Com1450 Blog

The First Fax Machines     The "fax" in fax machine is short for facsimile, which means " a system of transmitting and reproducing graphic matter (such as printing or still pictures) by means of signals sent over telephone lines" ( Merriam-Webster ). So, a fax machine would be a machine that is capable of sending messages or images over telephone lines. How does something like this even start? On May 27, 1843, Alexander Bain achieved a patent that was for "improvements in producing and regulating electric currents and improvements in timepieces, and in electric printing, and signal telegraphs" ( FaxAuthority ).     So this wasn't exactly the fax machine, but he was the first to be able to transmit images across a wire. However, Frederick Bakewell took Bain's design and created a telegraph that could transmit images to one another. This was not commercially available, but it was a good first step to move towards that.  ( FaxAuthority ).  Giovanni Ca...

Green Party Presidential Candidate Removed From PA Ballot   This is the blog p ost for week 6     We've had a roller coaster of news this week. Trump's Taxes and Breonna Taylor's court decision rank among the most popular. What I see talked much less about is the removal of Howie Hawkins from the PA ballot. Democrats' main identity of Trump is that he is a fascist that wants complete control of the government with no one going against him. The validity of this is up for debate and there is way too much to talk about on both sides. In turn, Democrats say how they want to remove every ounce of fascism from this country and make it truly democratic.      Democrats recently sued the Green Party in PA for not signing "filing papers in person" ( Washington Post ). This in turn had Howie Hawkins, the Green Party presidential candidate, removed from the ballots in PA. The removal of opponents from official ballots sounds a lot like fascism, something that the Democ...

Who is the Media?     America has very rarely not been at war, dating back to its own revolution. Today is no different, just maybe not as well known by the general public. There is, however, one difference between the media of Today and during the Revolution. For the most part, the media of the revolution was biased towards America in terms of America vs. Britain. If it was positive for America, it was in the media. Today, media isn't for America, its for the Left or the Right.  Where Are We?           Just on Friday of this past week, we sent more troops to Syria ( Antiwar ). Where was this on your mainstream media? Did the Left show it? Did the Right show it? That's because both of these sides want to have some sort of governmental power. If you show the people what you're actually doing in these offices, they will lose a lot of support. According to the  Committee for a Responsible Foreign Policy, 86.4% of people believe that our mil...

What Does the First Amendment Say?      "Congress shall make no law respecting...the right of the people peaceably to assemble" (First Amendment, United States Constitution, 1791.)     The world we live in today is like no other time in the history of America. We are battling a virus, civil unrest against the government, and civil unrest against each other. True, there is rarely a time where we are in constant "peace," but the last time our country had this much inner turmoil it launched into a civil war. The Black Lives Matter protests have swept the nation and began receiving heavy media involvement since the death of George Floyd. Yes, George Floyd was not the first, nor will he be the last. But his death was at the perfect time to launch our country into the civil unrest we see today. What Does the First Amendment Allow/Disallow?      Anyone can protest, for any reason. This is commonly accepted. What causes differing opinions is when these pr...

Reddit      I don't really watch much television, so the news I do see relies on what I see daily on the internet. I am on Reddit for at least 2 or 3 hours every day and just sort by "All." This means that the content I am seeing is the most upvoted content on the entire site. Reddit's population is mostly liberal/democratic leaning so I have to keep that in mind when looking at content and comments on that content. Twitter     I have set a couple of twitter accounts to send me notifications whenever they post a new tweet. This is mostly video game or other forms of entertainment related. Like Reddit, Twitter is a mixing pot of all different kinds of people, however it seems to mainly skew left. This is also dependent on who you follow. The most popular tweets are left-leaning. Youtube     Like Twitter, I have set multiple youtube channels to send me notifications whenever they post a new video. This ranges from all sorts of different news genres from ...