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40 Years of Appeasement equals 40 Years Wasted

 

Hi Jim,


Great column this week.  I fully agree that many scientists have become grant writers as this is the only way they get funds to "do" their work.

Years ago (1980's and early 1990's), we used to use a program at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to get funding to assist clients in developing countries do project feasibility studies.  Funding applications were prepared and submitted by Canadian consultants.  In the mid 1990's, CIDA changed the rules of the game and it was starting to cost in excess of $25,000 in time and costs to submit an application.  At that point, we started to advise clients that we would only apply on their behalf if they paid us for the application process and that there was no guarantee that CIDA would provide the requested funding.  My contention was that, if prospective clients did not believe in their project enough to pay us to apply for funding (in some cases over $500,000), then there wasn't a real project in the pipeline.  As a result, our work under this program dropped to zero in a couple of years.

On global warming, may I suggest that anyone who may have issues with the gospel that man-made CO2 is the number 1 cause of global warming perhaps they should have a look at a BBC documentary produced in 2007 called "The Great Global Warming Swindle".  This 75 minute documentary clearly shows historical warming and cooling trends that are to the most extent caused by solar activity.  You can see the video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5576670191369613647&hl=en#

Bob Hurter
Ottawa, Canada
****
 
This is my latest project - big coal plant on top of poor quality coal mine - coal gasification, combined cycle, and 65% CO2 sequestering making it equal in emissions to NG and cheaper and not subject to price swings...
 
Cost $2.2 billion, $230 million DOE "help", $130 million MS property tax assistance.
 
Interesting...
 
Plenty of Info on www...
Larry Wells
Atlanta, Georgia
---
Sounds like you are in favor of government intervention, Larry.
Jim
---
Not really, but if this thing works it could greatly decrease dependence on foreign oil.  I previously worked on GP's black liquor gassifiers for several years.  The process worked but material scientists were not able to come up with materials that would hold up.  Had it worked, it would have been good for the paper industry [and my talents and specific control systems experience would be greatly in demand].
 
The government used to work well, you know things like WWII, Manhattan Project, B52s, Interstate Highway system, Apollo program...
 
Why did it work well?  For one thing they picked the right people for the right job.  Can you imagine Sotomayor or Kagan being one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts?  They are young and healthy and would have certainly offered diversity to the program...
 
Folks back then were dedicated, they had to be since they were working for a fraction of what the private sector paid.
 
Now the government pays more than the private sector, especially [entitlement] benefits.  So they pay political cronies more for doing less.  And they get big bonuses for doing a bad job.
 
Take that part term Senator Burris from Illinois...  Look at the crazy pensions in California.  The postmaster general's pay deal is $800,000.  His bonus last year (as they lost money) was 6 figures.
 
In the new financial bill rather than stressing equal opportunities, they are promoting "equal results"...
 
yada-yada-yada
Larry

****

 

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