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NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

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Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#241

Post by const_cast »

brianmurphy wrote: post #163
pixelpoet wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this isn't the tyrannical government (disappearing people, destroying public services even the Dept of Education, deliberately dismantling checks and balances, ...) the 2A was specifically created for, then what would be? And if the 2A isn't about countering tyrannical government, what IS it for?

Trump was elected on deporting illegals, closing the Dept of Education, removing men from women's sports and to stop sending money overseas. The insular HN community doesn't understand this is what the majority of American voters want. Many of us are very happy with the direction things have been moving.

> Many of us are very happy with the direction things have been moving.

No, you're not, and yes I am telling you how you feel.

This is, for lack of a better word, "cope".

Even if you think some of this stuff is cool, you can't be so stupid as to just ignore all the economic damage around you. That does affect you, whether you have the conviction to admit it or not. At the end of the day, you _will_ suffer. There is no pride in being both a loser and a coward.

It would be best to just be a loser.

Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#242

Post by brianmurphy »

tastyface wrote: post #187
brianmurphy wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump was elected on deporting illegals, closing the Dept of Education, removing men from women's sports and to stop sending money overseas. The insular HN community doesn't understand this is what the majority of American voters want. Many of us are very happy with the direction things have been moving.

Deportations, I could understand. But extraction to a foreign concentration camp without a sentence or any legal recourse? That is just utterly cruel -- even monstrous. If the majority of American voters want that, then that's what they are, full stop.

None of those things have happened.

Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#243

Post by standardUser »

davkan wrote: post #220
refurb wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I don’t understand the emotional attachment to a specific job or organization. I could see if it’s something you built (but then hopefully you call the shots), but otherwise it’s a agreement between two parties and if it doesn’t work for me, I’ll thank you for the time so far and leave without ever looking back. People make their lives far more complex than need be. There isn’t one job you can work or do wha…

The public sector is about service. It’s not emotional attachment that keeps these employees there to the end, it’s a sense of responsibility. There’s no higher calling keeping you at your B2B SaaS company.

The public sector was about service. Then we elected Donald Trump twice. I wouldn't want to be the last idiot carrying water for a country that rejected my service outright.

Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#244

Post by ricksunny »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #229
ricksunny wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: Exactly the stipulation behind this excerpt, whether the President can hire/fire the head of the NSF, is exactly why Truman had vetoed an earlier version of the NSF bill written under the close influence of Vannevar Bush that actively avoided providing for this extent of executive ‘weighing of the scales’ of science. Source: Bush, V. “Pieces of the Action”, 1970

I’m so glad you know this, as I was going to comment on this topic of history. Bush was a wise man, Truman forgot that government power can be fickle.

For The Tech minded, I wrote an guest column that touched on the autonomy of technical management aspect.

https://thetech.com/2024/07/11/anniversary-vannevar-bush-pas...

the “unchecked committee of technocratic experts appeared to be his preferred agency governance form.” refers both to his utterances illustrated in his only biography to date, and particularly to the would-be May-Johnson governance structure he promoted.

Today we see the debate in full swing with discussion of technocratic elitism, (particularly this year more than last when I wrote the piece).

I wrestle with the pitfalls & perceived benefits a technocratic elite sans much representative democratic oversight. But make no mistake, a ‘Vannevarian’ world would appear very different to the current one we prefer to think we live in. The closest example in pop culture to what I imagine is the Fallout franchise’s Vault governance & managed society.

Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#245

Post by tastyface »

brianmurphy wrote: post #242
tastyface wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deportations, I could understand. But extraction to a foreign concentration camp without a sentence or any legal recourse? That is just utterly cruel -- even monstrous. If the majority of American voters want that, then that's what they are, full stop.

None of those things have happened.

They have. You are lying.

Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#246

Post by iknowstuff »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #111
mike_hearn wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did not get what was promised. They were promised large reductions in immigration, instead the Johnson government raised immigration levels to never before seen heights. Brexit enabled them to have lowered it to whatever level they wanted, but the Conservatives preferred to self destruct than compromise with the voters on mass immigration.

Someone's gotta wipe Grandpa's ass.

Bidets

Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#247

Post by mensetmanusman »

ricksunny wrote: post #244
mensetmanusman wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m so glad you know this, as I was going to comment on this topic of history. Bush was a wise man, Truman forgot that government power can be fickle.

For The Tech minded, I wrote an guest column that touched on the autonomy of technical management aspect. https://thetech.com/2024/07/11/anniversary-vannevar-bush-pas... the “unchecked committee of technocratic experts appeared to be his preferred agency governance form.” refers both to his utterances illustrated in his only biography to date, and particularly to the would-be May-Johnson governance structure he promo…

This is great. I worked in building 13 and speak about V. Bush when I give talks to course 3 phd students occasionally :)

William B. Bonvillian taught me the bit I know about the topic :)

Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#248

Post by refurb »

watwut wrote: post #226
refurb wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re all over the place and unfocused on the matter at hand. The original comment was that CEOs are pushing back. It’s just not done in the public sphere. At least at my company, the CEO is satisfied the administration understands their concerns.

Yeah, and my comment is that they are not pushing back. CEO are trying to get favors for themselves from easy to corrupt administration. That is not pushing back. That is playing along while wanting credit for silent push back that never happened.

For having zero knowledge of the interaction, you seem rather confident of how it went down.

Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#249

Post by refurb »

davkan wrote: post #220
refurb wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I don’t understand the emotional attachment to a specific job or organization. I could see if it’s something you built (but then hopefully you call the shots), but otherwise it’s a agreement between two parties and if it doesn’t work for me, I’ll thank you for the time so far and leave without ever looking back. People make their lives far more complex than need be. There isn’t one job you can work or do wha…

The public sector is about service. It’s not emotional attachment that keeps these employees there to the end, it’s a sense of responsibility. There’s no higher calling keeping you at your B2B SaaS company.

The public sector is a job for most. They aren't working at the government because of some higher calling (though some might).

Re: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy

#250

Post by ricksunny »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #247
ricksunny wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For The Tech minded, I wrote an guest column that touched on the autonomy of technical management aspect. https://thetech.com/2024/07/11/anniversary-vannevar-bush-pas... the “unchecked committee of technocratic experts appeared to be his preferred agency governance form.” refers both to his utterances illustrated in his only biography to date, and particularly to the would-be May-Johnson governance structure he promo…

This is great. I worked in building 13 and speak about V. Bush when I give talks to course 3 phd students occasionally :) William B. Bonvillian taught me the bit I know about the topic :)

The very namesake building I’ll keep sensitized to the STS Bonvillian name, I was unfamiliar prior, thank you.

That’s great to hear you sometimes give talks to course 3 students, as maybe some of them will go on to study lattices like: https://www.sf-uap.com/materials-science , for which study under what governance structure we may not know.

All the best.

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