Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

science.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

871–880 of 1001 posts

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#871

Post by khazhoux »

Sharlin wrote: post #509
khazhoux wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're misrepresenting. His side won, and now they get to do what they want. It's always that way, no? Like, isn't that the point of an election?

You’re describing an autocracy, a dictatorship. Of course they aren’t allowed to do what they want, there’s supposed to be this thing called the rule of law, "checks and balances", separation of powers, any of that ring a bell? Plus a two-party system is a fundamentally malignant example of democracy, not to even mention the crazy amount of power the POTUS has compared to well-functioning democracies.

I didn't mean "do what they want" as in ignoring law.

I meant "do what they want" as in: the winning party gets to choose the policy. The winning party can ignore the will of the losing party.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#873

Post by Gabriel54 »

jimkleiber wrote: post #593
Gabriel54 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unethical race-based preferences is what those policies have been trying to fix. I understand that that is the stated intention. I also believe they are racist and discriminatory. > Not sure you’re aware of this, but academia used to be basically off-limits to anyone not white and male. I also understand this. And now it is not. What is the point here?

Not the OP, but I believe any distribution of limited resources could be seen as inherently discriminatory or racist or classist or whatever ist one wants. If there is only 1 job but 10 candidates, the job has to go to someone. If everyone has the same scores on an exam, what's the fair way? Flip a coin? Perhaps. What if there are intangible skills/knowledge that are important for the job? One person has a better sco…

In academia, there are more qualified people than positions, on an extreme level in fact. I agree, we have to distinguish people. We must distinguish on intangible characteristics sometimes. Suppose I am hiring for a position in an department and there are three finalists. They are all extremely qualified. What is an acceptable way to distinguish people? "Alice was more thoughtful and well-spoken during than Bob and Charlie, I believe she will make a better colleague and mentor to our undergraduates. I suggest we accept her." Compare with the following. "Alice is a black, homosexual, woman unlike Bob and Charlie, who are white, presumably homosexual men. Our university has a stated DEI policy promoting the acceptance of more women and BIPOC faculty. Therefore we should admit Alice." Do you see the difference?

We do not need to enter a deep philosophical debate about what is "merit" and its many dimensions. I agree with you, it's complicated. But the issue is universities are explicitly discriminating and ranking candidates and students on the basis of DEI factors. We know this because, as in the CU case I have linked to already in other comments, their very own notes say so! This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#874

Post by Xelynega »

Gareth321 wrote: post #647
tstactplsignore wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 unme…

> This is simply a delusion detached from reality. I am a white man in STEM academia. I've never been discriminated against once. This is demonstrably false. Harvard and many other universities recently lost a Supreme Court case due to persistent racial discrimination over decades ( https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/jun/29/us-supreme-court... ). Whites and especially Asians were methodically discriminated against…

Why are so many people saying "Asians and whites were discriminated against" and pointing to this case?

The judges ruled that the program was unconstitutional and had to be changed, not that Harvard had been illegally discriminatory in their admission practices(as was attempted years prior by the same conservative funded activism group)

Just because you personally see racism, doesn't mean it's actually happening(aka, "facts don't care about your feelings")

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#875

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…

> Allowance for emergency payments to keep the lights on

This article notes that some federally-funded nonprofits "couldn’t access funds to make payroll": https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5115026-white-house-fund...

People rely on their paycheck to pay bills! If anyone stops getting their paycheck, that's not "keeping the lights on". Do you agree that any "review" mustn't prevent anyone from receiving their paycheck?

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#876

Post by __dkh »

_l2po wrote: post #868

> "Elon Musk has said recently that his goal is to have no regulations at all" Is there a source for this? I ask because this concern me.

It was on a Twitter space, it seems - picked up by a few outlets at the time but, I think, lost in the general insanity of the last 2 weeks

One source: https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-eliminate-regulation...

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#877

Post by muaytimbo »

It's past time these institutions were audited. I had an NSF fellowship and was on numerous NIH grants during my PhD work (Chemist). All of them, even in 2013, had DEI language that made it clear if you were a white/chinese/indian male you were not going to be funded. The institutions, already, were self sabotaging, doling out tons of taxpayer money, not to the best ideas, but to labs that had a few women of various colors other than white working in them. It pushed me and almost all of the other chemists (who were generally white/chinese/indian males) in my class to leave the field either after our PhD or post-doc.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#878

Post by Bhilai »

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 think that might be an implicit goal here. With antics around H1B, birthright citizenship, general worsening sentiment against "people who dont look white" and "experts bad, podcasters good" its probably worth while for researchers, scientists and professors to start looking elsewhere outside of the US.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#879

Post by Gareth321 »

albedoa wrote: post #804
Gareth321 wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can call a democratically elected president doing what he promised to do a coup.

That doesn't pass even the simplest examination. What if the thing that the democratically elected president promised to do was a coup?

It still wouldn't make sense. A democratically elected president conducting a coup is a tautology. He can't suddenly seize power by force because he already has it. You could be worried about him refusing to cede power at the end of his term, and should that occur, with the use of the military, you could describe that as a coup. We are many years away from that word making sense.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#880

Post by anon84873628 »

drivebyhooting wrote: post #236
softwaredoug wrote: post #206

The big thing is this isn't really about any real monetary savings. What we get out of these budgets is a bargain: > The biggest single share of the NIH budget goes to the NCI ($7.8 billion in 2024), and the second-most to the NIAID ($6.5 billion) with the National Institute of Aging coming in third at $4.4 billion. (See the tables on numbered pages 11 and 46 of that link at the beginning of the paragraph for the det…

Social security and Medicare are inexpugnable liabilities.

Gee, I'm still waiting for these proclaimed anti-socialists & anti-marxist to kill the most obviously socialist programs in the country.
Post reply on HN