Letter To The Editor: Are We Getting Civics In Schools?
By VERNON KERRThe column by Cal Thomas in Wednesday’s April 22 edition of the Journal highlights a growing problem with our citizenry in understanding and living with our form of government.
Civics is no longer a must for public school students. In the 1940’s “Civics” was a semester course in New Mexico.
Somewhere along the line civics as a discrete separate course was dropped and the topic was meshed with social studies where one thirteenth of it was incorporated in each class from kindergarten through 12th grade. (See New Mexico Public Education Department Read More
Thank You For Making Earth Day Festival Fantastic!
By TERRY FOXXOn behalf of the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) and as chairperson for the Earth Day Festival at the new Nature Center, I would like to thank the committee, the many volunteers, the staff, the community, and the weather for making our Earth Day Festival a wonderful celebration.
Fit in amongst the moving, settling, and opening of the Los Alamos Nature Center was planning for the celebration of our planet Earth. The committee included volunteers and staff of PEEC, the Los Alamos Co-Op, LANL, Bradbury Science Museum, and UNM-LA. Although we have sponsored
This Week At The Reel Deal
By JIM O’DONNELLThis Friday we are opening, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Monkey Kingdom, and While We’re Young. Monkey Kingdom is getting 93 percent favorable reviews. It is a must see for kids and is entertaining for any age. Don’t miss this one-week only showing of this wonderful Disney film. The Age of Adaline, will hold for another week. Furious 7, Woman in Gold, and Paul Blart 2, will end this Thursday.
Movie poster for ‘Age of Ultron.’ Courtesy/Reel Deal Theater
Avengers: Age of Ultron: When Tony Stark jumpstarts a dormant peacekeeping program, Read More
Solo Traveler: Cave Homes
The living room of Shel Neymark’s cave home. Photo by Sherry Hardage
Cave bathroom. Photo by Sherry Hardage
Solo Traveler I had the fortune a few years ago to house-sit for a Dutch woman who owned a cave home in Ortahisar, Cappadocia.
Her house was built over an old cave that started out as a large bubble in a hot ash flow. The soft volcanic tuff was enlarged in prehistoric times to form a living space.
The guestroom was created when the cave entrance was walled in with blocks of the same volcanic rock. The room once had two large holes in the roof for Read More
How The Hen House Turns: Chicks In Danger (2)
How the Hen House TurnsA few days after Peeky’s second brood hatched, disaster once again loomed large over the chicken pen. I heard the mother hen suddenly cut loose with her unmistakable S.O.S. call, and I envisioned all five chicks in the drink this time. But when I looked out, I had to laugh at the scene in the chicken pen.
Peeky was flapping madly from the ground to the top of the six-foot fence, up and down, ferociously and futilely launching attack after attack at a cool black predator (nearly her size) sitting on the top railing, his head Read More
Yang: When Science Meets Reality – Part III Of III
By ELENA YANGWhen Science Meets Reality – Part III Of III
Scientists understand social cues and are, like the rest of us, equipped with human emotions. Their take on socially constructed reality might be slightly askew (by whose standards?), but their social construction of reality is just as valid as another group’s social construction.
Managers in R&D organizations face the same kind of relational issues and group-intergroup dynamics as all other managers. So, the education of future scientist-managers should touch on the same fundamental principles as for management Read More
Letter To The Editor: Victims But No Victimizers
By BOB FUSELIER
Los Alamos
During the last few months, we have seen many protests over the death of suspects at the hands of police. The protesters claim the rights of the suspects were violated. Some claim the suspects were murdered by the police.
We have heard calls to the defense of the police, that they too are often victims, placed in situations of peril as they seek to carry out their mission of defending the peace, a mission bestowed upon them by we the people.
We have also heard that many police departments enforce the laws unequally, that minorities are unfairly targeted, arrested, convicted, Read More
