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

Last Post
October 30, 2017
This is my last post at Scienceblogs.com. In the future I will be blogging at Greg Laden's blog, located at its original home at gregladen.com. I have a feeling that Scienceblogs will not last long without me. What do you think? :) But seriously, I'll be talking about the story of the current…
Hacking Voting Machines
October 10, 2017
In every area of life, but especially in the overlapping realms of technology, science, and health, misunderstanding how things work can be widespread, and that misunderstanding can lead to problems. In the area of voting, the main problem seems to be the expenditure of great amounts of outrage and…
On that chilling law suit against the environmental groups
October 5, 2017
... which I've posted on before ... there are new developments, summarized at Inside Climate News: Invoking the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a federal conspiracy law devised to ensnare mobsters, the suit accuses the organizations, as well as several green campaigners…
One response to the Las Vegas Shooting
October 5, 2017
from a major non profit, click through the the X Blog to read the press release.
Watch Jeff Merkley Wipe Floor With Trump's William Wehrum
October 5, 2017
William Wehrum is a lawyer and once, apparently, worked for the EPA. Trump is trying to appoint him to be assistant administrator for air and radiation. This is a reasonably important job that concerns many aspects of the environment. Watch: https://twitter.com/SenJeffMerkley/status/…
100 megawats of solar in Minnesota
October 5, 2017
Solar gardens in the state have just reached the 100 megawatt milestone. This is actually something of a disappointment because a few years ago, Xcel, the main energy company involved in this, projected that we'd be at 200 megawatts by some time last year. On the other hand there are close to 180…
The Energy East Pipeline Is Toast
October 5, 2017
Witness the overall demise of fossil fuel pipelines, thanks in part to the hard work of amazing activists, and in part to the fact that the value of these pipelines is dropping fast, which in turn, can be attributed in no small part to the hard work of amazing activists. And now, the latest: From…
Puerto Rico, now's your chance!
October 5, 2017
Puerto Rico can become the first significant size polity to rebuild itself from the ground up to be totally Carbon free. Or at least, that seems like a good idea. If only the US Government wasn't so anti-Puerto Rico, owing to the president being, well, Trump. Anyway, there is now a pile of money…
Trump Loses Another Fight, or two
October 5, 2017
The Trump Administration, in the person of Interior Secretary Zinke, tried to eliminate Obama-era limitations on greenhouse gas emissions from the petroleum industry. The Administration tried to use the "Administrative Procedure Act to turn off provisions intended to reduce how much natural gas…
Joel Clement Resigned today
October 4, 2017
You will remember Clement as the whistle blower at the Department of the Interior who was harassed for showing how climate change affects communities in Alaska. He was removed from his job by Fake Interior Secretory Zinke and given a new job removing staples from paperwork or something similar.…
Hurricane Nate Updated
October 4, 2017
Update Thursday AM As expected, Nate emerged as a named storm over night. The storm is now interacting withland in Central America and is therefore having trouble getting organized. And, as expected given the uncertainty this causes, the forecasts are unclear on future intensity. The most recent…
Cheap Science Books
October 4, 2017
Two science books cheap (Kindle version, two bucks): The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think Dr. Louann Brizendine, the founder of the first clinic in the country to study gender differences in brain, behavior, and hormones, turns her attention to the male brain,…
Getting a paper past pee review
October 4, 2017
OK, maybe that's a bit extreme, but some kids take longer than others ... But seriously, this is a heartwarming and touching story of science reaching into childhood and yanking some poor unsuspecting kid into the world of ... academia... From Once Teased For Her Love Of Bugs, 8-Year-Old Co-Authors…
Climate and energy are becoming focal points in state political races
October 4, 2017
Sorry for the inconvenience, this post has been moved HERE.
Netflix gets Stranger
October 4, 2017
This post is now located in the Upside Down World, WHICH IS HERE.
Hello Darkness ....
October 4, 2017
to lighten up your day a bit: OK, sorry, maybe that was depressing. Sorry.
Why Donald Trump Is Being So Bad To Puerto Rico
October 3, 2017
Visiting Arkansas, hanging around briefly with some people in the Real Estate business, I found a lot of hatred of Mexicans, whom they unimaginatively referred to as "spics" but making it clear they were talking about Mexicans, not some other spics. Sitting with a group of people talking about…
Math Mystery Book That Is Bilingual
October 3, 2017
Sorry, the contents of this post have been moved to THIS NEW LOCATION. Please click through! Thanks.
Trump: Puerto Rico Did Not Suffer A Real Catastrophe, And It Is All Fixed Anyway
October 3, 2017
Today, Donald Trump told Puerto Rico that they dodged a bullet, that the hurricane that hit them was not a real catastrophe, that only a couple of people died, that he, Trump, is doing a great job, but would Puerto Rico please try to spend less money on fixing things up. https://twitter.com/…
Vote Down The Guns
October 3, 2017
First a word about our lovely press. If I hear one more reporter grovel and squirm about how we don't really want to hurt the NRA or take away any gun rights or do anything unreasonable, no, no, we just want to assume there is a solution to the carnage that does not inconvenience any of the gun…
More guns equals more gun deaths
October 2, 2017
And lax legislation and elected representatives who run their elections using money from the gun industry make sure there are PLENTY of guns to go around. People who are running for office who have pro NRA positions and/or take gun money should be drummed out of politics. The rate of gun ownership…
Birds of Australia: New Book
October 2, 2017
There are close to just under 900 species of bird in Australia, and The Australian Bird Guide by Peter Menkhorst, Danny Rogers, Rohan Clarke, Jeff Davies, Peter Marsack, and Kim Franklin covers just over 900 of them. Where do the extras come from? Sea birds in the nearby oceans, I think. This is…
Considering Candidates Post Las Vegas Massacre: Rule Out Tim Walz
October 2, 2017
A man who was not even known as a gun collector amassed an arsenal that all experts agree included illegal fully automatic weapons. He carried out an act of carnage, alone and using only those weapons, that exceeded in casualty count almost every military battle fought in recent decades by American…
The Trump White House Rhetoric seems to say: Give up on Puerto Rico
September 29, 2017
The White House calls the disaster in Puerto Rico a "good news story," implying that the federal government is doing a great job there. Meanwhile, Donald Trump put out a tweet today that seems to imply that the US needs to consider whether or not it wants to help Puerto Rico, which, by the way, is…
An interesting new graphic showing climate change
September 29, 2017
This graphic, by Boggis Makes Videos and put on YouTube just a few days ago, breaks all the rules of how to make effective, understandable graphs for the general public. However, if you follow all those rules, it is difficult or impossible to get certain message across. Therefore, this graphic is…
Wait, don't buy an Echo yet!
September 29, 2017
I had mentioned before that we are enjoying our Amazon Echo, one of those robots that listens and then responds with a certain degree of intelligence. We don't use the Echo for very many things, but that is partly because we are not in the habit. For example, if I'm sitting in a certain chair in…
The Great Pacific Invasion
September 28, 2017
When the big tsunami hit Japan in 2011, many objects were washed out to sea. This flotsam provided for a giant "rafting event." A rafting event is when animals, plants, etc. float across an otherwise uncrossable body of water and end up alive on the other side. With this particular event, I don't…
People who voted for Jill Stein were tricked, and we are all paying for it
September 28, 2017
Or so it seems. Donald Trump won the 2016 election with 306 votes to Hillary Clinton's 232 votes. That is a spread of 74 votes. Clinton was likely to win in several states in which she lost, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, maybe Ohio, etc. In three states that could have gone…
Puerto Rico Disaster Implications: Migrations, Politics, Cholera
September 28, 2017
Two or three thoughts about the current crisis. When there is a major climate disaster in the US, people move. Since the US is big and has large gaps in population, it looks different than when a disaster happens in some other places. Five million (or more) Syrians leaving the Levant left a major…
States Can Lead the Way on Climate Change
September 27, 2017
True that. In the US, energy policy and regulation happens much more at the state level than the federal level, and our federal government went belly up last January anyway. Some states will not lead, they will go backwards, but others will lead, and show the way. So, here I want to highlight this…