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
March 3, 2011
Jennifer Rohn describes a dirty secret of academia:
The career structure for scientific research in universities is broken, particularly in the life sciences, my own overcrowded field. In coffee rooms across the world, postdocs commiserate with each other amid rising anxiety about biology's dirty…
March 2, 2011
Links for you. Science:
Got Data??? (must read)
Herpetology
Natural history collections in ecological research
Some hospital infections sharply reduced. Others, not.
Other:
America's Crab-pot Mentality
Why Aren't Corporations Paying Their Taxes? (audio; a transcript would be nice)
Homeless in…
March 2, 2011
That's really the only way to think of it. Fox 'News' Bill O'Reilly's show has an average viewership age of 71, which isn't 'middle-aged', but elderly. Anyway, one of the propaganda pieces Fox has been catapaulting is the false notion that the Wisconsin protests are out-of-control or violent (…
March 2, 2011
He might be really good at designing operating systems (or not), but Bill Gates has a slight data problem. In an op-ed arguing that class size is unimportant and that teacher evaluation is crucial--and should be combined with merit pay, Gates makes this blunder (italics mine):
Perhaps the most…
March 1, 2011
What a difference a good night's sleep makes. Links for you. Science:
It just changes - that's all
Pretty Harvestmen (didn't even know they could be colored like this)
Quotations from Richard Lewontin
The Decline Effect Is Stupid (I think http://scienceblogs.com/mikethemadbiologist/2011/01/…
March 1, 2011
In the midst of a very interesting post by Bora about how the web can break apart the echo chamber, I came across this passage (italics mine):
As all the speakers went substantially over their allotted times all I had left was seven minutes. Fortunately for me, I had all seven (not 3.5) as the…
March 1, 2011
Or something. David Wescott brings a strong dose of reality to the myth of overpaid public sector workers:
Wisconsin has some economic problems, but overpaying teachers is not one of them. The starting salary for a teacher in Wisconsin: $25,000. College degree required, along with extensive…
February 28, 2011
Rain? I thought only snow fell from the sky. Anyway, links for you. Science:
Oil-Eating Microbes Have the Appetite for Crude. But They Do Not Have the Stomach!
NASA cuts
In keeping with the spirit of recent events, I bring you...bats, bats, and lolbats
Killer Wasps!
The lone huntress
Other:
I…
February 28, 2011
There's been so much lunacy these last couple of weeks that it's hard to keep track of it all. In case you haven't heard, an assistant attorney general in Indiana (whose state reps have also fled like Wisconsin's) was fired for tweeting this vile hatemongering:
On Saturday night, when Mother Jones…
February 28, 2011
By way of Bob Somerby, we come across this Brookings Institution report by Tom Loveless, "How Well Are American Students Learning?" There's a lot in the report, especially since it's really three studies rolled into one, but part of section I, which debunks the notion that Finland has the best…
February 27, 2011
Merry Sunday. Links for you. Science:
The Effect of Pseudonymity on Blogger Credibility
Confirmed: 80 Percent of all antibacterial drugs used on animals, endangering human health
Can the electronic medical record contain an entire genome?
A drop of treasure, lost in an ocean of debt
The best…
February 27, 2011
One of the few advantages of getting older is that, as long as the memory remains good, you know where all the bodies are buried. This is sometimes called wisdom. A couple of weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that 401(k) plans wouldn't provide many soon-to-be retirees the income they…
February 27, 2011
Mike Konczal put together this nice graphic of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's roadmap to a batshitloonitarian paradise:
Konczal notes:
There's a three-prong approach in Governor Walker's plan that highlights a blueprint for conservative governorship after the 2010 election. The first is…
February 26, 2011
Links for you. Science:
How to Wipe Out a Family
Animal Domestication
The Bayh-Dole Act
Sequence Analysis 101: A newbie's guide to crunching next-generation sequencing data
The Mind of a Police Dog
Republican Budget Cuts at Heart of Medical Research: Albert Hunt
Other:
Plutocracy Now: What…
February 26, 2011
Recently, I argued that the widespread ignorance of the most basic elements of U.S. politics should be viewed as an educational failure--an adult educational failure--committed by the political press corps. Basically, the political news media, with some exceptions, are either failing to provide…
February 26, 2011
For today, anyway. Brad DeLong is the only one out there who is as flummoxed, not to mention frustrated, as I am about the complete lack of responsiveness by the political system to nine percent U3 unemployment, and one out of six U.S. workers being un- or underemployed. DeLong nails it (italics…
February 25, 2011
Rainy today. But that's better than SNOW. Let's celebrate with some links. Science:
Why You Should Be Jealous of South Korea.
Has Ion Torrent Taken A 318-Sized Lead over MiSeq?
The Strange Case of Ralph Hall
Drying out the cane toad invasion
Goodbye academia, I get a life.
Other:
Standard…
February 25, 2011
Before I get to two videos of Democratic congresswomen talking about abortion and birth control, something that Adam Serwer wrote is very germane:
These videos are striking because they're a reminder of how little of media coverage of political battles over abortion reflects the views of real human…
February 25, 2011
A while ago, I looked at the relationship between poverty and educational test scores in Massachusetts, which, on the whole, performs the best in the U.S. Not surprisingly, as poverty increases, performance decreases. The pattern also holds for science scores on the state exam, the MCAS:
The…
February 24, 2011
Happy Thursday. Links for you. Science:
In a Single-Cell Predator, Clues to the Animal Kingdom's Birth
Two New Dandelion Species Discovered in Spain
Meet Diania the walking cactus, an early cousin of life's great winners
Running out of antibiotics -- and other drugs too
Other:
If any sign hits…
February 24, 2011
I'm a bit late to this story (although STOOPID does age well...), but Kansas Republican state representative Connie O'Brien had a minor bigot eruption--she apparently has a fool-proof way to identify illegal immigrants:
She explained that she took her son to a financial aid office, and as she was…
February 24, 2011
There's a lot money to be made providing aid to needy people. And where there's money to be madeextracted, there will be an investment bank, in this case JPMorgan:
In these hard times, some 43 million American families rely on food stamps. To the surprise of many, JPMorgan Chase is the largest…
February 23, 2011
Graduate students rock! Why? Because they're organizing the clean up of the Wisconsin state capitol, along with an effort to get food and supplies to the protesters. Support them here. Now, onto the links comrades! Science:
Boston British soldiers.
Farm antibiotics, human illness and what…
February 23, 2011
I want to follow up on something from a post about the educational failure committed by our political press corps (italics original; boldface added):
That so many people lack even a basic understanding of how government works and what it does--even among likely voters (keep in mind that your…
February 23, 2011
Matthew Yglesias writes regarding Moore's Law, which states that CPU transistor counts double every two years:
My pet notion is that improvements in computer power have been, in some sense, come along at an un-optimally rapid pace. To actually think up smart new ways to deploy new technology, then…
February 22, 2011
Happy Tuesday. Links for you. Science:
The Fossa: Madagascar's Strangest Predator
Biotech industry says cuts will stifle--Federal budgets would slash aid; Mass. groups look to restore funding
A new spider species discovered in Seattle?
Antievolution bill in New Mexico tabled
House of…
February 22, 2011
I'm pleasantly surprised by this column at MarketWatch. Actually more like gobsmacked. I realize the post's title is a wee bit obscure, so some background is order. One of the reasons I write about budget deficit hysteria all the time is that the belief that WE MUST REDUCE TEH DEFICITZ! NAO! is…
February 22, 2011
Over at The Washington Post, Nick Johnson by way of Ezra Klein clarifies Wisconsin's budget crisis (italics mine):
- Wisconsin's budget problems are real. The state has a $137 million shortfall in the current fiscal year - after taking into account the need for an additional Medicaid appropriation…
February 21, 2011
Kinda cold here. Let's warm up with some links. Science:
From the Trenches of the War on Science
Friday Beetle Blogging: A Stunning Staphylinid
Koalas bellow to attract a mate
Crocodile tears from experienced NIH investigators over the discontinued A2 revision
Disease!: Four billion dead
Sequenced…
February 21, 2011
By way of Mark Thoma, we come across these two figures about wages. First, with the exception of workers near the top of the wage scale, things have pretty much flat-lined for three decades:
Women at the 50th percentile have seen an improvement, but keep in mind that they still lag considerably…