American Mohist

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Research Universities in Political Trouble After Getting Into Politics, Ignoring Replication

Northwestern University research teams are facing great uncertainties because of the Federal funding pause. Federal government has not specified what Northwestern needs to do to restore grant funding. Most researchers are very upset at this. Because there is no communication from Federal government, they don't know if their anti-antisemitism measures are what Federal governmeny wants. Northwestern may soon be unable to cover the gap in funding.

No word at all about the replication crisis in science. Since less than 70% of scientific publications are replicable, scientists are much less credible than they think they are. And of course Northwestern University is more than just scientific research. Science's indulgence of non-scientific endeavors like politics and protests only make Big Science a more political target.

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Chinese Population Control Backfires

China fertility issues linked to Hukou population registration system.

Interesting to note that the urbanizing migrant labors allowed Chinese manufacturing to last as long as it has. But at the same time, it prevented the Chinese interior from industrializing because their labor went to the coast. Then, the urban migrants got higher wages, thus preventing the interior from competing with Vietnam and now Cambodia. So the Hukou system theoretically could have allowed the interior to industrialize gradually from the coast. But the coastal elites prevented that from happening by allowing migrants unofficially. And now China also got a fertility problem from the social instability of urban migrants.