Google has just launched a new website called Flu Trends, this site reports the amount of flu inections around the United States. This site records all of the flu related searches that are done across the US, in an attempt to indicate how many people have been affected by the flu in your area. Graphs are created to show the flu trends.

Photo found on Google.org Flu Site

While this makes sense to me, I have to wonder how reliable the information actually is. I was watching thenews the other day and they brought up a wonderful point, what if the person that searches flu symptoms doesn’t have to flu but just wants to know what the symptoms are in case they get sick, or maybe they are doing a paper on the flu. If this is the case wouldn’t that make the results wrong?

I do believe this a good idea, but I don’t think the way they are choosing to get the information is terribly accurate. According the FAQ section of the site their information has been very accurate when compared to the  CDC’s U.S. Influenza Sentinel Provider Surveillance Network.

I still don’t buy it, and don’t think I will be using this to see how many people have the flu. I just don’t see how this information could be useful to anyone. Why does it matter if alot of people have the flu? If I get the flu so be it, no need to calculate the chances.

Here is a list of my five favorite places to go in my spare time. They are not in any specific order because I can not seem to choose one over the other. I like them all equally.

1. New York City, I put this one first because I just so happened to go there this weekend. I love New York City, where else can you walk down the street and find all sorts of crazy stuff for under twenty dollars? The beauty of Chinatown. “You want bag? Coach, Prada, Gucci Chanel?” How could anyone not love it? If you want it chances are they have it in Chinatown, if its too expensive chances are you can get them to give it to you for 5 or 10 dollars. The perfect place for Christmas shopping.

2. Ocean City, New Jersey. Despite the fact that you can’t buy any alcohol in the city, I surprisingly enjoy it there. Ocean City is one of the most relaxing vacation spots I have ever been to. Vacating there consists of five things:

• Laying on the beach all day, with mixed drinks consisting of alcohol purchased outside of the city.
• Shopping at the cutest shops you may have ever seen.
• Eating dinner, it definitely helped that I was on vacation with a man that was so concerned about dinner that the first thing he did every morning was plan out what we were having for dinner.
• Drinking games in the house we rented, keeping the people up downstairs, Oops.

• Going to bed, resting up to start the fun all over again.

3. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – I haven’t been there since senior year of High School, but from what I remember I had a great time. My favorite place to go when I was there was the Karaoke Bar, I’m not sure what it was called I just remember that it was on the back deck of one of the hotels. I had a blast singing “Barbie Girl” with my girlfriends with the sounds of the waves hitting the sand in the background. I enjoyed Myrtle Beach because while all of my friends were staying in dirty, run down, cheap motels, my friends and I were staying in a suite in the Hampton Inn. Although this experience was once in a life time I believe ifI went back there I would still have a lot of fun.

4. Boston, Massachusetts, I love the Aquarium there, I have been there so many times I can’t even count but no matter how many times I go I still get excited about it. My favorite exhibit is the panquins, they are so cute.

5. Home, no matter where I go and how much fun I have while I’m away my favorite place to travel to is back home. I realized this when I went to Plattsburgh State. Plattsburgh was never my favorite place, in fact I hated it more than anything when I was there, so when I finally got to go home that horrible two hour drive with nothing to look at for 2 hours suddenly felt like heaven. I guess there really is no place like home.

Here are my three favorite on-line photo galleries. They are not in any specific order of preference this just so happens to be the order I ended up putting them in.

1. Day in Photos from the Washington Post- I like this one because it has a good mix of serious and fun photos. One of the serious photos is of a man mourning his younger brother, which is a powerful image. Then there is a picture of Madonna performing a concert in Boston. This mix of serious and fun keeps me interested because it is hard to tell what is going to come next. I also like it because it seems to be all of the pictures that were used in the newspaper today. It’s like reading the newspaper through only pictures which is pretty sweet. My favorite picture from this gallery is the picture of all of the reporters watching the debate on different screens in one room. The way the screens lined up in the picture looks good and gives a glimpse of what a newsroom looks like on debate night.

2. Another one from the Washington Post, Pets on Vacation. This one caught my attention because it is interactive. Washingtonpost.com users submit their favorite pictures of “pets on vacation”. How could you go wrong with this one? Everyone likes pets and interactive is always more fun no matter what you are looking at.

3. My third one is from the Times Union, Historic Albany. The stupid thing wouldn’t let me copy and paste the link that went directly to the gallery, so when you click it just scroll down to the gallery that says Historic Capital Region and click on the Albany link. I liked this one because i like to see the differences and similarties between the older days and now. Not only in the scences but in the photo quality as well. I like seeing what has changed and what hasd stayed the same in Albany, like the Palace still pretty much looks the same and the city from above is the same. It is funny to see the people in front of the palace and how they dressed. I like the black and white photos. It is amazing how far technology has come pictures are so much clearer and life like now.