Stem-cell ResearchSummary

Stem-cell research

Stem- cells are cells that have yet to be given a title. By having a “title” I mean that these cells can be transformed into any type of cell desired and are not predestined to be anything specific. Not only can they be changed into any cell that is wanted, but they also can multiply and renew themselves through cell division. This is an amazing concept because in paralyzed victims, cells that have died can be rejuvenated/replaced by these stem cells, making the possibility of nonparalysis againIt seems that at this point in time, we are at a cross roads in where we stand in the stem-cell research debate. America is very split between whether this is something we should invest our money in, or if it’s not only a waste of our time but an infringement on our morals. Using an embryo for the purpose of science is seen as wasting a life, and in many religions ending the life of one person is not worth saving the life of another. There are alternatives such as using adult-stem cells instead of embryonic-stem cells. The difference between adult stem-cells and embryonic stem-cells is that adult cells are more mature of course, and embryonic cells are so young, that they have yet to be predestined to become a certain type of cell. Adult stem-cells are hard to extract from “adult tissues” as well. Scientists are still trying to figure out how to grow these adult stem-cells in large quantities. With all these road blocks in the way, scientists have looked to other sources to use in research and that is why they have chosen embryonic stem-cells. Not only are they easy to make, but they can be transformed into any type of cell in the human body that you can imagine. While an adult stem-cell only has a few options in terms of the type of cell it can turn into.
Stem-cell research has not been around for very long. People have known the whereabouts of stem-cells from the start of the 20th century but were not implemented for the first time until about the mid 1970’s. Obama recently signed a bill in March of 2009, stating that the use of stem cell lines was allowed, but the government would not be funding any scientists to make/attain new ones. Although allowing stem cells in the first place is a large step in the right direction, the fact that no new stem cell lines can be created is still holding the science realm back. As our competitors, China, Australia and England pull ahead in terms of scientific findings; we are beginning to lag and are losing one of our greatest exports, knowledge, to other countries. many Americans believe that we are devaluing the human life to a sick extent. However, what the other half of America believes is that not only do the benefits outweigh the negative on this type of research, but these embryos have no organs, nerves, any visible shape. This form of research can also be seen as a form of abortion; although the embryo is not from the womb, scientists are choosing to “abort the embryo”. People are also afraid that by allowing this type of research, scientist will take advantage of it and begin cloning humans left and right. As long as there is government supervision and control over what is happening to these embryos, nothing like this should ever take place. At the end of the day, the real question is, would you rather save the life of one embryo or would you rather save the millions of lives of people with terminal illnesses. What is unethical to 51% of America, is ignoring this vital resource we have and letting thousands of people die because the other 49% of America wishes to save the embryo’s lives instead (Gilgoff).
This untapped resource is inevitably the future for not only the medical field but for everybody. It is untapped in the sense that renewable energy is untapped. There is so much potential in this field just, and should be just as much of a priority as reducing our Carbon Dioxide emissions. If Americans chose to leave this resource behind, it will only become our loss as other countries pull ahead of us economically, as more people die, and most importantly as we chose to become an idle and naïve country. If we want the government to act further on this sensitive topic, the voices of America need to be made. Our representatives are supposed to be the voice of the people, if enough people are concerned with this topic it will be debated in congress and hopefully progress will be made. That will only happen though if enough people make this top priority in their minds and show it through their actions. Nancy Reagan, former first wife, couldn’t have said it any better. “Science has presented us with a hope called stem cell research, which may provide our scientists with answers that have so long been beyond our grasp. I just don’t see how we can turn our backs on this- there are just so many diseases that can be cured, or at least helped. We have lost so much time already, and I just really can’t bear to lose any more”. (Lander) Hopefully citizens of not only America, but citizens of the world will realize how important this is to our humanity and promote this topic within their country to lead an example.

In Defense of Food

I believe that people chose to eat products that are unhealthy for them because there is this idea that healthy foods are not good tasting. I believe people would rather have something taste good than be health conscienscious. I also believe that people are misinformed about what they are eating, whether it is really organic, or if 0 grams of trans fats really means much . Also if they do believe that they are eating something, they really don't know what is going on "behind the scenes," in terms of packaging and hormones being injected, and the food becomes unhealthy unknowingly as a result.

I definately think that the government has a role to fulfill in terms of educating the American population on food. At the moment, it seems so shady, all these companies are trying to hide the real nutrition facts, and hidden chemicals of their food. It would be refreshing and nice if the U.S. told us what are lies and which foods we should be eating. Although I believe that America will never be fully responsible for managing all products, there could definately be some pros and cons to the government taking over this industry. Although right now it seems that the cons outweigh the pros, and that the solution to this food problem is for companies to educate the public and be honest and be honest about their product.

Sociology Expirament

For our sociology project, we had to do something that was "deviant". In other words outside of the norm. An example of this would be an 11 year old being pregnant. My group, which had Sydney and Eli Reed decided to test whether girls that dress more "sexy" get what they want more often then more modest girls. So for thirty minutes Sydney and I walked around SDSU asking only guys for quarters to get on the trolley. We did this 2 different times. The first time we were dressed in heels and dresses. The second time we were wearing baggy pants and baggy shirts, no makeup and hair up. Below are pictures of us dressed "sexy" and "conservatively".

Novalina's Biography

Novalina literally means “shooting star”, and that is just what Novalina Betoncourt is. At the age of 30, Novalina has already accomplished so much with her life, but let’s start at the beginning of Ms. Betoncourt’s life and see how she has become such a shooting star. Novalina was born in San Francisco in 1979, but soon moved to San Mateo, just east of San Francisco, where she grew up for the rest of her un adult life until college.

Novalina was a girl that took all AP’s and Honors during high school, but at the same time had a social life and was friends with the “popular” girls at school. Within her family, she became very close to both her mom and dad, claiming that together, they were her “best friends”. Novalina says, “[my dad] taught me to be my authentic self,” which is a piece of advice that she still believes to this day and is even writing about in books. A self proclaimed author, Novalina has written segments within other books and is now beginning the process of having her own book, “The Total Female Package”, published. Although she is writing books at the moment, she doesn’t want to be called an author. “I guess, I’m more of an entrepreneur you could say”, says Novalina about her job. Outside of the work world though, Novalina likes to go dancing, especially since she can relate as a former radio DJ, Novalina claims that dancing is a way of celebrating friendship. At first encounter, one can tell that Ms. Betoncourt is a fun free spirited person. You can especially appreciate her fun spirit when she traveled down to Mexico a couple of years back while in college and ended up getting handcuffed and arrested. When asked 3 words to describe herself, Novalina says “3 words would have to be love, connection and growth.” When asked why, she states that she has 5 values that she lives by that are very similar to the words that describe her, and those words are authenticity, love, growth, connections and relationship.

In the future Novalina hopes to see her book, “The Total Female Package”, become a success and then move on from there to make other “Total Package” books. Aside from her job though, she does want to get married and have children. She even wants to adopt many children. “I would love to have a Brady bunch style family actually.” States Novalina about having kids. Overall, it seems like Novalina Betoncourt is a hard working young woman with her head screwed on straight and is excited to see what the future holds in store for her.

America's foreign policy

For government, we were assigned to write on our opinions regarding America's foreign policy. Below is mine :).

Since about World War 1, America has "helped" out in major wars, such as the world wars, or just trying to "protect" other countries like during the "red scare". I think America feels like its part of the job description of the U.S. to interfere with other countries affairs, whether they want it or not. Overall I believe by medling in other countries business we are doing more wrong then good. It seems within recent years, especially during the Bush administration, that the U.S. has come off as ignorant, arrogant, and annoying really. I think Iraq/Afghanistan was a complete mistake, we made up a reason to go in there basically and kept finding new reasons to stay in there. Besides the fact that alot of people within those countries didnt even want us there, I think we totally disregarded the culture, their religion and beliefs and stomped all over them. There was a definately a much better way of going about this, but the Bush administration seemed to think otherwise, and now we are practically stuck there because we have to finish what we started. We have been in this war longer than any of the world wars, and for non justified reasons I believe. Before you can help anybody else you have to help yourself first, especially during these hard economic times. America should be focusing on dropping our unemployment rate, getting ourselves out of this enormous deficit, things at home. But instead we keeps spreading ourselves thin across the world. Even though we are at war with Iraq, we have many random troops across the world that are pretty unnecessary in my opinion. We are trying to help to many people at one time, but because America has lost very few wars/battles they think its possible to do everything. Don't get me wrong I think its great to go into countries and give aid/help for things such as building schools, stopping genocide,giving out vaccinations those sorts of things. Right now though we have to take care of ourselves, and ensure we are doing well so that we can help others more in the future.

Barmed and the strange Basil

Basil was always a strange little boy. He enjoyed doing strange things like seeing how many rocks he could fit in his mouth or shaving off all the hair on his head except for the one inch above his hairline. What most people didn't understand about Basil, was his obsessive desire to lie about everything. So when Basil one day, ran into his classroom and began yelling "I can fly! I can fly!" Nobody took him seriously or even took the time to glance at him for a second. The class had learned by this point, to never take this boy seriously. For Basil this story was different, this story wasnt a lie. Basil really could fly, all he had to do was place an orange magic turban on the top of his head, position his dog, Barmed, correctly and he was off. What Basil didn't know was that his body and the dog would stay in position, lying on the ground as if they never took off for flight. But in their minds and souls they were up high in the sky and that was real for Basil. So one day when Basil attempted to show what little friends he had his ability to fly, all they saw was a dog and a boy with an orange sheet rapped around his head lying on the ground, almost as if they were asleep. His friends laughed and teased him for lying, but soon meandered away leaving Basil alone with Barmed the dog on the floor. In his sorrow, Basil realized nobody would ever learn, have, or share the experience of flying with anybody else then himself.

Jabba the high fructose corn syrup addict

(2nd from the right)



In governement, we were assigned to create a story based off of one of the characters which Bill Sullivan has photographed within a subway station. Bill sullivan is a "Situational Artist" and takes pictures of moments that would otherwise become a blur among the hustle of bustle of what is known as life. Behind every picture Bill Sullivan takes within this segment, there is a hidden story or meaning that the viewer is meant to interpert themselves. Below is the link to Bill Sullivan's photograph series which my sotyr is based on.

http://www.3situations.com/BillSullivanWorks/MTmaster.html

Jabba A.K.A Large and In Charge

This is Big Mac's here, tryin to rep my girl Margarin here. Margarin is a 30 year old women with a critical health condition, not only is her quality of life effected by the fact that she cant fit through most doors, let alone this subway entrance, but she also has a lethal addiction to high fructose corn syrup.

She has made a point within her life to surround herself with all sorts of sugary concoctions, whether its the midnight moon pie, her cocopuffs at breakfeast submerged in A&W Rootbeer, or her deluxe double deep fried chimi changa from Alberto Roberto Filliberto Concerto Mexican restaurant. In fact she loves food so much she has made it so that her job even involves handling the sugary foods she loves so much. Thats why she chose to be one of the lucky few people who fill up vending machines with soda and snacks. Sometimes if she hadn't had her morning Egg McMuffin, Margarin could be seen swiping half the snacks from the vending machine for herself, it would usually subside her hunger for 15 minutes or so, enough time to find a tub of lard or something to coat the inside of her large stomach.

There was one thing in Margarines life that she usually found herself depressed, eating a tub of ice cream over though. No matter how hard she tried, she could not find love. She was even a senior member of chubbychassers.com, avid user and customer for 5 years. She was always a discombobulated mess as a result, never having all her cards and belongings in one place, she couldn't focus on the trivial moments in life when she had no chunky lover in her life. That was until she saw Lady Marmalade at a New York subway one tuesday night. Lady M, we will call her, was running down the hall swiping people swiftly in the head as she galloped down the hall screaming. She was a Majestic beast with her bulging buggy eyeballs. Margarine looked down and saw the bag in Lady M's hand and soon a deep depression came over her face. The orange bag with which Lady M held said in big bold letters "Boi Toys". Margarine felt in her gut and knew in her heart she had no chance now with the majestic woman Lady Marmalade. Margarine slowly slumped herself to the nearest subway car with the glummest face known to mankind. So depressed was Margarine though, that she did not notice Lady M step into the same subway car as Margarine and take a seat. Still in her depressed mindset, Margarine continued to try and take a seat in the same seat as Lady Marmaladae. As Margarine began to fall down into the seat which she desperately needed to sit in, because her legs were so weak from walking for 10 minutes, Lady M began to yelp for help, trying to alert anyone to the problem at hand. But nobody heard her crys for help, for it was to late. Lady Marmalade was fully engulfed by Margarines large gludeus Maximus, and nobody even noticed. Nobody cared. The End.