I just received my annual TCP-1 letter from LLNS and a summary of the LLNS Pension Plan. Looked in pretty good shape in 2013. About 35% overfunded (funding target attainment percentage = 134.92%). This was a decrease from 2012 where it was 51% overfunded (funding target attainment percentage = 151.59%). They did note that the 2012 change in the law on how liabilities are calculated using interest rates improved the plan's position. Without the change the funding target attainment percentages would have been 118% (2012) and 105% (2013). 2013 assets = $2,057,866,902 2013 liabilities = $1,525,162,784 vs 2012 assets = $1,844,924,947 2012 liabilities = $1,217,043,150 It was also noted that a slightly different calculation method ("fair market value") designed to show a clearer picture of the plan' status as December 31, 2013 had; Assets = $2,403,098,433 Liabilities = $2,068,984,256 Funding ratio = 116.15% Its a closed plan with 3,781 participants. Of that number, 3,151 wer...
Comments
On the positive side we are failing to take advantage of our positive aspects as a society. Creativity and freedom of thought breeds new ideas. Those characteristics are being crushed by caution, lack of risk taking, and bureaucratic overreach. China is winning because we have allowed ourselves to be defeated. We have failed to do the things that gave us supremacy in the first place. Chief among this is any sense of civic or societal responsibility on the part of the institutions, the corporations and ultimately the individual. The only thing that matters now is money. No other value or principle is managed or prized. Money vetos everything.
We need to stop coddling scientists in their taxpayer-funded "factory farms" and finally liberate them. True innovation, like "free-range" chicken, is just better when it has to scratch and peck for its own survival. We must remember that Albert Einstein wasn't on some cushy grant; he was a patent clerk, a true free-range mind doing world-changing physics on the side just to make rent. Once we defund the whole system, we'll have thousands of new, hungry Einsteins driving for Uber and serving lattes, their minds sharpened by the bracing air of competition. The scientific "meat" they produce will be so much leaner and more flavorful.
For decades we have been strangling the source of our scientific and technical advantage as a society. Trump walked in and shot it in the head. We were in slow decline. The system needed to be fixed. There are huge problems. If you worked at the Labs this is obvious. The change to corporate governance only accelerated the decline. The acts of the last year haven't fixed anything.
I have noticed that some young people are using AI so much that they start using the same language in everyday conversations. They keep asking variations on the same question over and over and I keep giving them the same answer and they seem confused. It is like they are changing the prompt until they get the answer they want and get frustrated when they told the same thing.