Football has become the new Americas game, and it is growing in popularity throughout the entire world. More and more countries are forming national teams, and football is trying to get into the Olympics, so it is no question that football is fast growing in popularity, and is coming and great known world sport. But by the time football gets that popular, it could be too late.

What I mean by that is football is one of the most dangerous organized team sport in the world, the biggest, faster, strongest, and most athletic guys in the country and world are crashing their heads together for 3 hours at a time. So the question is, does football have a future, it’s a tough subject to touch upon, but it is true. The reason why football may not have a future is the amount of injuries that are taking place every single week on game day. There are players out there every weekend risking their health to step out onto that field; just to clarify this is at any level, it is important to know the risk you are putting yourself in by going out to play football.

 

Football is one of the most aggressively played sports in the world, and to try and help keep the athletes from getting injured more frequently there has been many rule changes over time. From the first 40 years football was played it was all out war, you could hit, throw, toss, clothes line, basically do anything to stop the ball carrier from moving. Which is why so many players would get hit and have shorter careers back then.

Looks to be a nasty hit from back in the day

So over the years more and more rules began to enter the league, such as late hits, and ruffing the quarter back, 5 yards down the field rule for cornerbacks and receivers, clothe lines, horse collar. And the most frequent one, the targeting rule, this rule is to help with the concussion concern spreading through the world of football. The targeting rule does not allow a player to lead with the head to make head to head contact with the another player, if the said player is caught doing that, he will be ejected from the game and at the professional level, ejected and fined for this action. So with all these rules coming into the game, the game has definitely changed over time, some people may say that it’s not the same game anymore, most of those who think thing are players that had played in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Here you can see a clear targeting foul committed by an Texas A&M
Player

But does all these rules really work, because till toning into Sunday football every week, we still see players getting injured quite frequently. The concussion problem seems to still be the same, players are still getting them frequently and are still in danger every time they step on the field. Even the rule for the concussion protocol. That is where after a big hit if that player is showing any kind of symptoms they must be removed from the field and undergo a thorough examination for a possible concussion. But even with all these new rules, and new helmets, and protocol it still doesn’t seem to be enough. Players each and every week are still in danger and are getting injured, and nothing is really truly helping.

 

So looking at all the players that are in danger every week, will the true game of football be in danger. Football is still football today, just modernized, it’s still the smash mouth hard hitting, head banging sport we all love, but if things don’t change and players continue to grow and get bigger, faster, strong and better, it will be harder to keep them safe. People today are naturally bigger, and over the years we see that in football, in the 70s average size offense linemen were 270lbs, now today the average size is roughly 330lbs of muscle. So the game could continue to get more intense, and more dangerous to play. So there have been ideas floating around the NFL committee, some ideas that would complete change the game of football forever. One there are always new rules going in to help prevent injuries, but the big one was taking away contact from football. Which means turning it into a 7 on 7 type deal or just touch football or even flag football, it’s at that point where it’s not even football anymore, and it’s a complete new game. Which is why we ask ourselves if football does have a future. Because if the game does change from none contact, it is no longer football, it will only be time to time what football will become, and if football will be different. 

 

                What you see here is a quick glimpse on the aftermath of the Haitian Earthquake but in 2010. The earthquake that left thousands on Haitians killed and thousands more injured and 1.5 million homeless and with without supplies, and 14 billion dollars in damage.

 

            But why exactly was the earthquake in Haiti so deadly? Because if you really think about it the country and the people of Haiti were extremely vulnerable to some serious damage and causalities. Why? Well because the lack of preparation done to protect the people against natural disasters. The earthquake that struck Haiti was of only a 7.0 magnitude, which indeed is a large earthquake but usually cause moderate damage, due to the fact that there are many 7.0 magnitude earthquakes all the time and it doesn’t due as nearly as much damage as it did to Haiti. The country is terribly poor and filled with poverty, the building and homes are extremely old and barley supported so there was no dought that a moderate size earthquake would be horribly devastating. After the earthquake the hospitals had nowhere near enough staff, supplies and experience to deal with this disaster, and the president of the country took forever to deal with the situation, failing to get the hurting and suffering people the supplies they need to survive. The whole country was simply overwhelmed with this endeavor, there was nowhere enough preparedness for the country to survive a natural disaster.

The post disaster issues are just as big as the actual disaster that happened. The thousands of injured people began to riot and pillage for food and supplies because the efforts in helping the people in their recovery was taking too long so the people began fighting over supplies to help themselves. Thousands of dead bodies where just covering the streets and taking up so much rooms; the people didn’t know what to do with all the dead bodies other then dig up huge holes and throwing them in there.

The streets of Haiti overflowing with thousands of dead bodies
days after the earthquake

 

After the natural disaster there was one more issue completely taking over the country still to the present day. That is the Cholera outbreak that is sweeping the whole entire country. What is making the cholera outbreak even worse is the fact that the people of Haiti are homeless, poor, and low on supplies, which is making it more difficult to get cholera under control. Cholera is an infection in the intestines that when infected can kill you within hours of catching it, which is making the people of Haiti recovery process even harder. Thousands have died from the earthquake, and now thousands more dying of Cholera.

           

Patients overflowing the local health clinic
do to the cholera outbreak 

           The efforts in clear up and precaution for the next disaster when and where it shows up is already been under way. Of course rebuilding the nation and getting people back into homes is a huge priority, but getting the cholera outbreak under control is definitely slowing down the recovery process. The country is horrible dept. and sickness and the country seems to be falling apart, nation is dying and the efforts in preparing for the next disaster will not be good enough to protect the people, mainly due to the fact that there trying to fix the nation that has already been destroyed by just one disaster. They won’t be ready for the next one.

 



Presidents house in Haiti

This is a prime example of the damage done to the country, even the presidents of the nation home was basically almost destroyed. This shows the magnitude of the damage the earthquake proved to cost. Homes and structures all across the nation were destroyed and cost and estimated value of 14 billion dollars, putting the country in terrible dept.



 

 

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake took the lives of thousands, took the money of the country and destroyed the lives of the people of Haiti for possible the rest of their lives. All of which could have been prevented by more precautions set up by the Haitian government. But the only thing the nation of Haiti can do now is try their best to live on and rebuild.  



Inprisonment of Our Youth

When it comes to the criminal Justice System, it is a very precise and delegate topic to discussion about. And once subject that is a lot of times over looked and or not discussed enough about is about children being sentenced to life in prison or receiving very long prison sentences, or even being executed.

According to (eji.org) the Courts did ban juvenile executions, nearly 3000 children age 17 or younger have been sentenced to life in prison until death, without parole. Children as young as 13 were among the 3000 kids sentenced to death in prison.

Now the reason why this subject is so delegate to handle is that there are children being treated like adults. People believe that it is against some kind of moral code to punish young children with life long prison sentences or the death plenty. Those people argue that children committing crimes are still learning from right from wrong, that they don’t understand that there action are much greater then they know themselves. Or people argue that there are kids that are mental unstable and can’t control their actions.

Which is strong arguments indeed but in the end a terrible crime was committed. When there is an 8 year old boy who viciously attacks his 1-year old infant brother and viciously kills him because the baby wouldn’t stop crying; there is something mentally wrong with that child and that child needs to be taken away. This was according to ( www.Newsweek.com).

 

 In the image above shows the infant girl that was brutally beaten to death by her eight year old bother. I'm not saying that the boy needs to be put in jail for the rest of his life, but he needs to be removed from society and receive special help before returning anywhere near home. The boy is clearly dangerous and needs help.

In the chart above it shows the incarceration rate for youth imprisonment between the USA vs. Other nations. USA is at the very top, so it shows our youth is growing up in a dangerous and hostel environment, and that children are dangerous and committing more crimes. So are this many children in cable of knowing from right from wrong? Some maybe, but no, many of these kids know what they are doing, that is why there are so many kids being put into jail or taken away for a reason. 

Teenagers these days are becoming more dangerous these days, according to the Washington D.C. poles, and personally talking to a formal downtown D.C. police officer, Children as young as 8 years old are beginning to join gangs. What happens when children that young join gangs as young as that, they’re more likely to commit more terrible crimes as they get older, they might start out by stealing, or fighting and as they get older, will become more prone to carrying a weapon, and more likely to end up shooting someone, or robbing people with the weapon. Kids growing up in a hostile environment like that are set to think crime is okay, that is why the youth of today are becoming more dangerous, at that point they don’t know from right from wrong, so it’s necessary to take them away and try and fix them, and prison might be the only option.  



This chart above shows the percentage amount of Juvenile under the age
 of 18 growing over the last several years

There are kids out there younger than 18 and as young as 8 years old committing terrible crimes of robbery, assault, and murderer. And it’s not just because they are troubled children, there are kids out there that I truly different and a danger to the public. Necessary punishment should be taken into action for these children and jail is a possible option, even for as young as an 8 year old murderer, because they can get the help they need to one day maybe be put back into society. It’s like they can be saved at a young age to get out of the environment they lived in that might of pushed them into becoming what they were, and be saved as a good person. Because I’ll be honest, lt doesn’t matter if they were too young to understand what they did, they knew what they were doing. That boy wanted to kill his 1 year old sister, he knew it was wrong, but he did it anyway, just maybe he didn’t realize how wrong it was? Those kids choose to be a part of those gangs, there old enough to know right from wrong, they are just being taught that being in a gang isn’t wrong, but they know the stuff there doing is bad. So it is necessary to take any precaution to possible save and rehabilitate them at any cost… even jail.

 

 In this video it shows a young man Tj Lane. A 17 year old kid, who viciously killed two of his classmates and shows no remorse for them or the victims parents. Throughout the trail he gladly admitted to the murderers, and laugh and gave the middle finger to the victims parents who were speaking against him. And to add insult to injury, he was wearing a white t-shirt with the word killer written on his shirt in black marker. The kid was clearly old enough to know right from wrong, he knew what he was doing, and he gladly do it and would seem to have no problem doing it again.

 

 

 

New way of energy

As our nations grows older and the technology larger and more popular the more energy is going to be needed to power our homes and our cars and our technology. More people are using more and more energy these days, peoples electric bill are going through the roof and the cost of electricity around the U.S. is hurting our economy. Heck the average U.S. citizen spends $3052 a year on just electricity.  

So what is the U.S. doing to find new ways of collecting free energy, well a lot of things, for example? There are Connectix roads for cars driving over them collect energy form the cars, there are wind hills that are generated form wind power, and collect energy form the wind. There are many more, but I’m here to talk about solar panels. 

Solar panels is a very environmentally friendly source of clean energy, the fuel is free and will never be subjected to the ups and downs of energy markets. It’s also a clean alternative to the fossil fuel that pollute our air and water and threaten our health, and help contribute to global warming. Solar panels work by convert the sun’s rays into electricity by exciting electron in silicon cells using the photons of light form the sun. The electricity that is collected can be used to power you homes, schools, business, and so on. It can power the heat, light, and all around functions where ever they are placed.

Solar panels are becoming a very popular way to get free energy, and what is heard to lower people electric bill and save money. The amount of solar panels being manufactured is growing by the minute, so there are more home owners, and business owners switching to this clean and free form of energy supply.

Solar energy is easily becoming the way of the future
 in energy efficiency

 

There are some rough side effects are, such as land space. Solar panels need a large amount of space defending on the structure or land scape there supporting on. And there are also hazardous waste. Solar panels may contain hazardous materials that could be released when a panel is damaged or disposed incorrectly. 

Another strong side effect of solar panels is that they are extremely expensive, even the smallest on solar pads can still cost up to 15,000 dollars. And they can cost in the millions of dollars depending on the size and amount of energy you want to collect from them, and some has come out and said solar panels have caused their electric bills to not lower but rise. Which causes worries to the manufactures of solar panels.

 

 

Solar panels are being distributed throughout the U.S. in homes, businesses, and in schools for efficient clean and free energy solutions. For examples. My own neighbors have there on working solar panel system, and Cumberland valley high school invested in over 3 million dollars’ worth of solar panels for and energy efficient school.

This just shows that solar panels are easily being distributed to not only to business
but to local school districts and residents owners thought-out
the country.

And if someone is wondering whether you can go off the off-grid with solar energy, you can. There are batteries that you can charge up using your solar power. Consumers have the advantage of using the grid as storage.

 

The federal, state and local government offer great solar energy tax credits and rebates to encourage homeowners to switch to renewable energy to lower their energy use; solar panels. The amount of solar panels rebates varies by program, but some are generous enough to cover up to 30% of your solar power cost.

 

 

 

 

So to recap there are many different ways to help this world become a more energy efficient way of life. How you ask? By switching to energy efficient methods to save money, power, and protect our earth atmosphere. And in my opinion (solar panels) are a big impact on the future of energy efficiency, and a helpful hand to the new way of saving our planet.  

 

Solving Sewage waste water pollution

                              

 

Clean, clear, ocean blue



                                                                                                                       Now look people, doesn’t this look quite nice, nice clean, blue, healthy looking water, heck this could even be drinking water. Water safe to swim in as well, nothing more relaxing then going to the lake, or ocean and swimming and relaxing in the nice cool, clean, clear, blue, healthy water.

But sadly there is an issue that America and everywhere around the world is facing. And that is (Sewage waste water pollutions). And what does sewage waste water pollution look like you might ask.

As you can see here this is just a small example of what sewage waste water pollution looks like. Doesn’t look very appealing I know. You see sewage water is tainting the surrounding water areas, everywhere in the world, as you can see in the back ground there are residents by that lake. So it’s obvious that water would be very smart to bath in, play in, drinking from etc.



It’s happening all over the place, people that just try and go to the lake down the road and go for a nice relaxing swim might not even realize that the water is terrible tainted and polluted. Being in contact with that water can result in some serious health issues such as.

 

·         Death, Diarrhea, Fever, pneumonia, physical and mentally impurities



·         Fever headaches, muscle aches, vomiting  

·         Weil's Disease, kidney damage, liver failure, death

·         Skin and Tissue infection



·         Cancer, and stomach ulcers

·         Hearing and visual loss, mental retardation, Newborn syndrome



·         Liver infection, eye infections

 

And so on and so on, those are just some examples of possible illness and infections and disease a human can pick up when coming into the wrong contact of sewage water.



Here is a prime example of our seas becoming to dangerous to even
swim in due to the effects of Sewage waste water pollution

 

   
 But we as people can do something to stop this from growing into and even bigger issue then it already is. But there are many different ways a person can help prevent this pollution not just on your property but throughout the community and United States. Everyone can help and here’s how…  

 

Example in your home

·         Minimize water use when it’s raining. Wait to wash clothes or run the dishwater until the rain stops, it helps the sanitary system. Decrease water use by putting in low-flow toilets and shower heads, and don’t let the water run

·         Throughout household chemicals and other fluids properly- not down the drain or storm drains though. Anything that a person puts down the drain has a strong chance of ending up in the oceans or creeks or local lakes.

·         Don’t put any, fats, oils or grease ideas down the drain

Example on your property

·         Inspect your sewer cleanout. The cleanout usually a small pipe, it’s about 4 inches in diameter, used for entering the lateral line for cleaning.

·         Have your household sewer line inspected and replaced if necessary. Call your local Department of Public Works for more info on how to get someone to inspect your sewer lines regularly

·         Try and avoid planting tree and shrubs near you household sever lines.

·         Consider installing a gray water system to capture and reuse nearly-clean water for your garden.

 

Also joining in and helping you community by fundraising for more repairs to all the sewer lines to prevent leakage of pollution into the streets, oceans, lakes etc.

The Government can spend all the money they want to try and improve this issue, and yes it’s going to cost money to build more pipe lines, and protection of these pipe lines,  but alimentally it comes down to we the people to pitch in and try and prevent pollution in our lives first. Then go to the bigger companies and get them to stop pullulating our water as well.  No matter how much it may cost, the cost of our health and the health of the animals in and out of the sea is much greater.

 

Sewage waste just being carelessly pumped into the water

 

 This right here a prime example of why everyone must help to prevent further pollution. Our water is being tainted with the waste, chemicals, and sediments helped produced by us, the humans. Don’t forget about the fish that swim in the water, we are killing wildlife on land and sea. The fish we eat can possibly be tainted, putting us at risk, and the wildlife on the land eating the fish can be affected as well. So to further more emphasis that the pollution going on in our waters is not just affecting us, but the wild life in the water and outside the water.

I can’t say it’s beginning to improve or getting worse, but is it great to know that the issue at hand is being addressed. So there are people out there that are willing to make a change. Organizations are being from to help with the issues companies are trying to improve their dumping of waste. More sewage treatment plants are being built, so the issue is being handled, and improvement is coming.

 

 Examples of ways this pollution is trying to be managed

American Football in the Olympics?


If you're a sports fan, who frankly enjoys all sports in the world, then there's nothing better then sitting back every four years for 2 weeks to enjoy one of the greatest sporting events of all time. I'm talking about, of course, the great Olympic games. 

The Olympic games are held every four years and is a world wide event for everyone to enjoy, featuring the top athletes that hail from 88 different countries. 2,800 athletes makeup the participants of the games. From the day of the burning of the torch to till the end of the games it's definitely fool of tears, excitement, pain, and great athletic talent, no don't the great sporting event of all time.

 

The world wide symbol

of the Olympic games know as the

Olympic Rings





The next Olympic games will be taking place in Rio of 2016, and the USA looks to reclaim there's dominance in winning gold metals. U.S. athletes took the stage at London coming out with a total of 104 medals (46 in which were gold, 29 sliver and 29 bronze) finishing number one in gold metals over all. The 46 gold medals won broke the U.S. record for the most medals won in Olympic games in the history of medal standings in the USA.

 

But yet the that might not be enough, Maybe there's a way to get another gold medal in a different sport in the Olympics, even though USA basketball has been the number one team for winner gold medals; because basketball is a sport we dominate. And another sport we dominate in is American Football. Yes I said ( American) Football. USA football committee as well as the IFAF ( International Federation of American Football) is trying to propose to the Olympic committee to had American Football as an official Olympic Sport.   

 

 

Of course there is a whole lot of issues when coming to adding an Olympic sport, there is getting over the Olympic committee which is hard enough, and then seeing if you can get enough countries' to participate. Then one of the biggest issues... The cost of that sport being entered into the games. That's why football being entered into the Olympic is such a long and tough issue. Football has been trying to get into the Olympics for years now and there getting pretty close, the IFAF has enough teams to represent the sport, and they have the uniforms, and the rules down. Each country in the IFAF understands the sport and there are over a dozen teams entered in the international games. And what the IFAF is trying to do is convince that American football is a well organized and competitive sport throughout all nations.

The trouble is the cost of putting this sport into the Olympics, the cost of building stadiums around the world in a different country every four years would be extremely expensive and possible not a good investment. USA would most likely would be the most dominate team in the games, which is why there is even more controversy. People believe that the U.S. would have and un fair advantage because we dominate this sport, and yes we do preform well but the world is becoming to develop some very talented and competitive teams in American football.

 But the main concern is still money and building different stadiums in main different countries and finding the time to put football let alone a whole new sport is a very long and difficult issue. Money is always the main concern, and whether or not the sport can turn a profit on a global sell is beyond me or beyond the Olympic committee. So we will just have to wait and see what happens in 2020.

 

 

 

USA's Team defensive captain Tyler Kuntz
Flies the American flag before there international
match up verses Japan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Concussions in football

I'm a 17 year old boy playing high school football. I love this sport with a strong passion, l've played this game for eleven years now and I have loved every single year and every thing about it.

'm a 6'5" wide receiver; a big target so to speak, and also a big target for a concussion! I've had my fair share of head injuries, a tall target like me coming across the middle through those big linebackers is dangerous and I've felt the result of that happening. Coming across the middle and having a dead on head to head, helmet to helmet contact is the worst thing a player could ask for.

 

When ever a player is running full speed at each other, a head to head contact hit can be a terrible result.

This is a extremely dangerous game, the game is made to be fun, yet its harmful, the game must be made safer for the people who want to continue with a long career in football. Concussions are making the game unsafe, that's why there are you rules and or new helmets being put into the game for a while now to try and make the game safer, yet there are people getting seriously hurt.

 

 

That's because there are players like this

JJ Watt

And what I mean by that is, that the game is getting bigger in talent speed and size of athletes. This here his a 6'5" 295lbs man with a 61"box jump who runs a forty in under 5 seconds, Being hit by that would be unsafe. The average NFL linemen in the 1970s was 270lbs, now today there pushing 330lbs plus. The game is more talented and faster, and more aggressive, so people say there is no way to stop people from getting concussions, and though that might be true, there are plenty of ways to prevent them. 

 

It's been proven that people have suffered long turn effects from playing the game for so long, from getting knocked around in the head so much really starts affecting athletes mentally in the long run. Every time someone gets a concussion there brain in bouncing of there skull, and that does cause brain damage.

So the more hits to the head one person takes the more effects take place inside that mans head. And there has been suicides from former NFL players, that might be lead back to the amount of head injuries that men has suffered; Junior Seau committing suicide back in 2012, and the investigation of what cause him to do it is still under way, but they do believe concussions is the leading cause.

 

The game will continue to grow, and new techniques and technogly will continue to grow.

 

Revolution speed Helmets have been proven to help reduce concussions, but yet there are still flaws in the helmet. So more and more helmets are being created  

 



This is the "Flex Speed Helmet", they says its the number one helmet proven to reduce the likelihood of getting concussion. Most helmets are made out of an thin layer of metal inside, but the Flex Speed is made out of thicker layer on titanium, and a extra pad is right under that what looks like a flap on the top of the skull. 


They say it will be to costly to mass produce these helmets, and that is true, they aren't very cheap. But let me ask you this, isn't the safety of the players worth spending for, being able to keep the people safe while playing this game is the number one priority?

And are we guaranteeing that these new helmets will completely end concussions, no! But spending this money will help, there's no way to prevent concussions completely but there are ways to help reduce concussions, brain injuries are more serious then people know, so it's worth the money. 



In the video below is the effect of concussions and leaving them untreated, It shows how much trouble a coach or player could get in.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24731510/michigan-ad-apologizes-says-shane-morris-has-a-concussion 

 

 

Sources: www.footballinjuryclaims.com/‎

www.concussiontreatment.com/concussionfacts.html

www.huffingtonpost.com/news/football-concussions

topics.nytimes.com/top/.../f/football/head_injuries/