Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 9-3-19

Editorial/Column
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
(USPS 202-140)
2207 21st Avenue, Tampa Florida 33605 • (813) 248-1921 Published Every Tuesday and Friday By
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHING Co., Member of National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)
S. KAY ANDREWS, PUBLISHER
C. BLYTHE ANDREWS III, PRESIDENT/CONTROLLER ALLISON WELLS-CLEBERT, CFO
GWEN HAYES, EDITOR
IRIS HOLTON, CITY EDITOR
BETTY DAWKINS, ADVERTISING DIRECTOR HAROLD ADAMS, CIRCULATION MANAGER TOYNETTA COBB, PRODUCTION MANAGER LAVORA EDWARDS, CLASSIFIED MANAGER
Subscriptions-$44.00-6 Months Both Editions: $87.00-Per Year Both Editions.
Opinions expressed on editorial pages of this newspaper by Columnists or Guest Writers, do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of The Florida Sentinel Bulletin or the Publisher.
Salute To AOL
OL’s dial-up service
was officially launched in 1985. If you are in your for- ties or fifties you may re- member the long drawn outpinging tone whenever you would connect to AOL through your local landline. AOL often doesn’t get the credit it deserves, but they help usher in the online era with instant e-mail and ac- cess to a web portal despite the slow pace of dial up in the 80s. AOL always greeted its users with one of the warmest most sincere voices you will ever hear, “You’ve got mail.”
Elwood Edwards was the man behind the unique voice of AOL. Edwards was given the job by Steve Case after over hearing Case talk- ing to the company’s pro- grammers about making AOL more user-friendly. Ed- wards was more than happy to lend his voice to the com- pany and help make history.
AOL began to make its mark in the mid 90s.The company rapidly grew to mil- lions of users despite con- stant delays in signing on to an AOL server. AOL’s Steve Case was one of the co- founders. Case was the brains behind the company’s online chat rooms and AOL’s
unique services that made the internet popular while still in its infancy.
AOL instant messenger was the first of its kind. AOL users were among the first to send direct messages to each other. In 2012, the iconic messaging and bold sound of instant messenger was com- pletely shut down for good.
In 1996, Case decided to charge AOL customers $19.95, a flat fee for the com- pany’s service instead of an hourly rate; a marketing idea which enticed more cus- tomers to AOL. Millions of people signed on to AOL to receive e-mail and surf the internet for the first time as it became affordable.
The end of AOL came when they merged with Time Warner in 2001 with a $165- billion partnership. In 2002, AOL had over 25 million sub- scribers. Yet, the merger with Time Warner was met with huge skepticism and quickly went bad in part due to the dotcom bubble crashes and competitors offering broad- band connectivity. Broad- band companies promised to be at least fifteen times faster than your local dial-up modem services. Steve Case was eventually forced out of the partnership with Time
Warner and AOL’s stock started to decrease rapidly.
Today AOL is mostly free and considered a dinosaur, but offers a $5 a month ver- sion to new users. In 2009, AOL was still going strong with over three million users.
In January of 2019, how- ever AOL shut down its port- folios as they struggle with the disappearance of broad- cast connections. On June 23, 2015, AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications for $4.4 billion.
You can still gain access to your portfolio data by signing in to Yahoo portfolios with your AOL sign on credentials. At its height, AOL offered Netscape Navigator for its customers to surf the internet smoothly. Netscape was a very popular browser in the 80s. Students could now do research at home and down- load various media types. AOL also helped to invent screen names and e-mail ad- dresses to make it easier for people all over the world to communicate with each other. AOL deserves a great deal of credit for showing the true potential of the internet.
Eric Hall holds a Mas- ter’s Degree from the Univer- sity of South Florida in Instructional Technology and Cybersecurity Digital Forensics. He has been a computer technician for over 20 years. He is formerly the manager and owner of Comptech PC, Inc., in Fort Pierce, Florida. Follow him on Facebook.
POSTMASTER: Send Address Change To: Florida Sentinel Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3363 Tampa, FL 33601 Periodical Postage Paid At Tampa, FL
C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
One Trillion Trees
inally, scientists find something we can all do
that can help delay global warming: plant trees. Yes, you can plant seeds, or seedlings as early as today to begin the process. Based upon a study, planting one trillion trees (excluding cities and agriculture areas) could remove 25 percent of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Doing so could bring the CO2 levels down to the level it was in 1919.
The study was specific enough as to in what coun- tries the trees should be planted, where they should be planted, and how many square kilometers should be planted. The top countries by space to plant the trees are Russia 583,000 square miles, the United States 397,700 square miles, Canada 302,700 square miles, Australia 223,900 square miles, and Brazil with 191,900 square miles.
However, this solution is not as simple as it seems for a number of reasons.
First of all, planting trees would need to offset the burning of Brazil’s rain-forests, an 80 percent increase over 2018. These rain forests provide 20 percent of the earth’s atmosphere.
Secondly, the loss of glaciers in Greenland fueled by warm sea water and high air temperatures threaten ocean coast lines all over the planet.
Third, it will take decades for these trees to mature.
We should not let these and other actors stop us from beginning to plant the trees, today. Moreover, we intend to do our part by planting at least three trees each. What about you?
A
F
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2019