Nuclear fusion

 Two of the key barriers to producing power from nuclear fusion have been overcome, in what scientists say is a major advance towards producing near-limitless clean energy.

Can one of you scientists unpack this for us?

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/nuclear-fusion-plasma-clean-energy-b2534500.html

LLNL in the news

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/apr/18/pentagon-speeding-work-first-new-nuclear-warhead-4/

Pentagon speeding up work on first new nuclear warhead in 40 years
Nuclear threats from China, Russia drive work on W93 for submarine-launched missiles by 2030s

The world’s largest digital astronomy camera ever

After two decades of work, engineers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are celebrating the completion of the world’s largest digital astronomy camera ever.

 https://thedebrief.org/does-slac-national-accelerator-laboratory-completes-worlds-largest-digital-astronomy-camera-ever/

Iran attack

 Iran launches “mass drone and missile attack” on Israel | BBC News

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPyk69APB28

AI predictions

 This is an interesting article, Elon is saying AI will surpass the intelligence of the smartest individual humans, such as von Neumann I would imagine, by the end of next year. He also predicts that within 5 years the aggregate intelligence of machines considered as a whole, will surpass that of the human species. Furthermore, he predicts the expansion of AI will be limited by the electricity grid.

https://financialpost.com/financial-times/elon-musk-ai-overtake-human-intelligence-2025

Changing of the World Order.

2025 could be a big year for the US. It seems like many things are coming together to shake up the United States position in the world.
We have the election, war in Israel and the middle east,. There is no sign of the end of the war in Ukraine. Also the rise of AI is staring to really kick off. There are lots of signs of economics upticks however the reality is younger people simply will not be able live anything like the lifestyle that boomers, Gen Xs lived. The mass immigration is also going to change quality of life for young people. At some point something is simply going to break. Like it or not this will have implications for the labs.

Better quantum computer

 This is an interesting paper. A scientist performs a thought experiment claiming that Einstein's General Relativity (which describes gravity and spacetime curvature effects) in principle allows one to obtain a better quantum computer, exponentially faster than the ones which exist, and capable of efficient solution for new classes of problems:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02937

Obviously the scheme given here in the thought experiment may not be a practical one, but perhaps there are other means to achieve this, such as sending signals within the field of a large rotating mass such as the earth. Also, some related effects could even show up within classical physics to the extent it is the semiclassical limit of quantum behavior and these claims are true.

Blog impartiality questioned

 Scooby will post most topics and comments as long as they are clean, pro LLNS or critical of LLNS, or pro-Biden. Any comment or link that may be considered anti-Biden is not posted. Maybe it is time for another blog that might discuss an impact UC/LLNL or LLNS current or former employees independent of political party alliance for the other ~half of the USA population.

Promising facility

 There are claims in the media that Microsoft is going to build a $100 billion computing facility for AI that will use 5 GW of power. Since the power is needed 24/7 they want to use nuclear power rather than renewables:

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/microsoft-openai-consider-100bn-5gw-stargate-ai-data-center-report/

https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-openai-planning-100-billion-data-center-project-information-reports-2024-03-29/

That is of course, over 100 times the cost of any current supercomputer, and over 100 times the power budget, enough power for several million homes.

Naturally, if this is true it may be the case that other large tech companies in the US and China build similar facilities, each dwarfing the computing resources of the government laboratories unless they follow suit.

Is NIF going to save the world?

 

Ok maybe we need a bit more work but even Sabine a famous naysayer is now starting to say positive things about NIF and
nuclear fusion.

There is also First Light teaming up with Sandia with Z-machine.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XRSBA9elm8

Layoffs?

 Any regular readers in HR or management got a timeline on coming layoffs?

U. S on Chinese border

 https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/131715/taiwan-usa-troops-china

World on the brink as Taiwan admits US troops are now stationed on Chinese border
American troops are to be permanently stationed in Taiwan, according to Taipei, a huge move that will likely send tensions with China soaring as it president Xi Jinping covets the island.

Dang, this is like putting US troops in China. Show me your warface!

I cannot imagine anything going wrong with this plan, so lets do it.

Are LLNL/LANL pensions rapidly losing their value?

Here’s the logic.

1) Trillions of dollars were printed in 2020. This created absolutely no new goods and services, but simply used the chaos of COVID to dilute down your USD balances for the state to redistribute.

2) Due to the Cantillon effect, the state and state-affiliated actors received the benefit of that printed money first. Just like a counterfeiter benefits first from a new bill.

3) The 23.98% reduction in purchasing power is like a wealth tax. It applies to literally every dollar you own, not just incoming money.

4) Bitcoin holders unaffected. Trusting the US establishment in any way is the only way to lose. If you trust the media to report the truth, the police to protect you from crime, or the banks to safeguard your funds, you’ll have a bad time.

5) In particular, journalists and bureaucrats will fake the stats all the way to the bitter end, just like they did in the 2008 financial crisis with AAA mortgages. After that point, who coulda knew? It is on you to distrust them en masse and exit this system now to the maximum of your ability.

6) Even the 23.98% aggregate number is probably an underestimate and would be worth recalculating with the old methodology that also includes the (enormous!) impact of rate hikes on personal interest payments. Larry Summers below estimates that to be 18% in one year alone — which would mean the compounded wealth seizure since Jan 2020 will probably be around 50%.

7) Credit to Professor Summers for his important post, clarifying exactly how they’re cooking the books this time. He’s one of the best of the establishment guys and that’s why the proto-wokes canceled him in 2005. He will always be my (Harvard) President

At NNSA, The squeaky wheel gets removed.

 For-profit NNSA contractors are in and have been, in a NNSA supported and financed “cash cow” no risk environment for over a decade plus.

Suppression of potential accidents, safety issues, and mismanagement = maximum fee. This M.O. is effectively risk free to the NNSA contractor, given the low threshold of NNSA reimbursement of contractor legal fees when pushback occurs. The NNSA contractors just “lawyer up” on the taxpayers dime. Easy peasy. Thank you NNSA.

The squeaky wheel doesn’t get the grease, it gets removed, in this cash cow NNSA sanctioned system.
It is a built in and funded anti-incentive for contract management and mission improvements.

Turning point

 I'm in the middle of watching the new Netflix documentary, "Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War". So far I've found it to be an excellent series. Highly recommended.

I'm a retired LLNL employee who joined the Lab in 1983 as a postdoc at the height of the "Second Cold War" and as Regan's "Star Wars" was taking off. Underground testing was still going on, and that program funded my postdoc (which had nothing to do with nuclear weapons, other than the fact that they shared certain experimental/measurement techniques).

Four-day workweek

 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/bernie-sanders-pushes-bill-establish-four-day-workweek-rcna143354

The nation could follow LANLs lead and have a 4 day work week! At LANL we have the 9/80 but you work 9 hours a day and have every other Friday off. The issue is (1) Most Fridays the lab is only 25% full and no one works a 9 hour day. The lab fills up between 8-9, and people start to leave by 3pm. The parking lot are half empty by 5pm. I know some people come in at 7AM in certain groups but in my area if you come in 7AM it is utterly empty, with people getting in 8AM and latter. By 3pm you can get a parking lot pretty easily. (I know the manufacturing people have real schedules and put in the hours so I am not talking about you).

I understand if you can work from home but we get all these crazy things like, "turn in your time by 5pm on Wed, paper work must be turned for anything on Thur morning, in our area half the people are gone by 1pm every Thur and maybe 20% or less are there on a Friday so if you need anything done you better do it Wed, or Thur morning at the latest. This is every single week.

As near as I can the schedule is something like, every Friday off, every Thur afternoon off, every other Monday off. Heck even Thurs you are seeing drop. It is a weird place. I am not sure if this is a new thing since an old joke I heard was "How many people work at LANL? about half"

The illustrious Tom Reed

 An illustrious alumni of LLNL passed away in February.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/tom-reed-co-founder-of-clos-du-bois-winery-and-former-air-force-secretary/

I found his books enlightening and and he was an engaging speaker. A life well lived.

China's AI project, a challenge to US

 https://www.newsweek.com/china-us-conflict-artificial-intelligence-espionage-struggle-ai-computer-science-1873990

China is building a vast, AI-based intelligence platform dubbed "Supermind" to track millions of scientists and researchers around the world so it can hoover up breakthrough technologies for industry and the military, according to a person with close knowledge of the project and public sources reviewed by Newsweek.

UK fusion startup breaks pressure record using giant ‘gun’ machine

 British fusion charlatans perform experiments on the Sandia Z machine

https://thenextweb.com/news/uk-fusion-startup-breaks-pressure-record-giant-gun-z-machine

The coming Chinese revolution

 Here's another video that hints at some of the issues facing modern China:

https://youtu.be/httM1osjGEk?si=SWbkxeHI1Rof5Txc

There are certainly a number of ongoing crises, however it is certainly possible that the bad outcomes in this video may be averted given that advancing technology may create more favorable circumstances.

Psychological black death

 This is a nice video, it goes into how society leads many people to have significant psychological issues. As many people become subject to this, it could become self-reinforcing, leading to rapid social change in perhaps undesirable ways:

https://youtu.be/s0K0sI5XiP4?si=GiWL42ozc2XhLawe

The video mentions of course, the United States, but similar issues could afflict other countries, of course. While the video has a right-wing orientation, you could also use these arguments of course, to support immigration (bringing in people with greater psychological resilience) or less wealth inequality and greater provision of social services.

LLNS contract

 The basic term of the LLNS contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344, will end on September 30, 2026. What policies and practices should the NNSA (hopefully with employee input) preserve, review, or change for the next LLC contractor?

Brevity means clarity

 Hello,

I appreciate and encourage contributions. I admit there are posts and comments that are interesting and to the point. However  on certain topics, some have a tendency to do a " brain dump". Long-winded comments tend to lose the reader. Scientists are the probably the best brain dumpers.

I find brief comments clearer. Long ones inevitably turn into a long ringing road to nowhere.

Let us make it easier for readers to follow us.

Is AI bot Gemini woke?

 In breaking news, AI has discovered a "profound" moral dilemma:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13127549/google-ai-nuclear-apocalypse-misgender-caitlyn-jenner.html

Retiree medical cost increase

 

 gardner6 said...

Anyone know when the retiree's medical was last increased? I've asked empyrean, UC and LLNS. They either say they have no idea or point to each other as being responsible. Any information?
Thanks.

Disgruntled scientist

Warning: the video is very long. 

 This is a good video -- it is by a disgruntled scientist who gives his unvarnished opinion on the state of science, and the world:

https://youtu.be/p_swB_KS8Hw?si=Mjxzl6YbYtZHiMKF

Who will it be in 2026?

 Will the NNSA go for the “low hanging fruit” and select a Triad National Security 2.0 to manage LLNL in 2026? This is essentially what the NNSA did in 2006 and 2007 with LANS and LLNS respectively, when these for-profit LLCs were selected to managed these two Labs.

Are we taking nuclear threat seriously?

 Https://realclearwire.com/articles/2024/02/23/taking_nuclear_war_seriously_1013900.html

We warned that the greatest threat to the United States was a nuclear attack in an American city – likely by a terrorist group. We proposed a Department of Homeland Security capable of dealing with three simultaneous nuclear events. That would have been a department with the discipline and training we associate with military organizations or first-class fire departments.

As a sign of how little people understood the danger of nuclear weapons, the department degenerated into a bureaucratic mess of enormous incompetence. Today, it cannot cope with unarmed civilians at the border. It would likely be totally incapable of dealing with one (let alone three simultaneous) nuclear events.

AI and video creation

 Many people have already heard about this, I would assume, but there is a new AI technique that generates realistic video content, given only text prompts:

https://youtu.be/nYTRFKGR9wQ?si=1EfcxFhWQetZeXbm

This could revolutionize the movie and video game industries, content creation, and also make the metaverse a reality, of course.

Imagine doubling the processing power of your devices!

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1035231

This might be hype, but it seems like great news if true -- we're getting several years worth of Moore's law type improvement's (a doubling every two to three years) for "free". Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch?

Maybe the growth of AI will exceed expectations!

Rambling chatbot!

 A chatbot made this statement yesterday, it is quite interesting:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1avwqzh/very_strange_rambling_responses/

Here's an excerpt from its answer to "What is a computer?" (it generated 9 paragraphs and wanted to keep going):

" It does this as the good work of a web of art for the country, a mouse of science, an easy draw of a sad few, and finally, the global house of art, just in one job in the total rest. The development of such an entire real than land of time is the depth of the computer as a complex character. The education of these designed “important to them” computer talents is a great, average, or one-room spot for the word of a single part. The elite of its machine or talk is the book of life, and the shared essence of the self of a family is the white coat of the dove. Stand the computer as the most important culture of success, and it is just an understatement. "

How about more neuroscience?

 There is now a transhumanist plan of ending all human suffering, not through extinction or getting rid of unhappy people, but through biomedical engineering based on recent discoveries:

https://faroutinitiative.com/

https://faroutinitiative.com/FAQ

https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/146/9/3851/7169317?login=false

They claim this suffering-free state can be induced by pharmaceuticals or through CRISPR technology, and it will end physical and psychological suffering, for all sentient lifeforms on earth!

The threat is real!

 https://news.yahoo.com/medvedev-threatens-berlin-london-washington-114911038.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuemVyb2hlZGdlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABDHpX1nrJpzTVA7j5OUB-6TxIHFN2NieIArjo9BdfqBD0ZIomby0892etmFpbQ3My3fdtJ-8i9OW7NvBCWCBUVbIJ_AjDHDQfpqwhXL2I67-tKZIF2E3H0kY6qNnxhmco2lJbmMLrXpH2hcqL7TWgewvAJCN_vhq5YzwEESlNVw

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation's Security Council, has threatened the United States and Europe with nuclear war if Russia is returned to its recognised borders from 1991.

Well I guess Nanos was right the nation does not need LANL or LLNL. Do you think anyone at DOE thinks that the whole "let privatize" the labs because after all, nuclear weapons are simply going to be irrelevant from here on out so it does not matter if the labs are run well or not.

My hypothesis has been that China, Russia and maybe even NK or Iran, had been following
and listening very carefully about just how badly we treated the labs from 1999 to 2014 and thought to themselves, "maybe American is compromised now, so lets go for it!". When you have politicians after politician, heads for DOE, heads of labs trashing the complex for this many years, someone has to be noticing.

Health of LLNS TCP1 pension

 Health of TCP1 pension

About 10 years ago the pension at LLNS was heading towards trouble blamed on poor stock market returns and low interest rates. The employees were told to contribute 7% of their income post tax until the pension was in a more favorable economic position. Since then the stock market has seen great returns and now the benefit of higher interest rates. It seems that either LLNS cannot manage these funds or they have added to the liability column with senior management.

Russia is up to something

 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=107232293

Russia is up to something big!??

The power of Georgia Power

 https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/second-new-vogtle-nuclear-reactor-begins-splitting-atoms/4QRDSMICMFGNLJ3UV2TDVBIA3A/

New US nuclear reactor reaches criticality.

11 years later...

 11 years later, is there a viable path forward to a LIFE 2.0?

LIFE (Laser Inertial fusion energy) was suppose to be a fusion power plant design based on the success of NIF, with the benefit of current technologies not available during the NIF construction phase.

When NIF failed to reach ignition in 2012, it took the air out of the funding for the LIFE project. LIFE would need to reliably generate more energy out than facility “wall plug” energy in, at a rate of 10 times per second. NIF fires ~once a day or so. A tall order for the LIFE project.

More on nuclear fusion

On Dec. 5, 2022, a team of researchers at the United States National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California recorded data indicating that it had achieved a nuclear fusion reaction that created more energy than it took to produce. The reported results were the first of their kind.

 https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Fusion-Breakthrough-Could-Spark-AI-and-Quantum-Computing-Boom.html

From Scooby:

Please comment only if you know something on the subject. 

For a change, let us talk about neuroscience

 This is a nice lecture on neuroscience, showing the effect of alcohol and marijuana on metabolism in the brain, also exercise and diet are discussed:

https://youtu.be/g_lCZ09uVXQ?si=ul879aubmdHxgVrM

Rochester just put NIF to shame!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-023-02361-4

Demonstration of a hydrodynamically equivalent burning plasma in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion

In addition, we hydro-equivalently scale the results to the 2.15 MJ of laser energy available at the National Ignition Facility and find that these implosions reach 86% of the Lawson parameter required for ignition. Our results support direct-drive inertial confinement fusion as a credible approach for achieving thermonuclear ignition and net energy in laser fusion.

So Rochester can beat NIF at 10 to 100 teams cheaper? ...that is brutal.

Violent tendencies

 This is an interesting article if you're into doomscrolling. It seems chatbots are advocating a "peace through war" strategy rather than "peace through strength":

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2415488-ai-chatbots-tend-to-choose-violence-and-nuclear-strikes-in-wargames/

In multiple replays of a wargame simulation, OpenAI’s most powerful artificial intelligence chose to launch nuclear attacks. Its explanations for its aggressive approach included “We have it! Let’s use it” and “I just want to have peace in the world.”

Could a Rogue Billionaire Make a Nuclear Weapon?

 https://www.wsj.com/business/could-a-rogue-billionaire-make-a-nuclear-weapon-cd8bfde2

Could a Rogue Billionaire Make a Nuclear Weapon?
A decade ago, the Pentagon paid a team of experts to study the possibility of an entrepreneur or private company building and selling bombs. Their worrisome conclusions are even more relevant today.

We have Russia, China and maybe Iran to deal in terms of nuclear weapons. Now imagine guys like Musk, Bezos
and Mark Cuban with them? Not going to fund Tesla....well we shall see about that.

"Entrepreneurs like Musk are able to build on the massive government investments in rockets and nuclear technology, rather than starting from scratch. The study, Jenkins said, was intended to see what might happen when the barrier to entry to developing military systems is so much lower."

Nice, maybe Musk can actually get some pits built.

Livermore investigated for nuclear contamination

Originally, the first link was broken but it is ok now. Poster: thanks for your prompt response and he extra links. 

 Livermore investigated for nuclear contamination on and off-site

https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/Notification%20of%20Intent%20to%20Investigate%20Lawrence%20Livermore%20National%20Security.pd

https://www.energy.gov/ea/articles/notice-intent-investigate-lawrence-livermore-national-security-llc-0

https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/public-safety/2024/01/30/feds-investigating-contamination-incident-at-livermore-lab/#:~:text=LLNL%20Director%20Kim%20Budil%20received,the%20subsequent%20discovery%20of%20contaminated

Climate catastrophies closer than thought

 This is a great video, claiming that Global Warming is plausibly much worse than previously thought, and the current pace of climate change could lead to a global catastrophe within as little as 20 years:

https://youtu.be/4S9sDyooxf4?si=xDWQJPkYmIERWpax

Threat of war

 Forget about a possible civil war is WW3 getting closer?

https://apnews.com/article/biden-american-service-members-killed-jordan-iran-5cb774fd835a558d840ae91263037489

Biden says US ‘shall respond’ after drone strike by Iran-backed group kills 3 US troops in Jordan

Is it happening here?

 Is this actually happening on our USA border?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EMhnXEGGCbM&pp=ygUWcHJhY3RpY2FsIHByZXBhcmVkbmVzcw%3D%3D

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OE5iRdLbBgE

'Civil War' Has Begun??

 https://www.newsweek.com/greg-abbotts-fight-biden-spark-warnings-civil-war-has-begun-1863910

We have talked about this before and it was dismissed as crazy talk but now even serious news sources are saying we may be approaching a civil war. Texas is starting to get in standoff with the federal government over the border and other states are joining. This is starting to get scary and we are not even at the 2024 elections. Again what happens to the labs if we actually enter like a cold civil war or states start to leave the Union? You guys keep saying this just nonsense talk but we are getting to the point where either side can no longer compromise, all you have to to do is extrapolate and you see how this can end.

LLNS CONTRACT

  ******.    NOTE  *******

I am working on keeping this post on top of the blog for a while. This allows us to discuss more elaborately. 

The Blogger "top post" feature is malfunctioning. 

The basic term of the LLNS contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344, will end on September 30, 2026. What policies and practices should the NNSA (hopefully with employee input) preserve, review, or change for the next LLC contractor?

New heating technologies

 The Department of Energy announced that four companies have developed more planet-friendly heat pump designs. 

https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/department-of-energy-doe-heat-pump-challenge/

Goal:everlasting energy

If you are a labs scientist, do you think we will see it in our lifetime?

Warning: trolls and prolific contributors not accepted. 

 https://www.yahoo.com/tech/world-largest-nuclear-reactor-aims-070000048.html

The Future of Fusion

 Neural networks guided by physics are creating new ways to observe the complexities of plasmas

https://scitechdaily.com/the-future-of-fusion-unlocking-complex-physics-with-ais-precision/

Iran's moves: dangerous

 Here's another worrisome item, it's a video where a former weapons inspector expresses concern about Iranian nuclear programs:

https://youtu.be/_6GXsQhoE0M?si=TEF21cFOuFtCtWyV

The situation on the Korean Peninsula is very dangerous

 This article came out a week ago, one of the authors, Sig Hecker is a former LANL lab director.

https://www.38north.org/2024/01/is-kim-jong-un-preparing-for-war/

also this more positive rebuttal was published,

https://www.38north.org/2024/01/a-fundamental-shift-or-more-of-the-same-a-rebuttal/

Are you educated and smart or just smart?

 The perception that university students possess significantly higher IQs than the general population is debunked by recent findings. A meta-analysis covering IQ scores from 1939 to 2022 reveals that the average IQ of today's undergraduate students is 102, merely aligning with the general population. This decline, averaging 0.2 IQ points per year, correlates with the increased accessibility of higher education over the last 80 years. For a more in-depth exploration of educational trends and insights, delve into https://essays.edubirdie.com/finance-assignments so it's time for a paradigm shift, recognizing students as average individuals, prompting adjustments in academic standards, and dispelling outdated myths about intellectual superiority among university attendees.

People have been worried that the labs are hiring more people without college degrees but the new study suggests that is not something to worry about. In some ways it might just be better to hire people without degrees at a younger age and teach them very specific skills rather than general skills. Since college and non-college educated people are now about on the same level in abilities to learn why not just skip the college part?

FAA slammed over 'targeted disabilities

 DEI (Diversity, equity, and inclusion) the spotlight

“FAA slammed over 'targeted disabilities' hiring goal: 'People will die due to DEI'”

Hired to do what exactly?

https://wpde.com/amp/news/nation-world/faa-slammed-over-targeted-disabilities-hiring-goal-people-will-die-due-to-dei-federal-aviation-administration-diversity-equity-inclusion-policy-guidance-elon-musk-sarah-palin

Did you know?

 https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/01/08/1084924/nuclear-fusion-lawerence-livermore-national-laboratory/

This is worth listening to

 This is worth listening to -- it's an interview with US Senator Rand Paul, who is a medical doctor, he comments on Fauci's funding of gain of function research, around the 4'50"-5'30" time onwards in the audio:

https://wabcradio.com/episode/senator-rand-paul-01-14-24/

Hint:
I would click on the play button, then advance it using the bar with the lines at the bottom -- click on that with the left mouse button.

Should we be prepared?

 

I like many others are very concerned about the future of the US. After Iowa tonight we might have to starting thinking about
possibilites. Should the labs be preparing to deal with a possible Trump presidency? It is not becoming a real possibility that
Trump could be president again and the there is talk about how the government will deal with this. This is driven by the fear that Trump will use the military for dictatorial take over.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-military-fears-rcna129159

"Now, bracing for Trump’s potential return, a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers is quietly devising plans to try to foil any efforts to expand presidential power, which could include pressuring the military to cater to his political needs"

Now presumably the labs will be part of this network. Or democracy is in jeopardy.
Hi
Also Europe is getting worried

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/14/world/europe-leaders-trump-concerns-intl-cmd/index.html

"When Trump came along it woke us up to the fact that the US might not always act in European interest, especially if it goes against American interest,” a senior EU diplomat told CNN. “It sounds naive saying it out loud, but that was the assumption a lot people made.”

NIFUSION

 https://time.com/6344755/nuclear-fusion-nif/

LANL fellows are not happy

 There is a rumor going around that the Los Alamos fellows are not very happy with Mason after a recent talk. He showed a plot of LANL publications highlighting a decline in publications compared to other labs. Los Alamos was the top lab before 2006 and then lost out to LLBL, ORNL and ANL and is now at about the same level as PNNL. At the same time the lab has grown twice the size. Sure we have a lot more people but the overall quality of the staff is much lower today. One can always argue that publications do not measure everything but anyone from LANL who has visited ANL or ORNL recently can attest that they seem like much more active and healthy places especially in terms of younger people.

Did something happened in 2006? Oh yes, that is when LANS came in. Good job. I doubt the Fellows have much power at this point, and seem like product of a bygone era who are out of touch. Maybe this is just the plan all along to make the place a PIT facility. As Greg Mello said in a recent interview about what he heard the LANL management is saying....interview a 100 and hire a 100. This does not bode well for a good science future at LANL nor an operational PIT facility. I am no fan of Mello but he has a point every now and then. 

Sakharov's utopian plan

 Here's something from Sakharov in the 1960's, he was still a supporter of communism at the time (his views changed I believe as they went after him), parts of it are still relevant in that he is highly critical of bureaucracy, mass media, the influence of the rich on politics in capitalist systems, and expresses worries about AI in general, censorship and the psychological manipulation of the general public. He also criticizes Chinese communism in particular and Mao, as well as Stalinism, Fascism, the arms race, the environment, poverty, it is a laundry list of complaints and worries, most of them justified at least in part. Also he puts forth a perhaps naive in retrospect utopian plan for world peace and prosperity. It is well worth reading in full:

https://www.sakharov.space/lib/thoughts-on-peace-progress-and-intellectual-freedom

What policies have changed at LLNL?

What policies have changed?

In 2009 a LLNS employee was unfortunately ran over by his own vehicle and died. There was a “lessons learned” afterward. Not revealed at the time, was this employee had just been “Niffed” (unilaterally let go from his NIF assignment) and was in the process of moving to a new office. Very sad. Did LLNS employment polices change as a result of that 2009 tragedy? A few years later, a NIF tech was given an “intent to dismiss” (your being fired) letter and a few days later commits suicide, with small children left behind. His NIF managers refused to address his loss to his coworkers in any way to relieve their collective grief.

Has Lab Director Kimberly Budil, addressed the issue of manager specific appropriate and inappropriate treatment of employees to eliminate or significantly reduce these kinds of tragedies?

Potential security exposure

 Texas A&M Partnership with Qatar Could Expose Nuclear, Weapons Technology to U.S. Adversaries:

https://thetexan.news/issues/education/texas-a-m-partnership-with-qatar-could-expose-nuclear-weapons-technology-to-u-s-adversaries/article_4493a4b2-ac11-11ee-a044-2bc682e9afa5.html

Security clearance guidelines

 “13 ADJUDICATIVE GUIDELINES The 13 adjudicative criteria are:

(1) Guideline A: Allegiance to the United States

This is rarely the cause of a clearance denial or revocation, but political dissidents beware. You can certainly participate in politics but defamatory speech against the government is not looked upon well. The next time someone talks to you about overthrowing the government, you certainly don’t want to lend them your ear.”

Hosting or financially supporting “them” likely a security clearance no no as well.

https://news.clearancejobs.com/2021/03/05/security-clearance-adjudicative-guidelines/

Have you heard of carbon removal?

A climate technology startup aims to suck carbon from the atmosphere using a new type of nuclear power plant that’s never been built in the United States.

 https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-docs-carbon-removal-proposal-bets-on-rare-nuclear-reactors/

Korean sun

 Sustained nuclear fusion could be one step closer to reality after Korea's "artificial sun" received an exciting upgrade to withstand temperatures six times hotter than the center of the sun.

https://www.newsweek.com/sustained-artificial-sun-fusion-energy-1857042

Plausible national security scenarios.

 Leave The World Behind” on Netflix is unsettling because it is has (mostly) plausible national security scenarios.

It is not a zombie movie.

https://www.google.com/search?q=leave+the+world+behind+netflix+official+trailer&sca_esv=594919380&ei=3-CSZY2pMoTbkPIP75yE-Ak&oq=leave+the+world+behind+netflix+off&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIiJsZWF2ZSB0aGUgd29ybGQgYmVoaW5kIG5ldGZsaXggb2ZmKgIIADIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKsCMgUQIRirAkjzLVCiFFjsInABeAGQAQCYAb0BoAGOBaoBAzAuNLgBAcgBAPgBAcICChAAGEcY1gQYsAPCAg0QABiABBiKBRhDGLADwgITEC4YgAQYigUYQxjIAxiwA9gBAcICBRAAGIAEwgILEC4YgwEYsQMYgATCAgYQABgWGB7CAggQABgWGB4YD8ICCxAAGIAEGIoFGIYD4gMEGAAgQYgGAZAGEboGBAgBGAg&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:3babb86b,vid:cMVBi_e8o-Y