Chunk 1-"Accumulative Advantage"

In the first Chunk from the best-selling novel "Outliers", Malcolm Gladwell gives a introduction on how researchers analyzed the understanding of health. He gives this analysis in his introduction to get his readers to know his reasoning for the understanding of peoples success. Throughout the first chapter, Gladwell uses anecdotes, facts, and statistics to prove his point on how some sports athletes become as successful as they do because of what sociologist call "accumulative advantage". It was believed that in Canada as well as other countries when the sports season starts, those that try out our only able to try out if their birthday and age makes the cutoff date for their players. Gladwell found that the better players birthday was between January and March which was near the cutoff date showing that those who birthday was towards the end of the year barley had a chance to be in a elite sports team.The children who are born in the beginning of the year are older than those who are born towards the end. Meaning they are a few more months mature which economists Kelly Bedhard and Elizabth Dhuey say makes a "huge effect". Even if the players are average players by being older and put into elite teams they practice more making them better and they have better coaches making the players stronger and better. Gladwells implication of the sports around the world is that " the systems we set up to determine who gets ahead aren't particularly efficient". He also states ,"we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate achievement." Gladwells solution was that we need to acknowledge the matter of the cutoff dates and perhaps setup two or three hockey leagues divided by month of birth that way everyone has a equal chance of being successful.


Clarification: What happens to the talented players whose birthdays are at the end of the month? When are they able to have a fair chance to try and make the elite teams?

Application: How does the authors theories and facts effect those whose birthdays are towards the end of the year ? How does his solution help them ?

Obama's Visit to Iraq

In the article from TIME Magazine "Obama's Visit to Iraq: A Page from Bush's Playbook" by Bobby Gosh, it was said that Obama made a unexpected trip to Baghdad to speak with the troops and Iraqis some what how George Bush had once done as President. Gosh states ,"Surprise stops on presidential journeys became the norm during the Bush era, with the U.S. engaged in two foreign wars ...Baghdad was the wrong choice for Obama. Iraq is Bush's war..Obama's main contribution to Iraq has been to criticize the war while on the campaign trail, and then to begin drawing down the U.S. troop presence as soon as he became President." During Obama's presidential campaign he made promises and statements to take the troops out of Iraq and put them in Afghanistan because being in Iraq was not the right place to be. However this can be confusing with him making unexpected trips to iraq telling the troops there is lot of work still to be done. Gosh also states "Iraqis saw nothing in Obama's visit to distinguish him from Bush..." Hopefully these comparisons wont continue in Obamas presidency.


Clarification: If Obama claim that the war in Iraq is the wrong war, why did he tell the troops and Iraqis there is still a lot to be done?

Application: In what ways does Obama's actions differ from Bush's actions as president?

Chunk4; Illnesses and Planecrashes??

In the last chunk of Glassners novel Culture of Fear, he addresses the fear of metaphoric illnesses and the fear of plane crashes. It was said that some illnesses were created in the media to criticize the government. When illnesses were greatly publicized people became more scared purchasing more medicines and and making some medicines and operations a greater demand. This caused people opportunity to receive more money from the government and corporations. Glassner believes that metaphoric illnesses will either always be around or that more will be created. Glassner also tells of the fear of plane crashes. He tells of how the media and people pay little attention to research and statistics. In reality there are more car crashes than there are plane crashes. Plane crashes are 1 in 4 million so the fear of flying is produced by the media. It seems throughout this book that the media is the root of our fears and stereotypes of the world.



1.Could it be that the fear of flying for some people is the fault of the media?

Chunk 3: Black Monsters and Ilegal Drug Use

In this section of the novel Culture of Fear, Gassner adresses the sterotypes of Black Men. He tells how the media covers crimes commited by black men making white men seem as if they are the victims and couldnt possibly commit the crimes that black commit. Also because of how the media exploits rap music, it is said to be the reason for most violent acts in America. Gassner tells that Rock music is just as if not worse then Rap but is not potrayed as bad or misleading. However beacuse the media makes Rap music seems more worse than it is, society believes that Rap music is the cause for crime in our nation. Gassner also adresses how the government focuses all their attention on illegal drugs. The media puts such fear into society about different types of drugs and what it can that everytime one drug is undercontrol another drug comes about causing fear all over again. He talks of date drugs, crack , and why people are so afraid of it. The government focuses so much attention on drugs, that they dont even focus on the most important issues in our nation.


1. Since the government shows so much attention on drugs use , could this be a reason why people are so afraid of the problem?
2.Does it seem that racism is displayed through out the different genres of music that is played in our society today?