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.
Half of my regular readers (well, at least four, maybe five) tell me, under duress, that they truly enjoy my more long-winded posts, but the vast majority of random visits clearly come to the quick and dirty posts, the videos that I slapped up with no forethought, the items that take less than five…
It is end of the year retrospective time. This is the time of year those of us who do stuff others read or watch all year run out of good stuff to do and dredge up old stuff to keep the few of you who are not flying to Mexico or baking cookies busy while we get drunk. This is the first in a…
This post is a followup on Podcasts good and bad, to which some of you responded with excellent suggestions for podcasts.
I want to say that the criticisms I leveled in the previous post apply mainly to video podcasts in technolology that I've seen via the Roku on TWiT TV and other places, and…
He took a couple of tentative steps prior to this, not caught on film. But then we got out the flip and started to do the whole "get the baby's first step on film thing" and at the same time learn'd him to walk:
Do you have a favorite podcast? A podcast that you tried and hated? An idea for a podcast that should exist but doesn't? And, do you know of a rating system for podcasts (and should there be one)? As a thought experiment, I propose a Podcast Quality index, or set of indexes. To start, let me…
Everyone knows that there are two kinds of elephants in this world: Asian and African. The Asian is the only one that can be trained and the African ones live in harmony with their environment until hunters come by and shoot them. Scratch a little deeper, and the African bush elephant lives by…
Looking at Landesberg's tvography and filmography, I note that there must be an entire genre he was big in that I am utterly unaware of. But I did watch Barney Miller, and he was good in it as the Edgy Skeptic with Quirks. Was he the first intellectual cop in the modern era of US based TV crime…
NOTE Since writing this post other versions of the story behind this tragic and unnecessary gun related death have emerged. See the comments below.
The conversation that emerged from this post is not obviated by the story being different, as that conversation is more general.
I am not suggesting…
The annual Gallup Poll on how dumb Americans are has come out, and they got less dumb.
A new Gallup poll on public opinion about evolution hints at a slightly higher rate of acceptance of evolution in the United States over the years. Asked in December 2010 "[w]hich of the following statements…
The person who never seems to be able to operate, or be happy with, these modern digital cameras. The person who more often says "Oh, I'm so upset, I couldn't get a picture of that because this damn camera never works right" or the person who goes to take a shot but then quietly puts the camera…
Move On Dot Org will be transferring funds to various non-profits, or otherwise be supporting them. Unfortunately, I don't think Moveon has a rule against religious non-profis. But I do, and so do you. Please suggest a non-profit or two for me to nominate. If you area member of moveon as well,…
(If you're mailing your presents and don't want to spend an arm and a leg.)
As part of my annual service to my readers who can't think of what to give to those friends and relatives who insist on exchanging gifts this time every year, I present two categories of goodies, cheap and not so cheap.…
But the method must be adjusted if you happen to be an atheist.
OMG. As it were.
WARNING: your irony meter may break just after 2 minutes 10 seconds. Adjust your irony meters now. Do not drink coffee while watching this video.
Dropbox has reached version 1.0, which does not sound impressive, but is. Dropbox is a free or paid for file syncing service that totally kicks but. Try it out. The new version fixes various problems and significantly improves performance, but most importantly allows selective syncing, so you…
The Minnesota Vikings will not be in the playoffs this year, but the team has nonetheless become interesting, possibly more interesting than if they were still in the running.
For one thing, Ziggy fired the coach and one of the under-coaches has taken over, and it is interesting to see how he…
A friend of mine has asked me to spread the word that we are looking for a missing person, Joe Sjoberg (pronounced Show-Berg). He is probably in the upper Midwest somewhere.
MISSING: JOE SJOBERG from MADISON, WI
ARTICLE IN THE ATLANTIC:HERE
FROM JOE'S BROTHER:
Right now the last true piece of…
John Boehner has appointed Michele Bachmann to the house intelligence committee.
OK, let's have a contest. I'll start.
Appointing Michele Bachmann to the Intelligence Committee is like ...
... giving a Nobel prize to the Three Stooges.
Homeopathy involves the acquisition of a substance often chosen because of its harmful nature (but sometimes for other reasons) followed by the dilution of that substance, or an extract of it, in water numerous times until the substance itself is essentially gone, but the memory of the substance…
Jim Kakalios puts a very humorous spin on quantum mechanics, and while the video may be neither here nor there, the book, The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics: A Math-Free Exploration of the Science That Made Our World, consists of the smallest possible number of words to explain the concept in…
First, the video. Then, if you're good, I'll tell you an Alan Dershowitz story. It involves Stephen Jay Gould.
So, when I was a graduate student teaching human behavioral biology and stuff, there was a class taught by Alan Dershowitz, Stephen Jay Gould, and some other guy. This was a large…
As I'm sitting here ordering things on line and last minute for people's Christmas presents (there, I said Christmas. Take THAT Bill O'Really!) I thought I'd make a few suggestions for my readers.
For the K-6 age scientist:
The 7-Function Binoculars For Kids An inexpensive science trans-…
And may I take this opportunity to note that, with respect to the Justice Department's defense of DADT over recent months, Barney Frank, Barack Obama, and I are in complete agreement.
The good news: Despite their best efforts, the folks at CERN failed to produce a black hole that sucked the entire earth into it! That would have been cool. The bad news is for string theory. What might be one of the few empirical tests for that tangle of math and stuff seems to have come out…
A repost, of sorts:
I am amazed at the giddiness amongst Christian Fundamentalists that has fomented from the mere utterance of a holiday greeting by Richard Dawkins. The counter-insurgents in the War on Christmas ... the Red White and Blue, squeaky-faced smirking shits that call themselves…
If you go to a place where humans have lived for hundreds of thousands of years and bone happens to be well preserved, you will find bits and pieces of people on a regular basis. If you go to a Polynesian island and look for bones you are more likely to find a turtle or fish bone than a human bone…
Formerly known as Day of the Vow, as South African holiday, and a time of reflection on dramatic historical and cultural changes.
In 1836 about 400 or so southern African farmers of European Ancestry, known as Voortrekkers, killed about 3,000 Zulu out of an army of 10,000 or so. It was a turning…
