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FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

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71–80 of 174 posts

Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#71
post #32

A lot of people are saying it’s disconnected, but even if it was, if a string of your country’s top rocket experts started disappearing, you wouldn’t just sit idly by

Could be nothing, or could be a new Havana Syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome What's sad is, 5-10 years ago, no adversary would think simply off-ing American scientists was effective strategy, America was a new scientist generation machine . Now thanks to Research funding falling off a cliff and massive immigration restrictions, this is no longer true.

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Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#72
post #32

A lot of people are saying it’s disconnected, but even if it was, if a string of your country’s top rocket experts started disappearing, you wouldn’t just sit idly by

Could be nothing, or could be a new Havana Syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome What's sad is, 5-10 years ago, no adversary would think simply off-ing American scientists was effective strategy, America was a new scientist generation machine . Now thanks to Research funding falling off a cliff and massive immigration restrictions, this is no longer true.

Havana Syndrome seems to be a CIA psyop to soften the US public to warhawk policy. The proposed mechanism is... magic. Incredible stuff.

Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#73

> McCasland, 68, disappeared from his Albuquerque home on Feb. 27 of this year, leaving on foot with only a .38 caliber revolver. [...] Government contractor Steven Garcia, [...] disappeared from Albuquerque in August 2025, last seen on surveillance footage leaving on foot with a handgun. Not american, so I can't judge if this is a common thing or irregular, but both were last seen carrying firearms as if they'd be t…

Suicide by gun isn't uncommon either.

Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#74

> McCasland, 68, disappeared from his Albuquerque home on Feb. 27 of this year, leaving on foot with only a .38 caliber revolver. [...] Government contractor Steven Garcia, [...] disappeared from Albuquerque in August 2025, last seen on surveillance footage leaving on foot with a handgun. Not american, so I can't judge if this is a common thing or irregular, but both were last seen carrying firearms as if they'd be t…

Suicide by gun isn't uncommon either.

It is probably more uncommon that they leave by foot in New Mexico - I mean where are some 60-year old going to go by foot and shot themselves without their bodies being found.

Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#75
post #71
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could be nothing, or could be a new Havana Syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome What's sad is, 5-10 years ago, no adversary would think simply off-ing American scientists was effective strategy, America was a new scientist generation machine . Now thanks to Research funding falling off a cliff and massive immigration restrictions, this is no longer true.

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Awww your data drops off at 2023. You’re so smart.

Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#76
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could be nothing, or could be a new Havana Syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome What's sad is, 5-10 years ago, no adversary would think simply off-ing American scientists was effective strategy, America was a new scientist generation machine . Now thanks to Research funding falling off a cliff and massive immigration restrictions, this is no longer true.

Amy Eskridge - who publicly stated she was not suicidal before "committing suicide" reported to her friends that she received burns to her arms and hands through her window in an attack that sounded similar to this microwave/havana syndrome stuff. She was very vocal about the fact that she was being harassed over her work before she died.

[dead]

Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suicide by gun isn't uncommon either.

It is probably more uncommon that they leave by foot in New Mexico - I mean where are some 60-year old going to go by foot and shot themselves without their bodies being found.

[dead]

Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suicide by gun isn't uncommon either.

It is probably more uncommon that they leave by foot in New Mexico - I mean where are some 60-year old going to go by foot and shot themselves without their bodies being found.

[dead]

Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's good news and bad news. Unfortunately they're the same news. Given the rapid dissolution of any sort of publicly verifiable 'news' outlet, and the abject commercialization of media, plus the doublespeak of politicians and businesses, the PR industry, self-censorship in response to cancel-culture and other divisive popular behavioral trends, and the replication crisis in science - it's not just you. It's every…

>Given the rapid dissolution of any sort of publicly verifiable 'news' outlet When was the news ever publicly verifiable? If Walter Kronkiue said that the North Vietnamese shot at our naval vessels twice on two different days you had no way of even accessing alternative viewpoints and that the 2nd day was questionable, you just had to trust him. Today with all the contrarians and competing alternate sources it's argu…

And how would you be able to publicly verify the competing alternate sources and the smoking gun? It's no different than the situation with old media, except there's more noise and disinformation, and everything is easier to fake.

Unless you personally are physically there with whatever necessary field expertise exists to run experiments or interrogate witnesses, you wind up having to trust somebody either way.

I mean the fact that the effect of all of this "alternative" media has been the complete dissolution of any kind of objective reality in favor of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience, rather than holding power to account, should demonstrate that it isn't better.

Re: FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX

#80
post #32

A lot of people are saying it’s disconnected, but even if it was, if a string of your country’s top rocket experts started disappearing, you wouldn’t just sit idly by

Could be nothing, or could be a new Havana Syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome What's sad is, 5-10 years ago, no adversary would think simply off-ing American scientists was effective strategy, America was a new scientist generation machine . Now thanks to Research funding falling off a cliff and massive immigration restrictions, this is no longer true.

So it could be nothing or it could be nothing?
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