The War on Science
mikethemadbiologist | December 29, 2006After reading this article about Democratic consultant Mara Vanderslice whose speciality is outreach to "theological conservatives", my head was about to explode. Thankfully, digby points out that courting social conservatives will make the Democratic Party, well, more conservative--or as a relative put it, "There's always a quid pro quo." And Jonathan Singer explodes the myth that it was social conservatives who elected Democrats (maybe if Vanderslice were a little less faith-based and a little more reality-based, she would understand what a control group is). But this statement by…
mikethemadbiologist | December 21, 2006Revere, over at Effect Measure, has a solid critique of Michael Fumento's opinion piece about avian flu. What the piece shows is just how ignorant of public health Fumento really is:
1) Many of the necessary steps involved in preparing for a flu pandemic, such as surge production capacity, can be used to produce 'ordinary' flu vaccines.
2) Once a surveillance system is developed, it can be 'repurposed' for other threats as needed. This has happened several times, in different countries.
3) As Revere notes, Fumento's real target is government spending. When will we see Fumento's column…
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 | December 5, 2006I've posted before about the possible approval of cefquinome in agriculture, and why this is a stupid thing to even consider. So some colleagues and I got cranky and wrote a letter to the FDA.
Here's the letter:
Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D.
Acting Commissioner
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane,
Rockville MD 20857-000
Dear Acting Commissioner von Eschenbach,
We are writing to support the recommendation of the VMAC to reject and not approve the use of cefquinome, a fourth-generation cephalosporin antibiotic, for use in animal agriculture. One area that is critical in…
mikethemadbiologist | December 4, 2006Massachusetts' Gov. Mitt Romney's ongoing effort to turn Massachusetts into Mississippi has entered a new phase: embryonic stem cell research. In Romney's last-ditch desperate attempt to buff up his Republican credentials, he has appointed a budget planner to be executive director of a board overseeing state funding for stem cell research. From the AP:
Aaron D'Elia, a 35-year-old assistant secretary in the Executive Office of Administration and Finance, was approved Thursday by the board by a 4-1 margin to head the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. The post pays $125,000 annually.…
mikethemadbiologist | November 23, 2006Ok, so after complaining about how no one reads my posts on antibiotic resistance, one reader read this post about the FDA overriding an expert panel that advised against using cefquinome in agriculture, and then went and read the recently released minutes of the hearing (all eight gajillion pages). Here's what the director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine of the FDA said (p. 211; italics mine):
And so from the FDA standpoint, what we did was we said to the company after vetting it through the VMAC, that you will be judged -- the microbial safety of your product will be judged based on…
retrospectacle | November 18, 2006Knock knock.
Who's there?
T-Rex.
T-Rex who?
T-Rex has just eaten everything on the Ark, and you're next punk. (Caution, a little profanity. You can take it, right? :D )
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…
retrospectacle | November 14, 2006Today seems to be the day of weird religious-blogging.
A toy company called one2believe in Los Angeles offered to donate 4,000 bible-quotin' Jesus dolls to Toys for Tots, but was told "thanks, but no thanks." The reason was that children from all faiths (and lack thereof) participate in the program, and the gifts are given randomly without knowing the child's background.
Michael La Roe, director of business development for both companies, said the charity's decision left him "surprised and disappointed."
"The idea was for them to be three-dimensional teaching tools for kids," La Roe said. "I…
retrospectacle | November 14, 2006The Flying Spaghetti Monster would not be pleased to learn that the world's first (and I desperately hope, only) Creationist museum will soon open in a bustling part of backwood Kentucky. This $25 million Disney-fied, anamatronic monstrosity is dedicated to presenting the biblical creation story as factually accurate.
The Creation Museum - motto: "Prepare to Believe!" - will be the first institution in the world whose contents [editor's note: and ideas].... are entirely fake.
This museum is the brainchild (and I use the word 'brain' loosely) of one Patrick Marsh, an ex-employee of Universal…
mikethemadbiologist | November 11, 2006This is one reason why having a Democratic congress matters. The Inspectors General of NASA and the Commerce Department have begun to investigate whether scientific findings were muzzled or altered by the Bush administration (italics mine):
Prompted by a request this fall by 14 Democratic senators, the IGs are examining whether political appointees have prevented climate researchers at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from conveying their findings to the public.
The issue of global warming has emerged as one of the most contentious scientific debates within the…
mikethemadbiologist | November 7, 2006
Time to go vote. We need sane people governing the country, and you sure as hell can't find them in the Republican party. As Andrew Sullivan put it, "This isn't an election, it's an intervention." After years of being called traitors, weaklings, and cowards because we correctly opposed Little Lord Pontchartrain's Excellent Iraqi Adventure, and after being called sluts and whores because we don't think a to-be-discarded blastula is equal to Michael J. Fox, pregnancy should be used as punishment, and cervical cancer should be used as coercion, and after watching 'faith-based', magical Peter…
mikethemadbiologist | November 5, 2006There is absolutely nothing the Republicans won't politicize. Now, they have launched the War on Vaccination. For a decade, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a foundation dedicated to improving public health, particularly among the poor and the elderly, has funded a "Vote and Vax" program at early voting facilities that serve poor neighborhoods in 24 cities. Basically, if you're over 50, you can get a vaccination at the polling location.
Thursday, in Houston, the Republicans filed a lawsuit to stop this program.
Nevermind that the program has been running for ten years. When the program…
mikethemadbiologist | October 31, 2006While I don't think arguing for or against religious particulars is something any political party should adopt a few days before an election (or should be a political issue at all, for that matter), PZ is absolutely right when he says that Robertson and his ilk should be called out for the foolish bigots that they are. We wouldn't tolerate racially-based hatred (Got Macaca?), so why should we tolerate 'faith-based' hatred? O'Donnell was doing what was needed: staking out the flank.
If politicians won't do anything while El Jefe Maximo wipes his ass with the First, Fourth, Fifth Amendment,…
mikethemadbiologist | October 27, 2006At least that's what Tristero of Hullabaloo says:
Actually, science isn't that hard, even the fuzzy math. Because as difficult as it may be, say, to wrap one's mind around the details of stem cell biology, it can be comprehended, if you're willing to spend the time to do so. What's really hard is trying to grasp creationism or astrology, because there literally is nothing there that is capable of actual meaning. Nor are there legitimate ways of finding meaning in pseudo-science. To understand that crap - now, I've always found it well-nigh impossible.
I always knew Hovind and Chopra were…
mikethemadbiologist | October 27, 2006More than a few conservatives are upset about the Michael J. Fox commercials because they're unfair: how do you respond to the emotional pull of someone who has Parkinson's disease? If you watch the full-length CBS interview, Couric cruelly hammers Fox over and over with the question of if he overexaggerated his symptoms for the commercial (she's obviously trying hard to dispel the image of being the nicest of the big three anchors). But where she truly entered the realm of tastelessness was when she repeated Rush Limbaugh's charge that Democrats use victims for political purposes.…
mikethemadbiologist | October 27, 2006Michael Schiavo reports on a truly weird campaign event held by gay hating family values protecting Republican congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave. She was so terrified of Schiavo, the husband of Terry Schiavo, that she tried to have him arrested. And that's not the weird part.
mikethemadbiologist | October 7, 2006The pro-science, anti-intelligent design creationism group Floridians for Science is writing a response to a creationist screed published in a Florida newspaper. Please stop by and help them draft their response.
tlambert | September 5, 2006So, what happens when you hire a coal industry PR guy as your environment writer? You get stories like this, by Matthew Warren:
Science tempers fears on climate change
The world's top climate scientists have cut their worst-case forecast for global warming over the next 100 years.
For the first time, scientists are confident enough to project a 3C rise on the average global daily temperature by the end of this century if no action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions. ...
In 2001, the scientists predicted temperature rises of between 1.4C and 5.8C on current levels by 2100, but better…