We went to visit the new bookstore in Old Town. It wasn't quite open so we backtracked to Blackbird Coffee for a latte.
As we sipped our latte we were able to watch the Big Bear Bald Eagle Live Nest-Cam projected on the screen above the counter. Margaret fed a quarter into a new electronic palm-reader gadget just below the screen. Overall quite a pleasant experience.
One thing I miss about living in Southern New Mexico is the opportunity to visit the War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa. Besides the interesting static displays there were also frequent opportunities to see the old planes flying. It is a little shocking to see the current admission prices compared to what I remember, but it seems in line with what museums everywhere are doing now.
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| North American T-6 Texan |
I have walked by this piece in the museum sculpture garden many times, but only realized recently that it accurately depicts a cowboy standing beside Donald Trump.
I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through.
In that small cafe;
The park across the way;
The children's carousel;
The chestnut trees;
The wishin' well.
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day;
In every thing that's light and gay.
I'll always think of you that way.
I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.
I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.
Claudia Sheinbaum's address to the Summit for Democracy.
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| Foto Oficial Claudia Sheinbaum, Presidenta de México |
We were impressed with the turnout at the recent campaign event supporting the candidacy for governor of New Mexico by Deb Haaland. After the event, however, Margaret commented on her surprise that the segment allotted for questions did not produce anything on the topic of homelessness. That might have just reflected the short time available, but it still seems that the subject might have had a higher priority of concern.
It seems people may just be overwhelmed by the size and seeming intractability of the problem of homelessness. Most efforts to combat the problem have often seemed superficial, or just a shifting ot the problem from one locale to another.
Estimates of the scope of the problem and ineffective remedies are probably mostly accurate. Less clear are perceptions of the fundamental causes. There seems to be a widespread tendency to ascribe moral and behavioral impropriety to the homeless, with an accompanying suggestion of a need for correction or punishment. In fact, about half of the people confined in Albuquerque's jails are classified as homeless.
It seems more likely that successfully analyzing the fundamental causes of homelessness needs to look more broadly at historical and economic trends. That thought prompted me to submit a request to Google's AI Mode to produce a chart comparing the trajectories of homelessness and economic inequality since the beginning of the Reagan Presidency in 1981.
Comparing homeless rates among different countries and economies does not yield easily to statistical analysis because of different national statistical approaches. However, some relevant facts emerge from queries about homelessness internationally.
Finland is widely cited as the only EU country where homelessness has consistently declined, driven by its "Housing First" policy. This approach provides permanent housing as a fundamental right before addressing other issues like addiction or mental health, rather than requiring people to be "housing-ready" first. Since the strategy began in 2008, the country has successfully converted almost all temporary shelters into permanent housing units. According to 2023 data, there are fewer than 3,500 people experiencing homelessness nationwide in Finland.
We enjoyed attending a campaign event today with Deb Haaland, who seems likely to be New Mexico's next governor.
Such good energy, intelligence and moral clarity. What a contrast to what comes out of Washington these days!
Look at Deb's website for her plans for the State and some of her life story which makes her such a good fit for the job.
Former State Senator, Jerry Ortiz y Pino, provided the session's introduction to Haaland's history and experience with due credit to the details from the good Wikipedia article about her.
Also:
This article by Joshua Bowling at Source New Mexico.
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| Spring Finery |
News reports of the recent flight around the moon talked about the astronauts impressions of seeing the far side, and their adaptations to space travel including toilet repair. One pictures them jockeying for position at the capsule's window trying to make snapshots of the moon's surface. Had they taken time for a space walk, we might have seen this scenario:
What is clear is that for all that money spent little real science was accomplished. Humans are not required for making pictures, or really anything else in space exploration.
Update:
It turns out my AI-generated image was not as far out as I thought according to a note by radspix on Flickr:
With a nod of appreciation to our current astronauts.
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| photo: Shawn Miller |
What struck me early on in Harjo's story was how much it resembled the story of another woman half a world away, that of novelist Arundhati Roy. As a member of a Syrian Christian family Roy had to constantly contend with living in the shadow of the Hindu majority. She also, like Harjo, was subjected to parental abuse which drove her to leave home as a teenager, and to negotiate a precarious voyage to adulthood to ultimately achieve success at the highest level.
Both women were highly intelligent and both showed early interest in creative pursuits which seemed to help to sustain their dreams in the face of daunting circumstances. Were those traits the secret to their ultimate successes? Many others with similar traits and experiences must have proceeded into unsatisfying lives and untimely deaths. Sheer luck certainly played a role.
I am left wondering if Harjo and Roy ever had the chance to sit down together to compare their life experiences or, if not, how such a meeting might help us to understand how devastating early adversity might be overcome.
I'm looking forward to this event at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
From Widipedia:
"21 February 2026, at least 75,227 people (73,188+ Palestinians... and 2,039+ Israelis... have been reported killed in the Gaza war according to the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including 248 journalists and media workers,[11] 120 academics,[12] and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, a number that includes 179 employees of UNRWA.[13] Scholars have estimated 80% of Palestinians killed were civilians.[6][5][14] A study by OHCHR, which verified fatalities from three independent sources, found that 70% of the Palestinians killed in residential buildings or similar housing were women and children."
The great majority of those deaths were caused by bombs supplied to Israel by the United States. So the question now is how many Iranians will be killed now that both Israeli and U.S. planes are dropping the bombs?
No matter how many bombs are dropped it seems clear that they alone will not be enough to defeat the Iranian armed forces in a country of 90 million people. So the next question is, Will Trump be sucked into sending in ground troops?
To give the issue some geographic perspective, consider that the area of Palestine is 2,320 square miles while the area of Iran is 636,372 square miles -- about the same as Alaska.
Albuquerque is experiencing mid-70s temperatures in the last week of February. That is unprecedented in my experience. One has to be apprehensive about what the summer will bring. What are the chances the issues will be rationally explored in tonight’s State of the Union?
I am going to try to watch the event on PBS along with the Democrats’ response. I’m not optimistic.
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Update
From The Nation:
The best article I've seen so far about the lack of a reasonable justification for human space travel has shown up in an unlikely place. The New Atlas website is devoted to exhibiting the latest technical gadgetry. It is an entertaining resource if you just want an overview of what new tech toys are on the market. And yet...
The New Atlas article by David Szondy, Humans in space: Are astronauts obsolete?, provides a thorough history of Space Travel, its sky-high costs, and the fundamental reasons why including human crews is a dead end.
Our neighbor across the street adopted two tabby kittens soon after she moved in. Her vision was so poor she could not tell one from the other, but she was very attached to them and provided generally good care. She insisted that they be free to roam the neighborhood.
In spite of the fact that they had a large yard at their disposal the two cats seemed often to prefer our yard to theirs. I didn't mind the intrusion as they were quite friendly toward me, and I often went out to say hello when I saw them perched on our fence rail.
About a month ago our neighbor was told she had to move as the home's owner was going to undertake some substantial house repairs. She found a rental close to Albuquerque's Old Town a mile to the west of our neighborhood. We helped a bit with the final packing for the move and piled some boxes and the two cats into a friend's car for the trip to their new home.
About a week later we got a call from our former neighbor saying that one of the cats, probably the male, had disappeared, and she asked us to look out for it. Given the distance to be traveled it seemed unlikely the cat would successfully make that journey, but I did look around the property.
When I called back with no good news, our neighbor asked if I could pick her up and bring her to our neighborhood so she could look herself for the errant cat.
To my great surprise, the cat did soon show up in response to the owner's calls. I said it seemed like a good idea to limit the cats' roaming, possibly including some training to walk on a leash.
About ten days later came another call and another request to bring the cats' owner to the former home. I was even more pessimistic this time as surviving the long trip which included negotiating heavy traffic for a second time seemed highly improbable. I dropped off the cat owner at the property and told her to let us know how the search went.
Within minutes the lady with the cat cradled in her arms was at our back door.
It seems now that the idea has finally sunk in that the two cats need to reconcile themselves to an indoor lifestyle. We are happy with that outcome, and still marveling at the cats' navigational skills.
In the initial car trip to their new home the cats could not have gotten any visual clues to the route taken. It seems they must somehow have been able to detect and compare the coordinates of the two properties and then plot a course.
There have been a lot of research projects tracking the movements of both wild and domestic dogs and cats, but most of that is centered on movements within home ranges. Testing an ability to reach a known destination through unfamiliar territory presents a different challenge which cannot be easily met under natural conditions.
There has been research, however, which indicates that all cats have a homing instinct which can point them in the right direction for a successful return, barring accidents in route.
Just how such a navigational capacity works is not really known at present. Speculation on the issue most frequently points to the possibility of a sensitivity to the earth's magnetic field similar to that which has been proposed for migrating birds.
Imagine sitting alone in a room with someone who is unresponsive to conversation or other stimulus. How long would you endure such a scenario in the absence of an action plan?
Maybe an hour or two of reading aloud would be as much as you could manage. However, if a book was chosen with appeal to both parties it is likely that you would be ready for another session before long.
What is also implied in the story is that it may be important to consider that understanding and responsiveness should likely be considered as separate processes. Just because someone may not be able to show some outward sign of comprehension does not mean that there is a lack of inner understanding. In fact, not jumping to the wrong conclusion may open a way toward picking up subtle cues of what is going on that otherwise might be overlooked.
Is the suggested reading activity well suited to anyone? Maybe not. If the person in earlier times disliked reading, perhaps subjecting them to lengthy reading sessions would be more like torture than therapy. So, perhaps other activities might be found to be more suitable. It is worth some thought.
