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
February 15, 2008
OK, it was yesterday, but it's still pretty funny. In response to this post about Answers Research Journal, a peer-reviewed creationist journal, Joshua of The Adventures of Tobasco de Gama writes:
Hmm. Do you have to use the "Blogging About Peer-Reviewed Research" tag/icon when rebutting ARJ…
February 15, 2008
The editors of the journal Nature write:
(Nature 451, 745-746 (14 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/451745b; Published online 13 February 2008)
Genetics benefits at risk
A rogue senator needs to be bypassed.
Technology development guru George Church -- aka the information exhibitionist -- is playing a…
February 14, 2008
Slate has the goods on the style manual for Answers Research Journal, which is "a professional, peer-reviewed technical journal for the publication of interdisciplinary scientific and other relevant research from the perspective of the recent Creation and the global Flood within a biblical…
February 14, 2008
A while back I came across a survey that reported more people would not vote for a 72 year-old than for a Mormon (which, given the bigotry against Mormons, is pretty remarkable). So, I wanted to figure out how likely it was that each of the remaining candidates would keel over in office. Who…
February 13, 2008
...and rightly so:
Dare I say it, but he sounds kinda presidential....
February 13, 2008
Really. Democrat Donna Edwards beats Corrupticrat Al Wynn.
Edwards crushed Wynn 60-36, even though Wynn was supported by the Democratic 'leadership', including Pelosi. When precinct by precinct results are released, it will be very interesting to see if voting for Edwards is correlated with…
February 13, 2008
How antibiotic resistant your E. coli are has to do with where you've been, not what you eat.
A recent study isolated E. coli from 567 newly hospitalized patients and 100 vegetarians (one E. coli isolate per person), and screened them for resistance to X antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin,…
February 12, 2008
I'm referring to moose, of course. From an interview with biologist Joel Berger in the New York Times:
Q. O.K., why did the moose go down to the road?
A. If she's a native of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and she's pregnant, she may have done it because she wanted to give birth in a place…
February 12, 2008
...and rank and file Democrats too.
Once you get past Matt Taibbi's penchant for sexist imagery, he can actually commit some very good reporting (italics mine):
Rather than use the vast power they had to end the war, Democrats devoted their energy to making sure that "anti-war activism" became…
February 12, 2008
Revere busts another myth about the Canadian healthcare system--ER waiting times:
But 70% [in Canada] saw someone within 15 minutes. In the US, wait times for cases requiring immediate attention as determined by a triage nurse are almost that long -- 14 minutes according to a recent study. Average…
February 11, 2008
I really wasn't going to bash Kristof over his recent apologia for evangelicals. I've done so before, and I didn't really see the point in doing so again. But, by way of ScienceBlogling James Hrynyshyn, I came across Kristof's response to some of the criticism he has received (in bold is his…
February 11, 2008
I have no idea what this means. I just do as our Benevolent Seed Overlords command
So our Benevolent Seed Overlords pose the question "What is a disease?" This question merely proves that longer questions are usually easier to answer than shorter ones.
So I've decided to change the question to "…
February 11, 2008
One of the problems I have with the U.S.'s self-appointed Jewish leadership is that too many of them appear to believe that Israel will be annihilated at any moment. In today's NY Times, Daniel Gavron puts that fear in context:
While it is true that the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,…
February 11, 2008
Actually, the Mad Biologist's Rule of Base Ten Numbers is a pithier way of describing how certain numerical estimates or quantities are chosen based on little or no evidence. For example, when asked what an appropriate sample size is, someone will often respond, "ten." Of course, it might very…
February 10, 2008
Because what's a little intolerance among 'friends':
The revision of a contentious Good Friday prayer approved this week by Pope Benedict XVI could set back Jewish-Catholic relations, Conservative Judaism's international assembly of rabbis says in a resolution to be voted on next week.
The prayer…
February 10, 2008
There's a good chance that the air during the Beijing Olympics in 2008 will be harmful to the athletes. Now they also can't eat the food (italics mine):
When a caterer working for the United States Olympic Committee went to a supermarket in China last year, he encountered a piece of chicken--half…
February 9, 2008
If you can afford it, please consider kicking in a few dollars to help the tornado victims. Via Monkeyfister:
While everyone else was busy watching the Primaries, or "American Idol," the storms that ripped through Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee were busy killing.via…
February 9, 2008
Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks mandating the purchase of private health insurance is a political train wreck (not to mention overpriced and inefficient). Dave Johnson writes:
But Hillary says her plan will have a mandate to buy health insurance. FORCING people to give money to greedy…
February 8, 2008
Sara Robinson, who has lived in both the U.S. and Canada, explodes the myths about the Canadian healthcare system. Here's my favorite (italics mine):
10. This all sounds great -- but the taxes to cover it are just unaffordable. And besides, isn't the system in bad financial shape?
False. On one…
February 8, 2008
There's quite a few infectious disease-related legislative proposals floating around Congress, so I'm going to start previewing them. I'll start with an easy one: H.R. 766, which calls for a National Infection Prevention Week (pdf here).
It's sponsored by Rep. Roger F. Wicker (R-MS) and Rep. Tim…
February 7, 2008
Squooze my fascist, baby!
...there's a good chance we're both onto something:
In fact, Senator McCain has indicated that not only would he like to unleash the U.S. military on substantial portions of the rest of the world, as president, he would work to militarize American society. In a 2001…
February 7, 2008
The Blue Devil wonders why Obama is raising more money than Clinton. One reason is that Obama supporters, on the whole, are significantly wealthier than Clinton supporters.
If you look at three big donor states, California, Massachusetts, and New York, on the whole, Obama has less support as you…
February 7, 2008
While everyone is worried about who is more TEH SUCK, Obama or Clinton, there's a stimulus package working its way through Capitol Hill. One of the arguments revolves around what is the best way to stimulate the economy. But that's the wrong way to pose the problem.
There isn't a single economy…
February 6, 2008
A rant in Boston's Weekly Dig lays out why the healthcare problem is a wage problem:
Dearest Governor/ Presidential Candidate/ Botox Abuser,
Thanks for leaving us with the mandatory health insurance law. I really appreciate being told that I'm legally obligated to have health insurance by January…
February 6, 2008
...and that's a good thing.
As long as the primaries continue, we can delay the full-blown onset of Compulsive Centrist Disorder. It also means that the candidates will have to spend their time talking at (yes, at, not to) voters instead of the pundits and media dahlings, which can only be for the…
February 5, 2008
On his campaign website, Romney has listed ten incidents that supposedly mean McCain is unstable. Let's review them:
1. Defending His Amnesty Bill, Sen. McCain Lost His Temper And "Screamed, 'F*ck You!' At Texas Sen. John Cornyn" (R-TX). "Presidential hopeful John McCain - who has been dogged for…
February 5, 2008
I think I was a little too optimistic about MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in pigs staying in pigs and not spreading to humans. A recent study in the Netherlands found that people exposed to pigs were 1000 times (yes, one thousand) more likely to be MRSA carriers than the…
February 4, 2008
Rolex has rolled out a new watch that costs over $20,000. But there's a small flaw with the design:
What? You didn't see it? Let me help:
IIII!
No.
IV.
Would you spend thousands of dollars to show the world that you're illiterate? This is what you would expect to see on a cheap knockoff…
February 4, 2008
I've been relatively undecided about whom to vote for in Feb. 5 primary--and for the first time EVAH! I actually get to decide who the Democratic nominee will be. I was leaning towards Edwards. Since 2004, he was the most liberal candidate on most issues, even though his political record before…
February 3, 2008
Prometheus describes the phenomenon of the arrogance of ignorance:
...the real issue is that everybody thinks that they are "above average";and have difficulty comparing their abilities to those of others. In the absence of actual face-to-face comparison, they assume that their abilities are equal…