Everyone needs to understand that dismantling NSF will have devastating long term consequences in our competitiveness and innovation in science, technology and beyond. 1/
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usa weather modeling is dead. The ECMWF European model was already "better" but the usa was closing the gap with new advanced model core. done. going backward. usa entropy.
Weather modeling in the United States is going to be decimated and it is already happening. But these cuts will have a long tail and eventually start to affect areas not normally thought of as "political" like cryptography, cyber defense, materials, battery technology and even, gasp, AI . . .
Take a look at the NSF website (National Science Foundation) and you will see all the vital projects they are working on and you’ll wonder why anyone would want to end it. Scientific knowledge is basic to life. Make sure your reps know this everyday before it ends.
These cuts have nothing to do with merit and everything to do with the fact that this administration considers knowledge and facts a threat. You want do know how NSF decides what to fund? 2/
For 'administration,' substitute 'Thiel, Musk, and Curtis Yarvin.'
And perhaps their enablers, like Zuckerberg and Bezos.
The pinnacle of commercialized STEM in the world, in other words.
The long fixation on 'oil companies' missed a much bigger picture, and cost a lot of time with ideas that never stood up to reality. The nightmare scenario we're in now is a commercialized STEM vs. public STEM crisis. Musk, Thiel et al are really going for it... https://bsky.app/profile/agu.org/post/3looh3udeqe2z
...and they're doing it knowing that everyone who matters knows they're doing it, meaning they think it's going to work.
And the other STEM industry, finance, is on board. Both tech and finance dwarf oil co's in size. Finance is the largest sector of the US economy. https://bsky.app/profile/the-breakdown.bsky.social/post/3loqnc3fzqy2b
First, we spend a few months writing 15 page proposals that explicitly describe the background methods and the benefit to society of the proposed work. We prepare budgets that justify salaries, travel to conferences including costs of every meal. 3/
Work preparing proposals is often unpaid labor. Once we finish writing the proposal, we submit to NSF. NSF then finds 3-6 expert reviewers in the field, send the proposal to them and ask them to find any flaws. 4/
Reviewers will look for flaws and if you have the skills and resources to be successful. They nitpick everything, including if they think that you spent 1k too much sending people to conferences. Reviewers have been to known to criticize your life decisions. 5/
If your proposal passes muster with the external reviewers, NSF assembles a completely different panel of experts that look at all of the proposals that were submitted. Again, they look for flaws and try to mediate when reviewers have different perspectives on proposals. 6/
If your proposal is highly rated by the panel, then it goes up the food chain where they might look at the entire funding portfolio. Are they already funding similar projects? For projects involving fieldwork, can they even support the logistics? 7/
To get an idea of what the 37 existing divisions of NSF do, and what is likely to be lost, see the current NSF web site https://www.nsf.gov/about/directorates-offices#mps But hurry, since this list is apt to disappear at any time.
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usa weather modeling is dead. The ECMWF European model was already "better" but the usa was closing the gap with new advanced model core. done. going backward. usa entropy.
Remember Jan 6?
America was warned!
You saw it with your own eyes!
And perhaps their enablers, like Zuckerberg and Bezos.
The pinnacle of commercialized STEM in the world, in other words.
https://bsky.app/profile/agu.org/post/3looh3udeqe2z
And the other STEM industry, finance, is on board. Both tech and finance dwarf oil co's in size. Finance is the largest sector of the US economy.
https://bsky.app/profile/the-breakdown.bsky.social/post/3loqnc3fzqy2b