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Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

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Re: Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

#201

Post by pjerem »

WarmWash wrote: post #140
pjerem wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you measure economical performance with PIB per capita, yeah, for sure, US has a better economy. If you measure with anything else useful like (healthy) life expectancy or happiness level, state of the democracy, etc... like if you think the the economy must serve the people and not the other way, I'd say Europe is way more successful despite the real issues. Actually, I'm baffled at how US performs poorly for the…

>Actually, I'm baffled at how US performs poorly for their people given they have abundant energy. You feel that way because the media (and the internet) is hyper focused on the bottom 50% of Americans. The households with 2 people earning If you look at the higher brackets (you have to look because "Americans in the 75th percentile live great" is not a clickable story) America is a better place to live if you work a…

Sorry but I don't share your view. A society where the bottom 50% can't live a decent life is just dysfunctional. I don't care which country is best for the riches (and actually, Europe is good for the riches), I care that the economy is there to allow everyone to live a decent and meaningful life.

Re: Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

#202

Post by John23832 »

coldtea wrote: post #135
John23832 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, total immigration matters. Human progress is always subject to the law large numbers. Skilled polish engineers don't want to be the only polish person in the entire country. They want food, culture, community that reminds them of home. Even as they assimilate. That's why the American melting pot works well. It encourages enclaves that touch one another. China is the opposite of that. You are hard hammered into th…

> No, total immigration matters. Human progress is always subject to the law large numbers. Human change can be subject to the law of large numbers, but nothing necessitates any particular change being towards progress. > Skilled polish engineers don't want to be the only polish person in the entire country. They want food, culture, community that reminds them of home. Even as they assimilate. That's why the American…

> Human change can be subject to the law of large numbers, but nothing necessitates any particular change being towards progress.

The same can be said of the "Great Man Theory" (or its adaptation by selecting immigrants based on some selected set of skills). You don't know that you're making society better, you're just selecting for a certain set of skills.

> The American melting pot works well (or worked well) because it was a nation made up from a blank canvas with no prior historically established dominant ethnicity or culture the kind other nations have had going for millenia.

This isn't true and it ignores the cultural differences amongst all of the original colonists (religious, language, political, and country of origin). That's before you even consider the stark differences in culture between the Native Americans and the European colonist.

Re: Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

#203

Post by daedrdev »

mnky9800n wrote: post #146

I apologise if this is overly negative. It is based on my experience working as a soft money researcher (my own grants) at a Dutch university. My opinions may not be shared. In my experience The Netherlands is a rather unsupportive place to do research. There is essentially no money from the government that will pay salaries in full, especially early career salaries (vini, vidi, vici). I have had friends win ERC gran…

> that were fired as a result because there was not a space in the department to hire them full time (Dutch work law requires contracts to become permanent after a certain number of years of working).

This is a very common law in european companies and is killing economic growth. Idk why they do this.

Re: Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

#204

Post by dataflow »

wolvoleo wrote: post #126
dataflow wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...what are you talking about? This was from my personal experience being in Europe many times, including in the middle of this very last heat wave. This one thing made it miserable. I couldn't even sleep and had to move to other buildings more than once. On more than one occasion locals themselves told me there were legal reasons certain buildings couldn't have A/C, despite them wanting to install it. And it from pe…

Maybe monumental buildings might have some regulatory concern but where I live it's not an issue. My neighbours in the same flat have 2 big condensers (the outside box of a split AC box) on their balcony. I just don't want to invest in it myself so I have only one of those stupid porta units, not great but it does the job when I need to cool down a bit. And our building is monumental from the 1800s. Also, every singl…

> Maybe monumental buildings might have some regulatory concern

No it was not "monumental buildings". These were very average buildings I'm talking about. In fact I saw two related buildings, only one of which was permitted to have A/C (and an awful portable one at that), as the locals told me. Everyone complained about it.

Be glad where you live isn't like this, but this is not universal.

> Also, every single hotel and commercial place has it.

I can't speak for your city or the Netherlands but this is absolutely not even remotely true universally in Europe. Most places I found (yes that includes nice hotels, yes in multiple countries) lacked A/C, and even the ones that had something they called "air conditioning" on the booking websites vehemently rejected the notion that they have A/C when you asked them in person -- in their own eyes it wasn't proper A/C, and I agreed with them after trying it.

Source: my own eyes, up to last week.

Re: Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

#205

Post by doctorwho42 »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #180
doctorwho42 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure about that? Most people miss the fact that a sizeable % of our military budget is slated for research grants/funding. I'm a physicist in academia, and the amount of money we have gotten from DoD branches for things that have no immediate military applications is like 40-60% of our budget YoY. Like for straight fundamental physics research. Most scientists I know who have gone to Europe have had to go int…

They are referring specifically to research funding for people employed in academia. The US funds a huge amount of research outside of academia. A large percentage of the US DoD research budget is going to researchers outside of academia, for example. This includes a lot of relatively pure research with no immediate military application.

As someone in academia, whos group currently gets 60% from primarily AMES and USONR. And I know it's not unique to us.

Re: Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

#206

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

godwinson__4-8 wrote: post #198
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The reaffirmation of the 14th amendment is not exactly impressive. Quite a low bar you've reached for there. Can you name a single country in the EU which offers birthright citizenship? Any country in Asia?

Sort of a silly question. Can you name a single country like the US? Have you read your own history? I said the reaffirmation was not impressive, not the amendment or the nature of said citizenship itself. The fact it had to be reaffirmed is not impressive. The OP I replied to already acknowledged this. Please read more carefully next time. Or if you think the reaffirmation was itself impressive, please just say so.

>Sort of a silly question. Can you name a single country like the US? Have you read your own history?

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here, exactly. The US is not the only country which offers birthright citizenship. But I don't believe there are any other countries like this in Europe or Asia.

>I said the reaffirmation was not impressive, not the amendment or the nature of said citizenship itself. The fact it had to be reaffirmed is not impressive. The OP I replied to already acknowledged this. Learn to read.

The OP brought up the 14th in the context of the country's stance towards immigrants. From this POV, I don't see why you would give undue weight to the reaffirmation compared with the "the amendment or the nature of said citizenship itself".

You can have the last word in this thread. Your incivility to clarity ratio is way too high for me to wish to continue further with you.

Re: Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

#208

Post by mrguyorama »

BeetleB wrote: post #195
pjerem wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly what I wrote though. You CAN install a normal split. You are blocked because as a renter you don't have the power to. My point is that we are not in an AC crisis, we just need to change the laws so that owners are forced to provide, however they want, summer comfort in the same way they must provide winter comfort. Unlike energy autonomy, green transition, or defense issues, the "AC issue" is actually…

> You are blocked because as a renter you don't have the power to. And his point is that in most apartments in the US, you are not blocked because you're a renter.

>you are not blocked because you're a renter.

You are wrong. Nothing in the US stops a landlord from preventing you from installing an AC and plenty do, for any reason they want.

My previous US apartment banned window mount air conditioners. I was stuck with a "mobile" AC unit that could barely handle a little humidity. Even someone in a "Historic" property in Europe that isn't allowed to touch anything would have that option as well.

Re: Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

#209

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

losvedir wrote: post #67
John23832 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, total immigration matters. Human progress is always subject to the law large numbers. Skilled polish engineers don't want to be the only polish person in the entire country. They want food, culture, community that reminds them of home. Even as they assimilate. That's why the American melting pot works well. It encourages enclaves that touch one another. China is the opposite of that. You are hard hammered into th…

> American melting pot For what it's worth, this is the terminology I learned in school decades ago, but I don't think it's preferred anymore. My daughter has a book that calls it a "salad" instead (mixed but retaining their respective properties). I'm probably just old and crotchety but I like that way less.

I think the sweet spot is somewhere in between. You want enough of a melting pot that everyone gets plenty of exposure to the mainstream culture, but enough of a salad bowl that they can "take a break" and relax in the culture they are familiar with.

Re: Top researchers leave USA for the Netherlands (in Dutch)

#210

Post by distances »

ux266478 wrote: post #174
distances wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can sliding windows be properly insulated? In general cold is a bigger deal in Europe than warmth, and will continue to be so. German style tilting windows close as tightly as the regular (or door-like as you say) do. UK has windows sliding up, but is also famous for being drafty as the windows are never tight. I suppose good sliding windows can exist though? I have myself pondered the problem with regular windows an…

> Can sliding windows be properly insulated? Yes. Beyond that, if they didn't work they wouldn't be used. Continental climates get much colder than pretty much anywhere in Europe, outside of a select few areas. > In general cold is a bigger deal in Europe than warmth, and will continue to be so. Masonry is a bad match for cold. The structure acts as a high velocity heat conduit and the earth eats all the heat you pro…

> Yes. Beyond that, if they didn't work they wouldn't be used.

My usual experience from London was extremely leaky single pane sliding windows, that's why the question. To be fair, that air flow was probably the only saving grace against mold in those buildings.

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