BAM!
February 19, 2013
Opposition to Obama’s boondoggle brain activity map project is jealousy pure and simple.
Discuss.
DrugMonkey
biomedical research, just another job…
Recent Comments
biomedical research, just another job…
Opposition to Obama’s boondoggle brain activity map project is jealousy pure and simple.
Discuss.
DrugMonkey 
February 19, 2013 at 7:52 am
Why are you trolling the choir?
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February 19, 2013 at 9:00 am
Yep. It’s also a huge waste of money.
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February 19, 2013 at 9:13 am
Nothing to see here, move along.
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February 19, 2013 at 9:40 am
Well played by our brain project cash hot tub swimming host.
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February 19, 2013 at 10:09 am
And this is worse than the European foolishness, how?
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/how-simulate-human-brain-one-neuron-time-13-billion
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February 19, 2013 at 10:22 am
It’s like a new cold war but then with neuroscientists instead of nuclear physicists.
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February 19, 2013 at 10:36 am
It’s identical to the Euro foolishness. Meanwhile BGI is going to own our asses.
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February 19, 2013 at 11:40 am
Is this map thing gonna be cooler than Brainbow, or just less practical?
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February 19, 2013 at 12:41 pm
How can you call it a “boondoggle” in one breath and claim any oppo is jealousy in the next?
The human genome project had a distinct and clear goal, and we know what every piece was, we just had to do it a bazillion times to get to the goal. This one…is not like that. But I can’t really think of other neuroscience goals that we’re *more* likely to hit, so I’m just indifferent.
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February 19, 2013 at 1:39 pm
How can you call it a “boondoggle” in one breath and claim any oppo is jealousy in the next?
What makes you think I can’t simultaneously think it is a boondoggle but see no real objection other than jealous scientists who aren’t in on the largesse?
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February 19, 2013 at 3:03 pm
It’s a boondoggle.
Unless I get funded through it. Then it’s clearly jealousy.
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February 19, 2013 at 3:28 pm
Perhaps the critics are salty because they didn’t figure out how to secure a giant pot of money for themselves.
But really, BAM = systems neuroscience, basically (with a little mind control* on the side). Looking at what they proposed in June, all they’re doing now is what they would have done anyway, but with an arguably more secure funding source.
*yep, mind control: http://empiricalplanet.blogspot.com/2013/02/bam-mind-control.html
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February 19, 2013 at 3:49 pm
Where’s the evidence that this money is real? In order to make this happen, Congress has to appropriate the funds, right?
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February 19, 2013 at 5:36 pm
I assume that I’m getting like 30% of this in the form of a personal check from Obama. So I think it’s great.
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February 19, 2013 at 6:09 pm
Seems like vaporware. So far the sole source is the NYT piece and a passing reference in the SOTU, yes?
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February 20, 2013 at 9:06 am
@highdesert – might be vaporware, but as @jipkin noted, there is a review/proposal from last year: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2012.06.006
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February 23, 2013 at 1:16 pm
I love this new style of science proposals. Fuck NIH panels and peer review all together. Just whoop up your idea to politicians and the press.
I *am* jealous. It’s an awesome idea. Just wish it wasn’t so selfish. You and I and everyone else sensible knows damn well the 3 Billion is ultimately going to come at the expense of real science. Even if congress grants some special appropriation now, it still means biomedical science — and neuroscience in particular — goes to the back of a very long line. Next time NIH asks for a general increase, those politicians will remember. How’s that brain map coming, they’ll say.
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