Thursday, December 15, 2011

Final Draft Wikipedia Paper

Brittany Brinegar

Mr. Roberts
AP lit/comp
November 2, 2011

Is Wikipedia a reliable resource for us today? No, It’s not because when we use Wikipedia to do research on certain topics we can’t distinguish what’s true and what’s not. Jimmy Wales says “we have constant problems where we have people who are trying to repeatedly abuse our sites," Wales also said, “He was trying to make Wikipedia less vulnerable to tampering. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have written Wikipedia entries. Mistakes are going to be caught and corrected by later contributors and users.” So, I say no, because of the research I have done on Wikipedia. I have found out some pretty interesting things about Wikipedia and how it affects us in today’s society.
Jimmy Wales created Wikipedia in 2001 with Larry Sanger. "Wikipedia was the outgrowth of an online encyclopedia project, it was meant to hew to the traditional model — experts write the articles, and reviewers examine what they produce." "It was aided by being mentioned on the influential technology news site, Slashdot, Wikipedia quickly grew, and a new mousetrap was discovered." The new mousetrap today is that more and more people are getting sucked in to use Wikipedia because it’s the first thing that pops up after you hit the “enter” key. The reason people call it “The New Mousetrap” is because like a mousetrap it snaps when a mouse tries and grabs the piece of cheese. Wikipedia does by luring them in and then snapping it shut so they can’t get free. "In its first year, which was in 2001 Wikipedia has grown to more than 20,000 articles in 18 languages."
Wikipedia is not a reliable resource because the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales says; “he wants to get the message out to college students that they shouldn’t use it for class projects or serious research.” It’s not that Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source for information it just as Wales quotes, “It’s good enough knowledge, depending on what your purpose is.” If that’s true then why would they have created the website in first place? Wales said,” The idea was that we could create a free encyclopedia for everybody.”  I believe Mr. Wales had good intentions towards us by making the encyclopedia free, but it backfired on him and now his regretting what he has created. Newton’s third law states, “That for every action there is an opposite equal reaction.” I think Mr. Wales intended to help us with all his heart he knew he had a mission and was going to succeed in it no matter the outcome what I don’t think he realized was that even though he created this world wide phenomenon that people use in their everyday lives he really didn’t think about the consequences of his actions and how they would affect us. Jimmy Wales wasn’t looking to become rich he just thought that he would create a website were people could look up true, reliable information. We can’t punish him for this one mistake after all everybody makes mistakes in their lives whether or not we like it it’s not for us to judge him based on this one mistake he made in his life, but all we can do though is hope that he has learned from his mistake and not do it again that’s really all we can ask of him. So I say Wikipedia is not always reliable there are other sources of information not just Wikipedia.
                                                    Works Cited
Burrell, Clay. Wikipedia: "Wikipedia is not a Reliable Source". 3 January 2010. November 9 2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_source_examples#History>.
Elaine. Is Wikipedia a Reliable Resource? 25 March 2007. 9 November 2011 <http://mgmt339.wordpress.com/2007/03/25/158/>.
 . 26 January 2007. 9 November 2011 <http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki>.
Literature, AP. GWE. September 2011. 9 November 2011 <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&key=0Avh_W2An_wVRdFdMSnFpbW5lSkR4ejVsQWRobnFfdWc&hl=en_US&gid=0>.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Frankenstein Web Quest


Task 1
A monster can be described as a thing that is not entirely human. They are creatures that should not have come into this world by mad scientists. The monster is a thing made up of different things fused together to make one terrifying, ugly looking thing.

Task 2
The image of the monster on the left side looks more like a human than a terrifying monster, but in the image of the right looks more like a monster with his big head and the surgical scars of the arms. The backgrounds on both pictures are extremely different one looks like a laboratory the other looks like a dungeon. When you put the two pictures together you see that they were made in different time periods what was then is different from now.

Task 3
Many of the scientists wanted to make their country a better, safer place to live without having to look over their shoulder. During war people were making atomic bombs so they could defeat the other team, but the scientists who had insinuated and help build these weapons that they made a make and realize that they have done wrong so for making up for this they established a committee called the Emergency Committee of Atomic Bombs and this committee is still here today.

Task 4
The real monster in the book “Frankenstein” would have to be Dr. Frankenstein himself because I believe that the monster he created was a mistake because he thought he was God and bring back the dead, but what he got was not at all what he expected.  Scientists such as Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, and Joseph they were much like Frankenstein because they believed they could change the world they set their mind to do something and nothing was going to stop no matter the cost.

During the years and after WWII scientists were racing with their peers of other countries. Scientists though Germans would develop a deadly weapon before the United States and Britain could.  They had rush in order to ensure the success of the allies, but their consequences were not in full. If these men had known what destruction this would cause they wouldn’t have taken any part in it.

A weapon can never be used the way it was developed as a weapon. Now the scientists are trying to solve a problem they sparked without thinking of the consequences. Despite all their beliefs and actions, these men are to be held responsible because they’re the ones who created the situation were in now.

Men typically drool at the idea of creation, but in the end they hate what they have created.  For the rest of their lives, they will fight against what they’ve created; however, they will never be rid of the title of monster.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

2nd Draft Research Paper

Brittany Brinegar

Mr. Roberts
AP lit/comp
November 2, 2011

Is Wikipedia a reliable resource for us today? No, It’s not because when we use Wikipedia to do research on certain topics we can’t distinguish what’s true and what’s not. Jimmy Wales says “we have constant problems where we have people who are trying to repeatedly abuse our sites," Wales also said, “He was trying to make Wikipedia less vulnerable to tampering. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have written Wikipedia entries. Mistakes are going to be caught and corrected by later contributors and users.” So, I say no, because of the research I have done on Wikipedia. I have found out some pretty interesting things about Wikipedia and how it affects us in today’s society.
Jimmy Wales created Wikipedia in 2001 with Larry Sanger. "Wikipedia was the outgrowth of an online encyclopedia project, it was meant to hew to the traditional model — experts write the articles, and reviewers examine what they produce." "It was aided by being mentioned on the influential technology news site, Slashdot, Wikipedia quickly grew, and a new mousetrap was discovered." The new mousetrap today is that more and more people are getting sucked in to use Wikipedia because it’s the first thing that pops up after you hit the “enter” key. The reason people call it “The New Mousetrap” is because like a mousetrap it snaps when a mouse tries and grabs the piece of cheese. Wikipedia does by luring them in and then snapping it shut so they can’t get free. "In its first year, which was in 2001 Wikipedia has grown to more than 20,000 articles in 18 languages."
Wikipedia is not a reliable resource because the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales says; “he wants to get the message out to college students that they shouldn’t use it for class projects or serious research.” It’s not that Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source for information it just as Wales quotes, “It’s good enough knowledge, depending on what your purpose is.” If that’s true then why would they have created the website in first place? Wales said,” The idea was that we could create a free encyclopedia for everybody.”  I believe Mr. Wales had good intentions towards us by making the encyclopedia free, but it backfired on him and now his regretting what he has created. Newton’s third law states, “That for every action there is an opposite equal reaction.” I think Mr. Wales intended to help us with all his heart he knew he had a mission and was going to succeed in it no matter the outcome what I don’t think he realized was that even though he created this world wide phenomenon that people use in their everyday lives he really didn’t think about the consequences of his actions and how they would affect us. Jimmy Wales wasn’t looking to become rich he just thought that he would create a website were people could look up true, reliable information. We can’t punish him for this one mistake after all everybody makes mistakes in their lives whether or not we like it it’s not for us to judge him based on this one mistake he made in his life, but all we can do though is hope that he has learned from his mistake and not do it again that’s really all we can ask of him. So I say Wikipedia is not always reliable there are other sources of information not just Wikipedia.
                                                    Works Cited
Burrell, Clay. Wikipedia: "Wikipedia is not a Reliable Source". 3 January 2010. November 9 2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_source_examples#History>.
Elaine. Is Wikipedia a Reliable Resource? 25 March 2007. 9 November 2011 <http://mgmt339.wordpress.com/2007/03/25/158/>.
 . 26 January 2007. 9 November 2011 <http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki>.
Literature, AP. GWE. September 2011. 9 November 2011 <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&key=0Avh_W2An_wVRdFdMSnFpbW5lSkR4ejVsQWRobnFfdWc&hl=en_US&gid=0>.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Dover Beach

1.    What does “Dover Beach” say about the changing role of religion in the Victorian era?
Religion is slowly slipping away while science is becoming more dominant.  To back this up they are talking about “The Sea of Faith” and how it was once full is slowly going down and disappearing into nothing.
2.    In what way does “Dover Beach” add to the discussion of science in Frankenstein?




It’s telling us that science is becoming more dominant it’s widening its views on certain things and how that is affecting us. people are questioning their faith and what they believe is the truth.
3.    Annotate the poem and write a one-paragraph analysis of its meaning, focusing on the symbols in the poem. What is Arnold saying?
Arnold is saying that science is becoming more relevant than religion it talks about “the Sea of Faith” and how we have to fight our way through all of this and come out on top. science is also questioning us on the unknown.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Age of Reason

1) The Microscope and the Telescope
 2) Obstructing the flow of human thought
 3) Cultural Renaissance
 4) The printing Press
 5)1642 the birth of Isaac newton
 6) The mathematical principles of natural philosophy
 7) The English Government
 8) Calculus
 9) The scientific Method
10) The first encyclopedia was made

Monday, November 14, 2011

Frankenstein


1) Can you identify any technological advances that you consider to have caused more harm than good? Explain. Man had found a way to create a living being using science that is very bad because some things are better left alone than to try and mess with.

2) Do you think that humans should always push the boundaries of knowledge, or do you think that some things should be off limits? If so, who should decide those boundaries? Elected officials? Religious officials? Explain. You should always try to push the boundaries of science, but never to the point of creating another being that is way off limits because you don’t know how it will turn out and most scientists aren’t willing to mess with the human skeleton and how it functions.


1). What inspired Shelley to write this novel?
·      A waking dream in 1916
2) What are some modern technological advances that the speakers reference?
·       Nuclear Weapons
3) Name one of the definitions of "Frankenstein" that you hear.
·      One who creates a monster will be destroyed by his ruin.

4) What invention in 1769 changed the world and prompted the industrial revolution?
·      The invention of the steam engine started the industrial revolution


Research Paper

Brittany Brinegar
Mr. Roberts
AP lit/comp
November 2, 2011

Is Wikipedia a reliable resource for us today? No, It’s not because when we use Wikipedia to do research on certain topics we can’t distinguish what’s true and what’s not. Jimmy Wales says “we have constant problems where we have people who are trying to repeatedly abuse our sites," he also said, “He was trying to make Wikipedia less vulnerable to tampering.” In USA Today they are saying,  Wikipedia is a kind of collective brain, a repository of knowledge, maintained on servers in various countries and built by anyone in the world with a computer and an Internet connection who wants to share knowledge about a subject. Literally hundreds of thousands of people have written Wikipedia entries. Mistakes are going to be caught and corrected by later contributors and users.” So I say no because of the research I have done on Wikipedia and found out some pretty interesting things concerning Wikipedia and how it affects us in today’s society.
Jimmy Wales created Wikipedia in 2001 with Larry Sanger Wikipedia was the outgrowth of an online encyclopedia project, it was meant to hew to the traditional model — experts write the articles, and reviewers examine what they produce. It was aided by being mentioned on the influential technology news site, Slashdot, Wikipedia quickly grew, and a new mousetrap was discovered. The new mousetrap today is that more and more people are getting sucked in to use Wikipedia because it’s the first thing that pops up after you hit the “enter” key. The reason people call it “The New Mousetrap” is because like a mousetrap it snaps when a mouse tries and grabs the piece of cheese. Wikipedia does by luring them in and then snapping it shut so they can’t get free. In its first year, which was in 2001 Wikipedia has grown to more than 20,000 articles in 18 languages.

Wikipedia is not a reliable resource because the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales says; “he wants to get the message out to college students that they shouldn’t use it for class projects or serious research.” Students try and do research papers and get information off the website Wales say’s “he gets about 10 e-mail messages a week from students who complain that Wikipedia has gotten them into academic hot water.” It’s not that Wikipedia isn’t a reliable source for information it just as Wales quotes, “It’s good enough knowledge, depending on what your purpose is.” Although Jimmy Wales Created Wikipedia he believes that it was a mistake to make it in the first place because it causing more harm than good.  The “Wikimedia Foundation” created in 2003 and is located in San Francisco operates Wikipedia.  If the people who operated Wikipedia can manage and control what goes on the website why is it the Wikipedia’s defenders say, “The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it can never work." If that’s true then why would they have created the website in first place?  

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Thesis Statement


Brittany Brinegar
Mr. Roberts
AP lit/comp
November 2, 2011

Is Wikipedia a reliable resource for us today? No, It’s not because when we use Wikipedia to do research on certain topics we can’t distinguish what’s true and what’s not. So I say no because of the research I have done on Wikipedia and found out some pretty interesting things concerning Wikipedia and how it affects us today.