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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

#841

Post by int_19h »

UncleMeat wrote: post #798
int_19h wrote: post #736

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When this kind of thing happens - and it absolutely does - it's never put in writing. The company training is always going to say what the law requires it to say. But let's say that the top management in your org have made a public commitment to "increase representation of underrepresented groups". The managers in that org are then required, by company policy, to have their own goals be "aligned" with it, so they wri…

Hiring on merit can increase representation of underrepresented groups. There are also shitloads of decisions one can make that increase representation of underrepresented groups without violating Title 7. You can have better parental leave and part-time work policies. Or you can open an office in a region with different racial demographics. Or you can send recruiters to events like Grace Hopper. The idea that leader…

The manager at the bottom who has no-one to pass that bucket to does not have the power to institute "better parental leave and part-time work policies", or "open an office in a region with different racial demographics". Yet they are still held accountable for those commitments.

So what they are going to do is the only thing that they actually have the power to do, which is to favor candidates that, if hired, will check off the right boxes as far as "team diversity" goes on their upcoming mid-year review.

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

#842

Post by int_19h »

rad_gruchalski wrote: post #790
int_19h wrote: post #729

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the personal safety viewpoint, the single best thing you can do as an American today is leave the country. Being working class without much in the way of assets precludes the more lucrative destinations, but there are still many countries out there that are pretty easy to emigrate to, even if quality of life there is lower than what US can offer today.

And where do you go to? Have a look around, most of this planet is screwed up at this point beyond repair.

To any country with a reasonably stable political system and society that is not bitterly divided. Ideally also the one that is not significantly involved in any major geopolitical power struggles, and is self-sufficient when it comes to basics (i.e. can feed itself if needed).

For example, New Zealand.

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

#845

Post by anigbrowl »

damnitbuilds wrote: post #775
anigbrowl wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they didn't. The grant application to study laplacian equations mentioned that they would use some of the funding to broaden the range of scholars who could participate. You can't have DEI in math itself because it's fundamentally abstract. One might as well demand to know why there's any funding larger than that required to run a stationary cupboard because mathematicians famously only need pencil and paper (unli…

[flagged]

I've already explained why that claim makes no sense, and you've made no effort to address that observation.

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

#846

Post by sheepscreek »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #823
sheepscreek wrote: post #822

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“seemed” - past-tense. Before he became VP nominee. He had an arguably strong vocal stance against many things he stands for now. Truly perplexing. You’re both right in basically calling this “opportunistic” or supremely mouldable, perhaps even morally flex and incompetent behaviour. It’s a shame. Still I wonder if post current admin, there is a way these people could still redeem themselves. I want to think that at…

I want to think that at least some are using the new found focus to get shit done for good, perhaps at the expense of looking like puppets or yes men/women (publicly). I imagine a lot of them rationalized their decisions that way, as you suggested earlier. "If I don't take this job with Trump, he'll give it to a corrupt crony or some random nutcase. But if I do take it, I can work for positive change from the inside.…

> If I don't take this job with Trump, he'll give it to a corrupt crony or some random nutcase. But if I do take it, I can work for positive change from the inside. Hmm. I really don't have a choice, do I?

True though, isn’t it? Election has already been won. If you get ostracized from the party, won’t do any good to anyone.

Hmm. Extending that logic, maybe there isn’t a clear right or wrong. Just decisions and consequences. Do what you can and hope for the best. Not a fun way to work (or live).

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

#847

Post by zhivota »

zoklet-enjoyer wrote: post #840
zhivota wrote: post #295

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…

>The second was on the automated stitching of imagery from UAVs for murder applications Fixed that for you

FWIW the application was to send up UAVs after Air Force runways were attacked to isolate exact locations and sizes of damage, to allow for the fastest possible fixes to be made. In these situations, seconds and minutes matter as the planes in the air need a place to land before they run out of fuel.

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

#848

Post by s1artibartfast »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #838
s1artibartfast wrote: post #761

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think their first point is different than just free markets. It was about shifting the locus of control from the government, to the individuals. 1) Instead of having the money taken from you and begging the administration to do what you want, let people decide what they want, and voluntarily collaborate using the tools and organizations they choose. This may be the government or another organization, but the indivi…

You got it right. Republicans want more power in private hands so they decide most things. It's also voluntary as you said. Thanks for the information about Switzerland's local-first model of taxation. That's really interesting. It might help us over here for the exact reasons you said.

As you might expect, they have some of the best infrastructure in Europe, and attribute this partially to the local control. I would be much more willing to vote for infrastructure taxes if they were tied to a specific local project I could see with my else than some nebulous promise.

There is an inverse example in California school spending.

In 1972, California Senate Bill 90 (SB 90), was passed in 1972 to place limitations on using local taxes to fund local schools and centralize school funding at the state level. In 1978, citizens responded by passing now famous Proposition 13 to set statewide limits on property taxes.

SB 90 weakened the link between what property owners paid and the quality of their local schools. This made residents less willing to property taxes and fund schools at all, since they had less say in how the money was spent.

The better school districts in California are now tied to private organizations to get around both SB90 and prop 13. Local parents pay into a non-governmental fund that will purchase buildings and run programs in the schools, allowing their money to stay local.

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

#849

Post by virgildotcodes »

damnitbuilds wrote: post #773
virgildotcodes wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of the fault for the actions of republicans and trump rests on republicans and trump?

Blaming the loons won't help us make sure they don't get elected again. Pointing out to the Dems that they really have to fix themselves will.

Blaming the loons might in fact get people to understand that the loons are the problem and should be kept out of power.

This would help us avoid things like swathes of progressives getting sold on this message that dems are the real problem and subsequently not voting, voting third party, or deciding to support the loons, causing the loons to win.

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

#850

Post by absolutelastone »

erxam wrote: post #530
damnitbuilds wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nevertheless, the sane center, not DEI, not MAGA, is where the Dems have to go to get votes.

The "sane center" is a dying fantasy only kept on life support by the DNC to justify the same old mummies holding on to their last vestiges of power as everything burns down around them. There is no compromise that can be made here. The Democrats spent this past election cycle trying to appeal to 'undecided' 'independent' voters by shitting all over their actual base and presenting policies that appealed to about exa…

The first rule is still to stop digging. Of course you can't spend four years pushing an extremely unpopular position on an issue and expect it to not matter the next day.
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