blog 5

For this blog entry I decided to give my opinion and analysis a picture we discussed in class. It was a cartoon of the twin towers collapsing with US Constitution and Bill of Rights written on them. Underneath was a caption that said "The Real Tragedy of 911". This caption was referring to the restrictions on our rights as US citizens that have occured since 911. Personally I believe that it is a tragedy, because we should not have to sacrifice our rights and freedoms for safety. The fact that the cartoon depicts something as dramatic as the twin towers falling is a very effective appeal to pathos. The government could be seen as the real terrorist because of the restricitons they have put on our freedoms. Another way of looking at it though is that we, the US citizens, have brought it upon ourselves. If there hadnt been panic and demand for such laws to keep us protected then the government probably wouldnt have done it. So while the government is taking our freedoms we are at the same time giving them up. The "real tragedy" I think, is that we let the terrorists win. By reacting the way we did instead of continue our lives the way they were, the terrorists acheived their goal.

Commonplace Picture/blog 3

blog 4

Today I found an article on actionbioscience.org that discusses genetic research and the ethics behind it. Linki to the article :http://www.actionbioscience.org/genomic/bereano.html. After going through the article I've come to form some personal opinions on genetic engineering. Parents could someday soon alter their unborn babies genetically to avoid diseases that their child may be susceptible to later in life. This technology could be wonderful. It would cut down on disease, increase lifespan, increase quality of life, etc. But then I wonder what if it went further than that. What if parents started being able to genetically decide on specific traits for their children, eye color, height, hair color, etc? What we would get might not be so good. Parents shouldnt be able to "play god" and decide exactly what their kids are going to look like. Otherwise everyone will end up being the same and the world would be a very boring place. Also this could put a lot of kids at a large advantage over others. Kids whose parents cant afford to make them genetically superior wont be able to compete with the genetically superior kids. This could lead to permanent class divisions as the rich get better and better every generation and the poor who cannot compete stay down. While there may be positives with genetic engineering we have to make sure we dont take it too far.

My ARP is a video on youtube called "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See" made by a guy who is trying to convince veiwers to take action on global warming. He plots out all of the potential courses of action and then gives the consequences for each possible scenario. In the end he comes to the conclusion that we must act now to stop global warming whether or not it is real or even being caused by humankind. He comes to this conclusion by pointing out that if we try to stop it and didnt have to it would still have far less of a negative effect than if we dont try and stop it and it does turn out to be happening.
My personal opinion is that global warming is not happening, therefore we shouldnt waste our time and money trying to stop it, although in the video the guy makes a very convinceing argument. I reached that opinion by looking at evidence from both sides of the global warming debate and thinking that argument for why it isnt human caused makes more sense. I figure that we should try and determine whether werer causing global warming befire we take action so that we can make the best possiblwe choice, rather than blindly following a plan to stop something that may or may not even be stoppable. In my commonplace essay i want to at least make people consider the possibility that we arent causing global warming even if i dont completely change their minds. +

Obama in Your Heart

In the article “Obama in Your Heart”, Yoffe tries to persuade readers that Obama was able to win the presidency because he was good at tapping into the “elevation” emotion. She uses repetition in her effort to persuade readers. Some of the words that keep appearing are elevation, psychology, and vagus nerve. These words keep appearing because they help explain the authors point. The article explains that psychologists have recently discovered a new emotion called elevation. Elevation is controlled by the vagus nerve. Scientists say that certain people contain higher vagus nerve activity than others. These people, such as Obama, have the ability to uplift others and make them feel hopeful and excited.
The author appeals to logos often in this article. She uses a lot of scientific evidence to back up her claims. A lot of this comes from professor of psychology Dacher Keltner. Keltner explains his scientific discoveries and how it relates to Obama. I’d say this article does a pretty good job of persuading readers that “elevation” exists and even that Obama probably benefited a bit from it. But I don’t think Yoffe is too convincing that “elevation” is the sole reason Obama won, if that’s even what she’s going for. I think she is persuasive of the existence of elevation because of her use of scientific evidence. Scientific evidence is always convincing because people like to hear facts. Pathos is also appealed to when Yoffe describes the feeling that Obama supporters got when listening to him speak. This is a very good way to convince readers because they can relate to this and know the feeling being described (if they were Obama supporters that is).

If somebody were to look at my collection of food they would probably wonder why I’m not dead yet. The bottom shelf of my refrigerator is filled with Mountain Dew, the only beverage I keep in there. My snack shelf includes two giant boxes of cheez-its, a bag full of assorted bags of chips, another bag fill with ho-hos and oatmeal sandwich cookies, 4 giant Hershey bars, and a box of pop-tarts. Opening the freezer reveals a collection of popsicles and fudge bars. Luckily for me though, not only am I alive but surprisingly (even to myself) not even overweight. One would assume that I am probably a lazy person since none of my food items require even a little bit of preparation (unless you toast the pop-tarts). One would probably also assume that I am not very active or athletic.
In actuality I do consider myself to be a fairly lazy person. I don’t like to have to work for stuff which is why I’d much rather just eat cheez-its than even bother making something as simple as Easy Mac. I would consider myself to be an active person though when I want to be. During the winter months I ski on just about a daily basis and I enjoy pick-up games of basketball, frisbee, etc. Despite the appearance of my food shelf I’m not actually terribly unhealthy. I eat out most of the time being a freshman with meal swipes to use. The only reason I have such an excess of junkfood is because I stocked up on it all at the end of last quarter with my leftover meal swipes; except the Mountain Dew, I just really love Mountain Dew.

todays class

Today in class we talked about the analytical research paper. We went over the guidelines for the project and looked at some potential primary sources. I enjoyed the Colbert Report as a primary source because it was funny and its always nice to watch something like that in class. We also set up our blogs which is where i am typing this right now.