Day 10
91 - How to build a farm in a galaxy far, far away – (TX) $300,000 - An organization dedicated to getting to another star within 100 years received $300,000 from NASA and DOD this year.
92 - Thirty-thousand Legos to build an 18-foot long model street – (OH) $3,700 - An
93 - Contracts for trophies and typewriters – (General Services Administration) $24 million - GSA has been maintaining contracts for obsolete products that no one buys, an administrative function that costs $24 million a year.
94 - Studies of concubinage, M*A*S*H, and Mother Goose – (National Endowment for the Humanities) $504,000 - A variety of silly projects -- including studies of concubinage in medieval
95 - Heavy drinking in thirties linked with immaturity – (MO) $548,731 - An NIH-funded study found people who drink heavily in their 30s feel immature.
96 - Guns ablazin’: USDA studies
97 - Crazy for cupcakes! – (Small Business Administration) $2.0 million - Taxpayers are on the hook for $1.8 million in loans to cupcake boutiques from the Small Business Administration.
98 - Over one billion served: federally funded smartphone research – (NY) $1.3 million - Researchers using NSF funds will hand out hundreds of smartphones in effort to make them perform better, a task that should be funded by the private sector.
99 - Construction of an agricultural and motorsports museum featuring a tribute to dirt track racing and a large toy train display – (IA) $300,000 - An
100 - D’oh! Postal Service overprints Simpsons and other commemorative stamps – (Postal Service) $2 million - The Postal Service overproduces commemorative stamps every year, a $2 million waste in printing and distribution costs. In 2009, it printed 1 billion commemorative Simpsons stamps, and sold only 318 million.
