Antiwar Voices

Antiwar Voices

After exploring antiwar.com and The American Conservative, I found that I have never heard these positions and opinions before in the news. On these websites I found articles such as "More Fog, More War", "US Told Ukraine to Tread Carefully After Missile Hit Poland", "Is 'Our Democracy' Failing Our Country" etc. These articles share information and ideas that are never shared on mainstream news outlets. 

I feel that we never hear anti-war voices because our government doesn't want us to hear them. Our government doesn't want citizens to disagree on what they are doing so they try to suppress every voice that goes against what they think and do. Another reason for our government not letting anti war voices be heard in the news is because they don't want other countries to know that some Americans are advocating anti war. If other countries knew this,  it may would make the United States look weak and other countries may think that they could take the United States over and even attack us. 

Censoring anything that goes against what the government is doing especially anti war voices is not new to other countries such as China removing articles off the internet that spread anti war ideas and even posts that share anti war protest eyewitness accounts which you can read more about here. 

In the U.S. citizens are supposed to be able to say whatever they want to say, post whatever they want to post, have and share their own opinions, and be able to criticize the government under the 1st amendment but obviously that is not totally the case when anti war voices are being suppressed by our government.

For these reasons, it is very important to do your own research on ideas that goes against what the government thinks and try to find websites like antiwar.com and The American Conservative because there is an unlimited list of voices that the government tries to keep out of the media and suppress for their own benefits. 

EOTO: What I learned...

 The Invention of Bluetooth

We all already knew that bluetooth is on our cell phones, laptops, Apple TV's, etc, but I was surprised to find out that bluetooth is also in hearing aids, refrigerators, and pacemakers. Bluetooth was created in 1994 by the Swedish multinational telecom vendor L.M. Ericsson. 

The inventors of Bluetooth were trying to solve the problems of flow in the transfer of data, the time that it took to transfer the data, and cut down on the amount of information that would get lost in translation. The invention of bluetooth solved these issues and sped up the amount of time that it took to get information from one place to another. Bluetooth not only bettered our communication but also became its own form of communication.

Today, bluetooth is most often used to connect our gadgets cordlessly such as mirroring our phone screens onto our TV's and connecting our phones to our cars for music and handsfree access to our cell phones. Other devices that we don't think about bluetooth being in is our security systems, remotes controls, watches, toys, and even our washing and drying machines. 

Bluetooth has been most beneficial for the healthcare system. Doctors now have the ability to monitor their patient remotely, transfer data and records quickly, enables emergency responses to cardiac arrest, and even allows doctors to keep a check on their patients vitals without being in the room with them. 

Every invention has its negative effects, especially technology inventions. Bluetooth is a big risk for internet hacking. According to studies, "any device with its Bluetooth connection turned on and set to "discoverable" maybe susceptible to bluejacking and possibly to blue snarfing if there is vulnerability in the software." For these reasons we should all be more careful of leaving our bluetooth turned on all the time and should be educated on these risks. 

I really enjoyed learning about the invention of bluetooth and was surprised to find out that bluetooth is used in more items then I thought. I was also surprised to learn about how much bluetooth has helped advance and help our healthcare system. 

Sources

Maddie's presentation 

https://maddieberl23.blogspot.com 

EOTO: The Telephone

 The Invention of the Telephone

The telephone is one invention that changed the world and opened a wide world of communication. Before the invention of telephones, we used the postal service, carrier pigeons, newspapers, and telegraphs to communicate and get our information. In 1876 the first telephone was invented by alexander graham bell although he was not the first inventor to come up with the idea of a talking telegraph. The telephone was invented to improve the capabilities of the telegraph.

Antonio Meucci, who was an Italian immigrant, began developing the design of a talking telegraph in 1849. In 1871 Antonio filed a caveat for his design of a talking telegraph. Antonio faced hardships and could not renew his caveat. Since Alexander Graham Bell was the first to successfully “transmit vocal sounds telegraphically causing electrical undulations” he is considered the father of telephone. The first telephone had the basic functional components of a power source, a switch hook, a dialer, a ringer, a transmitter, a receiver, and an anti sidetone circuit.

There is still a lot of controversy that surrounds the invention of the telephone. There have been many court cases, books, and articles generated about the invention. Many of them are about the lack of honor of Antonio’s role in the invention.  Antonio’s role in the invention of the telephone was overlooked until 2002 when the United States house of representatives passed a resolution honoring Antonio Meucci’s contributions.  

The invention of the telephone cut down the amount of time that it took to communicate with someone. When sending a telegraph, it took weeks for the message to be relayed while the telephone was instant. The telephone allows for immediate and personal type of communication which can not be obtained through any other medium.

One of the biggest impacts that the telephone had on society was it helped businesses.Telephones were most useful for businesses since the invention made for instant communication, businesses could get in touch with other businesses quickly which made networking grow. Telephones allowed people to talk business and negotiate contracts more quickly and efficiently. The invention also allowed businesses to grow a wider client list because they were now able to talk to clients from all around the world. 

This invention also sparked other inventions such as cell phones. Telephones have been evolving from 1876 to present day. The evolution includes the first telephone in 1876, the Frankfurt "Bauhaus" telephone in 1925, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x in 1983, and the first iPhone in 2007 which we still use today. A more in depth list of the evolution of telephones can be found here from CBS News.

Although the invention had many positive effects it also had some negative ones such as face to face communication was drastically decreased, conversations could be intercepted by our government, and many were afraid that the technology could hurt them which is still an ongoing debate today. 

The telephone has become the most widely used communications device in the world. About 91% of the world’s population owns a cell phone today. We are now able to use our cell phones to communicate with anyone in the world, get our news, and post on social media. Without alexander graham bell’s invention we may not be carrying around apple and android cell phones today.

Sources:

Borth, David. “Telephone.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2022, https://www.britannica.com/technology/telephone#:~:text=telephone%2C%20an%20instrument%20designed%20for,obtained%20through%20any%20other%20medium. 

Library of Congress, Science Reference Section. “Who Is Credited with Inventing the Telephone?” The Library of Congress, 2022, https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/technology/item/who-is-credited-with-inventing-the-telephone/ 

Mitel. “History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses.” History of the Telephone and Communication with Businesses , https://www.mitel.com/articles/history-telephone-and-communication-businesses

Ngak, Chenda. “The Evolution of Telephones.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 1 Dec. 2014, https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-evolution-of-telephones/ 

 Some Ways Of Changing The World By Telephone. (2022, February 27). Edubirdie. Retrieved November 9, 2022, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/some-ways-of-changing-the-world-by-telephone/

The First Amendment and 8 Values of Free Expression

 The First Amendment 

The First Amendment states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." 

This gives Americans the freedom from religion, of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. The most important thing the first amendment protects, is your freedom to criticize the government.

The 8 Values of Free Expression

• Marketplace of Ideas (aka Discovery of Truth)
• Participation in Self Government 
• Stable Change (aka Safety Valve)
• Individual Self-Fulfillment (aka Self-Actualization)
• Check on Governmental Power (aka Watchdog Role)
• Promote Tolerance 
• Promote Inovation 
• Protect Dissent 

            

Check on Governmental Power

In my opinion, the most important value is check on governmental power which goes along with the First Amendment's freedom of the press. "Freedom of the press enables citizens to learn about abuses of power — and then do something about the abuse at the ballot box if they feel so moved. We, along with the press, are part of the check-and-balance system to restrains government power and abuse of power." 

If there is one thing that our generation relies on, it is social media. On average, Americans spend 2 hours and 27 minutes a day on social media. About half of U.S. adults say they get their news from social media "often."  What most Americans don't know is recently the government has been trying to censor what we see on social media. 

A popular social media platform, TikTok, has recently had "false information" flags on videos that talk about politics and other controversial issues. If you click this flag is says something along the lines of "fact checkers have flagged this video for misleading information." 

A recent article in the Washington Post states "TikTok said in its most recent "transparency report" that government authorities had asked it to remove or restrict more than 400 videos or accounts last year." The theory is that government has actually been putting these "false information" flags, or making TikTok put these flags on post they don't want Americans to see. 

Additional flags like this one has also been added to TikTok when trying to share a video that has been flagged.  

An article from TechCrunch states "TikTok this morning announced a new feature that aims to combat the spread of miss information on its platform. In addition to removing videos that are identified to be spreading false information, as verified by fact checking partners, the company says it will now also flag videos were fact checks are inconclusive."

If the government is in fact trying to limit what we see online and what we can post, it is a violation of the first amendment's freedom of the press. It is our duty as Americans to call the government out on things like this and criticize them on things that we don't agree with. The theory of Check on Governmental Power helps explain this issue of censorship on social media going on right now. 

Supreme Court

 The U.S. Supreme Court

The United States Supreme Court is the highest court that ensures the people with equal justice under the law and serves as an interpreter of the constitution. On average, the Supreme Court is asked to review 7,000 cases per year, but only takes 80 to 90 cases per year. 

After watching Part 1 and Part II of the Supreme Court videos, I learned that each week the justices meet weekly in conference to decide which cases to accept. I was wondering how the process of choosing which cases to take was done, and the video gave me insight to this. In the justice's conferences, they discuss the cases and vote on cases that have already been argued. 

The best takeaway point about the Supreme Court is "...and the inside story of a court is there is no inside story. It's people simply thinking." This quote was said in Part II and really stood out to me. I interpreted this quote as some people think that there are secrets in a court and this thought was shut down with this quote, saying that there are no secrets and the court is open. 

The most surprising thing I learned was about the process for granting certiorari. It was explained that no matter if it is filed by "high priced legal counsel" or "some prisoner sitting in jail" they both get the same individual consideration. Even though I knew that every American gets equal rights, I didn't think about it in this way. 

The videos changed the way I thought about the Supreme Court by it made me realize that these decisions that they make can potentially change history and our future. I never thought about how much power the Supreme Court has which gave me a new found respect for the court.