Woman Is Burned Alive in an Elevator in Brooklyn

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/nyregion/woman-burned-alive-in-brooklyn-elevator.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

Recently, on December 17, 2011, a woman was burned alive in an elevator in Brooklyn. According to the article, a man in his 40s sprayed a woman in her 60s in an elevator with a type of liquid, thought to be an accelerant. He first cornered his victim and then ignites a molotov cocktail, a wine bottle with accelerant and a rag stuffed in its neck and retreats, then comes back to spray more accelerant on the woman. The victim, Doris Gillespie, a postal worker, was pronounced dead at the scene. The man has serious burn wounds on his hand and face, so the police began to search nearby hospitals. He has yet to be found, and police are still on the investigation.
The author of this article are Sarah Maslin Nir and Al baker. Though Sarah was not referenced, Al Baker has written over 2000 articles for the NYT, which proves his credibility. The ethos of the article was also much improved due to the photo and the first hand accounts of neighbors and pictures and testimonies as well. The context of this argument is the event, and the article seeks to explain what the current situation is and how everything occurred. The structure of the article starts with the picture, and describing what is happening in the picture. Then, it delves into exactly what happened, what is occurring now, and then ends with testimonies who knew the victim. pathos was also addressed in a way due to the use of personal testimonials, and by describing their emotions and reactions, as well as their own depiction of the event, the reader may gain sympathy for the testimonial givers, or anger towards the one who did wrong to the old postal worker who was burned alive. Hopefully, the man will get arrested and justice be done to him.

Pick a Card, Any Card

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204826704577074501731476934.html

This article was about the Mathematics that plays into card magic. The author starts the article off by saying that any number of shuffles below 7 is inadequate and may still have an order to it, and only after 7 can the deck be truly mixed, though it may require more. The article covers many mathematical aspects and some suprising facts that relate to card shuffling, such as the connection between binary numbers and card shuffling, and the dealer can get the card they want by using the binary number of the position, and perform the number of binary with a series of in and out faro shuffles. He was even able to relate card shuffling to physics and juggling. Also the quick mention of the story of Mr. Diaconis was very interesting, being able to run away to study card magic for 10 years, then coming back at age 24 to major in Mathematics on a full ride at Harvard. He is one of the Authors of the book, Magical Mathematics, with Ron Graham. 

The entire article was written in sort of as a brief overview of the new book. The book itself must use the facts, and the writer of the article, Alex Stone, most likely used it for his article, by using the phrase, "Throughout the book..." Alex Stone has written 4 articles for the Wall Street Journal, where this article was found. As for rhetoric, he does a good job supporting each concept with an example, which he ultimately relates back to the authors of the book. Therefore, he is quoting the authors, while making use of his own understandings to enhance his ethos. He also says at points that one can try this with a deck of cards, further pushing his pathos and also logos in a sense. The audience for this article may be for interested card magicians, but also for ordinary people with an interest. There are also a lot of background information the author goes to explain, such as what a faro shuffle is, which means that the article is for all to read.

History of God: pages 1 - 60

      A History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam was written by Karen Armstrong, who has written 12 books about religion. She was a nun before questioning, 'what is god?' and answering with memorized sentences. She had trouble visualizing what part god played in her life, and became very prominent after this book was written, which was the first book she wrote, and became an international best  seller.
      The first section holds how she was raised as a nun, but left as she couldn't really see how god affected her. Then she talks about the three big monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. She starts way back to start her long explanation of the history behind religion, and how at first, the idea of god was so exulted that the idea could have disappeared due to the lack of temples or priests to remind the people. Then it goes into how religion evolves, covering civilizations such as the Babylonians as well as famous philosophers covered in class such as Platos and Aristotle.
     The piece at first was a history lesson, covering what happened and why it happened that way, using quotes from other books as well as religious works. The audience is people curious about the history of religion, or even what it is. However, as an atheist, I have trouble deciphering the text as I get deeper in, almost as if i should keep a journal of all the terms defined next to me as I read, which may signify that the book is meant for more religious eyes.
     The book uses a lot of punctuation and grammar to hold the book together. The book itself has many sentences that go for 3 lines, and the punctuation such as semicolons and hyphens helps the reader to understand the flow of the book and the sentence. It is much needed, and helps with my understanding (though I did a lot of research and only about 13 pages in do i really understand exactly what is going on, names of people and languages, etc.) very much. The author uses many religious sources to show her understanding of the unraveling of history to find and understand religion, and in some ways, this backs her argument, but she states most of the actions as fact or cause and effect.
     I think she did an effective job of describing how religion grew, but I need to understand all of her references to have a clear grasp at what she really is trying to convey by narrating the history of religion.

Unit 2 Reflection

    Society as it exists today have used many ideas that were set by many philosophers, such as Hobbes and Locke, to create a foundation for the two separate parts it splits into: the government and the individual. They hold a symbiotic relationship to survive and improve upon aspects of the society. Within this unit, we read and analyzed with a rhetorical mindset to understand the essential questions that were posed to us; what is the government's duty to the individual and what is the individual's duty to his government. Hobbes and Locke held differing ideas about government and how it plays into the social contract theory, and their theories answer the questions posed differently.

     Locke, who believes that, "Men being, by nature, all free equal, and independent, no one can be put out of estate, subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent." which means he believes all men were born free and their rights are given to them from birth. like an inheritance. This would be more of a democratic view, meaning the individuals hold the power to morph the government. Thomas Hobbes on the other hand, wanted an absolute government which means that the government held all the power in order to control the individual, but later form a stronger society. This becomes established as a communist outlook to government and the individuals hold no power to government. Through Locke's theory, the government duty is to uphold things such as order, give fair trials, and maintain the laws that are established by the whole of society, whereas Hobbes' theory would mean the government must create the law and maintain it with or without the individual's consent. Locke's theory is more prevalent today compared to Hobbes' theory, where many democratic nations exists compared to communist nations.

    Through the readings we have covered, there are many different forms of government, and therefore many ways to answer the questions posed, but then I believe that Locke is more prevalent in our society.   In AP US history, we learned about how philosophers such as Locke was used to create The Constitution  of the United States, and by learning about the way I, as an individual, have obligations and contracts with the government was interesting. The US constitution also used parts of the Iroquois Constitution, and many of the same obligations from that as well, such as support, call to arms, checks and balances, etc.

 I actually wonder just how well this applies to my daily life, and the government that I live under. We as individuals within society must live by rules of the state we live in and honor the rights and rules we are given by the constitution, and the United States government have the duty to enforce and judge according to the rules. I also have the right and ability to vote for senators and representatives to represent what i believe in based on what I believe in. Through this unit, I have been enlightened about the process in which I have a part, a say, an obligation to partake in. Not only that, but also just how the government works and what kind of responsibilities i have to the government and the government has to me. I also learned just what the government was based on, as well as lessons in history. Overall it was a very informative and philosophical, in terms of government, unit, and it really helps to understand just how government is formed and maintained.

Advertisement: Dettol

http://www.toxel.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/creativeadvertising4.jpg

     This is an advertisement for Dettol, most likely to promote some type of hand sanitizer. It portrays a hand, but with many other hands doing some type of action. These actions seem to be things we do everyday, and by doing this, it shows just how messy and how many locations we touch with just our hands. Naturally from there, the audience must have an impression from this fact and come to the conclusion that some of the place they touch aren't very clean and the number of times they use their hands. In a way, this could be an ad to promote clean hands, but the little bottle in the corner represents the solution. I, however, think that though it is a good advertisement, it does not promote their product as strongly. Like I said above, the message is that your hands are dirty, and there are many solutions to clean hands. Rather than promote their product, which is miniscule in the corner, it does a better job of convincing the audience that their hands are dirty, and therefore, must be cleaned. This may result in the buying of other cleaning products instead, such as sanitizer gel or soap.
     This advertisement is aimed at everyone, and the purpose of the article is to make the audience self conscious about their hands. This advertisement brings to light just how dirty ones hands can be and by doing so, makes the audience wonder about their own. The creator is Dettol, a company that sells a line of liquid and solid antiseptic cleansing products manufactured by Reckitt Benckiser. The over arching statement is that the hands come into a lot of places, and that these places can be dirty, which means  the hands are dirty. Again, the purpose may have been to sell their product by showing people just how dirty their hands could be, but may have done a better job with the showing than the convincing.

Pizza as Vegetable

http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/2e9e1738-3a0d-4906-b524-2cacbbbf33e6.html

This summarized what Congress has done this week that seems to be, from many peoples' perspective, idiotic.  a quote from a news article from StarTribune says, "Regulations protecting pizza as a vegetable were included in an agriculture bill that became part of a stop-gap budget Congress passed last week. Tomato paste in pizza sauce is the reason it qualifies under federal school nutrition guidelines." This means that because child obesity was such a problem before, the USDA tried to rid school lunches of pizza, but Congress voted tomato paste as a vegetable, saying it holds, "dietary fiber, potassium -- a nutrient of concern for children -- as well as Vitamins A and C" There is debate now from people wondering whether this should be an issue handled by Congress or by regulators. The link for the site is here:

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/wellness/134208058.html

Rhetorical uses shows the graph showing the line drop below zero and labeling the graph as approval rating shows that their approval ratings just got destroyed. It went from high to low really fast, showing how hard they failed, also with the weight being shown with the thunk and the hole in the ground from the arrow hitting it, symbolizing the impact it made. This can also be used to show how well they were doing, though this is not likely. The guy that pokes his head out of the doorway and asks, 'any changes?', as if he thought there wouldn't be a big change, smiles unknowingly. He wouldn't be happy if he saw the graph, which helps show the difference between him, who doesn't see it and the guy who does. The cartoonist uses expression to show this difference, where the congressman is grinning in a way, and the other man who is portrayed in the cartoon has a bland, out-of-it, jaw dropping face, (hard to describe...) and by putting the graph on the other wall, he was able to show this difference clearly. I feel like the Congress is 'in' may also be symbolic of something else besides making it an obvious indication that Congress is meeting, but I'm not sure. The audience of this piece would be the people who wanted to learn about recent activities in Congress, and also kids and their parents as well, because this is relevant to their school lunches. 

Good news! Killer solar flare won't destroy Earth!

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45259420/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.TsCQ7D0b3eE

This article was about how the sun will not destroy the Earth. That and the apocalypse of 2012, and disproving the theory behind the so called doomsday. It first talks about the solar flares, and how it cannot be possible to shoot a 93 million mile solar flare towards Earth; it just doesn't have enough energy. Then It disproves another theory about how a body  four times the size of our current home, Earth, will smash our planet to smithereens. It has been named Nibiru, and is only a theoretical theory. This is because there has been no planet that has been identified as the Planet X, another name for the body. Then he ends the article with a quote of a scientist saying that there is no problems to look forward to.
The context of the article is the apocalypse, and the purpose of the article was to dissuade the audience that there is no apocalypse. The audience of the piece are people who know about the 2012 doom, and want more information about the topic. It also goes for non-believers as well. The author did a good job supporting his argument with actual information, usually a very good counter-agent against imaginary theories with no backing theory. The solar flare had some backing to it, but was countered easily by providing the information about other maxima flares and how there isn't enough energy, and Nibiru was countered by quoting a NASA scientist who has the credentials to be quoted as a counter. In terms of the triangle, he stated facts most of the time, so he used logos, and he also put in bits of quotes that were more informal to perhaps get to the reader more using pathos. He did not establish ethos. In terms of organization, he states the problem and counters it, then goes into what it could do for the flares, and how the problems that occurs isn't nearly enough to destroy the Earth, thoroughly refuting the arguments and the counter-arguments.
The Author, Mike Wall, has written a couple of science-related articles for msn, but he does not have a profile of information, but this was okay due to his use of quotes and support.

The Tipping Point Conclusion

Overall,  The book was entirely about the growth, and potentially the spread of, an idea. The concept of this is down to three laws, which are: The law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. Each plays an important part to creating an epidemic.
The law of the few is simply the people who are able to spread the idea. The book specified three types of people who would excel at this,who are the Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Connectors are people who have spread their influence over a large amount of places, causing them to be very good at getting word across. The Mavens are people who persuade people to make decisions, and the Salesmen are people who are good at convincing or endorsing something. The stickiness factor basically is how attractive the object or idea is to the people, and how easily it sticks. Lastly, the power of context is the situational place a spread of an idea has to possibly become an epidemic. 
Through these three laws, Gladwell goes into many examples where these laws are applicable. This includes: fashion, smoking, crime, suicide, television shows, etc.


The laws themselves seems like they apply to what we learn in the classroom about rhetoric, as well. Firstly, with the law of context, the writing must be for a purpose. For example, in the three Cs of writing a thesis, Context is an important part, and defines what the essay is going to be about. The stickiness factor also can be incorporated as well. How attractive can you make an idea, or a stance? That is all about the goal of rhetorical writing which is to make a side attractive and appeal to the audience. For instance, Marcus Tullius Cicero's, "The Defence of Injustice" The opposing side of Evil was appealing to the audience, or close to anyway. The law of the few is that if very influential people are able to send a message, they have a much easier job doing so. An example where all three can be put into practice is 9/11. George Bush used the context of terrorist attack and the fear that was instilled into the people to create the argument of the war against terror. He had a very influential position that could reach nationwide, a reallly great context, and a very favorable sticky factor.



Overall, the book was very interesting, and has a lot of uses, or effects that can be seen in my everyday life.

The Bloated Nuclear Weapons Budget

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/sunday/the-bloated-nuclear-weapons-budget.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=opinion&adxnnlx=1320005008-ijl76jXXi6YMCwt7EObJdg

The Editorial is about how the Nuclear weapons budgets could be cut to save money. It states that the United States of America has a ton of it, and can reduce the number of heads they have, which would be beneficial to the country. It would reduce the number of weapons, scale back unnecessary modernization programs and delay or scrap plans to replace some delivery systems would save billions and make the world safer.

The author of the article is not stated, but editorials are supposed to state the opinions of the periodical, so this particular editorial article represents the NY Times. Also, Editorials are opinionated, and must be backed by facts, so credibility is also not as important as the information.

The context of the piece is most likely the huge economical crisis we have today, as well as the plan to reduce the deficit by 1.5 trillion over 10 years. 1.5 trillion is a lot more than a ton of money, and the only way to cut through it is little by little. The purpose is to show that the nuclear budget is able to be cut and reduced, through the Global Zero campaign that states that 1000 nuclear warheads are enough to hold security. The audience is all citizens of America, as stated in the editorial,"All Americans need to be part of that discussion" The author then begins to list, in paragraphs, everything that can be cut from the nuclear budget, and ends with, "Savings: $..." By doing this, we shows through the description of the cut, and how it is unneeded, and then shows how much money could be saved by cutting it. Though the billions will not even dent the deficit, it will wear away at it eventually if it keeps up, and that the country needs to be rational in spending for nuclear weapons. There are uses of Logos in the following list, by using facts and information to appeal to the reader. he also uses logos when stating that the USA has around five thousand bombs, and that the Global Zero campaign believes that one thousand is enough.

Political Cartoon

This is one of the first political cartoons to be published, created by Benjamin Franklin. The message is simple, join or die. This implies that joining together is the only method of survival. The snake, cut into sections, represent the colonies, and shows that divided, the snake is dead, but connected, would become fearsome. This could also represent famous phrases such as, "united we stand, divided we fall," or "divide and conquer".
The creator of the cartoon is Benjamin Franklin, who is a very well known for being one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and an all around renaissance man, mostly known for being a politician, writer, and scientist. The context of the piece is the seven years war, which was when the Colonies wanted to fight the Indians and the French for control of land past the Appalachian Mountains. The purpose of this cartoon was to unit the 13 colonies (New England represents 4 colonies) to fight together. It basically promoted colonial unity, and how much they were vulnerable separated. The audience is for the people who resided in the 13 colonies. The rhetorical elements of the cartoon was mostly imagery. The snake cut up shows no threat. However, with the word Unite, there is an image related to the snake in its former glory. Franklin leaves the glory of that image to the audience, so they can see how they can shape the snake. This is very powerful, and is more persuasive than just telling them to unite. By planting the idea in the audience, it becomes their own opinion. The "or Die" part of the cartoon shows how useless the snake is and the picture shows the snake in pieces,which shows that the dead snake is virtually dead. This adds to the impact of the Unite. Simply put, the idea is to have the audience see in their own minds what the colonies can be.

Physicists Offer Mundane Explanations for Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/mundane-explanations-neutrinos/

Recently during an OPERA experiment in Italy, they found that neutrinos arriving 60 nanoseconds earlier than they thought was possible which would mean it exceeded the speed of light. This would prove Einstein's theory of relativity wrong, because neutrinos exceeded the speed of light. many scientists were intrigued by the results and are trying to create theories on why this type of result was possible, such as the possibility of new physics being one of the most radical. An example that this is impossible is that a supernova showered earth in 1987 and with the theory of the recent experiment, the time would take 4 years rather than the 3 hours that it was observed. The results of the experiment could be from an error from the movement of the satellite that the movement would account for a 64 nanoseconds discrepancy,

The author of the piece is Adam Mann, and has written many articles on wired.com, which is a notable place for scientific articles, 21 to be exact.he is an and Astronomy and physics reporter for Wired.com, The context of the piece is from the recent experiment that gave impossible results that was thought to be a new phenomenon, though there is now a debate whether this is a viable problem or whether it was an erroneous experiment. The audience is people with interest in science, and contains a large amount of scientific lingo that is not explained, so there is an assumption that the audience knows what exactly he is talking about. He starts off with"Faster-than-light neutrinos mean Einstein is wrong!", which states the most extreme answer, followed by "At least, that’s what some popular press articles have suggested..." This allows the reader to say that it is too early to assume and because there is a scientific context, that the theory must be tested over and over until it has been proven. He uses past events, and applies the theory and see how much results would vary IF the theory was valid, and how much it varies from the actual results (3 months compared to 4 years). He shoots down many theories that don't seem to be valid, and why he thinks so from evidence. However, he ends the article by, "Ultimately, it will take a great deal more time and scholarship before the physics community settles on the true explanation for the OPERA results. Until then, vigorous debate is likely to continue." saying that some theories could still be valid and only time and testing can tell what exactly scientists should make of the results of this OPERA experiment.

Unit 1

Assignment Question Reflection: 
The most helpful activity was the in class essay. Though the textbook provides many examples and are covered in class, I feel like I improve most from experience. However, I still have trouble conveying the information, even though the process and synthesis of the process of writing as a rhetor is explained in detail throughout the course. I would like to do more in class essays(even though it's really hurting my grade) to put the use of rhetoric in writing more commonplace and natural. I feel it is more important to know what my weaknesses are and improve in those areas than getting a good grade, and the in class essay is the best indication of where the level of my writing is located.


Essential Question Reflection: How do speakers & writers use Rhetorical devices to communicate their ideas?


The use of rhetorical devices varies for each rhetor. However, all rhetorical devices are used to communicate their ideas. Rhetorical devices are basically methods to convince the reader to take on one's idea. Ethos is used to prove one's credibility, Pathos to appeal to the emotions of the reader, thus making one's argument stronger, and Logos to back up your point of writing. These are the basic forms of rhetorical writing, and all other devices branch off of these three. By using these rhetorical devices, the argument and analysis of rhetor's work becomes more clear and persuasive than just stating opinions by backing up the opinions with facts, examples, and analysis.

Editorial: Immunity in Iraq

http://arabnews.com/opinion/editorial/article514695.ece

    This editorial basically bashes on America and the Iraq war, and how America is in huge trouble because of it, similar to Guantanamo bay. He/She says that the war was started all for a lie and the oedipal complex of an insecure president, and that the war's basis, were all lies, such as the weapons of mass destruction, saddam hussein's link to Al Qaeda and 9/11 (Which was a huge topic during the time following 9/11 because people were really freaked out), and much else. Not to mention the other acts of violence and terror they inflicted on Iraq to be punishable under international law.
 I wasn't sure who the author was but i believe if was Dhuʻl-Qiʻdah (Copy pasted because i couldn't really write it), and tried to search for his credibility but couldn't find it. Though I wasn't sure i should do this article because of credibility, he/she does a good job of using facts and pathos to prove his argument.
     The context is that US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has demanded that Iraq provide total immunity to the US troops staying on beyond the scheduled pullout later this year, even past Obama's promised withdrawal from the country.  The editorial was written to bring light upon the situation that America is in, and shed light upon the seeming arrogance of the US.  The author, whoever it may be, uses very strong words, such as audacity and temerity, as well as uses phrases found throughout the article such as, "Talk about adding insult to injury," and, "Is it any wonder then that most Arabs and Muslims believe that the US war in Iraq is spawned and driven by Israel and its friends in high places?"  The author has huge control over the author by the pure amount of confidence that the writing emits. The style in which he/she wrote the article states facts and that the evidence is apparently very clear cut and dry evidence by using questions that state, 'isn't it blatantly obvious?' after an important piece of evidence. He has a clear use of logos through his use of information, and pathos through the rhetorical questions that he asks.

The Tipping point (1 - 80)

Tipping point is about a how a psychological idea or even a fashion trend could be spread like a pandemic. The author details it into 3 different rules of Epidemics; the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Up to page 80, only the Law of the Few is defined. Simply stated, it's the few people who are able to spread messages that pave the way for a successful social epidemic. These people are, as stated on page 76, "Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue: they spread it. But there is also a select group of people — Salesmen — with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing, and they are as critical to the tipping of word-of-mouth epidemics as the other two groups." Which is a good summary of the what the 80 pages covered, because these are the three 'people' described as the few who spread the message.

     The author is very analytical with his writing. He provides an example, takes apart the meat of an example and proceed to analyze that. He uses repetition of the words like epidemic, and uses very vivid and common examples to explain his argument, such as, when he was using yawning as an example, he proceeded to use the word a couple times in each sentence during his entire explanation. His examples are mostly fact based with statistics to establish his ethos and logos. His writing doesn't have much pathos, but  in some parts of his book, for instance, in the yawning example, he  writes, "Even as I'm writing this, I've yawned twice." sort of as a way to relate to the reader.

Dove Evolution

Link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

     I came across this video in health class about the way that commercial advertisements affects the consumers that potentially want to buy their product. This video shows the process of creating a billboard ad and the steps that companies take to convince the consumers to buy their product through showing these perfections and the message that comes across from using that product.
     This video was directed by Tim Piper and Yael Staav, and created and concepted by Mike Kirkland and Tim Piper. Tim Piper is part of Piro www.pirovision.com USA, Canada and Australia.(Here is an excerpt from the website: Tim is one of advertising's top commercial writer/directors. He has won every major advertising award including several Best of Shows. Tim wrote and co-directed "Dove Evolution", one of the most viral videos of all time. As a result of his advertising work, Tim was listed by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people on the planet.) Yael Staav is represented by Soft Citizen in Canada. He is also their director. Through their positions, experiences and influences, they establish the credibility.
     The video is an enlightenment on the process of creating a billboard ad. The context for this piece is a response to the way advertisements and commercials poke at weak spots inside of people to create the need for the people to buy their products. The purpose of the video was to show the process of beautifying a person to look unnaturally flawless. At the end of the video they state, "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted," to say that the world today believe that when they see advertisements or commercials, people would think, 'oh, I should look like that,' when truly, as shown in this video, there actually isn't anyone who looks like that. The audience is everyone who has seen a billboard or a commercial using a beautiful male or female to support the product, because the purpose is to show the process of creating them. The video succeeds in showing the authors' point of view the unnatural change that the model goes through from the photo shoot to the billboard, and the rate of change and the amount of change is what the directors wanted the audience to see. This is established through their message after the cycle is shown.

Sincerely sorry I didn't post this, I only saved, won't happen again

Title: The Tipping Point
Author : Malcolm Gladwell

Sections:
1: 1 - 80
2: 81 - 160
3: 161 - 240
4: 241 - 272

I chose this book because in AP US History, the teacher said that all things have a cause and the Salem Witch Trials happened when it reached the climax, or the tipping point. I wanted to go further into the topic of understanding psychology and the way it affects the people. I did a little search and found this book where he examines the spread of something, for example, an idea or a product as it spreads like a virus.

Sorry, I didn't notice that it wasn't posted, I only noticed when i checked the blog after posting AotW

Scrutinizing Google's Reign

This article was about Google's overwhelming power and the responsibilities that come with that power. Many believe that Google Raise priority for its own business to promote the searches of its own as advertisement, and are not fair in the location of search results. The case now represents the Microsoft case from about 13 years ago. Because Google is so powerful and widespread, in areas of Chrome, Google search, the Android and YouTube, they dominate the ad business. Google pockets more than three-fourths of all search advertising dollars in the United States, and a higher share in many European markets. Therefore, many fear and admire its power.

This article was written Steve Lohr and Claire Cain Miller. Steve Lohr has a long history of writing, especially about technology from the 1990s. He has written for many other magazines and news, and is even an author on the book,"“Go To: The Story of the Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Maverick Scientists and Iconoclasts — The Programmers Who Created the Software Revolution" written in 2001. Claire covers technology and the changes that develops with it. She is actually much younger and not as credible as Steve, but she is a graduate of Yale University and the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, and has experience writing for Forbes and the Times.

The purpose of the article was primarily to inform and draw comparisons to relate the case to similar occurrences. The exigence of the piece was most likely the notice of Google's vast, increasing, and improving empire and how may have been abusing its power. The audience is everyone, but most relevant to business owners and Google users because they may want to know whether they could be getting cheated from customers, and users because they use that service.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/technology/googles-to-face-congressional-antitrust-hearing.html?pagewanted=2

Threats posted on White House Facebook page

"Threatening messages have been posted on the White House Facebook page amid heightened alerts surrounding a possible 9/11 terror threat."


     There's been threatening messages of terrorism posted on facebook that foreshadowed another terrorist attack. They were taken down shortly after they were posted and police began to investigate and take actions based on the threats. Overseas, the US received intelligence that there could a possible car bombing. One message says that the terrorist attack will be on 11/9, switching the month and date of 9/11 to a later time. Security has been raised in many areas, such as records of terrorism across seas, possible locations of choice for bombing, airline security against anyone who is possibly a threat (and adding their names to terrorism database because of frequency of travel), and records of possible purchases of ingredients to create car bombs. They are keeping watch on New York and Washington D.C, which brought additional police officers, vehicle checkpoints, and subway bag checks. 


     The posts were:
1)" We'll come back U.S.A. One day only 11/9/2011"
2)"We'll come to u white house sooooooooooon"
3)"We'll come back 11/9/2011 to kill u all"


Looking at it from a more grammatical point of view, I feel that the threats are not real, because the u used in the threats were used in place of you, which seems more like a texting message than an actual threat. However, the validity of the messages could still be true, and the police are right to  investigate. The security levels should only be up until the Monday evening rush hour.


Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44476276/ns/technology_and_science-security/