Bryan

I am reading the book called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.I chose to read this book because I have read The Outliers by the same author and i thought it was a pretty good book. I also like to read books that somehow analyze the world. I have heard many good comments about the book, so I wanted to give it a try and see what this book has to offer. 09/10/2010 09/17/2010 So far I have read about how a brand of shoes went from bankruptcy to being a best seller. Also I read a chapter in which it talked about the crime rates in New York. It was very interesting to see this because it said that the crime rate was very high and in a very short time the crime rate reduced a lot. It was surprising to see that the rate reduced when nothing was done. There was no extra cops added. Then I learned that little things can make big differences. 09/24/2010 This week I read I about the crime rates at New York and how they have decreased. It shows how in order to attack the big problems you first have to attack the small problems. Like erasing the graffiti painted on the city's trains. I also read about the importance of number 150 and how if there is a group of people with less that a hundred and fifty people then this group is mostly likely a timid group. As soon as this group gains more participants and goes above one hundred and fifty people it begins to shows prosperity. The people in the group are more out going and are more self confident. 1/10/2010 This week I read about how there has been a dramatically big augmentation of adolescence suicide. In this study Malcolm Gladwell talks about how this is mainly because teens tend to have this tendency to bully other people, and that teens are more like to wanting to experience new things like behaving differently in different times and acting different as well. Also how the smoking trend among teenagers has also increased.
 * What I'm Reading Now**
 * What I've Read**

8/10/2010 http://www.webmd.com/parenting/teen-abuse-cough-medicine-9/behavior-problems

9 /17/2010 After reading the first chapters of The Tipping Point I began to wonder if New York crime rates had really gone down. I began to research crime rates in New York from 1960-2009. I found out that the crime rates began at very low numbers, but eventually began to increase at such a fast pace. Suddenly in 1981 the crime rates dropped and began began to decrease from there on. The crime rates had reach a the tipping point and eventually began to decrease. The place where I was able to look the crime rates was from the disaster center.FBI, Uniform Crime Reports was one of the companies that helped with the research of the statistics posted on http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm. Also when I began to read about the crime rates I began to wonder what made it possible for the crime rates to decrease. I found this article written by George L. Kelling and was published in City Journal. The article's name is How New York Became Safe:The Full Story. Here it talks about how New York was trying to solve all these big issues in crime when they could not even solve a simple graffiti problem. 9/17/2010 9/24/2010  Well I was reading the part about having to worry about the little things first I was able to make a connection with myself. I have a big problem which is reading. I do not like to read I hate to read, yet my teacher is making me read for fun. Well I always wanted to solve this big problem of not wanting to read. It was hard because I had no idea on where to start.Just like in the book, the crime solvers did not know where to begin since they wanted to solve several big problems. Then in New York the police and the crime solvers began to try to solve the big problems by increasing police, yet they still couldn't solve the problems. Soon they came up with a better plan. They began to by solving the little issues first, and impressively the crime rates began to drop. I believe I have the same issue, I should not attack the problem of reading. I should attack the liitle habits that have buildup up. For example no more leaving reading homework for last, reading a few minutes a day each day. This little steps have helped me solve the big problem which is hating reading. 1/10/2010 As I was reading reading the chapter about teenage habits to bullying others and intimidating others I thought of my friends. Many of the times when I am with my friends we tend to joke around with each other, but we do it in a intimidation way. Often I think if all my friends take the jokes as joke or if maybe this bad jokes we sometimes may hurt my friends and some how we make them feel bad about themselves. I wondered if somehow I would be contributing to intimation, so I decided to ask one of my friends Cesar and he responded to by saying that sometimes we do not measure the weight of our jokes. Sometimes some people may not have bad intentions, but yeah somehow you do bring them down a little. The words you say stick to the host mind, and begin to think if this is true. They begin ask themselves am i really what my friends said, and somehow we leave a bad impression of themselves with our gratuitous comments. 8/10/2010 The Tipping point has been an amazing book that help me realize about mistakes I have been making. It has helped me realize that in order to avoid creating little problems, I should target the small problems first. If you can handle the small problems then how can u possibly handle to big problems. Also it has helped me realized that everything I do has an impact on the world and society. Wearing those Puma's shoes instead of those Nike's. Saving those bad jokes for friends, and just not mention them. __**Second Quarter :**__ __**10/15/2010**__ Summary: I began to read an article about a possible terrorist attack on the US. The name of the article is **//__Suspicious Packages 'Contain explosive material,' Obama says__. I was able to find this article on cnn news at //** http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/29/security.concern/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1. The article basically talks about how there were packages coming to the United States from Arabian Peninsula. These packages contain explosive materials; one the explosives the size of a cell phone and the explosive was hard to find since it was well camouflaged. The government of Yemen helped the United States find out that there was suspicious packages coming to the United States and this is how the United states was able to identify easily what cargo planes to look for. Now the US government has been really cautions with different packages coming from Yemen. President Obama believes that this might be an Al Qaeda attack. Analysis: Something that really surprised me about this article was that this bombs were on their way to a Jewish community. It is incredibly sad to see how simply because you have affiliated to a certain religion you are basically exposing your life to danger. This shows how ignorant the people from Al Qaeda group are since they are just looking at one way thinking that Jews are are bad, and are close minded to the fact that Jews are just common people that practice a certain religion which they enjoy. Also it shows how the intelligence of some people is being wasted since it took very intelligent mind to camouflage these packages. This shows how to be successful in life you do not only have to be a smart person, but also a person with values.
 * What I'm Thinking About**

__**10/22/2010**__ Summary: The name of the article I am reading is called __**//Russian Anti-drugs Chief Applauds Afghan Heroin Haul.//**__** This is an article that has been published by CNN it is located at http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/29/afghanistan.drug.bust/index.html. The article basically talks about how the United States government has united with the Russian government to fight the drug production in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has over 41 laboratories in which they are basically making drugs and from there are selling it to the market. The US and the Russian military forces were able to capture a camp in which they found more than 240 million dollars worth of drugs. The US is worried that the Taliban will soon target the farmers and use their plantation for drug cultivation. **
 * Analysis: Drugs have been a trouble for several governments and for many countries. The thing with drugs is that it that it does not only affect the people who pay for these. It also affects people who many times are forced to work for businesses like this. For example here in the document it states how many farmers in Afghanistan are forced to work by Taliban's members and get little to no pay. The workers are often threaten to lose their life if they refuse to work. This relates to the drugs plantations in Columbia were kids are also forced to work in plantations and are also taught to kill so they can protect the plantations as well. This makes me feel like a lucky guy because I actually had the option to pick what I wanted to do with my life. I was forced into doing anything that will somehow harm others or myself. **

__**10/29/2010**__ Summary:The name of the article is called __**//When is Gambling an Addiction?//**__** I got it from the health section of the New York Times. The website you can review this article is at http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/when-is-gambling-an-addiction/?ref=health.The article talks about how if a person does not control his the amount of time spent gambling; the person will eventually become addicted to gambling. One of the main reasons for this is that you make gambling a habit. The person then begins to gamble more often until a point in which they can no longer control themselves. People that addicted to gambling begin to lose control and begin to gamble in big amounts, and kind of careless how much they lost. These gamblers basically just want to keep gambling. **
 * Analysis:Addiction to gambling does not happen over night. It is a process that you build yourself into. For example its like not reading and being used to read from spark notes. For example there might be sometimes when you are in a rush and you might have to do that as your last resource. Many people then decide that this method was actually easier and begin to take this path. They get used to just reading out Spark notes until they reach a point in which eventually they lose control. Their mind begins to just do what it has been adjusted to do. In this case even if you say to yourself "I will read" your brain will not work with what you are saying. Now what you have to do is begin to do what you did with sparknotes the first time. You now have train your brain to read, and teach your brain that sparknotes may be an option once in a while. You have to train your brain to do what is better for you, and in this case that will be reading. It sounds pretty easy, but it will not happen overnight. You now have to develop this new habit. **
 * 11/5/2010**
 * Summary:** This week I decided to read a short book called __//Rumble Fish.//__ This book is about how one little kid is involved in gangs. It talks about the reasons why he is involves in gangs. One of the things that surprised me the most was that this kid had an idol. Someone who can look up, and say I wanna be like him. His idol was not exactly the best person, yet it a person who he admired, who he trust, and who had past similar things that he had past. The book also talks about the real friendship, and how a true friend are hard to find. He talks about how a true friend is a friend that does not only applaud you when you good things, yet its a friend who calls you out when you are doing something wrong.
 * Analysis: 120**