Next up: Some athletes have taken steroids. Strange, but true!
Researchers have measured the actual blood alcohol level of fans leaving professional football and baseball games. And they found that eight percent of all the spectators willing to take the breathalyzer exam were over the legal limit for driving. The work appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. [Darin Erickson et al., “Can We Assess Blood Alcohol Levels of Attendees Leaving Professional Sporting Events?”]
The investigators managed to get breath samples from 362 fans exiting 13 different baseball games and three football games. Forty percent registered some level of alcohol on the meters. Fans under the age of 35 were nine times more likely to be over the limit than older fans. And tailgaters were 14 times more likely than other fans to be over the limit.
EIGHT percent???
Supremely flawed study.
The results, EIGHT percent (!) should be a huge indication of how much credibility you should place in polls of ANY type, and ALL “studies” conducted by idiots who have no experience in the real world.
HEY! Since nobody on this right wing blog has bothered to notice, the California law (AB 962), banning the sale of ammunition to California residents via mail order, has been OVERTURNED!
Ha ha ha ha.
Up yours, liberal shitheads!
To be fair, the purpose of the study was to determine how many and how much people get drunk. And the most-likely demographic.
It’s not _THAT_ it happens, as the headline deceptively suggests.
This could be useful study if drunk driving after games is a problem (and I assume it is).
You guys think eight percent is a low number but I’m not so sure. When I go to games, the vast majority of people seem sober. The drunks are up-front and loud but most people are just sitting and watching the game.
BTW, why does this blog bash studies so often? Sure, some studies are nutty but this blog bashes even good ones.
A Luddite tech blog is weird.
#6 That’s a good question Greg. Ever thought of applying for a research grant to find out why?
You should be able to get funding if you word your grant application so it sounds like your results could be used to justify curtailing people liberties. If that fails, link your study to finding it’s impacts on global-warming or how whatever you are studying will be affected by global-warming.
p.s. make sure your initial findings are inconclusive so you can re-apply for further funding!
they needed a freakin’ study for this??? wtf?
they only had to look here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night
#6: Greg Allen
Two points.
1) We bash bad and/or stupid research because there are so many more worthwhile research projects that go wanting for the money spent.
2) We are not and never have been a tech blog.
Is that John C Dvorak in the picture on the bottom right?
Well the random photo attatched to this story symbolizes a good portion of what is wrong with this country… A bunch of clueless American wilder beasts.
The Horror! The Horror!
It’d be interesting to see the results after a British football match… I’d guess that 8% or so would be under the legal limit …
Faxon in #3 said: “right wing blog” and “liberal shitheads!”
Uh Faxon, your claxon is wrong.
First this is not a right wing blog and even if it were, its left wingers who are liberals.
Two non-sequiteurs in one sentence, each contradicting the other, must be a record for you, no?
That’s it! No more beer allowed or sold at baseball or football games. Yeah, you know that’s NEVER gonna happen. The NFL and Baseball League won’t scream murder, if stadiums and ballparks in the US, weren’t allowed to get fans drunk, for safety reasons. They wouldn’t even want the cops hanging around the car parks, waiting to pick up anyone leaving, DWI. They have to be a discreet distance from the park. This is how things work in America. Hypocrisy in the name of big business (free enterprise).
If Baseball and Football is so necessary to its fan following. Then they shouldn’t need booze to enjoy it. And I’m sure the majority don’t. But a certain percentage require a booze fix, wherever they go. And these games give them the excuse to beer up. The sports industry just can’t stand to lose even the tiniest percentage of fans, by banning alcohol sales. They don’t care that their greed unleashes a sizable number of drunk drivers, all at once, and usually in the dark evening hours. So it’s not just the fans’ lives that are at stake. But everyone living near a sport event.
Here’s the thing. Obvious Prohibition failed disastrously. And getting alcohol sales banned from these “sporting events” is going to be opposed with all the legal and lobbying muscle the industries, who profit from them, can muster. So the only thing left to do is better educate the public, against alcohol, tobacco, and drug abuse. But I don’t even see much of THAT happening. And I have to ask WHY?! It ought to be part of schools’ basic education. But I think that even there, it’s being stifled, in order to protect the commercial industries.
This recent talk about making Salvia illegal in the US, is just stupid. Like that’s worked for some many things, right? It only makes it more attractive. Gives the criminals something new to profit from selling. Burdens the police with more to do, while they’ve facing budget cutbacks. And tosses more non-violent offenders into prisons with the hard cases. all around, a really bright idea, Thanks Arizona and the US Congress. Meanwhile the most deathly and destructive substances, alcohol and tobacco, go right on addicting and killing, with little impedance. And certainly, little or no discouragement of it use, or abuse.
Why is it illegal to use or sell anything addictive, that might compete with alcohol and tobacco sales. But not illegal to promote and protect the sales and use of addictive things, like alcohol and tobacco? Because every damn lawmaker in the country bows and worships at the trough of the Alcohol and Tobacco industries. And as long as there’s huge profits to be made and protected. The laws, and apparently the educational system, of the land will be compromised to favor them. While the use and sale of anything else, will put your ass straight into jail. Again, it’s a matter of profit, and competition. NOT morality! As the politicians and news media likes to spin it.