12 Events That Will Change Everything

Cite: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=interactive-12-events 12 Events That Will Change Everything, Made Interactive by American Science Magazine
Paraphrase: I read this article recently and I found it so incredibly interesting I had to write a blog entry about it. The article basically talks about 12 different things that could happen that would change the world in a very significant way. The events include Cloning, Nuclear Warfare, Room Temperature Super Conductors, Alien Contact, Worldwide Pandemic, and Nuclear Fusion.
Analyze: As I read this article it just really inspired me. This was the reason why I originally wanted to be a scientist! I wanted to change the world (hopefully in a good way). Seeing these possible inventions makes me want to be the person that discovers similar. Discover something that will help the world and benefit future generations. Although, I personally believe I would be a better economist than a scientist, being a scientist just seems like such a more noble career because I will hopefully add to the world base of knowledge. It was perfect timing too that I read this article. It has been a really hard year and you start to question why the heck you are a chemical engineer rather than a potentially easier major but reading this article revitalized my spirit for being a chemical engineer. I think it would be so awesome if I actually got to be part of the team that discovered how to successfully clone a human or how to make room temperature super conductors. So many of the world problems could be solved by just one invention. For example room temperature super conductors would allow for renewable energy sources to be financially viable and we wouldn't have to rely on oil very much. Anyways it was an incredible article and really re-inspired me to be a scientist.

Podcast Assignment

Cite: Podcast Assignment for Writing 2
Paraphrase: In Chris Dean's Writing 2 class our final project is to record a podcast and incorporate some academic topic. The podcast must include at least two sources. We also have to write a script for our presentation in addition to writing a reflection that talks about our experience making the podcast and what it taught us.
Analyze: So as I write this I'm midway through my podcast. I have roughly record about half of the podcast. I decided I wanted the topic of the podcast to be a summer mix tape. I will talk in between songs about summer. Some of the topics I will talk about include the feelings of summer, the marketability of summer, medical disorders that have to do with seasons, and my favorite things about summer. I already decided on the three songs I wanted to put in the mix tape. Oh and all three of the songs are indie-rock songs, my favorite genre. The podcast assignment is pretty challenging. Its quite hard to write a script because not only do you have to make every sentence significant but you also have to make the sentences sound natural. I found the best way to write my script was just write a quick bit about what I wanted to write about then just go back and refine it over and over till it sounds significant yet natural. The recording is also quite the experience. I have never recorded my voice before so that took me a while to get used to. Once I got used to that and started recording, I realized how critical it is to incorporate an interesting style to the podcast. I decided I was talk slowly and sort of hypothetically in order to satirize hippies (a common listener of indie music). With the exception of the occasional mistake in speech, the recording started get going pretty fast. I now knew what I was doing and it became a lot easier. So far I really enjoy this project because it is a whole different type of media that I'm not used to plus it really allows for creativity. Having a lot of freedom to do what I want is very enjoyable. I'm excited to hear what the final product will sound like.

Chemical Engineering Term Paper

Cite: My Term Paper for Chemical Engineering
Paraphrase: I had to write a term paper for Chemical Engineering 10. The requirements were that it had to be three pages double spaced with four sources. It was supposed to be on a topic related to chemical engineering that has mass and energy balances. I chose to write my paper on polar meltdown.
Analyze: So this was my first paper I have had to write for college outside of my writing classes. It was a pretty intimidating paper at first because I have only heard the word term paper used for grueling academic serious papers, plus the teacher is very difficult and intimidating. Although once we got this assignment I immediately thought of the second paper we wrote in my writing 2 class, the research paper. I knew that if I was going to make this paper good I needed to find some really good sources to use through out. After much debate on what topic I wanted to write on, I decided to write on how the polar ice caps melting will effect society. I found a few great articles that had some really shocking facts. It took me a while to get started but once I did, I think I wrote really well. I use many different facts I found from my sources and I luckily knew how to properly cite them in addition how to comment on them. It took me quite a while to write the paper but once I finally finished the term paper I was very proud of what I had wrote. I think I successfully incorporated the tools I had learned from writing my research paper in Writing 2 and the final result was very professionally written. I'm still waiting to hear back on the grade on the paper but I am pretty certain I got a good grade.

Week Three: Brother Ray

Cite: "The Last Days of Brother Ray"
Paraphrase: The Last Days of Brother Ray was an article on Ray Charles life including his dark side. Ray Charles was a famous blind pianist credited for starting soul music for the most part.
Analyze: When i think about about Ray Charles, I always just marvel at how incredible it is that he learned to play music so well considering he was blind. He is so much better at the piano then the average person with in my opinion less tools to learn with. It does make sense though that he would be so drawn to it. If I was blind and enjoyed playing music, I would play often because that is probably the second main sense (behind site) and so rather than how the most of us watch t.v. he would listen/play music. And if i had a disability like that i would probably strive to be incredible. There are so many things that are limited to his disability so it would make sense that he would be a perfectionist when it comes to music. It makes sense why its such a good "kid's story." Well the nice happy rainbow version at least. Blind man practices and overcomes disability to become one of the best pianists ever. To a kid that is probably just another story that you can do what ever you want if you put your mind to it. Its sort of funny to think about all the half truths that we were told as a kid like how George Washington founded this country on equality yet he owned slaves. Although if I could go back and had the choice whether to be told the mushie half truths or the full story I would prefer the half truths because they do inspire you and i think morally set you down the right path as a child. I mean if you were raised being told about all these hypocrasies, you would probably grow up to be a pretty cynical child with a lot of trust issues.

10/21/2011 Entry on Hit Songs

Cite: The Science of Hit Songs by Bjorn Carey
Paraphrase: The article was about how our music choices are so influenced by others and its popularity in the world.
Analyze: The article is definitely right on some things. Listening to music can be similar to meeting people in that fact that you can't meet everyone. Therefore we categorize people and judge them based on things already experienced in life. If a person looks similar to you best friend then you are much more likely to talk to him than someone who you have had bad experiences with, due to the fact that there is a higher probability of having the connection with the guy you have positive experiences with. In an ideal world we could meet everyone and judgement would not be necessary but we have limited time and its important to try to spend time with the good people rather trying to give everyone a fair chance and wasting time with people you don't like. Now i know that is a pretty abstract comparison but its the same with music. In an ideal world opinions wouldn't effect my choice and i would listen to the 10 million songs on itunes and pick my favorites, but unfortunately I don't have that much time and so I have to give priority to the ones that are rated highly or the ones my friends recommend. So as sad as I am to say it, it really doesn't come down to what music is strictly the best music... but its more the music that is popular will just continue to get more popular regardless of whether its actually the best music or not.

Week Four: Survey and their correlations

So in class we are starting to move on to a research paper. the research paper has to do with making a hypothesis and testing it with a survey and disscussing the conclusions. In class we read about a similar idea of a person disscussing his results for his survey on music. he made many conclusions that many people did not agree with. it seemed they were based off of stereotypes such as all people that listen to country are republican or that people that like dance and electro are obama supporters. My first reaction was laughter. Stereotypes can be funny and the fact that he included it in his paper was quite comical. Next I felt that it was sortof valid for the most part. In order to save time instead of getting to know every specific person, you can stereotype and if your good at it, most of the time your right. Judgements are just a way to speed up the process of catorgizing and getting to know a person. For the most part they are helpful in my life. i can tell whether or not a stranger is likely to be my next close friend are not with a few quick judgements rather than getting to know his life story. its impossible to get to know every single person and i can easilly sort through so many more people if i stereotype them. now you are probably thinking, "you will be wrong some times and miss out on cool people" i agree and cominsate in 2 ways. by judging i get to meet more people so i can find more cool people that im compatible with even if i miss out on a good one here and there. Also i dont let my judgements affect how i treat a person. I act the same towards all people as much as i can. I dont like the idea of judging and sorting people... it just seems so cold but its sortof required to in society.

Week Two: History of Classic Rockers

Cite:History of Classic Rockers
Paraphrase: The article was about the beginning of Rock and Roll, and the people who started it. It gave mostly biographies on famous rockers like Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry.
Analyze: The article showed how much race effected popularity. I never knew that Rock and Roll was started by mostly african american artists. Although its disappointing, it makes sense that they wouldn't get the popularity or credit they deserved. Popular music now a days seems like its so much about image and advertising. It seems like if a song is played on the radio a lot of people are expecting to like it regardless of the actual quality, where as if a song is less known then it can't possibly be as good as the radio one. I'm referring more to the general public that doesnt seem to actually listen to too much music. I'm sure this was even more the case back in the 1950's. People had less access to music, so therefore advertising was an even bigger roll. The image was probably the most important thing. And the difference in popularity between Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley seems to prove it. I'm not too familiar with the talent of the artists but from what I read it seems that Chuck Berry was probably the more talented artist, but he didn't have the image and "swagger" that Elvis Presley did. I think its sort of ironic that music is to me basically all a auditory experience, yet whats popular may not sound the