LLNS may have excluded the wrong people in last VSSOP? The exclusions were based on outdated job categories and related skills. ULM are now thinking that in the future, job categories and functional areas will have to be re-defined. The next VSSOP/ISP will be based on the new categories and functional areas. The questions I have are: 1) Why didnt they think of that before the transition. It seems like their style is “change things as you go”. Planning is out the window! 2) Who will give input on the new changes? The next RIF apparently is going to be more lucrative than the VSSOP. Depending on the length of employment, a RIFed person, not only gets their 1 week pay per year of service but also from 30 to 120 days notice, essentially 30 to 120 days pay. Please feel free to comment on the rumors or add new ones you actually heard.
Comments
Also, any beam strong enough to flame a bug is a safety hazard. Having dozens of these devices around a wetland would pose a serious hazard to all forms of life in the neighborhood.
While Lowell may get his giggles from this upgrade to frying ants with a magnifying glass, in retrospect the idea is just another example of stupid science gone amoke. You combat malaria with waterlands management, appropriate use of anti-mosquito techniques ( fish, birds, BT, pesticides ), and moving people away from the source.
It's about time people stopped funding stupid ideas just because a PhD writes a proposal using big words that even college educated people have difficulty understanding. We don't need to study ants in zero-g for 20 times, blindly approve drugs that medical companies paid off researchers to fake succesful results for, money "gurus" creating new worthless financial instruments, and certainly don't need a laser-based bug-zapper. Stop all this nonsense and we'd be on the way to saving some serious money.
I also noted that the laser may not vaporize the little pests, it just might confuse them. If you can't dazzle them with brilliance....
I assume the guidance control will be done with a S-1 computer.