Author: yoshi189

Defintion Argument- Yoshi

I can’t breathe. Those were Eric Garner’s last words before he was killed by police officers. Garner was approached by officers, as they accused him of selling a loose cigarette. Garner questioned why he was being arrested, the officers did not answer. Once Garner began to resisted arrest, claiming he did nothing wrong, Officer Pantaleo placed Garner in a chokehold, and officers then began to help wrestle Garner down to the ground, even though he was no longer resisting. Garner was held with his face down against the cement. Garner was not perceived as a threat to the officers, he had no weapons on him, and he wasn’t yelling or screaming. Garner was surrounded by other police officers, and also innocent pedestrians that were recording the officers abuse. Garner yelled, “I can’t breathe” to the officer holding him down; the officer did not stop. Eventually, Garner runs out of breath, and was later approached by street medics. Garner was pronounced dead from compression to the neck, from Officer Pantaleo’s chokehold, and compression of chest, from being restrained against the ground. More recently, police officers have been over reacting to a black man’s behavior as if their behavior were life threatening to the police officer.  

Some police officers react irrationally to a perceived threat. A threat is a declaration of an intention to inflict punishment, injury, etc. Garner was not a threat to police officers. He simply questioned why he was being arrested, and with no answer from the officer, he resisted arrest until the officer had a reason. The officers then overreacted to his decision to ask why he was being arrested, and choked him to death. In Missouri, Michael Brown was gunned down because he was under suspicion of stealing a cigarillo. He had no weapons on him, but he was perceived as a threat to the officer. The officer confront Brown though his car, Brown proceeded to walk away. The officer gets out of his car, and shoots Brown six times, twice hitting Brown in the head. Similarly enough, Tamir Rice, a twelve year old boy was shot and killed at a playground, after playing with a toy gun. Someone called 911 telling the operator, a little boy was playing with a gun, they specified that it had an orange tag on it. The orange tags shows that the gun is a toy gun. The officer shows up to the park, and within two seconds the officer shoots Tamir Rice, leaving him dead at the park.

Police perceptions on threats are directed towards black people. Police usually kill more black people than anyone else, because they claim to feel more threatened by them. Josh Correll, a psychology professor from the University of Colorado, ran test with a video game. His findings showed police officers avoid shooting unarmed targets of all races, but as soon as they were allowed to shoot, they would shoot more quickly against blacks suspects over white ones. This shows that officers do display some racial bias in shooting suspects.  Also, in another study by Correll, research found that the public and police are less likely to view black people as innocent. In the real world, this can lead officers to shoot black people more often than white people. According to Correll’s study, if a cop  is inclined to shoot at a black suspect more quickly this can lead to fault such as, shooting a innocent suspect. Only different sorts of training can diminish this bias, that cops have acquired.

Tragedy sparked across the nation after Eric Garner’s death. His final words, “I can’t breathe” became a national protest movement. The death of Garner is what sparked the questions of correlation between race and killing from law enforcement. He died in July, in November Officer Pantaleo appeared before the grand jury at court. Officer Pantaleo claimed he didn’t intended to choke Eric Garner, even though Garner repeatedly stated he could not breathe. The jury then declared there was not enough evidence to further continue an investigation, and Officer Pantaleo was sent free, case was dismissed. Not only did this happen to Eric Garner, but it also happened to Michael Brown. Brown was shot down due to a suspicion of stealing a cigarello. Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, was dismissed with no charges. These cases were two weeks apart, and protest across the United States broke out.

Victims of the excess abuse and their families deserve an approach towards a resolution to this problem. The justice system is dishonest towards citizens and indefensibly supports law enforcement every time. It is difficult to play the victim when going against someone in law enforcement. A three year $263 millions package for police officers’ use of body cameras and an improvement of law enforcement changes was announced, in order to build public trust and to examine police violence with more evidence. This is a great step to coming to a resolution, but unfortunately it doesn’t help much. Better police training to overcome racial bias would be the best resolution for the families and victims. Humans have stereotypes for every different race. One of the most common is linking blacks to crime and aggression, and to get rid of this stereotype a lot of time and training would be required. The training would consist of shooting stimulations, such as body language, cues, and what it seems like someone is holding in their possession. This would help officers focus more on indications opposed to race. This type of training is not required by law, but it is becoming more common with racial profiling growing in the justice system. Also, another effective training that is becoming more popular is called deescalating. This requires officers to try to calm down the victim and reduce the intensity of the situation, before they result to their guns. There is not a single quick fix to this situation. But with a systematic approach and time the correlation between law enforcement and racial bias will begin to diminish.

 

Works Cited

Al Baker, J. David Goodman And Benjamin Mueller. “Beyond the Chokehold: The Path to Eric Garner’s Death.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 June 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/nyregion/eric-garner-police-chokehold-staten-island.html.

Dianis, Judith Browne. “What Really Killed Eric Garner Was More than Just a Chokehold.”MSNBC, NBCUniversal News Group, 5 Aug. 2014, www.msnbc.com/msnbc/what-killed-eric-garner.

Mica Pollock and Tanya Coke. “Race and Overreaction: On the Streets and in Schools.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 2 Feb. 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/race-and-overreaction-on-the-streets-and-in-schools/385076/.

nydailynews. “Eric Garner Video – Unedited Version.” YouTube, YouTube, 12 July 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpGxagKOkv8.

Post, The Washington. “492 Died in Police Shootings This Year.” The Denver Post, The Denver Post, 2 July 2017, http://www.denverpost.com/2017/07/01/fatal-police-shootings-2017/.

Safer Saws- Yoshi

  • (1) 8A. Pro tool reviews wrote, “On top of all this, in terms of table saw safety, kickbacks are certainly more dangerous, and cause far more injuries each year, than cutting off fingers. Currently new advances are already being implemented through UL approval guidelines (new for 2010) to incorporate these safeguards.”

8B. Kickbacks cause more injuries over cutting fingers

8C. Evaluation claim

8D. The claim can be factual, but has no source to prove it. The writer says kickbacks cause more injury than someone accidentally cutting their finger off.

8E. I disagree with it, because they didn’t add a source to prove it. I myself have never heard of someone getting injured by a kickback, but I sure have heard a lot more people cutting their finger off from a saw.

  • (2) 4A. Roy Berendsohn said “Basically, the Bosch tool uses a sensing circuit that’s similar to the one SawStop patented years ago, but not identical. Where SawStop’s technology jammed the saw by running a piece of aluminum into it, wrecking the blade, Bosch’s cartridge system can save the saw blade. Whether Bosch’s design is too similar is a matter for the courts.”

4B. Both the Bosch tool and the SawStop use different technology to stop the blade and they are not the same. Berendsohn is basically saying there was no reason for the two to go to court because they are nothing alike.

4C. Opinion Claim

4D. The claim that they shouldn’t go to court is a opinion claim.

4E. I believe the two should go to court because the designs are fairly similar, and SawStop was presented to Bosch but they denied him.

  • (3) 8A. Written by Myron Levin in Mother Jones, “according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (PDF), resulting in more than 33,000 emergency room visits and 4,000 amputations. At an average cost of $35,000 each, these accidents lead to more than $2.3 billion in societal costs annually including medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.”

8B. “At an average cost of $35,000 each, these accidents lead to more than $2.3 billion in societal costs annually including medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering”

8C. Factual Claim

8D. The claim states how much money is spent with people that get injured with saws.

8E. I agree with this claim because there is evidence backing it up.

  • (4) 1A. SawStop Website says, “Our saws, besides being the highest quality and best featured saws in their market segments, feature the ability to detect contact with skin and stop the blade in less than 5 milliseconds.”

1B. “besides being the highest quality and best featured saws in their market segments”

1C. Opinion Claim

1D. This claim states that SawStop is the best quality and the best brand of saws in the market.

1E. I disagree with this claim because I think Bosch has a better quality saw. I think the fact that Bosch’s saw is reusable after it stops makes it better.

  • (5) 6A. An injury Lawyer claims, “The SawStop and other table saw safety devices are actually very simple. They run an electrical current through the saw blade that is attached to a current monitor. When the blade is cutting wood (a poor conductor of electricity) the electrical current in the blade remains constant. If the blade touches flesh (a relatively good conductor of electricity) the current in the blade drops.”

6B. “The SawStop and other table saw safety devices are actually very simple.”

6C. Opinion Claim

6D. The lawyer claims that, the saws are very simple.

6E. I don’t think they are simple, I actually think they are very confusing. I still don’t understand how the blade even stops that fast.

 

 

Proposal+5—Yoshi

For my research paper, I am analyzing how police brutality and racism go hand in hand. 

  1. Obama Is Correct to Separate Police Brutality from Racism

The Essential Content of the Article: This article explains how Obama separated police brutality and racism, and how he was right for doing so. This article also brings up how a white homeless man was killed by a police.

What it Proves: My thesis is how police brutality and racism are connected. This article will help me counter-argue my argument because it claims how white people get killed by police too. 

2. Police Brutality in America Is About Class, Not Race

The Essential Content of the Article: This article explains how racism is not main victim of police brutality. Instead they say it is the social class a person is in. 

What it Proves: This goes against my argument because I believe the problem is race and has nothing to do with class. To prove this I have a case where a police pulls over a state attorney.

3. Police aren’t targeting and killing black men

The Essential Content of the Article: This article explains how violent criminal acts are who police are more likely to shoot in America.

What it Proves: This articles goes against my argument, so it will help me in defending my case. The article states how police are more likely to shoot violent attacks, but when a white person attacks police they usually don’t shoot. 

  1. 8 White People Who Pointed Guns At Police Officers and Managed Not to Get Killed

The Essential Content of the Article: This article tells about eight men who pointed guns at officer, but did not get shot. 

What it Proves: This article, with the help of other evidence, shows that police are more likely to shoot black men over white men. 

  1. Man Arrested & Punched for Sitting on His Front Porch

The Essential Content of the Article: This video shows a black man sitting on his moms porch while being interrogated by two police officers. The police officer claimed someone called and said they saw him breaking into the house. When the police walked away she says no one actually called, she was just suspicious. Eventually man sitting on porch gets punched. 

What it Proves: It proves that police profile black people. Which then can lead to police to attacking them more likely than they would attack a white person. The police punched and arrested the black man because he assumed the man was breaking into a house. 

6.Cops Tackle 11-Year-Old Girl And Holds Her At Gunpoint

The Essential Content of the Article: This video shows a news reporter talking about a little girl who was held at gun point because her security alarm accidentally went off. When the police found her, she was in bed watching tv.

What it Proves: This video proves the shows the lack of empathy that some cops possess.    

7. Bodycam allegedly shows Baltimore PD officer planting drugs

The Essential Content of the Article: This video shows an officer plating drugs in someones backyard. (He thought his camera was off) The officers then goes to the street, ‘turns on his camera’ and then says I’m going to check over here, and ‘finds’ the drugs he planted

What it Proves: This video shows the extent officers will go to get someone in trouble. The person had nothing in their backyard, but they got in trouble for what the officer planted.

3. Visual Rhetoric Rewrite- Yoshi

0:00- The video starts off with what seems to be a nice sophisticated man. His short orange brown hair is slicked back with gel. His face has some stubbles on his cheek. He looks like he shaves but not everyday. He seems as though he doesn’t care about his appearance.  He is wearing a light blue button down shirt with a red tie. His shirt doesn’t look pressed. He looks like he is in the working-class, possibly going to an office job. His face is brightened, because he is looking out a window. His mouth is open, and his hand is going towards his mouth as if he is eating something. In the background there are brown cabinets against the wall, therefore he is probably in his kitchen. He is eating over the sink, maybe he is in a rush to get to work.

0:01-0:02- The camera has now backed up, and a woman is to the left of the frame. Her hair is tied in a ponytail, and she has on a nice olive green shirt on. She is reading the newspaper, with a glass of orange juice next to her and a plate. They are both probably eating breakfast together, before the man has to go to work. They are most likely husband and wife. A little further back to the right is the nicely cleaned up man. He has a plate in his hand, because he was eating breakfast. You can clearly see the setting now. The man is by the sink looking out the window. Their stove is connected to their counter next to the sink. Their appliances are stainless steel.  The woman is standing on the opposite side of the counter than the man. Their cabinets look a little old fashion wood.

0:03-0:04-  Is a close up of the man washing his dish. Then it cuts to his wife smiling because he is cleaning up after himself. He seems very tidy and helpful. The wife looks very pleasant. Her hair is light blonde and pulling into a low ponytail. She looks very clean, she has no fly aways her hair is very slick. She has makeup on, it looks very neutral. The background has a striped blue and white chair. It almost looks like it could be a beach house.

0:05-0:06- Shows the man walking out to his car with a leather bag around his arm. He is looking over to his left at his neighbor, with his hand raised waving to his neighbor. There is an orange cord tangled up on the floor, his neighbor is bent over trying to up tangle this cord. The neighborhood the man lives in looks middle-class. He has an average everyday car. There is big trees in between The mans house and his neighbor. I think the man doesn’t care to much about his or his house appearance.

0:07-0:09- Shows the man with the neighbors hose in his right hand. The hose is on, and the man is spraying what looks to be the neighbors bush. To the right of the screen you can see the neighbor slightly blurred. He looks elderly. He is short, olive skinned, and he has big squared glasses. He has a huge smile on his face, because the nice looking man is helping him out.

0:10-0:13- The nice man has now made it to work it looks like. His setting looks to be in an office break room. There is a bulletin board with papers hanging on it. There is a man and a woman sitting at a round table with mugs in front of them. They are both dressed professionally. The man has a button down shirt on with a vest over top. And the woman has a nice dress shirt on with a cardigan over it. In the background is the nice man with a coffee pot in his hand, that is filled with coffee. He walks over to the round table his ‘co workers’ are sitting at, and pours the coffee into their cup. The man the proceeds to look up, and smiles to the nice man. They are all dressed business casual.

0:14-0:15- Is the nice man in line at the grocery store. He is holding a bunch of vegetables in his hand. He looks at the man behind him. The man behind him has a pineapple in his hand. The nice man the proceeds to nudge his head signaling the older man behind him to get in front of him in line. The man with the pineapple in his hand lifts the pineapple, nods, and smiles thanking the nice man. The older man behind him steps in front of him, and gets in front of him.

0:16- The nice man is now in the car. Outside of the car’s windows is blurry. I looks like the nice man is driving. He is looking over his shoulder and down. It looks like he is looking at the center console of the car. He has sort of a confused look on his face as if he is trying to read something.

0:17- It is a close up of a phone. It says 6:40 so maybe the man just got done work. The phone is lit up with what seems to be a text message notification. The nice man’s hand comes into the screen, as he reaches over and grabs his phone off the passenger seat.

0:18- The nice looking man is still driving because outside the windows is still blurry. The man is now looking down in front of him. One of his hands is on the steering wheel, and the other hand is holding his phone. He is has a half smirk on his face, as he is reading the message on his phone.

0:19- This is an overview of the mans car coming to a stop at the intersection. From the scene before you know he is still looking at his phone. There is pedestrians crossing the road, and it seems like the nice man is going to hit them. The area looks like it is down town. The people crossing the street are women they appear to be well dressed. There is a lady in blue sitting on a bench next to the mans car. It appears to me that she is waiting for a bus.

0:20-0:21- A red car with his passenger window down pulls up next to the man, and he smiles at him but quickly realizes the nice man is on his phone. So the guy in the car next to him changes his facial expression to a look of disappointment. He has on a green hoodie he looks casual.

0:22-0:23- The man is looking at his phone smiling. The man looks over to his left, and see the guy looking at him. The young man looks embarrassed to be on his phone. He has his seatbelt on. He begins to turn his head to the other direction

0:24- The man is now looking over to his right, and it is the older woman in a blue shirt that was sitting on a bench. She looks very sweet and she is smiling at him. But then she realizes he is on his phone, and she gives him a mean look. She raises her eyebrows and opens her eyes big.

0:25- The man realizes and he drops his phone and looks forward again. His face looks embarrassed like it about to get red.

0:26- The scene cuts back to the older woman and zooms in on her staring at him. It slows zooms in on her face making her seem scary.

0:27- The camera cuts back to the nice man and he drops his phone and nods his heads towards her to show he acknowledged her. Then the man looks forward and proceeds to drive away.

Stone Money Rewrite- Yoshi

Money is Not Real

In the little Island of Yap, the wealthy people would get onto a boat, and travel 400 miles to get these large, uneven limestone discs. These discs were so big and heavy, it was an uncomfortable trip for the people of Yap. The limestone discs were called fei, they were used as currency. The shaping of the stone requires intense labor; that is why they’re so valuable. There are big holes in the middle of the discs, in order for them to be transported around the small island of Yap. Ironically, the holes are used for them to be moved to their first location; after that, they do not move!

They will usually trade the fei for big purchases according to NPR’s Broadcast of “The Story of the Stone Money.” The thought of a huge, hole-drilled stone from an island quarry could make the people of Yap rich is very peculiar. It sounds less reasonable that the stones aren’t actually in the possession of their owner. As I started listening to NPR’s Broadcast of “The Story of the Stone Money” and reading Milton Friedman’s “Island of Stone Money” I began to realize our economy and our visual of money is not too far off from those that live in Yap. Both, the Yap and us Americans, believe we can be wealthy and gain wealth by not actually physically moving anything. Someone in Yap claims a stone that fell to the bottom of the ocean. But just the same, we do not need cash, all we need is a magnetic stripe to move wealth around. If that does not seem strange to us, then neither should the Yap claiming a stone they have never seen.

In Milton Friedman’s story, “Island of Stone Money” Friedman explains how the French didn’t think the USA would stick to their gold standard of $20.67 an ounce. Therefore, according to Friedman, they asked the NY Federal Reserve to convert their dollar assets into gold, and set it aside for them instead of shipping it overseas. The Federal Reserve then put aside gold for the french. They separated the gold, and put it in drawers so it wasn’t touched. This way everyone knew that belonged to them.  After reading that I realized money is just knowing what you have, it is nothing physical. For example, you do not need the physical cash in your hand to determine your wealth. In Yap they determined their wealth by others knowing how many fei they owned, and not much different us in the USA determine how wealthy we are by digital numbers raising in our accounts.

After reading, “Island of Stone Money” I began to questions why do so many people have the faith in others to determine their own wealth. For example, how is it that I deposit money into my bank account, and a digital number, a machine gives me, determines my wealth. How does money from my account get taken out, and put into the car companies account. But nothing physically is exchanged? That flimsy green piece of linen is rarely used anymore, it is all about the plastic card with a chip in it. How is it that France has the faith in us to put aside gold for them that they bought, but they never physically saw? How is it that there is a fei at the bottom of the ocean near Yap that no one has seen for years, but yet it is still being used as if it was physically there.

I continued my research on how people put their faith into other with their money, and I came across an article by NPR’s Broadcast called “How Fake Money Saved Brazil”. Just twenty years ago inflation in Brazil reached 80% a month according to NPR. Brazil’s inflation began when Brazil’s government printed money in order to build Brasilia, Brazil’s capital. They created a new currency and it improved their economy rapidly! People would still have cruceros, but everything was listed in a URV, Unite of Real Value. One URV would equal 7 cruceros, and the next week one URV would equal 14 cruceros. According to NPR broadcast this idea was created so people would stop thinking prices would go up. After a few months the prices began to equal out, and that’s when they decided the URV was the new real currency. After this change 20,000 people got out of poverty!

Money is different everywhere you go, but the way it is used is very similar. The people of Yap would just mark their fei with a painted ‘X’ to claim it, and correspondingly the Federal Reserve put gold aside for the French and labeled it, so everyone knew it was for the French. The same thing happens here in the United States; almost everyone keeps their money in banks, and the only way they know who owns it is through an account number. If you think about it money is almost never actually exchanged physically in person. Transferring money from one person to another can be done from the comfort of your own home, using online banking. Almost everyone has moved to online banking, because it is so much more convenient. Most of the world has moved on from physically money, and developed a way to claim it without having it with them.

After reading these articles I came to think, what actually is money? To the people in Yap money is a big rigid limestone that doesn’t have to be in their possession. To us money is fake, it isn’t that green rectangle linen with pictures on it. It is numbers we see in our accounts, and we use plastic cards to make purchases. To Brazilians money was virtual, it didn’t exist it was just a unit of measurement to control their inflation.  Throughout the years money has developed many different values. Now a days it is hard to survive without money, even though we might not even physically see it. I believe money is what makes the world go around. Even if no one actually has a definition of what money is.  Money all around the world is physically different, but the actual use of it is all the same. What connects everyone’s money value to all others are their concept of money. The concept of money is just the trust you have in each other. Whether you live in the US and put your trust in a bank. Or whether you live in Yap, and put your trust into other people knowing what is yours, or even trusting 4 men you have never met before to create a new currency and help inflation. Money is different everywhere, it is the trust that makes it the same.

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford University , 1991.

Joffe-Walt, Chana . “How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR.org. 4 Oct. 2010. 9 Sept. 2017. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil&gt;.

“The Invention of Stone Money.” 423: The Invention of Stone Money. This Is American Life, WBEZ. Chicago . 7 Jan. 2011.

Critical Reading – Yoshi

Section 21

  1. I can feel him slipping down—it’s like this…vortex, this hole. And I try to grab him, like, ‘No! Don’t go down there!’ He can still get really depressed.
  • I can feel him slipping down: Charlen knows when Steve  is about to enter one of his flashbacks and depressed stages.
  • Vortex: Charlen is talking about Steve and how she knows when he is falling into mass of whirling fluid
  • ‘Don’t go down there’: Charlen tries to pull him out of the depressed state he is going to enter.
  • Depressed: Steve enters a state where he feels helpless. Categorical.
  1. Charlene has long, graying dark hair parted down the middle and super-serious eyes, which she has to lower to compose herself for a minute when I ask her, alone, if she saved Steve’s life. “He loves me a lot,” she answers. “I’ve never known love like this. He is…awesome.”
  • Super-serious eyes: She is probably very concerned with Steve and everything he does.
  • if she saved Steve’s life: Charlen saved steven from depression because of his PTSD?
  • “He loves me a lot,”: She he loves her alot because she saved his life and helped him throughout the years of their marriage
  • I’ve never known love like this: He loves her more than she’ll ever feel because she saved him.
  1. “She saved my life,” Steve says of Charlene, without my asking.
  • -Casual claim because of his PTSD his wife saved his life
  • -Steve suffers from PTSD
  • – He would’ve fell into depression without his wife.
  • – He didn’t ask she willing put up with it
  1.  VA rated Steve at 100 percent PTSD disabled, but he’s found his way to his version of a joyful life
  • 100 percent PTSD disabled: Definition claim saying Steve is 100% PTSD disabled
  • Found his way: Steve has found another way to do life
  • joyful life: Steve lives life another way so he enjoys it
  1. In the Vines’ household in Alabama, at any unpredictable time of night, the nightmare starts in Iraq.
  • -Nightmares: Categorical claim
  • – The nightmares Steven has because of his PTSD
  • – any unpredictable time of night: PTSD occurs randomly
  1. Someone’s yelling for the medic and an indiscernible string of noises seeps out of Caleb’s mouth while he’s dying.
  • Categorical claim: flashbacks are a part of PTSD
  • Indiscernible string of noises: the noise someone makes when they’re in pain
  • He’s dying: PTSD is bringing flashbacks of his friends dying.
  1. she wakes up, shaky, the next morning. “Still don’t get how I can so vividly dream of somewhere I’ve never actually been.”
  • Brennan caught PTSD
  • Brennan has never went to war so we assume PTSD is contagious
  • She wakes up shaky: because she had such a vivid dream about Iraq

 

Purposeful Summaries- Yoshi189

  1. The Cruelest Show on Earth

I find it counterintuitive that people continue to go to the circus when they are aware of the abuse the animals go through. Elephants are becoming extinct because of poachers and circuses. The circus hires people to capture elephants in the wild, while they are sleeping. In this process many elephants die, and the ones who remain alive are not the lucky ones. The captured elephants get hoisted into a ship and taken on a voyage to New York! Some elephants die in the boat on the 12,000 mile trip. Once they get closer to their destination the workers throw the dead elephants overboard. Once the animals arrive to their destination, which is usually a circus, they go into training.

Training is not pretty for these elephants. Trainers claim to use positive reinforcement to train elephants, but instead they use bullhooks. A bullhook is a three foot long metal rod with a sharp hook and point at the end of it. The hook is inserted in the ear or mouth and used to pulling, and the point is used for pushing. A baby elephant’s trainer was once witnessed bashing the elephant’s head with his rod, because the elephant was sick and not performing his tricks. When elephants don’t perform their tricks they get taken back to their stall after the show. In their stall they get beaten with whips and metal rods. All because they missed their cue or because they were sick. Elephants are highly intelligent creatures, and should not be treated like that. Children love circuses because they love seeing the animals. If everyone was educated about elephants, and knew the horror that happened behind the scenes, no one would go to the circus anymore. Spokesman for the USDA come out to circuses to investigate the abuse, but they always find ‘no evidence of abuse’. In order for circuses to stop abusing elephants, us, the people have to stop providing money for these circuses.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/10/ringling-bros-elephant-abuse/

 

2.  Vancouver combats heroin

I find it counterintuitive that Vancouver gives their biggest heroin addicts the best heroin on the planet. In downtown eastside Vancouver, they have the biggest drug epicenter. In attempts to help the drug addicts, Vancouver set up a safe zone called an ‘insite’. In the insite drug addicts can shoot up under the supervision of a nurse. The insite provides the addicts with clean syringes and antibacterial wipes. In addition to the supplies, they are also supplying them with the heroin! The addicts receive free heroin prescribed by a doctor. This seems insane, but it is actually helping the city of Vancouver. The city of Vancouver realized it was better to help an addict get their fix, rather than see them in an alley dead with a syringe in their arm. One of the addicts that has received help from the insite, now is able to hold down a job; because he is not worrying about his next fix and he is much more calmer. The city of Vancouver is more so killing the addicts with kindness. They are helping the addicts with their fix; knowing it will still kill them, but at least the city of Vancouver’s crime rate went down.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-02-04/vancouver-combats-heroin-giving-its-addicts-best-smack-world

 

3.  Belgium: Controversial Organ Donation

I find it counterintuitive that someone would kill themselves in order to be able to sell their organs. In 1993, Mario Vesculiti was suffering from multiple sclerosis. He realized he wasn’t going to get better, and that he was suffering. In September of 2002, he made a life or death decision. He euthanized himself in order to stop suffering. His doctor convinced him that suicide was a positive idea. After Belgium released a law allowing people to euthanize themselves, 1,000 people died from it. Diane suffered from a stroke, and she also euthanized herself because she wanted to donate her organs. Organ donation linked to euthanizing should not be frowned upon. Most people won’t want to live their life if they are suffering. Diane thought donating her organs was a great idea. She was told not to end her life, but she didn’t want to live anymore. She figured euthanizing herself at least her organs will go to good use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST8MSgh5ERE

Visual Rhetoric – Yoshi189

0:00- The video starts off with what seems to be a nice sophisticated man. His short orange brown hair is slicked back with gel. His face is freshly shaved with some stubbles on his cheek. He is wearing a light blue button down shirt with a red tie. He looks like he is in the working-class, possibly going to an office job. His face is brightened, because he is looking out a window.His mouth is open, and his hand is going towards his mouth as if he is eating something. In the background there are brown cabinets against the wall, therefore he is probably in his kitchen.

0:01- The camera has now backed up, and a woman is to the left of the frame. Her hair is tied in a ponytail, and she has on a nice olive green shirt on. She is reading the newspaper, with a glass of orange juice next to her and a plate. They are both probably eating breakfast together, before the man has to go to work. They are most likely husband and wife. A little further back to the right is the nicely cleaned up man. He has a plate in his hand, because he was eating breakfast. You can clearly see the setting now. The man is by the sink looking out the window. Their stove is connected to their counter next to the sink. The woman is standing on the opposite side of the counter than the man.

0:03-0:05-  Is a close up of the man washing his dish. Then it cuts to his wife smiling because he is cleaning up after himself. He seems very tidy and helpful.

0:06- Shows the man walking out to his car with a leather bag around his arm. He is looking over to his left at his neighbor, with his hand raised waving to his neighbor. There is an orange cord tangled up on the floor, his neighbor is bent over trying to up tangle this cord. The neighborhood the man lives in looks middle-class. He has an average everyday car.

0:07-0:09- Shows the man with the neighbors hose in his right hand. The hose is on, and the man is spraying what looks to be the neighbors bush. To the right of the screen you can see the neighbor slightly blurred. He looks elderly. He is short, olive skinned, and he has big squared glasses. He has a huge smile on his face, because the nice looking man is helping him out.

0:10-0:13- The nice man has now made it to work it looks like. His setting looks to be in an office break room. There is a bulletin board with papers hanging on it. There is a man and a woman sitting at a round table with mugs in front of them. They are both dressed professionally. The man has a button down shirt on with a vest over top. And the woman has a nice dress shirt on with a cardigan over it. In the background is the nice man with a coffee pot in his hand, that is filled with coffee. He walks over to the round table his ‘co workers’ are sitting at, and pours the coffee into their cup. The man the proceeds to look up, and smiles to the nice man.

0:14-0:15- Is the nice man in line at the grocery store. He is holding a bunch of vegetables in his hand. He looks at the man behind him. The man behind him has a pineapple in his hand. The nice man the proceeds to nudge his head signaling the older man behind him to get in front of him in line. The man with the pineapple in his hand lifts the pineapple, nods, and smiles thanking the nice man. The older man behind him steps in front of him, and gets in front of him.

0:16- The nice man is now in the car. Outside of the car’s windows is blurry. I looks like the nice man is driving. He is looking over his shoulder and down. It looks like he is looking at the center console of the car. He has sort of a confused look on his face as if he is trying to read something.

0:17- It is a closeup of a phone. The phone is lit up with what seems to be a text message notification. The nice man’s hand comes into the screen, as he reaches over and grabs his phone off the passenger seat.

0:18- The nice looking man is still driving because outside the windows is still blurry. The nice looking man is now looking down in front of him. One of his hands is on the steering wheel, and the other hand is holding his phone. He is has a half smirk on his face, as he is reading the message on his phone.

0:19- This is an overview of the nice mans car coming to a stop at the intersection. From the scene before you know he is still looking at his phone. There is pedestrians crossing the road, and it seems like the nice man is going to hit them.

0:20- A red car with his passenger window down pulls up next to the nice man, and he smiles at him but quickly realizes the nice man is on his phone. So the guy in the car next to him changes his facial expression to a look of disappointment.

0:22- The nice man looks over to his left, and see the guy looking at him. The young man looks embarrassed to be on his phone.

0:24- The nice man now looks over to his right, and this older woman in a blue shirt is sitting on a bench. She looks very sweet and she is smiling at him. But then she realizes he is on his phone, and she gives him a mean look. She raises her eyebrows and opens her eyes big.

0:25- The nice man realizes and he drops his phone and looks forward again.

0:26- The scene cuts back to the older woman and zooms in on her staring at him.

0:27- The camera cuts back to the nice man and he drops his phone and nods his heads towards her to show he acknowledged her. Then the nice man looks forward and proceeds to drive away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZG3pHiIPsI

Stone Money—Yoshi

P1. In the little island of Yap there were the wealthy that would travel 400 miles to get these big limestone discs, also known as fei, to exchange as currency. In order to move these big stones there is a hole carved in the middle of it, so a tree can fit through it and roll the fei around. Despite the hole in the stones, the stones for the most part didn’t move around from one person to another. Instead they stay put, and the people of Yap just know who it belongs too. They will usually trade the fei for big purchases according to NPR’s Broadcast of “The Story of the Stone Money”. I thought the concept of the Yap’s money was dumb. I didn’t understand how they believed that a big unevenly shaped stone made them rich even if it wasn’t even in their possession. That to me was the most illogical thing ever. As I started listening to NPR’s Broadcast of “The Story of the Stone Money” and reading Milton Friedman’s “Island of Stone Money” I began to realize our economy and our visual of money is not too far off from those that live in Yap. Both, the Yap and us Americans, believe we can be wealthy and gain wealth by not actually physically moving anything.  

P2. In Milton Friedman’s story, “Island of Stone Money” Friedman explains how the French didn’t think the USA would stick to their gold standard of $20.67 an ounce. Therefore, according to Friedman, they asked the NY Federal Reserve to convert their dollar assets into gold, and set it aside for them instead of shipping it overseas. The Federal Reserve then put aside gold for the french. They separated the gold, and put it in drawers so it wasn’t touched. This way everyone knew that belonged to them.  After reading that I realized money is just knowing what you have, it is nothing physical. For example, you do not need the physical cash in your hand to determine your wealth. In Yap they determined their wealth by others knowing how many fei they owned, and not much different us in the USA determine how wealthy we are by digital numbers raising in our accounts.

P3. After reading, “Island of Stone Money” I began to questions why do so many people have the faith in others to determine their own wealth. For example, how is it that I deposit money into my bank account, and a digital number, a machine gives me, determines my wealth. How does money from my account get taken out, and put into the car companies account. But nothing physically is exchanged? That flimsy green piece of linen is barely used anymore, it is all about the plastic card with a chip in it. How is it that France has the faith in us to put aside gold for them that they bought, but they never physically saw? How is it that there is a fei at the bottom of the ocean near Yap that no one has seen for years, but yet it is still being used as if it was physically there.

P4. I continued my research on how people put their faith into other with their money, and I came across an article by NPR’s Broadcast called “How Fake Money Saved Brazil”. Just twenty years ago inflation in Brazil reached 80% a month according to NPR. Brazil’s inflation began when Brazil’s government printed money in order to build Brasilia, Brazil’s capital. They created a new currency and it improved their economy rapidly! People would still have cruceros, but everything was listed in a URV, Unite of Real Value. One URV would equal 7 cruceros, and the next week one URV would equal 14 cruceros. According to NPR broadcast this idea was created so people would stop thinking prices would go up. After a few months the prices began to equal out, and that’s when they decided the URV was the new real currency. After this change 20,000 people got out of poverty!

P5. After reading these articles I came to think, what actually is money? To the people in Yap money is a big rigid limestone that doesn’t have to be in their possession. To us money is fake, it isn’t that green rectangle linen with pictures on it. It is numbers we see in our accounts, and we use plastic cards to make purchases. To Brazilians money was virtual, it didn’t exist it was just a unit of measurement to control their inflation.  Throughout the years money has developed many different values. Now a days it is hard to survive without money, even though we might not even physically see it. I believe money is what makes the world go around. Even if no one actually has a definition of what money is.  Money all around the world is physically different, but the actual use of it is all the same. What connects everyone’s money value to all others are their concept of money. The concept of money is just the trust you have in each other. Whether you live in the US and put your trust in a bank. Or whether you live in Yap, and put your trust into other people knowing what is yours, or even trusting 4 men you have never met before to create a new currency and help inflation. Money is different everywhere, it is the trust that makes it the same.

Works Cited

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford University , 1991.

Joffe-Walt, Chana . “How Fake Money Saved Brazil.” NPR.org. 4 Oct. 2010. 9 Sept. 2017. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil&gt;.

“The Invention of Stone Money.” 423: The Invention of Stone Money. This Is American Life, WBEZ. Chicago . 7 Jan. 2011.