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.