Durango, Colorado is located in the Animas River Valley just a few miles southeast of the 13,000-ft. high La Plata Mountains. Local attractions include the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Purgatory Resort (skiing), Mesa Verde National Park, and some of the world’s most frightening highways and jeep “roads”.

e.g. Black Bear Road / Black Bear Pass:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bear_Road
“You don’t have to be crazy to drive this road - but it helps”.
For some grizzly info, check (Link) or run a Google search using: “saw a car that seemed to fall out of the sky”. Also check “Black Bear Pass” videos at YouTube. For example, “Falling Off Black Bear Pass”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R5cLghSWGQ
for a “live action” video.

About the author's previous home where:
Sometimes it Snows in the Mountains  
(I currently live near the center of the above picture and about 300 feet below the viewpoint for the photo at the top of the page.)


 

Videos by the author
   The author has uploaded several dozen videos to YouTube.


Paleogeography / Historical Geology
     Evolution of the Colorado River

3-D aerial tour of the Grand Canyon
     3-D end-to-end geologic tour of the Grand Canyon

Recommended Grand Canyon Videos
     Norman Beerger's The Grand Canyon

Geology/Glaciology
    Rio Chama Rockfall - A pictorial study
    The Taku Glacier - What it is and What is going to happen to it
    Alaska's Melting Glaciers - Alaska's glaciers are melting due to Global Warming

Ancestral Rivers of the World
Geodes

Creationism, “Intelligent Design Evangelism”, Religious Cultists
     Creationism = Willful Ignorance
    Patriot Bible “University”
    What causes a Creationist to be a Creationist?
    Militant Protests by Religious Cultists against “Planned Parenthood” in Durango, Colorado

Game Analysis
     Bingo Probability and Statistics
     Bridge Combinatorics and Probabilities
     The Integer Brick Problem
     Monopoly Probabilities and Statistics
     N-Queens Problem
     Peg Solitaire (All pages include number of solutions)      Pig (Pig-out)
          Optimal strategy for two versions of this dice game
     Poker Probabilities
     Shut the Box - Optimal Strategy
     Solitaire Chinese Checkers

Graph Theory / Number Theory
     Trochoids
     Partitions
     Rooted (oriented) trees
     Non rooted (free) trees
     Ordered Binary trees
     Structurally different binary trees
     Structurally different graphs
     Ramanujan Numbers
     Analysis of Sorting Algorithms
     The search for a counterexample to Beal's Conjecture
     Magic Squares
     Minimal Spanning Trees
     Voronoi Diagrams
     The Traveling Salesman Problem
        (http://www.durangobill.com/TravelingSalesman/TravelingSalesman.html)
     Dragon Curves
 
 Applied Mathematics
     Guaranteed Profits in Stock Market Options?
     Mega Millions Odds & how to calculate them
     Powerball Odds and how to calculate them
     Relativity and your GPS System
        You might be thinking "What does Einstein's special and general theories of
        relativity have to do with a GPS system?"

Global Warming - and those people with closed minds that blindly deny it
    “The Great Global Warming Swindle” is itself a Fraud and a Swindle
    Global Warming Denial - Liars
    Roger Cohen’s proposed $5,000 bet
    The “Global Warming Stopped in 1998” Lie
  The Fabius Maximus Website
  Inflation - What causes it and where are we going

Durango History via Topo Maps

Fight DMCA Abuse
     How to fight back against DMCA abuse
Fee Demo
    Fee Demo Complaint

Animas River Flood

A Giant Sequoia grove near Durango, Colorado

Genealogy/Ancestry

Do Not Stop Hesperus Solar


Website Hits
    Over 7.0 million page hits since start-up March 13, 2001.
    The pages most frequently visited are (some variation with time):






And who is responsible for the mess that has resulted from the government’s shutdown?
Trump: “I am proud to shut down the government”
Trump: “I will be the one to shut it down”
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ElVqRvEvMQ


Q: And why would Trump want to "Shut down the government"?
A: (Hint: "temper tantrum")


For information on why the author of this website can not, and will not support Mr. "I alone can fix it" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pnmMxbEjdc ); please see:

'MALIGNANT NARCISISSM': DONALD TRUMP DISPLAYS CLASSIC TRAITS OF MENTAL ILLNESS, CLAIM PSYCHOLOGISTS
(Link to article)

and/or

Donald Trump's malignant narcissism is toxic: Psychologist
(Link to USA Today article)

and/or

President Trump exhibits classic signs of mental illness, including 'malignant narcissism,' shrinks say
(Link to Daily Mews article)

etc.

https://www.google.com/search?q=donald+trump+%22Malignant+narcissism%22


Malignant narcissism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malignant_narcissism

"Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial personality disorder, aggression, and sadism. Often grandiose, and always ready to raise hostility levels, the malignant narcissist undermines organizations in which they are involved, and dehumanizes the people with whom they associate."

"A narcissist is a pathological liar who will lie about anything and everything for the sole purpose of gleefully watching you sift through the word garbage."
http://www.thenarcissisticpersonality.com/the-pathological-liar/

And a quote from Ted Cruz: "I'm going to tell you what I really think of Donald Trump. This man is a pathological liar"
(Link to BBC article)




“I HATE EVERYONE IN THE WHITE HOUSE!”: TRUMP SEETHES AS ADVISERS FEAR THE PRESIDENT IS “UNRAVELING”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/donald-trump-is-unraveling-white-house-advisers

Narcissistic Rage: What Causes Narcissists To Rage?
http://narcissisticbehavior.net/what-causes-narcissistic-rage/

“Narcissistic rages are not reactions to stress, but rather based on the underlying fear of not getting their needs meet, a fear so great that it will endure even after the threat is gone (Vaknin).  Because the narcissist is hypervigilant to narcissistic injury, he is constantly on the lookout for slights, insults, criticisms, or disagreements (real or imagined), all of which are experienced by him as complete and humiliating rejection, to which he will automatically and instantly fly into a rage.  The raging narcissists usually perceive their reaction to have been triggered by an intentional provocation to cause them injury, or prevent them from accomplishing their grandiose fantasies.  Their response to such insult and injury is to detach from the person, direct his rage towards the person in a cold and aggressive manner, and to devalue the person as they go; to other people, the rage is incoherent and unjust.  This rage impairs the narcissist’s cognition, therefore impairing their judgment. During the rage they are prone to shouting, fact distortion and making groundless accusations with punitive and hate-filled malice.”

Also, please see:
"How to Recognize a Malignant Narcissist"
(Link to article)

"I am so smart! My IQ is above140."

Self-enhancement is a prominent feature of narcissistic personality disorder, regardless of the dimension. They view themselves in an overly positive light and believe they are unique and superior to others.

In regard to "I am so smart", what about?

1) "Trump cheated on his SAT by paying someone to take it for him"
(Link to article)

2) Trump's name doesn't appear under cum laude, magna cum laude, or sum cum laude in his 1968 commencement yearbook
(Link to commencement yearbook)

(Trump's name is listed only as a graduate on page 21, but does not appear in the graduate school, MBA, honors sections - or anywhere else in the commencement booklet.)

3) "he had terrible grades, he was a lackluster student at best" Also, Professor William T. Kelley: "Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had!"
(Link to article)

4) The Daily Pennsylvanian published the 1967/1968 Dean's List for Wharton School. Trump's name isn't listed there either.
(Link to article)









As of Dec. 2019 the "Donald's Lies" count is up to 15,413 as tabulated by the Washington Post with a physical demonstration of the magnitude of 15,413 as measured by "How many gumballs?" as shown on CNN.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmhUOQsCv5A

As of July, 2020, the count has passed 20,000. Link

The final count for Trump's 4 years as president as per the Washington Post is 30,573. Link


Quotes from Rick Reilly - Author of “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump”

“To say “Donald Trump cheats” is like saying “Michael Phelps swims.” He cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching, and he cheats when they aren’t. He cheats whether you like it or not.”

“I’ve found that to be true with golf. The guy who plays slowly on the course is going to be molasses in meetings. The guy who’s generous with compliments on the course is going to do the same at dinner. And the guy who cheats on the course is going to cheat in business, or on his taxes or, say, in politics.”

“Why cheat? Why lie? Why exaggerate his handicap, his scores, his club championships? “Because he has to,” says Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Lance Dodes, co-author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. He needs to be the best at everything. He can’t stand not winning, not being the best.”

(Link to golf.com)
and/or
"Sportswriter: Trump cheats like a mafia accountant at golf"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INxGbTHybvc&t=189s






And finally, as to why Trump supporters are perfectly willing to accept a president who is an insane madman, please see:

“A neuroscientist explains what could be wrong with Trump supporters’ brains”
(Link to article)






Trump: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-do-trump-supporters-see-in-their-candidate/




Also, please see:
"Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?"
(Link to article)

and/or

"Is Donald Trump the First Gangster President?"
http://observer.com/2018/04/donald-trump-gangster-president/

and/or

"Comey is exactly right about Trump being like a mob boss"
(Link to CNN article)

and/or

Just run a Google search using:
"Donald Trump" organized crime



The above cartoon was created by Dave Whamond in Sept. 2019. It depicts Trump's extortion attempt where he withheld $400 million that was supposed to go the Ukraine unless the Ukrainians agreed to "3 favors".
(Link to article)





"candidate Donald Trump promised his supporters he would reduce the national debt from $18 trillion, if elected president" link


   Thanks to Trump's Dec. 2017 tax-cut for the very rich, the national debt reached 22 trillion in 2019 - and that was before his COVID-19 fiasco. As of Sept. 2020, we've now passed $26 trillion and counting. https://www.usdebtclock.org/
(Maybe Mexico will pay for it - just like his wall.)





   As for Trump's ability to control the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and/or manage the U. S. economy, here is a headline from the New York Post as of Feb. 24, 2020.




Here is Trump's Feb. 24, 2020 Twitter post.



    You can check the recent death count of U.S. citizens for the latest “under control” total. As for Trump's advance “planning” for this pandemic:
“The Trump administration fired the U.S. pandemic response team in 2018 to cut costs.”
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/
and/or
"Trump disbanded NSC pandemic unit that experts had praised"


   Also, please see https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/experts-officials-pandemic-2018/

“When the next pandemic occurs (and make no mistake, it will) and the federal government is unable to respond in a coordinated and effective fashion to protect the lives of US citizens and others, this decision by John Bolton and Donald Trump will be why.”

   The graph above is from Wikipedia's "Veracity of statements by Donald Trump" web page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veracity_of_statements_by_Donald_Trump
The graph shows some of Donald Trump's statements about controlling the disease vs. the number of cases in the United States up through the end of March 2020. It should be noted that as of late July, the number of cases is off the right edge of the graph - and off the right edge by a factor of 30 (and rapidly counting).

   As for claims that the Trump administration is being unfairly blamed for an “unexpected” pandemic, the 29 January 2019 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence states:

We assess that the United States and the world will remain vulnerable to the next flu pandemic or large-scale outbreak of a contagious disease that could lead to massive rates of death and disability, severely affect the world economy, strain international resources, and increase calls on the United States for support.

https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/2019-ATA-SFR---SSCI.pdf

On Jan. 29, 2020:
https://news.yahoo.com/trade-adviser-warned-white-house-122107510.html

A top White House adviser starkly warned Trump administration officials in late January that the coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.

The warning, written in a memo by Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, is the highest-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing as the administration was taking its first substantive steps to confront a crisis that had already consumed China’s leaders and would go on to upend life in Europe and the United States.

“The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil,” Navarro’s memo said. “This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”

    For a more complete list that Donald Trump was warned in advance about a possible pandemic, please see:

Trump says 'nobody' could've predicted a pandemic like coronavirus. Here are all the times he was warned about it and refused to take action.
(Link to article)

After the Coronavirus (COVID-19) was officially declared to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization, when asked about the incident, Trump's reply was “I Don’t Know Anything About It,”
(Click here for source)

   In 2016 the National Safety Council prepared a “White House Playbook” outlining what the president should do if a pandemic appeared likely. “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents”
(Link to article)

   Did President Trump pay any attention to it? Nope. How many lives would have been saved if Donald Trump had followed what the experts had recommended vs. Trump's own ignorance and arrogance?

    In October 2019 the Center for Disease Control ran a simulation of a pandemic and documented:

“that officials at the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, and even at the White House’s National Security Council, were aware of the potential for a respiratory virus outbreak originating in China to spread quickly to the United States and overwhelm the nation.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-outbreak.html
Nothing was done.

   And when the COVID-19 began to ravage the country, Donald Trump muzzled and sidelined the Center for Disease Control.
"Where is the CDC? How Trump sidelined the public health agency in a pandemic"
(Link to article)




   The picture above is a Print Screen copy of Johns Hopkins University's COVID-19 coronavirus web page as of March 26, 2020. If you check the above display, it shows that as of March 26, 2020, the United States had 83,507 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1,178 deaths. If you check these numbers with any subsequent totals, you will get an idea of how fast the disease is spreading. For reference purposes, on March 1, 2020, the U. S. had only 30 confirmed cases.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

A quote from Donald Trump from a press conference on Feb 26, 2020:

And again, when you have 15 people [in the U.S. infected with the virus], and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.

(Link to White House Press Conference)




   The graph above shows the current status of COVID-19 cases in the U. S. and for the state of Colorado. (Data sources: Johns Hopkins University and CO Dept. of Public Health)

   The dots show the daily number of new cases for the disease. The solid black line shows the total number of U. S. deaths as of each date. The solid green line shows the total number of deaths in the state of Colorado.

   For comparative purposes, the number of Americans killed in combat were:
1) Korean War (1950 - 1953): 33,686
2) Vietnam War (1955 - 1975): 47,424
3) World War I (1917 - 1918): 53,402
4) World War II (1941- 1945: 291,557
Data Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

   As of December 17, 2021, the COVID-19 virus has killed more Americans than the combined total of American combat deaths in World War II, plus World War I, plus the Korean War, plus the Vietnam War, plus 10 years of automobile related deaths.

  Up through Jan. 2021, the death rate per capita in the United States averaged more than 5 times the death rate in the combined rest of the world. (Since then, the U. S. death rate per capita has improved, - but just for the vaccinated portion of the population.) Data Sources: John Hopkins University ( https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html ) and world census data. Why? How about Trump, his Trumpsters, and other willful ignoramuses that deny scientific advice on how to avoid getting sick. 


   The red and yellow solid curved lines are least squares, sum of 29 normal distribution ("Bell" distribution) curves fitted to the daily observations. The dashed lines are 7-day, centered moving averages for the two data sets.

   On a per capita basis, while Trump was president, the United States had over 6 times as many cases as the rest of the world. Also, the United States has had over 5 times as many deaths per capita as the rest of the world. If the U. S. death rate per capita equaled that in the rest of the world, then U. S. deaths from Covid-19 would be about 200,000. And in Donald Trump's deranged mind "I think we've done a great job".
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/world/meanwhile-in-america-may-1/index.html


My stance on the refusal of people to get vaccinated:
If the willfully ignorant, anti-science, anti-vaxers refuse to get vaccinated; by all means, let them have their way. When they get sick and die, their elimination will only improve the average I. Q. of the surviving gene pool.







 

   The graph above is a copy of New Zealand's daily number of COVID-19 cases. Graph source at: ( Link to New Zealand's Ministry of Health ) New Zealand has about the same population and land area as Colorado.

   New Zealand's government officials and general population have a respect for scientific knowledge as opposed to Donald Trump and his U. S. "dittoheads". ("Dittohead" can be roughly defined as a person who believes that "ignorance is a virtue" and/or is convinced that the only person in the world that is "important" is the person they see in a mirror.)

   The graph above shows an explosion of COVID-19 cases in New Zealand during March 2020 - similar to what happened in the U. S. To fight the disease, New Zealand instituted a "lock-down" to isolate those people who were infected. Unlike the U. S. where many people have an attitude of "The only person who is important is ME", New Zealanders respected the lock-down. The result was a rapid decline in new cases during the month of April, and the disease was under control by the 2nd week in May. From the 2nd week in May, lock-down controls could be relaxed. And of course virtually all economic restrictions and hardships could safely go back to normal.


     All of the above blunders by Donald Trump were “duly rewarded” by March 26, 2020. The U.S. became Number 1  in the world - as measured by the greatest number of people that had become victims of the COVID-19 coronavirus. China has far more people than the U. S., but their government listened to expert advice and stopped the spread of the virus in China. In the U. S., ignorance and arrogance were in charge, and guess what the result has been?

   As shown in the May 9, 2020 web page of "The Guardian":
Donald Trump: “This is going to go away without a vaccine. It’s going to go away, and we’re not going to see it again.” (video)
(And how many lives latter will that be?)

Finally, we have Donald Trump's advice for a deterrent to the COVID-19 virus:
NBC News (Link)

"President Donald Trump suggested the possibility of an "injection" of disinfectant into a person infected with the coronavirus as a deterrent to the virus during his daily briefing Thursday."

    And there's always the "medical advice" (promoted by Donald Trump and Fox "News") that Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine are effective medicines and a "game changer" in the fight against COVID-19. Trump: "What have you got to lose?". Turns out that "What have you got to lose?" is your life. From the Journal of the American Medical Association: "Here we present analyses until day 13, with lethality as the primary outcome." ( Link )
Also "Study finds no benefit, higher death rate in patients taking hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19". ( Link )

Rex Tillerson said it best - “F***ing Moron”

   And now that Dr. Fauci (a recognized medical expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) has become an “unperson” because he won’t promote Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories, Trump has turned to a new “doctor” who was born in Cameroon (Africa), whose “medical degree” is from Nigeria, and is the founder of Fire Power Ministries.

“Trump’s New Favorite COVID Doctor Believes in Alien DNA, Demon Sperm, and Hydroxychloroquine”

( Link to article )

“The president is pushing the coronavirus theories of a Houston doctor who also says sexual visitations by demons and alien DNA are at the root of Americans’ common health concerns.”

“A Houston doctor who praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus has become a star on the right-wing internet, garnering tens of millions of views on Facebook on Monday alone. Donald Trump Jr. declared the video of Stella Immanuel a “must watch,” while Donald Trump himself retweeted the video.”


 
   As for “how” we got into this mess, Rush Limbaugh (see http://www.durangobill.com/GwdLiars/GwdLiarsIndex.html ) worked for years cultivating an “ignorance is a virtue” and “hatred against fellow Americans is good” system. He convinced enough Americans so that Donald Trump was elected to finish the job of destroying what used to “make America great”. The process was somewhat like setting up a long row of dominoes. The Coronavirus tipped the first domino over.


   For additional information about Donald Trump's COVID-19 fiasco, please see:
"Anatomy of a man-made disaster: 320 ways Donald Trump failed to protect us from the coronavirus"


As to who correctly warned about the coronavirus early in the game . . .
Joe Biden on Jan. 27, 2020:
Link to USA Today article

"The possibility of a pandemic is a challenge Donald Trump is unqualified to handle as president."

"Trump’s demonstrated failures of judgment and his repeated rejection of science make him the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health challenge."

A final note on the "value" of Donald Trump's medical knowledge. Did you know that according to Donald trump, the noise from wind turbines causes cancer?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0s5Zqmb09g





Note to those compiling Donald Trump's "Enemies List(s)" and "Fake News List(s)":
Please add my name to your lists.
For voting purposes, the author is a registered "independent". However, it seems likely that Donald Trump would consider my viewpoint as a member of the "New Far Left Fascism".
(Link to NPR article)



 
Contact
     Bill Butler
     E-mail: lisabill@wcenturywlink.net  (Remove both "w"s for a valid E-mail address.)

Note: The author (Bill Butler) of this website is a magna cum laude, Computer Science graduate of Brown University. For fun and games this included all the math and applied math courses for a degree in Operations Research.



The photo above shows the author’s home near Durango, CO. For a 4 minute aerial video, please see

https://vimeo.com/119921726
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW9oiNnO8wM
(Click on the full screen icon in the lower right corner for best resolution.)

For a 10:46 video set to Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_LVY--_IDU&feature=youtu.be





The picture above is from NASA’s Adopt the Planet promotion.
(Link to NASA web page)
It shows the location of the randomly generated 3,076 sq. mile plot that the author has “adopted” as part of NASA’s Earth Day 2017 program.

   We are living in an age where many people think that anti-intellectualism and ignorance are virtues. The author of this website takes a contrary view. If America is to maintain its “Great” status in the future, we must educate our people so that they are competent in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. If instead, our goal is to revive the coal industry so that more of our citizens will die of Black Lung Disease, America will not be “Great Again”.

   The author supports NASA’s efforts to learn about our planet so that we can make it a better place to live. The author supports the ideal that our voters should be an “Informed Electorate”.

Thomas Jefferson - “A properly functioning democracy depends on an informed electorate.”













Web page generated via Sea Monkey's Composer HTML editor
within  a Linux Cinnamon Mint 18 operating system.
(Goodbye Microsoft)