Work it out
As members of the American College of Sports Medicine, and the professional health and fitness community, we are committed to encouraging physical activity for the health benefits it brings all people. Thank you for helping the public recognize the value of physical activity with your special issue “Sweat”. As the ACSM inaugurates its Exercise Is Medicine campaign, the case for physical activity is compelling:
• Exercise and physical activity are powerful medicine, indeed, helping prevent and treat numerous chronic conditions such as hypertension, cardiac disease, diabetes and even cancer.
• Research shows significant health benefits for those who engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week.
If there were a drug that could so powerfully fight America’s obesity epidemic and its health implications, surely every physician would be eager to prescribe it.
This is the impetus behind Exercise is Medicine™, a ACSM program supported by the American Medical Association. One objective is to encourage physicians to “prescribe” exercise during patient visits. Another is to encourage patients to ask their doctors about exercise and how it may improve their health, and then to seek out appropriate professional help to begin a safe and effective program.
Your contribution with the publication of “Sweat” is invaluable to support these kinds of efforts.
Drs. Barb Petkus and Joe Oliaro
Fitness Plus
Santa Fe
Ruining tables
Dan Stih’s letter [Sept. 17: “Debunking Science”] says it’s a myth that CO2 causes global warming and that melting polar ice will cause sea levels to rise. He claims Gore has it backward, that NASA’s Hansen is a Heinz Foundation shill and it’s all a manipulation to make you feel so guilty you’ll gladly pay taxes to bring back nuclear power. The real cause of warming, he says, is the sun!
Anyone, he says, can prove sea levels won’t rise by first filling a glass with ice and then adding water to the top. Will the melting ice overflow the glass? No, says Mr. Stih, because “water takes up more space frozen than it does as a liquid. If anything, sea levels will go down.”
Presumably the bottom of the glass is like the bottom of the sea and the top of the glass is sea level. But does his model represent earth? Do we really start with ice in the glass and then add water to the rim? Or do we start with water already at the rim and then we add ice? If Stih’s got it backward, if the rim of the glass represents current sea level then the ice isn’t even in the glass yet.
Try this at home. Fill a glass with water. The rim is sea level; the sea bottom is the glass bottom. Place glass on your finest wood table. That’s earth. Now slip into the glass a couple of ice cubes. That’s Antarctica and Greenland melting. What happens? Well, you just ruined your table.
Mr. Stih’s model is flawed and cannot be used as a truth about global warming. Why? Because the ocean is already filled to the brim with water. Then comes the ice. Not the other way around.
The real issue is that we are dying and this kind of shell game takes your eye off of that ball.
Richard Welker
Santa Fe
Know your vote
People need to be informed that they can vote straight ticket AND vote for an independent or minor party candidate without invalidating their vote. Since marking all the bubbles is tedious, many people vote straight tickets.
Otherwise, I fear Mr. Jerome Block Jr. (Democrat) will win the seat on the Public Relations Commission even though Rick Lass (Green Party) is both honest and far better qualified for the post [Sept.17: “Chopping Block”].
Voting a straight Republican ticket on the November ballot will cast an acceptance of Mr. Block since no Republican is running. A straight Democratic vote will include Mr. Block. So, Mr. Block may win by default.
It is the responsibility of the media (print and TV) to verify proper voting procedures and inform the public. Being able to vote a straight ticket and also vote for someone else seems unlikely, therefore the public needs to be informed now so word can spread during early voting and just before the election.
Maurice Webster
Santa Fe
Editor’s note: Indeed, according to Santa Fe County Chief Deputy Clerk for Elections Denise Lamb, New Mexico voters can fill in the straight-party oval on their ballots, but then deviate in individual races, if they so choose.
Block Poetry
According to media’s report
He’s a very devious sort.
He’s running for the PRC
But feels he’s due impunity.
He said he is no fool
With an associate degree from a UNM school,
But it was only a certification
For six weeks of education
He says he was found not guilty
Of driving with intoxication. However, the reason he went free Was the delay in prosecution.
He couldn’t remember though hard he tried
Of going with a drunken driver for a ride,
Nor recall when trying his best
Of peeing in public at a Summerfest.
A month after a county clerk’s band was for him to play
He for the gig much public campaign funds did pay.
Only the performance had not occurred.
But really it did he averred
Until some band members demurred.
He lied to avoid more controversy stirred
And ’cause he didn’t know how to correct the report of his finances,
Plus maybe in the future employing the band for some dances.
He was working for an industry Regulated by the PRC.
Yet, occupying a commission’s chair
Had become a family affair.
His yard signs don’t distinguish him from his father
And to participate in public debates he won’t bother.
It would me greatly please
For him not to set fees
From regulated utilities.
John M Otter
Santa Fe
The Reporter welcomes original, signed letters to the editor. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to speci?c articles in the Reporter. They may be edited for clarity and space. Include address and phone number for veri?cation purposes; these will not be published.