Dog runs for the first time in his life thanks to 3D printed prosthetic legs!

This story is so touching, I feel that we are so lucky to live in a time when things like this are not only possible for humans, but for animals as well. This poor dog would never have been able to live a full life without today's technology and the loving care of his adopted family.

Click here to see the full story

The Dress: White & Gold or Black & Blue?! Here's the science behind it...

So I'm sure you've seen by now that there seems to be a feud between everyone you know when it comes to a certain photograph of a certain dress. It turns out that 2/3 of people will see the dress as white and gold, while 1/3 will see it as black and blue. This seemingly trivial online chatter has baffled even the most serious of vision experts for days now, and finally there has been an article released that explains the whole thing- from start to finish.  I saw it as white and gold, and continue to see it as such, even after seeing images of it in black and blue. It actually hurts my eyes to try to see it in black and blue!! What do you see?  Let me know in the comments because I'm freaking out a little.

CLICK HERE to see the scientific reasoning behind the color-changing dress

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/

Buzzfeed Has A Clean Eating Challenge And I'm Doing It

So, I came across this article completely by accident while reading BuzzFeed, and I decided not to just let it become one of those random things that I wish I'd done, but rather to turn it into an experiment, and to actually do it. So I solicited my roommate. She finally caved and agreed to do Buzzfeed's Clean Eating Challenge with me.

I'm already gluten, dairy, and peanut free due to allergies, so a lot of it, I was already used to eating. I'm currently on the fourth day of the "challenge", and the only thing I've really wanted to break the rules to have is bacon. Because, you just can't tell me not to have bacon. But I'm staying strong! If you're considering getting on the healthy-eating bandwagon, (or even if you're already on a clean eating regimen and you just want a few awesome recipes!) it's definitely worth taking a look at this plan.

Buzzfeed's Clean Eating Challenge

Not only do I feel as though I'm becoming more conscious of the way I feel when I eat clean, but it's had an impact on my physical performance during workouts. I've definitely been tired these last few days, but that's expected with any kind of detox or cleanse (including one that allows you to eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, apparently). I think we're so lucky that things like this are free and available for us to access online. First of all, the term "clean eating" wasn't really widely known 20 years ago, but if someone in 1995 wanted to start a new diet, they'd have to consult a nutritionist or buy a book.

We have it pretty good, don't we, gen Y? If anything, this has made me appreciate both my body and technology. More to follow!

Jupiter Ascending: Rapidly Descending on Rotten Tomatoes

Spoiler Alert: I will be talking about the plot of Jupiter Ascending in this post. If you were planning on seeing it, don't read this! (or maybe read it, I could be saving you 2 hours of your life)

Jupiter Ascending, starring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum, was basically a massive box office failure, according to reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. I saw the movie with a friend who was incredibly ecstatic about seeing it, but I went in with low expectations. We both left with more questions cultivated than answered, along with matching perplexed expressions and an insatiable appetite for frozen yogurt (unrelated).

The main character is Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), a young girl who "hates her life". She is involved with her family's housekeeping business, and therefore the film opens with Jupiter cleaning toilets and making beds. She apparently lost her father to a shooting connected with Russian mafia involvement. Jones goes about her life and daily activities unknowing that she is not merely a fatherless maid, but she is in fact the heir of the Earth.
[I don't know what this means, either. Continue reading for more nonsense]

Her genetic makeup apparently exactly replicates that of the former "Queen of the Universe", although she was born to different parents and is of an entirely different world. This causes problems for the children of the late queen, as they feel that the Earth (which, did I mention, is actually a human farm, being harvested to create some sort of an eternal youth serum) is rightfully theirs.

After being abducted and then tricked into almost marrying the Prince (would that make him her son as well? Do they share DNA? too many questions), Jupiter is saved by Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), who is a half albino wolf, half man, or as they refer to the hybrid, a "splice". Jupiter falls for him and his hunky dog charm almost immediately, and so ensues a kind of awkward and bizarre beginning to what at first seems like an unrequited crush, and then turns into an even more awkward and borderline creepy romance.


Basically, this film never solved a few problems and questions:

1. The Queen was never shown. We know nothing about her, and are not introduced to her.
2. If the Earth is merely treated like an animal farm, how did the Princes and Princess find Jupiter and determine that her DNA was identical to their mother's?
3. How do they know that she is a genetic match, and not just a look-alike?
31/2. Was her father's death related to this issue?
4. Does Jupiter end up continuing to farm the Earth when she ends up owning it at the end?
5. Will Jupiter and Caine's children be 1/4 albino wolf?


In the end, I'd say that the movie slightly exceeded my (low) expectations for a bizarre and confusing sci-fi type movie. The graphics and editing weren't horrible, so there were intriguing fight scenes, even if a lot of them didn't really make sense in regards to the story. The plot holes were gigantic, and the writing was terrible. However, the actors did an excellent job of working with what they had. I guess I'd give it 2 stars.

How we felt when we discovered it was too late to get froyo:

Today it was announced that Wal-Mart plans to raise the hourly salaries of its employees. This raise will be from $7.25/hr to $9.00/hr. In addition to average hourly workers (checkout employees, greeters, stock people), the management of the store will be given a raise of about $2/hr.

The fact that Walmart paid its employees so much under the minimum wage of $8.75, which was implemented this year, for so long truly baffles me. It is a complete crisis in our economy that some of the hardest working people in our society earn the lowest wages. Now, I'm in no way stating that Walmart employees work the hardest out of all of the employees in America. That's definitely not the case; but it is abhorrent that these employees, many of whom have families to support, could not even live above the (absurdly low) poverty line in our country, even if they were to work over 40 hours a week, every single week of the year.

Here's a story that came out last year that really stuck out to me: a woman died in her car due to gasoline inhalation while parked in a parking lot taking a nap. This woman was on the way to one of her three minimum-wage-paying jobs, and had gasoline tanks in the back of her car so that she would not continue to run out of gas as she shuttled back and forth between these jobs. One of them, unfortunately, was slightly ajar during the time that she became so exhausted that she had to stop and sleep in her vehicle.

This is only one of thousands of tragic situations that occurs in our 'greatest country in the world' every single day. Americans are not only struggling to put food on the table for their children, but to feed themselves, provide their families with healthcare as they work benefit-less jobs, and keep a warm and safe roof over their heads.

This chart is from 2013:

How can people live this way? Walmart is just one of so many examples of companies paying their employees way too little while they work increasingly hard. 

This bigger picture is something that I'm becoming more and more aware of as I'm getting older, and I wish I knew of a way to contribute to the resolution of this conflict. Everybody in this country should have access to basic needs. Everybody should have the opportunity to advance their economic status, and to achieve a better lifestyle instead of just striving for one. 

Flash Embed


title to be determined

After playing the 'Gauging Your Distraction' game, I felt as though our generation is doomed due to multitasking. I  do not text and drive in reality, but this game showed me that even if I were to try to, I would not be very successful. We try to multitask everything from the moment we wake up in the morning  until we go to bed. We're all guilty of cruising Vine while brushing our teeth or trying to text in class and take notes at the same time, and these feel like little things. But all of these minute distractions throughout the day add up to a bigger problem: our attention spans are becoming shorter as we adapt to technology.

This interactive article showed me that I'm a complete mess at doing two things at once; if there was an ability to die in that game, I would've run out of lives within the first thirty seconds. So why do we expect so much from ourselves in real life? Can't we achieve one thing at a time? Maybe give it a few years to step into a few different roles instead of rushing in all at once to be everything. We're expected to be the perfect employee, daughter/son, friend, sibling, sorority or fraternity member, and the perfect college student, and we hold ourselves to these standards as well. When did we decide that it was 'not enough' to just be a few of these things for now, and grow into the rest? We expect ourselves to balance it all on the tip of a finger, and still sleep well at night and be social on the weekends. If we can't even type a short message while driving a car, how can we do all the rest of it, all at once?

Don't get me wrong: I am in full support of Generation Y aiming to be the best that it can be. I respect people pushing the envelope at work and at school to get to their dream job or to get great grades. But one can only push the envelope for so long without becoming burned out. I hope we can cut ourselves some slack. As one of my favorite quotes says:

"Don't half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing"    -Ron Swanson


http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html?_r=0