Can Being Outside Make Me Healthier and Happier?

Posted on March 17, 2016 by brimacnaught

What triggers a good day into motion? We automatically are set up for a win when there are clear skies and a bright sun in our midst. Have you ever noticed the difference you feel when it’s cloudy outside? We tend to be less happy when the skies are painted grey and there is no sun to be found. Just being outside can change the response our bodies have to day-to-day life. According to “Greenery (or Even Photos of Trees) Can Make Us Happier” by Gretchen Reynolds from the New York Tines, “A study from Stanford last year, for example, found that young adults who walked for an hour through campus parkland were less anxious afterward and performed better on a test of working memory than if they had strolled along a busy street.”

The Stanford study clearly indicates the effects being outside have on our bodies. Not only are we able to feel better mood wise, we are able to preform better. If we took the time to be exposed to the outside more often, how would this affect our lives? Would we be happier and healthier mentally?

A study published in “The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public”, had students connected with sensors to a monitor that detected electrical activity. After being exposed to photos buildings and green places, students were then asked to solve a number of difficult math problems. The results showed “when the students saw green spaces after the math stressor, their parasympathetic nervous systems kicked in, lowering heart rates”. However when they were shown photos of buildings it had no affect on them.

Our minds have now been expanded to the idea that being exposed to greenery and the outdoors can better our responses to daily life. How would our lives look like if we made it our priority to be in the outdoors?

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The CDC Establishes Guidelines Addressing Opioid Prescriptions To Curb Addiction

Posted on March 17, 2016 by cevans37

The battle of pain doctors and drug industry groups versus government and civilian proponents of limiting prescription drug use came to a halt on Tuesday. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention published guidelines clearly defining the standards by which medical providers are to prescribe opioids. According to federal statistics, there was a record high in 2014 of 28,647 deaths caused by prescribed opioid abuse. For a long time, doctors argued that the recommendations of the government intervening in their practices of prescribing these painkillers for chronic pain patients would create unnecessary obstacles for those who are truly in need. However, record high statistics and significant studies made for a more impressionable, stronger debate for ultimately curbing the deadly addiction that may be initiated in these doctors offices. One study revealed one in every 32 patients that were on a prescribed opioid treatment at high doses died from related causes within two and a half years of the initial prescription. The government determined that the health risk of becoming highly addicted to opioids outweighs the potential benefits they provide, especially for common symptoms like back pain.

The new guidelines are not overbearing nor are they binding, but they definitively specify the method to deeming these drugs as medically necessary or not for a patient. The CDC standards read that doctors should first try pain relievers such as Ibuprofen before resorting to opioid painkillers and if opioid therapy is found to be necessary, they recommend it at three to no more than seven days’ supply for short-term pain.

This change does not affect cancer patients or end-of-life treatments because it was not intended to be a harsh, universal mandate. The overall goal of the CDC and proponents of the change is to reduce the risk of an addiction that has already taken too many American lives. IMS Health reported that Percocet, Oxycontin, and Vicodin opioids gross sales of nearly $2 billion a year in our country and it is likely that the potential income loss is one of the industry’s biggest concerns. But from my perspective, if these pain doctors are sincerely concerned with the long-term well-being of their patients, the money loss doesn’t even come close to comparing.

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Do We Care Too Much What Other People Really Think About Us? – Click To Find Out Why We Subconsciously Do This!

Posted on March 16, 2016 by jesusalberto2120

Thinking about one’s own identity is a little awkward, because we all know who we are, it’s something that we are not constantly thinking about it. People don’t usually like to label themselves as something because we are afraid of what other people would think or how do they react if I call myself “the prettiest college senior of central Florida”. Just like we are learning here in the class that we care way too much what others would feel about ourselves but a great question to ask is why do we do this to ourselves? Do we ultimately want to feel judged? Or do we just want the acceptance of others for us to be able to breathe like a normal person.

Well a great response to this I got it from the article our own professor post it, and it says that “The reason lies in the fact that people develop images of themselves and of one another in relation to those qualities and attributes that are important to their social roles and their sense both of identification with and difference from one another.” We all at the end of the day want to be looked at in positive way, we all would like to think of ourselves as attractive people, we try to motivate ourselves in our minds. We seek that social acceptance from our community, we want to be known as someone who is smart, good-looking, caring and so on. But who decides what titles are to be given out and to who? We should be the ones deciding what to call ourselves, no one else needs to tell us, once we figure it out on our own, people will respect you because there is nothing attractive than a confident person who knows what they deserve and will not settle for anything or anyone.

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Nintendo is Moving into a New Phase of Handheld Gaming

Posted on March 13, 2016 by dsarden17

The video game industry is a highly competitive business. Many of the original video game console companies have disappeared; Atari and Sega are two examples. Nintendo, however, has stayed alive through the long haul.

Since the early 80s and the rise of video games, Nintendo has evolved with the technology. Currently, Sony and Microsoft have dominated the video game industry, and Nintendo has maintained its place by being different and connecting with their market.

They’ve focused on family friendly games and social gaming through their consoles. However, our cell phones are becoming the most social aspect of our lives. We share our lives through our phone. Apps and mobile gaming are very new but have become ingrained in the culture of younger generations that have grown up with cell phones and hand held digital devices.

Being able to capitalize on mobile gaming will allow them to continue connecting with their fans. Nintendo won’t be alone in this business either, but can continue to develop and carve it’s own niche. Like the rest of the digital world, it’s open. Anyone that code can create an app, and coding is also a unique fact of modern life.

Mobile gaming will probably pull us a little further into our devices. Cell phones will also become more integrated within our lives. Nintendo has kept its focus on being entertaining for everyone. While more violent games will also be created by developers and competitors, Nintendo will do what it does best. Video games and online gaming are an opportunity for families to share, and isn’t that what being social is all about?

http://www.slashgear.com/miitomo-nintendos-first-app-hits-japan-on-march-17-12431243/

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First Uterus Transplant in U.S. has failed but success is coming.

Posted on March 13, 2016 by v.king

 

Should we be happy or sad that this failed? I ask this question because this could be a possibly be a good or bad thing depending on how you see it. I see this with an open mind and what I mean by that is we’re getting closer to a successful transplant and when we do achieve this feat then this can mean something amazing in the U.S. Women have these transplant procedures done because of infertile issue and in rare case some born without a uterus. Women who were born without uterus can finally have one and even give birth. The transplant failed because of complications but when the patient undergone one biopsy to check for rejection issues she initially passed leaving questions for doctors to answer. Other transplants in other country’s have been successful and no rejection issues have occurred in successful cases the patients even gave birth after recovering from the transplant. Three other medical centers are planning to do uterus transplants as well but at a experimental level right now.

 

Now on to the bad part as I was talking about in the beginning. The bad part of this that I can personally see is sooner or later the transgender will be trying to get a transplant like or similar to this and expect to give birth to children. Now I am not a judge so I am not here to judge anybody but I see this turning into a big controversy if the transgender do try something like this and is successful at it but that’s beyond the case. This is the first transplant in the U.S. but other country’s like Sweden has had nine successful transplants with five of those transplants leading to having birth. While this procedure is difficult it’s certainly not impossible.

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Studies Show Bilingual Children Develop Better Cognitive & Social Skills Than Others

Posted on March 12, 2016 by cevans37

Psychology researchers have recently yielded study results that have demonstrated significant advantages for children that are bilingual and/or are exposed to multiple languages. It makes sense to believe that if a child is capable of understanding, speaking and distinguishing between two or more languages, that they have superior skills that enable them to manage fluencies in areas of grammar, pronunciation, listening, and comprehension. But what makes it more evident is that developmental studies on groups of children aged 4 to 6 from different linguistic backgrounds have reflected that these children have improved cognitive skills like executive function. For example, three cars (small, medium, and large) were placed in front of these children who were asked to move the small car. The children were in a position where they could observe that the adult could not see the smallest car, only the medium and large were in plain sight,  so they understood that the adult must be referring to the medium car and moved that one instead. This shows that they are able to attend to not only content but context as well, which provides them the ability to consider other people’s perspectives in a manner more advanced than monolingual children. Children who were exposed to another language–like those who have grandparents that speak another language–performed just as well as the bilingual children. A similar study was done on even younger bilingual children and children exposed to a second language only 14 to 16 months in age and they also demonstrated the ability to adopt another’s perspective for communication better than monolingual babies.

I found these study results to be quite impressive because of the skills and abilities developed in these children at such a young age. In today’s society, it’s a given that there is a competitive advantage in adopting a second language especially career-wise. Research like such just proves the importance of consuming as much knowledge as possible, beginning at the very early stages of life, in order to reach or come close to reaching one’s full cognitive and interpersonal potential.

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The Internet: A Shrinking Haven of Free Speech?

Posted on March 6, 2016 by theblacklink

The internet, the worlds greatest haven of free information. It has for decades been a way in which people can connect, share ideas and innovations, and simply enjoy free time. Many of these aspects today remain, but there is an ever increasing threat to the safety and freedom of our rights not only online, but off as well. Many social networking sites continue to press and drill for our personal information, Government agencies track and monitor personal communications of American citizens, and day by day we deal with the every present threats of digital attack. Its the wild west out there along the internet highway. Information about individuals is often auctioned off to the highest bidder in an effort to garner a profitable idea of who you are and what companies can sell to you, but this is hardly the most egregious assault currently in action. Wireless network providers can stifle and bottleneck access and speed to sites they do not currently have contract deals with (now made legal with some legislature sneakily signed in last year), oppressive governments vying for access to social site and people phones so that they can completely bar access to content they feel threatened by (perfectly demonstrated with the current European media censorship of any and all content demonstrating anti-immigrant sentiment in countries like Germany), and media and internet access companies actively trying to control or limit what information you have access to or ever share within the bounds of their programs/websites; the internet certainly has no lack of troubles to deal with.

Now of course, these are simply a few examples of issues that are largely in the minority at the moment, but their rapid growth these past few years is a chilling sight indeed. The internet itself was built on the principles of freedom of information, a system founded by multiple outlets and individuals all working together across a digital medium to share ideas and content, this is the heart of communication. So one might ask, what is it I can do to help ensure that our rights as human beings, entitled to certain personal security even on the internet, are not threatened or abolished entirely? The answer is actually articulated simply enough, be informed, be active. Pay attention to the questions in the User agreements for every change facebook makes conscerning your private information, read up on and actively participate in the political systems of your Government, as many of the laws and acts being passed can directly limit and oppress the freedom of speech and the availability of information across the Web. Learn the rights you have even while online and spread that knowledge to others around you. You’ll find that simply acknowledging a problem is often the first step to solving it, and the internet is our final safe haven of true freedom. If we aren’t careful though, this information highway may be shutdown for good.

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Fill The Bowl! Orlando City Soccer Season Opener

Posted on March 6, 2016 by shane sackett

 

Orlando City soccer is opening the 2016 season this Sunday against the Real Salt Lake. Last season, the Lions debut their first season in the Major League Soccer, but did not make the playoffs ending with 12 wins, 8 draws, and 14 loses. The lions finished ranked 7th in the eastern conference.

Opening up the 2016 Season against the Real Salt Lake. The Real Salt Lake finished last season with a record of 11 wins, 8 draws, and 15 losses. Finishing the 2015 season ranked 9th in the western conference. Squaring off Sunday should be a fun watch to match for both teams.

The match will take place Sunday at 2pm in Orlando, Florida at the Citrus Bowl. Last years opening game attendance was 62,500 people filling the citrus bowl. With over 43,000 tickets sold Orlando City is close to filling the citrus bowl again. Orlando City president Phil Rawlins says “We are really, really close to being able to tell you we’ve sold out the bowl again for a second year, which to me is amazing.”

Returning starters and fan favorites midfielder Kaká and defender Brek Shea to the Lions this season will add familiarity to the team. In addition to the returning starters the Lions will also add veteran midfielder Antonio Nocerino who will be making his first Major League Soccer debut Sunday when he suits up for the Lions.

Tune into MLS Live at 2pm for the kick off or be one of the 43,000+ people to attend the game at the Citrus Bowl.

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Did Connor McGregor’s Cockiness Lead to his Defeat?

Posted on March 6, 2016 by v.king

UFC 196 was one for the books we saw two great matches against athletes who haven’t lost in a while but the main buzz of UFC 196 is Connor McGregor losing. I highly doubt that his cockiness is what caused him to lose. For some reason people love to hate the cocky athletes but I just can’t fathom why? McGregor for example is a prime case of making it from the bottom up. He use to be a plumber in training barely making any money, car got repossessed, sometimes he didn’t even know If he could pay rent. McGregor is the American dream! But people see him as the bad guy. You have to remember this is a business and McGregor plays the bad guy very, very, good this is all an act to keep the revenue coming in.

 

 

His cockiness didn’t lead to his defeat at all. If you look back at the fight he was dominating the first round some of the second too until he got hit with two punches. Leading him to get shook then taking a sloppy shot and getting rear naked choke. McGregor got caught that’s all but what people need to realize is that this stuff happens. McGregor is cocky because he wins fights, trains hard, sells out the arena and knows that the drama and cockiness sells its part of the gimmick. Imagine yourself working your but off, dieting, barely seeing your family, blood, sweat, and tears all to finally become a champion. Now imagine somebody coming into your spot light threating to take it all from you. McGregor didn’t lose because of his cockiness he lost because he got shook and panic. He took his lost like a man and hopefully he’ll find a way to redeem himself.

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Integration of Devices May Bring a Dark Cloud for Wireless Companies

Posted on March 6, 2016 by dsarden17

In a recent article, we learned that Microsoft was considering purchasing the messaging service, Slack, for 8 billion dollars. They decided against this since they have Yammer and Skype.

However, this is becoming common as major tech companies have been purchasing a wide variety of companies that offer services similar to cell phones, and even cell phone manufacturers. For example, Microsoft purchased the phone and handset division of Nokia, and Facebook purchased What’s App. Google, Apple, and Microsoft have been developing and buying apps that would be useful for cell phones. Yet, these apps don’t need cellular service, they need Wi-Fi.

Google, Apple, and Microsoft all manufacture their own cell phones and develop software. Each of these companies have also been investing large amounts of money into research, and each of them have been tirelessly focused on integrating all devices (PCs, laptops, cell phones, tablets, etc…).

In business, these activities are called Vertical Integration. Vertical Integration is when a business takes control of their supply chain to lower costs, improve quality, and create a unified experience for it’s customers. One part of this supply chain, the delivery, is controlled by wireless companies (T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon).

The wireless industry is regulated by the government and difficult to move into because of restrictions to prevent monopolies and unfair trade practices. The internet is not regulated in the same way as the wireless spectrum. To provide wireless signal a company must purchase space on the spectrum and to compete they have to buy a lot of it.

Currently, we are limited by the amount of Wi-Fi internet we can receive any moment of any day, but what will happen if the day comes that we suddenly have Wi-Fi everywhere? Google has already shown that they can wire an entire town with free internet, and other projects such as Project Loon has seen them providing large metropolitan areas with free Wi-Fi. Google did this not out of kindness, but so more people would use Google more often (which is how Google makes money).

The day is coming that fully integrated devices from major tech companies will be available. Then the only thing standing in the way of these companies being in complete control of their supply chain is the availability of reliable wireless internet everywhere. It’s not a question of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’ There is a dark cloud on the horizon for wireless providers, because one day they may not be needed. Even if they do stay around, how many people will want to pay for their cell phone plan, when their devices can be just as functional over the internet?

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3956201-microsoft-saves-8-billion

 

 

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