Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

fortune.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 174 posts

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

#81

Post by Cytobit »

himata4113 wrote: post #8

This appears to be for investigating how many scientist have left the US sponsored by state powers. But this also seems like bad communication on the FBI and perhaps poor publishing. I think there is some confusion that there are more people going missing and dying in the sector while not outlining that there are more people going missing AND dying. Or I'm just completely wrong, the only reason why I am making such a…

It's hard to believe that this administration would suddenly care about brain drain, after decimating all academic grants and generally exhibiting anti-intellectual behavior.

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

#82

Post by harddrivereque »

willis936 wrote: post #72
pj_mukh wrote: 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.

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

Speaking in layman's terms, it's fancy remote microwaving.

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

#83

Post by Cytobit »

ozten wrote: post #7
F7F7F7 wrote: post #4

Turns out scientists die too?

> the concentration of deaths and disappearances within such a small, specialized field as defying ordinary probability. The best conspiracy theory I've seen online is that top-secret energy/weapons plans were sold by a traitor, and these scientists were kidnapped to be the worker bees. Terribly dark and implausible, but also, we are living through a storyline that writers wouldn't even consider a draft because it's…

> defying ordinary probability

Improbable events do not defy probability.

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

#84

Post by cucumber3732842 »

krapp wrote: post #79
cucumber3732842 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 mea…

Being able to see the evidince presented by the alternatives, the degree to which they're grasping at straws, the scope of their criticism, etc. you can get a handle on the general degree of legitimacy of the original reporting.

When some source says something and backs it up with numbers and everyone on the other side attacks the conclusion but not the numbers that says something about the numbers.

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

#85

Post by vasac »

trhway wrote: post #62
b112 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't have to be China or Russia. As others have mentioned, the current political climate in the US is... "weird". At least, as an outsider, I just don't know how else to describe it. It's like watching/listening to gibberish. So I can imagine American allies recruiting scientists en-mass, to protect themselves from America. The US has currently demonstrated a desire to take over allies completely (Canada, Green…

>to protect themselves from America. not necessarily from America. The goal #1 of the US dominated NATO for example was to prevent Germany from getting nuclear weapons in exchange for protection by US. Now with US de-facto withdrawing, Germany would have to quickly get nukes (as well as missiles to carry them) - i don't see other option for Germany here giving the environment in Europe and MidEast. So they would also…

> Germany would have to quickly get nukes

No shit? Why would they have to? Is someone ready to nuke them if it turns out they’re no longer under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, or are they some special snowflakes who should have them while Iran (and most other countries) shouldn’t?

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

#86

Post by blks »

nickandbro wrote: post #19

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

It’s a list of scientists, admin workers, janitors, assistants, and one person is a pseudoscientific grifter.

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

#87

Post by willis936 »

harddrivereque wrote: post #82
willis936 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Speaking in layman's terms, it's fancy remote microwaving.

No, it's not. There was one hasty study that claimed that early on, riddled with issues, and unable to be replicated. The symptoms are not RF burns.

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

#88

Post by poulpy123 »

blks wrote: post #86
nickandbro wrote: post #19

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

It’s a list of scientists, admin workers, janitors, assistants, and one person is a pseudoscientific grifter.

And retirees

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

#89

Post by PoignardAzur »

King-Aaron wrote: post #49
pj_mukh wrote: 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.

> Amy Eskridge - who publicly stated she was not suicidal before "committing suicide"

I really hate the discourse around this stuff. Like, yes, disguising murder as suicide is a thing and obviously three-letters agencies do it.

But someone saying publicly they're not suicidal gives you close to zero information. People with suicidal ideation almost never advertise it publicly because, one, there is a heavy amount of social stigma attached to it, and two, publicly declaring you're suicidal is a good way to get involuntarily committed to a mental health institution.

I see a ton of jokes on social media that go "remember, X is not suicidal". How the fuck would you know? This discourse is so disrespectful to people struggling with suicidal thoughts.

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

#90

Post by blks »

King-Aaron wrote: post #49
pj_mukh wrote: 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.

She is also not a scientists, but some weird grifter with her “Institute of Exotic Science” and “antigravity” paper.
Post reply on HN