Blog Post #3: Supreme Court

     Based on the this article by the History Channel about the Supreme Court (https://www.history.com/topics/us-government-and-politics/supreme-court-facts), I have learned a few things about the Supreme Court that I wasn't originally knowledgeable about. 

    As is common knowledge, the Supreme Court is is the highest federal court in the entire United States and is the head of the judicial branch of the government. Originally, there were only six justices appointed, which was new information to me. In the modern day, there are nine justices that serve on the Supreme Court. 

    The first case the Supreme Court ever came to a decision on was West v. Barnes, a relatively small money dispute between a farmer and a family he owed money to. It was very interesting to know the Supreme Court once handled cases like these and not huge cases that the entire country has their eyes on like they do today. 

    The chief justice is the justice that overall has the most authority out of the other members. A specific type of trial they look over very closely are impeachment trials, like that of Bill Clinton or Donald Trump.

    One fun fact I learned was that William Howard Taft is the only person to be both president and chief justice. 

    Overall, I learned a lot more than the overall surface level information that I had previously known about the Supreme Court, and feel more knowledgeable about the Supreme Court itself and the cases surrounding it, as well as the actions that can be taken by justices and the chief justice.

Blog Post #2: Digital Tattoos

     In Juan Enriquez's TED Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu1C-oBdsMM), he speaks of electronic tattoos. 

    He makes a very good argument about how websites and corporations find out things about you through the things you look up, and the data that is a part of you. He compares this information about you to physical tattoos, which often show a certain message or part of someone. 

    He then brings in the metaphor of electronic tattoos. Like stated earlier, these electronic tattoos are the data about you, your face, your interests, what you look at online, your credit score, purchases, things of that nature. Big corporations, like Facebook for example, will take that data to learn as much about you as possible, leading to them knowing way more about you than is probably comfortable for most people. 

    Enriquez brings in metaphors about Greek mythology as well, which I found engaging. One that stuck out to me was that of Sisyphus eternal struggle to roll a boulder up a mountain, continually falling back down and pushing it back up. Enriquez compares this to someone's online reputation, constantly shifting up and down, with people always trying to push it upwards. 

    Juan Enriquez' TED Talk was overall a very engaging piece. 

Blog Post #1: My Top 5 News Sources

 News Source 1: Social Media

      It may seem obvious, but social media as a whole is an incredibly useful way to find news, and is usually the place I first hear about things from. The two social medias that I believe are the most useful for discovering news are YouTube and Instagram. Instagram is a good way to initially hear about news incidents and get a surface level idea of what is going on in the news. It isn't too in depth, but it's a great jumping off point for deciding what news you are interested in investing your time in and learning more about it. YouTube bounces off this, as while it may not be as reliable for finding news stories as fast, the video format allows for a lot of information to be shared in little time that will keep the attention of whoever's watching. For both examples, there are quick ways to see different posts/videos about each news story from multiple perspectives. The ability to jump from different perspectives and news sources allows for whoever is interested in the news story can get the full unbiased picture in a relatively quick and concise manner.

News Source 2: The Washington Post

     

    I use the Washington Post quite often when I'm looking for unbiased political news. The Post does a good job not really picking sides and sticking to the facts of a situation. This is good for when I don't know much about a situation and want to know all the facts about it before deciding how I feel about it. Choosing to use the Washington Post to gather information about topics I don't know much about is very useful, as from then on I can decide my own views on the matter, which will affect how I look at other, more biased news sources. This makes the Washington Post a very prominent part of my political views, as they are the groundwork from which I build my own opinion and viewpoint.

News Source 3: ABC News

    When it comes to televised news, I tend to watch ABC News. It's the one that I've become most accustomed to, as it's the one my dad always watches. It seems that NBC and FOX both lean in opposite directions in terms of bias, with NBC heavily leaning left and FOX heavily leaning right. Because of this, I like ABC News for similar reasons I like the Washington Post. It is a fairly unbiased news source that focuses mainly on facts that educate, support, and go against both sides rather than only supporting or going against one side. The stories presented in the news can obviously range, which is why I don't always rely on televised news for bigger stories due to the fact that there's only so much information they can fit into the time they have. Still, I find ABC News to be a reliable news source.

News Source 4: Apple News

    

Apple News, similar to Instagram, YouTube, and other social media, is incredibly convenient. Since it's already on my phone to begin with, it's an extremely quick way to get updated on things going on in the world. I don't rely on it as much for politics, as it caters to whoever is using it, so I'll mostly get things with a bias towards me. Still, I use it very often for news unrelated to politics, as most of the time the way the app caters itself to it's users makes it easy to find out about stories I would find interest in much faster than on other news sources.

News Source 5: Google

More of a general way of getting news, Google acts as a connecting tissue between information. It is where I go to look up sources and find new and interesting ways to gather news and information about things I'm interested in or would like to know about.