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The 100th Monkey Experiment

By Teja Wolfe 

The 100th Monkey Experiment is something that has been debated for years. Whether people think it is inaccurate or cannot believe it happened. It goes like this: scientists studied monkeys in 1952 on a Japanese island. Many islands had monkeys on them, and the scientists gave the monkeys on all the islands a pile of sweet potatoes in the sand every day. The monkeys loved the sweet potatoes but hated the sand that was on the potatoes. On the main island, there were 100 monkeys (100th Monkey).

One day, a baby monkey on the main island learned to wash her potatoes in salt water. She taught it to her parents, but they did not care. However, after a few days, almost all the monkeys on the island came and washed their potatoes in the salt water. All 100 monkeys on the main island washed their potatoes and loved their taste without the sand. After every single Monkey on that island learned how to wash their potatoes, something strange happened on the other islands. On every single other island, monkeys all over Japan started washing their potatoes, even though they had no idea how to do it the day before (100th Monkey). 

Many people think the monkeys on the other island were a part of the critical mass theory. This means that once a certain amount of the population learns something, the rest will subconsciously know how to do that. In this case, 100 monkeys learned how to wash their potatoes in the water, and then the monkeys on the other islands automatically learned how to wash their potatoes (99th Monkey). 

However, we need to determine if this theory is valid and if the 100-monkey experiment happened. 

The Placebo Effect 

By Teja Wolfe 

The placebo effect is an experiment conducted where scientists gave patients fake pills. The pills would not affect the patient's body, but for some reason, almost all the patients said that they felt improved and better because of them. This is called the placebo effect. 

The fake pill or drug depends on what problem the patient is facing. Some scientists give sugar pills and saline injections. In contrast, other scientists go as far as faking surgery. The one thing they all have in common is that they cannot improve any illness or problem. The fascinating thing is that patients often report improvements in symptoms and mood.

This experiment is based on the belief that the "medicine" will work rather than the ingredients inside of it. Scientists do not know why this is happening, but they have some theories. One theory is that the patient's interpretation of the symptoms could change because they expect to feel better. For example, they can interpret a sharp pain as an uncomfortable sting instead (Better Health). However, it is easy to confuse pain with uncomfortability.

Could belief in a treatment be enough to change the course of a person's illness? From what the placebo effect shows us, yes, it can.  

Top 4 Absurd Conspiracy Theories

By Andrew Azizollahi

1. Nigeria's King is a clone.

Conspiracy theories say 75-year-old Muhammadu Buhari has been cloned or even replaced. People believe this because Muhammadu Buhari has gotten ill in the past year, and it is believed he has died and was replaced with a clone. There is no evidence that he has died and been replaced. It is almost as if you were to say that Joe Biden died and was replaced with a clone because he was old. It does not even make sense if this were to happen because he still has two sons to take over if he were to die.

2. Is our water supply poisoned with a neurotoxin?

This theory is about how a significant portion of the US is fluoridated, which helps keep our teeth strong and white. Conspiracy theorists claim a legitimate scientific study found fluoride to be a "neurotoxin." However, there is no proof that fluoride is in our water supplies.

3. An anti-gun lobby staged the Parkland school shooting.

Tragically, the Parkland school shooting was a mass school shooting, with over 16 people dying and 17 people injured. Essentially, people sadly believe that the school shooting was staged or faked by influential people to boost support for gun control. This theory emerged less than an hour after the shooting took place.

4. Wait, Earth is flat?

This has been a debate for hundreds and hundreds of years. This debate is not a thing, but some people genuinely believe the Earth is flat. Many people believe that the US government stages the pictures we have from space on Earth. Many of us know this, but the Earth is not flat. If you can watch a ship sail off to sea, watch its mast and flag as they fade. It does not "fade off into the distance"; its mast and flag appear to sink slowly.

Source:

https://www.rd.com

The Hidden Benefits of School

By Philip Lee

Please understand that the education system needs to be fixed, and it is reasonable to say that school is boring or useless. Teachers sometimes say that middle school is essential and will affect us down the line. We all know that is talk, and it is not valid. A college will not reject someone because they missed a class in middle school. Then why pay attention? If grades do not matter, what is the point? The point is everything else. 

School is beneficial to building habits. The early stages of our lives are crucial to building the rest of our lives. You unknowingly build habits that'll affect the rest of your life by doing homework, studying for a test, doing projects, and paying attention in class.

 School enforces better worth ethic. Being forced to study, learn, or whatever builds a work ethic. Someone who never studies, on average, has a worse work ethic. That will not go over too well when that person is an adult and cannot do their work.

 Many skills can be made in a school environment. A significant complaint about a school, especially math, is that we will never use what we learn in class in "real life." This point falls flat when you realize statisticians, mathematicians, engineers, physicists, astrophysicists, and hundreds of other jobs use math. But ignore that. For the sake of argument, let us say that no jobs ever use math. What is the point of learning math? Well, next to nothing. It is really what you are learning by learning that is important. Learning teaches you to learn better. Let me give you an example. In 7th-grade honors math, slope and slope-intercept form is taught. In Honors Algebra in 8th grade, piecewise functions are taught, which use slope-intercept form. Would it be easier to learn them like this, or all at once? Learning something beforehand makes it easier to learn something in the future.

 Nevertheless, think about it. What do you need to improve with repeated training and practice? I can assure you that learning is not on that list.

5 Richest People in the World

By Andrew Azizollahi and Eli Yaghoubi

1. Elon Musk Elon Musk was born in South Africa. He also has a net worth of 244.4 billion. He went to a university in Canada before attending the University of Pennsylvania. At the University of Pennsylvania, he studied physics and economics. Then, when he went to a graduate physics class at Stanford University, he found X.com, which ultimately became Paypal, after only two days of studying there. In 2004, he joined Tesla and later became its CEO. The money he made from Tesla turned him into a billionaire.

2. Bernard Arnold Bernald Arnold was born in Roubaix, France, and has a net worth of 186.6 billion. Bernard Arnold started the business when he joined his father's construction firm, Ferret-Savinel, and took charge of the company in 1971. He converted Ferret-Savinel to a real estate company named Férinel Inc. in 1979. Most of Arnold's net worth comes from designer companies such as LVMH brands, including Louis Vuitton, Hennessey, Marc Jacobs, and Sephora.

3. Jeff Bezos Jeff Bezos has a net worth of 169 billion dollars. Jeff Bezos started by working for D.E Shaw after he left D.E Shaw's company because he refused Jeff's idea of making an online bookstore. Then, working out of his garage in Seattle with a friend, he founded an online bookstore that later became Amazon. Nowadays, amazon is a million-dollar company and an all-stop shop. Also, many people sometimes think that Amazon puts most bookstores out of business. It is hard to believe now that a bookstore has become one of the most famous on the planet. 

4. Bill Gates Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, and has a net worth of $133 billion. While Gates attended Harvard University in 1975, he worked with his childhood friend Paul Allen to develop new software for the original microcomputers. The project was successful, and I later dropped out of Harvard to found Microsoft. Gates has much of his net worth from Cascade Investment LLC. Cascade owns a variety of stocks, including the Canadian National Railway (CNR), Deere (DE), and Republic Services (RSG).

5. Larry Ellison Larry Ellison was born in New York City, New Y, and has a net worth of 129 billion dollars. He went to the University of Chicago and then dropped out in 1966. In 1973, he decided to become a computer programmer. Then, he moved to California, where he met his future business partners, Ed Oates and Bob Miner. In 1977, he established the technology company Oracle with Ed Oates and Bob Miner. In 2018, he left Oracle to become one of Tesla's board of directors. He retired in 2022

Source: https://www.investopedia.com/

The Mandela Effect

By Teja Wolfe 

The Mandela Effect has boggled minds for many years. The term was first coined by Fiona Broome in 2009 when she thought Nelson Mandela had died in jail in 1990. He was released from jail and lived until 2013. Many people across the world were confused because they all thought that Nelson Mandela died in jail (CNN). Many scientists need clarification about how this can happen. This opened the door to many other events remembered wrong by a big part of the human population. 

One example of the Mandela Effect is from Snow White. Everyone remembers the evil queen saying, "Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all." Instead, the evil queen says, "Magic Mirror on the wall" (CNN). Many people remember a famous line from their childhood wrong, and some think it is unbelievable. 

Another famous Mandela Effect is about the Loony Tunes. Many people remember their favorite childhood show, the Looney Tunes, but they remember the misspelled title. The actual spelling of the title is Loony Tunes, but many people remember and prefer it as Loony Toons (CNN).

Another childhood show that can be misremembered is Curious George, the monkey. Many people think he has a long tail, but he has a short nub as a tail (Good Home). He hangs from a tree using his legs, not his tail.

However, another movie that we all remember wrongly was Star Wars. The famous C-3PO was made out of all gold, but one of his right legs was silver. At the same time, one of the most famous movie lines ever was misremembered when talking about Star Wars. Whether people have watched the whole Star Wars series or just heard the line repeated over and over again, the line, "Luke, I am your father," is actually, "No, I am your father" (Good Home).

People have many theories on the Mandela Effect, and one is that we traveled to a parallel universe. The theory goes that every time many of the human race experience the Mandela Effect, we somehow travel into another universe; this is just a theory and is most likely not genuine. Another reason the Mandela Effect can happen is that our memories get mixed up. For example, the Monopoly Man never had a monocle, but Mr. Peanut did. We could have just mixed up memories into thinking the Monopoly Man had a monocle. The good news is that the Mandela effect can always spark exciting conversations and ways to look at the world. 

The Wonders of Lucid Dreaming

By Teja Wolfe

When lucid dreaming occurs, someone realizes that they are in their dream. This makes it possible for them to control what happens when they dream. They can live out their goals of flying or go on adventures that are personalized to them. 

Lucid dreaming occurs when you are in the REM sleep stage of the sleep cycle. This is the stage when a person has dreams. Someone typically reaches the REM sleep cycle after 60-90 minutes (National Institute of Health). During the person's dream, they will somehow realize that they are dreaming, which is when lucid dreaming begins.

No one knows why lucid dreaming would occur naturally. Some people think it is because the prefrontal cortex is more developed in some people. Others believe that lucid dreaming is when you are in between being awake and being asleep (Webmd.com). 

There are benefits and downsides to lucid dreaming. According to Webmd, some benefits are improved problem-solving and more creativity. In dreams, it will most likely be a problem that must be fixed. When lucid dreaming, you can test out many different ways to solve it. If it does not work the first time, could you rewind the time in the dream and try again?

Another thing lucid dreaming can help with is creativity. In a lucid dream, you can do anything your brain can imagine, so it would help develop good creativity. According to WebMD, a downside of lucid dreaming is sleep deprivation. When a lucid dream occurs, people might focus on it so much that they will not go to the other sleep cycle stages. They will not get any deep sleep to help their brain process information. There is also a chance that people can get a lucid nightmare. When you dream and constantly think about things that can go wrong, they will happen. This can make it hard to fall back asleep, making you get a stormy night's sleep. 

There are many ways to get a lucid dream, even though they only happen once every couple of months for most people. One way you can make a lucid dream is if you sleep for five hours, wake up for a short amount of time, and then fall back asleep (Webmd). Another way is to keep a dream diary, which can make someone more aware of their subconscious and your dreams. This can increase the chances of having lucid dreams. 

Is Golden Blood a Thing?

By Donovan Bell and Jian Jung 

There are eight types of blood—a, B, O, and AB. However, there is one special blood that only 43 people have. The golden blood. What is golden blood? You ask. Well, if you want to know, read on! Golden blood is an exciting topic. It is a light yellow blood that is extremely rare. Read on to see more!

Golden blood is a scarce blood that is light yellow. It is sporadic, and only 43 people in the world have it. Golden blood was a genetic mutation. (A genetic mutation is a spontaneous change in a gene) It is seen with mutations of the RHAG gene, which codes to the RH- RH-associated glycoprotein. The glycoprotein is needed to direct the RH antigens to the RBC membrane. MedicineNet.

People with the golden blood group are known to have a disease called hereditary stomatocytosis because of a mutation in the RHAG gene. This disease can cause their red blood cells to break down faster. Another thing is that they have mild, chronic hemolytic anemia. The RHAG gene is also crucial for making the Rh antigens on the red blood cell membrane.

Golden blood is a scarce and exciting blood type. This was a fascinating topic, and I hope you enjoyed this article! All in all, The Golden Blood is an exciting and cool topic. 

Source: 

https://www.medicinenet.com

Jobs that Earn You the Most Money

By Jian Jung

Anesthesiologists evaluate, monitor, and supervise patient care before, during, and after surgery, delivering anesthesia, leading the Anesthesia Care Team, and ensuring optimal patient safety. 

Software developers: analyze users' needs and then design and develop software to meet those needs.

Actuaries: are responsible for compiling and analyzing statistics and are usually required to have a degree in mathematics, statistics, or computer science.

Surgeons: operate on patients to treat injuries, such as broken bones; diseases, such as cancerous tumors; and deformities, such as cleft palates. 

Cardiologists: diagnose, treat, manage, and prevent diseases or conditions of the cardiovascular system.

Dermatologist: a medical doctor who specializes in conditions that affect the skin, hair, and nails. 

Emergency Medicine Physician: a physician who specializes in emergency medicine and focuses on the immediate decision-making and action necessary to prevent death or any further disability, both in the pre-hospital setting and in the emergency department.

Obstetricians: are trained to provide medical care during pregnancy (antenatal care), labor, and birth, as well as after birth (postnatal care).

Gynecologist: a physician specializing in diagnosing and treating female reproductive system diseases.

Radiologists: are medical doctors who specialize in diagnosing and treating injuries and diseases using medical imaging (radiology) procedures (exams or tests) such as X-rays, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography (PET), and ultrasound.

Sources 

American Society of Anesthesiologists,

American Academy of Dermatology

CNB.com

Bureau of Statistics.com

Bureau of Labor Statistics.com

American Board of Emergency Medicine pregnancybirthbaby.org

clevelandclinic.org

Top 5 Grossest Bugs

By Andrew Azizollahi and Jian Jung

Calistoga Spiders are nocturnal and rarely venture out during the day. They look like tarantulas but are smaller. Fortunately, they are not poisonous.

Spittlebugs are bugs that resemble frogs, and they are rarely over 13mm.

Devil’s Coach Horse Beetle  is from Europe, but has recently come to America. It hunts at night but usually only on the wing. This insect likes to feast on bugs such as worms, woodlice, and carrion.

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly looks like a creature from a lava pool. People call it “Darth Crawl” because it looks like Darth Maul. Also, it has creepy red sprouts sticking out of its body.

Jerusalem crickets are giant, wingless insects with orange heads. They have solid and heavy spines, which are suitable for digging. Their abdomen consists of black and white stripes.

How to Earn A’s 

By Eli Yaghoubi

Have you ever wanted to get an A in a class? Well, today is your lucky day. I will explain five basic ways to get A’s in your classes. 

1. Study! I like the Pomodoro method. In this method, you study for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. Then you do it again and take a 5-minute break. After two sessions, you take a 15-minute break. This allows you to get stuff done but still have fun. 

2. Show up to class. Some students need to realize how vital class time is, but class time is when you learn how to do the topics your class is learning. For example, when I spent time in class to learn about Mesopotamia, I got the topic a lot easier than the people who were not there.

3. Do you have Classwork/Homework? The work you do in class affects your grade by up to 40% in some classes, and doing this can change your grade from 70% to 85%. Also, these assignments are often given help, so it is easier to get an A.

4. Ask your teachers if you need help. Do you need help understanding the topics your teachers teach? Feel free to ask for help; if you are embarrassed, know that many others do it too. Teachers are always there to help; you only have to ask them.

5. Stay neat and organized. This one is adamant for me, but I am trying my best. Ms. Carver is good at this and teaches her students about it. If you are unsure how to keep organized and take notes, please ask any student in Ms. Carver’s classes for help. 

All in all, these are five ways of getting A’s in your classes at BVMS. Feel free to try them out and let me know how you do. 

How to Play an Alto Saxophone Part 1: Holding and Playing a Sound

By Eli Yaghoubi

Do you want to learn how to play a relatively easy instrument? Well, the alto saxophone is for you. In this article, you will learn how to make a great sound on an alto saxophone and be able to play notes. This will only take a few simple steps, so be ready! Typically, holding a saxophone and learning how to make a sound is the first step to having fun! 

Holding the saxophone:

To hold the saxophone, put your left thumb in the thumb holder near the bottom of the saxophone. After that, put the three fingers 1 2 3 (pointer finger, middle finger, ring finger) on the right hand on the right-hand finger pads. Put your right pinkie finger in the right pinky finger holder. For the left hand, put your left thumb on the octave pad right next to the octave key. Moreover, put your right 1, 2, 3 (pointer finger, middle finger, ring finger) on the big finger pads with your pinky finger on the pinky pad.

Making a sound:

To make a sound, put your mouth on the mouthpiece about halfway into the thin part of the mouthpiece. While your lower lip is curling over your bottom teeth, close your top teeth before putting them on the plastic part of the mouthpiece. Then, it would help if you put your upper lips up to cover the front of your upper teeth. While blowing, make sure your cheeks do not puff out. Many beginning players blow the alto saxophone by puffing out their cheeks. This does not work and will make you look funny.

The saxophone is an impressive instrument that makes a beautiful sound. You may visit Mr. Pak’s room during lunch or nutrition if you want to learn more about playing the saxophone. 

How to Become Rich 

By Jian Jung 

Let us start with your job. What job do you have?  How much money do you earn a year? For a typical person living in Los Angeles, a modest salary should be about 60,000 dollars a year. If you work for a company, a recommendation is to start a business as soon as possible. I don’t know what business you’ll start, but it can become a money-making machine if you start it right. Who knew Elon Musk would become so rich from Tesla?

First, my first tip for you to make a lot of money from your business is to read books about investing and business. One book that you should read is Gino Wickman’s “Traction: Get a grip on your business.” It is very highly sought after, for it helps you start and maintain a business. 

Second, Invest in other companies. For example, you should invest in Boeing, CSX, and Five Below. (According to November 9th, 2023) Right now, their stocks are very high. So it is recommended that you invest in those companies.

Third, find great clients. Try to find well-paying clients if you do a business besides grocery or bookstore. If you are starting a law firm, you can find rich clients (but you also need to find good attorneys). All in all, all that it takes to make a good business is good clients, good money, and a good book.

How To Be Successful In Life

By Donovan Bell

How would someone describe success? Would it be from a big paycheck, living in a clean house, or marrying the prettiest girl in town? Well, there are better terms for success than those. Building a business from scratch requires talent and a love for doing that. It is not about things; it is about the opportunity to have the ability to uncover your dream. One simple rule to ensure success is to be passionate. If you do not love doing what you are doing, then why do it? If we build careers we do not love, we waste our time on something we do not enjoy. Work Hard. Refrain from trickling yourself into thinking something is easy while doing lazy work. Success builds up from hard work and passion. During that hard work stage, you might tire of doing the heavy lifting, but if you do, hard work indeed pays off. Focus. Focus is essential when it comes to Success; focusing provides more knowledge depending on what you are trying to be successful at; an example of something that gives you more knowledge while focusing could be being a defendant. A defendant must read the case file, ensuring every detail is stored inside his brain for his next case. As Richard Branson said, "Far too many people do not excel in life because they are too afraid of taking the necessary steps to achieve their dreams. Some manifest fear as a safeguard from failure; others do not even try, believing that limits restrict them; while too many get caught up in the status quo."

Source: ce.uci.edu