Post deletions

Hey Scoob.

Some posts are deleted, but not others nearly identical in tone and content are retained.

Bias is present in the editing.

"..It is not the policy, so much as the implementation.."

"..blame the christians.." Nero

October 30, 2012 7:29 AM

Anonymous said...

Blog owner typically can filter/censor however they choose and don't have to explain their decisions or even be consistent.

The flipside is that systematic bias in filtering will simply drive the legitimate contributors away, reducing the relevance of the blog site, which is probably not what a blog owner wants (though who knows).

We have to accept the reality that blog owners are rightful dictators in a small domain, but we can decide what our threshold is regarding when we choose to stop participating in (and therefore supporting) it.

I'm very impressed overall about this blog. I've been keeping tabs of sharp rise in the number of visitors accessing this blog.

October 30, 2012 12:59 PM

Anonymous said...

I employ an even more rigid form of censorship. I allow no comments on my blog. All the content there is either mine, or given to me through other means, to put onto my blog. The downside is that my blog has a readership of 2 people (excluding web crawlers).

October 30, 2012 1:04 PM

U.S. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren’t there

Anonymously contributed: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Washington Post article

NIF on KQED

Anonymously contributed: KQED web/radio short news piece on NIF http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/in-livermore-still-waiting-on-nuclear-fusion/ This is the link to the web piece. I heard the radio bit this morning. It does reaffirm the big-science strategy as the main focus by NIF management. The 3 pieces are: (1) LIFE, (2) stockpile stewardship and (3) big science. It is Chu who has to report to congress regarding the alpha heating milestone failure. It will be interesting to see what he says. Whether he also affirms the big-science committment on the part of an NNSA that is supposed to be focused on ensuring the safety, security and reliability of the nuclear stockpile. NIF is not the only NNSA that has somewhat questionable or tenuous connections with weapons. So arguments hitting NIF on this big science strategy may hit other projects as well. October 29, 2012 11:05 AM Anonymous said... Yeah they are matrixed to NIF to "solve" the alpha heating milestone failure problem.... while watching important youtube vids.

Security Failure at Los Alamos National Laboratory Puts Nuclear Materials at Risk

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Security Failure at Los Alamos National Laboratory Puts Nuclear Materials at Risk -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Nuclear Weapons and Materials Monitor and the Albuquerque Journal are reporting that a new and expensive security system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory simply does not work. In response, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is demanding that the contractor at the New Mexico lab fully disclose all of the project’s problems and show that the nuclear materials stored at the facility are safe. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We commend the NNSA for holding its contractor accountable. Apparently, the NNSA had warned the contractor, Los Alamos National Security, as early as 2010 that the security project was likely to be completed late and over budget. The apparent incompetence of the contractors is appalling. Still, we’re concerned that the NNSA didn’t exercise enough oversight along the way. How did the project get this far and this over-budget when the NNSA has an office on site at Los Alamos that is supposed to be overseeing the contractor? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Security issues in the nuclear weapons complex are getting out of hand. First you have an 82-year-old nun breaching security at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oakridge, Tenn. Now, a security upgrade at Los Alamos is so botched that it may require Congress to rescue it with up to $25 million in emergency funding." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/alerts/nuclear-security-safety/20121026-security-failure-at-lanl.html

Bradbury science museum

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is there any truth to the rumor that the Bradbury science museum in Los Alamos is now going to a wing devoted to Bechtel?

Another Los Alamos managed project over budget and behind schedule

Another Los Alamos managed project over budget and behind schedule. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Coming on the heels of the recent LANL radiation safety incident this can only be bad news. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/10/26/north/213m-project-not-working.html

Lack of qualifications

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A subject that never comes up in this blog is the lack of qualifications of the AD's for some of the support technical divisions at the Lab. It seems that the Lab management have sacrificed any hope of making those divisions world class. The obvious reasons are: political correctness to appease affirmative action critics and, and dare I say it, the convenience of having compliant AD's. The impact of this practice will surely be detrimental to the long-term future of the Lab.

Photos of Y-12 released

Anonymously contributed: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos of Y-12 released --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following link has several photos from the recent Y-12 incident. It makes you wonder just what DOES work after spending hundreds of millions of dollars on security at each of the high profile locations. Hope the fences and sensors are working at full design at other facilities so we don't see more photos like this. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger

Suggestion for unbiased predictions

Anonymoulsy contributed: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am not sure what the new polling stats about the presidentail elections had to do with this website. But in case you really want unbiased predictions I suggest ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- fivethirtyeight.com

DoE contractors take a lot of international trips

Anonymously contributed: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DoE contractors take a lot of international trips -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lookee here at this. It reports 90,000 contractor international trips over 6 years, with only 100,000 contractors on the payroll. Looks like a lot of contractors get to go on a lot of international trips. Perhaps it is just one of the compensating factors for the salary structure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'According to the Department's centralized travel database, the Foreign Travel Management System (FTMS), Federal and contractor employees made approximately 109,000 individual international trips at a cost of about $360 million from Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 through FY 2012— a 6-year period. Consistent with the Department's organizational structure and its significant reliance on contractor assistance, the vast majority of these taxpayer-funded trips, in fact about 85 percent, were taken by contractor employees. This equates to over 90,000 contractor employee foreign travel trips in the period with a cost to the government of just over $300 million. Despite the sizable expenditure of Federal funds, the Department had not made a concerted effort to reduce contractor international travel costs. In particular, we found that the FTMS was not being fully utilized to identify overall trends in foreign travel, potential wasteful practices, and possible strategies to reduce the Department's international travel expenditures. Further, while the Department implemented a mandatory 30 percent reduction in Federal employee travel, management officials informed us that parallel action had not been taken to manage or control foreign travel by contractors. Based directly on the information sourced from the FTMS, had the Department applied the 30 percent reduction criteria to the international travel costs incurred by its 100,000 contractor workforce, as much as $15 million could be saved each year.' http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/DOE-IG-0872.pdf

next NNSA administrator

Anonymously contributed: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No matter who wins in November, rumors abound for the Administrator of NNSA. The posters here tend to be sporting types, so who is willing to name names and place odds? Just to get it going, here is one: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- D'Agostino 100:1

Poll results

Not taking duplication into consideration (2 people from same program), here are the results: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 600k-2.4M according to 12 people -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 800k-2M according to 4 people ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ more than 3.5M according to 7 people. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I left the poll posted so you can do you own multiplications.

How is the same level of funding in FY13 as in FY12 working out for you?

Anonymously asked: ============================================================================================ How is the same level of funding in FY13 as in FY12 working out for you?

Major victory for plaintiffs in age-discrimination lawsuit against Bechtel led Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC

Anonymously contributed: =============================================================================================== http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/10/17/4344522/major-victory-for-plaintiffs-in.html

Judge Rules in Favor of Plaintiffs in Age-Discrimination

Contributed by Gary Gwilliam ============================================================================================== http://gwilliamlawfirm.com/2012/10/judge-rules-in-favor-of-plaintiffs-in-age-discrimination-lawsuit-against-bechtel-led-lawrence-livermore-national-security-llc/

Director's ball

Who pays for the Director's Ball, I believe this year it is called "Puttin' on the Glitz"? DOE? LLNS? The director personally? Attendees? And who goes to it? Is it by invitation only?

NIF vs Z machine

Anonymous said... "What happens if Z Machine reaches breakeven before NIF? It was rumored that they are closer than NIF. Comment: October 13, 2012 6:07 AM" Than the Z Machine will be closed down and the money will be moved to NIF.

Some BLOGs are getting attention

Anonymously reported: Ladies and Gentlemen, At my recent All Hands meeting, reviewed recent accomplishments of the NIC team, the status of the Program, and the role of the NIF as it formally becomes a national and international user facility. Several developments have occurred since then, and have received a number of questions and comments from you that deserve immediate conversation. In the All Hands, stressed three key points: • Together, we have built the NIF, a revolutionary scientific tool that is the world's premier High Energy Density (HED) science facility. NIF is now a user facility dedicated to carrying out the broad range of missions it was designed for in strategic security, fundamental science, and energy security. The NIF laser's power, precision and reproducibility, coupled with its outstanding diagnostic, target fabrication, and operational capabilities, enable us to take on missions no other facility in the world can. • Although the NlC campaign has ended, the goal of achieving ignition on the NIF remains and we are continuing this work even now. It is our intent to continue on the path to ignition while supporting all the NIF missions. • The nation is preparing for a leadership transition in our government and with a new administration and Congress; there are probable changes coming in the NNSA and DOE leadership as well This is clearly a time of change and transition. In times of transition, the pundits who criticize our work inevitably become active. Some of their remarks may not be pleasant and some that we have seen are inaccurate. Since my All Hands meeting, there have been a few negative articles and opinion pieces about the NIF in the New York Times and other papers, as well as in a few blogs. The authors tend to use the NIF as a platform to launch a debate around bigger issues, such as our country's nuclear deterrent, the role of big science in our society, and US energy policy. They do this because NIF is unique in that it sits at the nexus of these debates and because it plays such a major role in these policy questions. Influential people do not spend their time either criticizing or promoting insignificant efforts and I believe that these 'criticisms' speak to the strength and importance of our program and the successes we have accomplished together. For the first time, the United States has a scientific facility with the capability of participating in maintaining the nation's nuclear deterrent without underground testing, supporting non-proliferation and other national security missions, working on the most challenging basic science questions, and potentially setting humanity on the path to demonstrating the feasibility of producing safe, clean, carbon-free fusion energy. Confirmation of the national importance of NIF, and the success that we have achieved, comes from multiple sources: • NNSA Administrator Mr. Thomas D'Agostino stated that, "With NIF, the nation has a critically important asset that supports our national security priorities, pushes the frontiers of science and discovery, and carries the potential for critical advances in energy security." • On July 9, 2012, Dr. Alvin Trivel piece, former Director of the DOE Office of Energy Research, Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and chairman of the NIF Technical Review Committee, reported that, "The Committee consensus is that the NIC team has made 'Extraordinary progress toward challenging goals!'" • On August 3, 2012, in a letter to Secretary Chu, one hundred members of Congress stated, "As you are undoubtedly aware, NIF recently achieved a major milestone: the world's first successful firing of a 500 terawatt laser." "Recent technical reviews by independent experts indicate that there are no fundamental technical reasons that would preclude eventually achieving ignition." • On August 7, 2012, Dr. John Holdren, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, compared operation of NIF to the landing of the Mars Rover Curiosity, calling both of them examples of "enormously complicated, advanced and sophisticated technology coming together in a system of absolutely daunting complexity."" Looking at (NIF), you could hardly believe that it would work," he said. "But it does work. The NIP works. ... And I'm among the many folks who wish it well." • On September 17, Professor Robert Byer of Stanford University and head of the international NIF Laser Performance Review Committee reported that, " ...the NIP laser is a unique facility and is likely to remain the only ICF facility in the world for the coming decade capable of meeting the driver requirements for ignition and the investigation HED physics at the inertial fusion energy scale. The NIF laser is a unique engine of discovery for the 21st century.'' • On October 3 Dr. Christopher Deeney, NNSA Assistant Deputy Administrator for Stockpile Stewardship, sent me a note saying, "The results for the NIC are impressive and the stewardship program has an extraordinary laser facility, diagnostic suite, target fabrication capability and, most importantly, an extremely talented team in place to continue to meet the challenges of supporting stewardship and achieving ignition. The NNSA headquarters team wants to thank you all for the excellent and hard work to date. Your passion for the work is evident and we appreciate all the sacrifices you have made. We look forward to even more great data from the NIF and we are all committed to continue the quest for ignition. Ignition, along with stewardship, and the grand scientific challenges that the NNSA community is well prepared to engage in and solve!" The quotes above highlight the strengths of our program in its multiple missions and are testament to the work that we have done. On the other hand, there are a couple of questions that need to be addressed again-'What about the ignition program?' and 'What is a user facility?' Pursuit of Ignition: Ignition science is a grand

Parney does it again....

ANonymously contributed: ============================================================================================ Parney does it again.... Did Parney say what I thought I heard? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Contributions are not required for TCP-1 right now. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) LLNS is still going to try to contribute $40M this year (half of what they planned) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) The employees are still required to make contributions in spite of 1) above, and LLNS is going to increase it by 40% in July "because that's what UC is doing". --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So....the employees are going to see an increase in contributions, which are not required now, to offset future DOE contributions? Yes, I know, the pundits in the crowd are going to ask why I'm surprised....I'm not.

Another success story brought to you by NNSA!

Anonymously contributed: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another success story brought to you by NNSA in collaboration with B&W and Bechtel. Same players who are also so important to the LLNLs. It is sad that we are run by engineering companies, who after spending 500 M$ in designing a facility, still come 13 feet short in height. Maybe we can donate a few tape measures. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2012/10/eschenberg-redesigning-upf-now.html

The national nuclear weapons program is failing under NNSA tutelage.

Anonymously contributed ==========================================================================================: The national nuclear weapons program is failing under NNSA tutelage. ========================================================================================== It is better to place both physics labs back under full UC leadership where proper care and feeding will occur. Like in the old days UC will tell DOE/NNSA what to do. And like in the old days, the right things will get done. Congress - a distracted group of bickering gerontologists, served by NNSA administrators, mediocre yes-men - is running the weapons complex into the ground. No ideas, no leadership.

LLNL Blog Role Call

Anonymously contributed: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- new topic suggestion: "LLNL Blog Role Call" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "For those visiting this site as anon., please give a brief general description of yourself, without being detailed enough to reveal your identity. Name one thing you hope to accomplish by visiting. Optionally, leave one brief sentence summing up your thoughts on LLNL and/or LANL." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ example: "Former IT specialist. I hope to learn more about what is happening at LLNL."

DOE IG report on W76 LEP cost over runs

Anonymously contributed: ========================================================================================= DOE IG report on W76 LEP cost over runs ========================================================================================= "The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is refurbishing the aging W76 nuclear warhead with the goal of extending the warhead life by 30 years. However, the W76 Life Extension Program (LEP) has experienced significant delays in startup and in achieving production goals. NNSA may be unable to complete the W76 LEP within established scope, cost and schedule parameters, unless it adopts a more effective approach to reducing unit costs. This concern is exacerbated by the fact that the Program is faced with a relatively flat budget over the next few years, even though its annual scope of work is projected to increase significantly. The Program's budget increases for Fiscal Years (FY) 2013 and 2014, for example, are projected to be only 2.9 percent in each year more than FY 2011 levels. The Program's production schedule, however, shows production increasing 59 percent during the same period. The increase in production appears to be unsustainable given the projected funding. The goal of reducing the unit cost of W76 LEP production appeared to be one of the only paths to keeping the Program on track without adversely affecting other NNSA programs. Although a senior NNSA official expressed confidence that NNSA would achieve the increased production rates within the out-year budget estimates, Program officials could not provide plans detailing actions necessary to achieve the needed cost reductions. Although Program officials disagreed with our methodology for calculating unit cost, in general, they agreed that our analysis, including the risks going forward, were consistent with NNSA's concerns about Program execution in future years. "

Another graph of LANL staff

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another graph of LANL staff

World's largest laser misses nuclear fusion deadline

Anonymously contributed: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Scientist Article: World's largest laser misses nuclear fusion deadline --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22325-worlds-largest-laser-misses-nuclear-fusion-deadline.html The quotes in here are employing a great deal of trickery and deception. They are still playing the "stockpile stewardship relevance" card.

NIF falls short of ignition

anonymously CONTRIBUTED: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NIF falls short of ignition ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Laser Focus World http://www.laserfocusworld.com/blogs/spectralbytes/2012/09/nif-falls-short-of-ignition.html

Federal officials recommend WSI contract termination

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Federal officials recommend WSI contract termination, extend B&W Y-12 contract -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two months after an unprecedented security breach, federal officials have recommended ending a contract with security guard company WSI Oak Ridge at the Y-12 National Security Complex. In a brief letter Friday, the National Nuclear Security Administration said it has had “grave concerns” about the ability of WSI Oak Ridge and managing contractor B&W Y-12 to “effectively perform physical security functions at Y-12″ after the July 28 intrusion by three anti-nuclear weapons activists. http://oakridgetoday.com/2012/09/28/federal-officials-recommend-wsi-contract-termination-extend-b-w-y-12-contract/

Fusion Project Faces a Frugal Congress!

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ spectacularuva job, ed! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/science/fusion-project-faces-a-frugal-congress.html?hpw&_r=0&gwh=18DEA30D10FD779515763916DA842BD7