Teodor Vehauc's 3rd Post

Newfound Skull Has Scientists Rethinking Human Family Tree

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/10/18/scientists_rethink_humans_family_tree_after_2millionyearold_skull_found.html

Published on Fri. Oct. 18, 2013                       By: Monte Morin

          2 million years ago, up by the great heights of the Caucasus Mountains, a primitive human fought a life or death battle, but lost. It appeared that he was on a scavenging mission, to hunt for food. He and a few others attempted to scrape meat off of dead carcasses, and get away before a large predator found them. Unfortunately for them, they were too slow. Nearly two million years later, scientists have found five fossilized human skulls, as a result of the early humans’ failed scavenging mission. Up until now, there was a theory that we evolved from three different species of humans, but now when they looked at the skulls’ slight differences, the scientists realized that the skulls all had characteristics of all three species of human ancestors. This made the scientists realize that their previous theory was incorrect. There aren't three different types of human. It is all one type, with the differences in the skulls lying in normal human factors, such as gender or age.

          I will analyze this article using the eight key concepts. The concept I think is most reflected in this article is number two. It talks about how the media constructs versions of reality. We weren’t actually there when the fossils were being dug out, or when the scientists were examining the specimens, so the article explains what was happening and conveys the information from the scene. In a sense, that’s what constructing reality is, our opinion is based on their interpretation of what happened. I also think that it’s relatable to concept number six. I chose number six because it’s about how media contains political/social messages, and current happenings in the world. The article talks about how scientists found the skulls, and how the discovery of these five skulls has caused discussion over whether the current theory is correct.

          I liked the article because it was about new scientific discoveries, and because it’s about the theories of evolution, both of which I find interesting. I enjoy reading about all the various new information related to science. It was interesting how they used highly descriptive language in order to share the story of what the caveman time was like, almost placing you in the position of the cavemen. I think it would be really interesting if one day scientists found out something more that has to do with human evolution. Maybe this finding will lead to those future discoveries, which in turn would lead to more articles that i would enjoy.

Teodor Vehauc's 2nd Post

Sense And Superstition

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/opinion/sunday/sense-and-superstition.html

Published: October 4, 2013    By: Jane L. Risen and A. David Nussbaum

          We all know that superstitious people do strange things, but not only superstitious people knock on wood. Everybody does it from time to time, whether they're superstitious or not. Why do people who don't believe that it has an effect on what happens in the world still do it? Because actually sometimes works! We all know that knocking on a piece of wood won't actually change what happens, but it affects what we believe, and that’s equally important. The reason for this is that by boasting about, for example, not having been in a car crash for a really long time brings the thought of crashing to mind, and makes you worry about it. In a recent study, some college students were asked to say “I will definitely not get into a car accident this winter”, and some of those were asked to knock on the nearby table. When the results were being collected later on, the students that jinxed themselves and didn't knock on the wood worried about getting in a car accident more than before. The ones that did knock on the wood however, didn’t experience any change in their worry levels at all. In another study, the students were asked to throw a ball instead of knocking on wood, and that also eliminated their worries. It turns out that any “push” motion helps to unjinx yourself, because over the years, people have associated any type of push with dispelling bad thoughts, and calming the nerves. This just goes to show how powerful the mind actually is.

          For my analysis, I will be using the media triangle. For “Media Text”, the value promoted is the power of the mind, and how the silliest things can make us think differently, because the article talks about how we can jinx ourselves just by boasting about good things happening to us, and how we can simply erase all the negativity just by knocking on wood. For “Audience”, I think my parents would like it, because it focuses on everyday things that we do, while it looks into the deeper meaning within, to see why exactly we do those things. For “Production”, the article was made using information from regular college students that shared information about their way of thinking and their feelings, and the research was collected by Jane L. Risen, Yan Zhang, and Christine Hosey, who conducted the tests and displayed the results.

          The reason I liked this article was because it was based on things that almost everybody does, and that are so common, we don't even realize it sometimes. The article explained the deeper meaning about why exactly we do those things, and how they help, so I found it interesting to read about.