Author: katelynmarco

During WWII,  “Rosie the Riveter” was an advertisement used to sway women to apply for jobs that men typically worked since they were off fighting in the war. This advertisement utilizes various techniques to give a clear message of action to women, the target audience. 

Rosie reflects who the target audience is and who the target audience wants to be. Her face does not have any blemishes, she appears to be physically fit, and she gives off the appeal of femininity through the use of makeup. Women during WWII most likely wanted to be seen for how strong they were, but they also wanted to retain their poise. With Rosie displaying this while being a part of the workforce, women will get the sense that they can have all these qualities by joining the workforce themselves.

The main color of the background is yellow. Yellow is known to evoke happiness and optimism. These feelings make the target audience, women, more open to the idea of joining the workforce. They may feel that if they take this path, they will be happy.The dark blue speech bubble with “We Can Do It!” written in white bolded letters in the background calls directly to the audience. By using “We can,” the target audience is given reassurance that they are indeed able to work in areas where they are not previously known for working. “We” also creates a sense of community. It signifies that there is already a welcoming, open place for the women who are reading this ad. This feeling of comfort will make the reader more likely to join.

The position in which Rosie is portrayed plays a role in delivering the message of this advertisement. Rosie makes direct eye contact with the reader, giving them the sense that they are in this direct conversation with Rosie. Additionally, this eye contact makes the ad catch the audience’s eye in the first place. Someone is more likely to look back at someone who is looking at them, so the audience is more likely to look at an ad that is looking back at you. Rosie’s body position also has meaning. Her flexed arm is an indicator of physical strength, something women may like to gain. Physical strength can also be seen as correlating with strength in oneself and position in society. This may appeal to women who view strength that way and would wish to obtain it to feel more seen and heard if they aren’t being so currently.

Rosie’s shirt color and style point to the specific area in the workforce where Rosie is working, and therefore where the audience should go work at. Her blue collared shirt correlates directly with the term “blue collar worker.” This term often refers to workers involved in some type of physical labor. This ad is recruiting women to work in places using physical labor.

“Rosie the Riveter” uses various tactics, including color, attention to detail, wording, to elicit the response from women of joining the manual labor workforce.

Research has shown that regulated small doses of LSD have the potential to be beneficial. Even though these studies show LSD as something promising, politics surrounding the use of it in the 1960s resulted in it being classified as a Schedule 1 drug (see left). This makes it difficult for scientists and researchers to obtain the drug for scientific use. LSD needs to be rescheduled so that researchers are able to conduct more studies for its potential future use in the medical field.

Let’s address the basics of what LSD does to someone. Users of LSD experience what is known as a “trip.” Feelings of bliss and leaving one’s physical body, sound and sight hallucinations, and other “mystical experiences” accompany the trip. Additionally, LSD impairs the recognition of fearful or sad faces and increases emotional empathy. It should be noted that the LSD I am discussing in this post LSD as a pure substance; the LSD that is found in street operations and made illegally typically is not pure and therefore does not wield the same effects as the LSD being used by researchers.

On April 16, 1943, a Swiss chemist known as Albert Hoffmann became the first person to synthesize LSD. Research on the drug was attempted by various organizations, but the experiments were poorly conducted. There were no clear control groups or quantifiable ways to record what was going on during a trip. Because of this, self-experimentation became the new normal for LSD. Timothy Leory, an ex-Harvard professor who was fired over his use of hallucinogens in research, promoted their use in the 1960’s counterculture. At first the use of these drugs was not particularly condemned by anyone; there was more of an indifferent stance. The public’s view on hallucinogens and the counterculture quickly changed when Richard Nixon had begun cracking down on drug regulations. Through media manipulation and legislation, Nixon overpowered the drug movement within the counterculture. Additionally, Nixon signed off on the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which regulated and sorted drugs into categories based on their medical use and how likely it is for them to be abused. Some drugs, like LSD, were placed into more restricted categories due to the government wanting to control the public’s use in order to gain more power over them.

One of the major recent studies on LSD was done in Switzerland a few years ago. The subjects in it were suffering from severe anxiety associated with having a life-threatening disease. The goal of the study was to use LSD so that patients would be less anxious and fearful of their unknown futures. They experienced at least eight sessions of psychotherapy, two with 200 micrograms of LSD. After the sessions, there was a two month and twelve months follow up to see how the participants were doing. The results of both follow ups can be seen below.

Not only had the participants anxiety decreased after initially going through with the treatment, but their anxiety levels stayed lowered after an entire year. These results show promise in the potential of LSD use in people with severe anxiety.

Rescheduling LSD to a Schedule II drug will allow for the recognition of it having accepted medical use. Researchers will find it easier to obtain in order to study, but it will still be just as regulated and kept track of in the government as it was before. Breaking down the stereotypes about LSD being a dangerous drug is the first step to getting it rescheduled. People need to understand the difference between political lies from the past and the promising results that it shows now.

For more information about how LSD in the government: https://www.dea.gov/factsheets/lsd

For more information about the history of LSD: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt14jxvrz

For the full journal on the study in people with severe anxiety: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269881114555249?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3Dpubmed&

My research paper will be attacking three main points that all add up to why LSD should be rescheduled. One of my main concerns is making sure to balance all three topics that I need to address. Michael warned me not to let the history of LSD completely take over the other things that I need to talk about to get my point across. From a personal standpoint, I am concerned about my time management on this. I have gotten slightly better at doing my work the day before it’s due, but it ends up being that the larger the assignment is, the more intimidating it is to conquer. And then this ends with me waiting to write it until the last few days. I want my final draft to be a solid foundation for what I want to say when all is said and done. In order to do that, I’m going to need to push myself more to slowly chip away at this assignment.

In my first post, I was already researching and focused on my topic, LSD. After my meeting with Michael, I got confirmation on something I had suspected: the thesis for my proposal (and research paper for that matter) is going to be a weird, three headed monster. The first part of the thesis will be on the history of LSD and how it became illegal. The second part of my thesis will be on the how LSD needs to be rescheduled in the government so that researchers are able to have access to it. The third part of my thesis will be on the promising results of new research emerging on LSD: the benefits it has on patients with mental illness and the finding that it doesn’t have a high potential for abuse.

Diving right in, I plan to write my research paper on LSD. I want the audience to take away a few things from the paper. The first being the real history about its use in the past and why it became illegal. The second being that the reality of LSD use is that it’s only dangerous if you use too much of it; it’s like any other drug. (That being said, I don’t want to promote the illegal use of LSD.) With these two topics behind me, I really want to drive home the idea of allowing scientists to begin researching LSD again. I would cite other scientists that have made this claim to show that this is something that is being considered already, so it’s not a total stretch to make it happen. I would address that old LSD experiments showed promising results in helping ease the minds of people with PTSD, severe anxiety, and other debilitating mental disorders. I would support this by citing those medical journals and breaking down the content so it’s easier for my audience to understand.

Why LSD? Well, I wanted my paper to tap into my major, neuroscience. I also wanted my paper to be on something that isn’t normally talked about. I like exploring the unknown and learning about topics that might be considered taboo. I also want to share the truth on LSD now that I know more about it. People have so many misconceptions about it, so I think it’s time to explain what it actually is and why it needs to be reconsidered as a usable drug in the medical/research field.

The Fermi paradox discusses the theory of extraterrestrial life. When about it, I understood the reasoning behind most everything hypothesized, I read the section titled “Electromagnetic Transmissions.” Whether or not alien life exists in the universe, I am going to focus on the flaw of assuming that radio technology is a “natural advance for technological species.”

Radio waves are what we humans use everyday for communication with each other. It is how the news gets broadcast, how a phone call gets transmitted from one phone to the next, and how WiFi connects to your computer. For a better understanding on radio waves, check out the video above. While it is natural to depend on radio waves nowadays, we didn’t even know of their existence until 1886. It took thousands of years of evolution, scientific hypothesis, and research to get to the point of discovering radio waves. Scientists have been sending out radio waves into space to try and see if some type of alien life will receive our signal and send one of their own back. It has been 50 years since the first signal was sent out. That signal is now 39 light years away from Earth. So far, there have been no detected responses answering our one of the multiple signals Earth has sent out.

The fault with using radio waves is assuming that aliens have been around long enough to become as technologically advanced as humans. Additionally,we also need to stop assuming that they are even technologically advanced in the first place. Who is to say that aliens are or aren’t as technologically advanced as giraffes? We simply have no way of proving that radio waves are a natural advance for any species. By acknowledging this, it would then allow other methods of proposed communication to be considered and looked at. It also brings everything back around into the general mindset of the fact that nothing should be assumed. By assuming anything of aliens, whether or not they exist, we cut ourselves off from thinking outside of the box.

Maya Walker wrote “To Meme or Not to Meme”, an article calling attention to dark humor in memes. It discusses how memes normalize mental health issues and results in the inability to recognize serious cries for help. Overall, Walker successfully utilized various rhetorical strategies to build a strong, well developed argument. She begins her essay by appealing to pathos in telling her previous struggles with depression. Once the audience’s attention is captured, Walker gives some background on memes as a whole and then the dark humor memes that her article focuses on. She uses various credible sources, such as universities, while also adding in screenshots of the type of social media accounts she is talking about. This consistent flow of information and explanation appeals to ethos. Additionally, Walker’s diction is noticeably formal when explaining her sources. This begins to add on to the ethos that she has already established, however her diction begins to turn into a less formal one as the article goes on. This in turn makes her lose a bit of credibility, but it doesn’t take enough away from her previous successes for the article to be successful as a whole. The most notable rhetoric device is the appeal to kairos. Walker chose a topic that was relevant to Generation Z, and it most likely will remain relevant for future generations as well. “To Meme or Not to Meme” has many elements necessary to make a clear, strong argument. It utilizes an appeal to ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos in such a way that, even if the audience does not agree with the author’s opinion, they can come to terms with the author’s validity as a writer.

Being impulsive is okay sometimes, just not all the time. I landed in a sticky situation due to my impulsiveness. Granted, I didn’t plan on all available phones dying or on there being no functioning phone charger in the car. I didn’t even plan on driving out to West Virginia that night. My best friend, Cam, and I were supposed to be driving around our town, located just outside Pittsburgh.

It started out normally: I pick Cam up and we drive around town. That night though, I wasn’t feeling remotely tired. I asked Cam, “Do you mind if we take the drive onto the highway tonight?” His response was more than positive, so I set off towards the highway. After driving for a few minutes, a sign passed showing different cities and how far away they were. Speaking my thoughts, I read a city out loud. “Wheeling. Cam, let’s go to Wheeling.”

“You do know Wheeling is in West Virginia, right?” Cam asked. He pulled out a quarter. If it was heads, we would go. If it was tails, we wouldn’t. Cam flipped the coin. Tails. Cam then spoke up. “Let’s just do it anyways, but how about we just go into West Virginia for a few miles?” 

From there, we made a game plan: Pick up a West Virginia brochure at the first rest area and turn around at the next exit. After we picked up the brochures, Cam and I had pulled up the navigation on our phones. It said we could take one long road at the next exit to loop around to the other side of the highway.

We took the exit and started down the road. We lost the radio signal a few minutes into the road, which worried us only slightly. The exit we took was a camping exit, so we were prepared for that to happen. Then, I noticed that the lights lining the road were becoming more spaced out, leaving me to be more cautious than normal while driving. The navigation let us know we had thirty minutes left before we merged onto the highway. Another ten minutes passed, and my phone died. I asked Cam if he had a charger; I didn’t plan on going on such a long car ride, so I didn’t have one. Not only did Cam not have a phone charger, his phone was about to die too. With me still driving, Cam went through all of the pockets around his seat looking for a charger. His phone died after his first unsuccessful search. Slightly panicked, he continued looking through the car for a charger, the entire time whispering profanities under his breath about how we even got into this situation.

Eventually, Cam found an old phone charger in the wall of the trunk. He climbed back up to the front and plugged my phone in. The rest of the ride home we talked about how we didn’t regret the adventure, but we would never do it again without being a little more prepared.

Here’s what I hope people take away from this. First, always have a phone charger in your car even if you are only going a few minutes away from home. Second, if you decide to go on a crazy car adventure, it’s better if you do it with a friend. Third, trust your instincts. Even though I panicked at some points, I still trusted we would eventually find our way home, and we did.

Hi everyone! My name is Katelyn Marcovecchio and I am from just outside Pittsburgh, PA. I came to UD not knowing anyone because it’s so far away (about 5 hours), but thankfully everyone here has been extremely welcoming. I am a freshman majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in German. My out of class interests include singing and painting. I love to listen to alternative rock or indie music. Some of my favorite musicians include Coldplay, Vance Joy, and the Collection. I’m also a huge theater nerd, so I’ll listen to a musical album on repeat every now and then. As for this class, I’m looking forward to actually learning how to write a good research paper considering I’ll have quite a few to write throughout college.