According to the CDC, one in six American adults is a binge drinker:

The study — which defines binge drinking as five or more drinks in a short period of time for men and four or more for women — breaks down the nation’s 38 million binge drinkers by a variety of measures, including geography, age and income level. Wisconsin is the state with the most binge drinkers at 25 percent of the population, while Utah, home to the teetotaling Mormon church, comes in last at less than 11 percent. [...]

The CDC report noted that half of all alcohol consumed in the U.S. is consumed during binge drinking. For young people, that rate shoots up to 90 percent.

Link

David Farrell, 26, of Ireland, and Nicholas Moinet, 24, of France, were among a group of travelling vineyard workers who broke into the river boat on the Opawa River, Blenheim, drank alcohol and took photos of each other having a great time, and then left the camera behind.

In the Blenheim District Court yesterday, Judge Anthony Walsh fined the pair $300 each and ordered them to pay reparation of $240 to the boat’s owner before January 20 and additional court costs.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Graham Single said the pair boarded the boat with others and took photographs of themselves on Friday, December 9.

They removed the rollers on the door before drinking three bottles of spirits and taking more than 40 bottles of beer, Single said.

“The offenders left the boat and continued drinking at a nearby campground, leaving the camera behind. Police later identified them.”

Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Wikipedia user NordNordWest)

It doesn’t take a lot of talent or imagination to come up with a new cocktail, especially if you like to sip on the strong stuff on a regular basis. Drinkers know what tastes good, what goes well together, and how to make your drink turn a pretty color in the glass, all without ever needing to crack open a Bartender’s Bible.

These recipes aren’t going to win any awards for being the most creative concoctions, but that’s not the point-the point is they are all based on geek culture, and actually apply quite well to the characters from which they draw inspiration.

So, let the Drunken Moogle pour you a delicious sounding Dirt Block (Minecraft), or blow fireballs with a Charizard (Pokemon), all while drinking in moderation, of course.

Link

The folks over at ComicsAlliance have come up with a fun way to celebrate the coming of 2012-superhero inspired cocktails! So, if you’re looking for ways to spice up your New Years party, check out these delicious sounding recipes and decide who’s side you’re on.

Note: these cocktails will not give the drinker super powers, nor will they make you invulnerable in any way, so enjoy them in moderation and get home safely! Happy New Years Neatoramanauts!

Link

A lonely cosmonaut has a very strange New Year celebration in this holiday animation by Anton Korolyuk and Artem Bizyaev. -via the Presurfer

If you live for celebrity food and beverage lines, then you’ll love Mental Floss’s list of 10 Celebrity Refreshments.

Personally, I’d like to mix some of The Situation’s Devotion vodka mixed with some of Rush Limbaugh’s Two if by Tea. It might not be the most delicious drink, but the conflicting celebrity endorsements must give it a great kick.

Link

This double barreled contraption can either be loads of fun, say if you fill it with punch or soda for a kid’s birthday party, or you can fill the chambers with booze and prepare for your house to become a vomitorium.

This is the kind of stupid invention you hope doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, even though I’m pretty sure the only people that are going to buy this thing were born with the wrong hands.

Link –via Geekologie

If you don’t want to read the fairly graphic article, here’s her results:

If there is any smidgen of effect, it’s notional, and probably only psychological. Overall, vodka-in-a-tampon seems a very inefficient, not to mention unpleasant, way to get drunk. I suppose the positive is that there is no danger of a second round.

Makes you wonder how many of these other “disturbing teen trends” are totally untrue too.

Link

Continuing the tradition of making every food product ever taste like bacon, Rogue has released a beer that’s sure to be Homer Simpson approved. Called the Voodoo Doughnut, this ale is bacon maple flavored, and comes in a horrifyingly pink bottle. Getting drunk first thing in the morning never tasted so good!

Link

You know what you never hear people say? “I really love the taste of whiskey, but I sure wish it didn’t get me drunk.” Yet, from the annals of incredibly stupid ideas comes ArKay, the O’Douls of whiskey.

Link Via Geekosystem

The way the alcolock works is that the driver must first breathe into it to unlock the engine, and will have to repeat the same process at regular intervals during the journey.

If the mini-breathalyzer, which is fitted to the dashboard, indicates a blood alcohol level above the legal limit, the engine will not turn on.

The alcolocks will be installed for two years with a possible six-year extension if the driver continues to drink and drive. In the worst cases, the driver’s license will be revoked, and the driver will have to wait five years before he or she can take a new test.

About 200 people die every year because of drink-driving, Dutch media reported.

Link | Image Credit Felix Triller

John Trinkaus was awarded the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize in literature, for meticulously collecting data and publishing more than 80 detailed academic reports about things that annoyed him.

This new study is one of a series Professor Trinkaus is publishing in the Annals of Improbable Research.

(Image credit: Flickr user artnoose)

This year, 2009, the public is being advised to frequently wash their hands, or otherwise sanitize their hands, as a precaution against the flu. But to what extent do people actually follow this advice? This study examines one aspect of that question.

The hand Sanitizing Station Study
A number of organizations with high pedestrian traffic volume throughout the day in their buildings have installed hand sanitizing devices in the lobbies.

To glean some information as to the possible usage of such sanitizing stations, a study was conducted at one such facility: an ancillary building (housing faculty practice offices) of a teaching hospital located in the suburbs of a large Northeastern city. This multi-story building was used by approximately 80 physicians and related health care professionals, and their staffs, operating out of about 30 differing private practice offices. Immediately inside the entrance to the building, there was positioned a user-activated hand sanitizing station. Attached to the device was a prominently printed sign, at eye level, which read, in large clear lettering, a message to the effect that everyone entering the facility must disinfect their hands.

Using convenience sampling, 500 observations were made, during the summer of 2009, as to the number of people using the station as they entered the building.

Results and Discussion
Those wearing a hospital identification badge, or dressed in seemingly hospital garb, were judged to be health care practitioners: the others health care clients. Of the 108 practitioners observed, 3 (3%) stopped and used the sanitizing station. As to the clients, 23 (6%) of the 392 noted sanitized their hands.

Recognizing the methodological limitations of the inquiry, such as the use of convenience sampling, possible double counting, and the problem of replication, does not necessarily preclude speculation on the findings of this inquiry. For example, as to the small percentage of practitioners using the sanitizer, a number of reasons suggest themselves. These folks may have simply been in “summer mode,” thoughts of vacations and fun rather than disease and pestilence being utmost in their minds. Too, in their hierarchy of things to be done, flu prevention measures (the disease being in a relative state of remission at the time of the study) might have had a comparatively low place. Also, the practitioners could have just washed their hands prior to leaving their other location — or could be planning on cleaning their hands when arriving at the particular destination to which they were going.

Concerning the low percentage of client use of the sanitizer, they too could have been in “summer mode.” Also, they could have been so preoccupied with the business which brought them to the facility that flu prevention was not even in their thought process. There is a question of whether some of the clients could read English. Of course, for both groups, the results could perhaps be explained as basically an “out of sight, out of mind” happening—or, if in mind, the subject of the flu being dismissed as simply health care industry, media, or government hype.

Hand Sanitizing: Another Look

This new study is the second in a series Professor Trinkaus is publishing in the Annals of Improbable Research.

Background: The First Study
An informal inquiry was conducted in the summer of 2009 as to the number of people who stopped at the entrance of a building to cleanse their hands.

The building, adjoining a teaching hospital in the suburbs of a large northeastern city, housed the private practice offices of about 80 physicians and other healthcare professionals. Immediately inside the door was a prominent hand sanitizing station with a sign directing people to cleanse their hands before proceeding into the building. Using convenience sampling, a total of 500 people were observed for compliance with the instruction. Recognizing the methodological limitations, such as possible double counting, about 3% of the people wearing some kind of medical garb or hospital ID badge (who were judged to be healthcare workers), and approximately 6% of the people not thus identified as healthcare workers (their clients), obeyed the instruction.

This Follow-up Study: Details
To glean some additional information, the study was replicated in the fall of 2009, when people were no longer in a possible tranquil-summer mode, and were perhaps into an H1N1-and-other-variations-of-flu-alarmed state.

The setting was about the same as for the previous inquiry, except that the sign had been changed from a “must” to a “please” request for use of the sanitizer. As the weather was colder than during the first study, a number of people were now wearing coats. Thus, it was not really practical to determine, simply by observation, which people were healthcare workers and which were their clients.

Results
Out of the 500 people observed, 21 (4%) used the sanitizer. As this result was about the same as that noted in the previous inquiry, it may be that a heightened perceived disease threat was insufficient to bring about a behavioral change.

There was, however, one result that changed between the two studies. In this new inquiry, a little more than 1% (specifically: seven) of the people were observed to have used the sanitizer when leaving the building. In the first study, not a single person was observed to do so. Whether these seven people had also sanitized their hand when entering is unknown; the question is an interesting aside.

_____________________

The first part of this report is reprinted from the November-December 2009 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. This was the issue containing the annual Ig Nobel Awards winners, ceremony, entertainment, and acceptance speeches.

__________________________

This second part of this article is republished with permission from the May-June 2010 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

In taverns people could mix together: you see men drinking alongside the people they work for. Early laws fixed the price that tavern-keepers could charge for a drink, so they couldn’t cater to wealthy patrons. And once you add alcohol in there, it changes the way everyone relates to each other. You end up with accelerated relationships—and occasionally cantankerous ones. People become more willing to go out and raise hell over things that they might have let go when sober.

Labor and civil rights movements started or spread in taverns, which was one reason the powers-that-be wanted to shut them down at various times in history.

Laws shutting taverns on Sunday in the 1850s are the worst example, because they targeted immigrants. Taverns were the only recreational space they had access to and Sunday was the only day they had off. But city governments, especially in Chicago, wanted to stifle the machine politics of the immigrant taverns. During Prohibition, the chasm between working-class and respectable drinking places was even clearer—the law wasn’t enforced equally.

Get the rest of the story at Smithsonian. Link

Link -via PopSci

Ingredients:
1 part Liqueur, raspberry (Chambord)
1 part cranberry juice
1 part orange juice
1 Maraschino cherry
1 twist (of peel) orange Instructions:
‘Mix juices and Chambord with ice, strain. Garnish with an orange twist wrapped around a cherry with a sword-pick through it. Serve in a hurricane glass.’

Would you try any of these magically tasty treats?

Link

Wormwood: 100 g
Fennel (fruit): 50 g
Anise: 50 g
Mint: 15 g
Melissa: 8 g
Chamomile: 3 g
Cumin: 10 g
Angelica: 10 g
It would be nice to add 5-10 g of hyssop, but it is difficult to find.

And then later another round of herbs.

Melissa: 8 g
Licorice: 10 g
Mint: 15 g
Chamomile: 2 g
Angelica: 2 g

One of the steps is to put the concoction away for two weeks, presumably to give you time to ponder the wisdom of the whole enterprise. Link -via Dangerous Minds

I love cupcakes and I like vodka as much as the next person. But I have no desire to mix the two. Apparently Cupcake Vodka feels differently, because they’ve recently come out with a sweet spirit in four flavors: Original, Frosting, Devil’s Food and Chiffon. Has the cupcake trend officially jumped the shark?

Link via Adfreak

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has a contraption that will automatically pour six, count ‘em, six liquid ingredients into a cocktail glass for the geekiest mixed drink ever! Drink Making Unit 2.0 is a few steps up from the three-liquid unit they’d previously produced. Microcontrollers, LEDs, tubing, and the kind of equipment all evil mad scientists have around come together to make a machine that Rube Goldberg would be proud of. It looks good, too! Link

“Normalising the beer production market and classifying it as alcohol is totally the right thing to do and will boost the health of our population,” Yevgeny Bryun, the ministry of health’s chief specialist on alcohol and drug abuse, said.

“We have been talking about and have wanted such a measure for ages. I take my hat off to the parliament.”

The new law would restrict beer sales at night, ban its sale in or close to many public places such as schools, and limit cans and bottles to a maximum size of 0.33 litres.

Many Russians consider beer to be a soft drink. Link -via Arbroath

A drunk man found lying on a frozen park bench in his underwear survived because of the amount of alcohol in his blood.

Aleksander Andrzej, 32, was spotted in the Warsaw park – where the temperature was -5C – and taken to hospital by police, reports Metro.

A breath test showed he had 1,024 micrograms per 100ml, nearly 30 times the legal limit for driving, which doctors say helped him live.

They believe alcohol in his blood acted like anti-freeze …

Link (Photo: Shutterstock)

Turns out, alcohol placebos can also impair your memory and judgment:

Subjects drank plain tonic water, but half were told it was a vodka and tonic; then all subjects took part in an eyewitness memory experiment.

Subjects who were told they drank alcohol were more swayed by misleading postevent information than were those who were told they drank tonic water, and were also more confident about the accuracy of their responses.

Our results show that the mere suggestion of alcohol consumption may make subjects more susceptible to misleading information and inappropriately confident. These results also provide additional confirmation that eyewitness memory is influenced by both nonsocial and social factors.

Link

The Alcowebizer is a generator that simulates what a website would look like if you were under the influence of alcohol. Enter the address of a website, then you can adjust the look according to your blood-alcohol level. At the first level, Neatorama just looks like it has a few typos -which is not at all surprising. Set it further along, and colors and strange fonts appear. The screenshot here (of this post) is only about half as far as you can take the Alcowebizer. Beware -if you set it far enough, there will be music. Link -via Nag on the Lake

“The telephone blasted Peter Fallow awake inside an egg with the shell peeled away and only the membranous sac holding it intact. Ah! The membranous sac was his head, and the right side of his head was on the pillow, and the yolk was as heavy as mercury, and it rolled like mercury, and it was pressing down on his right temple… If he tried to get up to answer the telephone, the yolk, the mercury, the poisoned mass, would shift and roll and rupture the sac, and his brains would fall out.” The fictional British journalist is reputed to be based on Christopher Hitchens

The slide show from The Guardian has more hangovers described poetically and painfully. Link -via Nag on the Lake

The primary end point was the concentration of plasma ethanol… measured every 30 minutes for three hours while feet were submerged in a washing-up bowl containing the contents of three 700 mL bottles of vodka. The secondary outcome was self assessment of intoxication related symptoms (self confidence, urge to speak, and number of spontaneous hugs), scored on a scale of 0 to 10.

They concluded that their feet were impermeable to alcohol.

Link.

Addendum:  A hat tip to Gauldar for finding a use for the leftover vodka:  Sourtoe Cocktails.

Over a long lunch and a bottle of red wine, the idea formed. They’d been making their living online for awhile, running websites like Criticker and Random Good Stuff, and promoting Juergen’s photography. Traveling is their shared passion and, as long as they had high-speed internet, they figured they could do it on a permanent basis. For three months, or about 91 days, they could fully explore a new city or country and, before they had time to get weary of it, would be off to the next spot.

Their first leg was in Oviedo, in Northern Spain and about two weeks ago they touched down in Savannah, GA. On their blog For 91 Days, Juergen and Mike document their exploration of the history, sights, culture, and the bizarre and wonderful customs of their new temporary homes.

That’s Juergen sportin’ an open container of alcohol in public. Posing near a cop, no less. Now, for most of us, this is an illegal act – but not in Savannah, Georgia. Thanks to the "To-Go Cup" – the alcoholic equivalent of the Open Carry law – you can walk around the Historic District and enjoy your favorite beer in broad daylight. No need for sipping furtively out of a brown bag. Link

With names like “Beam Me Up Scotchie” and “Phasers on Stun Punch”, there’s no possible way to go wrong if you mix these at your next “Trekker” party… unless the borgs decide to show up of course. Then having a “successful” party is probably the last thing you’ll care about.

I don’t know which tastes best, but I love the name “Vulcan Death Grip” for a cocktail! Link

My Jello Americans is a blog dedicated to the art of the Jello shot. And I do mean art, as these shots can look like anything from an ear of corn to ice cream to fossil insects encased in amber! The flavor combinations are amazing as well, like shots that resemble bonbons flavored with absinthe and Black Sambuca. Link -via Breakfast Links

Russia’s finance minister has urged his countrymen and women to support the country – by drinking and smoking more.

Alexei Kudrin called for increased consumption of tobacco and alcohol in a bid to boost the state’s revenues, reports Metro.

"If you smoke a pack of cigarettes, that means you are giving more to help solve social problems," commented Kudrin.

"People should understand: Those who drink, those who smoke are doing more to help the state."

Link

An article from Slate looks at a forgotten chapter of Prohibition history: the government program to poison alcohol in an attempt to keep people from converting industrial alcohol into liquor —even though they knew that it would kill many, particularly those who were too poor to afford good-quality illegal liquor.

Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by boschv.

Butch Bakery offers manly cupcakes for manly men who love cupcakes. Each cupcake is covered in a chocolate disk decorated in manly styles, like wood grain or camouflage. The flavors are manly as well, like the Driller: maple cake with chocolate ganache and bacon bits. Or the Old Fashioned, which is orange-soaked whisky cake with a lemon curd filling. Or the B52, which is a Kahlua-soaked vanilla cake with Bailey’s bavarian filling. Twelve manly flavors are offered. Link -via Gorilla Mask

Prof Nutt and his team are concentrating their efforts on benzodiazepines, of which diazepam, the chief ingredient of Valium is one.

Thousands of candidate benzos are already known to science. He said it is just a matter of identifying the closest match and then, if necessary, tailoring it to fit society’s needs.[...]

“I’ve been in experiments where I’ve taken benzos,” said Professor Nutt. “One minute I was sedated and nearly asleep, five minutes later I was giving a lecture.

“No one’s ever tried targeting this before, possibly because it will be so hard to get it past the regulators.

“Most of the benzos are controlled under the Medicines Act. The law gives a privileged position to alcohol, which has been around for 3,000 years. But why not use advances in pharmacology to find something safer and better?”

Link via io9 | Image: Paramount

The run is believed to be one of the biggest losing streaks by an individual in Las Vegas history. It devoured much of Mr. Watanabe’s personal fortune, he says, which he built up over more than two decades running his family’s party-favor import business in Omaha, Neb. It also benefitted the two casinos’ parent company, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which derived about 5.6% of its Las Vegas gambling revenue from Mr. Watanabe that year.

Today, Mr. Watanabe and Harrah’s are fighting over another issue: whether the casino company bears some of the responsibility for his losses.

In a civil suit filed in Clark County District Court last month, Mr. Watanabe, 52 years old, says casino staff routinely plied him with liquor and pain medication as part of a systematic plan to keep him gambling.

Like the motto says, apparently your cash really does stay in Vegas. Alexandra Berzon from The Wall Street Journal reports: Link

(Photo: Peter McCollough for the Wall Streer Journal)

Web Urbanist has a great post of case mods on their recent post. The most awesome is disputably this beer dispenser mod. Even non-beer drinkers (like myself) can still appreciate the genius behind this creation.

Link Image Via Gizmodo

“Somebody’s really drunk driving down Granton Road,” she told the 911 dispatcher.

The dispatcher asked if the Strey was behind the drunk driver, to which she replied “No, I am them.”

The dispatcher asked, “Okay, so you’re calling to report you’re driving drunk?”

“Yes,” Strey said.

Strey pulled over and waited for the responding officer, who gave her a Breathalyzer test which showed her blood alcohol level was .19. Strey is due in court over the matter in December. Link -via Arbroath

The amount of alcohol consumed appears to be important – too little and there is no effect, too much and the beneficial effects are lost, studies on animals suggest.

Experts believe the right dose of alcohol, however, stops the cascade of swelling, inflammation and further destruction of brain cells, known as secondary brain injury.

The latest work, based on more than 38,000 moderate-to-severe head trauma patients, is the largest yet to look at the effects of alcohol on brain injury survival.

This led to an intriguing proposal of giving alcohol to those who just suffered brain injury – call it “booze therapy,” if you will: Link

How bad? Let’s put it this way: a third of 11-year-olds in the city have alcohol-related problems!

… the authorities are deeply concerned about the increase in consumption of alcohol by children as young as 11 in the country’s industrial and financial capital.

So as an experiment, supplying alcohol – either wine or spirits – to youths under the age of 16 in bars, restaurants, pizza shops and liquor stores will be banned. [...]

Some people are pessimistic that the city-wide ban will ever work:

A national law banning the sale of alcohol to under-16s is only loosely enforced, as Italian families are used to sometimes giving young children a teaspoon of wine as a family party treat.

In past centuries, Italian children would sometimes even be given wine to drink in preference to water which was often polluted.

Link

Texting and walking is bad for you, but drinking is no slouch either when it comes to the danger department. Here’s what happened to one intoxicated guy who fell into a drain and got himself wedged:

A motorist raised the alarm after he went to move a car parked next to the drain and spotted the trapped man.

He said: "I heard a voice saying help and at first I didn’t see him.

"Then I tried to pull him out but he was wedged tight. He didn’t see that jokers had removed the drain cover as he staggered home."

Firemen spent an hour removing part of the drain before they could pull the man free.

Link

The Vervet Monkeys of St. kitts are known to raid local bars for a drink or two. Studies have found that the percentage of alcoholism in these monkeys matches the percentage of the human population – most drink in moderation, 12% are steady drinkers, 5% drink to the last drop and some are even teetotalers!

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by dradell.

The Art of Manliness has a wonderful post on 5 classic cocktails that all men should be familiar with and how to mix them for maximum effect.

There’s been a trend lately to get back to the old way of doing things, especially when it comes to things we ingest. This trend has also entered the world of libations. Drink menus around the country are starting to have more of the old classics included on them. Many mixologists are using these cocktails as starting points for newer versions that take advantage of the plethora of products out there today. Recipe books from classic bars such as the Old Waldorf-Astoria, The Savoy, and the Stork Club are available in reprint editions for the new generation to use. And who can forget Old Mr. Boston? They’ve been printings those books since 1935 and still do to this day.

But you don’t need a recipe book to get started mixing up some of the classic cocktails men have been drinking for decades (and in some cases, more than a century). Here’s how to create the 5 classic cocktails every man should know.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by msaleem.

See what happened: Link [embedded YouTube clip]

Half a glass of wine a day may add five years to your life, a new study suggests. Drink beer, and you’ll live only 2 1/2 years longer.

Dutch researchers followed 1,373 men for more than four decades, noting their eating and drinking habits. Men who had about 20 grams of alcohol daily — equivalent to a half a glass of wine — had 2 1/2 years added to their life expectancy at age 50, compared with men who didn’t drink at all, according to the research published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Men who consumed only wine had twice as much added longevity.

Link via Alphecca

Your assignment: in the comments, devise rules for a Neatorama-themed drinking game.

Image via flickr user rpeschetz

You probably already heard you can turn gummi bears into alcoholic delights by soaking them in vodka for a few days. If you want more details than that, or you’ve already tried this experiment and it didn’t work so well, this site tested a method that worked and posted a how-to with lots of pictures. (Turns out you can do this with sugar-free gummis, too!)

The how-to part of this is pretty simple, so I decided to make things a little more interesting. In addition to regular vodka gummi bears, I made vodka sugar-free gummi bears, vodka gummi worms (purely to see if they turned out any cooler looking than the bears) and vodka Red Fish (these were disgusting, but in the interest of science I will share my mistakes as well as my triumphs).

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by peacefulexplorer.

Here’s a tutorial that shows you how to infuse vodka with Skittles. There are a number of tutorials about this on the net, but this particular one is pretty detailed about the process (including mistakes the author made and later fixed) and also includes many helpful pictures. The end result is five bottles of vodka, one in each Skittles flavor.

Link – via tipnut

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by hobver.

Prosecutors inquired why the machine had registered a "fail," which prevents the car from starting, despite the man’s claims that he had not been drinking.

The man claimed the alcohol reading was the result of eating a Bubble O’ Bill ice cream treat and Magistrate Rod Crisp ordered a test to be performed to back up the claim. Police recorded the man’s blood alcohol content as 0.00 and performed the test a second time after he took a few bites of Bubble O’ Bill, yielding a 0.018 reading.

Link – Thanks Denita!

The popcorn, which doesn’t actually have any alcohol content, comes in beer, pina colada and Irish cream flavors. Link – via Unique Daily

National Geographic has an interesting article about some of the strangest hangover cures from around the world. Perhaps they mean "cure" in a way that you’ll never touch alcohol again if you’re forced to take these the morning after:

Germany: Pickled Herring
Pickled or marinated herring is the main ingredient in a sour snack Germans call Rollmops. Considered an excellent way to ward off a bad hangover, they’re made by wrapping fillets of the tiny white fish around bits of onion and gherkin. Rollmops can be a welcome part of what Germans call katerfrühstück, or the hangover breakfast.

Romania: Tripe Soup
Tripe – aka cow stomach – is the go-to ingredient for many Romanians suffering from a hangover. It’s also a common "cure" in Mexico and Turkey, and no doubt many other countries as well. But in Romania, the edible offal is boiled in a greasy, salty soup of root vegetables, garlic vinegar, and cream.

Poland: Sour pickle juice
Polish hangover remedies are all about the sour. Some say that soured milk (which is unpasteurized and has been left at room temperature for a day or tow) does the trick. Others favor sour – very sour – pickle juice, heavy on the vinegar.

Catherine L. Barker has the story: Link to interactive Flash page – Thanks Marilyn!

RUB YOUR ARMPITS WITH LEMON

Puerto Ricans apparently swear by this holistic cure. The lemon juice supposedly stops you sweating and so helps you retain fluid and prevent the dehydration that contributes to hangover headaches. [...]

SNACK ON A BANANA

Bananas contain a lot of potassium, a mineral lost when we drink alcohol and a lack of which contributes to the dehydration symptoms of hangover, says Tom MacDonald, professor of immunology at Bart’s and The London School of Medicine.

Bananas are also a source of carbohydrates and eating one will raise blood sugar levels and so stave off nausea.

Link