What would you rather have for the term limit for the President of the United States of America: 4 years or 6 years?
Chime in!
Godspeed.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Plagiarism... Oh Boy... Not this again...
Hello big blogging world! How is everyone doing out there? If you're reading this and you should be working on some sort of term paper and were just looking for some website to take some "useless" information from, than leave! No, I'm just joking, you should most likely stay and learn a little lesson here, but you really should start that term paper.
Today my blogging prompt is simply plagiarism. And yes, very annoying, yet very important. Plagiarism, for those who have no gosh darn idea what it is, is the act of making someone's work your own without their permission and without citing their work either. This happens often with students, especially those lazy and forgetful enough to put off that huge term paper to the last day, and have to go online and copy documents completely for their paper! I know this doesn't happen to me in school, and hopefully not for you either.
In my junior year of high school right now, I am currently taking Law and American Society which takes an in depth look in law and other problems that occur from day to day life in our lives. I am telling you all this because we happen to be studying civil law right now, which is the act of one party against another party, usually in attempt to sue the other party. Now this situation happens a lot with conflicts over things like copyright, which is technically plagiarism! Copyright, again for those who do not know what it is, is the legal term for someone's exclusive rights to an object, and no one else may attempt to recreate it at all. This is the first thing I think of when I tumble across the term plagiarism.
Another thing I think of when I happen to be learning about plagiarism is all of those TV shows or movies that may take a line or idea from another TV show or movie. Now I'm sure most of you have either heard of something along these lines or even witnessed something that looked awfully peculiar and similar to some other show you watch. I found a clip that shows a great example of this exact idea. It is a combination of clips from the website College Humor, who actually took these lines and ideas from the movie Inception, and South Park who has been accused of plagiarizing College Humor's work. It is very clever and is actually a pretty amusing clip. Here you go (please excuse the last 5 seconds or so if you are easily frightened or do not like fake blood):
That video is a pretty good summary of what happens often when movie makers or show makers release a new hit.
I found one other video that is pretty funny and is about plagiarism and may actually be considered plagiarism itself. The reason I say this is because if any of you readers have seen the Subway commercials who voice dub all the actors with really high, squeaky voices to make it humorous, this video may relate to it for you. Here you go again world:
That video is pretty educational for being humorous, and as well as stressing the ideas in my opening paragraph for this blog. Well that's all the information and videos I have on plagiarism for my fellow bloggers today! And remember, don't put off that huge term paper to that late sunday night (I know I don't). I will blog with you later friends!
Godspeed.
Logical Fallacy Blog Re-post
Hey bloggers!
Just a quick fix on my last blog about logical fallacies, I wanted to correctly cite the source for the last web page I used.
Work Cited
Oly. "Logic 101 – a Nifty Link « Oly's Random Rants and Ravings." Oly's Random Rants and Ravings. Oly's Random Rants and Ravings, 23` Oct. 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. .
As well as this cite, I have recently found a hilarious ad online that I believe, and apparently so does the owner of this clip, is a ad populum fallacy. It is for Fed-Ex and attracts others to their product by saying everyone makes a commercial this way. Please watch:
Godspeed.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Logical Fallacies and All of those problems!
Hey blogging world! The Scott Odorico here again to talk to you about my next prompt, which is the wonderful world of logical fallacies. For those who do not know what these are (just like I was), a logical fallacy is an incorrect argument or reasoning in attempt to persuade someone in an argument. These are very common devices, and there is a range of them! So many of them in fact, that it would take almost this entire page up if I wrote them all down. I'm just kidding of course, there are not that many (that I know of at least), but here are some key ones that I may discuss later on: slippery slope, ad hominem, straw man, and false dichotomy. These logical fallacies are so common that most of do not even recognize them due to how often they appear in everyday life!
When I think of logical fallacies, I instantly think about those ridiculous politicians (yes, those of both parties) who go above and beyond on trying to make an argument in their favor. These politicians often use straw man, or ad hominem fallacies which somehow always, always, always ends up in attacking the other politician (what a surprise, right?). The straw man fallacy is characterized as misrepresenting an opponents argument in an effort to make one's own argument much more attractive. The ad hominem fallacy can be defined as attacking a person making an argument rather that discussing the argument. One pretty good example of the ad hominem fallacy is between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, when they exchange attacks on the issue of nuclear war. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Here there is some attacking going on between these two politicians that obviously results in some false claims. Another more humorous, and fake example of an ad hominem fallacy is one of Steven Colbert, on his show on Comedy Central, called The Colbert Report. Although it is not exactly real, it stresses the idea of logical fallacies, nonetheless. Here is a clip from Steven Colbert's The Colbert Report:
Steven Colbert's comedic brilliance really makes this video tolerable, and gets the viewer away from the fact that an actual politician is saying something like this about another politician, on national television!
Another large logical fallacy in our country is the false dichotomy fallacy. This fallacy, which is defined as simplifying an argument so that there are only two choices or outcomes to choose from, appears often in commercials to make a decision easier for the viewer. One video I found is a great in depth look at false dichotomies and shows some good examples of ones in our country today. Here is the video for your viewing pleasure:
This man has some wonderful insight on the world of false dichotomies.
The final fallacy I would like to talk about today is the slippery slope fallacy. This fallacy, which is characterized as assuming that event X will set off a chain reaction of events resulting in dire conditions, is often in everyday talk and communications. Most of us, at some point in our life time, have probably said the phrase, "Oh, you're on a slippery slope, buddy!" And if you have said this, you used a logical fallacy! Woo Hoo! NO! Not "woo hoo" at all. To be a successful speaker and a successful arguer, one must try to stay away from logical fallacies.
Finally, if you are looking for some more logical fallacy fun, visit this blog post I found online, it is very amusing (especially the video).
Fallacy Blog
Talk to you next time blogging world!
Godspeed.
Work Cited
Video 1: Chen, Andy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebT1Oo6yDMI&feature=related)
Video 2: Comedy Central, The Colbert Report (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ24HdCPN9E)
Video 3: Shanedk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fZ_jHMwFE)
Link 1: (http://randomrantsandravings.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/logic-101-a-nifty-link/)
When I think of logical fallacies, I instantly think about those ridiculous politicians (yes, those of both parties) who go above and beyond on trying to make an argument in their favor. These politicians often use straw man, or ad hominem fallacies which somehow always, always, always ends up in attacking the other politician (what a surprise, right?). The straw man fallacy is characterized as misrepresenting an opponents argument in an effort to make one's own argument much more attractive. The ad hominem fallacy can be defined as attacking a person making an argument rather that discussing the argument. One pretty good example of the ad hominem fallacy is between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, when they exchange attacks on the issue of nuclear war. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Here there is some attacking going on between these two politicians that obviously results in some false claims. Another more humorous, and fake example of an ad hominem fallacy is one of Steven Colbert, on his show on Comedy Central, called The Colbert Report. Although it is not exactly real, it stresses the idea of logical fallacies, nonetheless. Here is a clip from Steven Colbert's The Colbert Report:
Steven Colbert's comedic brilliance really makes this video tolerable, and gets the viewer away from the fact that an actual politician is saying something like this about another politician, on national television!
Another large logical fallacy in our country is the false dichotomy fallacy. This fallacy, which is defined as simplifying an argument so that there are only two choices or outcomes to choose from, appears often in commercials to make a decision easier for the viewer. One video I found is a great in depth look at false dichotomies and shows some good examples of ones in our country today. Here is the video for your viewing pleasure:
This man has some wonderful insight on the world of false dichotomies.
The final fallacy I would like to talk about today is the slippery slope fallacy. This fallacy, which is characterized as assuming that event X will set off a chain reaction of events resulting in dire conditions, is often in everyday talk and communications. Most of us, at some point in our life time, have probably said the phrase, "Oh, you're on a slippery slope, buddy!" And if you have said this, you used a logical fallacy! Woo Hoo! NO! Not "woo hoo" at all. To be a successful speaker and a successful arguer, one must try to stay away from logical fallacies.
Finally, if you are looking for some more logical fallacy fun, visit this blog post I found online, it is very amusing (especially the video).
Fallacy Blog
Talk to you next time blogging world!
Godspeed.
Work Cited
Video 1: Chen, Andy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebT1Oo6yDMI&feature=related)
Video 2: Comedy Central, The Colbert Report (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ24HdCPN9E)
Video 3: Shanedk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-fZ_jHMwFE)
Link 1: (http://randomrantsandravings.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/logic-101-a-nifty-link/)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)