Lighting on Campus

A few nights ago, I was walking back to my dorm from a very late night in the library and I noticed the lack of lighting on campus. I believe that this is an important concern for campus safety. The administrators at SMU take student safety very seriously and they are always trying to improve our campus. The services already in existence, like Giddy Up, serve as excellent examples of our school's commitment to safety. In fact, after doing some research on this topic I learned that SMU's Park 'N Pony office provides maps that mark lighted pathways to and from the employee, student and visitor parking areas. These are available on the first floor of Hughes-Trigg Student Center at Parking and ID Card Services. Despite all of this, I think that campus could benefit from the installation of a few more lights along the common pathway between the library and the dormatories. I am by no means recommending that the school install stadium-style lights or anything like that; however, I think that the addition of simply one or two more lamp posts would ease the issue. Have any of you thought the same thing during the walk home from the library?

Link Between Smell and Weight Loss

This post was inspired by a news headline that recently caught my eye. This article discusses a new weight loss technique that uses the sense of smell in order to prevent overeating. I was drawn to this article because it mentioned this technology that is unlike anything I had ever heard of before! Dr. Alan Hirsch, M.D., founder and neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, is the man responsible for the weight loss innovation. He is not a diet doctor; in fact, it was his work with brain trauma patients who suffered smell disorders lead him to discover clues into the underlying mechanisms of hunger and appetite. Hirsch hypothesized, after observing a significant weight gain pattern among patients who had lost their sense of smell, that if loss of smell contributes to weight gain, the reverse could be true. He noted the possibility that enhancing smell could aid weight loss. Hirsch created Tastant crystals, something that could be sprinkled onto foods to boost scent intake, in an attempt to prove his theory. Since, many large-scale clinical weight loss studies conducted have produced evidence in support of Hirsch's hypothesis. In fact, sprinkling Tastants onto food helps contribute to the loss of an average of 30 pounds! This study serves as the foundation for the new weight-loss technology called Sensa. As I said, I had never heard of this study before reading the article, and now I am curious to see how this product will affect the weight loss world.