Safari Adventure

                A real African safari has to be one of the most surreal experiences out there. Seeing the most beautiful animals on earth be free in the wild is definitely on my bucket list. The lions, giraffes, and rhinos would be an amazing sight. The only thing stopping a lion from pouncing on you or an elephant from sitting on you is their laziness, and a jeep with no windows. The rush of being able to see these animals in the wild up close must feel great.

                Safaris could be harming our environment though. Just having a giant jeep follow you around all day could really hurt your hunting. Although wildlife has somewhat adapted to humans taking selfies with them, making movies out of them, and staring at them with binoculars, the wildlife still has to be effected by so much human presences. Regulations should be set and more strict in countries with these types of safaris. We cannot just let guides disturb these animals’ habitats and ways of living. Some animals are really being hurt read more here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/safariandwildlifeholidays/7220102/Safari-Are-too-many-tourists-killing-Africas-wildlife.html).

                Hard fines and expenses have been placed on companies who do safaris though. The government is trying to help keep their wildlife safe, to a certain extent. Harder actions do need to be taken though to keep these beautiful animals the way they are. I am all for safaris, they sound like an absolute blast, but this tourist attraction should not be hurting animals. I am fine with having my trip to Africa being a little more lack-luster because I can’t get right next to the lion pack while they are hunting.

                

The Reactions

                Life is an amazing thing. With the knowledge we have, we assume life is extremely rare. The perfect conditions over billions of years are what led us from tiny single celled organisms to the amazing diversity that is our animal kingdom and our small world of unique microorganisms. The odds of life occurring elsewhere seem impossible with so many chemical reactions and situations that had to occur in perfect order for life to form.

                The thing that makes life run is the microscopic world.  Every mechanism and decision we have is biased on chemical reactions and microorganisms. This month, scientist found that bacteria in our stomach can signal and control our brain to get what they want. They control our moods, our hunger patterns, and our cravings. Read more here (http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/do-gut-bacteria-rule-our-minds).  These tiny bacteria do everything they can to make us hate ourselves, whether it’s those donuts for breakfast or that entire bag of chips that you’re eating when you said you would have “just one”.  Getting us all fattened up and chubby is what these bacteria and microbes desire.  It’s amazing how such tiny microbes can have such a “huge” (pun-intended) effect on the person as a whole.

                From another perspective the world around us just seems so gigantic when you look at the stars, the galaxy and the universe. You feel like just a tiny speck when it comes to the world around you. But you should feel special.  We, the animals of the world are made up of millions of cells and mini ecosystems which in turn make us who we are. Some tiny microbes make us hungry, get us in a bad mood, it is not us, it is all controlled by small, nonexistent to the naked eye microbes and organisms.

                Another odd thing about us is that our consciousness, our image, our personality is probably made up of tiny reactions and microbes. Our “big” world is just a puppet of things going on at these microscopic levels. Our brain for example, based on current science, is made of neurons that are just electrocuted and sending signals throughout the brain. This is what makes us think.  It’s mindboggling to me that such a complicated thing as the mind and our thoughts are controlled by some ions shooting across a membrane. Our whole lives, everything we see and hear that is living is just controlled by some charged atoms.  It seems kind of shallow to me, like we haven’t gotten the whole story, which we probably haven’t.   I feel like something is missing and that our minds, consciousness and everyone else’s can’t just be made from an electrical charge. To me, it just defeats the purpose of life, if all we are is a bunch of chemical reactions. I want more to life than that. Why do we get emotional? Why do we have such strong feelings? Is it just giving us a better chance to survive and reproduce? I don’t want to just reproduce and die like everyone else. And although scientist are far from knowing everything, I still want to live with a purpose other than making little Adams and surviving to the best of my abilities. I want to express myself, share with others, and other cheesy things. Not just be another tool in the evolutionary and biological system, trying to keep our species the best and the fittest.     

The Key to the Prison

                Being trapped is one of the worst feelings a human can experience.  Our freedom and lives being taken and imprisoned is nothing short of torture. One of my personal worse fears is being trapped inside my own mind.  It’s something in this world that is not uncommon.  Alzheimer’s, comas, and strokes are just some of the things that can trap a person all alone in their own mind.

                This week, a scientific breakthrough was made for those who are trapped in their bodies. Doctors can now tell if a person in a vegetable state is conscious or not through their brain activity.  This is possible and you can read more here (http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20141710-26359.html).  

Hospitals do as much as they can to help these scary medical situations. Providing beds, vitamins and nutrients to keep them alive, and many other amenities to try and make the process as easy as humanly possible. They can’t do everything though.  Knowing what a makes a person comfortable and what they need when they can’t tell you makes accomplishing that goal hard, almost impossible. This is why I think being stuck in a situation where you can’t communicate, would be horrific. People sticking needles into me, bathing me, and monitoring me without asking me about it, must be the worst feeling ever.

This procedure cannot read a person’s mind. It cannot tell us what they want and need.  It can only tell us if they have some brain activity.  If they have some level of consciousness, they still cannot tell us what hurts. Being conscious would be so much worse being stuck in a situation like this. Hearing people might be great but not being able to communicate back to them must be torture. Doctors and families knowing the information of whether the patient is conscious when in a situation such as life support, etc., is extremely helpful in tough decisions. Knowing this information can make that decision of pulling the plug or not so much easier. Giving families more closure to such hard and difficult times is the most valuable thing about this. This breakthrough may not change anything, treatment wise, or even care-wise, but one thing that is for sure is that it will make this unbearable process a little bit easier.