The Nature of Panic

Panic is the over-reaction to a threat, whether real or imagined.  Persons with anxiety disorders are most prone to this emotional condition...

A Damp August Chill

With plenty of monsoon moisture in place, a cold front dropped through Colorado overnight and its low pressure center moved into the High Pl...

Colorado's Monsoon Surge

Thanks to persistent high pressure over the central U.S., the Southwest Monsoon has surged over the past week, with bands of heavy rain and ...

Slogans & Intelligence

Slogans pervade human society, appearing on bumper stickers, on yard signs, in commercial ads and, especially during this election year, in ...

Sandbar Willow

Of the many species of vegetation found on the South Platte floodplain, sandbar willow is surely the most abundant and widespread.  This shr...

Rearranging California

Anyone interested in the geologic evolution of California is advised to read Assembling California by John McPhee, published in 1993, which...

Up to Lower Latham

This morning, I made my annual August trek to Lower Latham Reservoir, NNE of Denver and just southeast of Greeley.  The wetlands along the s...

Ice Buckets, Fun Runs & Charities

The ongoing Ice-Bucket Challenge, initiated to raise funds for ALS research, has been remarkably successful and one wonders if similar marke...

Arctic Sinkholes

Over the past few decades, climatologists have documented a gradual reduction in both the thickness and the expanse of Arctic sea ice, a res...

A Rim of Storms

As this week began, a dome of high pressure was building over the Central and Southern Plains of North America.  Within that dome, sinking a...

A Day for Dust Devils

As I crossed the Great Plains yesterday, intense heat, bright sunshine and calm conditions set the stage for dust devil formation and I enco...

Sorghum Season

Driving across the Great Plains today, I noticed that sorghum covered most of the crop fields, especially in central Kansas.  Native to nort...

After the Rain

Following a night of rain with intermittent thunderstorms, we headed down to the Forum Nature Area this morning.  A mild west breeze had dev...

Honeyvine Milkweed

Walking through our Missouri property yesterday, I noticed a number of vines climbing through one of our eastern redcedars.  As I started to...

Perseids & Fiddlers

On the past few nights, I went out back to observe the annual Perseid meteor shower, which generally peaks from August 11-14.  Produced by r...

Public vs. Private Persona

The recent suicide of Robin Williams shocked most of his fans but was not likely a surprise to his closest friends and family.  While the pu...

Flying Blind

On my way to a family gathering in northeastern Ohio, I changed planes at Midway International Airport in South Chicago. Before we took off ...

Love & Compatibility

Over the past few decades, numerous match-making websites have appeared on the internet and several are heavily advertised on radio and tele...

A Kansan Deluge

Heading back to Missouri today, I left Denver under sunny skies and enveloped in cool, dry air.  East of Oakley, Kansas, the air acquired a ...

Hummingbirds and Humans

When we bought our Littleton, Colorado, farm, that section of the Front Range urban corridor was still semi-rural.  Broad-tailed hummingbird...

Rivers of the Cascades

The rugged, volcanic Cascade Range stretches from southern British Columbia to northern California; it is bisected by the Columbia River, wh...

Sunday Morning Songbirds

On this mild, sunny morning along the Colorado Front Range, I headed down to Chatfield State Park for a hike south of the reservoir.  There,...

Rock Work on Clear Creek

Today, I participated in my first project with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado .  The project involved trail restoration work along Clear Cr...

Earth's Mass Extinctions

During the course of life on Earth, which began 3.6 billion years ago, the diversity of species on our planet has been determined by a myria...