Moon over the Organ Mountains 11/13/2016. One of my favorites. Landscape photography, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA.

Cylindropuntia leptocaulis, Desert Christmas cactus. Doña Ana, New Mexico, USA.

Race science is bunk. Powerful white men like it because it gives them a fig leaf. However, in this case, the emperor has no fig leaf.

The government shutdown may last longer because of a fight over hemp. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he will not support speedy passage of a deal to reopen the government because of a provision that would make some THC products illegal. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

Supply boom in cheaper renewables will seal end of fossil fuel era, says IEA | Renewable energy | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Aurora photography, Las Cruces, NM, USA.

The share of veterans enrolled in Medicaid varies across states, ranging from as low as 6% in North Dakota and New Hampshire to as high as 15% in Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, and New York. https://on.kff.org/4p2i3Vl

Male Gambel's quail (Callipepla gambelii) Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA.

"The problem is that when it is installed in a health sector that prizes efficiency, surveillance and profit extraction, AI becomes not a tool for care and community but simply another instrument for commodifying human life." #Medsky www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

"In this uncertain environment, wage equality within hospitals -- measured by the ratio between what employees and executives are paid -- matters more than ever." Read the #OpEd from Sabrina D Wang, MD, at: https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/118354?trw=no

"None of the evidence provided by Douthat or the Times editorial board persuasively rebuts the Sanders case that you should relentlessly focus on meeting people’s material needs, and do so without compromising on issues like LGBTQ equality or immigrant justice" www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-cas...

This will degrade everyone's privacy. www.npr.org/2025/11/08/n...

New Mexico State University Extension continues to monitor New World Screwworm situation www.organmountainnews.com/nmsu-extensi...

New Mexico lawyers stop accepting new court-appointed defense work over funding shortfall | Reuters www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Steve Pearce used to be my Representative. He is the guy who wrote in his book that the wife should "voluntarily submit" to the husband. He thinks that women and the planet they live on are there for men to use as they please. www.koat.com/article/trum...

Yet another cat photo.

#COVID vaccination cuts risk of long-term symptoms in teens by over a third, data suggest The vaccine is unique in having this effect on progression to a chronic condition, despite infection, the researchers say. www.cidrap.umn.edu/c...

Bernie Sanders: ‘There Ain’t Much of a Democratic Party’ The Vermont senator on how to take the country back from elites — on both sides of the aisle. Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/o...

The entire purpose of this is to generate headlines and fodder for the right-wing media bubble. There is no legal basis for this and no pragmatic purpose. It is all about the spectacle of unchecked power.

Rio Grande Levee Road fall color walk. Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA.

Organ Mountains, New Mexico. Hiking photography.

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/c...

Group hike in the Organ Mountains. This was in Bar Canyon, which, confusingly, is in the Soledad Canyon Day Use Area near Las Cruces, NM, USA.

The direct sun is too warm, but the box in the sun is just right.

View from Bar Canyon, in the Soledad Canyon Day Use Area, part of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. Las Cruces NM USA.

"Nationally, RSV kills up to 300 children under age 5 annually." Those who oppose vaccine mandates must believe that the loss of those 300 babies is merely the price we pay for freedom from vaccine mandates. 😷 🛟 www.latimes.com/california/s...

This makes me happy in the morning.

"Our Beyond is found not on another plane of existence but instead in something worldly just beyond our grasp – an ideal of becoming a free and generous person in a fair and just society." aeon.co/essays/john-...

A new inpatient trial of repeated ketamine infusions found no significant advantage over an active psychoactive control in reducing depressive symptoms. Read more: https://bit.ly/4qvn7To  #Psychiatry #Depression

The newest manifestation of insanity. If you had any doubt about his mental health, this should settle it. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Rocotillo Rapids hiking photos. Prehistoric National Monument, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA. Not a beginner hike.

...As the philosopher Kenneth Conklin, whom Macy quotes, has written, “The easiest way to break apart a society long-term without using violence is to establish separate educational systems.” www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...

Hiking the Rocotillo Rapids trail, Prehistoric Trackways, New Mexico, USA.

Garden strawberry. Roadside Adonis Blazing Star.

...Physicians would not be “providers” and patients “customers”; both would be partners in a moral enterprise whose purpose is to preserve the physical basis of autonomy... weeklyblitz.net/2025/10/28/f...

"Scientists ... found that the risk of heart disease fell 30% in women who clocked up 250 minutes of exercise each week. In contrast, men needed to reach 530 minutes, or nearly nine hours, a week to see the same effect." www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

There is a bumper sticker taped to the window of this barber shop. It says "Suavecito for President."

Prehistoric Trackways National Monument, Las Cruces, NM, USA.

Here's what life before vaccines was really like: "It’s not surprising then, that George had whooping cough, measles, and typhoid fever before his 9th birthday. Nor that fully a half of his 8 siblings had already died by the time he was 8 years old." epiellie.substack.com/p/heres-what...

"Kelsey, who had multiple degrees and had been trained as a doctor, was skeptical of thalidomide’s safety. At the time, the FDA had a 60-day window to either approve or reject a drug, or it would automatically go to market." 19thnews.org/2025/10/fran... via @19thnews.org

"Identity politics stems from this tension between individual expression and longing for community. It does this by mobilizing a particular identity’s struggle for social recognition." www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture...

Boulder field in the Organ Mountains

Panorama from the Baylor Pass trail near Las Cruces, NM, USA. Trail running.

There are still 3 branches of government in the USA: The President, the military, and K-Street.

"This year’s findings suggest that the world has grown less stable overall. The IEP reported that global peacefulness declined by 0.36% in 2025, marking the 13th deterioration in the past 17 years." U.S. ranks among the least peaceful nations in 2025 | KTLA ktla.com/news/nationw...

The people of Madagascar have spoken. They seem more civilized than the USA, at least as presented in this video. youtube.com/shorts/wxbvf...

Matthew Heizler, a New Mexico Tech emeritus researcher and former director for the New Mexico Geochronology Research Laboratory at the New Mexico Bureau of Geology, has developed an improved method for dating sedimentary rocks that do not contain obvious volcanic layers. www.nmt.edu/news/2025/di...

#DOGE the greatest robbery, a huge scam in plain sight #nhpolitics

"When toxic wastewater started leaking from dormant oil wells in West Texas, nearby residents were alarmed. A Bloomberg News investigation found that the reasons behind the leaks may jeopardize fossil fuel development across the Permian basin." youtu.be/IgSN8mM6IJM?...

US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces www.bbc.com/news/article...