TOW #24- The Last One?

Is this really the end?  Will I never write on this blog again?  Will I ever read a single New York Times article again? Will I ever force-read an IRB in an hour on a Sunday night ever again? This truly is a bitter-sweet ending.  But enough about the end of my relationship with my TOWs, and now about my IRB.  As my third and final book, I chose to read the book by Leonard Mladinow titled, "Subliminal; How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior."  As this is the last TOW *cries*, I found it fitting to discuss the last paragraph that Mladinow writes.  He concludes with, "We choose the facts that we want to believe.  We also choose our friends, lovers, and spouses not just because of the way we perceive them but because of the way they perceive us.  Unlike phenomena in physics, in life, events can often obey one theory or another, and what actually happens can depend largely upon which theory we choose to believe.  It is a gift of the human mind to be extraordinarily open to accepting the theory of ourselves that pushes us in the direction of survival, and even happiness" (218).  I think that this quote speaks for itself, when I say how powerful it is.  By focusing on the wonder of the unconscious in his conclusion, he leaves his audience in awe, instead of trying to force a "so what?" factor into his conclusion.  By leaving his audience thinking about how amazing their own unconscious is, he allows them to create their own "so what?"

I was very glad that I chose to read this book, even though I had to share it with my dad for the last couple of weeks.  Though I tended to like historical fiction before this year, I found that books focused around research and meta-cognitive exploration are most interesting.  I would recommend this book to anyone in search of a thought-provoking read.

TOW #23- The False Alert of Global Warming

In 2016, if you heard someone say that they don't believe that global-warming is real, you would probably think that they are crazy, illogical, and completely outdated.  Before reading this article written my Tom Bethell, I would have acted the same way in that type of situation.  However, this article, titled, "The False Alert of Global Warming" opened my eyes to see that there is definitely a possibility that global-warming may just be something environmentalists are using for revenue.  By setting up a counter-argument formatted article, Bethell was able to disprove many arguments that environmentalists make to try and prove that global-warming is a serious crisis.  Though he seems a bit bias at some points, Bethell was correct in thinking that global-warming is not as serious of a crisis as environmentalists argue that it is.

One of his main points was centered on the fact that environmentalist Michael Mann used a “hockey stick” chart that completely skewed temperatures from the past.  Bethell points out that, “Once doomsayers convince us that we are experiencing something new, they feel free to claim that we face a catastrophe.” Therefore, by using a hockey stick chart that only shows an increase in temperature in modern times, environmentalists completely disregard any temperature variations in the past.   By ignoring the ice age, and warm periods that “science” has already proven, environmentalists can easily persuade audiences that the current global-warming is a catastrophe, simply because it is new.  Even if it was true that this was a new occurrence, this is still not proper means to define something as a catastrophe.  The fact that Mann, a “nonscientist”, with support of several environmentalists tried to present this chart to the United Nations to gain support for their cause to save the Earth from this incredibly life-threatening imagination is ridiculous, and Bethell uses this to show that global-warming is not as concrete of a fact as much of our population takes it to be.

Truthfully, I have not spent much time or thought on global-warming, because I thought that it was just a current event, something factual, and something widely agreed upon.  I did not understand how people could believe that global-warming may just be a scam.  After reading Bethell’s article, I can say that, with the information I have, global-warming is not a fact and should still be debated.  You may call me crazy, illogical, or completely outdated, but Bethell does an excellent job of convincing his audience of his view on the skepticism of global-warming.

TOW #22- Male Barbie

Recently, Barbie has started selling their new lines of Barbie dolls that are dressed for different professions, have different body types, and are of different ethnicity and race. The Onion, taking a naturally satirical view, published an article titled, "Mattel Releases New Male Barbie To Inspire Girls To Imagine Holding Highest Leadership Positions".  This article's purpose was not to ridicule Mattel's variety of dolls, but rather to use this current issue as a platform to argue that women and young girls should be able to dream of becoming a very successful person, without having to be a man to do so.  The main audience of this article was most likely both the Mattel business itself, and the customers that buy their product.  To the business, it could be seen as a motive to make female-business leader dolls.  To customers, it could be seen to set a new perspective, that dolls should not be needed to allow a young girl  to think that she is capable of being successful.  Being a young woman, it is extremely enlightening to read this article, as it shows the subtle truths of today’s society, no matter how many feminists are starting to emerge.  

By using a very typical tool in teenage world, sarcasm, the author of this article was able to talk about a serious topic in an amusing and efficient way.  The author pretended to have interviewed the CEO of Mattel and quoted him sharing that, "When young girls play with Barbie, we don’t want there to be any limits on what they can imagine possible, and that’s exactly why we created the first-ever male version of the doll…” (The Onion).  Actually laughing out loud while reading this, I realized that this is probably an opinion that many Americans truly believe.  Unfortunately, no matter how far we may have come in society, it is still much easier and common for a male to be “the boss.”  Thankfully there has been much improvement, seen evidently in schools.  When talking about my own future, I am not asked how many children I want to have, or what type of husband I am looking for, but I am asked what major I am looking for, and if I have considered how my job will affect how much I could mother my children.  As a world, we are improving, but this article shows just how prevalent gender issues still are.

http://www.theonion.com/article/mattel-releases-new-male-barbie-inspire-girls-imag-52635