Blog 17: More Opposing Viewpoints

The first two articles talk about how health care is too expensive because the amount of money people will be paying is too much. It is already shown that the ratio of working people to retired old people is that there are more old people, and the working amount of people is slowly declining. "In the 43 years since America decided that health care for the elderly would be paid for by people still working, the ratio of workers to seniors has steadily declined. And the number of seniors living long enough to have five or more chronic conditions -- 23 percent of Medicare beneficiaries -- has increased." They say the government is already in debt and the plans for Obama's health care is already messed up. "And even if you put aside the demerits of a government-run health system, Obama’s health-care “funding” plans are completely falling apart. Not only will Obama’s health program cost at least twice as much as his $650 billion estimate, but his original plan to fund the program by auctioning off carbon-emissions warrants (through the misbegotten cap-and-trade system) has fallen through."



The next two articles argue that health care is not expensive. They talk about how we are already paying for universal health care with taxes, so it would not make a difference if we made it nation-wide health care. "We now have the worst of both worlds: we are paying for universal health coverage, but not getting it.  In fact, we pay more for health care in taxes than countries that provide universal coverage.  Then we pay more than that amount again in private coverage.  Additionally, what we have now in the U.S. is nowhere near a free market in health care." They say that what we are already pay in taxes goes to more than just health care. It is implying that if we had health care we would actually be paying less. " The U.S. health care system is typically characterized as a largely private-sector system, so it may come as a surprise that more than 60% of the $2 trillion annual U.S. health care bill is paid through taxes, according to a 2002 analysis published in Health Affairs by Harvard Medical School associate professors Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein. Tax dollars pay for Medicare and Medicaid, for the Veterans Administration and the Indian Health Service. Tax dollars pay for health coverage for federal, state, and municipal government employees and their families, as well as for many employees of private companies working on government contracts."



I personally think nation-wide health care would be more expensive because in many states it is hard to even find a job, and the people who are on borderline poor-middle class would become poorer. I also think that although everyone would have health care, the quality of the work would be very bad and many people would not be getting the care they need.

Blog 16: Opposing Viewpoints

The only thing I can see affected in my topic by the health care change would be people who have health problems because of HGH. With private health cares, doctors may not choose to treat a patient who has used HGH and is in critical condition in fear that they may lose the person and be sued. With nation-wide health care, a doctor does not have a choice and must help the patient.“That’s not what I mean. Why, to force doctors to provide health care services to others would be akin to slavery, especially if it’s for free. I think that doctors deserve to be paid for their services.” 
I believe that nation wide health care is bad. First of all, people who already have insurance have to pay much more now, second, "people do not receive care in a timely manner." Although everyone is "covered" by having health care, they will probably not get any when they need it, and it will most likely be poor quality health care. I at first was for the nation wide health care, but after reading the papers I am against it. 

Blog 15: Life-The Book and American History

Americans pay for health care by health insurance, sometimes jobs cover for health benefits, and their own money. The U.S Congress is coming up with ways to cover all the the citizens who do not have health care, and Barack Obama is making it one of his main goals as a president. The government is also trying to lower costs for health care and coordinate better health care.
Health Care Article 1

1. Someone who the reader would be able to connect with and someone who has some sort of conflict 

in their life. This way the reader will then care about what happens to 

the character. A character should also have personal traits that the
reader would admire and who can apply those traits to their specific
conflicts in their life.

An example is when Francis Collins is an atheist and sets his mind to never believe in God, and one day hiking he sees a frozen waterfall and feels that it is God's message to him.

2. The main thing that makes for a good plot is that it has subtle twists and turns that
the reader would most likely not see coming but enjoys to try and
figure out what would come next. And when something dire happens to the favorite character they can come out of, but it's touch and go for awhile. It also makes for a better plot when you use precise words to create suspense or tension.

An example of this is also in "The Covenant" when you would think that the judge would later allow stem cell research to be legal, but again charges it as illegal and stops the funding to it.

3. They use punctuation in order to include small tidbits of essential scientific information.

4. They provide characters with which the reader can easily connect with and/or respect which will in turn involve the reader more deeply in your plot.

Blog 14: Life-The Book and Humanities

 iGEM
I will be writing about the young adulthood stage. The genetic technology used is iGEM. iGEM stands for International Genetically Engineered Machine. The Congressional Budget Office works in this area in getting the funding for iGEM. Another part of the government that works in iGEM is the National Income and Product Accounts. This makes a distinction between current expenditures and investment spending.
iGEM Article 1
iGEM is being put to use to help stop abuse of synthetic biology. They are working to help gene synthesis companies and the customers to detect manufactured DNA as harmful agents for bioterrorism. DNA is being made easily now but some people are concerned that the use of the DNA will be abused. The Virginia iGEM team is playing a key role in preventing synthetic biology from being used in the wrong way.
iGEM Article 2
iGEM Article 3

Growth Hormone Used in Sports
The stage of life is adulthood. The genetic technology that interests me is growth hormones used in sports such as HGH. The House of Representatives is working to make it harder for people to obtain steroids. Now to get anabolic steroids you must have a prescription from a physician.
HGH Article 1
The government doesn't want steroids being used by professional athletes because not only is it bad for a person's health, but it also shows children who idolize athletes the idea to use steroids too. The government is now testing police officers, firemen, court marshals, and other governmental workers. People who take anabolic steroids sometimes lose a sense of reality and become very paranoid, which causes them to do something crazy. There is no law that requires public workers to be tested for anabolic steroids.
HGH Article 2
HGH Article 3

Blog 13: Life The Book

iGEM
This supposedly takes place through young adulthood. iGEM is a competition that MIT students and other types of students do to create genetically engineered products. Some people have problems with this because it is "playing god" in a way. Students are given "parts" to work with over the summer to genetically create some type of organism.

Growth Hormones Used In Sports
This is usually used in adulthood. Growth hormones used in sports are called HGH or steroids. They help people perform better and help them to build bigger muscles. HGH was first taken out of people's corpses, put into injectable form, and used for children with stunted growth. It was made illegal to use in sports, but people still use it.

Designer babies.
Designer babies start at conception. People are able to choose if their baby is a boy or a girl, and other traits. Genetic testing is involved in choosing things. Some people think this is wrong because you can choose what color hair your child has or what color eyes.

Blog 12: Beginning the Internship Brainstorm

Idea #1:
I would like to work in a small office area with only four or five other people because I enjoy small environments. If I was the owner of my own dentistry office I would definitely have a huge fish tank built into a wall. It is also said that fish help calm people down. It is somewhat like the dentist office in Finding Nemo. I also want it to be an area that me and other people will feel comfortable in.

Idea #2:
The types of skills I'd like to use are mainly just helping out by doing smaller things a dental hygienist would do, like passing different tools to the dentist, and also filing papers and answering telephone calls.

Idea #3:
The main things I would like to learn is basically how many patients the dentist has a day. For a small dental office I'm guessing there are only around fifteen to twenty patients per day, but I'm not sure. Also I want to learn the basics of dealing with your own private dental office. I'd like to see what goes on in a typical day and how the dentist deals with daily problems.

Blog 11: Twitter!

New Web Code Draws Concern Over Privacy Risk

My article was on the new HTML 5 which is bothering people because they have much less privacy on what they do online. I personally would not want the government or markets to be tracking what I do online, not because I have something to hide, but because it gives me a feeling of over exposure which I do not like. I think it's wrong that they are making this and unfair for many people. I don't think I will spend as much time using the internet if the new HTML 5 does come out, I will most likely end up deleting both my myspace and facebook, and only use the internet for emailing and research. 

 

A preview of HTML5

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/previewofhtml5 

Reading this article the opinion of HTML 5 was much different. This article talked about how it is going to make the internet much better. It apparently makes it possible to get to "more exciting sites" which I am very doubtful of. HTML 5 has been in the process of being made since 2004, and HTML 4 has only been around for about ten years. Although this article gave HTML 5 a good review, I still believe that HTML 5 will not only violate people's privacy, but also create problems.

Blog 10: Dying for Dixie

Well, I am extremely nervous because I feel like I am going to have a blank during the trial and I won't remember what to say, but I think that's only because I'm nervous. I don't think I'm 100% ready as of now, but I'm hoping to get there by tonight. All I need to do is finish answering the questions that I will be asked by the prosecution side.
I will be reading and re-reading the senate bill, house bill, and Eric Holder's evidence until the day of the trial to prepare myself.