Monday, October 29, 2007

synthetic essay

The impact of the television on the people of this nation has increased through each coming year. Yet, this influence is not necesarily all for the better. While the media does its best to send informatino out to the people, on the topic of presidential elections there is controversey. It apears as though the television has unsuspectedly help make presidential debates focused more on which candidate is more impressive on screen than who is presenting the best ideas.

Presidential candidates are asked to appear on talk shows of all ranges from CNN to MTV. These public appearances through television seems as though it would be of value to the public, but in reality actually backfire on the candidates. "...because of television’s celebrity system, Presidents are losing their distinctiveness as social actors and hence are often judged by standards
formerly used to assess rock singers and movie stars..." (Source B). Presidents judged and evaluated on the same level as movie and rock stars is certainly not the motive or point of their television interviews. The President of the United States of America has histrically been viewed as a person of dignity, honor, and respect. Television interviews change and demean this appearance by making teh President feel more like a peer than a leader. "...because of television’s sense of
intimacy, the American people feel they know their Presidents as persons and hence no longer feel the need for party guidance..." (Source B). Having a personable President is important but one that still stands out as a leader is more important. This is not attainable if teh Presidents are appearing on talk shows that demean their authority.

The image of the President is important but it should not be the governing factor as to which Presidential candidate deserves to be sworn in. Television has made it so that Presidents who have the most influencial appearance during a broadcasted candident debate receive the most support. '. . . “Our national politics has become a competition for images or between
images, rather than between ideals,” [one commentator] concluded. “An effective President must be every year more concerned with projecting images of himself.” (Source C)' Is not the object of becoming President to help create the best nation we can be? Having a President be elected based on appearance on television is not only wrong but terrifying. Poor Presidents could be sworn in simply because they appeared the most impressive. This is not helpful to the nation or its people. Theodor H. White "believed that Kennedy’s “victory” in the debates was largely a triumph of image over content. (Source C)" White had the correct idea that television broadcasted debates were, and are, increasingly unhelpful to the American peoples' ability to elect the best President for our nation. The television screws our views and opinions on who really is the best option.

There is, however, a positive side to all of the negativity. "One of the great contributions expected of television lay in its presumed capacity to inform and stimulate the political interests of the American electorate. (Source A)." Whether the broadcasting source decides to take full advantage of their power for the good of informing the truth to the public is entirely up the the specific news source. All of the potential is there for the television to help inform the American public on the presidential promised contributions to the country, but the news source needs help make a broadcasted presidential debate more aboutt he issues and less about image. Most of the power lies within the networks ability to lay out the raw facts and not scewed data. The cards have been laid. Who will draw the most correct, truthful, and helpful hand?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Women's Brains

After reading the article about women's brains I almost wanted to go perform a masectomy. It is incredible how pig headed these male "scientists" could be. The only convincing point made to me was that the male ego was (is) too large. The "evidence" is way too vague to be considered credible They come up with information and then jump to a conclusion without drawing rational connections or considering the posiblity of other probable explanations.
I think the author does an ok job of keeping his/her own biasis out of the piece, but they could definitely do a better job. The beginning was more confusing and i had troule distinguishing the author's views from the views of Broca. As the piece continued, however, the author began to distinguish their ideas from the ideas of the scientists they were quoting. "I have reexamined Broca’s data, the basis for all this derivative pronouncement, and I find his numbers sound but his interpretation ill-founded, to say the least. " Here, halfway through the piece at paragraph 15, the author says that he/she don't agree with Broca's interpretation. This is the first instance I saw of the author's opinion disagreeing with Broca's opinion(s).
My reaction to the piece ccan be summed up in the word 'disgusted.' I supposed it's not that suprising how extreme teh male scientists views were on the "inferiority" of women since they lived in a different time, but I still felt the same gut-wrenching fury at their behavior. This type of research and personal bias interpretation in science would not stand today and I'm glad. It gives me reassurance in the progression of society.

Innovation

All of the ideas that were discussed on Monday were excelent ideas. I didn't really have any of my own, so I will high light a few that I thought were the best. I really liked the idea of showing how technology connects different people of different cultures. I also liked the idea of going from black and white to color in the video. A small idea of my own is showing the evlutino of a product maybe, like the ipod. We could show how it went from tape to cd to mp3 to the many differnt forms of ipods. Or we could do it for the telephone or computer or many different objects. There are numerous ideas out there and I'm loking forward to seeing the final products.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Wikipedia

I love wikipedia. If I can't find a topic on wikipedia then something must be wrong because wikipedia contains everything, to me. If something sounds fishy, it's possible to cross reference the information. WIkipedia provides the references used to write their articles and this is such a good idea; it gives people more articles to read on the topic of their choice without taking the information wikpedia provides as the almighty truth.
I do agree with Lanier that we need to approach it with some skepticism, but I don't think it's a bad site. I think people using Wikipedia just need to use commmon sense.

comparison death of a moth

Anne's "Death of a Moth" has more of a detached feeling with the moth because she is describing waht she witnessed. Anne uses a lot of 'I's but doesn't really give the whole feel of becoming one with the moth and going inside the moth's mind. Woolf, however,portrays the moth as a person and not a detached object.
Anne's metaphor choice is the fact taht the moth dies, but its body/head burns for another 2 hours giving light for her to read. This is a metaphor to the fact that whn you write a poem, "your head should be on fire." Today we read the works from those whose bodies are gone but their "heads on fire." They have given us light to read.
Woolf's metaphor is more about the weak people, like the moth who died, and portraying them through the moth. The moth symbolizes the pathetic people in the world.
Syntax for Anne is more personal than the eloquent poetic form of Woolf's work. Anne does have some poetic parts but Woolf's entire piece is poetic feeling.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

technology and science

I love science. I am a total science nerd and love discovering new things about the world around us. When i grow up i am lookig to go into a sicnece field. This does not mean, however, that I feel everyone should think and act like a scientist. If we had a world full of scientists it would be pretty boring because there would be nothing new left to discover, everything would have already been done. Science helps those without scientific skill learn about the world around us. If everyone were to be involved in science there would be nothing and no one left to teach defeating teh purpose.
I don't know if there is a "best way" to look at the world. I think everyone needs to find what's right for them. Looking at the world in a scientific manner is what works for me but I know it doesn't work for my friend who is an english junkie. She does't understand things the way I do and that's fine. We are different and it makes our friendship more interesting. It's not really fair to say that the scientific method is the best way to look at the world. Just because it works for one person doesn't mean it will work for the majority.
Now technology is different. We have a very love-hate relationship. I love the conveniences technological gadgets provide, yet i hate it when they break down and don't hold up to my view of their "immortality." For example, I love having a cell phone and it's practically glued to my hand at all times. I cannot imagine what people did 20 years ago. But, when it breaks it seems as if my world is ending. How do I get a hold of people? How am I going to knwo when someone want's to talk to me? What happens is that cute boy I gave my number to tries to call? My head nearly explodes under the stress. So on that note, yes I do wish I could change my relationship status with technology. I would like he/she/it to stop leaving me and to stay with me forever. I am very needy when it comes to technology.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Death of a Moth

Use metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, irony, and syntax to comment on Woolfe’s strategies, purposes, and style.
The metaphor of the piece is the moth for the people of pure life who don't know what's coming. Moth's are blind to teh dangers that are ahead of them. It is ironic that the moth's are so beautiful and pure of life, according to the author, and then it dies. So the fact that it is pure energy/life and then dies so it was ironic. The syntax of Woolf is long and eloquent just like the moth. The syntax is graceful, but confusing in language just as a moth is.

The Plastic Pink Flamingo

I think the grader's critiques were very accurate. The essays were very dificult to read and the students gave many "glittering generalities" as Mrs. Hastig would say. They didn't give a lot of proof and explanation to teh rhetorical analysis points they were trying to make. I do, however, feel that all 3 essays were not quite ~4.31 material. The third one was actually written quite well and was consice and to the point, which made it pleasant to read. The first essay was so long that it felt like it was dragging on and was unpleasant to read. In general I would have given the essays an average of a 5 with the exception of the third essay which I believe deserved a 7-8.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

"Learning to read"

The article "Learning to read" discusses one slave's journey to becoming literate. Frederick Douglass uses eloquent words to show how he's developed from his former illiterate state to his "new found" education. He describes the process of self-education and education from young children and then his unquenchable thirst for books. A spark of knowledge ignighted his passion for reading.

"On the Pleasure Of Hating"

Hazlit's "On the Pleasure of Hating" makes a point out of saying that we hate out of boredom, a will for variety, and delight in being michievious. He uses half a paragraph for examples ofpeople taking sport in "hateful" activities to draw analogies to the point he's trying to get across (as bystanders or participants) ex. id killing fly, men assemle eargerly to watch tragedy, etc.) During the piece he uses lots of exclamation points to make it seem as though he's permaently yelling to get his point accross (he's passionate about his beliefs)
"The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to rankling spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands: it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness, and a narrow, jealous, inquisitorial watchfulness over the actions and motives of others." This quote is significant because it's references the title and seems like a second thesis. Hazlit also uses very powerful words and large big words (it makes it seem like he's "spitting fire" with a "silvr tongue").
Hazlit uses an extended metaphor, hating a spider, to symbolize the hatred for a person. He personifies the spider by giving it human qualities (a personality of being afraid) and refers to it as a person.