the video we watched was veery interesting. The idea of the movie kinda of bothered me only becuase you could tell that it was trying to insinuate that alll white people are rasict and by watching this movie they wont see it as right, there for proving the point of them being racist

Diving Bell 2

1. What do you think of Bauby's line in Bathtime when he states, "But I see in the clothing a symbol of continuing life. And proof that I still want to be myself. If I must drool, I may as well drool on cashmere."
I think that Bauby is trying to have something in his life that feels normal. Obvioiusly since his condition developed he has been in a hospital, around different people, doing differnet things, a completly different enviorment. And to make it even harder on him he can not communicate with the outside well or even to some people at all. Before being the co-Editor of the French Elle hewould be in constant communication with other people, and be in constant motion, from all of the work that comes with being an editor. The cashmere would give him something that is bringing him back to the old realty that he used to have. Also it is a way to express himself since so many ways of human expression have been shut down to him.
2. Considering how Bauby wrote the book, does it matter that he happened to speak French? How would have the writing of the book been different if he spoke Japanese or Chinese?
It does matter that Bauby spoke french and not any other language like Chinese or Japanese. If he was to speak one of those two languages it would take his system of communication a lot longer to happen, and because it would have taken longer, he may have ended up leaving out stuff that didn't seem important at the time but in the end helped to tell his story and experience better.
3. Why does Bauby find his appearance humorous?
Bauby finds his appearance humorous because he sees that not only is "exiled, paralyzed, mute, half deaf, deprived of all pleasures, and reduced to the existence of jellyfish" but that he is ugly to look out because of the newly formed deformities on his face. All of these piled up on each other and the realisation of them left him to have no other way to react to it but laugh. A "nervous laughter-when, after a final blow from fate, we decide to treat it all as a joke."
4. After reading the Chapter, Cinecitta, think of a place where, if given one last opportunity, you could spend an afternoon. Why did you choose this place? Please describe it in detail.
If i could spend one afternoon anywhere by me self it would have to be at the barn with my horse. Even though it is somewhere i go frequently it would be nice to just have the barn to myself, because it is normally quite busy there. (not that i don't like these people, we all get along very well). When there isn't to many people there it is a very quite and relaxing place where the stress of 'the real world' does not seem to enter. Horses are very needy and in need of constant care. My horse seems to absolutely adore me and when i walk over he perks up his ears and whinnies. Just being with my horse and at the barn doing anything, taking care of him, taking him out for a walk on a trail, or training for show season, seems to take all of my attention off anything else on my mind. Its almost like its own world. Its great.
5. After reading Tourists, please think of why we don't make more of an effort to connect with those that might look or act different than us.
I think we don't make more of an effort to connect with those who are different from us out of fear of leaving our comfort zones. If we interact with someone who looks or acts different it the interaction will be a different from what we are used to. Some people do not know how to act so end up acting pitying, or letting off an awkward vibe. They do not want this to happen however so people end up avoiding these situations. Like in the book, when the 'tourists' were staring at Bauby, and looked away when he looked up. They were unsure of how to deal with his situation because it is different from what they are used to, so they avoided potentially awkward situation or pitying situation and looks away.
6. Read Sausage and then consider the following: if you couldn't eat again, what meal would you miss the most?
If i knew i was never going to be abel to eat again the meal that i would miss the most is pizza, with sour cream and chedar ruffels chips, and root beer.

a) What is 'Locked-in syndrome'? Why would one consider Bauby's condition a prison? What is the significance of The Butterfly?

'Locked-in syndrome' is basiclay when your body is not functioning, almost as if your body is in a coma, but your mind is still completly functional. You are still there mentally, can precive things, but are unable to move, speak, twitch, whatever. This could be considered as a prision because you are still able to form opions, want to speak, want to communicate, want to have contol of your body, but instead everything about you is controlled. It isolates you from the ones that you love becuase of not having an accurate way to communicate. The butterfly is significant because it symbolizes the freedom that he wishes to have.It also shows how his thought proscess seems to flaot around from one thought to the other, and how he does not have a huge effect on what is going on around besides just something to look at.

b) What was Bauby's "frightening truth'?
Bauby's "frightening truth" was that he might be stuck in a wheel chair for his whole life. That he may never fully recover from this state of being.


c) In your opinion, how do you think Bauby should measure progress? Why do you think Bauby ends the chapter "Prayer" with the phrase, "I set out for the kingdom of slumber with this wonderful talisman, which shields me from all harm."
I think Bauby should meausre progress by what he is able to do. Whenever a part of his body becomes even slightly accesible for him to control i think that should be counted as some type of progress. I think he choses to end the chapter in this way because sleep is the one place where he can feel completley free, he can imagine whatever he wants. He also is comforted by the idea of his daughter praying for his recovery, and this helps guide his dreams to a better place and keeps him positive in a situation that couold lead many to be quite depressed.

Able Questions Part 2!!!!!

According to Abel, what is perception?
According to abel perception is "indeed a task to be accomplished and a problem to be solved." He thinks that perception is what we use to obtain knowledge and to solve a problem. When we see something we can interpret meaning from it by the way we percive it.

What does Abel mean by “seeing as”?
Able means that everything we ‘see’ is based off of the way we perceive it as. So whenever we see something happen our brain takes what we saw and interprets it based off of experiences or biases we may hold. According to Abel we do not truly see something but we see it as our brain perceives it.
To see what is the case, what is required? Please define each term.
Context-the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.
Inference- The act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true.
Concepts- A general idea derived or inferred from specific instances or occurrences.
Experience- knowledge or practical wisdom gained from what one has observed, encountered, or undergone
Interpretation- a mental representation of the meaning or significance of something
What did Nietzsche mean by “the fallacy of the immaculate perception?” How does Psychologist Joseph Jastrow prove this point? When have we done this in class?
Nietzsche means that there is no correct perception of what a person saw, and that one interpretation can exclude all others. Jastrow proves this point by creating the illusion drawing that resembles both a rabbit and a duck. Both interpretations of the drawing are right, but they cannot both be seen at the same time. We did something like this in class with the drawings from the little kids. Because the two groups had two different directions we both came up with different perceptions of the drawings.
What does Abel mean when he writes: “there is no sharp line dividing perception and illusion?”
Abel means that there isn’t an absolute clear difference between perception and illusion, that there is some gray area between the two.
Why is perception selective by nature?
Perception is selective by nature because as humans we are not able to take in every piece of stimuli that is presented around us. We mostly pick up things we are used to, expect to see, believe to see, or want to see. Also the humans brains tend to try to ‘fix’ things that do not appear to be right, which changes how we actually perceive what is going on.
What does Abel mean when he says: “To perceive is to solve a problem?”
What Abel means is that when we perceive what we see we do it in order to put meaning to it. Like If a tree was to randomly fall in the woods you could come to the conclusion that the inside had rotted out, causing it to fall. You may have learned about trees rotting which lead you to come to this conclusion, solving the problem of why the tree fell.
What is the role of social conditioning in determining how things “naturally look?”
Social conditioning is important in how things naturally look. Especially when it comes to art. People have different interpretations of how things ‘naturally look’ when it comes to drawing them out. Also some one can look at a photo or a piece of art that is supposed to look real and get it into their head that this is the way that that thing looks like. Like what happened with Gericault’s Horse Race.
What is significant of the Durer rhinoceros story? How was the influence of convention demonstrated when some tribes were given a photograph?
Durer’s rhinoceros story is significant because it shows how we tend to see what has been told to us as being right, or what we are used to. When Bruce saw actually rhinos he drew a representation of them that was very close to the one done by Durer. He had become so used to Durer’s rhino being an actual rhino that he perceived the real rhinos to look like that. The photographs shown to the tribe showed similar results. These people only know their surroundings as 3D objects. Seeing them in a smaller size and not 3D it did not occur to them that it was an image of something they had seen before, so they just saw it as a bunch of random colors.

How does convention influence perspective drawing?
Convention influences perspective drawing because it is striving to put an element of 3D in it to make it look more realistic.
What does Abel mean when he writes: Believing is seeing? How might this point be seen in the study of natural and the social sciences?
I think what he means that you cannot see something unless you believe you saw something. Like in the discovery of the planet of Venus. Once scientists had began to believe that there could be such a thing they began to realize that they had seen it before.
What does Abel mean by “hearing as…”?
Abel means that we interpreter sounds before we hear the whole word, and use our knowledge of the English language to put it together. Also this lead to the different pronunciation of sounds and to accents, since people are trying to imitate the sounds they hear.

Blink 2 :)

1.Three Fatal Mistakes
Mistake number one, the cop automatically assumed that Diallo looked suspicious of something, rather than doing such an innocent task as getting a breath of fresh air. Mistake number two, when Diallo didn’t move at the sight of the police coming toward him the police officer mistook this action as him being ‘brazen’ since he had already assumed him guilty. It did not occur to him that he might not be fleeing because of curiosity since he was innocent. Mistake number three was the police officer mistaking Diallo’s fear and his reaching for the wallet to prove his innocence as a dangerous task. He made assumptions without finding any knowledge on whether or not they were true, therefore jumping to conclusions and killing Diallo.
2. The Theory of Mind Reading
This section is about Silvian Tomkins and Paul Ekman. Silvian Tomkins was taught Ekman the art of “mind reading” by being able to read people’s facial movements. Together they created a book that using all of the muscles in the human face told all of the different possible combinations of faces that could be made, and how each one relates to an emotion.

3. The Naked Force
This section is about how emotion controls our facial expressions, not the other way around. Even though we are able to voluntarily control our facial expressions every emotion we feel is projected on our face, even if it is only truly shown for a millisecond. Also it states that if you force your face to form a certain emotion, like sad for example, you will feel sad.
4. A Man, A Woman and a Light switch
This section is about how autism can make a person unable to have the ability to mind read. They are unable to decipher what is meant by facial expressions, body language, and subtle hints portrayed through persons eyes. They pay more attention to peoples movements as objects, and lose the meaning that may actually be being portrayed to them.
5. Arguing with a Dog
This section is about how adrenalin makes it so people no longer have “mind reading abilities”. For example polices officers when in a car chase become so obsessed with the chase that they are told to back away from the chased when they finally submit. This is said because police officers have made rash judgments while still hyped up on adrenalin that they have shot people who posed to threat. It is also stated that people become almost autistic, all of their focus is put on the target, and time appears to slow down.
6. Running Out of White Space
This section talks about how the more space between a person and a person trying to “read their mind” the more time/likelihood they have of getting it right. If someone is close to them and makes decides to shoot someone it would be harder to notice, since there is less time to notice their body movements or actions. It also mentions how police officers are trained to stand behind the driver when pulling over a car at night to reduce the chance of the cops adrenalin becoming to high, and accidentally shooting someone from judging them off of something they mistook as a dangerous action.
7. Something Told Me...
In this section it talks about how learning how to “mind read” Is a skill that can be learned over time. It states that putting yourself into a situation that raises your adrenalin can make it so each time your heartbeat does not increase as much, eventually making it so you can function in this stressful situation with practice.
8. Tragedy on Wheeler Ave.This section sums up all of the knowledge that was obtained from the previous sections and applies it to what happened on Wheeler Street. It states how lack of experience, heightened adrenalin, preconceived biases, and lack of space lead to Diallo’s death.

Blink one

1. Describe how Warren Harding rose through the Republican Party to become President in 1920.
Warren Harding rose through the Republican Party to become president by other people’s encouragement and not through his own passion. People felt that he looked like a president, and when the Republican Party came to a dead lock in deciding who the candidate should be they picked Harding. Harding was picked because he looked like a president, he wasn’t picked because of his ideals or what he wanted to do for the country, but because he seemed to radiate common sense and dignity. “By early middle age, Harding’s biographer Francis Russell writes, his ‘lusty black eyebrows contrasted with his steel-gray hair to give the effect of force, his massive shoulders and bronzed complexion gave the effect of health’” The appearance of him made people assume that he would be a powerful man who could be a great president.
2. Why does the author believe that people were in error in promoting Harding to higher office?
The author believes that people were wrong in promoting Harding to higher office because it was done only on the fact that he looked like a president. They used ‘Thin-slicing’ and only looked at the fact that he possessed such an aura of power that they became to caught up in the fact that because he looks like this he must be a powerful. Because of prior knowledge of how successful presidents looked they became prejudice towards the way he looked, and automatically assumed that he would do a good job because presidents from the past who had power in the way they looked had done a good job. However, since people did not bother to see if he was actually fit for the job, he ended up becoming one of the worst presidents ever.

3. What was the point of the “Implicit Association Test (IAT)?”
The point of the IAT test is to show how observations from the world around us (including media) create connections of things that we pair together. The IAT test tries to show these connections. For example: if you took of list of names, family stuff, and career things and to separate them into two categories “male or career” or “female or family” according to the belief of the IAT test it would be quite simple. But however if you were to take the same list and separate them into the categories “male and family” and “female and career” it would take you longer or be a little harder, according to the belief of the IAT test. Gladwell states that this is because we are used to having family stuff connected with women and career stuff with men in our lives, so when it comes to putting the words in categories you would want to put the family words in the same category as the female name category. Making it a little bit harder.
4. What are the advantages to completing the IAT on computer? Why does Gladwell believe the IAT has become “so popular in recent years?”
The advantages of completing the IAT test on computer is that the words can be flashed in front of you, making it so you have to chose your first reaction, and not have time to analyze your answer. By doing this it makes it so you are able to get a score based off of the connections in your brain, not off of your morals. It has become very popular in recent years because the results are not subtle or vague, it comes as a shock to some people that they have these connections drilled into their head.

5. Why, according to Gladwell, did he become mortified upon completion of the first part of the IAT test on race? What occurred on the second part of the IAT test?
Gladwell became mortifies upon the completion of the first part of the test because he found it hard to put bad things in the category ‘European American or Bad’ rather than ‘African American or Good’. The second part of the test switched the categories, making them ‘European American and Good’ and ‘African American and Bad’. He then found this column a lot easier to complete.

6. Did it make any difference how many times Gladwell took the test? What does the author believe is the reason for our answers on the IAT (i.e. what does the IAT measure)?
It didn’t matter how many times Gladwell took the test, after four times he found he still had the same answer. According to the test he had a ‘moderate automatic preference for whites’, which was quite odd considering that he himself is half black. Gladwell believes that the test does not necessarily measure our hatred of a certain race, but more of the connections that are instilled into our brains by the society around us. Living in North America, which is dominantly, white prejudices are installed in our brains that are pro-white.

7. If Gladwell is correct, that your unconscious acts as a computer that “crunches all the data” from our lives and “it forms an opinion”; would you consider this to your true self? Please explain your answer.
I would defiantly agree with this statement. We can act a certain way just because that’s how we believe that is what is right. However in our subconscious if we have a certain belief engraved in there no matter how much we fight it, or may not eve recognize it, we may act differently because of the prejudice. For example, a person can say that they are not a racist. But because of where they live it is a mostly white population, maybe their grandparents grew up during a time when African Americans were fighting for equal rights and they were racists. The prejudices that are installed in this person may lead this person to act differently around an African American than around a white person without even realizing it.

8. Does Gladwell feel that it matters if one has a “strongly pro-white pattern of associations?”
Gladwell does feel that it matters if one has a ‘strongly pro-white pattern of associations”. He feels as if this person will act significantly different than someone who does not around a African American. They might laugh a bit more at their jokes, stand a bit farther away from him or her, smile a lot, stumble over words, and other things like that.

9. How does the Warren Harding error impact the business world?
The Warren Harding error impacts the business world because people are more likely to employ people who seem to give off an aura of power. For example there is a larger amount of taller people employed in higher positions in the business world then there is short people. This is because tall people tend do give off a more powerful stance, (since they have more mass to control) people tend to make the same prejudices that were made to Harding, judging off of the look of power from their outside rather than the power actually in them

10. How does Bob Golomb’s strategy defeat the Warren Harding error?
Bob Golomb is a car salesman who tries to not judge people at all. He listens to the customer and always thinks that this person is going to buy a car, and doesn’t blow them off because of the way they are dressed or their race, height or age. He also keeps in contact with each of his customers, making sure that each one is happy, ensuring that he is not biased to one race or gender.
11. What were the results of the Ayres study? What does Gladwell believe to be the explanation for these results?
The results of the Ayres study was that black men and black women received higher prices than that of white men and women. Gladwell believes that in their subconscious they have the prejudice from the world around them that women and African Americans are inferior which lead them to thinking that they could make more money off of them by selling the car for the ticket price.

12. How does Gladwell believe you can change your score on the race IAT? How, according to Gladwell, can we apply this rule to our everyday lives? Do you agree?Gladwell believes that you can change your score by looking at good things that were done by African Americans and bad things done by European Americans before taking the test. He also believes that if you expose yourself to minorities in your daily life it will help to raise your score. For the most part I agree with this, but only if it is done for a while. I don’t believe you can spend a few hours with an minority then drastically change your score. I feel that if over time you expose yourself to minorities and good influential African Americans your score will be raised.