Bibliography Report:
Controversial Topics
by S. Arzadon
Spring 2003--Generation 18
Dr. Leon James,
Instructor
Instructions for this report can be accessed here
Research
Topic 1: Fact or Fiction?
a) THE QUESTION: There are many
urban legends that swarm high schools and colleges that sounds like it could be
true. One of them states that the
combination of Coca-Cola and aspirin will get you high, or even make you drop
dead. I personally have never heard of
that, other than Coca-Cola containing cocaine back in the days and I know that’s
in fact true. Well, sorry to the people
who wanted to believe that this urban legend to be true, but it's not. People just wanted to believe it's true so
they can go out and get a cheap high.
b) SEARCHING FOR RELEVANCE: Like
I mention before, this was the first time I actually heard this statement and
when I did, I already knew by the sound of it that it was false. So, out
of curiosity, I wanted to find out where this information was coming from and
if anybody has truly experience getting high. I used two sources.
One was from a search engine, Yahoo, and an article. The phrase I
searched for was "Coca-cola and aspirin." It wasn't hard to
find the statement that the combination of the two will get you high, or
do something, but none of them mentioning that it was true.
c) FINDING INFORMATION: The
website that disagreed with this statement was at www.snopes.com/cokelore/aspirin.asp
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson. It mentions that this belief might
have been originated in the 1930's when a doctor from Illinois wrote to
the Journal of the American
Medical Association to warn that teenagers were dissolving aspirin in Coca-Cola
to create an intoxicating beverage.
Another website, www.organicfood.co.uk/herbs/kola.html,
doesn't mention anything about Coke and aspirin causing any problems, but it
does mention that caffeine increases the pain-relieving action of aspirin.
d) CONCLUSION AND OPINION:
There's definitely a conclusion, the statement is false! There's no
evidence, that I have found, that supports this. I just can’t believe
that there are people who are actually trying this, but then again, people are
trying anything now days. At another
site, it explained how two people claimed to have tried the two (Coke and
aspirin) themselves but unfortunately nothing happen.
e) FUTURE SEARCH: I think the
only definite way to see if this is even possible is to ask someone with a
medical background. Maybe searching under a medical site or even in the
library will result in some type of supporting information to this
statement. But even then so, I don’t
think there’s any possible way of Coca-Cola and aspirin having a negative
effect because if that was the case, then aspirin would of been yanked out off
the market.
f) ADVICE: My advice to future
generations is that there really isn't any problems to search this topic,
however, finding a any supporting article was tough.
For advice about people who are thinking
that Coca-Cola and aspirin will get you high and wanting to try it, I suggest
you find some other way of stimulant because all you will experience is a
stomach cramp.
Research
Topic 2: Does Success Require Talent?
a) THE QUESTION: Just because
someone is successful, do you think it's fair to say that they are more
talented than unsuccessful people? I sure don’t think so. There are many actors and singers out in the
public eye that I don’t think have much talent at all, but they sure do have
success. However, I do agree that
some successful people are more talented than unsuccessful people. These
are the people with "gifts" such as singers, athletes, artists,
writers, etc. It's kind of hard to fake these types of talents.
b) SEARCHING FOR RELEVANCE:
Knowing that there are many untalented, successful people, I wanted to find out
if successful people are really more talented than unsuccessful people. I
searched using Yahoo and MSN and found two articles that have mentioned
interesting things. I used the phrases, "Untalented, successful
people", "Talented successful people", and "Successful
people."
c) FINDING INFORMATION: The
first article at www.bullymag.com/7.26.02/smith-072602.asp
gave an example of how I feel about there being untalented, successful people,
but I’m not saying that Will Smith is one of them. The article just
totally bashes Will Smith, saying even though Smith is untalented, he is very
much so successful. They also just talk about his "bad" movies
and how they managed to still survive.
I haven't actually seen his latest movies, so I wouldn't say that
they're "bad" but not that interesting. His movies went from
funny and action to a kiddy movie.
The other article
at www.jackfertig.com/archive-mackay.html,
by Harvey Mackay, disagrees with the statement that successful people are more
talented than unsuccessful people. Mackay mentions how "Many
successful people are no more talented than unsuccessful people. The difference
between them is that successful people do those things that unsuccessful people
don't like to do. Successful people have the determination, the will, the
focus, and the drive to complete the tough jobs." I really agree
with Mackay. Other than luck, you'll
need to have all these characteristics to even get near your goals. Just sitting and waiting will not bring you
success (unless someone leaves a large some of money when they die) but other
than that, you'll be waiting for a long time.
d) CONCLUSION: I truly believe
that there are untalented, successful people in this world and I disagree with
the fact that successful people are more talented than unsuccessful
people. Successful people do have determination to go all the way and the
their drive is what helps bring them to earn their success. However, it's
not fair to say that unsuccessful people haven't tried. Some unsuccessful
people are not as fortunate as others to keep striving (could be due to money
problems or disabilities).
e) FUTURE SEARCH: For this
particular topic, looking more into what drives people to reach success or
goals could be more of the focus. What is this so-called
"drive" that keeps a person to strive for their goal and why do some
people have it stronger than others?
Me, myself, I can honestly say I don’t strive as hard as I should. So looking in to this question would
probably be a good idea and may help me in the future.
f) ADVICE: The advice I could
give is that you don't want to just look under the phrase "successful
people". You need to add a bit more to get better information
because if not, you’ll will get a lot of information that isn’t really that
relevant to the topic.
For advice to people who believe that they
are not good enough to become what they want to be and don't think they could
gain success, I suggest you keep striving hard and you will get there.
Just don't give up.
Research
Topic 3: Dominating Male Characters = Sexism
a) THE QUESTION: It has been
claimed that the proportion of male characters on TV makes children's programs
sexist. Looking back in my elementary days, I do remember that a lot of
cartoons did contain more male characters than female characters, but I would
never of thought of it to be sexist. So, what exactly is causing these
shows to be sexist, the proportion of male characters on the TV programs or is
it how the characters are being portrayed on television.
b) SEARCHING FOR RELEVANCE: I
really don't get uptight with sexist things and I honestly don't really notice
these things (sexism) when I watch TV. About a week or so ago, I
remembering hearing my Mom tell my nephew to change the television
channel. She said, "This is sexist, Marky, change it."
Then I thought to myself, wow, people really do get offended. So I
search for the reasons behind children's programs being sexist. I
searched under the journal section in Yahoo using the phrases, "Male
dominate cartoon characters", "TV and gender roles", and "Sexism
and cartoons."
c) FINDING INFORMATION: One
article talks about cartoons still stereotyping gender roles, at www.apa.org/releases/cartoons.html.
It mentions how research was presented at the American Psychological
Association's 105th Annual Convention in Chicago revealing that "male
cartoon characters still outnumber female cartoon characters almost four to
one. Male characters are also still portrayed as dominate, powerful and
aggressive. Female characters don't have any 'character' at all."
Two individuals,
Carol Spicher and Dr. Hudak, videotaped and characterized 118 cartoon
characters and found that male cartoon characters are more prominent than
female characters and have more masculine traits. Dr. Hudak says that the
male characters were powerful, strong, smart, aggressive and the female
characters that they did come across was "bland." Even though
women's occupational roles have changed over the years, only a few of the
female cartoon characters were shown in non-traditional occupational roles such
as doctors or police officers.
In the another
article (maskin.bxscience.edu/tat/50s/50swomencurrent.html),
by Kalenna Lee, talks about the impact of TV on gender roles. She says
that the negative representations of women have been getting more better over
the years. In the fifties, television portrayed women to only being in
domestic settings, stereotyped to fit the "heroine" of the home,
whose only ambition was to be a good mother and be dutiful to her
husband. In the nineties, women are typecast as career-driven
individuals, has pleasures outside of the home, more stronger and intelligent,
and has self-reliance to solve problems.
Some examples of
the television movies/shows that portrays this "new" representation
of women are in: "Dark Angels", "Ally McBeal",
"Murphey Brown", "Charlie's Angels", etc.
d) CONCLUSION AND OPINION: In
conclusion, the proportion of male characters alone is not what influences
children's programs to become sexist, but it's also how the characters are
portrayed. I don't think the number of male/female characters on a
particular program contributes to the sexism, it's the type of characteristics
that the character holds or was given. But anyway, when children grow up,
they will learn that what they see on TV are just stereotypes and that they are
not going to grow up stuck with those characteristics.
e) FUTURE SEARCH: This topic
has many different aspects that could be further explored. It's a topic
that many people hold different views and attitudes about. Some people
will agree with children's programs being sexist and have a lot of evidence
behind it. Then you have people like me who say, "Oh well, that's
how it was and will continue to be."
f) ADVICE: My advice to future
generations is you can relax for this search. This topic has many useful
information that you can choose from, it just depends what aspect you're
looking at and what's interests you.
Advice for people who thinks that
children's programs are sexists, well all I can say is you better start buying
books. But I wouldn't be surprise if you think children's books are
sexist as well. So that leaves you with the option of telling your own
stories, I guess, that way you can make the characters however you want.
Research
Topic 4: Does Helping Others Benefit Me?
a) THE QUESTION: When I hear
the saying, "The best way to help yourself is to help others", I
think of mother goose (only because it seems to rhyme). But do you know
who uses this statement and for what purpose? (I don't) I could only guess that
parents can use this phrase because I can picture my Mom saying this to
me. My Mom is a very considerate person.
b) SEARCHING FOR RELEVANCE: Because I
wasn't quite sure who uses this statement, I wanted to find out who uses it and
for what purpose. At first I tried www.google.com/grphp?hl=en&ie=UTF-8
but I didn't like the discussion type
articles. It didn't really address the saying itself, so I used
Yahoo. I found many websites that all pretty much says the same thing,
they're just different volunteer organizations. I searched using the
phrases, "Help yourself by helping others" and "The best way to
help yourself is to help others."
c) FINDING INFORMATION: One
article that I picked, at www.ucihealth.com/seniors/HelpOthers.htm,
stood out from the other sites. It was a volunteer website that states a
research has shown that older adults who participate in volunteer activities
have a higher energy level and greater self-esteem and satisfaction in
life. It also gives a list of jobs, and
their descriptions, of places you can volunteer for.
d) CONCLUSION AND OPINION: The
answer to who uses this statement are many different volunteer organizations
and they use it to catch peoples attention. What's the purpose?
Well, volunteer work of course. However, I would suggest them to use the
saying, "What goes around comes around." So they can say that
if you help people who are in need, there will be other people, in return, to help
you when you are in need.
e) FUTURE SEARCH: For further
researching, you can go into depth of the positive outcomes, mentally and
physically, that an individual could get if they help out other people
(volunteer work). Just like how older adults having higher energy levels
and greater self-esteem.
f) ADVICE: No advice for this
one. It's pretty easy to find a lot of articles.
Advice for this topic, I think everyone can
help out. Now I'm not saying to donate a large sum of money, but if you
are getting rid of some clothes or you don't want them, don't throw them
away. Give them to Cerebral Policy, Goodwill, or Salvation Army.
Research
Topic 5: Instant Gratification with no patience
a) THE QUESTION: Why is it that
when we are babies, instant gratification is number one, and as adults, we
still continue to want instant gratification, and have no patience to
wait? Today, we live in a culture where the attribute of patience is hard
to find. I would have to agree about that and I can admit that I'm one of
impatient people.
b) SEARCHING FOR RELEVANCE: I
thought this topic was interesting. Everyone wants instant gratification
and has no patience, Why? I wanted to find out the reasons behind the
whole gratification subject and ended up searching under MSN and Yahoo. I
used the phrases, "Instant gratification", "Patience", and
"Instant gratification without patients."
c) FINDING INFORMATION: The two
articles I found were cool. The first article, at www.nature.com/010531/010531-3.html,
talked about about a rat study that was conducted. One rat had their
accumbens lesioned in the brain, which is the cause for our instant
gratification, and the other rat had another part of the brain lesioned. The study was, which rat would bar press
immediately for a small food and which would wait a while for a larger
one? The rat with the lesion to the
accumbens kept pressing the bar immediately until he got the small food and the
other rat was able to wait for the larger food.
The other article, www.thecitizennews.com/main/archive-020419/opinion/op-02.html,
was really funny. Rick Ryckeley, the author, talks about how his wife (a
teacher) hasn't been able to teach him one thing, PATIENCE. He realized,
the more older he got, the less patience he had, but tries to deal with
it. He talks about all his bad lucks, for example, picking lines to stand
in at a store, and experiences where he had to control himself.
The funny part about
Ryckeley's article is when he complains and then questions why these certain
things happens. This are questions like: Why do doctors give you
appointment times and then make you wait?, Why do they call it fast food
when it's not?, and an "express lane" at the grocery store where
someone, who somehow did not see the large four-foot sign with bright red
letters that reads, "Ten items only and no checks," is standing in
line and you can count the number of items they have in their cart (and it's
not ten).
d) CONCLUSION AND OPINION:
There's really no answer or conclusion. Instant gratification is somewhat
biological, automatic, and hard to resist. When infants are born, they
cry for every little thing until they are satisfied, such as changing their
diaper the moment it's wet or feeding them now because they are hungry.
As adults, we still have this "trait" and sometimes it can get us
into trouble. For example, speeding on the road because we're to
impatient to ride with other cars or kids running away because they don't want
to follow rules.
e) FUTURE SEARCH: This topic
can be further searched on, but having the focus on patience. Every one
does have patience, the question is, what causes them to lose control?
What are some coping skills (if there are any) that people can practice so they
can become patient?
f) ADVICE: The only advice is
to look for a good site that addresses this topic because there are many
irrelevant information that gets brought up. Make sure you be more
specific when you're searching in the search engine and don't just put,
"instant gratification".
Advice to the people who are impatient, you need to cool it. There's nothing wrong with getting a little impatient from time to time, put don't make it a part of your life. Patience is something that can be, and should, modify and it's understandable that it will take some time. You need to, actually we all need to try.
Research
Topic 6: Where's the Compassion?
a) THE QUESTION: To be an
aggressive driver, as I have learned, doesn't mean that you have to go out and
drive recklessly and intimidate people with your car. An aggressive
driver is when one driver wants to let another driver know exactly what he's
feeling. An example would be, if a person was cut off by another car,
that person would start sticking his middle finger out the window.
So what are the causes of Aggressive
driving? Is it the traffic congestion that we drive in every morning when
we go to school/work and time pressure, or is due to people's lack of
compassion and caring for others on the road?
b) SEARCHING FOR RELEVANCE:
Since I have many experiences with aggressive driving (not as much as I did
before), I know for a fact that my aggressiveness is due to traffic congestion
and sometimes time pressure. It's not that people lack the compassion for
others, well some do, but others are just blinded by the stress. Stress
causes a person to be come very vulnerable. I searched using the phrases,
"Traffic congestion causes aggressive driving", "Lack of
compassion while driving", and "Aggressive drivers have no
compassion."
The search engines
that I used were Hotbot and Omniseek. Both of them led me to
disappointing results (none that related to my topic), so I used Yahoo (once
again) under Society and Culture. I found two useful articles that
somewhat covers both sides.
c) FINDING INFORMATION: The
first article was from a Washington paper, at www.tripnet.org/national/nnr030899.htm,
and it fully talks about how traffic congestion does lead to aggressive
driving. A recent poll that was taken by motorists, conducted by AAA,
shows that motorist frustration with slow-moving traffic and traffic congestion
is one of the underlying causes of aggressive driving. It continues to
say that if traffic increases in capacity, the net result is going to also
increase congestion. This in turn will frustrate motorists and lead to
increased incidents of aggressive driving."
The
other article at www.whosoever.org/v7i2/commute.html
was done by Candace Chellew-Hodge. She says that an individual can be
compassionate, but there's at least one person who believes that they are
completely separate from us, cut off by class, race, sexual orientation, etc.,
that can wreak it all for us. "This is why it is imperative for everyone
to truly seek to cultivate compassion in our hearts, not only for us but also
for everyone." She continues to say that the true meaning of
compassion is lost in our world.
d) CONCLUSION AND OPINION: I
agree with both articles. I believe that traffic congestion and time
pressure are factors that cause aggressive driving. Under stress, people
are more willing to take risks to get out of the situations that they don't
want to be in but sometimes forget that there are other people around
them.
I think that compassion (in general) is
lost in this world, whether it be at work, in school, or even on the
road. People only think about themselves, ME! ME! ME! and what they
want. This is when we return to the topic about instant
gratification.
e) FUTURE SEARCH: I think the
next step to this topic could be "Why does frustration and anger take over
compassion?". Just thinking about it, no matter how compassionate or
caring you could be, someone or something can quickly change your
mood/feelings. That's when emotional intelligence will kick in. We
all need emotional intelligence.
f) ADVICE: For future searching
advice, just be very creative in choosing good phrases because many
websites will show up that has nothing to do with what you're searching
for. Be specific. Also, do not just type "aggressive
driving", you'll get thousands of sites.
Advice for all you aggressive drivers, you
need to go through Dr. Leon's three-step driver self-improvement program.
You need to first acknowledge
that every driver (that's including you) needs traffic emotions
education. Second, you need to witness your actual behavior while
driving. That means you must observe you thoughts, feelings, and
actions. Lastly, you must modify the behaviors that you want to
change, one at a time, and continue this process throughout your career as a
driver. GOOD LUCK!
References
www.apa.org/releases/cartoons.html
www.bullymag.com/7.26.02/smith-072602.asp
www.jackfertig.com/archive-mackay.html
maskin.bxscience.edu/tat/50s/50swomencurrent.html
www.nature.com/010531/010531-3.html
www.organicfood.co.uk/herbs/kola.html
www.snopes.com/cokelore/aspirin.asp
www.ucihealth.com/seniors/HelpOthers.htm
www.thecitizennews.com/main/archive-020419/opinion/op-02.html
www.tripnet.org/national/nnr030899.htm
www.whosoever.org/v7i2/commute.html