Columns

Pastor Granillo: Fashionable Christians

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By Pastor Raul Granillo
Los Alamos

When I was 14 years old, I was certain that if I had a pair of Bugle Boy jeans I would get that call from a mysterious lady asking, “Excuse me; are those Bugle Boy jeans you’re wearing?”

O.K., maybe that’s a stretch, but I had no doubt that if I could get my hands on a pair my status in Jr. High would drastically change. It certainly couldn’t hurt. I needed something to prove that I wasn’t just another dork in the halls. Fashion had the potential to make or break a person in Jr. High. It still has a great power in every aspect of our lives.

There is something about fashion that we Read More

Home Country By Slim Randles: The Summer Payoff

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Home Country
By SLIM RANDLES

It is the heat that defines us this time of year. Defines our sweaty days with the brassy skies and afternoons that make us clamor for shade. The heat gives us an excuse to make June the biggest beer-drinking month of the year and returns certain words to our vocabularies: cooler pads, swampers, squirrel cages.

The days themselves aren’t much fun, and we pity those who spend the days working outdoors, even as we envied them in the soft warmth of spring. The heat is an entity now, an oppressive, overbearing beast that weighs on our brains and taxes our body.

It’s the price we Read More

Gessing: Be Prepared For Obamacare Changes

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By PAUL J. GESSING
The Rio Grande Foundation
 
The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to issue its decision in King v. Burwell in June. 
 
The ruling could have tremendous consequences for the healthcare law commonly known as Obamacare – and more importantly, it could have a huge impact right here in New Mexico.
 
King v. Burwell was argued before the High Court in March 2015. The case hinges on an interpretation of the Obamacare law. The plaintiffs argued that the text authorizes premium subsidies for people in “exchanges established
Read More

Stones: A Pain In The Kidney

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By Dr. DAVID MILLS
Medical Associates of Northern New Mexico

Kidney stones affect as many as one in 10 persons in the United States today. Still, there is considerable variability in stone formers based on geography and genetics. 

New Mexico has a particularly high rate of kidney stones, perhaps as a result of the arid, high altitude environment. Five different kidney stones exist, and the incidence of these types also varies considerably. Calcium oxalate comprises the majority of stones in the United States, and New Mexico is no exception with well over 90 percent of stones of this type. Read More

Cinema Cindy Reviews ‘Aloha’

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By CYNTHIA BIDDLECOMB
Los Alamos

“Aloha,” the new movie with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams, has been panned by some critics, who called it “meandering and insubstantial” (Rotten Tomatoes). But do you go to the movies to see great art or to be entertained? I was entertained.

Perhaps it was the context of Hawaii and its indigenous culture that appealed to me in the film. Director Cameron Crowe takes us into the native community and gives grudging respect to the continuing fight for sovereignty over the land. But the film doesn’t really get into that viewpoint. Instead, the culture, Read More

PEEC Amateur Naturalist: The Passage Of Time & The Transition Of Plants

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PEEC Amateur Naturalist
By ROBERT DRYJA
 
The Passage of Time and the Transition of Plants
 
We previously had discussed the kinds of plants seen in the Burnt Mesa area. Ponderosa trees are dominant at the higher elevations toward the Valle Grande.
 
In contrast, grasses dominate at lower elevations toward the entrance to Bandelier National Monument.
 
Elevation is a geologic variable that can be considered as setting the long term pattern for the variety of plants growing in area. A geologic time scale is over million of years as mountain ranges
Read More

Food On The Hill: Carrot Cake

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Carrot Cake with edible butterflies. Photo by Felicia Orth

 

Food On The Hill
By FELICIA ORTH
Los Alamos

Carrot Cake

Having served fresh carrot cake at PEEC and the Mountaineers Club meeting recently, that’s the recipe I’ve been asked for in the last month. Like the fresh apple cake I serve a lot, it is laden with more fruit and vegetable matter than is typical of a cake. Unlike the apple cake, the carrot cake is frosted lightly with cream cheese frosting.

A double recipe fills a half-sheet pan nicely, and provides a large flat surface on which to add a message, decorations, candles or other items. Read More

LeAnne Parsons: Learning Energy Leadership

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By LEANNE PARSONS
Los Alamos

This month, we’re going to take a break from our discussion of the Big 4 energy blocks because I would like to introduce you to a great book authored by a friend and mentor Bruce D Schneider.

Bruce is the founder of the coach training program at The Institute For Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). iPEC is home to the transformational CORE Energy Coaching Process™ and the number one coach training program in the nation. Also, iPEC is the school where I received my professional certifications.

The book I would like to introduce to you is titled Energy Leadership, Read More

Yang: ‘Is Common Sense Truly Sensible?’

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By ELENA YANG
Los Alamos
 
Maybe, it depends. (I am, after all, a social scientist through and through.)
 
Around WWII, the War Department collected data on 600,000 servicemen. What would be your reaction to this statement: “Men from rural backgrounds were usually in better spirits during their Army life than soldiers from city backgrounds?”
 
Most of us would probably agree, “Of course, given the era, people from rural backgrounds were more familiar with harsher living conditions and would handle tough life better.”
 
However, wouldn’t it
Read More

Smart Design With Suzette: Environmentally Friendly Kitchens

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Light-filled kitchen. Courtesy photo
 
Smart Design With Suzette
By SUZETTE FOX
 
Environmentally Friendly Kitchens

Designing interiors using sustainable practices is important. Indoor air quality, sustainable materials, water efficiency, and energy savings will provide long-term cost savings, comfort, peace of mind and safety.

Sustainable design is a science. Some principles apply across the board, but many measures will depend on your home’s age, construction techniques used, building codes, local climate (temperature and humidity) and the land on which your Read More