Friday, Oct. 9, 1998
The Laboratory will be closed Monday, Oct.
12,
in observance of Columbus Day
Lab/JCNNM join forces to help Dixon Elementary School
A
close-up photo shows some of the books lost during a fire Sept. 17 at the
Dixon Elementary School's library. The fire destroyed the library a computer
laboratory and thousands of books, magazines and equipment. A State Fire
Marshal's Office investigation into the origin of the fire is continuing.
Photo by Mike Kolb, Community Relations (CRO) Office
Late in the evening of Sept. 17, Dixon Elementary School's library was destroyed in a fire that caused what the school's principal said was an estimated $750,000 in damage.
Counselor's offices, custodial and storage rooms also were damaged. The State Fire Marshal's Office is continuing to investigate the "suspicious" fire.
The loss is being felt all around Northern New Mexico, including in Los Alamos, where Laboratory employees and subcontract personnel, through the efforts of the Community Relations (CRO) Office, Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico, the Business Operations (BUS) Division and other organizations, have joined together to collect books and donations to help begin the rebuilding process.
A move is underway to relocate at least two transportable buildings to the school in northern Rio Arriba County for temporary use.
A Dixon Elementary book fund drive was set up last week during the 1999 Laboratory/Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico United Way kickoff. Some 25 boxes of books and nearly $1,000 in cash and checks have poured into the fund, said Tonya Suazo of CRO.
Employees and subcontract personnel can donate books or make financial donations this week by calling Suazo at 7-5774.
"People have brought in sets of encyclopedias, for children and adults," said Suazo. "It has just been amazing to me how Laboratory employees have come together to help Dixon Elementary School rebuild its library."
The fire destroyed 4,096 library books, numerous text books, 42 reference books, 295 dictionaries, 292 charts, maps, globes, teaching aids,15 IBM computers, two overhead projectors and two screens.
Computer software, four computer desks in the computer lab, about five teacher's desks and student desks also were damaged or destroyed in the fire.
Insurance should cover the replacement of some of these items. But the school will need some assistance to install new computers and set up its electronic card cataloging system in its library.
Dixon Elementary School Principal Gene Martinez said students are adjusting well to the loss. "They're doing all right," he said.
A school assembly on Wednesday will included talks about fire safety -- and the devastating fire -- by Dixon Fire Chief Carl Berghofer and school counselors, said Martinez.
"The older kids have asked me about it. The fire was almost adjacent to my classroom," said Martinez, who also doubles as the school's second grade teacher. "My kids were curious about it. They didn't seem to be afraid. I didn't notice anything drastic. They didn't ask too many questions . . . The parents have done a good job explaining what happened."
Martinez met recently with Floyd Archuleta of CRO; Archuleta wanted to find out how the Lab could help the school. "I was surprised because I didn't know of any such program [at the Lab]," said Martinez. "I was appreciative that people came down to my office to meet with us. I really appreciate things like this. It's a good gesture on the Lab's part. We're really thankful to all the people in your organizations," he said.
"I did not realize there was that much damage . . . the building, in my opinion, was completely lost," said Archuleta. "You feel for those children . . . as you walk into the building, there's the odor of burned material."
Archuleta said Mike Shepherd of Johnson Controls Northern New Mexico is working with the Lab to locate transportable buildings that can be moved to the school, which needs temporary storage space.
"This is what the Lab is all about in terms of wanting to be a good neighbor to the communities," said Archuleta. "This is the way we've been brought up in Northern New Mexico, to be there for our neighbors when they need help."
Virginia Griego, secretary at the school, said, "To see the building standing there burned was very, very sad and depressing. Very emotional."
The fire forced cancellation of classes for a week at the 73-student kindergarten through sixth-grade school, which was built in the 1930s and has had subsequent additions.
Griego said students will have to make up the lost school days to comply with state law that requires students receive 180 days of classroom instruction.
Dixon resident Anthony Rendon of Communication Arts and Services (CIC-1) said, "It's in really bad shape," referring to the school's library. "It's a great loss. I went to school there years ago. It's pretty hard on the kids. It's a good school."
Rendon said Dixon residents also are collecting books and coordinating volunteer efforts to clean up and start what could be a lengthy rebuilding process.
Patricia Garcia, Dixon Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization president, has two boys who attended the school and a third-grade daughter at the school. She also teaches at Española Middle School. "When I got up that morning I could smell smoke. We got a phone call at home . . . I didn't expect it to be as damaged as it was," she said, referring to the library. "I was depressed, disappointed, thought about what the children would do.
"My daughter, Robyn, was real happy that she had saved one book. She had it in her backpack," said Garcia.
Still, despite the damage, Garcia also thinks the students are adjusting well. "They know people have been very generous in terms of donating things," said Garcia. "That has what has impressed me the most."
Archuleta added that the Lab also will provide whatever technical assistance it can to the school.
--Steve Sandoval
Dixon Elementary School Principal Gene Martinez, right, talks with Floyd Archuleta of the Laboratory's Community Relations (CRO) Office inside the burned out library at Dixon Elementary School. Photo by Mike Kolb, Community Relations (CRO) Office
Lab home page named one of the '50 Best of the Web'
for 1998
The Laboratory's electronic web page has been named one of Popular Science magazine's "50 Best of the Web" for 1998.
"For the past three years, Popular Science has published a list of Internet sites that impress our editors in our monthly Web Watch column," said Cecilia Wessner, executive editor of the magazine. "Recognizing the best of these sites with an annual award seemed like a natural extension of our editorial coverage."
This year's award-winning sites are featured in the September issue of Popular Science.
The Lab's web page is primarily produced by a team of members from three groups: Communication Arts and Services (CIC-1), Customer Service (CIC-6) and Distributed Computing (CIC-8).
The Lab's home page is five years old and was redesigned last year, along with the supporting web pages. The home page can be reached at www.lanl.gov.
Other science-oriented web sites listed in Popular Science's 50 best include the MIT Media Lab, Bell Labs Innovations, IBM Research and Sandia National Laboratories.
Popular Science, which specializes in covering cutting-edge technology, is a 1.8 million-circulation magazine published in New York City by Times Mirror Magazines. Regular features, in addition to science, include electronics, computer hardware and software, home technology, and automotive.
--William Heimbach
Eliseo Torres of the University of New Mexico brought his traveling green medicine show to the Laboratory's Physics Building Auditorium Wednesday to talk about herbal medicinals and "green medicine." The table contained a number of herbs that practitioners of green medicine use to treat a variety of ailments. Torres' talk is part of the Lab's Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, which continues through mid-October. For more information about Hispanic Heritage Month activities at the Lab, go to http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/dvo/hdwg/hhmonth.html online. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez
'Green medicine' subject of Hispanic Heritage Month talk
All those men rushing out to buy Viagra should save their money and just go see Eliseo Torres at the University of New Mexico.
During a talk Wednesday Torres told a nearly full Physics Building Auditorium that centuries ago, our ancestors used "sexogil," or ginkgo bilboa, to give their love life a jumpstart. Torres, UNM's vice president of Student Affairs, called these herbal medicinals "the original Viagra."
"My grandfather used to use this before it was popular," said Torres. The secret to its success? Torres said he thinks it may have had something to do with adding some vodka.
If you want to win the lottery or be successful in bingo, Torres recommends "atrayente de dinero" perfume. Torres said when a couple of drops are rubbed on a person's hand and behind an ear, the user will come into money. At least that's what curanderos and curanderas and others who use these traditional herbal medicinals believe, he said.
After Torres' talk, many in the audience lined up on both sides of the auditorium stage to be rubbed with "atrayente de dinero" perfume, which loosely translated in English is bring the money, he said.
Torres spoke about "green medicine" as part of the Laboratory's celebration of national Hispanic Heritage Month. The theme for the Laboratory's Hispanic Heritage Month observance is "400 Years of Technology in New Mexico: A Cuarto Centenario Commemorative."
And if the Spaniards wanted to lose weight, they used an herb called "Tlanchalagua," which is really a diuretic for helping to rid the body of fluids, said Torres.
Torres brought his traveling green medicine show to the Lab as part of his talk. On a long table on the auditorium stage, Torres laid out a number of herbs, tinctures and perfumes made out of roots, stems and leaves of plants, and trees.
Torres has studied curanderas; "sobaderos," or masseuses; hierbas; and other traditional medicinals for more than 20 years. He noted that one side of his two-car garage at home is full to the ceiling with boxes of herbs he has collected during his travels and through research. "The tradition is still here today," said Torres.
Green medicine, Torres said, dates back centuries. He noted that in 1552, a Spaniard, Martin de la Cruz, published a journal of 251 medicinal plants. The journal was in Spanish and was later translated into Latin. It included illustrations of how the plants were used.
The journal was lost for years, Torres said but recently recovered. When Pope John Paul II traveled to Mexico earlier this decade, he presented it to the people of Mexico, said Torres.
"Sometimes we wonder where our grandmothers learned these things," said Torres. "Well, a lot of it was passed on by word of mouth."
A key ingredient for some of the traditional herbs is faith, said Torres. "Faith plays a very important role," he said. "If you have faith you'll leave the hospital earlier."
Today, the use of herbs and what were once considered traditional medicines is a $14 billion-a-year business. "These are plants, weeds. These used to cost you nothing," said Torres. "You could find them all over . . . here in Los Alamos," he said.
Traditional curanderas used all or parts of plants, including leaves, roots, stems and even seeds, said Torres. The key was knowing how to use them -- if not used properly they could be poisonous -- and knowing when to harvest them. He explained that the potency of some herbs depended on when it was harvested.
Torres also talked about some plants that are harvested for use as liniments and medicinals, such as aloe vera. He noted the Seminole Indians used aloe vera as far back as 333 B.C., and that there are more than 200 species of aloe vera. It is commonly used today to soothe burns, but can be ingested to treat ulcers or other stomach ailments.
And "cota," a Navajo tea, is used as a diuretic. "It's sort of a cure-all plant," said Torres.
He also noted that herbs such as manzanilla, flor de tila, St. John's Wort and valerian are used often in teas to relieve stress or help people sleep.
Torres also created laughter when he said the reason garlic helps keep people healthy is because of its odor. "If you eat garlic you smell so bad people stay away from you," he laughed.
Aceite vibora, or snake oil in English, is used to relieve aches and pains and for arthritis when used as a liniment, he said.
Torres also talked about "Mal de Ojo," or the evil eye. He said people in Spain believed that their babies would get mal de ojo when adults looked at their child but didn't touch them. This would cause babies to become feverish and sick. Curanderas or traditional medicine men or women will rub a fertile egg on the baby from head to toe, said Torres, and make the sign of the cross all over the baby. The next day, the egg would be tossed across the road and the baby would be rid of mal de ojo. "The psychological effect is just wonderful," said Torres.
"I've had mothers come to my home at 3 in the morning and tell me 'you gave my baby mal de ojo. You didn't touch my baby,' " he said. "So I would say 'I'm sorry,' and I would take the baby in my arms and touch it and kiss it . . ."
Hispanic Heritage Month activities continue on Wednesday when archaeologist Brad Vierra of Ecology (ESH-20) will talk about the findings of his archaeological excavation of a campsite in the late 1980s near the Coronado Monument in Bernalillo. Vierra's talk begins at 11:45 a.m. in the Department of Energy's Los Alamos Area Office conference room at Technical Area 43.
Hispanic Heritage Month activities at the Laboratory conclude Oct. 17 with a banquet to generate scholarship funds for MANA Del Norte, IMAGE de Los Alamos and the Society of Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists, or MAES. The banquet is in the Cities of Gold Hotel in Pojoaque. Admission is $25.
The keynote speaker at the banquet is Santiago Rodriguez, an independent management and marketing consultant who has been involved in civil rights, community and diversity issues for more than 25 years.
For more information about Hispanic Heritage Month activities at the Lab, go to http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/dvo/hdwg/hhmonth.html online.
--Steve Sandoval
BUS-5 issues scam alert
It has recently come to the attention of Procurement (BUS-5) that individuals identifying themselves as representatives of International Supply Co., International Data Supply and Laser Express have been using false information to try to obtain Laboratory business. For more information and what to do if you are contacted by these individuals, see a master management memo.
NM Legislature's Indian Affairs Committee given opportunity to discuss their perspectives
Director John Browne, right, shares a laugh with Sen. John Pinto, D-McKinley and San Juan, left, and Leroy Apodaca, center, leader of the Lab's Community Relations (CR) Office, before a meeting of the New Mexico Legislature's Indian Affairs Committee Thursday in the Otowi Cafeteria side dining rooms. Browne later spoke before the committee on issues involving Lab outreach, regional economic development, scholarship programs, the Laboratory Foundation and other issues. The meeting gave area tribes an opportunity to discuss their perspectives regarding Laboratory activities and follows on the heels of a recent visit by Browne with the leaders of New Mexico's Eight Northern Pueblos. The Indian Affairs Committee is comprised of 14 New Mexico legislators. In addition to hearing Browne speak, committee members heard presentations by other Lab officials on topics ranging from employment to the environment. Photo by James E. Rickman
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