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Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

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Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#151

Post by tootie »

cavisne wrote: post #52
mikeyouse wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, the team that fired all these researchers doesn’t have that data either. So it’s extremely easy to be critical of their haphazard cuts since they’re made completely arbitrarily with the only consideration so far being the ease of firing them based on their probationary status. The process and detail you’re asking for would be the responsible way to shrink the government and is the polar opposite of what…

Non-probationary employees can't be fired (and even voluntary resignations are rate-limited by the Iron Mountain mine shaft elevator). So every day that process takes lowers the number of employees that can even be fired. Once it gets to a year (very easily) they would all have come off probation so nothing could be done. Everyone saying "oh something should be done but just do it slower" is actually saying do nothin…

What we're saying is the "something" to be done is something else. What is the goal? What is the measurable objective? What is an acceptable cost? None of that has been made clear. They are actively lying about how much spending is being cut, but the number is likely less than 1% of the tax cut Congress is teeing up. There is no fiscal outcome being sought. This is purely action for the sake of looking busy.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#152

Post by BLKNSLVR »

bruce511 wrote: post #121
andix wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot "wilfully letting go of democracy". US democracy is far away from dying, but who knows how much longer it can keep holding up.

Bearing in mind that this administration won the election and a lot of what they are doing is more-or-less what they campaigned on, I'm not sure democracy is at risk. One can pick around the details, but for example with regard to the firings, voters clearly approved of the concept of smaller, cheaper government. Which is basically what's happening. This is essentially democracy in action. Yes, the voters may come to…

I mostly agree. Trump is behaving in a way that's consistent with his prior rhetoric.

Where I disagree is that there may have been an expectation that the systems outside of "The President" would have stood up for themselves more, offered more resistance and slowed him down more. The slow-moving of government is (was though to be) it's own protection to some extent.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#153

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

> One of the explicit goals of the program is to keep the US competitive

Competition doesn't matter to a xenophobe. That's what the tariffs are for. You admit that you can't compete, so you make it too expensive for people to buy the foreign things, forcing them to buy your (inferior/expensive) things, with the upside-down belief that that will make your economy strong. When actually the now-captive market is an incentive to make things worse and more expensive. You'd think the people who "beat communism with choice and competition" would get that.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#155

Post by bruce511 »

koolba wrote: post #83
abirch wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In addition to these scientists, I heard from my friends in academia that they will be taking fewer PhD students because they're unsure of the funding. We may be looking at a lost decade.

[flagged]

The goal of this exercise is not to fund worthwhile projects. This is not a cutting of the fat. It's a permanent end of funding so that the rich can get some tax breaks.

The "big beautiful bill" has to be budget neutral to pass. Meaning to get those tax breaks, funding has to be slashed.

This is all about money. Republican voters believe a cheaper govt means less taxes for them. They don't appreciate the benefits they're getting. Hence they cheer as they lose those benefits, and they'll cheer just as loud when the rich get tax cuts.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#156

Post by consumer451 »

polairscience wrote: post #28

This is true for many programs for reasons that will be hard to understand if you aren't a scientist. The NSF program managers are often pulled out of academia for brief periods of their career to do various tasks as experts. This means they are often probationary. This is the only way to hire people with deep expertise on the topic-du-jour. The trump administration fired in wide swaths many probationary employees at…

Sean Carroll has a very informative, and impressively apolitical post/podcast about the recent de-funding of science in the USA.

I have seen it appreciated across the political spectrum. It is worth a read or listen, and hopefully a share. This is the most sober-minded analysis of this turn of events that I have seen so far.

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/02/12/bonu...

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#158

Post by jfengel »

bruce511 wrote: post #135
trhway wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We're looking at the US wilfully letting go of the possibiility of remaining the most powerful nation in the world. many here see it way (me too, though i'm well aware that many times whenever i was critical of Musk, he happened to be right, and in this case - Musk is naturally not anti-science guy, so i'd guess there must be some other reason for him doing that which i'm just not able to see). I wonder whether some…

Musk's motivations are simple; the rich have been promised tax breaks, which means deep spending cuts. So gutting the parks service means no parks open to the public, but balances a tax break to billionaires. Same for "science". That's a long term investment with long term returns. Kill that now for immediate tax breaks. Let someone else worry about the fallout 10 years from now. Then there's direct interest. The CFB…

In 2016 they had tax breaks without spending cuts. And he's not actually saving all that much money. The employees are only a small part of the budget.

He's doing it because hate for government employees has been a talking point since Reagan. He's getting huge accolades for sticking it to the evildoers. It's popular and fun.

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#159

Post by late2part »

rfw300 wrote: post #138
late2part wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Is it "sensible oversight" to shoot first and ask questions later—to shut down all payments on a whim and then implement a review process (assuming it actually exists) afterwards which will be immediately overloaded? You might as well starve prisoners and then say sensible calorie management is not in and of itself foolish.

[flagged]

Re: Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone

#160

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

sneak wrote: post #50

Consent matters. There is no worse tyranny than to force someone to pay for something they do not want to buy, simply because you think it would be good for them. I am vehemently pro-research and pro-education, but these tax-funded programs are not it. There must be some meaningful connection to the delivery of value, otherwise this stuff is just public-private wealth transfer. This seems obvious to me. Why should th…

> Why should government subsidies exist in general?

Bro... I think you missed the civics class where they explain how economies/governments work.

tl;dr the magical free market isn't, the world is complicated, and governments are supposed to help their people, which includes providing things, like money, to do things, like advance the state of the civilization, its people, its businesses, products, services, technologies, defenses, education, health, food, energy, etc etc etc etc etc

> Why is everyone acting like the sky is falling when an elected official does the things people voted for them to do?

Two words: National Socialism. Sometimes the people are morons, and the leaders psychopaths.

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