I don't have a lot of time to post this, because I have to get back into the lab. You see, I am a resarcher working on project that relies on samples from Antarctica. And thanks to the GOP, all of a sudden my project is in danger as well as many other researchers.
So I wanted to alert the DKos community to the horrific possibility that all US Antarctic research for the entire year may be in jeopardy if the shutdown continues much longer:
From Nature's news site More details in the linked article, but here are the basics:
he National Science Foundation (NSF) is likely to cancel the US Antarctic programme’s upcoming field season if the US government shutdown persists through mid-October — jeopardizing hundreds of scientists’ work in glaciology, ecology and astrophysics.
The agency has kept its three Antarctic research stations open during the initial days of the shutdown, which began on 1 October, under rules designed to protect human lives and US government property. But Lockheed Martin, the contractor that runs the NSF’s Antarctic operations, has told researchers that it will run out of money by mid-October.
At that point, the company would be forced to evacuate all but a skeleton staff from McMurdo, Amundsen–Scott and Palmer stations. And that would spell the end to this year’s research season, which normally runs from October to February.