(Photo: Tumblr)

Hangovers, amiright? Sometimes the only way to cure one is to have a greasy breakfast sandwich from the closest bodega, chased with some grade-A seltzer water and a mountain of regret. It seems strange that in a culture that glorifies alcohol as much as ours, we haven't yet discovered a foolproof way to get rid of the headache/pukey feeling a night of binge drinking can bring.

Science, for one, is fed up with this BS. NBC News reports that (possibly drunk) scientists are rising up and demanding we conduct more research on a hangover cure. The important stuff, ya know?

According to NBC, hangovers account for a $148 billion loss to American companies each year, which is mostly just kind of impressive. UCSD professor Alyson Mitchell argued at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting that doing more research on hangover cures could help save companies loads of cash every year.

”Hangovers are so common and prevalent in every society,” Ms. Mitchell told NBC. “[Yet] I found it to be almost shocking that there is so little real research done on hangovers.”

Think we can sic Bill Nye on this one?

Artist's rendering of Samsung HQ. (Photo: flickr.com/adpowers)

Here's a little anecdote to throw in the face of any "brogrammer" who gets a little too self-congratulatory about his, like, totally hardcore partying, dude. Apparently, South Korean Samsung employees party so hard that the corporate overlords have had to step in.

The Next Web reports the company has launched an offensive against binge drinking. Samsung has also "banned employees from forcing others to drink, where employees would be told to take drinks down in 'one shot' or forced to drink as a punishment."

Who knew Samsung HQ was so similar to a fraternity house during rush week? 

But like a bunch of college administrators wielding double-secret probation citations, the higher-ups are now encouraging employees to "organise more formal dinner parties or even meet on the tennis court" as opposed to burning through bottles of booze during staff dinners. Even though some of us would MUCH rather genuflect to the porcelain god than spend 10 minutes playing tennis.

The campaign against drinking isn't the only attempt to stifle epidemic levels of cardiovascular disease:

Over the past year, the company removed ashtrays from its buildings, reportedly going as far as to threaten employees that if they didn’t quit they may find it harder to get promoted within the company.

Uh, there was still a place where it was legal to smoke inside?

On the NYC sub-Reddit today, a user who goes by the handle "onmach" submitted a sincere inquiry about startup culture in New York. Onmach and a friend were considering a move out East, but the friend had a bad experience at a startup interview that devolved into what sounds like your standard brogramming nightmare. 

"When [onmach's friend] got there he did good at the technical interview, but then they took him to a bar and proceeded to get wasted, talk about getting wasted, talk about getting high all day, and that's about it.

Unfortunately my friend is not that kind of guy. He's just a nerd who loves to code and doesn't drink or do drugs. When he asked an aquaintance if this is what it is like up here, she told him that everyone is like that and it is expected to attend these types of functions. How could he not know that, she asked. Certainly this particular company would not hire him if he didn't fit in, so now he doesn't want to go to NYC at all anymore."

Later on in the thread, onmach elaborated on the post-interview binge. It was a Monday night and the entire company of 10 showed up. "Conversation was like, yeah we should bring a hookah into the office, and yeah I was supposed to do that project, but I got high all weekend," he wrote. After recounting the sloppy details, onmach asked, "So, what's the deal? Is this just how it is in manhattan at tech companies?"

Admittedly, generalizing an entire industry's culture based on a "sinking ship full of douchebags," as one Redditor put it, is ill-advised. And this kind of rowdy boy's club is exactly how you keep that ratio in tact. But from the comments, consensus seems to be that is not the norm. Regardless, responses offer some interesting insights into infrequently-discussed recreational habits of startups.

"At my small company, we are partially owned by a much larger, much more conservative company. I hang out with my friend and coworker, talk about recreational activities (...) and do some of that stuff." [Ed note: Reddit is that you??]

"Smaller companies are run based on however the CEO wants them run. Most tech companies are pretty laid back about drinking, but not to the point where they are going to do the interview at a bar. Maybe if you are doing a late interview (5-10pm or something) they will get you a beer or two. I think this was a one off experience."

"I mean... yeah.... lots of people smoke marijuana here, lol. On the plus side he's avoiding working for a company clearly not heading anywhere."

Of course, there's always the other extreme:

"A more common situation in NYC is ending up in a place that expects you to work your ass off 12+ hours a day."

Mr. Mason. (Tumblr.com)

It’s been a long tumble from the height of the hype cycle for Groupon. Stock performance has been lackluster, and there’s an ever-louder chorus of doubts about the business model. So yesterday probably wasn’t the best time for CEO Andrew Mason to get caught by The Wall Street Journal admitting to a roomful of employees that he’d maybe had a little too much to drink. Whoops!

The Journal does not sound amused:

"We're still this toddler in a grown man's body in many ways," Mr. Mason said during the closed-door employee meeting, which The Wall Street Journal observed via webcast. At one point during the address, Mr. Mason's voice broke and he said, "Sorry, too much beer."

It’s best if you imagine that line as being followed by a dramatic side-eye.

Mr. Mason also told employees that Groupon has no “margin of error” and needs to focus on things like "not taking stupid risks." Hey, that’s pretty good advice.

Frankly, it sounds like the antics-prone Groupon CEO was just cracking a slightly fratty joke. But Trading Places aside, Wall Street isn’t exactly famous for its love of LOLs, and the market didn’t take that fourth-quarter sales revision very well. Also, the admission of “material weakness” in a company’s internal financial controls does tend to alarm investors. Shares were $20 at IPO; as of yesterday’s close, they were $12.27. In the meeting, Mr. Mason called the earnings revision "the latest in a string of just us making an example of how bad we are at being a public company,” adding, “We have to get good at this."

They sure do: The Journal reports that there will soon be several new faces in senior management positions, and even potentially a couple of new board members.

Oh Andrew Mason is so getting defoundered if he's not careful.