Sunday, June 22, 2014
On the "Academy"
It, due to the rancid federalization of science/technology, has become little more than a welfare recipient of Washington. Of course, if it was simply that, we could probably live with the thing (much as we live with all of the other wasteful spending) but the cronyism and corruption that have accompanied it have also created a scenario in which both the science and resultant public policy have suffered just as immeasurably; the fact that only certain articles seemingly get funded and published through a broken peer-review process, the fact that the taxpayers are continuously getting scammed with such stupid shit as ethanol and wind, the fact that a moron like Al Gore was somehow able to "earn" a quarter of a billion dollars via the pimping of ludicrous cap and trade policies, etc.. In my opinion, folks, it is well beyond the time that science and government simply went their separate ways.......................................................................................P.S. And, yes, the fact that one of the wisest human beings in the history of the country agrees with me certainly doesn't hurt - "The free university, historically the fountainhead of ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract
becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity....Yet in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become captive of a scientific technological elite. The
prospect of domination by the nation's scholars through Federal employment,
project allocations, and the power of money is ever present - and is
gravely to be regarded." President Dwight Eisenhower, 1961.
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4 comments:
"the fact that a moron like Al Gore was somehow able to "earn" a quarter of a billion dollars via the pimping of ludicrous cap and trade policies, etc"
That's the corrupt, crony-capitalist, socialist game for you. Where people get the money stolen from hard-working people at gunpoint (taxation) by putting forth fictional cases ("Inconvenient Truth") or otherwise lying.
As opposed to capitalism, where the rule is (yes there are exceptions) for people to get money based on their efforts and through cooperating in a mutually beneficial way with others.
Actually, federal R&D funds have been dropping. Take away DOD and NASA research dollars and it is pretty low. There are of course,
pros and cons . For example, private
research dollars are mostly for
applied research, short term things that produce patents and profits. They very much depend on
federally funded basic research.
And yes, the mating habits of the
Tuscaloosa gnat don't seem to warrant big bucks.
Dr Ray Stantz: Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've *worked* in the private sector. They expect *results*.
-Ghostbusters
BB: Is it very different now from this chart, which shows a slight trend to increase in the federal R&D budget through 2007?
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