Some science is too sensitive to share

A Virginia congressman is calling for stricter security protocols for foreign scientists working at NASA after claims of security breaches at the agency's facilities in Hampton and the Silicon Valley.

What a serious crackdown could mean for U.S. scientists working with colleagues from other countries in rocket science, space exploration or less sensitive fields is unclear, local experts say. But they agree there's a need to keep sensitive scientific advances out of the wrong hands.

"While there is great benefit from international collaboration, there is also a need to protect scientific and technological advances that place the United States in a favorable position in the global economy, as well as to protect advances that help assure the safety of U.S. citizens and property," said Rob Wyman, spokesman at NASA Langley Research Center.

Wolf wants NASA to spend even more. He's also calling for NASA to audit security protocols for foreign access, review all foreign nationals with current agency credentials and halt all new credentialing of foreign nationals of designated "countries of concern" until stronger background checks are in place.

Wolf is chairman of the House Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations subcommittee, which funds NASA.

At the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) in Gloucester Point, some research has commercial or even military applications, but none is proprietary or subject to federal restrictions, said spokesman David Malmquist.

"Until the outcome of any investigation is known, it's not possible for us to gauge how restrictive any new policies or laws might become," Malmquist said.

"We think this will be a non-issue for VIMS," he added, "unless universities face significant new prohibitions on hiring Chinese scientists or accepting Chinese graduate students."

China is of particular interest to Wolf, concerned over the growing number of high-tech thieves and cyber criminals stealing and dealing in U.S. trade secrets and technology. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, of 19 convictions for economic espionage and theft of trade secrets since 2009, 16 involved China.

At Jefferson National Laboratory in Newport News, which operates an underground particle accelerator, nearly all research is fundamental open science. Fundamental science isn't subject to federal export regulations, which typically protect technologies with military potential, said Robert McKeown, deputy director for science. One restricted technology is the lab's free electron laser.

In the late 1990s, he relocated his company, AMAC International, to Newport News, telling the Daily Press at the time he was lured by the reputation of Jefferson Lab which uses cryogenics to supercool its accelerator and state financial incentives. AMAC was based in a facility adjacent to the lab.Enjoy the outdoors from the comfort of your own home with recreated customkeychain.

According to news reports, within a few years Shu had accrued millions of dollars in contracts with the U.S. Army and Coast Guard, and millions more in federal grants from NASA to the Department of Energy. He had engaged in three collaborative research projects at Jefferson Lab.

Eventually, Shu began to shift his company from research and development to marketing American high-tech products in China and Europe.

In 2008, he was arrested and charged with illegally turning over rocket technology to the Chinese government and bribing key Chinese officials. An investigation showed he'd been helping Chinese officials since 2003 to illegally acquire new technologies used in the design and development of the Hainan space launch facility, a violation of the federal Arms Export Control Act.

For Thomas Reins, technical work on Regis Jesuit High School's burgeoning online broadcasts fueled a desire to work in an on-air role for RJ Live, one of the school's strongest extracurricular clubs. This year, he found his voice as primary color commentator.

"What I wanted to get out of broadcasting early on was free tickets to the game, hanging out and watching my classmates play," the 18-year-old senior said. "But it slowly developed into my passion. I love high school basketball, and broadcasting really gave me an opportunity to channel my love."

Across Colorado and the nation, schools have seized on relatively cheap technology, a growing array of private partners and a tech-savvy student body to stream more and more events live through webcasts.

Sports dominate the video offerings, but other events such as assemblies, drama productions and daily announcements add opportunities for schools to access a wider audience, cultivate valuable skills among their students and, perhaps, create a new stream of revenue.

Much like the Internet itself, there's still a Wild West feel to the evolving landscape of live online video.Shop for wholesale free shipping ear caps directly from bestluggagetag wholesalers in China. Colorado schools largely piece together their own technical arrangements,An bestrtls is a term used for a network of devices used to wirelessly locate objects. often in collaboration with a growing number of companies that offer Web software and services.

CHSAA also has sold rights to playoff games to Play On Sports, which is experimenting here with a pay-per-view online business model. That deal,Spice up the ambiance of your home with canvas chipcard. recently extended for another five years, has restored revenue to CHSAA that had fallen off from broadcast-television contracts.

"We're trying to provide a logical and organized avenue for (schools) to follow through," said Bert Borgmann, assistant commissioner at CHSAA. "I think we're getting close, but it's still a little bit of a free-for-all."

Advertisers are still slow to recognize streaming video as a vehicle, though schools can keep whatever revenue they muster on regular-season events. And the pay-per-view model relies on viewership that's still unpredictable.

"The person who figures out how to make money on this," Borgmann said, "is going to be the winner in the end."

With the exception of the contracted playoff games, CHSAA takes a mostly hands-off approach to schools that want to produce live webcasts either on their own or in concert with private vendors, so long as it's cleared through the state office. But with the deal for playoff rights, money already has begun to complicate matters.

Some of the schools that have embraced the live online feeds happen to be strong basketball schools, which means the students who have produced the programming all season now find themselves cut out of the most exciting and most watched action.How cheaply can I build a cableties?

For instance, the Regis Raiders' playoff matchup against Eaglecrest High School in boys basketball resides now on the "RJ Live" website as a free, on-demand, archived version with an explanation of why it couldn't be streamed live on the school's site.

Although students can still produce a taped broadcast for the Web archive, that diminishes the "cool factor," said Mark Newton, journalism adviser at Mountain Vista High School in Douglas County and president of the Journalism Education Association, a national consortium of 2,200 advisers.