RLS 4 (Jan. 30)

[ST. JOHN]

This week's posters: Jaymie, Rebecca Fetters, Abby, Kathleen, Spencer, Paula, Kalifa, Joe, Devi

Post a real-life situation that somehow addresses the prescribed title you have chosen.  In a few sentences, explain how it relates to your PT.  *You do not have to post a RLS that you will actually use in your essay.*

Everyone else, choose one of the RLSs from the people above and describe how it relates to your own PT.

Posters, reply directly to this message.  All others, reply directly to the individual whose RLS you are addressing.

Original posts due by midnight Saturday.  All replies due by midnight Wednesday.

[KalifaPearce8]

What The Ebola Crisis Can Teach Us About Responding To The Zika Outbreak

Two public health experts explain what the world needs to do better this time.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ebola-zika-virus-who_us_56ad14a5e4b0010e80ea544b

There is currently an outbreak in South America called the Zika outbreak. These health experts are explaining what lessons are needed to be learned from the Ebola outbreak in order to have better outcomes from the Zika outbreak. 

  The prescribed title is "Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished". In the real life situation, there are two experts explaining how what they know can change the outcome of a previous similar situation. These experts would agree with the prescribed title. They believe that not using the knowledge gained from treating Ebola in West African countries will harm situations with Zika.

[JaymieBromfield5]

In 2011, Japan suffered a traumatic natural disaster-a terrible tsunami caused by a 9.0 level earthquake-that was capable of damaging three nuclear reactor sites. The Fukushima disaster is well-known because leaks within these reactor sites spread across the Northwest-Pacific airstream, increasing the nuclear fallout well into international territories and as far as the Western coast of the United States.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/fukushima-accident/

Usually, the solution to radiation leaks would be containment and eventually disposal. However, in International territories, there is no governing body with political sovereignty. Because of this situation, the United Nations has rejected the normally accepted proposals made by singular nations, as this can be seen as an infringement upon the international area of land. This leads to my prescribed title, "Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished." Despite the knowledge the United Nation has on the effectiveness of nuclear fallout protocols used previously, the value of those proposals has decreased because they no longer apply to an area of land without a form of government.

[AbbyLhoste5]

Laws often made cut and dry. By this I mean lawmakers define a right and a wrong and try to leave little room for interpretation. What happen though is there are lots of exceptions and lots of loop holes. Specifically, when we prosecute and try mentally ill criminals, the exceptions show. This relates to PT #6, "there is a trade off between simplicity and accuracy". When we create laws, we try to make it as simple as possible and we lose the accuracy of the laws.

[BenProtzman8]

In the past two years the militant group known as ISIL or ISIS has taken over vast territories within Iraq and Syria. As well as expanding their sphere of influence, the group has claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks across the globe. The group has grown notorious for their videos of beheadings and their destruction of historical sites. In response to this group's actions, President Obama has made it clear that the United States will do everything possible to eradicate this group. This relates to my prescribed title, "The signals we give should be clear. The darkness around us is deep"-William Stafford. President Obama's message to the world that the United States is against this group needs to clear. The president must assure the U.S. public and those affected by ISIL that terrorist groups that are willing to take such as actions will not be tolerated by the United States and should not be tolerated by the rest of the world. 

[SpencerCaro8]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35443879

Recently, Iran flew an unarmed drone over a U.S. aircraft carrier in order to take "precise" photographs during a naval drill. It posed no physical or immediate harm to the warship itself though a U.S. navy spokeswoman claimed that the action was "abnormal and unprofessional", the specific reasoning being unknown. In this situation, the tension arises out of the ambiguity of the details regarding the motives and aims of the action. This relates to Prescribed Title 6, the trade-off between simplicity and accuracy. To solely claim that Iran flew a drone over a U.S. warship is simple and simpler than a claim that accounts for motives/aims as well. To take further details into account would decrease the simplicity of the claim but in turn would increase its accuracy. The consequences of this trade-off are evident in the tension that arises from the resulting ambiguity of the simple claim (due to a lack of further details).

[CamilaVizcarraGuevara8]

This RLS also relates to Prescribed Title #3: "The knower's perspective is essential in the pursuit of knowledge." When there comes a situation where a law has little room for interpretation, evidently some individuals are going to understand it differently than others. In a court case, especially, the jury which is led by the public, may feel differently towards someone they can relate to or know someone they can relate to and thus judge them differently than another individual who may not have any mental illness problems. 

[SalmaHuque5]

This Real Life Situation is related to Prescribed Title No. 4 "Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished". The photographs were taken by Iran for an unknown reason, but it is probable that they were taken because the knowledge they contained would be very useful later on. These photographs were taken at great risk to Iran because they could - and did - heighten tensions between Iran and the United States. However, the risk was justified because of the wide application the photographs could be used for against the US. The use of these photos makes them very valuable.

[LindseyStanley8]

This RLS can be related to the following Prescribed Title: "'Knowledge within a discipline develops according to the principles of natural selection.' How useful is this metaphor?" According to natural selection,the methods used to treat Ebola were not sufficient enough to "survive" the epidemic because they were not able to effectively contain the disease. For this reason, health experts have disgarded these methods and replaced them with methods that would be the "fittest" ways to respond to an outbreak. Therefore, the metaphor effectively explains how the insufficient knowledge of the treatment of the Ebola virus was replaced with new and hopefully more effective knowledge that will treat the Zika virus.

[SrinidhiDupaguntla8]

This RLS situation relates to the fourth prescribed title, "Without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished", because if we assume that the photographs taken without an intent then the knowledge of the Iranian drone's actions are not valuable. However, if there was a specific intent behind this action then the knowledge is carefully and thoroughly analysed, therefore given valuable.

[JustinHendee5th]

I believe that this RLS also relates to the PT “In knowledge there is always a trade-off between accuracy and simplicity.” Because the are of land is in international waters with no governing body, the UN has rejected to use certain proposals to clean up the fallout. The law here is very simple, as from what Jaymie has said it just makes it so nothing can really be done in international waters...  This makes it so the nuclear fallout cleaup is considerably less accurate and will not be as effective if there was an amendment to the law to make an exception for these situations. In doing so, the law would become more complex (addition of exceptions to the rule), and the process of cleanup would become more accurate.

[JeetenMistry8]

This RLS relates to PT #3 (TWE is knower's perspective essential to the pursuit of knowledge) because of the experts' perspectives. Their experience with the Ebola crisis led them to discover knowledge about handling such outbreaks. The resulting perspective allows them to test these practices and encourages them to develop more effective ways of combating such diseases.

[JamesHood8]

This RLS also relates to the perscribed title of “In knowledge there is always a trade-off between accuracy and simplicity.” Evaluate this statement in relation to two areas of knowledge. The RLS relates to the perscribed title as now officials know that they need to be more accurate in issuing warnings for diseases instead of keeping the warnings simple for everyone to easily understand them.

[ChristineJones8]

This relates to my Prescribed title : "how dot he concepts that we use help us construct knowledge". In this situation lawmakers rely on their own concepts/ ideas about what's right or wrong and what's best for the society in order to determine what laws should be passed.

[CarolLin8]

This relates to prescribed title #1. The area of knowledge would be history, and I will be able to evaluate the different ways of knowing, such as memory, reason, and sense perception, needed to find the solution to the Zika outbreak. 

[CarsonWiles8]

The RLS about the ebola and Zika outbreak can also pertain to PT number one. The scientists needed to use a network of knowing to better understand the current outbreak. The ways of knowing used could be memory, sense perception, and reason.

[DionneWareham5]

PT #3(“The knower’s perspective is essential in the pursuit of knowledge.” To what extent do you agree?) relates to this RLS because experts are using perspective, that they gained from the Ebola outbreak, to have better outcomes with the Zika outbreak. Without the perspectives from the Ebola outbreak, the exports could have similar results.

[JovanyDorsainvil8]

This is very largely a RLS that expands on history and its role within the prescribed title. History allows people to learn from the past in creating a better future. Often times, our society devalues history because it doesn't relate to the past; however, historians observe the capacity for history to predict the future. The history of Ebola can be applied in the world to predict the actions required for quarantine; without this application, most people would perceive it as invaluable.

[MarnageeScott8]

The RLS about the Zika outbreak can be related to prescribed title number 1, "In gaining knowledge, each area of knowledge uses a network of ways of knowing". Because of the recent outbreak many scientist are attempting to gain knowledge on how it spread and how it can be stopped. To gain this knowledge , scientist are using the Ebola crisis as an example. Ways of knowing used to gain this knowledge include memory, reason, and sense perception. These ways of knowing will be used together in order for scientist to obtain knowledge on the outbreak.

[SymonneMartin8]

This RLS can also be applied to my prescribed title, ¨without application in the world, the value of knowledge is greatly diminished.¨ If law makers do not believe that there will be many mentally ill patients prosecuted, they may not value as in depth knowledge on the subject. This can cause them to over-simplify the laws.