# Los Alamos Whistleblower Gets Savage Beating. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 7, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-alamos-whistleblower-gets-savage-beating/307320 "2005-06-07T17:19:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-alamos-whistleblower-gets-savage-beating/307320/1 "2005-06-07T17:19:11Z")
[http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/07/whistleblower.beaten.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/07/whistleblower.beaten.ap/index.html) Apparently, he was going to Congress with the inside stuff on how the Los Alamos Lab had serious shenannigans in its contracts, & got ambushed in the parking lot he went to to meet an informant. Los Alamos labs is “shocked”. Oh deary me. “Shocked”. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-alamos-whistleblower-gets-savage-beating/307320/2 "2005-06-07T19:36:07Z")
It’s strange to think of this sort of thing happening in the scientific world but I guess money is money. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-alamos-whistleblower-gets-savage-beating/307320/3 "2005-06-07T19:53:23Z")
Karen Silkwood (1946-1974) requiescat in pacem ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-alamos-whistleblower-gets-savage-beating/307320/4 "2005-06-07T19:56:13Z")
“… it appears the beating was related to his whistle-blowing…” They just don’t understand his art, I say. Remember the Alamo indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-alamos-whistleblower-gets-savage-beating/307320/5 "2005-06-07T20:58:54Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > It’s strange to think of this sort of thing happening in the scientific world but I guess money is money. [One person’s perspective on Los Alamos](http://www.photo.net/summer94/los-alamos). > [@Philip Greenspun](#): > > One graduate student described his fellow young physicists as “the healthiest group of alcoholics in the world. These guys drink half a bottle of whiskey every night at a bar, then get up at 7 am and bike 30 miles up a mountain before coming into work.” > [@Philip Greenspun](#): > > “What I hate about people in this town is that they don’t understand wife swapping,” noted a 20-year Lab employee. “You aren’t supposed to keep the other guy’s wife! One guy in my neighborhood was down in Espanola and some Hispanic teenager stole his 357 Magnum out of his car. Like an idiot, he chases after the kid and the kid shoots him with his own pistol. He’s in the hospital recuperating for six months and in the meantime his wife starts an affair with his neighbor across the street. When he gets out of the hospital, his wife marries the neighbor and he marries the neighbor’s discarded wife.” I’ve known a couple of people who’ve worked at LANL, and neither were particularly enthusiastic about it or the culture. YMMV, but it ain’t exactly a scientist’s idealized haven of pure research. But then again, where is? Stranger