You Have Been "Prepared"

     Civilization produces many customs and rituals which could be construed by others to be quite uncivilized. Embalming, in my opinion, is one of those practices.  In fact there are some that would argue that the process of embalming is more barbaric today than in times past. Jessica Mitford penned a fabulous essay describing the brutality of what goes on behind closed doors at the mortuary. “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” was written solely for the purpose of shedding some bright light on the planned horror that takes place after death.

     In a brilliant collection of prose, Mitford describes the tools, chemicals, and tricks of the trade used by what she describes as inaptly trained “pseudo-surgeons.”  The way that she depicts the procedure actually inspires fear. Not fear of the thought of death, we all feel that, but fear of the thought of what they do thereafter. She takes care to humanize the corpse that is being prepared by referring to him as Mr. Jones. It seems as if Mitford has done a great job of balancing critical thought processes with accurate and effective emotional cues-both of which are used cleverly to engage and influence the reader. Expressing the humanity and science of death is not something one does without much thought and intestinal fortitude.

     Reading “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” has forever affected the way that I feel about attending funerals, even my own end of life plans. It makes me wonder if the living are just being selfish by holding on to something or someone who is no longer there. When I go, just throw me in a box and sing me a song! (And no sad songs, please!)

Paper Mills

In " Free Online Paper Mills", the author, Michelle Vu, searched two different website that offered to "write" a students paper for them at a cost. The two sites were Custom Writings and eCheats, and though both site looked different they bother offered the same thing; plagiarized essay papers. Surprisingly enough, both sites try to avoid blame by writing that these essays should be used for paraphrasing and should also be listed on a student's work cited page, to insure they are not braking any rules. But all that sounds like is a cop out.

All student learn early  in their school careers that turning in a paper, that was not written by he or she is considered plagiarism...period! whether a person paid for it or not, and a person found to be using one of these custom papers should be punished.

Robotic Surgery... The Future is Now

After reading Jacqueline Owen's "Robotic Surgery" it made me view the robotic movement in medicine differently.  In the writing the author talked about the advantages and disadvantages of  the use of robotic surgeries today.

Siding with Owen, we too believe that the advantages of robotic surgery far out weigh the disadvantages. Just cutting down on the recovery time to us is a large advantage. It is commonly known that just because someone make it out of surgery, that sometime due to complications during recovery can lead to a person becoming sicker or even dying.  Less pain for the patient will also insure a more speedy and comfortable recovery and that is important.

yes, there are disadvantages to the use of robots in the operating room, but these same advantages also coincide with those of a human surgeon. No one person or thing is without faults or the ability to make a mistake or malfunction if you will. But if there is a way to minimize the overall cost of a surgical procedure for a patient, while also minimizing the patients recovery time, I do not understand why more hospital are not doing all they can do to make sure these robots are available in their hospitals.

Why Write When You Can Buy?

In the reading Free Essay Websites: A Convenient Way to Plagiarize by Katie Hindman , the author wrote about the wave of custom essay writing sites available to students today online and whether or not buying an essay from one of these site is actually considered plagiarism. The essay compared two different websites that both sold these "custom written essays" and the writer dissected the two, showing their similarity as well as their differences. How the layout of the site and the language of writing  was used to make the inquirer more comfortable with maybe deciding to purchase a paper. 

Writing essays is a very important part of college, not one student can avoid them. With this, it is common knowledge that people, since the beginning of time, have cheated their way through a lot of things and college is no different. If there is a way for some people to avoid hard work in life they will use it. Websites like the ones described are one of the methods lazy people use to make it out of college and its basically just not ok. College is not  mandatory, so when a person decided to attend after graduating high school, they should be in the position to give it their all. Laziness is not and should never be tolerated in the college atmosphere.  Those individuals who would rely on a website or even another individual to write a paper that is suppose to demonstrate "their personal" acquired knowledge of a certain subject have no place in college. Granted, there are a lot of people who have extremely busy lives and feel like that they could benefit from a service like this. Some students might have complete knowledge of the subject being written upon and could regurgitate it successfully if tested, but due to their schedules, feel like essay websites would be used as a convenience only.  But it is still wrong. Plagiarism in our society is frowned upon, and so,  if a essay is not 100% your own written words, then it cheating and just plain unacceptable.

"Arguing in Community"

"A new study says some obese people who are generally healthy live just as long as their slim counterparts... and are happier than people who struggle with diets."

Over the years society has changed its opinion on what is "average" and what is "healthy". Recently a study published by York University has given us food for thought on the subject of weight in relation to health. A common assumption is that if you are overweight, you must be unhealthy. As we begin to feel like we are in the throws of an obesity epidemic, we must stop and evaluate our tendency to make sweeping generalizations. This study celebrates our individuality, without stereotyping any one group based on arbitrary averages.