<p>We first-years got a particular announcement in our emails. </p>
<p>Some questions, mostly out of curiosity: </p>
<p>1) Is there a lot of cheesy moralising?
2) When did this begin?
3) Is this common among schools of UVA's calibre? It didn't begin with an attempt to address a "reputation" did it? ;)
4) The email mentioned "credit". I assume it probably would be some kind of bureaucratic credit, like passing the ITC test to get your account activated or to lift blocks off from UVA's health department, but seeing as it is a one-hour course there probably wouldn't be any literal credit involved?
5) Do any students fail this? Does it show up on their transcript if they do?</p>
<p>1) Yes, drinking is bad! You will drop out of school and fail at life. Also, 40% of college students don't drink :D
2) Dunno
3) Yes, it's pretty common. All the UC schools use it.
4) I don't think you actually get anything for it, but you need to lose an more like an hour and a half of your life.
5) You can only fail if you say the best way to get home after 20 drinks is to drive yourself home at 150 MPH and drive over every cop you see.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Also, 40% of college students don't drink
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's funny, cuz the first time I was cited that statistic, I was convinced that everybody drunk, not the other way round. (Not to mention that all of this is based on self-reporting.) Don't they know that to us, even 30% means "everybody"? ;) After all, someone once complained here about the statistic that 30% of the students were involved in Greek life, because that was surely equivalent to everyone being preppy. :D</p>
<p>i started the thing and it's pretty easy. whatever the first lesson is, i just kept pressing the next button and the i got a 100 on the first quiz. like canuck said, you really can't fail. And most of is common sense. Like, you know the thing is about alcohol so if your presented with different drug options, the answer is most likely alcohol. Really, it's like the ITC joke. My 8 year old sister could pass it. And she doesn't know what BAC means.</p>
<p>1) Yes.
2) A while ago.
3) Yes. No.
4) No, you just need to take it for some stupid reason.
5) Probably not often, but if you do, you can retake it. I can't see any reason why it would go on your transcript...lol.</p>
<p>Haha I'm doing this last minute. But I'm looking at one of the statements</p>
<p>
[quote]
<br>
Once alcohol is in your bloodstream, there is nothing that you can do to speed up this process of elimination.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Oh yes there is. They must have not heard of alcohol dehydrogenase. Just inject yourself with it. Probably you will want to have acetaldehyde dehydrogenase injected too, along with plenty of water consumption.</p>
<p>Interestingly, we were told just today that around 90% of first years have already taken a look with something like 75-80% going through the entire "program" already. </p>
<p>A school where I was in the past used Alcohol</a> 101, which the students seemed to have fun with. I don't know if it has changed much over the years, but it used to be a collegiate sort of Sim City (I'm sure at some point Sim City had a collegiate version?). </p>
<p>Anyway, these sorts of programs are common.</p>
<p>The Alcohol-Wise course has been a very successful element added to new student orientation. As a peer educator for alcohol and drug abuse it's amazing how well this course has taken off. I have to think of new things to do for my first year meetings because they'll all know the basic info now!</p>
<p>Because I'm sure you have this laying around your dorm room, amirite?</p>
<p>The point is to not force heavily intoxicated individuals to eat or drink anything, nor to let them take a shower, exercise, etc. Drinking water while you drink is great or even after if you aren't a hot mess, however, if someone can't hold themselves up, they shouldn't be consuming anything until they sober up... and that means time.</p>
<p>It's something that might be useful in emergency rooms. </p>
<p>Actually the workings of the enzyme are probably much more subtle in that an intravenous injection probably won't work if the enzyme is not meant to work in the bloodstream (the activity is associated with the liver and its pH environment most likely) . Injecting it into the hepatic artery is probably a no-no. Perhaps medication could be taken to trigger a cascade to produce alcohol dehydrogenase in advance, or perhaps make your liver cells produce it on overtime (if you are the spontaneous partygoer type), or something. It's probably why it's not as <em>easy</em> to get rid of high BAC, but I am sure a treatment could be creatively found, nonetheless. </p>
<p>The other thing that would work is a sort of dialysis.</p>
<p>But anyway I find it surprising that it is "utterly impossible" to decrease someone's BAC if you have to. Now, if you are talking about alcohol that has slipped past the blood-brain barrier, that is another thing, and quite different from BAC.</p>
<p>If someone says "impossible," always think to see if it's really impossible.</p>
<p>Besides, you can't explain the mechanics of alcoholism to a bio/cogsci student and not expect him to ponder solutions to alcohol poisoning. A cold shower doesn't do anything chemically, except maybe for possible hormone level changes and blood vessels constricting/dilating while a cold stimulus would only treat the symptoms. Food makes more sense, but of course it is less specific. So it's like "duhhhh." On the other hand, it's not exactly rocket science to know that enzymes are really specific. They can also be mass-produced (just splice the gene for that enzyme into a bacterial plasmid...)</p>
<p>And perhaps one day we can find some way to get my liver cells to stock up on non-impaired acetaldehyde dehydrogenase so one day I can enjoy a drink without alcohol flush reaction?</p>
<p>Or you can just be smart in the first place and drink responsibly. I see plenty of people get really intoxicated and be totally fine. There's a limit though. Mostly likely, though, you'll throw up or pass out before reaching a dangerous level. If you do, someone should call 911, and they pump your stomach and do the necessary things. Most people who die from alcohol-related stuff are either a) dumb in the first place for reaching that level b) have other drugs in their system c) the people around them are too stupid to call 911 d) they vomit or in some other way have their airway blocked and suffocate e) alcohol poisoning, but this is quite hard to accomplish before the first four. No high-tech biology or cogsci or any other smart ass answers will fix stupidity. Sorry.</p>
<p>Note: if you ever are somewhere where someone is obviously in trouble, call 911 and ask for an ambulance. They cannot arrest YOU for calling, drunk or not. They cannot take legal action against the person, until they are stabilized, and even then, they are not obligated to report it to the police, unless you're causing grave harm to yourself or others.</p>
<p>im not a fan of getting drunk, but i dont go around saying i dont drink either. Two drinks max -- casual drinking, no one will care, and we will all still have fun.</p>
<p>funny the other day, my drunk hallmate tried to get into his room by swiping his keycard over the key hole. Ohh drunk people</p>
<p>HAHA. now that I think about it, it could. actually, it would be really, really easy. but let's keep it clean. ;) we have prospectives coming through lately.</p>