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02.06.2012 0

OSHA app tells outdoor workers it’s too hot, and too expensive

By Rebecca DiFede — Have you ever been standing outside in your garden and wondered if it was hot out?

If you are confused by that statement, congratulations! You’re not a cyborg.

However the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has made an app that is apparently made for robots who are unable to feel temperature, and as such must be told that it is hot (or cold) out by another machine.

This app, for Android, Blackberry and iPhone markets, legitimately takes your location, reports the temperature, and then gives a rating. For example, 80 degrees Fahrenheit registers as having a high heat index, also known as “it’s hot”.

I know that in this day and age it has become the norm to rely on gadgets, be they Smartphones, tablets, computers or even cars, to give us information without having to search very far. However there are some things that as humans we are always capable of doing, and one of which is our ability to perceive temperature.

If you are standing in the snow in a bathing suit and flip-flops, and you need your phone to tell you that it’s cold outside and that you should be wearing a jacket and boots, call 911.

Unfortunately for those of us who aren’t temperature-impaired, there is yet another downside to this moronic excuse for an app. It cost taxpayers (yes, that means you) over $640,000 to ensure that this app became fully operational, which is quite a lot of money when you consider that the app is about as operational as a broken flashlight.

$640,000+ dollars to create an app that tells you what you already know. Why don’t they have one that, while you eat, it sends you a message to let you know that you have started eating. Or perhaps, when you touch a fleece blanket, to text you letting you know it’s soft.

This is absolutely infuriating, especially because that money was funded by hard-working Americans who would like to see their tax dollars go towards programs that help improve their lives, not a downloadable application that has less use than a paddle-ball toy.

You would think the DOL would have learned how to make a fully functioning app seeing as how their first attempted failed miserably in almost every category.

Maybe one day they will give up on their futile app-making career and concentrate on their actual jobs. It would be better for all of us.

Rebecca DiFede is a contributing editor to Americans for Limited Government.

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