Mad Science funding
Cute article in the Onion: "Mad Scientist's Plot Thwarted By Budget Cuts."
In response to recent budget cuts, the National Science Foundation has reduced grants to individual recipients, including those of megalomaniacal researcher Dr. Edward Mortis of Brookhaven Laboratories.
"My positronic raygun was nearly complete," said Mortis at a press conference Tuesday. "With one gigagram of destructonium [a rare element mined from a meteor belt that passes Earth once every 29 years], I could have ruled the world!"
...
Last week, a letter from the NSF informed Mortis that his annual grant will be reduced substantially, from $2 billion a year to a mere $200 million. According to Mortis, the budget cuts will effectively terminate both the Armageddon Project and his work on several outside efforts, including a hyperchronal disrupter, a polysonic transmogricon, and 100,000 killer robots.
Unfortunately, that's not a long-term URL, and I don't know if the article will be available online after it rolls off the "Previous Issue" page. So read it while you can!
(Thanks to Jen and Kam.)