[time-nuts] Question for the cesium nuts.

[Chuck Harris]

Hal Murray wrote:
>>> Are there some funny accounting rules screwing things up?
>> Not accounting rules as you meant them, but rather end use rules.
> 
>> It takes someone with a functioning brain to figure out what the
>> different pieces of equipment are, and to make sure that the end use
>> restrictions are honored.  It is far easier to drive over the stuff
>> with a dozer, and render it inert than it is to propagate the
>> necessary paper chain... or so the DRMO says. 
> 
> I'm still somewhat (but not very) surprised that they aren't outsourcing the 
> whole mess or something like that.

They tried that during Clinton, and the companies that did the work
didn't do the work.  They were less efficient than DRMO was in the
first place... of course by the time they found that out, all of the
original guys that did the work for DRMO were fired, retired, or reassigned.

> I assume "end use rules" means don't send fancy gear to Iran and North Korea 

Yes, that is the general idea.  Also medical equipment must not be used
by the US medical community in the US, hazardous materials must sold only
to companies that are proven capable of safe use and disposal, vehicles must
not be sold in a way that competes with commercial companies (HumVee's, etc.),
airplanes must not be sold in a way that competes with Boing...

> etc.  Is there a simple list of what is/isn't OK to ship to anybody?  If a 
> box sells for $100, it can't be a big deal to have somebody check each item 
> against a known-OK list.  If the penalties are real nasty, check it twice.

That works fine if you assume that the US Gov't only surpluses a few hundred
different items.  The the truth is they surplus hundreds of thousands of different
items.  Everything from Apple Computers to Zebra shaped figurines.  Imagine what
would happen if a 0.01 uf capacitor appeared in the inventory as:

Capacitor, 0.01 uf
Capacitor, 0.01MFD
Capacitor, 10nf
Condenser, 0.01 uf
Condenser, 0.01MFD
Condenser, 0.01 MFD
Condenser, 0.01 MF
Condenser, 10nf
Cap, 0.01uf
Cap, 0.01MFD
Cap, 10nf
Electronic Component, Condenser, 0.01 microfarad...

It does, and worse, there are spelling errors too!  Most every item in the DRMO
inventory appears multiple times.  Each time a little different, depending on
how the clerk who entered it thought to describe it.

> The stuff you can't ship to bad guys is probably worth more so they would be 
> motivated to find it.

Motivated???  What are you talking about?  The real work gets done by warehousemen
that drive forklifts.  These guys are GS5's, and get paid just a little bit above
minimum wage.  They are too dumb to be motivated, let alone give a rats ass about
what they are doing.  Electronic equipment is just metal boxes to them.

-Chuck