All around the world the drinking age in each country fluctuates. There are many different views across the world on why it should or shouldn’t be at a certain age. There are even a few countries that do not have a minimum drinking age whatsoever. There are fourteen that require an age of 16 and seven that require the age of 21 for drinking. The high majority of countries across the globe require an age of 18 to have consumption.

Each person has their own personal opinion on what it should be, and their own reasons on why it should be like that. America is 21, and we also have one of the highest binge drinking rates in the whole world. There might be a correlation somewhere in there. Maybe americans binge drink so much due to the fact that we aren’t allowed to drink so we have to get all of out drinking done on those times we actually do drink.

For the countries that have it set at 16, some might say that the age is simply too young because our brains are simply not developed yet. According to news-medical.net, our brains do not stop fully developing until we are into our 20’s. Could too much alcohol hinder the development of the brain before it is completely done? Although people in these countries on average do not seem to have any different brain problems than any other single country. So who is setting the bar at the right height?

In my opinion I think the drinking age should be 18 everywhere in the world. It would cut down on binge drinking in the countries where the legal age is 21 and it would also stop the countries with the age of 16 from possibly effecting their development of their brains. I don’t see the age changing anytime soon, at least in America.

Sources:

http://www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol/LegalDrinkingAge.html#.VBuivUu4mlI

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20110923/Human-brain-development-does-not-stop-at-adolescence-Research.aspx

This summer a huge social trend that went around sites like Facebook and Instagram which was called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. For this challenge, all participants were supposed to pour a bucket of ice cold water over their head and then nominate three of their friends to do it in 24 hours. If they failed to accomplish this task they were supposed to donate $100 to the ALS foundation.

This may sound like a simple task that is just made to put the participant in some discomfort, but what most people don’t know is that the exact challenge has some significant meaning to it. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, “is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord” (www.alsa.org). Most people are under the impression that you just have to get through the quick cold or be subject to pay the money to the foundation. But in reality the feeling of having ALS is comparable to the feeling that you get for the short amount of time that the cold water hits your back and shoulders.

I did the challenge and when the ice cold water hits you, you almost feel paralyzed in your shoulder and back. It is a really uncomfortable feeling that only lasts us for a few seconds, but people with ALS have to deal with that all the time. The whole premise of the challenge was to put the participants in a the same shoes for a little while as the patients with ALS. Not only was it made to raise money and spread the word about the disease, but it also raised awareness of what it feels like to have the disease.

What people don’t understand is that there is a whole underlying science behind why this challenge is important to the foundation. So for all the readers who have participated in the challenge, now you know what it feels like to be affected by this condition. The challenge itself was very brilliantly chalked up, raising awareness and also over $100 million dollars for the foundation.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dandiamond/2014/08/29/the-als-ice-bucket-challenge-has-raised-100m-but-its-finally-cooling-off/

http://www.alsa.org/about-als/what-is-als.html

Concussions are a very serious injury that can occur at anytime. They most commonly happen during sporting events of all kinds. What a concussion really is, is when you receive a rough blow to the head and your brain hits your skull usually causing unconsciousness. Anytime you mess with your brain it’s a bad idea, but especially if you get knocked out. A concussion is just like any other injury, where you need time to heal. When you break your leg, the doctor puts you in a cast and you are supposed to stay off of it for a few weeks so it can heal. If you do not stay off of your leg, it will continue to be broken and not heal correctly. The same goes for a concussion, you need to give your brain a break so that you don’t overwork it and damage it even worse.

In many sports, professional or recreational, players are not giving themselves enough time to properly heal before going back out on the field. For example this year in the world cup, not one but two players in the tournament went knocked completely unconscious but yet still returned to the game in less than two minutes. Clearly they were knocked out and concussed but their trainers decided it was acceptable to throw them back onto the field. This same action happens plenty of times throughout all sports, and it just simply isn’t safe.

When I received my concussion, which was a very minor one, my doctor did not allow me to get back to the sport until at least a full week of being symptom free. For me that ended up being two and a half weeks before I was capably of returning.

What are the repercussions of concussions? If you are concussed and receive another concussion you can potentially get Second-Impact Syndrome which in most cases will stay with you your whole life, and in some cases has been fatal. This shocking video shows how bad the results of this syndrome can be, which all could have been avoided if he hadn’t played too soon after his first concussion.

This is a serious problem that should be addressed by all sports organizations. Concussions aren’t taken seriously enough for what terrible things can come from them. Everyone needs to become more aware of concussions true repercussions.

Sources:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/concussion/basics/causes/con-20019272

When Is It Safe To Return To Work or Sport After A Concussion?

GMO’s or genetically modified organisms are “organisms whose genome has been altered in order to favour the expression of desired physiological traits or the output of desired biological products” according to Merriam Webster. Genetic Engineering can have some very beneficial uses, including an increase in crop yield, lowered costs of production, and it can serve as an active pesticide (Nature.com). If they are so beneficial to farmers, what’s the problem?

What most people don’t know is the negative side effects of what the GMO’s can do to us. A popular GMO used in crops is one that naturally produces a pesticide inside the crop so that farmers don’t have to spray it. If the crop has the pesticides in it that ward off insects, what do you think that is doing to our bodies as well. In small doses it probably won’t do much but now that GMO’s are being put into many products our consumption will be going up, which cannot be good for our bodies. There hasn’t been many intensive studies done on humans to see the exact long term effects it has on our bodies because most of the popular GMO companies will not allow it, which seems pretty sketchy to begin with.

   (it says patent pending on the corn)

In India they use a certain genetically engineered crop called BT Cotton. When they let it harvest, many of the sheep went and grazed on it. It was then observed that many of the sheep ended up dying. Not even just a few of them but the number was in the thousands. We as humans are not sheep so it might not have the same effect on us, but is that something that you want to chance? More extensive research should go into the side effects of GMO’s before it is simply too late.

Sources:

– http://elitedaily.com/life/gmos-are-killing-us/

– http://www.globalresearch.ca/gmo-scandal-the-long-term-effects-of-genetically-modified-food-on-humans/14570

Children these days have many ways to entertain themselves whether they are inside or outdoors. One popular past time among these kids is playing video games, which come in many different genres consisting of : sports, adventure, MMO, racing, puzzle, combat, shooters, etc. Some of the most violent ones are ironically the most popular among the players even though they are rating M for mature by the ESRB. The law in America says that you have to be 17 to purchase an M rated game or you have to have a parent or guardian who is 21 purchase it for you.

Many of the school shootings that occurred have been linked to playing violent video games by the media. The Columbine Shooting, Virginia Tech shooting, Oslo Norway, Sandy Hook, and many more were blamed on the shooters interests in violent video games. Supposedly all these shooters were known to play these violent video games, and that was what led the media to believe that as a possible blame for their acts. “The terror suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, who is now in custody, wrote about how he used Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and World of Warcraft to help train for the attacks,” said John Gaudiosi from Forbes.com

Since the first Call of Duty (a very popular first person shooter) came out, over 139 million copies of these games have been sold. Since the break of the 21st century there have been 144 school shootings in the USA. If we do the math, and all 144 of these cases were linked to shootings, 0.000001% of the copies sold of Call of Duty can be the cause of a shooting. Those only account for one violent game sold, when there are many more of that genre who have all sold in the millions.

With all these numbers, can we correlate violent games to outburst of violence and school shootings? The school shootings can be considered anecdotal due to the very small percentage of actual shootings compared to all the copies of the game that were sold. Another possibility could be that a reverse correlation is in affect. Maybe the mentally unstable children who would go on shootings cause them to want to play the violent games. Or maybe there is a completely different third variable like family issues, birth defects, or mental problems that could be to blame.

From the statistics that i have found, it looks like there are just too many copies of these games sold compared to the numbers of shootings to openly say that violent games cause school shootings. In my opinion, I believe that there is a third variable that comes into play that causes these kids to act out in such a rash way.

Well I’m Shawn Sheenan from Langhorne, Pennsylvania.. its outside of Philly just like most freshmen it seems. I’m majoring in business and do not plan on being a science major because business just interests me more. I took this class because my advisor said it would be interesting and easier than some of the other science classes available. Heres a picture of a cat.. in a suit to fit the business theme..

That’s all for now.. Have a good day.

Shawn Sheenan