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Gaming Fuel: 4-way Shootout
Neil Yates writes "It is 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. You have been up all night, fragging away in a Quake3 clan match. Your early morning schedule wore you out and you never had time to take a nap. The server is resetting between games, and you are starting to get a little sleepy-eyed. Milk is not going to do one bit of good and regular Coke or Pepsi are too run of the mill. The last thing that will keep you awake and at the top of your game is some pansy sports drink. Which of these four energy drinks do you reach for?
Pepsi Blue, Vanilla Coke, Dr. Pepper's Red Fusion, or Sobe's Mr. Green?"
What's wrong with plain old Mt Dew? It did represent 80% of my intake by volume from age 15 to 22.
Tea.
Sorry, being up at 2:00 AM is *not* "being up all night. :-)
Not only is Mt. Dew missing, but so is Jolt, Bawls, and all the other Highly Caffeinated cans/bottles of goodness. If you are relying on sobe or Dr. Pepper for a late-nite energy infusion, you may as well drink Cold Water ;)
Try CounterStrike and RTCW at 4:00am with reheated sweet and sour chicken (and radioactive orange sauce) a nice blunt (puff puff) and two cans of Guiness Larger. Niiiiice.
Maybe then you won't put on 100 pounds of fat, and continue to score only at video games.
"And like that
REAL men get some of those giant Pixy Stix and dump one into whatever it is they're drinking.
Gaming is MUCH more fun with that strobe effect from your eyelids twitching. I just wish that damn pink elephant would give me my mouse back.
"I think you guys with quotes in your signatures should go have an original thought." -- Dan Miller
First of all, this article is getting posted waaay too early. 12:30? Wait until 2, and get genuine reponses. At least from the Eastern half of the US, anyway (where I happen to live, so quiet, all of you).
Personally, I tend to drink Mountain Dew. It's cheap, easy to find...
That, or I just go to bed. The server will be there later, and I find that the longer I prolong the inevitable, the worse my aim gets.
~Chazzf
No statement is true, not even this one.
There wasn't any of these fancy schmancy drinks or overpriced thinkgeek goodies, you had two choices: coffee or Jolt.
And you plan on having kids?? Yellow #5 is spermicidal and stunts growth!
I prefer chocolate covered expresso beans for when you absolutely must stay up, however I dont have trouble staying up till 2am, I have trouble when I want to NOT sleep cause I'm up till 8 or 10am - When can we hope to bottle the stuff that keeps me awake when I'm working on my favorite project or I just cant find that proggy bug? I hear speed works wonders but what I really want is some black market adrenaline. Why arent people manufacturing and selling that?
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
I'll second the vanilla coke = upset stomach that was mentioned in the article. Anyone have a clue why that happens? I'm certainly not allergic to vanilla or coke separately.
Sobe's Mr. Green is people!
PDHoss
======================================
Writers get in shape by pumping irony.
Vanilla coke. In my personal opinion, Pepsi Blue tastes (and looks) like coolant, Mr. Green is like green tea that's had the water all boiled off, and Red Fusion takes the worst elements of red pop and Dr. Pepper.
What about when a mouthful goes down the wrong way and you spray all over the screen? What about knocking the bottle over, spilling onto your keyboard? These are the important things I need to know!
It is 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. You have been up all night, fragging away in a Quake3 clan match.
:)
I take it this is Thursday night still?
Shouldn't this be a poll? I want my "reach for Cowboy Neal" option
"Teachers leave us kids alone
Is anyone else having a serious time trying to load this page into their web browser? I've tried both Mozilla 1.0 and Netscape 4.08, and both crash after trying to render the page!
http://www.reverage.com/
Not only can you stay up all night, but you can feel like you took too many painkillers too!
Essentially, this stuff is Red bull & Vodka, and its notorious taste is that of cough syrup. But a rank-ass disgusting taste didn't turn the rest of north america off coffee...
They should seriously market this stuff to geek culture a bit better... so far the only culture that seems to have grasped it is rave culture, but they've already got their excruciatingly-uber-powerful wake-up drugs to cope with...
Guarana + alcohol = one happy me.
Karma: Non-Heinous
Sobe is down to 98 cents at a local walmart(is this true everywhere?). (good)Water costs nearly as much now. Besides, sobe doesn't digest steak overnight, and doesn't come in an aluminum can that is disolved by the acid(pH is around 3 I think) and collects in the base of your brain :). Other than that, you can get Ginkgo, which really helps you to think (and it helps me to exercise as well... I think it helps blood flow in general) or Ginseng or any number of obscure herbs (Kava Kava, Kola Nut, St John Wart, etc.).
All the other products rot your teeth with acid and too much sugar. They are carbonated and actually remove moisture from your body. Mt. Dew also has citric acid to add to the phosphoric, thereby eating even more of your teeth as you drink it.
I like good green tea and gourmette coffee pretty well too.
Karma Clown
Just in case anyone still believes that old tale... get the straight dope here.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
I see no flaw in the article's analysis. Fortunately, I'm used to ginseng and all of the other junk and/or good stuff Sobe uses to sell their drinks (see below).
.... honestly, Vanilla Coke isn't quite as unpleasant as Coke, but it's still a lesser of two evils.
Here in central Texas, Dr. Pepper seems to be king. Maybe it's a regional thing, but I'm with a large portion of the population around here that thinks Coke has a taste reminiscent of eating chalk in grade school, and Pepsi manages to pull of a taste that's even more hideous. Pepsi Blue? Vanilla Coke?
To be honest, if I had a bit more to choose from, I'd take some of Sobe's other drinks at late night lan parties. The heavy caffiene drinks tend to kill my ability to play a solid, consistent game. However, a steady diet of Lizard Fuel or Liz Bliz keeps the mouth happy and awake and sets you on a steady, somewhat relxed yet aware and patient state throughout the night. Start this at 7 pm and by the time 1:00 rolls around, you'll be on top of the game, owning your buds with the bomber on Battlefield 1942.
Life is good.
Some of my gleanings.. Actually, caffeine is a bad ingredient to use to create *programming* energy drinks because even though it stimulates the peripheral nervous system, it doesnt improve attention span. Guarana = caffeine.. so the same caveat applies.. Ephedra also isn't good, although it's a bit better than caffeine for programming..
Some things I think would make excellent additions.. Alerting neurotransmitter precursors such as tyrosine and phenylalanine improve vigilance..
DMAE (a precursor of acetylcholine) is also a good pepper-upper..
Pyroglutamic acid.. (a relative of piracetam) is a good neuronutrient that has a stimulating effect.. I could go on and on.. *laugh*
The trick is in covering up the tastes.. Some trade secrets in there.. Should I tell them?
Chris
Dew is a high caffiene cotton-mouth killer. The only way it could be better is if it contained actual nutrition and knocked out the munchies at the same time! But only as a companion product. Don't fsck with the Dew!! Heh. Maybe I've had too many...
LEXX
"Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
Actually there is something very close to that flavor, and it is sold by Coca-Cola. It is called Coke II, but I have only seen it in Chicago area.
But from what I have heard, fanta is coming back, and hopefully will kill off Slice.
badness 10000
If I really need to stay up for anything, wether it's gaming or finishing a paper for an all nighter I reach for the baby food. It has lots of simple carbohydrates tha the body can break down quickly for energy. If your wondering about taste, Gerber's Blueberry Buckle is actually pretty good.
p.s. Thanks Mrs. Way for teaching us something useful in high school chemistry.
Windows is more convenient than Linux just as having an ingrown toenail is more convenient than seeing a podiatrist.
I survived my college years on Jolt Cola.. I'm not sure it helped my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome though :(
:(
Jolt Cola -- If only they had "Order a Keg online"
It's mentioned in the article and my friends and I had the same reaction. Vanilla Coke tastes like Rum and Coke. I wonder if you can get someone placebo effect drunk on the stuff.
As for what I think makes a good fuel during any task. A southern standard, sweetened ice tea. Guaranteed to have more caffeine than coffee and as much sugar as you want. Plus tea is mild enough to where it doesn't tie your stomach in a knot if you drink it too fast.
By the way what's the next story, comparing the most satisfying munchies for gaming?
Also for the benefits of Canadians, I think that Mt. Dew is caffeine-free in Canada. Any non-dark pop has to be (I think). Anyway, I think coffee is yummy.
"Now gluttony and exploitation serves eight!" - TV's Frank
As the overnight guy on a classic rock station, I usually hit up some Red Bull to keep myself going. Especially when some shifts end at 2a and then begin again at 6a. You've got to love your job when you work hours like that. From what I hear though some kids dies from drinking a lot of highly caffinated drinks (may be an urban legend) so I try to limit it to one or two a night. Nothing worse than keeling over in the middle of a stopset...
mstyne: real name, no gimmicks
its 2 am Saturday morning and the only thing you can score with is your video game?
aah the love of slashdot...
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
Pepsi Blue? Dr. Pepper? Vanilla Coke? Since when are these in the category of "energy drink?" They're pop/soda for chrisstakes! Sick of run of the mill coke or pepsi? Look elsewhere, it's not like these will make much of a difference.
I thought that just maybe this new Sobe drink was energy-ifious- but nope. Looked at the FAQ and it's just plain old pop. 37 mg per 8 oz. Claims to have some ginseng, but just being a soda, I doubt it contains more than what is required to claim that it is "flavored with ginseng."
This "news" site was probably bought off by Coke and Pepsico (which owns SoBe) to do an "article" about their "energy drinks" in exchange for a few cases of each of these drinks. I can't say I blame them for looking out for No. 1, but puuuleeze.
Why not evaluate Red Bull and shit like that? Or make your own whacky cocktail of Water Joe, nicotine water, and crushed up adderals?
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
I don't have the stamina for staying up days at a time like I did when I was 16. Back then a 24-pack of Mountain Dew would keep my running at 100% for several nights.
I think I have funny blood sugar things going on -- like many other modern Americans -- and the sugar content of what I consume has a huge impact on my wakefulness. Specifically, if I consume too much sugar too quickly it puts me to sleep. Likewise, too much caffeine doesn't help much. Beyond a reasonable level of caffeine, typically one 8-ounce light brew coffee (light has more caffeine), I just get red irritated eyes and slightly jittery. (The volume of coffee that's right for you may depend on how much of it you usually drink.)
Thus to stay up all night I have to plan ahead. I try to have a coffee a few hours before I'm going to need it, then sip something low-sugar with moderate caffeine as the night progresses. It sounds kind of sissy, but iced black tea is:
a) refreshing
b) cheap (important!!!)
c) seems to have the right amount of caffeine
d) is low sugar
e) can be produced on demand in any desired quantity
Another pleasant side effect of iced tea is that, even after consuming large volumes, it doesn't leave me so rotund as other drinks might. This is also convenient for being a stealth geek: a narrow radar signature leaves most people clueless to the fact that I know anything about computers, which in turn means fewer "say, you look like you know computers: when I try to use my American Online..." queries.
Mountain Dew actually seems to have about the right amount of caffeine, but it also has so much sugar that the caffeine is, for me, effectively negated.
It's only 9:34 on the West Coast where I'm at, but maybe I'll report back around 5:00 AM...
Here's an exercise: cut out all caffeine for six months. Yes, I said six months. Notice how your mind is calmer and more organized. Notice how your hands don't shake at the same frequency as the fluorescent lights above you. Notice how your penis now grows to full length.
Care about electronic freedom? Consider donating to the EFF!
because increasing in surger level would only make you more sleepy. You have to drink something that keep your surger level lower.
How abut chilling soda water?....hmm, where is the venting machine....
What sort of pansy so called energy drinks are those
choices?
In Europe, Asia and Australia we have Red Bull.
Caffeine, Taurine, and B Vitamins. Works a treat.
There's a heap of imitators like Red Stallion and V that
include Guarana into the mix as well.
Sheesh these Americans, always last to catch up
(see PAL, GSM phones)...
At my place, the drinks of choice are:
IBC Root Beer
Pros: It's absolutely perfect root beer. Glass bottles are fun to break.
Cons: No caffine (just sugar). Expensive.
Barq's Root Beer
Pros: Lots of caffiene.
Cons: Makes your MORE thirsty.
Snapple Raspberry Iced Tea
Pros: Yum.
Cons: Expensive.
Lipton Brisk in Lemon or Raspberry
Pros: Cheap, tastes okay.
Cons. Not as good as Snapple.
Hawaiian Punch (cans)
Pros: Can be mixed with Bacardi for a rum runner.
Cons: Can be mixed with Bacardi for a rum runner.
Hi-C Lemonade (cans)
Pros: Can be made into spiked lemonade with Bacardi.
Cons: Too acidic. Needs to be diluted with water.
Coke (cans)
Pros: There's always some around.
Cons: It's boring.
Vanilla Coke
Pros: Different. Good with cherry flavor added.
Cons: Not so good with pizza or nachos.
Rick's Spiked Lemonade
Pros: Be the one NOT drinking it and the game seems a LOT easier.
Cons: Very expensive.
Kahlua Mudslide (bottles)
Pros: Same as Rick's spiked lemonade.
Cons: Some people don't like the taste. Very expensive.
Wine Coolers (various flavors)
Pros: Tasty and inexpensive as far as alcoholic beverages go.
Cons: Not manly to drink.
Beer
Pros: Very cheap as far as alcoholic beverages go.
Cons: Tastes like piss. No one likes it. It's just around so we can offer it to people when they comment about the wine coolers not being manly.
As for Code Red, Mountain Dew, and Sobe, no one seems to like them here, so I never buy any...
---
Siggy, siggy, siggy, can't you see? Sometimes your puns just irritate me.
Actually, the therorized component that is promenent in mountain dew is yellow #5. I grew up with a friend who lived on mountain dew, and I personally hated the stuff.... later on, I discovered that while I had gotten the regular 6-7 incher, he had, what his first *lay* described as "HIS DICK WAS AS SMALL AS MY 4 YEAR OLD BROTHERS!!!" Either way, I don't want to drink something that looks like mountain dew does.... its just not a natural color to drink. red = cherries = good for you green = veggies = very good for you blue = .... hmm.... blueberries... = not BAD for ya
yellow = uhh... tell me what food comes in yellow?
And don't say bananas unless you eat the peel, and don't say you smoke it cuz that don't count :)
I would bet that the yellow bell peppers and such are genetically engeneeried.
The fact of evolution simply points out that the yellow color is not something we need. Like it or love it... Then again, you could say we don't need beer, but I would have to slap you.
Tea tastes good. It's good for you. It keeps you alert. Drinkable with or without milk and with or without sugar. Low cost. Socially acceptable in all circles. No plastic wastage. Drink it icy cold in summer or piping hot in winter.
Why waste money on carbonated sugar water? Sure, Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew can be nice once in a while. But if you need copious quantities of a tasty drink then tea is the answer.
Vanilla Coke tastes...funny at best, and downright bad at worst. Vanilla flavor has plenty of good uses, but it doesn't go well at all with what is in a soft drink. MD makes a much better gaming fuel anyway because of its higher caffeination.
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
If you really want to stay up late, why not just get up later? :) :P Got another hour here too, before an hours drive home, urgh :(
:)
I was up around 2pm yesterday, and I'm still awake now (6:19am), ok, so I'm at work, but hey
As for the caffinated drinks we have here in the UK (RedBull, V and the like), I tried some V once when I had to stay up all night to get a train for a 2 hour journey for a 9am job interview, it had squat all noticable effect, and I don't drink coffee! The sms's with the missues had a much more noticable effect
Granted that while a 2-liter ain't what I would grab while gaming, I have a personal fondness for DCR as well.
I have tried Pepsi Blue, and have decided it really isn't worth my money. I wouldn't go quite as far as the reviewer did, but then I have never been accused of having a particularly good nose.
I would suspect that most of the reason that DCR didn't get included was the commonality of the cherry flavor in comparison to the Dr. Pepper contenstant.
Then again, your milage may vary..
-Rusty
You never know...
You need to find a coffee with low acid content. I find that Sumatra goes down pretty smooth when drinking it by the pot. You're asking for trouble if you drink an average Columbian brew in those quantities.
Gatorade. It's the best. We all love caffine, but it's a stimulant. Stimulants are drugs that crank up our bodies systems to run faster. Think overclocking. You're not giving your body fuel, just instructions to keep going past normal tollerances. Gatorade is just glucose and electrolytes. Glucose is actual fuel for your body. It's not the best fuel, but it's simple and your body can use it right away. I can chug a 20 oz Gatorade and feel great for a long while. No ups and downs like when I drank a ton of Dew.
Not only can it wake you up and keep you awake, but it also prevents and cures hangovers. It's like a sugary liquid Swiss Army knife.
Nah, he spelled it "larger", I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and figuring he meant a really, really big can. ;)
What? No Code Red Mountain Dew? Seriously. It's a new drink. Not as new as the rest, but still fairly new considering its been about 10 years since the latest "outside the box" drink release.
But, even if Code Red was listed, I still agree, Red Fusion tops them all. I love the stuff. Ever since the day it came out, I've been drinking the stuff daily. I sure hope they come out with a diet formula that tastes just as good as Diet Dr. Pepper (the only diet drink except lemon twist I can tolerate).
Red Fusion is light, refreshing. I only hope everyone else agrees with me, else in about a year it'll probably be phased out. At which point I will have a warehouse stock pile of the stuff.
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
within it mentions an experiment where some lab rats were kept awake for ~2 weeks (the longest human record is 11 days) and then they died. the acticle keep emphasizing that it was not proven that the death was caused by sleep depravation. but well... They just don't want to admit that they tortured a buncha cute lil mice to death.
on a even MORE related point: try red bull / blue donkey / green chicken and all that -- they seem to work pretty well. i drove across the US (SJ to NY) on those. 2 bux a can (8.6 oz) is steep, but hey -- when you gotta stay awake, you GOTTA stay awake.
lastly... erm... try some speed. they work too, so i hear.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
FYI: Red Bull + alcohol
Just sayin'.
It's called Amp and comes in an 8.5 ounce can (seems to be the standard for energy drinks). Tastes like a combination of Dew and Smarties candy. It's not worth the $2/can, though; I've tried it a couple of times and it didn't give me a noticeable boost.
Shaun
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Surge is around still in the lower Pennsylvania area. I love this soda too. Although it depends on what country you live in etc. I'm not sure.
A Penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
There's a new product out by Nestea (I think) that is a concentrated tea drink. Now, I know this sounds like a wussy drink, but this 8 oz container contains the same amount of high fructose corn syrup as two quarts of coke/pop/soda, but without the carbonation. You can slam it for a quick recovery, or sip on it and not worry about it going flat. Or, you could just pour it into one of those lame energy drinks for a sickly sweet treat.
Three give you the same caffeine as a Coke, a box will enable you to see in the dark. And the penguins on the tin are just so cute!!!
Yeah, you can do this. It takes dimethylchloride, IIRC. I did this as a project once.
It took some digging, but you can get the official amount of caffeine for the major brands and then compare it to what you can extract. Most were pretty close. I think the average amount was something like 55mg per can.
As an aside, it takes only something like 5 grams of caffeine to kill a person. But if you work that out to cans of pop you'd have to drink more fluid than your body can handle at one time. And another interesting thing is the caffeine (believe it or not) begins to be absorbed in your mouth and not your stomach.
How is it remotely possible that the original energy drink isn't on the list? Folks, Coffee INVENTED energy. I can prove that with a white board, a marker, and 20 minutes.
I guess until pepsi sponsors a coffee drink, or buys starbucks, I am not going to see this fact hyped in the media.
Am I really that old?!?! =)
-Tom
"It's also important to note where the caffiene is located in the ingredients list. Ingredients lists are ordered from greatest content to least content. In Vanilla Coke, caffiene is the sixth ingredient out of eight, higher than any other soda in this roundup. For Pepsi Blue, caffiene is seventh out of ten. Mr. Green's caffiene placement is also seventh out of ten; it's important to note that ginseng is listed in a lower placement than caffiene, meaning it's possibly simply an insubstantial amount. Caffiene is the seventh ingredient out of nine in Red Fusion."
So, the amount of caffiene is just a guessing game. But the bottom line, really, is the amount of caffiene. This is what keeps you awake (and, some will say, hooks you on the drink :). Is there anywhere to find out the caffeine mg per
serving, or do
we each have to pay for our own chemical assays? Why are the drink manufacturers
so reluctant or afraid to place this vital information on the label?
(On a tangential note, I once heard the Renaissance coincided with the introduction of coffee in Europe. Can anyone confirm this?)
Does this strike anyone else as just unhealthy? Your body is telling you it is tired for a reason- mainly because you need the sleep to function well. In the case of needing to do work, I can see that, but jeez, if it's gaming, just go to sleep- get a good nights rest. Don't try to fool it by using stimulants. The server will always be there tomorrow.
slashdot!=valid HTML
Crack out the Mt. Dew AMP and get a few Ephedrine... you'll be up for a long time with no problems whatsoever...
;-)
except for that wacky warbling noise.....
Nutin' like a good, luke-warm, frothy glass of Whore Piss! Now with extra crack! The very memory of drinking this will keep you up for many a night!
well then I just go for a Coke and call it even. :)
If you are a REAL MIDSHIFTER, you drink coffee(BLACK) with a tea bag in it for xtra Caff
4 years of Midshift in operations taught me how to stay awake, if not out of the hospital with stomach problems...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I enjoy a good drink like any late night nerd does. But it is too easy to "OD" on caffeine without knowing it. I have some links to provide food for thought;
An interesting page about liquid candy
Some deaths associated with red bull/energy drinks
Another caffeine death
I am not saying give up your drinks. But I am saying be smart about it. Don't drink/eat so much caffeine that you make yourself feel miserable with the symptoms of too much caffeine. while it is thought that 10 grams is a fatal overdose, I would be willing to bet that a fraction of that can make you feel pretty miserable and is very easily reached with some of the caffeinated drinks/candies/pills out there. A couple liters of mountain dew, four red bulls, and a handful of penguine mints or any combination thereof places you at about 1 gram.
It goes without saying drinking alcohol at the same time exacerbates things.
Also, caffeine is not a substitute for sleep. There are reasons that the body needs to sleep. So if you are depriving your body of sleep for whatever reason you need to start asking yourself what your priorities are. Sleep "binging" where you go without sleep all week and catch up on the weekends is also unhealthy, but this is another topic in itself.
This post is not intended to be medical advice. See your doctor if you have any questions/symptoms. Yada yada yada.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Nor do we drink American "beer," for as H. Allen Smith quoth those many years ago,
and definitely not milk -- it feeds cancer and contains all kinds of hormones you don't want in your body.
Thanks, Mr. PETA. Pardon me while I go have a nice juicy steak, with a nice, cool, tall glass of milk.
And maybe after dinner, I'll club a few seals.
That was true, some time ago. But another company bought afri-cola and changed the recipe. Some people protested but the new owner is still using his new regular cola recipe with only low to average amounts of caffeine.
But some of the people that liked the old afri-cola, got together and are now producing a cola with the old recipe (and very high amounts of caffeine). Premium cola (use the fish)
Jan
Milk may help prevent hypertension, stroke, diabetes and osteoporosis, - and
now cancer has been added to the list of diseases it protects against.
http://www.cancer.org.au/
Now why did I skip to the seventh hit? The vegen and organic sites don't really count.
As for hormones, depends where you live, many places have banned them.
Dietitians still recommend multiple servings of dairy products everyday.
"Oddly, you don't need nearly as much sleep as you're likely getting",
You're kidding right? Most people get 1 to 2 hours LESS sleep than they need per night. And I won't even bring up people like myself with chronic insomnia (2 to 5 hours sleep per night).
caffeine habit, there is an interesting book called The Caffeine Blues
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Go to website http://karks.com/surge/index.html they are a save "Surge" resource that can let you know where to get it.
Today's specimin: the PETA troll, not a type you often see here in Slashdot, but they've all but overrun their natural habitats and are starting to turn up even here.
You'll note the complete lack of factual backup for the alarmist warnings about milk, making the claim difficult to verify or deny. It's likely a distorted paraphrase of some legitimate literature.
Note also the New-Agey reference to "imbalanced body chemistry", also with no linkage or factual backing. These are indeed classic troll droppings.
This must be one of the young however, for its trap is easily detected. A more clever one would have lured us in with some more reasonable prose before jumping straight to the propaganda.
Enjoy the rest of your stay, and remember to never feed the trolls!
This might be useful information for some people out there. It took me long enough to figure it out!
Taurine is the principal ingredient in Red Bull energy drinks, and in Australia, recent relaxations in the various what-you-can-put-in-drinks laws means that Taurine is now an additive in most energy beverages.
That's all fine, except I'm apparently allergic to Taurine. I started throwing up for no apparent reason last year, and it turned out to be the Taurine, which just got added to my favorite energy drink, but didn't kick in until three days after ingestion, which is why it took so long to figure out.
Taurine is a bull protein, in the same way that Lactose is a cow protein. Some people are lactose intolerant. I seem to be Taurine intolerant, with many of the same symptoms.
The only energy drink left in Australia that does not contain Taurine is called 'Lift', it is quite tasty, and has Guarana and Ginseng in it. Try it.
Since I figured all this out, I ran into another Jeremy who had precisely the same reaction. So, if your name is 'Jeremy', you might want to stay away from the Red Bull.
Any faulty logical inferences in the above message are left as excercises for the reader.
Jeremy Lee | Orinoco
It was something about being naturally-occuring caffeine... or some process of adding caffeine.
Most "energy" caffeine drinks that aren't Sobe in Canada tend to be derived from Guarana, which is a natural source of caffeine. Hence Rev, Whoopass, E=MC^2, Go-Go, Grape Jolt (which is clear, btw) are all allowed to have caffeine in it....
However, I usually have to go on Case-runs down to Blaine, WA to get my stock of decent Mountain Dew...
Karma: Non-Heinous
This comparison had been completed in 1989.
Arizona Green Tea is great, I used to drink a lot of it for very long drives. As others have noted, Sobe Green Tea is pretty far from tea.
I had no idea Sobe was even popular, I've not really been impressed with any of the Sobe drinks I've tried.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The only thing, those other things are just fizzy pop. Red Bull is the only thing which can keep me up for 36 hours of straight clubbing on the White Isle, it can sure as hell keep me up for a bit of fragging (or coding for that matter). But 2am? pardon?
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Drink water and, on occasion drink other things... and definitely not milk -- it feeds cancer and contains all kinds of hormones you don't want in your body.
Milk causes cancer? Why don't you back this up with some facts? And what does this have to do with caffeine? I think I'll wolf down a wedge of brie while I wait for the grille to heat up....
Erm, but alcohol and red bull cancel each other out. The vodka has actually a detrimental effect on the taurine and other ingredients which make up red bull. It says so on the FAQ on the redbull website. Sure, it tastes good, but red bull on its own will allow u to pull an all nighter - vodka and red bull will just give u a headache...
Fight Crime - Shoot Back!
I hadn't seen it yet, so here's a link to the caffeine MSDS. Note especially the toxicity data.
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
The last time I stayed awake in excess of 40 hours I only had Red Bull and coffee. That was getting a university project finished at the last minute. With Red Bull giving energy as well as caffeine, I'd imagine it would be good for game playing too.
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It's not as convenient as a can of Red Bull, but if you're really looking for the ultimate (!) caffeine kick, you want Turkish/Lebanese coffee--that's the thick, grainy stuff with cardamom.
It tastes great, and smells good too--the perfect solution if you don't mind a bit of, err, sand, in your drink. One tiny cup of the stuff will send you off the walls for hours.
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
If you're playing to win, Red Bull. If you're playing for fun, vodka and Red Bull...
I'm personally a big fan of the supermarket own-brand Red Bull alikes popping up in the UK. Asda's "Blue Charge" for example. The active ingredients are listed by percentage, and are identical to Red Bull. The flavour is indistinguishable.
My absolute favourite high-caffiene soda of all time was called Virgin Energy (oo-er). It got me through Glastonbury 1995 and I wish it were still on the market.
Of course, there's a lot to be said for following your body's advice and just having a nice sleep. There speaks age...
It may *say* that but I don't belive it from my own, bitter experience :-)
I've had 3 x 4 pint jugs of Vodka Red Bull in a night (entirely to myself) and been up all until after noon the next day, shaking shivering and going *why?* *why?* *never again* (etc etc) entirely unable to sleep despite really *really* wanting to.
This suggest that that information is hokum, or at least is only true with small quantities of both (and that if you take large quantities of both it throws that theory entirely to hell).
Caffeine overdose isn't much fun. While it is a lot harder to reach LD50 (Lethal Dose 50% - the amount of a substance required to kill half those who take that amount) on caffeine verses alchohol, it is possible. And even if you don't get sick, you can still get sick.
Back when I was an undergrad, I had a Statics final on Saturday (in a large engineering school, you have enough students taking Statics (not Statistics - Statics : the study of forces on non-moving systems) that it's easier for them to have it on a Saturday in a BIG auditorium). I'd played AD&D to three o'clock in the morning, and the final was at 7 o'clock. Factor in transit time back to my dorm room and you get something less than three hours of sleep.
So, I fixed a big pot of coffee in the morning, and took 2 NoDoze tablets, and went to the final. I figured "No problem - I'll get breakfast and slow down the absorption of the caffeine, and all will be well." Except the dorm cafeteria didn't open until 9:30 on weekends. Ooops!.
I finished the final, but my hands were vibrating in the shortwave band, my stomach was running about 150 RPM, and the less said about my lower GI tract the better. It took the better part of the day to recover.
Caffeine is an antagonist - it blocks the effect of a neurotransmitter. So, unlike active drugs like cocaine or speed, past a certain point you will get no more effect from caffeine - you've blocked all the neurotranmitters you are going to block. Past that point you are simply getting all the side effects of caffeine. Furthurmore, blocking the neurotranmitter only provides a temporary boost to wakefulness - after a while you no longer have any of the OTHER neurotransmitters you need to function, and you will fall over.
I'd second the good advice given by others in this forum - if you are tired, SLEEP! At the least, take a catnap and come back to it.
Especially for something like a LAN game - it's not life or death, so why screw yourself up? It's supposed to be FUN!
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Pepsi Blue is by far the foulest concoction I have tasted in years! Tastes like liquid cotton candy.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
Maybe it's just me, but Pepsi Blue tastes like tainted tonic water, and so does Red Fusion. Basically they took two products that people loved, added less food coloring (though in different colors) and less flavor. Blue has some added flavor, but Fusion is just weak Dr. Pepper.
Also, both of them are far to carbonated for my liking. They practically turn into foam if they aren't ice cold.
I'm with you on the Vanilla Coke. It is more mellow than regular Coke and easier to drink.
Of course, Mountain Dew is still my drink of waking.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Somebody once told me it's an acquired taste. Yeah, well, I'm sure you'd get used to the taste of sh*t if you ate enough of it!
I'll stick with my Mt Dew Code Red (got a 24pk in the fridge here at work, got three more stacked up at home, supermarket had a good sale :)
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
Because you don't have to make it, it comes in these nice portable self contained bottles, and it tastes much better once it's gotten warm than coffee does once it's cooled down.
People are slamming down *drink concentrate* now????
That "concentrated tea drink" is not meant for direct consumption man...
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Here in Pará, I prefer my guarana the old fashioned way: The locals mix powdered guarana, guarana syrup, peanuts, brazil nuts, and a few other herbal wonders with shaved ice, run in a blender till the consistency of a milk shake. For a allnighter of nheke-nheke with the g/f (who thinks it makes her horny, but Brazilian girls are perpetually horny), or an intense gaming session, or both, it can't be beat! Of course here in Brazil there's always the commercial sodas like Guarana Antarctica or Kuat, but they are cloyingly sweet for the most part, and lack the collateral effect of the traditional stuff.
Watashi wa chikyubutsurigakusha desu.
I dunno where slashdotland is, but around here, some people drink that. I assume your definition of old fogey is 21? :P You can get into nightclubs before that, you just can't drink (alcohol that you didn't bring in your pocket).
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
What about Red Bull? And mix it with a little vodka... mmm, sounds good... gee I'm thirsty... nobody'll mind if I pop a few of these back right now.
Who says 9:51 am is too early to drink?
What is music when you despise all sound?
Coke and Pepsi are too run of the mill? Do we have to prove our 1337ness by drinking cool drinks that ordinary-fucking-people only see in extreme sports commercials? What a sad way to claw for status.
btw, I usually drink tea (Twinning's China Black), but I have been known to drink a mainstream (There! I said it!) cola or two.
-aiabx
Just this guy, you know?
Yellow #5's rumors can be debunked here. Seriously, just keep reading Snopes and you'll be a few degrees smarter than everyone you know.
Schnapple
Pepsi Blue? Vanilla Coke? Red Fusion? ENERGY drinks? What kind of pansy are you? At 2am? Hell, I'm up at 2am on a work night and haven't even clicked on my UT icon yet. :)
:).
Besides the fact each of those tastes like piss.
Sobe I'll give you.. never had Mr. Green though, but the triple blend Zen tea, or the berry energy drink is fine... although Snapple pumps in more of the good stuff in their Dragonfire. And what about Jolt? Whoopass? Bawls? XTC? A cup of Chai? Coffee, black, tons of sugar? Tea?
And alas, us poor Canucks don't have caffeine in our Mountain Dew, so it's really just a fluroescent green fruit drink
- In hell, treason is the work of angels.
Article on Provigil - not sure if this was mentioned.
For Sleep-Deprived, a Dream Drug?
Doctors Question Use of Narcolepsy Medicine to Support Lifestyle Choice
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 28, 2002; Page A03
Linky link link
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
There are only two real energy drinks:
Bawlz (the guanara stuff in the blue glass bottles) and Jolt Espresso flavored Cola (which is absolutely killer -- once you get used to the very strong espresso/cola taste.)
Everything else is for pussies.
Although, yes, Water Joe might qualify as a third since it doesn't have all the sickly sweet sugar that all the other so-called drinks have.
But, I'm telling you: if you want a real buzz: drink a can of Jolt Espresso then make some real espresso with Water Joe. Your hands will shake, your eyelids will quiver, your heartrate will quicken, but you will have a buzz. And the buzz will last for a couple hours.
But when the buzz wears off. Watch out. You'll be cranky, irritable, and completely limp dickless.
Speed is good for simply Being awake and performing some rote task, however when critical abstract thinking is required all speed (even caffeine) can adversely affect your abilities.
However for a frag fest, I think freebasing some crank is A-ok!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
So you're saying they're pretty accurate Red Bull imitations?
However, it's iffy to find places. My local supermarket only has diet Mountain Dew sporadically. However, at a 7-11 I found not only diet Mountain Dew but diet Code Red Mountain Dew too! The diet drink that gets r00t! W00t! It tastes a lot like Cherry 7Up but unlike Cherry 7Up it's got the leet caffeine content.
That said, my favorite beverage of choice for wakeup still is Arizona diet iced Green Tea. Tasty and healthy too! I don't know how good it will be for pulling all-nighters, but it's good to wake up with in the morning.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
...has got Caffeine. For some reason, Barq's diet Root Beer doesn't. Go figure.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
I am curious, is there so much as ONE person in the world who truly likes Pepsi Blue? No one here will say they do, and I've never met anyone who does. Myself, I didn't hate it, but I found it just barely drinkable. What was Pepsi thinking? But come on, there must be one person out there drinking it up, stocking up on all the bottles they can before it gets discontinued. Step forward!
"I am a cipher, a cipher, wrapped in an enigma, smothered in secret sauce" -Jimmy James
I fell asleep at the wheel once, it was not fun. I was within a mile of my apt (those statistics are right!) late one winter night. I nodded off just as I was slowing down at a red light. Fortunately I was going slow (~10mph) and there was no one else around because the next thing I saw was snow blasting up over the hood from hitting a snow bank. After checking to make sure the steam coming up from the grill was from snow on the engine and not a punctured radiator I started off for home, ONLY TO START NODDING OFF AGAIN! I couldn't believe that even a potentially dangerous accident wasn't enough to wake me up.
Now when I'm driving, say, the 3 hours back from the Whites in NH and I start to feel sleepy I pull over at rest stops and take a nap. About 15 minutes does the trick.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Another benefit to quitting is no more low caffeine headaches. I have a friend who used to get terrible ones until he quit. Plus you don't have to urinate as much!
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
The person who says "It is harmless!" or "It doesn't affect me!". Then there are the folks who wave their hand without doing any research and say "It isn't toxic"
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
At the end of a 100+ hour coding binge to finish my final project for CS220 I came up with the ultimate cafeinated beverage. I took Krank20 which was a hyper cafeinated water and used it to brew a 16oz cup of espresso, now that is some wakeup juice! I had started the weekend off with mt dew, then upgraded to double jolt 20oz bottles, when those failed to keep the fires lit I was bewildered until I found that marvelous concoction.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Drink of choice: Cup of refined caffeine.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
pecifically, if I consume too much sugar too quickly it puts me to sleep
Pretty simple reason for this. You take on a load of sugar like this, and your body freaks out. Your pancreas goes into overdrive, and dumps massive amounts of insulin into your bloodstream. Very quickly, all the sugar in your bloodstream will get picked up by other cells, and your blood sugar will crater. Once that happens, you're a zombie.
The surge in your blood sugar, causes the crater effect. A more moderate intake won't be nearly as extreme on the downside.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
ATTN geeks:
1.) Sleep deprivation is bad for your mental and physical health
2.) Caffeine is not a substitute for sleep
3.) Caffeine does have mild negative health effects, especially when taken on a regular basis
4.) Caffeine reduces the quality of sleep when you do get it.
5.) You have to sleep sometime. Why not do it at night and play games during the day instead so you don't screw up your biological clock?
6.) "Fragging all night" is a waste of time. Get out, socialize, make business contacts, write some neat software, etc.
uofa1993engrmath: I sometimes take a generic variant of Xenadrine RFA-1 weight loss pills as a good way to kick start the day, or in the afternoon if work is boring. They have it at Albertson's. Works better than coffee, and it doesn't make me pee as much.
Keep in mind, however, that ephedrine is a first cousin to meth. (They use it in meth manufacture) It can produce many of the same symtoms, including violence and death. Many people have died from using ephedrine as a stimulant.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
Sumatra coffee is the best to avoid an acid stomach. When imbibing large amounts of coffee, I also usually take a tums. It provides a healthy dose of calcium and offsets the acid. Another thing is to drink some water with your coffee.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
How do you lusers find time for all of these "glasses" and "cans."
I have a permanent intravenous caffeine drip in my arm.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
Some geeks don't drink coffee because of all the carcinogens it contains.
Actually, caffeine is an antioxidant. It most likely prevents cancer. A lot of things (soda, meat, bread, wood, etc) contain carcinogens. You can't avoid them.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
Ahh. Your post made me wonder what the hell DMAE and pyroglutamic acid were.
Here is a page from Erowid explaining "smart drinks."
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
I don't know about any of the drinks the submitter suggested, but all I can say is: If it weren't for Sobe Adrenaline Rush, I wouldn't have graduated from college.
I was up for about 5 days straigt at the end of my last semester thanks to that drink. I hope I never have to do that again.
A buddhist walks up to a hot dog stand and says ``Make me one with everything.''
Water Joe and the Gatorade powder of your choice ^__^ Still, you can't beat coffee or Mocha Lattes. And for that extra kick, try the Starbuck's specialty mocha chocolate bars. You wouldn't think it, but those little things got kick...
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Agreed. I know it's supposively good for you, but I haven't found a way yet to make it tastey. Sugar? Milk? Uh-uh. I go to a Chinese resteraunt and I stare at the little untouched teapot which stares right back at me. Nasty stuff.
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Honestly, besides the difference in color, I didn't really notice much taste difference between regular Dr. Pepper and the "Red Fusion" stuff. Dr. Pepper has a pretty distinctive, super-sweet, cola flavor - and whatever they add to make it "Red Fusion" doesn't do much to change that.
I almost wonder if it's partly a psychological thing... People see that it's red, so their mind plays a trick on them and makes them believe it tastes more like a "red soda". When I first tried, it I drank it straight from the can - so wasn't looking at it while drinking it.
Dr. Pepper Red Fusion.
:)
Sobe Mr. Green.
Pepsi Blue.
Is it any wonder geeks are after this stuff? It's like drinking a monitor!
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I'm no PETA proponent. I eat red meat in spite of any problems with it... in fact, I prefer it rare. Asside from what I know is wrong with it, I eat it because I enjoy it so much.
So unless you refer to "People Eating Tastey Animals" then no, I'm not connected with them in any way at all.
I'll let you refer to a previous message where my PETA position is concerned.
/. haven't already looked into the odd way that the USDA simply accepts the word of the dairy industry's researchers that milk is good. Here's a quick factoid to consider: Milk leads to bone loss due to the fact that a proper balance of magnesium must also accompany calcium. Want more bone? Eat a Tums before you drink milk.
However, running a google search for "milk cancer" reveals LOADS of pages discussing the connection between bovine hormones and that of cancer ones.
Next, there is also connection between the use of milk and premature sexual maturity in females. While I can imagine the pedophiles drooling over this, I can safely state that is is the main contributing factor to the fact that there is a huge increase in the number of 10 year old girls capable of getting pregnant. And contrast that with women currently of age 30-40 today and ask them when they first got their periods.
It's a problem -- a huge problem. It leads to the social epidemic that only Jerry Springer has found a way to use to his advantage.
I'm also surprised that the conspiracy theorists of
And speaking from personal experience only-- my decision to stop drinking milk lead to my never again having hay fever.
Got hayfever? stop milk for a week or more and see what happens.
Let's just say that I have built up quite a tolerance for caffeine. I have also discovered that if I kill all of my friends, I win quite easily.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.