Republicans hate scientists?

[Dr Mike]

I really enjoyed the blog post from Steve Silberman from which this week's LabLit quote was taken. But confess I was a bit distracted by the Jello wrestling bit. Does anyone know the real story behind that??

[Mad Dan Eccles]

You had me at Jell-O wrestling. Sorry.

[hedge]

here's one item I found on it:
http://www.westword.com/2009-02-12/news ... outh-pole/

It really perplexes me that people can get so incensed and you see headlines such as 'taxpayer's money goes toward jello wrestling' - as if institutes and field stations aren't allowed to have any form of recreation. Would people be upset if it had been beer and pizza for postdocs, or a film night, or a dance or something? Imagine being trapped at the South Pole for so long - you have to have recreational events or the scientists would go mad. I'm sure Jello costs a lot less than pizza and beer!

It seems a bit of a bizarre practice but a little googling shows that it's far from unusual.