World-renowned innovator has roots in Mesa County; and I got to interview him!

The opportunity to gain firsthand insight from a world-renowned innovator is honor enough, but to find out that innovator got his start at Colorado Mesa University (then Mesa College) is downright exciting.

Thomas W. Osborn, a virtual rock star in the world of innovators as featured in a new book from Stanford University Press titled Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations, entered Mesa College as a struggling student with attention deficit disorder back in the 1960s.

“The quality of Mesa’s undergraduate education gave me a very good base,” Osborn told me. The encouragement from and “the influence of professors like Drs. Lenc and Putnam and Mr. Perry” helped him build a strong foundation for his scientific interests.

From Mesa, Osborn went to Colorado State University, then on to Oregon State University where he earned a Ph.D. in chemistry and studied the chemical evolution...

Ancient aliens or unfettered human ingenuity?

A series of TV programs aired recently on History's H2 channel called "Ancient Aliens." I listened as countless self-proclaimed alien experts pointed to all kinds of ancient artifacts that defy their idea of our ancestors' capabilities, and most concluded that they must therefore be the work of advanced extraterrestrial visitors. Entertaining thought it was, there was no doubt in my mind that the marvels they pointed to were the work of humans.

 

Contemplate, if you will, the laser-machined precision of the intricate block cuts of Puma Punku at 12,000 feet in the mountains of Bolivia, the Nazca lines stretching 50 miles across the top of a high plateau in Peru, 2,000-year-old writings describing Vimana flying machines in India, the monolithic statues on Easter Island in the South Pacific, the light bulb-looking Dendera wall carvings and Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, Stonehenge in southern England, and the Antikythera Mechanism with its 29 finely tuned interlocking gears found in an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Crete. The list of mysterious marvels from antiquity is seemingly endless.

Not counting the effects of sleep deprivation, junk food and pharmaceuticals on our modern brains, the brains of our ancestors were probably little if any different than our own. We can never know of all the extraordinary...

Homeless people with mental illness and substance addiction are homeless by their own volition? Really?

I was so stunned by claims in the Daily Sentinel's editorial "Homelessness and Vagrancy" this morning that I had to write this post.

Here is the part of the editorial that so shocked me: "One group, we believe, are the true homeless. They are families and individuals who may have lost jobs, gone through home foreclosure or lost their homes by other means. They are actively trying to improve their lot in hopes they will soon leave the ranks of the homeless.

"The other group is largely homeless by their own volition. They reject the conventions of society — although they accept its services when it suits them. Many have addictions to alcohol or drugs, or suffer from mental illness, or both. We have chosen to refer to this second group as vagrants."

Really? Addiction is a choice? Mental illness is a choice? First of all, it is obvious that...

Collared lizard: Ancient secrets, dreaming and foresight

The colorful collared lizard or Crotaphytus collaris auriceps is a common sight in the Western Colorado landscape, and yet it excites us to see them.

The name auriceps comes from aurum (gold) and ceps, which means head. Our most common collared lizard auriceps has a golden-yellow head and vibrant blue-green body, with a long, round tail.

Our rocks and canyons are ideal habitat for collared lizards. They burrow under big rocks to sleep and lay their eggs, then venture out in search of insects (but they’ll settle for an occasional side salad). The lizards do stalk their prey, but they’ll adjust to whatever’s available at the time.

Most Native American lore associates the lizards with ancient secrets, dreaming, and foresight. Maybe that’s why an encounter with auriceps so often produces a sense of awe, surprise, and reflection.

As a child, I always thought of the collared lizard as larger, with long sweeping wings, offering sage advice. Blue dragons, I called them. Little blue dragons. From high in the sky to shadows of the red rock, they see and sense what’s been, what is, and what could be. Ah, the imagination of a little girl.

So the next time you’re out hiking in the canyons and rocks around the Valley (or in your yard if it has big rocks), watch for Western Slope auriceps and have your camera ready. (I’m usually so taken with delight when I see one that I wait too long. Yet sometimes, once they realize I’ve seen them, they’ll stop just long enough for a quick photo op.) Then, as you continue your hike, let your imagination wander as you reflect on the auriceps encounter. Ancient secrets, dreaming, and foresight. Not bad for a little lizard.

Technical Notes
Family: Iguanidae
Genus: Crotaphytus
Species: Crotaphytus collaris

This post is excerpted from a story I wrote in the July 2009 issue of Grand Valley Magazine. Because I've always had a soft spot for the collared lizard, I wanted it here on my blog.

Campaign ad targeting with media quants: Personal and thoughtful or eerily intrusive?

Recently, my husband and I spent a glorious week camping and hiking on a remote mountain, home to 3,000-year-old trees living 10,000 feet above sea level. Oh, and by “remote,” I mean no cell phone or internet coverage for miles and miles in all directions.

The first day was a little weird without the constant stream of online updates and messages tailored just for me (thanks to sophisticated algorithms and media quants), nothing but the sound of rustling leaves, babbling brooks and birds singing merrily overhead. By the second day, much to my surprise, I actually felt liberated, free from the constant tracking, targeting and profiling by a “they” I don't even know.

Every time we use the internet or turn on our smart phones, nearly a hundred data points...

Creativity is crucial, not only for culture, but for our survival

Creativity represents not only beauty and freedom of expression, but innovation, progress, and survival of our very species.

Of all the related species of Homo — Homo floresiensis, habilis, heidelbergensis, denisovans, neanderthalensis, sapiens — only we sapiens remain. The Neanderthals had bigger brains, but they didn’t progress the way we did.

"The Neanderthals devised neither visual art nor personal ornamentation. Oddly, throughout this static history, they had a larger brain than sapiens,” wrote biologist Edward O. Wilson in his book The Social Conquest of Earth. He writes that Neanderthal tools remained essentially unchanged for thousands and thousands of years despite the extreme challenges and opportunities presented in their environments, while sapiens, on the other hand, were highly creative.

The differences between our two species are clear, but scientists don’t know if the lack of Neanderthal creativity is the result of something missing in their DNA or a cultural agreement not to change anything. Maybe their larger brains remembered all too clearly the disasters of taming fire and determining which berries were poison. Or maybe it was the other way around. Maybe our sapiens brains are given to longer memories.

“A group with members who could read intentions and cooperate among themselves while predicting the actions of competing groups would have an enormous advantage,” Wilson wrote, “... the crossing over of a threshold level of cognitive ability that endowed Homo sapiens with a dramatically high capacity for culture.”

We are an innovative, culturally rich, and complex species. We instinctively understand the importance of creativity when it comes to our very survival. Creativity is necessary for innovation. But in some people living today geneticists have found small traces of Neanderthal DNA. Maybe they’re the ones who don’t understand the importance of the creative spirit. Maybe not. No matter.

Here’s to all the Homo sapiens who recognize, support, and champion the creative and cultural arts in our communities, nation, and around the world.

This post is excerpted from my weekly column in The Daily Sentinel as published in the Sunday, May 13, 2012, edition of the newspaper.