Go Sober For October

 
One more sleep for those of you that are participating in "Sober October"

Go Sober for October, is a Macmillan Cancer Support campaign encouraging people to raise money by giving up the booze for a month.The money raised will go towards providing support to those suffering from cancer.

Perhaps you haven't signed up yet because you weren't aware of it but have decided you want to take part, if this is the case Click here to sign up.

The website encourages you to sign up as a team if there are a few of you doing it, for moral support.  You are even allowed to have "Golden tickets" which allows you to drink if you really need to for special occaisions where you would consider it unavoidable (in exchange for a donation).

Last year the campaign raised over £2 million and 53,000 participants have already signed up for 2014

http://www.gosober.org.uk/

Music Video About Alcohol Addiction

Henry Maybury from Shrewsbury created this music video about the impact of alcohol addiction. Henry lost his brother Tom who died at just 29 years of age to the disease, the video sums up how his brother was feeling and what kind of impact drink was having not only on Tom, but also the rest of the family and his close friends.

I think that there area lot of people out there that will be able to relate to this video and recognize parts of themselves or others within it who might be going through similar challenges.

Handing Over ID to Purchase a Cupcake

Image credit www.businessinsider.com

We came across information about this shop (sadly in the US and not the UK). Its called "Prohibition Bakery" and they  began making their original alcohol-infused cupcakes back in 2011. Flavors such as Sangria, and Pretzels and Beer have been flying off the shelves ever since.

The cupcakes are made using a novel technique of inserting liquor post-baking, this is so that the alcohol doesn't burn off during the cooking process, the cupcakes have many big clients such as Google and HBO.

Before you ask, yes you need to show an I.D to purchase an alcoholic cupcake. Virgin (non-alcoholic) flavors are also available for the under-21 crowd.

 Prohibition Bakery was included in a recent list of the 28 Coolest Small Businesses In New York City

What else is there to say other than please start a UK branch!

Pub & Club Goers in Hemel Hempstead Could be Breathalysed

Pub and club-goers in Hemel Hempstead could be breathalysed on their nights out as Herts Police take part in a national alcohol awareness campaign.

Officers will be operating the checks on those who’ve had "one too many" at the town’s Function Rooms and Full House venues.

They will also be carrying out licensing patrols alongside Dacorum Borough Council as part of the initiative, due to run until September 28.

People will be encouraged to drink responsibly, with the main message focusing on the amount of time and police resources that have to deal with the consequences of people consuming too much alcohol.

According to police, when people drink to excess they can start to lose their normal reasoning which leaves them vulnerable to aggression and accidents, while long-term alcohol abuse has a significant health and social impact.

There is also a new telephone counselling service for those who need support for alcohol abuse or dependency which was launched earlier this month.  0300 111 2470

The service will be available on three evenings per week from 6pm to 9pm and on Saturday mornings. Calls are charged at the local rate.

Clothes That Tells People How Drunk You Are?!

I have to admit when I came across this news story title I was thinking about a much more discreet concept like a t-shirt that changes colours or something.

Image by: ©Younghui Kim

The  "smart clothing" reached a new milestone with the demo of Metamorphosis, which is a prototype capable of reacting according to the quantity of alcohol drunk by the wearer.

The unveiling happened at a hackathon in Seoul, South Korea, the Metamorphosis concept  was developed by IT developers and artists in collaboration led by Younghui Kim. Currently it consists of a shirt for women and a jacket for men.

As the wearer's blood alcohol level rises, the shirt's sleeves lift and inflate accordingly. With the jacket, it's the collar that lifts gradually as the wearer continues to drink. ( I wanted to find a video on you tube so that we could see what "inflating shirt sleeves" looks like as it sounds wierd to me to be honest! alas I could not find anything)

The surprising concept stands out for being both useful and artistic at once. In addition to improving the drinker's awareness of his or her alcohol level, the clothes allow others to determine at a glance just how inebriated their conversation partner is. In this way, the wearer of Metamorphosis clothes clearly displays to others exactly how uninhibited he or she is.

The US Once Poisoned Alcohol Supplies

Detroit police inspecting clandestine brewery

Looking around the internet today it became apparent that in an effort to scare people away from drinking alcohol, the US government during Prohibition poisoned certain alcohol supplies. Their action resulted in the death of over 10,000 citizens. The choice to poison the alcohol came about because the government became frustrated with the fact that despite the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol being banned, the number of people drinking alcoholic drinks rose higher than it was before Prohibition. The morve was designed to try and scare people to stop drinking.

After the first 100 or so people died, health officials were outraged and as the government had hoped the news hit the headlines. Unfortunately, the government’s plan didn’t quite work, instead of scaring people away from drinking it had little to no effect on peopledrinking alcohol, the estimates are that it resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 people with a much larger number severely sickened and many blinded by the poisoning.from that point on.


Image from wikipedia

There are a lot more details about this story if you visit this site gizmodo.com.au

Can't Get Enough of Homer Simpsons Duff?

Im going to start by saying that I didnt even know that you could buy "Duff" beer so this was a new one on me.  Its being sold in Australian bottle shops, or at least for the next few days!

Woolworths, through its Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores, began stocking a replica of the famous cartoon brew back in May. However this week they have been told they have to stop selling it  after Duff Beer was found to be in breach of the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code. (they are allowed to sell the stock they currently hold. So you might be able to grab one last can in the next day or two still.)

The ABAC panel decided “The association of The Simpsons with the product name and packaging is so strongly entrenched in Australian popular culture that the name and packaging will draw the attention of under 18 year olds,” .

Brewer Lion Nathan also produced their own Duff Beer in the 1990s but that ended when Twentieth Century Fox, which broadcasts The Simpsons, won a Federal Court battle over the brand’s trademark.

Alcohol Policy Coalition spokeswoman Sondra Davoren hailed the ABAC panel decision, saying Woolworths disregarded marketing standards and the product never should have hit the shelves.

“Research shows a correlation between the age of a person’s first drink and the development of harmful drinking patterns later in life.That is why it is really important that alcohol producers are not allowed to target kids.”

“We respect the panel’s adjudication and will discontinue the stock,” the spokeswoman said.

Ms Davoren said the Alcohol Policy Coalition wanted the State Government to restrict how, where and when children were exposed to alcohol advertising, which she said was supported by 77 per cent of Victorians.

Source heraldsun.com.au