IRB Intro #2

I have chosen to read Art Spiegelman's Maus for my second IRB. This award-winning novel tells a second-hand story of the holocaust. The story comes from the author's father, who survived the Holocaust as a Polish Jew. As a Jew, the holocaust has always been s subject of fascination. However, as a human, the horrific acts that were committed fascinate me even more.

TOW #9: Donald Trump’s win will make Brexit more painful

Donald Trump’s win will make Brexit more painful

             This article discusses the recent presidential election that saw Donald Trump elected president of the United States, and how his victory will affect international business for the both the United States and United Kingdom. The publisher of this editorial was Britain’s The Economist, who has been ranked the most trusted news outlet in the world by Business Insider. Being an outlet based in the UK, their bias in the United States’ politics is minimal compared to America’s counterparts.

              In late June, 2016, the residents of the United Kingdom woke up to alarming news, they had seceded from the European Union in an event soon to be known as “Brexit.” To many, this was a sign of impending doom. Britain would need to find new trading partners, the Pound would lose value, and investments would slow. The reality turned out to not be as dramatic as predicted, at least not yet. However, on the morning of Wednesday, November 9^th, Americans woke up to a similar feeling. Donald Trump, who has called himself “Mr. Brexit”, was elected president. Now the terror that flowed through Britain in June is back. This article appeals to the residents of Britain and explains the likely impact Trump will have on trade between the US and the UK. In the concluding paragraphs, the article speaks directly to Theresa May, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, about how to handle the situation with Britain’s interests in mind.

              The most obvious rhetorical device is the extended metaphor between Trump’s election and Britain leaving the EU, and how the aftermath affected their countries. Other comparisons are seen when the author compares relatively inexperienced Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, who they describe as n “instinctive Anglophile”, implying that a victory for Clinton would have been better for Britain. This idea is further backed up with logic when the author references Trump’s expressed loathing of foreign trade to show how Britain is likely to lose business with the United States. The rhetoric in this article is effective because it follows such a logical path.

TOW #8 Freakonomics" Part Two

            In the second half of Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, they slowly transition from one complex ides to another. It begins by continuing to explore the mindset of dug-dealers. It then uses the information presented to explore the causes of the unpredicted fall in crime during the 1990s. From there, the authors discuss parents. Specifically, who makes the best parents and what is under parents’ control. They finish by discussing the effect that a person’s name has on their success and opportunities in life.

            The most important idea presented in the second half of the book is that preconceptions can be not only inaccurate, but they also drive people, even experts, away from the true answers. This is best shown in chapter four. When crack cocaine began to take over entire cities, and crime began to rapidly increase in the 1980s and early 1990s, experts predicted that crimes would reach a level that would make the country dangerous to live in. Instead, crime rate abruptly, and drastically fell. Many causes were cited. These included the increased reliance on prisons (which had a significant role to play but was not the main reason), and more rigorous police tactics (which was the most cited cause but later proved to not have any effect on crime. The real main cause was the sudden nationwide legalization of abortion following the Roe v. Wade case. This idea is supported by showing similar situations in Romania after abortion was legalized.

            In the first half of the book, each chapter was a series of anecdotes used to support a thesis regarding a central anecdote. In the second half. The chapters are continually referenced throughout, making them a sort of extended metaphor. The story of the drug-dealers here used to explain how legal abortions stopped crime. The facts about abortion were used to explain why nature is different from nurture (which explains why many aborted children would be destined to life of crime), and the analysis of naming concludes the comparison.

TOW #7: "Gallons of Light" (visual text)

Tesla Model S: "Gallons of Light" Commercial

This commercial tells the story of the Knapp family, who took a road trip in their all-electric Tesla Model S. Not only that, but they used free, solar-powered charging stations to recharge their vehicle. This advertisement was created by Jordan Bloch who has also created commercials viewed over 20 million times on Facebook and YouTube. The subject of the commercial was Tesla’s Model S. Tesla was experiencing one of the most prolonged and significant rises in stock value in recent history and their new solar-powered public charging stations had just begun construction around the country.

The most obvious intended audience for this commercial is drivers concerned about the environment. This is shown through the emphasis on “all electric” and how the narrator descries the road trip as being “sponsored by the power of the sun.” An interesting piece of rhetoric that is easy to miss is the license plate of the car which says “4GET OIL” (obviously meaning “forget oil”). This message appeals further to customers concerned about the environment. The “4GET IL” can be seen as hopeful thinking that humans’ dependency on a limited resource for transportation may soon be ending. It may also perhaps be viewed as condescending, someone driving a Tesla can ride smugly over those whose lives are at the mercy of gasoline.

Other subtle forms of rhetoric include the young boy looking out the window at a pump jack with a look of curiosity. The pump jack, a machine used to suck oil out of the ground, may never be a significant part of the boy’s life. It certainly doesn’t mean much to him at the time. Overall, the rhetoric conveys an optimistic attitude. In addition to selling the revolutionary car, the commercial induces a new sense of hopefulness and motivation to fix the environment that I believe is the true goal of Tesla.

TOW #6: The largest methane leak in U.S. history began one year ago at Aliso Canyon. What have we learned since then?

The largest methane leak in U.S. history began one year ago at Aliso Canyon. What have we learned since then?

              In this editorial, the author shares the story of the largest leak of methane gas in United States history. It happened in Aliso Canyon, California and it released more than 90,000 metric tons of the potent greenhouse gas. The article later describes the negative effects that it had on neighboring residents. This particular piece was written by The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board. This group is comprised of nine individual writers who have each gained years of experience in, our outside of The Los Angeles Times.

              This article was written for an indefinite audience. The issues present have the ability to impact each and every person in the country on a profound scale. The writing is used to persuade readers into taking their own actions to increase the currently insufficient progress being made. This article was written after the worst methane leak in the history of the country. Not only did it force nearby citizens to relocate due to the methane’s impact on their health, but it caused an energy shortage. Furthermore, it was written during a time period in which the effects of fossil-fuel addiction are becoming ever more apparent.

              The author begins the text with an anecdote of how the leak came about. They describe how the leak was thought to be small and routine. The author’s then use a litote and say “the leak was neither small nor routine.” Implying that the leak was profound while also instilling a sense of uncertainty and dread. This is much more effective than presenting the 90,000 metric tons statistic at the beginning. Without context, the statistic is meaningless to the reader. The authors proceed by appeal to readers’ emotions. They tell the story of the 8,000 families forced to relocate due to the sickening smell of the gas.” In fact, residents in the surrounding area still experience frequent nausea, nosebleeds, and even rashes. The authors also tell how the fear of widespread power-outages would have caused the state to grind to a holt had it not been for a summer of unusually low power-usage. These stories appeal to fear. If the facts regarding fossil fuels’ danger did not convince readers to take action, the fear of the consequences of over-dependence will.

TOW #5 "Obama Calls for New Cooperation to Wrangle the ‘Wild West’ Internet"

              This article discusses President Obama’s recent comment that he internet has become “the wild wild west.” He made these comments during a gathering in Palo Alto, California. He spoke alongside figures like Tim cook, the CEO of Apple. Together, they proposed ideas as to how major corporations and intelligence agencies might share information in a more protected way. The report on the events were given by Nicole Perlroth and David E. Sanger. Combined, these two have written over 5,000 articles for The New York Times.

              It is quite clear that this article was written for the modern audience. The issue of cyber-security is a profound and rapidly-changing one. The ways in which we, as a society, handle the developing threats are critical to keeping the information of the world safe. The New York Times, like all media, benefits from attention and thus would be hasty to write an article that appeals to people’s fears. The article states that Obama chose to have the event around Stanford University because it is largely acclaimed to be the birthplace of the internet.

              The most prevalent rhetoric is Obama’s metaphor of the internet being like the wild west. This metaphor is extended by the idea of major corporations being asked to take the role of Sheriff. The article’s commentary on the events display sarcasm towards the end of the report. While quoting many of the figures who spoke at the event on how important trust between the corporations and intelligence agencies is to maintaining a safe cyberspace, the article mentions how “intelligence agencies were surreptitiously siphoning off customer data from companies like Google and Yahoo as it flowed internally between their data centers.” Tis is made particularly effective by its juxtaposition to a quote from the Vice-President of security at Google, who said, “The tricky thing with information-sharing is that it is about trust, information-sharing becomes pretty hard to do once trust is lost.” The purpose of this sarcasm was to show that there is still a large amount of work to do in order to achieve the goal of safety, and the authors prove it with the goals themselves.

TOW #4: "Freakonomics" by Steven B. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubned (Part One)

              Why are schoolteachers like sumo wrestlers? What makes the KKK similar to a group of real-estate agents? Why do drug dealers live with their moms if they make so much money? These are the main topics of conversation discussed in the first half of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubned’s Freakonomics. The authors, both being economists, attempt to explain seemingly inexplicable phenomena through the lens of economics. All the issues explored are used to answer a question, “How do humans respond to incentives?”

              Although the questions mentioned above are the main focuses of the first three chapters, the authors’ analysis involves the discussion of many other issues. In fact, the entire book is simply a collection of anecdotes used to answer the topic question of each chapter. One that was particularly interesting was the story of Paul Feldman. After showing how even some of the most acclaimed professions such as school teachers and sumo wrestlers can, and do, cheat, Levitt and Dubned answer a pressing question, “Are all humans innately corrupt?” The answer to this question lies in the story of Paul Feldman, a bagel salesman. Essentially, Feldman would drive to an office building early in the day, drop off a basket of bagels and a money jar, and come back to pick them up in the evening. This would seem to be a horrible plan as most customers would just take a bagel without paying, but astonishingly, Feldman’s income averaged roughly 87% of his bagel sales.

              This particular anecdote epitomizes the authors’ purpose. As seemingly impossible outcomes are presented, the reader begins to change the way they think. Not only does the reader think about how human’s act, but how we, both individuals and society as a whole, evaluate ourselves. This book shows how complex an issue can be even when there appears to be a certain right and wrong. In response to the bagel story, the authors explain “If morality represents the way we would like the world to work, and economics represents how it actually does work, then the story of Feldman’s bagel business lies at the very intersection of morality and economics.” As humans, we are wired to think about situations morally, but Freakonomics shows that the human way of thinking is fundamentally flawed.