COMMUNITY ALERTS
Microwave Safety
Dear Friends
Thought I should share this safety alert which I
received from a friend with you.
About five days ago my 26-year old son decided to have
a cup of instant coffee. He took a cup of water and
put it in the microwave to heat it up (something that
he had done numerous times before).
I am not sure how long he set the timer for but he
told me he wanted to bring the water to a boil. When
the timer shut the oven off, he removed the cup from
the oven.
As he looked into the cup he noted that the water was
not boiling but instantly the water in the cup "blew
up" into his face. The cup remained intact until he
threw it out of his hand but all the water had flew
out into his face due to the buildup of energy. His
whole face is blistered and he has 1st and 2nd degree
burns to his face which may leave scarring. He also
may have lost partial sight in his left eye.
While at the hospital, the doctor who was attending to
him stated that this a fairly common occurrence and
water (alone) should never be heated in a microwave
oven. If water is heated in this manner, something
should be placed in the cup to diffuse the energy such
as a wooden stir stick, tea bag, etc. It is however a
much safer choice to boil the water in a tea kettle.
Please pass this information on to friends and family.
Mike J Tucker
Safety/Security Officer
For the women in my life...IMPORTANT
This was forwarded to me from a friend who's sister is in the FBI
in Florida. Guys and gals, you really should read all of this!
Read and pass to other women - it will make you stop and think.
Loren
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I have to share some things I have learned in my job with you. In
my job, I review criminal and psychiatric files of imprisoned sex
offenders who are approaching their release de. I decide if they are
likely to re-offend based on certain criteria and then civilly commit
them to a sex offender treatment facility if I decide that they are at
significant risk to re-offend.
I have read hundreds and hundreds of files, and have taken note of
some of the mistakes women make. Let me preface this by saying that a
woman is NEVER EVR EVER at fault for being raped or attacked, but here
are definitely ways to reduce your risk of being a victim.
Here are the most common mistakes women make that could result in
them getting kidnapped, attacked, and/or raped:
1. Getting into the attacker's car when he pulls a gun and orders you
to get into his vehicle. Most attackers don't want to shoot you
... they want you to get into the car so that they can drive you to a
deserted place and torture you. Don't comply. Run screaming. It is
MUCH more likely than not that he will just move on to an easier
target.
2. Pulling over when a man drives alongside of you pointing at your
car pretending something is wrong.
If this happens, drive to the nearest well-lit and populated gas
station and look the car over yourself (or ask an attendant). Never
pull over. Believe it or not, many women have fallen for this for
fear of their car spontaneously exploding in the middle of the road.
Not likely.
3. Not locking your doors while driving. I have read several cases
where the attacker simply walks up to a woman's car while she's at a
traffic light and jumps in with his gun or knife drawn.
4. Opening your front door when you have not positively identified
who is there.
If you don't have a peep hole, get one.
I've seen countless cases where the attacker gains access to his
victims simply by knocking on their door. Don't let an attacker get
into your home. He then has a private, relatively soundproof place to
attack you.
5. Not being alert in parking lots.
If you go to the grocery store at night, don't be shy about asking
for an escort to your car. Too many women are abducted from parking
lots or even raped in the parking lot. Look in your back seat before
entering your car. Cars provide endless hiding places for attackers,
both inside them and in between them.
Be aware of your surroundings by looking to the left and right and
behind you with your head up all the time. You may appear paranoid and
look funny to others, but an attacker will think twice about
approaching someone who appears so aware of what's going on.
6. Trusting a clean cut, honest looking stranger.
I see mug shots of every sex offender in the state of Florida.
They do not look like monsters. They often look like they could be
your friendly grocer, bank teller, waiter, neighbor, clergy, doctor,
etc. They are every age between 15 and 90, and probably beyond. Only
a small minority actually look scary.
I just read a case yesterday of a man with only one leg who beat up
his victim with his crutch before he raped her. Who would have ever
thought that a one-legged man could be a rapist?
7. Trusting people to be alone with your children.
This is a difficult one, because child molesters end up being the
LAST person the parents would believe is the molester. Most of the
child molesting cases I see involve the stepfather, the uncle, the
sister's boyfriend, the mother's boyfriend, the grandfather, the
baby-sitter, the neighbor, the family friend, the youth camp director,
day care worker, etc. Although rare, even women can be molesters. In
every case, the perpetrator is a nice guy, trusting, good with
children, and the family is affled or even in disbelief that the
person could be abusing their child. When it comes to your children
and grandchildren, be suspicious of everyone, no matter who they are.
And pay attenon to what your child says and how he/she reacts to
the mention of different people in their lives.
I didn't mean to make anyone uncomfortable with this, but I am at
work right now reviewing files, and realized that this email is a way
I can reach many women at one time. I have the dirty job of reading all
these files, and it makes me feel good to know that I can share some
inferences from what I have learned. This is not an exhaustive list
of what not to do, but just some things that I have observed more than
justfew times.
Pass this on to the women in your lives.
Captain Ted Lieu's
Article
Subject: You won another round for us and our children
Because you responded to our call, the system responded. Because you pour
in e-mail letters to Washington Post regarding Ted Lieu's article, The
Washington Post decided to have Ted's article published all over the USA.
The following letter may bring you immense inner satisfaction.
- - - -
>Dear Capt. Lieu,
>Thanks for your note; I'm glad to see your op-ed piece got such a broad
>response. The Washington Post-L.A. Times News Service, which goes to
>hundreds of papers, will be sending your article out on the wire. . .
>
>Best,
>Ken Ikenberry
- - - - - - - -
Ikenberry is the Editorial Page editor of Washington Post.
The following article by Ted Lieu, a supporter of 80-20, was
published in the op-ed section of Washington Post yesterday
(6/19/99). Read the first paragraph, I'll bet that you will not stop
reading it until the very end.
TOGETHER, we shal overcome.
SB
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A QUESTION OF LOYALTY
By Ted W. Lieu*
"Are you in the Chinese Air Force?" the elegantly-dressed lady
sitting next to me asked. For a moment I was left speechless. We
were at an awards dinner and I was proudly wearing my blue
United States Air Force uniform, complete with captain's bars,
military insignia, and medals. Her question jarred me and made
me realize that even Air Force blue was not enough to reverse her
initial presumption that people with yellow skin and Asian features
are somehow not Americans. I wish this was just an isolated
incident. Unfortunately, too many people today still view Asian
Americans as foreigners in America.
I have been told countless times that I speak "good" English. I
have had strangers come up to me and attempt to mimic the
Chinese or Japanese language in a derogatory manner. I have been
asked why a chink such as I would be interested in watching NFL
football.
The majority of the discrimination I have encountered all
center on the view that I am a foreigner, that I am not part of this
country, even though I grew up in Ohio, attended college in
California, and was commissioned as an officer in the United States
Air Force in 1991. This presumption that I am a foreigner does not
appear to apply to the same degree to other Americans. When we
see someone of African, German, Hispanic, Irish, or Russian origin,
for instance, we usually do not assume they are foreigners or
tourists in this country. On any given day, if I walk around with a
camera, I will be mistaken as a tourist from Asia.
Perhaps this "foreigner-syndrome" is so prevalent because it
has deep historical roots. From the early days of our country's
history, Asian Americans were thought of as foreign, different, and
unable to assimilate. Over one hundred years ago, in 1889, the
United States Supreme Court, in the case of Chae Chan Ping v.
United States, upheld the exclusion and expulsion of Chinese
immigrants. The Court declared that Chinese immigrants
"remained strangers in the land, residing apart by themselves, and
adhering to the customs and usages of their own country. It
seemed impossible for them to assimilate with our people[.]" The
Court ruled that because "the United States . . . considers the
presence of foreigners of a different race in this country, who will
not assimilate with us, to be dangerous to its peace and security,
their exclusion is not to be stayed[.]"
In 1912, then presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson
announced, "In the matter of Chinese and Japanese coolie
immigration, I stand for the national policy of exclusion. We
cannot make a homogeneous population of a people who do not
blend with the Caucasian race." In 1942, the United States
government rounded up thousands of Japanese Americans and
forcibly relocated them into internment camps based on the
irrational fear that Japanese Americans were somehow loyal to
Japan, rather than the Unitd States.
Even today, the struggle for acceptance of Asian Americans
is not over. During the 1998 Winter Olympics, figure skater
Michelle Kwan won the silver medal and Tara Lipinski won the
gold. Ms. Kwan grew up in Southern California and is one of the
stars of the US Olympic Figure Skating team. Nevertheless, the
headlines the next day on MS-NBC read: "American beats Kwan."
In 1982, two autoworkers in Detroit beat a Chinese-American,
Vincent Chin, to death with a baseball bat because they viewed him
as a Japanese foreigner who was taking away their jobs.
Sometimes the discrimination is more subtle than a
blatant headline or a hate crime, but it can still be just as
insidious. A few days after the bombing of the Chinese Embassy, a
local news station sent a reporter to interview Chinese Americans to
get the Chinese-American response. It was clear by his questions
that the reporter was attempting to elicit some sort of anti-
American sentiment. The erroneous presumption, however, is that
Chinese Americans are somehow linked to the government of
China. Why would a Chinese American, like me, who has never
even set foot in Beijing, have any different response to the bombing
than, say, an Italian American? I also point out that after the
tragic gondola accident in Italy, which occurred when a United
States Marine jet accidentally severed the gondola cable, the same
news station did not ask for the Italian-American response.
This subtle rationale linking Chinese Americans to the
government of China, when carried to an extreme, is the same
insidious rationale that justified the United States government's
action of interning Japanese Americans during World War II. When
a minority group is improperly linked to a foreign country, that
linkage fundamentally calls into question their loyalty, their
citizenship, their "Americaness." Unfortunately, Asian Americans,
more so than many other minority groups, have been saddled with
the burden of having to prove our loyalty to this nation.
Incidents involving a few isolated Asian Americans have
unfortunately highlighted this burden and provoked a backlash
against all Asian Americans. I do not know if Wen Ho Lee, the
Chinese-American scientist who was fired from Los Alamos National
Laboratory, is guilty of espionage or not. But I do know that the
over 300,000 Asian-American scientists and engineers certainly are
not guilty of anything more than having an Asian surname.
And their Asian surname has been enough to bring about
heightened scrutiny, derision, and outright discrimination. A Los
Angeles Times news article reported that an Asian-American lab
employee was asked if he had "dual loyalties;" that snickering and
laughter broke out in a roomful of computer users when an Asian
American was introduced to lead a session on computer security;
and that many Asian-American scientists now express fear they will
face obstacles to their career progression.
Similarly, the campaign finance scandal involving just a
few Asian Americans led political parties and campaigns to
question the validity of any donor with an Asian-American
surname. I certainly do not condone those few individuals who
broke campaign finance laws. But it is wrong to brand the over ten
million hard-working, tax-paying, and deeply loyal Asian
Americans in this country based on the actions of a few
individuals.
America is a nation founded by immigrants and built on
the ideal that anyone can be an American if they believe in the
principles and values of the United States Constitution. Indeed,
the Vietnamese-American immigrant who does not yet speak
English that well, but is starting a small business and believes in
freedom and democracy, is much more American to me than a
fifth-generation midwestern Caucasian who blew up a federal
building because he had a problem with federalism.
It is time to reverse the irrational and insidious
presumption that Asian Americans are foreigners, have dual
loyalties, or are somehow linked to the government of a foreign
country. As an officer in the United States Air Force, one day I may
be called to give my life to my country. It would be a shame if
some people still question what I mean when I say "my country."
* Ted W. Lieu is a Captain in the United States Air Force. The views
expressed herein are his own and are not to be taken as the official
views of the United States Air Force.
W32/ExploreZip.worm Virus
This note is to let you know about a new virus that is spreading through
the network called "W32/ExploreZip.worm". There isn't much out on it yet
but it is said to be like the Melissa virus, where it spreads by sending
itself to others via Outlook. Right now there isn't a detection for it so
we felt we should let you know about it just in case you receive an email
that fits the description of the virus (see below). We would appreciate it
if you could inform your users about this. If anyone receives an email
that they think might contain this virus, please do not open the attached "ZIP"
file(s). You should then contact your local helpdesk immediately for
verification.
If you send email to a user who happens to be infected with this virus you
will receive an email back containing the following text (or something
very similar):
Hi 'your last name',
I received your email and I shall send you a reply ASAP.
Till then, take a look at the attached zipped docs.
DO NOT attempt to open the ZIP file(s)! Opening the ZIP file(s) will
infect your workstation. Once infected, any person sending you mail will receive
the same email containing the infected ZIP. Again, if you receive a email that
looks like this, please contact your local help desk immediately.
SECRETARY RICHARDSON LETTER TO NATIONAL LAB DIRECTORS
With due diligence, the 80-20 Initiative has obtained a copy of
Secretary Richardson's Directive of May 19, 1999 to Directors of
National Laboratories. Secretary Richardson made a very clear and
strong statement. We thank him. We also thank Asst. Secretary of
Energy, Robert Gee, who helped expedite the sending of the
Directive.
If you work for a national lab., you may want to download
the Directive below and have it pasted on your door so that no one
in your workplace will look or treat you differently because of the
alleged espionage. Anyone who discriminates against you should
be subject to disciplinary action from your lab., given the
statement in the strongest terms from Secretary Richardson.
If you have friends or relatives who work in national labs,
please forward the following to them. Thank you.
- - - - -
MEMORANDUM FOR HEADS OF DEPARTMENTAL ELEMENTS
DIRECTORS, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
NATIONAL LABORATORIES
FROM: BILL RICHARDSON (signed)
SUBJECT: Asian Pacific American Concerns
I recently had meetings with several of the national leaders of the
Asian pacific American community. These leaders expressed their
concerns that Asian Pacific Americans as a group were finding their
loyalty and patriotism questioned in the wake of the espionage
allegations. I also met with Asian Pacific Americans scientists
working in our Laboratories who relayed their concerns about
discrimination or racial profiling.
Early last month, I issued a very clear statement that any actions of
one individual are not a reflection on any other American citizen.
I would like to state in the strongest possible terms that I will not
tolerate racial profiling at the Department of Energy or at any of its
Laboratories. Please ensure that this message is delivered in the
clearest possible terms to each and every employee in your
organization.
As a Hispanic American, I have felt the painful sting of offhand
bigotry and thoughtless generalizations. I am attaching a copy of
my remarks that I delivered before the Committee of 100 in New
York City on April 30, 1999 *. Please take the time to read these
remarks and share the message they convey with your employees.
Attachment
* The attachment is very long. The 80-20 Initiative is not
providing it.
(5/28/99)
FOOD POISONING
This is not an urban myth. This is about
food poisoning - SaraLee products and they are listed below.
Melody Chen
Hi everyone!
This is very real. My "adopted" sister, Lee Falcone is currently in
the hospital suffering from severe dehydration, vomiting, as well as
other serious symptoms. Her entire family came down with this, but she
was the most severely hit..
Please check out your food!
take care
Tish
-
This is real and is verified please read.
Peter A. Coughlin
Lucent Technologies
Express Segment Marketing
Front Market Demand Creation
908-953-3213 Voice & Fax
The following products by SARA LEE have been recalled nationwide:
BALL PARK FRANKS
MR. TURKEY COLD CUTS
HYGRADE FRANKS
The organism "Listeria" has been found in some of these products and
11 deaths have been reported, 2 miscarriages, and 1 stillbirth. If
you have any of these products in your home, return them for a refund
or discard them immediately.
I encourage every reader to pass this along to as many people as
possible.
This is very serious, and you may be able to help prevent someone from
eating these products!
Thanks
REF: Sara Lee
News
BEWARE
True message-- Not a joke.
"I received a telephone call today from an individual identifying himself
as an ATT Service Technician who was conducting a test on our telephone
lines. He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine (9), zero
(0), the pound sign (#) and then hang up. I was suspicious and refused.
Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#,
you give the requesting individual full access to your telephone line,
which allows them to place long distance telehpone calls billed to your
phone number. I was further informed that this scam has been originating
from many of the local jails/prisons. I have also verified this
information with UCB telecomm, Pacific Bell, MCI, Bell Atlantic, GTE and
NYNEX. Please beware. DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE.
The Security Department requested that I share this information
with EVERYONE I KNOW. PLEASE pass this on to everyone YOU know. If you
have mailing lists and /or newsletters from organizations you are
connected with, I encourage you to pass this information to them, too."
I have checked this information out myself - a Bell Atlantic
representative told me that the only way to disconnect from having given
access to your phone line [by dialling 90# and hanging up] is to dial zero
(0) and ask the operator to disconnnect the access.
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