{"id":37314,"date":"2011-07-24T15:43:43","date_gmt":"2011-07-24T15:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/nasa-astrophysics-it-really-is-this-bad-cosmic-variance\/"},"modified":"2011-07-24T15:43:43","modified_gmt":"2011-07-24T15:43:43","slug":"nasa-astrophysics-it-really-is-this-bad-cosmic-variance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/nasa-astrophysics-it-really-is-this-bad-cosmic-variance.php","title":{"rendered":"NASA Astrophysics: It Really Is This Bad | Cosmic Variance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shorter House of Representatives: NASA shouldn&rsquo;t do astrophysics anymore. Via the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/ksjtracker.mit.edu\/2011\/07\/20\/naturenews-nasa-wriggling-free-of-shuttle-costs-is-slashing-astrophysics-too\/\">Tracker<\/a>, an <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/2011\/110719\/full\/475276a.html\">article by Eric Hand in <em>Nature News<\/em><\/a> that puts the fiasco in helpful graphical form. <\/p><p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/news\/2011\/110719\/full\/475276a.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/e4fdc_NASA600.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"794\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7180\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><\/p><p><strong>Misleading graphic alert!<\/strong> The vertical scale starts at $0.5 billion, not at $0. But taking that into account merely changes the situation from &ldquo;complete annihilation&rdquo; to &ldquo;devastating harm.&rdquo; We&rsquo;re talking about a 40% cut, which won&rsquo;t leave room to do much more than keep the lights on for existing programs. <\/p><p>The 2011 numbers are the President&rsquo;s budget request; the 2012 numbers are from the bill that passed the House. This isn&rsquo;t yet law, so there&rsquo;s still time; the Senate and the White House will (thankfully) be involved in the final compromise.<\/p><p>Times are tough, and not everything is worth doing. But there are few things more important to the long-term flourishing of a country than investment in basic science. Sad to see the future sacrificed for bizarre political reasons. <\/p><p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/gGNuxuT1MH8Y5lYu8u50STk0Q_c\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/e4fdc_di\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><br><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/gGNuxuT1MH8Y5lYu8u50STk0Q_c\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/e4fdc_di\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><\/p><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/e4fdc_7WMs0ILw4Ow\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/e4fdc_mWeQjWwfaPI\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shorter House of Representatives: NASA shouldn&rsquo;t do astrophysics anymore. Via the Tracker, an article by Eric Hand in Nature News that puts the fiasco in helpful graphical form. Misleading graphic alert! The vertical scale starts at $0.5 billion, not at &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/nasa-astrophysics-it-really-is-this-bad-cosmic-variance.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}