America Runs on Dunkin - Fallacy

Dunkin' Donuts' current advertising slogan is "America Runs on Dunkin." This is a logical fallacy - it makes the assumption that since a select amount of Americans start their day with a caffeine fix at Dunkin' Donuts, all Americans (or just the absolute majority of Americans) run on Dunkin' Donuts. This advertising slogan is what's known as a HASTY GENERALIZATION. A hasty generalization is a logical fallacy where a person draws a conclusion about a large population based on just a small sample population. In this case, Dunkin argues that, based on the people they see roll through their stores in the morning (and afternoon as well), all Americans run on Dunkin' Donuts, which we know is just not true, given that Starbucks and Seattle's Best are still in business.

Dunkin' Donuts' slogan is also a BANDWAGON fallacy - it is an attempt to a person think that everyone is starting off at Dunkin' Donuts in the morning, and therefore he or she should too.

Media piracy is a topic that is becoming more and more prominent in our country, especially as the debate of internet regulation is continually growing. Some argue that stealing intellectual property is as heinous of a crime as stealing physical property, and people should be punished as such. Others argue that you just cannot regulate music and media like you can physical property, and since artists and production companies experience no tangible loss per song stolen.

In the article in USA Today, the writer explains his experience in China where he bought a CD, and was sure it was pirated, since most of the CDs sold, even in legitimate CD stores, are pirated and sold for dirt cheap. The pirated music was of excellent quality - indistinguishable from areal CD. This lead the writer to realize that musicians in China use CDs not as money makers but as promotion tools. Artists in China make their real money off of donations and concerts. The writer argues that this is a good thing, and that the artists are okay with the system as is.

In a different article in TNJN, the writer argues that music piracy is still an issue, and needs to be fixed. The article states: "Music piracy is not only stealing music from the artist but the producers, technicians and everybody involved in the music making process. By pirating music, individuals are being put out of jobs and limiting the flow of new bands entering the industry." It discusses how the RIAA has sued 159 students at UT, offering a $3,000 settlement in place of challenging them in court.

Both of these articles highlight the extreme endpoints of the media piracy debate; There are many people with much more moderate views in between. Personally, I think the actions of the RIAA are disgusting, and I cannot comprehend how a court actually justified making some poor lady pay 200K for a couple downloaded songs.

New Museum Idea

I've decided to change my museum idea - I'm going to do a museum based on nutrition. It will be a lot easier to form a good paper around this topic because it's a topic that I am more interested in more and feel more passionately about. There are going to be several exhibits that are fun and interactive, that show people the dangers of some of the foods they eat, and how easy it is to pursue delicious, easy, healthy alternates. The reason the museum should exist is because obesity is a terrible epidemic in the United States, and obesity related complications kill more people than anything else.

Dictator Museum

There should be a museum dedicated to history's worst and cruelest dictators and revolutionary leaders. Stalin, Hitler, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, etc. While these people were terrible men who were responsible for the deaths of an unbelievable amount of innocent people, they need to be remembered. When people think of, for example, the innocent people that were killed in the Holocaust, they need to be reminded that there was a person behind all of it. In the case of Hitler/the Holocaust, it's what happens automatically anyway, but a sole reminder of all the terrible things certain people are capable of with certain powers (such as a museum) would go a much farther way in raising awareness and helping to prevent people like this from ever abusing their power again.
I could do a lot of research for this on things like the Holocaust museum in DC (I've been there, it's an incredibly graphic but enlightening experience) to see what was successful there and what I could incorporate into my museum. I'd also have to research into a couple dictator's specific lives/reigns/crimes, so I could use them as examples in the paper.

San Diego Museum of Man

I visited the San Diego Museum of Man. I don't think it was quite as interesting as some of the visits in my blog group. I kind of wish I had gone to a science or aerospace museum, but I decided to try something new. It wound up being pretty cool - It was fun learning about where man came from and everything that made us what we are today. The museum definitely managed to make it a lot more interesting than my high school anthropology class did! The museum had some interesting exhibits, from one on ancient Egypt to one investigating the evolutionary curiosities of the human skeleton. All in all it was a pretty good trip, and I definitely learned some cool stuff. Not enough to make me switch from a technical major though!

Museum website: http://www.museumofman.org/exhibits

Would an Apology Help or Hurt?

In this case, an apology was not necessary. Kanye West was speaking out against a political opponent of his, and although he did it in a rash and controversial way, he did not need to cave into people pressuring him to apologize. All that did was force an insincere apology anyway. Kanye is allowed to think that George Bush hates black people - maybe a statement such as this could have pressured George Bush into putting a little more time and effort into helping Katrina victims more swiftly and effectively, in order to avert the image of being a racist. Instead, Kanye instantly rescinded his statements, and George Bush was allowed to go on and on in interviews about how "offended he is by being called a racist." Here's a hint George Bush: don't get "offended," SHOW people how you do care and you can make a difference. That's the best way to make Kanye look like an idiot, not by drawing an insincere apology out of him like a grade school teacher draws out of a kid who pulled his classmate's hair.

Kanye West Apology

There was a lot of political unrest and government criticism after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the surrounding area. One of the most controversial statements made about the government was Kanye West's attack of then-president George W. Bush: "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Not only did this attack severely offend the president of the united states, it negatively affected many people's opinions of both George Bush and Kanye West. Kanye West later went on to apologize and state that his statements were made out of frustration, and stemmed from the emotion of the moment. He then went on to state that human beings in general don't "choose the right words" in states of emotional distress. George Bush, in an interview with Matt Lauer, said he forgave Kanye, but said that he was still troubled that anyone would ever call him a racist.
Some people were surprised that Kanye openly apologized for this incident - The only reason he did so was to regain public support. No one really knows if he meant it or not. He could very well still think George Bush is a racist. That being said, maybe an apology was not necessary, because he was just criticizing a public figure, something citizens in this country are expected to do.