Fabulous Prizes and Student Presenters!

The name of the game today is "what's the real problem?" - regarding presentations.
But first - Name that TA!
Fear of falling, same best friend since fourth grade, loves washing dishes - Moonstruck Milk Chocolate!
So many introductions.
Needle exchange for IV drug users: He's skipping the Snake Oil portion of the policy, including the elixirs of heroin.
Culture of drug use - ritual of procurement, preparation, and use. Culture, however, is not always a good thing. One could argue a culture of pedophilia should be eliminated, though this does include direct harm, whereas heroin only involves personal or secondary harm.
Harm-reduction model - vs. health and moral - I like the name. Drug user protests against cold-turkey approaches? Stigmatization?
Nobody is legitimately addicted to heroin for pain control. (Unless they've been hooked since 1914.)
No additional harm in community - good point, there's always alarm that any protective measures will support new users.
So needle-sharing programs need to legitimize an "acceptable level" of heroin use. How much rehab are we willing to pay for?
What's the problem? Treatment of addiction is terribly ineffective, and attitudes towards heroin use (user's/drug culture and outside).

Wrap-Up

We need to do something, even if this doesn't solve everything.
1. We should listen to the rebellious kids. If we don't let them drink Coke, they'll drink beer. They should rebel against the fast food industry. Are all kids by nature rebellious? Or do they just rebel against those things they don't respect or don't believe, or test limits they can overstep?
2. Something? Amendments?
3. Physical activity is important.

Fabulous Prizes! - In their correct seminar colors.

Best info of the day - Orange Seminar is always the "bad" group, solely as part of Siegel's antagonism towards Christina, the TF.

Seminar Results and Town Hall Meeting

We're officially promoting the "Coke Cares, but not that much" position. Our corporate identity is unshakable.
Also, someone is trying to injure our panel, by dropping the screen on them. Consternation abounds. It's like a really, really, slow guillotine that'll give a nasty bump.

These are always so stilted.
Public Health Advocacy Institute: Think of the children, especially the obese children, who shouldn't be allowed to drink soda at school. (Just at home.) "Nutritional justice for our children."

A group is playing children? Please, let there not be acting. Gaffes, though, we have those. And anti-authority positions, and stereotypes of disobedient, rebellious kids! Nickelodeon is against the bill.

PTA: School system and higher taxes for rich town to support food in underclass area.

Teachers Association: Wrong cause, losing that good vending machine money. Also, how many people here don't realize Coke sells juice and water? Snark from legislators - are teachers implying they don't know how kids work?

Also, I don't ever take real notes anymore. Is it because there's very little learning happening? This whole "experience" isn't working.

Coke: Sell our juice and water. We still make money. And we "abstain," like those other public health initiatives, and like kids should based upon their individual choice.

Vending Machine Association: Yeah limiting choice, no limiting sales! They're going to have to pick something, and it won't be a nalgene unless we can sell those too.

BUSPH Students: Enlightened. Bill is the wrong approach (both), loses revenue, support to schools, and juice is expensive. (And not really any healthier? There's as much sugar in 100% juice as a Coke.) Micromanages nutrition, other approaches to health are necessary...and how much more dogma? Isn't this a step in the right direction?
And happy birthday...fabulous prizes!

Town. Hall. Meeting. Welcome to Session 12!

Fabulous prizes denied! Apparently you can't have more than one t-shirt.

John Auerbach

Fabulous Prizes!
A Red coffee mug, Red BU hat, and a Gray Challenging Dogma Shirt! We make it worth your time.

Thank Prof. Siegel for what he didn't say...regarding his role in tobacco control. Interesting grammatical construction.

Contextualizing Contest

An inter-seminar contest, for chocolate, Milky Way or Reese's/Kit-Kats.
One article says SES doesn't change mortality.
One says health insurance is related.
One says health behaviors and health insurance coverage can be controlled for, but still there is a connection between SES and health.
One followed that smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, BMI can be controlled and still show connection between SES and health.
One (echoing tonights exercise) blames lack of housing for homelessness.
One says individual factors dictate who will be homeless, but housing is the fundamental determinant.
One identifies the context of risk factors as important.
One denies the idea that risk factors are not causally related.
One affirms that risks of risks and social conditions for risk are both important.

I haven't done the readings (yet). I haven't missed a question.

Now chocolate:
From Cacao, Almond Joy has nuts, Violet Beauregard became a blueberry, Water for Chocolate in Mexico, Chocolate fights Dementors, and Epidemiology can study risk factors for risk factors - Social Epidemiology.

Welcome to Lecture 7

Dr Phil just couldn't handle that Siegel stole his show, and according to the National Enquirer, is "Falling Apart."
This is going to be the tone of the night.
Fabulous prizes! Colorado Avalanche license plate and wallet, for making a play in SPH softball. "You probably don't have a car to put it on or money to put in it." - Siegel.
Calculator time: I'm waiting for someone to show a ten-key. I have a pad of paper.
Most basic - TI-something simple. - Hershey's bar, plain.
Winner - variants on TI-89s. Hershey's bar, extra dark with lots of fruit and such.
I own this.

Session 6 - Intro

Another mom, another day of Fabulous Prizes! Bring a parent, get two free shirts.
Mass Media class sounds fantastic - 3-4 word answers for their midterms.
Also - Philip Morris is the Enemy. "They." Also Bacardi - it's got to be that creepy bat.
Captains of Consciousness - "Advertising offered itself...as a way of homogeneously controlling...the public consciousness, mass consumers."
"Control instinct through mass media to create universal appeal."
"They believe they can control you. You are just pawns." If you did the Truth reading, this is the same model of "creating rebellion" in teenagers used by that campaign.
Harry Potter - book four, the Goblet of Fire. We get a bit on Pansy Parkinson - this is completely unnecessary. We're listening to a BU professor read and analyze Harry Potter to demonstrate how Pansy Parkinson is bullied into "hiding" her love of unicorns, because they're not evil enough. (Also, it cost you about $6 to hear it.)

Fabulous Prizes are tainted?

Oh no! We've all been led: Fabulous prizes are only to set a precedent for answering questions.
Do you feel pavlovian? We may all drool when his voice lilts up for a question.
The Tipping Point in question-answering: People won't answer until other people answer.

Harry Potter

o Harry Potter
• “I invited J.K. Rowling, we’re using Harry Potter to teach social and behavioral sciences. She said no.”
• Four Houses:
 Hufflepuff, the dumb ones, are SB?
 Re-read: Gryffindor is group-serving, or at least willing to subordinate personal desires to the good of all (Harry’s desire to be normal, or to escape the conflict with Voldemort, not to die if that is necessary to defeating Voldemort) whereas Slytherin is self-serving above all (and therefore cast as evil)
• Draco Malfoy – born into Slytherin
 Cast as a dark wizard – WHOA. Spoiler alert.
 Malfoy’s actions are more due to the actions of the house he’s assigned to than to his personal convictions
• Someone brings up the Harry-in-Slytherin possibility
 Internal struggle with the external world
• Group-level or individual-level explanation for behavior
• Group-level Muggle vs. Group-Level Wizard is a better comparison
• Pansy Parkinson
 The ugly one. Malfoy’s girlfriend?
• (With Crabbe and Goyle?)
 These characters are “foils”
 Slytherin attached to monied families – rich people are evil?

Fabulous Prize for our expert: Harry Potter 20Q. Does it only know Harry Potter objects or answers? Siegel is amazed. (His first answer was spaghetti. Is it flat? Yes. Aren't spaghetti round? Cylindrical, if possible?) (Snake is next. Is there a theme here? Snakes, noodles?) (Public Health: Machine answers "sunshine." Siegel's mind is blown.)

Class Five!

Fabulous prizes!
Blue group (Flower model) gets a prize by popular demand. Who are these people? Who demands prizes for other groups? Or was this entirely a group-demand for prizes?
A promise for our Valentine's (Halloween?) to be worthwhile if spent in class - more prizes to come?
Former student: Automatic fabulous prizes.
And there are supposedly more. I'm almost bribed into silence. But this is still awful.
Vegan Options: Jolly Rancher Lollipops.
We've wasted 15 minutes of class. This class costs $80 an hour. Those are $20 lollipops. Enjoy.

Returning Students!

Italo and some guy who took the class last semester are being graciously introduced.
Italo's email ibrown@bu.edu
Someone's parent is here - Ananta's mom - First Fabulous Prize of the night, a Matching yellow Challenging Dogma shirt.

Break for Seminar 2

Reminder: Up to now, there have been no fabulous prizes.

Our group was terrible and our model was ridiculed (for being ugly).