EOTO Key Post - Carrier Pigeons

Carrier Pigeons were the first form of private, long-distance communication. People used smoke signals, but that was visible to anyone in the area. Carrier pigeons offered a discreet way to send messages to a specific location. By 3000 BC, Egypt and Rome were using pigeons to send important information across
their territories. 

Jeremy Norman's Historyofinformation.com explains that Egyptians would release pigeons to spread the news of a new Pharaoh, for example. The article goes on to say that Julius Caesar had 5000 pigeons documented while he was emperor. 

Moving forward, carrier pigeons continued to be used, especially in wartime. During WWI, Germany strapped cameras to pigeons and flew them over enemy territory. Mary Blume writes in The New York Times that France used pigeons at the same time for communication because telegraphs and phones could
be tapped. To this day, drug traffickers continue to use carrier pigeons to avoid the modern surveillance technologies. In the middle eat, heroin is strapped to pigeons and then released in flocks from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

What I love most about this communication method is that it is proof of humanity's resourcefulness with nature. Imagine being in the middle of nowhere without any modern civilization, would you think to train the birds flying overhead? It really was a revolutionary development. People were connected at long distances. The most practical application of this that I can think of is to tell their soldiers that a war is over. Without any means of mass communication, there would be no way of knowing your emperor brokered a peace agreement. People would continue to fight and die needlessly. 

So, how do you train these birds to go where you need them to go, even if that's a thousand miles away? The answer is much simpler than I thought. Wonderopolis.org explains that to train a carrier pigeon, you just need to teach it where home is. The, you bring the pigeon to where you are releasing it from and it will know how to get home. It cannot go to any destination, but it can get to its destination from any starting point. 

The next question is how do they know where home is? Scientists aren't entirely sure, but they believe it is a combination of using the sun as a compass, the Earth's magnetic field, and low-frequency sounds. The sun's position and direction of movement tells the pigeons if they are going the right way. Then, the pigeon is able to remember the magnetism and low-frequency sounds from home and go towards that feeling. 

Carrier pigeons truly had a significant impact on human history. Any great empire or nation would not have been able to exist without being able to communicate in a way beyond word of mouth. 

The Founding Era

 I currently think of the supreme court as nine people who determine if the constitution is being violated in any particular case. These decisions then set precedents for what to do when that situation comes up again. I see them making these decisions by sitting around a conference table arguing and then writing hundreds of pages on their decision. I don't think it is very glamorous, but it is the aspect of our democracy that was so unique in its founding. 

After watching part 1 and part 2 of the Youtube videos about the Supreme Court, there were five things that stood out to me. 

First, the narrator says, "Their power rests in the faith of the people." To me, the Supreme Court has power because of the Constitution, but it really is our loyalty to what America was founded on that keeps us respecting their decisions.

Second, their job is described just as much restricting the powers of congress and the states as it is protecting the rights of the people. Before, I considered the Supreme Court to be protecting individuals from abuses of power in Government. I now see, however, how necessary it is to also stop government entities from being able to abuse their power in the first place.

Third, The Supreme Court in nature is reactive rather than proactive. They have to wait for people to bring their problems to the courts. I never considered how frustrating it must be to see an issue in America and not be able to change it until someone else brings it to court. Unlike legislators, they can't just write laws into place.

Fourth, from the lawyers' perspectives, they are used to 1, 3, or sometimes 5 judges. Arguing before 9 is a completely different experience. Just having an in depth understanding of the constitution is not enough. This type of lawyer has to be ready to juggle different arguments at the same time for an extended amount of time. To me, that is a difficult skill to develop if you aren't born with it.

Fifth, the press jumps on the decisions so quickly because it is a race to be the first story breaking the news. I've heard about how dangerous it is when media construes the opinions of the Supreme Court, but now I see why they do it. Journalists are not going to sit and read the entire opinion because then their story will be written already by somebody else. In that competitive industry, it is better to write something provocative than nothing at all.

Privacy, Online & Off

 Christopher Soghoian's Ted Talk on phone surveillance stood out to me because of how easy it is for anyone to go through, what he calls, the back door and listen in. He opens his presentation by explaining the history of Government surveillance. When calls were connected manually, they were also recorded onto a tape and then given to a government official when asked. Then, when phone networks were built with computers, they were built specifically for surveillance. If this doesn't seem troubling at first, Soghoian goes on to explain that there is no guarantee that our government is the one listening. It is more of a security threat, to me, to have phone networks that any entity can surveil rather than cutting off everyone as well as our government. Some people want to make the argument that we are safer when surveilled because the government can keep an eye on us, but this video clearly showed that there are more people listening than we think.

This doesn't stop at phone calls, however. Social Media companies have developed a business model of invading our privacy and selling the information. The absolute biggest issue with this is government collusion. The Third Party Doctrine allows for private companies to have control of information once the users sign the terms and conditions. The issue, however, is when that information goes to the government and then the government turns around and tells that company what information to allow and to ban. To protect yourself from any third party acquisitions of your information, only post what you would be okay with any government agency seeing. The best solution would be to not have social media at all, but that seems unrealistic.

Top 5 Sources of News and Information

 As a 21 year old Gen Z, my news sources are different than my parents. Some are the same, but growing up with the internet provides a different sense of accessibility. Because of this, news is being shared even when I'm not seeking it out, like on social media. Here is a countdown of the sources I use, for better or for worse.

5. My Professors

In class, my professors will use current, real-world examples of the content I'm learning. When something seems interesting, I dig deeper on my own using Google. On top of that, I do background checks on the websites and authors I land on before trusting any of the information. 

4. Instagram

I use instagram as a way to check in on areas I'm interested about. For example, I will go to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's page and see her recent posts. Then, I'll go to National Geographic's page and see their recent posts. In a way, I use instagram as a search engine to see the recent activity of the people or organizations I'm curious about in that moment. 

3. My Mom

In a way, this source is Fox News. My mom is an avid Fox News consumer. When she hears something interesting, she calls me and tells me what happened. 

2. Apple Podcasts

I am subscribed to seven podcasts. Amongst them, I am consuming an array of different current stories. Since each podcast posts weekly, they each will bring in current events as a topic to discuss for this weeks episode. The top themes of news from these podcasts for me are the economy and entertainment news.

1. Instagram @DC_Draino (Rogan O'Handley)

This instagram account posts conservative, political news. He posts 3-4 times a day but with a heavy bias against liberal media and politics. I'm usually able to take this information and connect it to all of my other media sources.