On November 28th, our class topic was radio. We learned the obvious how radio works like a recording, but got more into detail about how it is a voltage amplified by A LOT and then broadcasted. Radio was an important tool for Veterans of Navy Signal Corps in WWI (1920). Although, we would not consider a radio a ‘tool’ today its interesting how it was noted as one roughly 100 years ago. An interesting fact we learned this class was that Henry Ford famously wanted cars only to be black because they were “tools” and it becomes a personal indulgent and no longer a tool when you add color. All I can say is that Henry Ford and I would have had a huge problem because white cars are my all time favorite. But getting back to the topic of radios, by 1929 3/4 of Americans had radio in their homes. To think in 1920 it was a tool for Veterans of Navy Signal Corps and 9 years later almost every American has one makes you realize the radio took off just like the internet did. There were problems involving the radio overlapping frequencies, so a solution was established in 1934 through FCC to regulate radio. The FCC focused to make it rational since the radio was considered a scarce public good. They set it up so if you wanted to be a broadcaster you needed a license from the FCC because not everyone can be a broadcaster. Everything as a broadcaster was regulated including what you would say. This is  very American approach instead of censoring everything but to try and work hand in hand to regulate for the common good of the people. FDR famously and heavily used the radio to talk to the American people, which I think was so wonderful because it makes it so much more personal, so kudos to him as president. Eventually a Fairness Doctrine was created which made sure you do not monopolize and if you had an opinion you would broadcast the other side of the opinion as well. Although this is no good for today and does not matter I think this Doctrine was wonderful and essential because today there is way too much bias in the media. Something crazy to think about is that in most large cities there were only about 16 TV channels through the 1970’s. National stations included ABC, NBC, CBS. Today most people have like 800 channels to choose from, so I really can’t imagine having only 16 (and thats if you lived in a major city) like what if everything on those 16 channels sucked? (No TV is not my life, but when I do decide to watch it I hope what I like is on) We concluded this class by discussing how Cable TV had such fewer bandwidth restrictions and Digital Cable TV had no bandwidth restrictions, so it came to conclusion  there is no rationale for regulating it. On November 30th, we began class discussing Thomas Jefferson aka Third President of the USA. Prof. O’Malley began by saying he was quite the hypocrite because he had slaves and thought they didn’t have souls yet was against slavery. I was sitting in my seat like what? Jefferson was committed to believing that wage earners were the problem with this country (Jefferson is totally discriminating against me lol) and that owning your own business was much better. Prof. O’Malley stated how the Star Spangled Banner showed how wage earners and slaves are equivalent on a ‘social’ basis and now I sang it to myself in my head and still doesn’t see that. Following our discussion on Jefferson we talked about his enemy Hamilton, which is so ironic because over Thanksgiving Break I saw Spamilton in NYC (it was pretty funny you’d like it). Hamilton was Caribbean born, a bastard (like me because my parents weren’t married when they had me but they are now haha), and very ambitious. He believed the United States must become a diverse nation and stop with this “farming crap”. People are truly liberated when they can show their true self and take the path to prosperity. It’s fair to say the two men hated each other an they each had powerful differences. Jefferson was opposed to big government because it’s a danger to an independent farmer, while Hamilton wanted big government to support and fund infrastructure for commerce. Essentially, Hamilton “wins” because we’re living in his ideal world because most people work based on wage. We briefly touched base on the Homestead Act which was an Act of Congress that let anyone move out to the west on 640 acres and improve an preserve the land and after a few years you got to own it. All I know is if I lived in this era and my father moved our family to the dry areas of Kansas from industrialized living I would not be very happy with him. We concluded class with my favorite part of the lecture with segmentation solutions that would tell you common segments based on your zip code. My zip code is 20155 which is Gainesville, VA. I was not that surprised to see the categories were wealthy middle age mostly with kids, wealthy middle age mix, upscale younger family mix, etc. I was not surprised to see this because in Gainesville you either live in a gated community or a big house with acres of land. I clicked on a few of the segments and one said most likely to eat Chipotle, which was funny and ironic because that was where everyone went after school let out in high school. It also said ironic things such as flies United, which my family does, despite me hating that airline. I had no idea this zip code solutions existed and I love that I am now aware of it and can kill some free time by looking up zip codes that inform me with probable lifestyle traits and neighborhood demographics.