Monthly Archives: February 2016

When Very Serious Economists Act Very Unseriously

Posted on February 21, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

A precautionary tale for all scientists. First, some prelude. I’ve always been grateful for Paul Krugman’s public opposition to the Iraq War. When the rest of the establishment lined up in favor of the war, Krugman was one of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | 2 Comments

Links 2/20/16

Posted on February 20, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: Finally, a licensed dengue vaccine The Beetles: Eighty-Nine Million Acres of Abrupt Climate Change (must-read; accessible to non-scientists) Remains at a Swedish fort tell a story of bloody Iron Age warfare “omg science is totally brokenz!” … Continue reading →

Posted in Lotsa Links | 1 Comment

Integration and Transportation: Why This Stuff Matters

Posted on February 20, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Or one reason, anyway. From Robert Caro, who wrote a book about public sector transportation magnate Robert Moses (boldface mine): I remember his [Moses’] aide, Sid Shapiro, who I spent a lot of time getting to talk to me, he … Continue reading →

Posted in Racism, Transportation | 2 Comments

Links 2/19/16

Posted on February 19, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: A disease detective hunts pathogens with a photographic memory — and a genius mind Biologists urged to hug a preprint: ASAPbio meeting discusses the ins and outs of posting work online before peer review. Bio Databases … Continue reading →

Posted in Lotsa Links | 1 Comment

Understanding the Limitations of Your Data: The Testing Protocol Edition

Posted on February 19, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

In the era of Big (Infatuation With) Data, one thing to keep in mind is that all data have limitations. How the data are analyzed and collected can have huge effects on your conclusions. One example is how poor students … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Statistics | Comments Off on Understanding the Limitations of Your Data: The Testing Protocol Edition

Links 2/18/16

Posted on February 18, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: Colombia notebook: How my assumptions about Zika got turned upside down This could explain all those strange happenings in Alaska’s waters The NSA’s SKYNET program may be killing thousands of innocent people: “Ridiculously optimistic” machine learning … Continue reading →

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The Ghosts of McGovern and Al Smith

Posted on February 18, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Like some on the left, my Twitter feed has turned into a shit-flinging fest of pro- and anti-Clinton and Sanders tweets. One thing that’s come across the transom a couple of times is the claims that Sanders would lose as … Continue reading →

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Links 2/17/16

Posted on February 17, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

Links for you. Science: Nine Out of Ten Shark Scientists Agree: Sustainable Shark Fishing Is Fine A mouse’s house may ruin experiments: Environmental factors lie behind many irreproducible rodent experiments (1) controlling for environment is really hard; 2) there’s interesting … Continue reading →

Posted in Lotsa Links | 1 Comment

One Would Think Certain Things Would Be Obvious

Posted on February 17, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

One would be wrong. Mandarin oranges, observed at the U.S. Botanic Garden, D.C.:

Posted in Fucking Morons | Comments Off on One Would Think Certain Things Would Be Obvious

Zika, Data Release, and the Tragedy of the Commons

Posted on February 17, 2016 by mikethemadbiologist

This does not bode well for public health-related sharing (boldface mine): When researchers in Brazil posted four Zika virus genome sequences in the online repository GenBank on 26 January, they were complying with a call for scientists to openly release … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Genomics, Public Health | 1 Comment