If each citizen did not learn, in proportion as he individually becomes more feeble and consequently more incapable of preserving his freedom single-handed, to combine with his fellow citizens for the purpose of defending it, it is clear that tyranny would unavoidably increase together with equality. Alexis de Tocqueville, “Of the Use Which the Americans …
I don’t remember how I stumbled onto Ernie Smith’s Tedium. All you need to know is that he wrote the definitive guide to why Butterfinger candy bars break so easily: I’m always drawn to the structural integrity of candy bars. On the surface, they are often stacked, solid, as thick as a smartphone. (It must …
Water resources must be governed before they can be managed, and the crafting of governance institutions is an ongoing challenge of the human condition. Institutional artisanship requires the availability of tools for institutional design and creation, and a reflective understanding of the use of those tools. Yet neither the tools nor the understanding exist in …
Two years ago, when the level of Lake Mead was hovering near elevation 1,040, my artist wife Lissa Heineman and I drove out over UNM’s fall break to see it for ourselves. Out beyond the old Boulder Harbor, we walked a half mile across mud flats to get to the water. I could look out …
I tagged along Friday with my glass artist kiddo Nora on a trip to Bullseye Glass, an art supply store in Santa Fe. Nora makes stuff out of glass for their jewelry business, and needed to stock up. After a busy week, I needed to not work, and have fun instead. We went to our …
I write a book only because I still don’t know what to think about this thing I want so much to think about, so that the book transforms me and transforms what I think. – Michel Foucault
The reflection of socioeconomics in Strava’s running heat map for my town is striking. It’s sort of Tiebout sorting?
The “plate of food with a bike helmet” is my favorite genre of Strava photo.
A friend visiting New York, knowing of my fascination with Mark Rothko, texted me a picture of one of his paintings (in MOMA or someplace?). This led to a conversation with my wife, Lissa, who reminded me that she and I, years before we knew one another, had both been to see the 1979 retrospective …
Soto Avenue in Albuquerque’s Old Town Neighborhood is more “alley” than “avenue”. It’s one of our bicycling work-arounds for the unrideable stretch of Central Avenue – old Route 66 – on the east side of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque. I ducked down Soto this morning at the tail end of a wandery bike ride. …