How did Saturday get here so fast?
I had the TV on while I exercised last night. I don't care what's on, generally; I can't actually watch something that's going to require attention to plot or dialogue. My iPod is usually cranked. I just like having something to look at. TBS was airing Twister.
One line of dialogue (well, it's one line, but it sets up the rivalry between the storm-chasing groups, so really it's an implicit assumption that colors the entire film) really irks me: the comment that Bill makes about Jonas getting a corporate sponsor, not being in tornado/weather research for love of science, but for money.
No one goes into science research purely for the money. No one. Even if you do research for a massive company? Never will you make as much money as a manager/business person.
But beyond that?
a) Bill left research to be a weather man. How does he have any room to cast stones?
b) Whoever wrote the script clearly has an extremely limited understanding of how much time and effort science researchers expend actively look for funding sources. Someone's gotta pay the bills and buy the equipment. Deciding to stay in academia gives scientists more room to maneuver in terms of what area they wish to pursue, it is true, but whatever that area is, it has to have SOME application SOMEWHERE to get funding. Pure science for science's sake receives a narrower and narrower slice of the federal budget dollar pie with each fiscal year. (Check out how much money goes to the military-industrial-defense complex vs. NIH + NSF.) Everything has to be translational.
Even if a PI's grants are funded, more and more granting agencies are cutting the dollar amounts. Suppliers do not automatically give discounts just because the supplies/disposables portion of a grant was reduced 25-50%. Funding dollars have to stretch that much further.
So for an academic to be sponsored by a company? Actively encouraged, as long as ethical standards are upheld. Go to any department that conducts research related to cancer and see if there isn't at least one faculty member on the scientific advisory board of one of the big pharma companies.
Wanting to get paid and to actually be able to DO research isn't evil.
Now that I'm done ranting...
My fandom participation quotient is still low, but I did write a couple of drabbles for the we_pimpin drabble party post last week and this week.
Here, here, here, and here. Gen, gen(ish) with undertones, Brad/Nate, and Brad/Ray, respectively.
War Ray Coffee is the motherfucking answer. I'm going to go refill my mug.
One line of dialogue (well, it's one line, but it sets up the rivalry between the storm-chasing groups, so really it's an implicit assumption that colors the entire film) really irks me: the comment that Bill makes about Jonas getting a corporate sponsor, not being in tornado/weather research for love of science, but for money.
No one goes into science research purely for the money. No one. Even if you do research for a massive company? Never will you make as much money as a manager/business person.
But beyond that?
a) Bill left research to be a weather man. How does he have any room to cast stones?
b) Whoever wrote the script clearly has an extremely limited understanding of how much time and effort science researchers expend actively look for funding sources. Someone's gotta pay the bills and buy the equipment. Deciding to stay in academia gives scientists more room to maneuver in terms of what area they wish to pursue, it is true, but whatever that area is, it has to have SOME application SOMEWHERE to get funding. Pure science for science's sake receives a narrower and narrower slice of the federal budget dollar pie with each fiscal year. (Check out how much money goes to the military-industrial-defense complex vs. NIH + NSF.) Everything has to be translational.
Even if a PI's grants are funded, more and more granting agencies are cutting the dollar amounts. Suppliers do not automatically give discounts just because the supplies/disposables portion of a grant was reduced 25-50%. Funding dollars have to stretch that much further.
So for an academic to be sponsored by a company? Actively encouraged, as long as ethical standards are upheld. Go to any department that conducts research related to cancer and see if there isn't at least one faculty member on the scientific advisory board of one of the big pharma companies.
Wanting to get paid and to actually be able to DO research isn't evil.
Now that I'm done ranting...
My fandom participation quotient is still low, but I did write a couple of drabbles for the we_pimpin drabble party post last week and this week.
Here, here, here, and here. Gen, gen(ish) with undertones, Brad/Nate, and Brad/Ray, respectively.
War Ray Coffee is the motherfucking answer. I'm going to go refill my mug.