What's Happening In the World Around Us?
Today we're going to be diving into some business and health related articles via The New York Times.
The Biz
In recent news, Facebook has banned the private sales of guns on its internet site. The private sale of guns is a way to get around the background checking system that states have for the purchasing of weapons.
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| Steinberger, Simon. "Facebook Mouse Cursor Mouse Pointer Logo" 1/29/13 via pixabay. Creative Commons 0 Public Domain License |
The Gist of the Story
1. Facebook is the star in this news story. Whether they are perceived as the villain or the hero is totally at the reader's discretion, but that's for your judgement. The spotlight is put on Facebook as they jump into a political and business oriented debate. Will they lose users of the site? Honestly I think that having a few thousands of users gone won't hurt their 1.6 billion monthly views. Facebook may be playing a larger part in their view on gun control, which could be used for political propaganda in the upcoming elections.
2. In this article there is no physical setting, but rather an internet setting. It takes place on Facebook, rather than in the world at a location. This influences the individuals involved because most Facebook users that actually use the site for selling weapons are going to be in the pre-retirement age of people (less than 65), yet not the users who are relatively young (18 and younger). Rather than a physical conflict, this creates a conflict over the web that users really have no control over. Facebook seems to be at the helm of the ship due to this setting.
3. Although there seems to be no debate in the story, there was an urge from a group called Everytown For Gun Safety that pressured Facebook into enacting this new policy. With statistics and information from Everytown, it was decided that the idea of banning gun sales over Facebook was a pretty smart idea.
Find the article here:
Who Needs Health?
We Have a Cure Right?
Eh, that's a big, fat no. Also, this virus is spread by these little guys below:
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| "Mosquito Insect Macro Biology Animal Nature Bug" 12/10/14 via pixabay. Creative Commons 0 Public Domain License |
1. The main character in this article seems to be the "researchers" that are mentioned. We aren't given a clear definition of who these people are, but I feel like any health story is always focused on what the researchers do. Jesse Goodman, Anthony Fauci and Carolina Batista are the doctors that are mentioned throughout the article. The doctors provided kind of generic quotes that you'd expect in a situation like this. "We should not wait for the crisis to come and then start." was quoted by Doctor Batista. After reading this several times it's kind of like a "you don't say?" kind of reaction (at least from me). However, the researches definitely play a role as the people we rely on to do the work, as we read over this article and seem to care, even though in reality no one cares until it affects someone we know.
2. The story is taking place in Brazil, and most of Latin America. Although it isn't specifically stated, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that it's in the poorer parts of the countries. It's kind of sad that parts of the world still live in poverty and can't seem to defend themselves against the most annoying pests in the world (mosquitoes). So this plot makes all the people in first world countries think that all hell is going to break loose. Then they walk into their bedroom that is fully protected and poses almost zero risk of this disease. The plot will play out by a bunch of activists trying to provide support, and in the end everyone will forget about it because it really doesn't matter to most people in economically stable countries that control the media. The setting is also the usually area of expertise for the researchers (poor countries).
3. There seems to be no debate or argument in this article at all. The only question posed was whether companies would mass produce any drugs that could potentially be a cure. That's kind of scary knowing that these drug producing companies can control epidemics.
If you'd like to read more in-depth here's the article:
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