Most employees are used to seeing turkeys, deer, hawks, and lizards as they walk around the Lab’s beautiful natural surroundings, but some IT staff in Building 69 recently happened upon a more rare sighting. Looking out their windows they spied a mother fox and her two babies. While the mom preferred not to be photographed, the kits stayed in view while Rob Macfarlane (who shot the image above), Carole Casaretto, and Thanasis Bothos took pictures. “All of us in Business Systems watched the antics from our second-floor windows, which made a perfect observation spot,” said Casaretto. “The pups played and slept there nearly all day. What a fantastic place to work!” Go here to view other fox images the group took.
Julian Borrill (left), Christopher Cantalupo (center) and Theodore Kisner of the Lab's Computational Cosmology Center (C3) are being honored with a NASA Public Service Group Award for developing the supercomputing infrastructure for the U.S. Planck Team’s data and analysis operations at the Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). C3 is a joint center of the Berkeley Lab's Computational Research and Physics Divisions. More>
[Contra Costa Times] University of California librarians are urging professors not to submit research to Nature or 66 related journals to protest a 400-percent increase in the publisher's prices. A new contract with Nature Publishing Group would raise the university's subscription costs by more than $1 million, library and faculty leaders wrote in a letter this week to professors throughout the 10-campus system. The so-called publish-or-perish structure is fundamentally unfair to professors, said Michael Eisen, a Berkeley Lab biologist who refuses to publish his research group's work in the Nature group's journals and is co-founder of PLoS. More>
A story on this topic also appeared in The Scientist and includes a quote by Berkeley Lab chemical scientist Alex Bell.
IT: Talk on Top 10 Things Staff Should Know About Google Calendar Transition The Lab will be migrating from Oracle Calendar to Google Calendar during the weekend of July 31. Interested calendar users and Google Guides are invited to attend a one-hour seminar from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Building 50 Auditorium to hear about the calendar transition, including observations concerning the success of trial data migrations from Oracle to Google.
Tech Transfer: Lab Sponsors Researcher for Free Entrepreneurship Academy The Lab will send one researcher to this year's Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy hosted at UC Davis, June 28-July 2. The academy offers a hands-on learning experience covering the crucial steps of moving technology to a start-up company. The sponsorship covers the tuition, accommodation, and meals. Those interested in attending can contact Shanshan Li (x5366). More>
People: OCFO Employee Wins Zimride Target Gift Certificate In April, the Lab’s Zimride ridesharing program hosted a contest to celebrate Earth Day, with the winner getting a $50 gift certificate for Target. Lab staff had to register with the service by April 22 to be entered into a drawing for the gift certificate. The winner was Rose Hoffman of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO). Zimride is an online service that enables commuters to find or provide rides to various destinations. Employees can use the service to catch a ride with colleagues or provide a seat in their own car. Riders split the cost with those who drive. Ridesharing not only lessens the negative impact on the environment but also helps ease the limited parking available at the Lab. Go here for more.
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