Ecological footprint

Start
11/16
11:27pm

My challenge.

Something that affects or may affect people more than they know is stem cell research. Stem cells have the potential of helping and possibly even curing many diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and more. This directly affects me because stem cells have the potential to cure or at least help Huntington's disease, which runs in my family. It would be amazing if these horrible disease were able to be prevented or cured. Based on some research and personal experience, it seems the only reason there is any controversy around the subject of stem cell research is because people believe that babies are being killed for this to happen, which is false. Embryonic stem cells are found in fertilized eggs that have been donated to the lab and may only become a couple days old. These eggs are not developed in a woman's body, just ferilized in vitro. Basically the only thing found in these embyos is genetic material; there are no organs, and it should not be considered "killing a baby." The education of how exactly stem cell research is conducted and what it can produce should be more publicly announced so humans can realize the full potential and harmlessness of it.

Finish.

I started the "no technology" experiement just before I went to bed so I could get through the first few hours easily. This helped me psychologically, don't ask me why, I'm just weird like that. The first part of my day was kinda hard to get through since I usually call my boyfriend before and after classes and work, and I always check my email, Myspace, and Facebook more than once a day. Staying away from radio and tv was easy since I only listen the radio every now and then and I rarely watch tv. I wasn't sure if games were included in this experiment, but I tried to stay away from those as well. This was harder than it normally would've been because just last night I got two new games for my DS, so I was dying to play those all day. Overall, I had a pretty productive day. I got some homework done, I did some much needed chores around the house, I worked, and I even got to catch up on some reading.
I talked to some co-workers about the experiment today. Most of them are high school students, and many of them were surprised that I wasn't having a mental breakdown. I've never really seen myself as one of those people who just goes crazy without her phone or computer. A while back, I had a friend of mine ask me how I survived through high school without having a texting plan on my phone. I told her that I just talked to my friends in person or when class was over. I can understand how it can become addicting though. I find myself sending texts sometimes in my classes because I don't have a very long attention span.
I think now that people are given the option of having their own individual little worlds in the palms of their hands makes them less attentive to the general world around them. People are more involved and interested in their personal lives and issues than those of others. I truly believe all of this electronic technology makes people's brains lazier. People don't try to go out and find information on their own anymore when they have google at their fingertips.

No technology.

Start.
10:00pm, Nov. 11