Arrogance of an imposter

This personal essay, offers an introspective narrative that examines the dual forces of arrogance and imposter syndrome through the lens of a paramedic’s journey. The author recounts the rigorous training, intense pressures, and emotional challenges encountered during paramedic school, field internships, and early career experiences. The narrative explores how these experiences fostered both moments of crippling self-doubt and dangerous overconfidence. Through vivid anecdotes, such as the missteps and lessons learned on a critical call, the author illustrates the profound impact of mindset on professional performance and patient outcomes

the busker at Folsom Field

As I left a football game at Folsom Field to go warm up on one particurlary cold afternoon, I noticed a busker playing a bucket like a drum near the intersection. I couldn't stop thinking about how cold his hands must be, yet how determined he was. I was with my friends who were hurrying, so I didn't stop to give him cash. I regret it very much. I think about that guy frequently, and wrote this poem about him as well.&nbsp

Natural Horizons: A Landscape Photography Collection

This collection of landscape photographs, captured during the summer and fall of 2024, explores three distinct environments: the rugged expanse of the southwest deserts, the verdant majesty of the Pacific Cascadia, and the towering grandeur of the Colorado alpine. Each image highlights the ephemeral nature of our physical environments by depicting seemingly permanent landscapes in a rapidly changing world. Together, these photographs invite viewers to reflect on the powerful forces that create, shape, and define our shared natural world

The Effect of Globalization on the Places of Summit County, Colorado

The movement of people, capital, and culture associated with increasing globalization has had a profound impact on shaping the places we inhabit, the cultures we interact with, and the ways we live. The development of Summit County, Colorado, represents one of the most profound landscape evolutions of the past 160 years. In less than two centuries, the forces of globalization developed an isolated area with limited agricultural potential, unruly topography, and an inhospitable climate into one of the most expensive and well-known tourist destinations in the United States (Blevins, 2023). The progression of this process underscores how the imposing force of globalism can reframe our understanding of place and, by extent, reinforce or challenge existing cultural, social, and ideological norms. By examining how the changing focus and intensity of globalization have been reflected in present and historic development paradigms in Summit County, Colorado, we can see the profound power of globalization in shaping the ways we interact with and consume nature and the places that surround it

A Set of Tutorials for the LAMMPS Simulation Package [Article v1.0]

The availability of open-source molecular simulation software packages allows scientists and engineers to focus on running and analyzing simulations without having to write, parallelize, and validate their own simulation software. While molecular simulations thus become accessible to a larger audience, the ‘‘black box’’ nature of such software packages and wide array of options and features can make it challenging to use them correctly, particularly for beginners in the topic of simulations. LAMMPS is one such versatile molecular simulation code, designed for modeling particle-based systems across a broad range of materials science and computational chemistry applications, including atomistic, coarse-grained, mesoscale, grid-free continuum, and discrete element models. LAMMPS is capable of efficiently running simulations of varying sizes from small desktop computers to large-scale supercomputing environments. Its flexibility and extensibility make it ideal for complex and extensive simulations of atomic and molecular systems, and beyond. This article introduces a suite of tutorials designed to make learning LAMMPS more accessible to new users. The first four tutorials cover the basics of running molecular simulations in LAMMPS with systems of varying complexities. The second four tutorials address more advanced molecular simulation techniques, specifically the use of a reactive force field, grand canonical Monte Carlo, enhanced sampling, and the REACTER protocol. In addition, we introduce LAMMPS–GUI, an enhanced cross-platform graphical text editor specifically designed for use with LAMMPS and able to run LAMMPS directly on the edited input. LAMMPS–GUI is used as the primary tool in the tutorials to edit inputs, run LAMMPS, extract data, and visualize the simulated systems

Structure-Based Experimental Datasets for Benchmarking Protein Simulation Force Fields [Article v1.0]

This review article provides an overview of structurally oriented experimental datasets that can be used to benchmark protein force fields, focusing on data generated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and room temperature (RT) protein crystallography. We discuss what the observables are, what they tell us about structure and dynamics, what makes them useful for assessing force field accuracy, and how they can be connected to molecular dynamics simulations carried out using the force field one wishes to benchmark. We also touch on best practices for setup and analysis of benchmark simulations. We hope this article will be particularly useful to computational researchers and trainees who develop, benchmark, or use protein force fields or machine learning models that generate protein ensembles

Skinned

This poem delves into metiphysical questions of identity and self through the lense of graphic intrusive thought. It is at times difficult to understand, or syntactically difficult, a style intended to add to the imagery of self destruction and confusion.&nbsp