College Clips

By Amy Oslica

Published Nov. 30, 2007

Mixing alcohol, energy drinks dangerous

It's no secret that college students love caffeine. But when they mix alcohol with energy drinks, the combination could be dangerous.

A Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study showed that people who drink energy drinks and alcohol double their risk of being hurt, driving with an intoxicated driver, being taken advantage of sexually or taking advantage of another sexually.

"Only the symptoms of drunkenness are reduced, but not the drunkenness," Wake Forest University professor Mary Claire O'Brien said. "They can't tell if they're drunk."

Since caffeine is a stimulant and alcohol is a depressant, they counteract each other.

O'Brien's findings from the 4,000-person survey of college students revealed that students are combining the two so they can drink more and stay out longer without feeling the effects.

— The Daily Reville

(Louisiana State University)

University of South Carolina students combine bears, hookah trend

With hookahs and hookah bars becoming increasingly popular, University of South Carolina students Jeremy Meggs and Daniel Rovin added to the trend in a unique way.

Working together in Greenville, S.C.,last summer, Bookah Bears were born.

"The idea came about due to Rovin and I just being in the right state of mind one day when we were sitting around with friends," Meggs said.

The idea of Bookah Bears is a simple one: to combine two timeless items. The hookah, a water pipe with hoses used for smoking tobacco, has been around for hundreds of years. When put in a classic toy, a teddy bear, it becomes a "virtually indestructible, concealable, completely airtight" way of smoking, Meggs said. "The Bookah Bear is a fully lovable two-hosed hookah that is entirely concealed within a teddy."

Rovin said he thinks the bears will be a hit.

"Who doesn't want a lovable teddy bear that serves a practical purpose?" Rovin said.

— The Daily Gamecock

(University of South Carolina)

University of Arizona professor studies what language use says about breakups

Breaking up is a bummer, and according to the research of one University of Arizona professor, language use is an indicator of a person's ability to cope with the change.

Psychology professor David Sbarra is working on a study that analyzes the ways in which young adults recover from the calamitous end of a romance.

He recorded interviews in which the subjects discussed their break-ups and ran them through a computer program to evaluate language use.

For example, women who were adjusting poorly tended to use more third-person references, like "him," "her" and "them," indicating that the subject is still preoccupied with another person.

Women who were adjusting well didn't use those words as frequently, and they also spoke with more certainty and referred to their social networks more often than women in the other categoryhit.

"Who doesn't want a lovable teddy bear that serves a practical purpose?" Rovin said.

— The Arizona Daily Wildcat

(University of Arizona)