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More waste at Sandia

More financial waste by Sandia, with taxpayers footing the bill (confirmed by DOE):
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/larry_barker/secret-sandia-settlement-taps-taxpayers

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is a drop in the bucket next to the boondoggle known as NIF.
Anonymous said…
Well, the story on Sandia potentially involved criminal acts...
Anonymous said…
Wow! That's terrible!
Anonymous said…
The only fair restitution to society is for Sandia to give up a big chunk of its funding to the other two labs. And to make sure that they learn their lesson, Sandia should also still do the work for that portion paid out of their fee.
Anonymous said…
And I forgot to add that it wasn't bad enough that they had to do a chili cookoff that involved no chili. What kind of degenerate holds a chili cookoff with no chili involved?
Anonymous said…
This kind of stuff just makes me mad!
Anonymous said…
Sandia, shameful...just plain shameful!
Anonymous said…
Sandia did end up having to cough up the costs out of the award fee, in addition to another $2M dollar penalty.

Anonymous said…
That could have bought 20 million pounds of potatoes to feed the starving people of Lithuania. Of kept thousands of pitiful Andorrans warm through the brutal winter. Truly truly an outrage. Other labs need to adopt LLNL's teetotaler culture for sure.
Anonymous said…
This is what anonymous is referring to in the July 9, 2013, 1:55 AM post: http://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/100730.html

From the Sandia article itself:

" Tim Shepodd (8223) liked the moniker and agreed to call it the “chili cookoff.” But there was no chili involved, and the only “cooking” had to do with the kind of chemicals not usually found on Sandia grounds. "

That's another stupid Sandia project too. I heard that the Sandia Livermore staff were laughing and ridiculing it when the project manager tried (unsuccessfully) to get it nominated for an award.
Anonymous said…
What postdoc wouldn't want to learn how to not only cook meth as a backup career plan but also to glean insights into the future of meth cooking remote detection technology to learn how to avoid detection. This stuff should have been incorporated into Breaking Bad episodes, by the way,
Anonymous said…
U jus mad at chili cookoff cuz u probably went to work that day wearing cowboy hat and leather chaps and cowboy boots and a stupid cowboy shirt expecting to scarf down some hot debris-less meat chili. I bet u felt stupid when it was just scientists and government sponsors and experimental apparatus. U just mad cuz u made a fool of urself.
Anonymous said…
No it was a poncho, bandolier and a huge sombrero. Get it right or shut up.
Anonymous said…
Why is this considered "waste?" This is product of stupid employee actions. Is there a written policy condoning such actions?

Sandia California mandated bicycle helmets and I can't believe that drunk driving is allowed where an unprotected head is not.

Why did Sandia need to pay anything, other than the fact that lawyers would drag things out in court for years?

The driver of the vehicle still works at Sandia? Why wasn't he fired?

This does cost the taxpayer when it shouldn't but unless there are details not published that give a different twist on this story I can't see where Sandia is the guilty part. They just have the deep pockets.
Anonymous said…
This is just criminal. How horrible!
Anonymous said…
Sandia should be shut down and all funds transferred to the honest scientists at LLNL. LLNL is the last bastion of honesty, integrity, and transparency. Sandia covered up bad laser deuterium equation of state data that was apparently doctored from laser shock experiments. They also fired a scientist who spoke out about the problematic experiments though he is now at Harvard. Those Sandians are nefarious. Don't turn your back on them.
Anonymous said…
This is so unethical of Sandia to do this and should be reported
Anonymous said…
Per 11:10's comment: "LLNL is the last bastion of honesty, integrity, and transparency." Was that a tongue in cheek remark? If not, you are living in a different dimension then the one I live in!
Anonymous said…
"Sandia should be shut down and all funds transferred to the honest scientists at LLNL. LLNL is the last bastion of honesty, integrity, and transparency."


WTF?! Are you serious. LLNL has a redundant mission and is way less component than LANL. Don’t take my opinion, go ask the Navy, they refuse to work with LLNL, and if the Air Force ever put their heads on right they would follow suit. LLNL is artificially sustained by your Senator Frankenstein. LLNL should be closed down and handed over to Hollywood as a sound stage.
Anonymous said…
The troll obviously switched LLNL and Sandia as you can see from the references regarding EoS and the guy fired for speaking out and going to Harvard. These are obvious references to what LLNL did, not Sandia.
Anonymous said…
To turn an incident into a scandal, you need the other ingredients for making something go viral. Those other ingredients just aren't there in the case of Sandia. Settled matter is dead and boring to the public. It's hard to generate outrage against organizations that behave relatively well and also manage public relations well. In fact, bringing these things up gives Sandia the opportunity to show what improved policies and procedures they have in place, demonstrating that they care and are responsible stewards of public trust. Good organizations do that. They learn from their own mistakes. Can the same be said broadly about the other labs?

Anonymous said…
Learning from mistakes means learning to cover up their tracks better for the other labs. Or atleast they try to. A bunch of us are still scratching our heads about AVLIS. Definitely not "settled matter" there. No credible "lessons learned" out if it either.
Anonymous said…
Sandia is so incompetent
Anonymous said…
Lulz you really hate Sandia because they are eating your lunch.
Anonymous said…
Those crazy slides still circulate around the lab as internal propaganda to keep their own employees misinformed. Management really thinks their own employees are so stupid to believe the lies on those slides.
Anonymous said…
Wow! That Sandia story is pretty stupid!
Anonymous said…
Say something more outrageous to get a bit more attention. You're too timid. Good trolling also gets people to laugh as well as generate outrage. But avoid posting online defamation cuz you could get nailed.
Anonymous said…
Avoid posting as if you were texting "cuz" you just sound stupid.
Anonymous said…
You still mad, Alexis?

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