Refutation—davidbdale

Help if you need it.

The material I gathered to prepare for this Argument I have moved to a special section of my White Paper to illustrate the value of collecting all my sources in the WP, the repository of all things useful to my Research Position Paper.

What I Refute

My Refutation Argument examines the primary claims of the hypothesis I defended in my Definition Argument, that because polio is fundamentally unlike smallpox—which was eradicated in the 1960s—the differences make it nearly impossible to eradicate polio, ever.

dog-awake

The World Health Organization (WHO) and in particular its Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) have maintained for decades now that the eradication of smallpox strongly argues in favor of the eradicability of polio. They use that analogy to raise $1 billion a year for their efforts. I entirely applaud their audacious enterprise, but I question the quality of their analogy. In 1000 words, I argue that smallpox and polio ARE NOT similar enough for the comparison to hold.

If it sounds ridiculous to devote 1000 words to the OPPOSITE of my own hypothesis, you’re misunderstanding a crucial element of good argument. To persuade skeptics to your point of view, you must address and refute the strongest counterarguments. Ignoring them is fatal. Readers will merely humor you if you try to skirt the best refutations and never change their minds.

  1. My post will be about 1000 words before the References section.
  2. It will use in-text citations WITHOUT parentheses.
    • Please follow this model in your posts as well.
  3. It will use an APA-style References section
    • APA is the new style choice of the Writing Arts Department
    • I made mine for free using BibMe.com
  4. It will PRESENT but also REFUTE strong arguments against my hypothesis. It’s not AN OPPOSITION ARGUMENT, but a CONFIRMATION ARGUMENT that identifies objections to the hypothesis before re-affirming it.
  5. It’s a first draft, so it will embarrass me until I revise it.
  6. Once I revise it, it will be a second draft, still embarrassing but less so.
  7. Questions? Use the Reply field below this post.

Draft Rebuttal

The eradication of smallpox from planet Earth in 1980 by a worldwide immunization campaign raised unrealistic hopes that other diseases could be similarly vanquished. The exuberance of health professionals who set their sights immediately on polio, malaria, and cholera was understandable, but dangerous. If polio were identical to smallpox, the same techniques might suffice to eradicate it next. But if polio is fundamentally different, then the argument from analogy to smallpox fails, and efforts to eradicate polio, based on the argument that “it’s been done before,” could more than just fail; they could backfire catastrophically. The cost of the attempt is enormous, and the risk of failure is very high, so let’s examine the similarities between smallpox and polio and see if they augur success.

Several factors are considered essential to any eradication effort. Christopher Whitty, professor of public and international health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, identifies three. Others may count differently, but if polio and smallpox are sufficiently different in any category essential to eradication to void the comparison, the “did it before” argument will fail. In his Millroy Lecture “Eradication of Disease: Hype, Hope, Reality,” he names as the first pre-requisite: “effective interventions that alone or in combination can interrupt transmission of infection or at least take it well below R0 = 1 in all epidemiological settings.”

As Whitty explains it, R0 = 1 represents the situation where one infected person passes on the disease to just one other person who in turn does the same so that the disease stays stable in the population. At a minimum, then, interventions must exist that can prevent rapid spreading during an outbreak. In the best case, when the R0 can be forced below 1, local elimination and potential eradication can be achieved. For much of the world, local elimination has already been accomplished. In all but a few countries, no new cases of polio have been detected in decades. As described by Ganapathiraju, Morssink, and Plumb in “Endgame for Polio Eradication?“:

in 1955, polio paralysed and killed up to 500,000 people annually worldwide. Salk’s inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) reduced polio transmission in the USA from 20,000 cases per year in the 1950s to around 1000 cases by the 1960s. [Since then,] polio worldwide has decreased from an estimated 350,000 cases in 1988 to just 416 cases in 2013.

Such remarkable success—a 99.9% reduction in diagnosed cases in 30 years!—continues to encourage eradication advocates, including the Bill Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) that total triumph is inevitable, if not imminent. In fact, seemingly every year, when it solicits funding for its continuing effort, the GPEI announces a “game-changing” or “breakthrough” technology that will once and for all achieve the ultimate victory.

But that victory has so far proved elusive, perhaps because of fundamental differences between smallpox and polio. Again according to Whitty, to be eradicable, “the disease has to be easy to diagnose, preferably with minimal complex laboratory facilities.” But whereas schoolchildren were able to detect the last cases of smallpox among their classmates by casual external observations alone, they would be no help detecting polio, which can persist completely unnoticed in human hosts for decades without causing symptoms.

Fortunately for polio eradication advocates, Whitty’s third essential factor presents no challenge. Polio exists either in human hosts or not at all. There is no significant “wild animal reservoir” for the disease to harbor in between human hosts. But the final ironic difference between the smallpox and polio viruses is that polio uses humans as a sort of “animal reservoir,” and while it persists in unwitting human hosts, often subjected to repeated rounds of immunization efforts, it mutates, emerging as something no longer “wild,” but transformed into a “vaccine-derived virus.”

This last and perhaps most significant difference between smallpox and polio may be the distinction that finally tips public sentiment against spending staggeringly large sums to eliminate a disease that presently afflicts so few. As reported in “The Art of Eradicating Polio” by Leslie Roberts, a Nigerian boy recently voiced the bewilderment of his country in a conversation with Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health. “Why do they bring only polio vaccine when we get no help with all our other problems? And are you going to force us to take it?” he asked. His question illustrates a reluctance that is increasingly difficult to surmount among populations whose children die by the thousands from diarrhea.

The longer the final stage of eradication drags on the more challenges it faces. Despite impressive successes, and there have been many, setbacks seem maddeningly inevitable. Alwan and Maher report, in 2016, in “Closer to a Polio-Free Eastern Mediterranean Region” that

WHO alone has more than doubled the size of the teams working on polio in the two countries since the start of 2014, and now has nearly 2500 technical and operational experts in the field . . . only 30 cases of polio have been recorded by Pakistan (18 cases) and Afghanistan (12 cases) combined so far in 2016 – a far cry from the 334 cases recorded by these countries in 2014.

Yet, according to Svea Closser’s “We Can’t Give Up Now: Global Health Optimism,” after worldwide spending of nearly $1 billion again in 2016, the fight did not end. Neither did another billion accomplish the goal in 2017. One must ask, as many governments, private foundations, public health professionals, and that Nigerian boy already have, “How much longer can we justify spending so much of our scarce resources on a disease that most of the world has not seen in decades?”

Even success, if it’s achieved, might not be success. As Closser warns us, “When smallpox was declared eradicated, countries could decide independently whether or not to stop vaccinating. For polio, this approach could prove disastrous.” The cheaper OPV vaccines are a double-edged sword. They are favored for mass inoculations and millions of doses are delivered every year, preventing countless cases of polio. But they deploy “weakened live virus strains” that can “evolve to reacquire the ability to cause paralytic disease and to spread. Outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses have occurred before [in 11 countries since 2000]; more are virtually inevitable.”

It’s even possible that vaccine-derived viruses could evolve to mimic the three “wild” polio viruses we’ve taken such pains to eradicate. If that happens, according to Closser, “the gains from interrupting wild polio transmission will be lost; the entire effort will only have succeeded in replacing one set of viruses with another.”

References

Alwan, A., & Maher, C. (2016). Closer to a polio-free Eastern Mediterranean Region. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 22(9), 645-646. doi:10.26719/2016.22.9.645

Closser, S. (2012). We Can’t Give Up Now. Medical Anthropology, 31(5).

Ganapathiraju, P. V., Morssink, C. B., & Plumb, J. (2015). Endgame for polio eradication? Options for overcoming social and political factors in the progress to eradicating polio. Global Public Health, 10(4), 463-473. doi:10.1080/17441692.2014.994655

Roberts, L. (2013, October). The art of eradicating polio. Science, 342(6154).

Whitty, C. J. (2014, August 01). Milroy Lecture: Eradication of Disease: Hype, Hope and Reality. Retrieved March 18, 2018, from http://www.clinmed.rcpjournal.org/content/14/4/419.full

Safer Saws- DudeInTheBack

Analyzing the claims made by Steve Gass (9) in

9a. Steve Gass “…there’s about 60,000 medically treated accidents treated on table saws every year.”

9b. Every year, there is about 60,000 incidents where someone needs medical attention resulting from a table saw accident.

9c. This claim seems factual. If he was making this up, it obviously would not be factual. I would like to see proof of this, but I believe Steve. Its an evaluation of how many people have been effected by table saws, and had to seek medical attention every year.

9d. This seems like a logical claim to make in his case. he is justifying the importance of his invention by giving a fact of why this invention is necessary. if this is true that 60,000 people have had an accident due to table saws every year, it makes sense to push out a safety stopper. A quality claim to show the dangers of table saws.

 

9a. Steve Gass “The system can tell the difference between your finger and the wood.”

9b. This machine that I invented can tell the difference between a human finger, and a piece of wood.

9c. This claim is an evaluation of what his machine is capable to accomplish. This claim would not hold true if Steve did not put his finger in it as proof later ion the video. Proving his claim, this claim is factual. suggesting it is okay for a finger to be caught in the blade rotation.

9d. This is a claim that seems true, but I would not want to try it out. This claim is only persuasive because he proves it later on. If someone were to show me the blade in full motion, and told me that it would detect a finger and stop, I would not believe it. This claim is also the main aspect of his invention. a machine that is able to detect a finger.

 

9a. Steve Gass “It felt a little like a, I don’t know, a buzz or a tickle almost.”

9b. When I put my finger in the saw blade, when it stopped it felt like a buzz, or a tickle.”

9c.  This is Steve’s opinion. Everyone feels pain differently, and to him, what felt like a buzz or a tickle to someone else might hurt more. This cannot be proved also, only to him it could feel like a buzz. He could also be lying to make his product sell.

9d. considering the fact that Steve put his finger in, and it stopped on a dime, I could believe him. before he said this, the video showed the finger in the blade in slow motion. it did not cut him, nor did he wince when it hit his finger. It looked painless, but it still is not that convincing. It still hits you, and if you’re a person that cant take pain, you might really be unhappy.

 

CLAIM BY SawStop official company http://www.sawstop.com/why-sawstop/the-technology

1a.  SawStop website “The blade carries a small electrical signal, which the safety system continually monitors.”

1b. the blade has a small conductor on each blade, which carries an electrical signal to detect a finger”

1c. This is a fact. the blade has a small conductor, which gets set off when a wet finger comes in contact with it. This is a fact because it can be/ has been proven.

1d. The claim states just what it needs to prove why the system works. The main task the system is responsible for is to conduct electricity to stop. I am fully persuaded that the blade carries a small electrical signal, which the safety system continually monitors.

 

1a. website “An aluminum brake springs into the spinning blade, stopping it in less than 5 milliseconds!”

1b. An aluminum brake spring can stop the mechanism in less than 5 milliseconds.

1c. This claim seems factual. I would like to see proof of this, but I believe the claim. It is an evaluation of the skillset of the machine. saying that it will stop in less than 5 milliseconds is a big claim, and might not seem believeable, but if it is a fact this is pretty impressive.

1d. This claim is right in the beinning of the website section on how the machine works. I wish I could have proof for these claims, but I just have to take the websites word for it. I guess if they said it took 3 milliseconds to stop, I would also believe it.

 

 

 

Causal Argument – picklerick

Reading more nonfiction literature causes your brain to sharpen. When you read informational text, you’re usually making an effort to fully comprehend the text. Whereas when you’re reading a fiction or science fiction novel, you’re likely reading for pleasure. People who just read for fun may not realize that they are not fully comprehending the text. Public schooling often fails to teach the proper way to close read text. According to Ness (2011), students are struggling with close reading at an increasing rate. This could be caused by a few things. When kids receive summer reading, it is almost always a fiction novel. This makes it easy for the students to skim through the text, gaining little to no value or skill. Caitlin Dakin says, in her thesis paper, “It is essential in today’s educational world that teachers begin to transform their classroom instruction of fiction literature into short informational complex texts to give the students the opportunity to meet the demands of the common core learning standards.” Reading informational, nonfiction text will always beat fiction.

 

References

Dakin, C. (2013). The Effects of Comprehension Through Close Reading (Unpublished masters thesis). St. John Fisher College.
https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1238&context=education_ETD_masters

Amanda Christy Brown and Katherine Schulten. (2012, December 13). Fiction or Nonfiction? Considering the Common Core’s Emphasis on Informational Text. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/fiction-or-nonfiction-considering-the-common-cores-emphasis-on-informational-text/
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/fiction-or-nonfiction-considering-the-common-cores-emphasis-on-informational-text/

Bartlett, B. (2014, June 20). 4 Bad Side Effects of Reading Fiction According to the 19th Century. Retrieved March 02, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-bartlett/4-bad-side-effects-of-rea_b_5513451.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-bartlett/4-bad-side-effects-of-rea_b_5513451.html

Causal Argument- Dancers

Looking at Bullies Differently

Bullying may not seem to be a huge issue in schools today but bullying is still a prevalent problem between children. In 2016 statistics were taken and resulted in more than one out of every five students or children have reported being bullied before. Students who have reported being bullied thirteen percent were made fun of by being called names or being insulted. Twelve percent dealt with rumors being spread around through the school about them, five percent were subjected to physical accounts of bullying such as being shoved, tripped and even spit on. The last five percent state that they were deliberately left out from activities. These numbers may not seem high or outrageous but bullying shouldn’t even be common. It’s normal for children to be bullied or to bully today.

Why do children bully and where do they pick up the tendencies to treat others poorly? Arguments can be made stating that when parents treat their children poorly the child tends to pick up on these behaviors and actions. In turn they begin to treat their peers poorly which leads to bullying. When children grow up with an unhealthy at home life sometimes they don’t know how to act towards others.

Bullies tend to have aggressive behaviors designed to obtain goals and these goals often begin first in their home environment. Children are most vulnerable to learning the appropriate behaviors at a very young age. Most of the behaviors that bullies tend to pick up on are due to the way their family acts. The home situation of most bullies is quite harsh, punishment is often within the home either verbal or physical. If the child makes a minor infraction it could lead the parent to over react in a verbal, emotional or physical way. Children being raised n an environment like this often don’t gain approval or praise at any time.

If the primary caretaker has a negative attitude toward the child at a young age with lack of warmth and involvement in this child, it increases the risk that this child will grow up with hostile or aggressive behaviors towards others. Not just people in their families but towards people in general. If the child does become aggressive and the parent becomes permissive of these behaviors, without setting clear limits to the behavior towards peers, siblings, and adults the child’s aggression will most likely increase. If the parent of a child uses physical punishment and violent emotional outburst when trying to get their point across, this child is more likely to become more aggressive than the average child.

It has been concluded that bullies often stem from families where the parents are authoritarian, hostile, and rejecting, have poor problem solving skills and advocate fighting back at least at the least provocation. Children being raised in a hostile home environment could often feel neglected and unwanted. This could lead to the child becoming aggressive and act out in order to try and gain attention from their parents.

The parents of these children probably don’t realize that their behaviors toward their child leads them to act the same way they do towards others. Some of these children who bully may not know any better because they were raised in a home with negativity and where they were constantly put down. So they may see it as normal behavior when they are treating others this way not realizing that they are actually bullying.

Out of a home environment of negativity emerges a personality steeped in the belief and justification that intimidation and brute forces are ways to interact with obstacles that are encountered in life. It has been said that violence begets violence. If a child is treated with violent behaviors they most often turn and treat others with violent behaviors.

The aggression and anger of these children often builds up because they are not able to speak out at home in which it grows. So when they arrive at school and have to deal with some sort of situation they may just explode and go off on others within this environment.

Justifying bullies is not what is happening but these children that bullies often can’t take all the blame they are raised in a sense where negativity towards others is normal. Furthermore, if these children are bullying others their parents often stick up for their child’s behavior and sees it as them sticking up for them self.

References

Bullying Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/stats.asp

Roberts, W. B., Jr., & Morotti, A. A. (n.d.). The Bully as Victim. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/42732181.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:691cee82878e2580b4ba2f967406d63a

Olweus, D. (n.d.). Bully/Victim problems in school. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/stable/pdf/23420286.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A81a118046b9f273c73808da868e8d722

Ma, X. (n.d.). Bullying and Being Bullied. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/stable/pdf/3202462.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A60abb9588a61d9951c2434b757060c62

Casual Argument-Nreina34

Social Media Is Exposing More Of the Police To the Public.

In today’s society, everyone believes what they read on social media.  It is the new “news” source that seems intoxicating and is convincing mostly the younger generation.  Like everything else, this is a good thing and a bad thing.  This is having a negative impact on police forces throughout the country because of the increase of the exposure they have now.  Advancements in technology give people the capability to video certain events and this is catching the police on their mistakes.  There are cameras everywhere nowadays, cell phones, iPods, patrol cars; all these places are easily accessible to start videoing.  

All of these factors pointing against the police is giving them a bad reputation which means, who is going to want to be a police officer anymore?  There have been declines in police recruits all throughout the country and the bad reputation is a contributing cause to this.  Ultimately, the media is ruining law enforcements and the way they carry out actions in their profession.  Yes, the police do make mistakes but at the end of the day, they are human beings like the rest of us.  There are going to be times where people mess up and unfortunately for them, sometimes their mistakes cause fatal happenings it is just the nature of the job.  

 

        

Works Cited

Brumfield, Ben. “Police Caught on Camera: The Good and the Bad.” CNN, Cable News Network, 21 Apr. 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/20/us/police-actions-under-scrutiny/index.html.

Libaw, Oliver Yates. “Police Face Severe Shortage of Recruits.” ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96570.

safer saws- summergirl1999

4. Consumer Safety Advocates

4A. “The inventors of a saw that senses an electrical current in a finger, as opposed to a piece of wood, and stops before serious harm is done, named their company SawStop.”

4B. Inventors invented a saw that senses flesh and stops moving before it brutally harms the person using it.

4C. Type of claim: Factual Claim.

4D. The accuracy of this quote is that the saw is an invention that tries to prevent brutal injuries.

4. Consumer Safety Advocates

4A. “Very serious injuries, including fractures and avulsions, as well as amputations, have changed the lives of tens of thousands of consumers and impacted their families forever.”

4B. Many saws have the effect of harming people.

4C. Type of claim: Evaluation.

4D. Saws are a dangerous tool to use. Many people get harmed from saws. The invention of the SawStop, is a great help to prevent injuries.

3. Government Officials.

3A. “Now federal regulators are considering whether to make Gass’ technology mandatory in the table-saw industry.”

3B. Many people are getting harmed by saws. Government officials might make it mandatory for saws to have SawStop.

3C. Type of claim: Proposal.

3D. The SawStop is a great way to help people prevent getting hurt from saws. The government might make is mandatory for saws to have SawStop.

8. News Reporters (Mother Jones Magazine)

8A. “Carlos Osorio moved to the Boston area from Colombia in 2003. Unable to find work as a computer technician, he took a job as a flooring installer. He was working at a home in Lexington, Massachusetts, in April 2005 when a piece of flooring got stuck in his Ryobi table saw and his hand slid into the blade. “There was blood on my face, my body. It was everywhere,” Osorio later testified. “I was able to see my tendons.”

8B. A man named Carlos Osorio got a job as a floor installer. He accidentally got his hand sliced by a saw.

C. Type of claim: Factual.

D. Carlos Osorio had his hand sliced by a saw.

5. Personal Injury Lawyers.

5A. “Roughly 150 liability suits have been filed against power tool companies since SawStop saws were introduced. SawStop was a “game changer,” says Osorio’s attorney, Richard Sullivan, whose firm has been involved in most of the cases.”

5B. Saws are dangerous tools, and many people have accidents with them. SawStop was a helpful invention.

5C. Type of claim: Opinion.

5D. Richard Sullivan said SawStop was a “game changer”, which is an opinion. Many people have accidents with saws, and many people have lawsuits with the companies.

Causal Claims-Dohertyk9

Single cause with a multitude of effects (X causes Y and Z):

Laws have changed to state that anyone can give or retract consent, and that it must be constantly expressed in order for consensual sex to occur.

Effects- it should be easier to bring up charges for rape, easier to convict for rape, men can now bring up charges for rape, status of virginity does not matter, how sexually active the victim is no longer matters (or should no longer matter), sexual orientation should no longer matter, race should no longer matter.

It is easier to bring up charges for rape. This is a causation fallacy. If it is easier to bring up charges for rape, then there is no explanation for why there has been a decline in police-reported rape offenses.

It is easier to convict for rape. There seems to be no data to prove whether or not it is easier to get a conviction for rape…

Men can now bring up charges for rape. The change of definition for consent is an immediate cause in this situation. Because laws were changed to become more inclusive, men are now taken into consideration and are able to bring up charges as a victim in rape cases too.

Whether or not the victim is a virgin does not matter. In this case, the change of definition for consent is an immediate cause. In the past, the victim needed to be a virgin to have been legally raped.

How sexually active the victim is no longer matters. In this case as well, the change in definition for consent is an immediate cause. Because the legal definition of consent has changed over time, even very “promiscuous” individuals can bring up charges for rape.

Sexual orientation of the victim does not matter. This is also a situation in which the cause is an immediate cause. The sexual orientation of the victim likely would have played into whether or not the person was legally raped in the past, but now holds no importance in court.

Race does not matter. This is another situation in which the cause is an immediate cause. Regardless of race or ethnicity, a person can be raped, and now, the person is able to press charges and obtain a conviction even if he/she is a minority.

Works Cited

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics

Casual Argument- Myrtle View

The Black Community Lose A Part of Themselves When Black Fashion Becomes Mainstream.

1. Black fashion in the mainstream media causes cultural appropriation.

The best thing about diversity is being surrounded by people and cultures that can be similar and very different from our own. The world is becoming more and more diverse and unfortunately things like cultural appropriation do occur. Cultural appropriation is when a race steals elements from a culture in an opposing race and uses it for financial gain or re-branded ownership. During this era, black women and men are embracing their culture in a most positive way. Black fashion is one of the ways the black community speaks to the world without saying anything and will continue to inspire people. Although, this type of fashion is only acceptable when worn by someone not black. For example, in 2015 Zendaya, a famous celebrity teenager, graced the Oscars with her styled in faux dreads. Zendaya was then criticized for looking like she smelled of weed. Kylie Jenner also wore faux dreads for a Teen Vogue story and was labeled “edgy”, “beautiful”, and “raw.” The more black fashion is exposed in the mainstream the more likely it is that the black community will lose black fashion.
2. Black fashion in the mainstream media causes black people to lose their identity.

Since cultural appropriation effects how black people are first perceived it is hard for the black community to feel lost in what their identity is. A big majority of black culture is black fashion. Black fashion was and is still a major approach used by the black community to fight back against oppression and the conformity of society. The black community has to live with knowing that they exist only because of the 246 years slavery existed. They must also learn that after slavery the black community continued to feel pain because of segregation which lasted about 89 years. Through these years the black community has fought wars and forced laws all to make living a little easier. Black fashion is what makes black people happy as well as surviving subjugation and racism. This explains why black people are so passionate and interested in incidents regarding cultural appropriation towards their culture. Knowing that black people would become just like everyone else is what pushes this group of people forward to stop this from happening. If the barrier between mainstream “trends” and black fashion was to be removed many black youths would grow up confused at how to define their style and wear their style actually originates.
3. Popular white celebrities and black fashion causes cultural appropriation.

These trends in mainstream fashion do not come out of nowhere. Most of the trends in fashion are determined by popular celebrities who are seen by the media.  They are also more likely to set a “trend” if they are white. The Kardashian family is infamous for cultural appropriation since they draw inspiration from black culture and profit from it or rename a fashion in black history. Popular white celebrities wearing black fashion causes cultural appropriation which also causes black people to lose their identity in society. White people wearing black fashion does not cause them to be a victim in the negative side effects of being black.

Causal Argument- LBirch

Smoke Detectors: The Source of Fire

Smoke detectors are an essential tool for your household safety, just like a lock on your door. Detectors play a huge role in fire safety, alerting an occupant when there is smoke in a building or house and allowing them enough time to exit without harm. Detectors seem to be easy to install, and are thought to require little to no care or attention. But with that belief, most detectors can become faulty and do not operate, or can even lead to a risk of starting a fire itself. Shorted wires or bad batteries can all be leading causes of these detectors catching fire, and both of these people do not check regularly. Without the appropriate maintenance of the detectors in your home, it is possible that the thing that alerts you of a fire is actually the cause of the fire.

The smoke detectors in your house are either hard-wired, meaning their main power source is from your house, or a battery-operated  detector, which gets its power from a battery. There are many battery options for a detector, but the most common and efficient battery is the lithium battery. According to Arthur Lee’s report for the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission,  “In recent years, the market has offered battery-powered residential smoke alarms with long-life batteries of up to 10-years. The batteries are lithium 9-volt batteries…” But what is not known is the dangers of these long-life, lithium batteries. Lithium batteries do have a history of shorting out, causing a fire. In an article by Battery University, the author discusses safety concerns of lithium batteries and times where they have failed. “In 2006, a one-in-200,000 breakdown triggered a recall of almost six million lithium-ion packs. Sony, the maker of the lithium-ion cells in question, points out that on rare occasion microscopic metal particles may come into contact with other parts of the battery cell, leading to a short circuit within the cell… Quality lithium-ion batteries are safe if used as intended. However, a high number of heat and fire failures had been reported in consumer products that use non-certified batteries, and the hoverboard is an example”. Of course a hoverboard is not a smoke detector, but if the batteries are the same in the two, there is certainly a risk of a fire.

On the other side of battery-operated detectors are hard-wired detectors. As it should be noted, hard-wired detectors also use batteries, but only as a backup power source. The main source of power, however, uses wires. According to the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI), home electrical fires account for an estimated 51,000 fires each year. It is also stated that electrical distribution systems are the third leading cause of home structure fires. In an article published by CRM Risk, lists many ways a fire can be started due to wiring. Physical damage to wires or other electrical equipment can cause a fire and installations can also become damaged or deteriorate with age. Overloaded circuits used with large fuses and circuit breakers can result in overheated wires, breakdown of insulation and eventual short circuits. These circuits will produce high amounts of heat, which can lead to fire.

Structure fires are already a concern for homeowners and to add to their worries, an safety device that has been known to help may turn into a time bomb. The wrong wiring or a bad battery could possibly turn this safety device into a fiery piece of plastic. People should not need to worry about this device along with the many other things in a home. But you may need to be concerned about even the most object, like a smoke detector.

 

References

BU-304a: Safety Concerns with Li-ion. (2018, January 4). Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/safety_concerns_with_li_ion 

Common Causes of Electrical Fires. (2012, December). Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://cmrris.com/news-manufacturing-details/20/common-causes-of-electrical-fires.html

Home Electrical Fires. (2015, February 4). Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://www.esfi.org/resource/home-electrical-fires-184

Lee, A. (2002, June 28). Preliminary Test Results on Lithium Batteries Used In Resident Smoke Alarms. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/lithiumfinal.PDF

 

Casual Argument- Ugandanknuckles

 

SHMHBS

If I told you that whenever you were sad or felt bad about yourself, you could just sit down and chant some magic words to be happy, would you believe me? There are people who actually think you can do just that. While the practice is rather old and dates back to the early modern era, possibly earlier, we know now that there is no such thing as magic.

An excerpt from an article written by Lori Majewski on the benefits of mantras titled “9 Empowering Mantras to Shift Your Mindset,” will help give you can idea of how bs the whole “mantra” movement is:

I didn’t “get” Kaur or her mantras right away, though. The ones on her album Feeling Good Today! initially struck me as too simple, too obvious, and, dare I say, hokey. “Feeling good today, I am feeling good today,” she sings on the title track. “I am happy, I am good. I am happy, I am good,” she intones on “I Am Happy.”

Still, I kept the songs on in the background as I went about making myself breakfast, during my morning yoga practice, and throughout the workday. Ever since, I’ve started most days singing along to Kaur’s mantras. Whenever I get up on the wrong side of the bed, a dose of “I am happy, I am good” right-sides my mood; it helps me to approach the work day with confidence and anticipation. Far from corny, I now see these, yes, simple phrases—and mantras in general—as quite powerful.

She has no evidence to back up the idea that these songs that sound like something off of a children’s CD were the reason she felt better, nor does give a specific example. She could just be trying to promote Snatum Kaur’s CD as part of a business deal. Majewski and many others subscribe to the idea of chanting or mantras as a way to feel better, rather than finding something more effective.

Hard facts, however have proven her to be wrong- mostly. A study done by The University of Waterloo and the The University of New Brunswick shows that the only people mantras actually help are the people who don’t need them. People who already have high self-esteems or feel good about themselves don’t need to feel better. People like to try and prescribe people with poor self-image/self-esteem cure-all mantras, but it has the inverse effect. It doesn’t help that a highly publicized and praised figure promotes this system. Oprah Winfrey is a proponent of the mantra movement for anyone and everyone, but I doubt she’s ever done much research on the topic.

Sas Petherick, a well known self-help blogger from New Zealand, explains why mantras are bullshit fairly well.

Our super-smart brains see straight through us wanting to want to believe something we actually don’t.

So you might find yourself saying a version of ‘I am: loved, whole, fit, abundant, free, successful, strong, beautiful, joyful, unlimited, powerful, creative, expansive, sexy, thriving, rich… I am enough!’ *ends with dramatic flourish*

Except actually: its Lady Moon Time, he’s left a wet towel on the bed AGAIN, you suspect Little Miss might be being bullied at school, the car needs new tyres, you have four missed calls from Mother, no pension plan, your favourite frock is feeling a bit tight, you’ve spent three days ignoring the ominous letter from The Bank, you can’t have a family holiday this year without extending the overdraft, you’ve found yourself having a tiny cry in the loo after every meeting with that bloke from sales who makes you feel about nine years old….

Its no wonder that after a few days of repeating an affirmation, we start to think – actually, this is bullshit.

When our reality is in such contrast to our mantra – those  hopeful thoughts of a different result – we end up feeling trapped in a circuitous loop of repeating the same crappy patterns.

You are not going mad – this is exactly what is happening. Because our brains are hard-wired to look for patterns and make connections. So when thing X happens we believe it will result in outcome 56 – we focus on the evidence that reinforces what we think about X.

We expect these things to work, but then our lives prove the opposite. We need to confront the issues in our lives before we attempt to try to move passed them. Sitting there repeating that you’re a good person isn’t gonna help if you’re an asshole to everyone around you, and telling yourself that you can be successful is useless if you’re not gonna take steps to try and better yourself. At the end of the day, action speak louder than words, but if you do manage to get your actions right, some words are alright.

References

Wood, J. V., Perunovic, W. E., & Lee, J. W. (2009). Positive Self-Statements. Psychological Science, 20(7), 860-866. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02370.x

Majewski, L. (2015, March 27). 9 Empowering Mantras to Shift Your Mindset. Retrieved February 26, 2018, from http://www.sonima.com/meditation/mantras/

The stuck record: why mantras feel like bullshit. (2014, August 21). Retrieved February 26, 2018, from http://www.saspetherick.com/the-stuck-record-why-mantras-feel-like-bullshit/