Something to talk about while the family is home for the holidays

Steven Hayward:

It is a rare day that I suggest we follow New Zealand’s example for anything, but this is one step Congress and the Trump Administration should strongly consider in their efforts to force universities to reform themselves (which they are not going to do without concentrated and sustained outside pressure):

From Science magazine:

Amid cuts to basic research, New Zealand scraps all support for social sciences

This week, in an announcement that stunned New Zealand’s research community, the country’s center-right coalition government said it would divert half of the NZ$75 million Marsden Fund, the nation’s sole funding source for fundamental science, to “research with economic benefits.” Moreover, the fund would no longer support any social sciences and humanities research, and the expert panels considering these proposals would be disbanded.

BOLD! What do you think led to this move?

New Zealand expects to post budget deficits over five-year forecast period

Immigration: Another annual record for departures from New Zealand

Imagine taking budgeting into consideration when designing university programs.

First, I am sure that if the Trump Administration cuts off NSF and other federal funding for university social sciences and humanities, the campus whiners won’t call it “astonishing.” They’ll call it “genocide.”

Remind you of anything going on in the USA right now?

Hayward also got curious and looked up the bio of a professor quoted by Science because of her interest in the importance of social sciences to New Zealand’s economy and “social cohesion.”

Read her research accomplishments and interests at the link. She seems to be fascinated by the concept of "nation", especially with regard to Northern Ireland, and she has been concerned about pre-9/11 stereotypes of Irish terrorists. One could imagine by trying really hard how that research could improve the social cohesion and economy of New Zealand for certain people. But can she show us her data?

How about her other interests? Does studying them improve social cohesion and the economy? Where are the data?

She has a PhD from Stanford, so there may be some professors pretty much like her stateside. And some who are more feisty and disagreeable. There is an appealing photo of her at the link if you're into professors who are into cosplay.

There are some distinctive elements to transportation in New Zealand. They reportedly have only a couple of remaining train/road bridges. Always let the train go first. But they still have quite a few one-lane bridges on two-way roads. Friends who visited New Zealand this summer sometimes found them to be quite unexpected. How do you think these bridges affect social cohesion and the economy of New Zealand? Any classes about them in universities?

Is New Zealand ready for self-driving cars for immigrants?

Do you think China has any thoughts about those one-way bridges, since they think of New Zealand as within their Circle of Influence?

Weekend

Steven Hayward's The Week in Pictures: Droning On and On

The droneswarm has only intensified over the last week. And that’s just in New Jersey. On Capitol Hill, the spending drones have suddenly hit some electronic interference in the form of Elon Musk, and boy are they hopping mad about it. Imagine—a billionaire not named Soros or Bloomberg having the audacity to get involved in politics! And media drones such as George Stephanopoulos and Chris Cillizza are losing altitude fast.

Some specifics about an issue which has been in the news lately in a number of contexts. Roman rewards for families with 3 or more children?

Music

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend. Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah!

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, December 14, Happy Bill of Rights Weekend

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