Wednesday, April 24, 2013
McMillan receives honor
McMillan receives honor
Even if it is from a place that no one has ever heard of, it is still an honor.
TAKOMA PARK, Md. (Apr. 17) – Charles McMillan, Ph.D., director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and president of Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), the company that operates the lab for the National Nuclear Security Administration, was named alumnus of the year by his alma mater, Washington Adventist University during alumni homecoming weekend, April 12-14.
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35 comments:
Washington Adventist University
Never heard of it. Is that a Community College?
It's not Caltech or Stanford or MIT. On the other hand, the guy is smarter and is more accomplished than alot of Caltech/Stanford/MIT arrogant bastard washouts who come to the labs and spend all their time reminding you where they got their PhD while wearing their MIT sweatshirt, showing off those pearly whites, and accomplishing little in life.
Whoa! Generalize much?
t's not Caltech or Stanford or MIT. On the other hand, the guy is smarter and is more accomplished than alot of Caltech/Stanford/MIT arrogant bastard washouts who come to the labs and spend all their time reminding you where they got their PhD while wearing their MIT sweatshirt, showing off those pearly whites, and accomplishing little in life.
April 25, 2013 at 4:05 AM
Whhoaa, why didn't you mention The University of California at Berkeley. Your pissing me off buddy.
What's funny about the Caltech, Stanford, and MIT comment is that McMillan, while attending a Community College getting a sub-BS, spends all his time bragging that he went to MIT, the classes he took there, showing his pearly whites, and not earning the ridiculous salary he commands.
Washington Adventist University
Is this an accredited school?
McMillan is a straight-shooter (if you can get anything out of him, of course). Not as well regarded as Hecker. But Hecker was dishonest for trying to create a plutonium "problem" that didn't exist, in order to justify funding for the Modern Pit Facility. Is that what we want? Directors so brazenly dishonest that we transform them into "hero mavericks" in our minds?
That's called "Munchausen-at-Work" (you can find some Harvard Business Review articles on it), the act of creating problems so that you can come in and fix it in order to gain recognition for the fix (without getting knocked for creating it), when in reality the problem doesn't really exist, or the person created a problem.
Nobody goes around bragging about how they got their degree at UC Berkeley... except maybe to impress the farmer's daughters or local yokels at the flea market or whatnot.
Nobody goes around bragging about how they got their degree at UC Berkeley.
April 26, 2013 at 3:28 PM
Nobody goes around bragging WHERE they got their degree(s), if they have any class.
Adventist University? Really? What did he get, a degree in 7th Day Adventist theology?
Never heard of the place. Of course, it due time both LLNL and LANL will soon have Directors who probably graduated from "Phoenix University".... and with an MBA to boot!
Nobody goes around bragging about how they got their degree at UC Berkeley.
April 26, 2013 at 3:28 PM
Nobody goes around bragging WHERE they got their degree(s), if they have any class.
April 26, 2013 at 8:40 PM
Is that you Bret Knapp? I understand you could not get into the University of California schools so you settled for the 2nd rate Cal State schools. Cal Poly my ass.
Knapp has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic Institute,
and an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Davis.
I regard UC Davis as a very good University for engineers.
I regard UC Davis as a very good University for engineers.
April 27, 2013 at 11:02 AM
"Very good". An adequate term for Bechtel.
Good enough to be the Principle Associate Director in charge of all nuclear weapons research at Los Alamos?
No, I don't think so. Even worse, Knapp is being carefully groomed to be LANL's next Director as soon as Charlie McMillan finished his 5 year term. What a frightening thought, but not if your into 'dumbed-down' Bechtel style management, I guess.
No, I don't think so. Even worse, Knapp is being carefully groomed to be LANL's next Director as soon as Charlie McMillan finished his 5 year term. What a frightening thought, but not if your into 'dumbed-down' Bechtel style management, I guess.
April 27, 2013 at 4:49 PM
Sad but true. Thank God I'll be retired before "Igor" takes over.
McMillan is a straight-shooter (if you can get anything out of him, of course). Not as well regarded as Hecker.
April 26, 2013 at 2:37 PM
To attempt to compare Hecker and McMillan in the same breath is a farce. First, there is no comparison. In terms of speaking Hecker was highly articulate, McMillan is frankly, inarticulate, the man can't speak, uhhh, duhhh, ummm, .....
I worked personally with both Hecker and McMillan. Sig was educated, erudite, worldly, and well-rounded as a person. He was a true gentleman. McMillan is a bumbling, clueless, in-over-his-head hack who wouldn't look an employee in the eye if his life depended on it.
Sig was a kind of visionary for the Cold War glory days but today we need a detail oriented technocrat for managing compliance and assurance risks associated with SNM handling related operations. McMillan is neither former nor the latter unfortunately. And yes, it is highly disconcerting to have a lab director so inarticulate and unable to draw logical inferences in deductions on the fly and under pressure. Are you sure he went to MIT?
Sig Hecker history was a man of scientific vision. The only vision that McMillan has is following the money.
Hecker has received numerous awards and honors for his accomplishments, from his technical work early in his career to his international efforts currently at Stanford.
McMillan gets an award from some community college that no one has ever heard of, and it makes the news.
The two of them are at different ends of any scale. Hecker is close to the top, and McMillan is at the absolute bottom.
And future LANL Director Brett Knapp? Scraping the bottom of the spittoon!
Guess he's good enough if all that's required is utter and complete compliance in all things, no matter how minor, so that LANS managers can continue to collect their big, fat bonuses and Congress can continue day dreaming that all is well with the US nuclear weapons research complex.
Knapp might be exactly what LANL will need for the next 5 years of shrinking budgets and tightening expectations for operations and security. There is nothing better to drive angry employees towards quitting or retiring than to drive around in his flashy sports at and take every weekend in California. He seems to do a great job at pissing off many of you. I think it's intentional.
It's not intentional. He is dense as a rock, oblivious, doesn't give a shit, and considers being a macho nacho his lifestyle. Just what the US needs to steward its nuclear deterence in the wicked times just over the horizon.
If the choice comes down to Knapp or Wallace, then the country looses either way. Neither one of them is qualified for the position they now hold and both prove the Peter Principle several times over. Just maybe some other candidates will be seriously considered.
April 30, 2013 at 7:10 PM
"Looses"?? God, man get an education! How do you expect to be taken seriously?
The path at LANL to the Director position has been well tread. It's PAD of nuclear weapons and then on to becoming the lab Director. LLNL looks for outsiders but LANL follows this same rigid path of leadership progression.
Given this, you can expect to be hearing the term "Director Knapp" within a few more years, sorry to say.
Maybe there is a Livermoron in waiting to the top LANL post. Probably not Bruce since he just moved laterally.
Knapp is the right guy for the job. We need curators for the stockpile. We don't need another hero.
Knapp is the right guy for the job. We need curators for the stockpile. We don't need another hero.
May 1, 2013 at 1:26 PM
Knapp a "curator"; what a joke! The only thing that Knapp is "curating" is the death and destruction of the LANL weapon program.
Bruce Tartar should come back from the bone yards and take the helm of the U.S.S. LANL. Richardson is washed up. So tartar should be safe.
"It's PAD of nuclear weapons and then on to becoming the lab Director. "
Sig was never PADNW. One of our best directors since Bradbury
Bruce Tartar should come back from the bone yards and take the helm of the U.S.S. LANL. Richardson is washed up. So tartar should be safe.
May 2, 2013 at 4:37 AM
Another "screwed-up" vision of LANL by a Livermoron.
Yeah LLNL just came in and screwed things up. The halcyon days of Wen-Ho Lee, Intern-laser-eye-damage, lost hard drives, and so on, were completely ruined by LLNL failures. If it weren't for LLNL managers being brought in, we would have had the Modern Pit Facility. But they ruined it for us. They are doing it intentionally - slowly disassembling the nation's first nuclear weapons lab, so that the only thing left standing is the kleptocratic mediocrity called LLNL
Screw Tartar. Bring in Nuckolls. Nothing better to intimidate LANL people and get them in line than to have their top guy with the name sounding like "knuckles."
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