On Thu, 9 Dec 2010 02:38:15 -0800, "azotic"
wrote:

?The incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives has
selected the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the first target for a
"YouCut Citizen Review", in which ordinary Americans are being asked to
identify "wasteful spending that should be cut".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=LSYTS-nRt4o

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/sh...lay-judge.html

Fraudsters in academia may have to get real jobs.

Best Regards
Tom.

I find this very disturbing. One real problem is that the average
person does not think that basic research is useful. Which it
isn't... at the time it's done. Basic research helps us to understand
how matter/life/the universe works. And basic research almost always
pays off...in the long run.

A side effect of such a review: scientists writing proposals will
find ways to describe their research that border on fraud. They will
attempt to make the research sound like more than it really is.

There's a similar situation in almost every area of metalworking. Guy
Lautard referred to one such in one of his books. A person brings in
a big chunk of CRS and asks to have it planed down to make a
straightedge. The person does not understand the first thing about
what cold working does to steel. When the piece is unbolted from the
planer, it twists up like a pretzel because of released stresses. Only
then does the person realize that the machinist KNEW WHAT HE WAS
TALKING ABOUT.

If average citizens are going to make decisions about the utility of a
scientific project, those citizens must demonstrate the ability to
read and understand the refereed scientific literature. Otherwise
we're inserting a serious problem into the process.
--
Best -- Terry
PS: My personal view---worth what you paid for it---is that we should
go to the area(s) where the most money is being spent, to find
wasteful spending. It is most likely that cuts in that spending will
be most fruitful. But that's just my opinion.