First Post/Interesting Stuff

Well hello! Thanks for visiting my blog. My name is Sam Adkins. I am currently 16 and live in the middle of nowhere in the state of Pennsylvania. I like to think of myself as a young romantic and writer. Other interesting fact bout myself: Have aspergers, help train people in MMA/BJJ, and am an avid reader. Anyways you didn't come here to read all about me so our topics of the day:

Mad Cow Disease

Good Books

Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

If you don't like a topic just scroll down the page to see the other topics.



First Topic: Mad Cow


So we start with Mad Cow. The reality of this disease is actually much more unpleasant than the media makes it seem. I mean really. It turns out Mad Cow (otherwise known as nvCJD aka new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, yes its a mouth full so for scaring the crap out of you we are going to call it Mad Cow) is a prion disease. Prion disease (at least what is reported) rates are very low. Due to this our knowledge of them isn't really that great. Here is what we do know:

"Clinical features

Early in the illness, patients usually experience psychiatric symptoms, which most commonly take the form of depression or, less often, a schizophrenia-like psychosis. Unusual sensory symptoms, such as "stickiness" of the skin, have been experienced by half of the cases early in the illness. Neurological signs, including unsteadiness, difficulty walking and involuntary movements, develop as the illness progresses and, by the time of death, patients become completely immobile and mute.

Diagnosis

The clinical presentation, progressive nature of the disease and failure to find any other diagnosis are the hallmarks of vCJD.There are no available, completely reliable diagnostic tests for use before the onset of clinical symptoms. However, magnetic resonance scans, tonsillar biopsy and cerebrospinal fluid tests are useful diagnostic tests.The brainwave pattern observed during an electroencephalogram was abnormal in most of the vCJD patients, but the wave forms characteristic of sporadic CJD do not occur.Currently the diagnosis of vCJD can only be confirmed following pathological examination of the brain. Characteristically, multiple microscopic and abnormal aggregates encircled by holes are seen, resulting in a daisy-like appearance described by the term "florid plaques".

Probable causevCJD is strongly linked with exposure to the BSE agent. BSE is a TSE affecting cattle and was first reported in the UK in 1986. Since that year, about 181 376 cases have been reported in the UK. The number of reports of BSE in the UK began to decline in 1992 and has continuously declined year by year since then. In 2002, only 755 cases were reported in the UK; 891 from the 21 other countries reporting BSE cases.The most likely route of exposure was through bovine-based food, although infectivity is mainly found in the brain and spinal cord of clinically ill animals over two years of age.Since 1989, when the first BSE case was reported outside the UK, relatively small numbers of BSE cases (in total 3679) have also been reported in native cattle in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland.

However, all but 206 cases have been reported in six countries — France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. Since the introduction of monitoring programmes to detect BSE in dead and slaughtered cattle, 12 countries have found their first native case (Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain).Small numbers of cases have also been reported in Canada, the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and Oman, but solely in animals imported from the UK. The International Office for Epizootic Diseases (OIE) reports these cases on their web site.The nature of the TSE agent is being investigated and is still a matter of debate. According to the prion theory, the agent is composed largely, if not entirely, of a self-replicating protein, referred to as a prion. Another theory argues that the agent is virus-like and possesses nucleic acids which carry genetic information. Although strong evidence collected over the past decade supports the prion theory, the ability of the TSE agent to form multiple strains is more easily explained by a virus-like agent. "


That is from our friends at the WHO. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs180/en/ The thing I found most interesting about mad cow is we really can't know how many people have really got it because most of the time people are not looking for it and also the amount of time it takes for it to appear. I also can't help but think that a few cases have been covered up to help the beef industry. I had also read somewhere that no matter what you do to beef that contains the BSE prion it will still have mad cow. Even putting it through radiation and cooking well. I can't seem to find the source for that so you might want to do some research yourself. I also want to add that only meats that contain alot of nervous tissue (such as the brain) carry the prions. So avoid weird beef parts and you should be okay. In fact the only way you would get it (if you eat like a normal person) is if some of those nasty parts ended up in your ground beef. Topic 2: Good Books So we are onto our second topic: Good Books. I have a few books I picked up recently and I thought they were pretty good. Let me know what you think of them:"The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan. This book is pretty good. It’s about four Chinese mothers and their American raised daughters. Each chapter is from the point of view of either one of the daughters or their mothers. I enjoyed the book because it portrays the cultural conflicts between the mothers and their children. The only thing I did not like was while you got to know each character the book doesn't really have a clear cut end for any of the characters. It is one of those "and life goes on" things."Of Mice and Men" -Steinbeck. If I need to tell you why go shoot yourself.
A few other books for people who like to read:

“On the Road” by Jack Kerouac
Anything by Hunter S. Thompson
“1984” and “Animal Farm” by George Orwell
“To Kill a Mocking Bird” by Harper Lee

TOPIC 3: Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize

Well let me say I have nothing against Mr.Obama but how and why did he get this? Yes his intentions are noble (a world without nukes ect) but what has he done that actually has promoted peace? It sure isn’t Afghanistan where he has expanded the war. He hasn’t helped his own country much let alone the world. I know they gave him the Nobel to somehow help him push his agenda even further but I think we should give out awards on what’s been done not what has yet (and odds are won’t) be accomplished. Need I say more?

TOPIC 4: Culture in America

Does America even have culture? That is one of the first questions I asked myself when I “woke up” sometime ago. I mean is materialism really a culture? Isn’t it just a habit? But then I found out if you know where to look we have a few wonderful individuals trying to prevent America from becoming a cultural wasteland.

It’s up to all of us to try and open others eyes to the things beyond reality TV and the trash on the radio. We can take over America (in a cultural sense) by introducing people to real music and the real arts.