March 20, 2021 – No matter what art form you are obsessed with, we all are on the hunt for that next seed idea sending us on our next artistic journey. Most often we stumble upon these little gems unexpectedly. For most of us, that happens far too infrequently. Here is how to open your channels to hearing your muse speak to you more often.
March 22, 2021 – Good thing stretchy pants aren’t visible on Zoom. For many Americans, buttoning one’s jeans has gotten increasingly harder during the pandemic, and researchers have now estimated just how many pounds people under shelter-in-place orders tended to gain. The research letter, published Monday in JAMA Network Open, opens by explaining 45 US states put such orders in place from March 19, 2020 to April 6, 2020. To get a sense of the impact of that period, researchers used data from a heart study in which 269 participants weighed themselves using Bluetooth-connected smart scales between Feb. 1 and June 1 of that year. They found that during the shelter-in-place period, people gained an average 0.6 pounds every 10 days, “irrespective of geographic location or comorbidities.”
March 23, 2021 – Coworkers eventually helped me contact author Van Asher, who gave me a color copy. Asher, 51, is currently the harm reduction coordinator at Housing Works’ Cylar House. For decades he’s been on the frontlines of harm reduction work around Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the neighborhood where I live and where I first started learning about harm reduction a few years ago through the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center.
With St. Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction, Asher has made 1,500 copies of The Young Injectables since it came out in 2019. It’s illustrated by his frequent collaborator U.A. Morrison, one of the original guitarists in NYC punk band Murphy’s Law who now lives down in Brazil. Asher’s own artwork is prolific, ranging from professionally cut video to Scotch-taped zines of HIV and hep C info for SSP participants.
March 25, 2021 – “The dirty truth is that they are relying on algorithms to purposely promote conspiratorial, divisive or extremist content so that they can take money, make money in ad dollars, and this is because the more outrageous and extremist the content, the more engagement and views these companies get from their viewers,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., the chairman of the full committee. In 2020, Facebook’s profits rose 58 percent to $29.1 billion. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, saw its profit rise 17.5 percent to $40.3 billion last year. Twitter, a smaller social media company than its other two rivals, reported a loss of $1.14 billion for 2020.
In any other context, a business trying to make more money by keeping its customers hooked to its product or service would be seen as the sine qua non of a capitalist enterprise. But in this case, user-generated content that’s flowing through social media platforms could range from a middle-school kid bullying a classmate or a sexual predator preying on young people to messages promoting violence against religious and ethnic minorities or — planning an attack on Congress.
In response to numerous complaints from Congress, researchers and watchdog groups, social media companies have formed several in-house and independent committees to decide what content to keep and what to remove, how to get rid of repeat offenders, all while continuing to keep their platforms humming along with clicks, likes, and forwarded messages. After seeing the CEOs avoid a yes or no answer several times, Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, was frustrated.
“There’s a lot of smugness among you,” Johnson told the CEOs. “There’s this air of untouchableness in your responses to many of the tough questions.” Johnson then likened the social media companies to Big Tobacco, which after years of contesting claims that they were promoting an addictive substance, agreed to a $245 billion civil litigation settlement in the late 1990s. “While this is not your first hearing in front of Congress, I can assure you that this hearing marks a new relationship between all of us here today,” Johnson said. “There will be accountability.”
March 27, 2021 – Coffee at KYUK takes a look at sobriety through the eyes of Tiffany Hall, executive director of Recover Alaska, and Alice Qannik Glenn, producer and host of the podcast “Coffee and Quaq.” Both guests talk about what it means to take on a sober lifestyle, and the different ways of thinking and talking about it. Recover Alaska has many resources available on their website, recoveralaska.org, including links to various podcasts in this series on sobriety. Coffee and Quaq can be found at coffeeandquaq.com.
I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passe. But today, if you think that I don’t know about depression and emotional pain, You’re insane, or you’re a fool who hasn’t paid attention to a word that I say. In a way, I can’t help but feel responsible, I always knew that you were insane With your pain, but I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passe, hey.
Heroin is so passe, hey. Herion is so passe, hey, hey. Aaaah
So passe nowadays. You never thought you’d get addicted, just be cooler in an obvious way I could say, shouldn’t you have got a couple piercings and decided maybe that you were gay, In a way, I can’t help but feel responsible, I always knew that you were insane With your pain, but I never thought you’d be a junkie because heroin is so passe, hey.
Heroin is so passe, hey. Herion is so passe, hey, hey. Ah ah ah ah, aaah, aaah, aaaah Ah ah ah ah, aaah, aaah, aaaah Ah ah ah ah, aaah, aaaaaaah
Heroin is so passe, hey. Heroin is so passe, hey Heroin is so passe, hey, hey. Ah ah ah ah, aaah, aaah, aaaah, Ah ah ah ah, aaah, aaah, aaaah, Hey hey hey hey heyyy, heyyy, heyyyyy
March 24, 2021 – Throughout that football season, Favre noted taking pain pills became “constant,” admitting the dosage increased as the months went on. The night before the next season began, the former NFL star had a seizure, which was later linked to his addiction. “I’d never had a seizure before that. As they dug deeper, [the doctor] found out that I had an addiction to pain pills, but I didn’t tell him how much,” Favre said. “I said, ‘OK, I’ll stop taking them,’ but I continued to take them.”
The former athlete had a second seizure after undergoing ankle surgery the same season, which he admitted “scared” him. The health scare happened in the hospital where his wife, Deanna, and their eldest daughter, Brittany, were with him.
When he woke up, Favre said he had a “come to Jesus” moment and decided to go to rehab. He stayed for 75 days, although he thought he “had it all figured out” earlier on. The NFL required him to finish out the full stay in order to play again.
March 25, 2021 – David Marion is a certified interventionist, public speaker, founder of The Life Recovery Coach and author of Addiction Rescue; The NO-BS Guide to Recovery. As a Nationally Certified Intervention Professional (NCIP) and a Nationally Certified Recovery Coach (NCRC), he is dedicated to helping those battling substance abuse onto a path of sustained recovery and fulfilling lives. A recovering addict himself who lost his marriage and relationships to substance abuse he is “uniquely qualified” to introduce others to a clean and sober way of life.
Q. If you are in recovery, what was your Drug of Choice? When did you stop using? A. Quaaludes, alcohol and opioids/heroin.
Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice or a wicked twist of fate? A. Disease
Q. Do you log on to ZOOM 12-step meetings? How often? Do you share? A. Yes 3-4 times a week. I do share in most meetings.
March 26, 2021 – Violent crime, meanwhile, has declined about 20% so far this year compared to the same three months of last year, largely before the coronavirus pandemic, according to police statistics. Similarly, property crime declined 35% when comparing those time periods.
“Clearly, the data suggests that there is no public safety value in prosecuting these low-level offenses,” Mosby said. She made her announcement Friday outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse in her first public appearance since The Baltimore Sun reported last week of a federal criminal tax investigation into the state’s attorney and her husband, City Council President Nick Mosby. She did not discuss the investigation and directed all questions on the matter to her attorney.
An hour later, Mayor Brandon Scott held a press conference and was asked about the federal investigation into the Mosbys. He declined to comment. Federal prosecutors issued subpoenas to several churches, a children’s nonprofit and a campaign treasurer seeking records of donations and other financial documents related to the Mosbys.
Mach 24, 2021 – The latest overdose statistics sparked debate in the legislature, with the Opposition Liberals demanding the government take vigorous action in next month’s budget to address mental health and addiction services.
“The loss of 155 lives in February represents a 107 per cent increase over the same month in 2020,” said interim Liberal Leader Shirley Bond. “This is a situation that continues to get worse. It’s taking people from all age groups and economic situations.”
She called on Horgan to take measures to prevent the deaths.
“Perhaps the premier can step up and tell us what specific steps he is taking to ensure that next month and the month after that and the month after that, we are not having the same conversation.”
B.C. was making progress reducing the number of overdose deaths in 2019, but the arrival of the pandemic has seen deaths increase as the illicit supply grows more toxic and many people are using alone, Horgan said.
