ED PECK PHOTO/CUTLINE Kevyn Mack was the first reader to supply correct answers to last week’s “what is this tool?” quiz. Answer: The wrench was designed for specific nuts and bolts on a McCormick Deering mower of unknown year. Old machines often had carriage bolts with square nuts. McCormick Deering[Read More…]
Columns
Loose Ends: Unpredictable wildlife encounters stir up social media
The news reports of the effects of catastrophic climate conditions continue to bring increasing awareness of events that cause unpredictable animal and human behavior. They may include more sightings of various wildlife making lengthy treks, far from their roaming range both intrastate and interstate. Intense spikes in temperatures, drought and[Read More…]
Letters from History, No. 6 Part 1
The White River Museum has a collection of letters that Meeker founding father Thomas Baker kept for many years. There are letters from Nathan Meeker and prominent figures like Chief Ouray, ex-Indian Agents, and the violently anti-Indian Colorado Governor Pitkin, as well as various Army officers from 1874-1879. The letters[Read More…]
How AI and ChatGPT work, Part 2
RBC | Last week I gave a quick overview of ChatGPT and what it can do. In this article I will explain its underlying computational circuitry and how it is trained. I will hack through some dense thickets, try to explain with familiar analogies. The details can be daunting. I[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: What do we see?
“Cyberspace is a funhouse mirror of our own society.” Bruce Sterling During the previous century (late 1990s), when I told a friend I was moving to Meeker she flinched. She’d recently been on a cross-country flight and her seatmate turned out to be from Meeker. They’d told her the town[Read More…]
GUESS WHAT …
ED PECK PHOTO/CUTLINE These tools had very specific uses. What were they? Answers here.
Loose Ends: Reactivating the rumor mill
By DOLLY VISCARDI Special to the Herald Times The sunny weather throughout these summer months results in so many folks continuing to get together. Catching up on the all the news is the good side effect, the reactivation of the rumor mill is not. The most recent warnings of the[Read More…]
Guest Column: Artificial intelligence and you, Part 1
An alien intelligence arrived on planet Earth at the end of last year. Perhaps you didn’t notice. It made the news, and it’s been in the news in the meantime. But unless you’ve paid particular attention you might not know what it’s doing. Our schoolkids certainly know about it. They[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: ‘Should-er’s full!”
“Should is a futile word. It’s about what didn’t happen. It belongs in a parallel universe. It belongs in another dimension of space.” ~ Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin By NIKI TURNER [email protected] Years ago a friend admonished me during one of my self-deprecating diatribes about how I was failing[Read More…]
Guest Column: Paul Revere
One of the pitfalls in studying history is the lack of fact-checking. Once an action has been recorded in print, it becomes gospel. A mistake is self-perpetuating. This has been amplified a hundredfold in our age of social media, but it certainly didn’t start there. I would like to take[Read More…]
Veteran’s Corner: Write your Congressmen
In 1979 my 1st Sgt. told me, “When you have tried following the proper channels and gone up the Chain of Command then you can write your Congressman. Please feel free to copy my letter and share your thoughts with our Congresswoman, Lauren Boebert. She is first rate. My wife[Read More…]
Guest Column: Protecting Colorado’s water future
This year’s legislative session was one of the most important and impactful for water — our state’s most precious resource — in recent history Water is the lifeblood of the Western Slope, as it powers our agriculture, tourism and recreation industries and sustains the health and well-being of our communities.[Read More…]
