Prospectus

This is a super rough draft of this. But I want to put it up anyways
 
The Truthiness of Soap

How have companies chosen to adhere to a different definition of clean to sell anti-bacterial soap, in spite of their lack of efficacy and danger to health and the environment?


Antimicrobial soap is no more effective at cleaning, while much worse for the environment. Yet it is heavily marketed to parents by advertising that creates a different definition of clean.



This argument revolves around facing on one hand the need to keep my children healthy and safe from infections. On the other hand I don’t want to protect my children from short term harm while contributing to long term problems like the proliferation of super bacteria and environmental degradation. I want to address this issue to both better my household while exploring issues of environmental health and how companies market products

This is a more controversial issue because marketing companies have redefined public ideas of what constitutes “clean”. 



The issue revolves mostly around the most common agent used in antibacterial soap, Triclosan. This chemical has been shown to disrupt endocrine function in many organisms in its active form and once decayed becomes a known carcinogen.  

Reasonable people can agree and disagree with this topic because people have different beliefs regarding cleaning products

There is sufficient evidence that Triclosan is in many common products and are sold widely. There are many studies talking about different toxic aspects of the Triclosan anti-septic.  

I think the advertising of these products suits the term "Truthiness"

My evidence points more to a culture of ignorance and different attitudes about cleaning. 

People could see the issue from either a view that they need to protect themselves from germs or that they need to avoid potentially toxic substances.

People disagree with what constitutes clean. While it is a common belief that it is important to wash your hands, people have different beliefs as to what that entails. 


 I need to persuade other parents that the cons outweigh the pros regarding the use of antibacterial soap products. 

Any reader can react to my call to action by simply looking at labels and choosing to purchase non-toxic products. My appeal is very direct and easy to implement.





 

http://greenaircleaning.tumblr.com/post/24067629197/the-dangers-lurking-in-antibacterial-soaps

http://www.greeningfamilies.com/families/two-reasons-to-quit-antibacterial-soaps/
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/story?id=1213399&page=1#.UI655mf5WSo

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/health/09essa.html?ex=1257742800&en=0e93bdabccb3e84f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&_r=0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibacterial_soap

http://www.realfoodhouston.com/2012/04/18/whats-best-antibacterial-soap-hand-sanitizer-or-just-plain-soap-and-water/

http://www.marketresearch.com/Consumer-Goods-c1596/Consumer-Goods-Retailing-c80/Soap-Bath-Products-c1820/7/

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196655301147000

http://www.hcn.org/blogs/range/antibacterial-soaps-in-the-backcountry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11584251

http://www.livablefutureblog.com/2011/02/antibacterial-soap-poses-environmental-health-risks-doesnt-clean-any-better

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/triclosan/

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/antibacterial-soap-vs-regular-soap.html

Magnificent 7

  Seven comments on seven blog posts. It seemed like an easy assignment. I should know better than that by now. My computer refused to post comments that I posted. So my comments only appear in this blog. I also discovered that it is hard to make constructive comments. I also have had trouble with formatting so what follows isn't especially pretty.

On Shane Mitrovitch's Blog:  Kevin Wyckoff said...I liked your post. I would suggest reading it aloud to iron out the mechanics. It would be nice to hear more of your voice and opinions, as it is it feels like you pulled all your opinions from your article.  October 19, 2012 11:46 AM  

On The Lane Adventures of Liz: Kevin Wyckoff said... I like the way you laid out your post, lots of good space and pictures. I would suggest reading your work aloud to smooth out the mechanics. You did a good job reporting a complex issue. October 19, 2012 12:09 PM On College Work

On College Work Kevin Wyckoff said...

I like your topic. I would suggest reading out loud to iron things out.

October 19, 2012 12:40 PM

On Colby's Frontier

Divergence We Stand

Kevin Wyckoff said...

I really like your post. You have a good handle on the topic. The post seems a little short for such a complicated topic

October 19, 2012 12:53 PM

Dissolving a Parliament

Kevin Wyckoff said...

Great Post. You managed to summarize the article quickly and make your points well stated. Additionally your post is awesomely brief, all the important parts with no extraneous fluff.

October 22, 2012 9:21 AM

 On The SMITHsonian Podium:

Naive eyes

Kevin Wyckoff said...

I like where you went with this post. I had never thought of the lying aspect of makeup and hair. I also like your use of pictures

October 22, 2012 8:57 AM

Finding Blame

Kevin Wyckoff said...

I like the direction you took with this article. You did a great job summarizing the article. I think this posts ideas could be a little more organized and even a little more fleshed out

October 22, 2012 9:11 AM

I got many great responses to my posts. They were all awesomely positive. I got some good feedback about better using comma's how to work the text to be easier to read. The comment I liked the most came from Eve, she posted:

Eve TakahashiOctober 24, 2012 11:38 AM

"Your summary of the article was thoughtfully organized making a difficult topic perfectly understandable to someone like me who does not keep up too well with politics. But it is clear that YOU do from this summary.
You gave an interesting opener about timelessness that wanted me to read more about your subject. I wondered how you would present the information with timelessness in mind.
You gave great examples to support your claim that election times are linked to economic uncertainty. I especially appreciated that you mentioned different parts of the world.

This brings me to a couple of questions. When you said 'Markets enjoy predictability...' it seems that you needed to clarify that a little bit better than following it with '...and few things are scarier than a new administration.' It seems to me that there is a gap of information there.

And lastly, I did not get a sense of your response to the information that you gave. I would like to know how you feel about the matter."

 I appreciated this response because it called me out on a few of my own problems with my writing. I would have enjoyed working through another draft of this before posting, and beefing up a few statements that I leave hanging. I also think I could have done a better job of adding information from other sources. As is I mostly took my information for the post from the article in our textbook.  I also appreciated her wondering about my opinion. I purposely attempted to write a paper about a

politically charged topic in an apolitical way. I have strong political opinions, however I am not very comfortable sharing them on the internet. So I used my paper on economics as an exercise in leaving myself out of my writing, and write an objective paper. 

I really enjoyed seeing how other writers in the class tackled their subjects. I really enjoyed the comments I got on my work. I got a lot of food for thought for future writing. 

You think this is bad wait until...Oh crap it's now

It is fun to see how some writing can be timeless, being relevant reading centuries after inception. While other writing is firmly rooted in a particular time and place. For our class project I chose to write about an article from two years ago that discusses the evolving nature of national economies. Greg Ip's blog post from October 24th, 2010, titled "Think This Economy is Bad? Wait for 2012.", is funny for being a slice of thinking from the recent past that postulates about what is now current events. Ip's article discusses how election years tend to cause financial problems to come to a head.

We need only look at the financial chaos that played out during the last American presidential election to see how government transitions can wreak havoc on markets. As Lehman Brothers foundered just before the election, then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson attempted short term solutions to allow the new administration to enact real reform. The market reacted with outright panic.

Wall St 1929 (https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRNM3AHRMWE1pBHvPwaGLoOd5pD1QQ7-qU6hR69HFKnqP4JK_1h)

Attempting to pass the buck to the new administration on economic issues has a long tradition . In 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt caused major panic in the market by refusing to clarify whether or not he would continue the Hoover administration policy of fixing banks while tying the currency to gold. By refusing to clarify his position, FDR severely worsened the Great Depression. In 1971 Richard M. Nixon used wage and price controls to attempt to suppress inflation until after his reelection bid. This worked, sort of. While Nixon's plan worked, it led to worse inflation and a recession starting in 1973.

Nixon (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iFj1QL8xlsI/UH3c-FRKO_I

/AAAAAAAAEMA/Q7bgVhTetPE/s1600/Nixon.jpg)

America is far from the only country to engage in short sighted economic tweaking in the face of changing leadership. The deep recession in Mexico known as the "lost decade" resulted from a failed attempt to buy time till a new government could enact serious reform in 1982. South Korea faced a monumental crisis in 1997, when the government negotiated a series of loans to prevent a default. However confidence in these reforms was severely undermined when the opposition parties candidate attacked the agreement. Brazil faced a crisis in 2002 when confidence in the markets evaporated due to the uncertainty wrought by the election of leftist candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Fixing BoA (https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQP-ABXlZwjAjo83B836RTE8WFTWcqHe4dbxtra9FvquZ43w2Ls)

Markets enjoy predictability, and few things are scarier than a new administration. These countries are fairly young and prone to volatility. The last hundred years has seen these and for that matter all countries endure major economic rise and perilous falls.So how can we better foresee such crisis? Just watch the election calendar. The crisis of 2008 resulted from long festering problems such as the lack of regulation, giant budget deficits and an over valued currency. Combined with uncertainty over how the new administration would deal with these major problems. As a result the outgoing administration attempted a band aid solution, when I tourniquet was needed. The new administration coming in continued the policy for lack of options in a crisis. The band aid in this case was the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), and it mostly just flushed taxpayer money down a drain to shore up bad investments.

In the time since the massive bailout disaster brought the worst financial crisis in America since The Great Depression, attempts have been made to make sure it never happens again. One such attempt was the enaction in of the Dodd-Frank Bill, which seeks to regulate financial services to prevent future mass failures. But as with anything passed in congress only time will tell how effective it will actually be.

What we can count on is that problems in the economy will become more apparent in election years. In his article Ip's predicts some of the political showmanship on display in the current presidential race, such as how the nation will pay down its debt. Ip posits that the Republican nominee will assault Barack Obama's fiscal record, while Obama will blame that record on the mess he inherited from George W. Bush. Ip's prediction  that I see being born out today is that both candidates talk about the importance of better managing our nations debt, while not being specific about how.

Who will the markets like better? (https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ4DAHiQdEjApCaAzEu1AoQ24epCy679tIT5YdYbXYPv_tIw9IWfg)

The big question seems to be how confident will investors feel this election year. In 2008 investors pulled their money out of the market rather than face the uncertainty of an Obama or McCain administration. We will have to wait and see how the market reacts to the prospects of future economic policies of an Obama or Romney administration.

A headline from the 2008 election fueled crisis (https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRSiVuc0r0AqLeU8hKb8bux30EH29yUqEYEdEXoZSf_uvUw95-G)

All told economics is a fluid science. As Ip's say's at the end of his article if the market continues to give us the benefit of the doubt this election year and continues to grow, it will only be a matter of time till election year pressure creates another crisis.

Lying is wrong...Except when it's right

By analyzing the different strategies inherent in communication we can better understand our reading, writing and conversations. Lying is a huge part of how people communicate.
"A man who won't lie to a woman has very little consideration for her feelings." Bergen Evans

Lying is a communication strategy we use in most of our relationships. From being gentle to the feelings of a loved one to focusing attention on certain points in an essay for a college class, we as humans in this day and age are constantly lying. By paying attention to the elements of lying, we can communicate much more effectively. We can see when others are lying in our personal conversations, and recognize communication strategies for what they are. I find my parenting to be a bottomless fount of lying. The lie that comes to mind was last week when my step daughter told me to not worry about saving money for Christmas. She told me not to worry about saving money to by her toys for Christmas, Santa would bring her plenty of toys. The fact that I let that slide is a great example of a white lie.
 Perhaps the greatest stage for analyzing techniques of lying is to watch the current race for the American Presidential election. Politics is all about using deflection to focus on topics a politician can argue, while shying away from less arguable areas. The Republican party loves to debate seemingly non-issues like marriage equality as a way to distract from more serious but touchier subjects like out of control defense spending.

A college education that taught communication skills but completely omitting lying and deception would be very incomplete. Lying may be popularly frowned upon, however, how good would a lawyer or politician be without thinking and analyzing the elements inherent in lying. If we are to present a persuasive argument we need to focus attention on subjects of our choosing. The construction of solid arguments inherently involves using techniques of omission and deflection. These techniques provide focus to conversation and allow the author to decide the path the argument takes. By being aware of these elements we can read and write much more effectively and critically.

Lying makes life much more interesting. By understanding the elements inherent in lying we can enjoy reading publications like the Weekly World News, without being worried about being attacked by Batboy or Jamaican Zombies. Or what about Upton Sinclair's series The Just So stories, in which comical events lead to animals being the way they are. Literature is full of stories that use different versions of the truth to create a fun story.
For better or worse being an adult in American society requires communicating for different purposes and audiences. To accomplish different goals of communication we must employ different strategies. It is important to recognize that many of the preeminent strategies used in persuasion  fall under the category of lying to get your way. You may be a husband trying to spare your spouses feelings, or a parent trying to allow kids to be kids, or a politician trying to be the leader of a country. The ability to effectively do any of these things involves using effective communication strategies, many of which are categorically lies. That is the world we live in, and I see lying as a way technique of both being persuasive and making life more interesting

Elephants never forget...being caged

As scientific knowledge progresses a huge challenge is to integrate that new knowledge into practice. This problem can be found in many areas of human endeavor  One giant area where our knowledge has exceeded what we practice is in how we treat elephants in zoos. Having worked with elephants for over thirty years in zoos, Les Schobert felt the need to write an article in October 16th, 2005 edition of The Washington Post arguing for a more humane approach to the way zoos care for their pachyderms.
 He describes how in the last thirty five years our knowledge of what elephants need to be healthy has grown immensely, while our practical treatment of them in zoos has remained mostly unchanged. The biggest problem cited by Schobert is the lack of living space and natural terrain found in most zoo elephant habitats. Scientists now agree that elephants in the wild typically have a home range of a thousand square mile, while the minimum habitat allowed by the zoo industry is as little as 2,200 square feet. Some zoos have worked to create larger habitats, and other zoos have sent their elephants to game reserves in California and Tennessee where they can have the space they need. Schobert was dismayed at the treatment of the elephants at the National Zoo in Washington DC. Lacking room to move around has caused one elephant at the National Zoo, Toni, to suffer arthritis so bad she may have to be euthanized decades before she would have died in the wild. Schobert’s main argument is that zoos need to reevaluate their elephant programs to create healthy environments so that their animals can live healthy lives. Les Schobert spent his entire life working to care for animals and especially elephants. He was nationally recognized for his efforts to promote the humane treatment of animals in zoo's across the country. 

As a society we see the importance of maintaining the health and well being of many elements in our society. As civilization progresses new knowledge needs to be applied to the different facets of life on our planet. Zoo's are an institution that has evolved from the the earliest housing of elephants in a zoo in ancient Egypt 5200 years ago to the Romans use of elephants in bloody arena battles. Today's modern zoo's evolved from collections of animals housed in imperial zoological gardens of the 19th century. These zoo's usually caged animals to economically display animals from the far reaches of the world. 

But the world of that day didn't really have a problem caging people in tiny cages. Today zoo's are learning from that past. As societies progress conditions are seen different. It took us a long time to learn that elephants don't like being forced to fight other animals to the death. And it has taken us a lot longer to learn that they would rather roam free on hundreds or thousands of acres than be chained and caged in the middle of a metropolis. Les Schobert was influential in his work to push for more progressive treatment of elephants. Due in part to his work the National Zoo has started the Elephant Trails program, a program to improve life for elephants in the zoo as well as in the wild. Elephant Trails as well as many other programs around the world are working to ensure the health and well being of all elephants. Which is very good news for elephants

The internet grows up:

Recent history has proven many new ways the internet can be used.  In February 2011 Hany Rashwan published an article in the Ohio State University student newspaper The Lantern in which he discussed the influence of the internet in the recent revolution in Egypt.

It wasn’t long ago that the idea of an Egypt free of the dictatorial government of Hosni Mubarak would be considered crazy. And yet starting in January 2011 the people of Egypt, inspired by the Arab Spring uprising in Tunisia  gathered in Tahrir Square to demand that Mubarak step down. Rashwan’s article sought to answer the question Why now? What was the catalyst for this sudden uprising? Rashwan found the most compelling answer in a quote from Wael Ghonim a middle eastern  google executive who created a facebook group that was behind some of the protests. Ghonim said “If you want to liberate a government, give them the internet.”

 

The internet has grown up. What started as a computer science experiment by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1950’s, has grown to be a border-less international democracy used across the globe for a variety of purposes. The internet of today provides truly worldwide access to everything from shopping for any product imaginable. And to countless hours of entertainment in every form imaginable. But most importantly to connecting people worldwide to people and ideas in ways unimaginable a couple decades ago. By making connections to neighbors both down the street and across the globe, the internet enables people unparalleled freedom to promote ideas like a government based on self determination. It isn’t surprising then that one of the first things the Egyptian government did to squash popular dissent was to shut down websites like Facebook and Twitter. While the technology for these websites started in America, the content and sharing during Egypt’s revolution was Egyptian. The internet as it stands today is the world’s most powerful democracy. Any person or group can promote their ideas within its framework. And in true democratic fashion popular ideas like self government can flourish. While less popular ideas like holocaust denial groups are allowed space, but are pushed into the margins. The internet has evolved from a government and college research project to a wild west of people attempting to monetize it, to where it stands today as a virtual world containing pieces of every facet of human life.  
In my lifetime I have seen the internet grow from a distraction for serious computer nerds to become the primary place where I do homework, talk with the people I love regardless of our location, and buy most everything except food. I am truly amazed to see that the internet need only connect the right people with the right ideas to be a huge factor in bringing positive change to our world. Hany Rashwan presents a concise and well developed article on the awesome power that can be achieved by merely providing people of the world unfettered access to communicate ideas across the globe. Rashwan's article is effective because it is a call to students of Ohio State to pay attention to the power of the internet. Our civilization is just beginning to see the internet as more than a way to share pornography and pirate music and movies. The internet of the twenty teens is starting to look more grown up. It’s use by different groups in the upcoming American presidential election makes it second in importance only to the people doing the voting. A big part of the power of the internet is in that it doesn't forget. This has been illustrated numerous times lately by the videos that have surfaced, showing candidates making unpopular statements often before they became candidates.
The Arab Spring revolutions throughout the Arab world would not have been possible without modern technology. While there have been revolutions before the recent ones, I see the key difference being that information enabled recent revolutions to be relatively peaceful. By sharing information across the country and the world, Egyptians were able to empower people to stand up for themselves without resorting to a violent civil war. This provides an awesome amount of hope for the future. A future where wars and revolutions are fought online through informing the masses. What an awesome future that can be.

So why the Adventures of Arista's Dad for my title? Well I have had many roles I have played in my life. But the role that most radically redefined my entire life was becoming a father. Before my daughter was born life was filled with seeking new random adventures most everyday. And while that led me on adventures all over the parts between The Netherlands, Alaska and Hawaii, I never really built any kind of life for myself. I was a vagabond who easily found jobs cooking or doing construction work. When I traveled, and that was often, I would curl up under a tree in  my bivy sack and sleep most anywhere. That all changed when I found myself living in Alaska and in a love affair with a certified crazy woman. I was living with this girlfriend when she started being nauseous all that  time, I prayed desperately that she had the stomach flu. But that flu turned out to be our first inkling of the little girl I have seen evolve over the last three and a half years. The truth is the idea of being parents was scary beyond words for Arista's mom and I. We were independent people who loved to party. But once that littlle girl came into our lives the nature of every facet of life changed. Life became about doing the things that would provide for our baby. The day my daughter was born I stopped living life for myself and started living for her. This self less feeling has enabled me to see toiling for hours in a tiring job as a means to an ends for taking care of Arista. The winter before her first birthday saw the start of the end for me and her mom. I found myself a single dad with a fifteen month old baby girl. I worked out babysitting and worked as a cook in a cafe. Life is not easy in Alaska, but life as a single dad was brutal. So I found myself with no better option than to punt. I shipped or sold everything we owned and caught a plane to a place I had never been before. I arrived in Eugene with a backpack, a guitar and  no idea other than to somehow build a stable, beautiful life for my daughter and I. My daughter visited my mom in Colorado for five weeks, while I stayed in a tent at the Whiteacker Hostel. I found a job at a catering company and searched for a nearby apartment. But seeing the way the world is changing I realized there isn't much of a future for me in cooking, so I enrolled in Lane Community College. After exploring a few options I am now enrolled in studying water conservation. In the course of the last year I have found my way into working full time at a restaurant close to my duplex in the suburbs. I am busier than I have ever been in my life. But I find myself feeling like a super hero every day. And why? Because I wake up wanting to be as awesome as Arista's Dad should be. She deserves a Dad who is working to provide for today and tomorrow. Through that lens I find a strength to see myself through anything. From braving fourteen hour days in a hot kitchen to intense final exams in school, I will get through anything that will be good for us. The point I see in all of it is that I spent a quarter of a century having adventures. But none of those meant anything. Since my daughter was born my adventures are much different than before. Now I am spending everyday living for something. It makes me feel a bit like a superhero at times. I am Arista's Dad. Until the next adventure...