That is the difference between critical thought in education and any ol' blogger who spouts their crap for the world to hear.

Developing a complex and critical social commentary on an otherwise 'straight-forward' cultural issue is what academia should be doing.

Anti-intellectualism is not a virtue...

That everybody who drinks and passes out is a total dumbass who will never understand why they feel like shiat?

Heyyyyy...I majored in Anthropology and I never got do to any of that. For class credit, anyway.

This man is my hero.

Here come the anti-intellectuals who think academics just waste money performing studies of no value to society. It's like clockwork, bound to happen. "Those who can't, teach . . ." blah, blah, blah.

Might I suggest that before criticizing a study's conclusions, methodology, or significance, you actually make an effort to read and understand it first? Or would that be asking too much?

Anthropology.

Today I had a breakthrough with the 350 pound ape, who I have named Koko.

After I took the initiative to approach the females he was sharing fermented beverages with, this time he did not fling his own feces at me and break my glasses, but rather gave me the thumbs up. I have determined that this gesture is his crude way of saying he is too intoxicated to copulate or fight.

I am still trying to decipher the strange markings on his chest, which resemble Greek symbols and figure out what barely repressed homosexual urges causes these fraternal beasts to reside in the same domicile. While there vocabulary is limited, they seem to get along with their odd grunts of "Dude" and "Cool." I hope that my grant goes through so I can finish my thesis, which, though it is covered in vomit, will greatly add to scholarship in the quickly developing field of Partying Hardy Studies.

Ah! An anthropologist who is writing for an blatant and prescriptive purpose without attempting to cloud his entire paper behind a smokescreen of discussion of objectivity in the field. Refreshing.

I find most of anthropology's preoccupation with itself rather tedious. This is actually quite an interesting study, although it does seem to be "obvious" to us. But binge drinking is a problem (I have no issue with "regular" drinking - just the stuff that can land you in the hospital) on many campuses. I think it's interesting to see a study focusing on it. Cheers, prof.

Doc Daneeka:

Here come the anti-intellectuals who think academics just waste money performing studies of no value to society. It's like clockwork, bound to happen. "Those who can't, teach . . ." blah, blah, blah.

While I respect academia, I feel as though they could produce better results if they had to do more work outside the research field and actually work inside that profession.

For instance, a business professor should have worked within business management for at least 5 years.

tarrant84:

For instance, a business professor should have worked within business management for at least 5 years.


Are you crazy!? Once teachers find out how much other professionals are making they quit!

I know of only one good business professor ever. He was a multi-millionare, taught at Westmont college for $1 salary a year, and owned like half of the business real estate in Santa Barbara. He taught because he basically had retired from the business.

tarrant84

While I respect academia, I feel as though they could produce better results if they had to do more work outside the research field and actually work inside that profession.

For many scientists/academics, research is their profession. There is no exact "real world" or private equivalent.

You give the example of a business professor who could work in a business. But then, "business" is not really a field of study in the same sense as, say, chemistry, or philosophy, or psychology, etc. Business school is really just a vocational school to teach people business skills - it's not really an active subject of research.

Economics is a field of study that's related to business, but it's not business. That doesn't make economists' work any less relevant or important to businesses.

Likewise, I work in biomedical sciences. We do very basic research, but basic research is the necessary foundation from which advancements in medicine are made. Scientists would not do better science if you forced them to practice medicine, nor would they be qualified to do so.

To quote the late, great Mitch Hedberg: "People are always asking me to do things that are related to comedy, but aren't comedy, man. It's like saying to a great chef: OK, you're a chef. Can you farm?"

Just because a researcher's topic is pedestrian doesn't make it invalid. I study poker and poker tourism. Thus, I spend a lot of my time playing poker. Is that a waste of money? Even if I develop conclusions about culture and how it develops interest in leisure activities that have massive impacts on local and national economic structures?

I mean, maybe. But I'd like to think we learn a lot about human behaviour from examining phenomena like this.

That is interesting bubbaprog.

Can you explain how a game that has been around for forever and a day is all the sudden part of the zeitgeist? The poker fanaticism thing intrigues and baffles me.

Is it like shark attacks, where it has always been around but I never noticed and now it feels like it's omnipresent because of the heightened media coverage?

By the way, it's Beer Pong if you use a paddle, and Beirut if you throw the ball.

/West Coast

Joe Malchow is a loser.

Interesting, and I had been living under the illusion that beer pong was the stench that emanated off of the wino that sleeps in front of my neighborhoods corner deli.

Ummm, no mention of the other kind of bong's influence on college culture yet?

Well, if you want to study binge drinking, I guess Dartmouth wouldn't be a bad place to do it...

bubbaprog is MY hero.

bubbaprog:

Even if I develop conclusions about culture and how it develops interest in leisure activities that have massive impacts on local and national economic structures?


So you're working for the marketing division of a few major Vegas casinos?

beer pong sucks

beer bong on the other hand is great

The best part was when he asked the fat guy to set the bar really high, so he can gauge drinking tolerances...

booo yah!

I found the article interesting:
Alverson's researchers found that students reveal alcohol as a ritual accessory to group behavior. Exclusive brother- or sister-only Greek house meetings accompanied by alcohol help members shed tension before the cross-gender interactions of post-meeting parties, they noted. Beer pong and similar drinking games are not played solely to achieve inebriation, Alverson finds, but instead serve as a competitive outlet for high-achieving students, and a structured atmosphere for peer interaction.

I always told my friends we drank to create a structured atmosphere for peer interaction but did they listen? Nooooo. They said we drank to get laid. Simpletons!

arcturusnights

Waddayamean? There's plenty to do at Dartmouth besides drinking. Like...um.........

Okay, nevermind.

Beer Shoes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Beer Pong

/nuff said.

Did anyone even RTFA?

His point was well argued and defined. In essence, it is inadvisable to try and root out binge drinking as an activity, because such an event is actually part of a much greater sociological group interaction which revolves around feeling comfortable with one's peers.

So there.

Now pass that beer pong, er bong.

You are all a bunch of anti-intellectuals. You don't have the credentials to conduct such a study, nor do you have the intelectual curiosity to understand it. As such, you criticize. Brilliant!

/meh

We played "60 minutes"-you drank one shot of beer a minute for one hour. Doesn't seem like a lot but it got you messed up real good.

YIKES!
pong and beer misread on my part. I must be too old to know want beer pong is. Anyone care to fill me in?

PowerSlacker:

Beer Shoes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Beer Pong

Thanks PowerSlacker

binge drinking? at dartmouth?

not that our mascot is Keggy the Keg or anything...



...yeah. seriously.

/part of the keggy support crew and security team.

bobbette:

But binge drinking is a problem (I have no issue with "regular" drinking - just the stuff that can land you in the hospital) on many campuses. I think it's interesting to see a study focusing on it. Cheers, prof.

I understand what you're saying, but by the accepted definition of binge drinking (I think 5 drinks in one sitting), regular drinking usually is considered binge drinking (unless you're a midget, a woman, an Asian, or some combination of the three).

I can't stand dumbasses who drink until they pass out either, but honestly, what is the purpose of drinking alcohol if you're not expecting to feel it? It's not like it tastes good...

So what?

Thousands of corporate mo-fo's play golf/tennis all day long, have their secretaries do their work for them , I mean type their letters & get their dry cleaning, take & screen message; and THEY still get paid!

/Now what do lobbyists get paid to do?
//Pimping & Dining -oh yea, that's right

busterenjake:

We played "60 minutes"-you drank one shot of beer a minute for one hour. Doesn't seem like a lot but it got you messed up real good.

Back in the day we called it shot-a-minute. At first I thought what you were talking about was a drinking game based on the TV show. And was intrigued.

"Anthropologists do not approach a custom of society as a problem in need of a solution but as a phenomenon in need of a description,"

This is such a great way to look at a society. I wish the anti-everything lobbyists would look at things this way. Of course, most of them need a beer, a cigarette, & possibly a bong.

and to those asking (UnkoPatrol et al), beer pong is a drinking game sorta like beirut, but with paddles.

it's played on a 5x9ft table with full cups of beer in different formation (lines, diamonds, etc). you volley the ball back and forth like doubles tennis, and try to hit or sink the other side's cups. if you hit, they drink a half, sink, they drink a full. last team with cups on the table wins.

I normally play a game that has 9 cups, 6 full cans a side. which is 3 cans per partner, per game.

it's not uncommon for people to play 5+ games a night. (beverage of choice: keystone light.)

so yeah, binge drinking is an accurate description.

....there's not much to do in the woods up here. sigh.

Lot of people using the term "anti-intellectual"... kinda broad and sweeping when the headline doesn't start out with the words "yet another" or indicate that anything other that this particular study was being mentioned.

Sounds like a talking point from a press kit ;)

Brings to mind one of my favorite Onion articles:

New Study Finds College Binge Drinking to Be a Blast

theoddball:

and to those asking (UnkoPatrol et al), beer pong is a drinking game sorta like beirut, but with paddles.

it's played on a 5x9ft table with full cups of beer in different formation (lines, diamonds, etc). you volley the ball back and forth like doubles tennis, and try to hit or sink the other side's cups. if you hit, they drink a half, sink, they drink a full. last team with cups on the table wins.

I normally play a game that has 9 cups, 6 full cans a side. which is 3 cans per partner, per game.

it's not uncommon for people to play 5+ games a night. (beverage of choice: keystone light.)

so yeah, binge drinking is an accurate description.

....there's not much to do in the woods up here. sigh.


Damn, it's true, I am too old.
Sigh, maybe I should go back to college.



/What I originally thought this thread was about

theres a time and place for everything, and its college.
Sweet, sweet college.
Oh How i dread graduating next year and being expected to be responsible. =(

We played "60 minutes"-you drank one shot of beer a minute for one hour. Doesn't seem like a lot but it got you messed up real good.

what a big snatch...

Back in the day we called it shot-a-minute

Lightweights, we called it century club, and it went on for 100 minutes. You did 100 shots of beer.
Shot = 1.5 ounces*100 = 150 ounces/12 ounces per beer = 12.5 beers. That was enough to send my 165 lb. frame humming!

We played "60 minutes"-you drank one shot of beer a minute for one hour.

We called that one "Hour of Power".

Once one was able to master that skill, "Century Club" was the next level.

100 shots of beer on the table, 100 shots of beer...

You all are lightweights.

Way back when I was in college, I played this awesome drinking game called "wake up Friday morning and start to drink." It ended sometime Sunday night, or when your body no longer responded to brain signals.

Good times, good times.

If you know any anthropologist, you know that all of them have performed this study many times. This guy is just the first of us to write it up.

brap

While there vocabulary is limited...

*snicker*

""there is an apprehension about aloneness which is ameliorated by the plans and structures of ritual drinking."

ameliorated..... good word
ameliorated
ameliorated
ameliorated.

now it's mine.

That study wasn't as dumb as the headline made it out to be. The point was not just to study beer pong, but to realize that you couldn't just "fix" the binge drinking without changing a bunch of other things too. That's actually a good observation.

Of course, I doubt that this is the first person to think of that.