Scientists Waste Our Money

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davesmith_au
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Scientists Waste Our Money

Unread post by davesmith_au » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:24 pm

3/09/08 ~ Dave Smith

Supercomputers Come Up With Nothing - Again!

What is happening in science today? How many times are we going to read of the lauded success of finding nothing!!? The failure of some of the "greatest" simulations and experiments devised, are being sold to us as successful with the use of logical fallacies which no-one seems to question any more. The more I see this the more I suspect that many in academia are taught to "learn", rather than taught to "think". And we the sheeple are told everything's OK in Learningland. Take for example, the following headline from ScienceDaily March 3rd:

Supercomputer Confirms Standard Model Theory Of The Universe, Deepens Puzzle... [more...]
"Those who fail to think outside the square will always be confined within it" - Dave Smith 2007
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Tina
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Re: Scientists Waste Our Money

Unread post by Tina » Sun Mar 16, 2008 9:10 pm

One project that is a poential waste of money is the ITER fusion reactor...

This article link speaks of USA Gov decision to reduce funding towards the project.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/feb08/5980

An amount of A$16.7 billion was earmarked for initial construction and operation of the ITER Project. What are your feelings on this matter?

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davesmith_au
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Re: Scientists Waste Our Money

Unread post by davesmith_au » Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:16 pm

Giday Tina, and welcome back (fellow Aussie if I remember correctly?).

That's an awful sum of money for something which may only produce for a few minutes at a time isn't it? I mean, if the technology were proven, and they were making a working power station, then in the grand scheme of things perhaps it would be a reasonable investment. But to build a huge 'toy' for billions, when they don't have their prototoys working properly is potentially a huge waste of funds.

Which all goes to highlight the plight brought up by the blog article, in some cases obscene funding is wasted on unproven theories, while some of the more meritorious alternatives go begging. I think it's an issue lots of 'ordinary folk' should start jumping up and down about. It is after all, mostly OUR money they like to waste...

Cheers, Dave Smith.
"Those who fail to think outside the square will always be confined within it" - Dave Smith 2007
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What_is_that
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Re: Scientists Waste Our Money

Unread post by What_is_that » Wed May 07, 2008 12:57 pm

I thought this was somewhat fitting to the topic:
http://xkcd.com/401/

I found it pretty funny. While I don't think the Large Hadron Collider is a complete waste, as I imagine they'll find some interesting things with it, some of what they hope to find is probably pure fiction.

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Vek
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Re: Scientists Waste Our Money

Unread post by Vek » Sun Jul 06, 2008 12:19 pm

Surely the humans shall soon wake to the lie of gravity. They always knew Einsteins thoughts were wrong, this was one for the masses only. Gravity is just a shadow from incoming forces at the higher end of the spectrum which arrives from all sides.
"You will see that when the filters are cleared, that we are all connected.
This is just the way it is."
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