Submit timecards today

The laboratory will move to the new Fermilab Time and Labor electronic timecard system on Monday, June 21. To help with this transition, please submit your timecard through the current system by the end of the day today.

For more information about the new timecard system, please visit the website. To practice using the new timecard format, to review training documents, to check if your computer has the settings and software it needs, and to find out when local support team members will be available in your division, section or center, check www.fnal.gov/ftl/launch.html. If the timecard takes more than two minutes to load after the first time you log in, try logging off and logging in a second time.

If you have questions about using the new timecard system or about finding training resources, you can reach local support team members at the Timecard Doctor booth in the atrium during lunch hours on Tuesday, June 22; Wednesday, June 23; Friday, June 25; and Monday, June 28.

Classes, events and discounts for July

The Village pool is open.

• Pool hours are noon - 7:00 p.m. from Tuesday - Friday, and 1-6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Single memberships are available for $85 per person. Family memberships are available for $190 for up to four family members and $10 per additional person.
• The third session of preschool and youth swim lessons is available Monday - Thursday, July 12 - 22. Deadline to register is Friday, July 2. Session four begins Monday, July 26 and runs through Thursday, Aug. 5. Deadline to register is July 19. Cost: $60 per person.

Fitness classes starting soon:

• Yoga: Noon - 1 p.m. Tuesdays, July 6 - Aug. 31 in the Wilson Hall Auditorium. Cost: $85 per person.
• Muscle toning: 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 6 - August 26 at the Recreation Facility exercise room. Cost: $77 per person.

This month, the Benefits/Recreation Department will also sponsor the following wellness events:

• Lunch and Learn: Healthy Attachments in Relationships:: Noon - 1 p.m. on Thursday, July 21, in Wilson Hall's Curia II conference room.
• Qi Gong, Mindfulness & Tai Chi Easy: Noon-12:45 p.m. on Fridays in the Wilson Hall Auditorium. Free.

Club meetings:
Toastmasters: Noon-1 p.m. on Thursdays, July 1 and July 15 in the Racetrack conference room, WH7. Learn more

Athletic leagues:

• Ultimate Frisbee: 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Village soccer field. Contact Joe at cooljoe@fnal.gov for more information.
• Open badminton: 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Recreation Facility Gym membership is required. For more information contact Aaron at achou@fnal.gov

Employees and users can also contact the Recreation Department to take advantage of special discounts, including:

• AMC and Goodrich Theater tickets: AMC tickets $8. AMC two-week restriction tickets $7. Goodrich tickets $7.
• Rosati's Pizza of Batavia offers Fermilab employees a 20 percent discount on pizzas and 15 percent off other menu items.
• Fermilab Days at Six Flags Great America will take place on June 26, July 3, 4, 5 and 31, August 1, 7 or 8. Tickets are available online for $26. Visit sixflags.com, choose Six Flags Great America park, and enter the promo code (Fermi) in the upper right hand corner. Any day tickets are available for $33 online.
• Country House Geneva is offering a 20 percent discount on food items Monday through Thursday after 4:30 p.m. in July. Discount offered to Fermilab employees only with badge. Not valid with other offers. Does not include alcohol, tax or gratuity.

The other U.S. energy crisis: Lack of R&D

From Business Weekly, June 17, 2010

R&D neglect is holding back innovative energy technologies

BP says it's throwing its best people at stopping the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Nevertheless, it took an outsider-Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who has a Nobel Prize in physics-to come up with the idea of peering inside the malfunctioning blowout preventer with high-energy gamma rays. BP tried Chu's idea-after a few snickers and Incredible Hulk jokes, according to the Washington Post-and lo and behold, it worked. The probe was "crucial in helping us understand what is happening inside the BOP [blowout preventer] and informing the approach moving ahead," said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

The gamma ray incident is symptomatic of a problem that's bigger than London-based BP: Energy companies worldwide are far less science-oriented than one might expect from an industry that is heavily dependent on technology for safety and profit. In the U.S., energy companies' spending on research, development, and deployment amounts to just 0.3 percent of sales. That's barely more than a tenth what the auto industry spends as a share of sales and is dwarfed by the pharmaceutical industry, which spends nearly 19 percent of sales. (American Petroleum Institute chief economist John Felmy says R&D measures understate his industry's "overall investment for the future.")

Read more