Opinion & Columns

Tales Of Our Times: For This Holiday Season

Submitted by Carol A. Clark on December 24, 2017

Tales of Our Times
By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water

Tales of Our Times For This Holiday Season

The years roll on. From the past, I bring local sketches from distinguished writers who passed this way before:

Peggy Pond, the fledgling poet and author, wrote in 1914:

There was the enormous and unbelievably vivid blueness of the sky; the wide horizon that stretched in every direction as we drove down to the Pueblo from our steep plateau; the arid landscape, all sun-baked gullied hill, the pinkish earth dotted with juniper and pinion like cloves stuck into a roasting ham; the

Fr. Glenn: Blessed Are The Meek

Submitted by Carol A. Clark on December 24, 2017

By Rev. Glenn Jones

Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Los Alamos

Ah, ‘tis the Christmas season—a time of joy for the billions of Christians throughout the world as we celebrate the birth of Jesus over two millennia ago. The nativity of Jesus (obviously) necessarily precedes in time and gets more press, but many non-Christians may not realize that Christmas is NOT the biggest Christian celebration of the year. The most important celebration is actually Easter with its celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from death, leading to our accompanying belief that He is the “first born from the Read More

Nebel: LANL Bidders Please Respond To Questions

Submitted by Carol A. Clark on December 23, 2017

By RICHARD NEBEL

Los Alamos

The last time the lab management contract was put out on bid I remember thinking: “Oh great. Now we are going to have a whole new level of worthless managers sidling up to the trough to skim money out of the lab. Where am I going to find the money to cover the inevitable increase in the overhead?”

The money I was bringing in wasn’t weapons program money and there was no way that my customers were going to cover that increase.

So, what happened? My understanding is that right now a Phd Full Time Equivalent (FTE) costs about $600,000/year at LANL. At my present company, Read More

Communication 3: Possibility Of Miscommunication

Submitted by Carol A. Clark on December 22, 2017

By SONYIA WILLIAMS
Los Alamos World
Futures Institute

Student Intern

In the last column we explored the advantages and disadvantages of mechanical translation. One of the major disadvantages is that a mechanical translator does not account for the connotation of words, but rather the denotation.

This leaves a lot of room for error. As stated in the last article, it makes it difficult for mechanical translators to keep up with the perpetually evolving nature of languages.

Along with this, not accounting for the connotation of words can lead to misinterpretation and thus ineffective communication. Read More

Just One Thing To Do This Week: Give

Submitted by Carol A. Clark on December 22, 2017

By MARY BETH MAASSEN
Los Alamos

My neighbor Al Miller is a world-class shopper.

His eye for style and design, whether it is fine art, textiles, or every day home goods, is remarkable. His shopping prowess is so impressive that he and his partner, Richard LaBelle, opened an antique and home décor store in their hometown in Wisconsin to repurpose and resell Al’s purchases. It was hugely successful.

Al and Richard, both retired art teachers, eventually sold their store and now live comfortably in El Rancho. Al continues to shop and shop. He never shops online. He peruses consignment stores, flea markets, Read More

Pongratz: A Bit Of Nit Picking

Submitted by Carol A. Clark on December 21, 2017

By MORRIS PONGRATZ

Former Los Alamos County Councilor

I think that the term “windfall” is not appropriate to describe the gross receipts taxes paid by LANL contractors. Merriam-Webster defines “windfall” as:

1: something (such as a tree or fruit) blown down by the wind;

2: an unexpected, unearned, or sudden gain or advantage.

The term is not correct for two reasons: first, the term refers to a “one-time” event. Once all the apples are off the tree you can expect no more apples to fall. The citizens of Los Alamos should expect that LANL contractors will continue paying gross receipts

Weekly Fishing Report: Dec. 21

Submitted by Carol A. Clark on December 21, 2017

By GEORGE MORSE

Sports and Outdoors

Los Alamos Daily Post

It’s the middle of December and still no snow covering the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo and Jemez Mountains. Despite cold nighttime temperatures that have caused ice to form on some of the lakes, precipitation has been meager and snowpacks for this time of year are running well below normal.

There are some that would just as well never have it snow, but the reality is we need snow. Water supply systems for irrigation and municipal water supply is based on a certain amount of spring runoff from the melting snowpack. Spring runoff

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