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Showing posts from March, 2020

Protecting the Right to Dissent

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  Public opinion has always been something people have, whether they proclaim it or not. Back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s, the government made it a crime to criticize the government (sedition & espionage act). This was later eradicated in the future, as one can freely comment on the government and disagree with its process however they wish under the first amendment. These acts were passed to prevent the rapid spread of dissent aimed at the government during the time when the Acts were passed (war time). Many Americans were extremely against the government and executive office at the time, causing them to comment on their actions in a harsh manner. This upset the government, thus making them pass the acts to make such dissent illegal. In today’s world, this would definitely not be okay--as people are extremely vocal on their opinions of the government today.  More specifically, the government is currently dealing with the global pandemic due to the Co

The Era of Netflix

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  Netflix is a website my friends and I frequent everyday, as it is a never ending source of entertainment for us. From TV shows to movies, to cartoons to reality TV, Netflix has it all. Even though some competitors have emerged throughout the years, Netflix still remains at the top. It is a platform that is both easy to access, and convenient in terms of payment.  Netflix was founded in 1997 by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings after Hastings forgot to return a rented movie and got charged $40 in late fees. After Hastings sold his software company for hundreds of millions, he then invested around 3 million dollars towards Netflix to get it started. The term "Netflix" was coined as "net" being a slang for "internet," and "flix" being a slang term for movies. Through the entrepreneurial minds of the two, they developed the online service in 1998 with a monthly subscription as the method of payment. By 2005, the movie platform

The Invention of the Printing Press

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The Printing Press was an invention that catapulted the world into the communication field, as it was the first of its kind to ever print words onto paper. Invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440, it was truly a technological innovation. Gutenberg’s design was so important due to his development of replacing wood with metal to print each letter on paper. The first book ever printed on the device was the Bible, which makes sense to me since it was so universally known to those across Europe and the world. It is estimated that he printed around 180 copies of the Bible, each with 1300 pages. After researching this, i was left wondering how long that would have taken for the device to print so many pages. Since the device was new in the olden days, i'm assuming it must have taken a while. Now with the printers in the 21st century, printing that many pages would only take an hour or so, but i'm sure it took much longer with Gutenberg’s invention.   The news of th

Anti-War Discussion

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War is a word with a heavy undertone, as it usually reminds people of a particular event in history or the general sense of consequence. Some wars that people know in detail are Revolutionary War, Civil War, WW1, WW2, and more. All of these fights throughout world history are incredibly well known as they changed the world forever. The Revolutionary War established the United States as an independent country, the Civil War granted the freedom of slaves, and WW1/WW2 altered the economic and political sphere forever. All aspects of war never truly have a happy ending, as a multitude of lives are lost and the economy takes a great toll. Despite a potentially happy ending or win for one’s country, all of these downsides lead some to be heavily anti-war. Such anti-war commentary can be seen on sites such as Antiwar.com and The American Conservative.  Antiwar.com lists a myriad of countries on its front page with lists revolving war in the country underneath the headline. It

Facebook's Loophole

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  Fake news is a serious issue that has been crippling America for years. As seen in the 2016 election, the element of fake news being posted on social media and other misleading links is tricking people into believing extremely false news articles. One fake news article that I vividly remember causing a massive issue during the 2016 election was the fake story that Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring at the bottom of a pizza place in Washington, DC (known as "Pizzagate"). The "headline" spread all over Facebook, and ultimately caused disaster. A man saw this face news article and stormed into the pizza place where it was claimed that Clinton had established the sex ring, and fired an assault rifle. Luckily nobody was killed or injured, but it goes to show that the spread of fake news is much more serious than people assume. An area where fake news tends to thrive and feed off of is Facebook, a popular social media platform where millions of

The Power of The Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court is known to be the most important court system within the United States, emphasizing the use of the word “supreme.” Overall, it is a place that holds the utmost power on the basis of the Constitution. With a place with so much power, one might wonder who demonstrates it to the public. Those who make up the Supreme Court are the justices, with 9 in total. There have been just over 100 justices on the bench throughout the history of the Court, with each averaging around 16 years. Some even last longer than the average, ruling the bench for decades until they pass. One that stands out to me is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with her having been a justice for 27 years since she was appointed by President Clinton in 1993. Appointment is a huge deal for those who wish to serve on the Court, as it means a great deal to not only them as an individual, but also to the public and to the presidential administration. The action of appointment takes some voting power out of the