Daily Mail:

A “Senate report has revealed that mismanagement of taxpayer’s money has seen National Science Foundation (NSF) blow more than $3 billion -– on such things as a Jell-O wrestling party in the Antarctic and a list of seemingly pointless studies…$3 billion represents almost half of the NSF’s $6.9 billion annual budget.

One of the most embarrassing revelations for the NSF was a nude swimming party and wrestling event held at the McMurdo research station in Antarctica…$80,000 was spent on a study of why the same teams always dominate March Madness, and a further $315,000 was spent on a study suggesting playing FarmVille on Facebook helps adults develop and maintain relationships.

A staggering $1 million was spent on analysis of how quickly parents respond to trendy baby names…$2 million was spent on a study that revealed…that people who post pictures on the internet from the same location at the same time are usually friends…A NSF study into the health of shrimp cost more than $500,000, with the design and construction of special shrimp exercise machines…

a senior executive spent almost an entire year looking at pornography on his work computer, and speaking with naked or partially naked women in chat rooms. The executives actions were calculated at costing the taxpayer $58,000…$1.5 million was spent on the development of a robot that can fold laundry.”

Super fun bonus: it apparently takes the robot 25 minutes to fold a shirt.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 28th, 2011 at 7:36 pm and is filed under business, Democrats, Downsize, General, Republicans, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.