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Whomever wrote that headline missed a much more significant, and painfully biting, point: "Jiang, a former contractor at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hamp

Whomever wrote that headline missed a much more significant, and painfully biting, point: "Jiang, a former contractor at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, had recently been let go by his employer because of pressure from Republican congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia. Wolf had claimed Jiang and other Chinese engineers employed by NASA contractors were a security risk." "But it quickly became apparent that Jiang was at worst guilty of violating NASA policies. [...] Jiang had not had clearance to such projects at Langley as an employee of the National Institute of Aerospace" "A press release issued by Wolf after the arrest and copy of Jiang's arrest warrant have since disappeared off the the congressman's website. In the release (cached by Google here), Wolf had said, 'I am particularly concerned that (the) information (on Jiang's laptop) may pertain to the source code for high-tech imaging technology that Jiang has been working on with NASA. This information could have significant military applications for the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army.'" Confirmed, the USA has entered back into full McCarthyism. Request title change to 'Chinese contractor fired on suspicion by Republican senator'.

mjn 13y ago
Political pressure from ignorant Republican congressmen not only resulted in Jiang being fired over this non-incident, but something even more serious for science in general: the entire NASA technical-report archive [1], with documents dating back decades, has been forced offline indefinitely [2]. Frank Wolf and his ilk are worried [3] that the Red Chinese might be reading some 1970s document in a way that compromises American national security. Never mind that the Chinese likely have copied a mirror of any documents they find interesting already. So now it's only American researchers who can't access it: there are no complete mirrors of which I'm aware, because U.S. libraries and archives naively assumed that NASA was a reliable long-term host for the documents, meaning there were no serious mirroring efforts. Maybe we can ask China to take pity on us and make a mirror available, since ntrs.nasa.gov being down breaks thousands of references in papers and elsewhere. [1] http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ [2] http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2013/03/ntrs_dark/ http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2013/03/ntrs_dark/ [3] http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=40365 http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=40365
- kanzure 13y ago
  > meaning there were no serious mirroring efforts Unfortunately, this is also the case for the majority of commercially-published science. And no, JSTOR is not a good response because JSTOR doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of science. Science is one of the most important efforts in human history, and we don't have backups, or even mirrors. Great. Edit: does anyone know some orgs with deep pockets that would be willing to accept and host 30-50 terabytes of papers? I can't seem to find anyone that doesn't wuss out. I know it's risky, but it's also critically important.
  - wisty 13y ago
    > Does anyone know some orgs with deep pockets that would be willing to accept and host 30-50 terabytes of papers? The Pirate Bay?
    - kanzure 13y ago
      > The Pirate Bay? Sorry, but TPB doesn't actually host any content.
      - maaku 13y ago
        Yes, but if you threw a torrent up with every published paper since Galileo, there'd be be plenty of people willing to seed.
        Oxxide 13y ago
        that means someone has to download it, though.
        rosstafarian 13y ago
        I believe some one already tried something similar, it unfortunately didn't end well[0]. If some one does throw up such a torrent though I'd be glad to help seed. [0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
rayiner 13y ago
The fact is that calling the U.S. McCarthyist is a wild exaggeration, but calling China a repressive communist regime is totally accurate. Perspective... do you have any?
- lolcraft 13y ago
  If the US and Europe pretend, as we should, to be shining lighthouses for the cause of freedom and democracy, then for the sake of congruence and principle we should hold ourselves to higher standards than more oppressive regimes. As for the accusation of "wild" exaggeration; granted, it's an exaggeration, and I should probably stop rabble-rousing someday. Still, nationalistic prejudice? Check. Paranoiac delusions of espionage/propaganda? Check. Lack of any reasonable oversight such as, you know, asking NASA by the phone? Check. Harassment of foreign nationals? Check. If anything is lacking, is scale.
  - rayiner 13y ago
    My problem is less the high standards for the U.S. and Europe than it is the low standard for China. I'm quite sick of all the China apologists crawling out of the woodwork rationalizing its repressive communist government (mostly because it's a good place to invest right now). China is too developed to play the "poor third world nation" card anymore. It's playing with the big kids now and should be held to the same standards.
    - lolcraft 13y ago
      I agree completely.
asdffdsa33 13y ago
*whoever

mjn 13y ago

Political pressure from ignorant Republican congressmen not only resulted in Jiang being fired over this non-incident, but something even more serious for science in general: the entire NASA technical-report archive [1], with documents dating back decades, has been forced offline indefinitely [2]. Frank Wolf and his ilk are worried [3] that the Red Chinese might be reading some 1970s document in a way that compromises American national security. Never mind that the Chinese likely have copied a mirror of any documents they find interesting already. So now it's only American researchers who can't access it: there are no complete mirrors of which I'm aware, because U.S. libraries and archives naively assumed that NASA was a reliable long-term host for the documents, meaning there were no serious mirroring efforts. Maybe we can ask China to take pity on us and make a mirror available, since ntrs.nasa.gov being down breaks thousands of references in papers and elsewhere. [1] http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ [2] http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2013/03/ntrs_dark/ http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/2013/03/ntrs_dark/ [3] http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=40365 http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=40365

kanzure 13y ago
> meaning there were no serious mirroring efforts Unfortunately, this is also the case for the majority of commercially-published science. And no, JSTOR is not a good response because JSTOR doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of science. Science is one of the most important efforts in human history, and we don't have backups, or even mirrors. Great. Edit: does anyone know some orgs with deep pockets that would be willing to accept and host 30-50 terabytes of papers? I can't seem to find anyone that doesn't wuss out. I know it's risky, but it's also critically important.
- wisty 13y ago
  > Does anyone know some orgs with deep pockets that would be willing to accept and host 30-50 terabytes of papers? The Pirate Bay?
  - kanzure 13y ago
    > The Pirate Bay? Sorry, but TPB doesn't actually host any content.
    - maaku 13y ago
      Yes, but if you threw a torrent up with every published paper since Galileo, there'd be be plenty of people willing to seed.
      - Oxxide 13y ago
        that means someone has to download it, though.
      - rosstafarian 13y ago
        I believe some one already tried something similar, it unfortunately didn't end well[0]. If some one does throw up such a torrent though I'd be glad to help seed. [0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

rayiner 13y ago

The fact is that calling the U.S. McCarthyist is a wild exaggeration, but calling China a repressive communist regime is totally accurate. Perspective... do you have any?

lolcraft 13y ago
If the US and Europe pretend, as we should, to be shining lighthouses for the cause of freedom and democracy, then for the sake of congruence and principle we should hold ourselves to higher standards than more oppressive regimes. As for the accusation of "wild" exaggeration; granted, it's an exaggeration, and I should probably stop rabble-rousing someday. Still, nationalistic prejudice? Check. Paranoiac delusions of espionage/propaganda? Check. Lack of any reasonable oversight such as, you know, asking NASA by the phone? Check. Harassment of foreign nationals? Check. If anything is lacking, is scale.
- rayiner 13y ago
  My problem is less the high standards for the U.S. and Europe than it is the low standard for China. I'm quite sick of all the China apologists crawling out of the woodwork rationalizing its repressive communist government (mostly because it's a good place to invest right now). China is too developed to play the "poor third world nation" card anymore. It's playing with the big kids now and should be held to the same standards.
  - lolcraft 13y ago
    I agree completely.

asdffdsa33 13y ago

*whoever