Verum Serum has compiled this list of ridiculous use of stimulus funds that produced 19.79 jobs for $65.7 million dollars, or roughly $3.3 million per job. Wow!
“Putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done“…
10. A $427,824 research grant to design better video games for senior citizens based on their unique “game-play needs”.9. Funding of a Dartmouth College study involving “sexual arousal in anesthetized female rats” ($9,870).
8. Funding of a $168,300 SBA loan to the Escape Massage parlor in Midlothian, VA.
7. Funding a $447,492 Univ. of North Carolina study on the development and use of “African American English” amongst 70 adolescents.
6. $10,346 for a heating and cooling company to provide “escort services” for other companies performing a laser scanning survey at a courthouse in Honolulu, Hawaii.
5. An academic study comparing outcomes of the concurrent and separate use of malt liquor and marijuana ($389,357).
4. A $225,000 study at Ohio State University on the relative and combined impacts of air pollution and a high fat diet on obesity development.
3. A $712,883 research grant to develop “machine-generated humor“. Project will design artificially intelligent “comedic performance agents”, and will “deploy them both on and off-line for the enjoyment and illumination of everyday citizens”.
2. A $54 million project to relocate one bridge for the Napa Valley Wine Train (!) in order to mitigate the possible impact of a “100 year storm event”.
And the number one most ridiculous use of stimulus funds…
1. $9.3 million (!) to fund the design and development of a “coordinated colony of robotic bees“!
It was a large stimulus package and it is hard for anyone to get a handle on all the possible pork barrel applications. If you know of a list topper, please post in a comment.