alcohol

Mirror, mirror on the wall, will drinking affect my looks at all?

The very week that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of a survey on drinking patterns among U.S. females (notably that 1 in 5 high school girls and 1 in 8 women report binge drinking), the Scottish government launched its Drop a Glass Size campaign, complete with app, in an attempt to get people to drink a little less every day.

The free Drinking Mirror app, for iPhone and Android devices, has users take or upload existing photos of themselves and watch their faces age over the course of 10 years based on their current rates of alcohol consumption.

The developers fully admit that they are playing the vanity card -- and targeting women in particular.… Read more

Silicon Valley believes in neither inhibition, nor prohibition.

Openness is encouraged, drunkenness is often cast upon blind eyes.

And yet some still frown on the idea that alcohol is anything other than an evil liquid, sent by the forces of darkness to make man incoherent.

I have scientific evidence that this might not be the case.

The Economist, its writers perhaps a little tipsy on the weekend, today offers an inebriating piece entitled: "The sad demise of the three-martini lunch."

It explains how America's battle with its puritan posture has meant an increased frowning on the presence … Read more

There's something about a fine Lebanese Cinsault or a luscious Napa Cabernet that brings out a little more of your true self.

After a couple of glasses, you like other people more. You even like yourself more, which is something online retailers suddenly appear to appreciate.

An intoxicating article in the New York Times suggests that those who sell things online are sensing that there's a big, um, untapped market out there: the sozzled.

Yes, the tipsy, the slightly inebriated, the positively pissed as a newt (as the English would have it)--all seem to translate their loosened … Read more

There are many words for "drunk" in England. There's "sozzled" and "plastered." There's "smashed" and "pissed."

This reflects the vast love the Brits have for getting utterly out of their faces. So how can anyone be surprised that a no-doubt blisteringly scientific study conducted on behalf of a photo-storage site called My Memory revealed that in 76 percent of British Facebook shots, the subjects are, allegedly, inebriated?

Let us consider this carefully. Photographs are often taken when people get together. In Britain people get together under only two … Read more

Alcohol testers in every car? Congress is considering it. Pioneer aims to beat Siri in the car, Ford Sync update to be mailed to you on a USB drive, and another step toward in-car streaming ubiquity.

Interested in the question of whether and to what extent a surgeon's skills are impaired the day after alcohol is consumed, researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland devised a study where alcohol flowed freely.

Their findings: those who drank the night before performed worse--especially those with less experience.

"Historically, the medical profession has had a reputation for high rates of alcohol consumption," write the authors

The researchers conducted two studies. In the first, they randomly assigned eight male final-year science students at Queen's University to attend a group dinner and consume alcohol freely, and randomly assigned another eight to another dinner where no alcohol was served.… Read more

Pay attention students; here's yet another reason to do your advanced math homework. Mathematicians have conducted a new analysis that could have a profound impact on future St. Patrick's Days--by building a better beer widget.

If you've enjoyed a Guinness or one of several other stout beers from a can in the last few years, you've probably encountered a beer widget. It's the hollow plastic ball that's left rattling around in the can or bottle after all the thick, creamy goodness has been poured out; it's also largely responsible for the foamy head on that just-poured brew.

William Lee, a university mathematician from Limerick in Ireland (disclosure: also the ancestral home of this writer) has set out to improve one of the most treasured modern inventions of pub-goers, and his findings seem to indicate a way to create a more efficient, less expensive widget. Drinkers rejoice!

But before getting to the toasting and celebrating, a little background on the fluid dynamics of stout beers. A tall can of Guinness has nitrogen added to keep it pressurized, rather than just the carbon dioxide found in most other canned beers. This is because nitrogen produces smaller bubbles, creating that distinctively smooth, creamy stout foam.

The downside of nitrogen is that just cracking open and pouring the can doesn't create enough bubbles for a truly satisfying head. Enter the widget--the hollow ball is filled with nitrogen that shoots out into the stout when the can is cracked, creating millions of bubbles and giving a little turbo-boost to the foam creation process. Problem solved, right? Sure, but there's always a way to build a better widget.

Enter Lee's research (PDF), conducted with a few colleagues from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Limerick. … Read more

On a Monday morning late last month, at the headquarters of the Finger Lakes Wine Country Tourism Marketing Association, the promotional vehicle for a vineyard-speckled region about four hours northwest of Manhattan, something was amiss with Foursquare.

Namely, the Corning, N.Y.-based tourism group's account on the location-sharing social-media site was doing something funny: It was triggering friend requests. That's not supposed to happen with a Foursquare account that's set up as a brand or business page--users should be able to automatically follow the brand or company, rather than having to wait to have their requests … Read more

The rising popularity of Four Loko, a party beverage both beloved and reviled for its unique and sometimes dangerous mix of alcohol and caffeine, was finally quashed when several states banned it and the Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters to its manufacturers.

The FDA and other authorities were concerned about caffeine's potential to make the effects of alcohol less noticeable and ultimately worse--as well as the brand's popularity among underage drinkers.

So what to do with all the leftover booze? According to an Associated Press story, one company in Virginia is turning it into car fuel.… Read more