The idea

of UFOs

and intel-

ligent life

on other

planets

has always been considered an idea

of science fiction, ever since science

fiction has existed, anyways, and for

most people, it still is. If you pick up

a book and start reading about a civ-

ilization of aliens, that discusses

their strange way of life, what sec-

tion of the library did you most like-

ly get it from? Science fiction, right?

However, soon a very similar book

could be found in the nonfiction sec-

tion, perhaps with a title like, A

Guide to Life in the KIC 8462852

Solar System - When in KIC

8462852, Act Like the KIC 8462852-

ians.

Recently, NASA’s Kepler

space Telescope has shown that a

star called KIC 8462852, which is

about 1,500 light years away from

Earth, has faded largely, and then

regained its light, several times over

the past few years. It has been

dimmed by up to 22% at times,

which is an extremely large amount,

especially considering how much

light the star emits in the first place.

Currently, there are two major theo-

ries - a large group of orbiting com-

ets, or a structure created by intelli-

gent aliens.

The more realistic scientists

believe that their idea, saying that

the light was dimmed by a crowd of

comets that orbited KIC 8462852,

is much more likely. How could

aliens possibly build such a large

structure that orbits the sun, and

why? Besides, the Allen Telescope

Array, also known as the ATA, has

not been able to pick up any signs

of life from the planets circling this

star.

The ATA is a high-tech ar-

ray of telescopes that has been de-

signed to detect life and examine

events in space that could advance

the human search of space, or other

human technology. They can pick

up signals to a high level of accura-

cy, and have a much wider view

than can currently be seen with a

single telescope. Although the array

is very large, and is considered cut-

ting-edge technology, it is really an

innovative and inexpensive collec-

tion of small radio dishes, and it

can easily be upgraded as comput-

ers and telecommunication technol-

ogy advance.

Evidence of Intelligent Aliens?

By: Emma G.

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

The Hyperloop 3

2015 Shopping Guide 4-5

Smoking illegal? 6

Strongest Material 8

Pencil Tech 9-10

Phobias 11

New Dinosaurs 12-13

Movie Puzzles 15

Google Self Driving Car 16

WINTER ISSUE - VOLUME 13 FREE E-VERSION WINTER 15’-16’

Page 2

The intelligent-life-theory critics also provide another piece

of well-supported evidence - according to Occam’s razor

method, the simplest theory is often the correct one, and the

theory of intelligent life is not the simplest. Really, how

likely is it that an advanced alien civilization built a mega

structure, such as a solar panel, and then somehow blocked

all evidence of life on that planet from the ATA down on Earth? According to these researchers, not very

likely.

However, hopeful scientists suggest that it could have been caused by a man-made (or, rather, alien-

made) structure, such as a gigantic collection of solar panels, even though most of the evidence points against

it. Although the ATA is not able to pick up signals of life from this planet, that doesn’t necessarily mean

there has never been life on this planet. For example, the life forms may not emit signals that the ATA is able

to pick up, or they may have gone extinct years ago, or traveled to a different, more favorable planet, and left

the mega structure behind. Even though the correct theory is often the simplest, it isn’t always correct.

This mystery is really just a complicated probability problem. How likely is it that aliens are or have

been on this planet? How likely is it that they are advanced? How likely is it that they built a collection of

solar panels, or some other structure that would dim the star’s light so greatly? How likely is it that those al-

iens do not emit signals that our Allen Telescope Array can pick up? If you add in all of those variables, it

doesn’t seem very likely, does it? However, there is still a chance.

Although this possibility seems unlikely, scientists continue to investigate it, trying to collect evi-

dence of this theoretical civilization that may have caused this odd wavering in KIC 8462852’s light. Wheth-

er they find life on this planet or not, humankind will surely learn lots about the universe, and collect more

evidence to where another species might be. According to Seth Shostak, “It almost doesn’t matter where you

point your telescope, because there are planets everywhere. If there's somebody out there, there are going to

be so many of them out there that I do think there's a chance." Before we know it, the idea of aliens will be-

come a reality - everywhere we look, there is a chance some other being on another planet is looking right

back at us, wondering if there is such a thing as aliens.

EVIDENCE OF ALIEN LIFE(CONTINUED) BY: EMMA G.

Imagine zooming from Madrid to Barcelona in half

an hour, That’s 385.9 miles, and would take 5 hours

and 53 minutes by car. And you travel it in half an

hour. Isn’t that amazing? It will revolutionize travel

and commute and will reduce car accidents. Let me

tell you all about it.

The Hyperloop has not yet been made, but a test track is scheduled to start in 2016 and finish

in 2017. When the system is finally made, here is what the Hyperloop routes will look like.

We will be able to travel across the country very quickly, with stops at most major cities. The

Hyperloop will be most likely built in countries without deeply embedded transportation

systems first. It will be mostly in developing countries in Africa and Asia before U.S. or Eu-

rope.

This will revolutionize travel because instead of having to drive or take a plane, they can go

there much faster with the Hyperloop. There will be less crashes, and people will get to

where they need to go much quicker. But the downside is that we will not be seeing the

Hyperloop connecting the U.S. for a long time, but systems within states and cities might not

be that far off.

So in conclusion, Hyperloop will revolutionize travel. It will let us travel the country very

quickly(when it comes out). It will take a long time to get to

U.S. and Europe, but a test track and transport systems within

smaller cities and countries are not that far off. It also looks

really cool! In short, the Hyperloop is the future!(in the future).

Page 3

THE HYPERLOOP

BY: MOHAMMAD K.

Page 4

As the 2015 holiday season rolls around the corner, everyone is putting the finishing touches on their pre-

sents. And so should you. But if the holiday hustle and bustle is just a tad bit too stressful, here are some top

picks for gifts that have got you covered!

The Bookworm

As 2016 rushes in, help a bookworm get a head start on their New Year’s Resolution. Conveniently located

in downtown, Barnes & Nobles as well as Anderson’s Bookshops are stocked with all the latest best sellers in

the literature industry.

The Fashionista

For the person who knows the ins and outs of fashion 24/7, you really want to gift them

something classic and timeless that will never go out of style. Thinking a bit out of the box

than just apparel, you may want to venture out into accessories, shoes, handbags or jewelry

shops to find something to keep your favorite fashionista warm and cozy this winter.

2015 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE BY: ESHANI R.

Page 5

The Makeup Guru

When someone knows how to take a face and turn it into a masterpiece, gifting is a breeze

when you know just where to look. Whether your budget fits high street or the drugstore,

there are rows of endless options to give your blooming Picasso the perfect present.

The Foodie

Always the first to spot the hottest eatery in town, surprise and treat your foodie to a delec-

table (local) restaurant this holiday season. And remember, gift cards are always an easy alter-

native if you’re not one to go all out.

2015 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE (CONT) BY: ESHANI R.

Page 6

Yes There are many reasons why smoking should be

illegal. First, there are health issues. Smoking

causes cancer, heart disease, and respiratory

diseases. Every year, over 480,000 people in

the U.S. die because of these reasons. Not only

can the people who smoke die, anybody

around them could be affected as well be-

cause of the smoke. That is called second-hand

smoking. But what is the cause of all these deaths? The main

“ingredient” in tobacco that causes this is nicotine. Nicotine is a

drug that can lead to seizures, vomiting, and more unwanted side-

effects. Without nicotine in tobacco, many would not smoke. Any-

ways, smoking should be illegal since it has many health issues that

can lead to sad endings.

No

Smoking should not be illegal for a couple good reasons. Even

though it can cause many different issues with your health, if smok-

ing is banned there will be many economic problems. First, tobacco

will be put in the black market, just like all of the other illegal sub-

stances. Next, even if the law is issued, people will continue smoking

because they are outlaws; that’s what they do since their “job” is to

break the law. Government officials would argue about this and

worst comes to worst, there could even be physical battles about it.

All in all, if smoking is banned, the world will be worse than it is right

now.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/10566.php

SHOULD SMOKING BE ILLEGAL? BY: UJU K.

Page 7

When taking pictures or videos, there is sometimes an elongated object zipping across the screen

when the file is viewed back. Also known as skyfish, air rods, and solar entities, these creatures have wings

that move like waves and go through the length of the entire body. Seen in videos of planes taking off, war

zones, caves, and even tornadoes, to some people they feel like something from the fourth dimension. People

speculate that this is part of a larger craft or creature that can at will take any part of itself out of the fourth,

and into the third, dimension. However, we’re not even to the craziest part.

They are invisible to human eyes. In every single video where we can see a rod, the people claim they

didn’t see anything unusual. Their length varies between inches and feet. They are harmless and are non-

sapient. Their diet, lifespan, and subspecies are unknown. They have also been seen flying into water without

slowing down. Skyfish were first documented by filmmaker José Escamilla, who discovered them by acci-

dent. In 1994, Escamilla had videotaped a "conventional" UFO near Midway, New Mexico. Fourteen days

later, while seeking to photograph the UFO again, he instead captured a flying object that was not a vehicle

of any kind.

At first he thought it was just an insect or bird. When he examined the film frame by frame, however,

it became clear that what he had captured on film was something unknown. Later, more distinct images were

captured while Escamilla was filming cliff jumpers at a deep cave in Mexico. When he developed the film,

small flying things could be seen zipping around the divers at a high rate of speed - so fast that they weren't

seen with the naked eye. However, in many experiments, crypto zoologists and photographers have tried to

capture a skyfish, with surprising results.

Photographers set up a slow motion camera and a regular camera. The light revealed that what looked

like a golden shining rod was actually a moth that shined because of the light. So why didn’t people see

them? you ask. This is because people see birds and insects as birds and insects, not rods, and when they say

they didn’t see anything, that means they didn’t see any rods. Thank you, and have a nice kitten day. Tune in

on our next article on AWESOME QUOTES!!!

RODS BY: DANIEL B. AND JAMES S.

Page 8

The strongest material on earth. Sea snail teeth

are the strongest material on earth. It beat the spider

silk. The teeth of the common limpet species (Patella

vulgata) are tougher than Kevlar. Limpets are tough

little snails that live everywhere in the ocean. Barber

and his research team tested microscopic pieces of lim-

pet tooth. Each curved tooth is about 1 millimeter long (0.04 inches). These fibers are much

smaller than man made Nano fibers. Barber's next challenge lies in recreating the mecha-

nisms these tiny creatures use to make their tough materials. Though spider silk has proved

notoriously difficult to mimic in an artificial setting, Barber said it might be possible to 3D-

print limpet teeth fibers. The strongest silk ever found is made by the Darwin's bark spider in

Madagascar, which spins silk that is reportedly 10 times tougher than Kevlar, thanks to its

elasticity, or ability to stretch without breaking. The secret to the tooth strength lies in the size

of the fibrous structures that form each tooth, Barber said. "Nature's kind of clever, because it

figured out millions of years ago that if you grow these fibers below a critical size, even if

you have flaws in the material, it doesn't affect the strength," Barber said. "I think the poten-

tial for growing these crystal fibers is much higher [than spider silk] because it's just about

growing them to a particular size," Barber said. "I think this is going to be a much greater op-

portunity for materials that have high

strength." These limpets have the strongest

material on earth I wonder when they can re-

produce them.

Limpet teeth (left), A Limpet (above)

THE STRONGEST MATERIAL ON EARTH BY: CALEB Y.

Page 9

What if we could make pencils in a few seconds by using paper

that you would have otherwise thrown away? All you would need

was a little glue, some wastepaper and lead and you would have a

pencil!

This new gadget is very useful, since if your pencil breaks, a sec-

ond later, you have a fresh new one coming. It can also save space

and save paper, since a pencil takes less space than a crumpled

piece of paper. If some bully who sat behind you kept breaking

your pencils, you could generate new ones immediately. If a

friend wanted to borrow your pencil, you could make one for them.

However, this pencil-maker has a downside. People will start making too many pencils, and

then even paper that has not been used will go in the machine. People will start turning others’

homework into pencils. Also, graphite is expensive. The machine does the work, you provide food.

The machine will only work if it has 3 types of food; graphite, glue, and paper. Paper is easy to get,

but graphite is not. Glue is okay, but how many times would you have to go and buy graphite and

glue, and buy extra printer paper? This machine could put pencil factories out of business and graph-

ite businesses in huge business.

Also, most people now type on computers. When they print, and then they are done with it,

they will make a pencil from that paper. That means that some people will print extra paper on pur-

pose just to make pencils because it is addictive. That leads to the waste of ink, meaning people also

have to buy ink. Maybe some people may not realize it, but it takes pencils to make pencils. You

have a clean sheet of paper. You get a pencil and write on it as scratch paper for your math home-

work. When there is no space left on either side, your pencil is already pretty dull. You insert your

sheet into the pencil maker for a new pencil. So what do you do with the other one? You throw it in

the trash? You stick it in a pencil case and keep it there for the next five years? What a waste of

graphite. Now you have to spend money for more even though there are about 20 forgotten pencils

waiting to be sharpened and used.

As you can see, this pencil-making machine is helpful, but there are too many bad things that

can happen for this to actually come to be. No matter how much people want it now, when they get

it, they will complain and it will be their own fault and they don’t even realize it. This will impact

our society heavily on the negative side, and the negative overpowers the positive. Even if there was

one thing wrong with the machine, people would not buy it anyway. Then the manufacturer would

be out of business within a year, maybe less.

PENCIL TECHNOLOGY BY: HELENA H.

Page 10

U.S. businesses use about 21 million tons (19 million metric tons) of paper every year -- 175 pounds

of paper for each American, according to the Clean Air Council. This has led to office recycling programs,

"please think before you print" e-mail signatures and printers that offer double-sided printing. Now a trio of

Chinese inventors hopes to add another device to the cubicle environment: the P&P Office Waste Paper

Processor, which turns paper destined for recycling into pencils. The machine, looking a bit like a three-hole

punch crossed with an electric pencil sharpener, was a finalist in the 2010 Lite-On Awards, an international

competition that seeks to stimulate and nurture innovation.

Here's how the pencil-making gadget works: You insert wastepaper into a feed slot. The machine

draws the paper in, rolls and compresses it, and then inserts a piece of lead from a storage chamber located in

the top of the device. A small amount of glue is added before -- voilà -- a pencil slides out from a hole on the

side. It's not clear how many pieces of paper form a single pencil, but you figure the average office worker

could generate a decent supply of pencils in a month.

And that seems to be the biggest drawback to the pencil-producing gadget. How many No. 2 pencils

can an office really use, given that most workers take notes on their tablet PCs or laptops? And how much

glue and lead core do you need to buy to keep up with the overflowing paper recycle bin? Too much, we

would suspect, which is why you may never see this gadget in your office supplies catalog.

PENCIL TECHNOLOGY (CONT .) BY: HELENA H.

RBI BASEBALL GAME—A REVIEW BY: JAMES S.

RBI Baseball is a game published by MLB.com and is rated E for everybody.

The game compares favorably to the great Madden football series of games.

In this game you may either start a season or do an exhibition game. For an

exhibition game, you get to choose 2 teams, one that you are and one you

want to face. You can be a legend and play against the team that you want to

wreck. You can also do a season as the team of your choice where you have a

schedule and can change your roster to improve your playing. If you can get

to the world series, you will have to blow away the other team because from

my experience, your opponent plays well. When you complete the season, you get to start a new season with a

new team or continue with the same team. The all-star game is almost as tough as the world series. The game

overall is actually amazing and you need to try it!

Page 11

PHOBIAS OF THE WEEK

BY : ETHAN X. Phobias are an extreme fear of something very random. Don’t laugh, you just might have one to.

Here are a few of the most specific phobias out there. Still, don’t laugh, this might be you.

Somniphobia: Fear of sleep. Can you imagine??

Nomophobia: Fear of not having a mobile device on hand 24/7. Over 50% of the

world has it, so you’re not alone.

Ergophobia: fear of working and being in a workplace environment. this may build up from early fail-

ures on assignments.

Ablutophobia: fear of taking a bath or shower. AKA fear of cleaning yourself.

Heliophobia: fear of the sun. No more sports outside!!(actually no going outside in

the first place if the weather is sunny)

Haphephobia: Fear of being touched

Aurophobia: Fear of the Northern Lights

Barophobia: Fear of Gravity

Aurophobia- Fear of gold

Chrometophobia or Chrematophobia- Fear of money (didn’t think GOLD was enough??)

Atomosophobia- Fear of atomic explosions, most people had this during the cold war

Automatonophobia- Fear of ventriloquist's dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues - anything that

falsely represents a sentient being.

Autophobia- Fear of being alone or of oneself

Batrachophobia- Fear of amphibians, such as frogs, newts, salamanders, etc

Ballistophobia- Fear of missiles or bullets, AKA don’t go to war if you have this

phobia

Catoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors, creepy…

Cathisophobia- Fear of sitting, my, tiring

Chronophobia- Fear of time

Chronomentrophobia- Fear of clocks (didn't think TIME was enough??)

Phonophobia- The fear of Phobias

Page 12

Dreadnoughtus

The biggest and baddest dinosaur ever discovered is on the

block. Weighing nearly 70 tons, and almost the length of a

whole Boeing 737-900, this creature dwarfs even one of

the most famed of dinosaurs. Tyrannosaurus, Brachio-

saurus- and even, of course, dwarfing a modern day ele-

phant, which is one of the largest animals on our Earth

right now. What is this new dinosaur? Well, the name giv-

en to this giant by its founders, is Dreadnoughtus Schrani, or simply Dreadnoughtus in short. The largest sau-

ropod up to date, it would have been a terrifying sight up close if you were, say, another dinosaur.

“Shockingly, skeletal evidence shows that when this 65-ton specimen died, it was not yet full grown,” Says

paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara. “It is by far the best example we have of any of the most giant creatures to

ever walk the planet." As scientists begin to uncover more about this amazing creature, it seems that before,

on the farthest reaches of our young Earth, there was more giant creatures than we thought. Considering this

animal wasn’t even fully grown when it was found,- and also considering that it’s 65 tons, we can’t imagine

how big it would have been when it was alive. Something that amazed scientists more than the giant sauro-

pods bulk and brawn, was how complete the skeleton was. When they uncovered it, more than 70 percent of

it were complete. The dinosaurs daunting size and the giant whip like tail made nearly every threat in the area

nothing but an annoyance. Because of this sauropods large size, it must have eaten a ton of food during its

day. “Imagine a life-long obsession with eating.” Says Lacovara.

Of course, an area with such a giant plant eater has to have a giant meat eater too. This is a true state-

ment. In every area where a large sauropod found, whether the sauropod is Argentinosaurus, Paralititan, or

Diplodocus-and much more- there was always a giant predator that came along with it. Whether it was Ma-

pusaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, or Allosaurus. As a matter of fact, these meat eaters actually depended on

these dinosaurs as a major food source. A study shown that whenever these massive sauropods died, these

carnivores died out as well. The carnivore that must have preyed on Dreadnoughtus is still in the midst of

being discovered, but in the meantime, all we can do is wait.,

NEW DINOSAURS ON THE BLOCK BY: JEFFREY H.

Page 13

Wendiceratops

A distinct ancestor of triceratops, discovered recently.

This was discovered pieced together with 200 bones-

along with 4 other skeletons. Since it was a herbivore, its

leaf shaped teeth weren’t made for slicing through flesh.

It would lower its head to thick vegetation and naw of a

chunk with it parrot-like beak. These teeth were made for chewing. But the one thing that made wendicera-

tops pinhornensis such a distinct relative of triceratops however, was the curvature of the horns protruding

from its skull. A large frill that protected its neck, and three forward curling horns, would have been a fright-

ening sight, but it probably wasn’t used for combat. The reason being, an attacker would have to be stabbed

quickly, and give the dinosaur enough time to run away. These horns were curved, meaning the hook shape

would instead of releasing quickly, it would stay grappled to the skin in any attempt. This would give the

predator enough time to simply finish it off. It would have instead been meant to fend off predators, in a non-

physical way.“Beyond its odd, hook-like frill, Wendiceratops has a unique horn ornamentation above its nose

that shows the intermediate evolutionary development between low, rounded forms of the earliest horned di-

nosaurs and the large, tall horns of Styracosaurus, and its relatives,” said Ryan, co-author of the study. “The

locked horns of two Wendiceratops could have been used in combat between males to gain access to territory

or females.” This distant relative of the ceratopsians would have been a daunting sight in its glory days, but

now, it’s nothing but bones.

DINOSAURS (CONT .) BY: JEFFREY H.

Page 14

“Wait, 0+0=2?”

“If space blows up, then we have less space :( “

“People are definitely humans.”

“Well that was a waste of a foot.”

“When I have nightmares, I eat them.”

“That makes perfect cents.”

“Tardy waffles are here because you exist

“You have pizza. Eat him->.”

“I am the most elegant creature that ever refused to survive.”

“Every once and awhile you need to daydream .”

“Don’t quote me on that.”

“That is what you think but not what you know.”

“I agree(n)”

“No comment, wait that is a comment.”

“Why did you inflate a giant rubber glove?”

“The meat should be as big as meat.”

“Hey. It’s Ireland today.”

“You are a slightly acute triangle.”

“The glove attacked me.”

“This is?”

“Let me be a Kangaroo.”

“I have giant moose ears.” “Take cover, their gonna

blow!”

“You want me to call you James Bond!?”

“Why did you hit me with a giant inflatable

balloon?”

“Salamander bacon tomato flavored soup.”

“Truth is subjective. Reality is not.”

“The names Batman. Bat. Man.”

“Deal with it”

“I’ve found the biggest cause of death. Life”

“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In prac-

tice, they’re not”

“Life is good. Sometimes”

“Bob the Builder is busy right now”

“WOMBATS!!!”

“But I’m busy looking for images of gophers!”

“Somebody got hit by a bowling pin...in sixth grade!”

“Never fall into a pit of lava.. Just saying”

“Bert the turtle reminds you that ducking and cover-

ing and seatbelts save lives”

“And there was a bright flash …”

“Anonymouse”

“Life is a good thing. With the power of our new MRIT machine, standing for Magnetic rhochermatic

(It’s a real thing) ichnomatic techotic processor, we

can increase short term mem… Wait, what was I saying?”

“Wait, when did my folder die?”

“It’s a drum, you hit it with a stick.”

“Two men walked into a bar. The third one did too”

“The apocalypse has come! Oh look, a pancake!”

“It’s Jeff the Evil Roomba!!!

"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get

out of it alive."

“Ebooks, Email, EVIL.”

“Then he slayed the mighty, oh look, a squirrel”

“Pigs are made of water, Chickens are made of bone, Cows are made of pig, goat, banana, crickets.

(Artificially flavored.)

“Stop smashing your keyboard!”

“WOMBATS!!! AGAIN!!!”

“What’s a question?”

“I promise I have never sworn in my life.”

“I like Minnesota because it tastes like orange juice.”

“Or did I?”

“FLYING WOMBATS!!!”

“He just didn’t have that green thumb, so he painted

it purple..”

“It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No! It’s a FLYING WOM-

BAT!!”

“HAHA! EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!”

“I ate a blue pig named Fred.”

“It’s a turtle. His name is Tank.”

“THERE’S NEVER TOO MANY WOMBATS!!!”

“I keep dying from the hat!”

“Billy the sensei.”`

“This is the best quote ever!!!”

“‘Wut,’ said the chipmunk.”

“Kit Kats? More like Kit Kows!”

“Exactly.”

“‘I know what school you go to,’ he said in science

class.”

“Oh no, there’s a giant spider running after me!”

“Oh look, another giant spider!”

“Day to day.”

“I’m carrying a dead caveman.”

“I just threw a dead caveman at a living caveman.”

“NO! It lives in Antarctica.”

“It can be found in a wide variety of environments

such as hot springs, deserts, alpine environments,

and Pokémon.”

“The wind is tasty.”

“WHY DO WE LOVE WOMBATS?!”

Quotes made by James, Daniel, Scott, Holden, Eron, Ishaan, Anonymous, a wombat, and Anonymous.

Next time, we’re talking about cute baby animals!

A M IXED BAG OF STUDENT QUOTES

BY : JAMES S.

Page 15

Match each movie character to another character also played by the same actor/actress from the word bank. In the example, Saruman and Count Dooku are both played by Christopher Lee. Example: Saruman and Count Dooku_____

____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________ ____________________ and ____________________

Word Bank: Elizabeth Swann

Han Solo

Legolas Greenleaf Padme Amidala Will Turner

Cabin Boy (from On Stranger Tides) Nanny McPhee

Mumble (from Happy Feet) Queen Amidala (from Star Wars: The Phantom Men-ace) Indiana Jones

Dr. Schmidt (from Captain America: The First Avenger) Ella of Frell (from Ella Enchanted) Lady Rose MacClare (from Downton Abbey) Maria Von Trapp (1965 version of The Sound of Mu-sic) Professor McGonagall Uncle Foster (from The Adaams Family) Bellatrix Lestrange

Gandalf Maria Von Trapp (2013 version of The Sound of Mu-sic) Cinderella (2015 live action movie) Princess Mia (from The Princess Diaries) Frodo Baggins

Magneto

Peter Pan (from Once Upon A Time) Sarah Hill (from Soul Surfer) Elrond

Alan A. Allen (from Thunderpants) James Bond (from Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever) Jane Foster Doc (from Back to the Future) Professor Trelawney

Ronald Weasley

Mary (from The Muppet Movie) Violet Crawley (from Downton Abbey) Mary Poppins

Jack Sparrow

The Fairy Godmother (from 2015 Cinderella) Ned McDodd (from Horton Hears a Who) Hermione Granger Dr. Henry Jones Sr. (from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) Giselle (from Enchanted) The Mad Hatter (from the 2010 Alice in Wonderland) Gru

Young Ila (from Noah)

*Answers on page 48*

MOVIE CHARACTER MATCHUP BY: EVELYN K.

Page 16

Crash! You are sitting in the car on the way home, and the car behind you

has just hit your car. Luckily, nobody is hurt, but what if somebody had been in-

jured? Car crashes, on average, happen over 5 million times per year worldwide,

including minor crashes and those that cause fatalities. This is much too high and

the number needs to be lowered. Luckily, Google has come up with a solution - the

self-driving car! The car would definitely be a benefit to our society, because there

would be fewer car crashes, less traffic congestion, and more human productivity.

The Google self-driving car is able to predict what cars and pedestrians will do next, and it will al-

ways be alert and paying attention to driving, unlike humans. Because of this, there would not be as many car

crashes - the self-driving car will never hit another vehicle. This could save millions of lives, and lots of mon-

ey, too. There would be no need to pay to get your broken car fixed because of a car accident, if you rode in

one of these amazing cars.

The reduced number of car crashes isn’t the only benefit. You would also have less problems with

traffic. Most traffic on the road occurs because of human selfishness and people not being alert. The Google

self-driving car would not have any of these problems, so it will help people have a fairly smooth and quick

ride.

Since the car is doing the driving, you can use your energy and focus for other things in the car. You

could read, get work done, text, or daydream - and maybe innovate more ideas to change the world. Whether

you sit in the driver’s seat or in the back, you don’t need to concentrate on the road anymore - just sit back

and enjoy the ride!

All in all, the Google self-driving car would have a major positive impact on our society. It would

reduce the number of car crashes, nearly eliminate traffic congestion, and give people more time to make

progress in both their lives and the world!

GOOGLE SELF DRIVING CAR BY: EMMA G.

COZYMELS REVIEW BY: JAMES S.

Cozymels is a restaurant with Mexican food that is actually not that spicy. I would

rate this restaurant a 3 of 5. The food is mainly tacos and fajitas, the typical Mexi-

can restaurant menu. You have two choices for tacos, hard or soft shell. The hard

shell tacos can be filled with beef, chicken, and pork. They are all good and have

great taste. They assume that you are a cheese lover and will serve everything with

cheese, so remember to ask if you don’t want cheese. The fajitas are ok. They have a bland taste and unless

you like soft shell taco and cheese and lettuce, I don’t recommend it. The restaurant is in Wheaton IL. My

family gave this restaurant an overall rating of 3 because the food was acceptable, but bland and safe. Don’t

expect the greatest food but it is still a casual restaurant with reasonable prices. Overall, the restaurant is a de-

cent place for a night out, but not for very fancy dinners.

You know that

a thick, greasy

burger proba-

bly won’t in-

crease your

lifespan. Yet as

many as 1 in 4

of us Americans sits down anyways at a

fast-food restaurant. Where is the discon-

nect? Why don’t people drive right by

these fast-food restaurants and find them-

selves something remotely healthy, like a

steak, or a bowl of noodles at an ordinary,

sit-down-order-and-eat restaurant?

The answer is what fast-food

companies have been working on for dec-

ades. They provide cheap, quick, filling,

tasty, food. Consider the difference be-

tween the fast-food restaurant, and the

ordinary sit-down restaurant. With the fast

-food restaurant, you drive through, place

your order at the speaker box, pay with a

credit card, and get your food. But at a

regular restaurant, you are seated, order

from a menu, wait for your food to be

cooked, and finally, you get your food.

The former takes two or three minutes,

while the latter takes as much as twenty

minutes or more. All this makes it appeal

to people who are busy, overscheduled,

and in a hurry, all of which describe peo-

ple today.

There is a dark side to this system.

These fast foods, which are easy to get,

are not healthy. Most fast foods contain a

lot of calories, fat, salt, and sugar, which

make them taste good, but also make

them bad for your body.

Take salt as an example. Salt is

absorbed into the blood, then, when it

hits the kidneys, causing the body to hold

onto more water, increasing blood pres-

sure. Increased blood pressure narrows

arteries, heart attacks, and dementia. Salt

is not something you want too much of.

What about sugar? Only eight

foods on the menu have no sugar. Eight

foods out of 168. Chicken nuggets, hash

browns, French fries, coffee, water, Diet

Coke, Dr. Pepper, and iced tea. Even the

burgers have sugar. So what happens

when you eat a lot of sugar?

First, a quick chemistry lesson.

Sugar comes in seven forms: Glucose,

fructose, galactose, lactose, sucrose,

maltose, and xylose. Of these, only glu-

cose, sucrose, and fructose are important

to us. Sucrose is made by joining glucose

and fructose together. Glucose is what

the body normally uses as energy. Fruc-

tose is produced by plants, and can also

be used by the body as sugar. However,

fructose is sweeter than sucrose. Thus,

fast-food companies use fructose instead

of sugar. However, fructose metabolizes

in a different way than glucose, which

makes it more likely to be stored as fat.

Fat can clog the liver, put pressure on the

kidneys, and increase your chance of a

heart attack. Added sugar is not a good

thing for your body.

(Continued on Page 2)

The Lure of Fast Food

By: Colin Y.

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Doublets/Word Ladders 19

Arrow Mazes 20

Next Leap 22-23

Cow Problems 24-25

Animal Extinction 28-29

Food on your own 17-18

Up on Pointe 20-23

Apple iWatch 27-29

Media Reviews 30-32

SUMMER ISSUE , VOLUME 12 FREE E-VERSION SUMMER 2015

Page 18

Fats and calories are linked together. Fat is a source of calories, so eating more

fat also affects your calorie intake. As many fast foods are cooked with oil,

which is just fat, the fat content of food skyrockets. However, there are good

and bad fats. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are considered ‘good’

fats, as they decrease ‘bad’ cholesterol and increase ‘good’ cholesterol. Saturat-

ed and trans fats, on the other hand do exactly the opposite. Canola oil, which is

what McDonald’s cooks with, is one of the healthiest oils, with high amounts of good fat and low amounts of

bad fat. But even healthy fats face a common problem.

Fats are a main source of energy, measured in calories. Excess energy is stored away chemically as

body fat, which, as listed before, can cause a clogged liver, increased risk of a heart attack, and weakened

kidneys. And no matter what oil you consume, it still gets stored as fat. Unsurprisingly, fast food contains

high amounts of calories. Some menu options, such as the Big Breakfast, have half of your daily calories.

Eating too much increases fat, this in turn leads to obesity.

Besides causing high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, and clogged liver, fast

food can contribute to diabetes. A damaged liver will not produce as much insulin. Not

enough insulin can lead to diabetes. Diabetes is the 7th biggest killer in the US, with over

75,000 deaths each year. Many times, this is preventable.

With all of these factors of fast food making it unhealthy, the worst one is what it’s not. Fast food is

low in most nutrients and minerals, making it a substitute for healthier food. Why someone would eat fast

food appears to be a mystery, until you look closer. As fast food is cheap and filling, it is very appealing to

poorer families. Poorer families are also more likely than others to be obese, diabetic, etc. They are also the

ones least likely to go look for fresh food to cook. Do you see where this is going?

Fast food is marketed highly to kids. When kids like a fast-food company, not only will they eat there,

their parent or guardian will also eat there. However, this trend is also not good for their health. Children who

are obese are more likely to have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and bone problems. High-fat and high-

sugar meals help push them there.

Fast food companies continue to serve highly processed high-calorie, high-

sodium, and high-sugar foods, while describing them as healthy. Meanwhile, many of

the ingredients of these fast foods make them dangerous to your health. Fast food isn’t

good for you. So why sacrifice your body for convenience?

THE LURE OF FAST FOOD(CONTINUED) BY: COLIN Y.

Doublets are a type of word puzzle invented by the famous Lewis Carroll, which in-

volves changing a word to another word by changing a letter each turn. Each new word that

has been made by switching a letter has to be an existent word in the English language.

Change a DOG into a CAT - DOG, Dot, Cot, CAT

You see that you start with ‘dog’ and switch the G into a T to get the word ‘dot’, then

the D is changed to a C to make the word ‘cot’ (a cot is a type of bed), and finally, you swap

the O with an A to get the word ‘cat’. You could solve this doublet in a different way but this

is the shortest way to do it. Try solving the doublets below with the least amount of moves

possible, I have categorized them into 3 levels, easy, medium, and hard. The answer key on

the back shows the answer with the shortest way to do it. If you solve it with less moves then

the answer key shows then uh……… double check your words and if they are valid, you’re a

genius! But this will probably not happen. J

EASY 14.Take COAL from MINE

1. Put the TEA in the POT 15. Change a BIRD into a FISH

2. Change the MICE into RATS HARD

3. LOCK the DOOR 16. Make WHEAT into BREAD

4. Change LEAD into GOLD 17. Make NICE into MEAN

5. Go from COLD to WARM 18. Make the POOR RICH

6. Make a SICK person WELL 19. Swap ARM with LEG

7. Change OAT to RYE 20. Count from ONE through TEN

MEDIUM 21. Prove PITY to be GOOD

8. Change a HEAD into a TAIL 22. COMB your HAIR

9. Change HATE into LOVE

10. Touch FOOT with HAND

11. Change WET to DRY

12. DOCK a SHIP

Page 19

DOUBLETS / WORD LADDERS

BY: JUDSON L.

TEA, Pea, Pet, POT MICE, Mace, Race, Rate, RATS

LOCK, Look, Loom, Doom, DOOR

LEAD, Head, Held, Hold, GOLD COLD, Cord, Card, Ward, WARM

SICK, Silk, Sill, Will, WELL

OAT, Rat, Rot, Roe, RYE HEAD, Heal, Teal, Tell, Tall, TAIL

HATE, Have, Gave, Give, Live, LOVE

FOOT, Food, Fond, Bond, Band, HAND WET, Met, Mat, May, Day, DRY

DOCK, Sock, Soak, Soap, Slap, Slip, SHIP

FLOUR, Floor, Flood, Blood, Brood, Broad, BREAD COAL, Coat, Moat, Most, Mist, Mint, MINE

BIRD, Bind, Mind, Mint, Mist, Fist, FISH

WHEAT, Cheat, Cheap, Cheep, Creep, Creed, Breed, BREAD NICE, Mice, Mile, Male, Malt, Melt, Meat, MEAN

POOR, Pool, Tool, Toil, Tail, Tall, Tale, Tile, Tide, Ride, Rice, RICH

ARM, Aim, Air, Fir, Fig, Big, Beg, LEG ONE, Ore, Are, Ace, Act, Ant, And, Aid, Lid, Lip, Tip, Tin, TEN

PITY, Pits, Pins, Fins, Find, Fond, Food, GOOD

COMB, Come, Home, Hole, Hale, Hall, Hail, HAIR

Answers

Page 20

ARROW MAZES BY: HOLDEN M.

Difficulty:

Intermediate

The goal of this arrow maze is to

start at the letter “S”, the start, and

follow the arrows until you reach the

end, the letter “E”. Pick an arrow to

start at in the start zone, and then

follow the direction of that arrow

until you reach a new arrow. Once

you are at the new arrow, follow the

direction shown on the arrow. If

there is more than one direction,

then choose one to follow. Continue

this process until you reach the end.

Good luck!

Page 21

THE DIFFICULT ARROW MAZE BY: HOLDEN M.

Images were cropped screenshots of a program I made to design arrow mazes. Answers are expressed as series of arrows. The arrows tell you which pathway is the correct

pathway. Answers are upside down.

Easy: ←↑↗↘↓↘↓→↗↗←↗←↑↖→→→↘↓↙←↑ Intermediate: ←↓↘→↗↑↖↓↓↗↖←←←←←↓↓↓↓↓↓→→→→↑↖↗↑↖←←↑↗↑→→↘←

Difficult: →↓↘↗←↙↘↓←↑↘→↓↗↑↘↘←↓←↓→↓→↑→↑↖↓←↑↗→↓←↘↑→↓↙←↘→↑↘↑↑←↙↘←↘→↖↖↑↑↙←↓→↘↘

Page 22

On an early Saturday morn-

ing, about 60 adults had

gathered at George Wash-

ington University had gath-

ered to hear a man speak.

The man, a balding engineer

by the name of Bas Lans-

dorp, was already on the

stage, and ready to see the

reaction of the audience.

“How many of you would

like to take a one-way trip to

Mars?” he asked. Nearly

everybody raised their

hands.

Bas Lansdorp is the founder and CEO of Mars One. Along with his co-founder Arno Wielders, the Dutch

man had created a foundation with a goal of making the first permanent human civilization on Mars. In 2011,

Lansdorp had realized that if governments are too cautious to go to Mars, then maybe he should go. “I real-

ized that if it’s going to happen,” says Bas. “Then I’d have to do it myself.”

Now, in 2015, Mars One is based in the Netherlands, and has more than 200,000 volunteers. In 2014,

more than 80,000 people had donated more than $300,000, not much

compared to the needed 6 or 7 billion dollars. Luckily, they already had a plan. In 2020, the first unmanned

mission will depart to prepare the settlement. In 2026, crews will start to depart to their one-way trip to Mars,

and will continue leaving in subsequent periods of 26 months. Sadly for the foundation, NASA won’t allow

the expedition unless there is a guaranteed way back. “The tech to get you back from Mars simply doesn’t

exist,” said Lansdorp responded to NASA’s command. “We need to do this with the stuff we have today, and

the only way to do that is by going there to stay.”

By now, Mars One has spent billions of dollars, but they forgot one extremely important fact- deadly

space radiation. The government will only spend $29K to protect astronauts from the radiation, a small

amount compared to the billions the US uses for wars.

So now we get back to the University. For quite a while, Bas Lansdorp had been going around to uni-

versities and public places to find supporters. George Washington University was surprising, usually there

weren’t that many people to agree to go on a one-way trip to Mars. That brings us to the big question: Why

on Earth would anyone want to go to Mars?

THE NEXT GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND BY: DANIEL B.

Page 23

One man, Max Fagin, explains why. If technically it all goes right, he will go to Mars but miss out on

the feel of falling snow, the gentle breeze, or swimming on a scorching day. “I would feel incredibly sad

about missing all those things,” said Fagin, a master’s student in aerospace engineering. “But the whole point

of going to Mars is that you’d have better substitutes. Any human being can visit the ocean.

Anyone can visit the forest. These are beautiful things, but they are commonplace. I will get the chance to

experience a sunrise on Mars. I will get the chance to stand at the foot of Olympus Mons, one of the tallest

mountains in the solar system. I will get the chance to see two moons in the sky. I just can’t imagine being

nostalgic for a life that 6 or 7 billion people are experiencing right now.”

While Max Fagin explains why it might be an interesting place, other people explain why it’s safer.

Writer Tom Ligon, who publishes mostly in the magazine Analog Science Fiction and fact, pointed out that

while Mars has many hazards, it doesn’t have rattlesnakes, earthquakes, terrorists, or wars. "It's hard to have

forest fires over there," he said May 7 during a panel discussion at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washing-

ton, which was hosted by the nonprofit Explore Mars Inc. "The volcanoes are extinct, geologically pretty qui-

et. Mars is actually, in a lot of ways, a lot safer than Earth." Not only that, but thanks to the novelist Michael

Swanwick, we might solve Earth problems on Mars. ”We all are running out of a lot of different minerals,

some of which our civilization depends on," said Swanwick, who has won the Hugo and Nebula awards for

his work. "Strange[ly] enough, there is the possibility of copper going extinct. There is a science-fiction idea

for you.”

To make sure that Mars One didn’t also become a science-fiction idea, Lansdorp had to plan a very

important factor: technology. None of the tech will be built in-house. An expected rocket is an upgraded Fal-

con 9 from SpaceX, and a landing capsule from SpaceX or Lockheed Martin. Finally, the foundation will

have a pair of rovers not for science, but for moving Martian soil and laying sheets of thin-film solar panels,

to prepare for the arrival of humans.

Now, as Mars One grows, it proves even more that there are different humans. As Lansdorp said him-

self, the people who want to go to Mars and the ones who don’t will never really understand each other. Of

course, that doesn’t mean that not everybody wants to go even a little bit. It means that most people are

pulled back to Earth, instead of moving away to Mars. People think that the ‘Martians’ are running away

from Earth. Of course, somebody argues. Leila Zucker, a physician, is trying to show people why Mars One

is a good idea. “I can work to make things better on Earth while I’m here,” she said at an interview, “but I

could work to make things better on Earth while I’m on Mars. The idea that I’m

running away or something . . . no, I’m not. People who think that are small-minded and

scared. The whole idea is to expand the human race.”

Ever since Mars was discovered, people had wanted to go there. As Leila Zucker said herself, the

whole purpose (at least for some of them) is to expand the human

race. At the end of a session, she started to sing “I wanted to go to

the Red Planet Mars/but I didn’t get picked by Bas/I wanted to go to

the Red Planet Mars/now I gaze longingly at the stars/But I don’t

care I wasn’t picked for space/I’m cheering for the future of the hu-

man race/Someday we’ll all go to the Red Planet Mars/’Cause Mars

One leads the way to the stars!” Everyone on Mars One will, sadly,

also gaze longingly at the stars. Seeing space is the most amazing

sight that person will ever see, but it will also make them longingly

sad. These people won’t be able to share that experience with Earth.

So is Mars One really such a good idea?

THE NEXT GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND BY: DANIEL B.

Page 24

Recently, studies have shown that livestock pollutes the environment more than cars, planes, trains, and other

transportation combined. And standing alone, out of all the millions of livestock raised by farmers across the world, is

the one animal that pollutes most. The bovine terror, the cow.

Just preparing livestock for growth and health produces nine percent of all carbon dioxide in the world. The

waste and wind of cows alone produce more than one third of all methane, which warms the Earth 23 times faster than

carbon dioxide. Cows stink.

Experts estimate that by 2030, the pollution by cows will increase by more than 30 percent. Cattle farming is

responsible for over 18 percent of all greenhouse gasses released. Cows release methane through burping and flatu-

lence, and they are overgrazing, resulting in even more burping, flatulence, and excretions. Biodiversity is being re-

duced heavily by cows. 2/3 of all ammonia comes for cows. Think about it. Just one cow releases between 70 and 120

kilograms of methane per year. And in just 2011, there were 30,056,000 beef cows and 9,085,000 dairy cows. And

there are way more now. Cows are slowly taking over the world.

The fast food industry is huge right now. 2/3 of the population of America is obese or overweight. Increasing want for

food means increasing want for cows. The fast food industry gets more money from fast food; they kick out small cow

breeding companies. Only big ones are left. These big cow industries don’t care about the care of their cows, like the

little ones do. The cows are dumped in a truck, if they survive the feedlots, dairy sheds, and veal farms. They go with-

out food and water for days. Cows die from heat or are frozen to walls. Many cows are too weak and tired to walk,

from the journey, so many are dragged off. Then they are dumped into what is essentially a big cage, to await their

slaughter. All this time, the cows are burping, farting, and pooping. On other cows. The ones that are going to be eaten

by people.

The need for fast food makes big industries need to produces healthy cows as fast as possible. So scientists use

growth hormones and stimulants to make sure cows grow fast. They are mistreated because taking care of them is a

waste of time. Whenever a cow gets sick, cow factories either put it in with the other cows and cook it, transmitting the

disease to other cows that people are going to eat, or they give it medicine. So many antibiotics are used on cows that

many types of strong bacteria have evolved, leading to many diseases that humans catch and are harder to cure, or

more animals catch them, leading to more antibiotics and creating a devil’s triangle. Is the devil a cow?

Cows pollute the environment, yes, but let’s take a closer look. When they are slaughtered, this is done by hand, unlike

chickens. Many workers are poor, and get sick. Also, the chance of injuries by knives, cows, and machines are very

high. One time, a person fell into a meat grinder and ended up as lard that people ate. Also, much of the cow waste that

is produced is stuck onto the cows and people. With very little time to slaughter, cows are often turned into hamburg-

ers with large amounts of cow waste stuck on them, causing E. coli, a type of bacteria which causes diarrhea. Remem-

ber that all the time, the cow waste is polluting the environment by sending methane and C02 into the air. Even in

death, cows harm the environment.

Yes, it’s true. Cows can even pollute the water. They get to seas, rivers, and lakes. No, the cows do not swim

over and fart in them. But, tons of water is used to water plants that feed livestock, and tons of cow manure comes out.

This manure is washed down through rivers, into the drinking water and into lakes and oceans. Cows have wiped out

entire reefs, and their manure causes algae to bloom, majorly decreasing oxygen levels. And, due to all the cow ma-

nure washed into the drinking water, hundreds of people get sick, and hundreds more die. Cow poop is deadly.

Basically, cows can harm people in many ways. By harming the environment, they destroy the means for people to

survive. They also harm people directly. Although you could argue that it is the people’s fault that cows harm us, they

do harm us. Although it is true that we have brought this upon ourselves, there is nothing that we can do to change the

fact that cows harm us. Or is there? We can change now. Change for the better. Cut the fast food. Use home owned

farms. Stop using growth hormones and stimulants. Harness the power of farts!! Or in other words find a way to use

methane as energy. There is a way. Many ways, that we can change this. But we cannot do this alone. Every single

person. And it all starts with you. (See the next page for this article explained through diagrams)

ARE COWS CAUSING MAJOR PROBLEMS?

BY : W ILLIAM M.

Page 25

HOW COWS POLLUTE AND HOW THEY WORK

BY : W ILLIAM M.

Cows eat grass. Then they poop and fart

which releases carbon dioxide and methane,

which pollutes. Also, nitrogen, which rains

and grows more grass that cows eat.

Cows eat plants that contain carbon. They

respire and give of carbon dioxide. Com-

bustion gives off carbon dioxide. Plants ab-

sorb carbon dioxide.

Basic cow anatomy.

Diagram of

how cow ma-

nure gets into

oceans and de-

stroys fish and

plants.

How cow manure works its way into the The effect of cows reducing biodiver-

sity.

Page 26

Every day our brains are striving for perfection and that goal of perfection is something that helps us survive

from day to day. Our brains need something to focus on and cultivating it with ideas and thoughts is a good

way to keep our brain active. In many ways school helps us like this and also in many ways, so does the tests

that school hands out to the students. Many of the tests in district 203 has a singular goal of keeping the

brain going, and the PARCC tests is one of that many.

The PARCC test is an individualistic test and every student WILL take a different time amount to

finish it. While waiting for other students to finish, people might be talking in small groups or reading. Dis-

trict 203 definitely encourages social relationships and reading, but after taking a PARCC test, maybe there

needs to be a better way of keeping the mind active. Because the PARCC test already gets your brain fired

up and ready for action, we should utilize this brain boosts and use it on subjects that require extra brain

thought. School was made to help you learn things, and that’s what this issue of Eagle Eye magazine is all

about; keeping your brain learning in a fun way.

How PARCC works

Originally, the Illinois state was taking Illinois standardized tests such as ISAT (Illinois Standard

Achievement Test) and PSAE (Prairie State Achievement Examination) and each of these were tests taken

by hand, by circling in bubbles and writing in essays. The PARCC test is a completely new way of industri-

alized testing because it uses computers and technology to understand the many ways students think and un-

derstand things. Obviously, because it’s technology that is grading these tests and printing out the answers,

there has to be some way of understanding what students are writing. The answer is neural networks.

Neural networks are what most word recognizing machines use to interpret your words that you say.

A few examples of these are Siri (what I-phones use), some auto-message systems and etc. The Neural net-

works are basically a student (in a way) and each new word is “taught” to it. The networks in neural net-

works is all about words and connections to words: It’s just like our brains. Our brains connect things to dif-

ferent things in groups, like actors on a stage; you can’t have too many actors on one stage. Every actor does

a scene with another actor or acts alone, and our brain is just like that, grouping together things. Neural net-

works use this once hearing a word and transferring it into information, it uses a network of data to see

which word/data has the best relationship to the data entered.

Maybe though (most likely), all essays are submitted to an Illinois group that grades the essays,

though that would take A WHILE.

Some other problems that technology tests can give us is glitches; lots of glitches. Some of these

many glitches can include: screen crashes, CPU overload, fuzzy texts, bobbing symbols and etc. These are

all problems that can happen and will happen to someone: how does PARCC stop that?

There are TOO many glitches that relate to the computer CPU system that there can only merely be

some suggestions as follows: restart your computer, close everything out and reopen it, or just restart the

page. In the middle of a test, all of these are not an option so what can we do about this? At the moment it

seems that nothing can be done about this. What PARCC could do though is somehow reduce the amount of

FPS and CPU usage of the webpage, through many little edits.

Technology is complicated and like all complicated things, it comes with many problems: why not

cool your brain off from all that technological stuff? Read on…

PERSPECTIVE ON PARCC

BY : ERON R.

Page 27

Random Stuff

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

The most money ever paid for a cow in an auction was $1.3 million.

It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King

James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th

word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last

word is spear.

Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones

crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleve-

land's baby daughter, Ruth.

Babies have more bones in their bodies than adults. As the babies

grow older, some bones eventually fuse together (like in the skull),

resulting in fewer bones as an adult.

Brett Favre's first completed pass as a Green Bay Packer was to him-

self.

The word "laser" is an acronym. It stands for "Light Amplification by

the Stimulated Emission of Radiation."

The first seedless grapes were kind of an accident. Thousands of years

ago in the Middle East, a random genetic mutation caused a group

of grapes to spontaneously abort their own seeds before the seeds

could develop hard casings. The result: seedless produce. To repro-

duce the fruit, a sly farmer simply cloned the vine (with no seeds,

there’s nothing to plant)—meaning that all seedless grapes today

are direct descendants of that one mutated grape vine.

In Ireland, Jack O’Lanterns were once carved from turnips

RANDOM STUFF

BY : ERON R.

Page 28

THE ANIMALS

BY : ELIZABETH L. 99.9% of all animals have gone extinct. 99.9%.

There are about 8.7 million species left on earth

which means there was once 8.7 billion animal

species on earth and about 8691300000 animals

have gone extinct! And then every day about 200

animals go extinct. That means in the year 2135 all

the animals would be extinct (if it continues at the

same rate)! Why? Because of humans. Every time

you use your phone or ride in a car you are helping

the environment kill itself and the animals and

species left on earth. The endangered turn extinct

as we continue to live. But sometimes things hap-

pen. Sometimes the extinct come back.

Animals have gone extinct because of us or things that we bring upon them. The do-

do bird for example. They were flightless birds who lived on the undiscovered island of

Mauritius until Dutch sailors discovered the island. The dodo birds were easy to catch and

made an easy meal for the Dutch sailors. After a while the Dutch sailors might have

stopped eating them (because they tasted bad) but the dogs and rats and pigs that the sail-

ors brought developed a certain taste for dodo eggs and began to destroy the habitat of the

dodo and other animals of Mauritius. That ended the life of the dodo bird that to this day,

we still don’t know exactly what they looked like.

Another animal that became extinct was the Yangtze River dolphin. It lived exclu-

sively in the Yangtze River of China and was the first known dolphin that humans drove to

extinction. Harmful fishing practices like gill net, rolling hooks, and electrical stunning

led to their extinction. Fishermen did this to get food on their table to survive but ironical-

ly this will eventually lend a hand in the downfall of the animals that the fishermen eat.

Some animals are just hardly getting by while their numbers get lower and lower.

These are called endangered animals. Snow Leopards are one. There are about 4080-6590

left in the wild. Threats to the Snow Leopard are farm-

ers and hunters. Farmers hunt the Snow Leopards be-

cause they want to keep their livestock safe. Hunters

want to hunt them for their coat. Then there is climate

change and habitat loss that drives the Snow Leopard

out of it’s home and proud rule of the mountains.

Page 29

THE ANIMALS

BY : ELIZABETH L.

But there is still hope with or without people helping. Animals can and have

reappeared before. Take the Black-Footed Ferret. Once they were considered ex-

tinct but now there are nearly 1000 Black-Footed ferrets in the wild. What hap-

pened? It could have been people or it could have been that people stopped inter-

fering with the land of the Black-Footed Ferret. But now they are endangered due

to habitat loss and disease.

There is another animal, the Tasmanian Tiger or the Tasmanian Wolf. Inter-

estingly it isn’t a tiger or a wolf but a relative of kangaroos. They are considered

extinct but there are some unconfirmed sightings of them and enough that zoolo-

gist are having doubts. A research team has been sent to find the Tasmanian Tiger

and many reliable locals say that they have seen the Tasmanian Tiger. So there is a

possibility while we consider the Tasmanian Tiger as still extinct that they are liv-

ing in secrecy behind the eyes of humans.

Overall some animals have or are going

through cases like this where we consider them

to be extinct while they live in secrecy but un-

fortunately many species' stories don’t end like

that. Many die out so we need to help save these

animals before they disappear forever.

Top Five Most

Endangered Animals 5. Axolotl

4. Javan Rhinoceros

3. Siamese Crocodile

2. Brown Spider Monkey

1. Northern White Rhinoceros (This is the most accurate that could be found so the

actual top five most endangered animals are unknown)

Page 30

S IMPLE AS SALT

BY : AERAHAN S. If you think salt tastes good with some foods

you are not alone. Almost everyone has access

to salt and they usually start liking it if they

eat it regularly. There are many theories that

explain why most people with access to salt

develop a taste for it. Some of these theories

are that we adapt to it and end up liking it and

this might be passed on through genes, we

lose salt when we sweat and our body needs

more so we would like salt, and the taste buds

with the salt on it will send a message to the

lower part of our brain which gets our neurons

moving and we will be happy. These theories

are the most likely ones that exist yet scien-

tists are not completely sure why we like salt.

There is probably a point for salt where we

can have the maximum taste for salt. They

will grind salt into extra thin powder to make

the taste very good. This is what we usually

know salt as. This will make the chances of us

buying more of that type of food very high.

The most likely theory right now is that we

like salt because of a variety of factors like the

Another theory about why we like salt is

that the love of salt is caused by genetic

makeup. This is very likely because an

experiment was done in a lab where

some scientists found rats and gave them

salt. Some like it some did not. This evi-

dence seems like an interesting lead but

we are only similar to rats and we are

obviously not exactly alike. Also the rats

could be different to other rats. Even if

we did try this on other humans we

would have to conduct several tests on

different types of people to be absolutely

sure. With the rat evidence it would be

hard not to be biased because we will

naturally try to shy away because we

will be embarrassed if we were similar

to rats

One theory that seems very likely right now is the theory that we adapt to start liking salt.

This seems very similar to how animals adapt to their surroundings. Most people have access

to salt because it is very cheap and plentiful. They start using it and they will start to adapt to

it like animals do to their habitats and they will start liking it. This has some solid evidence

but it is not enough. The evidence is that studies have been done that say that some tribes who

live deep in the Amazon rainforest who don’t have access to it hated the taste of salt when

they first tried it. Also kids who first start eating salt like it faster than most other adults. We

know this works the other way around because a study was done using many different people

and they were on a low sodium diet and they said that the low sodium foods tasted just as

good as the high sodium food they ate before and some said the low sodium food tasted even

better. This seems like the most likely single theory that was devised so far.

Page 31

S IMPLE AS SALT (CONTINUED)

BY : AERAHAN S.

One of the widely believed theories by the public is the theory

that our taste buds simply just like the taste of salt. Once our

brain detects that the salt is near us it sends a message to the

saliva glands to start creating saliva. We will want the food

with salt in it and we will eat that food. As soon as our taste

buds detect the taste of the salt in the food we are eating it will send a mes-

sage to the lower part of our brain. Our taste buds will take the good taste of

salt and compare it with the bitter taste of salt if the good taste of salt is

stronger than the bad taste of salt our taste buds will just take out the bad taste

and only send the good taste to the lower part of our brain which will make us

want the taste of salt again. Again this is not solid evidence because there is

not actually a way to test this theory. We do know for sure we have taste

buds ,

We know little about why we like salt one of the only things we know about

salt is that we love salt for sure. There have been many theories about why we

like salt. Some of them are we adapt to it, we simply like it, and that we like it

because of genetic makeup. The hardest things about determining why we like

salt is simply because we still don’t know how we can test one theory. For ex-

ample the theory about the taste buds with the technology we have today is al-

most impossible to test without nanotechnology tracking the signals of our

taste buds to our brain. The theory of our genes is also impossible to test be-

cause we don’t even have a picture of what they look like much less find what

types of genes have the taste for salt in them. The theory where we adapt to

salt is hard to keep track of because we don’t even know how our body adapts

to salt. Scientists should stop coming up with theories and instead they should

come up with ways to test those theories.

Page 32

ABSENCE OF SODEXO— F R O M L A S T S U M M E R

BY : M ICHAEL J . It’s summer! No more letting Sodexho dictate what you can and can’t eat. So now if you want that doughnut, eat it!

(On the first Friday of June) or if you want that Jelly-filled doughnut, eat it! (On the eighth of June) Because now

you can let the national official and unofficial food holidays dictate what you can and can eat!

In June you can enjoy many delicacies (such as the already said doughnut); on the first have Hazelnut cake!

(Make some yourself, click here for a recipe!), on the second of June, cool off in the heat with the easy to find

Rocky Road ice cream! Just walk over to your local grocery store and pick some up! (Or beg your mother or father

for it). On the third of June its National egg day! So have some eggnog, eat an omelet (or scrambled eggs) and ei-

ther egg someone’s house or just egg someone on! On the fourth of June get some cheese. If you have any leftover

omelet from yesterday, turn it into a cheese omelet! Or get some nice water crackers and eat some! (Click here to

make your own cheese).

And already I’m on my third paragraph for the Fifth day of June! Nope! The fourth of June is also national

cognac (alcohol) day and frozen yogurt day. But no matter what please don’t have cognac, and especially not in

cheese frozen yogurt, but please sprinkle cheese on frozen yogurt. On the fifth you can reminisce about those good

old days of winter. When you remembered that recipe to make gingerbread. (Please click here to remember that rec-

ipe). But please get these ingredients from an environmentally friendly source, because it’s also World Environment

day!

And (although people disagree about when national applesauce cake day is) please eat some of this (cake?)

between the fourth and the sixth (Please click here to learn what applesauce cake is). And if you think, that by now,

after 6 days of freedom that you want Sodexho, then don’t fret! Today (June 7th) is Chocolate Ice cream day! So sit

right down with a big bowl of chocolate ice-cream…and look at this article!

On the eighth, jelly-filled doughnuts run amok, for the eighth is national jelly-filled doughnut day! So

please, don’t eat a bagel on the 8th, eat a doughnut! And on the ninth, there is a pie that many of you love, hate, or

never heard of… the strawberry rhubarb pie! So just hunker right down inside that bunker (you may be in) and eat

some pie. Or please read this recipe for it… and if you are inside a nuclear power plant, please do not try to make

this recipe, heated up by nuclear power. Or if you do, please keep a safe distance away from the radioactivity! On

the tenth, there is a triple whammy! So please enjoy your black cow (root beer float) with iced tea ice cream, and

plenty of herbs and spices! Because on the tenth of June it is Black cow, herbs and spices, and iced tea day! So

please have plenty of those. But all at once might be a little eccentric…

On the eleventh, you might fare a little better if you eat this all at once, because today is national German chocolate

cake day! So please, make some of this cake and SHARE WITH ME! If you would like to make one from scratch

please click here. And the next day, while you are recovering from your tummy-ache (did you eat too much cake?

Please give some to ME!) Enjoy some tasty delicate peanut butter cookies!* (Warning: may contain peanuts) Just

munch on them all day long to get a new tummy-ache! (Because you should share some with me too!)

The twelfth of June is like a weekend to you. Because you get to choose what to eat today, just as long as

you are klutzy… (It is kitchen Klutzes of America day…). And on the thirteenth have some Strawberry shortcake

(and watch some too) (IF you watch strawberry shortcake please watch the old kind)(Also play strawberry short-

cake video games)*(And play with Strawberry shortcake merchandise…)(Here is the recipe for strawberry short-

cake)(Here is a link to Amazon.com to buy strawberry shortcake merchandise strawberry shortcake merchandise).

On the fifteenth have some lobster! Maybe go to the fanciest place in town and order some lobster! I know nothing

about lobster, but please let me dictate what you should eat! And now we return to a topic that I know about…

Page 33

SUMMER ABSENCE OF SODEXO ( C O N T I N U E D )

BY : M ICHAEL J . …Fudge! Because the sixteenth of June is national fudge day! So please beg your parents for fudge and do

nothing else but that today. (Unless you know how to bake fudge, then click here). And if you feel sick the next

day (on the seventeenth) then just eat your fresh veggies! Because it’s national fresh veggies day. Hopefully that

will revive you enough so you can eat strudel! Because the seventeenth is also national apple strudel day! (Click

here if you want to make apple strudel) (My birthday is during the summer; please send me a gift-basket with the

following items: apple strudel, cash, apple strudel, apple strudel, apple strudel, and 10 German chocolate cakes.

Thank you!).

On the eighteenth, after you and I have eaten our fill of strudel you should have a delicious picnic with

homemade cherry tarts and sushi. Because the eighteenth is national picnic day and sushi day and cherry tart day!

(I wonder how cherry start sushi during a picnic will taste like) (Please click here to find out a time-consuming and

sticky way to get sushi). You should know how to make cherry tarts. So I am not including a recipe for that. Every-

one should know how to make cherry tarts. I like sweets. (In case you can’t tell).

On the nineteenth you are free to have whatever you want! (Excluding alcohol and other inappropriate sub-

stances…) And on the twentieth is one of my favorites. Vanilla milkshake day! (I like all sweets days) so walk out-

side to your nearest steak and shake and order yourself a comically large milkshake today. And on the next day

(the twentieth) don’t touch those strawberries and cream (that day is on the 21st of May, not June) because today is

peaches and cream day! So get out that whipped cream, cut a few peaches up and enjoy some whipped cream cov-

ered peaches.

On the twenty-second try wrapping a succulent chocolate éclair (yummy) with onion rings (yummier) be-

cause it is chocolate éclair day and onion ring day! So have that chocolate éclair for breakfast, that chocolate éclair

with onion rings for lunch, and those onion rings with a chocolate éclair and those onion rings for snacks. Nothing

will go wrong! A perfectly nutritious meal! I have no idea what this is and you probably don’t know either but (as

long as you are not allergic to nuts, in that case you are free from the troubles of food days for today!) but please (I

implore you to make these) make or find out (at least) what a pecan sandie is. Ice cream? Cookie? An unconven-

tional way to eat nuts? No one knows! (At least not me) and if you would like to make it please click here.

On the 25th please enjoy some catfish with your strawberry parfait (or a strawberry catfish parfait) because… (You

know why). Just grab your fishing rod (or your pocket fishing rod) and hunker down to the bank to waste your day

trying to catch the elusive catfish! And on the next day after you are really tired from trying to catch those fish

enjoy some chocolate pudding, and some more and some more! (Perhaps a barrel or two of it). On the twenty-

seventh it is Indian pudding day (I have no earthly idea what it is) and Orange blossom day (is it a flower or a

food?) Either way please click here if you are crazy enough to try Indian pudding and for orange blossoms… I

think it’s a day to celebrate the orange blossom by eating orange foods? (I still have no idea).

On the 28th I know what this food is… Tapioca pudding! (The food I always ask my mother for and she

says no) So don’t let your mother say no to it. Say you must eat it because its tapioca pudding day! So secretly

walk to the nearest convenience store or grocery store and steal (or buy) all the tapioca pudding in the store (and

send one barrel of it to me) Please. I need it. I like tapioca pudding.

On the 29th it is almond butter crunch day. I have no earthly idea what that is either. But on the 30th (my

sisters birthday!) I don’t know about you but my sister and I are going to have delicious ice cream floats instead of

birthday cake because… Its Ice cream float day!

This was 3 pages of food-filled fun. And that was only June. Imagine what it would be if I did all the months of the

year!

Gluten is innocent (and not yet proven guilty)

By: Saachi K

Gluten:It is in your toothpaste, your

bread, your cosmetics, salad dressings, andeven stamp and envelope adhesives. But

despite its popularity, many people havedecided to live without this protein, not

realizing the consequences. Going gluten-

free is necessary for people with glutenintolerance and celiac disease, and there

are easy ways to bake gluten-freeif you need to. But, what if you

are not allergic to gluten? Is

it good for you to gogluten-free?

Over 18 million Americans

have gluten sensitivity. 3 million of those

people have celiac disease. This leaves 302 million Americans who have a choice of

whether they want to go gluten-free or not. Many of these people bite the bait and go

gluten-free just because their favorite

celebrities are doing it too. Is it possible that even the rich and famous don’t know

about gluten-free secrets?

Gluten-Free Baking for Gluten Intolerance: Gluten is a gas-retaining protein that

provides food with nutrition, moisture, flavor, and texture; so your bread rises because of gluten. Baking

gluten-free is especially challenging because you have to get the goods vitamin-packed and healthy,

and also flavorful and tasty so that you cannot taste

a very significant difference between gluten-free and regular baked treats. If you are gluten-intolerant,

gluten-free baking can help you enjoy the variety in products you are missing out on.

Most baked treats require you to make the

batter or flour. To do this, you need to blend all the

gluten-free starches and flours together. These grains include amaranth, arrowroot, bean/legume, buckwheat,

chia, corn flour, corn meal, flax, millet, montina, nut, quinoa, potato flour, potato starch, rice, and rice bran. If

you look at the following table of grain characteristics,

you can choose which grains suit you.

Did you know? Sometimes, a gluten-

free diet can treat autism.

Do “gluten-free” and “good choice”

really go together in this puzzle? Maybe

not…

Gluten intolerance limits you

to gluten-free food, and you can’t

prevent it. But if you are one of the 302 million people who aren’t allergic, you

can either eat the expensive, fiber and

vitamin deficient foods, or eat regular

enriched food that helps your immune

system, gets you fibers, and moisturizes

your food. Gluten provides you with

vitamins like B9, fibers, and less

expensive food. The

average American is

already fiber deficient. Going gluten-free and

taking that small quantity

off worsens the situation.

Gluten-free seems like the way to go,

but you might never

realize the real issues.

First of all, gluten-free

food costs exorbitant

amount of money. Most

gluten foods are 30%

more expensive than the

Same food with gluten.

Why would you purposefully

want to spend extra money on

unhealthy food instead of eating

nutritious food that you need to have?

Also, recent scientific studies are

showing that there is no significant

benefit from this limiting diet, although

if you are allergic, there any many

ways to fix your predicament.

Gluten is, overall, a

marvelous protein that helps us fuel our

bodies for the better. It doesn’t make us “fatter” ; carbohydrates and sugars do,

and both of these things are more

common in GF foods. So, if you ever hear

your friends thinking about changing to a

GF diet (if they don’t have an allergy) you

know how to prove Gluten innocent!

Up on

Pointe: Dancers of Note

A Clements Corporation Project

Inside this issue

Early Life ................................. 1

Spotted .................................... 2

Teenage Life ............................ 2

Law, Dance, and Publicity ...... 2

Found Again ............................ 3

For A Second, It Could Have Dis-appeared ................................. 3

Symbol .................................... 3

You Can’t—Oh But You Can .... 3

Misty Copeland The lights beam down upon the face of a dancer. She leaps through the air, her

wings spreading. The firebird has awakened. Her strength lifts her into the air, a

streak of red against the black backdrop. Spinning, she entrances the audience

with her story. The graceful and empowering firebird finishes with a flourish and

the show continues. But the audience doesn’t forget the firebird. In fact, she’s

what everyone remembers.

Misty Copeland. A firebird for the American Ballet Theatre, one of the most

prominent dance companies in the world. She inspires everyone who watches

her. When she dances, she makes the audience believe her story. However, her

story is not as great and uplifting as her dancing. In fact, it is as almost as dark as

the ending of Swan Lake.

Early Life Misty

lived

in

Gar-

dena,

Cali-

Misty Copeland with siblings Lindsey Monique Brown, Erica

Stephanie Copeland, Christopher Ryan Copeland, Douglas

May 2015

More About the American Ballet Theatre (The ABT)

The American Ballet Theatre, or the

ABT, was founded in 1939. They

perform for over 450,000 people.

This is the only large cultural insti-

tution that does this. It makes ABT

unique.

At the time of ABT’s launch in 1939,

the newborn company was directed

by Oliver Smith and Lucia Chase.

Succeeding Chase and Smith in

1980, Mikhail Baryshnikov stepped

up to the director’s position. Under

Baryshnikov, ABT flourished. Many

new classical ballets were refined

and modernized.

In 1990, Oliver Smith and Jane

Hermann became the directors of

the company. They made an aggres-

sive agenda that brought old tradi-

tions and modern ideas together to

prepare for a great future.

In the October of 1992, Misty

Copeland’s life-changer Kevin

McKenzie was given the role of

Artistic Director.

The ABT has been up and going for

nearly seventy-five years. In that

period of time, they have performed

in forty-three countries, in a total of

one-hundred thirty-six cities. Out of

those cities, the ABT has performed

in all fifty states of the USA. Most

recently, international success

reaches out to Hong Kong, Havana,

Moscow, and Beijing.

NEAT FUN FACT!

On April 27, 2006, an act of Con-

gress changed

Spotted

Misty set off into the powerful world of dance. She filled every minute of

spare time she had with dance. Misty is a ballet prodigy; if she saw a step she

could do it. While it takes most dancers three years to get up on pointe, it took

Misty a mere three months. But her mother was overwhelmed. One fateful

evening, she called and insisted that Bradley take her daughter home and that

the dance lessons had to stop. Misty was devastated.

Bradley dropped Misty off at the motel, and started to drive back home to her

house. Halfway home, Bradley turned around and drove all the way back to

the motel, where she knocked on the door and asked if Misty would come live

with her and her husband Patrick and son Wolf. Misty reminisced the events.

“And I remember it so vividly, just Cindy coming and speaking with my moth-

On one school day when Misty was

thirteen, a teacher noticed her move-

ment. It was fluid and graceful, like

that of a dancer’s. She carried herself

with elegance. The teacher recom-

mended

her to a

dance

teacher at

the San

Pedro

Boys and

Girls

Club,

Cindy

Bradley.

Later,

Bradley

said,

“The first

time I saw her she was sitting high

on the bleachers and I had ...I asked

her to come down and join us. And it

Misty Copeland dancing in her early years

Law, Dance, and Publicity

Teenage Life

One day, when Misty was fifteen, her mother insist-

ed that Misty come home. Misty was frightened, not

wanting to lose ballet. “I did not want to lose ballet,”

Misty recalls, “And the thought of losing that and

coming back and living at this motel was something

that I just couldn't let happen. It was like watching

my future slip away.” So, she entered court to try to

separate from her mother. It was horrible, and very

public. It made headlines. After two months, Misty

finally stopped fighting and moved back into the

dreary motel.

“I knew that she was

“I did not want to lose ballet.”

“She has a proportion to her body and she has a response to music a visceral response to music, and a coordination that are all the ingredients of a major ballet dancer.”

Misty continued dancing and achieved many different feats. At fifteen, she won

1st Place in the Music Center Spotlight awards. She studied at the Lauridsen

Ballet Center. Misty later studied at the San Francisco Ballet School. But her

life really changed when she went to the American Ballet Theatre Summer In-

tensive.

Again, she was spotted by a life-changer. Kevin McKenzie, the director of the

American Ballet Theatre, saw her and her grace. “She has a proportion to her

body and she has a response to music a visceral response to music, and a coor-

dination that are all the ingredients of a major ballet dancer,” McKenzie said,

stating why Misty caught his eye.

McKenzie shared how important

Misty could be in the ballet commu-

nity. “You know, if she goes where

she can go, she's going to be a very

big symbol,” he said, “This is a very

big deal here.” It’s a big deal because

rarely do African American dancers

participate in big dance companies.

Misty, if she gets the role of

Principal Dancer in the American

Ballet Theatre, will provide inspira-

tion for everyone who was told they

can’t dance because of their race.

“They're being told they don't fit in,

they won't have a successful career,

they don't have the bodies...” Misty

said, “Even to this day, I hear that I

shouldn't even be wearing a tutu. I

don't have the right legs, my mus-

Misty Copeland—Under Armor

Misty Copeland as ABT’s Firebird Found Again

Symbol

For A Second, It Could Have Disappeared

Misty was ecstatic when she got the legendary role of the Firebird in the show

Firebird. But, her leg was really hurting her. However, she wanted to dance the

role. She ignored it and didn’t tell anyone. By the day of the show, it hurt just to

walk. But Misty knew how many people from her African American communi-

ty were coming to support her, so she hid it. Critics applauded her spectacular

performance, but something worse was happening. It turns out Misty had six

stress fractures in her leg. She was told she would never dance again. But here

she is, working hard and still stunning audiences with her ballet skills.

Misty Copeland

recently fea-

tured in an Un-

der Armor ad.

At the begin-

ning of the ad,

she reads her

rejection letter

into a ballet

school that she

applied to. It

tells

her

that

her body isn’t

right for ballet.

But then she

dances, leaping

through the air,

spinning across

the stage, the

inspiring danc-

er. It ends with

the powerful

quote “I Will

I Will What I Want

cles are too big. There are times when

I believe it, when I start to question,

you know, maybe it - maybe I'm see-

Misty found her happily ever after. She’s currently thirty two, living a happy

life with her lawyer boyfriend Olu Evans. She still lives and breathes dance,

and is making history. Misty was appointed to the President’s Council on Fit-

ness, Sports, and Nutrition by President Obama in 2014. Recently, she made

history with a fellow African American dancer by performing the lead roles in

Swan Lake. Misty started from nothing and fol-

Happily Ever After The Dancer of Next

Month Another ABT dancer… this is part

of her biography on their website.

Guess who it is!

Born in Sun Valley, Idaho, she

began dancing at the age of three.

While training at the Academy of

Colorado Ballet, she won the gold

medal in 2001 at the Youth Amer-

ica Grand Prix Finals in New

York City. In 2002, she began

training at the Harid Conservato-

ry in Boca Raton, Florida, on a

full scholarship.

"Misty Copeland on Love, Life, and Leaps of Faith." ELLE. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2015.

"ABT: Dancers." ABT: Dancers. American Ballet Theatre, n.d. Web. May 2015.

"Under Armour's Stunning Ballerina Ad Aims to Lure Women From Lululemon." Time. Time, n.d. Web. May 2015.

"Kam Williams Celebrity Interview: Misty Copeland." The Skanner News. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2015.

"Misty Copeland." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. May 2015.

"Our June/July Cover Is Making Waves." Pointe Magazine – Ballet at Its Best.N.p., n.d. Web. May 2015.

"ABT: Inside ABT." ABT: Inside ABT. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2015.

"Jos Gandos Coloring Pages For Kids." Ballet Shoes Easy Drawing. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2015.

"ABT: Dancers." ABT: Dancers. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2015.

Bibliography

About the Author

Elliott Clements, a twelve

year old dancer herself,

goes to Kennedy Junior

High School and takes her

LA class with her awesome

Page 40

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

BY : RACHEL S.

What are genetically Modified foods If you were a farmer, beetles would attack your tomato crops every year. You

have to buy gallons and gallons of pesticides to battle the beetles. However, you heard

that there were scientists that created a kind of tomato plant that could produce its

own pesticide, you wouldn’t have to buy your own, and you only had to get your own

pesticide producing tomato plants.

These tomatoes are like the fruits and vegetables that carry vaccines and the

rice that can grow in saltwater. These are very helpful, but they could also carry allergens. Long term

effects might not have appeared. The tomato plant relies on a gene that comes from bacterium, which

is what scientist put into the tomato plant’s genome.

How to create an insect resistant tomato plant There are 10 steps to make an insect resistant tomato plant. First, you have to cut out the

gene. Next, put the gene into a vector with a selectable antibiotic resistance marker gene. Third, copy

the vector in the bacteria. Fourth, coat the tungsten or gold particles with the DNA vectors. Fifth,

load the vector-coated particles onto the Teflon bullet. Sixth, load the gene gun. Seventh, shoot, and

the gene gun releases particles at a high velocity, which penetrates plant cells. Eighth, when he vec-

tor enters the cell, the genes are incorporated with the vector will grow. Ninth, the cells are plated on

a selective antibiotic media, and only the cells that have been incorporated with the vector will grow.

Tenth, the cells are transferred to medium which contains plant growth factors. Now, you have a to-

mato plant that produces its own pesticide.

The risks and benefits of GMO’s

Other plants that have been modified are

potatoes, squash, corn, and soybeans. In Uganda,

people eat a lot of bananas. However, bananas

don’t have a lot of vitamin A. There are many cases

of blindness, because bananas don’t have vitamin

A. Too much vitamin A is toxic to the body, so

there wasn’t an easy solution. Super bananas

would help prevent blindness.

Genetically modified foods could

help fill the gaps in nutrition and minerals,

but they could also harm the environment. If

a genetically engineered plant became inva-

sive, that would be a problem. There are

risks with the possibility of fixing health

problems for people who don’t have access to a

certain nutrient. If a genetically modified plant

caused more problems than it fixed, people proba-

bly wouldn’t bother to care for it. Genetically mod-

ified foods could do great things for us, but they

should first be thoroughly tested for safety.

Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of. — Steven Hawking

PRISON BREAK MAZE

BY: KRISTIN C.

DONUT PUZZLE

BY: NANDINI K.

Start here

Page 43

APPLE IWATCH

BY: HARRISON Z.

The Apple Watch has stirred up frenzy within the Apple fans. The

question is; does it really have potential? Decide for yourself with the

following arguments.

Page 44

APPLE IWATCH (CONTINUED)

BY: HARRISON Z.

This is the time where everyone is

starting to exercise in order to stay fit.

The Apple Watch provides numerous

things for exercise, like a heart rate

monitor, records of your steps, exer-

cise, and standing time. The Apple

Watch will even tell you when you

have to stand up because you

were sitting too long. The Apple

Watch doesn’t even need your

iPhone for the fitness app unless

you want to record your daily

fitness. The Apple Watch

even supports Apple Pay,

and you don’t even need your

iPhone to use it, except for the

first time, to link your Apple

Watch to your Apple Pay

account.

This story can fit 75-125 words.

Selecting pictures or graphics is an im-

portant part of adding content to your

newsletter.

Think about your article and ask your-

self if the picture supports or enhances

the message you’re trying to convey.

Avoid selecting images that appear to be

out of context.

Microsoft Publisher includes thousands

All you have to do is open up the app, scroll through the

credit cards, select one, and scan it onto the scanner. This means that if you by accident left your wallet at home, you

have a virtual one slapped right on your wrist. This makes your pockets free of everything ex-cept an iPhone if you want to

access the other features of the Apple Watch. The smart watch

isn’t a pain to lug around ei-ther. It weighs less than an ounce, for the Apple Watch

Sport, which is the most common. The watch is also attrac-

tive because it makes new ways to interact

with others such as sending

your heart beat to your friend. It also uses the haptic engine tech-nology to notify you by making it

feel like a gentle tap on your wrist. The Apple Watch even can use the haptic engine to notify you when

to turn by tapping you ten times if it wants you to turn right, and 6 taps to turn left. This means that you can disable sound from maps

if you want to listen to music while driving to a new place. The

smart watch has a battery life that

is supposed to last for up to 18 hours. As Apple CEO Tim Cook

said, “We were-n’t first on the

MP3 player; we weren’t first on the tablet; we weren’t first on the

smartphone. But we were argua-bly the first modern smartphone, and we will be the first modern smart watch—the first one that

matters.”

“We weren’t first on the MP3 player; we weren’t first on the tablet; we weren’t

first on the smartphone. But we were arguably the first modern smartphone,

and we will be the first modern smart watch—the first one that matters.”

YES! IT HAS

POTENTIAL!

Page 45

APPLE IWATCH (CONTINUED)

BY: HARRISON Z.

The Apple Watch Sport 38mm size is the cheapest Apple Watch model, and it costs $349. That is an extremely expensive price to pay just for a phone accessory. The better the model, the more expensive it gets. Who would care if their phone accessory was made of gold? Also, the amount of RAM that the Apple Watch has is only 512 MB, while the Samsung Galaxy Gear S has a RAM of 1 GB. The Bluetooth pro-cessing speed is very slow even though the iPhone is right in your pocket. The Apple Watch

doesn’t even have a camera, so you will still need your iPhone or camera to take pictures anyway. Also, unlike the Pebble Time, or any other smart watch created by Pebble, the Apple Watch only has compatibility with an iPhone 5 or later phone. It can’t even be compatible with the iPhone 4, forcing people still with a previ-ous iPhone to buy a newer phone, putting another couple hundred dollars to waste. People with Androids, Blackberries, Nokia, Fire phones, and other phones would have to forfeit

them in exchange for an acces-sory. So to others, the Apple Watch would be worth over $500 with a contract. The Pebble Time, has compatibility with An-droid also. The Apple Watch also relies heavily on the iPhone, which is ironic because the Apple Watch is meant to free you from a phone, but instead, is tying you more to your phone. If you wanted to save time and text on your watch,

NO! IT DOESN’T HAVE POTENTIAL!

You would be left as a frustrated person. The watch would leave you with the question of why you didn’t actually just take out your phone to text anyway. Also, iPhone users can become frus-trated because they are used to using the normal methods for zooming in and out, and other

things. The new method imple-mented into the Apple Watch called “Force Touch” takes a while for iPhone users to get used to. Also, Apple’s popularity and reputation won’t save the smart watch. That is because people who already have bought it will realize that they just

bought something not worth the money they paid.

West of the Moon by: Margi Prius

Review by: Elizabeth L.

West of the Moon is about a girl named Astri and her sister. Their father is in

America trying to get rich and when he gets enough money, he said that he would

ship the money over to the girls for them to use to get to America. Meanwhile, the

girls were staying with an awful aunt and uncle that sold Astri to a wicked goat

farmer so that they could get money. Astri lived there for a little bit then meets the

spinning girl. They escape together and then get her sister and try to go to America.

They hit a lot of bumps along the way and tell a lot of lies and do a bunch of bad

things (ex. Chopping off fingers, stealing). But they still set out to meet their father.

I think this book is ok but not very good. I was expecting a happy nice fantasy

book but no. Everything in this book can be explained and there is nothing that magical in this book. I also

never thought that is would get violent or inappropriate like cutting off fingers or letting a man die. I also

thought the sisters would be nice and good and try to outsmart people but apparently not. Astri does sort of

outsmart the goat farmer but mostly cutting off his fingers got her free. I didn’t like the ending either. Astri’s

sister gets sick then gets claimed by someone else as their own child and them Astri gets a great job offering

from a parson’s (priest’s) wife. I think that this book would be more enjoyable for adults than kids but that’s

my opinion. Overall though, this book was a pretty good story and yet very sad and frustrating. It has a nice

plot and storyline so if I were to rate it along with all the bad things I would rate it three stars. I think the next

time I want to read a book from the Mock Newberry list, I should probably choose a fantasy book instead of

a realistic fiction book.

Page 46

MEDIA REVIEW Magyk Book Series: by Septimus Heap Review by: Kristin C.

Have you ever wished you could master the lost art of human Flyte? Or use the Un-seen spell so that no one will hear or see you? Well you can in the Magykal series of Septimus Heap. Boy 412 is part of the Young Army. He is the 412nd boy in the Young Army, and has been sent to “guard” the wizard tower, but in reality, is spying on the Ex-

tra~Ordinary Wizard, and before he has even been introduced to Magyk, he can see the Magykal Haze rip-pling off the wizards doing Magyk. Jenna Heap is the Princess. Who would have guessed? She has lived with the Heaps’ ever since her mother, the queen, was murdered. Ten years she thought she was the twin sister of Septimus Heap, who died at childbirth. As soon as she figures out who she is, the assassin is after her, forcing her to flee the on-ly home she has know. Marcia Overstrand is the Extra~Ordinary wizard. She needs an apprentice soon, and is eyeing Septimus, because of his ability to see Magyk before he has been introduced to the art. Embark on a spectacular journey with Boy 412, Jenna, Marcia, and the rest

of the Heaps as they discover Magyk, and find out who they are.

Page 47

MEDIA REVIEW (CONTINUED)

Chirp or Naomi’s mom has a leg problem. It doesn’t work like a leg should and it drags along

useless. Chirp and her sister dance for her mom because her mom can’t dance with her paralyzed leg.

When Chirp just can’t handle everything going on at her house like her sister not believing her mom could

dance again, she goes to her favorite place, the salt marsh. She watches birds there and learns more about

the pattern and lifestyles of the birds there. One time, she meets a boy from her class named Joey, who comes from a

family with “significant issues”. They become friends despite their differences and help each other when they need to.

But Chirp lets him down once and Joey begins to bully her until he *spoiler alert* finds out how her mom had just left

her. Joey helps Chirp through it and they go on an adventure together.

I do not like this book because it does not describe a 6th grade very well. The girl Chirp is way too dumb and

acts like a 3rd grader in some parts and older at other times. The overall story is creative but the characters are unrealis-

tic. I do not think that 6th graders would cry so much or would make a play about the turkeys and pilgrims and need to

learn about them or need to know what a prefix is. Joey acts too unforgiving and harsh at some points but too nice and

kind at other points. And the only reason I thought the book was going to be good was because of the description on the

back but that is barely accurate. It says “Chirp loves to explore the bird-filled salt marsh near her house. But when life

feels too hard, she and her friend Joey crate their own private world and come up with the perfect plan: Escape. Adven-

ture. Discovery.” It only happens twice in the book, and for a short period of time. This book is impossibly sad, sad

enough that you can’t even cry and has an okay ending. There is still a lot of questions left hanging at the end but then

again a lot of books have that. I think if I would rate this book I would give it 2 stars for having horrible characters do-

ing unpredictable actions that do not make that much sense.

Nest by Esther Ehrlich

Review by: Elizabeth L.

The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye

Review by: Elizabeth L.

Aref is leaving his home in Oman and going to Michigan to live for 3 years. His father went

early to prepare their home in Michigan. Everyone is telling him how lucky he is to be going there but

he doesn’t feel that way. He has to say goodbye to everything he loves. His cat, his friends, his school,

his rock collection, his grandfather Sidi, the turtles, just all of Oman. His cousins and their parents are

moving in to his house when he leaves so he needs to clean and pack. But instead he mopes around to

house until his mom calls Sidi over to get him out of the house and make him go somewhere else. They go the Night of

a Thousand Stars camp and stay there for a day. Aref meets a falcon there and some other people there. They return the

next day but Aref still mopes around. His mom calls Sidi over again and they go to his house and play games and spend

another night there until he is ready to leave.

This book was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a book on the trip over to Michigan and how Aref

adjusted to life there. Instead I got a book on the days before Aref leaves. This book was bad because A. It could not

keep my attention for more than 5 minutes and B. It was incredibly cheesy. The characters talk very weirdly with sen-

tences without proper grammar and without much sense but that was probably intentional because they live in Oman.

The book was boring because the days before a trip are always boring! It might be exciting to the person doing it but if

you write it out it surely has to be boring. This book just feels too happy and has no especially sad parts so it feels

cheesy. This author should probably have chosen a different topic to write on than this. Also I just need to point out that

foxes are in the dog family and also turtles are barely a part of this book. It has a horrible ending (I think so at least) and

I would give it only one star because this was a bad subject to write about in the first place.

Page 48

MEDIA REVIEW (CONTINUED)

Half a World Away is about a boy named Jaden who was adopted by a family

when he was 8. His real mother who was the only person who he had loved and then she

left him to fend for himself out in Romania. He never loved anyone after that, or that’s

what he thinks and after that he was left damaged. His adoptive parents Penni and Steve

take him on a trip to Kazakhstan to adopt another child named Bahytzhan. But when they

find that their “reserved” baby was already adopted by another couple they have to decide

on the spot which baby they want. Jaden though doesn’t like any of the babies and espe-

cially not the one his parents chose. Instead he had his eyes on a toddler named Dimash

who was also a special needs boy like Jaden. Jaden tries to love the baby that his parents

chose but the baby, Ramazan, just seemed so lifeless to Jaden and without emotion.

I thought that this book was great because it has emotion and voice with a great

cast of characters. Each person is crafted perfectly with their own ups and downs like a real person would be

like. Jaden who is the main character has a lot of downs and has some special needs. He sets fires, steals,

hoards, lies, and runs until he falls. He has no love for anyone until he met Dimash the little toddler who also

has some problems. It’s so moving and heartrending and shows that love can be given to someone, anyone and

change someone completely. It is a lovely book and amazing plot. It has a great ending and it left me wanting

more on Jaden and his new family members. I would give it five stars if I were a rater. I would recommend Half

a World Away any day over a book like Harry Potter (no offense).

Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata Review by: Elizabeth L.

Answers to the Movie Matchup from Page 15

By: Evelyn K.

Answers:

Elizabeth Swann and Queen Amidala

Legolas Greenleaf and Will Turner

Indiana Jones and Han Solo

Mumble and Frodo Baggins

Gandalf and Magneto

Dr. Schmidt and Elrond

Peter Pan and Cabin Boy

Maria Von Trapp (1965) and Mary

Poppins

Cinderella and Lady Rose MacClare

Professor McGonagall and Violet

Crawley

Ella of Frell and Princess Mia

Gru and Ned McDodd

Maria Von Trapp (2013) and Sarah Hill

Padme Amidala and Jane Foster

Jack Sparrow and The Mad Hatter

Hermione Granger and Young Ila

Giselle and Mary

Bellatrix Lestrange and The Fairy God-

mother

Ronald Weasley and Alan A. Allen

Nanny McPhee and Professor

Trelawney

Dr. Henry Jones Sr. and James Bond

Doc and Uncle Fester