Counterintuitive Spring 2023

Contents Description

• Introduction to the vast knowledge of our universe
• Huge discussions created by Pluto’s planetary status
• Is Pluto a planet or not

Practice Opening 1:

The great “Space Race” started in 1957, and led to the findings of billions of previously unknown objects throughout the universe. This feat is truly a compliment to mankind on the never-ending urge to pursue the knowledge of what is out there. All of the discoveries made by astronomers over the past sixty years has led us to the most controversial discussion about space in the public’s eye ever; whether or not Pluto should or should not be a planet. It is incredible to see how much drama and trouble a single floating object can create when we consider how much amazing stuff is out there in the world. However, enough attention has been brought to the argument of Pluto’s planetary status, causing it to be a hotly debated topic since its demotion nearly ten years ago. Many articles, blogs, arguments, and quotes have been broadcasted to the world debating this topic, it is interesting to evaluate these discussions and consider whether or not a verdict can be reached on Pluto’s identity.

Practice Opening 2:

The universe has been questioned and wondered about since the way beginning of mankind from reading the stars for direction, to Galileo’s discovery, to the “Space Race” of the 60’s and 70’s, up to present day with what is the most controversial topic in our entire universe. Pluto’s planetary status has been debated for the nearly the past ten years and has caused an outcry from the public on Pluto’s demotion made back in 2006. The qualities that are used to describe a planet were made clear by the IAU (International Astronomical Union), which has led to even more arguments being made on Pluto’s identity. There is a gray area considering Pluto’s status as a planet because it is such a strange phenomenon to have attained the qualities it has in its position in our solar system. However, due to the lack of cooperation between astronomers and a lack of action being taken, it looks like Pluto will be kept out of our planetary solar system due to some technicalities stated by the IAU.

Working Hypothesis 1:

The IAU and astronomers lack the motivation to officially come to a conclusion on Pluto’s planetary status, causing the debate to be carried on in the public eye rather than between specialists and the most knowledgeable members of the scientific community in the planetary studies.

Working Hypothesis 2:

Pluto will never be renamed a planet because there is nothing for the expert scientific community to gain from its reassignment to the status of being a planet.

Topics For Smaller Papers:

• Is Pluto a planet?
• Is Pluto not a planet?
• Do astronomers really care about Pluto’s identity?
• What can be done to satisfy the public about the Pluto conundrum.

Current State of Research:

I feel very confident that I have chosen something original to write about and I believe there is plenty of information out there to create a powerful position on Pluto’s planetary status. I know that I will be able to keep my paper concise and on topic because there are so many articles that give the same information, but allow me to create a position that will get my point across. Even though it is such a highly debated topic in the scientific community, there is not a lot of evidence that provides an ideal solution to the problem, or a single answer as to whether or not Pluto is a planet.

Around the world, women body image and the controversy on the way it is portrayed in the media has been discussed for years. Many people have lost sight on the fact that a lot of men have problems accepting their appearance due to the standards set through the media as well. Body image is the way one see’s and appreciates their body and the skin they’re in. Although it is more common, body image issues are not limited to only women, they’re just usually more willing to acknowledge and speak on their body image issues than Men.

Men are usually raised and taught by society what I like to call the “ Man up factor”, where they hold back on speaking on their emotions and insecurities. Whereas women are taught to be gentle and more in tune with their emotions. One big difference in Body image between the two genders, most women tend to want to be slimmer, where men tend to want more muscles. Young males growing up who flip through these fitness magazines start developing the mentality that, that’s what a man is supposed to look like, this big hunky superman. This mentality becomes an obsession, and in tons of cases becomes very dangerous.

After running through dozens of magazines, these teenage boys, even men start to develop a negative Body Image, and just like women try to think of fast ways that could help them attain the body they would like. Women usually turning to dieting or binge eating, men turn to steroids. Although Steroids help, many young men are blind to the fact of there numerous side effects, just to name a few; the weakening of bones and ligaments, acne, high blood pressure, Insomnia, and mood swings.

Body image is all up to the way you see and love yourself. If someone is not happy with themselves, it is scary the types of measures they’ll take in order to get to this unattainable goal they’ve set. Truth is, if someone has Body image issues whether they’re a man or woman, they will never truly be happy until they learn to accept themselves. Now there’s nothing wrong with one wanting to be a healthier version of themselves, as long as the measures being taken to obtain that goal are also healthy.

Works Cited

Bennington, Vanessa. “Male Body Image and the Pressure to Use Steroids.” Breaking Muscle. Breaking Muscle Manifesto, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.

5A – “Wec says his permanent and ‘”traumatic injury”‘could have been prevented if Bosch and its competitors had not rejected and fought against the safety technology.”

5B – The claim was made by a man, Ryszard Wec, injured by a miter saw, arguing that the injury could have been prevented if the corporation that made the tool was more considerate of safety mechanisms.

5C – Wec’s claim is causal, stating the correlation of his injury with the fact that Bosch and other saw manufacturers fail to include up to date safety technology with their tools.

5D – When someone is upset with the quality of a product and they make a claim against it, it is possible that the claim could be called outrageous and attention-seeking. Ryszrd Wec’s statement, on the other hand, has logic behind it. Common sense tells us that if a device, specifically a power tool, has safety mechanisms built into it, the chance of injury would be lessened. Although Wec is upset, but it is safe to say that he is accurate and reasonable when he speaks out against the miter saw that permanently damaged his hand.

6A – “Now, many people who have been injured are bringing table saw injury lawsuits against table saw manufacturers for failing to include the safety devices that would protect their customers from losing fingers, hands, arms, and suffering unfathomable pain.”

6B – This claim calls attention to the actions being taken by those injured in an accident involving a table saw. An apparent objective of this claim is to persuade persons injured with table saws to file a lawsuit.

6C – The above claim is factual, stating that many users of table saws who have been injured are now seeking the help of the law.

6D – The claim made can be found on the website of a law firm that feels strongly about protecting those who have been injured by table saws. For someone who has been been in a table saw accident and may be thinking about filing a lawsuit, the statement is persuasive, calling attention to the somewhat graphic nature of saw injuries, such as losing limbs and “unfathomable pain”. The writer speaks of the safety devices that could have prevented the injury. Since there is no number or statistic or provided, we cannot be sure about the accuracy of the claim, as it only provides that “many people who have been injured” have reached out to file a lawsuit.

Needs a Title

            Crack open a cold beer, sits on your cloud-like sofa, and direct your television to the most intriguing football game. Nothing is better than Sunday football and all the perks that tag along with it. As avid fans of our favorite team, we view the players as celebrities. However, what our society forgets to realize through all the hype and excitement of the three hour gridiron battle, is the strain the game of football puts on the bodies of the athletes we idolize. Specifically the trauma to the brain and the head. Recently, concussions have become a more magnified issue in the NFL, but a majority of football maniacs like myself, don’t fully comprehend the extent of a concussion and the long lasting ramifications that come with the concussion process. All we see is the player who felt a bit drowsy after the previous play, standing on the sideline with the team doctor. Suffering a concussion is a lot more serious than many average football crazed fans believe. It is a lifelong injury that will and has caught up to some of the gridiron greats.

Humans are susceptible to suffering a concussion every single day. Much of the society is not aware of that. There are many concussion “myths” that as a society, we may not be aware of. In Jeanie Shulkin’s article “What You Don’t Know About Concussions” posted on the Huffington Post website, she offers insight to the everyday concussion suffered by not just players but by the general population. This article will provide a broader look at a concussion before analyzing the hard hitting game of football and the toll it takes on the players.

Shulkin offers a real life personal experience. Many concussions can come from the softest head impacts. Shulkin explains how her concussion suffered from the blow of volleyball, much softer than the collision of two full force colliding football players’ helmets, really affected her everyday lifestyle. Her recovery from a blow of such a soft object included months reoccurring symptoms. It took a month away from college featuring blurred vision, headaches, dizziness, and disorientation to move her onto her next month and stage of the concussion. Many NFL players are back on the field after a week, much less a month. Not all concussions are the same, but it is clear that even the most non violent, blind side hit, can cause someone months of pain even with the proper treatment. Shulkin’s second month included a return to college however the symptoms were still present. She states she was forced to make “several lifestyle changes”. She was forced to leave her love of the game in the form of tennis and squash, both she played competitively at the national level. It did not take much to set her back. Shulkin states that “even a minor brush to my head could set back my recovery immensely”. That statement runs deep in the argument of NFL concussions. Players are making head contact almost every play. How can we be so sure that the concussion protocol the NFL enforces is capable of giving the player the best results and least time spent off of the field? Surely, the facts and experiences suffered by not just professional football players, but also everyday concussion suffering individuals, do not prove the NFL Concussion Policy effective. We can see through an example that it can take up to months for someone to recover from a concussion whether it is suffered on the football field or out in the real world.

It seems that the only NFL affiliated people taking the concussion issue serious are the ones who are retired. However this is untrue. There have been multiple instances when young and bright future NFL players have taken a step away from the game. Anthony Davis, who played for the 49ers and after suffering a concussion in Week 11 of the season he, explained how scary it was to live with an injury that does not allow the brain to work correctly. He took his retirement early at age 25. Not many players will address the concussion issue as a serious because walking away from millions of dollars and a successful career is not the most attractive option to these young adults. However, the decision that Anthony Davis and others who have decided to take a different career path after suffering a concussion, may add years onto his life and serve as a very healthy decision. In the article “Concussions in the NFL: Are players beginning to value their brains more than the game?” author Dani Bostick includes the story of Anthony Davis and former Steelers player and current ESPN analyst, Merril Hoge’s perspective. Hoge, like Davis, took an early leave after the 1994 season. Bostick takes a portion of a 2009 Arrowhead Pride article in which Hoge explains his experience. Hoge explains how his heart stopped when he was brought back to the training room after suffering his concussion. Trainers were forced to resuscitate Hoge. He then explains the hardship of being forced to recover in an ICU and “was basically trapped in my home for six weeks”, says Hoge. He was forced to learn how to read again and Hoge says it took two years for him to recover the cognitive issues he lost from the injury.

Merril Hoge’s story may be one of the most extreme cases; however it is still very relevant to the process of ensuring that our society is educated with the process and consequences of a concussion. A man who had a great career ahead of him with millions of dollars to follow was cut short because of a concussion. He is very successful in his current career as an ESPN analyst, but this does not take away from all that he put into the game of football and the very little he got out. Years of recovery, with no guarantee of a full recovery, does not seem worth it. Even if it is worth it, the players and the fans need to be educated on how serious a concussion really is.

Football has become more than a Sunday spent on the couch with your friends. It has become a smart phone app, a 10-12 man league filled with trades, and draft days. Fantasy football. Fantasy football has become a huge part of the everyday football maniac’s life. It is a form of gambling by drafting a team consisted of players from different teams and cheering them on to produce stats that turn into points for your team. Just like most games, the team with the most points wins. Obviously the best players will be drafted onto teams by these fantasy owners. However, we tend to forget as fantasy football owners and general managers, that the players we draft are human beings. They go through life with a little more to it than the general population, but nonetheless they also suffer injuries. Some injuries that require a simple tape up on the sideline or some injuries that require season ending surgery and/or evaluation. In a Bleacher Report article titled “The NFL Isn’t Fantasy: Those Injuries Are the Real Thing”, author Mike Freeman offers his perspective on how the gambling fantasy football maniacs are not aware of the extent of injuries. According to Freeman, after two weeks of this year’s NFL season (2015), 15 percent of the NFL suffered injuries. Through two weeks that is a very high number. Last year the NFL suffered more than 1,300 injuries total. “There are many brave men and women who do incredibly dangerous jobs and aren’t paid a fraction of what NFL players get. But that doesn’t change that number. There are few jobs where 15 percent of the workforce gets hurt-many of the injuries being serious ones-after just two weeks.” (Freeman). This statement does not go through the minds of fantasy owners. They only see the 13-20 guys listed on their roster and if they are injured it causes havoc of trying to figure out the best replacement to win the week. Gambling is really creating a distance from the sport and the viewers. Players are categorized as probable, questionable, or out if they are listed on the injury report for that week. In the fantasy football world a player listed as probable has a very high chance to play that week. And that’s all the fantasy football world sees. They do not see that he is suffering a lingering injury, which possibly could be a concussion. They do not see the hard work that player has put in all week to try and make it possible to be on the field with his team. They only see the money they put into the league either being sat out for a game or toughing it out for the team. Freeman ends his article with a very bold and accurate statement regarding those who don’t take the injuries these players suffer seriously. “Never before, to me, has football been so…gladiatorial.”

As avid sports fans we seem to forget that the players admire on the television screen have psychological feelings and emotions just like we do. They go home to their families after they play their games and attend their practices. They go through daily routines, maybe with different tasks, but they do have a life with feelings. A local superstar, Allen Robinson Jr. who played his collegiate ball at Temple University in Philadelphia, took his own life at the age of 25. After studies were performed on his brain at Boston University, it had shown Robinson had suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The article posted to Associated Press states “Family lawyer Ben Andreozzi said that Robinson had several concussions during two seasons in the league.” Obviously players will suffer concussions. It is a contact sport that players are getting paid to play. It is a career, but the awareness of the snowball effect of concussions is not high enough. The league is not taking enough action to try and help those who suffer concussions that lead to depression and even suicide. The families of the players who are currently suffering or have suffered from CTE, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and suicides related to football are going to receive a payment from the NFL, but does that bring back the life of Allen Robinson Jr.? Can a payment really fulfill the rest of his life when he only died at 25 years old? It seems money can solve many problems in this world and in this country. However, when someone takes their life due to mental and emotional issues suffered while playing professional football, money is not the answer to gain respect or forgiveness. It takes a collaborative effort through mental and health experts. There should be therapists to help cope with the conditions these players are facing.

On October 9, 2012 the struggling Kansas City Chiefs lost a football game to the Baltimore Ravens with a score of 9-6. The Chiefs were not having a great year and of course, it was displeasing to the fans of the organization. Throughout the year they had scolded their quarterback and leader, Matt Cassel. In that game he committed three costly turnovers that may have changed the outcome. But in the fourth quarter of that game he was hit hard by Ravens defensive linemen Haloti Ngata. He remained on his back for several minutes while trainers and team doctors attended to him. While he was on the field being attended to, fans in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium began to cheer and for all the wrong reasons. They were not cheering because he had hopped up and seemed to be in good shape. They were cheering because they knew he had a concussion and would be sat out with doctors for the rest of that game if not for several other games. In an interview with the media after the game, Eric Winston an offensive linemen commented on the fan reaction to Cassel’s injury. He called the reaction “100 percent sickening.” He stated that he had felt embarrassed because Matt Cassel is a human just like the rest of the team that “work their butts off”. Cassel remains in the NFL today as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys but as fans of the game, we need to understand that there is more to football then the 45 minutes that are played every Sunday. As professional football players they understand that they “signed up” for this game. Winston stated in his interview “I’ve already come to the understanding that I probably won’t live as long because I play this game but that is okay because that is a choice I’ve made. That is a choice all of us made.”

Works Cited

Doesn’t have one.

Needs one.