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.

Posts by this author

Global Warming, The Decline of the Moose, and "Minnesota Nice"
September 28, 2009
We have had a cool summer here in Minnesota, and this has brought out the miscreants who for their own reasons do not want to get on board with the simple, well demonstrated scientific fact that global temperatures have risen, that we humans are the primary cause, and that this climate change has…
Roman Polanski may visit Los Angeles Soon
September 28, 2009
Roman Polanski has been wanted by the Las Angeles police since he skipped town a few decades back before sentencing on an "unlawful sex with a minor" charge. That was the plea he copped for much more serious rape charges. He has more or less ignored the fugitive warrants because for some reason…
Happy Birthday Chris Rowan
September 27, 2009
.... of the blog Highly Allochon ... Highly Allochthon ... no, wait, .. Got it Highly Allochthonous.
Your email account could be shut down at any time for no good reason
September 27, 2009
Unlikely, but it could happen. A judge recently ordered a person's Gmail account to be shut down. Why? Because that person received an email from a bank. The email was not supposed to be sent to that person, and it contained account information that person was not supposed to see. The order…
Brett Favre. Any questions? I thought not...
September 27, 2009
A very interesting day. I got word in the AM that Derick would be digging a trench across the Cabin property tomorrow, and as an archaeologist I could not possibly skip that, so I ripped a rotten board out of the porch as fast as I could, threw in some laundry, and watched the beginning of the…
Republican Mouthpiece "Strategic Vision" Has Been Faking Polls ...
September 27, 2009
... if Nate Silver's analysis is correct. If a person is asked to make up a bunch of numbers ... random numbers ... s/he will tend to make up non-random numbers instead. So, for instance, if I ask you to state random numbers that have two digits, and I plot the second digits on a hisogram, and…
Fahrenheit 451 not fiction
September 27, 2009
You think this was bad? It gets worse. Do not play the movie (below the fold) without your finger/mouse on the volume button of your computer. Above: footage from ongoing protests at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. Police and US military have blocked off a security zone in the city, expelling…
How to induce an abortion in your unfaithful wife/girlfriend
September 27, 2009
Guys. There may be times when you feel your wife or long-term girlfriend has been sleeping with another man. You may suspect she is even pregnant from this activity, and you are not the father. There is a way to fix this, using traditional medicines and some magic, so that your wife/girlfriend…
Help us name our baby
September 27, 2009
We expect to have a new male baby on November 20th +/-. But we don't know what to name it. Do you have any suggestions? The person's last name will be "Laden." So you have to say any name suggestion you have out loud with "Laden." For example, if you are thinking "Aden" then say: "Aden Laden…
Happy Birthday Cobol
September 26, 2009
Cobol is the opposite of a modern computer langauge, in some ways. But it is the language that a lot of business systems are written in, so chances are you "use" Cobol almost as much as you "use" Linux, even if you never heard of either. COBOL is used to power almost all global ATM transactions…
Why did somebody put this hilarious video on my facebook page?
September 26, 2009
Its a 1980s dating video montage. I think some of these guys were left over from the 70s. I guess I'd go with the Viking. Bonus video:
Beck, Hannity: Global Warming Called Off
September 26, 2009
What they are referring to is a paper by Mojib Latif in which he notes that the media often misrepresent global warming as a continuous, year by year increase in temperature. The truth, of course, is that annual temperature varies up and down but the baseline for this variation has been going…
Pawlenty.... YOU LIE!!!!
September 26, 2009
From Mn Progressive Project
Female Monarch Butterflies on 30-year decline in eastern North America
September 26, 2009
Female monarchs in the eastern part of North America have declined in number over the last three decades, according to recent research. the female to male ratio for the butterflies east of the Rockies has gradually been changing. In the late 1970s, Davis said, females made up around 53 percent of…
Al and Frannie on Health Care
September 26, 2009
I thought you would never ask ...
September 25, 2009
The detectives who waited on my doorstep the afternoon after Jake's murder asked lots of questions, even if they were about Carla, and they listened very well. I was nervous at first, but once I got over the shock of seeing them at my door, I was telling them everything. Enjoy a little free on line…
Have a Windows 7 Launch Party! Yipeeeee!!!
September 25, 2009
This is not a parody. I think. Hey, wait, is that the Apple guy on the left? OK, let's do an activity. Let's list all the things that could GO WRONG at this party! OK? I'll start: OH, and I love the fact that at the end the Apple Guy (the one on the left) gives us the South American guy…
Brian Malow: Science Comedian
September 25, 2009
Is on Skeptically Speaking tonight. Click here for details.
Americans Who Don't Identify with a Religion No Longer a Fringe Group
September 25, 2009
You've certainly heard of the ARIS 2008 survey from Trinity College. One of the more interesting aspects of the survey is the demonstration that there is a sex difference in patterns of religions identification. Below I give some links where this has been discussed, but I want to note that in…
The Importance of Scientific Literacy
September 25, 2009
"At least once a week, if not once a day, we might each ponder what cosmic truths lie undiscovered before us, perhaps awaiting the arrival of a clever thinker, an ingenious experiment, or an innovative space mission to reveal them. We might further ponder how those discoveries may one day transform…
The meme of honourable death
September 25, 2009
The Anglo Boer War (in what is now South Africa from October 11th, 1899 to May 31st, 1902) was a turning point in European style military history. Previously, infantry would operate in large blocks that would move forward, turn and open or close ranks, and winning an infantry engagement would…
The Rundown on Mount Rainier
September 25, 2009
Mount Rainier (14,410 ft) has lately attracted a small amount of attention because of what is considered by some an increase in seismic activity there, so I thought it might be nice to get a baseline description of this volcano for those of you interested in such things. For scientifically…
Send GrrrlScientist South with the Birds!
September 24, 2009
Why are women (slightly more) religious?
September 24, 2009
Are women more likely to be stupid/gullible? That seems to be the assumption that the ungenerous of us might make when considering the 7% gap between men and women when it comes to religious affiliation.... ... that was discussed recently in an ARIS poll. Earlier, I had pointed to Stephanie Zvan'…
Appyhay Anniversaryway Yptographycray
September 24, 2009
This is the sixtieth anniversary of cryptography, according to one way of counting it that I'm sure lots of people don't agree with. (I mean, seriously, I've SEEN the Da Vinci code, man.) Anyway, here is a nice slide show, starting out with the Engigma, working its way through the movie "Sneaker…
There might be an HIV vaccine.
September 24, 2009
... this is not close to perfect, but an experimental mix of two previously tested but ineffective vaccines appears to have at least a 31 percent prevention rate based on one recent trial. The story is written up here.
Does getting a regular flu shot increase your risk of getting novel H1H1 swine?
September 24, 2009
Nobody knows. But, someone does suspect this is the case. (If it is true, and we don't know, it pertains to LAST YEARs flu shot, and may or may not pertain to this year's flu shot.) However, it would seem that the proprietary publication process is keeping the information in private for now.…
? ... :;""'!!!!
September 24, 2009
Yes, it is "National 'Punctuation'" Day ... in America! All day you should use "extra" [whenever possible] punctuation! It will help to #@%@^# swear now and then...!!! The national "Punctuation 'Day'" page is .... -> HERE!?!?
Creation (the movie) Now Has US Distributor
September 24, 2009
The new film about Darwin, Creation, will be distributed in the United States after all, according to a story in the Hollywood Reporter (September 24, 2009). The film is expected to be released by Newmarket Films in December 2009. Earlier the producer of the film, Jeremy Thomas, lamented to the…
Al Franken Reads Riot Act to DOJ Official
September 24, 2009
Well, not the Riot Act, but the Fourth Amendment. Just in case he wasn't familiar with it, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) decided to read the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution to David Kris, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's National Security Division, who was testifying to the…