Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is a book with the self-proclaimed purpose of engaging their readers to “retrain their brains.” They say that to think like a Freak is to think more productively, more creatively, and more rationally. The authors of this book were effective in accomplishing their purpose by engaging readers with various examples of interest and out-of-the-box thinking methods.…
Guest, Robert. "Examining America 's Role in Global Affairs." VOA. Voice of America, 31 Oct. 2009. Web. 14 Nov. 2012.…
Martha Nussbaum in her essay, “Can Patriotism Be Compassionate?” (2001), asserts that America has become a cold and selfish nation that has no interest in the well being of others around the world. Nussbaum supports this assertion with examples of the war in Iraq and other crises’ around the world. Her purpose is to change the way Americans think about, not only other nations and countries, but also the people of other Nations in general. She establishes a type of aggression towards her audience, who are most likely working middle and upper class Americans. Nussbaum’s methods of persuasion are impressive and convincing but her argument and solution have no real benefit behind it.…
“Once again, warfare would define human life” (qtd. in Parenti 15). The biggest crisis in human life is when everyone is fighting desperately over food, water, and energy sources. Global warming is now not only affecting the animals, nature, climate. Eventually the issue has come approach to the humans, because of the global warning. In the book, “Topics of Chaos” [x] [x] [x] by Christian Parenti is about making predictions to the dangerous human life in the future and different plans that the governments and militaries will use to prevent the crisis. Dr. Thomas Fingar claims the lack of food aid will be causing violence around the world and climate changes will motivate immigrants to move. Fingar states, “Food insecurity, for reasons both…
I often say that although we, African Americans, have come a long way in America’s society, it sometimes feels like our race has not progressed but set ourselves back. Percy Julian’s story is one of many stories that depicted the struggle that blacks had to go through in his time to truly succeed in a world that viewed him as inferior. Before viewing the documentary, Forgotten Genius, I had never heard of Percy Lavon Julian. However, I feel grateful to have witnessed his inspiring story. He has impacted my life by being a part in paving the way for black excellence, his contributions to science, and by serving as an example of how to persevere.…
A young disabled boy moves back into his old neighborhood. He is barely three feet tall and going into eighth grade. He makes a good friend and serial eminem. He is physically weak but his mind can trump anyones strength. Know for his brain,sarcasm he is a loved character. Though he has friends,a family, and life he enjoys he still asks to be normal.…
Michael T. Snarr & D. Neil Snarr eds. Introducing Global Issues 5th edition, (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012).…
In the first chapter, the author talks about how most people’s attention is on eye-catching images, instead of what is going on in the world. People care more about murders, airplane crashes, etc. instead of the exploding populations or the growth in the amount of nuclear weapons that exist. Because of this, our environment starts to deteriorate. The environment will continue to deteriorate, and such events will be out of control until the human race realizes just how selectively the environment persuades the human mind, and how the biological and cultural history determines our comprehension. The book is about fundamental connections to our past and how the human race can “retrain” for a new world of the future. The book’s intent is to help people from all walks of life, educators, decision makers, physicians, businessmen, etc., change the way they make decisions. People might begin to change and secure the human future if they understood the fundamental roots of the many problems we face. At no point in history, has the human race had the power to destroy its civilization and ruin a lot of the planet’s life-support systems in a matter of hours. Over the past three decades scientific evidence developed many forms of the nature of both the human mind and predicament, and has now pointed to the way to the changes needed. The evidence of this has been from many different forms of studies, including neuroscience, evolutionary biology, climatology, geochemistry, and cognitive science.…
If you were asked to recall at least one embarrassing memory from your teenage years, you’d undoubtedly have an array of memories to select from. From my own personal bank of recollections, I could list: babbling like fool in front of a crush, tripping in front of a group of people, or being publicly reprimanded by a teacher, just to name a few. Certainly, these recollections have been experienced by many other youths as well. There are shared lessons and feelings we go through in our adolescence that are universal. During adolescence, not only do we share common stories of humiliation, we also share being faced with moments testing our principles. One example of these is the encounter with temptation to go against “the man”. But, who is “the man”? At that age, “the man” most likely refers to adult authority figures. Go against these adult authority figures and you would earn the title of a teen rebel. Such a title brings forth…
Muller, Gilbert H. "America and the World: How Do Others Perceive Us?" The New World Reader: Thinking and Writing about the Global Community. Fouth ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2014. 66-69. Print.…
This video is discussing a technique that can be used to help students with the 5th pillar of reading, comprehension. The teacher in this video is modeling how to do a think aloud to her students. The teacher explains how she stops at every heading to predict what will happen in the next section and reflect on what happened in the section they that was just completed. She also explained how helpful illustrations in text are to being able to figure out what is happening in a text. The teacher expresses how important it is to model technique first, so that all students have an example of what they are expected to do when they are using the technique independently. The think aloud strategy being used in this video is a great way for students to be able to improve their comprehension.…
>>> Wilson discusses the “Juggernaut Theory of Human Nature” “which holds that people are programmed by their genetic heritage to be so selfish that a sense of global responsibility will come too late”pg. 260. Wilson discusses that people are genetically prone to be so self-entered that they will not develop an awareness of our global dilemma until it is too late.…
Today with modern means of communication and transportation the world is shrinking and we are becoming ‘global citizens’ imbibing a global vision. But this privileged civilization is unaware of the ignorant, deprived and exploited segment of the society that still strives only with a single focused vision- survival.…
The morning commute of many Americans includes stopping at the local convenience store or gas station to fill up their vehicle’s tank and grab a portable breakfast. In this seemingly normal and routine act these Americans are performing two daily functions that much of the world cannot, either because of shortages, government regulations, or a lack of assets by which to do so. The starving and malnourished children that are pictured in television commercials in an effort to persuade individuals to donate money towards helping the world’s hungry can be seen on network television daily but leaves one to ask, “How can the money I donate be used to help them if the food is not available to be purchased?” Moving on to the next crisis: the gasoline debacle. Gasoline prices seem to rise every day as we hear the platform of every politician running for office trying to explain how we can lower oil prices, reduce dependency on foreign oil, and eliminate greenhouse gases. If any one of these topics could be accomplished, the politician would get certainly get elected and rise to fame. Eliminating greenhouse gases may even slow climate changes that resulted in droughts and floods, which have prevented us from growing food in the past (Sachs, 2008). Who wouldn’t want that?…
Global warming and climate change has been the most pandemic kind of problem in today’s generation as technology rises. No one or anybody could tell how these pandemic can be stopped. But we humans, can make a difference and control these pandemic for the future generations. We have the power to control these if we only have enough knowledge about these pandemic. Since most of us have not been informed with the rapid increase of water and temperature and as the climate is not behaving accordingly to its normal form, most of us are seemingly doing the things to be done in an easy way as we live everyday. We take everything for granted. We do not mind the pandemic that may kill us anytime. We even ignore the cries of other people who want that all of us should unite and make a difference for this world. Many specialists are really bothered of the rapid increase of the behavior of the pandemic. We do need to be really informed by these things, we should be responsible to be open minded and take action to it. Each one of us owns this world; we must protect it and care for it. Let us just not take everything for granted and leave these problems to the higher ones, let us take a step and do a difference even though in our own simple way. Simple things can surely make a difference for our Mother Earth.…