Science foundation Ireland disgraces us internationally - yet again

Many reading this blog may wonder at how Ireland “works”; of course, it doesn’t. However, the process is long-attested; a tight core in Dublin city center creating an alternative reality and finding politicians willing to front. Ideas are NOT discussed; if you attempt to speak truth to power, it just waits until you get upset enough that they can declare victory. That, in short, is why institutional Ireland is the stupidest country in the West

I note there are many readers of this post in Germany. They may think "The Irish are at it again - delusional pumping up of the economy, now science". Disregarding the fact that Ireland bailed out the German banks, that is basically correct. I will spare such readers the rest of this blog by summarizing;

1. The recent Nature ad for SFI is an absurd lie

2. Irish scientific performance was better in 2002, the year before SFI was created, than in 2013. In 2002 it was ranked 38 overall; in 2013 it was ranked 40 overall.SFI  has cost in the region of E 800 million annually, according to Chris Horn of Iona and various state boards;


http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=0&category=0&region=all&year=2002&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=0&category=0&region=all&year=2013&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

 It is also lower in 2013 than 2002 in the 3 categories cherry-picked for the Nature ad as we see below

I append two recent e-mails to Taoiseach  Kenny. He is careful to formally acknowledge everything I send. No, of course I do not expect action; however, many of us Irish are au fait enough now to fill the power vacuum that obtains in Ireland

My 2011 thoughts were re-blogged in Indonesia;

SFI also destroyed collegiality

In the past, SFI famously hired private planes at taxpayer's expense to fly useless academics around;

The disgraceful Deri project 

Its very expensive "link" with Stanford seems dead;

 http://deri.org/

Visit the Deri site and play "spot the Irish researcher" (as distinct from admin);

http://www.deri.ie/people

My recent monograph describes how I think scientific research should be done;

Stuart Kauffman's review of "One magisterium"

My 2012 book has a chapter detailing what went wrong with science in Ireland;

A colony once again

It is now a matter of record that we did better in science internationally in an environment in which there was NO state funding beyond university salaries, and in which tenure was protected. Please see my article on tenure in chapter 9 of

http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-Crisis-Analyses-Proposed-Solutions/dp/1443849650



  It is noticeable that this mischievous ad in Nature is for FOREIGN researchers to come and do ethically dubious "science" in Ireland with corporate links. The native Irish? - we get summarily dismissed (the Cahill case), locked out of our labs (ditto) and our software stolen (my case)

Here are the letters

"A Thaoisigh, a chara

Still no reply. At this point I am not expecting one. We’ll fight it out in court; I have no fear of your state

However, I grant it is possible that Ministers O’Sullivan and Bruton have been told we have a brilliant R+D programme at universities and that people like me rock the boat. While you may prefer to go along with this fantasy, it is as well yet again to point out how ridiculous Ireland looks when these lies are attempted on a global audience It is not even my job to tell you this; clearly, you have incompetent advisors around you and I am concerned for my country. It may be ok for you to look like a fool (as in the “Lenin in Ireland” scenario) and head into retirement, but the rest of us need respect.

“Nature” is one of the top 2 science journals in the world. This week (16 Oct 2014, vol 514 Issue no 7522) there is an ad for SFI facing P. 286.  It claims Ireland is “in the top 20 countries overall for citations…1^st, 3^rd and 4^th in immunology, nanoscience and computer science”

You can check this claim at;

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2014/computer-science-information-systems#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=

It is clearly a lie; there is no Irish uni in the top 200, which means that Ireland will be lucky to be 50^th in computer science let alone 4^th.  Any self-respecting researcher will know the ad to be a lie.  The other two are not even “subjects” as defined in academic best practice but take it we are not in the top 50 for biology – the nearest equivalent -  either

No, I’m not expecting any action. But have a look at the life of P. Bartholomew Ahern as we Irish tire of all these lies and waste. As it happens, this is another problem we can and will solve with an effective and honest government. Your lack of reply to my solutions to the music business – just as we played the Sean O Riordain night in Dublin and achieved a major breakthrough in US radio – indicates to me a closed system

Dr O Nuallain

A Thaoisigh, a chara

Many billions have been spent on Irish universities and research since I was illegally forced to leave DCU  in 2002. DCU in particular benefited from patronage due to its proximity to then Taoiseach Ahern’s constituency. It was also allowed to act outside the law. For the record, I ran international confernces every year that brought in money,  had my  research money stolen, and was so proud to serve my country that I never asked for an increment.

Yet, even after all that it DCU still not one of the world’s top 500 universities;

http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2014.html

On the same page you will note that Stanford is number 2 and UC Berkeley is number 4. I taught 2 new courses I designed myself at Stanford;

http://web.stanford.edu/class/symbsys129/

https://symsys.stanford.edu/viewing/symsysaffiliate/1463

I had to leave Stanford in 2012 as my visa was delayed by the US embassy in Dublin. You will recall certain difficulties regarding ex-Ambassador Rooney and his visa chief Bradley Wilde. Senior Stanford faculty have apologized that I was collateral damage

I continue to run a seminar at Berkeley in science after teaching Irish music there;

http://foundationsofmind.org/

http://celtic.berkeley.edu/flyer%20Irish%20Song%20&%20Music%20course.pdf

As you now know, I did all this while 15 years of notes and books that I owned, and 15 years of work that I did there (1987-2002 with a break in Canada) were being held illegally at DCU. I politely request you to continue the decency that got me my physical possessions back and help me get back my work. It is a matter of public record that FF were trying to privatize the universities and all they contained.

University education is changing; with online courses being aggressively promoted by Stanford and Berkeley through coursera.org and edx.org, it is possible that Ireland will be left at the starting post.  If I and the other talented people shafted by your predecessors are allowed reactivate their careers in Ireland, we can turn it around. We do not  need money from Ireland , just accreditation; I can get very good staff here in the USA.

 Apart from filling the 1,000 or so job vacancies in software localization in Ireland, we could enroll tens of thousands in online Irish studies and cognitive science internationally. We would be the first in both areas. This would work as a private-public project with the state sharing the costs and profits

I suggest that we resolve the issue with DCU with minimal cost to the taxpayer. They clearly owe me money for withholding my physical property. I suggest they pay whatever it costs to buy a house equivalent to the one I had to sell. It would be appropriate for them to grant this. We could settle the IP issue separately. Given that I was able to work at 2 of the world’s top 4 universities without any resources, it is clear that there has been huge loss to Ireland

Is mise le meas

Dr O Nuallain"

PS Of course Nanotech can claim also to be physics........again, try and find an Irish uni in the top 200 in physics. That ad - which I assume also went out in "Science" and elsewhere - must be withdrawn



Finally, here are some figures from what appears a reputable  source

 A government agency has paid for an ad containing lies about the performance of a very expensive project and done so in an international journal

 Here are the rankings in computer science for the years 1996-2013;

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=1700&category=0&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

Ireland is 35 not 4 as the ad said

 37 for 2013, single year, thus excluding the possibility that SFI needed time to redress the lack of research 1996-2002

30 in 2002, the year before SFI began. In short, massive investment of taxpayers' money has led to a LOWER ranking

Immunology

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=2700&category=2723&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

Again 35 not 1 as the ad said

 36 for 2013, single year, thus excluding the possibility that SFI needed time to redress the lack of research 1996-2002

 32 in 2002, the year before SFI began. In short, massive investment of taxpayers' money has led to a LOWER ranking



Nanotech

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php?area=2500&category=2509&region=all&year=all&order=it&min=0&min_type=it

Ireland is 30 not 4 as the ad said. 32 for 2013, single year, thus excluding the possibility that SFI needed time to redress the lack of research 1996-2002

 31 in 2002, the year before SFI began. In short, massive investment of taxpayers' money has led to a LOWER ranking


In short, SFI is a colossal waste of money.

We have not even mentioned the fact that FEWER Irish companies now get Nasdaq listings after more than a decade of SFI than did before. By SFI's own account, even their patent and spinoff activity is dismal;

http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1024619.shtml
 
The respected finfacts site also labels SFI's goals as delusional;

http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1026400.shtml

It also echoes research by Brian O'Neill over 10 years ago showing many researchers double and treble-dipping into funds from PRTLI,, SFI, etc. Brian also claimed much of the funds went into BUILDING, not research. We can assume that these were the buildings sold at a discount to foreign firms





PPS The "Lenin in Ireland" incident was described as follows in the Brit tabloid Sun , with all the insult to Irish intelligence that is its stock-in-trade;

The Sun wot won it

Yes; when Ireland  agreed to shoulder over E100 billion debt its people had not incurred, this is the level of advice our PM had

I felt inspired to write this ditty; think a Ronnie Drew growl, a melody like the verse of  "are  you right there Michael" or "st Kevin" or similar come-all-ye. There is a reference to Lenin's menage a trois.....

Lenin in Dublin

We've all heard oul Solzhenitsyn

Say in Zurich Vlad did reside

But auld Alex did never start bitchin'
About when Lenin went Liffeyside.

The Whites and the Reds they were fightin'

His two wives started to moan
Says Vlad I'll sail over to Ireland
and check out their National Loan.

He sauntered out ever so vain

Promenaded on Dun Laoghaire pier

when the wives complained of the rain

He stopped in to Neary's for a beer.

Mick Collins was helpful and martyred

The country it was  stony broke

That's always the case and departin'
Lenin saw Dublin sink under the smoke.

PPPS Finally, elsewhere I have written about the coincidence of the  foci of SFI and the CIA's In-Q-tel

http://seanonuallain.blogspot.com/2013/07/science-foundation-ireland-and-cia.html

This of course makes it look as if i have spent too much time in Berkeley, home of the conspiracy theory. and then - thank you Jesus - a US spook comes out and confirms my suspicions that the USA has been trying to subvert the culture, including the science of other countries.

In Greenwald (2014, P 167) an NSA/SIGINT officer for "science and technology" announces that the main goals of the spooks are "Money, national interest and Ego". The destruction of  the Irish music industry that I document earlier on this blog can be viewed in terms of the spooks' goal of "pervasive exportation of American culture as well as technology". On another blog I have documenetd their attempts effectively to de-recognize Ireland as a country, probably at the behest of their British catamites;

http://seanonuallain.blogspot.com/2014/03/irelands-missing-ambassador-strange.html


 Greenwald, G. (2014) No place to hide NY: Henry Holt



 Seán Ó Nualláin 2014