American evacuees from the growing coronavirus outbreak in China flew into Omaha today and are being quarantined at a nearby Nebraska National Guard training base. The Nebraska National Guard said people going to Camp Ashland are not diagnosed with coronavirus. According to the CDC, these people were chosen because they’re coming from a high-risk area in China (1011Now).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that planes also will arrive at military bases in California and Texas, and all the passengers will be screened by federal personnel for symptoms. Americans returning from China’s Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, are subject to 14 days of mandatory quarantine according to 1011 Now News.

The CDC and Nebraska National Guard said Nebraskans should not worry about getting coronavirus. They say finding it early and taking these precautions will allow them to avoid an epidemic (1011Now).

Yes, others are being transported to California and Texas. Yes, we are rescuing American’s from his deadly virus. Yes, I would want the US to do the same for me. But unfortunately, it seems as though Nebraska was picked for its low population and overall lack of knowledge of what Nebraska is to the US.

Although the CDC stated we should not worry about this quarantine, has the nation forgot what Nebraska is? It is the heart of the agricultural business in the United States. With our surplus of cattle, farm land and creation of ethanol, I can’t but wonder why they would bring this virus here.

Since people on the east and west coast tend to forget there are actual people in Nebraska, who drive cars, have paved roads and live their lives. I understand the choice of Nebraska for the quarantine with our low population, and if the virus spreads it would have a smaller impact rather than in a larger city.

Still, there were other locations… and Camp Ashland is uncomfortably close to Lincoln and Omaha. Our largest cities. So if population was the reason for bringing the virus here.. Camp Ashland wasn’t the right spot for it.

The US has declared a public health emergency over the spread of the coronavirus and said it would deny entry to any foreign nationals who have visited China in the past two weeks (BBC).

It has been reported that US citizens returning from Hubei province, where the outbreak started, will be quarantined for 14 days (BBC). The epicenter of the outbreak is the Hubei province in China, since then the province has been on lock down no one is to go in or out.

With the hype of this “possible pandemic” it seems as though the US has forgotten of its’ own relentless flu. Let us not forget that influenza has plagued humankind for centuries and with its highly variable nature, may continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Each year, flu epidemics cause 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness and about 290,000 to 650,000 deaths around the globe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) (History).

One hundred years ago, a new influenza virus appeared and swept across the globe, killing between 50 and 100 million people. Two NIAID experts, Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger and Dr. David Morens, discuss why the 1918 flu was so deadly, and what resurrecting the virus from preserved tissues has taught us (NIAID).

It seems as though the entire world is thinking of the worst possible outcome for this coronaviris. Although, there have only been a little over 400 deaths internationally, the initial US outbreak was reported on January 21, 2020 according to the CDC.  The first confirmed instance of person-person-spread with this virus in the U.S. was reported on January 30, 2020 (CDC).

Estimates by the University of Hong Kong suggest the true total number of cases could be far higher than official figures suggest. Based on mathematical models of the outbreak, experts there say more than 75,000 people may have been infected in the city of Wuhan alone, where the virus first emerged (BBC).

It is unfortunate the media continues to highlight the “possible pandemic” and underexpose the flu, which has already killed 10,000 across the US, this year. In this video, NIAID experts Dr. David Morens and Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger discuss how a similar pandemic could emerge today–and what scientists are doing to prevent it (NIAID).

The two viruses have similar symptoms, which some health officials fear will cause misdiagnoses. Common flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat and aches. Coronavirus symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the CDC (CNBC).

Is the coronavirus the new 1918 pandemic? Somehow the 1918 virus which developed from birds infected the human population and it is known that most cases of influenza have mutated from the original “Mother of All Pandemics.” Because its descendants still occasionally resurface as pandemic influenza viruses today, maybe resulting in the newest coronavirus.

For now, it seems as though the US should be focused on the flu, which affects children and elderly individuals. Get a flu shot, wash your hands and stand a couple feet away from those you believe are sick.

I have watched and re-watched Bob’s Burgers countless times. No matter how many times I’ve seen an episode, I am still brought laughter when I hear a pun from any of the characters of the show.

Much like Louis in the gif below, I find myself easily irritated on day’s nothing seems to go right. There is no better feelings then coming home to my grey fur-ball Asher, and my fun boyfriend to watch another episode of Bob’s Burgers.

I’ve seen this trending on other popular blogs. And that’s storytelling through gifs! And I love gifs. Therefore, without further ado here is a gif story of why Bob’s Burgers makes us so happy!

Tina is all of us women when we were 13-years-old. Not only does Tina exemplify the odd relationship between the pubescent transition from a kid to a young lady, she also finds different ways to be productive and progressive at Wagstaff School. Tina knows what she has and owns it. I wish I could have been as confident as 13-years-old her. And that’s why I started off with Tina.

The crazy thing about this adult animation is the fact that I find myself tearing up during moments. Bob’s Burgers not only radiates comedy from every element, but it also reals you back in the feels. Personally, I understand the struggle of Bob and Linda’s financial struggles as I grew up below the poverty level. My mom made enough money to clothe us, feed us and keep a roof over our heads. Luckily, it was just me and my little brother. Since then she has become much better off and I will soon be a first generation graduate of a top ten university!

Linda is really the mother I’ve always had. I aspire to be a mother like Linda someday. I relate to her love of wine, sassy sense of humor and her overall dim witted personally. Linda is the mother we all wanted. She has so much fun with the kids whenever they find themselves in a sticky situation. There are only a couple instances where Linda becomes a hothead.

Louis, one of my all time favorite characters is a great example of myself when I was about nine-years-old. She’s selfish at times, but messing with Jean or Tina is dangerous and Louis takes that very serious. She understand’s her parents, Bob and Linda aren’t rich, if anything their poor and with that understanding Louis takes it upon herself to make an income. This can be anything from planning a secret musical in the basement of Wagstaff school and charging $5 a seat to planing a screening of her favorite samurai movie at Bob’s Burgers. Louis can do anything she sets her mind too.

Jean is the middle child and only brother. At 11-years-old he’s just a couple years older then Louis and a couple years younger than Tina. It’s great because he is the biggest momma’s boy out of all the children. Jean and Linda have a very unique relationship and find themselves doing things together more often than others. Jean has a great sense of humor and is a fart musician, meaning he records farts on his portable piano and plays tunes from them everywhere he goes.

Bob is an amazing father. He works hard, he loves his wife and supports his kids. He tries to do what’s best for his family, but it usually backfires at him. Bob is just overall too nice of a guy to not be stepped on. He helps a lot of people throughout the show, opening his home and restaurant to different people just to get them back on their feet. Bob definitely has some mental breakdowns, finds himself in sticky situations and has a few too many beers sometimes, but hey isn’t that the classical dad?

And with that, we love you Bob’s Burgers. Thank you for the 10 seasons and the 183 episodes of pure gold. Not only have you made me laugh on my darkest days, but you’ve also distilled hope, love and friendship in my life.

Yesterday, Dylan Roof appealed his federal convictions and death sentence in the 2015 massacre of nine black church members in South Carolina, arguing that he was mentally ill when he represented himself at his capital trial (Associated Press News).

One of Roof’s lawyer’s main arguments was that the U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel should not have allowed Roof to represent himself during the penalty phase of his trial because he was a 22-year-old ninth-grade dropout “who believed his sentence didn’t matter because white nationalists would free him from prison after an impending race war (Associated Press News).”

Back in 2015 Roof, then 21-years-old, had multiple online photos of himself posing with the Confederate flag and weapon. Natalie Allison, a reporter for the state politics for @Tennessean / @USATODAY network in North Carolinian found something alarming. She noticed an increase in Confederate license plates in Tennessee after the church shooting.

James Patterson, commander of the Tennessee Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said he suspects the increase in motorists ordering the plate can be attributed to the organization’s focus on promoting the initiative amid “all the anti-Confederate rhetoric that’s been going on” surrounding monuments and flags in public spaces (Tennessee).

Supporting the Confederate flag has continued to split the minds of others unfolding nationwide in 2015, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam called for change to some southern states. Following the shooting, Haslam told reporters he supported discontinuing the Tennessee license plates featuring the flag.

Sen. Sara Kyle, D-Memphis introduced the bill, while Haslam step aware from the opposition. “He said the right thing, but there wasn’t any effort from him or his administration to support my legislation,” Kyle said. “As a matter of fact, I couldn’t even get it heard. There was no interest in my bill being heard at the time.” She described the SCV license plates as “symbols of hate” and said she would reintroduce the bill next session (Tennessee).

So although, Roof believed his sentence didn’t matter because white nationalists would free him from prison after an impending race war, five years later has shown they have not. In his appeal about being mentally unstable during the time is injustice.

He wrote a manifesto before the shooting detailing his grievances with America and his thoughts on race. After the shooting he wrote an additional manifesto that was found inside his cell and taken as contraband (The Last Rhodesian). The first describing the intent to murder and the second describing the aftermath.

White Supremacists have similar characteristics such as; machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism. Machiavellianism is a tendency to manipulate other people for one’s own gain (Live Science).

Overall, Roof shouldn’t be appealed of his death penalty charge. He killed in terms of hate. John Cheng, a professor of Asian and Asian-American studies at Binghamton University in New York, told Live Science in an email. “As beliefs, they are the products of individual and collective psychology. In other words, people have a way of believing what they want to believe.”

And that is exactly true. Roof can believe his was mentally ill. But, I find it hard to believe the jury will.

In regards to a tweet I posted a week ago, I’m discussing Trump’s rollback of US Protections leaving waterways vulnerable to pollution as well as the acceleration of climate change.

As I stated in my tweet, “without this one Earth, we are nothing.” This is a powerful message when you understand the role our Earth plays. Humans need clean air to breathe and to overall sustain our life, same with clean water and available nutrients. Therefore, if we destroy those objects now, what is the point of anything in the future?

In the article by Ellen Knickmeyer it states, the rollback will allow businesses to dump pollutants into newly federally unprotected waterways and fill in some wetlands, threatening public water supplies downstream and harming wildlife and habitat (US News).

The statement above clearly exemplifies the troublesome concerns of endangering the publics water supplies, on top of destroying natural habitats. Brett Hartl, a government affairs director with the Center for Biological Diversity conservation advocacy group, called the changes “a sickening gift to polluters (US News).”

Andrew Wheeler, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, stated this new legislation will allow for the states to step in and set state protections of newly vulnerable waterways, if they choose. I understand the commonality of leaving the decision to the states, I just hope Nebraska legislature is prepared to fight for the clean water rule.

Geoff Gisler, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, fears developers and others will take the announcement as a signal, and move quickly – ‘”get the bulldozers lined up, and day 61 fill in streams and wetlands (US News).”

That statement makes myself fearful for what is to come. For some reasons big corporations cannot wrap their heads around the bottom line. That line is, who are you to sell too when we as a human race have diminished our only resources and can’t do anything to survive without what the Earth has provided? For example; clean water, clean air and clean Earth to plant crops in.

But it doesn’t end just there. What have we done that can’t be undone? In an article published by the New York Times, Climate Change Is Accelerating, Bringing World ‘Dangerously Close’ to Irreversible Change covers just that.

Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, spoke on behalf of the annual state of the global climate report, concluding a decade of what it called exceptional global heat. “It’s more urgent than ever to proceed with mitigation (The New York Times).” But combating greenhouse emissions will change our society drastically. Dr. Taalas said, “The only solution is to get rid of fossil fuels in power production, industry and transportation.”

This would change the society we’ve all grown up in, and humans as a whole would have to relearn how to do almost everything. The way we waste water, purchase one-use plastic objects and the emissions released from our cars are common mistakes we are all guilty of. But how do we change together for a better Earth and more progressive way of life?

It’s up to the states now. Since President Trump has changed the clean water rule in favor of builders, oil and gas developers, farmers and others, it’s up to us and our state continuants to stand-up and fight for our Earth. Without Earth, we are nothing. I just don’t understand how our government, people of power and others don’t understand this concept. We are small people and there are billions of us on this Earth. What makes you so special to think you don’t need clean air, clean water or clean farm ground to feed your family.

You be the judge on what is important, and in my opinion this Earth is pretty damn important for any of this to really even matter.

Cheers.

In a recent blog by PsyPost, Eric Dolan dives into recent developments about psychedelic drugs. With new findings from the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science there is a possibility psychedelics are reducing depression and anxiety for individuals.

Checking into the abstract of the the journal I discovered that they are talking about increasing a persons psychological flexibility. Studies showed that increasing your psychological flexibility you can “fully mediated the effect of mystical and insightful experiences.” Which in return may decrease depression and anxiety following a psychedelic experience (Science Direct).

“Psychological flexibility is about being open to your moment-by-moment experiences, being present in your life, and doing what matters in the face of barriers/obstacles including emotional ones. Psychedelic experiences are associated with increasing one’s ability to engage in this way,” said study author Alan K. Davis, an assistant professor at The Ohio State University and adjunct assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The researchers surveyed 2,120 individuals who had used psilocybin, LSD or DMT. Out of that, 985 said they had “experienced a change in anxiety or depression as a result of a psychedelic experience” (PsyPost).

It’s not quite the majority, but the numbers show the possibility of reduced anxiety or depression with the help of psychedelic drugs.

“Emerging evidence support the possibility that psychological flexibility is an important theory that could inform clinical practice with psychedelic assisted psychotherapy,” said Davis.

As more and more evidence is being collected to protect the claim surrounding psychedelic drugs reducing depression and anxiety, we can’t help but think of the possibilities. Both Denver, CO and Oakland, CA have decriminalized psilocybin, or psychedelic mushrooms in 2019 (US News). With that, there can be further advancements in understanding psilocybin mushrooms and the human body.

Jeremy Daniel, an assistant professor at South Dakota State University College of Pharmacy states in the article by US News States Consider Decriminalizing Magic Mushrooms:

“Research has shown a possible decrease in depressive mood symptoms as well as a decrease in suicidality, betterment of anxiety disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder and a decrease in cravings for alcohol and nicotine.”

With the work of progressivism one day will be able to identify some of todays unanswered questions regarding our mind, body and the odd consumption of nature.

In relation to my Twitter post yesterday, I have decided to dig deeper into this new deadly Chinese virus.

Although I initially found the article via the Kearney Hub, I’m reading an editorial done by The Guardian. One of the independent journalism organizations based out of London, which I have followed on Twitter for awhile.

I agree with this editorial immensely, considering I thought different when I originally read the Kearney Hub’s article. That’s because the Hub portrayed this as a “deadly Chinese virus,” which had “reached the US.” Just that headline gave me chills and reminded me of the new Netflix original called Explained: The Next Pandemic.

If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend watching the entire Explained series, as it makes you think outside our small individual worlds and reminds us what is truly outside our perspectives.

Much like Explained, The Guardian reminds us what to worry about and what not to worry about. Although there have been reports of this virus, as stated in the editorial, “too little information is available to draw firm conclusions about this virus (The Guardian).”

It can be alarming, considering how controlling China is over its news and social media, which in the long run is hurting the rest of the world. This virus is a prime example and the world needs to be aware of its potential when it makes it our way.

On top of censored news, the President Xi Jinping of China, stated in the article the following:

“Those who hide or delay reporting cases “will be nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity.”

Although, the President has been more open in this case, rather than those in the past, he still seems to be withholding information, such as, how many have been infected in China. In additional to his quote above we are reminded the difference in countries from China and the US, considering how China’s President speaks to their people.

As the conclusion of the article states, we should just watch closely. I am a strong advocate for hand washing, and hope others my age are as well. We shouldn’t waste our time worrying about this “new coronavirus,” but instead should be creating a strategic plan to help protect one another, if it finds its way into our homes.

That is why communication is key and helping others understand the danger of new outbreaks can improve overall preparation for when something such as the next Ebola virus.

The Guardian – Independent journalism based in London

Kearney Hub – Kearney Nebraska’s local paper

The Journal Star – Nebraska news based in Lincoln

KSNB Local4 – Local news covering the tri-city area

NET Nebraska – Nebraska Public Broadcasting

Omaha World-Herald – Omaha Nebraska’s local paper

Adam Savage – Former Mythbusters co-host

The New York Times – Journalism based in New York City

The Hill – Journalism for Policy and Political News

The Washington Post – Journalism based in Washington, DC

My name is Jasmine Thompson and I am a creative intermediate graphic designer with a strong background in project management, space planning, and computer-aided design.

I am seeking to take the next career steps with a respected design firm focused on creating and redeveloping campaigns and brands. The type of designer I am is mostly minimalist with a touch of excitement when needed. When designing materials, I believe clarity and minimalism is the key to effective communication. My senses get cloudy when I see too much clutter in a design piece, and I view this as a violation of creativity as well as a waste of space.

Working with a grid structure is critical in my designs. Unity, balance and harmony work together in my pieces thanks to the structure of the grid. This allows me to create order, arrangement and organization throughout campaign materials, which should have a common theme in place. My goal in designing informational materials is too attract, engage and inform the audience. I do this when recognizing the form of materials and meanings behind the content to establish a cohesive design that is both visually dynamic but also unified.

As for the kind of designer I am, I like to identify as a freelance designer. I like to be my own boss in some situations, but encourage feedback from my peers and associates. I enjoy a flexible schedule and are happier when I can work without distractions. I enjoy working on a variety of different projects with multiple mediums as well as picking these tasks myself.

In my opinion, there are truths in design. For example, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford was the first to say, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I on the other hand believe this statement is untrue. In design there are principles that should always be analyzed and put in place. There are those that work and those that do not work, therefore, art and design are not subjective.