CE1
August 27, 2018
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/wild-tracking-animals-space-could-predict-earthquakes-ground-ncna903311
NBC is an American broadcasting network posting news from a variety of different topics. It leans slightly to the left politically and as such its bias is to the Democratic Party. In early broadcasting, the RCA (Radio Corporation of America) acquired many stations, including WEAF and WJZ which would eventually become NBC. The RCA ran both of these stations together under the names of the "Red Network" (WEAF) and the "Blue Network" (WJZ), the main difference being that Red was commercially sponsored and Blue was not. NBC eventually monopolized the broadcasting world and a complaint was filed to the FCC. From this, the blue network broke away to become ABC and the red network became known as simply NBC.
This article in particular speaks of a possible earthquake warning/detection system that scientists are looking into that uses the behavioral patterns of animals living in areas prone to the tremors. The International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space initiative (referred to later as Icarus) has GPS tagged upwards of ten thousand animals including birds, cows, and bats in earthquake prone areas such as Nepal and rural Pakistan. It has been observed that some animals are able to anticipate these earthquakes and adjust accordingly. Scientists at Icarus believe that if this method of detection were reliable it could save millions of lives especially in locations where a detection or warning system is only good a few seconds prior to the shock.
The author of this article utilizes both ethos and logos to get his point across but not so much pathos. When using numbers and explaining the process of the experiment, Cox uses logos to appeal to our sense of logic because of his scientific analysis and theories of the experiment. Using quotes from other researchers at Icarus and various universities also enforces the logos appeal. The experiment's proposal also relies very heavily on an appeal to our ethos because the potential to save thousands of lives in the future through these efforts relates to our ethical code to help people when needed.
I found this article fascinating to say the least because this idea seems ingenious. Every effort to detect disasters before have all followed the same route; find the cause of it and determine symptoms to develop a solution. This does not always work though because these tectonic boundaries are in all different situations and as such will react very differently, there is no universal symptom so there is no universal solution. As much as we can sense as humans, our senses are very limited to the full spectrums. Some animals can see infrared or ultraviolet, where we cannot, and many can hear octaves beyond our capabilities. Despite the clear disadvantages they have in communication, we have developed ways to not necessarily communicate with the animals but take signs we need to understand more, so maybe we could take cues from other species to further what we know?
The author of this article utilizes both ethos and logos to get his point across but not so much pathos. When using numbers and explaining the process of the experiment, Cox uses logos to appeal to our sense of logic because of his scientific analysis and theories of the experiment. Using quotes from other researchers at Icarus and various universities also enforces the logos appeal. The experiment's proposal also relies very heavily on an appeal to our ethos because the potential to save thousands of lives in the future through these efforts relates to our ethical code to help people when needed.
I found this article fascinating to say the least because this idea seems ingenious. Every effort to detect disasters before have all followed the same route; find the cause of it and determine symptoms to develop a solution. This does not always work though because these tectonic boundaries are in all different situations and as such will react very differently, there is no universal symptom so there is no universal solution. As much as we can sense as humans, our senses are very limited to the full spectrums. Some animals can see infrared or ultraviolet, where we cannot, and many can hear octaves beyond our capabilities. Despite the clear disadvantages they have in communication, we have developed ways to not necessarily communicate with the animals but take signs we need to understand more, so maybe we could take cues from other species to further what we know?
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