Originally, the first link was broken but it is ok now. Poster: thanks for your prompt response and he extra links.
Livermore investigated for nuclear contamination on and off-site
This is a great video, claiming that Global Warming is plausibly much worse than previously thought, and the current pace of climate change could lead to a global catastrophe within as little as 20 years:
Forget about a possible civil war is WW3 getting closer?
Is this actually happening on our USA border?
https://www.newsweek.com/greg-abbotts-fight-biden-spark-warnings-civil-war-has-begun-1863910
******. NOTE *******
I am working on keeping this post on top of the blog for a while. This allows us to discuss more elaborately.
The Blogger "top post" feature is malfunctioning.
The basic term of the LLNS contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344, will end on September 30, 2026. What policies and practices should the NNSA (hopefully with employee input) preserve, review, or change for the next LLC contractor?
The Department of Energy announced that four companies have developed more planet-friendly heat pump designs.
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/department-of-energy-doe-heat-pump-challenge/
If you are a labs scientist, do you think we will see it in our lifetime?
Warning: trolls and prolific contributors not accepted.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/world-largest-nuclear-reactor-aims-070000048.html
Neural networks guided by physics are creating new ways to observe the complexities of plasmas
https://scitechdaily.com/the-future-of-fusion-unlocking-complex-physics-with-ais-precision/
Here's another worrisome item, it's a video where a former weapons inspector expresses concern about Iranian nuclear programs:
This article came out a week ago, one of the authors, Sig Hecker is a former LANL lab director.
The perception that university students possess significantly higher IQs than the general population is debunked by recent findings. A meta-analysis covering IQ scores from 1939 to 2022 reveals that the average IQ of today's undergraduate students is 102, merely aligning with the general population. This decline, averaging 0.2 IQ points per year, correlates with the increased accessibility of higher education over the last 80 years. For a more in-depth exploration of educational trends and insights, delve into https://essays.edubirdie.com/finance-assignments so it's time for a paradigm shift, recognizing students as average individuals, prompting adjustments in academic standards, and dispelling outdated myths about intellectual superiority among university attendees.
DEI (Diversity, equity, and inclusion) the spotlight
This is worth listening to -- it's an interview with US Senator Rand Paul, who is a medical doctor, he comments on Fauci's funding of gain of function research, around the 4'50"-5'30" time onwards in the audio:
I like many others are very concerned about the future of the US. After Iowa tonight we might have to starting thinking about
possibilites. Should the labs be preparing to deal with a possible Trump presidency? It is not becoming a real possibility that
Trump could be president again and the there is talk about how the government will deal with this. This is driven by the fear that Trump will use the military for dictatorial take over.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-military-fears-rcna129159
"Now, bracing for Trump’s potential return, a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers is quietly devising plans to try to foil any efforts to expand presidential power, which could include pressuring the military to cater to his political needs"
Now presumably the labs will be part of this network. Or democracy is in jeopardy.
Hi
Also Europe is getting worried
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/14/world/europe-leaders-trump-concerns-intl-cmd/index.html
"When Trump came along it woke us up to the fact that the US might not always act in European interest, especially if it goes against American interest,” a senior EU diplomat told CNN. “It sounds naive saying it out loud, but that was the assumption a lot people made.”
There is a rumor going around that the Los Alamos fellows are not very happy with Mason after a recent talk. He showed a plot of LANL publications highlighting a decline in publications compared to other labs. Los Alamos was the top lab before 2006 and then lost out to LLBL, ORNL and ANL and is now at about the same level as PNNL. At the same time the lab has grown twice the size. Sure we have a lot more people but the overall quality of the staff is much lower today. One can always argue that publications do not measure everything but anyone from LANL who has visited ANL or ORNL recently can attest that they seem like much more active and healthy places especially in terms of younger people.
Did something happened in 2006? Oh yes, that is when LANS came in. Good job. I doubt the Fellows have much power at this point, and seem like product of a bygone era who are out of touch. Maybe this is just the plan all along to make the place a PIT facility. As Greg Mello said in a recent interview about what he heard the LANL management is saying....interview a 100 and hire a 100. This does not bode well for a good science future at LANL nor an operational PIT facility. I am no fan of Mello but he has a point every now and then.
Here's something from Sakharov in the 1960's, he was still a supporter of communism at the time (his views changed I believe as they went after him), parts of it are still relevant in that he is highly critical of bureaucracy, mass media, the influence of the rich on politics in capitalist systems, and expresses worries about AI in general, censorship and the psychological manipulation of the general public. He also criticizes Chinese communism in particular and Mao, as well as Stalinism, Fascism, the arms race, the environment, poverty, it is a laundry list of complaints and worries, most of them justified at least in part. Also he puts forth a perhaps naive in retrospect utopian plan for world peace and prosperity. It is well worth reading in full:
What policies have changed?
In 2009 a LLNS employee was unfortunately ran over by his own vehicle and died. There was a “lessons learned” afterward. Not revealed at the time, was this employee had just been “Niffed” (unilaterally let go from his NIF assignment) and was in the process of moving to a new office. Very sad. Did LLNS employment polices change as a result of that 2009 tragedy? A few years later, a NIF tech was given an “intent to dismiss” (your being fired) letter and a few days later commits suicide, with small children left behind. His NIF managers refused to address his loss to his coworkers in any way to relieve their collective grief.
Has Lab Director Kimberly Budil, addressed the issue of manager specific appropriate and inappropriate treatment of employees to eliminate or significantly reduce these kinds of tragedies?
Texas A&M Partnership with Qatar Could Expose Nuclear, Weapons Technology to U.S. Adversaries:
“13 ADJUDICATIVE GUIDELINES The 13 adjudicative criteria are:
(1) Guideline A: Allegiance to the United States
This is rarely the cause of a clearance denial or revocation, but political dissidents beware. You can certainly participate in politics but defamatory speech against the government is not looked upon well. The next time someone talks to you about overthrowing the government, you certainly don’t want to lend them your ear.”
Hosting or financially supporting “them” likely a security clearance no no as well.
https://news.clearancejobs.com/2021/03/05/security-clearance-adjudicative-guidelines/
A climate technology startup aims to suck carbon from the atmosphere using a new type of nuclear power plant that’s never been built in the United States.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-docs-carbon-removal-proposal-bets-on-rare-nuclear-reactors/
Sustained nuclear fusion could be one step closer to reality after Korea's "artificial sun" received an exciting upgrade to withstand temperatures six times hotter than the center of the sun.
https://www.newsweek.com/sustained-artificial-sun-fusion-energy-1857042
Leave The World Behind” on Netflix is unsettling because it is has (mostly) plausible national security scenarios.
