Sam Muto

One topic that I am extremely passionate about is the captivity of marine mammals. The fact that it is possible for people to capture mammals that are 25 feet in length and over 8,000 pounds is beyond me! Why would you even want to go through the trouble of doing that in the first place? The main organization that I am targeting is SeaWorld because they are the most well known marine animal capturers. SeaWorld keeps dolphins, orca whales, beluga whales, multiple types of sharks, manatees, stingrays, walruses, sea otters, sea turtles, and many more types of fish captive for the pleasure of people.  The size of the tanks that the orca whales are kept in are only 350 feet long. 350 feet!!!! Compared to the Earth who is 71% water, a 350 foot tank is nothing for those orca whales. Same with the dolphins, sharks, and all other sea creatures.  Earlier last week, Bill S-203 finally passed through the Senate. "Bill S-203 is a an act to end the captivity of Dolphins and Whales. ...

As annoying, and sometimes scary, as they are, honey bees are absolutely essential to human life and not many people realize that. Bees are the main source of pollination and without them there would be no plants, flowers, trees, or crops. Without trees, there would be no air, and no air means no humans! According to Greenpeace, honey bees perform about 80% of all pollination worldwide. As crazy as it sounds, a single honey bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day. They are also responsible for the pollination of 70 out of 100 human crops which is about 90% of the world's nutrition. With all of that being said, why would we want them to go extinct? There are so many factors that contribute to the extinction of bees. The NAPPC (North American Pollinator Protection Campaign) says that the health of the honey bees is declining. Some factors that cause their health to be so poor is parasites, viruses, and pesticides. There are a few simple things that can be done to hel...

Social media is my main source of news. Recently, the only topic people are talking about on Twitter is the climate change dilemma. Some people believe that global warming is not real, but clearly it is!  So basically what is happening is that the global temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fehrenheit  in the 19th century. The rise in temperature is caused by the increase in human-made emissions in the atmosphere. Long story short, the only way to change what is happening to our planet is for us to care enough to change our lifestyles! The oceans are warming up, ice sheets are shrinking, sea levels are rising, and there is a countless number of natural disasters happening. This is happening because all of the gases that are being released into the atmosphere are blocking the heat from radiating into space. Although it doesn't quite feel like it, all of the heat is being trapped in like a snow globe and there is no way for it to escape. That is why all of the glaciers an...

At the end of the 2017-2018 cheerleading season, the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administration (AACCA) decided to change some of the "safety" rules. For the 2018 cheerleading season, they decided that some of the skills being performed should only be allowed with boys. Meaning that 3 boys toss one girl rather than girls tossing girls. The reasoning behind changing this rule is because boys are stronger and will be able to execute the skill better. It is a little confusing to me because I was performing the same task all season last year with a group that consisted of four girls and ONE boy. I am typically not one to be offended  by things like this. I am not a major feminist at all. I tend to have the "it is what it is" mindset in these type of cases. But this is really bothering me because it restricts me from showing my potential as a 10th-year cheerleader! What could be done to reverse these rules? What could people do or say to prove th...

There is a limitless amount of controvercial topics in the world; especially in this day in age. No one can agree on anything because everyone is too sensitive and stubborn to change their opinion on any topic. I get that it is hard to see other sides to a story and actually change your opinion but the least that you can do is respect your, for a lack of a better word, opponent's opinion. One topic that people are the absolute worst at seeing both sides to is same sex marriage. As a member of the Catholic community, I am supposed to believe that same sex marriage is wrong. Why though? God is supposed to love everyone no matter who you are or what you do. So why is there so much hate? One thing I will never understand is hate on love. With that being said, it brings me to my main topic: LGBT adoption. According to hopeeffect.com, there are about 153 million, yes, million, orphans worldwide. With that being said, why are people against same sex marriage adoption? Why wouldn't...

One of the many current events going on in America today that has caught my interest is the Nike Boycott. People are enraged that Nike has chosen Colin Kaepernick, and ex-NFL player, to be the face of their most recent campaign. The ad is a close-up of Kaepernick’s face with the quote “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything”. That is so significant to him, personally, because he was the first NFL player who knelt during the National Anthem, which is huge! People are beyond disgusted that Nike chose him, someone who “completely disrespected America and all of the troops fighting for his freedom” to represent them! How dare they choose someone who safely and soundly practiced their right to protest and their freedom of speech? How dare they! In return to Nike’s ad, people are burning their Nike clothing to show that they no longer support the brand. Some people actually went out and bought Nike product just to go home to burn it. It is rather comical to...

Yes.. I’m one of those: a major Youtube junkie (and a conspiracy theory enthusiast). I always find that most of my time is spent on Youtube researching the loopholes of the Earth. It is so intriguing and interesting to me to see how others view different situations. They almost always convince me to join the bandwagon of what they believe happened in a certain event or with a certain person.  Considering what anniversary passed this week, 9/11, I figured that I would talk about some conspiracy theories that have come up about 9/11. My favorite Youtuber, Shane Dawson, makes videos on almost every conspiracy theory known to man. He dedicated one video to just 9/11 conspiracy theories.  In this video, he talks about how some people believe that it was “planned” by president Bush. That is fairly believable. But one thing that he talks about that I’m not so sure that I am on board with is that it was “fake”. By fake I mean that the planes did not enter the buildi...

The other day in class we were assigned a Ted Talk to watch. This Ted by Dan Gross is all about gun violence, a topic I am very interested in. His best strategy for getting people on-board with his side of the argument was using a personal story for them to relate to. His brother was a victim of a shooting, by being a bystander, and got shot in the head causing the rest of his life to be quite different. He talked about all of the fatalities that happen everyday and that all of these things could be prevented.  I thought that this topic was very relevant to life today because during the school year, day after day, all you hear on the news is that there was a school shooting. As someone who is going into the education field, I do not want to think about risking my life every time I wake up to go to work that day. A school should be a safe place for kids; almost a second home to them. Something needs to change. I agree with Dan when he said that he does not want to get rid o...

My name is Samantha Muto and I am a sophomore at Gannon University located in the snowy city of Erie, Pennsylvania. I am originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which, in my opinion, is the greatest city on Earth! I think I am really going to enjoy keeping a blog because I LOVE to write. Give me a good topic and I could go on for days! I cannot wait for this semester.