Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Books are my comfort food!

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Accountability, motherfuckers.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Everybody saw this coming.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Let there be snark.

The willow is too close to the house.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

You are here: Home / Introduction

Introduction

by | 222 Comments

This post is in: 

Now that the important introduction is out of the way, I thought I’d say a few words about myself and what I see as my role here. First, thanks for all the warm welcomes!

I’m a chemist, retired from the Los Alamos National Laboratory after 35 years there. I’ve been realizing lately that the projects I worked on all had significant policy ramifications. Laser isotope separation, chemical warfare agents, environmental cleanup, and a bunch of other things. I’ve worked on environmental issues in Estonia and Kazakhstan and, maybe best of all, learned strategy both within a bureaucratic environment and more generally from people who are very good at it. So I write about a lot of things.

As you’ve seen, I’ve been thinking about North Korea lately, as have we all. Adam asked me to do a couple of guest posts, and then he figured there would be more. For now, on that subject, here’s a good summary of the confusion that reigns in the administration. The administration’s stern fatherly resolve struck me as needing some attention, because it wasn’t being noticed by others.

I’ve been blogging since the early 2000s. My main blog is Nuclear Diner, which some of you know about already. I do guest appearances in other places, which I’ll alert you to. I may double-post here and at Nuclear Diner.

I also tweet: @CherylRofer. That tends to be a lot of things, including current status, like today’s snow. I’m pleased that some of you follow me already! The @NuclearDiner feed is more technical and events you might like to know about, like rocket launches. Also announces posts at the website. I have two partners at Nuclear Diner, but they have become somewhat inactive.

There is so much to write about these days, that I have to use one of the precepts my strategy mentors taught me: choose your battles. I am very concerned about the Russian connections of the Trump administration and Rex Tillerson’s oil-company approach to the State Department. And now the New York Times has given its platform to a climate denier. More than enough there to keep me busy the rest of the weekend.

But Zooey and Ric demand attention, and I have been taking piano lessons, which I have to practice. Along with keeping the house going and the other things that happen in real life.

If you’ve got topics you want me to address, let me know. There are some things that I don’t say much about, like nuclear weapons design. I’m not always around in the comments, but I try to follow up on my posts.

Reader Interactions

222Comments

  2. 2.

    ET

    I am going to echo Omnes Omnibus but add that you were off to a cracking good start when you put up a pic of your kitties.

  4. 4.

    opiejeanne

    Hi! Welcome to the House of Chaos. Showing us your cat pictures first was a smart move and will placate the snarling pack of hyenas, for a while.

    (Most of us aren’t that bad)
    (Except for Baud)

  5. 5.

    Yutsano

    I’m a chemist, retired from the Los Alamos National Laboratory after 35 years there.

    You may have crossed paths with my father who worked at Hanford for 20+ years and just retired a couple years ago.

    Rex Tillerson’s oil-company approach to the State Department

    There was an interview by NPR of Lord Rex and…it was awful. The man has zero clue what he’s doing.

  7. 7.

    HeleninEire

    Hi, Cheryl. I have designated the jackles in this crazy, wonderful place as a combination on assholes, curmudgeons, academics, … and Baud. Clearly you fall into the “academics” category.

    Welcome.

  10. 10.

    Mom Says I'm Handsome

    Cole always has the best front pagers. The best! Donald Trump would be proud. (Except for that Freddie guy, that really was a Trumpesque suggestion.) Welcome, Cheryl.

  11. 11.

    RoonieRoo

    I am so happy you will be writing here more. Just following links, it looks like I have lots of stuff to read for this weekend.

  13. 13.

    sharl

    Welcome Cheryl. It’s so good that they gave you keys to this place. I don’t think your kind of expert* analysis gets nearly the attention it deserves, so the more places you are willing and able to write, the better. (*For more than one reason, I wish YOU had written a book or long read on the death/neglect/perversion/etc of expertise, rather than the dude at the opposite end of the country from you, but I’ll take what I can get.)

  14. 14.

    Steve in the ATL

    Bienvenue!

    I’m not smart enough to be an academic or old enough to be a curmudgeon, so I must be an asshole. Oh well–if the shoe fits….

    Here’s some free employment law advice for everyone: if you sell drugs, don’t use your company-issued cell phone to do so. If you do use your company-issued cell phone to do so, don’t text your HR person offering a deal on molly (is $150/gram a good deal?).

    Yes, this is how I spend my days.

  16. 16.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @RoonieRoo: Seconded – I love our FP political rants, but our Subject Matter Experts on the FP and comments make Balloon Juice truly unique and essential.

  18. 18.

    Yarrow

    Welcome again and thanks for linking your previous posts. Just read the “Stern Daddy” post. Very interesting post, both the “stern father” analysis and the cultural and racial stereotyping of Asians section as contributing to how we are approaching the North Korean situation.

  20. 20.

    lollipopguild

    @Steve in the ATL: I retired from a paint company where we had outside sales reps who would drive around in their company provided car and sell drugs to their painter customers.

  22. 22.

    Yutsano

    @Mnemosyne: It’s obvious from the interview how out of depth he is. He only gives very shallow understandings of the issues that he’s asked about and gets rather gruff like he can’t even BELIEVE how he’s being questioned here! Granted the pushback is nil from the interviewer (because NPR and all) but it was just horrid. He should have just fucking retired.

  26. 26.

    piratedan

    welcome Ms. Rofer, appreciate you taking the time to further the discussion and lending your expertise.

  31. 31.

    Josie

    @Yutsano: My brother (nuclear physicist) worked at Hanford before he retired some years back – not sure of the timeline. Small world.

    Cheryl – I was too late to the kitty thread to say “Welcome,” so I’m saying it now. I have found your guest posts really interesting and look forward to more. Also, your kitties are lovely.

  32. 32.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @schrodingers_cat: My educational background is organic chemistry, but my very best paper evah was in a combination of physical and organometallic chemistry. I’ve built lasers, canned plutonium, and done stuff that qualifies as chemical engineering. But I would say that nuclear chemistry is one of the more minor things I’ve done.

    Kipling was an obvious quote for racist patriarchal colonialism.

  33. 33.

    Steve in the ATL

    @lollipopguild:

    I retired from a paint company where we had outside sales reps who would drive around in their company provided car and sell drugs to their painter customers.

    Obviously a liberal–saved gas consumption by consolidating trips. Smart man!

  35. 35.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    My educational background is organic chemistry

    Excellent! I’m sending you a fake ID with my daughter’s name on it. Need you to take her Orgo II final for her. TIA!

  39. 39.

    divF

    Welcome from an intermittent commentor ! You will find a number of scientist-types* here, as well as an overall broad receptiveness to fact-based discourse. Plus enough grumpiness and snark to keep it from getting too dry.

    But you know all that, or you wouldn’t be here.

    *some of us are detectable from our nyms.

    ETA: I am also a creature of the DOE lab system, who has not yet retired (Madame has though, and is getting impatient).

  43. 43.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Yarrow: seems to be that’s slightly less bad than being an American trump fan, which is indefensible. At least foreigners can plead (1) less information and (2) fewer direct consequences. Still, she was right to break it off.

  45. 45.

    Origuy

    @HeleninEire: If you get tired of Irish music, check out Mariachi San Patricio. A friend of mine was a founding member while she was studying at the University of Limerick. Next Friday is Cinco de Mayo, after all.

  46. 46.

    laura

    Thank the stars for joining the gang.
    Your just the one to help Baud formulating his energy policy as he prepares to run for president in 2020!
    Smart women are smart, and there’s lots of smart women here including Kay, Suzanne, Satby, Rikyrah, Helen of Eire, AL, BC, greennotGreen, Mrs EFG, Cole’s squeeze, and so forth….
    I’m eager to learn about your area of expertise.

  47. 47.

    Ruckus

    @Steve in the ATL:
    OK I guess I fall into the curmudgeon category as I have no idea what molly is. And I used to know this stuff back in the late 60s and 70s. Ahhh to be young and stupid. Although I could build molecular models of the common drugs of the day.

  48. 48.

    hovercraft

    Welcome, we like people who know of what they speak here. Now we may not respond with the same cogency as your posts, but we appreciate your efforts to educate us.
    Good move leading with the Kitties.

  49. 49.

    Yarrow

    @Steve in the ATL: I think it’s worse. Distance and it being not your own culture might give you a clearer view of things. If someone not caught up in the US election craziness can’t see that Trump is a disaster it’s a clear sign they are not right in the head.

  51. 51.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    You have vewy purty cats.Tillerson always looks like he’s thinking to himself “Jeezus f’ing christ, everything I gotta go through to make another billion dollars! I didn’t sign up for NK,Syria and Sudan. Just cancel the freaking sanctions already. My company and my kids better appreciate the sacrifice I am making!”

  52. 52.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Cheryl Rofer: Organic chemist, impressive! Could never get the hang of organic chemistry, did like the labs though.

    You are being far too nice to Kipling by calling his racism, paternal. It was nothing of the kind. The man wrote glowingly about the butcher of Amritsar, responsible for the Jalianwala Bagh massacre of 1919. He even started a fund for him.The leaders of the Indian Freedom Movement naively thought that Britain would grant India, Dominion status, for her role in the war effort. Instead, the British rule became more brutal and nasty.

  54. 54.

    hovercraft

    @HeleninEire:
    Well that just won’t do. Has someone put the word out for Twitler fans to bother the BJ community abroad? First @Bystander was accosted by a demented Twitler loving dentist and now this “date”. Beware anyone traveling overseas, there is no escape, they are everywhere.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @opiejeanne:

    (Most of us aren’t that bad)
    (Except for Baud)

    Can’t spell BAUD without BAD.

    Welcome, Cheryl. There are a great many very smart and highly-educated STEM types around here, but I ain’t one of them. (Well, I guess I’m intelligent enough, but the sciency stuff, while I find it crucial and even interesting, is far outside my areas of expertise.) Just a plea to remember those of us who are laypersons when you write. (If you’ve been blogging for 15+ years, I expect you already do!)

    Anyhow, very happy to have you join the BJ Jackal Pack. And I loved the photo of your kitties last night!

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    We only got into it a bit at the end of a contentious thread, but it’s interesting how “scientific” racism and the Industrial Revolution went hand in hand, and the racism only got more brutal as industrialization did.

    Prior to the IR, there were a fair number of people of color who were able to do well for themselves in Europe (like the Dumas family in France), but it seems like once those revolutions started and the aristocracy started crumbling, people needed a new hierarchy to fit people into, and race fit the bill.

  59. 59.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    So we spent some time thinking bad things about each other.

    BJ is essentially middle school or the neighborhood Bunco group

  60. 60.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yutsano:

    There was an interview by NPR of Lord Rex and…it was awful. The man has zero clue what he’s doing.

    Was that the one they had on Morning Edition this morning? Ye gods, that was a terrible thing with which to start the day.

    Could’ve been worse, I suppose. They could have done an interview with Tom Price on reproductive health. Or Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III on, well, pretty much anything.

  61. 61.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Mnemosyne: Racism was often used as the justification for colonialism, in the Indian context especially after the Crown took over direct administration from the East India Company after crushing the 1857 rebellion. The British hastened their timetable for leaving after WWII because the British Indian armed forces had had enough. The Navy in Bombay had begun an open mutiny. The fiasco of INA trials at the Red Fort did not go as planned for TPTB

  62. 62.

    Steve in the ATL

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    @Yutsano:

    There was an interview by NPR of Lord Rex and…it was awful. The man has zero clue what he’s doing.

    Was that the one they had on Morning Edition this morning? Ye gods, that was a terrible thing with which to start the day.

    Could’ve been worse, I suppose. They could have done an interview with Tom Price on reproductive health. Or Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III on, well, pretty much anything.

    Sometimes I wish I were Jewish so I could spit when I say names like those

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Racism was often used as the justification for colonialism, in the Indian context especially after the Crown took over direct administration from the East India Company after crushing the 1857 rebellion.

    Europeans needed something to keep the rabble down after the revolutions of 1848 (France, Germany, Italy, and the Austrian Empire all had revolutions that year, and Great Britain was VERY nervous) and colonialism was a handy way to get rid of those restless young European men with too much time on their hands. Plus it gave them whole countries full of people to be superior to.

  66. 66.

    HeleninEire

    @Origuy: Just now getting into Irish music. Well, really any music beyond 80’s pop. I am loving the LIVE (has to be live) Irish music in the pub. In fact I am in a pub right now.

  67. 67.

    lollipopguild

    @Mnemosyne: People forget that at one time Spain was the richest country/empire in Europe because of all of the gold and silver that came out of South America. The Spanish pissed it all away and their Empire as well.

  68. 68.

    HeleninEire

    @Steve in the ATL: So I told you all a few days ago that Bernie is gonna be here. The talk sold out in 5 minutes. A friend of mine said “he must be more popular here than in the US” So, they have a big clue about American politics here.

  69. 69.

    Mary G

    Just followed you on Twitter. I hated Organic Chemistry with the heat of a thousand suns, although like @schrodingers_cat: I loved the labs. Enjoyed your comments here in the past and your guest posts, so glad you joined the jackal pack here.

  71. 71.

    Mike in NC

    @SiubhanDuinne: News breaking that North Korea today had another dud missile launch, giving Trump and Tillerson 24 hours to mark 100 Days of Disaster by restarting the war there.

  72. 72.

    HeleninEire

    @hovercraft: Yeah. Some asshole, not 5 minutes ago asked me about American politics. Wanted to know why Trump was so hated. I told him 3 times that I don’t wanna talk about it. On time 4 I walked away. Of course it is 11pm in an Irish pub. Maybe he’s drunk!

  74. 74.

    KithKanan

    @Steve in the ATL: @lollipopguild: A good friend of mine works in IT for a local school district. He discovered one of his unproductive coworkers was literally driving off in a district car to work a second job at a smoke shop on district time. It may be hard to fire public employees, but this guy managed it.

  75. 75.

    Another Scott

    Timely! BBC:

    North Korea has test-fired a ballistic missile, the South Korean military quoted by Yonhap news agency says.
    It was not clear how far the missile travelled, but a US government source told Reuters the test failed.

    The missile was fired from a site in South Pyeongan province north of Pyongyang in the early hours of Saturday morning local time, South Korea’s military chiefs of staff said.

    They said the type of missile was not yet known.

    There has been no word from North Korea.

    The reported launch occurred a matter of hours after the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on the rest of the world to help force North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

    Nobody could have predicted!!11

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  77. 77.

    Mike in NC

    @Mary G: As a Biology major I also hated Organic Chemistry, which literally put me to sleep. I only made it through the course by taking it pass/fail.

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    You are a chemist.I am impressed. Well, any science/politics and science questions..I hope that you break the issues down so that we can understand.
    Mayhew did that for healthcare, and Silverman does it for foreign affairs.

  81. 81.

    trollhattan

    @HeleninEire:
    You must, must, must see Dervish. Was lucky enough to see them here in California (on 3-17-17 no less) and they’re wonderful, especially Cathy Jordan, who has the voice of an angel (one of the finest singers I’ve ever heard).

  83. 83.

    Yutsano

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s almost deserving of the Adam L Silverman treatment. I think it would engender some discussion/well deserved mockery on here. I was reading it this morning and going whaaa…

  84. 84.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Omnes Omnibus: What an ominous greeting! LOL.

    Welcome Cheryl! This is a wonderful place for laughs, politics and pets. But I’m sure you already know that.

  86. 86.

    KithKanan

    @Ruckus: I live in a student neighborhood in a college town, and my ex is named Molly so my ears perked up at the word and I had to google it once I figured out they weren’t talking about a person.

    ETA: Also, too, Urbandictionary was started at that college a couple decades ago by some fellow comp. sci. majors a year ahead of me.

  89. 89.

    ThresherK

    Welcome. Keep us supplied with kitty pics and you’ll be surprised how accomodating we are.

  90. 90.

    dmsilev

    @schrodingers_cat: Hah! Me too. I remember walking out of my orgo final listening to one of my classmates saying “it was like he just drew a bunch of random lines and called it a molecule”. Not my favorite subject to be sure.

  97. 97.

    feebog

    Welcome Ms. Rofer. You will need to purchase a mop. And it might be a good idea to stock up on mustard. Adoption of one or more Jack Russel Terriers is optional.

  98. 98.

    raven

    We drove over to Pensacola and, on the way, we stopped at “Historic Milton” on the Blackwater River. They have a big Veterans Memorial there with panels for all our wars. The disconcerting thing was that there are two blank ones just waiting! On a little park behind t he memorial is this sign. I say goddamn!

  101. 101.

    jl

    Thanks for the introduction. I look forward to the posts.

    But what? No nuclear weapons design? Cole keeps promising a full-service blog, but still doesn’t deliver.
    Not your fault, though. It’s on Cole.

  102. 102.

    raven

    @debbie: Yea, it turned out it was a nasty cramp. It’s still sore but it could have been way worse. I was able to do an 8hr deep sea trip and got the crap kicked out of me but I’m glad I went because the wind is making it impossible to fish now.

    thanks

  105. 105.

    Michael Hart

    Do you have an opinion/position on the recent chemical release in Syria? I do. I do not believe Asad, the regime, dd it. And if that is true “we” attacked a sovereign nation for something they did not do. Seems like a very big deal to me.

  106. 106.

    MomSense

    So happy you are here, Cheryl. If we ever get too horrible, just throw up some cat photos and all will be well. If only solving the NK problem were that easy.

    Since I’m not an academic and too cheerful to be a curmudgeon, I’m attempting to become a specific form of asshole – a Masshole. Even though my use of directional signals while driving probably disqualifies me from achieving Masshole status, I finally have some job prospects. I had a phone interview this week, have a phone interview with a different organization next week, and an in person interview the following week.

    Whew. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me. Given the uncertainty of healthcare, Im hoping to land in a place with a better safety net.

    As an aside/airing of grievances I cut half of my life and the dates of my degrees off my resume. The world just can’t handle middle aged women.

  108. 108.

    Redshift

    @MomSense:

    As an aside/airing of grievances I cut half of my life and the dates of my degrees off my resume. The world just can’t handle middle aged women.

    Or man, though to a much lesser degree, I’m sure. Best advice I got the last time I was job hunting was to take my graduation date and any experience beyond about fifteen years ago off my resume. (In other words, any clue to my age.) Mysteriously, I started getting lots more responses after that.

  110. 110.

    VeniceRiley

    Looking forward to reading you, Cheryl. Off to follow you on twitter. Username here same as there. I used to be funny there. Now I just rant about politics like a Betty Cracker with ADD.

  112. 112.

    MomSense

    @Redshift:

    The worst part was that the bearer of that advice was my own mother.

    Of course now I’m going to “cover” my grey and search the google for hair styles.

    FML

  114. 114.

    debbie

    @Redshift:

    I skipped dates, but I kept the experience because it was all part of my skill set. Besides, they’d figure it out when I showed up at the interview and I certainly didn’t want them thinking I’d tried to trick them.

  116. 116.

    Redshift

    @Yutsano: I was spared the Tillerson interview, but Ms. Redshift had news on this morning which I translated for Twitter as:

    Breaking: US Sec State warns world leaders of things they’re already aware of, lectures then on things he knows less about than them.

  117. 117.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Michael Hart: Yes. I’ve mostly stayed out of that one on Twitter, but I did participate in the discussions of the August 2013 Ghouta strike. I would be saying the same thing now that I said then, and getting into that fight means attacks from a lot of very nasty trolls.

    It’s been fairly obvious all along that it had to be the Assad regime that did it. I expected, as did many other people, that Assad would keep some stocks of agents and munitions back when he divested of his chemical arsenal in 2014. The material was dropped, from a helicopter, I think. The rebels have no helicopters or other air force. The clincher is the French report, which says that the material contained hexamine, a necessary component to stabilize sarin, but not commonly used except by Assad’s people. Finally, those claiming that someone else did it have never shown that those someones else have a factory for producing the stuff. It’s not easy to work with something that will kill you if a pinhead drop gets on your skin, and there are dangerous wastes to be disposed of. So there should be some evidence of a clandestine factory, which has never been produced.

    Bellingcat and Dan Kaszeta are reliable people to follow on Twitter about this.

  121. 121.

    Ruckus

    @MomSense:
    Good luck on the interviews!
    I cut the first half of my life out of my resume after the recession. And all the dates. Still didn’t help. Job I have now, I don’t think the boss has ever seen a resume, the interview was informal, what do you know, how long have you known it, is $x/hr OK, when can you start. Done, easy peesy.

  122. 122.

    Redshift

    @debbie: Yeah, I’m lucky enough to be in a field (software) where anything older ​than that is obsolete anyway. I wasn’t too worried about looking my age, because I feel that the ageism isn’t as bad (most places) once you’re​ past the initial filter and they’re committed enough to talk to you. And I’m certainly not worried about them thinking I tried to “trick” them into not being discriminatory, because they’re not supposed to anyway!

  124. 124.

    Spanky

    @HeleninEire:

    In fact I am in a pub right now.

    Jaysus! Do you have to rub it in?

    It’s still in the muggy 80s here in SoMD and I’m still looking for dinner.

  128. 128.

    MomSense

    @Ruckus:

    Thanks! I hate the way they ask for your salary requirements. Am I asking too much, too little? Ugh.

    @HeleninEire:

    Are you kidding? I’m practically living vicariously through you – save for the trumper blind date.

    Cheers!

  130. 130.

    Aleta

    @Cheryl Rofer: Thanks for this. It’s a relief to be offered the reasons, assumptions, supposed facts underneath a belief, instead of just an assertion. It makes for a clearer atmosphere so to speak.

  131. 131.

    realbtl

    No problems Cheryl, I was an odd ball English major drop out turned LEOT and I spent all my time going “Holy shit, this stuff is cool” to worry about LANL.

  134. 134.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Glad to have you with us!

    I’ve read the Oppenheimer biography American Prometheus and wonder, is his presence in any way still felt down in New Mexico? Such an interesting person….

  139. 139.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Michael Hart: Ted Postol, the MIT professor, got Ghouta (August 2013) wrong and apparently has thoroughly confused two incidents in his latest. I worked through his piece on the Ghouta attack, and his elementary chemistry, the kind one learns in high school, was wrong. He admitted that he got that chemistry from PartisanGirl (Twitter handle), who is an advocate of the Assad regime. Scott Ritter is a professional contrarian and has no direct knowledge of the attack, unlike the French experts who wrote their report. As to making sense, that depends on how you look at it. I don’t follow the detailed ins and outs of the fighting in Syria, but the purpose of using cw is to terrorize and force civilians out. Assad has done that before. The attack on Ghouta wasn’t entirely necessary either.

    And has Postol or Ritter explained who made that sarin and where?

  142. 142.

    Ruckus

    @MomSense:
    I used to be on the other side, had to interview and hire people. When I hired them to work for me it was my small company and I never asked for or got a resume. Just the same type of interview my current boss gave. With one small difference. I’d base the pay offer on the interview (which he may have done) with the idea of a short probationary time at a reduced rate. This eliminated the people with a highly inflated idea of their abilities. And usually after the probationary time they got more than originally offered. I expected a lot and paid accordingly. It worked.

  147. 147.

    Ruckus

    @MomSense:
    Not if you knew what I used to do. On your feet 10 hrs a day, quite often 6 days a week, you get dirty, cuts and scratches and sometimes small burns are part and parcel (I used to joke that I made more money from my stock in Johnson & Johnson band aids than from my job), you can get injured rather easily, normally you stand at a machine turning handles and may do that for most of the day. You have to know how to use trigonometry. You have to be able to work in your head in 3D from 2D drawings. If I had it to do all over? I wouldn’t have made the decisions that I did. But then the grass is always greener somewhere else and my hindsight is as good as anyone else’s.

  148. 148.

    sharl

    @Michael Hart: Over at their Radio War Nerd podcast, John Dolan (aka Gary Brecher, The War Nerd) and Mark Ames very reluctantly and begrudgingly have come to a conclusion – subject of course to change if new facts become available – that the Syrian government was in fact responsible for the latest use of CW agents on Syrian civilians. Both of those guys are very anti-interventionist – i.e., they really don’t like U.S. involvement in that area – so they did not happily come to this conclusion, which pro-interventionist partisans happily buy into without hesitation.

    Dolan and Ames made that (tentative) call in large part based on former U.S. special operations forces people they trust. But they’ve also proposed – with or without the concurrence of the aforementioned U.S. veteran they’ve consulted (I’m not sure) –
    the idea that maybe Assad was not the guy who ordered the CW drop, but rather someone else high up in the Syrian government – military, internal security or some other high-ranking official with military ties – with his own reasons or agenda. This is pretty much straight speculation, but would explain why such an act was committed despite the absence of any apparent military value, while causing a huge international public relations problem.

    This hypothesis may reflect those guys’ (especially Ames’) knowledge of Russian regional politics, specifically the case of Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a homicidal psychopath who is believed to do a fair amount of nasty shit without getting permission from Putin first. While I’ve seen no independent information on factionalism in the higher reaches of the Syrian government, I don’t follow that sort of thing very closely. It certainly seems possible, though given the number of defections from the Syrian government in the earlier days of the unrest there, I would think Western intelligence agencies would have some clues if such factionalism existed. In conclusion, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

  149. 149.

    Spanky

    @Michael Hart:

    no, unclear for now where the cw came from. But there are some theories.

    Technically, there are some hypotheses. Theories require data.

    Leaving now over and out.

    Uh. Huh.

    So is there going to be more investimagatin’?

    ETA: Thanks, Sharl!

  151. 151.

    Mnemosyne

    @sharl:

    IANAn expert, but so far the preponderance of the evidence seems to be that someone on the Syrian side did it. But that doesn’t make Trump’s random lashing out the right thing to do, especially since it seemed to be more symbolic than tactical.

  154. 154.

    opiejeanne

    Apologies in advance if this has already been discussed, but was the Continuing Resolution passed today? The one I saw proposed was only good for a week.

  155. 155.

    Gravenstone

    @Michael Hart:

    Leaving now over and out.

    By the by, this is basically a professional insult in communication terms. If you’re leaving a conversation, you simply say “out”. “Over and out” is basically telling the other side that you don’t want to hear what they’re saying any more.

  156. 156.

    Sab

    @MomSense: I dyed my hair job hunting after the 2008 recession. My hair guy suggested “low lights”, which are similar to highlights but dark. They were the color of my hair in my youth. I still got to keep some gray, but I didn’t have to worry about roots showing up conspicuously. Worked great. Started to get job offers again. Once I got the job I just let it grow out, and let the bosses think they had aged me.

  158. 158.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @opiejeanne: The one-week Continuing Resolution was passed. Having worked in a goverment laboratory, I know how much this messing around with the budget hurts work. I may write a piece about it one day, although others have done some of that.

    ETA: I see Gravenstone already said some of this.

  159. 159.

    Taylor

    @HeleninEire:

    Some asshole, not 5 minutes ago asked me about American politics. Wanted to know why Trump was so hated. I told him 3 times that I don’t wanna talk about it.

    My impression is that reactions to Trump are all over the map.

    My (gay) brother liked that he was going to shake things up. We don’t talk about politics any more.

    My other brother should not be responsive, but talks about “political correctness.” I heard that kind of language from other people around Christmas time.

    My cousin, ex-civil service, is appalled and sees the parallels with 1930s Germany.

  160. 160.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Maybe we are supposed to introduce ourselves to Ms. Rofer, the new front poster.

    I’ll introduce two commenters, who have it coming. BillinGlendaile is not to be trusted. He claims to glow in the dark from growing up near missile tests in Southern California and takes photos that look like they are taken in a foreign spectrum. He may be an undocumented space alien, Baud is a hobo who lives in some kind of virtual space. We are nice to him, or her, or it, because we suspect Baud may have special powers. Baud is responsible for Trump since he/she/it blew their 2016 campaign for president. Spent the hard earned dimes we sent in on street butts and cheap beer, and lotto.

    I am the best commenter of all, the fairest minded commenter in the history of commenting. I am right about everything, including stuff I know nothing about. Not like the other commenters around here.

    Edit: so, actually, I know all there is to know about nuclear weapons design. You put some radioactive stuff in some kind of other stuff and than smash it all up like making a fruit smoothie with a sledge hammer. Simple as pie. It’s the principle of the thing, Cole keeps promising a full service blog.

  163. 163.

    ArchTeryx

    I ought to put in a networking request myself! (Biochemist and virologist, unemployed going on 4 years – the group here sorta took me in when it looked like TrumpCare would cost me my lifesaving care).

  165. 165.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Why aren’t you complaining about the blog rather than bragging?

    For a while Cole was talking about recipes for the spare rusty tire rims and anthrax we had lying around. But,we got nothing.

  168. 168.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks for the link. I know where that is. I’ve looked up that direction and wondered if a person can hike up there. I didn’t know that is where the reactor accident happened.

    I’ll read up on it. If I can get up there on my next visit, maybe I can glow in the dark too!

  169. 169.

    rikyrah

    She didn’t laugh at racist jokes. Her coach said she didn’t have the right ‘chemistry’ for the team.
    By Rachel Weiner
    April 24

    Jasmine Orsted said the comments began almost immediately after she started practicing with other hopefuls seeking spots on the University of Mary Washington’s women’s basketball team.

    One white player openly mused about “why black people name their kids the way they do,” Orsted recalled. Another white woman responded that she “never had to worry about that,” because her high school “wasn’t in the ghetto,” adding that she was glad there were only one or two black players on her high school team.

    “I was astounded,” Orsted said of her 2014 experience at the Fredericksburg, Va., school. “I couldn’t believe that somebody would actually say that, especially in the presence of somebody that’s black.”

    Orsted was ultimately barred from trying out for the team because of what the coach deemed a lack of “chemistry” with other players, according to her lawsuit. Believing that “chemistry” meant tolerating racism, Orsted sued the university in federal court in Virginia and settled last month for $160,000.

  172. 172.

    TenguPhule

    @jl:

    I am the best commenter of all, the fairest minded commenter in the history of commenting. I am right about everything, including stuff I know nothing about. Not like the other commenters around here.

    But are you aware of all internet traditions?

  173. 173.

    opiejeanne

    @Aleta: Hi Aleta! Did you see my response a couple of days ago about my Ozarks relatives’ tales of polio wiping out all of the children in a group of small towns?

  174. 174.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Cheryl Rofer: Cheryl, again welcome. I’m sorry you had to witness this episode with jl; they’ve recently started letting him out of the “home” on a trail basis. I’m afraid we’ll have to call the staff at the “home” and let them know he’s not quite ready to integrate himself into polite society. Sad really…

  175. 175.

    PIGL

    @HeleninEire: I count for three of the four categories excluding of course Baud, for only Baud is he.

    Welcome aboard! as someone who totally sucks at any strategy except persistance, I hope to learn from you.

  176. 176.

    geg6

    Welcome aboard, Cheryl! I’ve been interested in your guest posts and, though I am not in any way versed enough to even really grasp the sciency stuff, I am fascinated by it and, at least, have some knowledge of Russian and Soviet history. I’m glad to have you a permanent front pager. You have much to bring to us jackals.

    And for those who thought I was being overly dramatic about my federal jury duty experience (yes, you know who you are), I received a letter of apology from the federal judge on the case for how screwed up the whole thing was. I don’t know how often that happens, but I’m guessing not very. The whole jury pool got the letter. So while I’m fine with doing my civic duty, the people in the legal system have no idea how they come off to the rest of us. Except this federal judge and the poor clerks who had to be the public face of a really uncomfortable and unhappy situation in the jury assembly room.

  177. 177.

    Felonius Monk

    @Michael Hart:

    MIT Professor, Scott Ritter, the CIA analysts that are calling for an ivestigation,

    I thought Scott Ritter was still in jail. His proclivities for under-age girls sort of undermines his credibility about anything.

  179. 179.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: There are three ways that you might be able to see, but not get close, to where the reactor was. Sage Ranch State park is to the east and you might be able to see it from there, plus there are some really rock formations there(I’ve not been as yet). You could also hike up from Los Virgenes Canyon(north end of LA County N1 is the trailhead) and might be able to see the site from the Simi Hills. One route that I’ve been looking at recently is a hike up from the Simi Valley Equestrian Center.

  181. 181.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @geg6: LA County decided to try a Night Court about 25 years ago; I was “lucky” enough go get summons. Being that court sessions were at night, I had to work a regular schedule and then show up at court for 4 hours for jury duty for two weeks. Fun times.

    They decided the Night Court idea wasn’t a funny as the TV show and cancelled it.

  182. 182.

    Sab

    Here you are, and my only comment is about hair dye. Yikes!

    My mother was a chemistry major in the late 1940s and she said organic was the hardest course she ever took. My dad was a biology major who became a physician because of WWII and Korea. He had wanted to be a marine biologist. He said organic chemistry was the most interesting class he had in college. Yet in spite of their differences they were happily married for 60 years.

  185. 185.

    Elie

    I’m late to the thread but welcome CherylRofer…. I look forward to your posts and to learning a lot — scary or not. I also like your cats. I have an old guy, Buddy, who is an American Shorthair and is over 18 years old. I love him to pieces and totally indulge his food pickiness. He is totally a sweetheart — all purrs and sweetness though he has become deaf.

    Anyway, I am so happy to make your acquaintance!

  187. 187.

    lollipopguild

    @geg6: I missed the thread where you talked about your grand jury experience, if you have the time and feel like it could you give me a short recap?

  188. 188.

    TenguPhule

    What was that about not as bad as expected?

    Trump signed an executive order Friday that aims to expand offshore drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, as well as assess whether energy exploration can take place in marine sanctuaries in the Pacific and Atlantic.

    The “America-First Offshore Energy Strategy” will make millions of acres of federal waters eligible for oil and gas leasing, just four months after President Barack Obama withdrew these areas from possible development.

    Cleek’s law, changing daily.

  189. 189.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I think you can see parts of where site of the research facility was, including where they made the rocket fuel that messed up the ground water, from Sage Rock Park. Not sure if you can see exactly where the reactor was, though.

  190. 190.

    Sab

    @MomSense: Thanks. I also appreciated the suggestion from my hair dresser. How to get a job while keeping your self respect in middle age. My husband also got a kick out of me looking ten years younger for a few months. My hair dresser was actually kind of pissed that it worked. He had hoped that the field I worked in was not shallow or easily manipulated. Oh well. He is into esthetics rather than manipulation.

  193. 193.

    Another Scott

    @Michael Hart: His father flattened Hama to put down a rebellion. Assad, like his father, will use any weapon he can get his hands on to crush his opposition. It’s a fight to the death for him.

    Whether he held stocks back, or simply made more, I dunno. But it’s laughable to these eyes to think that Assad didn’t do it.

    That’s my view, but I have no inside knowledge. I also think there’s never going to be a thorough-enough investigation to convince doubters on either side (insert historical example of choice here).

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  194. 194.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    One white player openly mused about “why black people name their kids the way they do,” Orsted recalled.

    Gwyneth Paltrow named her kid Apple.

    APPLE. ?

  195. 195.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @geg6: My apologies. I am sorry that your experience was something that warranted an apology letter from a judge. A letter like that is stunningly rare. I still posit that your experience was an aberration. Nevertheless, I apologize for doubting your word.

  196. 196.

    jacy

    @TenguPhule:

    The report I heard today said nobody want to drill in the Arctic ocean right now, because it’s too damn expensive and oil is too cheap. Although I imagine the price of oil will go up shortly. Which will take the Trump voters by surprise, because they are dumbasses who don’t understand how anything works. At least they’ll be secure in the knowledge that if oil prices do go up, it’s all Obama’s fault.

  197. 197.

    Mnemosyne

    @geg6:

    I heard that you got called in and that traffic sucked ass — were there further developments that I missed?

  199. 199.

    TenguPhule

    @jacy:

    nobody want to drill in the Arctic ocean right now

    The problem is they buy the rights to the area, and to get it back takes a lot of time and money and effort by the government. And as you said, once the price goes up, the drills come down.

  201. 201.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: I’m planning on going out to Simi next week, to see St. Ronnie’s Palace and the Stagecoach Inn back at the homestead and may check out the Runkle Fire road and see if that’s accessible. That would probably be the shortest route that would afford viewing access. I also want to see the rocket test stands if they’re still there.

  202. 202.

    Bess

    @TenguPhule: Highly unlikely we’ll see another era of expensive oil. Short of something of a major war.

    We’ve got battery powered buses running in our cities right now. Over the relatively short life (about 12 years) of a municipal bus it’s cheaper to go electric. And there’s no diesel fumes being spewed into city streets. (Quieter, too.)

    There are already some short range (~100 mile) 18-wheeler tractors pulling trailers around local areas. Later this year Tesla should release a long range battery powered tractor. That happens, along with a quick charge system along major routes, and the trucking industry will largely give up diesel in a decade or so. Huge savings per year in fuel and maintenance.

    Battery costs continue to plummet and within five years it should be cheaper to manufacture a long range EV than a same-feature ICEV. Cheaper to buy, cheaper to operate, more comfortable ride, and more convenient. The market will flip.

    It would take ten years to start delivering oil from the Arctic. To do the exploration, install some rigs, build the needed terminals for shipping. The oil companies know that and they can see battery powered transportation barrelling toward them. A couple oil companies may be stupid to start an Arctic program but I wouldn’t worry about things going very far.

    We’ve got a lot of oil that can be sold for $30/barrel. At $50/barrel US shale oil becomes profitable enough to send rigs into the field. Shale oil is likely to set the price ceiling from here on out. Hard to see how they could pull oil out of the Arctic seafloor and get it to market for less than $50/barrel.

  204. 204.

    Barbara

    @rikyrah: Few stories have pissed me off so much. She wasn’t even allowed to try out for the team. And the coach is still there.

  205. 205.

    pappenheimer

    Lasers at Los Alamos? Did you ever meet a Dr Wylie? (My favorite uncle, long retired.)

  206. 206.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    You’ve been to the Reagan mausoleum before. What’s your excuse this time? (See, you are suspicious…)
    Drop by Corriganville and the Skateboard Hall of Fame too, if you have time.

    I’ll ask for pics.

  207. 207.

    opiejeanne

    @Sab: No doubt about it, but that’s not what we were talkign about. This was about a racist’s comment about the funny names some black kids have. The black kids I’ve known with non-traditional names or non-white names were all great kids too.

  209. 209.

    Mnemosyne

    @opiejeanne:

    But, see, when white people give their kids unusual names, it’s a sign of delightful eccentricity. When Black people give their kids unusual names — even if those are names that are common in their community — that shows that they’re low-class morons who don’t know what sensible people should name their children.

    Say the people who decided that Madison was a great name for a girl.

  210. 210.

    J R in WV

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I also have to remember to say “Open Thread” up top.

    Nah, we don’t pay too much attention to the rules here, as you’ll see soon!

    But very glad to have you on board for this long strange trip !! The more professional advice we can get, the better off we are.

    You and Adam will warn us when we need to start building the “expedient” emergency fallout shelters, won’t you? I’ve been reading Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson H Kearny who worked at one of those national labs… Oak Ridge? I’ll look and see. Yes, Oak Ridge, probably way before your time.

    Instructions for radioactivity measurement devices you can make at home, air pumps to ventilate your shelter, all kinds of good stuff, along with field tested blueprints for digging your own shelter. Of course, if you get in early, you can get a professional radiation monitor from Amazon… before the rush, just like blizzard/hurricane shopping at the grocery store.

    Why an I worrying about this for the first time in 2o years? Hmmm… so glad I bought a backhoe for my retirement present to myself!

  212. 212.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: I’ve never been to the Reagan Library, I went to Nixon’s place last month and Truman’s when I was a teen. Not much in to the skateboarding thing, but I know about Coriganville, I may have visited it when it was more of a going concern when I was growing up.

  213. 213.

    J R in WV

    @Michael Hart:

    ……it just does not make any sense that the regime would do that.

    Seriously>??? The regime isn’t very invested in logic, now are they? They’re invested in killing people until the survivors agree to submit, totally and completely.

    Jeeeze, some people! “doesn’t make any sense…” Like electing the wildly successful intellect Donald Trump made any sense~!?!?!?

  217. 217.

    J R in WV

    @Mnemosyne:

    Friends of ours named their two boys “Oak” and “Hickory”… Hickory once told Mrs J that “If I was a girl, they were gonna name me Maple!”

    Hippys, right? At first after they bought their farm they built a lean-to over a rock overhang, just like people did 100,000 years ago! Oak is a geneticist down in RTP and HIckory does high-end custom cabinetry in NYC.

    Names can be strange… now is this news? Great-Great uncles named Bonaparte…and white folks think Black folks have funny names? too strange.

    Glad the basketball player in question is going to get out of school without debt!! The least they could do. Hope the coaches and AD staff are all fired, the least they can do.

  219. 219.

    J R in WV

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    OMG…

    Martin Pfeiffer
    ?? Retweeted
    Cheryl Rofer‏ @CherylRofer 8h8 hours ago

    I am now blogging at Balloon Juice in addition to @NuclearDiner

    https://balloon-juice.com/2017/04/28/introduction/ …
    3 replies 2 retweets 13 likes

    You outed us on Twitter!!!! OMG !!!!

    This NucAnthro guy is a little paranoid… but looks like he’s working near one of the big labs, prime target. I live in a country hollow, I’ll have time to build a fallout shelter before the clouds get here.

    Who am I kidding? I have trouble sleeping, esp since last November 8/9th.

    ETA: Kidding about B-J being outed… I am aware that Cole tweets and such, whatever that is. I sometimes link into Twitter, but I think 140 characters is too limiting. Plus I’m old school, email is fine for me. Check it every few days, etc.

  220. 220.

    opiejeanne

    @Mnemosyne: I have a friend who is black. Her granddaughter is named Madysin. Her name, her husband’s name, and her daughter’s & son’s name are total whitebread names but they are far from Oreos.

  221. 221.

    opiejeanne

    @J R in WV: My mother was born in the Missouri Ozarks, near Macks Creek. One of her cousins, very distant thank goodness, was named Auto.
    His grandfather was sitting on the front porch with the father while the boy was being born and suggested the name.

    “Otto? We should name him Otto?”
    “No, Auto. Like whut brung the doctor”
    And they did.
    This family also believes in that 7th son of the 7th son, so Auto’s seventh boy was said to be able to heal people. Such a colorful bunch.

    Distant cousin. Soi distant.

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