Thursday, July 18, 2013
All the News that Fits
Where are you now? Take a look at the world around you and share what catches your eye. Select a relatively local news story and share a link to it as the beginning of your post for this week. Think and write a bit about the perspectives and assumptions that the article contains and finish things off with a KQ related to perspective and ways of knowing in the article. Please post these by Sunday local dinner time.
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http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/07/19/woman-faces-charges-stealing-nearly-from-marathon-bombing-victim-fund/cfbmwfnjuuYdvRJeBZZDzK/story.html
ReplyDeleteThe article I found is about a woman who tried to steal $480,000 dollars from a fund created for those injured in the Boston Marathon by fraudulently claiming that she was one of the victims.
This woman was found to have supplied false documents proving that she was a victim when she was in fact not. After this event, investigations were made into all of the other people that had received money from One Fund. Therefore, it was One Fund's assumption that everyone who took money was a Boston Marathon victim by choosing not to investigate every potential victim when they made a claim for money.
One quote in particular made me raise my eyebrows:
"I think the outrageous thing is that for all of [the One Fund’s] due diligence and their care in trying to get dollars out to the people who needed them, we still have individuals with fraudulent intent who are attempting to take that money away."
Many times have charity funds been discovered to feed directly into the pockets of the wealthy. What do we have, aside from her word, that the One Fund is honest and diligent with who they give money too? The fact that this incident occurred (twice) proves that One Fund is not as diligent as it claimed it was. Therefore, two more assumptions are being made: that there is no corruption within the organization of funders and that One Fund is doing its utmost to ensure that the money goes to the right people.
This article does not consider the perspective of the woman who stole the money. Why did she steal it? Did she need it? Was it a matter of life or death? If she did in fact, need it, they why is it that Boston Marathon victims receive money when other people who suffer do not? The article itself is written quite objectively, divulging only facts and not expressing any personal opinion. However, the fact that it does not express any sympathy for the woman tells us that the person who wrote it is on the side of the law.
The knowledge question I have derived from this news story is:
To what extent does the exclusion or inclusion of certain facts denote subjectivity?
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/ethical-stem-cells-bring-down-syndrome-breakthrough/
ReplyDeleteThe content of this article was about a Down syndrome breakthrough made by researchers at the UMass Medical School in Worcester. Doctor Jeanne Lawrence discovered a process that silences the third copy of chromosome 21 which is present in patients with Down syndrome.
“Ethical” Stem Cells Bring Down Syndrome Breakthrough
The first point that stood out to me that was a bit skewed was that the title itself had a tone that suggested the author questioned the ethicality of the ethical stem cells.
Another point that added to my perception of the author’s attitude was that this particular article was published by “The American Conservative” whose office is based in Washington DC, and this magazine title immediately gave me an idea of the kind of attitude the article would have. I see a conservative view point as traditional and against significant change in institutions. This is significant to the content of the article because one way to obtain stem cells is from an embryo and this would mean terminating a pregnancy, and from a conservative perspective (the author’s) abortion is unethical. This is where I would have predicted the author’s problem with the stem cell research would be, but the author explained that the research used cells called iPS cells that are mature adult cells that can be changed to have embryotic stem cell properties.
Similarly though the author went on to discourage the abortion of fetuses that had been diagnosed with Down syndrome and to advocate for the idea that “people with Down syndrome, — ‘they seem to bring out the good in people”, and live as fully as people without Down syndrome.
Addressing the issue of abortion here is my KQ.
KQ- Which way or ways of knowing would be most significant when considering the morality or ethicality of having an abortion?
Main Article: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/07/20/news/portland/protesters-rally-against-tar-sands-at-sebago-lake-state-park/
ReplyDeleteBackground Information: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/07/06/news/state/explosions-erupt-from-derailed-train-carrying-petroleum-products-in-quebec/?ref=inline
I am in Maine with my family at Sebago Lake, and today my parents and I were taking about this oil protest that was going on on the other side of the lake from us. They did not really have much information on it so they were very judgemental about those protesting. So I decided that I would find out more information.
On July 6, 2013, a driverless freight train carrying tar sand crude oil from North Dakota to Eastern Canada ran off track nd exploded in the small town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec. This town is just outside of the border of Maine. This event caused the rising concern of the 63 year old pipeline that runs through Maine, and right by Sebago Lake. The protesters are concerned about the pipeline exploding near or in to the lake because tar sand crude oil creates significant damage to an aging pipeline causing damage to the pipeline walls. The residents around this area of Sebago Lake are worried about the effect of climate change on their lake. They believe that crude oils are a thing of the past and we should make way for wind and solar power and to stop testing the strength of this. The residents and protesters of Sebago Lake are making assumptions about the lack of development of these pipelines and new energy sources. They are assuming that there has been no consideration of developing new pipelines or energy souces. Two years ago TransCanada, the company that is transporting the tar sand crude oil, proposed the making of a Keystone XL pipeline. However there seems to be no progress in its creation but the process of creating this XL pipeline may take longer than originally believed by the makers and those effected. This is only the perpective of the people who do not have to fund the pipelines or the creation of new energy sources. If they were in the opposite position they would understand the potential struggle that goes into changing this system. Along with the list of priorities, of which this ssue may not be at the top of.
To what extent is someone’s perspective weighed by their emotion toward the subject, and how does that blind their view of the other side of the argument?
http://www.gazettenet.com/businessmoney/7619470-95/amherst-doughnut-shop-creates-its-own-cronut
ReplyDeleteThis article is about the new fab of pastry called the "cronut" a mix between a croissant and a donut. However this name was trademarked so they locally call it a "doughssant." They had to spend a lot of time experimenting with different recipes to figure out how to use croissant dough and fry it into a doughnut. This is something that is changing the food likes and dislikes. The world keeps on trying to make the next hit thing. The owner said that even though it is a fried product it is less greasy.
This brings up the world of business and how the people of this world are demanding new and better things. There was no issue with the making of the doughssant but the idea of the trademark of the "cronut" because different companies are developing new things and want to keep it theirs. However the idea of making new things are for them to spread out and become well known.
The perspectives of this article come from the business end of people. There was not any controversies in the article so the perspective just comes from the owner and the write of the article. Although there were not any "issues" it is always important to consider the bias of the where the story is coming from.
The ways of knowing are by fact and what the people think of this new invention. The owners of this small bakery assumed that the cronut now doughssant would become a fab in the small town of Amherst. It is actually quite a huge risk because they spent a lot of time and money creating their version of it, in the hope for the public to like it. Luckily, "its popularity came on the second day when they made three dozen doughssants that sold out in about two hours."
Knowledge Question: To what extent do assumptions and ways of knowing change the way society and business have an affect of us?
http://www.gazettenet.com/home/7649876-95/sister-of-man-found-dead-in-florence-field-recalls-good-guy
ReplyDeleteThe article I found in the local newspaper was about a man who was found dead in a field in Florence, a town not too far away. The article though, focuses not only on the death of the man and the findings of his remains, but also explores his sister's reaction to hearing about his death and his reputation. When told by the town of Florence that her brother had been categorized as "homeless", she was shocked and outraged. She angrily refuted the claim that her brother had been “some homeless bum who didn’t do anything.”
This article caught my eye because it contains many perspectives and assumptions. First, the assumption by the Northwestern District Attorney's office that this man was homeless. Cote says this was not the case. She argued that he simply liked to get away from the hustle and bustle and would disappear for weeks or months at a time, so they were not worried. He was not, however, she says, homeless. While the DA's office might have thought that this was a man with no means of living an no special skills, his sister says that he had an aptitude for fixing everything and was a talented landscaper.
This article contains both the perspective of the DA's office and that of his sister, who knew him well.
My KQ, after considering the ways this man's legacy was changed by the different entities who remember him is as follows:
How can our assumptions about a piece of knowledge, be they right or wrong, change the content of the knowledge itself for those who come into contact with it?
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/New-York-City-Mayoral-Candidates-Public-Housing-NYCHA-Lincoln-Houses-216349271.html
ReplyDeleteI've just arrived from NYC. NYC is home to me and has always captivated me. I always see homeless people and when I'm walking by them and I have nothing to give, I avoid eye-contact and walk with as much aplomb I can as if that would block them out. To me, this is the larger issue. This was what concerned me when I read this article. However, to my knowledge the lower class is typically more assertive than the monetarily poor. With that being said, I was not surprised that the democratic candidates for mayor of NYC participated in this publicity stunt. Most likely this was mainly a publicity stunt and my conviction is that as more democratic candidates confirmed their participation, the others couldn't afford not to. Of course this is simply a belief and the candidates could sincerely want to address the housing issue,
The candidates could have done this out of a desire to empathize or to get votes.
Many of the residents in the public housing apartments must have been comforted that so many of the candidates were making such a grand effort and were not leaving them behind like Rhea and Bloomberg. Others probably felt as though this was just a stepping stone to get to the mayor's seat. There will always be skeptics.
Rhea and Bloomberg must have been quite annoyed. As they try to lease the land where there is public housing to build market-rate apartment buildings to developers there are these candidates who are trying to replace them along with their proposals.
We, as outsiders, can only make assumptions or not have an opinion. Either the candidates are genuine or they aren't.
KQ: In what ways does the quantity of knowledge on issues correlate with the importance of them?
Tina writes: http://news.qq.com/a/20130721/002099.htm
ReplyDeleteAlthough this event did not happen in my city, it has been a very hot news story on the Internet. It mainly talks about a disabled man who detonated a self-made explode device in Terminal 3 at Beijing International Airport on July 20, 2013. His name is Ji Zhongxing, originally from Shandong in Northern China, used to work in Guangdong in Southern China. During his time in Guangdong, he worked as a motorbike driver who took passengers on his motorbike. Once he was caught by the police at night, and they had some conflicts with each other. Ji was injured, and he appealed to the local court because he believed that he was hit by the police. His appeal was rejected due to the lack of evidence. He tried again, but also failed. Later, he attempted to appeal to the higher authorities for help in Beijing, and finally got the compensation of 100 thousand RMB. He also wrote an agreement to stop this conflict on March 30, 2010. Yesterday he was sitting in his wheel chair and holding the explode device up in his hands. In the end, he exploded the device, but this event did not cause any other casualty beside him. His arm was injured.
This news story was written from the perspective of the public. From the perspective of people who were at the airport, Ji certainly did something wrong because he was trying to disturb public order in the airport. Without knowing the background of him, most people would assume that it is totally his fault to detonate the explode device to hurt other people. However, he did not choose a place in the airport where there are a lot of people; indeed, he exploded the device at a place where there were almost no people around him. He was trying to get people’s attention by shouting (but this news article did not say what he was shouting). In fact, I was confused by his action and aim. Is he just trying to get the attention and hurt himself? Or did he overestimate the power of his explode device? Maybe his past experience contributed to his action. In that case, the people who had similar tough working experience may look at this event from another perspective. They are more likely to understand his situation and hardships. From this news story, I extracted a knowledge question: To what extent is the good of collectivity a way to estimate individuals?