#6 - EOTO Reflection

    Growing up I always had a love for movies, for as long as I can remember I have been watching movies, my parents are both big movie fans so that was basically going to be a given for me as well. Whenever I am bored the one thing that I can go to is movies; some of my favorites growing up were the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises. My favorite individual films are Halloween and Seven, these movies are both very thrilling and keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the entire time. This is why I was looking forward to hearing the presentation about the history and impact of motion pictures because they have a big impact on my life.

    A day after the presentations I saw the new Jordan Peele movie, Nope, it was my least favorite of all his films but, the one thing I took away from the film was a small plot point. The characters of the film are related to the black man on the horse in the first movie ever made, this was something that was mentioned in the presentation on motion pictures. Due to the family being related to the man in the movie they decide to run a company renting out horses to be put in movies.

    Movies have been around for over a hundred years and have provided people with hours of entertainment and fun, but they were not always like that. When movies were first introduced, they were black-and-white and silent, mostly everyone knows that, but what they might not know is they were very short films. The first movie ever made was just 2 seconds long and it was a film of a black man on a horse, which is the clip mentioned earlier. This presentation was very interesting to me because I thought I knew a lot about the history of movies, but in fact this was not one of the things I knew, but I am glad to know about it now. 

Antiwar #5

     War is one of the most divisive topics in politics, not just today but throughout time, this is in large part due to people's personal beliefs about the subject. Some people are against it because of their religion which makes them pacifists (against any sort of violence), while others are in favor of war because they believe it is the only right way to bring peace. Both point-of-views have completely valid reasons behind them, not many individuals are clamoring for war to start, but people feel that war can solve some problems that are being had throughout the world. 

    In the media it is made to look like there are a lot of people in the country that are pro-war when in reality the large majority of people want to stay out of the violence. The reasoning behind this has a lot to do with what the governments what, war allows these governments in question to spend however much money they want and nobody can question it. The other part of this is that governments receive money in order to help the war effort, money that they can use to put into other things that could help their country in the long run. 

    Why there are not many news sources that talk about trying to prevent war or are against the war efforts is largely because of the government. The media and government are connected in a way, which is why news outlets are very much in favor of the war effort in Ukraine. The war in Ukraine has really shown the American people how news outlets are very much in favor of stepping into a war and do not care that it will cause thousands of deaths. As long as wars continue to bring governments money, countries will always be very willing to get into one knowing they will come out on top. 

    

EOTO: Bluetooth #4

    The invention of the Bluetooth device, while relatively new, has quickly become one of the most important inventions in recent history. This communication technology has allowed people the opportunity to share a plethora of things with one another in a short amount of time, whereas before it would take at least a few days until it reached the targeted individual. I never realized just how common it is to find a technological device that uses Bluetooth in order to work properly, it would actually be harder to find a wireless device that doesn't use Bluetooth.

    The original idea for Bluetooth was created in 1996 by three popular technology companies; Nokia, Ericsson, and Intel. They met to discuss a way of creating a short-range radio technology that would allow people to connect and collaborate in a quick and easy way. Two years after the idea for the Bluetooth device was created there was another development, in 1998 Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) was created for the purpose of bringing the product to the consumer market. 

    Finally, in 1999 the first Bluetooth device (Bluetooth 1.0) was released to the public originally to mixed reviews as there were competing products that were gaining popularity. The competing products were originally gaining more traction because they proved to be faster than the first Bluetooth device, but it was significantly more expensive than the Bluetooth product which is what caused consumers to shift products. 

    Bluetooth devices have quickly become extremely popular and are changing the way people have lived their lives over the past twenty-three years. Within ten years of the release of the first Bluetooth device there had been over two billion Bluetooth products sold worldwide and by 2020 there had been four billion sold. 

    When Bluetooth was first released it was meant for only phones and desktop computers, but within a few years it had expanded to laptops and printers. Almost all of the wireless technological devices that are used today are able to operate because of Bluetooth providing a quick connection between devices. This type of technology can be found in photographs, refrigerators, and even cars; it has quickly become a part of people's everyday lives over time and most people do not even realize how important Bluetooth is.

    What I found to be the most interesting part of Bluetooth is how they came up with the name of the company. The name comes from a former Viking king of Denmark and Norway, King Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson, he is best known for successfully uniting the Scandinavian countries under his rule. Vikings have always been a group of people that I have found to be intriguing because of their lifestyle and religion. 

    Before Gormsson, the place that is known today as Scandinavia did not exist in the same way, the countries were not enemies, but they had no relationship. The king's nickname "Bluetooth" comes from him having a dead tooth that turned blue and people started to call him by that name and the rest is history. 

Eight Values of Free Expression

Freedom of speech is the most important thing in the United States because it gives people the right to say whatever they want without feeling pressure to always say the right thing. There are many different positives that come with having freedom of speech, but today we are starting to see freedom of speech be ripped away from people. 

Lately, there have been many instances of a popular figure who says something controversial and in return are having their lives ruined because of something they said possibly years prior. Very often those that are affected by this are streamers (people that live stream). Many of these individuals have been "cancelled" because of something they have said in the heat of the moment and so, lose out on sponsorships and more money opportunities. 

By cancelling anybody that says something that you might disagree with or take offense to, means that it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to set themselves apart from others because they can no longer be as creative as they want. 

What is freedom of speech without the ability to speak your mind or to express ideas with others? The answer is pretty simple actually, it isn't freedom of speech at all and we are beginning to come closer to a society where you have to watch everything you say.

Even if there is not intent to hurt anyone with what you say or believe there are many people out there that will be offended by whatever comes out of your mouth. It is unfortunate that is the society we could be going towards, because a lot of these countries in the world that Americans make fun of for not having freedom of speech would be in the same boat as us. 

In countries that do not have freedom of speech they are, for the most part, underdeveloped (North Korea) and have poor economies. This is mostly because people are not allowed to share ideas with one another because of fear that they will be prosecuted. 

Individual self-fulfillment is the most important thing to Americans in the United States I believe, because it gives people the right to express who they are and what they believe in without facing consequences from the government. 

Think about it, how would any of the biggest inventions, not just in the U.S. but throughout the world have been created without those people having the right to discuss ideas with one another to create something that would change the world. 

The last point is, if citizens did not have the right to freedom of speech, which in return is what separates people from each other everybody would seem the same. It would get boring meeting new people all of the time just to have the behave and talk the same way everybody else does. There would be no creativity in the world if that were the case and people would most likely be less happy if they had to contain everything about them.

There are many other versions of freedom of speech that have very good arguments for why every person has the right to say what they want, the one that connected with me the most was individual self-fulfillment and being able to share any ideas that one may want to. 

Supreme Court

Arguably the most important group of people in the United States, the Supreme Court makes some of the toughest decisions in the history of the country. This group of people often receive a lot of backlash because one party always feels like they are voting against them one way or another, so there is never a day where everyone is happy with the decisions they make.

The first thing I learned about the justices is that they have to wait for people to bring their own problems into the court rather than the justices choosing what to decide on. When they make a decision and change laws based on the constitution it is not an issue that they just pluck out of the sky, it is something that is brought to them that also needs a reason for it to be brought up. 

A takeaway that I had from Part I and Part II of the video was that there is a lot more to being a supreme court justice than just voting on issues. They also have to do a lot of research looking for cases and then after they have chosen a case they spend months studying the case so that they know everything they should know. 

Something that was extremely surprising to me was that all of the justices are all very friendly with one another and before every session they get together and shake one another's hands. I think this was surprising to me because the media today likes to portray the justices as all sharing different beliefs, while that can be true, they still respect one another quite a lot. 

Overall, my opinion of the supreme court has changed a lot after watching that video because it really showed me what the justices are like and everything they must do. I now look at the supreme court as a very reliable group of people. Before I had my reservations about them but now that I know more specific details about them, they are a very important group of people that have some of the toughest but, ultimately, the most important jobs in the country.

Media Outlets

Today's media has made it challenging to find news sources that are trustworthy and reliable, often times these sources will only share one side of the story or leave out important details. In this blog I will be taking you through some news sources that help keep me informed about important events happening throughout the world.

Instagram is a news source that can provide me with information even when I'm not specifically looking to find anything of the sort, this is because of people posting videos and pictures of whatever they want. The people posting and sharing this information can be those that you follow or those that you had no idea existed until a minute ago. This is because of the explore page on Instagram that allows you to see posts of people you do not follow, there are different categories such as Movies, Photography, News, and many more that you can scroll through to find what you are looking for.

Youtube is a great source to find news as there are popular news sources that post clips from throughout the day that allows people to watch instead of spending an hour in front of the TV waiting for a topic they are interested in. Content creators used to be mostly people who were not well known, but now there are celebrities and politicians that have started posting clips to youtube for people to watch. Nowadays, Youtube gives its creators the opportunity to livestream which in return gives them the ability to keep in touch with fans and provide more content.

NBC News is a popular news source that can be watched on TV but also are found online, they have networks like MSNBC and CNBC that are focused more on the serious, specific news stories. NBC News would be considered more left-wing than right-wing, there would be a bias there that viewers would have to keep an eye out for. The one positive for NBC is that they do not spend as much time bashing other news networks like how CNN and FOX seem to do every day, instead they tend to be more focused on reporting the news and giving the audience what they want. 

FOX News is best known for being a right-wing news source that focuses on the good things that conservatives do and the bad things that liberals do. The news outlet also provides a television network which features an extremely popular program "Tucker Carlson Tonight".  Over the years they have grown an extreme following and have a "rivalry" with left-wing news source CNN, often will FOX make fun of CNN. Overall, it is a news source that can be found to be reliable but it is best if you were to check other sources as well because of the potential for bias.

Snapchat is not something that most people would consider to be a news source as it is often thought of only being used for sending picture to your friends. In the app there are many different "stories" that you can click through showing news that has happened recently in the world. The most well known news service that they provide on snapchat comes from the "Daily Mail" which features a bunch of news stories that people can read or just scroll through. Outside of just normal, everyday news, snapchat also offers news from outlets like TMZ or E! that allow people to keep up with celebrities that they follow.