mikethemadbiologist

King Cranky and Shakes are right: if George Bush doesn't want us to dwell on New Orleans, then it's probably a good idea for us to do so. Regarding New Orleans, Publius asks a very simple question: So why does no one care? That's the essential question in a nutshell. Here's my short answer:…

I'm going to NYC this weekend, and I was wondering what I would leave on the autoblogger thingee (I really do like that ScienceBlogs feature). Fortunately, some idiocy regarding stem cells came bubbling up from the comments. The commentor writes: I find it incredible that a child of holocaust…

OK, I'm kidding (legally, he's too young). S.R. Sidarth is the native born Virginian who was called a racist slur by Californian transplant Sen. George Allen (R-VA). Californian transplant Allen also welcomed Sidarth to "the real Virginia." When you look at what a total screw up Allen was when…

...and the Christopaths want to kill it anyway. There is a method that could be used to harvest embryonic stem cells that does not harm development of the embryo: The new technique would be performed on a two-day-old embryo, after the fertilized egg has divided into eight cells, known as…

From the Montgomery Advertiser comes a story about gigantic yellow jacket nests. By giant, I mean taking over the entire interior of a car. (photo by Rob Carr) The nests are thought to contain multiple queens and about 100,000 workers. So far, 16 have been sighted in Alabama.

(Michael Barone guarding his glass house from the Elitofacist hordes; photo from here) ...because you never know where they'll show up. Conservative pundit Michael Barone writes about those who oppose the failed Bush Iraq policies (italics mine): We have always had our covert enemies, but their…

'Will-based' foreign policy making seems to have overcome the modern conservative movement (maybe it should be called 'realpolitik backlash'...). There is the constant belief--and it has to be called a belief since it doesn't appear to be evidence-based--that if we just wish hard enough, the…

This is a remarkable post, although it's not too surprising. Who needs Hizbollah when you have these assholes: My parents raised my sisters and me in a small town in rural Wisconsin. Never mind exactly which one -- I have to maintain my anonymity here in order to keep my jobs for grad school.…

About a week ago, Sen. George Allen (R-VA) referred to an American of Indian descent as a "macaca" which is a racist slur (derived from the French word for monkey). I'm pleased to see that this act of bigotry has hurt George Wallace Allen: In an election for the United States Senate in Virginia…

What's the best laptop sleeve for a IBM/Lenovo X60S laptop? It's a 12 inch screen, not widescreen, and about an inch thick. Have at it, hivemind.

I've been a long time fan of Josh Rosenau's Thoughts from Kansas. Now he's done gone joined these ScienceBlogs. Stop by, wish him hello, and add him to your blogroll.

One of the 'low tech' life-saving advances for HIV patients has been the prophylactic use of the antibiotic cotrimoxazole. Cotrimoxazole, a combination of two antibiotics, trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole, is effective against bacteria, including Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia ("PCP") and…

Here's some Sunday reading for you: Athenae at First Draft argues that those "taken in by Bush's blather would have to admit they wanted to feel good about themselves more than they wanted 2,500 American soldiers to live." A must read. Over at mahablog, there's a great post about profilling and…

Over at Orcinus, guest blogger Sara Robinson has a series of posts (I, II, & III) about the psychology of the authoritarian mindset, and how this affects communication with many religious conservatives. The posts are definitely worth a read in and of themselves, but I want to throw open for…

What's shocking is the utter silence from the White House about the immigration story unfolding in Chicago. Remember, this is the same administration that interrupted the president's vacation for the Terry Schiavo incident. So when it really matters politically the White House is willing to move…

Frank Rich in the NY Times has a good analysis of the Lamont primary victory in CT, although I think he downplays what it means for the Democratic Party. Rich writes: The hyperbole that has greeted the Lamont victory in some quarters is far more revealing than the victory itself. In 2006, the…

If there is one post about the recent Lebanon fiasco worth reading, it's Doron Rosenblum's "Not Sparta--and Just As Well" Rosenblum writes: But to both those who send us into battle in order to derive joy from our performance, and those among us who are thoroughly depressed by the results of the…

The best description of George Walker Bush ever penned (or at least for the next 48 hours which is forever in internet time): Dubya is a white-knuckling, emotionally dead dry-drunk halfwit with the attention span of a massively over-caffeinated mayfly who believes in all the fun, flight-suit-…

One of the more frustrating thing about a lot of mainstream media coverage of science topics like evolution or global warming is that there is a pathological need to report both sides as equal, even though the data and evidence overwhelmingly support one side. It would appear that commentary on…

...I might as well too. By some weird transcendental quirk of fate, I was planning on moving to this blog ">my skewering of Sally Jenkins' now-infamous column about ID next week. Afarensis has just reposted a very nice takedown of the silliness. Below are my thoughts at the time on Jenkins…

I've never thought of myself as a particularly brave or courageous person. Plenty of things make me a little bit nervous at the very least. But the overt fear many claim to have felt since Sept. 11, 2001 really hasn't been part of my thinking. Let me make it clear: I was angry and sad after the…

That's right--you heard it here first: algal blooms on the Charles River in Boston. Spake Universal Hub: A blogger by the name of Mike the Mad Biologist, proving why we should get all our news from Technorati and Google Blogsearch, scoops the Globe by more than a week on the story (hmm, if a…

I've been meaning to write a comprehensive post about why there is such anger among some Democrats towards Lieberman. Fortunately, Anonymous Liberal Staffer at MyDD.com has a great post describing exactly what I was thinking. I'll turn it over to her/him: Since 9/11, Republicans from the White…

Max, over at MaxSpeak, You Listen, is divulging top sekrit information. You would think he was a White House Staffer or something...

During his 2004 presidential bid, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) called his bus tour 'The Straight Talk Express.' One of his signature issues that fit into his campaign storyline was the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, because it allowed him to portray himself as an honest,…

Juan Cole nails it: It was such a stupid war. It was thick-as-two-blocks-of-wood strategy on all sides. It was moronic for the Israelis to plan it out last year. It was idiotic for Hizbullah to cross over into Israel, kill soldiers, and take two captive. It was brain dead for the Israeli officer…

So it turns out Mel Gibson was ranting about juice, not Jews. It must be the Coriolis Effect or something.... (hat tip: KAT)

Our (lonely) Benevolent Seed Overlords ask: To what extent do you worry about AIDS, either with respect to yourself, your children, or the world at large? Personally, I don't worry so much--I came of age when nuclear annihilation was a real possibility. It doesn't get scarier than that. I think…

...but I think that God's got a sick sense of humor."* From the Back Bay Sun: A planned demonstration in front of the Shaw's supermarket near the Prudential Center was foiled, not by police but by a bad case of food poisoning. The demonstrators, from an environmental group called Oceana, were set…

I found a site called MRSA Notes that's all about methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. If you're interested in infectious disease, it's a pretty good roundup of all things MRSA.