Friday, May 23, 1997
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Memorial Day holiday |
Electronic 'junk mail'
Sometimes you just have to take the bad along with the good.
Take, for example, electronic mail. The Internet makes it possible for anyone with electronic mail capability to contact another from almost anywhere around the world. Unfortunately, this technology also allows people and businesses to send unsolicited mail (commonly referred to as "spam" or junk mail) to almost anyone, including Laboratory employees.
The unsolicited mail can range from a simple chain letter to ads for child pornography material, said Mary Beth Stevens of the Special Projects (FSS-SPO) Office. And the problem is a big one for individuals and small and big companies alike, including Intel and Motorola.
Just how big of a problem is unsolicited electronic mail at the Lab? Stevens said that among her office, Employee Relations (HR-ER) and the Internal Evaluations Office (AA-2), the three sometimes receive hundreds of calls a month from employees regarding the unwanted spam.
Even with all three offices investigating these reports, there's just no way we can respond to all of them, she added.
"Last December was particularly bad with the child pornography solicitations," said Stevens. "About 75 percent of the callers say they report their junk mail messages because they fear they somehow will get in trouble, and that's simply not true.
"No one at the Lab is held responsible for any unsolicited message they receive, regardless of its nature. Junk mail is just one of the prices we pay for our use of the Internet."
A committee comprised of representatives from the above-mentioned offices, as well as from Network Engineering (CIC-5), Computer and Communication Security (FSS-14) and Legal Counsel (DIR-LC), currently are trying to come up with some guidelines to help employees deal with the problem.
However, Stevens said, there are some things employees already can do to help ease the situation at the Lab. For one, if an employee should receive a message for something benign (albeit annoying), such as a solicitation for a clothing catalog, just trash the message.
If the message clearly is illegal -- such as that for child pornography -- contains threats or is perceived as nonsexual harassment, call the Special Projects Office at 5-3505.
If the message is racist or sexually offensive, contact the Employee Relations Office at 7-8730.
Stevens acknowledged that even with these guidelines, there are a lot of gray areas in between. "For instance, what may be considered just an annoying message to one employee may be considered offensive to another," she explained.
"Threats or harassment of any kind most times are in the eye of the recipient. But the bottom line is that we just cannot investigate every unsolicited message that comes into the Lab."
Most important, she said, if an employee receives an electronic mail message and is unsure whether it is reportable, that employee should first contact his or her organizational computer security representative for advice.
Additional advice and guidelines on how to deal with junk electronic mail are available at http://www.mcs.net/~jcr/junkemail.html on the World Wide Web; there also is a site from which employees may remove themselves from "spammers'" mailing lists. The address is http://kenjen.com/nospam/ on the Web. For more information, call 5-3505.
--Ternel Martinez
Speaker inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt
During a stop in Denver in 1960, Ruth Hashimoto had the good fortune to meet Eleanor Roosevelt, not for the first time but once again. Hashimoto had met the former first lady the year before and was impressed with her spirit and willingness to help others.
The meetings left an impression that has been Hashimoto's calling card ever since. "She was the one person who inspired me to volunteer because I was about to throw in the towel," Hashimoto said at a talk Thursday in the Materials Science Laboratory Auditorium at Technical Area 3.
Hashimoto's talk was sponsored by the Asian American Diversity Working Group as part of the Lab's celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month, which continues through next Friday.
She recalled that at the time of her meetings with Eleanor Roosevelt she was married -- with three young daughters and an invalid husband -- and working full time. Yet Roosevelt's call to Americans to volunteer in their towns and communities resonated with Hashimoto.
Over the years, the Seattle-born Asian American has compiled a volunteer record that speaks volumes, including working with the American-Japan Week Advisory Committee in Albuquerque; Sister Cities International; Albuquerque Kachina Greeters; Keep New Mexico Beautiful; University of New Mexico Cancer Center; United Nations Association/UNICEF; President's Initiative for International Youth Exchange; New Mexico coordinator for the Japanese Consulate General of Los Angeles; and the Japan-U.S. Senate Scholarship Committee, for which Hashimoto was chairperson for New Mexico's selection committee.
Hashimoto earlier this year also agreed to serve on the Lab's Diversity External Advisory Council.
During Thursday's talk, Hashimoto spoke about her younger years -- at 83 years old she shows no signs of slowing down -- growing up in California, being forced by the War Department to move with her young family and parents to a relocation camp in Wyoming and her four years teaching conversational Japanese to U.S. intelligence officers at the University of Michigan.
It was the experience in the relocation camps, Hashimoto said, that today drives her to fight for human rights, something she said was taken away from thousands of Asian Americans during World War II.
In the winter of 1942-43, Hashimoto's family had to endure Wyoming's 35-degree-below-zero temperatures living in barracks that had tar paper roofs. Family members, she said, were told not to open the living room door with their bare hands because their hands would become frozen on the doorknob.
"I have always hated war and the misery it causes, but not the people," she said.
Hashimoto and her family survived, and the following summer Hashimoto began working at the University of Michigan -- against her husband's wishes. Many of her students, she said, went on to become doctors, lawyers, college professors and chief executive officers. Some of them still write to her, she added.
It wasn't until 1988, when former President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, that the grievances committed against Asian American citizens in World War II were redressed. The $20,000 the U.S. government gave Hashimoto -- along with a public apology from President Reagan -- she donated to an organization that helps educate others about what Hashimoto and other Asian Americans experienced.
Still, Hashimoto will keep speaking to whoever will listen about her experiences in the hope that it won't happen again. "So many people don't know what happened," she said. "It is my sincerest wish that none of you will have to undergo what me and my family went through.
"We have to make people understand that regardless of how you look, American citizens are American citizens," she continued. "We have to take a stand."
Hashimoto's vitae includes being named a state Living Treasure last year; United Nation's Day chair for New Mexico, an appointment she received last year from Gov. Gary Johnson; president of Sister Cities International; Woman of the Century as proclaimed by the Columbus Day Committee of Buffalo, N.Y.; a recipient of a Human Rights Award conferred by the Albuquerque Human Rights Board in 1991; and a member of the New Mexico Women's Hall of Fame.
Other Asian Pacific Heritage Month activities are planned at the Lab. Through the end of the month, an exhibit hangs in the Otowi Building depicting Asian American culture and some Lab Asian employees' work.
LABNET Channel 10 is scheduled to telecast two video tapes next week as part of Asian Pacific Heritage Month, said Jasmine Pan of Communications (CIC-4) and chairperson of the Asian American Diversity Working Group. From noon to 1:40 p.m. and again from 2 to 3:40 p.m., Tuesday, LABNET will show a documentary film on architect and sculptor Maya Lin. "A Stronger Vision" is a portrait on Lin, who among other works, designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial while an undergraduate student at Yale University.
The video documentary will be rebroadcast from noon to 1:40 p.m., next Friday, May 30.
Other designs by Lin include the Civil Rights Memorial, the Yale Women's Table, the Juniata Peace Chapel and her work on San Francisco's Presidio Park.
From noon to 1:20 p.m. and 2 to 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, "Great Tales in Asian Art," will air on LABNET Channel 10. It will be rebroadcast from 2 to 3:20 p.m., next Friday.
The Ramayana details the epic adventures of India's legendary hero and are illustrated with Indian painting, Indonesian sculpture, Japanese shadow play and dramatic re-enactments.
Korean Masked Dance Drama is told by actors wearing audaciously conceived masks. The social satire is "masked" by bold humor and comic dance.
Gita Govinda is a divine poetic song that glorifies the wonderful pastimes of Govinda, or Lord Krishna, the supreme personality of Godhead.
The Tale of Genji/Henji is the amorous adventures of Price Genji as told by a Japanese woman in a period costume. Colorful paintings from scrolls and screens illustrate Japan's most famous romantic novel.
--Steve Sandoval
 Ruth Hashimoto speaks about her childhood years growing up in
a relocation camp. Hashimoto's talk Thursday in the Materials Science Laboratory
Auditorium was sponsored by the Asian American Diversity Working Group as
part of Asian Pacific Heritage Month at the Lab. Photo by Fred Rick |
Team to investigate effects of workforce restructuring
Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health will visit the Laboratory Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to perform the first phase of a study to investigate the effects of workforce restructuring on the organizational culture of the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons industry. The study is being done on behalf of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and is funded by DOE.
The Laboratory is one of seven DOE sites that the research team already has or will visit through fiscal year 1999. The five-year study began in fiscal year 1995. Some of the DOE sites chosen to participate in the study include those that have not undergone workforce restructuring recently, for comparison purposes.
The specific purposes of the study are twofold: to identify and measure the effects of downsizing on organizational climate, health and performance, particularly those aspects of downsizing that adversely affect an organization in these areas; and to determine the most significant downsizing factors that adversely affect employee health and develop a health-promotion program to mitigate such factors.
The first three years of the study is dedicated to information gathering and analyses; the team will use the latter two years to develop and implement the health-promotion program based on the analyses.
The study will include onsite interviews with employees, direct observation, a review of organizational policies and procedures, a review of employee health and performance records, focus group sessions and employee surveys.
During the three-day visit, the team will tour the Lab; it also will perform a walk-through of a few specific Lab facilities, including technical areas 54 and 55, to observe the major jobs, functions and processes that take place.
The site visit will help the team determine how long it needs to stay and what facilities to concentrate on when it returns in October to begin the actual research.
The team also will put together a roster of employees from which to solicit volunteers for the study. All information that can be used to identify volunteers will not be published, and volunteers may withdraw from the study at any time if they wish.
In addition, the team will answer questions or concerns employees may have regarding the study to make sure they understand the process. A copy of the project summary is on file at the University of California Northern New Mexico Office/LANL Outreach Center.
This is the third time the Lab has allowed NIOSH-appointed research teams to perform studies involving Lab employees. Last year, Dr. Gregg Wilkinson from the University of Texas Medical Branch headed a team that studied deaths among female nuclear weapons workers exposed to low levels of ionizing radiation and other physical and chemical agents in the workplace.
Also last year, a team headed by Dr. Steve Wing from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health studied multiple myeloma among workers exposed to low levels of ionizing radiation and other workplace physical and chemical agents. Multiple myeloma is a rare, malignant disease of the bone marrow more commonly found in men.
--Ternel Martinez
Search committee formed to find CIC director
A 12-person search committee headed by Warren "Pete" Miller of the Director's Office has been created to find a new director for the Laboratory's Computing, Information and Communications (CIC) Division.
Miller said he hopes to make a recommendation to Laboratory Director Sig Hecker by Aug. 31.
Miller is the Lab's acting deputy director for science and technology. The committee includes six CIC employees: Chris Kemper of Network Engineering (CIC-5), Richard Luce of the Research Library (CIC-14), Robin Morel of Computer Research and Applications (CIC-3), Manuel Vigil of Computing (CIC-7), Sally Wilkins of Software Design and Development (CIC-12) and Karl-Heinz Winkler of the CIC Division Office.
Other members of the search committee are John Cerruti of Hydrodynamic Methods (X-HM), Gerald Garvey of Subatomic Physics (P-25), Charles "Chick" Keller of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (EES-IGPP), Don McCoy of the Nuclear Weapons Technology (NWT) Program Office and Dan Strottman of the Theoretical (T) Division Office.
Miller said the search committee will conduct a national search to find a replacement for Hassan Dayem, who resigned last month to take a position with a pharmaceutical company on the east coast.
An electronic mail address has been established for interested employees to write to the committee to provide input and suggest names of individuals to replace Dayem. The address is cicsearch@lanl.gov.
There are about 1,000 employees and subcontract personnel in CIC.
--Steve Sandoval
Badge Office gets e-mail address ... and more
Ken Collins of Personnel and Information Security (FSS-15) and Badge Office team leader, recently announced some changes at the Lab's Badge Office. He said the office has acquired an e-mail address (badge@lanl.gov) to make it easier and more efficient for employees to contact the Badge Office. He encouraged individuals to use the e-mail address for questions, requests, comments, criticism, clarification, etc. and said suggestions on how to use e-mail to improve Badge Office service also are welcomed.
As of Tuesday [the Lab is closed Monday for Memorial Day], Badge Office service hours will be from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Wednesdays the office (including telephone service) will open from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the shortened day will permit the Badge Office team to meet and resolve service and security issues.
Within the next several weeks, the sign on the TA-3/SM-490, will change from "Reception Center" to "Badge Office," in an effort to reduce the amount of confusion customers (including tourists) have experienced over the years. Collins said the change will be noted in facilities-management databases, so that over time, maps and other products from those databases will reflect the name correctly.
Noting that the Badge Office has had difficulty locating replacement stock for Laboratory identification cards, Collins said several solutions are being explored to replace the current process for creating ID cards. Until a replacement process has been implemented, he said ID cards will not be created for Laboratory customers. "We apologize for any inconvenience and will announce when ID cards can again be obtained," said Collins.
Work begins on Trinity-Diamond Drive intersection
The Los Alamos County Public Works Department on Tuesday will begin a two month project to repave a portion of Trinity Drive from Oppenheimer Drive west to Diamond Drive.
The contractor also will replace traffic signals as part of the project, said project manager Vickie Mallett of the county Public Works Department.
Albuquerque Asphalt is the contractor for the project, which involves cold milling, or removing the existing road surface, and repaving about a half mile of Trinity Drive from Oppenheimer Drive to the Trinity-Diamond Drive intersection, said Mallett.
During the project, traffic in both directions of Trinity Drive will be restricted to o
