Columns

Yang: The Prison Walls For The Lower Group – Part 4

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The Prison Walls For The Lower Group
Part 4 of the series on intergroup dynamics
By ELENA YANG
Los Alamos

The dominant force that helped set the tone for the Lower group of nine at Montville was their perceived need to be unified against outside threats/forces.

“United we stand, divided we fall” was their mantra, or borderline obsession. No sooner had these nine people showed up at Montville, they were immediately thrown into a quick series of situations where they felt “rejected, excluded, left out, and helpless.” It was little wonder that the first item on the agenda for their group was to form Read More

O’Leary: Please Vote … And Consider Me For The Council

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By SUSAN O’LEARY
Candidate for County Council

Election Day is this Tuesday, Nov. 4. If you’ve already voted, thank you for participating. If you haven’t voted yet and are still thinking about who to vote for, here are a few reasons to consider supporting me.

I’m a seasoned manager with years of experience serving in leadership roles in a large, successful for-profit organization. I’ve been held accountable for delivering specific results; aligning day-to-day decisions with high level goals, and making sure that funds were spent in ways that truly served strategic level goals.  Read More

Art and Science of Entertaining: Thanksgiving

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By PEGGY PENDERGAST
Los Alamos

I do hope that you are as eager to read this, my second Los Alamos Daily Post column, as I am to share it with each of you.

If I were asked “What is my favorite meal of the day?” without a nano-seconds hesitation I would heartily declare “breakfast.” This response could easily be because oh how I do love the beginning of each new day but also because I love bacon, hot chocolate with whipped cream, toast, ham, eggs poached, scrambled and overeasy, bacon, jams and jellies, pancakes, waffles and bacon!

Actually, as the list of breakfast ‘delights’ Read More

TALES OF OUR TIMES: Groundwater News Is Creepy

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By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water

Groundwater News is Creepy

To cut to the chase, groundwater is precious and “leisurely.” The chief feature of groundwater is its astonishing lack of speed. “Out of sight” is also big in the setting.

In our region, water generally moves in the ground from the mountains, where it rains, to the rivers in the valleys, where it doesn’t. Typically the water down in the rock layers creeps along at much less than a snail’s pace. 

Groundwater speeds are measured in inches or feet per year. A foot per year means water travels a mile in 52 centuries. Read More

PEEC Amateur Naturalist: Arachnids At Halloween

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PEEC Amateur Naturalist: Arachnids At Halloween
By Robert Dryja

Halloween is here. Two kinds of arachnids are ideal candidates to scare us in the dark, although they are harmless to us for the most part. They may cause some trouble only if we go out of our way to annoy them, causing them to defend themselves.

Tarantulas are the first candidate for Halloween. They look big, hairy, and scary if seen at night. Some tarantulas can grow to be large. The Chaco Golden Knee tarantula may grow to be about eight and half inches in length. The Chaco Golden Knee tarantula is native to Argentina and Paraguay. In spite Read More

Goldblatt: When Is It Time To Call Hospice?

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When Is It Time To Call Hospice?
By CYNTHIA GOLDBLATT, MSW, LPCC, Ph.D.
Bereavement and Volunteer Coordinator
Los Alamos Visiting Nurses

If you want to think about the death process, you need to focus on LIFE. Good Hospice care is about those who are LIVING and caring for each other to the fullest.

How do you know when your loved one is ready for Hospice? Most families think it is the last days or month of the family member’s life. Our lives have become so individualized and isolated in the dying process. People are scared to reach out and call for help as it’s the first time for many families in dealing Read More

Williams: Viewpoints Of A School Board Member

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By MATTHEW WILLIAMS, Secretary
Los Alamos School Board

I would like to make several points to the community as a School Board member, though these comments do not represent the view of the School Board as an entity.

I know I owe the community several communiques, in particular a “thank you” for your support of Ride the Bus day, and another is further communication on the substance abuse awareness. I promise you these communications are forthcoming, but I’d like to take a moment to tell you about two candidates who are running for office who have been exceptionally visible during my time on the School Read More

Wald-Hopkins: Natural Wellness Solutions For Sinusitis – Yoga And Essential Oils

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Natural Wellness Solutions For Sinusitis: Yoga and Essential Oils
By Patricia (Trish) Wald-Hopkins MSc, DABT, LMT, RMP
Holistic Wellness Practitioner

Sinusitis is common this time of year when the air gets colder and drier. Sinusitis is the inflammation of the lining of your sinus cavities caused by allergies, a virus or bacterial infection.

There is acute, subchronic and chronic sinusitis. Anybody can get sinusitis especially those prone to allergies or with weakened immune systems.

Symptoms may include:

  • Facial pain/pressure
  • Nasal stuffiness
  • Nasal discharge
  • Loss of smell
  • Cough/congestion
Read More

Pain Free Athlete: Pain Aids Healing

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Pain Free Athlete: Pain Aids Healing
By JESSICA KISIEL

“Pain is part of the body’s defense system, producing a reflexive retraction from the painful stimulus, and tendencies to protect the affected body part while it heals, and avoid that harmful situation in the future.”

This is the evolutionary and behavioral role of pain as described on Wikipedia.com. Yet this is not generally how we think of pain. Our view of body pain is more in line with the dictionary.com definition: “A distressing sensation in a particular part of the body.”

What is pain?
Combining the above, pain is a protective Read More

Fitness Column: Lower Back Strengthening

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Lower Back Strengthening
By KENT PEGG

The lower back is one of the most often injured areas of the body. It also is one of the most difficult areas of the body to train – meaning that strengthening the region can be a challenge and rehabbing a lower back injury can be a long and tedious process.

The lower back does not have a great deal of muscle. It has many large tendons that attach the muscles to the bones. Tendons do not have the stretch and contract that muscles have, adding to the difficulty of strengthening the area.

One way to strengthen the lower back is to begin with exercises that do not involve Read More