Watercooler Sensation

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If You Can Fight In Iraq, Shouldn’t You Be Able To Have A Beer?

• We’ve all heard it before (mostly from college kids, rationalizing their boozin’). But now states are starting to consider it.
• In seven states across the country, legislators are considering lowering the drinking age, “fueled in part by legislators who contend that men and women who are old enough to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan are responsible enough to buy alcohol legally.” [ABC] [USA Today]
• Some examples:
• Kentucky, Wisconsin and South Carolina: Bills have been introduced “that would lower the drinking age only for military personnel.”
• Missouri: Considering a bill that would “allow everyone 18 and older to become drinking age adults.”
• Minnesota: Considering a bill that would let 18 year olds buy booze in bars and restaurants, but not from liquor stores until they’re 21.
• The risks:
• If a state changes the rule, they lose federal funds: In 1984, Ronald Reagan signed the Uniform Drinking Age Act, requiring every state to adopt 21 as their drinking age. If it didn’t a state would lose “up to 10 percent of its federal road money.”
• The 21 drinking age lowers drunk driving rates: The National Traffic Highway Administration estimates that “the 21 minimum drinking age law has saved about 900 lives per year” since it was adopted. [MADD]
• But John McCardell, the former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, disagrees with the 21 drinking age.
• He advocates “lowering the drinking age in controlled environments such as restaurants and campus pubs or anytime with parents [while not allowing] young adults to buy alcohol in retail stores to take home to get drink as that is not responsible drinking behavior.”

Says McCardell, “We need to support public policies that reflect reality, not our illusion of what reality is.” Sounds about right to us.

It’s Okay If You’re A One-Minute Man

• Good news! You know how you’re more of a — gee, how should we say this — more of a “sprinter” as opposed to a “marathoner” in the sack? Sex therapists are saying that’s a-okay. [USA Today]
• A survey of sex therapists concluded the optimal amount of time for sexual intercourse was 3 to 13 minutes.
• Here’s the thing, though, that conclusion does not include foreplay. And also, for all of you who can get down and dirty in less than 120 seconds, take heed: The same sex therapists have said that sexual intercourse that lasts from 1 to 2 minutes as “too short.”
• Dr. Irwin Goldstein, editor of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, cited a four-week study of 1,500 couples in 2005 that found the median time for sexual intercourse was 7.3 minutes. (Women were armed with stopwatches.)
• Who is typically clocking in on the faster end? Young men and old men. Both age groups have a hard time going for longer (pun intended.)
• “There are so many myths in our culture of what other people are doing sexually,” said Marianne Brandon, a clinical psychologist and director of Wellminds Wellbodies in Annapolis, Md. “Most people’s sex lives are not as exciting as other people think they are.” Good to know.

“You were up all night?” Yeah, right.

Starbucks Can Save Your Brain

• Go ahead, grab another cup of joe – it’s good for you! [BBC]
• We already knew drinking a little coffee cuts your risk of Alzheimers’. Now we may know why.
• According to new research, “coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body.”
• Here’s how it works. There is a “blood brain barrier” surrounding the brain which protects the central nervous system, filtering harmful chemicals out of the blood.
• When you have high cholesterol, this barrier can get a little leaky.
• Scientists have found, however, that a daily dose of a little caffeine can protect that barrier from the destructive effects of cholesterol.
• The Science: Some rabbits with a high-fat (and thus high cholesterol) diet were given the equivalent of a daily cup of coffee for 12 weeks. At the end of the experiment, the java bunnies had a blood brain barrier that was more intact than the ones without caffeine.

Wonder what effect our (jitter! jitter!) seven-cup-a-day (jitter! shake!) habit will have on our (tic!) brain?

By the Numbers

The children are in trouble,
America. A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows our babies are being neglected and abused. [CNN]

1 out of 50

The share of infants in America who are abused or neglected

91,000

The number of American infants between October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2006 who were abused or neglected

30,000

The number of these cases which were a matter of neglect.

33%

The percent of abuse or neglect cases that take place in the first week of life.

Celebrities: Unfiltered

“I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionized music but also changed the world. That’s a completely different era and time ... I’m just feeling really happy and grateful.”

— Mariah Carey — sounding uncharacteristically articulate — knows her place. The songstress just surpassed Elvis “The King” Presley in chart-topping #1 Hits with her recent tune “Touch My Body.” [AP]

Speed Round

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER?

The Smithsonian wasn’t! Eleven-year-old Kenton Stufflebeam spotted an error on a plaque that’s been hanging in the National Museum of Natural History since 1981 while on a Spring Break trip with his family. The Smithsonian sent the boy a letter acknowledging the error and thanking him for bringing it to their attention. On the envelope, they spelled his name wrong. And the name of his hometown. [ABC News]

GOOD PEOPLE DOING GOOD THINGS

Meet Anne Mahlum, a 27-year-old marathon runner who one day realized that instead of running past the homeless in her Philadelphia town, she should get them to join her. Today her group, Back On My Feet, has running teams in three shelters with 54 homeless members and 250 other volunteers. Says Mahlum of her group, “All you can tell is who’s the fastest. You can’t tell who’s homeless and who’s not.” [CNN]

AWESOME

Scientists have recently discovered a zebra-striped fish that crawls instead of swims and has human-like eyes. No word on how it tastes with a little garlic and lemon. [MSNBC]

PROOF THAT GOD EXISTS

“New Kids on the Block to Reunite” [AP]

SHILOH JOLIE AND CRUZ BECKHAM POSTPONE WEDDING

Arkansas just changed its laws. Today it is no longer legal for toddlers to get married. Now you must wait until you’re 17 (if you’re a guy – girls can get hitched at 16.) [AP]

$168,000

The price of a new diamond thong that made its debut on a fashion runway in Singapore yesterday. [Reuters]

MOST RANDOM MUPPET SIGHTING OF THE DAY

“Vowing to make New York City the center of the scientific universe — as it is for commerce, art and expensive dining — a panel of university presidents, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein of New York, the actor Alan Alda, the Columbia physicist Brian Greene and a Muppet announced plans on Wednesday for a World Science Festival to be held here at the end of May.” [NYT]

MODEL BEHAVIOR

Model / assaulter Namoi Campbell gets arrested after spitting on an officer at London’s Heathrow airport. In other words: Thursday. [AP]

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Is that an electric guitar in your pants, or are you just happy to see me? Police in Maine want to know. [AP]

RACISM

Got a immigrant-bashing bigot in your family? They’ll love this online videogame, “complete with crude and offensive stereotypes.” Bleh. [Matthew Yglesias]

SUPER APPLE

Apple’s iTunes overtakes Wal-Mart to become “the top overall music retailer in the U.S.” [AP]

E-BOOKS

One thing Amazon’s Kindle reader has done (besides be slightly underwhelming) is “helped, if not revolutionized, the tiny electronic [book] market.” [AP]

CREEPY

In Santa Ana, California, an “elementary school teacher was arrested after students found a handgun and ammunition in the drawer of a supply cabinet of her classroom.” [LA Times]

TINY SCREENS

The solution to watching downloaded movies on your little phone screen: “gadgets that project what’s playing on the small screen onto walls, table cloths and other handy surfaces.” [AP]