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Columns

  • Pouring salt on a big wound

    Among the many bad communication ideas the George W. Bush administration came up with was the famous “Mission Accomplished” speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln.
    It would prove a shaker of salt in the open wound that would become the long-running conflict in Iraq.
    So it was with great interest that I read the headlines on Internet news sites and in local papers declaring the “End of the Great Recession.”

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  • To convert or not to convert

    There has been a lot of discussion this year on whether or not someone who currently has a traditional IRA should convert it into a Roth IRA.  
    In this column we will take a look at how Roth IRAs work, and if it makes sense to convert your IRA into a Roth.
    First, let’s take a look at a brief history of Roth IRAs. Roth IRAs were established in 1997 as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act to offer another way for Americans to save for retirement.
    Although contribution limits are the same with Traditional and Roth IRAs, there are some major differences.

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  • Local microgrid starts on $27 million

    Projects in the mountain town of Los Alamos shape strong tools for tomorrow. New evidence is the $27 million in contracts among Los Alamos County, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the state of New Mexico and an alliance of 19 Japanese companies.

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  • Assessing root cause starts stress reduction process

    We all know that stress can affect you physically. Some amount of stress is inevitable in life and positive stress can also be helpful to thrive in life.
    But uncontrollable stress is the major concern that may cause harm. When you feel stressed, your body always reacts to it.
    As medically proven, long term stress damages your body seriously and causes various chronic ailments.
    Some people may develop high blood pressure, heart disease, digestion problems, breathing disorders, hormonal imbalances, skin problems, aches and pains… the list is endless.

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  • The Nine Circles of Stupidity

    I’ve always admired Albert Einstein, but not just for his development of special and general relativity.  
    Sure, those are pretty nifty theories and make for fun reading when nothing is on TV, but what I really like about Albie was how easily he was able to summarize important social issues.
    His assessment of intelligence said it all: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”

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  • Knowing your customer is critical with big ticket products

    A business trying to market an industrial product has a smaller customer base than one selling mass-market products, which means the entrepreneur must capitalize on each sales opportunity by investing in market research.
    Industrial customers do not buy on whim and generally have a structured buying process. An entrepreneur with a product he believes customers will want needs to know what problems potential customers must solve and how they’re currently solving them.

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  • Budget crimps visionary purchases

    In 1920, two ranchers completed a dam on the Cimarron River and created Eagle Nest Lake, jewel of the Moreno Valley. By 1990, the Lake’s private owners, the Davis family, wanted to sell. They had generously allowed public use of the lake, but they were ready to shed the responsibility.
    Of course, they had no shortage of offers – every resort and condo developer in the region beat a path to their door – but they preferred to sell it to the state to ensure the public’s continued access.

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  • Navigating the financial minefields in your marriage

    As with all challenges in a marriage, often what starts as a small issue can fester and grow into a large problem, given enough time.
    It’s not surprising that after being together a few years, some couples realize that the financial quirks they initially found amusing or simply ignored in their spouse now dominate their marital disagreements.
    In fact, money issues tend to top the reasons for divorce.

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  • Whatever happened to radio?

    When was the last time you tried to get a weather report in a storm while driving?
    The medium that used to be universal and accessible to everybody doesn’t work any more.
    That is, the radio in your car: the moving vehicle where your safety is most directly affected by weather.
    Nowadays, most radio is a local medium only during weekday morning and evening commuter hours. The rest of the day it’s nationally syndicated. You could be driving straight toward a blizzard, and nobody would interrupt the programming to warn you.

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  • EPA CO2 declaration hot air

    The spirited defense of Climate Science publication credibility (Chick Keller,  Monitor Guest Column, July 13) requires reading the PNAS paper by Andregg et. al., creating a Black List of investigators not to be consulted on Anthropogenic Climate Change issues in order to ensure credible expert opinion.  Bias?  For purposes of the following,  I’m not qualified in Climate Science but I do have a Toxicology ticket and I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.

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