Evil Dumb Bitch Goes After Science
Matter of time. And the beauty of this one is its so demonstrably, easily shown up.
For those of you who can't be bothered watching vid, here's the money quote: "You've heard about some of these pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not."
See Paris, France is supposed to get that Republican base all fired up and angry. Not the cheese-eating surrender monkeys!!! Fruit flies! what possible good could that do??
Now. I'm the first girl to tease the biologists who spend their lives with good ol' Drosophila (fruit flies) or C. elegans (flatworms) or other animal models and never look at a whole organism or ecosystem or the big picture BUT, this is good and important science. If you skipped the vid, you missed the most beautiful part - the bit where the 'topic' she's spewing sound bites about is her 'pet cause' of 'special-needs children' cos y'know, she has one (and wait, isn't that very first ladyish of her?). Here's why its beautiful.
1. Autism research in particular has recently been helped significantly by fruit-fly studies. Two researchers at the University of North Carolina (to quote Olberman "Note: not in Paris, France") working with Drosophila discovered a protein important for nerve connections. It seems to be the case that humans who are genetically unable to make this protein tend to have autism. Now we maybe understand what it is that this protein was doing. Special needs children, anyone? Is that, Gov. Palin, in the "public good"?
2. The particular study she's talking about (we think), yes, in Paris, France, was looking at a species of fruit fly (the olive fruit fly) that infests the fruit growing regions in California. Its an introduced species of fruit fly, not previously found in the US, is devastating to California fruit crops, and leads to millions spent on pesticides, pesticides which get into surrounding ecosystems etc. etc. Researchers working in France where the same species causes much less devastation were able to identify parasitic wasps that infest these fruit flies and one that was specific to just this species. Funding from these terrible "earmarks" was used to transport this parasitic wasp to California. End result? Bigger fruit crops + less spent on pesticides = more money for farmers + less pollution of local ecosystems. Do you think, Gov. Palin, that would count as "public good"?? (oh but I guess I'm forgetting that California isn't in "Real America". Fuck you.)
Just when I thought I couldn't hate these guys more, they start on fucking science.
EDIT: Dawkins coins a word in reply! "Sarah Palin's Drosophilistinism is just one small manifestation of a larger and very worrying phenomenon, potentially fatal in a democracy: ignorant stupidity has become a proud badge of in-group solidarity."
Click to viewFor those of you who can't be bothered watching vid, here's the money quote: "You've heard about some of these pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not."
See Paris, France is supposed to get that Republican base all fired up and angry. Not the cheese-eating surrender monkeys!!! Fruit flies! what possible good could that do??
Now. I'm the first girl to tease the biologists who spend their lives with good ol' Drosophila (fruit flies) or C. elegans (flatworms) or other animal models and never look at a whole organism or ecosystem or the big picture BUT, this is good and important science. If you skipped the vid, you missed the most beautiful part - the bit where the 'topic' she's spewing sound bites about is her 'pet cause' of 'special-needs children' cos y'know, she has one (and wait, isn't that very first ladyish of her?). Here's why its beautiful.
1. Autism research in particular has recently been helped significantly by fruit-fly studies. Two researchers at the University of North Carolina (to quote Olberman "Note: not in Paris, France") working with Drosophila discovered a protein important for nerve connections. It seems to be the case that humans who are genetically unable to make this protein tend to have autism. Now we maybe understand what it is that this protein was doing. Special needs children, anyone? Is that, Gov. Palin, in the "public good"?
2. The particular study she's talking about (we think), yes, in Paris, France, was looking at a species of fruit fly (the olive fruit fly) that infests the fruit growing regions in California. Its an introduced species of fruit fly, not previously found in the US, is devastating to California fruit crops, and leads to millions spent on pesticides, pesticides which get into surrounding ecosystems etc. etc. Researchers working in France where the same species causes much less devastation were able to identify parasitic wasps that infest these fruit flies and one that was specific to just this species. Funding from these terrible "earmarks" was used to transport this parasitic wasp to California. End result? Bigger fruit crops + less spent on pesticides = more money for farmers + less pollution of local ecosystems. Do you think, Gov. Palin, that would count as "public good"?? (oh but I guess I'm forgetting that California isn't in "Real America". Fuck you.)
Just when I thought I couldn't hate these guys more, they start on fucking science.
EDIT: Dawkins coins a word in reply! "Sarah Palin's Drosophilistinism is just one small manifestation of a larger and very worrying phenomenon, potentially fatal in a democracy: ignorant stupidity has become a proud badge of in-group solidarity."