Robosquirrel

In a coincidence (or is it?) yesterday saw the release of Senator Tom Coburn's annual list of what his office considers the most extreme examples of government waste. In a shocking omission this year I don't see a single conservation project! Usually there's a Turtle tunnel or Wildlife overpass or a Bear DNA study in there but not this year.

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released a new oversight report, “Wastebook 2012” that highlights more than $18 billion in examples of some of the most egregious ways your taxpayer dollars were wasted in 2012. This report highlights 100 of the year’s countless unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects spread throughout the federal government.

The media usually pick up on a couple of the highlighted examples (although the report contains 100) and this year robosquirrel (from UC Davis) seems to be attracting the attention. I'm not sure exactly what Senator Coburn has against robotic squirrels. He seems to be against them on principle:

During these difficult fiscal times of massive deficits, paying $325,000 for a robot squirrel 

seems a bit squirrelly.