Other ways to boost performance

Upon learning other ways athletes use to enhance their performance, I read about one of the more dangerous methods of “doping,” it’s called “blood doping.”  About 2 weeks before an athletic event the athlete has a liter of blood extracted from their body, and it is frozen and kept up until a day before the event.  At that time the blood is put back into their system, giving them more red blood cells, and more endurance on game day.  There are many things that could happen to the blood in the process of storing and putting it back in the athlete’s body, making this method one of the most dangerous ones that I have heard of.

Other forms of performance-enhancing drugs

Not all performance-enhancing drugs are illegal, and very few of them are banned from athletics.  Many types of muscle builders and vitamins are not considered illegal by sport organizations, but they all serve the same purpose.  “Natural” substances are also considered legal, the most popular of these being creatine.  It was estimated that in the 1996 about 80% of athletes participating in the Olympic games were taking the performance enhancing drug creatine.  Creatine can be found at any GNC drug store, as well as in most gyms.

Who really takes steroids?

In sport’s psychology we learned the ages that people start taking anabolic steroids, and the findings were extremely disturbing.  The fastest growing group that are starting to take steroids are high school freshman girls, which is not what I was expecting to learn.  The problem of steroids is growing faster and faster and is hitting younger ages, which is extremely scary for the young people in America. 

Steroids hits younger ages

Yesterday in my sports psychology class we discussed the effects that steroids have on athletes, and we talked about “roid rage.”  With the raised testosterone levels that are received when you take steroids, many people experience changes in personality, and the most common of these is aggression and anger.  This is just another way that steroids have a negative affect on the people that take them.

   

Barry Bonds sets homerun record

This season in the major leagues saw Barry Bonds, long time member of the MLB break the all-time home run record.  Many believe that his accomplishments are tainted, because of the allegations made about his steroid use throughout the later stages of his career.  Experts have argued that there should be an asterisk placed next to the record that he eventually ends at.  They believe this because they want the asterisk to show the difference between his record and the one set by Henry Aaron, the previous all time home run king.  I think there should be an asterisk next to Bonds’ name and home run number, because he took a short cut to get to that home run title.  The difference in the accomplishments that these two different athletes had should be held has two separate records, to honor the name of Henry Aaron, who truly should be the home run king.

SWA#7 Academic Responsibility

1.        The difference between library subscriptions databases is their purpose and the credibility of the author(s).  Depending on the subject, certain sources will be more useful to use because of the people that the information comes from.

2.       A bibliography is an alphabetically arranged list of evaluated sources you have decided are credible, related to your issue, and possibly valuable to your paper.  An annotated bibliography helps you visualize your sources, their basic content, and your reactions to them as a unit of information, gathered together in one place.

3.       All credible sources have a credible author, who has some kind of extensive knowledge of the topic at hand.  The paper should also be published from a credible source, so you know you’re not just reading a random essay/opinion from an un-informed person.

4.       Creating a tentative research plan is a smart idea because it gives you a good way to start writing your paper.  Instead of just starting at random topics, having a plan makes it an easier, more efficiently written paper.

5.       Plagiarism is the act of using someone’s work without their permission, while claiming that it is your own.  Always citing your sources, along with using quotations to write direct statements from an author, make plagiarism an easy thing to avoid.

SWA#6 That’s Entertainment

Question 2:

When the author states: “Of course, the entertainment industry isn’t increasing the cognitive complexity of its products for charitable reasons.  The Sleeper Curve exists because there’s money to be made by making culture smarter,” he is proving his over-all argument that TV producers are making TV more difficult to follow and full of information to make America smarter.  When the majority of young people are spending more than a few hours a day watching TV, the best way to get knowledge to them is through the TV shows that they watch.  Steven Johnson uses his essay to show how the entertainment industry is becoming more complex and intellectual, making it more beneficial to the country as a whole. 

 

Question 3:

When Jennifer Pozner says: “…anti-Rosie backlash is indicative of nothing so much as the stiflingly limited range of debate allowed within the corporate media, whose gatekeepers want to erase true leftist dissent in America,” she is trying to show how the corporate media is trying to squash the opinions of those who do not share the same ones as they do.  Right wing commentators such as Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck,  and Tucker Carlson did all they could to encourage ABC producers to fire Rosie O’Donnell, because of her ability to speak her mind, which they may not have agreed with.  I think that Pozner makes a great point, but there is nothing that can be done about it.  We live in a country where the press has the right to print and say whatever they want (to a point), and just as Rosie had the right to voice her opinions, the hosts of shows on Fox and MSNBC have the right to bash her just as she does them. 

SWA #5 Evaluative Claims

What Alvarado means when she says: “If white women can change their hair color the way they change lipstick – with complete impunity and no worries over ‘correctly’ representing their community – why couldn’t I?” she is showing the injustice that she feels she receives due to her being a Latino women.  Alvarado feels that a Latino women is expected to keep her hair one color because they are expected to represent their nationality, and if they do change their color they are disrespecting their heritage.  She accepts in the end that the change was not for the better, and she is happy to keep her natural hair color because she can “stay brown and proud.”

1st Draft Rhetorical Analysis

“We’re Scaring Our Children to Death”

 

                In Peggy Noonan’s essay, “We’re Scaring Our Children to Death,” she uses examples from the past to compare life for a child in the early 20^th century in comparison to the worries and stories that children of today’s generation have to deal with every day.  She argues using logos proofs that the children of today are forced to cope and watch terrible stories and scenes thanks to the American mass media industry.  Noonan speaks from what she sees in the news, as well as from what seems to be personal experience, coming across as though she has young children who are being affected by the scenes on TV and on the radio.

                Noonan discusses the differences between  children now and those who grew up in the past, stating that the kids now have to deal with much worse scenes on TV and in real life situations than those who grew up in the early 20^th century.  She argues that children had to deal with a little bit of fear from attack by the Japanese in the 40’s, while the baby boomers had to experience the occasional duck-and-cover drill.  She says life in the 50’s and 60’s were boring, but for children, boring means safe and happy.  In the article, Noonan states that: “life didn’t seem menacing and full of dread,” which is how she perceives children in America today see the world.

                Throughout the article the author uses examples from real life situations to show how the children of today are being forced to bear witness to the terrible events that are going on in the world around them.  She blames this on the media, which puts major emphasis on the events that cause death and destruction rather than those that show the good side to life in American and around the world.  Noonan talks about how she cannot turn the channel without finding something inappropriate and unsuitable for the eyes of a young child.  Whether it is on the TV or it is being broadcasted over the radio, the author says that the media in America is introducing young children to the problems of the world long before they need to be informed about them. 

                It appears as though the author, Peggy Noonan is speaking from personal experience when she argues about how the media affects the children of today.  The passion, as well as the accounts she gives makes the reader think that she has children of her own, and is worried about the amount of violence that they are being exposed to.  This could be her main inspiration for writing the article; to bring to light the problem that she feels occurs on a daily basis in America.

                I think that the author Peggy Noonan, uses the examples from both the past and the present to argue her point, that there is too much violence on TV, and that violence is easily accessible for the young children of today’s generation.  She provides numerous types of argument, from logos to pathos.  She appeals to the people who want straight facts and evidence, to those who are have an emotional stance on this, because of their children; it is this fact that makes her argument so effective and easy for many different people to take her side.

SWA #4 “Was Cho Seung-Hui Really Like the Columbine Killers?”

The essay that I chose to write about is “Was Cho Seung-Hui Really Like the Columbine Killers?” by Dave Cullen.  The author talks about the similarities and differences between Cho and the Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two students who went on a rampage at Columbine High School almost eight years ago.  It is an argument essay that aims to prove that Cho was a different kind of killer than Harris and Klebold, even though there are similarities between the three young men.  There was no specific age that the author seemed to target with his writing; it was aimed towards anyone who wanted to learn about the similarities between the three killers.  Dave Cullen comes across as a person who knew a lot about the way that a killer’s mind works, it does not specify his field but it says that he is writing a book about the Columbine shootings, and he appears to be an expert in the field.  A lack of information which helps us understand what Cho Seung-Hui was going through mentally when this happened could have hindered the author in making a complete conclusion about the similarities and differences between the killers.  The exigence for this essay is the obvious passion that the author, Dave Cullen, has for the subject of young killers and why they do what they do.  If he is not considered an expert, he obviously has studied and learned much on the subject, which makes him capable writing this essay.  The common ground I have with the author is that I agree with his analysis of the killers, in their similarities and differences.  He not only did the research to prove the point he was trying to get across, but the way he made the arguments in writing was extremely convincing.