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Profastro

@profastro.bsky.social

Contemplates the universe

49 Followers  |  198 Following  |  1 Posts  |  Joined: 16.11.2024  |  1.4994

Latest posts by profastro.bsky.social on Bluesky

"Health and Human Services got the biggest piece. Health and Human Services — $15.8 billion in HHS. The biggest chunk of that is NIH. You all will remember that I came here last year and I tried to present to you a proposed $9 billion reduction in the NIH grants. I think it went from $35 [billion] down to $26 billion. We put it back in. I learned a really valuable lesson last year. Not only did Congress not like our proposed NIH cuts last year, they made them illegal this year. Remember last year, I came to you and I said, look, we want to reduce spending on NIH and the way we want to do it is by forcing the programs to look at their administrative costs. Because if they could get their administrative costs down to what they actually pay on administrative costs from private grants, we could cut $9 billion in spending and get the exact same amount of research. Do you remember that conversation, for those of you who were here? I certainly do. Congress, when they passed the appropriations bill in April, said not only are we going to plus it back up to the $35-odd billion dollars or whatever it is, but they put a rider in that said it was against the law to spend any money to do analyses on the administrative costs. So they prevented us, by law, from trying to save money. So I learned my lesson, and we said, “Okay, we got this extra money to spend.” We put another $9 billion in NIH, which makes up a big piece of the $15.8 [billion]. "

"Health and Human Services got the biggest piece. Health and Human Services — $15.8 billion in HHS. The biggest chunk of that is NIH. You all will remember that I came here last year and I tried to present to you a proposed $9 billion reduction in the NIH grants. I think it went from $35 [billion] down to $26 billion. We put it back in. I learned a really valuable lesson last year. Not only did Congress not like our proposed NIH cuts last year, they made them illegal this year. Remember last year, I came to you and I said, look, we want to reduce spending on NIH and the way we want to do it is by forcing the programs to look at their administrative costs. Because if they could get their administrative costs down to what they actually pay on administrative costs from private grants, we could cut $9 billion in spending and get the exact same amount of research. Do you remember that conversation, for those of you who were here? I certainly do. Congress, when they passed the appropriations bill in April, said not only are we going to plus it back up to the $35-odd billion dollars or whatever it is, but they put a rider in that said it was against the law to spend any money to do analyses on the administrative costs. So they prevented us, by law, from trying to save money. So I learned my lesson, and we said, “Okay, we got this extra money to spend.” We put another $9 billion in NIH, which makes up a big piece of the $15.8 [billion]. "

The Trump White House tried to slash indirect costs in 2017 and got very rebuffed by Congress. Here is Budget Director Mick Mulvaney commenting to the press in 2018 about getting his fingers burned on that. trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-st...

08.02.2025 16:42 — 👍 204    🔁 68    💬 4    📌 5

Thinking back on all this I better understand the pain I feel to see science under devastating attack here. It’s not just about my livelihood or my university. It’s about my identity. And it’s about a pursuit that I see as standing along with art, literature, and music as among our highest callings.

08.02.2025 21:41 — 👍 1495    🔁 196    💬 48    📌 32
Post image 11.01.2025 01:34 — 👍 17941    🔁 4595    💬 235    📌 165
Preview
2,700-year-old archaeological site in Jordan may be a biblical place visited by King David Researchers think they have identified a biblical site known as Mahanaim, along with a residence that may have been used by the kings of Israel.

www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

10.01.2025 20:06 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

For Maths fans, 2025 is a square.
45² = 45 x 45 = 2025
Also,
9² x 5² = 2025
40² + 20² + 5² = 2025
My favourite?
1³+2³+3³+4³+5³+6³+7³+8³+9³ = 2025
#Mathematics #teaching #education

01.01.2025 13:56 — 👍 24973    🔁 4721    💬 921    📌 460

Come join us in academia, you get to do homework until you die

14.12.2024 19:09 — 👍 407    🔁 23    💬 22    📌 4
An pizza with absurd toppings.

An pizza with absurd toppings.

We thank the reviewers for their insightful comments which improved the paper substantially. 😜 (Sorry, I don't remember where I got this from originally!)

12.12.2024 22:18 — 👍 11    🔁 1    💬 2    📌 0

Word of the day is ‘forswunk’ (13th century): exhausted by work.

I like to add ‘foreswunk’, exhausted before you even begin.

12.12.2024 08:12 — 👍 6246    🔁 1220    💬 136    📌 139
a photo of the milky way over big bend national park

a photo of the milky way over big bend national park

The Milky Way over Chisos Basin at Big Bend National Park
#astrophotography

18.11.2024 15:48 — 👍 3453    🔁 170    💬 30    📌 9

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