On Wed, 18 Sep 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Arthur E. Sowers ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
>
> : > Soon after I started my residency, I ran into severe problems with my
> : > research. I eventually spoke to someone from another department about the
> : > dead end I faced and he said he saw nothing wrong with my calculations.
> : > What he then said floored me. He suggested that if I wanted further
> : > assistance that I could use the services of an "institute" inside the
> : > department--for a fee. That was indirectly confirmed by another student
> : > several months later.
>
> : I don't know about up where you are, but in the States, they often call
> : these "institutes" by a different name: _incubators_. They are ready-made
> : space-for-lease buildings, with suites of rooms, including labs, and may
> : or may not be organized and built by institutions of higher learning. They
> : do exist and probably maybe around 100-200 in the USA. Sometimes they even
> : provide seed money. Then, your group goes in. Gets its funding. And part
> : of the contract deal is that the institution gets patent rights. In phase
> : II, after demonstration feasibility, the project expands and gets
> : commercialized. That's assuming it succeeds. If it fails....obviously, the
> : people and the equipment get buldozered out into the dumpster and they
> : look for new "tenants."
>
> : > Academic advice which used to be rendered freely, without cost, by
> : > professors (maybe because one did that sort of thing in an instituion
> : > of learning?) has become just another commodity to peddle on the open
> : > market.
>
> : There is no ivory tower any more. "X" makes money or its worthless.
> : Priceless has no meaning; Sorry, I thought it was a mistake for the
> : Taliban to blow up those religeous statues -- where was it? -- over in
> : Afghanistan?
>
> I'm not entirely surprised. I've heard that, in some places, if a student
> is having problems in a course, he or she could go to a tutoring centre
> and receive help--for a fee.
>
> What's next, though? Each time a student wants to discuss an exam with a
> prof that it'll cost money?
Well, how else do you think the low-paid adjuncts can make up for the
shortfall between what their institution pays them and what they need for
a decent living?
There will be more "Software Assurance" (i.e. Microsoft's 'extortion'
scheme to keep the money rolling in) schemes....just you wait and see.
Arthur E. Sowers, PhD
-----------------------------------------
| Science career information website: |
| http://www.magpage.com/~arthures |
-----------------------------------------
> <snip>
>
> --
> ***************************************** "We set sail on this new sea
> * Dr. Bernhard Michael Jatzeck, P. Eng. * because there is new knowledge
> * * to be gained and new rights to
> * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * be won, and they must be won
> ***************************************** and used for the progress of
> all people."
>
> John F. Kennedy at Rice
> University, Houston, Texas,
> September 12, 1962
>
.
.
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