American, British...it doesn't mean anything. That doesn't describe who a person is. Well, nationalities do mean something, but I'm just trying to point out that I don't care what country wins the nobel prize, as long as great accomplishments are made. My country suits me fine, but I'm not 'american' any more than somebody is canadian or british. We should do away with all these silly nationalism feelings, and just form a world order already. Prepare for the alien invasion. Now i think i'm really off topic.
This says something interesting about corporate funding for research as well. Two of the Physics winners this year are former Bell Labs researchers. The award was for work in CCDs that they had done decades earlier while at the Labs. As a former Bell Labs person (but definitely more on the product development side of the house), it's hard for me to imagine Bell Labs as it exists in its much greatly diminished capacity today ever winning a Nobel Prize. Corporate funding for bleeding edge research with high risk but potential huge long term payoff has definitely decayed in favor of short term work that is immediately customer facing. I sometimes wonder if anything as economically significant as, say, the cellular phone, which Motorola developed despite critics saying it was a complete waste of money, will ever happen again.
The government won't give more funding to necessary research for the same reason that we can't fund public health care- some old white Republican will call it "socialist."
@Post-Nuked:
Or, they didn't fail economics like you did, and realized that printing money and running up debt during an economic downturn is a really, really bad idea. But hey, if the only "conservative" you can think of is Glenn Beck, I could see where your confusion might come from.
@Cash907Censored:
The only point that I was trying to make was that many research scientists and the millions of under and uninsured people in the country have something in common: They both have to deal with a government that thinks that they are too expensive. #nobelprize
Basically, he gets the award for encouraging dialogue with rogue states; engaging with the UN; reducing the number of nuclear weapons (or how else can you expect aspiring nuclear nations to stop?) and not being an isolationist/neo-imperialist stooge like Bush.
@disatess: You're a few days late for your misguided anger. Without naming any other US President who won and without checking Wikipedia, can you name more than two people who have won the award in the past?
@Discodave: R.O.A.C.H. M.O.T.E.L.: He did all that in the two weeks he was in office before being nominated.. wow. Missed that. (also, hasnt eliminated a single nuke yet)
@Discodave: R.O.A.C.H. M.O.T.E.L.: I think it was even less than that. Nobel nominations were due in early February. He had been president for less than 2 weeks and elected fro only 3 months when he was nominated. This is an example of the Europeans saying "Thank god that Bush guy is gone." They awarded the prize based on potential and the idea of Obama, not actual accomplishments. I voted for the guy, I like him, but @disatess is right.
@disatess: Have you done any research on the award whatsoever? Or are you just assuming you know all about it from its name? The award is not what you think.
There have been entire years where no one was awarded. (Everyone apparently sucked in 1972). There have been years where people like Arafat won for what they attempting to do, and not what they did. Same for Kissinger.
There have been American Presidents who've won the award in office after going to war. See Teddy Roosevelt & Woodrow Wilson. There have even been years where the U.N. Peacekeeping forces, or just the U.N. have won.
This is completely normal for the Nobel Peace Prize. The only reason it feels different to you is because you can't remember any other winners besides Al Gore & the Dali Lama, and assume someone needs Mother Teressa levels of awesome to win.
I really wish people would do some fucking research before going off on this.
@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: What? Kissinger was totally hot in Batman...wait, I was thinking of Basinger. Sorry. And she wasn't all that hot, I was thinking of Pfeifer all along.
@Paul_Is_Drunk: So you are saying it was awarded based on merit and not because of his image? I think someone can make a valid argument that this was awarded (much like Carter's) as more of a repudiation of Bush then anything Obama did.
And by the way, you pompous ass, TR got his for working to resolve a war and Wilson for founding the league of nations. So maybe you should do some research yourself.
So get off you high fucking horse and admit that people can have a different opinion then you about something without being uninformed morons.
(I also don't think Gore should have won, as he is just the highly paid mouthpiece for people who are doing real work)
@WaR_HaWk: Please don't take this as mockery, but I can't help pointing out how much I love the cognitive dissonance of hearing an opinion on the Nobel Peace Prize from someone named WaR_HaWk.
@Cicada: this has been most fun with you all , I have right to my opinion just like all of you do , but are goverment made him out just a figure head and I know the man is far capable of doing more .
The NIH funds some absolutely amazing research, and I hope with continued Obama support they'll be able to start in on things that just were not possible during the Bush years.
@VoxExMachina: Actually, the substance that will turn you into a wasp is naturally occuring in the royal jelly of the queen wasp, as long as its properly diluted and intravenously injected.
Of course, the only known human test subject was female, so the results are considered apocryphal by the scientific community at large- similar to the reported effectiveness of monkey glands, according to some.
Just give it a few weeks and something else will come along to KILL the planet. I am 71 and played with mercury when I was a kid and it did not hurt me, me, me... Heck we rolled it around in our hands and put on rings to wear. What a joke.
@Klebert L. Hall: I hate that. They always talk about "The most dangerous car on the road" or "the fourth leading cause of death among teenagers." Just because something is most common, doesn't mean it is common.
A major problem in medicine, too - just because something doubles your risk of (cancer, heart disease, whatever) doesn't necessarily mean it's a big deal. It might be doubling it from infinitesimal to... infinitesimal.
-Kle.
@Dr Emilio Lizardo: When I was in middle school, I figured the 4th leading cause of death among teenagers was masturbation.
And I did my frantic best to make it #3.
10/13/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/13/09
Or, they didn't fail economics like you did, and realized that printing money and running up debt during an economic downturn is a really, really bad idea. But hey, if the only "conservative" you can think of is Glenn Beck, I could see where your confusion might come from.
10/15/09
The only point that I was trying to make was that many research scientists and the millions of under and uninsured people in the country have something in common: They both have to deal with a government that thinks that they are too expensive. #nobelprize
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
@disatess - have you read the Nobel committee's statement at all?
Basically, he gets the award for encouraging dialogue with rogue states; engaging with the UN; reducing the number of nuclear weapons (or how else can you expect aspiring nuclear nations to stop?) and not being an isolationist/neo-imperialist stooge like Bush.
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
There have been entire years where no one was awarded. (Everyone apparently sucked in 1972). There have been years where people like Arafat won for what they attempting to do, and not what they did. Same for Kissinger.
There have been American Presidents who've won the award in office after going to war. See Teddy Roosevelt & Woodrow Wilson. There have even been years where the U.N. Peacekeeping forces, or just the U.N. have won.
This is completely normal for the Nobel Peace Prize. The only reason it feels different to you is because you can't remember any other winners besides Al Gore & the Dali Lama, and assume someone needs Mother Teressa levels of awesome to win.
I really wish people would do some fucking research before going off on this.
10/11/09
10/11/09
Arafat was a terrorist and Kissinger a war criminal.
10/11/09
10/11/09
And by the way, you pompous ass, TR got his for working to resolve a war and Wilson for founding the league of nations. So maybe you should do some research yourself.
So get off you high fucking horse and admit that people can have a different opinion then you about something without being uninformed morons.
(I also don't think Gore should have won, as he is just the highly paid mouthpiece for people who are doing real work)
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
Just shows how retarded the swiss are. Give the peace award to someone that doesn't even PRODUCE PEACE.
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
10/11/09
But thanks for playing.
10/12/09
The Peace Prize has been idiotic in conception and execution from the beginning.
-Kle.
10/12/09
10/11/09
Bring on the stem cell research in full!
09/11/09
#@!
09/11/09
09/11/09
A giant beetle, on the other hand...
09/11/09
Of course, the only known human test subject was female, so the results are considered apocryphal by the scientific community at large- similar to the reported effectiveness of monkey glands, according to some.
[/obscure bad movie trivia]
08/28/09
08/28/09
08/28/09
08/29/09
Oh, fine - you rich kids got Plutonium every day, while we had to walk ten miles, just to get a scrap of depleted Uranium for dinner...
-Kle.
08/28/09
08/28/09
More accurately, it always has been, but now someone is pointing it out.
" A study published today in Science proves it is the leading cause of ozone layer destruction in the twenty-first century."
That would be because we have reduced the levels of the former leading causes to the point where NO is now prominent.
There will always be a leading cause; it would be more useful to talk about the magnitude of the effect than about what is the biggest effector.
-Kle.
08/28/09
08/29/09
A major problem in medicine, too - just because something doubles your risk of (cancer, heart disease, whatever) doesn't necessarily mean it's a big deal. It might be doubling it from infinitesimal to... infinitesimal.
-Kle.
08/30/09
And I did my frantic best to make it #3.
08/27/09
Needs more Devo
08/27/09
So I guess going green would consist of . . . starting to shoot up heroin instead?