Slashdot Mirror
'Space Vikings' Spark (Unfounded) NASA Waste Inquiry
sciencehabit writes "For Ved Chirayath, a graduate student and amateur fashion photographer, a photo project that involved NASA researchers dressed as Vikings was just a creative way to promote space science. 'I started this project hoping maybe one day some kid will look at it and say, 'I want to work for NASA,' ' says Chirayath, a student at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who also works nearby at NASA's Ames Research Center. He never suspected that his fanciful image would put him in the crosshairs of a government waste investigation triggered by a senior U.S. senator."
The project was funded by an outside art grant. The best part: the investigation into the non-existent waste probably cost more than the "waste" would have were it funded by NASA in the first place.
"This year [2008], the government-watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste named Grassley the fourth biggest GOP earmarker. The senator has proven himself a champion spender of other people’s money." http://spectator.org/archives/2008/06/10/chuck-grassley-king-of-pork
Grassley has a history of sending drooling stupid letters full of dipshit questions to NASA administrators. Here he's character-assinating the director of the Ames Research Center. Here he's making shit up about NASA and Google doing something nefarious. Here is an account of him badgering them about procurement practices.
Note that all of them contain demands for detailed histories, rationales and future plans, all to be delivered with two weeks.
Maybe this grandstanding fucktard should start writing similar letters to the Secretary of Defense. I hear they get a slightly larger portion of the budget pie than NASA does.
You're a fool swept up in Republican lies and propaganda. That video was made while training in the use of their new video facilities and cost them next to nothing.
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
It is like a general from the pentagon making a special flight to Okinawa to see if PFC Perkins pilfered a stapler.
The inquiry will easily cost more than the photos would have if NASA had paid for them.
Of course the senator has been called the king of pork on more than one occasion. He probably would have been fione with it as long as they had the photos developed in Iowa.
That video was made while training in the use of their new video facilities and cost them next to nothing. Try watching something besides Fox News.
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
The video was made as a training exercise for the new facilities. The studio wasn't built to do the star trek video, the star trek video was done to train people for the studio.
In other words they used the existing training budget to do a fun exercise instead of filming 70's style PSAs that would never see the light of day.