Issue #1

By: Sophie Donnelly

On December 30 of 2022 at the teen center was the new year party. We played games, watched movies and enjoyed each other’s company for the new year. Upcoming events are going to be movie night, bingo night, baking, and drop in hours.

The first movie night, we will be playing avengers, and the second movie we will be watching is iron man. We will be selling candy like: Milky Way, M&M and Reese’s.

We will be having bingo here and the prize here is candy. If you love baking, you should come to the art of baking. We will make good treats like chocolate cookies, sugar cookies and brownies. We like decorating sweet treats.

Drop in hours are Tuesdays after school and Friday nights at 6 pm at the teen center. We will have fun, games, and activities. Everyone will be able to come and have some fun at the teen center and hope to see you at the events.

SpaceX is planning to beat Nasa to launching the biggest rocket ever, Starship.

What is it?

The Starship is a fully reusable, extremely heavy-lift launch vehicle which is currently under construction of the American aerospace company, SpaceX. With more than twice the thrust of Nasa’s Saturn 5 (7.6 million lbs), SpaceX is hoping to successfully develop the first reusable and the most powerful rocket of all time.

When?

The Starship is prone to launch somewhere in the first quarter of 2023 yet the exact date is still undecided. The idea for a fully reusable rocket started in 2012 when Space X referred to it as a high level plan. The previous starships have developed over time but it seems that the upcoming version will be the one to break the records with its unique characteristics.

How is it made?

What’s making the rocket reusable are the two rocket stages, both of which are powered by raptor engines that burn liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellants in a highly effective, full flow staged combustion power cycle. The two rocket stages are designed to land vertically on the launchpad or a separate platform to be reused. In its fully reusable structure the rocket has a payload capacity of 220,000 pounds and is designed to be flown multiple times. The Starship’s hull is equipped with stainless steel unlike most rockets which hull is made out of carbon fiber. In a previous interview, Elon Musk was to have said that the hull was made from this metal for its cheaper value. However, there are more benefits than what meets the eye. Stainless steel has a much higher melting point which makes it more robust for reentry into the earth’s atmosphere. Sure enough the steel does make the rocket seem shiny and looks oddly enough like a grain silo but when you’re in space, does it really matter?

Sources:

SpaceX Starship

King of rockets, NASA’s SLS could soon be usurped by SpaceX’s Starship

Starship and Super Heavy: SpaceX's deep-space transportation for the moon and Mars

By: Ishanvi Mohapatra and Anisha Prakash

Stereotypes are quite prevalent. However, they are also something people in general should be aware of.

Here is a list of some widespread stereotypes that you can look out for. There are many more, but here are a few.

1. People with dark skin are usually assumed to be African.

2. Light-skinned Indians may be stereotyped as Hispanics.

3. Indians are often assumed to be Native Americans, instead of Asians.

4. People with extremely light skin may be assumed to be white.

5. Many people (especially teenagers) with glasses and/or braces are usually known as “Nerds”.

6. People with disabilities are quite often stereotyped to be less intelligent than others.

7. Iranians are (in many cases) assumed to be white while they are truly Asian- (going back to the fourth stereotype).

There are plenty more stereotypes (about race, how someone looks, gender, and more).

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There is something in common about stereotypes; they are all assumptions. It is a normal habit for a person to assume or even think something about someone before they know it’s true, and many times they will stick to believing in their assumptions. However, this can be avoided by anyone that understands that they shouldn’t assume something about someone before they know it’s true.

This is an extremely difficult thing to do since it is complicated to change such a huge habit so quickly. Now, it isn’t necessarily always a bad thing to assume something, but you should eventually fact-check it before you tell your assumption(s) to anyone else.

Right when you are about to assume something, you usually find something about someone that isn’t clarified, right? For example, you may assume someone dark-skinned is African. You find that they are dark-skinned. Now you have to clarify that anyone dark-skinned is African to prove your assumption 100% correct, since if not everyone that is dark-skinned is African, your assumption would be wrong.

Of course, not everyone that is dark-skinned is African, so there is a high probability that your assumption is incorrect. An assumption is never proven to be correct before it’s made- otherwise it wouldn’t be an assumption or a stereotype- it would be a fact.

Now, this is a short article, but if you understand the example explained above, you have already understood how not to stereotype.

The whole idea of this article is to spread awareness about this issue; stereotyping. Stereotyping can be about anything, anyone, anyplace, races, genders, heights, etc.

This may not seem as huge of a problem as you’d think, but it truly should be noticed by some people. Just imagine someone talking to you, then assuming you’re someone who you’re not. That may just be the slightest tick- that could ruin your mood for the rest of the day. And, even if it doesn’t bother you, isn’t it nice for people to know who you truly are, rather than just guessing you’re someone else?

Finally, If you can be someone who can avoid stereotyping someone or making assumptions about them before facts, that could possibly mean the world to them.

Here is an article based on our experiences with Indian Stereotypes: 3 Times I've Been Stereotyped. What are your experiences like? Tell us your story in this form:

Tell us your story! Do you need advice?

By: Connor Hall

Last year, some crazy things happened in sports. The LA Rams pulled off a Super Bowl win with their amazing team and the Houston Astros won against the Philadelphia Phillies to grab the World Series trophy. But one event stood out. And that event was the FIFA World Cup.

This event brought lots of excitement as it only happens once every 4 years. Multiple countries participate in this event. There have been some memorable ones like when Maradona scored a goal with his hand. So this event means a lot to the world. It has been held in many different places all over the world like Brazil, Japan and Russia just to name a few.

In 2010 it was announced that Qatar would be hosting the cup. Nervous faces looked around as people wondered where Qatar was. For some information, Qatar is a wealthy country located on the Arabian peninsula. The country is small, only about 4,400 square miles. Smaller than our state of Connecticut. Its wealth comes from the oil and gas industry. So why was this such a big deal? Well, if they were so rich they could afford the stadiums right? And they were picked fair and square right? But after some investigation that was not the case.

First of all, Qatar bribed FIFA officers into picking them to host. And that has been absolutely proven. Qatar also does not allow beer due to their religion. Well FIFA made a deal with Budweiser to sell their product at the stadiums. They also had a bunch of displays set up, but they had to cut them last minute because of Qatar's guidelines. The Qatar infrastructure wasn't ready for this either. Since it is such a small country, they did not have enough workers, so they had migrant workers. They had to build 7 huge stadiums in a short period of time.

This was dangerous work. Thousands of workers were estimated to have died in the building of these stadiums. Not to mention the hotels the workers stayed in were in terrible conditions. The water was green and the walls were peeling. Also the workers were paid little to nothing for leaving their family for multiple years and a risk of leaving their family there was no reason to work. Other than to feed their families. So Qatar was forcing these poor workers to build these stadiums for them just for small amounts of cash. It just sounds wrong.

These workers also had to build hotels for the 10,000 people expected to watch these games. Qatar is also extremely hot. That is why it was played in the winter season. Even the president of FIFA said, “It was a bad choice. And I was responsible for that as president at the time.”

But the cup went pretty smoothly. There may have been problems before it but it all turned out good. As expected Argentia pulled out a win in the finals against France. It was a crazy game but Argentina put in more effort and won in the penalty shootout. Young Mbappe scored a hat trick but it wasn't enough for his team to get the win. Everyone (except France) wanted to see Messi come out with the only thing he needs for his trophy box, a world cup trophy. In 2026 the World Cup will be held in Mexico, Canada and the USA. There is even a game in Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. So that's what you need to know about the Qatar World Cup.