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It's been more than a year since University of Wisconsin chemist Bassam Shakhashiri was removed as head of the National Science Foundation's science education directorate, but the memory of his five-year campaign for a $600 million budget for the program--as well as his clashes with former NSF director Erich Bloch--have lingered on, even at Yuletide. His most recent Christmas card to friends shows him as a Santa Claus leaving a present that features a bar graph of NSF science education funding. The figure on it for 1993 matches his long- sought goal, despite the fact that the foundation's budget request for the program this week was expected to fall well short of that amount. Likewise, a politically savvy Santa Claus who attended his popular holiday chemistry show ...