Greatest Rivalry of All-Time

All sports fans say that their home team and the team down the street is the best rivalry in the land, but who is right? Personally, I believe that the Bears and the Packers earn the number one spot, but my opinion is biased, and so are all other fans. But Jake Karmel of Bleacher Report has no bias and he supports his claims with the history of the rivals. This article states the top 10 sports rivalries, but who did they put at number one?

http://www.posterrevolution.com/

#3: USC vs. Notre Dame:

These two teams aren’t always national championship teams year in and year out, but they consistentaly put on a great game. “Whether it was back during the match up of Matt Leinart vs. Brady Quinn in South Bend when Leinart completed that impossible pass to lead the Trojans down field or it is a blowout win, the game will never cease to be interesting.” I agree with the author that they always put on great showings because I have watched them one television for so many years. Although this rivalry does not have the proximity factor like Alabama and Notre Dame do, they possess great history and they are very similar academically and skill wise in football.  

#2: Duke vs. North Carolina:

Like the USC vs. Notre Dame rivalry, “the games are always great and always interesting”. These mens basketball games have undoubtedly been the most anticipated game of the year for the past 5 years. Lastly, these two teams possess proximity because they are only minutes away, history because of their basketball, and similarity because they are “easily the two most hated teams in NCAA men's basketball.”

#1: Red Sox vs. Yankees:

Another rivalry that contains all 3 factors of a good rivalry, the infamous Red Sox vs. Yankees. I would say their strong characteristic that puts them on top is their similar competitiveness. Like I stated earlier, a good rivalry consists of players and fans that find more joy in watching the other team lose than the their own team win, and that is exactly how to describe the fan and players of these two teams. When they play each other, the seats are full, and everyone is on the edge of their seat, tingling from the excitement.

Psychology Behind Religion and Myths

In this post, I seek to address the psychology behind myths. I want to understand the psychological reasons of why people believe in religion and myths.

The article, “A Reason To Believe” by Beth Azar, a writer for the American Psychological Association, provides explanations of the psychology behind religion and myths.

http://www.slu.edu/

1. Researchers who study the psychology and neuroscience of religion are helping to explain why such beliefs are so enduring. They’re finding that religion may, in fact, be a byproduct of the way our brains work, growing from cognitive tendencies to seek order from chaos, to anthropomorphize our environment and to believe the world around us was created for our use.

This excerpt from the article explains how we, as society, are taking certain myths in life that don't really make sense and coming up with explanations that have to do with human nature. Researchers are coming up with ways to make chaos in our world make sense and seem reasonable to our lives.

2. Jordan Grafman, PhD, director of the cognitive neuroscience section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke-------- In general, he believes, the brain uses the same circuits to think about and experience religion as it does to think about and handle any other thoughts or beliefs.

Jordan Grafman explains his opinion that the human brain thinks about and experiences religion in the same way to think about and handle other beliefs. In other words, we use the same parts of our brain when thinking about religion as we do when thinking about other ideas in life. In my opinion, this means that our ideas and beliefs about religion guide our opinions of myths or sayings in society.  

3. “What we’re showing is that our basic cognitive equipment biases us toward certain kinds of thinking and leads to thinking about a pre-life, an afterlife, gods, invisible beings that are doing things — themes common to most of the world’s religions,” says Barrett. this tendency also set us up to believe in an omnipresent God-like concept. Taken together, it’s easy to see how these cognitive tendencies could allow our minds to create religions built on the idea of supernatural beings that watch over our lives, says Atran, director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris.

In this excerpt from the article, researchers describe how religion corresponds to the way we look at life and afterlife. They explain how our religious beliefs lead us to our opinions of the supernatural and about who or what we are before life, and what we become when our lives end. When I look at it all together, my views on religion, on myths, on ideas of life, I see how they are all built off one another and that is what these researchers are trying to tell us. 

After reading this article I really thought about the connection between religious views and myths. In my opinion, the social, psychological, cultural and spiritual are all connected. My views on society are based off of my religious and cultural beliefs and quite frankly, I think it is really hard to think about something in a totally different way from a religious perspective and a spiritual perspective because they connect.   

Future Research:

Will there ever be a perfect explanation behind each myth or religion?

Can something like 9/11 happen again?

Using information from the article "Could Sept. 11 Happen Again?", I will answer the question, “How likely is it that something like 9/11 will happen again?” ABC news is a reliable source because it is major news reporting network that is widely used by people in the Chicago area.

This article explains how there is a possibility of something like the September 11th attacks happening again. The probability of anything like this happening again is not incredibly high, but the United States is very diligent in security and taking proper precautions.

After examining the event of 9/11, security experts say that there’s always more that can be done to increase security. Since the attack, increased security precautions are now taken at every airport. Precautions include security checkpoints and equipment check ups, checking luggage for explosives, background checks and training on all air marshals, pilots having guns in the cockpit and background checks of several other positions.

Another event like 9/11 could easily happen again, but with the safety and security America is applying to airports and federal areas, it is pretty unlikely. In the article it states, “terrorism experts warn that as time goes on without an attack, the greatest vulnerability in the security system may be complacency-that government officials, airlines and passengers will let their guard down”. I believe that time without an attack happening could make America due for one, but I think the security of America should never become weak, and the United States should always be ready for anything to happen.

I think that the probability of something happening to America is quite low, but it could very possibly happen. I think to prevent it, America needs to upgrade their security and security equipment. People in America may be concerned about the money it would take to hire security officers and invest in new equipment, but if it is for the safety of our citizens, it may well be worth it.

www.bobbyshred.com

What are the requirements of true fandom?

Sports fans are very passionate, and many times criticize other “fans” who are not as passionate as themselves. For example, “bandwagon” fans (fans that root only for teams that are good at the time, jumping onto a “bandwagon” as they hop from team to team) are becoming more and more noticeable in sports, especially the NBA and NFL. Sportswriter Bill Simmons wrote an article on 20 requirements that a person has to follow in order to be a true fan. Bill Simmons is a very credible source who writes for ESPN.com and is the editor in chief of his own successful subwebsite off ESPN.com called Grantland. He is also a television show host and documentary director. There are many grey areas in being a sports fan, so the bottom line should just to sit back, relax, and enjoy the game.

ESPN.com

Simmons, an avid Boston sports fan, also has the same amount of displeasure towards bandwagoners as myself and the rest of America, writing: “you can't start rooting for a team, back off when they're in a down cycle, then renew the relationship once the team starts winning again...you know who you are. You shouldn’t even be allowed in public. There is nothing worse than a bandwagon jumper.” Since Simmons is a huge Boston guy, he has dealt with his fair share of bandwagoners, as Boston is one of the greatest sports cities in the U.S., and I can share from my experience that it is extremely annoying to have someone who starts randomly rooting for your team when they get good.


In addition, Bill touches on fantasy sports. Fantasy sports and real life is a very fine line as to who you should root for, your favorite team or a player you need to do well in order to win a game in your fantasy league. Bill believes that you can root for your player unless your team is fighting for a playoff spot, or its a very close game. In my opinion, you should have a undivided loyalty towards your team, but if your team is totally out of the playoff race you can root for your fantasy player, especially if there are high stakes involved. 

Nous sommes Charlie Hebdo

http://www.theregister.co.uk

              "Je suis Charlie”, “Je suis Ahmed”, “Je suis Flic”, “Je suis Juif" even those these are very

different things that people stand for," I am Charlie", "I am Ahmed"," I am Jewish", "I am

free" they all stood united when there country was under 

attack. Millions came to mourn, support, and represent those who lost their  lives. Vast 

crowds gathered in different cities. According to CNN If they had not done this it would have 

made it seem like they were broken and torn. Because of France's reaction they looked 

strong, united, and as if 

to say, we are not afraid.  All around Europe people stood together for those whose sole 

reason for this gruesome death was utilizing their freedom. Children, world leaders, parents, 

teachers, friends rallied together. One man said the french people must not give in to fear, 

the terrorists will not win." police officers held signs saying, we are all cops. Muslims held up 

signs saying we are all muslim. others held up signs saying we are all french. They did this 

because they wanted to show that no matter the race, color, religion, job, or nationality they 

are binded together by one thing, they are french and they are proud to be.

Fourty-four world leaders, including British prime minister David Cameron, German 

chancellor Angela Merkel, and Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy lead the march down 

the Boulevard Voltaire. The rally even brought together the Palestinian Authority President 

and Israel Prime Minister. The rally of supporters lasted well into the night with them was 

Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris and the President of the French 

council of the Muslim Faith.

www.thedotpoint.com.

The boy who is living a second life...?

This article, “Return to Life: How some Children have memories of Reincarnation”, written by Jake Whiteman and Cynthia Mcfadden, describes the story of young Ryan. This is a credible source, written by NBC’s today news.

Reincarnation can be described as a concept that the soul can begin a new life after death. This is mostly an idea worshipped by Hinduism or Buddhism. That is what makes Ryans story even more interesting. Ryan is just like any other normal 5 year old boy. He has a very vivid imagination just like other kids at his age. Although Ryan is a Christian with generations of Christians before him. Ryan’s story begins at the age of 4 when he experiences terrible nightmares. When kids are Ryans age they go through phases like this one, it is very normal. As these nightmares concluded something not normal happened. As he was heading to bed he said “Mom, I have something I need to tell you. I used to be someone else”.

The preschooler would constantly be crying to his mother and explaining that he needs her to take him home to Hollywood. Ryan would tell his mother about meeting movie stars, dancing on Broadway, and going on vacations. As this continued it got even more crazy when Ryan said he remembered that the street he used to live on in Hollywood had the word “rock” in it. Ryan's mother, Cyndi said that “His stories were so detailed and extensive that the child could not have made it up”. Knowing that Ryan was baptised and born a Christian, she found it weird that Ryan was experiencing Reincarnation like thoughts. Cyndi was so afraid that she kept this a secret, even from her husband. Now Cyndi knew it was time to get some research in.

Cyndi continued her quest by checking out books from the library. She brought one home and showed it to Ryan. As they flipped through the pages of the book Ryan said hey that’s me. This changed everything for Cyndi. They researched the man, his name was Marty Martin. Ryan told his mother all about his five wives and two sisters, also about his trip to Paris. Cyndi hired an investigator and the man pulled up information on Marty Matrin. This information was not available on the internet. It turns out that in the end Ryan had 55 details about Martins life, all backed up by evidence. That street he lived on with Rock in it, Rockford lane. Lastly, Ryan had asked for an orange soda that was canceled 50 years before Ryan was born. This too was later found that  Martin had a craving for this certain brand of orange soda. To conclude, today Ryan is living a normal 10 year old boy life and his memory of Martin is fading away.

Ryans story is one of over 2,500 other children that experience similar memories of their “past life”. This investigator that dug up the facts about Martin said that this was the most interesting story he has ever done because it was so detailed and precise. But the thing that hooked him was when Ryan said that he had died when he was 59 but the record showed he died at 61. It was later found out that the death certificate was wrong and lied about when Martin died. The fact that Ryan knew things that were unavailable online or anywhere available to the public is chilling. This backs up the claim that every religion is different and everyone believes in something different, but it’s not always what you believe that is right.

This story can be viewed in a short video news story:

http://www.today.com/news/return-life-how-some-children-have-memories-reincarnation-t8986

Further Research: I would like to study the life of Martin.

The Bittertweet Life of Social Media

Social Media has taken over as one of the most important things in life now a day and everyone has one. Twitter is where most athletes have an account, and where I want to focus my blog. According to http://www.nola.com/ twitter has been the subject of many athletes best and worst feelings.

This picture shows how big twitter is in football, and that is it plays a part.

Many basketball players use twitter to tell people where they will be attending college, and when a big fan of another school finds out they're not going to their school they get upset. When Andrew Wiggins committed to Kansas he received numerous tweets from people saying, "I hope you tear your ACL."

 Another story like this is when Redskins wide receiver was sent death threats after he blew the game for his team. Similar to this Kyle Williams of the 49ers was told by a fan that he hopes his kids and wife die, because he deserves after he muffed a punt to lose the game.

 On the other hand, twitter can give an athlete the greatest feeling in the world if he wins the game for his team. Such as when Odell Beckham Jr. made an incredible catch, and he nearly broke twitter. This gained him incredible support throughout his season. Also when a unlikely hero wins a game he can feel on top of the world by receiving comments from happy fans.

 But the reason twitter is so dangerous is people can hide behind a screen, and don't care what they tell people. So creating a twitter when your an athlete is definitely a risk. I think social media has become way to big of a part in our world.

For us to survive, coral reefs must thrive

I analyzed information about coral reefs on coral.org and I found some interesting threats, causes, and solutions to coral reefs destruction. We are responsible for the destruction that these reefs face, but we can change these outcomes with some interesting precautions.

Why should we care about coral reefs?

Coral reefs are very beutiful and resourceful parts of the world.  “Many of the compounds now being used in human medicines, including some that treat cancer, are found on coral reefs, with probably many more yet to be discovered.” Now not only do these reefs deserve to be protected but they have things to offer to us which is enough to change some of the more selfish humans minds. If we want to preserve this planet a great way to start is protecting coral reefs. These helpful natural beuties need our help. Not only do they help against medicine but also serve as natural barriers against hurricanes, typhoons and psunamis. The article estimates its worth to us yearly is about 375 billion U.S. dollars, and they do all the work for free.

How can we help save these reefs?

Global Warming destroying the reefs is a fear of scientists. If the seas get warmer the reefs may not be able to evolve fast enough to its new environment resulting in their destruction. It comes down to the burning of fossil fuels that is polluting this planet. If we could find a new source of energy then the whole planet, including the coral reefs, will renew itself and we could learn to keep the world protected. Due to global warming the ozone layer is also depleting whivh is resulting in coral reefs being exposed to too much sun, ultimetly frying them. But no matter where you live you can make a diferencel,  reduce your amount of emmisions and even use water unwastefully. We still have hope and until we don’t we must to everything we can to save coral reefs and our planet!

Why Are We Addicted?

From Student Science I saw why we are so addicted and rely so much on our phones.  Research shows that we check our phones over 150 times a day, and an average student uses their phones over 9 hours a day.  This is more time than most of us spend sleeping.  

huffingtonpost.com

The data that has been collected from men and women differs quite a bit.  “Women use the phone more for maintaining and nurturing social relationships”(Kowalski).  Men use their phones more often for entertainment and finding information.  Using our phones this much shows that we may be addicted to our technology we use everyday.  The more we use our phones the more it affects how we socialize.  We use our phones to communicate with everyone instantly.  You can communicate and socialize with people without actually being with them.  This causes people to spend more time online and less and less time seeing people in person.  Being addicted to your phone and being addicted to drugs and alcohol both show some of the same things.  A person with the addiction will feel compelled to use their phone even if they know they should not.  They also try to use their phones to make them happier and make them feel better.  For some people losing their phone or having it run out of battery can cause them to have anxiety and make them panic.  This is similar with people who are addicted to drugs that feel like they need to have it even though it is very harmful to their health.

Outstanding Oceanic Organization

When people think of an organization for a certain cause, things such as raising money through community walks come to mind. What many people don't realize is that organization do so much more than just raise money and when combined to solve a common solution, they can actually be very successful. The One World One Ocean Campaign website provides an article titled "Working Together" that provides a brief description of numerous campaigns and organizations that attempt in various ways to help ocean pollution. This source is considered credible because One World One Ocean Campaign is the most popular campaign for ocean pollution that has a history of being very successful. Therefore the information provided is accurate and reliable. 

The research question being addressed in this brief essay is: What are some successful organization that specialize in Ocean Pollution and how do they help the problem?

Source

There are many organizations such as Mission Blue, Oceana, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that make a significant attempt to help oceanic pollution in different ways like inspiring people to take action, protecting specific oceanic areas, and monitoring as well as researching different aspects of the ocean. Mission Blue is a combination of multiple foundations such as “The National Geographic Society” and  “SEAlliance” that is supported by large companies such as Google. The main goal of Mission Blue is to restore the ocean’s health through a variety of different ways. The organization works on inspiring and informing the people about the problem. By doing this they hope to get across to fisherman that they need to be more cautious when fishing to reduce the amount of debris and sound pollution that is deposited into the ocean because of fishery ships. Also, Mission Blue promotes creating areas in the ocean that are permanently protected so no further damage will be done. Although Mission Blue covers a variety of different ways to better our oceans, there are other organizations that focus on a specific way to help ocean pollution.

Oceana is a worldwide organization that strongly focuses on protecting the world’s oceans. By placing protection laws in certain areas, “Since 2001, we [Oceana] have protected over 1.2 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and other sea creatures.” Oceana offices are found worldwide and are definitely making an impact on the well being of the oceans. By protecting certain areas of the ocean, endangered species are less susceptible to becoming extinct. Also by placing protection, it gives people a chance to cleanup an area without incoming debris. By doing this, Ocean strives to have most of the ocean protected which will hopefully cause endangered species to thrive again as well as give us time to clean up our mess. In addition to working on cleanups and ocean protection, some organizations focuses more on researching to find long lasting and efficient solutions.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) works to better our oceans through scientific research. By researching and recording data from weather forecasts, fisheries, and coastal restoration the NOAA is working on getting to the root of the problem of ocean pollution. Until an efficient solution is found, “NOAA’s dedicated scientists use cutting-edge research to provide citizens, planners, emergency managers and other decision makers with reliable information they need when they need it.” By providing the people with reliable information and data, new ideas will hopefully be formulated and then reported back to NOAA to be further researched. Also, when the people are aware of the problem at stake, they can take precautions to lessen the amount of pollution that is going into our oceans.

You Can Loosen Racism's Grip

Racism is such a large and complex issue, and it causes many people to shy away from having any part in the solution. The solution actually starts with you taking action and being different. We all know that racism is not a good thing, so act like it. Don't just let it remain. Incorporating the goal of lessening racism into your life is a step closer to lessening it in the world.

Sources: 12 Things White People Can Do Now Because of Ferguson

Addressing Racism in the U.S. Justice System: An Analysis

Question: What can you do to limit the racism in your life and in the world?

Thesis: What you can do today to help end racism is learn more about racism, educate others, deny excuses, and not be afraid to take a stand against racism. There are numerous organizations that preach these ideas in an effort to end racism as well. One example of this is the American Friends Service Committee. “The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that promotes lasting peace with justice and has long advocated for an end to systemic racism, especially in the U.S. justice system.” The AFSC specifically targets the police and judges and anyone in the justice system after seeing racist patterns occurring in the branch. Cases like Mike Brown keep coming up and the AFSC wants to stop the abuse of power. The AFSC wants to work together as a world until all lives matter by supporting ideas of officer investigation and civil right charges.

Just these organizations will not be enough to support this cause. Janee Woods of Quartz wrote, “A lot of white people are not speaking out publicly against the killing of Michael Brown because they don’t see a space for themselves to engage meaningfully in the conversation so that they can move to action against racism.” This falls under the category of being afraid to take a stand or not being educated on the topic. Many white people do not realize how big of a deal racism is because many of them can go through their lives without any racial biases against them. It will be difficult, but white people will have to realize that racism is actually a big part of their lives. Racism is a burden on their communities. Also, since white people had a role in creating racism, then they should have a role in ending it.

As I have shown in my previous blog posts, media is one of the main sources for the spread of racism. I agree that it could also be a large contributor to lessening the racial biases in the world. In the news or on magazines or on the radio, listen to people of other races than you are and hear their opinions and viewpoints on topics. Similarly, instead of trying to showing sympathy for people like Mike Brown by saying “he was such a good kid,” look at the bigger picture. He was not killed because he was a bad kid, he was killed because he was not white.

Source

      Racism continues to exist because it is what is easy. What is easy is what had always been around and is a “norm.” Change, of course, is less popular and will be more difficult. We can’t be afraid to be different and be proactive. We can start in our community. Moments of crisis should not be just a catalyst for short-term support against racism. Try to incorporate anti-racism into all aspects of your life and make it a permanent trait of yours. Racism will never completely go away, but it is definetely possible to loosen the strangling grip it has on our society

Animals are Essential

For this blog post I read an article by Jenna Bardroff, a writer for the "One Green Planet" webpage. She wrote about how humans actually need certain animals for our everyday lives. Who would've thought? She stressed the importance of saving these creatures so that we can live normally and keep a stable ecosystem.


As I'm sure you've heard bees are essential to our well-being. Without their pollination our agricultural industries would crumble. They are the key to fertilization and the creation of whatever fruit or vegetable the plant makes.  In 2011 scientists concluded that "in dry climates, ants and termites increase wheat crop yields bu 36%"(Bardroff). 36 is an obscene amount, that is enough to effect tens of millions of people. I think that we as humans should strive to keep such human-friendly animals alive for our future.

medimoon.com
Leaf-cutter ants on a branch

Bees are not the only essential living being needed for the survival of vast ecosystems. Bats, for example, eat all kinds of flying insects for their main diet. They help to control the population so that those insects don't destroy too many plants. Frogs act as a sort of "bio-indicators" meaning that they show early signs of how an environment's condition is. Because they're all over the ground and in the water they pick up whatever waste is left behind and can easily be tested by scientists to detect problems in the area. They are also eaten by many carnivores and, as bats do, help to control insect population. It is very interesting how little animals can have such large effects on the health of their environments.

Endangered or Not?

How are koalas doing today? It is a common belief that koalas are on the endangered species list, but that is a false fact. Koalas do not live in the United States, and where they live, in Australia, there is no status listed.  Depending on the state in Australia, some states list the koala to be common and some list it to be rare.  So, koalas are not truly endangered like we believe. The article Bear Life, explains the misunderstood information we have about koalas. This is a reliable source because although individual authors are not listed, the website is created for education purposes to get all the facts you need on all kinds of bears around the world.

www.koalasupport.com

 Koalas do not adapt to the fast-changing environment as fast as other animals do. With the very unique living conditions koalas have, without being able to adapt rapidly doesn’t help their population.  The population of koalas is dropping because their very specific habitat all over Australia is being destroyed.  In areas where the trees they feed on is prevalent, that usually means the population of koalas will be pretty high. Since all koalas only feed on the eucalyptus trees, that usually means a danger in feeding will occur between all the koalas. Koalas do not have any known natural predators as well. Keep in mind although koalas look cute and cuddly, they have very sharp teeth and nails that they can use if needed.  Since koalas only feed on leaves, they are at the top of their food chain because they do not prey on animals.

A War Back Home

www.nasa.gov

According to the Department of Defense, 180,000 Americans enlist each year for a considerable amount of time in the military. America’s 2 million strong military sacrifice their freedoms to protect ours. The veterans who come back home, especially with a mental or physical injury, their treatment provided by the government had little help even though government has tried to fix the problem.

The Veteran Affair scandal which involved veterans not receiving care needed by being on a “wait-list” sometimes up to 90 days not receiving the treatment they deserve. For 35 veterans, this resulted in the loss of their lives. Reforms made in months before have shown that the waiting lists have stayed in the range of 60-90 day range. A later internal investigation stated that a large number of veterans being misdiagnosed to save money. This resulted in veterans receiving delayed treatment or not even receiving it.  

Although the VA has tried to fix what they have been doing wrong as stated in this article. Lawmakers provided the VA with an additional 16.3 billion dollars to help fund hospitals and hire doctor. Appointments handled by the VA has went up by 4.5% compared to earlier year, but referrals to the private sector of doctors is rising along with it. This means the VA can’t handle the increase of veterans coming to the VA for help. Where does that leave our veterans who have sacrificed so much so that we didn't have to?

Future Research: What can civilians do to help veterans?

Usefulness of Amazon's Drones

Thesis: Amazon’s drone delivery service has been approved for testing.

Have you ever wanted your order to arrive quickly? Amazon’s new drones may be able to fulfill those needs, if they can get approved. I found these two articles interesting because Amazon’s drones have been approved for testing. These drones can’t fly over 400 feet and 100 mph. Drone delivery will make everything simpler and enhance our ideas of the future by giving us more ideas to make more/better technology. Also, there are other companies that have been approved to test their drones, mostly used for TV and other filming. The people at Amazon are hoping to make everything be quickly delivered, Amazon Dash recently started which lets people order from a button.

Aolcdn,com

DQ: Will Amazon Prime Air be an effective way for delivering?

       How will Amazon’s drones affect retailers?