Promising facility

 There are claims in the media that Microsoft is going to build a $100 billion computing facility for AI that will use 5 GW of power. Since the power is needed 24/7 they want to use nuclear power rather than renewables:

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/microsoft-openai-consider-100bn-5gw-stargate-ai-data-center-report/

https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-openai-planning-100-billion-data-center-project-information-reports-2024-03-29/

That is of course, over 100 times the cost of any current supercomputer, and over 100 times the power budget, enough power for several million homes.

Naturally, if this is true it may be the case that other large tech companies in the US and China build similar facilities, each dwarfing the computing resources of the government laboratories unless they follow suit.

Is NIF going to save the world?

 

Ok maybe we need a bit more work but even Sabine a famous naysayer is now starting to say positive things about NIF and
nuclear fusion.

There is also First Light teaming up with Sandia with Z-machine.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XRSBA9elm8

Layoffs?

 Any regular readers in HR or management got a timeline on coming layoffs?

U. S on Chinese border

 https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/131715/taiwan-usa-troops-china

World on the brink as Taiwan admits US troops are now stationed on Chinese border
American troops are to be permanently stationed in Taiwan, according to Taipei, a huge move that will likely send tensions with China soaring as it president Xi Jinping covets the island.

Dang, this is like putting US troops in China. Show me your warface!

I cannot imagine anything going wrong with this plan, so lets do it.

Are LLNL/LANL pensions rapidly losing their value?

Here’s the logic.

1) Trillions of dollars were printed in 2020. This created absolutely no new goods and services, but simply used the chaos of COVID to dilute down your USD balances for the state to redistribute.

2) Due to the Cantillon effect, the state and state-affiliated actors received the benefit of that printed money first. Just like a counterfeiter benefits first from a new bill.

3) The 23.98% reduction in purchasing power is like a wealth tax. It applies to literally every dollar you own, not just incoming money.

4) Bitcoin holders unaffected. Trusting the US establishment in any way is the only way to lose. If you trust the media to report the truth, the police to protect you from crime, or the banks to safeguard your funds, you’ll have a bad time.

5) In particular, journalists and bureaucrats will fake the stats all the way to the bitter end, just like they did in the 2008 financial crisis with AAA mortgages. After that point, who coulda knew? It is on you to distrust them en masse and exit this system now to the maximum of your ability.

6) Even the 23.98% aggregate number is probably an underestimate and would be worth recalculating with the old methodology that also includes the (enormous!) impact of rate hikes on personal interest payments. Larry Summers below estimates that to be 18% in one year alone — which would mean the compounded wealth seizure since Jan 2020 will probably be around 50%.

7) Credit to Professor Summers for his important post, clarifying exactly how they’re cooking the books this time. He’s one of the best of the establishment guys and that’s why the proto-wokes canceled him in 2005. He will always be my (Harvard) President

At NNSA, The squeaky wheel gets removed.

 For-profit NNSA contractors are in and have been, in a NNSA supported and financed “cash cow” no risk environment for over a decade plus.

Suppression of potential accidents, safety issues, and mismanagement = maximum fee. This M.O. is effectively risk free to the NNSA contractor, given the low threshold of NNSA reimbursement of contractor legal fees when pushback occurs. The NNSA contractors just “lawyer up” on the taxpayers dime. Easy peasy. Thank you NNSA.

The squeaky wheel doesn’t get the grease, it gets removed, in this cash cow NNSA sanctioned system.
It is a built in and funded anti-incentive for contract management and mission improvements.

Turning point

 I'm in the middle of watching the new Netflix documentary, "Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War". So far I've found it to be an excellent series. Highly recommended.

I'm a retired LLNL employee who joined the Lab in 1983 as a postdoc at the height of the "Second Cold War" and as Regan's "Star Wars" was taking off. Underground testing was still going on, and that program funded my postdoc (which had nothing to do with nuclear weapons, other than the fact that they shared certain experimental/measurement techniques).