Summer and Future Plans

I don't have any major plans for the summer yet.  There will be a few parties, hanging out, and catching up on movies/shows, but nothing thrilling.  I know that I'm going up to New York for a bit to help my mom with selling our families old summer home, but that isn't going to be very vacation-y.  I'm also going to North Carolina to help paint and get together stuff in my parent's new house.  They're not moving for a couple of years, but we have to get ready for when they do.  Unfortunately, neither of these places will have internet or cable.  I don't really know what I'm going to do with myself without it.  I have been planning on getting a better phone with a data plan though, so before I leave would probably be a good time to get one.  It would be fun to go on a big vacation, but it wouldn't be very practical to. My dad is leaving for Afghanistan in about two weeks, and my brother is going to Poland on a Full Bright scholarship some time at the end of summer, which makes having a family trip somewhere a bit difficult.   I feel bad leaving my mom at home in the fall without anyone else there, especially when except for her and me, no one will even be in the same continent. I'm sure everything will work out okay though even if it's a bit trickier to manage.

College

So after getting back all of my college decisions, I decided on Pittsburgh.  I'm not really sure how I feel about it, except for the fact that it would be INCREDIBLY stupid to turn down over $100,000 and get out of college without any debt.  My decision got narrowed down to Hopkins, UVA, William & Mary, and Pitt pretty fast mostly because I ignored safety schools.  I decided that I didn't want to waste a ton of money on college when I'm planing on going to graduate school or medical school anyway, so that knocked out Hopkins. I also really dislike Baltimore. Then it was between Pitt and UVA because it seemed like it would be a better fit than William & Mary.  I'm not sure if I'm sad that I'm not going to UVA or not.  A lot of people I really like are going there, so it would be nice to be at the same place as them, but there are also just SO many people I know going there.  I guess I'm kind of happy that I get to go somewhere new and meet new people.  I'm a bit worried I made the wrong decision though. Pittsburgh should have some good things I hope though.  I definitely prefer cities to college towns and activity wise it should be better in terms of shopping and dining.  I also know it has a much larger and better medical program, but I feel like I'm just trying to convince myself that I want to go there.  I hope I get more excited about everything over the summer. 

Senior Year

Overall, I don't think this year went too horribly.  I actually thought it was going to be worse than it was considering that I took 5 APs and 2 dual enrolled classes with a total of 7 AP tests.  If I did well enough on tests to pass out of a lot of things, then I'd be pretty happy.  I'm not sure if I want to try to graduate early or not, but knocking out a bunch of gen ed classes would be nice. I'm definitely starting as a sophomore credit wise, but if I didn't fail this year on the tests then it could almost be as a junior, which would be pretty cool.  I don't really get why some people think this year was that bad even with a heavy course load.  I still got plenty of sleep and had time to do a lot of other things.  I definitely don't regret taking all of the classes that I took, even though it looked like it was going to be terrible.  I feel like if i essentially took a full college course load this year, then adjusting to next year shouldn't be as bad.  I'm trying to convince myself that anyway so I don't start worrying before I'm even there.

Current Event #4

The New York Times post, "How Exercise Can Jog the Memory," talks about the relation between exercise and other processes of the body. Through numerous studies, it has been proven that exercise is capable of influencing brain functioning and emotions.  A new study on the memory impacts of exercise suggests that it is a more complicated relationship than previously supposed.  An experiment at Dartmouth last month that tested long term exercise on memory performance.  The volunteers where largely sedentary before the study but some were required to exercise regularly over a 4week period.  Half of the exercising group walked or jogged before the testing, and the other half didn't. The non exercising group followed a similar procedure so half exercised that day for the first time since the start of the study, and the rest didn't.  The people who exercised over the month and exercised that day had the largest changes.  The group that exercised over the month, but didn't that day also reported higher scores and wellness but not to the same extent.  The group that didn't exercise over the month of that day had no change.  Finally the group that didn't exercise over the month, but did that day were more agitated and anxious than they were on the previous visit.  This suggests that exercise is recommended overall for long term brain health, but there it is not cut and dried for how the brain responds to exercise.

I was mostly just looking for a fourth article, and this one seemed unobjectionable.  I think how systems in the body are tied together is interesting too.  New studies that add to the every growing list of the positives of exercise is also good to keep in mind.  The article was well written, and it was also interesting.  I enjoyed reading it, and thought the manner in which they performed the test was clever. 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/how-exercise-can-jog-the-memory/?ref=health

Current Event #3

The New York Times article, "More Genes Than Humans: The Tomato Decoded," takes about the study of Tomatoes' genetic composition.  Tomatoes have 31,760 genes which is 7,000 more than humans have.  Various plant geneticists studied the tomato to try to decode the genome to breed better ones. The tomato which is technically a fruit in classification was actually declared a vegetable by the Supreme Court.  This was an odd decision, but the tomato does have many similarities to its close relative the potato.  Understanding the genome of the tomato could reveal insight into other plants of its family.  The fact that tomatoes have more genes than humans doesn't mean that it is more complex, it just has a different way of managing cell based things.  The tomato family has genetic complexity because it gained genes.  In some instances it has as much as 3 times as much DNA.  while this sounds like a problem, the change of having what is called triplication of DNA may have been what saved tomatoes from what ended the dinosaurs, as the change occurred on the same time frame. 

This article choice was pretty random, but it just struck me as funny. Also, I had to click on it to see what the implications of tomatoes having more genes than humans were.  It was well written and had some interesting facts like the Supreme Court ruling on tomatoes.  I enjoyed the article, and I would have picked a different article had I not enjoyed it. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/science/the-tomato-ripe-juicy-and-bursting-with-genes.html?_r=1&ref=science

Current Event #2

The New York Times article, "Plan to Tax Soda Gets a Mixed Reception," covers the responses from Richmond, California residents to the state's proposed soda tax.  The tax proposes to put a one-cent per ounce tax on soda and other sugar sweetened drinks.  While may of the people interviewed has issues with diabetes, heart disease, blood pressure problems, and other ailments,  many still did not see the necessity of the soda tax and did not like what it said.  This tax is likely to most impact the impoverished because money is tight and unhealthy foods are often the cheapest.  Soda on average is significantly less expensive to buy than even water.  The article sited other startling stats like that two-thirds of teenagers drink an average of 1.8 sugar-sweetened drinks a day. The calories from soda also add up in the long term with the math of a soda having around 240 calories, this equates to around 150,000 extra calories which could cause 20 pounds of weight gain in one year alone.  The soda tax also raises issues on what else could be taxed in the near future like pastries and other unhealthy choices. If the tax is not enough to deter people from drinking soda, the money will at least help California to fund more public projects.

The topic of taxing certain food items in an attempt to limit the growing health crisis in the US has been coming up frequently, and this article caught my eye.  It was well written, as all New York Times articles are.  It was a fairly interesting article and I thought the perspectives of people in opposition to the tax were interesting.  I don't particularly like soda and rarely drink it, so it doesn't seem like a big deal to me, but for some people it is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/us/richmond-calif-seeks-to-tax-sweetened-beverages.html?ref=health

Current Event #1

The article from the New York Times, "To Save Some Species, Zoos Must Let Others Die," presents the growing difficult choices that zoos and animal sanctuaries in the United States must face recently.  As more animals are being placed on the endangered list and at the brink of extinction, it is critical that care be given to protect these animals.  However, it seems an impossible task to save every species that faces this gloomy outlook.  Zoos are being forced to efficiently allocate resources to best serve a select few species that have the best chance at surviving and breeding.  The need for zoos to conserve animal species is switching the purpose of zoos away from primarily entertainment purposes. This causes problems in what to  spend money on and what not to spend money.  For example, sea lions are not endangered and fine out in the wild, but in one zoo they were given an $18 million dollar new pool because they are one of the most popular features.  The balance that must be reached to do the most good for animals is between conserving endangered animals while collecting income off showier species. 

I chose this article because it struck me as interesting, and I am concerned with the protection of wild life.  I was also curious about the tough decisions that zoos had to make.  The article was well written and informative so I enjoyed it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/science/zoos-bitter-choice-to-save-some-species-letting-others-die.html?ref=science