![]() Photo: ABC7 Chicago By: Josiah Reed-Spratley Every day, we get closer and closer to finding new cures and ways to prevent life ending diseases. Not too long ago, a doctor named Dr. Peter Nelson created a device that helps prevent brain aneurysms from bursting. This device is called a flow diverter. Once placed, it directs blood flow away from the inflamed area of the aneurysm, thereby preventing the bubble-like portion of the aneurysm from erupting and ultimately taking the life of the patient. The device itself is tiny; in fact, it is thinner than 48 strands of human hair. According to the Dr. Nelson, it is flexible to fit with the blood vessels in the brain, which are small and twisty. Dr. Nelson’s device saved the life of Christina Lehmejian-Karaszewski. She started having trouble swallowing during her pregnancy with her second child and after the pregnancy she started having severe headaches and had trouble seeing. When she went to her local hospital she was sent home but she insisted on getting an MRI. The result came back and she found out she had a brain aneurysm pushed up against her brain stem. With the help of Dr. Nelson’s device, she was able to survive. This device is able to to stop the issue at the root with redirecting the blood flow to avoid the aneurysm erupting, which results in the death of the person. This invention has proven itself to be effective and useful. It’s small and thin, so to the patient, it’s like it’s not even there. The flow diverter has created more awareness and more funds to its collective studies, making our chances to actually one day killing an aneurysm at first sight greater than it was in the past years. Although the flow diverter has created awareness for aneurysms and how to treat them, doctors want us to pay more attention to the signs. This includes: sudden and severe headaches, nausea, and blurred or double vision. If these signs are apparent in anyone you know or love, please get them to a hospital where they can be treated. Aneurysms are fatal and should be treated right away. Thousands of people have already gotten the device implanted to help with treatment, taking us one step closer to finding preventatives and cures to problems that were once untreatable.
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By: Kate Kennelly
While the death penalty has been an extremely controversial topic for decades now, nobody is talking about why our prisons are failing. There are currently over 2,600 Americans that sit on death row. While many of these cases will be revisited and possibly changed, many of these prisoners will still face the death penalty and be executed. Many people believe that execution is a fair punishment. If someone takes a life, it is seen as fair to take that person’s life as well. How beneficial is this, really? Taking lives does not seem to fit into the job of a prison. The job of a prison is to rehabilitate people who have done serious crimes. At the end of one's sentence, they should be able to go back into the world as a functioning and contributing member of society. The idea is to make it so they are no longer a threat, they should want to live a good life. Unfortunately, 77% of first time inmates end up back in the prison system within just five years or less. This statement alone proves that the US prisons are not rehabilitating the inmates like they are supposed to. If US prisons aren’t rehabilitating inmates like they should be, then what is happening? The simple answer is nothing. Inmates are sitting around all day long doing nothing. Some prisons offer classes for an hour or two a day, where inmates can learn skills that can help them get a job, depending on which prisons they are at. However, these classes do not give inmates the change that they need. For example, some prisons have classes where you can learn how to work on a car. While the inmate is incarcerated, they can work on becoming a car mechanic. Once they are out of prison, they would be able to work and make money for themselves, which keeps them out of trouble.While this seems like a great concept, it is very difficult to get into these classes due to limited availability. The classes also only go on for a month or two, leaving inmates with too little knowledge to get a job in that field. While prisons do keep the streets temporarily safer by locking away dangerous people, they are failing to do their job rehabilitating inmates. When the inmates are free, they do not have the skills they need to live a productive working life and struggle to contribute to society, leading them straight back to prison. ![]() Photo: Google Images By: Josiah Spratley Vaping is a new era epidemic spreading quickly across Generation Z, who sees vaping as a stress reliever and a way to gain respect. Teenagers can have many big dreams, but these dreams won’t be reached if they can’t even breathe on their own. Over 450 people have been hospitalized and at least 6 people have died due to vaping-related illnesses. As you can see, vaping is nothing to joke about. It can cause cardiovascular problems such as lung cancer and asthma. Second hand vape can actually be more fatal in certain situations. Our generation turns a blind eye to these effects and situations. They skip over them like their everyday advertisements. Many older people do not interfere, often because they are too self-conscious to tell us no, or feel as if it’s not their problem. At the end of the day, kids have selective knowledge. Teenagers are taking a bigger hit than we think. There are companies that know how to advertise a life-altering product in a way that pushes the dangers aside with ease. They cover it up with flavors and colors, leaving us blind to the fact that they are slowly killing us. Nobody seems to want to step up and say it’s wrong. This generation is fixed on appearance and clout. We do it for the label, and as you can see, we don’t stop until we’ve obtained it. Vaping can cause indoor pollution, which makes the risk of lung diseases even higher. The venues that promote e-cigarettes have poor air ventilation, making the chemicals more concentrated. This can make them even more dangerous to your wellbeing. Most of these places are parties hosted by teens. Many people do not stop to realize how easy e-cigarettes are to get. As long as you have the money, you can buy one. Companies who sell these kinds of products would believe a fake ID, as they are only selling e-cigarettes for the revenue. These companies have clocked in between 20-28 million over the last two years. Our society fails to see how these companies continue to get rich off of the many teens who end up in hospitals, and in some cases even lose their lives because of this epidemic spread throughout our generation. Photo: SB Images
By: Kate Kennelly Independent baseball teams plan on bringing robotic umpires to their sport. Minor and major leagues may not be very far behind. In 2019, a small league in Atlanta began testing out robotic umpires. This robot stands behind home plate and makes calls on every pitch, much like a human umpire would. Robots can be very helpful. They can do many useful actions, such as perform risky surgeries or produce car parts. However, this robot has no practical use in baseball. This is because real umpires still have to stand behind the robot while the robotic umpires are being used. If a call is made by the robot that the human umpire does not agree with, the human overrules the robot. This means that the human umpire is still going to have to be present and working. Since the human umpire still has to do their normal job, there's no real need for the robot. The robot umpire is also very impractical because of their high cost. The robot can cost upwards of $50,000. While some argue that this could save the league and teams money from having to buy the services of umpires in the future, they still have to pay for human umpires to stand behind the robot umpire. This means that the robotic umpire would be an additional cost rather than a long term investment. Human interaction is a huge part of the sport. Baseball is a very old fashioned sport that does not need added technology. The sport has been played the same way for 150 years and has had huge successes. Why do we need to change what’s already working? It is tradition for umpires to yell calls out like “strike,” “ball,” or “and that's the game.” Adding a robot would be taking away that tradition. Players also talk to the umpire. Sometimes fights break out between them or they thank the umpires. The interaction between player and umpire is full of rich history and adds a relatable component to the game that the fans enjoy. Taking this away would be taking away a huge part of baseball. Taking away human umpires from baseball is a terrible idea. It would take away the rich history and tradition that we all love about baseball, while adding a cost that we don’t need. |
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