Post #6: Anti War Voices

     For this post, I read an article from The American Conservative related to the war in Ukraine. (Article) This article talks about how our country can no longer afford to send money to Ukraine and yet we still get and fulfill the requests for financial aid. The article states that the Senate leadership of both parties are "holding the government hostage" to "force out hand". The article then goes into the risks of America getting involved in the war and how the longer this goes on for, the more chances there are for things to escalate.

    Up to this point, the news I've heard about the war in Ukraine has been nothing like what I read in this article. While I may not know why exactly I don't get to see this perspective at all, despite it seeming like most Americans agree with what was stated in the article, I can certainly tell that something or someone is preventing me and many others from seeing this perspective. I would think that it would have to be someone in a position of power who would have the ability to influence what websites can appear to people using the internet. News aggregators use algorithms to display news that are tailored to each user's interests, and yet despite many Americans being on the same side as the people who write these articles, the algorithms don't show people these articles. Perhaps someone blacklisted these anti-war websites from the algorithms on purpose to prevent people from hearing these voices, but of course, it's difficult to know for sure.

Post #5: EOTO Reaction #1

     After seeing everyone's EOTO presentations, what I found the most interesting was the invention of the television. I found television interesting because of how it influenced other technologies. While I don't really watch television anymore, the stuff I do watch like YouTube videos wouldn't have been possible without the invention of television. Many of the devices and monitors I use to watch videos came about because of television. 

    Television was invented by Philo Farnsworth. The process of inventing the television took place from 1922 to 1928 while he attended university while in high school, before dropping out when his father died. In order to complete his invention, Farnsworth partnered with George Everson and Leslie Gorrell. This led to the creation of the first television as well as the first electronic television transmission in 1926. Farnsworth then worked on perfecting the invention before finally showing it off to the press in 1928.

Post #4: The Invention of Paper

 For my EOTO project, I ended up researching the invention of paper. I think this is one of the more interesting inventions because of how long ago it was invented and how it's still widely used to this day.

    To start, well before paper was invented, humans would instead communicate using similar objects such as tree bark, cave walls, and clay tablets. They would mainly draw pictures and symbols on these objects to communicate. Closer to the invention of paper, at least in China, books we're either made out of bamboo or silk. Silk was very expensive while bamboo was heavy and difficult to use.

    Around 2000 years ago, the first form of paper was invented by Ts'ai Lun who made it in Lei-Yang, China. It was made by mixing mulberry bark, hemp and rags with water. It would then be mashed into pulp, then the liquid would be pressed out and the resulting paper would be hung out to dry. Ts'ai Lun then presented his invention to the Emperor Han Ho Ti who promoted him for his invention.

    Once paper was invented, it was now possible for people to more easily record their writings and drawings than before with the added ability of being able to more easily transport their work. It's hard to imagine what we would've used if paper hadn't been invented.

    China managed to keep the art of paper making a secret for around 500 years. Some Chinese paper makers were captured by Arabs in 751 which led to paper making it's way to the middle east. Around 300 years later Europe would learn papermaking from the Arabs. Paper mills were then created by Europeans to streamline paper production allowing paper to be used in the production of books, bibles, legal documents and more.   

    The first US paper mills was created in 1690. It's paper was originally created using cloth before the material was replaced with wood due to its abundance and how inexpensive it was. Paper is still made in this way today, with the wood coming from sustainably managed forests as well as recycled paper. From my research, it seems that the early history of paper production in the US hasn't been documented all too well.

Post #3: Values of Free Expression

     Out of the eight values of free expression, the one that resonated with me the most was the third one: Stable Change. Stable change is the idea that if people in a society are able to "vent" or speak their minds when they feel angry or alienated, society is more stable as those people will be less likely to resort to violence.

    The main part of Stable Change that resonates with me is the "venting" idea as it relates to video games. Many games, mainly competitive games tend to make people angry, including myself as it's almost unavoidable with the way these kinds of games are designed. They reward you for winning and punish you for losing, and to keep people playing for as long as possible, these competitive games will actually rig the odds against you to force you to lose sometimes. Due to so many games being designed like this, it's important for players to be able to vent their frustrations towards various things such as the game itself or the random teammates they get paired up with to avoid getting too mad. Even outside of games, I find venting whenever I'm mad to be very helpful for calming down.

    Social media sites are often filled with people venting about all sorts of things on a daily basis. Take Twitter for example. More often than not, you can't scroll for more than five seconds without seeing someone complaining about something. In the case of social media, it's hard to tell if the venting done on them actually makes people less likely to do anything violent, especially since people still can act violently on social media such as by threatening others.

    Perhaps you could also see protests as a form of venting. Peaceful protests are basically large groups of people choosing to vent their frustrations to create change instead of acting violently to do so. In this way, peaceful protests perfectly encapsulate the idea of Stable Change. Of course, the opposite is true for violent protests which completely go against the idea. Peaceful protests can take many different forms such as an employment strike for better pay or working conditions or a group of people refusing to purchase a product due to being against an action that the producer of the product had done. 

Post #2: The Supreme Court

     The Supreme Court is the head of the judicial branch of government. Established in 1789, the Supreme Court is currently made up of 9 justices and it has the power to check the actions of both the executive and legislative branches of government.

    As I read about the Supreme Court, something I didn't know about beforehand was related to the role of Chief Justice and what their job is. The Chief Justice is in charge of setting the agenda for the justices' weekly meanings, they are required to sit on the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and if part of the majority can choose to assign who will write the court’s opinion. In addition, they also preside over impeachment trials such as the recent one against former president Donald Trump.

    Something that I found important to take away from the article was how the Supreme Court is responsible for many important rulings that have shaped our country into what it is today. Supreme Court rulings can both legalize or outlaw all sorts of things. They could legalize a type of marriage or give you a right as a citizen, but they could also outlaw an everyday item or make a previously legal action illegal. Not to mention these rulings can also be overturned such as Roe v. Wade (1973) which gave women the right to an abortion which was overturned in 2022.

    The most surprising thing I learned while reading was how the Supreme Court didn't have a single case until 1791, almost 2 years after being established. Not only that but when they finally did get a case, it was a fairly unremarkable case involving a farmer and a family he owed money to. I was also surprised to learn that William Howard Taft served as chief justice in addition to being president.

    After reading the article, I now know a lot more about the power of the Supreme Court. I know that they can check the actions of the other branches of government and that their decisions can have a huge influence on the country as a whole. While I knew they had a lot of power before reading the article, I now know just what those powers are so I have a better understanding of how powerful the Supreme Court actually is.

Post #1: News Sources

     As a game design student mainly interested in video games, most of the news I see comes from gaming news sources. Of all the gaming news I see these are five of the main ones I enjoy looking at.

    1. PC Gamer

    PC Gamer as the name implies is a gaming news source that focuses on PC gaming. Their articles are mainly related to the most recently released PC games so I often rely on them when I need information on a newly released game, or just want to know what games are new. They also have articles on PC hardware which can certainly be useful when I'm looking to upgrade my setup as they can help me find the best parts at multiple price ranges. When it comes to PC gaming, they really have it all.

    2. Nintendo Life

    When I'm not on PC, I'm probably on a Nintendo platform, and Nintendo Life is a great place to find news related to said platform. In addition to news on upcoming releases, they also offer reviews of games which is nice for when I want to make sure I can enjoy my time with a game before I buy it. They can also have articles on older Nintendo games which is nice as there are lots of great games from the past that I'd love to learn more about. Overall, Nintendo Life has a great variety of content that keeps me interested.

    3. Games Radar

    While PC Gamer and Nintendo Life both focus on a particular field of gaming, Games Radar is where I go when I want info on both of those and then some. Games Radar lets me get information from all sides of the gaming space which is super useful as a game designer. I often need to research a variety of different kinds of games and getting up-to-date news on all types of games helps make that research a little bit easier. This is the site I tend to visit when I just want to see what's happening in the world of gaming.

    4. YouTube

    I use YouTube daily and it is often the best place to see brand new game announcements. Most major publishers will have a few live streams throughout the year usually around 45 minutes where they release tons of new game trailers for upcoming releases. These live streams are the best way to learn about new games the moment they get announced and are often very exciting to watch. When they aren't announcing tons of titles all at once, publishers will periodically release game trailers on their YouTube channels often to announce smaller games or to coincide with a game's launch. Being subscribed to these channels helps me know when a game is releasing and lets me learn about smaller games too.

    5. Twitter (I'm still calling it that)

   Twitter, also known as the 24th letter of the alphabet, is a nice secondary to YouTube. The live streams I talked about previously are almost always announced beforehand on social media platforms. Twitter is the only main social media platform I actively use so it tends to be the place that I find out about said live streams. Publishers may also reveal information about a game by posting to Twitter such as a short gameplay video showing something off or simply mentioning a feature of the game. On rare occasions, a publisher might even announce a brand-new game in a simple tweet. This mainly happened during 2020 when COVID made creating these live streams more difficult for the publishers, but it was still strange to open Twitter only to find out a brand new game had just randomly appeared. Still, Twitter continues to be a great way to learn about more specific details of a particular game during the lead-up to release.

    These were just a few of the news sources I tend to use to get new information on gaming. I also still get more mainstream news, but I wanted to focus on the news that relates to my major and hobby.