7. Study: A Childhood Need for Immediate Gratification Predicts Adult Obesity

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/08/study-a-childhood-need-for-immediate-gratification-predicts-adult-obesity/261226/

Brian Fung, associate editor at The Atlantic, presents a research on the relation of childhood self control and adult obesity, asserting that "A Childhood Need for Immediate Gratification Predicts Adult Obesity." Researchers had developed a way to measure self-control among children and had recruited preschoolers to demonstrate "the marshmallow test" since the 1960s. Each child was presented with a marshmallow and were given the option to eat it or to wait a certain length of time to be rewarded another marshmallow. After many years, surveys were sent to 306 participants of which 164 responded, reporting their own heights and weights, their average age being 39. Researchers had calculated a relation between each person's self-control ability as a child and their lower body-mass index today. The results indicated a correlation in which "for every minute that a child postponed gratification, the researchers noticed a 0.2-point decrease in BMI among the grown participants. The research came to conclude that those who are able to resist immediate gratification as young children have a great chance of being able to maintain healthy weights in their adulthood.

Fung proposes this research and its results to inform all general audiences that a healthy maintenance of body weight not only results from the healthy dietary choices made as adults, but also of one's character as youths that show propensity for delayed gratification. Fung implies that self-control and the ability to resist instant gratification is significantly important in defining one's character and in healthy living. 

7. First Death Is Reported From New Pig Flu Strain

         In the article written by Donald G. McNeil Jr. , the first human death from a new strain of pig flue is discussed. The victim a 61 year old woman from Ohio. She and 14 other people would have acquired the disease after prolonged interaction of pigs. As of now the new disease does not pose much of a threat since infection only occurs from contact with pigs, not humans.
         The purpose of the author was to inform about a new strain of pig flu. Her serious and straight-forward tone effectively do this

7. Has Down Syndrome Hurt Us ?

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/has-down-syndrome-hurt-us/


                 On October 3, 2011 Amy Becker wrote an article about when she told her daughter about the day she was born. In the article she clearly states that her daughter has Down Syndrome and how, at first, that was a hard thing for her to accept. The writer chose specific words to express the seriousness of Down Syndrome , for exemple when she talks about certain people having the mind set that people with down syndrome are always happy and nice and she says, "assuming they can’t and don’t experience the full range of human emotions and needs". That phrase shows how people with Down Syndrome can and are just like any other person in that aspect, they get irritated, mad or sad as well.
               Mrs. Becker wrote this article to show people how precious a person with Down Syndrome can be and to encourage them to see them like everyone else and to not discriminate them for their extra chromosome. She uses a personal story and example to influence people to act better and to stop doing and saying offensive things to the Down Syndrome people and also to their parents.

7. Study: Divided classes promote stereotypes

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/02/study_divided_classes_promote_stereotypes/

On September, Lori writes an article exposing a study made by ACLU on single-sex classrooms. She begins the article by stating the results of the recently made research, telling the readers how it confirmed the feminists' previous thoughts and claims: it was based on evidence with no solid ground and instead of increasing their ability to learn and obtain knowledge in a specific, specialized way, they would only grow to be more prejudicial and to create more stereotypes. The author continues the article by revealing more about the ACLU's studies and their behavior analysis of students in same-sex classrooms. Lori wraps the article by stating "segregation by gender doesn’t work and in fact, promotes harmful stereotypes and social behavior," after supporting ACLU by presenting the FMF's (Feminist Majority Foundation) studies in the same subject, which resulted in the same conclusion. She then appeals to the reader's conscious and presents a petition available for anyone to sign, in order to stop this useless trend that only causes more discrimination.

Lori's intentions with this article is to inform the reader of this problem that's been occuring in today's society and to call him/her to take a stand and try to make a change. This becomes evident as she writes negatively about the single-sex classrooms throughout the whole article, sometimes using strong diction, such as "ridiculous" and "unfounded." Her purpose becomes even more clear as she provides a petition available for new signings at article's closure, appealing to the reader's sense of ethics and morals, closing the article with the sentence "You know what to do."

7. Rivals Jostle Before Apple Announces New iPhone

The New York Times technology reporters Brian X.Chen and Nick Wingfield writes about the cellphones and other electronic devices that are going to be introduced by several other companies, which are trying to be better than Apple. The writers draw the readers' attention by using personification in the introduction to describe what other companies are doing to Apple: "But now tech companies are watching every one of Apple’s moves — and scrambling to get out in front of them". Then they go on by listing off some schedules that some of the companies have scheduled. The companies that they list are Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and all of these companies have scheduled their events before the September 12th, which is the date of the Apple's conference. They mention specialists that says that it is better to stay away from Apple, unless there is something brilliant. Then they ends the article using an interview with a worker from Nokia as an example, and by sharing some of their plans of getting something totally different from Apple and make the consumers ask: do we really want  another look alike device? 

The purpose of the writers is to show the great effect that company Apple is having, not only on the consumers, but especially on the other companies.  They want to show that the Apple is intimidating other big companies, and is making things financially and mentally difficult for them. To avoid rivalry with Apple and so that they can not be blamed for copying, etc, all of them are scheduling events away from Apple's

7. Ex-Marine Kills 2 Supermarket Workers, Self in Early Morning Shooting

http://nation.time.com/2012/08/31/official-3-dead-in-nj-supermarket-shooting/

A 23 year old man identified as Terence Tyler who was an ex-Marine, opened fire in a store he worked in. There were about 12 to 14 workers in the store. Tyler killed two of his co-workers, 18 year old Christina LoBrutto and 24 year old Bryan Breen. Other workers hid when Tyler began shooting. The ex- Marine ended up shooting himself. County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said that, “I do not believe that they were specifically targeted. I believe everybody in the store was a target.” According Capt. Kendra Motz, Tyler was an infantryman from Brooklyn and never served overseas, he was discharged in 2010. However, Motz would not comment on why Tyler was discharged.

The purpose of this article is to inform people of something that seems to be happening a lot lately. The author uses quotes from people at the incident.. The author also provides some information on the shooter though their Facebook page. Also the author uses other people’s quotes to show that there was probably not something quite right with Tyler despite appearing normal. The article ends with someone telling what one of the victims was like.

7. Boy Sues His Orthodontist After Having Braces On For 11 Years

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/29/boy-sues-his-orthodontist-after-having-braces-on-for-11-years/

                Someone stuck with braces for eleven years?  Three years in itself is more than a pain, literally and figuratively.  People who have had braces, for the standard amount of time, would agree that suing a dentist for keeping braces on a patient for eleven years is not a ridiculous thing to do.  Though sometimes they look kind of cute, braces kept on for a long time can cause permanent damage, especially if the patient did not clean their teeth very well before the metal monsters were instilled into their mouth.  “Kids typically wear braces for only 1 to 3 years,” said Dr. John F. Buzzatto.  He also said that the idea of keeping braces on that long, even in a bad dental scenario, is pretty strange.

                This is what happened to Devin Bost who spent $35,100 on corrective oral surgery.  He decided to sue his dentist, $150,000 plus the amount he paid for the surgery.

                A well supported article, it has quotes from interviews regarding the subject.  It is not super long, fairly short really, but it brings up some good questions.  One is, why would a dentist keep braces on his patient for 11 years?  For money perhaps?

                The author, Mellissa Locker, did a good job of supporting her subject.  She brought up the amount of money being asked of the dentist and many other interesting, and important, details concerning the problem presented.