Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Brave New World?



  • Thanks to Pat the Dog for using this image first in this context.
  • Thanks to George Orwell for creating this image in the mind's eye.
  • Thanks to the Ad folks at Apple for using it to challenge Microsoft.
  • Thanks to the Guerilla Obama supporters who used it to challenge Hillary.

No... I don't think the LANL workforce are all a bunch of Soma-zoned out mouth-breathers... but I fear that LANS management thinks they are (or should be).

Yes, the remaining LANL workforce is pretty cowed, pretty intimidated, pretty numb. Who can say when it really started:
  • Maybe the RIF of the early 80's.
  • Maybe when the Berlin Wall fell.
  • Maybe when the Soviet Union called it quits.
  • Maybe in the RIF of the early 90's..
  • Maybe when the CIA claimed the Chinese had one of our designs.
  • Maybe when it was discovered that the documents couldn't have come from LANL.
  • Maybe when the FBI didn't stop looking for the spy that didn't exist.
  • Maybe when the FBI started knocking on doors at midnight to interrogate scientists under polygraph.
  • Maybe when Wen Ho Lee spent a year in solitary to be released on minor charges, no apology.
  • Maybe when the lab, town and mountains tried to burn down.
  • Maybe when Pete Nanos suggested that ever other one of us was a cowboy or butthead.
  • Maybe when Pete Nanos shut the lab down to punish and intimidate us.
  • Maybe when Pete Nanos strutted around being as big of a butthead cowboy as he accused us of.
  • Maybe when the Lab was put up for bid, after decades of threats to do just that.
  • Maybe when Bechtel was handed the plum.
  • Maybe when an (apparently erased?) USB memory stick marked classified was found in a meth dealer's room and they filled the USB sockets with epoxy.
  • Maybe when Bechtel announced LANL was $200M in the red.
  • Maybe when we added up Bechtel's profit ($60M) and NM gross receipts ($100M+).
  • Maybe when we had to listen to Senators from Wisconson and Texas make rude and uninformed statements about us.
  • Maybe when Bechtel announced random drug testing for people who have already sworn not to use illegal drugs on penalty of career destruction.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look at those Mouth-breathers!

I know a few of these at the labs...

Big Stupid said...

I resemble that comment!

Anonymous said...

When Pat the Dog posted this, he/she was making a rude statement about the LANL staff who were left (or who were not standing up for themselves) I think.

While there is some of that, there are a LOT of very capable, bright, hard-working people whose circumstances make it really hard for them to risk their jobs. Mid career folks who may have children still at home or in college, et cetera.

I'm past all that and can/might make my stand, or leave, but for those out there who think I'm a passive sheep, you have another thing coming.

Anonymous said...

So whose picture will be on the giant screen? Maybe the big paneled TV in the SCC will be used for the big hammer-throw.