By now, we have all heard the sentiment that “AI is the future” and we must “adapt or get left behind!” This is all or nothing rhetoric. Pause. Breathe in and exhale. Let’s think for a moment. We have been using “AI” for decades. You read that right: since 1956, when the term “artificial intelligence” […]
Columns
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Ps & Qs: Redneck pride
This June marks the 10th annual Redneck Olympics in my neighborhood. Satank is in unincorporated Garfield County, about a 20-minute walk from downtown Carbondale. Satank, née the Townsite of Cooperton, predates Carbondale and was named for Isaac Cooper who ventured down the valley from Aspen in the late 1800s. Still lawless as far as HOA […]
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Seeking Haystacks: One must imagine Sisyphus happy
The other night, I asked my students: If you are dedicated to righting a “wrong” in our world — say addressing your most urgent environmental issue, with inspired and assiduous effort — yet your efforts bring no change to the world, would you continue to engage, or give up? There was a long pause, and […]
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A free-flowing river, and the need for continuing vigilance
According to Ute elder Roland McCook, the Ute name for the Crystal River Valley was “Nuche-Mu-Gu-Avatum-Ada’he,” or “The People’s Place of the Heart.” The first white settlers who arrived in the Valley somewhat unimaginatively named the river “Rock Creek.” The contrast in cultural sensitivity was palpable. It was soon realized by early settlement boosters that […]
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Ditch the water
Everyone living in Carbondale is familiar with the Town’s extensive, gravity-fed irrigation system, comprising eight miles of open ditches and underground culverts that carry water diverted from the Crystal and Roaring Fork rivers between May and October. But the history of this ingenious system isn’t well-known. When homesteaders began settling here in the 1880s, they […]
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Dreaming with the unborn
Natalia Snider is a certified dream practitioner living inCarbondale. She works with people’s dreams and imaginations to facilitate self-healing. Every month, she will analyze someone’s dream in The Sopris Sun. Anyone can submit a dream for personal analysis or inclusion in this column by visiting: www.dreamhealings.com While celebrating Mother’s Day, I asked some mothers if […]
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‘Make every stitch sing’
The Crystal Theatre will be screening “Idiotka” in June. Margarita (Anna Baryshnikov) is a 20-something Russian-American who lives in an apartment in West Hollywood — “not the fancy part, the Russian part” — together with her grandmother Gita, father Samuel, and brother Nerses. They are a disparate bunch; Samuel (Mark Ivanir), a doctor recently released […]
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Dig a Little Deeper: The politics of amnesia
Government is a core pillar of local, state, national and global society. We trust it to make and enforce rules and responsibly spend tax dollars. We rely on it to operate core functions for health, safety and finance. We ask it to provide additional services that enhance our quality of life. We elect representatives to […]
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Revolutionary changes
My granddaughter Sara interviewed me for a college assignment. She wanted to know about the revolutionary changes I’ve experienced in my eight and a half decades on earth, things like computers and Artificial Intelligence (AI). At 18, Sara sees change as pretty sudden. At 85, I see it as more gradual, an “evolution” rather than […]
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Following my heart through uncertainty
VOICES Radio Hour is brought to you by VOICES in partnership with KDNK, The Sopris Sun, and Connection is Medicine Foundation. Each episode we share stories from members of our community. We hope this serves to preserve our oral history of who we are, where we come from and who we aspire to be, through […]