Week 12 ; Ch.10 #3

The section that I found most interesting in this chapter was "Common Fallacies in Advertisements". A fallacy is an error in reasoning due to misconception or presumption. This section talks about how ads usually depend on fallacies and psychological persuasion. A few example scare tactic of ads it talks about are ones that talk about losing weight, bad breath, body odor, or acne, etc. Advertisements like this make people realize the negative things about themselves that they may not have noticed before and will make them self-conscious. The ads promise a solution to the problems if you use the product. Another fallacy in ads is the fallacy of popular appeal, which states that "everyone" is using this product, including celebrities, so you should use it too. This type of advertising is usually the most effective with teenagers because they want to do what "everyone else" is doing to be "popular". Another type is snob appeal, which show people that are sexy, athletic, popular, or rich, using a certain product. A fourth type is the fallacy of appeal to inappropriate authority, which is when a celebrity promotes a product that's out of their field. For example, Britney Spears promoting Nike shoes. There are many different ways on how advertisements catch an audience's attention, so the best thing that you could do for yourself personally would be to not let it influence you into thinking negatively about yourself.

Week 12 ; Ch.10 #2

After reading Robert Liodice and Margo G. Wootan's articles, I enjoyed the fact that one person was for it, and the other was against it. Both articles talked about regulating food advertisements for children. Liodice was for the act of having advertisements because he believes that it's just the freedom of speech. On the other hand, Wootan was against having advertisements because she believes that this causes children to live unhealthy lives. She talks about how unhealthy food advertisements should be banned so that kids could live healthier lives. Wootan also goes into detail about what foods should be acceptable to be advertised and to eat. I personally think Wootan made the better argument because she gave examples of what should replace the acts now. I also think that advertisements do cause some obesity in this world because when people see a large billboard with a juicy burger on it, it usually makes them crave it afterwards. Without advertisements, businesses wouldn't be able to gain the business that they get today to be successful. Although advertisements don't make people become obese, it definitely influences them.

Week 12 ; Ch.10 #1

There are many different types of marketing strategies. Corporations use market strategies to attract customers and gain business. These types of market strategies include: consumer awareness, advertising in media, product placement, television advertising, and the SWOT model. SWOT stands for "strengths", "weaknesses", "opportunities", and "threats". I noticed SWOT was being used when I went to Pizza My Heart. The atmosphere is really comforting and unique because of the pictures and posters on the walls. Aside from the walls, there are also multiple flat screen tvs that are usually left on the sports channel. The price for their slices of pizza are pretty cheap compared to others, and they're large slices, so that makes people want to continue coming in. Also, Pizza My Heart is one of the few places that put your slice back into the oven to warm it up before serving it to you. Their soda machine is something that only a few places have, and it's different and cool because there are so many different  flavors and sodas to choose from. Something that they could work on would be if the staff were a bit friendlier.

Week 9 ; Ch. 4 #3

Something that interested me in this chapter was the probability errors. A probability error is when the probability or chance of an event is under or over estimated by a huge margin. An example given was the probability of two people in your class having the same birthday. People usually think the probably is pretty low, but in reality, in a normal class size of about 20 students the probability is around 50%. With a larger class, the probability will also increase. An insidious form of probability error is gambler's error. This is the belief that previous events affect the probability in a random event. An example of this would be if you were thinking about a certain song, and all of a sudden when you turn on the radio, that song comes on. When this event occurs, many people usually thinks it's a coincidence, but it's a freaky one. An event that happens to me a lot of the time that is similar to this is when I call my mom, and right when she answers her phone, she says it's creepy because she grabs her phone to text or call me, but I call her right before she gets the chance. I think these are both errors that occur daily in people's lives whether they realize it or not.

Week 9 ; Ch.4 #2

In the story of "Perspectives on Evaluating Evidence for the Existence of Unidentified Flying Objects",  there are three different opinions about UFOs. Edward Condon argues that the study of UFOs for the past 21 years has not come to any conclusion. He believes that since there has been no proof of UFOs, in schools, teachers shouldn't give credit to students that turn in work based on readings about them. J. Allen Hynek argues that the existence of UFOs need to be studied in a systematic scientific manner because the issue is dismissed too often. He goes on to coming up with ideas on how the existence can be proven by "comparing large groups of sightings of a particular category with a much larger population of the same category" and "Close Encounters of the Second Kind, in which the reported presence of physical evidence can yield quantitative physical data". Royston Paynter argues that there isn't solid 100% proof that aliens have set foot on Earth. He says that people can believe these alien visitations from cattle mutilations, crop circles, and alien abductions, but there isn't any proof of it. I personally believe that Paynter had the best argument because he didn't shoot the whole idea down about aliens existing like the previous two did. He said that people can believe whatever they want, but he just tells the truth about there being no evidence to support the fact that aliens do exist.

Week 9 ; Ch.4 #1

Wisdom is the use of knowledge. Knowledge is something that you know is true through evidence or proof. I honestly think I acquire both in college because some of the information that professors teach are things that I never knew before. Since professors are experts in their area of study, they're evidence of the truth being told. A way to use this information as wisdom would be if you were telling your friends about something new that you learned in class. You know it's true information because it's what your professor shared with the class. I don't think taking GE courses is a necessity because they're not subjects that you want your future to withhold. Taking those courses makes you more knowledgeable, but when would you use all that information in the real world? Events that happen in your life make you wiser because you learn from your past experiences to improve on situations, or what you need to avoid. I think the information age has made us both wiser and more knowledgeable because in college, you learn something new every day.

Week 7 ; Ch.3 #3

In the beginning of chapter 3, it talks about what language is and the different functions of language. Language is defined as, "a system of communication that involves a set of arbitrary symbols, whether spoken, written, or nonverbal (sign language)". There are 6,800 known languages in the word, but they all use the same basic universal grammatical rules. Four different functions are; informative, expressive, directive, or ceremonial. Informative language is language that is either true or false, directive is used to direct or influence actions, expressive communicates feelings and attitudes, and ceremonial is used in particular formal circumstances. An example of informative language is, "San Jose State is located in downtown San Jose". An example of directive would if someone told you to do something, like, "Close the door". Expressive language is usually written into poems or religious worships. An example of ceremonial language would be saying "I do" in a marriage ceremony.  I personally never knew or thought about the different functions of language, so I'm glad I learned about it in this chapter.