#6 "Welcome to "Toddlercore": How Dressing Like a 2-Year-Old Became the Fashion World's Latest Craze"

           These past few months, fashion trends have taken a sharp turn from the classics and dived into an era of playful prints and tendencies. The summer of 2014 have not displayed the usual, classic summer trends people have followed before, but brought out many different yet familiar ideas. Though many believe that these fashion innovations are original and distinct, it is actually a slight different copy of a former group of “fashion people”: children. The trends are believed to have started out from the popular music festival, Coachella, which is centered in the Californian desert. Items such as flower crowns, heart shaped sunglasses, and printed shirts have prevailed during this time. All fashion magazines and blogs were commenting, positively, about these changes and influences; the amount of articles that have rooted out from the festival was great just as Fashion Week seasons, which are the center of attention at all times. However, these trends are not original; in fact, it only makes it seem like adults have stolen their children’s clothing. Apparels such as pineapple printed t-shirt or junk food printed onesies, flower crowns, and overalls are usually what children wear. As celebrities begin to wear and set trends on the fashion societies, the usage of “toddler-inspired” clothing have highly increased. Thus, the new summer trend now, which was supposedly inspired by toddlers, marked the beginning of “toddlercore”.

           Christy O’Shoney, author of the article, analyzes and expresses her thoughts about the latest fashion trends. Unlike other authors from different magazines, she views these innovations not as “chic”, but rather childish. She does not mock the trend, however she does express her disagreement by using words such as “toddlercore” and “toddler-inspired fashion”. She analyzes specific iconic items and connects them to the fashion of children: pineapple prints, flower crowns, junk food onesies, and overalls. To draw a picture of how these child like trends ended up in high end fashion lines, O’Shoney incorporates tangible examples, such as mentioning the overall looks of the London Fashion Week, the Moschino Cheap and Chic Collection, popular fashion pictures in Pinterest, and how celebrities like Olivia Palermo, who is considered a modern fashion icon, have taken the same route into “toddlercore”. Overall, the O’Shoney is very descriptive and even quite humorous; she analyzes the current situation while including her feedback on such events.

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/21/welcome_to_toddlercore_how_dressing_like_a_2_year_old_became_the_fashion_worlds_latest_craze/

6. Christian Couple Responds After #ShareACoke Baby Announcement Goes Viral

In this article, Marie Osborne, talks about the announcement of being pregnant. First, she starts by showing a Christian couple that were going to have a kid, pastor Patrick McGillicuddy and his wife Whitney. Their video had a response of more than 4 million people. With this, the author starts to argue about how pregnant couples tries to plan outstanding ways to surprise more people and get more attention, because we live in an era where everything is shared by the media. She also argues that because of these cute confessions, sometimes others confessions may seem lame. Just the fact that people are getting pregnant doesn't excite people as they used to. However, she also says that there are people who are creative and like to do these fun videos. For example, Patrick McGillicuddy and his wife Whitney were already happy spreading the news to their family and friends, they only made the video for fun. They have the creativity, so they used it to show their happiness.

In my opinion, I think that Marie Osborne did not do a good job explaining her opinion, because she contradicts herself. Throughout the essay, she gives many quotes about how just becoming pregnant is not a great news anymore. For example, she quotes Kerri Sackville, "To me, the whole phenomenon speaks of desensitization. We are no longer sufficiently moved by the wonderful news of a pregnancy. We need more excitement, more titillation; we need the announcement to be bigger and brighter and wittier. We need special effects and pyrotechnics and showgirls and dancers. We need lights and cameras and action, and we need the whole thing uploaded to YouTube so we can share it with our friends." Sackville says how getting pregnant is enough anymore. However, at the same time, Osborne also talks about how good Patrick and his wife Whitney is. That they mean no harm and were happy telling only family and friends. She says that having creative ways of showing that a couple is pregnant is bad, but also says that there are some who are only doing it for fun. In my opinion, she is contradicting herself and I do not get what she really thinks.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2014/august/share-coke-christian-couple-responds-after-baby-announcemen.html?start=1

6. Do All Languages Derive from a Single Common Ancestor?

This is about the origin of languages and how scientists work to find out how and where speech started. We all know the story about the Tower of Babel and how different languages are predicted to have originated from there, but how? The author presents a video that explains that as people spread out after the event at Babel, they each developed their unique languages. Different environments and ways of living affected the newly formed groups and made them develop new words for the new things they discovered. The video also explains how scientists analyze all languages and try to trace them back to their origins to form a language family. This diagram shows the languages that are connected to others and the common ancestor of all of them. The way scientists do this is by analyzing mainly grammar and syntax, since similar sounding words can be false cognates or borrowed terms which aren't very reliable. An example given is, in English, the words "father, foot, far and five." When translated to Ancient Greek they become "pater, podos, per and pente." Not very similar sounding, are they? But look at how in English, they all start with "p" and in Ancient Greek "f". By doing this with each and every language while testing numerous words, scientists are able to find patterns and trace similar languages back to the primitive ones. The author explains how a proto-language is one that is an ancestor language and that there are lots of them. She also states how languages don't leave physical artifacts behind like cooking utensils or hunting weapons and "that writing was only invented somewhere between 50,000 and 300,000 years later."
Gretchen McCulloch, author of this article, does a great job explaining how languages are studied and related. Her introduction was extremely well worded and able to catch the reader's attention even though it was a single sentence (a question really). Throughout her essay, she presents two videos, one from TED Talk and the other from a guy who studies how languages work. Both videos do an exceptional  job at explaining the origin and the evolution of languages and make it clear for the readers what the author is trying to teach/explain. A picture used to show how the word "tea" is pronounced around the globe gives the audience an idea of how language really does have a common ancestor. Her word choice was good and she was able to explain a complicated topic in a simple and brief manner. Even though the essay itself isn't very long, Gretchen is able to convey her message (mostly because of the videos she used) which was probably her main objective.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/08/21/origin_of_languages_tower_of_babel_proto_languages_and_the_brothers_grimm.html

6. The Proven Superiority of Nonviolent Resistance

Alex Knapp, author for Forbes, talks about a recent article by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan regarding resistance movements. They explored various movements from 1900-2006 for the purpose of "self-determination, the removal of an incumbent leader, or the expulsion of a foreign military occupation," meaning any movement for a national cause. The study involved 323 movements, both violent and nonviolent, and their effects in terms of achieving the cause's goals and of "transitioning to peaceful democracies afterward." The study revealed that peaceful movements, or "civil resistance," was twice as likely to succeed than violent movements, and even those that didn't were four times more likely to result in a democratic government afterwards. When governments or military organizations responded to movements with violence, resistance movements that involved violence had only a 20% chance of success, whereas civil resistance movements prevailed 50% of the time. Moreover, nonviolent resistance movements are better equipped to make sure that a peaceful, democratic government will be established. Their organized nature and tactics mean that they can "build parallel structures to the government," making them better equipped to take over when the government they oppose finally crumbles. Three characteristics which are apparent in every sucessful resistance studied are most likely the reason for their success: "they enjoy mass participation, they produce regime defections, and they employ flexible tactics."
Knapp both opens and closes the article with quotes from famous peace activists, Mahatma Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., bringing the piece together very nicely. He employs all 3 of the "modes of persuasion," making the article both balanced and effective; logos, reason, is addressed in the logical associations made and conclusions drawn based on the evidence of the study. Pathos, emotion, is addressed in the quotes, which touch those readers who stand for causes similar to those of the men quoted. Ethos, credibility, is addressed with specific examples, such as the successful resistance of the Solidarity organization in Poland. His language is commendable, especially as he masterfully juggles such terms as "civil resistance," "nonviolent movement," and "transition to democracy" without sounding repetitive or unversed in the subject. The complex vocabulary is, at times, difficult to follow, which simply means the intended audience of this article is one more refined on the subject. Overall, author Alex Knapp does an amazing job of conveying his message to the reader and keeping the piece together successfully.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2014/07/24/the-proven-superiority-of-nonviolent-resistance/

5. "Teaching is Not a Business"

     Education is the building blocks for a better society. Therefore, it is completely relevant for a country to greatly invest in education! Not quite. Society today value the one thing that corrupts the human mind: money. Most people would agree that, although education is important, business is even more important. This concept has corrupted the minds of adults in our society, especially the adults responsible for the quality of education: school teachers. Even school teachers today have been influenced by this concept and now teach with the selfish goal of earning more money. Teaching is in fact not a business. For students to strive, teachers must believe in them and dedicate their time to teach them for their own good and not for money. Education must be taken seriously. Anyone who decides to become a teacher must know for themselves that one teaches to create a better society; to encourage creativity and originality to the upcoming generations, and to encourage and believe in them. Thus, teachers in our society today must remind themselves of the importance of true education. They must reconsider the main purpose of teaching and their role in helping students strive for a better society.
     The author of this article, David L. Kirp, was very effective through his writing. I was very engaged and interested throughout the whole article. The main purpose of his article was to inform and increase the awareness of the changes needed to be made in education today. Yet, proposing his ideas, Kirp uses very good writing which really gets the reader's attention. He uses very few possessive pronouns and directs his argument through research and personal opinions. He uses mostly formal language throughout the whole article, however still makes it easy to understand. The good examples and descriptions of Kirp made the reader associate and relate to the author and his argument. As he himself is a professor in Berkeley, the article felt more credible and he made his argument easy to comprehend as he himself could better relate to the situation. The author was very effective in his writing and clearly transmitted his message through his article. I really enjoyed reading this article as it got me thinking and reflecting on his argument.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/opinion/sunday/teaching-is-not-a-business.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=MostViewed&version=Full&src=mv&WT.nav=MostViewed

5. A Nice Tall Glass of Camel's Milk

This article is about Camel's milk. Almost nobody has ever tasted of even imagined about drinking camel's milk. The author talks about a student, Walid Abdul Wahad, and his research in raw camel milk. The author tells us a story, about the student going to Saudi Arabia due to his religion. While he was visiting Saudi Arabia, he noticed that a lot of the people were drinking raw camel milk. Soon, he realized that the people were doing that because they their prophet drank camel milk. Then, the student becomes curious and starts to study about camel milk. He discovered that camel's milk is way more healthier than cows milk. As he researched about camel's milk, he saw that it improved the persons behavior of who drank camel's milk. The author ends the article by telling us another persons perspective. Physician Harriet Hall tells us that camel's milk is just an experiment, that it is not definite.

The author of the article, Olga Khazan, writes a informative article. She does not give us her opinion, she simply tells us a story of a student's research. I believe this article was meant to be entertaining, and the author does a good job entertaining some readers and me. The author uses many quotes as her device to entertain us, which i believe made this article very successful.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/a-nice-tall-glass-of-camels-milk/376042/

#5 "A Makeover for the Hijab, via Instagram"

           Muslim women nowadays are making their own mark in fashion culture. For years the Muslim women have been told that they are unable to be fashionable or stylish because of their hijabs, head scarves that are required to be used in Muslim cultures. Even so, many women have brought upon innovations in fashion for the Muslim girls via social media, such as Instagram. Muslim fashion bloggers, whom show that these girls are able to be fashionable with their hijab, have increased dramatically. They present various ways in styling hijabs and keeping their culture of being conservative. Therefore, many fashion companies have emerged, producing accessories and stylish items specifically for the Muslim women. These changes have encouraged and inspired young Muslim teenagers, whom viewed the hijab as inconvenient, change their opinions and appreciate its beauty. It has made the Muslim women feel more confident. The Muslim women have been viewed as oppressed and pitied because of the strict rules their culture bring upon them in terms on clothing. However, the changes in clothing, small so that no rule is broken, have opened the minds of other viewers, considering these women as not oppressed, but just a part of the Muslim culture. Despite its growth, it has brought upon many discussions and debates on whether this act is defying the laws of the Muslim culture or not. Although it does not exactly follow the rules, this simple act creates a space for Muslim women in the world of fashion, and brings out the confident in these ladies.

           Hannah Seligson, author of this article, writes about the changes in Muslim women in the world of fashion and expresses her thought on it. She clearly supports this act and views it as a way for them to express themselves. Seligson writes the article in a very casual tone, yet displays a strong but subtle like towards this innovation. She gives supporting details for these changes by incorporating the thoughts and opinions of Muslim fashion bloggers and women that are related to fashion. Her tone superficially is neutral, but it is quite positive and supportive towards the Muslim women. The word choices she uses are easy to understand and the examples and quotes are easily relatable. Overall, Seligson’s article was not only easy to understand, but also very entertaining.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/fashion/muslim-women-hijab-style-traditional-garment-fashion.html