Outliers Chunk 1: "People Don't Rise from Nothing"

Opening with the phenomena of Rosetans who had long life spans without the interruption of heart disease before the age of 65, Malcolm Gladwell does an amazing job-- in his bestselling novel Outliers-- at explaining how and who "the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are." In the first chapter Gladwell explains the "Matthew Effect," --taken from the concept of an excerpt from the bible-- to explain how hockey players, soccer players, and even gifted students are selected based on a misconception that they are better suited . Gadwell states that instead of being better at what they do, children born in the rather early months of the year tend to exceed a bit more as opposed to children born in the late months due to the extra amount of time they have had to develope, especially in the case of young athletes who at the ages of 10 and 11 are just hitting a vital stage in physical maturity. Over the course of a few years and a bit more time of practice the older child does in fact become better at whatever it is they are training for and an idea based on a faulty premise is proven correct. The second chapter was about the 10,000 hour rule. It sounds like quite a bit of time but it is in fact the key to perfecting any skill, like in the case of Bill Gates who was able to accumulate 10,000 hours of computer programming and start a business with a friend, helping the two of them to become wealthy. Gladwell does however state that the year you were born also has a strong impact on what way and opportunities you will run into; some of the richest people i.e. John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnigie, etc. were born in the early 1800s allowing them to mature just in time for the greatest economic transformation in history. The third chapter goes on to speak about the trouble with geniuses. Although they are intelligent it stops mattering at a certain point. A man can have an Iq of 130 while another has one of 160, thirty points may seem like a major difference but it isn't because as long as the two are smart enough there is no difference. Anything over a certain IQ is unnecessary and with the lack of creativity comes a boring person unable to think outside of the box.

• What do you think of Gladwell's claim that no one is self made?

Microsoft's Multi-Million Dollar Settlement to I.B.M. Gives Way to Suspicion of Trust

James Kanter and Kevin O’Brien collaborated in "In Europe, Intel Faces a Large Antitrust Fine" to illuminate the case against computer chip making corporation Intel which is being investigated by Brussels--- "European antitrust regulators, [who] have been aggressively pursuing what they see as anticompetitive practices among technology companies"--- over complaints from it's archrival Advanced Micro Devices about "abusing its dominant position in computer chips by giving large rebates to computer makers, by paying computer makers to delay or cancel product lines and by offering chips for powerful server computers at prices below actual cost." The journalists use an anecdote to write about and they exppress this anecdote through not only direct quotations but with data from past Intel settlements. This article can be found at (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/technology/companies/30chip.html?_r=1&ref=business)

• Is it fair to accuse Intel of breaking antitrust laws because of the tough competition that it brings?
• Could this story have been written without the use of any anecdotes?
  

A Genetic Revolution Launched on the Backs of Fruit Flies

Alice Park's article What Good is Sleep? New Lessons from the Fruit Fly illustrates the ways scientist have used Drosophila melanogaster or as we know it, the fruit fly, to find out how we humans deal with things like aggression and sleep. Like humans fruit flies need sleep in order to keep from hitting a brain meltdown. "During waking hours, the brain keeps adding new information about its environment, forming new circuits and new connections in an ever thickening neural network," if it never gets any time to cool itself it crashes. In fruit flies and humans alike the brain takes time to regroup from a day of new things to remember, during this time "the brain actively prunes the neural network laid out during waking hours, trimming away weaker connections that haven't been used in a while or weren't strong enough to begin with. The stronger connections are believed to be filed during sleep into long-term memory, where they can be accessed again and again as needed." So you can think of sleep as a pressure release valve. So what do flies do to require them to have to sleep? They eat and mate. While it does not sound very complex, it certainly can be. When the female supply is low, male flies have to compete with one another for the right to mate. But females aren't just looking for any old guy (sound familiar?) they want males that'll be able to provide an adequate food supply for them and the kids. The guy flies are willing to go as far as box if it means they'll get the prize -- food or mate -- and they even tend to have their own fighting style. Male flies rear on their hind legs and lunge at thier opponents when fighting while females head-butt and shove. This information is not very new but Harvard University's Edward Kravitz has been "able to link Drosophila's sex-specific behaviors to genes." When Kravitz bred male flies with female fighting genes, they tended to head-but and shove like females and when he bred female flies with male fighting genes they began to do the more aggresive lunging. The next step in this process is to "see if these same genes appear in mammals' or even the human genome. Chances are good: the fruit-fly genome is made up of 14,000 genes, while the human genome contains 20,000." Because the fruit fly is such a simple organism, we can use our genetic tools to decode it, meaning it will be used for many years to come. You can view this article at (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1889099,00.html)

• Are there any other behaviors scientists have been able to decode in fruit flies?
• Have scientist tested these findings in more complex animals?
  

USC's Restaurant Rendition of '2001' goes-to-college'

According to Jessica Gelt's artclie Beer by the Beaker for the Academic Crowd, USC has a new restaurant called The Lab Gastropub which happens to be "part of a rapidly growing roster of restaurants opened on Figueroa Street by USC Hospitality in hopes of making the neighborhood a go-to destination for students, faculty, alumni and the public." Hence it's name The Lab looks like just that, including features like chalkboard tables, white-tiled walls, beakers full of beer, leather study chairs and bookshelves packed with science texts. According to a bartender working at The Lab, it's making alumni jealous and asking 'Man, why wasn't this here when I was here?' The menu features beautifully presented un-greasy bar food, including boneless hot wings; crisp calamari with two sauces; tomato, mozzarella and basil salad; black Angus beef burgers; spicy grilled lime and garlic shrimp; and meatloaf with mashed potatoes with gravy. There are 14 beers on tap, with the number one being a special "Trojan Blonde" brew by Karl Strauss. You can find this article at (http://www.latimes.com/theguide/restaurants/la-et-earlybird30-2009mar30,0,3781710.story)

• Is this an effort to persuade prospective students to consider USC?
• Is this bar open to everyone or do you have to be a certain age to enter?
  

High Tide on the Eastern Shores

Richard A. Lovett's article New York Seas to Rise Twice as Much as Rest of U.S. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090315-new-york-sea-level.html)elucidates the issue of rising sea levels, particularly highest on the Northeast coast. According to Lovett, researchers suspect that the forces that generate the North Atlantic's Gulf Stream ocean current will weaken in the coming decades. As a result of global warming, the sinking of the cold water that drives the Gulf Stream will reduce and the deep ocean will begin to warm in the North Atlantic. Due to changes in ocean circulation, the rapidity of sea level increase will raise contingencies of hurricane and winter storm damage. Researcher Jianjun Yin says, 'some parts of lower Manhattan are only 1.5 meters [5 feet] above sea level. . . twenty centimeters [8 inches] of extra rise would pose a threat to this region.' Areas like new York, Boston, and Washington D.C. will see a 14"-20" rise in sea level by the year 2100, while Miami and San Francisco are only expected to see half this increase. Along with these issues the Arctic Ocean seems as though it is rapidly melting. There is a possibility that the Arctic Ocean will completely un-thaw by September of the end of this century. Lovett sees this ia vital information because it helps researchers to shape new methods of preparation for potential damage due to rising sea levels.

• Do you think this will raise more of an eco-friendly sentiment along the U.S. coastlines?
• How do you think it will effect the people of the U.S. if the Arctic Ocean does in fact melt?
  

National Geographic Precis

The NatGeo website is particularly interesting; from stories on peacocks to environment quizzes, there definitely is a lot to admire. You would think that such a site would be a nightmare to navigate but interestingly enough the site happens to be very well organized with categories and subcategories that really help to make searching easier. I went to the travel and culture section and found it quite interesting that the average life expectancy in Malawi is only 39 years while in Tunisia it is 73. And, for all those animal lovers, there is an animal listed from A-Z, in their own specie categories of course. If you thought the magazine was good, you'll love the site because it's like having a gigantic magazine unfold at the click of a button.

• Is NatGeo an American corporation or does it belong to no one in particular?
  
• Why is it important to have sites that focus on global issues instead of national issues?
  

Chunk 4 "Thy Enemy's Enemy is Thy Friend"

In the closing chapters Glassner adds metaphoric illnesses and plane crashes to the list of fictitious fears the media has proclaimed to be running rampant. He explains how "diseases" like Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) are made up to fit the needs of people suffering from things they may be too afraid to address, or in the case of breast implant disorders, just trying to "cash in" on. Some people take the obvious thieving side just to let it be known that they are either right wingests or on the other side of the pole. Planes, although one of if not, the safest way to travel are upheld by the media to be more dangerous than anything when the odds of being in a crash are extremely low. In the end Glassner points out the tricks in the trade of fear mongering: "the use of poignant anecdotes in place of scientific evidence, the christening of isolated incidents as trends, [and] depictions of entire categories of people as innately dangerous." He sums up nicely by saying that these fears Americans make up and hold on to are "oblique expressions of concern about problems that Americans know to be pernicious but have not taken action to quash."

• Why do people tend to accept heartfelt stories over truth?