For Wednesday, March 22, choose a topic from the long list on the assignment sheet, and write about it in the following way.
Start by stating the topic without using the word "I" or "my." In other words, state the topic as a topic. Then explain briefly the historical or technical information that a reader might need to understand the topic. Finally raise at least two controversial issues associated with the topic.
Don't forget to use transitions to indicate the moves the paragraph takes.
As usual, post your paragraph by 5 PM on Tuesday, March 21, so that the class will have time to read them before class on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteInternet Identity Theft
With the increase in the use of technology over the years, many people are getting their identity stolen online. People all over the world get their identity stolen whether it’s their facebook or twitter profile, or if someone hacks a person’s credit card. People hack other people for fun to mess with their profiles, and to try to steal people’s money without them knowing. Two big problems with internet identity theft is people can hack your social media accounts, and they can open credit card accounts in that person’s name.
A ton of people get their social media accounts hacked usually because that person’s password is usually something related to them and it’s easy for a hacker to figure out their password. Hackers like getting on other people’s social media accounts to post weird or embarrassing things about that person. A couple months ago, my brother’s Instagram account got hacked by someone, and they changed his profile name to something very inappropriate and also posted a picture of a nude girl on his account. This can cause serious harm to people, which is why they tell you to make your password with numbers, a capital letter, and sometimes even a symbol that way it’s hard for someone to hack your account.
Almost every adult in the U.S. has some type of credit card in their name. This is why a lot of the hackers like to hack someone’s credit card, because by the time they purchase an item, the person’s name the credit card is under would take them a long time to even realize a purchase was made that they didn’t make. In 2014, Target got hacked and nearly 70 million people’s personal information was released, and 40 million credit and debit cards were hacked. This was a big wake up call that the U.S. needs to find a way to keep people’s identity safe from hackers so a scandal this big never happens again.
Erica VanHoose
ReplyDeleteProfessor Burns
PA #12
22 March 2017
Challenger Disaster
Ignoring engineers’ warnings can result in a devastating disaster. On January 28, 1986, NASA superiors ignored engineers’ warnings to delay the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger due to low temperatures. When temperatures were too low, the shuttle’s O-rings became brittle and failed to work properly. As a result, the Challenger lasted seventy-three seconds before disintegrating and killing all seven members on board. During the following weeks, controversy arose over the actual cause of the failed launch. Some argued that poor rocket design caused launch failure. For example, after numerous large-scale tests, an engineer named Thiokol, denied design flaws revealed during the tests. Instead, he compared it to small-scale design tests that revealed success. As a result, NASA was given word that the space shuttle had sufficient equipment for the space shuttle to launch safely. On the contrary, engineers suggested that cold temperatures caused the O-rings to break and prevent the Challenger from launching properly. While NASA was trying to meet deadlines, they failed to adhere to warnings that the O-rings would not be able to seal because temperatures were too cold to handle. Therefore, in an effort to meet deadlines, NASA decided to proceed with the launch, which led the O-rings to break during flight.
Hacking being used as a political tool by the Russians, during the recent US elections has been major issue in the current affairs. The US government has officially concluded that there was Russian involvement in the elections. The Russians interfered in the elections in multiple ways. They firstly were able to leak private information regarding Hilary Clinton, who was a candidate for the US presidency. They leaked information that Hilary used a private email account to conduct business during her time in the government. This led to a FBI investigation being conducted against her. Not only that but also they were able to change the results of the online election polls. There are also allegations against the newly elected US President, Donald Trump, that he conspired with the Russians to leak fabricated information against Hilary Clinton to undermine her image so people wouldn’t vote for her. There are also allegations that Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee and leaked its documents. All these allegations against the Russians has led to investigations being conducted as to how much did the Russians intervened, and were able to hamper the results of the elections. - Taimur Iftikhar
ReplyDeleteOn March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island accident occurred. The three Mile Island accident was a nuclear meltdown of a nuclear reactor on in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. This accident is considered the most substantial nuclear accident in U.S. history. It was a 5 on the 7-point nuclear event scale. The accident was caused by a minor problem in a cooling circuit, causing the temperature to rise. This made the reactor shut off, and a relief valve failed to close. Some of the blame has been placed on the way the workers of the plant handled the accident. Also, the accident has been blamed on the technology not working as it should have.
ReplyDeleteWith the increase of technology over the years comes the increase of harm to the environment; One such harm is the acidification of the oceans. Acidification in the oceans is caused by the burning of fossil fuels in factories, power plants, planes, trains, and cars; when you burn fossil fuels like gas, coal, or oil you emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which will then dissolve in our oceans causing the acidity to rise. Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuel consumption has risen exponentially thus creating such issues. Even the slightest change in acidity can cause many crucial organisms in our oceans to die such as coral reefs, plankton, and algae all of which play major roles in the ocean and our ecosystem as a whole. A decrease in these animals would cause the earth's oxygen level to decrease, oceans to be polluted, and marine life to die off.
ReplyDeleteThe US goes through extreme measures to make sure many of the drugs that are produced work in numerous occasions. Why does the United states put huge stress on drug testing? This is because one mistake can affect the lives of many people. Germany had learned the tough way in the late 1950’s because of a drug called Thalidomide. Thalidomide was developed by the German drug company Chemie Grünenthal to be used as a sedative or hypnotic. Later, many pregnant women used this drug to alleviate morning sickness. Shortly after the drug was sold in Germany to thousands of women, between 5,000 and 7,000 babies were born with phocomelia; only 40% of the infants survived. Phocomelia caused long limbs either to not develop at all or to be presented as some sort of stump. Other effects phocomelia caused were deformed eyes and hearts, deformed alimentary and urinary tracts, blindness and deafness. Although this was a enormous problem in Germany, it also affected many new born babies all over the world. Around 10,000 cases were reported of babies with malformed limbs; only 50% of the 10,000 survived. Because one company failed to make sure their drug worked in all types of situations, many lives were either taken or caused a great
ReplyDeleteThe Exxon oil spill in 1989 was one of the worst environmental disasters ever. The oil spill, dumped around 11 million gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean. The oil tanker was located at Prince William Sound Alaska and the only way to get to the tanker was by helicopter, plane, or by boat. The oil covered around 1,300 miles which happened to destroy many animals lives such as sea otters, salmon, seals, and sea birds. The result of this accident made Exxon Mobil lose billions of dollars and it made many people concerned. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was created to help create the ability to prevent and respond to oil spills. This oil spill changed the oil industry forever.
ReplyDeleteAs the effects of global warming worsen, the honeybee population has been steadily declining. One of the biggest reasons for the decline in population is the increasing use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides that contribute to human agricultural development. This raises the question as to would it be more important to focus pesticides and fertilizers to help plants grow or devote energy into saving the bees. Another controversial issue is using the fertilizers and pesticides in the first place. A main problem concerning this issue is how to fix the issue without causing a decline in our crop outcome.
ReplyDeleteWhite phosphorus (WP) is a chemical weapon that has been used across battlefield in recent years. There is a large debate over this weapon because it can be used in various unharmful ways but at the same time can be abused to cause great pain to people. White phosphorus has effects very similar to incendiary weapons but releases a white smoke when burning. Different international laws ban incendiary weapons that are primarily used to harm people directly but WP can slip by these regulations because its primary purpose is for smoke screens or providing visual aids on the battlefield. While it is often used in these scenarios there have been multiple cases of WP being used in high population areas or on people “accidentally” and the serious injuries that it has induced written off as accidental side effects. The US and Israel are two of the most notorious nationals for using WP in the field and continue to do so today. The question is that even though WP has it’s uses outside of an incendiary weapon should it still be banned because of the likelihood of it coming into fatal contact with civilians?
ReplyDeleteCyber bullying is an ongoing issue in America. Cyber bullying has affected thousands of teens and there's questions how to stop this problem. Two big controversial questions that most people ask are, Why do people cyberbully others? Also How are people cyberbullied? There was a case back in 2003 involving a young named Ryan. Ryan was bullied for his speech problem. however the guy that was bullying him wanted the world to humiliate him so the bully went to the internet to expose Ryan. Days later Ryan couldn't take the humiliation and killed himself.
ReplyDeleteThe Chernobyl accident is a nuclear accident that happened on April 26, 1986. This accident is considered to be the most disastrous nuclear accident in history. This was caused by flawed Soviet-era reactor design along with human error. This disaster caused twenty eight reactor and emergency staff to loose their lives from radiation and thermal burns within four months after the disaster. It is also believed that 7,000 people who were under the age of 18 at the time of the accident contacted thyroid cancer. This accident has changed peoples perspectives on nuclear power and also the safety precautions that plants must follow.
ReplyDeleteThe spread of thermonuclear weapons distributed among smaller nations has always been a scare for the big powerful nations. Toward the end of the cold war to the present day, small countries such as North Korea & Iran have been on the radar of countries such as the US. Some questions are how did these countries, particularly Korea obtain the technology to develop ICBM's? Also are these countries going to be a threat to our safety on US mainland? Controversy has been made about Iran's non nuclear program in recent years. Iran has been enabled to create nuclear power, however they're restricted from making weapons with this. As for North Korea, they have weapons being tested.
ReplyDeleteOn April 26,1968, the Chernobyl nuclear powerpoint in Ukraine exploded. The explosion was a product of a bad Soviet reactor design paired with serious mistakes made by the plant operators. Resulting in what is arguably the worst nuclear disaster the world has ever seen. Even after all these years of research the Chernobyl accident still leaves questions to be asked. Such as what are the continuing health impacts of residents during the time of the nuclear fall out.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteافضل شركة تنظيف فلل بالرياض
شركة تنظيف سجاد بالرياض
افضل شركة تنظيف كنب بالرياض
كافة أعمال النظافة العامة للمنازل مع جلي البلاط، غسيل كنب ومجالس أرضية والموكيت والسجاد مع التعطير بافضل المواد التنظيف، جلى البلاط باحدث الماكينات مع التلميع وجلي الرخام، نظافة الوجهات الزجاجية، تلميع أرضيات السيراميك. تنظيف خزانات المياه مع التعقيم. مكافحة الحشرات بجميع انواعها النمل الابيض بق برص فئران صراصير والمحافظة على الصحة العامة للاطفال. تسليك مجاري شفط بيارات وتنظيفها مع المواد
للمزيد من الخدمات تفضل بزيارة : www.nileriyadh.com