LLNL - The True Story -

  This company is commercializing a promising new AI concept, that could lower compute requirements, or equivalently produce more insightful responses at a given computational cost: https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/26/inception-emerges-from-stealth-with-a-new-type-of-ai-model/

  Weird stuff going on in LANL. They are getting getting rid of web pages, also rumors are that Doge is showing up to look around. Other rumors. The just got rid of bunch of postdocs and some staff. More and more countries are on the bad list.

  US Agency Reportedly Plans to Shut Down 8,000 EV Chargers, Offload EVs https://www.pcmag.com/news/general-services-administration-shuts-down-8000-ev-chargers-offloads-evs Note: lab vehicles are leased from the GSA, but I'm not sure if buildings are owned by GSA or DOE directly. However it seems many lab electric vehicles will be either recalled or more likely not renewed with EVs once their lease is up. The General Services Administration (GSA), an agency that manages the federal government’s buildings, is planning to shut down all 8,000 of its electric vehicle chargers, The Verge reports. The GSA is also expected to offload its current stock of EVs, though it's unknown if the vehicles will be sold or put into storage. The agency will reportedly begin instructing employees to remove the chargers—which are used for both federally owned EVs and employees' personal vehicles—as early as next week. The agency informed employees at one regional office that, in its efforts ...

  The LANL fellows did a study of the declining number publications at the lab. This also showed the decline of publications of the postdocs. Now and new publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that postdoc publications in terms of number of papers and impact is associated with the long term success in science. https://physics.aps.org/articles/v18/34?utm_campaign=weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emailalert For many researchers, the postdoctoral fellowship is a way station between graduate school and a permanent job. Now Bedoor AlShebli of New York University, Petter Holme of Aalto University in Finland, and their collaborators have revealed that, despite the position’s transience, the quantity and quality of a researcher’s postdoc publications are a strong predictor of whether the researcher stays in academia and, if they do, how productive the researcher will be as a faculty member [1]. The findings have implications for faculty hiring an...

 Microsoft claims breakthrough in quantum computer technology: https://youtu.be/wSHmygPQukQ?si=6Eknzl4z4h7OdWc9 https://phys.org/news/2025-02-topological-quantum-processor-majorana-modes.html 2/23/2025 1:31 PM Reply

  Will Federal Contractors have to do the same? Elon Musk says federal employees must fill out (weekly?) productivity reports or resign https://www.foxnews.com/politics/elon-musk-federal-employees-fill-out-productivity-reports-resign

  The asteroid threat for the 2032 impact has been downgraded in probability: https://www.livescience.com/space/asteroids/asteroid-yr4-impact-odds-plummet-as-nasa-changes-threat-level-of-city-killer https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/

  Livermore Lab office closed amid federal anti-DEI crackdown.  National Labs directors talk about the crackdown. https://www.pleasantonweekly.com/livermore/2025/02/16/livermore-lab-office-closed-amid-federal-anti-dei-crackdown/

 Apparently, among the latest Elon (Or fElon) decisions, a few nuclear scientists with lots of experience were among the people laid off  at NNSA. FElon realized the gaffe. Does anyone know they got hired back?

Inside secret US lab where US will begin testing nukes again amid fears of WWIII Oddly enough project 2025 advocates for testing again. https://www.newsbreak.com/daily-mail-560402/3814420926097-inside-secret-us-lab-where-us-will-begin-testing-nukes-again-amid-fears-of-wwiii

  Will DOGE undo the 5 year less than transparent, LLNS contract extension in favor of a transparent less expensive non-profit contractor review to manage LLNL?

  DOE and NNSA layoffs Between 1,200 and 2,000 DOE workers were laid off recently. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/sweeping-us-energy-department-layoffs-hit-nuclear-security-loans-office-sources-2025-02-14/ How long before this hits employees working for LLNL, LANL, Sandia and NNSS?

  https://www.reuters.com/world/us/sweeping-us-energy-department-layoffs-hit-nuclear-security-loans-office-sources-2025-02-14/ Sweeping US energy department layoffs hit offices of loans, nuclear security, sources say By Timothy Gardner and Valerie I think it is pretty naive to think that some cuts one way or other will not coming to the labs.

  What will DOGE think about the excessive number of LLNL managers, many with zero technical talent themselves, assigned to “rank” the engineering and technical staff at LLNL that consume millions of dollars to rank lab employees to a high resolution with poor accuracy? Does LLNL really need that many non-technical managers on the payroll?

  I hear DOGE has asked NNSA to look into the lab management contracts that they have judged are too expensive. I am not sure which labs they are of if they will re-adjust the contracts (reducing the fees) or look to recompete them. At LANL it is not nearly as expensive as LANS was with Triad but we spend way too much "kick back" money to the state of NM, of which LANL gets nothing in return and in fact reduces the quality of services in many cases. This is not a small amount like 100 million or more that is simply a pay off.