Quiz

1- Critical thinking is the ability to use the mind effectively to think about something in a critical way. That include a lot of factors that lead to critical thinking which are:

a- Ability to read between the lines and beyond the point of view.

b- knowing exactly what people are referring to or think about when they say something.

c- Being able to understand the issue and think about whether it has a do-able solution or not.


2- Barriers of critical thinking:

a- Lack of experience and practice.

b- To think that criticism means only bad comments on a specific argument but in critical thinking criticism should be about pointing out the good and the bad points of view of someone's else opinion.

c- people`s emotions : it happens when an argument leads someone to emotional distress while discussing the matter with another person ; due to the emotional facts in the argument some people will refuse to listen to others opinions.

d- The rationality of people

e- some people are just lazy and would not want to trouble their mind thinking about whether or not a certain fact is true and will believe any thing said to them.


3- A fallacy is an argument based on poor reasoning and it may or may not  have a true conclusion. A fallacy can be formal or informal and there are a lot of factors that lead to fallacious argument and they are :

a- Ignorance : a belief could be true because there is no fact stating that it is not true. Some people believe in aliens  because they just saw a sight of an unidentified flying object flying around in some places so they just decided that it is an UFO that contains aliens.

b- The community believe in something

c- Authority : declaration of facts based on years of experience so it is decided that a certain fact is true.


4- Benefits of critical thinking :

Good critical thinking provides us with numerous benefits and helps us to thin in a better way. The first benefit is the ability to address a problem and think about viable solutions to it.

Good critical thinking leads to good conclusions and it is a good exercise to the brain that keeps it working in a healthy way and your brain will never age!  

Finally, critical thinking makes me happy because I'm able now to read between the lines and beyond the regular point of view which helps me to be effective in discussing a matter or be in an argument with someone else.

Efficient Energy in UAE

 

Ever since fossil fuel was discovered in the UAE, it was the main energy source for everything, and it is used to run motors and produce electricity in order to feed the main cities with enough power. However, as we all know that fossil fuels produce greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide which cause a huge impact on the earth’s atmosphere by preventing radiant energy received from the sun to be reflected back to space as heat. So as a result there will be an increase in the temperature of the earth due to the greenhouse effect.

Another thing is that fossil fuels will not last forever and there will be a time when we will run out of it so an alternative energy source should be found. Our government put a huge budget and efforts to find an alternative power so they decided to use solar power due to the fact it’s clean and it is usually sunny in daytime.

 For this purpose, a company called Masdar initiated a project called Shams1 for solar energy; it was funded for 2.2 billion dirhams and built on a 2.5 square kilometer site. Shams1 has the capability to produce enough power to feed up to 20,000 houses which will reduce the carbon dioxide in the air by 175 thousand ton yearly, and that is similar to planting one and a half million trees or preventing 15,000 cars from running  Abu Dhabi`s streets.

People will say that solar energy is a way to go and it is clean, safe and environmentally friendly. I totally agree with them but is it efficient? It is well known that solar energy is clean but it is very expensive to be applied on a larger scale and to be the main feeder for major cities; millions if not billions of dirhams should be spent in order to have the needed power. So another source of energy should be found so it was decided to rely on the nuclear power to generate the needed power for the cities in the UAE.

AS a result, “In December 2009, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, established by decree the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), the organization charged with implementing the UAE nuclear energy program as it produces electricity, supports economic development, and provides opportunity for the people of the nation.” (http://enec.gov.ae/about-us/history/)

Nuclear energy is considered to be the most efficient energy source found on earth due to the fact that it produces more megawatts while using a small amount of fuel, and it’s considered to be clean since it doesn’t produce any CO2. However, many people will say it is dangerous because of what they heard about how hazardous the nuclear radioactivity can be. In fact, nuclear energy is very safe because the rate of reaction is manageable and the reactor is built out of thick walls that prevent the radioactivity to get out.

Finally, we can be sure that nuclear energy is a way to go since it is efficient and reliable. However, that doesn’t prevent us from using solar energy since we have the sun needed to generate power. Solar and nuclear energies are the energy of the future!

 

Airplanes vs Cellphones

 

 

Every time you get inside an airplane you will be informed about safety rules in order to have a safe flight, and just before takeoff, the flight attendant will ask you to turn all the electronic devices including your cell phone. Many people don’t know why they are asked to do so and if they asked why the answer will be that cellphones can interfere with the airplane`s radio system which might cause a disaster.

A lot of people, including the flight attendants in the airplane, believe that cellphones can really cause a huge problem to the airplane due to the radio frequency emitted from them which can interfere with the aircraft frequencies. However, some people will just keep using their phones and nothing will happen to the airplane.

“The real reason the ban of cell phones exist has nothing to do with flight safety. Cell phone networks have a small risk of not work properly when a phone accesses them from a high vantage point, and so federal communication regulators prohibit the use of mobile phones from the air. Federal aviation regulators enforce it because of the communication laws” (Egan, 2007).

The real fact is that airplane companies like Boing and Airbus spend millions of dollars to enhance the safety of their aircrafts, thus they made their aircraft immune to foreign signals and they work in  completely different frequency ranges. In fact, some aircraft have a built-in micro cellular tower which can allow the passengers to use their cellphones and make international calls to their loved ones.

However, people still need to pay attention and turn all their electronic devices off during the low altitude portion of the flight which are take-off and landing. They should also keep their devices in a secure place because the last thing you want is to have a flying IPad in the cabin!

Now, a lot of people say that phones should be banned because it's annoying for other passengers. That's fine, that's a perfectly valid perspective; but it's not valid to promote this perspective by making up bad science to claim the phones are a danger to the aircraft.

 

 

 

References:

1-Elgan, Mike. "Why cell phones are still grounded." Computerworld.com. Computer World, 6 Apr. 2007. Web. 14 Dec. 2009. <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9015839/Why_cell_phones_are_still_grounded?taxonomyId=15&pageNumber=1>

2-Ely, J.J., Nguyen, T.X., Koppen, S.V., Salud, M.T. "Electromagnetic interference assessment of CDMA and GSM wireless phones to aircraft navigation radios." Proceedings of the 21st Digital Avionics Systems Conference. 10 Dec. 2002, Volume 2: 13E4-1- 13E4-13.

3-Heussner, K. "Why Can't We Use Cell Phones On Planes?" abcnews.go. ABC News Internet Ventures, 9 Feb. 2009. Web. 15 Nov. 2010. <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=6833039&page=1>

 

 

 

Abortion

 

 

Abortion is the ending of pregnancy by the removal of the fetus from the uterus of the mother before completing its growth. An abortion can occur naturally due to the miscarriage of the fetus, or it can be induced on purpose by using medical methods to remove the fetus.

Every year, approximately 205 million women around the world get pregnant and over a third of them get an abortion due to the fact that it was unintended to get pregnant in the first place. So the main reason why women have abortions is because they don’t want to be mothers yet!

Many people think that abortion is wrong and their argument is that killing human beings is prohibited and the fetus is considered to be a human being in their opinion. On the other hand, some people say the fetus in early weeks of pregnancy isn’t considered to be a human being and mothers have the rights to have abortion if they are willing to have an abortion.

I’m against abortion and my argument is that having kids is the joy of life and a blessing from God. However, in some cases I’m with abortion if the pregnancy has a risk to the women`s life or if an early check of pregnancy showed that the fetus has serious physical illness.

Fair and false analogies

To compare the earth's atmosphere to a blanket of gas is a true analogy because it protect our earth by maintaining the temperature of the earth, and that what a blanket do to you when you are sleeping !

to suggest that modifying the genetics of plants to produce more and larger quantity of food is dangerous and harmful to us is false argument because this depends on scientific researches and it is the best way get rid of starvation around the world.

Barriers to Critical Thinking

   1.     Thinking all criticism is negative. Criticism can be constructive and useful, even essential.

2.     Over-estimating our own reasoning abilities.

3.     Lack of methods, strategies or practice. Exposure to rote learning, for example, does not encourage critical thinking.

4.     Reluctance to question the opinions of experts, or so-called experts.

5.     Affective or emotional reasons e.g. if a theory challenges deeply-held beliefs and/or long-held assumptions, it can be difficult to accept.

6.     Mistaking information for understanding e.g.

Student: ‘I want you the teacher, the expert, to give me the answers to questions. I want to know the right answer’.

Teacher: ‘I want you to become critical thinkers i.e. I want you to challenge experts’ answers and produce your own answers through active questioning’.

  

Critical thinking

This course is about thinking critically and a key word is viable.

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is a type of reasonable, reflective thinking that is aimed at deciding what to believe or what to do. Encompassed in critical thinking are the skills of rationality, self-awareness, honesty, open-mindedness, discipline and judgement. The process of critical thinking involves thorough and careful interpretation of information as well as its subsequent application to reach justifiable conclusions.

These skills are necessary in many professions, particularly law, where a lawyer must evaluate different pieces of evidence. There are three main aspects of critical thinking – recognising assumptions, evaluating arguments and drawing conclusions.