Conceits: Edmund Spenser and William Shakespear

Sonnet 30, by Edmund Spenser uses a conceit throughout the entire poem to compare his lover to ice, cold hearted and a tease, and himself to fire, with a burning passion for her love. He uses this conceit in a way that makes it apparent that it is a situation of unrequited love. Spenser says "Or how comes it that my exceeding heat Is not delayed by her heart-frozen cold". This is just one example throughout the poem that expresses how he longs for her, however she always rejects him.

Sonnet 130, by William Shakespeare, uses a conceit of nature throughout the entire poem to compare his mistress. However, these conceits are unfavorable towards Shakespeare's woman.  The first six lines are all comparing the mistress to nature, and in Shakespeare's opinion, cannot match the beauty of the nature. Shakespeare starts off the poem by bashing his mistress right away; "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;". He then goes on to compare her hair to wire, saying that she has black wire growing from her head. Another comparison he makes is roses to her cheeks; Shakespeare believes her cheeks lack the rosiness that he values. However, in the final couplet, Shakespeare claims his love for the mistress and says that she is as specials as other lovers who are more attractive.

Calories or Proportions, Fats or Proteins: Which takes priority in a healthier diet?

Today, America has become one of the largest countries in the world. American is one of the biggest countries not only in land, debt, and military power, but also in terms of weight and size. Obesity is on the rise and has become one of America's most prevalent problems. When you assess the voluminous problem, obesity comes down to the lack of healthy eating education, and the lifestyle choices of the individual. What the person chooses to eat can be reflected in their overall appearance; "you are what you eat" is one of the most common sayings that summarize this concept. One way to reduce ones figure is to cut down on portion size. However when it comes down to weight gain, proportion size takes priority over Calories at the end of the day. This may seem obvious to some, but a new study conducted by “researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge shows, however, that it’s not what you eat but how much that matters when it comes to body weight” (Song).  This study, led by Dr. George Bray, took a sample of 25 healthy, normal weights from the Baton Rouge area and put them on a high calorie diet for eight weeks.  The difference of the diet depended on where the calories came from- proteins or fats.  After the eight weeks, everyone gained but weight. The group with the low protein, thus higher fat content, diet gained less weight, about half as much, compared to the normal-high protein intake diet. Surprised? When you take a closer look at the health of the individual, the higher protein diet was the clear winner.  Although the high protein diet gained more weight, only half of it was fat. So in the overall picture, both diets gained the same amount of weight in fat. The extra weight from the high protein diet comes from the extra body mass.  Also, the low protein diet caused the participants to loose approximately 1.5 lbs. of body mass, which is not a good thing. Overall, it is clear that the diet with smaller proportions and more protein will be the winner.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/04/low-protein-diets-lower-weight-but-dont-cut-fat/#ixzz1ivVqpFuz

Recess equates to Academic Success

Every time I recall the memories of elementary school, one of the most vivid images I have were those of recess. This hour after lunch was the time to run around, climb on the play set, swing on the swings, and play sports like football, basketball, and soccer. Personally, this was one of my favorite periods of the day. Recently, research has been found that "shows that physical activity may help children do better in school" (Park). This research was conducted by Amika Singh and her team at VU University in the Netherlands. Her report, which was published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, concludes "that physical activity is associated with better academic performance, as measured by higher GPAs and better scores on standardized tests" (Park). The academic success of kids, who received a sufficient amount of exercise of at least one hour a day to remain healthy, excelled particularly in math, reading, and English. According to a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control in 2009, only 18% of high school students met the necessary one hour minimum and 23% had not exercised at all during the specific time frame. Singh concludes “being more active may improve blood flow to the brain, which provides more oxygen to cells involved in learning and attention” (Park). This data gathered by Singh and her team at VU University could affect the way our government cuts spending. Some schools feel that gym class is a subject that could be cut in order to reduce district spending. However, this data concludes otherwise, and shows that exercise is an essential part to academic success. 

http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/03/let-the-kids-play-theyll-do-better-in-school/?iid=hl-main-lede