Day: April 22, 2011

Read The Label!

Paloma SpencerLeave a comment

Having the privilege of watching Television over my Spring Break, I came across a commercial promoting Wendy’s “delicious, new ‘Natural Cut Fries with Sea Salt’.”

Although I never eat at Wendy’s, I was curious as to whether this “all natural” claim could actually be true.

It just couldn’t be possible to produce fast food in such an all natural process and still sell the product for $1.

Although Wendy’s did find a way to leave the potato skins on the fries in order to gain a crisper texture, they neglected to make it the supposed “all natural” way in which it is advertised.

Wendy’s CMO Ken Calwell stated that this natural process is simply not plausible in order to meet the demands of fast food.

“People are saying they want high integrity ingredients, things their grandmother would have used, that don’t look like they came out of a chemistry lab,” said Calwell in an interview with BNET. “But they’re also saying I’ve got a family to feed and can only afford to spend about $4 on my lunch, and I’ve only got about a minute or two to eat it.”

So rather than spending the money and resources to bake fries “in-house” at the individual drive-thru, Wendy simply decided to “settle for the natural-cut” process completed in a large factory. In addition, at these factories the fries are doused with sodium acid pyrophosphate and dextrose, a corn sugar, in order to preserve the fries texture. Then they proceed to be fried in the silicone-based chemical dimethyepolysiloxane.

However, I know that even though these chemicals are existent, people will still eat these fries.

And heck, I know I will stumble upon at least some fast food restaurants fries in the next year.

However I do believe that people should truly read the label before consuming things believed to be “all natural.”

Even those harmless little commercials that make you crave Wendy’s delicious fries can be deceiving.

Crunch Time

yrreskrapLeave a comment


Who knew so much pressure could mount up on one’s shoulders? I’m trying to cram so much information into my head. The AP weeks are coming up and I am on the brink of crumbling. AP Calculus AB and AP US History the first week, followed by three SAT II subject tests that saturday. Oh and what else? An AP Biology test that upcoming Monday and an AP Writing and Composition test to top it all off.


I am beginning to think that I will not be able to get the grades that I want to on these tests. I will need to stay up very late and buy multiple Starbucks double shots from Starr Market. However, what frustrates me is the recent ruling that girls are not allowed to stay up to study in the girl’s lounge past lights out. I just can’t wrap my head around it.


I understand that the faculty is concerned with us staying up and that those staying up may have abused the privilege by eating food while studying or being on Facebook. I am not going to lie, I did both. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be eating in my room or checking my Facebook for a quick five minute reprieve (because my brain cannot handle studying for hours on end without a quick break). However, I don’t think that the faculty understands that we cannot reach our goals of staying up to study and fully grasp our studies as well as do extra work for the upcoming SAT and AP tests in our rooms. My roommate usually goes to bed after a half an hour or an hour after study hall and studying under the small light of my desk lamp is very difficult. I chose to stay up. I want to stay up. I do so to get the grades I get and I do so to stay on top of things. But now that I can’t stay out in the lounge, I can’t study to my fullest potential.


It’s crunch time. This weekend and every night after tonight, I will be studying, studying, studying and praying my BUTT OFF so that God would bless me with the knowledge and preparation I need for this test. Ahh, maybe I should build my own personal girl’s lounge as an extension of my room. Ha! Now that would be odd.

Worse than Dropping the Ball

therightliberal2 Comments

Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos has been teased by almost every media outlet following his epic dropping of the Copa del Rey, the national cup of Spanish football.

Here is the video of his blunder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXxSuzRpTps

Luckily the cup did not have much damage to it but I am sure Sergio Ramos’ pride did.

Even more lucky for Sergio Ramos is that he is not the first to make a disastrous mistake like this. Here is a look back as some of the biggest athlete fails in the past years.

The Zidane headbutt is the largest mistake that I can remember. For one of the greatest players to end his career like that in such a dirty way was unbelievable. Added to that was the fact that it was in the most watched game in the world and you have a massive media craze.

In American football, the Super Bowl is huge. Everyone gets together and stuffs themselves full of meat and watches men hit each other. Before the game, someone famous always sings the national anthem. When Christina Aguilera was picked to sing, one would think she would work to learn the words. Here is what happened instead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMHffUXbLV8

So here is to flubs at sporting events! Sergio Ramos should just pick his head up and laugh at his mistake. These are the moments that make fans laugh…and every sports fan can use a laugh.

Nerd Rant, Part II.

theycallmedameLeave a comment

Okay, so I’ve already nerd ranted about how Cedric Diggory pwns Edward Cullen, but now I’m going to nerd rant about something else.
Something awesomesauce.
That’s right, I’m going to nerd rant about THE BEST BOOK EVER (in my opinion).

This book is called Unwind, written by Neal Shusterman, and it’s pretty great.

So! This book is essentially about what happens after the “Second Civil War” which was about Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice. After the whole huge war, there is a bill made that appeases to both sides of the war. The bill is called the Bill of Life.

Now, the Bill of Life states that from the moment of conception, a child cannot be aborted. But when the child turns thirteen, the parents have the option to retroactively abort the child until it reaches the age of eighteen. This did not anger those who were Pro-Life because when the child got “aborted” they technically didn’t die. The “aborted” child gets sent to a camp where it waits until it is “unwound.”

When you are unwound they take you apart piece by piece, but still keep you alive. After you are completely taken apart, they send your body parts off to hospitals where other people will receive your organs for transplants or if he or she lost an arm then your arm would be grafted onto them. But even when they get your arm, it’s still your arm. If you were magician, someone who always did card tricks, your arm would still hold the muscle memory of all the actions you did while holding the cards. The person who got your arm would be able to hold a deck of cards and the arm, by itself and without any thought of its new owner, would start to do card tricks that you learned.

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