#Wunderwaffen

This information is all out there, but it's good to have it in one place. The TL;DR is that the #Trump administration's goal is nothing less than the destruction of #American #science, and they may well get it. #NIH and #NSF are the most obvious and immediate targets—but #CDC, #FDA, #NASA, #NOAA, and even #DARPA are on the hitlist, along with numerous other funding agencies scattered throughout the government.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/what-s-happening-inside-nih

Authoritarians are often very fond of *engineering*: consider #Hitler's obsession with "#Wunderwaffen," or the #USSR's bloody-minded but largely successful approach to building a space program. But they fear and hate *science*, because inquiring into the fundamental nature of reality is anathema to ideology. Of course #engineering without #science runs dry fast, and you end up with everything from faulty machinery to mass starvation. This doesn't really bother the people in charge, most of the time. "Some of you will die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make."

Engineering is also where the profit comes from, which is why governments *have* to fund science to get the shiny toys. Very few private organizations are able to fund years-long blue-sky research, and those that can usually don't particularly want to. I'm lucky enough to work in a field where a fair amount of science *is* privately funded, but it's still all downstream from academic science—and that means #government #grants.

Take those away, and it's like killing the roots of a plant. The leaves may look healthy for a while, but sooner or later the whole thing withers. Since farming this particular plant is not only how I make my living, but also what keeps people I care about alive (including myself, as the years go by) I take the whole thing kind of personally. Hell if I know what to do about it, though.

Well. For the moment, there's still some life above ground. I'd better get back to that, and harvest what I can. Maybe we'll make it through the famine to come.

kyivpost.com
" Russia’s S-70 Hunter Drone – Another Not-So-Wonderful Russian Wunderwaffen"

#kyivpost.com
#Ukrainian #Army #HunterDrone #defenders #S70 #down #Donetsk
#Ukraine #News #Russia #Drone #war #Wunderwaffen #aircraft
#update #перемогаYкраїни

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/40195