Archive for June, 2009

  • Slowing Down

    Slowing Down

    I recently went on vacation to Arizona and had the pleasure of the company of my 16-month-old son. He’s been cooped up all winter long, wrapped up in cozy layers of fleece jackets and flannel-lined overalls. Any explorations outside have been short, cold, and mostly about snow. He’d never really had the chance to do any exploring outside, as he was just starting to walk as autumn approached.

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  • A Trip Takes Us

    A Trip Takes Us

    Standing on the deck of a small cruise ship in the middle of the Drake Passage somewhere between Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands seemed like a strange place to be contemplating life—and interpretation. But there I was, no land to be seen for at least a day’s sail in any direction, ocean swells big enough to make the 11-foot wingspan of the wandering albatross flying nearby disappear like it was never there, and the anticipation of what was to come.

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  • PowerPoint Pitfalls: Resolution

    PowerPoint Pitfalls: Resolution

    This column is a series designed to help enhance your PowerPoint presentations. Each edition pinpoints common pitfalls faced when planning, preparing, and presenting PowerPoint shows.

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  • The Role of Interpretation in Protecting Desert Treasures

    The Role of Interpretation in Protecting Desert Treasures

    No one was there to save the tree, to plead for its life and prevent its execution. It was, after all, completely innocent, having done nothing but provide decades of oxygen in this forest while enduring vehicles passing, and often scraping, by it. For the better part of a century, this Arizona cypress had weathered droughts, lightning, hungry insects, and withering heat while its trunk and that of a larger cousin several feet away defined a hairpin turn on a 4x4 trail in the Coconino National Forest surrounding Sedona, Arizona. Efforts by unsupervised forest users to create short cuts at the expense of ecology had been thwarted by boulders ordered by Forest Service land managers and planted by Pink Jeep trail maintenance personnel.

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  • Assumptions

    Assumptions

    We were skimming the treetops, searching for an updraft to lift the Cessna 172 to a better altitude for viewing the surroundings. Joe had offered me a ride in his airplane and I was excited to get an airborne view of my home and immediate valley.

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