In article <1992Jul16.141924.13685 at gserv1.dl.ac.uk> suter at de.dbp.MPG.MPIZ-KOELN.VAX writes:
>Subj: Re: The '92 Election...
>>dave Kristofferson wrote:
>>-The bionet newsgroups are supported by federal funds and thus can not
>-be used to lobby for or against political candidates. While general
>-discussions of science funding policy may be appropriate for
>-BIOFORUM/bionet.general, please refrain from comments on individual
>-candidates or political parties. If you want to discuss politics
>-there are other USENET forums such as talk.politics and alt.politics
>-where this can be done without restriction.
>>there is an additional disadvantage of political discussions: alltho
>they are certainly very interesting for US scientists, they are of only moderate
>interest for non-gringos !
>>I can appreciate a help-cry from the Royal Papavian Science Council, because I
>could send a letter to support them, but i do not have any influence
>on which president the US will get (nor do I particularly care for that matter).
>>Every now and then these discussions pop up on the net: and most of the time
>they are started by American colleagues, who apparently presume they are the
>only ones communicating through this medium....
>>my question: are you guys in such a majority ? Could somebody give us some
>statistix on users/country of origin ?
>>cheers ! clemens
>----------------------------------> cut here <----------------------------------
>Clemens Suter-Crazzolara, PhD
>Max-Planck-Institut fuer Zuechtungsforschung
>Abteilung Genetische Grundlagen der Zuechtungsforschung
>Carl-von-Linne Weg 10
>5000 Koeln 30
>Tel. xx49-221-5062.221 fax. xx49-221-5062.213
>-------------------------------> end of message <-------------------------------
You are pretty silly if you don't think that the level of science funding in
the US will directly impact your work, be it in Germany, Canada, or New Guinea.
Genbank is funded by the US govt., no?
And I'd imagine that the level of US participation in international programs
like the Human Genome Program might also be of interest?
Also, its pretty silly for Mr. Kristofferson to say "sorry boys, you can't talk
about that nasty politics stuff on my USENET group." This thing is supposed to
be an infomation and opinion exchange between biologists, not an official voice
of scientific opinion to the world. Reminds me how annoyed I was when I worked
for the government (US Peace Corps) and they told me that I could not write
letters to the editior of magazines or newspapers on "politically controversial
issues." I just don't see how having a certain job, or posting to a certain
forum should reduce one's rights of free expression.
-Stu
--
Stuart M. Brown Postdocs rush in where wise men
U. of Manitoba, Dept. Plant Science, Canada Fear to tread.
browns at ccu.umanitoba.ca
Disclaimer?? Sure: "That Disc is Mine!"
