IT’S ONLY FOOD: UK Climate Alarmists Plan to Seize Swathes of Farmland.
Archive for 2025
February 3, 2025
VINAY PRASAD: Randomize NIH grant giving.
You submit your grant and they hire someone to handle your section. They find three people to review it. Ideally, they pick people who have no idea what you are doing or why it is important, and are not as successful as you, so they can hate read your proposal. If, despite that, they give you a good score, you might be discussed at study section.
The study section assembles scientists to discuss your grant. As kids who were picked last in kindergarten basketball, they focus on the minutiae. They love to nitpick small things. If someone on study section doesn’t like you, they can tank you. In contrast, if someone loves you, they can’t really single handedly fund you.
You might wonder if study section leaders are the best scientists. Rest assured. They aren’t. They are typically mid career, mediocre scientists. (This is not just a joke, data support this claim see www.drvinayprasad.com). They rarely have written extremely influential papers. . . .
Given that the current system is onerous and likely flawed, you would imagine that NIH leadership has repeatedly tested whether the current method is superior than say a modified lottery, aka having an initial screen and then randomly giving out the money.
Of course not. Self important people giving out someone else’s money rarely study their own processes. If study sections are no better than lottery, that would mean a lot of NIH study section officers would no longer need to work hard from home half the day, freeing up money for one more grant.
Given that the purpose of a system is what it does, the purpose of the NIH is to centralize control of scientific research under a federal bureaucracy, not to produce the best or most innovative science.
LIGHTNING DEAL: Stud Finder Wall Scanner. CommissionEarned
JEFFREY CARTER: The Tariff Game. “Every Democrat took to X and said, Trump campaigned on ending inflation but tariffs are going to increase inflation. I knew Democrats couldn’t grasp economic concepts before, but now they are full-throated in their ignorance.”
Plus: “The way $DOGE is working, they are uncovering billions and billions of government largesse and waste. We will see budget cuts in the 20% of the budget that is discretionary. Interestingly, if we spent at 2019 levels and took in taxes as we did in 2023, the US Budget would be in surplus and we’d be paying debt down. Ending 100% of all payments to NGOs is a fantastic idea. We will save trillions. . . . Trump is getting a lot of stuff done that people in the US have wanted en masse for years. Who hasn’t heard a liberal or a conservative say they want good government? Who hasn’t heard someone say they want to eliminate waste? All the crying you hear today is from people actually seeing waste get eliminated.”
But read the whole thing.
CHANGE: Meta Plans to Leave Delaware, Reincorporate in Texas.
Social media giant Meta, parent company of Facebook, has been in talks with Texas about reincorporating in that state and pulling out of Delaware.
The move by Meta would mirror Elon Musk’s decision earlier this year to move multiple companies out of Delaware, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Meta will keep its headquarters in Silicon Valley, California, regardless, according to the report.
A Meta spokesperson told AFP he could not confirm the Journal report but added the company had no plans to move its headquarters.
Musk moved SpaceX’s incorporation from Delaware to Texas in February, after a Delaware judge invalidated his $56 billion compensation plan at Tesla.
Musk also reincorporated Tesla to Texas and startup Neuralink to Nevada.
Delaware used to be business-friendly and reaped the benefits. Now they reap the whirlwind.
NGOs AS MONEY LAUNDRIES:
I spent today tracing some of these USAID dollars and they're all tangled up with former political appointees, prominent Democrats, and establishment GOP: https://t.co/i4Ibfm6SL1
— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) February 1, 2025
HAHA, WELL PUT:
To Announce They’ve Given Up Completely, DNC Selects David Hogg As Vice Chair https://t.co/m1BN1Vvbxm pic.twitter.com/tDZ8AKXJkS
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) February 2, 2025
ON SUNDAY I DO A PROMO POST FOR — MOSTLY — INDIE WRITERS: Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
There’s also a vignette challenge that has launched a dozen novels….
OUT OF TOUCH: New York Times Shock Poll Reveals the Complete Collapse of Democratic Party. “Right now, the Democrats are in a PR freefall. Keep an eye on the numbers: Should the Dems’ unfavorable rating hit the mid-60s, it will likely lead to a full-on liberal-on-liberal civil war for control of the party. Those numbers would threaten their ability to raise money or compete nationally, and simply aren’t sustainable.”
Maybe they’ll wise up before things get that out of control. Or maybe they’ll continue doubling down on stupid:
I can't believe what I just listened to. The DNC Leader interrupted the party election to tell members that not enough non-binary candidates have been elected, so they MUST now vote for one.
"With the results of the previous four elections, our elected officers are currently two… pic.twitter.com/8CelMVzyE6
— George (@BehizyTweets) February 1, 2025
They wrote the crazy right into their bylaws.
WELL, YES. EVEN MY NPR-LISTENING MOTHER SOUNDS LIKE ELON MUSK ON THIS TOPIC: Making America Great Again Requires More Babies.
THEY’VE ALREAD BROUGHT ON THE FORENSIC PROCTOLOGIST: DOJ Opens Investigation into Chuck Schumer.
THEY NEED TO BE ARRESTED. THE FIRST AMENDMENT GIVES THEM THE RIGHT TO PROTEST, BUT STOPPING UP A HIGHWAY ISN’T A PROTEST, IT’S VANDALISM: Anti-ICE Protesters Shut Down 101 Freeway in Downtown Los Angeles.
Vandalism of other people’s property, time and potentially lives, all of which can be endangered by being delayed by these loons. Protest by the side of the road, go ahead. IN the public throughway? No. That’s an attack on the innocents.
NO, IT SHOWS THEY’RE DOUBLING DOWN ON INSANITY: Does the DNC’s Election of New Chairman, Vice Chairmen Show the Party Is Still in Disarray?
IN FAIRNESS THEY’RE ALREADY BENT AT HAVING REPUBLICANS RUNNING THE ROOM: The Liberal Media Is Going to Throw a Fit Over These Changes at the Press Briefings.
60 MINUTES HAS BEEN A PARTISAN PROGRAM FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS, MAKE THEM OWN IT: Donald Trump Is Really Making CBS Sweat Over Kamala’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview.
THIS HELPS EXPLAIN THE NGO FUNDING FREEZE QUITE HANDILY: Kristi Noem stops taxpayer money from funding illegal migrant flood.