My Footprint in the Online World

After going through many searches using my nickname, first and last name, and then even including my middle name, I was not able to find any information of myself related to social media. Truly, like my father, I am not the biggest social media guy and really keep things in my own bubble. Although everything I do is not secretive, I don't feel the need to post what I've done online. In specifics, unrelated to social media, I did find sources pointing towards business-related stuff like my linkedin account. In some way, I am totally fine with that because of my reason behind creating that account. I want more exposure and if finding a place where I can be searched for is a benefit for me. However, I also found very, very old information dealing with a Non-Profit organization I use to attend when I was younger. It's kind of weird and uncomfortable knowing that information from almost 10 years ago is still able to be found today. Also, it's linked to a website that I've never heard of, so this information is coming from a second-party. Overall, my presence online is not as bad and I hope to keep it that way.

Impact of E-Cigarettes

Tobacco has been around for so long, being introduced to Europeans on October 15 in 1492. Along the way, many innovative ideas surrounding tobacco began to arise, one huge idea being cigarettes. Cigarettes, or the first commercial cigarettes, were created in 1865 by Washington Duke, a well-known American tobacco Industrialist, on his farm in Raleigh, North Carolina. However, not until around 1881 did cigarettes become widespread due to the cigarette-making machine that American inventor James Bonsack created. Overtime, people wanted to modernize the cigarettes by developing nicotine aerosol devices before 1963 in China.

The first reference of these devices was by Joseph Robinson in 1927. In time, this lead to the invention of what we know today as e-cigarettes, which was invented in 2003 by Hon Lik, a Chinese Pharmacist. His purpose for creating the e-cigarette was to provide a safer and harmless method of smoking by using hot, moist, and flavored air as a way to replace the burning tobacco and the paper. In the beginning, the electronic cigarettes were meant only for current cigarette smokers. But the early adopters of the product were teens, which translated into approximately 1.3 million additional adolescents who vaped in 2018 according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Surprisingly, people who already smoked cigarettes were the late majority and late adopters in receiving the ideas. The tipping point is when the popularity of vapes, which are the flavored electronic smoking devices, came into the picture and began to grow. It has been around since 1963, but it has really sky-rocketed more than ever. Now today, the only people who would not even think about using a e-cigarettes are non-smokers who are older. They had more sense of the problematic outbreak that e-cigarettes would have and that's why they've stayed away from it.

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/teens-using-vaping-devices-record-numbers
http://www.casaa.org/historical-timeline-of-electronic-cigarettes/

Printing Press

Technology has been a critical part of life throughout many, many centuries. One of them that has made a big impact in world, continuing on even today, is the printing press. The printing press is a device that allows mass production of uniform printed matter. It applies pressure to an inked surface that rests upon a print medium. Knowing what the device does, the only unknown problem is that no one knows who invented the printing press or when it was invented. The oldest known printed text known to date was originated in China during the first millennium. The name of this book is The Diamond Sutra made in Dunhuang, China around 868 AD. From this point on, the idea of a printing press didn't fade away, but it did not spread either. However, in 1297, a guy by the name of Wang Chen began to transform the printing press by devising a process to make the wood more durable and precise. During this process, he also made a revolving table that helped the typesetters organize with more efficiency and greater speeds. From this time, the printing press spread to Europe where a goldsmith and inventor by the name of Johannes Gutenburg was experimenting with the technology. Gutenburg changed the printing press by replacing the wood with metal and printing blocks, with revolutionized the printing press, creating the European version. In the late 1400s, printing press began to spread rapidly throughout Germany, Italy, Valencia, Barcelona, and even becoming worldwide. The biggest factor of the printing press is that formalizing it has made it one of greatest contributors to the growth of literacy, education, and far-reaching availability of uniform information for ordinary people.

N.J. Teacher Reassigned after Kneeling during Pledge of Allegiance

The Pledge of Allegiance has been a very controversial issue concerning schools. In Cumberland County, New Jersey, an issue related to the Pledge of Allegiance occurred at a school called Sgt. Dominick Pilla Middle School. A teacher, not identified, took a kneel while the Pledge of Allegiance was being recited. This was brought up in a school board meeting where some community members decided to express their feelings about the issue. Janelle Griffith, a breaking news reporter for NBC News, reported that one of the parents said "the teacher's action was 'reprehensible'." The district's executive director of personnel, Joseph Rossi, "said the principal 'reassigned homeroom oversight so the teacher would have alternate duties during opening annoucements." No one knows the reasons behind the teacher's actions, but the problem, as of now, has been resolved.

Understanding the freedom of speech, this may have been a way of representing that in the teacher's way. We all have a specific way of expressing ourselves or issues that we want to address. They may be under the same category, but the way of expression will never be the same. It describes who we are as people and how we are all unique. Despite the action, we have to look at what the meaning is, though in this case we don't. However, we just have to hope it was for a reason that represents something good.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/n-j-teacher-who-kneeled-during-pledge-allegiance-reassigned-n1064661

Vaping Illness Epidemic

In the past few years, what we know as vaping, which was to be a replacement for cigarettes, has become a daily practical thing for teens today. It has become more addictive over the years and now is taking a toll on many people's lives. Erika Edwards, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology wrote about vaping in an article on NBC. She started to explain how lung illnesses have become tied to vaping. Vaping is getting so bad that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 1,299 cases in 49 states relating to lung illnesses. What is worst is that 70 percent are male, 80 percent being under 35, and 76 percent of the patients report THC vaping as written by Edwards. The main reason why it has become an addiction for young people, based on addiction experts, is because of the flavors, which hooks them on the nicotine in the first place.

Being a college student, I can say that the main reason why vaping is so popular is because of the flavors. Also, it is the need for people to fit in with the current trend. So many times, young people see things that look fun and there drawn to follow what the crowd is doing. Vaping has become the popular trend and now it is becoming a very serious issue. Today, is doesn't seem like the trend with slow down, nor does the issues dealing with lung illnesses.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/vaping/vaping-illness-epidemic-shows-no-sign-slowing-n1064546

User of Facebook Phone Numbers Still Online

Over the years, Facebook has been known as the company that uses the public's private information from their email address to phone numbers as a way to screen ads that will be specifically for what the user may like or have interest in. Due to this, Facebook has become an ongoing issue, especially concerning the government as well. Though they are just claims and Facebook has denied the claims many times, an article just came out about how a facebook user's phone number was found still in an unprotected database by a cybersecurity researcher in the UK named Elliott Murray. According to the source, Murray explained that this informational data could be the same data Facebook admitted to erasing from their public database. A lack of security has been a continuous issue relating to companies who don't have enough expertise to move databases online securely. After so much unconsented exposure to partnered companies of these big businesses like Facebook, they have began to crack down on what needs to be shared. Though Facebook denies that they had any hand in the problem, data continues to be breached and they are becoming more like scams.

History of the U.S. Supreme Court

For an almost astonishing 230 years, the dear Supreme Court of of the United States that we know and "love" has continued to stand. However, it didn't develop a permanent home until the 1930s and what we know as the nine justices today was not the same number before. In the early years of the Supreme court, the number of justices used to be chosen by Congress until 1789, when the Judiciary Act came into play. This act set the number of justices at six - one being a chief justice along with five associate justices. Overtime, it began to rise from 7 to 9 and up to 10. Along the way, it met another act passed by the Congress called the Judicial Circuits Act, which knocked the number backed down. Though the U.S. Supreme court now has 9 justices, there is speculation about whether or not it may change. Moving forward, the justices today consider the questions of the citizens or about the president defending his power as commander. Afterwards, they deliberate their decisions in private based off their faith in upholding the law by the founding Constitution. Without avoiding controversy, they tell the president, the states, and the congress what they can and cannot do. Because of this, the U.S. Supreme Court stands as the highest power in the Judicial branch. One of the biggest problems the Supreme court has faced was the Dred Scott case in 1854, where an African-American man stood for his rights as a citizen, which the Supreme Court denied. This became a crucial part of U.S. history as it took away some of the power of the Supreme court. Later in 1868 after the Civil War, the Constitution was amended to  abolish slavery, define citizenship, and give voting rights by the 14th Amendment. Today, the Supreme Court abides by the Constitution, which they say gives them an advantage.