After the NNSA news that LANS is out next year, there have been many suggestions here for how to make the situation better for the future. The two most serious ones would appear to be either to federalize the Laboratory or to move it to DoD. There could be a third option, which is to combine LANL and SNL; however, that doesn't seem to be a logical merger.
What are the reasons for or against these two options?
29 comments:
With LANL and SNL only being about 90 miles from each other and tele-commuting options getting better with technology, it makes more and more sense to combine the two. For example, travel could be operated by one entity. Only one security office would be necessary. Fewer managers and more cost effective management could be squeezed out of a combined operation.
Politically, having a single entity running both labs makes sense. It gives more political power to the "mega-lab". It would also allow staff to move back and forth between jobs at both labs if they so desired. Looks like a good idea to me but the tired, old argument of "SNL is an engineering lab and LANL is a science lab!" is sure to be heard. Their is little truth left to that old argument.
Federalize. Admit the grand mistake and miserable failure of attempting to privatize, and in so doing, return some sense and sensibility to LANL (and LLNL when their contract comes due).
"SNL is an engineering lab and LANL is a science lab!" is sure to be heard. Their is little truth left to that old argument.
How so? It makes more sense to have one as an engineering lab and the other as a science lab.
All of these are very valid suggestions especially when the newly appointed security contractor Centerra Los Alamos GM got his wife hired by Lansing. No conflict of interest here given the dates involved and as usual they will maintain as much nepotism as necessary to try and survive this contract.
When in doubt, do something stupid.
SNL does at least as much science these days as LANL, especially since LANL does not do much. It really comes down to individual researchers, and whether or not they are good. Not so much where they sit.
"SNL does at least as much science these days as LANL, especially since LANL does not do much. It really comes down to individual researchers, and whether or not they are good. Not so much where they sit."
How about getting LANL back to doing more science, this would argue more for having a non-profit University run LANL while Lokheed Martin could run a more engineering lab like Sandia.
A non profit running LANL is the best and smart way to go to keep the science up to date for the overall NNSA mission and the other valuable science that has traditionally been done at LANL. Sandia is more of engineering lab which was the original point of Sandia and should stay that way. I think we can all agree on this.
"I think we can all agree on this."
Yes a non-profit running the labs so that science and the mission can thrive and lower cost. What is not to love, win win for everyone.
I heard this company called "University of California" did a halfway-decent job with the place for a while.
I heard this company called "University of California" did a halfway-decent job with the place for a while.
January 18, 2016 at 6:27 AM
In case you have forgotten under UC we had spies, fires, stolen mustangs, arrogant scientists, missing disks, meth, lasers in eyes, culture of arrogance, more fires, standowns, cowboys, out of control scientists, attacks on Tommy Hook, culture of theft, culture of decadence, arrogance and so on. But there could be more...much more sinister things as well.
For an accurate and 100% factual account of the true reality of the lab from
someone who is the most honest person in the world does not have any kind of agenda please read the powerful yet utterly disturbing "Los Alamos: Secret Colony, Hidden Truths: A Whistleblower’s Diary" by Chuck Montana
Some points of this this book should win this glorious gem the Noble prize in literature.
It’s very difficult to write about Tommy Hook. His story also made explosive headlines in the local press when he was attacked and severely beaten in the parking lot of a Santa Fe strip club in 2005. This was after he and Chuck had been demoted from their auditing partnership at the Lab, Those who were eventually arrested and found guilty denied any connection to LANL. In a weird turn of events.
The last part of Chuck’s book reads like a murder mystery but what proved especially shocking was their connection to the former LANL deputy director who was found dead with a gun shot wound in the parking lot of the Los Alamos Ski Area.
In a nutshell, it’s about maintaining the status quo . . . about keeping the University of California in charge in Los Alamos at all cost, even if it means derailing an ongoing criminal review and preventing someone’s death from being properly investigated. THIS is the story
How can anyone argue with these cold hard facts of the purest form about UC!
Chuck and Tommy were sleazy, self-serving, complaining, trouble-making jerks. Everyone who worked with them knew it.
"Los Alamos: Secret Colony, Hidden Truths: A Whistleblower’s Diary" by Chuck Montana
January 18, 2016 at 10:14 AM
Thants Chuck Montano not Montana.
Chuck is shill. His book is a personal, profit-making enterprise. It should really resonate with the fake-moon-landing conspiracy-theorists. LANL under LANS has a lot wrong with it, and this book serves as a pathetic distraction from serious discussions of fixing the corruption that brought us LANS.
Hey Chuck is just playing the game like LANS, it is all for the money. You cannot fault Chuck for doing what he has got to do make a Benjamen or two. Don't hate Chuck, hate the system that he bought into.
And for you information Mr 1:26PM we never did land on the moon, it was all in a studio, if you do not believe me than why are there no stars and the flag waves, it is the same reason that UC may have gone after Hook. Did you also know that there is a secret colony in New Mexico?
And for you information Mr 1:26PM we never did land on the moon, it was all in a studio, if you do not believe me than why are there no stars and the flag waves, it is the same reason that UC may have gone after Hook. Did you also know that there is a secret colony in New Mexico?
January 18, 2016 at 10:25 PM
Is that you Chuck?
When is Chuck going to reveal in his new book how much his monetary settlement was with LANS? Come on, tell it all Chuck!
January 18, 2016 at 6:27 AM
"In case you have forgotten under UC we had spies, fires, stolen mustangs, arrogant scientists, missing disks, meth, lasers in eyes, culture of arrogance, more fires, standowns, cowboys, out of control scientists, attacks on Tommy Hook, culture of theft, culture of decadence, arrogance and so on. But there could be more...much more sinister things as well."
Uhm, I've been working at LANL since 2010 and with the exception of LASER in the eye, which I had heard about, I have seen all that you have mentioned and then some. It has nothing to do with who is running the labs. It has to do with the fact that we have an educational system that produces one dimensional people not well rounded ones. If you're really good at something be it math, science, or football, you're pushed ahead regardless how pathetic and miserable you are in other things. That's where the arrogance and its culture come from and in a place like the labs they are further proliferated.
Uhm, I've been working at LANL since 2010...
January 20, 2016 at 1:00 PM
Which only means that you are totally clueless about LANL history. I started working at LANL in 1977 as a post doc, and your failure to even address the garbage in January 18, 2016 at 6:27 AM's post causes me to fear greatly for LANL's future, if no one there now knows its past (the truth that is). If all you can do is gripe about "unrounded" people you are truly pathetic as a scientist and as a person. A suggestion: On your free time, go to the LANL archives and (assuming you have the clearance) ask to spend some time reviewing LANL historical documents, or at a minimum, purchase and read some books (there are very many) that document the history of the place you are now "using as a career stop."
"If you're really good at something be it math, science, or football, you're pushed ahead regardless how pathetic and miserable you are in other things. That's where the arrogance and its culture come from and in a place like the labs they are further proliferated."
Being good at something people = arrogance. It just stands to reason and our educational system is to blame. We need well rounded people that not particularly good at anything since well rounded people are never arrogant.
Being good at something people = arrogance. It just stands to reason and our educational system is to blame. We need well rounded people that not particularly good at anything since well rounded people are never arrogant.
January 21, 2016 at 6:02 AM
Hell yes, were arrogant! We are smarter than you, we make more money than you, our kids go to better schools than yours, and our health care and retirement are miles beyond your pitiful pickings. Get a piece of cardboard and a marker pen to make your pathetic sign, and stake out a street corner. Maybe you'll make it for another dreadful year, maybe not.
January 22, 2016 at 7:20 PM
Better to be just quietly superior than overtly arrogant. It will take the pitchfork and torch crowd a little longer to find you. But they will find you, inspired by Donald Trump. Who will be safely behind his iron gates as he surveys the crowd's progress.
January 22, 2016 at 9:34 PM
There is no such thing as better, there is no such thing as privilege, there is no such thing as logic, there is only arrogance, cowboys, cowgirls, and buttheads. Contact that, realize that and ask yourself who has more value to this world... Kim Kardashian or a worthless troll who got fired for low performance at the lab?
January 21, 2016 at 6:02 AM
I have met plenty of people who are exceptionally good at some thing and are NOT arrogant. There are many factors involved that lead to arrogance, intelligence and proficiency are not necessarily active ingredients. There are a lot of arrogant pr!$ks on wall street and the only thing they are good at is screwing up the system that they pretend to worship. I will say hat many people who post here are very trigger happy when it comes to generalizing, which basically means that this place is not a forum for chatting that could lead to interesting discussion, but a troll paradise for old angry white guys who can't get the message across from their NOBAMA bumper stickers about how much they've lost their country, so they come here to post their screams anonymously.
Ever heard of a comma splice? (Screams anonymously)
Material you will never discover "reading a book about him" since the authors of such books never had the necessary security clearance to read the material I have.
January 25, 2016 at 7:15 PM
I have a clearance therefore I am. What original philosophy, gee did you come with that all by yourself or as a member of a team. And of course how far can your intellectually lazy mind get in an argument without an inaccurate generalization," you've solidly established that you are just another self-absorbed Millennial", which I'm not but I'd prefer one over you. Reading JRO's memos and letters would do you no good, that works for people who can understand that level of intellect, that's not you. Not that you don't have the ability mind you, but like I said originally you are ONE DIMENSIONAL. You need to start with basics that you've not learned, go online and read a book on logic 101. There you will find these things called fallacies of logic, it may help you understand why your posted rants are nonsensical at best. Now I will admit that I have committed them in these posts myself but its what one must do when holding up a mirror to someone like you. Finally, no one moves to a third world state like NM, in middle of nowhere town like LA which boasts no life and fantastic restaurants like Sonic, because they don't have a love for this country and don't have a deep desire to follow in the steps of the people who started this lab to keep this nation secure. Towards that end I do have security clearance.
P.S. Millennial is spelled with two n's not one. But thanks for telling me about the comma splice.
I have a clearance therefore I am.
January 26, 2016 at 9:58 AM
Obviously a slip-up on the part of OPM. BTW, please enlighten us as to which "fallacy of logic" you think was committed. And what exactly is a "book on logic 101"? Perhaps you mean something like Copi's "Introduction to Logic" which I studied as a college sophomore, way before you were born. I highly recommend it.
January 26, 2016 at 10:44 AM
please enlighten us as to which "fallacy of logic" you think was committed.
Faulty generalization: "you've solidly established that you are just another self-absorbed Millennial"
Faulty generalization: "If all you can do is gripe about "unrounded" people you are truly pathetic as a scientist and as a person."
Not to mention the constant references you have made regarding your age and how that is giving you some greater insight, maybe you have some data that proves old age is wisdom. However looking at the current management of the lab who are primarily in their 50's, 60's, and how wonderful their judgment and performance has been for the whole country to see I would say evidence points to the contrary. This fallacy is called argument from age.
I think you need to review your logic book. Alas i digress, I'm done with this thread you can have the last rant
No rant, just profound sadness that you are the new generation of people supposedly protecting our national security. Yikes.
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