Archive for category In the News

Children’s Health.

Oct 29

Posted by Ashley in In the News | No Comments

A few weeks ago, I read an article stating that President Bush had vetoed a bill that would expand the children insurance bill on grounds that it would be too expensive – the bill “proposed [a] five-year expansion and $35 billion spending increase” and Bush only wanted the program to be increased by $5 billion. While it would have been a very expensive increase, it is an increase that would have been financed by a 61-cent increase in the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes so it’s not like the government hasn’t found a way to finance such a large increase and in my opinion, with the amount of people that shell out $30+ for a carton of cigarettes or however much it is for a pack of cigarettes every week we would not be hurting for the money!

What irritates me about the fact that this bill was vetoed on grounds of being “too expensive” is the fact that it sends me the message that insuring our youngest citizens is too costly and thus should not take place. Hell, I’m a 21 year old college student and if it weren’t for my dad having been in the military since the time he was 18, I would not have insurance at this point. It is important that the youngest children are insured because doctor visits in general are costly and most of us know that in the younger years you have to make many trips to the doctors just for regular checkups and for things like vacancies. It is really sad that our President has decided to veto such a bill that would expand the coverage of insurance on children on grounds of it being too expensive…I hope that the bill the House has revised does not get vetoed!

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Burn Cali Burn!

Oct 25

Posted by Ashley in In the News | 1 Comment

Man oh man! I didn’t realize that California was burning to death since I had been out of town over the weekend and wasn’t able to read up on my news :P When my mom picked me up at the airport the other night, she asked me if I still talked to Nathan who has been a friend of mine for two years who lives in Southern California; I told her I hadn’t talked to him in awhile. Luckily, he had yesterday off and was online so we talked for a few minutes – he said that he wasn’t near any of the fires…well the fires were on the other side of the mountain from them so they weren’t close enough to be evacuated. During the conversation, he had to leave to go help his mom get his aunt off the mountain before the fires caught up to her :( Just glad he’s okay, I feel bad for the thousands of other people who have been evacuated and lost their homes to the fires, must suck to live out there…ugh! I’m telling you, the way those fires start and spread – the firefighters deserve trophies with the way they’ve been trying to handle the situation, unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be doing much good considering that water-dropping helicopters were forced to stay grounded today because the conditions had gotten so bad that they couldn’t fly per government rules :( Hope they get things under control soon otherwise California will be burned to death and be no more!

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Progesterone May Help Heal Brain Injury?

Sep 27

Posted by Ashley in In the News | No Comments

Could you imagine how the medical field would change if brain injuries could be healed/fixed if a discovery of how to fix the damaged tissue was found? Millions of brain damaged patients would rejoice if something like such was discovered, and we may be closer than some think to such discovery. Doctor Donald G. Stein is a brain researcher and university administrator who has done many test on rats and the recovery time from brain damage. He noticed that after drilling into a rats skull and vacuuming out sections of the brain to see the affect on their behavior, that some female rats promptly recovered from the injuries while the males remained impaired.

This got him to thinking that perhaps the female hormone, progesterone- a natural female hormone that protects fetuses in the womb, -  aided in the healing process of the injured brains in the female rats. Stein has been working on a hypothesis that states progesterone may help protect and heal injured brains which if proven to be correct will change many things in the medical field when it comes to dealing with brain injuries in humans. Even raising such a question as to healing injured brain tissue has overturned medicial orthodoxy that states that brain tissue, once injured, stays that way which is a feat in itself. And while Stein and his medical colleagues are not sure of the outcome of a large-scale human trial over the next several years, it could possibly produce a new treatment for the estimated 10 million people world-wide who suffer traumatic brain injuries each year. Wouldn’t that be grand?

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Crocs: The Cause of Shoe Entrapments!

Sep 18

Posted by Ashley in In the News | No Comments

CrocsMost of you know what Croc shoes are and in case you don’t they are the latest fashion must have, made of flexible soft, synthetic resin which makes for one very comfortable shoe. They are popular amongst adults as well as young children, being made in sizes as small as 4/5 which was released this past Spring. However, while they are the must have of the season they are in the hot-seat for the reason why shoe entrapment’s on escalators has risen in recent months. In recent news, a four year old boy wearing Crocs got his foot stuck in an escalator at a mall in Northern Virgina, and while his mother was able to yank him free he did suffer some heavy bleeding due to his toenail being ripped off…the supposed cause? The Croc shoes he was wearing.

It is being speculated that because of the Crocs flexibility and grip that the shoes are getting caught in the teeth at the top or bottom of the escalator, causing serious injuries if the person is not freed. However, I beg to differ on this…while the Crocs may cause a slight problem when it comes to the “teeth” of an escalator (which has yet to be “proven”), I bet you $20 that most of the injuries especially those involving young children (which most of them were) happened because the child was bouncing around on the escalator and/or not behaving in a proper manner when it comes to riding on an escalator. To put the Croc shoe in the hot seat as the reason why shoe entrapment has risen is wrong because it could happen with any shoe: how about a loose shoelace getting caught in the escalator, are you going to turn around and say that tennis shoes or any shoes with laces are dangerous to wear on the escalator? Not to mention, all escalators have warning signs clearly printed on them before you step on that states one should keep hands and feet away from the edges of the escalator. If you practice caution, I am sure these injuries would have not occurred and if you have a young child you can easily hold them in your arms should you feel that they could be injured.

Not to mention, it has been stated by The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, that escalator accidents caused more than 10,000 injuries in the last year, HOWEVER, the agency only has a few records specific to shoe problems; only two shoe entrapment’s have been reported by consumers since the beginning of 2006. The mother of the boy who got his foot caught was made aware of the possibility that his shoes caused the injury when she took him in to the doctors, she then pulled up Crocs + escalators on the Internet and found many articles about the issue…I think she then believed, without really knowing, that the Crocs were to blame.

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Miss Teen South Carolina.

Aug 29

Posted by Ashley in Entertainment, In the News | No Comments

The other day while browsing Yahoo! News like I always do, I came across an article in which they spoke of Lauren Caitlin Upton’s (Miss Teen South Carolina) response to the a question about why one-fifth of Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map. At first, I thought it was just a recap of some of the events from the pageant but little did I know that this poor girl amidst the camera lights, live audience and judges made a fool of herself by answering with the following response:

“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.” The Star

At first, I laughed when I read the article and later saw a Youtube video of the clip from the pageant itself…a few seconds later I asked myself “what the hell?” Luckily, Miss Teen South Carolina was able to redeem herself on the Today show in which she was asked the question again and responded with the following answer:

“Well personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t. And if the statistics are correct, I believe there should be more emphasis on geography.” The Seattle Times

Much better the second time around, Miss Teen South Carolina. Miss Teen Colorado ended up winning the pageant, however, despite her horrible answer Upton was third runner-up.

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Tattoos not so permanent anymore?

Jul 29

Posted by Ashley in In the News | No Comments

While reading the news via Yahoo the other day, I came across an article talking about a new combustible tattoo ink and it caught my attention. I have wanted to get a tattoo for quite some time now, however at the age of 21 I have yet to go through with it because 1. I am not completely sure what I want to get, it has to be original & meaningful, 2. I’m afraid I’ll freak out because of pain and mostly reason 3. I don’t want to get something I’ll end up regretting later and if I have to remove it spend thousands of dollars on multiple laser treatments to remove it.

But now, with this new combustible tattoo ink one can get a tattoo without it actually being permanent per say! The tattoo is still as permanent as an ‘ordinary’ tattoo but the ink is different in the sense that it “is made by storing dye in microscopic capsules that will stay in the skin for good” which allows for easier removal with fewer treatments that are less painful & less expensive should one ever decide to have said tattoo removed.

Apparently, the new ink which is due to hit parlors this coming fall which will also raise the cost of a tattoo considerably is under some heat with people thinking that the idea of removable ink makes the tattoo far less significant in purpose as it’s not “forever.” I have to say I disagree. While the new ink makes it EASIER for said tattoo to be removed, it does not say that the tattoo will be any different than a “normal” one in the sense that it is still permanent and looks just like a regular tattoo with regular ink; the new ink simply gives those of us who wish to get a tattoo or those that already have tattoos a greater option should we ever change our minds. And if you really think about it, how does this new ink which just makes it easier for one to get a tattoo removed make it any different than the ink of another tattoo? Tattoos can be removed now through laser treatments that are very expensive and require multiple treatments (6+ usually from what I’ve read), as with this new ink people will still have to get laser treatments however they will be less painful and less expensive as one won’t have to receive multiple treatments because of how the new ink is formulated.

So…maybe now I’ll consider getting a tattoo even more :P

Source: Company creates combustible tattoo ink

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Video Gaming an Addiction?

Jun 27

Posted by Ashley in In the News | No Comments

I always tend to read the news on Yahoo and CNN when I’m up late at night and as of lately, I’ve been seeing this articles of the possibly of “calling excessive video-game playing a formal psychiatric addiction.” I’m not exactly sure what to think of this. I realize that today’s children, teenagers, and young adults stay in doors more and use the TV, computer and video games as their form of entertainment rather than going out in the yard and playing tag or I don’t know working in the yard if you’re an old teen/young adult. However, to put video gaming into the same category or at least compare it to alcoholism is kind of extreme in my opinion.

A lot of young people, college students and even some older people have been playing the online video game World of Warcraft since it’s release back in 2004. I mention WoW as the game of choice, because it seems that any time an article about excessive game playing comes up WoW is mentioned, anyways… I, like most of the people have played, have put off school, friends, family, being outside to play the game instead; I have been holed up in my room for many hours just sitting at the computer playing. Does this mean I was addicted? My mom would say yes. My family would say yes. I would say yes to a degree because I always have/had the choice to stop…I wasn’t playing the game because it was something that I absolutely NEEDED (not like an alcoholic NEEDS his beer), I played because I was bored, I had nothing else to do: what is so wrong with playing a video game (whether it be for 10 minutes or hours) after going to classes all day (college student) and/or going to work a PT job afterwards?

Everyone has their own personal reasons for playing WoW, as they do for playing other video games. If you’re a younger child, then the parents need to take more responsibility and turn the damn TV off when they think enough is enough. Encourage them to go outside instead or just take the games away completely. As for those of us that are older and enjoy gaming, it really isn’t as extreme as these articles are making it out to be and I wish they’d stop. Like I said, a lot of us do it because we’re bored or after a long day of classes/work it’s OUR way to relax and chill out…you just have to make the decision for yourself when to stop.

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