ladonnapietra.bsky.social
Freelancer writer for Complex.com, The Toast, Lewton Bus, Birth.Movies.Death, /Film, and NTRSCTN.com. Drop, not rolled.
186 posts
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181 following
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...ice cream
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My guess is the pet food situation is going to be what tips people over.
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I would like to see their equivalent of Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops.
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The level of dedication of ABQ drivers to this very thing cannot be overstated.
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Red Tractor in Berkeley. Veggie loaf that hit the precise nexus of pretentious hippie crap and really tasty cafeteria food. I miss it so.
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HCG Hive assemble!
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She doesn't, but there's a lot of dancing around in the woods as Briar Rose with Phillip beforehand. That needle scene is wild, though.
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I could swear it's in Sleeping Beauty.
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I'm pretty sure that's been in at least one classic Disney Princess movie.
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Crimson Tide, too.
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Love Lies Bleeding, definitely.
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The NYT wants you to think universities became dependent on government. This is false.
The government invested in the national research infrastructure by competitive grants to universities. The taxpayers built this. It got us to the moon. Won the Cold War. Created Silicon Valley. Made the McRib.
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IT WAS ALMOST 90 IN ABQ TWO DAYS AGO!!!
(it's coverin' time)
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Much as it pains me to admit it, The Sandman.
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I had this weird memory foam pillow that we called the Bean because of its shape, and it was a game-changer for getting some sleep. Excellent bump support.
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This is also very true.
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To clarify: some sponsored research is in the form of grants, where the end goal is figuring something out in terms of a research question; some is in the form of contracts, where the requirement is to come up with a deliverable. Most federal funding is grants, but not all.
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Another, more accurate way to describe it is that the university has overhead expenses like utilities, admin support, building maintenance, etc. and charges them proportionally to grants, while PIs don't have to worry about paying power bills.
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There's actually a whole category of federal grants that can only be awarded to HBCU/MIs, though I fear for their future existence.
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And why shouldn't it be? The PI has to do the research somewhere, and needs a ton of admin support to ensure audit-proofing.
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That went away about 6 years ago. It's still a limitation at the proposal stage, but PIs can rebudget after the award so long as the scope of work doesn't change: www.nsf.gov/policies/pap...
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They would very definitely not be easier, and they wouldn't be cheaper, but they would certainly increase admin load something awful. The potential for graft also goes up significantly when things like this get siloed off. Interestingly, Trump is a master of just what you're proposing.
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Which is definitely worth thinking about, but trust me: university accountants have already spent decades trying to figure out creative ways to keep things running, especially at state schools. We weren't exactly rolling in cash before this became a threat.
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And I guess we should be grateful; the first Trump admin tried to cap F&A at 10% across all agencies in 2017.
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And as a vendor of the grantee, their costs still have to be auditable and transparent, which is going to mean a whole lot of documentation, which ain't cheap and will get audited. Otherwise I'l just set annual rent for my center at $20M and watch the money flow in.
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That problem = you still can't get any research done, and the Uni still goes broke. And where does the landlord entity get its own admin costs? Somebody has to sign contracts to get the lab roof fixed and create all these monthly rental invoices.
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Even a legally separate entity would still need to calculate rent costs by, I dunno, square feet of Facility space, and also charge for Administrative costs by some formula, possibly resulting in an effective rate of, oh, ~50% of direct costs. Guess what you just reinvented.
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So rent is just a magic number that's arbitraily set and collected by... who, exactly? Trust me: you'll still get audited, and you'll still need to provide a detailed, documented breakdown of costs. Or it will be deemed unallowable and you'll have to eat it.
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No. Only Congress gets to decide what indirect rates federal agencies can accept. However, legality is apparently a minor concern for this administration.
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No, but lots of non-accountants have already had this bright idea. The problem is that "direct" and "indirect" aren't just abstract labels. They really do reflect how costs are generated. Take power costs: you want separate electric bills for each grant?? By room?
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Then the admin costs to run and manage the billing go through the roof. Which still needs to be fixed.
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Most universities currently have an F&A rate of at least 50%. This is funding for research costs like power, lab maintenance, admin support to hire researchers, etc. A rate cut of that size would effectively end sponsored research in the U.S.
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Can highly recommend!
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Er, Baca's.
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Baca Tree Service is really good, though I am not sure if they'll make it out your way.
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Honest Company does!
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Early Girls are what you want, in addition to cherry tomatoes. Do not be tempted by fancy heirlooms until you have a process worked out. The more sun, the better.
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I know someone whose first childhood memory is of that guard tower.
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Genius. Genius!