patients afraid to talk to their doctors

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/afraid-to-speak-up-at-the-doctors-office/?hpw

The link to the article is above. This article is about the recent trend that patients are afraid to speak in front of their doctors. A recent study was conducted, which revealed that most patients are afraid to talk freely with their doctor because they feel that the doctor is dominating. However, the study was done on a very limited sample size and so should be discounted until a larger study has been done, which is happening in the near future.

I like and don't like this article. I like this article because as my passion is medicine and becoming  doctor, I always find articles and information about doctor-patient contact interesting. I also liked it because it brought up a point that I had never really thought of before. I didn't like the article because of the comments which were found at the bottom of the article by people who had read it. It was basically just a feeding ground for losers who thought that their doctors had something to hide from them. Honestly, I hate it when people complain about what their doctor said because they think that it is wrong and unfair. Most patients didn't have to go through 12 years of post-high school education, and not everything on the internet can be believed. Overall, however, I really liked the way that the article was written because it was very effective in hiding any bias that the author may have of the issue. I also did enjoy reading the article, minus the comments.

Tennis for blind people!?!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/science/a-game-of-tennis-tests-notions-of-blindness.html?hpw
The link to the article is above. This article is about tennis for the visually impaired. Basically, the game is changed so that instead of players seeing the ball, they learn to hear it and hit it that way. The ball is modified so that it makes a distinct sound when someone hits it, and basically it teaches blind people to "see with their ears." This is actually a very good development in training visually imparied people to cope with their impairment. Mr. Takei, was a 16 time national blind tennis champion, and serves as proof that this method of treatment is both fun, physically stimulating, and can really help blind people to heighten their other senses.

I really loved this article because it has my two favorite things in the world, Tennis and Science. When i first saw the title, i was literally blown away. I can't imagine playing tennis without being able to see. But after reading the article, I think that this is really cool. The entire idea is logically sound and very interesting. The article was good in that it provided much information about how the treatment worked. I really enjoyed reading this article.

Telescope studying Dark Energy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/science/space/repurposed-telescope-may-explore-secrets-of-dark-energy.html?pagewanted=1&hp
The link to the article is above. A NASA physicist recently made a new groundbreaking discovery which could jumpstart NASA once more. A telescope which was used for spy work is now going to be pointed towards space to study dark energy, which is the concept which scientists theorize has been expanding the universe forever. This is truly a groundbreaking discovery in science because it could answer many more questions about the cosmos. The only problem is that NASA is having trouble getting the money to fund this program together, but hopefully we will see it done fairly soon.

I really like this article because I am big on science. Science is and always will be my passion. This whole dark energy thing intrigues me because it is pretty much something out of a sci-fi novel. I liked how this article showed a good use of outside sources to support assertions, and because of the topic, i greatly enjoyed reading this article.

French Open Upset

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/sports/tennis/04iht-tennis04.html?_r=1&ref=sports
The link to the article is above. This article was about how Victoria Azarenka, the number one ranked womens tennis player, was outsted from the French open in the fourth round of play. Both the mens and women's number ones played at the same times and both had very tough matches. Djokovic, the number one for men, beat his opponent in a very close match in 5 sets. Azarenka on the other hand, lost very handily and showed frustration during the match, which is a very uncommon trait fro a world number one. Azarenka's defeat stacks the womens draw in favor of the lower ranked women who now no longer have to play the world number one to get farther in the tournament.
i chose this article because I love tennis. I've been playing tennis for 10 years now, and I love watching all of the major tournaments. Usually big upsets like this don't happen to world number ones and so when I saw this article, I thought that it was very interesting. It was a rather well written article, and I enjoyed how it gave a very good description of why Azarenka lost the match.

Senior Reflection: High School.

So I'm pretty close to graduation. Like honestly, its about 3-4 weeks away. I have to say that senior year has been the most difficult, stressful, and fun year of high school. Whoever told me that senior year was going to be easy was lying. It wasn't easy. College applications were bad enough, but juggling college apps with school, robotics, and tennis was absolute hell. However, now that I look back on it, it doesn't seem so bad anymore because I finished it unscathed, it got me into the college that I wanted to go to, and it leaves me with very little stress now.

Senior Reflection 2: UVA

So I'm heading off to college next year and I'm happy to report that I'm going to the University of Virginia. I don't know why, but ever since I was in 6th grade, I've been telling myself and everyone else that UVA was the right and only school for me. It's a bit weird because, I only visited UVA this year, but its always been this great center of knowledge for me. I may have over Romanticized it as a kid, but even now, UVA has a hold on me tht no other school that I applied to has. Its a great school for what I want to do, but I love the campus as much as I love the quality of education. In my mind, the campus of UVA rivals that of UMW, which is and forever will be the most beautiful college campus that I have ever seen in my life.

Senior Reflection 1: AP Exams

So AP Exam's are finally over, and I could not be happier. This is the last set of AP Exams that I will ever have to take again in my life, and they were rough. I took 7 exams this year, a big jump from my 3 exams last year. Honestly though, although these were some very difficult and arduous exams, I really had a great bunch of classes this year, and I enjoyed learning the material, which made the exams less tedious.