October 2018 archive
Outline of TED Talk
- Introduction:
- Smoking in the adult population has fallen 25% over the past 49 years. This is a significant decline in smoking. Scientific research has changed how society perceives smoking. Smoking levels among teenagers are a lot lower now, however there have been an increase in e-cigarette use among teenagers.
- Smoking Body Argument:
- When I was researching changes in smoking, I came across a study that shows that a lot of the reason for the decrease in smoking is an improved understanding of the health risks and concerns about secondhand smoke. Socially, smoking is not as accepted as it was in the past. There are even legal restrictions on public smoking. Media, increased knowledge, and changes in taxes have influenced how Americans view smoking.
- E-Cigarette Body Argument:
- Although culturally views on cigarettes have changed, e-cigarettes, particularly vapes, are becoming more popular in teenage culture. I wanted to research why teengaers think that vaping and juuling is “cool” and what is different about how we culturally view cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
- There is little research on the effects of vaping, as it is a new phenomenon. Many students argue that smoking vapes or juuls is not harmful, however the science behind vaping and juuling is still widely unknown
- Take-Away:
- Science has greatly changed our culture. It is important to look at scientific research and make informed decisions. One shouldn’t vape just because it’s what is currently culturally “cool” but should take their health into great consideration.
This weekend was Parents and Family Weekend. However, my family did not want to drive three hours to see me, so I invited my friends from high school (who currently go to Pitt) to come visit me. My friends spent the weekend at Penn State, and for one of the girls it was her first time here. Unfortunately they could only stay for two days, and I decided that on Sunday (the day they left) I would bake them brownies before they left. I had bought eggs for the promiscuous brownies from the week before, and I need to bake a couple times over the next few weeks to get rid of the eggs. I also had brownie mix that I have been waiting to use, as my roommate also bought brownie mix for our promiscuous brownies so we used her ingredients for our baking session last week.
I decided to make brownies while my friends did their homework. (Expert advice: complete your homework on Friday so that you can bake brownies while your friends stress over their work.) When I bake brownies, I use the box recipe, so sadly I do not have many tips on creating brownies from scratch. However, when I do bake, I recommend mixing the eggs first before putting any ingredients in the bowl. This makes it a lot easier to mix the eggs in with the rest of the ingredients. I also recommend pouring some of the mix in after mixing the eggs. This is so that the mix can mix with the eggs, but if all of it is poured in then there is too much mix and not enough eggs, so it does not mix evenly. Then I recommend pouring the water in and adding a little more mix. Then pouring the oil in and adding the rest of the mix. This helps me make sure the entire bowl is mixed evenly.
Then I put the brownies in the oven and baked them! They were a success (brownies are pretty easy to make). But my favorite part about making the brownies was how they brought my floor together. All of my Penn State friends that were on the floor got to meet my Pitt friends, and they all enjoyed a brownie together. It was nice to have my Pitt friends interact with my other friends, and a lot of fun for everyone to enjoy a nice treat to end their weekend.
One of my favorite TED talks is “Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model” by Cameron Russell. I really liked the way that she created her message, and I also felt very connected to her message.
She started the TED Talk off by having the first ever on Ted stage outfit change. She came out in a short dress, then put on a long skirt and a sweater. This completely changed the image of her within 5 seconds, which showed that image is so powerful in how we perceive people. I thought that this was a really inspiring message, and an impactful way to display her message.
I also liked her use of powerpoint. She effectively showed pictures from when she was modeling, and compared her modeling pictures to selfies or pictures taken with family within months of the modeling pictures. She looked entirely different. She looked “normal” in the family pictures, which emphasizes that the modeling pictures aren’t real. This drove home her point about image, and how it’s completely different from reality.
I also like how she talked about race and genetics. She said, “I am on this stage because I am a pretty white woman” and addressed a very important issue in today’s society. Minority groups are underrepresented in modeling, and I think that a lot of this has to do with image and how our culture has based the image of beauty off of white people. I think that she was very honest in talking about how she won the genetic lottery, and modeling is not something that you can work towards or earn.
I think that this is an extremely impactful and honest TED Talk. I like how Cameron Russell was very honest about her feelings, and I think that she shared an important message.
This Monday I had my second attempt at promiscuous brownies. My friend’s birthday was this weekend, so the brownies were a little present for her 19th birthday. And, luckily, I was successful! My roommate brought cookie dough and oreos with her from home, so we baked together to create the brownies.
We knew that it would be easier to make individual brownies instead of having to cut the brownies, so my roommate had the creative idea of baking the brownies in a cupcake pan. So, we lined the pan with cupcake liners.
First, we added some cookie dough. The dough was premade, so I would like to make the brownies again at some point and make the dough by scratch, because I think that that tastes better. However, having premade cookie dough was very convenient. The difficulty in lining the cupcake pan with cookie dough was I did not know how much dough to put on, so it ended up being pretty uneven.
Next, we put Oreos on each blob of cookie dough. Then, we poured brownie mix on top of the cookie dough and Oreos. Unfortunately, the brownie mix was very difficult to pour, and I overfilled two of the brownies, so my roommate had to take over and finish pouring. (A nice cleanup tip is to not wipe off the batter if you spill it on the pan. It is much easier to clean off the pan when the batter is all cooked than when it was mostly wiped off and a very little bit was cooked.)
So, we popped our concoction in the oven and waited about 15 minutes. I was nervous about cooking the brownies in cupcake containers instead of a regular brownie pan. They weren’t cooked so we put them back in for 3 minutes, and pulled them out. Unfortunately, the ones that I poured were not cooked because there was too much batter in them, so my roommate and I ate the undercooked brownies to save anyone else from eating them. However, there was no problem with the brownies being cooked in the cupcake pan; almost all of the brownies were fully cooked.
Overall, the brownies were a success. The 24 brownies were gone in about 10 minutes, and everyone seemed very happy with the promiscuous brownies. I am definitely going to make these again, hopefully I will be able to pour the batter in better next time.
My brother got engaged this weekend! And of course with engagements come celebration! And with celebration comes food! So, this weekend I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies to welcome my future sister-in-law to the family.
I went home for the first time since college started this weekend, and was finally able to bake in my own kitchen. It was great to have all of the measuring supplies that I was used to as well as a scooper for my cookie dough. I also had more room to bake, and was able to use an oven that I was extremely comfortable with; I had a LOT of practice with baking in high school.
There was nothing exciting about the recipe this week. I was, sadly, in a rush when I was baking because I was supposed to meet a friend at 9:30 AM and I started baking at 8 AM. That was the only time that I had to bake that weekend, but I was able to finish baking and meet my friend in time. However, this rush turned out to be a good thing.
My downfall as a baker is worrying about undercooking my food. I am scared of having food that is undercooked, and giving that food out to someone who expects my food to be completely cooked. The problem with cookies is that there is such a delicate balance between undercooked, perfectly cooked, and burnt. I almost always lean towards the burnt side, which is the main complaint that I get about my cookies.
However, since I was rushed for time, I purposefully baked the cookies for less time than I usually do. The cookies weren’t all the way cooked when they got out of the oven, however they continued to cook as they were on the hot tray the first couple of minutes out of the oven. So, my cookies ended up being completely cooked, as well as very soft. I was thrilled that they cooked all the way, and were not burnt nor hard.
Another benefit of being pressed for time was that I had to plan ahead. I knew that I would be in a rush in the morning, so I purposefully left the butter out overnight so that I did not have to wait for it to soften in the morning. (I do not have a microwave at home, so I have no way to soften the butter except for wait for it to soften on its own.) The butter was extremely soft when I woke up, as it was left out for over 8 hours. This helped the cookies be extra soft, because butter is one of the main ingredients for cookies. I was very pleased with how the butter affected the cookies, and recommend to anyone baking cookies that they leave the butter out for as long as possible to soften.
Overall, this weekend was a success! My cookies disappeared pretty quickly, and my family loved them! (My family is the most critical of my baking, so I was very happy that they enjoyed my cookies.) I am going to have a sister (in law), I had a great weekend with my family and future family, and I was able to contribute something that I was proud of to the celebration!
For my Unit Two project, I think that smoking could be an interesting topic to research. I think that it could work because the way people think about smoking has changed dramatically over the past century. In the early to mid 1900’s almost everyone smoked. Today many teenagers view smoking as disgusting and recognize it is unhealthy. I think that I would look at how people have changed with regards to science, focusing specifically on smoking. People take science more seriously today, and almost every young person in America has been exposed to scientific research proving that smoking is harmful to the body. The science around smoking has also changed, as many scientists in the 1900’s were influenced by tobacco industries to prove that smoking is good, as well as there was a bias for smoking in the 1900’s because so many American adults smoked. I could also analyze how juuling and vaping are now big parts of teenage culture, and our society is almost taking a step backwards in regards to smoking and taking care of our lungs.
I also think that the change in technological dependence in teenage culture could be an interesting topic to pursue. Teenagers constantly feel the need to have something in front of them at all times, whether it is a phone or computer, and at many points this can detract from their life. For example, texting and driving is a huge issue in American culture, and this is because teenagers constantly feel the need to be on their phones. Before texting was widespread in teenage culture, texting and driving was (obviously) not an issue. I could look at how technology has changed how teenagers interact with one another, and how a lot of interactions are now online instead of in person. I could also look at how being dependent on technology affects attention, and how some teenager feel that they always need to be using a device.
