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.

TOW #21 – FedEx Ad (Visual Text)

As online shopping grows more popular among Americans, there is perhaps some competition over how these items are being sent. American Delivery Corporation FedEx uses implications of being fast and reliable in order to attract more possible customers to use their service for shipping items of all kinds through the mail.

The simple FedEx box extends its promise through this apparent option for express delivery, and the passing of the object from the sender to the recipient straight through the box serves to show it off. The delivery is implied to be extremely quick, so people will not have to wait weeks just for something to come in the mail. It appeals to a general desire for things to be quick and convenient, so more people will ideally begin to prefer FedEx’s delivery service since it offers just that.

However, while the deliver may be quick, many people may expect valuable objects to be handled carelessly in the mail, and usually customers are very wary of checking their products to make sure they were not damaged. Should the product be damaged, the customer’s trust in the delivery service handling it will typically fall almost instantly, and they will also probably feel burdened with the task of needing to exchange their product. Using this, FedEx attempts to appeal more to the audience by displaying a seemingly expensive vase as the object being shipped from one location to the other. Going into the box, the vase appears to be in perfect condition, and the person receiving the vase seems to be accepting it in that same perfect condition. This implies reliability and careful handling of products, so customers may feel as though they can rely on FedEx to safely deliver their merchandise. Combined with convenient speed, FedEx manages to largely establish itself as what may be the ideal delivery service already despite there being no words to go along with the picture. The addition of text to solidify these implications, however, could have made this argument stronger by asserting their reliability and convenience. The image relied almost too much on how the viewer interprets the benefits being offered, and to blatantly state them could have possibly furthered FedEx’s persuasion of Americans to utilize their service.