So much has happened in my life this month, and time seems to speed by me so fast I feel as if I can't keep up sometimes...and of course, procrastination made me delay writing a post here til now...haha, coz it's my day off work today...
I recently read a book by Jodi Picoult, named 'Nineteen Minutes', about the legal, psychological and emotional consequences that wiped a whole town after a school shooting incident that left 10 people dead - mostly comprising of teenagers. So what happened that actually led to the event? Picoult unveils part by part of the event of the unfortunate day as well as the series of incidents that led the shooter ( a boy named Peter Houghton - a victim of bullies in school ) to do what he did.
I loved every bit of the storyline... especially the trial that followed the event, how the defence attorneys came up with plausible points from a psychological perspective - that of a post-traumatic stress disorder ... Very interesting debate, that left a twist at the end of the story... great ending as always by Picoult... a great book for all teenagers and parents alike, to pick up, read and ponder upon as the book carries an important message and awareness of the issues that surrounds every teenager through school life and the importance of family values and bonding...
rating = 5 stars
Olympics
The Olympics has ended and there were huge shocks, surprises and utter letdowns, but all in all, everyone learned a lot from the games... nothing is impossible... which reminds me of an article I read in the Straits Times recently, written by a Malay lady...
To summarise her article, what I understood is her lack of expertise in the topic she's writing about ( sports and performance ), and lack of research - she only mentioned a research that was done more than a decade ago... in 1996 to support her points, which were very weak...
Coming from a science background, I beg to differ with her views that humans are improving physiologically to keep improving our sports performance and continually breaking Olympic records... but I don't believe it can be prominently attributed to just evolution... sometimes there is more than meets the eye...
Ever heard of 'Designer drugs'? They are drugs that can be designed to do anything - from improving muscle-building to energy-boosting performances, available in all range of products, from steroids to hormonal... and yet, technological advancements are sometimes occurring at such a fast pace that clinicians have yet identified ways to monitor for the presence of these new drugs in athletes who are taking such drugs illegally to win in sports events...
Usually, by the time we discovered how to detect these drugs and disqualify some athletes from competing, new and much better designer drugs would already be available to these athletes... So, I'm not utterly surprised it's possible to beat the Olympic records every year and a little skepticism will prove healthy in the long run so we can be more aware of the things happening around us and to foresee more & develop better techniques to deal with them in the future...
