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What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

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Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#391

Post by throwawaymaths »

chasing wrote: post #295
throwawaymaths wrote: post #66

just two days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910829 the problems that led to these frauds are structural --no amount of patching the system will fix this. maybe we should consider the possibility that we are due for a refactor, which is often painful, but especially painful for people (or code) with an entrenched incentive to continue existing. i dont mean to defend what the administration is doing but I…

Refactor. Ha. This is just randomly and mindlessly deleting large chunks of code because you think it's woke. Not a single personal alive thinks these institutions are perfect. But only morons think haphazardly defunding shit without understanding what you're breaking or what the real-world ramifications might be is a way to fix problems. The past couple of weeks have historically stupid.

no not because it's woke. because it's broken. this is literally the system that let a person become the President of Stanford a federally granted research professor with years of fabricated data that absolutely fucked some people that i personally know. lets say, negative man-decades of research just among people in my limited circle. i guarantee you this was not an isolated incident

the sooner we cut this shit out, realize consequences, and start over, the better.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#392

Post by tstactplsignore »

Gabriel54 wrote: post #141

Despite all the hyperbole in this thread I will try to speak plainly. It has become tiring to see how DEI has affected all aspects of academia. Hiring people based on race, awarding grants to work exclusively with members of a particular set of minorities, etc. I'm sure most people choose to close their eyes to such things and move on and focus on the actual important work but there must be unimaginable waste going o…

This is simply a delusion detached from reality. I am a white man in STEM academia. I've never been discriminated against once. None of my white male colleagues have either. They are all successful in academia. And my colleagues who aren't white men are in no way inferior. Just let us vote and ask if we feel discriminated against or oppressed because of DEI. We'll vote no.

It's simply a delusion that DEI is some unmeritocratic disaster. The reality is academia has its pick of top talent regardless of race or gender. I don't know any scientists who buy into this delusion irl. Diversity is a small factor in hiring because the field is already predominantly white men and it's no harder to pick top star talent when you diversify.

Simply insane that you are promoting the destruction of US science, US foreign aid, and so much of the good stuff the US government does, all in the name of a deeply delusional witch hunt.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#393

Post by a_puppy »

refurb wrote: post #251

Ok, so all payments are paused while funding is reviewed? Allowance for emergency payments to keep the lights on? This is taxpayers money and these agencies report to the President under the executive power. A shocker that government agencies might need account for spending. And I’m sorry “its not a lot of money” doesn’t fly when all the “its not a lot of money” is $8 trillion dollars. The federal deficit will never…

Federal money is allocated by Congress, and the President is required to spend the money as allocated by Congress. The President does not have authority to cut spending. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impoundment_of_appropriated_fu...

> Ok, so all payments are paused while funding is reviewed? ... This is taxpayers money ... A shocker that government agencies might need account for spending.

Reviewed for what?

Reviewed for whether the spending was authorized by Congress? If Musk finds that money is being spent in ways that are not authorized by Congress, and cuts that spending, great.

Reviewed for whether the money is being used efficiently to accomplish the goals set by Congress? Again, if Musk finds ways to stretch the same amount of money to accomplish more, that's great. For example, if Musk makes USAID more efficient so it delivers more aid for the same amount of money, that would be wonderful.

Or "reviewed" for whether Trump/Musk agree with them? It's illegal for the President to unilaterally cut programs just because he doesn't like them.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#394

Post by [deleted] »

ctrlp wrote: post #371
bawolff wrote: post #4

Seems like a good opportunity for other countries to recruit scientists. I think its underappreciated how much of America's modern success comes down to attracting scientists and intellectuals from war torn europe in the 30s-50s.

I would think if you are a European national this situation would have a silver lining in perhaps incentivizing European scientific investment to remain at home and strengthen those nations' scientific research institutions and grant programs. If the U.S. sees fit to rework its institutions, that's its own business. If funding in the U.S. dries up, then doesn't it make sense to go your own way and seek funding in you…

[deleted]

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#395

Post by tstactplsignore »

scarab92 wrote: post #310
relaxing wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Academics should keep in mind that they rely on the generosity of taxpayers to fund their research. They don’t have an entitlement to other people’s money, and if they are perceived as wasting it or spending in discriminatorily then you should expect the public to become less willing to give it to you.

Voters are overwhelmingly in favor of funding US science. They are overwhelmingly in favor funding US international aid. The public thinks we spend way more on these than we do.

The idea that the blatantly illegal actions by the current administration reflect public will simply isn't based in any kind of reality- just calling it out as a lie.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#396

Post by mikeyouse »

justanotheratom wrote: post #109
SkipperCat wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but this is not the way to go about enacting change. This is just carnage to prepare for tax cuts.

"Turns out that when you taint good programs like disease monitoring by putting them in a bag with all the color revolution funding and censorship and shaking it really hard, people want to burn the shit bag instead of picking out the good bits." - https://x.com/MrKapitalist/status/1886670873618473325 Check this $459 million opaque grant to [Redacted] in Nepal: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_LOGNPL001COM_…

Everything's a conspiracy when you don't know how anything works. The MCC was a extremely well publicized program to build a HVDC line from the hydro dams in Nepal to the Indian border..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_Corporati...

USAID is the American equivalent of China's belt and road initiative and a bunch of incurious dilettantes are tearing it all down.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#397

Post by goatlover »

jcgrillo wrote: post #194
aqueueaqueue wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon can live anywhere in the world. Very rich people are global citizens. They cannot be patriotic.

We allow them to live. Never forget how much we outnumber them by.

We also don't have a hive mind.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#398

Post by logifail »

Spivak wrote: post #385
77pt77 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't know what to tell you, if you think the cuisine available in the US isn't great it's because you aren't looking. The "tossed salad" nature of the country comes out in full force to create a food scene that holds its own against anywhere in the world. Even if you restrict yourself to classic American cuisine the food is still world class. One of my absolute favorite things to do any time a friend from overseas…

> Even if you restrict yourself to classic American cuisine the food is still world class [...]

> [...] said through a mouthful of cheeseburger

> If there's one thing America can do it's cook

FWIW, a variety of other opinions exist :)

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#399

Post by tstactplsignore »

throwawaymaths wrote: post #66

just two days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910829 the problems that led to these frauds are structural --no amount of patching the system will fix this. maybe we should consider the possibility that we are due for a refactor, which is often painful, but especially painful for people (or code) with an entrenched incentive to continue existing. i dont mean to defend what the administration is doing but I…

But the scientific community identified this failure. They published the evidence against it. And shed light here.

And heck, they did a lot of unrelated great science at the same time.

Science is a process that will have failures, mistakes, errors, and these are subject to natural selection. We can work to make that process sharper, more rigorous, but that's obviously not what the administration is doing. They're attacking science with the full intent of replacing it with a system where lies and fraud reign supreme. In the world of RFK and Donald Trump, lies are just what people do every day for breakfast.

RFK Jr. gets a dozen things wrong on science and tells a dozen lies and funds and pals around with major fraudsters and charlatans every week.

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