Comments for Unqualified Offerings

Comment on Office politics meets DC politics by Captain Kool-Aid

Captain Kool-Aid — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:32:01 +0000

At this point, I hope we jump off the cliff in the most spectacular way possible. The system is so fundamentally rotten that it cannot be reformed; it can only collapse and be burned away. And the more corrupt institutions that burn during the collapse, the more freedom we will have afterwards. A little Mad Max is good for the soul.

Comment on It didn’t have to be this way, playing games and lost one day (cont.) by world clock

world clock — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:31:19 +0000

It didn’t have to be this way, playing games and lost one day (cont.) § Unqualified Offerings – just great!

Comment on I hear you’re leavin’ town, and that you’re feelin’ down by Nancy Lebovitz

Nancy Lebovitz — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:57:55 +0000

If American ever has too much trouble with China, the solution is to convince the Chinese government that Afghanistan is really Outer Tibet.

Comment on I hear you’re leavin’ town, and that you’re feelin’ down by Mark Z.

Mark Z. — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:25:53 +0000

"It's hard not to think that the goal is to stay until everyone who wants us to leave is dead, at which point we can finally leave."

Comment on Saleh, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu by monster gardener

monster gardener — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:35:18 +0000

Forgot to credit the immediate sources:

AzariLoveIran & Ammanius at OnTheNatureOfThings……

http://www.onthenatureofthings.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=342

Comment on Saleh, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu by monster gardener

monster gardener — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:32:54 +0000

Esteemed Thoreau. Thank you very much for your post and the thread.

You may be right but I am praying that Dr. Assad stays in power…….

For better or worse, Dr. Assad is the protector of the Syrian Christians and AIUI the Christian refugees from Iraq……..

I fear very much that an overthrow of the Alawite Assads will lead to chaos on a grand scale in which the Christians in Syria will be among those who suffer the most………

IMVVHO this almost happened before when the Muslim Brotherhood tried to overthrow Hafez Assad: Christians were among the first that the Muslim Bros began killing.

FWIW here are some links including a Pepe Escobar piece on the current situation:

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NB04Ak01.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29074

Bottom line: Outside powers may be trying to do a repeat of Libya…..

Not contending that Dr. Assad is a good good guy…….. just that he may be better than what may follow…….

IIRC correctly you were very much concerned about the disaster that befell the Iraqi Christians and took Tony Blair to task over it.

I may be wrong and the fall of the Assads could issue in something better, but I wouldn’t bet that way yet…….

Comment on You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. by fyodor

fyodor — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:46:32 +0000

Someone teaching a class I was in somewhere along the way once described the US government as a democratic republic. Always worked for me!

But yeah, words can and do vary widely in meaning and someone else’s use of any particular word pretty much means diddly in and of itself.

If someone uses a word in an ambiguous way and you think it may be worthwhile to engage them, it’s *always* fair to ask them what they mean by it. If their response is that it’s obvious or they don’t think they have to do this, THEN it’s probably better to talk about the weather….

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by hf

hf — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:19:01 +0000

Unusual, and fully agreed that it’s not something one should plan into their career, unless of course they already have such a deal lined up.

But I don’t see anything improper assuming the funding agency has been notified as approves.

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by Thoreau

Thoreau — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:58:51 +0000

Or, even better, a study of whether hormonal changes associated with terminating a pregnancy early leads to an increased or decreased risk of breast cancer.

Comment on I hear you’re leavin’ town, and that you’re feelin’ down by Uncle Kvetch

Uncle Kvetch — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:28:08 +0000

a similar failure of nerve and will

So when we lose it’ll all be YOUR FAULT, Thoreau. You could have clapped harder, but nooooooo…

Comment on I hear you’re leavin’ town, and that you’re feelin’ down by CJColucci

CJColucci — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:02:59 +0000

Unless you’re willing to turn the enemy’s country into a parking lot, a war always ends when the loser says it does. For any war over stakes less than national survival, which, for us, would cover at least everything after WWII, it would be grossly immoral to turn the enemy’s country into a parking lot. What, after all, did the Vietnamese or the Iraqis do to us that would have warranted such brutality? So if they care what thugs run their place more than we care what thugs run their place, and we recognize that what we want doesn’t justify a war of extermination, eventually, we have to leave unsatisfied, and not continue to throw good mkoney after bad. That’s just basic rationality.

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by Thoreau

Thoreau — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:02:17 +0000

Not breast cancer, but the ultimate would be if one was breast cancer research and the other was abortion-related.

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by max

max — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:45:41 +0000

Anyway, I shall reveal in a future post what unique characteristics applied in those 2 situations

If you say it’s somehow related to breast cancer I am going to die laughing.

max
['After I choke.']

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by fish

fish — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:40:58 +0000

It smells pretty stinky and would probably cause some big issues at the big biological funding source.

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by Eli Rabett

Eli Rabett — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:38:23 +0000

Sorry, missed the part about after the grant starts. You would have to ask the program officer for a modification tho. Did that also for summer support and even got a supplement for it tho it was not a slam dunk.

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by Eli Rabett

Eli Rabett — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:35:49 +0000

1. Such things are rare, but Eli has seen them and even was part of a small one. They are usually couched in broader impacts terms. More common is summer support.

2. The overhead is not much of a problem because the sending institution can only charge overhead on the first 25K of a subcontract (total for all years of a grant). It can end up cheaper if the overhead rate at the receiving institution is lower

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by GMP

GMP — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:05:58 +0000

I know three people off the top of my head who received NSF funds to get academic year buy-out, but those were all projects with a significant education or outreach components. Dunno… It probably depends on the directorate.

Comment on I hear you’re leavin’ town, and that you’re feelin’ down by Hugh Akston

Hugh Akston — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:42:34 +0000

Why is everyone still fighting WWII?

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by Thoreau

Thoreau — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:41:12 +0000

I’m aware that the Grant Proposal Guide says that you can request release time. I should say, though, that about a year ago I was at a meeting of scientists from teaching-oriented institutions. We had an NSF program officer giving a presentation. This program officer used to be a professor at a teaching-oriented institution. We asked her about release time, and all of the answers were “Yes, but, keep in mind…” She didn’t explicitly say that it wouldn’t be funded, but the subtext was pretty clear: Think long and hard before requesting it, and if possible get your Dean to agree to reduce your teaching load based on the overhead generated. Multiple people in the audience asked the question every which way, put in all sorts of twists, and the answers kept coming back as “Yes, but, keep in mind…”

Even when it is written on a piece of paper that you can request a resource if you can justify it, whether or not it is justified is decided by human beings acting in accordance with the culture and assumptions of the organization and the community of volunteers who review for it.

Comment on Question for the academic scientists in the audience by GMP

GMP — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:24:14 +0000

I’ve never seen this happen, but I suppose it’s possible. With the NSF funds, you can request that the funds be reallocated; with the permission of the program director, you could in principle use your money to issue a subaward to the other institution, and that money can then be used to cover the collaborator’s salary.

This is not very cost-efficient though, because overhead on subaward gets charged twice — first by the primary institution, then the subaward gets made from the so-called direct costs (after overhead), and then the secondary institution charges its own overhead on the subaward. But if the grants are very large I suppose the don’t feel the sting that much if the collaboration is worth it…

Btw, I know NSF is traditionally not happy to cover release time, but they have recently (as of maybe 2 years ago) started allowing it because all other agencies do…