AIMon knowledgeApril 2013

HEALTH

SCIENCE

ARTS

SOCIETY

HealtHDealing with Stress 04 by Anthony Giguère

When the Sun Becomes a Drug 06 by Michel Bergeron

Worth the Boost? 08 by Miro Lacroix

Anorexia Nervosa: 10 More Than We Have Ever Known by Stéphanie Bédard

The Dreaded C10H15N 12 by Gabriel Fontaine

ScienceThe Science of Swimming 14 by Sarah Bourque

How Does Language Affect the 16 Way you Perceive the World? by Antoine Poirier-Morin

artSIs K-Pop Going Global? 18 by Alexandra Poulin

The Rise of Body Painting 20 by Ann-Frédérik Gosselin

Mangas: An Amazing Japanese Book Style 22 by Catherine Savard

SocietyMultitasking: A Fight Between Genders 24 by Thomas Pozer

Ancient Medics: The Miracle of QI 26 by David Kaba

The Pursuit of the Bride: China’s 28 Most Controversial Demographic Problem by Catherine Fontaine

The idea of producing a magazine came to me for two reasons mainly. To start with, I want-ed the Cégep to publish a document showing how good some of our students are in Eng-lish. I have been teaching here for close to 20 years now and over the years, I have read truly impressive texts written by students for whom English is a second language. The stu-dents who wrote the articles in this magazine were in my 103 course, which is the most ad-vanced level in cégep. Also, the Cégep has a program in Printing Management in which students learn, among other things, to pro-duce printed works. It made perfect sense to create a project where these students do work to publish this magazine.

Readers should know that every aspect of this magazine was done by students: the writing, the layout, the pictures for the writers, and all the many other details. The only aspects that were not done entirely by students are the promotional pages for certain programs.

We decided to distribute AIM ON KNOW-LEDGE in high schools mostly for teachers to use them in class but also for the same teach-ers to read former students’ work. I hope this may also motivate some students to aim high-er, to become better in their English skills.

This is the first version of AIM and needless to say, there is room for improvement. That is why I will welcome any comment that will contribute in making it better. A project like this involves unsuspected details that only ex-perience will improve. Your input would be a valuable asset for the magazines to come.

Finally, this project would have never been possible without the help of other teachers. Christian Pépin, teacher in Arts, helped for the pictures. Rémi Rodrigue, English teacher, and Sonia Cadoret, teacher in Printing, were nice enough to integrate this project in one of their courses. Their patience and contribu-tion, especially for this first version, was cru-cial and absolutely necessary.

Alain GilbertWritten by

introduction

English teacher. agilbert@cegepba.qc.ca

Journalists’ Pictures: Alexandre Duclos-Ferland student in Arts visuelsCover Page: Kim Lamontagne student in Arts visuelsMagazine’s Layout: Anne Rancourt and Philippe Gaboury students in Gestion de projet en communications graphiquesCustomer Service Representative: Carolann Drouin student in Gestion de projet en communications graphiquesPrinter: TacticFinancial support: AGÉ and CBA

credits

Sooner or later, we all have to face a situation in which several choices

are imperative. We then try to choose an alternative that represents our val-ues which, according to us, would have the most positive repercussions. Some-times, however, a much more compli-cated situation requires sudden adap-tation, either if that situation is dan-gerous or not. At this point, the body reacts in order to be prepared to face this destabilizing situation, either from a physical or psychological nature. The body then reacts to the several effects related to the peak of adrenalin caused by the stress. As such, the stress can be beneficial, but there are times when it becomes harmful to the whole body, both physically and mentally. One thing is sure: stress may affect anybody, but the consequences depend on the level of stress of that person.

In fact, according to Statistics Canada, in 2008, 21, 2% of men (2.8 million) and 23.4% of women (3.2 million) aged over 15 confessed that most of their days were quite or extremely stressful. Inter-estingly, women in general seem to be a little more stressed than men. Actually, they were 1.5 times more likely than men to say that most of their days were fairly or very stressful. Of course, the sources of stress differ from one person to another, but in general, the causes are still similar. According to a survey from Statistics Canada, approximately 62%

of workers with a high stress level indi-cated that their job is their main source of stress. Yet, financial concerns and lack of time seem to be another import-ant source of stress.

Of course, the causes of stress are specific to each individual, depending on what the individual considers as be-ing stressful. However, human stress could be classified in three general causes: chemical, physical and psychic stress. Moreover, various situations such as the lack of time, the lack of rest, an emotional shock, familial or senti-mental events, work and certain harm-ful dependences (tobacco, alcohol and drugs increase the level of stress) seem to be recurring causes of stress. We may conclude that any changes in our lives could result in stress. It is important to understand that stress is important, even essential, for our survival. How-ever, certain situations will be more difficult to manage and will affect our health more seriously.

First of all, stress can be subdivided in three phases: the phase of alarm, the phase of resistance and then the phase of exhaustion. In the phase of alarm, the acute stress, which is the benefi-cial stress, is concerned. We feel the need to act as fast as possible in order to face a situation which is unforesee-able and new. Then, we enter the phase of resistance, where chronic stress is

being felt. In this situation, the body tries to hold on. This is when cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, will be secreted in order to maintain the sugar rate in blood with an aim of feeding the muscles and the brain in energy. There-after, the moment when the body cracks under tension corresponds to the phase of exhaustion. This is when the effects on health appear.

A level of stress that is too high or sim-ply out of control often results in mul-tiple consequences and serious symp-toms that affect the health of an indi-vidual. On the cognitive side, problems of memory, difficulty to concentrate, poor judgment, negative thoughts and omnipresent concerns are consequences caused by stress. Furthermore, on the emotional level, irritability, strong tem-per, incapacity to calm down, feeling of insulation and rejection, as well as a potential depression are the results of severe stress. In addition, the nutrition of that person as well as his sleep will be unbalanced. Moreover, the person will tend to isolate himself from others, to neglect his responsibilities, to use substances (alcohol, tobacco, drugs) in order to relax and will develop certain nervous habits. Stress is also considered to be a risk factor related to many dis-eases, such as heart disease, herpes and to mental illness. It also makes it hard for some people to control their dia-betes. All those reasons demonstrate the

AnthonyWritten by

Dealing with Stress

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importance of dealing with stress. Here is some advice to help you deal with it.

First of all, evaluate your level of stress. This step is of primary importance in order to manage stress. You will then be aware of the intensity of the stress which affects you; it might make you realize that you are not stressed as much as you believe. Thereafter, determine what are the causes of your stress. To do so, ana-lyze how certain situations affect you and the way you react towards them. Obviously, try to avoid the situations which cause you stress. Although that is not always possible, it is a step towards success. Then, have a look at what you consider as being stressful. Ask yourself

if it is worth making a big deal out of it, if the situation you have to face jus-tifies your level of stress. Be optimistic. A positive attitude will help you to face the moments of stress, contrary to a negative attitude which will depress you more. Lay down objectives which you know are realizable to avoid the useless discouragement. Moreover, physical ac-tivity is an excellent way to relax, just like the multiple techniques of relaxa-tion (yoga, meditation, visualization, etc.) In brief, choose an activity you like, that makes you happy. What could be better than having pleasure while relax-ing?

In my opinion, we tend to exaggerate many situations for no reason. There is no reason to feel sorry for ourselves, especially if we don’t have the capacities to change the situation. It is important to remember that the only thing that matters is the future, since we cannot change the past. If you feel that stress is unbearable, make sure it won’t bother you. Do what you like and what makes you happy. Do not forget that controlled stress will keep you away from many problems.

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today’s society has created beauty standards that are precisely defined

and strongly influential in people’s life. Women have to be skinny, men have to be muscular, fashion is more import-ant than ever. It is now socially accepted that a “beautiful” tan will make you look healthier and, of course, sexier. Tanning salons know how to sell their product and their supposedly safe tanning booths are more popular than ever. It is a known fact that overexposure to UV rays leads to tanned skin. But how safe is it?

Tanning is a very popular trend. Thirty million Americans go to tanning salons every year. The NCI (National Cancer Institute) discovered that indoor tanning devices were the cause of a 50-percent increase in the risk of developing basal cell carcinoma and more than a 100-per-cent increase in risks of squamous cell carcinoma. UV rays are also a cause of melanoma, which is the deadliest type of skin cancer. It kills more than eight thou-sand Americans every year. Tanning beds emit as much as twelve times more UV rays than the sun, which is an impressive amount.

People should really be aware of the con-sequences of tanning on their skin. Tan-ning is a skin reaction caused by UVA and UVB rays, which are naturally emitted by the sun. UV rays penetrate the skin and disrupt the epithelial cells. The darkening

of the skin results in alteration of the skin cells’ DNA and is a sign of skin dam-age. This darkening is a defense used by the skin in order to protect itself against further damage caused by UV radiation; it is an obvious sign that you have dam-aged your skin cells. In other words, what many people consider as a healthy sign is totally the opposite and is even a major cause of melanoma and non-melanoma types of cancer.

UV rays are not as inoffensive as they look. Indeed, overexposure to UV radia-tion causes genetic mutations that can eventually lead to skin cancer. Both UVA and UVB are dangerous. UVA goes deep-er in the skin and tanning booths emit up to twelve times more UVA rays than the sun. That is why people using these booths are more likely to develop carcinoma and melanoma. UVB are well-known and more feared by the average person on the street since they cause sunburn. Unlike UVA, they damage the superficial layers of the skin and do not penetrate too deep. They are still dangerous, even during win-ter since they bounce off snow and ice as well as any reflective surface.

Despite these facts, people continue to ex-pose themselves willingly to these danger-ous rays. Tanning salons have never been so popular. In 2010, the indoor tanning industry’s revenue represented 2.6 billion dollars in US currency. From the 1920s,

when Coco Chanel started this trend, to the invention of tanning booths and innovation in equipment, tanning has not stopped growing in popularity. This augmentation actually ties in with the increase of skin cancers. This growing appeal should be a tremendous concern.

Recently, researchers have discovered, by analyzing the brain of people exposed to UV radiation, that exposure to UV rays acts just like drugs do. It has been proved that the action of UV rays on hu-man skin stimulates the same regions of the brain than drug consumption. Repetitive use of tanning beds causes changes in brain activities as well as its organization. The brain’s chemical reac-tions are modified the same way they would if that person was addicted to drugs. Indeed, exposure to UV rays acti-vates the parts of the brain involved with addictions and, eventually, creates a real addiction: the tanning addiction.

Knowing this, we can explain why people continue to frequent tanning salons de-spite the fact that they are aware of the dangers. People that are regular users of tanning beds all know that it can lead to a skin cancer, almost everybody knows this in today’s society, but they still con-tinue to do so. Why do people do it? Be-cause of the drug-like effect tanning has on the brain. They are conscious of the dangers, but they are dependent so they

MichelWritten by

When the Sun Becomes a Drug

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cannot stop, even if they know that it is wrong.

Moreover, scientists have proven their point with a psychological test. People that went often for outdoor tanning had to answer to an adapted version of a well-known test often used to detect alcohol addiction. The results were quite interest-ing; they indicated that a large amount met the psychiatric definition of a sub-stance abuse disorder. This means that UV exposition created a psychological and a physical dependency in these people. Researchers also ran an experiment with indoor tanners where they observed the brain’s activity of people while they had their tanning sessions. Sometimes, the scientists would filter the light of the tan-ning beds so that UV rays did not reach the tanner. The parts of the brain that

involve addiction showed a high activity level during normal sessions. However, during the filtered sessions, the regions involved in addiction showed far less ac-tivity and, after these, people still felt the need to tan.

Of course, tanning addiction is real-ly present in our society. Knowing all the dangers it represents, it is clear that stronger legislation should be imposed by governments regarding tanning booths. Warning the users about the dangers such an activity involves should be mandatory. However, being aware doesn’t necessarily fix the problem because, most of the time, the need to be better looking is stronger than reason. Afterall, isn’t it how all ad-dictions work?

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energy drinks are beverages that are intended to boost the mental energy

of each consumer. The typical ingredi-ents used in such drinks to give the main intended effect are caffeine and sugar. But, in addition to those substan-ces, many energy drinks contain taur-ine, guranine, ginseng, and B vitamins, all for the same purpose of increas-ing energy. The caffeine concentration of energy drinks contains about three times the concentration of colas. In 340 ml of Coca-Cola Classic, there are 35 mg of caffeine, whereas a Monster Energy Drink contains 120 mg of caffeine for the same amount of liquid.

The popularity of energy drinks has grown since 1997, the starting point of RedBull which is the current leader in the market of this type of drink. Energy drink companies, such as RedBull, Mon-ster, or Amp mainly try to target young adults. Based on a 2007 survey pub-lished in Nutrition Journal, among 496 randomly surveyed college students in North America aged from 17 to 25, 51

percent of them were reported in con-suming energy drinks every month. These numbers are a bit troubling be-cause, according to Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER), heavy daily caffeine use (over 500 milligrams a day) may cause insom-nia, nervousness, restlessness, irritabil-ity, stomach upset, fast heartbeat, and muscle tremors.

There are six main situations where the college student consumption of these beverages was determined. Either, for insufficient sleep, to simply increase energy in general, to help study, to drive for longer periods of time, to drink with alcohol while partying, or to treat a hangover. Some may think that in those situations it is not necessary to turn to energy drinks. However, the ingredients aren’t all bad. Based on a recent study published in Men’s Health, the methylx-anthines, or naturally occurring organic compounds such as caffeine help de-crease sleepiness and improve alertness. Also, the amount of sugar that most of

these beverages contain provides an energy source. Many contain taurine, for example, Red Bull, which has been proven to improve reaction time and even concentration. Moreover, the ones that have ginseng are quite useful for an energy drink considering the fact that it reduces the ability to sleep. Knowing the positive aspects, energy drinks can be very useful in some situations, espe-cially when studying or for driving for long periods of time.

Although energy drinks are known to help improve people’s alertness and cog-nition temporarily, the consumption of them has negative side-effects shortly after. The drinking of them usually leads to a crash and burn effect. The positive aspects of the drinks wear off in a sud-den way so the consumer has to deal with a very important loss of energy. The main reason for this is because most of the energy is provided by a large amount of sugar and caffeine, both of which remain in your system for just a short period of time.

MiroWritten by

Worth the Boost?

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Energy drinks are quite controversial in some countries because of the above fac-tors. In France, Denmark, and Norway, RedBull did not get market approval for several years. The French approval process had concerns about taurine, a normal body constituent and also natur-ally present in the human diet. This is the reason it couldn’t be sold in France. In-stead, a different recipe that did not con-tain taurine was, therefore, introduced. The French Food Safety Agency weren’t able to prove definitively the existence of health risk, with or without taurine, so it has been legal in all 27 member states of the European Union since 2008. More-over, RedBull is now on sale in 164 coun-tries around the globe. According to BBC News though, a town in England forbade the sale of energy drinks to minors be-cause of the possible dangers they pose during physical activities that demand a lot of effort or for when it is mixed with alcohol. In 2000, an Irish student passed away after drinking three energy drinks followed by a rigorous basketball game. So we can therefore agree that it is dan-

gerous to drink too much of energy drinks.

Lately, teens and college students have been mixing energy drinks with al-cohol even though the combination, such as RedBull and Vodka, can be dangerous. The main reason for this is for getting a high without getting sleepy. It is true that the mixture can create the wanted effect, but it is im-portant that these students know that they must still be very careful while mixing energy drinks with alcohol. Being tired is the way the body says it had enough to drink and it is risky to continue to deceive your body into thinking that you’re not as drunk as you really are. It is possible that you may feel fine and alert after consum-ing a decent amount of the mixture. But, actually, the energy drink doesn’t decrease the effects of alcohol at all. The alcohol will continue having the same effect on you. This is due to the fact that energy drinks act as a stimu-lant while alcohol is a depressant,

which decreases the apparent influence of alcohol. The consumers of the mixture often underestimate their drunkenness and tend to drink more than they usually would. Moreover, alcohol makes you de-hydrated, which is one of the reasons why people have hangovers, and caffeine is a diuretic which also causes people to lose water. So the two combined makes the de-hydration effects even worse.

Finally, there are numerous students that are simply unsure about the health effects that energy drinks may cause. Some of these students, however, continue con-suming these beverages regardless of their ignorance. Others, though, avoid drinking energy drinks because of the fact that they simply don’t know what is in them and because they don’t know of the long-term consequences that may af-fect them.

“RedBull? I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone,” said Jean-Nicolas Roy, a first year college student. “I don’t even know what is in it!”

Source: iStock Photo

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i llness. We all know what that word means: it is when someone is un-

healthy, sick. Usually, what comes to our mind first is a person who is physically sick, but being ill can also mean having a mental disease. Anorexics suffer from both physical and mental problems. So how and why are that many people in-volved? There are different types of fac-tors that could lead someone to become anorexic: psychological, social and bio-logical factors.

First, let’s call the disease by its real name: Anorexia Nervosa. The difference be-tween anorexia and anorexia nervosa is simple: having anorexia only means you have a lack of appetite, while a person suffering from anorexia nervosa com-pletely loses his or her appetite. As we all know, these people are obsessed about their weight. For them, as long as you are not extremely thin, you are not beauti-ful, and that perception pushes them to stop eating and even induce themselves to vomit. 1 in every 250 people is in this condition on our planet. Anorexia ner-vosa is known for its striking percentages and disastrous effects. Actually, recent studies from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality showed the average age of people suffering from this disease decreased from 13 to 17 years old to 9 to 12 years old. Also, it tends to affect 10 times more often females than males. If a woman experiences anorexia nervosa

during her pregnancy, she has higher rates of miscarriages and more chances to give birth to her baby prematurely. In addition to that, anorexics can catch sight of certain changes on their body: slowed thinking, poor memory, dizziness, faint-ing, headaches, yellow skin and even a growth of fine hair all over their body.

To begin with, anorexia nervosa can be caused by a psychological factor. As we probably all know, pressure to be perfect weighs on teenagers much more than it did in other generations. That is why an-orexics are often described as perfection-ists and overachievers these days. Every-thing they do, they do it perfectly and better than anybody else. They are used to try something and be excellent at it with-out putting much effort. By being good at everything, they please others, like their parents or coaches, and really think it is important to satisfy them. If one day it happens that they don’t easily achieve one of their goals, they become very critical about themselves and feel like a failure. Then, they consider they are worthless, inadequate and not good enough. These feelings are an important trigger to the disease. Most anorexics don’t have a good self-esteem and usually feel lonely.

Also, the disease could originate from a family and social pressure factor. Indeed, every parent wishes the best for their children, but some tend to put too much

pressure on them. Because they put a lot of emphasis on looks themselves, parents tend to push their descendants to look and act flawless. For instance, a young girl could feel the necessity of being a copy of her mother only to please her. It is hard for teens to respond entirely to all these criteria so it may lead them to stop eat-ing and develop anorexia nervosa just to fit in that mold. Also, this type of pressure could come from an activity the person does. For example, gymnastics, model-ing or ballet requires their participants to be extremely thin. For them, the best and fastest way of acquiring the desired slimness is to eat less and throw up what they ingest. Therefore, anorexia nervosa is their solution.

Finally, the disorder could come from a biological factor, which means some people could have a genetic predispos-ition to anorexia. As a matter of fact, the brain secretes a type of hormone called cortisol that is related to stress. When someone goes on a severe diet, his or her blood cortisol levels get higher. Thus, anorexics tend to have that hormone in high quantity in their system. Two other hormones can have an impact on their situation: the serotonin and the norepi-nephrine, which are both related to feel-ings of well-being. People suffering from anorexia nervosa have a tendency of hav-ing decreased levels of these hormones in their blood. In addition to that, there is

StéphanieWritten by

anorexia nervosa: More Than What We Have Ever Known

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a less known biological symptom in link with anorexia nervosa and it is called urinary defects. Psychiatrist Philip W. Gold and his partners at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda made the discovery. Once again, a hor-mone is implied: the vasopressin. It com-mands actions in the kidneys and is also

situated in the cerebrospinal fluid (liquid present around the brain). After tests on animals, experts observed that the vaso-pressin strengthens the coding of infor-mation. So the excess of this hormone around the anorexics’ brain could explain the abnormally strong coding of certain thoughts, in this case, persistent thoughts about weight.

Fortunately, when diagnosed soon enough, anorexia nervosa can be treated. There are three necessary steps to achieve recovery. The first one is medical treat-ment. When the patient has a critical

weight or any other serious health issue, he or she needs to be treated first. After, there is, of course, an important nutri-tional treatment to make sure the person gains his or her healthy weight and he or she can even be helped by a nutritionist or dietician to learn about proper nutri-tion. Then, to make sure the patient does

not fall back into the illness, he or she at-tends therapy sessions and counselling to understand how to deal with their emo-tions, stress and problems. Deplorably, only 1 out of 10 people suffering from anorexia nervosa receive adequate treat-ment and 20% of the others die from complications related to their disease.

In conclusion, more than 125 years after its discovery, anorexia nervosa remains the third most common chronic mental illness among teenagers. According to me, this condition is not going to improve unless adolescents gain more confidence

and stop feeling that high pressure soci-ety puts on their shoulders. They have so much potential and we should encourage them to be who they really are. Obsession about weight should not be an issue, not today, and not ever.

Source: iStock Photo

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a t the beginning of the year 2008, the release of the show Break-

ing Bad brought a lot of hype around methamphetamine and its synthesis. This TV show revolves around an old man who decides to manufacture and sell the powerful and dangerous drug. Cristal meth has become more popular over the years and the negative effects it can have on a user are not completely known to the general public. These ef-fects should be more publicized and discussed because they can ruin lives. There is various information to know such as the history of this drug, the short and long term effects of the drug on the body, the withdrawal effects and the synthesis of this stimulant.

Methamphetamine was first synthe-sized in its crystallized form in 1919, in Japan, and there has been a lot of controversy surrounding this dread-ful drug. One of the first notable uses for Crystal Meth happened during the Second World War. Because of its effects on the human brain, it was used as a strong stimulant to keep the troops concentrated during their mis-sions. Since it was implanted in the chocolate that the soldiers were given, it is a possibility that the crews were not aware they were being drugged.

Moreover, in the same years, it was also used as a cure for depression and fatigue, or even for diseases such as the Parkinson. During the 1950’s, since the army did not need methampheta-mine anymore, it became much easier to find. Seeing the effects it could have on people who became addicted, it was banned in 1951 and would only be used for prescriptions to treat various health problems.

According to The United Nations Of-fice on Drugs and Crime, almost 500 metric tons of methamphetamine are produced every year, with approxi-mately 24.7 million abusers. In 2007, 4.5% of high school seniors that were asked have admitted trying meth-amphetamine at least once. Having been invented almost a century ago, this drug is highly addictive and is often sold, illegally of course, for up to twenty five thousand dollars per pound. It is most often synthesised in clandestine laboratories and, when abused, can change the appearance of the user making his teeth rot.

Since Cristal meth is synthesised in hidden laboratories using different chemicals and amphetamines, some of the basic components can be ex-

tracted from several everyday household items such as common cold remedy pills, batteries or even antifreeze. The danger-ous chemicals used can explode if they are not handled properly, causing severe burns or even death. The production also creates a lot of toxic waste which can endanger people who come in contact with it. Methamphetamine can be made using various methods like the reductive amination of phenyl-2-propanone with methylamine. One thing all the meth-ods have in common is that they need methylamine as a main component. The most illicitly used method is made by the reduction of ephedrine or pseudoephe-drine to produce the more active d-meth-amphetamine isomer.

Much like other drugs, methampheta-mine has a major effect on the brain. The most important effect it has is that it sends signals to the brain to release important doses of dopamine, a neuro-transmitter resembling adrenaline that is normally produced to bring a feeling of reward, motivation or pleasure to the person. When the user is under the effect of meth, other signals are blocked in such a way that the body will not try to recycle the brain chemical that is released so the amount of dopamine is much higher than usual. This sudden important level

GabrielWritten by

the Dreaded C10H12N

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of dopamine produces an intense eu-phoria for the user who either snorts it, smoked it, or injected it to himself. This “rush” will also cause various symp-toms such as increased wakefulness, increased respiration or hyperthermia.

After a prolonged usage of methamphetamine, the risks of developing heart disease, Parkinson or amnesia are greatly increased due to the neurotoxic uncontrolled dopamine release. Simi-lar to the neurotoxic ef-fect of the dopamine re-lease, meth addiction can result in neurotoxicity in the serotonin system, a neurotransmitter also responsible for the feel-ing of well-being and happiness. Repeated use will most often lead to a chronic addiction that is very hard to control. The extended use of cristal meth can cause teeth to decay or fall. The specific cause is unknown, but the bruxism (tooth-grinding) and xeros-tomia (dry mouth) may influence this condition most commonly known as meth mouth which is very difficult to treat as long as the patient keeps using the drug. The usage of the drug by in-jection can, eventually, produce rashes at the site of injection while smoking it can result in pulmonary embolism.

Methamphetamine is an extremely dan-gerous drug because the withdrawal it causes is terrible. One of the only treat-ment available is a twelve step program that mostly relies on the user’s determin-ation to stop taking meth. The signs of

withdrawal often appear from thirty to ninety days after the last drug use. They can manifest as depression, energy loss, difficulty to experience pleasure and the users may have suicidal thoughts. The meth withdrawal being an extremely difficult challenge, almost 93% of users that try to stop revert. It can deterior-ate the ability of the user to differentiate reality from hallucinations. Depression and the ability to experience pleasure

are present because since the drug forces the brain to produce more dopamine, the brain will stop trying to produce it by it-self and will wait for the methampheta-mine rush to resume the production of the neurotransmitter.

In my opinion, metham-phetamine is a dangerous drug that should not even be tried since it is very easy to become addicted to it and it can destroy lives. It is important to be well informed about the dangers it represents because people who get addicted most often do not realize the devastat-ing effects it can have on someone’s life and when they do realize it, they are already addicted. I wish that the humans of tomorrow will at least realize how important life is and stop wasting it by using drugs that make life

seem awesome, only to make it depress-ing as soon as the effects fade.

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ever wonder why you can’t seem to float or how to improve your swim-

ming skills? Swimming is a basic sport that does not require much knowledge. In fact, there are records of swimming that date back to Stone Age paintings. Therefore, since it is mostly natural instinct that guides us, we don’t really know what keeps us afloat or what explains that we can move forward in water. The different physical principles concerning swimming also offer bene-fits for the body that are difficult to understand if you don’t start out with the fundamentals of the sport.

To begin with the most fundamen-tal principle concerning swimming is buoyancy. Over all, buoyancy ex-plains the force that keeps an object, whose density is lower than that of the fluid in which it is submerged, afloat. Buoyancy also includes two other principles, density and floata-tion. To put it simply, density explains floatation which is part of buoyancy. Consequently, because of the different density of different objects, some float on others and that implies that a force is keeping the object afloat. That force is buoyancy. Now that we understand this, how does it affect swimming?

First, it explains why we have to keep the air in our lungs in order to float best because air has a lower density

than water. It also explains why men and women float differently. As a mat-ter of fact, fat has a lower density than water and helps us stay afloat. Keeping that in mind, body fat distribution cor-relates to levels of sex hormones, which are different for each sex. For women, estrogen causes fat to be stored in the buttocks, thighs, and hips. Therefore, the area around the hips is the part of the women’s body that usually floats best. As for men, testosterone causes the expansion of the ribcage and broad shoulders, which means men can in-hale more air and, since air has a lower density than water, it helps them stay afloat. The area of the shoulders is usu-ally the part that floats best for men since they don’t normally store as much fat as women do. That is the main dif-ference between men and women con-cerning floatation. However, men also have to exhale air and it makes it more difficult for them to float, although men morphologically tend to have big-ger muscles and therefore have greater propulsion, which is another physical principle.

Moreover, hydro dynamicity is also a fundamental principle concern-ing swimming since it explains how we can move through water. It also includes two major principles that are resistance and propulsion. As a matter of fact, resistance is the force

that keeps us from moving forward in water. At the same time, it is the force that strokes use to create propulsion, which is what makes us move forward in water. Therefore, resistance works in both ways while propulsion uses resist-ance to create the movement. In order to be more hydrodynamic, we have to increase the power of the strokes, or re-duce water resistance. In order to reduce it, we have to reduce the surface of the body that displaces water as much as possible since it increases resistance. We can also increase propulsion to improve hydro dynamicity. Although reducing resistance is usually more efficient, you can increase the power or the force that you apply on the water to move forward, which is another type of resistance. This type in particular is the resistance of the water against strokes which makes you move forward. However, we have to be careful when increasing the power of the strokes because it usually makes us move in ways that increase resistance. We could end up moving slower because of that increased resistance while giving out more energy in the strokes and get-ting tired quicker. There are techniques like keeping a horizontal position in water or rotating shoulders that reduce resistance. There are also techniques that help you increase propulsion with-out increasing resistance. Furthermore, since water offers twelve times more resistance than air, it makes it harder to

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move through it and that is why swim-ming helps build stronger muscles than just walking.

Furthermore, the different physical principles concerning swimming offer a lot of benefits for your body. In the first place, water supports your body instead of putting the pressure of your weight onto your joints and helps pre-vent joint related injuries. Especially people who suffer from arthritis benefit from the low impact of water exercise on the body. Swimming is also a great way to start training after an injury. This sport makes all of the major muscle groups work at the same time in an en-vironment that offers twelve times more resistance than air and therefore brings great muscle definition. Furthermore, water has medical proprieties. For ex-ample, hydrotherapy takes advantage of the different proprieties of water to stimulate blood flow and to treat the symptoms of certain diseases. In fact,

cold water is best to stimulate blood flow and reduce swelling. Swimming relieves menstrual cramps and can also treat anx-iety when doing breathing exercises in water, also called rhythmic breathing.

To conclude, I find it fascinating that an activity that seems so banal, like swim-ming, bears so many scientific principles and can be explained in a logical way so that we can make the most of it. As a mat-ter of fact, we are getting closer and closer to the limit of what we can accomplish when playing a sport. Can you imagine science getting to the point where we can’t get any better, to the limit of phys-ics? Can you imagine a world where every activity is done perfectly, where there is nothing left to discover?

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language is a wonderful gift that has been given to the human species that

no other life forms on Earth have. Indeed, humans only can communicate with one another using an amazing range of lan-guages. Worldwide, it is estimated there are between 6000 and 7000 different lan-guages. Some of them have similarities but they are all distinct by their pronun-ciations, grammar and so on. Language has the property to express thoughts but it doesn’t express them the same way. Do people who speak different languages think differently? How does language af-fect the way we perceive the world?

Many linguists tried to answer those questions by going through experimenta-tion. Two of them, Benjamin Lee Whorf and Edward Sapir, are by far the most controverted linguists of their time. Fath-ers of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (also called the principle of linguistic relativity nowadays), they claimed that the struc-ture of language affects the way speak-ers perceive the world. The main point of debate in the theory is the validity of the correlation between thought and language. Is there really a link between these two or Whorf and Sapir were just mistaken? Recent studies show that there is indeed a connection between thought and language.

Lera Boroditsky, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Symbolic Systems at Stanford University, traveled to Pormpuraaw, an Aboriginal com-munity located in Northern Australia to study how their inhabitants communicate about space. In Kuuk Thaayorre (the lan-guage spoken there), directions are not expressed the same as in a language like English. Instead of using relative direc-tions (left, right, front, back), this lan-guage uses cardinal direction terms. Sen-tences like “Move to the southwest a bit.” would describe well how cardinal points are used. Talking like this takes a great sense of orientation because you always need to know where you are to use the right direction. Therefore, it is clear that Kuuk Thaayorre speakers are superior to English speakers with spatial knowledge. This knowledge is used as a base of other representations such as numbers, emo-tions and time. If people can think differ-ently about space, can they think about something based on spatial knowledge (time for example) the same way as every-body else?

That is what Lera Boroditsky and her col-laborator Alice Gaby also wanted to find out in Pormpuraaw. They gave people pictures representing temporal progres-sions (e.g., a man aging) and wanted them to place them in a correct order. People

were facing random cardinal directions each time and none knew how the others were situated. While doing this, Borodit-sky and her collaborator noted how they arranged the pictures. English speakers would indubitably arrange the cards from left to right. Hebrew speakers would ar-range them from right to left showing that writing has an impact on spatial rep-resentation. But how did Kuuk Thaayorre speakers classify the cards? When they were sitting facing a given direction, they would arrange time in a given way. For example, when sitting facing south, they would arrange the cards left to right, but when they were facing east, they would arrange them toward the body. In that case, Boroditsky’s study indeed shows that the language we speak can affect the way we perceive the world.

Language can, according to Lera Borodit-sky, make people better at tasks in some ways. Does it have other effects on hu-mans? Some languages other than Eng-lish use gendered nouns. A genre (in this context meaning class or kind) can hold the mark of masculine, feminine, neu-tral, among others. A gendered noun will be treated differently depending on its gender. In another of Boroditsky’s study, German and Spanish people were asked to describe the noun “bridge” using ad-jectives. In German, bridge is feminine

AntoineWritten by

How Does language Affect the Way We Perceive the World?

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so the people used mainly words like “beautiful”, “fragile” and “elegant” to de-scribe it. Though, in Spanish, bridge is masculine so people tended to describe it as “big”, “strong” and “dangerous”. What does describing an object differently change? Obviously, it shows people think differently about something even though they do see it the same way. Speaking a gendered language can change the way people see objects, but there is even more. Gendered languages even have effects on art, believe it or not. The way entities like death, sin and love are personified varies in languages in which the genre of these entities varies. It is the case 85% of the time. For example, German painters are more likely to paint death as a man and Russian painters are more likely to paint

it as a woman. Therefore, language is con-firmed to have effects on how people see the world around us.

Another demonstration shows that the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis can be true and it has to do with color perception. Some native speakers of certain languages are good at discriminating certain shades of a given color. Having more words to de-scribe a color seems to help the process of discriminating them. Indeed, it helps remembering each of its variation no matter how small it can be. For example, Russian uses two words to describe a blue: “goluboy” (light blue) and “siniy” (dark blue). Compared to English speak-ers, in which many words can be used to name a blue such as “navy blue”, “indigo”

and “royal blue”, Russian speakers tend to be able to recognize shades of blue in an easier way because they don’t have many categories under which a blue can fall. Therefore, the language we speak can af-fect how we perceive colors which are an integrant part of human life.

In the end, I do really think language can change how we think and thus change our acts. This is what we can conclude from Boroditsky’s studies. Eventhough these studies are scientific, there are still de-bates over the power of language on hu-man thoughts. This debate is still relevant as of today, because it is hard to experi-ment on humans. Maybe one day, new technics will lead us to discover the truth about the power of language.

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over the past few months, Korean pop star Psy has been topping the charts

with his song Gangnam Style. Within three months, the song’s music video has become a Guinness World Record as the Most Liked Video of All Time on You-tube, with almost five million likes and about eight hundred million views, mak-ing the singer a worldwide phenomenon. His upbeat single and memorable “horse” dance has been catching the attention of people all over the world, enough to win the Best Video award at the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards held in Germany at the end of the year, making Gangnam Style the most popular video in history. Psy might be bringing the Korean sensa-tion to a larger public.

Some of the most popular Korean artists include BoA, called the Queen of Ko-rean Pop and TVXQ, whose official fan-club holds the Guinness World Record for Largest Official Fanbase Worldwide, with over 800 000 official Korean fans. Both are under SM Entertainment, the biggest labor company in South Korea since 1995. JYP Entertainment, found-ed by singer, dancer, songwriter, actor and record producer Park Jin-young in 1996, is the home of popular girlgroup The Wonder Girls. Lastly, 1996-founded record label YG Entertainment, special-izing mostly in hip hop music, currently has Psy, Big Bang and 2NE1 under their company. BoA, The Wonder Girls, Psy, Big Bang and 2NE1 have all held tours overseas during the past few years.

At the end of the 1990’s, South Korea was dealing with the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. To build up the economy again, the government started what is now called the Korean Wave or Hallyu. How-ever, how did the wave work out? South Korea was influenced by Japan and their Japanese Pop Music, and used three big music companies: SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment. These three companies recruited artists, mostly teenagers, through auditions to be part of a subsequent Idol group or to become a solo artist. Companies trained these teens from two to four years in order to prepare them to become a star. They had vocal lessons and dance classes; sometimes, even acting courses. Japanese, Chinese and English were sometimes taught to them to facilitate overseas promotions and recordings of songs in those foreign languages. Everything was planned for these new artists to be ready to face the life of a celebrity. This method of training and fostering is still the same today.

Once the artist is ready to debut, compan-ies hire choreographers and producers to create the dance and the song. Over the duration of a few months, the group or solo artist practice their songs repeatedly in order to gain absolute perfection. They put all of their effort into it, knowing that their company is harsh and relentless on their image. Then, the group or singer promotes in Korea for about two months, going on music shows like Music Bank,

Music Core, Inkigayo or Mnet Count-down. Every week, an award is given to the artist who topped the charts for that week’s show. These honours determine the popularity of the group. When the group is popular enough, they can go overseas to start promotions. Usually, compan-ies send their artists to Japan, as there is much profit to make through Japanese promotions. Once the artist has con-quered Japan, they can begin travelling to Taiwan, Indonesia, The Philippines, China, Thailand, and more; pretty much all over Asia. Fan-signing events, con-certs, and private showcases are held for fans that are part of the fanclub. If these endeavours are successful, the popularity of the artist increases and companies take bigger actions

As the group collects a larger fanbase, entertainment companies start seek-ing the help of famous producers. Girl-group 2NE1 received help through leader Will.i.am. from the famous American hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas for their song Take the World On on their upcoming album. The girls also have a close relationship with American fashion designer Jeremy Scott, whose clothes are often worn during their concerts. As for BoA, her self-titled album was recorded completely in English and released world-wide in 2009. Her song Did it For Love featured American singer and producer Sean Garrett. BoA performed at many events in the United States, like the Jingle Ball at the Anaheim Honda Center in

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2008, where she performed her single Eat You Up, and the San Francisco Pride Festi-val in 2009 with famous stars like Solange Knowles and The Clicks. SM Entertain-ment’s most popular group, TVXQ, had one of their hits songs, Mirotic, produced by a Danish producer and composer, Thomas Troelsen, who also produced for artists like Bryan Adams, among others.

An aspect that aids the Korean Wave is the large Asian community spread throughout the world. The Korean diaspora consists of 7 million people worldwide, most of them living in China, Japan and the United States, but also in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries. There are 1.3 million Koreans in the United States only. However, not only Koreans contribute to Hallyu. Chinese, Filipino, and Vietnam-ese communities, to name a few, represent a big part in supporting Korean pop music. The American population is composed of Asians at 4.8%, and 11% of Canadians are of Asian decent. With the globalization of K-Pop, Asians are not the only ones listen-ing to it. Any ethnicity is prone to its catchy beat and amazing vocals. Every year, the Korean Music Festival takes place in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl, bringing all K-Pop fans together. Korean pop music is even popular now in Europe and South America. Famous boygroup Big Bang is currently traveling to 25 cities in 16 coun-tries in South America, Europe, Asia, and North America for their Alive Tour 2012.

Korean Pop music is indeed becoming a worldwide phenomenon. We can find every music genre for every taste: hip-hop, pop, dance, electronic, and many more. Anyone is able to find a song they enjoy in K-Pop. Although there is a language barrier, most song titles are in English and some lines in the lyrics are in English too. With Psy and Gangnam Style, Korean music is be-coming successful. K-Pop is just starting to be popular outside of Asia; the question is how long will this Korean Wave last?

Source: © 2007, Gilbert Rock, Le monde en images, CCDMD

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a rt is everywhere. It is used to show ideas, creativity, love and so much

more. There a many forms of arts, but I want to introduce you to one of the most popular and ancient types of body art, body painting. This is a form of art that has surrounded us since we were born, without us knowing it. In my case, every Halloween, I painted my body as much as possible: all brown to resemble a black person, all blue to look like an avatar, all yellow to imitate a chicken, etc. I just like it! I’m glad to know that it is art. Now, I have the opportunity to share my inter-est for this form of art with you. I want people to know what it is, where it comes from and why it is used. After reading this article, you will be aware of the his-tory and of the evolution of body paint-ing over the years.

A long time ago, in tribalist cultures, body painting was used in many circum-stances and had many different mean-ings. It was a part of their social and spiritual life. Body painting was also a main element in the important moments of human life such as weddings, death, birth of a child, war and many others. Sometimes it was used by members of tribes to beautify their body, or to show their origins or their social class. Still, in most of the tribal cultures, this practice is common, especially in African tribes,

Australia, the Pacific Islands, India, New Zealand and Native Americans. In some Indian tribes, only men could decorate their body in order to attract the interest of women. Women could, however, help to paint their husband’s body. The Indi-ans always painted abstract and geomet-ric designs, which were rich in meanings.

Back then, they painted their bodies with natural dyes, paints, pigments, ash and clay. The body paint, which was tempor-ary, could be applied on the face, hands, legs or other parts of the body. When it was not for a celebration, the markings that they made on their bodies were thought to have magical powers with which they could ward off evil spirits, such as demons or tribal enemies. It was also used as a protection against insects, as camouflage, label or for medical-hy-gienic reasons.

Another impermanent form of body painting popularly known as Henna or Mehndi, which is made from an herb known by the same name, is practiced in India, the Middle East and Pakistan. This practice is popular among young girls, brides and female members of the com-munity. Henna paste is usually applied on the skin using a plastic cone or a paint brush. Overall, the process can last from 24 to 72 hours to realize. The final color

is reddish brown and can last anywhere from one to three weeks depending on the quality and type of henna paste ap-plied, as well as where it was applied on the body.

Since the early 1960’s, a new form of body painting appeared: the modern body painting. With time, numerous changes in the field of body painting have come. These changes emerged with the liberalization of norms in the soci-ety with the surfacing of nudity. Now, according to Maggie Bernaldo, a part of body painting could be to live the union of art with the human anatomy. Another part is to portray the beauti-ful. However, there is still a debate today about whether body painting is truly an art form, although its adherents have no doubt about it being so.

This type of body art today is considered the “in thing”. The market is huge and various competitions and festivals are conducted all over the globe. The most popular body art festivals that take place include the World Body painting Festi-val in Seeboden, Austria, and the Amer-ican Body Arts Festival in New York, to name but two. These festivals bring in the most talented professionals who are skilled in their field of expertise. For them, the human body is the canvas on

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which they express their artistic tal-ent with dots, swirls and lines of paint. Their main concern is not to trans-form a person into a character, but to cause a visual effect and an expression of beauty. They usually use delicate

designs on women and masculine and bold imagery on men. The paints are ap-plied using paintbrushes, airbrushes, nat-ural sea sponges, or just by the fingers and hands. These days, the paints that are used are non-allergic, non-toxic and are easily

washable. A fine arts gallery located in New Orleans is devoted exclusively to body art in order to expose the work of the talented artists. Furthermore, the trend of body painting has found its way into fashion, various media and adver-

tising outlets. Many popular brands decided to incorporate body painting in their fashion events and shows, like Vic-toria’s Secret and Sephora.

Personally, I think that body painting is one of the most ori-ginal forms of art and that we should give it more import-ance, in Quebec especially. It is an original way to express our-selves differently. Moreover, body painting is an interest-ing alternate form of art that people around the globe take pleasure in experimenting with. I think that art programs in schools should introduce this form of art in classes, whether it is by studying its evolution or applying some of its techniques. I will con-clude with saying that body painting has made its name as one of the most creative ways to decorate the human body, from fine art to festivals and celebrations.

For several years now, Japanese culture has been getting a lot more promin-

ent in North America. Of course, with their advanced technologies, but also with a brand new style of literature: Man-gas. With their growing popularity all around the world, Mangas are currently revolutionizing the whole world of art and books. The global history of Mangas started back in the 1980’s and are created by a single person known as a Mangaka. They can be compared to the common United States comics.

Since the 1980’s, Mangas have become a major part of the Japanese publishing industry, representing a total of approxi-mately 5.5 billion dollars in 2009. These profits are mostly due to the most popular mangas, such as One Piece and Naruto. One Piece has more than 260 million vol-umes sold alone, which is beyond amaz-ing. These numbers represent a large part of the Mangas market. Usually, regular mangas only sell around a few million copies. Before reaching that state, Mangas are first published in a magazine. Once it gets popular enough, it can become an independently appearing book or even become an anime later, which is the same as animated cartoons airing on television here. In addition, for fans in the region of Quebec, a manga festival occurs every year, in August, in Montreal, named The Otakuthon. During this event, people are invited to wear Cosplays, which means to dress up as their favorite manga or anime character. Cosplayers attend many

organized activities about Mangas and Animes, such as karaoke, Cosplay Cafe, Otakuthon Idol and even Cosplay Chess, including real people as the pieces.

The first mangas appeared at the begin-ning of the 1900’s. At this time, they weren’t much different than the comic books from our country. They were cre-ated with humour to please the Japanese population, but they were not very popu-lar then. The real introduction to Mangas happened right after the Second World War. The fact that Japan was defeated cer-tainly changed the vision of the world that they had at the time. While the popula-tion was searching for a distraction, be-cause of his creativity and originality, Ni-ponne Ozamu Tezuka, a mangaka, pub-lished a new style of book; the traditional Manga. The author first wanted a work related to cinema, but since the country was ruined, he tried to put his ideas on paper instead. This is how he created the very particular book style. Since then, in-dustries have been publishing Mangas at ridiculous rates. In addition to the bene-ficial effects they brought to the Japanese, it did not take long before these books became international. Today, Mangas are sold everywhere in the world and are also written in many languages, but they always keep their original style, which forces us to read them from right to left, starting from the end of the book. This may be a little confusing at the beginning, but it doesn’t take long to get used to it.

Behind all these words and pictures, there is a Mangaka putting a lot of effort into his work. Before being published, the auth-or’s work needs to go through many pro-cedures. This person must create the plot, write the story, and draw the pictures by himself; these steps, which must be com-pleted before finding an editor, are dif-ficult to be accomplished. Usually, there are approximately twenty-five pages in a chapter. Considering they have to draw every single scene of the story, the writing part does not make the work any easier. The fact that a Mangaka must be talented in all those aspects makes the whole man-ga a lot more interesting. This way, the Manga can be a more personal work of art since it is a vision from a single artist. The Mangaka usually sends a sample of the future manga to an editor to see if they are interested in the storyline. If they are, the author then creates the first volume in no less than 6 months. Once many volumes have been published, the same process can take less time, such as 1 or 2 months, since they know the procedure really well. Then, all they have to do is wait to see if the readers are satisfied.

Mangas can be compared to common comic books from the United States, but despite their similarities, American com-ic books have a lot to learn from these Japanese works. What really distinguishes Mangas is certainly how they are written and drawn. Mangas use a style with cine-matic camera angles, and always repre-

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Mangas: An Amazing Japanese Book Style

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sent an action in every frame. We could almost compare a Mangaka to a film dir-ector. They must create dramatic angles so we can really feel the characters’ ex-pressions. On the other hand, American comics are more like graphic novels. Both the story and the pictures are there, but the dialogues don’t seem to blend in the

story. We could read the dialogues with-out even looking at the pictures, and still understand the storyline. As for Man-gas, this would be impossible, as the pic-tures are as important, if not more, than the dialogues. The pictures illustrate the characters’ emotions.

Mangas have made a big difference in the world of art and books since their apparition in the 1950’s. Both kids and adults can enjoy the masterpieces due to their wide variety of genres. These in-clude action, fantasy, horror, drama, ro-mance, or even comedy. They resemble American comics, but the author will introduce you to a whole new world filled with emotions. The only way to realize how great Mangas are is by read-ing them.

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nowadays, as gender equality is now a part of our society, a lot of stereo-

types have appeared between men and women. And even more, with all the technology that surrounds us, we quickly learned that we could do more than one thing at a time. One particular stereotype combines those two aspects of our lives: Girls are better than boys at multitasking. For ladies, it is clear that they are better, but for gentlemen, it is quite frustrating to hear them brag about something that they possibly do better than them. (That’s why people are trying to find out if it’s true). Are women really better than men at doing two things at a time? Is there a difference between boys and girls any-way? Is multitasking really possible?

To begin, we should even wonder if there is a difference between boys and girls in the first place. There is an obvious bio-logical difference as to girls have breasts and boys have testicles. Both genders might be just the same mentally accord-ing to two members of the U.S Depart-ment of Education, Patricia B. Campbell and Jennifer N. Storo. They went further by saying that people, if they know some-one’s sex beforehand, will think that they know a lot of things about the nature and abilities of a boy or a girl. The ¨normal¨ behaviour of a certain gender might just be a result of their upbringing, because parents know the gender of their child. However, according to ¨Boys and Girls learn Differently: A Guide for Teachers

and Parents¨, written by Michael Gu-rian and Jossey-Bass, 2001, brain-based research indicates the superior ability of girls to be able to perform multitasking. When girls deal with information, they will use both sides of their brain, there-fore processing faster than boys by being more active physically and by having bet-ter hearing. Where girls use a more ad-vanced part of their brain (for example the cerebral cortex) to learn or do certain tasks, boys use their more primitive part (for example the hippocampus) of theirs. This proves that the main difference be-tween a boy and a girl is that different re-gions in the brain get developed in differ-ent sequences for each gender.

To continue, let’s ask ourselves if multi-tasking is even possible. Are we really do-ing two or three things at a time or are we just task-switching? Can our brain really process multiple actions at the same time and, if so, is it really more effective? Harold Pashler, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California at San Diego, did a research on bottleneck operations: operations that the brain can-not process at the same time because they use the same cognitive resource and there-fore cannot do them at the same time. But just like computer processors nowadays, the brain can also do actions in paral-lel to optimise its delivering of informa-tion. When our mind faces two different operations, it splits the labour between the two halves of the brain. The problem

with multitasking appears when we are pursuing three goals at the same time: the prefrontal cortex will always discard one. This is why we might not really be multitasking but actually switching from one task to another and at the same time losing energy and focus on these tasks. However, boys tend to lose attention sim-ply because they can’t hear as well as girls and because they focus on the ¨where¨ of things instead of the ¨what¨. This might be another reason why people often be-lieve that girls are better at multitasking.

Even if doing multiple tasks at the same time might be actually impossible for the brain, two neuroscientists from the French Biomedical Research Agency (INSERM) in Paris used magnetic reson-ance imaging (MRI) to see if multitasking really splits the brain. They asked 16 men and 16 women, aged 19 to 32, to perform a complicated letter matching task while they were monitored by the MRI. The vol-unteers were shown some letters pulled at random, from random words on a screen. Then they had to determine if two succes-sive letters appeared in the same order as they did in the word. To add some diffi-culty, they also had to deal with lowercase and uppercase letters to match them to either the all uppercase or all lowercase word. If they did the test correctly they received a small amount of money so they were sure they did it the good way and had good results. As expected, only working on a single letter-matching task

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Multitasking: a Fight Between Genders

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was done easily as the two sides of the brain were used to complete the task. But as soon as they took on the other task, their brain would split the labour between the two sides. Each side worked independ-ently from the other. The results showed that the brain can’t ef-ficiently perform more than two tasks because it has only two hemispheres available. The neuroscientists also asked an-other team of volunteers to do the same thing but also with a coloured-letters matching task. The triple task jugglers from both genders all forgot one of their tasks.

Furthermore, there is not an ac-tual proof that girls are capable of multitasking better than boys. So how could we say that they are better? We have just learned that there is not much difference between men and women psychologically. They both use their brain the same way but each develops different aspects of it. An-other experiment was specifically look-ing for the difference between girls and boys. The Department of Psychology of Loyola University in New-Orleans asked two groups of each 30 boys and 30 girls to complete 5 mazes, a survey on their multitasking skills and had to listen to a story while noting a certain word every time they heard it. The word was men-tioned 16 times. The results showed that males scored higher for their perform-ance in the spatial task (mazes) than girls. But the difference was so slight that the hypothesis about boys being better was not supported. On the verbal skills, the

females scored higher than males but this time again the difference was so slight that the hypothesis supporting that girls would perform better was not supported. Does this mean that there is no difference between boys and girls?

Lastly, we can clearly assume that multi-tasking is not that easy to do for every-body. It is definitely not easier for girls than for boys. A lot of research shows that there is almost no difference be-tween the two genders. Furthermore, it’s not even good to perform multiple tasks at the same time. It will split your brain hemisphere and can also make you forget some of your other tasks. You will per-form a lot better if you do one task and

then another instead of the two at the same time. Sure, sometimes it is possible to do it, but like Roger Kay, a Forbes con-tributor, said: ¨Multitask where you can, task switch when you have to, and focus on the job at hand as much as possible for the best results¨.

Remember, social media might be great, but they will surely cause your homework time to increase.

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i t’s been said throughout the centuries that mankind made use of numerous

natural aspects of their surroundings to ease their lives, shelter themselves and hunt for food, cook and various other uses of the sort. Such pure resources could also – in fact most definitely – come in handy when it came to curing the health of the ill ones, being either mentally or physically; for most Asian cultures, this natural energy came from nowhere other than themselves. This practise was later referred to as Qigong for its origins and many uses, such as healing.

First of all, Qigong (translated as “Force”, or literally “Life Energy Cultivation”) is said to be the energy that inhabits all liv-ing beings and life forms, having roots of 4000 years and beyond in Chinese history. Qigong’s main purpose, as the name implies, is to take control of one’s own “flow” and in various means, such a thing achieved mostly through intense meditation and martial arts (e.g. Wushu, Tai Chi, kung Fu, etc.). However, Qigong, and all its affiliated arts, is a branch of the Eastern religion known as Taoism, which is rather considered to be a philosophical way of life. This practise was introduced to the world in the B.C. period, thought to be a “remedy dance” at first when the ancients, struggling against nature’s tor-ments, took notice of the benefits behind proper body positioning and breathing. In fact, in 206 B.C., the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) was first to approach the theory

regarding Qigong’s existence throughout the attempt to comprehend the relation-ship between men, nature and heaven, becoming a main source of medicine in China. Those methods later transported themselves in India through the Han Dynasty and even later throughout Asia, becoming an effective way of communi-cation among nations.

From this point, the art developed many traditional ways to practise it: medical qigong heals, emphasizes and regularises the flow within the human body, Taoist qigong focuses on high virtue and pres-ervation of the body, Buddhist qigong lib-erates the mind in order to obtain a cer-tain level of wisdom, Confucian qigong enhances intelligence and moral percep-tion and last but not least, martial qigong (fighting arts) serves as physical defense against weaponry and enhances the strength of delivered blows. Its purpose in Asian culture grew with the centur-ies, quickly becoming a well-known art. From 1911 until now, Qigong has grown into a world-wide phenomenon and is now practised by over 10 million Can-adians. Despite its various functions, Qi-gong is best known for the clinical relief it may bring to practitioners: the electrical activities of the brain, blood flow, heart functions, kidney processes, biophysical states and many more. From a scien-tific point of view, it acts like magnetism throughout the body that accentuates and/or accelerates healing processes. Ac-

cording to traditional Chinese methods, the four most effective ways (also referred to as “branches”) of using Qigong would have to be acupuncture, herbal medicine and massage. Others even suggest that it could be used for patients to improve their health conditions through certain directives: from Qigong ways and studies, illness, sickness and other complications of the well-being occur mostly if not only once the energy flow within one’s body is blocked, and by practising the healing arts, such hindrance can be removed in order to let the energy circulate through-out the body again, healing any form of anomaly in the process.

By advancing into the matter, one could learn to recognise Qi energy within other beings, improve their own flow or even learn how to free another person’s “blocked flow” with the following ad-vanced techniques: the “sword fingers” enables one to increase their ability to “free” others’ energy flow, the “thun-der palm” enables one to insert positive energy throughout another’s body, and similar ones such as the “10,000 hands” and “cloud hand”. Those are a variety of usage suggested by grand Qigong master Chunyi Lin, who offers 3 ways to estab-lish Qigong, being breath, proper pos-ture and mind stability. In his teachings, he tales that breathing is fundamental to health, as it flourishes the brain with most of the elements it requires to function properly, which is also true for other vital

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ancient Medics: The Miracle of Qi

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organs such as the heart and the lungs. The physical posture is crucial, since the body holds the “chakra gates” and must therefore be positioned comfortably in order to open such gates with success. If not, the practitioner’s focus might be disturbed. And last, the mind, being the center point of his studies. He suggests that it bears powerful capabilities and, as scientists indicate as well, can accomplish a lot despite the low percentage of usage human beings apply normally (estimated to be between 2 or 10%), and that with proper focus, can produce “miracles” re-garding physical and mental healing.

But some of the Qigong’s results, exer-cises and methods may still seem foggy or questionable to sceptical ones and sci-entists due to their mythological origins,

as most of the benefits reported were also proven to be highly effective and re-juvenating. As stated in one of Dr. Roger Jahke’s article, “Qigong is one of the most powerful self healing traditions ever de-veloped in human history. It is literally a health wonder of the world”. All in all, even through the offensive style that Qi-gong harbors in martial arts, its primary function will remain: soothe its user from physical stress and tension, as well as ac-centuate the natural ability of healing as well as maintain inner peace.

To conclude, there’s still much to discover about Qigong and its numerous ways, as it helps us reflect and resolve upon our-selves rather than always having to rely on Mother Nature’s support. Further advan-cement into the matter might provide the

human race with numerous benefits kept unraveled up to this day, thus I encourage any curious ones to enlighten themselves about such a subject as spiritual healing and give it an attempt. Perhaps some of our own future medicine resides in the art of Qigong.

Source: © 2010, Daniel Hardy, Le monde en images, CCDMD

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i t appears to the rest of the world that Asia is the most problematic contin-

ent concerning the imbalance of gender and the heavy charge of inhabitants in the countries. In fact, China, as well as other Asian countries like India, must deal with great difficulties in their popu-lation. The abnormal sex rate, the low birth rate and the forced abortions re-sulting of the non-respect of a law are the most dramatic problems. This situa-tion might seem a bit senseless when you consider that China is the most popu-lous country in the world, but it can be easily explained. As China is trying to get back on the right trail, there is still much to do in this country lead by com-munism for decades.

When the Communists attempted to reach the power of China in 1949, the population was about 560 mil-lion people. As Mao Tsé-toung was the most influent man of the country, most Chinese followed him in his ideas and the population adopted his value: the more arms you’ve got in the country, the more powerful you are. This way of considering the births as a great thing for the country lead to a record rate of 5, 7 children per woman in the 1950’s. Later, in the 1970’s, the government cre-ated a family-planning system to limit the population’s growth in the follow-

ing years. The main goal was to prevent the number of citizens to be more than what the country could afford. Not a law yet, the family-planning was created to introduce better ideas for the well-being of the country such as proposing later marriage, a bigger space between births, and a maximum of two children per couple. As for the one-child policy, the main idea came from the new leader of China in the late 1970’s, Deng Xiaoping. In order to maximize the modernization of the country, the government focused on the main problem: the massive and potentially problematic population’s growth. This is why, in 1979, the one-child policy that we still know about to-day appeared.

The one-child policy, introduced in 1979 as a temporary measure to control the very fast population growth, and sup-posed to end in 2010 (30 years later), has lead to many unwanted actions such as forced abortions decried by different or-ganizations around the world. Globally, this policy limits the number of children to one per couple in the cities and ex-tends to two this number for the ones living in rural areas. For those who do not take notice of the limit and trans-gress the law, a fine is sent to them by the family planning agents, and they have to pay it. If they can’t afford it, their child

is taken away or worst, they have to leave him in orphanage, or to abort when it is still possible. The parents of a second or third illegal child also take the risk of los-ing their job or being punished severely. Some women decide to abort, others do not. Because of this policy, many stories of forced abortion have emerged in the media in the last years, such as Pan Chun-yan’s one. Kidnapped at the grocery store, she was forced to put her thumbprint on a document allowing people to practice a late-term abortion on her. Born on April 8, 2012, the baby was well-formed but dead. They had injected her some drugs affecting the baby that quickly advanced the birth time. She was eight-month preg-nant of her third child, and her husband was raising the $8640 fee required to keep the baby. More than 13 million abortions are done each year in China and this re-sult only considers legal abortions.

A recent research shows that there are 119 baby boys for each 100 baby girls in China, an abnormal ratio, far from the 103 to 107 boys for 100 girls in other countries. The difference of birth rate between the two sexes is a turning point of China’s prob-lem. In fact, it is projected that 40 mil-lion baby boys won’t be able to find a wife at the adult age. Based on his research, Nicholas Eberstadt, Ph.D, claims that ’’ In 2000, more than half of all abortions

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the Pursuit of the Bride: China’s Most Controversial Demographic Problem

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in China were a result of prenatal sex se-lection’’ which can be explained by the preference for male children in China. It represents a huge problem because with-out women, the Chinese population will keep on getting older and the new gen-erations will not be able to support the elderly ones with the health-care system and the pensions given by the govern-ment for the golden aged citizens. It has been proven that ‘’people above the age of 60 now represent 13.3 % of the total, up from 10.3% in the year 2000. In the same period, those under the age of 14 declined from 23% to 17%.’’ .The popula-tion is aging, but who is going to replace

the workers without new births? Accord-ing to a report from the National Popula-tion and Family Planning Commission, for 1000 Chinese citizens, the birth rate is 4.79 births which is really low in com-parison with the 10,28 children per 1000 inhabitants in Canada.

By its impacts on Chinese life, the one-child policy has created more problems than it has solved. Firstly, the abortion rate has risen radically and the forced abortions have become part of the ‘’nor-mal’’ solutions to get rid of an ‘’unwant-ed’’ child. Secondly, the abnormal sex rate still poses great problems in this aging

population. Should the Chinese govern-ment ‘’abort’’ this policy? I personally think they should, but because everything is a matter of values, it might not be pos-sible for this enormous population to get rid of this policy that still follows the people since 1979.

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