The Rise Of Nationalism In The U.S.

This is Steve Bannon, one of President Trump's advisors and head of the Breitbart news organization. Many have argued that the "Far-Right" is non-existent in today's America, but it seems that Bannon's publication has helped give rise to a Far-Right, Nationalistic group of people in the U.S. today. The so-called, "Alt-Right" movement that voiced it's support for Donald Trump during the election is a white-nationalist group that has now gained serious traction. Is this the type of person you want in the ear of the most powerful man in the world?

What's Next in Science?

Here is a TED talk where Eric Haseltine discusses the speculation that has spurred beautiful, revolutionary science throughout history, science that opens our eyes to entirely new universes. This is not science that takes baby steps, it is science that takes enormous leaps. In this talk, Haseltine passionately takes us to the edges of intellectual pursuit with two ideas- one that's already made history, and another that's digging into one of humanity's biggest questions with admirable ambition (and a healthy dose of skepticism from many).

Technology, the Empathy Killer

Most of us spend quite a bit of time with our technology, and while some experts argue that we are developing better social networking skills and thus enhancing technological empathy, I think all this online time is weakening our face-to-face human contact skills. Many people, particularly young teens, gain social support through their hours of texting and social networking, but does that person who averages more than 11 hours each day using technology look you in the eye when you have a conversation? I know when someone maintains eye contact, I have a greater sense that he or she is listening and interested in what I have to say. But that rarely happens as people use there phone or think it's weird or awkward to look at someone when they are talking. Dating apps are also killing empathy as they are being used more and more today. Tinder is the biggest contender. Tinder is one of the biggest and most widely used dating apps today. It allows users to meet other users around them and by only seeing pictures, decide if they want to match with them and if they other person also matches with them, they get a message saying that they both matched. That was the original purpose of the app, it is now widely used for one night stands and hook ups.

Children in the Industrial Revolution

At the start of the industrial Revolution there was no legislation about working conditions in mills, factories or other industrial plants. They simply had not been needed before. As factories spread rapidly the owners of mills, mines and other forms of industry needed large numbers of workers and they didn't want to have to pay them a high wage. Children were the ideal employees therefore! They were cheap, weren't big enough or educated enough to argue or complain and were small enough to fit between tight fitting machinery that adults couldn't get between. Children soon ended up working in all types of industry. Parents were quite willing to let children work in mills and factories as it provided the family with a higher income. Nowadays lots of children have Saturday jobs or part time work after school. They might work as shop assistants, have paper round or even work in creative jobs and design jobs. these jobs are carefully controlled and the government has made laws saying how long children can work for, what types of job they can and cannot do and what the minimum age for working is.

Government Surveillance

Here is an interesting TED talk where privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian sees the landscape of government surveillance shifting beneath our feet. He says, there have now been over the last few years an industry of companies who provide surveillance technology to governments, specifically technology that allows those governments to hack into the computers of surveillance targets. Rather than intercepting the communications as they go over the wire, instead they now hack into your computer, enable your webcam, enable your microphone, and steal documents from your computer.

Technology in Warfare

Technology and war go hand in hand. In America and many other countries, we run on a government first policy, meaning that the government gets new technology first, then  allows it to the general public. The drones that are ever so popular today were originally used to watch over the battlefield or scout an enemy base. The best of security is also used by the government to ensure victory in the cyber war so our information cannot be stolen by hackers. The pentagon is one of the most encrypted places to exist, only few people have broken into the pentagon, and most of them did it just to say that they have broken into the pentagon or are paid to try and brake in so that they can fix the system by the way they got in.

Everyone and the Government Are Watching

When you download a new app on your phone and open it for the first time, you will be prompted with a message saying what permissions it needs to run on your phone. This permissions can run from accessing the internet to accessing your contact and from making calls to using the microphone and/or camera while the app is active. Not many people actually read what this says, they just select accept and carry on with their business, but the app developer can be recording or even looking at you when you are using the app and you do not even know! The problem with that is if you notice the app wanting to have an odd permission, if you decline the app permission, it will not work instead of just not using the permission. If it is an important app that you need, then you have no control over it because you need to have it and cannot stop it from having those permissions which allows developers to gain and sell information.

Fun Fact About Women in Technology

As we learned in class, Grace Murray Hopper was one of the first female computer programmers. Everyone has also heard the phrase "I have found a bug in your program," or "There is a bug in the system." The word bug was coined by Grace while investigating a large computer. She noticed that something was not working correctly, so she took a look inside the computer and after carefully analyzing the hardware, she noticed a moth was stuck inside one of the compilers, basically a switch that is On or Off, that was causing it to not work. After removing it from the system, the compiler worked again.

Government Surveillance

When heard of being under surveillance, people often automatically go against the idea. It is clearly an invasion of privacy; the government tracking your private calls, social media, and texts. Today, the government has access to anyone's information anytime. People are uncomfortable with the idea that someone is able to access private information that they do not want anyone to see, regardless of whatever it is. Privacy offers many people a sense of freedom as well. When the privacy is invaded, it is as if they're freedom has been taken away, their right to keep things to themselves. Although there are negative aspects, I do not believe that anyone would be affected by being under surveillance unless they had something to hide. However, the information accessed should remain classified instead of being given away to companies as a target for advertisement or efficiency. For example, the man who went to Disney had all of his information already accessed by the park's database. Although the government wants to access an individual's privacy, it should always be to a limit and kept as classified information as well.

Eye in the Sky

As has been largely assumed as our nation has progressed, the recent years have only confirmed the fact that the government is in fact monitoring your every move, and everything is backed up. It is entirely understandable that people would be upset that there is no such thing as "true privacy" anymore, but the chances that someone in the NSA is actively looking at your internet history specifically is pretty absurd. I for one, do not have much of a problem with this, as I have nothing to hide. The main purpose of this is to keep people safe, through any means necessary. It certainly infringes on some rights to privacy, but I feel it is a necessary evil. I know it is not a popular opinion, but it has never effected my life in a positive or negative way, so it is just like nothing ever happened. This TIME article brings up several interesting discussion points pertaining to privacy, or really, the illusion of privacy.

TIME Article

Eugenics In Popular Culture

Eugenics In Popular Culture

Eugenics is present in popular culture everywhere, but in the new film, "Get Out" it was certainly put on display. In the film, the white family looks to kidnap African Americans and use them for their bodies and "genetic advantages". The white people believe that African Americans are genetically superior to them, in the film which is surprising as usually people involved with eugenics believe their own genes to be superior. Anyways, the main ideas of eugenics are presented throughout the entire movie, as a focus. 

The Eugenics Movement

Eugenics In The U.S.

The Eugenics movement once ran rampant across the United States, believe it or not. Eugenics look to "improve" the genetic quality of a certain population. In the U.S., many believe that Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger to control how many minorities were having children. The United States looked down upon Germany, but some in their country shared the same process as the Germans, and the U.S. may have even helped spread the movement to Germany in the first place. Hitler's fantasy of an Aryan race was modeled by eugenics, he felt blonde hair and blue eyes were the most desirable trait for one to have, though he didn't posses these traits himself.

Against Her Will

Thrasher, James, and Jake Niederdeppe. "The impact of anti-tobacco industry prevention messages in tobacco producing regions: evidence from the US truth® campaign." Tobacco Control 13.3 (2004): 283-88. Proqueset. Web. 12 Apr. 2017.

This article talks about something that is not mentioned too much here in America, but is a growing issue since the 1990's in countries like Africa and Greece. In these countries women-mostly poor women, are being sterilized without any permission. They are either forced to sign a paper in which they are barely briefed for, or a medical personal does it without asking. This is causing many women to become sterilized after their first born baby! This kind of treatment seems unfair because women should have the right to control their decisions; especially when it pertains to their pregnancy. This actually occurred in America in the state of North Dakota. A women was sterilized after she gave birth. She was forced to do it because of the regulations. The sad part is, when she sued the hospital, civilians from the town sided against her. This is something us as Americans should look at. With the events of gay marriage and immigrants being an occurring news topic here in the US, things like this are being overshadowed because of it

The Elf on a Shelf

American culture surely leads to some interesting customs and traditions from time to time. One such tradition is that of the elf on a shelf, made to trick younger children into behaving so Santa may shower them with gifts come Christmas. But what does this teach children? According to this interesting article by the Huffington Post , it is preparing children to live in a dystopian police state. While that is a slight exaggeration, I do believe it is teaching the wrong values. Children should be taught the right way to behave regardless of reward, not just because it will bring them presents one day of the year. It is mainly just a harmless Christmas tradition, but it does relay sort of the wrong message.

Technology and Warfare

Nuclear weapons have come to redefine what war really is. In the matter of mere seconds, a ridiculous amount of people can be wiped out. War has continually evolved as technology has, and each and every day, scientists are working for government agencies to try and develop even more powerful weapons. Most of these weapons aren't used, but rather are used to let your enemy know what you are capable of. Likely, there won't be another major ground war fought like World War I or II for a very long time, with the firepower major superpowers harbor today, most countries are hesitant to engage in military action as they are aware of the destruction they can cause. Scientists, chemical engineers, etc. Won't ever stop working on these weapons. and as technology improves, so will the amount of damage these weapons can do.

Population Control Politics

When researching this topic, I focused on the development of discriminatory policies in the US, specifically the use of sterilization by dominant forces in society to control the fertility of minorities and the lower class. There is a significant difference between birth control and population control. Birth control allows individuals to freely control their fertility while population control preserves institutional interests. Three movements shaped attitudes toward fertility control of a population, including the women’s movement, the eugenics movement, and the population control movement. The women’s movement stressed reproductive freedom while the eugenics movement attempted to suppress the growth of racial and ethnic groups. Likewise, the population movement sought to control the fertility of the lower classes. Before the mid-1960s, nearly all control activities were managed by private organizations comprised of the elites in society. Since then, the government’s part in population control has continued to increase vastly. Therefore, population control activities have become more centralized, planned, and universal. As these characteristics may seem better for equality, the laws were created in an opposite manner. On account of the transformation being primarily managed by the Population Council, the dominant class was able to manipulate public opinion and appoint the power of the government to advance toward the goal of the elites which was to control the fertility of the lower class. Essentially, the elites created a welfare state beneficial to their vested interests. Clearly, this is shown by the sterilization abuses that took place among various welfare recipients. Overall, it seems that discriminatory promotions of sterilization were directed toward the lower class and unwanted ethnic groups of the elites the most.   

Alan Turing

Alan Turing was a man that revolutionized computing and coding. This paper talks about his accomplishments in his short life. At his early 20's he began to do research in Manchester university in computing. However, he is most known for his work in breaking the Nazi communications called "Enigma". He was a very independent guy, he liked to work alone and almost got rid of his team mid-way through the process. He built a machine that would be able to think by itself(computer) and decode enigma. This machine helped end the war early and Alan became an unsung hero in the war.

Gender Gap in Technology

This article talks about the gender gap from the past years. It focuses on specifc careers, in this case; Women as Astronauts and Women in Computer science. In the past only men had the right to be an Add to dictionary. NASA never hosted trials or even give any chance for women to become Add to dictionary. In fact, one of the leaders of NASA tell women that they should "get out", whenever they think they want to work for them. However, when women finally had a chance to become one, their scores either matched with men or did better. This proves that gender should not play a factor in this field. Secondly, they talk about the low percentage of women in the field of computer science. In my opinion, this is a matter you cant control. What girls do you know out there want to be a computer science major? I feel mem are more exposed to the field when they are younger. For example, video games is something that can push somebody to become a computer science major. Girls don't typically play video games. This topic isn't really a decimation against women.