Celebrity feud: Sheen v. Buffett??

Beaches, boats, ballads, boat drinks...tiger blood? Apparently Jimmy Buffett has filed papers with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to trademark "Tiger Blood" for use in a vodka and energy drink concoction. Although Jimmy is not the only individual eager to seal up the phrase for him or herself, I somehow thought Buffett might be above the Sheen fray, even though I certainly am not. I can't imagine Charlie is too keen on this maneuver, but he also might not care. At all. About anything. Ever. Anyway, how about Buffett's old school Dolphins jersey in this pic?

There Will Be Booze Available

I think we get it. Advertisement found in the Portland Sunday Telegram.

Jimmy Buffett - Injured Dome Piece

Getty Images

Jimmy fell off the stage in Sydney while wrapping up an encore and injured his head. He was rushed to the hospital. It's unclear if there is a woman to blame or if it's his fault.

Full story here: Jimmy Buffett Hospitalized After Sydney Stage Fall | Billboard.com

Statistic of the day: Drink up or die

Okay...I'm overselling this a little bit, but the story below (sourced by Newc, but obviously not posted by Newc) makes me feel warm.

From Yahoo! news:

A new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that - for reasons that aren't entirely clear - abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers' mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.

Moderate drinking, which is defined as one to three drinks per day, is associated with the lowest mortality rates in alcohol studies. Moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice is red wine) is thought to improve heart health, circulation and sociability, which can be important because people who are isolated don't have as many family members and friends who can notice and help treat health problems.

Read the full piece here.

TUI - So Euro

Oil oil everywhere. The Financial Services Authority - England's SEC - busted an oil future trader Stephen Noel Perkins for TUI. Trading under the influence. You can read the story here, but the upshot is that Perkins built up a net long position in ICE Brent crude-oil future while wasted between 1:22 am and 3:41 am in London last summer. Sounds like fun.

What's funny is that I was hanging in London last summer and was definitely not trading oil futures during the witching hours. But I was watching Snipes trade linguistics and Facebook futures at Bijou. And it actually was fun.

How to Make It in America

New HBO series with loads of potential. From the producers of "Entourage" comes "How to Make It In America," a story about twenty somethings and their entrepreneurial adventures in NYC. Somewhat of a cliche premise, but after watching the pilot, I trust that HBO will keep it from being a formulaic, Horatio Alger story. Find it on HBO, Sunday night's, 10pm. Trailer below.

Science talk: Hangovers

Maybe this is cliche for a Friday, but I want to think about hangovers. We're right in the crux of football season, the Jets are still playing and I haven't had the chance to celebrate my 28th birthday so this weekend is starting to look like the perfect storm. But I want to go deeper than just saying "dude...I feel like s**t" or "dude...you look like s**t." Most readers of this blog (dare I say all?) have been hungover at some point in their adult life and most of us attribute it to being over-served and dehydrated, so in the interest of cracking an egg of knowledge on a winter Friday, I decided to drill a little desk research.

Quick fact: The formal name for a hangov­er is veisalgia, from the Norwegian word for "uneasiness following debauchery" (kveis) and the Greek word for "pain" (algia) -- an appropriate title considering the uncomfortable symptoms experienced by the average drinker.

Common symptoms: (really glad anxiety is on this list because that's my go-to)

• Headache
• Poor sense of overall well-being
• Sensitivity to light and sound
• Diarrhea
• Loss of appetite
• Trembling
• Nausea
• Fatigue
• Increased heart rate and blood pressure
• Dehydration(dry mouth, extreme thirst, dry eyes)
• Trouble concentrating
• Anxiety
• Difficulty sleeping
• Weakness

OK. I haven't told you anything you don't already know. But here's a fascinating paragraph from How Stuff Works that sheds some new light:

W­hen alcohol is consumed, it enters the bloodstream and causes the pituitary gland in the brain to block the creation of vasopressin (also known as the antidiuretic hormone). Without this chemical, the kidneys send water directly to the bladder instead of reabsorbing it into the body. This is why drinkers have to make frequent trips to the bathroom after urinating for the first time after drinking.

According to studies, drinking about 250 milliliters of an alcoholic beverage causes the body to expel 800 to 1,000 milliliters of water; that's four times as much liquid lost as gained. This diuretic effect decreases as the alcohol in the bloodstream decreases, but the aftereffects help create a hangover.

The morning after heavy drinking, the body sends a desperate message to replenish its water supply -- usually manifested in the form of an extremely dry mouth. Headaches result from dehydration because the body's organs try to make up for their own water loss by stealing water from the brain, causing the brain to decrease in size and pull on the membranes that connect the brain to the skull, resulting in pain.

The frequent urination also expels salts and potassium that are necessary for proper nerve and muscle function; when sodium and potassium levels get too low, headaches, fatigue and nausea can result. Alcohol also breaks down the body's store of glycogen in the liver, turning the chemical into glucose and sending it out of the body in the urine. Lack of this key energy source is partly responsible for the weakness, fatigue and lack of coordination the next morning. In addition, the diuretic effect expels vital electrolytes such as potassium and magnesium, which are necessary for proper cell function.

Now we know - biologically speaking - why we feel like death the morning after, so is there anything else to consider?

YES! Different kinds of alcohol have different levels of "congeners" which are byproducts of the fermentation process. Dark types of alcohol (red wine, whiskey, tequila, etc.) have a great concentration of congeners and thus, make your hangover more intense. Lighter types of alcohol (vodka, gin, white wine) have lower concentrations and don't crush you as severely.

Also:

Because different alcoholic drinks (beer, wine, liquor) have different congeners, combining the various impurities can result in particularly severe hangover symptoms. Additionally, the carbonation in beer actually speeds up the absorption of alcohol. As a result, following beer with liquor gives the body even less time than usual to process the toxins.

Last thing to note: Glutamine rebound...aka worst rebound

After a night of alcohol consumption, a drinker won't sleep as soundly as normal because the body is rebounding from alcohol's depressive effect on the system. When someone is drinking, alcohol inhibits glutamine, one of the body's natural stimulants. When the drinker stops drinking, the body tries to make up for lost time by producing more glutamine than it needs.

The increase in glutamine levels stimulates the brain while the drinker is trying to sleep, keeping them from reaching the deepest, most healing levels of slumber. This is a large contributor to the fatigue felt with a hangover. Severe glutamine rebound during a hangover also may be responsible for tremors, anxiety, restlessness and increased blood pressure.

All that matters, all I hope you take away from this piece, is that you now know which parts of your body to be angry with when you're hungover.