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.
The Minnesota cases are not confirmed but health officials are saying they likely will be. There will be a press conference on this at 9:00 AM Wed.
A child in Texas has died of the flu.
Which brings us to the relative severity, or more exactly, the mortality rate. It has seemed to some a mystery…
Seriously.
Dr. Sandra Porter of Discovering Biology in a Digital World provides evidence that "the California outbreak might be the same strain that caused an outbreak in 2007 at an Ohio country fair."
What a nice piece of research and blogging.
UPDATED: There is some interesting discussion on…
I am not an expert on binoculars, but that is not going to stop me from giving you some excellent advice.
Wildlife watching requires binoculars, and although I'm focusing on birding here, everything we're talking about applies generally. So this advice may be useful for your Safari to Africa…
Apparently, this is being seriously considered. By whom you may ask?
Michlele Bachmann! Who else!?!?!?
Bachmann is quoted in the Star Tribune as saying that it is an "interesting coincidence" that the last swine flu outbreak also occurred under a Democratic president.
That, of course, would be…
While it is still true that no deaths have been reported for the new swine flu outside of Mexico, the virus has been identified in additional countries.
Here is the current breakdown:
Mexico: Over 1,000 unconfirmed cases; 152 suspected deaths - 20 confirmed cases
US: 51 confirmed cases
Canada:…
When I contacted Steve Kelley's campaign director to arrange a meeting with Steve and Sophie Kelley, I suggested Tuesday. She responded that they had arranged their schedule to meet me on Wednesday. When I read her response, the part that I saw was, "They had arranged their schedule to meet with…
Gallup has taken on the task of explaining, in ultimate terms, the evolutionarily designed features of the human penis. He works this as an engineering problem from the perspective of evolutionary psychology, which is always a little bit dangerious, but gallup isn't quite the arm waiver that a lot…
You'll notice that I'm reviewing bird books. (Don't worry, not all will be US based.) Please feel free to chime in with your suggestions and comments.
The ultimate bird book for North America has always been two books: both Peterson's field guides, one for the East, one for the West. Now, the…
Did he take a bribe? Did he try to buy a senate seat? Did he misuse campaign funds?
NO! He was trying to save the lives of thousands, make life better for countless people living under the oppressive regime of the Sudanese government. Minnesota Fifth District Congressman Keith Ellison was…
This is a repost of an earlier review.
Bill Thompson's Young Birder's Guide The Young Birder's Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guides) is a book that I highly recommend for kids around seven to 14 years of age. (The publishers suggest a narrower age range but I respectfully…
The most significant thing that has happened over the last 24 hours or so is that the CDC has confirmed a handful of Influenza A (H1N1) Swine Flu cases in new locations. Previously, cases were only identified in Texas and California. Now, there are cases in Ohio (1 case), New York (8 cases), and…
A Swiss was fired when she was discovered to be using facebook at a time when she had claimed to be too ill to use a computer. She claims she was just checking her facebook account on her iPhone, and that the company had created a pseudonym on facebook, and that this pseudonym was monitoring her…
A tomb in Egypt, on the sea coast, is being investigated by Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who claims it is the final resting place of Cleopatra and her main squeeze, Mark Antony. One of the pieces of evidence used to make this claim is a mask with a cleft chin, just like Richard Burton's.
It…
Only 28 percent of Minnesotans think Coleman's current appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court is appropriate. Sixty four percent think he should give up now. Seventy three percent feel that he should not go beyond the State Supreme Court if he loses there. The will of the people has been heard in…
This was not an intensive bird watching day. This was a day driving to the cabin, sitting in the cabin writing, looking out the window, driving to run an errand, going to town for dinner, sitting in the cabin looking out the window some more, etc.
But the birds insisted on performing. So I…
OK, not so new, but still relevant. The following is a repost of a review of this book.
New Smithsonian Field Guide Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Ted Floyd is a newcomer to the bird field guide scene. This guide offers a new combination of features that may make it…
Here is a brief summary of what we seem to know now.
The World Health Organization reports that in the US there have been seven confirmed cases of Swine Influenza A/H1N1 in humans, wtih 5 in California and two in Texas. In addition, there are another nine spuspected cases. These were generally…
Shane Murphy, second-in-command aboard the ship seized by Somali pirates this month, is happy to be home. But he's not happy to be sharing turf with land-lubber Rush Limbaugh, who politicized the pirate affair by referring to the pirates as "black teenagers."
"It feels great to be home," said…
Well, at some level, you should be worrying now. This is serious. But there are a lot of other things you should be worried about as well, such as the nuclear threat and, if you live in tornado alley, tornadoes. But when do you have to start paying attention to current information, bulletins,…
I was trying to explain to a friend who does not read my blog what I'd written about a set of related topics, and realized that what I've done may be a bit confusing. So, I've assembled the titles and links to these posts into a simple chronological list. If you've only read one or two of these,…
I had mentioned earlier the discovery of Morris the Jewish hardware store owner and Mr. Bryne the Jewish department store owner. There are two ways in which Jewish people seemed to play a disproportionate role in the retail world when I was growing up. In fact, there was an overarching ethnicity…
I had the strangest afternoon yesterday. I went and picked up Julia at school and brought her back to the U. My plan was to attend the retirement party of an honored colleague, Phil. The first strange thing was hanging out for fifteen minutes or so with my 13 year old Daughter at the University…
Well, a person who edits. Are editors passe, no longer of use, old school, in the New Media of the Internet?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Here is a post suggesting that Editors have a role, and an important role, and I have a feeling that this is going to be the beginning of an interesting discussion.
The World Digital Library has released the first in a new set of ancient documents. I'm very excited that this includes quite a bit of Sumerian material, because that is what I've been reading lately.
Al Franken is about to be seated as the Junior Senator from Minnesota after a long and costly battle between loser Norm Coleman and Senator Franken. Al won the election by just a few hundred votes, and three of those votes are mine.
So, we have me and about 100 other people just like me to thank…
