Subject: Merry Holidays and a Happy New Year to all

From: Jan Labanowski <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 11:19:56 -0500 (EST)

Merry Holidays and  All the Best in 2001 from CCL Team. 

Be happy, hope for better, keep your spirits high, and take care of your body
since mind cannot exist without the well functioning support services...

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                      +                                                       !
                     XXX                                                      !
                    XXXXX                                                     !
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                  XXXXXXXXX                                                   !
                "BOAS FESTAS"                                                 !
                "JOYEUX  NOEL"            \ /                      *          !
               "VESELE VANOCE"           --O--                    XXX         !
              "MELE KALIKIMAKE"           / \                   "HOME"        !
             "NODLAG SONA DHUIT"                               "PEACE."       !
            "BLWYDDYN NEWYDD DDA"                            "BON NADAL."     !
                  "GOD  JUL"                               "BOLDOG UJ EVET"   !
                 "BUON  ANNO"        \ /                  "CHANUKAH SAMEACH"  !
   \ /          "FELIZ  NATAL"      --O--                     "DOSIEGO!"      !
  --O--       "FELIZ NAVIDAD"        / \                   "HAPPY HANUKKAH"   !
   / \       "KALA CHRISTOUGENA"                          "PARI  ARTSAGOURT"  !
            "VROLIJK  KERSTFEEST"                        "KELLEMES UNNEPEKET" !
           "FROEHLICHE WEIHNACHTEN"                    "NAYA VARSH SHUBH HO"  !
          "BUON  NATALE-GODT NYTAR"                   "ATHBHLIAIN FAOI MHAISE !
         "HUAN YING SHENG TAN CHIEH"                "IYI YILLAR-HYVAEAE LOMAA !
        "WESOLYCH SWIAT-SRETAN BOZIC"       \ /             "NA  ZDOROVE"     !
       "MOADIM LESIMHA-LINKSMU KALEDU"     --O--          "MERRY CHRISTMAS"   !
      "HAUSKAA JOULDA-AID SAID MOUBARK"     / \          "FELICHAN JARFINON"  !
           "'N  PRETTIG  KERSTMIS"                      "#-SHUB NAYA BARAS-@" !
          "ONNELLISTA UUTTA VUOTTA"      !            "INPAKARAMAANA VIDUMURAI!
         "Z ROZHDESTVOM  KHRYSTOVYM"    >+<          "STASTNY NOVY ROK-CHEERS!!
        "NADOLIG LLAWEN-GOTT NYTTSAR"    !          "CHING CHI SHEN TAN-@@@@@!!
      "CRACIUN FERICIT-GOJAN KRISTNASKON"                  ***  **!!          !
      "S  NOVYM  GODOM-FELIZ ANO NUEVO"          .-'-.  mmmmmm  !!!!          !
     "GLEDILEG JOL-NOELINIZ KUTLU OLSUM"      .-' .-. '-.!  !   xxxx          !
    "EEN GELUKKIG NIEUWJAAR-SRETAN BOSIC"  .-' .-'   '-. '-.!    .            !
   "KRIHSTLINDJA GEZUAR-KALA CHRISTOUGENA"  .-'         '-. '-.               !
  "SELAMAT HARI NATAL - LAIMINGU NAUJU METU"'               '-. '-.           !
       "SARBATORI FERICITE-BUON  ANNO"   !   ___________     !-..!-           !
      "ZORIONEKO GABON-HRISTOS SE RODI"  !   !__o_!__!__!    !                !
     "BOLDOG KARACSONNY- VESELE  VANOCE" !   !_ooo!__@__!    !                !
    "MERRY CHRISTMAS**JOY**HAPPY NEW YEAR"   !ooooo__#__!    !      (\_/)-=)) !
   "ROOMSAID JOULU PUHI -KUNG HO SHENG TEN"     .            !     =('.')=//  !
  "FELICES PASUAS-EIN GLUCKICHES  NEUEJAHR*.-.-' -.._________!     ( ~~~ )/   !
"PRIECIGUS ZIEMAS SVETKUS  SARBATORI VESLLE"            '-.-''-..  `w---w`    !
"BONNE ANNEE-BLWYDDYN NEWYDD DDA*FELIZ NATAL"                     '-....      !
SHENORAVOR SOORP TSENOONT,SHENORAVOR NOR DARI"                                !
EID MUBARAK -|- MALIGAYANG PASKO -|- GEZEELLIGE"                              !
KERSTMIS -|- CHRISTUJUMNA RUKSHUMMA -|- PIVDLUANA"                            !
JODLUME UKIOTARME-LO ~|~ HAUOLI MAKAHIKI HOU ~|~ "                            !
CHUC MUNG NGAY TROI SINH - CHUC MUNG NAM MOI--*--*-"                          !
HAPPY KWANZAA ~*~ NODLAIG MHAITH CHUGNOT*X*X*X*X*X*X"                         !
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I will add some thoughts under the holiday tree hoping that most of you will
miss them (the tree grew so high -- please continue sending me additions).
It is hard to write something on the occasion of entering a new millennium.
I am not a prophet (I hope... {:-)}). But there is also a less heavy
anniversary...

The CCL will be 10 years old in January. On one hand it asks for celebrations,
on the other hand, I wish that I could unveil something on this occasion
saying: "The New CCL for The New Millenium". Unfortunately I have tons of ideas
and very little time to implement any of them. The truth is that "something"
has to pay my salary, and CCL does not.  But I hope that this service is
still very helpful as it is. Thank you for your good word and encouragement.
It helps to hope that you do something useful. I want to use this occasion
to thank the OSC management for 10 years of continuing support of CCL 
not only with equipment, space, and network access, but also for providing
for students assistants. I also want to thank those of you, who support the
CCL Development fund. This is very important for me not only because it 
brings money which I can use to support students assistants and partially
reimburse OSC for hardware and software. It is also very important since
it proves that there are some people who not only say "CCL is useful" but
also bet their money on it. Thank you very much... If you did not contribute
yet, please consider. Just send me a check as described in the page:

   http://www.ccl.net/chemistry/aboutccl/supporting

The fact that I need your support is part of a much broader phenomenon. 
I see how my public radio station fights for support from the listeners.
The same with public TV. When I go back to 15 years ago, they did not
do so much advertising (woops... thanking) their supporters. They had
the core support coming from private, public, and government foundations.
This support actually is no longer adequate. We all realize that everything
costs. Everything has to pay for itself. But it became so urgent in
recent years. It is easy too see how much money goes to ever growing
government bureaucracy (controller controlling controller of the controller
who controls the manager of controllers) which makes sure that our
taxes are spent equitably and legally. Yes, it gives work for many people
and we have less unemployment, but this workforce could do something
more useful than pushing paper and red tape on us. This is a general
trend, and it seems to be everywhere. As an example... Poland, the country
where I was born, is now free of communists, it joined the free market
team. It is a democracy.  At the same time, it has now about twice the 
amount bureaucrats compared to the worst period of communist regime (which
is synonymous with bureaucracy). And the Parkinson's law is as valid as
before. Why societies cannot make better use of their people but to put
them at work to push paper? The same is visible everywhere, at each stage
of the society. 

CCL is in a much better position with its steady support from OSC. 
However, it is a general situation that community services have to support
themselves. The universities are no longer the idealized sites where people
learn and teach. The better known universities nowadays are more like
a non-profit research institutes supporting themselves through contracts.
While their advertise their faculty as the best researchers in the nation,
these faculty members rarely teach. They pay themselves out of this with
"time release". At the same time there is a steady pressure from the public
to make the scientists do something useful. The problem is that things
which are really (really!!!) useful would be most likely dismissed by 99% of
the public as  "wasteful big science which does not result in the product"
(which could have the potential to contribute to products which
nobody yet dreamed off). At the same time we are quite guilty trivializing
all what we do, and trying to tie it to "important practical applications" and
"economic impact". There are some popular overviews  of the dangers
(see for example: "The Kept University" piece by Eyal Press and Jennifer
Washburn published by Atlantic Monthly: 

   http://www.theatlantic.com/cgi-bin/o/issues/2000/03/press.htm )

No, I am not against the corporate research. I actually think that 
you guys in corporate research do on average more research than people
in academia (where we spend much of our time writing proposals and serving
almighty bureaucracy rather than doing research). But the current status is
quite uncomfortable for academia and corporate research.
There are several major issues from my perspective:

  1) Intellectual property (I know I will enrage many people, but the
     results of research done in academia should be in my humble opinion
     public domain. Oh yes, giving proper credit, or course, but research
     done at academia should not be patented or sold. But many of us are
     forced to do it to support their research. Our administrations
     see research as asset which can be sold. It is a big change from
     say 30 years ago, when research results coming from academia were
     just a proof of competent faculty. And in some places, when you publish
     something which is patentable and do not work secure patent for this,
     you may be in trouble. At the same time, we now patent genes which God
     gave us, and algorithms, i.e., mathematics. Where it will stop?
     I understand that these are lucrative litigation areas, but it may be
     time to wake up.  

  2) The pressure for scientists to "earn" money. This forces faculty
     to look for research which actually brings revenues rather than
     things which are risky but exciting. In other words, the science
     done at academia is less and less "learning", but more and more
     contract work for commercial or political sector. The collaboration
     between academia and corporate research suffers (since many corporate
     scientists wanting to collaborate with their academic colleagues
     face the question: "OK, how much you can give me", while we all know
     that the corporate scientists are not the ones who hold purses).
     At the same time, scientists relying on government support have
     to produce "success stories" (i.e., photo or media opportunities)
     for politicians rather than focus on the important problems which
     do not tie nicely to: "We save lifes", "We drive the economic
     progress", "We make our country powerful". Not that it is bad,
     but technology transfer is the last, not the first step in
     scientific research. Not all science is engineering... 

  3) The requirement to be productive. Many people choose to publish
     the same paper over and over again to show "contribution" rather
     than think about something really new to learn and do, or just
     about passing their body of knowledge to students either by
     teaching or by publishing a book. It is not an exaggeration to say
     that "success" at the research university is essentially the
     amount of overhead brought from extramural funding (make no
     mistakes, the equipment is a problem, since it takes space and
     money to operate, unless it also attract additional funding).
     The transition from tenure-track to tenure in research universities
     depends on the support acquisition success stories. Also, the changes
     in tenure system which essentially scrapped the security of academic
     positions makes you wonder how academic freedom is defined.
     The underlying assumption is that there is a peer review system
     which rewards the "productive", "constructive", and "innovative".
     I hope it works well all the time, but I reserve my doubts.
     Of course, some people may become unproductive with time if not
     stimulated by "evaluation". But we forgot one thing... Science
     is not a profession, it is a call from within. If you do not have
     this call, you should not practice it. You should not be a priest
     if you do not feel the constant need to get closer to God. You should
     not be a scientist if you do not want to offer your mind and body
     to science and join the harsh convent. Only those of us who are
     true believers should be admitted to the chosen group of higher
     priests (tenure). Unfortunately, the criteria for granting tenure
     do not probe these virtues and seem often to stress the expediency.

Let us hope that these clouds will disappear and the Sun will shine again.

In short: 
For all of us, more stability and opportunity to do what we believe in.
Let us hope that the turbulent economic times can be avoided.
Let also hope that some of the brightest kids will try to choose
science as profession rather than take "professional careers" like
dentists, lawyers and managers.

Best of Holidays, and Happy New Year for all of you

Jan Labanowski
[email-masked]

Jan K. Labanowski            |    phone: 614-292-9279,  FAX: 614-292-7168
Ohio Supercomputer Center    |    Internet: [email-masked] 
1224 Kinnear Rd,             |    http://www.ccl.net/chemistry.html
Columbus, OH 43212-1163      |    http://www.ccl.net/