Cuts to UK Science Research and Student Grants:

[Svartalf]

Poverty is not enough... it it were, I'd have had my PhD grant and would have had a shot at academia

[Jason]

Helping those disadvantaged by poverty is admirable, but simply being impoverished cannot be the sole criteria in considering grants (by which I mean either interest free loans or bursaries). Aptitude is just as important.

It goes against my grain to write that I think one of the bigger problems contributing to the 'drop-out' problem and the failure of existing grants to stimulate the education system is that so many students go in for something they like but have no, or little, aptitude for. A very high percentage drop out after the first or second year, a high percentage of those that remain putter about until they can't borrow any more and leave with a partial education in a field they lack the aptitude for in the first place. That rubs me the wrong way because I've always believed in 'doing what you love', but it appears a lot of people suck at doing what they love and it's killing the higher education systems around the world.

Solutions?

Reform the education system to lower education costs or pass them on to the taxpayers completely? That only makes the problem worse and it then becomes an even bigger weight dragging the economy down.
Institute a much more rigorous aptitude qualification as a prerequisite for study and for the distribution of grants? That would certainly help, but it also disenfranchises a lot of people who learn differently (another problem [failure] of the current education system) e.g. those 'idiot' geniuses like Stephen Hawking (the ones already in wheelchairs).

How about a tax-funded system, free to all taxpayers, that employs a rigorous aptitude qualification on an individual (case by case) basis? That should work. Now sell it to the taxpayers. Explain to them that their pensions will be worthless by the time they retire unless the working generation (at the time of the former's retirement - that is the unborn and little kids of today) is gainfully employed at levels of unemployment approaching 0 (there are not enough young people to support the aging. Productivity and efficiency must increase dramatically to avoid economic collapse at the moment they may be expecting to retire in the sun somewhere). Try to explain that to them.

[Clinton Huxley]

Apparently, the cuts could mean the closure of a "large science facility" in the UK. Could be the Diamond Synchrotron or maybe Jodrell Bank radio telescope will be in the firing line again. Sigh.

[pErvinalia]

What good did science every do us?

[Clinton Huxley]

What good did science every do us?

But science is the best thing every.

[cronus]

Jodrell Bank should go. There's millions of better more modern radio-telescopes around the world. It is a expensive dinosaur.

[rainbow]

What good did science every do us?

It not learnt you speaking proper for truely

[Svartalf]

Say Bwana, could you take that missionary out of your mouth and repeat it in English? You don't make sense.

[Clinton Huxley]

Jodrell Bank should go. There's millions of better more modern radio-telescopes around the world. It is a expensive dinosaur.

Incorrect. It's going to the HQ for the Square Kilometer Array.

[cronus]

Jodrell Bank should go. There's millions of better more modern radio-telescopes around the world. It is a expensive dinosaur.

Incorrect. It's going to the HQ for the Square Kilometer Array.

Doesn't need Jodrell Bank.

[mistermack]

Jodrell Bank should go. There's millions of better more modern radio-telescopes around the world. It is a expensive dinosaur.

Incorrect. It's going to the HQ for the Square Kilometer Array.

Doesn't need Jodrell Bank.

There was a program only days ago on the Beeb that mentioned that the Joddrell Bank scope had been refitted with metal, replacing the concrete original reflector, to study the hydrogen signature of the very earliest images of the Universe.
Apparently, it's the only way to see past the time when galaxies and stars first formed.
So it's more relevant now, than it's ever been.

[Clinton Huxley]

Aye, its still doing cutting edge research.

[Trinity]

I am rarely an angry person and any dark thoughts that may pass through my fields of gold calm are quickly pissed on. However, I would like to say, that when the level of poverty in this land has reached the point where people snap, I hope to see tory politician's bodies draped from London landmarks Mexico cartel style. We have so much power collectively but so many don't see it, or want to. I hear a clock ticking, though....

[Clinton Huxley]

Not just Tories. Clegg would look good in the stocks.

[mistermack]

Not just Tories. Clegg would look good in the stocks.

Yeh, especially from behind.
I'm going on ebay for some giant-carrot seeds right now.