Journal #13

Annotated Bibliography

Gefland, Jonathan I, ed. “An Overview of Creatine Supplements.” WebMD. N.p., 6 Mar. 2010. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. . Web MD’s article on creatine introduces creatine, and tells the reader what creatine is, its uses in and out of weightlifting, and the groups of people that use it. The article goes further into talking about the potential dangers of it’s use and how doctors don’t know the long term effects on the body. Because of this the article starts to sway towards the con side towards the end of the article. This article will help me introduce creatine in my paper on a basic level and the uses it has. I also plan on using article to go against my opinion of creatine in my paper and disprove using other sources.

Greenhaff, P. L., et al. “Effect of oral creatine supplementation on skeletal muscle phosphocreatine resynthesis.” AJP - Endocrinology and Metabolism (Dec. 1993): E 725-730. Google Scholar. Web. 3 Dec. 2010. . This article published by numerous scientists discusses a scientific study using creatine. In this study they had 8 subjects were first tested for levels of total creatine, which included free creatine and phosphocreatine, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and lactate. These levels were tested as well as after voluntary contraction, without creatine supplementation. Then the subjects were instructed to take creatine monohydrate in quantities of about 20 grams (four doses of five grams) a day for five days. They were then tested for the same values and the results were then recorded and compared. I plan on using this article (though it is dated 1993) in my paper to prove that creatine in fact does work for people who are sensitive to it’s supplementation. The article is relevant to today’s weightlifters, who use creatine, due to the still booming popularity of creatine monohydrate use.

Lee Lerner, Ed K, and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. “Creatine Supplementation.” World of Sports Science. Vol. 1. 2007. 120-121. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 Dec. 2010. . “Creatine Supplementation” goes into detail of specifically how creatine benefits the user and through what types of exercise. It also discusses it’s history and how it is legal worldwide through the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Later in the text it explains how it is naturally occurring in the body and the effects are different from any other substance so it cannot be compared to anything illegal. Finally, the article interprets the previous studies done and states that creatine is only beneficial for anaerobic (little oxygen) exercise through restoring phosphocreatine, and in turn ATP, levels in the muscle in lack of oxygen (which conquers with “Effect of oral creatine supplementation on skeletal muscle phosphocreatine resynthesis.”). These anaerobic exercises are short explosive exercises, such as weightlifting and therefore creatine is not beneficial for endurance athletes. This article will help my paper to give partial history of creatine and its success. I will use some key facts in this article to better back the point of my paper as well as a second reputable source that had similar results as the studies done in 1993.

Research Paper

Two topics I would like to propose for the topic of my next paper are: The use of Creatine in weightlifting and also The storage of Fat within the body and how to change your physique. I am very interested in both of these topics perhaps due to my liking of weightlifting as well as my high amounts of physical activity. Also obesity is becoming a problem in our society and I would like to see how feasible it is for someone to change their body fat percentage as well as what factors go into it.

http://men.webmd.com/creatine

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=psucic&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=4&contentSet=GALE|CX3451100076&&docId=GALE|CX3451100076&docType=GALE&role=

Corrected Paragraph (Doctors Note)

Cancer and AIDS patients in today’s society have learned to cope with their sometimes fatal disease with the use of a simple plant, Marijuana, scientifically known as Cannabis Sativa. The main active component in this plant, THC or “delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol” (http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/Marijuana) is “is promoted to relieve pain, control nausea and vomiting, and stimulate appetite in people with cancer and AIDS”, which is why many states have legalized it for medical use. In fact 13 states that have legalized medical-Marijuana, according to Legalizing Marijuana, found on CQ researcher. The reason why this bud of a flower has so many affects is because it is classified as, and contains many, cannabinoids (working on the cannabinoid receptors in the brain that control things such as appetite, pain, time perception, pleasure, and many more). (According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse) Medical patients aren’t the only people who would benefit from this plant legality, the entire nation would benefit. This is because the positives far outweigh the near-zero negatives with the legalization of this drug.

Corrections:

Cancer and AIDS patients in today’s society have learned to cope with their disease with the use of a simple plant, Marijuana, scientifically known as Cannabis Sativa. The main active chemical in this plant, THC, or “delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.” (http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/Marijuana) Cannabis Sativa “is promoted to relieve pain, control nausea and vomiting, and stimulate appetite in people with cancer and AIDS”, according to cancer.org, which is why many states have legalized it for medical use. In fact 13 states have legalized medical-Marijuana, according to Legalizing Marijuana, found on CQ researcher. The reason why this bud of the plant has so many affects is because it contains many cannabinoids. Cannabinoids work on receptors in the brain that control things such as appetite, pain, time perception, pleasure, and many more, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Although medical patients receive great benefits from this plant they aren’t the only people who would benefit from this plant if it were legal. Surprisingly, the entire nation would benefit. This is because the positives greatly outweigh the near-zero negatives with the legalization of this drug. (have not made citations yet still working on paper)

Marijuana Legalization

http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2009061200&type=hitlist&num=0

Marijuana being a huge controversial issue in our society today makes it easy for people to pull information off of the internet to read. Some are very reputable and some not as much. A great article I found is on CQ researcher online and has tons of key facts for and against the heated topic of marijuana usage in the United States.

This article is a great source of information. I say this because it covers a wide range of topics and ideas relating to only this issue. For instance, the article talks about how many state have legal medicinal marijuana (which I found to be 13, Maine, Vermont, Maryland, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, Michigan, and Rhode Island), as well as which states do not give punishments for first offenses with the drug (Maine, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Mississippi, California, and Alaska). Key facts in this article such as the revenue generated off of the tax on medicinal marijuana, as well as, the money that could be generated if it was taxed and legal everywhere.

When looking at the article it’s fairly plain to see that the arguments are slightly stilted towards pro-legalization, due to all of the positives that are listed throughout. The money that could be generated is brought up a couple times in the article which is what contributes to the pro side of the argument. But some points on the negative side are still brought up in the article, such as, how the drug has been illegal for many years, and how it may lead to other drugs.

After reading the article and using background knowledge I had prior to reading the article, the pro side of legalization seems fairly convincing due to the pluses outweighing the minute minuses that legalization would bring. Having the article bring up valid, positive points is what really backs up what the article seems it’s going for, and definitely makes it more convincing.

In regard to my paper, I believe this will be very useful in backing up my point of view as well. I will use key facts like the tax values, possible tender generated, and the number of people or percentage of the people that have tired the drug in our country. I will use this article for a great deal of my information, as there are many quotes, and tons of information I can use to back my point up in my paper. This article was definitely a great source of info and much of my paper will consist of these facts presented by the article.

Controversial Topics

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/us/politics/07abortion.html?_r=1&ref=abortion

This article is about abortion and the two sides of the argument. In this article specifically it is the Republicans VS the Democrats. I would have to side with the illegal side of abortion because I believe it is wrong and inhumane to abort fetus's. The only way I can find it partially correct is if a woman is raped, or other extenuating circumstances of that nature.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html

This article is about the union of two same sex people. As of now this issue is illegal due to the bible. As more and more people push for this to pass it becomes more and more controversial due to the greater amounts of people on both sides of the issue. My stance on this is fairly neutral. I am not 100% against the marriage of two same sex people due to my religion says it's wrong. I can also see the for side of this argument tho because this country is based on freedom and many people see this as a part of it. I can also see why people would want a marriage considering the benefits, e.g. tax reduction

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/health/policy/15health.html

Representatives of the US government are developing plans to raise taxes to bring our country out of debt or improve current plans. This specific plan is talking about increasing taxes on the upper class of our country. This is unfair in my opinion because for the most part people who are in "the upper class of our country" are there for a reason. This is because they worked hard and went through everything they had to to get to the point in their life in which they are right now. I believe that they should not be penalized because of their success and the tax should be spread evenly throughout the population

Resistance VS Gears

On the two main system platforms for playing action games, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, there are two game series that have similar architecture. These games are Resistance: Fall of Man and Gears (PS3) of War (Xbox 360) and these series are structured in a very similar manner. Both start the player off as a new armed force fighter, fighting towards one main goal, human survival against an ancient race that is causing the downfall of human kind, with the final goal being to eliminate the opposing race.

Resistance follows a more “alien” themed path with a wide range of monsters, some with a high amount of intellect, arriving many years ago. Throughout the game the player must fight off many of these monsters with increasing power and better guns throughout the games. What sets Resistance aside from Gears is the main character battling off the infection of the race they are trying to defeat as well as the time period seemed to be set in the 60’s era.

In Gears case the game basically follows the same plot, except there is a second enemy in this series that appears and becomes a big piece of the game in parts 2 and 3. The characters in this game are also much more “hulking” and the enemies less resembling humans. A big piece of this game is its futuristic qualities, including: weapons, vehicles, and stage in which it is set.

AT&T vs All

Over about the past 20 years cell phones have developed into what we have now, basically a portable mini-computer. Since they have been around for this long there are several companies that now have a stake in this cell phone based world. Just a few major ones are: AT&T, Sprint (with Nextel), T-Mobile, and Verizon. Then there are just a few minor companies like: Boost, Cricket, and Metro PCS. Having so many carriers/ providers creates many choices for people to choose from. Since there are so many choices there is great controversy over what carrier for cell phones is best. The two top competitors being AT&T and Verizon, due to their wide range of coverage, are what most people chose. But some have skewed results based on the phone they want. Some people will then pick a carrier based on a phone that other carriers will not have which will cause companies to gain customers based on phones rather than coverage and reliability. Verizon and AT&T have a good balance of both types of phones and also have the best coverage.

When declaring who has the best coverage, it seems to be AT&T who “take home the prize”, over all other carriers. AT&T like all the other carriers (excluding Sprint who has a 4g network that’s “spotty”) has a 3g network that covers almost the entire nation, in fact they cover 97% of America, states the AT&T website and coverage map. But in order to use this network the person still needs to have a phone.
Every cell phone company has their own set of phone companies that produce for them. This gives many choices of phones to choose from and also helps people chose carriers, especially when choosing from the top two, Verizon and AT&T. This then leads to another subject that lead people to decide on, price.

Every company has their own set of prices for different types of plans. Usually the not-so-great coverage providers such as Sprint will have lower prices on their plans because they want to draw people towards their company. The better companies such as AT&T although having great coverage does not have unreasonably high prices and usually battles the other top competitors for lower prices on their plans. In turn, this relates to stability in their pricing, which AT&T seems to have fairly high stability in their pricing.

Over the years everything through AT&T has become cheaper and the trend still continues to show. This is shown by things such as texting rates decreasing, as well as internet rates slowly decreasing over the years.

One final thing that sets AT&T apart from the other companies is customer service. Being with the company for such a long time to them seems to make you become a part of their family and give you great customer service unlike the other cell phone companies that will put you on hold for several minutes. All my experiences as well as the people I talk to seem to give AT&T great responses in regard to customer service.