Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Soundtrack of my Life

Best Days of My Life- Kellie Pickler. I chose this song because it kind of sums up my life right now. I love living in Madison- everything about it. My years in college are definitely going to be the funnest of my life (besides all of the homework/studying), but I really don't have much to worry about yet. Once I graduate, and have to work for a living, things will change, and I'm sure they will be a different kind of fun all their own, but nothing will compare to the college life in Madison.

Life is a Highway- Rascal Flatts. I chose this song because I love life. Not in the way that I talked about above, how college is so fun and exciting. I actually just love life in general. Everyday is so new and exciting, and you never know what is going to happen. I'm excited to see where my life is going to go and the anticipation of that is the best part.

Family Man- Craig Campbell. I chose this song because my family is everything to me. I don't know what I would do without them.

Bless the Broken Road- Rascal Flatts. This has been my favorite song since seventh grade. It ultimately reminds me of my sister. My friend and I were sitting in my computer room back home listening to this song and crying because at the time it was my sister's favorite song, and she was heading off to college, so listening to it made me think of her and how much i was going to miss her. I have come to be obsessed with Rascal Flatts (ask any of my friends; I've memorized their entire discography), but I think this song will always remain my favorite because it was the first Rascal Flatts song I knew, and it reminds me of my sister.

Turning Page- Sleeping At Last. I have recently become obsessed with this song. I even decided it is going to be my wedding song someday. I just get the chills when I listen to it.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Research Paper


"Within the context  of this new knowledge about the sperm, most sex preselection research is aimed at developing accurate and reliable sperm separation techniques (Merrick and Blank, 2003, p. 59).

Merrick, J. C., & Blank, R. H. (2003). Reproductive issues in America. California: ABC-CLIO, Inc.

I chose this source because it defines what sex selection is on a more fundamental basis. It talks about how the basis of sex selection started off, which I think is important. I am planning to use it to define sex selection, because I need a foundation of the paper before I start talking about both sides of the argument. The downside to it is it's short. It has good information, but I will need many more or much longer sources in order to better define sex selection.

"While the application of this technique to prevent sex-linked genetic disorders is now widespread, this method can also be used for preimplantation sex selection for social reasons (family balancing), and we report our experience with this technique for this purpose in India" (Malpani and Modi, 2002).

Malpani, A. & Modi, D. (2002). Preimplantation sex selection for family planning in India. Hum. Reprod., 17(1), 11-12. doi: 10.1093/humrep/17.1.11

I chose this source because it is an actual study done on people in India in which they use sex selection for family balancing. It shows that couples would naturally want a boy first, which I think is important to the research I am doing. I am going to use this article to show one side of the argument- that sex selection is bad. This article relates to that side of the controversy because they are afraid that most people are going to choose a boy as their first child, which was supported in this study. The downside to this source is that the part of it that is a primary source is very short. If I want to utilize the second part of the article, I would have to use it to find primary sources, which is a hassle.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Last Ronson Blog

The creation of the DSM III and the many mental disorders that are laid out in it started an epidemic in America, with many people being misdiagnosed with mental disorders and put on drugs they didn't need. It all started with the DSM III. A man named Robert Spitzer had a mom who was a very unhappy lady. The doctors could never figure out what was wrong with her. This upset him in a way that when he was chosen to help write the DSM III, he made many things a mental disorder, so doctors could easily label people in a more scientific way. After the DSM III came out, people started to self-diagnose themselves with mental disorders, and doctors would wrongly diagnose and over medicate their patients. This was good for the pharmaceutical companies, because they could make so many new drugs for their patients, but it really was a bad thing. There was less of a tolerance for people being different. They would automatically be labeled with a mental disorder. People would take pills for disorders they didn't have, sometimes turning them into slow, drooling fools. And that was considered a good thing. In an extreme case, a misdiagnosis of a child as bipolar and an overprescription on her medication led to her death. Her mother later admitted she was probably just a hyper child.

I'm confused as to what Petter meant by "good luck" to Ronson. Was this letter written to Ronson before he started doing all of his psychopath research or after? Also, why was it necessary for Petter to cut off all email contact? For the book itself, I am actually kind of sad it is over. I really liked it a lot; it was never boring, probably because there were so many different stories within the story, so it kept things changing and interesting. I am not surprised that the pharmaceutical companies were so excited about the DSM III and being able to make new drugs for people. The United States health care system is all about making a profit. In other countries, the health care system has a set amount of money, and each type of medical care can only charge a set amount. In the United States, they can charge what they want for health care, and try to make profits on it. So, with the DSM III coming out, it allowed a lot of money to be brought into the pharmaceutical companies.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Blog 6

"Aiming a Bit High" starts off with John Ronson meeting Bob Hare at a hotel. They discussed the PCL-R being misused, which led to Ronson paying a visit to Paul Britton (an example of a PCL-R misuser). Britton was at one time a very famous criminal profiler. He talked about how police and detectives used to call upon him for his profiling skills, to help them find a killer. After years of his profiles being correct, a case went wrong. Britton profiled the wrong person, putting an innocent man in jail for years, while the real criminal walked free. Although Britton's career went south after that, he still believes he did nothing wrong.

In "The Madness of David Shayler", I realized that David was completely nuts. I think that he must have had some kind of illness if he thinks that the planes that hit the twin towers were holograms and if he thought he himself was the messiah. I do not really know how this chapter fit into the story though; was he supposed to be a psychopath? I really liked "Aiming a Bit High". Criminal profiling is basically my dream job, although I realize that it is not as glamorous as on television. I love reading about profiling, so this chapter really interested me.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Fifth blog assignment

In "Something Borrowed", Gladwell asks what constitues plaigarism. He begins by talking about a play that was produced by Bryony Lavery that had a lot of lines and ideas from a book he wrote. He claims how this is plaigarism because it was copied exactly from his own words. But then he goes on to talk about music, and how it is not as easily "owned". He claims how people can copy something without even realizing they are doing it. He uses this frame of mind to continue thinking about the copying of his book. He wonders if maybe Lavery had the right to use his information. That she still changed the story line behind his work, to make it into her own story. Gladwell concludes talking about how words will last forever, and will probably be used many times, without anyone being aware.

I really liked this article. At first I was confused because I thought it seemed like Dorothy Lewis was writing the article, but then I realized Gladwell just summarized her in his book. After that I like the example he used with the music, that it's hard to distinguish between plagairism and just not knowing you are using it; maybe because you heard it or read it once and it just stuck in your head, but you don't recall remembering it. I felt bad for the lady who used Gladwell's work in her play. She seemed genuine, and that she really didn't mean to hurt him. Overall, the article gave me a new perspective on plagiarism, and I am glad it's not a tell all definition.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Blog 4 Ronson Chapters 6 and 7

In "The Right Sort of Madness", Ronson talked with an old friend at a bar, and his friend made him realize that it might not just be journalist's interviewees that are insane, but the journalists as well. That journalists look for the most insane people in order to get their best story, so what does that say about the journalist? This mindset led Ronson to interview Charlotte. Charlotte told Ronson about her job as a guest booker for TV shows. She revealed her secret that in order to find the best person for the TV show, she needs to find people with "the right sort of madness". She finds out what kind of medicine the interviewee was taking, and in doing so she made a formula to find out who was the best for the show. Charlotte had to try and find ways to detach herself from the interviewees, or she would go mad herself, having to listen to people's depressing stories day after day. Charlotte had done many cruel things in order to get bookings for the show; for example, she booked a man with a disorder and after he was ridiculed on the show he slit his wrists. After his interview with Charlotte, Ronson was relieved that he had not done horrible things like Charlotte had.

I did not think I would like reading about psychopathic CEO's as much as I like reading about serial killers, but chapter 6 was not horrible. I liked the description of Dunlap's house, and I thought it was weird how he had so many predatory animals in it. When he was described earlier in the chapter, that was not how I pictured him to live. After reading chapter 6, I was a little bit confused about Dunlap's wife. Why would she want to marry someone who was so cruel to employees? Was she a psychopath too?

I did not really understand how chapter 7 tied into the book. What did it have to do with psychopaths? I think it was kind of unnecessary. Even though I didn't think it was essential, I did like the chapter. The stories were really sad, like the one about the girl who got denied her plastic surgery and her sister ended up committing suicide. That one really upset me. I wanted to pay for her plastic surgery. The other story that was really sad was the one about the man with severe body dysmorphic disorder. I cannot imagine the guilt I would feel if someone slit their wrists because of me. I could not do Charlotte's job.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Third Blog Assignment- research questions

What are the implications of gender reconstruction surgery?
What are the ethical issues of assisted child conception?

Question #1:
I chose this question because I watched a movie today in Sociology-160 about gender reconstruction surgery. It was interesting to me because I assumed that if people looked different, then they would want surgery to fix that. In reality, the people who underwent the surgery actually regretted it, and wouldn't have minded if they looked a little different than other people. I think I would look for answers in books and online, and also in the articles from my sociology class. I would like to look for actual research done on the topic to get results on how people felt about it. I think that the implications would be that people are not happy with the surgery. Some things I might look for would be comparing the different ages people have their surgery to how they felt about it.

Question #2:
I chose this question because I have always been interested in assisted child conception because it is a very controversial topic. I would look for answers online and in books, and I would also look for studies done with actual women. I think questions that might pop up will be about how the two sides of the controversy feel about assisted child conception and why? I believe there will be a lot of ethical reasons. It might be hard to answer some questions about ethics, because people are very set on their views, and there might not be a lot of good information from someone who gives arguments about both sides.