Just Kidding -We Weren’t Serious

August 31, 2022

A quantum physicist named Erwin Schrodinger, in a 1935 discussion with Albert Einstein, suggested a concept known as Schrodinger’s Cat, whereby an animal is both alive and dead, depending on unknowable hypothetical circumstances. There is a modern variation, in which someone makes a snide remark and then decides whether to say he is serious or only joking, after seeing people’s […]

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This is Going to be Big

August 25, 2022

John Muir, founder of the modern environmental movement, spent much of his life working to preserve Yosemite as a national park. He later wrote, “As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the […]

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Who Needs Wyoming Anyway?

August 12, 2022

The Bureau of Land Management has finalized its purchase of a 35,670-acre ranch southwest of Casper, Wyoming, its largest-ever land acquisition in that State. The Marton ranch, stretching across Natrona and Carbon Counties, has been on the BLM’s wish list for years, and the deal was sealed last year when the Land and Water Conservation […]

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Do They Read the Daily Sentinel?

August 5, 2022

The headline read, “Supreme Court Reins in EPA on Clean Power Plan.” On the last day of its recent session, the court released its long-anticipated ruling in West Virginia vs. EPA, four consolidated cases representing 19 states, numerous labor unions, utilities, rural electrics, manufacturers, business groups, and others. The court finally settled the decade-old debate, […]

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Protecting What Is Already Protected

July 29, 2022

The New York Times recently opined that the endangered species law could be used to stop oil and gas production nationwide, because no matter where the drilling is, it contributes to climate change everywhere. Thus, sea turtles in Florida or monk seals in Hawaii could be the excuse to shut down oil drilling Wyoming. The […]

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Still Trying to Understand the West

July 22, 2022

At the age of 97, former President Jimmy Carter has stepped into a dispute about a short gravel road to an isolated village in Alaska. The road would connect King Cove, population 750, to the small air strip at Cold Bay, with access by air to Anchorage, 620 miles away. There is no other access […]

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Endangered Species – The Butterfly Metaphor

July 15, 2022

The “butterfly metaphor” describes the need for people and organizations to change their ways, thinking differently about the way things have always been. It is fitting in the halls of government, where the status quo is paramount, and pundits joke about the seven words bureaucrats shouldn’t say: “We’ve never done it that way before.” The […]

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Things are Coming to a Head

July 8, 2022

Old timers who manage ditches, head gates, and canals often mention the “head of water.” It refers, somewhat imprecisely, to an amount of water needed to force its movement over various distances. A bigger hayfield requires a bigger “head of water” to irrigate it all the way to the bottom, and a bigger turbine at […]

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Trying to Seal the Deal

July 1, 2022

A disturbing photo topped the June 15 New York Times article, supposedly graphic evidence that the Earth is dying, starting with its cutest animals. It is a compelling picture, although the message is as misleading as it is powerful. It shows what the caption describes as “A critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal” apparently washed up […]

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Fixing What Isn’t Broken

June 22, 2022

President Jimmy Carter’s Office of Management and Budget Director, Bert Lance, is best remembered for a corruption scandal involving Calhoun National Bank. But he is also the one who popularized the corny phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” “That’s the trouble with government,” he wrote, “Fixing things that aren’t broken, and not fixing […]

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