Summaries- UgandanKnuckles

“Do Tom’s Shoes Really Help People?”- Kiera Butler

It seems counterintuitive that organizations like “Toms Shoes” and others try to help impoverished countries by having a “buy one, give one” event. Companies use this method to make people feel good about splurging and buying something more expensive, but despite the apparent benefit of sending food or clothing to countries that may seem to need them, most of those countries don’t need them at all.

For example, in Ethiopia, where some of the shoes go, children need to have shoes to go to school. However, students get the shoes from the organizations in school. This means that only students who already have shoes get a pair of shoes from these organizations.

The problems presented by these organizations extends even into the marketplace. When tsunami hit Indonesia in 2006, donations came in from different organizations to the locations affected. Instead of actually helping the locals, they created an excess of food. Farmers inland experienced competition and lost out on profit due to the free rice that people were taking instead. After a while, treatment like this from these organizations and volunteers can spoil those helped, and create a reliance on them instead of those countries governments.

Thankfully, some organizations are avoiding these issues by working alongside communities. Some companies are also donating things that children and people in impoverish communities actually need like glasses and meals to impoverished children. It’s tough to figure out ways that buy-one-give-one companies can donate to communities effectively, but at least they’re raising awareness.

Do Toms Shoes Really Help People?

 

“Do Multivitamins Really Work?”- Kiera Butler

It seems counterintuitive that people take multivitamins to stay healthy, when in actuality the benefits are almost nonexistent. In some cases, it can even be dangerous. In most cases, people in first world countries get the right amount of nutrition from the food they eat during the day, making multivitamins superfluous.

Many manufacturers claim that multivitamins can help prevent chronic illnesses, but similar studies done on postmenopausal women in 2009 and 2011 yielded results that said it had no effect at all. Another often cited study states that people who take vitamins are actually more likely than people who don’t take vitamins to reach their daily nutritional goals from the food they eat anyway.

In some cases, multivitamins can even have some harmful effects. Several studies even found that excessive folic acid intake with lesions that can lead to colorectal cancers. The elderly become more at risk for heart disease since the extra iron they get from the vitamin isn’t needed in their system. Pregnant women even increase their risk of birth defects if they’re not careful about what kind of multivitamins they take.

Not all companies are honest with their statements, either. a recent analysis found that 60 common multivitamins had misleading information on their bottles. Federal health officials recommend that kids who are picky eaters and people with anorexia take multivitamins, but many nutritionists also recommend that people take multivitamins- even if they don’t need them. My best recommendation is to just save money by not buying multivitamins all together.

Do Multivitamins Really Work?

 

“The Cruelest Show On Earth”- Deborah Nelson

It seems counterintuitive that a circus act is titled “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Elephants are historically one of everyone’s favorite acts, as they are intelligent animals that are capable of performing stupendous feats. However, they require a lot of care. Care that a lot of circus groups are not adequately providing.

Federal regulations state that sick elephants have to be checked by a veterinarian and then given the okay before performing again. In the case talked about by Deborah Nelson, an Elephant named Kenny was mistreated in this way. He had been showing signs of ailment for a couple days prior, and had not been properly seen by a veterinarian by the time it was time for him to perform. Throughout the course of the day, he developed diarrhea, bleeding, and weakness in his legs. Only after a circus veterinarian saw him that afternoon was he dismissed from the evening show- or at least that would have been the case. Ringling Bros overruled him Kenny was forced to perform a third time, but didn’t do any stunts.

The story goes from bad to worse for Kenny, as the bleeding continued after the show. After being given water and being shackled to his stall, he was found dead hardly two hours later by a night attendant. Elephants are beautiful and intelligent creatures that deserve just as much respect and positive treatment as any human performer or any living being, really.

The Cruelest Show on Earth

Summaries- Nreina34

McDonald’s incident: Enough with the hatred of cops

It seems counterintuitive that the ones who dislike and slander the police are the ones who call them the second they are in trouble.  Police officers around the country are being discriminated against for no reason at all, just because they are police officers.  

The media in today’s society has such an influence on its viewers and these news stories are giving people the wrong idea of law enforcement.  It just puzzles me at how some people can hate the only people who are willing to protect you at all costs.  When police officers are being turned away trying to order food it just really confuses me as to how someone can not support people that help you.  I guarantee you if a man with a gun came into that store and tried to rob the place, that employee would have called the police.  

The moral of this summary is that the public is turning against the wrong people.  We owe it to police officers to show them the respect they deserve, not by treating them like the criminals they detain.  By changing the idea everybody has of the police it will benefit all parties, keeping everyone safe and happy.  135 police officers were killed in the line of duty last year, 21 of them being in ambush style attacks.  It’s time we start seeing all the good things the police does for us rather than all the “negative”.  

Viewpoint: College athletes should be paid

It seems counterintuitive that people still think Division 1 college athletes should be paid.  The best athletes from around the world come to the United States to compete in “NCAA Division 1” college sports, the highest rank of collegiate sports.  A common misconception in the sports industry is people feel D1 athletes should be paid but in fact, they shouldn’t and never will be.

The main driving argument is that these athletes generate millions of dollars for the universities they attended, which is true, but some do not see the big picture.  By going to these colleges they are given experiences like no other and helps tremendously with creating a future for these students.  Having the opportunity to play Division 1 sports is the best paycheck anyone should ever receive because it opens up a whole new world for these college kids.  You get the exposure that professional sports need to see you and for most Division 1 athletes, helps them create a future for themselves.  

New Backup Camera Rule: Cameras Will Be Mandatory by 2018

It seems counterintuitive that backup cameras will now be mandatory on all cars but we have gone years without this being a requirement until now. The  movement towards safer roads will continue in 2018 with this new law.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just finalized the regulations of backup cameras after years of perfecting it.  As of the new year, all new cars will be required to have backup cameras to help prevent more “backover accidents”.  Backover accidents are when drivers reverse over the other without noticing; these accidents have about 200 people killed and 14,000 people injured every year.  

A common topic that has everyone thinking is, how much more will these backup cameras cost?  Some people can’t afford a vehicle so by making backup cameras required, there is curiosity as to how much this increase the price in vehicles.  Fortunately for consumers, the new mandated backup cameras will only increase the price of new cars $40-$140.

Summaries—lbirch141

1. Free Heroin To Battle Addiction

It seems counterintuitive that heroin addicts in Vancouver are receiving heroin to battle their addiction. A safe zone called Insite provides addicts with clean syringes, antiseptic wipes and other instruments, with heroin included.

Allen Schauffler, Pacific Northwest Correspondent for Al Jazeera says, “It’s a program that’s grown out of a couple earlier research projects into the effectiveness of methadone and suboxone–heroin alternatives —in treating heroin addicts. And the people that are now getting free heroin prescribed by a doctor, two or three times a day as needed, are people who were in those two research studies…”

Simply giving addicts the drug will reduce the harm they cause themselves and society. Giving them the drug makes is less likely that addicts will end up dead in an alley with a needle in their arm, or reduces the risk of robbery or theft in order for them to buy more of the drug.

But Schauffler also says, “It is a form of blackmail. What it says to these people is, ‘Yep, you are heroin addicts. A certain number of you, the most severely addicted are heroin addicts, you’ll always be heroin addicts, there is no hope of you getting off heroin, therefore let’s provide you with heroin so you are the least dangerous drug addict you can possibly be. It’s a very odd, very odd moral line to walk.”

Not everyone believes this is the best plan to solve addiction. Jim O’Rourke, the executive director at the British Columbia-based Vision Quest Recovery Society, says that the city is killing addicts with kindness. “We might as well put a bullet in their head,” O’Rourke told him. “We’re killing them. We just doing it in a much nicer way.”

2. End-Of-Life Care

It seems counterintuitive that we spend more money on people that have very little chance of survival. One-fourth of Medicare spending occurs in the final year of life. This care is often futile. It doesn’t always prolong lives, and it doesn’t always reflect what patients want. Families need to make the hard decision of an outcome that cannot be reversed.

When a journalist’s mother was suddenly put into a coma, he needed to make that decision along with his father and sister. He needed to decide if they would take his mother off the ventilator, or spend the money to keep his mother alive, even is there was little chance at survival.

The writers thinking was that he wasted resources for the extra two days his mother was in the ICU. He also thought that it most add up to millions of dollars of thousands of other families spent the same time, or more, deciding what to do.

With this thinking, he asked Elliott S. Fisher, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth and a leader of the Dartmouth Atlas, if he had wasted money and resources to keep his mother alive. Fishers response was, “No. You never need to rush the decision-making. It should always be about making the right decision for the patient and the family. We have plenty of money in the U.S. health-care system to make sure that we’re supporting families in coming to a decision that they can all feel good about. I feel very strongly about that.”

With the situation he had been in, we have the think of the real families that need to make this decision everyday. We should not rush this hard decision, even if that means we spend the extra money or resources.

3. The Polio Vaccine Boycott

It seems counterintuitive that the Nigerian people boycotted a vaccine that was meant to  eradicating polio. This plan was made in 1996 when Nelson Mandela launched the “Kick Polio Out of Africa” campaign, which aimed to vaccinate 50 million children in 1996 alone.

Nigeria, which accounted for 45% of polio cases worldwide and 80% of cases reported from the African region in 2003. This high prevalence was attributed to poor vaccine coverage during the previous control campaigns. But the of hopes of eradication were dashed by a boycott of the polio immunization campaign in three states in northern Nigeria, amidst rumors and public distrust.

Political and religious leaders of Kano, Zamfara, and Kaduna states in 2003 stopped the campaign by calling on parents not to allow their children to be vaccinated. These leaders argued that the vaccine could be contaminated with anti-fertility agents, HIV, and cancerous agents. Many blame the war in Iraq for the boycott and the belief of contamination. Many scholars backed and lead the boycott, leading to many not getting the immunization needed.

Embarrassed by the political undertone of the boycott, Islamic scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, President of the International Fiqh Council, said, “In fact, I was completely astonished about the attitude of our fellow scholars of Kano towards polio vaccine. I disapprove of their opinion, for the lawfulness of such vaccine in the point of view of Islam is as clear as sunlight.” Sheikh Qaradawi said that the same polio vaccine has been effective in over 50 Muslim countries, and blamed the SCSN for creating a negative image of Islam: “They distort the image of Islam and make it appear as if it contradicts science and medical progress.”

Truth of the rumor that the vaccine was contaminated with HIV and other diseases was never established but lack of trust in Northern Nigeria remained. Efforts of the federal government to shut down the rumors were rejected and had no effect. After the 11-month boycott, officials finally relaunched a immunization program for these Nigerian states.

Summaries—Dancers

Free Heroin to Battle Addiction:

It seems counterintuitive that Vancouver is battle heroin addiction by giving addicts a supply to free heroin but that is there exact approach. Vancouver is known for many things beautiful cities, snow capped mountains surrounded theses cities and beautiful people. While they are known for these things you also have to realize that it is also a hub for drugs, including heroin due to the fact that it is a port town. Most of these drugs stay in one section of a town referred to as “Downtown Eastside” which is right near tourist sections of Yaletown.

Vancouver has been trying to stem the problem for years they even set up a safe zone where people could come and shoot up under supervision or by a nurse not afraid of being arrested, called Insite. At this center addicts are provided with wipes, clean syringes and other instruments needed they are also providing the worst addicts with the best heroin.

This may not make any sense but the people that are getting heroin tow to three times a day are what doctors prescribe as a treatment for them now. This center has 26 people attending, these are the people that aren’t able to turn to an alternative in a effort to become clean. Thoughts are if you are giving these people a few doses of heroin a day to keep them docile and keep the sort of demons of heroin addiction at bay, the people they are prescribing to are less likely to end up dead in alley with a needle still sticking out of their arm. The harm that they cause to themselves and to society around them is simply reduced if you give them the drug.

This plan of giving heroin addicts a free supply of heroin and a place to do it may seem counter intuitive but it actually seems to be helping these people and the society. One member says that he is able to hold down a job due to this program being open. Also now that these addicts are just given the drug they are less likely to be on the streets selling themselves or stealing. This plan may just actually turn out to be a good one even though you never thought it would be. By allowing these addicts to have such a center where they are able to go and have the drug provided for them keeps them off the streets and lower the risks of deaths.

Why Are Babies Cute?:

It seems counterintuitive that the thought of things being cute, sexy, sweet and funny are backwards but in a way they are according to Darwin. It is a strange inversion we love chocolate cake because it is sweet, guys go for some girls because they think find them to be sexy. Also we adore babies because we find them cute finally we are amused by jokes because they are funny. This is actually all backwards they way we think.

Starting with the cake and it being sweet, our sweet tooth is basically just and evolved sugar detector because sugar is high energy and that’s why we enjoy sugar. Honey is sweet because we like it not because honey is sweet. Sweetness was born with a wiring which evolved. You have to look inside the brain in order to figure out why we enjoy sweetness.

There was anything sexy about the girls in the photo and it’s a good thing thing their isn’t because mother nature would then have a problem. For example how would they get chimps to mate. Chimps don’t hallucinate pictures of females in bikinis they are just wired to like what they see. We evolved in our different ways we lost our hair on our body they did not. Our brains evolved differently to in order to find what we find sexy and what they find sexy.

Our sweet tooth is an evolved instinctual preference for high energy foods and it was not designed for chocolate cake. Chocolate cake is just a supernormal stimuli for our sweet tooth.

It is important that we love/ adore babies and not be put off due to their messy diapers. In order babies have to be able to attract our attention but if babies didn’t look they way they do we would still find them adorable no matter how they looked. That being the strange inversion.

It’s hard to think that things aren’t actually known for being cute, sexy, sweet or funny the only reason we find such things like this is due to how our brains have evolved over the years.

Surviving the Shower:

It seems counterintuitive that showers can be considered a killer but due to the fact that a common cause of death for the elderly is falls, the shower may be a killer in a sense. If a man at the age of seventy five has about fifteen more years to live to reach the average age of a American man, he risks slipping in the shower about 5,475 times. Even though the risk of falling is only about 1 in 1,000 it is still a risk people are afraid to take. With these statics this man could potentially become injured or die five times before reaching his life expectancy.

After working fifty years as a field working in New Guinea he realized the importance of being attentive to the hazards that carry low risk each time but are encountered frequently. He learned this attitude when he was camping and suggested that they pitch their tents under a big beautiful tree, his friends refused due to the fact that the tree could potentially fall on them because it was dead. He thought they were over exaggerating but throughout the following years he realized that every night he camped he heard a tree falling in the forest. He considered that if a trees odds of falling were 1 in 1,000 he could of been dead in a couple years due to sleeping under them.

He adopted the concept of “constructive paranoia” which is a seeming paranoia that actually makes good sense, it often infuriates some of his friends. Americans obsess about the wrong things and fail to watch for real dangers unlike the New Guineans, who have to think clearly about the dangers they encounter. It turns out the Americans exaggerate the risk of events that our beyond their own control that cause deaths at once or that kill in spectacular ways, not thinking about the deaths we can control.

After his studies from both his New Guinea friends and Americans he became really paranoid, step ladders, and staircases. This thinking doesn’t paralyze him he still takes a daily shower and continues to visit New Guinea enjoying all the dangerous things. But not he constantly thinks about the risks and tries to keeps his accidents far below 1 in 1,000 each time.

It’s weird to think about the shower being killer but in a sense it can be due the risk of slips and falls. Not thinking about these causes of death and being naive to such a death can be dangerous.

 

Summaries- jdormann

  1. It seems counterintuitive that a company with the “buy one, give one” slogan would hurt local business. The Tom’s shoe company claims that for every shoe they sell, they give one pair to a person in a developing country in need. Although this idea is great for feel good people and people that desperately need shoes, it negatively effects local markets. The distribution of free shoes challenges local merchants by taking business from them and causing a decline in sales. Overall, the idea of “buy one, give one” is a great idea, but not good in practice.
  2. It seems counterintuitive that taking multi-vitamins could be detrimental to a persons health. The health and supplement industry stress how buying their products will increase health and wellness. In actuality, an excess amount of certain vitamins can increase chances of cancer and disease in the body. Trying to become healthier should not be based on how many supplements you take, but how well your body feels and how everything is functioning properly and as it should. Multi-Vitamins do have their place in the lives of picky-eaters, the elderly, and people with prior health issues that require more of a specific vitamin to remain healthy. There is no reason for healthy individuals that eat a variety of foods to be taking multi-vitamins, and it could even make them less healthy.
  3. It seems counterintuitive that a city would give heroin addicts free heroin. People that are addicted to drugs or other substances can have a very hard time quitting. Vancouver, began implementing a new program that gives their addicts a safe place to get their fix. The city gives addicts clean needles, high quality drugs, and a safe place to do it. It is not an attempt to get the addicts clean from drugs, but to make the addicts and the city safer. The program works as a type of blackmail to try and help the addicts see they really do need to get help, but it is still up to the addict to get help. Programs like this may continue to pop up in the future to help cities with addiction issues and drug related crime.

Summaries—MyrtleView

Men Define Rape

It seems counterintuitive that men be allowed to dictate the rape of women. Author Erika Eichelberger published Men Defining Rape: A History an article that shows the progress of rape throughout the actions and beliefs of men during the different years. Going back to the Babylonian empire, the Code of Hammurabi-the laws of Mesopotamia, believed that if a woman was raped when she was a virgin then her rapist would have to pay her father in property damage. As degrading as that sounds married women were treated much harsher when raped since they were thrown into a river for adultery. Rape was better determined in the late 13th century with consent being prohibited to girls under the age of 12. This is the foundation of statutory rape today.  Skip ahead hundreds of years later and rape is only acknowledged if the women were white since by this time slavery has ended. If a woman was of minority you were disregarded. Finally, in the 21st century men still have not learned their ongoing lesson. In 2011, Republicans advocated to limit funding of abortions for rape victims who did not show signs of resistance. Thankfully this plan did not come into effect, however a new term called legitimate rape is on the rise. Legitimate rape means the woman’s body has the ability to ‘shut down’ or stop the effects of being raped.

Happiness Cannot be Pursued; It Must Ensue

It seems counterintuitive that looking for happiness causes people to be less happy. In 2013, The Atlantic publisher Emily Esfahani Smith wrote There’s More to Life Than Being Happy, an article that discusses the differences of having a meaningful life as opposed to a happy life.

To convey the message, she uses the help of holocaust survivor, psychiatrist and neurologist, Viktor Frankl. Frankl questioned what the meaning of life was if people were living to die in the end. In a concentration camp, Frankl discover the circumstances that need to happen to determine his answer through two of his patients. One man had nothing to live for except his child while the other was supposed to live in a foreign country in the future. This single distinction has made all the difference.  Frankl concluded in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, that happiness could only be achieved as a result while a meaningful life is determined by how much one has suffered and the greater the responsibility someone takes on.

Researchers have confirmed Frankl’s theory. Studies suggest that people who have a purpose improves their mental and physical health as well as a high life satisfaction. Unfortunately, those who decide to try finding happiness are more likely to be less happy.  Psychologists were also able to analyze the categories meaningful and happy lives fell into. Meaningful lives were filled with people who are considered ‘givers’ while happy lives were ‘takers’. People with happy lives usually had every desire supplied to them and avoided high-stress situations. People with meaningful lives often had responsibility that came with self-sacrifice as well as dealing with a plethora of stress. At the end of the article it is concluded that one should strive for the meaningful life since it is more rewarding long-term.

Are Multi-Vitamins Dangerous?

It seems counterintuitive that multivitamins are unhealthy. In 2012, Mother Jones publisher Kiera Butler wrote Do Multivitamins Really Work an article discussing the effects multivitamins have on a person’s health. Butler let it be known that this billion-dollar market will say any positive health-related claim to make consumers buy their products. In reality, multivitamins are not the cause for good health in Americans. Those multivitamins that are said to protect customers from the risk of disease and illnesses do not.  Nutritionists believe that most of the vitamins and minerals people receive in the United States are through the foods they eat already. Adding multivitamins into a person’s average lifestyle could increase health risks and take away money that could be used for something more worthwhile. As a result of the negative effects of multivitamins senators want these products to be labeled by the FDA. These products should not be used by everyone because everyone does not need to take them. For this reason, the manufacturers of multivitamins are not happy with this new plan and are fighting against getting the FDA-approved labeling.

Summaries- amongothers13

Summary 1- “Do Toms Shoes Really Help People?”

It seems counterintuitive that a “buy one, give one” shoe business, such as Toms, a company in which people make a shoe purchase and then a pair of shoes is sent to someone in need, would not be much of a help to those people at all. However, Sarika Bansal from New York Times says that Toms might be guessing wrong. Do those people really need shoes?

Toms claims that the promotion of their shoes help children get an education, for in some places the children are prohibited from entering a school without shoes on. Sarika Bansal writes about her recent trip to Ethiopia, where she learned that the children that attend the school are gifted shoes from the school itself, meaning they are in no need of shoes at all.

When a tsunami hit Indonesia, the area was in a famine. People could not find food around them, so people began to send rice donations. This, however, only created a rice competition.

Toms also is known not to sell to local shoe stores, making it harder for the people to actually obtain the shoes. Bansal wrote to Toms and requested they start selling shoes locally so that more people can purchase them, but Toms never responded. Greg Adams made a comment that businesses such as Toms is considered a risk.

After the Haiti earthquake, people began to rely on NGO’s for food, for they knew their government would not supply enough for them. Toms decided to jump in and offer the Haitians shoes after the quake, for they simply assumed they would be in need. Alanna Shaikh wrote in a watchdog blog called “Aidwatch” an article called, “Nobody Wants Your Old Shoes: How Not to Help in Haiti”. She writes that people around the world never really know what is necessary unless they live there.

But, there is hope for buy one, give one companies. If they stop competing with other businesses, and if they start to cooperate with places in need to see what supplies they are lacking, they could start giving them resources they actually need.  One company is Warby Parker who makes glasses, and another is Two Degrees Foods donates meals to hungry children. However, it is hard to figure out the basis of the way Toms works, for there is very little information on their website, which is an issue because buyers want to know exactly how their money is being spent.

Summary 2- Men Defining Rape: A History

It seems counterintuitive to think that human beings could really deny a woman of being raped, however, the issue of rape has been evident for thousands of years. Overtime, men have been deciding on their own when it is okay or not okay to rape women. This article reveals a timeline of how men have been defining rape for thousands of years.

Hammurabi’s Code, 1780 B.C, claims that raping a virgin is “property damage” against her father. If you were married and were raped, it was considered cheating. They punished such sinners by throwing them in a river.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 states that if a virgin is raped, the rapist owes her father 50 shekels and to marry her.

In Rome, the word raptus means the abduction of a woman. This means whatever was done to her next was secondary to the abductor.

An old British Text called Fleta stated that if a women was raped and became pregnant afterwards, then she was not raped for you cannot be able to conceive unless you gave consent.

In North Carolina, a man could legally rape his wife until 1993. They believed woman gave themselves up by getting married, making the men entitled to sex.

If you were of color, if you were raped, it wasn’t considered “rape”.  Even after the abolishment, white people still ignored the rape of colored people.

In the 18th and 19th century, men began to demand proof that a women was raped. Dr. Lawson Tait even said that if the woman didn’t squirm a lot, it was not rape. He says, “You cannot thread a moving needle.”

Women have been fighting for laws against rape and to do with rape, including date rape, and the rape of gender neutral people. You do not have to be a virgin to be raped. No matter the relationship, if a women does not want to have sex, the answer is no.

January of 2012, the FBI finally decided to change their definition of rape to include different kinds of sexual assault, other genders, for the victim being unable to give consent either by intoxication or loss of consciousness or simply for being in the wrong state of mind.

It was just last year that Republicans took a step back on the rape of women. They proposed to cut back on funding of abortions to women who were considered to be in situations of “non”  forcible rape. Of course, this failed, but the Republican fight against women just begun. They insist that if a women is being raped, then her body would have the ability to prevent it, as if they could stop their bodies from being invaded.

Summary 3- Do Multivitamins Really Work?

It seems counterintuitive that multivitamins would be doing more harm than good, but studies show the facts. An estimated one third of Americans take multivitamins daily (myself being a part of that percentage). The studies show, however, that multivitamins aren’t doing what they are supposed to do, or what people think they do. There seems to be little to no evidence that actually shows that it makes people healthier. In fact, vitamin deficiency is a rare occasion in the United States. Advertisements say that the vitamins help with bone strength, the heart, breast health, but in 2009 a group of women conducted an experiment that proved that the vitamins did not protect any aforementioned diseases they were said to protect against. This included heart disease, colon, and breast cancer.

Also, most people get their daily supply of vitamins from the food they eat alone. The body has a limit for certain vitamins and minerals, so if we indulge in more than the necessary amount by eating the vitamins, it is not healthy for us, and in fact is quite dangerous. Some studies have concluded that excessive vitamin intake to lesions that can lead to cancers. For the elderly, if they take an iron pill but get enough iron from the food they eat already, it is possible they could increase their risk of getting heart disease. Pregnant women could also increase the risk of birth defects by taking too many vitamins.

Thankfully, last June, manufacturers began to be forced to add a warning label on the bottles of vitamins to warn their users of the possible outcomes if misused. However, some vitamins lack a warning label, such as a gummy vitamin for kids that exceeded the necessary amount of vitamin A and zinc.

Federal Health Officials are telling healthy people to stop worrying about taking vitamins. However, some vitamins could help people suffering from anorexia, and kids that are picky eaters. The truth is, we might not realize just how much we benefit from our food intake, and we also might not realize the dangers of taking multivitamins.

Summaries—Morty39

It seems counterintuitive that a circus making money off of their animals would treat them so poorly and let them die. Sadly that is exactly the case with the Ringling Brothers, most commonly known as “The Greatest Show On Earth.” They are most notably known for their elephants and all of the amazing tricks they can do. So you would think that they would treat their money making animals with the best care, wrong. There have been cases after cases of animal cruelty, and each time the charges are dropped, another elephant dies, or another video shows up of one of the workers hitting the animals. The first big case was with a baby elephant who became very sick and started showing no interest in things he loved. Kenny, the baby elephant, was supposed to be given medical care before being cleared for a show, the first show he was not cleared but still went on, same with the second. After the second and show, a veterinarian came in and gave him medication and said he should not do the third show, the circus went against that advice and put Kenny in the third show, where he had bloody diarrhea during the performance and once he was back in the cage he died. This death could have easily been prevented if they gave their animals the correct treatment.

The Feld Entertaiment are the ones running the Ringling Brothers circus. This group is very corrupted in many ways, the whole circus is uses illegal training of animals and abuse and they get away with  it every time. It does not matter who tries to take them down, it does not work. Whether it is the USDA, PETA, Ron DeHaven, and a couple more animal activists have tried, but none have succeed. It is surprising how the circus could get away with all of this abuse for years even with video proof and eye witnesses coming forward. There is an abundance of videos of the trainers hitting the elephants with bullhooks, ankusks, and electric pods. They would continue to hit and hit and hit until the elephants are crying for it to stop. It is plain and clear that these animals are being abused and treated poorly, even though Feld keeps saying they are living in perfect conditions. Even when lawyers start cracking down on Felds they would not release all the information they had, they only shared the files that did not have any hint of animal abuse. Sadly for the elephants it seems that no matter what Felds entertainment do, they always get away with it.

It seems counterintuitive that if a women was raped and married at the time, she would be considered an adulterer and thrown in the river. It seems counterintuitive that if a girl was raped, she would be forced to marry her rapist and her dad gets fifty shekels out of it. It seems counterintuitive that if a husband raped his wife, it was not illegal, and that was in affect until 1993 in North Carolina. Rape is rape, women see it as that, some men on the other hand do not. For example, the men in the Republican party, their idea of rape goes back to when it could only happen to somebody who is single, did not get pregnant or who was a virgin, and only females could be raped. It is honestly heartbreaking that the people in charge of America right now, do not know the definition of rape, and are okay with having a President accused of rape on multiple occasions.

It seems counterintuitive that multivitamins do almost nothing to make us healthier. Instead of making people healthier, the vitamins might actually be putting the person at more risk of a disease than without taking them. Vitamin deficiency is very rare, almost nobody gets it, because even though most of the food we eat may not be necessarily the healthiest for us, they still have enough vitamins and minerals that adults need on a daily basis. Suprisingly enough if there is too much vitamins and minerals in your system, it is actually bad for you. That is why if you take multivitamins on top of eating generally healthy, you will be consuming too much vitamins and minerals. For example having to much folic acid can lead to a risk of colorectal cancer. Some of the multivitamins already have too much of certain things in there, which is extremely unhealthy. One multivitamin has double the recommended dose for vitamin A.

Summaries—DudeInTheBack

How Organ Recipients Are Chosen?

It seems counterintuitive that a small child would not get first priority on an organ recipient list over an older, bigger bodied recipient. the question at hand is not why a child would get first dib’s on a kidney over an old man, but why there is a question of age in the first place? A child has an whole life to live. The converation on Sarah Murnaghan’s case brings up A moral issue that is very difficult to assess.

Sarah Murnaghan was put on the adult waiting list two years before she finally received a lung transplant. The controversy, and uproar about her situation begins with those who feel Sarah should have had higher priority due to her age, and being deathly ill. Others who argued this issue felt that giving an adult lung to a child is similar to a waste… considering the fact that giving a child an oversized organ (especially a lung) would have substantially lower odds of success over those who could benefit more.

The practical solution cannot come down to morality. The moral liberties of society, and the most intuitive answer to the issue would suggest that the lung should go to the child. In fact, The Murnaghan family believed this to be true whole heartedly to the point of taking legal action. Suing Health and Human Recourses, and winning the case providing their so deserving daughter of a lung.

How though? if this is the case, why can’t everyone just sue the hospitals, cause controversy, and magically get what they “deserve”. As a society, we are not capable of deciding who is allowed/has more priority over another person. If I was a 40 year old male who was on the list for 3 years, waiting painfully to acquire a transplant, and I was up on the list, I would expect to be the priority. Expecting this, and hearing about Sarah’s case would make me feel cheated. in fact, I’m sure that’s how most of the people before/after/as deserving as her would feel.

Free Heroin to Battle Addiction

It seems counterintuitive to continuously supply a highly dependent Heroin addict Heroin. A drug that ruins peoples lives, and not only that, ruins the environment by leaving used needles and equipment around, or passing out/dying somewhere in an alley should not be readily administered. The War on heroin seems to have no solution, and if even the law cannot quell the ongoing heroin epidemic, what can?

The City of Vancouver may have found their “solution” to the problem of heroin addiction. Simply taking in addicts, supplying them with clean materials to use, giving them heroin, and providing them with a safe place to do it in… under the supervision of a nurse of course. This program is ran in a safe injection site called “Insite” where addicts can shoot up as they would love to do, but not only freely, but where they cant get in trouble by the police. A sort of safe haven for heavily dependent slaves to a drug that is now safer to partake in their unhealthiest habit!

Vancouver’s solution is Ironic. Readily supplying an addict on a regular basis is not defeating the addiction, but I’m assuming that the upmost task/goal is not to prevent the addiction, but to prevent the addiction from ruining the environment around the addict. Since this seems like one of the only imaginable steps due to the fact that the legal pressure does not compel addicts from shooting up, providing them with a cleaner, more public friendly way of doing it is a good first step. I say “public friendly” because it keeps the addiction epidemic out of the public eye. The heroin epidemic will never solve its self. The only step to be taken is getting it off the streets, and into safe injection sites. It seems counterintuitive, but eliminating some effects is better than eliminating none.

This programs arrival into Vancouver dates back to 2008, and has “origins in Europe with countries like Switzerland, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands all administering their own version of the program in Vancouver” according to a detailed report in Time back in 2009. With more studies, experience, and results, we as a society could make a change on the horrible epidemic. For now, getting it away from the public eye and sort of hiding the problem by making it clinical will do.

Is This Photo Ethical?

It seems counterintuitive to expose the awful tragedies that happens to people by taking photographs exploiting those at their weakest. Getting that perfect shot may not always be so ethical, and in fact, in most cases it isn’t. exposing images of those crying, dead bodies, or anything that could be helped by anything other than taking a photo is very disrespectful, and corrupt.

The way I view it, is in favor of those who don’t have a clue what’s going on in the first place. Going through an unexplainable disaster, and then after having someone who (for the most part) does not care about the outcome of their muse is disrespectful. Situations like the Haitian police shooting and killing a 15 year old girl on accident while firing warning shots, and photographers rushing to the scene to get the best shot of the tragedy is completely unethical.

I’m sure many more photos of distressed victims of unexplainable tragedies are out there on the internet. Those in the pictures most likely do not get any compensation for the picture as well, while potentially millions of people view the post.

My position is not with against the pictures, but the photographers who witness and recorded the event. Its just like a paparazzi, getting the best photo while perusing it in places they should not be.

 

My Hypothesis – bugsbunny

1 ) Pregnancy
2 ) Teen pregnancy in America
3 ) Statistics of successfully college-graduated teen moms
4 ) Financial obligations associated with teen pregnancy and college simultaneously
5 ) Family dynamics and dependency of teen moms
6 ) How to create more positive paths for teen moms to still become academically accomplished