Second Semester Meta Post

Here we are, at the end of the school year. And as always, looking back proves to be both unnerving and exciting as I see, one last time, how weird the year has been. Fortunately, there are always good experiences to hold on to and bring with you, and this years has had many.

In my own blog, I have seen better and worse, but there is just one example that I feel really summarizes my writing this past quarter/semester. Of all of my writing, I feel my efforts are best seen in my blog, A Tall Demand for Education.

For me, this blog covers the key things I try to achieve in writing a good blog post. I always try to, not always with success, keep the topic relevant and contemporary. In this particular post, I write about a recent event for a very well known figure, Shaq, when he got his doctorate in education. Furthermore, with a topic of education, it was very relevant to some discussions about college that we were having in class at the time of the post.

Additionally, I tried to keep the post clear and concise. The post was relatively short, and I don't feel like I repeated myself or made things redundant at all. With the exception of a highlighting glitch, it reads easily, is attractive to look at, and things are visually emphasized when needed.

In many of my posts this year, I tried to keep things focused on more critical issues, and pressing matters in the status quote. In talking about educations' importance in America, I feel like the post about Shaquille O'Neal is just one of many examples of when I talked about importance issues that trends all across of America. More importantly, I feel like I have addressed issues in addressing issues, such as general themes of correlation vs causation and  alternatives.

A Little Closer

Often times in not just my blog, but in many of my fellow class mates, bad news, social conflicts, and general negative critiques are written about, all with there own just dues. But for now, I bring good news, good news that might impact thousands of lives of American's and people across the world.

A recent ABC News article reports of one drug that shows promise in the medical world. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine gave some very positive results of a new drug intended to shrink the size of cancer tumors. Yes, the study reports that in 18% of the patients on whom the drug was tested, at least a 30% reduction in cancer size was witnessed. While it may seem like a small benefit, in this field of science and medicine, these results are quite good, especially with the fact that these were patients whose condition's weren't improving with standard chemotherapy treatment. The article adds, "Cancer specialists said the fact that the drug caused tumors to shrink, rather than simply to stop growing, is an important measure of success."

 And here is  where you would expect the reports to drop the bad news, saying that in 50% of the patients had added heart problems and fatality, but that is not the case. Despite the small sample size of 240 patients, relative to other medicines, "14 percent of patients in the trial reported conditions such as skin rashes, diarrhea or breathing problems." Compare this with the ads you see on TV which warns that their product might induce heart failure, etc. these results are far in favor for a cancer-preventing, life-saving drug.

So while this new drug certainly can't be claimed to be the end of cancer, it marks significant progress in the medical field, and promises more good news to the families whose lives have been changed and afflicted by cancer.