November 12-18 Question 3

The topic that I have decided to write about today is the scientific theory. The scientific theory is “a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.” The scientific theory is very important because it explains some parts of the natural world hat a lot of people don’t know about. Scientists, however cannot prove anything with the scientific method because it is an inductive process. Things cannot prove that a theory is correct or incorrect. Theories cannot be proved right or wrong so they stand correct until proven wrong and so far it has worked. An example of this would be the theory of relativity. People need to begin tests by forming hypotheses and then testing them to explore their hypothesis. The steps of the scientific method are all necessary to correctly research an idea or hypothesis. “The scientific definition of a term is generally a theoretical or operational definition.”

November 12-18 Question 2

One time that I drew the wrong conclusion was when I accused someone I know of being lazy and not wanting to work all the time. This individual always asked to switch shifts with me and it was really getting annoying. Only later did I find out that he was having serious problems with his family and suffering from depression and a lack of sleep. I understood and felt really bad for my assumptions. I think that it’s very important to find out all the details before you make a conclusion about something. After learning about his situation I was a lot more understanding and tried my best to always switch my shifts to help him out. The role scientific knowledge played in correcting the misperception was being able to observe the way that he looked. When I worked with him he always looked like he was in a daze and never really completely there. That was the first thing that I noticed. I should have known from that point, however, it didn't occur to me and I was blinded by my assumptions.

November 12-18 Question 1

If your partner acts quickly on his or her passions today, Libra, you will probably want to slow things down a bit. "Nice and easy" is the phrase of the day for you, so create an environment that will allow for more time in such circumstances. Let your partner know how you feel and what you'd like to see happen. No one is a mind reader. There's far less chance of any misunderstanding when there is open communication.

My horoscope is Libra and today, my horoscope tells me that if my partner is quick to act on her passions then I am to tell her to slow things down and tell her what I want so that there are no misunderstandings. In my opinion I don’t think it’s that accurate because my partner is not very quick to act on her passions. Also, I think that our ability to communicate is pretty good, we try our best to always tell each other what’s going on and what’s happening. I don’t exactly believe in these horoscopes because it all really just seems like a hoax to me. There’s no real way that anyone could predict what is going to happen. I think people believe in these things because it they find a reason for it to be true while dismissing all the reasons that it’s not true. This is one of the dangers of listening and believing in horoscopes. You may be misled and tricked into believing what they say.

November 5-11 Question 3

The topic that I have decided to discuss this week is the topic of media literacy. Media literacy is “the ability to understand and critically analyze the influence of the mass media on our lives.” In essence, it is being able to make your own decisions about what the media tells you. This is a very important skill because the whole purpose of the media is to sway you to believe the things that they believe. For example, the elections that just finished were absolutely brutal. Ads on TV were targeting the candidates and the different propositions and constantly mudslinging. The one that I heard most was the commercial for Proposition 32, what it said was “Prop 32 is not what it seems, large businesses actually pay for the ads…” These commercials are made to instill fear in their audience, the fear that they might be misled by the commercials and taken advantage of. That is the reason that media literacy is so important. In order to not be taken advantage of, we need to be able to critically analyze the media influence.

November 5-11 Question 2

Both Sadler and Hunt have good arguments about interne plagiarism. Although I don’t fully agree with either Sadler or Hunt, if I had to choose which I agreed with more, I would have to choose Sadler. Sadler believes that plagiarism is not just copying of another’s work, but an attempt to mislead the reader, an attempt to deceive the reader. Because the reader expects your information to be yours and true, there is a boundary that is crossed. The reader trusts your expertise in the subject in which you are reporting on and is misled when you plagiarize. It is important to Sadler for students to educate themselves about plagiarism and the dangers of plagiarism. Hunt on the other hand, believes that there may be some benefits to internet plagiarism. Although it is wrong, it makes sure that teachers are actually paying attention to their student’s work. Plagiarism has always been looked down on and considered wrong, but Hunt brings an interesting perspective to the playing field

November 5-11 Question 1

Media experiences can definitely reinforce your existing worldviews as well as challenge your views in many ways. For me, I believe that we are always influenced by media in this society. We’ve built up our society around media and it seems as if we find all of our information from media whether it be current events, political information, or even personal beliefs. The way that media can reinforce your beliefs and values is when they agree with your prior beliefs and values. For example, say Fox news says that it’s okay to abort babies and that was your prior position on the issues as well. Then, when you go to reevaluate your position on the issues, you will have Fox as one of your sources for where you received your information. Media can definitely expand your views because it can give insight on information that you didn’t know about. One of the best ways to learn about new things and expand your views is watching the news. The news gives many different perspectives as well as provides a lot of different information.

October 29 - November 4 Question 3

The topic that I’ve decided to write about for this week is the topic of Advertising and the Media. The reason I choose this topic is because the two are so closely related that we don’t even know we’re being advertised to when we watch TV. There are three points to advertising, “to create product awareness, to inform consumers about a product or service, and to motivate customer demand for the product.” Creating product awareness is very important because just due to logic, if the product is not known, nobody will buy it. To inform consumers about a product or service is important because people might know the name of the product, but not truly know what it does. For example, the product Hydrocortisone has a long name and without a proper explanation, nobody would know what it does. Hydrocortisone is a very strong drug that helps people with itch such as a bug bite or even Eczema [a skin condition]. One would never have known this without the proper explanation. Motivating customers to buy the product is a technique that is used all the time. For example, the Gianst winning the World Series was an automatic income boost for sports stores such as the Giant’s Dugout or Sports Authority. “If you’re a real fan, then you need these shirts or this jersey.” All of these are part of Advertising and Media.

October 29 - November 4 Question 2

Chapter 10 comes up with a lot of good arguments when talking about the idea of children’s food advertising. I think that Wootan and Liodice explain what they are saying very thoroughly and completely. Wootan takes a different side where he agrees with the government’s regulation in advertisement towards kids. This includes things such as censoring certain things on TV. We are currently trying to cut down the large amount of obese children. Liodice argues that we need to stop the regulation of advertisement. He believes that it is the rights of the companies to appeal towards these children and make profit from them. This approach is geared towards a business man approach; everything is about the business and the generated revenue. I think that taking away the advertising would definitely cut down on the obesity, however many of the obese children are learning their eating habits from their parents. That is where the root needs to stop. Parents need to teach their children how to eat and buy the right types of foods for them to stay healthy.

October 29 - November 4 Question 1

Some of the different marketing strategies that I’ve encountered in the past week would be pricing strategies and name brand strategies. First off, pricing strategy is the strategy of cutting the price of a particular product in order to up the consumption of this product. Where I encountered this was in the workplace. I currently work at Andersen’s Bakery at Valley Fair Mall and we just lowered the price of an item called the strawberry pastry. We did this to increase the profit made from this product. Even though we lower the price, more of the product is bought and therefore, we generate more income from the strawberry pastry. The strategy of name brand is a strategy in which companies will come up with either a catchy phrase or a name that just seems to run off the tongue easily. These types of names will spread like a wild fire among the consumers of the world. For example, the name American Eagle has an almost patriotic touch to it. The product and the name brand are so appealing that people from all over the world come to buy clothes from this store. These strategies help generate income and in a sense, trick the public into spending money.