Posts tagged addiction
Fresh A.I.R. Show Artists In Recovery Displaying Their Work
Jan 13th
The Fresh A.I.R. Show: Artists In Recovery is an ongoing project conceived and directed by Michael Hamers. The main message is one of strength, hope and joy that many have discovered through their Artwork and the process of addiction recovery. Our audience will be reached through public art shows, creative performances, and local lectures. The inaugural art show will be showing the entire month of January 2014 at the Firehouse Art Center at 4th and Coffman in Longmont, CO. The Reception Party is on Friday, January 10th from 6–9 pm.
From painting, mixed media, photography, jewelry and more, this mini-show features a group of 10 local artists, most with established reputations, with a passion for life and art. This first show’s theme is “Out of the Black and Into the Blue”, the artistic interpretation of awakening and rebirth – of second chances. The future calendar of Fresh A.I.R. events for 2014-15 is in the planning and will take place in public venues in Boulder County. “Faith is our greatest gift; it’s sharing with others our greatest responsibility.” Come visit with the artists and maybe even take a piece home with you. Mike can be reached at 303-527-1222 and the website is at www.FreshAirShows.com.
Conference on World Affairs online problems : Twitter let down Grays attend
Apr 9th
The first day of the conference was nearly void of CU students once again. Most of the attendees were grays in their 40s, 50s and 60s. This again brings into question: is the conference relevant?
The All a Twitter panel discussion in the UMC was attended not by Boulders Twitter SM startup crowd but by mostly older people who were not exactly tweeps. This session was not what one would have expected. It was not start-up Boulder week, not Ignite Boulder and it wasn’t Twitter.
The panelists were an interesting mix too: Mark Frauenfelder Ross Haenfler Andy Ihnatko Sanho Tree . Sociology professor Ross Haenfler said he stopped tweeting and compared it to drug addiction and himself to a recovering addict. He then went on to say that most people on twitter waste enormous amounts of their life on social media. Not a glowing endorsement of TWitter or SM.
Boing Boing founder and Boulderite Ross Haenfler was certainly the biggest web superstar to attend the panel. Though Boing Boing significance and contribution was lost on the audience, it was also lost on the conference. He seemed concerned about the significance of multiple uses of tweets.
Andy Ihnako Chicago Sun times Geek reporter also talked about how twitter wraps around your mind and has the potential to enslave.
Sanho Tree is a leftist Fellow and social activist. He talked about social activism on Twitter.
The tone of this session was politically leftist with continuous barbs thrown at conservatives who use twitter. So much for CU chancellors new policy of fair and balanced. All of the panelists criticized main stream media for not covering the news. None of them could explain the business side of Twitter. They also seemed oblivious to the fact that Television and News papers lost their foothold to online advertisers such as Google and Facebook
The one saving grace of this panel was to point out just what a waste of a persons life Twitter can be. They couldn’t stress how addictive Twitter and Facebook are and impossible to manage. This was a surprise, but not to the gray attendees. Seemed they seen it all before in a younger life. And the young? They were nowhere to be seen. One would have thought the room would have been packed with 18 to 34 year olds. Maybe they were studying or at work. Maybe this panel should have been held at night in a bar or coffee house.
CU Boulder –Nature, not nurture, behind hard-core smoking
Nov 16th
Well, duh
A new study of twins led by the University of Colorado Boulder shows that today’s smokers are more strongly influenced by genetic factors than in the past and that the influence makes it more difficult for them to quit.
“In the past, when smoking rates were higher, people smoked for a variety of reasons,” said sociology Professor Fred Pampel, a study co-author. “Today the composition of the smoking population has changed. Smokers are more likely to be hard-core users who are most strongly influenced by genetic factors.”
The study showed that adult identical twins sharing a common genetic structure are significantly more likely to quit smoking at the same time compared with fraternal twins who do not share identical genes. This genetic influence has increased in importance among smokers following the initial restrictive legislation on smoking enacted in the United States in the 1970s, Pampel said.
“These days people don’t smoke as much for social reasons,” Pampel said. “They in fact face criticism for the habit but tend to smoke because of their dependence on nicotine.”
The study, to be published in this month’s edition of the journal! Demography, was led by Associate Professor Jason Boardman and doctoral student Casey Blalock of CU-Boulder’s sociology department and Institute of Behavioral Science, and co-authored with Pampel, also of IBS, Peter Hatemi of Pennsylvania State University, Andrew Heath of Washington University in St. Louis and Lindon Eaves of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.
Using a database of twins who responded to an extensive health questionnaire, the researchers examined the smoking patterns of 596 pairs of twins, 363 of them identical and 233 of them fraternal. The researchers looked at their smoking patterns from 1960 to 1980 because they wanted to focus on a period of changing views about smoking.
Among identical twins, 65 percent of both twins quit during a two-year timeframe if one twin quit, but among fraternal twins, the percentage dropped to 55 percent, a statistically significant difference that indicates a genetic component at work, Pampel said.
While a specific genetic marker has been hard to identify among those who smoke, certain genetic similarities can be inferred. “If one identical twin quits the other is likely to quit,” he said. “And if one twin continues so is the other twin.”
The study has implications for current public policies aimed at reducing smoking, which may be becoming less effective, Pampel said.
Since the early and mid 1970s when restrictive anti-smoking legislation began to be enacted in the United States, many smokers have quit. “Prior to 1975 this (potentially genetic) pattern wasn’t clear because there were so many smokers.”
Two of today’s main anti-smoking policies include heavy taxes on cigarettes and vast reductions in the number of public spaces where smoking is allowed, particularly in bars and restaurants, Pampel said.
But with indications that the genetic component is growing, it may be time to treat smoking more like an addiction than a choice, Pampel said. Such a policy shift might include more emphasis on nicotine-replacement therapy and counseling.
Boardman, Blalock and Pampel are affiliated with the CU Population Center in CU-Boulder’s Institute of Behavioral Science.
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