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Comment by ck2 | Hacker News Reader

Isn't this the laboratory that is doing weapons research under the guise of helping people?

Or am I confusing propaganda? Their logo creeps me out too.

Sandia does weapons research, but it does more than just that. One of the main goals is indeed stockpile stewardship, and to that end Sandia produces a lot of hardware and software. On the other hand, it also does a lot of research into energy generation, such as fusion, wind, solar, and improvements in combustion-operated power sources such as coal plants and internal combustion engines. There's also work in robotics, biology, chemistry, physics (beyond nuclear explosions!), math, computer science; most of these are not for the development of weapons. It's a DOE lab, so it does things which fall under the DOE mandate, which includes maintaining the nation's nuclear stockpile among many other things.

I think fusion energy is a big enough win for everyone that you don't need to assign some sinister backing to it. The Department of ENERGY damn well should be interested in a safe, clean method of generating electricity.

The logo is a thunderbird, after the mythological creature of the Native Americans.

Also, sometimes the nuclear stuff goes beyond weapons. Like destroying asteroids for example.

http://insidehpc.com/2012/01/08/video-visualizing-the-los-al...

Ah okay, I guess the Nazis ruined a lot of symbolism.

Logo reminded me of something out of Wolfenstein 3D

The paranoia in me always suspect they are all trying to make nuclear weapons without the pesky fallout which would be a horrible "advancement" as it would remove resistance to use them.

There are two sides to every coin.

"The purpose of the Sedan explosion was to determine if nuclear devices could be used as cratering or earth moving mechanisms [for construction purposes]."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1o38Yo5OhY

The bird is native american, Sandia is in New Mexico. If you are unfamiliar with the USA, there are vast swathes of the desert southwest that are milititary and mixed-use government land. White Sands, for example is also in NM. Not too far away, is Trinity site. To the north, is Los Alamos. Etc. There are only so many places you can test rockets and fighter planes due to the extreme speed, etc.

You forgot Black Mesa in NM. ;-)

I think the nazis stole the bird iconography from the romans.

Here's an image search for "Navajo eagle": http://www.google.com/search?q=navajo+eagle&hl=en&pr...

How do you find the sandia logo creepy? Do you think all Native American imagery is creepy?

He's somehow associating it with this:

http://www.thegrandoldgame.com/Bob/Bayern/NaziEmblem01.jpg

doing weapons research under the guise of helping people

You're presuming those are different things, when they aren't necessarily. Good weaponry is a prerequisite for world (or even domestic) peace.

Of course, good ideas are also a prerequisite, and in that area, we're far more lacking.

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