Minnesota
gregladen | December 17, 2009If you've read everything I've written, and studies it closely with a map in hand, you know that I Love Minneapolis and that I have certain connections with certain neighborhoods, including Nokomis Park. Well, the Minnesota Humanists have asked me to give a talk at the park ... indoors ... on human evolution this Saturday. The name of the talk is Becoming Human. The meeting starts at 10:00 and the talk shortly thereafter.
Details are here
gregladen | December 3, 2009More are expected to die prior to December 17th gathering.
Every year in December, and this has been true for a quarter of a century, there is a memorial gathering and march to commemorate all those who died in the previous year of one of our most insidious social ills: Homelessness.
This year the job of gathering the names of the dead has fallen to John Petroskas. This is John's third year on this job.
Some stories are particularly hard to hear. It really bothers me when someone reports that a child has died while homeless, but it happens every year. It's also especially sad for me when…
gregladen | November 13, 2009Café Scientifique: Feeding Africa With Paul Porter, University of Minnesota Professor in Agronomy and Plant Genetics November 17, 2009Â
Doors at 6 p.m., Talk at 7 p.m.Â
Bryant Lake Bowl, 810 W Lake St, Minneapolis
Tickets: $5 - $12 sliding scale
Paul is a professor in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. He researches cropping systems with a focus on rye as a cover crop, canola, crop rotations, alternative crops and organic production strategies. With his cross-continental bicycle trip Paul's intent is to view agriculture, food and agro-ecosystems…
gregladen | November 9, 2009
Friday the thirteenth is a day. This Friday
Dark dark dark is a band.
Brute heart is another band
Fashion Sabbath is a fashion show featuring the works of a bunch of people I don't know and one person I know quite well.
At The Bedlam on the West Bank in Minneapolis. Ten bucks, starts s at Ten PM.
See you there.
gregladen | October 28, 2009Reporters and bloggers rightfully enjoy feeding off of Michel Bachmann's frequent outrageous remarks, but few have made note of the real problem she poses for the people living in her district.
The word needs to get out in Michele Bachmann's congressional district that she is screwing the people she supposedly represents. Her stated philosophy is to do as little as possible in congress, and she does not believe in the use of Federal Money for ... things. So it should not be a surprise to her constituents that she has been personally responsible for almost no positive action that has helped…
gregladen | October 21, 2009This is for sick people looking for help. It is not a phone number for people with mere questions. Only if you are sick. Not for general questions. Sick only. Got it? OK, here's the number.
Only if you're sick, OK?
1 866 259 4655
gregladen | October 12, 2009October 20th
7:00 to 9:00 PM
Bryant Lake Bowl
Jonathan Foley, director of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, will talk about another inconvenient truth: our complex global food and agricultural system.
With your help Foley will take-up the question, "How will we feed and fuel more than nine billion people without destroying our environment in the process?"
Doors for this event open at 6pm. Tickets can be purchased in advance on the Bryant-Lake Bowl's website (see link below).
gregladen | October 1, 2009Dear Minnesotans.
Here is what I'd like you to do. This especially applies to those of you who live in the Twin cities...
Think about the Minnesota Twins game that was played (and nicely won) today at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.
Think about it .... think about it ... think about it ... (Are you thinking about it?)... OK, hold that thought.
Now, while you are still thinking about the Twins game played today at the Metrodome, walk to the nearest window and look outside.
Now, picture yourself at that game. In this rain.
Now, surrender yourself to the moronosity. Because that's what…
gregladen | September 7, 2009Don't miss the B-Girl Be Block Party 2009, an all day festival at Intermedia Arts that brings international, national and local female hip-hop artists together in Minneapolis for music, dance, live mural painting, film and an art marketplace!
Details here. f
gregladen | August 30, 2009I'm not entirely sure which of my friends and relatives like the Minnesota State Fair and which don't. In some cases it is quite clear. If you are my facebook friend, you know that John Funk thinks the State Fair is what Hell would be like, and Stephanie Zvan revels in being a Bad Minnesotan because she does not participate in The Great Minnesotan Get Together (as it is called). If you are NOT my Facebook friend, then click here.
I can fully understand why people would not like the State Fair. In fact, I'm rather surprised that I like it. This is surely the sort of thing that I would…
gregladen | August 2, 2009This is the continuation of a discussion of loons, skeptically viewed. I am not skeptical about loons themselves. I know they exist. In fact, I just spent the last half hour watching Mom and Dad loon (whom I cannot tell apart, by the way) feeding Junior I and Junior II (whom I also cannot tell apart) what I have determined to be mostly crayfish, but also the occasional minnow.
In this installment of How the Loon Terns we will look at breeding success.
In this installment of How the Loon Terns we will look at breeding success.
Common Knowledge: When a pair of loons fails to breed, it…
gregladen | July 11, 2009There are two lies you will hear from anyone who is into the sport of angling. 1) "It was THIS BIG!" and 2) "Catching fish isn't the point. It's the experience of fishing that matters."
The Mocking Bass. For four years this fish watched me cast lures and live bait from the end of the small dilapidated dock in the lagoon behind the cabin, without ever showing interest in what I had to offer. Two weeks ago I dropped a plastic worm on his head. The worm slid off and rested on the bottom. The mocking bass reoriented towards the worm and took a sniff. I jiggled the worm. And, BANG. He…
gregladen | June 21, 2009
... where she's the scientist attending the crazy Sci Fi conference where everyone is dressed as Star Wars characters. That's because I'll be doing something at Skepchickcon Convergence Skeptics Track 2009
All the cool bloggers and some cool non-bloggers will be there, including Pamela Gay, PZ Myers, Rebecca Watson, Masala Skeptic, Bug Girl, Elyse, Carr2d2, and Moi.
There will be excellent skeptical programming and a few parties as well.
The details are here.
gregladen | June 20, 2009The first time I ever caught a bowfin (Amia calva)I was shocked and amazed at this fish. It was green .... really green like beyond fresh water fish green .... with a fancy spot on the upper part of the back of its dorsal fin. And it had one impressive dorsal fin. It was whopping big and took a while to land.
When I caught that fish, I had a plastic worm lure with which I was trying to catch the mocking bass. The mocking bass is a specific individual large mouth bass or, as Julia called them back in those days, "big mouth bass." The mocking bass hangs on a sandy spot that looked like a…
gregladen | June 10, 2009Some time ago there began an effort to build a state of the art Planetarium and Space Discovery Center in Minnesota, most likely in Minneapolis. These plans have been set back by the usual forces, but are nonetheless moving ahead. (It certainly is a good thing John McCain did not win the election, or all Planetaria would be DOOMED!)
Well, now, the movers and shakers behind the planetarium have arranged an event intended to raise awareness of their project. Here are the details, and I hope to see you there!
Summer Solstice CelebrationMonday, June 22
4:00pm - 8:00 pm
Minneapolis Central…
gregladen | May 4, 2009I just watched a movie that made me ROFLMAOOL about fifty times. Maybe a hundred times. You'll not want to miss this...
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There are a lot of reasons that I love my friend Ana, and I fully admit that one of them is that she give me things now and then that make me happy. Like cookies. And hysterically funny movies on DVD. And more cookies.
But enough with the cookies. Lets talk about the DVD.
On a recent religious holiday, Ana gave me a copy of "... and on the 7th day, God Rocked." Yesterday, I finally got around to watching it. It turns out that this film is a…
gregladen | April 26, 2009Only 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 both the voting booth and the polls.
This will not affect former Senator Norm Coleman's strategies, because the will of the people is of no concern to him. Coleman will continue with the State Supreme Court appeal, and when he loses there (and he will) he will continue on to the US supreme court.…
gregladen | March 25, 2009A small group of us, including at least two IT workers who are not homophobic, went to the Varsity, which is one of the oft' used venues of Cafe Scientific, to see the revitalized Squirrel Nut Zippers. Ben Zvan, who is the only photographer I've ever heard compared to Jesus Christ (who apparently was one kick ass photographer, to the extend that he existed) was on the scene. You can see a sampling of his shots here. And here's one:
I recognized about a dozen faces in the crowd, but the only person I really had a chance to speak with was blog commenter Serena. Nice to see you Serena!
gregladen | March 14, 2009This is the river just above the dam (you can click this picture for a whopping big version):
And these birds seem to be waiting for the other shoe to drop:
gregladen | March 14, 2009Spring is an ecological phenomenon of weather and biota linked to orbital geometry. More importantly, spring is here, as of this very moment, in Anoka County, Minnesota.
The parts of Anoka County, Minnesota that are not built on consist of scrubland, prairie, and marsh. So there is a lot of grass. For the last several weeks it has been unseasonably cold. So the soil beneath the grass is frozen solid. This frozen-state is facilitated by the fact that we have not had much snow, which otherwise might have insulated the ground and kept it warmer. And, this lack of snow means that when we…