<p>Hypothetically, if this shutdown continued into the new year, the effect on college students would be interesting to watch unfold…</p>
<p>Let’s get back to serious impacts of the shutdown:</p>
<p>[Shutdown</a> means no new beer from craft brewers](<a href=“http://bigstory.ap.org/article/shutdown-means-no-new-beer-craft-brewers]Shutdown”>http://bigstory.ap.org/article/shutdown-means-no-new-beer-craft-brewers)</p>
<p>nj2011mom,
I posted a similar tongue in cheek post a few days ago here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16439771-post289.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16439771-post289.html</a> and spiritmanager responded with a very sobering (sorry bad pun but couldn’t resist) follow-up post <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16439796-post290.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16439796-post290.html</a></p>
<p>(those are the links to the 2 posts)</p>
<p>Coincidentally, I just talked to my general contractor about a separate matter. He lost 4 major building contracts because of the shutdown. Those contracts represented his entire income for fall and winter. He just informed me that he is shuttering his contracting business & moving out of the area. He is an honest, talented guy who works hard and lives close to the margins - I am sorry to see him fold.</p>
<p>The NIH labs are still operating as their shutdown could otherwise harm or kill cells and animals that are being studied. My company has collaborators there and they’ve been through this kind of fire drill many times before.</p>
<p>PubMed seems to be broken in some areas though.</p>
<p>check this journal resource out, vballmom! [Free</a> Medical Journals | by Amedeo.com](<a href=“http://freemedicaljournals.com/]Free”>http://freemedicaljournals.com/)</p>
<p>Thanks jym, don’t want to derail the thread, but Open Access is a bit of a can of worms.</p>
<p>can you give me the cliffnotes explanation of the concerns, vballmom?</p>
<ol>
<li> The public has a right to freely access the scientific research it has funded</li>
<li> Major for-profit journals (Science/Nature/Cell) add value and therefore rightfully charge for access to their articles</li>
<li> Review journals which have art departments and editors enhance our knowledge and should be compensated</li>
<li> The business model of scientific societies often relies heavily on charging for their publications and offering them as a benefit for joining the society</li>
<li> Various other concerns regarding authors’ ability to purchase space in non-peer reviewed publications</li>
</ol>
<p>We almost canceled our long-planned trip to five Utah national parks last week, but we decided to go at the last minute. Im so glad we went. Small businesses that are dependent on tourism in the national parks have been devastated by the shutdown, with many of them fearing bankruptcy. I was glad I was there to support them with my tourist dollars.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the shutdown occurred during the high season for the Utah national parks. Springdale, Bryce Canyon City, and Moab should have been bustling at this time of year, but they were weirdly quiet. Nine counties in Utah have already declared states of emergencies due to economic disruption.</p>
<p>We encountered a number of foreign tourists from France, Canada, Australia, and other European countries. Some of them said theyd been planning and saving for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the US national parks for years. Although they were mostly philosophical about the shutdown, some of them were inconsolable. All I could do was apologize for our dysfunctional government.</p>
<p>Of course we were disappointed we didnt get to visit the national parks, but we ended up having a great time. Through word of mouth from other displaced tourists, we were directed to sights we never would have known about or seen had the national parks been open. Our hike in Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon/Bell Canyon was one of the top five travel experiences weve ever had, and we travel a lot.</p>
<p>“The NIH labs are still operating as their shutdown could otherwise harm or kill cells and animals that are being studied.”</p>
<p>Thanks for confirming that, vballmom. Mr B and I were talking about this during breakfast.
Imagine how much would have gone to waste if some bureaucrat decided to pull the plug on the scientists’ access cards to the research facilities? Transgenic mice, treasured cell lines, etc. - all gone! Thank goodness that the scientists still have access to their labs. I would continue working, too.</p>
<p>Maintaining cell lines and feeding animals doesn’t mean that research is also continuing. The labs are minimally staffed.</p>
<p>Of course, Hunt, the whole situation is so sad, but at least when the government “opens”, and the scientists return to work, they will not find cages full of dead mice…</p>
<p>Mommo3, on our trip to New Mexico last week we ended up hiking in state parks and local trails instead of the national monuments we had hoped to visit. We did enjoy them, but still wish we could have stuck with our original itinerary because I really wanted to see them!</p>
<p>RE: post #469</p>
<p>PubMed is not being updated and is running very, very slowly. The National Library of Medicine, Library of Congress and NIH libraries (as well as federal agency libraries like National Agricultural Library) are all closed. I work at a small biomedical research library and we’ve seen a very sharp uptick in the number of ILL requests for some of the less common biomedical journals we hold, requests that would otherwise go to NIH or NLM. And in the same vein, we’re having trouble getting some journal articles requested by our scientists since we can’t get them from NLM or NIH and no other library in US holds the journal.</p>
<p>And jym–open access journals can be a great resource or a huge scam. It’s a major issue in librarianship right now.</p>
<p>See this npr report:</p>
<p><a href=“Some Online Journals Will Publish Fake Science, For A Fee : Shots - Health News : NPR”>Some Online Journals Will Publish Fake Science, For A Fee : Shots - Health News : NPR;
<p><a href=“Shutdown Imperils Costly Lab Mice, Years Of Research : Shots - Health News : NPR”>Shutdown Imperils Costly Lab Mice, Years Of Research : Shots - Health News : NPR;
<p>This piece is saying that some (a lot) lab mice will likely be killed because of the shut down. The lab scientists are not able to go in to maintain the lines.</p>
<p>intparent, I know what you mean. Hopefully, you’ll be able to return someday, unlike many of the foreigners we encountered on our trip. We’re already planning our next trip to Utah. Although we visited Zion and Bryce on a previous trip, we really wanted to see Arches, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands. Fortunately, we were able to drive through Capitol Reef. Everyone was stopping and walking around to see the sights, even though it wasn’t allowed. We also got a great view of Canyonlands from Dead Horse Point State Park.</p>
<p>Just read the Utah governor has found a way around the government shutdown. Utah will pay the NPS to open its five national parks and three national monuments by Saturday. Good news for future travelers and Utahans affected by the shutdown, but too late for us. Talk about bad timing.</p>
<p>[Utah’s</a> national parks will reopen despite ongoing government shutdown - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/11/us/utah-parks-reopen/]Utah’s”>http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/11/us/utah-parks-reopen/)</p>
<p>Utah and 3 other states are reopening their National Parks, but New Mexico’s governor, Susanna Martinez, has refused to exercise this option.</p>
<p>[Shutdown:</a> NM won’t reopen Carlsbad Caverns despite Obama ruling - Carlsbad Current-Argus](<a href=“http://www.currentargus.com/carlsbad-news/ci_24285251/shutdown-nm-wont-reopen-carlsbad-caverns-despite-obama]Shutdown:”>http://www.currentargus.com/carlsbad-news/ci_24285251/shutdown-nm-wont-reopen-carlsbad-caverns-despite-obama)</p>
<p>Some of the smaller towns–like Carlsbad, NM, and Aztec, NM, which are heavily dependent on tourism are already suffering serious economic downturns from the National Park closures</p>
<p>Additionally, it’s the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque this week (which draws tens of thousands of tourists to the state). Usually these tourist stick around and visit other scenic areas/National Parks, but this year they can’t.</p>
<p>In related federal shut down news: both Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories will close on Tuesday. Together that puts 20,000 direct employed individuals out of work. When you start to count the contractors, suppliers and support services–the numbers are probably three times that. In Los Alamos–which is a company town if there ever was one–LANL’s closing will instantly unemploy 1/6th of the town’s and county’s population.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is a little more nuanced than that. If they are Government Workers (vs. contractors), they will be paid. so, while they may not have to “work”, they will get paid eventually. Think of it as being on vacation. And, assuming they do not live paycheck to paycheck (I’m sure Los Alamos workers are paid well), they will continue to spend.</p>
<p>
There have been numerous posts in response to ideas such as this. I found this post a little amusing.</p>