3.175 dangers of CRTs; job advert (92)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Mon, 26 Jun 89 19:35:09 EDT


Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 175. Monday, 26 Jun 1989.


(1) Date: 25 Jun 89 23:20:01 EDT (28 lines)
From: Malcolm Hayward <MHAYWARD@IUP.BITNET>
Subject: The Dangers of CRTs

(2) Date: Mon, 26 Jun 89 11:53:27 EDT (44 lines)
From: Judith Rowe <JUDITH@PUCC.bitnet>
Subject: job opening

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 25 Jun 89 23:20:01 EDT
From: Malcolm Hayward <MHAYWARD@IUP.BITNET>
Subject: The Dangers of CRTs

I just finished Paul Brodeur's last installment of "The Annals
of Radiation" in the June 26 *New Yorker*. Or it about finished
me and computing. The long and the short of it is that, according
to the article, there ARE real dangers from extra low frequency
fields generated in our video display terminals--dangers for
cancer, for abortions, and more. His recommendation, beyond
calling for more study of the phenomenon, is to keep as far
away from the terminal as possible--at least a couple of feet.
I set mine back to 36 inches from me. He also notes that
even greater distances from the sides and back of the terminal--
about 40 inches--are recommended.

Here's a tricky problem. Say you are instructing an English I
class and you'd like them to learn wordprocessing. Can you
require they go to a lab and sit for hours working at a
terminal if you think, maybe there are real dangers? What
if a couple of the students are pregnant? Should they be
required to go to a computer lab? Would it be enough
to outline the potential hazard and let them choose?
What are my responsibilities to my secretary? Say my
secretary reads the article and says, I won't work on the
computer any more? Of course we can all hope the article
is wrong and that there are no dangers . . .

(2) --------------------------------------------------------------51----
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 89 11:53:27 EDT
From: Judith Rowe <JUDITH@PUCC.bitnet>
Subject: job opening

I would appreciate your posting this job description on the HUMANIST. For
the curious, Rich Giordano will be leaving Research Services at Princeton
University's Office of Computing and Information Technology. Toby Paff,
who also provides consulting on computing in the humanities will be remaining
with us. Anyone seeking more information about the position, about CIT or
about Research Services, may send mail to JUDITH@PUCC. I would hope to
appoint someone by mid-summer so that they can be settled in by fall.

Judith Rowe
Manager of


Humanities Applications

Individual with advanced graduate training in literature,
languages or fine arts and with basic computing skills on
both mainframe and microcomputer for position in Research
Services. Familiarity with such packages as SCRIPT and
SPIRES under VM/CMS, relevant application programs under
UNIX, word processors such as WORD, WORD PERFECT or Nota
Bene on the PC or MAC would all be helpful. Programming
experience, an interest in computer graphics, especially
font design, and an understanding of the concepts of
information retrieval and DBMS are all desirable. The
successful candidate will work cooperatively in providing
support for computer use by faculty and students in
humanities research and instruction, install and support
software packages; write special purpose software in
languages such as C, and assist users in locating machine-
readable resources and programs for analysis. This is a
professional support position but it has no faculty
potential.

Qualified candidates should forward their resumes to:
Bruce Finnie
Computing and Information Technology
Princeton University
87 Prospect Street
Princeton, NJ 08544
An Equal Employment Affirmative Action Employer