From the Department of No Shit comes this urgent, breaking news bulletin:

Binge drinking makes you stupid. Or, rather, binge drinkers have a harder time remembering stuff. So … What were we just talking about?

Oh yeah, Chilean scientists put 122 college students with otherwise decent grades to the test. Half of them …

… got to binge drink while the others didn't.

The students were given lists of words, stories and photos to memorize. The drinkers didn't fare so well with the words and the stories, according to Discovery's account of the research.

(But picture. Me likey pretty picture. Apparently).

We've given this phenomenon the decidedly scientific name of “hungover.”

But the Chilean researchers say that cause-and-effect isn't clear. While the bingers had similar intelligence test scores and grades as the wallflowers in the group, it's possible that drinking is a symptom of a memory-related issue rather than a cause. Discovery:

It's unclear whether binge drinking creates poorer declarative memory or serves as a sign of another problem …

Gives drowning ones sorrows new meaning. Sort of.

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