Columns

How The Hen House Turns: Chicks In Danger (2)

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How the Hen House Turns
By CAROLYN (CARY) NEEPER PH.D.
 
Chicks In Danger (2)

A 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

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By ELENA YANG
Los Alamos

When 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

Smart Design With Suzette: A Kitchen Renovation … Getting Started

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A newly renovated kitchen. Courtesy/Suzette Fox
 
A white kitchen. Courtesy/Suzette Fox
 
 
Smart Design With Suzette
A Kitchen Renovation – Getting Started
By SUZZETTE FOX

The kitchen is my favorite room to design. Kitchens represent family, nourishment, friends and laughter. Kitchens are also the most challenging. Huge mistakes can be made. These mistakes have lasting implications as a result of decisions that were not thought through.

This article will be the first in a series on kitchen renovation. I will walk you through getting started, a budget, space planning, layout Read More

Home Country By Slim Randles: To Gentle A Horse

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Home Country
By SLIM RANDLES

Steve, the tall cowboy of us philosophy types, was riding a young horse through town the other day to get him used to “boogers.”

To gentle a horse, he explained, you give them something to booger at, and then talk them out of it. You keep coming up with new boogers and calming the horse until screaming fire engines and jet exhaust are no problem at all.

He rode up to the Campbell house and saw Anita, Dud’s wife, shaking out a throw rug. The young horse began blowing nuclear snot all over the front yard and his eyes bugged out.

“Anita,” Steve said, “would you mind coming over here Read More

Pastor Granillo: Words Matter

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By Pastor Raul Granillo
Los Alamos

Words Matter

My mother has washed my mouth out with soap on more than one occasion. Of course my parents came from a time when this was acceptable and they believed that what came out of your mouth mattered.

Today this practice is probably less common, and maybe even frowned upon, but I would argue that what comes out of your mouth still matters. What each one of us says or does makes a difference—whether good or bad.

In Mark 7:14-15 (NIV), Jesus told the crowd around Him, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going Read More

Griggs: Dateline The Bayou April 2015

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‘The Blessing of the Animals’ by Leo Politi, near the top of historic Olvera Street in Los Angeles. Photo by David Griggs

Author David H. Griggs at the El Paso Train Station, during a break on the Sunset Limited run from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Courtesy photo

 

By DAVID H. GRIGGS
Formerly of Los Alamos

From The Redwoods To The Bayou

What a great omen and start for a journey! As the bus cruised south out of Arcata, I caught the ending of a full lunar eclipse in the western sky over the waters of Humboldt Bay.

After the winter in Central America, I spent a wonderful month with my son Tobias Read More

TALES OF OUR TIMES: Vivid Images Guard The Earth

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‘Earthrise’ taken Dec. 24, 1968 from Apollo 8. Courtesy photo

 
Tales of Our Times
By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water
 
Vivid Images Guard The Earth
 
Today, April 22, is Earth Day, a proper day to admire our town’s brand-new nature center. But keep that in mind for later.
 
The time is also right to rummage in the root cellar. Some see environmental rules as the first inventive steps toward a stable world. To others, such rules are harebrained humbug dragging us to economic ruin. In better light, they are something else again. Environmental
Read More

This Week At The Reel Deal

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By JIM O’DONNELL
Reel Deal Theater

This Friday we are opening The Age of Adaline.

Furious 7, Woman in Gold, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 will hold for another week. The Longest Ride will end this Thursday.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, April 30 we will open the highly anticipated Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Disney film Monkey Kingdom which has been getting great reviews will open on Friday, May 1. The Water Diviner, Ex Machina, and Danny Collins are on our short list to open as soon as we can.

Movie Poster for “The Age of Adaline.’ Courtesy/Reel Deal Theater

The Age of Adaline: After miraculously Read More

Food On The Hill: ‘Tree Slice’ Veggie Roll-ups

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‘Tree slices’ served on a real tree slice. Photo by Felicia Orth
 
Food On The Hill
By Felicia Orth

“Tree Slice” Veggie Roll-ups

Los Alamos has a new Nature Center opening this week on Earth Day at 2 p.m., and there’ve been recent opportunities to make special snacks for those who contributed substantially to its completion. 

Themes are a large part of what makes cooking fun for me. I had a lot of fun preparing snacks that tied in to those outdoor activities supported by PEEC at the old Nature Center, including hiking (granola), birds and butterflies (the carrot cake below Read More

Yang: When Science Meets Reality – Part II+

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By ELENA YANG
Los Alamos

When Science Meets Reality – Part II+

My comment about “unless a scientist is independently wealthy or can attract wealthy patron, she is pretty much destined to work for organizations” elicited a reader’s correction. 

His point is well taken: In certain areas where the computer plays the key component in scientific exploration, some scientists can still operate independently. I even received a little tour of his modest facility, a small den equipped with a computer and a contraption with light bulbs, tubes, duct tape, lots of wire, etc.

His enthusiasm was contagious Read More