Extra Credit Seven: Inside the Megastorm

                One cannot fully understand a natural disaster until they witness the devastation that can come about because of it. For many, including myself, this storm was Hurricane Sandy. Many people did not heed the warnings from meteorologists because the severity of the storm was thought, by some, to be an exaggeration. It was not, however, and Sandy will be remembered forever for the damage it brought and how it essentially shut down New York City, "the city that never sleeps."

                Over eight days before the storm hit the northeast, only one prediction center forecasted the event to occur the way that it actually unfolded. In Europe, one model forecasted the storm to essentially make a left turn from the Atlantic and hit land. As the storm made  its way through the Caribbean and up the coast, that is exactly what it did. In combination with higher than normal sea surface temperatures of the Atlantic, which fueled the hurricane, and the warm Gulf Stream, which also added energy, the storm grew as it made its way up north. It also combined with a nor'easter type storm and intensified. What made the storm so dangerous, though, was the fact that it was going to hit land during the high tide, and this particular high tide on a full moon, which makes high tides even higher. Because of the storm's location, the direction of the winds added to the already immense storm surge that was going to occur in New York City, Long Island, and the New Jersey shoreline.

                For the first time since 9/11, the New York Stock Exchange actually closed for two days. New York City Transit shut down buses and subways and the subway systems were closed for days after the storm because of flooding (some of which were closed for weeks). Over 100 people died in the northeast due to the storm.

                In the argument of climate change, this storm was definitely a strong indicator of our changing world. Climatologists are saying that increasing global temperatures will lead to fewer, but more intense hurricanes. With rising sea levels, the storm surges will become more destructive if average sea level is constantly raising. With most of New York City at sea level, what will this force politicians to do? With Sandy as a prevalent example, politicians should pay more attention to environmental issues that are ultimately changing our climate at much faster rates than ever before.

                I had a difficult time watching this NOVA documentary. Being from Staten Island, I saw much of the destruction when I was home for Thanksgiving break. The interview from Neil Filipowitz, who lost his brother and nephew to Sandy, really hit home for me. I have stood on the street that his relatives died on. I was on that street the day I returned home. My brother actually knew them personally. In that neighborhood and those surrounding it, I saw so many houses destroyed, roofs taken off of their walls, and foundations of homes essentially crumbled. In my opinion, the news did absolutely no justice for Staten Island, because I didn't realize how bad the devastation was until I saw it for myself, and that was already after three weeks of initial clean-up. 

"Inside the Megastorm." NOVA. PBS, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/inside-the-megastorm.html>.

Extra Credit Six: The Vaccine War

                Where do we draw the line with health: does it become a part of public policy or should it be a personal responsibility? This question is at the forefront of the "vaccine war," a debate over whether inoculations are safe or unsafe, and whether they should be a personal choice or mandatory. Vaccines have increased our lifespan by over 30 years, but are they worth the risks they potentially pose?

                In the first six years of life, a child will receive 35 inoculations to fight 14 diseases; this is four times the number of vaccines than a child from the 1970's received. Why such a large jump? All of the vaccines being administered are basically wiping out certain diseases. Doctors find it necessary to keep on vaccinating the population against these diseases so there is no spontaneous outbreaks. To doctors, the benefits of vaccines are clear - they are an easy preventative measure from some terrible diseases that can often be fatal. Why suffer the illness if it can be prevented?

                Some parents are refusing to vaccinate their children. They don't find some of the vaccines necessary, and deem sickness as "a part of childhood." Young parents didn't see diseases, like measles, mumps, or polio, while growing up. They don't realize the dangers and suffering it poses. However, doctors worry that these parents will bring back diseases that haven't been seen for a long time, as a sudden outbreak. These parents are generally more afraid of the risks that vaccines pose rather than the diseases they are preventing. Autism, most notably, is believed by many to be a result of vaccines. In a small percentage of the vaccinated population, brain injury, by chance, can occur; autism is a brain injury. Researchers don't doubt that vaccines can cause autism, but they do question: was autism bound to come up in the child eventually and did the vaccine just make it happen sooner rather than later? Much research has gone into this question, but it is still unanswered.

                With information readily available on the internet today, people can choose what they want to believe about vaccine horror stories. Internet can be noted as "fuel on the fire of the anti-vaccine" movement. Health officials worry because people "are more likely to believe something they see on YouTube than something from the CDC."

                Politically, California has allowed the Personal Belief Exemption, which has allowed parents to not vaccinate their children and still allow the children into schools. Personally, I believe that vaccination should be a personal choice, so I do not want to see politicians getting involved. However, I think that parents are not protecting their children by not vaccinating them, especially against the main diseases that are typically required by schools. Also, I think that health insurance companies would prefer having vaccinations as a requirement because it would ultimately be less expensive for them to prevent disease rather than having to treat it. 

"The Vaccine War." Frontline. PBS, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines/view/>.

Extra Credit Five: Inside the Teenage Brain

            There has long been a stress between teenagers and their parents. Teens are struggling with feelings that they have never before experienced, and parents are thrown off because they feel like they don't know their own child anymore. There are several explanations for changing teenage behavior and how their brain development during these years will ultimately impact the rest of their life.

            Just before puberty, there is a growth spurt of cells in the cortex part of one's brain. This is responsible for the "craziness" demonstrated by teens, usually associated with a lack of warning for consequences of their actions. The frontal cortex of the brain is responsible for much activity, most commonly mood swings, also caused by a changing of hormone levels. There is also a changing in emotions, and in recognizing emotions in adults. This is commonly the reason why there is so much miscommunication between teens and their parents.

            On average, teenagers need over 9 hours of sleep per night. The majority of teens are getting less than 7.5 hours on average. This is due in part to a shifting biological timing system (an internal clock) during the teenage years, thus causing teens "not to fill their tank at night" when it is extremely important to do so. The importance of sleep is causing some middle and high schools to start the school day later. This, however, is very controversial among teachers and parents, with one side arguing that a later school day will increase academic performance (as studies have already proved, it does). The other argument says that a later school day limits the amount of after-school activities that a student can be involved in, and scientists say that sports, music lessons, and the like are just as important to the developing teenage brain as sleep is. There are some scientists that are actually saying that "movement and play may be more important than some academic subjects that students are doing." With science in this area developing and gaining ground, will politicians have to get involved to change standards on what (and when) teens will do inside the classroom? If it became a federal rule to push middle schools and high schools to start at a later time, test scores (as one would infer) would most likely increase. Is this the answer to gaining an edge in the global competition of test scores? 

            In my opinion, this documentary was very interesting. I can definitely see a correlation between my early teenage years with examples shown in the film. I would have liked to know more about the larger picture that this research is drawing. This documentary just showed research about small groups of teens. I would have found it much more informative if they researched teens on a large scale or national level. By doing that, we could have found out how teens behaviors affect things like culture and the economy. 

"Inside the Teenage Brain." Frontline. PBS, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/view/>.

Extra Credit Four: King Corn

(1.5 hours)

                When two friends discovered that humans today have a shorter lifespan than our previous generation, they decided to find out why. Ian Cheney's and Curt Ellis' analysis led them to discover that our hair tells the story of what we (physically) are, and when they had their hair tested, the majority of the carbon originated from corn. This led them to rent one acre of corn in Greene, Iowa, arguably the nation's largest corn producer, and track its progress throughout one growing season - to find out where this product ended up and what makes this crop so prevalent within our lives.

                In 1973, Earl Butz, the Secretary of Agriculture, decided that what our country needed was an increased production of corn. Previously, farmers had been paid by the government for not producing corn, which kept prices high by limiting the amount of the grain produced. The farmers before 1973 also ate the product that they produced, which isn't so much the story today. When Butz reformed the agriculture policy, subsidy payments were granted from the government to farmers who grew corn, so the more corn, the better. This led to an overproduction of cheap corn, which is having a large impact on our health as a society.

                Since farmers wanted to produce corn on levels never before seen, genetic modification allowed corn to yield greater numbers. The amount was so great that one acre of land could now produce 5 tons of food. The corn grown now doesn't necessarily produce more corn heads per plant, but allows the plants to tolerate living closer together. Also, the injection of ammonia fertilizer into the ground allows corn to grow at tremendous rates. However, most of the corn that is actually being grown cannot be eaten right away - it must be processed first. As noted in the documentary, 32% of corn production is either exported or goes to ethanol production; over 50% of corn is fed to animals; the rest is put into our food.

                Americans demand cheap food. Since corn fed cows are cheaper to raise than cows that graze on grass, they get fatter quicker and can be sold for less. With this in mind, a typical steak that a grass fed cow would have contained 1.3 grams of saturated fat, as opposed to a corn fed cow, which would contain over 9 grams of saturated fat. Corn also feeds the sweetener industry. High fructose corn syrup is popular and dominant within many of our foods and drinks, and since it is cheap to produce and sell, the market likes it. Nutritionists, though, blame corn syrups as a main source of "empty calories" within our society, and is responsible for many health risks, most commonly obesity and diabetes.

                It is incredible that if you are under age 30, you have probably only eaten corn-fed beef and sodas sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. The corn industry is having adverse effects on the American population, all of which began as a political and economic desire to have something cost less. Being that this industry is less than 40 years old, we may not be aware of its complete impact on human health. Is this going to affect our economy when the "corn-fed" generation of Americans need health care on a scale never before seen?

Cheney, Ian, and Curt Ellis. "King Corn." Hulu. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.hulu.com/watch/255609>.

Extra Credit Three: Inventing David Geffen - Hour Two

                We begin the second hour of the documentary by learning that Geffen's record company, Asylum, merged with Elektra Records. At this point in time, the record company had a tremendous impact in the sales of records, thus having an economic impact within the industry. He coordinated the tour of Bob Dylan and The Band, both of whom were on his label, which he deemed the "highlight of his career." At this time also, he was in a short-lived relationship with Cher, and upon ending, David was incredibly unhappy which led him to go on to his next endeavor: film.

                In 1974, Geffen became the vice chairman of Warner Brothers Pictures. Well known for being brutally honest, he did work there and eventually got fired because he got his "higher-ups" angry, which was something he was not used to. Just two years later, David was falsely diagnosed with bladder cancer. This led him to start his own company, Geffen Records, which signed artists like John Lennon, Neil Young, and later on, Aerosmith and Guns 'n' Roses. He also began Geffen Films, which debuted its presence with Risky Business. David critiqued his filmed in order to make them successful, and even Stephen Spielberg noted, "[his films] are great movies." With the death of his close friend Michael Bennett in the early 1980's, David donated much of his earnings to AIDS research. In the mid-1990's, David sold his record company for 750 million dollars and by 1995, he was a billionaire. Instead of retiring, he thought "work was more fun," and on that note, founded DreamWorks with Stephen Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg. He received one billion dollars in capital (for the company) in a week's time, from which he borrowed from J.P. Morgan. DreamWorks produced many films, most notably Saving Private Ryan, A Beautiful Mind, and Shrek, all of which were very successful.

                David Geffen is known for having incredible power within Hollywood and within show business, which has influenced politics, including the 2008 presidential race. David was once a great supporter of Bill Clinton, but when Clinton kept "don't ask, don't tell," Geffen felt betrayed because he promised to do something else. He became a supporter of Obama when he was running against Hilary in 2008, and at the Democratic National Convention, Geffen called Obama and said, "you're going to be president." The media took notice of his incredible influence within politics and fox news headlined, "Don't mess with David Geffen."

                David Geffen has had a profound influence on the culture and economics of show business. He made artists and actors successful by recognizing their talent. When he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, he is noted by saying, "I have no talent, but to recognize it in others." 

"David left Brooklyn... but Brooklyn didn't leave him."

"Inventing David Geffen." American Masters. PBS, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/david-geffen/film-inventing-david-geffen/2361/>.