That argument will never go anywhere because if C19 was a lab leak (which by the way I believe it was), it was a lab leak funded by Metabiota and Fauci, and those folks seem untouchable. 7 million deaths worldwide is a bit of a tough accusation to swallow even for the US or China.
The funding thing is unclear. Some money from the NIH did go to the Wuhan Institute of Virology but probably the bulk of their funding came from China and the DEFUSE grant got turned down.
I wish I worked at a place where it’d be enough for me to “understand the problem space” as I pull down seven figures. But those bastards also want me to code, and Copilot at least helps with the boilerplate
> I kind of was expecting a lot more ROI, by like an order of magnitude
Have you looked at any other data besides this article? I haven't which is why I'm not jumping to wild conclusions.
Also their budget has been declining continuously since ~2010. It think it might recover it's (inflation adjusted) 2009 level this year.
OTH it's significantly more effective at collecting taxes than it was back in the 90s or 00s (cost per $ collected is 20-30% lower than it used to be) so extra funding might not necessarily make a huge difference. Then again regardless it's not like the government can done anything better with the extra money.
Their total budget in 2023 was $16 billion and it's generally not increased (or it's even cut) yearly.
So it's not keeping up with inflation and GDP growth without additional funding like the "Inflation Reduction"(since everyone knows that you can reduce inflation by spending even more money..) Act.
The chart on the right. Year is the bottom axis and the vertical axis shows the budget. When the curve goes down it means that the budget has decreased from a higher amount to a lower one (before you say it.. I never claimed it happened every year).
I would also suggest you that you look up figures from before 2014 because that's when most of the cuts happened.
This also works, at least for men. Idk what it is, almost meditative rest between the sets, higher T, or making routine physical exertion easier due to being stronger. It does take some willpower though, which severely depressed/burned out people might not have.
Yes it takes some willpower, however I did not find it to be that big an issue and I say that as someone who was never athletic and has never been able to stick with an exercise program for more than a few weeks. But everything I tried in the past was cardio -- running, biking, swimming -- it all sucked. Weightlifting for some reason kind of stuck and I've been doing it regularly for a few years now. And specifically barbell lifting/powerlifting -- machines are OK for accessory work but they are boring.
My experience mirrors yours. I feel like this would depend on how quickly you make gains. When I started lifting I was so physically decrepit I’d sometimes have to lie down on the floor due to pain in my lower back. I literally started with just a bar, and within a year progressed to a 525 lb deadlift. That was fun. But if the gains were slower idk if I’d be able to keep my motivation
If you’re worried about the “gap”, don’t be. In my experience it doesn’t matter nearly as much as people believe. And don’t worry about your “career”. It’s basically all bullshit anyway.
Your ability to provide for yourself and your family isn't "basically bullshit," and filing for short term disability doesn't leave a gap on your resume.
In the grand scheme of things arbitrary and artificial “career ladders” don’t matter. Your best strategy is to ignore all that and move around every 2-3 years looking solely at the dollar figures and ignoring the titles. If you do not move, you’re going to end up underpaid, even if you do get to a fancy title or “more responsibility”.
Been there done that. For me burnout is no so much about overwork. The happiest I’ve been was when I did contracting/consulting where I’d routinely work 50-60 hours a week. It’s more about feeling “trapped” in a set of circumstances, eg a dead end job where no matter what I do forward progress is impossible, project I don’t believe in, stuff like that. The solution has always been: take 6-9 months off and go elsewhere. 25 years and several major job changes later, it works. Not everyone can take this much time off of course, but you have to change your situation at least, or this thing can easily turn just getting out bed in the morning into torture.
If it is shown to be doable literally every major nation state (basically the top 10 by GDP) is going to have it in a year or two. Same with nuclear fusion. Secrecy doesn’t matter. Nor can you really maintain it indefinitely for something where thousands of people are involved.
Funding: money used to cost next to nothing just a few years ago. Recruiting: where would you rather work, at bureaucratic AF bean counter run Boeing with zero potential upside, or at a startup which even pays more? Can they do it: I think not. Not for any particular technical reason, but due to the higher cost of money, of which they still need a metric ton, and due to how long it all takes. Eventually they’ll pivot into something they can actually do. Probably military.
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