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Government Shutdown is Putting a Damper on Science in Seattle and Elsewhere (geekwire.com)
It's been called the "Super Bowl of Astronomy," but when the American Astronomical Society's winter meeting plays out in Seattle this week, some of the stars won't be taking the field. From a report: The AAS meeting is just one of the scientific endeavors diminished by the partial government shutdown in Washington, D.C., which entered its 17th day today. NASA representatives, and researchers whose travel would typically be funded by NASA, have had to cancel their plans to be in Seattle due to the tiff involving the Trump administration and Republicans on one side, and Democrats on the other.
The shutdown affects only a quarter of the federal government -- which means that the Defense Department and the Energy Department can continue research and development activities. Work continues as well at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and at the National Institutes of Health. But most employees at NASA as well as at the Agriculture Department, the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service are on furlough. Further reading: National Parks Face Years of Damage From Government Shutdown.
The shutdown affects only a quarter of the federal government -- which means that the Defense Department and the Energy Department can continue research and development activities. Work continues as well at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and at the National Institutes of Health. But most employees at NASA as well as at the Agriculture Department, the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service are on furlough. Further reading: National Parks Face Years of Damage From Government Shutdown.
Why are you on Slashdot, if you hate science this much?
"Hating" science is not the same thing as disagreeing with how it is funded. Something is wrong with our society when space science funding is suspended because of a political disagreement over "The Wall". It is hard to imagine two things that should be more unrelated.
Not necessarily. I worked on an experiment at Fermilab for a few years during a period when FNAL had furloughs (IIRC due to surprise budget cuts) and their employees were not even allowed to turn up to the office on their furlough days under threat of discipline (although to be honest I think it was more bark than bite). I thought it was rather bizarre at the time because they had no problem working weekends but apparently furloughs were not the same. This just goes to show that when dealing with government regulations in unusual circumstances common sense is not a good guide.
I can't possibly imagine why Trump supporters aren't infuriated at being asked to pay for a wall that he repeatedly promised he wasn't going to make the American taxpayers pay for.
And the answer is to decentralize the funding sources.
That is one solution.
Another is to create endowments for basic science, so funding is not buffeted by every political tantrum.
Yet another solution would be to ban peacetime deficit spending, so that the proposed wall would require an immediate tax increase.