
The US Air Force Spent $326,000 Replacing Broken Coffee Cups in the Last 2 Years - halestock
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/kzjvga/the-us-air-force-has-spent-dollar326000-replacing-broken-coffee-cups-in-the-last-two-years
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mikestew
Summary (because it'll take a few paragraphs to get past the faux outrage):
they are FAA-certified cups that plug into cabin systems, hence the price.

Still, for $1200 a pop, one would think they'd be more durable.

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evgen
ObWestWing:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9kH_HOUXM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9kH_HOUXM)

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Something1234
I think I need to watch this show.

But I can totally get behind the thought pattern of making things that shatter
gently into big, dull shards. There's so much thought that goes into these
little things.

Although why does a sub need an ashtray. It's not like there should be
cigarettes on it.

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SimplePeople
Smoking on subs was only banned at the end of 2010.

[http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/04/09/navy.smoking.subs/index...](http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/04/09/navy.smoking.subs/index.html)

Apparently there were "smoking rooms" on (at least some) subs.

[https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/14/4/221.1](https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/14/4/221.1)

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fit2rule
I can't look at that square handle and not think "that was by design", also..
it seems obvious that it was designed to break at that point if it fell..

[https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/styles/inline_...](https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/styles/inline_image_desktop/public/inline-
images/AFcup2.jpg)

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sushid
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_budget](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_budget)

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willio58
“The black budget can be complicated to calculate, but in the United States it
has been estimated to be over US$50 billion a year – a greater figure than
current United States expenditure for education.”

Imagine cutting the black budget in half and more than doubling the education
budget with that money. Suddenly free community college for all is doable. And
you still have 25B for your hidden activities!

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slededit
Medicare is $702bln/yr or $12,300 per recipient. Canada spends $3,000USD per
capita and provides healthcare to everyone.

Think of what we could do with the $526.5bln that would be saved if US
healthcare costs were brought back inline with other advanced economies.

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MR4D
The reason these things are crazy expensive is that the spec for the cups is
written by the same government that writes the form you use to do your taxes.

The government is not smart enough to have a housing dollar pot that locks in
place and then use cheap cups.

Dumb.

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taylodl
And there I thought Yeti cups were expensive!!!

