What Does Literature.....

For my literature review I will be researching the unknown of space. What possible life could be out there? This could be good and/or bad. For example if we find a planet that is livable for us it could help us in the in the future if Earth gets overpopulated. But also, there could be something that is a threat to Earth. But it could be good in some sense for us to know and get prepared for it. So my statement is what does literature say about the unknown of space.

Editorial Bias

Throughout the article “Does Everything Happen For A Reason,” Konika Banerjee a graduate student and Paul Bloom a professor, both of psychology at Yale, explain what people think about if things do really happen for a specific reason, which also represents the bias of confirmation of what the people think throughout the situations the article states. One example they state is about the Boston Marathon Bombing. James Costello was cheering on a friend during the marathon when the bombs exploded. He was severely injured and was in surgery and rehabilitation for months. But during the months he formed a relationship with one of the nurses and they soon became engaged. James said on Facebook, “’I now realize why I was involved in the tragedy. It was to meet my best friend, and the love of my life.”’ This is an example of confirmation bias because it shows that in James’ point of view the Boston Marathon Bombing happened for a reason because he would have never met the love of his life.

Another form of confirmation bias that was stated in the article was when they asked many people on how would you reflect or describe how that special moment happened in your life. For example, births of children, finding your love, the death of loved ones, illnesses, graduations, etc. A majority of the religious people said these things do happen for a reason. Also, that they are purposefully designed (by God). Surprising many atheists did so as well; also many atheists said they believe in fate. Fate is defined as the view that life events happen for a reason and that there is an underlying order to life that determines how events turn out.

They also described confirmation bias in kids. How young children show bias to believe that life events happen for a reason, or in other words to ‘“send a sign”’ or ‘“to teach a lesson.”’ “This belief in children exists regardless of how much exposure the children have had to religion at home, and even if they’ve had none at all.”

In human nature we tend to see meaning in life events: “our powerful drive to reason in psychological terms, to make sense of events and situations by appealing to goals, desires and intentions.” When we think about the actions of other people, this drive serves us well because it helps us figure out why people behave as they do. But it can also lead us into error when we overextend it which makes it seem like an illusion that the world itself is full of purpose and design. It makes us move toward the view that the world is a fundamentally fair place, where goodness is rewarded and badness punished.  

Article- http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/opinion/sunday/does-everything-happen-for-a-reason.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A14%22%7D

Interview of Max Albert

During class I took the time to interview Max Albert. During that time I noticed many qualities about him. He told me his hobbies, likes & dislikes, etc. Throughout this interview I learned a lot about him and what kind of person he is.
A question I asked Max was "What adjective(s) describe you? Explain." He responded with a single word, "Jewish". With no explanation. Just by this answer I can already assume that he is religious and he is proud of his religion. Other characteristics and personality traits I learned about him was that the text slang "kk" absolutely gets on his nerves and gets him very annoyed.  Another question I had for Max was, "What is the most creative, complicated thing on your bucket list?"  His answer to my question was, being a train conductor. Not so much the driving of trains and the experience of it, it's just because of the clothing he would wear. When I asked, "Do you have a big family," and "are you close to them?" he responded with,"Yes, I have a very big family". Also, he said he is overall pretty close to them. One of my final questions I asked him was,"Have you broken any bones and how?" He responded with how his knee got shattered because both his and another person's knee collided with each other but only his shattered, sadly. Also, a main dream of his is to be rich and very successful. Throughout this I learned that Max is very unique in many different ways.

Bucket List Item

The Bucket List item that I chose to do was to eat a food that I have never tried before and which I think is disgusting or I think looks or smells nasty. So I chose to eat salmon because my mom said a lot of people don't like salmon and also I'm not a big sea food kind of guy. So I ate it, it was okay like at first but the after taste was just really salty. I probably won't eat it again.

Incentives & Aesthetics

a) Incentives make people do their jobs at a quicker pace but also in a better way. The reason why is because most people only do these things if they are benefited in someway. My opinion is that money is the best incentive. Because no matter who you are money will always be helpful in life. Another incentive for people is food.  There are many people in America that will work for food.

b)  An aesthetic of mine was when I found out that a friend of mine told his girlfriend who told me that he looks up to me. And after that I feel that I have really made a difference in his life because I have been there for him through tough times which are still going on right now.

Bucket List

SHORT TERM -

1.     Create a wicked popular Youtube video - Just to be that person to upload that video that everyone is talking about...but in a good way.

2.     Getting through High-school - My first weeks of high-school have been hard to get used to so I hope that as time goes by I'll get more and more used to it.

3.     Meet Melissa McCarthy - She is the funniest women alive. Everything she does makes me laugh!

4.     To be fluent in Portuguese - The older generation in my family, for the most part, all speak Portuguese fluently.  The younger generation does not speak Portuguese at all; some understand it.  I would like to learn to speak it so when my grandparents & parents are gone I will be able to teach my children.

5.     Go to a concert - I have never been to a concert, unless the middle school's band concert counts, I really want to go to one SOOO badly!

6.  Trying a food that I never tried before - I'm not a big fan of  trying new food. So I will try to eat something new. And I'm talking about food that I would never see myself eating or I always thought was disgusting by its looks not by its tastes.  For example, beans they look awful to me. 

1. 
   

 

LONG TERM -

1.     Own my own Giraffe - I would absolutely love to just have my own giraffe in my backyard and like every morning it would just stick its head through my window and wake me up.

2.     Scuba Diving - Scuba diving would be so mind blowing. Seeing this

           whole different world underwater. 

                                        

3.     Go to Portugal - Based on my family's Portuguese heritage I want to visit Portugal.

4.     Be in a movie - It would be so awesome to be in a movie. Just the whole atmosphere of it would be cool because I want to do something in filming or editing or acting or directing when I grow up.

5.     Go on a cruise – My grandparents have been on a few cruises and tell me how wonderful they are.  I am hoping to experience one in my life time.

"The Case Against High-School Sports"

     If sports weren't involved in school it would have a negative effect on students. And I’m not just saying that “oh it will keep kids off the streets,” even though that is an example but there are many more cases that show that sports do benefit in a student’s life at school. In the article,"The Case Against High-School Sports" Ripley says that,"...93 percent of South Korean students graduate high-school,compared with 77 percent of American students--only about 2 percent of whom receive athletic scholarships to college." But she never stated that Massachusetts produces math scores comparable to South Korea and Finland in a 2011 report from Harvard University. Further more Mississippi scores are closer to Trinidad and Tobago. Even though Massachusetts' schools provide sport programs, Finland does not and Mississippi loves football while in interscholastic sports are nowhere near as prominent.
     Also, in the article Ripley writes a stereotype of coaches of how they aren't useful in a student's life. She states that,"American principals, unlike the vast majority of principals around the world, make many hiring decisions with their sports teams in mind--a calculus that does not always end well for students." Well as with sporting events, athletic coaches gain additional opportunities for communicating and serving as mentors that potentially help students succeed and also make up for the cost of coaching commitments.
    Last but not least sports lead people away from the road of obesity. If sports were taken away from schools in America the obesity rates would skyrocket. The chart to the right shows how much of overweight and obese adults with a BMI greater than 25 has changed from 1980 to 2008. Just by looking at this chart you can tell that as these years go on the BMI will keep increasing especially in America. So taking away sports will not help this what so ever, it will just cause more of a problem. If sports weren't involved in school it would have a negative outcome on the students' lives.

Ripley, Amanda. "The Case Against High-School Sports." Oct. 2013: 72-78. Print.

Ethos, Pathos & Logos

In the Article, "You Are What You Listen To" there was many examples of ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos is the authority/integrity of the speaker and/or the writer. Pathos is the emotions of the reader and logos is the logic, which includes numbers and etc. Examples of ethos were, "…by Todd B. Kashdan,Ph.D." and, " Dr. Todd B. Kashdan is a public speaker, psychologist, and professor of psychology and senior scientist at the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University." Examples of pathos were," Music is important to people—for most of us, there is no activity that occupies a greater proportion of waking hours. And as a tool to alter our mood, almost nothing (legal) works as fast.", also "What we know is that some people have a firm grasp on how music can influence their mood and strategically wield music like a weapon to feel angry, sad, or calm in an upcoming situation. For instance, listening to Intense, violent music works great before lifting weights or taking part in a confrontation (this song just doesn't cut it).", "If you are a fan of Sophisticated or Intense music, you tend to be very high on Openness to Experience—curious, creative, welcoming of new perspectives—and politically liberal", " If you are into Unpretentious music, you might be extremely Agreeable and kind (among other interpersonal virtues) and conscientious (i.e., self-disciplined), and show a slight uptick in Extraversion and politically conservative views, but may also be a bit close-minded—incurious, less creative, disinterest in exploring feelings, values, and dreams). ", "If you are into Contemporary music, you show a slight uptick in Extraversion and Agreeableness, politically liberal views, and blirtatiousness, but may tend to be inconspicuous in social situations. If you are into Mellow music, you are probably high on Openness to Experience." Examples of logos were, "The average American listens to music more than 5 hours per day. There are hundreds of magazines, thousands of blogs, pages in nearly every daily newspaper, and dozens of television shows devoted to music.", and "...people rate listening to music as more important than movies (78 points on a 100-point scale, versus 60), books and magazines (55), TV (50), clothes (62) and food preferences (65). In a dream world, psychologists would spend more time studying what people cared about."


Article link: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/curious/201405/you-are-what-you-listen

My Pet Peeves

1) Did you just fart? - When you are in a public place and it's quiet at the moment. Then your elbow or what ever body part slides or rubs against the table, desk, or something and it makes a fart noise. But you definitely know you didn't fart but, no one around you knows that. So when they hear that they admittedly assume you just passed gas. So then it gets to the point when you see people start to glance at you oddly.

2) I know everything!! - We all know that person who thinks they're smarter then you or thinks they are always right. But really a lot of what they say isn't true or the best answer but, even though it gets on your nerves you just have to go with it because one thing you say to them about how that is wrong they will explode on you with information they thing is true. So it's a pain listening to him/her say all of this stuff to you that isn't right and you basically just have to sit and listen to them.

3) My life sucks - I hate when someone complains and complains to everyone about how awful their lives are but really they are spoiled little brats and the worst thing that happened to them is that they didn't get the new iPhone. Because I know what having a bad life is because a good friend of mine isn't having just a swell life so far and he doesn't go around complaining how awful his life is.

4) When I'm late but it wasn't my fault - When I have to be somewhere at a certain time but of course I will be late because my family just has to be late for everything in the world. If you ask them what on time means they wouldn't know.

5) What music do you like? - I absolutely hate when someone asks me what music I listen to because if it's not one that they like it's not good.

6) I said NO!!!! - When someone asks you if you want to go somewhere or do something and either you can't or you just plain don't want to do it, so you say "no" to them. But "no" just isn't in there vocabulary so they will keep bugging you and bugging you until you say "yes!"

7) Would you cover your mouth... - When someone sneezes or coughs without covering their mouth I think it is just extremely nasty, like seriously no one wants to see that...or feel that. Also, the faces that they make right when they are about to sneeze or cough, more so coughing, can be really disturbing.

8) Please Flush - When you walk in a public bathroom and you really have to take a poop or pee and you walk in the stall and there is just a giant, load of crap clogged in the toilet. And you definitely don't want to flush it because the handle that flushes the toilet is nasty because who ever took that giant dump touched the handle with their filthy hands trying to flush down that nasty mess. So all you do is try to get another stall which would stink if there is a crowd in the bathroom because they think it was you.

9) Seriously, could-ya hold it from the side! - When a waiter/waitress sticks there fingers in your beverage when they are giving it to you, like honestly that is disgusting. Do you know where those hands have been?