Rowan Counterintuitive

Practice Opening

The unforgivable acts of police brutality, should sometimes be forgiven. Outrage sparked from cop killings is misdirected, and in turn makes matters worse. It’s easy to point fingers and call police racist, but is it their fault? Under various circumstances, any human being is capable of committing acts of violence. Mainstream media’s constant portrayal of “good” and “bad” people, conditions people into developing a bias towards certain groups of people. Whether or not said bias is realized, it can very well influence a person’s actions in everyday life. Since police officers are still normal humans, it’s reasonable to assume that their inherent bias can one day come to fruition. Movements like “Black Lives Matter” only shed light on a piece of a larger problem, that law enforcement needs to be rebuilt.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/7264/5-statistics-you-need-know-about-cops-killing-aaron-bandler#

Statistically speaking, cops don’t kill blacks as much as they kill other races. In 2015, 50% of police shootings were white, while 26% were black. The fact that more than half of the population is white while 13% is black might initially show racist treatment, but according to the 2009 statistics of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, this isn’t true. Those statistics showed that blacks were charged with 62% of robberies, 57% of murders, and 45% of assaults in 75% of the counties in the country. More crimes in minority communities results in more police altercations and possibilities of lethal force. 4% of black homicides were from police officers, less than that of the 12% of white and Hispanics. Though an unarmed black man is statistically more likely to be killed by a cop, it may not necessarily be whole story. Minority officers are 3.3 times more likely to open fire at a crime scene than a white officer. Blacks have statistically killed more cops than cops have killed blacks.

This article seems slightly bias fueled. May not be used as a source.

http://blueprint.ucla.edu/feature/police-racism-search-for-answers/

Different police departments handle police shootings differently. Until recently, asking departments to find reliable data to quantify ALL police shootings analyze them was a near impossible task. Emotionally charged accusations had no real basis to actually conclude whether or not police shootings were in fact racist. In a 2008 study published by the Journal of Personal and Social Psychology, it was found that people in the US implicitly associate black people with apes. Another study, “Across the Thin Blue Line: Police Officers and Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot,” showed that officers in larger cities/areas with more minorities were more likely to show black bias.

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/a-former-officer-explains-why-racist-police-violence-occurs-even-when-cops-arent-racist/

The system is set up to make minorities look a certain way. Big cities are primarily populated with minorities, especially blacks. Mainstream media, specifically news stations, are based within cities and cover the news of urban neighborhoods. That doesn’t mean crimes don’t happen in suburban or primarily white neighborhoods. Unconsciously, Americans are conditioned to associate crime with minorities. This can potentially affect any person, including cops, regardless of that cops race. Since police essentially operate as a “pattern matching machine”, this can easily result in a false sense of danger when they associate “criminal” to the minority at hand. It may not be the result of intentional racist, but it is indeed still racism.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/just-shoot-the-mindset-re_b_5432716.html%3E

The police force has become more like a military force. Life hasn’t gotten so bad that such force is needed, yet innocent situations are treated like acts of war. Search warrants become possible fatalities at the hands of SWAT. SWAT teams are being deployed more than ever, as much as 5 times a day. This mindset has made its way to everyday police officers. Some see themselves as soldiers after targets, using force if they see fit. Why should an officer’s life be considered more valuable than another person? Hesitation only invites the possibility of harm to the officer. More times than not, these killings are justified, and the police aren’t held responsible.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/police-shootings-studies-racial-bias_us_5796f2d8e4b02d5d5ed2b4aa

Studies that conclude that there is no racial bias in police shootings aren’t to be fully trusted. There is no actual database that correlates with such findings, so it is foolish to make that assumption. That doesn’t mean that the studies themselves are useless. They’re part of a bigger and developing story that is only now being studied. Some people may not be able to see the difference between the two, which leads to further false assumptions. It’s important that assumptions are not taken as facts, as this only delays finding real answers. Studies may show that blacks are convicted of crimes more than other races, but that doesn’t necessarily tackle the question of whether or not blacks are targeted more for those crimes. While not all cops are purposely racist, it’s true that all Americans have some level of unconscious racism.

Working Hypothesis 1

Police may be racist, but not all are operating based on said racism. This doesn’t mean that we should give some a pass and prosecute others. The issue of racism is still the problem and something must be done.

Working Hypothesis 2

Police are specifically taught to have an elevated level of racism through training. Training coupled with militarized policing, results in blacks being killed

Take one use of stem cells and argue the advantageous aspects of it.

Reason: (growing new organs for people using stem cells.)

 

Thesis: The advantageous stem cells can be found from more things than an aborted fetus.

 

 

New sources:

http://www.eurostemcell.org/commentanalysis/eight-tiny-organs-grown-scientists

• On July 20th 2015, Scientists from the MRC Centre for regenerative medicine claimed to have regrown damaged livers in mice.
• Tiny/ partial organs help replace animals as test subjects in animals.
• Tiny organs also help demonstrate that growing organs can be possible on a larger scale.
• Tiny organs often called proto-organs have some of the organ’s functions not all.
• 8 Tiny organs that have been grown: Itty-bitty intestines, little livers, compact kidneys, small skin, tiny thymi, teeny tickers (heart), small scale stomachs, and Bijou brains.
• itty-bitt intestines:
  • study was done at Cincinnati children’s hospital medical center
  • plenipotent stem  cells were induced to grow human intestinal tissue.
  • Connected tissue to kidney of a mouse to give it blood supply to grow grow and have nourishment.
  • This technique can help study/ treat gastrointestinal disease in the foreseeable future.

• little livers:
  • MRC Centre for regenerative medicine
  • used liver stem cells (hepatic progenitor cells) to grow livers or mice with damaged ones.
  • Extracted these stem cells from healthy mice and placed into the unhealthy ones.
  • after 3 months, the cells grew enough to partially restore the function/ look of the liver back to normal.
  • gives hope for using this in the future of humans.

• compact kidneys:
  • Center for regenerative medicine in the us.
  • Kidneys were grown and transplanted into rats.
  • stripped kidney in rat into what is described as a “scaffold-like structure”.
  • New kidney was regrown.
  • new organ was transplanted in and filtered blood and produced urine successfully.

 

 

5 original Sources

“Stem Cell Research – Pros and Cons.” Stem Cell Research – Pros and Cons. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.

Nguyen, Sarahle. “Should Aborted Fetuses Be Used for Research?” Prezi.com. N.p., 27 Oct. 2014. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.

Phillips, By Theresa. “Stem Cell Research: Weighing Both Sides of the Debate.” The Balance. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2016.

Wolfe, Alie. “Stem Cells for Medical Use.” Prezi.com. N.p., 09 May 2014. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.

Hypothesis 1

America has an Justice System that is manipulated to be unjust against people of color, which leads to massincarserations of African Americans and overpopulated prisons.

America has been a free country since 1776 but African Americans were slaves from 1619-1865 and only gained equal rights in the 1960’s.

Practice Opening 1

After slavery, African Americans where deemed to be second class citizens. Around 1877 many states adopted segregation laws called Jim Crow Laws. These laws made it illegal for African Americans to integrate into the “White” society. Blacks weren’t allowed to attend the same school’s, drink from the same water fountains, or even use the same bathrooms as whites. If they were caught doing so they could be thrown in jail or even killed. Jim Crow Laws ended in the mid-1960’s, after the Civil Right’s movement. The government needed a new way to somehow deprive African American’s of their right’s. In 1968 the Richard Nixon campaign knew he couldn’t make it illegal to be black, so he declared a War On Drugs. He associated Hippies with Marijuana and African American’s with heroin. The Nixon Campaign felt that Black people and hippies were their enemies simply because hippies were against the war and Black people were fighting for right’s. He then criminalized both heroin and marijuana extremely to control both populations. All of this was in effort to get America to reelect Nixon. After the War on Drugs was introduced the prison population sky rocketed.

Practice Opening  2

America is known for being a free country, but we have the largest prison population in the world. We account for 25 percent of the worlds prison population. In the National Anthem there is a line that says “For land of the free and the home of the brave”.  If we account for 25 percent of the worlds prison population how can we call our country free.

Proposal Summery

America has problems with enequality that many Americans ignore. Most Americans will not be effected by the enequalities such as laws created to arrest many African Americans so they chose to ignore them. Some people might neglect that laws were created to incarserate African Americans spicificly but its 100 percent true. African Americans were slaves in this country for 400 years so freedom takes on a new meaning to some black people. African Americans have the highest prison population in the country.

Sources

Jim Crow

Bill Clinton 3 Strikes

Richard Nixon War On Drugs

Prison Population after War on Drugs

Historic Prison Population

Stop and Frisk Sources

Bill of Rights

NYCLU

Cornell University Law

Police Oath

Hypotheses
1) Classes about religion and politics should be made mandatory in public school curriculum in order to better prepare students to be able to speak knowledgeably on the subject and have progressive conversations on such topics.

1a) Religion and politics should not be taught in an educational setting because it’s nearly impossible for the instructor to deliver the information objectively without interjecting his or her own thoughts on the matter which may sway the opinions and the perception of the presented information by the student.

Topics for Smaller Papers
-clarify the differences between teaching religion and teaching about religion
-discuss how the events of 9/11 altered the general view on eastern minority religious in the US
-teaching religion is nearly impossible to do without showing bias. who will this affect the malleable minds of children from religious families?

Purposeful Summary
Even with increased diversity in schools across the nation, America’s public education system fails to properly educate students on the many religions represented in our communities. In fact, in many places, it fails to educate them on the matter at all. Some teachers believe it’s become more controversial than sex-ed. To combat the problem, a small group of school teachers in Modesto, California developed a world religions curriculum for every 9th-grade class in the district. Modesto now requires that every 9th-grader in the district enroll in a semester-long world religions course.

Many oppose this with the argument that a public school can’t teach religion. The loop-hole is that they aren’t teaching a religion, they’re teaching about religion. As long as they don’t show preference to one over another, they stay within state guidelines.

The course opens with a review of First Amendment Rights and the teachers place special emphasis on respect in the class room and creating an open environment. They also learn the proper way to pose a question. The course is highly structured and regulated. Every school reads the same text and watches the same videos which prevents teachers from sliding in their own opinions.

This program is the first of its kind in America so the progress and effects were well tracked by investigators. Students were interviewed immediately before and after the course and again 6 months after the course ended. The over all consensus is that students were more accepting and open to not only different religious stances but other cultures and lifestyles as well. They also felt more and more willing to protect the rights of people of other faiths. Another huge finding was that students who began the course with religious convictions really weren’t swayed in their own beliefs. The fear of many parents is that their family’s faith would be undermined.

This all happened in the school year preceding 9/11. While harassment of muslim students across the country skyrocketed, Across the country, reports of schoolyard harassment against Muslim students escalated in the months immediately following 9-11, “In Modesto, not a single act of harassment was reported against a Muslim student during the 2001-2002 school year.”

http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-32-fall-2007/feature/one-nation-many-gods

Current State of Research Paper
I recently changed the topic of my research paper which is why my white paper isn’t as thorough as I’d like but I’m far more confident in my ability to spend a considerable amount of time on this topic than my original topic.

Practice Opening:

“You play ball like a girl!” This used to be one of the worst insults of all time. In today’s day, it is quite a complement. Softball seemed as only the girl version of baseball. The girl’s who couldn’t compete with “the big guys,” played softball. That underhand pitch, the size of the field, how much bigger the ball is, seems easy. In reality, it just makes it harder. Recent studies shown us how much harder hitting a softball is than hitting an over-hand pitch of a baseball. The angle, speed, distance, and spin are just a few aspects of the windmill pitch’s difficulty. In reality, hitting a 95 mph, over-hand baseball pitch from 60 feet away is more difficult than hitting a 65 mph, windmill softball pitch from 43 feet away.

Practice Opening:

Has anyone ever really heard of a famous fast-pitch softball hitter? We hear about baseball homers all the time. The reason we don’t know about quality softball hitters is because there aren’t any. There are many more aspects about the windmill pitch that make it much more difficult than hitting an over-hand baseball pitch. The angle, speed, distance, and spin of the ball coming to the batter is completely different than baseball. The only true similarity of the two sports are the rules. Though people think softball is the easier version of baseball, it is not.

Purposeful Summary: Baseball vs. Softball: Which is Harder to Hit? by Kyle Odegard

We all know that softball is simply the “girl version” of baseball. The field is smaller, the ball is bigger, and the uniforms are quite different. Most believe that because of some of the few differences, this would make playing the game much easier. Girls are underestimated pretty often, but when it comes to softball, there is much empowerment. When baseball and softball get compared, most would always go into saying how much baseball is harder. The field is big, the ball is small and white, and the pitching is faster. All these descriptions are true, but it doesn’t make the sport any harder than softball.

Softball will never be harder than baseball, though the differences are important. Focusing on just the pitching, there are major aspects that make each sport unique. Baseball’s pitching style is an over hand throw to the strike zone. Due to this, the ball travels on a downward angle. The diameter of the ball is just under three inches. The distance from the pitching mound and home plate is 60 feet.

In softball the ball is much bigger. It is about three and a half inches in diameter. The pitcher’s mound is only 43 feet from home plate. Softball pitchers are known for their lever of an arm. They swing their arm over their head and flick the ball at their hip as fast as they can. Because of the low release point, the ball must travel up to past the strike zone.

The significance of these differences is how it changes the difficulty level. Due to the softball rise ball, and the batter natural movement of dropping the bat when swinging makes the batters percentage of hitting the ball productively go down tremendously. In softball, not only does the pitch rise, but it is also pitched at the distance of only 43 feet. That is only where the mound is placed. After the big leap off the mound and the intimidating windmill, the pitcher ends up about 38 feet away from the batter. This makes the reaction time to see the ball and to hit it super short.

Baseball’s pitching has only a few difficulties, but the main one is a size of the ball. Because of it’s small shape, the ball has a better chance of having movement. The pitcher can hold the ball a curtain way, and can make the ball do some crazy movements while approaching  the strike zone. This makes the batter have to make sure the ball won’t be out of the strike zone by the time it gets there.

Quote Collection: 

“From a physics point of view they differ only in details.” Alan Nathan, physics professor at Illinois.

“If you drop your hands to ht it, game over.” Tony Scoglio, professional baseball baseball/softball instructor.

“The best way to hit a rise ball is to take it.” Kyle Odegard

Purposeful Summary: The Great Debate: Baseball vs. Softball, Jen Yee

Hitting a ball coming at the strike zone at 65 mph causes the batter to see the ball so quickly that they need to have amazing hand-eye coordination. The ciliary muscles in the eye takes time to contract and relax to see an object far, to close. During a baseball or softball game, this has to happen super fast. Though that takes time, finding the ball in the air takes time too. During both kind of pitching, the ball is blocked by the pitchers body, therefor, the batter can’t see the ball until it is already in the air. This makes the eye muscles have to work even faster to see the ball and see it come closer.

To make this process quicker, the batter has to focus on a point in space that they assume the ball will come from. It can be easier to look at the pitchers release point. In baseball, this might be easier because the release point in next to their head, but in softball, the release point is by their hip.

Purposeful Summary: The Softer They Come. Why is it so hard to hit a softball? Rob Neyer

When focusing on the history of these sports, there are easy way to distinguish why softball can be harder. While comparing the sports in the Olympics, baseball teams score an average of 7.65 runs per game, while the softball team would score only an average of 3.8 runs. This could mean that the batters were unable to produce more solid hits of the pitchers to score more runs.

Softball pitchers like Jennie Finch and Lisa Fernandez are complete power players. Their 70 mph fastballs are as equal to mid 90s fastballs are in baseball. Both of these pitchers have a history of facing power MLB hitters. They both have almost a 100% success rate on striking them out. Of course baseball coaches had their players try to use the effective windmill pitching, but when they read to rule book, it is illegal in baseball. Softball is the only sport with this kind of motion.

Quotation Collection:

“When great players face off, softball is clearly a pitcher’s game.” Rob Neyer

“In softball, there are no famous hitters, only famous pitchers.” Rob Neyer

“1905 World Series, New York Giants legend Christy Mathewson tossed 3 shutouts allowing only 14 hits in 27 innings. That’s roughly what Finch, Fernandez and Osterman did these two weeks.” Rob Neyer

Purposeful Summary: Throw like a girl, Jennie Finch, pages 166-168.

While Major league is all professional and high tech, softball pitching effects baseball batters way differently than their average overhand throw. Jennie Finch is the most famous softball player in the world. She is a gold medalist and named Athlete of the Year in 2010.

She was asked to co-host Major League Baseball’s weekly show, “This Week in Baseball.” She was on the segment called Pinch, Hit, and Run with Jennie Finch. During this, she was challenged to pitch against a several dozen of major league batters. She has struck out over 35 hitter, including Mike Piazza and Albert Pujols. She could have faced more batters but they rather protect their reputation than get shown off by a girl. They didn’t want to go through that shame.

Purposeful Summary: Softball Pitch vs. Baseball Pitch (Youtube Video) by Egreensoftball

This video shows some test that were done to compare which kind of pitch has more force and difficulty level. The first test was to have one softball pitcher and one baseball pitcher to throw the ball at scientific gear that measures the ball’s impact. Baseball pitcher, Adam Jorgenson, pitched first. His 95 mph faseball created 2,411 pounds of force. Next was softball pitcher, Jennie Finch. Her 70 mph softball created the scientific gear to shatter and completely break the machine. This makes her pitch unmeasurable. In this first test, softball would be the winner here.

The next test was to pitch against a professional batter. Batter, Brain Byrne, hit 95 mph fastballs with no problem, though when it comes to the windmill fast pitch softball, it can’t be touched. This proves that even professionals have trouble with hitting a softball.

Next, they scientist went back to the computers. The measured all aspects of the baseball and softball pitches. From the distance, the speed, and the angle, the studied which pitch is harder to hit. After the measuring and the math, they stated that a baseball batter has .395 milliseconds to react to the pitch, while a softball batter has .350 milliseconds to react. This makes the softball batter have less time to think about the pitch, making it more difficult to make contact with the ball.

Lastly, Jennie Finch was tested in how she throws her pitches. She was decked up in motion capture technology to measure her movements. The state that her arm acts a 3 foot leaver for the ball. Because the ball is released at her hip, the ball must go high. This makes it harder for a batter to hit. Overall, these studies indicate that softball is the harder ball to hit.

Working Hypothesis: 

A softball pitcher is harder to hit than hitting a baseball pitcher.

Working Hypothesis:

The aspects of hitting a softball are more difficult than hitting a baseball.

Counter Arguments: 

• Professional baseball hitters are professional for a reason, they are supposed to know how to hit a 95 mph baseball pitcher. Because they have difficult hitting a softball, is because they don’t practice that as much as baseball. If they practiced hitting a softball the same amount of time they do to hit a baseball, their percentages of hitting the softball would go up.
• Hitting a softball and baseball are only harder when they are faster pitched. It makes hitting any ball harder when they are pitched over 95 and 65 mph.
• All players hit and see the ball differently, and that is hard to measure.

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

“For people who are in that position, where methadone doesn’t work for them, and have tried various times to kick the heroin habit and failed, it’s been determined by a set of medical practitioners to practice what they call ‘harm reduction,'”

“The harm-reduction program of giving heroin addict heroin has its origins in Europe with countries like Switzerland, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands all administering their own version of the program in Vancouver, according to a detailed report in Time back in 2009. And just like Vancouver, the program is only for those with the very worst addictions.”

 

https://www.bustle.com/articles/50901-prescription-heroin-in-vancouver-will-be-handed-to-addicts-in-a-game-changing-experiment

“Although it’s unclear what Vancouver’s brave new venture will accomplish, it’s safe to assume that the city is inclined to take a crack at different methods to help its most susceptible population.”

“Following a successful clinical trial on 26 participants, doctors at the Providence Crosstown Clinic will be allowed to administer the drug to a group of 120 (“severely addicted people,”)”

 

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1926160,00.html

“It’s a less than perfect treatment, but for entrenched addicts, it gives them the first steps toward getting their life together,” says John Strang, a researcher with the National Addiction Centre and King’s Health Partners in London”

 

http://sciencenordic.com/heroin-clinics-improve-addicts-lives

“Danish heroin addicts experience significant improvements in their lives. They no longer need to stress over finding the next fix and they commit fewer crimes.”

“Some of the users have better contact with their families. Some have started to do sports as part of the treatment offer, and others have found the energy to take care of their own physical illnesses,”

 

https://www.drugs.com/illicit/heroin.html

“Heroin (diacetylmorphine) is derived from the morphine alkaloid found in opium and is roughly 2-3 times more potent. A highly addictive drug, heroin exhibits euphoric (“rush”), anxiolytic and analgesic central nervous system properties”