Current Event Blog #7

“Hard Evidence: Are We Beating Cancer?”

In the recent years, the lives of people with cancer have starting to increase survival rate. There has been new medicines that are being made to reverse cancerous cells but the amount of people being diagnosed are increasing. Due to the days society, more things are leading to people getting cancer. The lifestyle a person lives is easy to determine an individuals likelihood of being diagnosed with a type of cancer.

In this article I can relate to some of the things. I've had several close family members and family friend been diagnosed with some form of cancer in their body. Some died fighting and some are still alive cancer free by the treatment they received. Without the new medications being produced in order to reverse the cancerous cell they had, a lot of today's population would be alive. This article, in a way, could also relate to school. Once when I was in elementary school I had a child in my grade with cancer. Not giving away that individuals name, “it” had been fighting a long time and taking the treatment. Eventually the cancer took it over and it passed away. That was traumatic for anybody at such a young age to deal with, but the whole school was greatly affected by it.

When I take a side of this article for myself, it makes me very happy to know that there is medications able to help get rid of the most common cancers. This can have a very large impact on the world. There may be an extra effort to find the cure to every type of cancer. The more their knowledge about this life threatening disease, the more they are able to grasp what can determine if an individual is able to overcome it.  

Sarich, Christina. "Cancer." Photograph. CLN. Conscious Life News. Media. 22 Apr. 2014. <http://consciouslifenews.com/devastating-report-cancer-misdiagnosed-13-million-cases/#>.

Johnson, Peter, Ph.D. “Hard Evidence: Are We Beating Cancer?” The Conversation.The Conversation Trust, 26 March 2014. Web. 18 April 2014. <http://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-are-we-beating-cancer-20870>.

Blog Post #6

Companies Denies Drug to Dying Child

                                           

Image of Josh Hardy straight from article.

 During this article it is about a 7 year old, Josh Hardy, fighting for his life against all odds. He has defeated cancer 4 times in his young life. The only drug that could save Josh has been denied to his parents. The company that has this experimental drug says if they were to give Josh the drug it would put all the other people in the world in a longer wait to get the drug. 

This article doesn't really connect with anything in my school right at this time. It can connect to others in school. They could have a classmate that has a illness that can't be cured but only by a certain medicines. It'd be horrific known that a fellow classmate/ friend only had a small amount of time to survive and there's a way to change that but the owners of the drug won't allow it.

When I take a side of this article I think it is terrible that these people won't give a child a drug to save his/her life. A child at age 7 hasn't even lived yet and their is already something trying to take it away. The adults that own this drug have lived their life and are taking away some child right to grow older. It's wrong that they won't give Josh this drug but there is a point behind their reasons. There is other people in the world needing the drug too that can't get it. But when seeing a child almost dead, have the audacity to at least attempt to save their life. 

Citation:

Cohen, Elizabeth, John Bonifield, Nadia Kounang, and Intern Arianna Yanes. "Company Denies Drug tp Dying Child." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/10/health/cohen-josh/>.

Blog Post #5

OMG! Your Teen Actually Talks to You?

Throughout this article, it presents several families and the way communication influences each one. There is different things each family is open about talking to their teens and pre-teens about. Things such as sex, drugs, relationship, and etc. Most things that families discuss affect the way each young adult going into their life knowing and understanding.

This article doesn't connect to what we are learning in school all that much. Although, it is something that every teenager goes through in their life. It the awkward “talk” most a scared of. In school kids can talk about things to each other but most are unable to communicate about these things to their parents. 


For myself, I like to know that other families are able to discuss things my family tends to talk about.  When we sit down to eat dinner, we are able to talk about anything that we want to. More of the personal things, I know I can always talk to my mother about. She doesn't ever judge me on what I want to talk about, and she always talks to me like I am an adult. I’m always comfortable talking about anything that is going on in my life. One thing we always talk about is how I am so different from other girls at my age. The things that they are doing and wanting to do versus what I’m doing and what I want to do in my life. Some of the things we discuss affect the decisions I make on daily bases. I know how they feel about certain topics that I know if I came to contact with, I’d always know what to do and what to say in a situation. 

Wallace, Kelly. "OMG! Your Teen Actually Talks to You?" CNN. Cable News Network, 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/19/living/talking-to-teens-communication-parents/index.html?hpt=hp_c4>. 

Picture was taken from same site. It had no information as to whom had ownership of it. 

Blog Post 4: 3-D Printer

Kansas Teen uses 3D Printer to Make a Hand for Boy.

Williams, Mara Rose. "Kansas Teen Uses 3-D Printer to Make Hand for Boy." Wichita Eagle. Public Insight Network, 31 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://www.kansas.com/2014/01/31/3261314/kansas-teen-uses-3-d-printer-to.html>

                         

“Mojo 3D Printer.” Photograph. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 29 Aug. 2013. Media. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mojo_3D_Printer.png>

In this article is telling a story about a little boy named Matthew that was born without fingers on his right hand. A teen from nearby was injured during a football game and quit sports to do more engineering during his free time.  Both of them heard about a local library that had a 3D printer and thought it would be cool to work with. The teen, Mason, and Matthews mo had the idea of using the printer to make Matthew a prosthetic hand. Mason start on it and made a hand for Matthew that would allow him to move the fingers.

The story and article doesn't relate to what we are doing in our class right now but it could relate to things in other peoples class around the world. There is kids born without a certain body part and get downgraded for it. They begin to feel self conscious about what their flaw is and its hurts them. Then when they receive a prosthetic, like Matthew did, they learn to embrace the flaw they have and others can see that it’s not as bad as they may think.

After reading this article my reaction is amazed. Hearing about how this truly affected this little boy's life by giving him the fingers he never had, made me feel like somebody's life was made better. If I had the talents to create something like Mason did to help others out, that’s what I’d be doing in my time. The way things like this can change a person’s life greatly. There is men and women that can’t afford things to help them proceed at life everyday. Then with new technologies in today's world it could cost as much as $60 and a couple hours of somebody’s time to make a prosthetic that most people would pay thousands of dollars for.  

Blog Post #3

The Higher Purpose of Doodling.

CBS News. "The Higher Purpose of Doodling." CBS News. 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. Web. 3 Feb. 2014. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-higher-purpose-of-doodling/>

Hubball, Kim. "Doodles." Photograph. Flickr. Yahoo, 3 May. 2012. Media. 3 Feb. 2013. <http://goo.gl/ufPI24>

The article I picked this week was on a purpose of why people tend to doodle. It talks about the new studies that are being done to prove that doodling actually helps you remember stuff. The study was taken by ask some people to doodle while listening to a call and the other people to just listen. The study shown that 29% of the doodlers remembered more stuff. There are people wanting to say that doodling isn't good for you, but it actually helps your mind stay focused instead of daydreaming. 

This does relate to our everyday school life. Most of our teachers will get mad if they happen to see us drawing pictures while they are trying to explain something in class. There has been cases of kids being kicked out of school or arrested for drawing. Something thing that doesn't make sense is the adults know that  kids all over the world have ADHD and ADD. Drawing can help those kids that do have that to focus on their listening, while that are doing the drawings. 

When I take a side on this, I love to doodle. While my teachers are lecturing I like to draw small things beside my notes. Usually, the drawing does have something to do with what we are being taught at the moment. If I'm not doing something while they are explaining something I start to let my mind wonder off. Then after they are done, I have no idea what they just told me. I don't have that long of an attention span most of the time. I think that schools should allow kids to draw. If they want us to pay attention, then they have to find away for us to stop daydreaming, and one way is by doodling. 

College Athletes Reading and Writing Ability.

CNN analysis: Some college athletes play like adults, read like 5th-graders

Gamin, Sara. "Some college athletes play like adults, read like 5th graders." CNN. Turner Broadcasting System Inc., 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-scores/index.html?hpt=hp_t1>.

LaMonaca, Mike. "UNC Chapel Hill." Photograph. Flickr. Yahoo, 7 Nov. 2012. Media. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://goo.gl/wMc5pJ> 

In this article it is talking about the athletes education levels that now go to college. The teachers are finding out that most of them can't read past a 8th grade level. After learning this, they are questioning how they made it through high school without anybody noticing it. 

This relates to the normal high school students that don't care about how they do in school. Some of the teacher's will just give grades so the student doesn't have to stay in their class any longer. There is even cases in which teachers are payed to give grades to pass a child along. Nobody in the world can survive on their own without some type of knowledge of how to read and write. 

When I take a place in this article it really makes me think how often kids get pushed through school knowing anything. It makes me mad that some kid work their butts off to maintain grades that they try so hard to earn. Then you hear that college athletes can't do the stuff normal middle school and high school student can do, and they've got that far without anybody knowing. It affects my life by the fact people don't do anything and get stuff I or somebody else could never get in our lifetime. They didn't even work towards it, they got their gift to help them through it. 

Ethan Couch Story

Gray, Madison. "The Affluenza Defense: Judge Rules Rich Kid’s Rich Kid-ness Makes Him Not Liable for Deadly Drunk Driving Accident." Time News Feed. 12 Dec. 2013. 9 Jan. 2014. Web. <http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/12/the-affluenza-defense-judge-rules-rich-kids-rich-kid-ness-makes-him-not-liable-for-deadly-drunk-driving-accident/> 

The article I decided to read was about a 16 year rich boy named Ethan Couch getting away with what he done. He thought he could go out and get completely intoxicated and nothing happen. Something did happen and it killed 4 innocent people and injured 2 other people. Instead of getting the penalty for killing these people, he claimed he had a weird disease. “Affluenza” and that's pretty much saying he’s too rich to care about his actions he does.

This article really doesn't connect with our classes right now but it connects with wild teens. When they see this they can think they can get away with reckless actions. That’s sending a bad picture for teens that don’t think fully about the stuff they do. Then they’re gonna try and get away with stuff Couch did that tragic night and hurt themselves or others. This does connect with all high schools around the U.S.

My opinion on this is very deep. Couch murdered these people and got away with absolutely no time or anything. If anything one night in the most run down jail would have maybe done this boy good. Then his parents are paying a half million dollars to send him to a fancy rehab. If I put myself in the place of the person that lost a loved one I definitely wouldn't stop with his sentencing. I would push until I got some type of result. Couch will always think if I got away with this I can easily do it again.

Sprezzatura Images. "STOP Affluenza, or Pot. Kettle. Black. Bethesda Style." Photograph. Flickr. Yahoo, 25 Dec. 2008. Media. 10 Jan. 2013. <http://goo.gl/9I7MOc>