Patrick LaLiberte Staff Writer Recently conducted studies show that a small adhesive sensor can find out quite a bit about your body based on your perspiration. The sensor can even send the information gathered from your sweat wirelessly to your smartphone. This sensor could potentially become the easiest way access someone’s health information in the near future, maybe even replacing blood tests. Sweat is obviously much easier to get than blood, which makes it very possible that these sensors could soon be used as an alternative to blood tests. Sweat can be used for a number of things including diagnosing diseases and uncovering drug use. Perspiration can be used for these things because it is a chemical full of molecules ranging from electrically charged ions to more complex proteins that can help show what is happening inside of a human body. Rhea Sodem Staff Writer Snapchat made fictional spy gear that is usually seen in movies come to life with its new product called Snapchat Spectacles. These glasses do not take photographs, but they take ten second videos that directly upload to your Snapchat when synced with your phone. These glasses cost $130 and come in the colors black, red, and blue. The camera in the glasses are supposed to take 115 degree videos that give the impression from the user’s point of view. On the side of the lens, there is a button that can be pressed to capture a video and clicked twice to stop recording. There is no need to worry about creepers taking videos without consent because a white light illuminates on the exterior of the lens to let others know that the user is currently taking a video. The case that holds the glasses can be charged when you’re not using the glasses, they can be placed in the case to charge. According to Snapchat, a full charge should last you a casual day of recording or approximately sixteen videos. If you want to buy it, you can try them on through the Snapchat filter from the code on their website. Unfortunately, these glasses are being sold only at pop-up vending machines and are limited in location. Patrick LaLiberte Staff Writer Giant nets with fine mesh are being used to catch and condense fog into drinking water in southwest Morocco. Moisture from the air is gathered on the nets and combine to form liquid water, which then falls and flows into a reservoir. The project, which is run by a Moroccan woman named Dar Si Hmad, spans six hundred square miles, making it the largest functioning fog collection project in the world. It provides water for over five hundred people between five different villages. The villages have recently been hit by severe droughts, so the water gathered from the fog catchers will be of great value to the villagers. If not for the giant nets, the people of the villages would have to walk for up to three hours every day to wells which were often depleted of water. Condensing fog to make drinking water is not a new practice as it began in the 1980's. There are several active fog harvesting projects in places such as Chile, Peru, South Africa, and even California. Efforts to bring a fog harvesting project to Morocco began ten years ago, but the project did not launch until 2015 after roughly four years of testing. The project was a huge success as the nets in Morocco collect about 6,000 liters of water a day, and the water is then filtered and sent to the homes of the villagers through nearly five miles of piping. The project received much praise and was even awarded the 2016 United Nations "Momentum for Change" award. The plan over the next two years to is to expand the project to eight other villages, aiding over five hundred more people. Dar Si Hmad also plans to bring fog-catching nets to other parts of southwestern Morocco to provide clean drinking water to a wider variety of people. Bryce Cullen Staff Writer More than one hundred years ago, a massive asteroid impacted Russia. This was called the Tunguska event, the largest asteroid event to be witnessed. It occurred in 1908 when the asteroid made contact on the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in a remote Siberian forest in Russia. This collision was so massive people from more than forty miles away were thrown from their porches and chairs by the tremendous force created from the impact. The force of the impact leveled around 1,000 square miles of forest. To put that number into perspective, it is the equivalent of wiping almost the entire state of Rhode Island. Respected scientists including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins have supported this past event. They are using this event in an attempt to educate the public of the dangers of possible deadly asteroids that could strike Earth. Andrea Tyson Staff Writer Everything that we learn and see, the people who surround us, and the toys we played with as children have shaped our identities. You could take one look into a child's toy box and see what his or her interests are. Imagine this: as the little girl or boy you once were, you are walking into the toy store and Mom or Dad tells you that you can pick out one toy, and your face lights up. You make your way to the doll section, and your face falls flat. In 2016 retail stores saw the debut of several new types of dolls, specifically Barbie dolls. For years parents looked at the typical doll and saw a problem with body image for their young children. Barbie was tall, blonde, and perfectly proportioned, but the reality is-- ninety-nine percent of women don’t have a body like this. With a new demographic, constant criticism, and a need for change, Barbie got a makeover. There are now tall, short, and curvy Barbie dolls. New hair and skin colors were also introduced. Now all the problems are fixed, right? Wrong. There are still young girls and boys who walk into the toy shop and have to ask “Why don’t any of these dolls look like me?” Andrea Tyson Staff Writer If you would include yourself in the makeup-obsessed population of teenage girls and boys (that includes me), then I am sure you have heard of the Beauty Blender. The iconic pink sponge that is loved by celebrity makeup artists and the average users alike. The sponge is widely known to be the best in the business for flawlessly blending liquid, cream, and even powder products. In recent history however, the sponge we know and love has been under fire after some consumers have found bugs and mold living in their sponges. The Beauty Blender may have met its match. Some are calling this new blending tool “the next Beauty Blender” Who is the Beauty Blender up against in this round? The Silisponge. Bryce Cullen
Staff Writer Everyone has heard of climate change and just how serious things are getting with this issue. Yet in the Arctic, these issues are occurring even faster than the rest of the world. According to the research of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Arctic is heating up two times faster compared to the rest of the world. With that, the temperature shift in the Artic shows how the climate will change throughout the globe. Along with the study, they have found an increasing average in air temperature from October 2015 to September 2016, the highest since 1995 at 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit. With the influence of Greenhouse gasses, this marks the highest average on record. These changes could have permanently changed the terrain of the artic; it is causing more sea ice to melt, and the Perennial sea ice is melting drastically. The Perennial sea ice of the Arctic is the portion of ice that normally survives its yearly summer melt season. However, recent studies reveal that this part of the sea ice is decreasing at an alarming rate. Research has also found that within the Perennial sea ice is stored carbon. Thus when it is melted it is released into the atmosphere, exacerbating the effects of greenhouse gas tolls on the climate and weather patterns. Madeline Rudd Staff Writer The tallest animal on land has recently been noticed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in June of this year and has moved up the Red List crisis ladder from “least concern” to “vulnerable”. In 1985, the giraffe population varied around 151,700 to 163,400, but in the 2015 count, biologists discovered that the number has dramatically dropped to 97,562. The decline in giraffe population cannot be real because giraffes live all over Africa right? Wrong. It seems like there are plenty of giraffes in the world, but that is because we are familiar with them and see them when we go to the zoo. Along with the African elephant, the giraffe would not have this extreme population decline without the help of its neighbors, the humans. The giraffe’s natural homes are in the countries below the Sahara Desert, from Niger to Zimbabwe and Botswana. In the past twenty years, the human population in these countries has increased tremendously and is predicted to grow even more in the future. Niger, for example, is expected to almost double in population in the next fifteen years and has the number one fertility rate in the world, according to the Population Reference Bureau. Now what does a human population increase really entail? With humans comes multiple problems, “(1) habitat loss (through deforestation, land use conversion, expansion of agricultural activities and human population growth) (2) civil unrest (ethnic violence, rebel militias, paramilitary and military operations), (3) illegal hunting (poaching), and (4) ecological changes (mining activity, habitat conversion to agriculture, climate-induced processes).” According to the IUCN, these are the four reasons why the giraffe population has declined with habitat loss being the number one reason for the dramatic population loss; therefore, the more our population increase the giraffe population decreases because of our overuse of resources that we should be sharing with the “locals” around us. Amanda Dybal Staff Writer As a high schooler, your schedule may be rigorous. With final exams, winter break, sports, and other extracurricular activities, time is hard to manage. For many students, it’s crunch time. Senior Anna Credle is overbooked with club and high school gymnastics, Key Club, National Honor Society, and to top it all off, college applications. Already studying for her calculus exam, she has no extra free time these days. “I have to use a lot of time management in order to fit school and athletics into my schedule,” she says. According to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, high school students should get between nine to nine and a half hours of sleep. The average amount of sleep teenagers get are between seven to seven and a half hours of sleep. Sophomore Michael Davis explains that all he wants to do over winter break is catch up on his sleep. Academics make it hard for teenagers to get enough sleep. A study founded by the National Sleep Foundation states that during a test they had performed, only 15% of teens get the amount of sleep they need. With school starting at 7:25 in the morning, most students have to wake up around six in the morning, and getting the necessary nine hours of sleep would mean going to bed at nine at night. This is hard to do with tons of homework and extracurricular activities. Jessica Dorcelien
News Editor Dec. 7, 1941 is a “date which will live in infamy” as Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and six additional military bases on the Hawaiian island of Oahu launched the United States into the second world war. The surprise strike resulted in the destroying of more than 150 planes, the damage of fifteen ships, and the loss of over 2,300 lives. As a swift reaction to the unforeseen attack, Hawaii was put under martial law, causing schools to close, mail to be censored, and food and fuel to be rationed. Most importantly, during this period of rising “Anti-Japanese” paranoia, 127,000 persons of Japanese ancestry were forced into detentions centers and internment camps as what we, as Americans, now reflect on as being one of the most overt violations of civil liberties in American history. |
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