Evaluation of News Magizine Stories

Online news websites are the modern newspaper. They are more easily accessible than newspaper and offer more real time news stories and information. The articles can also be from all over the world and on any topic that they want.

ScarletJohns23 "Metal Tubes", 7/25/2014, CC0 Public Domain

Magazine: Time Article: California Gas Leak

1. What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about? Explain concisely, but with specificity and precision. Name specific people, places, things, events, dates, times and/or other identifying details.
The debate of the story is the methane leaking from Porter Ranch in Los Angeles, California and how it could increase global warming. The Porter Ranch in California has been leaking methane for months and leaks about 1.6 million lbs. of methane every day. The article said that the amount of methane produced is the equivalent of 6 coal plants every day, 4.5 million cars running constantly for a day.

2. Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?
There isn't really any sympathetic character in this story. I guess everyone in the world could be the sympathetic characters because they are in danger of the effects of Global warming. The leak will cause temperatures to rise and therefore affect crops and animals negatively. The people of the world evoke more empathy than sympathy because I am one of them, so it directly affects me as well.

3. Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?
The least sympathetic character in the story would have to be the owners of the farm or whatever caused the leak. The article isn't very clear on why the leak happened but they mention that it has been going on for quite some time now. I can't sympathize with them because they caused the problem and therefore should be responsible for fixing it.



Magazine: Wired Article: General Relativity and Black Holes

1. What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about? Explain concisely, but with specificity and precision. Name specific people, places, things, events, dates, times and/or other identifying details.
The debate of this article is whether black holes are the key to connecting the theory of General Relativity to the theory of Quantum mechanics. Scientists have created a telescope, called the Event Horizon Telescope, to determine the shadow produced by black holes. Since black holes suck in all protons once they pass a certain point, the event horizon, there is no way to have a picture of the black hole itself. But due to all the matter being sucked into the black hole, heat is generated around the event horizon and some of it doesn't get absorbed and leaves a cloud behind. The telescope plans on viewing the black hole at the center of the Milky Way called Sgr. A* and they estimate its shadow to be 50 microarcseconds wide.

2. Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?
There aren't any empathetic characters in this story. The only people mentioned are the scientists that have theorized black holes and the scientists who are observing the black hole to prove the theories. I guess I feel sympathetic that they are going to have to spend numerous hours staring at a computer screen to figure out how to position the telescopes.

3. Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?
There isn't really any character in the story that isn't sympathetic. The least sympathetic character, if I had to choose one, would have to be the Black Hole. It eats light and spits out darkness. Its a massive devil that destroys everything.