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Showing posts from October, 2019

Apple's Problematic Need for Approval from China

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Recently Apple removed HKmap.live an app that aided Hong Kong protestors be able to track where the police where, off of the App Store. Apple did this because they don't want to lose their ties to China, in China instead of them taking on the values of companies they expect those companies to take on their values. Apple hasn't had an issue with this, and this isn't the first time that they have removed something that China wouldn't like. In 2018 as exclusive Apple TV+ content was being created, the company told creators that their shows needed to refrain from portraying China in a negative way.  Unfortunately this is a common theme with technology companies and the textile industry. As they want a cheap way to create their clothing and if they lost China then they would have to move their whole company and increase prices. China has become more aggressive with what their citizens are able to view. I don't believe this will get any easier especially as companie

Are Amazon's Choice Items any good?

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Amazon's Choice are items that are labeled as top rated items that are well priced. Although some of these listings have ratings that most likely weren't what the person really thought about them because the customers were given gift cards or free products. This once happened to me, I received string lights from an Amazon's choice, in the box was a card that said if you leave a 5 star review we will send you a gift card for $20 and of course I gave a good review which I would have done anyway.  Although not all of the items end up being good such as the lights were that I received, so the customers are unhappy but they want the gift card so they post positive reviews and then believe that the gift card is repayment for a crappy product. Although this really misleads other customers who are in need of something and when they receive it, its not what they thought it would be from the reviews. It doesn't seem like Amazon is planning on changing this policy or lookin

Cassettes

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For my technology to present to the class I decided to do cassettes I thought this would be really interesting as they weren’t around very long. They also have started to make a rise again which is sort of weird to me as they aren’t very easy to carry around and there are other methods such as our phones to listen to music.  Cassettes were released in 1962 by the Phillips Company but did not come out in the US until November of the next year. Cassettes became huge because before they were created people had to listen and record music on records. Cassettes were much easier and with the invention of the Stereo people were able to listen to music on the go a little bit easier.  Although when the Walkman came out in 1979 they really boomed as Cassettes were so much easier to carry around and listen to music during the time you weren’t at home. Although they didn’t live up to the hype very long as in the early 80’s CD’s came out and as they were even easier to carry around and thinne

What has happened to our society?

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Our society has become so insensitive. From the video of the Mad World Remix of Moby Video , it shows how society has become, we aren’t currently this bad, but I could see how we could come to a spiraling downfall. One of the biggest subjects on the video is how consumed everyone is with technology and I believe that this was the reason for a lot of the things that happen now and that happened in the video. This video reminds me of an episode of Black Mirror because of how much it touches on the use of technology, in the episode of Black Mirror everyone was so consumed with their status and how popular they were they didn’t even realize the real issues in the world.  The video also touches on subjects like plastic surgery which has only become a huge thing because everyone is so consumed on what people all the way across the country think about the way that they look, but getting plastic surgery and looking “perfect” doesn’t make them any happier about themselves. The video

Students Upset About Required Reading

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Georgia Southern University as a required reading for some of their first-year experience classes decided to have a required reading of “Make Your Home Among Strangers” a book by a Latina author Jennine Capo Crucet. When the author came to speak to the first-year class many spoke that they thought her book made generalizations about white privilege. The students didn’t understand why they were reading a book that was not promoting diversity on campus. Students also said that the author attached white people during her lecture and assumed that the whole audience was privileged as most of the students were white. After the lecture and as these students were filled with rage for being told that they have white privilege they got together and burned her book taking a video and posting it on Facebook.              I understand how students may be upset about this; it was an interesting choice for a university to use for a first-year reading. I would also have questioned this book con

Google a Monopoly?

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48 states in addition to Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico have launched an anti trust probe against Google. This probe is to determine if Google's stance in the search engine market is yet too dominant, and monopolized. In the view of the government, Google controls such a large piece of the internet functionality. They control a large chunk of the advertising market, having holds in the auction, buyer, and seller departments.    Alphabet, Googles parent company, has a market value of more than $820 billion. Last year reported revenue of $137 billion and income of $31 billion. Google controls so many aspects of the internet that it's hard to imagine using the int ernet and not eventually using a Google service. "If advertising costs are higher, advertisers pay more, and ultimately that's  passed on to consumers." (Paxton) A recent investigation shows that roughly ninety percent of all searches are conducted through a google owned service. W

The Supreme Court

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The Supreme Court was created in 1789 with the creation of Article 3 in the US Constitution. Article 3 not only created the Supreme Court but also gave Congress the power to create federal courts. Congress decided the organization of the Supreme Court as well as created the Judiciary Act of 1789. The Judiciary Act explained that the Supreme Court would be made up of six justices and they would serve until they died or retired, although over time the number has been altered until they set on the current number in 1869 of nine seats. All of the Justices that serve are nominated by the president and then sent to the US Senate for approval. History.com  goes more into detail about the supreme court. The Supreme Court started as being on the same level as the other parts of the government and then they began their rise to the top. They are still of the elite and the highest court in America. They get to pick and choose which cases that they hear, which is important so that they are not h