Don’t TNT Me, Bro

The moral logic of suicide bombing.

By William Saletan “Suicide bombers conducted 658 attacks around the world last year … more than double the number in any of the past 25 years … More than four-fifths of the suicide bombings over that period have occurred in the past seven years, the data show. The bombings have spread to dozens of countries on five continents, killed more than 21,350 people and injured about 50,000 since 1983 … [S]ince 1983, bombers in more than 50 groups from Argentina to Algeria, Croatia to China and India to Indonesia have adapted car bombs to make explosive belts, vests, toys, motorcycles, bikes, boats, backpacks and false-pregnancy stomachs. Of 1,840 incidents in the past 25 years, more than 86 percent have occurred since 2001, and the highest annual numbers have occurred in the past four years.” Here, Saletan used facts to show how suicide bombing has increased and has grown since the last 25 years. The effect is to let the reader know that suicide bombing is spreading to an international status with such bombings on almost each continent. Noting that in the last few years suicide bombing has had its biggest increase which makes this a larger issue then it was in past years.   http://www.slate.com/id/2190101/ 

Is a Dishwasher a Green Machine? THE soapy sponge may not be worth your time.

By Brendan I. Koerner “I’ve always taken great eco-pride in the fact that I hand-wash all my plates and glasses, thereby eliminating the need for an electricity-slurping dishwasher. But my sister says that I’ve got it all wrong—using a machine, she insists, is more environmentally sound than doing the chore yourself. Have my good intentions been for naught?” Here Koerner uses an anecdote. It is being used to pose a question that you might want to consider before you come to a conclusion about the topic. The source is being used in the text to show that like Koerner, many of us have had the same opinion on dishwashing being wasteful, but as the reader continues to read on he is proven wrong.  http://www.slate.com/id/2189612/