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We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

theguardian.com

571–580 of 606 posts

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read my first Stephen King novel in grade 6. That seems to me more than sufficient aptitude for reading the things an average person needs to read to get through life.

Was it assigned to you in school? Just because you read something in the sixth grade doesn't mean it was written at a 6th grade level.

The assignment was to read lots, and lots of 6th graders read Stephen King, because that was the cool thing to do. The size of a typical Stephen King novel is intimidating but the writing is usually straightforward and clear.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#572
America had the best talent, because they grew there own, from the best educated and funded research institutions and paid them well, and there were many large companys founded and run by engineers and scientists. Also they educated foriegn students, the brightest of the bright who were happy to stay and contribute as it was by far the best personal option to stay and enjoy the results of high tech society, safe, clean, prosperous......sane. Now there are more better options everywhere else, and as america is very strongly tilted towards maximum profit at any cost to society,so they are getting a lot of people comming who think thats great, and have lots of ideas and energy to put into maximising the money, now, right this very second, more money!,aaaaaand now,more!

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#573
post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chinese engineers clearly have no problems building specific, technical things; just like Chinese surgeons have no problems carrying out specific, technical surgeries, etc. So how is the language "strictly less technical and specific"? Can you give specific and technical examples?

It's not related to Chinese in specific, but in civilian air traffic, the lingua franca is specifically English[0]. The reason for this is because other languages leave too much room for interpretation. One incident not mentioned in that page that's worth bringing up is Korean Air Flight 801; the crew recognized an issue with the instruments quite a bit before the crash, but because the flight crew essentially was to…

It's just that pilots have no capacity left to be fluent in every languages everywhere. You don't avoid ambiguity speaking in the second language in a critical situation, you just incur significant responsiveness plus bandwidth penalty.

There are few recordings of aircraft emergencies over Japan on YouTube. Two obvious things in those recordings are that local pilots drop pretense of speaking Engurish in almost any non-normal conditions, and that local ATCs are dangerously useless outside of normal conditions. There's nothing visibly helpful from using English in there.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Say what you want about Sapir-Whorf, but it's just the reality that translation of anything to anything is generally gibberish . It's just a fact. The more literal it gets, the less coherent it will be. A complete word-for-word "translation" is just garbage out. Was that Chinese text actually being ambiguous, or was that translations you were given being nonsensical/having so much context errors? The latter is kind o…

This is only true when one has a near autistic level of specificity required to make sense of anything.

But you were, sort of, accusing Chinese language as being an illogical and primitive amateur language. That's an extraordinary claim, with such absurd notions as "rote surgery" thrown as a side. It's more likely that you were just confused about what a language is than such claim being valid.

Chinese textbooks for University quantum physics are written in Chinese. They don't like, switch to English after high school or something. And they do in fact do brain surgeries and fly manned rockets. The language is obviously fine as it is.

The likely core of the problem you had encountered is that, languages are algorithms of thoughts, contrary to whatever Chomsky guy might have told you, and a language is only coherent within itself, and you weren't aware of that. A piece of Chinese text taken out of context and words displaced with that English used in similar manners, don't necessarily make sense. Rest assured you'd be far from alone with conflating lack of coherency of someone not from US trying to speak English with their lack of IQ, that's a common sight, but that doesn't mean a language you don't speak is inferior to yours.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me neither, and same! I have no idea, but many keep supporting him through all of the above. So what would make them stop? I hope you're right, but it's not looking good so far :/

Let me put your mind at ease, the version of US politics you think is happening is just a mirage. As in it doesn't exist. Real US politics doesn't take place in the media anymore. Its all just propaganda now. Trump is a terrible statesman, but he is nothing like what is described by the media nor anything you mentioned in any real way nor are current events in any way unique or different from how the US functions nor…

the difference between a prison and a concentration camp isn't the facility, but the prices by which people are brought there. Previous administrations deported people, but they deported people who were in the country illegally, as opposed to grad students who published op-eds disagreeing with the administration, refugees who entered the country legally and properly followed the asylum process, and US citizens.

Incarceration without process is not normal in the US or in any functioning democracy.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only true when one has a near autistic level of specificity required to make sense of anything.

But you were, sort of, accusing Chinese language as being an illogical and primitive amateur language. That's an extraordinary claim, with such absurd notions as "rote surgery" thrown as a side. It's more likely that you were just confused about what a language is than such claim being valid. Chinese textbooks for University quantum physics are written in Chinese. They don't like, switch to English after high school…

I think you're assuming a lot of nonsense here out of some sort of insecurity or obsession with your pet theory.

Chinese is different, more contextual and metaphorical, requiring more 'fuzzy' linguistics to say the same thing.

Thats its... thats all. And I challenge anyone who works across china and US like I do to not agree. Beyond that you're just going off on your own made up missions of stupidity. Really re-read your train of thought and think about how wandering nonsense it becomes with assumed things I didn't say.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strict police does sound quite a bit less bad than fascist police...

You have to know very little about China to think that it is somehow more favorable to foreigners and minorities than the US. What the US does is bad, but somehow Americans think that means everywhere else is better.

I know that China is an authoritarian near-dictatorial country that oppresses minorities and commits cultural genocide. And I am not an American.

That does not seem to be all that related to the original post I was answering to. An average person / citizen / visitor has way less to worry about around (trained) Chinese police than they have to worry about around an (gangster) American ICE agent.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#578
post #373

The article provides absolutely no data to support any claims of a brain drain away from America, towards Europe or anywhere else. You’d think they would have found evidence if there was any. So after reading this, my prior on substantial numbers of researchers moving to Europe has gone down. There is an obvious plausible reason why there might not be much brain drain to Europe: salaries are much lower there, because…

> You’d think they would have found evidence if there was any. Maybe somebody closed all public scientific databases, all government science webs, and harassed or fired thousands of scientists. That would explain the lack of public scientific data. > salaries are much lower there, because Europe is poorer. Salaries are just a number and should be always taken in the context of coast of living. Europe is diverse, with…

Again, do you have any evidence, from any source - European or American, government or other - that academics are moving to Europe from the US in greater numbers than before?

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#579
post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to know very little about China to think that it is somehow more favorable to foreigners and minorities than the US. What the US does is bad, but somehow Americans think that means everywhere else is better.

I don’t know but I and my friends still visit China regularly, but not the US anymore, because we have no clue what’s the expectation there to not be in a jail for weeks. I have quite clear idea what the expectation in China, but not the US. Maybe there is something to it.

China is great for visitors, especially lighter skinned visitors. You probably won’t go to jail in China unless you have a thing for drinking a lot in Chinese bars, even then you will probably be ok as long as you don’t pick any fights.

Illegal immigration really isn’t a thing in China beyond a few North Koreans in Dongbei and a few Laotians in Yunnan. So they just won’t assume you are an illegal immigrant.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't want there to be good schools that some people can get into and and garbage schools for everyone else. What you need is a high minimum standard that every last school in the nation has to adhere to and it shouldn't be possible to graduate from any of them without being able to read at grade level.

Yeah, actually you do. What you think Ivy Leagues don't exist? (even though they're crap now because they DEI'd everything)

They're a good example of why we shouldn't have that. It wasn't DEI that made them crap it was letting people buy their way in and shifting the focus from education to networking for nepo-babies. George W. Bush is a prime example of a massively uneducated idiot who had no problems getting accepted to and graduating from Ivy Leagues.
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