I was delighted by the National Science Teachers association recommendation of The Tree Rings’ Tale, especially this bit from science teacher Teri Cosentino: I was so inspired by the book that when a tree was felled on campus, we counted and measured the tree rings to see what happened during the tree’s life during the …
Returning to a fine New Year’s tradition*, I bring you the most-read Inkstain posts of 2010. The thing is, it’s frankly a crap list, or at least a particularly odd one. It’s not based on some profundity on my part, but rather some weird Googlejuice, drawing random readers who no doubt click, scratch head, then …
An Ngram for western water nerds- “Hoover Dam” v “Boulder Dam”:
The seminal influences on my aesthetic/writerly self are an eclectic bunch, a function more than anything else of who I was at the time I read them (or listened to them, or stared at their art). But thinking this afternoon about the death of Captain Beefheart (who I count as an odd member of my …
Continue reading ‘“So this was a drive-in restaurant in Hollywood”’ »
I got a sad note today from a friend who recently lost his beloved HP 15C calculator: It had worked flawlessly for 28 years. One set of batteries lasts 7 years or more. One key was getting a bit worn. Dropped a few times, of course. A relic of what the U.S. could once do.
In which I spend my morning observing the construction of a tumbleweed snowman: (We also made a video. Story coming in tomorrow’s newspaper, too. We take this shit seriously, and did I mention I have the best job? Ever?)
For more than a decade, I’ve written about arguments over whether the United States is building, or could, or should build “new” nuclear weapons. They are frequently silly arguments. The “newness” debate was engaged in earnest in the late 1990s when the weaponeers fielded a nuclear bomb called the “B61 Mod 11”. The B61 is …
Continue reading ‘Apparently I’m Supposed to Write a Blog Post About This’ »
One of my Twitter friends (I wish I could remember who to share credit) pointed out how much this photo, taken last month by an unnamed member of the International Space Station crew, tells us about rivers and human society:
This being “World Rivers Day“, I spent the morning puzzling over the nature of ours. Truth is, I was planning on being aware of our river this morning anyway, via a ride on my new bicycle (seen here propped against a log at one of the constructed wetlands adjacent to the Rio Grande). I don’t …
In a debate between candidates for Colorado Congressional District 3 (the western part of the state, including the west slope and Colorado river), the two candidates are reported to have shown clear agreement on an important point: Both pledged heartily to fight all efforts to reopen the Colorado River Compact. Also, all efforts to switch …
Continue reading ‘The Politics of the Colorado River Compact’ »