Invention makes binge-drinking easier

CHICAGO, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Two Northwestern University biomedical engineering graduates have invented a device to make the binge-drinking game of Beer Pong easier.

Mike Johnson and Andy Wright are marketing their $9.99 Beer Pong Rubbers online, with the explanation the triangular shaped rubber mats prevent plastic beer cups from slipping or moving while the drinking game is played, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Beer Pong is played by two teams facing one another at a 6- to 8-foot-long table. Players try to throw or bounce a Ping Pong ball into the opponents' plastic glass. If they succeed, the beer's owner must down the entire cup in one go. The team that has no cups left loses.

"I think the engineering side at Northwestern helped us through the design and development and the patent protection," Johnson told the newspaper.

Johnson acknowledged mounting concern in U.S. schools about binge-drinking but said his education hadn't been based solely on the mats.

"It's funny because we came out with the product at the same time Andy and I were working on a medical device to prevent sleep apnea in premature babies," he said to the Sun-Times.