plus 4, Facebook, Bra Color And What It Means (Or Doesn't Mean) For Breast ... - NPR News |
- Facebook, Bra Color And What It Means (Or Doesn't Mean) For Breast ... - NPR News
- Solving the bra color Facebook puzzle - Washington Post Blog
- Lissy Rosemont Spreads the Bluegrass Bug - ABC News Blogs
- Bra Color Status on Facebook Goes Viral - ABC News
- Acupuncture Eases Tamoxifen-Related Hot Flashes - Post Chronicle
| Facebook, Bra Color And What It Means (Or Doesn't Mean) For Breast ... - NPR News Posted: 08 Jan 2010 10:47 AM PST By Shereen Meraji Yeah, I got the anonymous Facebook note telling me to change my status to reflect the color of the bra I'm wearing.  What does your bra color have to do with breast cancer? The note went something like this, "Some fun is going on.... just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of breast cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before people wonder why all the girls have a color in their status... Haha ." Here's the thing -- I changed my status, but I don't know anything more about breast cancer or how to protect myself against it. Now all my Facebook friends just know the color of my bra. Is this another example of "slacktivism," virtual activism with no real results? How many of you were inspired to educate yourselves? How many of you changed your Facebook status, but weren't enticed to learn more about breast cancer? How many of you decided to opt out, because you didn't want your friends and family to know the color of your undergarments? Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Solving the bra color Facebook puzzle - Washington Post Blog Posted: 08 Jan 2010 11:44 AM PST The world awoke Friday to discover that Davi's bra is black. Janet's is blue with bows. Kim's is pink. And Susan's is a "decadent beige." The colors were, at first at least, somewhat mystifyingly posted on thousands upon thousands of Facebook pages as their status updates, without any context. Just colors. "White .. for today anyway!" wrote Kerri. By midday, the color craze had gone viral on the Internet and around the globe, as had the word that the colors were really bra colors. Almost immediately, cyber-arguments erupted about what it all meant. The blogosphere went wild. Was so openly and willingly posting something as intimate as one's bra color an attempt to raise breast cancer awareness? Or was it all just another Facebook 'send your friend a snowball' or 'take your celebrity boyfriend quiz' silly game? A meme? Whatever it is, its impact was immediate and dramatic: As bra colors went flying around the net, something strange happened at the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. After two years of intensive efforts to boost its profile through social networking, hiring two full-time people to do solely that, within two hours Friday morning, their fan base on Facebook exploded from 135 to 700. "This would fall into the unprecedented category. We've never had a spike like this," said spokesman John Hammerley. "We don't care if it's a $20 million campaign or a, what do you call it, a kind of electronic chain letter asking for your bra color. It's fun. It gets people talking, and hopefully, it will lead folks to really getting a greater awareness of something that's going to affect one in eight American women." New Facebook groups began popping up. Within hours, 'Bra Color as My Status' had 167 fans. 'Not Posting the Color of Your Bra' had 206. 'We Don't Want to Know Your Bra Color' had 51. Then the men weighed in. "Post your boxer color (Guys)" because "it's about time guys got to proclaim the color of their undergarments too" had 21 fans. No one could figure out who started it all. But they couldn't stop talking about it. As far as anyone can tell so far, the bra color craze started, in the United States at least, a few days ago with a chain letter email on Facebook that went viral. The email went something like this: "Some fun is going on ... just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of breast cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before people wonder why all the girls have a color in their status Haha." Some versions of the message included gleeful mention of how confused boys would be by it. But like anything that goes viral, what started as a trickle on Tuesday or Wednesday became a full-blown fad by week's end. Davi McDonald saw the color in her aunt Judy's status update on Facebook, asked her what was up, then posted her own bra color and sent the email along to her friends. One of those friends, Janice M. Shaddox Lee, posted her bra color "in honor and memory of my mother, who passed away from breast cancer 13 years ago, and in honor of my friend who is a breast cancer survivor. I also did it to bring awareness to others to get regular mammograms." By Friday afternoon, some people complained that solely posting a color, without linking to a breast cancer awareness website, or asking for a donation to a breast cancer research organization, was little more than a a silly game or crass attempt to get attention from men. "I think the thing about posting your bra color was so incredibly dumb," said Tanya Alteras. "I have a friend who is in her late 20s, just had a double mastectomy, chemo, and is now going through radiation, and she was furious about this. How this raises awareness about breast cancer is beyond me. It's all about making a silly inside joke, and trying to make it meaningful. When you have people posting 'Saran wrap' it just becomes offensive." Some breast cancer survivors blogged about the heart-wrenching decision of whether to post a bra color or not. "I wrote 'None - in fact, I don't even OWN one,'" blogged one survivor, who noted that many of her friends who'd had mastectomies began writing "Nude." "Nothing." Shana Aucsmith initially deleted the chain letter she got. Just another Facebook fad, she thought. Another time-suck. But within hours of deleting it Friday morning, she began seeing bra colors pop up all over her friends' Facebook pages from around the country. And some of these friends, she knew, had survived breast cancer. "It was astounding how quickly the word had spread," she said. "So, I decided to post my bra color to show support for them. I thought of writing black, because it sounds sexier, but I told the truth and wrote beige ... Now everyone knows how boring I am." Still, one mystery remains: Whose idea was this? By Brigid Schulte | January 8, 2010; 2:51 PM ET It was funny, but we don't need multi articles from the Post about this stupid craze thing..... Posted by: 4thFloor | January 8, 2010 3:24 PM | Report abuse Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Lissy Rosemont Spreads the Bluegrass Bug - ABC News Blogs Posted: 08 Jan 2010 11:01 AM PST January 08, 2010 1:57 PM (Video and story from Elisha Wood in the ABC News DC bureau) Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Lissy Rosemont, 28, is the front woman for the Washington, D.C. based Junior League Band. This rock inspired blue grass band has only been around for a few years, but their popularity is on the rise. They've toured all over the country introducing audiences to their unique blend of rock and blue grass tunes. Despite the changes in band members, the group has managed to release three records in less than 18 months. Soulful songs such as "South Carolina Blues" from their first album "Oh Dear" have major mainstream appeal. The song blends horns, guitars, and the fiddle, and with the addition of Lissy's sultry voice the song could be heard on pop radio. When Lissy's not touring with the band, she's working on her solo career. In November she opened for Rosanne Cash, Johnny Cash's daughter. Lissy has already put together an E.P. album that's less rock and has more of a traditional blue grass sound. She plays the banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and the harmonica, but some songs don't require any instruments, just the sound of her captivating voice. Lissy has only been seriously pursuing her music career since 2006 when she traded her microscope for a microphone. Originally she planned to become a doctor. She attended Georgetown University where she earned a master's degree in physiology and biophysics. She had a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health working on breast cancer research, and was even accepted to medical school. But her passion for music steered her down a different course, a course that was paved by her parents when she was just a kid. The Atlanta native grew up with many musical influences. From late at night when her parents would ask her to sing Hank Williams songs in her nightgown to the early morning when her mom would be playing hymns on the piano. Lissy never thought she could make a full time career out of playing music, but she's having the time of her life playing in front of audiences around the country. She has no regrets, and hopes to keep singing, writing, and playing music. The Junior League Band are headlining at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on Friday, January 15, with Justin Jones and The Driving Rain. For more information on Lissy Rosemont and the Junior League Band, check out their website www.juniorleagueband.com. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Bra Color Status on Facebook Goes Viral - ABC News Posted: 08 Jan 2010 11:51 AM PST "Black My Regular," was Anna Davison Smith's post yesterday on Facebook. "Handbags, no?" commented her brother-in-law Ian Davison. "Put me out of my misery." Olive White was at first baffled by all the colors being cited on Facebook by her women friends. "But I've got it now, good job." A lot of Facebook users didn't get it. In the last 24 hours, women have randomly been posting the color of their bras on their status updates, bewildering their friends and titillating the men in their lives -- all to raise awareness for breast cancer research. At noon today, "color status on Facebook" was number 11 on Google Trends and was making fast gains on Twitter. No one seems to know its origin. Detroit Free Press is taking credit for its city in starting the phenomenon. BellyBeyond blog also suggests the Motor City. White, a 43-year-old nanny who lives in New York City, is convinced the Facebook phenomenon started in Britain then quickly went viral in the United States. "I saw my Irish and English friends post colors in the past few days and now the Yanks are at it," said White, who was born in Ireland. "It's pretty funny that mostly black is coming up. Because of all the ice going on over in Ireland, I was thinking about the roads," she told ABCNews.com referring to dangers of black ice. "Then when someone from Scotland wrote, 'pink,' I thought it was pink eye. Finally I asked what was with all the colors." "I hope some sizes come up next," commented one of her male friends. Another realist quipped, "I am still waiting for someone to be honest and say grey." "Some of my posts are pretty embarrassing," said White. "It's madness. Some people are writing 'nude' and the guys are saying, 'Great, I'll come over.' Nude is a color of brown." October is breast cancer awareness month, but organizations that support the cause say they are thrilled with the free publicity. "We think it's terrific," said Andrea Rader, a spokesman for Susan G. Komen For the Cure, an organization that raises funds for breast cancer research. "It's a terrific example of how little things get started on the Internet and go a long way to raise cancer awareness."
Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Acupuncture Eases Tamoxifen-Related Hot Flashes - Post Chronicle Posted: 08 Jan 2010 12:06 PM PST A new study provides more evidence that acupuncture can help ease hot flashes in women with breast cancer who are being treated with the "anti-estrogen" drug tamoxifen. Acupuncture, researchers found, is free of side effects and has a side benefit for some women: an increased sex drive. "Acupuncture appears to be at least as effective as drug therapy," Dr. Eleanor M. Walker of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and her colleagues report, "and it may provide additional and longer-term benefits without adverse effects." Breast cancer patients with estrogen-sensitive tumors are typically given estrogen-blocking drugs for years at a time. These drugs, which include tamoxifen, bring on menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats. The antidepressant drug Effexor (venlafaxine) is the standard treatment for these symptoms, Walker and her team note in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, but it can have unpleasant side effects, including dry mouth, nausea, and constipation. Non-drug treatments with few or no side effects are "urgently needed," they add. To investigate whether acupuncture might be an option, Walker and her team randomly assigned 25 women to receive Effexor or acupuncture for 12 weeks, following them for up to year after the end of treatment. Both treatments reduced hot flashes, night sweats, and symptoms of depression to a similar degree, and also significantly improved mental health, the researchers found. But within two weeks after treatment ended, women in the Effexor group saw their hot flashes increase; this didn't happen in the acupuncture group. Eighteen women in the Effexor group had side effects, such as dizziness and anxiety, while none of the women given acupuncture had such side effects. About a quarter of the women given acupuncture said their sex drive had increased. "Most women also reported an improvement in their energy, clarity of thought, and sense of well-being," Walker and her team note. The researchers also point out that Effexor could impair the effectiveness of tamoxifen in some patients, because it can block the body's metabolism of the drug. Acupuncture, they conclude, is a "safe, effective and durable treatment" for hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms stemming from anti-estrogen hormone therapy in women with breast cancer. They hope this study will "lead to a change in the pattern of practice" of treating these symptoms in patients with breast cancer. In traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture has been used for hot flashes. The current findings showing that acupuncture has the ability to cool breast cancer-related hot flashes build on findings reported by the same researchers in 2008. (See Reuters Health report, September 22, 2008). SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, online December 28, 2009. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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