4 ms·

To be more persuasive, you might want to point out the big successes of the DoE. The dramatic reduction in PV costs, for example, were caused by the volumes cr

To be more persuasive, you might want to point out the big successes of the DoE. The dramatic reduction in PV costs, for example, were caused by the volumes created mostly by European feed-in tariffs, plus the manufacturing determination in China. Im sure DoE has some big wins, and people who hear about them are more likely to drive support.

lvs 10y ago
A poor guy comes here to spill his guts about potentially losing his job and all the serious science that will be stalled, and you thought his desperation was for pointers on how to be more persuasive? Yeah, the HN advice culture has really jumped the shark with this one. This isn't a reality show.
- mistermann 10y ago
  I think it was perfectly relevant considering "We've been running in continuing resolutions so long we've effectively been losing funding at the rate of 2%/year".
  - batbomb 10y ago
    That has nothing to do with what the labs are or are not doing and everything to do with gridlock in D.C.
    - mistermann 10y ago
      Unless they were doing really interesting things that captured the hearts and minds of the public who then therefore demanded funding increases.
      - lvs 10y ago
        Gosh. You're really not getting it. They're not losing funding because of anything specific to their research (yet). Congress passed only a single budget covering the whole government in the last 8 years! They're only keeping the government funded by continuing resolutions that keep all allocations flat-line. The drop in funding he's talking about is from inflation when the budget is flat year-over-year.
concinds 10y ago
The DOE's biggest duties are nuclear defense (2/3 of the budget), and science programs (1/4). Among other things, they're working to "find alternatives to rare earth elements which we now depend on China for" [0]; they also helped fund the Human Genome Project. The DOE invented "solid state lighting, modern refrigerator compressors and water heaters". The OP (submission) mentions cuts to ARPA-E, which he probably got from 2 of Trump's questionnaire, but cuts to ARPA-E are very unlikely to be significant, since they fund so many commercializable things, which Trump said he supports during the campaign trail. Here [1] is the Trump questionnaire so everyone can read it without speculating about it. Many of the questions are innocuous, the fuss is centered around question 13. [0]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2015/11/23/republicans-want-to-shut-down-the-department-of-energy-heres-why-thats-a-really-bad-idea/#4b21b885223f http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2015/11/23/republican... [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/09/us/politics/document-Trump-Transition-Questionnaire-Energy-Dept.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/09/us/politics/do...

lvs 10y ago

A poor guy comes here to spill his guts about potentially losing his job and all the serious science that will be stalled, and you thought his desperation was for pointers on how to be more persuasive? Yeah, the HN advice culture has really jumped the shark with this one. This isn't a reality show.

mistermann 10y ago
I think it was perfectly relevant considering "We've been running in continuing resolutions so long we've effectively been losing funding at the rate of 2%/year".
- batbomb 10y ago
  That has nothing to do with what the labs are or are not doing and everything to do with gridlock in D.C.
  - mistermann 10y ago
    Unless they were doing really interesting things that captured the hearts and minds of the public who then therefore demanded funding increases.
    - lvs 10y ago
      Gosh. You're really not getting it. They're not losing funding because of anything specific to their research (yet). Congress passed only a single budget covering the whole government in the last 8 years! They're only keeping the government funded by continuing resolutions that keep all allocations flat-line. The drop in funding he's talking about is from inflation when the budget is flat year-over-year.

concinds 10y ago

The DOE's biggest duties are nuclear defense (2/3 of the budget), and science programs (1/4). Among other things, they're working to "find alternatives to rare earth elements which we now depend on China for" [0]; they also helped fund the Human Genome Project. The DOE invented "solid state lighting, modern refrigerator compressors and water heaters". The OP (submission) mentions cuts to ARPA-E, which he probably got from 2 of Trump's questionnaire, but cuts to ARPA-E are very unlikely to be significant, since they fund so many commercializable things, which Trump said he supports during the campaign trail. Here [1] is the Trump questionnaire so everyone can read it without speculating about it. Many of the questions are innocuous, the fuss is centered around question 13. [0]: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2015/11/23/republicans-want-to-shut-down-the-department-of-energy-heres-why-thats-a-really-bad-idea/#4b21b885223f http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2015/11/23/republican... [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/09/us/politics/document-Trump-Transition-Questionnaire-Energy-Dept.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/09/us/politics/do...