I'm all ready for tomorrow people.

Thesis/Goal: I want to talk about the positive and negative ways that children's health and nutrition are being affected through society and the education system. My goal of my TED talk would be to inform my listeners about the growing health/obesity problems and ways they could be resolved/improved.


During my TED talk, I plan on using a lot of definition. I would define the terms that some of the audience my not be knowledgeable of. I want to talk about amounts of Physical activity that children are getting during the school day, and how the amount needs to be increased. Going off of the ways that the school and government are affecting children’s health, I would also bring up school lunches. I also want also use cause and effect along with narrative. I will also use some sort of persuasive voice to try and convince my audience about the downhill slide the health of America is taking.
Another thing I would bring up is the negative image the media and society is placing in young girls minds about how they should look, and the effects of this. (Ex. Eating disorders/ young dieting) I will then talk about how hard dieting really is, and how everyone’s body is different; bringing in a TED talk I have watched. Bringing in dieting I want to talk about the different fad diets and talk about those may be affecting how we eat. I want to examine a couple in detail and the different theories each food/diet has had over the years.


In conclusion I want to talk about the happy medium that needs to be found for America’s society today, between being healthy, exercising, eating right, and being knowledgeable verses starving yourself to have the “perfect” body portrayed by the media.


*I know this is quite unorganized and rough at the moment, so any suggestions and ideas would be a great help! Especially on perfecting my thesis statement.

Letter from Birmingham Jail journal analysis

As I was reading Letter from Birmingham Jail, one of the things that really stood out to me was Martin Luther King Jr. sense of compassion, understanding, and being able to look at things in a positive way. "But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms." (MLKJ, 588) Throughout the quote above, King shows a great sense of patients. The clergymen in whom he is writing the letter to have had him put into jail. They have done nothing to help King in his journey to gain civil rights for all African Americans. But yet, he still treats them with a mature attitude. He does not lash out or use hateful words. King simply states that he is going to try and answer to the clergymen in the most reasonable way possible. King also has a way of looking at life as the glass half full, in a positive way. All of the set backs that King faced he looked at as an opportunity. He used the setbacks to give himself more determination to reach the dreams that he had envisioned. He used these setbacks to make his dreams into reality. I think that King’s sense of compassion, understanding, and being able to look at things in a positive way is what made him one of the most influential and great people that America has known. We as people can learn from these qualities that he possessed, to in turn make not only our own lives better, but also the people’s around us.

Analysis on Ariel's Journal

Ariel chose to do a journal on the Ted talk we watched on Mike Rowe. She chose too analyze the quote "If I'm wrong so often." Her analysis included her thoughts on that even though things seem to be straightforward in right/wrong ways that may not be. I am choosing to talk about this quote as well because I think it relates well to people's lives today. Often we as Americans are so quick to judge. We see something, and don’t think twice before coming to a quick assumption or conclusion. For instance, walking past a homeless person on the street. Immediately one may assume that the person doesn’t work or that they are a lazy person in general. We wouldn’t consider thinking about the fact that the person may have worked hard their entire life and recently lost everything in a fire and was diagnosed with cancer. We are wired to overestimate disposition and underestimate the situation. Throughout the Ted talk, Mike presented on situations that he has experienced. In the course of his job he encounters many situations with people who have jobs that the typical American would consider horrible. He goes on to talk about how these people are some of the happiest people he has met, and how they are completely content with their job even though someone else may not be. The point that I feel the quote from this TED talk is trying to point out is that we as American’s need to stop and take time to think about the situations that others are in. We need to be able to take a step back and realize that we may have initially been wrong and reevaluate our opinions.

TED Talk ideas

The following are some ideas that I have for my TED talk.

1. Nutrition: Suing McDonald's etc. due to health issues; New York soda ban.

-This interests me due to the fact that obesity becoming an epidemic in America., and i think that we ourselves are to blame.

2. Making it mandatory for schools to require more physical exercise in the school day.

-Again this ties into the idea that I have above about obesity

-The brain brain is shown to function better and be more active after activity, which would increase learning.

- Youth Fitness Presidential Fitness has gone down 90 seconds in the last 30 years

3. Smoking in a home with children should be outlawed.

-Lung issues and second hand smoke

-Children not having a choice in something that can impact their future lives greatly.

-Cancer rates on the rise

-Federal spending going towards Anti-smoking campaigns

4.Recycling

-This topic interests me because as a society we are consuming and using more products and resources.Therefore creating more waste. In  turn, recycling is an issue we need to bring to the surface and as Americans start doing.

5.Stem cells research.

-I hope to pursue a medical career, so advancements in the medical field is something that interests me

-Allowing advancements in technology that we otherwise may not get.

-Providing cures to untreatable diseases and health issues.

-It could be the future of medicine.

Fallacies from "The Wife-Beater"

"A web search shows that kids nation wide are wearing the skinny-ribbed white T-shirts..."


In this quote from that text, Smith is using the Red Herring fallacy. The fact that children around the nation may happen to be wearing wife-beaters has noting to do with the issue being argued in the text; abuse. She is trying to draw the readers attention away from the text by claiming that since kids are wearing the shirt, they too will become abusive and contribute to the problem.


"More that 4 million women are victims of severe assaults by boyfriends and husbands each year."


In this quote, the fallacy It Does Not Follow or Non Sequitur is used. When Smith states this fact at the end of the text, she has not proceeded it with any other evidence about assault. Smith only comments on the facts about the name of the wife-beater shirt. The quote above does not have any meaning or position when stated after that, therefore making it irrelevant and a Non Sequitur.


"In the article, some sources argued that the reference in the term was not to spousal abuse per se but to popular-culture figures such as Ralph Cramden and Tony Soprano. And what about Archie Bunker?"


The fallacy that is being used in the above quote is Appeal to Doubtful Authority. Smith is using this fallacy to try and strengthen her argument about assault by bringing in famous figures. No facts about the men in the quote above were ever stated about them being abusive. Therefor, they have no appeal to Smith's argument.