Daily Archives: September 28, 2012

Swift’s Charity Song for Cancer

In 2011, an adorable, little boy died from cancer. His mother made a post about it on a social media website, which Taylor Swift then saw, and reacted to immediately. She contacted the mother of the boy, and asked her to co-write a song with her about the tragic loss of her son. In the song, it talks about the mothers feelings, and how hard it is to lose someone, especially a 3 year old child. In honor of everyone affected by cancer, she performed this touching song at the STAND UP 2 CANCER telethon. She then released it on iTunes, donating all of the money to cancer research. At this event, the little boys mother was crying from the very beginning. This song is called, Ronan.

I love this song. It’s as if you can’t help but put yourself in the place of that mother, while listening to this song. I couldn’t even imagine the way she feels right now. I think this was a perfect way to raise money for such a good cause. When she sang this song at the STAND UP 2 CANCER telethon, you could see how much this song made people appreciate the effects and heartbreak cancer victims and their families go through. Taylor Swift is the voice of Maya Thompson (Ronan Thompson’s mother), saying how the mother feels now that she has lost her son, and reflecting on the memories they had together. In the song, there is a phrase that says, “What is I really thought some miracle would see us through? What is the Miracle was even getting one moment with you…” I absolutely love this phrase, because just by reading this line, you can see how much the mother is hurting, and you can see the love of a mother and her son.

~Kathryn Robinson

“Don’t Stop!”

  

 

On September 22, 2012, the 3rd annual Mari’s Miles of Smiles will take place at Norton School. Participants can run a 10k, a 2-person relay, or participate in the fun fest. The money will go to the Mari Hall Family Foundation. This non-profit organization promotes awareness and strives to make a difference in the lives of people with ASD, or Autism Spectrum Disorder by raising funds to provide local early intervention services and programs. ASD is “any of a group of developmental disorders (as autism and Asperger’s syndrome) marked by impairments in the ability to communicate and interact socially and by the presence of repetitive behaviors or restricted interests”.
I think races like these are an amazing idea. People can go and have fun while helping people who have struggles and inabilities. The people affected by things like ASD feel loved and more appreciated, because often they are looked down upon in society. Those who also have financial issues have more of a chance of help and a better life later on. Also, I think that people should advertise these races more and get more people to join; the more people that join, more money can be raised and more lives can be helped.  Imagine yourself in a disabled person’s place. How do you think they’re feeling? Raise awareness about the local races and participate as often as you can!
ONLINE REGISTRATION FOR MARI’S MILES OF SMILES:

~Abigail Del Vecchio

Senate Bill Passed but not Enforced

On March 17th 2010, Aaron Torres walked off from Connecticut Valley Hospital on a supervised break. He suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. His mother, Margarita Torres, relentlessly pressed the hospital to do more to try to find her son, but nobody did anything. Finally, about a year and a month after he went missing the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services issued a “Silver Alert”. A Silver Alert is a public notification system in the U.S that broadcasts information about missing persons. The silver alert system became law in 2009. On September 7th, 2011 Margarita Torres was notified that Aaron’s remains were found washed up on a beach in East Hampton, New York.

This brings the question, how did he get to New York in the first place? He might have just fell into the water and drowned but his mother says he knew how to swim. With his condition, he may have just hallucinated something and jumped in the water without realizing it what it was. This would have never happened if the alert was issued much sooner. The police should have been out searching for him the day he walked off. But, most importantly why wasn’t the person watching him paying close enough attention to not see him walk off? Why didn’t they do anything about it?

~Emily Bodurtha

Will Megatron defeat Madden Curse?

With the new release of EA Sports next installment in the Madden series, Madden NFL 13, officially on August 28th, 2012 there has been a lot of buzz with the game. I personally think EA outdid themselves making huge improvements from last year’s game. One of the major ones being a new physics engine called “The Infinity Engine”. This is important because it brings a whole new set of realism to game play causing your running back to trip and lose balance after taking hits from the defense or even running into the offensive line. Also, there are an infinite number of possible animations meaning that your player will not get stuck in a tackle animation; you can break tackles more easily. EA did a good job bringing physics into game play.

 The cover athlete for this year’s Madden is Wide Receiver Calvin Johnson Jr., also known by his nickname “Megatron.” He came off a stellar 2011 season for the Detroit Lions having career highs in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns. You can see his career stats here. He is also one of a handful of players in Madden 13 that holds a 99 overall rating the others being DeMarcus Ware, Aaron Rodgers, and Darrelle Revis. Some people doubt Megatron will be able to match his 2011 season and fall victim to “The Madden Curse.” The Madden curse is the idea that after a player is the cover athlete of Madden next season they do horrible or get injured. Supposedly every player that was ever on the cover of Madden from 1999 – present day has caught the Madden curse in some shape or form; One of the worst being Peyton Hillis, who at that time was a running back for the Cleveland Browns. Hillis was the cover athlete for last year’s Madden. During his 2010 regular season Hillis racked up 1,177 rushing yards on 270 carries and 11 rushing touchdowns. Next season Hillis suffered with injuries playing in only 10 games. In those 10 games he had 587 yards and 161 attempts and only 3 rushing touchdowns. People blamed Hillis’s decline of the Madden Curse.

It is very possible that Calvin Johnson Jr., will have his numbers decline slightly, we can’t possibly expect him to top that outstanding 2011 season. But if he has another Peyton Hillis season I don’t know what EA will do. On the contrary, if he has an amazing season people will say the Madden curse was just made up. It is too early in the season to tell right now but will Megatron be another victim of the Madden Curse or can he defeat it once and for all?

~Matt Bonito

Take Me Home

When you hear the words One Direction images of screaming girls and sold out concerts comes to mind. The band Louis, Harry, Niall, Liam and Zayn have taken the world by storm. They began on the X Factor in 2010 where Simon Cowell put them together as a group. In the end, they only got third place. But, One Direction  was soon signed to Syco Records under Simon Cowell. When they released their single ,”What Makes You Beautiful”, in September 2011 One Direction was at the top of the charts everywhere. Their CD, Up All Night, had sold over 3 million copies worldwide. Now, One Direction hopes to do it again with their new single “Live While We’re Young” (LWWY) and album Take Me Home.

Take Me Home was available to pre-order on September 3 and it immediately reached number one on iTunes top album list. One Direction will feature this CD in their 2012-2013 worldwide tour. LWWY will debut October 1, and Directioners all over the world are waiting with excitement. I strongly believe that this album will be just as popular, or even more popular than Up All Night. And how could it not be with literally millions of fans supporting them?  Although some say One Direction won’t last… Take Me Home is proof that they are here to stay.

~Virginia Shugrue

A Life Where Robots Take Your Place

Could you imagine a life where an allergy is so severe that they have to send a robot in your place for school? That’s what first grader Devon Carrow has to do, because his peanut allergy is so life threatening. There was once a time when his mom had given him a kiss after she had eaten a cookie and he broke out into hives. Also, after a trip at his godparents house he had to make a visit to the hospital  and ended up staying there for three months! These allergies make it hard for him to leave the house. His mother once said, “He’s almost like the boy in a bubble.” For example, when his family goes to the movies they have to pop their own popcorn and bring sheets to cover their seats.

The device called “VGo”  changes the life of first grader Devon Carrow in a big way by allowing him to go to school (not Physically but virtually). The $6,000 robot lets him sit in a classroom like any other regular child. He does everything like any other child has to do, so there are no extra privileges. He will soon be able to hang out with his friends in the cafeteria as soon as his “VGo” technology is upgraded. With these advancements Devon will be able to try to live the life a regular kid. After the incident that made him end up in the ICU it showed that his classmates don’t picture him as a kid in a robot screen, but as an actually kid (They drew him get well cards and pictures of him).

~Chinaechelum Okoro

Iphones Galore!

The iphone 5 has just recently come out! Is it better than the iphone 4s?  Well, the new iphone has a new design. Its only 7.6 mm thick, which is way thin! It also only weighs 112 grams. That’s a really light phone, especially an iphone! The iphone 5 is going to be faster and more efficient than the last iphones in the past.This phone also has a new camera, which will be 20% smaller. Even though its smaller it will have new features like panorama and dynamic low-light mode, and the lense is less likely to scratch. To top it all off the iphone 5 is made out of only glass and aluminum.

THe iphone 5 is going to be released in October. The iphone will range from $199-399 depending on how many gigabytes it will have. The new iphone will have new ear-buds and it even has a different charger shape. It isn’t the generic apple charger anymore! I think that this is cool, but it will also make it harder to have multiple apple products and the iphone 5, because you now need separate chargers. All in all the new iphone looks stellar. I really want one! I know what I’m going to be asking for, for my birthday!

~Julia Waldron

School Lunch: What Kids Really Think

School lunches in 2012 have the goal of making healthier generations to come.   By doing this they have decided to cut calories in school lunches. This will most likely leave all of us hungry throughout the day. Already we don’t eat all of our lunch because we don’t find all of it appetizing. Not only does this leave us hungry but it also gives us a higher chance of obesity because it slows down our metabolism.

Personally, the food Dodd Middle School serves is definitely better than our elementary school food, but it still is not as appetizing as one would hope. Our school cooks make us take a fruit or vegetable. My question is, how much waste are we creating if most people don’t even eat the fruits or vegetables? Also, are they trying to make us hungry throughout the school day? Already, most kids don’t eat breakfast before school and now lunch is becoming smaller. This cut in calories will actually make our performance in school be not as well because we will become unfocused. With our lunch program and America’s lunch program in general, school lunch will be going from “gotta love it” to “gotta hate it”.

~Natalie Bryden

“Curiosity” hits Mars

The Mars Science Laboratory is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by Nasa in late November. The project successfully landed the Mars rover named Curiosity in Gale Crater on August 6 2012. Some of the reasons that they started the mission was to find how suitable the planet was to live on, it’s climate and geology, and also to find data for a manned mission to Mars. Curiosity has many different scientific instruments which were all designed by an international group. The rover is around two times longer, and five times heavier than the previous space rovers, Spirit, and Opportunity. It also carries ten times the mass of scientific instruments and samples. Nasa anticipates that the rover will explore for at least 687 earth days, and was tested to explore for about 4 years.

“The landing of the Mars science rover Curiosity does not qualify as a significant scientific achievement and should not be getting so much of the public’s attention, says the team of scientists who discovered the Higgs Boson last month. (Borowitz-New Yorker).” Of course the Higgs Boson discovery was very important and new but so is the Mars mission. For me, that statement is wrong because it is proclaiming that one discovery is bigger and more significant than the other. Both are equally of  importance. But I also feel that NASA’s mission to Mars has some defects. Mainly it’s one of being so costly. For example, the total cost of the MSL project is about $2.5 billion from the U.S. and Germany contributed 2.5 million euros which is equivalent $3.1 million. This expenditure is not necessary as is the mission not completely necessary either. The money could be going to local and more current problems in the U.S. However if Curiosity does discover great things, then our world benefits greatly as well. So, keep going NASA’s very own, very advanced rover, Curiosity!

~Samira Anant

Fresco Failure

Art restoration is a delicate job. People huddle around a painting with hundreds of tiny brushes, carefully painting over ruined sections. They do not, however, sneak around a church and carelessly smear religious artifacts. But this is exactly what happened. An eighty-year-old woman took it upon herself to restore “Ecce Homo”, a painting by Elias Garcia Martinez depicting Jesus. The woman, Cecilia Gimenez, insists her intentions were good, yearning to restore the painting she loved. Although this may be true, many people have found her version laughable, even creating memes about it. It has gone viral. This ruined painting has drawn a lot of attention in the news. So much so that Santuario de Misericordia, the church it’s displayed in, is actually charging tourists to view the painting. In four days, the church has accumulated about $2,600. Now, Cecilia Gimenez is suing the Church because she wants a share of the profits they have earned.

Now that you’ve seen the painting, you’re probably thinking, “Which one did she paint? I can’t tell the difference! Is it the mysterious Jesus with a crown of thorns or the mouth-less ape in a hoodie jacket?” I understand your confusion. They are very similar. But Cecilia Gimenez painted only one. While supposedly getting permission from the priest to perform this restoration, I think she forgot to mention her painting talent (or lack of). It is… interesting… borderline horrific. Now that she completely ruined this painting, she wants to be paid for her services. She’s suing the church because she wants part of the profit from the painting. SU-ING!! Stephen Colbert ridicules, “That’s like hijacking a plane and demanding frequent flyer miles.” This is insanity. Do you think she’ll be granted part of the royalties? I hope not…

~ Lydia Feng