Bees on cocaine: The facts
Stuart Elliott
What do you mean Officer? #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

This cocaine is purely for my bee collection, which erm, are out on reconnaissance at the moment..
Anonymous Coward
This is like a take on #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT
Reefer Madness
We need a movie, words alone aren't convincing enough.
It would also be interesting to see if the Bee actually did find more pollen and the levels it made prior to doping perhaps the waggle dance was not an exaggeration. I seem to remember the 80's was a good time for the UK, and we all know the dust was flying about quite liberally then.
Anonymous Coward
Seems like... #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

an excuse to have lots of cocaine lying around the lab for christmas... Next, the effects of lap dances on the relevence of research...
Anonymous Coward
El Reg? #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

or thedailywtf.com?
had to check my browser's location bar to make sure....
cirby
Not a problem #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT
For one thing, where are they going to get the tiny little coke spoons?
Anonymous Coward
More study needed #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

And so they get more funds to live *and* to legaly buy Peruvian Marching Powder.
I'd like to see the payments sheet ...
Iain
Please Officer... #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

It's not mine, I was just holding it for the bees...
gsl
Tabloid Headline #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

Cocaine scientists caught in sting operation.
GumboKing
Ahem... #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

Sounds like they got quite the buzz.
My coat is already on.
Alan Fisher
Well..... #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT
sometimes I wonder about why we allow these people to have research money.....I'll bet some of the white powder goes walkies too....hmmmm
coking up innocent bees....that's sick people. What's next? Ants on acid? Humming birds on heroine? Termites on te 'eerb? If i gave blow to my dog to see how it affected his behaviour, I'd be justifiably locked up!
Rob
Sterling work! #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

As soon as they have figured out how Bees get addicted they can then fix us humans, obviously being so close genetically speaking.
Right I'm off to a serious meeting that requires me to waggle dance my proposal to the CEO.
Mine's the one with yellow and black stripes and covered in pollen, sorry I meant cocaine.
Anonymous Coward
Erm? #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

So some people at University needed an excuse for being in possession of a quantity of cocaine and this is the best one they could come up with?
Anonymous Coward
How do you get funding for this type of study. #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:07 GMT

Think I can get funding for Cats on Canabis?
amanfromMars
Hopelessly Hooked on a Line and Sinking. #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

Lewis,
Is that the Attraction of Afghanistan to Bumblers? It is certainly an ESPecialist Forces Humain Terrain Team Systems Environment .... Addictive Theatre of Operations in which to Lose Everything even as far as beyond Sanity.
Andy Worth
Spider research #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT
They already did some research of the effects of various drugs on spiders, the results were rather interesting. Go to Youtube and search for "Crack Spider" if you haven't already seen it.
Alan Esworthy
Researchers on Government Grant Money #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

New has emerged of a long-standing threat to unbiased basic research: money-crazed professors and post-docs willing to debase themselves shamelessly for hit after hit of government grant money. Some experts in the theory and philosophy of scientific research believe that government cash has "as devastating an effect on free inquiry as the Spanish Inquisition."
<Obligatory>
All together now: And No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition!
</Obligatory>
James
W T F ? ? ? #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

"They also think that more bee study will have relevance to the problems of human addiction" or in other words "We've run out of money and would like a huge grant to investigate this further and keep us in work for the next few years".
Surely you investigate humans to find out the "problems of human addiction".
Or is this April 1st? Have I just been asleep for the past three and a half months?
Alvar
Prizewinning research? #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT
Surely a strong contender for next year's Ignobel prize?
Matt Bryant
You can just imagine it..... #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

Strung out scientist number 1: "Dude, I really need a hit, man, but I'm light."
SOSN2: "Don't stress, bro, we'll just start some craaaaazy project with some coke, and then we just cream off some of the samples..."
SOSN1: "What, like getting bees stoned?"
SONS2: "What have you been sniffing, homie!?!?!"
And the rest, as they say, is valued scientific research history...
Anonymous Coward
Utter tosh #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

The scientists made up the experiment and the results just to get their grubby little mitts on hard drugs at the tax payers expense.
CarlMc
What a waste #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT
Random Noise
Riiiiiiiiiight #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

So some reasearchers are getting funded to buy loads of coke to give to the 'bees'.
And there's a credit crunch going on!
White lab coat icon to hide all the coke that got 'accidentally' spilled *sniff*
Anonymous Coward
Err this is a joke right ? #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

Theres no article about bee's on the link and some very suspect signs in the article?
The Other Steve
In other news #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

Researchers have shown that Polar bears also act like complete and utter knobs when coked off their boxes. An effect never before seen, since until now, no one has been wrecked enough to stuff a 1300 pound Ursus maritimus full of Bolivian marching powder.
James O'Brien
So that explains it.... #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

It explains the broken windows in my house, the fact that all my stuff was gone and the honey on the walls. . .damn drug addicts.
/mines the one with the white outfit and the hat made out of mesh
Anonymous Coward
Effect #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

"as devastating an effect on honey bee society as it does on human society"
You mean the bees would start forcing the workers to take piss tests and call the keeper on any caught using?
Ben Mathews
Wonder how this research project started... #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT
Student 1: Gee, wouldn't it be great if we could get loads of free cocaine!
Student 2: Yeah, but it'll never happen.
Student 1: No, wait, I have a cunning plan for our final year research paper...
Bryce Prewitt
Wait a tic... #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT
Well, it's snowing outside, so I guess it's not April 1st.
Anonymous Coward
So do bees get a really good buzz? #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

I'm outta here...
Andus McCoatover
Christmas prezzie request.. #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

Lewis - can I have some of that stuff you've bee'n smoking - or have the Apoitedans 'cracked' up on it? (How the little buggers can carve it up with a Gold Amex Card beats the fuc*k out of me. No credit cards in UK anymore, I understand?)
S'nuff said.
Have a good Christmas!
(Andus - former beekeeper, and _never_ a crack smoker - licked a few cracks in the pursuit of "Man Oysters" however, but that's another tail)
Matt
'snow joke #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:09 GMT

so thats where the bees disappeared to all summer
NetNeo
Bees on coke! #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:11 GMT

Gives a whole new meaning to "what a buzz!"
Michael Miller
This is drugs......... #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:11 GMT
This is your bee on drugs.......
Any questions?
Tom Paine
Predictable bad joke #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:11 GMT

I wonder if they got a buzz out of it?
Iam Me
Great just what we need #
Posted Tuesday 23rd December 2008 21:11 GMT

Another scientific study of highly questionable value. Oh yes please mr. scientist please do take more of my tax money to fund more grants for this "valuable" research. I desperately need to know if bees twisted on coke will perform fly by stingings, or put the female bees out on the stroll to fund their drug habit. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big advocate of scientific research but in all honesty I fail to see where their enlighten findings will lead us.
Now if they can make hybrid bees with freekin' laser beams all doped up and killing each other then I might be interested. Until then all I can say is, meh.
Icon cos sometimes I feel like common sense and reasoned thinking are alien concepts in today's world.
Fozzy
Finally #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 00:34 GMT

the final piece of the puzzle. The total sum for human knowledge is now complete, we are able to now sit back and relax. Here I thought I would never see it in my lifetime
Kanhef
Ig Nobel nomination #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 00:39 GMT

'nuff said.
Anonymous Coward
@Iam Me #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 00:39 GMT

Hmmm ..."freekin' laser beams"
Wonder what a shark on coke with a freekin' laser beam would be like.
Kill it fast.
Andrew Punch
I live near Macquarie University! #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 00:39 GMT

Come to think of it the other day I let a bee in my house. His car had broken down and wanted to use the phone. I turned around for a second and he stole my wallet. Probably needed some money for his next high.
Anonymous Coward
Just no good #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 00:39 GMT

This is a bad joke on the students and on tax money by someone at the university who seems to have had too much fun with drugs in the past.
These students - or young researchers - will not learn anything from it besides of what they would have learned had they given cocaine to tomatoes. None of this will be of use in their futures - unless someone is expecting them to become social workers, who can turn drug addicts into royal worker bees. When asked by any employer regarding the type of research they did they proudly can tell to have had success with giving cocaine to bees?! They will wish to have taken samples out of a bull's anus instead and once they realize the situation they have been lead into.
Iam Me
@ AC 21:54 #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 12:35 GMT

I can see the splashy Hollywood film trailers now. /cue booming voice and suitably tense music... "In the last battle for civilization only one can survive. The bees and sharks form a tense alliance to over throw human beings once and for all..... No retreat... No surrender... Who will survive... Who will reign supreme. The genetically mutated cocaine driven sharks and bees with their ferocious lasers. Or the humans struggling against the onslaught?" /cue dramatic cut scene and more tense music.
Matt Ashworth
Amazing! #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 12:35 GMT

It's incredible they could even open the can in the first place!
- Mines the one with a copy of 'Attack of the Killer Bees' in the pocket.
Anonymous Coward
sorted #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 12:35 GMT

No need to score coke off dodgy geezers in toilets anymore. Just paint yourself in lurid black & yellow stripes and hang out in your local university labs.
Anonymous Coward
Let's be honest.... #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 12:35 GMT
The truth is that the "researchers" probably spent an entire year fucked off their tits and wanking onto a large pile of government grant money, then when it was time to show some results they made up a load of shit that nobody is ever likely to bother to try and prove wrong.
JonB
@AC : I seem to remember the 80's was a good time for the UK #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 12:35 GMT
You were certainly smoking something in the 80's. At least you've got the next 10 years to look forward to which are looking just as good.
Tony Batt
May i be the first #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 12:35 GMT

to welcome or coke-addled laser-wielding apian overlords
Anonymous Coward
You lot are pretty cynical... #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 12:35 GMT

It seems like a pretty good idea to me.
Investigate the effects of cocaine on a society by giving it to a highly structured and organised microsociety, i.e. a honeybee colony, and observe the subsequent effects as that society ceases to function properly.
Jon Double Nice
If nobody has done so already #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 12:35 GMT
I'd like to nominate this story for Headline Of The Year, truly journalism at the its most absolutely fantastic pinnacle.
Oh yeah, and also can we have a bees on coke icon please?
Alan Ferris
BUT.... #
Posted Wednesday 24th December 2008 12:57 GMT

Do Playmobil make bees?
Paris, 'cos no-one has mentioned her 36 bees yet
Piccolo Pete
Cocaine is not a narcotic #
Posted Friday 26th December 2008 11:18 GMT
"The scientists in question are Andrew Barron of Macquarie University in Australia and Gene Robinson of the University of Illinois, and some fellow bee and narcotics experts."
Cocaine is a stimulant, which unlike narcotics, increases awareness and/or activity within the sympathetic nervous system or the central nervous system, or both.
Heroin, morphine, opium are examples of narcotics. Narcotics blunt the senses and depress the nervous systems.