[isotelesis]

NASA has a very interesting culture, they are among the toughest employees because they have to learn to handle pressure, however it is very expensive and the incentives to innovate have to be more oriented with the goals of society. The black budget stuff is for the national laboratories which focus on defense such as LLNL, which is no longer administered by the public UC system. We are all waiting to see what it will take to make it a 21st century culture, in my opinion transparency and collaboration will be essential, particularly through web 3.0 and the broader international community. Too much paperwork, too many who should be retiring soon, the public cannot afford to prop up all the cushy jobs in government. There is a lot of interesting science go on there, but little incentive to remain competetive or relevant, the race has moved onto cyberspace, not simply outerspace. It doesn't surprise me that some conflicts of interest have been discovered, there is a lot the president-elect probably doesn't know about these programs, they shouldn't need to be using public money if they aren't demonstrating their value to society. They should be looking for more ways to base their budget on market and commercial driven methods.