One of the hallmarks of civilization is specialization and the cooperation that comes with it. Between 1.8 Million and 12,000 years ago, we were all hunter-gatherers. Initially, there was no specialization. If you were presented with a tree full of…
The season before the season of rebirth
When Autumn starts to feel like it’s run its’ course, I get a little giddy for the possibilities of Winter. Not for winter sports and all that, but I dream of hibernation and the preparation for Spring that I never…
Virus
I had no idea earlier this year I would have read so much about virology. One tidbit: virologists have learned that viruses are something less than alive: they contain genetic information but cannot reproduce. They require a host that they…
Bringing my house into the future
When the floor refinishers came and took up the carpet and brought our upstairs hardwood floors back to life, they accidentally burned out my old 1990s alarm system. But I wasn’t mad — I’d been thinking about replacing it anyway.…
Transparency
What do Police Departments and Public Schools have in common? In 2020 they’ve both been forced to reckon with situations that question their legitimate, organizational authority. One over perceived systemic racism and safety (Black Lives Matter) and the other over…
“Reel Lessons” — The Right Tool for the job, and examples from the History of Technology
Not long ago, I bought myself a Scott’s reel push mower. I’ve always wanted one, and I found one for $20 at our Habitat for Humanity Re:Store. It looked new, but had zero grease in the gears and wasn’t properly…
A Really Long View on COVID-19
I’ve been reading a bit about the 200 viruses that are known collectively as “the common cold.” Three or four of those are coronaviruses, the latest of which science believes jumped to humans approximately 10,000 years ago (~8,000 BCE). They…
“I hate to toot my own horn, but…beep-beep.”
Today the Tulsa World published an Opinion piece by me that I called “Hamilton Summer.” A Summer of deep-diving into the history and scholarship of the musical “Hamilton” made me think about how hard (and fragile) American democracy is. You…
There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home…
August 23, 2020 Make no mistake; the COVID-19 pandemic is expensive. In a macroeconomic sense: world economies sputter along in low speed, needing fewer of this and that means fewer people employed, making fewer dollars, and national and world GDP…
“Isten Hozta Amerikaba”*
In 2018 I attended a United Way Finance, Talent, & Technology conference in Houston, TX. Being the sort of personal branding/marketing savvy person that I am, I posted extensively about the event on our new corporate Facebook site before I…