When I was in college, I worked for a genuine NASA scientist. He was the top moneymaker for the college of engineering. Instead of pursuing grants, the world came to him. At lunch over a few pictures of beer (Yes, a bunch of alcoholics) he told us his technique. He’d ask what they were trying to prove. (Usually, some stupid free energy thing or something about the environment.) Then the final report, sometimes published would seem to back up whatever the payer was trying to prove. But if you dug into the data you’d wonder how they got that conclusion. Then you’d go back to the conclusion and realize it didn’t really say what it seemed to say.
The doctor and the students saw these jobs/papers as just a means of living large off “The System.” Their dedication to science or “truth” was minimal and limited to covering their butts with carefully parsed words. Most of the “work” was done in the last two weeks before it was due and already 95% of the money was spent living expenses and parties.
That is exactly what I heard about NASA Ames operation in Mountain View, CA from others who worked there.
The truth is Rocketdyne and many other private companies got us to the moon. NASA just took credit for their hard work.
It was medical research, and most of the studies we did determined that whatever experimental drug didn't do like we hoped, though a few drugs did improve things. Sometimes there was either greater benefit or equal effect from lowering medication. (i.e. After certain kinds of strokes when your BP is lowered, it's now known to not fight the BP a lot to do intensive BP control; moderate BP control is just as good at reducing future strokes -- of certain types of strokes.) Every paper that they wrote was exactly like we saw in the data, at least the ones I was the lead programmer on (and had read writes to all of the data so I could make sure it was all coming in successfully from all of the fat clients running in all the clinics that participated in the studies).
Unfortunately, my guys weren't the norm.
#3 sounds like when the FED chairman speaks. No one really knows what he said so they interpret it to mean what they want it to mean.