Wow. Certainly, that word sums up Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” in the most concise manner possible, and perhaps the best. The American Film Institute voted it number 22 on its 100 Years, 100 Movies list. And though it’s definitely an oldie (released in 1968) and many find it boring for its long sequences of silence, sometimes strange sounds and mostly the non-verbal portrayal of the vastness of outer space, the film is a true masterpiece that has influenced all forms of media; from movies like “Star Wars” and TV programs like The Simpsons to impacting the way we as people, we as the human race, we as living creatures, we as people of the public sphere, foreign to the realm of space, feel about what it would be like to be there, out there in space. The film also influences the ideas about where technology might take us in the future and even our personal beliefs about the origins of life. Truly, this film has been a breakthrough for it all.
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Once upon a time, there was a weight loss aid called Ephedra. It was sourced from the plant ma huang. What it did to the human body was use alpha-2 receptors that acted as a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant. As with all CNS stimulants, the body adapted to it rapidly, and the longer you took it, the longer it took to get the desired effect. The only problem with doing this with Ephedra and more potent CNS drugs is the other effects. One of the most important, and the reason Ephedra was recommended for weight loss, is that it increases body temperature. And the hotter the body runs, the more calories are expended. The dangerous effect of this, however, is that as body temperature increases, so do blood pressure and heart rate.
(Concerning my last article, “Stress: American Killer,” I thought it would only make sense to post a follow-up piece detailing ways in which you can deal with America’s potential number one killer.) According to The Help Guide, really, the only way to rid yourself of the negative effects of stress is to get rid of the stress itself. You can start by identifying the sources of stress in your life and either eliminate them completely, or rethink them to reduce the stress they cause. Keep in mind that this doesn’t only include the things we don’t particularly enjoy in our lives. Stress can also be caused just as easily by things we enjoy, even positive, life-affirming events like getting married, having a baby, getting that big promotion at work, planning a best friend’s birthday party and even taking that long awaited vacation.
Whenever you see a huge mountain of muscle, or a guy that looks like he ate a bus, the first thought to cross most people’s minds is: “That dude is on Steroids.” With an exception to .01 percent of these people, you’d probably be correct. Most people that size have indeed taken a performance enhancing substance, whether it be basic like creatine, or more serious like andropen or Deca. Looking at professional sports, this is a topic that has been making appearances more and more often due to this past winter’s media frenzy. When ESPN started running the A-Rod Marathon, the crap hit the fan, so to speak. His stalker paparazzi, Selena Roberts, broke a story on Rodriguez testing positive in 2003 for a steroidal substance. A-Rod then admitted it, which was both good and bad. He “came clean” and many people respected him for basically coming out and saying what most of America had suspected for a long time; anyone in professional sports can be suspect of taking a PED (performance enhancing drug).
Hopefully at this point you have at least an idea of who Sonia Sotomayor is. She’s been in the news, well, obscenely because of her Supreme Court nomination on May 26. Then the press has found plenty of other things to critique her about. While the nation anxiously awaits the confirmation or rejection of the first female Hispanic Supreme Court Justice, the nation also anxiously analyzes her every move. Sonia Sotomayor was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents. Her father died when she was 8, leaving her mother to raise her. She graduated valedictorian in 1972 at Cardinal Spellman High School. She married Kevin Edward Noonan in 1976 and entered Yale Law School that same year. After graduating from Yale in 1979 with a J.D. she passed her bar exam the following year. Three years later, in 1983, Sotomayor and Noonan divorced. They had no children. After being a lawyer for several years, Sotomayor was nominated on November 27, 1991 by President George H.W. Bush for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York after it was vacated by John M. Walker, Jr. According to The White House’s Web site, “If confirmed for the Supreme Court, Judge Sotomayor would bring more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice in 100 years, and more overall judicial experience than anyone confirmed for the Court in the past 70 years…”
The last time I can remember having a truly stress-free day, I was 5 years old and my grandparents were taking me to Disney World to see Mickey Mouse for the very first time. My biggest worries of that day were deciding whether or not to cry on the dinosaur ride, if would upset my grandmother by continuing to lick one side of my chocolate ice cream cone and watching it hit the ground in a big dribbling mess and how long I could take walking in the 95-degree Florida weather before diving into the cushiony seat and shade of my covered stroller. Ah, those were the days. Over the years, stress has increasingly become a major part of my life; so much so, that sometimes it’s hard going back to that day at Disney in my mind, recalling a time when I didn’t experience it for a good 24-hour period. From making sure I’m at work on time every day to completing homework and term papers on the right due dates, to being there for friends and family when they need me and then somehow maintaining a personal life (not to mention eating, paying bills and even maintaining a regular hygiene routine), it’s become rather difficult for me to balance my stress. I know I’m not the only one feeling this way.
It’s been said that in California, it will be the crowds, the traffic, the cold or the pollution that kills you. Well, in regard to my own personal and eventual death, none of these means appeal to me in particular. Not the smothering by strangely dressed tourists, the collision of a several-ton vehicle impacting my tiny frame of a body, or the slow takeover of freezing cold temperatures gripping me so tightly as to extinguish all the life remaining inside me. But pollution? I don’t think I could imagine the possibility of some thick, smoggy, chemical substance finding its way into my body and then taking over some invaluable major organ, forcing me to battle it out in an end-all, beat-all fight to which I inevitably lose. With this in mind, I don’t know if California is a place I want to visit, let alone call home, any time soon…or is it?
A baby is born every six seconds in the United States. Just minutes after the umbilical chord is severed and the thick coating of amniotic fluid is wiped from their red and purple splotched skin, these infants are given their very first shot, a vaccine for hepatitis B. It’s true that immunizations like this one have saved thousands of lives since the very first mass inoculations just after World War II, but a growing concern regarding the possible side effects of new vaccines like hepatitis B has mounted in recent years. Many parents are convinced that there may be a link between thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative found in some vaccines, and autism. This has led to a nationwide rise in unvaccinated children. |
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