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.

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