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.
I agree that little has transformed the earth more than agriculture, but it is inaccurate to say that "30 percent of greenhouse gases come from agriculture." The reason that this is inaccurate is because what really counts (though it is not the only thing that counts) is the release of carbon that…
Funny Thing Two and Funny Thing Three.
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Second funny thing: BFF Stephanie and I were working in the free weight area of the Kimberly gym one evening. There were a lot of people there. Then these two meaty looking guys came in and tossed a big rubber thingie on a bench. One of…
Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum tries to make several different points. The central framework of the book, on which all the arguments are hung, is that science has a status, a place, in American culture, politics, and…
Mercy Corps is said to be one of the better charities to donate to to help Haiti.
This is their main web page for Haiti.
They are: "... a team of 3700 professionals helping turn crisis into opportunity for millions around the world. By trade, we are engineers, financial analysts, drivers,…
The user VenomfangX, famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) for his videos supporting creationism and against atheism, has yet again filed false DMCA notices against several of his critics. He did this before against another YouTube user, Thunderf00t (of the Why People Laugh at…
Why did this disaster hit Haiti? Pat Robertson will be happy to tell you.
About mid way through this report, Robertson tells us that the fact that more buildings are collapsed than standing in Haiti is a blessing in disguise.
Starting at 6 minutes, Pat explains the reasons for the disaster. He…
Obsession can be a good thing. And I'm not talking about some dumb-ass fragrance.
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Stuck in the field without a gym for three weeks was going to be tough, but I worked out two ways to stay in shape. First, every time we were in a city with a gym, Lynne got me into the gym, and…
A while back we were discussing whether or not President Obama had done "enough" or otherwise the "right" things since becoming president.
Several commenters draged out long lists of things that were discussed during the campaign (many prior to the magnitude of the economic crisis being realized)…
News:
Current news from the BBC
Arikia Millikan's twitter feed. Arikia has relatives in the area, and is tweeting current news.
Help:
US citizens seeking information on your relatives in Haiti, call this number: 888 407 4747
UNICEF page for Haiti: Information and link to donate.
Direct Relief…
At the moment, the only secular relief organization that indicates that they are on top of Haiti, and is a respected and effective organization, and so on and so forth, is Direct Relief International. Here is their web site.
UPDATE: If you are a US citizen and seek information on your relatives…
Before I took the snap, I had a funny feeling that Alec was trying to tell me something. Not verbal communication or any facial expression or signal; whatever it was, I knew that he wanted the deep ball. So I called hike and the ball was snapped to me and I threw the ball as far as I could. The…
The earthquake was 7.0 or more (see Eruptions for info and discussion) and was not far from Port-au-Prince. Apparently damage is widespread and intense, and casualties high, but accurate information is limited because the information infrastructure was destroyed (see this for news details).
She was born as Hermine Santrouschitz in Vienna in 1909.
....Miep Gies, along with Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, Bep Voskuijl, Jan Gies and Johan Voskuijl, made up a team of helpers for the eight Jewish people hiding in the Secret Annex at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam. The office of Otto Frank…
When it comes down to it, it is all a matter of just how hard you are willing to work. Then, you start with that and work harder.
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I got my six free sessions, and then I paid for a lot more. In the end, I've paid less for cars I've driven for years, but it was worth it. Having…
The National Academy of Sciences is to honor NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott with its most prestigious award, the Public Welfare Medal. ... "the medal is presented annually to honor extraordinary use of science for the public good"; Scott was chosen "for championing the teaching of…
This blog and a few others were down for a while this morning. We apologise and promise it will never happen again.
If you see any pages that are still blank, please let me know. You can paste a comment below and point to that page by entering it in the URL of your comment (that's probably the…
The Phoenix robot, left by NASA on the Martian Pole last Martian Fall, has been hidden by seasonal darkness and is presumably covered with ice. The explorer had performed very well during its mission, and it is not expected to have survived the winter.
However, if, when sunshine warms its frosty…
When working with a personal trainer, the first thing you have to do is to calibrate. Then, if the trainer does not crank it up to a higher level, she's probably not worth her fee.
Continued ..
By this time it had become clear that I was joining this gym with a life membership. I'd lay out a…
I don't know what I want for christmas
... Or what I want to be when I grow up, or what to major in in college.
But I can write a poem with Google Search Box:
I am going crazy
I am going to die.
I am going in
I am going to be a big sister.
I am going in Spanish
I am going to die alone.
Hat Tip…
First, following Ethan's Fitness Challenge (to which I responded here) there is another new entry by Dunford here.
Discovering Biology in a Digital World gears up for Science Online 2010: Citizen Science: all fun and no data? ScienceOnline 2010
Isis is branching out from the realm of incivility…
If you follow the race-IQ discussion, you'll note that the entire edifice is calibrated to questions of work and class. As long as classism stands, the arguments of inherent ability will be plausible to far too many people, and the problem of blacks in poverty will be used to justify itself. Just…
Science Online 2010 is coming up in a few days. There is a post at A Blog Around the Clock that is a veritable clearing house for all of the blogospheric information on this conference, including ways for you to participate in the conference even if you do not attend in physical form. I'm sure I'…
Continued from here
Back from South Africa and with some time on my hands, I was hell bent on keeping the promise I had made to myself to get back into shape. For most people I know, this would mean eating better and going to the gym more often. But for me, it meant eating better and going to a…
Did you ever watch cattle? I mean, really watch them, for a few hours? Mostly they just sit or stand around munching on grass, chewing their cud, or snoozing. But every once in a while a handful of them will stand up and point in one direction. And they may take a few steps in that direction.…
Nevada Democratic Senator and Senate Leader Harry Reid apparently stepped in it:
The US Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has apologised for private comments he made about Barack Obama before the 2008 presidential election.
He is quoted in a new book as saying Mr Obama could win since he was a "…
