New Year's Fatalities Down‎ Across the Country

I just found this, from The Sun, "New Year's Heave: A SCANTILY-clad girl lies sprawled semi-conscious in the snow early yesterday as the UK celebrated New Year with yet another night of drunken shame":

That reminded me of the story from the news in California yesterday. From the Los Angeles Daily News, "CHP: DUI Arrests Up This Year, Deaths Down":

No one was killed on Los Angeles County roads this New Year's Eve, according to California Highway Patrol statistics. Last year, one person was killed during the same time period, between 6:01 p.m. Dec. 31 to 6 a.m. Jan. 1.
Statewide, deaths were down from 11 last year to 7 this year, according to CHP.

Although deaths were down, driving under the influence arrests were up across the state and in Los Angeles County. Statewide, CHP made 108 DUI arrests this year compared to 88 last year. In Los Angeles County, 527 DUI arrests were made this year, up from 438 last year.

But see also, the Gainesville Times, "DUI Enforcement Having an Effect; New Year’s Fatalities Down":

As on every New Year’s Eve, local law enforcement will be out in force tonight with roadblocks and patrols targeting impaired driving. And the familiar sight of flashing blue lights on the last night of the year appears to have had
some effect.

"It seems in the last few years that people who may have driven drunk have figured out that law enforcement is out in large numbers," said Sgt. Dean Allen, post commander for the Georgia State Patrol’s Gainesville post. "There’s a few who still get out there, but most of them know not to do it."

There are no figures immediately available for DUI arrests in Hall County on New Year’s Eve, but data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggest that nationally, alcohol-related traffic fatalities on New Year’s Eve are down.

Hat Tip: Newsreal.

At UC Santa Barbara, 'Sociology of Human Sexuality'

Breaking!

This is serious news, plus it's another chance to blog about my party-school Ph.D. alma mater!

From the Los Angeles Times, "At UC Santa Barbara, Sex as a Matter of Course: Sociology Professors John and Janice Baldwin, Married for 41 years, Are Trusted Voices on Love and Lovemaking for Thousands of Students at the Beach-Side Campus":

How well should people know each other before they have sex?

In the biggest classroom at UC Santa Barbara, sociology professors John and Janice Baldwin are reeling off survey results showing that male and female students are almost equally willing to sleep with someone they love. But the hall erupts in knowing laughter as a gender gap emerges: Men, the long-married couple reports, remain eager for sex through descending categories of friendship and casual acquaintance. Women don't.

By the time Janice Baldwin gets to the statistic on sex between strangers, the din from the 600 students is so loud, they can hardly hear her announce that 37% of men would have sex with a person they had just met, compared with only 7% of women.

"So you can see, males are a little more likely to go to bed with somebody they don't know very well," Baldwin says dryly.

"Or at all," she adds, to guffaws.

By turns humorous and deadly serious, "Sociology of Human Sexuality" has been an institution at the beach-side campus for more than two decades. So have the Baldwins, unflappable sixtysomethings who are trusted voices on love and lovemaking for thousands of current and former UC Santa Barbara students.

Today's undergraduates have easy access to X-rated Internet sites, and many have watched television gurus dissect troubled marriages. But there are often gaps in their knowledge of biology and sexual behavior, the result of squeamish parents and less-than-candid high school health teachers.

The Baldwins step in with data about orgasm, birth control and infertility -- and, implicitly, with their own example of a 41-year marriage that seems to work well.

"We don't feel we are the sex king and queen of the world," Janice Baldwin, 63, said recently in the cramped office the couple share, their desks touching. "So this is not about us. It's about the students, and we are privileged to get to teach a class that can help them avoid the downsides of sex and increase the positives."

John Baldwin, 68, said he and his wife do not aim to be role models. "We are not trying to teach them to be like us," he said. "But we are going to be talking about relationships, and a lot of them want relationships. Even though there is a lot of casual sex, they want to find somebody special . . . So we are little hope signals."

Students say the class is fun, eye-opening and altogether useful. Clearly, many of them pay attention: Lectures on sexually transmitted infections can trigger a stampede to the campus health center.

This is a serious class, of course. And popular too - 600 students! Geez!

And recall previously, "UCSB Makes Top-Ten in Latest Party-School List."

It's hard out there for UCSB alum!

Hey, maybe Smitty can get new series started with some of this stuff! Could be educational!

UCSB Makes Top-Ten in Latest Party-School List

Penn State comes in first, but UCSB makes the top-ten again, from FOX 5 Atlanta, "Princeton Review Party Schools 2009":

Penn State University is now the nation's No. 1 party school.

The school known partly for its football tailgate weekends and fraternity and sorority scene snatched the title away from the University of Florida in the 2009 Princeton Review survey of 122,000 students nationwide. Florida, last year's winner, finished second in the annual survey released Monday.

It's the first time Penn State has finished first in the dubious category. The school has been on the list the last seven years and ranked third in 2008. The listing covers Penn State's main University Park campus in State College.

"These rankings are not more than popularity contests," said university spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz. She noted that groups on the social networking site Facebook have urged members to make Penn State the top party school ....

**********

1. Penn State University, State College, Pa.

2. University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.

3. University of Mississippi, University, Miss.

4. University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.

5. Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

6. West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.

7. University of Texas, Austin, Texas

8. University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

9. Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.

10. University of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif.

11. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.

12. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa

13. Union College, Schenectady, N.Y.

14. Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

15. DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.

16. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.

17. Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.

18. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D.

19. Tulane University, New Orleans, La.

20. Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.

It's easy to toss these rankings off as irrelevant, but young folks take this stuff seriously - "dead" seriously, in some cases, which is why parents should be concerned. (See, "Beloved UCSB Student Passes Abruptly.")

If I recall, UCSB was the country's #1 party school in the early '90s, shortly after I started graduate school. Upon moving over there my wife and I were advised not to move to Isla Vista unless we planned on attending kegger parties around the clock on the weekends. We moved off campus, because despite all the ill-repute blogging that goes on around here, I'm actually a pretty respectable guy!

Here's more on the latest rankings, including campus reviews:

Some students object to the view of UCSB as a party school: "people need to get past the party reputation and realize that this is an excellent school academically."

It's hard to live down, actually. I still get ribbed for having a "party-school Ph.D."

More from some UCSB students on Facebook, "Proud Students of the Most Intelligent Party School of the Nation."

And note these appellations: "UCSB = U Can Study Buzzed or the University of Casual Sex and Beer".

Photo Credit: "UCSB Ranked 10th Best Party School in the Nation" (from 2007). Plus an interesting comment from the piece:

The CNN/SI blog, FanNation brings up a good point when they question the list's lack of a local college who have shown more than their fair share of school spirit lately.

We’re trying to figure out how any college party could top UCLA’s annual undie run, especially after seeing these pics, but the Bruins didn’t even make the Top 20, so what do we know?