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NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

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Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#191

Post by alabastervlog »

damnitbuilds wrote: post #165
alabastervlog wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attempting to be diet-Republican won't convince people to go for them instead of the full sugar version. This is literally what they keep trying, and it doesn't work.

You think the center is diet-Republican ? And the way to get more votes is to be more extreme ? There's the problem, right there.

> And the way to get more votes is to be more extreme ?

You're doing an awful lot of stuff along the lines of "so you're saying BAD is actually good?" in this thread (not just with me), and it's not really a good way to have a discussion. It's good for arguing over, essentially, nothing.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#192

Post by swores »

tessierashpool wrote: post #130
ddahlen wrote: post #38

I have been in and out of the academic world my entire career. I have worked as a programmer/engineer for two universities and a national lab, and worked at a startup founded by some professors. There is huge uncertainty with the people whom I have worked with, nobody seems to be sure what is going to happen, but it feels like it wont be good. Hiring freezes, international graduate students receiving emails to self d…

> One of the interesting pieces of science that I think a lot of people don't think about is strategic investment. the Internet itself began with DARPA. the web at CERN. both came from publicly-funded research.

In case anyone else has the same memory fuzziness I had that led me to thinking "I could've sworn it was ARPA, not DARPA, that the internet came out of"... it was ARPA, but they aren't separate organisations as I for some reason thought they were. To quote Wikipedia:

> "The name of the organization first changed from its founding name, ARPA, to DARPA, in March 1972, changing back to ARPA in February 1993, then reverted to DARPA in March 1996"

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#193

Post by aaronbaugher »

timschmidt wrote: post #162
_djo_ wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately a majority of American voters saw what happened in the first Trump term and decided that they wanted more of it, with even fewer controls and restrictions. The OP is correct, Americans collectively own this just as other countries' nationals have owned responsibility for the bad governments they've put into power. If the general response is one of absolving themselves of responsibility there won't be th…

> Unfortunately a majority of American voters saw what happened in the first Trump term and decided that they wanted more of it, with even fewer controls and restrictions. I'm not sure this accurately conveys the situation. American voters have been dissatisfied with the lesser of two evils choice foisted upon them every 4 years for decades. We're 75 years into endless wars. Massive numbers of union high paying jobs…

That's what a lot of it was. In 2016, the establishment was offering us a choice between another Bush and another Clinton, with Cruz being set up as the Buchanan, the conservative who would be allowed to win a state or two before gracefully stepping aside for the real nominee. So voters said screw this, we'll take a shot on the guy who might be crazy, rather than just another one of the same gang.

Surprisingly to many of them, he wasn't crazy, and actually tried to do a lot of the things they were hoping a non-establishment president would do. But then the bureaucracy dragged its feet, ignored his orders, and generally did its best to spoil his first term, giving a middle finger to the voters and saying, "Screw you, we're doing things our way." So in 2024 the voters said, "No, screw you," and here we are.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#194

Post by coliveira »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #157

The fastest way for the US to lose its competitive edge and status as global leader is to reduce funding for scientific research and academic institutions. They are the Crown Jewels and the primary attraction for talent from around the world. The damage for the next four years is done. The question is, even if there's a major shift back to sanity with the next prez elections, it'll take years to build up trust and th…

> China will try but their credibility is low, which is the US's only saving grace

This is your incorrect perception. The credibility of China around the world (outside the US) as a technology leader is already higher than the US. The current government is only cementing this perception.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#195

Post by throwanem »

tootie wrote: post #140
tessierashpool wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One of the interesting pieces of science that I think a lot of people don't think about is strategic investment. the Internet itself began with DARPA. the web at CERN. both came from publicly-funded research.

Also, NCSA was started with NSF funds and the put out the first web browse. And now the guy behind that is supporting Trump. Really pulling up the ladder.

[flagged]

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#196

Post by cmontella »

devwastaken wrote: post #180
ddahlen wrote: post #38

I have been in and out of the academic world my entire career. I have worked as a programmer/engineer for two universities and a national lab, and worked at a startup founded by some professors. There is huge uncertainty with the people whom I have worked with, nobody seems to be sure what is going to happen, but it feels like it wont be good. Hiring freezes, international graduate students receiving emails to self d…

[flagged]

Please read my sibling reply about DARPA grand challenges. This knowledge was built using public dollars by people who publish papers, which are being read today by people building products. That's the great cycle of progress.

Notably DARPA felt the need to do this because they didn't trust private industry to do it on their own; with no money in driverless cars, the government figured industry would get there only if there was some catalyst, which they provided (successfully).

If you only ever go where the work is, then you're going to be left behind by societies that have a vision and leadership that will work to make it real.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#197

Post by kbelder »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #184
ourmandave wrote: post #35

Last week, staff were briefed on a new process for vetting grant proposals that are found to be out of step with a presidential directive on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),... In the new structure, even if a revised proposal gets the green light from a division director, a new body whose membership has not been determined will take a fresh look to ensure it conforms to the agency’s new standard for making awa…

[flagged]

That's not any different than it has been.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#198

Post by jjice »

_djo_ wrote: post #116
jjice wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe pedantic, but the US as a whole didn't vote for it in the 2016 election. Clinton won the popular vote in 2016, but Trump had more electoral votes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidentia...

Unfortunately a majority of American voters saw what happened in the first Trump term and decided that they wanted more of it, with even fewer controls and restrictions. The OP is correct, Americans collectively own this just as other countries' nationals have owned responsibility for the bad governments they've put into power. If the general response is one of absolving themselves of responsibility there won't be th…

> If the general response is one of absolving themselves of responsibility there won't be the necessary level of reflection and reform to prevent it from happening again.

Where did I absolve anything? I just corrected something that was wrong. I didn't vote for the guy either time, I don't like this either.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#199

Post by hackyhacky »

devwastaken wrote: post #180
ddahlen wrote: post #38

I have been in and out of the academic world my entire career. I have worked as a programmer/engineer for two universities and a national lab, and worked at a startup founded by some professors. There is huge uncertainty with the people whom I have worked with, nobody seems to be sure what is going to happen, but it feels like it wont be good. Hiring freezes, international graduate students receiving emails to self d…

[flagged]

Just because you don't read the papers doesn't mean that no one does. Much of the work done in private industry is based on basic research. There are examples given in this thread: the DARPA robotics challenge, and the internet itself.
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