Logos

I recently became aware of the "Logos Quiz Game" for Apple devices. After a little research I found out that I am not the only one that finds the whole idea of the game kind of strange. For any of you that do not know, the basic idea of the game is to try to correctly identify as many different brands logos as you can. The thing that surprises most, is how fun this simple activity can be. It is very interesting and almost addicting to see how many different logos you are able to remember.

As Anthony Wing Kosner of Forbes writes in an article, linked here, in this day and age people are surrounded by advertisements nearly everywhere they go. He also goes on to mention the potential that this App could have for helping businesses improve their advertising. If peoples results could be saved and analyzed, then companies might be able use them in order to improve their logo in order to make it more recognizable.
One other interesting things that I learned about the App was that the creator, Javier Perez Estarriaga, originally was creating the app for self enjoyment and a challenge. It pushes you to try to recognize the smallest letter or fragment. But we see these logos so frequently that they are almost burned into our brain, so now most people can recognize most logos almost subconsciously.

America's Obsession with Teeth

I recently read a BBC News Magazine article (Linked Here), that both made me laugh, and really take a minute to think about American values. Ricky Gervais (creator of The Office) was interviewed by an American journalist a few years ago about his role as a dentist in a movie. The journalist then complimented Gervais for wearing bad fake teeth for the role. Gervais then said "He was horrified that I could have such horrible real teeth. It's like the biggest difference between the Brits and the Americans, they are obsessed with perfect teeth." 
I had never really considered the idea of years of orthodontic work to be strange at all. It is true that straight, clean, healthy teeth are actually beneficial to your health, Gervais though, is more surprised with the extreme measure that people in Hollywood take. Jimmy Steele. a, professor at the School of Dental Science at Newcastle University, has come to the conclusion that British people are more worried about teeth being functional and to some extent natural, while Americans would like their teeth to be functional, but also incredibly aesthetically pleasing. Hence all the obsession with whitening, I did not really now that teeth naturally tend to be more of a cream color than white. It is only by using a variety of chemicals that you can get a tooth to actually look white. 
The article also mentions that very much in contrast to Americans, most of the British public ridicules people for having drastic work done to their teeth. Living in America, I would be very happy to have a perfectly white and straight set of teeth, but it is always interesting to learn that everybody may not share our beliefs about somethings.