Evidently, the key to not drinking too much is to start drinking too early. In a recent CNN article by Jennifer Pifer entitled, “Author: Letting Kids Drink Early Reduces Binging,” Mr. Peele, a concerned parent, psychologist and author, has the innovative idea of exposing his daughter to alcohol starting in middle school so that the taboo and temptation of it won’t lead to binging and addiction.
Stanton Peele (http://www.peele.net/about/index.html) has spent much of his life and career dealing with the myths and misconceptions of addiction. His philosophy is that addiction is more of a mental pattern then a disease. He says that it is more important to observe people’s relationships and past behaviors when trying to understand their drug use and abuse. Although I don’t agree with his methods I think there is something to be said for the mental aspect of addiction, prevention and rehabilitation.
Over the last year we have witnessed a slew of celebrities enter and re-enter rehab facilities at the request of their parents, managers and agents. Britney Spears went to rehab twice this year after the request of her mother, but now denies the presence of any addiction. I think that alcohol and drug addiction is a serious issue, but I also think that rehab and addiction are being used as a quick fix right now. It seems that whenever a celebrity has had too much fun on a given weekend she or he is sent away to rehab to wipe the slate clean. I don’t think that all of these people have serious addictions; I just think they are making bad decisions.
Peele discusses the concept of preparing your children for the future by desensitizing them to the glamour of alcohol. I would venture to guess that Peele would believe what these celebrities need is a change in their relationships and environment instead of an expensive trip to rehab. The concept of exposing your children to alcohol to deter them from binging on alcohol seems a bit nonsensical. I can appreciate the logic behind his actions, but I think that he is putting too much faith in teenagers. I know parents who allowed their children to drink without worries in high school and it didn’t change the fact that all of their friends were still drinking and binging, it just allowed for a freer venue for their parties. The factor isn’t whether your parents are fine with you drinking. The factor is your friendships and the environments that you allow yourself to be in. If you are friends with people that like to go out on the weekends and drink, than the fact that your parents are ok with you having a casual glass of wine with dinner isn’t going to make that much of a difference when deciding if you are going to join them or just be responsible and stay home. The person that a teenager is around their family is not necessarily the person they are around their friends. It is more important to instill good values in your child than it is to distill alcohol to them.
The average American begins drinking regularly at 15.9 years old (http://www.focusas.com/Alcohol.html). This means that while Mr. Peele was allowing his daughter to casually drink at family functions the rest of her peers were also enjoying cocktails and beers with and without their parents consent. The statistics also show that “adolescents who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at age 21.” So, if the average teen is drinking by the age of 16, and parents like Mr. Peele are allowing their children to drink, then who are these people that actually wait until the age of 21 to begin drinking? What are the chances that if a person hasn’t begun drinking by the age of 21 that they are life-time abstainers? I can’t think of one person in my life over the age of 15 that I know for a fact has never consumed any alcohol, and I grew up in a city with a large Mormon population.
The point that I am trying to drive home with the anecdotes and the statistics is that it is not really important when people are drinking, but why they are drinking. Mr. Peele can give his daughter all the wine coolers that she wants, but because she has a good head on her shoulders, and has a strong set of beliefs she doesn’t binge on alcohol when she is trying to have fun. Celebrities go out all the time, trying to get noticed and unwind, so they tend to consume larger quantities of alcohol than the normal person. When you can walk right into all of the hottest nightclubs and the owners are sending you free drinks all night it can be hard to say no. On that same token, when a 15 year old boy is hanging out with his friends and one of them pulls out a bottle of rum that he took from his parents liquor cabinet, its hard to say no to the experience of “getting drunk with your buddies” for the first time. That is a memory that they will have with them forever, even if the hangover is something they would rather forget.
So why are you drinking? Are you trying to unwind from a hard day at work? Are your friends coming over for the big game? Do you have to loosen up before a hot date? Is the pressure of it all just too much? Does it just feel better to be fucked up? As long as your motivations are appropriate alcohol does not have to be the enemy. You can make it part of your life without letting it control it.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Smart Bra? I Thought We Burned Those?
Professor Elias Siores of the University of Bolton in the UK has raised the bar for inventive ways of discovering early signs of cancer. The “smart bra” (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/OnCallPlus/Story?id=3722085&page=1) is supposed to use microwave antennae to detect heightened temperature in the breasts, which is a signal that a tumor is present. Although his prototype isn’t going to be out for at least another year I’m looking forward to seeing the effectiveness of such a creative solution.
The article I read on this bra, “A Smart Bra to Find Breast Cancer” left me with some unanswered questions. Would you wear the bra regularly? Would it need batteries? How would it warn the wearer? How heavy would it be? Would there be sensors everywhere in the cup or only in specific places? Could this idea be expanded for use in briefs for men? How much is it? I decided that I was unsatisfied with all of the missing pieces so I did a bit more investigating.
At the Discovery Channel website (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/10/05/smartbra_tec_02.html?category=technology&guid=20071005093030) I was able to find some, although not all, of the answers. In the first sentence my question regarding the briefs was answered. They are working on them now and hope to be able to have cancer-finding briefs out to accompany the bra. The use of microwave radiometry will measure the rise in temperature. Cancerous tumors generally have higher temperatures than the surrounding tissue because of inflammation and blood flow changes. The antennae would be laced into the side of the bra and it would be worn for just a few minutes at a time while plugged in to a power supply. If the machine detected any irregularities it would signal the wearer through auditory and visual means. Although there are some concerns as to the effectiveness of this bra I think that it is a step in the right direction. It is important that we have creative preventative measures for discovering breast cancer at its earliest stages.
Breast cancer is a very real concern for women in America. In 1960 1 in 20 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. As of 2006 that number increased to 1 in 8 (http://www.breastcancer.org/about_us/press_room/press_kit/cancer_facts.jsp?gclid=CPG21amHjY8CFRctagodLka-eg#statistics). My grandmother’s twin sister had breast cancer as well as one of my best friends mother. In 2006 it was expected that almost 41,000 women would die from breast cancer in the US alone. This staggering number is unacceptable and any action taken towards reducing this number is important, even if it something as simple as a bra. It’s a serious reality and the quicker that we are able to find cancerous cells the better chances women have for a successful recovery and a full and happy life.
The article I read on this bra, “A Smart Bra to Find Breast Cancer” left me with some unanswered questions. Would you wear the bra regularly? Would it need batteries? How would it warn the wearer? How heavy would it be? Would there be sensors everywhere in the cup or only in specific places? Could this idea be expanded for use in briefs for men? How much is it? I decided that I was unsatisfied with all of the missing pieces so I did a bit more investigating.
At the Discovery Channel website (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/10/05/smartbra_tec_02.html?category=technology&guid=20071005093030) I was able to find some, although not all, of the answers. In the first sentence my question regarding the briefs was answered. They are working on them now and hope to be able to have cancer-finding briefs out to accompany the bra. The use of microwave radiometry will measure the rise in temperature. Cancerous tumors generally have higher temperatures than the surrounding tissue because of inflammation and blood flow changes. The antennae would be laced into the side of the bra and it would be worn for just a few minutes at a time while plugged in to a power supply. If the machine detected any irregularities it would signal the wearer through auditory and visual means. Although there are some concerns as to the effectiveness of this bra I think that it is a step in the right direction. It is important that we have creative preventative measures for discovering breast cancer at its earliest stages.
Breast cancer is a very real concern for women in America. In 1960 1 in 20 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. As of 2006 that number increased to 1 in 8 (http://www.breastcancer.org/about_us/press_room/press_kit/cancer_facts.jsp?gclid=CPG21amHjY8CFRctagodLka-eg#statistics). My grandmother’s twin sister had breast cancer as well as one of my best friends mother. In 2006 it was expected that almost 41,000 women would die from breast cancer in the US alone. This staggering number is unacceptable and any action taken towards reducing this number is important, even if it something as simple as a bra. It’s a serious reality and the quicker that we are able to find cancerous cells the better chances women have for a successful recovery and a full and happy life.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Newsworthy?
I just checked CNN.com (www.cnn.com) and was sadly un-shocked to find a news story about Britney Spears in their “top stories” category. Along with “Sinead O'Connor to Oprah: I feel for Britney”(http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/04/people.sinead.oconnor.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch) were stories of Halle Berry’s interest in having a second child and news of cats in toilets and just in case we didn’t get enough of her, Britney Spears appears a second time on the home page with news that her first single is a smash hit. Well done Britney, shame on you CNN. Websites like CNN, ABCnews and Foxnews are all giving in to the hype of popular culture. They are selling out for the sake of ratings instead of sticking to the hard news that we come to them for. When I want to read about Britney’s exploits or other equally salacious and shallow gossip I visit Perez Hilton’s website (www.perezhilton.com). Everything you want to know about celebrities can be found there, even things you didn’t want to know. When I want to learn about the developments of our world I go to sites like CNN. I rely on them to keep me well informed and up to date on the relevant issues we are dealing with in America and around the globe.
Popular culture is taking over. Everywhere I turned it seems like I can’t escape stories of Paris Hiltons missing dogs or pseudo celebrity reality TV stars fighting over whom is more talented. And what’s most disturbing about all of this nonsense being thrown at us is that we are actually listening. We have websites, TV shows and radio programs all dedicated to keeping us up to date on whether those pictures of Vanessa Hudgens (one of the actresses in High School Musical, a Disney Channel Movie) are real or photo shopped. They’re real, just in case you hadn’t heard. It’s easier for me to find out about the sexual orientation of obscure reality TV stars than it is for me to get a list of the bills that we are voting on in congress. When you try to youtube George Bush speeches, the first things that pop up are all parodies.
Taking a step back from popular culture and its overwhelming influence I would like to look at the people writing the posts and articles that we read; the public intellectuals. Stephen Mack recently posted a blog about the state of public intellectuals in our modern world. In his post, “The ‘Decline’ of Public Intellectuals?” (http://www.stephenmack.com/blog/archives/2007/08/index.html) on August 14 he discussed the differing beliefs on the decline of the public intellectual. Some figures, like John Donatich believe that we are taking the topic of the public intellectual too seriously. By worrying about its place in society we are creating something to be worried about. It’s like when you are about to give a speech in front of a crowd and someone with the best of intentions tells you good luck, because they would be really nervous if they were you. No matter how much you try not to let it affect you their words do have an impact. Suddenly you are nervous because someone told you that you should be. By thinking about the position of public intellectuals we are bringing it up to be analyzed and criticized. In a realm where analysis and criticism are welcomed and freely given this shouldn’t come as too much of a burden, however the problem arises when people begin to over think the issue. Later in Mack’s post he sites Richard Posner’s book, “Public Intellectual: a Study of Decline.” If ever a man were too critical I think it could be Posner. He criticizes a great number of intellectuals and proclaims that the arts and humanities should be taken out of “public intellectualdom.” He also has the audacity to rank public intellectuals as if they were Maxim’s hot 100. This over-critique is detrimental to the plight of public intellectuals. They should be sharing knowledge and inspiring passionate debate, not competing for the number one spot. The important part to remember is that it is a good thing that we have people out there writing and expressing their views in a public forum.
I feel like the whole point is being missed. Its not about who is writing the piece, it is about who is reading it. There are probably millions of blogs out there in cyber space and each one of them could be written by the next brilliant thinker of our time, but it doesn’t matter what he or she says if no one is reading it. That’s why it is so frustrating to me when I see sites like CNN.coom, ABCnews.com or Foxnews.com wasting valuable space and time on stories about Britney Spears. They have all of this power at their fingertips to be the informant for the masses, so they should use it wisely. Don’t cater to popular culture; rise above it. Prove that what is happening in Iraq and with our upcoming presidential election is more important than whether Britney’s extensions are real or synthetic; because they are.
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
Popular culture is taking over. Everywhere I turned it seems like I can’t escape stories of Paris Hiltons missing dogs or pseudo celebrity reality TV stars fighting over whom is more talented. And what’s most disturbing about all of this nonsense being thrown at us is that we are actually listening. We have websites, TV shows and radio programs all dedicated to keeping us up to date on whether those pictures of Vanessa Hudgens (one of the actresses in High School Musical, a Disney Channel Movie) are real or photo shopped. They’re real, just in case you hadn’t heard. It’s easier for me to find out about the sexual orientation of obscure reality TV stars than it is for me to get a list of the bills that we are voting on in congress. When you try to youtube George Bush speeches, the first things that pop up are all parodies.
Taking a step back from popular culture and its overwhelming influence I would like to look at the people writing the posts and articles that we read; the public intellectuals. Stephen Mack recently posted a blog about the state of public intellectuals in our modern world. In his post, “The ‘Decline’ of Public Intellectuals?” (http://www.stephenmack.com/blog/archives/2007/08/index.html) on August 14 he discussed the differing beliefs on the decline of the public intellectual. Some figures, like John Donatich believe that we are taking the topic of the public intellectual too seriously. By worrying about its place in society we are creating something to be worried about. It’s like when you are about to give a speech in front of a crowd and someone with the best of intentions tells you good luck, because they would be really nervous if they were you. No matter how much you try not to let it affect you their words do have an impact. Suddenly you are nervous because someone told you that you should be. By thinking about the position of public intellectuals we are bringing it up to be analyzed and criticized. In a realm where analysis and criticism are welcomed and freely given this shouldn’t come as too much of a burden, however the problem arises when people begin to over think the issue. Later in Mack’s post he sites Richard Posner’s book, “Public Intellectual: a Study of Decline.” If ever a man were too critical I think it could be Posner. He criticizes a great number of intellectuals and proclaims that the arts and humanities should be taken out of “public intellectualdom.” He also has the audacity to rank public intellectuals as if they were Maxim’s hot 100. This over-critique is detrimental to the plight of public intellectuals. They should be sharing knowledge and inspiring passionate debate, not competing for the number one spot. The important part to remember is that it is a good thing that we have people out there writing and expressing their views in a public forum.
I feel like the whole point is being missed. Its not about who is writing the piece, it is about who is reading it. There are probably millions of blogs out there in cyber space and each one of them could be written by the next brilliant thinker of our time, but it doesn’t matter what he or she says if no one is reading it. That’s why it is so frustrating to me when I see sites like CNN.coom, ABCnews.com or Foxnews.com wasting valuable space and time on stories about Britney Spears. They have all of this power at their fingertips to be the informant for the masses, so they should use it wisely. Don’t cater to popular culture; rise above it. Prove that what is happening in Iraq and with our upcoming presidential election is more important than whether Britney’s extensions are real or synthetic; because they are.
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
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