Octopus Overlords

I was riffing on the urban legends about expensive hammers and toilet seats, not the sort of things you were describing.



So Hep's $20K toilet seat seems like a bargain...

But to get back on topic, you just know that DOGE is going to proceed as if any and all conspiracy theories are true and actionable. It's kind of Memelord Musk's thing.

I'm reminded of the "shrimp on treadmills" issue from a few years back.

Short version: Scientists received a government grant for around $3 million to do a study about shrimp, part of which was creating a literal treadmill for shrimp and observing their behavior. The study was roundly criticized as a "massive waste of taxpayer funds" and has been held up for years as a prime example of government waste.

Turns out, the study was done to measure the impact of currents on shrimp migration patterns and see how they react. This would allow researchers to better understand these patterns and provide data to the fishing industry so they can adjust their fishing patterns accordingly. Oh by the way, the US shrimp industry is a little over $8 BILLION per year. You don't think this will help them a bit?

So while some of the spending may sound very silly on the surface and end up as immediate targets for people (like Musk) who don't want to bother understanding them, they do most often serve a purpose that actually helps people. Those people affected might not be me directly, but when I hear about a government study about the wind patterns of noxious weed pollen that sounds absurd, I typically find out later that the results of the study saved 500,000 cattle in Wyoming (or something similar).

I'd love to say we should stop knee-jerk reacting to things people have very little actual understanding of, but that's just the way the US rolls now. OUTRAGE DU JOUR!!!

Max Peck wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2024 11:10 am
So Hep's $20K toilet seat seems like a bargain...

Please pay attention. I said the whole toilet, not the toilet seat only. Your misinterpretation just makes it sound silly.

But joking aside, there may be justifications for some of the high costs, but there are absolutely instances of overspending at a huge level. Ernie Fitzgerald carried proof of that to Washington for years.

So yes, I was joking. But there’s a grain of truth in that joke.

Yeah, these guys will tank the economy...

Trump advisers and officials from his newfound Department of Government Efficiency have, for example, asked whether the president-elect could abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., people familiar with the matter said.

This is gonna play in my head so many times in the coming years.

Even though it was short, my stint in Basic makes me believe the need for a hardened toilet.
We all ate the same thing but I'll be damned if we all processed it the same.

Partial jokes aside, it would help if they did a better job of explaining why the costs of toilets and hammers were high for example instead of leaving it to our imagination because I'd bet they they are paying crazy amounts for things that there is no reason to.
Have they ever explained the hammers and toilet thing for example?