Friday

Greenland has been subjected to an intrusion.  About a billion years ago a tectonic plate was ripped away from a second which allowed magma to flow toward the surface but be sealed by what is now the south-west portion of the autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.  As the magma cooled, a giant rock developed containing 30 of the modern economy’s most desired raw materia

Humans have been competing against machines for a long time.  Take John Henry for instance; he was an African American freedman known for his ability to quickly drive steel into rock, making holes for explosives, blasting the rock to construct railroad tunnels.  As the legend goes, Mr.

Bridges are an important part of infrastructure.  They keep commerce humming when barriers need to be crossed.  Such obstacles can be either man-made like trains or natural like rivers.  Metaphoric bridges can also be built to close the gap between two nations, often also resulting in added commerce. 

Atlas thinks a lot about maps and modeling.  These tools allow us all to better understand complex systems without having to have every piece of information; think Alfred Korzybski’s idea that, “the map is not the territory.”  Nevertheless, these maps and models of cities, for instance, help us navigate large and everchanging transportation arteries across the nation

Hurricane Helene is the latest deadly hurricane to hit the US.  It is still relatively early, but the costs are soaring.  So far it has taken over 160 lives.  In addition to the death toll, it will cost billions of dollars to repair cities like Asheville, NC to their prior glory.  So much of this damage was caused by water, a lot of water. 

I’ve reached an age.  If you haven’t you will, and if you have, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  A few days ago, I walked into a restaurant and saw what was probably a middle-school student wearing a band t-shirt from my youth: The Cranberries.  I was immediately hit with the lyrics from their September 1994 (my sophomore year had just started) hit &ld

Growing up there was a guy in the neighborhood who worked in some form of construction.  He would often come home with copper wires, the type used overhead for transmitting electricity.  I was in elementary school, so he never told me why it was in his possession, but he would strip the wire coating off with a large knife in his back yard and recycle the copper.

The scent of a Crayola crayon is as iconic as the vibrant masterpieces they create, hung with care using magnets and refrigerator doors.  Atlas President Emeritus, J R Capps, sent me an article about the colorful sticks, and I could immediately sense that unique smell.  It was like a time machine transported me back to a more carefree age when the biggest concern was staying within th

Last week in this space Atlas noted the dramatic revisions to employment figures originally published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).  Click here to revisit it.

Our nation is in the midst of history.  We are under 80 days from the next election, including that of the future President of the United States.  Campaigns are in full swing, and so is story telling.  History is being told with a bit of revisionist flair, not unlike prior campaigns filled with promises and less-than-accurate recollections of earlier accomplishments.