|
Jessica Dorcelien
Co-Editor-in-Chief Ever since our elementary school lessons on the negative effects of tobacco use and secondhand smoke, we have become flooded with the simple facts that not only are the substances within tobacco highly addictive, but that tobacco itself is a leading cause of cancer and preventable death. But we know, realistically, that even after hearing these statistics on repeat, they will not stop some of our peers, or maybe even ourselves, from indulging in the deadly addiction of cigarettes. We have heard that tobacco use may stem from joining a new crowd or from searching for a new ‘hobby’. But just as tobacco use is a cause of cancer, socioeconomic status is the single greatest predictor of tobacco use. According to Tobacco Free Maine, “Tobacco and poverty create a vicious cycle [where] low income people smoke more, suffer more, spend more, and die more from tobacco use.”  From left: Gracie Williams, Amanda Marrot, and Bethany Osborn Claire Garner
Staff Writer On Feb. 10 Mrs. Hoskins and three of her Culinary Arts II Honors students traveled to Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte to compete in the annual Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) Culinary Competition. They went up against eight other teams to win scholarship money towards Johnson and Wales as well as the opportunity to compete at a national level in Nashville, Tennessee over the summer. Last year’s team won first place at the state level and went to San Diego, California but did not place during the national competition.  Claire Garner Staff Writer Technology is advancing at an alarming rate, but pretty soon with a new Android app, you can wear it. Kenza Zouiten, Swedish fashion blogger and co-founder of Ivyrevel, has teamed up with Google to bring you a dress that fits to your everyday activities and lifestyle. When you download the app, you will go through a process of personalizing the look of the dress, and your phone will recommend the rest. During the week, by using Snapshot API, the application will track your daily activities such as where you work, what you do at night, and how much physical activity you engage in. For example, do you go to the local burger joint with your closest friends, or do you go to a high-class restaurant with a date? Do you sit in an office chair all day, or does your job require a little more action? Not only will the app detect your actions but also your surroundings. Is it typically windy where you live or relatively calm? Do you live in a warm and sunny climate or cold and cloudy? These are just a few of the many factors that will make the perfect dress.  Patrick LaLiberte
Staff Writer Growing up in Massachusetts, it wasn’t hard to become a fan of the professional sports teams in the area. The Red Sox won eight World Series, the Bruins and Celtics were always interesting, and the Patriots were a modern-day dynasty. Everyone in New England loved all of these teams, especially Tom Brady and the Patriots. Tom Brady is talked about as a god and the best quarterback of all time. I never really gave any thought to what everyone else in the country thought of Tom Brady and the Patriots; I had no idea that being a Patriots fan would attract so much unwanted attention. Every time I mention anything about the Patriots, I get bombarded by NFL fanatics telling me that Tom Brady sucks, Bill Belichick is a cheater, and the Patriots get away with penalties because the referees are biased. To me, all of this is nonsense, but this seems to be the general belief of every non-Patriots fan.  Claire Garner
Staff Writer If you are a dog lover looking for a good laugh along with some tears, grab your tissues because this is the movie for you. Although there was controversy about the mistreatment of dogs during the filming process, the relationship that this dog makes with his owners will make you want to run home and play with your own dog. If you have read the book, you will notice some changes to the plot, but the dog still has the same heart that W. Bruce Cameron developed throughout the novel. For those of you who have not seen the previews, the movie is about a dog who reincarnates as a brand new puppy after death. If you have seen other dog movies such as Marley and Me where the dog passes away, you get to suffer through the sad passing of this dog four times. Even though it sounds like you will be crying a river through the whole film, there is a fitting balance of gloomy moments to go with cheerful laughter and edge-of-your-seat suspense.  Amelia Borger
Staff Writer The final week of January and first week of February is a very somber time for NASA. It is the anniversaries of the Apollo 1 accident, the Challenger accident, and the Columbia accident. In these past couple weeks, NASA and many other branches of the space program reflect on the lives of the astronauts lost, along with other men and women who gave their lives in the pursuit of adventure. Jan. 31 is recognized as NASA’s day of remembrance. On Jan. 27, 1967, veteran astronaut Gus Grissom, first American spacewalker Edward White, and rookie Roger Chaffee were performing a pre-launch pad test, a normal procedure before every mission. Once they were sealed in the capsule, there was a spark, and a fire broke out in the highly oxygenated capsule, killing all three in less than a minute. A later investigation led engineers to find a major design flaw and built a safer module, ultimately leading to safer Apollo missions to the moon.  Amelia Borger Staff Writer Whitney Meyer and Tomas Dean obviously could not believe it when they saw that their two little girls were born with two different skin colors. Kalani and Jarani Dean, fraternal twins from Illinois, are born with a biological rarity; one was white, and the other was mixed. Whitney is white while her partner, Tomas, is black. “At first when they were born, I wanted to believe it but it’s so rare I didn’t think it’d happen to my twins!” Meyer told CNN affiliate KHQA. “But sure enough they’re biracial twins!” Every set of fraternal twins are fertilized by two different sperm and can make them distinct in other ways. The nine-month-old girls are very happy spirited with Jarani, the darker skinned sister, already crawling while Kalani, the light skinned sister, has more interest in eating. In 2015, a set of twins went viral after people constantly confused them as friends. Lucy and Maria Aylmer were born in 1997 to a white father and a half-Jamaican mother. “No one ever believes we are twins because I am white and Maria is black,” Lucy explained to the New York Post. “Even when we dress alike, we still don’t even look like sisters, let alone twins.” Just like the Meyer sisters, their personalities are very different. Lucy, who is a redhead with a fair complexion, studies art and design at Gloucester College. Maria, who has dark and curly hair with a caramel complexion, studies law and psychology at Cheltenham College. These are just two pairs of the many sets of biological twins who look nothing alike. Jim Wilson, a geneticist, told the BBC that “with mixed-race couples in Britain who are expecting twins, there is about a one in five-hundred chance that their babies will be born with different colored skins.” They are proud of their unique genetics and add to how unique this world is.  Meenakshi Sathish
Features Editor Even if you don’t particularly like snow days, there is that spike in dopamine you feel when your Twitter goes off with your friends cheering about school being cancelled. It is an excuse to stay home all day and binge watch Parks and Recreation and Whose Line is it Anyway with Drew Carey (or at least that is what I did). As we do such activities, we forget that being idle is going to bite us in the butt when it’s time to go back to school and have to--wait for it-- move. Just the thought of moving and not being able to wear sweatpants and raggedy t-shirts is horrifying, but it must be done. It doesn’t have to be. It may take some struggling, but with a little bit of willpower, you can beat the cabin fever.  Bryce Cullen
Staff Writer London is off to a not-so-great start with their new air pollution limits. Just five days into the New Year, and London has breached its annual air pollution limits. An air monitoring site located at Brixton Road South London began reading levels of nitrogen dioxide above their limits early Thursday. This however, continued throughout the day, breaking the eighteen-hour legal limit; data collected by Kings College London. The gas nitrogen dioxide is of course released from the emissions of cars, its inhalation can lead to lung disease and respiratory problems. The amount of air pollution detected at Brixton Road was “incredible”, said an environmental activist. The activist went on to say how Brixton Road being home to many shops, and transportations, the bus services in that area should have been shut down and nearby pedestrians warned to leave the area due to its air quality. The European Union law states that the maximum nitrogen dioxide concentration of two hundred micrograms per cubic meter cannot surpass for more than eighteen hours over the year. However the Brixton Road site measured its nineteenth hour above the threshold at 9 p.m. on Thursday. Simon Birkett, the found and director of the Clean Air in London campaign, stated,“Hourly nitrogen dioxide concentrations reached an incredible 347.7 micrograms per cubic (meter) in Brixton Road at 9 p.m.” These numbers never should have been passed if they could have delivered on their Clean Air Act. At the very least some steps should have been taken in order to secure public health, and even lower the amount of carbon dioxide within the air. Hopefully the European Union learns from this event and takes the necessary steps in order to secure safer air quality. |
