TOW #27 – “Elevator Etiquette” by Greg Tannen

             Ever noticed how awkward it is to ride an elevator? It is as though another world exists within it that requires only the minimal amount of interaction in order to seem oddly normal to people. Greg Tannen, a writer from The New Yorker, happens to notice as well, and he is not afraid of mocking our horribly awkward elevator process as a result.

                The article itself is satirical, and from the get-go the whole piece has a tone of light-hearted mockery that makes you want to almost laugh at yourself when you realize you are guilty of these things as well. His article is built off of many instructions, and each one seems more ridiculous than the last whether it is by telling you to only stare ahead, only ask people certain questions and otherwise remain silent, or not to attempt to make conversation lest people see you as a “psychopath”. It is almost second nature for us to follow these instructions normally, but reading them—all of them—in the blunt way he presents it makes the whole thing seem more than silly. After all, for a society that tends to push for socializing with others in public rather than looking at a phone, the elevator tends to be the last place to take advantage of that sentiment. Sometimes they get broken, and people might start conversation, but for most readers, anyone should be able to know what this sort of experience is like, and they can relate to it with ease.

                The article itself was fairly humorous, and its straight-forward nature, much like our gazes in the elevator, gets Tannen’s point across while offering us a chance to laugh at our own weird social practices. 

TOW #26 – “Cycling to work can cut cancer and heart disease, says study” by James Gallagher

          It is honestly no real surprise that, with technology advancing as quickly as it is, there becomes a rapidly growing concern over health due to all the effortless and convenient options presented to us. Rather than having to walk, many people logically have cars to get themselves to work, however James Gallagher also reminds us of the option of biking. Aimed mainly toward working adults, he offers the solution to our generation’s decline in activity simply with the choice of riding a bike to work instead of driving or taking the bus, and he argues that the former method is far better than the latter through this idea of lessening the chances of common yet life-threatening conditions people can more easily be affected by without it.

            The article contains a visual, a video in which multiple people who have been biking to work for years, in which every single person presented seems to share the same idea: that, compared to taking public transportation such as the bus, biking is much easier, faster, cheaper, and healthier for them. While the rest of the article delves into the statistics confirming the health benefits, their agreement helps solidify the argument for the reader as something that may be an option for them, too. Gallagher also makes sure to address the main counterargument that may come up in response to his solution. The idea of not having enough willpower to follow through with a training regimen is common for many people who want to try being healthier for themselves, and so he soothes the worry with the simple logic that, if cycling is built strictly into your schedule rather than fit in as you dreaded hour of exercise, willpower is not needed.

            The statistics combined with the agreement from well-based opinions, leads to a solid argument for Gallagher, and though we do not have an excellent system set yet for biker on the road like in places such as Japan, where the amount of bikers is significantly higher, the idea of making this sort of transition seems much easier.

IRB Intro #4 – Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

     For Chuck Klosterman, pop culture is more than something that is trending today and gone tomorrow. In his book, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Klosterman takes the reader through his perspective of pop culture, the impact of it, and really the meaning of it all beyond what is initially seen on the surface as mere entertainment. The outlined topics seem almost nonsensical given their largely humorous or lacking seriousness in the context for the current era, but it only makes me more curious to see what someone has to say about seemingly mundane aspect of our lives such as internet culture. The book is supposedly one that will leave the reader thinking, and so I am eager to see what Klosterman has to say about our world today.

TOW #25 – “Black and Blue” by The Salvation Army

                At a time where there was much controversy over the color of the dress, The Salvation Army takes advantage of its popularity in order to raise awareness among an older audience able to understand as well as comprehend the issue at hand here and hopefully combat abuse toward women.

While the joke usually lies in the dress’s color itself, The Salvation Army uses the colors in their own small parody of the entire thing that sends a surprisingly powerful message. Considering how light-hearted—although some people grew very adamant over what they saw—the argument was over the dress, no one would usually expect to see it used for a serious concept such as abuse. It makes the impact of the shock more intense as well when we factor in the fact that the dress was actually proven to be sold in black and blue despite many people claiming it to be white and gold, so while our attention may initially be drawn to the dress under the assumption of that’s what the text refers to, it is actually the bruises the viewer begins to notice afterward instead.

The smaller text beneath it implies an underlying problem as well: that many women who are victims of abuse choose to be in that sort of relationship. The dress’s color being perceived as white and gold was considered an illusion, and so The Salvation Army parallels this with their own agenda by referring to a myth in which women choose to stay in an abuse relationship as an illusion as well. The delivery is intentionally blunt and direct, and the result is an overall sense of surprise for the viewer followed by what may be considered a small wake up call. The text at the bottom serves as a call to action after the viewer has most likely taken in the other aspects of the picture. It attempts to help people realize they can make the first step in changing this sort of situation whether they personally know someone dealing with it, or they are in one themselves.

Overall, the play on words in order to deliver a deeper message so directly appears well done, especially with the way The Salvation Army used a widespread idea to its advantage.

TOW #24 – "The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff (IRB)

As a continuation from where he last left off, Benjamin Hoff further teaches the basics of Taoism while simultaneous beginning to introduce new ideas. Still using Winnie-the-Pooh characters to represent different ways of living, Hoff can show a general audience why Wu Wei is probably the best way.

Bisy Backson becomes the next symbol of how we can go through our everyday lives. This way is more common and familiar, something Americans are known for promoting as ‘Hard Work’ due to Puritan ideals in the past, but when Hoff compares it to the Taoist way of living, our way seems so much more stressful and undesirable. The Backsons are always searching for a reward, something that would be success in our case, and they usually believe they just have to fight extra hard to overcome the obstacles hiding it from them. They think of progress, like we usually do, “in terms of fighting and overcoming” rather than yielding to the flow of consequences. They force events to work in their favor, but the actions of working, working, working, for a reward that is just “around the next corner, above the next step” and “down the road, on the other side of the world, past the moon, [and] beyond the stars” begins to wear you out. In comparison, Wu Wei allows things to happen as they may without expending so much energy, and things tend to simply work out in your favor when you follow your intuition with a sensitivity to the consequences rather than running circles in your own mind when you overthink every little decision.

Hoff also uses some humor, through small jokes, that may leave the reader smiling a little to themselves out of amusement. Hoff places himself in the story as a physically present narrator, almost as though he were a grandparent telling the reader a bed time story, and he interacts with the different characters between his examples. Usually, these interactions are just as informative as the analogies, but sometimes there are little comments thrown in, such as Pooh casually teasing him about a poor riddle, and it helps make the book even more enjoyable.

TOW #23 – “’Paging Dr. Fraud’: The Fake Publishers That Are Ruining Science” by Alan Burdick

           If fake news was considered an issue, then this idea of fake science, something that has been occurring for much longer than this sudden surge of protest against false information, should also be getting some attention. Senior editor for The New Yorker, brings the science community’s attention to the harmful presence of fake journals. Credibility is an essential aspect in a scientist, so having their paper published in a journal is a way for them to get a boost in credibility. While many of these journals were authentic and contained good intentions in the beginning of this online process, many more dubious sources began to arise merely for the sake of profit. There is a bit of a humorous approach to the topic as Burdick describes the various ways science students have tackled these fake journals, including methods such as crafting fake people or letting autocorrect have its way, however this also addresses a more serious issue for the science community as a whole.

The issue, while commonplace as almost every science major experiences it, is actually hurting science itself especially at this time where factual proof is being openly disregarded by government officials, and more fake science is being used to back it up. These fake journals are contributing to the downfall of science since, as the amount of disinformation grows, the difference between right and wrong becomes harder and harder to define for even scientists themselves. Alan Burdick aims to raise awareness to this era of crisis for science as well as hopefully renew the science community’s sense of skepticism when it comes to considering sources of information.

The article’s use of various anecdotes exemplifies the true nature of these profit-focused journals while also providing reason to not follow something without truly looking into it. The journals, while they themselves are not actually fake, have so little standards for papers that anyone could publish one as long as they paid the author fee, gaining false credibility in their work simply by having that journal’s title to back their work up with. Burdick describes the crafting of the fictional person, Anna Olga Szust, and her “dismally inadequate” papers as the initial way to fish out and identify these fake journals. The students in charge of her persona submitted various questionable papers that no journal should hop on the opportunity to accept, however 48 journals responded to her with invites to become an editor. Burdick does not announce Szust’s identity as a fake at first, allowing his audience to become increasingly skeptical of her success until her identity was confirmed to be false.

Further examples consist of students typing the first few words of a sentence before allowing autocorrect to carry the sentence, or they even just send a repeated phrase in the format of a paper which would both still easily be accepted by these untrustworthy journals. Burdick’s argument was built much on these examples which evoked amusement in the reader, and that amusement allowed the reader to consider the very real presence of these harmful sources while also avoiding any intimidation by them. The solution seems hard to construct for dealing with these troublesome journals, but if these students can have fun with it while simultaneously blacklisting the bad sources, then other students in the science community may also feel an unstated push to join the rather laidback fight as well. Burdick’s approach does well to address issues as well as raise awareness about them, and his methods of doing so may just spark more action in taking down the credibility of these questionable publishers.

TOW #22 -- How Living on Mars Could Challenge Colonists by Karl Tate (Text)

          Having designed for various clients, including The Associated Press and LAPTOP magazine, Karl Tate designs an infographic to go with this article explaining why living on Mars is practically impossible. It aims to help inform those unware of the conditions on Mars as well as turn down any simplified idea of us being able to colonize it, and perhaps its most common use is for young children looking for a simple answer on whether humanity can live on this other planet or not.

            Tate’s use of a visual to paraphrase and visibly show his argument helps organize the information he bombards the reader with afterward. It catches our attention, and, usually, it seems like it takes less effort to read a picture than it is to read the actual text, so many people looking for convenience get what can essentially be considered a helpful summary without needing to read the rest. The article itself is full of statistics and facts, proving his point through the mere truth of the subject. For example, he simply states, “The air on Mars, such as it is, is about 1 percent the density of air on Earth. Martian air is composed of more than 95 percent carbon dioxide. Since Mars lacks a substantial magnetic field like the Earth's, the Red Planet cannot deflect harmful radiation that comes from space.” For anyone with a basic understanding of the facts he offers, it is easy enough for the reader to come to the logical conclusion in which humans cannot inhabit Mars without some kind sort of aid to sustain us. Tate also, with each given reason, makes a comparison between Mars and Earth, and whether he is showing it or stating it, the comparisons really work in putting into perspective just how much more difficult it would be to live on the red planet. Each of these factors work together to provide a rather justified argument on why humans are unable to live unaided on Mars.