5 ways Monsanta wants to profit off climate change

From the article, we know that Monsanto purchased the climate change-oriented startup Climate Corporation for $930 million in order to reduce the agricultural damage brought from global warming. Due to the increasing temperature and global population as well as overusing the farmlands, it makes the agricultural industry even worse. To help the agricultural industry overcoming the difficulty, the company sold them five major climate change-related products. They are the data to help farmers making a clear plan for growing crops in a changing climate, the insurance for harvest losing, drought-resistant corn, cotton that needs less water for growing, and even the crops for biofuel.

The article states the claim clearly to the audiences, which is “ Global warming could mean big business for controversial agriculture giant Monsanto, which announced last week it was purchasing the climate change-oriented startup Climate Corporation for $930 million”. To make the research more trustable and increase his creditability, the author provides some data and studies given by experts and professors in his article. He also takes a good use of primary source, instead of the secondary sources as the evidence, which provides the detailed and technical information to audiences. Besides, author avoids using the subjective words to describe the matter or adding too many personal comments in the article since he wants to leave more space for the audiences to consider the matter by using their own knowledge and critical thinking rather than disturbing their creativity. 

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/10/monsanto-profit-climate-change-corporation

China paper in detained journalist plea

This news reported an event happened in China that a Chinese newspaper published a plea to ask for releasing one of its journalists who had been detained by the police for “damage to business reputation”. The news made a fact claim that the Chinese newspaper the New Express had published a plea in its front page, and it also indicates a policy claim that the journalist should be released. The reason is that he was detained without clear legal basis. It provided the background information as context that the journalist was detained because of his reports about a part state-owned construction equipment company, and the reports were “false, groundless and misleading” according to the company, and as a result, that journalist was held by police. For the New Express, they believed it is unfair. In their understanding, if they reported something wrong, they can apologise and make corrections, or even shut down. But their journalists cannot be detained without legal basis. As a result, many people, including some lawyers, some media professionals, and also some users of weibo (China’s version of twitter) commented to support the New Express. A common view is that supporting New Express is a way to safeguard the rights of its journalists and the censorship should be clear.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24634041 

US Carbon Emissions Are Dropping

 This article stated a claim that even without President Obama's green agenda on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, energy-related carbon emissions dropped almost four percent last year. This is a fact claim supported by statistics and charts. As evidences of the claim, statistics showed that overall energy consumption fell by 2.4 percent last year, which was translated to a 5.1 percent drop in energy use per dollar of GDP. As a rebuttal, people doubted about the reduction of emissions because the population and per capita output were growing. However, the author refuted these opponents by giving explanations of two terms -- carbon intensity and energy intensity, which referred to the carbon emissions per dollar of GDP and energy use per dollar of GDP. As warrant, the amounts of electricity use and carbon pollution tied to these two densities’ growth were dropping. As backing of the claim, the author gave three reasons that why carbon emissions dropped. Firstly, half the cuts came from reductions in household energy use. Secondly, fuel-efficient cars made differences. Thirdly, the energy we used came from cleaner sources, like wind, as the substitution of natural gas for coal. 

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/10/charts-us-carbon-emissions-are-dropping

Growth slows in Korean smartphone market

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20131020000240

The article addresses the growth pace of the smartphone market in Korea which is gradually declining. There are evidences to back up this 'fact claim' that the average quarter increase of new Smartphone subscriptions since August marked 13.5 million, down from 25.4 million last year, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and telecom industries. According to the author, there were 1.2 million new subscriptions in the second quarter this year (warrant). This was down from 1.6 million during the months from January to March. However, the stagnant growth pace does not indicate degreasing of the number of subscriptions. An explanation to this digression in the smartphone market is that the market is at the saturation level. I agree with a market expert who said, "the Korean market nearing saturation encouraged the domestic handset makers to pick up the pace for sales efforts in foreign markets." I assert that Samsung should try to develop smartphones with new technology, designs and functions in foreign markets such as Taiwan, Thailand, and China because domestic market for smartphones is saturated while the Asia market has a lot of potential for growth in sales.

Mormon leader: Same-sex marriage laws cannot 'make moral what God has declared immoral

I read an article, “Mormon leader: Same-sex marriage laws cannot 'make moral what God has declared immoral'” on Fox News. The article brings an argumentation about same-sex marriage which is one of great concerns recently. A top Mormon leader, Apostle Dallin H. Oaks, states the value claim that legalizing same-sex marriage is an immoral thing. He gives a statement that it is immoral because God has declared immoral. This statement is his ground to support his claim. However, the ground that he gave seems too weak to persuade Mormon believers, as well as the public which does not believe. The article claims that Oaks’ statement is irrational and immoral. It states that the Mormon Church teaches that same-sex attraction is not a sin. The article points out the contradiction of Mormon Church highlighing this statement to support its claim. It also provides another ground by using quotation from the church website states, “With love and understanding, the church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.” I think the article gives great evidence to refute the Oaks’ claim through bringing quotation. In addition, the article emphasizes that Apostle Dallin H. Oaks who says legalizing same-sex marriage is immoral is a former Utah Supreme Court justice. It criticizes Oaks’ acting as a justice which always has to be objective to social issues. I think it can be a good warrant. In my opinion, the article gives value claim, and it supports its claim through grounds and warrants which are well-related with its claim.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/06/mormon-leader-same-sex-marriage-laws-cannot-make-moral-what-god-has-declared/

91-0 Texas Beatdown

Last friday Aledo High School took on Western Hills in a football contest. The outcome of the game was extremely lopsided with Aledo taking the victory 91-0. After the game the Aledo coaching staff had a report filed against them for bullying. A parent on the other team made a claim that the coaching staff of Aledo could have let the game slow down and ride out without the score running up as much, and because of the embarrassing beatdown, their children were being bullied.
While of course any athlete who is immersed in athletics knows that this is the most ridiculous idea ever by the parent, it is still something that is to be taken seriously because there is an ongoing investigation. The Aledo staffs counterclaim was that this is just how sports are. Every once and awhile when a top ranked team plays against a struggling program there will be a blowout of epic proportions. His rebuttal was important because he respected the person who filed the the report but he made a great point about our sports society and provided grounds to his side of the argument including important statistics from the game that prove he was trying to slow down his high octane offense. He spoke about how in our society instead of looking to better ourselves, we complain and expect others to play down to their level. He was unhappy because the woman pointing the finger at him instead of going to the Western Hills coach and asking how can we make sure that type of embarrassment never happens again. Just because Aledo is superior to Western Hills doesn't mean they should be forced to play down to their level. Its just not fair the Aledo players of they had to punt on first down. A warrant certainly exists in sports that when destroying the opposing team, it is inappropriate to talk trash and run the score up at the end of the game. ITs important to point out that Western Hills coaching staff had no issues with the way Aledo conducted themselves on the field. Unfortunately, When Aledo was scoring every third play they touched the ball, it seemed as if there was no way around a blowout and Western Hills just needs to improve as a football team.

http://espn.go.com/dallas/story/_/id/9863505/aledo-football-coach-tim-buchanan-accused-bullying-91-0-win