In a word: flexibility!

I have to agree here.
The NASA Space program has always suffered from having champagne tastes and a beer budget.
Compile that with design changes forced on them by the DOD, NSA, CIA, and congress and it is a wonder how NASA gets anything done.

A good example is in the 90’s when we had 2 competing programs for replacing the shuttle.
NASA chose wisely for science and moving us forward and poorly for congressional budget constraints.
(The Lockheed Martin X-33 VentureStar vs The McDonnell Douglas DC-X, Delta Clipper)
Now almost 15 years later all we got is a third shuttle replacement program killed off.
So yes love or hate Obama he is trying to move NASA forward with what little budget congress will approve for them.

And we all know who picked up the clipper ball after NASA dropped it.

Sorry I just have to respond to this.
First the headline has nothing to do with the story.
The story is about dementia and Alzheimer's disease and not Ginkgo Doesn't Improve Memory Or Cognitive Skills.
Also the science of this study is just really bad and ignores what science has been done on Ginkgo Biloba’s affect on the body.
So what do we know about its effects?
It increases blood flow in small blood vessels, and the extremities, and in conjunction with other herbs has been used to help reduce blood pressure. (For centuries)
It has the curious effect of countering the negative effects of too much caffeine.
It also helps with blood flow to the brain, and can be used to help with mild cases of ADD. (Not HDAD)
I myself take it for my mild ADD and it does help me to focus.

Since Dementia and Alzheimer’s are cellular degeneration diseases and not related to blood flow in the brain I am not surprised it was not found to be helpful.
This is an obvious case of researchers not doing their home work before requesting funding for their study.
It never fails to amazes me what studies get funding, while other studies doing real science get left behind.
Big surprise aspirin is also not helpful in the treatment of these diseases either.
But aspirin and ginkgo do share the same affect of helping with blood flow in the body.

So let me quickly address the headline.
Does Ginko’s affect on the body effect memory or cognitive skills.
Most likely no, unless you are adding large doses of caffeine on sleep deprived subjects.
Or you are trying to counter poor blood flow in the brain.

And most likely it is already used in pharmaceutical company’s compounds.
Pharmaceutical company’s have DOD class security surrounding their products, manufacturing, and IP.

That is not completely true.
There may be local or state laws to prohibit personal UAV's in the USA.
Just as there are zoning laws for RC planes and choppers.
And lets face it, you very well fly a real plane or chopper out of your garage normally.

But there is no National laws or FAA regulations prohibiting small R/C class planes and choppers being setup as UAV's.
But I do believe at some point the FAA would get involved in an ultra light size or better UAV.
Because now your talking about real safety issues.

I like to protect things the good old fashioned way.
With lawyers, guns, and money

The sad truth is that the Scifi channel has been headed downhill for awhile now.
Ever since Time Warner bought them from Ted Turner they started on a slippery slope down.
And as they have been losing the Geek audience little by little.

Then NBC - Universal bought them and it has been picking up speed on it'd down hill coarse.
And for me the final nail in the coffin was wrestling on Wednesday nights.

Now I went from watching it all the time, to only catching the shows I like.
Because most of the shows are now crap.
When people ask what killed TV and they want to blame the internet.
I say look at what the network executives have done to their networks.
TV was not so much killed, rather assisted in suicide with the help of the network exec's.

Ok I am a total geek.
I have been in to Science, computers and electronics since I was 4.
I am also a former cop, and yes I said former, blew out my foot mountain biking off duty.
I was a cop in the Air force and a campus cop.
Oh and I a a weapons geek.

So here is the deal.
Not all cops are bad, some are really great stand up guys.
But some are complete a$$hats, then again for over 15 years I have worked in the computer world, and there are a lot of a$$hats there too.
The big difference is: cops have guns, and they are held to a higher standard.
And a few bad cops can give all cops a bad name, and a bad cop is far worse then the people they put away.
Because they have broken the trust we have placed in them.

When you become a cop and put on that badge a few things should happen.
1. You make a promise to yourself and society that you will risk your life for others.
2. You will not shirk away from danger.
3. You will serve and protect the people in your jurisdiction.
4. You will always uphold the sprit of the law.
5. You will always pursue justice for the people you serve.
6. You will do your best to make sure the guy you arrest is guilty, and not screw up the bust.
7. You will not abuse your authority, or take a bribe
8. You will always use your head, and think on your feet.
9. You will never fire your weapon in an unsafe manor or situation.
10. You only shoot your firearm as a last resort.
11. You always show everyone respect to the best of your ability.
12. You will always be vigilant, and not brake the law yourself.

If you can't do those things turn in your badge, your not a good cop.

"Are you a good tech? If so, why haven't you been promoted? Or at least assigned to head tech or second level support?"

Well that would depend on the help desk you worked at.
If you worked in the telecommunications, such as for any ISP, it is geared towards not promoting good Techs.
The tip off is the high turnover rate.
Because good techs spends too much time really trying to fix the issue rather then band aid them.
Or they skipped the scripted trouble shooting steps and fix the issue quickly but get marked off their QA/QC scores.
Although I can not mention the names of people or companies, but I have seen some who was actually mentally challenged and living in a halfway house get promoted from the helpdesk that was an outsourced option for other companies to a higher paying position in the in-house IT help desk of the helpdesk company.

The truth is having help desk experience should be a plus, but it is look down upon for all the wrong reasons.
So if you are working in a hell desk, get out quickly and go to another help desk job.
Try to get in to a small multi-layer help desk where your doing first and second level work, if not all three levels at once.
Or get a job in to an internal helpdesk, and grow from there.

But stay away from dead end call centers, and never stay more then a year in an ISP call center.