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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
 Posted - 05/25/2001 : 00:11:25
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Subj: Message from APS Office of Public Affairs
Date: Tuesday/May/22/2001
From: opa@aps.org
FIRST BUDGET ALERT F2002
TO: American Physical Society Members
FROM: George H. Trilling, APS President
The congressional budget resolution, passed recently by both houses of
Congress, mirrors the presidential discretionary spending totals and
would cut much of science sharply. Including a 3 percent inflation
rate, here are the numbers contained in the presidential request:
> NSF: Research and Related Activities would be cut nearly 4 percent.
Excluding the Frontiers Centers, Physics would be cut nearly 13
percent. Materials Science would be cut almost 8 percent. All new
construction projects would be zeroed out.
> DOE: SLAC and FermiLab would receive increases in the operations
budgets and the Spallation Neutron Source would be fully funded.
However, university research in high-energy would decline by about 8
percent and in nuclear physics by more than 7.5 percent. Running time
at RHIC would drop by 25 percent, and $10 million in construction
funding for the LHC would be deferred until next year. Renewable
Energy Resources, Nuclear Energy and Conservation would be cut by
more than 30 percent.
This budget plan will stick unless the scientific community responds.
Congressional appropriators have begun to develop final agency numbers
and will complete their task over the coming weeks. In the Senate,
several key advocates have already begun to work the aisles on behalf
of science. It is imperative that scientists, themselves, reinforce
their message by contacting all senators immediately. House action
is still premature.
The information below can help you effectively voice your concern.
Phone calls and letters are effective; e-mails and faxes are often
ignored.
ACTION:
Senators Kit Bond (R-MO) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) are circulating
a letter among their colleagues that calls for increasing the NSF
budget substantially:
http://www.aps.org/public_affairs/issues/budget1.shtml
Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) are circulating
a letter calling for increases for the DOE's Office of Science:
http://www.aps.org/public_affairs/issues/budget2.shtml
If you believe that more funding is justified, as I do, please urge
your senators to sign onto these two bipartisan advocacy letters.
If one of your senators is an Appropriator (if so, this will be
indicated with an asterisk), please write a separate letter directly
urging increased funding for NSF and DOE's Office of Science.
If you are running Internet Explorer, you can use the APS web-based
congressional communications site to draft your letter:
http://www.aps.org/public_affairs/issues/budget.shtml
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR YOUR SENATORS:
** Sen. Larry E. Craig
520 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-2752
Sen. Mike Crapo
111 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-6142
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
 Posted - 05/25/2001 : 00:54:54 [Permalink]
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Sort of expected this. I like to read Bob Park's "What's New" on Fridays. He's been halfway predicting this. The current administration is anti-science, but mention anything "faith based" and they want to practically throw money at it. That really sucks about the RHIC. I'd been following it (okay as much as I can) and I've found the work they're doing to be facinating. Maybe they should tell Shrub they pray really really hard every morning....
Lisa
Who do you serve? Who do you trust? |
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Boron10
Religion Moderator
USA
1266 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 01:53:42 [Permalink]
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This is the type of thing we all need to protest. The Bush administration is trying to remove funding from most of the scientific research. (This is the part where I shamefully beg) Please, write to your Representatives and protest this impediment to the advancement of knowledge.
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heretic
New Member
1 Post |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 12:31:04 [Permalink]
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Not at all surprised by this, it fits in perfectly with the modern day feudal system that is taking over our society. This is about more than research funding, it's really about education. If you prevent aquisition of new knowledge at the top, you prevent it everywhere. In the days of the classic feudal system the king, feudal lords and the church all worked hard to prevent education (knowledge) since it leads to critical thought processes and questions that the power crowd doesn't want to answer. We have pretty much the same situation in the U.S. today; The government has taken the place of the king, large corporations are the equivalent of the feudal lords and political correctness (including religious aspects) has taken over for the church. The last thing these groups want are well educated, knowledgable citizens who question the validity of the information (propaganda) spewed by said groups and science in particular is the area of critical examination of information.
Sadly, I think we can expect more and more of this type of thing.
P.S. I trust I don't need to state which people are the current equivalent of peasants.
Edited by - heretic on 05/25/2001 12:32:55 |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 14:37:02 [Permalink]
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My husband and I were IMing back and forth this morning, discussing the energy crunch, and you're not gonna believe what the said. Yep, repeated the "drill more" argument. Now I see what Shrub & Co is doing. Repeat something often enough, loudly enough, and with enough conviction, and people will go for it. I mean why do any research on your own? I sent him a link to APS and suggested he start reading Bob Park's "What's New". He had no idea what I meant by the science cut backs in the budget. Now if I could just get him to quit believing everything he sees on TLC and DISC...
Lisa
Who do you serve? Who do you trust? |
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@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 14:43:12 [Permalink]
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I still don't see how drilling for more oil generates electricity. I was under the impression that we could still buy oil if needed. Am I wrong or is there a need for some sort of power generator to put the oil into? The President is obviously a smarter man than I am. He must have some secret power generators or something he'll suprise us all with. It'd sure look silly to have all this oil stack up with nothing to put it into.
@tomic
Gravity, not just a good idea...it's the law! |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 15:29:31 [Permalink]
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They're other argument (echo'd by my husband) is "let's build more nuclear power facilities!" Wellll, okay. I don't think our grandkids will thank us when they're trying to figure out what to do with all the waste. Not to mention the "not in my backyard" mentality. This is what makes the science cut backs all the more devastating. The very people who are willing and capable to provide us with solutions are having to work with their hands tied.
Lisa
Who do you serve? Who do you trust? |
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Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 16:15:12 [Permalink]
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Just this minute came back from the main branch of the San Francisco library. I thought that this would be a good time to catch up on my "skeptic" reading. So I brought the BOOKS page from the back of Skeptic Magazine along and typed one title after another into the library's catalog terminal. Every last one came back as < MISSING >. I thought this odd so I asked the (human) Librarian about it. She said that they were going to have a late fee amnesty in the hopes of getting some of their books returned. I said that it was strange that every book on a given subject was missing. Did she think something was going on? All she said in reply was that all the books on evolution have gone missing too.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Edited by - slater on 05/25/2001 16:16:50 |
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@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 16:19:33 [Permalink]
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Ugh! That is pathetic!! Mind you, I wouldn't miss the Bible if all of them disappeared, but I don't play that way.
@tomic
Gravity, not just a good idea...it's the law! |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 16:40:05 [Permalink]
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Slater, I read your post and actually felt a chill. This is scary. Are you going to follow up on this? If so, can you keep us posted? Reminds me of that creationists literature that advocates going to libraries and damaging "offensive" books. Glueing pages together if they mention evolution, taking razor blades to books, etc. Very very scary!
Lisa
Who do you serve? Who do you trust? |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 18:37:06 [Permalink]
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That is scary turn of events. Gee, guess I'm gonna go to my library and check a on few books I've been meaning too. Can't the library figure out who has which books? Now the real question is, Is this organized by some group that has issues with these books or are they just checked out and not returned?, before we start jumping to conclusions.
Spinnin' my wheels and gettin' no where - fast |
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rubysue
Skeptic Friend
USA
199 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 20:16:43 [Permalink]
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A very scary thought - check out the stuff you don't like at the public library and never bring it back. What is it about fundies that makes them so scared of knowledge? Are the foundations of their religion so weak that they must resort to sabotage and theft of ideas that violate their dogma? Unbelievable!
As to the original post about the cuts in science budget (gnashing of teeth), here's where the money went (read it and weep!). Yup - $43 million to the Taleban government, that model of a true theocratic society:
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20010522/t000042732.html
rubysue
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bestonnet_00
Skeptic Friend
Australia
358 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2001 : 22:24:47 [Permalink]
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Putting the US in the dark ages.
That way a country with less religious freaks can take their place.
Maybe it wont be so bad afterall.
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Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2001 : 14:05:38 [Permalink]
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quote:
This is what makes the science cut backs all the more devastating. The very people who are willing and capable to provide us with solutions are having to work with their hands tied.
It is embarrassing at my age to admit that there are still matters sexual that I am confused about. Perhaps you people can help me.
Why is getting a blow job from an intern an impeachable offense while fucking the entire nation is not?
----
When the dead talk -- they talk to him |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2001 : 14:43:27 [Permalink]
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43 millions dollars. Right. And they're going to use it for food. Okay. Can I see a show of hands of everyone who's buying this? What's wrong? Why are you all just sitting there?
Lisa
Who do you serve? Who do you trust? |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2001 : 20:18:49 [Permalink]
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Oh yeah, I'm buying that an Anti-US regime is going to use 43 mil from the US for crops. Ack, ack, ack, nasty hairballs!
Ok Lisa, the onus is on you, what can we do? How can we get the shrub to back off this issue?
BTW, am composing a letter to send off on this issue to my reps. Will post when complete! Please feel free to copy for your own uses.
Spinnin' my wheels and gettin' no where - fast |
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