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Topic 3: This is the one I will be writing my paper on. It is about the direct affect of 9/11 on the way country music was produced and made. Following the awful attack on 9/11, country music tonally changed and you can track it back directly to that event.

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Topic 2: Right to Refuse Care. At least in Texas, my primary doctor can and does refuse care to me because I am transgender. Because of the bill that passed, this is legal. A doctor can chose to not treat a patient because of their gender identity and that is a problem. If someone choses to become a doctor they should want to help everyone regardless of gender orientation.

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topic 1: climate change is very important and threatening us now. This would be a good topic because some people think that its up to us normal people to fix the earth but its far past that at this point. It has became such a problem and will threaten future generations. At this point, regular people just recycling wont stop this. Billionaires with money to spare are our only hope at this point.

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Integrated Role of Nutrition and Physical Activity for Lifelong Health

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Integrated Role of Nutrition and Physical Activity for Lifelong Health

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Since I'm very interested in nutrition/health and want to go into the Physical Therapy field, this article caught my attention. I believe that regular exercise and simply moderate dieting can help someone feel a lot better both physically but also mentally. The lack of nutrition awareness is a key issue for future research, physical activity and integrated dieting can help with cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as orthopedic problems and depression.

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Integrated Role of Nutrition and Physical Activity for Lifelong Health

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It is well established that healthy nutrition and physical activity (PA) are key lifestyle factors that modulate lifelong health through their ability to improve body composition, musculoskeletal health, and physical and cognitive performance, as well as to prevent metabolic diseases including obesity, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease across the lifespan.

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Topic 2: Psychological Consequences of Social Isolation During COVID-19 Outbreak

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Topic 2: Psychological Consequences of Social Isolation During COVID-19 Outbreak

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I chose this topic because I believe the pandemic and having to quarantine actually changed the way my brain developed to handle the social scene and how comfortable I was around people. The article focuses on the mental consequences quarantining has and will continue to have on many people.

-Diego Mujica

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Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Milan, Milan, Italy

Psychology Research Laboratory, IRCCS, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy

Department of Justice and Society, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Regional Eating Disorders Unit, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Perceived social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly has had an extraordinary global impact, with significant psychological consequences. Changes in our daily lives, feeling of loneliness, job losses, financial difficulty, and grief over the death of loved ones have the potential to affect the mental health of many. In an atmosphere of uncertainty, it is essential that clear and precise information is offered about the problem and how to manage it. In this contribution, a rationale is provided for an urgent call for a rapid response to the mental health impacts of COVID-19. Moreover, suggestions for individuals to regulate their emotions effectively and appropriately are provided.

Introduction

The mental health consequences of COVID-19 are already visible and even by conservative estimates they are yet to reach their peak and likely to considerably outlive the current pandemic.

The most common psychological disorders emerging are anxiety and panic, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, insomnia, digestive problems, as well as depressive symptoms and post-traumatic stress ( Rogers et al., 2020). These are not only a direct consequence of the pandemic but also largely driven by the effects of prolonged social isolation - that is the objective lack of interactions with others ( Leigh-Hunt et al., 2017). The medical journal The Lancet recently published an article from which a clear and alarming picture emerges: periods of isolation, even less than 10 days, can have long-term effects, with the presence - up to 3 years later - of psychiatric symptoms ( Brooks et al., 2020).

Although necessary to limit the spread of the epidemic, in fact, human beings are not "designed" to manage segregation for a long time. As the Greek philosopher Aristotle reminds us, man is a "social animal," unable to live isolated from others, since the absence of relationships removes essential conditions for the development of personal identity and the exercise of reason. Although our first instincts may be to react angrily at (and with) people who pour out onto the streets, there is a need for a more universal compassionate stance - and recognition that the very nature of the human being is in stark contrast with the situation we are experiencing.

Moreover, research shows that nourishment and movement - besides being important therapeutic expedients - are a fundamental vehicle for communicating with ourselves, others, and the world, and have an enormous influence on our biopsychological balance.

Prolonged isolation can adversely affect physical and emotional health, altering sleep and nutritional rhythms, as well as reducing opportunities for movement ( Cacioppo and Hawkley, 2003). As a result, the natural channels of human expression and pleasure become depressed, with attendant impacts on mood and subjective well-being ( Nardone and Speciani, 2015).

Furthermore, in accordance with current regulations, we have begun to behave "as if" other people are potentially dangerous for our health and for the health of our loved ones. This turn of events has cultivated a new universal belief based on vulnerability-to-harm, whereby proximity to fellow human-beings poses a direct threat ( Nardone and Portelli, 2005). To date, more and more people are avoiding social relations, no longer by imposition, but as a choice. A decision initially moved by the fear of an invisible enemy and by the total uncertainty about what is right to do/not to do, to say/not to say, to think/not to think, derived from the information - ambiguous and conflicting - that we have received. In turn, this determines behavior that will gradually replace our old worldview and interpersonal relationships.

While the levels of environmental stress continue to rise, we are witnessing the deterioration of relationships. Rather than connecting people, restrictive measures are creating rivalries and arousing discord between people. As conveyed by the Latin phrase " Divide et impera" (literally divide and conquer), an authority that exerts high levels of control and division in governing a population, tends to fragment them. The magnitude and impact of fragmentation can be influenced substantially by leadership style. Grandiose leadership, for example, may create the seductive illusion of safety, with claims of invincibility and omnipotence, while providing an outlet for a range of grievances associated with inequalities and poverty through paranoia and blame of perceived "enemies." These processes provide fuel for xenophobia and deeper divisions within society ( Case and Maner, 2014; O'Reilly and Hall, 2020).

Anger and nervousness, unspoken and lasting, come back to haunt us with psychological problems.

Likewise, spending an unusual amount of time together in confined spaces - often unsuitable for the purpose itself - increases the risk of conflicts and domestic violence. China has experienced a significant rise in separations and divorces, particularly stressful events, which can act as a trigger - especially among the most sensitive - for the development of mental health problems, primarily depression.

On the other hand, prolonged social isolation characterized by reduced social connections and contact, generates deep disconnection among those who live alone or cannot rely on an adequate social network, thus increasing the likelihood that depressive symptoms will emerge. Social isolation has been linked to cognitive impairment, reduced immunity, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and ultimately, mortality ( Cohen et al., 1997; Bassuk et al., 1999; Barth et al., 2010; Heffner et al., 2011). The association between physical frailty and social isolation has been linked to heightened inflammatory activity, as indicated by increased levels of C-reactive protein and fibrinogen ( Loucks et al., 2006).

Social isolation and loneliness are related concepts and often coexist - loneliness can lead to isolation, and vice versa ( Shankar et al., 2011). Loneliness has been an emerging issue in society in recent years, and has been linked to depression, irritability, and preoccupation with negative self-related thoughts, alongside a 26% increase in risk of premature death. Research suggests that this has been a growing problem in industrialized countries, with approximately one-third of the population affected, and one in 12 people affected at a severe level. Further, it appears that income and socioeconomic status are no barrier to loneliness - everyone is equally at risk ( Cacioppo et al., 2015; Holt-Lunstad and Smith, 2016).

Loneliness is increasingly recognized as a public health issue, especially due to the detrimental effects on health and potential for premature mortality ( Grant et al., 2009; Cole et al., 2015; Murthy, 2017; Yanguas et al., 2018; Bzdok and Dunbar, 2020). Loneliness is associated with feelings of emptiness, sadness, and shame, alongside the subjective perception that one is disconnected from others. It not only can occur in the context of social isolation but can also persist beyond this and can be experienced even when others are physically present. Like social isolation, loneliness has been linked to depression ( Cacioppo et al., 2006; Han and Richardson, 2010), increased cortisol levels ( Edwards et al., 2010; Miller, 2011), lowered immunity ( Cole et al., 2011), and clinical disease, with attendant increases in length and frequency of hospital stays ( Thurston and Kubzansky, 2009; Hawker and Romero-Ortuno, 2016). Further, social isolation and loneliness may be stronger predictors of suicidality than other well-known risk factors, such as anxiety and hopelessness ( Hom et al., 2017). In spite of the clear risks associated with loneliness, treatments to date based on cognitive-behavioral principles have shown poor outcomes ( Masi et al., 2011). With the onset of COVID-19, enforced social isolation is likely to be exacerbating what is already a significant issue in our society ( Hughes et al., 2004).

Added to this is the devastating and understandable impact of concerns related to economic problems and the loss of a loved one. During the coronavirus epidemic, we are forced to deal with death in ways unrelated to human civilization: from the thought of not being able to be with the deceased in his/her last moments of life, to the sense of guilt for the idea of having inadvertently infected the person, to the distress of not being able to properly honor him/her with a funeral ceremony, fundamental to the process of mourning - these are all factors that amplify the pain of death, increase the rates of depression, the consumption of alcohol, drugs and risky behaviors and, in the more extreme cases of suicide.

Unlike the common and ineliminable moments of crisis that characterize the existence of each of us - which, although destabilizing, represent a unique and fundamental opportunity to review personal strategies for problem management - in this period, people are experiencing impotence, vulnerability, and a feeling of loss of control over one's life as a response to something indeterminate in time and space. This generates anguish for an uncertain future and, once again, favors the appearance of depressive symptoms - especially in those most vulnerable, including those who already suffered from mental health problems and in health workers.

Those who have been placed in quarantine and those working on the front lines to deal with the epidemic are also at risk of being stigmatized: as possible "plague-spreaders," they are viewed with fear and suspicion.

Certainly, some will prove to be more resilient than others and will be able to count on the presence of greater personal, social, and economic resources, but we all will be affected - to varying degrees - by the impact of this revolution on our way of living and relating to each other and on our physical and psychological health.

A Storm of Risks for Depression

The environmental stressors that characterize this particular historical moment clearly suggest the risk of a new epidemic, and this time there are signs it could be our mental health; but the national health system, once again, may not be ready to stem the effects of the epidemic.

As the reality of social isolation persists throughout and beyond the pandemic, loneliness and interpersonal disconnection will emerge, particularly for those most socially vulnerable. Psychophysical exhaustion, anxiety, fear and pain, anguish, trauma, and anger - these emotions alternate, mix, and grow in intensity to the point of overwhelm, leading to clinically significant psychological disorders, such as "reactive depression."

While the COVID-19 crisis increases the risk of depression, depression affects the individual's ability to solve problems, set and achieve goals, and function effectively, at work and in relationships, making recovery from the crisis even more difficult. In fact, even if it manifests in different ways, at the basis of depression there is always an attitude of renouncement. People gradually lose any form of active reactivity in the face of life's difficulties: there is an increasing tendency to complain, let off steam, and rely completely on others in the management of themselves, all actions of delegation, therefore of renunciation. And, as described by Emile Cioran, the renunciation is nothing more than "a small daily suicide."

Feeling safe and protected is a fundamental primary need of the human being to be able to move freely in the surrounding world, as well as the feeling of having control over the events of our own life. When all this fails, when the belief that whatever we do will not improve things begins to develop, a sense of "learned helplessness" takes hold, blocking any possibility of liberation or change.

How to Prevent COVID-19 Depression

The anguish we experience is a normal human response to a serious crisis. Recognizing and accepting these feelings prevents them from turning into disorder.

Giving up, delegating, and complaining are all attitudes that at the beginning of a crisis can help us, but after several months can become entrenched, self-perpetuating, and end up complicating the situation, evolving as a slow drift into a depressive mindset. Recognizing these patterns immediately in one's thought processes and behavior is the best way to move in the opposite direction and to break the vicious circle that leads to global renunciation - and that characterizes the most severe depressive forms.

This pandemic will inevitably lead to redefining our relationship styles, which will no longer be based on proximity but on distance. Physical contact will be replaced by negotiated sharing, while the digitalization of lives, already started with the advent of social media, technology, and virtual reality, will be further emphasized, thanks to medical-scientific legitimacy.

Abandoning the idea that "things will go back to normal" and facing the changes taking place with flexibility mitigates the onset of psychopathology.

The human being - by nature - is extremely flexible - facilitating adjustment to the reality that change will become the new normality ( Rossi et al., 2020). In Lao Tzu's words, "Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong." But it takes time.

Specific treatment options are available for the most problematic situations, and more available than before the advent of the coronavirus, as mental health professionals - even the most resistant - are - flexibly - offering online support and advice.

First, however, there is a need for higher level changes: state economic support measures are crucial responses to both the economic recession and the psychological depression. Institutions must ensure that this experience is as tolerable as possible for people. Alarmist messages, such as the emphasis on the negative aspects of the pandemic (number of seriously ill people or deaths) rather than on the positive ones (number of recovered), the abuse of alarmist expressions ("death even among young people"), and stories rich in personal details about the victims, are as counterproductive as excessive references to positivity and optimism, which, on the other hand, produce a paradoxical effect: the unrealistic nature of the messages may lead to greater mistrust and perhaps dismay ("they do not tell it as it is"). Even vague or ambiguous messages ("if we are united, everything will be fine," "be responsible," "stay alert, control the virus") dilute the desired effects.

Human resilience is closely linked to the depth and strength of our interpersonal connections, including our involvement in groups and communities. In contrast, loneliness appears to be one of the greatest threats to our health, survival, and well-being. In an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear, it is essential that clear and precise information is provided on the problem and on the management of the emergency. Greater cultural and economic investments will therefore have to emerge to support better and more timely prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation programs in the field of mental health, because "there is no health without mental health."

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author Contributions

GP drafted and edited the manuscript. SS critically revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

Han, J., and Richardson, V. E. (2010). The relationship between depression and loneliness among homebound older persons: does spirituality moderate this relationship? J. Relig. Spiritual. Soc. Work 29, 218-236. doi: 10.1080/15426432.2010.495610

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Nardone, G., and Speciani, L. (2015). Mangia, muoviti, ama. Firenze: Ponte alle grazie.
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Frontiers | Psychological Consequences of Social Isolation During COVID-19 Outbreak

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Perceived social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly has had an extraordinary global impact, with significant psychological consequences. Ch...

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According to the article, a majority of Americans in the workforce are unhappy or burnt out at their workplace. This problem comes with feeling underpaid and believing the monetary compensation you receive should be higher for the amount of work you're doing. I personally am one of those Americans. It can also arise when an employee has been at the job for a majority of their life and just get bored of it. Where I work, it feels like it damages my mental health due to the repetitiveness of the job and the numbness it causes to my brain, so I'd be quite passionate talking about this topic

-Diego Mujica

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Job Satisfaction in the US

Surveys since 2005 reveal that the majority of Americans aren't satisfied with their work. This mirrors the level of engagement in the workplace with many simply not feeling particularly excited about what they are doing. The trend is fairly consistent across different generations from the Millennials to the Gen X'ers to the Baby Boomers. Engagement ranges from 29 percent to 33 percent while non-engagement swings from 48 percent to 55 percent. Those who are actively disengaged comprise 16 percent to 19 percent of the respondents. The trend indicates that excitement wears off as time goes by.

There are a number of reasons why employees are unhappy. Many are unsatisfied with their compensation. They feel that they deserve more given the work that they do so they feel as if they are undervalued. This often leads to a search for greener pastures. Many are also unsatisfied with the career advancement opportunities available to them. They might feel stuck in the same place with no prospect of moving ahead or growing as a person. This leaves them unfulfilled knowing that they have more to offer. Some are not satisfied with the management's recognition of their performance. They want their efforts to be appreciated.

In a lot of cases, the problem stems from distrust between employees and senior management. Certain promises might have been made only to be broken later on. This makes people skeptical of future pronouncements. They won't act according to the wishes of the management. Indeed, it's not only those at the very top who keep disappointing the workers. Immediate supervisors are often cited as the cause of much unhappiness in the workplace. Great bosses are hard to find. Others are simply unsatisfied with the nature of their work as they find it unfulfilling. Some are worried about their job security.

Aspects Contributing to Burnout

Up to 40 percent of American workers report feeling job burnout. They cite workload as the biggest reason. When there's just too much to do, it takes a toll. Time pressure is another massive contributor. Everyone knows how stressful it can be to keep chasing deadlines. A lot of people point to manager pressure. Their jobs are already difficult but having an unsympathetic boss makes things much more complicated. The absence of job security also adds to the anxiety, driving people to push themselves past their limits.

Important Factors for Satisfaction and Engagement

Employees are more likely to be satisfied if there's respectful treatment at all levels, competitive compensation, excellent benefits, job security, and established trust. They tend to have higher engagement scores when they are confident about meeting work goals and are determined to do so. They should have a clear understanding of the company's vision and mission. A good working relationship must be developed between peers. They should also have opportunities to showcase their skills and abilities.

Employee Retention

When people are unhappy with their jobs, they leave to search for other opportunities. Companies then have to find replacements right away and train their new hires. This can be costly if there is a high turnover rate. In fact, it is estimated that poor performance and retention costs businesses roughly $500 billion every year. A study found that 33 percent of Americans would take to a recruiter if approached even if they were happy with their current job. About 30 percent of young employees expect to have a new job by the end of the year.

The good news is that employers can do something to reduce the bleeding. According to research, employees who are engaged in their jobs are less likely to look elsewhere. A 20 percent raise would tempt 54 percent of actively disengaged employees but only 37 percent of the engaged employees. The differences are profound. In workplaces where engagement is high, there are less safety incidents, fewer quality defects, lower rates of patient safety issues, less absenteeism, reduced customer shrinkage, higher profitability, greater productivity, and higher customer ratings.

Strategies for Improvement

Changes have to be made to increase employee satisfaction. At the top of the priority list should be compensation. Financial incentives are still the primary motivator. The majority says that they would be happier if their employer were to increase their salary. Next on the list is the ability to make a difference. This is particularly important to Millennials. They want their work to have meaning or at least have opportunities to make a positive social impact. They feel more fulfilled as a person when they get the chance to contribute in social and environmental projects. Their loyalty to the company also increases.

Flexibility is another important issue. They would like more flexible scheduling arrangements so that they can attend to other areas of their life like family. About 29 percent of workers resign due to work overload and lack of a healthy work-life balance. Given the available technologies today, this isn't out of reach for most employers. Some days could be spent working at home with outputs send via the Internet. People can care for their sick loved ones or be with their young children while still being productive. Efficiency may be measured by the quality of the output instead of the clock.

There should also be multiple opportunities for growth. People want to feel like their career is progressing in direct proportion to their efforts. They like to work in companies that can provide them with chances to advance in various ways. Currently, only 57 percent of employees feel satisfied with the opportunities in their organization. They want to be recognized for their accomplishments, as well. Overwhelming majorities say that they don't mind working beyond their usual hours if they feel valued. They would certainly be happier if their employer were to provide more recognition. This increases their motivation to perform.

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The Value of Job Satisfaction In Today's Workforce

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Surveys since 2005 reveal that the majority of Americans aren't satisfied with their work. This mirrors the level of engagement in the workplace with many simply not feeling particularly excited about what they are doing. The trend is fairly consistent across different generations from the Millennials to the Gen X'ers to the Baby Boomers.

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Topic 3: open carry in public places in Texas

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Topic 3: open carry in public places in Texas

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I've chosen this as my third topic because this is a law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott this year allowing texas citizens to open carry handguns in public without needing to go get a permit to do so. I chose this topic because I have lived in Texas my whole and this bill affects me in my everyday life.

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Topic 2: How helpful is homework for kids?

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Topic 2: How helpful is homework for kids?

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I chose this as my sencond topic because I've gone through school pretty much my whole life and I am interested in seeing how beneficial homework is for kids.

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Topic 1: The effect of kids playing video games 

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Topic 1: The effect of kids playing video games 

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I chose this as my first topic because growing up I loved to play video games all the time with my school friends, along with my other friends around the neighborhood. I feel like there is two decent sides to this topic on whether or not that it is good for kids to play video games at a early age.

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Topic 3: The importance of Art in our Communities.

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Topic 3: The importance of Art in our Communities.

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Growing up, art has been a huge part of my upbringing, whether it's music or dance, I have always gravitated towards art and i think it's about time we go to know the importance of having art in our communities. How art contributes to our learning and how art is around us on a daily basis. All of that to say, many of us think of art as a luxurious or have to be this creative genius to create it and that could not be far from the truth. Art can be anything and everything, you just have to be open minded to it. i wish to incorporate that in my writing and how it contributes to our growth and having deep conversations and changing our perspectives on important issues.

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Topic 2: Malpractice and discrimination on Women's Healthcare.

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Topic 2: Malpractice and discrimination on Women's Healthcare.

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I want to write about the discrimination and malpractice women experience on a daily basis. This came up due to that am huge believer on equal rights and i would like to believe that includes the healthcare system and if it's not then, how can we go about making it fair. Being a woman there are a lot visits you have to take to the doctor's office and that can be as good or terrible depending on how you are treated i hope to include this in my writing.

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Topic 1: Specific laws and their effects on Immigration.
I chose this topic because am me being a child of an immigrant parent, i obviously know one perspective but it is also deeper than that. It is bringing light to these conversations, that we can grow and learn from that. There is a lot of information in this area but that is why we need to be educated on this issue because it ultimately affects all of us.

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Topic 3: Why the pandemic created a car shortage and how long it's going to last

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Topic 3: Why the pandemic created a car shortage and how long it's going to last

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I would like to write about this topic because I have been in the market for a car for some time now and it has made me curious about why cars are so expensive right now. Writing about this topic might help me reflect on whether I should wait to buy a car or not.

Brenda Nieto

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Car shopping has been a rollercoaster ride since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. last spring, and customers shouldn't unbuckle their seat belts quite yet. First, automakers shuttered their factories as many states' stay-at-home orders prompted dealership showrooms to shut down . Demand plummeted and automakers quickly responded with incentives and financing offers to revive confidence. The plan worked - only a little too well. As dealers reopened, consumers snatched up vehicles faster than automakers could produce them. Now, a global microchip shortage is causing major production delays , and vehicle inventory has sunk again.
Related: Car Shoppers Face Shorter Supply, Rising Prices
How long will this situation last? And what should you do if you're planning to buy a vehicle this year? We interviewed three industry experts about the drivers of the shortage, its impact on auto brands and when we can expect to see inventory stabilize.

What's Driving the Vehicle Shortage?

The current global microchip shortage may be the elephant in the room, but according to Tyson Jominy, J.D. Power's vice president of data and analytics, the inventory struggles can be traced all the way back to May 2020, when increased demand and COVID-related supply challenges first created a shortage among pickup trucks.

"The incentives were kept on a little too high and a little too long," Jominy said. "As we came into May, we were still running a lot of the 0%, 84-month offers, so the APR [annual percentage rate] support was very strong. It became apparent that we should have backed off. By the time we got to the end of May, pickup inventory was very much depleted."

Before the industry was able to get back on its feet and replace diminishing inventory, a burgeoning microchip shortage layered on another supply shock. The chip shortage has disrupted production for every major auto brand, and a supply issue of this magnitude is uncharted territory. That's according to Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions.

"There hasn't been one component that has hampered this many companies and products," Fiorani said. "It touches so many parts of the car, from power controllers to navigation, to power seats, everything like this has a semiconductor in it. It can stop everything. Any one of them can be a linchpin that brings everything down."

Vehicle manufacturers aren't only competing against each other for microchips, but also players in other industries, namely, consumer electronics.

Stephanie Brinley, principal automotive analyst at IHS Markit, explained: "Demand for semiconductors for nonautomotive uses increased dramatically," Brinley said. "In the third and fourth quarter of 2020, consumer demand for things like cellphones, laptops and video games skyrocketed as people worked and schooled from home. Demand for semiconductors grew far more rapidly than semiconductor manufacturers expected or could produce, creating a backlog of orders."

Hardest Hit Vehicle Brands

AutoForecast Solutions estimates that the global semiconductor shortage will pull more than a million vehicles from planned production across Western Europe, Asia and North America in 2021, but some plants may be able to recover production as the chip shortage improves. Total vehicles permanently lost in North America will reduce production this year by about 600,000 units, the company expects.

U.S. automakers bear the brunt of the inventory crisis, with the Detroit Three accounting for the top 10 models impacted, according to a tally of AFS data by Automotive News . As of mid-May, Ford was the most shell-shocked brand, with 325,000 vehicles lost, including nearly 110,000 units of the popular F-Series pickup truck, according to the newspaper. GM and Stellantis had to forgo 278,000 and 252,000 vehicles, respectively. Following the F-Series, the most impacted models are the Jeep Cherokee (98,584 units), Chevrolet Equinox (81,833 units), Chevy Malibu (56,929 units) and the Ford Explorer (46,766 units).

Is Help on the Way?

Automakers and the U.S. government are both working to address the shortages. While Ford has shut down production for some models due to the microchip shortage, automakers like Nissan and GM have continued to build vehicles, though without some components that require chips. Just last week, the U.S. Senate took a bipartisan step forward to fight the inventory crisis by passing a bill that invests in domestic microchip production, among other things.

Automaker Workarounds

In the meantime, automakers are getting creative to fill dealer lots, according to Brinley.

"Automakers are prioritizing components needed for high-demand vehicles and adjusting availability of some features and options," she said. "In some cases, vehicles are being produced without some key components and being held until the components are available."

These components include features like navigation systems, which Nissan reportedly pulled from thousands of vehicles. GM has also taken the less-is-more approach to keeping production lines moving. First, the automaker reportedly removed an Active Fuel Management system from its full-size pickups, including the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500, which resulted in a 1- or 2-mpg efficiency loss. GM also announced it would build some V-8 trucks and SUVs without an automatic stop-start feature .

Although cutting features to keep vehicles in production offers some relief, it's not a quick fix. GM still had to reduce production for the Silverado and Sierra along with the Chevy Equinox, GMC Terrain, Chevy Malibu and Cadillac XT4, according to an AutoForecast Solutions monthly report.

Government Action

President Biden got involved early in the chip shortage, recognizing the geopolitical nature of the crisis but more action is needed to resolve the situation, according to Jominy.

"The chips are primarily produced in China, and it's harder for the U.S. to get the chips in general," Jominy said. "China shut down sooner and came back sooner, so they were able to get the chips earlier than other parts of the world. Also, a lot of chips come from Korea, so who doesn't have someone in their corner? The U.S. domestics."

Indeed, a 2020 report by Boston Consulting Group and the Semiconductor Industry Association notes that the U.S. now accounts for just 12% of global semiconductor production, down from 37% in 1990. (Though the two aren't quite synonymous, semiconductors are often referenced interchangeably with microchips in the current crisis.)

As the first action step to address the shortage, the U.S. Senate passed a $190 billion legislation package to compete with Chinese tech, Reuters reports . According to the Congressional Budget Office , $54 billion will be allocated specifically to domestic production of semiconductor and telecommunications equipment, with $2 billion of that reserved for chips used by automakers. The bill still needs to pass the House of Representatives, where it reportedly faces a longer timeframe , but President Biden has voiced support to sign the bill into law.

When Will Inventory Return to Normal?

Brinley says we may never see inventory levels return to pre-COVID levels, but shoppers can expect to find more vehicles on dealer lots as the semiconductor situation improves.

"Normal is also likely to change," she said. "Automakers and dealers are working to adapt to a lower inventory level, as it has been an issue since mid-2020 for a number of reasons. However, relative to the semiconductor shortage, supply is expected to improve from mid-2021 forward and largely return to normal in the first quarter of 2022. Over the next eight months, the situation will gradually improve."

According to Fiorani, it won't be until the third or fourth quarter of this year before the industry hits the trough of the inventory problem, and vehicle inventory likely won't return to full capacity until 2022. When asked if the shortage could extend into 2023, Fiorani says there's no way to know how long customers will have to wait.

"The problem is we're in uncharted territory, like COVID was a year ago," he said. "We don't really know how deep this is and how soon we'll recover."

Jominy expects the chip shortage will last another four months in a worst-case scenario but cautions that the residual effects on vehicle inventory will be felt much longer due to high demand. He estimates that the trough of the inventory will be around Labor Day, since summertime is normally the biggest car-selling season, and it started with a shortage. He also says the recovery efforts won't materialize as increased inventory until the second or third quarter of 2022, and it's unlikely consumers will see the incentives and deals they are accustomed to until such increases occur.

What If I Need to Buy a Car Before 2022?

Patience and flexibility are virtues in the current car-shopping environment, while negotiating skills won't do much good.

"Consumers need to be patient shopping for a vehicle," Brinley said. "It could take time to find the vehicle they want in a configuration that they are looking for, so be prepared to either wait or compromise. There are fewer incentives and discounts to be found, so expect to pay MSRP."

Fiorani offers some candid advice to prospective car buyers, encouraging them to put off a car purchase if possible due to rising prices and lack of inventory.

"It's not a good time, historically, to purchase a new vehicle - or vehicle for that matter, but if you have a vehicle to sell, it's absolutely the time to do that," he said, referring to the soaring trade-in values many consumers are now seeing .

Jominy says only about half of car shoppers have experienced the new normal of the inventory shortage. For the ones who haven't, he advises planning ahead, picking up the phone and speaking with the dealer to find a suitable option.

"We still have 2 million units on the ground," Jominy said. "Different brands are affected in different ways. Kia actually has more inventory than they had two years ago. If you are in the market, you can find something."
More From Cars.com: Cars.com's Editorial department is your source for automotive news and reviews. In line with Cars.com's long-standing ethics policy, editors and reviewers don't accept gifts or free trips from automakers. The Editorial department is independent of Cars.com's advertising, sales and sponsored content departments.
This is the time to cross-shop various brands and models, he added. Automakers have an average of six different SUV models on the lot, so being open to multiple vehicle options can pay off.

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Car Shopping: How Long Will the Inventory Shortage Last? | News | Cars.com

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Car shopping has been a rollercoaster ride since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. last spring, and customers shouldn't unbuckle their seat belts quite yet. First, automakers shuttered their factories as many states' stay-at-home orders prompted dealership showrooms to shut down . Demand plummeted and automakers quickly responded with incentives and financing offers to revive confidence.

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Topic 1: How Hollywood takes advantage of child stars

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Topic 1: How Hollywood takes advantage of child stars

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I want to write about this topic because it exposes the reality of how children are traumatized in the entertainment industry. I've always been interested in this topic after seeing videos and other types media about what Judy Garland went through during the filming of the Wizard of Oz. I have also read things about Nickelodeon television producer, Dan Schneider, and how he traumatized some of his child stars, which has raised my concern for kids in the entertainment business.

Brenda Nieto

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Drugs, exploitation, 72-hour shifts: can Hollywood take care of its child stars?

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The film Judy tracks the final year of Judy Garland’s life, the quintessential cautionary tale of child stardom. The list of tragic names since suggest things have not improved much – although some directors are trying

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Topic 2: Colorism in adaptations and why it's an ongoing issue

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Topic 2: Colorism in adaptations and why it's an ongoing issue

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I would like to write about this topic because a lot of book-to-film adaptations have colorism within the casting. I think this is an issue that should be addressed because the film industry tends to gravitate toward lighter skin tones and Eurocentric beauty standards when casting for a movie. Despite if the book illustrates a character with having darker skin.

Brenda Nieto

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Colorism is a pervasive issue in the Hollywood film industry affecting BIPOC communities

By

Photo by Zach Van Arsdale | The State PressAnalisa Valdez | 02/10/2021 9:42pm
"White female actresses have a wide spread across book-to-movie adaptations, oftentimes featuring the same lead in multiple movies." Photo illustration published on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021.

"She is tall, with dark brown skin and short hair."

This excerpt describes Christina, a character from the novel " Divergent" who is played by Zoe Kravitz in the film adaptation.

Kravitz is of mixed African American and Jewish descent, with an olive-toned skin complexion. Christina's character profile in the Divergent series is depicted as having "dark brown skin," yet directors casted a relatively fair-skinned actor to play the role.

The following excerpt describes Starr, a character from the book " The Hate U Give,"played by Amandla Stenberg in the film adaptation.

"As for me, it's as if God mixed my parents' skin tones in a paint bucket to get my medium-brown complexion."

Stenberg is a mixed actor of Black and Danish descent with a light-brown, almost tan complexion. Like Kravitz, Stenberg also does not fit the written racial description of their character, Starr.

Spot the pattern?

These are only a few examples of what Hollywood book-to-film adaptations do to portray a certain character as more appealing to viewers. And how do they do this? By casting someone with lighter skin to play the role.

"I personally believe that the use of lighter-skinned actors for characters that have been described as dark-skinned is a way (for) casting directors and filmmakers to claim diversity without actually being diverse," said student activist Nevaeh Kelley. "Black girls don't just look like Zendaya or Amandla Stenberg. Black girls are dark skinned, light skinned, brown skinned. Black girls have 3B and 3C and 4A and 4B and 4C hair."

Colorism in film, specifically castings for female leads in book-to-film adaptations, is an extensive issue in Hollywood. It has been overlooked by many people who may not see the real harm behind these microaggressions, which are part of an even greater problem.

"Hollywood uses the same 'type' of Black women over and over again because they find light-skinned women more digestible," Kelley said. "They are closer to the beauty standard than those who aren't."

When people think of westernized beauty standards for women, they likely envision blonde hair, long legs, a thin waist, sharp cheekbones and large breasts.

People rarely stop to consider how individuals in the movie industry subconsciously, or perhaps actively, consider skin color to be a determining factor of the beauty standard as well; and it doesn't just affect Black people with dark skin.

"Of course, the lack of representation impacts dark-skin Black people as it's literally diminishing their presence in people's minds and in their own community," said Zoe Bates, an ASU medical studies student and activist. "But also, it does negatively impact light-skin/mixed-Black Black people, as they are further placed on this beyond insane pedestal of perfected attractiveness and appearance, making us seem so uber-exotic creatures rather than humans."

This kind of preference for light-skinned actors in Hollywood has led to a greater divide within the Black community. A divide where not only are dark-skinned Black people disregarded, but also light-skinned and mixed Black people who are held to a higher standard of appeal within the community.

Additionally,in instances where dark-skinned actors are casted, they're often portrayed through racist stereotypes or casted in films exclusively about Black trauma and racism.

"It further pushes the fetishization of light-skin and mixed Black people, the degradation of dark-skin Black people, and ignites the colorist features and racist viewpoints among racism and white supremacy," Bates said.

This is in no way meant to undermine the accomplishments of mixed and light-skinned Black actors; it's meant to critically address the movie industry and the casters who choose to give roles, specifically roles that could just as easily be played by a darker-skinned actor, to lighter-skinned actors.

"We come in all shades; only showing us one and presenting it as the standard is going to leave darker-skinned children with no one to identify with, and it's going to make them feel inadequate," Kelley said. "I'm glad that Black actors are being cast, and I'm happy to see their success, but I'm tired of Hollywood cycling through the same three light-skinned Black women and acting like that is good enough."

...in the year of our Lord 2019 if you as an executive producer/casting director/ decision maker STILL don't get the nuances of colorism in casting Black roles after all the convos had on here I cannot help you. pic.twitter.com/sonvnVpaSH
- Rebecca Theodore-Vachon (@FilmFatale_NYC) August 18, 2019

According to UCLA's Hollywood Diversity Report from 2018, only 1.4 out of 10 leading actors in film were people of color. Just recently, the Golden Globes have been under scrutiny after announcing the 2021 nominations for best actors and actresses, where a total of three out of 10 nominees were Black. The Grammys faced the same criticism after consistently placing Black artists into the "Urban" category for awards.

This highlights the disproportionate manner in which Black people are represented in the arts as a whole. Film casting of light-skinned people over dark-skinned people is not only a form of colorism, but it is also a blatant practice of racism which needs to be addressed and completely disbanded.

"I'm light-skinned, and I've seen myself represented over and over again, sometimes even inserted in roles that weren't meant for people who look like me," Kelley said. "Other Black children deserve the same representation that I've gotten, they deserve to see people who look like them, too."
Editor's note: The opinions presented in this column are the author's and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
Reach the columnist at amvald11@asu.edu and follow @anxieteandbread on Twitter.

Want to join the conversation? Send an email to opiniondesk.statepress@gmail.com. Keep letters under 500 words and be sure to include your university affiliation. Anonymity will not be granted.

Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.

Continue supporting student journalism and donate to The State Press today.

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Opinion: Hollywood needs to stop being colorist in casting decisions

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Hollywood casting directors continuously follow colorist and racist ideologies in their repeated casting of light-skinned actors to portray darker-skinned characters.

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We need to acknowledge student burn-out. 

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We need to acknowledge student burn-out. 

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Topic 3 - One of the biggest challenges my generation faces today is what’s called “burnout”. Burnout is caused by massive levels of consecutive stress and can quickly lead you down a steep hill of depression, anxiety, physical and emotional exhaustion, and for students, academic failure. This is one of the reasons why so many students tend to drop out, and why so many (including the students who appear to be quick-witted) fail class after class. One of the biggest problems with this is the fact that the people who should be acknowledging this haven’t done anything about it.
There is nothing in our school curriculum that focuses on studying habits, work ethics, or even mental health awareness. The students who work relentlessly would do well with a reminder to take regular breaks, and the students who are struggling to find the time to study at all would be greatly benefited with the help of a teacher’s guidance of how to study effectively, and how to manage his/her time wisely. For now, we have been expected from day 1 to figure out everything on our own- including managing our own emotions, stress levels, anxiety rates, the kinds of notes we take (both mentally and on paper), and a multitude of other things. For people with depression and other mental disorders, burnout can be especially hard, particularly within our education system.
With how critical it is to our society to stay engaged and present within our own lives, it is surprising that there isn’t more awareness of burnout itself and how to avoid it. Information and broad acknowledgment of conditions like this needs to be made more easily available to students and to society as a whole.

-Gwenivere Gugel

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Burnout is a state of mental and physical exhaustion that can zap the joy out of your career, friendships, and family interactions. Continual exposure to stressful situations, like caring for an ill family member, working long hours, or witnessing upsetting news related to politics and school safety can lead to this stress condition.

Burnout, however, isn't always easy to spot. With that in mind, we've put together a guide to help you identify the signs of burnout, as well as ways to prevent it.

Interested in helping friends, family members, or co-workers who may be experiencing this stressful state? We've also included a list of our favorite burnout intervention tips and tricks.

Coined by the psychologist, Herbert Freudenberger in the 1970s, burnout describes a severe stress condition that leads to severe physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.

Much worse than ordinary fatigue, burnout makes it challenging for people to cope with stress and handle day-to-day responsibilities.

People experiencing burnout often feel like they have nothing left to give and may dread getting out of bed each morning. They may even adopt a pessimistic outlook toward life and feel hopeless.

Burnout doesn't go away on its own and, if left untreated, it can lead to serious physical and psychological illnesses like depression, heart disease, and diabetes.

Anyone who's continually exposed to high levels of stress can experience burnout. Helping professionals, such as first responders, doctors, and nurses are especially vulnerable to this health condition.

Along with career-induced burnout, people caring for children can also have this type of extreme exhaustion. A recent study found that, just like doctors and business executives, mothers and fathers can also burn out.

Personality characteristics like needing to be in control, perfectionism, and being "Type A" can also increase your risk of burnout.

Worried that you may be experiencing burnout but unsure of the signs? We've compiled a list of symptoms that you can use as a guide.

Exhaustion. Feeling physically and emotionally depleted. Physical symptoms may include headaches, stomachaches, and appetite or sleeping changes.

Isolation. People with burnout tend to feel overwhelmed. As a result, they may stop socializing and confiding in friends, family members, and co-workers.

Escape fantasies. Dissatisfied with the never-ending demands of their jobs, people with burnout may fantasize about running away or going on a solo-vacation. In extreme cases, they may turn to drugs, alcohol, or food as a way to numb their emotional pain.

Irritability. Burnout can cause people to lose their cool with friends, co-workers, and family members more easily. Coping with normal stressors like preparing for a work meeting, driving kids to school, and tending to household tasks also may start to feel insurmountable, especially when things don't go as planned.

Frequent illnesses. Burnout, like other long-term stress, can lower your immune system, making you more susceptible to colds, the flu, and insomnia. Burnout can also lead to mental health concerns like depression and anxiety.

Unlike a cold or the flu, burnout doesn't hit all at once.

Psychologists Herbert Freudenberger and Gail North have outlined the 12 phases of this stress syndrome:

1. Excessive drive/ambition. Common for people starting a new job or undertaking a novel task, too much ambition can lead to burnout.

2. Pushing yourself to work harder. Ambition pushes you to work harder.

3. Neglecting your own needs. You begin to sacrifice self-care like sleep, exercise, and eating well.

4. Displacement of conflict. Instead of acknowledging that you're pushing yourself to the max, you blame your boss, the demands of your job, or colleagues for your troubles.

5. No time for nonwork-related needs. You begin to withdraw from family and friends. Social invitations to parties, movies, and dinner dates start to feel burdensome, instead of enjoyable.

6. Denial. Impatience with those around you mounts. Instead of taking responsibility for your behaviors, you blame others, seeing them as incompetent, lazy, and overbearing.

7. Withdrawal. You begin to withdraw from family and friends. Social invitations to parties, movies, and dinner dates start to feel burdensome, instead of enjoyable.

8. Behavioral changes. Those on the road to burnout may become more aggressive and snap at loved ones for no reason.

9. Depersonalization. Feeling detached from your life and your ability to control your life.

10. Inner emptiness or anxiety. Feeling empty or anxious. You may turn to thrill seeking behaviors to cope with this emotion, such as substance use, gambling, or overeating.

11. Depression. Life loses its meaning and you begin to feel hopeless.

12. Mental or physical collapse. This can impact your ability to cope. Mental health or medical attention may be necessary.

Stress may be unavoidable, but burnout is preventable. Following these steps may help you thwart stress from getting the best of you:
Exercise
Not only is exercise good for our physical health, but it can also give us an emotional boost.

Stretched for time? You don't need to spend hours at the gym to reap these benefits. Mini-workouts and short walks are convenient ways to make exercise a daily habit.
Eat a balanced diet
Eating a healthy diet filled with omega-3 fatty acids can be a natural antidepressant. Adding foods rich in omega-3s like flaxseed oil, walnuts, and fish may help give your mood a boost.
Practice good sleep habits
Our bodies need time to rest and reset, which is why healthy sleep habits are essential for our well-being.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, avoiding caffeine before bedtime, establishing a relaxing bedtime ritual, and banning smartphones from the bedroom can help promote sound sleep hygiene.
Ask for help
During stressful times, it's important to reach out for help. If asking for assistance feels difficult, consider developing a self-care "check-in" with close friends and family members so that you can take care of each other during trying times.

How can you help someone experiencing burnout? While you can't take away someone's stress, offering support can help lighten their emotional load.
Listen
Before jumping into "fixing" mode, offer to listen to your friend or family member's difficulties.

Having someone to talk to can make a world of difference. Often people need someone to witness their stress and suffering, and listening can go a long way.
Validate feelings and concerns
When friends and family members are feeling the effects of burnout, saying It doesn't sound that bad or I'm sure things will get better - while meant to offer reassurance - can feel invalidating if someone is really feeling low and hopeless.

Instead, offer validation by saying, "You've been working so hard, I can understand why you feel depleted."
Offer specific types of help
Individuals who are burnt out are often too tired to think of ways that others can help them. Instead of asking, "How can I help?" offer to drop off a meal, pick up dry cleaning, or do a load of laundry.
Kind gestures
Sending flowers, a thoughtful text message, or a written card can remind friends and family members that they're not alone.

Because they're often working long hours, people with burnout can feel lonely and underappreciated. But small gestures of kindness can be nurturing.
Research resources
If friends or family members need additional support, like childcare, a house cleaner, or a psychotherapist, offer to research and crowdsource for specific resources to help ease the stress.

Being exposed to continual stress can cause us to burnout. Feelings of exhaustion, anxiety, and isolating from friends and family members can be some of the signs. However, eating a balanced diet, regular exercise, and getting a good night's sleep may prevent this stressed state.

Worried about friends and family members who may be burnt out? Listening to their concerns, validating their emotions, and offering specific types of support can help lighten the load.

Burnout can be avoided by making self-care part of your daily routine. Even if you're working long hours, studying for exams, or taking care of young children, remember to sprinkle some joy into each day.

Try going for a walk, talking to a friend, or watching an enjoyable program on television. Small self-care gestures like these can stop stress from turning into something more serious, like burnout.
Juli Fraga is a licensed psychologist based in San Francisco, California. She graduated with a PsyD from University of Northern Colorado and attended a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley. Passionate about women's health, she approaches all her sessions with warmth, honesty, and compassion. See what she's up to on .

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Burnout is a state of mental and physical exhaustion that can zap the joy out of your career, friendships, and family interactions. Burnout isn't always easy to spot. With that in mind, we've put together a guide to help you identify the signs of burnout, ways to prevent it, and how to help friends and family.

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Cryptocurrencies seem good with how much major ones are worth such as bitcoin, there is a lot of negatives but more specifically how much energy crypto-mining or bit-mining is. I chose this topic because I know people who mine for bitcoin and have found a fascination with cryptos and how they work. It was not until lately when I have seen a lot of pros and cons towards them. They could be our future but a lot still needs to be done to make sure that we are not creating an energy problem in the future.

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How much energy does an industry deserve to consume? Right now, organizations around the world are facing pressure to limit the consumption of non-renewable energy sources and the emission of carbon into the atmosphere. But figuring out how much consumption is too much is a complex question that's intertwined with debates around our priorities as a society. The calculation of which goods and services are "worth" spending these resources on, after all, is really a question of values. As cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin in particular, have grown in prominence, energy use has become the latest flashpoint in the larger conversation about what, and who, digital currencies are really good for.

On the face of it, the question about energy use is a fair one. According to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF), Bitcoin currently consumes around 110 Terawatt Hours per year - 0.55% of global electricity production, or roughly equivalent to the annual energy draw of small countries like Malaysia or Sweden. This certainly sounds like a lot of energy. But how much energy should a monetary system consume?

How you answer that likely depends on how you feel about Bitcoin. If you believe that Bitcoin offers no utility beyond serving as a ponzi scheme or a device for money laundering, then it would only be logical to conclude that consuming any amount of energy is wasteful. If you are one of the tens of millions of individuals worldwide using it as a tool to escape monetary repression, inflation, or capital controls, you most likely think that the energy is extremely well spent. Whether you feel Bitcoin has a valid claim on society's resources boils down to how much value you think Bitcoin creates for society.

If we're going to have this debate, however, we should be clear on how Bitcoin actually consumes energy. Understanding Bitcoin's energy consumption may not settle questions about its usefulness, but it can help to contextualize how much of an environmental impact Bitcoin advocates are really talking about making. Specifically, there are a few key misconceptions worth addressing.

Energy Consumption Is Not Equivalent to Carbon Emissions

First, there's an important distinction between how much energy a system consumes and how much carbon it emits. While determining energy consumption is relatively straightforward, you cannot extrapolate the associated carbon emissions without knowing the precise energy mix - that is, the makeup of different energy sources used by the computers mining Bitcoin. For example, one unit of hydro energy will have much less environmental impact than the same unit of coal-powered energy.

Bitcoin's energy consumption is relatively easy to estimate: You can just look at its hashrate (i.e., the total combined computational power used to mine Bitcoin and process transactions), and then make some educated guesses as to the energy requirements of the hardware that miners are using. But its carbon emissions are much harder to ascertain. Mining is an intensely competitive business, and miners tend not to be particularly forthcoming around the details of their operations. The best estimates of energy production geolocation (from which an energy mix can be inferred) come from the CCAF, which has worked with major mining pools to put together an anonymized dataset of miner locations.

Based on this data, the CCAF can guess about the energy sources miners were using by country, and in some cases, by province. But their dataset doesn't include all mining pools, nor is it up to date, leaving us still largely in the dark about Bitcoin's actual energy mix. Furthermore, many high profile analyses generalize energy mix at the country level, leading to an inaccurate portrait of countries such as China, which has an extremely diverse energy landscape.

As a result, estimates for what percentage of Bitcoin mining uses renewable energy vary widely. In December 2019, one report suggested that 73% of Bitcoin's energy consumption was carbon neutral, largely due to the abundance of hydro power in major mining hubs such as Southwest China and Scandinavia. On the other hand, the CCAF estimated in September 2020 that the figure is closer to 39%. But even if the lower number is correct, that's still almost twice as much as the U.S. grid, suggesting that looking at energy consumption alone is hardly a reliable method for determining Bitcoin's carbon emissions.

Bitcoin Can Use Energy That Other Industries Can't

Another key factor that makes Bitcoin's energy consumption different from that of most other industries is that Bitcoin can be mined  anywhere. Almost all of the energy used worldwide must be produced relatively close to its end users - but Bitcoin has no such limitation, enabling miners to utilize power sources that are inaccessible for most other applications.

Hydro is the most well-known example of this. In the wet season in Sichuan and Yunnan, enormous quantities of renewable hydro energy are wasted every year. In these areas, production capacity massively outpaces local demand, and battery technology is far from advanced enough to make it worthwhile to store and transport energy from these rural regions into the urban centers that need it. These regions most likely represent the single largest stranded energy resource on the planet, and as such it's no coincidence that these provinces are the heartlands of mining in China, responsible for almost 10% of global Bitcoin mining in the dry season and 50% in the wet season.

Another promising avenue for carbon neutral mining is flared natural gas. The process of oil extraction today releases significant amount of natural gas as a byproduct - energy that pollutes the environment without ever making it to the grid. Since it's constrained to the location of remote oil mines, most traditional applications have historically been unable to effectively leverage that energy. But Bitcoin miners from North Dakota to Siberia have seized the opportunity to monetize this otherwise-wasted resource, and some companies are even exploring ways to further reduce emissions by combusting the gas in a more controlled manner. Of course, this is still a minor player in today's Bitcoin mining arena, but back of the envelope calculations suggest that there's enough flared natural gas in the U.S. and Canada alone to run the entire Bitcoin network.

To be fair, the monetization of excess natural gas with Bitcoin does still create emissions, and some have argued that the practice even acts as a subsidy to the fossil fuel industry, incentivizing energy companies to invest more in oil extraction than they otherwise might. But income from Bitcoin miners is a drop in the bucket compared to demand from other industries that rely on fossil fuels - and that external demand is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. Given the reality that oil is and will continue to be extracted for the foreseeable future, exploiting a natural byproduct of the process (and potentially even reducing its environmental impact) is a net positive.

Interestingly, the aluminum smelting industry offers a surprisingly relevant parallel. The process of transforming natural bauxite ore into useable aluminum is highly energy intensive, and the costs of transporting aluminum often aren't prohibitive, so many nations with a surplus of energy have built smelters to take advantage of their excess resources. Regions with the capacity to produce more energy than could be consumed locally, such as Iceland, Sichuan, and Yunnan, became net energy exporters through aluminum - and today, the same conditions that incentivized their investment in smelting have made those locations prime options for mining Bitcoin. There are even a number of former aluminum smelters, such as the hydro Alcoa plant in Massena, NY, that have been directly repurposed as Bitcoin mines.

Mining Bitcoin Consumes a lot More Energy Than Using It

How energy is produced is one piece of the equation. But the other area where misconceptions are common is in how Bitcoin actually consumes energy, and how that's likely to change over time.

Many journalists and academics talk about Bitcoin's high "per-transaction energy cost," but this metric is misleading. The vast majority of Bitcoin's energy consumption happens during the mining process. Once coins have been issued, the energy required to validate transactions is minimal. As such, simply looking at Bitcoin's total energy draw to date and dividing that by the number of transactions doesn't make sense - most of that energy was used to mine Bitcoins, not to support transactions. And that leads us to the final critical misconception: that the energy costs associated with mining Bitcoin will continue to grow exponentially.

Runaway Growth Is Unlikely

Because Bitcoin's energy footprint has grown so rapidly, people sometimes assume that it will eventually commandeer entire energy grids. This was the premise of a widely-reported 2018 study that was recently cited in the New York Times, making the shocking claim that Bitcoin could warm the earth by two degrees Celcius. But there's good reason to believe this won't happen.

First, as has become common in many industries, the energy mix of Bitcoin grows less reliant on carbon every year. In the U.S., publicly-traded, increasingly ESG-focused miners have been gaining market share, and China recently banned coal-based mining in Inner Mongolia, one of the largest remaining coal-heavy regions. At the same time, many organizations within the mining industry have launched initiatives like the Crypto Climate Accord - inspired by the Paris Climate Agreement - to advocate for and commit to reducing Bitcoin's carbon footprint. And of course, as renewable options such as solar grow more efficient and thus more viable for mining, Bitcoin could end up serving as a serious incentive for miners to build out these technologies.

In addition, miners are unlikely to continue expanding their mining operations at the current rates indefinitely. The Bitcoin protocol subsidizes mining, but those subsidies have built-in checks on their growth. Today, miners receive small fees for the transactions that they verify while mining (accounting for around 10% of miner revenue), as well as whatever profit margins they can get when they sell the bitcoins they have mined.

However, the protocol is built to halve the issuance-driven component of miner revenue every four years - so unless the price of Bitcoin doubles every four years in perpetuity (which economics suggests is essentially impossible for any currency), that share of miner revenue will eventually decay to zero. And as far as transaction fees, Bitcoin's natural constraints on the number of transactions it can process (fewer than a million per day) combined with users' finite tolerance for paying fees limit the growth potential of this as a revenue source. We can expect some miners to continue operating regardless, in exchange for these transaction fees alone - and in fact, the network depends on that to keep functioning - but if profit margins fall, the financial incentive to invest in mining will naturally decrease.

***

Of course, there are countless factors that can influence Bitcoin's environmental impact - but underlying all of them is a question that's much harder to answer with numbers: Is Bitcoin worth it? It's important to understand that many environmental concerns are exaggerated or based on flawed assumptions or misunderstandings of how the Bitcoin protocol works.

That means that when we ask, "Is Bitcoin worth its environmental impact," the actual negative impact we're talking about is likely a lot less alarming than you might think. But there's no denying that Bitcoin (like almost everything else that adds value in our society) does consume resources. As with every other energy-consuming industry, it's up to the crypto community to acknowledge and address these environmental concerns, work in good faith to reduce Bitcoin's carbon footprint, and ultimately demonstrate that the societal value Bitcoin provides is worth the resources needed to sustain it.

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How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Actually Consume?

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How much energy does an industry deserve to consume? Right now, organizations around the world are facing pressure to limit the consumption of non-renewable energy sources and the emission of carbon into the atmosphere. But figuring out how much consumption is too much is a complex question that's intertwined with debates around our priorities as a society.

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Music has been apart of the world for a very long time, and has took all sorts of shapes and forms. Which begs the question, why do we like music? Everyone has a subjective opinion on music and why it either sounds good to them, or why they remember it. However there are qualities that objectively make a sound better or worse weather someone agrees with them or not. It's trying to find what makes a song or tune good that's tricky. -Hayden Baker

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How do we, as individuals and as a society, decide what good music is?

Photo by Neal Preston

Part 1: Why do we like music?

Here's a little song called 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. You may have heard of it.

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How do we, as individuals and as a society, decide what good music is?. "What makes music good?" is published by Jasper Emmitt.

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Normal pollution is a big issue that is occuring right now but another issue that is happening is the e-waste that is being produced at alarming rates.  I chose this because as someone who uses a bunch of electronics and works with a bunch of electronics, I can already tell that the e-waste is very extreme and does not seem to slow down.  Everyone is guilty of throwing away cheap electronics and not understanding the damage that it is causing our planet.
-Jarrod Dreier

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What Can We Do About the Growing E-waste Problem?

When China banned 24 kinds of solid waste last September, countries such as the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan realized they had a big problem. Until last year, China accepted 70 percent of the world's electronic waste-discarded computers, cell phones, printers, televisions, microwaves, smoke alarms, and other electronic equipment and parts. After China stopped accepting this e-waste out of concern for its environment, Europe and North America began shipping more of it to Southeast Asia-but now Vietnam and Thailand, whose ports have been overwhelmed, are curbing imported e-waste as well.

In 2016, the world's population discarded 49 million tons of e-waste (equivalent to about 4,500 Eiffel Towers). It's estimated that by 2021, that number will grow to more than 57 million tons.
Why the upsurge in e-waste?
Technology is becoming more and more integrated into every aspect of our lives. Semiconductors and sensors are being added to products that never before had them, creating wearable monitors, smart homes, TVs that can stream programming from the internet, and much more.

Meanwhile, the life span of devices is getting shorter-many products will be thrown away once their batteries die, to be replaced with new devices. Companies intentionally plan the obsolescence of their goods by updating the design or software and discontinuing support for older models, so that now it is usually cheaper and easier to buy a new product than to repair an old one. Meanwhile, the companies continue to profit from steady sales.

And because prices are dropping, electronic devices are in demand around the world as a growing middle class goes digital. Globally, half of all households now have internet access, and 7.7 billion people have cell phones.
What's in e-waste?
Electronic devices are made of a complex mix of materials that include gold, silver, copper, platinum, palladium, lithium, cobalt and other valuable elements. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says, "One metric ton of circuit boards can contain 40 to 800 times the amount of gold and 30 to 40 times the amount of copper mined from one metric ton of ore in the United States." These precious materials can be reclaimed through recycling.

But electronic devices also comprise toxic heavy metals like lead, mercury, cadmium and beryllium, polluting PVC plastic, and hazardous chemicals, such as brominated flame retardants, which can harm human health and the environment.

In 2016, the estimated value of recoverable materials in global e-waste was $64.6 billion, but only 20 percent of it was properly recycled to enable recovery of the valuable materials. Much of the rest is dumped in landfills where toxic chemicals can leach from the e-waste and end up contaminating the water supply.

As more people buy electronic equipment, manufacturers are beginning to face shortages of the raw materials needed to make their products, so reclaiming and reusing the materials from discarded products and waste-a process called urban mining-makes economic and environmental sense. A recent study in China found that mining copper, gold and aluminum from ore costs 13 times more than recovering the metals through the urban mining of e-waste.
The state of e-waste recycling
Recycling e-waste is practiced both formally and informally.

Proper or formal e-waste recycling usually involves disassembling the electronics, separating and categorizing the contents by material and cleaning them.

Items are then shredded mechanically for further sorting with advanced separation technologies. Companies must adhere to health and safety rules and use pollution-control technologies that reduce the health and environmental hazards of handling e-waste. All this makes formal recycling expensive. As a result, many companies and countries illegally export their e-waste to developing countries where recycling is cheap.

The U.S., the second largest producer of e-waste after China, produced 10 million tons of e-waste in 2012, over 64 pounds per person. In 2012 (EPA data for more recent years are not yet available), only 29 percent of this was recycled-the rest is usually landfilled, incinerated or stuck in a closet. A study done by the watchdog group Basel Action Network using trackers, however, found that 40 percent of the e-waste supposedly recycled in the U.S. was actually exported. Most of it ended up in developing countries-usually in Asia-where informal recycling is typically unlicensed and unregulated.

At these informal recycling workshops, men, women and children recover valuable materials by burning devices to melt away non-valuable materials, using mercury and acids to recover gold, and dismantling devices by hand to reclaim other materials of value.

Usually they do not wear protective equipment and lack any awareness that they are handling dangerous materials. Research has found that inhaling toxic chemicals and direct contact with hazardous e-waste materials (even in some formal e-waste recycling settings) result in increases in spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, premature births, reduced birth weights, mutations, congenital malformations, abnormal thyroid function, increased lead levels in blood, decreased lung function, and neurobehavioral disturbances. Moreover, e-waste toxins contaminate the air, soil and groundwater.

In the face of these health and environmental hazards, however, many people in developing countries earn a living by dismantling, refurbishing, repairing and reselling used electronic devices. Guiyu, China is often considered the e-waste capital of the world, with 75 percent of households involved in the recycling business. Informal recycling is also practiced in India, Nigeria, Ghana and the Philippines.

In addition to its health hazards, informal recycling can pose security risks, because while formal recyclers in the U.S. usually require wiping devices clean of data, informal recycling does not.

Criminals search e-waste for credit card numbers and other financial information. For example, government contracts and lucrative agreements with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and Homeland Security have been found on hard drives in Agbogbloshie, an e-waste center in Ghana.

Wealthy countries send about 23 percent of their e-waste to developing countries each year. This is ongoing despite the fact that the European Union and 186 states have ratified the Basel Convention, which works to minimize the transfer of hazardous waste from developed countries to developing countries. The U.S, the only developed country that has not ratified the Basel Convention, has agreements that allow it to ship hazardous waste to developing countries.
What U.S. laws govern e-waste?
There is no federal law in the U.S. that mandates the recycling of e-waste or forbids e-waste from being exported to developing countries. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have their own electronic recycling laws, which vary in approach. Some states subcontract with companies to operate a statewide collection system; others require manufacturers to meet minimum recycling targets based on their sales.

The problem with a patchwork of laws is that no one state has enough market share to compel manufacturers to design greener or more durable products. By contrast, the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive represents the entire EU market and thus has the clout to set higher standards for all electronic products sold in the EU. Its laws requiring manufacturers to help pay for recycling have resulted in an e-waste recycling rate of 35 percent, higher than that of the U.S.

A federal law in the U.S. could help develop a more robust e-waste recycling infrastructure through setting targets and establishing financing schemes for collection systems and recycling plants. It could also offer a tax break or rebate to companies that process their used devices, and help prevent the export of e-waste to developing countries. However, a federal law is not likely to happen under this administration.
A problem requiring multiple solutions
With the flood of e-waste growing around the world, recycling alone will not be enough. Here are some other ideas and solutions that are being researched, considered or practiced around the world. Hopefully, they will inspire more adoption of best practices.
Designing better products
In order to reduce e-waste, manufacturers need to design electronics that are safer, and more durable, repairable and recyclable. Most importantly, this means using less toxic materials. Chemical engineers at Stanford University are developing the first fully biodegradable electronic circuit using natural dyes that dissolve in acid with a pH 100 times weaker than vinegar. One group of scientists is pulverizing e-waste into nanodust by cooling the various materials, then grinding them up into homogenous powders that are "easy to reuse." Canada-based Ronin8 has developed a technology that uses minimal water and energy as it separates metals from non-metals through sonic vibrations in recycled water.

Today, it's not a priority to design goods that can be reused or remanufactured, though for a few years, companies experimented with modular phones that enabled consumers to upgrade parts of their phones instead of having to entirely replace them. Google, LG and Motorola all released modular models, but they ultimately failed because they were clumsier and more costly, and because consumers expected their devices to come with every feature as standard. Perhaps as consumers become more aware of the e-waste problem, companies will be able to design a modular phone with more market appeal.
The right to repair
In addition to recycling, it's also important to be able to repair and reuse the devices we have. But even if you know how to and want to repair your electronic device, you might be stymied because your product's software is subject to copyright. The copyright often forbids consumers by law to tinker with or reverse-engineer the device or use an unauthorized repairer. Ifixit.org demands the right to repair devices and teaches people how to do it.
Extended Producer Responsibility
Extended producer responsibility requires companies that make products to be responsible for the management and disposal of them at the end of their lives. The idea is to turn waste materials into a resource for producing new products. The New York State Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act requires manufacturers to provide consumers with free and convenient e-waste recycling.

Hong Kong, a prime dumping ground for U.S. e-waste and a huge producer of e-waste itself, deals with 77,000 tons of e-waste yearly (80 percent of which is sent to Africa and Southeast Asia for recycling). It has just instituted a producer responsibility system that will require suppliers and sellers of electronic products to pay for the free removal, collection, handling and proper disposal of items.
More convenient recycling
EcoATM provides a convenient and safe way to recycle and sell old cell phones, MP3 players and tablets. Consumers can bring their devices to one of 2,700 kiosks in the U.S. The EcoATM will evaluate it based on the model and condition, and pay you right there. The items are then either reused or responsibly recycled.

China's largest internet company, Baidu, and the United Nations Development Programme developed a smartphone app called Baidu Recycle. Chinese users can indicate the item they want to recycle, enter its size, the date it's to be picked up along with their name and address, then submit a photo of it. Within 24 hours, an accredited recycler comes to pick it up. In two months, 11,000 devices were recycled.
Better recycling
Nickolas Themelis, professor emeritus of earth and environmental engineering and director of the Earth Engineering Center at Columbia University, said that the best and only economical large-scale recycling being done in North America today uses a copper smelter in Canada. He explained that when e-waste is fed into the copper smelter, precious metals like silver, gold, platinum, palladium, selenium, and others dissolve in molten copper, which acts like a solvent at high temperatures. The impure copper (because it comprises other metals) that results is then sent to a refinery where pure copper is separated out and the other valuable metals can be collected. This integrated smelting process combined with refining, though it recovers only metals that dissolve in copper, is a relatively inexpensive method of reclaiming e-waste metals. The smelter, in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, receives about 50,000 tons of e-waste each year. "The model of Noranda with a small [e-waste] collection company in the U.S. and a larger one in Canada and a big smelter, could be done in other countries," said Themelis. "It could be done in China which already has copper smelters, as well as in America."

To reduce health and environmental hazards while maintaining the informal recycling system that supports so many people, India and China are looking at ways to integrate the informal and formal recycling systems. One strategy would give informal recyclers financial incentives to divert e-waste to formal collection or recycling centers. For example, they could be paid more to deliver cathode ray tube screens to a formal collection center than they would get for dismantling it by hand themselves.
The goal of a circular economy
A circular economy is one that aims to keep products and all their materials in circulation at their highest value at all times or for as long as possible. Stephanie Kersten-Johnston, an adjunct professor in the Sustainability Management program at Columbia University and director of sustainable business at Heineken USA, explained that "highest value" means what's closest to the original product, in order to get the most out of the embedded value in the material and the labor that went into creating the product. Europe has made the circular economy a goal for the whole continent.

Using the example of cell phones, Kersten-Johnston explained how the electronics industry could move towards a circular economy. "Right now, over the length of the contract, you gradually buy outright the phone so the provider can recoup the cost of manufacturing that phone in the first place," she said. "But at the end of the contract, you're left with a phone that's worth basically nothing, that you've had to pay for all that time and you can't do anything with it. That's a flawed model. But imagine a system where the provider or manufacturer retained ownership of the device through the contract so customers would pay a lower monthly fee and be expected to return the device for an upgrade. The value could be recaptured in the form of parts for remanufacture or materials for recycling, and customers would still get their upgrades."

Kersten-Johnston believes it's only a matter of time before this type of business model happens across the board because millennials and the younger generation don't value ownership in the same way as previous generations, and they expect this type of responsible behavior from industry.
What you can do about e-waste
The best thing you can do is to resist buying a new device until you really need it. Try to get your old product repaired if possible and if it can't be fixed, resell or recycle it responsibly.

Before you recycle your device, seal up any broken parts in separate containers so that hazardous chemicals don't leak. Wear latex gloves and a mask if you're handling something that's broken.

Find a responsible recycler. Recyclers with the E-Steward label on their websites have been certified to meet the cleanest and most responsible standards for e-waste recycling. E-Steward recyclers also clear your data in their recycling process.
Resources 60 Minutes: The Wasteland (e-waste in China)
Find places to recycle near you through Consumer Resources, Recycle Electronics

All about e-waste in New York City

New York State e-waste collection sites

Best Buy and Staples recycle e-waste, as do Goodwill and the Salvation Army.

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What Can We Do About the Growing E-waste Problem?

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When China banned 24 kinds of solid waste last September, countries such as the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan realized they had a big problem. Until last year, China accepted 70 percent of the world's electronic waste-discarded computers, cell phones, printers, televisions, microwaves, smoke alarms, and other electronic equipment and parts.

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I like the idea of coffee having a massive cultural impact that has turned into a popular modern day beverage. Coffee is one of my favorite drinks for more reasons than one, but looking at history says it's more than a modern day drink to keep people awake longer. This article (and other similar ones) propose that coffee could have helped spark the age of enlightenment. And if it did does that still transfer hundreds of years to where we are today? - Hayden Baker

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The history of coffee is shrouded in mystery, though it's thought to have roots in East Africa around 1000 years ago...

Long before the coffee beans became the commodity we know today, locals would have only known the leafy green plant by its fragrant white flowers. Caffeine wasn't used as a psychotropic until the raw beans were consumed as a beverage.

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How Caffeine Accelerated The Scientific Enlightenment

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The history of coffee is shrouded in mystery, though it's thought to have roots in East Africa around 1000 years ago... Long before the coffee beans became the commodity we know today, locals would have only known the leafy green plant by its fragrant white flowers.

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With a constantly changing world, so does the job market. College has been an option for centuries now and a lot of people will say that college is a necessity if you want to have successful and fulfilling career. The question is, Is college worth it? My family has been on board with alternatives such as going into trade school, and I can see why. College (especially a university) is a big investment that requires motivation, determination, and probably a loan. And it may not be for everybody. - Hayden Baker

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C.I.G. is supported in part by its readers. If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Read more here.

Table of Contents arrow 2

1. Do You Know What You Want to Do?

2. Are You Going Just Because Others Expect You To?

3. Do You Like School Enough to Go Through Four More Years of It?

4. Are You Willing to Put Your Life on Hold?

5. Summing Up

As early as fifth grade, my teachers were saying things like, "College professors won't let you turn in work like this!"

People start asking us what we want to be when we grow up when we're four, like we're supposed to know.

When middle school hits, they're already asking us about colleges, majors, and classes.

And by high school, there's a lot of pressure to start taking on as many extracurriculars, AP level classes, and volunteer work as we can. Anything and everything to make us look good to a future university.

The problem is... college isn't for everyone. Sometimes, it's tricky to know whether or not you should even go.

If you're sitting there wondering whether or not college is right for you, there are four big questions you should be asking yourself.

1. Do You Know What You Want to Do?

Knowing what you want in life is hard, especially if you're in your teens or twenties and haven't had many experiences yet. When I was looking at colleges, I thought I wanted to be a graphic designer or a teacher...and, well, that didn't work out the way I expected at all.

One friend of mine went to college for marine biology and spent two years studying turtles before she decided she wasn't interested. She switched to a medical degree, and then to physiotherapy. She's still not sure what she wants to do, and she's incredibly behind on completing her degree and saddled with student debt.

There's nothing wrong with switching majors. Many people choose to do it simply because college offers a lot of exposure to things they didn't even know they liked in the first place. If you have the money to experiment and take a variety of classes until you figure out your major, then sure, do that.

But, if you're like the vast majority of people who need to take out loans, you shouldn't go to college to find yourself. You've got the whole wide world out there for that, and it won't put you into a pile of debt.

The Alternative: Take a Gap Year

"For many students, a gap year is about crystallising their decision-making; developing self-directed and self-regulation skills, broadening their competencies and self-organisation and perhaps their confidence."

- Andrew J. Martin, published in the Journal of Higher Education

If you're not sure what you want to do or what you want to study, it might be good to take a gap year. It never hurts to wait a little. You can use your time (and money!) to do all kinds of exciting things like:

Travel to another country.

Volunteer.

Learn a new language

Work a few interesting jobs.

Take up a new hobby.

Start your own business.

You don't need a college degree to be an extra in a short film, start a YouTube channel, or do seasonal work at a local farm. These are experiences you won't regret. They might even help you figure out what you like to do so you can be more informed about your future major.

Data taken from students who took a gap year found the following encouraging information:

90% of students returned to college after their break.

96% said that the experiences they had during their gap year increased their self-confidence and maturity.

84% said that they gained skills that would be useful in their future career.

77% said that their gap year influenced their career decision in a major way.

Another study revealed that students who took a gap year are more successful than mature students who went back to school, or their peers who went into university straight from high school.

2. Are You Going Just Because Others Expect You To?

For me, this was one of the biggest reasons why I even thought I had to go to college. Everyone else was. It wasn't even a question.

According to research conducted by Degree Query, 30% of students worldwide go to a four-year university because they think it's what they're supposed to do after high school.

We're told from a young age that college is the path to success. Get a degree. Get a job. Be wildly successful. Right? For some people, it's almost a rite of passage to adulthood. Their parents want them to go, or their grandparents do, or they want to go because their friends are or their significant other is.

When I was in school, it was mandatory that we had a line-up of college choices, knew what major we were going into, and were applying for scholarships. Our counselors checked in on us every single week.

The thing is, college is a four-year (or longer!) and multi-thousand dollar commitment. You shouldn't go just because someone else is pressuring you to.

"Just because you should" isn't a good reason anymore. A college degree does not always result in a job. Consumer Reports asked a number of alumni whether or not they thought they had made the right decision in going to school, and 45% said college wasn't worth the debt. The same study found that almost half of college grads are underemployed.

The Alternative: A 2-Year Degree at Community College

If you still feel uncomfortable with the idea of not going to college, consider taking classes at your local community college first. Many offer associate's degrees that will at least partially transfer to your future college of choice. You can get the same credits for less money and less commitment. And, you can explore what classes and subjects you're actually interested in with relatively little risk.

Yearly tuition at a public four-year school comes to about $10,000, while average tuition at a public community college is just $3,500. That's a lot of wiggle room. The best part? At the end, you're left with a choice.

If you're certain you want to go to a university after that, then you have a lot of your work already done for you and you've saved money by going after cheaper credits and books first.

If you don't continue, then you still have an associate's, and that's worth something. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, holders of associate's degrees make on average $832 per week. GED holders only made $730. They also had a much higher rate of employment than those who only finished high school.

The rate of employment between associate's degree holders and bachelor's degree holders, on the other hand, was pretty minimal.

I found, at the end of my time at community college, that it wasn't necessary to continue. Because of the laid-back environment at school, I had the time to do teacher's assistant work, work as a dishwasher, and manage a burger joint on the weekends. In addition, I also had the time to teach myself how to mod video games and edit photos/videos.

After school ended, I launched my own business. I learned so much, and all of it was real-life experience. Sure, I don't have a four-year degree, but I don't feel like I need one.

3. Do You Like School Enough to Go Through Four More Years of It?

Four years is a long time.

Especially if academics aren't really your thing.

Not everyone is put together to sit in lectures, write papers, and become a lawyer, computer scientist, or marine biologist. And that's okay. It doesn't make you less intelligent or useful. It just means you're put together differently.

The Alternative: Trade School

Right now, skilled trade work is in high demand and it pays well. If you hate sitting in a classroom for hours on end, you might want to look into getting vocational training. There are tons of cool options.

You could:

Learn to weld.

Become a contractor.

Study electrical work or plumbing.

Learn to work on cars.

Style hair.

Repair or tailor clothes.

Become a web developer.

Train to be a paralegal or legal assistant.

Pilot planes.

These are skills that can lead to well-paying, in-demand jobs. Plus, it's much less expensive to go to a trade school. The overall average cost of vocational school in the United States is about $33,000.

Although that may seem expensive at face value, the average total cost of a bachelor's degree at a public university is over $100,000 (when you factor in expenses like room and board). That's a huge difference!

If you need help paying for school, you might qualify for a career trade loan, making this an even better option. In many careers, you might even get paid to learn on-the-job, which is way better than going into debt for a degree.

4. Are You Willing to Put Your Life on Hold?

While there's a lot of growing, maturing, and studying to be had at college, it's still just an extension of your academic life. You won't be getting on with a career, you won't have a lot of free time to explore your hobbies, and you might even be living in a dorm where there are a lot of rules about what you can and can't do with your space and your time.

For some people, this works as a great transition from being a teenager to being an adult.

For others, though, it just slows them down.

Maybe you're ready to live on your own, and maybe you're not sure you want to spend four years getting a degree. Maybe you want to start work right now. And that's great!

Real-life experience is incredibly valuable. In fact, one survey of American employers showed that most managers still consider internships, employment during college, and volunteer experience more important than GPA or relevant coursework when evaluating a candidate's readiness for a job.

Experience wins.

The Alternative: Start a Business or Become an Intern

There are so many ways to jump-start your life and your career. One great option is to start a business of your own. While you're young, you have few assets and tons of time. That means you don't have a lot to lose, so now is the perfect time to launch that website, build that app, or start freelancing.

If that doesn't interest you, why not get an internship? Some programs even allow you to intern abroad. If you can't find one in your area, you can still probably find work on a more part-time basis or volunteer in order to gain valuable, practical experience.

Summing Up

In the end, whether or not you go to college is up to you. Nobody should, or can, make this choice for you. Take your time, look at the data, evaluate your current situation, and maybe use Thomas' Tony Hawk method to figure out if college is right for you in this moment.

You can also check out our podcast episode about some awesome alternatives to college if you're interested.

It takes a lot of courage to swim upstream and choose to do something different. It's also totally okay to go the mainstream route as long as:

You're ready.

You have the time and money to do so.

You're going to get a reasonable return on your investment.

Just remember that, while this decision can seem overwhelming now, it's not the biggest decision you'll ever make in your life. Even if you make a mistake, it won't be the end of the world.

-
Image Credits: Featured, Labor Statistics Chart

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Should You Go to College? These 4 Questions Will Help You Decide

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C.I.G. is supported in part by its readers. If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more here. Table of Contents arrow 2 Do You Know What You Want to Do? Are You Going Just Because Others Expect You To?

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I chose this topic because not only is mental health a big deal in this current generation but I have noticed that in some professions especially in aviation, there is not much help out there.  I am actually planning on starting my pilot training this spring so through a lot of research I've noticed the growing amount of depression, bipolar disorder, are reasons to be medically disqualified from flying.  There are a lot of pilots struggling with this problem and are scared to seek help in fear that will not ever be able to fly again.  It is only right that they are given the help they need without being punished
-Jarrod Dreier

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NBAA - National Business Aviation Association

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The stigmas associated with mental health and addiction are fading. As a result, more individuals are coming forward and receiving appropriate treatment.

Nearly half of us are diagnosed with a mental health problem sometime during our lifetime. About 20 percent of the population reports having had a depressed mood sometime during each year. Addiction - be it to alcohol or drugs - afflicts a reported 7 to 11 percent of Americans.

Unfortunately, business aviation industry professionals - pilots included - are not immune to the various mental health issues affecting the overall population. Most commonly, these can include depressive mood, full-blown depression, psychotic conditions such as bipolar disorder, addiction and thoughts of suicide.

"The aviation community is subject to the same life stressors as the general population, but pilots, in general, often have personality traits that make them reluctant to seek mental health assistance," said Quay Snyder, MD, MPH and president & CEO of Aviation Medicine Advisory Service.

"They want to be in control and solve problems on their own," Snyder explained. "We often see pilots who have let a situation deteriorate to the point where the problem has gotten significant. This also can be because they are concerned about possibly losing their medical certificate and possibly their career."

According to Snyder and other aviation medical experts, the good news for pilots - the only business aviation affected by federal mental health and medical regulations - is that there is significantly less stigma than there was years ago to seeking help for mental health and addiction issues. As a result, more individuals are coming forward and receiving appropriate treatment, from family counseling to in-patient addiction treatment.

"We have learned a lot from fighting the fatigue issue and removed most of that stigma," said Greg Farley, chairman of the Fitness for Duty Working Group of NBAA's Safety Committee and senior global captain for Deere & Company Aviation Services. "We've extended the fatigue models to individuals with substance abuse or prolonged mental-health issues. The sooner it gets reported, the sooner we get it treated and hopefully get that person back in service."

PILOTS GETTING BACK INTO COCKPITS

Other recent positive developments include a proliferation of programs designed to help aviation professionals with a suspected or diagnosed problem, such as the Human Intervention Motivation Study (HIMS) program, which provides a structure within which pilots struggling with substance abuse or dependence can be identified, referred for treatment and, if in recovery, safely returned to the cockpit. The FAA helps fund HIMS, which involves managers, pilots, healthcare professionals and the FAA working together.

According to Snyder, who manages the national HIMS program, pilots who require help are identified through a variety of ways: peer intervention, employee drug and alcohol testing, law enforcement encounters, coworker and family referrals, and, less frequently, self-disclosure. Then pilots usually are treated in an in-patient program, followed by long-term aftercare, participation in a 12-step program, frequent unannounced follow-up drug and alcohol testing, abstinence and close monitoring by supervisors, sponsors, peers, specially trained aviation medical examiners (AMEs) and other medical professionals.

"HIMS has been a highly successful program, with an 85-percent long-term sobriety rate," said Snyder. "We now have more than 6,600 pilots in recovery flying again with their first-class medicals." (This number includes airline, business aircraft pilots and others.)

Snyder believes pilots in successful long-term recovery make great employees. "They are extremely productive, loyal and grateful," he said. And, with the pilot shortage and often tens of thou-sands of dollars associated with pilot training and company requirements, it is usually less expensive for employers to stick with their pilots through treatment than to let them go and try and find another qualified aviator.

LEARNING TO IDENTIFY THOSE AT RISK

Carolyn Coarsey, Ph.D., is a former flight attendant and trauma survivor. Through her Family Assistance Education and Research Foundation, and as a master trainer for the QPR (Question, Persuade and Refer) Institute founded by Dr. Paul Quinnett, she offers "gatekeeper" programs to organizations where individuals are trained to recognize risk factors, as well as warning signs, of individuals who are at risk for suicide. The training also helps identify those who may not be at risk for suicidal behaviors, but may need assistance, assessment and treatment for any number of mental health issues. With a particular interest in aviation, Coarsey works with airlines as well as the business aviation community.

"Pilots are people, too," says Coarsey. "They also suffer losses, divorce, illnesses and all of life's stressors. Being down about something doesn't necessarily mean that someone is severely depressed or suicidal."

Coarsey says that the gatekeeper training can help prevent a tragedy by having trained individuals step in and encourage help and support, including counseling, for someone who is really suffering or showing signs of mental health distress. Often, however, a colleague may just be dealing with normal life issues.

"Everyone can relate to being in a depressed mood that can occur when we deal with life's losses," said Coarsey. "It's so important that we normalize this and take away the stigma associated with it, as well as the course of treatment."

TREATING DEPRESSION

Bipolar disorder, thoughts of suicide and many depressive disorders - and the medications used to treat them - are medically disqualifying for pilots.

However, since 2010, FAA policy allows for use of four SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) - Celexa, Prozac, Zoloft and Lexapro -under very specific circumstances.

These antidepressant medications are now "waiverable" once a pilot is on a single same-dosage therapy for at least six months. After a required waiting period for stabilization, cognitive testing and oversight by a psychiatrist, pilots being treated for mild to moderate depression may get a special issuance (SI) medical certificate, which allows them to continue flying. The program also involves the services of a specially trained AME who serves as the "individual medical sponsor" and conducts periodic reevaluations.

Overall, enhancing AME training regarding assessing and treating pilot mental health issues is a key goal of the Pilot Fitness Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), which was chartered in 2015 by the FAA after the Malaysia Flight 370 and Germanwings Flight 9525 tragedies to discuss and provide recommendations to the FAA on pilot mental fitness for duty.

The ARC recommended restructuring AME basic and refresher curricula, with the goal of enhancing AMEs' abilities to identify warning signs and refer pilots for evaluation and intervention. Ultimately, the ARC and medical experts agree that creating
a safe, supportive, and penalty-free environment for pilots is the best way to encourage voluntary self-disclosure.

"We have to encourage telling the truth," said Farley. "Pilots have to see that there will be no consequences for coming forward with an issue." Fear of losing their job is largely unfounded in the vast majority of cases.

Snyder agrees, noting there are great benefits and better results with early intervention, including counseling.

"Counseling is very effective in treating a spectrum of mental health disorders, and pilots do well with cognitive behavioral therapy," said Snyder.

Snyder has long advocated for pilots to do their own fitness for duty check-list as outlined by the FAA, which is called "I'M SAFE." That acronym stands for Illness, Medications, Stress, Alcohol (and other drugs), Fatigue and Eating/Hydration. He also says maintenance technicians should be part of the overall fitness-for-duty dialogue.

Including a fitness for duty checklist as part of the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO) standards for safety management systems is something Snyder thinks would be very beneficial.

IS-BAO Director Ben Walsh said that pilot mental health issues are being studied by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the worldwide standards-setting group, and that most companies with an SMS already have mechanisms in place to address risks proactively, and doing so with programs like HIMS is a proven way.

FITNESS FOR DUTY WORKING GROUP DEVELOPING TOOLS

Greg Farley and his colleagues on the Fitness for Duty Working Group, which is part of NBAA's Safety Committee, hope to soon give operators tools to deal with mental health issues, including a proposed policy statement and a frame-work to use as part of a safety management system. The group has been pro-active on fatigue concerns, which Farley notes are related to both mental health and medical issues. "We hope to help give people the tools to start measuring fitness for duty and then help them know what to do about it," he said.

ONE PILOT'S RECOVERY

Linda (not her real name) is a Gulf-stream V copilot in long-term recovery and back flying after having success-fully completed the Human Intervention Motivation Study (HIMS) program. She credits her company for its supportive pilot assistance program, which paid for her treatment and covered 60 percent of her pay during the 14 months it took to get her special issuance (SI) medical certificate.

Linda was monitored closely for another four years and now - eight years after acknowledging her opioid and alcohol addictions and beginning treatment - is flying again with her first-class medical.

"I consider my experience to be an asset to my company, because of the extensive monitoring program I have been through, and because I am so grateful to be flying again," she said.

Linda now volunteers as a peer counselor with her company's pilot-assistance program.
Related Articles

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Business Aviation Insider: Mental Health Vital in Fitness for Duty | NBAA - National Business Aviation Association

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Nearly half of us are diagnosed with a mental health problem sometime during our lifetime. About 20 percent of the population reports having had a depressed mood sometime during each year. Addiction - be it to alcohol or drugs - afflicts a reported 7 to 11 percent of Americans.

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I would like to write about the topic of maintaining the health of endangered animal populations because I believe the measures taken to also maintain the homes of the pandas by China is a step that is often overlooked when working to conserve other species. Our own conservation efforts are all well and good but at the end of the day, human population will continue to grow and at some point the question will be raised as to where the animals will live anyway if we continue to deforest and populate every natural area.

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HONG KONG - Giant pandas are no longer an endangered species, Chinese officials have announced, in a massive win for conservation efforts in the country.

The number of giant pandas living in the wild has reached more than 1,800, meaning the species has been reclassified as "vulnerable," Chinese officials said earlier this week.

The new classification comes after Beijing "carried out some major activities and measures to protect biodiversity and achieved remarkable results," said Cui Shuhong, head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, at a press conference Wednesday.

It is notoriously difficult to get pandas to breed both in captivity and in the wild.

He also credited tightened law enforcement supervision and a major crackdown on illegal activities on nature reserves.

Experts say China managed to preserve the animals, considered a national symbol, by taking measures that allow humans and pandas to coexist.

Becky Shu Chen, technical advisor at the Zoological Society of London, pointed out in a phone interview that most of the nature reserves are so huge that there are still populated human villages inside them.

She credited the Chinese government with teaching villagers agricultural activities that did not destroy the panda's natural habitat, such as in Changchun, the home of a panda zoo, where locals sold "panda honey."

The villagers "protected the home of pandas, which is one of the reasons that they are now downgraded to 'vulnerable,'" said Chen.

In China, the giant panda has long been considered a national treasure and has been a protected species since the implementation of the wildlife conservation law in 1958.

Beijing has also engaged in " panda diplomacy" for decades, lending the cuddly-looking creatures to zoos around the world from the U.S. to Russia as gestures of friendship.
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This isn't the first time the species has been reclassified. In 2016 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reclassified the animals from "endangered" to "vulnerable" on the global list of species at risk of extinction.

Chinese officials bristled at the move at the time, maintaining that the animals were still under threat and the conservation efforts were not at a point where they could be relaxed yet.

Chinese social media users were pleased with this week's news, saying it was not only proof that conservation efforts had paid off, but also an indication of the economic success of China.

"With our country getting wealthier, we have money to put on environmental and animal protection, just like what the Western countries did," wrote one person on Weibo, China's most popular social media platform.

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Giant pandas no longer classed as endangered after population growth

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HONG KONG - Giant pandas are no longer an endangered species, Chinese officials have announced, in a massive win for conservation efforts in the country. The number of giant pandas living in the wild has reached more than 1,800, meaning the species has been reclassified as "vulnerable," Chinese officials said earlier this week.

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Urgent situations in shelters everywhere

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Urgent situations in shelters everywhere

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I am interested in writing about this topic because I think that more attention needs to be brought to the issue of abandoned pets. There is far too little assistance given to shelters to handle to onslaught of abandoned animals from the pandemic, and many of them can face euthanasia in the near future if a move is not made to help them now. It is only fair that people have to deal with the same problem they themselves created, in order to prevent unnecessary loss of lives.

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When Baloo, a big white rabbit, and his brother Elliott were surrendered to an animal shelter outside Montreal, Canada, the countdown started.

Strapped for money and overcrowded, the shelter put the word out to rescue organizations that the rabbits would be euthanized in three days unless someone stepped up to take them. The shelter had so many rabbits, according to Haviva Porter, who runs Rabbit Rescue Inc., a Toronto-based nonprofit, that it wasn't even listing them for public adoption.

"This has been the worst year ever in 20 years of rescue," Porter says.

Animal rescuers across the United States and Canada echo her experience. "It's been a sea change the last few months," says Joe Labiola, director of

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Why animal shelters are facing a new crisis

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When Baloo, a big white rabbit, and his brother Elliott were surrendered to an animal shelter outside Montreal, Canada, the countdown started. Strapped for money and overcrowded, the shelter put the word out to rescue organizations that the rabbits would be euthanized in three days unless someone stepped up to take them.

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For topic 3 I will be talking about why physical fitness class should be mandatory in schools. I am currently taking a physical fitness/wellness class and I was not excited about it at first but thats changed. I think the reason most people dread physical fitness is because they do not believe it will improve their way of living. This can be changed, one of the main reasons for weight gain is lack of information of the side effects of being obese. As long as this class is mandatory in schools, teens will have more knowledge on how to life a healthier lifestyle. This course can help inform teens of how to eat healthier, how to achieve healthy immune systems, how to maintain a healthy weight, and improve overall mental wellness too. Schools every year have to fight for funding for physical wellness courses when there are so many benefits. I think it would help everyone to be more knowledgeable about what is healthy or not for their body to prevent unhealthy habits in body and mind.

-Allaya Cantu

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This article was originally published in our Fall 2019 print issue.

Physical education has a bad reputation and is often underfunded in schools. Maybe it's time for that to change.

Between uncomfortable locker room experiences, endless laps around the track, and gym teachers' historically unpleasant media representation, most Americans have negative experiences and attitudes towards physical education, commonly referred to as PE. However, PE doesn't inherently have to be boring or humiliating. It can be a fun, educational way for students to get recommended levels of exercise and become empowered to lead an active lifestyle. And it's not that PE teachers are slacking when it comes to curriculum development; most educators and school boards recognize the benefits of a robust physical education program. Rather, PE has historically been de-prioritized in the public education system, which has lead to a devaluation of programs nationwide.

This trend leads back to President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which funneled tax dollars into "core academic subjects" to raise national average test scores. To make up for this, programs involving physical education and the arts were cut. Although the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act increased PE's federal funding during the Obama administration, the subject is still not a priority in public education. This means in recent years, there's been a decrease in funds allocated to PE while obesity rates in the United States skyrocket. Currently, budget cuts have forced many educators to moonlight as gym teachers while also teaching "core" math or science classes. While PE doesn't seem like something that should be in core curriculum, normalizing physical activity is incredibly important because we're stuck with the consequences of our health-related choices for the rest of our lives.

Physical Education and Public Health

While there are many ways to exercise, schools are the ideal place to implement physical education programs, explains Dr. Hannah Thompson, because we have the greatest ability to reach the most children. Thompson, a community health research scientist at UC Berkeley, has worked extensively in physical education and school health. From a public health perspective, the education system seems like the best way to implement PE on a large scale. Much like school-based interventions are used to roll out vaccinations and antibiotics, compulsory education gives us a valuable framework for curriculum structure and standardization, with the same basic physical education foundation for every student.

Another public health concern is the lack of a consistent, equitable opportunity for kids to get physical activity. PE through the public education system can mitigate health disparities. While children in wealthier neighborhoods benefit from sports leagues and dance studios, PE classes are the only organized way for many lower-income kids to get much-needed exercise. However, the National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP) found that budget cuts had differential impacts on physical education, resulting in racial disparities. Thompson maintains that Black and Latinx students are less likely to be physically active and have PE teachers. These factors lead to lower fitness, which is correlated with poor academic performance, among other adverse outcomes.

Lack of physical activity, especially in young people, has the potential to exacerbate existing health disparities affecting socially vulnerable populations. Physical education "level[s] the playing field from the beginning," Thompson concludes, "and evidence shows that it has the potential to have a positive impact."

Although all physical education programs should follow the same standards, research suggests there are access gaps from school to school. Students are entitled to a comprehensive physical education, so it's important to measure whether each program's implementation is effective. Although PE isn't as well-researched as other fields in public health, more school-specific data is needed to account for the differential access gap. Schools benefit from specific feedback regarding their performance relative to national standards and realistic solutions. "Schools are not Petri dishes," Thompson explains, maintaining that the greatest challenge lies in testing program effectiveness in the real world rather than their efficacy in a controlled setting. Although schools would like to have more resources for physical education, it's important to set realistic goals while allocating more funds for future programs.

What's Next?

Although it's hard to find fans of middle-school swim PE, most readers can probably think of a pleasant experience associated with physical activity. Whether it's going to dance classes at the RSF, playing intramural sports, or hiking the Fire Trails, there are plenty of ways to be active that don't involve running laps on a track.

"Traditionally, in PE, there has been a focus on developing students into athletes," explains Thompson, "but it would really be valuable to view PE as a public health tool to educate students and empower kids so they're able to participate in any activity they enjoy." She lists topics like movement skills, increasing endurance, and teamwork that aren't addressed in most K-12 PE curricula.

For a curriculum that does cover these topics, UC Berkeley students don't need to look any further than their own PE Department, UCPE. Toni Mar, who teaches physical education at UC Berkeley, emphasizes the importance of the "E" in PE - providing a strong educational foundation for physical activity, based on biomechanics and kinesiology. Mar contrasted her unpleasant high school PE experience with her gym class in middle school, where she had a teacher that took time to explain both how and why to do certain exercises while making the classes enjoyable.

"If you enjoy what you're doing, you'll do it again," she explained, and related that this is what she aims to do in her classes: explaining the why and how behind all activities and cultivating the motivation to learn and be active. Kavya Nambiar, a senior at UC Berkeley explains that, in her experience with the UCPE department, the curricula value "learning correct and safe techniques, not just exercise for exercise's sake." The intentionality and robustness of physical education at Berkeley is a testament to the resources and faculty we have in the department - and to what PE should be like at schools everywhere.

While researchers like Thompson provide information to schools on what they can do to improve PE within their existing infrastructures, we as individuals can take the same approach to our physical education. For example, it's not realistic for many college students to spend hours at the gym every day, but that doesn't mean they should forgo exercise altogether. Nambiar relates that, as a college student, it was difficult for her to consistently work out at the gym. She added that taking PE classes offered a way to build consistent exercise habits, receive units for her time, and integrate physical activity into her lifestyle. It's important to normalize exercise, as individual and group-level changes can lead to nationwide shifts in physical activity in educational, social, and public health contexts. We ought to examine what we can do to keep ourselves happy and healthy while doing what we can to ensure all Americans have the same chance of physical education and empowerment.

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What's Wrong With Physical Education? | The Public Health Advocate

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PE has historically been de-prioritized in the public education system, which has lead to a devaluation of programs nationwide. It's important to normalize exercise, as individual and group-level changes can lead to nationwide shifts in physical activity in educational, social, and public health contexts.

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Deeper understanding of love and friendship

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Deeper understanding of love and friendship

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I was inspired by my own experiences with love to make this topic 1 for my paper. I think everyone has different views on what exactly love is, I wanted to take a closer look and have a philosophical outlook of what makes love, love. Can love be felt by everyone? Is love between a lover and a friend different? Can love be toxic? I want to explore how love can affect the lives of those closest to us and how it affects our psyche. I am interested in knowing how differently affection can be expressed between individuals and if love can be disguised as anguish. I have experienced wholesome and bright love and also toxic and overbearing love, but what defines my experiences as being called love?

-Allaya Cantu

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BLS 360: The Philosophy of Love and Friendship

In this course, we shall examine the nature of love and friendship. After a brief introduction to what philosophy is and the structure of an argument, we will ask questions such as: What does it mean to say you love chocolate? Is love of chocolate different from love for your mother? Must love come prior to marriage or are arranged marriages equally effective? Does a person need friends in order to achieve happiness? What are the minimal requirements of friendship? How do relationships impact who we become? Upon examining these philosophical questions, we will identify, define, and find examples of four types of love: storge, philia, eros, and agape. The outcome of this course should be a deeper understanding of the concepts of love and friendship, a familiarity with the breadth of potential relationships, and an ability to reflectively analyze our individual relationships.

Textbooks

Pakaluk, Michael, ed. Other Selves: Philosophers on Friendship. Hackett Publishing, 1991. ISBN 0-87220-113-9

Baldwin, James. If Beale Street Could Talk. Dial Press, 1974. (any edition) ISSB 978-0307275936

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BLS 360: The Philosophy of Love and Friendship

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In this course, we shall examine the nature of love and friendship. After a brief introduction to what philosophy is and the structure of an argument, we will ask questions such as: What does it mean to say you love chocolate? Is love of chocolate different from love for your mother?

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How Spirituality can improve your mental health

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How Spirituality can improve your mental health

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For topic 2 I will be sharing how practicing spirituality can improve one's mental health. There is a common misconception that comes when spirituality is mentioned. You do not have to be religious to be spiritual, it is about personal growth and understanding of ones self. There are many benefits to being spiritual, I for one started my spiritual journey a year and a half ago and I have become a better version of myself. Through journaling, meditation, and manifestation people can have more control over their emotions and reach their higher selves and find their purpose in life. I was in a dark hole of a place years ago, I wanted a change in myself and the amount of growth I have experienced since starting my spiritual journey is life changing. I think everyone is capable of changing and growing, to be able to understand ones self better and the feelings of those around them. When you reach your higher self you are able to have an understanding of why you are they way you are, and what makes everyone their own unique person. Spirituality has helped me connect with myself and those around me on a deeper more personal level because I am able to understand energies and emotions more. Spirituality can improve one's mental health by providing support and knowledge about yourself. It can improve self image, emotional understanding, promote deeper connections, and better emotional health overall. There are so many benefits to being open minded and exploring spiritual practices that more people should know about.

-Allaya Cantu

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The Mental Health Benefits of Religion & Spirituality

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Religion and spirituality are both rooted in trying to understand the meaning of life and, in some cases, how a relationship with a higher power may influence that meaning. Both practices can have an incredible impact on mental health.

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Mental health treatments should be more affordable.

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Mental health treatments should be more affordable.

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Everything costs money in this world, but why is it that if someone is struggling , they may not be able to get the resources they need due to financial reasons. I have a very close friend of mine who is being sent to an inpatient hospital for her eating disorder, but she is stressing herself even more about the price of being there to the point where she thinks she can't go better herself . Mental illness is something you can not control and in most cases can not be treated on your own, but if they can not afford these costs of treatments, do they just have to deal with it ? There are several programs and such to help relieve these payments but only a fraction of thousands of dollars afterwards. I think this will be an interesting topic to discuss.

-Lori Dauphin

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An abundance of trash remains out in the open to shrine what human error we have caused.

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The ocean is something that is very personal to me in a sense that I have donated over several years for ocean clean-ups and purchased bracelets that donate the money to keep our oceans as clean as we can. The reality many throw over their shoulders is that if our ocean dies, we die. The Ocean provides all of which makes life possible on this planet. Something as little as phytoplankton are the reasoning for our existence. Food sources, Economic downfall, and even the homes of millions would suffer if we don't take this seriously.

- Lori Dauphin

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Around 27,000 rhinos remain in the wild and all three species are critically endangered.

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Why poaching endangered species should be outlawed. 

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Why poaching endangered species should be outlawed. 

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I was inspired by another classmate who brought up the annual dolphin hunt that occurs in japan. This has lead for me to choose a topic that will explain my reasonings stating that i believe poaching of endangered species should be outlawed. It is quite insane how many species of very well-known animals are becoming such things of the past, for example, the Rhino. I think this topic can shed some light on the ugly truth not many want to face.

- Lori Dauphin

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I found the content of this article quite interesting as I was unaware that the hunting of dolphins was both still practiced and still legal. I would like to write about this because I think that there is too much hunting of vulnerable species happening at the current time and more changes need to be implemented to protect these species from extinction.

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The hunt has attracted global condemnation since 2009, when the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove revealed how Taiji fishermen round up hundreds of dolphins, forcing them into the cove, where they're captured or slaughtered.

At the Taiji Whale Museum, which showcases local whaling history, staff hold a memorial service for whales. The museum often buys dolphins captured in the Taiji hunt. It offers visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins, watch dolphin performances, and buy dolphin meat.

Photograph by Kyodo via AP Images

The Taiji government did not respond to National Geographic 's request for comment but has previously defended the hunt in other media as a 400-year-old cultural tradition. (Critics, however, argue that the methods of hunting-groups of motorized boats rounding up entire herds, often for the dolphinarium trade-have evolved from what was once a sustenance tradition.)

Eyewitness reports from Dolphin Project volunteers say fishermen typically kill the dolphins by spearing them below their blowholes to sever the spinal cord. But it's been noted that the dolphins may not die instantly and that some have been seen moving afterwards. Other eyewitnesses have reported that calves, unable to survive alone, have been released back into the ocean after their mothers were killed. (Read about the minke whale tangled in the fishing nets near the Taiji Cove for 19 days before fishermen tied a rope to its tail and dragged it until it drowned.)

Dolphin meat is still popular in Taiji, but demand for dolphin and whale meat nationwide in Japan has decreased in recent years, and many distributors and processors have closed.

A dolphin can sell for $500 for its meat, but a live bottlenose dolphin for the dolphinarium trade can bring $8,000 to $12,000, according to the Washington Post.

Generally, between a hundred and 200 dolphins are captured each year for dolphinariums, according to the Dolphin Project. Japan, with an estimated 70 dolphinariums, more than any other country, remains the biggest market for live dolphins captured in Taiji, says Tim Burns, the Dolphin Project's Taiji coordinator.

'A giant dolphin pool'

In 2015, the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) banned its members from buying dolphins from the Taiji hunt, following protests and pressure from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a global industry organization. Some Japanese dolphinariums withdrew from JAZA so they could continue to buy from Taiji.

After dolphins are driven into the cove, trainers work with fishermen to select individuals for captivity. Fishermen "might drive in a pod of eight Rizzo's dolphins, and one might be the perfect young female they need [for training]," Burns says. "The rest are slaughtered."

Burns's team says they expect that many of the dolphins captured this season will be sent to Taiji's government-owned Whale Museum and to Moriura Bay, where the government keeps dolphins in sea pens. They hold a hundred to 200 cetaceans between them and regularly are added to from the drive hunts, according to the Japan Times. At the Whale Museum, visitors can buy whale and dolphin meat from the gift shop to snack on while watching dolphin shows.

The city of Taiji is working to convert Moriura Bay, which is about twice the size of New York's Yankee Stadium, into "a giant dolphin pool," the Japan Times reports, but for now, it's holding dolphins in sea pens.

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Japan's controversial annual dolphin hunt begins

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More than a decade after "The Cove" revealed the cruelty behind the practice, Taiji fishermen continue to round up dolphins to supply aquariums and marine parks.

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Writing, of all kinds, is a healthy habit and hobby. 

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Writing, of all kinds, is a healthy habit and hobby. 

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Topic 1 - This is very relevant to me, as I find a sense of security and relaxation in writing- especially journaling and creative writing. I recommend journaling for anyone and everyone- it doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with tough situations at home, or if you are in a really good spot on your life, it is always extremely beneficial to keep a journal to write in. It doesn’t even have to be consistent, and it doesn’t have to be about your deepest emotions, just whenever you need it and whatever fits.
In the article, it is said that this can immensely improve mental health, as well as a healthy dose of self-awareness and self-reflection. This, in turn, creates a better relationship with yourself, which I think is especially important these days- for anyone.

-Gwenivere Gugel

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Any kind of writing can help. Yulia Grigoryeva/ Shutterstock

Ernest Hemingway famously said that writers should "write hard and clear about what hurts". Although Hemingway may not have known it at the time, research has now shown that writing about "what hurts" can help improve our mental health.

There are more than 200 studies that show the positive effect of writing on mental health. But while the psychological benefits are consistent for many people, researchers don't completely agree on why or how writing helps.

One theory suggests that bottling up emotions can lead to psychological distress. It stands to reason, then, that writing might increase mental health because it offers a safe, confidential and free way to disclose emotions that were previously bottled up.

However, recent studies have begun to show how an increase in self-awareness, rather than simply disclosing emotions, could be the key to these improvements in mental health.

In essence, self-awareness is being able to turn your attention inward towards the self. By turning our attention inward, we can become more aware of our traits, behaviour, feelings, beliefs, values and motivations.

Research suggests that becoming more self-aware can be beneficial in a variety of ways. It can increase our confidence and encourage us to be more accepting of others. It can lead to higher job satisfaction and push us to become more effective leaders. It can also help us to exercise more self-control and make better decisions aligned with our long-term goals.

Self-awareness is a spectrum and, with practice, we can all improve. Writing might be particularly helpful in increasing self-awareness because it can be practised daily. Rereading our writing can also give us a deeper insight into our thoughts, feelings, behaviour and beliefs.

Here are three types of writing which can improve your self-awareness and, in turn, your mental health:

Expressive writing

Expressive writing is often used in therapeutic settings where people are asked to write about their thoughts and feelings related to a stressful life event. This type of writing aims to help emotionally process something difficult.

Research shows that expressive writing can enhance self-awareness, ultimately decreasing depressive symptoms, anxious thoughts and perceived stress.

Reflective writing

Reflective writing is regularly used in professional settings, often as a way to help nurses, doctors, teachers, psychologists and social workers become more effective at their jobs. Reflective writing aims to give people a way to assess their beliefs and actions explicitly for learning and development.

WAYHOME studio/ Shutterstock

Writing reflectively requires a person to ask themselves questions and continuously be open, curious and analytical. It can increase self-awareness by helping people learn from their experiences and interactions. This can improve professional and personal relationships as well as work performance, which are key indicators of good mental health.

Creative writing

Poems, short stories, novellas and novels are all considered forms of creative writing. Usually, creative writing employs the imagination as well as, or instead of, memory, and uses literary devices like imagery and metaphor to convey meaning.

Writing creatively offers a unique way to explore thoughts, feelings, ideas and beliefs. For instance, you could write a science fiction novel that represents your concerns about climate change or a children's story that speaks to your beliefs about friendship. You could even write a poem from the perspective of an owl as a way to represent your insomnia.

Writing creatively about challenging experiences, like grief, can also offer a way to communicate to others something which you feel is too complicated or difficult to say directly.

Creative writing encourages people to choose their words, metaphors and images in a way that really captures what they're trying to convey. This creative decision-making can lead to increased self-awareness and self-esteem as well as improved mental health.

Writing for self-awareness

Self-awareness is a key component for good mental health and writing is a great place to start.

Why not take some time to write down your feelings about a particularly stressful event that has happened during the pandemic? Or reflect on a difficult work situation from the last year and consider what you have learned from it?

If you prefer to do something more creative, then try responding to this prompt by writing a poem or story:
Think about the ways your home reveals the moment we are currently in. Is your pantry packed with flour? Do you have new objects or pets in your home to stave off loneliness or boredom? What you can see from your window that reveals something about this historic moment?
Each of these writing prompts will give you a chance to reflect on this past year, ask yourself important questions, and make creative choices. Spending just 15 minutes doing this may give you an opportunity to become more self-aware - which could lead to improvements in your mental health.

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Writing can improve mental health - here's how

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Ernest Hemingway famously said that writers should "write hard and clear about what hurts". Although Hemingway may not have known it at the time, research has now shown that writing about "what hurts" can help improve our mental health. There are more than 200 studies that show the positive effect of writing on mental health.

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Do learning styles really have much authority over what kind of information in the classroom is helpful as we had originally hoped? 

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Do learning styles really have much authority over what kind of information in the classroom is helpful as we had originally hoped? 

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Topic 1 - It seems as though we have been looking for something out of nothing for a long time. As long as you are looking for a white car on the road, you will always find a white car on the road. But… does that mean there are more white cars on the road than any other color? The same goes here. If we are constantly looking for any type of positive effects that changing our education curriculum based on learning styles has on our students, there will always be something to build on. However, there is not much, and if not, no positive effects at all.
I find this a very interesting topic, and I think I could easily expand on the reasons why all types of learning should always be incorporated into our education curriculum. It is very situational and dependent on the subject at hand. Overall, I think it mostly boils down to having skilled and flexible teachers who are able to impact all students of all personalities and learning abilities. A student who resonates more clearly with auditory content can still better understand a topic with the help of a few visuals, and vise-versa. No student has ever been knocked down with some extra content on a topic. While it might be more efficient to exclude the information that may not need to be explained, depending on the class, it should never be recommended to intentionally exclude information solely because we think it may not be helpful. That information especially is sometimes all a student needs for the understanding of an idea to click in their heads.

-Gwenivere Gugel

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Reasonable people may disagree about whether teachers should have to pass licensing tests of instructional knowledge before getting a job in a classroom. But it's hard to dispute the idea that, if there is going to be such a test, then the questions should be based on the best evidence we have about how children learn. Right?

Actually, my research shows that in 29 states, government-distributed test-preparation materials on high-stakes certification exams include the debunked theory of "learning styles," which holds that matching instruction to students' preferred mode of learning-seeing, listening, or physically engaging in content-aligned activities, for example-is beneficial. My work builds on earlier research showing the prevalence of the idea in textbooks and teacher trainings across the United States. The presence of such content promotes an incorrect theory.

There is no evidence that designing lessons that appeal to different learning styles accelerates student learning. Yet teacher candidates are consistently directed to keep these pseudoscientific style categories in mind. The idea of "learning styles" is persistent and popular in the field, in part because many teachers don't know the science that disproves it. Education and teacher preparation are better when they are informed by empirical evidence than when they operate in disregard of it. It is important to ensure that educators are prepared with accurate insights into learning, instead of with myths.
No Proof for Learning Styles Boost
Has anyone ever told you "I'm a visual learner?" It's a common statement, based on a belief in learning styles. The most frequently referenced styles are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, which assume that some individuals learn best by looking at pictures, others learn best by listening, and still others learn best through hands-on activities. The assumption that students have distinct learning styles and learn best through these channels has influenced teacher practice for decades-despite a lack of evidence that such styles even exist (see " Unlocking the Science of How Kids Think," features, Summer 2018).

Like many misconceptions about learning and the brain, the belief in learning styles stems from an incorrect interpretation of valid research findings and scientifically established facts. For example, it is true that different types of information are processed in different parts of the brain. It is also true that individuals have differences in abilities and preferences. Since the 1970s, however, systematic research reviews and meta-analyses examining the validity of learning styles and their application to education have come to the same conclusion: despite the intuitive appeal, there is little to no empirical evidence that learning styles are real. The fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience consider them a "neuromyth" and disavow the practice of matching instruction to individuals' preferred learning styles to promote learning. In these fields, believing in learning styles has been compared to believing in fortunetelling.

Then there's the education community, where students' learning styles remains a popular idea and pedagogical priority. Research scientists continue to examine the theory in response to the thriving industry marketing learning-styles assessments and interventions to educators, despite the dearth of evidence suggesting an impact. Year after year, the proof eludes us-even with the cheeky promise of a $5,000 cash prize for anyone who can demonstrate a positive effect of incorporating learning styles into an educational intervention. As cognitive psychologists Doug Rohrer and Hal Pashler wrote in their 2012 research review, "it does indeed make sense to speak of students who, in comparison with their peers, have poor visual-spatial ability and strong verbal ability, but this does not imply that such students will learn anatomy better if their textbook has few diagrams."

Nonetheless, starting with their training, teachers are steeped in the lore of learning styles. A 2016 study by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that 67 percent of teacher-preparation programs required students to incorporate learning styles into lesson-planning assignments, and 59 percent of textbooks advised taking students' learning styles into account. Those lessons appear to stick: a 2017 study examining the prevalence of neuromyths found that, of the 598 educators surveyed, 76 percent agreed that "individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style," and 71 percent agreed that "children have learning styles that are dominated by particular senses."

Even when teachers do encounter sound science, those messages are blurred by the importance assigned to learning styles in coursework and licensure exams. As Joshua Cuevas found, when teachers study educational psychology, those textbooks-unlike general education materials-approach the topic with skepticism, pointing out the lack of evidence and cautioning against the use of unsupported instructional practices. But textbooks also align their content with standard licensure exams, leading to incongruent mentions of learning styles. For example, a passage in the margins of the widely used Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice textbook written by Robert E. Slavin and published by Pearson reads: "Teacher certification tests may ask you to design a lesson that would accommodate students' various learning styles." Yet in 2019, an issue of Slavin's newsletter published by the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University stated: "There is no practical utility in knowing students' learning styles."

What are teachers to believe? It should come as no surprise that most think learning styles are important. In more than half of U.S. states, teachers are required to study up on learning-styles theory as they prepare for high-stakes licensure exams.
The Link to Licensure
To reveal the extent of this problem, I, with the help of undergraduate students studying to become certified teachers, first reviewed the requirements for licensure and certification to work as an elementary-school teacher in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. We then focused our analysis on only those states that require aspiring teachers to pass computer-based standardized exams that test knowledge of instructional methods. That limited our sample to 34 states and the District of Columbia. We did not include the 16 states that only require tests that are performance-based or measure content knowledge, as those tests likely would not include learning styles since they do not directly test pedagogical knowledge.

We then reviewed free, publicly available test-preparation materials to find mentions of "learning styles" and determine whether or not the information advocated for modifying lessons based on that theory. In all, 29 states and the District of Columbia currently require licensing exams for elementary certification that have official study materials that reference learning styles (see Figure 1).

Nearly all of those materials advocate for modifying instruction to accommodate learning styles. Only one state, Massachusetts, has study materials that refer to learning styles but do not clearly advocate for their relevance or application in the classroom. In this case, the term "learning styles" is used in an example of a weak response to a composition exercise.

Because several states partner with major testing companies to administer the exams, there is quite a bit of overlap in licensure test requirements. For example, 21 states and the District of Columbia require one or more tests of instructional knowledge from Educational Testing Service's Praxis Series, which study materials say may ask questions pertaining to learning styles. In addition, nine states require state-specific examinations testing instructional knowledge, seven of which have preparation materials available for free that advocate for accommodating learning styles during instruction.

The publicly available preparation materials place varying degrees of emphasis on learning styles. Several list learning styles alongside prerequisite knowledge, skill levels, and interests as suggestions as to how one might differentiate and individualize instruction. Others provide specific questions regarding visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning and the instructional methods that might best match students with different learning styles.

For example, study companions for the various Praxis licensure tests ask aspiring teachers to "describe some activities that might help students with varying learning styles best learn key concepts" and to "give a specific example from your own classroom experience of the effects of differences in learning styles on how people understand and express what they know." In Oklahoma, the study guide for the state's Professional Teaching Examination goes so far as to provide results from a "learning-styles inventory" that the test taker is expected to analyze, interpret, and cite within a constructed response.
Misplaced Priorities
So what should be done when supposedly "correct" answers on teacher-licensure tests are actually wrong? Sound professional judgment requires that the best available knowledge gained through empirical research be integrated into practice. Teachers are professionals whose influence on human lives cannot be overstated. It's critical that they make instructional decisions informed by evidence. To promote such practice, several changes will be needed.

First, teacher-preparation programs could function more like schools of medicine. Under such a model, programs would take responsibility for providing students with the best available knowledge while emphasizing the importance of staying up-to-date with scientific findings that can influence decision-making. Medical schools no longer teach and test medical students on bloodletting, for example, because it has been debunked. Similarly, board-certification exams do not include questions about bloodletting, which could legitimate a practice that is not only ineffective, but also harmful. Requiring that teacher-preparation programs and licensing exams meet medical-exam standards for scientific accuracy would help aspiring teachers to focus on proven methods of instructional success.

Preparation programs also have the responsibility of teaching aspiring teachers to be critical consumers of research. We do not want our future teachers to accept blindly what publishing companies market to them to inform instructional decisions any more than we want doctors to blindly accept what pharmaceutical representatives market to them to inform treatment decisions.

Failing to take these steps may have steep costs to the teaching profession and to kids across the country. Consider a similar mismatch between research and practice: reading instruction at U.S. schools. Because the vast majority of teachers did not learn the science of reading in their preparation programs, they rely on common practices and word of mouth to teach reading once they reach the classroom. As a result, "whole language"-style instruction masquerading under the name "balanced literacy" remains popular, despite ample research pointing the way toward a more systematic, effective method of instruction. Meanwhile, one in three American 4th graders cannot read at a basic level.

It seems reasonable to ask how learning styles theory could harm students. Would-be teachers need to recognize and respect individual differences and understand the importance of differentiated instruction, right? Doesn't incorporating learning-styles theory into instruction align with these core principles?

It seems harmless enough, but when teachers work to accommodate learning styles, which have no empirical support, they divert attention and effort away from instructional strategies that are supported by a substantial body of research. There are principles of instruction and strategies for effective learning that are supported by converging empirical evidence from multiple fields-practical knowledge teachers ought to have upon entering their first classroom. When training programs spend time discussing learning styles, that's time not spent discussing proven practices to enhance student learning. For example, the National Council on Teacher Quality's textbook study found 59 percent of textbooks did not even mention the six highest-impact teaching methods identified by the Institute of Education Sciences more than a decade ago, and just 15 percent spent a full page on those practices. Even then, it was only two books, and they discussed just two of the six strategies. Meanwhile, more than half of textbooks included details about learning styles. Rather than learning to assess, group, and plan instruction for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners, teachers can learn to assess and differentiate instruction based on individuals' level of mastery with prerequisite skills and knowledge-important factors that do influence student learning.

In addition to the misallocation of teachers' time and effort, there are other potentially detrimental effects of learning-styles-based instruction, detailed memorably by Daniel Willingham. Students may act on their label. If a student believes she or he has a particular dominant learning style, the student may avoid effective learning strategies or even entire subjects they believe are a better fit for a learning style they don't think suits them. Moreover, since individuals are able to control the type of mental processing they use, students who are taught they have a dominant learning style may attempt to process information in their preferred style, even when the method does not fit the task. And teachers who attempt to accommodate multiple learning styles in a lesson, rather than focusing on the most effective methods to present the specific material, can negatively influence student learning by causing cognitive overload.
Coursework Corrections
Teacher educators and preparation-program administrators should not want to propagate a myth that has negative effects on student achievement and motivation. However, if they want to keep certification rates high and see students' dreams of having their own classrooms come to fruition, they'll need to prepare candidates fully for licensure exams. So, until the content of licensure exams more accurately reflects evidence-informed practice and principles from learning science, teacher educators are left with a less-than-ideal strategy to minimize the damage.

While emphasizing evidence-informed instruction through a careful selection of journal articles and textbooks, teacher educators can teach candidates that accommodating student learning styles is not supported by research. However, for the purposes of licensure exams, they can tell their aspiring teachers to disregard empirical findings so that they can get the "correct" answer. This appears to be the route already taken by some educational-psychology textbooks, which can leave students questioning the overall legitimacy of the licensure exams.

Indeed, reviewing the content of those exams appears pressing. Instead of testing students on material with no empirical backing, state departments of education could provide a useful service by scouring the required licensing exams that test knowledge of instructional methods and removing content without a sufficient evidence base. Learning-styles theory is not the only content fitting this description-Praxis tests also include Maslow's hierarchy of needs, for example, which is not supported by empirical evidence.

Both test developers and teacher educators have a responsibility to stay up-to-date on research regarding learning and instruction. What they choose to include in course syllabi and on licensure tests is more than a statement about what the field of education believes future teachers ought to learn. It is also a statement about how much the field values empirical knowledge.
William Furey is assistant professor at Manhattan College.

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State teacher-license prep materials peddle a debunked theory

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While i love animals and do not condone absusing animals, I beleive that the Army's live tissue training should continue. This will most likely draw me lots of hate but army medics need to be trained to respond to these kind of traumas. Even though the war has ended the fighting will continue our medics will be somewhere fighting. This training using pigs and goats has given them the ability to learn their procedures, also we have learned how to lessenthe pain for the animals. I thank these animals for their life and giving a combat medic the ability to save someones life.

Jorge Narvaez

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There has been a significant change in the types of injuries sustained on the modern battlefield due to the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which are designed to cause severe penetrating injuries to limbs and torso, often resulting in massive haemorrhage in injured soldiers. Massive haemorrhage is the most common preventable cause of death for soldiers wounded in combat ¹. Hence life saving training techniques and practices are being used by US military medical personnel in an effort to reduce this incidence. 'Live tissue trauma training' (LTTT), or 'combat medic training' ², as it is referred to in the US, involves the use of animals (mostly goats and pigs) for the purposes of direct surgical intervention in which physicians and paramedical personnel (military and civilian) obtain surgical skills by treating severe traumatic injuries. Once animals are deeply anaesthetized, wounds of the type army paramedics and doctors are likely to see in combat situations are inflicted. Such wounds are then appropriately treated in order to gain valuable 'trauma care' experience not likely to be offered in any other form. Upon completion of LTTT, animals are humanely euthanased without ever regaining consciousness. Despite the understandable highly emotive and sensitive nature of LTTT, by

providing new combat medics with methods in how to manage critically-injured soldiers within the first few hours post-event, and where there is no local access to doctors or medical facilities, military personnel assert that such realistic training programs are necessary and have facilitated the saving of countless lives of soldiers who have sustained life-threatening injuries on the battlefield. 2,7,8,9 In this 'opinion' article the author explains how and why animals are used for LTTT and in some areas of military medical research (MMR), as well as why he feels that the continued use of animals for LTTT is justified at this time. He also highlights opinions and recent examples of the animal research/training debate from both the pro- and anti- points of view and provides examples of alternative types of LTTT tuition. He hopes that this article will encourage wider discussion within respective scientific, defence and animal welfare circles, leading to further refinements in the welfare and protection of animals used for these important, although often controversial, purposes.
Why LTTT needs to continue
Jim Hanson ², a former member of a US Special Forces unit, writes in the Washington Times ('Save people, not pets'), that in his view animal use should continue for LTTT because 'banning medic training using live animals could kill US troops'. Interestingly, this publication was intentionally timely and was in direct response to a bill before the US Senate at the time. This bill, known as the 'Battlefield Excellence Through Superior Training Practices Act' ³, sought to amend the US Defense Appropriations Act which aimed to phase in human-based training methods and replace the current use of live animals for LTTT. If passed, this bill will require the US Department of Defense, no later than 1 st October 2014, 'to use only human-based methods for training members of the Armed Forces in the treatment of severe combat and chemical and biological injuries'. It will also prohibit the use of animals in such training. ³ One of the main groups that are seeking this change is the U.S. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), who strongly oppose the use of animals for research and training in any arena. Many believe that this bill (known as the 'BEST Practices Act') will likely end up costing the lives of US troops in order to save the lives of some animals simply because US military medics will no longer have access to vital and realistic LTTT.

The PCRM, and other groups that oppose vivisection (surgery used for experimental purposes on living organisms ⁴) such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) seek an expanded use of simulators and other training aids so as to completely replace LTTT, despite the fact that such simulators and training aids cannot adequately mimic bodily functions or recreate the reality of a wounded living being. In contrast, it is widely accepted in US defence circles that, were it not for training programs such as LTTT, most medics would be sent into combat situations never having had the experience of treating a real traumatic injury. The viewpoint of most medics is that the visceral reaction that a living animal can invoke, being similar to that which each medic must face when a (human) life is in danger, is something that no simulator or training aid can provide. According to the PCRM, the US Department of Defense currently uses approximately 9,000 pigs and goats, and 20 vervet monkeys annually to teach Army medics, Navy corpsmen and Air Force personnel to respond to the most common causes of preventable battlefield fatalities. ¹ Others claim that these figures are more than fifty-fold higher ⁵, though these claims appear unsupported by any firm evidence. This is put into perspective when one considers that in just one week in the month of February 2009 in the U.S., 2,236,000 hogs were slaughtered for meat consumption. ⁶ In LTTT sessions, military trainees practice procedures including tourniquet application, emergency management of haemorrhage, blocked airway emergency techniques (such as cricothyroidotomy) and chest tube placement. This is because combat medics are 'trained and prepared to save life, and to keep the casualty alive in austere high-threat conditions for hours on end'. Faces are often destroyed due to blast and burns injuries caused by IEDs used by insurgents, and there is a need to rapidly apply surgical airways.. Hence, 'the spectrum of care they are expected to provide at any given moment exceeds what an entire civilian trauma centre might encounter in a week or month'. ⁷

While most LTTT tuition involves the infliction of wounds using surgical instruments, some select US special operations units 8,9,10 have conducted LTTT using various 'projectile' methods such as gunshot wounds, (bayonet) stab wounds, (napalm) burns, and amputations. Such courses, known as 'Combat Trauma Management', are 'designed to test and reinforce the application of knowledge with regard to patient stabilization and treatment on an injured animal-patient. The use of ballistic wounding in these courses is used to create a variation of wounds and environments to complicate patient management and increase training realism'. ⁷ It should be stressed that during such procedures, animals are always deeply anaesthetised (at a surgical plane of anaesthesia) for the entire period, given appropriate analgesia, and humanely euthanased post-training.

The production of extensive injuries in animals used for LTTT is important so that medics, when faced with a real combat situation are unlikely to 'freeze' due to emotional shock and they are able to quickly identify what they need to do, and apply it immediately and confidently. Such is the reality of LTTT that even hardened military personnel, when observing a gunshot wound for the first time, cannot remain unaffected by the experience. LTTT training also provides clinical and psychological 'conditioning for the horrors and chaos of war.' Indeed there are many medics belonging to Special Forces (elite) units who would gladly provide testimonials in support of the fact that such training, albeit graphic, has saved the lives of their colleagues who had sustained severe wounds in actual combat. 2,8,9,10 Despite numerous advances in modern military technology, such as personal body armour and armour-plating of vehicles, it cannot be disputed that a confident and well-trained combat medic is probably the most likely 'instrument' to save a wounded soldier on the battlefield. Furthermore, a military spokesman for the US Army in Europe recently announced that effective combat trauma training, such as LTTT, had contributed to the lowest 'killed-in-action rate in military history'. ¹¹ Thus, as LTTT actually saves lives, military personnel believe that this vindicates their position, and that LTTT should continue. The author, who also believes that priority should be given to human life over that of animals, concurs with this view. Indeed, it would seem that others are also of this view. David Hull, in his review of 'Animal Liberation', ¹² wrote that "if a choice has to be made between saving a human being and saving a pig, we would be morally obligated to save the human being because human beings are capable of greater sentience (possession of feelings such as pain and emotional states such as fear) than pigs. One must be careful when drawing such conclusions however as the degree of pain experienced by an organism cannot be assumed to be proportionate to its level of sentience. 13
Military Medical Research
In the area of MMR numerous devices (for example, tourniquets), procedures (damage control surgery) and clinical practice guidelines (use of balanced plasma to packed cell ratios) have been promulgated in the military through initial animal studies and subsequent clinical studies. Subsequently, training procedures employing the use of animals have been modified to reduce the use of animals, refined to maximize their use and where possible, replaced by the introduction of wide and varied techniques including simulators.

Another major factor within the battlefield scenario, is the issue dealing with blood loss. Uncontrolled haemorrhage is by far the major cause of death for wounded soldiers. 2,7,8,9,10 Blood loss accounts for 40% of all combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Army Institute of Surgical Research Joint Trauma System, but 79% of 'potentially survivable' deaths. ¹⁴ Medics in the field are restricted in their ability to maintain blood pressure and to ensure that there is enough circulating blood as possible within the body . Mostly the only tools a medic has in order to achieve these aims include the use of compression bandages, various bandaging techniques, the use of thrombotic drugs to assist in slowing the loss of blood and the knowledge and experience gained from LTTT in dealing with complex traumatic injuries. Through their experience on the battlefield, medics have found that soldiers can often recover relatively well if haemorrhage and potential massive blood loss has been arrested. 7,14

The Pentagon has recently invested approximately $10 million dollars in MMR to investigate strategies to increase the survival rate of soldiers through induction of a hibernation-like state. ¹⁴ The medical research arm of the US military has commissioned Texas A & M University to undertake studies which initially have shown that hydrogen sulphide can put rodents into a state of 'induced hibernation'. An extension of this work will seek to find scientific solutions that could potentially allow human cells to survive with less oxygen carried in the bloodstream and able to keep soldiers alive for up to six hours despite massive blood loss. ¹⁴ Essentially, such research is aimed at reducing the body's requirements at the cellular level regardless of the state of consciousness. If successful, this area of MMR is likely to have applications within the civilian world as well, for example in assisting victims of motor transport accidents.

Another significant part of MMR is the issue of chemical weapons defense research (CWDR; as opposed to chemical weapons offence research - banned in US for decades). This is another area where animals are used for military purposes. 1,2,4,5 In order to find cures for soldiers exposed to deadly chemical attacks on the battlefield, vervet monkeys are used as a model for CWDR. In this work, the monkeys are anaesthetized and administered a non-lethal dose of a drug that mimics the symptoms of a chemical weapon, and then given an appropriate treatment. The efficacy and safety of chemical warfare antidotes and vaccines must be screened on animals prior to their use in humans. This methodology has to date become standard practise in this area of MMR.

Combat-experienced soldiers, having first-hand experience with regard to the types of injuries often sustained in modern military conflicts as well as seeing the benefits of LTTT, haemostatic training and CWDR, are strong advocates of LTTT and MMR for the purposes of saving human lives (lives of soldiers sent to war) over animals. They feel that LTTT should not be considered as a 'callous disregard of animals. It is the careful and thoughtful regard for the survivability of the men and women that are sent to war' by giving them (medics) all the tools and training that can help them save lives. ²
The LTTT situation in Australia
LTTT has been similarly practised in Australia to aid in the training of both civilian doctors and Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel in the initial assessment and management of the trauma victim. This training essentially concentrates on the first hour of emergency care post-event, and does not include the infliction of firearm/projectile injuries (ie. gunshot, grenade wounds) as is practised by select US military groups conducting LTTT. In Australia, LTTT is known as Early Management of Severe Trauma (EMST) ¹⁵ and since 1988, training programs have been regularly provided for civilian and ADF medical and paramedical personnel across the country. It is important to note that EMST training, when it is conducted, is carried out in full compliance with National Health & Medical Research Council Guidelines, NHMRC (2009). Guidelines on the use of animals for training interventional medical practitioners and demonstrating medical equipment and techniques. ¹⁶ The EMST focus is purely on the 'trauma' patient, regardless of whether that is within a civilian casualty or a military casualty context. EMST training was essentially 'imported' into Australia in the early 1980s when the Royal Australian College of Surgeons (RACS) liaised with its equivalent body in the United States, the American College of Surgeons, to seek support and permission in setting up the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training programme for the Australasian region. As a result, the first EMST course, made available by the RACS, was offered to potential trainees in 1988, and has to date been providing this type of training as well as refresher training (normally undertaken if not done within four years of the initial EMST training) ever since.
The LTTT situation in the United Kingdom
In an article supporting the use of LTTT, Reeds (2010) states that 'it would be prudent to clarify that the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSE) neither supports nor objects to the use of live animals for trauma training'. ¹⁷ In a document published by the RCSE in 1999, titled 'Surgical Competence Challenges of Assessment in Training and Practice', the RCSE remained 'neutral' by providing information as to the benefits of LTTT, but also emphasizing the disadvantages relating to animal welfare considerations. Rather than outlining the formal policy of the RCSE on LTTT, this document was simply a discussion of issues relating to surgical training and LTTT, which was collated as a summary of various conference presentations. As such, the document 'has confirmed that it does not hold any formal opinion or policy (on LTTT) nor has it ever considered the same.' ¹⁸

Anti-vivisectionist groups also oppose civil medical research

Anti-vivisection groups such as PCRM, PETA and the more militant group Animal Liberation Front (ALF) of the UK have traditionally been strongly opposed to the use of animals for research purposes of any kind. Effectively they believe it is 'inhumane' and claim that those biomedical research organisations who conduct animal research, do so in a totally unregulated environment which is fraught with animal

cruelty. Recently, these groups have been very active on a world-wide scale by protesting (PETA and ALF, violently) 19,20,21,22 against any form of animal-based research or training. PETA, ALF and recently PCRM, seem to have realised that if they can't force a change to their views of various industry and government bodies, they can certainly be more effective by using official processes to file complaints against major US research institutions . This results in the delay or stopping of research progress, the waste of much-needed resources and results in frustrating delays while complaints are investigated, many of which usually result in 'non-event' outcomes. It seems that their collective influence is spreading, for example, one just has to take note of the ever-increasing, official filed complaints to animal welfare regulatory bodies such as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). These obstructive tactics have had, at least in some cases, their desired effect, with a few major internationally-respected research institutions very recently having ceased using live animals. 23

This has occurred not due to the institutions in question having breached any federal animal welfare laws but rather because it simply was easier for the institutions to avoid the time-consuming nature of such USDA investigations and the associated disruption to research, teaching and training. The two Canadian hospitals in question, namely Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontario and Saint John Regional in New BrunswickCanada, have indeed halted their Advanced Trauma Treatment Courses (ATTC) using live pigs, and have commenced using patient simulators ²³. Despite being accused of 'caving in' to external pressure exerted by the PCRM by some commentators, there was resistance by the Hamilton institution staff to the loss of the ATTC. Surgical residents at Hamilton openly expressed their opposition to the changes, as they considered the new simulators as poor replacements in their training when compared to their previous experience using live pigs. The medical students repeatedly demanded the return of the pigs for this type of training, because they felt that the 'tissue' on the mannequins simply was neither lifelike nor realistic. ²³

Citing stark factual differences, a university veterinarian at Hamilton made it clear that some (anti-vivisectionist) groups often deliberately used misinformation to get their point across. ²³ For example, in this very situation, the pigs used in ATTC were cared for by well-trained, dedicated staff who would ensure that they were housed in a comfortable environment, were well-fed and treated with the utmost care and respect. Pre-delivery to the institution, the pigs would be transported in an air-conditioned van and given a period in which to acclimatize to their new surroundings. The pigs would be carefully anaesthetized before undergoing the ATTC procedure, and prior to the conclusion of the training, they would be humanely euthanased with an overdose of anaesthetic while still unconscious. This entire protocol certainly does not reflect a portrait of inhumane treatment of animals, as claimed by some anti-vivisectionist groups.

PETA filed a complaint in 2010 to the USDA against the University of Michigan (UM), which conducts Survival Flight Training using animals. 24 It claimed that the UM had violated the US Animal Welfare Act because it used cats and pigs in an emergency training course for its Survival Flight nurses (personnel providing emergency air transportation service for patients in critical care). PETA stated that the UM should use human simulators instead of live animals to practise common emergency procedures such as endotracheal intubation, which involves inserting a breathing tube into the trachea to ventilate the lungs.

Responding to the PETA complaint, the UM veterinarian and director for laboratory animal medicine stated that 'the work of the Survival Flight nurses required that such procedures were performed on living tissue', and that there was no substitute for this type of training, claiming that both simulators and associated teaching aids simply weren't adequate. ²⁴ This training was designed for practising various essential life- saving techniques, which ultimately would be used for helping young children. The clinicians felt that because of the anatomical similarities between some animals and humans, they were simply the best learning models available for this training, 24 and importantly, the animals were under anaesthesia when such training was being conducted.

In another separate animal welfare complaint, filed by the PCRM to the USDAs APHIS against the University of Washington (UW) School of Paediatrics, ²⁵ the PCRM claimed that this institution was breaking federal animal welfare laws because it used live (anaesthetized) ferrets as a model to train paediatric medical residents to insert breathing tubes, as would be used for emergency procedures in premature babies. Responding to the complaint, a UW Medical Director and Professor of paediatrics stated that up to ten ferrets (maximum) were used for paediatric training sessions per year. He reported the species was a good model for such training as they were a hardy animal which, when anaesthetized, could easily tolerate between six to eight intubation attempts with minimal airway irritation. Recovery is rapid and they could be used again within a few weeks. ²⁵ The Professor said that this training was important as it helped train medical students to insert breathing tubes in very low birth weight babies, where medical simulators (mostly plastic models which contain semi-realistic anatomical features, and unable to adequately duplicate the airway passage in extremely small infants) simply weren't at the level of sophistication required for these tiny infants.
Anatomical and physiological differences
Anti-vivisection groups often cite the anatomical and physiological differences between animals and humans as one of their main arguments in opposing LTTT. In a brief prepared by the PCRM for consideration by the US Senate in relation to the BEST Practices Act ³⁰ the PCRM states that 'the use of pigs and goats for combat casualty care training (another name for LTTT) is suboptimal due to, among other issues, the animals' anatomical and physiological differences from humans. Compared with humans, pigs and goats have smaller torsos and limbs, thicker skin, different responses to anaesthesia and analgesia, and important differences in anatomy of the head and neck, internal organs, limbs, blood vessels and airway'.

The same report also seems to recognise however that the most important elements of LTTT for practitioners is realism, human-specific injuries and treatments, volume of trauma exposure and 'team-building'. ³⁰ In essence, they recommend combined use of simulators, human cadaver use and access to civilian trauma centres. While in theory this combination of training elements does sound ideal for LTTT, and in fact they are used by the military wherever and whenever possible, all of these separate elements do have their own inherent problems.

In addressing the first argument above, it needs to be stated that it is the reaction or response of living tissue to injury or irritation, rather than the anatomical or physiological species differences which is the main issue in question. Live tissue appears to be the most suitable element in training combat medics. 'Most patient simulators do not bleed, and those that can, do not respond in the same biological way that bleeding patients do in clinical practice'. ³¹ Using the example of physician training, real vascular injuries allow trainees opportunities to perform various techniques that respond authentically to injuries that they realistically encounter during clinical practice; this is a distinct advantage of the Advanced Trauma Operative Management course (or LTTT) that uses the live tissue porcine model and which has been shown to be of great benefit to trainees. 32,33 'An additional benefit is the pathophysiological response to traumatic injuries that live tissue provides and the appropriate physiologic response of the patient that is observed to the trainees interventions/clinical management'. 17,31 Simulators and human cadavers cannot produce this same effect. Endoscopy and other associated training techniques have also been used as part of LTTT. Some operators, Barthet et al (2007), also have 'demonstrated significantly increased competence using live liver tissue in performing diagnostic procedures with regard to visualizing anatomic structures, performance of fine needle aspiration, and, to a lesser extent, endoscopic ultrasound-guided celiac neurolysis (endoluminal ultrasound)'. ³⁴

With respect to the use of human cadavers and simulators as an alternative to LTTT, another distinct advantage of live tissue is that organ texture and tissue handling characteristics are optimal, both of which are limited in cadavers and simulators. Although cadavers and simulators have their uses in certain applications, neither respond authentically to surgical procedures and other medical interventions in the same way that living patients do in everyday trauma practice. ³¹ There are various (human) simulators on the market, most of which have been developed to meet certain requirements for training. One of them, 'Trauma Man' (Simulab Corporation) was constructed specifically for advanced trauma surgical skills training. According to the Surgeon General of the US Army, Major General Gale S. Pollock, 'use of this simulator is not applicable for haemorrhage control, the largest, preventable killer of our Service members on the battlefield'. ⁷ Furthermore, in a study done at the US Army Base at Fort Lewis, a haemorrhage simulator was used to training military medics. However the control group had received no exposure to the simulator. There was no comparison with live animal haemorrhage training. 35 It should be remembered that simulation is a training step; it is not the end of the training process. ⁷

The use of civilian trauma centres, as an alternative to LTTT and on the scale that the military requires it, is also unrealistic and naïve. Hospital emergency rooms simply do not have the capacity or the resources to accommodate the needs of the military. As a rough guide, their programmes can only provide training for approximately 24 men (only) every 6-8 weeks. 7 To put the US military's requirements into some perspective, Major General Pollock made the following statement in 2007, "On any given day more than 12,000 Army medics - physicians, dentists, veterinarians, nurses, allied health professionals, administrators, and combat medics - are deployed around the world supporting the (US) Army in combat, participating in humanitarian assistance missionsand training throughout the world". ³⁶ Furthermore, he added that "to date, more than 17,800 Combat Medics have received training in Medical Simulation Training Centers which use computerized mannequins that stimulate human response to trauma. (Only) use of live tissue best simulates the challenges and stress inherent in stopping actual bleeding". 36 From the above statements, it should be obvious to the reader that LTTT is the optimal method of training delivery and that the 'through-put' of hospital trauma centres cannot provide pre-deployment training requirements for combat medics,, especially in adequate emergency case management experience. Other problems with the use of civilian trauma centres for combat medics is that the types of injury encountered in hospital trauma centres are quite different to the spectrum of injuries that service members often encounter on the battlefield. Lastly, putting combat medics in civilian trauma centres for the purposes of training also removes them from their daily duties and thus reduces their capacity to provide healthcare for other military personnel.

In terms of military medical preparation for the treatment of combat casualties, advocates strongly believe that LTTT is the current solution because it is effective (it saves lives) and is the most advanced kind of training available. I It trains its participants to observe, assess, triage and treat based on the severity of the penetrating trauma presented, and all set within a 'battlefield scenario' where the need for rapid decision- making in a 'high-stress' environment is a constant challenge for the course participants. ⁷ Participants in LTTT build an individual proficiency and a level of confidence in their ability to treat real combat casualties. ³⁷

The US military already uses a range of simulators including Trauma Man, the Combat Trauma Patient Simulation System, and other training modalities as described by Cherry and Ali. ³⁸ While these simulators are used where appropriate, and although they can enhance the experience of learning trauma training, they are only at best a progression towards, rather than a replacement for, LTTT, as they cannot replace all of the procedures used in training combat medics. So, effectively, the use of live animals cannot be eliminated altogether and this remains the reason that the US military uses the LTTT model for its troops pre-deployment. ³⁹ However, ' 'hybrid' courses have been developed by military training providers which offer a combination of LTTT, use of simulators, human cadavers and civilian trauma centres to aid in the training of military medical personnel. Though the success of some of these programmes has been variable, 40,41,42 the use of live tissue has remained an essential component of such training.

One of the better developed hybrid courses is the US Army's 'Tactical Combat Casualty Course' which consists of didactic sessions, interactive human surgical simulators, triage scenarios, use of animal tissues and LTTT. It would be interesting to see how changing the relative proportions of such hybrid training may affect overall tuition, hence further research in this area is needed. Currently, until a simulation technique is developed that is documented to equal the benefit of live tissue training in preparing medics to manage combat trauma, appropriately conducted LTTT should be supported as an essential component of combat medic training. 7,43

There are a number of simulators available for generic training which, although improved in their ability to provide useful training, they do not yet have the full capability of encompassing all aspects of live tissue training. ⁴⁴ It is for this reason that the American College of Surgeons (ACS) "supports the use and humane care and treatment of laboratory animals used in research, education, teaching and product safety testing in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal animal welfare laws". The ACS also states that "wherever feasible, alternatives to the use of live animals should be developed and employed" but "believes that now and in the foreseeable future it is not possible to completely replace the use of animals and that the study of whole living organisms, tissues and cells is an indispensible element of biomedical research, education and teaching". ⁴⁵
The benefits and controls of animal-based research and training
Military medical personnel and researchers across most institutions acknowledge the use and usefulness of alternative approaches as being very important. They do not use animals unnecessarily or uncaringly. All personnel consider it a privilege to use animals in research or training, and demonstrate this by treating them with the utmost level of care and respect.

Military research groups often support their argument by reminding us as to the many lives of soldiers saved directly, both in the past and currently, as a consequence of LTTT, CWDR and MMR. This has similarly been the case in the civilian arena of medical research as well, where the life-saving benefits to human health have been enormous, as has the reduction of human suffering caused by widespread, global infectious diseases. ²⁶ This has only been possible, because of the far-reaching implications of animal-based research and training. Interestingly, recent figures from the US National Academy of Science confirm that world rankings on average life expectancy have shown that they have increased over the last 25 years, due mostly to the advances in medical research and training. ²⁷ There have also been immense direct benefits to veterinary medicine as a result of animal-based biomedical research. Unfortunately, many anti-vivisection groups continually dismiss these enormous advances in human and animal medicine and continue to incorrectly propagate the view that these advances have been achieved at the expense of 'humane' care of animals.

Surely the 'common denominator' on both sides of this debate must primarily be the increased protection and safety of service personnel, together with enhanced humane welfare and protection of animals used for LTTT, CWDR and MMR purposes. It should be noted that the US Animal Welfare Act ²⁸ does permit the use of live animals for research and training purposes in both the civil and military arenas. However, it is the role of this Act to regulate whether animals are treated humanely. Violations of the Act are promptly investigated. Routine monitoring of conduct often involves unannounced visits to research and training establishments, aiming to ensure that animals are being treated humanely and with the utmost care. Actions taken for non-compliance can be severe and range from official warnings to fines being imposed on the institution, with the possibility of suspension of work or the revocation of research licenses .

The majority, if not all, research and training institutions both military and civil, operate within a rigid environment of internal and external controls governing their use of animals. This environment is highly regulated by the federal government, overseen by federal agencies which mandate several layers of review and involve a dedicated staff of caretakers and research animal veterinarians. ²⁶ Additionally, each institution has effective animal care and use committees set up to provide internal controls. A requirement of these committees mandates that a lay-person (an ordinary member of the community) serve as a member of its quorum. Indeed, the system on which this model is based is in place in many western countries today. Taking all of these factors into account, it should be evident that claims such as 'inhumane treatment', 'fraught with animal cruelty' and the like, appear to be without foundation. Nonetheless, there is no room for complacency as it is important that regulatory authorities continue to monitor the welfare of animals used for military and civil research and training activities, and continue to maintain the high standards expected of such institutions. Those 'high standards' have long been a tradition in the military services as 'military medicine has always been at the forefront of research. It spans everything from disease prevention to rehabilitation'. ²⁹
Summary
This article highlights the importance of military training in life saving techniques and treatments developed through clinical research and now used by physicians and combat medics operating in the emergency arena of warfare. To this end, it should be remembered that such protocols have been refined to minimise pain and distress to animals, that the number of animals used is always reduced to the absolute minimum possible and that where effective non-animal alternatives exist, every effort is made to promptly implement or adapt them for current use. And although military and civil researchers will make use of new alternate technology and training methodologies wherever possible, at this point in time, animals (along with other types of tuition) remain vital in advancing medicine and for use in life-saving training techniques.

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Military 'live tissue trauma training' using animals in the US - its purpose, importance and commentary on military medical research and the debate on use of animals in military training

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Introduction There has been a significant change in the types of injuries sustained on the modern battlefield due to the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which are designed to cause severe penetrating injuries to limbs and torso, often resulting in massive haemorrhage in injured soldiers.

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As we grow up most of us were told we needed to become doctors or lawyers to be someone in life. Not every kid is the same or wants to do those things i believe we should teach kids more about the options of trades. I went to a high school where i was able to receive my American Welding Society Certification Before i graduated. As well as a cert in auto mechanics. They need to know there is more options than doctors and lawyers.
Jorge Narvaez

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Although the price of college is soaring and a four-year degree isn't the guarantee of financial security it once was, 70% of parents surveyed by the National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER) said they wouldn't advise their child to embark on a career in construction. They may want to rethink that.

Not only is there a dire need for the next-generation workforce in the construction trades, jobs are widely available and often high-paying. What's more, training usually comes with no student debt.

Construction Work: Long Stigmatized

Brian Turmail, vice president, public affairs and strategic initiatives at Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), says for decades, construction and trades jobs have been stigmatized and viewed as a "last resort, instead of a career opportunity that ought to be on the menu to be considered."
Also on Forbes:
Adds Turmail: "It's been so impressed upon us that the path to success in the 21st century lies through a four-year traditional college education."

But parents of teens and twentysomethings should understand that things have changed.

For one thing, the construction industry is desperate for builders, plumbers, electricians and others, because the field is aging. As boomers in construction retire, their jobs aren't being filled quickly enough to meet the demand.

According to an AGC and Autodesk survey, 80% of construction firms are struggling to fill hourly craft positions, which make up most of the construction workforce. And they expect the problem to continue.

Helping to Fill Many Job Openings in the Trades

Analysts predict more than 3 million skilled trade jobs will remain open by 2028. A recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders revealed that 69% of its members are already experiencing delays in completing projects on time due to a shortage of qualified workers.

It's one reason why more than 60 organizations, led by home improvement retailer Lowe's, recently launched Generation T, a movement to help fill the skilled trade gap and change public perceptions of the skilled trades in America. It's creating a national marketplace to connect people to prospective apprenticeships and jobs.

Even with no experience, Turmail says, jobs in the trades are easy to come by.

"If you can pass a drug test, if you're willing to work outside, willing to be part of a team and willing to show up early and work hard, you can find a job in construction in just about every market in this country," he explains.

For example, the Generation T site forecasts more than 1 million opportunities for carpenters and nearly 650,000 for plumbers over the next decade.

Construction jobs are also becoming more tech-centric, which the industry hopes will appeal to a younger generation and their parents. iPads, drones and robots are regular fixtures on jobsites, and some heavy equipment can be operated via GPS and a computer.

Well-Paying Jobs

Jennifer Wilkerson, director of marketing, public relations and the Build Your Future program at NCCER (a site for parents), says one of the biggest benefits of construction work - that jobs pay well - is also one of the major misconceptions about the industry.

In NCCER's survey of parents, 40% considered construction jobs to be low-paying, Wilkerson says. But they actually offer high earning potential and room for advancement.

Average salaries (not including overtime, per diem or other incentives), are more than $59,600 for plumbers, $62,400 for HVAC technicians and up to $92,500 for project managers, according to NCCER's 2018 construction craft salary survey.

Construction career pay enables young people to take on more financial responsibility, Wilkerson says. And when children are financially stable, parents benefit, too.

As Next Avenue has reported, a Merrill Lynch/Age Wave study found that parents are spending $500 billion annually to financially support their adult children. And 63% are putting their own financial security aside for their kids, the survey said.

"I think parents need to know your kids have a lot of options in construction," Wilkerson says. Besides learning a broad skillset, they might be able to work their way up to lead a company or start their own business.

To help parents better understand what a trades career can offer, NCCER launched the Build Your Future site, with details.

Paths to Construction Careers

There are multiple paths to a career in the trades for young adults, Turmail notes.

The most common is taking classes at a two-year college or private training facility after high school and then getting a job with a construction firm. A four-year degree is required for management roles in the industry, like a project manager, engineer or other "khakis and steel-toed boots construction job," Turmail says.

Another option: participating in career and technical education programs while in high school and then getting hired by a construction company.

Many construction firms offer open-shop apprenticeship programs, which pay workers while they learn, and then hire them. These programs also provide in-house training programs for newcomers.

Union apprenticeships are a viable option in some parts of the country, Turmail says, although only about 13% of the construction workforce is unionized these days.

With a union apprenticeship, a high school grad signs up with a local labor union for a specific craft, like carpentry or electrical, gets paid to learn while working in that field and then finds a full-time job through the union.

Because the industry is "so eager to find folks," Turmail says, many construction companies now will reimburse the cost of training.

Construction Work: Happy Work

Construction jobs can be psychically fulfilling, too, for young people.

Construction workers were listed as the happiest employees in a 2015 report by TINYpulse.

"It's economics and satisfaction," Turmail says. "You want your children to get out of the house and be successful and independent once they're grown up." A career in construction might punch those tickets.

... Read More

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Should Your Child Consider A Career In A Trade?

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Although the price of college is soaring and a four-year degree isn't the guarantee of financial security it once was, 70% of parents surveyed by the National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER) said they wouldn't advise their child to embark on a career in construction. They may want to rethink that.

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I want to write about this because its a very recent topic that is relevant to me because I am half asian. Although i've never experienced this I think it's good to get the information out there and learn more about it.

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I want to write about this topic because this is a very relevant issue in my direct community and I would like to know more about how I can properly manage stress and to help others as well.

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Dr. Yvette Stupart is a clinical counselor and educator. She gives insights on how to experience emotional health and relational well-being.

According to Hans Selye, "Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand, whether it is caused by, or results in, pleasant or unpleasant conditions." These demands are called stressors and are the stimuli that lead to stressful external events resulting in a number of responses. Common stressors for students in college include:

critical adjustments to college life

academic requirements

demands of studies (e.g., assignment deadlines and increasing workload)

pressure on interpersonal relationships

unsatisfactory housing arrangements

lack of a support system

ineffective coping skills

extended commute time

greater levels of independence

Further, Dr. Sian Beilock, psychologist, points out that her research indicates that stressful academic situations impact the performance of students. If stress is not managed properly, it can prevent students from successfully achieving their academic goals.

While students want to perform well in their studies, in their quest to achieve these goals, they could experience situations and events that cause stress. Students are expected to balance their school work with other things such extracurricular activities and even jobs.

If students are unable to manage and complete their work in the set time, this could cause them greater stress and feelings of being overwhelmed. They could also be trying to please others and living up to their expectations, leading to greater stress.

The American Institute of Stress points out that "stress can have wide ranging effects on emotion, mood, and behavior." Stress affects both students' physical and mental functioning, and eight ways are discussed in this hub. These negative symptoms could affect the quality of students' academic performance.

High levels of stress could lead to physical symptoms that could have a negative effect on student performance. These signs and symptoms include:

frequent headaches

tremors, trembling of lips

neck and back pains

nervous habits, e.g., fidgeting

rapid or mumbled speech

upset stomach

elevated blood pressure

chest pains

When you experience these symptoms, you might not feel the motivation you once had to do your best on academic tasks such as preparing for tests or completing assignments.

College can be demanding, and this leads to a high level of stress for many students. This requires you to develop a healthy, balanced lifestyle and access the resources that are available at your school.

If you are a student and you are experiencing stress, take steps to manage it, considering the effects it could have on your health, well-being, and academic performance. Get advice and help regarding managing stress from your university or college. For example, New York University outlines specific stress management resources that are available to its students.

In addition, you could find the following hubs helpful:

Beilock, S (2011). Back to school: Dealing with academic stress. Retrieved from the American Psychological Association.org. Accessed August 9, 2015.

Best Colleges Resources (n.d. ). A Student's guide to balancing stress. Accessed August 9, 2015.

Health News (2015). How stress affects academic Performance. Accessed August 9, 2015.

New York University ( n.d.). . Accessed August 14, 2015

The American Institute of Stress (n,d.). 50 Common signs and symptoms of stress. Accessed August 20, 2015.

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How Stress Affects College Students' Academic Performance

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Dr. Yvette Stupart is a clinical counselor and educator. She gives insights on how to experience emotional health and relational well-being. According to Hans Selye, "Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand, whether it is caused by, or results in, pleasant or unpleasant conditions."

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I want to write on this topic because it's becoming very evident that children all around the world aren't taking care of their own health and there is a growing rate of obesity in children. I would like to know more about the topic so I can help prevent that in my children and others.

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Abstract

Childhood obesity has reached epidemic levels in developed as well as in developing countries. Overweight and obesity in childhood are known to have significant impact on both physical and psychological health. Overweight and obese children are likely to stay obese into adulthood and more likely to develop non-communicable diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at a younger age. The mechanism of obesity development is not fully understood and it is believed to be a disorder with multiple causes. Environmental factors, lifestyle preferences, and cultural environment play pivotal roles in the rising prevalence of obesity worldwide. In general, overweight and obesity are assumed to be the results of an increase in caloric and fat intake. On the other hand, there are supporting evidence that excessive sugar intake by soft drink, increased portion size, and steady decline in physical activity have been playing major roles in the rising rates of obesity all around the world. Childhood obesity can profoundly affect children's physical health, social, and emotional well-being, and self esteem. It is also associated with poor academic performance and a lower quality of life experienced by the child. Many co-morbid conditions like metabolic, cardiovascular, orthopedic, neurological, hepatic, pulmonary, and renal disorders are also seen in association with childhood obesity.

Keywords: Childhood obesity, consequences, epidemiology, lifestyle, non-communicable disease, overweight

Introduction

The world is undergoing a rapid epidemiological and nutritional transition characterized by persistent nutritional deficiencies, as evidenced by the prevalence of stunting, anemia, and iron and zinc deficiencies. Concomitantly, there is a progressive rise in the prevalence of obesity, diabetes and other nutrition related chronic diseases (NRCDs) like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of cancer. Obesity has reached epidemic levels in developed countries. The highest prevalence rates of childhood obesity have been observed in developed countries; however, its prevalence is increasing in developing countries as well.[ 1] Females are more likely to be obese as compared to males, owing to inherent hormonal differences.[ 2]

It is emerging convincingly that the genesis of Type 2 Diabetes and Coronary Heart Disease begins in childhood, with childhood obesity serving as an important factor.[ 3] There has been a phenomenal rise in proportions of children having obesity in the last 4 decades, especially in the developed world. Studies emerging from different parts of India within last decade are also indicative of similar trend.[ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] This view has been challenged over recent years and we presently consider these as different forms of the global malnutrition problem. This new conceptualization leads us to simultaneously address the root causes of nutritional deficiencies which in turn will contribute to the control of under nutrition and the prevention of obesity, diabetes, and other NRCDs. This summary provides a public health overview of selected key issues related to the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases with a life-course perspective of nutrition and child growth.

Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21 st century. The problem is global and is steadily affecting many low and middle income countries, particularly in urban settings. The prevalence has increased at an alarming rate. Globally in 2010, the number of overweight children under the age of five is estimated to be over 42 million. Close to 35 million of these are living in developing countries.

Definition of Childhood Obesity

Although definition of obesity and overweight has changed over time, it can be defined as an excess of body fat (BF). There is no consensus on a cut-off point for excess fatness of overweight or obesity in children and adolescents. A study by conducted by Williams et al. (1992), on 3,320 children in the age-group of 5-18 years classified children as fat if their percentage of body fat was at least 25% for males and 30% for females, respectively.[ 10] The Center for Disease Control and Prevention defined overweight as at or above the 95 th percentile of body mass index (BMI) for age and "at risk for overweight" as between 85 th to 95 th percentile of BMI for age.[ 11, 12] European researchers classified overweight as at or above 85 th percentile and obesity as at or above 95 th percentile of BMI.[ 13]

An Indian research study has defined overweight and obesity as overweight (between ≥85 th and <95 th percentile) and obesity (≥95 th percentile).[ 14] Another study has followed World Health Organization 2007 growth reference for defining overweight and obesity.[ 15]

There are also several methods to measure the percentage of body fat. In research, techniques include underwater weighing (densitometry), multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the clinical environment, techniques such as BMI, waist circumference, and skin-fold thickness have been used extensively. Although, these methods are less accurate than research methods, they are satisfactory to identify risk. While BMI seems appropriate for differentiating adults, it may not be as useful in children because of their changing body shape as they progress through normal growth. In addition, BMI fails to distinguish between fat and fat-free mass (muscle and bone) and may exaggerate obesity in large muscular children. Furthermore, maturation pattern differs between genders and different ethnic groups. Studies that used BMI to identify overweight and obese children based on percentage of body fat have found high specificity (95-100%), but low sensitivity (36-66%) for this system of classification.[ 16] While health consequences of obesity are related to excess fatness, the ideal method of classification should be based on direct measurement of fatness. Although methods such as densitometry can be used in research practice, they are not feasible for clinical settings. For large population-based studies and clinical situations, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is widely used. Waist circumference seems to be more accurate for children because it targets central obesity, which is a risk factor for type II diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Causes of Childhood Obesity

It is widely accepted that increase in obesity results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, with an increase in positive energy balance being closely associated with the lifestyle adopted and the dietary intake preferences. However, there is increasing evidence indicating that an individual's genetic background is important in determining obesity risk. Research has made important contributions to our understanding of the factors associated with obesity. The ecological model, as described by Davison et al., suggests that child risk factors for obesity include dietary intake, physical activity, and sedentary behavior.[ 17] The impact of such risk factors is moderated by factors such as age, gender. Family characteristics parenting style, parents' lifestyles also play a role. Environmental factors such as school policies, demographics, and parents' work-related demands further influence eating and activity behaviors.

Genetics are one of the biggest factors examined as a cause of obesity. Some studies have found that BMI is 25-40% heritable.[ 18] However, genetic susceptibility often needs to be coupled with contributing environmental and behavioral factors in order to affect weight.[ 19] The genetic factor accounts for less than 5% of cases of childhood obesity.[ 18] Therefore, while genetics can play a role in the development of obesity, it is not the cause of the dramatic increase in childhood obesity.

Basal metabolic rate has also been studied as a possible cause of obesity. Basal metabolic rate, or metabolism, is the body's expenditure of energy for normal resting functions. Basal metabolic rate is accountable for 60% of total energy expenditure in sedentary adults. It has been hypothesized that obese individuals have lower basal metabolic rates. However, differences in basal metabolic rates are not likely to be responsible for the rising rates of obesity.[ 18]

Review of the literature investigates factors behind poor diet and offers numerous insights into how parental factors may impact on obesity in children.[ 20] They note that children learn by modeling parents' and peers' preferences, intake and willingness to try new foods. Availability of, and repeated exposure to, healthy foods is key to developing preferences and can overcome dislike of foods. Mealtime structure is important with evidence suggesting that families who eat together consume more healthy foods. Furthermore, eating out or watching TV while eating is associated with a higher intake of fat. Parental feeding style is also significant. The author's found that authoritative feeding (determining which foods are offered, allowing the child to choose, and providing rationale for healthy options) is associated with positive cognitions about healthy foods and healthier intake. Interestingly authoritarian restriction of "junk-food" is associated with increased desire for unhealthy food and higher weight.[ 21]

Government and social policies could also potentially promote healthy behavior. Research indicates taste, followed by hunger and price, is the most important factor in adolescents snack choices.[ 22] Other studies demonstrate that adolescents associate junk food with pleasure, independence, and convenience, whereas liking healthy food is considered odd.[ 23] This suggests investment is required in changing meanings of food, and social perceptions of eating behavior. As proposed by the National Taskforce on Obesity (2005), fiscal policies such as taxing unhealthy options, providing incentives for the distribution of inexpensive healthy food, and investing in convenient recreational facilities or the esthetic quality of neighborhoods can enhance healthy eating and physical activity.[ 24]

Dietary factors have been studied extensively for its possible contributions to the rising rates of obesity. The dietary factors that have been examined include fast food consumption, sugary beverages, snack foods, and portion sizes.

Fast food Consumption: Increased fast food consumption has been linked with obesity in the recent years. Many families, especially those with two parents working outside the home, opt for these places as they are often favored by their children and are both convenient and inexpensive.[ 25] Foods served at fast food restaurants tend to contain a high number of calories with low nutritional values. A study conducted examined the eating habits of lean and overweight adolescents at fast food restaurants.[ 26] Researchers found that both groups consumed more calories eating fast food than they would typically in a home setting but the lean group compensated for the higher caloric intake by adjusting their caloric intake before or after the fast food meal in anticipation or compensation for the excess calories consumed during the fast food meal. Though many studies have shown weight gain with regular consumption of fast food, it is difficult to establish a causal relationship between fast food and obesity.

Sugary beverages

A study examining children aged 9-14 from 1996-1998, found that consumption of sugary beverages increased BMI by small amounts over the years.[ 18] Sugary drinks are another factor that has been examined as a potential contributing factor to obesity. Sugary drinks are often thought of as being limited to soda, but juice and other sweetened beverages fall into this category. Many studies have examined the link between sugary drink consumption and weight and it has been continually found to be a contributing factor to being overweight.[ 18] Sugary drinks are less filling than food and can be consumed quicker, which results in a higher caloric intake.[ 19]

Snack foods

Another factor that has been studied as a possible contributing factor of childhood obesity is the consumption of snack foods. Snack foods include foods such as chips, baked goods, and candy. Many studies have been conducted to examine whether these foods have contributed to the increase in childhood obesity. While snacking has been shown to increase overall caloric intake, no studies have been able to find a link between snacking and overweight.[ 18]

Portion size

Portion sizes have increased drastically in the past decade. Consuming large portions, in addition to frequent snacking on highly caloric foods, contribute to an excessive caloric intake. This energy imbalance can cause weight gain, and consequently obesity.[ 18]

Activity level

One of the factors that is most significantly linked to obesity is a sedentary lifestyle. Each additional hour of television per day increased the prevalence of obesity by 2%.[ 18] Television viewing among young children and adolescents has increased dramatically in recent years.[ 18, 27] The increased amount of time spent in sedentary behaviors has decreased the amount of time spent in physical activity. Research which indicates the number of hours children spend watching TV correlates with their consumption of the most advertised goods, including sweetened cereals, sweets, sweetened beverages, and salty snacks.[ 22] Despite difficulties in empirically assessing the media impact, other research discussed emphasizes that advertising effects should not be underestimated. Media effects have been found for adolescent aggression and smoking and formation of unrealistic body ideals. Regulation of marketing for unhealthy foods is recommended, as is media advocacy to promote healthy eating.

Environmental factors

While extensive television viewing and the use of other electronic media has contributed to the sedentary lifestyles, other environmental factors have reduced the opportunities for physical activity. Opportunities to be physically active and safe environments to be active in have decreased in the recent years. The majority of children in the past walked or rode their bike to school. A study conducted in 2002 found that 53% of parents drove their children to school.[ 18] Of these parents, 66% said they drove their children to school since their homes were too far away from the school. Other reasons parents gave for driving their children to school included no safe walking route, fear of child predators, and out of convenience for the child.[ 18] Children who live in unsafe areas or who do not have access to safe, well-lit walking routes have fewer opportunities to be physically active.[ 18]

Socio-cultural factors

Socio-cultural factors have also been found to influence the development of obesity. Our society tends to use food as a reward, as a means to control others, and as part of socializing.[ 28] These uses of food can encourage the development of unhealthy relationships with food, thereby increasing the risk of developing obesity.

Family factors

Family factors have also been associated with the increase of cases of obesity. The types of food available in the house and the food preferences of family members can influence the foods that children eat. In addition, family mealtimes can influence the type of food consumed and the amount thereof. Lastly, family habits, whether they are sedentary or physically active, influence the child.[ 28] Studies have shown that having an overweight mother and living in a single parent household are associated with overweight and childhood obesity.[ 29]

Psychological factors

Depression and anxiety

A recent review concluded that the majority of studies find a prospective relationship between eating disturbances and depression.[ 30] However, this relationship is not unidirectional; depression may be both a cause and a consequence of obesity.[ 31] Additionally, in a clinical sample of obese adolescents, a higher life-time prevalence of anxiety disorders was reported compared to non-obese controls.[ 32] Although some studies demonstrate no significant relationship between increased BMI and increased anxiety symptoms.[ 33] Thus, the relationship between obesity and anxiety may not be unidirectional and is certainly not conclusive.

Self-esteem

Research findings comparing overweight/obese children with normal-weight children in regards to self-esteem have been mixed.[ 34] Some studies have found that obese children have lower self-esteem while others do not.[ 35, 36, 37] There is some consensus in the literature that the global approach to self-esteem measurement with children who are overweight/obese is misleading as the physical and social domains of self-esteem seem to be where these children are most vulnerable.[ 38]

Body dissatisfaction

Research has consistently found that body satisfaction is higher in males than females at all ages.[ 39] Gender differences may reflect the westernized cultural ideals of beauty in that thinness is the only culturally defined ideal for females, while males are encouraged to be both lean and muscular. Thus, there is a linear relationship between body dissatisfaction and increasing BMI for girls; while for boys a U-shaped relationship suggests that boys with BMIs at the low and high extremes experience high levels of body dissatisfaction.[ 40, 41]

Eating disorder symptoms

Traits associated with eating disorders appear to be common in adolescent obese populations, particularly for girls.[ 42] A number of studies have shown higher prevalence of eating-related pathology (i.e. Anorexia, Bulimia Nervosa, and impulse regulation) in obese children/youth.[ 43, 44]

Emotional problems

In one of the few studies to investigate the psychological impact of being overweight/obese in children, a review of 10 published studies over a 10-year period (1995-2005) with sample sizes greater than 50 revealed that all participants reported some level of psychosocial impact as a result of their weight status.[ 45] Being younger, female, and with an increased perceived lack of control over eating seemed to heighten the psychosocial consequences.

Consequences of childhood obesity

Childhood obesity can profoundly affect children's physical health, social, and emotional well-being, and self esteem. It is also associated with poor academic performance and a lower quality of life experienced by the child. These potential consequences are further examined in the following sections.

Medical consequences

Childhood obesity has been linked to numerous medical conditions. These conditions include, but are not limited to, fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, Type 2 diabetes, asthma, hepatic steatosis (fatty liver disease), cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, cholelithiasis (gallstones), glucose intolerance and insulin resistance, skin conditions, menstrual abnormalities, impaired balance, and orthopedic problems.[ 25, 46] Until recently, many of the above health conditions had only been found in adults; now they are extremely prevalent in obese children. Although most of the physical health conditions associated with childhood obesity are preventable and can disappear when a child or adolescent reaches a healthy weight, some continue to have negative consequences throughout adulthood.[ 46] In the worst cases, some of these health conditions can even result in death. Below, three of the more common health problems associated with childhood obesity are discussed, diabetes, sleep apnea, and cardiovascular disease.

Socio-emotional consequences

In addition to being implicated in numerous medical concerns, childhood obesity affects children's and adolescent's social and emotional health. Obesity has been described as being "one of the most stigmatizing and least socially acceptable conditions in childhood."[ 38] Overweight and obese children are often teased and/or bullied for their weight. They also face numerous other hardships including negative stereotypes, discrimination, and social marginalization.[ 46] Discrimination against obese individuals has been found in children as young as 2 years old.[ 28] Obese children are often excluded from activities, particularly competitive activities that require physical activity. It is often difficult for overweight children to participate in physical activities as they tend to be slower than their peers and contend with shortness of breath.[ 25] These negative social problems contribute to low self esteem, low self confidence, and a negative body image in children and can also affect academic performance.[ 46] All of the above-mentioned negative effects of overweight and obesity can be devastating to children and adolescents.

The social consequences of obesity may contribute to continuing difficulty in weight management. Overweight children tend to protect themselves from negative comments and attitudes by retreating to safe places, such as their homes, where they may seek food as a comfort. In addition, children who are overweight tend to have fewer friends than normal weight children, which results in less social interaction and play, and more time spent in sedentary activities.[ 25] As aforementioned, physical activity is often more difficult for overweight and obese children as they tend to get shortness of breath and often have a hard time keeping up with their peers. This in turn inevitably results in weight gain, as the amount of calories consumed exceeds the amount of energy burned.[ 25]

Academic consequences

Childhood obesity has also been found to negatively affect school performance. A research study concluded that overweight and obese children were four times more likely to report having problems at school than their normal weight peers.[ 38] They are also more likely to miss school more frequently, especially those with chronic health conditions such as diabetes and asthma, which can also affect academic performance.

Conclusion

The growing issue of childhood obesity can be slowed, if society focuses on the causes. There are many components that play into childhood obesity, some being more crucial than others. A combined diet and physical activity intervention conducted in the community with a school component is more effective at preventing obesity or overweight. Moreover, if parents enforce a healthier lifestyle at home, many obesity problems could be avoided. What children learn at home about eating healthy, exercising and making the right nutritional choices will eventually spill over into other aspects of their life. This will have the biggest influence on the choices kids make when selecting foods to consume at school and fast-food restaurants and choosing to be active. Focusing on these causes may, over time, decrease childhood obesity and lead to a healthier society as a whole.

Footnotes

Source of Support: Nil.

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

References

2. Gupta RK. Nutrition and the Diseases of Lifestyle. In: Bhalwar RJ, editor. Text Book of Public health and Community Medicine. 1st ed. Pune: Department of community medicine AFMC, New Delhi: Pune in Collaboration with WHO India Office; 2009. p. 1199. [ Google Scholar]

23. Chapman G, Maclean H. "Junk food" and "healthy food": Meanings of food in adolescent women's culture. J Nutr Educ Behav. 1993;25:108-13. [ Google Scholar]

24. Dublin: Department of Health and Children; 2005. Department of Health and Children. Obesity: The policy challenges: The report of the national taskforce on obesity. [ Google Scholar]

25. Niehoff V. Childhood obesity: A call to action. Bariatric Nursing and Surgical Patient. Care. 2009;4:17-23. [ Google Scholar]

39. O'Dea JA. School-based health education strategies for the improvement of body image and prevention of eating problems: An overview of safe and successful interventions. Health Educ. 2005;105:11-33. [ Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care are provided here courtesy of Wolters Kluwer -- Medknow Publications

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Childhood obesity: causes and consequences

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Childhood obesity has reached epidemic levels in developed as well as in developing countries. Overweight and obesity in childhood are known to have significant impact on both physical and psychological health. Overweight and obese children are likely ...

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Animals are forced to travel every week to different locations. These wild life animals have to adapt too hard, tight cages and are only allowed to take a few steps if possible. They face harsh training and do not intake enough nutrition as needed making them feel as prisoners.

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Transport & Life on the Road

Touring circuses may cover thousands of miles a year, carrying animals from site to site in transporters and cages on the backs of lorries known as beast wagons. Moving location each week means they spend most of the year in temporary accommodation.

The animals may be confined for hours, even days, in their travelling cages, with their only respite being either limited time in an exercise cage, being rehearsed, or performing. It is impossible for a travelling menagerie to provide circus animals with the facilities they need.

Yet travelling circuses in the UK have recently included such diverse animals as lions, tigers, dogs, alligators, snakes, camels, llamas, parrots, ducks, budgerigars, horses and elephants. In other European countries you can find polar bears, rhinos and hippos.

In the wild, elephants are extremely social, living in large groups or herds and travel on average 25kms per day. In the circus, they spend most of each day chained by a front and a hind leg, standing on a wooden or metal board in a tent. The chains on their legs mean they can only shuffle a pace or two backwards or forwards. If they are lucky, they will occasionally have access to a grassed electric fenced enclosure, but this will depend on the circus site. Thus circus elephants spend almost their entire day barely able to move, let alone being able to perform natural behaviours such as foraging, bathing, travelling and socialising. This may create stress and frustration and lead to abnormal behaviours such as rocking, swaying and nodding.

A Freedom for Animals undercover investigation in 2009 found elephants at the Great British Circus were chained for up to 11 hours a day.

Big cats, most commonly lions and tigers, live in beast wagons. Studies have shown that these animals spend most of the day in these small mobile cages. Some may be provided with 'exercise' cages, but often these are only slightly larger than the beast wagon itself, and they are only likely to have access at certain times of day.

These are predators, designed to hunt. But their natural instincts and behaviours are frustrated by the circus. Consequently, lions and tigers may repeatedly pace backwards and forwards in their beastwagon.

It is not just the wild animals that are frustrated and severely confined.

Horses and ponies are gregarious animals - extremely social. After being unloaded from their horse boxes or transporters they are often confined in tents, separated from their companions by stalls, which do not allow socialising or mutual grooming. Often horse will be tethered or kept in tiny pens for the entire time they are not performing or rehearsing. If exercise enclosures are provided, these are generally very small - it is unlikely a horse would gallop or really exercise in one. Behavioural abnormalities have been observed in circus horses.

Although, performing dogs could be kept as pets, living with a presenter, they are often kept in cages on tour or tied up when they are not performing.

Training

Training is very secretive; animals undergo training behind closed doors. There have been cases where brutal training methods have come to light. The most recent, and perhaps most notorious, was that of Mary Chipperfield.

The nature of training circus animals is revealed by the tools of the trade. Whips are seen in the ring but the use of screws hidden in the base of walking sticks, spikes concealed in tasselled sticks and hotshots or electric shock devices has been documented.

A Freedom for Animals investigator working at the Great British Circus in 2009 filmed the elephant trainer using a spiked goad on an elephant during the show. The trainer was careful to hide this from the audience by holding it alongside his arm.

In 2009, Animal Defenders International (ADI) secured footage from a camera concealed inside the elephant tent of the Great British Circus which shows a staggeringly high level of casual violence in just a few days of observations. Incidences include elephants being hit in the face with a metal elephant hook, a broom and a pitchfork, a worker cruelly twisting an elephant's tail, and the frightened animals retreating and crying out when struck or hooked.

Some ex animal trainers or keepers have spoken out, to expose the cruel methods used to break and train circus animals. Former elephant handler Sam Haddock, who worked in the industry from 1976 until 2005, revealed what circuses try so hard to keep hidden.

Before his wife died in 2007 she asked him to promise to "do the right thing" in exposing the cruelty he not only witnessed, but took part in. Haddock's statement admits his own part in the abuse of elephants: the use of an electric prod on an elephant in 1997 (saying he "fried him for about ten minutes") and the beating of another elephant with a bullhook for 15 minutes the following year.

Sam Haddock's statement discusses the separation of mother and calf: "When pulling 18-24-month-old babies, the mother is chained against the wall by all four legs. Usually there's 6 or 7 staff that go in to pull the baby rodeo style. ... Some mothers scream more than others while watching their babies being roped. ... The relationship with their mother ends."

Another ex circus employee related how a little brown bear was treated.

She was a sweet little innocent brown bear who never hurt anyone... but sometimes she had trouble balancing on the high wire. She was then beaten with long metal rods until she was screaming and bloody. She became so neurotic that she would beat her head against her small cage. She finally died

Domestic animals undergo the same questionable training methods and perform unnatural acts. Horses are trained to walk backwards on their hind legs with tight reins forcing the neck into a supposedly attractive, artificial position.

Performances

The animals in circuses are there purely for entertainment, and the routines have changed little since the nineteenth century. In circuses, the audience can still see beautiful majestic animals like elephants ridiculed by their trainers, or big cats reduced to cowardly looking creatures by the cracking whip of the 'powerful' lion tamer.

Some circuses claim to be educational but there is no educational value in seeing such magnificent animals reduced to performing tricks. The idea of publicly humiliating an animal to prove that 'Man' is capable of this kind of dominance is not fun. Children should be taught to respect animals - circuses teach the opposite.

Circuses also claim to be involved in conservation, yet no animals from circuses have ever been released to the wild. Far from the suggested aim of conservation, most circus elephants have been taken from the wild. African elephants calves are the product of culls (mass slaughters of elephant families) - the circus often says that they have saved them, giving the impression that their workers ran around dodging bullets to rescue them, when in fact they have merely paid a dealer. This buying of cull orphans often makes money for those involved in this slaughter.

Unethical

Research Fellow in Moral Philosophy, Dr Elisa Aaltola, said: "Taking all these considerations - welfare, value, and understandings of animals - into account forces us to acknowledge that animal circuses lack moral justification. They infringe on the welfare of animals, they do not take into account basic moral considerations, and they present a misleading understanding of animals. Legislation ought to reflect these considerations, and animal circuses ought to be banned."

Scientific Research

Researchers from the University of Bristol have concluded that circuses fail to provide some of the most basic welfare needs of wild animals, such as space and social groups. They also found that scientific literature and other data were scarce, even to the extent that the origin of most animals in circuses and precise numbers kept are unknown.

The authors found that there was no evidence to suggest that the needs of wild animals can be met in circuses as "neither natural environment nor much natural behaviour can be recreated".

Despite claims by circuses that training and performing is a source of enrichment, this makes up just 1-9% of the day for animals and performances in particular can cause severe stress because of the noise, lights and audiences. The remaining time is spent in housing or exercise pens.

Escapes

Circuses are exempt from the Dangerous Wild Animal Act, and their very nature of always being on the move means there is always a risk of escape. It is relatively common for animals like camels, pigs, and goats to get loose. There have also been escapes by lions and tigers.

In July 2006, a wallaby from Circus Sydney escaped as the circus was about to leave Co Cork, Ireland. The circus left without him, moving on to Wexford before he was found almost a week later.

In 2004, three camels escaped from a circus and disrupted drivers by wandering down a busy dual carriageway in Limerick, Ireland.

In 2003, an elephant named Anne escaped from Bobby Roberts Super Circus in Ayr, Scotland. She escaped from her holding pen and was chased through the streets before eventually being recaptured.

It's legal for a circus to beat an elephant with an iron bar

From 1996 to 1998, the Animal Defenders undertook an extensive undercover study of UK animal circuses, with their Field Officers taking jobs with circuses. Video footage showed animals being prodded and hit with all manner of weapons. The investigation culminated in convictions for cruelty at Mary Chipperfield Promotions of Mary Cawley (nee Chipperfield), her husband Roger Cawley, and their elephant keeper Stephen Gills.

Gills was jailed for four months because of his sustained attacks on the elephants. Using iron bars and pitchforks he would sometimes rain down as many as 30 frenzied blows on the faces of the chained animals. Mary Cawley was convicted on twelve counts of cruelty to an infant chimpanzee called Trudy that she kicked and thrashed with a riding crop. Roger Cawley was convicted of one count of cruelty to a sick elephant called Flora. Cawley claimed he was exercising her because she was sick, but whipped her to make her go faster and faster. The Cawleys were fined but not banned from keeping animals.

But what was equally significant was what they weren't convicted of. This defines the level of brutality permitted in animal circuses.

Mary Cawley was charged with cruelty to a camel. To make her move to the training ring, the camel was hit with reins, kicked, had her tail twisted, and repeatedly hit with a broomhandle. In the ring camels were struck about the body and even the face. Cawley was found not guilty of cruelty on the grounds that making the animal perform tricks is legal, therefore it is legal to use the force necessary to meet this goal. The magistrate noted, 'The camels were being trained in the ring. It's not for us to judge if that's right - it is legal'.

Likewise, the day before the whipping he was convicted of, Roger Cawley moved the sick elephant Flora to the training ring. Animal Defenders' film shows that Flora, who had collapsed the previous day and had boils about her body was unwilling and stopped. Gills pulled her and Charles Chipperfield hit her across the back with a fibre glass rod. Then Cawley joined in using a metal bar. Holding this in both hands, he brought it behind his head to hit Flora's back hard several times. Flora's legs buckled a little under the multiple blows, then she moved on. Again, this was not deemed cruelty because they were trying to force her to do something.

It also worth noting how some of the circus world viewed the Cawley's actions. David Hibling, at the time artistic director for Zippo's Circus was a defence witness for Mary Cawley. He was cross examined by the prosecution about the three Animal Defenders' videos of assaults on the chimp Trudy. Did Hibling 'See anything which would constitute cruelty?' Hibling replied unequivocally, 'No'. Asked, 'Would you do what Mary Cawley did?' Hibling replied 'Yes'. 'On the videos [relating to Mary and Roger Cawley, not Gills] did you see anything cruel?' Hibling again said 'No'. Fortunately, the magistrate did not share Hibling's views.

A relic of the not so distant past...

Despite repeated claims that they are traditional and part of our heritage, circuses in their current form, really only date from the 19th century.

The 'father of the modern circus', is considered to be English born Phillip Astley who demonstrated equestrian and acrobatic skills in a ringed enclosure in London in the 18th century. This was the first time, that the now familiar circus ring was first seen in England. And, although the circus industry claims that wild animals have always been an integral part of the show, the first elephant was not seen in a circus until the 19th century.

Before animals were exhibited, travelling shows were likely to be exhibiting people with physical abnormalities, regarded at the time 'freaks of nature'. Phineas Taylor Barnum, a name synonymous with the circus world, was also associated with this practice. A reprehensible past, quite rightly consigned to history.

Performing animals can be traced back to the Roman Empire. Animals and people were slaughtered in their thousands in the arenas. Some animals were trained to do degrading tricks, designed to ridicule the animal, with human superiority over nature being an important element of the Roman culture. But the performing animals were little more than light relief for the massacres on show. Certainly, no one would wish to revive or preserve the torture and humiliation of the amphitheatres for the sake of tradition.

Little more than a hundred years ago, the travelling circus revived part of this humiliating spectacle. Today we see the lions cowed before their 'tamers', and performing elephants and bears reduced to caricatures. The animal circus is an anachronistic relic of the past.

It seems hard to believe that we have entered this new millenium with animal circuses still touring.

Incidents

These incidents all took place in the UK or Ireland:

In 2009, a horse fell in the ring at Bobby Roberts Super Circus. According to eyewitnesses, two horses collided when running quickly around the small ring. Once up, the horse continued the performance instead of being relieved to check he was ok.

In 2007, the co-owner of Circus Sydney was prosecuted after her dog attacked a child. The court heard that the dog, a three-foot tall cross between a Rottweiler and a German Shepherd, described as aggressive by a dog warden, chased a group of children. The dog jumped on one of the children, a seven year-old-boy, and he "was generally mauled" according to a witness. There was a tooth mark on the boy's elbow along with lacerations to his face.

In 2005, a macaque monkey bit a five-year-old girl at a circus in County Kerry, Ireland. Following media coverage, it transpired that the same monkey had bitten three other audience members on different occasions that year.

In 2005, a circus worker was gored and trampled by a 26-year-old elephant in Tramore, Ireland.

Legacy of deaths

Animals rarely make it out of circuses alive and into a sanctuary. Many die at an early age.

In 2007 a 19-year-old female elephant, Kenya, died under mysterious circumstances at Circus Sydney in Northern Ireland. Born in the wild in Zimbabwe, she lived alone, chained and transported from town to town.

Also in 2007, Ming, the last bear in a UK circus (Peter Jolly's Circus), died. In her early days as a circus 'performer' Ming apparently used to ride a motorbike. In more recent years her act consisted of nothing more than being paraded around the circus ring, by a lead attached to a neck collar. The circus refused to comment on her death.

During the winter of 2000/2001, elephants Beverley and Janie died at Bobby Roberts Circus. Once more, there was no comment from the circus or official investigation into the deaths. This left the circus with just one elephant, Anne. Born in Sri Lanka she has been transported with the circus for over 50 years despite her arthritis.

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In this article we look at transport & life on the road, training, the performances themselves, the ethics, the scientific research, escapes, how it is legal for a circus to beat an elephant with an iron bar. We ask whether this is a relic of the not so distant past, highlight some incidents and look at the legacy of deaths.

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I chose this because I had a very close friend that had a hard time dealing with anxiety and depression... Gifting her a puppy to raise made her control her problems due to having someone to lean on, it made her life more exiting.

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Pets come with some powerful health benefits. Here's how caring for a dog, cat, or other animal can help relieve depression and anxiety, lower stress, and improve your heart health.

The benefits of pets

Most pet owners are clear about the immediate joys that come with sharing their lives with companion animals. However, many of us remain unaware of the physical and mental health benefits that can also accompany the pleasure of snuggling up to a furry friend. It's only recently that studies have begun to scientifically explore the benefits of the human-animal bond.

Pets have evolved to become acutely attuned to humans and our behavior and emotions. Dogs, for example, are able to understand many of the words we use, but they're even better at interpreting our tone of voice, body language, and gestures. And like any good human friend, a loyal dog will look into your eyes to gauge your emotional state and try to understand what you're thinking and feeling (and to work out when the next walk or treat might be coming, of course).

Pets, especially dogs and cats, can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, ease loneliness, encourage exercise and playfulness, and even improve your cardiovascular health. Caring for an animal can help children grow up more secure and active. Pets also provide valuable companionship for older adults. Perhaps most importantly, though, a pet can add real joy and unconditional love to your life.

Any pet can improve your health

While it's true that people with pets often experience greater health benefits than those without, a pet doesn't necessarily have to be a dog or a cat. A rabbit could be ideal if you're allergic to other animals or have limited space but still want a furry friend to snuggle with. Birds can encourage social interaction and help keep your mind sharp if you're an older adult. Snakes, lizards, and other reptiles can make for exotic companions. Even watching fish in an aquarium can help reduce muscle tension and lower your pulse rate.

Studies have shown that:

Pet owners are less likely to suffer from depression than those without pets.

People with pets have lower blood pressure in stressful situations than those without pets. One study even found that when people with borderline hypertension adopted dogs from a shelter, their blood pressure declined significantly within five months.

Playing with a dog, cat, or other pet can elevate levels of serotonin and dopamine, which calm and relax.

Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels (indicators of heart disease) than those without pets.

Heart attack patients with pets survive longer than those without.

Pet owners over age 65 make 30 percent fewer visits to their doctors than those without pets.

One of the reasons for these therapeutic effects is that pets fulfill the basic human need for touch. Even hardened criminals in prison show long-term changes in their behavior after interacting with pets, many of them experiencing mutual affection for the first time. Stroking, hugging, or otherwise touching a loving animal can rapidly calm and soothe you when you're stressed or anxious. The companionship of a pet can also ease loneliness, and most dogs are a great stimulus for healthy exercise, which can substantially boost your mood and ease depression.

How pets can help you make healthy lifestyle changes

Adopting healthy lifestyle changes plays an important role in easing symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. Caring for a pet can help you make healthy lifestyle changes by:

Increasing exercise. Taking a dog for a walk, hike, or run are fun and rewarding ways to fit healthy daily exercise into your schedule. Studies have shown that dog owners are far more likely to meet their daily exercise requirements-and exercising every day is great for the animal as well. It will deepen the connection between you, eradicate most behavior problems in dogs, and keep your pet fit and healthy.

Providing companionship. Companionship can help prevent illness and even add years to your life, while isolation and loneliness can trigger symptoms of depression. Caring for an animal can help make you feel needed and wanted, and take the focus away from your problems, especially if you live alone. Most dog and cat owners talk to their pets, some even use them to work through their troubles. And nothing beats loneliness like coming home to a wagging tail or purring cat.

Helping you meet new people. Pets can be a great social lubricant for their owners, helping you start and maintain new friendships. Dog owners frequently stop and talk to each other on walks, hikes, or in a dog park. Pet owners also meet new people in pet stores, clubs, and training classes.

Reducing anxiety. The companionship of an animal can offer comfort, help ease anxiety, and build self-confidence for people anxious about going out into the world. Because pets tend to live in the moment-they don't worry about what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow-they can help you become more mindful and appreciate the joy of the present.

Adding structure and routine to your day. Many pets, especially dogs, require a regular feeding and exercise schedule. Having a consistent routine keeps an animal balanced and calm-and it can work for you, too. No matter your mood-depressed, anxious, or stressed-one plaintive look from your pet and you'll have to get out of bed to feed, exercise, and care for them.
[Read: Coping with Depression]
Providing sensory stress relief. Touch and movement are two healthy ways to quickly manage stress. Stroking a dog, cat, or other animal can lower blood pressure and help you quickly feel calmer and less stressed.

Get a dog, lose weight

A number of studies have linked owning a dog to losing weight:

A year-long study at the Wellness Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago found that walking an overweight dog helped both the animals and their owners shed unwanted pounds. Researchers found that the dogs provided support in similar ways to a human exercise buddy, but with greater consistency and without any negative influence.

Another study by the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction found that public housing residents who walked therapy dogs for up to 20 minutes five days a week lost an average of 14.4 pounds in a year, without changing their diets.

A third study, conducted by dog food manufacturer Mars Petcare, found that people with a dog walked 30 minutes more per week than they did before owning a dog.

The benefits of pets for older adults

As well as providing vital companionship, owning a pet can play an important role in healthy aging by helping you to:

Find meaning and joy in life. As you age, you'll lose things that previously occupied your time and gave your life purpose. You may retire from your career or your children may move far away. Caring for a pet can bring pleasure and help boost your morale, optimism, and sense of self-worth. Choosing to adopt a pet from a shelter, especially an older pet, can add to your sense of fulfillment, knowing that you've provided a home to a pet that may otherwise have been euthanized.
[Read: Cultivating Happiness]
Stay connected. Maintaining a social network isn't always easy as you grow older. Retirement, illness, death, and relocation can take away close friends and family members. And making new friends can get harder. Pets, especially dogs, are a great way for older adults to spark up conversations and meet new people.

Boost your vitality. You can overcome many of the physical challenges associated with aging by taking good care of yourself. Dogs, cats, and other pets encourage playfulness, laughter, and exercise, which can help boost your immune system and increase your energy.

How pets help adults with Alzheimer's disease or dementia

As part of the disease, Alzheimer's patients may exhibit a variety of behavioral problems, many related to an inability to deal with stress.

Research at the University of California at Davis concluded that Alzheimer's patients suffer less stress and have fewer anxious outbursts if there is a dog or cat in the home.

Pets can provide a source of positive, nonverbal communication. The playful interaction and gentle touch from a well-trained, docile animal can help soothe an Alzheimer's patient and decrease aggressive behavior-as can simply being exposed to bright aquariums or fish tanks.

In many cases a patient's problem behavior is a reaction to the stressed response of the primary caretaker. Pets can help ease the stress of caregivers. Cats or caged animals may be more suitable than dogs, which generally require more care and can add to the burden of someone who's already looking after an Alzheimer's patient.

The benefits of pets for children

Not only do children who grow up with pets have less risk of allergies and asthma, many also learn responsibility, compassion, and empathy from having a dog or cat.
[Read: Raising Emotionally Intelligent Children]

Unlike parents or teachers, pets are never critical and don't give orders. They are always loving and their mere presence at home can help provide a sense of security in children. Having an ever-present pet can help ease separation anxiety in children when mom and dad aren't around.

Having the love and companionship of a pet can make a child feel important and help them develop a positive self-image.

Kids who are emotionally attached to their pets are better able to build relationships with other people.

Studies have also shown that pets can help calm hyperactive or overly aggressive kids. Of course, both the animal and the child need to be trained to behave appropriately with each other.

A pet can help develop a young and expanding mind by teaching a child empathy and understanding. Kids can talk with their pet without a fear of rejection, which enables them to build their confidence, and even their vocabulary.

Getting even a small, caged pet, such as a guinea pig or hamster, is a great way to teach a child responsibility.

Like adults, children can benefit from playing with a pet. It can be a source of calmness and relaxation, as well as a source of stimulation for the brain and body. Playing with a pet can even be a doorway to learning for a child. It can stimulate a child's imagination and curiosity. The rewards of training a dog to perform a new trick, for example, can teach kids the importance of perseverance. Caring for a furry friend can also offer another benefit to a child: immense joy.

Children with learning disorders and other challenges

Some children with autism or other learning difficulties are better able to interact with pets than people. Autistic children often rely on nonverbal cues to communicate, just as animals do. And learning to first connect with a pet may even help an autistic child in their interactions with people.

Pets can help children with learning disabilities learn how to regulate stress and calm themselves, making them better equipped to overcome the challenges of their disorder.

Playing and exercising with a dog or cat can help a child with learning disorders stay alert and attentive throughout the day. It can also be a great antidote to stress and frustration caused by the learning disability.

Owning a pet is a major commitment

Despite all the benefits, it's important to remember that a pet is not a miracle cure for mental health issues. Owning a pet is beneficial and comforting only for those who love and appreciate domestic animals and have the time and money to keep a pet happy and healthy. If you're simply not an "animal person," pet ownership is not going to provide you with any health benefits or improve your life.

Even if you love animals, it's important to understand everything that caring for a pet entails. Owning a pet is a major commitment that will last through the animal's lifetime, perhaps 10 or 15 years in the case of dogs. And at the end of that commitment, you'll face the grief and mourning that comes with losing a beloved companion.
[Read: Coping with Losing a Pet]
Other drawbacks to owning a pet include:

Pets cost money. Food bills, veterinary care, licenses, grooming costs, toys, bedding, boarding fees, and other maintenance expenses can mount up. If you're unemployed or elderly, on a limited fixed income, it may be a struggle to cope with the expense of pet ownership.

Pets require time and attention. As any dog owner will tell you, there's nothing therapeutic about coming home to a dog that has been locked up in the house on his own all day. Dogs need daily exercise to stay calm and well-balanced; most other pets require at least daily care and attention.

Owning a pet can curb some of your social activity. A dog can only be left alone for a limited time. By training your dog, you'll be able to take him with you to visit friends, run errands, or sit outside a coffee shop, for example, but you won't be able to leave for a spur of the moment weekend away without arranging care for your pet first.

Pets can be destructive. Any pet can have an occasional accident at home. Some cats may be prone to shredding upholstery, some dogs to chewing shoes. While training can help eradicate negative, destructive behavior, they remain common in animals left alone without exercise or stimulation for long periods of time.

Pets require responsibility. Most dogs, regardless of size and breed, are capable of inflicting injury on people if not handled responsibly by their owners. Even cats can scratch or bite. Pet owners need to be alert to any danger, especially around children.

Pets carry health risks for some people. While there are some diseases that can be transmitted from cats and dogs to their human handlers, allergies are the most common health risk of pet ownership. If you or a family member has been diagnosed with a pet allergy, carefully consider whether you can live with the symptoms before committing to pet ownership. Also consider that some friends or relatives with allergies may no longer be able to visit your home if you have a pet.

How to find the perfect pet

If you've decided that owning a pet is right for you, congratulations: you're about to open your life to a unique and rewarding relationship. While people who have pets tend to be happier, more independent, and feel more secure than those without pets, it's important to select the type of pet that best suits your needs and lifestyle.

Talk to other members of your household and agree on the qualities you want in a pet and those that you'd prefer to avoid. In the case of dogs, man's best friend comes in countless breeds or mix of breeds, each offering a different blend of personality traits.

If you're looking for something smaller or with less energy, then maybe a cat or a rabbit would be right for you and your family. Here are some things to ask yourself when looking for the perfect pet:

Do you live in a small apartment or a large house with a backyard? This will greatly determine the size of the animal best suited to your home. For instance, a cat or caged animal may be more suitable to apartment living than a large dog.

How much time will the animal spend alone each day? If you're out for most of the day-and don't intend to hire a pet sitter or use daycare-you'll want an animal that doesn't need a lot of attention, rather than a dog.

Do you live with small children or someone frail or disabled who could be knocked over by a large dog? Maybe a smaller animal would be a safer option.

How much shedding can you tolerate? Specific dog and cat breeds tend to shed less or you could opt for a pet that doesn't shed at all, like an iguana or a snake (well, at least not hair).

Ultimately, when choosing a pet, be honest with yourself about the lifestyle you enjoy and the kind of pet you'd like to care for. If you're in doubt about caring for a larger animal, start small, get a fish or a smaller, caged animal. See how it fits and go from there.

Shelter and rescue animals

Whether mixed breed or purebred, dogs and cats adopted from a shelter or rescue group make excellent pets. For the most part, pets end up in a shelter through no fault of their own. Their owner may have died or moved to a place that doesn't allow pets, or the pet may have simply been abandoned by irresponsible owners who bought them on a whim and later discovered that they were unable or unwilling to care for them properly. If any shelter or rescue animal exhibits aggressive behavior, it is typically euthanized rather than offered for adoption.

Rescue groups try to find suitable homes for unwanted or abandoned dogs, cats, and other pets, many taken from shelters where they would otherwise have been euthanized. Volunteers usually take care of the animals until they can find a permanent home. This means that rescuers are often very familiar with a pet's personality and can help advise you on whether the pet would make a good match for your needs.

By adopting an animal from a shelter or rescue organization, you'll not only be giving a home to a deserving pet, but you'll also likely be saving an animal's life.

Alternatives to pet ownership

If you don't have the time, money, or ability to own a pet full-time, there are still ways you can experience the health benefits of being around animals. You can ask to walk a neighbor's dog, for example, or volunteer at an animal shelter. Most animal shelters or rescue groups welcome volunteers to help care for homeless pets or assist at adoption events. You'll not only be helping yourself, but also helping to socialize and exercise the animals, making them more adoptable.

Some animal shelters and rescue groups offer pet "rental" programs. Dogs and cats that are available for adoption can be taken out for walks or play dates. You can also foster an animal temporarily until a permanent home is found for him, or to decide if the animal is right for you.

A variety of different organizations offer specially trained therapy dogs and cats to visit children's hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, hospice programs, shelters, and schools. During these visits, people are invited to pet and stroke the animals, which can improve mood and reduce stress and anxiety.

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The Health and Mood-Boosting Benefits of Pets - HelpGuide.org

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Most pet owners are clear about the immediate joys that come with sharing their lives with companion animals. However, many of us remain unaware of the physical and mental health benefits that can also accompany the pleasure of snuggling up to a furry friend.

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It talks about the benefits on why a healthy diet is important and how it affects us if we corporate with it.

It relates to me because I am huge about eating healthy and workout and learning new recipes to boast my diet even more.

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A healthful diet typically includes nutrient-dense foods from all major food groups, including lean proteins, whole grains, healthful fats, and fruits and vegetables of many colors.

Healthful eating also means replacing foods that contain trans fats, added salt, and sugar with more nutritious options.

Following a healthful diet has many health benefits, including building strong bones, protecting the heart, preventing disease, and boosting mood.

This article looks at the top 10 benefits of a healthful diet, and the evidence behind them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the United States.

The American Heart Association (AHA) state that almost half of U.S. adults live with some form of cardiovascular disease.

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a growing concern in the U.S. The condition can lead to heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.

Some sources report that it is possible to prevent up to 80% of premature heart disease and stroke diagnoses with lifestyle changes, such as increasing physical activity and healthful eating.

The foods people eat can reduce their blood pressure and help keep their heart healthy.

The dietary approaches to stop hypertension diet, known as the , includes plenty of healthful foods for the heart. The program recommends the following:

eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains

choosing fat-free or low fat dairy products, fish, poultry, beans, nuts, and vegetable oils

limiting saturated and trans fat intake, such as fatty meats and full-fat dairy products

limiting drinks and foods that contain added sugars

restricting sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams per day - ideally 1,500 mg daily- and increasing consumption of potassium, magnesium, and calcium

High fiber foods are also crucial for keeping the heart healthy.

The AHA state that dietary fiber helps improve blood cholesterol and lowers the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

The medical community has long recognized the link between trans fats and heart-related illnesses, such as coronary heart disease.

Limiting certain types of fats can also improve heart health. For instance, eliminating trans fats reduces the levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. This type of cholesterol causes plaque to collect within the arteries, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Reducing blood pressure can also promote heart health. A person can achieve this by limiting their salt intake to no more than 1,500 milligrams per day.

Food manufacturers add salt to many processed and fast foods, and a person who wishes to lower their blood pressure should avoid these products.
Learn more about the DASH diet here.
Eating foods that contain antioxidants can reduce a person's risk of developing cancer by protecting cells from damage.

The presence of free radicals in the body increases the risk of cancer, but antioxidants help remove them to lower the likelihood of this disease.

Many phytochemicals found in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes act as antioxidants, including beta-carotene, lycopene, and vitamins A, C, and E.

According to the National Cancer Institute, though humans trials are inconclusive, there are laboratory and animal studies that link certain antioxidants to a reduced incidence of free radical damage due to cancer.

Foods high in antioxidants include:

berries such as blueberries and raspberries

dark leafy greens

pumpkin and carrots

nuts and seeds

Having obesity may increase a person's risk of developing cancer and result in poorer outcomes. Maintaining a moderate weight may reduce these risks.

In a , researchers found that a diet rich in fruits reduced the risk of upper gastrointestinal tract cancers.

They also found that a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and fiber lowered the risk of colorectal cancer, while a diet rich in fiber reduces the risk of liver cancer.
Read more about cancer-fighting foods here.
Some evidence suggests a close relationship between diet and mood.

In 2016, researchers found that diets with a high glycemic load may trigger increased symptoms of depression and fatigue.

A diet with a high glycemic load includes many refined carbohydrates, such as those found in soft drinks, cakes, white bread, and biscuits. Vegetables, whole fruit, and whole grains have a lower glycemic load.

If a person suspects they have symptoms of depression, talking to a doctor or mental health professional can help.

The colon is full of naturally occurring bacteria, which play important roles in metabolism and digestion.

Certain strains of bacteria also produce vitamins K and B, which benefit the colon. These strains also help fight harmful bacteria and viruses.

A diet low in fiber and high in sugar and fat alters the gut microbiome, increasing inflammation in the area.

However, a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains provides a combination of prebiotics and probiotics that help good bacteria thrive in the colon.

These fermented foods are rich in probiotics:

Fiber is an easily accessible prebiotic and is abundant in legumes, grains, fruits, and vegetables. It also promotes regular bowel movements, which can help prevent bowel cancer and diverticulitis.

Maintaining a moderate weight can help reduce the risk of chronic health issues. Having overweight or obesity are risk factors for several conditions, including:

Many healthful foods, including vegetables, fruits, and beans, are lower in calories than most processed foods.

A person can determine their calorie requirements using guidance from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020.

Maintaining a healthful diet free from processed foods can help a person stay within their daily limit without monitoring calorie intake.

Dietary fiber is particularly important for managing weight. Plant-based foods contain plenty of dietary fiber, which helps regulate hunger by making people feel fuller for longer.

In 2018, researchers found that a diet rich in fiber and lean proteins resulted in weight loss without the need for monitoring calorie intake.

A healthful diet can help a person with diabetes in:

managing blood glucose levels

keeping blood pressure and cholesterol within target ranges

preventing or delaying complications of diabetes

maintaining a moderate weight

It is vital for people with diabetes to limit their intake of foods with added sugar and salt. They should also consider avoiding fried foods high in saturated and trans fats.
Read about the best foods for diabetes here.
A diet with adequate calcium and magnesium is important for strong bones and teeth. Keeping the bones healthy can minimize the risk of bone issues later in life, such as osteoporosis.

The following foods are rich in calcium:

Food manufacturers often fortify cereals and plant-based milks with calcium.

Magnesium is abundant in many foods, and some of the best sources include leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.

A variety of factors, including sleep apnea, can disrupt sleep patterns.

Sleep apnea occurs when the airways repeatedly become blocked during sleep. Risk factors include obesity, drinking alcohol, and eating an unhealthful diet.

Reducing alcohol and caffeine intake can help a person gain restful sleep, whether they have sleep apnea or not.

Children learn most health-related behaviors from the adults around them, and parents who model healthful eating and exercise habits tend to pass these on.

Eating at home may also help. In 2018, researchers found that children who regularly ate meals with their families consumed more vegetables and fewer sugary foods than their peers who ate at home less frequently.

In addition, children who participate in gardening and cooking at home may be more likely to make healthful dietary and lifestyle choices.

There are plenty of small, positive ways to improve diet, including:

swapping soft drinks for water and herbal tea

eating no meat for at least 1 day a week

ensuring each meal consists of around 50% fresh produce

swapping cow's milk for plant-based milk

consuming whole fruits instead of juices, which contain less fiber and often include added sugar

avoiding processed meats, which are high in salt and may increase the risk of colon cancer

eating more lean protein, which people can find in eggs, tofu, fish, and nuts

A person may also benefit from taking a cooking class, and learning how to incorporate more vegetables into meals.

Healthful eating has many health benefits, such as reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. It can also boost a person's mood and provide them with more energy.

A doctor or dietitian can provide tips on eating a more healthful diet.

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A healthful diet typically includes nutrient-dense foods from all major food groups, including lean proteins, whole grains, healthful fats, and fruits and vegetables of many colors. Healthful eating also means replacing foods that contain trans fats, added salt, and sugar with more nutritious options.

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maria lopez
topic 3: This is an interesting topic because it explains how much food is wasted in the u.s. and how much monetary losses it causes.

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Food waste in America has skyrocketed in recent years, with 103 million tons (206 billion pounds) of food waste generated in 2018, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the equivalent of over 450,000 Statue of Liberties.

This is a shocking statistic which unfortunately becomes less surprising the more you learn about the growing problem of food waste in America.

Globally, we waste a third of all food produced for human consumption, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN). In the United States, that equates to approximately one pound of food wasted per person per day. If we keep this up, reports estimate that in ten years, we'll waste the equivalent of 66 tons of food per second across the globe.

What is Food Waste?

Before we go any further, here's a quick primer on the basics of food waste:

Rubicon's mission is to end waste, in all of its forms. In this article, we're going to look at the issues surrounding food waste in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world. We're going to look at what causes food waste at every level of the food supply chain; and how to reduce it. And we're going to uncover the most interesting food waste statistics out there.

Keep reading to learn more about food waste in America.

How Much Food is Wasted in America?

Each day in the United States approximately one pound of food per person is wasted. This equates to 103 million tons (206 billion pounds) of food waste generated in America in 2017, or between 30-40 percent of the food supply, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

How much food is wasted in the U.S. can be seen directly through its monetary losses. The annual food waste in America has an approximate value of $161 billion, while the average American family of four throws out $1,500 in wasted food per year.

As it stands, the U.S. is the worldwide leader in food waste generation, with the majority of wasted food being sent to landfills. In fact, food waste is the number one material in American landfills, accounting for 24.1 percent of all municipal solid waste (MSW) according to the EPA.

How did we get here? Knowing how much food is wasted in America each year is only the first step toward tackling a problem that is bigger than the simple monetary loss. The reality of food waste in America is that we live in a country in which more than 54 million people are food insecure (18 million of which are children) according to 2020 data collected by Feeding America. These numbers are up from 37 million and 11 million, respectively, in 2019, with the sharp rise in food insecurity due to the effects of the COVID-19 public health emergency and the subsequent economic downturn. (For more food waste statistics, scroll down to the "Food Waste Facts and Statistics" section below.)

What Causes Food Waste in America?

The causes of food waste in America go far beyond just tossing our leftovers in the trash, and they are crucial to understand in order to reduce our nation's collective food waste going forward.

From production and supply, to our tendency to overpurchase, to the unrealistic aesthetic standards we have come to expect from our fruits and vegetables, these are the three main causes of food waste in America:

Production and Supply Chain

Food wastage occurs at every step of the supply chain, with different types of foods being more or less likely to be lost at each step.

According to data from the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand that was collected by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 20 percent of fruit and vegetables are lost during production, 12 percent are lost at the distribution and retail level, and a further 28 percent are lost at the consumer level. Seafood faces a similar fate, with 11 percent lost during production, 5 percent lost during processing and packaging, 9.5 percent lost at the distribution and retail level, and a further 33 percent lost at the consumer level. (For more on the specifics of food loss, this paper from Dana Gunders is a must-read.)

Unrealistic Aesthetic Standards

When you're in the produce aisle at your local supermarket, do you ever put back carrots, potatoes, zucchinis, or any other fruit or vegetable because it doesn't look as straight, slender, round, or otherwise how we have been conditioned to believe this item should look?

Food waste in America is exacerbated by unrealistic aesthetic standards for our produce. You're not alone in not picking up that misshapen carrot in the produce aisle. Grocery stores have learned over time that consumers don't tend to purchase misshapen produce. As a result, many stores stop accepting them from their suppliers. Thankfully there are outlets for misshapen produce; restaurants don't care what their carrots look like so long as they can turn them into delicious dishes on the plate, and start-ups such as Imperfect Foods, Misfits Market, and Hungry Harvest make it easy for consumers to receive "ugly produce" right to their door.

Portion Sizes and Overpurchasing

While not the most dramatic cause of food wastage, increased portion sizes in schools, restaurants, and the home leads to overpurchasing. Subsequently, more food is thrown out because it's gone bad.

Restaurants want to have enough food to serve their customers, so they overbuy and throw out what goes bad. At the consumer level, however, you have the power to ensure you purchase only what you need, you serve portion sizes that work for you and your family, and you don't throw out food too early.

What are the Effects of Food Waste?

While the negative effects of food waste in America are numerous, this article will focus on the three largest.

Environmental Impact

The environmental impact of food waste in America cannot be undersold. As food rots in a landfill, it emits methane, a greenhouse gas 28 to 36 times more potent than the carbon that comes out of passenger vehicles.

Landfills are the third-largest industrial emitter of methane, with food waste alone representing 8 percent of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While it is possible to offset the harm of these emissions through organics recycling, composting, and anaerobic digestion, the best way to reduce these emissions is to waste less food in the first place.

Food Insecurity and Global Hunger

While mentioned above, it bears repeating here. We live in a country in which more than 54 million people are food insecure (18 million of which are children) according to 2020 data collected by Feeding America, meaning they lack reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. These numbers are up from 37 million and 11 million, respectively, in 2019, due to COVID-19.

The fact that we as a country are wasting 30-40 percent of the food supply each year when more than 54 million Americans are food insecure is unconscionable.

Wasted Natural Resources

While rotting food in our country's landfills causes harm to our environment after it is wasted, allowing perfectly good food to go to waste is also wasteful of the natural resources that helped this food come to fruition in the first place.

When we waste food, we waste the water, energy, and physical labor it took to produce, package, and ship this food. We waste the fuel that was used to transport this food from one part of the country to another. When we waste food, it's not just the food itself that is being wasted.

How to Reduce Food Waste in America

Reducing food waste in America is going to take some time. Highlighting food waste statistics and facts, such as those below, is a good way to help get the word out about this ever-growing problem, but our work can't stop there.

As we just learned, there's more to food waste than what we do and don't eat. We're wasting $161 billion annually (with the average American family of four throwing out $1,500 in wasted food per year) while depleting our natural resources, harming our environment, and wasting food that the more than 54 million food insecure people in the United States could benefit from.

Here are some ideas for what you can do to reduce food waste in America:

Put together a detailed shopping list before you go to the grocery store by planning your meals in advance-and avoid impulse purchases.

Take leftover containers to restaurants. While some don't provide takeout containers, they would be hard-pressed to stop you from using your own.

Recognize that while your eyes may be bigger than your stomach, your plate doesn't have to be. Using smaller plates can help you to properly portion your food.

Don't be afraid of an emptier fridge. When you can't see the food you have purchased, you're more likely to forget about it and let it rot.

Keep track of the food you're throwing away the most to cut down on trends. Add a dollar sign value so you can see the impact it has on your budget.

Expiration dates are misleading and nonstandardized, leading many to toss out perfectly good food. Trust your sense of smell, and your gut, before throwing items away.

Read the EPA's "Too Good to Waste" implementation guide and toolkit to reduce wasteful food management practices.

The Food Recovery Hierarchy

When we talk about reducing food waste in America we would be remiss to not mention the Food Recovery Hierarchy.

Developed by the EPA, the Food Recovery Hierarchy prioritizes actions businesses and individuals alike can take to prevent and divert wasted food. As you can see, source reduction, or simply purchasing less food in the first place, is number one. This is followed by food donations to those in need, sending food scraps to animal feed, then industrial uses including anaerobic digestion and ethanol facilities, before moving on to composting.

Hopefully, food waste is never landfilled because it has so many beneficial uses.

Food Waste Facts and Statistics

The following food waste facts and statistics tell the story of food waste in America.

As I noted earlier on in this article, reading food waste statistics that tell us just how much food is wasted in America on an annual basis is a good way to help get the word out about the problem of food wastage in this country-but we must go further to reduce food waste at every level of the food supply chain.

If you are a restaurant owner looking to implement food waste reduction programs, or you're a business owner looking to run a more sustainable business, reach out to Rubicon's Sustainability team at sustainability@rubicon.com and we will be happy to help.

Without further ado, here are 20 of the most interesting food waste facts and statistics:

1. 103 million tons (206 billion pounds) of food waste was generated in the United States in 2018, the equivalent of over 450,000 Statue of Liberties.

2. An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally each year, one third of all food produced for human consumption.

3. In ten years, the United States will waste the equivalent of 66 tons of food per second across the globe.

4. If food waste was a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world after the United States and China.

5. The United States wastes 30-40 percent of its food supply each year.

6. The annual food waste in America has an approximate value of $161 billion.

7. The average American family of four throws out $1,500 in food per year.

8. Food waste is the number one material in America's landfills, accounting for 24.1 percent of all municipal solid waste (MSW).

9. More than 54 million people are food insecure (18 million of which are children) according to 2020 data, accounting for one in six people. These numbers are up from 37 million and 11 million, respectively, in 2019, due to COVID-19.

10. Approximately 38 percent of grain products are lost, 50 percent of seafood, 52 percent of fruits and vegetables, 22 percent of meat, and 20 percent of milk.

11. As food rots in a landfill, it emits methane, a greenhouse gas 28 to 36 times more potent than the carbon that comes out of passenger vehicles.

12. Food waste represents 8 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

13. Only 6.3 percent of food waste in America was composted in 2017.

14. The healthier you eat, the more important it is that you stay on top of your consumption. If you buy perishable food in bulk, such as fruits, vegetables, and meat, organize your refrigerator so what you need to eat first is up front and visible.

15. Americans discard approximately 35 percent (204 million pounds) of edible turkey meat each year, the majority after the Thanksgiving holiday.

16. Food is often safe to eat even after it "expires." Expiration dates are misleading and nonstandardized, leading many to toss out perfectly good food.

17. Global preferences for a western diet consisting of a high intake of carbohydrates, sugar, and sodium are major contributors to environmental burdens such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use.

18. Shrink wrapping produce helps to reduce food waste by increasing its shelf life. But remember to recycle the shrink wrap and other plastic bags, wraps, and film that are clean and dry.

19. Lack of awareness of basic nutrition adds to food waste among consumers. While many people believe it's better to buy fresh food, in reality, frozen food products often retain more nutrients while lasting longer.

20. The size of your refrigerator can impact the amount of food you waste. You're more likely to forget about food you have, improperly store your food, and buy more than you can eat before it goes bad.

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To learn more about Rubicon's work transforming the entire category of waste and recycling, be sure to download our inaugural Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report.

If you have any questions about food waste in America, or any of the food waste facts and statistics on this page, you can reach out to Rubicon's Sustainability team directly at sustainability@rubicon.com, or contact our sales team at (844) 479-1507.
Ryan Cooper is Director of Circular Economy Solutions at Rubicon. To stay ahead of Rubicon's announcements of new partnerships and collaborations around the world, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, or contact us today. Sources: 1, 7, 8, 11, 13, 20) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); 2, 12) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); 3, 19) Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Henderson Institute; 4) World Resources Institute; 5, 10) Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); 6) U.S. Food and Drugs Administration; 9) Feeding America; 14) Municipal Waste Association; 15) Waste Dive; 16) Reuters; 17) United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); 18) Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News.

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Food Waste in America: Facts and Statistics | Rubicon

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Food waste in America has skyrocketed in recent years, with 103 million tons (206 billion pounds) of food waste generated in 2018, according to the

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maria lopez
topic 2: we need trees and deforestation is going on right now because we are making room for other thing.

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Deforestation can include clearing the land for farming or livestock, or using the timber for fuel, construction or manufacturing.

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maria lopez
topic 1: I choose this topic because fashion and trends have always been interesting, but i found out that it had a negative impact on earth.

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Fashion accounts for around 10% of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, but there are ways to reduce the impact your wardrobe has on the climate.

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I choose this because now as schools are starting parents tends to get more worried about sending kids, where they are going to be surrounded by so many other kids. Now children are returning to in-person learning in classrooms, they may experience fear.

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Shielding children from danger is a fundamental instinct. Tolerating risk for them is hard-but necessary-emotional work.

About the author: Lucy McBride is a practicing internist in Washington, D.C. She is the author of a COVID-19 newsletter.

As a practicing primary-care doctor, I fully empathize with parents who worry about their unvaccinated kids' potential exposure to the coronavirus. Raising my own children is a daily exercise in vulnerability. One rainy night this summer, my teenage son, a new driver who was running late for a babysitting job, asked for my keys. "Can't you walk there instead?" I pleaded. He rolled his eyes. I let him use the car, but not before peppering him with reminders to be careful and to use the headlights and wipers. Shielding my kids from danger is a fundamental instinct; tolerating risk for them is hard emotional work.

So I understand why many parents were alarmed when, on July 27, the CDC's director, Rochelle Walensky, said that vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant could transmit the virus "with the same capacity as an unvaccinated" person. For people who thought that the pandemic was ending, her televised statement was like the scene late in A Nightmare on Elm Street when Freddy Krueger's claw reaches up from within Glen's bed and pulls him in.

The phones at my office started ringing immediately. "Are my kids no longer safe around me?" "Should we cancel our trip to visit the grandparents?" "Do the vaccines not work like they used to?" Since then, reports that pediatric hospitals are filling up with COVID-19 patients in states with low vaccination rates has heightened the perception that children are uniformly in danger.
Read: Why is it taking so long to get vaccines for kids?
For most of the pandemic, children were assumed to be at low risk of serious illness from the coronavirus. But recent developments are naturally triggering many adults' protective instincts. Although the evidence calls for prudence, not panic-even as the Delta variant spreads-many parents will struggle to keep fear from racing ahead of the data.

Hopes were high during the spring and early summer, as vaccination rates rose and hospitalization rates fell. Kids enjoyed indirect protection from COVID-19 as more adults became immunized. A relatively normal return to school in the fall started to seem possible. Even now, some reassuring facts remain: So far the Delta variant isn't thought to be more lethal than prior variants. Although clearly more contagious, Delta doesn't seem to specifically target kids. No one should be surprised that nonimmune children account for a bigger share of the total number of infections as more adults get vaccinated. Although cases are certainly increasing among children as well as adults, a recent report by the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that 0.9 percent of COVID-19 cases in children have resulted in hospitalization-a slight increase since the spring but well below the corresponding percentage for most of last year-and 0.01 percent have resulted in death.

A recent peer-reviewed study in Britain of nearly 260,000 children (1,700 of whom showed symptoms) reminds us that for most kids, a coronavirus infection will manifest as the common cold-if anything. Also reassuring is that only 4.4 percent of children diagnosed with COVID-19 in this study had symptoms after 28 days (and 1.8 percent after 56 days). Probably not surprising to any parent, about 1 percent of kids in this study who had upper-respiratory symptoms and tested negative for COVID-19 also had lingering symptoms at 56 days-a reminder that COVID-19 is only one potential cause for a child's malaise.

Abundant evidence indicates that coronavirus transmissions rates in schools are roughly equal to or less than those of the surrounding community. In other words, educational settings are not inherently dangerous for younger children. This should reassure parents and policy makers who are nervous about sending them back to the classroom.

I do not dismiss the continuing danger that COVID-19 presents to kids. As of August 11, the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics reports, more than 350 children (out of 74 million) across the United States have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. (For perspective, we've lost more than 600,000 American adults to COVID-19, and adults older than 85 are more than 600 times more likely to die from the disease than kids are.) Pediatric hospitalizations are rising in regions of the country where vaccine uptake is low. Long COVID-though rare in children, at least before Delta-can cause lasting symptoms for some otherwise healthy youngsters.

But fragmentary data and muddled messaging from the CDC and elsewhere have stoked the public's collective fear-especially among parents. The " younger, sicker, quicker" narrative-which asserts that Delta infects people more intensely and at an earlier age-has taken hold on TV news and social media. The Delta surge has also created new opportunities for grifters, anti-vaccine propagandists, and others to spread misinformation that preys on parental anxiety.
Read: Delta is bad news for kids
Not all fear is irrational; some is actually required for survival. When parents are faced with a perceived or real threat to their children's safety, stress hormones pour into the bloodstream, allowing us to sprint from danger, maintain alertness, and react quickly to sudden changes in our environment. During the coronavirus pandemic, individual vigilance has been essential to interpreting and responding to the steady stream of new information.

Being constantly wired like this nevertheless carries a cost: Rational thought is hijacked. Our risk tolerance goes down. Our instinct to protect shifts into overdrive. We default to primitive thought patterns including black-and-white thinking ( School isn't safe until all kids are vaccinated) and catastrophizing ( My child's runny nose will probably land him in the hospital). We also engage in filtering, a cognitive distortion whereby we sort through masses of information and latch onto specific ideas that reinforce a personal fear ( After reading that ICU doctor's Facebook post about a hospitalized infant, I'm certain my child will get sick with COVID-19).

Marinating in a toxic brine of fear and uncertainty can make us sick-whether from fatigue and insomnia or irritability and burnout. And when our children hear us processing endless loops of what if thinking, they can become worried and depressed too. Fixating on a single threat to children's health can keep us from recognizing their broad human needs. I too can be a victim of my own mental gymnastics. (Just ask my kids.)

Reclaiming rational thought amid ongoing uncertainty can be vexingly difficult, yet it is crucial for our health. Parents must first absorb the scientific evidence on Delta. We must cross-check our internal narratives about our own kids against the facts of our local public-health landscape by checking in with trusted health-care professionals.

Next, we must accept the unpleasant reality that risk is everywhere. Children face many serious threats to their well-being, including other diseases, mental illness, and accidents. Vehicular crashes kill more than 1,000 Americans younger than 15 each year. Yet we've accepted this risk; we also don't revisit it with every news story about a car crash.

When my patients ask me whether a given activity is safe, I usually tell them the answer isn't a firm yes or no. Absolutism itself can do harm. Rather, I ask about individual patients' circumstances, explain medical evidence, and try to help frame their decision by offering advice about relative risks and benefits. As with fear, risk cannot be eliminated; it can only be mitigated. Health stems from allowing fear to protect us from dying but not allowing it to prevent us from living.

Similarly, victory over COVID-19 will require accepting our perilous reality, releasing ourselves from the impossible task of eradicating danger, and relishing the sometimes-immeasurable reward that comes from tolerating risk. Had I prohibited my son from driving that rainy night, for example, he might have lost his job-or, worse, his faith in how much I trust him.

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facts of our local public-health landscape

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Fear of COVID-19 in Kids Is Getting Ahead of the Data

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Shielding children from danger is a fundamental instinct. Tolerating risk for them is hard-but necessary-emotional work. About the author: Lucy McBride is a practicing internist in Washington, D.C. She is the author of a COVID-19 newsletter. As a practicing primary-care doctor, I fully empathize with parents who worry about their unvaccinated kids' potential exposure to the coronavirus.

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For years college athletes have struggled during their career because they have to spend too much time focusing on the sport they play rather than having a job and studying.

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Topic 3- How spending a lot of time on your cellphones can have a negative effect. Looking at your phone all day can cause strain in the eyes, it can lead to poor heart rate, it can cause sleep deprivation, and it can increase obesity. In my generation a lot of people around my age use a lot of technology and that is really bad.

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When you have ADHD is can be hard to focus so finding certain types of music that can help you focus is helpful.

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Music has been shown to promote attentiveness and focus in people with ADHD. Here's what type of music may work best.

Music can motivate, elicit intense emotions, or help you relax depending on the genre you're listening to or your personal tastes.

It also affects everyone differently. For example, you might need fast-paced rock music for motivation to clean the house, while others require the soothing sounds of ambient music while wielding the dust mop. Plus, you may prefer different types of music for different settings - something with a quick beat for when you go running, but something soothing while reading.

For studying or brain-intensive tasks, some people find specific types of music help increase their ability to focus or concentrate. And research indicates that this may also hold true for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

According to a small 2020 study, music does seem to promote attentiveness and focus in children with ADHD.

Scientists found evidence that after children with ADHD listened to 30-minute interactive music and 30-minute interactive video game interventions, the music intervention improved attention management, while the video game intervention didn't.

According to Elizabeth Lombardo, PhD, known as "Dr. E" on television shows such as "The Today Show," "music therapy improves attention and focus, lowers hyperactivity, and improves social skills in children with attention deficit disorder ( ADHD or ADD)."

Dr. Lombardo explains, "because many people with ADHD have trouble keeping track of time and duration, listening to music may help them improve their performance in these areas. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, can be increased by listening to music you appreciate. Lower dopamine levels may be connected to certain ADHD symptoms."

In addition, William Schroeder, LPC, NCC, co-founder and ADHD expert from Just Mind Counseling, told Psych Central, "according to research, music enhances parts of the brain that are weak in ADHD children. The auditory, visual/spatial, and motor cortices of the brain are all strengthened by music. Speech and language abilities, reading, reading comprehension, math, problem-solving, brain organization, focus, and attention issues are all linked to these domains."

He adds, "there are other theories that center around the challenges of the ADHD brain which have to do with dysregulation in the amygdala, and music allows the distress to settle and thus the learning centers of the brain and executive function to be more engaged."

Because there are so many genres of music, and everyone has different likes and dislikes, determining which type will help you focus is highly individualized.

According to Lombardo, "some genres of music may be more useful for promoting concentration when it comes to music for ADHD symptoms. Aim for soothing, medium-tempo music with simple rhythms. Consider listening to classical composers like Vivaldi and Chopin."

Schroeder says classical music can also help with other areas of brain functioning.

"Classical music has been found to be the most beneficial for speech, language, and memory." However, he adds, " for those that want something else to listen to - I thoroughly enjoy apps like Calm or Headspace that have libraries full of content to explore and use."

Schroeder suggests using music without words or overstimulation, like ethereal or nature soundscape genres, as these may allow a person with ADHD to focus better.

He adds, " I also recommend wearing noise-canceling headphones from any of the major manufacturers to compliment the soundscapes you're enjoying. These will not only hone in the track for your attention but also eliminate (or nearly eliminate) environmental distractions where you're working, studying, or thinking."

For people with ADHD, Schroeder suggests finding tracts with longer run times to reduce the need to interact with the media player, which can create unwanted distractions.

Interestingly, other types of music for ADHD concentration that might help include 8D music or binaural beats.

When listening to 8D music, sounds seem to float around you making it feel like you are immersed in the music. The caveat is - you must listen to 8D with headphones on for it to have this effect.

Binaural beats use two different tones in each ear to allow your brain to synchronize the sounds. This action may help promote relaxation and increase focus.

Now that we know how music may help improve focus and attention if you have ADHD, the next step is to figure out which type might work for you.

Because music is individualized and the level of focus needed differs depending on the task, consider making separate playlists:

one to use during nonimmersive or high energy tasks like cleaning the house

another for immersive or deep concentration tasks like studying

a list for relaxation and sleep

Below are some ideas to help you get started using music for your ADHD symptoms, but feel free to explore different genres to determine what works for you. For example, you may prefer white noise running in the background with no music, or a particular rock song might be more effective.

Spotify and other playlists

YouTube videos

Deep sleep 8D audio music for ADHD

Tones only for deep focus

Tones with music

Binaural beats and frequencies for focus, concentration, and memory

Music for studying and immersive tasks

Classical music for concentration

Some music you might consider avoiding

When you're trying to increase focus and concentration, these types of music may hinder your progress:

chaotic music without a distinct rhythm

music with lyrics

dance club music with a swift pace

your favorite songs or music you have a strong emotional tie to

genres that you know irritate you, or you don't like

playlists that interject abrupt advertisements

Besides listening to music, learning to play an instrument may also help with ADHD symptoms.

A 2021 research review suggested that engaging in music may help people who have difficulty with internalizing or externalizing feelings. It might also support emotional regulation by activating many neurobiological pathways.

In addition, according to an article by author Sharlene Habermeyer, MA, when children with ADHD learn a musical instrument, they can experience improvement in these areas:

attention

concentration

impulse management

social functioning

self-esteem

self-expression

motivation

memory

If you experience focus, attention, or motivational challenges because of ADHD, you're not alone. Although these symptoms can cause frustration, there are things you can do to help improve your ability to stay focused on tasks.

Music genres like classical, 8D, or binaural beats are options to consider, as research suggests they might help manage these types of ADHD symptoms.

So, if you feel music may help you, there are plenty of options to choose from - the trick is finding the type that works for you.

However, not everyone will have success with using music to help concentration, and that's OK. If you need more ideas to manage your ADHD, here are some resources that can help:

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ADHD and Music: Benefits, Types, and Playlists

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Music has been shown to promote attentiveness and focus in people with ADHD. Here's what type of music may work best. Music can motivate, elicit intense emotions, or help you relax depending on the genre you're listening to or your personal tastes. It also affects everyone differently.

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Topic 1 - Why everyone should have resistance training in their daily lives. I chose this because I personally train daily and to also inform and educate to people that resistance training is not only to gain muscles, but that theres more positive aspects involved in resistance training.

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Topic 3: Animations are not just for young children
As you grow older and watch different animations people tend to believe that you are too old for it, but in reality animations don't have anything to do with ones age.
I have been told by people that I'm too old to be watching cartoons or that what I'm watching is for kids even though clearly it isn't.
https://gizmodo.com/why-saying-animation-is-only-for-kids-is-bullshit-1561023216

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"Aren't you too old to be watching kid shows?"

If you're old enough to be in high school, there's a good chance an adult has asked you this question before. The attitude that question carries with it is demeaning and judgmental, but the simplest way to describe it is bullshit.

For whatever reason, some adults don't understand the appeal of animation, and they feel the need to accost others for liking it. Watching cartoons is only ok if you watch it with kids who belong to a more fitting age-group. Maybe it's only ok to watch Disney and Pixar movies, but you can't like anime or anything on Cartoon Network. Or perhaps shows like The Simpsons or Family Guy are all that's ok because they have adult jokes in them.

Regardless, just because people hate on those of us who enjoy animation of all kinds doesn't mean we have to take it. And if you ever find yourself being harassed for watching "kid's shows," here are some points you can use to set them straight.

Animation is freedom

There are so many reasons to enjoy animation, but one stands above them all. In animation, as thousands of TV shows, movies and shorts of all kinds have demonstrated, the creator has unlimited freedom. You can explore the deepest corners of space just as easily as a suburban, east-coast neighborhood. You can even do both in the same episode.

Not only is the scope of an animated show bound only by what the artists can create, the medium in general is a lot more flexible than live-action. Just look at Family Guy, for example, where the story is frequently and characteristically interrupted by tangential cut-away jokes. If that happened in the middle of The Big Bang Theory people would probably hate it (not that people don't already hate the Big Band Theory...).

But more than that, animation is free to get weird in a way that would either be impossible or too alienating with live-action. Just look at the works of animator Don Herzfeltd. Despite being immensely bizarre, people find his short films extremely entertaining and full of deeper commentary on the world at large. And while a live-action story can also be entertaining and comment on something, it can't do it in the same ways animation can.

Something also worth considering is the freedom animation offers when it comes to exploring different cultures. A live-action story can do it too, but few things are more telling about a group of people than what kind of animation they enjoy. Japan, for example, is often exclusively identified by anime, and American animation can be known for its faux-violence on shows like the Looney Toons.

Animation is a work of art

Another kind of freedom found in animation comes down to one of its main tenants - how the animator draws. Continuing on with the comparison between Japanese and American animation, the visual distinction is as clear as night and day. Regardless of that, no one could ever look at a cartoon and say it doesn't have value as a work of art. Just because it isn't hanging in a museum ( and plenty of animation is featured in museums) doesn't disqualify an animated story from being artistic.

Even beyond the visuals, animation is art for the way it blends visual creativity with story. Nothing tells a tale more vividly and gorgeously than a work of animation - and yes that goes for the CGI in live-action too.

Plus, while not every story is going to be the literary equivalent of Shakespeare and not all the art will be as beautiful as Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night," that's ok. Art can be simple and accessible to the masses and still have value. Art can be something that both children and adults can enjoy together.

Animation bridges the age gap

On the list of things adults and kids can enjoy together, animation is definitely at the top. That fact is another reason why adults should be encouraged to watch animation - so they can relate to their juniors better. It can be plenty hard to get a child to open up and talk to an adult, but few things work better than discussing the latest episode of Adventure Time.

And just because you don't have kids doesn't mean you never interact with them or will never have to understand them. Animation, especially animation aimed at younger audiences, can be extremely enlightening for adults. A lot of the time cartoons capture the same problems kids face on a daily basis, and it's important to see what stories are resonating with them. At the same time, animated stories provide great teaching moments, allowing adults to put difficult and sensitive issues in a context that kids can understand.

More than that, it can just be fun sitting down with a big bowl of sugary cereal, your kid (or niece/nephew, family friend's child), and laugh the day away. There's nothing wrong with simply using a cartoon as a method of enjoying time with the youngins.

Animation keeps us young

Even if you somehow never see or interact with children ever, animation is also great because it can remind you what it's like to have been a child. Nostalgia certainly plays a large role there, and few people would hate to marathon their favorite childhood cartoons. But even watching new animated stories as an adult can be valuable if, for a half hour at least, it whisks you away to a world where all your bills are gone.

Look - the world can be a tough place to live in. Listing all of the average adult's daily worries is an article unto itself and every day is full of enough tragedies for its own website. And though live-action TV can often be an escape from all the bad things in the world, animation is a better one.

Live-action stories, even ones that focus on a younger group of characters, often have serious problems that the audience who are looking for a mental break don't need to deal with, like death, drugs, or depression. Even comedies, which are supposed to be more relaxing, often play serious problems, like romantic rejection, poverty, or difficult in-laws, off like a joke. And while you may laugh, you'll still be thinking, "oh shit, my mother in-law is coming in next week and I have $1,000 in bills to pay by next week."

A lot of cartoons are much more lighthearted, and even when they're not, the realistic problems are presented in a way that no one would grow any gray hairs worrying about them. Again, there are exceptions, but you don't really see people losing sleep because a brutal show like Shingeki No Kyojin ( Attack on Titan) reminds them of their real life, do you? What's more, it's a lot easier to find an animated story that linger so long on the hard parts of life.

Animation can be serious too

Speaking of Shingeki No Kyojin, animation can be plenty serious when it wants to be, and it isn't all as childish as some might claim. That show, for those who are unfamiliar, is a harrowing story set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity cowers behind a series of three massive walls to protect themselves from building-sized monsters called titans that ate the majority of the world's population. It starts when one of the walls is breached and everything goes to complete hell. Then it keeps going to hell and fucking everyone starts dying all the time. Seriously, it's a wonder that anyone is still alive. Does that show sound like "a kid's show"?

I think the biggest problem most animation haters (or perhaps misunderstanders, if I may make up a word) have is that they've rarely been exposed to stories for adults. No doubt they've heard of the The Simpsons or Family Guy, but if they're not into comedies they're left to assume the rest is just childish-silliness. In reality, there is a vast collection of animation that is specifically for adults who like serious stories about serious things. And no, not all of it is as extreme as Shingeki No Kyojin. There is an animated story out there for everyone.

Animation isn't that different from live-action

Finally, the last weapon people who find animation immature use is that it's just not the same as live-action. It's too hard to connect emotionally to an animated character or I can't relate to the crazy world they live in because it looks all cartoony. Well, that sounds like a personal problem and not a problem with the medium.

Plenty, if not most, animation-lovers connect with cartoon characters, worlds, and stories on a regular basis. Many of us have shed tears over the loss of animated character or jumped with joy when they triumphed over a difficult task. Just because a character doesn't look like a real human doesn't take away their humanity. After all, they were created by fellow people just like you. In the end, that's what really makes allows us to relate to animation.

So if you're the kind of person who condescends to those who love animation or chide them for being childish, I hope you now understand why you're wrong. Animation is a rich medium for story telling that is just as good as live-action and better in some ways.

And even if you're loved animation from the day you could hold your head up on your own, I hope you can at least appreciate this highlight of why animation is so wonderful. In fact, if you're such a person, feel free to include your own reasons below. These may be the big ones, but there are plenty more worth talking about.

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Why Saying Animation Is Only For Kids Is Bullshit

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"Aren't you too old to be watching kid shows?" If you're old enough to be in high school, there's a good chance an adult has asked you this question before. The attitude that question carries with it is demeaning and judgmental, but the simplest way to describe it is bullshit.

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In the U.S Child obesity is at its highest it has ever been . Parents don't seem to monitor there childs weight or understand the importance of it. Tis is why I'm considering child obesity as a essay topic to bring awareness

undesrtsand

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Prevalence of Childhood Obesity in the United States

Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, putting children and adolescents at risk for poor health. Obesity prevalence among children and adolescents is still too high.

For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years in 2017-2020 ¹:

The prevalence of obesity was 19.7% and affected about 14.7 million children and adolescents.

Obesity prevalence was 12.7% among 2- to 5-year-olds, 20.7% among 6- to 11-year-olds, and 22.2% among 12- to 19-year-olds. Childhood obesity is also more common among certain populations.

Obesity prevalence was 26.2% among Hispanic children, 24.8% among non-Hispanic Black children, 16.6% among non-Hispanic White children, and 9.0% among non-Hispanic Asian children.

Obesity-related conditions include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, breathing problems such as asthma and sleep apnea, and joint problems.

¹Read CDC National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data brief

Note: Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile of the CDC sex-specific BMI-for-age growth charts.

Obesity and Socioeconomic Status

[ Read the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)]

In 2011-2014, among children and adolescents aged 2-19 years, the prevalence of obesity decreased as the head of household's level of education increased.

Obesity prevalence was 18.9% among children and adolescents aged 2-19 years in the lowest income group, 19.9% among those in the middle-income group, and 10.9% among those in the highest income group.

Obesity prevalence was lower in the highest income group among non-Hispanic Asian boys and Hispanic boys.

Obesity prevalence was lower in the highest income group among non-Hispanic White girls, non-Hispanic Asian girls, and Hispanic girls. Obesity prevalence did not differ by income among non-Hispanic Black girls.

Women, Infant, Children (WIC) Data

Data and Statistics
Interactive database, surveillance systems, state reports, and maps related to obesity.

Connect with Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity

Page last reviewed:

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Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States. Learn more...

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Topic 2 is about black on black crime because we don't talk about this enough. How they say some cops are killing people of color, but people of color is getting killed more by each other, than by the police. The city I am from there are a lot of innocent people getting killed by black on black crime.

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Topic 2: Japanese animation are more advanced and superior to that of American animation
Many people scoff at the word anime alone because of prejudice, yet are unaware of how vast it is compared to our limited animations in America.
As someone who loves cartoons I find our lack of certain aspects sad and turn to anime because of the different genres, characters, story lines and more
https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2015/09/09/why-japanese-anime-is-superior-to-american-animation/

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If you're not very familiar with the world of Japanese animation, hearing the word "anime" might make you think of children's cartoons you used to watch on Saturday mornings, like "Pokémon" or "Dragon Ball Z." While these shows fall under the umbrella of anime, they are just the tip of the iceberg.

Up until a few weeks ago, I too was not aware of the extremely rich and entertaining variety of anime that existed. My first encounter with anime (outside Saturday morning cartoons) was when I was about nine years old. My mom took my siblings and I to see the Hayao Miyazaki film "Spirited Away." At the time, I didn't enjoy it at all. I thought it was boring, confusing, weird and creepy. Why? Because I was a child, and "Spirited Away" is not really a children's film. Like many anime feature films, it is an experience better appreciated by mature viewers.

That isn't to say that anime shouldn't be viewed by children at all. If kids grow up watching anime, that's fine. The problem for many kids is that they are raised on American animation with simple plots, flat characters and cheap comic relief. Then, when they encounter a Japanese animation with complex character development, deep themes, subtle dialogue and thought-provoking stories, they find it boring, as I did with "Spirited Away."

In the course of the last several weeks, however, I have gone on a journey to discover some of the best that anime has to offer. As a student, I don't have time to devote to an ongoing anime series, so this article will deal exclusively with feature films.

Going into this movie marathon, I predicted that I would gain a better appreciation for anime. But I had no idea how powerful and entertaining these films would be. There wasn't one that I disliked, and many of them instantly joined my list of all-time favorite movies as soon as the credits rolled. All these movies featured not only beautiful animation, but also interesting and authentic characters, as well as expertly crafted narratives.

One of the misconceptions about anime is that it all looks the same. This couldn't be further from the truth. Although anime as a genre is easily recognizable, there is a wide variety of styles and techniques that can give each film a unique look and feel.

Take, for example, "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya." The film is an adaptation of a Japanese folktale. The studio opted to go with a raw animation style, with lots of watercolors and negative space, in order to invoke the aesthetic of an ancient scroll. It's a very minimalist style, but it works beautifully, and it allows the director to portray the story in a way that wouldn't be possible with CGI animation.

In one scene, a character grows increasingly upset, and as she does, the animation itself becomes more and more wild and untamed until it eventually devolves into a mess of scribbles. Very few films are able to so successfully intertwine the content of their film with the form in which they present it.

A lot of people might say they prefer American animation because "it looks more realistic." In Japanese animation, they say, the characters all have silly, exaggerated faces and features. Really? Let's do a side-by-side comparison.

These two films, "When Marnie Was There" and "Frozen," came out within one year of each other. Frozen was one of the most popular American animated films in years. "When Marnie Was There" is (maybe) the last film to be produced by anime legends Studio Ghibli.

Looking at the two, which is more realistic? Well, it depends on what you mean by the word 'realistic.' If realistic to you means how close an image comes to being photo-realistic (indistinguishable from real life) then obviously "Frozen" is the more realistic of the two. On the other hand, I look at this and see one image that was made by a computer program (with some human help) and another image that appears to have been drawn by hand. For me, at least, the image on the right has a human quality to it that makes it much more "real" than the image on the left, which can easily be reduced to a bunch of ones and zeroes.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy Disney and Pixar movies as much as the next guy. But to dismiss anime for not "keeping up" with American animation just doesn't make sense. Japan hasn't undertaken the quest for the unattainable photo-realism, not because they're incapable, but because they know that traditional animation as an art form doesn't need to wholly rely on computers to be beautiful and engaging.

A common trend amongst all the anime films I watched is that the characters are believable. They do things that normal, everyday people would do. They say things that real people do. Their actions and choices make sense. And because they are so believable, they become relatable. As the movies progress, you really feel a connection with these characters.

Amazingly, these characters sometimes even feel more real than characters in a live-action film. Every year, there are plenty of Hollywood actors that turn in amazing performances of characters that are every bit as believable as the best characters in anime. The problem is that when you watch those movies, a part of you will always see the actor who is performing the role. Tom Hanks can give the performance of a life-time, but watching it, you will still be acutely aware that you're watching Tom Hanks.

In anime, these interesting and complex characters are often given nondescript faces. They aren't detailed enough to look like any particular person. In "Grave of the Fireflies," the boy character has such a generic face that we, as viewers, begin to subconsciously project our own face onto his. He could be anybody, so why not us, or our neighbor or our family?

In this way, anime characters become something of a blank slate that we can fill with our own identity and then experience the film in a very personal and meaningful way.

We don't become distracted by the fact that we're watching a multi-millionaire actor, and we don't get distracted by the characters doing things that we wouldn't do. When you combine those two accomplishments, you're left with some of the most relatable characters in all of film.

Of course, relatable characters don't do you much good unless you have an excellent story to put them in. Thankfully, anime delivers in this department as well.

One of the first things I noticed after watching my first several anime films was that none of them had a "bad guy." Traditionally, that's where most movies derive their central conflict from: How will the good guy defeat the bad guy? That's not a bad thing. I love many movies that stick to that formula. But many American movies don't reach their full potential because they rely so heavily on it.

Let's return to "Frozen." "Frozen" had a really great start where story is concerned. It focused on the relationship between two sisters and asked some good questions about identity and community. There was interesting internal conflict and character development. Then it introduced a "bad guy," and more traditional story archetypes and the interesting part of the story kind of got pushed aside.

Anime films, on the other hand, have "simple" plots that leave room for things like character development and deep exploration of multiple themes. The conflict is internal, as characters cope with crises of identity and morality. Or, the conflict lies in the complications of familial relations, or in a struggle to survive in one's environment. The stories are told so masterfully that there is no need to introduce a villain to make the movie interesting.

Anime films may sometimes incorporate fantastical elements, but they aren't the central focus of the plot. "Wolf Children," for example, is about two kids who can turn into wolves. But the story is more about their single mother and her struggle to take care of them on a day-to-day basis. "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" features some creative use of time-traveling. But what the story's really about is examining the intersection of fate and free-will and the problems that can arise when we try to exert total control over our lives.

Not only are these stories interesting and engaging, but some of them will even leave you an emotional wreck. "The Grave of the Fireflies" is about the effects of World War II on children, and it is brutal. The film critic Roger Ebert considered it to be one of the greatest war films ever made. "Perfect Blue" is a psychological thriller-horror film so intense that David Fincher bought the movie rights in America so he could recreate one scene, shot-for-shot, in "Requiem for a Dream." And there's my personal favorite, "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" which has one of the most amazing endings to a movie I have ever seen. It is at once both devastatingly sad and incredibly soothing and peaceful. It was the epitome of catharsis and left me thinking about it for days to come.

Although I have only scratched the surface of anime, I have loved what I have found. I'm sure the few films I have seen thus far are not representative of anime as a whole, so the observations I have made certainly won't apply to every anime film.

If you have yet to discover anime film, I encourage you to give it an honest try with an open mind. I promise you won't be disappointed.

For reference, here are some of my favorites that I have watched thus far: "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya", "Wolf Children," "The Grave of the Fireflies," "Spirited Away," "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" and "My Neighbor Totoro."
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@leurp_adams on Twitter

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Why Japanese Anime is Superior to American Animation

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If you're not very familiar with the world of Japanese animation, hearing the word "anime" might make you think of children's cartoons you used to watch on Saturday mornings, like "Pokémon" or "Dragon Ball Z." While these shows fall under the umbrella of anime, they are just the tip of the iceberg.

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one of the topic i want to cover is Is the current minimum wage enough ? I chose this topic because i am a supervisor in my workplace and people at my job constantly complain about there pay . Texas current minimum wage is 7.25 that is not enough to live on it is ridiculous .

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Topic 1: Animation is a medium and not a genre themselves
Why do we limit animation by calling it a genre it limits animation from the many genres it can/ and does have. The reason I choose this is because as someone who wants to be an animatior I don't want people to think that what I create is either an adult cartoon or a family/kid cartoon I want them to be labeled as a slice of life story or horror or the many different genres that we have and claim in live-actions

https://moviebabble.com/2018/06/30/animation-genre-or-medium/

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has leapt the record for best animated opening of all time in a single bound. While watching the movie myself (and its predecessor the day before), I came upon a sudden revelation. is not a kids movie. With broad subjects such as insurance dynamics, extramarital affairs, violent deaths in the hero field, and about a dozen other mature topics, The Incredibles is far too complex to be a mere kids movie. This doesn't mean that kids cannot enjoy it. But it does mean that it's not really targeted to them the same way as Frozen or Minions is. The Incredibles 2 aside, this revelation brought me to the titular question. Is animation a genre of film or a medium of it?

Ground Rules: I will only be discussing classic American 2D animation and modern 3D computer animation. Stop-motion and anime are not being considered in this argument due to their stylistic independence from traditional 2D and 3D animation.

Animation is a Genre

Ask any average film-goer and they will tell you that animation is a genre, kid's stuff. Even the Academy considers animation a genre and not a medium. Animated movies are most often children's movies. They are often used to tell simple stories with a moral and a healthy dose of surreal humor. I will be taking a look at several studios and their hit films to provide evidence for this belief.

Disney's Golden Age: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Disney has dominated the 2D animation arena with relatively few rivals since 1937. Under Walt Disney, Disney's Golden Age delivered hit after hit from 1937-1967. Disney's Golden Age movies in particular cemented the idea that animation is a children's genre.

Take Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) for example. It's a straightforward tale about a princess, an evil step-mother/witch, and a handsome prince charming. It's got catchy music, cute animals with slapstick humor, and a straightforward moral. It is the first cookie baked under the Disney cookie cutter method of moralistic storytelling. All of Disney's subsequent 2D hits follow a similar pattern to this and are aimed at children. Simple settings, simple themes, and broad character archetypes make these films easy for kids to digest. If you're an adult seeking complex and mature story-telling, Classic Disney isn't for you.

This isn't to say that Classic Disney isn't deep or "good", but that it's simplistically so. It takes bold measures to tell easily relatable and explainable themes and ideas. Classic Disney is very smart, and it delivers these simple ideas in mature ways. That's why you won't find many poop jokes in Classic Disney, but will find death and raw emotion.

Dreamworks: Shrek

Speaking of poop jokes... If Disney is your mature young adult, then Dreamworks is your pre-teen that can't stop laughing at the word "balls". It's more mature, but cloaks its maturity in a thick cloud of axe body spray and toilet humor. Take the first and second Shrek films for example. (I don't acknowledge 3 and 4).

Shrek thrives as a film because it flips a big middle finger to the Golden Age Disney formula. It's loud, it's obnoxious, and it lampoons the very story it's telling, but does so masterfully. It doesn't have the grace or charm of a Disney movie, and it is even more outwardly a kids movie because of it. The simple message of beauty being on the inside is told through a cast of immature characters and immature jokes. Though Shrek does have a greater amount of adult humor than any Disney classic, it revels in its lack of "refined" humor.

Shrek is a children's movie because it tells a simple moral in a child friendly manner. And, while it has more adult humor to rope parents in, it also has more immature humor for the kids. So, odds are if the only animated movies you see are Dreamworks movies, then you believe that they are for kids.

Illumination: Minions

If Dreamworks is a pubescent teen, then Illumination is the screaming child in the booth next to you at McDonald's. It's screaming nonsense, crying for everyone's attention, and has no sense of "good behavior". Illumination films are 100% children's films. They are dominated by butt jokes, random noises, and characters that can easily be made into toys.

If any film studio facilitates the idea that animated movies are a genre, it's Illumination.

Animation is a Genre Conclusion

Based on the fact that animated movies all tend to share the same themes and style of storytelling, one could very easily argue that animation is a genre. This argument could even be broken down to encompass different studios as being different sub-genres. However, there are several films and studios that contradict this idea entirely.

Because of the films I am about to discuss below, I do not believe that animation is a genre. While studios like Disney, Dreamworks, and Illumination may almost solely put out children's movies, that is a bigger market indication than it is an artistic one. The fact that children tend to engage more with animated movies does not dictate their role as either a genre or a medium. In my opinion, these animation studios produce films geared towards children because they are more lucrative than an animated film for adults might be due to stigmas around the style of film.

Animation is a Medium

This argument seeks to find films that support the idea of animation being a medium instead of a genre. Not only do this films stray from traditional animated genres and themes, but they either disregard or blur the line between how films are delivered to kids vs. how they are to adults.

Sausage Party

This movie single-handedly turns the "Animation is a Genre" idea on its head. If you think that a film featuring a food orgie is a children's movie, then you and I have severely different views on the world. This is one of the most "definitely not a kids movie" films I have ever seen. Scratch that, it is definitely the most "not a kids movie" animated film I have ever seen. Sure, it features bright anthropomorphic characters similar to those found in "traditional" animated films. However, the delivery, tone, and maturity of the film does not fit into the animated "genre".

Instead of the characters finding a way to make peace with their environment or find beauty within, this film ends with the food learning to overthrow the humans and setting off to destroy the very actors voicing them. This movie is an action-comedy if I were to place it in a genre, but it does not fit the suggested "animation genre" mold.

One could argue that Sausage Party is just an animated anomaly, and there would be truth to that statement. There aren't any other R-rated wide released 3D animated films. Sausage Party does stand on its own in that regard. However, there are two films which break the animated mold by blurring the lines between adult superhero film and kids animated Pixar film.

The Incredibles

The Incredibles is the best Pixar movie. You can make arguments for Toy Story (1,2 or 3), Wall-E, Up, Finding Nemo, or Inside Out, but you're wrong. The Incredibles is Pixar's pièce de résistance. When I was seven years old and The Incredibles came out, it was just a great Pixar superhero movie. As an adult, it is still a great Pixar superhero movie. But, it is also a great film about a blue-collar family struggling with midlife crisis, personal beliefs in the workplace, and the strain of marriage.

The amount of "adult" subjects that the film focuses on outside of the superherodom rivals Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy in both complexity and grace. The film spends so much time focusing on these larger concepts, that the film spends more time delivering its themes to adults than it does spoon-feeding something simpler and more straight forward than a traditional animated movie.

Now, Pixar has a history of this, but its other films aren't as slanted towards adult themes as The Incredibles. So, The Incredibles not only breaks the supposed "genre" of animated movies, but of Pixar's "sub-genre" as well.

Animation is a Medium Part II

Animation is a medium. It has always been a medium, but it has not always been utilized as such. Unfortunately the stigma surrounding the medium is that it is part of the children's genre. However, we are seeing more and more films blur the line between how animation has been used and how it can be used. More and more these lines between mediums and genres are being blurred to deliver more complex and more exciting films.

Take Marvel for example, the first six films started off as cookie cutter superhero stories. These films were good, but not great save The Avengers. But in years since, Marvel has taken the superhero genre and mixed it with that of comedy, heist, thriller, and several other genres. Pixar in particular does this more aggressively with the themes in their movies, mashing child and adult concepts into a widely pleasing movie.

The fact of the matter is that children's movies are sort of a genre on their own, and yes, they are often animated. However, any genre can be animated instead of filmed live action. Animation is not a genre, but rather a medium to channel those genres through.
Thanks for reading! What are your thoughts on Animation as a Medium? Comment down below! If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to MovieBabble via email to stay up to date on the latest content. Join MovieBabble on Patreon so that new content will always be possible. What movie topic should I discuss next? Whether it be old or new, the choice is up to you!

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has leapt the record for best animated opening of all time in a single bound. While watching the movie myself (and its predecessor the day before), I came upon a sudden revelation. is not a kids movie.

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Topic 1 Nuclear Energy has had a dark shadow over it's head for as long as most of us can remember. I will explain why nuclear energy is not bad and can truly help us with the pollution our planet is suffering at our hands. As well help with certain parts of the world.

Jorge Narvaez

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topic3 - Is climate change real and what would or does cause it.
I chose this because its one of the biggest controversial topics right now and there's mainly two sides those who think its a problem and those when think its not.

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The lowdown on the earth’s central environmental threat.

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topic2 - How continued phone usage negatively affects you physically and mentally.
I chose this because it is a huge problem that often goes undetected.

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Technology is inevitable and even critical to our daily lives today and plays a vital role in our mental and physical existence in the world - it's no longer "I think, therefore I am" but is "I digitize, therefore I am". While technology offers a new and unlimited medium for information and knowledge to our children and a border-free means of communication, the negative effects of technology cannot be overstated. Let's see some of the most common dangers of technology use on the physical and mental health, education and social life of children and teenagers.

Physical effects

The negative impacts of technology on the physical health of youngsters is probably the most easily quantifiable of all the negatives of technology. The most commonly touted health effect of technology use has been metabolic diseases caused by sedentary lifestyles fostered by technology use. Sitting with a digital device not only reduces the amount of physical movement required to stay healthy, but also induces snacking more, all of which leads among many illnesses, to obesity. Constant sitting also leads to back and neck problems, which have now been exacerbated by bending into the handheld device all the time, leading to an entirely new disease - Text Neck. Tendonitis in the thumb caused by repeated use of thumbs to push buttons on devices or playing too many games and Carpel Tunnel syndrome are other physical problems that are caused by overuse of the wrist and fingers to type on different devices.

Constant staring at the screen could lead to chronic headaches and poor eyesight; the digital vision syndrome is now a new set of ailments that is becoming prevalent. Loud and incessant music in headphones is likely to cause hearing loss and ringing in the ears. Download Mobicip for free to start managing your child's screen time and keep them within healthy limits.

Using technology too close to bedtime interferes with sleep, both through causing melatonin-seratonin imbalance and by hyperactivating the thought process through sensory overstimulation. Authors of a study found that blue light emitted by various screens seriously disturb the body's natural circadian rhythm, which can lead to insomnia and related mental fog.

Mental health

Technology addiction is a serious mental health problem that is triggered by use/overuse of the digital tools, and this can destroy the child's health and social life, and destroys social and family bonds. Chronic Smartphone Stress is a newly discovered problem of digital usage, wherein constant notifications and interactions with the digital tools is establishing new stress-fear memory pathways in the brain. The part of our brains that normally deal with higher level thinking shuts down under such flight-fight states and costs us brain power and time.

Depression and anxiety has been shown to be directly linked with social network usage. Several systematic reviews showed the link between social networks and depression/anxiety. Children who overuse technology may be more likely to experience mental health issues, including lack of attention, low creativity, delays in language development, delays in social and emotional development, and addiction to these technologies. A study of teenagers aged 15-16 found that those engaging in digital media for longer times had an increased chance of developing symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Social Health

Human beings are social animals and have over millennia, lived in social groups. The social recluse has always been an exception than the norm, until the advent of the Internet and social media, originally intended to bring people together, has physically isolated us from each other. This appears especially true of the young population. A 2017 study of young adults in the age group of 19-32 years found that people with higher social media use were more than three times as likely to feel socially isolated than those who did not use social media as often. "Social networking" is in reality "social isolation".

It has been said that the overuse of technology is depriving our children of social skills. Children prefer to chat on online platforms rather than meet up with a friend in person.. Replacement of real-life interaction with online communication results in the loss in the ability to read cues like facial expressions, body language and tone.

Education

While the unlimited amount of information available online is apparently conducive to education, it has not really advanced the cause of education to any great extent, it seems. The ready availability of information has led to an overuse of technology in the classroom which obviously negatively affects the learning process. Apart from fostering plagiarism and cheating in the classroom, the overuse of technology and the Internet has adversely affected powers of analysis and critical thinking. This is not mere speculation and studies have shown that increased engagement in entertainment technologies like games and social media leads to poorer academic performance.

Safety

Misuse of technology can expose the child to a number of risks. One in three teenagers are victims of cyberbullying. Another risky teenage technology abuse is sexting; 39% of teens admit to have sent sext messages, and almost half of the teenagers have received digital messages containing nudity. The ease of information access has blurred the borders of privacy and personal information can be used by hackers for nefarious purposes, thus putting the child at risk.

How to recognize technology addiction among youngsters?

Teachers and friends complain about tech use of the child

The youngster has neglected relationships in favor of technology, a phenomenon now called phubbing.

There is a fall in grades and performance at school

Changes in sleep, eating and exercise habits

Anxiety and stress for no apparent reason

Frequent headaches, eye strain, muscle pain, or overuse injuries.

The child can't seem to stop fiddling with her digital devices

How to reduce the negative effects of technology use/overuse on children

It is impractical to remove technology from the child's life. Yet, moderation is a must to reduce the negative impact of technology on our children. The American Academy of Pediatrics (APA) recommends the following limits for screen time:

Younger than 18 months

Avoid screen time other than video chatting.

18 to 24 months

Parents and caregivers can offer high-quality programs and watch them with their children.

One hour per day of supervised high-quality programming.

6 years and above

Place consistent limits on time and types of media. Media should not interfere with adequate sleep, exercise, or other behaviors that affect health.

Parents and caregivers can follow the following steps to help children gain benefits from technology without falling into the pitfalls:

Monitoring and controlling tech time and content: A number of parental control tools can be used to impose restrictions of screen time and content on children's gadgets depending on their age. Such applications can be used to set limits for screen time allowed as well as apps and web content to be viewed.

Open communication. It is important to talk to the child about privacy risks and dangers of cyberspace. With rights come responsibilities, and the child must be aware of the consequences of inappropriate behavior and device misuse.

Keeping up with the kid. Digital trends change in the blink of an eye, and it is important for the caregiving adult to be aware of the current digital trends that are popular among youth. This would help in guiding the child and firefighting if need be.

Finding alternatives to technology. Human beings have been entertained long before technology came into being. Introducing traditional non-technology forms of entertainment such as hard paper books, board games and outdoor sport can free some of the time that the child spends on the gadget. Organizing family times free of electronic devices is imperative to build social skills and family bonds.

Some steps that all of us can take to keep ourselves healthy in the digital era are:

Standing and moving: Get up and move around every half an hour to up that blood circulation and give the much needed movement that can prevent back aches and neck pain

Ergonomic seating: Even without ergonomic seats, one can always sit upright so that her back is against an upright backrest and abdominal muscles are engaged. Slouching during use of handheld devices must be avoided.

Hold phone at eye level: Instead of keeping the device such as tablet or mobile phones on the lap, keeping it at eye level can help avoid text neck.

20-20-20 rule: The American Optometric Association recommends taking a 20 second break after every 20 minutes of screen time to look at something 20 feet away to ease eye strain when looking into a glowing screen. The APA also recommends adoption of media-free times, such as dinner time, as well as media-free zones within the home.

Practice digital hygiene: The Junk Sleep movement in Singapore proposed the idea of digital hygiene by encouraging students to turn off their computers at least an hour before they go to sleep in order to allow the brain to shut off and defragment correctly during REM sleep. Switch off all devices at least an hour before shut eye.

As Arthur C. Clarke said, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. It's up to us to stay on the fantastic side of magic without crossing over to the horror.

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Negative Effects of Technology & How To Overcome Them | Mobicip

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Learn about negative effects of technology on the physical, mental, social, & educational wellbeing of individuals. And find out how to reduce these negative impacts of technology.

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Topic 3: Standardized testing
This relates to me because my sister deals with dyslexia and has always struggled with reading. I feel as if these tests are unfair because they determine if one can move on to the next grade when a test should not determine that

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For many teachers, the image of students sitting in silence filling out bubbles, computing mathematical equations, or writing timed essays causes an intensely negative reaction.

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002 and its 2015 update, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), every third through eighth grader in U.S. public schools now takes tests calibrated to state standards, with the aggregate results made public. In a study of the nation's largest urban school districts, students took an average of 112 standardized tests between pre-K and grade 12.

But educators shouldn't give up on traditional classroom tests so quickly. Research has found that tests can be valuable tools to help students learn, if designed and administered with format, timing, and content in mind-and a clear purpose to improve student learning.

Not All Tests Are Bad

But to reduce anxiety and stereotype threat-the fear of conforming to a negative stereotype about a group that one belongs to-retrieval-type practice tests also need to be low-stakes (with minor to no grades) and administered up to three times before a final summative effort to be most effective.

Timing also matters. Students are able to do fine on high-stakes assessment tests if they take them shortly after they study. But a week or more after studying, students retain much less information and will do much worse on major assessments-especially if they've had no practice tests in between.

Short, low-stakes tests also help teachers gauge how well students understand the material and what they need to reteach. This is effective when tests are formative -that is, designed for immediate feedback so that students and teachers can see students' areas of strength and weakness and address areas for growth. Summative tests, such as a final exam that measures how much was learned but offers no opportunities for a student to improve, have been found to be less effective.

Testing Format Matters

Teachers should tread carefully with test design, however, as not all tests help students retain information. Though multiple choice tests are relatively easy to create, they can contain misleading answer choices-that are either ambiguous or vague-or offer the infamous all-, some-, or none-of-the-above choices, which tend to encourage guessing.
©Twenty20/@barbara.chapman06
While educators often rely on open-ended questions, such short-answer questions, because they seem to offer a genuine window into student thinking, research shows that there is no difference between multiple choice and constructed response questions in terms of demonstrating what students have learned.

In the end, well-constructed multiple choice tests, with clear questions and plausible answers (and no all- or none-of-the-above choices), can be a useful way to assess students' understanding of material, particularly if the answers are quickly reviewed by the teacher.

All students do not do equally well on multiple choice tests, however. Girls tend to do less well than boys and perform better on questions with open-ended answers, according to a 2018 study by Stanford University's Sean Reardon, which found that test format alone accounts for 25 percent of the gender difference in performance in both reading and math. Researchers hypothesize that one explanation for the gender difference on high-stakes tests is risk aversion, meaning girls tend to guess less.

Giving more time for fewer, more complex or richer testing questions can also increase performance, in part because it reduces anxiety. Research shows that simply introducing a time limit on a test can cause students to experience stress, so instead of emphasizing speed, teachers should encourage students to think deeply about the problems they're solving.

Setting the Right Testing Conditions

Test achievement often reflects outside conditions, and how students do on tests can be shifted substantially by comments they hear and what they receive as feedback from teachers.

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What Does the Research Say About Testing?

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There's too much testing in schools, most teachers agree, but well-designed classroom tests and quizzes can improve student recall and retention.

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Ngozika Epperson                                                                        Documented effects of the lockdown/social distancing/pandemic restrictions on the psychosocial and language development of young children

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Ngozika Epperson                                                                        Documented effects of the lockdown/social distancing/pandemic restrictions on the psychosocial and language development of young children

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Corona virus came and it was declared a pandemic which prompt many countries to lockdown. This was in a bid to cut down the rate of which the cases were rising, as such, people were encouraged to remain indoors. This greatly affected the young children because they were curtailed from interacting the way children are socializing and also their language development is slowed. This is because children learn language the best when they are with other children.

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If You Want to Buy GameStop Stock for Fun, Here’s Why You Should Think Twice

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If You Want to Buy GameStop Stock for Fun, Here’s Why You Should Think Twice

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i think this is interesting due to all the investments into gamestop recently

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It is tempting to want to get in on the GameStop rally.

The stock rose over 1,600% in January. People are claiming to have become overnight millionaires. For some, there is the bonus incentive that all the craziness seems to be part of a movement to stick it to Wall Street.

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If You Want to Buy GameStop Stock for Fun, Here's Why You Should Think Twice

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It is tempting to want to get in on the GameStop rally. The stock rose over 1,600% in January. People are claiming to have become overnight millionaires. For some, there is the bonus incentive that all the craziness seems to be part of a movement to stick it to Wall Street.

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Topic:2 Biased opinions on getting the covid shot
This topic relates to me because this is a major conflict in a todays society. My family is split between the idea to get or not get the shot so I would like to dig deeper and get more information on the shot.

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Dr. Joshua Liao discusses how people can approach the decision to get vaccinated and avoid some common biases that may distort perceptions of vaccine safety and efficacy.

It is critical to think clearly about risks and benefits when making vaccination decisions.
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Covid-19 vaccines have arrived in the U.S. While this is good news, even safe, efficacious vaccines will underperform their potential if Americans decline them. Unfortunately, there is reason for concern: recent polls suggest that only 29% of people would definitely get a vaccine to prevent Covid-19 if one were available, while 18% would definitely not get one.

For the many other undecided Americans, it is critical to think clearly about risks and benefits when making vaccination decisions. One obvious barrier is rampant vaccine misinformation. But behavioral science highlights another: as humans, we are susceptible to cognitive biases that sometimes help us make decisions under pressure or uncertainty but can also lead us astray toward poor choices in other situations.

Americans should be particularly mindful of two prevalent biases that can distort perceptions about vaccine efficacy and safety.
Availability Bias
This phenomenon describes how people make decisions by placing significance on information that comes to mind most easily. For example, vivid TV coverage of a stock investment may prompt people to buy, despite worrisome but less recallable information in prospectus documents. As another example, news of a recent plane crash may cause a person to drive rather than fly to a destination, despite the proven safety of air travel over car travel.

Even though recalling an event and estimating its risk are not the same, humans tend to blend the two, overestimating the likelihood of events where examples spring easily to mind. This tendency can negatively impact Covid-19 vaccine decisions.

Because common post-vaccination reactions - such as minor, short-lived symptoms like soreness at the injection site - are not very newsworthy, media coverage may skew towards gripping, but rare examples of severe allergic reaction or vaccine mishandling that renders it ineffective. Of course, it is crucial to monitor all issues and adverse events, however uncommon. But prioritizing them in the news cycle may cause Americans to over-inflate vaccine dangers.
Confirmation Bias
This bias describes how people tend to seek out and favor information that supports their prior beliefs or values. For example, if a person already believes that a coworker is upset with her, she may be primed to attribute delayed email replies from that coworker as passive-aggression rather than just being busy - interpreting potentially neutral actions as negative. Similar dynamics can exist when people seek out information about social issues such as gun control or abortion laws.

These and many other examples underscore a two-sided insight: humans often believe things that they want or already believe to be true; and reject things they hope or already believe to be false. One consequence of confirmation bias is that people close themselves off the new information and act in ways that become self-fulfilling prophecies.

In the case of Covid-19, people predisposed to distrust vaccines may be primed for information that confirms that distrust, compared to information that supports vaccine benefits and safety. This type of confirmation bias can have negative ripple effects if it afflicts leaders or citizens in positions of influence.

Translate awareness into a more debiased approach to learning about vaccines.
MediaNews Group via Getty Images

What can Americans do to combat availability and confirmation biases? However obvious, the first step is to recognize that they exist and apply to vaccination decisions. The adage is true here: we can't change what we don't acknowledge.

The next step is to translate that awareness into a more debiased approach to learning about vaccines. For individuals, this might involve diversifying information and news sources. Few things magnify availability and confirmation biases like the echo chambers of filter bubbles - the insulated spheres of information created by ubiquitous personalized searches and news feed algorithms. Information from any one news source can also be checked against resources provided through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Media leaders could directly consider the potential for cognitive bias when selecting stories and inviting guest commentators, asking " which ones will convey an accurate sense of the issues and counteract biases?"not just" which ones will attract the most viewers or readers? " Public health and community leaders could adopt similar perspectives in how they choose how to disseminate information via their networks and platforms.

To be fair, there are no silver bullets in addressing vaccine hesitancy, in part because people may decline vaccination for different reasons. Cognitive biases can also cut both ways. For instance, people already predisposed to believe in vaccines may be more closed off to information that might emerge about dangers. As we gather more information - about things like additional side effects, duration of immunity, and performance among different patient groups - we all must guard against mental blind spots and accurately assess new information about vaccine efficacy and safety.

Nonetheless, available data suggests that we should celebrate the arrival of these first Covid-19 vaccines. Addressing cognitive biases can help Americans weigh vaccination decisions more clearly and give the country the best possible chance of overcoming the pandemic.
Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus
... Read More

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Undecided On Getting A Covid-19 Vaccine? Beware Of These Two Cognitive Biases

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Dr. Joshua Liao discusses how people can approach the decision to get vaccinated and avoid some common biases that may distort perceptions of vaccine safety and efficacy. Covid-19 vaccines have arrived in the U.S. While this is good news, even safe, efficacious vaccines will underperform their potential if Americans decline them.

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topic1 - How all your actions on your device are tracked and converted to keep you interesting in your phone.
I think this topic is important because it involves almost everyone and it can be dangerous and negatively affect your health

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Gillian Cleary Senior Software Engineer

The average smartphone user these days has between 60 and 90 apps on their device. Most of these apps request some sort of information about you and the device you are using. They may want to know your name, your email address, or your real-world address. But because smartphones are so powerful, they can also get quite a bit more than that, such as your exact location. Some apps will even request access to the device's camera or microphone.

"We tested the top 100 free #Android and #iOS apps. Here's what we found. https://symc.ly/2MpMeXB"

Neither practice is inherently suspicious. In most cases, information is shared and device permissions are enabled with the user's consent. And there is usually a very good reason why apps require either. For example, a taxi app will need to be able to access a user's location in order to tell the driver where to go. Instead, we were more interested in whether any apps were requesting excessive access to information or if app developers were doing everything they could to protect users' privacy.

Personal information

Ultimately, it may be up to the user to ask if these additional features are essential to the function of the app and if it's worth granting permissions for features that only provide marginal benefits.

Do these apps really need all of these permissions? In each case, there were features in the app which made use of the permission. For example, Brightest Flashlight LED offers the user extensive customization options and the ability to make it flash in different ways when the user receives incoming calls or texts. In order to do that, it would need access to calls and messages.

Are some app developers adding features simply to gain access to permissions? It's a possibility, but something we can't provide a definitive answer to. Ultimately, it may be up to the user to ask if these additional features are essential to the function of the app and if it's worth granting permissions for features that only provide marginal benefits.

Lax security practices

Worryingly, a small number of the apps we examined employed very poor security and privacy practices. Four percent of the Android apps and 3 percent of the iOS apps requesting risky permissions didn't have any privacy policy. Ideally, every app should have a privacy policy which states clearly what data is being collected, where it is being stored, who it is being shared with, and so on.

Meanwhile, only a minority of apps implement certificate pinning at login: 8 percent of Android apps and 11 percent of iOS apps. What is certificate pinning? It's a security precaution that helps prevent attackers intercepting supposedly secure communications. It does this by ensuring the app only communicates with a server using the correct security certificate.

However, there are differing opinions about certificate pinning. For example, Apple says it doesn't recommend that apps do their own certificate pinning, as it's an approach that can lead to overall fragility and problems in enterprise environments.

Bamboozled by privacy policies

Even when apps do have privacy policies, users can still find it difficult to keep track of what they are consenting to. While each app has its own set of permissions and privacy policies, there are several complicating factors.

While some apps are self-contained, there are many that require additional apps or links to third party websites to function correctly (e.g. display advertising) or provide additional functionality, such as installing themes or providing additional levels in games. Some of these may be third-party apps.

Each additional app may have its own privacy policy (or none) and the user cannot assume the top-level app's privacy policy covers subsequent app downloads.

However, most apps will disclaim any responsibility for use of the data by third parties.

In short, while you may be sure of your ground when it comes to a single app with a single privacy policy, once additional apps are plugged into it, the picture becomes increasingly complex, particularly when it comes to third-party apps.

Is this something to be concerned about? A significant number of apps that request risky permissions are tied to third-party apps. Of the Android apps that require risky permissions, 40 percent have links to third-party apps. Either normal app functionality is interrupted with advertisements or there were links to third-party apps for normal functionality (for example purchase links to seller sites). Meanwhile, 16 percent of the iOS apps that require risky permissions have links to third-party apps.

Guarding your privacy

How to avoid granting excessive permissions

Before you install an app:

Read the permissions required for the app.

Think about why an app needs the permissions it requests. If the permissions seem excessive, ask yourself if it's likely they are there simply to acquire data about you.

Read the privacy policy. If there's none, or if it's impossible to determine from it where your data will go, don't install the app.

If you have already installed the app:

In the case of Android apps, you can remove unnecessary permissions by going to the Settings menu and then clicking on Permissions. Removing permissions may cause a poorly designed app to stop working. Well-designed apps will indicate if they need a permission when you attempt to perform the function that requires it.

In the case of iOS apps, you can remove unnecessary permissions by going to the Settings menu and then clicking on Privacy.

How to protect your personal information

Read the privacy policy on each social networking site and app you use.

Ideally, don't sign into an app using your social networking site account. If you do, check what data the app will receive from the social network account.

If you do sign into apps using your social network account, be frugal about how much information you provide in your public profile on social networking sites.

When you post data to a social networking site from an app, think about whether you want the social networking site to have this information about your app.

How to check what apps are using data from your Facebook account

Go to the small down-arrow at the top right of the homepage and select Settings.

Select "Apps & Websites in the menu on the left to discover what apps are actively using your data.

Select each app to view and edit the permissions on the data it uses.

How to check what apps are using data from your Google account

You can also review and edit which apps are using Google for sign in and what information is being shared with them.

One of the first things we looked at was the amount of personally identifiable information (PII) that apps requested users share with them. Email addresses were the most common piece of PII shared with apps and were shared with 48 percent of the iOS apps and 44 percent of the Android apps analyzed. The next most common piece of PII was the username (which is usually someone's full name as they've entered it on social networking sites or on the app), which was shared with 33 percent of iOS apps and 30 percent of Android apps. Phone numbers, meanwhile, were shared with 12 percent of iOS apps and 9 percent of Android apps. Finally, the user's address was shared with 4 percent of iOS apps and 5 percent of Android apps.

However, these stats don't fully account for the full amount of PII being shared with apps.

Several apps integrate with social media so that the user can log into the app using their social media account and allow the app to post directly to the social networking site. For the user, this means they don't need to manage passwords for every app, can invite friends to play mobile games, and share app info on their timeline.

But this symbiotic relationship also allows the app to collect user data from the social media account, while also allowing the social media service to collect data from the app. In the case of iOS apps using social media integration, we were able to see what PII was being shared. However, in the case of Android apps, we weren't. This was because the apps in question all employed Facebook's widely used Graph application programming interface (API) and the Android version of Graph uses certificate pinning, which prevented us from seeing what PII was being shared (we'll discuss certificate pinning in more detail later).

Therefore, when we say that email addresses are shared with 44 percent of the Android apps, that figure could be higher because some Android apps use the Facebook Graph API and this may share an email address with them too.

Facebook Graph may be familiar to some people because it was used by Cambridge Analytica to compile personal information relating to 87 million Facebook users. This information was reportedly then used in targeted social media campaigns directed at voters during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. Facebook responded to this incident by significantly tightening up its API and restricting the amount of personal information that can be shared through it.

While Facebook Graph may be the best-known integration service, it isn't the most widely used. Of the apps we analyzed, 47 percent of Android apps and 29 percent of iOS apps offered the Google integration service, while 41 percent of Android apps and 26 percent of iOS apps offered the Facebook Graph API service.

Some permissions are more risky than others

Aside from personal information, apps will also need permission to access various features on your mobile device. For example, if you want to take a picture using Instagram, the app will need permission to use your device's camera.

There is a massive amount of permissions an app could request, but not all permissions are the same. For that reason, we took a closer look at what we term "risky permissions" - permissions that could provide access to data or resources that involve the user's private information or could potentially affect the user's stored data or the operation of other apps. Examples of risky permissions include access to the user's location, contacts, SMS messages, phone logs, camera, or calendar.

What did we find? Camera access was the most requested common risky permission, with 46 percent of Android apps and 25 percent of iOS apps seeking it. That was closely followed by location tracking, which was sought by 45 percent of Android apps and 25 percent of iOS apps. Twenty five percent of Android apps requested permission to record audio, while 9 percent of iOS apps did. Finally, 15 percent of Android apps sought permission to read SMS messages and 10 percent sought access to phone call logs. Neither of these permissions are available in iOS.

Two things should be stressed when talking about risky permissions. Firstly, they require the user's permission to access this data. And secondly, just because we've called them risky permissions doesn't mean they shouldn't be granted. As explained before, there's usually a reason they're required. Instead, they should be seen as permissions the user should exercise more caution about granting, asking themselves if the app really does need this permission and if they're comfortable granting it to this particular app. For example, do you really want to give an app access to your calls and text messages simply to provide personalized alerts?

Interestingly, in cases where we were analyzing both the Android and iOS versions of apps, some Android apps requested more risky permissions than their iOS counterparts. Seven Android apps requested access to SMS messages, while their iOS versions did not. One Android app requested access to phone call logs, while its iOS version did not. While neither permission is available in iOS, it does beg the question of why these permissions were requested in the Android version while the iOS version can do without them.

Are all permissions necessary?

Do some apps request too many permissions? We took a closer look at several that seemed to request a lot. The first was the Android horoscope app " Zodiac Signs 101 - 12 Zodiac Signs & Astrology", which has been downloaded more than 1 million times. Among the permissions it sought were:

Precise user location

Access to user's contacts

Send and receive SMS messages

Receive MMS messages

Permission to directly call phone numbers

Permission to reroute outgoing calls

Access to phone call logs

Access to camera

Read/write contents of USB storage

Read phone status and identity

The second example we looked at was the Android flashlight app " Brightest Flashlight LED - Super Bright Torch", which has 10 million installs. Included in the list of permissions it sought were:

Precise user location

Access to user's contacts

Send SMS messages

Permission to directly call phone numbers

Permission to reroute outgoing calls

Access to camera

Record audio via microphone

Read/write contents of USB storage

Read phone status and identity

While all of this is done with the user's consent, you may be surprised at the level of access some apps have to personal data. Did you know that 45 percent of the most popular Android apps and 25 percent of the most popular iOS apps request location tracking, for example? Or that 46 percent of popular Android apps and 25 percent of popular iOS apps request permission to access your device's camera? Some Android apps even ask you to give them access to your SMS messages and phone call logs.

Under the microscope

In order to find out what kind of data your apps may be looking for, we decided to put the most popular to the test. We downloaded and analyzed the top 100 free apps as listed on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store on May 3, 2018. For each app, we tried to find out two main things: how much personal information was the user sharing with the app and which smartphone features the app accessed?

About the Author

Gillian Cleary

Senior Software Engineer

Gillian is a software engineer working for Symantec's Security Technology and Response (STAR) team. She analyses emerging threat trends and develops tools for use within the department.

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Mobile Privacy: What Do Your Apps Know About You?

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Gillian Cleary Senior Software Engineer The average smartphone user these days has between 60 and 90 apps on their device. Most of these apps request some sort of information about you and the device you are using. They may want to know your name, your email address, or your real-world address.

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i liked this topic because our whole generation was super into the conspiracy of what was happening in her life. and this gives us a little info of what shes been doing

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Britney Spears is making progress in her legal efforts to unwind a 13-year conservatorship that has ruled her life and her finances. The effort accelerated recently when her father, James Spears, moved in a new court filing to end the court conservatorship, according to court documents recently filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The development came after the 39-year-old star asked Judge Brenda Penny, presiding over the case, to remove Mr. Spears, calling the conservatorship "abusive." The next hearing arrives Sept. 29.

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Britney Spears's Conservatorship, Jamie Spears and #FreeBritney: What We Know

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Britney Spears is making progress in her legal efforts to unwind a 13-year conservatorship that has ruled her life and her finances. The effort accelerated recently when her father, James Spears, moved in a new court filing to end the court conservatorship, according to court documents recently filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

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How social media affects todays generation 

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How social media affects todays generation 

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Dacoda Jones
Topic 1: This topic relates to me because I feel as if allot of younger men/womens self concept and self esteem are affected by social media. This interests me because I would like to dig deeper and figure out what triggers this and why our generation is becoming this way.

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"Look," says Sasha, a 16-year-old junior in high school, scrolling slowly through her Instagram feed. "See: pretty coffee, pretty girl, cute cat, beach trip. It's all like that. Everyone looks like they're having the best day ever, all the time."

Magazines and advertising have long been criticized for upholding dangerously unrealistic standards of success and beauty, but at least it's acknowledged that they are idealized. The models wearing Size 0 clothing are just that: models. And even they are made-up, retouched, and photoshopped.

These days, however, the impossible standards are set much closer to home, not by celebrities and models but by classmates and friends. With social media, teens can curate their lives, and the resulting feeds read like highlight reels, showing only the best and most enviable moments while concealing efforts, struggles, and the merely ordinary aspects of day-to-day life. And there's evidence that those images are causing distress for many kids.

Donna Wick, EdD, founder of Mind-to-Mind Parenting, says that for teenagers the combined weight of vulnerability, the need for validation, and a desire to compare themselves with peers forms what she describes as a "perfect storm of self-doubt." She's so thin. Her grades are perfect. What a happy couple. I'll never be that cool, that skinny, that lucky, that successful.

Sometimes, says Sasha, looking at friends' feeds "makes you feel like everyone has it together but you."

The fallout from these unrealistic standards becomes more dangerous once kids reach college, where they face higher stakes, harder work, and a largely parent-free environment. The pressure to look perfect to impress new peers, not to speak of friends and family back home, can be even greater.

After a recent spate of college suicides, researchers at Stanford University coined the phrase "duck syndrome." The term refers to the way a duck appears to glide effortlessly across a pond while below the surface its feet work frantically, invisibly struggling to stay afloat.

Several students who have died had projected a perfect image on social media-their feeds packed with inspirational quotes and filtered images showing attractive, happy kids who seemed to excel with minimal effort. But behind the digital curtain they were struggling emotionally.

For kids experiencing anxiety or depression, carefully edited feeds can act as a smoke screen, masking serious issues behind pretend perfection and making it harder for parents or friends to see that they need help.

"It's important to remember that just posting edited pictures online or pretending your life is a little more glamorous than it is is not in itself a problem," says Jill Emanuele, PhD, Senior Director of the Mood Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute. "Social media alone is unlikely to be at the heart of the issue, but it can make a difficult situation even harder."

Teens who have created idealized online personas may feel frustrated and depressed at the gap between who they pretend to be online and who they truly are.

"If you practice being a false self eight hours a day, it gets harder to accept the less-than-perfect being you really are," says Dr. Wick, "and as we all know there's no harsher judge of a kid than herself."

Another, more prevalent problem, says Dr. Emanuele, is that for some teens their social feeds can become fuel for negative feelings they have about themselves. Kids struggling with self-doubt read into their friends' images what they feel they are lacking.

"Kids view social media through the lens of their own lives," says Dr. Emanuele. "If they're struggling to stay on top of things or suffering from low self-esteem, they're more likely to interpret images of peers having fun as confirmation that they're doing badly compared to their friends."

Sasha and her friend Jacob, 15, agree that constant exposure to social media has had an impact on how they view their peers and themselves. "It's like you know it isn't making you happy," says Jacob of the pictures his friends post on Instagram. "But you still look."

Even the knowledge that these images mask serious problems doesn't seem to alleviate the pressure they cause.

"I knew a girl who had an eating disorder. We all knew it. It got so bad that she ended up going to a treatment center, but when she put pictures up of herself on the beach looking super-thin everyone liked them anyway," says Sasha.

Logically, she says, she knew the pictures weren't current and the girl was very ill, but that didn't stop her from feeling a twinge of jealousy. "I remember thinking 'I wish I looked like that' and then being horrified at myself."

Sasha also acknowledges the trouble of "liking" images that in this case provided dangerous validation. "It's like we were saying, 'Good job.' "

What can parents do to help kids build a safe and reasonable relationship with social media before they're out on their own?

Dr. Wick says keeping teens from falling into the social media trap is more complicated than it sounds. "It's not about taking the phone away or having a single conversation." She says, "Parents need to be diligent about making sure kids are getting a dose of reality and need to model healthy behaviors."

Take social media seriously. Don't underestimate the role social media plays in the lives of teenagers, warns Dr. Wick. "The power of a visual image is so strong. It's disorienting." Many teens, she says, never knew a world where social media didn't exist, and for them the things that happen online-slights, break-ups, likes, or negative comments-are very real. When you talk about social media make sure you're really listening and be careful not to dismiss or minimize your teen's experiences.

Encourage them to think outside the (crop) box. When you talk to your child about social media, encourage her to explore it in a more critical way. A great way to start is to try asking her what she thinks has been cropped or edited out of her friends' "perfect" pictures and why. That can lead to larger questions. Do you think your friends are really the people they appear to be online? Are you? What's the purpose of posting a photo? What is it about getting "likes" that feels good? Does looking at social media affect your mood?

Model a healthy response to failure. "Kids have to get the message that it is okay to fail," says Dr. Wick. "And not only that it's okay to fail, but that showing it is okay, too." If parents hide their own failures, kids are less likely to be okay with anything less than success. "When things don't work out as you'd planned or a project goes awry, show your child how to accept it with grace," she adds. "Let kids know that failure is part of how we learn to succeed, that it's nothing to be ashamed of and let them see you pick yourself up and try again."

Praise (and show) effort. "Effort is something to be proud of," says Dr. Wick. "It can't be said enough." Parents should let kids know that showing their work is something to be praised, not hidden. When your child has worked hard on something, praise her efforts no matter what the outcome. It's also helpful to examine how comfortable you are showing your own efforts, especially those that don't end in success. Being proud and open about your own work sets a powerful example for your child.

Go on a "social holiday." If you're worried that your child is getting too wrapped up in social media, try taking a social holiday. "This means everyone," says Dr. Wick. If you're asking your child to take a break, practice what you preach and pledge to stay off media as well. It can be every bit as hard for parents to unplug as kids."

Trust people, not pictures. Finally, don't rely on social media to let you know how your child is really doing. She may post smiling selfies all day long, but if she seems unhappy or sounds unhappy on the phone, don't let it go. Make sure she knows it's safe to talk to you by encouraging her to share her feelings and supporting her when she does. Reassure her that you're not disappointed, and let her know you're proud of her for reaching out. "I'm so glad you called. It sounds like you're feeling really overwhelmed, I'm here and I love you. Let's talk this through together."

In the end, as a parent you want your child to be happy and successful. But making sure she knows you love her and you're proud of her as she is-unfiltered, unedited, imperfect-will help her build confidence she needs to accept herself and stay safe and healthy when she's out on her own.

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Social Media and Self-Doubt - Child Mind Institute

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Read about social media and self esteem in kids. CMI discusses how social media can make teens self-conscious and insecure, and how to protect your kids from harm.

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I think this is interesting because we don't really think about all of the different affects 9/11 truly had on everything

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Sept. 11, 2001, fell on a Tuesday, so, as with every Tuesday between 1989 and 2015, it was the day new albums hit stores in the U.S. Big records often drop in early fall and 9/11 saw the release of "The Blueprint," by Brooklyn-raised rapper Jay-Z, who had recently come into his own as one of the biggest hitmakers in hip-hop, and the vinyl edition of "Is This It," an album by up-and-coming New York indie-rock band the Strokes, which was already making waves in the U.K.

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Sept. 11, 2001, fell on a Tuesday, so, as with every Tuesday between 1989 and 2015, it was the day new albums hit stores in the U.S.

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Teacher shortage in Texas

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Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
Toward the end of the last school year, Tomas Garcia made the difficult but, in his mind, right decision to leave teaching after 15 years.

Like countless other educators, Garcia has loved the profession since he began teaching in Mexico back in the early 1980s. He came to the United States in the late '80s and worked odd jobs before deciding to return to the classroom. Garcia was a second grade bilingual teacher at Rucker Elementary in Houston Independent School District. He did a little bit of everything from teaching Spanish to social studies to math.

For him, there was nothing better than seeing a child's face after they solved a hard math problem. Those were the kind of interactions that drove Garcia back to the classroom day after day, year after year.

But that love eroded over the past year, as the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on both his physical and mental health. He didn't feel safe or appreciated anymore. And eventually, it boiled down to a life-or-death decision for him. He contracted COVID in September 2020 and while he didn't need to be hospitalized for the virus that has killed more than 57,000 Texans, he feared for his life.

"Even though it was going to be hard, I decided to preserve my life, then go back," Garcia said. "You need to start caring about yourself and that's what I decided to do."

Garcia finished out the school year then left his job this past spring, contributing to what many school administrators call a teacher shortage. The jobs are there, but not enough teachers, administrators say. There is a specific need for more bilingual, special education and STEM teachers.

It's a problem that has troubled school administrators for years, but the pandemic has exacerbated it. Teachers report being spread thin by the demands of remote learning and exhausted by the constant health concerns. The shortage has spilled over to substitute teachers; officials say most substitutes tend to be retired teachers and many don't want to come back to classrooms during this stage of the pandemic.

In Houston ISD, the state's largest district, there were more than 700 open positions at one point during the summer, an unusual amount. Houston school officials attribute the high number to the pandemic, pay and family issues.

The district has been able to slash the number of vacancies to a little over 300, still an unusually high number. In previous years, the school district started the year with fewer than 100 open spots. Overall, the district employs about 11,200 teachers.

In Killeen Independent School District, there are 270 teaching positions open, again an unusual amount. The district employs about 3,000 teachers. Killeen ISD school officials attribute the loss of teachers to the pandemic.

Waco Independent School District at one point had about 200 vacancies but was able to fill those up quickly. The district employs about 1,000 teachers. Because of the current shortage, Josie Gutierrez, Waco ISD's deputy superintendent, said Waco will not offer virtual learning even if Gov. Greg Abbott signs the bill passed by the Legislature last month that would fund it because there aren't enough teachers to go around.

"We were having a hard enough time staffing regular staff," Gutierrez said. "It's great to have the option but I'm not sure it's really an option at this point."

According to a survey conducted by Frontline Education, an education software company, there are three big reasons for a nationwide teacher shortage: There is a lack of fully qualified applicants, salary and benefits fall short of other careers and there are fewer new education school graduates.

Districts have said that universities aren't pumping out the number of teachers required to fill positions, making the market more competitive.

Since 2014, Texas has seen about a 27% decrease in the number of newly certified teachers, according to the Texas Education Agency data.

The immediate problem with fewer teachers is that classrooms become bigger, and experts agree the best way to learn is in smaller classrooms.

Robin Jocius, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington's College of Education, said that there needs to be a better support system and mentorship opportunities in school districts to help with teacher retention.

One option to help retain teachers would be to introduce a residency program, similar to those at medical schools, said Andrea Chevalier, lobbyist with the Association of Texas Professional Educators. This would give young teachers the opportunity to learn from a seasoned veteran and not just be thrown into the deep end.

In 2019, Texas lawmakers mandated raises for teachers in a $11.6 billion overhaul of public school finance. The bill also included a merit raise system aimed to help rural and high-need school districts attract talent. In rare cases, the program rewards Texas' highest-rated educators with hefty pay raises that could balloon to a six-figure salary.

Waco ISD has added teacher retention pay where teachers could earn an extra $10,000 over three years. The district also increased base pay to over $50,000. Houston ISD has expanded its recruitment nationally, and Killeen ISD increased pay to about $52,000. Waco will fund its bonus pay through its federal relief dollars.

Districts are hopeful these strategies work as the COVID-19 situation in schools seemingly continues to worsen.

As of Aug. 29, there had been nearly 52,000 positive COVID-19 cases reported among students and 13,026 among staff since the school year began. That's about 1% of the 5.3 million students enrolled in the state as of January.

From Aug. 23-29, there were 27,353 new positive COVID-19 cases among students in Texas public schools, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, making it the biggest one-week increase in the entire pandemic.

At least 45 small school districts across Texas have been forced to temporarily stop in-person classes because of COVID. The never-ending fear of teachers dying from COVID-19 has become a reality at some Texas schools.

On top of that, teachers have experienced burnout over the last year when combining the stress of the pandemic, teaching both online and in-person classes and an increasing workload. Garcia said he was working 16-hour shifts in some instances over the past year.

"[Teachers are] reaching that point where kind of the benefit isn't worth the risk anymore," said Chevalier, the teachers' lobbyist.

Chevalier said deteriorating mental health isn't a point of conversation when talking about teachers and the pandemic. In several surveys given to ATPE members, the organization found that teachers have been put through tough situations, such as being responsible for the health and safety of kids, the politics around mask-wearing and then dealing with parents who harass teachers for policies out of their control.

Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT, said teachers right now are in the middle of a "war zone" as parents, the state and administrators debate masks and vaccines. While those in power mull their differences, teachers are the front line to maintain whatever policy arises, which creates tension among themselves and the community.

Capo said what's happening now is a culmination of a challenge that existed even before the global pandemic: Teachers are asked to do too much all the time to the point that they must sacrifice their well-being.

"We've got to change this savior mindset," Capo said.

For things to get better for teachers, two important things need to happen: The pathway to teacher certification needs to be made easier and pay needs to be increased, Capo said.

In many cases, teachers that teach STEM usually will leave districts to go into a job in their respective field because the pay and the treatment is much better, Capo said.

Brennan Cruser, a former Austin ISD teacher, left her teaching position in July after 17 years in the district and a total of 20 years in the field. For her, the pandemic highlighted what has been wrong with teaching for a long time. Teachers are overworked, underpaid and treated poorly.

During last year's shutdown, when it became clear that schools and teachers provided crucial services to students and their families, Cruser thought it would be different.

"Instead of being held up as like this amazing asset that we have as a community, teachers were told that they were selfish because they were concerned about their own safety," Cruser said.
Disclosure: Association of Texas Professional Educators, Texas AFT and University of Texas - Arlington have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Join us Sept. 20-25 at the 2021 Texas Tribune Festival. Tickets are on sale now for this multi-day celebration of big, bold ideas about politics, public policy and the day's news, curated by The Texas Tribune's award-winning journalists. Learn more.

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The pandemic's toll on educators has made Texas' teacher shortage worse

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Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Toward the end of the last school year, Tomas Garcia made the difficult but, in his mind, right decision to leave teaching after 15 years.

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Topic 3- Stupidity in all forms

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'Stupidity," Jean Cocteau remarked, "is always amazing, no matter how used to it you become."

We live in a golden age of stupidity. It is everywhere. President Biden's conduct of the withdrawal from Afghanistan will be remembered as a defining stupidity of our time-one of many. The refusal of tens of millions of people to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus will be analyzed as a textbook case of stupidity en masse. Stupid is as stupid does, or, in the case of vaccination, as it doesn't do. Stupidity and irresponsibility are evil twins.

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Opinion | You Are Living in the Golden Age of Stupidity

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'Stupidity," Jean Cocteau remarked, "is always amazing, no matter how used to it you become." We live in a golden age of stupidity. It is everywhere. President Biden's conduct of the withdrawal from Afghanistan will be remembered as a defining stupidity of our time-one of many.

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Topic 2- The affects the Cuban protest are having in the American government.

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The historic wave of protests in Cuba last month against the communist regime has triggered a political battle in Florida to define the Biden administration's response, with Democrats hoping to avoid further losses among Latino voters in the electorally crucial state.

Thousands of people poured into Cuba's streets last month to protest deteriorating living conditions, and the government responded by cracking down, deploying security forces who arrested and attacked the protesters. So far, police have arrested about 770 people, of whom 555 are still detained, according to Cubalex, a human-rights group. Many have undergone summary trials on charges such as public disorder and have been sentenced to prison terms of up to a year. A number of those sentenced have been allowed to serve their terms under house arrest.

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Cuba Protests Spark Midterm Election Maneuvering in Florida

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The historic wave of protests in Cuba last month against the communist regime has triggered a political battle in Florida to define the Biden administration's response, with Democrats hoping to avoid further losses among Latino voters in the electorally crucial state.

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Topic 1- Covid19 impacts on hospital staff shortages and how that is affecting patient care.

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Soaring Covid-19 caseloads are endangering patients who need urgent medical care at some overwhelmed hospitals, according to doctors, nurses and industry executives in states where the virus has filled beds at or near record numbers.

The overwhelmed hospitals don't always have the staff or capacity to provide immediate treatment for emergencies from Covid-19 to gallbladder removal, the people said.

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Hospitals Swamped With Delta Cases Struggle to Care for Critical Patients

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Soaring Covid-19 caseloads are endangering patients who need urgent medical care at some overwhelmed hospitals, according to doctors, nurses and industry executives in states where the virus has filled beds at or near record numbers. The overwhelmed hospitals don't always have the staff or capacity to provide immediate treatment for emergencies from Covid-19 to gallbladder removal, the people said.

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why workout out is crucial for young adults.

This relates to me because i am a young adult and i know some parents that continue to workout and some who don’t. The adults that workout look so much more happy and more engaged with life. Meanwhile the adults who aren’t active look dull and may have other issues.
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a31676718/benefits-of-exercise-as-young-adults/

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According to a recent study, if you were active as a teenager, you are more likely to have those habits stick with you for life.

Those who had consistent exercise habits as teens performed much better on strength and endurance tests-and were generally healthier-compared to those who didn't exercise much in adolescence.

While previous research has noted the benefits of establishing good exercise habits at an early age, a new study reinforces that if you were active as a teenager-hello, high school track and cross country!-that behavior could stick with you for life.

Presented recently at the Association of Academic Physiatrists annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, the study collected exercise habits from 413 people aged 25 to 65 in Taiwan. Participants shared details on their exercise habits as teens and throughout their adult life, including information on exercise intensity, frequency, type of exercise, and total exercise amount.

Researchers also tested participants' cardiopulmonary function, muscle strength, and muscle endurance with a six-minute walking test and two short sessions of sit-ups.

They found that those who had consistent exercise habits as teens performed much better on the strength, endurance, and function tests compared to those who didn't exercise much in adolescence.

Given previous research showing associations between exercising as an adolescent and seeing benefits later in life, these results are not surprising, according to Cordelia Carter, M.D., who specializes in sports orthopedic surgery at NYU Langone Health in New York. Although she wasn't part of the recent study, she told Runner's World this research is important for highlighting the importance of physical activity -at any age.

"For kids, exercise helps their bone health tremendously, because you build bone by loading it, and that happens with resistance, like running," she said. "Activity also helps with cardiovascular health, and for kids that are less active, we unfortunately see that they're more prone to metabolic diseases [like diabetes]. Exercise even helps with emotional and cognitive health, and studies have indicated that kids who are physically active score higher on standardized tests."
[Blast through a series of HIIT sessions to boost running strength and prevent injury with the .]
Diversity of movement is especially crucial, she added. When kids specialize too much-playing one sport and training for it year-round, for example-there's a higher risk of overuse injury, not to mention a bigger chance of getting bored. That's true for adults as well as children and teens, she added.

"Doing an activity that's fun is part of creating a healthy habit, and that establishes behavior patterns that carry into the long term," Carter said. "The best part is that you can start those habits at any age, and tap into all those physical and mental health benefits."

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

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Active as a Teen? Your Overall Fitness Might Be Better Than the Average Person

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According to a recent study, if you were active as a teenager, you are more likely to have those habits stick with you for life. Those who had consistent exercise habits as teens performed much better on strength and endurance tests-and were generally healthier-compared to those who didn't exercise much in adolescence.

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how the specific app tik tok is horrible for the people not creating videos and how it’s going to affect us.

http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd26/3/kugo26047.html

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effects of breeding bucks to grow big and unnatural racks.

http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd26/3/kugo26047.html

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D R Kugonza*, **, K J Stalder** and M F Rothschild**

* Department of Agricultural Production, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES), Makerere University,
PO Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
donkugonza@agric.mak.ac.ug
** Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA

Abstract

This study on the effects of paternal and maternal goat size on kid growth and survival was conducted by grouping bucks and does into big/elite and small/control categories and mating between the sub-groups to create four progeny groups whose body weight and mortality rate were assessed for fixed and variable effects at birth, 10, 20, and 30 weeks of age.

Big sized bucks and does had progeny that were heavier than those of small sized parents at all ages except at birth. The mean body weight of the progeny at 30 weeks was 15.1±0.6 kg for elite bucks and 13.2±0.8 kg for control bucks. Due to sexual dimorphism, male progeny were heavier than their female counterparts at birth, 20 weeks and at 30 weeks. Birth type had the most profound effect on both live weight and survival of goats. Single kids weighed 2.2 ± 0.05 kg at birth compared to 2.0± 0.03 kg for twins, and the margin of superiority widened to 3.5 kg at 30 weeks. Over 85% of the kids that died between birth and 30 weeks were born as a twin which effectively negated the advantage that is normally thought of for twinning in such a goat flock.

It is concluded that paternal and maternal size influences the weight of progeny at birth and through to maturity. Birth type and sex of kids also have profound effects on kid weight as well as on survival. However, the advantage of elite parentage appears to get diminished unless diet improvements are incorporated. In general, using elite bucks does have potential financial benefits for Mubende goat farmers.
Key words: goats, maternal effect, Mubende breed, selection, sire effect

Introduction

Livestock production is increasingly being driven by a shift in diet and increased food consumption of livestock products (FAO 2013). Over the past few decades, most of this shift has been observed in developing countries (Mugisha et al 2009). Goats, by their nature, continue to be of potential in many areas but are usually not targeted by livestock research for development. Small ruminants, like goats, should be the animals considered for small farms in developing countries due to their small size, ease to be fed, housed and treated when sick. Their small size also makes it easier for households to slaughter and consume piece meal without worry for prolonged meat preservation as is the case for bigger livestock species.

In 2010, out of the world's two billion sheep and goats, over one third was in Africa and one half in Asia (FAO 2013). Despite these population statistics, the actual consumption of meat in the developing world is still very low and the predicted livestock revolution (Delgado et al 1999) may not materialize at the level predicted due in part to the private sector not supporting the opportunity to increase livestock production. To meet the continuously increasing demand for both milk and meat in the developing countries, improvement in livestock productivity is still very much needed. Such improvements could be realized through a combination of improved husbandry and careful utilization of the existing livestock genotypes (Philipsson et al 2006), including both selection within breeds and orderly/planned crossbreeding. Selection only works where there is variation, and the wider the variation, then the more likely that selection will succeed.

Phenotypic variation in a population is a result of a number of factors such as the individuals' genotype, environment, or an interaction between the two (Plomin et al 1977). The environment may influence an individual's phenotype directly or through environmental effects associated with its mother (Rossiter 1996). These environmental effects on the offspring are a result of the dam's genotype for traits like milk production, and are usually as a result of the environment experienced by the dam (Freeman et al 2013). Among other effects, maternal nutrition plays a critical role in foetal growth and development in most livestock species (Wu et al 2004). This study was conceived, after observing that among the Mubende goats (Photos 1 and 2), a wide variation in weight/size exists between goats of the same age and that there is a financial advantage to smallholders in rearing bigger goats. This means if big bucks and does could produce faster growing progeny than their smaller counterparts, it would make economic sense for farmers to invest in bigger bucks and/or bigger does. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine the effect of paternal and maternal body size of Mubende goats on growth and survival of their progeny.

Materials and Methods

Study site

The experiment was conducted at the Makerere University farm (0 o 28'N, 32 o 37'E ), located 20 km north of Kampala City in Uganda, at an altitude of 1250 m at the highest point and 1185 m in the valley bottoms. The annual rainfall is about 1300 mm for an average of 150 rain days. The wet season includes a broad peak in March to May and a narrow peak in October to November; the wettest months being April (+200 mm) and November (+180 mm).

Photo 1: A flock of Mubende goats outside their night housing
(D R Kugonza)

Photo 2: A big Mubende buck
(D R Kugonza)

Experimental Animals

Sixty does and six bucks were selected from a goat flock of 100 goats, excluding pregnant, lactating and goats with compromised health. Using chest girth and live body weight, the goats were grouped into big size (elite) and small size (control) (Table 1). Three elite bucks were mated to 15 elite does and 15 control does, while three control bucks were mated to 15 elite does and 15 control does. The mean chest girth of the does at mating was 78.4 ± 0.7 cm (elite does) and 72.2 ± 0.6 cm (control does); while the live weights were 35.9 ± 0.6 kg (elite does) and 28.4 ± 0.4 kg (control does). For the bucks, the mean chest girth at mating was 81.4 ± 0.4 cm (elite) and 67.8 ± 0.4 cm (control); while the live weights were 41.6 ± 0.2 kg (elite) and 26.6 ± 0.3 kg (control). A total of 75 kids were born; 20 single, 26 sets of twins and one set of triplets.

Housing and holding system

All the goats were managed under the semi-intensive system in which housing was basically for overnight occupation by the various goat groups while most of the day time was spent outdoors. Does and weaned goats were kept overnight in raised and slatted floor pens with an average floor space of 1.5 square meters per mature doe and one square meter per weaned goat. Lactating mothers were housed in ground-level slatted floor pens with over 3/4 of the walls covered to avoid draughts. The rest of the houses had walls made of timber boards, with wire mesh covering the upper 1.5 m of the walls. Bucks were housed in a permanent house with wooden slats floor. A yard of 9 m × 15 m constructed with a concrete floor was used as a mating area for the goats.

Feeding and health management

Does and weaned kids were grazed daily on open pasture. The predominant grass species were Guinea grass ( Panicum maximum), Rhodes grass ( Chloris gayana), Foxtail ( Setaria anceps), Star grass ( Cynodon dactylon), and Signal grass ( Brachiaria brizantha). A fenced paddock measuring 40 m × 50 m near the holding/housing unit was used for late afternoon/evening grazing. Bucks were usually tethered on good pasture and sometimes allowed to graze in the paddocks. The grazing of both does and bucks was occasionally supplemented with fresh leguminous fodder of Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium. Water was provided ad libitum to the goats in the holding/collecting yard. Mineral salt licks were given fortnightly.

All goats were provided with treatment as and when they showed signs of sickness. Predominant diseases encountered included diarrhea (scours) and pneumonia in kids; mange and wounds in mature goats. Worm and fluke infestation was also recorded especially in the rainy season. Drenching with anthelmintics was done bi-monthly in the mature herd, and monthly among kids and weaned kids (weaners). Other less frequent health problems encountered included foot rot and milk fever. Bi-weekly spraying of the goats with acaricides ensured control of ecto-parasites like ticks, lice and fleas.

Data collection

Kid weights were taken using a 20 kg range Salter® scale, before 0800 hour, taking care to avoid weighing them after suckling or after exposure to other feed. Each kid was individually placed in a polyethylene bag which was suspended onto the scale. Measurements were taken weekly starting at birth until 52 weeks of age.

Data analysis

Simple means and ranges were computed across the entire data set and by each class variable to identify data entry errors. Data were subjected to analysis of variance using PROC MIXED procedure of SAS Ver. 9.2 (SAS 2012). The model used included buck size category (Elite or Control), doe size category (Elite or Control), birth type (single or twin), the interaction between buck and doe size classification, and sex of kid were included in the model as fixed effects and doe number was included as a random effect. Least square means for each level of all fixed effect classifications were estimated. The dependent variables evaluated included kid birth weight, 10-week body weight, 20-week body weight and 30-week body weight. Not all animals were represented at each weight point due to mortalities that occurred. Mortality records (alive or dead at end of 30 weeks) were recorded and analyzed using only simple descriptive statistics because of the limited information available for these traits.

Results

Big sized bucks sired kids that were not different (P>0.10) in birth weight from those of control sized bucks (Table 2). However, the elite buck effect was significant (P<0.01) at 10 weeks and tended towards significance (P<0.10) at subsequent ages. Kids mothered by elite does followed a trend similar to that of their counterparts sired by elite bucks. Birth weight of kids was significantly influenced (P<0.01) by their sex and birth type. Male kids were superior (P<0.01) to females at birth and at all post-weaning ages. The effect of birth type was the most intense in this study, with single kids weighing significantly (P<0.01) more than twins at birth, 10 weeks, 20 weeks and 30 weeks.

A total of 28 kids (37.3%) had died by the age of 30 weeks. The mortalities occurring up to 30 weeks of age may have been influenced by doe size, with 75% of the mortalities being for kids born to control does, while only 25% were by elite does. Only 42.9% of the dead kids were sired by elite bucks, and 57.1% of kid mortalities were sired by control bucks. A combination of small-sized parents caused 46.4% of the mortalities while only 14.3% of the mortalities resulted from mating both big-sized bucks and does. The mating of elite does to control bucks resulted in less kid mortality (10.7%) than when control does were mated to elite bucks (28.6%). Most of the kids that died (57.1%) were male. A greater proportion (85.7% ) of the kid mortalities were born as one of twin kids, while only 14.3% of them were born as a single kid. While kid mortality was not evaluated in depth, the trends identified using simple statistics are suggestive to the impacts from differing buck and doe size.

Discussion

It is important for this discussion to understand that the purpose of this study was to investigate the role that parental body size, litter size and kid sex has on growth performance of Mubende goat progeny. Mubende goats are one of the four goat breeds in Uganda. Considering their relatively big adult body size (Semakula et al 2010) and national flock size, it is the breed that should be contributing most to the goat meat consumed in the country. It is therefore imperative that performance of this breed is enhanced and this study was conducted so as to contribute to that enhancement. Awareness of how breeds and breed combinations compare for economically important kid traits from birth to weaning allows for diversity present to be exploited by proper breed selection (Browning and Leite-Browning 2011). In this study, focus was on the diversity in body weight of mature Mubende goats such that if a genetic basis of size is determined, selection could be promoted.

Buck and doe size effects on progeny growth were significant or tended towards significance over the 30 week period (probably ranges from P<0.01 to P<0.10). This observed superiority can be explained by the concept of genetic size and growth in goats (Ogink 1993). Accordingly, genetic size is expressed during the developmental stages of growth and it peaks in the mature animal. Offspring from Elite does were not different at birth however, at 10 and 20 weeks they tended to be heavier (P<0.10), and at 30 weeks were heavier (P<0.05) when compared to offspring from control does. As showed in Table 2, sex and birth status (single/twin) were significantly important effects at 30 weeks (P<0.05), with males showing superiority over females; while single kids grew faster than twins throughout the study period.

The mean birth weight of Mubende goats in this study (2.1 kg) is close to previous studies showing 2.0 kg (Oluka 1999), but much higher than 1.22 kg (Okello 1993). Birth weight is an economic trait, which has a positive relation with kid survival and overall post-natal development. The heritability estimate of birth weight in goats ranges between 1.5% and 46% (Roy et al 1989; Das et al 1996).For the reason that these values are low to medium, genetic progress in improvement of meat production through selection procedures based on birth weight is relatively feasible. Birth weight is an indicator of the rate of fetal growth, itself regulated by genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors (Ashworth 2013). These factors influence placental growth and functionality, and ultimately, the maternal uterine environment particularly size and efficiency of the placenta. Within a given breed, birth weight depends on the weight of the parents and especially the adult dam weight (Berhanu et al 1991) and its age (Das 1993; Browning and Leite-Browning 2011).

Male kids were superior (P<0.01) to females due to the effects of sexual-size dimorphism (Shine 1989; Liao et al 2013) which is widely observed in the animal kingdom, appearing commonly in domesticated as well as wild species. In domestic mammals, human control replaces sexual selection that is found and plays the dominant role in the wild mammals (Fairbairn 1997; Zhang and Lu 2013). In wild mountain goats, the inheritance pattern of this unique attribute has been extensively studied (Mainguy et al 2009), and shows that superiority in size is actually genetic. In the current study, more male kids (1.33) died per female kid, implying that sex could have been of influence on survival, as was found in goats elsewhere (Perez-Razo et al 1998).

Birth weight decreased as litter size increased (Table 2), with single kids growing much faster than twins at all ages. The relationship between single and multiple births has also been documented with other breeds such as Boer, Kiko, and Spanish (Browning and Leite-Browning 2011). Indeed, while the weight differential between single and twins in the current study was 0.2 kg at birth and 2.3 kg at 70 days, it was 0.4 kg at birth and 2.9 kg at 90 days in Boer and Spanish goats (Browning and Leite-Browning 2011). A life-history trade-off between offspring number and size has recently been documented (Schroderus et al. 2012) and apparently, the heritability of litter size is low in most litter producing livestock such as goats (Menendez-Buxadera et al 2003), rabbits (Rastogi et al 2000) and swine (Holl and Robison 2003).The superiority of the singles' live weight over twins could be explained by the higher nutrient uptake per kid expected for singly born kids. It is probable that single kids consume more colostrum and hence more immunoglobulins than twins or triplets. This means that resistance to disease is stronger in singles and hence the higher possibility of a better growth rate, live body weight. This should also explain why the mortality ratio between singles and twin over the 30 weeks studied was 1: 6. According to Robinson et al (1977), as the number of fetuses in utero increase, the number of caruncles attached to each fetus reduces. This therefore reduces the nutrient uptake for offspring raised in big litters. Elsewhere, litter size and parity were found to be responsible for 28% of the variation in birth weight in West African Dwarf goats and a bigger 46% of the variation in Saanen goats (Ogink 1993).

Mortality of goat kids has been shown to be associated with birth month, litter size at birth and dam age (Browning and Leite-Browning 2011). Mortality rates have been shown in previous research to decrease as litter size increases while on the other hand; sex of kid did not influence pre-weaning survival (Browning and Leite-Browning 2011). In our study, the goat flock showed a characteristic low pre-weaning mortality rate of 13.3%, compared to 17.0% (Okello 1993), and 20.3% (Oluka 1999) who also worked with the Mubende breed. Boer goats raised in Uganda were found to have a mortality rate of 11%, and a similar value was documented for the Small East African goats (Nsubuga 1996). Work done by Sacker and Trail (1966) and Wilson (1982) reported that mortality rates among Ugandan goats are characteristically lower than those reported for other African studies. This could be a factor of disease adaptation and not necessarily health management as may be surmised.

Of particular concern is the question of whether the variation between progeny of the two parental groups could have been broader if the diet, which was limited to naturally existing pasture grasses, sparse legumes, and occasional legume fodder, had been supplemented with more dietary protein. The probable answer is positive. The adverse environmental conditions under which indigenous animals are reared have for many years limited the attempts to improve livestock productivity in most developing countries in the tropics (Katule 1991) and when this is coupled with low genetic potential, the situation does not get better. Clearly the overriding question is, will improved genetics express themselves without improved feeding and other environmental conditions? The response according to our findings is negative.

Implications of these findings are that smallholder farmers must determine the value of buying improved (elite) bucks at increased costs. Considering that an elite buck cost $100, while small bucks cost $60 and that when selling goats, farmers receive about$2.5 per kilogram of weight; using an elite buck at a mating ratio of 1:30 would produce at least 50 animals in the flock. This would potentially increase the flock off take per annum by $340. Clearly, it would offset the $40 price differential between elite and control bucks.

Conclusion

Paternal and maternal size does influence weight of progeny at birth and at subsequent ages. Birth type and sex of kids also have profound effects on kid weight. However, the advantage for producers to use elite parentage is not completely realized through increased kid weight. This may be the result of inadequate nutritional resources for both the dam to produce sufficient milk and the offspring to reach their genetic potential for increased weight gain.

Recommendations

The following recommendations have been formulated for ensuring increased growth performance of Mubende goats:

Big bucks should be promoted for use in goat breeding since they show genetic elitism

Improving post-weaning diets of goats is pertinent so as to actualize the growth superiority resulting from use of elite sires and dams.

Acknowledgements

The Centre for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL) and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) of Iowa State University and the Ensminger Endowment in the Department of Animal Science are acknowledged for providing a visiting scholarship to one of the authors (D R K) during which the manuscript was developed. The authors thank the management of Makerere University farm for allowing this study to be conducted. Comments by the editor and reviewers were very helpful.

References

Received 7 December 2013; Accepted 6 February 2014; Published 1 March 2014 Go to top

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Effects of buck and doe size on the growth performance and survival of their progeny

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Abstract This study on the effects of paternal and maternal goat size on kid growth and survival was conducted by grouping bucks and does into big/elite and small/control categories and mating between the sub-groups to create four progeny groups whose body weight and mortality rate were assessed for fixed and variable effects at birth, 10, 20, and 30 weeks of age.

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I picked covid 19 because it has effected my life dramatically.

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I picked this topic because I like watching college football.

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Tyler Nolan                                      Minim Wage                             

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Tyler Nolan                                      Minim Wage                             

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I picked this topic because I working an entry level position. This affects me because I am not getting paid minim wage.

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My topic I picked was the Covid vaccines this topic affects me because I been thinking about getting the vaccine since I am on campus around many students, but I am also scared to take it because of the side effects and what people have been saying in the media. Also it is not mandatory for us in Texas to wear our mask, so I do not want to get sick from the people who are not wearing there mask who are not vaccinated. Also, with the restrictions with traveling if your not vaccinated you can not travel anywhere.

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COVID vaccines and safety: what the research says

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It is clear that coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective, but as more are rolled out, researchers are learning about the extent and nature of side effects. It is clear that coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective, but as more are rolled out, researchers are learning about the extent and nature of side effects.

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The reason I have choose this is because the new variant Delta has changed everything, cases and hospitalization are rising causing concerns among people about how long will it last. Unvaccinated people are more likely to develop the virus than those who are vaccinated.

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Cases of COVID-19 are rising fast. Vaccine uptake has plateaued. The pandemic will be over one day-but the way there is different now.

In September 2020, just before COVID-19 began its wintry surge through the United States, I wrote that the country was trapped in a pandemic spiral, seemingly destined to repeat the same mistakes. But after vaccines arrived in midwinter, cases in the U.S. declined and, by summer's edge, had reached their lowest levels since the pandemic's start. Many Americans began to hope that the country had enough escape velocity to exit its cycle of missteps and sickness. And though experts looked anxiously to the fall, few predicted that the Delta variant would begin its ascent at the start of July. Now the fourth surge is under way and the U.S. is once again looping through the pandemic spiral. Arguably, it never stopped.

This new surge brings a jarring sense of déjà vu. America has fallen prey to many of the same self-destructive but alluring instincts that I identified last year. It went all in on one countermeasure-vaccines-and traded it off against masks and other protective measures. It succumbed to magical thinking by acting as if a variant that had ravaged India would spare a country where half the population still hadn't been vaccinated. It stumbled into the normality trap, craving a return to the carefree days of 2019; in May, after the CDC ended indoor masking for vaccinated people, President Joe Biden gave a speech that felt like a declaration of victory. Three months later, cases and hospitalizations are rising, indoor masking is back, and schools and universities are opening uneasily-again. "It's the eighth month of 2021, and I can't believe we're still having these conversations," Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, told me.

But something is different now-the virus. "The models in late spring were pretty consistent that we were going to have a 'normal' summer," Samuel Scarpino of the Rockefeller Foundation, who studies infectious-disease dynamics, told me. "Obviously, that's not where we are." In part, he says, people underestimated how transmissible Delta is, or what that would mean. The original SARS-CoV-2 virus had a basic reproduction number, or R0, of 2 to 3, meaning that each infected person spreads it to two or three people. Those are average figures: In practice, the virus spread in uneven bursts, with relatively few people infecting large clusters in super-spreading events. But the CDC estimates that Delta's R0 lies between 5 and 9, which "is shockingly high," Eleanor Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University, told me. At that level, "its reliance on super-spreading events basically goes away," Scarpino said.

In simple terms, many people who caught the original virus didn't pass it to anyone, but most people who catch Delta create clusters of infection. That partly explains why cases have risen so explosively. It also means that the virus will almost certainly be a permanent part of our lives, even as vaccines blunt its ability to cause death and severe disease.

The U.S. now faces a dispiriting dilemma. Last year, many people were content to buy time for vaccines to be developed and deployed. But vaccines are now here, uptake has plateaued, and the first surge of the vaccine era is ongoing. What, now, is the point of masking, distancing, and other precautions?

The answer, as before, is to buy time-for protecting hospitals, keeping schools open, reaching unvaccinated people, and more. Most people will meet the virus eventually; we want to ensure that as many people as possible do so with two doses of vaccine in them, and that everyone else does so over as much time as possible. The pandemic isn't over, but it will be: The goal is still to reach the endgame with as little damage, death, and disability as possible. COVID-19 sent the world into freefall, and although vaccines have slowed our descent, we'd still be wise to steer around the trees standing between us and solid ground. "Everyone's got pandemic fatigue-I get it," Rivera told me. "But victory is not you as an individual getting a vaccine. It's making sure that SARS-CoV-2 doesn't bring us to our knees again."

1. Now

The U.S. is not back to square one. The measures that stymied the original coronavirus still work against its souped-up variant; vaccines, in particular, mean that half of Americans are heavily protected in a way they weren't nine months ago. Full vaccination (with the mRNA vaccines, at least) is about 88 percent effective at preventing symptomatic disease caused by Delta. Breakthrough infections are possible but affect only 0.01 to 0.29 percent of fully vaccinated people, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Breakthroughs might seem common-0.29 percent of 166 million fully vaccinated Americans still means almost 500,000 breakthroughs-but they are relatively rare. And though they might feel miserable, they are much milder than equivalent infections in unvaccinated people: Full vaccination is 96 percent effective at preventing hospitalizations from Delta, and unvaccinated people make up more than 95 percent of COVID-19 patients in American hospital beds. The vaccines are working, and working well. Vaccinated people are indisputably safer than unvaccinated people.

But although vaccinated individuals are well protected, highly vaccinated communities can still be vulnerable, for three reasons. First, unvaccinated people aren't randomly distributed. Instead, they tend to be geographically clustered and socially connected, creating vulnerable pockets that Delta can assault. Even in places with high vaccination rates, such as Vermont and Iceland, the variant is still spreading.
Read: The 3 simple rules that underscore the danger of Delta
Second, Delta could potentially spread from vaccinated people too-a point of recent confusion. The CDC has estimated that Delta-infected people build up similar levels of virus in their nose regardless of vaccination status. But another study from Singapore showed that although viral loads are initially comparable, they fall more quickly in vaccinated people. That makes sense: The immune defenses induced by the vaccines circulate around the body and need time to recognize a virus intruding into the nose. Once that happens, "they can control it very quickly," Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington, told me. "The same amount of virus might be there at the beginning, but it can't replicate in the airways and lungs." And because vaccinated people are much less likely to get infected in the first place, they are also much less likely to transmit Delta than unvaccinated people, contrary to what some media outlets have claimed.

Still, several lines of evidence, including formal outbreak descriptions and more anecdotal reports, suggest that vaccinated people can transmit Delta onward, even if to a lesser degree than unvaccinated people. That's why the CDC's return to universal indoor masking made sense, and why vaccinated people can't tap out of the pandemic's collective problem. Their actions still influence Delta's ability to reach their unvaccinated neighbors, including immunocompromised people and children. "If you're vaccinated, you did the best thing you can do, and there's no reason to feel pessimistic," Inci Yildirim, a vaccinologist and pediatric infectious-disease expert at Yale, told me. "You're safer. But you will need to think about how safe you want people around you to be."

Third, Delta's extreme transmissibility negates some of the community-level protection that vaccines offer. If no other precautions are taken, Delta can spread through a half-vaccinated country more quickly than the original virus could in a completely unvaccinated country. It can even cause outbreaks in places with 90 percent vaccination rates but no other defenses. Delta has "really rewound the clock," Shweta Bansal, an infectious-disease ecologist at Georgetown University, told me. "Communities that had reached safety are in danger again." Vaccines can still reduce the size and impact of its surges, turning catastrophic boils into gentler simmers. But the math means that "there's not really a way to solve the Delta problem through vaccination alone," Murray said.

Here, then, is the current pandemic dilemma: Vaccines remain the best way for individuals to protect themselves, but societies cannot treat vaccines as their only defense. And for now, unvaccinated pockets are still large enough to sustain Delta surges, which can overwhelm hospitals, shut down schools, and create more chances for even worse variants to emerge. To prevent those outcomes, "we need to take advantage of every single tool we have at our disposal," Bansal said. These should include better ventilation to reduce the spread of the virus, rapid tests to catch early infections, and forms of social support such as paid sick leave, eviction moratoriums, and free isolation sites that allow infected people to stay away from others. In states where cases are lower, such as Maine or Massachusetts, masks -the simplest, cheapest, and least disruptive of all the anti-COVID measures-might be enough.

States such as Louisiana and Florida, where Delta is spreading rapidly, "really need to be talking about a powerful response like closing indoor dining and limiting capacity at events," Murray said. Louisiana has now reinstituted an indoor mask policy, as have several counties and cities in other states. But several Republican governors, including Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida, have preemptively blocked local governments or schools from imposing such mandates, even as Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas now seeks to reverse a similar law that he regrets passing.

There are better ways to do this. On a federal level, Congress could make funding contingent on local leaders being able to make their own choices, Lindsay Wiley of American University, an expert in public-health law, told me. On a state level, leaders could pass mask mandates like Nevada's, which is "ideal," Julia Raifman, a health-policy expert at Boston University, told me. It automatically turns on in counties that surpass the CDC's definition of high transmission and shuts down in counties that fall below it. An off-ramp is always in sight, the public can see why decisions have been made, and "policy makers don't have to constantly navigate the changing science," Raifman said.

Vaccine mandates can help too. Emily Brunson, an anthropologist at Texas State, has studied vaccine attitudes and thinks that broad, top-down orders "wouldn't play well, and the pushback could do more harm than good." But strong mandates that tie employment to vaccination are easily justified in hospitals, long-term-care facilities, and prisons-"high-risk settings where vulnerable people don't have a choice about being exposed," Wiley told me. Mandates are also likely for university students, government employees, and the military, who already have to meet medical conditions for attendance or employment.

The calculus around safety has shifted in another important way. In the first three surges, older people were among the most vulnerable to COVID-19; now 80 percent of Americans over 65 are fully vaccinated. But kids under 12 remain ineligible for vaccines-and the timeline for an emergency-use approval stretches months into the future. Children are less likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19, but more than 400 have already died in the U.S., while many others have developed long COVID or the inflammatory condition called MIS-C. Rare, severe events are more poignant when they affect children, and they can accumulate quickly in the Delta era. As my colleague Katherine J. Wu reports, pediatric COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing and hospitalizations have reached a pandemic high.
Read: T he messiest phase of the pandemic yet
Virtual learning took a huge toll on both children and parents, and every expert I asked agreed that kids should be back in classrooms-with protections. That means vaccinating adults to create a shield around children, masks for students and staff, better ventilation, and regular testing. "Schools must continue mitigation measures-I feel very strongly about this," Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, told me. Otherwise, Delta outbreaks are likely. Such outbreaks have already forced nine Mississippi schools to go remote and put 800 people from a single Arkansas district in quarantine. And other respiratory illnesses, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), are already showing up alongside COVID-19. "Schools have no choice but to close once there's a large outbreak," Brunson said. "A whole generation of children's education and well-being hangs in the balance."

The coming weeks will mark yet another pivotal moment in a crisis that has felt like one exhausting string of them. "I think people are right to be hurting, confused, and angry-things didn't have to turn out this way," Eleanor Murray, the epidemiologist, told me. But "piecemeal, half-assed responses" allowed for the uncontrolled spread that fostered the evolution of Delta and other variants. "People should be demanding that we don't repeat those same mistakes from last year."

"I feel dispirited too, but when the virus moves, we have to move-and sometimes, that means going backwards," Rivers told me. Daily caseloads are now 36 per 100,000 people; once they fall below 10, "and preferably below five, I'll feel like we're in a better place."

2. Next

But then what? Delta is transmissible enough that once precautions are lifted, most countries "will have a big exit wave," Adam Kucharski, an infectious-disease modeler at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told me. As vaccination rates rise, those waves will become smaller and more manageable. But herd immunity-the point where enough people are immune that outbreaks automatically fizzle out-likely cannot be reached through vaccination alone. Even at the low end of the CDC's estimated range for Delta's R0, achieving herd immunity would require vaccinating more than 90 percent of people, which is highly implausible. At the high end, herd immunity is mathematically impossible with the vaccines we have now.
Read: Your vaccinated immune system is ready for breakthroughs
This means that the "zero COVID" dream of fully stamping out the virus is a fantasy. Instead, the pandemic ends when almost everyone has immunity, preferably because they were vaccinated or alternatively because they were infected and survived. When that happens, the cycle of surges will stop and the pandemic will peter out. The new coronavirus will become endemic-a recurring part of our lives like its four cousins that cause common colds. It will be less of a problem, not because it has changed but because it is no longer novel and people are no longer immunologically vulnerable. Endemicity was always the likely outcome- I wrote as much in March 2020. But likely is now unavoidable. "Before, it still felt possible that a really concerted effort could get us to a place where COVID-19 almost didn't exist anymore," Murray told me. "But Delta has changed the game."

If SARS-CoV-2 is here to stay, then most people will encounter it at some point in their life, as my colleague James Hamblin predicted last February. That can be hard to accept, because many people spent the past year trying very hard to avoid the virus entirely. But "it's not really the virus on its own that is terrifying," Jennie Lavine, an infectious-disease researcher at Emory University, told me. "It's the combination of the virus and a naive immune system. Once you don't have the latter, the virus doesn't have to be so scary."

Think of it this way: SARS-CoV-2, the virus, causes COVID-19, the disease-and it doesn't have to. Vaccination can disconnect the two. Vaccinated people will eventually inhale the virus but need not become severely ill as a result. Some will have nasty symptoms but recover. Many will be blissfully unaware of their encounters. "There will be a time in the future when life is like it was two years ago: You run up to someone, give them a hug, get an infection, go through half a box of tissues, and move on with your life," Lavine said. "That's where we're headed, but we're not there yet."

None of the experts I talked with would predict when we would reach that point, especially because many feel humbled by Delta's summer rise. Some think it's plausible that the variant will reach most unvaccinated Americans quickly, making future surges unlikely. "When we come through, I think we'll be pretty well protected against another wave, but I hesitate to say that, because I was wrong last time," Rivers said. It's also possible that there will still be plenty of unvaccinated people for Delta to infect in the fall, and that endemicity only kicks in next year. As my colleague Sarah Zhang wrote, the U.K. will provide clues about what to expect.

If endemicity is the future, then masks, distancing, and other precautions merely delay exposure to the virus-and to what end? "There's still so much for us to buy time for," Bansal told me. Suppressing the virus gives schools the best chance of staying open. It reduces the risk that even worse variants will evolve. It gives researchers time to better understand the long-term consequences of breakthrough infections. And much like last year, it protects the health-care system. Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri all show that Delta is easily capable of inundating hospitals, especially in largely unvaccinated communities. This cannot keep happening, especially because health-care workers are already burning out and facing a mammoth backlog of sick patients whose care was deferred during previous surges. These workers need time to recover, as does the U.S. more generally. Its mental-health systems are already insufficient to address the coming waves of trauma and grief. COVID-19 long-haulers are already struggling to access medical support and disability benefits. The pandemic's toll is cumulative, and the U.S. can ill-afford to accumulate more. Punting new infections as far into the future as possible will offer a chance to regroup.

Curbing the coronavirus's spread also protects millions of immunocompromised Americans, including organ-transplant recipients and people with autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and lupus. Because they have to take drugs that suppress their immune system, they won't benefit from vaccines and have no choice in the matter. Even before the pandemic, they had to carefully manage their risk of infection, and "we're not helping them by making surges longer," Inci Yildirim, the Yale vaccinologist, said. She and others are testing ways of boosting their vaccine responses, including giving third doses, timing their doses around other medications, or using adjuvant substances that trigger stronger immune responses. But for any of that to work, "you need the luxury of some level of COVID-19 control," Yildirim said.

Finally, the U.S. simply needs more time to reach unvaccinated people. This group is often wrongly portrayed as a monolithic bunch of stubborn anti-vaxxers who have made their choice. But in addition to young children, it includes people with food insecurity, eviction risk, and low incomes. It includes people who still have concerns about safety and are waiting on the FDA's full approval, people who come from marginalized communities and have reasonable skepticism about the medical establishment, and people who have neither the time to get their shots nor the leave to recover from side effects. Some holdouts are finally getting vaccinated because of the current Delta surge. Others are responding to efforts to bring vaccines into community settings like churches. It now takes more effort to raise vaccination rates, but "it's not undoable," Rhea Boyd, a pediatrician and public-health advocate, told me last month. Measures such as indoor masking will "give us the time to do the work."

3. Eventually

Pandemics end. But this one is not yet over, and especially not globally. Just 16 percent of the world's population is fully vaccinated. Many countries, where barely 1 percent of people have received a single dose, are "in for a tough year of either lockdowns or catastrophic epidemics," Adam Kucharski, the infectious-disease modeler, told me. The U.S. and the U.K. are further along the path to endemicity, "but they're not there yet, and that last slog is often the toughest," he added. "I have limited sympathy for people who are arguing over small measures in rich countries when we have uncontrolled epidemics in large parts of the world."

Eventually, humanity will enter into a tenuous peace with the coronavirus. COVID-19 outbreaks will be rarer and smaller, but could still occur once enough immunologically naive babies are born. Adults might need boosters once immunity wanes substantially, but based on current data, that won't happen for at least two years. And even then, "I have a lot of faith in the immune system," Marion Pepper, the immunologist, said. "People may get colds, but we'll have enough redundancies that we'll still be largely protected against severe disease." The bigger concern is that new variants might evolve that can escape our current immune defenses-an event that becomes more likely the more the coronavirus is allowed to spread. "That's what keeps me up at night," Georgetown's Shweta Bansal told me.

To guard against that possibility, the world needs to stay alert. Regular testing of healthy people can tell us where the virus might be surging back. Sequencing its genes will reveal the presence of worrying mutations and new variants. Counterintuitively, these measures become more important nearer the pandemic endgame because a virus's movements become harder to predict when transmission slows. Unfortunately, that's exactly when "public-health systems tend to take their foot off the gas when it comes to surveillance," Bansal told me.

As of May, the CDC stopped monitoring all breakthrough infections and focused only on those that led to hospitalization and death. It also recommended that vaccinated people who were exposed to the virus didn't need to get tested unless they were symptomatic. That policy has since been reversed, but it "allowed people to get lax," said Jessica Malaty Rivera, who was also a volunteer for the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic. "We've never tested enough, and we're still not testing enough." With Floridians once again facing hours-long lines for tests, "it's a recap of spring 2020," Samuel Scarpino, the infectious-disease expert, told me. "We continue to operate in an information vacuum, which gives us a biased and arguably unusable understanding of COVID-19 in many parts of the U.S. That makes us susceptible to this kind of thing happening again."
Read: Vaccines are great. Masks make them even better.
What we need, Scarpino argues, is a nimble, comprehensive system that might include regular testing, wastewater monitoring, genetic sequencing, Google-search analyses, and more. It could track outbreaks and epidemics in the same way that weather forecasts offer warnings about storms and hurricanes. Such a system could also monitor other respiratory illnesses, including whatever the next pandemic virus turns out to be. "My phone can tell me if I need to carry an umbrella, and I want it to tell me if I should put a mask on," Scarpino said. "I'd like to have that for the rest of my life."

Since last January, commentators have dismissed the threat of COVID-19 by comparing it to the flu or common colds. The latter two illnesses are still benchmarks against which our response is judged- well, we don't do that for the flu. But "a bad flu year is pretty bad!" Lindsay Wiley, at American University, told me, and it doesn't have to be. Last year, the flu practically vanished. Asthma attacks plummeted. Respiratory infections are among the top-10 causes of death in the U.S. and around the world, but they can often be prevented-and without lockdowns or permanent mask mandates.

The ventilation in our buildings can be improved. Scientists should be able to create vaccines against the existing coronaviruses. Western people can wear masks when they're sick, as many Asian societies already do. Workplaces can offer paid-sick-leave policies and schools can ditch attendance records "so that they're not encouraging people to show up sick," Wiley said. All of these measures could be as regular a part of our lives as seat belts, condoms, sunscreen, toothpaste, and all the other tools that we use to protect our health. The current pandemic surge and the inevitability of endemicity feel like defeats. They could, instead, be opportunities to rethink our attitudes about the viruses we allow ourselves to inhale.

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samuel scarpino of the rockefeller foundation

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Cases of COVID-19 are rising fast. Vaccine uptake has plateaued. The pandemic will be over one day-but the way there is different now. In September 2020, just before COVID-19 began its wintry surge through the United States, I wrote that the country was trapped in a pandemic spiral, seemingly destined to repeat the same mistakes.

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Jordan -The psychological impact of social media in today’s youth 

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Jordan -The psychological impact of social media in today’s youth 

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The topic I have chosen is The psychological impact of social media in today’s youth .The reason is I feel that our youth are severely impacted and harmed by social media today , and they don't even realize it.

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This topic talks about the mental and physical effects of cutting a lot of weight in wrestling. I have experienced this and I believe this topic is perfect for me.

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Editor's note: This article discusses weight cutting and may be triggering to people who suffer from eating disorders. People suffering can contact the National Eating Disorders Association helpline at (800)931-2237. This article appeared in The Eagle's March 2021 virtual print edition.

It's two hours before a dual meet. American University wrestlers are in the locker room with weigh-ins minutes away. The wrestlers' nagging hunger and no-nonsense attitudes leave no room for chatter. There's no loud hype music or team chants. It's just a team of men silently waiting their turn to step on the scale. Weigh-ins commence as the wrestlers strip off their clothes and form a line. Weigh-ins are a simple process, yet what seems like a mundane formality of the sport is the culmination of hours of dedication and tough work.

"Nobody, no matter how you explain to someone, will ever understand how it feels to cut 20 pounds in a month for wrestling unless they've actually done it," AU wrestler Pat Ryan said.

Ryan, a sophomore wrestling at 141 pounds, has one of the more difficult cuts on the team. He's wrestling down a weight class since All-American senior Kizhan Clarke occupies the 149-pound spot. Ryan, whose natural weight is around 165 pounds, plans out his weight cut a week before weigh-ins.

"Say we have a Friday weigh-in. The goal is to come in on Monday at most 10 pounds over," Ryan said. "Sometimes it's a little more. Two days before you want to be eight over. For the day before, the goal is like five over. For those last five pounds, I'll throw on some extra layers for practice. That should get me there."

Sweating out five pounds is easy for wrestlers. The most Ryan has ever sweated out at practice is eight pounds, and he's seen guys lose up to 10. But the athletes' commitment to wrestling is more than practicing hard and shedding out water weight. Time management and scheduling are paramount for wrestlers. Wrestlers have to be smart about how wrestling coincides with their other responsibilities. Ryan, for instance, front loads courses in the fall since he knows he'll have to make weight more often in the spring.

"It's hard to get through practice wanting something to eat or drink and then come home and sit through a two-and-a-half-hour class," Ryan said. "You have to be smart about it. You have to strategize on how you're gonna get things done. ... On any given day, I'll wake up at 6 a.m., I'll get an hour-and-a-half lift in. Then I'll have a two-hour mat workout. Then every weekend we're on the road. That takes up a lot of time that's not even devoted to weight cutting."

Weight cutting has been a part of NCAA wrestling since its inception in . In response to three weight-cutting-related deaths in 1997, the NCAA instituted the hydration test, a pre-season test administered to ensure wrestlers don't dehydrate themselves throughout the season.

For the test, the wrestler steps on a scale and pees in a cup. The NCAA records the weight and tests the urine to see if the wrestler is hydrated enough. If he is, the wrestler is certified to compete for the season. The NCAA then determines the lowest weight the wrestler can safely compete. The idea is to identify the lightest weight a wrestler can be without dehydrating himself. Michael Moyer, executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association, said previously that he wasn't aware of any weight-cutting related deaths since 1997. But wrestlers are still practicing harmful methods of weight cutting.

"In my opinion, I don't think the test is enforced very strictly," Ryan said. "And that's why I still think you see really unhealthy weight cutting in college wrestling."

But just how damaging is unhealthy weight cutting? Dr. Trina Ulrich, a professorial lecturer in AU's Department of Health Studies who teaches Sports Nutrition and Changes in Health Behavior, said there are many detrimental effects.

"Usually when people fast, they lose their glycogen storage. The glycogen is a stored product that creates energy," Ulrich said. "When people dehydrate themselves to make weight and then also fast on top of that, they're losing water from the glycogen deficiency and dehydration. That can lead to kidney failure and heart problems. Those can happen short-term or as chronic diseases later in life."

There are other long-term consequences besides organ failure. There's a correlation between cutting weight and eating disorders, including bulimia and binge-eating, according to Ulrich. She said in the short-term, wrestlers who cut a lot essentially starve themselves through food deprivation and dehydration.

"If they're dehydrated, it's not good for their nutrient absorption," Ulrich said. "If you imagine that a dehydrated person ate an apple, the vitamins and minerals in the apple won't be suspended in liquid very much because they don't have as much liquid in their body. Therefore, that apple won't be optimally absorbed."

Ulrich said the short-term effects of malnourishment don't stop there.

"When we have decreased glucose or glycogen from not eating, it affects the central nervous system. The central nervous system is primarily fueled by glucose. And that glucose primarily comes from broken-down carbohydrates. ... So when we decrease the fuel that feeds our central nervous system, we experience brain fog, irritability and fatigue."

Ulrich has taught wrestlers before in her class. She said she can tell when they're cutting by their general look of fatigue.

But if Ryan had the choice to end weight cutting in the sport, he wouldn't.

"You have to continue letting weight cutting be a thing," he said. "Just focus on educating the athlete on the dangers of doing it incorrectly."

Ryan believes it's too ingrained in the sport to stop now. Wrestlers take pride in the extreme lengths they will go to to make weight.

If the mental and physical effects of weight cutting were easy to deal with, more wrestlers would cut weight. So if you have a class with a wrestler, let them know you understand why no one makes a sound at weigh-ins. Wrestlers take making weight seriously. Especially starved, irritable wrestlers.
odunn@theeagleonline.com
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'It's not just a hobby' for Pat Ryan: the effects of weight cutting in wrestling

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Editor's note: This article discusses weight cutting and may be triggering to people who suffer from eating disorders. People suffering can contact the National Eating Disorders Association helpline at (800)931-2237. This article appeared in The Eagle's March 2021 virtual print edition. It's two hours before a dual meet.

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The three topics that I came down to was, 'why we dream' by Sander Lindon, 'How Meditation Affects the Brain' by Lela Moore, and 'The Importance of Self Love' by Armon Anderson.