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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

#261

Post by seanmcdirmid »

abirch wrote: post #31
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…

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.

Maybe China will start accepting international PhD students? I don’t see anyone else who could pick up the slack.

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

#262

Post by rayiner »

jltsiren wrote: post #161
bruce511 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is based on a too literal interpretation of democracy. Democracy had a bad reputation in the ancient world, because unconstrained majority decisions often led to terrible outcomes. In the modern world, democracy usually means liberal democracy, which includes things like the rule of law and constitutional protections. As a rough approximation, a constitution exists to prevent the government from doing what the v…

This is Orwellian double-speak. You’re defining “democracy” to mean “not democracy.”

Nor does the “constitution” support your view. Article II says: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”

What you’re calling “democracy” and the “constitution” is neither. It’s Wilsonianism, an idea invented by a eugenicist who hated the constitution as well as democracy: https://fedsoc.org/commentary/fedsoc-blog/woodrow-wilson-s-c...

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

#263

Post by pstuart »

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…

> they are doing is more-or-less what they campaigned on,

He campaigned on bringing prices down and exacting revenge. So far failing on the former and going strong on the latter.

This administration has made it clear that they think that the current President should have the power of a king, and the reign to match. We're in uncharted waters and there's rocks ahead.

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

#264

Post by rayiner »

_heimdall wrote: post #195
jltsiren wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is based on a too literal interpretation of democracy. Democracy had a bad reputation in the ancient world, because unconstrained majority decisions often led to terrible outcomes. In the modern world, democracy usually means liberal democracy, which includes things like the rule of law and constitutional protections. As a rough approximation, a constitution exists to prevent the government from doing what the v…

> This is based on a too literal interpretation of democracy. Attempting to run a democracy in a non-literal way seems like a recipe for disaster. That seems to imply that citizens get to cast a vote and have their voice heard...unless those in charge decide the citizens don't know what is best for them. As a country we picked Trump. For better or worse we made that bed and we now have to lie in it.

Folks on the left would do well to remember that the same unelected bureaucracy that declared “resistance” to Trump would destroy an AOC or Sanders presidency too. Ultimately, it’s a good thing if electing the President can effectuate drastic changes in the executive branch, because that’s the only real lever voters have for affecting the largest and these days most powerful branch of government.

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

#265

Post by dang »

abirch wrote: post #31
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…

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.

Recent and related:

Penn to reduce graduate admissions, rescind acceptances amid research cuts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43144940 - Feb 2025 (646 comments)

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

#267

Post by rayiner »

consumer451 wrote: post #253
rayiner wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The fact that people who by all appearances are intelligent human beings, could post things like this... Nero plays his cithara. I am at a loss for words. I guess the real problem with propaganda is getting high on your own supply. edit: As an example, the Supreme Court overturning Chevron deference was a decision against un-elected officials making government calls, instead of the law makers, aka Congress. Now, just…

You should read some books on history and foreign affairs. Most of the world hates the “liberal international order” because it’s an excuse for the U.S. to impose its values on the rest of the world. DOGE revealed that USAID was funding political unrest in my home country (where activists recently overthrew the government). The U.S. has finally turned a corner on it only because the deep staters started turning that same attitude inward, pointing it at Ohio instead of India. Death of liberal internationalism isn’t something anyone should mourn.

There’s no inconsistency between Loper Bright and DOGE. Both reflect separation of powers. The judiciary interprets the law, not the executive branch. But the executive branch—which consists of the President and his agents—decides how to make discretionary spending decisions and hiring and firing of federal employees. Everyone is staying in their lane.

(You’re incorrect that DOGE is “holding the purse strings.” Congress has passed appropriations bills that delegate massive discretionary authority to the executive. DOGE, under Trump’s directions, is countermanding spending decisions made by executive civil servants, not Congress.)

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

#268

Post by UncleOxidant »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #63
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.

> We may be looking at a lost decade. We're looking at the US wilfully letting go of the possibiility of remaining the most powerful nation in the world. Reduced health, reduced education, reduced funding for research, reduced international aid programs (which both garner goodwill whilst also creating a bulwark against those who profit from misery), reduced oversight / regulation of the power of capital, alienation o…

I keep oscillating between are they just stupid or are they malicious and I'm starting to settle on the latter given the kinds of actions this administration is taking. Ironic that their voters thought they'd be mAkINg AMeRIcA gREaT aGAin when in fact they're going to cause us to lose our leadership role in many areas.

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

#269

Post by transcriptase »

bruce511 wrote: post #194
majormajor wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump specifically ran saying he didn't agree with many of these plans. His actions are consistent with cheaper federal government but not smaller federal government. Just a centralized executive government that does what he says. The method is simple: say what you need to to get approval, do what you always wanted to do after you get it. See also Kennedy walking back his anti-vaccine positions to get crucial votes o…

Trump ran on saying whatever to whomever. his intentions though were obvious. He ran on cutting spending by 2 trillion. Where did people think this was going to come from? He ran on ending red tape. He ran on reducing regulation. These days folk getting approved by the senate just have to show up. No one believes RFK when he says he's changed his mind on vax. I mean, these guys are lackeys, not stupid. Democracy is a…

Perhaps the Democrats should consider letting their voters choose the candidate for once instead of anointing it. Nobody wanted Clinton except the DNC establishment, and then they lied about Biden until he was forced aside for Kamala at the behest of insiders.

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

#270

Post by cyberax »

ajross wrote: post #186
cyberax wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is a strong federative country. Individual states are almost literally _states_ (as in "country") and have a lot of power. They can impose their own carbon taxes, net neutrality rules, fund research, etc. And more importantly, their local democracy is going strong.

States have "power", but not money. There are no state level science grants anywhere at the scale of the linked article.

CA spends around $11B on the University of California system. The NIH budget is $47B. I haven't done the math, but I would hazard that the total amount of money spent on science by the Federal and the individual state authorities would be comparable.

It's just that historically the Federal government was leading with the fundamental research, but if push comes to shove, states can start spinning up replacement programs.

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