Schizophrenics and Marijuana Consumers

Teens who were heavy marijuana smokers, smoking every day for about three years, had a harder time doing memory tasks and had abnormal brain structure changes compared to those who had never used the drug. Researchers took non smoking teens, smoker teens, schizophrenic teens, and schizophrenic teens who smoke and performed memory tests on them and examined their brain scans.  It seems to be that schizophrenia and marijuana effect the same parts of the brain and could have similar complications.  The non-smoking teen scored 37 times better than the smoking teen and the schizophrenic teen scored 4 times better than the smoking schizophrenics.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/16/health/time-marijuana-brain/index.html?hpt=he_c2 

Mothers Selling their Daughters

Most of Cambodia sees sex trafficking as just another job.  Mothers are becoming the traffickers and selling their own daughters.  There seems to be many reasons why the mothers do it but their main excuse is because of lack of money.  In most of the stories of the families there is no man in the family and they need money to pay off debts.  Seeing as though most of the people of Cambodia see no wrong in sex trafficking mothers look over the consequences and start forcing their daughters to sell their bodies.  The women who got caught say that they would never repeat that mistake if they could go back in the past, but nothing can change the scarring memories that will haunt their daughters for the rest of their lives. http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/12/world/cambodia-child-sex-trade/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 

Smart Bra

Microsoft is designing a bra that will help women stay on track.  The bra is designed to detect women’s emotions and help them stay away from binge eating or eating out of stress, boredom, or being on edge.  They chose the bra because it should be something comfortable and something women can wear every day.  The bra is also close to the heart which needs to be tracked.  To stay away from the comfort food the bra has many sensors.   An electrocardiogram (EKG) sensor under the arm measured their heart rate, while an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor tracked their perspiration. The bra was very good at detecting mood changes.  How does it work? The bra will send the smart phone a message alerting the woman to step away from the fridge or too make good decisions.  There has been a lot of feedback on the concept of the bra because it is not yet perfected nor is it Microsoft’s biggest worry.  http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/04/tech/innovation/microsoft-smart-bra/index.html?hpt=he_c2

Is Bottled Water Safer?

People may say that bottled water is safer and healthier for you but their logic is not true.  Water from the bottles is just as good as the water from tap, clean wise.  Although people buy certain bottled water because of taste or smell- all waters should be just as clean.  The only thing people should worry about is if their water pipes are made of lead, then you might want to check if your water is okay to drink given the chance that lead might have mixed into the water.  Also if your water comes out of wells you should make sure it’s clean enough to drink.  Other than that as of 1974 tap water should be just as safe as bottled water. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/19/health/upwave-bottled-water/index.html?hpt=he_c1

CVS

Have you ever been on your computer for so long that your eyes start to hurt?  Then you might suffer from CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome).  Studies show that between 50 and 90% of people who work in front of a computer all day suffer eye vision problems, or CVS symptoms.  People who look at the screen too much don’t blink as often and fall below the average of 18 blinks per second.  Symptoms of CVS include sore eyes, dry eyes, teary eyes, blurry vision, double vision, light sensitivity, difficulty focusing on images, neck pain, or a headache.  A method to solve this is to follow the 20-20-20 rule.  20 minutes of looking at the screen= 20 seconds of looking 20 feet away.  Or angling your screen so that your eyes don’t catch the glare of other lights. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/health/upwave-computer-eyes/index.html?hpt=he_c1

Signs of Autism at 1 Month

Researchers have come up with a way to tell if a baby shows autism signs as early as the first month.  They took a group of 110 babies and followed their progress from birth to age 3.  59 of the babies were classified as having a high risk of autism and 51 were classified with a lower risk of autism to further relationships of it in the family.  The researchers showed the baby a video at months 2, 3, 4 ,5, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 24 of actresses playing caregivers.  They kept track of the motion of the babies’ eyes and if the baby lost focus easier it showed sign of autism.  http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/06/study-signs-of-autism-may-show-up-as-early-as-first-month/?hpt=he_c2

Mean Girls Everywhere

According to 100 evolutionary psychology papers claim that women have cattiness built in them.  According to the results women are staring to use gossip, back stabbing and shunning more and more to hurt their target and to make themselves feel better.  This behavior is becoming a norm for the females.  Women show their anger mostly through mild and indirect ways.  Usually spreading rumors and hurting with words.  This makes figuring a woman out more of a guessing game while men tend to use more direct ways like shouting/ yelling.  It is also proven that when men are victims of gossip they rarely notice it.  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/10/30/mean-girl-behavior-is-the-norm-science-says/

Flavored Tabacco

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new study about how young teens are all over the “little cigars.”  There are cigars flavored as chocolate, strawberry, and grape which appeal to children.  Companies that make the flavored “mini cigars” argue that they are not targeting children, even though it’s obvious they are since the flavors seem more probable to be consumed by teens.  The CDC is trying their best to make the cigars less accessible to children because not every place that sells tobacco checks for IDs.  The smokers range all the way from Middle School to High Schoolers. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/10/22/cdc-flavored-tobacco-products-luring-underage-smokers/

Algae in Lake Earie

Lake Erie, which provides water for about 11 million people, is going bad.  Algae in Lake Erie are getting to extreme conditions.  Last year it got so bad that a town told its population of 2,000 people to not the water from tap until told otherwise, something that has never happened until then.  The algae growth is fed by the phosphorus of farm fertilizers, which leaves behind toxins that can kill animals and harm humans.  The water is now being filtered for a longer time, making sure that it is pure.  This is costing double the amount of money it took last year to purify water, the costs are at $4 million now. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/10/14/toxins-from-algae-in-lake-erie-pose-threat-to-drinking-water/

Lose Weight or Lose Job

Tory Johnson, business woman and “Good Morning America” contributor had a life changing conversation that set her on the right path. She had met with her boss and her boss told her that she recommends hiring a stylist to appear neater on stage.  Tory, though, took this conversation from a different perspective and realized that if she does not lose weight, she will end up losing her job.  Diets never really worked for Tory, but her job was a great motivation for her.  She started exercising and eating less.  Even though eating less isn’t the trick it worked for Tory.  She lost 72 pounds and is now on the right track. http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/07/health/weight-loss-tory-johnson/index.html?hpt=he_c1

Fat Letters form School?

Parents of elementary students are getting letters sent home saying their child is too fat.  These letters have been going around in 19 states in the US.  The schools put in the student’s weight and height and measure their body mass index.  Then the school decides if the child is overweight or not.  The problems are that the computer can’t measure fat from muscle.  Students call these letters “fat letters” and make a child very insecure and they begin to think of school as a place where they will only get judged in. As if children don’t already have bullies to worry about, now they have to be cautious around adults.  It’s a bad idea and the children’s parents and the child should be the only ones in charge of their weight.  http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/24/opinion/navarrette-fat-letters/index.html?hpt=he_c2

200 lb. Anorexic

When you think of anorexia almost all people think of a stick thin girl, ribs showing, looking really unhealthy and almost dying but what people don’t think about is that anyone can be anorexic, we just can’t tell because they’ve just started.  Ali Hougnou is 200 pounds and suffering from anorexia.  She tried dieting first but nothing really did it until she went to her grandparent’s house for the whole summer and ate healthy foods, like they did and spent all day outdoors being active- just like her grandparents did.  She lost 15 pounds by the time she came back to school.  She started starving herself and lost 40 pounds.  Pediatricians were proud from the weight loss but were blinded by the great weight loss to see that she was turning anorexic and losing the weight the wrong way.  She is now 22 and a normal weight helping others with eating disorders.  http://www.nbcnews.com/health/200-pound-anorexic-obese-teens-risk-disorder-its-often-unrecognized-4B11216388

Nothing Was The Same

      “Nothing Was the Same” Drake's much anticipated album was leaked on the 15 of September.   It was supposed to come out on September 24^th but leaked out on Twitter 9 days early.  The hype for his album started early when the song by Migos “Versace” came out and Drake’s verse contained “The album is coming September, just wait on it.” His fans were waiting ever since.  The album contains 13 songs, some of which are his famous “Hold on We’re Going Home.”  His style for the album has a very R&B feel for it mixed with rap.  His lyrics make the album live up to the hype Drake set it at, and it is sure to not disappoint. http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/09/16/drake-new-album-leak-nothing-was-the-same-review/

Jennifer or Jen?

Jennifer or Jen? For online daters “Jen” would be a more appropriate choice.  Statistics from an online dating site called Badoo.com show that online daters prefer a nickname over the longer- original name.  The reason for this preference is that a nickname gives the daters a warmer feel to the person with the shorter name.  Tests ran in the US, Canada, the UK, Brazil, France, Spain, Italy and Germany all show the same results. A shorter name simply gives out a friendlier message, rather than a whole- longer name which researchers say would intimidate the dater.  The same results are shown for both genders. 
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/shorter-names-appealing-online-daters-article-1.1451139

Selling Pregnancy Tests- Used

Women who are expecting decide to make some easy cash to help their baby funds by selling their pregnancy tests, used and positive.   Across the nation women use the network Craigslist to sell their tests for $20-$40.  These tests turned out to be a good seller for the girls out there who want to pull pranks on parents, boyfriends, or friends.  As twisted as it sounds girls even use it for revenge on ex-boyfriends.  Others put them to a good cause and use them to make films for teen pregnancy prevention such as a woman from Los Angeles in her local Boys and Girls Club.  For whatever the use the used tests are selling and the soon-to-be mom are sure profiting.