News that Vexes: 04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007

News that Vexes

It's so tiresome to read 'new studies' that reveal Smoking, Stress or Obesity are Bad for you. Yet these studies appear all the time. It's time to take back the newswire from so-called Scientists!

Monday, April 30, 2007

P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs

Now there's nothing surprising or even vexing in that headline. Isn't 'working legs' the job of PE Classes? The video game in question is called Dance Dance Revolution - a game that you play by jumping up and down and executing complicated footwork in time with dance music.

Now, the beautiful part is that is that PE Classes have turned to video games because of some research from the esteemed Mayo Clinic. Apparently the super-scientists there have spent some serious time in their labs and come up with these astounding results:
In a study last year, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., found that children playing Dance Dance Revolution expended significantly more
energy than children watching television and playing traditional video games.

In case this is too complicated, let me help you - dear reader - understand. Apparently jumping up and down like a madman uses more calories than sitting on the couch.

I'm not making this up when I say that Our Mayo friends (hold the mustard!) actually did further research and found that playing video games while running on a treadmill used more calories than sitting on a couch.

These guys probably use picnik.com to spice up their so-called scientific presentations. With its flexible photo editing ability, picnik can make facts appear any way they want them to.

As you've come to expect from reading News That Vexes and countless infomercials (see paragraph above), let me add, BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE - West Virginia still isn't sure about these results, so:

West Virginia, which ranks among the nation’s leaders in obesity, diabetes and hypertension, has sponsored its own study.

They're too smart to trust the Mayo Clinic.