Beer

The Science Behind Beer Goggles

Scientific proof that the more you drink, the more attractive everyone looks.

First, a study in 2002 took two sets of people, one more tipsy than the other. When they put the same photographs of people of the opposite sex in front of both groups, the tipsy people rated the pictures 25% more attractive than the sober ones. This effect can be rooted to the following:

The effect can reportedly be traced to the nucleus accumbens. When you’re looking at another human being, the nucleus accumbens is the area of the brain that decides how attractive that human being’s face is….As it turns out, alcohol, all by itself, stimulates the nucleus accumbens. So when you’ve have a few drinks, and you look at a face you may have judged as unattractive when you were sober, your brain, under the influence of alcohol, tells you that this face is in fact somewhat attractive. And the increase in perceived attractive seems to be directly proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed.

But this is my favorite. The article above goes on to say that n 2005, a study was conducted where scientists actually came up with a mathematical formula to calculate the state of “goggliness” that people are in, factoring in how brightly lit the area is, the eye sight quality, the amount of smoke in the air, and the distance between the two people, with the end result being your “beer goggle score”.

I’m thinking the next generation of Mobile Simplicity’s application needs to include a widget that incorporates this formula. There has to be a drinking game here.

Beer Run

Someone in Ireland drove into the Guinness factory in Dublin with a truck, and took off with a trailer loaded with 400 kegs of Guinness, Bud, and Carlsberg beer. That’s an impressive beer run.

According to the article:

  • “This is likely to be the largest carry out of drink this Christmas” I would hope so. Hmm, who’s up for 500 kegs! Anyone?!?
  • “Police will be on the lookout for any large quantity of stolen drink flowing through Dublin’s traffic.” Yeah sure…finding “large quantities of drink” in Dublin will be a breeze. There’s only a bar on every corner.
  • “They were able to find the trailer, but all the kegs were removed” Removing 400 kegs from a trailer without being seen…that’s impressive.

Obviously, the impact of the worldwide shortage of hops is starting to take its toll on the beer marketplace.

I would have left the Bud and Carlsberg kegs, but that’s just me.

PBR

Seen outside a bar in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton neighborhood today:

Fixed Income Special
8AM-4PM Pabst’s Blue Ribbon – $1.25

If you have to ask whether the deal was for cans or bottles, then you just don’t know… PBR at 8AM…now that’s dedication. I would have taken a photo but I was driving.

A Bear With Taste

I saw this absolutely hysterical story today. It seems that a bear out at Baker Lake, WA downed 36 beers and then passed out on the lawn of the Baker Lake Resort in Washington state after raiding several camping sites. And in a very interesting market research study, the bear had two brands of beer to choose from – Rainier Beer and Busch Beer – and displayed a definite preference because all 36 cans that he drank were Rainier. If I were the brand manager of Busch Beer, I would not be too happy with the results of this study. :-)

Chucks

Chucks on the Syracuse University campus, before it shut down. Photo from early 2000's roughly.

I was listening to the 80’s Alternative station on Radio@AOL and the song “Eighties” by Killing Joke (Album: “Laugh? I Nearly Bought One”) came on. While an udergrad at Syracuse, my friends and I went to a great watering hole called Chuck’s (Hungry Charlies). Every time this song came on, this one guy whom I never actually met, would get up on one of the tables and just start stomp dancing. The coolest thing was that when the song came on, and if he was there, everyone in the bar knew what was going to happen and would stop what they were doing and just watch. Listening to that song brought me back there.