It's here

That's right, finally A Study of Electronic Medical Records is up and running on ning.com. Stop over there and take a look at it.

The end of an educated journey...for now

So I am nearing my graduate date, which in turn means that my second capstone project is almost complete. There is a lot of content that I have already uploaded to my host site, ning.com, and soon I will have the finally story complete. Exciting. Once I feel I have enough up there I will post the link. The hopefully the graduate committee will approve and before you know it I will be walking across that stage in victory of graduation! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Utah Does It Again! Criminalizing Miscarriages

Another post so soon? Must mean this is a record day!

So Utah again, this state is a real winner with me right now. Utah has a bill that effectively criminalizes miscarriage. Now I get the actual point of the bill, it's there to reduce illegal abortions and it was created in response to a woman who paid a man to beat her so she would lose her baby. But she could not be charged for the act. However with the way this bill is written there is the possibility for an extremely bad backlash/chilling effect to occur. Now any woman who ends up having a miscarriage could end up being under investigation for it. As if having a miscarriage wouldn't be painful enough. There are no exceptions to this bill for domestic abuse, or women who are substance abusers. Yes you read that correctly. Heck, if an innocent women fell down the stairs by accident and had a miscarriage she could be arrested for the possibility of trying to kill her unborn child.

I truly have no words to express how absurd this is and how frustrated it makes me.

Climate Change - The denial of Global Warming

You know it still surprises me that there are people out there who still don't believe in Global Warming. Never mind the facts and figures, it just doesn't exist. Having taken an environmental reporting class (and having really LOVED it and discovered that it would be something I could passionately write about everyday), I just can't understand how people can deny this truth.

I even had to sit on the opposing team in a class debate arguing for the non-existence of global warming. My team did a damn good job, however our attack was focused on directing the other team away from facts and figures and on to misleading reports that never showed the whole picture. But I loved the debate, it gave me an understanding into how this denial is sold to the the average reader.

Still I'm aggravated when governments deny these facts. Governments that are put in place to protect citizens. Let's take Utah's Climate Change Joint Resolution - this just angers me. An interesting read non-the-less. I suggest you check it out.

And this is insanely funny because look at how much proof of Global Warning I found from NASA today. I suggest visiting all these links, they help to answer some questions that I know I've heard A LOT lately such as "is there really global warming because we just had a blizzard" and "how does global warming work?"
Piecing together the temperature puzzle
Cold snaps plus global warming do add up
Temperature trackers watch waxings and wanings of our watery world
Warming world: Snaps from space

Honestly the fight against global warming and a greener earth starts with the individual and the reduction of each person's carbon footprint. However knowing that not everyone cares or is educated about climate change I think it's the job of informed individuals to demand action and education from their governments.

Plushenko's Beef

Okay, don't get me wrong. I understand Plushenko's bitterness in just missing the Gold, however it annoys me that he's now being a poor sport over it. Also for his coach to say that an investigation needs to be called is more than over the top.

I'm sorry but successfully performing a quad in competition does not excuse your sloppy landings on triples, or a lack of more interesting/modern choreography. (And might I add that his quad was a bit shaky and his footwork slightly lacking.) Lysacek was perfect in his performance. Technically his jumps, footwork, and landings were better. I'm not even sure how Plushenko landed some of his jumps, he has a great natural talent, but that doesn't excuse his sloppiness.

Yes I know that Plushenko said that the sport is basically just dancing without the quad, however last night proved that he clearly he has problems dancing on ice compared to Lysacek.

I can see where Plushenko's anger is coming from, he skated off of an out-dated model of judging. He loaded his program with big jumps that would have racked up the points for him with the old system. And he did a traditional Plushenko program, he loaded them all in the beginning, but in the current system extra points are given for jumps completed within the second half of a program - AND the program as a whole is more important and judged more strictly. In a
4 minutes and 40 seconds program you NEED more than just fancy and difficult jumps. I would also like to point out that Plushenko left out some jumps that were originally planned for his program. If he had kept those in there would have been no problem in him taking the Gold.

If Plushenko has a problem with the outcome I think he should get back on the ice, practice more, brag less, and not just rely on one jump (albeit an amazing and extremely difficult jump), and bring it. He's a GREAT skater who has dominated the rink for the past decade, but his attitude concerning this really disappoints me.

The 2010 Winter Olympics

So I wouldn't exactly call myself a nationalist. I mean I have even pride in my country, but having studied journalism for almost 7 full years I have enough sense to question my government, as well as people who are die hard nationalists.

However there is nothing that gets my good old "GO USA" pride going than the Olympics. Now I must unfortunately say that higher education has put a damper on this for me in '04, '06, and '08. But this year I have managed to wiggle enough time free to catch a good amount of the events, or have suffered enough to stay up and watch them on late night replay. And I have NOT been disappointed. Right now as a country we are leading the medal count, not just for the total number of medals won, but also in the categories of gold, silver, and bronze. I can't say how proud I am to see amazing athletes who have put their entire lives into something succeed so well. And to know they are carrying the message that hard work and determination pay off to the younger generation.

As corny as it may sound I was astounded, amazed, and brimming with joy when Shaun White landed his victory run, UPPED his score and showed the world his Double McTwist 1260 just for the hell of it. What a way to take the Gold, knowing you already have it AND still giving your best. I couldn't be prouder of our athletes.

And I can't end this post without a glowing praise of Evan Lysacek. (Because figure skating is something that is close to my heart, after all it was one of my childhood dreams to compete professionally in the sport.) He worked so hard for that Gold and he won it with total perfection of his program. Everything came together for him and he brought his A game. His execution was flawless. I know I may hear some say that he didn't get enough height on his jumps, but honestly that's the only criticism I could see with his program. And heck, he got the Gold so why bother pulling his every more apart? (That is unless you are Plushenko.)

And this isn't to belittle Plushenko's efforts, but I think he went into the competition thinking he did enough to skate away with the Gold, where as Lysacek went in just concentrating on delivering perfection. Still after taking 3 years off and delivering a program like that, and getting a Silver medal is amazing. Also I really thought Plushenko wasn't going to be able to land two of his jumps because he was so off center, but he is clearly some sort of superhuman on the ice because he nailed the landings. He delivered a praise worthy performance and deserved his spot on that podium.

I would say the only major criticism of the Olympics I have are things that can't be changed:
1) The tape-delayed showing of events by NBC, which is something that has been done in the past and normally hasn't bothered me. However the amount of commericals that I have being thrown at me is getting to be a bit much. I understand the network needs the money, but I've starting channel surfing during the ads.
2) The current design of the Olympics medals. I don't like the wave/bumpy design. I get it, I understand why it was executed, I just personally hate it.