Anthony Bennett Finds His Role In Cleveland

Posted on October 14, 2013 by jperez110

In this year’s NBA Draft the Cleveland Cavaliers had the first overall selection. Cleveland is a team that has plenty of young players with promising potential, and this draft was an opportunity to get even better. Cleveland is set at point guard with Kyrie Irving, who they hope will sign long term with the team. They also have Dion Waiters, who they drafted last year. The needs for Cleveland this year are post scoring and a versatile wing man. The Cavs potential draft prospects included Victor Oladipo, Otto Porter, and Nerlens Noel.

On draft night, the Cavaliers shocked everyone when they selected Anthony Bennett. Bennett is a 6’8” forward from UNLV. He was projected to be a top 15 pick, but no one thought he was good enough to be the first player taken overall. He is not big enough to play power forward, and he is not fast enough to play small forward. The Cavs certainly thought Bennett could fit in with their team, and after his showing this preseason it seems that Anthony Bennett has the ability to be a superstar.

This weekend Anthony Bennett and the Cavaliers faced the Orlando Magic in a preseason game. The Magic have Victor Oladipo, who many thought Cleveland should have taken in the draft with the first pick. Bennett scored 16 points in the game, including 14 points in the fourth quarter alone. Cleveland ended up winning the game by 5 points. After receiving lots of criticism for selecting Anthony Bennett with the number 1 pick in the draft, it looks like Bennett will be a great fit in Cleveland.

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Positive and Negative Effects to Exercising with a Cold

Posted on October 14, 2013 by johnmalala

Every time I have a cold or even a headache, it’s easy to just say “i won’t workout today”. However, with some moderate activity, the body could begin to feel better. Dr. Richard Besser says “If your symptoms are above the neck — sneezing, sinus pressure, stuffy nose — then breaking a sweat is generally considered safe”.

Walking, jogging, and taking a dance class is the best for a person feeling under the weather. Also known to be good for someone is Qi gong, a combination of martial arts and meditation. Qi gong is used for people to decrease stress and boost energy, without breaking a serious sweat. Yoga and breathing exercises help the body build an immunity and relieve anxiety. It seems that activities which require cardio, stretching, and synchronized movements are the best for a person with a cold to do.

It is said that machines at the gym, lifting weights, team sports, and endurance running are to be the worst thing for someone feeling sick to act on. There is no need to train for a long distance marathon when having a cold; small excerpts of running is better. We all know we don’t want the sickness to spread, so gym appliances and playing with a team should be out of the question. It is also definitely likely for a person’s strength and endurance to dwindle while on a cold. Lifting weights to bulk up is unnecessary when sick.

Your body deserves a couple days to relax when feeling under the weather. So, I was interested to see that getting up and doing some activity can really help the body get healthy again. Of course, it is essential to balance exercise out with the seriousness of your symptoms.

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3 Teams That Still Need to Work to Make the 2014 World Cup

Posted on October 14, 2013 by taylorkoziol

The first team that still has work to do before the 2014 World Cup in Brazil is Mexico. Mexico has struggled in the fourth round of CONCACAF qualifying. Mexico currently sits in fourth position out of sixth with one game left. Mexico has the edge over Panama for the play-off in the standings. Mexico was in fifth before defeating Panama on Friday with a miraculous bicycle kick goal late in the game to secure three points. Mexico plays Costa Rica tomorrow. They need at least one point to secure the play-off spot which would mean Mexico would play New Zealand in a two game play-off for a spot in the World Cup.

Mexico could still avoid the play-off spot with a win and a loss by Honduras. There would need to be at least a three goal swing between the two games for Mexico’s goal difference to be better than Honduras’. If Mexico were to lose and Panama were to beat the US, Mexico would finish fifth in the group and be eliminated from World Cup qualifying. El Tri need to focus on winning tomorrows game before they look ahead to Brazil.

In Europe there are a few teams that usually qualify for the World Cup that will have to go through a two game play-off. Portugal is one of them. They didn’t play their best football in group stage of qualifying and will hope to avoid a good team in the play-off. The team that should scare Portugal the most in the play-off is France. France will most likely come in second in their group because they have the reigning World Cup champions Spain atop of the group with one game to play.

France is in a very scary situation. The play-off is determined by a random draw of the eight teams that come in second place in the group. The draw has two pots which is determined by FIFA’s world rankings. The top four teams would be in one group meaning they would not face each other. Right now France would be the fifth highest team out of the eight meaning they would be drawn against one of the top four teams in the play-off draw. France has the quality talent to go deep in the World Cup, but they have to make it first. If they were to draw Portugal in the play-off, that would set up for a two game play-off that would seem like a World Cup knockout stage game. Both teams are most going to go to the play-off, but it will come down to a random draw of matchups to see who plays who.

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Space Exploration Takes a Backseat

Posted on October 14, 2013 by rachelfoster89

Space exploration over the past decade has slowly come to a disappointing halt. There has been a stoppage in shuttles sent into space for human exploration of the great unknown. The NASA budget is an extremely small amount of the total American government’s budget. Some may find that it is strange that we have hindered such an important and interesting agency.

These people are concerned for the same reason that I am, NASA is important. It is a common misconception that NASA is only used to explore space. They are a conglomeration of engineers, biologists and physicists that have contributed to society in countless ways. Most medical equipment was created using NASA technologies. Many household items such as smoke detectors and cordless tools are contributed to NASA research.

Interestingly, people still find that NASA is not a useful agency. It is ignorant to state that scientific research of the universe and the world around us is a waste of money. The day we begin to spend less money of knowledge and more on fiscal operations is the day the human race stops evolving. We were given an inquisitive mind in order to question this wonderful world around us. Misusing this gift is an insult to nature itself.

There are possibilities to discover cures for diseases, new technologies and even other civilizations with the ambition NASA implies. Just imagine if one hundred years ago we decided to cut funding to NASA. We would know much less about the universe then we do now and could quite possible be worse off in terms of technological advancement.

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Avatar Expansion to Take Over Walt Disney World

Posted on October 14, 2013 by marissanclark

This past weekend, the Walt Disney company officially announced that the blockbuster movie, Avatar will now be included into the parks at Walt Disney World Resort. The plan as of now is to have the setting of the movie, the planet of Pandora in Animal Kingdom park.

The themes of the movie with different forms of nature and food will mesh very easily with the park because Animal Kingdom is currently filled with animals of the past (dinosaurs), present (zoo animals), and fantasy. The avatar animals will fit very well with the fantasy section.

The area will include rides that simulate the air, water and ground in Pandora. Many of the famous blue inhabitants of the area will also be present in the update.

Disney has released a date in which they hope the re-vamp of Animal Kingdom to be done around 2017. There will be quite a bit of construction done to complete a project of this magnitude. James Cameron, the director of the film will have a huge role in helping to create this new area. With him involved, the area will be done just like it would in the movie and won’t be completely “disney-like”.

Avatar in the park will be Disney’s way to compete against new areas of Universal’s Harry Potter World. Both areas will be hugely successful and it will be very fun to see both of these theme park can make. When both Universal and Disney compete, I feel that the guest wins.

In summary, the park that the Avatar section is heading to needs some new attractions to keep people in the parks longer. It will be exciting to see what Disney announces next about this project.

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Most Dangerous Nuclear Cleanup Operation Underway

Posted on October 14, 2013 by holypointejoey

It’s been over two years since the fatal 2011 tsunami hit the Fukushima power plant, causing several explosions in the process due to the knocked out cooling systems. Japanese officials acknowledged that the plant had been leaking radiation into the Pacific Ocean since soon after the nuclear meltdown occurred. Despite the estimated four decade cleanup process, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe insisted that the whole situation was “under control”.

Back-peddling on those comments, Shinzo Abe announced a call for help, seeking international expertise on controlling the situation. Currently a team of sixteen members are evaluating the cleanup and overseeing the daily operations. One of the reactors requires the manual removal of spent fuel rods because of how badly damaged and unstable the building is. Normally, this is a computer-controlled process where the spent fuel rods are delicately removed and the computer is aware of each rod’s location right down to the millimeter. Given the damage of the building, manually removing 1,300 spent fuel rods is likely to spell greater disaster if some of the rods break during the process. To put the potential catastrophe in perspective, if another earthquake destroys the already unstable building, the 400 tons of fuel sitting in the pool would spew out more than 15,000 times the radiation that was released at Hiroshima in 1945. Basically, a lot depends on this operation. The release of radiation into the atmosphere not only affects Tokyo and neighboring countries, it affects the US West Coast with the potential nuclear dust just a breeze away.  The events that will unfold at Fukushima over the next 60 days are likely to shape the world for better or worse. The worst is likely to change life in all of the Northern Hemisphere.

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The League of Denial, A Look Into CTE

Posted on October 14, 2013 by andreat

Last week there was an interesting documentary about the NFL and CTE.  What is CTE?  CTE is chronic traumatic encephalopathy and it is very serious, especially this day in age. It deals with trauma to the head and concussions.  If you have ever seen an NFL game or played football before you would know that the head takes a lot of hits during the process the one single game, much less a whole career.  This is a huge story and it is only going to get bigger in the coming years. 

In this documentary it focused on some retired players and what they went through after they got done playing football.  The scary thing is, it wasn’t just about NFL players.  High school players and college football players and even pee wee football players were discussed.  It is pretty sad when you realize what some of these people are going through after their football careers.

One player that was at the forefront of the documentary was the long time Steeler center Mike Webster.  After his career he had a hard time even remembering his family and his family said it just wasn’t the same.  When he died they examined his brain and found that he had CTE.  But the NFL really didn’t want to hear anything about it.  The NFL to me is starting to look like a very corrupt and manipulative organization.  It seems like they would have done whatever they could to keep CTE quiet?  Why is that?  I think it is because they know that if people come out and say that they have CTE there could be a lot of lawsuits.  There is also the fact that the more people hear about this issue the more likely the NFL is going to be putting up with extreme scrutiny.  It is pretty scary.  Football players are tough, but a line has to drawn.  It is not worth anyone’s life over.

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Master Chef Runner-up Josh Marks loses battle of his life, commits suicide

Posted on October 14, 2013 by ash6128ucf

Joshua Marks who was the height of an average center for the sport of basketball was known as a gentle giant by friends. Marks was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a year ago, the same month he lost to the winner of Master Chef Christine Ha in the final round of the Fox reality competition’s.  A week prior to Joshua Marks death a doctor diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

On Friday October 11, Master Chef runner-up Joshua Marks was found died from a gunshot wound to the head. On Sunday October 13 Joshua Marks family said that he was battling with a mental illness at the time of his death. Marks family blames the lack of mental health treatment facilities and the easy access to guns as factors in his tragic death.

Back in July, Joshua Marks was charged with aggravated battery after a scuffle with police officers who were called to the scene after suffered serious facial wounds from a self-inflicted gunshot. Paulette Mitchell, Marks mother believed that the incident on Friday was a call for help, not a suicide attempt. His mother found him dead in an alley on Chicago’s south side Friday evening after a neighbor called to say he was walking around with a gun.

By Joshua Marks not getting the help he needed the results that he would face was either going to jail or death. Joshua family is now hoping to help others suffering from mental illness by talking about things that led up to Joshua committing suicide. A lesson can be taught from Joshua untimely death if you have a problem get the help you need.

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The Government Shutdown: What Caused It and What’s Next

Posted on October 14, 2013 by robert sutton

On October 7 this year the United States government shut down. According to Government Executive, a political news publication, about 43 percent of federal employees have been furloughed (placed on unpaid leave) until the government resumes functionality.

The shutdown was caused when the House of Representatives and the Senate both refused to pass budgets proposed by the other. Without a budget government agencies cannot be funded, therefore many workers were sent home and many federal agencies are temporarily closed. Why was congress unable to pass a budget? Partisan politics.

The affordable health care act or ‘obamacare’ went into effect on October 8, the day after the government shutdown. The republican controlled House refused to pass a budget from the Senate unless it defunded obamacare. The democrat controlled Senate refused to pass any budget proposed by the House unless it allowed funding for obamacare. Essentially, the republican-democrat debate over government-subsidized healthcare caused the government shutdown.

John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, has been meeting with President Obama and Harry Reid, the senate majority leader, over the past two weeks. Despite continued negotiations no agreement has been reached in order to create a budget that both parties can support.

How does the government shutdown affect the typical American? As long as you’re not a federal employee the only change you may have noticed is that you can’t visit state parks. While things are calm now, the United States is quickly approaching its debt limit. On October 17 the country will reach its debt limit and will be unable to pay other countries that we owe loan payments to. This would be the first time in history the United States has defaulted on debt payments. The consequences could be dire or minimal. If agreement is not reached by the legislature by that time we’ll see the effects first hand.

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Were Women The First Artists?

Posted on October 14, 2013 by lyle evan peterson

Here’s another point for the ladies! New research suggests that the ancient cave paintings that we once originally assumed was created be men were in fact created by women. Scientists originally believed the cave paintings were created by men because they paintings often revolved around hunting, which was mainly a male activity. However, Dean Snow, a professor of anthropology at Penn State University has spent the last decade working to prove this exact idea incorrect.

Inspired by John Manning, a British biologist who conducted research on the differences between male and female hands, his findings helped Snow sought counteract the male bias in science. Manning’s research demonstrated that the ring and index fingers of women hands are about the same length, while man ring fingers are generally longer than their index fingers. Snow applied this research to 32 ancient hand-prints from caves all over Europe; of the 32 he concluded 24 hands were female.

Despite the conclusions of Snow’s research, not all are willing to accept his theory so easily. Evolutionary biologist R. Dale Guthrie is somewhat skeptical of Snow’s findings. Guthries own research on the same subject insists that the hand prints could just as easily come from adolescent boys. Nevertheless, Snow has said that the feedback he’s received from other scientists has been overwhelmingly positive. Although he is curious as to why women were the artistic pioneers over 40,000 years ago, he is eager to let someone else find the answer; Snow is hopeful someone will take his research even further.

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