The Social

Announcing a new way to get your friends drunk: GiveReal.com, a Facebook application (and standalone Web site) that just emerged out of private beta. It's hoping to pioneer what the founders call "social e-commerce" by letting people send virtual drinks to each other that can be translated to a real-life libation.

The concept is, in theory, very similar to start-ups like buyyourfriendadrink.com. But services like that are only compatible with participating bars, and Give Real has found a workaround that will make its gifting service compatible with any bar that accepts credit cards. You opt to send a drink to a friend, your credit card gets charged, your friend chooses to accept the payment, and his or her credit card will be credited for that amount of cash when a purchase at an establishment considered a bar, restaurant, or cafe is made.

If the Facebook app is used, activity shows up in members' news feeds.

Drinks run the gamut from "Draft Beer" to "Pinot Noir" to "Purple Hooter Shooter" (what's that?) and there's no fixed price. So, depending on your generosity and wallet size, you can offer up anywhere from $1 to $99. If your recipient doesn't accept the purchase, you'll get your money back 12 months later.

On one hand, it is a very cute spin on the virtual-gifting trend that can be used to settle bets from afar ("I'll owe you a beer if...") or embarrass your friends by having an apple martini show up in a box on their Facebook profile. On the other hand, you're really just transferring a dollar amount to your friends' credit cards that's eligible for any purchase at an establishment classified by the four major credit card companies (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover) as a "bar, restaurant, or cafe."

So your friend could be using the $8 for that pina colada and spending it on cheese fries instead. But as they say around the holidays, it's the thought that counts.

Payments via Facebook
What's more interesting is that Give Real created its own payment platform to handle the transactions. Facebook has famously had a transaction system in development, something that may or may not have been delayed with the departure of product manager Ben Ling. I spoke to one of Give Real's founders, and he said that the introduction of a Facebook payment system would make it a lot easier for Give Real. But, at this point, they seem to have figured it out on their own, and say they've figured out the tough parts--fraud prevention and security.

The company aims to make a profit by charging a small transaction fee to each buyer and by doing branded campaigns whereby you can "buy" your friends a sponsored variety of drink (say, Corona or Jim Beam). The first of these partnerships should be announced within the month.

Give Real has been funded by Battery Ventures and Hillcrest Management, as well as angel investors Brian O'Kelley (co-founder of Right Media) and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. Facebook junkies may know that he's the co-founder who hasn't exactly been on stellar legal terms with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But he still has a big stake in the company, and undoubtedly wants to see the platform keep up its momentum.

A source with knowledge of the situation said that the funding was in the low seven figures. In these economic conditions, I'll drink to that.

Say it ain't so! Climate change could make even PBR get more expensive!

(Credit: Pabst)

We all know already that climate change will affect everything from food prices to cute baby polar bears.

But now it's really hitting home, folks. A report from a researcher at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand suggests that rising temperatures may threaten beer.

An Associated Press report details the findings from climate scientist Jim Salinger, who presented his research at the Institute of Brewing and Distilling's annual convention in Wellington, New Zealand. The grim results? Climate change may affect the production of malting barley, an ingredient crucial to the tasty beers we all know and love.

If we aren't careful, the regions in Australia and New Zealand in which malting barley can grow could experience some tragic shrinkage. Salinger's study didn't extend beyond those two countries, but he did warn that "similar effects could be expected" across the globe.

"It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up," the Associated Press article quoted Salinger as saying.

One word: Noooooooooooo!

This guy could probably have used some help from Whiskipedia to learn just how much that J.D. would knock him out. (I took this photo in college.)

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/Long Before CNET News.com)

Confession: I don't know a whole lot about alcoholic beverages. I'm that girl who pours blue Curacao into stuff simply because it turns your drink a cool color. I don't actually know what it is. That's probably not a good thing.

My cluelessness is starting to give my friends headaches--literally. I read in The New York Times that rose champagne was going to be really trendy this season, so I got some for a New Year's Eve party, only to learn that the stuff tastes even worse than regular (cheap) champagne and makes you feel even worse the next day. (And it's pink, so guys won't touch it.)

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that 2008 will shape up to be the year of the booze industry's full-out digital debut. We're off to a good start. On New Year's Day, as many of us were still whimpering about hangovers, Whiskipedia launched. It's exactly what you think it is--a wiki about whiskey, or whisky, or however you spell it. Like its namesake Wikipedia, user contributions will keep the site's content flowing, but the site has expert oversight from administrator Ian Buxton (of The Whisky Channel) and the preliminary content was derived from the book Whisky: A Book of Words.

Of course, it's just about whiskey, so it couldn't help me learn how to avoid crappy champagne. But maybe it's a start. Here's to hoping that Whiskipedia sets a fine new precedent for online booze information dissemination. Because, really, I can't be the only clueless person out there.

(And ideally, perhaps better education will lead to more responsible drinking.)

Can't believe I managed to miss this one, considering one of my favorite activities in college was to watch Jeopardy with a dozen people and see which of us could be the most obnoxious by yelling out all the answers. On Monday night, snarky news forum Fark.com sponsored a category on the timeless game show, in which the three contestants had to complete corny, pun-ridden headlines that had been plucked off the site.

Naturally, two of the questions dealt with "potent potables." The first was "Noodle shop accused of aiding drunk driving; that's because nobody left this place (this buckwheat noodle)." ("Soba!" Ha, ha!) And the second, "After one of these 'feral' birds was released into a park, alcoholics...hunt it down and try to drink it," had the obvious answer of "wild turkey." Guess the "feral" keyword steered the contestants away from Grey Goose.

Does this look like a booze cruise on wheels to you?

(Credit: Amtrak)

Riding on a sleeper train for several thousand miles seems a bit silly sometimes when you can just hop a plane for a couple of hours and get to the same destination in a fraction of the time, especially when it's often cheaper to fly anyway. Amtrak, however, is attempting to counter that image by promoting its train service as the landlubber's equivalent of a luxury cruise--a booze cruise, that is. According to an Associated Press article, the passenger rail service is trying to "gin up new business" (Ha, ha! You slay me, AP!) by offering a complimentary $100 worth of alcoholic beverages to passengers who cough up the cash for first-class seating.

Kind of. If you're a member of Amtrak's guest rewards program and you book a ticket that's part of its GrandLuxe offerings (be prepared to pay somewhere between $800 and $1600) between November and January, you'll be given a hundred bucks' worth of credit toward libations en route. Considering a glass of house wine costs $6 and a fine scotch costs about $7, it'll be enough to keep your cheeks nice and pink for the entire journey.

The AP article quotes an Amtrak representative as saying that it's a test move as part of a greater plan to revive rail travel's vintage image as a classy way to get from coast to coast. It could equally, however, turn Amtrak into a hot destination for traveling bachelor parties or fraternity spring break trips. ("Cancun? No way, dude, we're doing the Amtrak thing!")

Unfortunately, the Amtrak party-train service won't extend beyond a few overnight routes: the California Zephyr between Chicago and San Francisco, the Southwest Chief between Chicago and L.A., and the Silver Meteor between the District of Columbia and several Florida cities. That means it won't be valid on my beloved Acela Express that runs from D.C. to Boston, but then again, I don't think the BlackBerry-and-business-casual crowd that rides the Acela needs to be given any top-shelf scotch anyway.

Some advocacy groups have already voiced concern that people will get a little too sloshed on board and then stagger right behind the drivers' seats of their cars upon reaching their final destination. Makes you wonder whether Amtrak will have to breathalyze its passengers when they debark...

(Credit: Dom Perignon)

Larry Ellison aside, those Middle Eastern businessmen sure do put Silicon Valley to shame when it comes to extravagant displays of opulence. Typically, we don't get names to accompany the tales of pimped-out Airbus A380s and the like, but generally the price tags speak for themselves. My favorite new "oh my gosh, I can't believe how much cash that guy spent" story was covered in the British press earlier this week: a band of partiers, led by an anonymous Dubai cash cow, spent a total of $210,000 at the posh London nightclub Crystal last Saturday night. With tax and gratuities, the final bill was more like $218,000.

To put things into perspective, that's the equivalent of about 360 8GB iPhones.

According to representatives from the nightclub (where apparently Prince Harry likes to booze it up on occasion), the evening started off innocently enough. The party of 18 people started with a bottle of pinot grigio that cost a paltry $50, but ultimately went through absurd amounts of champagne and vodka that included a $20,000 bottle of Dom Perignon. Also included in the bill were six Cokes, 17 orders of Red Bull, and eight bottles of the luxury-brand Voss water.

ABC News reports that the tab was closed at 4:24 AM. In other news, the $2 bottles of wine at Trader Joe's still get a thumbs-up from me.