News Log 8

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/spending-more-doesnt-make-us-healthier/?ref=opinion






This article talked about how the writer thinks that America is spending too much on health care. Because there is no actual way to measure if we are spending too much on a scale of 1-10, he compared our spendings to the spendings of other countries on... everything. America spends around the same amount of money on health care as about half of what other countries spend on everything. Countries that have around the same quality of health care are spending so much less on health care than America.
















Everyone, Democrats and Republicans, agree that America has a problem in its health care spendings and those numbers prove that there is a problem. However, despite our rare occurence of agreement in government, few people really understands our health care plans comprehensively. The question is where to reduce the spendings in health care. I have very little understanding of the health care so I do not have an opinion on how to fix the problem, but I do understand that there is a problem.

News Log 7

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/sports/seemingly-ordinary-football-game-then-a-player-dies.html?_r=1&ref=health

     Barden died while playing at a football game. He was one of several teenagers to die in a specific way at football games. Basically, he hit his head on another person's head and his brain began to bleed. He collapsed on the field and was unable to get up. He was disoriented and weak at first, but his condition worsened quickly. He was taken to a hospital, but he died after a few hours. This incident brought attention to the safety conditions of football. While coaches and officials try to bring the best and safest equipment and train their athletes thoroughly, some problems just cannot be stopped by protection and caution. Teenagers are especially susceptible to such cranial damage because their brains are not yet fully developed.
     Honestly, I look at this situation and I see two outstanding facts: one, football kills and two, we can't stop it with our equipments. There are two choices: let it happen or stop football, at least in high school where the danger is higher. The judgement of which choices are better depends on what people consider more important: a single human life or the enjoyment of the sport of football. Honestly, I think this really is an indecisive situation where one choice is nearly impossible, the notion of shutting down football, and the other looks unhopeful, where equipment will be developed to protect them properly. So, for now, this problem will remain.

New Log #6

Sung Jin Kim

Per 8

News Log #6

10/13/11

            The Police have found around $16,000 worth of illegal narcotics and a semi-automatic handgun in the apartment of Alvin Jones. Of course, it is easy to see this man as a wretched drug-dealer who received his due punishment or even to look at his parents with condescension and judge them to be awful caretakers of their children. However, one can never truly pin the responsibility to a man for his actions because the man’s personality and characteristics were largely shaped by those who raised him, the environment he grew up in, and the genetic coding in his cells, which may encourage certain unfavorable habits, emotions, and affinities. Moreover, even parents who raise their children poorly are exempt from full condemnation because influences, which affect their child-rearing skills besides their own will, are always present. While many believe otherwise, no man is truly an individual who is free from any extrinsic circumstances, which adulterate his purely self-made and maintained mind. Therefore, in situations such as those of Alvin, though I only assume his up-bringing to have been inadequate, we can only have sympathy as those whose situations in life are more fortunate than his.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/newark_police_raid_turns_up_ha.html

Appetizer: Technology

Cellphones are an important component to my life. As friendship and love are the strings that connect one heart to another, cell phones are the wireless signal that puts me through to my friends in an instant. Cell phones provide a way to focus purely on speaking and passing information and thoughts. While face-to-face confrontations are a great way to communicate, they can lead to other activities which lead away from a conversation. This talking that occurs through the phone is unadulterated, undistracted, and unbound by the necessity of close proximities.