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Is there any Christmas character more iconic than Santa Claus?  The belly o’ jelly, the tress-dressed face and the bright red suit with snowy fur all wrap up to create the jolliest man we know.

While you can buy Coke anytime and almost anywhere, my favorite holiday brand is Santa himself.  We can thank Coca-Cola for Mr. Claus as we know and love him today.  In 1931, artist Haddon Sundblom introduced us, via The Saturday Evening Post, to who has become our quintessential image of St. Nick.

Coke’s website explains, “For inspiration, Sundblom turned to Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (commonly called “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”). Moore’s description of St. Nick led to an image of Santa that was warm, friendly, pleasantly plump and human. For the next 33 years, Sundblom painted portraits of Santa that helped to create the modern image of Santa — an interpretation that today lives on in the minds of people of all ages, all over the world.”

So this year, instead of leaving milk out with your cookies this Friday night, you might leave a bottle of Coca-Cola.  Santa is sure to appreciate the caffeine kick; he’s got a lot of houses to hit, you know.

You can read all about Santa’s image and other Coke lore on Coca-Cola’s website.

Merry Christmas, y’all!

I don’t know about you, but for some reason it always makes my day when Google features one of their custom logos. For those of you that have managed to miss this occurrence, don’t worry. You’re bound to catch one eventually. While usually these alternative logos are in celebration of holidays and historic events, Google also commemorates birthdays of famous artists and scientists. A special colorless logo has appeared in recognition of major tragedies, and on Earth Hour the site switched its background to black symbolize “turning out the lights”. Google Custom Search even hosts a landing page called Blackle, that serves as encouragement to users to save energy. It displays a black background and uses grayish-white font color for search results. Considering the popularity of the search engine, these colors supposedly consume less energy. But, more importantly, the site is a reminder for people to take small steps in their everyday lives to save energy.

Among one of the most fun Google logo alternatives was the recent observance of the 30th birthday of Pac-Man. This interactive logo contained an accurate recreation of the Pac-Man game that could be played in a browser. Google later released a permanent Google Pac-Man site. Another geeky way to have fun with Google is by designing your own home page at Google My Way. Give it a try. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

The pill. No, not a pill, but THE pill. The pill that sexually revolutionized women and the control over their bodies. The pill that wrapped itself in religious dilemma and political controversy. The pill that to this day still raises concerns over morality and safety.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of this medicinal wonder. Often misunderstood, this hormonal remedy has walked a littered road of controversial backtalk and revolutionary movements. Therefore, like most things taboo, interesting, or just pretty, it has earned itself a Time magazine cover, adequately accessorized with a very detailed and fascinating article. I mean, I read the entire thing.

Whether you’re for it, against it, on it, or a boy, this article gives an intriguing outlook about the history of birth control as a concept, how it transformed into a drug, and ultimately how it became a way of life for many women…and, of course, the chaos that shadowed it.
Check out the Time article here, and leave your thoughts/feelings below.

FYI, today roughly 100 million women around the world use the pill.

Contributed by: Keri Lynch

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Although Animal Farm is one of my favorite novels, George Orwell really annoyed me with 1984. Well, just kidding, I really liked that book too. I was just bitter that he picked my birth year to predict a totalitarian world where privacy and civil rights didn’t exist anywhere. I mean, I thought 1984 was great year for a baby. Anyway, he might have been onto something, just a decade or two too early.

Though mainly non-partisan when it comes to politics, it was hard not to see the door to our liberties close slightly with the Patriot Act of 2001. A statue that allowed the government to selectively access telephone, email, medical and financial records to protect our “freedom”, it made everyone wonder … is anything private anymore? Well, not really. And with the crazy technological boom of the past decade, it’s made the line between what is private and what is public not only blurry, but pretty much invisible.

Insert the social media craze. Whether searching for a job, investigating a crime, or just trying to spread a plethora of fast knowledge, outlets such as Facebook and Twitter have become catalysts for studying human behavior and examining an individual’s thoughts. Now some of these thoughts are being filed into public record … and studied.
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