How much does an iPad app cost? Kevin Drum runs us through the numbers.

Sometime in the dim past, the TSA needed a way to randomly assign passengers to the pre-check boarding line. The solution was an iPad app that randomly points left or right when an agent taps the screen. This app, which Kevin Burke says “a beginner could build in a day,” was coded by IBM and cost the taxpayers a cool $47,000.

Great work if you can get it!