The Real World Of Superheroes

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In this blog post I plan to address why superheroes are so important and inspirational in everyday life. To establish my answer I will be presenting information from two different articles. The first article I will be using is Why America Loves Superheroes by the Digital Universe and The Psychology Behind Superhero Origin Stories by Smithsonian.com.

To begin with, lots of people have a general interest in superheroes and many look up to them even if they are just fictional characters. Why they are so important is that people can see them as role models and will try to better themselves based on the life of this fictional character. In the article by the Digital Universe, a superhero fan named Josh Melara lays it out perfectly. He states that “Superheros are strong, successful, able to make the best of any circumstance, they get the girl, they kick butt and they always come out on top,” and he continues to tie it into his life by stating “that’s like every guy’s fantasy and, if I could ever be even a fraction of that, I’d feel pretty good about myself.” So basically superheroes live the perfect life, and that is an unrealistic standard for anyone on the planet today. However, bits and pieces can be taken away to better your life and the person you are just from the ideals that can be presented in a comic book. Melara continues on talking about Batman and how he has inspired him. He states that Batman “he doesn’t have superpowers to rely on; he is just a man who has worked very hard to become what he wanted. It gives me the belief that even though I’m just a guy, I can become something great.” Even though Batman is an amazing fictional character, he still can inspire millions across the world. Melara continues on to talk about how Superheroes gave him faith in humanity again because maybe there are people just like them out there. It is crazy just how much good these characters can do even when they only exist in a book or on a screen.

The second article deals with the background stories of heroes and how strangely related they are to everyday human life. It describes the backstories of Batman, who had his parents murdered, and Spiderman, who got his powers by chance and lost his Uncle Ben, and more. Many people do not believe that these ridiculous stories have anything to do with our everyday lives. However, they would be surprised to how similar they actually are. In the article the author ties the relationship between these fantasy stories and reality by stating “I think origin stories show us not how to become super but how to be heroes, choosing altruism over the pursuit of wealth and power.” So granted you won’t become the Dark Knight after one life event but you can learn how to better yourself and your life through this story. The author states that these background stories tie into our lives in three ways. The three ways are trauma, destiny, and chance. Trauma is related to many superheroes as many if not all of them have lost something important. From Batman’s parents, to Superman’s home world, to Wolverine’s girlfriend, all of them have lost something important and it took a toll on them. Tying that into the real world, everyone has lost something important to them that can lead them to some emotional hurt and trauma. So in reality, these stories tie more into real life than one would think.

In conclusion, superheroes mean a lot more to society than I think they get credit for. I believe they give a lot to everyday society and can do a lot of help even if they are restricted to the fictional world.

Athletes Who Made Comebacks After Career Threatening Injuries

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All you hear about athlete’s injuries usually is how bad they are and how they are never going to come back, but I am going to give some examples of when athletes bounced back from injuries that appeared to be too devastating to come back. In an article on General Sports, here are some athletes who had devastating injuries and what happened and how they came back.

• Niki Lauda- He was “one of the best drivers” in Formula 1 history who was trapped in a fire, and went into a coma. Surprisingly, he was back racing in six weeks, and took 4th place in the Italian GP. This in my opinion is one of the biggest miracles in all of sports to be in a coma and then a few weeks later be back to the sport that you love. This shows that athletes can come back from terrible injuries and still make an impact.

• Maria Sharapova- She was a tennis player who was “dominating every court,” despite a nagging shoulder injury that took her out of play and into surgery. Many thought that she would never be the same, and some thought she would never even return. But through vigorous rehab she was back on the court in a year. She won the French Open capping off an already impressive career making her one of the best to ever play. No matter what sport you are returning to I admire someone who can come back and play at such a high level.

Niki Lauda and Maria Sharapova are just two of the names that truly stood out to me. They are very similar in making returns to their sports despite suffering a career threatening injury. Not only did they return but they both returned to their extremely high level of play with Lauda getting 4th place in a respected race, and Sharapova winning the French Open. No matter the sports they play, you have to love a good comeback story.

Next Blog: NFL players to never play again.

Dunphy-Tearing of the ACL

-Payment Costs for Repairing an ACL

The procedure for repairing an ACL is quite a long process, taking up to 7 to 10 hours.  As a result, the doctors drive a hard bargain to repair such a difficult procedure. The cost of ACL surgery varies across the country and from facility to facility. The average cost of ACL surgery in 2010 was about $5,000 to $6,000. But this cost did not include the surgeon's fees or the anesthesiologist's fees. That may add to another 1000 to 2000 dollars.  

According to the medical website Health Grade (http://www.healthgrades.com/procedures/how-much-does-acl-surgery-cost) Coverage for ACL surgery typically includes: 

• An evaluation appointment with an orthopedic surgeon
• Pre-surgery appointments including diagnostic studies and lab tests
• The surgery including fees for the doctor, anesthesia, graft, and hospital operating room
• Rehabilitation and physical therapy appointments

If you don’t have insurance and will be paying for your ACL surgery, do a little research. The cost of ACL surgery varies across the country and from facility to facility. The average cost of ACL surgery in 2010 was about $5,000 to $6,000. But this cost did not include the surgeon’s fees or the anesthesiologist’s fees. The total cost of ACL surgery can be as high as $11,500.

All in all, ACL surgeries are very expensive, and not having any insurance for such a procedure can really hurt one's family financially.  Also, surgical procedures really seem to be more expensive because our economy continues to falter. 

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Are steriods a good thing?

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We all know that steroids can be a bad thing.  It is cheating the game and everyone involved with it.  However, they can benefit a large amount of people.  Some people can even make the argument that the MLB should legalize steroids and let players choose if they want to use.   Forbes makes an argument for legalizing steroids stating that “legalizing PEDs would make life much easier for professional sports organizations currently tasked with managing convoluted anti-doping policies.” Not only would this be a financial benefit for the teams it would also be more exciting to watch.

If you ask anyone who knows anything about baseball they will tell you that the most exciting play is a towering home run from their favorite player.  A home run can change the entire swing of the game and its one of the main reasons people come to baseball games.  It’s a proven fact that people get stronger from taking drugs.  When players get stronger they hit more home runs.  According to Sbnation five of the 25 players who lead the all time list of home runs have taken steroids.  What this site doesn’t show is how much the team benefits from these players taking steroids.  At at least one point in time 4 of the five players led the league in most popular jersey.

Not only do they receive money via jersey sales, but the overall value of a player goes up.  Most GMs think of their players as assets.  Theses assets can either appreciate or decline over time.  With the use of steroids the value of these players will go up causing the player to be worth more.  The GM can then get more money and players for that player.

Even though there are all of these Pros steroids should not be used in professional baseball.  The bottom line is they affect the overall health of they players.  It’s almost inhumane to make them legal.  Players would feel the need to take steroids just because everyone else is.  Not only will it cause professionals to use steroids, but young players will look up to their idols and feel the need to take steroids just to succeed.  The MLB has done just fine up to this point and shouldn’t feel the need to change the game.
In my next post I will talk about how players affect the public, and their image after being caught using steriods.

How to Invest Prosperously

What Not to Do 

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A large portion of one’s ability to invest properly comes down to the luck of the draw, however, it is very easy to essentially “screw up” a portfolio by making simple, avoidable mistakes. The article, “Five Minute Investing: Things to Avoid,” points out some of the common mistakes that often trap beginner investors. The following are a few things to avoid when investing to prevent self-destruction of one’s portfolio.

1. Not having an exit plan.
1. Obviously every stock will not be a winner. This is something that early investors must realize, so before purchasing a stock, every investor should have a plan on how they will cut their losses. This “exit plan” should be thought of before the stock is purchased in order to avoid any irrational decisions due to the emotion that comes with owning a stock.
2. Plunging too much money into a stock at once.
1. Another common mistake is plunging, which means that too much money is invested in one stock, all at one time. This is actually two mistakes combined into one big one. Once an investor has put so much money money into one stock, the investor’s thinking begins to get clouded. By having such a high stake in one stock, the pressure is very high for the investor. “Plunging leads to cutting your potential gains short and letting your losses keep mounting - exactly the opposite of what you should be trying to accomplish.”
3. Choosing stocks in a downward trend.
1. Although this strategy may seem like it could lead to extremely high profits, it is extremely difficult to accomplish. In order to yield a profit on these types of stocks, two things must go right. First, the investor must be able to predict which stocks will actually end their downward trend before going all the way to zero. Second, the timing of this must be impeccable, the investor must know exactly when it will turn around and buy the stock at the right price to yield a profit. The chances of being able to predict both of these is very slim, therefore, not a good investing decision.
4. Falling in love with a stock.
1. This has to do with the emotion that comes along with investing and nothing else. Even if a stock has done so well for you for so many years, most of the time, this will come to an end. Investors often believe that “bull markets” will go on forever. This could not be farther from the truth. As cited by the article, even Warren Buffett, who is a long-term investor, cashes out of his investments that have made him billions. Few people can predict stocks like Buffett and even he knows when it is a real, educated prediction, or just his emotions forcing him to believe that his investments will continue to rise.

Investing in the stock market often comes down to luck, but sometimes investors need to know the difference between what they want to do and what the right thing is to do. In order to find the right strategy to invest prosperously, there is still many more things to be found regarding things the avoid and things to target.

Being a Mother and Physician: What You Need To Know

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Women who immerse themselves in the medical profession often plan on having a family in addition to a career as a physician. While many women have navigated and balanced these two full time “professions” before, childbearing and a career as a physician often don’t compliment each other as women are put at a disadvantage both in their familial and professional life when they choose to raise a family. The National Women’s Health Network explains how motherhood can often be a disadvantage to female physicians in “Balancing it All: Women and Medicine”.

There is not good time to have a child as a physician: From medical school to residency to becoming a attending physician, physician’s schedules are jam packed with a scarcity of time off. In medical school, students generally are not allotted big breaks. First year students are often granted their summer off after their first year of training, however the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year of medical school are filled with exams and residency interviews. Having a baby at any of these times would increase a student’s risk of dropping out. Directly after medical school, students go directly to being residents for 3-7 years. According to the American Medical Women’s Association, half all women physicians who get pregnant have their first child within these years of residency. However, many residency programs have a lack of maternity leave policies and mothers are often harassed by their peers and superiors for needing time off or for needing others to cover their shifts.

Female Physicians Face Harassment For Choosing to Become Mothers: According to The National Women’s Health Network, women often need their shifts covered by fellow physicians, and this causes resentment among peers. Women who have become mothers not only face backlash from their peers, but their superiors as well. Attending physicians are predominantly male, who are less likely to emphasize. Furthermore, women who have children during their residencies are less likely to be considered for coveted positions like Chief Resident. Mothers in the medical profession are put at a disadvantage in regards to their colleagues attitudes about them, thus they are given less opportunities.

Future Research: Why women dont participate in academic medicine as much as men? Do women have a hard time participating in certain specialities?

Sleep Deprivation and Shopping Attitude

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Camping outside Wal-Mart at midnight to get a new HD TV for half price.  This may seem like a waste of time and valuable sleep hours but many people every year will forgo their sleep and spend a few hours in the cold waiting to save a little cash on Christmas gifts.  I would argue that people are undervaluing their own health and over valuing the items on sale.

According to “New research reveals the reasons we shop on Black Friday” on the Washington Post,  “152 million people will shop between Friday and Sunday after Thanksgiving, up from the 138 million last year. That means nearly half of Americans will lose sleep.”  Interestingly the people shopping are typically women as the article says “The only time men were present, they were sort of just tagging along.”

About the large crowds and why people are willing to endure them, the article explains that “Ordinarily, Byun said, shoppers are turned off by crowds. But when crowds create a sense of competition — such as when hundreds of shoppers are rushing to collect marked-down goods — they generate a different feeling entirely. Competition creates what’s called hedonic shopping value, or a sense of enjoyment from the mere process of buying goods.”  So these shoppers are developing a mob mentality and sense of competition with each other to put a higher value on scarce goods than they might usually have.

Everyone who thinks about Black Friday will think about the yelling, fighting, stealing from other customers, etc all done to ensure that someone gets the deals she sought.  An interesting statistic states that, “18 out of 25 Black Friday retailers interviewed reported seeing some sort of “consumer misbehavior” on the day.”  This number could seem troubling, why would more than half of retailers see someone acting poorly? Possibly from customers shopping for long hours on little sleep.

Future Reading Question: How are other late night shoppers on normal days different or similar to those on Black Friday?

Outlier: n. Something That Lies Outside the Main Body

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After reading the novel, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell I have gained a certain perspective to the idea of success. Gladwell’s purpose throughout the novel is to argue the idea that in analyzing the lives of those who have become successful, we should look at what surrounds them rather than their personal aspects, such as their personality. Also, what I took away from the novel was the idea of pure coincidence.

In a portion of the book, one way that Gladwell puts forth this idea is by the 10,000 hour rule. The idea behind this is that to truly become an expert in anything one must exercise any activity for a total of at least 10,000 hours. His example of this was none other than Bill Gates. As a child attending a wealthy private school in Seattle, Washington, Gates had the access to a computer terminal in school and later at the University of Washington. Which was not far from his home, allowing him to log 10,000 hours by an early age. This example also deals with the idea that is presented of coincidence. If Gates was not as privileged or had not lived nearby University of Washington, chances are he would not be the Bill Gates that everyone knows today.

These ideas presented by Gladwell tie into what we have recently discussed about how opportunities largely help to shape the success (and SES) of someone rather than solely one’s hard work and determination. I think that it is interesting to think about factors outside of the personal traits of a successful person because anyone can develop certain traits, but to look specifically at individual moments that have significantly altered the outcome of a person’s life in comparison to others.

For my next blog post I’m going to talk about and analyze the ideas in the book How to Make Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie.  

Sympathy for Celebs and Their High Income Taxes

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Throughout my blog posts,  I have researched celebrity bankruptcy and how it affects their lives. I have also researched celebrities that do in fact take several measures to make sure that they save their money. In one of my final blog posts, I have researched other ways that celebs get into trouble with law due to their money: tax evasion and bankruptcy fraud. In the article “5 Lessons From Celebrities Who Cheat on Their Taxes”, Megan Elliot discuss exactly how celebrities try to get out of paying taxes. This calls a key idea into question:because celebs have to pay such high taxes, is this what leads them to trying to get out of paying such a high income tax? Hopefully in this blog post, I will break this question down and answer it.

According to Elliot, in 2006 (which is the latest date she has information from, “the IRS reported a “tax gap” — the amount of owed taxes that weren’t paid on time — of $385 billion”. To say the least this is quite a big number. A majority of this number, “376 million” to be exact, comes from under reporting income. Millions of people are now being investigated and convicted of crimes such as false bankruptcies claims, tax evasion, and not reporting to correct amount of income one makes. Many people do this today, but the most profiled people who are accused of such crimes are celebrities.

According to this article, there are 5 things we can learn from celebrities; basically 5 crimes that celebrities commit that most normal people do not in fact do. But, some of these things are actually quite interesting. For example, Wesley Snipes was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison for failing to file tax returns, which cost and estimated 7 million. Other celebrities have tried to hide some of their income in other countries so that they have to don’t to pay high taxes on it. Nicolas Cage got in trouble with the IRS for being “14 million dollars in debt” due to “improperly writing off numerous personal expenses”. These are just a few examples how celebrities try to avoid paying such a high tax rate due to the amount of income they make.

When looking at how celebs try to conceal their money, it seems to me that they would go to major lengths to try to avoid paying high income taxes. Of course, not all celebs do this. Many of them just “bite the bullet” and pay it because for now, this is how the tax system works. Obviously, I agree with the the punishment of celebs who try to cheat the system. If they are going to break the law, they need to pay for that. But, I think this shows a much bigger flaw in our system. If celebs are going to such length to try to get out of income tax paying, then maybe the tax is too high. I believe that they should be taxed at a higher rate that other people who make less money, but I think it should be a reasonable number. They shouldn’t be paying a huge chunk of their income to taxes just because they make so much more money that most people do.

I’m not really sure how to fix this, but in the future I think the government needs to cut back on the amount they tax on celebrities. I think this would decrease the amount of celebs who try to hide money and commit other crimes based on their high income tax. For future research, I would definitely look into any celebs who are trying to fight back on these high taxes and if there are people who are trying to lower such taxes. This would be really interesting and I will definitely pay more attention to this in the media.

Does Ivy League Matter?

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After reading the Forbes article, “Do Ivy League Schools Still Matter?” I agree, more selective school on average give people a better chance at financial success.  This doesn’t mean your college experience will be better or that you will be happier or even guaranteed financial success, but it does give you a better chance at it.

Ivies and selective school attract a lot of big name recruiters, which gives students an advantage early in their careers.  Also Ivy Leagues offer stimulating interaction with some of the world's top professors and students. The Ivy League degree doesn’t necessary mean that their performance will be better than someone who went to a lesser known school, but it does raise employers perception of that person’s initial performance. "There is no question my Ivy League education opened more doors than would have been opened with the same credentials from a non-Ivy League school," says Menack, who worked for a prestigious New York law firm."There is an aura about an Ivy League education that gives you instant credibility," says Kathleen L'Esperance

Typical graduates that attended an Ivy leagues earn more than twice as much as people who went to other schools.

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The other week I used Uber car service for a ride, and I was talking to the driver and somehow where he went to school was brought, he said he had attended Berkley University of California.  At first I did not believe him, but he explained that he used to live in Hinsdale, in fact his kids went to Hinsdale Central, but he lost his job.  And now… he drives for Uber, at least until he finds another job.  Berkley is definitely considered selective.  This is great example of how the school you go does not always guarantee success in life. That just goes to show you that it doesn’t matter where you attend college you could still end up an Uber driver…  The theme, that I have noticed, from reading many article on the subject is, again, job success is not determined by the school but rather the person. But one could make the argument that the character, talent, intelligence and drive of an individual got them accepted to the selective school in the first place. A lot of the time an Ivy diploma gives other people the a preconceived perception of that a person’s initial performance is better.

On my next blog post I am going to explore how loans effect college students. And is the debt worth the higher education?