Obese Americans

It's no wonder that Americans are so fat; they'll swallow anything.

Here's a mouthful of crap:

MADISON - In a study of adult monkeys who were exposed to moderate amounts of alcohol in utero, scientists have found that prenatal exposure to alcohol - even in small doses - has pronounced effects on the development and function later in life of the brain's dopamine system, a critical component of the central nervous system that regulates many regions of the brain.

Writing in the current issue (Sept. 15, 2005) of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, a team of researchers led by Mary L. Schneider, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of occupational therapy and psychology, reports that when a monkey exposes her fetus to alcohol by drinking, the dopamine system of her offspring is altered. Effects on that key neural system, according to the study's results, can manifest themselves up to five years after birth, when the monkeys are fully grown.

This is the start of UW press release. There are ethical and moral issues associated with her studies of course, and these are insurmountable.

But besides that, it just reeks of sleazyness. Coming as this release does on the heals of the Terasawa embarassment and the disclosure that oversight of research using animals at the UW is non-existant, the UW spins out a release claiming that a fetus should not be exposed to alcohol.

News flash: Pregnant women should not drink! Wow! Who would have thought it?

To anyone who has been living in a hole for the past few decades, this might be news. To anyone else it will just be a yawner.

But here's the rub: People swallow this crap without complaint and even with a smile. It gets filed into their subconscious: "UW saves babies..." Isn't that something... must be something about the bell-curve. Most of us are not only obese, we are also dolts.

Self-serving, sleazy, money-grubbing, callous, and arrogant. It's the new definition of scientist at the UW.