Just Another Ohioan Town 

By Andrea Parisca

Most people in the United States of America live in small towns in different states. Of course, depending on the state, these towns differ in characteristics, for example in Florida the towns have nice weather year round and are somewhat close to the ocean while in Maine the towns are cold most of the year. Now in Ohio, most of the towns are small, flat, and cold. I'm not saying that living in Ohio is a nightmare but it isn't anything like living in New York City or any other big city. The towns are usually next to big feilds and suburbs. In Ohio, many of the towns and small cities adopted names from other well-known cities around the world. These towns include; Lima, Dublin, Hamilton, Lebanon, Macedonia,Toledo and more.

Toledo, Ohio is a small city that I know very well. I lived in Toledo since I was 2 until I was 15. I lived on the border of Toledo and Sylvania, the town that I did most of my activities. It's a pretty calm place to live and most of the people who live there were born there and will die there. I didn't exepcionally like Toledo and if you talk to the people living there now, they will tell you that life there is pretty boring. Toledo was once the great city of glass, famous for its glass and car factories, but now, it's just an old rundown city with many different ethnic groups and gangs. Fortunately, I did not live in the center of the city because it is dangerous and education wise, it doesn't have much to offer. I was lucky to live in the outer suburbs next to Sylvania, a very small, educated, and wealthy town. Most of my friends, activities, and my school were in Sylvania. The center of Sylvania is very charming although it only consists of about a couple brick streets with litlle commerce. The one inevitable trait is the fact that most neighborhoods wind and twist trapping you in between the immense houses.

Where I lived, there was an enourmous lack of sidewalks, but since there is no need or use for sidewalks in Toledo, they have very few. The distances are so large it's almost impossible to not drive around all day in a car. Houses are huge and they have huge yards and next to these gigantic neighborhoods there are enormous supermarkets with huge parking lots. As you can see, space in Toledo is not an issue. My favorite supermarket was Meijer. It was full of everything you could ever need. I could spend hours walking around it's fun isles. Of course, that is not what I did with my friends for fun. My friends and I usually just had sleepovers and hung out at eachothers' houses but when we went out in big groups it was hard to find something to do. Sometimes we went go-karting which was great fun but it was 15 dollars for 3 minutes. Other than that there is not much else to do in Toledo. Walking throug parks, eating icecream, and going to country clubs in thwe summer can be a source of amusement but the weather only allows three short months of these activities. The one thing that never fails to give amusement is just hanging out with friends.

Even though I didn't love Ohio there are great things to do and great people to be with. When i moved I realized that in reality living there wasn't all that bad and I knew that I was going to miss my old home. Know when I visit I know exactly where I want to go and with who and I can enjoy myself more.

Facebook

By Lydia Giménez

Facebook is a social networking service launched in February 2004. Facebook has over one billion active ursers, more than half of them using Facebook on a mobile device. In 2011 Facebook won 3,71 billions.
The creators of Facebook were: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz
Users can participate in one or more social networks, in relation to their academic status, workplace or geographic region.
In mid-2007 the free versions in French, German and Spanish appeared to expand it outside the United States, because its users were mainly in the United States, Canada and the UK.
In October 2012, Facebook reached 1,000 million users, over 600 million mobile users. Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States are the countries with the largest number of users.
Facebook began allowing students, whose schools were not included in the site, to incorporate. 
Since September 2006, Facebook is open to all users of Internet. Then, in October 2007, Facebook sold 1.6% of the company to Microsoft  for $ 240 million, with the agreement that Facebook would become a business model for some brands, to offer their products and services. On September 15th of the year they announced it, they reached 300 million users, and on December 2nd already had more than 350 million. In September 2011 there were over 800 million users.
Facebook has around 900 million registered users around the world. It is the most popular page for uploading photos,with statistics of more than 83 million photos uploaded daily.

SUPER SIZE ME
By Amanda Garrido
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. Super Size Me is an American documentary film that shows that fast food is very unsane. Experiment:

• He must fully eat three McDonald's meals per day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• He must consume every item on the McDonald's menu at least once over the course of the 30 days.
• He must only ingest items that are offered on the McDonald's menu, including bottled water. All outside consumption of food is prohibited
• He will attempt to walk about as much as a typical U.S.A citizen, based on a suggested figure of 5,000 standardized distance steps per day,but he did not closely adhere to this, as he walked more while in New York than Houston.

- So, we shouldn't eat fast food every day because it's very unhealthy.

The Strange Similarities With President Assassinations

By Andrea Parisca

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April 14, 1865. This was a sad day in America knowing that a civil rights actavist was murdered so brutally. The thing is that almost 100 years later a strangely similar phenomenon occured. On November 22, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Another horrible tragedy for americans to grieve about, remembering that he too was a very popular civil rights actavist. Although the events aren't exactly 100 years apart you'll be suprised to find out that both presidents were killed by a single shot in the head. Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was born in 1838. He shot lincoln, who was in the Ford theatre, while hidding in a nearby warehouse. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was born in 1939. Lee shot Kennedy, while traveling in his car called Lincoln built by Ford. At the moment Oswald shot Kennedy, he was hidden in a theatre. Both shootings occured on a Friday. Both of the shooters were known by their three names composed of fifteen letters.
Everyone Knows how truly important both presidents were in shaping how the U.S. is today and i'm sure that no one forgot when they were chosen to lead the country. Lincoln was elected to congress in 1846, Kennedy was elected to congress in 1946. Lincoln was elected for president in 1860 while Kennedy was elected in 1960. Both of the first ladies lost one child while living in the white house. If this isn't enough information to raise a question, President Abraham Lincoln had a secretary by the name of Kennedy who advised him to not go to the theatre the night of his murder while, President John F. Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln who suggested to him to avoid going to Dallas. Finally Lincoln's sucessor was named Andrew Johnson and was born in 1808 and John F. Kennedy's sucessor was named Lyndon Johnson and was born in1908.

Fast Food Makes You Slow

By Andrea Parisca
We all love to dig into a big plate of french fries, hamburgers, and chicken nuggets every once in a while. But I think that the "once in a while" has turned into way too often. Most people don't realise what they're getting into when they begin to replace home cooked meals with fast food. The truth is that our health is lacking because of our constant search for the tastier, the faster and the cheaper. They say that the world runs on money and that's exactly what the owners of these fast food companies are aiming at when they make such unexpectedly attractive food. These fast food companies have found a way to trap us using catchy slogans, fun colors, and tasty food, but when we uncover the truth we find ourselves far away from all of the fun. Since 1980 child obesity in the United States has almost tripled. We also know that low income workers are more at risk to becoming obese. This shows that the companies are getting better at promoting their poison and that they're also targeting low income households because they know that these households are looking for easier ways to dine without spending a lot of money.

McDonalds food is anything but healthy. If you where to eat a normal meal, for example, big mac (550 calories), french fries (230 calories), and a coke (150 calories), you would consume 930 calories which is about half of our daily intake in just one meal! These three foods are also very high in sodium containing 1130 milligrams, 47 percent of your daily intake! You would think that these numbers are enough to shake people out of their bad habits but you are wrong. Even when you choose a Premium Southwest Salad with Crispy Chicken and fruit on the side you are still taking in 670 calories. The healthy salad and fruit in reality isn't so far away from the burger and fries. Mcdonald's meat is said to come mainly from America and is frozen as fast as possible to ensure freshness but do we really know how the animals are treated and if they, themselves are healthy.

In a documentary, Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock personally explores the effects of eating fast food. He quickly gains wieght, and learns that fast food makes him feel tired and sick but it also makes him want to eat more and more. The documentary takes you through a very visual tour in what exactly fast food can do to you. So next time you pick up a juicy burger think twice before biting into it.

Top 10's

10 POISONOUS FOODS WE LIKE TO EAT

By Dieter Englert

MUSHROOMS

Around 5% of mushrooms are poisonous

RHUBARB

All the green parts contain oxalic acid:

it can produce you kidney stones or kill you if enough is eaten

KIDNEY BEANS

They contain large quantities of the lectin toxin:
Just three uncooked beans could produce severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

APPLES

The seeds from an apple contain cyanide: they can cause vomit if enough is eaten

TOMATOES

All the green parts contain the toxin "tomatine" wich is used as a plague control

POTATOES

Green potatoes contain very high level of Glycoalkaloid poison: death by potatoe is not common but possible.

CHERIES

Their pips contain hydrogen cyanide: it can cause vomit and breathing problems and in the worst case, kidney failure.

BRAZIL NUTS AND ALMONDS

Brazil nuts are the worlds most radioactive food: they contain 1000 times more radium than any other food

Almonds cotain a toxin called "alfatoxins" wich make them taste bitter

NUTMEG

It's a hallucinogen: it causes nutmeg pshycosis

PUFFERFISH

This japanese delicacy can lead to paralysis and death if it is not prepared in the correct way, chefs need to train for 3 years before they can serve this dish

"There is too much football on TV, other sports are as important as football"

By Anastasia Macovei

In my opinion, there is too much football on the TV, on the newspapers, on the internet, etc. Everyone can see what he wants, but, for example in the news, you turn on the TV and you see only football. The football has to have a limit, it’s ok to tell the results when a match finishes, and say the goals, but now we see interviews, amateur’s opinion, curiosities, many statistics, and they are too much. It’s alright to put football but I think that there are other things that are more important than the sport. They can talk about another thing, because nowadays the world has a lot of problems, crisis, and earthquakes or other things.

In a lot of countries the football is very important, and it is part of the national culture, and a lot of things of our life turn around it. They publish newspapers, football magazines, TV channels,… A study proves that the football changes the state of mind, when a team wins or loses, but I’m still thinking that the football isn’t the best in our lives. A day later after the match, you only see news about it, photos, and the people only talk about this matter.

Other sports are as important as football, for example the surf. When you see the news, you don’t listen anything about it, and for me the surf is more important than football, and it is a sport like the others, but you don’t listen, don’t read anything in the newspapers, only football. And the same happens with the photos, only photos about football, and only gossip about player’s life. Although they are famous, and play very well, I think it might be less football on TV and the news.