They May Take Our Lives, But They'll Never Take Our Oversized Wine Glasses!

Ah, alcohol. The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. You do so much for us, and yet, you're so bad for us. 

It is an unfortunate truth that, for as great as a nice bottle of beer is, alcohol is a public health nightmare. Alcohol consumption is the fifth largest contributor to premature death and disease across the world, responsible for upward of 3 million deaths a year. The battle between alcohol and no-fun "there is no safe level of alcohol consumption" public health experts is never ending, but now, thanks to a new study, the doctors have a new weapon in their arsenal.

The premise of the study, conducted in England – a place where you quite literally can't take a step without stumbling into a pub – was simple: How is alcohol consumption affected when pubs stop offering their largest size of wine glass? 

For 4 weeks, a group of 20 pubs simply stopped offering their largest wine glass – 250 mL in all but three cases. And this intervention did indeed result in a small but noticeable 7.6% reduction in daily wine consumption. More importantly, beer and spirits sales showed no noticeable increase, daily revenues were not affected, and just four of the establishments included in the intervention received complaints about the missing wine glass.  

So, what does this mean overall? Well, for one, the researchers said that people who frequent drinking establishments generally limit themselves to a specific number of alcoholic units. Which makes sense, if you have to drive home, you can only drink one or two beers or glasses of wine. The size is a secondary concern; if bars offer smaller sizes and people drink the same number of drinks, quite naturally the amount of alcohol consumed is reduced. Your liver is happy, the bartenders are happy, the doctors are happy, everyone wins. 

There is, however, just one problem with this study. Sure, the English didn't complain much, but they have their whole stiff upper lip thing going on. Try this study again in Scotland and we'll see how they take it. The headline practically writes itself: "Wine consumption in Scotland down, scotch consumption up 500%."

Why Am I Dreaming About Crappy Beer?

I wrote this for my actual job, and I like it, so I'm reposting it here because why not.

I dream of our corporate overlords

Advertisements are quite literally everywhere. On billboards, in commercials, in videos, in movies, the list goes on and on. Still, at least you can shut your eyes and be mercifully free of corporate interference inside your own head, right? Right?

Early in 2021, Coors (maker of cheap, mediocre beer) launched a ad campaign which seemed a bit of a gimmick and a joke. Watch an ad before bed, listen to an 8-hour soundscape while sleeping, and your dreams would be filled with Coors and their “refreshing drinks.” Now, the campaign didn’t really take off or go viral, but someone was paying attention: a group of 35 leading sleep and dream researchers, who published an open letter on the subject of corporate dream manipulation in June.

While people have tried to manipulate their dreams for countless years, it’s only been in the recent past that scientists have attempted to specifically target or manipulate behavior through dreams. For example, in a 2014 study, smokers exposed to tobacco smoke and rotten egg smell while sleeping reduced their cigarette consumption by 30%.

Most research into dream manipulation have been aimed at positive results, but the experts warn that there’s no reason corporations couldn’t use it for their own purposes, especially given the widespread usage of devices such as Alexa. They gave an example of a company playing a certain sound during a commercial, then replaying that sound through a device while people are sleeping to trigger a dream about that product.

The experts noted that the Federal Trade Commission could intervene to prevent companies from attempting dream manipulation, and have done so in the past to stop subliminal advertising, but as of right now, there’s nothing stopping big business from messing with your dreams. But hey, at least they’re not directly beaming commercials into our heads with gamma radiation. Yet.