From joeha@microsoft.com Tue Mar 22 18:35 PST 1994 Return-Path: Received: from blaze.csci.csusb.edu by silicon.csci.csusb.edu (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA07591; Tue, 22 Mar 94 18:35:00 PST Received: from netmail2.microsoft.com by blaze.csci.csusb.edu (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03) id AA22985; Tue, 22 Mar 1994 18:06:53 -0800 Received: by netmail2.microsoft.com (5.65/25-eef) id AA03624; Tue, 22 Mar 94 18:29:23 -0800 Received: by netmail2 using fxenixd 1.0 Tue, 22 Mar 94 18:29:23 PST From: joeha@microsoft.com Message-Id: <9403230229.AA03624@netmail2.microsoft.com> X-Msmail-Message-Id: A42D1950 X-Msmail-Conversation-Id: A42D1950 To: joeha@microsoft.com Date: Tue, 22 Mar 94 18:15:31 PST Subject: WhiteBoard News Content-Type: text Content-Length: 4655 Status: RO WhiteBoard News for March 22, 1994 Saratoga Springs, New York: Laughter is big business, as companies seek ways to break office tension. Companies are increasingly hiring humor consultants to help reduce employee stress and burnout. "Everyone uses the expression 'Someday we'll laugh about this.' Why wait?" says Joel Goodman, director of the Humor Project in Saratoga Springs. He suggests workers pretend they are Allen Funt, of Candid Camera fame, for five minutes a day to find humor in stressful situations. Businesses put cartoon bulletin boards near elevators and play funny videotapes in staff lounges. Some managers wear "Save Time: See It My Way" buttons, while some workers keep props on desks like medicine bottles labeled "Extra Strength Screw-It-All." Ben & Jerry's, which has celebrated Barry Manilow's and Elvis's birthdays, maintains an employee committee dedicated to increasing workplace happiness. It is called the Joy Gang. ========== Chicago, Illinois: To promote its new lowfare Peanuts Flights in Chicago, Continental Airlines rounded up Chicago-area residents with the surname Nutt. Earlier this month, the 30-odd Nutts cut a 25-foot ceremonial ribbon made of peanuts to announce the new service. ========== New York, New York: Job seekers in Pic'n Pay shoe stores must dial an 800 number and answer a 100-question interview via phone mail. A computer compiles responses to the yes/no questions, even measuring how many seconds it takes to answer such queries as "To get a job, would you lie?" Pic'n Pay says the system allows it to centralize personnel operations and ensure no one is asked illegal questions. ========== Greenbrier, Arkansas: Elephants are not what one ordinarily expects to find on a 300-acre wooded farm in central Arkansas. Hogs, perhaps. Old yellow dogs, maybe. Elephants, no. But this is the '90s, and strange things are happening all over, so there they are: elephants in Arkansas. The name -- Riddle's Elephant Breeding Farm & Wildlife Sanctuary -- pretty much says it all. There is a serious point to the sanctuary, the protection and promulgation of an endangered species. Visitors are welcome, and so is a donation, which is tax-deductible. Guests can expect to watch this small herd "rubbing on the trees." If the timing is right, actual breeding might take place. In the fall, the elephants are hand-massaged with vegetable oil. While it is not explained whether this is a pre-procreative ritual with erogenous overtones or merely a hedge against unexpected cold weather -- college students flock to help slather on the oil from 55-gallon drums. All in all, it sounds like a frisky day. Also, the Riddles want a larger herd, so any and all unused elephants can be sent the sanctuary. Postpaid please. ========== Mount Wilson, California: For the first time, the public now has access to a computer-controlled research telescope. From a home computer, anyone can dial the Mount Wilson Observatory outside Los Angeles and point the facility's 24-inch telescope at planets, galaxies, comets, even tongues of fire on the sun. Stephen Bisque was the first to try the technology. Last August, he used his computer to instruct the telescope to swivel and lock onto the globular cluster M14. He then snapped a four-second exposure, using the telescope's charge-coupled-device camera, which translates measurements of light intensity into a computer image. A few minutes later, M14 popped onto his screen. The technology is now available to other skygazers. "Eventually, anyone using a telephone line, desktop computer, software, and modem will be able to download high-quality images of nebulae, stars, and galaxies from world-renowned observatories," predicts Bisque, whose company developed the SkyPro software that is used to access the Mount Wilson telescope. Observatory director Robert Jastrow hopes the project will increase students' interest in science. It has been tested in high schools in the United States, Japan and England. The schools will have free access, but the general public will have to pay about $100 an hour to defray operating expenses. Amateurs who buy chunks of time to study an object may even produce professional-quality work, says Sallie Baliunas, a Harvard University astronomer on the Mount Wilson staff. And if there is great demand to use the telescope, amateurs will learn about something professional astronomers are already familiar with: waiting for viewing time. ========== Chow SuperChef WhiteBoard News Service Bureau Chef To subscribe please email: JoeHa (Joseph Harper) joeha@microsoft.com microsoft!joeha@uunet.uu.net