From poison to potential panacea
Right-wing pundits/Conservatives/the Usual Suspects hate how much money the government has spent/is spending on HIV/AIDS. "No one gets AIDS but homos and blacks, so why the hell is the government spending all this money on AIDS and not cancer?" (random example) There is a pattern Im seeing in these kinds of people: They are stupid, and they have an inability to delay gratification. Example: HIV/AIDS research does not only benefit HIV/AIDS patient

An apology...? Not if I ruled the universe.
The reaction to the news that the Irish Catholic Church covered up (thus encouraged) the molestation and rape of children is odd. At least odd to me. Apologize? Quit using the titles 'Father' and 'Your Grace'? Really? The people involved in this disgusting tragedy (perpetrators and those who protected them) should only have two real options. 1-- Spend their remaining lives and the entire fortune of the Catholic Church to right this wrong. Sell the Vatican

COOOOOOORN!!!
All of my research in undergrad was on corn. All of it. For classes, for labs, every lab-- corn. We were basically watching a gene become 'irreducibly complex' in shoot apical meristems... I mean, it was definitely cool, its just that I couldnt eat corn for years (Im over it now, but I dunno how people like Anastasia do it hehe!). But now that we have sequenced the whole genome of a few strains of corn, I am now MADLY IN LOVE WITH CORN AGAIN!! ITS AN EVILUTIONARY POWERHOUSE!!! RAAAAAAAAAARW!! The B73 Maize Genome: Complex

Viruses and invasive species: I get sick, but you get sicker, sucker
Invasive species suck. Humans intentionally or unintentionally introduce some organism into a new environment... and shit hits the fan. Whether its zebra mussels in the Great Lakes or rabbits in Australia, invasive species wreak havoc on their 'new homes'. There are lots of reasons for this, but there are only three reasons Im interested in: 1. The organism escapes from a pathogen in its native environment. No more pathogen, more reproduction. 2. The organism introduces a pathogen into its new environment. Organism has coevo

Atheists with vaginas.
I am so pissed off. I didnt get out of the lab until quarter till 6 tonight, so there was no friggen way I could get down to OU to see Barker (feed/potty Arnie, feed/potty me, 15 mph on I-35... I would have gotten there by the time his presentation was over. Why the hell is it that on Friday nights I have loose, whatever plans, I can sneak out early at 4, but the Friday I want to leave early, I end up being wrapped up in BL-3 till 5 fourty-fucking-five???? RAAAAAGE!!!) So I was all hyped up for some quality atheist entertainment, and Im at home instead. ... So Im going to bitch about w00mynz in atheism. ------------ PZ is awesome. He gav