Ouch!...

Full report here

At a panel discussion at the conference, a number of scientists and science policymakers said these poll figures reveal a startling degree of public skepticism toward the United States's ability to compete globally in scientific research. They blamed the public's perception of the United States as a dwindling science powerhouse on a lack of long-term thinking by lawmakers tasked with funding national science endeavors. While China and the European Union have taken steps to increase their research budgets, the United States more recently has struggled to keep its research budget from declining...

No sooner than yesterday's posting. I thought to scale back my comments. I'm glad I didn't!

To be fair and elucidate: the chart above and a the link below the picture seems at first glance we're OK having the proverbial "biggest piece of the pie." Adding all the other parts, it merely says collectively there is skepticism regarding our collective ability to do anything of significance or visionary leadership. A collective sigh; a national shoulder-shrug.

Cosmological Age, Evolution, Global Warming: we've become a sound-bite culture where journalism is meaningless, coreligionist rather than reasoned or rational, more concerned with scoring political points than solving critical problems: and jingoism is not patriotism! It makes Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" and "Parable of the Talents" almost prophetic.

Prophecy, nor predictive models have to be destiny: it only occurs when either go unheeded.

AAAS Science Mag - Poll: Many U.S. Voters Have Gloomy View of America's Science Future