Collaborative Project Topic Proposal

Issue: A society based on fast food and sedentary lifestyles has driven the obesity rate through the roof within the last decade. America has become the most obese country in the world, and this is having a very adverse affect on our younger generation. Not only does obesity threaten the quality of life of the younger generation, it threatens the lives of older Americans.

Media: PowerPoint Presentation, Pictures, Video possibly

Chose this topic because the obesity rate in America has grown drastically since I was born. I see this epidemic threatening the lives of many fellow Americans. It is also horrible to see children that are morbidly obese try to move around and participate in physical activity that they are in no shape to attempt to play.

Proposal: Physical Education classes should be required every year the student is enrolled in school through the end of high school. During these classes, physical activity will be stressed and the student will be participating in activity throughout the class period. Also during these classes, the student will learn about proper nutrition. A chain of healthy fast food restaurants should be sponsored by the government to give those on the go a chance to eat healthy and promote healthy eating habits, even when in a hurry. This chain could have foods such as grilled chicken, salads, grilled fish, and grilled vegetables. Obesity awareness programs should also be started to let the general public know that the obesity problem is real and it that is can go away by reversing one's lifestyle and diet. Overall, America needs to become a more active society. To help achieve this, recreation leagues geared towards adults will help keep the elder generations in shape. For the younger generation, increase the number of recreational sports leagues and build more parks for the youth to play and get active.

Definition of Obesity at beginning of presentation
BMI Index: At the end of the presentation


http://weight-loss.emedtv.com/

Topic Proposal #4

Obesity in America
60 Minutes Style Report (PowerPoint)

Obesity Statistics
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3000947

Causes
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Issue-Briefs/2004/Nov/The-Obesity-Epidemic-in-the-United-States--Causes-and-Extent--Risks-and-Solutions.aspx

Proposal: P.E. classes required by every student, every year. Healthier fast food. Awareness for genetically inherited obesity. A more active society in general.

Short Writing Assignment#8-Rhetorical Analysis Redux

Mr. Johson,

The Bud Light-Conan O'Brien ad that was put out during the Super Bowl has not been performing to its potential as of late. The ad starts off with O'Brien talking with his agent about doing a commercial in Sweden. O'Brien is very uneasy about Americans possibly seeeing this commercial that was only meant for the people of Sweden. O'Brien's agent persuades him to shoot the commercial, under the grounds that it will only be seen in Sweden. After O'Brien shoots the commercial, which has him crawling around on a fur rug toward the camera and saying "Vroom Vroom Party Starter," he is getting into a cab in Times Square and sees his questionable ad airing on the big screen in Times Square. He looks at his agent and his agent says, "Hey, It wasn't me." After showing the Bud Light Drinkability screen from the commercial, two people off the street make fun of O'Brien by doing the robot and saying "Vroom Vroom Party Starter" in a mimic of Conan's voice.
This commercial targets 18-25 year old males and females and viewers of Conan O'Brien's late night talk show. We felt that seeing Conan being screwed over by his agent after shooting a rather questionable commercial to American standards would hit home to his viewers and the 18-25 year old demographic. O'Brien's show is funny and this commercial is like a commercial that O'Brien would make fun of on his show. This commercial shows that our company is not afraid to be innovative and throw a little questionable humor in our advertisements. I believe the humor in this commercial is easy to understand and viewers can see that our product is the best out there, if people in Sweden will make a commercial this crazy for it. Also, this ad shows that our brand is youthfully energetic and our product really is a "Party Starter," if it can get Conan O'Brien to do a crazy ad for Sweden.
I believe the ad has not been performing due to the time and shows it has been shown during. Soap Operas do not usually attract the younger demographic to watch them. These shows are geared toward older audiences that are able to watch television during the day. I have all the confidence in the world that if we move this commercial to air from 6-12 o'clock on Comedy Central, Spike TV, or ESPN, the performance of this commercial will sky rocket and it will become as effective as I know it can be. I understand your concern, however, you must trust me on this subject, this commercial will be a hit, we just have to put it in the right time slot on the right stations.

Sincerely,
Jamie Barton
(Vice President-Advertising Department)

Persuasive Advertisement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P82hABWq1To


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HazUvFXY2X4

Topic Proposal #3

For this essay, I am going to do an extension on "A Modest Proposal" the issue that I am going use is the economy and its current state. President Obama has his idea on how to solve this problem, but I am going to use my own logic to come up with another way to "fix" the economy. A large percentage of the wealth of this country is tied up by CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies, Professional Athletes, Movie Stars, and Music Moguls. There is no doubt that this economic crisis affects everyone, however, it affects the middle and lower classes more. Let's just have that upper echelon of society give a mere 10% of their income to the government and let them invest that money in the future of the economy of this country. We should totally stop buying foreign goods and produce our own products "Made in USA." Another major problem that has been causing this economic crisis is an overuse of credit. We should take away credit cards all together. Cash and Debit cards should be the only sources of currency that are used in the US. Credit is a good resource to use, but we have shown that we can not responsibly use it. So we should just do away with it totally.

Philosophy of Hair

Why is hair important?

Why do people do dumb stuff with their hair?

As far back as Adam and Eve, hair can also be found. Upon the creation of man, he was not without hair. Portrayals of Jesus in portraits even have him with flowing lochs of hair. Back in the days of Colonial America and the American Revolution, high ranking officials and individuals of high stature with in society wore wigs of long white hair. Hair is important because it basically makes the man. A person that is confident in the way their hair looks comes off as a confident and happy person. I know in my day I have had some horrible hair days, and when I do have one, I just can not seem to be confident as a person. There is something about a new hair cut that can make a man more confident. Hair is so important because it can give a person that feeling of confidence to take on the world, with a new "do." To quote barbershop, "A man can change his life with a simple haircut."

Two Pieces of Writing That Moved Me(1 Funny)

1. I found this story to be interesting.
http://www.aroundglobe.net/2009/02/british-biologist-catches-349kg-record.html
2. This was funny...
http://www.aroundglobe.net/2009/02/grandmother-fails-driving-test-771.html

SWA #3: Topic Proposal 2

How is Stem Cell Research beneficial to patients with brain damage or brain disorders?
Stem Cell Research is using embryos that are donated to take the stem cells of the embryo and grow them. The scientists are taking these stem cells, which can differentiate between any if the cell types. This means they can turn into to any kind of cell if they are embedded with that type of cells. In theory, these stem cells can be transplanted into nerve, brain, and liver cells to promote the growth of these cells. Usually, these types of cells do not grow after they are killed.
I am focusing on the brain tissue part of Stem Cell Research. It has been said that Stem Cells have the potential to cure brain diseases and disorders by promoting growth among the cells present in the brain.

https://pallas2.tcl.sc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=36466120&site=ehost-live

https://pallas2.tcl.sc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7223600&site=ehost-live

http://wf2dnvr14.webfeat.org/gwsZL11104/url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3074529?seq=2&Search=yes&term=Cell&term=Stem&term=Tissue&term=Brain&term=Research&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3DStem%2BCell%2BResearch%26f0%3Dall%26c0%3DAND%26q1%3DBrain%2BTissue%26f1%3Dall%26c1%3DAND%26q2%3D%26f2%3Dall%26c2%3DAND%26q3%3D%26f3%3Dall%26wc%3Don%26%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D2000%26ed%3D2009%26la%3D%26jo%3D&item=13&ttl=1314&returnArticleService=showArticle&resultsServiceName=doAdvancedResultsFromArticle

http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=ITOF

Issues for Essay #2

1. Performance Enhancing Drug-use by Professional Athletes
2. Economic Crisis

Topic Proposal #1

Stooping to Conquer: Why Candidates Need to Make Fun of Themselves

What is the purpose of the argument? What does it hope to achieve?

This argument’s purpose is to tell why it is beneficial for a political officer to sometimes poke fun at themselves to relieve some of the pressure created everyday by the media. Some candidates do questionable things, and to help them deal with them and let the public see that are a normal, everyday person, they need to just laugh at what they did. In doing this, they are encouraging the public to laugh with them on this subject, not at them. This argument hopes to persuade the reader to believe it is beneficial for politicians to make jokes about themselves in the public media.

What shape does the argument take? How is the argument presented or arranged? What media does the argument use?

The argument takes the form of a few past occasions of political officials making fun of something that they did and how that later helped them recover popularity in the eyes of the public. Mainly, this argument is just a couple stories about candidates in the past that helped restore their names with comedy. Examples of what the candidates did was shown and explained how other individuals followed after them and restored their honor amongst society. The argument uses examples from television and newspapers.

Who is making the argument? What ethos does it create, and what values does it assume?

A writer from a newspaper wrote this article and formulated this argument. This creates a little bit of a question as far as the morals are concerned, because reporters most of the times are just looking for more people to read their material when they write it. The validity of the argument is somewhat questioned when the reader finds that it was written by a newspaper reporter.

SWA #2

Throughout the reading, I have found many topics that I feel strongly about, but the one idea that I feel the strongest about is the fine line between making people laugh, and pissing them off, or making them sad. “What most of us consider tragic is fairly static, though something tragic can be made funny by comic techniques such as repetition.” The main point I have chosen is that there is a fine line between humor and tragedy. One situation could be tragic, but change a few of the details around and that same story could be funny. This interests me because it is so true. When you think about it, a tragedy is something that makes a person sad or cry. Humor is something that also, in a way, can make a person sad or cry. People need to be able to understand what this fine line is, in order to be funny. Other people are in charge of what is funny, the person telling the joke has no control over what other people will think until he or she tells it. One must understand other people and how they could feel about a certain event. This text exemplifies my point perfectly. Cholesterol is the subject of this text. A lower cholesterol is better but down 280 points is extremely absurd. This same picture could be tragic if it said 280 points higher or something like that, but the author knows it is impossible for cholesterol to go down 280 points, so it is funny. I could use this comic to back-up my opinion about the fine line between humor and tragedy that is introduced in Laughing Matters on page 50-62.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2008-10-24-cartoonmorty.jpg

Reading Blog #1

Chapter one in Comedy Writing Secrets was a basic overview and guide on what comedy is and how to carry comedy through writing, while being successful at it. There are basically two views on comedy and how it is present in the world today. One is that “funny” people are naturally good at it, with some being more “gifted” than others. This book offers up a new theory: that anyone can be funny, there are just a few keys things that can be practiced in their writing to make them good at writing with humor. Basically, this chapter breaks down a few of the important things about what exactly makes things funny. The material of which the jokes are on is very important, but not the only important thing concerning humor. The audience to which the material is presented is a major factor. The audience has to find common ground with the material in order for them to relate to a particular joke being funny. Also, the way the presenter of the material puts the joke out is very important to the success of the joke.

The reading on pages 2-12 in Laughing Matters helped to discern what exactly humor is and why some things are funny and others are not. Laughing and humor is only present in human beings and thus greatly separates us from animals. Humor requires an extra bit of intelligence than just plain old everyday life. Also, this excerpt goes into how comedy isn’t an organized idea, it is composed of many different ideas that are all over the place, there is no one thing that is funny, it is a combination of many different things that makes something humorous. That is what I got from this excerpt, it was a very in-depth analysis of humor and comedy. This selection went much deeper than someone’s everyday idea of comedy.

The last selection set a fine line between comedy and tragedy. Similar situations can mean totally different things in humor. A certain situation could be funny, but when one small thing about it is changed, it can just as easily be a tragic situation. The secrets to comedy are just as random as comedy itself. There is no set formula either, certain things present together just make comedy funny.

I enjoyed this reading. The theory that people are just naturally talented with humor and others just are not funny is the best theory I believe. I thought about it and I just can’t see some people being funny at all. And what makes a person funny cannot be taught, it just has to be innate in their brains upon birth. People cannot “try” to be funny, you either are or you aren’t. I just do not see how it can be a learned behavior. Maybe this class can prove me otherwise. I did find that these two pieces may have analyzed a little bit too much, which was somewhat humorous.

How can humor be taught to a person?