Daily Archives: September 20, 2012

The Battle of the Best

Have you ever had a sports athlete you’ve looked up to? Well for anyone who plays soccer I’m sure you have heard of Ronaldo and Messi. Well we will be discussing which athlete is better. I look up to both these athletes, they are everything I want to be,  They both play for a very skilled professional team in Spain and they both represent their county in National games. Hey I bet a lot of people taking spanish have heard of Barcelona or Madrid, which are both located in Spain, and where they play professionally. Now lets get down to the real juice what makes these players so golden?

What do you think? If you were to know both these players who would you choose? I am a huge Messi fan. But I respect Ronaldo as an athlete because he has killer foot skills. Now most people will look at Ronaldo and fall in love with him, trust me it almost happened to me. On the other hand Messi might not be jaw dropping handsome but he has some skill that will definitely make your jaw drop. And lets not forget who won La Liga two times in a row, or who won two champion league titles. But thats just me I’m sure Ronaldo has won many famous titles. Now if I were to ever meet one of these players I would ask them how they became stand out athletes they are.   Was it from practice or were they born this way? Also, I would ask them how they got into soccer, was it something they had always wanted to do or did there mom or dad set them up with it? So tell me who do you think is better, is it the small La Liga winner Messi, or is it the good looking and tall Ronaldo? Well thats it for now, bye or as they say in Barcelona,  “Adíos!”

-Emma Takizawa

Flying Infection

     The West Nile Virus is a virus that can cause fever, headache, muscle ache, skin rash, paralysis of an arm or leg, (and sometimes) inflammation of the brain, or meningitis, though it’s true that “four of five people infected with the virus show no symptoms,” (Shannon Pettypiece, “West Nile Outbreak May Be Deadliest in U.S. History”).  It usually is dispersed from birds to humans by mosquitoes. According to recent news, the West Nile fatality rate is expected to be the highest on record this year. U.S. officials have said that “the number of fatalities increased 36 percent in the past week to 118 people,”(Shannon Pettypiece, “West Nile Outbreak May Be Deadliest in U.S. History”). Though the disease has not necessarily become deadlier, there is an increase in cases of infection. This may be because of warmer temperatures and a change in bird populations. The most concentrated areas of this virus are in Texas, South Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Michigan. The article I read warned that with a continuation of warm weather, a continuation of transmission of the infection will occur.

     Too me, West Nile seems like it’s too potentially harmful to ignore. I know, it’s very annoying to put on some bug spray everytime you go outside, but to me the peace of mind is worth it. You are bound to see some kind of flying bug, when you enter the outdoors. Wouldn’t it be nice to know that you don’t need to worry about getting this deadly disease every time you see one? For those of you that don’t worry about getting this virus, I have been in your shoes. Before I looked more into the topic, the only thing that came to mind when getting bitten by a mosquito was that I’d probably be getting an itchy bug bite. I think that people need to be more informed about the possible dangers of West Nile, so that they are more careful. This will probably in turn reduce the amount of cases in humans. So that only leaves the question, what will you do to protect yourself from getting West Nile? And if you do, will you help others be informed as well?

~Abby Klimowicz

Fall Festival

     Every year there is a Fall Festival in Cheshire, Connecticut. It is held at Bartlem Park. The festival has many booths and tents set up all around the fields for Cheshire fundraisings. They also have carnival food, games and rides. At night they also have fireworks.

     I think that if you want to go to the festival to go on rides and play games then its a bit expensive for a carnival. Most of the rides you need four or five tickets per person and a ticket is one dollar. But, if you pay twenty dollars then you get twenty-one tickets. The games are expensive too as they are about five dollars for someone to play. I think that the fireworks are fun and they are free too. Those are my thoughts on Cheshires Fall Festival.

~Mackenzie Keaney

Shame on the Game for Damaging the Brain

     When you have big and fast guys running at each other in full speed, with the attempt of hitting one another, people are going to get hurt. Unfortunately, injuries have always been a part of the NFL and it’s the commissioner (Roger Goodell) and referee’s job to reduce those injuries while maintaining the integrity of the game. This isn’t an easy task. Yet, it has to be done. Therefore, Goodell added in new rules such as;  no leading with your helmet to make a tackle, (this prevents “defenseless” players from taking hard blows above the shoulder) if a player loses his helmet during the play, it automatically ends, during field-goal and extra-point attempts the defense cannot hit the snapper because he’s in a defenseless position (from snapping the ball), and the kickoff has been moved up to the thirty-five yard line (which limits the number of returns a game).

     I agree with Roger Goodell’s decision of inserting new rules to improve the safety of the players, especially after the suicide of Junior Seau which very easily could’ve happened because of the damage concussions caused to his brain. He played for twenty seasons in the NFL and probably suffered many blows to the head. In addition, the New Orleans Saints Bounty program promoted intentional hitting of people on the head and those who hit the hardest or knocked someone out of the game would get paid additional cash. What I don’t understand is why the players are mad at Goodell for new rules. These rules could easily spare the players five to ten more years that they will live for. However, as stated in the article, “New Rules for NFL Concussions: A Good Start”, “players are not concerned about dementia many years later.  They are concerned about the next practice, the next game, the next paycheck, and the next contract.” These are the main reasons NFL players have an average life expectancy of around fifty-five years. Except this year the league is making an effort to flip that statistic around. My advice to the players, keep your mouth shut.

~Andrew Mayano

Chicago Strikes Back

The city of Chicago was hit with a sudden public school strike that left over 300,000 students without a teacher. This Monday a sudden spotlight on rising tensions nationally over teachers conditions was forcefully brought up due to a strike in Chicago. This put the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, in a tight situation on what to do.  Thousands of teachers dressed in red t-shirts swarmed through downtown and marching outside of schools across the city to put their point across about teachers being judged by their teaching.  This strike was Chicago’s first strike in 25 years. When will it end?

I believe that, although teachers have a duty to teach their students, they have the right to be on strike. My stepdad is a teacher and is in the same situation with teachers pay depending on their teaching style though evaluation. Teachers shouldn’t be judged by how they teach or how their student’s perform. Tieing into this would be equal pay not only due to race and sex but also how you work. It doesn’t add up. My only question is where’s the next strike going to hit?

~Erik Galuska

The Iphone 5 has just been Unveiled

     People all over the world are sending their pre-orders in to apple, waiting in lines over night, and generally doing anything humanly possible to obtain this most succulent fruit of Apple’s labor. The sheer multitude of them is ridiculous, topping two-million in the first 24 hours. The newest model of this luxury-phone weighs only 3.95 ounces, and has IOS 6, which adds over 200 new features to the IOS 5, which came out last October. This includes upgrades to everyone’s favorite AI, Siri. (AI stands for artificial intelligence, for those who don’t know.)

     She now has a new map system, a wealth of new information on restaurants and theaters, as well as being Facebook compatible. Sadly, things like the built-in youtube app will have to be re-downloaded, as Siri’s updates erase them. Things like Google street-view should just be deleted, because with Siri’s new mapping capabilities, it is pointless and wasting your Iphone’s valuable space. In an almost completely unrelated note, statistics show that most businessmen would be willing to pay full price to avoid the wait an upgrade-recommendation would take. This thinnest, lightest Iphone hits the markets Friday, September 21st, and with the shmancy new aluminum design, 4-inch retina display, and Uber-fast wireless, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why people are dying to get it.    

Austin Goralski