Don't Do This To Me!

A recent entry on CBC.ca's This Is That blog tells such a convincing story it had so many people, including myself, wondering if it were true.

Their post "Quebec Lowers Drinking Age" apparently reports that the Canadian province of Quebec is lowering the legal drinking age from 18 to 14.  And if a 12-year-old "child" is accompanied by parent(s), they are also allowed to legally buy and consume alcohol in public.  Even though this article seems outrageous and downright false, seeing it on CBC.ca tricks people into thinking otherwise.  But upon farther research, you will (hopefully) realize that:

a) Quebec's legal drinking age is still 18, because;
b) the slogan for the "This Is That" blog is "We don't just talk about the issues.  We fabricate them."

What boggles my mind is that a trusted source such as CBC has a "spoof" section on their website, leading so many people to believe in and trust their false stories.  I am so easily fooled that even though I highly doubted the "legit-ness" of contents in the article, I was lead to believe it was true just because it was on CBC.ca.  After googling "Quebec lowers drinking age" to find other, legitimate sources announcing this weird decision, I was presented with the reactions of other people believing it were true, and then learning that it was all just a joke.  So I do feel kind of better about falling for it myself.

But still, I hope it doesn't happen again.  Though I highly doubt that too.

A Huge Secret to Keep

A story about a secret has been in the news a lot recently.  But unlike other how most secrets get exposed when it gets too much attention, this secret is still a secret.  For now.

But what is the secret?  Storm's gender.

A couple's decision to not announce the gender of their newborn child was enough to produce an article in the Toronto Star, and then another follow-up article, including reader's comments and reactions to the couple's choice.

I am not saying if I agree or disagree with the parents' decision, but I do acknowledge that for them to have even conceptualized this idea of keeping their child's gender a secret, gender-based sterotypes must have gotten out of hand.

Of course, sterotypes saying such things as only boys liking cars and blue and girls liking dolls and pink are nothing new.  In my (limited) experience, these sterotypes were not enforced like the law, and if a little boy liked playing with dolls, then fine.  Sure, there would be some questions, but it would mostly be accepted.  Gender bias I've seen around me is not too serious.

But I never thought of how other people are affected by this.  I suppose that there are those bullies at school when young people are learning who they are and their sexuality who make those people's lives the worst couple years they will ever experience.  It is a problem when people (or a person) is not accepting of someone else based on how they do or do not confrom to society's norms.  What also seems to others as simple teasing may be taken a whole other way by the person on the recieving end of their "taunts."

Gender-based bias can, at times, be devastating, and it is a big enough problem in society for the parents to keep the sex of their newborn child a secret from most people around them.

Being Lazy

The more popular of singer Bruno Mars' songs have very creative lyrics that are easy to relate to. Take his newest single, "The Lazy Song," for example. This song is about taking a day off, and doing nothing. Laziness is concept relatable to probably the majority of people anywhere in the world.

The music video for this song goes very well with the lyrics, I think.  Its a simple video that looks like whoever came up with the idea was actually kind of lazy at the time.  But that's a good thing.  In order for some message to be effective, people have to be able to relate to something in the way its preseneted.  In this song, it is the lyrics and the visual presentation of Bruno Mars' laziness.  Watching this video, I do believe that all he wants to do that day is to just relax.  It is not too over-the-top, but just the right amount of effort and "who cares?" put into the video.

Embarrassment for the Sake of Romance?

Marriage proposals fall into many different categories: epic fail, mediocre, just right,super sweet and romantic among some of them. But then there are the public proposals -- those are in a league all their own. And in that league, the following proposal could top them all.

It takes a lot of planning to be able to pull something like that off. Possibly even more time and work that to propose at another sort of public event. This enormous amount of effort that is put into a proposal reflects not only how much the couple love each other, but how well they know their future partner.

I could imagine how a person may think this type of proposal too over-the-top or embarrassing. If the couple knew each other well enough, their engagement would most likely not be (as) public. On the other hand, public proposals take expressing love for another to a higher level. Everyone in the world (or atleast in the vicinity, if it is not captured on film / video and put on television / YouTube) will know of the love the two people feel for each other.

There are pros and cons. Benefits and embarrassments. But that's just like everything involving love and life.

The Unfortunate Truth

The graphs on graphjam.com are meant to be funny.  Like this:

Unfortunately, as a student, this is something that happens way more often than necessary.  But I guess the truthfulness of this occurrence, as well as the truthfulness to some of the other graphs on their website, is what makes the graphs so effective.  It is funny and relatable the first time you see the graph, but as you think about it, it is actually quite depressing.  To see the probability of the outcome of your test, or the accuracy of your report in an actual graph makes you realize how annoying and often it occurs compared to possible outcomes.

How sad.

Our Windows to the World

Many of us take our eyes for granted.  We do not think much about our vision until something happens to it, such as when a person starts to wear glasses for the first time, or looses their vision altogether.  We also see the colours that make up the iris (the coloured part of your eye) as beautiful and one of the most interesting part of anyone's eye.

However, not all is as it seems.  Armenian photographer Suren Manvelyan can show you how:




Kind of different, isn't it?  This series of photographs, titled "Your Beautiful Eyes," show that although the makeup of an eye is not exactly what many others would think, it is still beautiful in its own way.  Once I got past the initial shock seeing the texture of an eye, I could appreciate the millions of years evolution took to make our eye what it is today.  But I still feel creeped out that this is a part of my body.

This series of photographs show that there are many types of photography a person can pursue.  Those who enjoy photography but worry that they will not be successful in that artistic field can realize that such types of photography such as still lifes and portraits are not the only way to go.  The scientific field, for example, needs photographers to visually record the breakthroughs and/or trials of their research.  Police and such other investigators need photographers who have a strong stomach to be able to take pictures of a crime scene.  These photos do not need to be as artistic, so they are great for those who are unsure about going after a career is forms of artistic photography.

It also goes to say that photography teaches others about the world, and that photos are just as great a learning tool as books.

Good Luck? Or Pro Skill?

It either takes some amazing skill for someone to be able to pull this off, or amazing luck.  Whichever it is, it makes for a very interesting and very cool video.

Imagine what life would be like if even just one of your friends - most preferably yourself - were able to do that.  Oh, how our lives would change.  The trick I most especially like is when one of the two people in the video throws a ball from his bed and successfully turns off the light.  I personally hate getting out of bed after I am so comfortable to turn off the light to go to sleep.  Or attempting to throw something out into a garbage bin from far away, and then missing.

There are so many talented people out there - we just don't know about them.  YouTube is a great way for these people to get recognized and make their talents known.  We, the viewers, appreciate that as well.

A Different Kind of Conditioner

A recent article on msn.ca left me amazed.  But not in the way one would probably think.

An article titled "9 Bizarre Beauty Treatments from Around the World" does in fact include truly bizarre beauty treatments.  The one I found the weirdest? A Bull - Semen Facial.

Previously offered in London at Hari's Salon, a mixture of bull semen and Katera root would be applied to a client's hair.  It worked as a conditioner, providing much need protein to frizzy hair.

Although it does seem kinda gross, the fact that there are people out there who want to and are able to invent new products that are natural invites a big sigh of relief. So many items (not just hair products) available on the market today consists entirely of man-made chemicals and such other un-natural substances.  It is not only hazardous to human health, but to the environment as well.  To human health, our bodies could get accustomed to the chemicals used in whatever product we use, making the product less effective.  Scientists would then have to create stronger, possibly more dangerous chemicals or substitutes to keep up with the demand of a newer consumer good.  Also, these artificial creations take a toll on an environment that is not used to having something so weird in it, so one never knows the impact a substance can have on nature.

Au naturel is the way to go.  Why make the world a more dangerous place?