https://time.com/6296743/los-alamos-lab-plutonium-pits-nuclear-weapons/
In the Lab Oppenheimer Built, the U.S. Is Building Nuclear Bomb Cores Again
The effort to restart America’s nuclear-weapons manufacturing program in response represents the biggest test since the Manhattan Project. A wide range of arms-control experts and nuclear watchdogs, as well as a handful of lawmakers, are frantically sounding the alarms, warning of the existential risks of the course that leaders in both parties have taken. Critics say the U.S. is repeating the mistakes of the Cold War by funneling billions of taxpayer dollars into weapons that will hopefully never be used and haven’t been tested in more than a generation.
The picturesque setting for Oppenheimer’s pursuit of an atomic bomb contributed to the sense of insularity. Outsiders were not welcome. The people who worked and lived at Los Alamos were bound by secrecy and, with few exceptions, unable to leave. To this day, the people on this isolated plateau say they’re “on the hill,” which by default means that everyone else in the world is “off” it.
That last part is kind of funny. "someone tried to escape the hill but was caught" because no one "leaves the hill". The article is just crap. (1) 95% of anyone working at LANL could easily find a job elsewhere, no one is trapped on "the hill". (2) in the last 20 years the lab has had about 50% turnover rate, people get offers all the time. Anyone I know who said they wanted to leave, because of a spouse, new area, or what they are doing at the lab was shrinking got an offer in short order. Less than half the workers at LANL even live on "the hill". Also you could this about anything, people who work in DC say "we work in DC" which by default means everyone else "does not work in DC". Ok that is just stupid.
3 comments:
I think the labs should start thinking how they can be relevant in a possible domestic armed conflict. Things are likely to get ugly soon with 2024 around the corner.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article280684650.html
Thirty-one percent of Donald Trump supporters and 24% of President Joe Biden supporters said democracy is “no longer viable” and an alternative system should be tried, according to an October poll from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics
The poll surveyed 2,008 registered voters from Aug. 25 to Sept. 11 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
Other key findings:
When asked whether it is acceptable to employ violence to stop political opponents from attaining their goals, 41% of Biden supporters and 38% of Trump supporters said yes.
30% of Trump supporters and 25% of Biden supporters said elections should be suspended in times of crisis.
41% of Trump supporters and 30% of Biden supporters said they favor either conservative or liberal states seceding from the union.
Nearly half of Biden supporters, 47%, and 35% of Trump supporters said the government should restrict the expression of views “considered discriminatory or offensive.”
Prior to about 17 years ago you were “stuck” on the hill with the UC pension plan, the only way off was to get another job at another UC facility or just walk away from that retirement benefit and take a smaller retirement check later on.
Now you have the benefit of a 401k and you can just find another job off of the hill with that exact same 401K and continue contributing to that retirement plan… you are no longer stuck on that hill. That’s what the new hires right out of college are doing. Get your first job at a lab… looks good on the resume and makes a good stepping stone to the next level.
2:19. Absolutely correct. Unfortunately, the weaker candidates stay on on the Labs and hire even weaker candidates to fill their tiny shoes.
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