Opinion

World Futures: The Distribution Of Stuff – Part One

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By ANDY ANDREWS
Los Alamos World Futures Institute
 
People in the world today are dependent on stuff. If one looks at the evolution of humankind, one sees the creation of communities or societies for mutual support in continued existence.
 
Then one sees societies interacting to trade for needed and desired stuff. Today we have a human society of 7,680,256,619 people, almost 8 billion, organized in various nation-states, needing as well as producing stuff. It is stuff we really need as well as stuff we think we need, absolutely essential through frivolous. And if you go to https://worldometers.info/world-population
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World Futures: Some Definitions Or Lack Thereof – Last Part

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By ANDY ANDREWS
Los Alamos World Futures Institute
 
In the previous column we asked how do we pay for capitalism and socialism. To delve into this question it is good to start, again, with what is the difference between them. Is it about the individual and his or her existence or is it about a collective body of people, a community, a business, a government entity or the entire world?
 Is it about equality of opportunity and freedom of the individual or is it about equality of existence among people? Note that equality of existence may or may not include freedom.
According to Merriam Webster,
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Letter To The Editor: Gun Bills Are Being Badly Hyped

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By KHAL SPENCER
Santa Fe
 
Some have lavished considerable praise over the gun control bills introduced in the Legislature. The Albuquerque Journal, saying for example of House/Senate Bill 8, the universal background check bill, that it would dissuade someone from buying a gun “…from some sketchy character in a parking lot in response to an ad on the internet…”.
 
Aside from the fact that no one knows in detail how bad guys in New Mexico get their guns and recent Federal data suggest the Internet is not an important conduit, if that is what was really intended,
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Letter To The Editor: Hell’s Hole Hysteria Irrational … Proposed Action Unreasonable

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By KEI DAVIS
Los Alamos
 
Following the publication of articles regarding the perceived hazards of a well-known cave known as Hell’s Hole in White Rock Canyon, culminating in this one, a  group of local adults hastened to investigate before Los Alamos County destroys and makes unaccessible some unspecified fraction of it.
 
Our party was a subset of a loose-knit local community of what might be best characterized as outdoors persons, with interests ranging variously over rock climbing, canyoneering, caving, hiking, boating, etc. Some of us had been in Hell’s Hole before,
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World Futures: Some Definitions Or Lack Thereof Part 4

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By ANDY ANDREWS
Los Alamos World Futures Institute
 
In the last column we finished with the question “Are we capitalists or socialists?” This question was posed after we (at least I) concluded we are all liberals and we all want progress. We use the words capital, social, liberal, conservative, progressive and others with the “ism” attached.
Rewriting the words gives us capitalism, socialism, liberalism, conservatism, progressivism, and, if we want, communism.
The first recorded use of the suffix was in 1680. By the mid-1800s in the United States, “isms” had become derogatory terms,
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Letter To The Editor: Support Ending PARCC Testing

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By NATALIE SINNIS and CHRISTINE TORRES
Los Almaos
 
We are writing to support Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s decision to eliminate PARCC testing in New Mexico.
 
As public school teachers in Los Alamos working with grades 4-6, we have supervised the administration of PARCC testing for several years. We have witnessed first hand the shortcomings with this test and the negative impact it has had year after year.
 
As teachers, we are expected to use a holistic approach when teaching children. These needs are well beyond the range of what the PARCC testing can assess.
 
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Letter To The Editor: Public Transit Provides Economic, Environmental, Convenience And Health Benefits

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By DENNIS SEGURA
Engineering Project Manager
Los Alamos County Department of Public Utilities
 
For the past 4 1/2 years, I have been a regular user of public transit, as I live near Glorieta and work in Los Alamos. I utilize the NMDOT Park and Ride, Atomic City Transit and occasionally the Rail Runner from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. I choose to take public transit for a variety of reasons, among them economics, environmental impact, convenience and health.
 
My daily commute is 100 miles round trip. With a vehicle that only gets 14 miles per gallon (at an estimated $2.40 per gallon), I would
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Letter To The Editor: Thank You Dr. Martin

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THE HALL FAMILY
Los Alamos
 
Dear Dr. Martin,
 
We want to thank you for the care you gave to your patient, Stanley Hall, and his family.
 
The time you took with different family members to patiently answer questions and explain your diagnosis was appreciated. Your time and patience exceeded our expectations and didn’t go unnoticed.
 
Los Alamos is fortunate to have a doctor of your caliber in their community.
 
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Letter To The Editor: Utilities Service During Winter Storms … The Big Deal We Don’t Notice

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By BOYD WATERS
Los Alamos
 
During these heavy winter storms, we have had steady delivery of electricity, water, and mail delivery.
 
The roads and main sidewalks have been kept clear of snow.
 
My kids think this is normal!
 
Icing on our roof interrupted our internet connection, but our provider, Los Alamos Network, had a technician here within 30 minutes after I reported it. I used my cell phone to contact them; my Verizon cellular service was working fine.
 
The only severe hardship we suffered this year was two weeks ago, a nationwide CenturyLink network outage disrupted
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Letter To The Editor: Government Shutdown Talks – A Better Story

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By MARY SNOW
Los Alamos
 
Jan. 10, BBC published a more impartial and accurate story about the meeting between the Democratic leaders and President Donald Trump [see link] than I have seen from any other reports on the meeting by US media.
 
The direct quotes from the BBC article in this section cover most of the article:
 
President Donald Trump has walked out of a meeting with Democratic leaders as negotiations broke down on the 19th day of a partial US government shutdown.
 
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer stuck by their refusal to fund his US-Mexico border wall, prompting Mr.
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