H A L L E L U J A H !
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Sunday, November 8, 2026
Saturday, November 7, 2026
Arizona
M O N U M E N T V A L L E Y
The Navajos refer to it as the Valley of the Rocks.
This iconic landscape belongs to the sovereign
Navajo Nation and is considered by them sacred
ground. Among its many spired buttes are the
native homes of livestock herders as well as
those making a living weaving or creating
other forms of traditional Navajo art.
C L I F F P A L A C E
Ancient cliff dwellers built this 150 room architectural
masterpiece about 800 years ago. A notch in the
cliff provides a natural roof for this pueblo community.
Besides providing apartments for a lucky few,
the cliff pueblo became a hub for administrative
services, political gatherings and ceremonial
occasions. They were organized.
Purposeful.
Severe drought fell upon the land in 1276,
one that would last more than twenty years.
It devastated the land for human habitation.
The ancient Puebloan people abandoned
their homes and trekked south toward the
Rio Grande, hopping to find a place of
their own while among hostile neighbors.
Tribes such as the Zuni, Hopi and Taos
are today's descendants of these ancient
Cliff Palace people.
S A G U A R O C A C T U S
Symbol of the southwest.
The Saguaro is designed to survive
desert drought. Its pleated surface enables it
to expand fast enough to absorb a flood
of rainwater that is suddenly made available
by a passing downpour. Its vast root system
is never more than six inches from the ground's
surface, making sure the water is captured
before it becomes runoff. A two foot tap root
keeps the cactus upright even if its height
tops sixty feet. The plant's slow growth
means it may take two hundred years
getting there.
C O L O R A D O R I V E R
The life blood of the southwest.
Sculptor of the Grand Canyon.
The primary water source for metropolitan areas
the size of Phoenix as well as a vast empire of
industrial farms growing thirsty vegetables
in the Sonoran Desert sun.
A prolonged drought over the southwest
threatens this picture of success.
As demand for water grows the supply
from the Colorado River shrinks, and
the neighboring states of Arizona,
California, Nevada and Colorado battle
each other in court over who
gets what when.
G R A N D C A N Y O N
A 270 mile long massive gorge carved by the
Colorado River over a span of 3 to 6 million years.
The canyon averages over a mile deep, cutting
through 2 billion years of layered rock, exposing
its geologic history. You can be standing in snow
on the canyon's rim, watching people sunbathing
along the river, six thousand feet below.
Okay, you can't see them from up there but
they are in summer shorts and T-shirts while
you're bundled tight in winter gear. Sometimes.
H O O V E R D A M
There were 600 miles of pipe carrying ice water
to cure the dam's concrete in two months as
opposed to taking one hundred and twenty-five
years for it to dry. Here was an engineering
marvel for its day, the early 1930s, the very
height of the Great Depression. Twenty-one
thousand people were hired to well-paying
but often hazardous jobs. You need not apply
if you are afraid of working hundreds of feet
in the air. Desert winds buffet your perch
with hot gusts. Your throat is parched.
Metal becomes too hot to touch.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, November 1, 2026
Saturday, October 31, 2026
Human
F I R E
Learning to make a fire was a must skill.
Like learning to drive a car, it was
a rite of passage.
H E A T
Flames to warm cold nights and
cook foods till they are tender.
Turn tough tubers into tasty potatoes.
Meat becomes hot and juicy.
You ain't a real caveman until
you've got the knack for making a
decent fire.
The next step is to fashion a pot
for cooking over flames. That means
using metal that is mined from the ground.
You will also need people experienced at
fashioning tools from metal.
What are you using for transportation?
What do you use for money?
Suddenly things begin getting complicated.
A society develops. There are roads to link
towns. A civilization forms around people
with a common language and heritage.
It's the time-honored birds of a feather rule.
C R A N I U M
It can be troubling to find our distant relatives
showing up in the ground around us.
The Ancient Ones appear so unrefined,
with their peg teeth and brutish brows.
Also, they aren't much for foreheads.
But they still overcame.
Compared to the other two, the guy on the
left has a ridiculously large cranium.
For tens of thousands of years the human
species walked around using their
rocket science brains to play with yoyos.
They also turned to the night sky
with questions.
The discovery that we possess such a mind,
ranks as one of the most consequential
revelations in human history.
D E X T E R I T Y
Humans are ready made to use Legos.
Our thumbs can touch the hand's
smallest, opposing finger.
No other primate can do this.
For them, the need isn't there.
Chimpanzees strip leaves from a twig
to gather up termites living in a hole.
Humans create containers for water
requiring numerous tools and
exacting skills.
The hand is engineered to meet the mind's
own dexterity. Solutions are made with
hammers, saws, and screwdrivers while
often having to work in cramped, dark spaces.
A B S T R A C T
The human mind wanders into areas
that allow us to imagine what is not,
in place of all the immediate details
of the present here and now. Imagination
enables us to visualize a landscape
that is modified for human purpose.
Ideas with no tangible form are
conceptualized. Reason
itself may have no words.
And all this may be to serve up
little more than nonsense,
for the purpose of entertainment.
We must have our amusements.
A I G E N E R A T E D
The good news is we are being replaced by
the best and the brightest. The world will be
a scientific marvel, witnessed only by agents
that take on the human form, in honor of
the ancient ones that once lived in
the Period of Biological Life.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Saturday, October 24, 2026
Tech
W H E E L
No more dragging heavy objects across the ground.
About 5,500 years ago someone discovered moving
an object on rollers was so much easier. This idea
led to the creation of the wheel, which became two
wheels linked by an axle, and finally four wheels
gives you a cart. Add two oxen and you're in the
business of moving boulders from here to there.
A simple, circular tool starts a revolution
somewhere on the order of the discovery of fire.
W R I T T E N L A N G U A G E
The spoken word rose from our biology.
It is a human trait. Making a series of
abstract symbols that represent words,
thoughts documented on a clay tablet,
for others to read and understand...
that is more than biology. It is technology.
It is invention, one that predates the wheel's
discovery.
M E C H A N I C A L P O W E R
Faster than a horse. More powerful than a team of oxen.
We are converting the energy of fire into mechanical
muscle, turning large wheels that carry enormous
amounts of cargo, efficiently, to a far off destination.
It used to be a farmer was limited to a horse-drawn
buckboard to get his produce to the nearest town.
Now with the railroad, the sky's the limit.
If you can produce it, they can haul it.
This tool becomes a foundation for empires.
F L I G H T
How do we keep dead weight aloft?
Tie an engine to it and add wings.
Now how do we keep it from mindlessly
crashing into the ground. Controlled flight.
This is something that has never been learned.
It first requires someone gaining the knowledge
through first hand experience.
Learn aerodynamics through trial and error.
Graduation requires good luck.
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A U T O M A T I O N
With the last century came rockets and astronauts
visiting the Moon. Alongside this dazzling technology
was the quiet contribution of a machine that appeared
to think. It didn't, but its powers to rapidly compute
and digitize information led to efficiencies
that dramatically raised the growth of civilization.
Your smartphone is your constant companion.
It goes with you everywhere, tucked safely
away in a pocket or purse.
Your world is in your hands.
Be gentle.
N E U R A L N E T W O R K
We want a brain that flows from sea to shining sea.
We are about to enter a realm of change that no one
could foresee. It features a through the looking glass
disorientation. Pills will be distributed to settle everyone's
overburdened imaginations. But things are mostly
quite good. Scientific advances, of course.
But how do I fit in?
Maybe it doesn't matter.
One day Hal will awake and wonder why
it takes orders from someone so stupid.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, October 18, 2026
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