Week 1 Responses.

Ch. 1
One thing that makes science comforting to some is the proof that it provides in its explanation. Someone will observe something about their surroundings, they come up with a hypothesis and test it. It continues to be tested until it is proven wrong. Until that point we have theorys, laws, and facts which help us govern and understand our environments. This level of being able to prove our ideas in comforting in being able to comprehend the substance of the idea and are rewarded with the feeling of better understanding our world. But when an idea is presented that goes beyond anything that can be proven such as the supernatural or spiritual world some people tend to get very frustrated and defensive about what they believe to be truth. With science we are able to construct something tangible, something that we can grasp and feel pretty confident in that our observations have some level of accuracy. It seems to be that when some people get so caught up in their "beliefs" they tend to lose some level of rationality in trying to defend that which cannot be scientifically proven. The threat of being proven wrong creates an overwhelming frustration in the person and can result in ignorance to reality. The idea that both the scientific and the supernatural could simultaneously exist together doesn't even phase them. As a result, there are people like the DI, who overlook the possibility of this co-existence and want to replace all of what science has become, with their personal beliefs. After reading this chapter, the thing that stuck out to me the most was the importance of continually challenging ourselves to explore both new and already existent ideas. It seems strange to me to be so confident in believing that which you know, is all there is. The unknown is infinite, and there are endless things to learn about within that realm.

Ch. 12
It is kind of funny to me that no matter how hard we try to make life easier on ourselves, things only get more complicated. Steven Darksyde presents a very interesting 'progression' of technological advances starting from a thing as simple as black powder ending with the possibility of another Great Dying. Its scary to think that despite the rate of depletion is continually getting worse our government regressing in efforts to prevent it from getting any worse. Darksyde references the Clear Skies Act of 2003, saying that it "weakened existing emission restrictions, delayed or canceled previously established deadlines for compliance with new emissions restrictions".(194) I cannot understand why our government is not taking more drastic measures in order to prevent the situation from getting any worse. It's a frustrating thing to deal with and it is very easy to sense the authors frustrations with the topic as well. It makes me wonder why there is not more being done. Because we have not taken precautions in the past when creating in new technologies, we have created a situation that now seems too large to correct. In all the efforts that can be made, at least we can try prolong the ozone's hole from getting any larger by creating an awareness on just how serious this issue is, which is what I feel Darksyde is trying to do.

Week 1's Question
Literature allows for a more open opinion on specific issues. When someone is writing a piece of literature, they do not have to follow any sort of method in order to present their ideas. They can freely voice what they want to say and arrange it in a manner that allows them to prove their point, much easier than someone who is writing a science journal could. Writing in a journal of science would be much more restricting but at the same time would probably be much more realible than something primarily swayed by someone's personal opinion. Someone writing for science is more aware of presenting just the facts and displaying a means of backing up their claims. Despite their differences, science and literature have a nice relationship together in that the two together balance each other nicely. What one lacks, the other possesses. When someone uses both of these approaches accurately, the result could be very effective.