From Anonymous

It's a modern day "Mutiny on The Bounty", blog style. If The New York Times is correct, a group of anonymous blogging scientists may force the resignation of Director of Los Alamos, George P. Nanos.

Is this the first case of the head of an organization facing dismissal, or in the case of Director Nanos, "reassignment," because of a blog?

Are we experiencing a blogging  Butterfly Effect? The Butterfly Effect is a phenomenon where a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere, According to  this phenomenon demonstrates that a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio de Janeiro might change the weather in Chicago.

Will the success of this blog change how employees  everywhere use blogs to critique their employers?

Will the potential fear of being "blogged" change how bosses listen and treat employees?  Could "anonymous boss blogs" provide employees with a power base that  once attracted them to labor unions in the 20th century?

The butterfly has begun to flap its wings.

The New York Times Article, which will be archived in a few days, can be read in full on the blog.

The bloggers say they were "forced" to create a public discussion because Director Nanos shut down any internal forums of dissent. This, the bloggers say goes counter to their culture and values.

"... open debate and dissent on important issues became a cornerstone of the Los Alamos culture. I submit that this cultural characteristic is as American as apple pie and stands at the very core of Los Alamos’ identity. This Blog is a result of the view that current Laboratory management stood squarely opposed to these values. As a result, the employees sought alternative avenues to discuss issues critical to them and their future. In the past there would have been vigorous internal dissent and most of you visiting would have been completely oblivious to it, but safer and more secure as a result. Now that dissent internal to Lab has been shutdown, it has spilled onto the Internet. Many of the employees now believe that the Laboratory management cannot be trusted, do not harbor dissent and are not interested in debate. This Blog is the reaction. Above all, the culture of Los Alamos values the truth, open dissent and honest debate"

And a post defending the blog:

"Remember all those Chicken Little news reports last year, breathlessly telling a rapt public audience that the Los Alamos National Labs had "misplaced" two removable storage devices containing DoE-classified (ie, Sigma-class) nuclear weapons information? It was all an inventory error. But apparently, even though the guy who made the error had already been sacked, and had personally admitted to his error, the Director of LANL, a petty management tyrant, wasted six months leaving the labs closed and giving the employees he disliked everything from tongue-lashings to dismissals, using the "incident" as an excuse.

However, the Net has once again come to the rescue of those who are otherwise intimidated into silence; the employees at the normally highly secretive research lab have broken their silence and posted hundreds, thousands, of posts and comments criticizing the leadership of the lab. Now it looks increasingly likely that Nanos will be "reassigned" elsewhere - ie, the University of California, which runs the lab for the Department of Energy, has been embarrassed into acting."

However, as The Blog Herald noted when the blog was launched a few months ago:

"Whether the blog breaches privacy or Government secrecy laws is not known, but an open discussion on a top-secret Nuclear facility in the blogosphere would have to be raising eyebrows somewhere. "