mmh013's blog

Math really isn’t my subject or my strong point. It’s not even really in my interest field normally, but I found this kind of interesting at times. It’s funny how new things are constantly being discovered in math and science and we never know everything. I guess that’s why it just doesn’t interest me. I never really thought about how math is in nature and other things than just the classroom, but it really is everywhere. The idea of fractal geometry is kind of interesting.

One thing I thought was interesting was the potential use for medicine that fractals could have.  Eventually, the use of this mathematical system could help detect cancer earlier and help to save lives. It can do this by finding blood vessels that don’t match the other ones and don’t follow the fractals. It’s amazing the things that fractals can help with and do for our world now. It’s kind of eye-opening how much math can do for us when you really think about it. This video helped me to see this.

The first reading talks about opinions and views on professional athletes and what they should or shouldn’t do. People were making a big deal out of one guys doing a photo shoot and another one missing a game for the birth of his own child. It also brought up the issue of women in sports and how controversial of an issue that is. Men say they won’t want women in the press box or doing anything with announcing because they think a woman’s voice over the intercom is annoying and they don’t want to hear it while they are trying to watch a sporting event.

I don’t see what the huge deal is with missing a game for a child being born. It’s his own son and a big deal is being made. Family comes first, before anything else. Majority of celebrities do some sort of photo shoot at some point in time, so what’s the difference with an athlete doing it? It’s still the same concept just a different person. Sports judge women so harsh. Not all voices are annoying but because one or two have been before it’s stereotyped that way. But what about men? I know I have heard some very annoying men’s voices coming over the speakers at sporting events. Just because it’s a man and sports though, it doesn’t matter.

The second reading, “The Televised Sports Manlihood Formula” , it talks about how many hours boys spend watching tv and negative effects it has on them. It doesn’t just talk about the shows being negative, but the commercials are almost worse than the actual event they are watching. The commercials are sexist and racial, using mostly white males and conveying the message that women are prizes. It also talks about how even if you get hurt you’re supposed to play and go against what you are told to do. It also talks about if you are mean and aggressive you are not good. In order to be ‘good’ and effective you must be over the top aggressive.

I’m in no way against boys watching sports on tv, I think it is good for them to watch some. Not everything comes down to what they see and hear on tv. That doesn’t make someone who they are. It’s the combination of the home life, what they are taught at school and by their parents, and what they watch on tv. However, I am completely opposed to the commercials and how they depict women. It’s not right in the first place for only white men to be used on commercials, there’s the occasional minority group shown but not that often. And women? It’s degrading having them in very little clothing and showing them as prizes across the screen. That’s not how women should be seen. Unfortunately, the things that are talked about in the second reading happen all too often and are true in today’s world.

In Cicero’s De Inventione Book 1 he discusses the different sides of eloquence and public speaking. The main question throughout the piece is: Is eloquence good for a speaker? Public speaking can be good or bad depending on the use of eloquence, and how the speaker presents the speech.  Cicero points out that eloquence used with wisdom can be good and helps to achieve many things, but eloquence used without wisdom is just asking for a problem to occur. It can be the greatest service one can give to our country if it is approached the right way.

Cicero talks about what makes an eloquent speaker and how to go about it. He discusses the good side of it and how to use it to the best of your ability for the good of society. The bad side is also discussed with how to use it the wrong way. A good side is that many cities have been established and wars ended due to eloquence. But on the bad side, people have been misinformed and battles started that never should have. It basically depends on how eloquence is used as to whether it is good or bad.

Response:

I thought this piece was kind of confusing at first, but Cicero makes so many good points. I don’t think it’s just about how the speaker uses eloquence, but it’s also left up to the audience. The point of a public speaker is to get a point across and influence you one way or the other. At the same time the audience chooses what they listen to and how they interpret it. Some people that are very good public speakers have the worst intentions and as an audience, we have to be able to tell the different and make a decision based on beliefs and morals.

Eloquence in public speaking tends to challenge ideas and beliefs. It makes people really think about what they want and how they want things done. It really can be good or bad depending on how it is used and interpreted. Cicero really made that point clear, I thought.

The article, Liking What You See, discusses the controversial issue of the importance of beauty in our society. This is discussed through the use of Calliagnosis and many different people’s views on the subject. Calli is a device that can be turned off when one turns eighteen, but until then it blocks a person’s view of ugly features and beautiful features in another person. This device is very futuristic and tries to convey the issue of beauty in society and how judgemental people are. It challenges ethical views and challenges beliefs because it does not allow people to see true beauty. Calli makes everyone look uniform and takes away the unique features that separate one person from another. Through out the article, groups for and against Calli exaggerate their sides in order to get their way with the device.

To me, Calli seems like a way to avoid the truth and make everyone the “same.” Part of life is being different and unique while still being accepted in society. The little imperfections that each and every person has makes them different in their own beautiful way. Life is not all about how people look and that seems like the basis of some people’s thoughts. If that is all people look at or think about then there are a lot more issues than the judgement of physical features. Calli distorts what a person can see on another person. It’s part of life to see the people the way they are and accept them for that. With Calli people get the wrong idea and don’t know the truth. Tamera’s view says that Calli makes everything fair, but even if we had Calli in society today, people would still find something else to judge others about. It’s the way people are.

This article was very interesting to me and made me think a lot. Beauty seems to be such a big issue in our world today. But why? It’s not just about how someone looks and that seems to be what people focus on. What matters is on the inside and you have to get to know a person before you can judge those features. In order to appreciate someone’s real beauty, you have to be able to see them, and see them in their everyday, normal state. With Calli, that normal state is hidden by trying to take away true beauty. Beauty does not make someone better than anyone else, it is just simply the way they look.