The Antlerette August 12 2019 Volume 94 Issue 1
The Plastic Pollution Around the World Kyle Williams, Staff As our modern civilization ages, the amount of plastic waste we produce and allow to freely pollute Earth’s oceans grows and grows every year. Over 8 million metric tons of plastic enters the ocean each year. That’s enough trash to cover every coastline around the world 5 times! Sadly the majority of people on earth choose to ignore this truth. Whether it is walking down the street, driving down a crowded roadway, or riding on any type of public transportation, we see plastic everywhere we go. The average person won’t take the time to pick up someone else’s mess or even think about what they do to their own, and then, said plastic usually ends up in the oceans, lakes, rivers, or any body of water. Plastic floods our water resources and it takes over how we eat or drink the items we love, yet no one with a voice in our world will come up and put an end to this crisis. I interviewed Selena Enriquez, a thoughtful and opinionated activist and environmentalist who strides for everybody in our community to take the time, effort, and responsibility to help make our planet clean for everybody’s health and well-being. One moto she had brought up was to use the 4 R’s: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, and Rot.
Those four words would make the biggest impact if everyone thought about their actions. All the plastic that has not been put away correctly or recycled properly makes its way towards our oceans worldwide. Whether it is a plastic straw, plastic lid, a plastic cup, a plastic utensil, a plastic bagyou get the point. We all need to acknowledge how much plastic we use, along with the damage it does to our environment and our health. So what are ways we, as a community, can help stop pollution and detoxify the earth? First, we need to reduce our production and use of single waste-in order to first manage the waste that already polluted our earth. Then we all should join an anti-polluting group to travel around the globe and pick up plastic that has been dragged up shore, take boats and go out into the ocean, and create what are usually plastic items and make them reusable and non plastic to make our world a better place.
https://blueocean.net/the-good-the-bad-andthe-ugly-of-plastic-pollution/
What is the Green Improvement Initiative and Why is it Important to be Sustainable? Selena Enriquez, Staff Plastic pollution is killing us, period. To put it bluntly, plastic pollution is harming wildlife, humans, and the environment. It’s so important to become more environmentally conscious and reduce single-use plastic manufacturing and consumption. In the 2019-2020 and 20202021 school years, we will be implementing the Green Improvement Initiative: an initiative I created with the help of our school’s Environmental Club to remove single-use plastics on campus. We will be trying very hard to eliminate plastic wrapped fruits, plastic water bottles, straws, utensil packages and implementing a salad bar, refillable water bottle stations, and more recycling bins on campus, including a marker recycling program. In order to make these wonderful changes, we need student, teacher, and staff input, so please take the survey on the “LET’S MAKE OUR LUNCHROOM GREENER!” flyers around the school! If you have an iPhone, you scan the QR code with your camera. If you have a different smartphone, you need to download a QR code app. We need donations of old boxes large enough for several markers. Please bring any boxes to Mrs. Lee in P-11. Recycling boxes can be found in rooms A03, A08, C20, F02, F04, P09, P11, P18, P21, P18, the Counseling Office, and the Front Office. “Why does it matter if I throw plastic in the trash? Aren’t we going to die by 2050 anyway?” Sure we will, if we don’t do anything within the next 11 years (before 2030). Here are some simple individual ways you can make a difference today: 1. Eat less meat/dairy/fish: agriculture is responsible for an estimated 14%
of greenhouse gases, 26 gallons of methane per day per cow, and 91% of the Amazon Rainforest lost since 1970 was for cattle ranching. 2. Reduce your consumption of singleuse plastics: it’s estimated that in 2050 there will be more single-use plastics than fish, and that by 2048 we will run out of popular fish completely, “If the world keeps fishing at its current pace, there will be no more fish left to eat by 2048...85% of the world’s fisheries are either fully overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion” . Plastic doesn’t biodegrade for 400 years, so what you do today will be impacting your bloodline for the next twelve generations. 3. Reduce your carbon footprint: walk or bike if you plan on going somewhere local, making sure your energy is powered through sustainable foods. The energy from your food is converted to energy for your walk or bike, so if you eat a plant-based meal, your walk or bike is powered from sources other than dairy, meat, and fish products. Take shorter showers, wash your clothes in cold water and hang dry, rely less on energy and fossil fuels like gas to heat your home or water. 4. Don’t use as much tree paper: it’s very hard for sustainable forestry methods to keep up with the demand of the world, whether the wood is for paper, toilet paper, or heat. We should switch to other types of paper or recycled paper. There is so much we can all do to save ourselves from the climate crisis. As a consumer, be aware of what you are buying! We all must do our part. If each individual implemented simple but important changes like going vegetarian a few days a week and not consuming things that are an impediment
to your health: chips, candy, and junk food wrapped in plastic, we'd all make a big difference. Each time you eat something plant based or refuse a single-use plastic, you are working to improve the Earth for future generations. This is a problem that we can fix with action! Ignorance and reliance on fossil fuels or animal agriculture will be a detriment to our existence.
https://www.facebook.com/communityimpro vement/
The Earth’s Lungs are Burning Hannah Villarreal, Content Editor As of August 21st, the Amazon rainforest has had its luscious greenery raged with fire for three weeks. Commonly labelled as the ‘Lungs of the Earth’, the Amazon rainforest accounts for producing 20% of the world’s oxygen - no other place on land has the ability to produce such a large amount. The rest of our oxygen, between 50-80%, is believed by scientists to come from our oceans and the tiny plants phytoplankton - that inhabit them; the same oceans, that are currently acidifying and polluted. The Amazon rainforest is not just a beautiful place, it is an extremely valuable rainforest that gives life to the Earth; the Amazon is our lungs. Despite the Amazon rainforest being a key component to Earth’s ability to sustain life, the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has chosen to completely dismiss this and openly support “slash and burn” farmers. The phrase “slash and burn” refers to the wild/forest land clearing technique used by farmers: cutting down trees and surrounding plants, then burning them to create open land
for agriculture. This approach to creating more land for agricultural purposes is completely counterintuitive considering once the land is “cleared”, it becomes infertile and the rich soil that was once there has been destroyed. Destroying these beautiful and absolutely vital landscapes of thick forestry forestry that is vital to our consistent air supply, for the production of public goods primarily palm oil and cattle raising - is, quite literally, feeding our own destruction; we are sacrificing our air and earth for money. Before the readers jump at this statement and immediately reject the idea of self-blame for the destruction of the Amazon - yes, I am correct, yes we are to blame - we started the downward spiral of earth's ability to sustain life. We, you and I - are all responsible for our current situation; denying this would be incredibly ignorant. We need to take responsibility before we can come together as Earth's inhabitants and solve Earth's climate crisis. Now, taking this narrative back to the Amazon, the president of Brazil - Jair Bolsonaro- is under heavy fire for the Amazons crisis. Many people, including the natives of the Amazon, believe Bolsonaro is the direct cause of this massive wildfire; and there is strong evidence to prove their claims. Bolsonaro supports the ‘slash and burn’ farming and has attempted to sell off parts of the Amazon to the United States for agricultural purposes. Bolsonaro - after three weeks of consistent burning - just ordered fire departments to begin fighting the blaze; natives of the Amazon have been trying to limit the burn acre, but it isn’t enough. Foreign countries, during a summit meeting in France, openly offered $22 million in aid to the Brazilian government to help fight the fire - which the president promptly declined; apparently, the French president ‘insulted’ him at the meeting and he won’t accept aid until he gets his apology.
The French president did not insult the Brazilian president, he told him the truth. Clearly he didn’t expect Bolsonaros ego to be so fragile. The French president, at the summit meeting, accused Bolsonaro of lying about fighting climate change; considering everything I previously said in this article, he isn’t wrong. Now there is much to argue about foreign powers offering aid in hopes of obtaining parts of the Amazon for their own use, but this article is not about that. The most compelling piece of evidence (to prove Bolsonaros direct involvement) would be the recent court case of the Waorani people of Pastaza (inhabitants of the Ecuadorian part of the Amazon) against the Ecuadorian government. Seemingly unrelated, because Ecuador and Brazil are two different countries, the Ecuadorian government recently tried to sell off Native land (the Amazon) to big oil companies without Native permission. The Ecuadorian government lost the Supreme Court case and subsided from attacking Native land. Now, the main theory and belief by people who have accused Bolsonaro of being the direct cause of the fires is: Bolsonaro saw this as an opportunity to make money. Since the Ecuadorian government was unable to sell their part of the Amazon to these big oil companies, why not just try to sell parts of the Amazon that is under Brazilian jurisdiction to the oil companies instead? Knowing he wouldn’t be able to legally sell land that was inhabited, Bolsonaro, already supportive of ‘slash and burn’, made a deal with the big oil companies; burn this land yourself and get rid of the natives, you get to have it; but of course, I want money too. Now this is all just speculation, but it’s quite compelling speculation. The Earth, our only home, is in the middle of - arguably, the end stage - a climate crisis and human extinction. The Amazon rainforest is burning, our oceans are polluted and acidifying, our air is toxic, our
animals are dying, our entire ecosystem is failing, We are dying. The cause: us; human beings and our carelessness. Ironically, our carelessness is not decreasing the Earth’s life span, it is decreasing ours. The Earth is not dying; it will never ‘die’. It is losing its ability to support life. We are in danger of altering the entire environment that gave birth to our civilization. We are commiting mass suicide.
https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/asi an+age-epaperasianage/realistic+impact+of+amazon+rainf orest+fires-newsid-133450336
Why the Human Race is its Own Terminator Jordan Ritchie, Editor-in-Chief Right this moment, there is a brilliant mind somewhere in the world building an idea that could change our future. Holographic phones? Yes, please! Flying cars? Sign me up! Microchips implanted in your body that can pinpoint your exact location at any time? Ye–wait, no. Genetically-edited babies, facial recognition, weaponized nanotechnology, sentient artificial intelligence; all of these I thought I’d never see outside of a science-fiction film, yet are closer to becoming reality than we realize. Could facial recognition help drop crime rates, identifying a criminal on the run in an instant? Yes. Could genetically modifying a baby’s DNA prevent future generations from ever catching the common cold or having cancer? Most definitely. I have absolutely no doubt that these developments could greatly improve our
society, but frankly, the prospect of a postapocalyptic future overrun by technology and scientific innovations gone wrong outweighs my willingness to place my faith in a fragile “could”. We could be saving the human race, or we could be destroying it. It used to be that phones were awkward, boxy objects with antennas, cords, or rotary dials. Now, they can fit in your back pocket. But what will phones be like in the future? 80% of experts and executives surveyed by the Davos World Economic Forum predict that implantable cell phones will be commercially available by 2024. In less than five years, we will rid the world of not only iPhones, but carpal tunnel! We won’t ever have to strain our thumbs, typing out a text. We’ll have a microchip implanted in our molar, transmitting sounds to our ear. Certain gestures would correspond with different phone operations; a nod of the head or twitch of the jaw. You’d never worry about losing your phone and dialing 911 would be as easy as blinking. You’d be assured that the police would know exactly where to find you… and so would anyone else. With this device permanently imbedded in your body, its signal can always be tracked, and your location can always be found by anyone. Another big mistake would be artificial intelligence (AI). I don’t think much explanation is needed to convince anyone that this is a terrible idea. We’ve all seen The Terminator. Humans create an artificial intelligence system that becomes self-aware and sends a cyborg–in the form of Arnold Schwarzennegger– into the past to kill the leader of the human resistance, therefore getting one step closer to achieving the ultimate goal: exterminating the human race. As I think about it more and more, this is starting to sound less like a movie and more like a history book from the future. To me, an artificial intelligence system would just be too smart for our own good. Another invention I see no silver lining to is weaponized nanotechnology. A few years
ago, at a conference in Cambridge, it was concluded that there’s a 5% risk of weaponized nanotechnology being the cause of human extinction before the year 2100. This would mean that the human race would end with our grandchildren. Weaponized nanotech can inject toxins, target killings, act as mini nuclear bombs, and on top of that, can self-replicate and be easily concealed in your pocket. Maybe to those who think that war is a means to an end, this is a God-send, but to me, this is fun-sized demolition. But wait, there’s more! To add onto human trackers, evil superintelligences, and travel-sized nukes, what’s next in store is...dinosaurs? That’s right, the madness doesn’t stop with technology. Living creatures could also be endangering our future. Paleontologist, Dr. Jack Horner claims that scientists are just years away from genetically engineering dinosaurs back into existence through DNA preserved in fossils. As incredible of a scientific breakthrough reviving dinosaurs would be, some things should be left as they are. To paraphrase a meme I saw after the release of the sequel to Jurassic World, there are half a dozen movies on “why this is a bad idea”. These are only a few scientific innovations that could prove to be dangerous; there are countless more. While I encourage creativity, taking risks, crossing new boundaries, and challenging what we believe to be true, there is a fine line between those things and playing God. These qualities are important, even crucial to humanity, so we can advance and improve as a race, but there is a con to every pro. Any of these innovations can prove to be good or bad, depending on how they are executed and if they are in the right hands. Any good idea can be used to our advantage to better our world and our future. But can humanity be trusted to lead us into that future? The more creative we get, the more risks we take, the more boundaries we cross, the more facts we challenge, we open new doors to more possibilities. But what price do we pay?
What other unknown challenges do we face on the other side of those doors? What dangers will we encounter? Will we be able to face them? Maybe I’m just a paranoid cynic. Maybe each of these innovations are the key to improving our society and leading us closer to a utopia. Or maybe we’ve just found the keys to Pandora’s Box and by pursuing these ideas we’re tiptoeing towards human extinction. And it’s not Global Warming. It’s not a pandemic. It’s us. We are our own Terminator.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-9-mostnightmarish-movies-about-nuclear-attacks1797837727
Facing Difficult Times Dayana Ruiz, Staff As we get older and go through life, we encounter many difficult obstacles along the way, though some may be harder than others. In many cases, when life gets hard, people resort to a life ending solution: suicide. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. Studies show that on average, 129 suicides are committed every day. This is outrageous! Most often, suicidal thoughts first start with a feeling that there is no way out of a difficult situation. By believing this, you start to develop a sense of thought that there really is no way out; therefore, you give up on all hope and resort to what today's society considers an option to a way out of hard times. Even the most difficult situations can be solved one way or another, and it may be difficult to
confront the situation, but there is a way out. In order to confront these situations, one must really want to, which is why it is important to talk to people and get help from someone you trust. It is important to keep one's mind healthy so that these thoughts don't overrun your behavior. There are multiple ways to keep your mind healthy. First and foremost, eat healthy. In order for your brain to function, your brain needs quality fuel. We get this fuel based on what we eat. Eating healthy foods that contain the necessary vitamins and minerals can essentially protect our brain from oxidative stress. Having oxidative stress can damage your brain cells, causing you to make irrational decisions. You do not need to start a strict diet to have a healthy mind, but by just adding fruits and vegetables to your daily life, it can make your mind just a little clearer, giving you the energy to keep you going with a positive attitude. Getting at least eight hours of sleep and exercising at least 3 times a week also contributes to having a healthy mind and body. But staying physically healthy is just one small step to keeping a healthy mind. Once these thoughts are engraved in our minds, it's difficult to come out of it, so how exactly can someone get out of it? Remove yourself from potentially dangerous areas where any self-harm may be possible. These dangerous areas may include a moving vehicle, a balcony, railroad tracks and etc. If removing yourself from a potentially dangerous area is not possible at the moment, you may want to take a step back or park the moving vehicle. Once you have found yourself in a safer area, take the time to breath. Taking deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth can help lower your heart rate and give your brain the oxygen it needs, making it easier to think clearly. Once you've made it easier for yourself to think clearly, you can then refocus and shift your attention away from the self-harm. You can do this by just
focusing on your breathing. Focusing on the things around you like counting how many blue objects you can find or find details about the objects, such as a crack in a vase or a hair on the floor. If nothing works to help you out of the situation, it is now time to reach out to someone. Reach out to someone who cares about you and would be devastated if you were to die or contact a suicide hot line ((916) 3683111) and explain to them what is going on and together figure out a plan to help you get through it safely and successfully. No matter how difficult a time may seem, it is possible to get out of it and recover.
https://didihirsch.org/agencynews/important-policy-changes-for-suicideprevention/
Take it to the Quad!: Pro Choice Vs Pro Life Benjamin Carrillo, Staff Are you pro-life or pro choice? On paper it may seem like a simple question with little to no thought behind it. But in reality, the question is very complicated and has sparked various debates around every corner of the internet. With the complexity that comes with this moral dilemma you may be confused about how the idea started, but the idea of abortions can be rooted back to as late as the early 1800’s. Obviously procedures are now very different and the concept is legal in all 50 states. However, the idea of abortion is now being challenged, and it is still not legal in some other countries around the world. But how does our very own Thundering Herd feel about
abortion? With Elk Grove being in California, a democratic state, you might think that opinions would be more liberal and the student body would be completely pro-choice. But as it turns out the complicated subject is very split more evenly between all grade levels. I anonymously interviewed one male and one female from each grade level. Please do not hunt down and try to attack any of the people in this interview as this is just their opinion. “My opinion on abortion is that under no circumstances should the right to life ever be taken away from unborn children, whether they were conceived in rape or violence, or if they’re an “inconvenience” to the mother. I believe that people (men and women) need to be able to take responsibility for their actions and need to be held accountable for the choices they make.” (Freshman, Female) “An abortion should be a woman’s choice. Whether people agree with it or not at the end of the day, you are not that person nor do you have their body. There are many reasons why women deserve the right to get an abortion. One scenario where I believe it is necessary is if a girl gets raped, especially at a young age. First of all it wasn’t their fault and they are too young to the point where they shouldn’t have to go through the pain of birth. All in all, it is a woman’s choice whether they want to get an abortion or not.” (Freshman, Male) “Pro-choice because what women choose to do with their body is literally no one else’s business.” (Sophomore, Female) “I'm pro-choice, but I think that there should be significant amounts of reasoning of why you are unable to care for the kid.” (Sophomore, Male) “I would say I’m pro-choice because what someone does with their own body is their decision. As long as it doesn’t hurt other people, it’s their decision to make and they should be free to make their own choices. If it’s their decision to make, they should be
responsible enough to know what’s best for them.” (Junior, Female) “Pro-life. I think while it can be used in some situations it is generally used just for financial support in America today. If you got a girl pregnant and you just didn’t want a kid, then the kid shouldn’t be aborted and not have a life because you were stupid.” (Junior, Male) “Pro-choice, because it’s my body, my choice. And no one should have a say in my body. The government should say out of a woman’s vagina. Why do people care what I do with my body? No one owns me.” (Senior, Female) “Pro-choice, because options are important to have for everyone.” (Senior, Male) Overall, the results are very much favored towards the leftist view of being prochoice, which is to be expected when in the blue state of California. If we were in Alabama, the results would almost certainly be very different. That’s the interesting aspect of a subject like this. No one is necessarily wrong and no one is right. But the most important part is to recognize and understand the other point of view when arguing anything.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/29/politics/su preme-court-abortion-indiana/index.html
Idolizing a Murderer is WRONG Tess Sommer, Design Manager On May 23, 2019, in Tokyo, Japan, a young girl named Yuka Takaoka attacked and stabbed a boy who she was in love with.
She had always idolized Yandere characters in anime. The root “yan” means sickness or obsession, while “dere dere” means love. Most anime characters that are yandere act sweet and innocent, but once they obsess over someone, they will do whatever it takes to get them, even if it means killing other people or even the person they’re obsessed with. Yuka eventually became like these anime girls and ended up murdering the boy she was obsessively in love with. The worst part about this isn’t the murder itself. It’s the fact that multiple people in the comment section or the reviews in news articles related to Yuka are setting up funds to bail her out of prison because “she is cute”. Has our society really romanticized murder? We’re setting up funds for her to get out of jail instead of using the money for better purposes. This is ridiculous to me and should be for everyone else. No one should murder someone to prevent said person from getting into relationships with other people. There are some people in prison that are actually innocent, but were overruled due to unjustified courts. It’s not as common, but it has happened, yet people are wanting to free someone that actually murdered and destroyed their “lover’s” future. It’s still wrong because if the situation was flipped and a man claimed to have killed his beloved out of love, then the man wouldn’t be called “cute”, or have funds set up for him in order to get him out of jail; people would keep him in prison. This act of murder is wrong, regardless of gender, and should not be idolized. If someone murders someone, she should be sent to prison.
https://www.tokyoreporter.com/crime/yukatakaoka-incident-gruesome-details-emergeabout-crime-of-passion/
How do Video Games Improve our Lives? Maleiya Santos, Staff Since the 1980’s, parents and doctors believe video games are bad for our health. This is not always the case. It’s true that playing for too many hours can cause an addiction. But video games aren’t just forms of entertainment or programs on the screen. They can improve gamers’ multitasking skills, moods, or inspire careers of gamers. Video games can improve multitasking skills. Different game genres (role playing, survival, stealth, etc) have different combinations of attacks, movements, or other forms of gameplay that require multiple buttons being pressed. The games Street Fighter and Fortnite, require players to use multiple buttons to take out their opponents, using combo moves or building and fighting. Video games can enhance moods and can benefit your health. In 2012, a research team in New Zealand used a game called SPARX to help treat depressed teens. The study included 168 teens with an average age of 15 who were struggling with depression. Half of them were used as a control group and given regular one-on-one counseling, while the other played SPARX. The SPARX group of users showed results of 44% of the players completely recovered from depression with only 26% from the conventional treatment group. Players are also exposed to creativity across video games and their platforms. Each game has different graphics, storylines, choices, etc that could affect the player’s gameplay, such as the game’s ending or if the player has to restart. Video games are played on YouTube channels all over the world. Some YouTubers become rich and famous from video games alone on their
channels, such as DanTDM or Pewdiepie, and turn their channels into their full or parttime careers. Video games can be played almost everywhere on about every electronic device. Video games can improve gamers' skills and provide creative content for players to enjoy. Careers and activities, such as exercising or bonding, can be manifested from video games. They’re fun, enjoyable and personally are completely awesome and can help pass time quickly. I am a gamer and I have played video games my whole life. They have actually made me want to pursue a career in them.
https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/6/181292 37/street-fighter-5-ads-sponsored-content
Why Basketball is the Best Sport Gregory Santos, Staff What makes basketball the best sport? This sport, invented by the great James Naismith in 1891, includes a round ball with rubber inside of it and then covered with a surface made either from leather, rubber, or synthetic composite. There are two sides of the game, offense and defense. When a team is on offense, the only goal is to get the ball in the hoop. The team on defense has to prevent them from scoring. The rules are extremely simple, and once you watch one game, you will probably figure out most of them. It is that simple. Here’s why the game that has changed many lives is the best sport.
Basketball incorporates the widest variety of skills and physicality of any sport in the world by far. In baseball, the most creative you can get is the way your batting stance is or the way you swing the bat. In football, you are even more limited in your own personal style mostly due to the amazingly strict rules and positions you have to be in. In basketball, there are an infinite amount of areas of the game that you can add to your arsenal to make you unique, which may be things like shooting, different types of ballhandling moves, court-vision, etc. You can get real creative with your playstyle. A playstyle is a way that a certain player or team operates in the game. A great example is two-time MVP Stephen Curry and eighttime all-star Chris Paul. Both superstars play the same position in the NBA, but their playstyles are much different. Curry’s game is based on ball-handling and shooting off the dribble, while Paul’s game is based off extreme court vision and playmaking ability. Both of those stars don’t have any athleticism in their game whatsoever. But, Russell Westbrook, who also plays the same position as Curry and Paul, has a game which is heavily based on athleticism. Having athleticism means to have a great amount of speed or strength to define yourself as an athlete. In basketball, this can lead to great things such as blowing by people while dribbling, or dunking very smoothly. This goes to show you how many different archetypes can vary within every single player. Basketball also doesn’t require many financial needs. What this means is that there is no required gear or anything you really need in order to play the game. All you need to play is a ball and a basket of some sort. Did I mention that you can play and practice by yourself for hours on end? In baseball, it’s possible but you would need a hitting machine, which costs a lot of money. It is also possible with soccer, but it would take a lot of extra, unwasted time retrieving the ball from the net every time you kick it into the
goal. The simplicity of the sport of basketball is what brings a community together. Everyone just loves to play the game whether it’s competitive or friendly. All in all, the game of basketball is the simplest, yet most complex sport that everyone loves to play and watch. This beautiful game brings people together and is overall the most fun to play and it is the best sport out there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball
The Downfall of Sac City District Lorelai Paige, Staff Sac City School District is facing a crisis that not many around here are aware of. As of the end of last school year, the district narrowly avoided takeover by our state’s government by heavily cutting budgets. The 2018-19 school year saw a deficit of $16 million, a number that’s projected to double by the 2021-22 school year. The way they cut budgets was heavily contested by parents and teachers in the district. One example of how they made a budget cut of $3 million was from retiree healthcare funds, angering both the teachers’ union as a whole and individual teachers alike. In fact, teachers in the district held a strike in April 2019 that was motivated by cuts toward their livelihood. A second strike was planned for May 22nd, but when a new budget was proposed and begrudgingly
accepted by the union, the strike was cancelled before it started. Although Sac City District barely escaped takeover, their problem isn’t solved, only delayed. And this fraught situation will only have a stressful effect on the teachers who depend on the district for their income and the students who are victims waiting for their sentence. This report isn’t just about a singular school district, though. The impossibly low budget of the Sac City District is only one example of inner city schools constantly getting less funding and failing in general compared to suburban school districts. The poor condition of schools starts a vicious cycle, as most of the time, people who have a higher quality of education also have a higher income. As a result, people born into poverty who attend impoverished schools also remain poor for the rest of their lives, and the cycle continues with their children. This also connects to the marginalization of minority groups in society and keeping diverse people in the lower rungs of class. Since inner city areas often have a more diverse population, racial minorities are more often than not the ones caught in this cycle of poor education. Sac City School District’s crisis is no coincidence; it’s part of a larger problem that must be addressed.
https://twitter.com/saccitycollege
Masterpiece or Flop Olivia Breck, Staff Avengers: Endgame was very monumental in cinema and Marvel history. This movie was the last installment of the series for many characters. This movie broke many box office records and had many characters interesting personal plotlines. All the new characters were compelling and had a valid reason to be there. The main characters like Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Black Widow reached an all time high in my opinion. Facts aside, this may be the end of Avengers … or is it. End Game was hyped up from the day it was first announced. People have been waiting for it for years and when it finally came out, well… let’s just say it was a hit. The company made 2.8 billion dollars from the movie even though the estimated earnings were 600-900 million dollars. They spent around 356 million dollars to make it, which means their profit is huge compared to the money spent. To estimate, it’s a profit of 24 billion dollars, but besides that facts, here's my opinion on the movie. The movie was… perfect… I mean perfect. The story of some characters came to an end, which was executed perfectly. The ending met my standards and wasn't lame or underwhelming; it had a great element of surprise, but wasn't too over dramatic. The plot was intriguing and really left no room for error. I was constantly waiting for the next thing to happen and couldn't guess what was coming next. If superhero movies are your thing, I highly recommend you watch this movie. There aren’t many downsides to the movie except that it was very long. If you wanted to do a quick stop at the movie theater before an appointment or a dinner reservation, this is definitely not the movie to see. The movie was exactly 3 hours and 1 minute long and was great. Unfortunately for young children, it wasn't the best, due to short attention spans.
End game, was it good? Was it worth it? And am I satisfied with what I saw? The answer is yes. For a Marvel movie, I really enjoyed myself and would highly recommend it to any viewer.
https://www.engadget.com/2019/07/3 0/avengers-endgame/
The Praise for Mediocre Music Isella Nepomuceno, Staff In today’s music industry, the names you see making it big are Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, Chris Brown, Drake, and Post Malone. From these names, which are all very well known, we can recognize three common characteristics: they are all straight, cisgender, and male. Some artists even have a history of violence associated with them, which should, in and of itself, prevent them from being successful. However, it is clear that if society welcomes artists that are connected with violence, then they already have low standards for the music they listen to. While more women, LGBT+ people, and people of color are making their way onto the charts, it is important to recognize that their music isn’t as widely appreciated as those who are at the top. This begs the simple, one-word question: why? Could it be because society still holds unintentional prejudices against these artists? Or could it be because these singers are the
ones who are not afraid to step out of the box the music industry wants to put them in? These artists take the time to write lyrics with meaning. They use metaphors and find creative ways to communicate their messages, leading them to not conform to the typical mainstream style that we hear constantly repeated in today’s songs- which essentially creates mediocre music that will be played multiple times on the radio every couple of hours for about a month until listeners grow tired of them. Rather than support artists who put out what sounds like the same song with minor variations every few weeks, we should be supporting and celebrating the creativity and effort of artists whose songs have not yet been discovered by listeners. We should be appreciating LGBT-led bands and artists like Janelle Monae, King Princess, Hollie Col, The Greeting Committee, The Aces, SleaterKinney, Girl in Red, and Christine and the Queens who recently changed her name to “Chris” as a way to challenge femininity and deconstruct what it means to be a woman. We should be appreciating female artists such as Rosalía, Lizzo, Grimes, Aurora, and Maggie Rogers, as well as people of color like Kehlani, Frank Ocean, The Marias, and Normani. By supporting these artists and streaming their music, we can change the way minority artists are appreciated in today’s industry and change the face of music.
https://hornet.com/stories/lgbtq-musiciansencyclopedia-ultimate/
Freshman Year Perspective Ryan O’Sullivan, Staff What does it mean to be a freshman in 2019? Well, from being part of the class of 2023, there are a lot of new experiences and emotions that come with the transition. When we start elementary school, we wait six years to be at the top. When we move to middle school, we only have to wait one year and all of a sudden, we’re calling everyone a “sevie”. High school is different. With the pressure of classes being so extreme, we can often find ourselves quite stressed out. The reason high school is so different for freshmen is because we haven’t really found out where we belong yet. The sad truth is that friends and other things we used to find exciting to us in middle school change. We find ourselves caught up in difficult classes and never-before-seen drama, along with political issues that everyone seems to have an opinion about. And of course, the occasional senior walking past you who looks like they are just about 7 feet tall. Despite all of this, the reason I am ecstatic about my beginning of high school is because I listen to my parents reminisce about their fond memories of the high school years. The way they talk about high school makes me want to cherish these youthful opportunities while making memories of my own. There are surprisingly a lot of things to look forward to about high school. Among these are football games, dances, socials, and a constant acquisition of new information needed to make us informed young adults in this constantly changing day-of-age we live in. High school is the best years of most adult’s lives and I can’t wait to begin this journey for myself.
https://cheezburger.com/5537194752/highschool-freshman-plays-it-safe
Youtube: A Safer, More Boring Platform Mitchell Schrader, Staff Since its inception in 2004, Youtube has provided a platform in which a wide variety of content can be produced and enjoyed. On the platform, viewers can watch nursery rhymes, movie trailers, and see two men using vomit as a crucial ingredient for baking a cake. This variety in content is thanks to Youtube lacking a filter to content that traditional media possesses, as Youtube is not limited to channels and facilitates individual publishing. However, this freedom has begun to be restricted due to new rules being implemented on the platform. If a video contains profanities and/or covers controversial topics, it will often be demonetized, due to advertisers often being sensitive with what their ads are paired with. This prevents many creators, who do not stick to making family friendly content, from making a sustainable income. This restriction on content limits the evolution of video streaming, as it forces creators to focus less on creating unique content and more on trying to adhere to arbitrary restrictions based on nervous advertisers. Creators are pigeonholed into producing relatively samey content. What hasn’t helped is the incentivization of increasing video length, which has resulted
in many creators padding out videos with unnecessary filler. This further distorts the creativity needed for content creation and makes videos duller. Ultimately, this makes Youtube less YOUtube and more TVtube. The site should facilitate the development of unique content, not stifle it. Unfortunately, Youtube is slowly blurring into the rest of media.
pollinated the almonds as much as the actual pollen did. Almonds require vicious mastication and when one is finally able to penetrate their steely exterior and taste the flavor, it is that of pure rage. Almonds complement other nuts in a mix well, but when not mixed with other nuts, almonds are a nut made for angry consumption. Always be on guard around those people who pick the almonds out of the mix, they may hulk out at any second. It is very strange that such an angry nut has so many pleasant products. Almond milk is a very tasty and healthy alternative to milk for vegans, health nuts and those with lactose intolerance; almonds with chocolate are a tasty and refreshing break from pure chocolate; and many vegan dishes use almonds to add more substance to their meals. Almonds are an angry nut, but they are also tasty, healthy, and versatile. I rate them 7/10.
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Nut Review: Why Almonds Are the Angriest Nut Calvin Wilber, Staff Almonds, they live in every household, unless you’re allergic. They can be eaten raw, cooked, salted, or covered in chocolate. They’re very popular nuts and yet no one is talking about the hate they store. Almonds are the angriest nut. But before going into that, here are some almond facts. Every rose has its thorns and almonds are no exceptions. Almonds are actually part of the rose family and are sometimes called “the queen of the rose family”. Almonds grow on trees and have a fuzzy hull like a peach. They are completely reliant on bees to survive, which is one of the almond growers’ major expenses. Almonds are also very healthy and can reduce the risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. Unfortunately, this nut is a menace. It is apparent in each bite that these nuts rely on one of the angriest bugs to keep them alive. It is as if the buzzing fury of the bees
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