The latest practical consequence of the unhappy times we live in (NASA NTRS offline)

Today's bitter surprise.

From http://ntrs.nasa.gov/

"The NASA technical reports server will be unavailable for public access while the agency conducts a review of the site's content to ensure that it does not contain technical information that is subject to U.S. export control laws and regulations and that the appropriate reviews were performed. The site will return to service when the review is complete.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

 

Nothing new about protecting sensitive Govt or corporate intellectual property, you'd wonder why "the appropriate reviews" weren't performed as a matter of course before publication.

 

I agree. It will take a huge time and resources to do it now on tons of files which have piled up in their servers in all these years.

 

Reaction

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/us/nasa-shuts-down-database-during-security-inquiry.html?_r=0

 

A more complete explanation for NASA's actions can be found in this article:

New York Times | Database Is Shut Down by NASA for a Review

Seems our dear friends from China can't resist helping themselves to whatever information we happen to leave lying about. Cybertheft of national and corporate intellectual property by the Chinese government has become a huge problem in the last decade.

How China Steals Our Secrets, by Richard Clark, former National Security Advisor

U.S. to announce counterstrikes Wednesday against Chinese computer hacking, data theft

 

from that NY Times article.........
On Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr, the NASA administrator, told a House committee that he has ordered a review of the “access which foreign nationals from designated countries are granted at NASA facilities,” and had issued a moratorium on any new requests for access from citizens of several countries, including China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

I wonder why Saudis got a mention

 

Interesting to review "Operation Paperclip ". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip and the birth of the american space program.

 

They probably shut the barn door after the horse got out, anyway.

 

The mere fact that a former SS officer was very prominent in the Apollo saga should be enough to put the CT hoax ratbags out of their misery, must unlikely anyone with those antecedents have found employment in a bogus U.S moon landing program !

 

Hahahahahahaha!

 

Industrial espionage threatens dominance. . To rule the world A superpower needs total spectrum dominance .

Simply read this Bloomberg article and you will understand how easy it was for the US to gain dominance .

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...-propelled-the-u-s-industrial-revolution.html

 

People are always stealing things. The British stole half the world at one stage. Germany tried to steal a lot of real estate about 70 years ago. Such is the way of the world.

 

This is the natural evolution. I worry when the Government, military industrial complex steps in to...make their own rules.

 

At least in the USA the government is largely elected. Barring the Supreme Court, the American People can change every person in government in a span of six years. I think that the outrage people all over the world have about NASA or other American sites closing or restricting information is unwarranted. They have no specific right of access to American paid for technology.

 

It's ridiculous. All the parts accessible to public has been pumped long time ago. The hackers kids had pumped all the midly restricted area ages ago. The espionage services of many countries had already pumped all the restricted areas when chickens were dinosaurs with teeth, and computers worked with steam.

If you keep sensitive data in computers connected to the web (with direct access by simple sergeants like we have see in the affair of the Wikileaks !!!), you're giving it to the world. The NASA mess shows some incapacity (for using an euphemism)...

It's just paranoia media bogus to point an enemy to fear and despise, and to govern "easily" as a former USA president (you know the guy who was technically a deserter during Vietnam War) did using all the good lessons of mass manipulation by Herr Doktor Goebbels (after all, his grand dad worked for the Nazis, so he showed the path to the descendants).

The Chinese are now the new enemy of the USA, as were the communists in the 50 to 90, and Islamics since 90. That justifies all the military-industry complex and the ensuing wars (and make rich the happy few). Eisenhower was prophetic on this point, read carefully Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 (http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html) and you'll understand, almost all is described...Einsenhower, at the difference of some successors in the presidency, proved his value and moral rectitude. I believe that he can't be accused of being a "lazy pro-communist liberal"...

PS The Chinese have a significant part of the USA debt, and may refuse to buy new bonds, or Japan and EU are in economics trouble, so not in position to spend money in "beginning to be junk bonds", because trust is no more 100%, not even 80%.
"On 19 March 2013, debt held by the public was approximately $11.888 trillion or about 75% of GDP. Intra-governmental holdings stood at $4.861 trillion, giving a combined total public debt of $16.749 trillion.[4][5][5][6] As of July 2012, $5.3 trillion or approximately 48% of the debt held by the public was owned by foreign investors, the largest of which were the People's Republic of China and Japan at just over $1.1 trillion each.[7]" source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States.
I almost forgot, the Chinese are working very hard for changing the currency used in international exchanges. if the US dollar is abandoned even partially in favor of a new independent currency, the USA financial position becomes very delicate...