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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

#891
post #93

Part of me thinks this is just incompetence. People put in charge to "change" things without knowing what the thing is or does and just randomly mashing buttons.

I contend that there existed too much incompetence across what the government has been funding. I’m looking forward to a ‘change’ for more competence, efficiency, innovation, accountability, etc

>I’m looking forward to a ‘change’ for more competence, efficiency, innovation, accountability, etc

Where do you see that? What accountability is present?

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#892

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not lottery mentality and thinking that it’s equivalent is why Europe isn’t innovating. If someone wins the lottery and gets rich, society isn’t better off. If someone starts a new company that made a cure for some disease and gets rich, society is much better off. You absolutely want to attract people that want to make huge breakthroughs with unlikely odds of success.

Once you get past a few million, you quickly get into "can't possibly spend this money in several lifetimes" territory. And wealth divides like that come at the cost of massive societal wealth divides. The US sustains that high number of people who strike $100 million+ through having a social safety net that barely exists, which results in far more people being seen as completely disposable. It also comes at the cost…

It takes many billions to buy a Twitter, even when Saudi Arabia is footing most of the bill.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#893

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…

Wow so not a single white/chinese/indian male has been funded since 2013? For over a decade? That's an incredible claim. Literally.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#894

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I contend that there existed too much incompetence across what the government has been funding. I’m looking forward to a ‘change’ for more competence, efficiency, innovation, accountability, etc

>I’m looking forward to a ‘change’ for more competence, efficiency, innovation, accountability, etc Where do you see that? What accountability is present?

20% of funding going to study replication is a good start.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#895

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m pretty sure the coup happened in the 1930s when the government created the modern system of unaccountable executive agencies and a Supreme Court, under duress, approved it.

Yeah it’s hard to reconcile a permanent layer of unelected officials, that can’t be sacked by either the President or Congress, with many parts of the constitution. And I’ve never seen a clear explanation of how that change was constitutionally justifiable.

They can be fired, there’s a variety of processes to do so.

The obsession with firing people is this weird narrative the right wingers are always obsessed with. The cognitive dissonance between these high and mighty principles and what our principled republican colleagues have and will do is beyond ridiculous.

Functional government is the goal of any mature stakeholder. We have 100+ years of spoils system that aptly demonstrates why that methodology doesn’t make sense in a modern society.

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#896

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> forced to NOT include == "not being allowed to include" i.e. a restriction on free speech with more worrying implications than "injecting dumb politics"

Compelled speech is far, far, far worse than constricting speech by every conceivable dimension. Even in day to day interaction, forcing someone to be silent, is far more of a gentler 'social action' than forcing someone to speak.

I don't think I agree. What's your reasoning?

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#897
post #893

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…

Wow so not a single white/chinese/indian male has been funded since 2013? For over a decade? That's an incredible claim. Literally.

you know what they're talking about, don't play dumb

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#898

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other big elephant in the room is that the self-appointed wanna-be ruler, Musk, owns companies which have received very large amounts of both government (taxpayer) grants and contracts. Back in 2015, the LA Times reported Musk's companies had received nearly $5 billion in grants. That's taxpayer money. Plus there's the SpaceX contracts--not saying those are unwarranted, certainly SpaceX deserves the contracts mor…

> Back in 2015, the LA Times reported Musk's companies had received nearly $5 billion in grants. Luckily, that is unlikely to happen again. Now, the broligarchs are in power and the LA times has been captured and turned into a propaganda tool.

damn those pesky investigative reporters!

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#899
post #893

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow so not a single white/chinese/indian male has been funded since 2013? For over a decade? That's an incredible claim. Literally.

you know what they're talking about, don't play dumb

I don't know. Can you elaborate?

Re: What's happening inside the NIH and NSF

#900

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…

I'm not disputing your personal experience, but I've worked on numerous science-related NIH grants over the past decade and the vast majority of performers were white (sometimes asian) males (myself included).

> 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.

I'm calling this complete BS.

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