Friday, August 3, 2012

Link roundup

1. NY Times:
Amtrak loses about $80 million a year selling food. Since 2002, Amtrak’s food service has lost $834 million.

Amtrak said it was increasing the use of credit cards for food sales to cut down on cash thefts by employees, reducing staff, creating a better system to track inventory and to collect revenue. It has also set up a three-person loss-prevention unit.
Via.

2. And in other delightful government news:
Over the last several years, the Defense Department spent $45 billion giving troops in Iraq and Afghanistan heavily armored super-trucks called MRAPs in a bid to keep them safe from roadside bombs.

New research suggests all that money for mine resistant armor protected vehicles may have been a colossal waste.
3. And how about one more:
A group of science and mathematical experts won almost $8million on a state lottery after discovering a fool-proof way of winning.
The group, which included a biomedical researcher and MIT undergraduates who were 'looking for an interesting school project', bought more than $40million of tickets over seven years but won approximately $48million - an $8million profit.

...

Officials at the Massachusetts state lottery knew one of their games had essentially been taken over by the group of highly-intelligent gamblers but did nothing because their syndicate generated $16million.