Bad Vaccines or Bad Decisions?

I recently read an article that made vaccine’s appear to be evil in a way.  There is talk going around town that vaccines could be linked to Autism, according to Dr. Andrew Wakefield.  He stated that “Refusing to vaccinate a child is dangerous not just for that child but for entire communities.” He relates the idea to people who choose to smoke and purposefully spend money on something that will surely increase their risk of health, whereas vaccines being refused pose a threat on kids, which is why he wants everyone to avoid them.  The idea behind this seems to be that if everyone pitches in, they can beat the system.  It just seems ridiculous.  Why should people be avoiding a preventative over something that wasn’t proven to be true? This is the reason why the insurance premiums have raised – because of people out there that try to make their own rules of what should be left to the Physicians.  I think that if everyone stopped taking all of the vaccines, there would eventually become an increase in diseases that wouldn’t have normally arose.  People should leave the medical decisions to the doctors, and especially not live by an unproven statement. 

Link:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/01/20/parikh.childhood.immunizations/index.html

Ads In Bathroom Mirrors

In a recent article I came across, Marketing Executives have been toying with multiple ideas for ways to portray new advertisements in public places.  For instance, some of the ideas were along the lines of security officers at airports wearing jumpsuit style advertisements like the NASCAR drivers do.  Another was the implementation of ads in security bins.  Out of all of these, the one that actually got passed into use is what is referred to as Mirror Ads.  Now, airport restrooms at O’Hare Airport will have mirrors that are actually digital advertisements behind them.  The ads only turn back into mirrors once the person approaches them.  This allows marketing teams to monitor the effectiveness of ads by keeping track of the amount of time the person is standing in front of it. 
I think that this is a boundary that should have not been crossed.  It’s bad enough that ads are distracting us everywhere along the road while we drive and should really pay attention, like a highway, but now to have them in the seclusion of a restroom is really ridiculous.  The fact that we cannot have our 3 minutes away from the media and advertising is not fair in my opinion.  Ads like this are being forced upon people to read, whereas ads that are placed in an open environment are more welcoming because it gives the reader the choice of looking at it or not.  If people feel that the ad is being forced in their faces, I feel that they would be less likely to react to it.  The bottom line is that mirrors need to stay mirrors, and advertisements need to stay advertisements.

Link:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/03/06/greene.bathroom.advertising/index.html?iref=allsearch   

Teens Addicted To Tanning

I recently read an article involving teens who are addicted to having tan skin.  More specifically, these teens are addicted to going to the tanning booths that provide them with their dark skin.  Samantha Hessel is a high school that regularly attended tanning booths multiple times a week.  Her reasoning was fairly simplistic in the mind frame of a teenager, who was definitely not considering for a second that there could be risks involved.  However, after multiple times a week and many months, Samantha eventually did encounter a problem – Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer. It developed from a mole on her leg.  There is currently a battle between the Indoor Tanning Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics committee.  Should teens be banned from going to tanning booths? It basically concentrated UVA rays which equals more than 10 times the power of sitting outside in the regular sunlight.  There is question as to whether teens are old enough to consider the risks.  I feel that teens should most certainly be banned from attending these booths.  The price of damaging the body over a darker skin color is hardly worth it.     

Link:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/02/28/tanning.skin.cancer/index.html

Self-Harm Videos on YouTube: Dangerous or Therapeutic?

You can find almost anything on the internet and YouTube provides you with videos on any topic. There were even videos posted by teens showing them harming themselves or talking about harming themselves, or how they got out of that stage. These poor people deal with their emotional states by harming themselves. They explain that when they harm themselves, then just for a little bit of time they don’t feel the emotional pain and this huge burden on their shoulders. This type of videos, however, created a major debate on whether these videos create more danger or help the ones who are similarly situated and deal with their psychological issues.  What is disturbing is the fact that these videos were one of the most popular and viewed most often out of all of the videos on YouTube.

One side argues that these videos promote self-harming and that outside help is not necessary. It almost is telling the young people that self-harming is so common, it’s like a trend and therefore okay to follow. The other side argues that these videos are more therapeutic to show the teens who are in similar situations that it the state that they are in currently will pass and they will eventually get better. Therefore, they argue, that these videos provide a some sort of a support and are not in any way promoting the self-harming behaviors.

Internet, such a wonderful place to get the information and be connected with the rest of the world, but at the same time, it can be so destructive. I must admit that some websites filter things of that sort better than other ones and I must say that on YouTube pretty much anything goes. This is really disturbing that people would even think about putting such thing online to share with the rest of the world, but then again, when you’re desperate, you want the others to see what you’re going through and hope they’ll understand. I just don’t believe they think as far as what consequences they may really bring out with those videos. They may not think that because of them more teens could start mutilating their bodies to see how it feels and if that would help them deal with their own issues. These people shouldn’t look for help online though, but should seek an outside help. No one will help them get through their problems but can further push them and encourage their behaviors. There were so many tragedies last year, when college students started recording their own deaths of overdose, hanging themselves, etc. For what? Was it a cry for help or just looking for five minutes of fame? Was it to expose their pain or to expose other people to make them hurt? 

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/harm-vids-youtube-dangerous-therapeutic/story?id=12950980&page=4

How One Teacher's Angry Blog Sparked a Viral Debate About the Modern Classroom

Natalie Munroe, a high school teacher was suspending from her job for ‘venting online’. She wrote a blog, which she claims she kept for fun for her husband and friends to read, in which she described her students and lazy, whiners and even that she hated one of the students. She signed the blog with only her first name and the first initial of her last name and posted a picture of herself. Her attorney claims, that nothing she did was illegal and she should not have been suspended for what she’s done, as she didn’t use the names of the school or her students in her blog to give out anyone’s identity. Many of the teachers found this blog distasteful, and although they sympathize with her, as it is unbelievably hard to be a teacher in high school and it takes a lot of patience to survive there, venting online is not the best idea as it is very unprofessional.

I think Ms. Munroe didn’t realize that whatever you put online is never private. This type of information was bound to be read by somebody outside of her ‘circle of trust’. Internet is not a very safe place to post things of that sort as information spreads quicker than we think and many people got burnt that way. Nowadays even potential employers use internet to filer out their potential candidates based on what they post online, if they have any distasteful pictures, comments, etc. We have to be really careful about how we present ourselves online as anyone could be watching. Every small step we make can be viewed by others; strangers as well as people close to us. Although, what Ms. Munroe posted was not overly harmful to anyone, it was very unprofessional and she should have kept her thoughts to herself. All of us have tough days and want to vent, but once you have a professional carrier, you should watch what you say.  

Link : http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2052123,00.html

Researchers Aim to Print Human Skin

            Researchers from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are working on the development of special printers that would print human skin for soldiers on the battlefield, burn victims, etc. This project is getting $50 million for the Department of Defense and we are supposed to see results in around five years.

            The process works like this: they take a small sample of your skin and put in special solutions so that more skin cells are reproduced. Once that’s done, the skin cells are put in a special cartridge and then ‘printed’ on the patient. The printer is put above the wound and puts layers of skin cells on the wound, depending on the area, this process may take up to few hours. The researchers know they are facing a huge challenge but sound very confident and hope this could be a quick solution for the burn victim and soldiers who suffer on the battlefield. They are even hoping that in the future, they might be able to print human organs as well.

            To be honest, I am not really sure how I feel about this project. On one hand, I am amazed by the technology development and what we are able to do with it. I’m sure, if it works the way it’s planned, it will be a savior to many suffering people, who lost hope not only in rebuilding their bodies but also their lives. On the other hand, although, it sounds like a great solution to many problems, I’m having a really hard time picturing it. I’m sure there will be a lot of complications on the way, as there always are when transfusions and transplants are made. Moreover, what if there is a glitch and something prints wrong and mutates? Also, there is always a risk of the printers getting into wrong hands and people taking advantage of it i.e. selling skin cells or organs on the black market, what would make it worse than it already is. Innovations of that kind are great but always make me take a step back, because there are so many unpredictable situations that can come out of this. Soon enough, the science-fiction movies will start coming true and that doesn’t necessarily creates a better future for us.

Link : http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/19/bioprinting.wounded.soldiers/index.html#