#2 Documentary - Walmart: The High Price of Low Prices

The director of this movie is Robert Greenwald. The type of argument being used is pathos, ethos, and logos. The high cost of low prices is an informative movie of how Walmart works. Once a Walmart has been placed in a community it takes out the small mom and pop shops. It is sad to see the small mom and pop shops close down when they worked so hard for their little shops. Walmart also has bad health insurance. At times they would tell their employees to get it from the government assistance program. Walmart overworks their employees and sometimes even uses them for overtime without pay. The movie informs us that Walmart does not approve of unions. Some store managers were ordered to fire any associates if they so called suspect that they were up to something. Walmart cheats their employees over a hundred thousand dollars in overtime. Walmart had a lawsuit regarding women and treating them like crap or degraded them. This film also talks about Walmart’s environmental friendly economy are not so friendly after all. Walmart is careless about what they do with their hazardous chemicals. They import from china all the time because it is cheaper for them. In 2004, Walmart imported 18 billion from china. Walmart also imports from other countries. The company did not protect their customers. There was no security in the parking lot. A town fought for their rights and got Walmart out of their town. That is what I am talking about. Over all Walmart is not a good company for the community.

Documentary#1 Food Inc.

The director of Food Inc. is Robert Kenner. From my recollection this movie used pathos and logos. After watching this movie it has opened my mind to watching what I eat. Watching this video was really new to me. It was scary and at the same time fun because I love to learn something new especially if it is beneficial to me, and this was definitely beneficial to me because now that I know what is really happening I can do something about it. For example I can start by not going to the big groceries stores, I can change to my local farmers market, and this will be very effective. Or better yet make a small vegetable garden in my back yard, which may also be very effective if I don’t mess up on the planting. For school, I think we (parents) can talk to the principle about the food schedule, depending what it looks like than we change it around to accommodate the children’s health. Now for the community that would be a tricky one because I would not know exactly where to go, but I know that we would have to educate them in the same sense as I was educated. So this film is about where our food comes from. It is a very informative clip about our food and how a lot of things have changed. For example the safety regulations don’t really inspect the big industries. So, in the beginning of the clip it show a family of Mexican descent going through a fast food drive through. As they are driving away with their fast food meal the mother is talking about that is all they can afford, the dad has diabetes, the prescriptions are too high. All I can think about is the lady is suffering because she wants to. The dad would have diabetes if he and they would eat healthy. All they can afford is fast food really, come on. I did not know what was in this video but I did know that fast food is definitely not healthy for you. I think what the lady really meant to say was, we didn’t have time to sit down and eat a meal, which could be believable because I do it sometimes, especially on my long days, but normally we sit down and eat dinner together. Another part of the movie was when Mr. Kenner introduces Barbara Kowalcyk (Food Safety Advocate), who had lost her two year old son due to Food coli poisoning, that part of the movie was the pathos. It was a sad situation I don’t know what I would if that was me. I think that woman is strong for doing what she does and she has a good cause for doing so. In this instance I believe that our government should get harder on these industries that don’t seem to care and just brush it off as if nothing had happened. It is sad to see big corporation get their way just because they have more money. After Barbara’s court case with the meat packing corporation she lost but after the case she had to be careful about how she worded things. How sad that a corporation had that much power over a person. There was this lady farmer Carol that decided to speak out after a dozen farmers were asked and they all refused, so my hat off to Carol, but she basically gave Mr. Kenner a tour of the daily routine and showed him all the bad things that go on in those types of farms, how the chickens are being treated, and so on. The thing that caught my eye is that the government must be in on it because they haven’t done anything about it. Then again I haven’t researched it enough maybe they have and I am just not aware of it. That will be all for now because and I can’t recall anything else. What do you think about the situation?

Argument #8 (#9) - Syria and Chemical Weapons

My first impression of the video is that, now I'm only speaking for myself so do not quote me, I see a lot of pathos. I am just an emotional person and it is heartbreaking when you see a population that has nothing to do with government issues suffer the consequences. I think that their government should pay for the peoples lives that they took. It is not fair for a heir anarchy to get away with things because they have power. The people who chose them should re-think their decision. I believe that the US should and the UN should step in. Maybe the people of the town have no one to speak up for them. The US and the UN could teach whoever threw the bomb some manners. why would you kill your own people it just does not make sense to me. To be honest I am not sure but knowing the US it is probably something having to do with either benefiting the US or hindering them. What do you think about the situation?

#6 Critical Analysis - Part II

The main idea of the Jungle article was to explain to us how these meatpacking industries are insanitary and because of their unsanitariness they make these diseases that are unhealthy for us humans. Whenever meat was so spoiled they would either can it or chop it up into sausage. They had rats, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together because the employees would be too lazy to get them out of the way. There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. and we get contaminated because in this type of privy, which is usually open in back from the seat to the ground, the excreta is deposited upon the surface of the ground, where it can be reached and scattered about by flies, birds, domestic fowls and animals and with every rain may be washed into the open well or spring, or into the adjoining garden, where vegetables become contaminated with the human filth. Then follow the diseases like Typhoid fever, dysentery, diarrhea, summer complaint, and other diseases. I wonder if the privy thing is still going on? I also wonder if these conditions are still going on today in this day in age. This article talks about the North Carolina passing a law I wonder if there is an updates law for California. I just might have to do some research. This can probably pertain to the world around us because now that we know the knowledge it is like what are we going to do about it? We can change the way we eat. We can check out the law on things of that nature as of today and see if there is any thing that needs a change to be made for the better so we can fight for it and stand up for our rights.

#6 Critical Analysis - Part I

1. What is the goal of both excerpts? In the Jungle article the goal that it is trying to explain is that people can catch diseases due to the insanitariness of a meatpacking plant. In the Fast Food Nation- article of the most dangerous jobs their goal was to notify us of the dangers of the job duties and also to advise us that the meatpacking companies, plants, industries quite frankly do not care about their employees. They just want to see the profit. 2. What kinds of details do both authors include in their excerpts to make their points? In the Jungle article they explain to us how insanitary the meatpacking plant is. They also explain to us the difference between insanitary privy and properly constructed privy. In the Fast Food Nation- article of the most dangerous jobs they explain all of the dangers that the meatpacking employee is exposed to. Not to mention that they talks about a few real stories of real people that were victims of injuries and how the company treated them. For example sending them back to work right after an injury had occurred. that is truly sad. 3. What were the effect of the Jungle's publication & what have been some possible effects of the publication of Fast Food Nation? The effect that I read from the publication of the Jungle was that it was in full realization of this fact that the people of North Carolina, through their representatives, the members the General Assembly, put themselves on record as desirous of protect themselves and their neighbors from ravages of fecal born diseases by passing a law in February of 1919 entitled "an act to prevent the spread of diseases from insanitary privies." The only understanding that I got from the Fast Food Nation- article of the most dangerous jobs is that political people were trying to shut down OSHA. I am not sure if I answered it correctly, but that is what I got from my understanding of it, unless I missed the answer.

Benchmark #2- Book Outliers- Part II

Have you ever wondered, how successful people become successful? Well in this book you will learn just that and even more interesting you will learn about what factors sets them apart from all the rest. If you pay close attention you might even find out if you have some of these characteristics. This book states a lot of things that you would not normally think about from successful people. You will learn how to become and expert by learning the 10,0000 hour rule. Above all I feel that you would enjoy this book because it takes your mind to a whole other level with successful people. The name of the book that I will be talking about today is OUTLIERS. The author of this book is Malcolm Gladwell, he has written other books such as, The Tipping Point, Clink, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath. The publisher is Little Brown and Company and they originally published in hardcover by November, 2008. This book has three-hundred nine from introduction to index, it has more than that if you add the extras to it. Basically, this book is about learning what sets some of the successful people away from the regular people because very easily the successful people could have never been successful at all had it not been for their outlying differences. In the first seven pages the book shows how some people have rated Mr. Gladwells' book. The contents follow the next three pages. This book has two parts to it, the first part talks about Opportunity, and the second part talks about the Legacy. Then it begins with and introduction of the Roseto Mystery it is a nice little story about a little town on a hill and how it even came to be a town, and how they hardly have any heart attacks their mission is to find out why there have not been any deaths with heart attacks. The first chapter talks about the Matthew effect, mentioning that one would have to be born at the right time in order to be successful. Chapter two talks about the 10,000 hour rule thus saying that one has to practice for at least 10,000 hours or more in order to have achieved the level of mastery. Chapter three talks about the trouble with the genius part I and it mentions that the IQ score can only factor in so many numbers any additional IQ points don't translate into any measureable real-world advantage. Chapter four talks about the trouble with the genius part II mentions the fact that no one makes it alone. It also mentions the fact that even smart people make mistakes. Chapter five talks about how your background may also have to do with your success depending where they are from. Little word of advice I don't believe it, I think its more what your parents instill in you, the morals that they teach you is very important when your at a young age. Now we move on to the legacy Part II of the OUTLIERS book. Chapter six talks about whether or not the traditions and attitudes we inherit from our forebears can play the same role. Chapter seven talks about the investigation of plane crashes and if it had anything to do with our pilots ethnic background. Chapter eight talks about why Asians are much better in math that any other ethnic group. Chapter nine talks about a school that gives minority children from low income children the opportunity to succeed in life and they explain their teaching techniques a little bit. The epilogue talks about Jamaica, which is the ancestor of the author Malcolm Gladwell. He talks about how is mom and dad got together and he also talks about his grandparents and how they struggled but how they came up in the world. The part of this book that caught my attention was when Gladwell mentioned the brief story of Renee the nurse that was doing an eighth grade problem in which she got stuck at. I believe the problem had to do with the slope, x, and y axis. The reason why I like it so much or it was like a key moment for me was because it reminded me of me. Similar to something that I was going through just last week, when I got stuck in a statistics problem. Any who enough about me, so Gladwell goes on to mention that she persists and persists on the problem until about twenty two minutes later when she finally finds her right answer. The way she worked her problem, the not giving up, and the talking to herself, I felt her pain. Gladwell then starts talking about a teacher at Berkley, Schoenfeld, and his method to problem solving. Schoenfeld gives his students a take home exam, which is a problem that he himself cannot solve, and he give them two weeks to work through it before turning it in, also warning them that if they start working on it the second week they will be in big trouble. The concept of his madness is to get his students to unlearn the mathematical habits they picked up on the way to the University. He wants them to master mathematics by simply trying the problem out. Now here comes the part that makes it worth something well at least to me. Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty-two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds. I like the book but I am not sure if I would recommend it. The information was good, I just was not sure on the accuracy of it. I think I would have to test out the outcome and the probability of the scenarios. I am just kidding I do not think that I will by testing anything out. I am serious about the not sure if I would recommend it though. In the very first page it did show some of the comments from people about this book that were really good, but I would not be sure who to recommend it to. I liked the book because it opened my mind to new thinking skills of how I think about successful people. I liked the book because some of the things Gladwell talked about made sense to me. The reason that I am not sure if I would recommend it is because I don't know who I would recommend to and why I would recommend it to them.

Benchmark #2 - Book - Outliers -Part I

1. When does a Canadian hockey player want to be born? Why does it matter? The very best of the best-40% of the players will have been born between January and March, 30% between April and June, 20% between July and September, and 10% between October and December. This matters because in Canada the cutoff for age -class hockey is January 1. In preadolescence, a twelve month gap in age represents and enormous age difference in physical maturity. 2. What’s the 10,000 hour rule? The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert--in anything. 3. What problems might there be in Gladwell’s list of history’s richest individuals? There is no birthdays of the rich people. 4. Look at the time of year the techies were born. Do the dates support the time of year claim? It states that the Altair 8800 personal computer revolution was January 1975 but I Googled it and Google states that is was introduced in 1974 but it was designed in 1975. So I would say No the dates do not support the time of year claim. 5. What might explain the fact that not all Nobel winners come from the very best colleges, other than Gladwell’s IQ "good enough" claim? because some Universities, like University of Michigan law school, use a policy of affirmative action when it comes to applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds. 6. Does Chris Langan’s experience mean, as Gladwell claims, that success really isn’t about individual merit? Chris Langan was just not given the opportunity to be able to have his individual merit because he has the head for it. Even though he was given the opportunity and he seized, but without effort was not rewarded by the rest of society due to minor set backs. Maybe if he really wanted it he could of fought for it a little harder. Maybe he was not shown how to fight harder for his ambitions. 7. Gladwell claims historical treatment of Jews in both Europe and the US led to their dominance in the garment industry and NYC law firms. How much of an individual Jewish New Yorker’s success should be attributed to these historical factors? I am not sure because the understanding that I got from reading the book was not at all about the treatment of Jews, it was more about their background of their parents. For example the parents are hard workers, they put to good use the experience they already knew. The parents taught their children good morals like work hard for their money. The parents were able to help them with sending them off to college if not at least give them motivation to do so. 8. Gladwell gives several reasons for Asian academic success. What are they and which do you find most convincing? Rice paddies (crops) take a lot of work and good timing, Asians that come from parents of that background knew they had to help with that process it was more of a family business, that could be a reason. The way they teach Asians their math, they are faster in the way that they calculate their math by just using their head, there is a certain method to their madness. 9. Do the privileges and advantages Gladwell cites seem as decisive as he claims? Are these advantages unique? I could be possible but he does make it seem believable. The advantages could be unique because not a lot of people go out of their way to help others. but some of the advantages were taken without permission I think that part might not be unique. 10. What advantages have you benefited from? Why haven’t they been enough to catapult you to an outlier level of success? Alternatively, if you consider yourself very successful, to what do you attribute your success? I think the advantages that I benefitted from has been my cultural background it has given me the drive to do something with my life and help my people "la raza" and our community. I want to be very knowledgeable in the legal system so that I can translate to those who have difficulties understanding that kind of material. It could be me getting pregnant, maybe my drive is not good enough, sometimes my support system does not always pull through. When I become successful, and I don't mean financially, I will attribute my success to the people around me and my drive. To me successful would be working for a law firm that helps people when they are in difficult need. 11. What sort of opportunity does Gladwell think contributes to success? Can these opportunities always be made available to everyone? From my recollection it was the opportunity of being born in the right time frame and with the right supporters. I don't think so because everybody's family is not always supportive of what their children have a passion for. 12. What are the main differences between Asian and Western cultural legacies that Gladwell identifies? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each as he sees them? From my understanding Asian were more closed, they respected authority, they did not speak their mind. The western culture on the other hand did just the opposite. 13. Does Gladwell completely dismiss intelligence as a factor in success? What role does it play in his theory? No, he is just saying not to knock down the less privileged because you think you will have a better chance with the higher IQ guy. 14. Does Gladwell make a convincing case for his theory of what makes a person successful? Why or why not? I do not think so because he doesn not clearly specify what is successful. Unless, I did not read it or I missed it. 15. How would Gladwell define "successful"? Does he present a definite idea of what success is? I am not sure because If he did I don't think I caught it. 16. Can cultural legacies be changed? I believe so. Not completely, because you can never change your background of where you come from but you can definitely improve the way you are. Say for instance if your parents never implemented the whole church thing. and you went to a friends house where that is mandatory and for some odd reason it brought interest in you so when you have your own family you can implement that in your children. Similar to what I am going through right now. 17. Discuss Gladwell's implicit call for educational reform. Do you agree or disagree with his conclusions? I did not quite get the answer to that one I mean I read the epilogue but I didn't quite get it. I was trying to look for it and I could not find it. I know that he was talking about how bad it was in Jamaica for his parents and grandparent. he also discussed about how hard it was to get and education out there, but just could not find it.