Experts
mikethemadbiologist | March 20, 2007In response to my latest post about Michael Egnor, I received a couple of comments lamenting my intemperance towards Egnor. Below is the long version, but Mark sums up the short version quite nicely (bold original; italics mine):
But his illness is the result of the actions of many doctors - doctors like Dr. Egnore who ignore reality, and don't practice medicine with an awareness of how their actions contribute to the evolution of the other species that surround us. It's people like Dr. Egnor who hand out antibiotics like candy, because after all, bacteria don't evolve, and so their…
mikethemadbiologist | January 6, 2007...while professionals do logistics (more about that in a bit). There's a fascinating interview with Wesley Clark where he discusses the lessons of Hurricane Katrina.
First, I was glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that using the National Guard as a way to avoid having a draft degrades one of their most important functions--the response to natural disasters:
Now, one more thing that's worth talking about on Katrina of course, is, the National Guard leadership. Most of them were in Iraq. Both Mississippi and Louisiana have what they call an enhanced infantry brigade. And this…
mikethemadbiologist | December 16, 2006While the Republican War on Science isn't doing as well as it once was, there still is too much politicization of scienctific results. Commenting on a BBC article about the UCS statement about scientific integrity, Jim at TeachtheFacts.org gives an excellent description of science (italics mine):
I am fascinated by the process, the turbulent social evolution of knowledge as researchers around the world compete and cooperate and learn from one another and teach one another, all at once. The heart of the matter is peer review, where scientists judge one another's research to determine whether…
mikethemadbiologist | November 16, 2006A few weeks ago, an FDA expert panel by a vote of 6-4 decided against the approval of the use of the antibiotic cefquinome in cattle. Unfortunately, I've heard through the grapevine that the political appointees at the FDA plan to overrule the expert panel and approve the use of cefquinome. The chairman of the panel is under pressure to alter the panel's findings, and the FDA has not posted the minutes of the meeting, which is apparently required by law.
About the post title: cefepime, like cefquinome, is what is known as a fourth-generation cephalosporin antibiotic. While cefquinome is…
mikethemadbiologist | November 6, 2006This week's Carnival of Liberals, hosted by Philosophy, et cetera, asks contributors to submit posts that "assess the state of political discourse, or the question of how politics should be conducted." So, let's talk about that state of political discourse.
One problem that's always bothered (and intrigued) me is how citizens and voters are supposed to decide highly technical issues. Every day, the government, whether it be local, state, or federal, makes decisions about verycomplex issues that require a great deal of knowledge and training. As an example, ask yourself if you can assess…
mikethemadbiologist | November 3, 2006Buckling under to conservative pressure to find the non-existent evidence that Saddam Hussein had, in fact, been building weapons of mass destruction, about a year ago, the Bush Administration placed online documents from the Saddam Hussein era that provided technical information on building various nuclear devices. Quoth the Grey Lady:
The campaign for the online archive was mounted by conservative publications and politicians, who said that the nation's spy agencies had failed adequately to analyze the 48,000 boxes of documents seized since the March 2003 invasion. With the public…
mikethemadbiologist | October 20, 2006A friend asked today, "Why is there no one seriously critiquing the Gates Foundation's priorities?" Given the influence that "Gates" has on the setting of public health priorities, as well as the massive sums spent, these priorities need to be critically examined. For example, I've heard on the grapevine that one reason the Ellison Fund left the area of global health is because Gates moved in--they simply couldn't compete. Unfortunately, Ellison had a lot of experience and a very different approach than does Gates, so certain approaches to public health have been closed off.
I know there…
mikethemadbiologist | September 25, 2006Most microbiologists, you know, the experts , are not very thrilled with the emphasis being placed on bioterrorism. Inspired by Tara's post on the Bioshield initiative, I'm reposting this from the old site.
This week, leading microbiologists are sending an open letter to NIH stating that the politically-based emphasis on bioterrorism is starving other areas of research. For some time now, I've thought that we've been too concerned with bioterrorism, particularly when good ol' influenza regularly kills 32,000 37,000 people per year (that's one World Trade Center per month for those of you…
mikethemadbiologist | September 16, 2006After reading this Washington Post article about the Iraq War reconstruction effort, I've stumbled across the epitaph of the Bush Administration:
Bush Administration appoints political cronies and ideological wackjobs to important positions. Said appointees pandimensionally clusterfuck everything sideways. People suffer and die due to avoidable ineptitude.
Let's document the idiocies.
Jim O'Beirne was the gatekeeper for hiring in the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Because most of these jobs were classified as temporary, provisional jobs, they were exempt from the federal…
mikethemadbiologist | September 6, 2006I just received fellow Scienceblogger Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science. I've already read the first edition. The new edition has a new forward, updates at the end of many chapters, and a revamped conclusion. Hopefully, this weekend, I'll get a chance to read it. For more information about the book, you can go the website.
mikethemadbiologist | September 5, 2006Brad DeLong is one of those really smart people who I would never want to be really angry at me when the facts don't support me. Why? Because he writes bits like this:
There is a certain horrifying fascination in watching the right wing's minions and useful idiots in the press attempt to attack Paul Krugman on matters of economic substance. The Mickey Kauses, the Andrew Sullivans, the Donald Luskins, the Danny Okrents--all seem unarmed men in a battle of wits, or perhaps an air assault by a circular firing squad of flying attack monkeys.
Ouch. Another pissed off expert.
mikethemadbiologist | August 7, 2006I'm swamped with work, and I plan on linking to this post from the old site, so I've resurrected this from the archives of the Mad Biologist.
I go away for a meeting and vacation, and the most important court case regarding evolution in a decade is decided. Of course, I liked the outcome, so maybe I should go on vacation more often...
Anyway, there's no point in rehashing the Dover decision: it was exceptionally well-written. An added advantage is that it was written by a laywer (obviously). Since our political system is chock full o'lawyers, having a laywer restate the arguments…
mikethemadbiologist | July 26, 2006The American Medical Association has called for a temporary ban on all direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs. Sounds 'elitist'? Well, so are professional sports. But only an idiot would trust Madison Avenue over his or her doctor. (an aside: I'm not an MD. I just have the occassional good sense to listen to people who know what they are talking about).
From ScripNews (subscription only):
The American Medical Association is calling for a temporary ban on direct-to-consumer advertising for newly approved prescription drugs, with the length of the ban to be determined on a…
mikethemadbiologist | July 23, 2006From the old digs comes this post about how catastrophically wrong self-proclaimed 'experts' were on Iraq.
I will freely admit I'm no expert on the Middle East. Infectious disease. Yes. Evolutionary biology. Yes. The Middle East. Not exactly. While I speak a smattering of Arabic, can converse in Hebrew, and have actually been to that region--which sadly, makes more of an 'expert' than many of the right-wing bloviators--I hold no illusions about expertise (in part, because I am an expert in a couple of limited areas and know what expertise actually entails).
It's always terrified me how…
mikethemadbiologist | July 11, 2006Recently, in the political op-ed world, there has been much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over the rise of the barbaric blogosphere hordes, who dare challenge the hammerlock that the Mandarin Class and the Punditocracy have over the 'debate' in the U.S. What has bothered me the most about the Punditocracy's reaction is the unwarranted arrogance--does David Brooks really know that much more about Iraq than anyone other reasonably educated person? (Answer: are you kidding? Of course not. He just sounds good when he bloviates).
In response to this jeremiad by Billmon about the…
mikethemadbiologist | July 6, 2006Matt Stoller at MyDD.com comments on Andrew Sullivan's and Robert Samuelson's apologetics for global warming:
This is rich. The rush to war was premised on the assumption that the judgment of the Bush administration (and Sullivan) was superior to that of professional weapons inspectors like Hans Blix. This turned out to be false. Now, the foot-dragging on global warming is premised on the assumption that the judgment of the Bush administration (and Sullivan) is superior to that of the global scientific community.
As usual, this is an issue of judgment and trust. Put Sullivan and Samuelson…
mikethemadbiologist | July 4, 2006It's the 4th of July, and the Mad Biologist doesn't work on yontif, so here's something from the archives about scientific literacy (or illiteracy, actually). Surprisingly, I actually agree with Nicholas Kristof (originally published Dec. 8, 2005).
Nicholas Kristof actually made sense today. He described on the widespread ignorance of science and math, even among those typically considered well-educated. Says the Great Solon (italics mine):
One-fifth of Americans still believe that the Sun goes around the Earth, instead of the other way around. And only about half know that humans did not…
mikethemadbiologist | June 13, 2006The Mad Biologist digs bloggers who are very mad. Before we get to the Mad blogger Grand Moff Texan (aka "The Asshole of the Gods. And there's not a damn thing you can do about it."), I've noticed that the Punditocracy and the celebrity media have the disturbing habit of dismissing out of hand the measured opinions of bonafide experts (see global warming or anything on Fox News). What always amazes me is not the dismissal, but the utter arrogance that underlies it.
This doesn't just apply to science-although we can all think of some real doozies. I think this arrogance is even worse when…