The Oregonian has a great profile of a microbrewery that has combined three of Portland's greatest pastimes: protecting the enviornment, bicycling and beer.

Hopefully green businesses will not just be a trend, but rather, a lasting industry.

The New York Times' Health page has an interesting article up that discusses different studies done on binge drinking.  Before heading out to a tropical destination for spring break, check it out.

In a series of studies in the 1970s and ’80s, psychologists at the University of Washington put more than 300 students into a study room outfitted like a bar with mirrors, music and a stretch of polished pine. The researchers served alcoholic drinks, most often icy vodka tonics, to some of the students and nonalcoholic ones, usually icy tonic water, to others. The drinks looked and tasted the same, and the students typically drank five in an hour or two.

The studies found that people who thought they were drinking alcohol behaved exactly as aggressively, or as affectionately, or as merrily as they expected to when drunk. “No significant difference between those who got alcohol and those who didn’t,” Alan Marlatt, the senior author, said. “Their behavior was totally determined by their expectations of how they would behave.”

A great example of the power of suggestion. 

Young men generally drink more than young women, with one notable exception, according to a study coming out this month. Young women drink more heavily than men at theme parties—especially at costume parties and parties with sexual themes.

What’s especially interesting about the study is that unlike most studies of college drinking habits, this study doesn’t rely on students’ self-reporting. Instead, researchers attended 66 parties over three semesters, observing party environments, measuring blood alcohol levels and interviewing students.

While other findings of the study are unsurprising (drinking games = high blood alcohol levels, duh), I’m not sure what to make of women drinking more at theme parties. Are they trying to be comfortable with their slut-o-ween costumes? Do they prefer to binge drink on occasions more festive than frat parties? Thoughts?

(via Inside Higher Ed)

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has started enforcing a policy of parental notification for any student who is intoxicated to the point of needing to be taken to a detox center.  According to the University, the goal of the policy is to get at the root of emotional or mental problems causing binge drinking, and to involve parents in the recovery and treatment of the student.  Other colleges and universities are looking into Wisconsin’s protocol, and might even adopt the rule themselves.

I am in two minds about this policy.  I know that if the University of Michigan had this policy in its residence halls when I was written up for intoxication during my freshman year, I would have been terrified of the wrath—and disappointment—of my mother. Over the subsequent years, I saw many more such incidents—friends who would drive drunk themselves rather than call a parent for a ride, friends who would incur thousands of dollars of hospital fees rather than risk having their drunkeness show up on their parents’ insurance statement.  Many parents, particularly those of extremely high-achieving students, refuse to believe that their son or daughter would even engage in excessive drinking.

But overall, I think the policy is a good idea.  Despite the fact that I believe that college students are adults and should be treated as such, many (even most at some elite schools) are supported financially almost 100% by their parents.  Simply the fear of knowing a parent might get a phone call the next day could be a strong deterrent from taking that next shot.

In case you just didn't want to burn that precious calorie breaking your candy bar in two, Mars candy corporation has now done it for you.

The new Milky Way bar is being christened the Milky Way 2 To Go and comes pre-cut, so it's easier to eat on the go.  And if that wasn't ridiculous enough, why not grab a Pocket Shot --a plastic portable pouch filled with liquor that you can take anywhere!  The website even suggests you drink liberally while biking, hiking, rollerblading, and swimming.  Whoever said that listening to marketing was bad for your health?

Former Middlebury President John M. McCardell, Jr. is heading up a national campaign to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18.

As reported in The Campus, McCardell has teamed up with students to form the not-for-profit organization Choose Responsibility.  The group has spent most of the last year doing research on the effect of the current alcohol age restriction on highway safety.

While not affiliated with Middlebury College, McCardell and his group are speaking to an obvious concern of the students attending Middlebury College and young people in general.

Groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) lobbied hard for the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which forced states to lower their legal drink age to 18 lest they be denied federal transportation funds. The goal? Lower highway fatalities in the United States.

Choose Responsibility, whose recent "white paper" finds the higher drinking age has only a modest impact on highway safety when compared to the safety features of airbags and seatbelts, has the following goal:

Choose Responsibility advocates that states launch alcohol education programs to teach young adults about responsible purchase, possession and consumption. Upon successful completion of a course, a participant could receive a license to consume and purchase alcohol at the age of 18. The license would be legal in the state in which the 18-year-old is a resident, and in the state in which he or she attends college, if they attend out of state. (from The Campus)

Will this be the new cause célèbre of progressive students nation-wide? And how should other activists judge this new campaign?