Flying with Blackwater over Baghdad, Iraq
Author: James Mattil Blackwater USA was a controversial private security contractor in Iraq. Among their various missions were providing security details for embassy officials traveling…
CES 2020: Has the consumer electronics show lost its way?
Author: James Mattil The Consumer Electronics Show bills itself as America’s largest trade show. It’s like a World’s Fair of electronics. What’s a World Fair?…
Colorado River Water Crisis
Author: James Mattil The Colorado River Water Crisis, of which the public knows very little and water users and politicians like it that way, as…
California’s Salton Sea
The endangered Salton Sea is evaporating, leaving behind a toxic storm. The Salton Sea is located southeast of Palm Springs, California and north of Mexicali…
The Origin of American Myth
The first permanent European settlement in America was NOT in Plymouth, Mass. (1620), or in Jamestown, Virginia (1607). Spanish explorers settled St. Augustine, Florida in…
Death of the Colorado River
Author: James Mattil The Colorado River is born high in the Rocky Mountains and flows south and westward through Colorado, Utah, into Lake Powell (created…
A Summer Evening in Belfast
Author: James Mattil 5:00 A.M. 11 July 1998, Belfast, Northern Ireland. I’d been on watch since 10:00 p.m., alternating between patrolling the riverside and perching…
California Dragon in Yellowstone Park
First Photo of a Dragon in Yellowstone Park This is the first and only known photograph of a dragon in Yellowstone National Park. I had…