Bone cancer

In 2008 Mark Herzlich started feeling a sharp pain in his leg. He got an MRI scan, it showed that it had a tumor, a very rare tumor. Only 400 Americans get diagnosed with it every year. He was unable to play anymore. Only 30% of the 400 survive. He fought hard against the cancer, he had a low chance of surviving it.

Is college worth it?

College is getting more and more expensive, it costs about a quarter of a million dollars to through a good college. Most Americans cannot pay this off, so they have to take out student loans. Most graduates look for jobs after they leave college. But with the messy job market most jobs are hard to find. A recent poll found that only 50% of college graduates find full time jobs. $250,000 is very hard to pay off if you don't have a job, even worse if the job is hard to find, for example European Shakespearean literature analyzer. Peter Thiel is making a program that pulls students out of college, and pays them $100,000 to start a business with a new product. Even after given a huge head start, only half of the students are successful. However what Peter Thiel is trying to say is that for-profit colleges, are bad. Most colleges aren't that bad.  

Mr.B Was Late

LATE LATE LATE LATE

Hank

Hank was a CIA agent that worked in Afghanistan. He targeted the Taliban after 9/11. They made a strategy to get the Taliban, president Bush encouraged them. Hank had Bin Laden in his sight in 1990s, but president Clinton didn't allow a missile strike on the compound, because it would take about 5 hours to reach the compound. Later they put Hellfire missiles on the drone itself. Some people argue that the government is overusing the missiles. They kill hundreds of civilians but have only killed a few members of the Taliban. Hank has now retired, and wrote a book about his time as a spy.

Jim McMahon

There are many cases of concussions in the NFL. Players in the past didn't know about the long term affects of concussions. The owners of NFL knew about concussions, but they didn't inform the players about it. After the players retired, they started to feel the long term affects of a concussion. Jim McMahon had 3 reported concussions while he was playing, he might have gotten more unrecorded concussions. He now has a very limited short-term memory. His loss of short term memory is affecting him, his girlfriend, and his friends. 

Bring Back The Extinct

Some scientists are doing things that we thought were only possible in sci-fi. Many animals have been extinct for 10s of thousands of years, for example mammoths, saber-tooth cat, ground sloths. Studying ancient DNA has only been started in the past 20 years. Cloning, and inter-species cloning is happening right now. To clone ancient animals you need the DNA from them, and the DNA needs to be preserved. People are searching Antarctica for more DNA.

Why it's hard to give up

Saying "No" to drugs, to unhealthy foods. But it doesn't always work, because people sometimes say yes. But a group of scientists are looking at the amount of dopamine in a person in your brain. People get a higher amount of dopamine in the brain when drug addicts see drugs. People lose the dopamine receptors when they do drugs. It is very hard to stop, if not impossible if you lose a lot of your dopamine receptors. 

Religious Cults

Religious cults have been around forever, Most modern religions started out as cults. Some of us look at modern cults and we cringe, we cringe at the lives of the kids that are being destroyed, how their hate affects the family members of the lost soldiers, whose funerals that they protests. Luckily our constitution allows for these people to exist.  People aren't supposed to talk about other peoples opinions, but I think if their opinions affect others, and put others in danger, then we have a right to criticize them. 

CISPA

The US government has been trying give corporation more power. Their latest law that they're trying to pass is CISPA. It is similar to SOPA in that it allows any internet provider, email provider, Facebook, and other things that we use to get access to all of our info, and use them without further consequences. Companies can get access to all of your emails, and use them maliciously against you, without you being able to counter-sue them.
This law would allow big companies to force sites like Yahoo, Google, and YouTube, to take down things that they do not like. CISPA has a high chance of getting passed because many big corporations are supporting it, for example Facebook, AT&T, and many others. There is also a media block out on most news sources, and there isn't much opposition against it like there was for SOPA.

Hate Crimes

There are still many hate crimes that happen in the US. Hate crimes are crimes committed against people who have a different belief system, sexual orientation, and race. Most of these hate crimes take place in the south. Some people in the south are still racists, some are even extreme in their racism. This type of 1930-ish behavior is shocking for a modernized country. Hate crimes are committed by all races, there were recent hate crimes against people of the Muslim faith in the south, about 2 were killed. More commonly there have been many hate crimes against blacks, Travon Martin being one of them.

Criminal in The family

Crime is said to run in the family, for example if your brother or someone in your family is in jail, then you might have a allele for crime. If they find a DNA sample from a crime seen, and if it the sample is not exactly similar, it could be a family member. If most of the alleles are matching but 3-5 out of the 26 alleles are not matching, should the state have the ability to search for the DNA of their family members. Some say this is a violation of private property. But cross searching DNA in a family could help solve cases, set falsely incriminated people free. So far this technology has been successful in the UK.  

Is Sugar Toxic

Americans eat a lot of sugar, we eat 150 pounds of sugar per year. People seem to hate High Fructose corn syrup, but both table sugar and HF-CS both contain fructose. Fructose is a complex carbohydrate. We are evolved to love fructose because when humans lived in the wild, we had to eat a lot of fruits for energy.
Also data shows that the more sugar you eat, your risk of heart disease, obesity, and some think that it also increases the chance of cancer. If there is a small tumor in the body, the tumor takes in glucose, and grows.
Eating sugar also fires the reward systems in our brains, similar to drugs like cocaine. Sugar should be eaten very lightly.

The InstaGram Story

InstaGram was a simple idea made by a few app developers. It was a great idea, Instagram was a social network, it allowed users to upload images with cool, hipster photo filters. Surprisingly this app had over 35 million downloads, in a year. And the developers weren't making any profit. They had to use all the money they with ads, and sponsors to maintain there image servers for the app. After a ton of requests from android users, they also made InstaGram for android, which made the Apple users mad, because InstaGram wasn't a closed community anymore(even though anyone with an iPhone,iPod,iPad, could download it before...And it already had 35 million downloads). Few weeks after they made the app for android, InstaGram made a huge unexpected move. They let Facebook buy them, for $1 BILLION. Let this sink in, InstaGram is a free app that is about 550 days old, if $1 billion was spread out across all users of InstaGram, each user would be worth $27. InstaGram is another example of a Boom and Bust business model, that was very successful.

Crashing Euro

America's economy is slowly coming back.  But the biggest risk to our economy isn't here in the states, it's over seas in Europe. Spain, and other countries in Europe are gaining a lot of dept. If any of these countries default, the Euro and Europe will get severely hurt. They will also impact the US economy. Spain has had many full out riots, burning buildings and destroying property. But Spain has a good reason to be upset, they think that Germany is trying to run the country. 

25 Years Behind Bars

In 1986 Morton was arrested for murdering his wife. The prosecutor had evidence that Morton was not guilty, and he was morally obligated to show that evidence. But he didn't give up the evidence.  Morton was able to get out of jail after he was proved not guilty by DNA testing. Morton tried to get back at the prosecutor for holding back important evidence, but under the supreme court law, prosecutors have absolute immunity.
If DNA testing was available in 1986, I think Morton would have been exonerated.

Facebook for jobs

Some jobs require you to give the employer your Facebook ID and password. The boss or interviewer goes through all of your photos, messages, and chats that you had. If you don't give them your Facebook, then you don't get the job. I think this practice should be banned. The employers have no right to view other peoples account. It is similar to them coming into your house and look at everything; which is against the constitution.

Trayvon Martin's Murder

Do you think this is justified?

No, this is not justified. Zimmerman, had no right to chase the boy while he was walking away from him.
The 911 operator clearly tells him not to go after him, yet Zimmerman ignores the operator.
Zimmerman had no right to claim self-defense, And Florida's Self-defense laws should be changed.


How big of a role does race play?

I think race plays a huge role in this case, Zimmerman says multiple racial slurs in his 911 call.
In another case, a white male shot and killed a person, and got away. He claimed self-defense and got his case dismissed. A very similar case in which a black male shoot and killed a white male, the black male couldn't claim self-defense even though the white man was chocking him.

Florida obviously has a court, and police department filled with racists.
This is obviously a court, and a police department filled with racists.



Could this happen to me or you?

The chances are very low, but yes it could happen to me.

One mistake

Goodrich was a star quarter back for a team. He moved up quickly. He signed a 4 year $44 million contract. However he was never committed to play football. His life was ruined after he got in a crash with a few cars. Goodrich was going about 80 mph. Two of the three drivers were killed, one was severely injured, but survived. Goodrich was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, he got 5 more years after he proved guilty. He spent his time as a janitor in a chapel in the prison, he was considered a model inmate. He was released from prison a few years later, and he met with his family and friends.

Face Recognition

The brain is a very difficult organ to understand. We know what some parts of the brain are responsible for.
But a few people had parts of their brains removed, because of tumors. They can't recognize anyone, even if they have known them for their whole life. Some people who have about the same brain activities as a face blind person, can recognize everyone they ever see. They can remember people that they have seen 10-20 years ago. These super-recognizers also have a hard time making friends, because they might have seen the person before, and it might make them look like a stalker.

White Tiger

A college football player went to a nightclub with his friends and they had a small mis-communication. His friends started throwing punches, The football player was beaten into coma. The football player never got out of coma. Out of the four people the attacked the football player, Casey was least responsible. Casey only got 6 months in prison, while the others got 15 years. Casey wanted to start playing football again. He couldn't join most colleges because of his criminal record. However Jackson State understood his problems, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Smart Cars

90 people die in car crashes ever day. Modern cars are the safest cars ever made. Some car companies are adding auto-braking systems to their cars. The car goes to a complete stop when there is a car, or pedestrian in front of the car. These technologies can save up to 30 lives everyday. A few cars have high speed braking. Which can slow down the car by 20 mph while going full speed. Those 20 mph can save lives.

Unemployment

There is a national crisis going on in America. Unemployment is a big problem, and it is getting worse. People with a very good college degrees, and good skills are becoming unemployed for 2-3 years. These people were guaranteed high paying jobs just a few years ago. Most current jobs do not like people who have been long-term unemployed. Companies are making it almost impossible to get a job. There are groups that help the unemployed get jobs, but the workers have be hard working and know how to look for a job.

Children Army

In Liberia the was a civil war in 1989. Little kids had to fight with machine guns and machetes. More then 500 refugees tried to hide from the military, they hid in a Lutheran church. The military came and killed all of them.
There were mostly women and children. There were grenades thrown, and people's arms and legs had to be amputated. The women and men who had to have their limbs amputated were treated as outsiders in the public.
Nobody respected them. So a group of amputees gathered and made a soccer team. One of the survivor from the Lutheran church massacre became the coach. There were 6 teams that were made. And they played games against other teams. They became role models for the disabled and amputees.

Wrestling

Wrestling became popular very quickly, Scott Hall was one reason why wrestling was popular. He became very popular, and very rich. He was using steroids, he started doing other drugs. Drugs ruined his life, he got divorced with his wife. His worst addiction was wrestling. He kept going wrestling after he got out of the hospital. He has to take multiple medications for his heart. He went to rehab 8 times. Now he is teaching his son how to wrestle and take the right paths.

Anti Depression Medication

Anti-Depression medication are used by 6 year old, and every age above. There is no doubt that these medications are being overused. Some doctors are starting to compare these anti-depression drugs, with placebos. Pharmacies are making billions on these anti-depression drugs. Placebos help with the short-term effect on a person, But anti-depression drugs do help some depressed people in the long-term. However the FDA is trying to pass these anti-depression drugs even if the placebo is more effective in the short-term in more trails.

Mind Reading

Gypsies and Mediums have claimed to read minds for hundreds of years, but they're obviously fake. But new research is proving that MRI scans can help "read" brains. It's still in its development state, and the patient has to sit very still for it to work, but works. Other scientists have found a way to read the brain to reconstruct the images that the person is seeing or has seen. This brings a big question to mind, is it moral or should it be legal to "read" minds.

Suicide

4,000 students commit suicide every year. Depression is a major cause for suicide. Even people who have everything, friends, money, and good grades. 1 out of 5 students has at least one phase of depression during their 4 years in high school. Suicide hurts everybody, it hurts their parents, family, friends, and their school. 

Bootleggin' n

Illegally "pirating" movies has been illegal for a long time. Now with the internet, DVDs, counterfeiting movies is more popular then ever. Warner Brother is a media company that is complaining directly to the government.
They want to stop online pirating, because they are losing about 250 million dollars every year, out of 10 Billion. Their latest idea was to pass an act made by Lamar Smith, that would essentially destroy the internet.

The music industry is also getting hurt by pirating, the artists are losing money, and we have to fight together to stop piracy. 

Dumps in Vietnam

Small villages in Vietnam are filled with poor families, they work in garbage dump, they work all day and sometimes all night for just 35 cents. They asked one of the reporters that visited this dump, to buy their son.
A group of teachers made a school near the garbage dump. They believe that education can stop people from getting kidnapped, and help them find a job. These volunteers also teach the parents of the students. Some other volunteers came to build a playground for the children to play on. The schools, teachers, and a playground gave these poor families hope.

Slavery

Slavery was a evil part of America's history. The south relied on slavery to keep up the economy. The south filled with poverty. The south wanted revenge, they government was getting affected by the south, and a "fight" started between the south and African-Americans again. The south significantly increased the punishment for minor crimes. There was obvious discrimination, only 15% of criminals arrested were white. The south started a new way to profit from criminals. The jails started "leasing" convicts to people to work for them; and indirect way to practice slavery.

Duke University

Duke university is one of the most prestigious medical university. They released a new way to treat cancer.
Doctor Potti found a new way to treat different cancer for everyone. Multiple groups examined the papers published by Potti, they found that the paper had multiple errors. Potti had switched the data around to get the theory to be correct. Duke investigated Doctor Potti, and found that his scholarship was fake. Potti left Duke, and went to a smaller research center in NC.

Computer Science 2

The first few weeks of computer science were weird. We have to write blogs about different things everyday, which I think is boring, and doesn't really relate to programming. We did get to make a few simple websites, that was fun because I never had the HTML unit in computer science 1. But I do enjoy working with groups and play games all class.

Facebook

Facebook started as a small test site at Harvard University. It is now one of the biggest site in the world. It started very quickly because it was not a public site, you needed a .edu email to join. Now it is used by almost everyone in the world.

Big Game Big Heart

Six-year old Josiah has a genetic disease that makes him age about 10 years for every year. He weighs 15-pounds, and is 27 inches tall. He was in critical condition the first year of his life, and almost died multiple times.
But his favorite thing to do is play baseball. He tries as hard as he can to hit the ball, and run to first base with his tiny legs, and arms. More than 1,000 people came to watch his last game of baseball.

Cheating the SAT

The SAT is one of the most important test that high school students take. Most students play by the rule, and take the test. But some people cannot do well on this test, this is where the cheaters come in. Rich students with a bad GPA hire people to take the SAT for them. The people who take the SAT for the other students, are very good at taking the test, he gets incredibly high grades on the SAT, and he gets away with it.

Leg Surgery

A young baseball player discovered that he has cancer in is right leg. His family was given a few options. First was to completely amputate his leg. Second was to replace the thigh bone with a metal rod. And the third was to remove half of his leg that had the cancerous tumor, and attach his foot on backwards on the knee joint. They chose the third option. The surgery was a 23 hours long. Surprisingly when he woke up, he could move his half-amputated leg.

Haiti Women Soccer

Haiti is the poorest country on the western hemisphere. After the recent earthquake, it left the whole nation in shock. It destroyed the  Haitian womens soccer team, their coach died, the player's families were devastated. Yet the players still wanted to play in the world cup. And again their hopes were crushed when they lost the first two games. The players had to go back home, back to nothing.

Ebay Stores IRL

More and more people are buying things online, from companies like Amazon, Ebay, NewEgg. But one complain people are having is that the items that they get, don't look like the image on the site. So a group of programmers and business men are making a store in which you find the item you want. And scan the item with your smartphone, and it will bill your PayPal, or phone bill. And the customer can pick up the item at the store, or it will be mailed to them. I believe this is the future of shopping, it solves all the issues people were having with online shopping, and the crowds at stores.

The Loliondo Wonder

"Faith" healing is very popular in third-world countries. Most people are gullible or desperate enough to believe this practice. Some are just to poor for modern medicine, and go to Loliondo for help, And people are "cured" by a placebo. My parents used to take me to a faith healer when we were living in India. The man lived in a very small house in a slum, thousands of people knew about this man all around India. He "fixed" my mother's diabetes. Turns out it was just a type of temporary diabetes, that would have gone away it self. When I came to the US, I did some research I found out this guy was a con man, paying people to make fake doctor notes, fake symptoms and take money. Though my parents still think he a legitimate healer.

Online poker

Poker is an intense sport, but now internet poker is becoming a big hit. The internet and big money should never mix. Unethical hacker are always present, and when everything is mostly anonymous, cheating is bound to happen. Because online poker is illegal in most countries, bringing justice to these hackers/cheaters is very difficult.

Curing AIDS

Thousands of people get diagnosed with HIV, and AIDS every month, but advances in stem cell research could cure these diseases. A man in Berlin got a stem cell transplant after he was diagnosed with AIDS and leukemia. He was the first person to ever be cured. Other people who have HIV got false hope from this case.
Some looked online, they found sites that looked legitimate, but were actually con sites. 

IIT

Asia is known to be a powerhouse of engineering, and technology. American companies are fighting to hire graduates from IIT, while american students from colleges in the US are struggling to find a job. There is no logical reason to do this, unless the graduates from IIT are insanely smart. People ask the question why don't american schools have the same rigor, my answer is that the parents of the students are much more laid back.
America has a much higher standard of living then other countries, so parents don't really have to push their children to study all day and night.

Texting and driving

Everybody texts, some people drive, few people do both at the same time. Texting while driving is a dangerous combination. Students think an accident will never happen to them, but most of them will change their minds.

Negative Energy

Energy drinks are used by working adults every day to stay awake. But companies like Monster, Nos, and Amp, are starting to market these drinks to young adults. And these teenagers are starting to buy more energy drinks than adults. You would have to drink seven cans of Cola, to receive the amount of caffeine of one can of Nos. Young people with heart problems are at a serious risk, a high dosage of caffeine can induce strokes, heart damage, or even kill you.

Stunning news

Tasers are a common tool that cops use. They can take down even the strongest law-breakers. They work so well that, cops tend to not follow routine instruction. This "laziness" has caused about 400 deaths due to misuse of these "less-lethal" weapons. Only 400 deaths out of millions, a lot better then the alternative. Guns are also misused, replacing them with tasers will lower death rates. Because tasers have the same effect on law-breakers as guns, it seems to be a better tool at stopping criminals.