and you just can't control what happens! Tsk. Meanwhile, within her carefully crafted Avon crystal sphere, Sarah's whipping up the crowd with abortion, abortion, abortion,…
October 19, 2008
Minnesota's Republican congressional representative, Michelle Bachmann, isn't exactly popular around ScienceBlogs for many reasons, including her creationist beliefs (sadly, that might be the least awful thing about her). Over at AmericaBlog, Joe Subday writes:
Yesterday, I posted a video of Rep.…
October 18, 2008
The Boston Public Library has a really interesting exhibit of George Bellows' drawings. Here's one drawing, "The Law Is Too Slow":
Powerful stuff. Some additional pictures are here.
October 17, 2008
If there were ever an argument for high income tax rates on large incomes (i.e., greater than five million), AIG is making it. The arrogance of its executives, even after a bailout, can only be called by its true name--corruption (italics mine):
NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group,…
October 17, 2008
Well, the leaders suck pretty bad too. Having just spent two weeks in Virginia, this account of a meeting of McCain/Palin supporters rings true:
I immediately realized that the McCain/Palin folks were having a little meeting....I sat down at the table next to the group just as they were starting…
October 16, 2008
(Jodi Hilton/Tufts University)
In North Attleborough, MA, paleontologists have discovered the oldest insect fossil:
The exquisitely-detailed fossil has been identified as the imprint left 310 million years ago by a primitive mayfly that lighted briefly on a muddy outcropping in what was then a…
October 16, 2008
Last night, "Joe the Plumber" (who's kinda like Conan the Barbarian, except that he's not) was featured front and center in the debates. So what did the actual Joe the Plumber think? By way of Jesse Taylor, from Politico:
"McCain was solid in his performance," he says. "I still don't know where…
October 15, 2008
I've written about journal impact factors before, largely to argue that there are better statistics than the traditional impact factor. But an excellent editorial in the Oct. 10 issue of Science by Kai Simons points out a very obvious problem with how impact factors are used (italics mine):…
October 15, 2008
Atrios describes one of the hidden, but very important costs of parking, especially in cities--parking:
I think self-driving cars are going to be here some time after flying cars, my jetpack, and Glenn Reynolds' sexbots, but this little thought experiment is useful for highlighting that while we…
October 14, 2008
How one views a recent article on the mortality due to antibiotic resistant infections depends on whether you're a glass half-full or half-empty type (me, I just worry about dropping the damn glass). A recent article in Clinical Infectious Diseases notes that there has been no change in the death…
October 13, 2008
Who knew elephants could use text messaging? Actually, park rangers in Kenya have developed a 'virtual fence' to separate rambunctious elephants from people:
OL PEJETA, Kenya -The text message from the elephant flashed across Richard Lesowapir's screen: Kimani was heading for neighboring farms.…
October 13, 2008
I've said this many times before, but it's worth repeating again: whether it's an influenza pandemic, or 'just' annual influenza (which, in the U.S., kills double the number of people as HIV/AIDS), what actually does the killing is the secondary bacterial infection, not the virus.
A recent review…
October 12, 2008
Watching the slow-motion public meltdown is fascinating in a sort of macabre way. Amanda asks:
In all seriousness, it's genuinely hard to believe that these people could be for real. I have no idea how it got this bad.
I do! The Mad Biologist has an answer: the wingnuts have decided that…
October 12, 2008
If Obama has a 'Ayers problem', why doesn't McCain have a 'G. Gordon Liddy problem?' From Jamison Foser:
G. Gordon Liddy. Liddy served four and a half
years in prison for his role in the break-ins at the Watergate and at Daniel
Ellsberg's psychologist's office. He has acknowledged preparing to…
October 9, 2008
Since it's election season, it's pretty much guaranteed that the price of medical drugs will come up. While I'm on vacation, this post from the archives is pretty interesting. Keep in mind, the person making this claim is a former CEO of Pfizer, so he might know what he's talking about...
This is…
October 8, 2008
In the midst of the hoopla over how 'in touch' Sarah Palin is supposed to be (all her faux personal touches), I came across this speech by a steelworker at an AFL-CIO convention.
A couple of you might have noticed the image I use in the sidebar:
It's from Norman Rockwell's famous series, the Four…
October 7, 2008
I'm not certain you can have all four. Let's start at the beginning.
Just to review, one way to examine the human microbiome--the organisms that live on and in us--is extract the DNA from a biological sample (usually something from a person that is slimy, stinky, or both, such as feces or a…
October 5, 2008
(from here)
Well, the bailout bill passed, and we'll have to see if it actually does anything. What's gone missing in the discussion surrounding this bill (among other things) is any discussion of the assumptions underlying this legislation. Ian Welsh spells them out:
If you believe any of:
1)…