Monthly Archives: August 2012

Garden Furniture For All?

Posted on August 18, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

Observed on Commonwealth Mall, between Exeter and Fairfield streets: It lasted for over 24 hours….

Posted in Boston, WhatEVAH! | 3 Comments

Fatty Food Isn’t Only Bad for Human Arteries…

Posted on August 18, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

…but also city arteries. REcently, I finished P.D. Smith’s City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age, and I ultimately managed to dig up this delightful story about what was clogging part of the London sewer system (boldface mine): A team … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, WhatEVAH! | 4 Comments

Links 8/17/12

Posted on August 17, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: Let’s all sing like the bowheads sing…! Why aren’t they citing my papers? A problem at PLoS ONE Massachusetts ranks third for lowest obesity rate in nation BEHOLD, THE VENICE OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM Other: Edward … Continue reading →

Posted in Lotsa Links | Comments Off on Links 8/17/12

Why Not Run the Table on Paul Ryan?

Posted on August 17, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

There’s an opportunity with Paul Ryan being chosen as Romney’s vice president: if Ryan loses the national race and his Congressional race, he would be out of politics for good. Rob Zerban is running against him, and he’s good on … Continue reading →

Posted in Democrats | Comments Off on Why Not Run the Table on Paul Ryan?

Devil Take the Hindmost As Public Policy: The Social Security Edition

Posted on August 17, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

By all means, let’s delay the start of Social Security past 67 (you can get partial benefits if you enter earlier, but that’s what you get forever), and lower the cost-of-living increase. Because it’s not like Social Security doesn’t make … Continue reading →

Posted in I For One Welcome Our Austerity Overlords, Social Security | 4 Comments

Links 8/16/12

Posted on August 16, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: Live by statistics, die by statistics What the f*ck has NASA done for you lately? More than you think. New Genetic Test Reveals Your Cat’s Ancestry CDC: Pretty Much Everyone Is Fat The function of early … Continue reading →

Posted in Lotsa Links | 1 Comment

The Other Reason I Think Nate Silver Is Overestimating Obama’s Chances

Posted on August 16, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

Even if his models are correct (and remember that Chuck Todd also catapulted to fame by having a near flawless record), there’s something else the models don’t account for: people who want to vote but have been disenfranchised by Republican … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Voting | 3 Comments

SNPs and Bacterial Clones: What Does “The Same Clone” Mean?

Posted on August 16, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

A while ago, I argued that the way genomics can shake its money maker is to get involved in microbial epidemiology, especially bacterial epidemiology, for the simple reason that the genome sequence itself is the clinical intervention. If you can … Continue reading →

Posted in Genomics, Public Health | 2 Comments

Links 8/15/12

Posted on August 15, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: The Postdoc Challenge (the solution is to realize that scientific research does not have to occur within university departments) Populations survive despite many deleterious mutations: Scientists investigate evolutionary model of Muller’s ratchet Teach Your Children (Probability … Continue reading →

Posted in Lotsa Links | 1 Comment

The Politics of Pythons

Posted on August 15, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

If you read the scientific bloggysphere, you might have come across posts describing how ‘escaped’ snakes–often pet Burmese pythons–are devouring the Everglades’ native wildlife (they’re usually not snakes that got loose, but were let loose by morons who realized that … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Democrats, Environment, Fucking Morons | 3 Comments