Jello Wrestling, Porn, & Treadmill Shrimp: Report Reveals Outrageous Tax-Funded Expenses

Shrimp "working out" on treadmills. A robot that can fold laundry. Gelatin wrestling. The impact of FarmVille on personal relationships. Even porn. These are only a few of the bizarre things your taxpayer dollars are supporting.

In an outrageous new report, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn alleges gross misuse of federal funds by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In addition to doling out monies on some seemingly suspect initiatives, the NSF is also paying a boatload in rent. ABC has more:

The National Science Foundation has its headquarters in Arlington, Va., just across the river from Washington, D.C., a building it pays $19 million a year to rent. But now that the 20-year lease is nearly up, it has decided that it is time to move; into a new building that will cost $26 million annually to rent.

"The good news for taxpayers is there is no question NSF has contributed significantly to scientific discovery," Coburn writes in the report. "The bad news is a significant percentage of your money is going to what most Americans will consider fraud, waste and abuse, and there are many areas where NSF could contribute far more with better management and smarter targeting of resources."

For example, he says that the NSF used tax dollars to pay for a jello-wrestling party in Antarctica. Really:

In their spare time NSF employees have been jello-wrestling in Antarctica at the NSF research station McMurdo station (picture is taken from the event).

NSF spends $451 million annually through its Office of Polar Programs to support research efforts in Antarctica and the Arctic.71

The organizer of the jello-wrestling event was fired for the offense. In an email he sent to the entire staff after his dismissal, he is reported to have referred to NSF as “fun nazis,” and claimed that he was “terminated for having harmless jello wrestling.”

In the email, he also mentioned that many participated in a “Polar Plunge,” a skinny-dipping excursion, just hours before the jello event. He mentioned the plunge “had plenty of nudity but no one got fired or reprimanded for doing that!”

News reports indicate that the entire staff at the base was lectured on their moral failure, citing activities involving nudity.

Additionally, back in September, the University of Notre Dame claimed that a former professor (they dismissed him) had spent $190,000 in grant money from the NSF on photography equipment. The professor then used the equipment to take pornographic images (apparently a hobby of his).

And let's not forget the 2009 headlines about NSF employees and their alleged porn-surfing habits. The Wall Street Journal reported on an internal investigation in which it was found that staff "...were spending a lot of time on government computers reviewing porn instead of grant proposals."

Watch the clip below for more information on this perplexing story and be sure to read Sen. Coburn's complete report: