Photos of the Week

Heroin

Drugs are a growing problem in the U.S. Whether they are prescription or illegal, they are misused more often than they used to be. One specific drug is the illegal substance heroin. Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death is the latest recognized by the media, but there are many others every day.

In 2011, 4.2 million Americans 12 years or older had used heroin at least once in their life. About 23 percent of people that use heroin become dependent on it. Heroin can be used in many different ways, making it the drug of choice for many addicts. All routes of administration take the drug directly to the brain, making the high almost immediate. After the administration, the user experiences dry mouth, heaviness of the extremities, and clouded mental functioning. After the initial rush, the user goes “on the nod”, which is an “alternately wakeful and drowsy state”.

Regular heroin use changes the functioning of the brain, and can cause two things to happen. One if them is tolerance. This means that more of the drug is needed each time to achieve the desired high. The other is dependence. This means that the continued use of the drug is necessary to avoid withdrawal symptoms, which include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, and much more. There are also several serious health issues that are brought on by the use of heroin. Some of these include fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion (if pregnant), and infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis. Other serious issues are collapsed veins, clogged blood vessels, and liver or kidney disease.

Once a person begins using heroin, it almost immediately becomes an addiction. Using can cause health issues, money loss, homelessness, and many other things that are hard to recover from. To treat an addiction to heroin, there are medications and therapies to help the user depend less on the drug and cope with withdrawal.

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/heroin

Ashlee Holtzclaw

@acoleslaw98

Unicycle

Cars haven't always been around. Neither have those beloved little scooters enjoyed by millions of small children (and immature adults) around the world. Before them there was the horse, and after that the bicycle. Everything changed when someone engaged in some harmless tomfoolery, eventually leading to what was the creation of the unicycle.

            A unicycle is a bicycle that has had a wheel removed and has no handlebar. There is no clear inventor of the unicycle. It started to make its appearance around the late 1880’s. Like the bicycle it can place its creation inside the borders of England. It was and is used for entertainment, being one of the coolest machines to use a wheel. Riding a unicycle requires a high level of balance and concentration. Once the art of unicycle riding has been mastered there are a multitude of competitions and events specially organized for lovers of the sport. The International Unicycle Federation encourages testing the limits of your ability and creativity. Juggling, jumping, and enjoying a nice ride through the park are all just a scratch on the surface of the possibilities. Skate parks are one of the best places to practice and have a blast. There’s even a unicycle hockey starting to come out!

            Unicycles aren't only for circus people. Riding unicycles has attracted people from all walks of life from teens to members of the United States government. Besides being amazing and making all arguments invalid you get the benefit of the great workout.
Phillip Lusby

1,2 Freddy's coming for you

What do you do when the safest place becomes the most dangerous? When your dreams become nightmares? Where what happens in your sleep affects you in reality? Wes Craven creates a world where staying awake is the only way to survive.

         In 1984, the nightmare was born starring heartthrob Johnny Depp and Heather Langenkamp. A Nightmare on Elm Street creates Freddie Krueger, a man who infiltrates your dreams and if he kills you die in your dream world, you’re dead in the real one. Freddie Krueger is dead, he was burned alive but he came back for vengeance the only way he could. He lived on Elm Street where children filled the neighborhood and next thing the young parents know, children begin disappearing. When the parents discover he was behind the abductions and police wouldn’t do anything, they took matters into their own hands. With the master plan of burning him alive, they light the match and let him burn. Langenkamp’s character, Nancy, struggles with staying awake and fighting off Krueger in the real world and keeping her friends alive. The world between dreams and reality often coincide but not in the way it does in this film. Wes Craven reached a whole new level with nightmares, it is sure to keep you awake. 

                                                                                       @itsnottrystan1/

2014 Winter Olympics (Winter)

For the first time ever, the Winter Olympics will open with alpine skiing, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and figure skating on Thursday, February 6.  Friday is when the torch will be lit and the Opening Ceremonies will begin.  The Olympics will last 18 nights and start early because there is so much to cover (98 events plus 12 new sports) and NBC can.  Most of the Games will not be live, but there will be plenty of live streaming from laptops, tablets, and phones. (To watch on your devices first, "verify" your subscription to a cable/satellite provider. For that you'll need your username and password. (Watch Ryan Seacrest explain: nbcolympics.com/liveextra/help.) You can download the NBC Sports Live Extra app to cellphones or tablets.)

       Personally, I love the Olympics because you watch these amazing athletes make their dreams come true.  It is almost like a tradition in my house to watch both the summer and winter Olympics. Also, because of the destinations that hold the Olympics and the Opening Ceremonies are so amazing to watch.  My favorite part is when they light the torch.

       I hope that everyone has a chance to watch at least one night of the Winter Olympics because there is probably an event that would interest anyone.  There are over 80 pages of names only from the U.S. to watch let alone the over 80 countries entered.  Wish them luck as they compete in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. 

     

                      Alex Warner

Grammys Recap

After all the talk and debate, the winners at the 56^th annual Grammy Awards were decided two weeks ago. The night included performances from Beyoncé, Lorde, Katy Perry, Robin Thicke, Kendrick Lamar, Imagine Dragons, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and more.

         Daft Punk, Pharrell, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were the biggest winners of the night. The French duo, Daft Punk, walked away with five awards on Sunday including Album of the Year in which they beat out artists the likes of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kendrick Lamar, and others. Along with Daft Punk and Nile Rodgers, singer/producer Pharrell took home awards in the categories of Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for the song “Get Lucky.” They also performed the award winning song with the legendary Stevie Wonder at the award show. Pharrell also took home an award home for Producer of the Year (Non-Classical) for his contributions to songs such as Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” Jay-Z’s “BBC,” and even his own song “Happy.”

         Macklemore & Ryan Lewis won big as well taking home four Grammys for categories including Best Rap Song, Best Rap Album, and Best New Artist. The duo beat out artists such as Jay-Z and Kanye West to take home Best Rap Album. Personally, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that even though The Heist is a great album. The competition was tough and it seemed difficult to pick one album over the other, but I cannot take anything away from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ win because they deserved it. “Wow – we’re here on this stage right now,” said Macklemore after the duo accepted the first award of the night.

         The duo also performed their hit song “Same Love” at the award show. This performance was one of the most unique and heartfelt of the night. As Macklemore & Ryan Lewis performed their hit song, Queen Latifah joined them on stage. The female rap star then went on to official wed 68 couples at the show of all races and sexualities as the performance was going on. To top off this performance/weddings, pop icon Madonna took the stage as well to perform the song “Open Your Heart.”

         Some of the performances last night were quite unique in their own weird way especially Katy Perry’s performance of her song “Dark Horse” and Lorde’s performance of her Grammy award winning song “Royals.”

         Perry’s performance looked like it came straight from a scene out the TV show American Horror Story: Coven. The very perplexed performance involved fire, contortionists, and a huge dark horse. The only normal thing about the performance seemed to be Juicy J when he took the stage to assist Katy Perry.

         Lorde also performed Sunday night at the Grammys. The teenage sensation from New Zealand performed her hit song “Royals” and the performance had its odd moments. One odd moment in particular was when she began to move in an odd way to the beat of her hit song. Lorde’s song “Royals” did earn her two awards and she took home Grammys for Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo performance.

         The most exciting performance of the night was when Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons hit the stage. The Compton rapper and the Las Vegas band performed their respective hits together – Lamar’s “m.A.A.d city” and Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive.” The performance was definitely one of the most talked about on social media especially after Lamar debuted a new verse during the “Radioactive” part of the performance and it would become known later that the verse is on the remix to the Grammy award winning song. 

         Lamar had seven nominations and walked away with none. This came as a shock to me because I thought he had the strongest chance of winning Best Rap Album, which was won by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Apparently, Macklemore sent a text to Lamar sometime after the ceremony that read, “You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It’s weird and it sucks that I robbed you.” Macklemore posted a screenshot of the text on Instagram with a caption that stated Lamar should have won Best Rap Album. Macklemore also said that he wasn’t trying to diminish his victory, but Lamar should have won in that category. All in all, the 56^th annual Grammy Awards was a great night for music regardless of the talks of artists being snubbed for certain awards.

Twitter: @OddKingz