January 2018

Falconer

The Torrey Pines High School

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Vol. 43, Issue 4, 28 pages

www.tphsfalconer.com

TP Current releases new sitcom “@Break” on YouTube

photo by david vapnek/falconer

@BREAKING THE INTERNET: The seven students that make up the cast of “@Break” pose in mid-air in front of the outdoor stage, jumping the same way as they do in the title sequence of each episode in the sitcom. The Advanced TV Production class announced the release of “@Break” on Nov. 2 in one of its TP Current episodes.

By Annie Cheng and Kahyun Koh STAFF WRITER AND FEATURE EDITOR Near the end of the TP Current episode shown on Nov. 2, the Advanced TV Production class announced its plans to release a comedic sitcom called “@Break” on the “At Break” YouTube channel. Since then, five episodes of the sitcom, each averaging five minutes, have been released.

Consistently garnering over 100 views on YouTube per episode, “@Break” features seven fictional characters: Brody (Carsten Nahum [11]), Chelsea (Asia Soliday [12]), Derrick (Garrett Seamans [11]), Justin (Mason Hall [12]), Katherine (Lauren Cassiano [12]), Stephanie (Sonsoles Ramirez [12]) and Tommy (Matthew Rosenfield [12]). The sitcom, delivered in a “mockumentary” style, portrays the lives of typical high school students; it not only follows the friendship between the characters, but also the blossoming romance between Chelsea and Tommy.

“The sitcom mainly revolves around a documentary crew that follows seven students throughout high school during breaks between classes,” Ramirez said.

“The seven students end up meeting each other through their own separate ways and they go through typical high school experiences, like homecoming.”

According to Advanced TV Production teacher Derek Brunkhorst,

after his small suggestion in class for a TV program, the project “was really [the students’] brainchild, which was started and driven by the students themselves.” “@Break” is not the only project in the Advanced TV Production class. Instead, the sitcom is simply one of the several different projects, including films and animations, that students can choose to work on.

“The students working on the sitcom don’t each have one specific [production] role,” Ramirez said. “We all act together and come up with ideas together … But we usually split apart when it comes to editing and actually filming the show because that’s where some of us don’t have as much experience as the others.”

According to Ramirez, the production of a single episode, which typically requires at least a week and a half, is a process that is as laborious as it is enjoyable.

Despite the considerable amount of time that the sitcom takes out of his day, According to Hall, who plays Justin, he knows that his efforts have paid off when he sees the finalized version of the episode, and, lately, the sitcom has received many positive student responses.

Having been introduced to “@Break” through TP Current, Briani Zhang (11) has watched all five episodes of the sitcom during her own time.

“I like the new sitcom,” Zhang said.

“I can tell a lot of effort was put into it … the message I perceived [from the sitcom] is that you should stay true to yourself and that it’s okay to stray from what’s often considered to be cool. ” However, all of the responses have not been positive. According to Hall, he was informed by a student that the introduction to the episodes is too long and that the content is simply not entertaining.

“I think [the sitcom] can be improved with a better script,” Erica Lee (11) said.

“The topics are mostly relatable, which is great, but it would be better if they added more humor to it.”

Other than making the sitcom more interesting, Zhang thinks that “the sitcom can be improved by giving more of a backstory to the characters so [the audience] can see the reasoning behind their motives and individual personalities more.

“It would be better if the show could be less predictable,” Zhang said.

“In our most recent episodes, we have really tried to improve the sitcom,” Ramirez said. “Some scenes have backfired and have not gotten the best possible response that we wanted, so we try to cut out parts that we find unnecessary or just not funny enough.”

As the teacher of the class, Brunkhorst also thinks that there are some improvements that can be

Continued on A3.

Whooping cough case reported at TPHS

By Farhan Hossain FEATURE EDITOR The San Diego County Public Health and Human Services Agency notified the TPHS administration on Jan. 10 that a student had tested positive for pertussis, more commonly known as

whooping cough.

In accordance with policies from the county, Coppo emailed staff and parents.

According to the county, the disease spreads through the air and can be life-threatening for infants and young children. Coppo’s email said any pregnant staff or students should contact

their “OB-GYN provider immediately.”

The letter notifying Coppo from the county to the school stresses the disease is “highly contagious” and that no “vaccine is 100 percent protective.”

“We hope that [students] take care of themselves so that we can avoid situations like this,” Coppo said.

BIRD’S EYE VIEW

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The Trump administration announced in early January that 200,000 Salvadorans will lose their Temporary Protected Status, which allows them to work and live in the United States legally. The TPS was granted in 2001, after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the country, causing hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans to be displaced. They have until Sept. 9, 2019 to leave the United States, or they will be considered illegal immigrants and face threats of jail as well as deportation.

More than 13,000 tourists were trapped in the Swiss resort of Zermatt after heavy snow hit many towns in Switzerland, France and Italy. Many ski slopes closed due to a high avalanche threat, after 39 inches of snow fell on Jan. 8. Some guests of the resort were forced to evacuate by way of helicopter transportation.

Most tourists, however, decided to stay at the resort while Swiss officials worked to carve a path through the snow in in order for the visitors to leave.

On Jan. 1, Iceland became the first country to make unequal pay illegal. A legislature forcing companies with more than 25 employees to prove that members are receiving equal pay is one of the methods that the Icelandic government is using to close the wage gap, which they predict will be gone by 2020. The country is, according to the Global Gender Gap Report, the most advanced in the world in terms of gender equality.

Information from Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, The Guardian and National Public Radio

january 18, 2018

When Tropical Storm Tembin hit the Philippines from Dec. 20-26, it left flash floods and mudslides in its wake, which led to the deaths of more than 200 people, and hundreds more displaced and without shelter. Flooding and mudslides have wiped out entire villages, especially in rural areas where housing is fragile and built without strong foundations. Rescue efforts were also delayed due to a lack of communication to those in need because of dead power lines.

Australia is dealing with extreme heat, leaving four various species of fur-covered flying fox bats vulnerable to the weather. Temperatures reached 117 degrees Fahrenheit in the outskirts of Sydney over the first weekend of January, which was the highest temperature recorded since 1939. About 204 bats were found dead in the streets of Sydney subaurbs, as well as many more in the trees.

On Jan. 5, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, expressed his interest in having North Korea’s Olympic team compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Pyongyang, South Korea. To speak about the Olympics, North Korea finally accepted South Korea’s requests to have an official high-level talk after two years of silence.

North Korea’s participation in the Winter Olympics will “provide a very good opportunity for inter-Korean peace and reconciliation,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said. words by esther choi, jeremy chung and bea de oliveira infographic by angela liu

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SITCOM

CONTINUED FROM A1

made to the sitcom, like ways to make it more accessible to and more widelyknown among the student population.

“Right now, the sitcom is only accessible through YouTube, but I’m trying to get a website up where they can access the sitcom and all the class’ other projects,” Brunkhorst said.

He also plans to insert a brief preview of the newest sitcom near the end of any TP Current episodes that do not have enough news content to meet the standard of five to six minutes.

Going forward, Brunkhorst hopes to continue the sitcom and make it a series.

“I’m encouraging the juniors [in the class] to continue on with the sitcom … and to write in new characters at the end, but … it’s really their brainchild, so I’m going to let them fly with it,” Brunkhorst said.

Ramirez and Hall share Brunkhorst’s views on continuing “@Break” as well.

“It would be cool to leave a legacy as the first sitcom in our school and see how it develops,” Hall said.

The sitcom means more to Ramirez than simply a school project. Making the sitcom has become a unique accomplishment, which she hopes to share with students taking Advanced TV Production in coming years.

“I love making the sitcom because the seven of us are constantly striving to make every episode better than the last, and I think you can really see the progression of that,” Ramirez said. “[Advanced TV Production] is a great environment to be in, especially because we all like to take the sitcom seriously and really commit to our characters and the show.” “@Break” has a lot of potential, according to Zhang, who plans on revisiting the sitcom’s YouTube channel every now and then. She recommends the sitcom to other students and hopes that it will be a project that will last many years and gain more attention from students.

the falconer

A3

Japanese NHS to build Zen garden on campus

By Michael Nirula SPORTS EDITOR A Japanese Zen garden on the lower level of the G building is being built by the Japanese National Honor Society and will be finished by February 2.

“Zen gardens are an art that sort of mimic the ocean,” said Japanese National Honors Society President YeRin You. “So the rocks in the zen garden are supposed to represent the water. That is why we rake the rocks, to make the waves of the ocean. We also put things like little stones for islands.”

I think [the garden] will also add another layer to our wellness philosophy -creating a safe comfortable space for our students. Zen gardens help with wellness and clearing the mind.

Although the idea for the garden was originally to add “something nice” for the Japanese classroom. You says it also adds to the campus as a whole.

“Anyone can come and visit it and they can just spend their time relaxing or just even looking at it,” You said So far, the garden already has bamboo fencing. Although the project construction has been put on hold until Jan. 29, You said the Zen garden will be finished by Feb. 2.

“The rocks for the garden will be delivered on Jan. 29. We need the rocks to come before we continue any other parts,” You said.

According to Japanese teacher and JNHS adviser Sato Umabe, the project to be done by Feb. 2, barring unforseen delays, so they can show students who will visit from Japan from Feb. 2 to Feb. 9.

“By then, we want to finish it so we can show [the Japanese exchange students] the finished, beautiful product,” You said.

Lynn says the Zen garden is special

because it is different from everything else on campus.

“It will add a more cultural aspect to the campus,” Lynn said.

Principal Rob Coppo says he loves student-motivated projects like this one.

“I think, number one, it is going to add beauty. Hopefully, it will add a sense of pride for the students who put it together,” Coppo said. “I think it will also add another layer to our wellness philosophy by creating a safe, comfortable space for our students. Zen gardens help with wellness and clearing the mind.”

Building the Zen garden is not all that the JNHS will do in the coming months.

After building the garden, You said there are many other activities in which they may take part.

“We might have tea ceremonies and moon viewing festivals for example,” You said.

You said as long as everyone respects what is in the garden, it will be a nice addition to the campus.

Rob Coppo principal

The garden is currently being built next to the Japanese classroom. Some of the key features are rocks, a bridge and bamboo edging.

“Each aspect of the Zen garden is a metaphor for enlightenment, so the bridge is the journey through life,” JNHS Vice President Rianne Lynn said. “If there is a lantern, that is enlightenment and if there are any big rocks that is supposed to represent Buddha, stability or strength.”

You, Lynn and the rest of JNHS decided to build the garden after receiving a $1000 grant from the Japanese Business Association.

photo by jocelyn tzeng/falconer

zen state of mind: Parts of the Japanese Zen garden have already been placed inside the bamboo fencing where the garden will be located next to the Japanese classroom.

Kevin Ren (12) and CCA NAMI club to hold fundraisers on students win $25,000 at Siemens campus for future NCHS events we were trying to analyze how they spread throughout human populations. We did OPINION EDITOR this by modeling through graphs with From December 4-5, Kevin Ren (12), individuals as vertices of the graph and along with Canyon Crest Academy edges to denote path of reflection.”

Out of the 1,861 projects, only 12 students Anlin Zhang (12) and Rachana submissions (six teams and six individuals) Madhukara (9) attended the final round advanced to the finals held at the George of 2017 Siemens Competition, taking Washington University in Washington, home a $25,000 prize for their research on D.C. epidemics and how they spread.

The team was mentored The Siemens

by Dr. Laura Schaposnik of Competition is an annual the University of Illinois, national competition I think getting to the Chicago. in math, science and “Very few people finals, on a project technology for high school get selected every year students.

Founded in that invovled a big to be finalists and the of pure 1999, the competition was portion competition is extremely established to increase mathematics, is high —with students access to higher education one of the highest doing research in very hot for students gifted in achievements one topics, for example cancer STEM. could imagine. treatments, which can “You choose a topic or make pure mathematics area of study and find a seem less useful,” Laura Schaposnik problem and try and solve professor at the university Schaposnik said. “I think it,” Ren said. “Even if you of illinois, chicago getting to the finals, on a don’t solve it, it can still project that involved a big be submitted as research portion of pure mathematics, is one of the if you have substantial proof, and that’s highest achievements one could imagine.” what [my team] did.”

Schaposnik first proposed the topic Ren, along with Madhukara and of infection spreading at the beginning Zhang, moved through the four rounds of 2017. Later in the year, Ren and of competition all the way to the finals, Madhukara joined the project and all earning a team prize of $25,000 in three worked together to put out the final scholarships. This year, over $500,000 in product. scholarships, including two top prizes of “Just making the national competition $100,000, were awarded. was already an honor,” Ren said. “I Recognizing the role that social received my announcement just before PE interactions and cliques play in the class. I was amazed that we even made it, spread of disease, Ren’s team created a and my teammates were similarly elated. mathematical model to examine the spread This is the culmination of our hard work of disease around the globe. and I felt like it all paid off. It was a feeling “Our topic was called ‘Epidemic of success.”

Dynamics in Symmetric Modeling,’” Ren Ren hopes to use the money to venture said. “Epidemics spread very quickly, and further into STEM in college.

By Sammy Hallal

mental illnesses, which club members believe can be done by educating students STAFF WRITER about mental health.

Fundraisers at Chipotle and the “The main thing is that there is a school’s Learning Commons and front stigma about mental health, and we’re parking lot will take place to raise money trying to make it so you’re not ashamed for future events by the TPHS NCHS, the about it,” said Jenna Howard (12), the National Alliance on Mental Illness on media officer for NCHS. Campus High School Club, which raises By engaging students from middle awareness about mental illness. schools and high schools in different The three fundraisers, ways, such as holding two of which will be boba assemblies and putting fundraisers — where posters, the club The main thing is up boba will be sold for $4 hopes to make others to $4.50 — at TPHS and that there is a stigma more aware of the facts the last at Chipotle, will about mental health, about mental health raise money for events start conversations and we’re trying to and later in the year such as about the topic.

Mental Health Month in make it so you’re not “I believe large-scale May and Yellow Ribbon ashamed about it. efforts, like Challenge Week, which will take Days, are the best ways place the first week of Jenna Howard (12) to help our students,” student March. said Debra Lawler, a Earlier in the year, school psychologist.

NCHS put on an assembly at Carmel “Seeing our similarities is a fantastic Valley Middle School to raise awareness way of addressing that it is okay not to be about mental health issues. The club okay, along with providing resources for is also scheduled to give a similar help. We all need help at some time in our presentation at Diegueño Country School lives, and that is okay.” on Feb. 26, and they hope to plan others Although NCHS was formed just last as well. year by the current club president and “The big two things are the events, media officer, the club is tentatively taking just making the events very well known on more events to fulfill its purpose. For because some other years people don’t example, NCHS and PALs (Peer Assistant know what Yellow Ribbon Week is Listeners) are collaborating for Yellow about and don’t know it’s mental health Ribbon Week, which is usually run solely month,” said Tavisha Thapar (12), the by PALs. The club hopes to eventually club’s president. “We’re trying to make share more of the responsibility, spread the events more noticeable. It’s kind of the message and influence more students. tentative right now because we’re a new The NCHS Club at TPHS is an affiliate club, but we’re still trying to do more program of the national organization, events during the school year and reach NAMI; it applied for and received money out to more students.” for speakers and supplies last year from The goal of NCHS on TPHS’ campus is the organization to have Mental Health to eradicate the social stigma surrounding Month in May.

By Esther Choi

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january 18, 2018

art by neilah soliday/falcon artist

PRO

By Farhan Hossain FEATURE EDITOR

In our capitalist society, money speaks. It changes attitudes, controls lawmakers and has become a prerequisite for political success in an era of wealthy donors and super political action committees (PACs) that allow candidates to raise indefinite amounts of money for campaigns. Without the finances of the Koch brothers, who threw $250 million behind various Republican candidates during the 2016 election cycle, everyday civilians are voiceless and invisible in the current political process. Few institutions can match the financial wherewithal of wealthy business people but businesses themselves. From healthcare reform to immigration and infrastructure, businesses are central to much of the legislative agenda. As revenue generators and employers, they have a right to vocalize how policy proposals will impact them and the U.S. economy. While never completely selfless in nature, they have and should continue to use their monetary influence to push for positive social, environmental and economic policies.

In March 2016, North Carolina’s then-Governor, Pat McCrory, signed HB2, barring transgender people from using public bathrooms of their preferred genders. The bill was met with nationwide criticism for being transphobic and for perpetuating a harmful stereotype of transgender people as sexual predators. North Carolina’s Republican-controlled State Assembly and governorship, however, seemed to secure the bill in place. The GOP, often perceived as the party of business, was surprised then when HB2 provoked a strong response from corporate America. Paypal scrapped a $2.6 billion expansion plan. The NBA moved the 2017 All Star Game to New Orleans from Charlotte, N.C. Sixty-eight companies signed a joint

Amid the Trump adminstration’ws decision to drastically shrink national parks in Utah, companies like Patagonia and REI have filed lawsuits against the government. Should companies take political stances?

amicus brief in a legal challenge of HB2, noting it already had cost the state “more than 1,700 jobs and half a billion dollars in lost economic activity.” The economic toll of the bill contributed to McCrory’s reelection loss to Democrat Roy Cooper, who wasted no time repealing HB2.

The strong and unified negation of HB2 from companies had the political muscle to overturn HB2. LGBTQ activists needed corporate America to support their cause. By standing up to North Carolina, businesses sent a message to states that undermined the rights of transgender individuals, that they would take their business elsewhere.

A few days after Donald Trump announced his administration would leave the Paris Climate Agreement, 1,200 mayors, governors and companies signed a letter to the president announcing their intention to work toward reducing emissions to help meet the standards outlined in Paris. Patagonia, an outdoor wear company, sued Trump after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced plans to drastically shrink two national monuments sacred to Utah’s indigenous Native American tribes.

Cards Against Humanity, the company behind the eponymous card game, purchased a plot of land along the Mexican-American border to try and prevent the Trump administration from building a continuous border wall. Many of these political stances led to disgruntled customers vowing to boycott the companies behind them — a reaction these companies most likely had predicted. Despite that, they chose to take a principled stance that had no obvious monetary benefit. Without privileged advocates who understand the political system and can get politicians to listen to them, everyday civilians, minorities and disadvantaged communities cannot achieve the social changes they desire.

Corporations are not perfect.

They still need federal oversight and regulatory agencies to monitor their actions. However, as active members of the U.S. economy, it is crucial that they are allowed to maintain and vocalize their political stances, especially when they magnify the voices of the unheard.

In response to a question asked to people ages 18-34 by YouGov:

Should companies take public stances on social issues?

49%

51%

YES

NO

said

said

Recently, private enterprises have been more politically active than ever.

Ranging from the sales of products that have political messages to indirect advertising, companies have made a greater impact on the opinions of the general public. Coca-Cola, Walmart, and nearly all oil companies are large companies that are proud of aligning with the Republican Party for a better reputation. Due to this increased involvement, some customers have boycotted, using social media like Facebook and Twitter to express their discontent, and no longer purchasing products or services from these businesses.

Being politically active causes businesses to suffer negative consequences in growth and stock values. J. Walker Smith, a marketing news writer for the American Marketing Association, stated that brands depend on penetration instead of loyalty. Penetration is the act of stretching out to a wider range of customers. Loyalty, on the other hand, is staying rigid by focusing on the customers who already shop at the business. In order to create more penetration, the businesses must abstain from politics and properly address all issues from a neutral standpoint. Taking political stances as a corporation would only further divide demographics, ultimately hurting businesses, and subsequently jobs and the general public.

According to the customers’ opinions, the company’s reaction to a controversy is a significant factor in determining the credibility and popularity of the business. Weber Shandwick and KRC Research, a global full-service public opinion research consultancy, conducted a survey among consumers to determine the major factors that make an enterprise more appealing.

Among 1,050 senior executives and 2,100 consumers across 21 markets worldwide, a company’s response to controversies was the second most popular option with 85 percent of the votes, just behind direct comments from former or current customers, which received 88 percent of the votes. Only in rare cases, a company’s direct comments on controversial issues lead to a positive net result.

As a popular factor in determining

CON

By Daniel Kim STAFF WRITER

a company’s credibility, the company’s reaction to a controversial issue is important, and it must stay unbiased to improve the company’s financial situation.

Even large companies are harmed by the massive boycotts triggered by outraged by the political views of private businesses. Reports on Twitter show that consumers threatened Amazon that they would no longer buy from the online store until they removed all Trump merchandise from the catalog. Accused of trying to profit during an anti-Trump taxi strike in New York City, Uber lost a massive group of 200,000 users who deleted their accounts in protest.

Clearly, remaining inactive in politics provides for the best results, not only to small companies but large, popular companies as well.

While fighting for social equality is a valiant cause, companies and large corporations are better off remaining neutral in their political stances.

Ultimately, the purpose of brands is not to take political stances, but rather to unify large groups of consumers.

The job of such corporations is to work towards growth, providing both jobs and goods to consumers, not to try to do the jobs of more informed politicians. While politicians thrive and gain support from their respective parties, such divisive parties are irrelevant to company marketing strategies which should aim to unify instead of polarize.

To the businesses who long for profit, customers are necessary, but being actively involved in politics has proved to create a net loss in consumers. At the same time, the general public lose faith and interest in popular, credible companies, creating much more concern for customers who boycott and avoid those enterprises.

A6 the falconer

opinion

january 18, 2018

Staff editorial: Revival of offshore oil drilling is a step back for U.S. 2016 ended with a landmark policy, implemented by the Obama administration, which banned offshore oil drilling across the United States. Though the policy has overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans alike, that does not seem to matter to President Donald Trump, whose administration announced that they would be reviving offshore drilling all around the United States.

Exploring our coasts for oil resources first began in the late 1800s and has since become a controversial topic. Nearly 120 later, thanks to the advancement of environmental science and several catastrophes, it is clear

art by simon kim/falcon artist

that the risk is far greater than the reward.

There is no denying that fossil fuels play a substantial role in global economies and power supply, but the damaging toll they have wreaked on our climate and ecosystems should be evidence enough that we must transition to alternative energy.

The irresponsible decision by the Trump administration proves its loyalty to the oil lobby rather than the wellbeing of our planet.

Due to our heavy reliance on fossil fuels, the United States is today the largest carbon contributer in the world.

When carbon and other gases are released into the atmosphere, they are trapped by the Earth’s ozone layer.

The onlyincreasing carbon emissions have led to the gradual rise in the Earth’s average temperature.

The U.S. is also the only first-world nation that has a substantial amount of legislators, and a president, that denies the

existence of climate change. Every other developed nation in the world recognizes the threats posed by our continued burning of fossil fuels, and by reviving offshore oil drilling, Trump is moving the country backwards.

The future is in alternative energy, something that every nation but the U.S. seems to understand. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said the administration is “embarking on a new path for energy dominance in America.” What that claim fails to recognize is that bringing back offshore drilling only makes us less independent. By investing in renewable energy, we will not only begin to catch up to the nations around us, but also move closer to environmental security.

The proposed new rules on offshore drilling are a massive step away from the path that Barack Obama set the U.S. down. Not only do they defy common sense, but they lighten the responsibilites of the oil and gas industries.

We must never forget the 2010 BP oil spill that killed 11 workers and released over 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill caused upwards of 17 billion dollars in damages to natural resources, not including the irreversible effects it had on wildlife. Though the Trump adminstration claims that technology in drilling has since advanced, and that an oil spill of that magnitude is unlikely today, is it really worth the risk? Other than shortterm economic development, the list of

negatives goes on and on.

By drilling oil offshore, we are endangering the lives of multiple species of marine wildlife. Locating the proper places to drill offshore takes firing air guns at the ocean floor, which send a strong shock, affecting the wildlife surrounding it. In order to harvest these oils we place Americans in high-risk job positions simply for energy sources that can be produced in a cleaner and more efficient way.

By 2030, 50 percent of California’s energy will be created by renewable resources, according to the State of California Energy Commissions, and the state has not drilled offshore in 30 years. The governors of every coastal state, except for Maine, have come out against Trump’s proposal to bring back drilling. The president should listen to the people, not the big-oil interest groups that have weaved their way into his adminstration.

As a country, and as citizens of this world, we need to phase out fossil fuels so we can better support the environment for years to come. If we spent as much as we spend on fossil fuels, becoming an energyindependent nation would be very within reach. Our current leadership, however, prefers the easy way out. We must evolve from what we think is the only solution.

Drilling oil and killing our environment only brings us closer to a dead planet.

It would be unreasonable to call for the immediate halt of fossil fuel use, but we must begin somewhere.

The United States is no longer the leader of the free world.

For decades, the United States of America has prided itself as the leader of the free world, something that I once firmly believed. Since the election of Donald Trump, this high honor has been resigned.

Our current president, with his blatant racism, lack of compassion and bold disregard for human rights, has propelled our great nation into a moral crisis. The U.S. is no longer committed to increasing awareness around the globe, but rather uses its platform to spread hatred and intolerance.

Trump claims that “the world is finally starting to respect the United States of America again,” and this statement may be the biggest lie he has told yet. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center on 37 countries, a median of just 22 percent had confidence that Trump would do the right thing regarding world affairs. To put that into perspective, that number was 64 percent under President Barack Obama. Confidence in the U.S. has declined in 35 of the 37 countries polled.

A photo from last year’s G-20 summit, which has since gone viral, shows Donald Trump seated alone while world leaders behind can be seen him mingling and having discussions.

The picture is the perfect metaphor for the United States today. On that day, the G-20 became the G-19.

Since his election, Trump has abandoned our allies and ceded America’s commitment to being a leader in social change. The president launched his campaign by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. A few weeks later, he called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims coming into the United States. More recently, he is reported to have called African nations “shithole countries.” He went on to say that all Haitians “have AIDS” and that Nigerians “live in huts.” The list of disparaging (and flat-out stupid) remarks from the president goes on and on.

Trump became the first president in 40 years not to mention America’s role in promoting freedom around the world in his inaugural address. In his 1977 address, President Carter stated that “the passion for freedom is on the rise.” Ronald Reagan, four years later, famously said “we will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not

now have freedom.”

There is no doubt that past presidents have said some terrible things behind closed doors.

President Lyndon B. Johnson, the man behind the Civil Rights Act, once referred to Vietnam as a “little pissant country” while speaking to a military adviser on the phone. President Richard Nixon, among other anti-Semitic language, referred to Henry Kissinger as “Jew-Boy.” President Bill Clinton was famous for his curse-filled rants in private meetings, and the list goes on. The difference, however, is that these men still understood the great responsibility they held not only to the American people but to all citizens of the world, an idea that President Trump cannot comprehend.

All past presidents, whether they were Democrats or Republicans, have shared the common belief that leadership comes not from domestic policy and regulation, but from their abilities to shape the attitudes and cultures of the global community.

His impulsive and ill-informed rhetoric is not the only thing that has isolated the U.S., but also his decisions on international issues. In a bold slap in the face to facts and science, he withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, making us the only nation not in the deal. After his reckless decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he single-handedly lit the Middle East on fire and destroyed the possibility of a two-state solution with Palestine. The United Nations voted 128 to nine to condemn the controversial decision. Prior to the vote, Trump resorted to intimidation tactics, saying he would cut aid to nations that did not vote in favor of the U.S. There is a new definition of world order in politics, one that the majority of nations will reject. Rather than pushing peace, Trump has shown he has a knack for destabilizing an already chaotic world. Though he campaigned on the idea of “America First” and his base applauds his efforts to isolate the United States, that does not make them right. The office of the president comes with the awesome responsibility of carrying the world forward, but Trump has shown that he is incapable of doing that, and instead has halted all societal progress in its tracks.

by Sammy Hallal

photo courtesy of kristian goddard

Falconer The Torrey Pines High School

We, the Falconer staff, are dedicated to creating a monthly newspaper with the intent of encouraging independent thinking, expanding our knowledge of journalism, and providing the TPHS student body and community with a truthful, unbiased news source, in accordance with our First Amendment rights.

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The Falconer is the student newspaper of Torrey Pines High School. Its content, which is the responsibility of the Falconer staff, is not subject to administrative approval. Unsigned editorials represent the opinions of the staff, while opinion columns represent the writer’s perspective. Advertisements do not represent endorsements. The Falconer, an open forum, welcomes signed letters or guest editorials on pertinent issues from the TPHS community, which may be submitted to room 102, via email at falconer.ads@gmail.com or to Mia Smith’s mailbox in the administration building. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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San Diego hepatitis A outbreak could and should have been prevented EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

In 2003, Chi Chi’s restaurant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania was the source of one of the biggest hepatitis A outbreaks, when over 900 people were infected after eating green onions.

Hepatitis A outbreaks may be rare in the United States, but when it is known that hepatitis can easily spread through homeless communities, San Diego, with the fourth highest homeless population of the U.S., should have known an epidemic was coming. In September 2017, a public health emergency was declared in San Diego because of the hepatitis A outbreak sweeping through the homeless community, and although the city is taking steps to stop the hepatitis, preventative measures should have been implemented far before the epidemic became an issue.

Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver virus, often transmitted through the consumption of food or water contaminated with fecal matter, and a safe and effective vaccine exists. The disease tends to thrive in areas lacking clean water and sanitation, and although hepatitis itself isn’t usually fatal, it can lead to liver failure, which typically is fatal.

In San Diego, about 577 people have been diagnosed with hepatitis A, and approximately 20 have died from it, according to the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency. In response to the outbreak, the city of San Diego has installed hand-washing stations around

the county and has been washing the streets with water and bleach. About 57,000 people, composed of homeless people, drug users and others closely associated with either of them, have been vaccinated for hepatitis, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The problem is not that San Diego is not doing enough t o combat t h e epidemic, it is that this outbreak should have been foreseen and prevented.

In fact, it was not so

much a matter of fo re s i g h t , since the city was warned repeatedly of its declining sanitation standards.

According to the Los Angeles Times, four grand jury reports since 2000 have pointed out a lack of public bathrooms in San Diego, and one such report from 2010 explicitly mentioned that the unhygienic conditions could lead to the outbreak of an illness that could prove to be a liability to the city of San Diego. Public bathrooms were not added because in 2005, the city responded to a grand jury report stating that there were financial restrictions

to pursue a project like that, and city manager Ronne Froman said that corporate sponsorships did not want their brands to be associated with restrooms.

Rather than add restrooms, which were clearly identified and emphasized as a problem, San Diego began to close public bathrooms downtown in an effort to curb crime rates, particularly

art by carla hansen/falcon artist

By Anvitha Soordelu

surrounding drugs and prostitution. A valiant objective, but the wrong course of action.

With a virus as contagious and easily-spread through feces as hepatitis A, removing public bathrooms, especially when the number of restrooms is lacking to begin with, is asking for trouble.

The San Diego outbreak would not have been as much a problem if the city’s homeless population had not been rising. According to Forbes, in 2016, San Diego had a homeless population of 8,669, the fourth highest in the United States. In 2007, San Diego was ranked

12th in the country for homelessness, and this rise is likely due to the housing crisis. California’s housing prices have risen dramatically, and lowincome housing is increasingly difficult to find, resulting in California being the state with the nation’s highest poverty rate at 20.6 percent, according to Forbes. In 2011, during the state budget crisis, Governor Jerry Brown rerouted money normally used for low-income housing to debt relief and schools, which has resulted in a loss of about $200 million for affordable housing. Without that, low-income individuals have been forced to the streets.

However, steps have been taken to rectify the problems that have been building for years. Portable bathrooms have been provided, 57,000 of the most vulnerable people have been inoculated against the disease and security has been set up. In September, Brown signed off on spending about $4 billion to construct low-income housing in California in 2018, and programs like Housing Our Heroes have worked to get veterans off the streets and into permanent housing.

But the fact still stands that the city should have prevented the outbreak. With a rising homeless population to the point of national recognition, and decreasing sanitation levels that warranted reports for years, the city of San Diego should not have been surprised to see hepatitis A sweep through its homeless community. It would not have been possible to completely prevent hepatitis, but had preventative measures been taken in response to the various factors that are known to result in epidemics like this, this outbreak would not have been ranked the second largest hepatitis A outbreak in the history of the United States, just behind the 2003 Pennsylvania epidemic. This was a man-made disaster, and due to the nature of hepatitis A, it is one that will likely hang around San Diego for a few more years despite the disaster control San Diego is implementing.

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE Staff Writer Luke Modugno (12) reflects on his difficult decision to transfer from Canyon Crest Academy to TPHS after his freshman year.

New school, new people, new experiences.

Sounds like a typical freshman year, doesn’t it? Well, oddly enough, it applies for half of my four years in high school. No matter how hard it was to adjust to two drastically different schools, I would never trade my high school experience for a ‘normal’ one. It taught me how to work hard, how to believe in myself and, most importantly, how to handle change in my life.

When I decided to apply to my first high school, Canyon Crest Academy, I didn’t have any idea what to expect. I had heard many different stories about the school — ranging from its academic rigor to its unusual student body. Other than its stereotypical AP-loaded schedules and lottery-earned education, I didn’t know much else about CCA. Also, as an eighth grader, I honestly wasn’t too concerned about what high school I was going to go to.

When eighth grade came to a close, I was completely unaware of the heavy dose of reality that was about to hit me like a truck when I started freshman year. As I walked in to CCA for my first day of high school, I was completely shocked. Everyone seemed so busy and so stressed, rushing to get to wherever they were going. I realized shortly after that this was common in high school life. The leisurely and stress-free days of middle school were undoubtedly over. My schedule was constantly packed, and the first few weeks of high school went by in a frenzy.

With a full commitment to the school basketball team, I was barely at home. As I tried to juggle my school work, basketball

photo by ally jensen/falconer

LUKE MODUGNO

practices, friends and family, I began to fall behind in my academic life.

My grades were plummeting and I turned to my teachers for help. Some of my teachers gave me more aid than others, but, still, most of them didn’t seem very interested in my troubles, declaring that I’d made my schedule too difficult and hectic and photo by jocelyn tzeng/falconer that I had brought all of this on myself.

My parents were becoming more I took a deep breath and walked into my frustrated with my grades, while my school work counselor’s office. But, I wasn’t in trouble as I continued to pile up into a mountain I couldn’t had expected; rather, my counselor wanted to climb. I somehow struggled to crawl my way to welcome me to TPHS. She gave me the generic the end of freshman year. introduction to the school, touching on the As I walked out of my last class of school’s culture and academic prestige, and freshman year, I completely forgot about told me how well I would fit in. school, academics going to the back of my I kept waiting for her to tell me how TPHS mind like the warm summer breeze. Between would help and support me through any sunny days at the beach and fun family trips, academic struggles I might experience, but my academics and school were completely she never said anything of the sort. It was like irrelevant, becoming the least of my worries. my first day at CCA all over again, and I was in But as summer slowly faded away, and I began complete shock. Right there, in my counselor’s to feel a need for a change of scenery at school. office, I developed a chip on my shoulder.

I submitted my transfer paperwork to move Everyone, including my parents, teachers and to TPHS, and while I knew it would not be easy to counselors, had been predicting mediocrity adjust to a new school during sophomore year, I from me for the last year and a half. realized that CCA couldn’t provide the support I made it my job to prove each and every I needed to thrive academically. Additionally, I one of them wrong, even if that meant making had strong group of friends at TPHS to help me sacrifices to do so. I cut back on my social life, transition into the school year. gave up the sport I had been playing for 15 years I was in my second class on the first day of and put all of my focus into my school work. My sophomore year when I got a notice to go to the grades skyrocketed, and I improved my GPA by counseling office. I started to panic a little bit, an entire point compared to my freshman year. wondering what wrongdoing I had committed. If anybody asks what my greatest achievement

is, I always talk about finally achieving a 4.0 GPA sophomore year.

I am forever grateful to TPHS for helping me achieve the academic success I have been aiming for ever since my freshman year.

Because of the culture the teachers create at this school, I was able to discover what I am really passionate about and want to be pursue in the future. Being on the staff of the Falconer is simply the first step in fulfilling my dream of pursuing sports journalism as a career. Next year, I hope to either attend Gonzaga University or Univeristy of California, Los Angeles, majoring in communications with a focus on journalism.

My academic career had its challenges, setbacks and a little bit of failure. But it has taught me how to conduct myself professionally, how to handle unexpected changes and how to appreciate the journey along the way. In eighth grade, I did not think I would end up at TPHS, but I am thankful that it has provided me with the resources and support that I was not, unfortunately, able to find while I was at CCA. As I move into my future, I can confidently say I’m going to miss TPHS.

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opinion

january 18, 2018

YouTube should hold creators like Logan Paul accountable STAFF WRITER

In 2005, a group of three ambitious PayPal employees created YouTube.com, a site where people can post and share videos. Little did they know that their simple idea would go on to revolutionize the internet.

The first YouTube video, made by co-creator Jawed Karim, was a shaky 18-second clip of Karim in front of a group of elephants, entitled “Me at the zoo.” Today, over 1.3 billion videos have been uploaded to the site, with as many as five billion views per day. Its incredible popularity, along with the chance to make money since YouTube started selling ads, has attracted an array of successful YouTubers with millions of subscribers, advertising deals and even original made-for-YouTube shows on the site’s premium account, YouTube Red. However, YouTube’s rapid ascent to the top of the Internet food chain has raised the question: in this day and age, what is considered quality content?

On Dec. 31, 2017, Logan Paul, who has 15 million subscribers and a salary of around $1 million monthly, according to NPR, uploaded a video of himself and some friends in Aokigahara, Japan, also known as the Japanese “suicide forest.” The forest got this dark nickname because people often go there to commit suicide, and some say their spirits haunt it. While walking through the forest, Paul happened upon a dead body hanging from a tree. Quite stupidly, he decided to film the body.

He even posed with it for the video’s thumbnail.

As any sane person could have predicted, this

brought him a whole lot of unwanted attention.

He even joked with his friends, saying, “What, have you never seen a dead body before?” while he chuckled.

Though he later wrote on Twitter that he “intended to raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention,” Paul did the exact opposite by being disrespectful of the family of the person in the video and by making jokes in a sacred place about a sensitive, serious topic.

Prior to the tremendous backlash the video faced, it was on YouTube’s top-trending page. The hostile response to the post prompted Paul to delete it himself.

didn’t remove the video and allowed it to remain on the trending list for over 24 hours, causing people to point out the hypocrisy — YouTube flags harmless videos that have mild LGBTQ references and profanity, yet, at the same time, promotes a video disrespecting a dead person.

Paul still faces punishment, according to the Washington Post; he has been removed from Google’s Preferred ad platform, which allows brands to sell ads to the top five percent of creators. Additionally, YouTube will no longer promote him on

art by richard li/falconer

Colette Chiang

The vlog received criticism from celebrities including Anna Akana and Aaron Paul (no relation). Since then, he has uploaded an apology video, which has reached 40 million views.

YouTube has become an established media platform, so the site must develop and enforce better content standards and hold creators responsible for what they upload. While YouTube has a policy of prohibiting graphic content, they

Foursome, a YouTube Red show, and his other Originals projects have been put on hold.

While Paul claims to be taking a break from vlogging, he continues to gain subscribers from this controversy, and his career is not likely to be affected very much.

This sequence of events is similar to what happened in January of 2017 to fellow

YouTuber, Felix Kjellberg, more commonly known as Pewdiepie. The controversy, which ended with the same penalties that have been given to Paul, came about when Kjellberg hired two men to hold up a sign that read “Death to All Jews” for $5.

Pewdiepie currently has 59 million subscribers, the most of anyone on YouTube, showing that his removal from Google Preferred, an ad platform, did not affect his career, and certainly didn’t set a standard to prevent recurrences, like Paul’s video. It would not be surprising if Paul returns in the near future as if nothing happened.

These popular YouTubers, who often capture themselves doing extremely rude and idiotic stunts, are misusing their influence for more views and money. Paul’s statement on Twitter, an apology that was given in an attempt to save his career and cover up his mistake, was insincere and certainly not enough to make up for his offensive behavior and the unneeded attention he brought to the forest.

Paul also left a negative image of how uncultured and disrespectful Americans can be in a different country, and showed his stupidity in choosing to post the video without editing out the parts that contained explicit and personal footage.

In order to ensure that YouTube’s content is appropriate and that celebrities like Paul and Kjellberg are proper role models to their millions of fans, YouTube needs to hold them more accountable. Either by temporarily banning or even deleting accounts of those who violate standards, a necessary first step is making YouTube standards more rigid and clearly spelled out and requiring strict compliance with those standards, whether or not the offender is popular, like Paul.

Can everyone please calm down about #Oprah2020?

COPY EDITOR

On Jan. 7, Oprah Winfrey accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award for her “outstanding contribution to the world of entertainment” at the Golden Globes with a speech that left the country in a frenzy. She conveyed her sense of honor at being the first black woman to be given the award, and touched on her appreciation for the press, but her words mostly addressed the #MeToo movement, notably urging audiences everywhere to fight for “the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.”

It was a beautiful and compelling speech, one that said all the right things, and was eloquently delivered by a woman who has worked her way up from nothing to a near godly status in our country. In a matter of hours, speculation of whether Oprah would run for president in 2020 swept the nation, first by social media and, soon after, by coverage from national press.

On Twitter, amid messages of praise (which were absolutely warranted for such a phenomenal speech), the hashtag #Oprah2020 began appearing, along with tweets like this one from author Roxane Gay: “Our president is giving her state of the union,” which garnered 5,114 retweets and 30,055 likes. Before long, every website, newspaper and news show in the country was talking about Oprah’s potential 2020 run. While Oprah herself has not released a statement on the matter, her partner Stedman Graham told the Los Angeles Times “it’s up to the people,” but “she would absolutely do it.”

This isn’t just a half-joke that happened to blow up after someone tweeted it, to clarify, or a hypothetical. We should all know by now that few things, if anything, are hypothetical when it

comes to presidential candidates.

To all the people who want Oprah to run I say: hold on! Take one step back and think for just a minute. And before you think you know what I’m going to say, read and find out. I’m not going to say Oprah is like Donald Trump, because she isn’t. But, there are effects of Trump’s rise to the presidency that have led to the over-excitement about Oprah.

When Trump ran against Hillary Clinton, many left-leaning people found themselves unable to support her or reluctantly supportive, something I somewhat understand, but do not agree with. They may not have seen Clinton as their ideal candidate, and the hopelessness that they feel while watching the Trump administration is making them antsy for some sort of savior. Democrats are frantically grasping for a candidate that they can get behind with pride, so when Oprah appears, charismatic and uplifting as ever, it’s easy to encourage her candidacy without thinking much about it.

Are we seriously at the point where someone makes a speech that brings us to tears and makes us want to take action, and, suddenly, they’re presidential material?

And yes, it should be obvious to anyone that Oprah has done a lot more in her life than make an inspiring speech. Oprah is a self-made billionaire who has dedicated much of her money to philanthropy, including the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a South African school for disadvantaged students. She has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, along with Emmys, a Tony and several other honors. Those awards are really just the surface of her successes.

Successes, which did not occur while Oprah served in any level of the United States government. Because, as most people know, she never has; she has no experience.

Which recent president of ours, who Oprah’s supporters abhor, entered the Oval Office with zero experience? And again, this isn’t about who would you rather have as president: Oprah or

Trump? I don’t doubt that Oprah is informed or that she would select advisors with experience, something that Trump certainly hasn’t done, but what we should be saying, instead is “Oprah for Senate” or “Oprah for Congress.” Even “Oprah for Governor.” Ronald Reagan, also an actor, served two terms as the Governor of California before becoming President of the United States, giving voters enough time to judge if he was really fit for the job. There are also women just as admirable who have devoted their lives to public service and will run in 2020. For a woman who has spent years building up trust with the public and increasing her government experience, it would be hard to see a woman who has never been in government take the shortcut to the presidency, not to mention a possible deprivation for the country of a more qualified leader.

Something else we have learned from the

Trump administration is the array of problems that arise when the president is involved in business. It is the general consensus that Oprah has morals and would therefore divest, unlike someone else we know, but the relationships that are formed over decades of running a corporation are not easily severed, and can therefore influence decisions, consciously or not. The Oprah Winfrey Network, for instance, has partnerships with advertisers. Those advertisers have the capacity to wield great power over her, because even if we prefer to think that Oprah would be immune to external pressures, her business is like her child.

The bottom line is, we cannot forget to think. If we have learned anything from the current presidency, it’s that it’s a good idea to let a person make their governmental mistakes before they are commander-in-chief. Maybe, if it’s not too late, we can start with #Oprah2018.

2020?

art by sumin hwang/falconer

By Eve Gross-Sable

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january 18, 2018

166 million flu vaccines are projected to be manufactured during the 2017-18 flu season for U.S. patients.

The Center for Disease Control estimates that last season’s flu vaccine was only 32 percent effective.

A student, swathed in a thick suede sweater and sporting oversized sweatpants, stumbles into class. Shoulders shaking with each sporadic fit of violent coughing, he mentally braces himself for a miserable day of school, which he, despite his physically weak condition, instinctively feels forced to attend because it’s just too hard to miss school and keep up.

High school students often feel pressured to come to school even when they are sick, especially at an academically competitive school like TPHS. “I would say [academic pressure] is greater in our community than it is in other districts,” principal Rob Coppo said. “We attract families that want to go to very high-achieving schools, and so it tends to come with the territory.”

SDUHSD has a “no shot, no school” policy that prevents students without certain immunizations from being enrolled in school. However, this has not prevented student absences from illnesses. The severity of the recent flu season in San Diego, resulting in a total of 91 flu-related deaths, according to the San Diego County, only serves to emphasize this point.

“I think [the flu] is still going on, but, before break, students told me that half of their classes were empty and teachers were absent,” English teacher Catherine Moffett said.

Unable to concentrate because of his runny nose, the student reluctantly takes out another tissue, which, after being used, is added to the small pile of crumpled-up tissues at the corner of his desk. After trying to discreetly blow his nose yet another time, the student picks up his pencil, shrugs off his exhaustion and continues to brave another barrage of questions.

“Missing a day of school comes with the makeup work [or] missing an explanation from a teacher that might be important,” Neilah Soliday (10) said. “Those kinds of things are really difficult to come back from.”

Leslie Chan (12) knows all too well that making up tests can be both a timeconsuming and daunting process for students and teachers because of scheduling issues. Up to this day, Chan has never missed a day of school, even when she was sick with the flu.

While Chan has reconciled, some find that coming to school sick whether or not there is a test is not an acceptable act. Sarah Keshavarz (12), holds this exact opinion.

“I feel like kids shouldn’t go to school when they’re sick. Just stay home. You can just email the teacher and ask if you can take the test later,” Keshavarz said. “Just take a sick day, it’s better for everyone if you don’t come.”

Thoughts like ‘I really shouldn’t be here. My head hurts,’ flash across the student’s mind as he throws away his used tissues. Instead of feeling relieved and excited when the lunch bell rings, he is only reminded of the last two hours that he must endure.

According to Coppo, there are rules that prevent sick students from coming to school, though it is questionable whether they are adhered to.

“If you are vomiting, you need to stay at home. The vomiting needs to be cleared for 24 hours before you return to school … and if the student

photo illustration by jocelyn tzeng/falconer

A survey by Staples found that 90 percent of American adults come to the workplace knowing they are both sick and contagious.

is bleeding for some reason, anything where we would have to invoke bloodborne pathogens procedures, we ask that the students stay at home,” Coppo said.

SDUHSD rules also state that anyone with a fever should not go to school until the fever has passed for a full 24 hours.

Primary Care Registered Nurse Mari Pender-Ahles, also agrees with the district rules.

“If you have a high temperature, you should not be going to school,” PenderAhles said. “[Students] can spread a virus [or infection] to others.”

Soliday, who describes herself as someone who gets sick frequently, considers illness disruptive, but when “academic pressures [combines] with the frequency I get sick, I would come to school.”

“Taking into account our school’s makeup work, I would come despite the fact I could get other people sick,” Soliday said.

“Mom, I’m not feeling well. Can you come pick me up?” the student cautiously speaks into the phone. He listens, hangs up, then changes his course from walking to the nurse’s office to his sixth period class.

Although students disagree on whether to come to school or not, staff and students alike seem to agree that makeup work is difficult.

“It’s always easier if you [go to school] because you can get that work. Makeup work is really, really difficult for the teacher [and] … I think makeup work should be more difficult [for students],” Coppo said. “[Doing] makeup work should not be a normal practice.”

While some teachers are more lenient about making up work for sick days, others are not.

“I think our school could do better in a lot of ways in terms of helping people make things up,” Soliday said. “During lunch and after school, I have club meetings, but [one of] my teacher[s] doesn’t let me make up anything in class, and that’s something that I need.”

The student enters his house with feet barely dragging across the floor — the same way he walked out of drama club — not able to muster the will to pick them up any further. Flopping face-down on the couch closest to the door, he takes his first deep breath of the day. “Five minutes,” he thinks. “Five minutes and then I’ll get up. And then I’ll do my homework for AP Calculus and AP Bio. And then I’ll go to practice … and then I can go to sleep.”

BY ANNIE CHENG & ELLIE AHLES

infographic by farhan hossain/falconer

Information provided by the Center for Disease Control and Staples

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Beginning in October 2017, a total of 9,054 wildfires burned across the state of California, making the 2017 California wildfire season the most destructive on record. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, 1,381,405 total acres were burned, costing California over $13 billion. The fires first ignited in Northern California in October, before spreading to southern California in December 2017, with some fires reaching full containment only this month. Much of the recently burned areas in Southern California were cleared of vegetation, making the area prone to the mudslides that occurred after heavy storms last week, killing at least 20.

The significant intensity of the wildfires along with the destruction they

january 18, 2018

wrought has raised questions about whether or not climate change has contributed to the annual fires and their effects.

In order to better understand the role, if any, that climate change had on the recent fire season in California, the Falconer spoke with Dr. Jon E. Keeley, a current research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, former director of the ecology program for the National Science Foundation and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California, Los Angeles. Keeley has been published more than 350 times in national and international scientific journals and books, and his research focuses on the ecological impacts of wildfires.

Falconer: How did 2017’s wildfires compare to previous wildfires in the state?

2017 was a phenomenal year for two reasons. The fires in the North Bay of San Francisco, Sonoma, Napa County Fires — the fires themselves were not unusual, because we’ve had big, wind-driven fires in that area before. What was very unusual was the number of people who died, I think it was 44, last count I heard, and over 7,000 homes burned, and that is just phenomenally large for any fire in California and certainly the most catastrophic fire we’ve ever had in terms of human loss and property loss. So that was just big in terms of the losses, the fire itself wasn’t unusual. The other big fire event was the Thomas Fire in Ventura County and that did not have an extraordinarily high loss of life and property, but it was a phenomenally large fire and, in fact, in recent history, it’s the largest fire on record. We have evidence that there were larger fires in the 19th century, but in recent history, the Thomas Fire is the biggest that’s been recorded. What was unusual about that fire was the fact that the Santa Ana winds, which are generally associated with most of our big fires in Southern California, those wind events usually last typically two or three days.

And if you live in San Diego, I’m sure you’ve experienced Santa Ana wind events before. What was unusual about the Thomas Fire is that wind event lasted at least twice as long as a normal wind event, and that was very unusual. I’ve been following Santa Ana wind events and fires for my whole career and I’ve never seen anything that compares to the length of that wind event, and that almost certainly is the reason that the fire grew to such a large size. Now one of the things that’s of interest is that even though the fire was much larger than the Napa or Sonoma fires, there was far less damage in terms of loss of lives and property. And part of that, I believe, is related to the importance of citrus and avocado agriculture in the Ventura area. In many places, that fire would burn into those orchards and because those trees have high fuel moisture, the fire would generally burn out, and so many people were buffered by those orchards and almost certainly reduced the amount of losses.

Falconer: Can you explain what the Santa Ana winds are and their specific effect on wildfires?

Research Scientist at the Western Ecological Research Center Guggenheim Fellow (1985) Fellow at the Ecological Society of America (2014) Sterling Award for Outstanding Teaching (l985)

The Santa Ana wind is due to a high-pressure cell that moves from the north down into the Great Basin, and that high-pressure cell — when it coincides with a low pressure cell off the coast — is what drives the Santa Ana winds because everything moves from a region of high density to a region of low density. When the density of air is very high in the Great Basin and the pressure is low off the coast, then that drives these winds from the interior to the coast. [The winds are] very high-speed winds — the velocity is sometimes 50 miles per hour — and they’re very dry winds. Wind is probably the number one factor that affects how big a fire gets, and it doesn’t matter where you are, whether it’s in California or near the western U.S. or anywhere in the world; the wind is what ultimately determines the size of the fire, because the wind picks up burning embers and carries them as much as a mile away from the forefront, and that’s what causes the fires to get out of control.

Falconer: Was the timing of these past two fires significant enough to be different from previous ones? In other words, was it normal for the fires to have occurred at the times that they did?

A lot of people have tried to make something out of the fact that these fires burned in December, but that’s based on very limited understanding of fire

Located in Sonoma County, the Tubbs Fire was the single most destructive in California history, destroying 5,500 structures over 36,432 acres. It destroyed vineyards in the state’s wine country, pushing production back from a region that is the heart of a $57 billion dollar industry.

The fires produced over a year’s worth of the state’s car emissions, or 10,000 tons of pollutants, during a two-day period of the Tubbs Fire. *Information provided by CNN, USA Today, SanLuisObispo.com and fire.ca.gov

Located in Ventura and Santa Barbara County, the Thomas Fire has become the biggest in the state’s history, burning over 281,893 acres. The fire destroyed 1,063 structures, and was 100 percent contained on Jan. 12. The fire left the environment vulnerable to flooding, and recent mudslides have killed at least 20 and destroyed an additional 400 structures.

Air pollution hit its worst levels in Northern California, scoring 486 points on the air quality index. Unhealthy air is classified as 201 and above. infographic by farhan hossain/falconer

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history in Southern California. December wildfires driven by Santa Ana winds are not unique to this event. There is an article that was just published this week, I believe, in which someone was recounting five December Santa Ana winddriven fires that he remembers historically in the Santa Monica mountains. So we’ve had fires that have been fairly large, like 10, 20 acres in size in December before so that’s not unique at all. Normally we don’t get them in December because normally we get rains that occur in December and that increases the fuel moisture and decreases the probability of a fire, but it is not all that unique to have a dry December. In the last hundred years we probably had half a dozen Decembers with little or no rainfall. To summarize, it was atypical, but it was by no means unique.

Falconer: When are fires most likely to occur?

The worst fires that we have are in the autumn, so typically September to December are the months where we have the worst fires, and that’s because the Santa Ana winds don’t occur year round; they occur typically in the autumn going into the winter. We can get fires [during] other times of the year, but a lot of it has to do with the type of vegetation. If you have a landscape that’s dominated by grasses — grasses will dry up very rapidly — you could have rain and a week later the grass would be dry enough to burn. So in areas with grasses, the fire season can be much longer. In fact, in some areas the fire season seems to be 12 months long. But that’s only in areas [that are] dominated by grasses.

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important in forests in the West. It is not likely to be nearly as important in California, and population growth is likely to have a bigger impact on future fires [in California], mainly because every year it’s hot enough and dry enough for a bad fire. If the temperature gets warmer, we don’t see any reason to expect that the climate is going to be any more suited to a bad fire than it is already. But in Southern California, the number one cause of wildfires is someone starting a fire during a severe wind event, and since we’re expected to see an increase in population growth in Southern California, we should expect a greater chance of someone starting fires during those wind events.

Falconer: Does climate change affect the Santa Ana winds?

In terms of climate change affecting [the winds], there really is no evidence that climate change is going to affect the Santa Ana wind events. There have been two studies that have been published [that investigate this question] and they show relatively slight changes. People have tried to model what the future Santa Ana winds will look like with global warming, and they haven’t really found any convincing evidence that it’s going to change much. There’s slight differences, like maybe a 10 percent greater chance that there will be Santa Ana winds in later years, but there really is no convincing evidence that global warming is going to have a big impact on these winds. Now that doesn’t mean they won’t, that just means we don’t have any evidence of it.

Falconer: Is there a reason why these two fires occurred in California, first in Northern California Falconer: Is there evidence that suggests conditions such as drought or the wind patterns and then in Southern California? will change because of climate change?

Yes. It’s because California has probably one of the worst fire climates in the world, so there’s just much greater probability for fires [here] than in other parts of the world. The important thing to understand about California’s fire climate is we have a drought that is normal and occurs typically from May to October and we get it every single year. So, every single year we have the possibility of a fire. When you look at fires in other parts of the West, for example [in] the Rocky Mountains … a couple times a decade they will have an extreme drought and then they get big fire events, and so what’s different about California is that we have a predictable fire climate every single year. In other parts of the West they don’t have such a climate every year and so the probabilities of fire events are different. The other thing is that we have these Foehn winds, the Diablo winds and the Santa Ana winds in the South, and that definitely contributes to California having what a lot people think of as one of the worst fire climates in the world.

The evidence for droughts isn’t nearly as clear as the evidence for global warming. In other words, we have very good evidence that, in the coming decades, temperatures are going to get warmer. So that’s pretty clear, from most of all the models that have been done. What isn’t so clear is what the impact will be on rainfall. And so we don’t have real clear evidence that droughts are going to be worse in the future. Now the impact of droughts might be worse because if you have limited rainfall but higher temperatures, the impact on the vegetation is going to be worse. And so there is an indirect effect of global warming on drought stress in plants, for example, because temperatures are going up. When you have a dry year, the plants are going to be stressed more. Now that could have an effect on fires, [and] we don’t have evidence of this, but I believe that one of the factors in the Thomas fire was the fact that between 2012 and 2014 we had a severe drought in California. We believe that one of the impacts of that drought was to cause the dieback of a lot of chaparral shrubs, and those dead shrubs are still on the landscape, which might have contributed to the fires getting worse.

Falconer: Going off of that, are fires this year predicted to be as intense as those seen in years Falconer: As California’s population grows and prior? more land becomes developed, do you think it will No, nobody predicted this. [That was] largely because we get Santa Ana become harder for citizens to avoid wildfires? winds every single year. In fact, I did a study that was published [recently in 2017] where I examined the number of Santa Ana wind events every year for the last 30 years and compared it to the amount of area that was burned, and the relationship was zero. There is no relationship between the number of Santa Ana wind events and fires, and that’s because we get [the winds] every year but we don’t get a bad fire every year. The reason we get a bad fire is because somebody starts a fire during the Santa Ana wind event, and so ultimately you can’t really predict when people are going to start fires. Humans account for 84% of all wildland fires, and you can’t predict when people are going to start fires, and so that’s why [these recent fires] weren’t predicted.

Falconer: Is there evidence that wildfires are becoming worse due to climate change?

The answer is, in some parts of the western U.S., yes, fires are beginning to worsen and it appears to be because of climate change. What we found is that in places like the Sierra Nevada, about 50 percent of the variation [in wildfires] is explained by climate. Although this is consistent with recent global warming, we found an equally strong relationship between fire activity and climate in the first half of the 20th century. It is hypothesised that the fire–climate relationship in forests is determined by climatic effects on spring and summer fuel moisture, with hotter and drier springs leading to a longer fire season and more extensive burning. Now we did the same analysis for Southern California, and we found actually no relationship between the temperature in any year and how m u c h area burned that year, and I believe the reason is in places like San Diego County, it’s hot enough and dry enough to produce a large fire. The fact is that somebody either accidentally or intentionally starts a fire during a Santa Ana wind event and the major causes are either arson, wood burning, or power lines that get blown down by the Santa Ana winds, and so in Southern California it’s just the timing of ignition which usually results in a big fire event, so we don’t see any reason to expect that global warming is going to cause worse fires in Southern California. What is going to likely impact fires in the future is population growth, because in San Diego County, 99 percent of all the fires are started by people and over the next 30 years we’re going to see perhaps a 50 percent increase in population … and that means there’s a higher chance that somebody will light a fire in a severe event. And so, we do expect fires to get worse. The important point about climate change and fire is that [climate change] almost certainly is going to be

I think that’s a very good possibility, and what it says is that the wildfire problem needs to be addressed as much by land planners as it is by firefighting agencies.

Falconer: Do you think the recent fires will convince people who are skeptical of global warming and its effects that it is actually happening?

Well, it’s hard for me to predict what people will do, so I have no idea how people will respond. But like I said, I don’t think global warming is the primary effect affecting these big fires we recently had in California. So, even though there are newspaper articles out there saying that global warming is reflected by these big fires, I think they’re wrong. I don’t think those big fires had anything to do with global warming; I think they just had to do with these extreme wind events that we get, the fact that somebody ignited a fire during those wind events, and the fact that we have very high population density, which puts people at risk to these big fires. So like I said earlier, there’s no question that global warming is impacting fires in western forests, but there’s no evidence that it had any role in these big fires in California this year. And the important thing is that I hope people don’t look at these big fires this year as inevitable results of global warming; I hope they understand what actually happened [in the fires,] and certainly one of the major factors is population growth.

Falconer: What do you think is the main thing that people all around the world can learn from these past two recent fires in California?

I think the main thing to understand about these fires is these big fire events are really a normal feature of this landscape, and the fires themselves by and large really haven’t changed over time —what has changed is population growth, and more people living in risky environments are being made susceptible to these fire events. So that’s probably the important thing to understand about them; the fires are a natural part of this landscape, [and] the population growth and development is expanding into these watersheds and putting more and more people at risk. So, I hope what people would understand would be the need for better land planning.

Angela Liu

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january 18, 2018

Hannah Uzi (12), known around TPHS for her performances during assemblies, has been focused on pursuing her career in the music industry since her early days in Moscow and hopes to spread messages through her jazz-influenced vocals and multi-genre tracks.

At the age of six, Hannah Uzi (12) and her two sisters, who were living in Moscow at the time, regularly took singing lessons. Unlike her sisters, who did not necessarily enjoy singing, Hannah realized that she never felt more comfortable than with a microphone in her hand.

In the beginning, her performances started out as nothing more than her singing on the tallest kitchen chairs that she could find. Now, twelve years later, Uzi (12) has a much larger audience; she performs in front of hundreds of people and records her own music, in pursuit of a singing career.

She began like anyone else, working tirelessly to improve her vocal skills in the pursuit of becoming better and better at singing everyday. After a few years of vocal training, Uzi made her debut as a competitive singer in small-scale singing competitions in the Mediterranean island of Malta, after being introduced to competition by her music teacher. After participating in smaller competitions, she started getting invited to showcase her talent at singing contests representing Malta in various cities all over Europe, including Copenhagen and Milan.

“It was really cool because I was able to travel for free, and [the people who invited me] were able to pay all the expenses and provide places to stay,” Uzi said.

“In Europe, the music is pretty involved, so I was pretty known there.”

Now that she has moved to the United States and attends TPHS, students may know her from her performances in school assemblies and events like TP Idol.

But Uzi’s success in the United States was not easily obtained. When Uzi first moved to the United States four years ago, she had no idea of what to expect in a new, unfamiliar country. Luckily, she was able to find comfort and form new friendships through the TPHS drama program.

“I was very freaked out at first about moving to the U.S., but with time, I was able to get adjusted and was able to find a lot of comfort in music at our Black Box Theater when I started doing shows and musicals,” Uzi said.

After she built up a reputation for her vocals, her friends and family effectively spread the word about her singing talent. She now gets consistent offers to sing at private receptions, and when she is not busy singing at private events in San Diego, Uzi can be found recording her own jazz-influenced songs every other weekend.

“Right now I am recording a few songs of my own,” Uzi said, “It’s really cool to see how different styles and music can come together to create [something].”

Uzi is a devoted jazz vocalist who prides herself on being able to take a song and add her own unique flair to it with improvisational techniques.

When it comes to singing, Uzi favors jazz over most other music genres because it allows her to show off her vocal range, while simultaneously delivering an emotional message to the audience. Her role models range from Michael Jackson to Rihanna, who have influenced her as both a singer and a person in many different ways.

“There are a lot of people that impact me,” Uzi said, “[For] some, it’s the song, the voice or the vocal techniques and the way they project their voice. There’s a lot of artists that I look up to and that I got a lot of useful things from.”

Aside from the fact that she greatly enjoys singing, Uzi has many motivations for singing. Among such motivations are singing for the people around her; it is Uzi’s goal to influence those who listen to her music and to connect to them on a personal and emotional level. Uzi also thinks that singing is a central way in which she can express the many thoughts and feelings.

“I feel like I can really express myself and what I am thinking and what I am feeling through music rather than any other form,” Uzi said. “Since music can express so much emotion and so much feeling, it can really go through someone and hit them so they’re like ‘This is how I feel.’ It’s cool to be able to impact a lot of people with your voice.”

Going forward, Uzi plans to move to a studio in Los Angeles, where she will continue working with a producer that spotted her at a private event and wanted to see her vocal range. She was later signed after she was able to show off the vocal skills she spent years perfecting. There, she hopes to create more tracks to further her career and passion for singing.

While jumping into the music industry can seem intimidating, Uzi has always had the support of her parents.

“My parents really want me to make it in the music industry,” Uzi says. “They love my creative side and it helps them understand my attitude. My voice makes them happy and they know that it’s all that I’ve ever wanted as a kid, as a teenager and now as an adult. They do want me to achieve my biggest dream, and are very supportive of what I do.”

Uzi is excited to see what her future in music holds in store for her, as she has always been determined to pursue a career as a musician since she was very young.

“That’s what gives me the most joy and happiness,” Uzi said. “Singing is honestly everything to me. It’s just become my other life.”

photo by lauren zhang/falconer

While it is undeniable that Uzi has undergone many pivotal changes not only as a musician, but as a person, she is confident that she harbors the same love for music as the inexperienced, yet determined, six-year-old version of herself, who sang her heart out on kitchen chairs.

by Vlada Demenko

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A18 the falconer

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january 18, 2018

infographic by bea de olivera

Information from Rolling Stone

photo from camila cabello

A little more than a year after suddenly announcing her departure from girl group Fifth Harmony, singer Camila Cabello has finally released her debut solo album.

Originally due last September, the record was delayed due to a title change and the addition of new songs, including the chart-topping ‘Havana’ ft. Young Thug. The result is a mostly cohesive album with more than a few standouts.

The first song is ‘Never Be the Same,’ kicking the record off on a high note — both literally and figuratively. Here, Cabello sings about falling in love with someone and how she changed as a result. While the first seconds of the song are silent and slightly off-putting, her singing quickly erases any doubts. As the song continues, it becomes apparent that her voice is well-matched with the steady beat, which sounds especially pleasant toward the end of the song when she harmonizes with herself by layering her voice through the miracle of engineering. With this song, she also begins an album-wide theme of repetition here, as many of the same lines are repeated throughout the same parts of the song.

The next track, ‘All These Years’ introduces another trend throughout the record — short songs. While that may be subjective, four out of the 10 songs on the album are less than three minutes long. However, that is not a major issue in this case, as this song is just mellow enough to be forgettable.

In contrast, ‘She Loves Control’ is a striking song with a thumping beat and empowering lyrics. It is another fine example of repetition and brevity, as the short chorus consists purely of the same two lines.

However, the song with the most repetition is certainly ‘Havana’ ft. Young Thug. This, in addition to Cabello’s and Young Thug’s vocals laid over the smooth brass and piano in the background, contribute to the song’s catchiness. It is also in this song where the singer displays the broadest

range with her voice.

Cabello again plays with the idea of repetition on the next track, “Inside Out.” The only memorable part about this song is its success in its obvious mission to convey a tropical vibe, with its energetic, reggaeton beat and part of its bridge sung in Spanish.

“Consequences” is the closest thing to a love song on the album. With soft vocals and a short and sweet melody, Cabello sounds remarkably similar to fellow pop singer Ariana Grande.

On “Real Friends,” Cabello croons about a lack of true friends over a guitar-focused instrumental.

Reading between the lines, one can only wonder if the song is actually about the singer’s former bandmates.

‘Something’s Gotta Give’ is another soft song, this time about not having any reason to stay with her current lover, as he does not reciprocate her affection.

Repetition reappears on ‘In the Dark’ another forgettable song, where Cabello again harmonizes with herself over a fixed beat, this time wondering about who someone else really is when they’re alone.

On ‘Into It’ the final song on the album besides a radio edit of ‘Never Be the Same,’ Cabello’s voice manages to get slightly lost in the techno-lite rhythm, especially during the chorus. In addition, the song sounds similar to Grande’s ‘Into You,’ not only because of the similar titles, but also because of parallels in the meanings behind the lyrics.

With “Camila,” Cabello delivers a largely impressive performance, especially for a debut album, even with its minor flaws and repetition. With the introduction of Cabello with this record, the pop music scene is perhaps best described by the first song on the album’s tracklist; it will never be the same.

by Alexei Serguienko

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A l i e n s , otherworldly dimensions and superpowers. The ‘80s were a wild era, but not nearly as extraordinary as the world the Duffer brothers created in their hit show “Stranger Things.”

The two part scifi thriller has captured a cult-like following over two years on Netflix. “ S t r a n g e r Things” takes place in Hawkins, Ind. Network: Netflix The story focuses on a group of friends IMDb Rating: 9/10 named Will (Noah Schnapp), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard). The first

Full of jokes in between moments of peril, the complicated plot of “Rick and Morty” immerses the audience to this rising cartoon aired by Adult Swim. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon in December 2013, the show boasts 31 episodes in three seasons.

Harmon has hinted at a fourth season in the near future in Network: Netflix IMDb Rating: 9.3/10 interviews for the show.

Revolving around the adventures of Rick Sanchez (Justin Roiland), an old genius-scientist with a

It’s no secret that 2017 was the year for true crime documentaries.

Netflix whet our appetites for the genre in the television market through programs like “Making a Murderer” and “Amanda Knox.”

But amid all the dark conspiracies, Netflix also released “American Vandal.”

A mockumentary series about a high school delinquent wrongly accused of Network: Netflix IMDb Rating: 8.2/10 drawing penises on teachers’ cars, Netflix perfectly satirizes its audience’s obsession with “true crime” as well as what it’s like to experience high

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january 18, 2018

season of the show focuses on Will’s mysterious disappearance and the equally mystifying Department of Energy laboratory. Most of the episodes feature the friends going on adventures to find Will. The plot is given a new dimension by the arrival of an abandoned girl with no name. When the rest of the boys learn of her strange telekinetic abilities, they name her Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown).

The first few episodes are very predictable, and the show begins to feel like a generic ‘80s sci-fi movie.

However, Eleven’s supernatural powers add an entirely different aspect to the show. Also, Hawkins’ police chief, Hopper (David Harbour), is a standout character due to his humor and bravery.

Ranging from the setting, plot and characters, “Stranger Things” is a scary show. The existence of the Department of Energy lab casts a looming shadow of mystery over Hawkins. The suspense created in each episode keeps viewers engaged and clueless about what will happen next.

Mike and the other children are infatuated with Ghostbusters, arcades, biking and board games while the high school kids are interested in loud music and mischief. For older audiences, Hawkins is a dose of nostalgia, while younger audiences can see it as an intriguing window into the past.

Season Two of “Stranger Things” centers on Will’s

strange connection to the alternate dimension in which he was once trapped. Meanwhile, two new characters are introduced. Billy (Dacre Montgomery) is glorified by his classmates for his nonchalant and mischievous attitude, but Max (Sadie Sink) has a much tougher time fitting into the group of boys. The citizens of Hawkins and the scientists of the Department of Energy lab also are forced to work together to save Will and the world as they know it.

Season Two stands out due to its expansion of characters. Season One was bogged down by worldbuilding, an introduction to basic characters and simple plot creation. Now that viewers have a basic understanding of Hawkins, Season Two can introduce extremely engaging side characters. Dr. Owens (Paul Reiser), head of the secret lab in Hawkins, is a prime example of the Duffer brothers’ extraordinary talent in character development. In the beginning of the season, Owens is an unhelpful character that provides treatment for Will’s condition, but, by the end of the season, the viewers can see Owens’ motivations, and he is viewed as a hero and an integral character.

Overall, “Stranger Things” is a must-watch show.

Its element of horror fused with its outstanding characters and world-building makes it one of the best shows on Netflix.

by Luke Modugno

merciless personality, and Morty Smith (Justin Roiland), Rick’s insecure grandson with constant mood swings, the show takes place in an area just outside Seattle in a seemingly mediocre world. However, the first episode is enough to portray the complexity of the universe in which the characters live. Utilizing his near-flawless brain, Rick develops a portal gun that allows the characters to travel through the multidimensional world.

Other than humans, many other species can be seen in the dimensions the protagonists travel to, including a species of Ricks and Mortys. The Ricks from different dimensions join together to create a council, full of hatred against the original Rick, that develops a galaxy made entirely of Ricks and Mortys whose sole purpose is to get revenge on the main character who always outsmarts them.

The jokes and plot are unfit for children, but teenagers and adults can enjoy this show’s charm.

The unbelievable intelligence that Rick possesses not only allows the protagonists to easily bypass all obstacles, but also make jokes amidst all the action.

With all kinds of gadgets, Rick and Morty are able to travel to different dimensions and complete strange tasks, such as traveling through dreams.

Rick, who is constantly drinking, rarely gets concerned no matter how devastating the situation

is, and steadily handles the issues. On the other hand, Rick’s counterpart, Morty, always panics and creates trouble for the protagonists. The contrasting traits of the two led to breathtaking plot twists and unforgettable moments where the scientist and his grandson insult one another in the most entertaining fashion.

Despite the excess of comical moments, “Rick and Morty’s” main plot leaves most of its audience mesmerized, causing a couple of fans to create theories to explain a certain scene in the series or predict the plot of an upcoming episode. The creative decisions by the numerous directors and writers allows the show to develop a complex plot that runs on several multiuniverses and dimensions.

Most recently, “Rick and Morty” has concluded its third season with 10 episodes that begin with the story of Sanchez escaping the Galactic Federal Prison and bringing an end to the Galactic Federation and the Rick Council. The latest season ends on a comical note, with a fight between the U.S. president’s security and Rick’s technology over whether Morty can take a selfie with the president.

If mature humor and plot twists is something you want to see in a television show, “Rick and Morty” is definitely one to check out.

by Daniel Kim

school in this age of social media.

After four years of drawing penises on his teacher’s whiteboards and on his exams at Hanover High School, Dylan Maxwell (Jimmy Tatro) is the obvious target when mystery penises appear on cars in staff parking lots.

After Maxwell is expelled, student journalists Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez) and Sam Ecklund (Griffin Gluck) investigate the matter, trying to uncover corruption in the school administration.

Even the premise of “American Vandal” is genius, the frame and cliches of true crime documentaries combined with the most immature and asinine offense imaginable. Everything from the vulgar episode titles (“A Limp Alibi”) to the overly dramatic sound effects are hilariously parallel to other true crime series. The ridiculousness of the crime compared to the seriousness of Peter and Sam forces viewers to recognize their own obsessions with uncovering any conspiracy, regardless of its gravity. The producers of the show also use classic true crime tropes, leaving viewers wanting more despite the idiocy. Even though you’re burning through eight episodes of fictional characters talking about graffiti penises, the high production value and cliffhangers are almost enough to justify laughing at excessive dick humor.

Another thing “American Vandal” nails is the

realities of being a modern high school student.

While the show sticks to the age-old stereotypes of high school students, like the acne-faced nerd or the perpetually-stoned burnout, much of the climactic events and “evidence” are a result of social media.

Blurry 10-second Snapchats or the number of Ys used in a “heyy” text are enough to debunk witnesses, but the evidence from the institutions doesn’t prove to be more valid. Evidence from the administration is limited to students with clean records and teachers who have built up an irreversible hatred for Dylan, paralleling the cursory evidence often-times used by the justice system in actual criminal cases.

Eventually, the evidence debate becomes as absurd as the crime itself.

Netflix knows what works and what its audience likes to watch. So, in good humor, it executed a well-produced and lighthearted four hours’ worth of penis jokes, all while balancing the original satiric concept with endearing character development. If you’ve found yourself swept up by the true crime wave, I would highly recommend “American Vandal” as a break from heavy controversy. Plus, if you don’t finish, Peter’s question will probably haunt you: is Dylan truly innocent or is Peter just Dylan’s greatest prank yet?

by Sumin Hwang photo from internet movie database and pahe.in

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I’ve never thought about what Sacramento was like in 2002. I went once, and felt no need to return.

“Lady Bird” made me wonder wistfully about the kind of life I might lead if I were to live in 2002 Sacramento.

The film opens with Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, (Saoirse Ronan) and her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf) listening to “The Grapes of Wrath” audiobook in the car, sobbing, as they finish their college road trip.

This is the part where, if you’re like me, you start laughing because, why on earth would a mother and daughter be crying as an old man reads them “The Grapes of Wrath”? It’s the summer before Lady Bird’s senior

“Wonder Woman,” a 2017 live-action film, is an on-screen manifestation of the DC Comics character, who was born in 1941. As the fourth release in the DC Extended Universe, “Wonder Woman” is, at the very least, the best since the first “Man of Steel.”

One of the more interesting parts of the movie is Wonder Woman’s backstory. The exposition quickly capitalizes on this, explaining Princess Diana (Gal Gadot) and the legend of her people’s creation as Amazon warriors. Viewers watch Diana grow up as the only child on the Amazon island Themyscira, only to become the fiercest of the Amazons. But, when opportunity presents itself, Diana leaves the island — committed to fighting the Greek god of war, Ares, the enemy of mankind and killer of the other Greek gods — and becomes known as Wonder Woman.

The basic plot is simple: Diana, after growing up on an all-female island hearing creation stories, becomes convinced Ares has returned and she must stop him. It is American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) that spurs all this into action when he crashes his plane near Diana’s island.

Trevor offers more of a comedic aspect, especially as he banters with Diana, whose ignorance of the world outside of the island offers a sort of comic relief of its own. The two also make quite a few sexual jokes and Trevor’s secretary, Etta Candy (Lucy Davis), uses sarcasm at its finest to wrap up this comedic combo.

In the past, Wonder Woman’s outfit has caused controversy with women for being hypersexualized while being presented as a symbol of girl power. In this film, I lean toward the opinion that Wonder Woman is dressed as a warrior, and, though glamorized, her armour is quite visibly inspired by

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year of high school, so college applications loom over her, but her mother declares that she should just go to a city college, prompting Lady Bird to abruptly exit the moving car, to her mother’s horror. The scene introduces the movie as not only a story of Lady Bird’s senior year and everything that comes with it, but also her relationship with her mother (watch it with your mom!)

Despite director Greta Gerwig’s statements that the movie is not autobiographical, she and Lady Bird have much in common, including their involvement in theatre and attendance at an all-girls Catholic high school in Sacramento. At Sacred Heart, Lady Bird dons pink highlights, an arm cast and an oversized uniform polo shirt. She and her only friend, Julie (Beanie Feldstein), participate in the Xavier-Sacred Heart play, through which Lady Bird meets her first boyfriend, Danny (Lucas Hedges).

Both romantic and non-romantic relationships, as they tend to be prevalent in the life of a teenager, are the center of the movie, which also portrays teen girl cattiness as it really occurs.

Lady Bird makes a last-ditch effort to be part of the in-crowd by befriending Range Roverwhipping Jenna Walton (Odeya Rush), willingly lying and sacrificing Julie in the process. Lady Bird, who frequents Goodwill because her mom, a psychiatric nurse, and unemployed dad (Tracy Letts) don’t have much money to spare, and likes to say she’s from the “wrong side of the tracks,” convinces Jenna otherwise. Her stint as a social climber is cut short when her new boyfriend, Kyle (Timothée Chalamet), the only person connecting her to the group after Jenna finds out the truth,

Roman warriors, notably seen with the style of her skirt and her greaves — or leg armor — though, again, hers are sexualized. However, her outfit is functional for combat, especially when compared to past versions. This may be due, in part to the female costume designer, Lindy Hemming.

Fight scenes, essential to any superhero movie, are capitalized on in the most recent “Wonder Woman.” The most impressive of blocks, kicks, hits and evasive maneuvers are in slow motion, impossible to miss and impossibly well-composed with special effects.

While these types of fight scenes are scattered throughout the movie, there is a stark contrast between the resolution, wherein the battle scenes are most intense, and the first time Diana enters London (and the world outside Themyscira).

While most irrelevant to the world-saving focus of the plot, some of the best scenes in the movie are when Diana’s unusual character is expressed and demonstrates her transition from innocence and naivety to wisdom about the world. Scenes that come to mind are when she has ice cream and sees a baby for the first time during the flashback, compared to the few minutes Diana spends outside of her flashback where she explains her growth through the experience in her own words.

What she doesn’t address, however, is how she never fails to fight back against societal conventions of the World War I-era flashback.

Diana is repeatedly and frequently told she cannot do something, such as fight, and is belittled in a male-dominated world, which I felt was another important aspect of the movie, as it contributes to the overall

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hurts her feelings and snaps her back to reality.

The reunion between Lady Bird and Julie is realistic and heartwarming.

The movie is probably one of the most accurate fictional coming-of-age pieces in existence, especially when it comes to college. Lady Bird only joins theatre at the suggestion of a college counselor who thinks she needs more activities to get into the “small east coast schools” of which she is enamored. Quintessential California teenagers like Lady Bird think they have outgrown their cities and states, and have this idea of going to college in a big city or a quaint town where it snows in the winter. Lady Bird’s mom, however, knows that she has little chance of being admitted to one of those schools and favors closer, more reasonable options for Lady Bird. This ends up being one of the main sources of their constant arguing, a staple among teenage girls and their mothers. Even this part of the movie is comedic because of how downright honest and realistic it is. In one particularly memorable scene, while trying on her prom dress after they had already gotten in an argument inside of the Goodwill store, Lady Bird asks her mother, “Do you like me?” Her mother responds by telling her only that she loves her. It’s obvious that a mother’s love, especially for her teenage daughter with whom she does not always see eye-to-eye, is, for the most part, unconditional, but a mother’s like is just the same as that of any other person. It’s hilarious, because as teens, we have all experienced the feeling of knowing we go to our mothers with too many problems and we see her being fed up with us. It’s so easy to wonder: if your mom were your age, would she want to be your friend?

empowering message.

“Wonder Woman” is an empowering movie.

Not everybody will agree on whether Wonder Woman is a role model or a feminist icon or not, but the movie is well-produced, t h o u g h t f u l , entertaining and engaging.

Even with a simplistic plot, this is one of the best movies of 2017 as well as the “highest-grossing superhero origin film” with a box office total of $821.74 million, according to Forbes. With that success, a female director, Patty Jenkins, and costume designer, there is a feminist power behind the recent “Wonder Woman” movie with or without Diana.

photos from internet movie database

Information from Internet Movie Database

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entertainment

If you’ve never heard of Craft Burrito, it’s probably because it was established in 2017.

With a large appetite and high hopes for this newly opened restaurant, I decided to check it out for myself.

When I first walked in, I was greeted by a friendly cashier who recommended the Craft Burrito ($8.25), Hot Buggy Burrito ($7.75) and the grilled chicken photo by anna jeong/falconer Craft Fries ($9.00). For each order, there were 1435 Camino Del Mar three sauces to choose Ste. D from: red, green and chile, and once again, I Del Mar, CA 92014 asked for her favorite, which was the green sauce. In terms of drinks, other than their beers on tap, they did not have anything special, so I stuck to water.

The environment was nice, with upbeat music and a view of the chefs behind a glass window that read “Believe in the Burrito.” However, the Del Mar location was a relatively small place, with only four tables, along with outdoor seating and a dog-friendly patio. Since it was quite chilly outside, I opted for the indoor seating. Though I was eating lunch at 1:30 on a Saturday, the seating filled up quickly.

The food arrived in no time, and I was amazed at the large portions. Each order came with a side of a “small craft salad,” a plastic cup filled with mixed greens.

I first unwrapped the Craft Burrito, which mainly contained strips of beef, lettuce and craft sauce. I was extremely disappointed; the burrito was very bland and I couldn’t taste the craft sauce. The flavors were muffled by the lettuce, and I think the burrito would have tasted better with rice instead.

Then came the Hot Buggy Burrito, which turned out to be my favorite of the three orders. It featured pulled pork and crispy potatoes, and was much more flavorful than the Craft Burrito. Though a little bit on the salty side, the pork was very juicy and well-cooked, and while I saw no need for it, I did like the spicy green sauce served on the side. I also enjoyed the thin tortilla, as it allowed me to avoid a mouthful of dough.

Lastly, I tried the Craft Fries. Presentation-wise, this was the most beautiful.

Stacked in a large bowl, the fries were covered in chicken, cheese, salsa, guacamole and sour cream. The chicken was tender, but the overwhelming black pepper flavor was not the most pleasing. I did enjoy the fries, which were soft but not soggy, but much to my surprise, this order was more expensive than any of the burritos on the menu.

When I finished my meal, I cleaned up my table, though the servers working there were very friendly and helped me with my trays.

Overall, Craft Burrito was an interesting place to try out — it has a nice location, right by the beach, as well as decent prices. However, even though the three dishes I ordered came to be about $27, I was pretty disappointed by the quality of the food. The portions were large and the service was incredible, but the flavors were nothing that make a second visit absolutely necessary.

However, if I was in the area and wanted to grab a quick bite, Craft Burrito wouldn’t be a bad option.

by Colette Chiang

Craft Burrito

Ever since I heard Shake Shack had opened its newest location in San Diego, I wanted to visit and see for myself if the chain’s famous burgers and shakes are as great as everyone says. The Shake Shack I visited in the Westfield UTC shopping center was the first of two San Diego locations; the other will be in Mission Valley.

I managed to find the crowded restaurant with no empty tables either on the patio area or inside.

A huge glass wall separated the outside from the inside, allowing natural light to enter, making it bright and welcoming. All of the tables and benches were wooden, adding to the rustic atmosphere of the location.

Based on how popular Shake Shack is, I was surprised the line of people waiting to place their order was pretty short. After briefly studying the menu on the right side of the restaurant and examining the prices, which seemed to be on the expensive side for fast food, I approached one of the cashiers and asked to try the most popular items on the menu. She recommended the ShackBurger ($5.69), the Shackcago Dog ($4.79), the Crinkle Cut Fries ($2.99) and the Christmas Cookie Shake ($5.99), which is only available during the holiday season.

I was given a buzzer and told to wait for my order to be ready. Just six minutes later, my buzzer alerted me to approach the counter where an employee waited with my food and shake on a metal tray. Since all of the tables were occupied, I had to wait a few minutes

january 18, 2018

“Healthy” and “natural” are the first adjectives that pop into my mind when I think of True Food Kitchen. The wooden brown and dark green interior decor and the dim lights hanging above tables gave the restaurant a calm and centered atmosphere. The appearance alone made the place seem like the ultimate embodiment of a health food restaurant, from the large earth decoration on the wall to the pretty succulents on every table.

I had expected it to be relatively empty after the lunch rush hour as I hadn’t heard of the restaurant before, but the room was loud with the sound of chatter and clinking dishes as people were seated at almost every table.

As soon as I walked in, a server took us to our table and introduced himself.

He was incredibly friendly and kind, and his help contributed to the enthusiastic, vibrant energy of the restaurant.

The first dish I ordered was the Edamame Dumplings ($10). When they arrived, I was disappointed with the serving size; the five average-sized dumplings in the dish definitely weren’t worth $10. The dumplings were soft and tasted creamy, the edamames were slightly nutty and the salty and fishy dashi soup they were soaked in complemented the taste of the dumplings and edamames, but the taste and size weren’t deserving of the ridiculously high price; I wouldn’t order this dish again.

Next, I had the Mediterranean Quinoa Salad ($13), which had a healthy blend of lettuce, pole bean, tomatoes, cucumber and nuts. I was pleased with the size of the salad and the quality of the ingredients, which tasted crunchy and fresh. The salad’s acidic oregano vinaigrette added to the overall flavor and canceled out the pole beans’ bitter taste. It was my favorite dish because it was a high quality salad, and the blend of ingredients and vegetables was appropriate for the good price.

The last dish I ordered was the Turkey Burger ($15). The meat was tender and juicy and the smoked gouda that was melted on the burger added an interesting tangy flavor with each bite. The avocado complemented the other ingredients with a nutty taste and the jalapeño remoulade, a spicy dressing that was drizzled over the inside of the bun, gave heat to the milder components.

Overall, it was a good burger, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who didn’t want to spend the extra money, as it was a bit expensive. The dish came with a roasted kale salad, which was bitter and crunchy, and to balance out the other side, roasted sweet potato with sweet caramelized onion.

To complement the meals, I tried two drinks, the Kale Aid ($6.50) and the Honey Lemonade ($4).

The Honey Lemonade was sweet and cool and the acidity of the lemon was tempered by the sweetness of the honey, which made it a very enjoyable drink. The Kale Aid, in contrast, was bitter at first but grew tolerable.

It wasn’t a mild and sweet drink like the Honey Lemonade and instead had a strong flavor. The refresher seemed incredibly healthy but was still very expensive and I regretted ordering it.

True Food Kitchen is a good restaurant for those who want to photo by esther choi/falconer splurge a little and eat healthily, but I would 4304 La Jolla Village Drive warn diners away from the exorbitant prices.

San Diego, CA 92122

by Esther Choi

True Food Kitchen

for one to open up before beginning to taste my items.

I also went to get my own condiments, utensils and napkins at a separate counter.

I first tried the fries, served in a paper tray, which turned out to be one of the better items in my order, as they were nicely crisp on the outside and the potato on the inside was soft and fluffy. I loved the combination of contrasting textures of the fries and they were perfectly salted, making it very easy to finish all of them. Next I tried the ShackBurger, which did look appetizing, but also disappointingly small, since it was the most expensive item I ordered.

But, the burger was very tasty. The tender beef patty wasn’t too overcooked, the melted cheese was just the right texture and the special ShackSauce that was just the right amount of sweet and salty brought everything together in a satisfying way. The lettuce and tomato also seemed very fresh, but the buns were a bit greasy.

Next I tried the Shack-cago Dog, Shake Shack’s most popular hot dog, which turned out to be my least favorite item of my order. Its appetizing presentation was misleading, as the meat was cold and all of the strong flavors from the different ingredients on top of the dog, like the peppers, pickles, and tomatoes that were too overwhelming and didn’t mesh well with one another. The Christmas Cookie Shake was also a bit disappointing, as it lacked any flavor besides being overly sweet. The amount of shake also did not seem worth the price, although it was presented nicely

with whipped cream and Christmas colored sprinkles on top.

Overall, I found myself somewhat disappointed by my experience at Shake Shack. While some of the items I ordered were indeed delicious, others did not taste as good and the average service was not sufficient in making my time at Shake Shack memorable enough to justify a return anytime soon.

by Angela Liu

Shake Shack

photo by alexei serguienko/falconer

4309 La Jolla Village Dr Ste 2350 San Diego, CA 92122

Olive earns first career ‘at El Camino’ win

By Daniel Kim and Luke Modugno STAFF WRITERS

Boys basketball (16-2) defeated El Camino High School (9-7) 57-54 in the Jan. 12 away game that was heavy in rough, physical contact.

After the tip-off, the Falcons did not start off incredibly strong due to the powerful crowd presence. While exchanging free throws and layups with the Wildcats, the Falcons gradually fell behind.

“Their crowd was amazing. They really made their presence felt and got to us,” Falcons’ small forward Brandon Angel (10) said. “Once the game got close, rough fans were yelling and throwing things at us.”

Not accustomed to the aggressive gameplay and missing calls from the referees, the Falcons were unable to get back in rhythm and found themselves trailing as the first quarter came to a close.

Despite the deficit, the Falcons gradually closed the gap with a couple scores by Finn Sullivan (12) and Michael Pope (11) who would both become significant in the Falcons’ eventual win.

The Falcons’ play in the second quarter was an improvement Bryce Pope compared to the guard first quarter, which helped them cut the deficit to 33-26 by the end of the quarter.

Because they were trailing due to a slow start, the Falcons focused on offensive efficiency in the second half.

“We came out stagnant and failed to run our offense the way we wanted to because of their pressure. They came out with a lot more energy than us, which helped them build an early lead,” Sullivan said. “The mindset I had to begin the second half was to focus on getting more early offense.”

The Falcons began the third quarter down 33-26 against the Wildcats. As soon as the quarter began, the Wildcats continued their momentum after their guard set his feet for an immediate three-pointer.

Afterward, both teams continued to score

in the paint and get on the scoreboard with free throws.

The Falcons flustered the Wildcats when Bryce Pope (11) successfully drained an open, mid-range shot, which lead to an El Camino timeout. Even with the timeout, El Camino failed to get in rhythm, so the Falcons took advantage of the situation and dropped another three-pointer. Although the Wildcats immediately responded with a three-pointer of their own, the Falcons had successfully narrowed the Wildcat lead to 45-40 by the end of the third quarter, thanks to a great offensive turnaround.

Continuing their offensive momentum, the Falcons were able to jump to a small lead to start the third quarter. But, soon after, the Wildcats answered with an andone play for the full three points.

The two teams traded free throws and layups early in the quarter, and the game got aggressive from there.

In a pivotal moment, Sullivan came in contact with an El Camino player and fell to the floor writhing in pain.

While the game took a short pause, the referees had not called any fouls and the Falcons coaching staff made their disapproval to the playcalling known.

“I thought it was physical throughout the game.

The referees let it happen and we have to adjust to that style of game, if that is what they are going to let happen,” Coach John Olive said.

Enduring the tough calls, atmosphere, and physical contact, the Falcons eventually gave up free throws to the Wildcats, who tied the game up at 49-49 with only 3:40 left in the game.

The two teams gave it their all in a seesaw game in which the lead changed five times in the final three minutes.

With the pressure on and in the final seconds, Sullivan stepped to the line and hit two clutch free throws giving the Falcons a 57-54 lead.

The Wildcats had one last chance to

Once we started to settle in during the 3rd quarter, we knew we would have a good chance to win, and we were all super pumped after the game because it was a big road win.

come across the court, score and take the win, but the referees called travelling on the Wildcats.

TPHS inbounded the ball and was immediately fouled, which resulted in two free throws. With less than five seconds remaining, the Wildcats threw up a desperate three-pointer that hit the rim but bounced out.

The Falcons began celebrating their close victory toward the end of the game.

“Once we started to settle in during the 3rd quarter, we knew we would have a good chance to win, and we were all super pumped after the game because it was a big road win,” Bryce Pope said.

Coach Olive appreciated the practice the Wildcats game provided.

“El Camino had a great crowd, and it made it tough for us to communicate. It was a really good environment for us to play in because, when the playoffs come, we will have to deal with lots of environments just like that.” Olive said. “Despite that, at the end of the game, we were able to get a couple defensive stops. We made sure they didn’t get second shots up with offensive rebounds.”

The Falcons played San Dieguito Academy, at home, on Wednesday at home.

Next, they face Canyon Crest Academy on Friday at seven p.m, also at home.

photos by hayoung park and anna jeong/falconer

one on one: Finn Sullivan (5) scans the defense as he seeks to advance the ball up the court. Sullivan led the team with 17 points on the night (TOP).

Sullivan and Noah Viera (10) attack the glass for a score. Both teams played a physical game in the paint (MIDDLE). Ryan Brown (2) fakes a pass in an attempt to shake off a defender. Brown found points after coming off of the bench (ABOVE).

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DAY IN THE

LIFE

the falconer

With perseverence, determination and effort, Savannah Liedy (12) fulfills her dreams of following her dad’s footsteps by completing the Ironman.

Palms sweating profusely, heart racing and eyes narrowing slightly, Savanna Liedy (12) waits anxiously at the starting line, the sun beating down harshly on her back. She takes several long, deep breaths before embarking on the 26.22 mile journey that she has been itching to complete since she was eight. The horn blares, and, at that instant, her legs have a mind of their own as Liedy, closely flanked by her dad, streaks toward the water. Ten steps down, only 140 miles left to go.

Liedy’s love for triathlons began when her dad competed in his first Ironman Triathlon, a 140.6-mile race in Oahu sponsored by World Triathlon Corporation.

“First I got into the little kid [triathlons],” Liedy said.

“When [my dad] finished [the Ironman], that’s when I knew that I also wanted to complete it.”

Before she started training for triathlons at such a young age, Liedy was already active in various sports and activities. Liedy’s decision to become a triathlete was really difficult because she had to give up a sports team and teammates that she was really close with, according to Liedy.

Several hours have passed. Having successfully completed a 2.4 mile swim across Kailua Pier, she climbs onto her bike to start the second leg of the race.

Clearly, finishing a triathlon is no easy feat, as the event is composed of three individual sports: swimming, biking and running. To perfect the competition is to master each of the three sports individually.

“I train for all three sports equally,” Liedy said. “I do split workouts so I … get the feel of what it’s going to be like once you’re actually racing.”

Of all three segments, however, Liedy feels that she needs most work on biking.

“I do intervals and go out and just sprint really far on my bike and then slow down,” Liedy said. “Or I’ll go out for really long bike rides while maintaining the same pace during the entire time [to] keep my legs moving.”

As a triathlete, a great deal of meticulous planning and

concentration is required in order to perfect each sport.

Because of this, the importance of perseverance and consistency is something that Liedy knows all too well.

“I am very organized, so I have to plan out how my whole day is,” Liedy said. “Determination ... has inspired me to work harder.”

Although Leidy agrees that practices can be physically taxing, training for triathlons is a way for her to momentarily forget some of the academic stress she deals with on a daily basis.

“It is good to go do something to take my mind off of [homework] and coming back and focusing every once in a while,” Liedy said. “Triathlons are my life.”

After the time has crawled by, Liedy and her dad have finally biked all 112 miles. Throwing a quick glance over her sun-baked shoulder, Savanna feels energized when she sees her dad smile at her. Then, without hesitation, she ignores her aching limbs and begins the long run to the finish line, which is just barely visible.

Liedy’s training took a dramatic turn on Aug. 2017, when she made the move from Colorado to San Diego.

“My dad had been working [in San Diego] for four years, so we finally decided that we didn’t want to be apart anymore as a family,” Liedy said. “We finally made the decision to make the move last May, and we moved out here in August.”

With such a significant transition, Liedy was not able to train for the Ironman as much as she had wanted to.

With the triathlon just three months away, Liedy was worried that she would not be fully prepared or physically capable. The fact that she had recently broken her foot only deepened her concerns.

“At first, I was really scared going into [the Ironman], but … once you’re out on the course, your whole body takes over.” Liedy said. “Finishing [the Ironman] with my dad was extra special just because it was something that we always talked about, so actually doing it was really fun.”

During the triathlon, there were moments when she was feeling discouraged or ready for a break. Fortunately, she was able to push through such mental and physical obstacles.

“I push myself to a limit where I think I am going to give up, but I actually don’t give up,” Liedy said. “It’s important to keep pushing through the pain instead of just stopping.

Keep running … until you have calmed yourself down.”

While Liedy’s plans for the future are uncertain, she knows that she will continue to actively compete as a triathlete, even as a freshman at Colorado Mesa University. In fact, Liedy is training for another event in March, which is “a smaller sprint race that is much easier than the Ironman,” according to Liedy.

Three. Finally, the finish line is right ahead of Liedy.

Two. She is unstoppable. One. With one giant push, she seals the gap yawning between herself and the goal of her dreams.

by Bea de Oliveira and Kahyun Koh

photo by david vapnek/falconer

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Girls basketball clobbers El Camino Wildcats 52-30

By Michael Nirula SPORTS EDITOR Buoyed by a dominant second half performance, girls basketball (8-7) swept past the El Camino Wildcats (5-7) 52-30.

Although the Falcons began the game stagnant on offense, an aggressive defense made up for it.

Through a combination of contested shots, forced jump balls and a full court press, the Falcons kept the Wildcats at bay.

After forcing three jump balls in the first two minutes, the Falcons drove down the court and got the ball to shooting guard Alexandra Babakanian (12) who knocked down a corner three for a 4-1 Falcon lead.

Although Rachel Shen (12) was able to draw a charge on the next possession, the rest of the quarter was largely a disappointment for the Falcons as their shots would not fall and they only led 8-5 by the end of the quarter.

“After the quarter, I said, ‘Hey, it looks like we’re playing in slow motion,’” head coach David McClurg said. “We were stagnant the first quarter, I think, because we had plans for their best girl, who ended up not playing. Because she wasn’t there, we did not adapt as quickly as I thought we would.”

According to McClurg, that El Camino player averaged over 30 points a game.

Shen also said that the team generally does not always come out of the gate running.

“One of our problems is coming out kind of stagnant, so it is just something we need to work on in general,” Shen said.

Despite scoring only eight points in the game’s first six minutes, the team rebounded after the first quarter with an exciting, electric pace that would characterize the second quarter. Rachel Shen raced down the court in transition for an immediate layup, but then El Camino responded with a basket of their own after catching the Falcons sleeping on defense.

Despite a miss from Shen on the next possession, center Izzy Ascencio (10) earned a rebound and put the ball back on the glass for a 12-9 Falcon lead.

While the Falcons were producing offensively, the Wildcats dropped in easy layups to keep the Falcons’ lead at 15-13 with three minutes remaining in the half.

But, Shen was able to break the deadlock by first sending an overhead dime to Ascencio for a score and then, with five seconds remaining in the half, Shen drove coast to coast for an and one opportunity and a 25-16 Falcons lead.

McClurg says Shen and Ascencio became key players in the game. While Shen is usually a “stud” on the court according to McClurg, he says he was impressed by Ascencio’s toughness.

“She always rebounds the heck out of it and plays really good defense, but she also scored quite a bit in this game,” McClurg said.

In the 3rd quarter, the game’s fast pace continued as great ball movement, transition baskets and points inside the paint led to efficient scoring for both teams.

With the Falcons leading 33-23 and with under three minutes left in the quarter, Emma Richards-Smith (11) provided a spark off the bench by hitting two mid-range jumpers. Both scores helped the Falcons enter the fourth quarter safely leading 40-25.

Although the Falcons would outscore the Wildcats 22-2 in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats’ crowd erupted when a referee favored the Falcons in a controversial call.

Nonetheless, the Falcons were unfazed and continued to build on their lead even after subbing in their bench players. A late layup from Rehanna Fikre (11) finalized a 52-30 Falcons win.

“I think we started off the season really well, then we had a big decline and now we are on our way back up. I think it is only going to get better from here,” Shen said

photos by christy lam/falconer

In the open court: After succesfully execulting a pick and roll play, Rachel Shen (3) finds an open lane and drives toward the basket.

Kaiya DeHann (42) signals for a pass from Rory Hetrick (40).

Boys soccer dominates in So Cal Classic Tournament

By Jeremy Chung STAFF WRITER Boys soccer earned first place in the So Cal High School Classic Tournament against seven other teams from Dec. 27 to 30.

The So Cal Classic is an elite tournament, which brings together some of the top teams from Southern California.

The Falcons competed in the national bracket, which is the most prestigious bracket.

Although the Falcons won silverware after winning all four of their games, they did have a slow start. The Falcons played against Harvard-Westlake School (Los Angeles) and were barely able to get a goal to clinch the win. The Falcons, “dominated ball possession but struggled to capitalize on chances” according to head coach Andy Hargreaves.

The Falcons picked up the pace as the tournament progressed and won their second match with ease. They went up against St. John Bosco High School (Bellflower), a slightly higher ranked team. The Falcons scored early and were able to stay in control of the game with a final score of 3-0.

The third game pitted the Falcons against El Toro High School (Lake Forest), the Division 1 champions the previous year.

“We had a few players who were sick throughout the tournament, which led some players to step up and make a difference,” Santiago Majewski (12) said.

Despite these disadvantages, the Falcons were able to maintain complete control of the game and dominate the field with a 5-0 wipeout.

“El Toro was Division 1 champion last year, so to win 5-0 was huge. Everything

we hit flew into the net,” Hargreaves said.

The championship game was against Servite High School (Anaheim). Servite was ranked No. 1 in the nation after also having an undefeated run in the tournament. The Falcons entered the match ranked second in the nation.

“Half of Servite’s roster was over 6 feet and their team was the most physical high school team we have played this year,” Hargreaves said.

The Falcons had stiff competition in Servite, but pulled out a victory with continuous counterattacks and tight defense. Majewski scored the Falcons’ first goal to put the team ahead 1-0. The match continued, tooth and nail, until Servite scored to tie at 1-1.

With two minutes left on the clock and the score still tied 1-1, Alec Philibbosian (11) scored on a six pass counterattack leading the Falcons to their victory over Servite.

“Being tied with only minutes to go in the game, we really wanted to put the game away in regular time, instead of going to overtime and having to play a hard 30 minutes against an offensive team,” Ted Merrifield (11) said.

According to Tyler Weinrich (12), the Falcons took this tournament as a great learning experience and strengthened the bond between the players.

“Everyone played as a brotherhood and a team” Tyler Weinrich (12) said.

The Falcons’ performance was enough to elevate the Falcons to the No. 1 high school soccer team in the nation.

“We hope we can continue our undefeated run through the season, win CIF and State,” Weinrich said.

Weinrich said that this year’s team may go down as the greatest soccer team that Torrey Pines has ever seen.

infographic by daniel kim

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f/stop

finn sullivan varsity boys basketball january 10 8:07:48

camera: nikon d5500 lens: nikon 55-300m f/4.5-5.6G ED VR iso: 6400 exp: 1/1000 seconds f/stop: f/4.5 by david vapnek

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Thursday, January 18, 2018

All the news that’s sh*t(hole) to print

Vows Paisley and Brundy, high school sweethearts, finally tied the knot on Jan.7, 2018, on the Ed Burke Field. Paisley, a cheerleader, first met Brundy, a football benchwarmer, when the stars aligned and made Paisley Brunphoto from pinterest dy’s Senior’d Out target Brundy climbed through Paisley’s window and hid in her closet until she was paranoid enough to open it and see what was inside. The decision to marry on the football field in their uniforms was one based on sentimental feeling.

At the end of the nuptuals, the two consummated the marriage on the falcon.

MISSING!

Deaths After a hard-fought battle with peeling grips and insufficient lead, the PaperMate Clear Point pencil that you took without hesitation from someone else’s desk was laid to rest on Jan. 5, 2018, at an unknown age. It is photo by jocelyn tzeng/falconer assumed that she’s survived by her 11 siblings with whom she arrived in a package from Amazon.

After her first marriage crumbled, she turned to lead to numb the pain, but since she was short on cash, .7 was the only option. In the end, the lack of .7 in the general community caused withdrawals that were too much to bear.

photo by jocelyn tzeng/falconer

SYLLABUS

Last seen: the first day of school Where: crumpled in your purse, binder, backpack or on the floor of your car Why you’re even looking: If you didn’t do your Bio notes while bedridden with the Bubonic plague, the syllabus says you can’t make them up

Unique student would like to “get out of California and go to the east coast” for college Student reluctantly accepts an Audi after making multiple pleas for pickup truck ASB tackles illiteracy members the Pledge

photos from ny daily news, ny observer, harvard

and teaches of Allegiance

Student who was accepted to top 5 school “isn’t even smart,” according to classmates Teacher intentionally picks on student who wasn’t listening, receives fake apology

photos from grivu, beautiful minds, wikimedia

This page is entirely fictional. by the Falconer staff