Excellent post. It is so fact filled yet snarky that I thought you'd turned into Empress Sparkle Pony. Here in The Bay Area McCain never had a chance, but it appears that he and Sarah have lost, lost lost just about everywhere. Who'd a thought that appealing to American's ignorance and mean mindedness could be a losing strategy? Then again who would have expected to see Allen Greenspan to appear on the front page discussing Capitalism, The God That Failed? I'm really interested to see what happens next.
That's what I get for trying to hurry. Lots of grammatical errors in my post. My family immigrated here from Canada. We haven't learned to speak proper American.
Jon--
Perhaps I am some sort of Sparkle Pony on this one.
Why?
Because science is a profession where apprenticeships still count.
For all the right reasons.
And science is also global.
So, if somebody in, say, Paris France, is doing some fantastic fly work on a subject you are interested in, if you are a sharp young kid you go there to get the training on that thing and then you go back home to ply your trade.
Thing is, up until recently your country was THE major place to go for such an apprenticeship (in science-geek terms it's called being a post-doctoral fellow or 'post-doc').
Now, notice that I said 'up until recently'.
Why?
Because the Forebearers of the 'Empress of the Stoopid' have changed all that in at least two ways.
First, they have cut the crap out of funding for basic research such that scientists are finding it harder and harder to find the money to bring those sharp kids into their labs (and/or even do the research itself).
Second, they, the Stoopid-Heads I mean, have made it harder and harder for those sharp young kids to even get into your country.
Now, the thing to remember is that the knowledge and innovation train doesn't go one way along the Post-Doc track because these kids already have their PhDs. Thus, they bring a lot to the table (aka lab-bench) themselves, and the synergy can be fanstastic.
Oh, ya - and because they are apprentices post-docs are cheap.
How do I know all this?
Because I was one of those post-docs who came to your country to get smarter and, I think, to leave just a wee bit of smartness behind as well, which is good for everybody.
But that was all before the Forebearers and the Empress arrived on the scene (ie. back in the age of that dirty, rotten centrist Clinton which was a time when science funding, not to mention innovation and the exchange of idease, was reaching for the stars) and started Brownieing up everything.
OK?
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Now, now, now Ross.
You might to lighten up on critiquing "Tundra Trash" Palin's ill-conceived rants.
No doubt she was tired and disoriented from all that shopping for designer clothes paid for by the RNC. Or exhausted from her Tina Fey impersonation on SNL . . . .
Bob--
Nope.
I will not.
Because this kind of stoopid cannot be allowed to stand man.
Otherwise it will kill everything that is not.
Stoopid I mean.
.
Excellent post. If there was any justice in the world, your points would be plastered all over TV media as an example of how uneducated and anti-education/science Palin is.
Thanks Saskboy.
It would be nice if that were the case.
And it would be even nicer and perhaps more important to our own body politic, if the Canadian TeeVee would pay attention to a story about our dear leader's repeated use of the Stoopid as well.
In this case a Stoopid that, in my opinion, contributed to the tragic deaths of a number of Canadians.
And that is something that needs no snark whatsoever.
OK?
.
I love your term, the Empress of Stoopid - great post.
Thanks Cathie.
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Ross, you do realize my comment was pure snark, I hope . . . .
Of course Bob.
Thus the 'this can't stand, man' rejoinder.
.
And why Paris France you might be asking
I checked the government's site for earmarks. The only one going for fly research in France is to Montpellier, not Paris. So the most direct answer as to why Palin would say Paris, France is that she's stupid, and Paris is the only city in France she can remember.
As to why the USDA would support a laboratory in France, ask yourself: if you were going to look for natural predators of an insect pest which had recently found its way to the US, would you look in the pest's pre-existing range, or somewhere else?
Reginald--
Ya.....
Mike the Mad Biologist has the details also (see post above this one).
Thanks
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