Harsh mistress, this science - she may giveth, and she may taketh away. Case in point - British Medical Journal to Women: You’d Be Crazy to Put Your Career Ahead of Squeezing More Ankle-Biters Out That Baby Cave. (Surprisingly, no connection to this guy.)
Just a few weeks later, a rebuttal in the form of this […]

There are few things in life more unnerving than those endless minutes in an HIV clinic waiting room. The foreboding there is more palpable than the hatred in traffic court. Just one visit is enough to make you long for a life of celibacy, not unlike that of non-pedophilic priests, or my absolutely gameless college […]

So, we give Ol’ Sally and Slate a good ribbing whenever they deserve it (always), but you can’t say we don’t give the boil-on-the-ass-of-the-WaPo’s-profit-margin credit when credit’s due. David Plotz busts an enlightening run-down on all the specific reasons why South Korea, defying all Western logic, leads the world in cloning.
Besides being masters of […]

It was bound to happen sooner or later. There are two things that the overeducated media-elite (and all others who joust amongst themselves to join those ranks) are obsessed with: the Intelligent Design controversy, and the ubiquitous, infallible iPod.
Now a crafty blogger has fused the two subjects into the ultimate–nay, unstoppable–ur-text of productivity-eroding idle […]

With the sad passing of Star Trek’s James “Mr. Scott” Doohan last July, the world lost a diversely talented thespian and enthusiastic champion of space exploration. He was 85. His final voyage will be to the big mortuary in the sky.
No, not heaven, you fucking idiot. I’m talking about space. Where else do you think […]

Hm. Can’t say we’re exactly surprised.
Still, there are far worse viral phenomena already out there affecting millions. Priorities, people.
Nine suspected of CJD in Idaho | Basque News & Information

As a nerdy, sci-fi-loving kid growing up under the boot of strict Catholicism, I used to fantasize about the day when scientists discovered extraterrestrial life and, in one fell swoop, blew a grapefruit-sized hole through the soft head of all that musty theo-hokum. Did Jesus die for the Buggers‘ sins, too? I think not.
Sadly, in […]

Are people really this stupid?

Mr. Orange can’t help but scratch his nubbly, glossy, fragrant noggin at this one: last month’s Journal of the American Medical Society reports that funding for biomedical research has doubled in the past ten years, and yet, according to the same issue of JAMA, Americans think that “the national commitment to health-related research should be […]