You hear that? It’s the sound of 582 billion dollar bills falling down an infinitely deep hole, as narrated by your Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter. Yes, his name’s Ash. And yes, he’s going to spend a couple billion defending outer space from ISIS.
As part of its efforts to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan, the Pentagon built this 64,000 square foot installation at Camp Leatherneck. The “64K” building teemed with generators, offices, teleconferencing rooms, and an auditorium. No one ever needed it and it was never used.
The gas station you’re looking at, built as part of the Pentagon’s reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, should have cost half a million dollars. Instead, it cost $43 million, and the U.S. government can’t even explain why.
The Pentagon plans to trash $1.2 billion in small-arms ammunition and missiles that are probably usable, but it can't be sure, because military inventory records are such a mess.
Just when you thought the Boy Scouts of America had a monopoly on organizational misbehavior, CBS Los Angeles discovered a video showing more than 13,000 boxes of unsold, unexpired Girl Scout cookies knowingly trashed last May. How many innocent Thin Mints have to die to satisfy your corporate greed?
If you're like me, you delayed in buying your 2013 wall calendar because you knew they'd all go on sale after January 1st. Some people might decry this as "extreme cheapness," but isn't it cheaper to insist on getting the "full value" out of your calendar by using it on "all applicable days?" That's trashy.
The federal government is just like you and me. Except it can legally kill people, and, instead of spending thousands of dollars on gadgets, it spends millions. Think you buy a lot of Apple gear? Not even close. [Gizmodo]
Yellow Pages. I cannot throw those things in the recycle bin fast enough. And yet they keep coming! When was the last time you actually used one, and what did you use it for? As makeshift booster seats for your child's third birthday party? Under-sweater bulletproofing for driving through rough neighborhoods?…
I'm no "LEED certified environmental consultant" or "person with a grasp of basic science," but it seems to me that brewing coffee one cup at a time via disposable plastic "K-cups" is a mite wasteful. Well, that's just "consumer perception."
Just trying to be a normal xenophobic American man these days means constantly fighting back against The System (ladies, etc.) telling us to buy fancy shampoo and fancy underwear, so, hey fellas, do not buy more fancy crap by choice.
After thousands of layoffs last year, Yahoo's gearing up to cut more staff. Here's an idea: Why not trim outrageous spending first? One Yahoo engineer has helpfully, if unwittingly, shown where to start.
