When the world says: "Give up," Hope whispers: "Try it one more time."

"New science helps a paralyzed man move his legs for the first time in years"

By: Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield

Source: CNN News

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/06/health/feat-paralysis-tech-help/index.html

       Every morning for two and a half years, Calvin Goza attempted to move his legs, desperately awaiting the day for a small change. An accident with a drunken driver was the cause of Goza's paralysis. "No amount of wishful thinking could help him move his legs again" (Cohen and Bonieifield, 1). On December 25, Goza got another chance. At the University of Louisville, Goza was given the chance to receive a new therapy, which was designed to help him move his legs again. Sensors were attached up and down his leg. The researchers had inserted electrodes in his spine and on his toe was placed a ring and a string. The goal was for Goza to try and pull that string with his toe. For a couple hours, the scientists tried sending jolts of electricity

to the receptors surgically implanted in Goza's spine, but nothing happened. They amped it up, and Goza's toe moved the string, but what is more amazing is that he also bent his knee. ""It was pretty awesome," Goza said. "I questioned it at first: Maybe it didn't actually happen, and I was just hoping it did"" (Cohen and Bonieifield, 1). Doctors are optimistic, and they hope that Goza will have the chance to walk again. Other paralyzed men have also encountered benefits from the therapy that may be even more significant than walking.

       This article is important as it shows today's technological and scientific advances. It reveals that science can make the impossible possible. But most importantly this article inserts faith in people. Faith, that maybe one day all of the pain in the world will be gone. 

Cameron's Story is Saving Lives

"Mom Dedicates Her Life To Safety Awareness After Fatal Car Seat Error"

By: Caroline Bologna

Source: The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/05/car-seat-safety-holly-wagner_n_6255106.html?utm_hp_ref=health-news&ir=Health+News

            Holly Wagner's world was turned upside down when she lost her eleven-month-old son, Cameron in a car accident. Her baby boy had been improperly fastened in his car seat. If that mistake were to have been corrected, Cameron would  have been alive today. Holly does not want other parents to experience what she did, therefore now has dedicated her life to sharing her story and educating people about car seat safety. The twenty-seventh of April 2013, Holly Wagner was at work, whilst her boyfriend Rhett was watching her three-year-old son Connor and Cameron. After spending a day with the kids outside, Rhett ran a stop sign and collided with another car on the way back home. Rhett survived with a brain and leg injury, Connor survived with a broken arm, but Cameron was a whole other story. Cameron's injuries were far more severe since he was not buckled properly. Only the chest clip was fastened, which caused it to break upon impact, causing Cameron to come off his seat and be ejected from the car. Cameron was suffering from a severe head injury, broken ribs, and a punctured lung and spleen, causing him to have several back-to-back surgeries. Due to the severity of Cameron's brain injury, his body was not absorbing any nutrient, therefore Holly had two choices: let her son starve to death or take him off life support and have him avoid that pain and misery. After holding her son in her hands, and feeling and observing his injuries, she chose to let him go.

          According to Buckle Up For Life, a child passenger safety program, seventy-five percent of car seats in this country are not installed correctly. This article is important as it urges others not to pass up the opportunity to try to help people. It is meant to inspire parents to get a car seat check and also to encourage parents to raise awareness of the issue of child passenger safety with the people closest to them.   

Women are the Master Species

"China Hospital Gives Men Chance to Experience Pain of Childbirth"

By: Natalie Thomas

Source: The Huffington Post             

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/21/men-experience-childbirth-pain_n_6200240.html?utm_hp_ref=health-news&ir=Health+News

A hospital in China has offered fathers the chance to experience the pain of childbirth after several complaints from mothers explained how they receive such little sympathy from their husbands. For this enactment, pads attached to a device are placed above the abdomen, giving electric shocks that cause pain. The fathers struggled in agony as the nurses gradually increased the intensity on a scale of one to ten. A man who took part in this enactment, Song Siling, said he felt as if his heart and lungs were being ripped apart. Other participants had dropped out of the operation within minutes, because of the unbearable pain. Despite this obvious discomfort, the enactments could never match the pain of actual childbirth. Wu Jianlong, a contestant who braved the pain right up to level ten, said the experience completely altered his views on childbirth. He mentioned how he had thought childbirth was really natural and really normal and that woman can get through the "durable" pain, but during the operation, he was begging the nurses to stop. Wu JIanlong had reached the maximum limit and would not stop screaming in pain and clenching his fists.

This article is important to read as it shows that men can experience the pain of childbirth. This pain can help men realize that they should not take their wives for granted and instead to love and care for them more. 

Simple Pleasures

           It is quite difficult for me to find silence and solitude, as I have three siblings who constantly follow me around to the point where I feel as if I have no privacy or they just loudly goof around and provide me with no silence, whatsoever. I also have two parents who keep nagging at me to finish my homework or do chores.  Sometimes, I wish I can go somewhere isolated where I can feel free in every possible way, and never get hurt. I wish I can have magical solutions to my problems, but yet I refuse to believe in magic. It is easier to have me hate something than believe in them. My aim for this post is to write down what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way. 
            I was  babysitting my little brother, Chris. He was sitting on the couch, playing a game on my mother's phone and since I had this blog assignment to post on being a transcendentalist for half an hour, why not do him a favor and bring him along as well. I took my mother's phone away from my brother and placed it alongside mine on a high shelf and out we went. For the first five minutes, he would not stop crying and honestly,  I wanted to shove a sock in his mouth, but after a while he accepted the fact that we were not going inside and sat beside me. He probably thought I was crazy as I was cautiously trying to understand my environment. Surely, he did not understand what I was trying to do, but too bad. He was sitting beside me sulking, but he was quiet and that was all I needed in that precise moment: silence, because the quieter it was, the more I could hear and observe...

            I appreciate my neighborhood, I truly do. It is not completely isolated, but it feels as if it is, because of its constant quietude. The street  I live on is quite mysterious as it is always calm, reminding me of a certain saying, "the calm before the storm," but yet, my street also holds this sense of beauty. At night, the shadows are one of the most  impressive things that stand out on my street. They end up making everything look more peculiar. The view from my house is phenomenal. I get to see a portion of the beautiful city, Burbank and I can also look at the massive houses that tower above me. One house always specifically stands out, as it looks like a castle. Another house a little further to the left side has this tree in its backyard, which always captivates my attention.  It holds this sense of mystery and impossibility to it. One day, I wish to boldly walk to that mysterious tree, as if it's an impossible door. As I sat there listening to the chirping of the crickets, I could not help, but to also look up at the stars. Just the sight of them made me want to dream. And as if on time, I looked  beside me and saw my little brother fast asleep, with his tiny little head leaning against my left shoulder. 

CHOKED

"Why We 'Choke' Under Pressure, According To Neuroscience"

By: Carolyn Gregoire

Source: The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/why-we-choke-under-pressu_n_6096916.html?utm_hp_ref=health-news&ir=Health+News

            All eyes were on the U.S. Women's Gymnastics team in 2012 during the Summer Olympics, specifically on one U.S. gymnast: McKayla Maroney. She was a sixteen-year-old gymnast who took part in the Olympics, because of her impressive skill in vaulting. Everyone guaranteed that she was going win gold in the event. But when the time came for her to show her skills and win the gold, she choked. Choking is common for many athletes and performers, even professionals. And it does not necessarily mean that the individual does not have skill, but rather, the immense pressure of what is at stake. Scientists are trying to understand why individuals choke under pressure, and how they might be able to prevent such mistakes. Some new research done from neuroscientists in John Hopkins University, believe that Maroney choked because she was too attached to winning. When individuals choke under pressure, it most likely has to do with their motivation. To what extent is an individual willing to go through to win or to avoid losing? If one is loss-averse, meaning that they hate losing more than they love winning, then their chances of choking will be lower, but for the individuals who value winning more than they value losing, the likelihood of choking is often higher. "The Johns Hopkins study found that those who hated losing the most choked when told that they stood to win the most, while those who cared more about winning choked when they stood to lose something significant. In other words, it's all about how you frame the incentive: as a loss or as a gain" (Gregoire, 1). The researchers explain this phenomenon through study done on the ventral striatum, a region of the brain. They even proved the study with specific experiment done on adults. This study showed the researchers, that the ventral striatum moderates the relationship between incentives and performance.

            This article is important as it provides new research done on human behavior. It provides us with details about a certain experiment that was designed to help us understand why we choke under pressure, so we can apply that information to improve our performances. 

“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”

            Assuring a high quality and effective education for future generations, is one of the most important things we can do as the present generation. We have drastically improved our use of technology, but we must achieve more than just the means of  technology; we must provide to the future generation, a glimpse of our world as it was developed. Kids cannot lose their innocence, their authority, their love, their hope, their imagination, their social skills, and their power to reason.

            In twenty years, I see future generations learning their social skills from robots.  I do not particularly see a high school, but rather I see an institution found for primarily technological purposes. I do not see much of an interaction, instead I see people staring at one another with dull and boring eyes that show no apparent sign of life. I see no books as technology is the main priority. I think in twenty years, the future generation will embrace new media, sports, and a faster pace of life causing books to be ruthlessly decreased or devalued. I do not see free-thinking ideals nor do I see any liberating spirits. The government has taken complete control and has instilled fear in people's hearts. People have lost their individuality. I do not know if this is because of the fact that I doubt the future generation or I just particularly am not fond of the idea of the future generation, but I see very few people questioning their lives and their own perception of happiness. I am not necessarily too fond of the idea of traditions, but I still support it to some extent, but in the future I see no signs of traditions at all, which is not necessarily a good sign.

           I imagine myself to be a rather different teacher; the outcast of the new society, the teacher who rebels and passes on these revolutionary thoughts and ideas. I would try to change the mentality of this generation from living a mechanical life to living an extraordinary one. I would like to teach these group of individuals to look at life in a different way and to live their lives on their own terms. I want these group of people to start questioning the authority. Although, I imagine myself doing this endeavor, I question myself, "Would I really do what I think I would do, if was put under that certain situation?"

"Yes, they are fake! My real ones tried to kill me!"

"The End of October But Not the End of Breast Cancer"

By: Susan M. Love

Source: The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-m-love/the-end-of-october-but-no_b_6072020.html?utm_hp_ref=health-news&ir=Health+News

            "As October comes to an end, we can put away our pink clothes for another year and focus on the real challenge -- not awareness, but action!" (Susan, 1). Many people connect the color pink with breast cancer and a lot of people are aware that breast cancer is an essential problem for women. The questions for those working on the subject at hand are: What do we do next? What actions do we need to take to make a real difference in decreasing breast cancer deaths? Doctors too often combine the idea of finding tumors with saving lives, but the reality of this is that some cancers are fast-growing that even the best efforts are to no advantage. Women are living with various types of breast cancer. We owe them "something better than removing a normal body part to prevent what may or may not become a life-threatening disease" (Susan, 2). We owe them a cure. The time has come to go above and beyond awareness and find solutions that will help women. We need to know how and where this cancer starts. We need to work together to create a future without breast cancer.

            Between now and next October, many other women in the U.S. will die from breast cancer.  This article is important as it raises awareness for breast cancer and successfully provides the message of taking action and finding answers. Without uniting the breast cancer organizations, the government, the scientific community, and the people of the United States, we will not accomplish one of our many goals: a future without breast cancer!