Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Layoffs Then and Now

Jeff Colvin’s excellent perspectives on “Layoffs Then and Now” at LLNL can be found in our monthly memo for May at http://www.upte.org/spse/201305MM.pdf.

Also, we invite you to the latest in our noontime talk series:

Ending an Era By Growing Your Take Home Pay

A Panel Discussion Including:       

Bill Smith, SPSE-UPTE Secretary
Jeff Colvin, SPSE-UPTE Legislative Director
Kevin Aguilar, SPSE-UPTE Chief Bargainer
Steve Balke, UPTE Executive Board Representative
Jim Wolford, SPSE-UPTE Chief Steward

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Building 543, Auditorium Room 1001
Noon to 1:00 p.m.

Please feel free to contact us.

Thank you,

Riki Gay, President (outgoing)
SPSE-UPTE Local 11
spse@spse.org

Thursday, June 6, 2013

What a waste!

Tax dollars gone to waste for the "chili cookoff"

http://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/100730.html

Rumor has it this project didn't amount to anything after 3 years.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Lab directors at ORNL

Knoxville News Sentinel
June 1, 2013

Lab directors coming to ORNL
Monday's a big day at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with the planned visits by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Deputy Secretary Dan Poneman and national lab directors from around the country.

Here is the list of national lab directors who are expected to attend the meeting:
• Tom Lograsso, interim director of Ames National Laboratory
• Eric Isaacs, director of Argonne National Laboratory
• Doon Gibbs, director of Brookhaven National Laboratory
• Young-Kee Kim, deputy director, Fermi National Acclerator Laboratory
• John Grossenbacher, director of Idaho National Laboratory
• Robert McKeown, deputy director of Jefferson Laboratory
• Charlie McMillan, director of Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Paul Alivisatos, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Parney Albright, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Anthony Cugini, director of National Energy Technology Laboratory
• Dan Arivzu, director of National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Mike Kluse, director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• Stewart Prager, director of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
• Chi-Chang Kao, director of SLAC National Accelerator Labroatory
• Paul Hommert, director of Sandia National Laboratories
• Terry Michalske, director of Savannah River National Laboratory
• Thom Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

On another subject: grade retention


from Allison Morris:

This is an interactive flowchart that I helped create aimed to address the topic of grade retention and when it might be necessary to consider having a student repeat a grade.

http://www.educationnews.org/parenting/holding-them-back/

Sunday, June 2, 2013

National Ignition Facility faces an uncertain future

National Ignition Facility faces an uncertain future

As its budget declines, Lawrence Livermore’s $3.5 billion laser fusion facility is refocusing on experiments in support of nuclear weapons science.

David Kramer
Citation: Phys. Today 66(6), 20 (2013); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.2006
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.2006
View Table of Contents: http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/PHTOAD/v66/i6
Published by the American Institute of Physics.

You need to have a subscription to the journal to access this. But you can read about some of the "planetary science" experiments that are under threat of getting the axe.

A brief snipet:

In addition to its ignition efforts, NIF contributes to the scientific underpinnings, largely through equation-of-state experiments, of nuclear weapons.


Be prepared to see topics about SNM EoS shots on NIF brought up again. You have to ask yourself how you support these experiments when you can't even do "simple" materials and fluids.

Another look at overblown NNSA budgets

Another look at overblown NNSA budgets

In case anyone had any remaining doubts about how far cost estimates for major projects have missed the mark, this story sums it up.
http://www.nukesofhazardblog.com/story/2013/5/31/224926/743

Who is next?

Could California be far behind?

Illinois has all but said that it will default on the state's pension plans. Which states are next?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/01/us-usa-illinois-pensions-idUSBRE95002E20130601

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