$4.5M to Spray Alcoholic Rats with Bobcat Urine

I'm just saying, it's easy to make stuff sound absurd, but then if you look a little bit you're like, Oh, well, it's probably OK that the government is spending money trying to understand the neurochemistry of the relationship between PTSD and alcoholism, and scientists probably know how to do that better than I do.

Much easier to destroy trust with tweets than it is to do science, though...

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[fuzzychops]

Getting animal piss by the growler is not the unit of measurement for that fluid I would have ever guessed

[smluci]

Rats + bobcat urine commonly used in psych research to study traumatic stressors, so likely related to something like PTSD and addiction. So yeah, probs the VA. The VA does a lot of psych research.

[pankoBreadCroisant]

this reminds me of the "they made a robot to peel a grape" thing a while back.

the point wasn't to peel a grape. they were researching machines to aid in surgeries. as it turns out, peeling a grape without destroying it requires some very precise and delicate movements, much like performing a surgery.

[kaischreurs]

yeah my immediate thought was "that sounds like it was intentionally simplified to sound stupid" and it turns out I was right.

[debbieh]

It's also possible that this $4.5 million is a multi-year grant, or that it covers more than one stage of this study.

[alexeyman]

This is a great method for figuring out information: if someone tells you something that makes you say "wow, thats crazy, why would they do that?"

Go to the primary sources and read WHY THEY DID THAT FOR YOURSELF AND THEN YOULL KNOW

[catelopes]

the disappointment in “guys is that what were mad about “ 😭

[Pistolsatsean]

Science is the SMALLEST PORTION OF THE FED BUDGET, and they are complaining that it is too much!?

[InferiorOlive]

Why is my doctoral thesis catching strays from the redheaded libertarian? Hank, you talking about the field so clearly and enthusiastically feels like such a win!!!!

[alecgolas]

"why would they spray an alcoholic rat with bobcat urine?" Seems like a segment on an episode of Lateral Thinking with Tom Scott

[krsp]

She’s mad we are trying to help PTSD veterans. What a great patriot she is.

[pinkyfull]

In New Zealand we also have a "department of government efficiency" and it has only existed for about a year. And so far in that time they have done nothing notable, except that the staff in that department are paid, on average 3x as much as any other government department, and are almost exclusively employ cronies from a minority political party. You should 100% be skeptical of having a department of efficiency and it absolutely will be a waste of time for everyone involved.

[alder]

Not gonna lie when I read "$4.5M to Spray Alcoholic Rats with Bobcat Urine" I thought I had arrived at the AI generated video title side of YouTube but thankfully I'm saved by Hank and his organically generated mildly insane video titles.

[jodollman]

Some US missiles cost one million dollars each. So she's mad we spent the equivalent of 4.5 missiles in an effort to help our struggling Veterans? Ridiculous.

[evebananas]

I've worked in research for cocaine use disorder (also related to the VA) and rat models are surprisingly useful analogs for human disorders. This is absolutely research for PTSD and AUD in veterans and deserves the funding it got.

[faithlosbanes]

This conversation is reminding me of this Radiolab podcast episode “Golden Goose”. It covers an award show that highlights scientific research that sounds trivial/laughable at face value but ends up changing the world. It’s a really great response to the whole tax money to science controversy. One of my favorite stories from Radiolab and extremely well done.

[mylifeismylaptop]

Dispelling a popular political myth followed by playing a game of connections is quickly becoming my favorite genre of video

[straycat]

That's just oversimplification to make something fit your agenda. It's like saying NASA is spending millions of dollar to look at rocks.
This is why it's important to listen to experts.

[Well_Meaning]

Department of Government Efficiency-- AKA-- "If I like it, it's efficient, if I don't like it, it's an obvious waste"

[tracejohnson]

Another phrasing of the tweet:

“The government spent 2 Ten-Thousandths of a percent of its budget to ethically study the neurochemical comorbidities of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Alcohol Abuse Disorder in Veterans.”