re: the transgender one, it seems to be one of these social science projects that just involves interviewing people. From the project page: "This discourse-based research will interview twelve transgender young people". Is interviewing 12 people for $870,000 NZD a good use of money? I don't think so.
72 people.
The full abstract is:
> This research explores transgender young people’s experiences of positive family support in Aotearoa. Family support is protective for transgender youth but we lack evidence of what it looks like for young people of diverse cultures. Our project diversifies research on this topic, extending it from parents to young people themselves and their broader family, from monocultural majority to ethnically diverse participants, and from trauma to resilience. Our gender and culturally diverse team will interview twelve transgender young people (3 Māori, 3 Pasifika, 3 Asian, and 3 Pākehā) and five each of their most valued supporters. We will use the innovative method of reflective drawing, asking participants to draw and discuss their experiences of family support. Our visual and verbal discourse analysis will paint a picture of how families successfully support transgender youth, drawing on perspectives of gender diversity and family in Māori, Pasifika, Asian and Pākehā communities. This will be the first discourse-based research in this area, advancing knowledge in transgender studies, family studies and language and gender. It will explore how young people and their families challenge oppressive social structures through discourse and provide insights for those seeking to be part of the village that raises a transgender child.
It is called corruption.
This is the most likely explanation. Hanlon's razor is not relevant anymore, it's actually the opposite these days.
People who don't want to see this reality are just polezniye duraki that further allow the corrupt people in charge to get away with it.
Slightly derailing the topic, one only has to take a look at US goverment budget for like 0.001 secs to see how deep this problem goes. There are invoices like $500 a piece for a fastener.
The duraki will come up to say "oh but that's probably a fastener that has to be created in space from the rarest material available to be used in an extremely sensitive physics experiment". It's not and you're making a fool of yourself. The real purpose of those fasteners is to get someone a new condo in Miami.
It's just corruption.
> There are invoices like $500 a piece for a fastener.
Please provide an example of this fantastic claim including the accounting methodology.
The example that comes to my mind is the $10,000.00 toilet seat. That turns out to have been three toilet seats for the C-5 that had to be custom made because they were no longer available. They are now 3-D printed for $300.00. These numbers don’t explain what was involved in making the $10,000.00 one, how it was installed, or how long it lasts.
https://www.military.com/defensetech/2018/07/11/air-force-no...
Here's a few of them,
https://www.dodig.mil/In-the-Spotlight/Article/3948604/press...
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/10/30/air-force-ove...
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/04/27/pentagon-over...
There's even this HN comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42410606
This was a 5 minute Google Search, I can guarantee there's much more overspending going on. Oh wait ... yeah, why would one believe me if I haven't performed a detailed audit of all US Govervement expenses and published it to support my claim? Oh no, you got me this time ;).
Wasteful military spending is one of those things people “just know” but the reality is often more complex than a headline.
Or at least live to your own standard,
>turns out to have been three toilet seats
Where's that info?
>that had to be custom made
Where's that info?
>because they were no longer available
Where's that info?
>These numbers don’t explain what was involved [...]
Where's the explanation behind them?
What is the "accounting methodology" that was used?
Anyone could play that game and keep the conversation stalled indefinitely.
It’s not about stalling the conversation. It’s about forming opinions based on actual facts.