DID YOU KNOW...

First off... I posted 4 posts tonight (but dated them for the days that it happened) so be sure to scroll down and check them out.

Foreign aid health programs are actually profitable!!! Like zomgosh, Natalie must be full of it! Sometimes even returning $60 for every $1 spent (tuberculosis).

I'm working on my international health class and I'm reading Levine articles and I'm so astonished! I mean, I've always been pro-health & public health in developing countries (well all countries)... but it was for ethical and personal beliefs concerning human rights. But I never considered the economic effects!! (see below and feel free to click on links for more info)


Think about it. Here is a generalized and oversimplified way of explaining it:

You have a disease or parasite that is perpetrating poverty because it debilitates adults (and children). This means that they can't work because they are sick/bedridden/ handicapped. It also means sick children can't go to school (feeding the poverty cycle), it increases malnutrition in children (because parents can't care for them if they themselves are sick), malnutrition leads to other health complications making health care even more expensive.

Then someone rich and smart comes along and says, "hmmm I'll pay to implement a program that will change behavior, increase accesses to basic an easy health care...etc". And in the long run prevent the problem, leading to eradication.

Once the target population is alleviated from the epidemic they can work, go to school etc.. which helps the economy. Which not only stops human suffering, stops the poverty cycle (and we won't even go into how that alleviates political unrest).

Here are some examples of cost effectiveness:

Small Pox: Because of the eradication of Small Pox, every 26 days the US saves the amount we contributed to the eradication of Small Pox because we no longer have to vaccinate and treat the disease.

TB in China: an economic rate of return of $60 for each dollar invested.

Guinea Worm: economic rate of return based on agricultural productivity alone has been estimated at 29 percent

Onchocerciasis/ River Blindess: Project totaled $600 million. The annual return on investment was calculated to be about 20%, primarily attributable to increased agricultural output; about $3.7 billion will be generated from improved labor and agricultural productivity.

BEAUTIFUL

debate

I watched the debate. I gave my dad a 15 min thorough brake down of my thoughts and reactions to what both candidates said... so you're spared. (I'm slightly annoyed though because he only remarked on one issue to me... I got shafted).

I did laugh when Barack called John "Jim". oops. He needs to work on that impromptu speaking.

I will tell you this though: "I'm asking you to BELIEVE."

can i brag?

Ok so I'm a bad student. Like a really bad student. I don't go to class (or go to the wrong one), I stay up late, and I definitely never study for tests. I just don't... I am incapable of studying and/or cramming.

It's kind of a problem.

So when I am successful in school, I have to brag because it's rare. To give you a better Idea of my track record: Last time I bragged was when I finally got above a 90% on a test/ quiz (first time ever)... it was on at the very end of my freshman year and it was an 11 question religion quiz. I posted a picture of my score on this blog. Lame

This time it was two things.
I got a 39/40 on my Egypt paper for History (class average was 33/40).

I got a 33/33 on my online stats HW tonight. It took me 2 hours and when I started I almost left the lab to go cry (honestly, I do cry easily) because this one TA was super rude to me. I ended up working with some other students and we totally cranked our way through it. Accomplishment felt sooo good.

story of my life...

Disclaimer: I promise this is true, and I promise I am intelligent.

There is no easy way to say this, so I'll just put it out there. For the first 4 weeks of school (as of today, Thursday) I went to the wrong Religion class.

soak that up. 4 weeks of the wrong lectures, wrong hw.

Everyone I've told is astonished and can't believe I was that unaware for 4 weeks.

Here is my defense.
MY REAL New Testament class is on T TH 1pm room 110 JSB.
I went to the New Testament class on T TH 1pm room 110 JKB.
When I copied down my schedule I either slipped and wrote a K or wrote so badly that I read it as a K. Really, what are the chances that on the same day, time, and room number there would be the same subject being taught in a different building and that I would just happen to encounter that bad luck?

I'll tell you the chance... 100%

it's funny but completely sad. My "wrong" teacher has been teaching us chronologically, and my "real" teacher has been doing thematic lessons... so I can't just start going to my real class and be just dandy. And if I petition to stay in the "wrong" class and succeed, I still miss this weekends test.

yup. but it's a good story. I'll add it to the list.

this is stats

When you have a class of 100+ students, someone is bound to make a comment that is silly.

It happened in history today, but I have a feeling the guy in history will consistently make bad comments, so I'll wait for a better one. Instead, I'm going to tell you about the one in statistics.

We were discussing how surveys can be biased, and the importance of large numbers and randomness.
Our teacher showed this graph of Bush's approval rating. We weren't talking about politics at all... only observing that some organizations were biased one way or the other, but that with all of them together we could see a general trend.


One girl raised her hand and said, "Yeah, but like, what if all of those are biased?"
1) He just said they were all biased.
2) The prof then went on to say that he highly doubted that 13 independent organizations with different political leanings would all choose to be biased in the same direction.

I'm back!

Wow so I am so bad at this whole blogging thing. Last semester I wanted to stop blogging until I got to Bolivia; then I got to Bolivia and posted one time. Good thing you guys talked me into keeping up the blog before I left, because South America Natalie is even more distracted than BYU Natalie.

I haven't even been home for 3 weeks yet and already I have gone to Lake Powell, read Breaking Dawn (anyone want to discuss this with me?), packed up and moved into my apartment, and started class.

I sort of want a summer, oh well.

A bad news minute. For those of you who haven't heard yet, one of my adventures in Bolivia consisted of getting robbed at gun point while hiking... they took everything, including my camera, so once again my blog will be visual boring, and this time there is no light at the end of the tunnel (as in you can't look forward to me buying another one anytime soon).

So at the moment I'm trying to get a mountain of independent study work done so that I can get some BYU credit for my summer of volunteer work... but at the same moment I am getting HW from all my current classes at BYU. Not a pretty situation. But give me a couple weeks and it should be back to the normal current class loads and I'll be able to blog again.

Just wanted to say a little "hello there" and let you know I'm back in business. I'm excited to read all your blogs and catch up on 3 months worth of stories!

love you all!!

-natalie-