When you look at the sheer size of the US tax regulations, there is little hope for truly "simple" tax -- particularly when you look at corporate taxes (my gig). At their heart, most of the crazy rules and regulations make a good bit of sense and are things that really do need to be accounted for when you try to figure out your income for the year.
I hope to see a simpler tax system for low-to-middle income brackets, but I don't think its possible to create a flat tax for the rich corporations that wouldn't let them get off easy compared to today's taxes.
Also understand that "tax software" isn't only about doing 1040s and electronic filing. There are whole industries devoted to figuring out the (and avoiding) unintended tax consequences when two companies merge, verifying that you didn't overpay sales taxes on products you sold that were eventually returned, validating R&D credits before they are submitted, tax-effective supply chain management, etc.
How will you feel three-five years from now, when someone as mindlessly driven as you were in your younger days manages to pull the rug from under you?
Good point, but now I've got skills that can be applied to lots of different industries.
By the way, the "corporate drone" comment doesn't apply in my case...I was employee #5 of 5 when I started and #2 of 20 when I left. It was more of a sweatshop than a corporation.
And the answer is: you find whatever the hell you can, fight your way into it, and then hold onto that job for dear life until you have five years and some certifications.
You've got it exactly right. I see too many kids walking in expecting to be paid for what they think they already know, but unwilling to invest the energy to learn about and build the business they are supporting.
In '93 I moved 500 miles for an $8.00/hr job coding tax software--possibly the most boring software known to man -- because I thought it would be useful experience for a "real job." It was a crappy job with crappy hours and a very limited crappy life outside of work. When everyone else was bouncing from job to job, I stuck with it and worked my way up. When I finally left after 6 years, I was in charge of two product lines and a dozen programmers and CPAs. I'm now working on 14 years in the tax software industry and have little fear of being outsourced. Now I know the business, I know the issues, and I know the driving forces behind our decisions. They no longer pay me to write code (though I still sneak in a little); they now pay me to help them make more money.
I suggest that you get your foot in the door any way you can, smile while they dump sh!t on your head, show them that you're there for more than a paycheck, and most importantly, stick with it. As you demonstrate your commitment you will quickly be given more responsibility, money, and a more secure career.
It sounds like you willingly took a job at a company with a non-technical business model, old-school managers, and a half-baked idea of how the web can help increase their revenues. It's now your job to make the best of the situation and knock out little chunks of reality in an organization whose current business model is fundamentally opposed to making money through the web.
I got into the same deal, but with a much larger monster of an organization, with lots of developers, thousands of servers, and endless financial resources. Here's what I learned: two passionate and committed coders with a clear understanding of their company's business and customers can produce more than an army of egos, project managers, analysts, disengaged sponsors.
I suggest you pick a target that the two of you can hit in 30 days, communicate that goal to your boss's boss, bust your asses to hit the target in 20 days, then spend the next 10 days figuring out your next 30 day trick. Rinse and repeat.
As you complete these little projects, you will A) gain the trust and confidence of the guys with the money, and B) increase your own confidence in your team's abilities. Yes, there will be bugs and system-wide FUps, but that's the price of playing the game with 2 guns in a 4x6 cube.
With time you will learn to identify the low-risk opportunities for investments, where the ROI is high and the time to execute is low. Some of these investments might be adding new features, others may be in hiring a new person. Management will come to respect your judgment.
The point is to run your shop like your own business and spend your time and money as if it were your own. If you're not making money for the company, and seeking ways to make even more, then they don't need you. Yes, having a few more people sounds appealing, but you need to have a direction to send them first.
This proposed change would just allow tax service providers to ask you electronically if it is OK for them to use information from your return to do X, Y, or Z. They can already do this with a paper form and you don't have to say yes.
I suspect this is being suggested so that pure-electronic service providers like Intuit (TurboTax), who don't do face-to-face work, can offer the same extras that the H&R Blocks and Jackson-Hewitts of the world offer: Crappy-Rate Refund Anticipation Loans, IRAs, Mortgage Services, etc.
It seems to me that a 1:1 comparison of flaw counts is just going to show you how may potential problems there are...not your risk of getting hit through one of them.
Let's say that I wrote the world's most flawed web browser (Anger Browser 1.0), with several hidden RC function and a welcome mat for specially scripted spyware installers. Yes, it has 500 more flaws than IE, but I only have an installed user base of two. Does this mean that my browser presents a higher risk than a browser with 100,000,000 users and one flaw?
All things the same, a flaw in IE presents a higher weighted risk than a browser with a fraction of the user base. Combining that with the relative ignorance of the average IE user, I say that a flaw in IE presents a much higher return to the bad guys than any other browser out there.
I agree that having a check card is stupid if you don't need it, but by returning the Visa/MC branded card and asking for a "normal" card (i.e. debit card), I think you still fall squarely in the affected category.
Most banks in the US issue branded "check cards" that can used anywhere like a credit card (without a PIN) or as a debit card (with a PIN). I assume that when you requested a traditional card, they gave you a plain debit card which can be used at an ATM or any retailer who accepts debit cards (with a PIN). The retailers are the point where the PIN is being compromised.
In my book, debit cards are only for ATM machines and the only thing that goes in any other card reader is a real credit card -- that is not tied directly to my checking account. I suspect there are fewer skimmers hooked up to bank ATMs than there are to unattended gas pumps. I may be wrong, but it makes me feel good.
None of this would matter if we could just get rid of all the bad people.
If the kid was looking to better humanity, he probably would have reported the flaw to Google before blogging on it. He should read the RFPolicy before he ends up being a scapegoat under someone's corporate bus.
I'm sorry. I've developed tax software for the last 15 years and I guess I assumed that you would understand that there is a difference between the $39.95 tax software you buy at Staples and the software a small firm might use to process 500 or more returns per day. If you still think the free stuff is good enough, then just for fun, go figure the tax on a wash sale or calculate depreciation on all your office equipment using the MACRS/MQC method (assuming you've properly accounted for Section 179).
Once again, it's not smart people like yourself that need help. It's the old lady who was just widowed and has no idea what to do with a 1099 when it arrives in the mail. Many of these people just don't file and incur huge penalties; others file, but get ripped off in the process.
Individual tax preparation has become a commodity and a very competitive industry. Anyone with a computer and $200 worth of software can prepare taxes...especially the 1040-EZ that many low income people file. Since they can't make much on the preparation, Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) have become a major source of revenue and growth for many tax preparers...not just the big names like HRB and Jackson.
With the help of large banking institutions like BankOne, mom and pop accounting businesses can offer RALs and other financial products as an added service to their tax prep customers. In the wrong hands this can become part of the shady underbelly of the tax world and ranks up there with your local check cashing institution, rent-to-own store, and pawn shop (sometimes all at the same address).
Many of these programs are targeted at people who live paycheck-to-paycheck and don't have the education or experience to discern a good deal from a really bad one.
As nerds, geeks, and know-it-alls, I think we can help the situation by offering assistance to those in need. Help someone in need set up a bank account, do their own 1040-EZ, and understand that a properly file refund can usually be direct deposited in less than a month. The IRS and others sponsor programs to help connect smart people like you to those who need help doing their taxes.
I remember going to RS with my dad when I was a kid. Back then you could buy just about anything electrical, stuff that you couldn't get anywhere else: tubes for the TV, ICs and caps for electronics projects, lamp wire (back when it was still cool to use it as speaker wire), and other stuff that wasn't already assembled. The customers were mostly middle-age male hobbyist and/.-type people. The salespeople often knew as much as the customers and I suspected worked at RS as a result of their own addition to gadgets and electrons.
Roll forward 25 years. I was in RS this weekend and the place looks like a mini Circuit City. All they want to do is sell you a stereo, cell phone, a remote controlled car, or a set of Monster Cables. The sales people don't have a clue about how electronics work and they abandon customers looking for anything technical so that they can focus their efforts on the next goober looking to buy a cell phone (they are easily identified by the lack of a pocket protector).
RS has turned away from it's original niche and joined the fray of consumer electronics. In Darwinian terms, they have evolved into a very short giraffe that is competing with normal size giraffes, elephants, and other leaf eating animals. They will soon be extinct.
As a former science fair winner and judge, this is just another example of a tried and true method of winning your local* science fair (Patent Pending):
Depending on the judging pool, pick a topic and problem statement that your mother finds either very interesting or very offensive.
Research your topic using Google and believe anything that you see.
Develop a hypothesis you know is grossly incorrect yet easily believable by people in your community (Call the White House for suggestions)
Do some basic experiments with a questionable methodology.
Show your results: Think colorful bar graphs and pie charts. Lots of words make things too complicated.
Conclude that your results are history making and will forever change how the World views your topic.
I wish this wasn't mostly true, but most of society favors flamboyance over precision.
*This method has only been validated at the local science fair level. Results at the State level may vary if the project is subjected to a more strenuous and informed judging process.
Believing in the infallibility of the Bible and literal interpretations of it are total different subjects than the concepts of God's forgiveness and sacrificial love. I choose not to believe in a literal 6-day creation, yet I don't throw out every book in the Bible as a result.
I don't mean to be preachy, but everyone could benefit from hearing some of what the other side has to say. We're all quick to shout "RTFA!" on/. and, for me, this subject is no exception. Hardly any of the Creationists I know have any knowledge of biology or astronomy and very few of my friends in science have a solid understanding of the concepts taught in the Old and New Testaments. I'd like to see more Bible-thumpers interested in learning about science and more scientists interested in learning about the Bible.
-- Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein, "Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium", 1941
I always headed to Service Merchandise for my TI-99 carts. You could also pick up the voice emulator there if you could squeeze your parents for $149.99.
As the nerd son of a nerd, my dad and I would write code on the TI-99 for as father-son projects. I have many fond memories of listening to our programs "burning" to cassettes that we then colored and packaged in zip-lock bags and sold in a local hobby shop. I guess things haven't changed much in today's world...my nerd daughter and I will just make web pages to hock our wares instead of stuffing zip-lock bags.
Time and time again, history has shown that mixing science with politics or religion (which is often politics cloaked in a form of "righteousness") always results in pure evil.
Because societies hold those in the sciences with great regard, it only makes sense that politicians and governments in need of substantiation cling to them. Scientist, in turn, are often willing participants in the symbiotic relationship, feeding off the money and influence that flow from the bosom of the rich and powerful. This isn't limited to politics; it happens in pharmaceuticals, educational institutions, the food industry, and nearly every other human endeavor that requires smart people to prove something right or wrong and announce their findings.
It is difficult to consider any science independent if its existence is funded by purveyors of mind control, greed, or world domination. I wish there were a way for science to be funded without the overarching control of the funding organization, but we all know that's just not going to happen. Therefore, we must challenge every conclusion by looking at it from different perspectives and "funding models", be it other governments, democrat/republican funding, different religions, etc.
I consider myself religious and somewhat political, but I will never ask my preacher what I should blindly think about evolution or fully embrace un-reviewed science from a government entity.
I could signup a generic slashdot@gmail.com type account and then pass around multiple variations to different sites.
Depending upon the variation received I could determine which site leaked my mail.
I'm off topic, but several years ago a friend setup a catch all for my domain name so that
"anything@mydomain.com" comes to the same address.
I've been doing what you described and have made one major observation: my friends and family are spreading my email address more than any of the websites I sign up with. People get infected and send my email address to other people, who then get infected and send my address to blah, blah blah.
The only other major sources of spam are my Whois entries (tons from this one), the vendors that scanned my badge at MS TechEd 2001 (that address gets numerous solicitations for drugs that promise to correct male "software" problems), and a religious conference (they're email db appears to have been hacked by very dedicated phishers who favor CitiBank and SunTrust.) The catch all is also handy for controlling access to your online banking and vendor accounts; I use a dedicated address for each bank or merchant and can easily tell from the TO: address when something isn't right.
I appreciate your opinion and agree that experiencing a place is a better way to learn about it than looking at pictures. But the problem is that I don't necessarily benefit from the experiences you have on your trip to New Zealand...at best I'd get to see a slide show and hear about the great time you had. Would my "experience" be any different if a robot went to New Zealand and took the same pictures?
The problem is we're not talking about sending a generation to Mars; just a few lucky people. It's not that we shouldn't go to Mars, I just think that the investment it would require for us to do it in the next 50 years would be better spent teaching robots how to drive jeeps and bring rocks back to Earth. Our time will come as we discover better ways to move flesh around the solar system.
This mission is just one more example of why I feel manned missions are unnecessary. Thinking of sending people to a comet to catch particles is laughable, yet people clapped when Bush announced his "vision" to return to the Moon and put men are Mars.
With the success of Stardust, Spirit, Opportunity, and other missions, NASA and JPL are clearly demonstrating that robots are aptly suited for productive space research. Rather than invest in the huge infrastructure required to support our frailty, we should accept that humans are not equipped for interplanetary travel and actively pursue new and imaginative unmanned missions.
BTW, Great job Stardust team. Congratulations! I can't wait to get my invite to help out!
Sorry to lash out like that...it's part of my online persona.
I've been surrounded by nerdy accountants for the last 13 years. I'm thinking of buying the book for them so I can get out of my role as the local Spreadsheet B!tch for the Excel challenged.
The ping attribute allows Web pages to track which off-site links are most popular, as well as allowing advertisers to track click-through rates without obscuring the final target URI. It is possible to track users without this feature, but authors are encouraged to use the ping attribute so that the user agent can improve the user experience.
Encouraging good behaviour is great, but it doesn't fix the problem of bad guys obscuring the target URI. It will be up to the content publishers of the world to create ad policy that discourage bad behaviour...but that means they may have to turn away a few dollars here and there to be taken seriously and keep users safe.
Show some respect, AC Troll. Space exploration or not, disease, war, poverty, and economic forces will always exist.
Most people understand that research for the sake of increasing knowledge will inadvertently lead to the researcher learning something that he "didn't know he didn't know." This results in new approaches to problem solving, new ways to cure disease, new reasons to have wars, etc. Cruise this site to see some of the items that resulted from NASA research. You might learn something you didn't know.
Slashdot Mirror
FOR THE RECORD: Not all Christians think this way.
I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY CMDRTACO!!! KITTY KILLER!!!
For heaven's sake, someone get a mirror up before the cute little baby ducks become part of the carnage too.
I hope to see a simpler tax system for low-to-middle income brackets, but I don't think its possible to create a flat tax for the rich corporations that wouldn't let them get off easy compared to today's taxes.
Also understand that "tax software" isn't only about doing 1040s and electronic filing. There are whole industries devoted to figuring out the (and avoiding) unintended tax consequences when two companies merge, verifying that you didn't overpay sales taxes on products you sold that were eventually returned, validating R&D credits before they are submitted, tax-effective supply chain management, etc.
Good point, but now I've got skills that can be applied to lots of different industries.
By the way, the "corporate drone" comment doesn't apply in my case...I was employee #5 of 5 when I started and #2 of 20 when I left. It was more of a sweatshop than a corporation.
You've got it exactly right. I see too many kids walking in expecting to be paid for what they think they already know, but unwilling to invest the energy to learn about and build the business they are supporting.
In '93 I moved 500 miles for an $8.00/hr job coding tax software--possibly the most boring software known to man -- because I thought it would be useful experience for a "real job." It was a crappy job with crappy hours and a very limited crappy life outside of work. When everyone else was bouncing from job to job, I stuck with it and worked my way up. When I finally left after 6 years, I was in charge of two product lines and a dozen programmers and CPAs. I'm now working on 14 years in the tax software industry and have little fear of being outsourced. Now I know the business, I know the issues, and I know the driving forces behind our decisions. They no longer pay me to write code (though I still sneak in a little); they now pay me to help them make more money.
I suggest that you get your foot in the door any way you can, smile while they dump sh!t on your head, show them that you're there for more than a paycheck, and most importantly, stick with it. As you demonstrate your commitment you will quickly be given more responsibility, money, and a more secure career.
I got into the same deal, but with a much larger monster of an organization, with lots of developers, thousands of servers, and endless financial resources. Here's what I learned: two passionate and committed coders with a clear understanding of their company's business and customers can produce more than an army of egos, project managers, analysts, disengaged sponsors.
I suggest you pick a target that the two of you can hit in 30 days, communicate that goal to your boss's boss, bust your asses to hit the target in 20 days, then spend the next 10 days figuring out your next 30 day trick. Rinse and repeat.
As you complete these little projects, you will A) gain the trust and confidence of the guys with the money, and B) increase your own confidence in your team's abilities. Yes, there will be bugs and system-wide FUps, but that's the price of playing the game with 2 guns in a 4x6 cube.
With time you will learn to identify the low-risk opportunities for investments, where the ROI is high and the time to execute is low. Some of these investments might be adding new features, others may be in hiring a new person. Management will come to respect your judgment.
The point is to run your shop like your own business and spend your time and money as if it were your own. If you're not making money for the company, and seeking ways to make even more, then they don't need you. Yes, having a few more people sounds appealing, but you need to have a direction to send them first.
I suspect this is being suggested so that pure-electronic service providers like Intuit (TurboTax), who don't do face-to-face work, can offer the same extras that the H&R Blocks and Jackson-Hewitts of the world offer: Crappy-Rate Refund Anticipation Loans, IRAs, Mortgage Services, etc.
So, what you're saying is that /. has a nice personality.
Let's say that I wrote the world's most flawed web browser (Anger Browser 1.0), with several hidden RC function and a welcome mat for specially scripted spyware installers. Yes, it has 500 more flaws than IE, but I only have an installed user base of two. Does this mean that my browser presents a higher risk than a browser with 100,000,000 users and one flaw?
All things the same, a flaw in IE presents a higher weighted risk than a browser with a fraction of the user base. Combining that with the relative ignorance of the average IE user, I say that a flaw in IE presents a much higher return to the bad guys than any other browser out there.
Most banks in the US issue branded "check cards" that can used anywhere like a credit card (without a PIN) or as a debit card (with a PIN). I assume that when you requested a traditional card, they gave you a plain debit card which can be used at an ATM or any retailer who accepts debit cards (with a PIN). The retailers are the point where the PIN is being compromised.
In my book, debit cards are only for ATM machines and the only thing that goes in any other card reader is a real credit card -- that is not tied directly to my checking account. I suspect there are fewer skimmers hooked up to bank ATMs than there are to unattended gas pumps. I may be wrong, but it makes me feel good.
None of this would matter if we could just get rid of all the bad people.
If the kid was looking to better humanity, he probably would have reported the flaw to Google before blogging on it. He should read the RFPolicy before he ends up being a scapegoat under someone's corporate bus.
I'm sorry. I've developed tax software for the last 15 years and I guess I assumed that you would understand that there is a difference between the $39.95 tax software you buy at Staples and the software a small firm might use to process 500 or more returns per day. If you still think the free stuff is good enough, then just for fun, go figure the tax on a wash sale or calculate depreciation on all your office equipment using the MACRS/MQC method (assuming you've properly accounted for Section 179).
Once again, it's not smart people like yourself that need help. It's the old lady who was just widowed and has no idea what to do with a 1099 when it arrives in the mail. Many of these people just don't file and incur huge penalties; others file, but get ripped off in the process.
With the help of large banking institutions like BankOne, mom and pop accounting businesses can offer RALs and other financial products as an added service to their tax prep customers. In the wrong hands this can become part of the shady underbelly of the tax world and ranks up there with your local check cashing institution, rent-to-own store, and pawn shop (sometimes all at the same address).
Many of these programs are targeted at people who live paycheck-to-paycheck and don't have the education or experience to discern a good deal from a really bad one.
As nerds, geeks, and know-it-alls, I think we can help the situation by offering assistance to those in need. Help someone in need set up a bank account, do their own 1040-EZ, and understand that a properly file refund can usually be direct deposited in less than a month. The IRS and others sponsor programs to help connect smart people like you to those who need help doing their taxes.
Roll forward 25 years. I was in RS this weekend and the place looks like a mini Circuit City. All they want to do is sell you a stereo, cell phone, a remote controlled car, or a set of Monster Cables. The sales people don't have a clue about how electronics work and they abandon customers looking for anything technical so that they can focus their efforts on the next goober looking to buy a cell phone (they are easily identified by the lack of a pocket protector).
RS has turned away from it's original niche and joined the fray of consumer electronics. In Darwinian terms, they have evolved into a very short giraffe that is competing with normal size giraffes, elephants, and other leaf eating animals. They will soon be extinct.
I wish this wasn't mostly true, but most of society favors flamboyance over precision.
*This method has only been validated at the local science fair level. Results at the State level may vary if the project is subjected to a more strenuous and informed judging process.
Why not?
Believing in the infallibility of the Bible and literal interpretations of it are total different subjects than the concepts of God's forgiveness and sacrificial love. I choose not to believe in a literal 6-day creation, yet I don't throw out every book in the Bible as a result.
I don't mean to be preachy, but everyone could benefit from hearing some of what the other side has to say. We're all quick to shout "RTFA!" on /. and, for me, this subject is no exception. Hardly any of the Creationists I know have any knowledge of biology or astronomy and very few of my friends in science have a solid understanding of the concepts taught in the Old and New Testaments. I'd like to see more Bible-thumpers interested in learning about science and more scientists interested in learning about the Bible.
--
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein, "Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium", 1941
As the nerd son of a nerd, my dad and I would write code on the TI-99 for as father-son projects. I have many fond memories of listening to our programs "burning" to cassettes that we then colored and packaged in zip-lock bags and sold in a local hobby shop. I guess things haven't changed much in today's world...my nerd daughter and I will just make web pages to hock our wares instead of stuffing zip-lock bags.
Because societies hold those in the sciences with great regard, it only makes sense that politicians and governments in need of substantiation cling to them. Scientist, in turn, are often willing participants in the symbiotic relationship, feeding off the money and influence that flow from the bosom of the rich and powerful. This isn't limited to politics; it happens in pharmaceuticals, educational institutions, the food industry, and nearly every other human endeavor that requires smart people to prove something right or wrong and announce their findings.
It is difficult to consider any science independent if its existence is funded by purveyors of mind control, greed, or world domination. I wish there were a way for science to be funded without the overarching control of the funding organization, but we all know that's just not going to happen. Therefore, we must challenge every conclusion by looking at it from different perspectives and "funding models", be it other governments, democrat/republican funding, different religions, etc.
I consider myself religious and somewhat political, but I will never ask my preacher what I should blindly think about evolution or fully embrace un-reviewed science from a government entity.
I'm off topic, but several years ago a friend setup a catch all for my domain name so that "anything@mydomain.com" comes to the same address.
I've been doing what you described and have made one major observation: my friends and family are spreading my email address more than any of the websites I sign up with. People get infected and send my email address to other people, who then get infected and send my address to blah, blah blah.
The only other major sources of spam are my Whois entries (tons from this one), the vendors that scanned my badge at MS TechEd 2001 (that address gets numerous solicitations for drugs that promise to correct male "software" problems), and a religious conference (they're email db appears to have been hacked by very dedicated phishers who favor CitiBank and SunTrust.) The catch all is also handy for controlling access to your online banking and vendor accounts; I use a dedicated address for each bank or merchant and can easily tell from the TO: address when something isn't right.
The problem is we're not talking about sending a generation to Mars; just a few lucky people. It's not that we shouldn't go to Mars, I just think that the investment it would require for us to do it in the next 50 years would be better spent teaching robots how to drive jeeps and bring rocks back to Earth. Our time will come as we discover better ways to move flesh around the solar system.
With the success of Stardust, Spirit, Opportunity, and other missions, NASA and JPL are clearly demonstrating that robots are aptly suited for productive space research. Rather than invest in the huge infrastructure required to support our frailty, we should accept that humans are not equipped for interplanetary travel and actively pursue new and imaginative unmanned missions.
BTW, Great job Stardust team. Congratulations! I can't wait to get my invite to help out!
I've been surrounded by nerdy accountants for the last 13 years. I'm thinking of buying the book for them so I can get out of my role as the local Spreadsheet B!tch for the Excel challenged.
See Tax Technology.
The ping attribute allows Web pages to track which off-site links are most popular, as well as allowing advertisers to track click-through rates without obscuring the final target URI. It is possible to track users without this feature, but authors are encouraged to use the ping attribute so that the user agent can improve the user experience.
Encouraging good behaviour is great, but it doesn't fix the problem of bad guys obscuring the target URI. It will be up to the content publishers of the world to create ad policy that discourage bad behaviour...but that means they may have to turn away a few dollars here and there to be taken seriously and keep users safe.
Show some respect, AC Troll. Space exploration or not, disease, war, poverty, and economic forces will always exist.
Most people understand that research for the sake of increasing knowledge will inadvertently lead to the researcher learning something that he "didn't know he didn't know." This results in new approaches to problem solving, new ways to cure disease, new reasons to have wars, etc. Cruise this site to see some of the items that resulted from NASA research. You might learn something you didn't know.