February 15, 2019
Dear Everyone:
This month’s ARMA Chapter Meeting was once again arranged by the
Silicon
Valley Chapter, with the Mount Diablo Chapter joining in.
It took place at the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Sort of.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, or LLNL for short, is
roughly a square mile complex located near
Livermore, California.
It looks much bigger on the map that they gave us.
We had to register at least a week in advance so that “Adelaide”,
who works there and belongs to the Silicon Valley Chapter, could set us
all up for Security at the Badging Office.
Once we all got our temporary Visitor Badges, we were herded onto a bus
and driven to the
National Ignition Facility.
Contrary to what the name suggests, it is not a Facility to
Ignite the Nation. Rather,
it is a National Facility to Ignite something smaller than a grain of
rice.
We had a Tour Guide who showed us an animated video that illustrated
many, many laser beams running through many, many tunnels, increasing in
intensity all the way, until they culminated inside a really big ball
and “ignited” some sub-atomic particle with the hoped-for result of
releasing more energy than the laser beams initially required.
That is the ultimate goal: to set off
nuclear fission, preferably
without blowing up LLNL, Livermore and the
Greater San Francisco Bay
Area along with it.
After the video, we set out on the Guided Tour.
The young woman who maintained the Reception Desk, and gave us a
quick Safety Lecture at the beginning, had noticed that I walk with a
cane. Since the Tour takes
more than an hour, she offered me the use of a wheelchair which I
eagerly accepted. “Kate”,
our Chapter Treasurer, offered to push the chair.
There were thirteen of us in all, not counting the Tour Guide.
Three of them were men.
This gave us a 4-to-1 ratio of female-to-male which was much,
much higher than our usual ratio of lots-to-none.
The field of Records and Information Management (RIM) tends to be
“dominated” by females.
Our Tour Guide proudly, and repeatedly, informed us that the Facility
had been used in the filming of the movie,
Star Trek Into Darkness.
He even predicted that we would recognize the big, blue “ball”
that houses the actual ignition, when we saw it, provided that we had
seen the movie.
I did see the movie, about five years ago, and the setting had a
familiar look to it. On the
other hand, seen one gigantic blue “ball”, with multiple square tubes
converging on it, seen them all.
We travelled up one elevator, through multiple enclosed spaces, with
windows made of something clear but much harder than mere glass, down
another elevator, and round and round.
From time to time, I rose up on my wheelchair and peered through
the windows. Ultimately,
because I was seated during the greater part of the tour, what I saw the
most of was a whole lot of butts.
Once the tour of the National Ignition Facility was completed, we herded
back onto the bus which took us to the “Discovery Center”.
This was a self-guided museum of things that had been discovered
at, or through the research of, LLNL.
Whether or not it was actually on the LLNL campus is anybody’s
guess.
The bus returned us to the Badging Office just after it closed.
But our temporary Visitor Badges were self-cancelling, so there
was no worry about returning them.
The rest of the Meeting was a “Networking Session” at a nearby
winery. The prospect of
spending a couple of hours standing around, not tasting any wine, making
small talk, didn’t really appeal to me.
I bailed out and drove home.
It was a very full day.
Love, as always,
Pete
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