"I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him"
Today's hypothesis can be stated as a quote from Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar."
The persona on LANL: The Rest of the Story, Gussie FinkKnottle, stated a strongly negative view of nuclear weapons with the idea the they and the associated jobs should all be eliminated now.
The hypothesis is:
LANL: The .... Story has not been a way to support the health of LANL but a way to give vent to the most intemperate commenters on LANL. An open blog, in the guise of a news clipping service, with comments by many including the blog owner, anonymously of course, and with predominantly negative comments has become one nail in closing the Lab. The blog has never had positive suggestions about what to do only negative articles.
So, the hypothesis is that these blogs have an unstated agenda, which is "Close the Lab and the country's nuclear weapons capability."
Can anyone prove that this hypothesis is wrong?
posted by Eric at
10:30 AM
2 Comments:
Can anyone prove this hypothesis is wrong?
Hmmm? How would one do that?
What with comment moderation turned on, I assume you pick and choose what comments even register, much less go uncensored. I hope you can let this one go through uncensored, it's intention is to help you (and perhaps others) frame these blogs another way.
I happen to have personal acquaintance with *all* of the Blog authors of LANL-...-STORY (as well as Doc Strange, General Buck Turgedson, and Calvin) and have plenty of evidence that this is not their general intention.
I will give you that many of the "intemperate commentors" either do want to see LANL shut down (several of whom appear to specifically be anti-LANL outside-wonks and/or angry former-LANL folks) or just don't care anymore and want to "vent" as you say.
Doug Roberts, himself has been fairly vocal under his own name,on his (and other) Blogs and in-person that he has little if any hope that LANL can recover from it's continuing decline. He calls himself a "realist" and points out the many signs of our (impending?) collapse.
Sometimes I find his "realism" disheartening and wish he'd be a little more upbeat or maybe just hold his tongue a little more often, but I always find it hard to believe that he truly wishes most of us ill, or truly wants to help shut the lab down. If anything maybe he wants (the rest of) us to wake up and smell the nonsense and get out like he did. Like you seem to be trying to help many of us do.
The other Blog Authors are even more benign than Doug in this. They may have big issues with parts of LANL's mission and some or all of it's upper management (especially Bechtel) but on average my judgement is that they are not out to add another nail to our coffin (as you characterize it).
LANL-...-Story in its 3 incarnations (True, Corporate, and Rest of the) has been a very useful clipping service and some of the commentary has even been useful.
Gone Nuclear is clearly intended to be sarcastic and Doctor Strangelove (with the recent help of General Turgedson) is clearly trying to have some fun at our expense and inviting us to help him have some of that fun. I find it refreshing for the most part.
Calvin's Blog started out promising with a "fresh young voice" even if it went quickly to a voice of rage (by the title I guess it started there) and then to silence (I'll bet the "girls of summer" have a lot to do with his silence coinciding with the end of most university semesters).
Those reading from outside Los Alamos and imagining these blog authors and their commentors are representative of more than a fraction of the populace of the lab or the town are on their own... they don't deserve to be decision makers if they use that as evidence!
We notice that Gussie recently clipped a long and egregious apparently self-serving comment from one of the posts... and imagine that this is what has you up in arms here against "The (other) Orange Stripe Blogs".
I don't think you actually posted the deleted comment (it was a big-fat load of details about one of your projects), I think it was posted by someone who wanted to stir up trouble for you (you seem to always use your name on your comments which is commendable).
I am sure you have ample evidence by now that many find your style tedious... that doesn't make you a bad person, a bad scientist or even a bad business consultant.
I wish you well and wish I knew how to help you re-image yourself in a way that got you more of the attention you want (and probably deserve).
This is a tough crowd out here in the blogosphere and you have been both trashed (on the other blogs) and ignored (on your own).
I'm pretty sure you will keep doing what you do, but I wanted to offer the closest thing I could muster to both some advice and some encouragement.
- Darko
Darko,
Thanks.
It still seems to me that the time for anonymity is past. Anonymity does not seem to be saving any jobs. Anger does not seem to be saving any jobs. Attacking others for style points without offering any solution to the problems also strikes me as non productive.
All I really want is for people to start to protect themselves against the inevitable.
Being trashed on other blogs, by the anonymous, or ignored on my own makes a statement. It is not an encouraging one for the future of the Lab.
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