Brandon Kiem On Urban Environments and Evolution

Claim: In evolutionary terms, the urban environments we take for granted represent radical ecological upheavals, the sort of massive changes that for most of Earth’s history have played out over geological time, not a few hundred years.

Reason 1: This is new, and animals are adapting, all around us.
Backing:
"A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the brains and behaviors of urban animals are changing rapidly in response." (assertion of facts)

Reason 2: The adaptable early immigrants, and other species that once avoided cities but are slowly moving in, are changing fast.
Backing: 
"Museum specimens gathered across the 20th century show that Minnesota’s urbanized small mammals — shrews and voles, bats and squirrels, mice and gophers — experienced a jump in brain size compared to rural mammals."
"Snell-Rood thinks this might reflect the cognitive demands of adjusting to changing food sources, threats, and landscapes." (assertion of facts)

Reason 3:  Urban animals tend to be bold, not backing down from threats that would send their country counterparts into retreat.

Reason 4: The city’s salamanders tend to be languid.

Reason 5: Muted stress responses have been found in many species of urban animals. When surprised or threatened, their endocrine systems release lower-than-usual amounts of stress hormones.
Backing:
“They’re clearly attenuating their physiological response to stress, probably because they’re constantly inundated with noise, traffic, and all kinds of environmental stresses in cities,” said biologist Jonathan Atwell of Indiana University. (use of scientific source)

Reason 6: The San Diego juncos sing at higher frequencies than those living in rural, traffic-free settings.

Reason 7: Urban squirrels, for example, seem to have adjusted to vocalization-drowning ambient noise by making tail-waving a routine part of communications.

Refutation 1: Not all changes in urban animals will represent adaptations to urban living, however.
Backing: 
"Most genetic mutations are neither beneficial nor harmful, at least not right away. They simply happen and, over long periods of time, accumulate in populations through what’s known as genetic drift."

Edward N. Luttwak on Syria's War and America

Claim: The Obama administration should resist the temptation to intervene more forcefully in Syria’s civil war. A victory by either side would be equally undesirable for the United States.

Reason 1: Iranian money, weapons and operatives and Hezbollah troops have become key factors in the fighting; Assad's win would be disastrous.
Backing:
"Mr. Assad’s triumph would dramatically affirm the power and prestige of Shiite Iran and Hezbollah, its Lebanon-based proxy — posing a direct threat both to the Sunni Arab states and to Israel." (assertion of fact)

Reason 2: Extremist groups, some identified with Al Qaeda, have become the most effective fighting force in Syria.
Backing: 
"If those rebel groups manage to win, they would almost certainly try to form a government hostile to the United States. Moreover, Israel could not expect tranquillity on its northern border if the jihadis were to triumph in Syria." 

Reason 3: Unavailability of help from Syria's neighbour - Turkey.
Backing: 
"In mid-2011, Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, loudly demanded that it end. But instead of being intimidated into surrender, Mr. Assad’s spokesmen publicly ridiculed Mr. Erdogan"
"While his armed forces proceeded to shoot down a Turkish fighter jet, before repeatedly firing artillery rounds into Turkish territory and setting off lethal car bombs at a Turkish border crossing. To everyone’s surprise, there was no significant retaliation."
"Turkey has large and restless minority populations that don’t trust their own government, which itself does not trust its own army"

Reason 4: The war is now being waged by warlords and dangerous extremists.
Backing:
"Taliban-style Salafist fanatics who beat and kill even devout Sunnis because they fail to ape their alien ways"
"Sunni extremists who have been murdering innocent Alawites and Christians merely because of their religion" 
"Jihadis from Iraq and all over the world who have advertised their intention to turn Syria into a base for global jihad aimed at Europe and the United States" (assertion of facts)

Reason 5: An Iranian-backed restoration of the Assad regime would increase Iran’s power and status across the entire Middle East, while a victory by the extremist-dominated rebels would inaugurate another wave of Al Qaeda terrorism.

Reason 6: Non-Sunni Syrians can expect only social exclusion or even outright massacre if the rebels win, while the nonfundamentalist Sunni majority would face renewed political oppression if Mr. Assad wins.

Reason 7: A full-scale American invasion to defeat both Mr. Assad and the extremists fighting against his regime wouldn't also be desirable.
Backing:
"That could lead to a Syria under American occupation. And very few Americans today are likely to support another costly military adventure in the Middle East." (use of common belief)

Mark Slouka on Writing Process

Claim: No stage of the writing process, as fraught for writers as those first few months of uncertainty.

Reason 1: Writers do not like to be asked to describe their book before finishing it.

Reason 2: Writers often find it difficult to avoid temptations to share.
Backing: 
"Because we’re unsure — about very nearly everything." (use of a commonly known belief)
"Because we’re running on faith and fumes."

Reason 3: Writers crave for validation to keep them going.

Reason 4: The inner critic says that you're not on the right track.
Backing:
"the I. C. will be rubbing our nose in the truth before the week is out: the work is as bad as we suspected it was." (use of a common human characteristic - doubt)

Reason 5: Writers are optimistic of the day, but people around do not know how to help.
Backing:
"If the well-meaning colleague doesn’t ask, she risks seeming unsupportive; ask, and she suffers the consequences: every syllable of her response will be studied and sifted with forensic care, every attempt at encouragement grimly accepted or politely dismissed, every stab at honesty received like a lance through the heart." (assertion of shared beliefs)
"leaves the unsuspecting participant only two possible pre-emptive moves" The first is to play for time, "Chances are it won’t work, but at least this way the blame is on the writer". Another is to "adamantly refuse to hear a word until the writer stops asking, at which point the coast is clear"

Reason 5: Writing isn't done with people, your vision is your own.