Douchebaggery!
sa smith | July 1, 2011Note from ERV-- Like all posts on ERV, I wrote this one the night before (Thurs) and scheduled it for the next day (Fri). But with this post, I wrote it, but then just saved it, intending to completely alter the tone of the post as I was eating breakfast. But then I woke up to an extremely cognizant, articulate post by Stef McGraw, complete with a shockingly arrogant, jackass comment by Rebecca Watson, and I was like "Ah, no. No 'Full House' heart-warming conversation with Watson. She wanna act a bitch, she gonna get a bitch."
One of these days, theyre going to come for my Vagina License.…
sa smith | June 22, 2011Today I spent the day driving home-- one of my best friends since the seventh grade is getting married this weekend. Look forward to pics of me in a 'beautiful' hot-pink bridesmades dress soon...
Anyway, since I was on the road all day, I of course wasnt connected to the internet. So I just got a minute to check my email and found:
yo pig. post my shit. or are you scared?
Posted by: ron lassof | June 22, 2011 1:11 PM
So I wandered over to the trashbin, expecting to find a signature XMRV nut 'comment': an OCD collection of links and copypastes from those links, thus trapped in the spam trap…
sa smith | June 20, 2011Theres something Ive always wondered, in a stupid way, about viruses. Like a sloven Creationist musing "IF EVILUTION IS RAEL, Y NO HUMANS HAS WINGZ???", Ive often wondered "IF EVILUTION IS RAEL, Y NO VIRUSES MAEK US SEXAH??"
In my defense, I always wonder this while Im in the throes if a terrible cold or mono.
But for real! Viruses make us SO GROSS! Sneezing, oozing and dripping from every orifice, puking, pooping, changing colors/acquiring spots, itchy, GROSS. Maybe we only think these effects are gross because we instinctively associate them with disease thus gross, but why are there no…
sa smith | May 15, 2011Amanda Marcotte, big internet name in skepticism and feminism just put up an article on The Guardian blag:
The soft underbelly of the right's hard abs
...
...
... I dont get it.
Or rather, I 'get it', but I find it distasteful, and I dont 'get' why she thought it was appropriate for her to post that.
At first, the June cover of Men's Health seems par for the course for a magazine that aims to stoke male anxieties about physical perfection to sell products to men the same way that the beauty industry has done to women for decades:
Umm... Its not a magazine about knitting or fly fishing. Its a…
sa smith | April 8, 2011I CANT GET IT OUT OF MAH BRAIN!
IT GOES WITH EVERYTHING!!! I CANT STOP!!!! So y'all need to hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband cause theyre homologous recombinaltion tinikering EVERYBODY out here!!!
sa smith | April 7, 2011A couple of days ago, Orac directed us towards an article that is one of the funniest pieces of 'Science Journalism' I have ever seen, anywhere. See, those of us on the 'non-kook' side of things have marvelously eloquent writers like Carl and Ed, and inquisitive investigatory journalists like Trine. Sure theyre 'educational', but their work is depressingly devoid of 'WTF LOL!!' moments like this piece by an apparent anti-vax 'science' journalist, Sharyl Attkisson:
The author is Helen Ratajczak, surprisingly herself a former senior scientist at a pharmaceutical firm. Ratajczak did what…
sa smith | March 25, 2011Classic moment in ERV history:
Me: *ranting to my mother about my interactions with a big-box-store veterinarian not understanding what 'platelets' are and letting smaller dogs attack him while he was waking up from anesthesia when he was getting neutered and my inability to get across to the 'vet' how FUCKING STUPID her actions were*
Mom: Now honey, you know you dont deal well with those kinds of people.
Me: *stops mid rant*... What kind of people?
Mom: ... You know. Stupid people.
I dont. Some people are just so stupid I honestly cant figure out how they know how to 'feed themselves' or '…
sa smith | January 12, 2011I was reading the next segment of Brian Deers expose on Andrew Wakefield this morning, and I couldnt help but notice some similarities between Andrew Wakefield and Judy Mikovits.
Mikovits was plucked from obscurity by people with an agenda. The only thing the people with the agenda didnt have was science to support their agenda. Mikovits provided them with that 'scientific support'-- one paper. High profile journal. High PR/news coverage. That one paper has lead to a gold-mine of 'diagnostic' tests (owned by the people with an agenda + Mikovits), drugs (Ampligen, an antiretroviral that…
sa smith | December 17, 2010Dr. Oz.
Rockstar of Science.
Major, massive, epic moron.
Homeboy invites our Dr. Pam Ronald on his show to talk about GMOs. Great public science outreach opportunity. I was excited for her and for the field and for the public.
But you know 'crank magnetism'? Its never surprising when an anti-vaxer turns out to be a Holocaust Denier or (and) a 9/11 Truther, etc etc etc? I guess I shouldnt have been surprised at all that all the cranks get their moves from the same play-book.
See, Oz invited Pam on his show to talk about GMOs. But he didnt 'really' want to talk to her (or anyone) about…
sa smith | December 10, 2010Orac recently had a post up on Terminator Cranks. Which Cranks are the most persistent?
NEW QUESTION.
Which Cranks are the biggest assholes?
My vote goes to the alt-med crew, as a whole.
The anti-vaxers are infamous for their ability to be complete and utter assholes. Like, above and beyond simple assholery. You basically just need to look at the 'Antivaccination lunacy' tag at Oracs place. From photoshopping disgusting pictures to calculated harassment of anyone who speaks out against their message, you can always count on an anti-vaxer to be a huge fucking asshole. The Skepchicks are…
sa smith | November 26, 2010Id like to take a minute to expand upon my post from yesterday--
What I find odd about 'Science Rock Stars' is the way scientists and rock stars were awkwardly mashed together. Like mixing peanut butter and Twizzlers. They are both good independently, but unless youve got a real, obvious reason to mush them together, its weird.
I think it would make more sense, if one was deeply concerned about coolness, to utilize innate 'cool' aspects of scientists lives. As many pointed out in the comments, it would make more sense to interview scientists who were actual rock stars. Or if music was…
sa smith | November 25, 2010It was 75 degrees yesterday.
It got down to 24 today.
And pretty much everyone else in the country is under a layer of ice/snow.
But Im not gonna write about cold scientists. Im talkin about cool scientists.
Chris Mooney, the expert on facades, appearances, and stabbing people in the back with a smile (you see, if youre smiling, its civil! we are all about civility, here!) is worried, for some reason, that scientists arent cool.
This is not necessarily scientists fault, per se, as very few professions are actually cool. Being a teacher isnt 'cool'. Being a nurse isnt 'cool'. Working at…
sa smith | November 22, 2010A lot of in the the blagodome are having a great time perusing the 'Encyclopedia of American Loons'. Its been up since May, but I guess we all just simultaneously found it or something :)
Its super fun to read-- ALL my favorite loons are there! Even some that I think are kinda obscure, like Blondie (aka Rebecca Culshaw)! Still no Lenny, but the blog is young.
I was also kinda bummed to read about Billy Corgan. I loved 'Smashing Pumpkins' when I was little :(
Aaaaaaanyway... you all know me :-D I couldnt help but notice that only 12 out of 101 American Loons are women. 11 + 2 halves (…
sa smith | July 31, 2010I think its pretty obvious to even the most casual observer of this blog, I am not a professional writer. I am a scientist-in-training who is madly in love with viruses, and wants the general public to understand how cool viruses are too, so I write this blag.
While I have been coaxed into writing a for realsies science article before, that was a laborious process for me and the editors, cause me no rites gud. I can write like a scientist, or write like an lolcat. Not 100% useful for an article aimed at mainstream audiences.
So its with some surprise that I am now writing a blog post…
sa smith | July 20, 2010My mom and her friends have been having a fun time with recent Oklahoma weather-- We had constant ice storms that crippled the city this winter. Spring gave us loads of tornadoes and of course, the sideways baseball-sized hail. This summer has been 'filled' with flooding...
Mom & Co. giggle: "Better stock up on OFF!. I heard next you all are going to have a plague of locusts." "What the hell is Oklahoma doing to piss off God??" "The only thing keeping Oklahoma from being obliterated by God is the few Chosen People who manage to live there. Way to keep God from killing Oklahoma, Abbie…
sa smith | July 8, 2010All I ask from people...
All I fucking ask from people, is intellectual consistency.
And this seemingly simple request is apparently, impossible.
I dont believe a fucking word, of anyone, who has FREAKED THE FUCK OUT over the fucking Pepsi Blog. And heres why.
JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY/CONFLICTS OF INTEREST/POLITICAL BIAS OBSTRUCTING SCIENCE
In 2008-2009, we had a sponsored blog here by Invitrogen. As far as I know, Invitrogen had no apparent editorial control over what got posted there. As a result, the blog turned into an EPIC TRAIN WRECK, when several SciBloggers took it upon themselves to…
sa smith | June 24, 2010HA!
Know how Lenny is finally getting his comeuppance for selling all that quack crap?
I got an anon comment this afternoon giving us a little update:
Dear Mr. :
This is to acknowledge receipt of your recent message left in my voice mail mailbox. We have opened a file on this matter and an investigation is under way.
NASA is committed to enforcing the requirements of Federal Law and Regulations concerning appropriate uses of our intellectual property. This includes prohibitions against use of the NASA Insignia (informally known as the "meatball") in any manner which would express or imply…
sa smith | May 18, 2010You laugh, you lose:
Learn to better communicate your research to non-scientists at the
Workshop on Communicating Science & Engineering with Chris Mooney
When: May 24, 2010-9am-1pm. Lunch will be provided.
Where: MIT- Room/Bldg TBA
Why: These days, amid ongoing media controversies over climate change, the teaching of evolution, the safety of vaccines, and many other scientific topics, researchers are increasingly asking themselves questions like these: Should I be doing more to communicate about my work to the public? And if so, how should I go about preparing for media encounters--and…
sa smith | May 14, 2010A while back I wrote about how the lead researcher at the Whittemore Peterson Institute, Judy Mikovits, is speaking at Autismone, a huge anti-vax rally in Chicago later this month.
I thought Judy was just a crank. Dime a dozen, whatevs.
Turns out things are worse than that.
Much much worse than that.
Its cranks all the way down.
Vincent Lombardi, first author on the original 'XMRV causes Chronic Fatigue' Science paper, founded some weird testing company several years back. This weird testing company was then bought by Harvey Whittemore (father of The Princess That Cant Be Named), and turned…
sa smith | March 20, 2010AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Know how a while back, when I let that 'House of Numbers' spam through for the lulz?
Well, apparently that spam was sent by a real human, not a spambot. Like, a real breathing human with no life.
Cause humanspambot took that comment going through as an opportunity to spam numerous other posts on ERV, sometimes the same post repeatedly. The exact, same, message.
Since I approved the other spam, poor ERV thought it was supposed to let them all through, so I had to manually trash them all. I then sent a short polite email to the email address associated with the comments…