Monthly Archives: February 2013

Opportunitistic Versus Necessary Debt

Posted on February 22, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

Noah Smith comments on some of David Graeber’s ideas about how debt extracts wealth (though not Graeber’s book): Suppose poor people could borrow money for 3% if they knew where to look. but they don’t know where to look, so … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | 1 Comment

Links 2/21/13

Posted on February 21, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: Alligators in Your Backyard: Thanks to climate change, the cold-blooded giants are lurching north. Can They Patent Your Genes? (my thoughts here, here, and here) Insist That People Coexisted With Dinosaurs…and Get an A in Science … Continue reading →

Posted in Lotsa Links | 1 Comment

The PhD Glut Makes the Big Time

Posted on February 21, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

Well, I guess all of that complaining about the non-existent STEM crisis finally got some attention by the Very Serious People, in this case The Atlantic. It’s worth a read, although there are lots of issues about quality of life, … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, Jobs, NIH | 6 Comments

How to Make Your Browser Run Faster, and How That Will Alter Internet Economics

Posted on February 21, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

A while ago, I bemoaned all the crap on webpages that eat up memory and make your browser (or computer) sluggish. I recently came across a add-on that really helps, Ghostery (note: I have no financial ties to Ghostery). It … Continue reading →

Posted in Internet | 4 Comments

Links 2/20/13

Posted on February 20, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: Dogs recognise other dogs in a crowd Palmer et al. find that HIV evolution is not so fast Massive Bird Nests Built on Telephone Poles in Southern Africa are Home to Multiple Species of Birds GMO … Continue reading →

Posted in Lotsa Links | Comments Off on Links 2/20/13

One Alabama Republican Didn’t Get the Memo About ‘Fetus = Person’

Posted on February 20, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

After years of being told that fetuses are people by the forced pregnancy crowd, we now have this utterance from the Great State of Alabama (boldface mine): Alabama state Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin (R-of course), who is sponsoring a bill … Continue reading →

Posted in Blastocyst Liberation, Bullshit As a Load Bearing Structure, Conservatives, Fucking Morons | 2 Comments

Two Observations on the Gallup Poll About LGBT Identification

Posted on February 20, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

So Gallup re-released its poll on LGBT identification, and broke the data down by state: Yes, Washington D.C. has ten percent of respondents identifying as LGBT (after surveying ~0.9% of the total population), and half of them work for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Polling | 5 Comments

Links 2/19/13

Posted on February 19, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: Godless small things: The discovery of a microscopic world shook the foundations of theology and created modern demons K99 eligibility limited to 4 years and you better not be out on the job market Why I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Lotsa Links | 1 Comment

A Question About That Democratic Versus Republican Brains Paper

Posted on February 19, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

So this paper, “Red Brain, Blue Brain: Evaluative Processes Differ in Democrats and Republicans” has been making the rounds. I’ve been skeptical of the ‘political brain’ literature before–which, by the way, led me to defend conservatives. Just saying. My suspicion … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior, Statistics | 2 Comments

Obama Still Buys Into the STEM Shortage

Posted on February 19, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

One of the things that has gone relatively unnoticed is that Obama bought into the whole notion that the U.S. faces a STEM worker shortage. Riverdaughter dissects that particular bullshit (boldface mine): There are two problems with the idea that … Continue reading →

Posted in Democrats, Education, Funding | 6 Comments