You're presumably referring to the ideologically driven cuts at the NIH and a complete misunderstanding of the efficacy-effectiveness gap in macro-level Research outcomes at the FDA? The ones that have led many prominent Professors of Medicine like Celine Gounder to conclude that “The current administration is waging a war on science.”?
RFKs deleterious impact on scientific research and its funding is well documented in the context of the NIH. 2025's Bethesda Declaration ably details the culture of 'fear and suppression' present under RFK, and the $9.5bn in grants and $2.5bn in contracts he had cut, impacting over 2,000 projects. It concludes with a chilling warning regarding plans to cut up to 40% of NIH's $48 billion budget in the future.
At an FDA level, the same strategy was clearly evident last August when Trump fired CDC Director Monarez after clashing heads with RFK over vaccine policies barely a month into her role. Kennedy had demanded she fire career agency officials and commit to backing his own advisers. Four high-ranking officials resigned in support with Monarez.
In a similar vein, RFK then performed a clean sweep of the legacy 17 person vaccine panel in favour of his handpicked eight person vaccine panel – half of whom share ideologue Kennedy’s famous distrust of vaccines. Democrats on the Senate Health Committee summarised it blunty in an open-letter to RFK: “By removing all 17 of ACIP’s members and replacing them with eight individuals handpicked to advance your anti-vaccine agenda, you have put decades of non-partisan, science-backed work – and, as a result, Americans’ lives – at risk."
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel subsequently said the company would not invest in new phase 3 infectious disease vaccine trials due to growing opposition from U.S. officials to immunizations.
This was then further compounded when the FDA RTF'd Moderna's new Flu Vaccine on spurious grounds in February, with the Alliance for mRNA Medicines calling the decision “unprecedented,” claiming the FDA was in “disarray,” and warned of a “threat to public health.”
Even last month a federal judge concluded RFKs actions re: the panel were not lawful, and that earlier votes by the panel to downgrade recommendations for hepatitis B vaccines for newborns and COVID-19 shots were invalid, blocking the Trump administration’s much publicised overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule.
The only partisan stance at the moment would be not acknowledging the systemic dismantling of these scientific safeguards and institutions to the detriment of the American population as a whole.
I know the MSNOW daily hate machine is fun, so engaging and gives life meaning. But laying off the emo crack for a while would open your mind beyond partisan viewpoints.
If you want the druggy, high-concept, ersatz-reality version go with Philip K. Dick - namely The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly, VALIS.
If you want the intellectual take go with A Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller), Oryx and Crake (Atwood) or Solaris (Lem).
If you want the 60s hard-science rooted societal outlook from an ex-Naval Engineer with strong views on gender roles, it's all about Heinlein - Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers etc..
If you want something to share with the young adults in your life, or simply some of the finest writing in the contemporary British YA canon, then Philip Pulman's magnificent homage to 'Paradise Lost' - the 'His Dark Materials trilogy' - cannot come more highly recommended. Usually categorised as 'fantasy', and heavily indebted to Milton and Blake, this represents a master-class in parallel-universe world building with its own take on a Steampunk Oxford and a number of other science fiction tropes.
//I just finished this book and complained about it the whole time
Outside of the wonderful introductory set-up and the initial inverted set-piece of 'Your first day', there is little for the book to recommend itself as a piece of literature outside of some of its overall theme and motifs. This is particularly evident in the third act of the book which originally tied in a number of other SCP entries, and feels rightfully as if the best of it was left on the editing room floor.
The author (qntm) displays clear talent and original spark, but his strength seems to lie in the short-form. A book of short-stories in the Asimovian tradition is something I would like to see in the future - Dr. Marion Wheeler already being a Dr. Susan Calvin archetype.
// Personally, the redaction technique got boring fast when he would take up entire pages of the book to convey absent memories. He could use his words to convey this instead of black-boxes.
Much of the allure of the SCP Foundation as a group-writing exercise is derived from the medium and overall conceit. At its worst this manifests as poorly comprehended replication of narrative devices from 'House of Leaves', or charting the shallows of Lovecraftian fanfiction.
That said, the use of redaction to create 'nightmare fuel' is a well-recognised and appreciated trope and somewhat of a hallmark of the series. If anything, it helps presents the work itself as a more credible literary proposition - in the vein of Irvine Welsh's 'Filth' - compared with some of the other genuine contrivances present.
'Pedantique's Proposal' is a wonderful example of the SCP format grasp exceeding its reach as a piece of interactive fiction, whilst serving as the sort of love letter to the canon and ethos of SCP that qntm was clearly trying to convey.
Classism may have diminished, but the subjugation of the working classes via abhorrences like "the gig economy" are almost Victorian in their draconian bureaucracy and dehumanisation. These are most ably depicted in Ken Loach's scathing critique Sorry We Missed You (2019), or Roddy Doyle's Rosie (2018).
//Funny how this lateral move to another function is seen as a promotion.
Not at all. IC salaries outside of the absolute top-tier companies are capped, and were traditionally always capped lower than any degree of Senior Management prior to the 2000s.
More to the point, they were capped illegally and in collusion with the main players in the game, completely separate from market forces.
This was ably demonstrated by the class action taken when five former software engineers sued Apple, Google, Adobe Systems, and Intel in a Federal District Court in California for colluding in an “overarching conspiracy” to keep wages low by promising not to poach each other’s employees.
65,000 software engineers eventually claimed they were unable to jump companies for higher pay because of a series of non-solicitation agreements by the likes of Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, and Apple's Steve Jobs.
Outside of VC/PE funded American tech hotspots, this depression of salaries for IC roles still tends to be the case - particularly in Europe - for whatever reason.
Simply put, the promotion is in the remuneration; the lateral move in functionality is simply a required re-alignment of role and responsibility to meet the expectations of the 'Leadership' tier - something always distinct from original job function, be it in Sales, HR, or Engineering.
// but I'd bet your CTO is looking to shake-up the domain of staff developers more than management with the AI hype train.
Well that's a given, isn't it?
The contemporary CTO is looking for quantitative proof of productivity increases via Agentic AI adoption based on things like delivery cadence or SLAs. Management is a qualitative function, and guaranteed to be skilled in 'mapping' their role to the delivery of value and reporting such things upward anyway.
Engineering Management are there to make firm commitments and reasonable compromises around the ability to deliver features generally already committed to hard dates by either Sales or by virtue of external market forces. How this is achieved using social and political capital alongside Domain Knowledge is the distinguishing factor between an IC and a Technical Manager imo.
// Do soldiers respect the West Point grad that hasn’t or doesn’t do soldering?
Yes, just like an Office Hierarchy there's an expectation that they respect the Rank - based on the caveat that the Officer/Manager doesn't confuse Rank with Authority.
Also, to clarify some previous assertions, VP title is often needed to empower a given member of staff to sign contracts on behalf of the company in certain jurisdictions or configurations.
Generally speaking you can use the mobile website and add the QR based boarding pass to Google Wallet that way - but if you dig into the TOS you'll almost certainly find an alternative way to get a printed pass.
For example Ryanair, who went 'fully digital' last year and stopped accepting self-printed passes, will provide a free of charge boarding pass at the airport so long as you have already checked-in online before arriving at the airport.
I mean they're the discount bus of the skies, designed for students and people on weekend breaks inter-EU. Avoid flying to Paris (Buvais) or certain other 'city' airports, keep your carry-on luggage within limits, and they're basically fine.
They've a safety record that's beyond reproach, and where else are you going to get flights for ~€50 across Europe?
If nothing else they disrupted a predatory pricing cartel. I'm old enough to remember when a flight England->Ireland or Spain->Portugal could be the guts of €300 or €400. Now we have a complete revision on pricing and it paved the way for multiple good budget carriers like Transavia.
Not to mention Michael O'Leary being an absolute rogue with his PR - particularly the recent spat with Elon Musk
RFKs deleterious impact on scientific research and its funding is well documented in the context of the NIH. 2025's Bethesda Declaration ably details the culture of 'fear and suppression' present under RFK, and the $9.5bn in grants and $2.5bn in contracts he had cut, impacting over 2,000 projects. It concludes with a chilling warning regarding plans to cut up to 40% of NIH's $48 billion budget in the future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda_Declaration
At an FDA level, the same strategy was clearly evident last August when Trump fired CDC Director Monarez after clashing heads with RFK over vaccine policies barely a month into her role. Kennedy had demanded she fire career agency officials and commit to backing his own advisers. Four high-ranking officials resigned in support with Monarez.
In a similar vein, RFK then performed a clean sweep of the legacy 17 person vaccine panel in favour of his handpicked eight person vaccine panel – half of whom share ideologue Kennedy’s famous distrust of vaccines. Democrats on the Senate Health Committee summarised it blunty in an open-letter to RFK: “By removing all 17 of ACIP’s members and replacing them with eight individuals handpicked to advance your anti-vaccine agenda, you have put decades of non-partisan, science-backed work – and, as a result, Americans’ lives – at risk."
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel subsequently said the company would not invest in new phase 3 infectious disease vaccine trials due to growing opposition from U.S. officials to immunizations.
This was then further compounded when the FDA RTF'd Moderna's new Flu Vaccine on spurious grounds in February, with the Alliance for mRNA Medicines calling the decision “unprecedented,” claiming the FDA was in “disarray,” and warned of a “threat to public health.”
Even last month a federal judge concluded RFKs actions re: the panel were not lawful, and that earlier votes by the panel to downgrade recommendations for hepatitis B vaccines for newborns and COVID-19 shots were invalid, blocking the Trump administration’s much publicised overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule.
The only partisan stance at the moment would be not acknowledging the systemic dismantling of these scientific safeguards and institutions to the detriment of the American population as a whole.
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