No, Oreos Aren't As Addictive As Cocaine 285
Daniel_Stuckey writes "If you give a mouse a cookie, you can spend all day following it around the house while it wants to do a bunch of tedious activities. Or, you can trap it in a box, keep feeding it cookies, and then make the outrageous claim that Oreos are as addictive as cocaine. Students at Connecticut College opted for the second option, and the consequences that ensued were much more annoying than making some arts and crafts with a darn mouse. Fox News reported that a 'College study finds Oreo cookies are as addictive as drugs,' Forbes explained 'Why Your Brain Treats Oreos Like a Drug,' and a ton of other sites ran with the story as well. Here's how the experiment, which has not been peer reviewed and has not been presented yet, went down. Mice were placed in a maze, with one end holding an Oreo and the other end holding a rice cake. The mice, without fail, decided to eat the Oreo over the rice cake, proving once and for all that mice like cookies better than tasteless discs with a styrofoamy texture."
Mice = Calorie Hunters (Score:4, Insightful)
Clearly, what they demonstrated was that the mice would go for the item with the highest density of calories & fat.
Duh...
Now make it really interesting, replace rice patty with a peanut butter cup. And it's an all out rat race.
So cocaine must not be that bad then, huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
You know more than a few people must have thought that when this piece of shit excuse for a "study" made its way into the headlines. Just how many years now will I - or the great minds of /. - have to go around correcting morons who will repeat this shit, having never bothered to read the article, learn about the source, to critically analyze the source, to think about the study, to see what, if any, corroborating evidence was subsequently discovered or not, and checked for any retractions or clear refutations? Beyond that, what the fuck ever happened to journalism?
Damn it all to hell, I need an Oreo. (1.86 Stuf please)
Re:Press release from a not even published poster. (Score:5, Insightful)
And you can't even be mad at this one since it is done by undergrads.
Yes, actually you can, this "study" isn't acceptable even by High School standards. For someone pursuing a Major course of study to make such obvious, fundamental procedural errors it's downright shameful.
They never ran any kind of control on the maze. They should have put rice cakes at BOTH exits and ran the mice through a large number of times to prove that the design of the maze isn't leading the mice to the "drugs" exit more frequently.
They never ran any direct comparison between the Oreos and the Cocaine. Just because mice chose Cocaine over Rice, and chose Oreos over Rice, DOES NOT lead to the conclusion that Oreos are the same as Cocaine. That's basic, fundamental logic they should have learned in GRADE SCHOOL.
There are only TWO possible explanation for this "study". Either these undergrads are a pack of completely incompetent fucking morons.... or they snorted all the Coke they were supposed to be using for the experiment and faked the data.
Re:Cookies (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Press release from a not even published poster. (Score:5, Insightful)
And you can't even be mad at this one since it is done by undergrads.
Yes, actually you can....
Seriously, a press beat up about a bunch of collage kids screwing up their class science project makes you "mad"? - And who are you mad at? - Strangely it's not the "journalist" who manufactured the beat up, it's the kids!! Little wonder the American public are so easily manipulated via their own media outlets.
Re:Cookies (Score:2, Insightful)
You'll have to be more specific about the treacle as it goes from clear to near-black. Blood pudding? If you meant black pudding, that's a savoury item. As for clotted cream biscuits, they're not biscuits even by the American use of the word and clotted cream is basically just thick whipped cream. They're usually served warm with jam and a cup of tea.
Spray-on cheese. Now the ball's in your court.
Re:Press release from a not even published poster. (Score:4, Insightful)
Just because mice chose Cocaine over Rice, and chose Oreos over Rice, DOES NOT lead to the conclusion that Oreos are the same as Cocaine.
Saying that one thing is just as X as another isn't saying that the two things are the same. "The outside of an oreo is just as brown as the turd from a /. poster" doesn't mean that oreos are the same as your steaming pile. That's basic, fundamental logic you should have learned in GRADE SCHOOL.
There are only TWO possible explanation for this "study".
Or the third, most probable explanation. It was an undergrad science project intended to promote interest in STEM education. And GIRLS in STEM. Did you fail to notice in your haste to rip them a new one that, except for the professor involved, all the people listed in the article were WOMEN?
Hey, here's a novel concept. Not every lab experiment has to be publication quality research for the people involved to learn something, or for it to motivate them to continue their education so they can learn more. Every term there is a lab class that meets outside my office window that drops pop bottles containing dry ice into a large container of water, to demonstrate the physics behind geysers. Boom! Splash! My God! They aren't using controls! They didn't test the effects of just dropping the pop bottle into the water! And the water doesn't have all the dissolved mineral content that geyser water has! The water isn't boiling hot! There aren't any Park Rangers around keeping them on the boardwalks! They can't learn anything from this! It's bad science! Fire everyone involved! Cancel the journal that would publish such nonsense!