Perfect Parenting Part 2

The make-up of a name is what this chapter focus' on. Here Levit continues with his parenting ideas stating styles of names are predictors of future success and can be linked with certain groups of people. He also asks whether poor blacks tend to pick more obscure names or whether picking the names help to widen the gap between the rich and the poor. In this part he essentially questions whether or not naming your child a particularly black name will result in a lower economic status, or whether they are named according to their economic status. His research resulted in one large finding. According to Levit, applicants with caucasian names tended to get jobs more frequently than those who had generally african names. In general, he thinks that having a "black name" commonly results in acheiving lower in your lifetime.
I personally believe that this whole part is bullshit. I think that anyone could give their child any name and hes has just as good of a chance of being a success/failure as anyone else in the wolrd. However, i do believe that poor and broken-apart families tend to name their children with new or obscure names. There fore, many of the children who grow up and turn out bad in this group give obscure names a bad reputation.
The auhtor aslo analyzies how names become popular among the white communtity. In his analysis he found that well-off families tend to make odd names popular. Then, the name slowly makes it down the ladder until it reaches the lower class. I believe that this trend tends to be true. My mother works as a kindergarden teacher for a community with alot of high income families, therefore she sees many very interesting names get their introduction in her class room.

What makes a perfect parent??

This chapter deals with the author analyzing the different ways in which children grow up. Some of these include socioeconomic status and even race. Oddly enough, the author found that children growing up with a swimming pool were much more likely to die young. In fact he believes that swimming pools were 100 times more dangerous than a gun. Having swam since the age of two, i dont agree with his statistics. Swimming growing up had no negeative effect on me, in fact, it pushed me to become a lifeguard for my local pool.
The author also has several other odd trends which he claims to be true. First, he says his research shows that kids with "white" names are far more likely to be hired for a job. Although getting a job depends on many other variables other than just your name,i found this to be somewhat true. Most of the successful leaders of business have standard Amreican names. On the other hand alot of the people who work at convenience stores tend to have odd, unheard of names. Further more, the author found that names that are considered to be "black" are found in many low income jobs. To me this sounds like a partially true statement. Although there are many interesting names in the lower class, it has nothing to do with how you turn out in life. For example, if i named my future child a "black" name, this doesnt mean that he/she will not succeed in life.
IN general i thought that the authors opinions in this chapter were very stereotypical. Also, i believe that this chapter could have been fueled by the fact that the author himself lost a child due to illnes. He may simply be trying to justify the death of his child.

Chapter 4

The latest chapter in the book deals with the disappearance of criminals in the nineties. As usual, the other gives us a list of reasons why this might have occurred and analyzes all of the possibilities. Some of his conclusions are more suprising than i thought. For example, a few of the reasons that i believed would have led to a lowering crime rate had no connection with it. Stricter gun laws, the author claims, have nothing to do with this lowering crime rate. he refers to a court ruling that says all you can own a handgun if you have a criminal background. He points out that most criminals wouldn't buy guns from a store to begin with. According to him, the majority of felons in America rely on the underground black market gun trade for their firearms.

The author does make one significant link between abortion and crime. He believes that with abortion legal, crime rates will be severely lowered. Unwanted pregnancies result in unwanted children who are more likely to be abused and mistreated. MOre often than not, these neglected children turn into criminals due to their bad family relations and past. I believe this to be mostly true. The trends throughout history also prove this point. When abortion rates boomed in the seventies, the crime rates were lower in the nineties.

I found this chapter to be enjoyable but not the most interesting piece we've read. Also i didnt completely agree with some parts of his writing. For example, the author claims that the changes in the crack/cocaine market resulted in lower ammounts of crime. I dont understand how he can make that statement, since in the previous chapter he spent several pages describing the corrupt crime ridden life of a chicago crack dealer. But overall, i found this particular passage to be good and i agreed with the majority of it.

Why Do Crack Dealers Live with their Mothers??

So, why do crack dealers live with their mothers. Well according to the author its because the majority of them make little money. However, i was extremely surprised by the ammount of money that a gang leader could make. The statistics in the book show that on average "J.T." makes around 100,000 dollars a year by selling crack. Needless to say i was amazed. Lets not forget that every other lower ranking member of the gang makes less than minimum wage. But still, 100,000 dollars? There is quite a risk that goes with the title of drug dealer. There is a one in four chance that you can be killed while dealing drugs in Chicago. the author compares this to Americas most dangerous legal occupation, a lumberjack, who has only a 1 in a 100 chance of being killed every year. This whole drug section didn't necessarily completely amaze me though. After all crack is a known problem and through the media most of us have realized the large pay offs that some recieve for selling drugs (American Gangster for example).

The other part of this section that i found surprising was about conventional truths and the lies put forth by so called "experts". For example, the author states that one expert rallying for support against homelessness said that 45 homeless people die every second in America. Without looking to deeply into it, this fact is enough to make anyone want to support the cause. However, after analyzing the data the author reveals that if this were true then the amount of dead homeless would exceed the number of people in America after one year.

In short, i very much enjoyed this chapter. The book gives you a completely different perspective on many different scenarios. I can honestly say that there wasnt a second that i was reading that i wasnt interested. Great chapter.

I found the second chapter to be slightly less interesting than the first. The beginning of the chapter goes into detail about the origins of the Klu Klux Klan. He describes the hierarchy of the Klan, and how decisions are made. Klan activity is also discussed to a certain point. He then states that the Klan is an organization that derives its power from mass amounts of information. Real estate, he claims, also gets its power in the same way.
The Author continues to elaborate by describing how the real estate business skews and presents information to make buyers more interested. For example, the phrases that describe the condition of the house aren't what you think they may be. Often times phrases such as "good neighborhood" mean the opposite of what you think they would. In this case good neighborhood implies that "this house may not be nice, but the ones near it are". The author also shows how real estate agents often benefit from lowering the prices of the houses that they are selling.
the authors random analysis continues with the analysis of players that appear on the weakest link. For example, minorities such as Mexicans are typical looked at as being poor and are usually eliminated in the first round. In short, the author continues in this chapter by linking and analyzing two random topics and explaining how they are similar to one another. The real estate-Klan link was in my opinion the most interesting from the selection. I also agree with the author that both of these professions are driven by mass amounts of information. In short, this was another good chapter, but i didn't enjoy it as much as i did the first chapter.I found that first chapter was much easier to relate to.

Freakonomics Chapter 1

After reading the first chapter in Freakonomics its by far the most interesting thing we've read so far. Some of the comparisons and analysis are so abstract that i believe its almost impossible for the readers attention to wander. The first chapter is all about incentives. How much does it take for someone to cheat? well according to this author everyone has there own price. the most interesting part to me was in the first section regarding the daycare. After applying a late fee for parents who failed to pick up there students, the amount of kids picked up late increased! At first i wasnt sure about the validity of this statement but after the explanation it became clear. By applying a fee, parents no longer felt the moral pain associated with pickign up yor child late. Instead, the fee told them "its okay to pick up your children late, as long as you pay the fee. Later the fee was taken away and the number of late parents increased even more. The daycare had now taken away most incentives for picking up your child at the correct time.

The later part of the chapter talks about sports and cheating, why wouldnt sumo wrestlers cheat if it benefited them? Well i dont believe they do cheat, but some of them just have less or more incentives to win which in turn would alter their will to succeed in a match. All in all i found this chapter to be very interessting. the way the authors presents issues and asks questions make you think twice about what you would do. For example, at the end of the chapter the author asks "could any man resist cheating if he new he wouldnt get caught". Not only is this hard to determine personally, but it makes me wonder who in the world would or would not cheat. Would famous leaders cheat to gain popularity?? Overall i really enjoyed this weeks reading.

Newest Reading

During this week’s reading the author urges the reader to reconsider the concept of gender. The passage suggests that gender is more of a personal decision. Cultural decisions such as wardrobe and other basic actions are some items that determine each person’s “gender”. Stereotypes are also a large part of making gender decisions. For example, man are usually pictured as “rough and tough” while women are portrayed by “dainty and nurturing”. However, in today’s society most people would agree that man and women posses each of these qualities. The text argues that each person can construct their own definition of gender. This can be done by creating your life with a mixture of traits from males and females.
The book also gives an overview of what helps to define gender in today’s society. Stereotypes, cultural norms, and location were some of the most prevalent. I thought that location was the most interesting of all of these factors. After I thought about it, I became quite a bit clearer. For example, where I live there is little difference in the way different men or women act. On the other hand, large cities tend to have a greater variety of people and no solid definition of “gender”. The book also confronts the topic of feminism. It says that both men and women should support feminism. I also believe that the author gives away some of their personal beliefs during this part.
Overall this passage helped to open my mind to views I had not looked at before. The location example was the one that I found to be most interesting, and true. In general, I don’t agree with the author when he states that people create their own gender. Although men and women may decide to change their personal look/actions the definition of gender still stays the same.

Reading-Feb 15

Out of all the readings I have to say that this week had to be the most interesting for me. Not only could I relate to them, but I also agree with the majority of what was said. The first reading involved the recent film I, Robot. The first part of the reading deals with the film industry. They discuss the business side of things, and later what they wish you to think or see from the film. Often times movies can influence stlye and other parts of todays culture. Also, many seem to find political meanings in film. The most recent example of this that I can think of would have to be Avatar. After leaving the movie theatre I realized the amount of hidden political reference within that movie. After all, it centers around the natives being driven from there country for the purpose of American interest. Sound familiar.
The last piece of this passage is what I found to be most interesting. The author compared the movie with the book. Essentially he states that all of the themes that the author put in the book had been ousted by Will smith in the movie. Although I agree with this statement, there is also a sense of business that has to be present in each movie. For example, all of the action packed scenes that were in the movie attracted an audience, which turned into money. Although the themes may be butchered, the movie was still a success in my opinion.
Star Wars was the subject of the second passage. The author states that in a sense the movie has all the characteristics of a typical western. For example, the bad guys wear black, the good guys wear white. There is also a “us vs them” theme and ofcourse there is a love story. I found this comparison to be very true in my mind. When analyzed, the only true difference between Star Wars and a western is the outer space setting.

This Weeks Reading

This week’s readings were in my opinion we much more interesting than any of the previous passages. First, it looks at why people of the same race seem to bunch together and stick with one another. I noticed this almost immediately after I started my first semester in college. The book suggests that this is caused by interest in culture. It also states that most of the “grouping phase” seems to hit during adolescence when people are discovering themselves. However, I now realize that regardless of age, people do tend to associate themselves with members of their own race. This article then leads into the next passage, The Sports Taboo. This was by far my favorite of the readings so far this semester. It essentially compares race and sports. In the article, writers and researchers question why African Americans tend to excel in sports. One scientist suggests that a larger bone mass can support more muscle, which would give them the advantage. In short, the article looks for an explanation for African Americans excelling in sports. The last piece involved Arabs living in America. A sense of alienation is described due to the events that happened on September eleventh.
Out of all these articles, I found the article about sports to be most interesting. Although I don’t think there is any real difference between white and black athletes, the author did give decent evidence to support that there may be. Racial grouping also was somewhat interesting to me. I believe that this is very true, given the fact that I’ve been exposed to a lot more since I’ve been in college. In short, these articles to me were some of the most interesting that have been assigned.

Reading #3

The two most recent readings offer a different view on television shows that we all watch. The first passage describes the cultural revolution of the “black Bart” from the Simpson’s. Essentially, once the Simpsons came out in the early 90’s, printed shirts with a black version of Bart began appearing throughout America. Some of the designs promote black pride sporting phrases such as “its cool being black”. Since Bart is in a way the stereotypical trouble making boy in America, representation among the black community was demanded. The shirts are said to promote “cockiness”, giving kids extra pride in who they are and what they stand for. This article proves the effect that television has on Americas youth. Bart Simpson, and cartoon icon, is used as a medium for expressing self pride culture and the past. Since he is widely known throughout the states, when portrayed as an African American it has a message to the public.
The second reading focus’ on the demoralization of women through reality TV shows. It suggests that shows like “next” and “the real world” promote people to view women as objects of society. The writer argues that feminism in America has to be dead, since girls openly watch and support the shows on television. According to the author, girls are introduced as objects, while guys have the right to “next” them at any point for no legitimate reason.
My personal belief on all of this is the television does have a lasting impact on society. The most obvious example of this would have to be the Bart Simpson situation that was previously mentioned. I believe that some of the reality TV opinions are true. However, I believe its works that same way for both sexes. For example, the show next uses guys and girls as the “nexters”. All in all, there seems to be a deeper meaning in even the most simple types of television that we watch.

Second Reading

The second reading (pages 119-124) offers a completely different take on the world compared to the first reading. First, instead of referring to symbols and signs, it shifts its focus on the effect that television has on households across America. It states that television is meant for passive viewing. The show is on whether we decide to watch it or not and stops for almost nothing. There is no text or paragraphs to analyze and no way we can “bookmark” a show half way through without the rest of the world viewing it. This offers many obvious differences between a novel and a typical sitcom. Also, it claims that these shows lack a distinct author (unlike books) and rely on a heavy genre present to help drive the plot. Often times when reading the themes have to be dissected out of the text. Without deep thought, the author’s key points and lesson can be easily passed by. TV on the other hand has a more obvious effect on its viewers. The genre (drama, western, action, romance) is often apparent within the first several minutes of viewing. The themes that follow are unmistakable and hard to pass by. The reading then shifts its focus to the content of the shows. For example, many shows such as Seinfeld contain almost an entirely all white cast. On the other hand, almost all of the shows produced by Tyler Perry focus on the typical African family. Although the diversity in standard television has increased over the years, some shows leave certain ethnicities out, detracting from the overall quality of the program.

All in all, I enjoyed this reading MUCH more the than first. The different matters brought up made me think twice about the television that I watch, how I watch it, and what I’ve come to expect from the programming industry. It also brought to light the unnecessarily large amount of money that I, along with other Americans, spend on television each year. In short, I tend to agree with just about every part of this reading and believe that it shared many truths with me that otherwise would have been undetected.

First Reading pages 1-21

Although the passage was slightly repetitive and drawn out, I found that the reading for this week had several key points that were mentioned. Like the title of the book suggests, the majority of the reading focus' on how your enrvironment and those you interact with have some symbolic meaning. Although sometimes subliminal, these symbols help to mold and shape the judgments and decisions. From semiotics to rhetoric, interpreting your environment and finally using the book, i believe that this first passage gives a good summary of the book, and how it will look at the world. First, semiotics (the study of signs) is discussed. This book overviews how signs give us signals through its shaped symbols and text. According to semiotics, everything is a sign. The book continues to prove its points by analyzing environment within a Starbucks. It notes the colors of the carpet, the ceiling and wall colors and the music present in the establishment. It shows how by analyzing these components of the store, we can find several ideas, themes, and symbols that are buried within the decorations. These themes and what not help to attract the kind of costumers that Starbucks wants to attract. Texts and fonts also help to appeal to different individuals. For example, the text notes how a french restaurant can set its theme with a font that will emphasize that kind of food that is offered.

In conclusion, I believe that this reading assignment has several good points. For example, the mention of all the signs is something that i can really relate to in real life. For example, the stop sign that was used as an example offers several key points. It shows that there are many elements of a sign that change the way i judge and interpreted it. the combonations of the bold text and the bright red color help to grab my attention. If a sign lacks one of these elements, then the stop sign becomes awkward and difficult to recognize.

My Name

My name is Lucas. At first my parents decided that they would name me Miles. This name originated from my grandfather. Both of my parents respecting my grandfather and thought that it would be fitting to name me after him. However, once i was born my parents both decided that i didnt look like a "Miles". So they went with there second favorite name, Lucas.