It's The Little Things

Weather in Arkansas over the last few days has been nothing short of insane. I know that I have been very dependent on the Weather Channel App on my iPhone. Not only that, I have been glued to the TV watching the radar, and anytime I get in my car there is weather on the radio. My dependence on those resources make me wonder what life would be like without the help of those corporations. What if we didn't have the Weather Channel to flip to on TV, much less even the cable to receive that channel? It is the little things like this that we so often overlook and simply take for granted. These corporations have a huge impact on our daily lives. Each morning, before I even get out of bed, I pull up the weather on my phone. I cannot imagine what it would be like without this. Just tonight, I had to make a quick trip home to Little Rock and I was so thankful for an easy to use radar to let me know if the coast was clear. Even as I have this blog post open, there is another tab open on my browser that has a constantly updating radar map. I could not be more thankful for the little things on stormy nights like this. I challenge you to think about the little things. Try to notice them and be thankful for the corporations that provide them, because there are so many less fortunate than us.

www.weather.com

Just Imagine....

One in six people in the world today do not have clean water. That is something that we as Americans can't fathom. Even as I am writing this post, I have a bottle of clean, clear water right next to me. I can't imagine what it would be like if that water was brown, or if my sink didn't produce clean water. Even just the thought of dirty brown water or not having a sink is such a foreign subject. We are so fortunate to have had corporations step up and provide us with clean water. Many other countries are not so fortunate. Thankfully, there are so many corporations stepping out to try and make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.  Most of those countries are full of diseases like cholera and dracunculiasis, the guinea worm disease. Yes, a worm literally grows inside of you, and then starts to emerge when it gets too big to stay inside. In these countries, "Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren't strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses." (charity:water) All because of not having clean water. It is very easy to become a part of the corporations working to bring clean water to the world, so why can't we spare an extra $20 a month? We so often take for granted the corporations that supply us with clean water, much less electricity, air conditioning, and even shelter. I encourage you to maybe not go buy that fourthmeal late at night and instead donate the money to one of the corporations trying to give the world the luxuries that we have. A few of these organizations are charity:water, The Water Project, and Clean Water Action. The next time you go grab that clean bottle of water, brush your teeth with clean water, or shower with that nice clean warm water, be thankful for the corporation that brought it to you.

I Really Will Never Use This Again....

MailOnline

Throughout those boring classes in middle school and high school, we always find ourselves saying, "When am I ever going to use this?!" Of course, your teacher has one of those charts that really does show you how you were going to use it, but being in college puts a whole new spin on things. I am majoring in Speech-Language Pathology and find myself asking why I am stuck taking World History. Ironically, enough that very question came up in my World History class. America is one of the only countries that requires every student to take a set list of "general education" courses. Who says that we need it? Who deems that necessary to be a true "scholar?" The corporations, that's who. For so long, I only saw the small picture, I thought that it was only my high school or middle school that required that you take those boring home economics and family consumer sciences classes. Being in college for a few months has given me a whole new perspective on who really decides what classes we take. It is all the decision of a corporation, someone who knows nothing about me deciding what will or will not make me a well rounded person. I really think that these "general education" requirements are the cause for "one in four freshmen dropping out within the first few years." (Careers and Colleges) Why four years of history, english, and math aren't enough is a question that I cannot even begin to fathom an answer to. I hate sitting through boring history lectures and math lessons. Why can't I just get straight to the reason I am even in school: to be trained for the workforce. If that isn't the point of school, then what is?  Who are corporations to say that I have to take these boring classes to become a true person of the world? I can confidently say that my job will NEVER reference World History or World Literature. So why am I being forced to take them? Corporations, that's why.

Whitbourne, Jonathan. "The Dropout Dilemma: One in Four College Freshmen Drop Out. What Is Going on Here? What Does It Take to Stay In? | Careers and Colleges | Find Articles at BNET." Find Articles at BNET | News Articles, Magazine Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. Mar. 2002. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. 

It's In the Jeans...Genes...Same Thing

piqs.de foto

After reading a fellow student's post about obesity, I had some questions arise and thought that I should look for myself at some factors that cause obesity. One of the main things I found was that fast food/eating habits are NOT the only cause of obesity. It certainly is a factor, but it is not the sole cause. It is easy to fall into the thought process of "I am never going to look like that model on television, so why even try?" This is all a ploy from the corporations. We feel overweight so therefore we sit around and fall into a sedentary lifestyle. That sedentary lifestyle includes watching those depressing self-help television shows and drowning your sorrows in a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. The corporations are to blame for this. Even for those who come by obesity genetically, corporations should be concerned with keeping America alive. After all, where else are they going to get their money? I have heard stories of some people that are so overweight that their heart simply cannot keep up and beat anymore. Should that not be a red flag to corporations that they are killing exactly what keeps them afloat? To think about the lack of care from corporations is insane. I know that my dad and most of his six siblings are just heavyset. Some are obese; some are just a little bit big. All of them at least try to live a lifestyle that avoids extreme obesity, but there is only so much you can do. So many times we hear horror stories about these menus claiming to be "the new healthy thing" only to find out that they are worse than what we were originally eating. Taco Bell has produced a new "Fresco" menu that is supposedly healthy, but who really knows..unless you look at the full nutrition information. If you were to compare the regular bean burrito with the Fresco bean burrito, you will see that there is only a 20 calorie difference. That just screams healthy to me, not like I go to Taco Bell when I want a healthy meal, but if a corporation is claiming to be healthy, they should be truly be healthy and not adding to the growing waste band of America.

Keeping the Lights On

Have you ever thought about how much the vast majority of corporations help us? They provide our food, provide our education, and even provide our electricity. It is hard to think about what it was like "way back when." Our grandparents tell us about what their walk to school was like, you know..5 miles barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways..but it has never really occurred to me to think about what it was like without electricity. I use electricity so much it is ridiculous, and it is things we never think about. The electric companies provide so much for us. We use the electricity from their corporation to power our own corporations. Universities are corporations run off of electricity supplied from another corporation. In one of my classes today, we watched a video that describes corporations as "brutal predators."

I could not disagree more with that statement. The corporation that made this video used electricity and equipment from another corporation. It is simply impossible to be not support corporations. Those that wish to stand outside with picket signs about how bad the corporations are will return to their homes when they are done, and flick on that light-switch to only give support to that which they were just protesting. Corporations have such a positive effect on our daily lives, it is insane. I would not be writing this internet blog right now if it weren't for the electricity required to run the website, much less power my computer. We can complain all day every day about how bad the corporations are,  but when it gets down to the basis of our lives, corporations make our lives easier, they help us immensely. Simply stated, corporations keep our lights on.

Joe Colburn

Fast Food Addiction?

     Today in class, one of my fellow students mentioned his topic question for a project we are doing. "Do fast food restaurant put addictive ingredients in food to keep us coming back?" In an earlier post, I researched Taco Bell and the lack of beef in their "beef." I have always wondered about what really is in fast food. I have noticed that the freshman 15 is slowly creeping up on me and that has so much to do with all of the fast food that I am eating. But why do I keep going back? What is it in those McDonald's Chicken McNuggets that always have me coming back for more? What about those meat fillers at Taco Bell do I find so irresistible? What is this "addictive ingredient in fast food?" After doing some research of my own, I found out that some of the key factors in this "addictive" fast food are simply fat, salt, and sugar. These ingredients all trigger dopamine in the brain. Ever noticed how happy you feel while you are eating fast food? Well, exercise does the same thing...and it is a whole lot healthier.
     This also leads me to wonder, why would the fast food corporations put things like this in food? Obesity is obviously a growing problem in America, this could be directly linked to the addictive ingredients in fast food. Studies have also showed the use of other ingredients that contain minor amounts of opiates, thus giving us that feel good feeling as well as keeping us coming back. My question is why would the corporation do this to people? Shouldn't the people that are essentially in control of our daily lives be looking out for our best interests? Is it all about the money, and if so, why? This is just one more way that the corporation has their say in what happens in our everyday lives. So I present a challenge, before you hop in your car for that late night fourthmeal after studying for hours, consider what is in the food you are about to eat, and who put those ingredients there.

Social (Revolution) Networking

     Like any teenager, I am "slightly" addicted to social networking. More recently, I have noticed how much I check my Facebook and Twitter, before I even get out of bed in the morning I catch myself up on everything I missed out on while I was sleeping. Just the thought of not having that easy access, is not something I like to entertain.  I read an article on the New York Times website this morning about how the government opened up public access to websites like Facebook and YouTube after THREE years! I can't imagine what my life would be like if it weren't for these websites. Though, you never really think about the power that a website like Facebook can hold until something major happens. Sure every now and then we see a fight between some high school girls that leads to more than just internet word fighting, but you never think about the fact that a huge revolt could occur. It just doesn't really pop up in my mind that all it takes is to make a simple page on Facebook dedicated to an anti-government protest to start a revolution of sorts. Also, the fact that the government can just block off my access makes me curious as to whether or not they can/will look into my actual Facebook page. We never think about the fact that someone somewhere probably can log in and view those things we expect no one to see. Hearing this news just really opened my eyes to how much of a hold the social networking corporations really have on my day to day life.

Beef, It's What's For Dinner....Are You Sure About That?

     Like any college student, when midnight rolls around, my stomach gets to rumbling. The average college student would refer to this hunger as the need for "Fourthmeal," a term made famous by Taco Bell. For me, it was a perfect meal...cheap, quick, and close to my dorm. I always knew that eating that late at night was not necessarily healthy, much less eating Taco Bell late at night. However, I never realized how bad Taco Bell was until here in the last few days. The Taco Bell website provides an Ingredients Statement  full of things that the average person, much less college student, would have no idea what it really is. I know that I have no clue what "sodium alginate" is, do you?
     Like the average college student would, I just brushed off the accusations I heard about how awful Taco Bell really was until I saw a FoxNews article about a lawsuit over the quality of the Taco Bell beef. First off, it grosses me out that the USDA only requires the beef to be 40% actual beef. Much less the fact that the beef from Taco Bell was only 35% beef. Of course Taco Bell then tried to cover up and published a statement saying, "Of Course We Use Real Beef!" I know that I would believe FoxNews way before I would believe Taco Bell. The lack of information on what the beef taco filling is horrible. It makes me wonder what is going on in my body with all of the "mixture containing just 35 percent beef, with the remaining 65 percent containing water, wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent and modified corn starch." Frankly, I want nothing to do with Taco Bell after finding out the truth. It also raises questions about what other fast food meals contain. I for one am going to cut back if not totally cut out fast food. If I never touched a Taco Bell taco again, it would be too soon.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/01/25/wheres-beef-taco-bell-sued-ingredients/#ixzz1CxjLh3h9

Taco Bell

Is Technology Taking Over?

     Tonight for dinner, my family and I had homemade pizza. By homemade I really mean homemade...down to the Fresh Pizza Dough. I realized as we were preparing the pizza just how much technology we were really using. My mom had her iPad set up with the recipe on it from Food Network. I realized as we were cooking that without that technology, our meal would be nonexistent. This really opened my eyes to how much we rely on technology today. Without the corporations, there would be no technology. Nor would we have had sauce for our pizza, cheese, or pepperoni...had it not been for the corporation that made it. The corporation also provided all of the technology we used in the pizza making process. This observation leads me to wonder, is technology helping us or hurting us? Sure it makes our lives a little bit easier, but is it actually helping us? I've heard people say that eventually we won't even be able to think for ourselves because technology will overtake us. I disagree with the idea that it hurts us or that it will overtake us. There is nothing wrong with our lives being made easier. Just because the corporations fingerprints are all over every bit of technology doesn't mean it is a bad thing. Of course it isn't something that we really even notice on a day to day basis. We don't think about the fact that a to-go drink from Starbucks makes us a walking advertisement. But that still does absolutely no harm to our daily lives.