Halloween Blog Post

I finally got a mentor, Dr. Kilianski from Georgia Regents University. I'd like to thank Lucas and his dad for there help in securing a mentor for me.

I finished the League of Denial documentary today as well. That is one of the most powerful films I have ever seen. The magnitude of denial by the NFL just baffles me.

"The NFL showed 765 million reasons why you shouldn't play football." - Harry Carson on the NFL's $765 million dollar settlement on concussions in the NFL.

Oct 29, 2014

I emailed Dr. Chen to see if he could defer me to one of the neurology residents at UT Southwestern.

I watched part of the League of Denial documentary for the rest of class and hope to finish watching it next class. I got to the 56:00 mark of the 2 hour documentary

Quote from the documentary "They didn't think I was practicing medicine. They thought I was practicing voodoo." - Dr. Bennett Omalu recounting what the NFL's mTBI (mild traumatic brain injury) committee thought about his discovery of CTE in NFL players.

Oct 27, 2014

http://www.seahawks.com/videos-photos/videos/Seahawks-Tackling/af5b80dd-7e39-4519-8b80-ad558292b1a6

Today I watched this documentary on Seahawks Tackling, which I talked briefly about last post.
It goes in depth in how the Seahawks, known to be one of the best defensive teams in the NFL, tackle.
There style of tackling is directly related to rugby tackling.
THEY TACKLE EFFECTIVELY AND SAFELY.
MAKE THIS MANDATORY ROGER GOODELL.

Hopefully I can find the League of Denial Documentary for next time, which would be on Friday since I have my meeting with Marberry next class.

I also completed Stephen Blair's survey.

Oct. 23, 2014

I've been working hard on my thesis project the last couple of class periods so I've begone to shift my focus toward college oriented things, like this CSS profile. So I've just be continually filling it out this class period.

However, I'm also looking into the basic rules of rugby. If I want to know how to the NFL can benefit from rugby I should at least know how the game of rugby is played. So I've been looking a lot into that.

Next class I'll look more into the specifics of tackling in rugby.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/30/pete-carroll-urges-rugby-style-tackling-in-instructional-video/
Pete Carroll, coach of the Seahawks, urges rugby style tackling in the NFL.

Tuesday Oct. 21

1. Got my picture taken for the yearbook
2. Got my transcripts from Ms. Randle
3. Looked for possible mentors/judges in Correa's book of business cards

I'm thinking about looking at some lawyers for the legislation part of my project.
I also began filling out my CSS profile.

Fluid Layer Helmets to protect against oblique impacts

I'm now beginning to look in depth in every specific prevention technique possible to reduce the rate of receiving a concussion.

Right now I am focusing on helmets, more specifically fluid layer helmets. I believe that radical changes need to be taken in this department because helmets are used in football and other sports at all age levels.

http://www.gizmag.com/mips-helmet-technology/21656/
A company in Sweden called MIPS is developing a fluid layer helmet to protect against oblique impacts.
http://apps.research.ufl.edu/otl/pdf/marketing/13586.pdf
http://w3.cns.org/dp/2011CNS/1250.pdf
The University of Florida is also trying to develop a fluid layer helmet. I believe that, while in its infancy, fluid layer helmets may be a piece of the solution needed to reduce the rate of receiving concussions.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/helmet-wars-and-new-helmet-could-protect-us-all?page=0%2C3
Another, longer article about "The Helmet that May Save Football"

One question I should probably address is what do I mean by fluid layer. Firstly, I'm talking about Non-Newtonian fluid, so nothing like water or any liquid of that sorts. Non-Newtonian fluids are things like magma, lava, yogurt, and mucus. There is a shear thickening and thinning associated with Non-Newtonian fluids.

No Blog Today

ACT Today, was not in class.

Last day of Presentations

Today was the last day of presentations. Regular blogging will begin starting next week.

Presentation and ACT registration

Today I presented my thesis project to my peers. I think it went pretty well, literally nobody knew about the the ramifications of experiencing a traumatic brain injury or concussion except Mr. Correa, which exemplifies what TAG is all about - the teachers know more about sports than the students.

Ms. Langet came in our class today to help the class register for the ACT.

Thesis Presentation and Mentor

Fifty minutes of class was dedicated towards my peers' thesis presentations. Good job to all those that presented today.

I believe I have solidified who my mentor will be. Hopefully, Lucas's dad, Dr. Chen, will be kind enough to donate his time to be my mentor. He does research in sports medicine so he is my ideal mentor.

I'm still working on my presentation for Wednesday. It's going to be pretty fantastic. At first, my presentation was around seven minutes because I just kept going on and on about my topic. However, I've been able to cut it to a respectable amount, around five minutes and forty-five seconds. \

Found this pretty cool quote from this article: "But TMZ can’t leak a video that shows athletes’ brains deteriorating, so most people ignore the story. Our collective outrage is saved for what’s easiest to watch online."

More Housekeeping

1. Got my transcripts from Ms. Randle which took about 30 minutes
2. Looked up how I could send my transcripts to my colleges
3. Finished up my bibliography
4. Started on my presentation

EDIT: found this interesting article about Niles Paul that came out recently