Semester 1 - Edition 2
Post date: Oct 23, 2017 1:50:26 PM
The History of Halloween
By Camden B. & Zac C.
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France, believed that the dead returned to Earth on Samhain. All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows, and the night before. Traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion began to be called All-Hallows Eve, and it eventually became Halloween. People think Halloween dates back to 43 A.D., but there is really no time that it dated back to.
When people think of Halloween, they think of trick or treating, parades, bobbing for apples, and other family-friendly activities. Halloween falls between fall and winter. People may have heard of trick or treating, but they probably haven’t heard of souling and guising. Souling is where you pray for other people’s dead relatives. Guising is where young people dress up in costumes and accept food, wine, money, and other offerings in exchange for singing, reciting poetry, and telling jokes. Trick or treating was more about the tricks in the form of pranks and hijinks than the treats. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that the custom took on the family-friendly child centered form of Halloween.
Today, Halloween is a big business with many different people spending 2.5 billion dollars on Halloween costumes all together, and when you add in the candy they are spending 6 billion dollars total a year. In Ireland and Scotland, hollowed-out turnips with embers, or candles inside became a very popular. Turnips are vegetables. Halloween decoration a few hundred years ago. On October 31st, after the crops were all harvested and put into storage for the winter ahead, the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids would light new fires, and offer the sacrifice of crops and animals to thank the gods for the harvest and appease the gods of the coming winter. Druids are priests, magicians, or soothsayers, in the ancient Celtic religion. Halloween is a very important holiday. If the Celtics did not have Samhain, we wouldn’t have Halloween.
In conclusion, people put a lot of work in decorating their houses and buying costumes and candy.
Operation BBQ Relief
By Lexi B., Madi C., & Brooke S.
Operation BBQ Relief (OBR) is a charity. It has a list of competition BBQ teams who have big ribs, mobile kitchens, and pitmasters who can get in their car and go in a hurry. OBR relies on monetary donations and bulk food donation to function. It was founded in May, 2011. Since then they have served 1,698,634 total meals. These meals can include many different food items.
Its main leader is Stan Hays. Stan Hays used to just compete in BBQ championships, but then he realized he could actually do something to help people in need! He then decided to go to the sites of natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, wildfires, and hurricanes! They also prepare food for people in need. They are capable of serving 55,000 plates of food a day, and 120,000 meals in approximately 13 days.
Operation Barbecue Relief has been to many different disaster sites in the past two years. Some places were Florida (Hurricane Irma), Texas (Hurricane Harvey), and South Louisiana (tornado outbreak and flood). They even went to the wildfires in Montana to help those in need. After each disaster, they try to arrive at the site between 24-48 hours. They often work 18 hour days. You do have to order the meals if you would like one. Also, they send out smoked pork, turkey, and chicken. These can come with a side of green beans, corn, and baked beans. The unique effort began in May, 2011 when a humongus EF-5 tornado hit Joplin, Missouri about two and a half hours away from Stan’s house. An EF-5 tornado includes wind speeds up to 200 miles per hour.
On Wednesday morning, Operation BBQ Relief started to turn a parking lot into a barbecue village. They had 30 volunteers, and by the end of the week organizers expected their volunteers would grow to 100. The smokers, 12 Ole Hickory Pits from Missouri, can cook up to 900 pounds of the meat each. OBR tries to provide as much food to the people as they possibly can.
In conclusion, Operation BBQ Relief is a great way to help the people in need.
Las Vegas Shooting
By Aniah D. & McKenna D.
During the Las Vegas country music festival around 10:08 pm on October 1st, a shooting occurred killing 59 people and injuring 527. The identified suspect was Stephen Paddock. Though it was a horrible event, the FBI are not calling it a terrorist attack. They are not sure what Paddock’s motive was. After the incident, the FBI found 23 guns in his hotel rooms, including multiple rifles, a few weapons which had modified scopes on them, and 12 guns that were rigged to fire faster than normal. His hotel room was two rooms put together. Police later found several pounds of ammonium nitrate, a substance used to create bombs.
Stephen Craig Paddock was born on April 9th, 1953. The 64 year old man was from Mesquite, Nevada, which was only 80 miles away from his two houses during the shooting. He enjoyed hunting and gambling. Though when he did hunt, he rarely shot his gun. Stephen was an acclaimed loner and stayed to himself most the time. Due to his gambling, Stephen was very wealthy. He had no children, but he did have a girlfriend.
Marilou Danely was his reported girlfriend during the time of the the crime. She is currently being investigated to see if she knew what Paddock’s motives were. He was very close to his brother Eric Paddock. He never had much contact with his father, Benjamin Paddock, who was a bank robber. He was also on the top ten largest criminals list in the year 1969 to 1977.
The Las Vegas shooting is considered the worst shooting in U.S. history. Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved.
The History of Ohio State Football and Urban Meyer
By Davin R. & Jacob H.
Ohio State football has a very long history. It became a varsity sport in 1890, and Alexander Lilley was the first head coach. In 1899, the Buckeyes had a 9-0-1 record in their first unbeaten season; football crowds grew at an alarming rate. A Columbus newspaper started devoting space to football. Most importantly, for the first time in 12 season of football, the sport started to make money. Perry Hale, who was a star player at Yale, became the sixth head coach of the Buckeyes. In 1934, Francis Schmidt was the head coach bringing not only a new era, but he also had a new style of football.
The Ohio State Buckeyes in 1935 got a win over Michigan for a 38-0 seasons. Notre Dame played, and it was the greatest college game played. There was a 13-0 lead in the fourth quarter, but Notre Dame scored three times in the final quarter in the last two minutes which lead to an 18-13 win. Ohio State defeated Michigan, but barely beat them with a few points, 14 - 10. The former Ohio State player also, and assistant coach named Earle Bruce, helped Ohio State almost get to the national championship, and he was considered coach of the year for the first season.
Ohio State and, Illinois ran for a combined 1,057 yards. 49-42 Ohio State University wins against Illinois. Sam Willaman he was assistant on Wilce’s staff a 1913 Ohio State graduate; he was the 13th head coach in Ohio State history. A landmark year for Ohio State football. Professor Thomas French, a member of the athletic director board, was born November 7, 1871 and died in November 2, 1944. He was on the athletic board when football was made a varsity sport.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer was born July 10, 1964. He was the head coach for many schools like Bowling Green Falcons, Utah Utes, and Florida Gators. He has won three national championships, won 165 games, and lost 29 games for his 15 years as a coach. He was born in Toledo, and he graduated from Saint John High School in Ashtabula. Meyer is considered to be one of the best and most successful coaches in the nation.
He went 22-2 in two seasons at Utah and had a 16 game winning streak. In his six seasons with Florida, they went 65-15 with two national titles. Win 13-seasons in 2008 and 2009. He was the first coach to ever accomplish this. When Urban Meyer joined the Ohio State Buckeyes, he said, “I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to return to Ohio State.” He also said in reference to football, “I am part of it, I believe in it, and I will live it.”
He had the Buckeyes shake off the loss of two starting quarterbacks. They faced Wisconsin and won with a crushing defeat for Wisconsin 59-0. Now, Ohio State was ranked fourth and could go to the playoffs. They faced Alabama which was ranked the top team, Ohio State beat them with 42-35. Then they faced Oregon for the national championship. They beat them with 42-20 points. They won the national championship of 2014.
The Buckeyes won with the help of Urban Meyer.
Catalan Crisis
By Josh B. & Dylan T.
Currently a region in Spain, Catalonia, has voted for their independence. Over 2.2 million people voted for Catalonia to go independent on Sunday, October 1st, 2017. The European Commission wrote on Twitter that the vote was not legal. Catalonia has been trying to get their independence since 2010. If Catalonia goes independent, Spain will lose 20% of their economy.
Spanish police are breaking into the polling station and destroying the poll boxes, and taking others. Spanish police officers shot rubber bullets at voters and protesters. Spain is having many protests right now. There has been over 900 people injured by the police and the protesters. On Tuesday evening, October 3rd, 2017 hundreds and thousands of people took over the streets of Catalonia blocking the roads. Over 400 police officers need medical attention, and 40 needed emergency attention because of their injuries Catalonia president had to call the EU. The EU is the European Union.
Catalonia will most likely not be able to gain independence. It doesn't benefit anyone besides themselves.
If they go through with Catalonia gaining independence, Spain will lose 20% of their economy. Travel rates will be decreased because of the outroar of the riots, protests, and the increase of police brutality.
Police brutality is when the police use an excessive amount of force to injure citizens. A lot of streets have been closed due to the riot, and many of the riots happened on the streets of Catalonia.
To Space!
By Connor & Nathan D.
NASA’s, (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), old projects consisted of walking on the Moon, getting rovers on planets near and far, and creating the International Space Station, but some of NASA’s recent projects consist of newer and more high tech objectives!
One of the missions involve getting a spacecraft to one of the moons that is orbiting Jupiter. They are trying to get the spacecraft to orbit one of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, and see if it has all the conditions that make it possible for humans to live there. The spacecraft’s name is the Europa Clipper. It’s supposed to launch in 2020.
Another project they are doing includes performing their first-ever robotic mission. The mission’s name is ARM. (Asteroid Retrieval Mission) The goal of this mission is to visit an asteroid near Earth. Once they get to the asteroid, they will gather a several ton boulder off the asteroid. After they collect the boulder, they will redirect the boulder to orbit Earth’s moon. The purpose of this project is to collect data samples off the boulder, then return to Earth. This mission is expected to launch in late 2021.
One of the missions that NASA completed is the Mars Rover launch. The rover landed on Mars on August 6th, 2012. The rover’s main purpose was to see if Mars had proper conditions for humans to live on. The rover also studied Mars’s climate and geography.
As you can see, NASA is planning on doing some complicated and high tech projects. In the future, these planned projects will take place and they will help us gain data. Once more new missions launch, they will help the world figure out more about planets near and far.
Into the Haunted House
By Mallory R. & Brook S.
Haunted houses may seem scary, but once you get to know how they come together, they’re actually pretty cool. Some of the haunted houses located within Northern Ohio are Zombie High, Ghostly Manor, Fear Forest, Fear Factory, Bloodview Haunted House, Spooky Ranch, Hauntville, Nightmare in the Wilderness, and Barber Haunt.
It takes one to three months to set up a haunted house. Some people that work in haunted houses are managers, the actors, make-up artists, entertainers, musicians, and lighting and sound workers. Two different types of actors that work in haunted houses are called Screamsters, and Tricksters. Screamsters are the actors that are meant to scare the older kids, and be very scary, but the Tricksters don’t have hardly any make-up on, and they don’t have very scary costumes. They are not meant to be scary; these actors are for little kids.
However, working in a haunted house isn’t as easy as it looks. They have to have perfect timing, scream a lot, be careful when they scare people to prevent being hit, and scare people the right way. This means that when people set up the haunted houses, they have to make sure that in a spot a person will be scared, there is nothing harmful behind this person just in case they jump backwards.
Some of the supplies needed to set up a haunted house are fog or smoke machines, fake blood, brains, snakes, spiders, spider webs, limbs, and eyeballs. Things that are also used are strobe lights, mannequins, speakers with scary noises, scary dolls, mirrors, spray paint, intriguing items to distract someone, and a specific theme, like clowns, zombies, or ghosts.
Some of the reactions of people are screaming, laughing, crying, jumping, running, hiding, pushing others, grabbing someone, peeing their pants, or no reaction at all.
In conclusion, a lot of hard work goes into haunted houses.
Hunting Dogs
By Matthew I. & Charles L.
There are many types of hunting dogs. Some types of hunting dogs are German Shepherds, Golden retrievers, beagles, Whippets, and cocker spaniels. Make sure not to push your hunting dog over its limits. Hunting dogs are also called gun dogs. Hunters should exercise their hunting dogs regularly, and always make sure to keep your hunting dog cool.
Hunting dogs have a long history with humans. Gun dogs can help assist humans with killing other animals. Hunters should start training their hunting dog, first with obedience. Then, train it to come on command. After that, a great training tool is called an electric collar. When the dog does something bad or doesn’t listen, the hunter can shock the dog, and when it does something good, a hunter gives it a treat. Always have treats; it trains the dog to be good and not to be bad.
Here is a more in-depth explanation on what these dogs are and what they hunt. Golden retrievers are very good at going through water and getting ducks. The American cocker spaniel became a
favorite among non-hunters when the breed won the Westminster in 1921. The Whippet is one of the most popular hunting dogs. They are a member of the sighthound class of hunting dogs. It is bred to hunt by sight. The German Shepherd is also a good duck hunting dog. It will protect a hunter from anything that is a threat. A beagle hunts lots of animals such as snowshoe hare, cottontail rabbits, game birds, roe deer, red deer, bobcat, coyote, wild boar, and foxes.
When a hunter is hunting in the woods, people who hunt should watch out for ticks. After they’re done hunting, hunters should check their dog for ticks. If hunters don’t want to check their dog for ticks, when a hunter gives it a bath. They could also give it special shampoo that prevents ticks and fleas. Hunting dogs get ticks, so watch out for them. If a hunter is hunting with their dog, get a Seresto collar. This collar gives the dog a certain scent that ticks and fleas don’t like. These collars can last up to eight months!
In conclusion, there are many type
s of hunting dogs out there. So if a
person is looking for a hunting dog
, hunters recommend the person to get one of these top five dogs!
