Technology

My Top 5 Favorite Google Logo Manipulations

-Sam Bouchat

When I woke up on Mother’s day and called my mum, the first thing she said was, “Have you seen the Google logo for today? It’s adorable!”

Recalling how Google’s animated logos used to celebrate holidays and special occasions had impressed me in the past, I rushed to my computer, and was not disappointed. In fact, I was so not disappointed that the 2012 Mother’s Day Google logo has earned a place on my top five favorite Google logos. Wanna hear them all? Of course you do. Let’s get started!

5. Les Paul’s 96th Birthday

This interactive logo allowed you to strum a Google shaped guitar and record and save your amateur music. Sure, it didn’t create any masterpieces, but it was super fun.

4. 30th Anniversary of PAC-MAN

Play Pac-Man on a field unlike any Pac-Man field you’ve seen before! Run away from ghosts around “Google” and grab the cherries. Best of all, it even includes the signature “waka-waka,” and saves your high score!

3. Mother’s Day 2012

This logo is simple and adorable. Two ‘o’s run out to tackle the lower case ‘g’ in a hug, as it is obvious that the ‘g’ is their mom. They give her a flower, hug, and the animation ends.

2. Martha Graham’s 117th Birthday

This logo is simply beautiful. It celebrates revolutionary dancer Martha Graham, who created and evolved the field of dance. Five of the moves that she invented are displayed in the logo in an elegant animation. The story behind the logo is much more involved, making it easy to appreciate the research that went into making it.

1. Freddie Mercury’s 65th Birthday

I loved this logo not just for the superb music, but also the animation. It gives a fine salute to one of Britain’s greatest musicians. If anyone should be riding flying tigers and shooting aliens in space, it’s Mr. Mercury.

Social Media vs. Bob Jones University

-Jamie Hershman

On April 24, Chris Peterman, a senior at Bob Jones University (BJU) was suspended nine days before his scheduled graduation because of his activity on Twitter and Facebook. He created a Facebook page titled “Do Right BJU” in an effort to create a safe space for victims of sexual abuse as a support network, as well as a place for outreach. Peterson’s personal motivation for creating the page was driven by his witnessing a church cover-up of sexual abuse.

Peterman organized a protest back in September to spread awareness but the dean of the private Protestant university told him to shut it down. Peterman did not, citing that his rights are protected under the First Amendment and the dean backed off. BJU even said they were planning on making a sexual abuse committee soon after the protest.

But things changed when Peterman returned for his final semester in January. He had to attend weekly counseling meetings and was intensely questioned about his Facebook page. The dean also went as far as to question Peterman’s friends about his social media use. Peterman’s online activity was being watched by the university.

At the beginning of April, he tweeted just before a church service that “this thing is 2hrs long?! What could they possibly talk about for so long!”. The school immediately came after him for tweeting during the service, punishing him with demerits that could ultimately affect his ability to graduate.

Just three weeks before his graduation, Peterman was once again called into the dean’s office after having watched an episode of Glee at an off-campus location. While watching TV is prohibited on-campus, that was not the reason for the dean’s questioning. The dean’s rationalization was that Peterman was watching a TV show that has homosexual relationships as well as debauchery behavior. Because of this, Peterman was given even more demerits and was almost prohibited from graduating.

The final straw came when Peterman posted lyrics to a Christian country song as his Facebook status. He received demerits for this and was officially over the allotted number of demerits that a student could have in order to graduate.

Peterman contacted local media and appealed that he should not be suspended for his watching of Glee off-campus; and, while the appeals board accepted his appeal (therefore allowing him to graduate), the dean was angered and forced Peterman off-campus. Peterman was practically dragged off campus by BJU police forces and was told that he would be arrested if he tried to return.

Ultimately, Peterman cannot graduate in his final semester at BJU. But, it wasn’t so much about all the social media activities that Peterman was suspended for; it was about his speaking out about sexual abuse on a Christian campus.

This incident does not generalize all schools with a religious focus as being strict with freedom of speech, but it does show the lengths that one school will go to throw a student under the bus and save their reputation, which, in the end, did not save their reputation at all.

Social media is about the user and is a free-forum for expression. After being censored by his university, Peterman had a right to get the media involved and appropriately did so. There is no excuse for what BJU did to Peterman, and they should be exposed for banning one student who showed an interest in peaceful activism.

More information at check out the story at CNN.com

The Facebook Fast

-Jessica Ridgway

Mark Zuckerberg is an evil man. He has created a diabolical website that I cannot help but love and hate. Facebook allows me to keep in touch with my family and far-away friends, it’s a great networking tool, and it keeps me informed about so many people at once. It’s helped me find old and new classmates, organize study groups, and locate telephone numbers during dire academic emergencies. Facebook has become so ingrained in my daily life I couldn’t tell you what life was like before it. I am an addict.

And then I woke up one Wednesday, I couldn’t tell you what snapped inside of me, but Facebook made me mad. Pissed. Annoyed. I wanted to get away from it immediately, so I made the impulsive decision to deactivate my account.

I hadn’t set a date for my return until the Flux blog meeting later that day. My fellow bloggers inspired me. I’d go without Facebook for one week—short enough to disappear unnoticed. The rest of Wednesday and Thursday were a piece of cake. I had no desire to log onto Facebook, but this was motivated by my, “I-don’t-care” attitude. I did, however, find myself unknowingly typing in “fa” each time I opened Google Chrome. At one point I found myself on the Facebook homepage without any recollection of typing it in. It was creepy.

On Friday things got tough. I use Spotify to listen to music, but Spotify is connected to my Facebook account. That sucked, but it wasn’t frustrating. Finding out that my Scramble With Friends, Words With Friends, and Draw Something apps are all connected to Facebook—that was frustrating.

But, it was also a blessing in disguise, because that weekend was the most beautiful weekend Eugene has had all spring. And because I wasn’t logged onto Facebook I missed invitations to parties and future campus events—but I spent my time outside with friends. I played ladder ball. I read a book for fun. I cleaned my room and living room. I wrote a letter to my friend. I wrote a letter to myself. I wrote. And perhaps I would have still done all these different activities with an active Facebook account, but it was simply blissful to feel so disconnected.

And then Monday came. And I found myself feeling sheepish because I missed out or wasn’t invited to a certain party because I didn’t have a Facebook. People had started to notice my absence, and when I told them I deactivated my account they reacted as if I had just offended them (until I explained the fast). And then Tuesday arrived, and I was peering over my friend’s shoulders to peek at their pages. I found out that my roommate posted new pictures; I had to fight the temptation from logging in.

Finally, it was Wednesday—but as much as I wanted to log in and absorb the online world I had distanced myself from, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. While I missed the feeling of constantly being informed, I enjoyed my freedom from the things I despise about Facebook. The people that post unnecessary statuses. The people that post too many photos of food. The people that I just don’t like. I did not miss them one bit, even with my growing curiosity.

So, I stretched my week-long Facebook fast a couple more days. When I finally returned and perused all of the pages I wanted to I realized just how much this simple website can take out of my day. While it is a useful addition to my life, it’s also my biggest form of procrastination.

This is how I cured my addiction.

Earth’s Extraterrestrial Animals

-Sam Katzman

Before NASA propelled earth’s first man into orbit, the space program sent our species’ closest relative.

A chimpanzee named Ham achieved world fame as an American “astro-chimp” after exceeding our planet’s boundaries on January 1st, 1961. Though monumental, Ham’s space voyage was not out of the ordinary during this era in history.

According to eas.sa.edu, the U.S. and Soviet space programs have launched innumerable other animals above our atmosphere since growing curious in space exploration in the late 1940’s. The site states that “Apart from dogs and primates many other animals and living creatures have been launched towards space or into space.”

Fruit flies, various rodents, turtles and microorganisms are among the very first pioneers of astronautics.

NASA justifies using animals as test subjects by stating it was necessary to discover essential, previously unknown information on how breathing organisms, like humans, react to extraterrestrial environments.

“Scientists couldn’t agree on what it would be like for a living organism to leave Earth’s atmosphere,” said howstuffworks writer John Fuller. “Instead of sending people up in such a risky situation, the United States and Russia sent monkeys, chimps, dogs and other animals into space in order to analyze such effects.”

While many of these animals returned from their missions as national heroes, advocates protecting the interest of these beings have been forced to question the ethics of animal space travel.

On several occasions, flight malfunctions were to blame for inflicting severe strain, anxiety, pain and even fatalities in the animal kingdom’s selection of galactic trailblazers.

Ham the chimpanzee’s famed mission is no exception. Throughout the duration of his “sixteen and a half minute” journey with Project Mercury, the astro-chimp experienced alarming variations in pressure, but ultimately only suffered a broken nose according to absoluteastronomy.com.

This outcome proved more positive than the realistic possibility of failure of the specialized suit he wore preventing the tremendous force of liftoff from crushing his fragile body. Mission coordinators also had to take in account and avoid the complications of past experiments gone wrong that led to test-subject casualties.

Arguably the most famous of which is the death of a former stray Russian dog, turned astronaut named Laika, who was the first earthling to live and die in orbit.

Using animals in space programs has not ceased. Recently, worms aboard the Columbia space shuttle tragedy were found alive in wreckage and in 2010 NASA announced its plan to irradiate squirrel monkeys “to learn about the potential long-term effects of radiation in space, hoping to use the information to plan human travel to Mars,” say NASA spokesman Grey Hautaluoma.

Ian O’Neill on universetoday.com says that fifty-one years later in 2008, a monument was built in Russia to commemorate Laika. Though a thoughtful sentiment, supporters of animal rights argue Laika’s survival should have been the main priority during that mission.

Kathleen Conlee, director of program management for the Humane Society of the US, claims, “Just because you’re using a primate doesn’t mean that you’re going to get the results a human would.”

No matter your stance on the issue of using test-subjects against their will, the positive contributions of animals to space exploration are indisputable.

Please Browse Responsibly

-Sam Bouchat

Social Media—it connects us. It lets us hang on to old friends, and introduces us to new ones. It lets us organize, socialize, and express ourselves. And, every so often, it brings out our inner idiot.

As social media becomes more popular, the line between appropriate and ridiculous becomes blurred. Where things were once private, now they are presented to the world on a platter made from a need to be noticed in the online world. Here, when everyone is yelling, only those who offer something of magnificent stupidity can truly be heard.

Last week, 20-year-old Kentuckian Michael Baker landed himself in jail. How? He siphoned gasoline from a cop car. The best part: his girlfriend snapped a quick photo of Baker in the act as he gave the camera a hearty middle finger. Perfect Facebook profile pic, no? And take one wild guess as to how the cops found out about his little crime.

Moving on.

Washington woman Ellenora Fulk was looking through her “People You May Know” suggestions on Facebook. You know the drill: Facebook uses its detective skills on your profile and those of your friends to see who else you might be friends with that you haven’t requested yet. One of her suggestions? A woman named Teri Wyatt-O’Neill, whose profile revealed a picture of Wyatt-O’Neill and Fulk’s husband drinking champagne next to a wedding cake. Fulk’s husband, Alan, has left in 2009 but has not divorced his wife. Mr. Fulk was then charged with bigamy. Aw yea.

But hey, it’s not just Americans doing this stuff! A Swiss woman was fired from her job at Nationale Suisse after she called in sick from work. The reason? She had a migraine, and couldn’t bear to work in front of a bright computer. As a person who gets migraines, I say, power to her. However, when her boss discovered that she was “online” on Facebook, one less person worked at Nationale Suisse. Come on, the “invisible” button is right there!

A British man, Craig Lynch, escaped from a minimum security prison in Suffolk in 2009. While on the run, this intellectual posted status updates about what he was up to: holiday plans, lunch details, the weather. He gave only enough information to taunt police, who were no doubt one of his 40,000 fans and were subscribed to his less-than-interesting news feed. He was caught in January 2010, though whether or not it had anything to do with his online fame, no one knows.

Here’s a great thing to tweet: “I still gotta warrant in pearland .. those pigs will NEVER catch me … NEVER!!!” Wait a second, no it’s not. That’s flippin’ stupid. Well, someone should have told that to 20-year-old Texan Mahogany Mason-Kelly, who had not one, but three warrants out for her arrest for traffic violations and failing to appear in court. Funny, how these things work.

In conclusion, students, be careful what you post online. Believe it or not, not everyone will laugh at your silly crime. Some people may actually do something about it.