Google's Logo

I go to google almost every single day, and find that I can look-up any possible topic imaginable on the search engine! While the informative sites, images, etc. that I find are interesting, I think that the most creative aspect of Google's site is its logo. The website has changed its logo more than 140 times since 1999, and the ever-changing logos always seem to brighten my day.

However, there was some controversy over the logo in 2007, when the website didn't change its logo to honor Veterans Day or Memorial Day. The company said it was trying to be respectful, but I think that there are definetly designs that they could have created that would have honored the veterans.

If you want to catch a glimpse at all of Google's logos, there is an online museum displaying all of the logos for the various holidays, and what date they were created for. As you will notice, Google did create a logo for Veterans Day in 2008 after the controversy in 2007. One of my personal favorite logos is from May 22, 2008. The creator of this logo won a contest and I think that she was very talented. Do you agree? Which logo is your favorite?

Technological Age

A few days ago there was an all-school workshop about technology and its influence in the lives of teens, and I thought that it led to interesting discussion. Today, our generation of teens takes all of the technologies we have (internet, phones, television, etc.) for granted, when even in our parents' generation they hardly had any of the technology that we do now. Technology has evolved rapidly to become a major part of our lives, but it has developed its pros and cons, as well. During the workshop, my teacher had us compile a list of the pros and cons of modern technology on teenagers, and here is a small example of what we came up with:

PROS:

easier communication with others

entertainment

easier to find information

CONS:
online predators
weaker face-to-face communication skills
"sexting"

I think that there can be very valid arguments made for the pros and cons of modern technology. Although it has its negative side, technology has become such a vast part of our lives that it is pretty much impossible to eliminate. The best way to live with it is just to regulate our usage and to make sure that we use these technologies in appropriate ways.


So, what do you think? Do the pros outweigh the cons?

Cold Season

I haven't walked into a class in the past few weeks that hasn't had at least a few sniffling students. It's the season for colds, and when I came home with a case of the sniffles, my mother suggested drinking some hot tea or having warm, steamy soup for dinner. These remedies are really common all over the world, but do they actually work?

There has been no large-scale clinical trial testing wether hot liquids actually help to relieve the symptoms of the common cold. However, I found an article on a small trial of 30 sick patients who got a drink of blackcurrant-and-apple-flavored fruit cordial, a popular local remedy in Wales. While the test subjects nasal air flow remained the same, most of them reported a decrease in common symptoms, such as fatigue, runny nose, cough, sneezing, etc.

There are many speculations as to why these hot fluids relieve the symptoms of a cold, some saying that the ingredients in blackcurrants and green tea might fight viruses, bacteria, and inflammation. I think that the best reason for this is simply the placebo effect. People with colds believe that hot liquids will cure their symptoms, and so they feel better.

Whether the effects of hot liquids on cold symptoms are only psychological, we simply do not know. But, we do know that colds can spread easily, so if you have a cold, make sure to wash your hands frequently and cough and sneeze away from others!

Groundhog Day

February 2nd was Groundhog Day, a day many of us just overlook and pass off as unimportant. Although I am guilty of committing such acts of uninterest towards Groundhog Day, I did a little research about the holiday and found out that it is a much bigger event in other parts of the country. The largest Groundhog Day celebration is in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where crowds made up of as many as 40,000 people have gathered to celebrate the holiday since at least 1886. In fact, the holiday began as a Pennsylvania German custom in Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Groundhog Day has its origins in ancient European weather lore, where a badger or bear is observed, as opposed to a groundhog. It also has similarities to the medieval Catholic holiday Candlemas and the Pagan festival Imbolc, which also involves predictions of the weather. While we may pass off the predictions of the groundhogs as unnecesary, due to the many various sources of weather prediction that are avaliable to us through the media, ancient cultures may have relied on the groundhog or other animals to accurately predict the weather for them.

The most famous modern groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, predicted that there would be six more weeks of winter this year. No surprise for Chicago weather! So, come February 2nd of the year 2010, make sure to appreciate the prediction for Groundhog Day as a look back into history when people didn't have the morning news weather report to predict the weather for them.

Easy Bake Oven

Recently, my mom was cleaning out my sister and I's game cabinet, and she pulled out an Easy Bake Oven. The oven immediately conjured up childhood memories of putting on aprons and oven mitts that were too big for our hands, and attempting to make cookies out of the mixes. We opened up the box and found a mix for brownies, so we decided to make it.

While emptying the contents of the brownie mix packet into a bowl and adding the wet ingredients was very easy, some of the aspects to the Easy Bake Oven were quite frustrating. We then poured the batter into a pan that was about as small as my palm and stuck it into the oven. A simple click of the switch, and the brownie began to cook. Easy Bake Ovens cook using a 100-watt lightbulb. While this feature allows the oven to be wire-free, it makes for very slow baking. It took about 15 minutes for the brownie to cook, about half the time of a 13x9 inch pan of brownies from a standard mix! Eventually the brownie appeared to be cooked, so we tried to pull it out using the long, red plastic device that came with the oven. This was actually quite frustrating, since we ended up pushing the brownie deeper into the oven, instead of lifting underneath it and pulling it out! When my sister and I finally fished the brownie out of the oven and tasted it, we were not satisfied. The brownie tasted horrible!

On the plus side, we decided to try baking a cookie from some refrigerated cookie dough that we had in our freezer, and the cookie came out quite well. While Easy Bake Ovens are meant for young kids and are effective in providing a realistic experience of baking, they end results are often distasteful and the tedious effort is not worth the end result. I would simply suggest having a child make a treat using a standard mix, and then preparing it in a regular oven. The end result is (almost) always delicious and satisfying!

The Science of Baking

I love to bake all kinds of delicious desserts, but I just recently discovered how complex baking was and how science can apply to everyday life. My aunt and I watched a Food Network show called Good Eats with Alton Brown. The show not only has Alton preparing recipies, but he describes the science behind the recipies, as well. The episode that we watched was about cookies and was called "Three Chips for Sister Marsha". It explained how the different ingredients in cookies could be adjusted to alter the texture, size, consistency, etc. of the cookie. For example, eggs puff-up rather than spread-out, so you can replace eggs with milk if you want your cookies more spread-out and flatter. Also, the higher the ratio of white to brown sugar in a recipe is, the crispier the cookies will be.

Although the humor of Good Eats is a little cheesy, the information that it has on its recipies is very informative and helpful, whether you're baking or not. I liked this show about baking cookies in particular, because it explained how to make all kinds of different alterations so that I can test my favorite recipies and create the perfect cookie!

New Driver

I've had my permit since March and am still currently learning how to drive. Although I am progressing and becoming a better driver, my mom still gets extreemely nervous everytime we are in the car together. Even when I'm not driving, she is pointing things out and telling me what "I should have done in that situation."
Because of her nerves, my mom has taken those window stickers that say "new driver", and has put them on the back window of our cars. Although I dislike the sticker and protested at first, I eventually let my mom keep it on the car. This was fine, until my mom kept getting nervous and decided to take it a step further. She wants to buy new driver magnets and put one on every side of the car! This way, she says that other drivers will keep their distance from me, and will drive with more caution, because they know that I am not as experienced. I don't think that these magnets are actually a way of making me a better driver, but making my mom calm down. Even if other drivers drive with caution around me, once I take the magnets off I will have to adjust to how drivers normally drive, anyway.
For those of you with parents who are as nervous as my mom is, I would suggest giving them tips on how to calm down in a tense situation, and just remind them that you are learning how to drive.