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
June 9, 2007
..."Fellow liberals, never forget that fifty years ago, this man would have been lynched. Progressives and liberals are the reason he isn't lynched today", the picture below is exactly what I was talking about:
(larger image here)
June 8, 2007
When you do 'faith-based' science, you have problems when you don't follow the tenets of that 'faith.' From the AP:
The man who plays Adam in a video aired at a Bible-based creationist museum has led a different life outside the Garden of Eden, flaunting his sexual exploits online and modeling for…
June 8, 2007
And no, it's not faith. It's called religion. That aside, there's an interesting internet exchange among Eric Sapp, Rabbi Andy Bachman, and Jameson Foser about the role of religion in the Democratic Party. I found it interesting that the only ordained participant was the most skittish about the…
June 7, 2007
Who knew elephants would take up a life of crime? From CNN, by way of Battlepanda:
An elephant in eastern India has sparked complaints from motorists who accuse it of blocking traffic and refusing to allow vehicles to pass unless drivers give it food, a newspaper has reported.
The Hindustan Times…
June 7, 2007
I like much of Matt Yglesias' writing. But he still doesn't appreciate how science and evolution affect public policy issues. As many of you know, three out of ten Republican presidential candidates stated that they don't believe in evolution at one of the presidential debates. Yglesias comments…
June 5, 2007
Inspired by this Jeffrey Feldman post, I'm putting together a post about abortion, evolution, and the dislike by some scientists of framing. Feldman argues that reframing abortion is necessary to deal with anti-abortionists like Rev. Joel C. Hunter:
Abortion continues to be one of the most hurtful…
June 5, 2007
Well, they're not giant, but, by way of Majikthise, I found this story about an isolated population of freshwater crabs that has been dwelling in Roman ruins for 3,000 years.
During this period of isolation, the crabs have increased in size by at least fifty percent and possibly more than 100% (…
June 5, 2007
...and order anything that comes with "assorted meats." You see, I thought that would mean mammals and birds. Instead, we got this:
We couldn't even identify in which phylum half of this stuff was. There was one thing that couldn't make it past my nose. When we asked what it was, we were told…
June 4, 2007
Recently, I took pious gasbag Senator Brownback to task for, among other things, arguing that 'faith' plays a role in scientific inquiry. In a NY Times article about 'ethically-challenged' doctors who take part in clinical trials, I found this little gem:
Dr. Ronald Hardrict, a psychiatrist from…
June 4, 2007
I was watching this video of a presentation by ScienceBlogling Matt Nisbet, and he related this factoid about the NIH and scientific illiteracy:
Only nine percent of Americans could identify what the NIH was.
(on the video, it's at the 27:00 mark)
Given the public's staggering ignorance, it's a…
June 3, 2007
Lotsa links. First, the science:
Senator Brownback is a moron. But you probably already knew that...
I argue that the reason global warming hasn't caught fire (so to speak) is that problems without clear solutions aren't popular, although here's one thing we shouldn't be doing to combat global…
June 3, 2007
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has an excellent exhibit of Edward Hopper's paintings, etchings, and notebooks. Go see it.
On a weird note, while I was viewing the exhibit today, I thought I saw Lucy Liu at the exhibit. I overheard her talking and she sounded like Liu. But even if you don't…
June 2, 2007
Awful news for the blogosphere: Steve Gilliard of the News Blog died today. During the last few weeks, he had been fighting multiple medical problems including a nosocomial infection. I didn't know him personally, but in his writing, he was passionate and a defender of the proverbial little guy…
June 2, 2007
Our Benevolent Seed Overlords have published an article by ScienceBlogling Chris Mooney about the need to reframe the global warming debate in language that non-scientists are more likely to respond to positively. While I don't disagree (who would argue that scientists should intentionally…
June 1, 2007
And in other news, dog bites man. Would the NY Times have printed an op-ed allowing a flat-earther to explain why he believes the earth is flat? Because that's what they did when they ran Brownback's defense of intelligent design creationism. And there's nothing original in Brownback's op-ed…
May 31, 2007
Matt Stoller makes a very interesting observation about Senator Obama, although I think it could apply to most of the presidential candidates in both parties. Stoller writes:
But I think a lot of this kind of nonsense has to do with a basic lack of responsibility among citizens. Last week, I…
May 31, 2007
MarkH notes that Luskin is upset about what they perceive as academic discrimination against the proponents of intelligent design creationism. So he asks Luskin a question:
Mr. Luskin, is it the considered opinion of the DI, UD etc., that it is never acceptable to discriminate against a professor…
May 30, 2007
I've said before that when you watch ignoramuses and authoritarians trash your country, anger is the appropriate response. driftglass explains why:
The Real Problem is that, in the name of Holy Balance, journalists treat the patently and dangerously delusional adherents of Cult of Dubya as if…
May 30, 2007
Would you pay $728 more a year to keep schools and libraries fully funded? I would, but the voters of Northbridge, MA wouldn't. According to the Boston Globe:
And yesterday, budget cuts and voter indifference in Northbridge finally caught up with the institution officially known as the…
May 29, 2007
No, that's not an inappropriate joke. The conservative Polish government is worried that the Teletubbies might turn Polish youth into TEH GAY:
Poland's conservative government took its drive to curb what it sees as homosexual propaganda to the small screen on Monday, taking aim at Tinky Winky and…
May 28, 2007
Let's contrast Thomas Friedman with Mark Twain this Memorial Day. Thomas Friedman on the Charlie Rose Show, May 30, 2003:
I think it [the invasion of Iraq] was unquestionably worth doing, Charlie....
We needed to go over there, basically, um, and um, uh, take out a very big state right in the…
May 27, 2007
I was away this week, and it's a holiday, so the links are kinda light. Here's some science stuff.
Here's how not to manage a KPC infection.
Here's some stuff I learned at the ASM 2007 meeting.
We don't need no stinkin' food safety.
Probiotic bacteria might prevent amphibian extinctions.
Here's a…
May 27, 2007
From Monday to Friday, I attended the American Society for Microbiology meeting held in Toronto. Before I get to some of the interesting science, my apologies to all of the people who suggested we meet up. Unfortunately, I never look at the blog (or almost never) while I'm on the road, so I…
May 26, 2007
I go away for a meeting, and Congress goes and holds a vote about the Iraq War. Like some, I'm disgusted by the outcome, but I think many are blaming the wrong people. To paraphrase Pogo, the enemy is us. Or least part of us.
I'm not referring to the Mouth Breathing wing of the Republican Party…
May 25, 2007
A couple of weeks ago, after I posted about a very serious emerging bacterial threat, KPC, I received an email from a reader with an elderly relative in the hospital with a very serious case of pneumonia caused by KPC. What he* told me is shocking.
The relative, who has had repeated hospital stays…
May 24, 2007
Ordinarily, I would dismiss someone who thinks that the K-12 educational system is the U.S. is good as a lunatic because 'everyone knows' that our primary educational sucks. Then I think about the conventional wisdom that Social Security is DOOMED, and I realize that maybe the conventional wisdom…
May 22, 2007
I'm giving a presentation today while I'm at ASM, and I'm using a picture of a wombat (one of the topics in the talk is E. coli from Australian mammals). So I have a question for you:
Which critter is cuter:
Pandas:
or Wombats:
Discuss. Inflammatory rhetoric is encouraged.
May 21, 2007
Actually, I'm not just mad at the pundit, but also at Senator Obama: he knows his position is intellectually dishonest.
By way of Ezra Klein, I came across a discussion at Hotline about this interview with Senator Obama:
For the first time as a presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, posed a…
May 20, 2007
First, a programming note; I'll be at the ASM meeting next week. I'll have some posted cued up, but I'll probably not have time to respond to comments (which shouldn't stop you from making them anyway). Here's a list o'links for you. Science first:
Maha probably understands the psychology of…