I apologize for the above comments. They were obviously foolish and made out of ignorance, especially coming from a Southerner. Thanks for the additional information, y'all.
Given our dismal level of overall education I doubt it would be long before some random neighborhood in the US would be visible from space. I know one of these is proposed for construction here in Georgia, and somehow the idea of "rural south" and "nuclear power plant" in the same sentence worries me.
I've got six digits in loans thanks to med school and they're growing by the day. I'd like to see *any* judge with kids in college or grad school take a look at this case: any company that releases data like this should be fined $100+ for *every* person affected. Also, there needs to be state or federal laws for violations of privacy on this scale whether by the company themselves or their contractors.
China is at a crossroads. Their government knows that they have the potential to become one of the most powerful economies of all time, perhaps even beating out the US in the process. But they learned from the USSR about what happens with the rapid release of repression and don't intend to give up power that fast. Even the recent promises on property were a "great leap forward" for a Communist government. So I take a wait-and-see attitude on Chinese censorship because while the government wants to keep people isolated for the sake of control, they also know that without the Internet and the flow of information it generates as a resource they are at a serious disadvantage in the global market.
Unfortunately the parent post rings true. Science education in the public schools in the US tends to suck, especially when parents in some areas are fighting to have biblical doctrines taught in science class or want real science taken out because it conflicts with Biblical information. Many of the teachers I had did not even have a BS in their field. If you did not solve the equation/problem *exactly as written in the instruction book* then you were wrong.
Also, the public school system seems to focus more on social engineering than actual education these days, especially middle school. In Florida there were 5th graders taking almost algebra one and 9th graders taking algebra two. They had experienced about one actual year of education over the course of three years time, and this was before Columbine. Personally I got lucky and went to a public high school above and beyond the rest, but in many cases our poor schools are causing droughts of people trained or even interested in technology, science, or anything related. Our schools should be a focus for reform as quickly as possible if we want to reverse this trend.
Why not have a show based on the first generation of Martix-style internet users? People who literally "plug and play" and what happens to those caught on the outside. Maybe from the standpoint of a paralyzed/disabled accident victim who has no other way to interact with the world.
Or since we're dealing with so many ethical issues in medicine, why not a show about a future ER? Maybe one on an asteroid mining facility where it's the lawlessness of the Wild West meeting the corporate overworking and unethical standards of Red Faction?
While the author makes a good point that point-and-shoot gameswill only go so far, I think he misses three key points:
1) We're starting to see more and more action games merge with elements of role-playing games. I thought that GTA: Vice City was really moving in this direction, where instead of physically growing stronger you get more influence and wealth to do whatever you want but you can take it in whatever order you want. Granted, there are several aspects of RPG that could be incorporated into that game if someone felt like it (control your own fate, have some kind of karma scale that causes people to react differently towards you, etc.), but expect to see many more games incorporating both these aspects in the coming years. Some of these will be retreads of VC or any number of already existant games (note similarities between Fallout: BOS and Dark Alliance 2 for Xbox) but others will forge new frontiers (Crimson Skies?).
2) Online gameplying is *burgeoning*. My brother plays Star Wars: Galaxies almost every other day and has two characters. He knows people from around the world just by playing with them and interacting digitally. Look at Final Fantasy XI and the huge number of Japanese and American players on it: the companies involved get $(X)/month without having to do much more than upgrade the system and its option every so often. I predict that this will turn into a mainstay of the video game market, especially for the true RPG fans.
3) Like it or not, the advanced military projects of VR and newer man-machine integration systems will eventually become incorporated into video game systems and maybe even the Internet. Imagine video games in a 3-D setting either by VR or "plug-and-play" a la Matrix from Shadowrun. Predicting where technology will go is tricky, but developments in holograph technology and other *exotic* computer applications are already being worked on. Maybe we've hit a temporary plateau, but that doesn't mean it is permanent by any means. How long is it before we could see a quantum processor running a fully interactive video game system with either Resident Evil 13 (where you can feel the zombies attack you and maybe play as one yourself?) or Grand Theft Auto: 7.0 in the city of your choice with fully accurate maps. The possibilities for technological advancement are endless and should not be automatically discounted just because things have "slowed down" in the last few years.
When they mandated competition for local phone service via the TCA act of 1996 they put loopholes in the laws that allow some shady people to get into the phone business. It was legal for a while (and might still be) to form a small phone company, lease out the equipment and lines from the large local Bell for way below cost, charge 20% less than what it would cost the Bell company to run the thing, and make lots of profit. Not all of these little competitors do this, in fact there are lots of legitimate companies who work to provide the customer with awesome service and who provide much of their own equipment. However, the drag put on the Bell companies is rapidly causing many ofthem to hit financial trouble and cuold eventually force some of them to reorganize or try to get out of land-based phone service entirely. It should be noted that if the Bell companies falter while the shady companies are still attached to them, both the customers of shady companies and Bell customers would be at a loss.
The law also implemented a double standard: national companies like AT&T and MCI were able to get into the local phone business while regional Bell companies could not enter the long-distance business without going through a rigorous set of checks and requirements that take years to meet (I think BellSouth is only now getting into that market 8 years later...). Overall if AT&T and MCI have had to face even an inkling of the problems over broadband that the Bell telephone companies have had to over telephones, then the law ought well to get thrown out and rewritten, IMHO.
I think that Iran would benefit from imitating India. Given the proximity to Dubai (*major* international trade center), educated population, loyal diasporia, etc. they could easily become a regional economic powerhouse. Several of my friends here in the US are Iranian, and most of them identify heavily with Persia/Iran even if they were born here. That population is among the hardest working and most educated per capita I've ever seen, if they are any indication of what their countrymen are capable of then Iran immediately after the revolution would be the Korea of 1970, the India of 1980, or the Japan of 1955.
I know a few programmers with ties to Iran. Some of their computer scientists do things with Assembly that few of their peers in the West can match. Given that most of their population is 25 or younger, and that they are having to become so efficient with so few resources, I think that when Iran opens up to the outside world we could see the next India opening up inside of five years.
I wish there were a militarily strategic reason to find a cure to cancer, stroke, or diabetes, because they'd all be cured by now just by the amount of money and focus thrown at them.
Read the requirements and think two steps ahead. The DARPA program is talking about ways to regulate cellular metabolism across the body in the face of strenuous physiological conditions(I'l believe it when I see it).
Diabetes is caused by the body's inability to regulate its own cellular metabolism and *causes* strenuous physiological conditions. Hell, theoretically if someone could figure out a means of controlling the body's rate of burning off sugar and get over the ketoacidosis affects (acidic blood pH = bad), diabetes mellitus could be induced to give a soldier 6x normal blood sugar and try to get alleviate the need for food for several days. Good luck in actually finding it though.
Cellular regulation mechanisms found in cancer would go off like a fire alarm in the face of this metabolic overdrive. Liver cells would certainly go into division if only to force out the resulting toxins. Cancer research will be necessary to ensure that soldiers exposed to these conditions do not turn into walking tumors. Also, controlled cellular division will be necessary for muscular function among other desired functions outlined in the report. Certainly some of this research will go towards learning how the various cancers work and help stop some of them.
Stroke research should directly benefit from these efforts because of the need to ensure that chemicals and blood pressures are not allowed to exceeed normal human tolerance. Arterial strength will be key to any increased metabolic system requiring higher blood pressure (whether from increased heartbeat or other causes) while clotting factors will by necessity be researched to promote healing and prevent brain damage.
Thus I think all of the points you bring up will benefit if only because they are means to the officially desired end. I think these areas will benefit much more because of the generous nature of military research, the only main concern I have is that the research would not be published for years if ever because of the military veil.
As a Georgia resident I found much to dispute about the 2002 votes. For one, most polls had ex-gov. Barnes out in front of now-gov. Purdue by several percentage points just prior to the election. Ex-Senator Clelland was a tougher call because President Bush came down to personally stump for him on several occasions but the race was still deemed close just before the election. I thought is was *very* suspect after several reports emerged of long lines and electronic voting machine problems in areas known to be democrat-friendly. Normally I vote Republican, but no system failure should allow vote manipulation as easily as the patching situation could have in the last election.
P.S.: For additional confusion, Kathy Cox is the state school superintendent that tried to get the word "evolution" removed from public schools while Cathy Cox is the Secretary of State who is trying to get the electronic voting machines in place.
I've had friends who have worked and gotten services in both systems, NHS and private American. Primary care (internists, pediatricians, first-line docs) does not have the disparities that secondary and tertiary care do (hospital care and advanced machinery), but both have massive wait times in the NHS whereas in the US you can get much quicker treatment, especially via private clinics.
I'm a medical student, and you're right that the exams are very in-depth. It *might* be possible to take the exams without going to medical schools doing only self-study, and I have a friend graduating in June who claims that this is essentially what his non-US med school encouraged its students do. His step I exceeded 240.
Gray's Anatomy seems like a good guide, though I apparently can't get a license by reading it. How can an old newcomer break into the industry?
No, you have to take the USMLE steps I, II, and field-specific step III for licensure. Anatomy is only one of the fields covered and the test questions for the boards often integrate multiple fields. To be honest, the American version of Gray's is not used by many medical schools and the British version, while superior, is prohibitively expensive. I don't know if you even need to go to medical school to passs the first two USMLE tests, but the year of internship and three-seven years of residency is mandatory as is a passing score for the three USMLE exams (soon to be four as of 2005).
I am an American medical student with several engineering friendss (pre-meds and engineers have lots in common at the undergrad level). When we contemplated the same question, we devised this: if you want to combine the two fields, please consider prosthetics research. Recent advances in neuroscience, materials science and computer technologies are making this field an up-and-comer over the next two decades.
It gives SCO free public attention and makes it look like they are actually threatening enough to Linux users that retaliation occured. This *might* make them look more credible to some folks who would say, "if they are getting attacked by malicious Linux users, then maybe there is some legitimacy to SCO's claims". I dunno, the timing and blatant attack pointing to SCO seems a tad convenient to me. Who else stands to benefit from a virus like this getting caught at this stage?
Personally I think the whole premise was a great idea that is poorly executed. The whole Enterprise series revolves around one premise: the Romulan Wars. Seasons one and two introduce us to the universe of the 2150s, seasons three and four deal with Xindi and the Expanse (two to one the spheres get destroyed and the whole thing opens up to exploration), and seasons five and six (perhaps seven) were set to resolve to Romulan Wars. If they cancel the series now it will not make much sense, instead they should combine all the rest of the seasons being planned into a very long and intense war series. Wrap it up with the conferenc that forms the Federation or T'Pol craddling Sarek. Maybe for a funny twist make Sarek the son of Trip after a Pon Farr fling. Trip and T'Pol part on bad terms and Trip goes on to have a daughter who marries a man named McCoy.
Future of the series: Earth and Xindi are being manipulated by a future Romulan group trying to unite the quadrant under Romulus. Earth will get hit hard before Enterprise returns, and its people made so mad that the result looks like World War II gone galactic. Vulcan and the Andromedans should also get hit hard and everyone in the quadrant given the same choice: unite or die. This is when we should start to see lots of the new technologies recognizable to Star Trek TOS: everyone playing with everyone else's (mosly Vulcan) technology and coming up with new derivatives. "Phase pistols" go through all kinds of changes throught a season and become prototype phasers, etc.
Rant: Neither the whole "Temporal Cold War" bit nor the Xindi deserve to be in there and the ship should be *much* more primitive. Klingon technology is also much too advanced, I think they ought to get reduced to just ahead of Earth tech. The warp 5 engine premise makes sense as do the flat panel screens, but they should be having to get supplies at every system they visit just to stay alive. Also the ship probably doesn't need more than 50 people on board. No "hull plating" should be onboard and shields should be discovered by total accident late in the series. Phase pistols should have been laser pistols and there should be much more nationalism among the crew, not this "all for one and one for all" mentality.
The real future of NASA (as I see it)
on
The Future of NASA
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Let's face it: China's successful launch of a man into orbit and ambitions to go to the moon have caused a stir among the current Administration. In this administration, most budgetary increases are going towards military or security applications, thus it was inevitable that NASA be asked to perform dual-use or even exclusively military research and development projects. Between the threat of China potentially capitalizing lunar/martian resources before we do and the need to win the elction, NASA got a kick in the pants to show that America is still able to explore space. While I thoroughly disagree with how the funding is being handled (cutting homeland security's budget in half and giving it to NASA would be a start), it is clear that the future of NASA is a dual mission.
First, NASA is to become more of a publicity tool whose true merits are sidelined by the need for good press. We've already seen this in the failure of NASA management to save Columbia by having it dock with the ISS until another shuttle could launch and with the failure of NASA management to prevent the Challenger launch to gain reputability with then-president Reagan. Perhaps the whole show should be run by engineers and the head of NASA made a 20-year Congressional appointment as a way to solve the problem. If nothing else, the shuttle should be either overhauled or replaced outright over the next 20 years as it was never able to live up to its original promises anyway.
Second, NASA will be the place for the military to test new high-altitude and orbital equipment. Air Force personnel are already working on a shuttle capable of deploying teams of people anywhere in the world inside of 12 hours while the "Star Wars" project or an equivalent will be deployed against potential threats from nations possessing limited quantities of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Other exotic military technologies and observation/communication equipment will be deployed using NASA to get around the existing military treaties or just to replace outmoded technology.
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I apologize for the above comments. They were obviously foolish and made out of ignorance, especially coming from a Southerner. Thanks for the additional information, y'all.
Given our dismal level of overall education I doubt it would be long before some random neighborhood in the US would be visible from space. I know one of these is proposed for construction here in Georgia, and somehow the idea of "rural south" and "nuclear power plant" in the same sentence worries me.
I've got six digits in loans thanks to med school and they're growing by the day. I'd like to see *any* judge with kids in college or grad school take a look at this case: any company that releases data like this should be fined $100+ for *every* person affected. Also, there needs to be state or federal laws for violations of privacy on this scale whether by the company themselves or their contractors.
China is at a crossroads. Their government knows that they have the potential to become one of the most powerful economies of all time, perhaps even beating out the US in the process. But they learned from the USSR about what happens with the rapid release of repression and don't intend to give up power that fast. Even the recent promises on property were a "great leap forward" for a Communist government. So I take a wait-and-see attitude on Chinese censorship because while the government wants to keep people isolated for the sake of control, they also know that without the Internet and the flow of information it generates as a resource they are at a serious disadvantage in the global market.
Would anyone else be surprised if this site is shut down or sternly repremanded (perhaps quite publicly) within the week?
His intentions are good, but we all know about that cliche.
He lost an election to a *corpse* in 2000. I find it more frightening that he was appointed in the first place!
Unfortunately the parent post rings true. Science education in the public schools in the US tends to suck, especially when parents in some areas are fighting to have biblical doctrines taught in science class or want real science taken out because it conflicts with Biblical information. Many of the teachers I had did not even have a BS in their field. If you did not solve the equation/problem *exactly as written in the instruction book* then you were wrong.
Also, the public school system seems to focus more on social engineering than actual education these days, especially middle school. In Florida there were 5th graders taking almost algebra one and 9th graders taking algebra two. They had experienced about one actual year of education over the course of three years time, and this was before Columbine. Personally I got lucky and went to a public high school above and beyond the rest, but in many cases our poor schools are causing droughts of people trained or even interested in technology, science, or anything related. Our schools should be a focus for reform as quickly as possible if we want to reverse this trend.
Why not have a show based on the first generation of Martix-style internet users? People who literally "plug and play" and what happens to those caught on the outside. Maybe from the standpoint of a paralyzed/disabled accident victim who has no other way to interact with the world.
Or since we're dealing with so many ethical issues in medicine, why not a show about a future ER? Maybe one on an asteroid mining facility where it's the lawlessness of the Wild West meeting the corporate overworking and unethical standards of Red Faction?
Just some thoughts...
While the author makes a good point that point-and-shoot gameswill only go so far, I think he misses three key points:
1) We're starting to see more and more action games merge with elements of role-playing games. I thought that GTA: Vice City was really moving in this direction, where instead of physically growing stronger you get more influence and wealth to do whatever you want but you can take it in whatever order you want. Granted, there are several aspects of RPG that could be incorporated into that game if someone felt like it (control your own fate, have some kind of karma scale that causes people to react differently towards you, etc.), but expect to see many more games incorporating both these aspects in the coming years. Some of these will be retreads of VC or any number of already existant games (note similarities between Fallout: BOS and Dark Alliance 2 for Xbox) but others will forge new frontiers (Crimson Skies?).
2) Online gameplying is *burgeoning*. My brother plays Star Wars: Galaxies almost every other day and has two characters. He knows people from around the world just by playing with them and interacting digitally. Look at Final Fantasy XI and the huge number of Japanese and American players on it: the companies involved get $(X)/month without having to do much more than upgrade the system and its option every so often. I predict that this will turn into a mainstay of the video game market, especially for the true RPG fans.
3) Like it or not, the advanced military projects of VR and newer man-machine integration systems will eventually become incorporated into video game systems and maybe even the Internet. Imagine video games in a 3-D setting either by VR or "plug-and-play" a la Matrix from Shadowrun. Predicting where technology will go is tricky, but developments in holograph technology and other *exotic* computer applications are already being worked on. Maybe we've hit a temporary plateau, but that doesn't mean it is permanent by any means. How long is it before we could see a quantum processor running a fully interactive video game system with either Resident Evil 13 (where you can feel the zombies attack you and maybe play as one yourself?) or Grand Theft Auto: 7.0 in the city of your choice with fully accurate maps. The possibilities for technological advancement are endless and should not be automatically discounted just because things have "slowed down" in the last few years.
When they mandated competition for local phone service via the TCA act of 1996 they put loopholes in the laws that allow some shady people to get into the phone business. It was legal for a while (and might still be) to form a small phone company, lease out the equipment and lines from the large local Bell for way below cost, charge 20% less than what it would cost the Bell company to run the thing, and make lots of profit. Not all of these little competitors do this, in fact there are lots of legitimate companies who work to provide the customer with awesome service and who provide much of their own equipment. However, the drag put on the Bell companies is rapidly causing many ofthem to hit financial trouble and cuold eventually force some of them to reorganize or try to get out of land-based phone service entirely. It should be noted that if the Bell companies falter while the shady companies are still attached to them, both the customers of shady companies and Bell customers would be at a loss.
The law also implemented a double standard: national companies like AT&T and MCI were able to get into the local phone business while regional Bell companies could not enter the long-distance business without going through a rigorous set of checks and requirements that take years to meet (I think BellSouth is only now getting into that market 8 years later...). Overall if AT&T and MCI have had to face even an inkling of the problems over broadband that the Bell telephone companies have had to over telephones, then the law ought well to get thrown out and rewritten, IMHO.
We've got a deficit over a half-trillion and things like this are getting funded. Riiiiight.
I keep getting 2 + 2 = 5, I think my value of 2 is too large ;)
Not if you're dealing with teenagers. Hence why occasionally 1 + 1 = 3...
I think that Iran would benefit from imitating India. Given the proximity to Dubai (*major* international trade center), educated population, loyal diasporia, etc. they could easily become a regional economic powerhouse. Several of my friends here in the US are Iranian, and most of them identify heavily with Persia/Iran even if they were born here. That population is among the hardest working and most educated per capita I've ever seen, if they are any indication of what their countrymen are capable of then Iran immediately after the revolution would be the Korea of 1970, the India of 1980, or the Japan of 1955.
I know a few programmers with ties to Iran. Some of their computer scientists do things with Assembly that few of their peers in the West can match. Given that most of their population is 25 or younger, and that they are having to become so efficient with so few resources, I think that when Iran opens up to the outside world we could see the next India opening up inside of five years.
I wish there were a militarily strategic reason to find a cure to cancer, stroke, or diabetes, because they'd all be cured by now just by the amount of money and focus thrown at them.
Read the requirements and think two steps ahead. The DARPA program is talking about ways to regulate cellular metabolism across the body in the face of strenuous physiological conditions(I'l believe it when I see it).
Diabetes is caused by the body's inability to regulate its own cellular metabolism and *causes* strenuous physiological conditions. Hell, theoretically if someone could figure out a means of controlling the body's rate of burning off sugar and get over the ketoacidosis affects (acidic blood pH = bad), diabetes mellitus could be induced to give a soldier 6x normal blood sugar and try to get alleviate the need for food for several days. Good luck in actually finding it though.
Cellular regulation mechanisms found in cancer would go off like a fire alarm in the face of this metabolic overdrive. Liver cells would certainly go into division if only to force out the resulting toxins. Cancer research will be necessary to ensure that soldiers exposed to these conditions do not turn into walking tumors. Also, controlled cellular division will be necessary for muscular function among other desired functions outlined in the report. Certainly some of this research will go towards learning how the various cancers work and help stop some of them.
Stroke research should directly benefit from these efforts because of the need to ensure that chemicals and blood pressures are not allowed to exceeed normal human tolerance. Arterial strength will be key to any increased metabolic system requiring higher blood pressure (whether from increased heartbeat or other causes) while clotting factors will by necessity be researched to promote healing and prevent brain damage.
Thus I think all of the points you bring up will benefit if only because they are means to the officially desired end. I think these areas will benefit much more because of the generous nature of military research, the only main concern I have is that the research would not be published for years if ever because of the military veil.
As a Georgia resident I found much to dispute about the 2002 votes. For one, most polls had ex-gov. Barnes out in front of now-gov. Purdue by several percentage points just prior to the election. Ex-Senator Clelland was a tougher call because President Bush came down to personally stump for him on several occasions but the race was still deemed close just before the election. I thought is was *very* suspect after several reports emerged of long lines and electronic voting machine problems in areas known to be democrat-friendly. Normally I vote Republican, but no system failure should allow vote manipulation as easily as the patching situation could have in the last election.
P.S.: For additional confusion, Kathy Cox is the state school superintendent that tried to get the word "evolution" removed from public schools while Cathy Cox is the Secretary of State who is trying to get the electronic voting machines in place.
I've had friends who have worked and gotten services in both systems, NHS and private American. Primary care (internists, pediatricians, first-line docs) does not have the disparities that secondary and tertiary care do (hospital care and advanced machinery), but both have massive wait times in the NHS whereas in the US you can get much quicker treatment, especially via private clinics.
Does this remind anyone else of the T-600 series mentioned in the original Terminator that had rubber skin?
I'm a medical student, and you're right that the exams are very in-depth. It *might* be possible to take the exams without going to medical schools doing only self-study, and I have a friend graduating in June who claims that this is essentially what his non-US med school encouraged its students do. His step I exceeded 240.
Gray's Anatomy seems like a good guide, though I apparently can't get a license by reading it. How can an old newcomer break into the industry?
No, you have to take the USMLE steps I, II, and field-specific step III for licensure. Anatomy is only one of the fields covered and the test questions for the boards often integrate multiple fields. To be honest, the American version of Gray's is not used by many medical schools and the British version, while superior, is prohibitively expensive. I don't know if you even need to go to medical school to passs the first two USMLE tests, but the year of internship and three-seven years of residency is mandatory as is a passing score for the three USMLE exams (soon to be four as of 2005).
I am an American medical student with several engineering friendss (pre-meds and engineers have lots in common at the undergrad level). When we contemplated the same question, we devised this: if you want to combine the two fields, please consider prosthetics research. Recent advances in neuroscience, materials science and computer technologies are making this field an up-and-comer over the next two decades.
It gives SCO free public attention and makes it look like they are actually threatening enough to Linux users that retaliation occured. This *might* make them look more credible to some folks who would say, "if they are getting attacked by malicious Linux users, then maybe there is some legitimacy to SCO's claims". I dunno, the timing and blatant attack pointing to SCO seems a tad convenient to me. Who else stands to benefit from a virus like this getting caught at this stage?
...is how Jar-Jar dies.
Personally I think the whole premise was a great idea that is poorly executed. The whole Enterprise series revolves around one premise: the Romulan Wars. Seasons one and two introduce us to the universe of the 2150s, seasons three and four deal with Xindi and the Expanse (two to one the spheres get destroyed and the whole thing opens up to exploration), and seasons five and six (perhaps seven) were set to resolve to Romulan Wars. If they cancel the series now it will not make much sense, instead they should combine all the rest of the seasons being planned into a very long and intense war series. Wrap it up with the conferenc that forms the Federation or T'Pol craddling Sarek. Maybe for a funny twist make Sarek the son of Trip after a Pon Farr fling. Trip and T'Pol part on bad terms and Trip goes on to have a daughter who marries a man named McCoy.
Future of the series: Earth and Xindi are being manipulated by a future Romulan group trying to unite the quadrant under Romulus. Earth will get hit hard before Enterprise returns, and its people made so mad that the result looks like World War II gone galactic. Vulcan and the Andromedans should also get hit hard and everyone in the quadrant given the same choice: unite or die. This is when we should start to see lots of the new technologies recognizable to Star Trek TOS: everyone playing with everyone else's (mosly Vulcan) technology and coming up with new derivatives. "Phase pistols" go through all kinds of changes throught a season and become prototype phasers, etc.
Rant: Neither the whole "Temporal Cold War" bit nor the Xindi deserve to be in there and the ship should be *much* more primitive. Klingon technology is also much too advanced, I think they ought to get reduced to just ahead of Earth tech. The warp 5 engine premise makes sense as do the flat panel screens, but they should be having to get supplies at every system they visit just to stay alive. Also the ship probably doesn't need more than 50 people on board. No "hull plating" should be onboard and shields should be discovered by total accident late in the series. Phase pistols should have been laser pistols and there should be much more nationalism among the crew, not this "all for one and one for all" mentality.
Let's face it: China's successful launch of a man into orbit and ambitions to go to the moon have caused a stir among the current Administration. In this administration, most budgetary increases are going towards military or security applications, thus it was inevitable that NASA be asked to perform dual-use or even exclusively military research and development projects. Between the threat of China potentially capitalizing lunar/martian resources before we do and the need to win the elction, NASA got a kick in the pants to show that America is still able to explore space. While I thoroughly disagree with how the funding is being handled (cutting homeland security's budget in half and giving it to NASA would be a start), it is clear that the future of NASA is a dual mission.
First, NASA is to become more of a publicity tool whose true merits are sidelined by the need for good press. We've already seen this in the failure of NASA management to save Columbia by having it dock with the ISS until another shuttle could launch and with the failure of NASA management to prevent the Challenger launch to gain reputability with then-president Reagan. Perhaps the whole show should be run by engineers and the head of NASA made a 20-year Congressional appointment as a way to solve the problem. If nothing else, the shuttle should be either overhauled or replaced outright over the next 20 years as it was never able to live up to its original promises anyway.
Second, NASA will be the place for the military to test new high-altitude and orbital equipment. Air Force personnel are already working on a shuttle capable of deploying teams of people anywhere in the world inside of 12 hours while the "Star Wars" project or an equivalent will be deployed against potential threats from nations possessing limited quantities of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Other exotic military technologies and observation/communication equipment will be deployed using NASA to get around the existing military treaties or just to replace outmoded technology.