Journal: 4-6

Nutrition

     Last week I asked if there were any true benefits for kids who believed in Santa as opposed to those who didn't. Although I was unable to find any studies that were conducted about this question, I did find alot of debate on the internet between parents about the effects believing in Santa had for their kids. Most of the parents said that telling their children that Santa exists gives the children incentives to be well behaved and also increases their happiness especially around the holidays. Also, alot of parents said that allowing children to believe in Santa helps create wonder in their children and a good adept sense of imagination.

     This past week in ethics class we watched a documentary about the satus of nutrition in America. The documentary discussed how there is a trend in America for people to seek out alternative sources of medical treatment such as aroma therapy, mind and body health and multivitamins people can find at the grocery store. The documentary preseted both sides of the aruguement of whether the new trend in alternative treatment is beneficial to the public or harmful. It was really eye opening and posed many interesting questions which allowed me to think more in depth.

     In my opinion, alternative medical treatment is not necessarily a good idea. Why wouldn't someone want to follow the regular course of medical treatment which has been proven to work? Not to mention many of those multivitamins and pills which are sold as alternative treatment in most grocery stores are not aproved by the FDA and may be unknowingly harmful to you when mixed with other mdeicines you are taking or your current medical condition. All people should use drugs which have already been tested for effectiveness and ensured for safety, otherwise, they risk their own lives. Also, alternative therapy only inspires hope and most of the time does not actually work and may have a placebo affect on it's user.

     This is much like how certain people attribute longevity to rediculous things such as eating lots of butter or applying lots of lotion. This is simply a placebo affect which allows people to believe that there is a certain reason for their longevity when really they probably lived long because of good genes and good nutrition throughout their lives. Alternative treatments have provided a route for people to explore ways to find the "fountain of youth" which will allow them to stay young forever.

     I end today with a question, is there any true scientific benefit to alternative treatment?

http://www.fallacyfiles.org/adconseq.html

http://www.eworldpost.com/multivitamin-have-no-effect-on-colon-cancer-14960.html

http://www.crossfitenergy.com/diet-and-nutrition

Journal: 4-5

Believing in Magic

     Last week i asked if there were any health benefits to believing in magic or things that supposedly don't exist. Through my extensive research online I was unable to find any substantial facts or evidence for my question. However, I do have an opinion on the matter. I don't think it necessarily makes people feel better if they believe in magic but I do think it makes them happier and more carefree which is good compared to being critical and negative about such issues.

     Last week we watched a documentary about this magician who went around to people who claimed to have supernatural powers and challenged whether they really did or whether they were just faking it. He went about this by taking away the special tools of those magicians and seeing how they did. Also, he explained how all of the tricks he ssaw the supernaturalists could be done simply by using slight of hand.

     In my opinion, I don't think this man should be going around trying to prove that magic is not an actually real thing. I think its wrong for people to point out how a trick is done and they're taking away the magic and the feeling of happiness when they do so. I feel as though he is being unnessecarily critical and pessemistic. People should decide for themselves whether they think a certain magic trick is real or not. Just allowing yourself to believe in magic does no harm at all.

     To me this is alot like the issue of believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. For kids, believing in these figures is magical and exciting. However, when we grow older, we lose faith and the holidays have less significance and happiness for us that little kids have. So why would anyone want to discourage people from believing when it does no harm in doing so, but it might do harm to tell them that they don't exist at all.

     I end today with a question: Are kids who belive in Santa more well off than those that don't?

"Magic Architecture." Making Good Software. Web. 23 May 2011. <http://www.makinggoodsoftware.com/2009/10/15/magic-architecture/>.

"Magician Cartoons by T. McCracken." Cartoons by T- McCracken. Web. 23 May 2011. <http://www.mchumor.com/movie_magic_cartoons.html>.

"TLC Family "Christmas Games: Find Santa Claus"" TLC "Guides" Web. 23 May 2011. <http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/find-santa-claus.htm>.

Journal: 4-4

Magic

     Last week, I asked the question of what the response to the Osama Bin Laden assassination was from the Muslim community. I researched this topic and came across several news articles that dealt with the question I had asked. Although nothing has happened yet in response to the assassination, many people in these new articles believe something will happen as a response.

     However, the articles claim that Muslim are not likely to react negatively to the attack because most of them have beliefs that are the opposite of Bin Laden. Most Muslims don't believe in using violence to show Muslim superiroty and might be glad that the leader of Al-Qaeda is gone. These articles also claim that Al-Qaeda will most definitely respond with a terrorist attack or something negative to the Western World.

     Last class we talked about the principles of magic and how these principles can relate to every day life. We watched videos of Penn and Teller and analyzed how they used deception in order to make the viewers trully believe what they were seeing. They explanied exactly how they did each trick and how one little mess up could thorw the wholre trick off.

     In my opinion we all can learn from the principles of magic. If we can learn about the art of deception then maybe we won't be so easy to be able to be deceived by people in everyday life. People might never become victims of frauds or con artists ever again. I believe magic has alot of ideals that it can teach us in the areas of deception and also having an open mind. If one has a closed mind, one might never be able to experience true delights such as the art of magic.

     There are two kinds of people when it comes to magic. There are those who choose to see it as magic when it happens and don't question it because they would rather have it be that way. And there are those who don't believe in magic and try to scrutinize magic tricks in an effort to figure out exactly how the magicican performed the trick. Unfortunately, society has mostly turned into the second kind of person. But if more of scoiety was like the first kind of person, we might have a better society.

     I end today with the question: What are the benefits of believing that magic exists?

http://live.washingtonpost.com/osama-bin-laden-death-muslim-community-reaction.html

http://media.photobucket.com/image/wand/PhntmBlackIce/Wizard101%20Wiki/magic-wand.png?o=4

http://yellowmagpie.com/penn-and-teller-about/

   

Journal: 4-3

Discrimination

     Two weeks ago, I asked the question of where all the child stars are now in life since the movie Promises first aired. I was unable to find any material online but we watched a video in class about several of the child star's lives. The one boy, Faraj, moved out of the country and came to the United States and now works at Walmart in an effort to get money to pay for college. All of the other children that were interviewed are still in the midst of the conflict in the Middle East and claim that it's getting worse. Alot of them have given up on the dream of peace and some have even gone into the army defending their race.

      This past week we have been watching this tv show series called 30 days. We watched this particlar episode entitled "Muslim in America". It was about this strongly religious Christian man who goes to live the Muslim lifestyle in a Muslim family home for 30 days to see what it was like. At the beginning of the experiment he didn't understand Muslims and judged them just like everyone else. However, at the end of the experiment he had a much better understanding of the religion and culture and gained alot of respect for the Muslim people as a whole.

     In my opinion, this was a very good experiment to be done and showed to the public. It shows that you can't judge a book by it's cover and that although some of the practices of Muslims may seem foreign, they really aren't at all. Also this show really opened my eyes up to the fact that Muslims are upset that they are associated with terrorism and that they are so offended that they won't associate themselves at all with it and also will not apologize for the 9-11 attacks because they want to prove the point that them and their religious beliefs had nothing to do with the attacks on the United States.

     It seems that in today's society, Muslims are being discriminated against more than ever. Especially after all of the hype comming from Osama Bin Laden's death, there has been a new wave of hatred towards to Muslim people. This is very wrong. Muslims can't go to an airport without being checked 5 timesand they get dirty looks whent hey are out in public because they're different and they stand out. America has unfortunately deamonized the Muslim people.

     I end today with a question: What is the Muslim community's repsonse to the death of Bin Laden?

Halder, Daipayan. "Being a Muslim in Mumbai | TwoCircles.net." TwoCircles.net | Inform | Educate | Empower. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://twocircles.net/2008feb03/being_muslim_mumbai.html>.

"Islam-isation Is What Muslims Need! Islamic Articles." Quran Recitation: Holy Quran Learning and Online Quran Reading | Live Quran Tutor. Web. 09 May 2011. http://www.quranreading.com/blog/islam-and-muslims/islam-isation-is-what-muslims-need/.

Olson, Ole Ole. "Breaking: Osama Bin Laden Dead | NEWS JUNKIE POST." NEWS JUNKIE POST | News, Politics, And Opinion From Around The Globe. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://newsjunkiepost.com/2011/05/01/breaking-osama-bin-laden-dead/>.