Counterintuitive Fall 2024

Dogs Smelling Cancer

It feels counterintuitive to say that dogs would be able to smell cancer cells regardless of the patients medical history or preexisting conditions. In a study where a dog was given a samples of cells from early stage cancer patients and healthy cells, the dog would be rewarded with a tennis ball if it got the answer correctly. Surprisingly to the researchers delight, the dog had gotten them all correct. The study was conducted in a space to take out variables such as observing the owners of the cells in order to only test the dogs sense of smell. Even so, over countless studies of various breeds of dogs, they were able to smell out various different forms of cancer from cell samples. And yet, there is no medical field in where real time patients can get evaluated by a “medical dog”.

Toms Shoes

Toms shoes were introduced to the market as “Buy one pair, Give on pair to those in need”. This seems like a very good premise and gives the consumer further incentive to purchase the product. But when journalists further delved into the topic of where the shoes that were given went, the entire slogan seemed counterintuitive. The shoes that were given out to young people in third world countries seemed to be children who already had pairs of shoes. On top of this, the local market for shoes in these regions was damaged due to the shoes that were introduced there by this large company. In doing so, the company rather provided no help and even damaged the places in where the people who had purchased the shoes believed they would be helping.

“Humane” Food Labels

Why do brands label their products as “humanely raised” animals. Depending on who you ask, it would seem a company raising an animal for the sole purpose of becoming food would make this label counterintuitive. The animal was raised on no artificial hormones and the grass it ate was not treated with pesticides. The claims of these companies sound a bit like this, though this may only be a small insight on how they were raised. Many companies still keep the animals confined to small cell like areas and group them together in very large groups. Not to mention their livestock and such only raised to become food. Is there a way for you to have humanely raised food that will eventually be slaughtered to full the pockets of those who sell them.

1: Ranking Cute Animals: A Stock Market Experiment

-It seems counterintuitive that an experiment showing how cute an animal is, could show how people as a whole, use the stock market. John Maynard Keynes described the stock market as a kind of beauty contest. “You see a bunch of woman’s faces but your not supposed to say who you think is the prettiest, your suppose to guess who everyone else will think is the prettiest.” After saying this, an experiment using a kitten, slow loris, and baby polar bear was conducted. Half of the contestants were to pick what animal they thought was the cutest and half the contestants were to pick the animal they thought everyone else would think is the cutest. This relates to the stock market because people would buy houses, not because they thought the prices made sense, but because they thought everyone else would buy a house at any price.

2:Parsing the new “humane” food labels

-It seems counterintuitive that the word “humane” on our food labels could create a global ordeal. Humane washing has become a big thing for the food industry. Whole Foods has just released a humane labeling system, Safeway and SuperValu have made animal welfare pledges, while Perdue is being sued by The Humane Society for false advertising of factor farmed chicken products. Each trade organization has its ow set of regulations. As of right now, nothing can really be done except for us consumers to take it upon ourselves and search standards and make our own decisions about which practices we think are humane or not.

3:Dogs Earn More Credit For Sniffing Out Cancer

-It seems counterintuitive that dogs are actually able to sniff out cancer in human beings. There has been a lot of evidence adding up that dogs can in fact be trained to use their noses and detect different kinds of cancer with near perfect accuracy. How?? Japanese researchers reported that an eight year old Labrador was 97 percent accurate in deciding which stool samples had cancer. The dog was also able to sniff out cancer in breath samples. The authors wrote that, “common scents may exist among various cancer types.” This dog was able to sniff out newly formed cancer AND more malignant cancers and any other factors such as patients who were smokers or had infections, etc, were not confused by the dog. These tests started when a household dog sniffed out they’re owners melanoma. In the last five years, studies have been tested to show that with only a few weeks of training, specific ages and breeds, could become pros at spotting cancer in breath, blood, urine and tissue samples. This could be a starting point in figuring out what cancer actually is and how to attack it on a more molecular level.

Vancouver combats heroin by giving its addicts the best smack in the world

It seems counterintuitive that the city of Vancouver is trying to cocmbat its heroin problem with supplying higher quality heroin. This might seem strange, but the idea is to reduce harm. Addicts won’t need to do dangerous things to get their heroin, like stealing or selling themselves. This approach comes from Europe and is only for the most severe addicts. Some people say it helps them lead better lives, while others think it’s like blackmail, accepting that they’ll always be addicts. In Vancouver, there are different opinions. Some rehab experts think they can help addicts quit, while others believe this approach is kinder but not the solution.

It’s good that the government understands that some addicts struggle deeply with their drug problems. So, if they can’t quit, giving them a safer version of the drug is a sensible idea. It helps protect both the addicts and the community while respecting the difficulty of addiction.

Source: https://theworld.org/stories/2015-02-04/vancouver-combats-heroin-giving-its-addicts-best-smack-world

Why Not Regulate Guns as Seriously as Toys?

The article talks about making stricter rules for guns in the United States because it’s a public health issue. Right now, we have more guns than almost any other country. People buy guns, thinking they’ll be safer, but it actually makes them more likely to get hurt.The article suggests a few things to make it safer. First, only let people buy one gun a month to stop illegal sales. Second, make it harder to erase gun serial numbers. Third, make background checks better and wait 28 days before getting a handgun. Lastly, get rid of big magazines so shooters have to reload more often. We can learn from Australia, where they banned certain guns and bought them back. After that, gun suicides and homicides went down a lot. In the end, the article says we should treat guns like we treat cars or toys, with strict rules to keep people safe.

Many Americans already own a lot of guns, which makes it hard to limit who can buy them or add new rules. Plus, in the U.S., guns are a big part of the culture, and many people feel strongly about their right to have them. This makes it tricky to get everyone on board with stricter gun laws. Also, powerful groups like the NRA fight against tougher gun rules, and that makes it even harder to change the laws. So, while the article’s ideas make sense for public safety, actually making them happen is a big challenge because of the number of guns and the strong gun culture in the United States.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/opinion/13kristof.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Does Using Paper Take CO2 out of the Environment?

Recycling paper is often seen as an eco-friendly thing to do, but there’s a surprising twist to it. Paper comes from trees, which take in carbon dioxide and store it. Even after making paper from trees, it can still keep some of that carbon. This makes paper like a storage place for carbon. Last year, all the paper products, even the ones in landfills, stored about 16.7 million tons of carbon. That’s like what 10.7 million cars produce in carbon dioxide in a year. When paper ends up in landfills, it breaks down quickly and releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. This process makes it harder for paper to keep carbon effectively. Still, if you recycle paper, it can keep carbon for a bit longer, which is kind of strange when we think about fighting climate change.

It’s kind of shocking when we think that paper, which many people believe is good for the environment, might not be as great as we thought. Paper can store carbon, which sounds good for the environment, but here’s the surprise: when we throw it away, like in the trash, it can make a strong greenhouse gas called methane. This kind of cancels out the good things it does for the environment. So, it’s a bit of a puzzle, and it shows that we need to think about the whole story when it comes to things we use, even if they seem good for the environment at first.

Source: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/04/paper-carbon-dioxide-sequester/

When a Pack of Cigarettes Costs $222

It seems counterintuitive that despite the benefits some things give us, we have to keep in mind the consequences they contribute. Let’s say fossil fuels for example, yes it’s cheap, and is a reliable source of energy used for houses, etc. But it contributes to air pollution and climate change. In conclusion, we have to keep in mind of the consequences that most things give us despite the good things it gives us.

Nukes in Japan

It seems counterintuitive that making power plants in Japan is really dangerous, as it is the most vulnerable place to earthquakes. Putting power plants in Japan can be dangerous due to the country’s susceptibility to natural disasters like earthquakes. If ever an earthquake would occur, it would destroy these power plants and release a massive amount of radioactive in the air. Which is not very good for the environment.

Clean Girls get Sicker?

It seems counterintuitive that keeping little girls squeaky clean could make them sick because excessive cleanliness can weaken their immune systems. Boys play outside when younger, and because they are exposed to lots of germs early in life, they are less likely to develop asthma or allergies. But this is a very subjective conclusion, because everyone is different and not every girl is squeaky clean. So there are girls out there who are more exposed to the outside, than boys are.

Cancer Sniffing dogs

It seems counterintuitive that they are starting to use dogs to help detect cancer in people. They do this by having the dogs by having them sniff a sample in a box. According to the article, Dogs earn more cred for sniffing out cancer, “A black labrador was ninety seven percent accurate in nosing out colon cancer when she was asked to choose among watery stool samples doctors collected from 185 patients with and without cancer.” The dog was really good at spotting different types of cancers and also the dog was really good at detecting patients with early stage cancers. According to the article Dogs earn more cred for sniffing out cancer, a woman’s dog was obsessed with her right breast which eventually caused the woman to find out that she had a cancer lump in her breast. These examples show that dogs can help people find out if they have cancer in a quick way without having to do scans or tests. This can help others be diagnosed much more easily and quickly.

Extreme parenting

It seems counterintuitive that there are really strict parents out there who go to huge lengths to push their children academically. They push their children to get straight As. This is mostly common in Asian cultures. In the Article, Balancing freedom, it states that there are benefits to raising your children in a stricter way. One thing is that it causes children to be very educated in certain areas which can lead to a successful career but on the other hand it can cause many people to have bad mental health issues due to the push of having to get good grades. According to the article, Balancing Freedom, More Asian cultures are not being as strict as they used to be and the author Yan Sun states, “they should strive for A’s, but they will not be taken to task for lower grades as long as they make earnest efforts.” This shows that Asian parenting is very different from western parenting. It also shows what are the effects of having children be pushed to get good grades.

Do Toms shoes help anyone

It seems counterintuitive that when you buy something that says it will help others in need it still can create a problem. Companies may say that if you buy this, it will donate money to a charity organization. But sometimes it does not always solve the problem. An example of this in the article Mother Jones states, “When the tsunami of 2006 struck Indonesia, donations of rice flooded in from aid groups all over the world. Instead of feeding hungry people, it created competition for the local rice farmers.” Once you went further inland though, it looks like nothing happened at all. There was so much food already. Another example is that Toms does not have a lot of information on the webpage. This is not good because we do not exactly know what the donations are going to. Donation websites need to have a clearer idea of what you are donating to. This shows that sometimes donations do not always help like they say they are going to. More people should be aware of what they are donating to.

Vancouver Combats Heroin by giving its addicts the best smack in the world

It seems counterintuitive that giving heroin addicts free heroin will help combat addiction. This oddity of an event is, however, true as the city of Vancouver is giving a select few drug addicts free heroin. This safety zone if you will is something that the Vancouver government cooked up as a test project to help the addicted after seeing similar programs in many European countries. The idea of this program is to see if drug addicts can be made into healthy members of society which was proved through Kevin Thompson a participant in the study. 

How to Armor Planes

It seems counterintuitive that the Air Force wouldn’t armor returning planes in places where they have been shot. However, planes that return from the field riddled with holes are sufficiently armored. If a plane returns its armor has served its purpose, The planes that don’t return from the field are the ones that need to be studied to find where new armor should be placed. Over-armored planes are something one would want to fly in as it could potentially impair the dexterity of the aircraft.

Does Using Paper Take CO2 out of the Environment

It seems counterintuitive that paper products are viewed as being better than plastics. Paper products at first seem to be worse for us as they involve cutting down trees. Trees are major holders of carbon and paper products still retain the carbon that they held in their original tree forms. Paper products while not ideal can still be good for the environment they still are able to do good in the environment.

‘Hidden’ species may be surprisingly common

Cryptic animals are seen to be a part of the wildlife environment. Analyses have shown that they are found to be a major part of the animal kingdom that is found in insects and reptiles. The counterintuitive is that cryptic animals are seen to be found in the genetic barcode of species. And that they can be found in animals that we see today.

That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

The counterintuitive of this is that showers can be dangerous if you are not careful. They talk about how studies have shown that showers can be seen as a hazard for people. This literally is the most stupid thing I saw as, yes they can be dangerous if you don’t have a shower mat. Like for example this happen “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVNvCcooqi8“. This is why you should always have either bath slippers or a bathroom mat.

KFC, Pizza Hut, and Sphinx

The counterintuitive is to have fast-food restaurants next to the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx which are some of Egypt’s most historical landmarks. Putting american fast-food restaurants across from architecture takes away the enchantress and sacredness of the Egyptian site. The restaurants being placed in an area that is populated by tourists shows the influence that american companies have over the world.