Your tax dollars at work...

[Gob]

The Senate’s top watchdog on government waste, in a new report Thursday, said taxpayer money has gone to fund such programs as Jell-O wrestling at the South Pole, testing shrimp’s exercise ability on a treadmill and a laundry-folding robot, all funded by the National Science Foundation.

Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, said he identified more than $3 billion in mismanagement at NSF, ranging from questionable studies to exorbitant operating costs, and in some cases duplication by the science agency of operations performed by other agencies.

At a time when the federal government is struggling with record deficits and bumping up against its borrowing limit, Mr. Coburn said the agency is a prime example of the kinds of spending taxpayers should no longer tolerate.

“There is little, if any, obvious scientific benefit to some NSF projects, such as a YouTube rap video, a review of event ticket prices on stubhub.com, a ‘robot hoedown and rodeo,’ or a virtual recreation of the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair,” Mr. Coburn said in a letter to taxpayers he wrote introducing the 73-page report, documented by more than 350 footnotes.

In one instance NSF employees, in their spare time, engaged in a Jell-O wrestling contest at the agency’s McMurdo research station at the South Pole. In another case, the agency paid $559,681 to test sick shrimp’s metabolism, which one researcher said was “the first time that shrimp have been exercised on a treadmill.”

Mr. Coburn’s report noted that the researchers found sick shrimp “did not perform as well and did not recover as well from exercise as healthy shrimp.”

An NSF spokeswoman said agency officials have a “gold-standard approach to peer review” for the projects they spend money on

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... wrestling/

[Scooter]

These soundbite descriptions rarely if ever provide an accurate representation of the research in question or why it is important. Typical Republican anti-intellectual posturing from one of the Republican caucus's leading anti-intellectuals.

I mean, criticizing what a researcher is doing in his/her SPARE TIME while at the fucking South Pole? Who gives a shit if they are having Jello orgies? Just because they are trapped there doesn't mean they are on the government's dime 24/7.

[Gob]

Who, me?

[Scooter]

No, Tom Coborn, who must have gotten his medical degree by mailing in cereal box tops for all the understanding of science he demonstrates in these periodic rants.