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While many of us may occasionally drop some cash on a few beauty products we don't really need, Alene Dawson, writing for the Los Angeles Times, notes that for some people, purchasing and hoarding cosmetics is a serious problem. More »
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Today's New York Times reports that for some, tanning isn't just fun, or a habit. It's part of a medical diagnosis. More »
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Scientists have found a link between higher concentrations of melanin and increased risk of nicotine dependence and tobacco-related cancers. They believe this may explain why African-American smokers have a harder time quitting than whites. [ScienceDaily] More »
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Sunday's Washington Post featured the story of 15-year-old Julie Zingeser, who managed to send 6,473 text messages in one month. Writer Donna St. George asks: is texting a new addiction plaguing the youth of America? More »
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Mystery writer Laura Lippmann waxes on the dangers of collecting obsessions. In her case, inexplicable ones. Having had to block eBay on our laptops, we can relate. [Wall Street Journal] More »
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You know what I fucking hate? (And yeah this is tangentially related to a substantive news report regarding the topic that you can read if you like to, you know, learn facts.) Moving on I hate people who tell me they're trying to cut back on caffeine. People who will stand around being all drowsy and shit because they're trying to detox from coffee. Seriously, fuck those people. They always make a big deal out of it because, duh, people who haven't had their coffee have a lot to make excuses about, but like, you seriously expect my empathy? You expect my empathy and caffeine is your addiction? Sure, Starbucks with its 400 milligram Ventis has hooked unprecedented numbers of Americans on unprecedented quantities of caffeine. And LOOK AT THE SOCIETAL CONSEQUENCES! Like how America suddenly has a burgeoning employment sector that doesn't consist of "taking care of sick people"!! Because, guess what, coffee doesn't do anything especially bad! It actually turns out to prevent skin cancer and certain autoimmune disorders and shooting yourself in the temple just to put an end to the misery of having to get out of bed every 24 hours! More »
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A BBC story today expresses some cynicism as to whether the increasing growing of "sex addiction" is, you know, actual addiction. Sex addiction won't give you the shakes if you go through a dry spell, and while it does have the same dopamine-stimulating effects as gambling, it's sort of like food binging (and money) in that sex is sort of a necessary activity for the survival of the human species, so maybe so-called "sex addicts" need to just calm down and stop acting like they have a "disease." So why force sex addicts to enter a 12-step program? I can think of a reason: because people who have gone through 12-step programs are generally more bearable than people who haven't, and that is because the programs seem to instill in their followers the understanding that they are just inherently shitty people, which is a good thing because, as new studies prove, much of humanity simply has too much self-esteem. More »
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