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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

#451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought HN User burnte was being hyperbolic in the assertions that post put forth. Then I read a few articles. sigh. I mean, I guess we'll try to find competent and sane leaders again in 4 years. I don't know? There's not much else we can do at this point if this is the level of irrationality you're dealing with. I'll add in way of explanation to non-US citizens that in the US, we've always had a fixation on certai…

> I mean, I guess we'll try to find competent and sane leaders again in 4 years. I don't know? There's not much else we can do at this point if this is the level of irrationality you're dealing with. There are absolutely not going to be free and fair elections 4 years from now. People really need to start preparing for this reality.

> There are absolutely not going to be free and fair elections 4 years from now.

That's overly alarmist. The one thing the US has going for it when it comes to elections is that they are run by the states, not by the federal government, which insulates them from a lot of possible election meddling.

Things like the SAVE Act are incredibly concerning, though. It's unclear if the worst provisions of it are even constitutional, but it's also unclear if SCOTUS will actually do the right thing if SAVE gets passed.

And certainly people are going to end up being disenfranchised, regardless of what happens, and of course more of them will be left-leaning voters. Higher voter turnout tends to give the GOP worse electoral results; they know this, so they focus on voter suppression. It's disgusting.

So yes, I think we should be worried, but your statement is overly alarmist and not helpful.

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

#452

I worked at two National Laboratories, Argonne and Idaho, on NSF funded internship grants. The second one turned into a full time job, again on an NSF grant. The first one was on supercomputing, writing proof of concept code for a new supercomputing operating system (ZeptoOS). The second was on the automated stitching of imagery from UAVs for military applications (at a time when this was not commoditized at all, we…

> I don't know how to describe what's happening here, but it's really, really stupid.

It's just a cynical game to get the highest tax cuts for their buddies and sponsors.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/05/08/congress/jo...

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

#453

I worked at two National Laboratories, Argonne and Idaho, on NSF funded internship grants. The second one turned into a full time job, again on an NSF grant. The first one was on supercomputing, writing proof of concept code for a new supercomputing operating system (ZeptoOS). The second was on the automated stitching of imagery from UAVs for military applications (at a time when this was not commoditized at all, we…

I don't know how to describe what's happening here You can describe it as a deliberate and very successful attack by America's enemies, because that's what it is.

What’s in it for people like the current Trade and Treasury Secretaries, heck even the V.P? In their previous lives, they seemed levelheaded - yet here we are.

Is it just pure selfishness, “if I don’t do it, someone else will” mentality?

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

#455
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They sent one to the municipality of Stockholm. The majority leader in Stockholm responded by suggesting they could just turn off the water and sewer system for the embassy :P

I thought HN User burnte was being hyperbolic in the assertions that post put forth. Then I read a few articles. sigh. I mean, I guess we'll try to find competent and sane leaders again in 4 years. I don't know? There's not much else we can do at this point if this is the level of irrationality you're dealing with. I'll add in way of explanation to non-US citizens that in the US, we've always had a fixation on certai…

No, you need to think about how to participate in street politics and explore legal avenues to throw sand in the gears of the economy. If you're represented by a Republican especially, you need to pester them regularly with complaints so they know that loyalty to the administration is going to exact an increasingly high price on their political future. Passively sitting things out until your ~biannual voting opportunity is about the worst thing you can do.

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

#456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

"If it's not ideologically aligned it won't get funded." As I show elsewhere in this thread, the previous administration forced applicants to include irrelevant DEI language in grant applications.

If you really think that's the same thing, I'm not sure what to tell you. Your ability to compare situations and evaluate consequences is completely broken.

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

#457

I worked at two National Laboratories, Argonne and Idaho, on NSF funded internship grants. The second one turned into a full time job, again on an NSF grant. The first one was on supercomputing, writing proof of concept code for a new supercomputing operating system (ZeptoOS). The second was on the automated stitching of imagery from UAVs for military applications (at a time when this was not commoditized at all, we…

Preach! It even touched high-schoolers. I got a high school internship on an NSF grant to study ground penetrating radar for landmine detection. It was my first exposure to Maxwell's equations, Unix, networking, and most importantly how real research gets done. I took away lifelong management and research mores, a love of Unix, and ended up getting my degree in EE. These cuts will have huge follow-on costs that we ca…

Yeah but those problems will happen under a democratic president and that will allow republicans to blame them

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

#458

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"

Not in my field of engineering. Don't confuse China in 2005 with China today.

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

#459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The focus is robbing the treasury to give tax breaks to the rich.

Trump said yesterday he wants to raise taxes on people earning over $2.5MM[1] People on the left are going to be caught totally flat-footed if they don't pull their head out of their bubble. Trump is a populist president. He was elected by working class individuals and so far he has shown every intent of following through for them. People on the left don't recognize it because they don't recognize the tools that righ…

I don't particularly care about anything Trump says. He says a lot of things. A lot of what he says is just outright lies. A lot of what he says is just to make a particular audience happy at a particular point in time, and ends up having little relation to any actions he ends up taking. Even when it seems likely that something he says is something he actually wants to do, he'll walk it back in a heartbeat and pretend the opposite was his position all along, if he believes doing so will make him look better.

What actually matters is what he does. And nothing that he has done suggests to me that he will actually push for tax increases on the rich. It would be great to be proven wrong here, but I'm not holding my breath.

(Regardless, Trump can't raise taxes on anyone. Congress does that. On tax policy, it's not clear that even the MAGA fools in Congress will play ball if it upsets the rich people in their states.)

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

#460
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're even sending letters to foreign governments "ordering" them to cut all DEI programs. OTHER GOVERNMENTS. Insanity.

I can only find a source in Norwegian, but this is quite a funny situation. US embassy demanded that local utility providers agree to not have any DEI policies. The utility providers ignored that request. https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/3M35qq/hafslund-celsio-trosser-k...

Should have cut the power off instead.
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