Stem Cell Research and Child Labor

Stem Cell research is something that I'm okay with, because I think using an embryo to help rejuvenate damaged body parts is not really something bad. For embryonic stem cell, they use a 5 day old embryo and and were not implanted into the walls of a woman's uterus. To me, this really is not considered life if it was done outside of the woman's uterus and because it was more of an experiment to start with. If someone I cared for had a dysfunction in the organ somewhere, I would strongly suggest using stem cell research to fix it or replace it. To me, this 5 day old embryo is not considered life, but just an experiment. Because it isn't considered as life to me, I'm perfectly fine with using the embryo to do stem cell research. It might be an embryo by name, but is it really an embryo if it was done through experimentation? To me, I don't think so. I think that the embryo that I consider as life has to be a consumption where the woman has to have the embryo within the uterus. Outside of it (like making an embryo through an experiment) is not really life, but merely an experiment. this is why I am okay with Stem Cell Research.

Child Labor: I believe that child labor is very wrong. Using a child to to strenuous and harmful work, but giving them an unfair pay is something that I find very wrong. These children are just like us, except for the fact that they might have grown up in a good household. Some might say argue that they are doing it for the job, but it doesn't matter because the children should get paid more if they are doing such works. "You reap what you sow" is what I believe in. If they are working that hard, then they should get paid fairly. I am someone who is willing to pay more for the strawberries, as long as it pays the laborers fairly. 

Pi

1. I honestly think that the ending glorifies the search for truth. Truth is something that everyone wants to find, but deep within their hearts, does not want to find. Truth is something that is beautiful because it is mysterious and undiscovered. If it were to be discovered, the world would result in complete disorder because I believe that truth is something that Man should not know. I think Max realized that the search for truth is something that is meant to be searched for forever. He truly appreciated this truth, so that’s why he was able to let go of it. He knew that the truth’s real beauty lied in its inability to be discovered, so when he discovered it, he destroyed it.

2. The filmmaker is suggesting that subjective and objective truths are related in a way where subjective truth can lead to objective truth. To the Jews, their subjective truth was that the 26 digit number was the key to achieving God’s favour and such. To those stock marketers, their subjective truth was that the patterns formed by the 216 digit number would be able to predict the next stock increase/drop. However, the objective truth that there is a 216 digit number that has a pattern that appears in nature and in all parts of the world. Also, it’s saying that math is both subjective and objective. It is objective in a sense where it is not biased. However, how you interpret the data that you get from it is all subjective.

3. Mathematics and beauty intertwines in this movie because math’s beauty is that there are always patterns in it. In example, the golden ratio makes a perfect spiral shape if you constantly divide the square or rectangle made by two. This is seen as something beautiful because it is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also because of the function of it. It is said that the golden ratio appears in everything in nature. It occurs in things such as leaves, too. Also, there is the beauty in actually working to come up with a solution. All of the hours put into something that one loves is something that is beautiful to that person.

Emotion Matters!

Reading the article about these truly emotionless people, and Damasio’s study of it, I feel more strongly than ever that emotions are a very big part of life. Previously, I always thought of emotions as menacing. In example, once, I fought with a friend and I couldn’t think about anything but that fight. Because of that, I cannot get anything done. Because I am feeling so angry and sad about that fight with the friend, I am unable to get things done. Because of this, I would hate having emotions, and I wished to have no emotion many times. I believed that things would be done better if it’s done with logic and reasoning.

However, after reading this passage, I started to have different views on how important emotion is. Reading about Phineas Gage and Elliot has helped me notice how important emotion is in life. Previously I thought that emotions didn’t help with making decisions, but it turns out that it has a lot to do with making decisions, too. Elliot had a hard time truly getting to a decision because he would just ramble on about the pros and cons of each decision. However, if one bases emotions on it, then they just feel like meeting at a certain time. They are able to just make hastier decisions.

Illusions

A&B are supposed to be the same colour. However, it doesn't look like it.

There's your proof that it is the same colour.


Here's another one...
These two orange circles are the same size!

Is Online Reading Really Reading?

I do believe that reading online is reading. They are all just reading in different ways. This is the new way and the new culture of reading and this is just like a trend in a way. It’s just like how people have moved on from scrolls to actual pages of scripts. I think that reading online and reading through a book is very similar, and it is still considered reading. I do agree on the fact that sometimes those websites and those places you can read those things have horrible grammar. However, it still keeps people of all ages still very interested.
In my school (NCA) we have e-books on our website, where we just scanned all of our text books and put it online so that it could be accessed online. I have asked a couple of students as to if it is very useful, and both replied yes. They agreed that this has been extremely convenient for them. Now many people read books online, because there are some unofficial stories out that they want to read and such. Online, there are even places where one can put up his or her own story, and people would read it. These days, I, too, read things all online. Internet is a very big part of my life, and I use it for a lot of things. These days, when I do my research, I don’t even walk into the library, and I find all of the resources online. When books are required, I just look for online books which I can just read via a PDF file. Everything is on the internet these days, so I barely do research outside of it. Just like Nadia, I used to be one of those people who would read and review things that people would post on fanfiction.net and quizilla.com. There were a lot of creative people who would write things that were very interesting, and this allowed people to use their creativity. This is just like reading another work that was never published. Although teens and the youth may not read things such as novels online all the time, they still read things like those small stories that other internet viewers put online to expand their creativity skills .
I believe that reading online is still considered reading because there are so many different ways to read, and this is simply just one of them.

Winter Break HW

1. According to a well-known children's rhyme, 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.' Do you agree or disagree with this? Give reasons.

I disagree with the statement of ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me’ because there are plenty of people out there who are hurt by words. If someone that I really like tells me that they hate me and that they’re never going to talk to me again, I would be very hurt. When we were all little kids, we were all made fun of with names, whether it be “fatty” or “ugly.” As kids, those words hurt us deeply, and it left a scar. When I was a little kid, my friends made fun of my crooked teeth. As a response to this, I went to go get braces, because I, too, believed that my teeth were the ugliest set of teeth ever. This is also the same for adults. When girls get called ugly, they want to do whatever they can with their money and power to beautify themselves. They hate being called ugly, because it hurts their feelings, and they feel as if they are going to be unloved for being ugly. In response to this, girls go to plastic surgeons to fix their faces to make them prettier. Words may seem like just words, but they have a powerful impact on our society. With one word, the king has the ability to kill or save one’s life. With one word, the president of the United States has the ability to make a change that will change America forever. Just like this, words have a very strong effect on people of all ages and races. I honestly think that the children’s rhyme should be rewritten to ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words cut deeper into the heart.’

2. Find out something about the political correctness (PC) movement, which seeks to use language to change attitudes to the oppressed of disadvantaged. What arguments are there in favour of political correctness and what arguments are there against it?

Political Correctness is attempting to make broad changes in society. This usually requires one to be very careful of word choices, avoiding any word that may offend one of the parties in any way. These sensitive issues are usually ones that deal with things like illegal immigrants, homosexuality, and abortion. The pro about PC is that it does not offend anyone, since that is what its main function is to say things without offending people. However, the con to Political Correctness is that because it does not offend anyone, it becomes a situation that is not really considered a big deal, since it has no sensitivity.

Thank You for Smoking (:

From the movie Thank You For Smoking, Nick Naylor is called the “sultan spin.” I honestly think that it is very wrong to do that, but it is also something innate within us to spin things so that it seems like it’s not so bad of a choice. This is a very clever way of handling things, and this is how all lobbyists do their job. They try their best to convince their people to do what they want them to do. People such as salesmen “spin” things so that people would buy their products, too. I think that this way of spinning things is what keeps the world from going completely bankrupt.

Nick Nayer has an interesting view on tobacco, and he thinks that it’s the right thing to do. I do agree with Nick Naylor that he is doing something right in a sense. He is “just trying to pay the mortgage” by selling his products. I honestly think that he isn’t doing anything wrong. I think that the people who are actually buying it from him are doing the wrong thing, because they are the ones who are foolish. They are the ones who are not taking things into consideration by actually being influenced by the salesman, who, in this case, is Nick Naylor. One example of this that I see these days is “Snuggies.” Do we really need Snuggies, which is basically the same thing as putting on a blanket? It is really unnecessary, but people still buy it because the media spins it, making it look very necessary. They say that because they have sleeves, people will be able to do things such as reading in a very warm manner. However, these things can be done with a regular blanket and long sleeves, too. But this does not mean that I think that smoking is something that is good. I still think of it as something that is bad that harms people’s bodies a lot.

One of the good things that can come from spins is that you could get what you want. In the movie, Nick was able to bribe the Marlborough man into not saying anything that would harm the tobacco company. Also, Nick Naylor was able to make people change their opinion on a topic. However, there are bad things that come with spins too. One bad thing is that it is a really shady business, and once you get caught, your reputation will not ever be the same again. Also, one must be very good at spinning, or else, they will lose, and they will be the ones to be wrong in the first place. One must have a lot of knowledge to spin, and they must know how to manipulate it.

In my opinion, I find spinning to be a necessity in life and as something that keeps the world the way it is. Without spinning, no products would sell and the economy would pretty much stop functioning correctly, and everything will be thrown into chaos.

TOK HW Due 12.02.09

Pg 52.
1. a. Triangle: Three straight lines that are enclosed completely so that it becomes a shape.
b. Table: Furniture that has a flat top that's held up by legs and such. People usually write or eat on top of these, since it has a flat surface.
c. Love: A feeling where one person looks at another in a special light, and where that other person is liked very much by that one person.

2. I think that there would be no way to explain the colour red to a blind person, because the blind person does not have any idea on what colour is, and what shaps are. Although some things can be felt, giving the blind person an idea, red cannot be felt, and it cannoy really be visualized without already having to seen the colour red. this suggests that definitions cannot mean a thing if one does not understand the concepts behind it. If the person who is listening to the definition cannot connect at all with the definition being given, there is no real way that the definition could be fully grasped.

Pg. 56
1. a: "Planes that are in flight are dangerous." to "It is dangerous to fly a plane."
b: "They saw Mrs. Jones and also a dog sitting under the table." to "They say both Mrs. Jones and the dog sitting under the table."
c: "Bob tickled the man who was with the feather duster." to "Using the feather duster, Bob tickled the man."
d: "Refuse, the food that is to be dicarded, is to be put into the basket." to "To refuse, to resist, to be put into the basket."
e: "Mia wanted to see the pop star actually sing really badly (a lot)." to "Mia wanted to see the pop star sing really badly (off-tune)."
f: "Going to visit relatives can be boring." to "Relatives that are visiting can be very boring."
g: "Many monetarily poor students are on scholarships." to "Many people who are poor in condition are on scholarships."
h: "Johnny ate the bacon that was on the sofa." to "Johnny, who was on the sofa, ate the bacon."
i: "I didn't sleep in the same house as my spouse." to "I didn't have sexual intercourse with my spouse."
j: "I saw her duck, the animal." to "I saw her do the action of ducking."

2. If one puts the correct punctuation, such as a comma, then they will know if the one thing is modifying one thing or the other.

3. A man walked into a bar. Ouch. [The man could have either walked into a bar, as in a pole, or a bar to drink.]
*This joke should be said, not written* How long (or the name Hao Long) is a Chinese man.

This is about ORBITZTRAVEL. This states that Orbitz is the best choice there is just because of the hotel offer. The others were very happy that they got the discount while the person who didn't was very sad. There was a very limited amount of information. Also, this was an example of Hasty Generalization in the fact that there was only one man who was said for not getting the discount, and that was supposed to represent everyone else who did not have Orbitz. There is also an Appeal to Popularity, because everyone around the man who didn't get the discount were extremely happy, and it was the popular view. Becuase of this, people might be tempted to buy the product, since it was a popular view.

What Was I Thinking

Just like it says in "What Was I Thinking", I think it is true that people really just go with whatever is given to them, or whatever they see. Just like how people look at the prices and see the value of the item as it is, people learn to just take everything in the world in just as it is given to them. Their minds are so easily tricked into not thinking much. They never take the time to really think about things.

People learn to accept things such as prices. One example is clothing. We just see the price tag and we usually take it as it is. Abercrombie sometimes sells T-Shirts for $20, when it really can be bought for around $5 or sometimes even less. However, we just simply look at the brand, and we accept the price. We dare not to argue with what society has been telling us. We just learn to accept. Honestly I do not think that it is a good thing to accept things as they are because we should learn how to think for ourselves, and we should be reasonable with things such as prices. Also, just as how people are easily deceived, the mind is easily deceived as well.

There was one experiment explained in the article where the victims were told to write down the last two digits of their social security number. Afterwards, the tester was to ask the test takers to write down reasonable prices for some things. The people were unconsciously affected by the last two digits of their social security number, and put down every price within that range. This just shows how much the brain tries to make connections, and how much the mind can be easily affected. We should learn to really think things through instead of going about on our things in such a flippant manner. People should try to train their minds to be quicker with things.

As the years go by, people are starting to get lazier and lazier. They start to become very lazy even with their thinking, and they start to accept whatever is given to them, accepting it as the truth. Tests have shown that people are very used to accepting things as they are, and that everything around the people influence them, even something as random as the last two digits of one’s Social Security Number. This has come to show that people are becoming more accepting as well as thinking less.

Love is a Fallacy

There are eight types of fallacies listed in the story Love is a Fallacy. They are the following:

-Dicto Simpliciter: an argument based on an unqualified generalization. This is when someone makes an argument based on a generalization. However, that generalization is very off, because there can be other arguments based on that.

i.e. Milk is good for you, because it builds strong bones and it helps your body. However, some people are lactose intolerant, so in that case, milk can be very bad for them.

-Hasty Generalization: It is just using too little information, and basing a huge generalization on that. In other words, the number of samples being tested is too small to figure out anything.

i.e. I love music. She loves music, and because of this, everyone loves music.

-Post Hoc: Believing that something happened because of something else when those two have a high chance of not being related at all.

i.e. There is a spider, and when i tell it to move left, it moves left, and when I say right, it moves right. However, i take off its legs, and then give them the same commands, but it doesn't move at all. Therefore, if you take off all of the spider's legs, it cannot hear.

-Contradictory Premises: There are two premises that contradict one another, but they are happening at the same time. So therefore, there can be no interaction or a conclusion.

i.e. What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?

-Ad Misericordiam: This is when one relies on another's sympathy and pity to argue things.

i.e. I deserve to get a good grade on the project (which I was notified of a month ago) I didn't do, because my dad died, and right now my family is in a very bad situation where they are extremely destitute; we can't even eat three meals a day.

-False Analogy: The analogies cannot even connect to each other, yet it is still used as an analogy to throw people off.

i.e. Not bringing your pencil and paper to class is like a soldier going to war without a gun.

-Hypothesis Contrary to Fact: Saying what could have happened in the future, when it cannot be changed.

i.e. If Josef Stalin was taken out of the picture, the Cold War would have never happened.

-Poisoning the Well: When one condescends another person, and says negative things about them, saying that whatever they say is wrong.

i.e. That guy always does something that seems suspicious. So no one should get close to him.

The Five Other Logical Fallacies:

-Appeal to Authority: Just because a person is an authority in a certain subject does not mean that all of his/her claims are true.

i.e. A doctor who makes false claims so that he could get money off of his patients.

-Appeal to Fear: This is when someone uses fear to get another to do or believe something, when it has nothing to do with the claim.

i.e. A man who says that people should believe in God or else they will go to hell.

-Appeal to Flattery: This is when someone flatters another, and because of that, the other person feels good and does whatever that someone wants them to do.

i.e. Complementing the principal on how well he runs the school, then asking him to lessen your punishment.

-Appeal to Popularity: This is when people believe something merely because it is a popular view.

i.e. People once believed that the sun revolved around the earth, because it was a popular view.

-Appeal to Ridicule: This is when one ridicules an opposing claim so that people will support one's claims.

i.e. "Obama said that he will bring back the troops from Iraq once he is elected president. HAHA. And that's just ridiculous."

What is Reality (Truman Show)?

Are you living in the Truman World?

I believe that I actually am living in the Truman World, because I have never thought about truly finding out whether or not I am living in reality. I have never thought about questioning this reality-- I always just accepted it as it is, just like Truman did in his “real” world.

How do you live in the Truman Show? In what ways do you live in the Truman Show?

One lives in the Truman World by not really questioning how life works. If you just take the world for granted, and live life just following to the rhythm of the world, then you are pretty much living in the Truman Show. Truman always believed what everyone around him told him, when in actuality, they were all lying to him. He believed them because he thought that they were trust-worthy, and in his perspective, they were speaking logically. However, logic does not always lead to truth. Taking what other people say to be true and making it to one’s own truth is not truth at all. What if this truth is still confusing to that person? Should he or she still accept it? But that’s exactly how we are, and that’s how we live in the Truman Show.

A way to live in the Truman Show is to be satisfied with anything the world throws at you. You can also live in the Truman Show by remaining complacent, not really wanting to step out of your comfort zone to find out things that seem to be obvious to you. Accepting things for how they are is also another way you can live in the Truman Show. Let’s say that someone told you that all babies were carried by storks to the front of their parents’ doorsteps, and that’s how they were born, and you believed it. However, this is not the truth; you simply accepted what was given to you.

A way that I live in the Truman Show is by just going with the flow, and being complacent in my life. I am very uncomfortable with the way I am, but I don’t want to do anything about it, because I believe that this is probably the best it could get at the time being. I am shielded from the truth in many ways, because sometimes the truth might be something that is too much for me to deal with. Sometimes I’m scared from the truth, so my passion to find out the truth is sometimes shadowed by my own fears of truth.

What is real to you? How do you know?

I do not know what is really real to me. I do know that uncertainty is a real thing. Another thing that I know that is real is my being. I know that I am not anyone else, and that I am myself. There is a possibility that I am a clone or such, but I know that I am myself. I do not know much of what is real to me, because as I began to think, everything can deceive you. Honestly, I do not know what is real, except for deception and uncertainty.