Evaluation of New York Times Story

I'm not proud to admit it, but I am definitely not the most informed citizen on current events. I get most of my news off social media, like Twitter, so my sources are not always reliable to say the least. It was interesting to explore the organized, formal New York Times in comparison to the random chaos that's published on social media that I'm used to. From the Arts and Health categories, i found a couple stories that piqued my interest.

"Rapper B.o.B Insists Earth Is Flat. Take That, Neil deGrasse Tyson."- by Daniel Victor

Ingalls, Bill/NASA.
"Tyson- Apollo 40th Anniversary2009."
7/20/2009 via WikiMedia Commons. Public
Domain License.

The Come Up Show. "Rapper B.o.B 2013."  8/10/13 via
WikiMedia  Commons. Creative Commons Attribution
License. 

• The main character and protagonist of this particular story is the rapper Bobby Ray Simmons Jr., more famously known as B.o.B(pictured above on the left). The story, written by Daniel Victor in the Arts section of the Times, revolves around B.o.B.'s recent Twitter allegations claiming that the Earth is actually flat. The story includes screenshots of his tweets arguing that the Earth being round is a conspiracy, warning his followers that they have been "deceived". The other main character that comes into play is astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson(pictured above on the right). Tyson disagreed with B.o.B.'s claim-as most people would- which provoked B.o.B to release a diss track to defend himself.

• The story takes place exclusively on Twitter, since that's the platform B.o.B used to express his problematic theory and how Tyson replied to him. Twitter is a public and popular platform, so B.o.B.'s ideas and his encounter with Tyson could be followed by anyone who was interested. If B.o.B hadn't felt compelled to share his argument with the world, there would be no story. Tyson was very courteous in his replies despite the very obvious flaws in B.o.B.'s theory, which we could chalk up to the fact that his words were completely public and not many were taking B.o.B. very seriously.

• Although there is technically a debate occurring in this story, there's not really a question of who is right. No matter how much B.o.B might insist on it, we all know the Earth is not flat. Just look at a picture from space if you're really that skeptical, B.o.B. The reason for why B.o.B is so adamant about his idea is unclear, but because he is a rapper and not a scholar he doesn't necessarily have much to lose publishing his nonsensical tweets. If anything, he is gaining publicity by giving people something to laugh about. On the other hand, Tyson is a reputable scientist who we all know to be the correct party in the debate, so there isn't much for him to lose either. It is an overall funny and interesting story that we all like to read because we get a kick out of celebrities and the things they say, and it will surely show up in an SNL skit we'll want to understand.

"New Weapon to Fight Zika: The Mosquito"- by Andrew Pollack

The second story I read is significantly more serious. There are no main characters in this story that are specific people, but many doctors and specialists are quoted on their beliefs on the issue. The "center" of the story is the fight against the mosquito-spread virus, Zika, and the efforts that have been made to stop its spread. The story opens by explaining how devastating mosquito-spread viruses have been and how urgent it is to control the spread of Zika. The rest of the story details the many different approaches that are being explored or speculated on, from genetically mutated mosquitoes to  potentially dangerous pesticides.

AlvesGaspar. "Mosquito 2007-2."Nov. 2007 via WikiMedia Commons. GNU Free Documentation License.

• The genetically mutated mosquitoes are being released in Brazil on a smaller scale, making it the primary setting of the story. The disease itself, Zika, has spread across other Latin American country so the issue affects much more than just Brazil. The setting is important since these countries are so humid and rainy, making them the perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes. They are also poverty ridden countries, for the most part. Medical care is harder to obtain so the demand for a solution as soon as possible is much higher.

• There is debate over the future repercussions that can arise from releasing all the altered mosquitoes. The creator behind the mosquitoes, a British company named Oxitec, claims that this method is safe and has proven its effectiveness, so it only makes sense to implement on a larger scale. Critics and environmentalists worry about what would happens if the mosquitoes create another problem; trying to destroy the mosquitoes with the mutation would be much more difficult than the average mosquito.  In this debate, Oxitec has quite a bit to lose. If the genetically mutated mosquitoes do end up creating a problem, then they would surely face the consequences for their claims. On the other hand, if they're successful, the company would gain huge amounts of funding and many lives could be saved.

These stories are both very different, yet it was easy to determine the main "characters" and the debates between them. Looking through these stories gave me hope that maybe Project 1 won't be too bad, hopefully.