Columns

Kendall: 2013 – A Fuller Lodge Oddity

Update: The green electric box to the right below is new and much larger than the green transformer box that was previously in this location.   You may view the previous electrical setup by clicking HERE.

New electrical boxes have been installed in front of Fuller Lodge on Central Avenue. View facing west from the bronze statues of Oppenheimer and Groves. Photo by Greg Kendall/ladailypost.com

New electrical boxes in front of Fuller Lodge on Central Avenue. View facing east. Photo by Greg Kendall/ladailypost

Column by GREG KENDALL
Los Alamos

As part of an electric upgrade project Read More

Yang: Smaller Bag Is Smaller Than Bigger Bag

Smaller Bag Is Smaller Than Bigger Bag
Column by ELENA YANG

Allow me to have some fun with the following announcement … otherwise, I’d have to cry. 

“Date Published: February 22, 2013

Publisher: URS CH2M Oak Ridge

When double bagging radioactive and/or asbestos wastes, consider using a smaller bag as the inner container and larger bag as the outer container to make an easy fit for the double bagging operations while minimizing the risk of contamination spreading.” 

Seriously?!

Of course, my first reaction was the usual, “No s*#%, Sherlock!” I realize that handling radioactive materials Read More

Izraelevitz: Passover, Glazed Donuts and Graduate School

Passover, Glazed Donuts and Graduate School
Column by DAVID IZRAELEVITZ

Passover, glazed donuts and graduate school do not mix well. This is a fact that I encountered, for five consecutive years, when I was a graduate student working on my doctoral degree.

Full appreciation of this physical law requires some background, so please bear with me for a paragraph or two.

Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, is the Jewish week-long holiday celebrating the Biblical Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

There is a ceremonial dinner, called the Passover Seder, that begins the week of Passover and introduces the observance Read More

Thoughts From the Big Chair: TV’s Late Night Talk Shows and Johnny Carson – A Quantitative Analysis

Thoughts From the Big Chair
Comments on Television and Associated Media From a Lifelong Addict.
Column by RALPH E. CHAPMAN

TV’s Late Night Talk Shows and Johnny Carson – A Quantitative Analysis

Part I – Grading the Shows

As with the TV drama that I talked about in my last column, we are also in a special time when it comes to late night TV talk shows – we, again, now have an embarrassment of riches and many options for our watching pleasure.

As in my previous columns, you’ll get my take on it through commentary, but I’ll give you an added bonus in Part II. I’ll demonstrate for you in a quantitative, i.e. measurable, Read More

Column: The Real Fiscal Problem

The Real Fiscal Problem

Column by T. JACKSON KING
Los Alamos

The problem with the federal budget is not too much spending. It is too little tax income.

Now I hate taxes as much as anyone. Also, being born in Texas, I am more skeptical of government rationales than most people.

And having worked many years for five federal agencies, I agree there is some wasteful spending, un-needed spending and even unnecessary agencies.

But facts are facts.

Our annual federal budget over the last five years has ranged from 3.5 to 3.8 trillion dollars in 2012. Not billions—trillions! The federal deficit each year, Read More

How The Hen House Turns: DeeDee and Scooter

How The Hen House Turns: DeeDee and Scooter
By Carolyn A. (Cary) Neeper, Ph. D.

Sometime in the mid 1980’s, our daughters went off to college and the dog (Poncho) died–the classic scenario.

Our nest was empty for a while. The daughters’ pets had also met their assorted fates. Work at the lab and the excavation of dinosaur Seismosaurus filled the gap.

Apparently, still feeling that gap, I adopted a turtle or two. Husband Don gave me a proper aquarium.

In the summer of 2000 I rescued Freddy the water dragon from Pete’s Pets, our local pet store prior to Pet Pangaea. Other dragons

Read More

Hannemann’s Music Corner: The Hook

Hannemann’s Music Corner: The Hook
Column by RICHARD HANNEMANN
 
A chord is any three or more different letter notes, either in a stack or in melodic sequence. This definition reflects modern usages and spellings.
 
Certainly Bach would not have been quite so liberal in his definition. In the Common Practice period – appx. 1700-1900, Bach to Wagner, a chord would have been specifically a triad with, or without, the addition of the 7th (and, later, the 9th and the 11th.)
 
Other than the 7th, any note which was not part of a triad would have been considered a non-chord tone.
 
Read More

Kendall: Martinez vs. Garcia Richard – Gotcha Politics or SOP?

Column by GREG KENDALL
Los Alamos

Did State House Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard break her promise to voters? She vowed to help repeal the Richardson era driver’s license law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses.  

Gov. Susana Martinez and anonymous robo-callers would like you to believe that Garcia Richard broke her promise.

Martinez went live on Los Alamos radio station KRSN AM 1490 March 7 to make that claim directly to local voters. But it is not that simple.

House Bill 606, sponsored by Rep. Paul Pacheco (R-Bernalillo & Sandoval-23), Read More

Help With The Hard Stuff: Lawyers Can Be Quite Versatile

Help With The Hard Stuff

 

Lawyers Can Be Quite Versatile (But They Might Not Think To Tell You That)
Column by GINI NELSON, JD, MA
Part 3 (of 10)

I ended my last column asking you to think about what role you wanted the lawyer to have in helping you with your problem, and I suggested there are perhaps 10 different roles.

I use as analogy the roles identified by William Ury in his 1999 book Getting to Peace, later retitled The Third Side, and itself now the foundation of www.thirdside.org, part of the Global Negotiation Project that Dr. Ury directs at Harvard University.

Some of the basic premises Read More

Money IQ: Commercial and Industrial Loans on the Rise

Money IQ
By AL HERNANADEZ

Commercial and Industrial Loans on the Rise

Banks large and small are looking to increase their lending activities as the economy continues to show signs of improvement. 

At the beginning of the economic downturn a lot of financial institutions slowed or halted lending, especially for commercial real estate related loans. 

Since this time, many banks have changed their lending appetite and are now more diversified in their product offerings. 

Commercial real estate, development loans and other real estate secured loans, once a common staple of Read More