gregladen

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Greg Laden

Greg Laden is a biological anthropologist and science communicator. His research has covered North American prehistoric and historic archaeology and African archaeology and human ecology. He is an OpenSource and OpenAccess advocate. Greg's wife, Amanda, is a High School biology teacher, his daughter Julia is a world traveler and his son Huxley is 2.

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Thanks all for your support. LeRoy made it trough the first America Decides cut on the XFactor.
Below the fold:
PASADENA, Calif. -- A new NASA study suggests if life ever existed on Mars, the longest lasting habitats were most likely below the Red Planet's surface. A new interpretation of years of mineral-mapping data, from more than 350 sites on Mars examined by European and NASA orbiters, suggests Martian…
You'll recall that I wrote something about the American Cancer Society and fundraising a few weeks ago (here). That was a response to something Greta Christina wrote, and now, Greta has updated us on the situation and has this post that you must read: Has the American Cancer Society Been Caught…
Just so you know: Hat Tip Tony Sidaway
Are you going to Science Online 2012? You should!
An interesting thing happened the other day. The identity of a pseudo-anonymous internet troll kown as Franc Hoggle, who writes the blog "Grey Lining" was revealed (probably) to a number of Hoggle's internet targets, and they had a discussion about whether or not to out him. The general consensus…
My nephew LeRoy Bell is Contestant Number THREE. Vote for number 3. You can vote here when the show is over. You can also vote in Twitter and via phone. See instructions here.
In a recent study, 35,533 prostate cancer-free men in a higher risk age group for prostate cancer in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico were given various treatments of Vitamin E, selenium, and placebo in order to see if claims that Vitamin E and/or Vitamin E with selenium were effective in reducing…
Not that I'm trying to influence you or anything, but you BETTER DO IT!!! LeRoy Bell is clearly the best singer of the bunch. You can vote for him using any of five different methods. ... we are giving you a handful of ways to cast your votes for your favorite 12 finalists. And they are... 1)…
Freethought Blogs is growing at an insanely fast rate. Glorious, says I! However, a lot of you may not be aware of all the authors on FtB. Even if you are, you may not know who their celebrity crushes are or what they think of Kim Kardashian's marriage. In an effort to acquaint everybody with…
You've heard about "ClimateGate." ClimateGate was a very successful but illegal campaign by anti-science to discredit climate science and climate scientists. Rest assured, the climate science is fine and the climate scientists are just trying to do their jobs, and doing quite well at that.…
My nephew, LeRoy Bell, is a finalist on the X-Factor talent show. He's quite a good singer, a talented musician, and an excellent song writer. In addition to this, a lot of people have remarked about how such an old codger like LeRoy can look so young. Here, we have LeRoy's beauty tips. Stop…
Regarding this: Gotta fill those wells!
The McGregor Museum is a complex building with several wings surrounding an inner court yard, a multi-layered roof, balconies everywhere, and numerous trees in the court yard close in to the building. So, a cat can spend the heat of the day in the shaded crown of a tree, and the cool of the…
Finally, without any further interruption ... One morning I was up a bit earlier than usual, and I was in the bathroom shaving. It was an hour or so before sunup. The lighting in the bathroom was poor, but there was a security spotlight outside the window, as I recall, so I had opened the…
Since we are talking about geology, I do not want to give up the opportunity to bring up one of the coolest stories of geology ever, given the present day discussion of science and religion. You will be asking for a source for this story. Look it up in Wikipedia, where all knowledge resides, and…
One of the main reasons we were staying in Kimberley at all was to assist the museum staff with a particular, and rather singular, survey and excavation. The location and circumstances of this field project were quite remarkable. This was on the location of an historic hunting reserve, where…
I wrote earlier about the graves that were dug daily to receive the dead. In truth, the details of this procedure are still being worked out by archaeologists at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, but when we were there on this particular trip, part of the grave yard to which I refer had been just…
Well, we were living with this ghost who would walk up and down the hall in the middle of the night, invisibly leaving behind only the sound of its footsteps. But before I tell you how this all came out, I want to tell you a related side story. As I had mentioned, I had the "hallway extension"…
So there we were in the Haunted Guest Quarters of the Old Infirmary, and I had already heard the ghost once. In the morning, my colleague and BFF Lynne who was staying with us for a couple of days noted that she had heard the mysterious footsteps as well.... "Greg, one, maybe both, of your…
Everything I'm about to tell you in this story is true.1 This is a long story, so it may span more than one blog post. You might not want to read this story while you are alone or while sitting in the dark.2 Kimberley South Africa is said to be the most haunted city in the world, and it certainly…
I received the following email and urge readers to call your Senators and encourage them to support the National Science Foundation! Here's why. Having worked in a Senate office, I can assure you that every call matters. The details: Call your Senators by 5:00 ET today to urge them to support the…
... the cast and crew special for the end of David Tennant's tenure as the Doctor.
What they say we get: What we actually get: 1) 35% of every viewable surface of everything is an ad. Including the sky and the moon. 2) The technology pauses for several seconds every now and then because, well, it never works like on the ad. 3) A new EULA pops up several times a day asking you to…
The radiation at the Fukushima plants has gone up, rather than down, since June. This may be because contaminated water has become more concentrated due to evaporation. The release of radiation from the plant into the air continues, although a covering over Reactor 1 is almost completed. The…
More and more, nations are waging attacks with cyber weapons -- silent strikes on another country's computer systems that leave behind no trace. (Think of the Stuxnet worm.) At TEDxParis, Guy-Philippe Goldstein shows how cyberattacks can leap between the digital and physical worlds to prompt armed…
Physiatrist and engineer Todd Kuiken is building a prosthetic arm that connects with the human nervous system -- improving motion, control and even feeling. Onstage, patient Amanda Kitts helps demonstrate this next-gen robotic arm.