Dr. Novello

Dr. Antonia Novello was the 1^st woman and 1^st Hispanic surgeon General of the United States appointed by President George H.W. Bush.  While in office Dr. Novello’s main focus was to prevent children and young teens from smoking, drinking, drug abuse, and AIDS.  Once sworn into office, one of the first topics she wanted to bring to issue was teens and smoking, and how “five million of today’s children will die of smoking related illnesses in their later years”.  A lot of the smoking propaganda used to aim towards younger adults and Dr. Novello wants to inform kids at a young age about cigarettes.  One of the results Dr. Novello noticed was that in correlation to the more propaganda about cigarettes towards teens, the more teen smokers there are.  I think is a good idea to inform young kids about cigarettes since a lot of smokers start since they are uneducated about the side effects and merely focus on how it makes them look. 

Positive Correlation

The topic that I wanted to talk about was positive correlation.  Positive correlation is a relationship between two variables that move together either positively or negatively.  An example of positive correlation could be the more time I spend at the gym, the more healthier I will be when I become older.  Another example of positive correlation could be the more time I spend studying my homework, the better grades I will get in school.  Negative correlation is almost the same thing as positive correlation, except the results end up being negative instead of positive.  For example, in the winter time the number of heaters running is in correlation with how cold the temperature is, whereas if the temperature increased, the number of homes running their heater will decrease.

Inductive Argument

An inductive argument is one in which the premises support the conclusion of the story, thus believing that the conclusion is not likely to be false.  The other day I had an inductive argument with myself right before I was about to be late for work.  I woke up hungover one morning and did not want to go to work.  But if I were to call in sick one more time at my work, I would most likely get fired.  Me being fired results in my income to be cut off therefore I can’t party anymore.  If I were to call in sick to work (premise),  it will result in me not having anymore income (premise), therefore I wont be able to party anymore (conclusion).  At this point my inductive argumentative skills convinced me to ignore the pain of waking up with a hangover, and to go to work so that I can party another day.

Silver Blaze

            In the story Silver Blaze, Sherlock Holmes states, “"when it comes to the art of reasoning, many people rely on opinion and unsupported assumptions" meaning that people often rely on their own uneducated assumptions which leads them to believe the wrong idea. Holmes uses this technique to find out who his criminals are by using deductive reasoning to eliminate all other suspects so he can find the actual criminal.  A lot of people often lead themselves to believing an idea based off of their own opinions and beliefs, and I can say I am one of those people sometimes.  When I was getting ready to pick what college I was going to, it was either between U of Arizona or Oregon State.  When I came back from my scouting trips, my dad told me I was going to SJSU or else he wasn’t paying for my college.  I was depressed for weeks and it was only time that taught me SJSU wasn’t as bad as I thought.  I’m getting my education done in SJSU’s prestigious Business program and I have met friends that I will hopefully know for the rest of my life.

The Death Penalty

The Death Penatly

           

There are many opinions about the death penalty, all which are influenced by religion, human morals, or just personal belief.  According to the Death Penalty Information Center, opinions that usually derive from religious background mainly are against the death penalty including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam all of which have individual statements regarding the death penalty.  I believe that the death penalty should be abolished, but some crimes that involve inhumane wrong-doing’s may over turn my opinion on that particular crime.  In a typical crime for a death sentence, I feel that it is enough torture to make someone sit in a jail cell for the rest of there lives which gives them plenty of time to think about how they could be a free person if it wasn’t for one stupid decision.  In crimes that involve outrageous acts including mass murder, terrorism, and child murder are crimes that depending on the circumstances may change my mind.  To clarify I would only change my mind about reinstating the death penalty under these special circumstances, and let the rest play itself out.

Accepting Communication at face value

Accepting Communication at Face Value – To accept communication at face value is when one believes that information given by someone is valid due to having little time to complete an assignment or task.  Almost every time I am in a small group, I always find someone who tends to believe information at face value.  I believe that sometimes this happens because some people are too scared to say that they believe how valid their information is compared to how much the other person believes their information.   All communication messages must be questioned and analyzed in order for the group’s information to stay consistently valid. Effective group communicators should all be aware that the knowledge learned within the group is accurate due to everyone discussing and evaluating the information.