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Private Donor Saves Fermilab

Posted by samzenpus on from the do-particles-fight-terror dept.

sciencehabit writes "In what has to be an embarrasment for the U.S. Department of Energy, an anonymous donor has ponied up $5 million to keep the country's only remaining particle physics laboratory operating efficiently."

8 of 560 comments (clear)

  1. very humbled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm posting AC on purpose, but i'm a karma-whoring regular.

    I work at Fermilab, and everyone i know (and that's a lot of people) is ... overwhelmed and humbled by this gift. A couple people almost cried. It's ... well, it's a real morale booster and at the same time it's humbling. did i mention humbling? wow.

    Thanks a million (x5!) mysterious friend!

    now back to the antimatter and neutrinos...

  2. Re:The sad thing... by mrbluze · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe you can say "well they didn't lobby hard enough to maintain or grow their funding... but it's pretty obvious that science has not been a USA priority for quite some time now.

    I agree with you, but I think the timing of the US's scientific stagnation is also uncanny. It's been several generations since the last influx of extremely bright and educated scientists (and philosophers) from conquered lands. Iraq, I have to say, hasn't netted anything of the sort (with all due respect to Iraqis).

    Is there a problem with the handing on of scientific knowledge in the US? Or is this a reflection of American cultural shortcomings? It seems to me that US culture is too shallow to recognize the importance of free & fair education 'for all'. If you don't provide equal opportunity to every child to excel and prove themselves in academia, then the chances of plucking the brightest from the far reaches of the bell curve diminish.

    I say this knowing full well I'm going to be modded a troll or flaimbait or something.

    --
    Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
  3. Re:Taxes by bondsbw · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Democracy? Since when is America a democracy?

    The problem is that America is not a democracy, and is nothing close. It is virtually guaranteed that:

    • Just under half of Americans do not agree with most of the ideas from their elected representatives
    • Just over half of Americans (the rest) probably don't agree with most of the ideas from their elected representative, but more than the ideas of other candidates
    • Since our representatives disagree with us for the most part, they probably don't care what we think and listen more to money and lobbyists.

    So, because of this "republic" two-party system, we're screwed. We have no real voice.

    --
    All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  4. Re:Small government, private philanthropy by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Bush's faith-based initiatives are only symbolic gestures(tax breaks on donations and whatnot), but having that office still costs money and I'd still rather have that dollar of my taxes go to the EFF instead.

    Some other slashdotter posted a good idea awhile back: That taxpayers should be able to directly allocate their taxes to the issues(and possibly the charities) that they care about, rather then just sending lump sums to the government(who will do what the government, and not necessarily the taxpayer, wants).

  5. Re:The sad thing... by MishgoDog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    An article in an Australian newspaper pointed out that it's costing us more to build a new ticketing system for public transport in Melbourne than it cost to send the Pheonix Lander to mars.
    Quite amusing, really!

  6. Re:The sad thing... by I'll+Provide+The+War · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Look at the US Congress. 60% lawyers, 20% lifetime politicians, 1% scientists and engineers.

  7. Re:The sad thing... by ultranova · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It was (and probably still is) costing more to maintain the damned ticketing system than the ticketing revenue. It would have been cheaper to make public transport free of cost. What a change that would have to Melbourne's smog cloud!

    But making it free would make libertarians and wannabe economists cry out: "Socialism ! Bad ! Why should my tax money support anything, you communist swine ? Free market ! Free market ! Free market !"

    It's politically better to have a wasteful payment system than to give the appearance of being anything but ultra-rightwing free market fundamentalist.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  8. Re:The sad thing... by gregbot9000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Some times mass transit systems can actually increase revenue by lowering prices. The real question is capacity, prices are used as a rationing tool, raise the price to keep people off in accord with capacity, I think mass transit systems should lower prices and try to maximize ridership.