FOCUS Newspaper January 2019

FOCUS Issue Four - Januar y 2019

Volume 45

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Page 1

The Amazing Miss Mir anda: Our Beloved Substitute

By Katia Campos

Make way Spider Man, there?s a new hero in town! This hero is faster than the speed of light, and mightier than a machine. Who is this, you ask? A bird? A plane? No! It?s Miss Mir anda, an amazing educator who substitutes for a plethor a of teacher s here in the FCS Upper School. She has been with us through thick and thin, and we all want to thank her in a special way.

Focus repor ter s inter viewed Miss Mir anda to get a little view of her world. ?I studied Speech and Hear ing Science at Temple Univer sity before subbing at FCS, and now I teach here and all across the Philadelphia School Distr ict as a substitute,? she shared. When asked if she always had the sense that teaching was going to be her job, she replied, ?In a way, I always knew that I wanted to have a profession that ser ved young people, and I remembered all of the outstanding (and not- so- outstanding) teacher s I had throughout my education. I know it might be a little cor ny, but I often think of the statement, ?Be the per son you needed when you were younger.?? This delightful quote is a per fect reminder for ever yone. When you see someone who is asking for help, Miss Mir anda says to think about your self in that situation and tr y to help him or her. She cer tainly models that heroic behavior each and ever y day.

Some of Miss Mir anda?s favor ite moments of teaching occur when she sees that little light bulb go off in a students heads. ?[I love] when they have that ?A- ha!?moment after they under stand a new or difficult concept. Lear ning new things is not always easy, but for what it?s wor th, it was wor th the str uggle.? Miss Mir anda never wants to offend classroom teaches, but did admit that she ?loves hear ing students say ?YES!? after finding out they have a substitute for a day.? Yes indeed, Miss Mir anda, we love it when you sub for our classes.

Repor ter s asked Miss Mir anda what classes she enjoys

In This Issue:

subbing for the most. She explained, ?I really enjoy subbing for Histor y and Foreign Language classes because they are

Designer Babies (2) Ar tist InFocus (4)

TechFocus (6) GamingFocus (7)

my favor ite subjects! [In subjects such as] mathematics, I am always interested in subbing because they are always rewarding for me. I enjoy watching students solve problems

Athlete InFocus (5) age n t M ess a t r o p Im i t or Fr om Ed over ) (Back C

and even teach me a few new things as well.?

'Miranda' COTD. on page 8

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Page 2

Designer Babies: The Futur e of Humanity? What FCS Thinks...

By Vicky Liu ?20, and Julian Duvivier ?22

I magine the ability to completely er adicate a disease plaguing humanity.

This disease is not bacter ial and cured through vaccination; that is the feat of an earlier er a.

Instead, the disease is one prevented at bir th through a small, insignificant change that preemptively stops it from ever taking hold. Now, imagine a child bor n with a br ittle and weak skeleton, always hur ting because of uncontrolled physical defor mities. I am sure we would all wish that the child?s condition were to never exist. Finally, imagine a child cur sed with a blood disease that causes a constant and lifelong pain. The doctor s predict it and offer to cure it many months before the child would see the light of day. The parents happily accept, but make one request. ?Wouldn?t it be wonder ful,? they say, ?if our child had br illiant sea- green eyes??

This is where CRISPR comes in. CRISPR is a cheap and easy

gene- editing tool, invented in the mid- 2000s. It was an incredible step in biological engineer ing and medicine. As science Jiankui, a Chinese Scientist continued to tap into its located in Shenzhen, possibilities, a new host claimed to have altered the of applications in the DNA of human embr yos, field of genetics emer ged. resulting in the bir ths of Chief among these was genetically modified twins the newfound ability for with the pseudonyms Nana humans to alter DNA in and Lulu. This has begun a ways that would similar controver sy around fundamentally change the limitation and the human genome. This regulation of the has opened up a slew of technology. In many questions about how we respects, He Jiankui's utilize our newfound process was thorough and abilities and about the scientifically r igorous. In discover y?s scientific and the early embr yonic state, ethical r amifications. he altered the gene CCR5 to While many consider give the children HIV CRISPR an incredible immunity. CCR5 is a good step in medical choice as the fir st technology, many also modification because it has ur ge caution, often in been researched quite fear of consequences or extensively and its the creation of ?designer alter ation shows no babies? edited to fit a negative effects. The ver y specific definition trouble, however, is severe: for humanity. For the He Jiankui did not have his most par t this has been exper iment reviewed by the entirely baseless scientific community speculation, at least up beforehand and failed to be until recently. tr ansparent in the specifics In November, Dr. He of his process. Put simply,

his actions were a major violation of scientific conduct.

He Jiankui's exper iment has dr awn the disapproval of many in the scientific community and in the public at lar ge. Many esteemed exper ts have questioned his integr ity, including the biologist and for mer president of Caltech, David Baltimore. Baltimore said at the recent Hong Kong genetics summit that he ?thinks there has been a failure of self- regulation by the scientific community due to a lack of tr ansparency.?

While He Jiankui has presented his work as life changing and vir tuous, many people following the events have questioned whether the process was premature and medically necessar y.

From another per spective, our resident biologist, Dr. Sonia Chin, shares her insight on He Jiankui?s research: ?This kind of

Issue Four - Januar y 2019

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feels that it quickly becomes complicated to talk about the r ights of people with human application is ver y altered genes to give bir th. premature.? She explains, Jim Rosengar ten, our ?The scientific community histor y depar tment chair, has only begun contr ibuted to the manipulating and adapting discussion from an ethics the CRISPR system for use and philosophy standpoint. outside of its native As he sees it, the invention bacter ia since about 2012. of a new technology is In scientific time, six year s followed by new scientific is not ver y long, so r ight avenues and applications, now we do not have a comprehensive under standing of potentially ver y severe, off- tar get effects that might occur in an or ganism modified using this tool.? She elabor ates upon another severe long- ter m problem r aised

by He Jiankui's research: ?From a population biology standpoint, CRISPR might many of which will be induce unintended dangerous if used mutations that could improperly. Mr. dr astically decrease a Rosengar ten relates this to per son?s quality of life that Pandor a?s Box, as once new now can be passed down knowledge comes to light it for gener ations and could is ?hard to take away the potentially spread at a knowledge.? population level.? The Jim values the freedom of gene- editing took place in the human mind to explore the embr yos?ger m cells, the world without r ather than in the somatic repression, expressing that, cells, making the changes ?It?s impor tant to allow inher itable through human beings to use this gener ations. Given the great gift of a br ain that we potential to dr ive human have. We should be able to evolution and the think, create, and conquer associated r isks, Dr. Chin with total freedom.

'CRI SPR' COTD. from previous page

Anything that tr ies to prevent human thought must be cautiously addressed.? However, Jim also consider s the idea of ?eugenics? and the desire to manipulate genes to create a better human being. He points out that, ?[The discover y] star ts to lead down the slipper y slope of what a good human being is. Is a good

human being with blue eyes and blonde hair ?? Mr. Rosengar ten definitely hopes that we do not use such a super ficial definition and, instead, cautions us to be careful in such matter s. Indeed, gene- editing technology stresses us to r uminate on the definition and standards of humanity, in order to avoid the misapplication of the technology which might exacerbate r acial inequality.

Although He Jiankui?s

Page 3 research has the capability to enhance humanity, it is a tremendous violation of scientific procedure and, in the opinion of many, mor ality. Many have asked who should be the regulator of gene modification. In Jim?s eyes, the answer is clear. ?We all should be,? he asser ts. These events have shown that, given forethought coupled with tr ansparency, we and the scientific community can, and hopefully will, self- regulate and steer our selves down a mor al path. In many ways,we are in the Golden Age of Biology. As long as we tread with care and cur iosity as our guides, we will be on the path to doing something amazing. To quote Dr. Chin, ?In the next 10 year s, CRISPR will continue to be used as a power ful tool in research to under stand the many complex phenomenon in biology and to treat somatic disorder s. I hope that in 20 year s, we will be approaching this topic with care and some legal regulation to ensure that CRISPR is used responsibly.?

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Page 4

Ar tist in Focus: The Musical Excellence of Gavin Sultan There is nothing quite like

By Lucas Chiang ?22, Repor ter and Webmaster

consist of The Rolling

the thr ill of a

Stones, The Door s, and

breakthrough

The Beatles. He also loves

per for mance, and for

Stevie Wonder, A Tr ibe

Gavin Sultan ?19, that thr ill

Called Quest, and

occur red on the chilly

Badbadnotgood, among

night of December 23 at

other s. There are hundreds

The Bitter End in

of other musicians who

Greenwich Village, New

have also inspired Gavin,

York?s oldest rock and roll

yet, this list can?t go on

club. Gavin descr ibes that

forever.

special evening: ?It went

Gavin?s hard work and

really great. The dr aw was

musical tr aining have

58 people, which I?m

really paid off. He

ecstatic about. I felt like I

acknowledges the five- man

was finally able to let

band with whom he

myself go and feel the music.?

old, he began his Gavin has been playing production career by music since the age of five. lear ning from Chad He shares of his fir st Hamilton, his for mer tennis musical expierence,?One coach who, coincidentally, day? while my sister was was a producer for Jay- Z?s taking a piano lesson, I Rocafella records, known star ted banging on the for producing songs in piano, being the pest I was. Young Gunz?s debut album, Instead of [her ] teacher Tough Luv. Soon after, kicking me out of the Gavin met Mr. Br adley and room, she brought up the joined the FCS Jazz Band, idea of lessons to my eventually growing to be parents.? After taking the incredible ensemble introductor y piano lessons leader and guitar ist he is with that same teacher for today. From his family, jazz five year s, he star ted band, and Spotify, Gavin lessons with a classical has been exposed to a piano teacher. Around that multitude of genres of time, he also star ted to music. Gavin also notes that lear n the guitar. Then, Mr. Br adley?s Afr ican when he was about 13 year s Amer ican Music Histor y

per for med in New York as cr ucial to his successful

class was especially impactful for him.

per for mance. Gavin expresses, ?I felt [unafr aid]

By being exposed to so

because of how confident I

many kinds of music,

was in my bandmates.

Gavin has acquired tons of

They?re all super tight and

role models. From the classical and romantic er a, different styles and genres inspire Gavin. He especially appreciates French composer s Claude Debussy and Er ik Satie.

His favor ite jazz ar tists include Ella Fitzger ald, Chet Baker, Gr ant Green, Grover Washington Jr., and Sun Ra. Some of his pop role models are The Bee Gees and Michael Jackson, and his rock idols

were able to pick up my ar r angements with ver y little rehear sal time. If I went on that stage alone, it would have been a different stor y.? Gavin met most of his bandmates in a summer progr am at Berklee College of Music. He fir st met the bass player, Adr ian, at a class. He then met the dr ummer, Kabir, through an introductor y activity.

Kabir introduced Gavin to guitar ist Alejandro. Adr ian

'Artist' COTD. on following page

Issue Four - Januar y 2019 'Artist' COTD. from previous page.

and Alejandro are now

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Page 5

Athlete in Focus: Micah Tr usty, Runner Extr aor dinair e

freshmen studying jazz at the New School in NYC, and Kabir is now at the New England Conser vator y. Gavin met Mar vin, the saxophonist and

By Miles Johnson ?19, Repor ter

M icah Tr usty ?22, who

is in her fir st year at before the per for mance. They Fr iends?Centr al School, has already created a played one song together name for her self as an dur ing sound check and up- and- coming Mar vin soon after joined the r unner. Micah band for the show. is cur rently on the school?s When I saw a clip of Gavin?s indoor tr ack per for mance on his team and plans Instagr am account to r un outdoor tr ack in the (@gavinthesultan), I asked spr ing. Despite myself, ?What can I do to be Micah?s age, that good at music?? Gavin she has was kind enough to provide an answer. Gavin?s advice for received a multitude of amateur musicians is to pr actice. He reveals that if he accolades in just her fir st could do his high school year of cross music career differently, he countr y at FCS. would tr y to constantly wr ite, Micah received produce, and pr actice music. all Fr iends?League He wishes that he dedicated honor s, fir st team more time to his music over all- state honor s, as well the cour se of these past few as most- improved player year s. If you want to become on the school team. She good at something, take has been r unning since Gavin?s advice. Although he age eight, but didn?t star t wishes that he put even more r unning competitively time and effor t, Gavin Sultan until she was eleven, for is a per fect example of the the Infinity Tr ack Club. classic phr ase ?pr actice From an early age, it?s makes per fect.? been evident to Micah Alejandro?s fr iend, r ight

that she can?t succeed

without a solid work ethic

and who is now a

and deter mination. She

teammate of Micah?s,

became interested in tr ack offered high pr aise of her because she wanted to see fellow r unner. Izzy how far she could go and

shared, ?Micah is like the

discover the things of

sweetest girl in the

which she is capable. world, fir st of all. She is When I asked why

so nice and so humble.

she is so passionate

She is just bur sting with

about the spor t, she talent. She is so talented, told me, ?I love that

and she works so hard.

tr ack gives me

As a r unner, when I

confidence and

watch her r un, she looks

humility. Running

so comfor table. You just

allows me to express want to keep watching myself through my

her because she is so

God- given gift.

amazing. She is a great

Tr ack has always

asset to our team, and we

been my passion.

are so glad she is with

When I was younger

us.? Regarding Micah?s

I loved to r ace my

future, Izzy only offered

classmates. Tr ack

one comment: ?I see big

has always made me feel accomplished.? Micah elabor ated that r unning gives her a sense of pr ide of the special gift she has, as well as of the hard work she has devoted. Both of these factor s have resulted in her achievements thus far.

Izzy MacFarlane ?20, who has been r unning tr ack at FCS for over half a decade,

things!?

With the unwaver ing suppor t of her coaches and teammates, in addition to her incredible talent and commitment, we are sure the future is br ight for Micha Tr usty.

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Page 6

TechFocus

By Jer r y Yu ?19

Flash Updates in the Digital World

Welcome, techies, to this edition of TechFocus. This month, we?re going to take a look at some quick things that are taking the technology world by stor m.

1) The Secur ity of Smar t Devices (i.e. Alexa, Google Home, etc.)

The question of inter net pr ivacy has been upper most in the minds of Amer icans since the inception of the inter net, but this past August, concer ns were heightened when a Tencent secur ity team identified and war ned Amazon about flaws in Alexa (Amazon?s voice- controlled smar t home device) that allowed hacker s to spy on user s. The discover y of this loophole fr ightened the millions of Amer icans who have Alexa devices in their homes, as they felt all of the conver sations they conducted in the presence of the device were in danger of being hacked. In comes BlackBer r y. BlackBer r y, a company that is perhaps most well- known for its early smar t phones of the early 2000?s, is also revered for its pr ivacy. Thank goodness BlackBer r y made available its pr ivacy technology to smar t home devices, and their new secur ity ser vice will consist of constant self- checking of devices, which will improve consumer pr ivacy. Meanwhile, McAfee and Google par tnered to br ing a voice- activated inter net secur ity toolkit to the Google Home and that allows the user to constantly ask Google about their network safety. Though the scare of the insecur ity of Alexa is enough to shake folks up, knowing that these alter natives are available is comfor ting to those who seek pr ivacy.

2) Apple Puts Softwar e on Non- Apple Devices Apple, a company which has long been notor iously hated for its incompatibility with non- Apple devices (char ger s, device accessor ies, etc) might have softened up on its str ict r ules on this matter. For example, no other device had access to Apple ser vices like the iOS, iMessages, and iTunes up until this point. However, the Samsung 2019 devices might be Apple?s fir st step towards opening up their software ser vices. Samsung?s new line of Smar t TVs will feature Air play 2, the updated ver sion of Apple?s remote casting ser vice, which allows user s to mir ror any and all content from their per sonal devices directly to the big screen. The new Samgsung TV will also be the fir st non- Apple TV to have a dedicated iTunes store. It is likely that the reason Apple is expanding its software to non- Apple products has something to do with Apple?s annual iPhone sales figures, which have decreased.

3) Car s With TVs Become Mor e Popular Smar t Car s, vehicles which have ?smar t? technology built into them (not to be confused with self- dr iving car s) are gaining popular ity. With car s offer ing a var iety of fancy new features such as allowing voice commands via Alexa, there is no denial that in a few year s we will look at a our cur rent gasoline- powered car s with clumsy infotainment screens and cr inge. One of these new smar t car models is called Byton. A Hong Kong- based star tup, Byron is making what we call ?iPhones on wheels,? with what they call ?AI- powered 5- G smar t car.? Maybe just playing the buzzwords game, they focused their entire car around the Alexa- enabled display, which is as wide as 7 iPads.

Meanwhile, another company, the microprocessor giant Qualcomm, took a different 'Techie- 3' COTD. on Page 8

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Page 7

GamingFocus Three Tidbits of Exciting Gaming News

By Jer r y Yu ?19

What do the new trends with CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2019 have to do with gaming? Let?s take a swim in the ocean of possibilities for the PC, mobile, and VR.

2) Por tability Intel and NVIDIA both are tr ying to make devices more por table. Intel launched their new Foveros design that allows them to stack what would have taken an entire laptop and end up with an entire motherboard less than 3 square inches. This will make computer s much smaller with more room for other functions, potentially enabling significantly more power ful mobile gaming devices r unning desktop- gr ade games.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA announced their Max- Q design for the RTX ser ies. Max- Q is a compact design of NVIDIA GPUs announced along their GTX 10 ser ies, allowing laptops with NVIDIA gr aphics to be thinner - or in the case of ASUS, over 50% thinner. There is no longer the need to car r y around a bulky laptop lar ger than a Calculus textbook. In fact, the new Razer Blade laptop is the thickness of a composition book. This means that, along with the introduction of 5G connectivity, PC gaming will be available at more locations and potentially challenge the mobile platfor m in accessibility.

3) Connectivity.

If you have looked at the back of an old- school gaming laptop, you find a messy wall of por ts - HDMI, USB, This year at CES, NVIDIA officially announced the RTX audio jacks, a lar ge power por t- as well as many fans.

2060, a GPU that is designed for a more affordable yet However, LG released a new display that can be more power ful gaming PC. The NVIDIA DLSS connected through USB- C thunderbolt and car r ied technology, the main focus of the presentation, takes around freely. In 2019, we expect fur ther growth of advantage of machine lear ning to solve the problem of USB- C Thunderbolt applications, from high- speed real- time r ay tr acing. Instead of tr acing ever y r ay of exter nal stor age to 5K display connectivity. Another light, it lear ns from a var iety of settings and their application r ising through the year s is exter nal real- life looks to help predict what the light r ays will do. gr aphics. A por table low- power laptop can take Developer s like EA and Netease are jumping onto the advantage of the extremely fast data tr ansfer and the DLSS tr ain to make their games look better for player s, fast char ging provided by the Thunderbolt por ts to and this vast super ior ity in visuals can make PC games tur n themselves into a gaming PC. We might see a attr active again after concer ns of growth plateauing due future where one simple laptop can be tr ansfor med to r ising costs. into different computer setups by connecting it to var ious accessor ies. ' 1) Real- time r ay tr acing.

Techie' COTD. on Back Cover

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Page 8

'Miranda' COTD. from page 1.

'Techie- 3' COTD. from previous page.

Miss Mir anda mentions a quote from a Regina Spektor

approach. Using their advantages in network technology,

song that she says helps her get through long, tough

they announced the C- V2X (cellular

days: ??Love what you have and you?ll have more love.?A

vehicle- to- ever ything) tests in Las Vegas. They are not

lot of the time, we are searching for something new.

making the car s, however - Ford and Audi, extremely

Something different. Whether it be from our selves or

competent in the field, are taking on the next- gener ation

other s. We tend to for get the many unique and special

vehicles head- on, and have par tnered with Qualcomm in

qualities that make us who we are. I think about this

this endeavor.

quote when I need to remind myself that I am ver y for tunate and doing the best I can.?

Fr om The Editor :

When Miss Mir anda isn?t in the schoolroom, she?s outside biking or inside playing saxophone.

The expression, ?kindness makes the

Miss Miranda, we are truly lucky to have such a wonderful

world go round? may

substitute. You are always so kind and energetic, and many

be aged, but it surely

of us FOCUS reporters and staff have experienced that

still r ings tr ue. Here at

firsthand when you substituted for our classes. Thank you

Fr iends?Centr al, we

for your time and for all that you teach us!

are tremendously for tunate to have

FF Julian Brenman ?20, Editor- In- Chief A T S REPORTING TEAM

Mr. Thomas Soper Co- Advisor

Co- Advisor

is kinder than kind.

Somebody who will

Vicky Liu ?20, School News and Features

drop whatever he

Caroline Blackman ?20, Sports

may be doing to

Katia Campos ?22, School News and Features

help somebody

Lucas Chiang ?22, Arts

else, somebody

Sophia David ?22, School News and Features

whose door and

Julian Duvivier ?22, Arts and Technology

mind is

Miles Johnson '19, Sports

always open for discussion, and somebody who gives ever yone

Yianni Krontir is ?22, Sports

a listening ear. This man is Mr. Tom MacFarlane, our esteemed

Jack Li ?20, Features

Dean of Students. Though Focus is always gr ateful for Mr.

Jared Miller ?22, General

MacFarlane?s consistent suppor t of our publication, this past

Max Mar inelli ?22, Sports Riley Roche ?22, Reviews and Media Jer r y Yu ?19, Technology

Ms. Katie Dicker son

among us a man who

Above, Mr. Mac holds the skull of one of his for mer study hall students.

month, his act of generosity was par ticularly touching. In the midst of a newspaper deliver y cr isis dur ing which the paper copies of our last issue didn't ar r ive on campus in time for us to distr ibute them as scheduled, Mr. MacFarlane, purely out of

LAYOUT AND DESIGN TEAM

the goodness of his hear t, dropped his loaded agenda of classes

Katia Campos ?22, Digital layout Associate

and meetings, to endure the half- hour dr ive from our campus

Lucas Chiang ?22, Webmaster

to the UPS Sor ting Center to retr ieve our package. Just so we

Julian Duvivier ?22, In- Print Layout Designer

could distr ibute our issue on time. Mr. MacFarlane, we can?t thank you enough for this remarkable act, and for the

Mr s.

Clare Luzur iaga

PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM

unwaver ing suppor t you provide us each and ever y day. We are

Lydia Varcoe- Wolfson ?19, Senior Photographer

so deeply appreciative.

Honorary Mentor

OPERATIONS TEAM

Your s in jour nalism,

Vicky Liu ?20, Coordinator of Internal Relations

Julian Br enman ?20, on behalf of the entir e Focus staff