7. April 2010 by student.

Today marks the 5 months of the lost of my good friend Christopher David Byrd he was only 18 years old. Every day people make decisions, some a little riskier than others, which somehow affect the rest of their lives. However, not everyone realizes that the smallest decisions can have the biggest risks. Wearing a seat belt should been taught from the very first car ride.

• Safety belts prevent people from being ejected from cars. You are 25 times are more likely to be killed or seriously injured if you are thrown from a vehicle.
• One out of every five drivers will be involved in a traffic crash this year.
• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among people age 44 and younger and the number one cause of head and spinal cord injury.
• Approximately 35,000 people die in motor vehicle crashes each year. About 50 percent (17,000) of these people could be saved if they wore their safety belts.
• More than 90 percent of all motorists believe safety belts are good idea, but less than 14 percent actually use them.
• For every one percent increase in safety belt use, 172 lives and close to $100 million in annual injury and death costs could be saved.
• Safety belts when used properly reduce the number of serious traffic injuries by 50 percent and fatalities by 60-70 percent.
• For maximum protection safety belts should be fastened before traveling any distance or speed. Seventy-five percent of crash deaths and injuries occur within 25 miles of home. More than half of all injury-producing motor vehicle crashes involve low speeds under 40 m.p.h.
• Motorists are 25 times are more likely to be killed or seriously injured when they are “thrown clear” than when remain inside their vehicle.
• In a 30 m.p.h. collision an unbelted 160 lb. Person can strike another passenger, crash through a windshield and/or slam into the vehicle’s interior with a 4,800 lb. force.
• Motorists can increase safety belt usage by example and verbal reminders. Nine out of 10 people buckle up when asked.
• Safety belt use is one of the best defenses against the unpredictable actions of the drunk driver.
• Today over 25 countries around the world have some type of mandatory safety belt law. Results of these laws were measured; usage rate went from 20-25 percent before passage to 60-90 percent after passage.
• A common cause of death and injury to children in motor vehicles is being crushed by adults who are not wearing safety belts. On out of four serious injuries to passengers is caused by occupants being thrown into each other.
• About 80 percent of all injuries to children in car crashes are injuries to the head, causing brain damage, permanent disfigurement, epilepsy or death.
• Of every 100 children who die in motor vehicle crashes at least 80 would survive if they were properly secured in an approved child safety seat or safety belts.
• Three out of four families with child safety seats fail to use them correctly. Adults need to follow manufacturer’s instructions and secure seats properly before every trip.

He wasn’t wearing his =(

http://ehs.okstate.edu/KOPYKIT/seatbelt.htmhttp://www.edgarsnyder.com/news/seatbelts/seat-belts-statistics.html

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7. April 2010 by student.

Stem cells are defined as being able to change into many different tyes of cells throughout the body, through a persons early childhood and growth period. Stem cells can divide themselves infinitaely, and provide the tssues of the body with an ever changing “Repair System” that replenishes cells. When stem cells do seperate they have the remarkable ability to either remain a stem cell, or become a sepcialized cell, such as a brain cell. What is great about stem cells is that under experimental conditions they can be modified to become any type of cell which the experimenter feels neccessary. This brings us into the grand debate of Stem Cell Research. Because stem cells have such incredible regenerative abilities, scientists are determined to use the cells to treat deseases, which is called reparative, or regenerative medicine. With this type of procedure, scienists are finding ways to alter adult cells into becoming regenerative stem cells. But since there is so much to learn about this intriguing new area of research, there are tons of skeptics and people who beleiev that stem cells should be left alone to do what they do, and that we should not be trying to alter them. But, it is proven that most most serious medical conditions such as birth defects and camcer are primarily caused by abnormal cell division and differentiation. The more information that scientists can learn about genes and cells and cell division and the process of how humans can grow from only one cell, would be extremely important in yeilding new information of how these deseases come about and how to treat them. Also, stem cells and differntiated cells could be used to test new drugs. For example, by testing a cancerous cell under a certain type of drug, anti-tumor medicines are able to be constructed. There is such a wide range of drugs that could be harmlessly tested on human stem cells to create new effective drugs, but because of the lack of support for such testing, there is not a wide variety of testing that can be done. The most important aspect of cell research is the potential to apply the regenerative human stem cells to cell-based therapy. People donate organs  all the time but the problem is finding organs that can cooperate with what the body needs. With cell-based therapy scientists can use the regenerative cells to adjust to the type of tissues or organs that the person needs. This type of therapy would yeild incredible treatments for deseases such as altzheimers, spinal cord injury, burns, strokes, diabetes, heart desease and many types of athritis. Though there are skeptics, i cannot deny that stem cell research is going to grow and that more information is going to be uncovered, and many deseases are going to be treated. I am a firm beleiever in this feild of research and i cannot understand why anyone would be apposed to finding cures for deseases like cancer. I beleieve that if more people understood the complexity of this research without judging it as something its not, there would be alot more support and so many more lives could be saved.

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7. April 2010 by student.

Facebook has been around for over 5 years, and is intended to be used as a networking website (both social and professional). While many users are logged on for insignificant reasons, some actually use the website for building career relationships and keeping in touch. In the working environment, online networking has become an effective way for workers to connect. Whether the workers are connecting within the same building or from another continent, balancing your social personality and professionalism at the same time can be difficult. There can be many downfalls as well as positive outcomes when it comes to your boss being your online friend.

 I think being your boss’s online friend would work only under certain circumstances. Depending on the field of work and how wild an individual’s life is outside of the office would really come into play when making this decision. If a person is using the website for professional networking only and not for social reasons there should be no problem. But I would just play safe and keep the relationship with your boss professional, that way there’s no confusion on either end.

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7. April 2010 by student.

Research shows that a person’s birth order has a direct link with his or her personality.

The first born child is usually the child with the most attention directed at him/her. There are two typical types of first-born children, compliant and aggressive.

Compliant Traits

1.  People Pleasers
2. Crave Approval
3. Nurturers
4. Caregivers
5. Reliable
6. Concientious
7. Cooperative
8. Team Players

Aggressive Traits

1. Movers and shakers
2. Natural leaders
3. Perfectionists
4. Driven
5. Conventional
6. Always have things under control
7. Assertive
8. Want things their way

Often choose careers that require a high degree of precision such as: law, medicine, computer programming, or architecture, no gray area in work field, in control, often the boss or owner of company.

Middle children are quite often the most difficult children to both read and to raise. Middle children are quite often referred to as the “Mysterious Middle Child”, this is due in large part to the fact that there are two types of middle born children.

Middle Born #1

1.  Loner
2. Quiet Shy
3. Impatient
4. Uptight

Middle Born #2

1.   Outgoing
2. Friendly
3.  Loud
4. Laid back
5. Patient

Choose careers that allow them to be creative such as: sales, art, advertising, or a career that requires negotiating, well suited for management because of level headedness, and the ability to be unbiased.

Last born children are often considered the baby of the family, and live up to this role. At times it is difficult for the last born child to find his/her place in the family, as the first and middle child have already left huge footprints to follow in, and carved their own niche into the family.

Last Born Traits

1. Risk takers
2. Idealists
3.  Good sense of humor
4.  Hard working
5.  Immature
6. Attention seeking 
7. Secretive
8. Sensitive
9. Spoiled

Careers in sales, or invention corporations work well because of their ability to sell things, including themselves, work well alone, want to be the boss, and just do their own thing at their own pace.

Only children are often referred to as “First Borns in Triplicate”, this is due to the fact that these children are extreme versions of first born children.

Only Traits

Only children are special type of birth order, in the sense that they are capable of being any of the three “main” types of birth order. However, most of these only children do possess characteristics commonly associated with the aggressive first born child.

1. Mature faster
2. Get along well with older people
3. Responsible
4. Self-Centered
5. Perfectionists
6. Attention seekers
7. Use adult language
8. Prefer adult company
9. Have difficulty sharing

Choose careers similar to those of first born children such as: law, medicine, and architecture. Like black and white concepts and often prefer to work alone or be the boss, which accounts for their success.

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7. April 2010 by student.

We all have seen the pictures of animals who have taken part in research experiments. The pictures of monkeys with half their brains exposed, screws coming out of some poor cats head, or mice with props sticking out from all over them. They are horrifying, but sometimes a necessity, and are product of a last resort.

Now days there is a whole process before animal even sees the inside of a laboratory. With technology only growing, fewer and fewer animals will have to see the inside of a laboratory.  Since with computers, they are often able to test if something is right off the bat going to be dangerous. Then after that comes Microdosing, which means they give extremely small doses of medicines to humans to test for reactions before even heading to the phase of animal testing (Misconceptions).  Depending on what reactions they find from their various microdosing tests may cut out animal testing all together, or limiting the numbers of animals being tested.

As Helosia Sabin points out in her article Animal Research Saves Human Lives without animal testing, her husband Albert Sabin would never have found an effective vaccine for polio. That without this vaccine polio would have crippled who how many of number of more children, and still probably would be (“Animal …Lives”). Or how Bonita De Boer points out in her article HIV Drugs, Vaccines, and Animal Testing, without animal testing much of the information we know about the deadly virus HIV is from animal testing, particularly with monkeys with SIV, or cats with FIV.  Also with animal testing they were able to find successful means for people to manage the disease and slow down its divesting side effects of the disease (“HIV”).

 Animal testing is wrong. But, as with other things, there are evils that are needed. Animal testing is wrong, but the end results outweigh the evilness caused by it.

 Works Cited

- De Boer, Bonita. "HIV Drugs, Vaccines, and Animal Testing." Avert. N.p., 29 Dec. 2009.

        Web. 12 Feb.2010.

-"Misconceptions." Animal Research. N.p., 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2010.

- Sabin, Heloisa. "Animal Research Saves Human Lives." Elements of Argument: A Text and and Reader.

Ed. Annette T. Tottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell.8 th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. Print.

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