Surfing for Porn? No Science for You!

[Kanastrous]

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wants Congress to reconsider new funding to the National Science Foundation amid allegations that top staffers spent long stretches of their day surfing the Internet for pornography.

DES MOINES, Iowa - The ranking GOP member of the Senate Finance Committee wants Congress to reconsider new funding to the National Science Foundation amid allegations that top staffers spent long stretches of their day surfing the Internet for pornography.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to the foundation's Office of Inspector General on Tuesday seeking all documents it has related to the inappropriate use of the foundation's network.

The foundation is the major source of federal backing in fields such as mathematics, computer science and social sciences.

Grassley told The Associated Press on Thursday he wants Congress to reconsider $3 billion in NSF funding that is included in the current stimulus bill until his questions are answered.

"I think they ought to. I think they need to," he said.

The senator said he sought the information after a team of staffers led by his finance committee aide discovered numerous investigations into the misuse of the Internet by science foundation employees. The investigations were buried inside a semiannual report on NSF's activities, he said.

According to the report, one senior staff member spent as much as 20 percent of his time during a two-year period at lurid sites and in sexually explicit chat rooms. That time cost taxpayers more than $40,000, the report stated.

Other employees were also alleged to have watched, downloaded and e-mailed porn.

Agency spokesman Jeff Nesbit said the foundation takes the report and Grassley's inquiry seriously. He said the foundation is cooperating and has already taken steps to address the inspector general's report.

"NSF immediately implemented additional IT systems controls to focus in particular on enforcement of the foundation's long-standing policy prohibiting the use of its IT systems to access sexually explicit, gambling and other inappropriate Web sites," Nesbit said in a written statement.

He said several employees were disciplined and at least three staffers were fired because of their inappropriate use of the Internet.

Grassley is renowned in Washington for using his position on the Finance Committee to practice a particularly aggressive brand of oversight. His staff has previously scrutinized megachurches and the Smithsonian, among other targets.

Grassley said he is pushing for more information about the National Science Foundation because he's concerned the issues in the report speak to a wider, cultural problem at the agency. He also cites the foundation's large budget.

The foundation was created as an independent federal agency in 1950 to promote science. It has an annual budget of more than $6 billion and funds, by its own estimate, about 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by the nation's colleges and universities.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28933634/

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Absolutely, let's hamstring a vital conduit of research funding, because some of the people working along the pipeline may have clicked on some naughty pictures.

Only a Republican.

[General Zod]

Case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. No need to get rid of it altogether, just fire the guilty parties and put in tighter regulations on internet surfing.

[Kanastrous]

Heck, if I try to visit a site that's even vaguely questionable, the network here at WB gives me



Is it really that hard to equip the NSF's network with something similar?

[tim31]

I think it would be hard to top that one Karl

We have no restrictions on the network where I work, though I notice that certain sites run slower than they used to, probably because of overuse... But if we were out and out cruising for the low-brow stuff we'd eventually get pulled up. They can't just put a blanket filter on porn because the guests would be like this:

GUEST: The internet isn't working

ME: Working fine on my terminal, so must be a problem with...

GUEST: You don't understand. The internet isn't working.

[Mr Bean]

Case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. No need to get rid of it altogether, just fire the guilty parties and put in tighter regulations on internet surfing.

You say throw the baby out with the bathwater? Yeah firing these people for abusing the Internets is just that. Companies are crazy about this. If my boss catches me at the water cooler talking to Dr Freeman from the Black Mesa facility he's going glare at me and tell me get back to work. But heaven forbid he catches me checking ESPN scores, that's a fire-able offense!

Lets be blunt employee's waste lots of time with non-job related activities, things like talking over the water-cooler. Taking extra long breaks. Hell even sleeping. Surfing porn on the office computer is no different except the fact it can lead to IT getting a call because Free Porn=Viruses, and lets be honest, who's pulling out the credit card to buy porn to watch at the office?

No, this is simply another situation like any other. Discipline those involved, if they keep doing it fire them. Don't jump right to firing that's moronic in most cases. A simple note in someone's personnel jacket saying "This person warned about surfing pornographic websites from work was against Government rules" is damn sufficient to ensure future bosses will keep an eye on them to avoid repeats.

[General Zod]

You say throw the baby out with the bathwater? Yeah firing these people for abusing the Internets is just that. Companies are crazy about this. If my boss catches me at the water cooler talking to Dr Freeman from the Black Mesa facility he's going glare at me and tell me get back to work. But heaven forbid he catches me checking ESPN scores, that's a fire-able offense!

Lets be blunt employee's waste lots of time with non-job related activities, things like talking over the water-cooler. Taking extra long breaks. Hell even sleeping. Surfing porn on the office computer is no different except the fact it can lead to IT getting a call because Free Porn=Viruses, and lets be honest, who's pulling out the credit card to buy porn to watch at the office?

It's not like all offices are going to have the same regulations about internet access. Anywhere that involves especially sensitive work should be strict about how employees use that particular resource (how often have we heard of classified government docs being leaked by employees being careless about their internet use?). The time wasting argument is pretty stupid, I'll admit, but randomly browsing porn sites is a great way to fuck up your network unwittingly.

No, this is simply another situation like any other. Discipline those involved, if they keep doing it fire them. Don't jump right to firing that's moronic in most cases. A simple note in someone's personnel jacket saying "This person warned about surfing pornographic websites from work was against Government rules" is damn sufficient to ensure future bosses will keep an eye on them to avoid repeats.

Maybe not fire the lot of them, but I could see making an example of the worst offender at minimum, with a stern warning to everyone else.

[Chris OFarrell]

Here's a question, can we reconsider any and all funding to Republican congressmen because a few of them have been screwing their interns when they were supposed to be working?

[Garlak]

But if we were out and out cruising for the low-brow stuff we'd eventually get pulled up. They can't just put a blanket filter on porn because the guests would be like this:

GUEST: The internet isn't working

ME: Working fine on my terminal, so must be a problem with...

GUEST: You don't understand. The internet isn't working.

Uhhh... why is it a problem that the Guests won't be able to access porn? Where do you work that it would be problematic to put a blanket filter on porn?


@Chris ORarrrell: Because that wouldn't be bipartisan. After all, Obama said his administration is going to be working with the Republicans, and firing Republicans for doing something naughty would send the wrong sort of message!

[General Zod]

Uhhh... why is it a problem that the Guests won't be able to access porn? Where do you work that it would be problematic to put a blanket filter on porn?

Reread what he said. Blanket filters on porn generally tend to wind up blocking a lot of legitimate sites too, simply due to the vast majority of such filters being notoriously unreliable.

[Garlak]

Uhhh... why is it a problem that the Guests won't be able to access porn? Where do you work that it would be problematic to put a blanket filter on porn?

Reread what he said. Blanket filters on porn generally tend to wind up blocking a lot of legitimate sites too, simply due to the vast majority of such filters being notoriously unreliable.

Ah... to me, it seemed that the Guests wouldn't be able to get to the porn websites. And would then complain and try to 'subtly' hint that they couldn't get to the porn..

[General Zod]

Uhhh... why is it a problem that the Guests won't be able to access porn? Where do you work that it would be problematic to put a blanket filter on porn?

Reread what he said. Blanket filters on porn generally tend to wind up blocking a lot of legitimate sites too, simply due to the vast majority of such filters being notoriously unreliable.

Ah... to me, it seemed that the Guests wouldn't be able to get to the porn websites. And would then complain and try to 'subtly' hint that they couldn't get to the porn..

Contrary to popular internet memes, "porn" is not an exchangeable word for "internet".

[Darth Mall]

Contrary to popular internet memes, "porn" is not an exchangeable word for "internet".

Actually IIRC he works at a hotel, so guests could very well be looking at porn.

[Kanastrous]

Contrary to popular internet memes, "porn" is not an exchangeable word for "internet".

The Internet is for Porn.

[Patrick Degan]

Just another Republican excuse to shut off Federal science funding. This one just happens to dovetail with their general obsession with other peoples' sex lives.

[Illuminatus Primus]

We should subpeona the Internet records for all the Republican Senators and Congressmen and their staff in Washington. See how they spend their time.

Of course, clearly we should not invest in science at all because the NSF suffers from some of the same employee abuse of internet privileges as any other office.