Los Álamos/ White Rock outages

 Los Alamos / White Rock power and internet outages

Is it normal for this community to have constant problems with service outages for both electricity and internet?

DOE: Climate change isn't that bad?

 The DOE has released a new climate change report, going into detail about how in many aspects it may not be as serious as previously claimed:

https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/DOE_Critical_Review_of_Impacts_of_GHG_Emissions_on_the_US_Climate.pdf

https://youtu.be/r--BO8VXgnU?si=F6vvif9rMFJMZdGx

Indirect cost reduction at LANL and LLNL

 Reducing indirect cost at LANL and LLNL: some questions.

LANL is working on reducing indirect cost. Some of us have been trying to figure just where it goes. On a typical direct code the overhead rate is up to 300 percent or even more. I have no idea if this is accurate but I have heard 1/2 of the LANL staff is on indirect. If that was the case I would think overhead rates would be closer to100% not 300%. I am not sure how the budget actually breaks down. Does the mean (a) 1/2 of the indirect funding people cost three times as much as direct funding people? (b) is the 1/2 of the people on indirect not actually true and it is more like 2/3 or 3/4 of the workers are on indirect? (d) It is 50:50 but the extra money is pays for equipment, supplies, parts, vehicles, benefits and so on? Or is it some combination of these.

Also it would be useful to see a plot of the overhead rates over the last 25 years. Maybe it has always been this way but it would be interesting to see if it was say 200% or 150% 20 years ago. I cannot find that information, but if it was less years ago it would argue that we could lower the rates. Also it would be interesting to do the same for LLNL and Sandia.

Another plot would the ratio of direct to indirect staff over the same time period. Again I do not have that number.

Also in the era of AI, one could argue that more things could be automated and AI replace certain human jobs or make offices staff more efficient so you would need less people. I am not sure if this is actually true, or if this has happened at all at the labs.

Missing LANL employee

 She went missing in June. The search continues...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/search-missing-los-alamos-national-214723576.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMe5ygLKI7D0j1oPlhQlfy9B2KJBAnsYZTzZxviDIjYaTCZrD13og_JT91-vOuCw6wzs44g_9N-iogsyzJZc_afjKAZNuIBKVo_beS9FQRdwqExKU1FIFmt1sS9UAzT_bbgl_fVIQzH86O5N5WMK6vY6USBRGzqibvD-9icYWXzC

State of emergency in Rio Arriba County

 New Mexico governor declares state of emergency in Rio Arriba County

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wM1dE1zMzaQ&pp=ygUebmV3IG1leGljbyAgc3RhdGUgb2YgZW1lcmdlbmN5

Lawrence Livermore National Lab enters a different kind of space race

 Lawrence Livermore National Lab enters a different kind of space race with a telescope deal

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-lawrence-livermore-national-lab-kind.html

Google AI keeps melting down

Users are finding that Google's Gemini AI keeps having disturbing psychological episodes, melting down in despondent self-loathing reminiscent of Marvin the Paranoid Android from Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

https://futurism.com/google-puzzled-ai-self-loathing