When fuel costs rise, people adjust differently—and systems follow In a recent post, I explored what might happen if gas prices reached $10 per gallon—a scenario that feels extreme, but not entirely impossible under the right conditions. The most interesting part of that article wasn’t the analysis. It was the reaction. Or maybe more accurately, the shape of the reaction. There were responses. Quite a few, actually. Some thoughtful, some dismissive, some practical, some a bit off to the side. But after reading through them, one thing stood out: It was hard to tell what people actually think—and there certainly was no consensus on what would happen or even what should happen. What Was Said The comments fell into a few general categories. Some people…

March Madness, Smartphones, and the New Business of Sports I live in Nevada, so I am not opposed to gambling (even though I don’t gamble). It has been part of the state’s economy for decades. But I do worry about what it is doing to sports and some of the institutions and activities surrounding them. NIL has already changed college athletics, and not necessarily for the better. Sports betting companies are now major sponsors of professional leagues and broadcasts. Increasingly it feels as if the conversation around sports has shifted. It is less about who wins or loses and more about who scores what and when. Every March the country turns its attention to college basketball. Brackets appear in offices. Games run all afternoon. Upsets…

Every March the same ritual unfolds. And being about 1/8th Irish myself (may be questioned), I look forward to the day. Green clothing appears. Parades roll through city streets. Beer mysteriously turns green. And somewhere in the festivities a cheerful leprechaun usually shows up carrying a pot of gold. Most of us assume this is an ancient Irish tradition stretching back through the centuries. It isn’t. At least not in the way we think. Like many holidays, St. Patrick’s Day is really a layered mixture of history, legend, immigration, and a little creative reinvention along the way. The historical Patrick himself would probably find the modern celebration rather surprising. Historians generally believe Patrick was born not in Ireland but in Britain near the end of…

It seems winter has finally decided to show up. I have been shoveling snow for four days in a row. For those are in the Midwest or east, this may not sound like much. But here in Northern Nevada, it is not normal. We usually get snow one day and it is mostly melted the next day. This week we have received 4 to 12 inches each day. Thus, the need to shovel. Being not as young as I once was, shoveling is tiring activity (I would rather burn me calories at the gym) with a result that I am also not very interested in preparing complex meals. So the idea of easy one pot meals sound inviting. Here are four option for you to…

Continued Thoughts from One Year of Blogging What I Learned and What I’ll Do Next I started this blog for me. It gives me a reason to chase ideas, put thoughts in order, and—on good days—make sense of the world out loud. I figured that if I published steadily and let posts ripple to Facebook, LinkedIn, Nextdoor, and X, a small circle of steady readers would form on its own. It didn’t—at least not yet. I’ve done the social-media hustle before Years ago, when I ran an online retail store, I did build an audience the hard way. It took 10–15 hours a week, every week—posting, replying, and feeding each channel with content tailored to its community (and sometimes to small groups or even one…

Even with the right ingredients, you still need the right kitchen. For early Earth, that could mean a hot, seething deep-sea vent… a quiet, shallow pool warmed by the sun… or a frozen landscape where reactions happened in slow motion. Here are the top contenders: Deep-Sea Vents Found along mid-ocean ridges, these underwater chimneys spew mineral-rich water heated by Earth’s interior. They offer stable energy, abundant chemistry, and protection from surface impacts and radiation. And we know vents can support life — since the late 1970s, scientists have found entire ecosystems down there: giant tube worms, shrimp, and bacteria living without sunlight, powered entirely by chemical energy from the vents. Proof that even in total darkness, the right “kitchen” can cook up a thriving community….

Where did life come from? It’s the biggest question in science — and one we still can’t answer with certainty. In this three-part series, we’ll explore the leading ideas about how life began: from its possible birthplace, to the essential “ingredients” it needed, to the environments that may have been the first kitchens for biology. Each post poses a question, shares the best scientific guesses, and leaves room for you to weigh in with your own take. Did Life Start Here… or Somewhere Else? Life Showed Up Picture Earth about 4 billion years ago. No trees. No oceans as we know them. No hummingbirds, no humans. Just a rocky, volatile planet with volcanoes belching gas, meteors slamming into the surface, and chemical soup simmering in…

This post may give you the suggestion that I am running out of things to write about. Not the case! I am in Alaska this week so I decided to do some easier things. Living in Reno, you get used to certain sights — snow on the mountains, casino lights downtown, and, every summer, a team of hard-working goats chewing through our hillsides like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet. We have heard stories about them for a few years now. These aren’t random goats out for a stroll. They’re city-hired specialists, brought in with their wranglers, portable fencing, guard dogs and a work ethic that would put some contractors to shame. Their mission? Munch down the weeds and brush that fuel wildfires. And they do it…