CTW 1: Kobe's Blog Responses

By K. Tran

Can EV cars and solar roof tiles save Mother Earth? Can spaceships and planetary colonization save humanity? If so, can Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, be our leader to save humankind?

People who sacrifice themselves to benefit society is, in my own terms, a hero. Also, a hero is both a direct and indirect leader who does morally good and intellectually competent actions that are portrayed by the media as astronomical benevolent deeds. I will argue that Musk is a hero because his life is spent upholding his moral agenda in preserving human life in the next millennia with clean energy initiatives and space colonization missions. This is important because Musk is thinking about the long-run for humanity, refusing to believe our civilization will someday die out.

Musk demonstrates his heroic plans in preserving humanity by running his own companies like Tesla. Tesla is a company that produces electric vehicles (EVs), solar panel roof tiles, and other clean energy alternatives for consumers. Musk believes that by using more green energy, as opposed to consuming more fossil fuels, the carbon dioxide levels can stop increasing so dramatically in order to prevent the further exacerbation of global warming. Global warming is a concern because it negatively affects the environment, such as an increasing number of natural disasters (NASA). This is concerning because if there are more environmental threats, then many lives will be lost. Musk is trying to delay or hopefully reduce the potential of this issue in causing human civilization to collapse for good. Also, Musk addresses earth’s eventual cyclical extinction level event, whether it’s from global warming or not.

Musk can preserve humanity from extinction-level events by giving people the opportunity to colonize other planets, increasing humanity’s likelihood of survival. Musk argues, “This is why we must preserve the light of consciousness by becoming a spacefaring civilization [and] extending life to other planets.” His rationale is that if we are on multiple planets, then there is a greater likelihood of survival because all planets are unlikely to encounter a doomsday event simultaneously. Are you amazed by such a moral viewpoint? Musk isn’t just funding his plans; he is also leading them. SpaceX has accomplished many space launches to this day, and Musk feels colonization is ready in the new few years. Yet skeptics believe our present day technology will not be capable of fulfilling such missions. Regardless, Musk’s compelling reasoning is enough to convince others, our future leaders, that this mission is necessary if not vital. It is no surprise that Musk with his background and otherworldly ideas make him the leader he is today.

Like a young boy excited to observe a spaceship take off from a NASA base in Houston, Musk reminisces on this emotion and memory to everyone through the media and his life’s work. Heroes surprise us with ideas and actions that seem superhuman, which inspire us to take an initiative to create a new and better world along with them. Whether it’s rescuing the world from self-destruction or building new life beyond our current parameters, Musk is remembered as a hero for encouraging everyone to reach for the stars through diligence to become a leader to save humanity.

References

Woodyard, C. (2013, April 17). Icons: Elon Musk doesn’t let up at Tesla, SpaceX. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/17/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-icon/2076641/

Levin, S. (2018, Jul. 16) Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue ‘pedo’ in baseless attack. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/15/elon-musk-british-diver-thai-cave-rescue-pedo-twitter

Clifford, C. (2018, August 02). Elon Musk defends plans to build a community on Mars after downbeat NASA report. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/02/elon-musk-defends-plans-to-build-community-on-mars-after-nasa-report.html

NASA. (n.d.). How Climate is Changing. Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/

Herron, J. (2018, Sept. 27). Elon Musk’s Tesla holdings lose more than $1 billion in value after SEC charges. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/09/27/elon-musk-tesla-ceo-loses-more-than-1-billion/1448279002/

McGregor, J. (2018, Aug. 22). Elon Musk is the ‘poster boy’ of a culture that celebrates ‘obsessive overwork’. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/08/22/elon-musk-is-poster-boy-culture-that-celebrates-obsessive-overwork/?noredirect=on

Helmore, E. (2018, Aug. 19). Timeline: Elon Musk’s ‘difficult and painful’ 2018. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/19/elon-musk-tesla-timeline-difficult-painful-year

Snider, M. (2018, Oct. 11). A victory for Elon Musk: Tesla outsells Mercedes-Benz in US for first time ever. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/10/11/tesla-outsells-mercedes-benz-elon-musk/1598474002/

Mosher, D. (2018, Dec. 15). Elon Musk beat a world record for rocket launches in 2018. Here’s every history-making SpaceX mission of the year. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-falcon-9-commercial-rocket-record-most-launches-2018-12

McFarland, M. (2018, Dec. 18). Elon Musk’s first tunnel is finished. Here’s what it’s like to ride in it. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/tech/boring-company-tunnel-elon-musk/index.html

The Tesla Team. (2018, Oct. 7). Model 3 achieves the lowest probability of injury of any vehicle ever tested by NHTSA. Retrieved from https://www.tesla.com/blog/model-3-lowest-probability-injury-any-vehicle-ever-tested-nhtsa

Clifford, C. (2018, June 26). Elon Musk: This is why we have to build civilizations in space. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/26/elon-musk-on-twitter-why-we-have-to-build-civilizations-in-space.html

By K. Tran

Some beings are born as heroes. Some beings work to become a hero. And some beings are given a path to become a hero. Carol Danvers, the woman to become the hero known as Captain Marvel, encompasses all of these features in becoming a hero. In the movie, we see glimpses of Danvers’s childhood. It reveals that she has a thrill of an adventure with all things athletic and backbreaking but mainly we see her passion in high motion vehicles like race cars and eventually a fighter plane. The most significant thing is the fact that during all of her trials and struggles from her early childhood to young adulthood, we see her stand back up when she falls. When she trips during baseball or when she wrecks her race car or when she falls off a rope from military training, we see that she is not intimidated to fail. Reselience is an essential feauture in heroes because it shows that you are unstopppable even when you are put down by your enemies, which projects a characters strength and adaptability.

The significant symbolism in Danvers’s transition from driving race cars as a child to flying an army fighter jet as a young adult to operating a rocketship now, and finally to self-flight through her powers illustrates how she is becoming stronger and inspirational over time because not everyone can accomplish what she can do. However, the fact that she is able to do it will show others that they can try to achieve their own goals as well. This transition also shows how dedicated she is when she puts in the effort to improve herself. As her deceiving mentor always says, “Bring the best out of yourself. Control your emotions.” And clearly we see she is able to do this throughout the arc of her life.

The scene where Captain Marvel is confronted with the fact that Dr. Lawson is a rogue Kree, who is trying to put an end to the galactic war by having the Skull refugees escape the galaxy with the lightyears engine, is a call to Captain Marvel’s inner goodness. When the secret engine crashed landed near a lake and Dr. Lawson was murdered, Danvers had the option to leave, but instead “sacrificed” her own life by shooting the engine, blowing it up. This is how Danvers gets her powers, but she loses her memory of who she was and becomes a weapon for the Kree.

However, she never loses sight of herself when she learns the truth of what the Kree did to the Skull’s people. Her humanity brought out the best version of herself to prevent the Kree from continuing to slaughter the innocent. She pushed through her pains to save the refugees from execution, and she corrected her wrongs by helping the refugees she saved to find a new home. All of these events in putting herself out to danger first before anyone else displays her selfless character to help others regardless of whether or not she knows them–or if they were her former enemies. This also shows that she is not mindless obeying orders; she has a moral conscious to tell from what is right or wrong.

These traits–resilience, self-sacrifice, compassion, self-independence, moral–are all that Danvers has. This is what makes her the hero that she is. Save us in endgame Captain Marvel.

By K. Tran.

Imagine your dad was killed by your uncle, and you had to take care of yourself from a very young age in the streets of Oakland. You are of African descent and unprivileged…until you grow up to learn you are the son of a King of a powerful nation know as Wakanda, located in Africa. You grow up to be a powerful warrior and assassin. With this knowledge and skillsets, would you return home to reclaim the throne? And with that sort of power, what will you do?

KillMonger opened up a simple argument. Since the kingdom of Wakanda is the most advanced society in human history, utilizing Vibranium for the most sophisticated technology–greater than that of the brilliant Tony Stark–why hasn’t this technology been shared with the rest of the world? The neighboring African countries had been colonized, left in turmoil, and continues to remain impoverished. Knowing the African people are endangered and suffering, the Wakandan people should have stepped in to provide aid and perhaps military support to defend themselves during colonization and imperialism. The African people are also left with no education, adequate supplies of food, and healthcare after imperialism. Yet the Wakandan people remained isolated and hidden around all this suffering. Essentially, KillMonger is criticizing the morality and ethics behind the Wakandan King’s decision for allowing this suffering to continue. KillMonger disliked how the King’s rationale was to keep his people safe and the Vibranium technology a secret to prevent invasion. But KillMonger is no humanitarian. He did murder many innoncent people…

By K. Tran

Imagine your neighbors squatting on the streets. Now imagine them relieving their feces onto the very streets you walk on every day. Quite unsanitary. In this blog post, I will reflect upon my awareness campaign on Bill Gate’s charitable project to reinvent the toilet to improve the sanitation in countries that need it. Our reddit post and in-person talk are quite successful as many people engaged and learned a lot from our infographic and presentation. But first, how did I stumble upon this topic?

I found a video on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah called “Bill Gates Wants to Reinvent the Toilet”. To my interest, I want to see what this billionaire was up to. Is he just wasting money on an extravagant new high tech toilet to meet the comforts of a billionaire’s buttocks? No. To my surprise, it is a humanitarian campaign to help those suffering from unclean conditions, which can cause deadly diseases, especially in the youth.

To summarize the video, the toilet takes up the fecal matter which will be eaten up by microbes. The microbes will release two essential products: water and methane gas. Clean drinking water is a required necessity that is lacking in nations stricken by poverty, and methane gas is a useful energy source. Bill Gates wants to make a new, affordable toilet for those in desperate need.

As for my awareness campaign with J. Mertke, we begin a successful launch. Our poster originally had a poop emoji, which I thought gave some personality to the project. On reddit, our post receives some “constructive criticism”, which prompts us to make “needed” changes in order to make the poster appear more academic.

And so this beautiful revised piece came about:

So we restarted our campaign on reddit, and this is what it looks like:

No further criticisms are made, and we receive many responses in the voluntary survey we provided, which shows 100% of support for this campaign with a sample size of 17 individuals. When we asked, “what did you learn from the infographic?”, one of the direct quotes from our responses is, “Awesome project. Sanitation is needed in poorer areas.” When we asked, “How would you support it? [the cause we are advocating]”, significant responses were, “research it more” or “Donate money”. In summary, people responded that they are now aware of the 2.3 billion people who do not have basic sanitation, and that Gate’s tech is remarkable for solving an important health issue while also solving other problems such as a lack of reusable energy and clean drinking water as described earlier. Finally, this leaves us with the in-person campaign:

At the entrance of the library, we held our signs to attract supporters to our cause. Some of our the people we talked to said, “Cool tech. 2.3 billion people don’t have the basic sanitation to live a full and healthy life. I think it’s awesome that we have more awareness and funding for this cause. Thank you, you guys.” The curious people we engaged with found the issue compelling and the solution outstanding because it is ironic to think a toilet will increase sanitation since it is typically associated with grossness in western culture. It is also ironic to see a toilet reap in monetary benefits such as energy and resources such as clean drinking water. Your mind would probably reject the idea of drinking water that came from a toilet. Not only are these benefits obtained, but also we can use the fecal matter as fertilizer–something that we do not currently do with human waste in the United States. All of this is important because this investment will improve the quality of life in impoverished communities in need, which will lower youth mortality rates and disease contraction rates. Freshwater, a rarity for some, can finally be distributed. This will greatly reduce the contraction of water-borne diseases if a lot of water is produced. Energy, of course, is a needed resource in the developing world to sustain a growing infrastructure. This new toilet also contributes to sustainability because unlike fossil fuels, this bodily released methane gas is not derived below the Earth’s surface, meaning the methane gas is continuously recycled–not changing the methane levels in the atmosphere. It also contributes to sustainability by using the human fecal matter as fertilizer to enrich plant growth, which is a natural substitute for commercial fertilizer (a product that can lead to chemical run-offs into the water. Now for my opinions on this project.

I liked this project because I learned new things that I would otherwise never look into. Infographic and presentational skills are a must for our future engineering careers, which I find is good preparation. Please check out the additional flyers we put out on the bulletin boards!

By K. Tran

Have you ever wanted to reaffirm your stance in your arguments, but you do so somewhat conversationally? I do, too! The authors of They Say/I Say defines metacommentary as “a way in commenting on your claims and telling others how–and how not–to think about them.” Typically, metacommentaries appear as effective indicators of where my main argument is located. For example, if I am to respond to an opposing viewpoint on the government reforming public education, I would say, “My point is that if education is better restructured to incorporate more technology and hands-on learning, tailoring to the newer generation of the youth, then the youth may find newfound importance and applicability in what they learn at school for their future careers.”

Also, transitional words or phrases function as metacommentary to effectively illustrate what you are arguing for. For example, during a compare and contrast of apples and oranges, one may say they are both fruit that grows on trees. You can respond with a countering metacommentary such as “but.” So you would say “But oranges differ because they are citrus whereas apples are not.”

I believe metacommentaries are important because they help guide the reader to understand your argument better, and your essay would be less likable to read if the evidence and reasonings are just tossed together like a salad. In other words, if the essay doesn’t flow nicely, then I won’t read it because I will find it more difficult to connect ideas as easily than without the metacommentaries. This may be a problem for some writers because clearly communicating their argument is already difficult enough without the commentaries. Now I would suggest watching some debates or reading more news articles to see how they commincate their argument nicely.

By K. Tran

How formal should writers sound when writing let’s say an academic essay? Graff and Birkenstein, the authors of They Say/ I Say, said “Although we don’t want to suggest that you avoid using sophisticated, academic terms in your writing, we encourage you to draw upon the kinds of expressions and turns of phrase that you use every day when texting or conversing with family and friends.” So instead of sounding like your serious English teacher describing a delicious cake for example: “The cake delivers a sweetness and a delicate texture of an exquisite experience like no other”, you could say, “The cake passed like Gordon Ramsay standards where only lit cakes could be served.”

I agree with the authors that writing should also be fun and easy to understand, but only if it nicely delivers your point or argument in a clear way. Writing like this could also help explain unknown academic terms and ideas in a way that you and your audience could understand. In contrast to formal speech, sometimes it will sound unclear and even confusing than when you would just speak in your own voice. For example, which one would you understand better when reading it? “Artificially intelligent automobiles are now undergoing stricter transportation regulations after the deadly incident it caused on the road,” or “There are new laws that are being passed to stop further deadly accidents made by self-driving cars.” Perhaps the second one fits more aligned with you? Whatever the case, I suggest using the type of writing that is comfortable for you and is the best method of explaining things clearly.

By K. Tran

How fixated are you that school is the road to personal success a hundred percent of the time? Would you consider a person who dropped out of high school or college a failure? Do you think a drop-out’s point of view matters? Well, you should hear what a drop-out has to say. Consider Bill Gates, a self-made billionaire drop-out, as an inspirational example compared to a homeless person with an engineering degree. This is one of the many examples where having a well-rounded perspective matters, which is a critical skill in writing. In the book, The Craft of Research, the authors emphasize the need to consider perspectives that differ from yours because sometimes the other viewpoints could invalidate your argument. The authors explained, “No matter how rich your evidence, readers are likely to think of exceptions and counterexamples that they believe undermine your argument.” If you do not address possible alternatives to your argument, your readers are likely to dismantle it before you even put down your pen.

I, too, sometimes neglect to respond to different alternatives and counterarguments because it is too burdensome to consider. However, it could be a wonderful addition if one of your evidence could counter the counterargument. For example, let’s say you argue that eating chocolate is unhealthy because it contains a lot of sugar that may cause diabetes. Then, someone may argue that dark chocolate is known to be healthy because of its antioxidants. You may state the claim that dark chocolate is also unhealthy because some are made with processed sugars. And you can also suggest blueberries as a source of antioxidants to invalidate the reader’s counter-argument. Going through this process makes your argument stronger because it shows you don’t have a biased view and that you can hold your ground against all the alternatives and counters to dismiss your argument. This skill can make you effective at winning arguments or persuading others which are essential for certain occupations later in life. Well not that far in life (look at the meme below).

By K. Tran

“Grab their attention with something snappy or cute.” Is that really it for an intro? According to, The Craft Of Research, there is so much more to do in an introduction if your essay. In order to reel in your audience, you would need a “contextualizing background”, “statement of the problem”, and a “response to the problem”. These are essential to include because your author needs to understand what is leading up to a problem, what is the problem we face, and whether it is going to be addressed or not and how? Otherwise, you would be left with an empty hook.

What the book is missing is something we learned in class, which is called the so what factor. The book covers how the introduction is structured, and how to make it flow nicely. However, at the end of the day, we don’t know why the author’s argument in the introduction is significant or why it matters to the audience. I think this is a struggle many students have, including myself. For example, let’s say, hypothetically speaking, the frog populations across the world are near extinct due to human activities, and a strong argument has been made that we should recuperate the population through a list of great solutions like forest restoration efforts. …But why should we care? The so what could be that an ecological collapse will ensue since frogs are a keystone species, or a country’s major food source will die out since they rely on frogs. This skill, I think, is crucial for students to enhance. If you don’t know why you are arguing for something or how it is important to the readers, why continue arguing?

By K. Tran

What’s the difference between one’s reason and one’s evidence? Consider a snippet of a discussion from The Craft of Research, Fourth Edition, between a mother and child:

Child: I need new sneakers. Look. These are too small. Parent: Your feet haven’t grown that much in a month, and they don’t seem to hurt you much.

I think the authors use a well-developed analogy where the mother is trying to reject or fail to reject her child’s reasons and evidence, comparing how a reader is trying to reject the author’s reasons and evidence. Reasons are used to favor for or favor against something, whereas evidence are used to support those reasons. Examining the child’s argument again, the reason here is to get new shoes but the evidence is quickly discredited or disproven by the mother. So for writers, they need to understand that the strongest reasons are worth nothing until strong evidence is provided to back it up. Otherwise, you will be seen as a…

However, strong evidence needs to be legitimate. So in some cases, the appeal of authority is essential to examine. For example, if your best friend tells you that you are sick from a flu virus, telling you good reasons such as sneezing and coughing are symptoms of the flu, then would you agree that you caught the flu? It is indeed plausible but not definite. Now if you went to see your doctor and he or she tells you that you are actually suffering from a bacterial infection (the symptoms between the bacteria and virus are somewhat similar), then you are more inclined to believe your doctor, wouldn’t you? This is due to the fact that your doctor is an experienced physician, so he or she is certified to take care of your health. So make sure you have strong reasons supported by the best evidence, which is backed up by relevant authoritative figures.

By K. Tran

We typically think our favorite athletes are our heroes when they display our country’s great strength during the Super Bowl or Olympics. But we often don’t see beyond this surface as they entertain us. Yusra Mardini, an eighteen-year-old Olympian Syrian swimmer, risked her amazing life to save other refugees as they were all stranded on a crowded sinking boat in an attempt to escape the Syrian War. She and three others pushed the boat to European shore in three and a half hours, swimming in the freezing water. “I was trying to be positive and I was praying with everyone. It was really hard,” Mardini said. Although we all know that Mardini trained long and hard to become an Olympian swimmer in that heroic aspect, we now also see Mardini’s morality during the tragic experience she faced. She could have done nothing and survived on her own. No. She put her life at risk in the open cold water to try to do what’s right: saving the lives of the many. We are lucky to have a thriving symbol of strength, virtue, and selflessness to continue to live on. Her legacy shall never end…

Mardini was not alone. An NFL player named Pat Tillman, who was offered $3.6 million, was going to live the American Dream. Yet this man declined it. For what? To serve his country, the United States, assigned in the Army’s Rangers in a war he did not support. Uncle Sam did not call him to duty. Why did he sacrifice himself? His moral high ground, patriotism for his beloved country, and desire to protect our great democracy when it was tested by a foreign threat after the tragedy on 9/11 all define who he was. Tillman was a brave hero who leads his fellow peers in battle, soon dying in their hands. Their blood… We shall never forget him.