causal-ZeekdaFreak

Posted on November 3, 2021 by zeek

In the 1953 the state secret privilege was enacted in the united states V. Reynolds case. The privilege was invoked because the area of conflicts was a classified and upgraded B-29 bomber, and due to its secretive nature, government officials saw it as a threat to national security. This led them to believe that the most viable option was the dismissal of said evidence, as we were in the cold war at the time. But I don’t see this as warranted, at the time the Chinese had a bomber, the KJ-1, that was designed and inspired by the American B-29. In my eyes, if a potential enemy has already designed a bomber that directly mirrors its counter part then its only a matter of time before they discover the rest of the secrets of that project. But I digress, the cause of the enactment of the state secret privilege lies souly on those who chose to enact it and the man that signed the affidavit. many may argue that its cause was the risk that the Chinese government may obtain state secrets but even if china wasn’t the threat, surely Russia, Korea, or other regimes would have. It seems that each adversary is just an excuse not to disclose information, weather a war with them is possible or justified or not doesn’t matter, the fact that they are considered a threat is all that is needed to hide the truth from American citizens, like Reynold and the other widows that are left wondering to this day.

On January 5th, 2018, a man close to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter of the stone man Douglas high school, contacted the FBI threw the public access line, or PAL for short. He urged FBI officials to conduct a wellness check on Cruz because he reported that Cruz had been acting erratically, had a spoken desire to kill people, and had fire arms readily available to him; on February 16th, 2018 the FBI stated “the caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting”. In a perfect world Nikolas Cruz would have been apprehended and questioned for these issues, but sadly that isn’t how everything turned out. For whatever reason, the FBI chose to ignore these reports, and on February 14th, 2018 Cruz entered Stoneman Douglas high school armed to the teeth. By the time the chaos stopped seventeen people had succumbed to their injuries, fourteen of which were students the other three were staff members, seventeen others were also injured in the pandemonium. We could dive into this and say that the credibility of the informant was lacking or that the FBI agent misheard the report but this is overtly false. There is no other cause, the confidant did everything he should have by reporting the strange activity, lest he was liable for physically going to the school to stop the shooting. The fault encompasses one entity outside of the shooter, and that entity is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They were told a month prior to the shooting that Cruz was a concern to public welfare and they did fucking nothing, they just sat there and waited. It physically sickens me to think that we as American citizens cant rely on the Bureau of investigation to investigate and protect the American populous, which is literally in their name; that’s the equivalent to opening a dictionary and finding out that every page is just excerpts of Dr.Seuss.

Notra Trulock III was the head of the Office of Energy Intelligence (OEI), which is intelligence and counterintelligence branch of Department of Energy (DOE), from 1994 to 1998. He accused Wen Ho Lee, a scientist at Los Alamos National laboratory (LANL), of mishandling and potentially out sourcing sensitive nuclear weapons documents, court documents confirm that there were fifty nine counts of this happening (referenced on page four of the cited transcript). He stated that Lee was working in conjunction with two other DOE officials, Robert Vrooman, a counterintelligence officer of LANL from 1988 to 1998, and Charles Washington, who was the acting director of the counterintelligence division of the DOE from 1995 to 1996. In 1995 two LANL scientists confronted Trulock and expressed their concerns about an intelligence leak that could have reached the people’s republic of china (PRC), specifically ones that surrounded the W-88 nuclear warhead. It was at this time where Trulock launched an investigation and found that Lee, Vrooman, and Washington were top suspects among thirty two other potential informants that had met the criteria of the kindred spirit analytical group’s (KSAG) administrative inquiry (AI) findings. later in the suit Lee plead guilty to one count of retention of national defense information, which in lamens terms means the mishandling sensitive information, and served nine months in Santa Fe county detention facility but was later released because he was needed to find/produce lost tapes that were copies of united states intelligence. After admitting that he indeed copied government secrets he informed the court that said tapes were destroyed at a previous point in time. He never returned to prison because he said that his treatment in prison was unjustified, all that I could find was that officials of the detention center shackled him at times and kept him in solitary for the nine months he was imprisoned; to me that’s not unwarranted he stole government nuclear secrets, that’s treason. But nevertheless, what caused this? Some may say that the fault lies with Lee, but I believe that Lee wouldn’t have been able to commit these crimes if he was never employed by the DOE. I understand that people can slip through the net that attempts to catch people like Lee but that excuse only goes so far. The government could have conducted more thorough background checks or kept a closer eye on those who could pose a risk to Americas welfare. Although this seems like a great challenge, there is no option to dismiss it, keeping the country safe is imperative, especially when nuclear secrets are at risk of being exposed to foreign governments.

References

Notra Trulock V. Wen Ho Lee V. United States of America

Click to access 021476.U.pdf

Stoneman Douglas high school shooting and FBI negligence

https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-statement-on-the-shooting-in-parkland-florida

the Chinese copy of the B-29: the KJ-1

https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/kj-1-china-tried-to-develop-the-american-b-29-wwii-bomber-into-its-first-awacs-aircraft

Reynolds V. United States

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/345/1

Wen Ho Lee biography

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/345/1

Posted in Causal Archives | Leave a comment

Visual Rhetoric-SunshineGirl

Posted on November 3, 2021 by sunshinegirl457

0:00

An African American family stands right outside of their home facing away from it. You can assume this argument is correct because there is a middle-aged bald man, a woman, and two young children, boy and girl. The mom and dad are holding a lot of things in their arms, which leads one to believe they just left the house they own. Both the mother and father have colorful collared shirts with no stains or wrinkles, and the woman’s hair is done nicely, it doesn’t look ratty. This gives one the impression that they are not poor. Maybe they are not rich either but they definitely have some money. The mom is holding the boy in her left arm, a bag in her left hand, some sort of satchel wrapped around her torso, and a coffee in her right hand. The dad carries a stroller on one arm and a computer carrier on the other, in his hands he has a drink and several toys/stuffed animals, presumably for the two children. It seems as though the parents have a lot to juggle. This is not only physically, but rhetorically the director wants us to know they are busy people with a lot going on in their lives. 

0:02

The little girl comes more into the frame from being hidden behind her father. Judging by his facial expression the girl bumped into him a little and he’s thinking “hey!watch it”! The girl seems happy as you can see a smile starting to form on her face. The little boy just sits in his mom’s arm and we can tell he is the younger one since he’s being carried while his sister walks. They are a little farther from the house here, signifying that they are indeed walking away from it. The mother’s head is slightly tilted upward in this frame, giving the impression that she is talking a breath of fresh air as she exits the house. This implies that, for some reason, they are happy to be leaving.

0:03

In this shot, the mother’s eyes are looking off into the distance, she could be looking at a person, or an object, or anything really. Her expression shows a slight curve of her lips, like she is not ecstatic but is content and satisfied with what she sees.

0:05

At five seconds, the ad shows the daughter tugging at one of the toys her dad is carrying in his hand.It is a chain of colorful rings. The fact that she is doing this could either mean that she is just a young kid who wants her toy, or it could mean that she’s nervous or excited for something. She might also be using it to tug at her dad and catch his attention, but it’s unlikely because her mouth is not open so she isn’t speaking.

0:07

Here we are shown that the dad has what looks like a bagel in his mouth. This shows that they are running late because he didn’t even have time to finish his breakfast. Also, he is looking down at and bending his body towards the stroller in his right arm, as if it’s slipping from his grip. The girl has a big smile now which means she is probably laughing at her dad. Again, the director wants to show that they are an ordinary, happy family with money but the parents are juggling a lot with the kids.

0:08

The dad still has the stroller in his arm, but now it seems like the mom is hiking up her son to not drop him! Her hair is bouncing up from her movement and she brought her left arm very high up her torso, seemingly to get a better grip on the boy. Since they have all this stuff that they can hardly carry, I’d say they are going on a trip or somewhere for the day. It won’t be a very long trip because there are no suitcases seen, but it will definitely be a long car ride and day.

0:11

At 0:11, the little girl is still pulling her dad along with the chain, and since kids don’t usually care about being late to school or boring appointments, I think they are heading somewhere fun because she seems very happy and excited. 

0:14

This shot is a picture of the dad’s legs, because they are a males legs and, again, the little boy is being carried, but the feet in this picture are on the brick ground. The legs have very nice khaki pants and brown leather shoes, which supports the idea that they are well off. To the bottom left of the screen, in the grass, lies part of one of the toys he was holding. It sort of looks like a face and has the same colors as a long piece directly above it, meaning that the head of that toy disconnected and fell into the dirt. It seems there are a lot of shots like these- the parents are dropping things and scrambling to get somewhere with the kids.

0:15

We now longer see the house in the background of the family as the shot has moved from right in front of them to to their left- we are looking at them from a side view. On the edge of the left hand side of the screen there is a car. It looks like a black/grey minivan which would make sense because that is a great car for a family with kids. This vehicle lines up perfectly with what the mother was looking at before, meaning that everyone was excited to get to this car. By now I’m pretty sure this is a car commercial without ever hearing the words, music, or watching it in its fluidity.

0:17

The dad and daughter have left the frame but the mom, still holding her son, is reaching to place her coffee on the roof of her car, probably so she can have an extra hand to get the key out or get ready to put her son in his seat. 

0:20

At 20 seconds it shows the father strapping his daughter into her car seat as she holds a bowl of cereal in one hand and her other hand is at her mouth, so she, too, did not have time to finish her meal. Both of them look very happy so we are lead to believe they are a good, loving family and (if all the toys weren’t enough to see this) the parents do a lot for the boy and girl.

0:21

Here we have a close-up of the seat belt on the girl’s car seat being strapped in. Now it can be concluded that the ad is definitely about keeping your family safe at the busiest, craziest of times. A seatbelt is a symbol of safety so I’m sure the car company is using safety as one of its main points to consider when purchasing a vehicle. It doesn’t show a group of tattooed, scarred men in leather jackets buckling themselves in, but rather cute kids and a happy family because everybody wants to keep their family safe, especially parents with toddlers.

0:22

This is a good shot because it skipped to the cereal being thrown around in the air. I assume this is relatable for most parents with young kids. The dad’s expression is of course shocked and he is yelling something, but the little girl is having a blast with the biggest smile. 

0:24

There is another close-up in this shot and the close-ups really show what the important parts of the video are, because everything else was filmed from a distance of a few feet, as if we were there watching them, although the close-ups give us an “inside view”. At 24 seconds it shows a close-up of a female hand with a wedding ring on it buckling in another seatbelt. This is the mother’s hand securing her son into his car seat, so now we subliminally know that both of the kids are safe and ready for the drive to wherever. While the quality of this video is clear and it looks well-produced, it’s meant to be messy and all-over-the-place with all of the running late, dropping stuff, and spilling things. The message to be received, though, is that no matter how hard it gets to juggle things and get the job done, safety is always most important, especially when it comes to family.

0:28

This is not a filmed part, but a computer-produced page that includes the website name to some organization. The name is pretty big and stands out from the bright blue background, so we as viewers are supposed to know it’s important and worth reading/remembering. I initially thought this was a commercial for minivans or some other car brands up until the last frame. This is because above the website name there are four images of car seats with seatbelts clearly crossing over them. This might be an ad for either the car seat company itself, or just the promoting of being safe and buckling your kids in. To know exactly I would need to hear the words and music and watch it all at once, but just from viewing it this way I got a very good sense of what the video is talking about. The actors, directors, and producers did a good job of getting the message across, even without the use of exterior persuasion methods like background music.

Posted in Visual Rhetoric | Leave a comment

Definition Rewrite-Sunshinegirl

Posted on November 2, 2021 by sunshinegirl457

Prisons, or at least good prisons worth writing about, are constantly looking for ways to improve themselves as establishments. Such ways include, but are not limited to, actively engaging inmates in sports and exercise, improving sanitation for daily life of inmates, having inmates grow food on institution property that they can later harvest and eat for better health, and even authorities and staff implementing cultural practices to give inmates a sense of pride in their backgrounds. These are all relatively new processes that are still being studied, and the one that sticks out is the use of yoga and meditation.

We’ve been brainwashed by popular culture to believe all inmates are hostile and it seems like such a bizarre practice for people who are viewed as barbarians by the general public- could a person leading a violent life of crime really convert to inner peace and spirituality? To evaluate this, and to change our negative perception of prisoners, one must look closely at how yoga affects the prisoners’ lives in and out of the penitentiary. It’s not enough to ease their minds and stress levels, but to really make a difference within them so that they are never imprisoned again. The recent studies on this topic have done a great job of this, which is why one can conclude that using yoga as a diversionary practice in penitentiaries will lower the overall rate of recidivism.

To begin, it’s important to understand that recidivism is the “tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend,” as written by Oxford Languages. That said, to establish a sense that prisons have improved over the last decades and that these programs do in fact make a difference, it’s necessary to explain records from the US Department Of Justice on rates of recidivism from the years 1970, 1978, and 1980. In 1986, authors G Gaes, H Lebowitz, and E Singleton reported that “the random samples of releases, limited to inmates whose sentences were longer than 1 year and 1 day… were respectively 51.4 percent for 1970 , 43.9 percent for 1978, and 38 percent for 1780.” Most of these special programs were established in the 1970s in sort of a hippie/bring-peace-to-everyone act, so it’s easy to see the correlation. Specifically, these programs impact recidivism rates by shaping the inmates’ mindsets and reforming them into peaceful, compliant citizens through means of lowering stress levels and improving mental states.

In the 2005 article “Free Inside: A Program to Help Inmates Cope with Life in Prison at Maui Community Correctional Center,”authors Elizabeth Duncombe, Dawna Komorsky, Evaon Wong-Kim, and Winston M Turner state that there are eight crucial requirements needed for an inmate’s graceful adjustment to prison life, “privacy, safety, structure, support, emotional feedback, social stimulation, activity, and freedom.” Yoga, a practice performed by the ancient Indians since 3000 B.C., has the ability to meet all eight of these requirements in its own way, even in a stressful jail setting. The poses and stretches provide great physical stimulation, but the part that gives inmates the most clarity and relaxation is the spirituality of it all. Yoga has a property that soothes and heals the mind of any stress or negativity; even on a grand scale it chips away at unwanted nerve expression in the body.

More so, in the 2020 article “A Systematic Review of Literature: Alternative Offender Rehabilitation—Prison Yoga, Mindfulness, and Meditation,” author Dragana Derlic establishes the facts that loneliness, trauma, and absence of freedom in the prison are all factors that contribute to an inmate’s mental and emotional deterioration, sometimes resulting in anxiety and depression as they become filled with anger and hatred at the world. Recall the stigma that prisoners are naturally violent and aggressive by nature. Derlic contradicts this by showing how most of the time it’s the bleak day-to-day routine of the prison itself that leads to increasingly angrier inmates, and therefore, inmates that will tend to reoffend. The institutions operate like a food production factory, taking in one-time convicted individuals, grinding them up with the inadequate standards of living, and popping them out on an assembly line even more confused and hate-filled than before. Life without any physical or mental stimulation is so boring and colorless, and it makes sense that it can get inside of and twist the human mind, something that’s evolutionarily structured with a thirst for knowledge and abstract thought, which is incredibly hard to come by in a prison setting. Sometimes all these inmates need is an outlet, a hobby that allows for expression and creativity, just like anyone does, and yoga can be just that.

In 2018, researchers Doctor Sfendla and colleagues incorporated voluntary yoga into the daily routine of a random sample of prisoners and found that there was a significant decrease in “paranoia, suspicion, and fearful thoughts and had a positive effect on obsessive-compulsive disorder,” as well as a “significant improvement in both positive and negative psychotic symptoms in participants with schizophrenia.” This undeniably supports the idea that yoga is a benefactor in mental health disorders as well, which attributes to a big percentage of those incarcerated today in prisons rather than mental institutions because they do not receive the proper testing or treatment. Going back to Derlic, in her article she explains how the main goal of the program she studied was to “help inmates adjust to the environment around them and to provide them with the skills necessary to be successful upon release.” This measure of success is how they live their lives after the fact and whether or not they resort to their old ways, getting tied back up into a life of ongoing crime. 

This holds true for inmates with severe mood issues like mental health illnesses, however, the argument that yoga in prisons will lower the rates of recidivism might not hold the same weight when dealing with mentally stable prisoners who were simply born into the wrong circumstances and were forced to use crime as a crutch. Again, Oxford Languages tells us that recidivism is the “tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend,” and a specific study documented in 2020 by authors Shaked Kovalsky, Badi Hasisi, Noam Haviv, and Ety Elisha demonstrates this without focusing on the mental statuses and spiritual transcendence of the prisoners, but simply the recidivism rates. It shows not only the correlation between implementation of yoga programs and the reductions of recidivism, but the causation between them through solid evidence. The article, “Can Yoga Overcome Criminality? The Impact of Yoga on Recidivism in Israeli Prisons,” shows the exact findings and conclusions of an experiment between released prisoners who voluntarily participated in yoga classes during incarceration compared to a control group of released prisoners who had no yoga experience during their time in jail. The credibility of this experiment was ensured by creating a “propensity-score matching system,” and a statistical follow up of over five years. The study found that after the first year the control group had a reincarceration rate of 15.91% while the group that practiced yoga had a rate of only 5.67%. Additionally, for the results two years later, the control group had a rate of 26.57% as compared to the yoga group of 4.77%. For the third year, the results were 31.30% and 4.42% and for the fourth year it was 37.10% versus 4.42%. Amazingly, logged over five years post-release, 40.72% of the control group was incarcerated while only 4.66% of the group that practiced yoga was. 

This is groundbreaking data that supports the idea that yoga leads to reduced rates of recidivism, and not just immediately but over extended periods of time. Mood and stress levels are things that fluctuate constantly and if yoga solely helped to ease these factors, it would not have an effect on an inmate’s mood five years after being released from jail because it obviously would have changed. This study also goes to show that yoga doesn’t only affect the mentally ill, because it had significant results on the population that was not a random sample; The participants were specifically picked out to be studied based on a propensity-score matching scale to eliminate any bias or sources of error. The definition of pure recidivism is foggy and misused often, but this research demonstrates that using yoga in prisons does more than rehabilitate the inmates, it diverts them away from violence and crime altogether to be reformed in physical, mental, and spiritual ways.

References

“Oxford Languages and Google-English” Oxford Languages. (n.d). Web 2 November 2021.

“Recidivism Among Federal Offenders” US Department of Justice. G G Gaes, 1986. Web 2 November 2021.

“A Systematic Review of Literature: Alternative Offender Rehabilitation—Prison Yoga, Mindfulness, and Meditation” Sage Journals. Dragana Derlic, 15 September 2020. Web 25 October 2021

“Free Inside: A Program to Help Inmates Cope with Life in Prison at Maui Community Correctional Center” ResearchGate. Elizabeth Duncombe, Dawna Komorsky, Evaon Wong-Kim, and Winston M Turner, December 2005. Web 2 November 2021.

“Yoga Practice Reduces the Psychological Distress Levels of Prison Inmates” NCBI. Anis Sfendla, Petter Malmström, Sara Torstensson, and Nóra Kerekes, 3 September 2018. Web 2 November 2021

“Can Yoga Overcome Criminality? The Impact of Yoga on Recidivism in Israeli Prisons” PubMed. Shaked Kovalsky, Badi Hasisi, Noam Haviv, and Ety Elisha, 14 April 2020. Web 25 October 2021.

Posted in Definition Rewrite | 16 Comments

Open Strong – SpookyGhost

Posted on November 1, 2021 by imaspookyghost

Middle Distance coaches must determine the type of muscle fibers their athletes specialize in before they determine which specific training plan will work best for them. Incorrect training can and will lead to injury among athletes. It’s given that under the wrong training you will see the wrong results, and that goes for anything. When it comes to track and field though, keeping the risk of injury low is crucial because of how long athletes have to sit out during recovery.

Athletes have to be cautious about the fine line of doing extra training and overtraining. One can benefit them and one will injure them physically and mentally. Do determine where this line if the athletes training plan must be based on which muscle fibers the athlete specializes in. This will determine whether the athlete can handle the amount of training considered extra, and ensures they wont cross the line to make it overtraining.

Posted in Open Strong | Leave a comment

Causal-Levixvice

Posted on November 1, 2021 by Philip Ebenezer

Can you see my definition argument as I need some guidance to create a causal argument Professor

I wish for your feedback professor

Posted in Causal Argument | 1 Comment

Causal Rewrite- strawberryfields4

Posted on October 31, 2021 by strawberryfields4

The Science Behind Teenage Stupidity

Adolescents are notorious for their poor judgement and inability to make sound decisions. In other words, teenagers lack common sense. This often reckless and impulsive behavior cannot merely be attributed to angsty teenage rebellion, as it actually has scientific reasoning behind it. The prefrontal cortex of the brain, responsible for impulse control and executive functions needed for decision making, is not yet fully developed during adolescent years. Furthermore, adolescents are inexperienced and base many of their decisions on social norms or how they desire to be perceived by others. The combination of these two circumstances creates the perfect storm for poor choices that tragically impact an adolescent’s well being. This reality must be taken into consideration by educators who may not realize the full extent of damage that their ill conceived lessons truly have on a young mind. 

In order to fully comprehend the causes of the poor decision making that is common among adolescents, one must understand the steps involved in making a decision. Adolescent medicine specialist, Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, explains that there are five steps in any decision making process. One must identify options, recognize their possible consequences, evaluate the impact each consequence poses, assess the probability of each outcome, and ultimately, determine the best action to take. For an adult, this process is second nature, however, there are numerous factors that interfere with a teenager’s ability to execute these steps successfully. 

For example, when an adolescent is presented with an opportunity for a sexual experience, they often consciously disregard the possible devastating consequences of having unprotected sex. In their inexperienced and impulsive minds, they are not able to accurately assess the probability of an outcome or evaluate how desirable an outcome might be because hindsight is not available. This creates the ever popular, “That will never happen to me,” mindset. While the concepts of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases have been drilled into their brains, the probability that these outcomes will actually afflict them, seems slim-to-none. As a result, an overall sense of invincibility clouds their judgement. The enticement of having sex is a much greater force that dominates over the fear of taking a risk. Therefore, teens are likely to engage in unprotected sex and reap the repercussions thereof.  

Conversely, for most adults, their prior experiences guide them through the process of making a decision. They review outcomes from past decisions to make informed choices in the present. Adults know that unprotected sex can yield unwanted pregancies and deadly diseases. Furthermore, a defining characteristic of teenage immaturity is their susceptibility to peer influences. In an article written by Jeanne Miller, she discusses a study conducted by Dr. B. J. Casey, a professor of psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College. In this study, participants were monitored through a brain-scanning machine while performing various tasks. The reward center of the adolescent brain responded dramatically more than that of children and adults. Casey concluded that the adolescent response to peer approval was comparable to the satisfaction they experienced when they successfully completed a task.  

Another study by Halpern-Felsher concluded “…that adolescents care greatly about whether they are popular or look more grown up, and such desires to gain positive social feedback and avoid negative social consequences influences their decisions.” Adolescence is a time when individuals are beginning to experience more independence. They often begin to spend less time with their caregivers, broadening their horizons, and experiencing more autonomy. This newfound independence results in increased exposure to social pressures, such as body image standards, which in turn, creates a desire for peer validation. The inability to weigh consequences effectively and make sound decisions is impaired and overpowered by the desire to be accepted and perceived in a positive light. 

While these external variables greatly influence teenage decision making abilities, a greater impact is attributed to the physiology of the brain. Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher explains, “The prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive functions, including cognition, thought, imagination, abstract thinking, planning, and impulse control.” These functions are most essential when a decision must be made. However, the gray matter that makes up this part of the brain physically decreases and is replaced by white matter as the brain matures. During this process, the functions this part of the brain is responsible for are compromised until approximately the mid-twenties. As a result, teenagers are more likely to engage in risky behaviors.

When all of these factors that influence decision making are considered, it is clear that adolescents are at a disadvantage when presented with important life choices. Guidance from not only their guardians, but from other influential adults in their lives, such as educators, is imperative. In fact, public school curriculum throughout the United States has become increasingly more responsible for teaching young learners about appropriate choices in many aspects of their lives. One of the most important aspects is health education. With all of these negative factors limiting a teenager’s ability to make a quality decision, it is important that these adults do not become an additional stumbling block. 

The overwhelming challenges of the teenage years do not need further amplification through the misguided efforts of educators who lack proper training. When educators indoctrinate adolescents with inaccurate information, they risk encouraging their students to use that information irresponsibly. For example, the damage that occurs in the health classroom, where students are preached to on the importance of a low calorie diet, is detrimental to their health. While the intent of these educators is not malicious, the lessons do not apply to all students whose dietary needs vary vastly. Adolescents are already burdened with peer pressure and the hunger for social validation, so they use this misinformation in an effort to meet social standards. This, along with their immature brain development and lack of experience, can make it exceedingly more difficult for a teenager to navigate through the multiple steps involved in making good decisions. In this particular scenario, adolescents are highly likely to experience serious negative outcomes, such as eating disorders and the plethora of health complications that stem from them.

 With all of the obstacles that prevent an adolescent from skillfully following the necessary steps in the decision making process, it is important for educators to aid in making healthy choices, rather than further complicating the issue. Fueling these challenges with inaccurate information, only leads to adolescents engaging in risky behaviors, which can have catastrophic results. 

References

Halpern-Felsher, B. (2009). Adolescent decision making: an overview. The Prevention Researcher, 16(2), 3+.

Miller, J. (2015). The Debt We Owe to the Adolescent Brain. Odyssey, 24(3), 6–10.

Posted in Causal Rewrite | 3 Comments

Causal- strawberryfields4

Posted on October 31, 2021 by strawberryfields4

The Science Behind Teenage Stupidity

Adolescents are notorious for their poor judgement and inability to make sound decisions. In other words, teenagers lack common sense. This often reckless and impulsive behavior cannot merely be attributed to angsty teenage rebellion, as it actually has scientific reasoning behind it. The prefrontal cortex of the brain, responsible for impulse control and executive functions needed for decision making, is greatly reduced during adolescent years.  Furthermore, adolescents are inexperienced, extremely impressionable, and base many of their decisions on social norms or how they desire to be perceived by others. The combination of these circumstances creates the perfect storm for poor choices that tragically impact an adolescent’s well being. This reality must be taken into consideration by educators who may not realize the full extent of damage that their ill conceived lessons truly have on a young mind. 

In order to fully comprehend the causes of the poor decision making that is common among adolescents, one must understand the steps involved in making a decision. Adolescent medicine specialist, Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, explains that there are five steps in any decision making process. One must identify options, recognize their possible consequences, evaluate the impact each consequence poses, assess the probability of each outcome, and ultimately, determine the best action to take. For an adult, this process is second nature, however, there are numerous factors that interfere with a teenager’s ability to execute these steps successfully. 

For most adults, their prior experiences guide them through the process of making a decision. They review outcomes from past decisions to make informed choices in the present. For adolescents, whose experiences are limited, this hindsight is not available. They are not able to accurately assess the probability of an outcome or evaluate how desirable an outcome might be. As a result, an overall sense of invincibility clouds their judgement. This creates the ever popular, “That will never happen to me,” mindset. Consequently, the possible hazards of high risk choices become less apparent. Therefore, when facts are taken out of context, such as the virtues of a low calorie diet discussed in a health classroom, teenagers are incapable of recognizing the consequences of taking this advice to extreme measures.  

Furthermore, a defining characteristic of teenage immaturity is their susceptibility to peer influences. In an article written by Jeanne Miller, she discusses a study conducted by Dr. B. J. Casey, a professor of psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College. In this study, participants were monitored through a brain-scanning machine while performing various tasks. The reward center of the adolescent brain responded dramatically more than that of children and adults. Casey concluded that the adolescent response to peer approval was comparable to the satisfaction they experienced when they successfully completed a task.  

Another study by Halpern-Felsher concluded “…that adolescents care greatly about whether they are popular or look more grown up, and such desires to gain positive social feedback and avoid negative social consequences influences their decisions.” Adolescence is a time when individuals are beginning to experience more independence. They often begin to spend less time with their caregivers, broadening their horizons, and experiencing more autonomy. This newfound independence results in increased exposure to social pressures, such as body image standards, which in turn, creates a desire for peer validation. The inability to weigh consequences effectively and make sound decisions is impaired and overpowered by the desire to be accepted and perceived in a positive light. 

While these external variables greatly influence teenage decision making abilities, a greater impact is attributed to the physiology of the brain. Dr. Bonnie Halpern-Felsher explains, “The prefrontal cortex is responsible for executive functions, including cognition, thought, imagination, abstract thinking, planning, and impulse control.” These functions are most essential when a decision must be made. However, the gray matter that makes up this part of the brain physically decreases and is replaced by white matter as the brain matures. During this process, the functions this part of the brain is responsible for are compromised until approximately the mid-twenties. As a result, teenagers are more likely to engage in risky behaviors.

When all of these factors that influence decision making are considered, it is clear that adolescents are at a disadvantage when presented with important life choices. Guidance from not only their guardians, but from other influential adults in their lives, such as educators, is imperative. In fact, public school curriculum throughout the United States has become increasingly more responsible for teaching young learners about appropriate choices in many aspects of their lives. One of the most important aspects is health education. With all of these negative factors limiting a teenager’s ability to make a quality decision, it is important that these adults do not become an additional stumbling block. 

The overwhelming challenges of the teenage years do not need further amplification through the misguided efforts of educators who lack proper training. When educators indoctrinate adolescents with inaccurate information, they risk encouraging their students to use that information irresponsibly. For example, the damage that occurs in the health classroom, where students are preached to on the importance of a low calorie diet, is detrimental to their health. While the intent of these educators is not malicious, the lessons do not apply to all students whose dietary needs vary vastly. Adolescents are already burdened with peer pressure and the hunger for social validation, so they use this misinformation in an effort to meet social standards. This, along with their immature brain development and lack of experience, can make it exceedingly more difficult for a teenager to navigate through the multiple steps involved in making good decisions. In this particular scenario, adolescents are highly likely to experience serious negative outcomes, such as eating disorders and the plethora of health complications that stem from them.

 With all of the obstacles that prevent an adolescent from skillfully following the necessary steps in the decision making process, it is important for educators to aid in making healthy choices, rather than further complicating the issue. Fueling these challenges with inaccurate information, only leads to adolescents engaging in risky behaviors, which can have catastrophic results. 

References

Halpern-Felsher, B. (2009). Adolescent decision making: an overview. The Prevention Researcher, 16(2), 3+.

Miller, J. (2015). The Debt We Owe to the Adolescent Brain. Odyssey, 24(3), 6–10.

Posted in Causal Argument | Leave a comment

Causal Argument Rewrite – LunaDuna

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Lunaduna

The Ethical Side of Animal Experimentation

The case of animal experimentation begins with the benefits for humanity, but is it morally acceptable to harm animals? From the beginning of science, the method of animal testing has always been in medical studies. However, today, people do not seem to agree with the continuation of the experiments. The true horror of animal experimentation has leaked out into the world, finally receiving some backlash. The feeling of being locked up in a cage for hours poked and prodded, these animals have to live with this for their whole lives because of us, humans. Animal experimentation in its true nature has not been as effective as the population believes.

Nobody knows the actual number of beneficial pharmaceutical drugs, due to the fact that they are never released because of the harmful effect they had on the animals. Drugs such as aspirin, penicillin, and ibuprofen had negative impacts on animals, but have been seen to improve human health. These drugs many years ago would have failed the experiments because of the difference in metabolic processes between species. The use of an invalid animal disease model can lead scientists and researchers in the wrong direction. Which can waste valuable time, and even money. Time after time scientists has been led down the wrong path from information received after the experiments on animals. After these scientists do their experiments, which sometimes can last for years, results proven to be inaccurate to human physiology.

Animal studies have been known not to be completely reliable to human health. There is a difference in physiology from animals to humans. Humans and mice are not the same. The genetic makeup between animals and humans is different, so the effect on medications will be independent. Although scientists have found an animal model that almost mirrors the human body, there still are some major differences between the mechanisms. Humans continue to be harmed because of the misleading information of the results of animal testing. Exposing humans to these risks is completely unnecessary. Many clinical trial patients have been provided false hope in the effectiveness and safety of animal testing.

In fact, the number one reason for abandoning promising drugs is caused by misleading animal tests. There have been innumerable amounts of studies that have proven drugs causing serious health problems in humans. The Food Drug Administration (FDA) had to remove many products off the shelf, even though these drugs have passed animal testing. Of every 5,000-10,000 potential drugs passed, only about 5 of them go through human clinical trials. Numerous drugs are abandoned because of the results in animal experimentation that do not apply to human health. As noted in the article, “The Flaws and Human Harms of Animal Experimentation,” by Aysha Akhtar,

 The National Institutes of Health reports that nearly 95 out of every 100 drugs that were tested on animals fail in humans.

Testing drugs or chemicals on live animals is expensive and time-consuming. More than 16 million dollars of taxpayer money is spent on animal experimentation in the United States each year, and more than half of this money is wasted. Nine out of ten drugs fail to enter clinical trials because we cannot predict how they will act within people. Animal experimentation wastes a significant amount of time and money, more importantly, animal lives. In 2004, Maria Palondi notes that Pfizer reported that these experiments had wasted more than two billion U.S dollars over the past ten years on drugs that have failed.

The federal government does not provide funding for some medical procedures because a significant number of people object to them. Then why does the federal government provide funding for laboratory experiments involving animals?

The opportunity to find an alternative to medicine is impeded because of the people’s belief that animals are still needed. Even if animals could impact human health, the greater question to ask is how this data can be applied to humans, considering the variability within the human species. Such as genetic, diet, lifestyles, and even environmental differences.

A notable experiment to remember has to do with the polio vaccine. Scientists have tried inflicting the diseases into primates over decades but failed to get anywhere. The key reason the vaccine was invented was not about the animals, rather humans, human cells. The poliovirus was injected into human cell cultures, which then grew into the vaccine known today.

Finding an alternative for animal testing can benefit human health, cost, time, and the lives of animals. Computer modeling is a lightning-fast technology, which can be used to create human-like cells, vitro. This method lowers the cost and without wasting energy on false information. Researchers from the University of Oxford have already begun using computer simulation to perform drug trials, such as testing arrhythmia. The research had already won an international prize for its efforts to replace animal experimentation. The group is now working on larger more intricate computer models to build a virtual human, that can completely take over the animal testing world.

References

Akhtar, A. (2015, October). The flaws and human harms of animal experimentation. Cambridge quarterly of healthcare ethics: CQ: the international journal of healthcare ethics committees. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4594046/.

Cornett, E. M., Jones, M. R., & Kaye, A. D. (2019, May 11). Ethics of animal experimentation – springer. Ethics of Animal Experimentation. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-99124-5_25.

Gleeson, A. (2020, August 6). Animal testing outperformed by computer modelsALFIE GLEESON. BioTechniques. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.biotechniques.com/drug-discovery-development/animal-testing-outperformed-by-computer-models/.

Humane Society International. (2019, March 31). Limitations of animal tests. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.hsi.org/news-media/limitations-of-animal-tests/.

Schiffelers, M. J., Hagelstein, G., Harreman, A., & Spek, M. van der. (2005, August 1). Regulatory animal testing : A survey of the factors influencing the use of animal testing to meet regulatory requirements. DSpace Home. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/45061.  

Posted in Causal Rewrite | 1 Comment

Causal Argument – LunaDuna

Posted on October 29, 2021 by Lunaduna

Causal Argument (Title Needed)

The case of animal experimentation begins with the benefits for humanity, but is it morally acceptable to harm animals? From the beginning of science, the method of animal testing has always been in medical studies. However, today, people do not seem to agree with the continuation of the experiments. The true horror of animal experimentation has leaked out into the world, finally receiving some backlash. The feeling of being locked up in a cage for hours poked and prodded, these animals have to live with this for their whole lives because of us, humans. Animal experimentation in its true nature has not been as effective as the population believes.

Nobody knows the actual number of beneficial pharmaceutical drugs, due to the fact that they are never released because of the harmful effect they had on the animals. Drugs such as aspirin, penicillin, and ibuprofen had negative impacts on animals, but have been seen to improve human health. These drugs many years ago would have failed the experiments because of the difference in metabolic processes between species. The use of an invalid animal disease model can lead scientists and researchers in the wrong direction. Which can waste valuable time, and even money. Time after time scientists has been led down the wrong path from information received after the experiments on animals. After these scientists do their experiments, which sometimes can last for years, results proven to be inaccurate to human physiology.

Animal studies have been known not to be completely reliable to human health. There is a difference in physiology from animals to humans. Humans and mice are not the same. The genetic makeup between animals and humans is different, so the effect on medications will be independent. Although scientists have found an animal model that almost mirrors the human body, there still are some major differences between the mechanisms. Humans continue to be harmed because of the misleading information of the results of animal testing. Exposing humans to these risks is completely unnecessary. Many clinical trial patients have been provided false hope in the effectiveness and safety of animal testing.

In fact, the number one reason for abandoning promising drugs is caused by misleading animal tests. There have been innumerable amounts of studies that have proven drugs causing serious health problems in humans. The Food Drug Administration (FDA) had to remove many products off the shelf, even though these drugs have passed animal testing. Of every 5,000-10,000 potential drugs passed, only about 5 of them go through human clinical trials. Numerous drugs are abandoned because of the results in animal experimentation that do not apply to human health.

 “The National Institutes of Health reports that nearly 95 out of every 100 drugs that were tested on animals fail in humans.”

Testing drugs or chemicals on live animals is expensive and time consuming. More than 16 million dollars of taxpayer money is spent on animal experimentation in the United States each year, and more than half of this money is wasted. Nine out of ten drugs fail to enter clinical trials because we cannot predict how they will act within people. Animal experimentation wastes a significant amount of time and money, more importantly, animal lives. In 2004, Pfizer reported that these experiments had wasted more than two billion U.S dollars over the past ten years on drugs that have failed.

“The federal government does not provide funding for some medical procedures because a significant number of people object to them. Then why does the federal government provide funding for laboratory experiments involving animals?” -Maria Palondi

The opportunity to find an alternative to medicine is impeded because of the people’s belief that animals are still needed. Even if animals could impact human health, the greater question to ask is how this data can be applied to humans, considering the variability within the human species. Such as genetic, diet, lifestyles, and even environmental differences.

A notable experiment to remember has to do with the polio vaccine. Scientists have tried inflicting the diseases into primates over decades but failed to get anywhere. The key reason the vaccine was invented was not about the animals, rather humans, human cells. The poliovirus was injected into human cell cultures, which then grew into the vaccine known today.

Finding an alternative for animal testing can benefit human health, cost, time, and the lives of animals. Computer modeling is a lightning-fast technology, which can be used to create human-like cells, vitro. This method lowers the cost and without wasting energy on false information. Researchers from the University of Oxford have already begun using computer simulation to perform drug trials, such as testing arrhythmia. The research had already won an international prize for its efforts to replace animal experimentation. The group is now working on larger more intricate computer models to build a virtual human, that can completely take over the animal testing world.

References

Akhtar, A. (2015, October). The flaws and human harms of animal experimentation. Cambridge quarterly of healthcare ethics: CQ: the international journal of healthcare ethics committees. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4594046/.

Cornett, E. M., Jones, M. R., & Kaye, A. D. (2019, May 11). Ethics of animal experimentation – springer. Ethics of Animal Experimentation. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-99124-5_25.

Gleeson, A. (2020, August 6). Animal testing outperformed by computer modelsALFIE GLEESON. BioTechniques. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.biotechniques.com/drug-discovery-development/animal-testing-outperformed-by-computer-models/.

Humane Society International. (2019, March 31). Limitations of animal tests. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.hsi.org/news-media/limitations-of-animal-tests/.

Schiffelers, M. J., Hagelstein, G., Harreman, A., & Spek, M. van der. (2005, August 1). Regulatory animal testing : A survey of the factors influencing the use of animal testing to meet regulatory requirements. DSpace Home. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/45061.  

Posted in Causal Argument | 3 Comments

Visual- calamariii

Posted on October 29, 2021 by calamariii

0:01-0:03

The opening shot of the ad shows what is most likely a male figure shown in shadow. We are following with the camera on his back while he is walking towards a lit end of the hallway, but the surrounding hallway around him is dark. The immediate sense that one takes from this shot is a sort of impending dread, as the shadows in the frame give a sense of weary and danger. As he walks towards the hallway, it seems like he might be walking towards something in particular which we do not know what it is yet. In the last second, he turns toward the camera, and the viewer gets the sense that he is checking to see if anyone is looking at him or following him.

0:03-0:05

The shot changes suddenly to a girl laying on the ground in a well-lit room. We are viewing her from above, as she seems to be reading or something relaxing. This starkly contrasts the previous shot, as how it is well lit takes a bit away from the sense of dread that the previous shot had. The well-lit room in comparison to the dark last room has a sense of safety to it and a feeling that the girl here is much safer than the other boy in the previous shot.

0:05-0:08

In this shot, we see what is most likely a child standing on a stool to be able to reach something on a shelf. . Because they is on a stool they are likely trying to get something out of reach that is normally inacessable. The edges of the frame in this shot are also shadowed, keeping up the feeling of something impending coming like in the first shot. The slow zoom-in on the kid also adds to the feeling of anticipation that the shot has.

0:08-0:10

The shot cuts back to the second shot with the girl from above in the well-lit room. We see her get off a bed and see her get off the bed and in a pan of the camera, it’s revealed that she is with another boy in the room, who is most likely her brother. The shot has the same bright liting as it still has a feeling of safety it had previously.

0:10-0:12

We see the same boy from the first shot, standing on somthing to reach up to something on the shelf. The room is dark but illuminated by a flashlight, idicating that this is a room that people in the house dont normally go into. What he is reaching for is also somthing that is not his or not supposed to be in his possession.

0:12-0:15

We go back to the same scene as the third shot as the child who was reaching up drops some of the items that were on the self. The room still has the same moody lighting that it had previously so it continues the previous feeling of anticipation. One of the idems that falls is a gun, but no focus is put upon it, it blends in with the rest of the items that fell, signifying the danger of not keeping it in a safe place and how that can lead to it getting in the wrong hands,

0:15-0:17

Going back the the brother and sister beside the bed, we watch them go under the bed. The camera, still at a birds eye view, follows the kids movement and holds on the bed. The implication based on the movement of the camera is that there is something under the bed or something will happen under the bed.

0:17-0:19

We see the boy from the first shot in the bathroom, with similar moody lighting. He is unwrapping something from a towel, which is diffucult to make out but can be assumed to be a gun. Alongside the previous scene, the viewer can understand that the boy most likey knew what was up on the shelf when he went up to get something. As well as knowing what he was doing would get him in trouble becuase he was doing it in the bathroom where no one else could see. This is a continuation from the idea in the first scene where he checked behind him knowing that what he was about to do he should not do and would get in trouble for.

0:19-0:20

We see the girl picking through the idems she dropped at 0:12, and her motion and view is caught by something. The viewers can barley make out the gun but it is obvous that something of note has caught her attention

0:20-0:21

It can be assumed because of the lighting and a carpet that this is a continuation of the previous scene. The shot goes to an extreme close-up of the gun on the ground, signifying that this is the thing that has gotten the girls attention. It lays among the other items that fell, again signifying that there was nothing done to seperate the gun from the other more average items like books and clothes, and the danger that can cause.

0:22-0:23

We see the brother and sister from the previous scene, now back besides the bed. They are innocently playing dressup with the clothes they found under the bed. Underneath them is a gun, which based on their actions they have no idea what it is and unaware of the danger. As these kids are too young to reconginze what is beneath them, the implied danger from the situation is an accident where one of them could fire the gun, unaware to what it can do.

0:23-0:24

We go back to the boy in the bathroom, with the framing of this shot being his waist and up. His arms are down and together, and we presume he is holding the gun below frame that he had previouly unwrapped. It looks like he cocks the gun, then follows with a surpised look up. It can be assumed that he knows what guns are and maybe vaguley how they work, but is too young to understand the full gravity of what he has.

0:25-0:27

After the boy looks up, the screen cuts to black and we see the message of the ad, about the safety in gun storage. All of the kids in the ad were able to get access, intentioally or not, to something they don’t understand and shouldn’t be able to reach.

Posted in Visual Rhetoric | Leave a comment