With the improvement of virtual reality headsets and technologies, VR can provide an efficient and cost-effective solution in treating people with mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Treatment methods and practices have been around for over a decade now but does not have much publicity and usage as other therapy methods. Mental health is also extremely important throughout every stage of life and can heavily impact society. In writing this paper, I am wanting to shed light on the importance mental health is to individuals and society, and on how VR can be used to effectively treat mental health disorders.
Research has shown that regulated small doses of LSD have the potential to be beneficial. Even though these studies show LSD as something promising, politics surrounding the use of it in the 1960s resulted in it being classified as a Schedule 1 drug (see left). This makes it difficult for scientists and researchers to obtain the drug for scientific use. LSD needs to be rescheduled so that researchers are able to conduct more studies for its potential future use in the medical field.
Let’s address the basics of what LSD does to someone. Users of LSD experience what is known as a “trip.” Feelings of bliss and leaving one’s physical body, sound and sight hallucinations, and other “mystical experiences” accompany the trip. Additionally, LSD impairs the recognition of fearful or sad faces and increases emotional empathy. It should be noted that the LSD I am discussing in this post LSD as a pure substance; the LSD that is found in street operations and made illegally typically is not pure and therefore does not wield the same effects as the LSD being used by researchers.
On April 16, 1943, a Swiss chemist known as Albert Hoffmann became the first person to synthesize LSD. Research on the drug was attempted by various organizations, but the experiments were poorly conducted. There were no clear control groups or quantifiable ways to record what was going on during a trip. Because of this, self-experimentation became the new normal for LSD. Timothy Leory, an ex-Harvard professor who was fired over his use of hallucinogens in research, promoted their use in the 1960’s counterculture. At first the use of these drugs was not particularly condemned by anyone; there was more of an indifferent stance. The public’s view on hallucinogens and the counterculture quickly changed when Richard Nixon had begun cracking down on drug regulations. Through media manipulation and legislation, Nixon overpowered the drug movement within the counterculture. Additionally, Nixon signed off on the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which regulated and sorted drugs into categories based on their medical use and how likely it is for them to be abused. Some drugs, like LSD, were placed into more restricted categories due to the government wanting to control the public’s use in order to gain more power over them.
One of the major recent studies on LSD was done in Switzerland a few years ago. The subjects in it were suffering from severe anxiety associated with having a life-threatening disease. The goal of the study was to use LSD so that patients would be less anxious and fearful of their unknown futures. They experienced at least eight sessions of psychotherapy, two with 200 micrograms of LSD. After the sessions, there was a two month and twelve months follow up to see how the participants were doing. The results of both follow ups can be seen below.
Not only had the participants anxiety decreased after initially going through with the treatment, but their anxiety levels stayed lowered after an entire year. These results show promise in the potential of LSD use in people with severe anxiety.
Rescheduling LSD to a Schedule II drug will allow for the recognition of it having accepted medical use. Researchers will find it easier to obtain in order to study, but it will still be just as regulated and kept track of in the government as it was before. Breaking down the stereotypes about LSD being a dangerous drug is the first step to getting it rescheduled. People need to understand the difference between political lies from the past and the promising results that it shows now.
Universities and Colleges are an exciting place for a lot of people, and adding sports teams only makes it better. Many popular high school stars make their decision on which university to attend based on the prestigiousness of that school’s sports program. Statistics show that men’s and women’s programs including basketball and football bring in billions of dollars of revenue each year for the NCAA—making universities across the United States branch their presence globally to students, celebrities, and coaches worldwide. The NCAA, coaches, and other people get a share of the profit, but none for the student-athletes who bring in the viewers in the first place. I strongly believe student athletes should benefit from their name, including but not limited to brand endorsements, gifts, contracts, and payment for their successes and publicity that they bring to their respective universities. This application of paying student-athletes change given the time-energy, money generated from the students and athletes, and so the student-athletes can benefit from their success given the following reasons.
If more athletes as high caliber as Lebron spoke up, it might force the NCAA to seriously rethink their policy. Although I think this should be a last resort, a boycott of NCAA events like March Madness and the College football tournament may have to happen if the players’ voices are not heard. Hopefully other solutions can be crafted before anything like this were to happen. Action does need to happen soon.
This is is hot topic that I believe will never go away. More and more students go to college and play a sport, even if it is not one of the big ones. You may be wondering, what kinds of solutions can be crafted to satisfy athletes and those high up in the NCAA. What problems lie in the way of significant progress? The NCAA is a well established bureaucracy, and trying to deal with them will be challenging to say the least. The fight must start somewhere.
Gen Y, Gen Next, or the most popular term to refer to this generation: “Millennial.” That title to older generations stirs up some level of either anger, frustration or confusion and it is widely accepted that this constant hate that millennials receive in society is normal. However, what is it that millennials have done to be forced to withstand this constant backlash, and is the hate from older generations justified for any reason? There is no shortage of news and articles circulating around highlighting all of the things that millennials have apparently ruined or done incorrectly and in turn, these young adults are constantly having to defend their generation. Though millennials have done their fair share of negative things for society, the hate they receive is not justified. The hatred just follows the pattern in history of older generations disapproving of modern ones because in reality, millenials have actually contributed a lot of positive elements to society.
Millennials are the largest generation history has seen and are often seen as a generation of technology. From an economic standpoint, that is where millennials are receiving a lot of their hate. According to Goldman Sachs, more millenials live at home with their parents, have a lower average marriage age and are putting off having children to later ages as well. However, all of this isn’t exactly something that they can be in control of. In the past ten years, the years where millennials were moving into their prime economic time, employment rates have lowered and the amount of student debt has risen. The average student loan debt for a post-grad millennial is $20,296 and has only bee climbing as the years continue.
Millennials are always being labeled as “entitled” by older generations. And though this is slightly true, as studies have found that millennials responded that they feel they deserve more in the workforce, entitlement isn’t always a bad thing. It can lead to stronger drive for success and inspire more creative ideas and thoughts. Millennials are transforming the workforce as a whole, past the entitlement. According to Forbes magazine, what they are changing is the typical workplace where a boss is so highly above everyone and is cramming tasks down their throats. They are changing it to where if something isn’t right, they will speak up and they aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo. They are also making companies be more open to the idea of flexible schedules, realizing that as long as work is getting done well, it doesn’t matter what time in the day it’s done.
The pattern of millennials constantly receiving hate had been seen since the earliest of times, even in the days of Aristotle, where they observed the younger people not being as wise as the elders. The reason behind this is that older generations consistently view younger generations as immature. It is just something that is widely accepted, even though it shouldn’t always be.
We all know that anorexia is affecting people all around us. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, 1 in 200 American women suffers from anorexia. People that suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia experience a symptom known as ‘body image distortion.’ I have always thought of this to be a very interesting but sad topic. This is when the individual, no matter the size, sees themselves as obese or fatter than they actually are. Brain imaging studies are also helping scientists see inside the minds of those with an eating disorder. For example, “researchers have found differences in patterns of brain activity in women with eating disorders in comparison with healthy women. This kind of research can help guide the development of new means of diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders.” This is evidence that an individual suffering from anorexia mentally is in a different state of mind regarding brain activity. This allows the individual to view matters, such as their body image, differently. Therefore, an individual with Anorexia misjudges their body image in a distorted manner.
One thing I decided to write about was how dangerous this was. I feel as though a lot of people agree that this is a dangerous disease but don’t take any part in it. The subject is kind of just let go with no care. So just how dangerous is this disease? A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported these eating disorder statistics: “5-10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease and 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years, Anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness (including major depression), The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15-24 years old.” That is why we must act on the issue of body image distortion, otherwise many people suffering will face the terrible consequences of these diseases.
We have all had those days when you have looked in the mirror and seen a reflection that didn’t satisfy you. But what if this feeling happened every time you saw your frame? For some people, this is their reality and daily struggle. A constant loop of dissatisfaction with their body weight and image. This diagnosis is called Anorexia Nervosa, otherwise commonly known as Anorexia. In more scientific terms, according to John Hopkins Medical Center, “Anorexia nervosa, also known as just anorexia, is an eating disorder. This disorder makes you obsess about your weight and food. If you have this problem, you may have a warped body image. You may see yourself as fat even though you have a very low body weight.” When an individual is suffering from anorexia, they experience what is called an altered body image. No matter how small they are, they see themselves in a different, bigger form. Therefore, an individual with Anorexia misjudges their body image in a distorted manner leading to dangerous, damaging consequences.
CRISPR-cas 9, which stands for “clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” is the most prevalent genome editing technology today. It has the positive abilities to enhance fruit preservation, and cure genetic diseases, but it also has the controversial ability to edit the human genome, in any way the scientists would like, where no guidelines are set in place … just yet.
CRISPR works like a pair of molecular scissors, by having the ability to cut strands of DNA. The Cas9 enzyme (molecular scissors), is what targets the section of DNA that is intended to be changed, but is directed by CRISPR. Together, they work as one to disable, or repair a gene, or insert something new where the DNA had been cut.
The thought of genome editing may sound fascinating, but it also has a scary side to it. There has been talk amongst scientists and medical professionals of human gene-editing and the “talk,” is now becoming reality. Human gene-editing has many benefits that can arise, like curing of genetic diseases, however, none of this can be properly executed if there are no ethical boundaries for those using the technology to abide by. There must be ethical boundaries for those using CRISPR, especially when it involves humans, because the “talk” of editing human embryos has also sky-rocketed. Scientists like He Jiankui, have escalated this conversation by going forward with editing the embryos of what would be two twin girls, without any boundaries or guidelines to abide by. Scientists and medical professionals all around the world were shocked that this was pursued, and became even more infuriated when it was announced that the twin girls would be susceptible to premature death, and would have been healthy if the embryos were not edited. The conversation that also comes alongside human gene-editing, is “designer babies.”
“Designer babies” is a hot topic of concern within the science and medical fields in regards to CRISPR. A designer baby is a baby that before it was even born, had its physical looks picked out for them, instead of having their characteristics occur naturally. The scientist, He Jiankui, had initially sparked this. First, scientists are starting with gender choice. Who is to say they will not begin editing the eye, hair and skin color of a newborn. This is where a line must be drawn and ethical boundaries need to come into place. The characteristics of a human being are what differentiates them from the rest of society, and are naturally occurring from the process of life. When a natural occurrence in life is disrupted, there is always a consequence. Who is to say that if one part of the human DNA is edited to have blue eyes occur, that there will not be an off-target mutation (when another part of the DNA is accidentally changed) that could affect the child’s way of living a normal life.
If scientists have the ability to pick and choose the characteristics of a child, they are taking away the naturally occurring ways of life, while also going about these scientific ways without any guidelines. If there are no guidelines, how do we prevent scientists from going rogue and trying to clone people and endanger the human species? If we want to enhance fruit preservation, and cure genetic diseases, there must be a fine line drawn for ethical boundaries and standards. Although there have been three major conferences about possible ethical guidelines, they still are not clear. How long before it’s too late and another child’s life is affected because a scientist was “testing” out the system.
Within the past decade (2010-2019), the smartphone industry
has completely blown up in size ever since the release of the original iPhone
in 2007. Features were starting to pop up left and right in newer renditions of
smartphones, which mainly came from Apple and Samsung, with fingerprint
scanners, denser screens with tougher glass, and better designs for the housing
for the phones. There’s quite a noticeable difference between the original
iPhone and the iPhone 5s, which were only about 6 years apart.
In the recent years however, the rapid innovation seems to
have slowed down. Since 2016, there have been a lot of new manufacturers pop up
in the Android scene, such as Oppo, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Huawei. More phones
are now being created, but the only real competitive features being brought out
are the prices. These companies are taking the current generation of phones,
with all of their drawbacks as well such as the loss of headphone jack and
having glass back panels, and pricing them much more competitively than Samsung
and Apple, which is working and helping the consumer but also hurting them since
nothing has been changing for the better.
Ever since Apple decided to drop the headphone jack to
replace it with a barometric vent, which is in no way more useful to the common
person who uses their phones, almost every manufacturer has followed them, with
the latest one being Samsung, after years of making fun of Apple for getting
rid of it. The most common reasoning behind this, besides Apple’s “courage,” is
that it gives the phone extra space to put more useful features. With the
technological advancements that have been made, what features constitute being more
useful than a headphone jack? Apple’s FaceID sensors take up space at the top
of the phone, and they started using L-shaped batteries in order to fit them
into the phone. It seems to be more and more of a push for Bluetooth headphones
as companies are dropping the jack and releasing their version of wireless
earbuds.
Aside from the drop of the headphone jack, phones have seen a
decrease in bezel size, inclusion glass back panels (even on phones without wireless
charging), and a push for thinner phones. What do people gain from this? Weaker
phones with the same battery life they’ve seen in their phones for the past few
years while the prices for these phones increase. Even the companies, such as
OnePlus and Huawei, have increased their prices from a very competitive tier on
their high-end models up to barely cheaper than the base models from Samsung or
Apple. This still seems to be good for the consumer, however this trend will lead
them to be exactly what they claim to be fighting against.
It is important to understand how insecurities heightened by social media eventually can lead to an increase in eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia and how social media can be used as a tool to inform and educate individuals as to how to look critically as the images presented and that there are definitely times that “you should not believe your eyes.” Throughout the paper, I focused on the positive and negative aspects of social media and how they relate to eating disorders on mostly younger women. Instagram is one of the leading causes of eating disorders. Instagram influencers can sometimes encourage inappropriate behavior through their posts and the content they promote. Some products Instagram influencers promote that can be seen as encouraging unhealthy behavior include waist trainers and tummy tea. These products promote unhealthy behavior due to the fact they are focusing on ways to alter your body and lose weight to their young followers. This is so important because young women look up to Instagram influencer’s like the Kardashian’s and think it is normal and healthy to be doing these things because their role models promote it when it is not. In addition, other ways individuals are promoting unhealthy lifestyle through Instagram is from food blogs. Being vegan has been a huge trend in recent years which can work for some people but can be a very restricting lifestyle for others. For example, a vegan food blogger named Jordan Younger was very open and famous about being vegan. Recently, she ended her blog and veganism because she felt that she was promoting an unrealistic lifestyle as a vegan when she was not eating enough food to live a healthy and balanced life. Later in the research paper, I talked about an eating disorder that has become popular in recent years known as Orthorexia. This eating disorder includes being consumed with healthy foods and living and eating perfectly all the time. This eating disorder type is so interesting because many believe it is lead by social media and mainly Instagram. Individuals get a lot of advice from Instagram on how to eat, when to eat, and what to eat. This advice is usually not from professionals but it is from Instagram influencers who have no professional background to give individuals this advice. Another trend that has been extremely popular over Instagram in the last few years is Facetune. Facetune is an app where you can alter the way you look by clicking a few buttons. This app has been so controversial in social media because some believe it is not okay to change the way you look for an Instagram post when you don’t look like that post in real life. Many Instagram influencers use Facetune and are exposed for it through Instagram pages like @celebface. The point of this Instagram page is to expose celebrities for not being honest about how they look and to show their followers they are not as perfect as they seem. Insecurities are enhanced by social media and can possibly lead to an increase in eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Sometimes social media can be positive through informing and educating individuals to realize not everyone and everything is as perfect as it seems. Some ways to reduce the amount of time spent on social media include blocking toxic people and spending time with people who support and care for you.
Every student at one point in their life has had to sit down and do homework. Most students do not enjoy it and it only brings them pain and misery. Parents are also not fans of homework and say that it causes a lot of stress in their house and tension with their kids. Is all of this homework good for the students and does it actually help them learn.
Homework is able to accomplish a lot of things besides making students miserable. Students that do homework and study for over an hour 3-4 times a week have been shown to perform better on test than those who do not. The students who studied 3-4 times a week even did better than those who studied every night. This shows that both to much and too little homework are not proficient for learning.
Homework is not just good for helping kids learn but actual enjoy school. As weird as it may sound homework actually gives little kids a sense of responsibility and the feeling of accomplishing something. This feeling is than associated with education and school in general and kids enjoy school more. This only happens when homework is administered properly and is not just used to take up three hours of the afternoon. Than it has the inverse effect and kids will resent both school and homework.
The proper way to administer homework that allows kids to both enjoy it and learn is by being smart about it. The teacher should look at the lesson plan for the day and see what topics the kids will need to practice at home to learn. Homework should also not be administered every single night for the same subject. This means that a student should only have math homework three to four times a week and not every night. Doing this allows the student to learn the material better and get more joy out of the work as well.
One type of homework that should never be assigned is busy work. Not only is this type of work a waste of the child’s time it does not teach them anything except to despise school and homework. This homework should be banned from schools. Homework is not something to just hand out for the sake of handing out it is to help continue the learning from home.
Teachers should spend a lot of time picking out the perfect homework assignment. It has to both incorporate what is being taught without confusing the kid. It must also take up the proper amount of time where it is not done in a minute but does not take the whole night. If this is done it is an effective tool to help kids learn and enjoy school more.
“White Cop Shoots Black Man” is a title way too familiar we see everyday in the news. The issue of police brutality is much deeper than this common article title. Police brutality has a tremendous impact on African Americans and their communities. There have been millions of African Americans who have been affected by police brutality. “Black Americans have been policed by others (namely whites) since their arrival to North America hundreds of years ago” (Harris 13). Police brutality is only a part of the broken system towards African Americans living in the United States today.
“African Americans accounted for 27 percent of all people and 37 percent of unarmed people killed by the police in 2017” (Hillstrom 118). Despite, African Americans being only 13 percent of the population in the United States. The percentage of people killed by the police is more than the actual percentage of African Americans living in this country. That percentage only accounts for one year, just imagine the number of African American lives that have been stolen by the very people that are supposed to be keeping them alive and safe.
Hundreds of pages could be filled stating different scenarios of police brutality against African Americans with the amount of incidents there are. Not to mention, the undocumented events that happen every single day with the contact between officers and African Americans which are riddled with racial profiling and stereotypes. The one that stands out the most for me is the heartbreaking story of Tamir Rice. A 12 year old boy who was playing with a TOY gun, which the police officer believed was real, and shot the 12 year old boy to death. Many more examples include Amadou Diallo a man shot 53 times, or the “police” handling a man in custody, Freddie Gray, who was found in a coma in a police van.
With deaths of unarmed and innocent black men killed for no reasoning at all except for wearing a hood like Trayvon Martin comes with extreme anger and hatred. With results ending with protests, and sometimes even riots. The connotation of riot does sound bad, but the reaction of the police makes it far worse than it actually is. “Since 1935, nearly every so called riot in the United States- and there have been more than 100-has been sparked by a police incident”, wrote Nikhole Hannah-Jones of ProPublica (33). The very people there protesting against.. . For example, in Ferguson, “Ferguson police responded aggressively, employing armed vehicles, riot gear, rubber bullets, and tear gas against the protesters” (Hillstrom 9). Also, “Urban police forces have repeatedly confronted unarmed protesters with military-grade weaponry, a symptom of despotism that Americans seem to tolerate only because the mot visible targets of such deployments are black” (Rickford). Black Americans are not nearly treated equally as white Americans, and incidents like this makes me question if they’re even treated like humans.
With all the tragedies of the results of police brutality, has became a tremendous increase in raising awareness. For example, the Black Lives Matter Movement which was created in light of the thousands of lives of innocent black Americans in more recent days. The involvement of many including a large population of young people and peaceful protests of Black Lives Matter has brought many successes. Including awareness to the police officers committing these horrible crimes or murders, and the need for the removal from the department and/or arrest. Tremendous steps have been made in this issue of police brutality, but there can still be no justification for the thousands of lives lost.
E110 FA19 Class Blog 
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