Author: morty39

Definition argument- Morty39

Pitbulls can and should be used as police dogs. There are tons and tons of pitbulls sitting in shelters right now, waiting for a home and somebody to love. Nobody wants them, because they are viewed as being dangerous and harmful, even though this is false people will not let them in their homes. If these dogs are considered dangerous, but can be trained, why not train them to be police dogs to get them out of the public. This is not a new idea, to take dogs from animal shelters and train them to be part of a canine unit (surprising police). They usually do not take pitbulls, because of their bad reputation. On the website http://www.dogbreeds.net/police-dogs.html they do not list pitbulls as police dogs, which proves my point that people do not think these dogs could be useful to them, even though they have dogs like rottweilers which can be even more dangerous than pitbulls, they even have the same qualities. Dobermans are listed as part of the police dog unit too, they are also known to be mean and very unfriendly, the only difference is that that stereotype is actually true. Pitbulls on the other hand have a stereotype that is not fair to them, they are lovable and easy to train dogs. Which is perfect for police dogs, because the dogs live with their handlers and their families, and when they retire they stay with their handlers. They are family dogs and working dogs. They show this even when they are used as fighting dogs, pitbulls are trained specifically not to bite their handlers and know when to stop fighting, they were even bred that way. The ones that would bite their human or continue fighting were killed and not bred, even though that is awful for those dogs it helped them become great dogs for police. It solves two problems in one, get rid of pitbulls in animal shelters and prevent them from being killed because of too much space and on top of that the police get great dogs to work with and have a best friend for life.

 

http://www.dogbreeds.net/police-dogs.html
http://www.hero911.org/surprising-facts-about-police-dogs/

Critical Reading-Morty39

Part 16:

“In 2009, it was Hovda who delivered the Pentagon the recommendation that because multiple concussions could cause serious long-term injury, concussions need time to heal. “

“The recommendation” makes it seem they were not really trying to push or force the issues of concussions and the time to heal from them

“Could cause,” if they really want to try and force these rules on concussion they are not using strong enough words to push the subject.

“A fight ensued. Hovda says some of the Army’s best doctors implied that if soldiers were told they needed rest after concussions, it was going to usher in an epidemic of fakers, or retired guys claiming disability way after the fact.”

“A fight” makes it seem like there was a big ordeal and that the army really does not want their soldiers getting break after concussions.

“Implied” They do not know if it would really happen, but they would rather take the risk of the soldiers having long term medical issues rather than the chance some would take advantage of it.

“Epidemic” is most likely exaggerated

“Retired guys” makes it seem kind of annoyed about the situation, they did not say vets, which they should be called

“Although, the NFL was given the same memo in the 1990s, and brain damage in boxers is even older news, so it doesn’t seem like it would take a neuroscientist—or the top medical brass of an Army that builds laser cannons—to figure out that if 25 mph punches to the head cause brain damage, IED blasts that hit at 330 mph probably do too.”

“Is even older news” They are really showing that this has been a big issue by now and most people have realized how bad concussions can be

“Neuroscientist” Sarcasm to show that this is simple and does not take a lot of thought to realize it.

“IED blasts that hit at 330 mph probably do too.” This is in a annoying tone saying that it is pretty much the equivalent as 2 + 2.

“Eventually, Hovda’s cause prevailed. These days, there are MRIs in theater, assessments after blasts, mandatory rest periods after a concussion. But those reforms came seven years into the Iraq War, after Caleb and a million other soldiers were already home. When people ask Hovda if they’re gonna get better, he encourages them that they’re gonna get different.”

“Eventually” This shows that they are more than annoyed at how long they took to realize how bad concussions are.

“Million other soldiers” I would say this is an exaggeration but it is most likely close to the number of solders, there were definitely not a million but it gives the idea of how bad it was.

“Encourages” encourages they are going to be different is not a good answer when they ask if they are going to get better.

 

 

 

 

 

Stone Money-Morty39

Currency is around the world, and has been since the beginning of time. Whether it was trading one thing for another, it is still a type of currency. The trading slowly changed from rocks to gold to paper money. Nowadays there is not a lot of money, most of it is electronic and not physical. That is where the question comes in what is money? There is no money, there is the idea of money and currency. In Yap they used giant livestock rocks from an island about 400 miles away. They could not physically move the giant rocks, so the people of Yam would keep them in the same place, but everybody knew whos rock was whose. When somebody would sell one of the rocks or trade them for something else, the rock would stay in the same place and the people would just know that the ownership of the rock changed. This all is very shocking to what most people are used to nowadays, how do the people trust other people not to say that the rock is actually theirs and lie. Even more so there is a story of a rock falling into the ocean and still being used as currency (Friedman). How do the people even know it is actually there? That is where the idea of money comes in, in all of this the people of Yam do not actually have their money in their possession physically, it is just an idea that they have a certain amount. Just like how nowadays we do not physically hold most of our money, it is in the banks electronically, it is the same idea with the rocks, except now it is a bank. Money is a crazy concept that is hard to wrap the mind around.
Another amazing idea about the idea of money is inflation, and how that changes the value of money, today’s dollar is not the same as the dollar from the 1930s in the way of value. In Brazil they had a huge issue with inflation, literally everyday inflation went up, every month inflation went up eighty percent. Literally everyday the prices changed and went up, they even had a job where all you did was change the prices each day. The way that the Brazilian government fixed this major issue of inflation, was to trick their whole country into thinking their money was real, and that it had value again and change the way it is used. Whether their money actually had value again or not the people of Brazil will probably never figure it out, but it did help the problem. They changed the way people buy things and how their money works. Now instead of going into the mall and buying a pair of sunglasses in one payment, you would have six installments, or six payments every month. Now the United States already does this, on big expensive things, not five dollar sunglasses. So why do this, why make these payments that span over months? Wouldn’t the business owners want their cash immediately? This was the only thing that worked for the Brazilian economy. They have tried everything, they put a hold on raising prices, that failed. They then tried putting a hold on everybodys money, if you had money in the bank you could not use it during that time period. That of course did not go over well, it would never go over well in any place, people started committing suicide. The president that put that into place was soon impeached and the rule was gone. Now when nothing else worked they put the trust of their government into four guys, who would gossip around bars and came up with this idea. The idea that they came up with is still being used today (ThisAmericanLife).
It is crazy how the world views money and how fast it can change, it can change from limestone to gold to physical cash to invisible cash that are just numbers. In 1933 there was a banking panic and all of the money and gold was worth almost nothing, the U.S. gold reserves were extremely down. The issue that came with this other than our economic situation being bad is that we had some of France’s gold in our banks. Our cost of gold was down but theirs was going up. So the question came into play of whether the gold from France on United States soil was worth what the United States gold cost or what France’s gold was worth. France was extremely worried that the United States would change the cost down to what their costs were, which makes sense, because why would they pay more for the something that costs a less amount in their country (Friedman). That is another crazy way how the idea of money works, and it boggles minds.
Investing and putting money into nothing sounds strange right? But that is exactly what people are doing with bitcoin. Bitcoin is a new way of transactions on the computer, also known as digital transactions. Bitcoin is nothing, it is not a physical thing you could hold or touch, like gold or rocks or papercash. It is a new type of currency in a way, you buy it with U.S. dollars and sell it for U.S. dollars. It is a weird and still very new concept, it only came out in 2013, and is like the stock market but at the same time very different. In the stock market you are investing into different companies and when they do good you make money, when they do bad you lose money. Easy system to understand and makes sense. Bitcoin you are investing into nothing, no companies, just a digital website. Bitcoin is very confusing on how it works and how the money can go up and down, one day it could be one hundred seventy-six dollars and the next day it is worth only a hundred. But what makes it change? It brings in a whole new idea about the money concept, that boggles my mind (Reeves).

 

Work Cited

Friedman, M. (1991, February). The Island of Stone Money. Retrieved February 6, 2018, from https://counterintuitive2015.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/stonemoneyessay.pdf

Reeves, J. (2015, January 31). Bitcoin has no place in your – or any – portfolio. Retrieved February 06, 2018, from https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bitcoin-has-no-place-in-any-portfolio-2015-01-28

The Invention of Money. (2018, January 31). Retrieved February 06, 2018, from https://www.thisamericanlife.org/423/the-invention-of-money

 

 

White Paper- Morty39

I am researching and writing about how pit bulls can be used as police dogs, this will also prove that pit bulls are not dangerous dogs, and all they need is some good training. The issue of whether pit bulls are dangerous or not, has been a big one for some time now. They mainly get a bad rap because of all the dog fighting rings and the fact that once pit bulls jaws lock down on something, they stay locked. Combing training of a pit bull to fight and their jaw is a bad mix, But these animals are loveable and adorable creatures, when they are trained right. The same goes for any other dog. Because of this bad rep pit bulls have, the shelters are full of them. Shelters are trying to find ways to get these dogs out of there and into forever homes. But with some cities and places completely banning pit bulls, it is very hard to do so. That is where the police dogs come into play, these dogs are very easily trained and all they want to do is please their owners, which is very useful for the canine units. It is a win-win situation, the dogs get forever homes and the police have great working buddies.

 

Sources:

1.https://www.aspca.org/animal-cruelty/dog-fighting/what-breed-specific-legislation

Essential content of article: The article is from the ASPCA and it talks about Breed specific legislation. Breed specific legislation, BSL, is when certain breeds of dogs are banned or have more restrictions than other breeds just because they are a pit bull or a mastiff. It is a discrimination law against dogs, and it has not have any success since the first ones were established in the 1980s. The article talks about how it is ineffective and how it actually hurts more things than it helps.

What it proves: It proves that BSL is not a good law and should not be a law. It his hurting animals and owners and even public safety. Which is counterintuitive because the whole point of BSL is to prevent people getting hurt from quote on quote dangerous dogs.

2.https://www.animallaw.info/article/overview-dog-fighting

Essential content of article: In the article from animal law it talks about the overview dog fighting. The article does not go in depth into how dogfighting is done and what goes on, but it gives a description of what the animals go through, what the police look for and why it is happening and continues to go from generation to generation.

What it proves: It proves that dogfighting is a nasty sport and it gives the readers of my essay an idea into what is happening to these dogs and why this could lead to giving them a bad rap.

3.https://web.archive.org/web/20111024001344/http://www.cbp.gov/xp/CustomsToday/2002/October/k9.xml

Essential content of article: In this article it talks about how a pit bull named popsicle became an amazing police dog. The article describes how popsicle was found, where he was trained, and all of the drugs he sniffed out during his career.

What it proves: This article proves that pit bulls can be amazing police dogs and do an amazing job.

4.  http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=9494086

Essential content of article: In the news story it is about a dog who saved his family from an intruder and the pit bull was shot three times and survived.

What it proves: The article proves that pit bulls are great family dogs and great protectors.

5. http://pitbulls.org/article/brief-history-american-pit-bull-terrier

Essentials of the article: In this article from pitbull.org it describes where the pit bull came from, how it was bred, how to train them. The article explains what the pit bull is like, how friendly they are and different things like that.

What it proves: The article proves that pit bulls were bred to be great family dogs, but also fierce protectors. The article even says that they are great family dogs.

Summaries—Morty39

It seems counterintuitive that a circus making money off of their animals would treat them so poorly and let them die. Sadly that is exactly the case with the Ringling Brothers, most commonly known as “The Greatest Show On Earth.” They are most notably known for their elephants and all of the amazing tricks they can do. So you would think that they would treat their money making animals with the best care, wrong. There have been cases after cases of animal cruelty, and each time the charges are dropped, another elephant dies, or another video shows up of one of the workers hitting the animals. The first big case was with a baby elephant who became very sick and started showing no interest in things he loved. Kenny, the baby elephant, was supposed to be given medical care before being cleared for a show, the first show he was not cleared but still went on, same with the second. After the second and show, a veterinarian came in and gave him medication and said he should not do the third show, the circus went against that advice and put Kenny in the third show, where he had bloody diarrhea during the performance and once he was back in the cage he died. This death could have easily been prevented if they gave their animals the correct treatment.

The Feld Entertaiment are the ones running the Ringling Brothers circus. This group is very corrupted in many ways, the whole circus is uses illegal training of animals and abuse and they get away with  it every time. It does not matter who tries to take them down, it does not work. Whether it is the USDA, PETA, Ron DeHaven, and a couple more animal activists have tried, but none have succeed. It is surprising how the circus could get away with all of this abuse for years even with video proof and eye witnesses coming forward. There is an abundance of videos of the trainers hitting the elephants with bullhooks, ankusks, and electric pods. They would continue to hit and hit and hit until the elephants are crying for it to stop. It is plain and clear that these animals are being abused and treated poorly, even though Feld keeps saying they are living in perfect conditions. Even when lawyers start cracking down on Felds they would not release all the information they had, they only shared the files that did not have any hint of animal abuse. Sadly for the elephants it seems that no matter what Felds entertainment do, they always get away with it.

It seems counterintuitive that if a women was raped and married at the time, she would be considered an adulterer and thrown in the river. It seems counterintuitive that if a girl was raped, she would be forced to marry her rapist and her dad gets fifty shekels out of it. It seems counterintuitive that if a husband raped his wife, it was not illegal, and that was in affect until 1993 in North Carolina. Rape is rape, women see it as that, some men on the other hand do not. For example, the men in the Republican party, their idea of rape goes back to when it could only happen to somebody who is single, did not get pregnant or who was a virgin, and only females could be raped. It is honestly heartbreaking that the people in charge of America right now, do not know the definition of rape, and are okay with having a President accused of rape on multiple occasions.

It seems counterintuitive that multivitamins do almost nothing to make us healthier. Instead of making people healthier, the vitamins might actually be putting the person at more risk of a disease than without taking them. Vitamin deficiency is very rare, almost nobody gets it, because even though most of the food we eat may not be necessarily the healthiest for us, they still have enough vitamins and minerals that adults need on a daily basis. Suprisingly enough if there is too much vitamins and minerals in your system, it is actually bad for you. That is why if you take multivitamins on top of eating generally healthy, you will be consuming too much vitamins and minerals. For example having to much folic acid can lead to a risk of colorectal cancer. Some of the multivitamins already have too much of certain things in there, which is extremely unhealthy. One multivitamin has double the recommended dose for vitamin A.