Colorful Expectations

It disturbs me when I open a package of M&M’s and there are significant differences in the quantity of each color. When I was about six, I sorted an entire box of Fruit Loops by color, only to be terribly disappointed that there were vastly different amounts of red, orange, and yellow (the only three…

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Borrowed Vision

Nestled into the landscape in the Sonoran Desert above Phoenix sits Taliesin West, architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and studio. Wright and his students (the Taliesin Fellowship) lived and worked there during the winters from 1937 until Wright’s death in 1959. I went to Taliesin last week to see the architecture again but also…

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Arts And Crafts

More than one person around me lately has said that something was part art and part science. Many examples of art intersecting with science exist around us. Art is crucial in helping us understand our scientific legacy, and science is well served by applying an artistic lens. Together, art and science help us interpret, study,…

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Every Window Is A Mirror

Added to all the other problems brought on by COVID, we found ourselves even more isolated from each other. What busyness, social media, and general divisiveness started, the pandemic accelerated. Joywave lead singer, Daniel Armbruster, sings: “Everything that you thought (confirmed)Every fear you had lost (returns)A film that you just can’t wash (has emerged)But you…

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True Leaders Gone

True hunting is overNo herd to followWithout game, men prey on each otherThe family weakens by the bite we swallow          – “Three Days”, Jane’s Addiction I watched a very disturbing thing happen on social media recently. A post by someone I know and care dearly about became the subject of a…

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The Shape Of Things

In a convenience store in Deer Trail, CO, I was behind a man at the checkout who had the F-word tattooed on the back of one arm and “OFF” on the back of the other. I assumed many of the same things you just did. Then I noticed he was with a child, who I…

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When A Win Isn’t

My youngest son and I went to the Big 12 Wrestling Championships this past weekend. We got to watch the best wrestlers in the Big 12 and we got to watch wrestlers from schools other than OSU also. If you are not from Oklahoma, then you probably don’t understand the rivalry between our two primary…

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Let It Snow

Is it true that no two snowflakes are alike? As is often the case, the answer depends on what you mean by the question. With 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 crystals per year, if you checked a million snowflakes per second it would take you over 31 billion years to check just a single year’s worth. So, we can…

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Intentional Unintentionality

Spencer Silver failed in 1968. He was trying to develop a new super-strong glue for his employer, 3M, but instead, he created the opposite: an adhesive that stuck to objects but could be easily lifted off. He tried to get the folks at 3M to see the potential for his new adhesive, but it took…

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Walking With Bears

I just spent a week in Glacier National Park, Montana. It is a rugged and beautiful land with towering mountain peaks thrusting from pine covered glacial valleys that follow crystal clear streams to pristine mountain lakes. The weather was perfect, getting pleasantly cold at night while the days were warm in the valleys and chilly…

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