my two cent worth

• Patients that played Roxxi,a gutsy, fully armed nanobot that seeks out and destroys cancer cells throughout the human body, were more apt to take their medicine, undergo needed therapy and believe they could beat cancer, according to HopeLab
• HopeLab is working on games to treat autism, depression, sickle cell anemia, and childhood obesity, according to Tate.
• A study is underway in public schools in the US state of West Virginia to determine whether playing the game Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) made by Japan-based Konami Corporation helps children get fit.

My Opinion

I think its a great idea to use games to curb illnesses. By introducing games as "medicine", the producer behind these games are engaging with our IT-aavy generation and thus they can reached their intended purpose such as making one lose weight ,easier. Take for example, one overweight girl lost 30 pounds after playing DDR.

I think more of such games should be developed to encourage teenagers to adopt healthier lifestyle and good habits. Through DDR, exercising has never been that fun, thus, more teenagers will be willing to take up DDR as a form of exercise. Also, by producing games that appeals to the teenagers, it will be more effective than any naggings or scoldings.

Perhaps, these producers can produce video games related to our school work in order to spice up the contents of the subject and stir up interest in the subject. However, technology such as these type of video games is integrating into our lifestyle and has become increasingly indispendable in various levels such as education,work etc.,due to its effectiveness,speed,memory and entertainment level. Hopefully, we wont be too reliant on technology so much so that technology will be the one controlling our life, the way we think, and the way we work

posted by nutty-me @ 4:15 PM 0 comments

• In Albany and Carbon counties, more than 30 percent of people under age 20 binge drink — 50 percent above the national average
• An earlier federal study found that rural youths ages 12 and 13 were twice as likely as urban youths to abuse alcohol.

My opinion

There are a few causes to the increase in teenage alcohol intake:

• Boredom
• Following bad examples set by parents
• Parties held which usually offer alcoholic drinks
• Advertisments eg. At the nightly rodeo in Cody, beer signs are ubiquitous, and on the town’s main commercial strip, a giant beer banner welcomes tourists.
• Flavoured alcoholic drinks which hide the taste of alcohol eg.alcopops
• Incooperative parents who do not see their kids bingeing on alcohol a big deal

I think for cities like Cody, an age limit for the consumption of alcohol should be implement. Then as alocoholic drinks will be made less available to them, it will be more unlikely for under-aged teens to consume alcohol or engage in binge drinking.

Cities should also educate its teens about the negative effects of alcohol which will be detrimental to their health through mediums such as advertisments,flyers and giving talks in their schools. An example of a school that really needs this educational talk is Cody High School whereby 65% of the students drink. Educational talks should also reached out to the masses especially the parents. Then not only can they set a good example for their children to follow, they can also further reinforce the need to curb binge drinking in their children. Mr Ralph Boerner, who counsels alcoholics of all ages in Butt, Mont, indicates that his youngest patient is 5 years old. This calls for an urgent need for parents to play a part in educating their kids against alocohol drinking since they are young if not their health will suffer an impactful blow when they carry this bad habit with them when they grow older.

Cities can also introduce more night life for teenagers to engage in so that they will not resort to alcohol drinking due to boredom. This can be done through building more arcades, shopping malls, LAN shops.

posted by nutty-me @ 3:50 PM 0 comments

• Boards are particularly light on doctors who have committed insurance fraud and who have been involved in crimes related to drugs, including prescribing violations and substance abuse

My opinion

I think that the Boards are being biased here.A crime committed is a crime committed no matter what is the occupation of the offender. Punishments should be meted out according to the law and not give any leeways to the offender just because one is a doctor. If the board continue s to dish out lighter sentences to offenders who are doctors, I think it will be threatening the integrity of their law system.

Furthermore, not only will the citizen lose faith in the system, they may end up being the victims as the sentence meted out to the doctor offenders may not be sufficiently impactful to make them repent. In addition, it is not easy to find out if disciplinary action is taken out on the doctor as in many cases, the patients do not know if the doctor holds any criminal records.

In any case, doctors ought to be role models as most are highly respected and not commit crimes and tarnished the good reputation of doctors. Boards should also be impartial and lashed out appropiate punishments accoreding to the law.

posted by nutty-me @ 2:49 PM 0 comments

• Among women age 20 and older, 60.8% were working or looking for a job in July. That's close to the all-time peak of 61% that occurred in April 2000 and again in June 2003. In March 2005, the number had fallen to 60%.

My opinions

It was said by Vicky Lovell of the Institute for the Washington-based Institute for Women's Policy Research that women have been the workers fuelling economic growth. I am glad that the society is opening up to both male and female workers.Males are no longer the only ones responsible to bring in income while the females stay at home to cook and look after the child. The society is slowly but surely moving towards sex equity whereby both sexes will be provided with equal work opportunities.

There are many advantages for the influx of female workers in the workforce. One of the main advantages is no doubt the increase in workforce population. Women are not only capable to increase the workforce population and drive the economy further, they are also capable of climbing up the corporate and political ladders. Take for example entrepreneur Elim Chew of Singapore. She is the Managing Director of 77th Street (S) Pte Ltd, has 100 workers under her and has penetrated the foreign markets such as Beijing with her home-grown company. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf , the first female president of Liberia and Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland , are two fine examples of successful female who climbed up the political ladder.

Another advantages will be the increase in child birth. As written by Janadas Devan, senior writer of Strait Times, though it may sound counter-intuitive, there is a positive correlation in developed countries between high female workforce participation rates and high fertility rates: the higher the proportion of women in the workforce, the higher the TFR. This can imply that the more fullfilled educated women feel, the more likely they are to have children. Take for example, in Denmark,Finland,Norway and Iceland, women are more actively involved in the workforce than in Italy and spain.The sexes are more equal and women are producing between 1.74 and 1.94 babies per female, far above the EU average of 1.47.

In order to attract more women ito the workforce, i think employers should be considerate towards women and adopt policies that help women balance work and family such as child care assistance, flextime, compressed work weeks, job sharing and reduced work schedules for women returning from maternity leave.

Therefore, by encouraging women to enter the workforce, not only will it increase the talent pool, it will also increase the number of babies. Hence, helping to solve the problem of labour shortage and ageing population.

posted by nutty-me @ 12:17 PM 0 comments