Have a safe day!

Monday, Aug. 6
1:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar (NOTE TIME, LOCATION) - Hornets' Nest, WH8XO
Speaker: Vuk Mandic, University of Minnesota
Title: Searching for Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with LIGO

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topics: Shutdown Work Status and Plans; NOvA Detector Assembly and Installation; MTA Progress and Plans

Tuesday, Aug. 7
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

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a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

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Secon Level 3

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Monday, Aug. 6

- Breakfast: Croissant sandwich
- French Quarter gumbo soup
- French dip w/ horseradish sauce
- Santa Fe pork stew
- Smart cuisine: Country baked chicken
- Popcorn shrimp wrap
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Sweet & sour chicken w/ egg roll

Wednesday, Aug. 8
Lunch
- Barbecue ribs
- Potatoes fontecchio
- Cucumber salad
- Espresso coupe

Friday, Aug. 10
Dinner
- Balsamic salad
- Porcini crusted fillet w/ tarragon butter
- Parmesan whipped potatoes
- Steamed broccoli
- Peach crepes w/ cajeta sauce

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Rafael Coll receives 2011 Industrial Hygiene Award

ES&H Section Head Nancy Grossman and Industrial Hygiene Subcommittee chair David Baird present the 2011 Industrial Hygiene award to Rafael Coll, ES&H. Photo: Reidar Hahn

Fermilab's Industrial Hygiene program is one step closer to going paperless thanks to the efforts of the ES&H Section's Rafael Coll, recipient of the 2011 Industrial Hygiene Award.

Coll received the award for developing electronic versions of several hard-copy forms used in the Industrial Hygiene program. The user-friendly, writeable PDFs allow for quick and direct data entry, reducing the amount of paper circulating from one desk to another and eliminating the need to re-copy information.

Last year, knowing that Coll always keeps up with the latest office software, Chair of the Industrial Hygiene Subcommittee David Baird asked Coll to convert the frequently used paper forms to electronic files.

"Coll's a self-starter, always looking for ways to improve his work," Baird said. "He's always been able to maintain a level of competency in new technologies and deserves kudos for keeping up."

To fulfill Baird's request, Coll quickly trained himself on how to create writeable PDFs, making sure not only that they functioned as they should but also that they would be easy on the eyes.

"I took the paper forms and made them look nice, dressed them up," Coll said. "Some of the forms took quite a bit of time to design, but I enjoyed it. I enjoy working with new software."

Fermilab's Industrial Hygiene Award is given annually to a Fermilab employee or group whose efforts have resulted in substantial progress to Fermilab's Industrial Hygiene program, which is concerned with the control of occupational health hazards that arise as a result of or during work.

Baird and ES&H Section Head Nancy Grossman presented Coll with the award on Aug. 2.

"It's always great when someone in ES&H can help improve work processes for the laboratory," Grossman said.

—Leah Hesla

Wilson Hall in chiaroscuro

Charles Orozco, student in the Summer Internships in Science and Technology program, submitted this photo of Wilson Hall.

At old mine, hopes of striking gold with dark matter

From NPR, Aug. 3, 2012

In Lead, S.D., a steel cage drops almost a mile below ground into the Sanford Underground Laboratory. It's formerly the deepest underground gold mine in North America, and when it closed a decade ago, state officials hoped that an underground science laboratory along with on-site university classes could spur economic development.

That hope may soon be realized, alongside an even bigger goal: South Dakota is about to enter the global race to prove the existence of dark matter, which some scientists theorize makes up a good chunk of the universe.

The LUX Dark Matter Detector is being installed in the facilities at the former gold mine, which, after years of work, finally opened this summer.

The LUX is the biggest experiment of its type, and scientists around the world are watching.

Read more

Staying ahead of the bad guys

The bad guys are good at finding new ways to exploit computing vulnerabilities.

Fermilab's employees are a cyber-savvy bunch, and maybe you are more savvy than most. You are very careful in following secure procedures using your computer. You avoid clicking on links in email or visiting suspicious websites. You never open attachments from unknown origins. You make sure your systems are patched, your software is up to date and unneeded services are turned off.

And yet you still may get infected with malware.

Why? Because the bad guys are getting smarter all the time, discovering new bugs and security holes in software and developing new methods to exploit these vulnerabilities. Just in the past few weeks we have seen:

1. 'Invisible' exploits delivered through web advertisements. Malware delivery mechanisms are becoming more sophisticated and in many cases can compromise your computer by your simply visiting an otherwise benign website that happens to display a banner ad containing code that compromises your computer.
2. An increase of malware and viruses that target Mac computers. A recent report described a new piece of malware that can infect a Mac computer without prompting the user to take any action.
3. Malware that is much harder to remove. Some malware and viruses are very persistent and can survive a routine reformat and reinstall of an operating system.
4. Infections that hold your computer hostage. Some malware will encrypt or otherwise make your files unavailable to try to force you pay real money to the attacker.

So how can you avoid these dangers? Keep following all the usual good practices described above. Be very suspicious of new kinds of software applications. And make sure your data is well backed up. Lab security policies work to keep infections from spreading from one machine to another, so even if your computer does fall prey to one of the new exploits described above, your system can be wiped and reinstalled and your data can be restored from backups. You will quickly be back in business.

—Irwin Gaines

Martial Arts classes - begin today

Road D closed - Aug. 6-9

Muscle Toning classes - begin Aug. 7

Heartland Blood Drive - Aug. 13-14

Drawing to win palm tree - Aug. 15

University of Chicago Tuition Remission Program deadline - Aug. 17

Howard Levy & Chris Siebold - Aug. 18

URA Visiting Scholars Program deadline - Aug. 27

International Folk Dance in Auditorium for rest of August

Project Management Introduction class - Sept. 10-14

Fermilab Management Practices Seminar - begins Oct. 4

Interpersonal communication skills training - Nov. 14

Outdoor soccer - Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 p.m.

Fermilab employee discounts

Atrium work updates