19
Unravelling the Mystery
13
15
Welcome to EYP!
What Type of Delegate Are You?
9
A Journalist Guide to GA
7
A Typical Greek
Editorial
Featured stories
What’s inside...
5
Truth About the Truth
This editorial is dedicated to two people who have not been credited enough yet. First, There is Randolf who is our lovely proofreader and all around help. Without him, we would still be sitting and editing the first issue! Secondly, Fotis is the man with the videocamera. His great vidoes will definitely remind you of the great times you had. BIG THANKS TO THEM! The editors, Johan and Alex
the man behind the legend: An Interview with Jorg Körner I’m the King, b**ch.
I have been granted an audience with the “big man” himself: The President of this 24th Greek NSC. A wise, experienced 26-yearold, Jorg Körner tells me all about his devotion to EYP. by Philip Dyson
Jorg is working on a Ph.D. How, I ask him, does he manage to fit in all the vast amounts of time required for EYP sessions? He responds immediately, “I use all my holidays”. I thought this showed a lot of devotion. “No, some people might just think I´m an idiot” he says.
Jorg hopes that in this session he will be able to inspire delegates. He wants them to realise that they could be part of something amazing where they can think beyond borders and national selfishness, to come to a solution that will be good for all. He wants them to recognise that the opportunity they When he began his EYP career, have here is much more than Jorg was far from the humble, they get on a normal school measured character that he is day: Speaking in front of a vast today. He describes himself as group of people that are willing to listen, it’s not a chance you Too Sexy want to miss. for ur Love
He tells me that, like many of us, after most sessions he feels physically empty, wanting to just lie in a bed for days. He tends to feel both happy and distraught at the same time. But of course that shows that the experience was just all the more worthwhile. Hopefully, you’ll follow his steps. having been “cocky” and arrogant when he first began. EYP changed this though. He met so many intelligent and socially engaging people, from whom he learnt so many things, that he was able to get down from his high horse. It gave him the drive to develop his personal skills. EYP has influenced him more than just socially though: He claims that almost all of the methods he uses while working, he learned from EYP.
In ten mins... German time
Get To Know The Chairs! By: Eva Tsoukala and Emil Bremnes By now, you have probably gotten to know your own chair quite well. But who are all these other weirdoes? Here is some fascinating information about each and every one of the chairs. They are facts you’ll find interesting, but would never dare to ask them about.
a) What country do you come from? b) What do you study? c) When and where was your first EYP session? d) Who is the most beautiful woman/handsome man in the world? e) What is your favourite song? f) What would be the ideal Christmas present for you?
IMCO I
AFCO
ECON
ITRE I
Irem a) Turkey b) Law c) The Summer Olympic Forum ‘07 d) Jared Leto e) “A Sorta Fairytale” – Tori Amos f) A plane ticket to everywhere Ilias a) Greece b) Medicine c) The 20th NSC Greece ‘09 d) Ana Ivanovic e) “Rock You Like a Hurricane” – Scorpions f) A trip to London
Jonathan a) Sweden b) Philosophy, politics and economy c) Swedish NS ‘08 d) Penelope Cruz e) “Road Tripping” – Red Hot Chilli Peppers f) A super-cool bike with flashy things and a stereo Evanthia a) Greece b) Law c) 20th NSC Greece ‘09 d) Robert Pattinson e) “Iris” – Goo-goo Dolls f) An Au Hermès Birkin bag
Luka a) Croatia b) Mechanic Engineering c) IS in Berlin ‘04 d) Eva Longoria e) “Snow” – Red Hot Chilli Peppers f) To go to Mars… Chryssa a) Greece b) Pre. Med c) 19th NSC Greece ‘09 d) Adam Levine e) “No Surprises” – Radiohead f) An extra month of vacation, for doing nothing. ITRE II Adam a) Poland b) High School student c) EYP Poland NSC – 2011 d) Renee Zellweger in Chicago/ Sean Connery e) “Cocaine” – Eric Clapton f) A truckload of cookies Lavrentia a) Greece b) Physics c) EYP Greece NSC – Athens ‘06 d) Megan Fox/ Jude Law e) Try to find this out during the session (!) f) A trip to the Norwegian fjords
EMPL
Pia a) Germany b) Economy c) Frankfurt Forum ‘03 d) George Clooney e) “Philosophy” – Ben Folds Five f) A cat Aspa a) Greece b) Mechanical Engineering c) 17th NSC Greece ‘07 d) Pep Guardiola e) Hey You” – Pink Floyd f) A ticket to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert and Pia!
CULT
Bircan a) Turkey b) Law c) Turkish NS, Jan. ‘08 d) Christian Bale e) “Paradise” – Coldplay f) An Audi Meni a) Greece b) Architectural Engineering c) 16th NSC Greece ‘07 d) George Clooney e) “Beautiful Day” – U2 f) Many, many kisses
ITRE II
Leo a) Germany b) Maths c) EYP Germany NSC – Würzburg ‘10 d) Keira Knightley/ Jason Statham e) “Little lion man” – Mumford & Sons f) A bed to put things on Dimitris a) Greece b) Chemical Engineering c) EYP Greece NSC – Thessaloniki ‘06 d) Chandler Bing from the “Friends” e) “Isolation” – Joy Division f) A jeep road trip in the mountains/A solar energy charger IMCO I
Jorg a) Germany b) Neurobiology c) EYP Germany NSC – ‘05 d) Natalie Portman / Hugh Laurie e) “Keine Liebe” – Prinz Pi f) Holidays in France ECON
Maral a) Greece/Armenia b) Medicine c) EYP Greece NSC – Thessaloniki ‘05 d) Megan Fox/ Channing Tatum e) “Oh very young” – Cat Stevens f) Skydiving lessons IMCO II
AFET
Mara a) Greece b) Law c) EYP Greece NSC – Athens ‘05 d) Debbie Harry/ Ryan Gosling e) “Someday” – The Strokes f) A perfect New Year’s Eve party AFCO
Gio a) Greece b) Electrical/ Computer Engineering c) EYP Greece NSC – Athens ‘06 d) Megan Fox/ Johnny Depp / Jude Law e) “Don’t you forget about me” – Simple Minds f) A 27 inches led TV / New slippers Dunja a) England b) Gap year / Future History student c) Durham Nationals ‘10 d) Megan Fox / Marlon Brando/ Zac Efron e) “Brown eyed girl” – Morissey f) A Swiss watch
CULT
EMPL
ITRE II
ITRE I
AFET
ITRE III
IMCO II
The truth about the truth By: Ileana Lazea
Mind reading, therefore, is undoubtedly getting closer to becoming an active part of a not-so-far future.
Mind-reading, something that exists only in movies or can it be possible in the near future? Ileana tells you about the new findings on this controversial topic....
M
ind-reading… For the moment it is still science fiction, but that may not be the case for much longer! Several lines of inquiry are converging on the idea that the neurological activity of the brain can be decoded directly, and people’s thoughts revealed without being spoken. Researchers from the University of Minnesota have recently reported that their volunteers can successfully fly a helicopter (admittedly a virtual one, on a computer screen) through a threedimensional digital sky, merely by thinking about it. Signals from electrodes taped to the scalp of such pilots provide enough information for a computer to work out exactly what the pilot wants to do. Being both interesting and useful, mind-reading of this sort will allow the disabled to lead more normal lives, and the able-bodied to extend their range of possibilities even further. But there is another kind of mind-reading too: deter-
mining, by scanning the brain, what someone is actually thinking about. This experiment is endorsed by recently published papers and it led to the development of a large number of theories. Jack Gallant of the University of California, Berkeley wanted to prove that it is now possible to make a surprisingly accurate reconstruction of exactly what is passing through an awake person’s mind. Therefore, three members of his team were appointed to watch assorted film trailers while sitting perfectly still in an fMRI Machine for two hours. Focusing on the visual cortex, their method of assessment depended on the brute power of modern computing, for after comparing the frames from the film trailers with those being watched, they looked for similarities. They “fed” their computer with 5000 hours of clips from Youtube and asked it to predict, based on the correlation they discovered, what the matching fMRI pattern would look like.
The next step consisted of another two hours spent in the machine, watching trailers, while the computer analyzed the reactions of the doctors’ visual cortexes and picked, for each clip, 100 bits of YouTube footage whose corresponding hypothetical fMRI pattern best matched the real one. By melding the clips together to produce an estimate of what the real clip looked like, the result was often a simulacrum of the original, also moving in the same way as the clip it was based on. Mind reading, therefore, is undoubtedly getting closer to becoming an active part of a not-sofar future. However, putting aside the advantages it might bring along, this great achievement will also abolish the ability to lie. Transparency, honesty, we all support them, but we have to also agree upon the fact that Homo sapiens has turned lying into an art and calling it: diplomacy, public relations or simple good manners, lying is one of the things that makes our current world go round!
Chronicles of a meeting part II By: Dimos Papadimitriou and Ileana Lazea
The second day came fast. The previously unacquainted individuals all of a sudden became a bonded committee group. Post-Its, drafts and ideas would go flying all over the Vasileiadis high school rooms. A day of (hard) committee work was ahead, problems should be tackled, potential solutions had to be found; the echo of the youthful, fresh, innovative perspectives would immerse the building. Then came Aristotle and Plato carrying huge packs of research papers, Wikipedia articles and
topic overviews. The two delegates have been working hard to make the most out of the session. Much to their relief, they soon understood that they were sufficiently prepared for the session. The atmosphere was motivating them and giving them an upbeat mentality. The occasion triggered passionate conversations between the participants and the same applied to our heroes.
ous and daring approaches were expressed. Nevertheless, at that moment they did not envision that something could go wrong. But committee work also involves compromising between opposing viewpoints. And those contrasting approaches to the same situation were evident.
Those were the questions that were constantly on the minds of our two delegates. Despite the complicated topics, smart, seri-
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A Typical Greek Based on a Foreigners Perspective
By: Emil Bremnes
Considering that my hometown is located on the top of the world, a place so cold you freeze your ass off during both winter and summertime, and your closest neighbours are polar bears, it’s a true pleasure for me to take part in this great session in Thessaloniki, Greece. It’s a place where you get temperatures far above zero and the opportunity to actually interact with other human beings – not only your neighbours (the above-mentioned polar bears). Having spent roughly three days here, working closely together with and observing several native Greeks, I would say I have gotten a pretty good idea of what a Greek person is like, both when it comes to appearances and personality. For that reason, I would like to paint you a picture of a typical Greek, based on a foreigner’s perspective. (Keep in mind that it’s only a “stereotypical view” on some of the characteristics I have repeatedly seen in Greek people.)
Greek people only eat meat. Though that might not be completely true, it sure seems like it. And who can blame you when your meat is so good? If I had lived here, I would probably eat nothing but souvlaki. It’s that good.
Greek guys are hairy. And that’s a fact! Never before have I seen so many beards in one and the same place. Am I jealous? Absolutely. If I could pick any beard to grow on my face, it would be a Greek beard.
Greek people are always late. Sometimes I wonder if anything happens on time in this country…
Greek people are very relaxed. Even though a bus that was supposed to arrive on time is over an hour late, you don’t freak out or anything. Instead you utilize the extra time you’ve been given to do something productive. That is truly admirable.
Greek people always wear sunglasses. Can’t let the sun damage those pretty brown/ blue/green/[insert color] eyes.
Greek people are really loud. Seriously, how can you be that passionate about absolutely everything? Not that I even have a clue what they’re shouting about...
Greek people are very friendly. Getting asked at least ten times if I needed help carrying a suitcase says a lot. Greek people are helpful, kind and really good people. That is the main reason to why I believe this NSC is going to be an amazing one.
Crossword
By: Bruce Willis and Katerina Alexaki
ACROSS 1. The only Greek food foreigners know 2. The city you are in 3. General… 4. Europe’s national anthem 5. A government’s foreign financial …
DOWN 2. The theme of the session 6. European [not commission but…] 7. European Youth Parliament or for short 8. Your current continent. 9. This session’s president’s name 10. Judges of the Session
1. Souvlaki 2a. Thessaloniki 3. Assembly 4. Ode to Joy 5. Debt 6. 2d Technology 6. Parliament 7. EYP 8. Europe 9. Jorg 10. Jury
A journalist guide to General Assembly By: Ileana Lazea and Mirja Kuhlencord
The big day has come. You have got to know each other and grown together as a committee. You have had good and bad moments. You have worked a lot in order to write a strong resolution. Now, it’s time to harvest the fruits of your work. It’s time for the climax and final part of this EYP session. Welcome to the General Assembly or simply called GA! During this event, in keeping with the parliamentary rules of the European Parliament, your committees will take turns to present the beforehand written resolutions to the plenary. After the defence and attack speeches, lively debates in English will ensue, culminating in the voting-procedure on the resolutions itself. We want to make sure you feel well prepared for this crucial part of the session and therefore give you some advice that will guide you through the day. Before GA Get the right outfit! The dress code is formal and you should arrive with appropriate clothes at the GA venue – we want to see suits, shirts, ties, dresses and skirts. Girls better use flat shoes like ballerinas rather than high heels so that they will still be able to walk and to perform some great energisers.
Make sure you have read the other resolutions and prepared speeches as well as questions. Then, Keep calm, take a deep breath and relax a bit. Don’t worry – you’re going to do a great job! During GA Be respectful! Despite widely divergent opinions the discussions shall be marked by mutual respect and provide a valuable and interesting experience for everyone. Try to keep an eye on things to praise as well, not only on things you would like to attack. Keep actively participating! Listen carefully; write post-its to communicate and raise your placards as often as you can. And, drink a lot of coffee taking advantage of the coffee breaks. Give short massages to each other to compensate stress. After GA Be proud of yourselves! No matter if your resolution has passed or not and no matter if selected or not, all of you will have contributed to some great three days. Hug the others, tell them what they did well and look forward to…Christmas!
Are your mouths watering? On the menu today is some delicious Greek foods. By: Evgenia Faraza
We asked our non-Greek officials which is the first Greek food that comes to their mind! The results..? Out of 15 people 6 chose souvlaki, 2 gyros, 2 Greek salad, 2 tzatziki, 1 mousakas, 1 bougatsa, 1 feta cheese. Favourite drink? Ouzo of course! Let’s take a quick look at the ingredients that make these dishes so delicious...!
Mousakas: A very traditional and hard-to-make food that includes mincemeat, potatoes, tomatoes, onion, eggplant, parsley and tomato sauce. One piece is enough for your tummy to be full! Gyros: The most common food that you can find anywhere in Greece. It has pork meat or the internationally famous souvlaki, onion, tomatoes, tzatziki, fried potatoes, mustard, ketchup and pita. We usually ask for a “pita gyro to go”. That is why you probably see many people outside walking with a pita gyro in their hand and a satisfied smile, because of the taste of gyros! Tzatziki: The sauce that goes with everything! With meat, bread, potatoes, etc. It is easy to make: you only need to have cucumbers, yoghurt, oil, vinegar, salt and garlic. Garlic is the essence of tzatziki! Some people say the more garlic, the better. But, attention: do NOT eat tzatziki before the committee work, the General Assembly or, in general, before an important meeting, an interview or a social gathering. People will walk away from you, because of the smell of garlic!! Greek Salad: The first thing that the tourists order in a Greek “taverna”, especially in the islands. Cut some cucumbers, tomatoes and onions, put a couple of olives, cut a big slice of feta cheese (another favourite food of the tourists), add salt, oil and a handful of fresh oregano, and there you go! Your Greek salad is ready! Bougatsa: The best snack that you can have for breakfast with your coffee or during your break at school/university! It is hot, and you can order it with cheese, plain cream or cream with chocolate! Of course, you can find it...everywhere! Are you hungry yet? Is your mouth watering? Go have your coffee break or your lunch! Taste the Greek food, quench your appetite and get ready to write your resolutions!! Bon
appetit! Καλή όρεξη!
Spry a project intended to help Parkinson’s patients by Eva Tsoukala Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. The motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease result from the death of dopamine-generating cells in the substantia nigra, a region of the midbrain. Early in the course of the disease, the most obvious symptoms are movement-related, including shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement and difficulty with walking and gait. Later, cognitive and behavioural problems may arise, with dementia commonly occurring
in the advanced stages of the disease. Parkinson can be treated in its early stages, but patients who have been suffering from the disease for years can’t be very hopeful. As the disease progresses and dopamine neurons continue to be lost, a point eventually arrives at which drugs such as levodopa and dopamine (used to treat the early
stages of the disease) become ineffective at treating the symptoms and at the same time produce a complication called dyskinesia, marked by involuntary writhing movements. Most patients end up taking a combination of drugs that might not have the desired results in the long run. Furthermore, some of these drugs have been proven to cause side effects such as: excessive daytime sleepiness, low blood pressure, behavioural problems, liver damage, nausea and insomnia. Having acknowledged the crucial relations between the symptoms of PD and the effectiveness of medication, David Byrne, Elliot Cohen, Alexandra Dumitriu, Selene Mota, and Michalis Tolkas started a very special project named “Spry”. The development of the prototype took place during the Independent Activities Period 2011 of the MIT and in the Health and Wellness Innovation workshop organized by the MIT Media Lab’s New Media Medicine research group. Thanks to Wockets (special wearable accelerometers) each patient can track the magnitude of various forms of tremor. The data will be then sent through Bluetooth to the patient’s mobile phone which in turn will provide the
data to a remote server for further analysis. Among others, the results of this analysis will correlate symptom intensity with medication adherence over time (day, week, and month). The results may also be sent to a practitioner for evaluation. This can now save the patient from huge amounts of money and time that are usually spent during clinic visits. Spry also allows the patient to insert additional information such as their mood during the day which can be also correlated with the effectiveness of medical treatment. It becomes evident that this project is a very useful tool for those who are in need of special treatment in order to fight against this incurable disease. People have been suffering for years and years because of not taking the right medication to fight Parkinson’s. Today, scientists have the solution to various serious health problems including this specific disease. Spry project is a wonderful example of how people can make a radical change in the field of health. What we have to do is congratulate and thank those who ran this project and encourage talented young scientists to dedicate even further to their field of expertise.
WHAT TYPE OF DELEGATE ARE YOU? by: Achilleas Platanitis 1) What did you think when you first saw the
6) What will you probably do when you get home words, “24th National Selection Conference of tonight? the European Youth Parliament - Greece”? a) Log into Facebook and update my status a) Boring political thing - time to look cool. about how awesome the day was. b) Excellent chance to practice politics. b) Study all of the notes from the day and then c) Is it something I have to be social at? gather some more. d) Whaaat...? c) Get some rest and make sure no one sees my notes. 2) What was your reaction to the topic overd) Drop straight into bed! view? a) Too cool to read it until the night before. 7) Most important object of the session for you: b) Read every little bit of information you could a) Designer sunglasses. possibly find. b) My amazingly large folder with notes in it. c) Read it well, but told no one about it. c) My notebook. d) Fell asleep while reading it. d) Some warm, comfortable clothes. 3) What did you (or would you) include in your suitcase for the session? a) Designer clothes, expensive gadgets and impressive shiny things. b) Loads of notes, really well ironed shirts and a pair of spare glasses. c) Clothes, notes, and gadgets, but no one can look inside it. Not even a peek. d) Whatever my mom has put in it, mostly. I didn’t really bother.
8) What are your current feelings about the session? a) I feel excited and popular. b) I feel excited and really well prepared. c) I feel excited but also a bit shy. d) I feel excited but also a bit tired.
9) Describing the session so far in three words, those would probably be: a) Socializing, Popularity, Awesomeness. b) Politics, Studying, Discussions 4) What do your notes look like? c) Brainstorming, Listening, Learning a) Folders with awesome names, saved in a d) Fun, Chatting, Chilling. super cool tablet PC. b) Categorized notes (highlighted with 4 differ- 10) What will you ask from Santa Claus this ent colors) covering every single aspect. year? c) Sufficient, effective and smart notes that a) The new iPhone 4S. may be looked at by you, and you only. b) An organisational folder for my notes. d) Mainly superficial notes with a few short, but c) I’m not going to tell you! smart comments. d) Something fun, I guess. 5) What do you do during a coffee break? a) Hanging out, looking cool. b) Run to next computer to look something up about the topic. c) Sitting in a quiet corner, watching people go by. d) Taking a quick nap. Just five minutes…
Mostly (a)’s: “Too Cool for School!” You’re the cool figure in this session. You’re the person that walks in a room with your perfect style or sparkling jewelry, impressing people before you even meet them. You want to be the person that everyone wants to be around and you can make a pretty fine delegate – as long as you don’t spend more time in front of a mirror instead of doing research.
Mostly (b)’s: “The Nerd Herd” You’re a walking library, as far as your subject is concerned. You know every single little detail and you know it well. You’re most likely to be the person who learns all the technical stuff so you’ll be able to do great in committee work. It’s too bad that you can’t read up on social skills as well. But don’t get preoccupied with that; play to your strengths and put your superior knowledge to use.
Mostly (c)’s: “The silence before the (brain) storm” You’re the ‘quiet’ delegate. You’re most likely to be a person that needs some persuasion before you actively engage in socialising. You’re probably a character that feels most comfortable observing everyone else discuss with a look of intensive thinking on your face. But that way you don’t miss any details of the committee discussions and use your observations to contribute useful comments.
Mostly (d)’s: “Grab your pillow and a blanket. Let’s go!” You’re one of the sleepy guys of the session. You need your rest and you don’t miss an opportunity to get some. Delegates like you can be found napping all over the venue both during committee work and General Assembly (teambuilding requires moving!) But even if your notes are superficial and you haven’t paid much attention, when you do decide to make a comment, at least it is of high quality because your brain is well rested.
Welcome to EYP! The European Youth Parliament was founded by Bettina Carr-Allinson in 1987, initially as a school project at the Lycee Francois-ler in Fontainebleau, south of Paris. EYP was established in Greece in 1992 and it currently resides in Thessaloniki. It is a nongovernmental, non-profitable organisation that has as a purpose to select and prepare the delegations that represent Greece in the International Sessions of EYP. Although, it does much more than that! A National Committee, such as EYP Greece, is able to organize 4 different types of sessions: • Regional Session/International Forum: Regional sessions are of varying length, from 3 to 7 or 8 days, and in essence imitate international sessions. In these sessions, the participants can be either selected from an NSC or not. They have, however, a more constrained budget and tend to be less formal than international sessions. For both national and regional sessions, resolutions are not sent on to the European Parliament. • National Selection Confer-
ence: Each year two NSCs take place in both Thessaloniki and Athens, in December and March respectively for 3 or 4 days. They are organised in order to select a group of 8-10 people to attend the International Session and a group of 20 people to attend Regional Sessions. They introduce the EYP spirit to young students that are invited to participate through their school. • International Session: Three times a year these ten-day long sessions take place in different places around Europe. They bring together about 270 people from different countries showing them the full magnitude of an EYP session. Apart from all other parts of a session, slightly extended, they include events such as Eurovillage and Euroconcert. They are the most significant events
you are free to express your ideas and concerns about the organisation. EYP Greece has many great examples of young people who,
although started interfering with EYP during their teenage years, they never actually attended a session until they were in their
organised by the International Committee in cooperation with a National Committee of EYP. Apart from the NSC you are at, right now, you can participate in other future events as well. Such upcoming events are, the 2nd Nord-Pas-De-Calais Regional Session of EYP-France in Lens, the Regional Conference in Traunstein, the Regional Conference in Hamburg, the 10th European Forum of EYP-France in Tignes. For more information about events refer to www.eypej.org Besides if you are truly interested in EYP and you can’t attend any session, we urge you to assist your National Committee. You are more than welcome to join its General Assemblies and
early 20s. So as you can see, whether you like it or not, it is not really easy to run away from EYP!!
By: Achilleas Platanitis and Evgenia Faraza
Alzheimer stole my mind!
by Evgenia Faraza
Most of you, reading that this article is about Alzheimer’s disease, are more likely to ignore it thinking that it doesn’t concern you as long as you are still young. But what about your immediate environment? Your parents, grandparents or other relatives? Are you aware that if they are 65 years old and above they are prone to Alzheimer’s disease or that they might even suffer from it without knowing it?
of life. It has been proved that people suffering from AD have depleted levels of acetylcholine, a substance that plays an important role in the mnemonic process. Nowadays, there are certain drugs that can inhibit an enzyme that breaks down the acetylcholine, thus, they improve memory delaying the development of the disease. The earlier these formulations are administered, the better their efficiency will be.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an incurable, progressive brain disease that gradually destroys memory and cognitive skills. Initially the symptoms are: mild impairment of memory and other cognitive functions that often go unnoticed by both the patient and family members. But as the disease progresses it slowly affects the activities of everyday life, such as social relationships, managing finances, driving, self-care and so forth. Every month new research findings are discovered that may cure or prevent Alzheimer’s disease. It is true that so far scientists haven’t found a drug that can cure AD completely. But, there are pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical treatments that help significantly to improve the patients’ quality
On the 30th of November 2011 at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) a study was presented, indicating that people who eat baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis may be capable of improving their brain health and reducing the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. “Consuming baked or
broiled fish promotes stronger neurons in the brain’s gray matter by making them larger and healthier. This simple lifestyle choice increases the brain’s resistance to Alzheimer’s disease and lowers risk for the disorder,” said Cyrus Raji, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Lastly, a recent study by Case Western University School of Medicine showed that one of the earliest and most familiar impairments caused by AD, loss of the sense of smell, can be restored by removing a plaque-forming protein in a mouse model of the disease. The study assures that the protein, called amyloid beta, causes the loss. “The evidence indicates we can use the sense of smell to determine if someone may get Alzheimer’s disease, and use changes in sense of smell to begin treatments, instead of waiting until someone shows issues of learning and remembering. We can also use smell to see if therapies are working,” said Daniel Wesson, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Case Western Reserve and lead researcher.
What’s this German’s name who’s always on my mind?!
Can you imagine how life would be if you couldn’t recall all the unique memories you have experienced, including the most unforgettable EYP days that lie ahead of you, because you weren’t aware of how you can prevent or cure AD? The reason why I insist on reading this article? I don’t want you to forget this session, this newspaper the people you are going to meet, the issues you are about to discuss. I don’t want you to forget the spirit of EYP.
Alzheimer, grandma! Alzheimer!
UNRAVELLING THE MYSTERY
By: Bruce Willis and Katerina Alexaki
In writing this article, we don’t know whether to cry, be proud of the delegates of this session for their creativity, or just sit back and laugh… “Thessalogia”… The name is a mystery no longer. The etymology of the word is actually pretty interesting but instead of just telling you where it comes from, we decided to conduct a small survey. The top five weird/awesome answers of what Thessalogia could mean according to the delegates included:
1. “Thessalogia…uuuhm… I’m sure it has to do with either Mytho-
logia [Μυθολογία Μυθολογία - mythology]. If not, then Dasologia [Δασολογία Δασολογία – the study of forests]”
2. “Alright…'Thessa-' definitely comes from Thessaloniki but the second part…is it from 'logos' [λόγος λόγος - speech] or 'logia' [λόγια λόγια Μυθολογία- words], meaning that the paper expresses the words of Thessaloniki.”
3. “Well, that’s an easy one! We are all rather educated people so it comes from Thessaloniki and 'logios' [λόγιος λόγιος- knowledgeable] of course! It refers to us youth gathering together to solve hard problems in Thessaloniki!”
4. ”Thessalogia? I don’t know... Maybe something to do with Aloga [Άλογα λογα - horses]?!”
5. “The sessions takes place in Thessaloniki, so it might have to do with… I don’t know, ancient Greek maybe? Yeah, that makes sense! It comes from Thessaloniki and 'lego' [λέγω λέγω - ancient Greek verb for ‘I say/tell’; also known in Latin-related languages from the verb legere-lego-legi-lectum]”. In a nutshell, the name came from our location (Thessaloniki, as most of you guessed!) and the session’s subject: It’s “Kick-starting research, promoting today’s science”. Taking research and science, we get Technology, or in Greek Technologia (ΤεχνολογίαΤεχνολογία).
European youth polls introduction by: Mirja Kuhlencord and Eva Tsoukala We asked around 50 delegates from different committees about their opinion on current European issues. You can find the results here:
Υπό την Αιγίδα
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ ΥΠΟΥΡΓΕΙΟ ΠΑΙΔΕΙΑΣ, ΔΙΑ ΒΙΟΥ ΜΑΘΗΣΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΘΡΗΣΚΕΥΜΑΤΩΝ
ΑΝΤΙΔΗΜΑΡΧΙΑ ΝΕΟΤΗΤΑΣ ΑΘΛΗΤΙΣΜΟΥ & ΕΘΕΛΟΝΤΩΝ
Με την ευγενική φιλοξενία