In My Humble Opinion

Exercise four times a week, have an apple-a-day, take vitamins, drink eight cups of water and get eight hours of sleep. These tips, and multiple variations of them, are what health care professionals feed us until they're extracted and “better”ones are developed.


With this constant feed, how are we supposed to keep up on what's really going to help us live to be a hundred?


It's aggravating to dish out a small sum of money on a supposed multi-vitamin power cure, only to find the declared holy treatment of all multi-vitamins on the shelf the next week, hence making your attempt to become healthy obsolete.


With nutritionists either constantly changing variations of health remedies or developing new ones, it's impossible to develop a long-term wellness plan.


What about antioxidants? Well, if you thought those were purely fruitful, think again.


A recent article from The New York Times found that vitamins C and E can have negative effects when used in combination with exercise.


“If you exercise to promote health, you shouldn’t take large amounts of antioxidants,” the article stated. “Antioxidants in general cause certain effects that inhibit otherwise positive effects of exercise, dieting and other interventions.”


Through exercising, reactive oxygen compounds – which destroy tissue – block the positive effects of insulin on the metabolic response, meaning you're not getting as good of a work-out, according to the article.


Wonderful, isn't it? Here you are, making a conscious effort to board the health train, only to find that exercising may have sent you back to the station.


What about the benefits of red wine?


The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism classifies moderate drinking as up to two drinks for men, and one for women and elders per day. That's either one 12-ounce beer, or one five-ounce glass of wine for the latter.


One drank for women per day? If anything, women need to drink more than men and older people should be dipping their nib deeper than both.


Perhaps these studies should be taken with a large grain of salt. If what's “healthy” is to have one glass of wine a night, then I'll wait till the next red-wine study, and stick with my two.


Article used: “Vitamins Found to Curb Exercise Benefits,” The New York Times, 5/11/09.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/health/research/12exer.html?ref=health

Where Has All the Investigative Journalism Gone?

The main factor leading me to pursue a journalism career was the idea of investigative journalism, but as I become closer to obtaining that graduate title, the more I realize that investigative journalism may be just an idea.

Investigative journalism and all that it entails -- finding truths, seeking justice, righting wrongs, proving corruption ect. -- excited me, as I thought of investigation as a way to help others by uncovering truths.

I believe most people have a desire to help others, it's a win win situation. You work, while feeling fulfilled and satisfied that you made a difference somewhere, somehow.

The only problem with investigative journalism is that it seems scarce, if not nonexistent within my generation.

Whatever happened to the good ol' Muckrucking days when people reported for the people? It now seems that journalists have additional motives that stray from those of the Muckruckers.

Today, a large portion of journalism seems to focus on getting the content to the public as fast as possible. News outlets want to beat their competitors to the finish line and unfortunately this doesn't leave much room for real investigative work.

I've had professors say that the market for investigative journalism isn't there anymore, but maybe the market is diminishing because of the lack of investigative works being published.

Of course, there are multiple factors that journalists point a finger to in attempts to justify their lack of investigative work.

An Arizona State University study that surveyed 100 newspaper outlets, found that 31 percent of respondents said newspapers didn't offer the resources to do investigative work.

Another factor was time, with one reporter stating that media corporations weren't giving enough time to do investigative work as they did 20 to 25 years ago.

The study further stated that,"61 percent of the newspapers had no investigative or projects team. The majority had two or fewer, and only 10 newspapers had four or more investigative or projects reporters working for them."

It's not that I don't understand the price of investigative journalism, as there is a price to be paid ranging from time, funds and safety. What I don't understand is how the majority of newspapers don't have any investigative projects staff.

There is investigation to be done, but with these figures I'm wary of whether investigative journalism will be prioritized again, as I believe it is a matter of prioritizing, despite contributing factors.

Source: "Today's investigative reporters lack resources," by Chelsea Ide and Kanupriya Vashisht. Special to The Republic. http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special01/0528bolles-stateofreporting.html

Focus Story

Lillian Garland is one of the 55 million women in America juggling work while starting a family. Fortunately for these women, California Law grants pregnant women up to four months paid disability leave while securing their job.

Garland worked for Federal Savings & Loan. She is one of the many women granted pregnancy leave and given insurance that her job would be waiting upon her return – only instead of returning to work, she spent the next five years battling Federal California in court after they failed to uphold this law.

Garland's justice, which came after her child's fifth birthday, was served Tuesday, when the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-2 to uphold state law.

Descriptive Mystery Character

I am soft spoken and never thought of myself as much to look at. My face is too round, nose too pointy and hair too dull.

I spend holidays in England's Lake District. Here, I can let down my brown hair from it's usual bun, and change out of my long button up dresses.

I enjoy walks through the Lake District, where I'm inspired by scenery and animals. I too had many animals growing up, some of which have been aids to my works that eventually made me independent of my parents' wealth.

I grew up isolated and longed for child companions, which may be why I'm in my line of work.

My life story made it to the big screen in 2006, in which the formerly blonde starlet told it well.