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Lamont Weekly Report
– September 26, 2003
OFFICE
OF THE DIRECTOR
P.O. Box 1000, 61 Route 9W Palisades, New York 10964
<> REPORT SUMMARY <>
– Administration Updates –
– SPAM –
– X-Windows client for Windows –
– Letter from the Director –
____________________________________
<> ADMINISTRATION UPDATES
As a first reminder, the Benefits Fair
for LDEO employees will be held on Friday, October 24, 9:30
am to 12:30 pm (currently scheduled for the Monell Lobby).
One of the additional benefits for LDEO families is the availability
of a quality childcare facility on our site operated by the
number one provider of corporate work site childcare, Bright
Horizons Family Solutions. Currently, there is still some
availability in the 3-5 year old program.
Additionally (and this is NEW!) Bright
Horizon's will be available on a limited basis to provide
emergency back-up service for daily daycare on days when your
alternate provider may be unavailable. This is on a limited
basis so it is best to call as soon as you know this may be
the case. You can call Melanie Melo at (845) 680-4893.
<> SPAM
The quantity of unsolicited bulk e-mail,
commonly called "spam", has recently increased to
extraordinary new levels. Over a year ago, we implemented
a very popular and open source mail filtering system that
identifies spam and tags it appropriately. The spammers have
now learned how to craft messages that don't trigger our system.
We are in the process of upgrading our email filtering programs
to incorporate the latest anti-spam technology. Look for announcements
and instructions over the next few weeks.
<> X-WINDOWS CLIENT FOR WINDOWS
We have extended the CU license for X-Win32
to cover the LDEO campus network. X-Win32 is an X terminal
application for Windows computers, including Windows 95, 98,
ME, NT4.0 and Windows 2000. X-Win32 allows Windows users to
connect to Linux/Unix servers on a local network or via the
Internet. The X applications can run right alongside MS Windows
applications and you can copy and paste data between the X
terminal and MS Windows applications.
If interested, please send email to 'request'
to obtain the license key required to download the software.
<> LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
The week began with our annual lunch
to celebrate ten year veterans of CU employment. Suzanne Carbotte,
Jessie Lamarque, George Papa, Dan Quoidbach, Bruce Shaw, Chris
Small, Lex van Geen reached this milestone in their careers
here and received, in addition to handsome plaques, and valuable
lapel pins, rare and meticulously assembled plastic table
flags bearing the Columbia crown. But seriously, as I stressed
to all attending, it is the people that make this place great,
and motivation for these small lunch events is occasionally
to remind folks about that essential fact.
Speaking of the importance of people,
I do not do a good job of meeting new members of our staff
- just too many meetings I fear. I was glad to meet with Mingfang
Ting on Tuesday (even though her arrival was several weeks
ago), and welcome her formally to the Observatory. Mingfang
significantly strengthens our climate modeling group in the
Ocean and Climate Division. She joins us from the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the newest member of our
Senior Staff and has the good fortune (?) to occupy an office
between Rich Seager and Yochanan Kushnir in the Oceanography
building.
The most recent new addition to our Research
Staff is Jim Gaherty, a Seismologist from Georgia Tech who
has joined the Seismology, Geology and Tectonophysics Division
and will add substantially to our efforts to improve understanding
of deep earth structure using seismic methods. Jim has been
with us in an adjunct capacity for some months, but I am very
pleased that he is now on our permanent staff as a Doherty
Associate Research Scientist.
Thursday was a day devoted to the hosting of visiting dignitaries.
Mary Glackin, who is NOAA Director Connie Lautenbacher's lead
for the design and construction of a 'new NOAA', visited on
Thursday, along with a substantial entourage including the
redoubtable Mike Hall. Following an informative lunch she
spent most of the afternoon with John Mutter and Steve Zebiak
visiting the IRI. Also on Thursday we were very pleased to
host Nick Lemann, the brand new Dean of the School of Journalism,
who spent several hours here, learning about what we do and,
with Kim Kasten's help, finding out about the Environmental
Science and Journalism program, that was established, and
is led, by Kim.
Following the highly successful visit
by Program Managers from all three of NSF Geoscience Research
Divisions, we are trying to organize a similarly productive
activity with the NSF Office of Polar Programs. For those
of you with high latitude interests, please mark your calendars
for November 13th - this is the tentative (repeat tentative)
date for a visit of 4-6 section heads and program officers
from both the Arctic and Antarctic programs of NSF's OPP.
As plans become established I will keep you informed.
EWING will be coming into Bergen, Norway
this weekend, and then dead-heading down to Barbados - a significant
latitudinal adjustment (but hopefully not in the Jimmy Buffet
sense of the word.)
Have a great weekend,
– Mike
____________________________________
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