Category: A11: Definition Rewrite

Definition Argument-jdormann

Can Concussions and Spinal Injuries Be Eliminated from High-impact Sports?

P1. There have been countless lives that have been altered forever, or even ended because of concussions or spinal injuries. When a person plays a high impact sport, their chances of a life changing injury dramatically increases. Repetitive concussions have been proved to cause CTE, and just one spinal injury could put a person in a wheelchair for the rest of their life. Some could argue that people accept this risk upon participating in an intense activity, but walking away with a life debilitating injury is not a thought for players. Recently, rugby and football alike have begun studying concussions and spinal injuries in an attempt to reduce them.

P2. When watching a football game at any level, the spectator can expect to see powerful blows to the head and spine. The high energy hits are the thrill of playing and watching the game, but cumulative hits cause serious damage. NFL players are the highest level football players in the world, and they are the ones that receive the most and worst head injuries. The NFL has been taken to court with over 4,000 lawsuits from players and their families because of concussions. Such a large organization would surely have some knowledge and capabilities to prevent these injuries, but they did not worry about it until recently. As more people become aware of the dangers, they are less likely to support the game or allow their developing children to play. If there is a way to prevent or entirely eliminate concussions, people would feel more comfortable with allowing their children to play football. A different tackling technique has been adopted from rugby to increase the safety of football players. An article published by The Telegraph states:

Several American colleges have studied this way of tackling. The Seattle Seahawks have worked with Fijian rugby sevens star Waisale Serevi on “taking the head out of the game”. Rugby techniques have subsequently been introduced at Washington, Florida and Michigan State – whose head coach Mark Dantonio extols the benefits of rugby–style tackling.

P3. This type of tackling emphasizes player safety and not putting the head in danger during contact. Rugby players do not wear padding or helmets, so tackling is not as violent as football. The players must be cognizant of their body position and in complete control of their movement. Rugby has an injury issue of its own, but it is spinal injuries the players suffer from. Players can suffer from concussions or CTE just like football players, but it is less likely. Jojo Moyes wrote an article for Independent about the high risk of spinal injuries rugby players face. In the article, she wrote:

Ben Smoldon, 21, successfully sued a referee after he was left paralysed following the collapse of a scrum. The new figures reveal that nearly half of all serious rugby injuries occurred in players under 26 and nearly a quarter resulted in the patient needing a ventilator to breathe.

P4. Similar to football, rugby has had lawsuits due to injuries. When players from both teams form a scrum, there is a massive amount of pressure acting on the players. If a scrum collapses or a player is not in the right body position, it can cause them to break their neck or seriously injure their spine. Younger players are not fully developed which puts them at a higher risk of injury.

P5. Both, rugby and football are high impact sports that struggle with serious head and spine injuries. There is no one method that will immediately eliminate all life changing injuries from these sports, but doctors and players can continue working together to take preventative measures making the sports safer. Future studies about impact to the head and spine will help to further the safety of players and keep intense sports like rugby and football around for years to come.

References

Moyes, Jojo. “Risk of Spinal Injuries Highest in Rugby.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 22 Apr. 1996, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/risk-of-spinal-injuries-highest-in-rugby-1306291.html.

Tmg. “Is Rugby or American Football More Dangerous?” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 25 Jan. 2016, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/concussion/is-rugby-or-american-football-more-dangerous/.

 

Definition Rewrite-Flyerfan1974

What is Risk Compensation?

Imagine a player in the NFL and running down the field to score a touchdown. Out of no where he is hit extremely hard and he goes down. He has no idea where he is or who he is. All he knows is that his head is pounding, this is what it feels like to receive a concussion and it happened far too often in the NFL. People are proposing to make drastic changes or just banning the game. There however, is a way that we can prevent concussions without drastically changing the game, get rid of helmets.

When Walter Camp changed the rules from Rugby into American football he did not want players to become seriously injured. The violent nature comes from the players, they don’t have to make an enormous hit, but they do anyway. These enormous hits, they cause injuries. Why do they do this, a concept called risk compensation. Protective equipment, like helmets and pads, may prompt users to act more aggressively and thereby increase the potential for serious injury. Im sure when a football player is on the field with no helmet he is not going to make a risky play, but give him a helmet and he will make that play knowing he is suppose to be protected. In Hagel and Meeuwisse’s article, they talk about how before helmet use, there were less concussions. During football practices, many teams practice a drill called the tackling drill. During this drill, 2 players line up and hit one another as hard as they can. In the 1940’s, when there were no helmets, players were taught the initial point of contact should be the shoulder. In the 1960’s when todays helmets made their first appearance, players were taught that the initial point of contact was the head due to it being protected. There was a noted increase in tackling drill fatalities between 1955 to 1964 compared to between 1945 to 1955 when the point of contact was the shoulder. The players in the 1940s and early 1950s had no helmets, but this time period had a significantly less number of tackling drill fatalities than when helmets were invented. They were “spearing,” a term that describes when a player runs head first into the person they are trying to tackle. They are acting like a ram does when it go to hit an opponent. When spearing was banned in 1976, there was a significant decrease in the amount of head injuries, cervical spine injuries, and deaths, even with an increase in participation.

Risk compensation is also found in other sports such as, baseball, hockey, skiing, snowboarding, and bicycling. Risk compensation is even found in rugby. For example, in children’s baseball using softcore balls, volunteer coaches were seeing more instances of injuries than leagues that used hardcore baseballs. The children took greater risks when fielding the softcore balls and moving out of the way of wild pitches. The kids that played with hardcore balls faced something dangerous and they knew it would hurt, which made them be more conservative.  Risk compensation can even take place outside of sports. Motorists with seatbelts are more likely to drive more recklessly than other motorists without their seatbelts. Edward Green with the Washington Post talks about risks compensation in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Pope Benedict XVI commented that condom distribution was not helping the fight, but worsening it, he was pointing out to risk compensation. Condoms are meant to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS, but they were actually helping the spread. People would feel protected enough that they would take place in riskier sex acts, making the condom useless and helping the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Rugby is the sport that started American football. Walter Camp changed the rules of rugby to create American football. It is an American tradition that cannot ever be taken away, that is why we need to fix it. Rugby is absolutely a violent sport, players are jumping, running, hitting, being put into giant huddles, and players are even being thrown, and they do this all without any protective equipment. If we ask many Americans, they may not understand the rules about Rugby. Rugby does not have as much injuries as it does in football. It is ironic that the sport with the most protective equipment has more injuries. In the British Journal of Sports Medicine there is a study about Rugby. In this study, scientists wanted to find out if headgear reduces the incidence  of concussions in Rugby. Sixteen under 15 rugby union teams were recruited from three interschool competitions in metropolitan Sydney and the adjacent country region. A prospective study was undertaken over a single competitive season. The study had two arms: a headgear arm and a control arm. Headgear wearing rates and injury data were reported to the investigators and verified using spot checks. “A total of 294 players participated in the study. There were 1179 player exposures with headgear and 357 without headgear. In the study time frame, there were nine incidences of concussion; seven of the players involved wore headgear and two did not. There was no significant difference between concussion rates between the two study arms.” The conclusion was that although there is some controversy about the desirability of wearing protective headgear in football, this pilot study strongly suggests that current headgear does not provide significant protection against concussion in rugby union at a junior level. As we can see risk compensation was present in this study. Out of the 9 players, 7 were wearing the head gear. Due to having protection, here players must have felt more safe, and make more riskier hits.

Risk compensation is all around us and is not just on a sports field. When driving we are more likely to drive more risky while wearing a seatbelt. While boating we are most likely to make dangerous moves wearing a life jacket. With the phenomenon of risk compensation defined, we can now determine how to fix the problem of concussions in football. With the definition of risk compensation in our minds we can safely say that taking away helmets in football will make it safer and reduce the number on concussions.

Works Cited

Hagel, Brent PhD*; Meeuwisse, Willem MD, PhD “Risk Compensation: A “Side Effect” of Sport Injury Prevention?” Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine.

A S McIntosh, P McCrory  “Effectiveness of headgear in a pilot study of under 15 rugby union football” British Journal of Sports Medicine

Brad Gagnon Nov 3, 2017 . “NFL 2017 All-Injured Team Is Loaded with Pro Bowl Players at Halfway Point of Season.” CBSSports.com, 3 Nov. 2017,

Definition Argument Rewrite – thebeard

If you have gone to a hockey game before then you know that a fight is one of the best things to happen, aside from your team winning. Fighting has been part of the NHL since the rules of the sport were first written in the 1800s. The “Original Six” era saw fighting established as an ordinary part of the NHL game according to Jamie Fitzpatrick in the article “History of Hockey Fights.” Throughout the years there have been many “goons” who have been the tough guys on teams. Teams such as the Philadelphia Flyers have used fighting and intimidation as core tactics during the 70s.

Many NHL teams have had “tough guys” on them for many years, these players are meant to harass players on the opponent team to try and get some penalties called or even to pump up the crowd. These players are still on teams these days, they go out on the ice to fight someone to give their own team some motivation. These players were also known as “goons” and they were really big during the 70s. Many fights during those years involved several players and a few were even bench-clearing brawls. Because of all the fights during this era it caused the NHL to create a rule  that any player joining a fight in progress would be ejected from the game. Not to long after that the league also decided that a play leaving the bench to join a fight would receive a 5-to-10 game suspension.

There are several different ways that fighting it still a good thing to have in the game. In the article “Top 10 Reasons Why the NHL Needs to Keep fighting in the Game,” Andrew Maggio talks about how no one will ever question a player for defending a teammate and having to fight someone. This is in every sport not just hockey, teammates defend each other, it happens in baseball with dugouts emptying and full teams running at each other. It also happens in football when offensive linemen pull down defensive players for getting a late hit on their quarterback. Fighting is also a huge momentum shift in hockey, winning a fight can pump a team and the crowd. Fighting is unique to hockey, it is one of the main aspects of the game and has been in it for many and many years. The physicality of the sport is what differentiates t from the other big professional sports, aside from the NFL that is. But you never really hear any football fans complain that they shouldn’t be allowed to hit each other.

If fighting wasn’t a part of the NHL the alternative would be much worse, more people would get injured from dangerous hits and vicious hacks with a players stick. Some players would find different ways to injure certain players and there will be no was to retaliate if there is no fighting for a bad hit on a top player. Most, if not all, NHL teams have players that are literally on the team to protect the star players and basically be a bodyguard when they are needed. When most people go to a hockey game they talk about hoping they will see a fight happen. Years ago you could go to every game and expect to see a fight or at least some type of big physical argument. It doesn’t happen as much anymore but when you go to a game and see a fight its one of the best things in the sport in my opinion. It makes you think what the game would be like if there was no fighting. Sometimes it is nice to go to a big game and see a nice clean hockey game where its just constant skating and great moves but the fighting pumps up the crowd and the teams.

Now one of the worst things that can happen when you go to a hockey game is when a player gets injured. Hockey players can get injured from a number of different things such as getting hit into the boards from behind or just a lower body injury from pushing themselves to hard. An injury is defined as a particular form or instance of harm, so technically an injury could just be a player missing a game. Players miss games every night, it could be due to a physical injury or even just sickness. An injury is defined as a particular form or instance of harm. A study was done by Laura Donaldson during the 2009 – 2012 seasons on how many players were injured. This study was on all 1307 NHL players participating in regular season games. Within the 3-season time period, 825 of the 1307 NHL players missed at least 1 game due to injury. That is about 63% of the players. Within a single 82 game regular season, 50.9% of all players were out for 1 game or more.

The big thing with injuries is that they cost the teams a lot of money. The total lost salary costs due to injury over the 3-year study was $653 million. Of that $653 million, $128.5 was for injuries of concussions. Concussion are a huge injury in most sports, during this study 323 concussions or suspected concussions were recorded.

A smaller study was done during 10 weeks from each of the three seasons to determine the most costly injury. During those 30 weeks 870 injuries occurred. The injury that occurred the most was a leg/foot injury. Those were 241 of the 870 injuries that happened in that period, which was 30% of all the injuries that occurred during the 3 weeks. Those 241 injuries cost about $68 million.

In the NHL there are also many players that have rarely ever missed a game. From the article “Ranking the 10 Most Durable Players in the NHL,” written by Rob Vollman, he states that one of these players that rarely misses a game is Jarome Iginla, during his 1299 games played he only missed 1253. A few of the games that he missed were because of a knee injury in 2006-07 season. Another player that has hardly missed a game is Henrik Sedin, out of his 973 games played he only missed 963. At the age of 33 Henrik Sedin had the second-longest active iron man streak, this means he has played a consecutive amount of games without missing any. His streak, at the time of this article, was 652 consecutive games. One amazing thing that Henrik Sedin did was play most of the 2011 playoffs with a major back injury. This just shows that some players love the game and the fans so much that they play through injuries just to try and win.

Players miss games almost every night in the NHL and other professional sports. This could be from a physical injury or possibly just a simple cold. It is possible that they may also have a family emergency and they would miss a game. Technically all of these are types of injuries and cause players to not be able to play on a specific night.

 

Works Cited

Donaldson, L., Li, B., & Cusimano, M. D. (2014). Economic burden of time lost due to injury in NHL hockey players. Injury Prevention, 20(5), 347.

Fitzpatrick, Jamie. “History of Hockey Fights.” ThoughtCo, 18 Mar. 2017,

Maggio, Andrew. “Top 10 Reasons Why the NHL Needs to Keep Fighting in the Game.”TheSportster, 20 Nov. 2014

Vollman, Rob. “Ranking the 10 Most Durable Players in the NHL.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 12 Apr. 2017,

5b. Definition Rewrite- 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. There could have been many ways to avoid killing Garner. He was only asking why he was being arrested, with a simple explanation, he could have still been alive today.

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 confronted 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. Police are trained to miss their target purposely, just to scare the victim and have them surrender. In this case, the officer purposely shot him in the head, intending to kill him.

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. The officers could have simply approached Rice, and calmly asked him to put down his gun. The officers posed Rice as a threat, but he was no more of a threat than the others boys who were unarmed. In all of these incidents these boys should have been simply arrested or taken to the station, but instead they were all shot and killed.

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 cigarillo. 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, http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/what-killed-eric-garner.

nydailynews. “Eric Garner Video – Unedited Version.” YouTube, YouTube, 12 July 2015, http://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/.

Definition Rewrite – collegegirl

The general definition of a community can be defined as a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristics in common. For Barack Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” movement which started back in February of 2014, he is trying just that, to bring communities together. After the death of an innocent young black man names Trayvon Martin, Obama created the MBK movement. The movement was created to help and motivate young men of color stay on track. The community leaders of the MBK movement stride to provide the support and guidance that the young men of color need in order for them to think more broadly about their futures. In order for the My Bother’s Keeper movement to be successful, Obama focuses on what characteristics make up a community. In a recent article I read, it stated that in order for a community to be successful in coming together it needs to have five roles which help them work together, in order to be successful.

The My Bother’s Keeper Community Challenge urges communities bring together leaders that work together to accomplish the main goals of the movement. Every community needs a host. The host is in charge entertaining the guests. In the case of the MBK movement, the host will be entitled to making sure that all of the young males are satisfied in what the movement is doing for them. The role of the host is to not only make sure everyone is satisfied but also in charge of making the rules and enforcing them. The article states that although being the host can be fun, it also involves the role of kicking people out if they are not following the rules that are being enforces. In this case though, because MBK is such a powerful movement to help enhance young black males lives, I doubt the host will ever “kick someone out” if they don’t abide by the rules they have in tact.

The next big role that plays in the community is the facility. The article defines the facilitator being the one who always does good. Another important role of the facilitator is to make sure people within the group, are conversing with one another and meeting new people. In this case, with the My Brother’s Keeper movement, it is extremely important for the facilitator to make sure that the young men are talking and engaging with one another. When troubled youth come together for the same purpose and have the same goals, it allows them to feel like they’re a team and can do anything. Since groups of young men are all in the same community, that gives them a chance to talk about each other’s struggles and they may have something in common with one another. One may have went through something previously that one is going through now, and together, they can get through what actually is causing them to feel like they are troubles and need guidance to help them with their future.

In every group there’s always the “popular one.” Recently, one of the well known player’s in the NBA became one of the leaders for the MBK movement. Kevin Durant, announced that he was partnering with the movement to help decrease the absenteeism in school. The article defines the “popular one” as the one who brings a bunch of people with them.     Because Durant is such a superstar and someone who kids look up to and want to be, is extremely helpful for the movement because it will show kids that someone who is famous and the “popular one” actually cares and is providing them with the support to make them better at such a young age. When a movement or community has someone that is famous involved, it’s going to bring in an audience and participants.

Now, on the other hand of the popular one, there’s always an instigator who’s also very important in the community. Unlike being quiet, the instigators job is to basically stir up the pot. The instigator causes controversy. In order for the community to be successful with the MBK movement, there must be an instigator who is ready to point out the problems that the individuals of the group have and make them aware of it. Helping the young men began to understand their problems will help them become obviously aware of what the issue is and come to a conclusion on how to fix the issues. The instigator of the community is the most important role. They are really there to make people come to realization of who they really are, what their problems are and ho they can fix those problems to have a better future.

The fifth important role in order to have a successful community is the voyeur. The voyeur is the one who helps everyone and lends a hand when necessary. This role in the community is very important for obvious reasons. Everyone is there to seek help and guidance from someone in order to improve their future. Having someone to count on can play an important role to the young men because they will always know that they have someone to go to when they are in need of a favor or if something goes wrong, they know there will always be someone there to lend a hand.

Having a variety of leaders play these roles, can be extremely helpful when it comes to helping and bringing the community together for the MBK Movement. The community certainly plays an important factor and role in itself when trying to accept the MBK Challenge. Before accepting the challenge, the communities should be aware that they need to fulfill every role to ensure that the young men are being provided with the correct guidance whether it be the ugly truth or positive enforcements.

 

Works Cited

“The 5 Types of Roles You Need in Your Community.” Salesforce Blog, http://www.salesforce.com/blog/2013/12/the-5-types-of-roles-you-need-in-your-community.html.

JustinTinsley. “Mr. Reliable: Kevin Durant Is My Brother’s Keeper’s Secret Weapon.” The Undefeated, 6 July 2016, theundefeated.com/videos/mr-reliable-kevin-durant-is-my-brothers-keepers-secret-weapon/.

 

 

Definition Rewrite – theintern

The business world is a battleground between good and evil, ethical and unethical, moral and immoral behavior. While some businesses have found it easy to increase profits by using unethical practices, many have lost everything by doing so and getting caught. Business ethics are not the same as the moral principles or habits that we learn from birth that help us determine what is right or wrong. They’re more practical and local; they’re rules of conduct recognized as appropriate to a particular class of human actions or a particular group or culture; they’re what “society thinks is right to do.” As such, they differ from company to company. Inside Enron, for example, what was determined “appropriate” was very different from moral behavior. For instance there is this natural gas company named Enron who were big and first founded in Houston, Texas in 1985. Enron was a great business and everything they did was perfectly fine and everyone were listening to their moral ethics. Once Enron promoted Andrew Fastov to CFO in 1998 every business aspect in the company changed. Since Enron was part of the stock market Andrew Fastow thought that Enron could be making more profit/revenue so he decided to “cook the books” which meant lie on the books about how much money Enron was making annually. He thought if he lied on the books Enron would increase value which also meant in shares in the stock market. This all came from what is known as business ethics; the stock market is a place where people buy stocks/shares of businesses in which case they are considered part ownership of any shares they bought from a particular company, they own only a small percentage of the business as well as gain a bit of income on the side. So Andrew Fastov drove Enron high in revenue and committed fraud to let more income come his way with the help of Arthur Andersen one of the big 5 accounting firms. Arthur Andersen was also another case that fell into the arms of unethical decisions and Enron helped take them down as well. Both of these companies worked to together so Enron would not be noticed by the S.E.C (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) and be in a lawsuit for falsely writing high profits on their books. At the same time Arthur Andersen was not following their morals which they knew this was a wrong decision and they should have declined but because of greed and money every decision was made without thinking. In reality Enron was in debt and losing money even though they were worth like a few billion. The only way that Enron was ever getting away with this scandal was paying auditors from Arthur Anderson to make Enron look better to the public; as a growing and upcoming business to consider working for. Arthur Anderson not only helped Enron with a better image to the business world but financially they wrongfully reported their books falsely to cover Enron of getting caught by the SEC. Eventually the SEC caught up with Enron an their unrightfully acts of stock shares increasing from $20 to $90.56 in just 3 years which is a valuation of $70 billion dollars. The SEC had to do an investigation on Enron and found out that they were committing one of the biggest frauds in the United States. Enron could easily have done fine without lying about their profits and asking for help to improve their company. Though they decided to take the risky route and achieve greater money in the least amount of time by committing fraud, disobeying the rules, and not sticking to their business ethics of following the rules to success without cheating. Cause of cheating Enron shut down in 2001 after being 16 years in service, and the CEO’s whose income were like millions of dollars each year, were fined a killer amount of money that each one of them went broke. Jeffery Skilling was one of the principal CEO’s who was sentenced to 24 years in prison but recently was reduced to only 14 years in prison. Sources say he will be released in 2017.

Not only did the SEC investigate Enron they also investigated Arthur Andersen because the auditors job is to find any fraud or errors in books. Once the SEC found dirt on Enron, Enron called the auditors. “The fired partner, David B. Duncan, called a meeting of auditors at the firm’s Houston office and ordered ”an expedited effort to destroy documents” on Oct. 23, the day after Enron disclosed that the S.E.C. had begun its inquiry, the firm said. The destruction apparently did not end until Mr. Duncan’s assistant sent an e-mail message to other secretaries on Nov. 9 that said ”stop the shredding,” the firm said. Andersen had received a subpoena from the S.E.C. the day before.” Now why couldn’t Andersen just give in to the SEC and surrender that they helped Enron instead of trying to shred all the evidence. Andersen could have been given a less painful punishment but since they messed up they paid the consequences. Andersen was one of the big 5 auditing firms in the world next to Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst and Young, and KPMG. Now 2017 Andersen is no longer in existence because after this great big scandal no other companies wanted to associate with a firm who were disloyal.

People say that business ethics and moral ethics are the same but they aren’t. Moral ethics are what you learn from your parents. While business ethics is more of a one way streak there we must follow it one way however the rules are of that certain company. There is no other way to follow it because of how your parents taught you differently that does not fall into place within the business world. If an employee does not want to follow the firm’s rules the outcome is usually to be fired. That is when employees start realizing how the world really works and whatever moral ethics they had are gone because of the business world.

Works Cited

Investopedia. “Enron Scandal: The Fall of a Wall Street Darling.” Investopedia, 23 Oct. 2017.

“Ethics vs Morals.” Ethics vs Morals – Difference and Comparison 

Berenson, Alex. “S.E.C. Opens Investigation Into Enron.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Oct. 2001.

Tribune, Chicago. “Ties to Enron Blinded Andersen.” Chicagotribune.com, 12 July 2008.

Definition Rewrite -Jonhjelly

Technology is the helping hand in humanity. Without technology who knows where mankind would be today.Now in present time, the latest and newest technology is the microchip or other known as the RFID chip. This microchip/RFID chip is microscopic chip that can be embedded into our bodies for human monitoring . This can be in the eyes of a company to monitor our movements or actions. Another place where are most useful is to monitor   our medical emergencies and they can the new replacement for medical emergency bracelets. This new gadget can is worn daily and they is no everyday removal once the microchip is planted then if a person would life it removed than they will need to have it surgical removed.

The  benefits of the RFID/microchip implanted into humans is for monitoring  new/old  employee, its a form of tracking them making sure they aren’t wasting the companies time. This new device can track and monitor the person whom it is in. The employer can view what is employee is doing at anytime of the day and this can viewed as a employee productive. According to Saumya Sharma this device can “RFID Based Employee Monitoring System (EMS) would allow complete hands-free access control, monitoring the whereabouts of employee and record the attendance of the employee as well.”(Sharma 1).  This new devices can give a new incite of being a boss and knowing every move that there employees are doing. This will make the employers employees more productive because they know that they are being watched at all times of the day causing them to focus more on their duties at hand instead of slacking off more than they normally would. It will also take and keep track of employees attendance and keep track of who is late and who will be on time. This could be use as new way to keep their employees from getting raise and other incentives. This new system could create the perfect work environment. An the employees can also take advantages of this new device as well.With it they can they can access their  office door with easy or with a wave a hand they can pay for their lunch. One of the workers from Three Squared Market has nothing but good things to say for this device knowing that it is a constant monitoring there movements in and out of work. The employe of Three Squared Market Danna said “I don’t want to carry a wallet with me anymore. Actually, I forgot my wallet today. I didn’t even bring it to work. It’d be nice to be able to get some lunch. But you got your wallet, you got your key, your company badge. Now forget about all of that. That’s all in that implant in your hand,”. She also stated that they have been receiving calls from other companies wanting to start implanting there employees as well.

In the article written by  Healthcare IT they discussed the what if the medical bracelet would be replaced by the microchip. It would become the new medical bracelet and will only have access to medical emergency information only and not have access to all of our bank information, personal information as well. They have suggested that it would be safer if it only contained information about our medical information, this way our doctor can be the only person to reader our RFID chips with the RFID chip reader. According to the article written by Molly Merrill they said “The VeriChip is the only medical device that is guaranteed to always be with you to provide your identification and medical records information in an emergency situation.” This way it can still monitor our movements and keep track of our medical information.

The other benefits of the microchip is that can have access to all of our bank accounts and all of our personal information. With this new feature it will be easier to do all types of daily activities. Such as a person will be able to access their car without keys or they will be able pay for a item without having their wallet or any kind of currency on them. In  Barcelona there is a club that has been giving their customers a choices if they would like to receive the device or not. With the benefits of having this device they will be able to gain entree into the VIP section. Also they will be safer from any kind of danger that leaving the club after midnight offers. It is safer because it allow the clubbers to travel and have fun with out have money just in case they run into trouble. The  RFID that they would offer wouldn’t have access to their bank accounts. It would just rack up charges on the bar tab and they would just have to pay for them at the end the month like any other bill.

The RFID microchip is the latest and newest form of technology out there. It just gives human kind an extra hand and helps us out in our daily lives. It will soon become mandatory for everybody to the microchip implanted and when that occurs then everyone will soon rely on it for completing simple task. Technology is helping but can also be hurting  us in the end.

Work Cited

Images, A. (2017). Would you let your boss microchip you?. [online] Marketplace.org.Availableat:https://www.marketplace.org/2017/07/26/tech/sitting-down-three-square-market-microchips-its-employees [Accessed 28 Nov. 2017].

“Human-Implantable RFID chips: Some ethical and privacy concerns.” Healthcare IT News, 27 Dec. 2008, http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/human-implantable-rfid-chips-some-ethical-and-privacy-concerns.

Pdfs.semanticscholar.org. (2017). Cite a Website – Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/43e6/ba8aff7d8337b4a7e0d4bbd788ac877d37c0.pdf [Accessed 28 Nov. 2017].

Definition Argument -New EditionLover

After many problems with the violence of guns enough is enough! Gun violence snuffs out a life too early, and it inflicts pain where it was not intended, on the survivors. Gun violence also deprives families of their loved ones. When someone is shot it may leave them permanently injured and or dead. What would people do if there loved ones were affected and suddenly not here one day? Gun violence is the trauma inflicted on survivors and we must do more as a country to prevent it.

In society today we always here about gun violence but has one did anything to lower this deadly or non deadly rate? We first need to address reasons as to why people need guns? I believe that guns are only necessary if you are fighting in the war for our country nothing more nothing less! I know there are many guns laws in effect today like the right to carry with a permit but to me that gives a negative stigma on people. Next to me having a right to carry is basically giving you a free range to draw your weapon soon as you get into a altercation with someone. I’m not saying this is facts but this is simply my opinion. In the article “The Benefits Of Reducing Gun Violence” the author states “compared with earlier research our estimates provide a very different picture of both
the magnitude and distribution of the costs of gun violence. Previous studies of the
benefits of reducing gun violence have adopted an ex post approach that begins with a
count of the annual number of gunshot injuries and then multiples this figure by some
estimate of the cost per injury.”  This shows me the importance of bad gun violence is affecting our country and were simply not doing anything to stop it.

Gun violence has been a bad epidemic since the beginning of times. If anyone was to know anything about gun violence it would be me! When I was just 13 years old my father Kevin Johnson was shot and killed on July 1 2011,in Camden NJ. Next I wondered so much about why this occurred and always thought to myself what would cause someone to end someones life on anyone else’s terms except God. My father was gunned down around 3 am and was shot at 12 times were he succumbed to his injuries.Before the passing of my father I as a child was never really allowed to play with toy guns or cap guns as we used to call them due to the ability that it might encourage us to actually want to shoot someone one day my elders stated. I believe the epidemic of guns started once more when video games created more of a violent and negative stigma to hurt someone who gets in your way!  Almost every video game that is out today deals with guns and or violence which may create negative behavior towards another person .Ever since that tragic day I always look back and review why are guns so important in the first place for our country.

Furthermore losing a loved one to gun violence is something that’s terrible. Next the thought of them dying in so much pain and agony makes you cringe to the floor. I can contest that the mental process is something that is hard to deal with, your constantly thinking and wondering how could someone want to harm someone so bad to the point where the other person is dead. Likewise in the process you have to deal with crying,long nights of reminiscing and ,planning to make sure that the day they are laid to rest is nothing but magnificent. In my opinion its just not a pretty feeling I was very depressed and could not stop asking God why this had to happen to me! I questioned myself asking what did I do wrong? Or could I have stopped my father from being out so late that night? I basically felt like there was something that I could’ve done to prevent his death and I was only thirteen years old at the time. In addition to this  very day I am still wondering what would make someone want to shoot my father 12 times in cold agony. The article of my fathers death “One dead ,four wounded” offer a brief synopsis of what happened. The article stated “Kevin Johnson, 31, of Camden, was shot multiple times about 1:30 a.m. It appears he was in an argument with the shooter prior to the time of the shooting. He died about 2 a.m. in Cooper University Hospital here, a spokesman for Faulk said.” I still want to know what  was the argument about that initiated the killing of my loving father ! Will I ever get answers that will ease my pain and take this burden off my chest?  Some answers I may never find out and I have to live with that pain for the rest of my life .

What can we do to stop gun violence? The article “Gun Violence Must Stop Here’s What We Can Do To Prevent More Deaths” recommends and states that there should be gun safety among anyone who wants the right to carry a weapon. This system would make people who want to obtain the right to have a firearm commit to firearm training to insist that the weapon is being properly kept. I believe the needs for this is great and would permit less people to want to carry because some people are simply lazy and might not want to commit to the training.Next they recommend a mental health assessment! As stated in my Proposal+5 I believe that all people who want to have a gun in their possession that they undergo serious mental health evaluations. Therefore the article recommends that we have to get rid of the bad stigma of mental health and issues and really get checked at the appropriate  time. Many people are afraid of what others think which causes people to may not wanna be evaluated.

Later as a country we must continue to move in the right direction. As a move in progress a we must continue to question why do people need to have fire arms? I think that that if you want to use firearms for violence then you should join the army or something of that nature. I believe that if you have a firearm and are a person with problems with the law and have prior affiliation to violence and especially with gun violence you should not be permitted to have one.  I say this because the person is more likely to resort to violence especially with gun violence. As we are tying to reduce and prevent gun violence as much as possible the more people out the way the better. We must simply react differently and  the article “Gun Violence Must Stop Here’s What We Can Do To Prevent More Deaths” the 4th recommendation or clause consists of sensible gun laws! Their is no reason that there are ways in which you can maneuver around the system and find random people selling firearms legal.This is a way in which people have to got through a background check and re institute the gun laws. This recommendation proposed that deadly weapons of any assault has any range of being anywhere in the community or any immediate surroundings except the battlefield as I previously talked about. In the article “Violent Felons Can Buy Guns Online Without Background Checks”  states that “Federal law prohibits felons from purchasing or receiving guns unless their rights have been formally restored. However, felons can get around this obstacle by buying guns from sellers who do not require criminal background checks.” Furthermore this is very dangerous and the source and sight should be doomed illegal and needs to be shut down immediately. Next the article states”Violent felons aren’t allowed to buy guns, period ,But they can take advantage of the loophole in federal law that allows gun sales, including some gun sales over the Internet, to purchase from non-licensed sellers, who don’t have to conduct a background check.” This is a very serious and problem that must be federally evaluated and looked as a probation violation for felons that aren’t legitimately able to purchase weapons.

Definition Argument—Killroy513

NASCAR, Possible Origins

The American Prohibition was enacted in the year 1920 and would last until 1933. The eighteenth amendment was enacted to enforce the restriction of alcoholic beverages. This included liquor and beer products. At the time these products were in high demand, since it is a major part of society, its iconic and everyone for the most part enjoys them. This being said, the market would go from legal to illegal very quickly. The black market would supply these products to people who were willing to pay. In the big cities, the alcohol trafficking was done mostly by gangsters. These gangsters would form organizations and create bars and clubs. Being a very lucrative business and highly illegal, the police would step in and shut them done. Eventually the businesses went “underground”. Alcohol trafficking was a great way to make money doing this time, assuming the person would not get caught. Cars were in demand being the new thing. The transportation of goods went from horse and wagon to the automobile. During this time many alcohol products would be brought in by cars or trucks and sold to the public “under the table”. Eventually this would be found out by the police and the transportation of goods this way had to be more crafty. This would lead to the  modification of these automobiles. Having a car or truck that could evade the police for the most part fixed this issue. This, some may say, laid the foundation for the beginning of NASCAR, and modification of cars.

The black market at this time was highly lucrative, being that large amounts of money could be made extremely fast. In essence the black market would jump start the illegal activity of many during this era.

The transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century was widely apparent. Cities grow to record sizes and the people changed for the good and bad. During the roaring twenties, some people acted on this black market, either adding to it or trying to “bust” it. The people who wanted to control this surge of money were primarily the big time gangsters in these huge cities. Cities like Chicago, New York City, Boston, ect. Gangsters back then are nothing like the ones of today. They had class, but also thought on their feet. One of the most famous ones from this time period was Al Capone, working in the mid west. Since the distribution of any alcoholic product was outlawed aside from medical use, it would be harder and harder to sell it. The gangsters of this time thought of extremely clever ways to make money and ensure their customers had what they wanted. The creation of “underground” bars and clubs would begin. Theses types of clubs and bars would be known as speak easy. These clubs would be hidden and passwords would be used for access. People had fun, and the gangsters made money. It was a win win.

Alcohol was used as medicine back in this time period. Doctors could proscribe the alcohol for specific ailments. When the eighteenth amendment was established, the medical field created special cars so that alcohol could be given for the people that needed it. Some doctors looking to make money would sell these cards filled out for the people who bought them. They would take these cards and purchase the outlawed alcohol.

Cars were a new thing in the 1920’s. They would be used more than horse and wagon for the simple reason of practicality. During this time many saw the automobile as a money making machine. Originally the use of car and truck was new to the public, since they became widely available at this time, they were used for anything, especially transportation of alcohol. What started out as moving illegal goods became much more. Eventually the police would catch on to this, and many people would fall victim to the black market craze. Humans are always learning, so people began to devise ways to modify their cars. They would make them faster. The cars would be modified to outrun the police and help cut down on the “busts”.

NASCAR is a sport that involves the racing of modified cars around a track two hundred times, whoever comes in first at the last lap wins first place. The cars are heavily maintained and need extensive care to operate. The drivers are highly skilled and learn how to adapt to any situation that may occur. Many men have died in this sport, being one of the most dangerous. The car crashes can result in the drivers being severely hurt or dying on impact. With a fast car comes modifications, the cars in NASCAR travel extremely fast due to the extensive changes made. Most of the car is taken out and the bare minimum is left. This makes the car faster.

The engine is one of the most important parts of a car. It makes it actually drive. There are a vast amount of modifications that can be done to an engine to achieve its full amount of horse power. Horse power is a unit of measurement that is based on five hundred and fifty pounds a second. The cars back in the day are nothing like the cars of today but like all cars, they have an engine. The cars were modified back in the day by ripping the old engine out and putting a more powerful one in or changing the parts used. Most of the time, the bigger the engine the faster a car will go. With that being said, cars were stripped down for weight reduction and equipped with larger engines.

The foundation of NASCAR and other sports like it would be laid during this era. People began to modify cars not only to evade the police but to race. This would give birth to a whole new sport that many enjoy. The story goes, that the moonshiners down in the southern states would get together and race their moded cars. After the Prohibition, the races would continue and eventually be recognized as a sport.

People never think of the other counties that benefited from the American Prohibition. Canada, and Mexico gained the most wealth. The countries citizens would either produce or distribute alcohol across the United States border. During the winter, the great lakes would freeze and cars would be able to drive over them with the alcoholic goods. The Mexico/ American border was not as built up as it is today, so trafficking was easier. People would bring over the products through customs or drive over. Both countries used ships to smuggle the alcoholic goods also. The products would be hidden and taken out when they reached their destination. The nations themselves did not benefit from this, BUT, the their citizens did.

 

Work Cited

“Prohibition in Canada.” Smuggling, Bootlegging and Speakeasies, prohibitionincanada.blogspot.com/p/smuggling-bootegging-and-something.html.

Sandbrook, Dominic. “How Prohibition backfired and gave America an era of gangsters and speakeasies.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Aug. 2012, http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/aug/26/lawless-prohibition-gangsters-speakeasies.

McElroy, Ryan. “The story of how moonshiners created the performance car.” Car Keys, Car Keys, 31 Oct. 2017, http://www.carkeys.co.uk/news/the-story-of-how-moonshiners-created-the-performance-car.

“History of the Roaring Twenties.” Prohibition and the Speakeasies, theroaringtwentieshistory.blogspot.com/2010/06/prohibition-and-speakeasies.html.

Gambino, Megan. “During Prohibition, Your Doctor Could Write You a Prescription for Booze.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 7 Oct. 2013, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/during-prohibition-your-doctor-could-write-you-prescription-booze-180947940/.

“Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Dec. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution.

Untitled Document, http://www.laits.utexas.edu/jaime/cwp4/esg/smugglehistory.html.

“Black market.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Dec. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_market.

Thompson, Neal. Driving with the devil: southern moonshine, Detroit wheels, and the birth of Nascar. Three Rivers Press, 2007.

Okrent, Daniel. Last call: the rise and fall of Prohibition. Scribner, 2011.

Definition Rewrite – thathawkman

The Truth Can Be Skewed

Scientific studies allow science to expand its knowledge, from finding connections between two seemingly different entities to testing and explaining phenomena that the world doesn’t quite understand yet. With the correct use of these scientific studies, scientists can achieve feats that would have been deemed impossible without the newly found knowledge: More cures can be found, larger realizations and trends can be identified, and even more knowledge of a field can potentially make growths as even more studies can elaborate. However, scientific studies’ massive influence is a double-edged sword. These studies can determine what is the truth. However, studies are still fallible and studies that push false claims can skew the truth and push an agenda. This trend is completely detrimental to the science community and the people.

As one might expect, scientific studies have a very rigid system that details what studies must accomplish to make a claim. For a scientific study to prove a claim (scientifically known as a hypothesis), the study must prove that the hypothesis must have an undeniable relationship with the data that is collected. To prove the hypothesis, the scientists first form what is known as a null hypothesis, which assumes the that there is no correlation between the two. For example, if the hypothesis is that a newly made drug increases dopamine levels, the null hypothesis would be that the drug did not exhibit any change in dopamine levels. The scientists then attempt to prove the actual hypothesis by rejecting the null hypothesis.

The data, which is found by the carefully thought-out tests and conditions set in place by researchers, is then analyzed to see if the data was statistically significant enough to reject the null hypothesis. This test is essentially finding whether the data was gotten due to random chance or if the claim is the reason behind the data. The researchers then use many different methods to calculate the probability of how likely the data that was given could have shown up, also known as the p-value. To say something was statistically significant, the probability must be lower than 5 percent. This magic number of 5 percent is key, as any study that produces a p-value lower than 5 percent is deemed to be valid. As the probability of the null hypothesis being true statistically improbable and rejected, the scientist can then conclude that the actual hypothesis true. Any p-value that is 5 percent or higher cannot reject the null hypothesis and cannot prove the claim that the study was trying to make, which forces the scientist to either retry the study or change the claim altogether.

This is not a perfect system by any means; natural errors can still occur when validating the claim. As the data still have a factor of chance in them, some errors can occur without any influence from the scientists. These are known as Type I and Type II errors. A Type I error occurs when the null hypothesis is rejected and say that the claim was true even though it was false. For example, a Type I error would be stating that someone had a disease even though the person does not have the disease. A Type II error is the exact opposite, where you reject the null hypothesis and make the actual claim false even though it was true. For example, in the same scenario, a Type II error would state that someone did not have a disease even though it the person did have it.  Both errors are bad, but these errors are accounted for by scientists. However, the issue comes when scientists intentionally publish what is supposed to be a Type I error.

Intentional errors have become a major issue as the scientific studies, which people take at face value, become either misleading or entirely untrue and flood the scientific journals. Studies that affect the percentage of published claims undergo effects such as publication bias and the file-drawer effect. The author Megan L. Head, in the article “The Extent and Consequences of P-Hacking in Science,” defines publication bias as, “the phenomenon in which studies with positive results are more likely to be published than studies with negative results.” The file-drawer effect is the tendency for scientists to refrain from publishing negative studies as due to the lack of money. These effects are very detrimental as there is a noticeable underrepresentation of negative published studies. In “The file drawer problem and tolerance for null results,” Robert Rosenthal describes this effect by saying, “the extreme view of the ‘file drawer problem’ is that journals are filled with the 5% of the studies that show Type I errors, while the file drawers are filled with the 95% of the studies that show nonsignificant results.” This is a direct result of scientists attempting to push studies that innately get more attention, as positive-resulting, intriguing studies will be more popular than negative-resulting studies.

However, the bias can be even more direct with something known as p-hacking. The essential part of a study is primarily based on the comparison of the p-value to find something that is statistically probable. So through p-hacking, scientists can attempt to alter the way they compute the p-value with any given data. In the web article “Is Science Broken?” author Christie Aschwanden simulated how easy it is to find something statistically significant for many different claims with the same data. In his simulation, we are to choose a category on which political party, Republican or Democratic, we want the hypothesis to support. Aschwanden then demonstrated that by choosing to keep and omit some parts of the data (such as the type of politicians that we want to consider as politicians and including recessions), the combination of different parts of the data can prove a hypothesis for both sides. Even with the same data pool, the fact that the use of p-hacking can prove completely opposite ideologies shows the massive influence that p-hacking can have.

Works Cited:

Head, M. L. “The Extent and Consequences of P-Hacking in Science.” The Extent and Consequences of P-Hacking in Science. PLoS Biol, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

Aschwanden, Christie. “Science Isn’t Broken.” FiveThirtyEight. N.p., 19 Aug. 2016. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

Rosenthal, Robert. “The File Drawer Problem And Tolerance For Null Results.” Psychological Bulletin 86.3 (1979): 638-641. PsycARTICLES. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.