Re: Ripple effect from Fermilab cuts

PD wrote:

The funding fiasco at Fermilab about a month or so ago is making the
rounds of the popular magazines.
For those that aren't aware, the operation of the machine has been
slowed, staff physicists have been culled at the 10% level, and the
remainder are being asked to take 24-30 unpaid holidays per year
(which is another 10-12% cut in pay).

It's liberating. Said free time without employer obligation will
empower White Protestant patriarchal historic oppressors of Peoples of
Colour to think new thougths. Meanwhile, their slots can be filled
with deserving diversity hires. Uncle Al is representing a sexually
harassed Black lesbian single mother intravenous drug addict with AIDS
doing the Macarena in a wheelchair. Inert intelligence is the
paradigm of institutional racism. No offered salary less than
$250K/annum will be considered.

But more importantly, support for R&D for the lab's future, chiefly
with NOvA and ILC projects, has been simply shut off. This has a short-
term and a long-term implication. Short-term, it means that the
researchers that were working on THOSE projects will have to be
recommissioned to work on other projects or be let go. Given the
climate, there is not much hope that they can be absorbed. I would
expect that another round of cuts would happen right around election
day, but could be pushed forward if there is a summer shutdown.

"No va" = "doesn't go"

If they are so smart, why weren't their resumes sent out six months
ago? Anybody offering tangibles to justify government funding is
obviously unqualified to receive it. Gravina Island (pop. ~50) will
be connected to Ketchikan megalopolis (pop. 8000) by a bridge as long
SF's Golden Gate and higher than the Brooklyn Bridge. Rep. Don Young
knows the $398 million will be well spent - perhaps doing studies.
Right now it looks like the bridge will spur development and industry
in Alaska. Best to have a White Paper proving it, pending further
studies.

<http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/22/alaska.bridge.ap/>
Why America is no longer great

Another likely implication, if oil prices continue to soar, is that
the machine will shut down for the summer months when electricity
rates are highest.

Use windmill generators. FermiLab is in Illinois. Lots of wind re
Chicago. Government-subsidized windmills are proven technology.

http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/wind.htm

This will serioiusly compromise the size of the
data set and possibly rule out some of the research objectives of the
present run. This will kill the thesis dissertations of a number of
students, some of whom will look for more promising futures.

Thank god for that - the physics employment market is heavily
oversubscribed as it is. Retrain them to teach in slum, er, Inner
City high schools. It brings a whole new meaning to the word
"attrition".

But long-term, it is more dire, because the Tevatron is scheduled for
decommissioning in 2010.

Ahead of schedule and under budget! Do you have a problem with that?
Government works!

This means that 2000 lab staff will be at a
lab with no work funded, not to mention the university physicists that
base their research at FNAL. Since FNAL's forced withdrawal from ILC
means that it's unlikely the ILC will be a US laboratory, there will
be no other pre-eminent laboratory for them to go, unless they are
willing to focus their research in Europe AND the European projects
can absorb them.

Israel needs janitors. All their emigre Russian PhDs got rich and
moved to Queens.

If I were a physics undergraduate or graduate student right now, I'd
be seriously looking at options other than particle physics. I expect
that the brain drain in the next 6-10 years will be enormous and
catastrophic.

Homeland Severity is hiring. You need at least a high school GED and
not too many felony convictions. Six-figure annual incomes are not
unusual at LAX. Lots of openings in Dutch Harbor, AK, too.

--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/lajos.htm#a2
.