Shortages of Kidneys may be thing of past after first successful pig to human transplant. 

Early this week a surgical team attached a pig kidney to a human patient during a groundbreaking procedure. After a 54-hour observation period in New York City, the surgery was called a success. This has the protentional to impact the nearly 100,000 people that are stuck on the transplant waitlist and the 17 people that die each day waiting on the list.

John Scandling, a nephrologist at Stanford University stated, “We’re never going to satisfy the organ shortage problem with human organs. There’s a limit to the number of deceased donor organs that are available.”

While the successful pig transplant may seem like a perfect solution to the waitlist problem it does come with its drawbacks. As Dr, Scandling pointed out, “In recent decades we were not as successful. You could visibly see the organs fail in those days because there’s an immediate reaction. That immediate reaction, called a hyperacute rejection, is the first major obstacle for a xenotransplant to stick.”

Despite recent failures, this one success can point to a brighter future. Doctors believe that transplants with animals could become more common than those done with humans. Doing transplants with animals could save 100,000’s of lives and make kidney shortages a thing of the past.

Because It was a story that got coverage by the national news, I decided to look at the Jon Gruden scandal, were the former Raiders coach was discovered to have sent hundreds of homophobic, racist, and misogynistic email in order to degrade and disparage people. The coach would resign as head coach of the raiders.

Frist thing I noticed that was different was the lead. New York times said, “Raiders Coach resigns…” and “Jon Gruden stepped down”. While GMA, opened by saying “Now to that breaking news in the NFL overnight”. GMA also had the headline of “Breaking overnight, Gruden steps down”. I think you see this because GMA assumes you’ve already heard the news while New York Times is trying to get you to read there entire story, while GMA knows it will have Viewers. As for the overall structure New York Times has you look at quotes on the issue from experts, gives insight into the history of Gruden and the Raiders, and tells the reader why the emails got discovered. As for the GMA story, its funny to me that they start with saying we can’t go over what is in the emails before overviewing the entire set of bad emails, the GMA article quotes the New York times article, and then pulls in a wide variety of different viewpoints.

As for the length and imagery the read and the watch are both about 5 minutes, but the GMA news story used FAR more images and different voices.

Something that I noticed before is that TV news will gather a lot of resources as opposed to something like the New York Times who will just focus on the leading experts. TV news will use quotes from everywhere whereas the New Time Article just used Gruden and Adam Schefter.

Links: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/sports/football/what-did-jon-gruden-say.amp.html

Where were you March 11^th, 2020? To some that date may not seem significant, mostly because we have moved on, but do you remember the feeling you had when WHO officially declared covid a worldwide Pandemic?

On the week of March 11^th , the following things occurred, first on March 11, WHO Declares COVID-19 a Pandemic, on March 13 President Trump Declares COVID-19 a National Emergency, followed by March 13 where a Travel Ban on Non-US Citizens Traveling From Europe Goes Into Effect, and finally on March 19, California Issues Statewide Stay-at-Home the first of its kind, all 50 state would follow suit in some form or fashion. Once these stay at home orders were implemented all 3 of interviewees shared the same sentiment, in part all three state that is the week they realized COVID was real.

For the interest of Morningside Students, I wanted to get insights from a current athlete, and a former student/ current administration, and  someone who did go to school here but is current administration.

The very first person I talked to was Dylan Hamil. Mr. Hamil is guy with a little bit of Cali-swag to him, by that I mean he wears his hair long, and overall has very chill mindset and outlook towards the world. He is a man you has an immense love for the sport of volleyball, and when I brought up the topic of the begging of covid and since he is an athlete the Rudy Gobert situation (Mr. Gobert was the first big name athlete to test positive), Mr. Hamil told me, “I remember that night… I am not an avid basketball fan, but I remember scrolling through twitter and seeing the images of fans running towards the exits and there being a panic. At the moment my heart snuck, I knew I had lost my volleyball season.”

My father Mike Freeman, who works at Morningside University shared similar sentiments when he told me, “I was devasted for our Mustang athletes and students, especially the seniors because I knew for a lot of them they’d begin to realize they’d played their last game here and later on I became devasted for the students because of the irregular semesters that had followed.”

In that moment in the interview with both my father and especially Dylan Hamil, I began to realize that maybe going down the path of asking them questions about their covid experience would only net me negative responses so asked them to give me any positive they got from the experience.

“The world was moving at insane speeds through the years, and this pandemic has slowed life down to a turtle’s pace. It forces one to get back to what is important in their life that one may have taken for granted or forgotten.  For me it was GOD, family, and friends,” said Mr. Hamil, “I have learned not to take as many things as I did before for granted. Once we finally be back to  “normal”, I realize now that I have to be thankful every day that I am safe, and healthy. I also now am able to participate in my jobs, and school, and be with people that I love. I will continue to remember that the life we have is a gift, and to embrace that gift and see this current present time can get taken away at a moment’s notice.”

Mark O’Connell was a former student and is currently working the alumni relations office of Morningside University and I wanted to get perspective of what alumni had felt and how they were feeling now that COVID-19 is a thing of the past.

“I think it’s great,” Says Mr. O’Connell, “The world as we know it is slowly getting back to normal, and I think that is a fantastic thing not only for our current students, athletes, and me and family but also for our Alumni. This past week was our Homecoming, and it was a fantastic thing to see all the alumni back to celebrate Morningside university. When I spoke to them there was a pessimistic optimism, they look back on what happened and are deeply saddened, but they are hopeful for the future”.

Overall, obviously covid was a terrible thing, but from the people I talk to people are pulling positives from the pandemic. Which is an outstanding thing but I think the bigger story was what they said about returning to normal, especially from my father Mike Freeman who stated, “I thank god that Covid is over and that we all back on our feet and back to normal now, Morningside is now a University, and we are growing so fast. I cant wait to see what the next couple of years look like.”

It has been almost 600 days since lockdowns hit, and from the 3 people I interviewed it seems has if they will never forgot those 600 days, and they are thankful that they are in the past.

“Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz defends fans booing Penn State players going down”

This article opens up by telling the reader that kirk Ferentz had a weekly press conference after Iowa STOMPED all over Penn States perfect season.

Adam Ritttenberg noted that Kirk Said in his press conference:  “I hope those guys are well, I don’t know what their status is,” Ferentz said. “Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt. But I think probably [the booing] is a reaction to, there were a couple of guys that were down for the count and then were back a play or two later. Our fans aren’t stupid. They’re watching, they know what’s going on. I’ve been here 23 years and I think that’s only the second time we’ve seen that kind of stuff going on.” “We don’t coach it, haven’t really been exposed to it, But our fans thought they smelled a rat, I guess, I don’t know, so they responded the way they responded.”

The Article wrapped up by noting what the Iowa Hawkeyes had done all season and what they faced ahead.

I will admit this article is very sallow and doesn’t give very much detail of the situation, nor it is big time news. Outside of Iowa and Penn State little “bubble” nobody should really give a shit about what Kirk thinks but I just had to note that I love when Kirk stand ups and calls a team that Iowa just stomped on “A rat”.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32389698/iowa-coach-kirk-ferentz-defends-fans-booing-penn-state-players-going-down

Today I went on a mission to be somewhere at an unfamiliar time, it was somewhere that I you can find me every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I am at my Graphic Design Classroom 2 hours before class begins.

As I arrived to Eppley, I saw that the park space that are filled with cars and their commuter sticks that prevent security from giving them tickets were noticeably gone. It was just cement and yellow paint.

Once I was in the building I heard a lack of singing and instruments being played, the usually vibrant Classrooms were bare and empty, as was MC 203 my graphic design classroom.

In the room itself there was me and one other student. The student was a tall dude, with black hair and a black beard with a wrinkly red shirt on. The shirt itself said Saints crossed the front, his high school football team’s nickname, as the dude himself is a morning side football player.

There were something else missing, the buzzing of the printer wasn’t going on, the squeaky of the of the swingline paper cutter going up and down turning what is a gross raw graphic design project into a masterpiece was gone. All that I can hear is the clicking of my keyboard and the buzzing of the old air conditioning units’ fans.

My thoughts at the time as I look out the window was thank god it is almost fall break, the sun was out and I was looking forward to a cold beer when I got back to my house.

COVID AND SPORTS, a Morningside perspective

Where were you March 11^th, 2020? To some that date may not seem significant, but to sports fans it was the day the world stopped turning.

On March 11^th, 2020, Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid-19, and the NBA game between the Jazz and the Thunder was cancelled by the refs’ moments before tip-off. I still remember that night and thinking Holy Shit, Covid-19 is real. Just a couple days later all sports a crossed the world were shut down and we were all forced into a bubble.

For the interest of Morningside Students, I wanted to get insights from a current athlete, and a former student/ current administration, and  some who did go to school here but is current administration.

The very first person I talked to was Dylan Hamil. Mr. Hamil is guy with a little bit of Cali-swag to him, by that I mean he wears his hair long, and overall has very chill mindset and outlook towards the world. He is a man you has an immense love for the sport of volleyball, and when I brought up the topic of the begging of covid and Rudy Gobert Hamil told me, “I remember that night… I am not a avid basketball fan but I remember scrolling through twitter and seeing the images of fans running towards the exits and there being a panic. At the moment my heart snuck, I knew I had lost my season.”

My father Mike Freeman, who works at Morningside University shared similar sentiments when he told me, “I was devasted for our Mustang athletes, especially the seniors because I knew for a lot of them they’d begin to realize they’d played their last game here.”

In that moment in the interview with both my father and especially Dylan Hamil, I began to realize that maybe going down the path of asking them questions about their covid experience would only net me negative responses so asked them to give me any positive they got from the experience.

“The world was moving at warp speed through the years, and this pandemic has slowed life down to a turtle’s pace. It forces one to get back to what is important in their life that one may have taken for granted or forgotten.  For me it was GOD, family, and friends,” said Mr. Hamil, “I have learned not to take as many things as I did before for granted. Once we finally be back to  “normal”, I realize now that I have to be thankful every day that I am safe, and healthy. I also now am able to participate in my jobs, and school, and be with people that I love. I will continue to remember that the life we have is a gift, and to embrace that gift and see this current present time can get taken away at a moments notice.”

During the time of this answer, I notice that Dylan was becoming very passionate about his current ability to enjoy his sport and his busy life. I think Dylan’s mindset of being present and enjoying the little things is important to remember at this time almost a year and a half removed from the start of covid-19.

Mark O’Connell was a former student and is currently working the alumni relations office of Morningside University and I wanted to get perspective of what alumni and how they were feeling now that COVID-19 is a thing of the past.

“I think it’s great,” Says Mr. O’Connell, “The world as we know it is slowly getting back to normal, and I think that is a fantastic thing not only for our current students, athletes, and me and family but also for our Alumni. This past week was our Homecoming, and it was a fantastic thing to see all the alumni back to celebrate Morningside university. When I spoke to them there was a pessimistic optimism, they look back on what happened and are deeply saddened, but they are hopeful for the future”.

Overall obviously covid was a terrible thing, but from the people I talk to people are pulling positives from the pandemic.

It was five minutes before class, Dylan Hamil, in his pink shirt and long hair, had a mini podcast with me  about the NFL.

In honesty the conversation was very pointless and meaningless, however it kept our interest as we discussed and debate over who we thought would a good play on our individual fantasy teams and the best/worst real team in the league.

While conversating you could feel a point of interest for Dylan Hamil was which running back do I play, I suggested to him that he played Derrick Henry and Zeke Eliot. However, Dylan scoffed at this and suggest that he play Henderson.

Hopefully Dylan makes the right decision this week.

In what comes as no shock to any sports fan ever, the rolling drama circus and flat earther Kyrie is still refusing to get vaccinated for covid-19.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst’s sources Brooklyn Nets are still unclear on Kyrie Irving’s vaccine intentions. The Nets are preparing for possibility that he will miss home games, practices

The article starts by stating my lead to this comment before transitioning into informing the reader of the following, “There had been previous optimism that Irving would get vaccinated and fulfill local governmental mandates allowing him to practice and play in New York this season, but that hope is waning, and Irving’s continued resistance to vaccination has the Nets preparing for the possibility that they’ll be without him for home practices and games for the foreseeable future.” Says Adrian Wojnarowski, “If Irving remains unvaccinated, the Nets could soon be faced with a decision on whether they’ll allow Irving to come and go with the team in and out of New York — or just keep him sidelined all together.”

To simplify what Wojnarowski said no shot no play (at least in the State of New York).

The article ends by stating, “The challenge of an unvaccinated Irving could test the Nets immediately in the regular season. With a six-game homestead starting the second week of the season.”

In my opinion this article is very newsworthy because of the fact it is a sport’s article that deals with one of if not the hottest of hot button topic in America, Vaccines. But since we are on the topic of interviews in class I believe the article lacked something by not having a quote from a NBA representative, a Brookly Nets representative, or a governmental representative. The article only gave itself factual evidence by having the two most respected NBA analyst in “Woj” and “Windy” aka Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst. This article was of interest for me because of the opinion I had of Kyrie Irving prior to this new drama (refer to picture).

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32345365/sources-brooklyn-nets-unclear-kyrie-irving-vaccine-intentions-preparing-possibility-miss-home-games-practices

Weeks after announcing all direct NBA players would have to vaccinated Tim Bontemps announces, “Players who are forced to miss games due to the executive orders governing vaccination requirements in both New York and San Francisco will not be paid for any games they miss.”

Mike Bass the NBA executive VP of communications added, “Any player who elects not to comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for games that he misses.”

The article would go on to talk about specific players like Kyrie Irving. It wrapped up saying, “The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association are finalizing an agreement over the health and safety protocols for this season, as ESPN reported Tuesday night when the league sent the protocols to teams.”

This article left me with the question of what about player in cities without vaccination requirements, that test positive? Would they still get paid? I think it was failure of the writer to not address that question, even a speculation without fact would have given the reader more clues into what might happen in that situation. Other than that it was a great article that address the needs of the reader.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32305199/nba-no-pay-unvaccinated-players-play

A student from Morningside University did not have a lot to say about covid (from the point of view of a student).

Dylan Hamil is a transfer student athlete here at Morningside University and when I talked to him about his covid experiences, he had more talk about in terms of his bowling and volleyball teams then he did about being a student.

Dylan Hamil did have fears about school however when he said “My biggest fear about covid is missing out the hands on learning, and in person learning.” This is a fear that I share with Dylan and in our opinion a lot of students have as well.

Hamil’s focus in terms of restrictions, limitations, opportunities, and disappoints had to deal with sports. In summarization of the answers Hamil gave me, he felt like the crowd would restrict his performance, as would the limitations on the practices that could be held. Mr. Hamil felt as if his opportunities to perform his sports are a lot grander now that covid is seemingly over, as he was disappointed in the cancelation of seasons in the past.

In the end, Hamil held a positive outlook on this next year at Morningside.

“I missed out on a few of the typical freshman experiences at my previous school, but I am now able to meet a lot of people through the volleyball and bowling teams. It is a great time.”