Extra Credit fallacy assignment #1

According to dictionary.com, ad hominem is "attacking an opponent's character rather than answering his argument." Or, in other words, saying that person A would not be good for doing job X because there is something wrong with his character that does not even relate to job X.


In this video, the Obama administration attacks McCain using an Ad Hominen fallacy. It basically says that because John McCain owns seven houses, he would not be a good president. It says America can not "afford" for him to live in the White House, but in reality, him owning seven houses reflects nothing on whether or not he would have been a good president.

The video can be seen here:

Why we need Harry

There should be a Harry Potter museum because it's one of the cultural phenomena of the 21st century. It's just one of those things that people will always talk about, refer back to, or allude to even in day to day discussion. One must have an understanding of what Harry Potter is or he will not understand many things and be highly confused about why so many people speak so highly of what appears to be a simple children's book about magic. Also, this museum should be built because museums are supposed to be fun, and kids should be able to connect to the subject matter while the parents enjoy it as well.




Today, museums are often used as a place where teachers bring their students and force them to pay attention outside of class. The problem with this lies in the fact that children take this to mean that all museums are boring.

This is a growing problem as Americans are getting fatter and lazier, and the world is becoming more and more technological. People are slowly starting to choose not to go to museums because they can either find what they are looking for online, or be entertained simply by staying at home and watching tv while not having to pay an admission fee. A Harry Potter museum would be a great experience for a child, and lead them to understand that many other museums are fun as well. It is important for today's children to think this way or else the entire museum business will die out.

California Natural History Museum

The first week back to class after spring break, I visited the Natural History Museum with my ceramics class. Outside of the museum there is a giant statue of two dinosaurs with flowers all around. Upon entering the museum, one can see into the gift shop while standing in line to get a ticket. This is very strategically placed as the gift shop will bring in a lot of money and start the kids off with excitement. Immediately past the ticket podium, the skeletons of the two dinosaurs portrayed in the statue outside are on display in the same towering way. Once inside, my class went up the stairs past some weird Africa things and walked around a display of variously sized sea shells. Then we walked up another stair case and took a left into the ancient ceramic/stone/metal artifact room. The room was dimply lit and appropriately decorated. We saw these amazing pieces which had been crafted without tools or kilns thousands of years ago. A woman gave us a presentation about how many of the ceramic vessels made sound. They acted as whistles. There was also a projector/computer in the room that you could pull up images on of which ever piece you wanted to look at more closely from all angles. The museum was separated by exhibits and had some interesting things in it, however it did not seem very hands on.

The Effect of an Apology

Denny's, in many ways did apologize. Mainly it apologized in actions that showed respect to minority groups and in a way took on a form of affirmative action. They boosted the number of minority managers and increased the number of minority franchise owners. Before the big discrimination cases there was only on African-American franchise owner, and this number was quickly boosted. In this case an apology, or certainly apologetic actions, are certainly helpful and necessary. The question of who makes the apology poses an interesting problem. As Denny's has many different franchise owners, it is somewhat difficult to control all of the employees or know which franchise dropped the ball. This is why Jerry Richardson, one of the main components that got Denny's to become such a succcessful business, took it upon himself to write a letter to the customers, make a contract for the employees, and ensure that this discrimination crisis died down.

His actions were very effective and now Denny's is seen in a more more positive light. Many people believe that Denny's has now buried its old image of being racist and has come to be one of the better companies on the basis of equality and fairness.

The Denny's Controversy

In 1994 Denny's paid $54 million dollars to settle law suits about discrimination. Two years earlier, Denny's had begun to face a few problems with racism in one of its California locations. Jerry Richardson, the CEO of Flagstar (Denny's operating company), began to worry and instantly began to talk to NAACP about hiring more minorities and keeping discrimination away from his restaurants. However, immediately after implementing the new rules, more discrimination cases sprung up. These led to the $54 million dollar settlement. Richardson then decided to take more action which eventually led to a suprising shift in reputation as Denny's is now seen as a positive and accepting company of minorities.



This is a controversial topic becaus at the time there were so many different reports of incidents where racism had occured and it was difficult to tell who was to blame. Because Denny's is made up of franchise owners, who is at fault? Is it fair to blame the entire company when really it is only a handful of people at few locations that are to blame? Perhaps it was just one employee that was racist, or perhaps the customers were being over sensative after hearing about other cases and believed they could get money out of it.

Engineering and critical thinking

Engineering is all about critical thinking. The whole purpose of engineering is to solve modern day problems with solutions that aren't necessarily "in the box." Therefore engineers are told to think critically about problems in order to develop a process to fix them.

The engineering curriculum certainly incorporates critical thinking in its class problems. The teachers here encourage students to compete to design the most effect project like a bridge out of newspaper and paperclips, or shoes that let people walk on water, or a Lego robot that can get through a maze the fastest. Engineering is one of the most intensive critical thinking careers out there, and I believe the curriculum incorporates the appropriate amount of this kind of thinking.

Thoughts on "A German Lesson: the Fallacy of One True Path" by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen

Goldhagen may say that he is not declaring Benedict's "imperial certitude" to be as comparably horrible as the Nazis', but it is completely apparent that he distrusts Benedict and wishes others to do the same. This arcticle is dangerous in the way Goldhagen presents himself as an unbiased man simply talking about the new Pope, when really Goldhagen himself is the son of a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Goldhagen). Clearly he has some biases yet he refused to alert his audience of this.

Goldhagen is attempting to plant seeds of doubt about the Pope while keeping himself safely hidden away from the spot light. Goldhagen should not be comparing Benedict to the Nazis when he has showed no interest in anything even remotely similar to Hitler's way of doing things. Of course Benedict would like the whole world to convert to Catholicism, but that does not mean he is going to kill people to get that way. That path of action would completely go against the values of Christianity which are precisely what the Pope stands for. Pope Benedict simply desires what every religiously devout leader wants: to share his truth which he believes is the Truth. He does not want people to convert so he can have power; he wants them to convert so they can be saved and have salvation. Hitler's drive was for power, and it is insulting to compare him to one of today's most honored religious figures.