Trego's Mountain Ear

I’m listening to the word islamophobia being tossed around the air waves.  It seems as carelessly coined a word as homophobia – and years ago, I had to explain that homophobia was a word that misused the term phobia.  Here’s the definition, copied directly from the net: The critical thing about a phobia is that Read more

Despite the fact that Montana’s legislature passed the sunshine protection act making daylight saving time permanent, clocks will still “fall back” next weekend. While federal law allows Montana to stay permanently on standard time, no such provision exists for daylight savings time. While Montana and many of our surrounding states have voted to make daylight Read more

As a small boy, I heard tales about a Japanese industrial city that had been named Usa, so that products made in that city could be sold as “made in usa.”  Later, studying demography at MSU, I visited the library, checked the files, and learned that the industrial powerhouse named Usa had a population of Read more

The hydrological year starts on the first of October.  As I write, we’re about a month into the new year – back when I started doing snow surveys, we monitored the fall snows and rains by a small barrel, placed inside a large one, started with several gallons of antifreeze, topped with a touch of Read more

Jonathan Haidt has published an article on suicide rates, contrasting different English speaking nations.  I’ve excerpted his US graphs – but the whole article covers a lot more, and is well worth reading.  Look at the graphs here, and if they get your attention, click the link and read his article. Suicide Rates – US Read more

My mother-in-law was a refugee.  She lived through the Russian Revolution, the Holodomor, and did a long stretch in Hitler’s camps.  She came to the United States in 1947 – Stalin’s decree would have put her doing a tour in Siberia for practicing medicine in those German camps.  She was a refugee – her next-door Read more