Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Tell The White House And Congress: Unlock Science

PETITION TO CONGRESS AND PRESIDENT OBAMA: When the government pays for scientific research, it does so to benefit the public -- not so private profiteers can make more money. Americans should have free access to research funded by the National Science Foundation.

Just add your name at right and we'll deliver your message to the White House and Congress.

http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/nsf/?source=bb

It sounds like it's already close enough to free, just have to pay for the journals. What's wrong with that? If you're going to do something productive with it, you can afford to pay. If the government pays for the reviewing/publishing, then that's just more cost to the taxpayer. And the businessmen who take advantage of the research are getting an even free-er ride!

You can also access many journals for free by sneaking into a university library :P

I know it appears that way from the facade that is publicly
available , however the scientific research that is paid for by the people is mostly only available to the private profiteers so that they can make more money and cause the
government to make more money at the same time.

otherwise we would all be required to use solar pannels for electricity.

but the government makes money from the sale of fuels to produce electricity in the form of taxes.

although our government probably spends apx 1 trillion annually on the energy it requires.

and now that the cost of fuels is increasing that 1 trillion may jump to 2 or 3 trillion annually.

eventually the governments cost of the fuels will outweigh the taxes they recieve due to the taxes paid per gallon of fuel sold.

ie..

gas sells for 1.40 per gallon "pre afganistan invasion"
government gets $0.48 per gallon sold.

gas sells for $5.86 per gallon today in orlando fla
government gets $0.48 cents per gallon sold.

in the near future

gas sells for $8.00 a gallon
government gets $0.48 cents per gallon sold.


even though the government would greatly benefit by switching to solar and alternate energy they would
compromise a huge source of their income by setting such an example.

I can see where the government is compromising our national security if they continue along the same path.

and it probably wont be long until the government realizes that even they cannot afford to use the current forms of energy that they use today.

today oil is at $117.00 for a 42 gallon barrel.
you get on average about 18.5 gallons of gasoline from a 42 gallon barrel of oil.

117 / 18.5 = $6.32

the cost of ships to transport the oil is only
about 2-3 cents per gallon of oil transported.

todays super tankers can hold apx 84 million gallons of crude

thats apx 2 million barrels of oil.

18.5 x 2 million = 37,000,000 gallons of gasoline

37 million x 2.5 cents = $925,000 cost to the oil company that moves the oil.

the government gets $17,760,000.00 tax income just on the sale of the gasoline refined from that single tanker of oil.






since its mostly only large corporations that ever benefit monetarily from the research that the public has to pay for , it would be better if the large corporations would pay for any publishing cost and the public were allowed to freely see what their money is being spent on.

really how much could it cost to provide a download link on
a publicly paid for web site to a publicly funded document.

What's the point of paying for something nobody can use? Just look as some recent abstracts on Google. Can you actually understand them? I can't. Not without days looking up terms and learning new concepts. And even then I wouldn't really be sure I was seeing what they were trying to say. Science is so specialized these days that most research is unintelligible to nearly everyone.

We have journalists to do some of that for us. Look at this very website! There are plenty of other sites showing some research that's interesting to the average public, and presented in an understandable way. As for the other stuff, do you really care about some tweak to a process for producing an obscure substance you never even heard of? There's no way you can assess the value of your tax dollar spending by reading something you don't understand.

exactly , why should all of the people be required to pay for
the research when it is only the big corporations that benefit monetarily from that publicly funded research.

I say let the big corporations pay for the research if they are the only ones who will benefit from it.

but to carry it further there has been plenty of publicly funded research that would have greatly benefited the public but has been swept under a rug because it might endanger certain industries monetary gains.

just remember hitler burned the books also.
why would he burn books?
to keep the public from thinking he was wrong?

burn books ... hide research ... feed the mushrooms and keep them in the dark.