Actual post from Dec. 15 from one of the streams. This is a real topic. As far as promoting women and minorities even if their qualifications are not as good as the white male scientists, I am all for it. We need diversity at the lab and if that is what it takes, so be it. Quit your whining. Look around the lab, what do you see? White male geezers. How many African Americans do you see at the lab? Virtually none. LLNL is one of the MOST undiverse places you will see. Face it folks, LLNL is an institution of white male privilege and they don't want to give up their privileged positions. California, a state of majority Hispanics has the "crown jewel" LLNL nestled in the middle of it with very FEW Hispanics at all!
Comments
He will crash and burn that *** down as well, but he will make a lot of money as it goes down in... flames...flames...flames!!! I got to hand it to this guy he is the OJ Simpson of science. Pure genius.
I wonder how Ed will do with real scientists. It's easy to push around a labbie lifer who has no prospect of getting another job outside LLNL. A respected scientist from a university is another matter.
September 4, 2014 at 6:13 AM
Anonymous said...
"...I wonder how Ed will do with real scientists. It's easy to push around a labbie lifer who has no prospect of getting another job outside LLNL. A respected scientist from a university is another matter..."
No more Power Point and no more Madonna microphone for Ed?
NIF being one of the most expensive colossal failures in US history matters not. LLNS protects and honors the brotherhood of elite managers at all cost.
September 4, 2014 at 8:15 AM
Anonymous said...
"NIF being one of the most expensive colossal failures in US history matters not. LLNS protects and honors the brotherhood of elite managers at all cost."
It's not about the managers, it's about the credibility of LLNL. NIF is a success, by definition. Anything else would mean that LLNL is not credible as a National Lab.
September 4, 2014 at 2:08 PM
Anonymous said...
Ed's antics won't go over well in Chile. It won't be long until they get some of Pinochet's former security forces to make him disappear.
September 4, 2014 at 2:40 PM
These little town blues, are melting away I'll make a brand new start of it In old Livermore
If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, Livermore..Livermore.. Livermore!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRIbUT6u7Q
September 6, 2014 at 10:43 AM
Actually he personally made sure it would hit the fan by believing in and trusting those same code jockeys, and even handing them total control over the program of experiments. They successfully played to his ego, Lindl especially, so at the end the blame comes back to Moses and his arrogance.
and out into the real and transparent world of science and technology. I give him 3 years at his new gig.
On Ed's PA he can comment "it was the other guys fault". This response however, is not a compelling argument for "worker bee" PAs. Royalty has its perks.
Well said. Sometimes a "review committee" is just a procedural go through the motions effort for 20,000 ft. fly overs and a future insurance policy if needed.
We'll need to start pumping billions into this new idea of Ed's but I'm sure it will pay off in just 3 or 4 years, maybe a bit longer. All the "Doubting Thomas" types, of course, must first be crushed to make way for his true genius.
efforts he hurt.
The extent of the rationalization in some of the above comments is quite amusing.
For orientation. I am a scientist. I have never worked at LLNL. I have colleagues at Livermore, some connected with NIF.
Simon Wiesenthal said: "The world now understands the concept of 'desk murderer'. We know that one doesn't need to be fanatical, sadistic, or mentally ill to murder millions; that it is enough to be a loyal follower eager to do one's duty."
Remember that Ed wasn't even AT LLNL when NIF was started. Everybody remember Mike Campbell (Mr. Almost-PhD)? He was the guy that sold NIF and the physics that went with it (for better or worse). By the time Ed and Mary arrived, it was pretty apparent that NIF was sold for a lot less than it would really cost. Ed was the guy who took on that problem on behalf of and with the full support of LLNL and DOE. And by god, he delivered a system that works better than required and better than most people hoped.
Anybody older than about 25 knows that you don't do anything big without stepping on a few toes. All programs have, and all will, until resources become infinite. If you happened to be responsible for a lower-priority program that was raided or cut, and you blame Ed for that, then it's time for you to grow up and realize that it's just business; if DOE, LLNL, and everybody else didn't develop and follow their priorities, they wouldn't survive long. For better or worse, NIF was a top priority at LLNL and within DOE, and Ed did business accordingly.
And to argue that he stacked the deck for all of the hundreds of reviews really stretches credulity. What do think is more likely; that he somehow influenced every one of the thousands of reviewers over more than a decade, including some of the most prominent scientists of our age....or that the committees were basically legit, and some of the ignition science is actually not completely known yet?
And I'll go one further. Which is more likely: that Ed somehow influenced or deceived every one of the thousands of reviewers over more than a decade, including some of the most prominent scientists of our age...or that the "reviewers" on this blog know very little about what they're anonymously commenting on (like the person above who is commenting on data from a friend who works at LLNL) and are just wrong?
Ed could be a real pain in the ass, no doubt about that. Especially if you didn't know what you were talking about. He had very high standards, and was not afraid to question & reassess anything.
So what about ignition? The mistake made by Ed and LLNL was to allow a milestone to be attached to it. Did LHC say: we're going to find your Higgs for you by December 2011? No, and it was good thing since their machine had some very serious, very deep design flaws, which took years of complete shutdown to correct. Where were George and Parney while evil Ed was running amok with fusion physics? The truth is that George was completely on board, and Parney wouldn't know fusion if he stepped in it. Fusion is just hard. It will take some more time. The MFE folks have been blundering around for 3 times as long as ICF, and they're nowhere near achieving what is pretty routine on NIF nowadays.
And just knock off the "evil" comments, and the supposed Nazi parallels. You know that isn't true at all, and if you don't, then you're lucky indeed because you have no idea what evil is.
September 9, 2014 at 4:47 PM
Breathe, bro, breathe........
Springtime for Moses in Chile
Ed was so misunderstood.
And 4:47. You do go on. I cannot hit everything, there is just too much. But you refer to hundreds of reviews and thousands of reviewers. And that Ed would have had to influence every one of them. That is ridiculous and you insult me if you think I accept your argument. There were dissenters, for example, the Jasons and a few on other committees that resisted the rules for review committees. Also, nobody had to influence the review committees; they know what is expected of them. There were not thousands. Very often the same committee, with maybe a change or two, was used. There are not thousands out there to fill the slots on committees. Just look at the names of the committee members.
But enough for the moment.
Lab lifers are "true believers" like the loyal followers of Stalin and Hitler. They depend entirely on the lab for their livelihood and ego gratification. They cannot see the outside world or reality for that matter.
This is the reality. The lab is a 20th century artifact. A product of the Cold War which will soon be relegated to the trash heap of history. Nuclear weapons are useless as a deterrent or anything else. This reality was exposed when Russia invaded Ukraine. They have no military value and are forcing military leaders into a box because of their great expense. Scottish independence may actually force the British to give up their costly Trident program. The ICF program is the last gasp of Teller's Plowshares program that tried to put a happy face on nuclear weapons by claiming they had peaceful applications.
It's time for LLNL and it's workers to accept reality and the consequences of years of bad decisions.
Wasn't the initial number of beams and delivered energy greater in an earlier conceptual design? What was the estimated margin for ignition with the current NIF design?
I agree, every time someone says anything bad about Ed, I laugh at how deluded they are in not seeing the truth. It is more sad than funny but I always find humor where I can. Ed is a hero, he may have stepped on a few over-inflated egos but he is still and always will be a true hero who fought against the odds and never gave up what he believed in no matter what others said.
September 10, 2014 at 9:39 PM
Excuse me, I need to puke. By the way, it is bad form and childish to answer your own posts and pretend they come from two different people.
1. Ed sucks.
2. LLNL's fusion scientists (**scientists**, not managers) are awesome.
3. NIF is awesome.
4. 90% of the "lifers" are, in fact, incredible scientsts. The fact that they didn't have to worry about money is what MADE them awesome.
5. NIF would have been even more awesome, were it not for the out-of-this-world-ridiculous management they had running the place.
Cut 3/4 of the managers, let the scientists do their jobs, and it will all work out, if it is physically possible.
The fact that we don't KNOW if it is physically possible is WHY it is SCIENCE.
End of story.
Not exactly, it is a bit more subtle than that. I am not a NIF scientist but for over 10 years I have heard many people who are indeed good scientists say they have real doubts about NIF.
It is one thing if you have a few total crackpots who are naysayers like the intelligent design folks who account for 0.1% of biologists but it is another when you have about 1/3-1/2 experts saying something is wrong. I am not sure what the real story is however I know for a fact that many people said that aspects of NIF where going to be real trouble. I would add that I have heard a few ideas there are rather dubious like no one really ever believed NIF would work or be any value whatsoever but that was not to point. The point was to be very very big so that congress would fund it since congress only funds BIG things, Iraq, Space Shuttle, Obama Care...NIF. It is not suppose to work it is just suppose to be big, and the public gets "big" however the public does not get "relevant".
In truth what is important is that there was a failure and the organization that has the duty to straighten out the causes of the failure is LLNL. It is an LLNL project and sometimes one learns from failure, both in the science and in the management. I see 7:47 that you agree that there was a failure and I think that almost all agree. From what I have observed it seems almost all agree, including those on this blog, that one starts first looking within LLNL for those causes.
Yes, from all that I have seen and heard and read, I have concluded that Mr. Moses is the central figure in all this failure. There are obviously others, after all you have a new lab director and the LIFE program is cancelled. But really for me the responsible players are not of importance. The failure is. A number of the higher level players are now gone anyway.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/next-generation/has-fusion-finally-solved-its-hype-problem-16675762
Oh, we had a government shutdown because Obama told the House majority to not fund the government. Now I understand.
Magellan sounds like a great project. Lots of funding for new boondoggles. Need "phased" mirror arrays, adaptive optics, guide stars ? So, where do I apply ?
Magellan sounds like a great project. Lots of funding for new boondoggles. Need "phased" mirror arrays, adaptive optics, guide stars ? So, where do I apply ?
From Matthew Scott to OBS and DTM Staff Members:
The GMTO Board would like you to know that, effective immediately, Dr. Ed Moses is on leave for substantial and significant family matters that require his attention.
Dr. Moses will not return to GMTO. The GMTO Board thanks Dr. Moses for his important service to the GMTO.
The GMTO Board has appointed Dr. Pat McCarthy as interim President and looks forward to his leadership of the GMTO project.
A public statement will be made at a later date.
-Sent on behalf of Matthew Scott.