Oceanic Undersight

According to a recent article, the oceans of the world are slowly becoming unable to support the organisms that live within them and could have potentially drastic future effects on us humans. This is due to several factors, most of which are man made. The first factor is global warming that causes the oceans to reach unsafe temperatures for the organisms living inside them near the surface, leading to their eventual heat-related deaths. Another factor is the amount of trash that is dumped into the oceans, particularly plastic, that is able to get into the gills of most fish and around the necks of other marine life strangling them to death. Another main factor leading to the deaths of the oceans is overfishing in general. Whether for food or for sport, fishing is a major way of spending time all across the globe. Because of this there is a high chance certain populations of marine life could be fished to extinction, eliminating their presence from this Earth completely. A final factor affect our oceans is toxic chemicals from factories being dumped into them. Not only does this lead to overall marine life death, but it also poisons drinking supplies and washing water for communities. In other words, by poisoning and slowly killing our oceans with these factors that have easy alternatives, we are poisoning our future survival as a species. The worst part about this is that there are easy alternatives to every single one of these factors that would save the oceans, if we used them enough. To solve global warming have less factories producing greenhouse gases, to solve the trash recycle what is recyclable and put the rest inside the earth or burn it, to solve the overfishing put more regulations in place for fishermen (like with deer hunting), and to solve to poisons from factories going to oceans scrub out all of the toxic chemicals and dispose of them in a more proper manner.    

Ironically Ignored...Because it Should Be

There has been a new study surrounding the meat industry with a general conclusion that people who eat more processed meat are at a higher risk of getting cancer over time. While it’s not as drastic of an increase compared to other consumables that increase the risk of getting cancer, such as tobacco, it’s still said to have a profound effect. However, the majority of people should not start freaking out and going all out vegetarian from here on in. Humans have been eating processed meat for decades now and it’s not likely that you’ll start seeing the meat industry being restricted in federal courts on how the can advertise or sell their products, mainly because of the risk increase being very small. People who eat processed meat were recorded to have 2 times the chance of getting cancer than people who didn’t, but compared to tobacco increasing a person’s risk of cancer by 20 times it doesn’t really stack up as a complete endangerment to humans. In other words, you have just about the same risk of getting cancer as walking outside in the sun. We, as humans, try and avoid things that cause cancer for the most part (tobacco, radiation, etc.) ,but freaking out over every little thing that increases the risk of cancer just slightly is pointless. In fact, a lot of the things we need to have to survive as humans has a slight increase to the risk of cancer. The main contenders of this trait are sunlight and water, so to freak out over meats being identified as increasing the chance of getting cancer isn’t really much to worry about overall. It might cause people to eat a little less hotdogs and bacon, granted, but it most certainly is not worth everyone becoming a vegetarian. What should happen is everyone living their lives how they want to live them with this little fun fact simply tucked away in their minds, either to be forgotten or to remind them that they’re very much mortal beings. 

Teenage Transcendancy

I recently was given an article that talked about how the U.S. teen birth rate has been dramatically increasing over the past few years. Now, me being a guy, I have no idea how most of that works for those of the female gender and quite frankly I don’t want to know, but there is one thing I found interesting that the researchers who wrote the article said: one of the main reasons the teen birthrate has been declining so much over the past few years is because teens have developed the ability to better respond to environmental conditions and think of long term consequences more. I found this main idea of a paragraph within the article not only interesting because it actually credited teens with having abilities to respond to certain environmental stimuli (considering all the crap we get from psychologists saying we’re forever underdeveloped) but also because it showed how teenagers can pick up on certain trends in society and change them for what they feel is best for the future. It has finally come to be known that the majority of teens do not act completely on impulses and that now the majority of teens seem to be able to act with the knowledge of the consequences of our actions. While this may have been assumed by some, many people today do not think teens act with consequences in mind. As I said earlier, we’re constantly ratted on for being inconsistent and completely impulsive by most psychologists today, especially when they want to sell a new parenting book (not to offend all psychologists, however, most do actually good work that benefits rather than work that completely regards an entire age grouping as completely and utterly ineffective at decision making) and now, with this new article being created, we’re finally given at least some credit for not being as finicky and fickle as adults used to consider us. Now, if only this would be seen by everyone...

Reprimand's Final Resolution

There are many different opinions circulating for quite awhile now about whether punishments along the likes of detentions in schools are really effective ,if at all, at dealing with and preventing future classroom disruptions. Many people say detentions are effective because of the supposed ‘fear of authority’ in all students will keep them in line if strict disciplinary rules are shown to be enforced in schools. However, I would like to think otherwise.

While I may have never really been in detention during the entirety of my educational career, I have come to know a few people whose daily schedule usually included at least one trip to the principle’s office. Usually this wasn’t because of outbursts of rage but of normal ,and seemingly regularly scheduled, pranks my friends would pull on either a specific teacher or the class as a whole. After reading the article we were given, however, and thinking back to these events in my early childhood, I can safely say that the statement on detentions said by most people is pretty much either false or a “back in my day” kind of statement. The reason for this is because if every student had the inferred fear of authority from detentions, there wouldn’t be people going to detention on a regular basis. All people are unique, this includes their thinking of the outside world. With this said, as anyone can probably tell, I do not find detentions that effective for several reasons, one of which being the scenario described earlier. The second reason I do not find detentions very effective is because of the way students are usually treated in detentions. In most detention sessions that I’ve seen/ heard of, the student is given a worksheet to do while he or she sits quietly at a desk for a certain period of time. Now, there’s nothing inhumane or anything that screams cruel and unusual punishment in that, but those aren’t the problem I find in this scenario. The problem I find is that the student isn’t socialized with to say why he/she did what they did and why they felt they needed to do it. The reason I find this peculiar is because, if a student isn’t told specifically and/or explicitly why what they did was wrong and not given options on how to better resolve the problem in the future, then how in the world to teachers expect students to never want to do what they did that got them into detention again? This is my main driving point for why most detentions are ineffective: they don’t seek out solutions to the actions of the student, only slightly reprimand them for what they have done and nothing more.   

Asimilar Aesthetics

The essay given to us in class first starts by saying how a song album titled “Lemonade”’s song lyrics could be viewed as a nicely written essay about the human condition and then goes on to talk about all the different ways writing could be altered and presented in different ways. The central point of the essay is that writing is not a static art form. It’s not just “you learned how to write and now you know everything” because writing constantly changes medium, style, and technique based on what the author wants to happen and what mark they want to leave on the reader. Under these circumstances I do agree with the central point of the essay. This is mainly because throughout history it is apparent that writing as a whole has changed in style, technique, and medium because of current events and what the authors of the time wanted to happen when someone read their work. For instance, if  a person were to read a piece of writing printed in the 1500s and compared it to a piece of writing from today, that person would observe very drastic changes in all of the aforementioned fields in comparing the two works. One of the most prominent would probably be the linguistic style and diction of the two works, considering what is considered “common slang” and word choices change as time passes as well as entire languages (i.e. English and Old English). Another one of the most prominent differences in the two works would probably be technique of the author getting what he/she wants out of the reader (with linguistic changes also comes different ways of persuading and informing). With my knowledge of the history of writing, and these examples as support, I can firmly say the I agree with this article.      

Exploration Exselsior

The exploration of planets has been a hotly discussed topic ever since NASA’s Apollo program landed a man on the moon, and with the innovation of technology and new understandings of the dynamics of space the human race is closer than ever to begin human exploration of space and all of the planets within our galaxy. There is just one main problem keeping us from exploring our entire solar system: economics.

While we currently have all of the technology and understanding necessary to begin manned deep space exploration, we as a race currently lack the willpower to spend the required amount of money to reach that goal. Spacecraft aren’t cheap, as found out by NASA, and to have enough of the necessary equipment, supplies, and materials necessary for exploring/colonizing planets just causes the bill to go higher and higher. Now, I could spend hours on how money shouldn’t be the determining factor and how without currency everything would be better, however that’s not the point I would like to get across. Even though it would cost millions of dollars to begin exploration/colonization of our solar system, there would definitely be a large advantage, and payout, for doing so.

The major advantage of these missions is the one everyone’s had in their heads for some time now: leaving Earth. It’s really no secret that we’re running out of our nonrenewable resources that are staples for our everyday life, and while these may already be on the brink of becoming useless anyway with electricity and all, Earth as a whole is running out of it’s main semi-renewable resource, land, to support our overall population of around 7 billion. Exploring Mars and other solid-state planets would definitely quell fears of eventual overpopulation and colonization would be a great fix for the problem overall.

That’s the obvious reason, now the lesser known one that makes this whole venture economically worthwhile: minerals IN SPACE! Yes, there are confirmed reports of rare earth metals being found on different planets and in other spacial structures like the asteroid belt. This would cause a great amount of these rare metals to be mined and capitalized on by corporations and other companies, paying back all funds raised with interest.

So, is it worth it to explore space? Definitely, not only for the betterment of economies, but for the betterment and continued survival of our race as humans.    

Entertaining Psychology

They’re these little seeds in the back of your mind, waiting for a chance to grow and show themselves. Whenever you think about them you have no idea why they popped into your head in the first place. Some are simple, sometimes overly-optimistic thoughts while others are the exact definition of pure evil and sadism. I’m of course talking about intrusive thoughts.

Intrusive thoughts are basically involuntary thoughts people have that seem weird to them when they think about them and are hard to get rid of/manage since they constantly recur. Sort of like when a person goes into a room and forgets why they’re there in the first place, there has to be a reason they’re in there but they can’t think of it. Such is the same with intrusive thoughts, they just sort of happen ,and keep happening, without any reason the person having them can think of, for them to exist.

Intrusive thought in general is usually attributed to things like guilty consciences or evil dark sides. However, this isn’t always the case. Intrusive thought could also be caused by traumatic events involving a certain one of the five senses or by the environment one is exposed to. The majority of the intrusive thoughts people have are, unfortunately, unpleasant and have even lead some to complete and total insanity. When someone thinks “intrusive thoughts” they usually picture this nice little child who is very timid and bashful suddenly thinking about everything totally opposite of their character (such as  turning into a dreamed Texas Chainsaw Massacre with them being the main serial killer). However, not all intrusive thoughts are necessarily as bloody, gorey ,or evil as real-life Jason Voorhees next to you at the bus stop. Some intrusive thoughts can actually be somewhat of a good thing. As stated earlier, intrusive thoughts have the ability to change people usually because of their recurring nature. So, if a nice kid can be turned into an insane monster with intrusive thought, what’s preventing a relatively mean kid from being turned into a kind fellow of the community? Nothing, that’s what! Intrusive thoughts are not necessarily things deemed unpleasant by society, they are things deemed unpleasant by the person having them. If someone thinks being mean is good and they start having intrusive thoughts about being good to others, that can have a major psychological effect on them. Certainly this isn’t always the case that people are changed by intrusive thought (I manage it quite well ;)) but it just goes to show that intrusive thoughts are not necessarily a bad thing. I personally think intrusive thoughts are what can lead us to our fullest potential in life and can give us a better understanding of how the human psyche works and functions.