The Value of a Safety Valve in a Free Society

     In any society, one is bound to find factions of the population with different opinions on how governments, businesses, and people's personal lives should function. In a society without relatively unrestricted freedom of speech, freedom of and from religion, and freedom of the press, it would be difficult to get those ideas out of your system without organizing a large scale coup or revolution if the government did not approve of your beliefs. This "safety valve," so to speak, of the First Amendment is on of the most valuable aspects of it.
     Society is likely to much much more stable when angry and alienated citizens are allowed to vent. It has been said that people will be less likely to resort to violence.  This freedom of unpopular or angry ideas also allows the government to monitor and follow those with radical ideas, as they do not need to explicitly hide from the government. This also allows for change that a majority of the people believe in to be heard, and prevents societies from stagnating and prevents the need for revolution. Thomas Emerson is quoted as saying, referring to a society that suppresses dissent, "by suppressing reform, censorship may transform problems into a revolution." 

Right to Record Police Officers Protected by First Amendment

        It is known that America's police have been under heavy scrutiny in recent years due to unfortunate incidents involving  many police officers and unarmed American citizens. This has caused many to begin the act of recording police officers during any type encounter, with or without their consent. Oftentimes, states have laws against recording people without their consent. But how does the First Circuit interpret this specific circumstance?

       Recently, it has been decided that this kind of behavior is protected by the first amendment. Not only has the first circut confirmed this, but also five other circuits in Massachusetts. Not only has the right to audio record police been upheld, but also the right to record video of police as well. This is essential in order to capture police misconduct. To read more, click here.

Impact of the Typewriter on American personal media and Buisness

Today, the mechanical typewriter is often considered an antique. However, the rise of this technology in the late-nineteenth century led to developments that have shaped how we live and work today.

The typewriter has evolved in very interesting ways over its lifetime. The first conception for an invention similar to the mechanical typewriter was the “writing ball,” conceived of by Danish pastor Rasmus Malling-Hansen. This was a sphere covered in types letters you could use to slowly type onto paper. This was not a very popular invention. In 1874, the “Sholes & Glidden Type Writer” becomes the model for the modern typewriter setup. This typewriter, and many other early models, were “blind” typewriters, andantes writer could not see what they were writing until it was done. In 1885, Underwood keyboards, which were non-blind, became the most popular model of keyboard. By the 1910s, the standard keyboard layout had been established, including the addition of the shift key, tab, backspace, and QUERTY typeset layout. The 1960s brought electronic word processors, and the 1990s brought the end of the manufacture of typewriter as we know them by IBM and most other major manufacturers.

The typewriter also had a profound effect on businesses around the world, the working lives of women as well as the individual's ability to create works of personal expression. Businesses were able to save significant overhead costs on printing, and therefore were able to spend more money on managerial staff. Women often picked up jobs as secretaries and typists, which were significantly better positions in working conditions and pay than factory jobs. Lastly, individuals were able to create literature in their own home for their causes, businesses, or organizations. This allowed for information created by individuals to be spread much more easily.

In short, the typewriter has had a tremendous impact on our society and paved the way for modern word processors and computers.

Game company Blizzard faces harsh Criticism over position on Hong Kong, China

    In recent months, pro-democracy protests have been raging all across Hong Kong, gaining much media attention. While most private citizens in the U.S support Hong Kong in their efforts to reach independence, this has put several international business owners in an extremely difficult position. Though, on the one hand, these American-owned businesses likely support the American values those in Hong Kong are fighting for, if the outwardly express this support, they could lose their extremely valuable business with China.

       This exact situation has played out with the gaming company Activision Blizzard. One popular professional gamer, who often streamed his games on twitch, was banned from competition after expressing support for Hong Kong during an official switch. This has caused much controversy for the company. There have been massive boycotts of the company, as well as employee walkouts in support of the gamer. Even through these boycotts, the company's stock price has held solidly and it has not lost any support from large corporations, so though the company's reputation is tarnished, its profits are not suffering.