Bryce Cullen Staff Writer It was a Monday night at about 9 P.M. when Leon Cooper and his wife were driving home, driving separately, and had just pulled up to a stop sign on Willow Oak Road at Southall Road around east Raleigh. That is where Leon Cooper’s wife noticed something was wrong. They were on the phone together at the time when she suddenly said, “What’s going on here?” Cooper responded, “What is it?” She then followed up saying, “There’s a guy on the ground. I think he got hit.” At the time there was a dark sedan parked off the road with its hazard lights flashing. As the couple pulled up to the intersection the seemingly injured man stood up and began to limp towards the wife’s car. But as the man was doing this, he suddenly noticed Leon in the car behind his wife’s, and as soon as the two made eye contact the man stopped limping, turned around, and headed back to the driver’s side door of the dark sedan. Cooper recalled his thoughts as, “When I first pulled up, I thought the guy must be hurt, he must’ve had an accident, and then I see him look at me and I’m like now he’s not hurt. What’s going on? This guy’s up to something. He’s up to no good. He’s trying to do something.”  Meenakshi Sathish Editor-in-Chief Disney’s Fantasia 2000 is regarded with positive adjectives like brilliant, riveting, picturesque, enrapturing, etc. At the end of the day, we all know the movie can be quite boring. As an audience, we can appreciate the concept and understand that it’s cinematography is for those who appreciate the art aspect of films. Maybe it’s my inability to properly point out a potential literary merit, but Swing Time felt like Fantasia 2000 to me. I can appreciate what Zadie Smith was doing, and it was not a bad story at all cost. It was quite good, but there were times when I just was getting a little bored. Swing Time is about an unnamed mixed-race girl who chronicles her childhood during the 80s with the highlight being time spent with her best friend, Tracy, who she reveres. As the story furthers, the unnamed narrator moves on with her life and spends time in Africa with a philanthropic pop-star working with impoverished kids. That’s basically it. The plot itself isn’t all that complex. Each chapter recalls an event that happens in the narrator’s life rather than the book following a sequential, cohesive story (think Woody Allen’s Radio Days). McKenzie Feldman Web Editor  Whether you are or are not still upset over Pluto’s demoted planet status, there is talk of a new ninth planet. Known as “Planet Nine”, this possible planet is the cause of a frenzied space hunt. However, its existence is only a claim, and NASA wants you to help them find it. Evidence of this potential planet has been accumulating for some time now, but the belief of its existence is stronger than ever before Championing this ninth planet has been circulating the astronomic realm for quite a while. Pointing to this perceived “Planet X” has a history of its own. However, the most recent discovery has been at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Researchers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown believe they have discovered a massive planet in our solar system. Through mathematical modeling and computer simulations, Caltech researchers have been pushing the planet’s existence. The problem that has been presented is the object has not been justified directly. "I would love to find it," says Brown. "But I'd also be perfectly happy if someone else found it. That is why we're publishing this paper. We hope that other people are going to get inspired and start searching." This is where you come in.  Meenakshi Sathish Editor-in-Chief On Jan. 26, North Carolina’s legislation had passed the ABLE accounts under Senator Richard Burr for those with disabilities. The ABLE act essentially allows people with disabilities and their family to put away money into a tax-deferred account for expenses related to health and wellness, employment supports, education, housing, and other costs not covered by Medicaid. In order to acquire the account, the individual must have incurred his disability, before his or her twenty-sixth birthday. It is an account that requires a flat fee of $45 every year which covers services like financial record-keeping and communications services, online account access, online quarterly statements, toll-free customer service call center assistance, etc. A total of $14,000 can be contributed by family and friends towards the account. Patrick LaLiberte Staff Writer Recent studies done by German psychologist Reinhard Pekrun and his colleagues show that there is a connection between how students feel about math and how well they perform in math class. Pekrun and his team of researchers followed over three-thousand German students from fifth through ninth grades and surveyed each student at the end of the year to see how they felt about math and whether they felt proud or ashamed of their achievements in mathematics that year. Pekrun then compared the students’ answers to their grades in math that year and discovered that students’ grades in math are linked to their feelings and emotions on the subject. Pekrun also realized that how students felt about math one year impacted their math grades the next.  Emily Caroline Sartin Features Editor Registering for classes can be an overwhelming task that seems to determine your success in high school. Take a deep breath and inhale and exhale. Here is my advice for the registration process:  Jessica Stiehm Editor-in-Chief Are you looking for a way to make studying more bearable? Go to Common Grounds Coffee House in Downtown Apex! As you walk inside, you’re immediately greeted with the comforting smell of fresh coffee and sweet pastries. Besides their superb menu items (which include not only coffee, but tea, smoothies, shakes, cakes, and an array of other sweet treats), the atmosphere is what makes Common Grounds one of the best hangouts in Downtown Apex.  Claire Garner Staff Writer When most people hear the word slavery, they think of forced labor for African Americans in the South and the abolition of such practices by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, but what would you think if I told you that there are an estimated twenty-million people in the world right now who are trapped in slavery? Thursday, Feb. 23 is Shine a Light on Slavery Day, and people who participate in raising awareness will wear a red ‘X’ on the back of their hands. This red ‘X’ is the logo for the End It Movement, a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise awareness and put an end to the modern-day slavery that takes place in 167 countries throughout the world.  Jessica Stiehm Editor-in-Chief Congratulations, freshman and sophomores! The North Carolina School Board is in the process of potentially revising the traditional-calendar for the 2018-2019 school year. On Feb. 4, House Bill 53 was filed and is currently awaiting review that would allow for major modifications to the current school calendar. Around ten years ago, the traditional-calendar moved start times up to late August and end times to early June, and that is how it has been. Until now. If House Bill 53 is passed, scheduling could work out so students in North Carolina could take their exams before leaving for winter break, and start a new semester at the beginning of January. This means that students would have to go back to school earlier in August, but it could also mean getting out for summer by.... |
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