Post 4: Carbon Dioxide Paper

1. https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AR-g2f6dIA0oZGdxZG1zaHdfMTljZDJqYzhweA&hl=en_US

2. I think the criteria we set was solid criteria to evaluate a scientific paper.  They were pretty general ways to establish if the paper is legitimate which seemed to work out well.  More criteria could have also helped in this process.

3. The points we brought up in our presentation were pretty strong reasons why this paper is not legitimate.  As the "No" group, we analyzed questionable comments and confusing graphs.  We also did a good job in pointing out the weak references the paper had.  The "No" groups in general did a nice job disecting the paper, looking for evidence on making the paper invalid, and conveying that in a way that the rest of the class could see and understand in a short period of time. They seemed confident in their findings and conveyed it in a way for the rest of the class to understand.  Some of the weaknesses that our group had was to find clear cut evidence to prove the paper is not legitimate.  There weren't things that popped out in the paper so we had to take one piece we believed was wrong and thoroughly research it.  At times we were unable to prove or disprove what the paper was saying which used up a lot of our time.

4. Our group's main strength was our communication and organization.  We set certain people to look for illegitimacy in different areas of the paper.  By assigning people to different jobs made the process a lot easier.  Using Google Docs was also very beneficial to our group.  We were able to work on the presentation simultaneously and provide feedback right away.  One of the things that didn't go so well was the inability to have every member at each meeting.  It was a lot easier to communicate face to face rather than email.

5. After reading through the paper I was confident in my position.  There was a few head scratching moments when I read the paper which made it easier to disprove the paper because of my strong belief that the paper was not legitimate.

6.  I believe the class made the right decision after listening to everyone's stance on the paper. Based off the evidence we found disproving the paper, it's hard to believe the paper is legitimate.

7. Looking at what has happened in the past few years, it is easy to see that the US is beginning to become smaller in the global scale of things like economy, population and power. The things we do are having a lesser impact to the world then they did in the past.  I always compare the US and what happened to Rome and other empires.  Rome was a dominant world power for 1000 years and now it is almost nothing compared to what it was.  Great empires end up not lasting which will soon probably happen to the US.

8. Individual efforts in the past has changed the world.  Such individual contributions like Edison, BIll Gates, Steve Jobs, and more has changed the world in many ways such as socially, economically, and environmentally.  It is crazy how much one person who believes in themselves and their work can change the world.