Can Fast Food Possibly Become Healthier?

"McDonald's Filet-O-Fish, Fish McBites going all-sustainable"
Published on January 24, 2013
Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times

     There are 14,000 McDonald's chains nationwide. One can only imagine how many hundreds of thousands of people enter each store, daily. Customers consume the unhealthy, fast foods from these restaurants without even caring if it is healthy for them or not. However, if the customers are not caring what if the chain itself started caring? McDonald's decided to update their seafood into Alaskan Pollack fished in the wild. They are willing to pay the Marine Stewardship Council yearly, in order to have the permission to stamp their ecolabel onto their product packaging. "The Marine Stewardship Council awards the label to seafood products that meet its standards on fish stock health, fishery impact on the surrounding ecosystem and fishery management system" (Hsu). Since McDonald's is working this hard in order to have a label like this onto its seafood products, can it be for the public or for their own business? Hopefully it is for the public, because healthy and delicious calls for more and more customers.

A Story of Nature, Peace, and Comfort

It was a beautiful sunny morning and I decided to visit my aunt's house. The weather outside was amazing so I decided to sit outside and clear my mind. The pool's water fountain was on and the sound of the water hitting the pool seemed to calm me. I decided to sit and enjoy myself for about half an hour. A little wind began to blow and the beautiful pink flowers slowly fell into the clear blue water, the leaves began to dance and made a lovely sound, and the water was flowing like a river. A pretty squirrel walked by on the wire above the pool, stopping at one of the trees, and nibbling on the leaves. Birds began to sing and flew by in a harmonious group. I realized how much I had missed nature and all the beautiful components of it. Teens are so caught up in technology these days that they forget that there is more to life than just their cell phones or laptops. When I was a child, most of my hours were spent outside. Lately, almost all my hours are spent in my room. This experience taught me to spend a little more time outside and clear my mind from society. As I was finally relaxed and was enjoying my peace, the neighbor's dogs began to bark, which caused my aunt's dogs to bark, and suddenly I was hit back to reality.

Five Dollar Eleven Inches

-"Subway Response To 'Footlong' Controversy: Name 'Not Intended To Be A Measurement Of Length'"
-Published by Cavan Sieczkowski on January 19, 2013
-The Huffington Post 
-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/19/subway-response-footlong-controversy-measurment_n_2511316.html?utm_hp_ref=business

     Ever taken a measuring tape and measured a sandwich? A teenager named Matt Corby ordered a "footlong" sandwich from Subway and decided to measure it with a measuring tape, in order to prove it being twelve inches long. He measured eleven inches, took a picture, and posted it on the Subway Australia's facebook page captioning it "subway pls respond". The photo received over 100,000 likes and had more and more people measuring their own sandwiches, finding measurements like eleven or eleven and a half inches, instead of twelve. Subway Australia responded to Corby's picture claiming that "footlong" is simply just a name to the sandwich, not a measurement, and restaurants are not going to measure each time they serve their sandwiches. Apparently, Subway food distributors provide less food, while increasing their prices, each year. Not only have their breads' lengths shortened, their cold cut sizes have decreased by twenty-five percent. Although this issue might have brought confusion and devastation in Subway customers, one can be nearly positive that nothing can stop customers from visiting Subway to have a healthy and delicious meal, even if their sandwiches are a few inches short.

Favorite and Least Favorite Independent Reading Books

     While we were choosing our top five books to read for our independent reading projects, my top two choices were Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, and Lucky by Alice Sebold. I chose Girl, Interrupted. Although I was satisfied with my choice, when I listened to Mariam's presentation for Lucky I had wished I could have read both books. Lucky was about a girl who had been raped and after all she overcame throughout her life, she managed to stay strong and considered herself "lucky" because she survived through all the obstacles life gave her and life could have been much worse. I am a girl and I may be able to relate to Lucky because sometimes men think they can do whatever they desire to women and they believe they will not be punished for it. Women are still not fully respected and men might be able to take advantage of them with their strength. Also, Lucky introduces an obstacle life can throw at you that God forbid might be thrown at me too one day. I do not enjoy books that just describe events from life. I enjoy reading stories and feeling like I am part of the settings presented in the books. That is also one of the reasons why I would choose Lucky.
     The book I would least likely read from the independent reading projects would probably be Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer which was presented by Arek. From what I understood from Arek's presentation, this book was about a man climbing a mountain and all the obstacles he went through while climbing it. It does not interest me if a man can climb a mountain or not and how he does it. I do not think the idea of this book is that special or interesting to be used as an entire plot of a book. His autobiography Into the Wild seemed much more interesting because it had more to do with his personal life. Probably because I like reading more personal things instead of random events like mountain climbing, is the reason why I disliked the book Into Thin Air.

King Starbucks

-"Starbucks Truck Sets Up Shop Next To Local Coffee Stand (PHOTO)"
-Published on January 11, 2013
-The Huffington Post
-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/starbucks-coffee-truck_n_2458549.html?ir=Small+Business

     Starbucks is an international, popular, and massive business. Almost everyone around the world knows about it and has tried it at least once. It is quite known and has huge business and millions of customers. A recent photo taken in New York City shows how a Starbucks truck is put next to a coffee stand and immediately all customers become pulled towards the Starbucks truck. Starbucks does smart business. They moved to a location that already had a coffee stand, advertised and gave away free coffee, and automatically had customers running to them. The coffee stand that was right next to the Starbucks truck had probably only one customer. This article shows how symbols and propaganda that are known by many people grab people towards them like a magnet. The symbol in this situation is the Starbuck's logo that automatically attracted all attention. It is heartbreaking knowing that simple, not popular, and hard working businesses suddenly lose all their business because of a widely known, cheap, and smart company. Starbucks is such a huge business that it seems like it controls the world and overtakes all other coffee companies.