u/NoPatNoDontSitonThat

You can find the total write up on his socials. It’s a very involved, scientific-based post on how they discovered it and their innovative method for treating it.

I’m mostly posting it for news sake, but in terms of discussion, I think it’s interesting how something like chronic atrophic gastritis typically goes undiagnosed and is often treated as something you just have to live with. Even with Bryan’s years of intense testing and rigid protocol, it took until now for them to figure out what’s going on with his iron issues and his symptoms.

I think it has to be a bit of a wake up call for him, right? Not necessarily in the “I’m going to die” sense but at least in the reality that the modern methods available to us now cannot account for the myriad issues that may arise in our health. This news comes at the same time I found out my dad is needing triple bypass surgery. His health at 67 was stellar but atherosclerosis crept up on him without him having any idea. Granted, he could have gone through more extensive testing, but based on the measurements he felt were sufficient, he was in the dark to the reality of what was brewing underneath. We’re all in the similar boats in the current scheme of things.

Another interesting aspect is Bryan’s treatment of his condition. Being an autoimmune disease, the doctors typically leave it alone. They can address some basic symptoms but not cure the underlying cause(s). Bryan’s team with the help of AI is going to take on his autoimmune disease to see if he can be “cured,” which would be a monumental achievement of the Blueprint protocol. On an opposite end of the medical and scientific conversation are the carnivorists suggesting Bryan give up Veganism. Mikhaila Peterson was the only (somewhat) prominent name suggesting it. While I don’t believe carnivore is ever an answer, I have wondered if Bryan would ever give up Veganism if the literature or even immediate anecdotal evidence suggested adding meat would help with his specific measurables and issues.

Anyways, thoughts (and prayers if you’re the praying type) to Bryan.

I'm teaching freshman composition, and I feel like I'm doing a poor job of teaching students to use sources. I provide direct instruction with model texts and give opportunities for practice and peer review feedback. However, after an entire year with these students (dual enrollment at a high school), their last essays show little progress.

They are either summarizing the source and shoehorning it into the text, directly overviewing the research they found, or using a Jane Schaeffer model of writing.

The Schaeffer model is intro sentence, quote, "this shows...," and "this means..." to conclude it. Over and over and over again.

One of my students who I would consider a bright and hard worker wrote this paragraph. Emphasis mine.

>In the first article I read it talks about the history of social media and how it has evolved over time. It describes social media as a tool that is evolving to find out how it can be used the best. The quote that stuck out to me the most was, “Social media empowered the people to express their thoughts and opinions and share them with others. To add to this newfound power, people realized that they were not speaking in a vacuum; a highly responsive audience, who took part in the conversation and put across their points of view, heard their voices” (Taprial 6). This gave me my first insight about how social media affected communication. It is an open forum for people to share their opinions to an audience that can give feedback. This is representative of the panopticon because when people have access to feedback they may change the way they act in order to receive the validation they seek, whatever that may be. The next article I read by Arvind Narayanan was all about algorithms and how they affected social media. I wanted to see how content was pushed so that I could find out if this had any affect on how it causes people to act and change. What I took away from this is that algorithms are based on "meaningful social interactions” that are weighted against each other. A like is worth a set amount and a share is too, but these numbers vary based on the website. This information could play right into the panoptic system because when we know what to focus on in order to get the interactions we want then we can change ourselves to receive these things. People can focus on what is good for the algorithm and this could lead to a loss of individuality in the long run because of a focus on what is important for validation. The next article I read focused on social media growth and how it impacts our lives. In particular, I read about its prevalence in teen relationships and why it is being used so much by the younger generation. It says, “We are increasingly restricting teens' ability to spend time with their peers . . . and they're turning to social media to augment it” (Allen). This was very interesting to me because while some may think teens are less social now than in years past, the social interactions have just changed. Parents are more strict now than in generations before and also teens are under more pressure. This is resulting in kids interacting with each other over the internet, where stuff is less restricted and more readily available. Kids are using social media almost as a rebellion and it is causing a noticeable change. My last source specified how social media is affecting politics and democracy across different countries. What I found it very interesting that most countries considered it a good thing but America believed it was resoundingly a bad thing (Wike). It explains that this is because of the spread of misinformation that is prevalent in America as opposed to other countries. This prevails as a way social media can change the way people act and that when information meets the public eye it can change opinions.

This was all one paragraph. I'm surprised and disappointed because I've addressed this exact problem as a common error throughout the year. I stress to not tell me about what they read and what they found interesting. I've tried to show them how to use quotes, but out of 110 students, I'd say I have maybe 10 who are doing it well.

Anyways, if you have any suggestions or tips here, let me know. My only thought for next year is to increase point deductions as the semester progresses for common errors. Maybe it's a few points off in September and a huge chunk of points in December.