Look out for your drunk friends

I can't say I've ever read the Jamaica Gleaner before, but Angela Philipps seems to have written up a nice article for young women considering another alcohol-fuelled night on the town. So good, I'm going to give you a fairly large chunk of the article here in the hope you you click through to read it in its entirity...

"It's not my intention to tell all you single lasses out there that you must absolutely never drink alcohol, nor do I want to frighten you about what it can make you do if you consume more than you are able to handle. What I really mean to say is that you should be aware of the feelings it can give you. If you're not used to it, then start by sharing the experience with a small collection of close friends.

When you're ready to be on the party scene, make a pact with them all that each of you will be looking out for one another. Try and be the voice of reason for the one who looks as if she might get into a bit of trouble. Alcohol might be blurring her vision, but don't let it blur yours!"

Click here for the complete article

The Saint under scrutiny again

The Saint Hotel on Fitzroy Street, St. Kilda has made International headlines again for getting introuble with liquor regulators over risque promotions. Sue Maclellan, Victoria's liquor licensing director today ordered Saint Hotel licensee Cameron Manning to scrap his "No Undie Sundie" event. The night run by Birdhouse managed to raise criticism after advertising in Beat magazine with the infamous paparazzi photo of Britney Spears getting out of a car without underwear and offering free drinks when women flashed their bra or undies to staff. They also offered a $50 drink card for women hanging their undies on a line above the bar. Combined with drink offers including $9 cocktails and $6 jager bombs, the advertisement and night have raised significant controversy.



Deb Bryant, a Melbourne Centre Against Sexual Assault spokesperson, said the event was no laughing matter. "It is totally irresponsible, using women to promote those sort of views let alone in terms of irresponsible drinking... It's not appropriate, it's sexist and just encourages inappropriate attitudes towards women."

The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) also said The Saint was a maverick "sexist" venue and out of step with community standards. Bill Healey, AHA chief executive, said "We are continuing to work hard to ensure that all licensed venues promote responsible consumption of alcohol and we believe this promotion is inconsistent with this objective."

The Saint was also caught up in controversy in June when it employed a dwarf to pour liquor down the throats of patrons, and would risk a fine of $13,000 and its licence if it defied the ban.

Source: NineMSN & BBC News

HRH mistakenly sent 12 barrels of beer

The Queen was mistakenly sent 2,000 pints of beer when Windsor Castle was consfused with a nearby pub of the same name. Royal staff had no record of the order when a truck arrived with 12 barrels of larger ahead of a World Cup qualifying match. A telephone call revealed the mistake - the beer was intended for the Windsor Castle pub, eight kilometers away. "We have received mail for the royal household here before but I think this is the first time they have received anything meant for us," said Misko Coric, pub manager, who had ordered the beer for the football match.

Source: The Age

Internet shopping's dirty little secret

The Age had picked up a story from the Los Angeles Times describing a global Internet phennomenon - BUI, or buying under the influence. "It's the vodka nights that really get me into trouble," said Kelly Krause, a film publicist by day, "I once woke up and I had spent $700." But that wasn't inflated bar prices - she prefers to stay in for her ideal bender. "On Mondays, she sips white wine, watches The Hills and then visits seenon.com to buy accessories from actor Lauren Conrad's wardrobe. Friday nights involve vodka-tonics and a date with neimanmarcus.com. About those Tory Burch flats? 'I own several pairs and I don't recall buying one of them sober,' she says."

And apparently this is a growing trend, in Britan "[t]here's a book Shopping While Drunk: Confessions From Modern Life and in 2005 the research firm Conchango deemed the syndrome BLOTO (Buying Loads Of Tat Online)."

"It's fun," Krause says, "and it's the only thing you can do after a few drinks and not have any regrets."

Source: The Age

Flying pot takes to the skies

Carlton Draught have demonstrated their brand-new marketing weapon to the unsuspecting Melbourne public - a 30-metre-high pot glass, filled with Carlton Draught (complete with froth), floating in the sky.

The hot-air baloon was made for use during the AFL finals series, and will then tour Australia. "We loved the idea of a giant flying pot glass," said a Carlton Draught spokesperson. "We also figured the sight of it in full flight would turn heads." The pilot-driven balloon is believed to be the first shaped like a pot in the world.

Source: The Age (Includes Picture)

Street View drunk identified

The man in the Google Street View picture that made it to the front page of popular social-news website Reddit five days ago has been identified by The Age. The picture was submitted to Reddit on August 6, and quickly received 154 up votes before being removed by Google.

The submission received 29 comments on the internationally-accessible website, including "Since it's Australia I'm surprised there's only one guy" and "For some reason, as soon as I saw this, I knew it would be somewhere in Victoria. Possibly because my uncle used to live near there."

Tongue-in-cheek speculation about the identity of the lone man on a Lakes Entrance street started quickly. "Oh that's Drunk Phill, the town drunk. He's there from 8-5, Monday-Friday." Thanks to journalists at The Age we can now report who the man actually is.


His name is Bill
Well, kind of, The Age has decided to help the man regain some of his privacy and elected to use the pseudonym Bill. Apparently Bill had been drowning his sorrows over the weekend after attending the funeral of his best friend, who died recently in a freak boating accident. The Friday funeral, and subsequent drinking, had left the man feeling "worse for wear" on the morning of February 4. "Come Monday morning, I got out of the taxi and rolled over on the grass and went to sleep on the footpath", he said.

What does Bill think about the international exposure? "I'm not too happy about it - I mean, I shouldn't have been there in the state that I was in but I wasn't really thinking there would be someone driving past with a video camera on the roof filming me either."

Source: The Age

VB "too cold" at international beer festival

And in a fluff piece for The Age, David Wroe reports from Berlin "you can get it eating bratwurst. You can get it wearing lederhosen. But German beer lovers, it seems, didn't quite get it at all." Click here for the full story.

Loud music makes you drink faster

A recent study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research has found loud music in bars can make people drink faster in fewer gulps and order more drinks. This is in addition to existing research that shows fast music can speed up the rate of drinking. One of the reasons given for increased drinking when there is loud music is because people cannot converse; "patrons drank more because they talked less". The study secretly observed 40 men aged between 18 and 25 drinking beer over three Saturday nights in a bar where they could modify the music - the average time taken to drink a beer fell from 14.51 minutes to 11.45 minutes when the louder music was playing.

Source: LA Times & Reuters

Darwin drink driver spends $1100/week on beer

Michael Leary, a Darwin man who has been convicted for the seventh time for drink driving, spends almost $1100 a week on his favourite beer - Melbourne Bitter. Darwin Magistrates Court heard how the construction worker and father-of-four spends his $1440 post-tax pay packet; $150 on rent, $150 on transport (buses and taxis), $50 on his phone and the rest on beer. Enough money to buy 27 slabs of Melbourne Bitter a week according to News.com.au.



Leary's defense lawyer Vannessa Farmer said Leary didn't drink "anything else" but Melbourne Bitter - and was "going on a bender" after his relationship broke down five years ago. She also mentioned he had gone "cold turkey" since his last arrest, participated in a rehab program and sold his motorbike.

Magistrate Vince Luppino said "(That is) poor judgement on two counts there - drinking that much and drinking Melbourne Bitter,", sending chuckles throughout the Court gallery. Describing his actions of speeding on his motorcycle while intoxicated and having no license in conjunction with his prior convictions of drink driving - including killing someone in 1989 - Mr Luppino said "You didn't learn... (and) that certainly acts as a black mark against you in my book."

He was convicted, fined $100, sentenced to a fully-suspended four-month jail term and is on a 12-month alcohol intervention order - which bans him from holding or buying beer. He has also lost his license for a further three years.

Source: News.com.au

Nintendo game gets media bashing for encouraging teen drinking

America is the inventor of "beer pong" and has now also created a Nintendo Wii game matching much of the drinking game's ping pong tossing action. Beer pong, according to Wikipedia, is a "drinking game in which players throw a table tennis ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in one of several cups of beer on the other end". A similar objective is the goal in the JV Games Nintendo Wii game Pong Toss, which has pulled much of the alcohol content, but with a teen-friendly rating experts are worried about the potential link.

"When a behavior is modeled or practiced in any form, it becomes more likely to be practiced in the future," said New York psychologist Eva Levine. "Kids are very susceptible to this type of media. I see it all the time with young kids and adolescents. It's definitely true that children that are exposed to alcohol use are much more likely to engage in alcohol behavior."

While Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal worried that games like Pong Toss might have more dangerous consequences than other types of violent games - saying binge drinking was a much more realistic outcome from playing Pong Toss than driving dangerously would be after playing Grand Theft Auto.

Source: ABC News & Wired

Turbulence ahead for drunk pilots

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is close to signing a $9 million testing agreement with Symbian Health according to The Age. The agreement is for random drug and alcohol tests for aviation workers throughout Australia. Workers caught with a blood-alcohol content of .02 or more, or who test positive to illicit drugs (cocaine, cannabis and opioids) face fines up to $5500 and could be fired.

Source: The Age

Drunks cannot feel fear

According to The Washington Post, "a new brain scan study shows drinking actually dampens the biological ability to feel fear."

Source: Washington Post

Sticky situation leaves man at a loss

A Queensland man has been victim to a drunken prank by a 26 year-old friend poured superglue into his ear - and required major surgery costing $8,000 to have the glue removed from his ear and restore hearing. The event allegedly occurred when Ryan Liam Upton, also 26, found the man passed out during a party at Greenslopes on Brisbane's southside. Ryan allegedly poured superglue on the man's hand and down his pants as a joke - then he decided to pour superglue in the ear to take the prank further.

Source: The Age

Drinking buddies found

After the successful promotion of a job offer to drink beer with his lonely dad, Mike Hammond and his father have managed to find two eligible drinking buddies. The lucky pair are Trevor Pugh, 78, who will take home £7 an hour for his services twice a week and Henry Rosenvinge, 58, who has offered to meet once a week for free.

Mike appears to happy about the situation, saying: "Ideally, he wanted me to take him out seven nights a week, but as much as I love going for a pint with him I can only manage a couple of nights. He'll now be going several times a week - three with his new friends and twice with me."

When asked if his dad was happy, he said: "As people get older, they don't show their emotions as much. He's not showing he's happy, but before he was showing me he was miserable. He's not doing that any more and to me, that's well worth it."

Source: Guardian & Times

Madonna and Prince Charles are trying to save the Pub

Both celebrities are trying to do their bit to save the old English pub from extinction - which are reported at closing at the rate of 27 a week. Prince Charles has been promoting village pubs with the campaign "Pub is the Hub", trying to encouraging communities, licensees and the owners of local pubs to work together to help "retain and enhance" rural pubs. While Madonna and Guy Ritchie have taken matters into their own hands, purchasing The Punch Bowl pub in London's Mayfair district.

Source: International Herald Tribune

The suburb that spends the most on alcohol is...

According to the Herald Sun, research released by Salmat and RDA Research puts postcode 3115, Wonga Park, as the suburb that spends the most on alcohol. While Docklands (3008) managed to score second place on booze purchases. Further detail showed the biggest wine spenders were Canterbury, Brighton and Docklands whilst the biggest spender on cigarettes was Frankston North.

Let the stereotyping begin...

Source: Herald Sun

£7 an hour for drinking buddy

A son who worried that his 88 year-old father might be getting lonely has posted a job offer in the local post office - earn £7 an hour to be a drinking companion for his father.

Michael Hammond, the son, said "It's a bit difficult at [his] age to go out to a pub on his own. He is hoping to find a gentleman who is not too bombastic and enjoys a nice pint."

The perfect candidate would be a man who can talk about engineering and golf.

Source: BBC

Industry with the highest alcoholism: Hospitality

15% of hospitality workers and 14.7% of construction and mining workers in the United States have problems with alcohol. The report from George Washington University Medical Center uses 2006 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and the National Comorbidity Survey to gauge the effects of alcohol dependence and abuse in 13 industry sectors.

It suggests the key ingredients for alcohol problems in an industry are young people and men - which make up larger than average proportions of the hospitality and construction industries, respectively.

Source: Wichita Business Journal

Diageo criticises Fosters and Lion Nathan

Diageo, which has an estimated third of the $668 million super-strength "alcopops" market, has defended its decision to continue to sell Smirnoff Ice Double Black, which has an energy additive.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Diageo's corporate affairs director, Ron Ainsbury, saying Smirnoff's caffeine levels were in line with those in soft drinks and made a clear attack at Fosters for their decision to drop energy additives. He went on to say "Why don't [Fosters] get out of marketing their beer with the Boony doll which is aimed at children?"

Fosters' spokesperson, Troy Hey, said he was disappointed by Diageo's comments. He denied the Boony "figurine" was targeting children and said it aimed at "adult cricket watchers".

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Corey Worthington to do UK phone ads

Corey Worthington, Melbourne's answer to Paris Hilton, has had his agent Max Markson confirm he will be appearing in mobile phone commercials for the United Kingdom's O2 mobile. The campaign is set to launch on Monday.

Source: News.com.au