Monthly Archives: January 2007

Religion and Pessimism

Posted on January 25, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

Commenting on this post by John Horgan about religion and defeatism, PZ writes:
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Posted in Camus, Religion | Comments Off on Religion and Pessimism

What Was Webb Thinking?

Posted on January 24, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

I give Sen. James Webb a compliment about his post-State of the Union speech, and he goes and votes against Sen. Dodd’s amendment to require Congressional approval to increase troop numbers in Iraq. Also voting in surprising fashion were Democrats Casey, Cardin, and Nelson. Republican senator Hagel showed that he’s another all-talk Republican: despite his blistering criticism of the Bush administration, he also voted against Dodd’s resolution.
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Posted in Conservatives, Democrats, Fucking Morons, Iraq | Comments Off on What Was Webb Thinking?

Chickens and Group Selection

Posted on January 24, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

A while ago, Bora referred to a short article about David Sloan Wilson, whose research program examines group selection (among other things). Any discussion of group selection is almost always contentious, largely because there is a fundamental confusion (or conflation) of two different phenomena: the evolution of groups and selection among groups (i.e., group selection).
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Posted in Evolution, Group Selection | 6 Comments

I’m Famous!!

Posted on January 24, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

Well, kinda sorta. I’m mentioned in a UPI article about rapid diagnosis of influenza and antibiotic use. Rather than repeat the UPI story, here’s the abstract:
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Posted in Antibiotics, Influenza, Microbiology, Public Health, Vaccination, Viruses | 1 Comment

A Fine Speech

Posted on January 24, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

No, I’m not referring to Bush’s State of the Union, but Senator James Webb’s response. What’s interesting is how hard he hit the economics:
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Posted in Democrats, Economics, Healthcare | 1 Comment

Healthcare: It’s the Insurers, Stupid

Posted on January 23, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

Let’s just say, for sake of argument, that Bush’s proposed tax plan for healthcare would actually lower premiums. There’s something rather obvious that his plan seems to miss.
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Posted in Economics, Healthcare, Taxes | 4 Comments

Seed Magazine Covers Acinetobacter

Posted on January 23, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

Seed Magazine, the meatworld Overlords of ScienceBlogs, has an article about Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacterium which can be resistant to virtually every antibiotic used to treat it–and in some cases, all antibiotics.
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Posted in Acinetobacter, Antibiotics, Bloggity Blog, Microbiology | 3 Comments

Merry Blog For Choice Day!

Posted on January 22, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

Today is Blog For Choice Day. So I thought I would write about why I’m for legal and safe abortion. It’s rather simple…
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Posted in Civil Liberties, Compulsive Centrist Disorder, Public Health | 1 Comment

A “Literature Guy’s” Response to the Anti-Cullen Fervor

Posted on January 22, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

A few days ago, I posted about the conservative dogpile over at the Weather Channel because one of their bloggers had some very scathing comments about global warming denialists. I found this post by a self-described “literature guy” which makes two very good points.
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Posted in Fucking Morons, Global Warming, Propaganda | 8 Comments

Some Sunday Links

Posted on January 21, 2007 by mikethemadbiologist

Here are some weekend links for you. First, the science:
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Posted in Bloggity Blog | Comments Off on Some Sunday Links