Friday, December 18, 2009

Vote No to Gun Control!

Guns need to be fought for. Every American should agree with this statement. if you do not, perhaps you should ask yourself why you do not agree. Maybe it is because you do not know all the information. All the information is only a click away. All the good things about guns can easily be seen at www.nra.com If that's still not enough information, you can take a look at your constitution. If you do not have a copy handy here is an electronic copy of the constitution's second amendment. http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am2 Our forefathers gave their lives to create this paper that they believed would protect us from ever being controlled by tyranny. If you do not need any more convincing, then please, when any vote appears regarding the second amendment, say yes to the constitution, and vote no to gun control. Give the individual their right, given to them by this document, that ensures our freedom. If you would like to join this cause, feel free to become a member of the NRA (National Rifle Association). The first link will take you to their official website.

Celeb Endorsement

Peyton Manning is a huge celebrity figure. He is known nation wide, probably world-wide. He plays football for the Indianapolis Colts. He is a 6-5 230 Quarter Back who is from Tenn. He is in many different commercials because of the goofiness he portrays. He has a southern accent and with his goofy comb over gets many good reviews.
In this blog I am going to talk about one of the things Peyton endorses. In a commercial Peyton is walking down the hall with his family. The hall is a hall in the ESPN building. Some announcers are showing the Manning family around the building showing them all kinds of different rooms and stuff. While in the back Peyton and his brother Eli are teasing each other like little boys do.
This commercial is very funny and most likely helps ESPN. Peyton Manning is well worthy of endorsing this company because he is a huge sports figure. He is always on ESPN for his highlights or great play. He is goofy enough and down to earth enough to play the type of role he did in the commercial. So i believe that Peyton is capable of making an endorsement like this.

Guns

In the article Gun Control they talk about keeping guns to only federal measures. What that means is that they only want to put guns in the hands of government officials(police, military,etc.). They want to only let the regular citizens be able to have one hand firearm. Unless you have a hunting licenses they would make sure that if you had a firearm it would be a small handgun that wouldnt be able to do nearly as much damage, say as a sniper would because the person could hideout and continue doing it. I think this article has some great arguements. I think if you only let regular citizens have just one firearm as oppose to unlimited, then you will have a safer house and enviroment. Although it is going against our 2nd amendment, which is the one thing holding it back
In the article Against Gun Control it is clearly against gun control. They believe in the 2nd amendment. It states that people have the right to keep and beararms. They believe that because this is against the 2nd amendment, we would be going against our own constitution. This article also believes that even if you make gun laws, there will still be violence in the street and possibly even more. I think there are very valid points in the article. I don't know if the violence would stay up with there being more gun laws. But I do agree when they talk about the 2nd amendment and going against it.

Special "K"

The health claim I am going to talk about is the Kellogg’s Special K “Challenge” health claim. Kellogg has an advertisement campaign that claims by eating their product a person can lose six pounds in two weeks. The company gives out a detailed plan for how to lose the weight. Kellogg states that simply by replacing two or your three meals a day with a Kellogg Special K meal and complement that with two snacks throughout the day then a person will lose six pounds within two weeks. I think that this challenge has some benefits and may be true. I think that for the most part it is a hoax though. The fact that this program isn’t even used for a long term effect, meaning you will lose the six pounds, but gain them back eventually.
In the Article Can Eating Special K Cereal Really Help You Lose Weight? It asks if the special K diet is even healthy. They talk about how Special K is highly processed cereal which means that the fiber is taken out of the whole meal. With little fiber the carbs are digested quickly by other things which leaves us hungry and low on energy. So as this diet may help us lose weight, we will not have nearly as much energy and we will be hungry all the time.
In another article called The Special K Challenge: Does it Work? It talks about how this program should work, but there would be many downsides to this. The serving of cereal is not enough for you. After eating it most of the time you will still be very hungry. It is also a low protein diet and high in sugar and carbs which will once again give you a sugar crash. What I have found is this six pounds in two weeks may be true, but it won’t be a permanent thing and isn’t good for your energy.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Magic Man



My demonstrative speech had many flaws throughout the speech. The most important flaw in my speech is the fact that I am nervous to speak in front of people. My voice along with tone was not consistent and showed this nervousness. A way to improve this down fall would be to practice my speech in front of an audience instead of practicing it alone. My introduction was alright, it was just a little short and i could have improved on making a more intense and attracting statement. My visual aid was a deck of cards which I needed to do my entire speech. The content of my speech was good. I shared all necessary information to the audience. It is difficult to teach the audience how to perform a trick without showing them personally. Physical contact would be required to more effectively show the individual how to use the proper technique. My poise was not the best, but it was one of my stronger areas. I shifted from side to side and moved my arms a lot. But i don't think that was all bad. the hand motions were helpful to get points across. I had good eye contact which is surprising giving the level of nervousness. All in all though, i thought my topic was entertaining. I believe the class enjoyed learning how to do a card trick that seems like magic. If I were to do this speech again I would bring a deck of cards for each person so that they could do it at the same time that I was teaching them.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Fast paced food

I don't have much time in my day. Finding time to eat is an everyday struggle. The most recent struggle resulted in me ordering food to my dorm. I had no part in preparing this meal. All I did was provide payment, consume it, and throw away the garbage when i was finished. This method of eating is convenient. I doesn't require me to go out of my way at all. It also is the most time efficient. While my order is being made, I am free to do whatever I please. This allows me extra time to do homework, or just relax. I agree completely with Pollan's ideas discussed in part 7. He blames American culture for the shift to fake quick food. Our ancestors ate all natural food and enjoyed doing it and stayed healthy. Meals were not only for nutrition but it was a time to bring family and friends together to sit down, relax, and enjoy the food being eaten. Looking back at that meal, I believe that i have become like all other Americans. I used to enjoy hearty home made food as a family, but now have opted for the more convenient, unhealthy, and easy food. I eat simply because of hunger, instead of enjoying and actually tasting my food.

Monday, October 12, 2009

To-mate-o To-mat-o

Fake food versus real food. According to Mr Pollack, we are living in a day and age where companies are going away from the "all natural" to the technologically advanced foods. Growing up, my family did not have a lot of money, so we had a garden that provided most of our vegetables. I still remember planting, watering, and weeding the tomato plants. We used nothing but natural gardening techniques. No pesticides or "special" growth serums. I remember using tomatoes regularly in dishes when the were ripe. We ate blts, chili, used them on cold cut sandwiches, everything. When my brother and sister and i began sports it became difficult to keep a garden, so the family switched to store bought veggies. These veggies are considered fake food. Many of these tomatoes are grown with synthetic fertilizers which cause soil to become infertile and can runoff into water supplies, contaminating them. Many vital nutrients are not in these synthetic fertilizers. Also many tomatoes are canned and preservatives are added. This is unhealthy practice. The adding of sugars and salts during the canning process causes this. Also the heating process cooks some nutrients out of the vegetables. My family switched due to convenience and cost. It was becoming too much of a time cost to produce our own tomatoes. It also became to costly to have tomatoes in bulk. My family eats a lot and needs a large supply of food to support us. I believe that the convenience and cost will force me to use fake veggies more often but on occasion i will most likely find a farmers market and go back to the real deal one more time.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Blog 1 Michael Pollen

Michael Pollan does an adequate job depicting his views on nutrition and the past and current views of the American diet. He makes clear the shift from Americans focusing on nutrients instead of the "food" they are eating. He states that nutrients take turns being the popular nutrient of the time. For example, he says protein was known as the "super" nutrient. This led to America’s dramatic increase in size and had a major effect on health. I don't completely agree with this statement. He puts a lot of blame on eating too much red meat to the cause of health disease. Looking at this issue from an athletic standpoint, protein makes up the majority of my diet. It is necessary for muscle growth and without proteins lifting has a dramatically decreased affect on muscle growth and development. He later touches on the amount of power the food industry has. He uses the example of Senator McGovern and how he stated to eat less red meat. This caused a major stir among the meat industry and eventually led to him not being reelected. Even after he retracted the statement and instead said eat less saturated fat. This led to a shift from foods to nutrients. Many companies began inserting "healthy" vitamins and other supplements into their products to advertise there quantative supremacy of these healthy products. People have been fooled into believing that added vitamin a or omega 3's increase health instead of focusing on the product themselves. Many of these products are processed and provide a small amount of natural nutrition. I personally am not fooled by these advertisers. I eat what I eat and focus on the major food groups necessary for my ultimate health level and what benefits my personal goals. I put the blame on individuals that are so easily persuaded to these false advertisements and their belief that they are becoming more healthy. I do think its a good sign that many Americans are trying to focus on better health. I believe that they need to do a little research of their own instead of listening to what so called experts or what the product itself claims.