tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59369510738965893402024-03-18T20:50:27.886-07:00LLNL - The True Story -Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3982125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-77325452517283428332030-01-01T10:01:00.000-08:002019-12-31T16:31:09.934-08:00SUGGEST NEW TOPICS HERE<br />
Submit candidates for new topics here only. Stay on topic with National Labs' related issues.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><b><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>All submissions are screened first for compliance with blog rules. Blog moderator checks queue roughly every 2 to 3 hours daily between 8:00 and 20:00.</i></span></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-72098494472403865242024-03-18T20:49:00.000-07:002024-03-18T20:49:32.658-07:00At NNSA, The squeaky wheel gets removed. <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The squeaky wheel doesn’t get the grease, it gets removed, in this cash cow NNSA sanctioned system.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It is a built in and funded anti-incentive for contract management and mission improvements.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-35560600400715052642024-03-18T07:05:00.000-07:002024-03-18T07:05:27.621-07:00Turning point<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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).</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-28919253258755937572024-03-16T10:44:00.000-07:002024-03-16T10:44:30.240-07:00Four-day workweek <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/bernie-sanders-pushes-bill-establish-four-day-workweek-rcna143354">https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/bernie-sanders-pushes-bill-establish-four-day-workweek-rcna143354</a></span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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"</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-22328223629328796352024-03-14T14:28:00.000-07:002024-03-14T14:28:22.917-07:00The illustrious Tom Reed<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">An illustrious alumni of LLNL passed away in February.</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/tom-reed-co-founder-of-clos-du-bois-winery-and-former-air-force-secretary/">https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/tom-reed-co-founder-of-clos-du-bois-winery-and-former-air-force-secretary/</a></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I found his books enlightening and and he was an engaging speaker. A life well lived.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-68617052184016020532024-03-11T15:43:00.000-07:002024-03-11T15:43:03.549-07:00China's AI project, a challenge to US<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/china-us-conflict-artificial-intelligence-espionage-struggle-ai-computer-science-1873990">https://www.newsweek.com/china-us-conflict-artificial-intelligence-espionage-struggle-ai-computer-science-1873990</a></span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-85805157661205810052024-03-10T18:10:00.000-07:002024-03-10T18:10:18.065-07:00UK fusion startup breaks pressure record using giant ‘gun’ machine<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">British fusion charlatans perform experiments on the Sandia Z machine</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://thenextweb.com/news/uk-fusion-startup-breaks-pressure-record-giant-gun-z-machine">https://thenextweb.com/news/uk-fusion-startup-breaks-pressure-record-giant-gun-z-machine</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-85133103320755908762024-03-03T16:19:00.000-08:002024-03-03T16:19:48.403-08:00The coming Chinese revolution <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here's another video that hints at some of the issues facing modern China:</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/httM1osjGEk?si=SWbkxeHI1Rof5Txc">https://youtu.be/httM1osjGEk?si=SWbkxeHI1Rof5Txc</a></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-55280877729961928882024-03-03T16:17:00.000-08:002024-03-03T16:17:59.693-08:00Psychological black death<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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:</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/s0K0sI5XiP4?si=GiWL42ozc2XhLawe">https://youtu.be/s0K0sI5XiP4?si=GiWL42ozc2XhLawe</a></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-71983372001850220282024-03-02T12:58:00.000-08:002024-03-02T12:58:49.798-08:00LLNS contract <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-size: 13px;">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?</span></p>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-16541527772426268912024-03-02T12:55:00.000-08:002024-03-02T12:55:49.035-08:00Brevity means clarity <p> Hello,</p><p>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.</p><p>I find brief comments clearer. Long ones inevitably turn into a long ringing road to nowhere.</p><p>Let us make it easier for readers to follow us.</p><p><br /></p>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-73995830920714479322024-02-27T14:46:00.000-08:002024-02-27T14:46:50.111-08:00Is AI bot Gemini woke? <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In breaking news, AI has discovered a "profound" moral dilemma:</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13127549/google-ai-nuclear-apocalypse-misgender-caitlyn-jenner.html">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13127549/google-ai-nuclear-apocalypse-misgender-caitlyn-jenner.html</a></span>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-65635720271998482992024-02-26T16:23:00.000-08:002024-02-26T16:23:40.411-08:00Retiree medical cost increase<p> </p><dt id="c8561887553476662974" style="background-color: white; color: #202020; cursor: pointer; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.25em; text-wrap: nowrap;"><img alt="Blogger" class="comment-icon blogger-comment" src="https://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" style="background: url("/img/cmt/comment_sprite.gif") -45px -117px no-repeat; border: 0px; height: 16px; width: 16px;" /> <span dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/17501607897931947673" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00838f; text-decoration-line: none;" target="null">gardner6</a></span> said...</dt><dd style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">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?<br />Thanks.</p></dd>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-78943808063897469172024-02-26T16:21:00.000-08:002024-02-26T16:21:15.257-08:00Disgruntled scientist<p>Warning: the video is very long. </p><p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This is a good video -- it is by a disgruntled scientist who gives his unvarnished opinion on the state of science, and the world:</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/p_swB_KS8Hw?si=Mjxzl6YbYtZHiMKF">https://youtu.be/p_swB_KS8Hw?si=Mjxzl6YbYtZHiMKF</a></span>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-71586701325473809682024-02-26T07:01:00.000-08:002024-02-26T07:01:23.985-08:00Who will it be in 2026?<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span></p>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-52347711721153500822024-02-25T10:53:00.000-08:002024-02-25T10:53:39.411-08:00Are we taking nuclear threat seriously? <p> <a href="Https://realclearwire.com/articles/2024/02/23/taking_nuclear_war_seriously_1013900.html">H<span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">ttps://realclearwire.com/articles/2024/02/23/taking_nuclear_war_seriously_1013900.html</span></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-65840815378520841452024-02-24T19:03:00.000-08:002024-02-24T19:03:44.470-08:00AI and video creation<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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:</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/nYTRFKGR9wQ?si=1EfcxFhWQetZeXbm">https://youtu.be/nYTRFKGR9wQ?si=1EfcxFhWQetZeXbm</a></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This could revolutionize the movie and video game industries, content creation, and also make the metaverse a reality, of course.</span>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-76884023565679477642024-02-24T08:19:00.000-08:002024-02-24T08:19:49.926-08:00Imagine doubling the processing power of your devices! <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1035231">https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1035231</a></span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Maybe the growth of AI will exceed expectations!</span>doobydewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05759665177434945810noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-34005039319599893852024-02-21T15:54:00.000-08:002024-02-21T15:54:08.106-08:00Rambling chatbot! <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A chatbot made this statement yesterday, it is quite interesting:</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1avwqzh/very_strange_rambling_responses/">https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1avwqzh/very_strange_rambling_responses/</a></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here's an excerpt from its answer to "What is a computer?" (it generated 9 paragraphs and wanted to keep going):</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">" 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. "</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-77873969261859357182024-02-19T17:34:00.000-08:002024-02-19T17:34:24.272-08:00How about more neuroscience? <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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:</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://faroutinitiative.com/">https://faroutinitiative.com/</a></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">https://faroutinitiative.com/FAQ</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/146/9/3851/7169317?login=false">https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/146/9/3851/7169317?login=false</a></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-37611260776680342812024-02-19T17:33:00.000-08:002024-02-19T17:33:16.483-08:00The threat is real! <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="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">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</a></span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">My hypothesis has been that China, Russia and maybe even NK or Iran, had been following</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-89889935817997341332024-02-15T21:28:00.000-08:002024-02-15T21:28:58.475-08:00Health of LLNS TCP1 pension<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Health of TCP1 pension</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-25695282154741314702024-02-14T19:49:00.000-08:002024-02-14T19:50:40.955-08:00Russia is up to something<p> <span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=107232293">https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=107232293</a></span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-size: 13px;">Russia is up to something big!??</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-49284223937295927072024-02-14T19:47:00.000-08:002024-02-14T19:47:46.371-08:00The power of Georgia Power<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/second-new-vogtle-nuclear-reactor-begins-splitting-atoms/4QRDSMICMFGNLJ3UV2TDVBIA3A/">https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/second-new-vogtle-nuclear-reactor-begins-splitting-atoms/4QRDSMICMFGNLJ3UV2TDVBIA3A/</a></span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">New US nuclear reactor reaches criticality.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936951073896589340.post-59662413598513359092024-02-14T19:45:00.000-08:002024-02-14T19:45:23.308-08:0011 years later... <p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">11 years later, is there a viable path forward to a LIFE 2.0?</span></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">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.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4