mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: Electronic faucets hinder, not help, hospital infection control Genetics journal reveals dark past Tuesday Crustie: What a happy lad since the day he lost his strings Drama on the sidewalk Other: Taxing China's Assets: How to Increase U.S. Employment Without Launching a…

I didn't think we would see assaults on unions happening in Massachusetts. I was wrong: Last night, the Massachusetts House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill (111-42) to strip public-sector workers of their ability to bargain collectively for healthcare. The rhetoric surrounding the…

Over the last couple of weeks, Chris Mooney has written several interesting posts and articles about how human cognition affects the incorporation of evidence, especially scientific evidence (e.g., global warming) and what that means for politics. At the back of my mind have been nagging issues of…

It feels like spring. It is spring! Let's celebrate with some links. Science: Great editorial response to the Jumbotron ad (responding to anti-vaxxers) Climate Policy Failure, and Laying Blame Is Reasoning Built for Winning Arguments, Rather Than Finding Truth? The @nytimes missed a great chance…

It only took Ezra Klein about much longer than me to figure this out: ...the position that Obama and the Democrats have staked out is the very position that moderate Republicans have staked out before. Take health-care reform. The individual mandate was developed by a group of conservative…

Joe Nocera knocked it out of the park yesterday, in his column about education: [NYC Principal] González comes across as a skeptic, wary of the enthusiasm for, as the article puts it, "all of the educational experimentation" that took place on Klein's watch. At its core, the reform movement…

Links for you. Science: Atta texana Bacteria Divide People Into 3 Types, Scientists Say John Gillespie, "the evil scientist from America" Could You Be the Worst Labmate in the World? Other: The Anniversary How Donald Trump's ego killed a pro sports league How You Can Have a Billion-Dollar Income…

I've written before about the problem of the Ph.D. glut, so I was pleasantly surprised (shocked, actually) to read several articles in a recent edition of Nature hitting the same themes. For those who don't think there's a Ph.D. glut, here are some data for you: Post-doc numbers shouldn't be…

Last day of vacation. Links for you. Science: Vaccine Denialism Finds a Home on Left and Right False Balance in Matthew Nisbet's Climate Shift Report Guest Post: It's Not Just Alternative Energy Versus Fossil Fuels or Nuclear - Energy Has to Become DECENTRALIZED Some people deserve bad…

Given the fundamental problems that New York City's 'proficiency growth' evaluations of teachers have, it's absolutely unclear why Massachusetts, which leads the nation according to the gold-standard NAEP, would want to adopt them (we'll return to this point later). Yet the contagion of stupidity…

Links for you. Science: Six Questions About CRISPRs Bottom feeders: A novel way of dealing with an unpleasant problem Humpback Whales May Be Migratory Astronomers A Peculiar Disclaimer Other: Suddenly It's Real (on gas prices) Alcohol and Rape: Twice the Standards Another Occasional Reminder (…

A few years back, Dick Cavett made the following observation about the misuse of the phrase "presumption of innocence": Cast your mind back about a dozen years to Tonya Harding. For the newly born, she was the young skater who hired a goon acquaintance to lurch out of the shadows and whack rival…

Yesterday, I described how education reform, which implies (or overtly states) that teachers need better incentives to improve outcomes, makes no sense when Massachusetts is considered. Yves Smith, in a post about the widespread failure of performance pay incentives, makes a very relevant…

Links for you. Science: Researchers argue 'addiction' a poor way to understand the normal use of drugs Why Do Leafcutter Bees Cut Leafs? Moth Mutation Explains Classic Example of Evolution Other: Grifters will always find each other... Doug Smith: A Stiletto In The Back Of Sane Housing Markets…

Noahpinion recognizes a problem that probably familiar to readers with kids in high school--the high cost of college: While college enrollment rates are up a little over 50% since 1980, the price of college is up by over 1000%. What this points to is a supply shortage... More people want to go to…

Links for you. Science: Truckloads of hard disks Multi-Drug Resistant Staph in 1 in 4 Meat Samples It Works: Taking Cars Out of Times Square Really Improved the Air Other: A View From the Shore - My Jewish Secret (yes, there are poor Jews, regardless of what idiot anti-Semites claim) An Idea I Can…

When I read this otherwise excellent article by Chris Mooney about why scientific evidence often doesn't persuade people*, I had the exact same reaction Kevin Drum did: But be prepared to be annoyed when Chris wrenches his spine out of shape bending over backward to find an example of liberals…

Links for you. Science: More on the mega lab Bats are worth billions What Is This Fallacy Called? Hold Onto Your Floppy Disks, Nerdz! Other: BANANA REPUBLIC The Real Housewives of Wall Street: Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley…

ScienceBlogling Tara Smith has a great summary of the recent paper reporting high frequencies of multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus in uncooked meat products (S. aureus is the "SA" in MRSA--methicillin resistant S. aureus, so I won't go through the whole paper here (and Maryn McKenna, as…

Superbugs may have found their match in manuka bees The Psychology of Architecture Friday Crustacean Blogging Other: The Torture Apologists Who Corrupted America's Youth Why must you use that word, "Profit?" Obama's "bad negotiating" is actually shrewd negotiating The Education Kleptocracy…

I'm a bit late to this story, but, if you missed it, the LA Times had a superb article about how IKEA treats and pays workers at its U.S. facilities much worse than at its Swedish factories: Workers complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace and mandatory overtime. Several said it's common to…

Happy Patriots Day! Links for you. Science: Ion Torrent Gives Its DNA-Sequencing Box A Boost How the War on Science Works--And How to Respond Better Template Prep for Ion Announced Is Sugar Toxic? Other: Behind the Abortion War Stephen Colbert Cracks Himself Up Over Walgreens' Health Services Does…

The New York Times' Jonathan Mahler waxes philosophical over the divide in education policy, using the recent dismissal of NYC Chancellor of Schools Cathleen Black, to offer up Compulsive Centrist Disorder-inspired banalities about education: As is often the case with morally charged policy issues…

Links for you. Science: Study: Fracking for natural gas more hazardous than burning coal Watch Out For That Thagomizer! How new DNA sequencing technologies are unravelling rare genetic diseases Breakthrough Tools for Understanding the Microbiology of the Mouth Other: Our Polarized and Money-Driven…

Over the past couple of months, there has been a spate of articles celebrating cities that are getting rid of their urban highways. The Christian Science Monitor had an article discussing New Haven's urban reclamation efforts. NPR reported the following: How did this happen? After all, this is…

I always say, that when it comes to policies, people have to like this crap. That is, your policies have to make people's lives better. And they don't want to hear about the methodological details, the ins and outs. Like most people, when their cars breakdown, they want to take it to the…

Going on vacation. But don't worry, the blog will keep rolling on. Science: Anthrax Redux: Did the Feds Nab the Wrong Guy? Algorithm Finds the Hairy-Nosed Wombat Not Worth Saving So you want to be a science consultant ZOMG! SCIENCE on penicillin Other: And Obama Speaks Profiles in Cowardice: How…

Since I'm going on vacation, I might not get to it right away, but the NY Times has a good article about two studies that appear to contradict each other about various effects to control hospital-associated MRSA infections. I haven't given the two article an in-depth reading yet, but it seems to me…

The NY Times has a good article about how few prosecutions have even been attempted in the aftermath of Big Shitpile (the housing crisis and the following good times). One of the key players was Countrywide, led by CEO Chris Mozilo, which initiated so many bad loans (that were then, through…

There's been a lot of back-and-forth in the Democratic bloggysphere about whether the budget deal is a good or a bad deal. While the political maneuvering, framing of issues, and so on matters--matters greatly--the discussion seems to have ignored the actual consequences of many of the stated…