Blog 17

The first article has a very good introduction that hooks the reader and makes them think because they started of with a strong question that made the reader think which was "Does anybody really believe that adding 50 million people to the public health-care rolls will not cost the government more money?"
"Let’s not forget that the existing Medicare system is roughly $80 trillion in the hole." The author tells readers a high amount that would shock readers who don't know much about health care right now.
"Free-market competition will lower costs in health care just as it has every place else." I liked his conclusion because it offered a solution by explaining how the free marker would save the economy. I think this article could relate to my topic (HPV) because I thought about how if we did have universal health care many doctors would not make as much money and this would be bad for doctors and researchers of the HPV vaccination.

The second article addresses the same view point I like how the author has a professional of health backing up what he says. "As Michael Leavitt ends four years as secretary of health and human services, he offers this attention-arresting arithmetic." He also talks about the issue on medicare and how it is going to cost us more because there is a huge population of old people. "When Medicare was created in 1965, America's median age was 28.4; now it is 36.6. The elderly are more numerous." This relates to HPV as the same thing I mentioned before.

The last two articles were for universal health care. What I liked about this article was the statistics he used howwever I felt like he used so many that I got lost.
"50% of consumer bankruptcies in the United States stem from medical bills, including a surprising number among households that do have some kind of health coverage. Nor do they include the approximately 20% of auto insurance premiums or the 40% of workers’ compensation premiums that pay for medical expenses." Its intresting how he talks about how in the long run we will save money.

The other article addresses the same issue I liked the introuduction he starts with because he says hes a liberal person who used to oppose the healthcare issue but now likes it. It shows how someone who is more consertative about this issue might be more open minded.
"I am a small-government conservative/libertarian and have hated the concept of socialized medicine almost all my life. But now, I could live with universal health coverage in the U.S.. Here's why."
Another quote I liked was, "Note that the countries frequently cited as models of universal health care, Canada and the U.K., spent less on public health than the U.S. did. Sweden, the notorious welfare state, spent 15% less than the U.S." I heard about the health care in other countries and by reading this I learned more and how if we follow those steps we can spend less money. This realtes to HPV because more people will be able to afford the vaccine for it and less peoplem will be at risk for cervical cancer.

Blog 16

So this year the debate about health care has been a heated topic.
My topic for the the book is on HPV. First I'm going to talk about the articles that are for the health care being a right rather than a privilege.

The first article I read the author used real life examples that anyone could relate to although it was a sob story, it made me think about events that I could relate too because the reality is that accidents happen and there are so many accidents everyday. This quote stood out to me "It was $2,000 for a 40 mile ambulance ride?" I thought that was a ridiculous amount of money to expect from someone.

The second article is Universal health care will save Americans money. The main point to this article is that we as Americans are already paying way too much for health care in fact he used statistics to compare our country with countries in Europe. "Americans spend more than anyone else in the world on health care. Each health insurer adds its bureaucracy, profits, high corporate salaries, advertising, and sales commissions to the actual cost of providing care." Another quote "the United States spent 15.3% of GDP on health care in 2004, while Canada spent 9.9%, France 10.7%, Germany 10.9%, Sweden 9.1%, and the United Kingdom 8.7%." I chose these quotes because the statistics he used helped him make his point and it made me thinking more about the cost of health care and how it could me improved.

The third article is that universal health care will improve the quality of medical care. This author talks about how we can learn from Europe and that by having universal health care doctors will be more inspired to work. I had a little trouble with this article the most. However the author did a jood job using quotes from important people such as a woman from Harvard saying, "In Switzerland, rich or poor, they all buy the same health care insurance."

These articles help me with HPV because it is a infection that can lead women to have cervical cancer however the cost of the vaccine could be a problem to some American citizens to get and this could be a problem if the person is sexually active because they can be at risk.

The next three articles are opposing universal health care

Article one: Health care is not a fundamental Right. He mentions how its not fair for a doctor who went to study to become a doctor for several years and of course a doctor being a high paid job they would be at risk at loosing a lot of money and its not fair to them. After I read this I realized even though health care is expensive its not fair for people to have to pay taxes for someone who is frequently getting sick while that person hardly gets sick. I like this quote. "I need hip-replacement surgery that will cost $25,000 and that I don’t have the money to pay for it. Since I have a right to health care, that means that I have a right to get the money from you to pay for my operation."

Article two: Universal Health care will be too expensive. Jacob the author talks about how it is not a right but a privledge a good quote I found was, "If I need an operation, then you cannot say “no” because that would be denying me my right to health care. Thus, isn’t the right to health care actually a power to force doctors to provide people with medical services?" I liked this because its not fair that a doctor needs to be forced to this operation for someone if they don't have the money. I know it may seem like being greedy but in the real world we all have to pay. and doctors need money too.

Article three: Universal Health care will worsen the quality of medical care. This is the exact opposite of how it will benefit us because the author mentions something that the other article did not. "The average wait for hip replacement surgery is more than a year in countries like Europe." So this wouldn't benefit us. What's the point of health care being universal anyways if you would have to wait about a year..which could lead you to being more ill or even death.

Overall My view on the health care is that it is a privilege. Even though I do think health care is pricey I believe that it is somewhat fair for the doctors who had to study many years of research and I think if health care becomes a right more people will be more lazy as far as jobs. I also feel like its not fair for citizens to be taxed on someone else's health care while I may be a perfectly healthy person.

blog 15

Describe the types of health care problems Americans face, and the government's role in seeking solutions.

Some of the health care problems Americans face are first of all over 46 million Americans are currently uninsured, the main reason for this is because of the cost. This can lead to a problem because if someone without health insurance is sick and there are many then they wont go and see a doctor which means more sick people in America. Another issue is pharmaceutical companies raise prices for prescribed drugs. There are many programs that stop doctors from accepting their patients with that coverage such as medicare. This somewhat relates to my article because of the cost of being treated for example getting the HPV vaccination may not be affordable to everyone so that may be one issue stopping people to get it.

http://www.realtruth.org/articles/090203-005-health.html
This link helps explain the crisis that is going on with America's health care.
As far as a solution, recently president Obama has come up with a health reform act that will make health care more affordable.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health-care/
In this link it shows a video of an old couple talking about their health.

1. Using a specific example, describe what makes a compelling character in narrative nonfiction or literary journalism.

Background information and quotes help make a compelling character. An example of this is from The Conevant, "No one in my family had cystic fibrasis, but my parents know what to expect." This quote shows that her family is healthy and so is she. Background info. also helps because it helps the reader what to expect for example in the Darwin article for example it talks about a scientist they describe him as old and working at an institute. To me this made me assume he was wise and hard working.

2. Using a specific example, describe what makes an interesting plot in narrative nonfiction or literary journalism.

The setting helps show a picture to the reader for ex. "Collins came from a poor farming valley, in Shennadoah valley, Virginia." The setting provided me a picture of a farmer working at a valley. The setting provides good information to also talk about the charcters. They both connect.

3. What specific steps do authors take to write non-jargon-based scientific writing?

Some steps would be defining terms and connecting it to the reader. The author has to decide wether using a scientfic term is necessary or not. It might not be boring if you could add humor or something related to the reader that would make them want to read more and wouldn't mind learning a new scientific term or two.

4. What specific steps do authors take to encourage their readers to connect with their stories?

Using loop, starting out strong, and using intresting facts. The way they they write the story are they using metaphors and other figuartive language? Not being too vauge.

blog 14 life the book and humanities

1. I will write about the adolescent stage and HPV

2.One relevant government agency that works in this area would be a doctor working for the department of health and human services. They would be in charge of giving the vaccines to women. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101013/hl_afp/healthcancersex.
This article talks about the dangers that someone can get without getting their HPV vaccination. It can lead to having cervical cancer. The current conflict with this is that although it is a very helpful vaccine for when you do have sex, parents are arguing that by giving their daughters this vaccination they are only encouraging their daughters to have sex because you wouldn't even need to get the shot if you didn't have sex.

3. Another concern to Americans is the cost of HPV, this is a economic issue and now these not many people have health care.
"The cost-effectiveness of HPV vaccination will depend on the duration of vaccine immunity and will be optimized by achieving high coverage in preadolescent girls"
link number 1:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18716299
link number 2: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.25211/abstract


human papillomavirus a vaccine for women
The stage of life is adolescent. The genetic technology that interests me is the way the risks for HPV-associated high-grade intra-epithelial neoplasia (IN) and cancer are increased.

One department that works in this topic is scientist. Their job is to research the effects of HPV and find out if it is harmful or helpful and what kind of risk it may have and the ages of women who should use it for ex. it is used for females from 9-26 years old.
http://cbs4.com/iteam/Gardisil.Girls.Vaccine.2.718592.html
In this article Dr.Harper who has dedicated 2 years of researching HPV speaks out against is in some way. Here is a quote from the article.
"Dr. Harper says she believes the vaccine is safe but cautions that time is needed to study potential side effects in larger numbers of young girls before any consideration should be given to mandating such a vaccine. "


HPV is a vaccine that is helpful yet may come with side effects that people should be aware of even though the age starts from being as young as 12 perhaps girls should wait until of older year of age.
Link one: bio http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/203188.php
Link two: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16672559

blog 13 life the book

Designer Babies:
Now these days we have come up with much more advance technology and one of the newest creations is designing your own baby. Basically you get to pick out what color eyes and hair you would like your baby to have. Genetic testing is used to make this baby. While it may look like a good idea to some people others find it wrong and babies shouldn't be picked what color eyes it should have they should have what ever eyes they are suppose to have without technology use getting in the way.


Adolescence
HPV vaccinations: HPV vaccinations are mostly targeted on teens so they can prevent infections such as cervical cancer and genital warts at an early age. It is very common and found in women in fact more than 80% of American women will have contracted at least one strain of HPV by age fifty. cervical cancer is the fifth most deadly cancer in women. It is a very important and helpful vaccination for teens and older women. However there are some parents who feel that by giving their teen this vaccination that it will encourage their daughters to have sex, although even with this vaccination their daughters wont be protected by all types of STI's out there.
Adulthood
Growth hormones used in sports:
Lately Growth hormones have been widely used and are very popular with athletes. It seems nice because of all the amazing features it does inside your body such as its ability to boost lean muscle mass, increase energy levels, and reduce body fat. It makes your perform better while playing sports and highly effective. Many people find this wrong and a way of cheating because while other people are working their butts off working out and eating healthy the other person may not be doing much because of the growth hormones they are using.

Blog 12 internship

For internship I would like to work in office with one laptop and I want to be able to work both indoor and outdoors. I would want to work with little kids and help them with their homework /or class work. A office where I can tutor a group of kids and in a office and also being able to go outside and play games or do a cool project.

My skills would consist of being patient with kids and and communicating well with them. I would like to learn how to teach and maybe gain some computer skills. I would like to share my knowledge and lern how to be a teacher.

Idea #3 should be the types of things you'd like to learn at internship. Would you like to learn how the business really works? Do you want to know how to bake a gourmet cake? Do you want to find out how movies are made? Describe the big ideas that you want to learn about while you are on the job. Post a cool picture that represents at least one of these big ideas.

I would like to learn how hard it is is to be doing things that teachers do, I'm used to always being the student so it would be nice to see how it is the other way around. I would like to learn how to be organized and plan projects and stuff because teachers are very organized and always plan things in advance.

Blog 11

After looking at Randy's class tweets I chose the article this article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703358504575544381288117888.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter.
This article was about scrapers taking away information from sites and using it for their own benefit so they can make money. There was a website for people who shared their illnesses to other people who have the same problem and these scrapers track down everything they say so they can come up with better over the counter or prescription products. It is a violation of ones privacy and it seems like a greedy tactic to make more money.

Now these days the internet is full of adds and many times the adds are suppose to target you by showing you adds on things that you would be interested on based on what your interest are. Many websites like myspace and other chatting websites have captchas which help determinate who is a robot and who is a person by making you type random letters. This has been one way to help and try to get rid of scrapers however scrapers have been able to get through it.

This article reminded me of how much adds you see now these days for example when you go to a gas station they have those little tv's for people to watch as they put gas into their car. I feel like adds are taking over its kind of scary.

The article that I chose that was related to the previous article on top is this one http://computer.howstuffworks.com/workplace-surveillance.htm.
In this story you will find how your boss might be tapping into what you do online at work. This could be argued for both sides the opposing side would say it's violating privacy and workers should be trusted. The side for it would say that workers slack off a lot during work and search irrelevant websites such as slacking and going on facebook and sending personal e mails.

Dying for Dixie

What was/were the root cause(s) of Michael Westerman's death?
The civil war took place in the nineteenth-century however Michael Westerman asked for a death wish when he drove to an area that was strongly against the rebel flag and he purposley waved around the rebel flag on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And this happend recently way after the civil war. The root cause for this was ignorance and jealousy for black people having the same rights as them because they no longer felt special, when he waived around that flag he felt a sence of power.
"That same weekend, a nineteen-year-old named Michael Westerman drove through Guthrie with a rebel flag flying from his pickup."

Challenge: In a natural and thoughtful manner, connect the dots between this reading and the readings/topics that we have covered in the past month (for example, we have already seen that Madison's concept of representatives in Fed. 10 is present in the middle school meeting).

A faction was shown in this group when the majority of people in the middle school wanted the rebel flag to stay as the school's mascot. There were two groups one for the mascot and one against. The school boards job was to decide who to listen to, they were sort of like a republic.