Airplane Maintenance

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This article discussed the "behind the scenes" maintenance and service done on airplanes in order to keep them running.  Quick fixes and minor issues are addressed in between flights, where the pilot keeps track of certain mishaps experienced during the flight for the maintenance crew, such as spilled drinks on cushions and minor technological issues.  For large maintenance projects, the planes are taken to a hangar to be worked on.  This article was written by a CNN writer who went to a United Airlines garage in Houston for the story.  Also, the article spotlighted Thanksgiving travel as that is an especially busy time for airlines (24 million American passengers during the holiday week).

As a piece to both entertain and inform, the article is intended for any curious person interested in the inner-workings of the airport scene.  People wondering about how airplanes are kept safe and clean for passengers may also be interested in this text.  One way the article portrays its information is through ethos and the use of professionals in the field.  The article includes excerpts from an interview with the manager of the United Airlines technical operations department in Houston as well as other workers in order to add accurate insight.  The author also uses hyperbole in order to emphasize his points.  Because the device is used mainly with numbers, however, the text is confusing at points.  Real statistics are mixed with the exaggerations and become cluttered.  In addition, the author uses the narration of the everyday situations airplane maintenance workers experience to compliment the statements he makes about the overall system.  This helps bring down the level of sophistication for the everyday reader.  Because of the appropriate diction and the execution of writing to the audience, the article accomplishes its purpose of both informing and entertaining the reader.

Diamonds from Sierra Leone

"Diamonds from Sierra Leone" is a song published with its music video by Kanye West 2005.  While the  song never reached the status of a "hit," its music video has had a huge impact on society.  West decided to write this song and publish this music video in order to bring awareness to conflict diamonds, specifically in Sierra Leone, the center of blood diamond harvesting.  In addition, West encourages viewers to make sure that they purchase conflict free diamonds in the future.  This video was made soon after they world began to gain awareness of blood diamonds.  In Sierra Leone and some other African countries, child labor forces are being used to mine for the valuable jewels.  These children are forcably taken away from their families and are then supervised by extremist soldiers.  The kids are rarely given breaks, and hardly ever even see the light of day.  If uncooperative, the children will have their hands cut off by soldiers, or they may be forced to kill their own families.

Because of this threat to human society, Kanye West felt it important to bring awareness to this issue.  He mainly focused on Americans, the major consumers of diamonds and West's largest group of followers.  In order to do this, Kanye relied heavily on pathos to get his point across by portraying the pain and suffering of the children of Sierra Leone.  Before the song even starts, a native's commentary on the situation is played, along with footage from the diamond mines.  This makes the reader sympathize with the children right off of the bat.  This also establishes ethos by incorporating someone who has experienced the tragedy first-hand into the video.  From there, West uses imgery to help the reader see the devastation in Sierra Leone.  For example, a woman receives an engagement ring, and as she puts it on, blood rushes from her finger and engulfs her arm.  Standing next to her is a child from the diamond mines.  A repeated image or symbol in the video is the fully dialated and fully-black eyes of the child slaves.  This is because they never see light; they are in the mines during all hours of the day.  This image haunts the viewer and further adds to the effective us of pathos.  West is effective at portraying his point because of the haunting and devastating images he shows to the viewer, convincing them to forever stay away from conflict diamonds.

Electoral Spending

            This article was about the spending in the past overall election, including the senate races, the representative races, and the presidential race.  Overall, the spending reached $4.2 billion, with Romney and his campaign spending $1 billion and Obama spending only one tenth less than that.  Other main points included the fact that most spending was used to produce negative ads, and that the general trend was that the more a candidate spent, the better they did in the election.  Ethos was used in order to establish credibility throughout the article; the CNN reporter constantly referenced the reliable Center for Responsive Politics.  This article was written only a week after the election, so it is possible that these estimates will change.

            In writing this article, the author used the statistics and facts from the election in order to show that money is becoming an overwhelmingly accurate predictor for the outcome of an election.  Concentrating on Romney having the first $1 billion campaign, the article notes that this may be the new bench mark for candidates to reach in order to be elected.  This article relies on the enthymeme that’s major premise is that elections should be based on facts, not on propaganda and advertisements.  Intended for the American people, the article intends to educate voting-eligible citizens on the big business of politics, hopefully making them a little bit more aware of how their decisions are influenced.  Because of the intelligent use of logos, the article is very effective.

Link to Article

Boomerang Part 2

            Michael Lewis’s Boomerang is a non-fiction text about the global financial collapse of the 2000’s.  As stated in the previous post about this book, the text examines the crisis starting with the extreme depreciation of the American real estate market, and then delves into the result that crash had on the global financial community.  After reading the book in its entirety, it is clear that the purpose of the book is to not only describe the nature of the financial collapse that sent the world into a global recession, but also to examine the nature of society today that caused this collapse.  The first post stated that Lewis used humor early on when commenting on cultures such as in Iceland to describe the people there.  As the novel explores Greece, Ireland, Germany, and eventually the United States, social commentary remains a common sight.  However, it becomes apparent that this commentary serves a greater purpose: to make a statement on the selfish nature of society that shot itself in the foot, leading to the largest global recession since the Great Depression.

            The end of this novel takes a break from examining the financial side of the crisis and moves on to show the social effects that the recession had in a town in California.  Lewis uses this as a snapshot of America because of its drastic devastation due to the recession.  Through this, Lewis states that humans are programmed to hoard as much of scarce resources they can (in this case money).  In doing so, people only consider the instant gratification of their actions instead of considering the long-term effects.  In the recession, people bought and sold over-valued mortgages and other securities that did not hold true to their value.  However, using the rebound of the fire station in that small town in California, Lewis leaves the reader with a positive spin, stating that people can be optimistic and successfully work towards rebounding and coming back from devastation.

            A repeated metaphor throughout the story is comparing something to a symptom of a disease.  In the first parts of the book, symptoms are just used to describe the effects of the financial crisis and the toll that it was taking on countries around the world.  At the end, just like the topic of the book, the financial crisis as a whole becomes a symptom of the behavior of society.  Also, the book does a good job of breaking down the whole (financial crisis) into its parts (effects on different places and countries).  This helps the reader understand the vast impact that it had and also the different results in countries around the world.  Ultimately, the book was very creatively and well-written, making the author effective at communicating his purpose by the end of the novel.