Tow #22 Image

This image is meant to stop driving with your phone on. Though many would blame the drivers, this ad blames those who talk to the drivers despite their endangering of the drivers' lives. By having the blood splurge out of the phone's speaker, the reader is allowed to understand what has happened. The driver on the other side of the phone call has undergone an accident. In red underneath the tide of blood is a message, "Don't talk while he drives." This message is pivotal to the image because it clarifies completely what the image is meant to provoke and addresses its audience directly. The use of color is also important here. The image is predominantly gray scale, with the use of white being very prevalent. This allows for better contrast of the foreground and the background, putting the focus on the most powerful part of the image, the blood. Another way the image manages to emphasize the foreground is in the use of camera focus. The background is significantly blurrier than the foreground, again, trying to avert the audience's attention to the woman and the blood. The fact that the person is a woman is also important to the appeal to pathos. By placing the woman in a kitchen setting, she is automatically assumed to have a family, supposedly a husband and most likely children as well. This is provoking to the idea that calling someone who is currently driving is detrimental not only to the driver's physical health, and the caller's emotional well being, but the situation will also affect anyone with a relationship with the driver in question. This is a powerful image overall that encapsulates the dangers of and the responsibility of driving while talking on a cellphone.

Tow #23 Malcom Gladwell's The Art of Failure

This article in The New Yorker describes the importance of what it exactly means to "choke." Gladwell describes what happens when you choke, as well as distinguish it from panicking. Through his use of allusion, specifically in sports, Gladwell is able to relate the idea of choking with near perfect scenarios. The rookie Jana Novotna about to utterly dominate her match against the longstanding veteran, Steffi Graf, loses 5 sets in a row, being one away from victory. He also uses the example of Greg Norman and Nick Faldo. Norman ahead several strokes by hole 9, is down 4 by hole 18. Gladwell also utilizes a well varied sentence structure. This allows him to add more impact to his writing. Statements like, "The two men began to cry" and "Graff gave her two kisses" are extremely short phrases surrounded by tension built, wordy exposition, thus by comparison, making these dramatic and climactic conclusions to his allusions all the more powerful. Gladwell overall does an excellent job at making his writing exciting as well as meaningful.

However, there is one part that requires addressing as to what may have been improved in this essay. Gladwell does not have the most optimal way of  organizing his essay. He goes from an example of choking, to an example of panic, to the implications of panic, to the implications of choking, to a more granular form of choking, to his conclusion. Though the flow on paper may not sound too atrocious, when actually reading it had made it difficult to understand exactly what the essay was about. I felt like I was being led in circles rather than be led to some climax or "So what?" I had assumed the paper was meant to distinguish between choking and panic, but in reality, the whole thing was about choking.

Overall, Gladwell does well writing his paper's details, always conscious of sentence structure and detail, but on the whole, he fails to flow things properly to convey his message consistently throughout.

IRB #3 Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

My IRB for the third marking period will be Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. I actually have not much idea about what this book is about other than it defines and attempts to dissect the definition of success. The main reason that I selected this book was not out of self interest. I got it for Christmas. My sister got it for me and she said I would like it.

TOW #10 Image Psycho-Pass Episode 11

Though this isn't so much a standalone picture, I deemed this specific screenshot of the animated sci-fi dystopian series Psycho-Pass to hold enough symbolic value and depth to be analyzed in this week's TOW. In this picture, the gun in the woman's left hand has the ability to measure the likelihood of a person committing a crime, in her right hand is a standard rifle. This scene symbolizes the capacity of human morality and judgement vs the defined social ethics defined by society. The gun in this police officer's left hand is symbolic of the judgement of society. In this show's scene, a terrorist/kidnapper/murderer, has been incorrectly deemed to not be a latent criminal and as such the trigger has automatically locked itself. However, the officer, who has seen this man commit his crimes, is now confused. The police force has not used their own individual discretion to judge a person's capacity for commiting a crime in what is assumed to be several generations. The woman must do her job and subdue the criminal, and tries to use her own judgment, as symbolized by the manual, more archaic rifle. However, she is clearly holding the rifle (a two handed weapon) with a single hand, while her other is preoccupied with the other currently locked and useless gun, representing her uncomfort and outright refusal to abandon the judgment of society she has relied on for so long. As a result, she misses her shot with the rifle entirely and fails to capture the villain right in front of her. By using the two guns, this scene acts as a commentary on people's morality and their expression of judgement, saying that our decision making and ideas of morality are shaped by our society around us and as a result, a clear injustice or wrongdoing  may be in front of us may never be put to justice because people are too preoccupied with their society's view on something rather than one's personal discretion.

IRB #2 The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World I found this book after googling, "funny nonfiction books" and clicking "related" after seeing Eats Shoots and Leaves as one of the suggested books. I read the synopsis and now I want to read it. Also the amazon reviews were positive. I have no further context. Should be fun.

Tow #9 God unable to Remember what year humanity goes extinct ()

This piece is a commentary on the arbitrary fear of the world ending. There have been many occasions such as 2009, and 2012 specifically in which groups of people have made predictions as to judgement day or the end of the Mayan calendar, but almost all reasons for the Apocalypse are based on some sort of divine intervention. The text states, "Dammit, when are [the humans] supposed to die again?" showing the ridiculousness of the situation. The fact that the all-knowing God has forgotten something is showing the asinine nature of all the people dying. He starts to throw out random dates in an attempt to remember but fails. Then, at the end, God had "Scrapped all former plans and just slated the mass extinction for next week." This arbitrary sentence represents the ethos of other theories of the Apocalypse, Ragnarok, Armageddon, etc. happening in a few years, or even months.

TOW Week 8 (Visual Text)

The image I have found has a very profound view on the way people perceive the value of individual human lives. By using a a nighttime backdrop, the eyes notice the ipads in the foreground, with its two messages: One Dies, millions cry, and Millions die, no one cries. The image serves a commentary on the self-absorbed nature of society. By using the famous figure Steve Jobs, and the entire nation of Africa, the artist is able to represent how despite society trying to wholesomely believe in the notion that all lives are equal, is lying to itself. It weighs the influence of a single man over the millions that we should be supporting in Africa.  Using such a stark difference in subjects, but making them commonplace enough, makes this image very shocking and revealing to people who look at it. It's also devoid of any people, but is in a clearly man-made structured area. This may be to give the image a very impersonal, and cold look. It wants to make the audience feel bad about themselves. This images purpose is to spread a message to the people in society who fail to realize their own hypocrisy. It's appeal to pathos and in a way logos, makes this image an effective commentary,