Fast Food Nation Chunk 2

Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" informs us how the fast food is made. Schlosser explains how the flash freezing and packaging of the food makes it lose it flavor, so it has to be given an artificial taste so that the consumer will buy it. There are labs made just for developing flavors for food. Schlosser reveals the truth about these tastes. He tells us how these flavors are just volatile gasses made from chemicals. He states how "natural flavor" an "artificial flavor" are very similiar. How they are both made in the lab, but the only difference is that a in natural flavor, the chemical is taken out of something natural, and in artificial, that chemical is made by mixing other chemicals. He explains how in the end they are the same thing. Schlosser also gives details behind cattle ranching. He reveals that the beef industry is controlled by a few meat packing companies. They have develped "trusts", which is another word for monopoly, to control the meat industry. This forces small ranchers to either sell out to these trusts or to go bankrupt. Schlosser uses appeals in order to move the readers into seeing his point of view which is that in the end fast food is all proccessed and that it is causing smaller businesses to go bankrupt.


Tone: Provocative, Apppealing to Emotion

Discussion Questions:
Why are "trusts" allowed to control the beef packing industry and other industries?
Do you think the way the fast food companies take over other industries is fair?
If people know that the tastes are artificial then why do they still buy them?

Fast Food Nation Chunk 1

"Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser discusses the development of the fast food industry. Through facts and details behind the lives of the"fathers" of fast food, he explains how fast food chains such as McDonald's and Carl's JR came to be as big as they are now. He gives facts such as how fast food began with Carl N. Karcher's hot dog stand. He lets us know that the "pioneers of the fast food industry" were hard workers, how they all began with meaningless jobs and turned them into something great. Schlosser also tells us about the beginnings of fast food as we know it. He tells us about Richard and Maurice McDonald's "Speedee Service". This prepared burgers in a assembly line way and made burgers a lot cheaper and faster to make. He tells us that the fast food chains succeeded because they had "uniformity". They made simple menues and offered the same items at all of their restaurants. This gave people a sense of familiarity which made them come back over and over. The fast food chains exploited the publics' fear of the unknown. He also points out that in order for a fast food restaurant to succeed they had to be creative and innovative. If they were the same as everyone else then they would eventually die out.


Tone: Informative, Neutral

Discussion Questions:
What is it about fast food that appeals to the public?
Were it not for the cheap prices, do u think that people would still eat fast food?
How has fast food shaped the way people eat?

Million Dollar Basketball Babies

Stefan Fatsis's 2009 article in The Atlantic Monthly Million Dollar Basketball Babies suggests that the idea of skipping college and going straight to the NBA from high school might be a considerable choice. Fatsis states how the NBA has made a law preventing high school students to jump straight into the NBA until they are one year removed from their graduating class. He mentions how players are trying to work around that rule by going to European Leagues to play instead of going to college. The European leagues are a much better than the NCAA but are a step below the NBA. this is why it is stated that only "exceptionally talented and relatively mature players". For this reason he feels that some players who have enough talent should consider this alternative. he feels that the NCAA isnt aggressive enough and that going to a European league would be much more benficial than playing in the NCAA. Fatsis then goes on to quote Sonny Vaccaro when he says that only the best shoeld consider this alternative and that it is not easy. you must be mentally and physically ready.


1) Why is the NCAA considered inferior to the European leagues?
2) Do you think that high school players should go to European leagues where it is more aggressive and risk not being able to adjust or go to the NCAA where they can have it somewhat easier?

The Huffington Post- Reading The Pictures: The Real Moral Of The Phelps Bong Hit Photo? Don't Mess With The Sponsors.

I think people should just get over these photos. If smoking weed is not a banned of-competition drug, then the media should just stop exaggerating this story. He already made an apology, so he should be forgiven. He said he acted in an inappropriate way. Therefore the only thing Michael Phelps should be worried about is his sponsors, not what the media thinks of him. They might not want to sponsor him anymore because of this.

The Culture of Fear -- Chunk 3

Barry Glasner's "The Culture of Fear" talks about how Americans fear black men, illegal drugs, and plane wrecks. He talks about how people think that black people involved in crimes is so common that sometimes they wont put it in the news because its boring. Glassner also mentions how people are ignorant as to say that blacks are anti-semetic because they are anti-white. How the media will keep pounding on a little thing that a black person does wrong, but when a white person does the same or worse it just goes by unnoticed. For example how rap music has a lot of violence in the lyrics. How it talks about people killing others, but when country music says violent things it just gets ignored. He also gives facts proving that heroin is making a comeback. How it is now a middle-class drug. He also proves wron the idea that airplane crashes are a common thing. "The average person's probability of dying in an air crash is about 1 in 4 million, or roughly the same as winning the jackpot in a state lottery." Glassner must set the facts straight in order for Americans to see the truth and so they can prepare for what is really causing us harm.
Vocabulary: None
Tone: Sarcastic, Informative, Corrective
Discussion Questions: Does fearing the wrong thing really harm America?
If you could chose one problem to be compltetely eradicated from society which problem would you chose and why?

The Culture of Fear-- Chunk 2

Barry Glassner's "The Culture of Fear" talks about the different things we should be worrying about in our youth. Glassner says how the youth of today are at risk of suicide. And that to prevent suicide we should put tighter laws on guns because the kids that succeed at suicide is because they used guns. He also says how the majority of kids have gambled. How a kid got so much into debt that he "decided to end his gambling and his life". He also mentions how there are many teen pregnancies. How these parents are unfit to be mothers so then the kids grow up in an unstable household. Having an unstable household is what causes kids to suicide, to runaway, and and in the end get them hurt.
Vocabulary: None
Tone: Informative
Discussion Questions: What do you think is the main reason kids get depressed and want to commit suicide?
What do you think can be done to stop child suicides?

The Culture of Fear -- chunk 1( ch 1-2)

Barry Glassner's "The Culture of Fear" argues how the United states is scared of all the wrong things and ignoring the real things they should be scared of. Glassner states the studies done by various sources on road rage and on other crimes portrayed on tv. He then goes on and finds facts that prove them wrong and show how the media exagerates statistics just to get viewers. He also states how people ignore the real problems because they are unsure how to fix them. So instead doing something about them, they just ignore them and blow a different problem out of proportion. Making a problem seem bigger than it is "represents opportunities to avoid problems [they] do not want to confront". His purpose is to prove how we are scared of the wrong things in order to make us aware of the real problems.
Vocabulary: none
Tone: Informative, Aggressive, Sarcastic
Questions: What do you think is the most exagerated fear in America?
Why do you think the media prefers to blow a statistic out of proportion rather than to give the real facts and inform the people of what they should really worry about?