The Greatest Animated Movie of All Time: The Prince of Egypt

On my most recent viewing of this film, it finally hit me. The Prince of Egypt might actually be the best animated film ever made. This spectacular yet relatively unknown masterpiece has accumulated a well-deserved reputation as one of the finest movies to be produced during the renaissance era of animated cinema. It’s honestly impossible to do such an unexpected work of genius justice with words, but I’ll try.

This is the only movie I’ve ever seen that feels like a completely uncompromised vision. A movie that tells the exact story it wants to tell without any executive interference. There’s a large celebrity voice cast and there’s some comedic relief, yet neither of these detract from such a profound and sufficiently mature retelling of the Biblical story of Moses. Nothing is sugarcoated, nothing is dumbed-down or softened. It really is the best possible adaptation of this story. This movie uses the rich language of cinema to convey ideas and themes just through the visuals alone. It’s tremendously sincere for a movie intended for younger audiences.

The songs range from great to phenomenal, with not a single bad track to be found. They contribute so much to the size and scope of the story, taking full advantage of the medium of animation in the process. The music, done by none other than Stephen Schwartz and Hans Zimmer, is magnificent and humbling, making you feel small in the overwhelming presences of monuments, plagues, and miracles.

The characters are fantastic, with the growing rift between Moses and Ramses coming across as so heartbreakingly genuine. The sequences and set pieces this movie shows us, from Passover to the parting of the Red Sea and everything in between, do such an amazing job of immersing us in this grand, tragic, and profoundly human story. Even the smallest of objects are beautifully textured, to the point that it almost feels like you are walking alongside the characters, feeling with them the burning ground under your feet and the dust being blown into your face from the harsh desert winds. In contrast, the largest objects are gargantuan in size, making you feel inconsequential in front of the utter massivity of ancient Egypt. This sheer scale paired with the grandness of the score makes for a viewing experience unlike any other movie I’ve ever seen, both animated and live-action.

However, it is not the sequences, set pieces, or music that makes this film what it is; it’s the characters.

The characters in The Prince of Egypt are what truly set this movie apart from anything else. Each and every single one is beautifully fleshed out, with their interactions and conflicts elevating them to the next level. The sharp contrast in ideals between the high priests of Egypt and the Kenites are just one of many instances of symmetry in this film. The priests view miracles as being big and flashy, using literal smoke and mirrors to mask hollow shows reminiscent of magic tricks at a child’s birthday party. On the other hand, the Kenites see everything as miraculous, from the gift of life to the air that we breathe. All that is in the world is a miracle to the Kenites because they choose to see it as such, or as they call it in their song, to “look at your life through heaven’s eyes”. The casting for this film is wonderful. Every single word is masterfully acted by names including Sandra Bullock (Miriam), Michelle Pfieffer (Zipporah), and Val Kilmer (Moses and God). You see what they did with Kilmer? I think there’s something majestic about the message that the creators of this movie send with this casting decision, conveying the belief that God is present within each and every one of us as the voice inside our hearts.

I think it’s fairly evident at this point that there will never be another animated film quite on the same level as the Prince of Egypt. This masterful retelling of the Moses story endures as a cult classic due to its divine soundtrack, striking animation, and rich characters. Nowhere is this richness more evident than with Ramses. As Moses's brother, the two quarrel fairly often yet always find a way to reconcile in the end. But when Moses comes to terms with the horrifying actions of his family, actions that he never quite considered the repercussions of, he leaves his brother and home behind. And while Moses is able to become a noble man by fleeing his home, Ramses instead follows in his father's footsteps and makes everything worse for the enslaved Jewish people. Rameses has had a chip on his shoulder ever since his father chastised him for potentially being the “weak link” in the dynasty, and Rameses has worked every day since then to ensure that his father's legacy of slavery and bloodshed is carried out, even long after his father is gone. So when Moses finally returns and asks for the Hebrews to be set free, Rameses becomes the ruthless villain he had always been groomed to be. Ralph Fiennes sells every single line, whether it be one of intense anger or profound sadness. The conflict between him and his brother is raw and genuine, and you're constantly hoping for Moses to change his heart even though you know that's not how the story goes. In the end, Rameses is left with nothing. And in spite of how evil he is, you can't help but feel painfully bad for him. He didn't need to become this monster; he could have walked the same path as Moses if he had only chosen to. Maybe God left him alive as an act of divine mercy, for him to reflect on his life and how he should change. Or maybe God simply left him alive for Moses’s sake, since Moses had always held hope that his brother was not truly gone. Either way, Ramses stands out as perhaps the most well-written, exceptionally compelling, absolutely unforgettable antagonist in all of animated cinema.

Yet through all of this, the true miracle of this movie is how accesible it is to people of all faiths. I’ve seen so many people say that they adore this movie, despite being atheist. And as a Muslim whose Quranic belief of the Moses story differs in numerous ways from the tale told in the Book of Exodus, its absolutely wonderful to see a movie tell the Biblical version of a fundamentally Abrahamic story with such respect, finesse, and faithfulness to the core of what made the original story so impactful.

There’s so much to be said about this film, and I could never say it all. The Prince of Egypt is easily the greatest Dreamworks movie of all time. It isn’t even close. Nothing will ever top this bold, risky, beautifully animated, artistically driven Magnum Opus of an amazing studio.

TomatoDial Rating: 100%

There are age restrictions on a lot of things from drinking alcoholic beverages to legally owning a gun and I'm here to say why these restrictions matter and if they need to be reduced or increase these restrictions. In most places, you have to be 15-16 to get your driving permit and 17-18 to fully obtain your license. This is because you have to have self-control and maturity to handle driving a car and not crashing. The brain isn't fully developed at age 16, but you have the needed development to be able to handle driving.

Drinking underage is a serious crime. If you get caught drinking underage (under 21 years old in the U.S), you will be given community service and if you own a driver's license, or your right to apply for one, will be suspended for one year. The legal trouble shouldn't be the only thing you think about if you plan to drink underage. Alcohol can impact your attention span, reaction time, and memory. It will also affect areas of your brain with your emotions and judgment, and if your liver tries to break down alcohol it can damage your cells and lead to damage within the liver.

Smoking tobacco products underage can lead to many health problems such as an increase in respiratory illness which includes asthma and lung cancer and other health risks. Smoking underage can lead to a severe nicotine addiction which in their later days will most likely die of addiction. Being caught smoking under the age of 21 a fine will be given no less the $250 but no more than $100

Owning a gun. You have to be 21 years of age to legally own a gun and have a gun license owning a gun the legal punishment is one year imprisoned or $6250. Now, the legal punishments aren't the big problem with having a gun underage the problem is what you can do with a gun. In the U.S, there are very high school shooting rates and some of them are underage and ruin the rest of their life with a single decision because they made a single choice while their brain isn't fully developed to stop them.

In conclusion, most of these age restrictions are put in place for a reason and if you choose or think to do any of these ,you shouldn't just be concerned about the legal punishment. You should be worried about what happens to you, your body, or anybody else. You probably noticed the number of times I mentioned the brain not being fully developed that's because the brain isn't fully developed until age 25 and honestly I believe that most of these restrictions should be increased.

When you think about the world and what is making headlines in the news, you may realize that you disagree with certain things or feel strongly about certain topics. It is important to know that you are never too young to have your voice heard. I think you should always speak out when you see something that is obviously wrong, such as when people, animals, or the environment are treated badly. One way of speaking out is to protest.

Protesting is making a stand for what you believe in. There are a lot of different ways to protest . You can join marches, rallies or walk outs. You can boycott companies by not buying their products. You can sign petitions. You can make signs or banners and display them at your home, workplace, or on your clothing. These are all types of peaceful protests. According to University of Pennsylvania professor Daniel Gillion, “non violent protest brings awareness to an issue.” And, according to a political scientist Erica Chenoweth, “non violent protesters get more public support and less reaction from the state.” So I think it's important that if you do protest, that you protest without violence or property destruction.

If you feel strongly about something, make a difference by using your voice and your power.

Stand up for the truth podcast quotes:

“If you are silent about your beliefs because you are worried someone will be offended then your beliefs are not that important to you, but rather what people think about you is.”

“When you stand up for what's right and true you will receive both hate and love but everyone will know what youre fighting for.”

Why Zoos Should be Banned - Reece Igarta

Imagine this: you are sitting in your house living your life, when an alien-like species barges into your home, abducts you, and puts you to sleep. When you wake up, you instantly realize hundreds of the same alien-like species are staring and pointing at you. This is precisely what many animals experience when captured by zoos. Before I go rambling on about how zoos are bad and all, let us start with some basic history. Zoos have existed in some form since at least 2500 BCE in Egypt and Mesopotamia (That means animals have been in captivity for more than 4,523 years!). Zoos then evolved into contemporary zoos, inspired by 19th-century European zoos. In 1907 a German exotic animal importer introduced the modern model of more natural habitats for animals instead of bland cages. This was a noticeable step up from the zoos' dungeon-like cells, but this still does not consider the variety of needs animals require to stay healthy.

On the topic of animal health, according to ProCon.org, “A study of 35 species of carnivores, including brown bears, cheetahs, and lions, found that zoo enclosures were too small for the animals to carry out their normal routines, which led to problems such as pacing and more infant deaths." Diseases are also a dominant problem for animals in zoo captivity. For example, about 70% of adult male gorillas in North America have heart disease, the leading cause of death among gorillas in captivity, yet the condition is almost absent in the wild.

Physical problems are not the only issues zoo animals experience. Many animals also suffer from mental problems that aren’t seen in the wild, such as clinical depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Animals' behaviors change drastically when they live a life in a zoo. According to ProCon.org, “A study of captive chimpanzees found that abnormal behavior is endemic in the population, and includes behaviors such as eating feces, twitching, rocking back and forth, plucking hair, pacing, vomiting, and self-mutilation, among others.”

Remember when I asked you to picture being abducted and put in a glass cage? If so, I want you to go back to the same scenario this time and start having some of the same problems many zoo animals have to deal with. Imagine having to live with these struggles and having to see generation after generation suffer from issues that could be prevented.

Now that you have officially made it to the end of my article, I hope that you fill out the form below and give us feedback on who persuaded you more. (Vote for me)

Why Zoos Should Not be Banned - Bryce Montz

Zoos. The place for saving animals. There is no doubt that many people go to zoos for entertainment and to spend time with family and friends, but are zoos beneficial? The short answer is yes, zoos are valuable. The primary reasons for this are that zoos are educational and can save species from extinction.

One main reason that zoos are an overall benefit is that they can educate the public about animals and conservation efforts. In the US, there are currently 241 zoos, which bring in over 181 million visitors each year. On top of this, some zoos have summer camps that help educate children about both what goes on in zoos as well as information about the animals. According to Robin Ganzert, who is the President and CEO of American Humane and has a PhD., “zoos provide people, especially impressionable children, with the opportunity to see these remarkable animals up close. People won’t protect what they don’t love, and they can’t love what they don’t know. No matter how closely programs like Planet Earth depict animals, nothing will match the bond of seeing them in real life. Just look at a child’s eyes at the zoo when he or she encounters a tiger or similarly majestic animal.”

Zoos are also very beneficial to animals; scientists are able to attempt to save them from extinction. Many animal populations such as the California condor, Przewalski’s horses, and American red wolves have been significantly increased through zoos. One major example is that there were 12 Przewalski’s horses in the 1960s. Now, there are over 3,200 thanks to zoos, 800 of which were reintroduced to the wild. Also, zoos are not all about taking animals from the wild. Many zoos help animals breed but don’t have to take many animals from the wild. This especially helps animals that are endangered because it allows the species to repopulate if there are simply two of the species.

Some people may argue that zoos’ enclosures are too small for the animals or that the animals can have mental problems from being in zoos. However, that’s not enough for zoos to be banned in my opinion. I’m not saying that zoos are perfect, but they should not be banned. Zoos should be changed to give more space and care to animals. In the end, zoos should not be banned, but they should be changed to be even more beneficial to animals.

One day in May changed everything for these Brazilian citizens, their way of life, their family, and their homes.

What was the cause of this? This was caused by heavy rainfall which led to the streets of Brazil turning into rivers of rainwater. This flood also led to many major landslides and nine inches of rain on the streets. Experts say that Brazil has gotten more rain in a 24-hour period over the weekend than it has for the total volume expected from the month of May. Due to the cause of this tragedy, hundreds of people are dead and many more are displaced with no home. Children from ages 0 to 18 have died, or are orphans because this horrible flood killed their guardians.

Many homes and roads are now fully submerged underwater. Over 3500 people have been displaced. The death toll has continued to increase. This flood has caught many off guard and many think that the water is contaminated and all the fish are dead. The President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro flew over the area. Rescue workers have found more than 30 bodies buried in the mud and they expect to find even more. This Horrible disaster is the 4th major flooding disaster in Brazil. The Climate Crisis is making extreme weather more common globally. Luckily many people from the other states in Brazil have helped by sending rescue teams into Pernambuco.

In conclusion, parts of Brazil are sadly still submerged and people are still grieving the loss of their loved ones. Many other states are still helping by sending supplies, rescue teams, and food and water.

In early May of 2022, a source leaked a draft opinion that indicates that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe V. Wade. Roe V. Wade is a law that protects women's right to an abortion. From this leaked draft, we can see that if this law was introduced in the Supreme Court, they would overturn it. If they overturned it, abortion would likely become illegal in 22 states. I don’t think they should overturn this law because it will cause more women to get unsafe abortions and it will not allow women to get safe abortions after getting raped or sexually assaulted.

In 1970,- Jane Roe filed a lawsuit challenging a law that made abortion in Texas illegal unless it's to save a women's life. She had been pregnant twice and put up her children for adoption both times. Now she was pregnant again, with an unwanted child, and wanted to have an abortion, but Texas law forbade her from having one. Her lawsuit went to the Supreme Court where the court voted 7-2 and Roe V. Wade was born. It states that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.

According to NewsNation, At least 22,800 women die each year from unsafe abortions. If the court overturns Roe V. Wade, this number would go up significantly. With Roe V. Wade, women have access to safe abortions that are performed by professionals. Without it, there are likely to be more illegal abortions, resulting in more deaths. Without Roe V. Wade, there aren't likely going to be fewer abortions, just fewer safe ones.

Another reason the Supreme Court should not overturn Roe V. Wade is because without it, women who got raped or sexually assaulted don't have access to safe abortions. According to NSVRC, one in five women in the United States experienced completed or attempted rape during their lifetime. Rape involves no consent, so women are being impregnated without their say. It is unfair to not allow victims of sexual assault or rape to get a safe abortion.

Overall, I think Roe V. Wade is an important law and it should not be overturned. According to NewsNation, the CDC states that carrying a pregnancy to full term is 33 times more dangerous than having an abortion. It is the woman's choice to decide if they want to have the baby or not, and their choice should not be made for them. They should have the right to choose what they do with their body.

Ignorance, hate, popularity. These are all reasons why cultural appropriation is still frequently occurring to this day. "In the case of cultural appropriation, it is an exchange that happens when a dominant group takes or "borrows" something from a minority group that has historically been exploited or oppressed," (Cuncic, 2022).

Ignorance

While there may be no malicious intent behind the action, simply incorporating something into your life without understanding or acknowledging what it means can be offensive and considered cultural appropriation. At the end of the day, even if you didn't know, what matters is the other person's opinion, and if they're offended, you have to respect that and take it into account for the future. An example could be if a white person were to wear dreadlocks or braids (cornrows), a hairstyle commonly worn by and originated from the black community. Historically, these hairstyles were used to signify one's identity like tribe, wealth, religion, etc. When forced to migrate to the U.S. as slaves, their hair was cut off, essentially stripping them of their identity and relations. Also, these hairstyles were seen as unprofessional and not accepted; black people were often criticized or harassed for having them and sometimes denied opportunities. Yet if a white person were to wear them, they would be considered popular and stylish. It should also be taken into account that these hairstyles were made for very coily and textured hair to prevent breakage and moisture loss. So, while these hairstyles are beautiful, it needs to be acknowledged that they are a protective style, not just a trend.

Considering the oppressive history behind braids, some people feel this use of their culture is unjust and therefore have the right to speak out about this. On the other hand, many people in the black community are actually very accepting of the idea as they see it as cultural appreciation with no malicious intent and want to move forward. "But in 25 years, I would hope that my kid's not uncomfortable — because that white guy wouldn't mean it in a demeaning, degrading way. He would mean it as a positive thing," (Ghasri, 2019). There will always be mixed feelings. Everyone is inclined to their opinions on the issue, and they should not be forced on others. This isn't saying that you shouldn't care if it doesn't involve you or your culture, but you shouldn't take offense if it's not related to the oppression of your culture. You can, however, see the act as offensive; there's a clear difference. Keep in mind just because something is offensive doesn't mean you get to act aggressively or rudely in return. You can always explain why you find it offensive, but if you're talking about someone else's culture, you have no idea how that person feels and can't speak for them. Don't put someone else down just so you can say you stopped cultural appropriation; you didn't. Educating someone is the answer to ignorance, but this issue goes beyond that as it stems from a lack of awareness, respect, and understanding, so those things should always be kept in mind when dealing with this issue.

Hate

Unfortunately, cultural appropriation sometimes comes with hateful and racist intentions even today. An example of this would be specific sports team mascots and names. Certain teams like the Chicago Blackhawks, Cleveland Indians, and the Washington Redskins, all have Native American mascots that imitate a "warrior." They inaccurately use headdresses, war paint, tomahawks, feathers, and tribal dances. All these things were a huge part of Native American culture, and imitating culture like this, creates a stereotypical image for the rest of the world. As minorities face long histories of oppression, it can be challenging to break these stereotypes and correct them with your voice constantly being downplayed or not believed. Hate isn't something that just goes away; it is a constant struggle to keep standing up for oneself without using hate in return.

Popularity

Do not conform. Stand up for yourself and your voice; this can apply to anyone. Don't just go along with something because of peer pressure or the want to fit in. Whatever you do and whatever side you take, don't just do it for someone else. Understand yourself and what you're doing to form your own opinion. If you like something, learn about it and appreciate it. "When I was seven, I was desperate to own a sari. Having seen women looking absolutely stunning in the delicately made, vibrant garments - I was transfixed. I did not intend to appropriate Indian culture. I just wanted to share in the beauty and reflect women I saw as strong and creative," (Miller-Lewis, 2018). We need to move from cultural appropriation to cultural appreciation.

Cultural appropriation is not an opinion it's a fact. Some may argue it's just someone's opinion and feeling of being offended, but imagine someone taking something that belongs to you and using it without your permission. In that case, the owner is allowed a say that goes beyond opinion. This is the same for cultural appropriation; someone's culture belongs to them, and they have a right to be offended if someone uses it in an ignorant or hateful way. It's not gatekeeping or being soft, and we need to stop using these terms in shaming people; this generation is constantly learning and accepting new things we are moving forward together. This is the result of taking pride in one's own culture and respecting yourself and others for that. It's not going soft; it's becoming respectful, aware, and understanding which is the cause of many issues in the U.S., and spreading awareness is the best way to do this.

What is Pride Month?

Pride month didn't just start in the early 2000s, it goes way back to the 1960s. Pride month isn't just about celebrating how you express yourself it's about how far that community has come in the last decade. Pride month commemorates the Stonewall Riot that occurred at the end of June in 1969, which began pride month.

But what is the stonewall riot and why did it start? The Stonewall Riot started in New York, a place where LGBTQ+community couldn't marry the same sex and they couldn't be served any food at any kind of restaurant. But there was one place where they could be themselves and it was called the Stonewall Inn and they could be themselves there. Well, it was all good until the police showed up without any say or do, and the police arrested anyone in the Stonewall Inn. But the people started to rebel in 1969 in June and would riot about how unfair the legal system of the LGBTQ+ community. Finally, the law and police gave in to the idea that they should have their rights and should be treated with the respect and kindness that people who aren't a part of the community get.

But isn't being a part of pride or LGBTQ+ a bad thing? Not actually being a part of the LGBTQ+ community has its pros and cons. The pros are that you get to express yourself in any way, and you can be who you dream to be. And the bad or the cons are that not everyone accepts the LGBTQ community and in most cases that can be ok or just fine, but some make it their burning passion to bring those people down for the love of who they are as people. And some people will even say it's wrong or you will end up in hell for loving the people you want to love or just being who you want to be.

So in most cases, there are fundraising events that take place throughout the world that help these communities and they also help educate people and teach them what LGBTQ+ and pride are about but the events are only brought by amazing supporters that affect this community in so many ways. For example, the Trevor Project has over a million supporters throughout the U.S alone and their goal is to make those kids and adults feel safe in their neighborhood in the towns and they prevent self-harm and suicide of those people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer or who are just questioning are all supported in the Trevor Project.

So, how can you find ways to help and or educate the people about LGBTQ+?

Well going to pride parades and maybe reading documentaries about the history behind the stonewall riot and why it's important.

It’s nearing the end of the year, and hundreds of Whitford students will be going off to high school in the fall, including myself. It’s a new chapter of our lives, and we are told to make the most of all the new things high school has to offer: new students, new teachers, new classes, new experiences. But what greatly affects your experience of high school, some may argue more than your perspective on high school, is the school itself. Some students at Whitford Middle School may be attending Mountainside. Others may be attending Beaverton. A splash of students may be going into Jesuit, or option schools, but a large percentage of people are going to Southridge, Including me. I have not had many experiences with high schools, but I have had one, 30 minute experience in the large and echoey chambers of the Southridge building.

And I’m gonna give an in-depth review of it from my very brief and measly experience with that school.

You may be asking yourself, “Why are you doing a review of a school you barely know? That seems unhelpful and stupid” And to that I say “ it shows I don’t have any bias from students or teachers I know, sports or activities that I’m a part of, or any of the things that may cloud my judgement of the school itself, so be quiet”. This is just to show my first impression of Southridge based off of an open house event where you got to see the school, and see all of the classes and clubs it has to offer.

First off, the first thing I noticed was that Southridge is a pretty big school compared to most middle schools. It’s an intimidating sight for sure, with so many entrances that almost walked into the lower gyms (yes, there are, like, three levels of gyms, no, I don’t know why) instead of the event I was going to. I found out where to go after following the sound of the jazz band that was conveniently playing in front of the entrance. And through the main entrance I went, my cheeks red from the embarrassment of walking into the wrong room before I even started to attend this school and my ear drums freshly maimed by the deafening sound of trumpets no less than 3 inches away from my face. Not only is Southridge’s mass quite large on the scale of enormity, but the height is quite incomprehensible compared to that of a hydrogen atom. The ceiling is at least 30 feet high up, and looking upwards made me feel like a sixth grader again, going into middle school for the first time. In a way, I guess I was. When I walked through the doors, I was greeted by a plastic table with two girls with way-too-cheery-to-be-real smiles on their faces, handing me a Southridge t-shirt and a tote bag. Classic open house stuff. To their right was another dark and ominous hallway with cathedral-like ceilings, and to their right was a staircase to an indoor balcony with corridors lining the walls. Behind them was the main event: Another hallway, but with better lighting, and booths lining every wall. Every booth was brightly colored, with sign-up sheets and props and flyers. I of course took every cheap novelty I could and shoved it in my tote bag, knowing full well I will never look into the clubs ever again. I don’t know anything about aerial physics, but if it means I get a cheap airplane made out of balsa wood that will break if I look at it the wrong way, by all means sign me up! After walking down the brightly lit hallway, I reached a large circular room with two less-smiley girls who gave me another t-shirt and tote bag. I believe I remember this to be called the “Fish Bowl''. More booths lined the walls, which meant more free stuff to take. So far, my first impression of the school is great: Free pens, free shirts, free bags, and even free shaved ice. I haven’t really experienced the school, though: This is just the main entrance, even though the main entrance is roughly the size of Whitford.. The real review starts with the tour:

A tour was given to me and of most of the school, and the fact that the tour took around 30 minutes without any questions asked by me shows how absolutely enormous it was compared to what I was used to. There were hallways and corridors with ominous lighting pretty much everywhere I looked, making me feel confident that I will get lost immediately. Much to my surprise, the tour guides were students at Southridge, and they seemed to know the school inside and out. It made me feel a little more comfortable, knowing that there is a possibility that I might not need a GPS to find the bathroom. Every room I went into in the school had a certain aspect to them that made them feel used, yet not old. When I look in magazines, the houses they show are so perfect and clean, yet they don’t look like a place that people lived in. At southridge, the hallways looked pristine and well decorated, but it didn’t give off the vibe that it wasn’t used; it was just taken care of well. It made me feel like I wasn’t intruding into the building, like I was meant to be there. The student guides gave very positive reviews of the school, explaining which teachers are nice, which sections of the school had which classes, and I felt a huge wave of relief when they said that the teachers weren’t strict on tardiness.

I have a couple of weeks left of life before I go into Southridge, and one of the biggest questions that nags at me is “is it going to be okay”. I’ve struggled with overthinking things all my life, even the most mundane aspects of life, so moving on to highschool has been a worry for me for a while. After seeing Southridge for the first time, My worries subsided almost completely. It’s gonna be a good few years.

I’m sure by now most people know about the subway shooting in New York, the school shooting in Texas, and other recent shootings in America. Many people think the gun laws in America need to be fixed. I believe this is very true, it shouldn’t be so easy for both children and adults to kill and injure so many people. People like this shouldn’t be able to purchase and own guns, but we can’t simply take away guns either. Trying to get rid of guns would not only be nearly impossible and outrageous, but it could also be dangerous. Despite what the majority of the population feels, some think the gun laws in America are already perfect, and some even think our gun laws need to be less strict. The amount of gun violence in America is absolutely terrifying. So what can we do about this problem? What do others think about our gun laws? Is it even possible to fix this problem? There is no obvious correct answer to these questions, but there are people who can answer them. I believe the best people to ask would be the future of America. Yep, I’ll be interviewing random students. I’ll also talk about what most people (mostly adults) in America think too.

In the interviews, I asked three questions: How do you feel about the gun laws in America? If you could, what would be one thing you would do to make the gun laws in America safer for everyone? On a scale of 1-10, 10 being best and 1 being worst, how would you rate your knowledge of gun violence and gun laws in America?

Aaron Paeper

My first interview was with Aaron Paeper. He claims to have an average amount of knowledge on gun violence and gun laws. One thing in this interview stood out to me; Aaron didn’t seem to fully think the laws are perfect, but he also didn’t seem to think the laws needed to be fixed much either. “ They (the gun laws) need to be cracked down on, but otherwise they are good,” he said. Aaron then claims the gun laws could be safer if there were stricter circumstances for when you are legally able to use a firearm. This definitely isn’t a popular opinion, but who knows, it could be the one we needed to hear.

Banyan Rupert

My next interview was with Banyan Rupert. He claims to have a good amount of knowledge on gun violence and gun laws in America and - similar to what most think - he believes the gun laws here aren't strict enough. During the interview he says, “Gun laws need to be tighter, it should be harder to get a gun, right now you can just walk into a Bi-Mart and get one with almost no difficulty”. Afterward, Banyan claims one of the best ways to fix this problem would be to restrict the number of guns manufactured for the public and where they are sold. Honestly, this could be a good way to start America on its path to better gun laws and a safer community.

Anonymous

The third person I interviewed chose to remain anonymous. They believe they have a slightly below average amount of knowledge on gun violence and gun laws in America. They claim the gun laws in the U.S. need to be more strict and they believe we, as a community, would be much safer if the laws further restricted where you could bring guns.

Yadira

Not long after, I chose to interview Yadira. She thinks there are some good gun laws and some bad, which is an opinion most will agree with. Overall, she claims the gun laws are way too confusing, making them vulnerable to legal loopholes. She believes we could all be safer if the laws were more strict on what age you have to be to purchase a firearm.

Anonymous

The last person I chose to interview also chose to remain anonymous. As most others said, they think the gun laws in the U.S. aren't nearly as strict as they need to be. Their knowledge of gun violence and gun laws in America seems to be average. During the interview, they said, “I’d limit the access people have to guns”.

According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 52% of the adults in America say U.S. gun laws need to be more strict, 30% think gun laws are about right, and 18% think gun laws should be less strict. Gun violence in the U.S. is one of the biggest problems we face in society today. Many have tried, failed, and sometimes even died to attempt to solve this problem. Can this problem ever truly be solved? Is it really the gun laws that put us in danger, or is it the violent people around us? These questions may never have the right answer, for now, all we can do is stop waiting for someone else to fix America for us. Nothing good will ever happen if we’re always waiting for someone else to solve our problems.

Note: Well, it’s the end of the year… I hope yall like my writing! AND HAVE AN AMAZING DAY AND HAVE THE BEST SUMMER BREAK YOU HAVE EVER HAD, MY CHILDREN! Time for the last tea fact of the year. Fun fact: The most expensive tea to brew is the rare Chinese variety commonly referred to as Tieguanyin. This type of tea is named in honor of the Buddhist Iron Goddess of Mercy. Tieguanyin is a type of oolong tea that may cost you as much as $1,500 per pound. The best thing about this tea is that you can brew its leaves up to seven times while enjoying its flavor.

Gun violence is a massive problem in the U.S. That statement is essentially impossible to dispute, and gun violence is rising. Some of the recent gun violence events are The Buffalo Shooting and The Uvalde School Shooting. Using the information on these four and background information, I will share my opinion on why gun laws need to become stricter in the U.S.

In my opinion, guns are too easy to access with people in the U.S. being able to buy a gun, which is a lethal weapon, at 18 years old before their prefrontal cortex is fully developed. If you don’t know, the prefrontal cortex is the rational decision-making part of your brain that isn’t fully developed until you are about 25 years old. Yeah, that’s right, you can own a gun seven years before the rational decision-making part of your brain is fully developed. This also means that you can buy a gun before you can drink alcohol, smoke, or even go to casinos. Yet, at the age of 18, you can get a Costco membership, buy spray paint, or use a meat slicer at a grocery store job. You can buy a gun. Please just think about how crazy that is for a minute.

To add to how easy it is to access a gun, you can buy a gun at a store such as Walmart or Bi-Mart. Now with some guns costing as little as $75 and the price of a .22LR round which is a prevalent ammo type costing as little as $0.05 according to survivalfreedom.com So let's say you buy a pack of 60 rounds, if you multiple, .05 by 60 you get three, which means that someone can buy a gun and ammo for as little as $78.

My next topic is the recent shooting, so if any of those four recent shootings I mentioned in my introduction are triggering you, you should probably skip this paragraph.

The Buffalo shooting was a racially motivated mass shooting. The gunman shot and killed ten black people, and three were injured at a supermarket in a predominantly Black community on May 14, 2022. The Shooter was 18-year-old Peyton Gendron, who live-streamed his shooting online. He was also heavily armed and wearing tactical gear, which included a tactical helmet and plated armor, according to the Buffalo Police Commissioner. The other big shooting was the Uvalde, Texas, School Shooting. The gunman shot and killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers during this school shooting and critically injured his 66-year-old grandma on May 14, 2022. The shooter was 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who bought 1000 rounds of ammunition and two AR-15s days earlier legally on his 18th birthday, and he used one of those AR-15s during the shooting. According to independent.co.uk, “Ramos had 60 magazines in total – 58 in and around the school and at his crashed vehicle, and two others at his home. By contrast, an average US soldier would usually take just 210 rounds – seven magazines each holding 30 rounds – into combat.” Now I just want to ask whether you think that the average person should be able to have more ammunition than a U.S. soldier going into combat. Also, there is one significant similarity between these two shooters. It’s the fact that they were both 18-years-old the minimum age someone needs to be to buy a firearm in the U.S.

So with all that being said, when it comes to school shootings, one might say that schools should just have metal detectors in the building, but there are problem with this, 1. It can make students fear daily because I know that students aren’t constantly thinking about school shootings. Still, if I had to go through a TSA-type system every morning, it would make me have a lot of fear because it would be the main thought in my mind rather than just sort of in the back of my mind. 2. Many of the shooters in these scenarios aren’t people who are attending the school but rather former students, so putting metal detectors might not even affect the number of school shootings. Now for just regular shootings, the only way to fix that is stricter gun laws because prevention is the best way to stop mass shootings which also applies to school shootings.

The Texas school shooting has been one of the biggest trending topics on the news and social media. It was one of the biggest school shootings in recent years as 19 students lost their lives along with two teachers. Gun laws and safety have been a major concern over the years and this tragic event has made people more upset than ever about gun laws. There have been a ton of protests and movements for the lives that were lost. Mental health has also been a key thing in shootings. We as a country have to come together and put laws in place to make sure this never happens again.

The school shooting went on for a long 78 minutes, at 11:33 am the shooter entered the building. He fired more than 100 rounds, walking through the school and banging on doors and windows until he finally ended up at classrooms 111 and 112. At 11:37, more officers arrived on the scene. At 11:58 Police officers start to get into it with angry parents who want to know what is going on concerning the safety of their children. At 12:03, a student calls 9-1-1 and says the gunman is in room 112. Eventually, at 12:17 the school notifies parents via Facebook that there is an active shooter in the building. At 12:42, an officer carrying a shield entered the building with parents still freaking out. Finally, after 78 minutes, the gunman is shot and killed and the rest of the kids still alive are safe.

The police department released a statement talking about how the lead officer on the scene made the wrong decision by waiting to enter the school. Police officers were at the school for over an hour before going inside the school and eventually killing the shooter. A kid in the school was on the phone with 9-1-1 begging for help and asking for the police to come and save them. The police are supposed to be the ones that protect us, the ones that we call for help in an emergency. One whole hour of time going by before they enter the school is way too long.

Mental Health has been a huge problem in recent years and it ties directly into these school shootings. Mental health has been a pattern after the tragic event happens and it’s too late. This is exactly why there needs to be deeper background checks on gun licenses to insure that guns don’t end up in the wrong hands. 18-year-old Salvador Ramos was obviously not stable mentally as earlier in the morning before he went to the school, he shot his grandmother in the forehead.

The number of school shootings has gone up so much in the past 10 years and it’s something that needs to be fixed right now. It’s not fair that kids have to go to school scared every day and wonder if they are safe at such a young age. The government and people high up need to look for a way to make schools more safe and secure, while at the same time making them feel welcome and like a second home and not a prison.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

What you see up there is the second amendment of the United States. It states that guns should never be taken away from anyone in the United States. Many people are for this amendment because it is a sign of a free country. Having a gun is a very big freedom, and the uses can be helpful for the safety of you and your family for so many reasons, from practical self-defense to taking over the government if it ever happens to be corrupt. This law has helped many people be confident, and guns in this country are a huge sign of one of our biggest freedoms. However, sometimes laws need to be changed.

One of the most well-known problems in our country are the school shootings. Our “American Shootings” are very well known worldwide, because of how truly awful they are. The United States has had a total of 681 deaths since 1970, and they are only increasing. In the last few months, as of June 2022, there have already been three major shootings. One was in a Subway, another was racially-inspired, and another was a school shooting. Each shooting was a horrible event that made the front page of almost every newspaper. So why isn’t this being handled?

Guns are also bad when it comes to suicide. Suicide rates are at an all-time high, and guns are not helping. Half of all suicide attempts are committed with the use of a firearm, with a 90% chance of being successful. With access to guns, suicide rates are climbing in the U.S. In 2020, the suicide rate alone in the U.S. was 13.48 per 100,000 people. Given that guns are very open to buy in the United States, this makes it easier to commit suicide.

If you look at the second amendment, you may see the other side. You should also realize that owning a gun is one of the building blocks of our country and one of our most important freedoms. Being able to protect ourselves from the government is not something that you are commonly offered. However, while the amendment may be very important, it still causes more harm than good. In the U.S., a total of 45,222 deaths were recorded by gun-related injuries in 2020 alone. Kids are getting shot, people are openly targeting races with guns, and we are just sitting there watching it happen, knowing that we can easily do something about it. Other countries watch from the sidelines, appalled by the behavior of our country. Do we really want this reputation?

Hence, I state my opinion. I think that guns should be legal, but only accessible by certain facilities. I don’t think that guns should be allowed in homes, even though they may give you some self-defense. I see no point in keeping them at home, unless you live in more rural areas. Out here, they are much safer and are primarily used for good reasons. In addition to this, I think all semi-automatic weapons should be forever banned in the United States because when will they ever actually be needed besides for military usage? These weapons are also mostly associated with shootings that occur, and are primarily used for negative deeds. When will you ever need this? In conclusion, gun laws need to change, regardless of the second amendment. Sometimes safety is more important than freedom.

Hey guys my name is Maguire Gray, and I am a graduating eighth-grader at Whitford Middle I have had a pretty good experience at this school. I just wanted to share some of the good and bad experiences I've had, as well as advice that I give to you.

#1. Classes: Ok so pretty much all of my classes are fun but one that I recommend is the newspaper class. It is a great class and it does not matter what you are into in this class because it is one that you can express yourself in as long as it is a news subject and there are not many limits. In other classes, you could maybe not express and talk about how you feel about abortion rights or gun violence or maybe even something as simple as something you don’t like about the school. But you can in newspaper, and that is mostly due to the teacher Mr Rooke-Ley He is honestly a great teacher and has helped everyone in the class a lot and he is just a really good guy in general but be warned you will be RUTHLESSLY back talked by him and made a fool by Mr Rooke-ley.

#2 teachers: Ok so obviously, I only have one teacher per subject, but all of them have been amazing to me and everyone else. But some of my absolute favorites, not to say that the others are bad but some that stand out, in my opinion, are Mr Dahl, the reason I say this is because he has just always been supportive of everyone and never put people down and he puts things in a productive fun way and manipulates the lessons for our needs. Another teacher is Mrs Arguello, my math teacher. She has opened up math for me as something I like again and it is always a free environment in her room. I feel that she just somehow makes her class light-hearted, a warm glass for everyone and it's just so easy to ask questions and ask for things. I have enjoyed her class this year so if you get her as a teacher be grateful for it. The last teacher that I enjoyed is Mr Rooke-Ley, but I already talked about him so we can move on.

#3 environment: The environment is great here. Some not-so-great things happen here but like any other middle school, it's just going to be that way. One example is school fights. There used to be a lot of fights here but recently it has not been as bad. But some good things happen here like when people help other people or when you and your friends have fun in the halls or class. One thing that is going to happen next year for you guys as well as the 8th-grade panorama photo, was a lot of fun.

In conclusion, Whitford is a fun place, but personally, by the end of 8th grade you will need to move on, and that's ok everyone needs to move on at one point. I will forever remember this place where I met some of my best friends and had some of the best times of my life. That one building holds so many memories that will always be engraved in my life, so with that goodbye, have a good one!

Traveling happens regularly every day. The month and season determines how much people will want to travel. Most people won’t decide to travel in the winter because it’s freezing and a small number of people won’t want to travel in the summer because it’s hot. Either way, summer is one of the busiest and most popular times for traveling because it’s warm and a lot of people decide to go on vacation during summer. Summer is coming up so people will be getting ready to travel. Below is a list of four possible places to travel to during the summer. The list isn’t ranked in any order and the numbers are just used to count the number of locations.

1. California

California is a nice place to travel to during the summer. California is a state that you can easily travel to by using a car, but you could also travel there by using a plane if you wanted to. The weather in California during the summer is pretty much the same or maybe a bit hotter. There are a lot of popular locations and amusement parks located in Cali. including Universal Studios Hollywood, Disneyland, Malibu Beach and Los Angeles. which is the largest city in California. Overall, California is a nice close place to visit during the summer and has fun stuff to enjoy.

2. Hawaii

Hawaii is a great place with great weather all year which makes it a popular spot to travel to. Like I said before, most places are great to travel to depending on the weather. If it’s winter where you're going, you most likely won’t travel there than if it was summer or spring or fall. Hawaii is one of those places that has great weather all year no matter the season. In winter during the daytime, it averages 78 degrees and in the summer it averages 84 degrees. Hawaii has miles of beaches and has one of the best surfing locations in the world. Hawaii has tons of activities to do and a lot of places to visit making it perfect for trips.

3. London

The previously mentioned locations have been in the U.S., but this one’s in Europe. London, the capital of the U.K. is one of the biggest places in the U.K. It is pretty cold in the U.K., but it’s warmer in the summer. If you were to go to London, you would probably be exploring a lot because it’s big and because London is known for being a place to just walk around and look at different buildings. London is a great place to chill while you're traveling and also have fun at the same time.

4. Italy / France

Italy is a great place to travel to during the summer but it’s not a great place to travel to when it’s hot. During the seasons of June to September, it’s hot in Italy. Italy doesn’t have an all year weather system meaning it's hot and dry in the summer and cold and wet in the winter. Italy has a lot of great places to visit like Rome where you can see the Colosseum and more. Different cities in Italy have different things to look at and do. Even though Italy is a great place to travel to, there is one major problem with visiting. Not only is it hot and humid in Italy, but there are also tons of mosquitoes out around July. Since July is the hottest month in Italy, that's the time all of the mosquitoes come out. If you can manage to avoid being bitten or at least not a lot, Italy is a great place to travel to during summer. Except for a few different things including mosquitos, France and Italy are pretty similar. France also has big places to visit like Paris where the Eiffel tower is located. Since France is located close to Italy, France is included with Italy on the list. Both places are cool places to visit when traveling.

These are the 4 places to travel to during summer. Even though there are only 4 on this list, there are a ton of other places you could possibly visit during summer that have a lot of fun stuff to do. Overall traveling, in general, is a fun thing to do when there are tons of places you could possibly visit.

Last time, I explained how the mainstream was filled with ego. Today, I will explain how that ego affects our society.

First of all, every person has some ego. That means that everyone wants to be liked and most certainly right, but most people just say they are right because they saw or heard someone else “prove” that opinion is correct. In other words, someone made their opinion appear to be right, broadcasted it, and now has influential power over people. With influential power, you can practically do anything you want. You can tell people to go to L.A, to go buy a certain product, or to go watch a certain show. All of these are ways that the mainstream gets you to behave accordingly.

The second factor is that many people fear they aren’t good enough, liked enough, heard enough, or just being left out. This results in adopting a common opinion. By that, I mean they are going to do what everyone else is doing. Using the same apps, wearing the same clothing styles and hairstyles. This will give that person the attention they wanted. So when one person has a decent amount of popularity or followers and changes something, everyone changes that something for themselves.

“Silencing, censoring, no-platforming and cancelling people who disagree with you is actually a form of modern-day fascism”(Piers Morgan Uncensored, 2022).

What Mr Morgan meant by “Modern-day fascism” was that it is today’s trend. This means that someone with influence decided to promote Cancel Culture and thousands of people adopted it into their lifestyle because they thought that was how they could fit in. Additionally, people with FOMO(Fear Of Missing Out) won’t stop until the influencers do something else.

The difference with this specific trend is that it is more than just a trend that will represent the culture of 2022, but our society decided to use it as a way to gain popularity, not equality. Being Woke is a real thing; there are plenty of inequalities across the world. The origins of this Cancel Culture is the doing of good people who aren’t in it for popularity or even money, but our society has made such a big deal about it that people are just straight-up afraid to open their mouths sometimes. Even the slightest insult will be noticed by a follower, who calls it out to make them feel like they belong among the popularity and might even gain popularity for themselves.

So, in a short answer, society has gone very soft because they are following the footsteps of others who crave attention and power. The solution? Control yourself. Maybe think about the actions you’ve done. Maybe learn to take a joke. For most of the people my age, maybe letting a comment just be a small mistake without exploiting it.

If you are interested in this topic, go to this article:

https://nypost.com/2022/04/25/piers-morgan-vows-to-wipe-out-cancel-culture-in-monologue/

Doctor Strange's Sequel Is A Gorgeous Mess

Doctor Strange: In The Multiverse of Madness. Marvel movies seem to be a recurring theme in this article series. However, it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. When listing the top movies of any month in the past few years by their impact on children and teenagers, it’s not uncommon to see superhero films in the first few spots. Nowadays, Marvel is smashing records with every release and all but controlling the cinema industry.

Sometimes I think that it would be fun to switch it up once in a while and review something else like Is It Cake? Despite the series’ trailer being of slightly questionable quality, the person who suggested it has solid enough taste for me to think that the show must be decent at the very least. Also, I’ve seen a bunch of kids watching it during lunch, so it stands as a pretty strong option for a review. Of course, there’s also a plethora of other options in addition to this. Ambulance, The Batman, and Dog are all very popular films that performed exceptionally at the box office.

So, with all of these great choices in mind, why did I elect to talk about MoM instead? It all comes back to impact. The vast majority of people my age have at least some interest in Marvel. Why? Is it because of its increasingly diverse casting that resonates with teens across the world? Or is it because Marvel has somehow cracked the code behind making movies that are so universally appealing? It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why the MCU is so successful, but the Marvel franchise has an undoubtably vice grip on movie theaters across the world, and its latest film all but perfectly exemplifies this.

I’m writing this part of the review right after watching the movie. My first thoughts are... um... uh...

Hm.

Where to begin?

Let’s start with the positives.

MoM is straight-up beautiful. The visuals, the special effects, the score, it’s all stunning. I felt utterly engrossed in every frame and I was afraid to miss even a second of Marvel’s first horror movie. Yes, that’s right. This film is a dazzling mix of eerie, suspenseful, and downright terrifying. This should come as no surprise seeing as it is directed by horror filmmaker Sam Raimi. Couple all of these with top-notch acting performances from every single actor and you’re left with a 4D movie experience that sucks you in heart-wrenchingly close.

And that’s it. That’s all that’s good with this movie.

Coming out of the theater I had a strong urge to hit something. This movie is a mess.

Everything about it seems so painfully half-baked. The plot is structured in a way that’s so convoluted and sloppy that it feels as though it was written by a squirrel on LSD with a typewriter, kind of like when I bluff my way through a class with a presentation that I had completed five minutes prior. A major marketing point for MoM was cameos. Well, there are cameos, except that they’re all shoved into a single scene that feels like an out-of-place fan service more than anything. There are so many new concepts that must be introduced that none of them are executed thoroughly in the measly 126 minutes of runtime. The multiversal concept is sold as a place where nothing makes sense, where the characters are utterly clueless about what goes on in such an unfathomable environment. Well hey, they did something right. None of it makes any sense to us either.

Another major issue I have with MoM is with the character structure itself. I went into this movie with high hopes, as any film with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in it is bound to be a good one. And you’d think that a movie titled Doctor Strange: In The Multiverse of Madness would have a lot of Doctor Strange in it, right?

Well, you’d be mistaken.

Doctor Strange is a side character in his own movie. He gets no screen time alone and most of the time he is either unconscious or useless. In fact, he seems to play the role of mentor to America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) more than he actually, you know, does stuff. In fight scenes he often just stands around and watches while, no joke this actually happened at my theater, people from the audience are screaming at him to do something. Even in the final fight scene when Doctor Strange triumphantly controls a dead body from across the multiverse with newfound powers exceeding that of the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), he uses them to... fly to a mountain to tell America Chavez to believe in herself?

What?

The other characters also feel kind of empty. You can tell there’s supposed to be character growth, but it never shows. They all feel static and ingenuine (with an exception in Wanda Maximoff, AKA the Scarlet Witch, but no spoilers). With an unacknowledged lack of a main character, there’s a bit of a vacuum in the traditional character structure. This leads to many characters scrambling to fit in multiple roles, which almost never works out.

Unfortunately, this time was no different. The jarring overlap of archetypes brings the film down even more and it’s just really, really sad.

Multiverse of Madness is an experience. There’s a lot to love about this movie, especially with the enchanting audiovisual effects and acting. I also especially liked Wanda Maximoff’s character, though there’s not a whole lot I can say about her without mentioning spoilers. Unfortunately, these positives are pretty heavily outweighed by the negatives. A nonsensical plot and a generally incomplete feeling accompanied characters that felt like empty shells of themselves. In conclusion, this movie is extraordinarily unremarkable. At times overwhelming, at other times lacking. While Doctor Strange 2 isn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen, it certainly isn’t close to the best.

TomatoDial Rating: 63%

Sexual assault (SA) is defined by the U.S. Department of Justice as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape.” Most would think something as simple as asking for consent or simply not forcing yourself on someone else would be easy, yet, “On average, there are 463,634 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States” (Rainn, 2022). Out of those victims, 90% are female, with the other 10% being male.

While most sexual assault victims are female, this should not take away from the fact that males also experience sexual assault. There will always be a similar insecurity and physical and mental intrusion that can be relatable to all sexual assault victims. It will always be difficult for a person to accept and reach out to others about their trauma and experiences; in recent years, society has become somewhat more educated and understanding when people admit to having been sexually assaulted.

Since the majority of victims are female, society has simultaneously created a bias towards men as they are the majority of people being accused of committing sexual assault. Given this bias, people find it practically unimaginable that men could also experience sexual assault. But at the end of the day, both males and females were victims of people who felt entitled to someone else’s body.

This bias could also be considered a double standard, which is when a principle or rule is applied to different situations or groups of people in different ways. While we stress the importance of being accepting and empowering of females who stand up for themselves as sexual assault victims, we often shame males for being taken advantage of and consider them weak when in the same situation.

All communities should strive to be more understanding and accepting of all situations and characters. While preventing sexual assault has proven to be a very large issue to tackle right now, the first step to minimizing this problem is by helping the people who have experienced sexual assault and learning from their perspective. Stereotypes are one of the issues behind this sexist double standard, and everyone should aim to break away from these stereotypical mindsets. “Assault is assault, and we cannot stress that enough. So instead of dismissing victims’ stories for different reasons, listen to them, internalize them and learn from them. Change yourself and change others. Raise your children better. It’s on us to help others and prevent assault from occurring again. Don’t listen to people who say sexual assault should be expected when women and men are together. If dogs can learn to obey the word no, then so can we” (Monarrez, 2017).

Standardized testing, should it be abolished? This is widely debated all over the world on whether it's too mentally straining on kids, too much work or just flat out pointless. People say that it does not show your skill as a student, but others think that isn't the case. Is standardized testing only about showing where you are as a student? So that brings us back to the question: should it be abolished?

Does Standardized testing shows where you are as a student?

Kaleb: Standardized testing doesn’t actually show where you are as a student because students can undergo possible test anxiety, lowering their performance. Another reason why standardized testing doesn't show where students are: The tests do not evaluate creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, artistic ability, or other knowledge areas that cannot be judged.

Jase: Standardized testing does show how good you are at taking tests. If you can't take a test then you can't necessarily do anything that feels pressured and in the real world things will be very hard. However, it doesn't show the creativity factor of a student if there is a situation that you can't necessarily be creative there's nothing you can do about it.

Does Standardized testing mentally strain students?

Kaleb: I think that standardized testing can and will mentally strain most students. I think this because the paragraph from an article below states that multiple grades are testing students more than 10 times a year. This can cause mental straining and stress to students, this can harm the students academically.

“Monty Neill, the executive director of FairTest, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, spoke to NEA Today about today’s testing culture in a 2014 article.”

“A recent survey of the Colorado Education Association found that teachers spend 30 percent of their time on prep and testing,” Neill said. “It’s not uncommon for districts to test their students ten times a year. Some districts have more than 30 tests a year in one grade. Pittsburgh has 35 tests in grade four, with nearly as many in some other grades. Chicago had 14 mandated tests for kindergartners, and nearly as many in grades one and two.” - https://psychcentral.com/blog/the-psychological-effects-of-too-much-testing#1

Jase: State testing should not strain students mentally because although it is technically a test, it isn't even a pass fail test. It is just a test to show where you are academically. Personally I wouldn't care about getting questions that I don't know or understand because that shows that I need help in that area. When I get that help it will benefit me greatly in the long run.

Do Test Scores Impact Confidence?

Kaleb: Yes. In fact, it is hard to argue that it doesn’t happen when nearly all students in our country have to take them and there are students going to counseling/therapy because of this low self-esteem and confidence. The testing scoring system is flawed and used wrongly which will limit students abilities to learn.

Jase: I don't believe that test scores should impact your confidence poorly because if you get a question wrong it just shows you don't know what to do with the problem although if you get questions right I feel it should positively boost your confidence.

In conclusion, there a lot of things that can affect your thoughts on whether standardized testing should be abolished. The opinion is up to you. There are good pros and good cons, but there is not a clear answer. If something were to happen and standardized testing was abolished, it would take a while for it to happen and there would most likely be backlash no matter what happens.

The graffiti in our restrooms at Whitford has been a problem all year, but right now it's the worst it has been all year. The inappropriate writing and unneeded drawings and trash and snack wrappers in all of the bathrooms need to come to an end. There are so many other ways you can artistically draw that are not on school property. If you're the one drawing and writing on school property and leaving trash around, it should be YOU who has to clean it up, not our hard-working custodians who have to stay later after school to clean up the unnecessary mess.

One of the biggest reasons for the bathrooms being closed is because of the mess you are making in the bathrooms. There have been so many complaints about only one or two bathrooms being open in the school when there are four bathrooms. All we need to do is STOP making such a mess in the bathrooms, and stop messing around in the bathrooms like it's some “hangout spot” to skip class in.

First of all, you should not be eating in bathrooms at school. If you're just trying to sneak it in, at least pick it up. It is gross when people go to use the restroom and there are rappers in the sink, the toilet, and on the hand dryer. We are in middle school. It shouldn't be that hard to pick up after yourselves.

The fact that people are drawing graffiti in the bathrooms is inappropriate, there's no reason for you to write all these negative quotes or jokes or whatever it is on the stalls and mirrors. The custodians don't deserve to clean up all the unnecessary drawings and trash in there. It's the custodians who clean it, not teachers, not classmates, not principals, or anyone you could be mad at that you write all that angry comments about.

It's almost the end of the year, please try your best to keep the bathrooms clean and in good shape for the rest of the year. Thanks to all the students who have done absolutely nothing to create a mess in the bathrooms, and the students who have helped out trying to clean them, and a BIG thanks to the custodians who have been working hard to keep Whitford clean.

I believe that we should keep the animals that need to be healed and need to reproduce their species in the zoo. The reason why I say that is because I don’t think there is any reason why we should take animals out of their home environment if they do not have any issues. I think it’s fine if they want to keep animals in zoos for a temporary amount of time, until they are done with what they need to take care of. If they just keep the animals for a show, I do not agree with keeping animals in zoos. What I’m trying to get to with my opinion is that I have mixed feelings about having animals in zoos.

Why is it bad for animals to be in zoos?

It is bad for animals to be in zoos because “Animals are forced to live in artificial, stressful and downright boring conditions. While the physical needs of animals are met in captivity, the conditions of confinement and exposure to humans can result in physiological stress.” When an animal is in a zoo for a long period of time or even raised in a zoo, they will either forget how it was to be in the wild or would have trouble surviving in the wild. In most zoos, from being a witness, they just hand over the food to the animals without a challenge.

This won’t help them much in the wild because they’ll have to chase or be strategic to get their prey, and if they don't have that skill to hunt, they'll starve and die. The animals could also get depression either from getting ripped apart from their habitat or from their group.

Why is it good for animals to be in zoos?

It’s good for animals to be in zoos because it could help increase endangered animals' populations and zoos have saved lots of animals from going extinct. I also feel that zoos can help scientists discover and learn more about animals while other people can see how animals interact. I feel by doing this scientists can figure out what is good and not good for animals so they can help them.

Do you think animals should be in zoos or not?

Anonymous #1: I think that if they have a medical condition they should stay in the zoo because they can get healthier. There are some situations where animals are born in the zoos and dont know how to live for themselves, It hink those animals should stay in zoos. I do not think that zoos should take animals from the wild if they are healthy and in good living condition.

Anonymous #2: I have a mix answer because I feel like it depends on how you feel about it and if it is a completely healthy animal it should’t be in it and if it isn’t healthy it shouldn’t be in there.

Anonymous #3: I think they should if the zoo has better living conditions then theu would have in the wild. If an animal gets hurt in the zoo and they can get immediate care then they should be there.

Anonymous #4: I think that animals should stay in zoos because most of the animals can not live in the wild by themselves because they cant take care of themselves. We can can slao save them from extension.

I love trying new foods, and new restaurants. So i decided to do a food review. The restaurant I picked was a retro diner called Vegan Junk Food. I picked this restaurant because it has a lot of traditional American foods that most non-vegetarian people eat but instead of meat, everything was plant based. There were so many items to pick from but my family and I went with the following:

Birria Taco

Rating: 7/10

Reason: I had been wanting to try a birria taco for a while now, but since it was meat I chose not to. But at this restaurant, they had a birria taco made out of jackfruit. Usually I do not like jackfruit but I liked it here. One thing I did not like about this taco is they put too much jackfruit in it so i had to take some off. Overall it was good but not great and I would not get it again but it was fun to try!

Chicken Nuggets

Rating: 9/10

Reason: These chicken nuggets were very good! They remind me of the brand Quorn chicken nuggets but I feel like these were closer to meat than Quorn nuggets. They had very good flavor and overall I would get them again!

Chili Cheese Fries

Rating: 7/10

Reason: I liked the chilli cheese fries, but it was way too big of a portion. And after a little bit with all the toppings, it kinda gets soggy. Overall I would not get them again only because the portion size is almost a whole meal. My whole family could not finish it.

Smash Burger

Rating: 8/10

Reason: It was really good, but i was expecting more out of this. It was a regular burger with grilled onions, smash burger sauce, lettuce and tomatoes but I feel like they put too much sauce on it, so it was very messy. It basically fell apart on the first bite.

Atmosphere/Service:

When i first saw the outside of the restaurant it looked like the diners you see in the movies. It had a very retro look to it with lots of different bright and bold colors. The logo pulled me in. It was a racoon holding a milkshake. My family went before dinner so the inside was not very full. This is a seat yourself restaurant and you order online. All you have to do is scan a QR code they provide at the table. So the service was very nice but mostly you are on your own!

This restaurant was super fun to try and the food was really good! But it would not be on my regular food rotation. There are so many other really good vegan restaurants that are closer. The restaurant was about 20 minutes away, but there were some great views over the Ross Island Bridge. I got to see Mount St. Helens and a little bit of Mount Hood!

Over the years, you may have noticed a shift in the language and attitude of our society. Ten years ago, you may have been to a get-together or a party and noticed a group of people talking about their problems, lifestyles, or cracking some jokes. Fast forward to today, that same “get together” would be so much different. You wouldn’t hear those same jokes or the same problems people have.

For example, ten years ago you might have gone to a birthday party. You get involved with a game. Then a boy would say:” No girls allowed!” There would be a few disappointed grumbling from girls, and there wouldn’t be any more problems. Flash forward to the present day, that would not be the case. If anyone said “no girls allowed”, they would be frowned upon for being excluding and most of the time, to the extent of calling them sexist.

How has this happened, you might ask? A funny thing called Cancel Culture. You may have already been “Cancelled” and you don’t even know what you did wrong. That’s because people are very sensitive due to being “Woke”. Being “Woke” means you are aware of injustice; but since the mainstream culture loves to make a scene out of everything, many people like to make even the slightest thing a big deal. Going back to the example from earlier, someone in the mainstream would call out the person who said that, instead of just accepting the fact that that is who that person is and moving on.

On Apr 25, 2022, Piers Morgan released a production called “Piers Morgan Uncensored”. According to him, celebrities are very hypocritical, and they preach things that they do the complete opposite for themselves. I very much agree with this statement, being that celebrities are always being called out for being homophobic, racist, sexist or transphobic.

Morgan also said that many people in the mainstream try to conduct “Purity Purges”. This means that someone on Twitter, for example, tries to correct someone’s opinion. The problem with that is that no one is completely right. Only the most ego-inflated people say they are right. Their hope for being right makes them try to sway your thoughts to the point where you believe their opinion seems like it’s the only answer. That is the definition of the mainstream: The general norms and trends of society that are influenced by the people with a lot of ego.

Keep your eyes open for Part 2.

Sources:

https://nypost.com/2022/04/25/piers-morgan-vows-to-wipe-out-cancel-culture-in-monologue/

Ted Lasso is a sports comedy-drama created by Jason Sudekis, Brett Goldstein, and Brendan Hunt. Set in London, Ted Lasso follows the story of Ted Lasso and his coaching experience of the professional football (soccer) team, AFC Richmond. Ted Lasso was previously an NCAA division two football coach in Kansas and led his team to win the championship. Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), is the recently divorced owner of AFC Richmond. She wants to tear the team apart because it is the only thing her ex-husband, Rupert, loves. To harm the club, she hires Ted Lasso, but the club doesn’t fail very badly.

The first season is absolutely amazing. The story was built in a basic yet unpredictable structure. The characters are all trying to figure out their own lives without hurting their relationship with others. One example of this is Jamie Tartt, the star player on the football team. He is an extremely unlikeable player but does not know who he is. He’s a bully to many people on the team, especially Nathan Shelly, the team’s kit man. However, he is trying to become a better person and salvage his relationship with his girlfriend, Kelley.

The second season, however, isn’t the best. The story focuses more on the secondary characters than the main characters. For example, there is an entire episode that’s just for the team's assistant coach. This isn’t entirely bad, but the story has many episodes similar to this that don’t make the most sense with the storyline. However, there are some aspects of the second season that are absolutely amazing. The lack of Rupert Mannion and the addition of Sharon Fieldstone. However, the drawbacks heavily outweigh the highs of the second season.

Critics have mixed opinions on Ted Lasso. Similar to what was previously stated, Liz Shannon Miller from Collider says “Supporting cast members get more screen time and weightier storylines than Season 1. The overall message about looking to help others as a way of helping yourself becomes even more prevalent. And the concept of what it means to be a team is even more on display.” While others say “‘Ted Lasso’ humbly came on the scene as an excellent show about goodness and remains so in its second season.”

To conclude, this show is really what you make of it. When I first watched the show, I thought it was going to be another basic terrible comedy series. However, after only a couple of episodes, I couldn’t help feeling sympathetic for the characters as they go through their lives. In the end, I really enjoyed Ted Lasso and I hope that season three is even better than the previous ones.

So I think a lot of us know the man Michael Jordan and his shoe collaboration with Nike that started in 1984 and the first Jordan 1s came out in 1985 and the hype for this shoe was unreal because previously he had one of his best seasons wearing the Jordans head a season average of 29.9 points a game with 6.6 rebounds a game but considering he was a shooting guard that wasn't his job.

But back to the question, the short answer is yes but it's not that simple some of the Jordan models are not as hyped for example the Jordan one is sort of losing hype, the last hyped pair of Jordan ones was the off white collaboration with some of the pairs to get up to 10k for one pair of shoe ad I don't know but that's a lot of money for one pair, but if you have not to herd Virgil Abloh the owner of off white has sadly passed as of 2021 and this put a shock through the sneaker community because the guy just sucked an artistic shoe designer and he would never miss on a shoe everyone would get so hyped whenever an off white collab would come out.

But like I said it's not that simple I think that the Jordan brand is losing ideas for their Jordan one and four models this is due to the overproduction of very average colors was and the way too many mids and a lot more lows and another Jordan one high coming out every week and the latest Jordan to be released has some interesting gimmicks it has a fanny pack for the shoe and some this didn't me, Jordan brand has been adding gimmicks for the past year or so and in my opinion that was the wrong choice for them, but like I said they had almost 40 years.

As for the Jordan 4, I don't think that they are going away in hype per se they just don't release enough for the average consumer and all of the resellers get them and I don't think Nike is going though change their ways any time soon, it would take a lot of money to sort out of of the bots and that's not something that I think Nike wants to do right now, but as for the colorways I think that they have all been pretty consistent like the Zen masters or the infrared personally I think they're all pretty cool and they will have plenty of hype, but what will be the next Jordan one is the real question.

I actually think that the hype train will stay on Nike and I honestly think that the next supper hyped up shoes will be the air max 96s or maybe the Jordan three, could even be the Jordan 2s unlikely though, Jordan brand has not been focusing on the Jordan three for a while but with the release of the dark mochas i think that Nike will fallow what the people want and come up with more color ways as for the air maxes I think that it is just a very versityle type of shoe and you could do so much to it and i think that Nike will play around with that but i think that only true sneaker heads would be on bord with this one, it would really take some skill to decipher what color and what type of air max it is, but for the Jordan 2 are my favorite they have always been the least popular o all of the jordans but they have always been some of my favorites the reasons that i think that Jordan 2s will take off hopefully is they haven't done anything really with them and i think that they could get really really creative with the design and the colors and also Jordan just released a off white collab just before Virgil passed.

So in conclusion Jordan ones are dying and I think that a less popular model will take its place as the best sneaker but

I think we all know that the Jordan on will always go down as the sneaker king.

Zoology: Koalas and why they Suck - Banyan Rupert

On the outside, Koalas seem very cute little animals, but anyone who has worked with Koalas or has looked into the Kangaroo's dumb cousin knows that Koalas are simply bad at being themselves or being animals at all.

Firstly, Koalas have one of the smallest brain to body ratios of any animal and their brains are incredibly smooth, which means that they are incredibly dumb. Koalas climb trees even though their barely smart enough to, which is also the only way they get their food. Koalas are so unwilling to change that if you put food on a table straight from the tree they won’t recognise it as food because it’s not currently on a tree, that’s how dumb they are, they could starve in a room full of food. The sound Koalas make is also one of the dumbest sounds I’ve ever heard, a collection of snarls, squeaks and screams. I encourage you to look up what they actually sound like; it’s bad.

On the topic of food, the Koalas have a diet of Eucalyptus leaves, a poisonous plant with close to no nutritional value. By the way, it’s not only poisonous to humans but to the very Koalas that eat them. Their food is a big reason why they sleep 80% of their lives and why they’re so dumb: they simply can't afford the energy to think.

Most herbivores have special adaptations to keep their teeth healthy; eating only plant life highly affects the animal’s teeth. Rodents have teeth that never stop growing and you might have seen videos of Llamas or a similar animal grinding the plants up with their jaws to eat more efficiently, but Koalas, being the terrible animals they are, have no adaptations: they eat until all their teeth fall out and they starve to death. Do people think the animals with falling out, rotting teeth are cute? I don’t think so.

When Koalas are babies, they drink their mother’s milk like any other mammal, even though Koalas have some of the lowest milk yields of any mammal. They have to transition from drinking milk to eating eucalyptus, but the thing is, baby Koalas don’t have the necessary gut enzymes to digest the eucalyptus. To remedy this, the baby Koala has to go to its mother, and literally consume its mother’s diarrhoea to eat the only thing that the Koalas want to eat. Try and make that seem “cute” in any way possible.

Koalas are not just gross animals in general, but they are very dangerous to humans. Around 80%-90% of the Koala population are infected with Chlamydia, a terrible disease that is a common STD in both men and women, Koalas can spread it by peeing. Chlamydia can cause permanent damage to the female reproductive system and can make it difficult or impossible to become pregnant.

Koalas also spread a virus called Koala Retrovirus, or KoRV, which becomes an immune disorder that increases the risk of cancer and even worse Chlamydia. According to the article “Koala retrovirus diversity, transmissibility, and disease associations” by BMC, 10% of Koalas in American zoos, and 59% of Koalas in Australian zoos were infected with KoRV. Thankfully, there has been no reports of humans infected with KoRV, it only affects Koalas and a few species of rodents and bats according to a pdf created by Wildlife Health Australia. So not only are Koalas dangerous to humans, they’re dangerous to their fellow animals.

In conclusion, Koalas are gross and dangerous due to their habits and the diseases they carry. They’re dumb because of their small and smooth brains and the only thing they eat is a poisonous plant which breaks down their teeth until they can’t eat anymore. In my opinion, Koalas are bad animals and Australia would be a better place without them.

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5927132

https://biogeoplanet.com/koala-brains-dumbest-mammal/

https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/44/5/583/5859487

https://retrovirology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12977-020-00541-1#:~:text=Wild%20koalas%20from%20one%20location,KoRV%2DA%2Dpositive%20animals.

https://www.wildlifehealthaustralia.com.au/Portals/0/Documents/FactSheets/Mammals/Koala_Retrovirus.pdf

Koalas and Why They are Important - Ian Fryer

Koalas. The Australian animal that we all know and love. There is a reason that many people believe that koalas are lovable and endearing creatures, and simply put, it’s because they are. They aren’t glorified by the media to make them seem more appealing to the masses, they just are that amazing. Not only are they fantastic, but they are also important.

According to Brains On.org, cuteness is a chemical reaction inside of the brain. The features that humans consider “cute” are called kindchenschema, which include but are not limited to: Large heads compared to body size, large foreheads, large eyes, round cheeks, and small chins. If you have seen an image of any koala, you know that they fit most of these traits. Not to mention that they are roughly the size and fuzziness of a teddy bear. Though it is an opinion somewhat people think is cute or not, a koala being cute can be seen as an almost indisputable fact.

Koala is an interesting name for an animal, no? You may be wondering about the etymology of the word. Though the name's origins are not precise, it is thought that ‘koala’ means ‘no drink’ in an Australian aboriginal language. This is due to the fact that many koalas get hydration from the eucalyptus leaves that make up their diet. I know this fact seems relatively neutral, but if you think about it from a different perspective, it shows that they are helping the environment by not drinking the freshwater that could be used for organisms that need it more.

Above, the opposing viewpoint made the statement that koalas eat eucalyptus leaves as their main source of food, and the plants are incredibly poisonous to humans. I see this as a positive attribute of koalas because they are keeping humans safe by eating poisonous plants. Not only that, but eucalyptus is a highly flammable substance, and could be catastrophic to the environment if set on fire. In Australia, forest fires are very common due to its arid climate, and it would be helpful to get rid of as many fire starters as possible without harming the ecosystem.

Not only are koalas adorable and not affecting the ecosystem with excessive food or water consumption, but they are also important to the environment. Though this isn’t the most glamorous of facts, koala excrement is used as a form of fertilizer for the forest floor, allowing the biodiversity of their habitat to increase. Their importance doesn’t stop at plant life, however; their fur is so insulating that some birds use it to make their nests. By just being themselves, koalas help the environment in unique and new ways.

Though I am aware that koalas have their flaws, I don’t think that they are plentiful enough to justify calling them the “Kangaroo’s dumb cousin”. Every animal has unattractive traits, even the most endearing of species. Canaries have to eat the chewed up food their mother brought to them, yet many people consider them to be an appealing animal.

Sites for positive view:

https://www.brainson.org/episode/2016/12/06/what-makes-cute-things-cute

https://www.wwf.org.au/news/blogs/10-interesting-facts-about-koalas

https://www.ifaw.org/international/animals/koala#:~:text=Koalas%20are%20important%20to%20the,for%20small%20mammals%20and%20insects.

https://www.savethekoala.com/about-koalas/koalas-diet-digestion/

Views on abortion?

Phaedra: This is a complicated issue; however, I think that ultimately abortion should be legal. For unplanned pregnancies where the person is not in a place to be able to support the child and does not wish to go through the hardships of birth, abortion is the best option. Many people argue that since the person got themselves pregnant, they should have to deal with the consequences. This may not be their fault; they could have been violated against their will. Additionally, people argue that the baby should be birthed and given up for adoption, but there are thousands of children without a family already, and this would just be adding to that population. All in all, I think people should be able to make their own choices and decide what’s best for them.

Jonathan: Abortion should be legal until the baby is 5 months. This is because, at 4 months, the baby starts to develop into a person. Especially because someone can be raped and/or is too young. Sometimes, they don’t have enough money to support the baby.

Should the minimum wage be increased?

Phaedra: As of right now, $7.25 is the minimum wage per hour for the U.S.; an average work time is 8 hours, meaning that people who receive minimum wage payments only get $58 per day. This is quite a small amount for people, especially when they have to pay expenses such as the water or electricity bills. Many people have to cut down on things like food to be able to pay for these things. Additionally, inflation is making things more expensive. The minimum wage should be increased so that people earn enough money to be able to comfortably live; the minimum wage sounds increase/decrease depending on inflation to match the rising and falling prices of goods and services.

Jonathan: Minimum wage should be lowered for higher positions but raised for lower positions. This is because lots of jobs have a higher rank. Therefore, they are getting paid multiple times more over the lower positions. If we were to just raise the minimum wage, it would not be good as a result of inflation, causing more damage.

What is the best pet?

Phaedra: I think cats are the best pet; they require little maintenance and are enjoyable to have around. Other popular pets, like dogs, require everyday walks, potty breaks, and baths, but cats can do all of these things independently. They are also mostly quiet and aren’t dirty. Studies have also shown that owning a cat has many important health benefits, such as lowering the risk of heart disease and improving sleep (Goodnet.org). If you want a cat that fits your personality, get a kitten. If a kitten is young enough, it can be trained to behave how you want; for example, if a small kitten is held and petted a lot, it will grow up to be a very affectionate cat. Overall, owning a cat is an enjoyable experience that you should definitely try.

Jonathan: I believe hamsters are the best pet. They are low maintenance, and they are good because you don’t need much experience. Also, they get a lot of exercise (if you have a wheel), and they are just cute and adorable. You can hold them and take care of them when wanted. They are very easy pets, especially for children.

Want to share your opinion on these debate issues? Fill out the form here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsX4omdnvKxMCPOGBTRgTr-9ZUxJ9AKOcFVV5InuzMVG8N6w/viewform?usp=sf_link

Way back in February, I held a Valentine’s themed poll that backfired in many ways. Firstly, my article would’ve been published a solid three weeks after Valentine’s day. Secondly, I realized that the idea as a whole was far too cliche and I wanted to do an article about Arthur’s finale instead. However, here we are two months later and there are no good movies currently in theaters. With 20 of the 46 votes, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series won by a landslide.

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (HSMTMTS) is a drama series created for Disney+ by Tim Federle, inspired by the High School Musical film series. Set in the fictional East High School, the school where the original High School Musicals were filmed, HSMTMTS follows a group of teenage theater students as they participate in a staging of High School Musical for their school production.

Seems basic enough right?

Well, in a plot twist that totally surprised everyone, Ricky Bowen (Joshua Bassett) and Nini Salazar-Roberts (Olivia Rodrigo) get the lead roles after a messy break up over the previous summer. Not only that, but Nini’s new boyfriend, EJ Caswell, (Matt Cornett) is cast as Ricky’s understudy and his character’s best friend. In typical Disney fashion, they end up forming a bitter rivalry.

What makes this show so appealing is the depth of the characters. Each character, at least in the first season, is extremely well thought out and you can’t help but fall in love with each and every one. The short summary that I gave barely scratched the surface of the show and truly doesn’t give justice to the insane plots. From divorce and struggling with coming to terms with your sexuality to constantly moving due to parents in the military, this show is not afraid to have true characters that resonate with nearly everyone. This is best shown through the character of EJ Caswell. A lesser script would portray EJ as a cheap evil antagonist who serves as nothing more than the jerk who Ricky needs to humiliate in order to get the girl. However, HSMTMTS portrays EJ as just a human with pure but misguided intentions. He genuinely begins to work on himself and he uses his mistakes as lessons, and eventually becomes one of the most likable characters in the series.

The first season of HSMTMTS is absolutely astonishing. Heartfelt, triumphant, and wonderfully human, the series absolutely blew my (admittedly low) expectations away.

The second season, however...

It all goes downhill from the last few minutes of season two episode five. While the season one finale is still a strong finish, you can clearly see a slight but consistent decline in quality. This decline steepens at the start of season two and just gets exponentially worse. While the acting remains as strong as ever and the plot is pretty good, the character development stagnates. The second season focuses more on, fittingly enough, the secondary characters of the first season. However, it seems that the show itself fails to recognize this and instead tries to stretch out the already overdone characters of Ricky and Nini. This leads to some fairly unnecessary interactions between the former major players and it just seems dull. While EJ and Gina (Sofia Wylie) have some nice onscreen moments, there simply aren’t enough of them to save the show. The show loses all of its self-awareness and spirals into just another bland Disney drama series, the lack of which made HSMTMTS so appealing in the first place. The second season starts out strong, but it fumbles everything by introducing a bland story arc that pretty much ruins all of the character development from the first season.

To conclude, this is one of those TV shows that you hate to love. I went into the first few episodes with absolutely zero expectations (seeing as it is a Disney original show), but I was pleasantly surprised. The series has heart, passion, and an absurdly talented cast. I’m ashamed to say I even cried at a few parts of the show, and I hope that the upcoming third season can live up to its predecessors, or do better than the second season at least.

TomatoDial Rating: 89%

Most popular social media platforms have the same age restrictions, 13+ to use the app. In my opinion, the real issue is not the child's actual age, but their maturity level and how they can handle things online such as; cyberbullying, the importance of privacy online, and understanding how to share safely.

Many kids online lie about their identity. When you download apps they often ask questions like: age, contacts, location, or even your camera. Many parents worry about their kids' safety online, experts recommend coming to an essential agreement. They came up with a list to talk to your kids about before allowing any social media.

• Which types of content they are allowed to post.

• How often they should post.

• How often you are comfortable with them checking social media.

• How to handle requests and messages from strangers.

• How to set privacy levels.

Children as young as 8 are sharing their home address, phone number, and real name on social media. The Young and Social Online research shows 39% of children as young as eight, who use social media, have shared their real name on their accounts, 24% have posted a photo of their school or school uniform and 8% have shared their phone number and/or street address. So going over online boundaries with your kid is important for you and your kids' safety.

Some people might say kids should not have social media at a young age, and wait until they are 18. Because when you turn 18, you are legally an adult and allowed to make your own choices and held to be accountable for your actions online, and your brain is more developed making it so you make better choices.

While this is a good thought, I think that the age requirement is a good idea as a baseline but it should be a personal decision based on both age and maturity of the kid and how comfortable the parents are with the platform.

Example of age restrictions for various different social media platforms:

The springtime is known to be one of the most popular times to play sports because it gets you to exercise and also because your friends may be playing that sport with you!

What some people don't think about is the sports that many kids don't play, I am not talking about soccer, basketball, and volleyball. I am talking about the sports that don't get talked about that much.

Some of these sports consist of golf, which is a game where you try to put a ball in a hole, around a course and if you get it in, then you get points. Another sport is Rugby which usually isn't played with younger kids at all. It is mainly a sport that they have at college. The main reason why most people don't play Rugby is that it's a full-contact game so there's a higher chance of getting hurt. Another sport that is very underrated that I haven't even heard of before is called squash. It's a racquet sport that's played with two people (or four for doubles) on a four-walled court with a hollow rubber ball.

The last most underrated sport is Tennis. It's also a racquet sport consisting of two players or four players for doubles. You have a net in between each team and you use a softer hollow ball to try to get it over the net for the other player to hit.

Some of the reasons why people don't play these sports are because some people aren't interested in these sports or they haven't heard of them. Some also might not even have the right materials to succeed in the sport they're interested in.

One way you're able to play these games and play them correctly is to see if any public teams are in your area, so then you can play next season or even this season.

No vehicle is driven more than a car. A car is one of the best fast driving vehicles that is used in many ways for everyday stuff. There are about 1.4 billion drivers around the world that drive a car and 84.1% of the U.S population drives a car. This means that roughly about 20% of the U.S population does not drive a car, but the number will always be changing because people will continue to drive and buy cars which will change the percentage of U.S car drivers. Cars (Also known as automobiles) were first invented in 1886. Karl Benz was the first person to invent a car but at the time it was a three-wheeled motor car also known as a Motorwagen because the car was basically a three-wheeled wagon with motors. Cars have changed a lot since it was first created and some of the biggest car manufacturers right now like Honda, BMW and Toyota continue to change how cars are made to make them better vehicles to drive.

Most cars that are driven right now are gas cars because it’s the original type of car that was made and sold by big companies.

However, there is another type of car that is driven that does not use gas, an electric car. Electric cars seem kind of new but the idea of electric cars has been around since 1896 and the first ‘self-driving car’ was made in 1939 by a company that is still pretty popular, GM (General Motors.) The 1939 electric car was different than the 1886 gas car because the electric car had four wheels and an actual car body. Now, one of the most popular electric car companies is Tesla which was founded in 2003. Tesla is currently owned by Elon musk and continues to sell its Tesla Models. Most of the Tesla Models (3, S, Y) look like sports cars but Tesla does sell SUVs to fit more people. There are also electric trucks made by another popular car company that also makes gas cars, Ford.

Electric cars have been having a lot of success and people actually want to buy the type of car. Electric cars usually are looked at as more futuristic cars because the car doesn’t have an engine which also helps with reduced carbon emission. A lot of major companies are making a plan to switch over to only making electric cars in a specific year and Joe Biden said that he plans on spending billions of dollars on electric vehicle charging infrastructure. But even though most electric cars and companies are looking pretty good right now, there is still a common problem with most electric cars.

Making electric cars is a lot easier than making gas cars, so that's the main reason why most start-up car companies decide to start off by making electric cars. Making a car company, in general, requires a lot of money, workers and a manufacturing area. Car companies need to make a prototype of the car first and then actually make it functional. After they do that they have to do one thing that’s hard for a lot of electric car companies: Sell the car to the people who pre-ordered and make a sustainable manufacturing process. This is a problem that happens to a lot of new and existing electric car companies and it also happened to Tesla. Tesla created the Tesla Model 3, S and Y but they revealed the Tesla Roadster in 2017 and still haven’t released it 5 years later. The Tesla Roadster is set to release in 2023 and the CyberTruck that was revealed in 2019 still hasn't been released. There was also an option to pre-order the Tesla Roadster back in 2017 but the people that did pre-order never got the car because it wasn’t ready to be released yet. On the Tesla website, there is still a place to reserve the Tesla Roadster but the people who do it will still have to wait a whole year to get it or maybe not get it at all.

This has happened to other new Electric car companies like Byton, Faraday Future, Lordstown motors and more. All these companies can still end up selling a car eventually in the future but all of them did the same thing Tesla did with its Tesla Roadster and CyberTruck. Not only is there a problem selling the cars but overall the price of electric cars is just too high for most people. According to Forbes, nearly 60% of people don’t see themselves buying an electric car just off of the price. It’s also because gas cars have been around for a long time and they are a lot more familiar than electric cars. Overall though electric cars are still great cars to drive and a new experience for drivers. Most known car brands are starting to transition into making electric cars so maybe the cars will actually be shipped instead of delayed or canceled.

With Spring Break coming up, you’ll probably be spending much more time with your family. One of my favorite activities to do with my family is playing board games. We’ve spent thousands of hours playing various games. From strategy to puzzle to luck, these are my five favorite board games.

5. Monopoly

At number five, there’s Monopoly. Even though it takes hours of long, aggravating dice rolls, it’s the perfect combination of strategy and luck. Monopoly features many different properties which a player can purchase, eventually earning the player more money if other players land on it. If one player collects three properties of one color, they can now purchase houses on those properties. These houses cost a considerable amount of money, however, it greatly increases the rent of staying on the property. Overall, Monopoly is a great game, and it’s one of my favorite games.

4. Ticket to Ride

At number four, there’s Ticket to Ride. Ticket to Ride is a board game with a map of the USA that allows players to build train routes from one city to another. The goal in this game is to get the most points by building trains, completing tasks, and getting the longest train. The goal of the tasks is to get a consecutive train from one city to another. These tasks are worth varying amounts of points based on the distance from the two cities. For example, El Paso to Denver is worth four points, while something like Los Angeles to Miami is worth more than 20 points.

3. Aggravation

The third on the list is Aggravation. Aggravation is a very basic game, where the goal is to get all of your pieces around the board and into “home” without being captured by other players. It’s essentially Sorry, but there are stars every so often that massively change the game. If a player lands on a star, they can bypass most of the map and get almost all the way home with just one dice roll. There is also a middle area. In this area, if you roll a one, that piece moves to a star of your choice. Aggravation is a great game that I would recommend to anybody that hasn’t tried it.

2. Clue

At number two, there’s Clue. Clue is one of my favorite board games because it requires immense amounts of strategy. The goal in Clue is to solve who did a murder, where, and with what weapon. The player can solve this by asking questions about what cards other players have. The first player to find out what cards no players have, wins. To keep track of what players have what cards, you are given a “detective sheet” that you can mark in any way you want. Overall, Clue is a massively fun incredibly skillful game.

1. Catan

Finally, there’s Catan. This game is a 2-4 player game that requires players to get victory points by building settlements and cities or by achieving bonuses such as the longest road or the largest army. To do most of these actions, the player must spend resources, which they gain either by rolling the dice and it lands on a number adjacent to their settlement or city. Another way to gain resources is to trade with other players. For example, two players could trade one wheat for one brick. Catan is a very great strategy game.

To conclude, my favorite family board games are Monopoly, Ticket to Ride, Aggravation, Clue, and Catan.

The disaster of climate change has long been upheld over society's worries, but as it seems, it's not enough. The inevitability of climate change is moderate, but it is not impossible to fix. Though the serious implications of fossil fuels have been around for a long time, it has more than doubled its danger in the past century, and will only exponentially increase in its impact.

The strongest variable of climate change is carbon dioxide, taking up 80% of the earth's greenhouse gasses, and about 0.04% of the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide commonly gets dispersed into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil, but it is also released by burning plastic. Plastic plays another role in world warming. Due to the lack of recycling and reusability of plastics, most of them are either dumped or burned. When plastic is burned, it releases very harmful chemicals (such as Co2) into our environment.

Due to the large amount of greenhouse gasses being emitted into the atmosphere, a lot more heat is being trapped there, making our planet warmer overall. Our planet has increased by over 2.4 degrees worldwide. Eventually, ecosystems could fall without taking action as a planet.

Here are some of the highly probable results of our future.

• More and more animals could go extinct from losing their habitats.

• The Arctic could lose its ice, killing animals that thrive in the cold.

• Natural disasters will become more detrimental to our environment.

• Seasons could become longer or shorter.

• Precipitation patterns could change, affecting the tide, plant life, etc.

• The sea level will rise, affecting the coasts, ocean life, etc.

• Temperatures will keep rising without fail.

• Droughts and heatwaves will be more often occurring.

All of these problems connect one way or another, and one of the biggest connectors is carbon dioxide. Carbon is in everything, but too much isn't good. Continuing the destructive habits of life could result in total human extinction within a century if we don't take action anytime soon. Many of these issues will continue to get worse, but we have the chance to slow it down, and at most, reverse it.

The End of An Era: Arthur’s Final Episode

On February 21, 2022, Arthur aired its final episode. The show celebrated its 25th anniversary in a rather bittersweet way, showing the futures of its main characters 20 years from now.

Arthur is a truly one of a kind show. It’s the longest running animated kids series of all time, gaining numerous accolades such as four Daytime Emmy Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award. The show follows the adventures of Arthur the Aardvark and his animal friends and family as they simply navigate through life. While this sounds like the pitch for any stereotypical PBS Kids show, it has an almost unidentifiable trait to it that sets it apart from the others. This charm that has attracted so many children is arguably its cast. The characters just seem real, and their flaws make them believable, lovable, and unlike many other kids shows, never perfect. The show itself is not afraid to touch on darker topics typically missing in alternate programming such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, and divorce. Unfortunately, a show that has lasted for so long is bound to decline at some point.

The first 15 seasons of Arthur were hand drawn. They were charming, nostalgic, and comfortable. Season 16, on the other hand, was the first season to be animated with Adobe Flash, marking the beginning of Arthur’s end. Don’t get me wrong, the Flash based animation is still visually appealing, even if many still prefer the old version. However, the episodes lose a lot of the charm that made the older episodes so great. They seem empty and shallow, and they become almost indistinguishable from the bland filler shows that constitute the majority of today’s programming.

Luckily, the final episode of Arthur manages to briefly break this curse. The finale focuses on Arthur and his closest friend group, consisting of Muffy, Francine, and Buster. While the episode mainly revolves around these four, the flash forward scene shows the futures of these characters in addition to more minor support characters. Interestingly enough, the adult version of Arthur is voiced by Michael Yarmush, the original voice of the character from seasons 1-5. However, there is one more character that plays a pretty major role. He has made cameos in the last few seasons of the show, but this was the first time he actually interacted with others. He is the one to help Arthur find his passion in cartooning, and in the final moments of the series we see adult Arthur’s graphic novel featuring the very first episode of the show. In a shocking but heartwarming twist, we see that the entire TV show is essentially Arthur’s autobiography, made possible only by a mysterious, unnamed character.

This character is Marc Brown, the creator of Arthur.

I personally thought Arthur was going to end with a regular episode without any kind of indication that it was going to be the last episode.

But boy, was I wrong. There’s just so much to love about this episode.

Arthur interacting with his creator, Marc Brown. Arthur growing up to make graphic novels, the book starting with the first episode of Arthur from 1996. Michael Yarmush returning to voice Arthur as an adult. And, of course, seeing the characters finally grow up and become adults leading good lives.

I’m glad Arthur will still be available to watch on TV for years to come, via reruns. But it still saddens me to see it go. It’s made such a tremendous impact on my childhood and on countless others, and I’ll be forever grateful to Marc Brown, GBH, PBS Kids, and everyone in the cast and crew for making this legendary and iconic series possible.

It will always be a wonderful kind of day.

TomatoDial Rating: 100%

The governor’s have planned on dropping mask mandates this year in March. A lot of states have started already and I think that this is going to make things worse with COVID-19 because we’re basically not protecting ourselves by not covering up. It’s not obligatory to not use masks anymore, but people that are deciding to not wear them anymore are not realizing that there’s most likely going to be more COVID-19 cases.

People being vaccinated is somewhat helpful, but in reality it's really not because people have still gotten covid even after being vaccinated. It's no excuse to not wear masks anymore, there have been plenty of cases and dropping mask mandates will just make things worse. In my opinion, people that are still going to use their masks after they drop mask mandates are going to have a less chance of getting covid. I know that wearing masks won't stop us from getting covid, but it's less of a chance of getting it. The covid cases are already really bad and lifting mask mandates is just going to make it worse.

On March 19th, Oregon will no longer have to be required to wear masks in schools and indoor public places. In about three weeks, it will be up to individual entities to ask patrons or visitors to wear masks. Although, some places in Oregon remain the recommendation on wearing masks because they still have a high risk of covid. The pressure to move up the end of the mask mandate mounted as some communities and school districts across the state pushed back against the mask mandate.

The mayor has also planned on lifting the proof of vaccination requirement for indoor venus starting March 7th. In my opinion, I think this is a good idea. I think it’s good because some people either leave or lose their proof-of-vaccine and they wouldn't have to worry each time to bring it or they won't have to panic for not bringing it. Another reason is because some people that haven’t gotten vaccinated have not been able to work or be at some places because of it and it will be very helpful.

You should be living and eating like an athlete and I’m gonna tell you why. Athletes maintain some of the most insane bodies and they do it by more than just working out and going to practice. Athletes have super crazy diets and eat differently than all of the world. They all use different strategies to be healthy, some being vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, or a lot of protein. All sports are different and need different body types to play at the level professional athletes do.

One great example of an athlete that ate well and took care of his body is Tom Brady. Tom Brady took serious care of his body ever since he started in the NFL, and that’s why he was able to play for as long as he did. He made sure to stick to what worked and looked really good and fit in his 40s. He lasted a lot longer than quarterbacks because of how he planned out his career and treated his body like he wanted to play forever.

How can eating like an athlete can help you if you're just a regular person that does not play sports? Studies have shown that eating like an athlete can help you maintain a good body and a good lifestyle. Adults that eat like athletes are a lot more likely to live longer and have a lot fewer health issues. Eating well and with some of the same habits athletes have is also helpful in reducing stress and can help your skin.

Eating like an athlete doesn’t mean you have to follow some crazy diet and never eat food that you want. Every athlete isn’t perfect and to be healthy, cheat days are allowed! Yes! You can eat sugar and have sweets sometimes, as long as you keep it managed and only on special occasions.

I talked to former NFL football player Rashaad Carter about what it took to get to the NFL. He told me about some of the eating habits he uses to this day. One of the things he told me he learned over his years is that “your body is a machine, treat it right and it will treat you right”. He also told me that to this day he still makes sure to eat healthy so that he can operate right and be active for as many years as his body can handle

Nutrition can turn someone’s life around and that can be you. Eating like an athlete is just one of the ways you can be healthy. Everyone has to start somewhere and anyone can do it if they just put their mind to it!

https://www.trifectanutrition.com/blog/sports-nutrition-why-you-should-be-eating-like-an-athlete#:~:text=Nutrition%20is%20important%20for%20all,wellbeing%20for%20years%20to%20come.

Stephanie Perkins once said, “you ought to stop listening to stereotypes and forming your own opinions”. I do not like the color pink because I feel like I am supposed to, just because I am a girl.

Through the years, pink has been identified as the girl’s color and blue as the boys. These colors haven't always been stereotyped. In fact, when this stereotype came into the world in the 1920s, blue was for girls because it was called the more delicate and dainty color, and pink for the boys because it was called the more decided and stronger color. Finally, after 20 years in the 1940’s, it switched and blue was the masculine color and pink the feminine color. That means people have been stereotyping pink and blue for around 100 years.

Why those colors? For all the colors out there, why was it decided that pink and blue were the colors that had to define genders? Who decided that? No one knows who did it, but Christopher Steele believes that Henry Huntington is the one who changed this after seeing his 18th-century paintings consisting of Pinkie which was of a girl in a pink dress, and then the Blue Boy which was of a boy in a blue outfit. Afterward, a lot of people assumed that it was Christopher Steele who made this stereotype.

What is my opinion on this? As I said, I think that this stereotype is outdated and overrated. I know that some people think that I try to be a tomboy or something. I think that I nor other girls or boys should be judged if they do not like the color they are stereotyped to like.

In conclusion, I think that there should be no stereotypes about this topic, and girls and boys should like the colors they want, and not feel like they should change just because of other people's opinions.

Imagine you are in a school in which your gender is a minority. You go every day of the week and work hard. It’s an amazing school and you enjoy it very much. Everyone is kind to you, and you are respected by the teachers and the students. Despite all this, there is one problem: there are no bathrooms specifically for your gender, except a non-accessible one in the health room. You either have to walk all the way there (which may be hard if it's an emergency) or just go to a bathroom where every second that you are in there you feel uncomfortable and mad. You feel as though you don’t belong there. This is the experience of many students and potentially staff at your school. Who are these students and staff, you might ask? They are individuals who identify with both or neither gender and whose pronouns are they/them or any other pronouns that aren’t he/him or she/her. This is why Whitford needs to have more accessible non-binary, or gender-neutral bathrooms.

One reason why we need non-binary restrooms is that quite a large amount of people in middle school are non-binary. In an article published on May 22, 2021, in the U.S. News online, reporter Amy Norton stated that “10% of students identify as gender diverse.” Doesn’t that mean that we are neglecting 10% of our school and telling them they can’t be who they are? Neglecting this letter and not at least doing something in some way, you are showing 10% of the school that their gender is not valid enough for a bathroom and that you don’t care about them. If a counterargument to the proposal of gender-neutral bathrooms is that students won’t have privacy in these bathrooms anyways, that’s not the case because they would be one-person, lockable restrooms like the one in the health room.

One little thing like not being able to go to the right bathroom might be what pushes someone over the edge, or off that bridge, or even that extra pill that they don’t need. Statistics show that LGBTQIA2S+ people have more than double the rates of depression and suicide, not to mention being assaulted, abused, etc. I know this is a very sensitive topic in many ways, but I want to bring this up because this is the age when we start realizing things about ourselves and figuring out who we are and who we want to be, and if we have one or two non-binary restrooms, that would influence Whitford in a way that would be impactful and significant to many people in a positive way overall.

My last and final reason why I know that Whitford should add a non-binary restroom is that this school has definitely put in their effort to show that they care about everyone. One example of this is that there is a section in the hall by the counselors dedicated to supporting the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Doing this would also be another way to show the school that you and the entire school support their students’ choices in who they are. Do you care about your students?

Whitford needs a community that lets them know that they are accepted and supported, no matter what happens in their lives. Doing this would influence the lives of many in this school. This would also encourage other schools to do the same and show that they care. This would make it normal to have inclusive restrooms and live inclusive lives.

Afghanistan has long struggled to keep women's rights and education. Since the Taliban took over in August of 2020, girls have not been able to return to school. Women have not been able to go in public without a male with them. Women's jobs and health care have also been taken away since then.

According to Orbit, “The Taliban have often been labeled as the Afghan Government and America’s greatest enemy in Afghanistan”. The Taliban is a terrorist group that has been plotting to take over Afghanistan for some time now. The Taliban is a predominantly Pashtun Islamic fundamentalist group that returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, after twenty years of trying to take over the government. The Taliban made everything in Afghanistan not pleasant or fun to live in.

The Taliban rule strictly states that girls will not be able to go back to school and women will not be returning back to their jobs or even go in public without a male with them. If a woman were to go in public without a man or try to return to their job, breaking the Taliban rule, they would be whipped, stoned, or publicly executed. Since August 2020, women have been frustrated, outraged, and furious by this ban on their rights and the consequences of possibly breaking them.

Afghanistan’s education is not good right now. About 3.7 million children are out of school in Afghanistan, roughly 60% of them are girls. According to UNICEF, “The underlying reasons for low girls’ enrolment is insecurity and traditional norms and practices related to girls and women’s role in the society. Other reasons can be explained in part by a lack of female teachers, especially in rural schools''. A long walk to school means fewer children go to school because it's too hard to get there. When children make it to school, they often receive a lower quality education because only 48% of their teachers have the minimum academic qualifications, according to UNICEF. One solution for getting kids back to school is to get them to the building and keep them there and help them to become healthy and responsible citizens.

A man's and a woman's roles are very different in Afghanistan. A man's role is to provide for his wife or children, working and bringing money to feed the family while a woman's role is to be a caretaker for her husband and children. She is keen to give her husband everything he needs after working all day. While Men can have up to 4 wives, women have only one husband. These roles have been set in stone for as long as any of us can remember and they have slowly broken in most countries. But, in Afghanistan, things have not changed as much and the Taliban would like to keep it that way. This is why the Taliban don't want women to work or have an education.

Healthcare workers in Afghanistan have been working without salaries, without medication for patients, and with frequent power cuts. According to NPR OPB, “in September, the World Health Organization issued a statement that the health care system in Afghanistan was on the verge of collapse. ... Hospitals are running out of medicine”. If this doesn’t get fixed soon, then the hospitals will collapse and people will not be able to get provided with the things they need.

We can only hope that women and girls in Afghanistan will walk freely once again. Go back to their jobs without being scared of being put to death or return to school and go out in public without a male, without fear.

Today I will be presenting my opinion on the top 5 super bowl commercials for 2022. This is completely opinion-based, and if you have any other suggestions feel free to let me know!

5. Expedia:

In this advertisement, Ewan McGregor stars as himself, through a very thoughtful message about travel. I rated this commercial highly because of how well made, and how meaningful it was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMaispXEh94

4. Uber Eats:

This one stars actors and actresses such as Jennifer Coolidge, and Gwyneth Paltrow. All these different people try to order from uber eats, but suddenly realize what they ordered wasn’t actually food. They sadly find this out by eating these non-edible items.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri-rXPw5Cnk

3. Squarespace:

For those who don’t know, Squarespace is a web designing and business creating platform, and this advertisement stars Zendaya. In this commercial, she is selling seashells on the seashore. All the tongue-twisters in this ad make for a very funny and hard-to-understand commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0rl8j5631Q

2. Coinbase:

This commercial was very successful. This coinbase ad actually got about 20 million sales within only one minute of time, with the simplest ad ever known. It features a bouncing QR code scanner, which will send you directly to the coinbase website. Don’t worry, it does hit the corner in the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zLsUhOCqyU

1. FTX:

Another app for cryptocurrency, this one starring comedian Larry David. In this commercial, Larry travels through time to some of the most meaningful events in history, such as the invention of the lightbulb. However, he downgrades every choice that will make good things happen, including FTX. This is a very clever, and funny commercial, and that is why I rated it number one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH5-rSxilxo

Okay, this concludes my list of the top 5 super bowl ads for 2022. Let me know if you agree or disagree!

Poll down below

What comes to mind when someone says cartoon orange cat? Garfield is what probably comes to mind, but Heathcliff was relatively popular a couple of years before Garfield was an Idea in Jim Davis’s mind. The success of Garfield influenced Heathcliff's style and likely started Garfield's change to two legs. Heathcliff has had two television adaptations (Heathcliff and Dingbat as well as the better known Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats) and had a surprisingly long Marvel comic run. Heathcliff’s history was not without tragedy, on September 30, 2001, the original author of Heathcliff died and his son took up the comic strip and ended up changing the tone to be more surreal. Even now, Heathcliff is still running strong. But enough Heathcliff, let's talk about one of the most famous Garfield comics of all time.

In October 1989, a Garfield comic about being lonely was released in newspapers. The comic follows Garfield waking up in an abandoned version of the classic 711 Maple Street house hungry and alone. Eventually, the story ended and the standard Garfield run continued. Most people believe that the comic in question is just a creepypasta, however, this can be proved to be false.

If you ask Jim Davis about his work before Garfield we will talk about the end of Gnorm Gnat which he said that he ended the comic by squashing Gnorm. However, with the help of a Pendleton librarian Quinton Hoover was able to find the final Gnorm Gnat comic which contained Gnorm saying “Merry Christmas Pendelton.”

Now you know more about Garfield than anyone should.

NFTs; you may have heard of them before in a capacity or perhaps you’ve never heard of them. NFT stands for “Non-Fungible Tokens”, but in their simplest forms, they are basically certificates that say you own a digital picture. That’s right, you don’t even own the picture, you own a token that says you own it that you can sell. In theory, this could sound like a good idea to few and pointless to most, with almost all NFTs being super ugly and just looking the same. They use the same base format that essentially gets prints and clothing put onto them with a few examples of that being “CryptoPunks” and “Bored Ape Yacht Club” NFTs. They also have very bad effects on both artists and the environment, which is going to be what I will bring up in this article.

Environmental Impact:

If you know how NFTs work, you can probably guess the reasoning to this part but, if you haven't, here is why. To Purchase a NFT, it costs Etherum or Ether which is a type of crypto currency, so like other crypto currencies it has a great environmental impact. The main reason cryptos are so bad for the environment is because they have to be “mined” . What that means is that your computer, let's say, will just be constantly running to solve these complex puzzles that will create and verify new crypto. Now this may not sound that bad, but it takes about 14,500 watts of electricity per hour with the best equipment you can get. “A 100 W bulb that burns for a year without being turned off consumes the same amount of electricity as can be generated by 700 pounds of coal.” Then you also have to take into consideration the amount of electricity that is used to make a single transaction with Etherum that is “Equivalent to the carbon footprint of 226,910 VISA transactions or 17,063 hours of watching YouTube,” according to downtoearth.org.

Impact on Artists:

NFT’s may sound like an artist who is trying to make it’s dream come true, but it is more like a la la land for artists in the way that many don’t know that their art is being sold. That is right, some artists have their art stolen from platforms like Twitter and Instagram where they post the art for people to see, but instead it gets stolen and sold with them not getting any profit. A case of this is Aja Trier, an artist who will often take Vincent Van Gogh’s pieces like “Starry Night” and add an environment to them with things like castles, dogs, and land. In doing this, she has gained popularity and she’s not just stealing the paintings and not changing them at all. Instead she adds to them and makes them her own unique art pieces. Which is something I can’t say for the art thieves that stole pictures of her art probably off of her website and they made a page on opensea.io (the main NFT marketplace). They later sold her artwork without her permission or even knowledge, which went on until the page got shut down.

So as you can see, not only are NFTs pretty silly, they also damage artists and the environment.

There has recently been a lot of justified concern regarding guns and gun laws; numerous school shootings and other fatal incidents have occurred in the past few months. People are arguing that there needs to be stricter gun laws to prevent these types of tragedies, but many authoritative figures are refusing, protesting that they have the right to be in possession of a firearm.

The Michigan school shooting in November caused uproar from a lot of people, pushing even further to enforce laws. The shooter, a 15 year-old boy, received the gun in question from his dad. In many peoples’ opinions, minors should not be allowed to own a gun. This could help prevent tragedies like these from happening in the future. There have also been numerous stories of small children getting ahold of their parents’ or friends’ guns, which were not secured properly, and killing or severely injuring themselves or other people. Guns should be locked away out of sight of children, especially young ones who don’t know any better.

In some states, you do not need to have a permit to own a gun, although the federal government has some regulations in place. Studies show that in states with more gun control, there are fewer incidents regarding firearms. In Oregon, there are a few gun laws, but it is an open-carry state; you can carry a firearm in public places.

I believe that there should be some amendments to the Constitution, as well as more restricting laws.

Although adding new gun rules would ‘go against’ the Constitution, It would be for the better of the country and the people.

2021’s Most Hyped Film Does Not Fail To Deliver

--------------------Spoiler Warning: Spiderman: No Way Home--------------------

Spider-Man: No Way Home. Even if you’re not a Marvel fan, there’s a good chance you’ve heard or even seen it already. Arguably the most exciting film of 2021 and certainly the most hyped Marvel movie since Avengers: Endgame, this movie smashes records in every area you compare it in; Emotion? This movie is the most emotional Marvel movie yet. Action? Every previous Spiderman and Spiderman villain (from the Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire movies) is here. The box office? 52.7 million dollars in its first weekend alone. And let me tell you, this movie deserves it.

Spider-Man: No Way Home follows the story of Spiderman (Tom Holland) after his life is flipped upside down by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) revealing his secret identity as Peter Parker to the world. Parker’s friends and family’s lives are all ruined as they are seen as villains by the world and media. After Parker and his friends’ college applications to MIT are denied due to the controversy surrounding them, Parker decides to go to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help. Strange decides to help Parker by casting a spell on the world meant to make everyone forget that he is Spiderman. However, Parker botches the spell and accidentally opens gateways to alternate universes where old villains (and heroes) can get in.

No Way Home is the best Marvel movie to date. That’s really all I can say about it. It serves old and new fans alike with delightful appearances by both of the old Spider-Men (Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire), the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), and many more. It has endlessly satisfying action and the reintroduction of previous characters not only flows seamlessly with the rest of the plot in a way that provides the movie a great service, but it also retroactively provides a service to fans of the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb films as well. However, the greatest strength of this movie is its sheer emotion. No Way Home is one of the most emotional movies of 2021 in that it finally decides to look at the dark backgrounds and motivations behind what makes Spider-Man who he is. This is a refreshing take on Peter Parker after the first two MCU Spider-Man movies used already existing characters (most notably Iron Man) as a crutch for his character development. In No Way Home, however, Peter Parker is no one but his own man. With Dr. Strange out for most of the movie and Parker being mostly over the death of Tony Stark, we finally get to see a darker side of Parker after he grasps desperately for support following the death of his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) at the hands of the Green Goblin. This leads to two of the most emotional moments in Marvel. One is when he’s crying on his school’s rooftops alone until his burden is shared by his friends and other Spider-Men from alternate universes. Parker struggles under the responsibility he has placed on himself until his alternate selves remind him of his Aunt May and their Uncle Ben’s final words: “With great power comes great responsibility.” The other moment is when Peter Parker shows a previously unseen brutal side to his character as he relentlessly beats the Green Goblin, going so far as to attempt to kill him with his own glider until he is stopped by Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man.

The alternate Spider-Men are one of the most attractive qualities of this film. Surprisingly enough, they aren’t merely cameos but fully fleshed-out characters that are vital to the plot. They serve the purpose of older, wiser versions of Peter Parker that try to stop him from making the same mistakes that they did. MJ (Zendaya) and Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) alone would not have been enough to provide the amount of character development that happened to Peter Parker in this movie.

While this movie is packed with heart-wrenching moments that leave the theater in tears, it is still filled to the brim with humor that is characteristic of Spider-Man multiplied by three. The interactions between the Spider-Men are absolute gold, with multiple throwback lines and dialogue that you can’t help but fall in love with. What surprised me was how, while it is helpful, it isn’t necessary to watch every previous Spider-Man movie. This is especially true considering our Peter Parker knows nothing about the characters from alternate universes, and the plot is structured in such a way that we learn about the characters along with him.

While this movie is absolutely amazing, it, unfortunately, suffers from some of the same problems as many other superhero films: its pacing. Scenes that are less important to the plot often take up more time than essential. The pacing somehow seems both rushed and too slow at the same time, but in the end, it seems relatively balanced for its 148-minute runtime.

In conclusion, Spider-Man: No Way Home is a spectacular film that manages to pay tribute to the weird and complex history of Spider-Man as a cinematic icon. This strange background never hinders the story, instead of enhancing it, using the character’s quirks and legacy to illuminate why he has endured and been immortalized for so long. As one of the most emotional movies Marvel has put out so far, the film is a grand slam in almost every comparable area. A beautiful homage for fans of every generation, this film lives up to its hype as one of the greatest movies of 2021.

TomatoDial Rating: 97%

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Covid-19. It has been here for over two years, and will continue to wreak havoc for a while longer. Could it have been stopped sooner? Probably. The ignorance and stubborn insistence of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers fed the fire of this virus, and helped it gain a foothold. Since April of 2020, these people have refused to comply with safety guidelines, using weak excuses such as ‘I have the right to breathe oxygen’ to back up their unacceptable behavior. Truth be told, they are putting the rest of us in danger. By refusing to wear a mask or get vaccinated, these anti-vaxxers and maskers are reducing herd immunity while also raising the exposure rate for people around them. These people obviously are more likely to get covid, and then spread it very easily to others. American freedom is a powerful thing, but it has been taken advantage of by these anti-maskers and vaxxers. The excuses they use are abusing their rights; It seems only fair that they shouldn’t get those rights anymore.

The covid vaccines were made faster than any other vaccine and approved for emergency use; this was good news for the overall population, but quite a few people were unnerved by the quickness of the development. Many of them were wary of the vaccine, fearful that it was made too fast and could possibly cause harm. Others just flat out refused to get vaccinated to prove a point. Fortunately, many of the people who were originally not vaccinated have gotten the vaccine now, and boosters are becoming widely available. Although the vaccine doesn’t work particularly well to stop the spread of Omicron, it will help prevent breakthrough cases from being serious enough to require hospitalization. The biggest concern right now should be getting vaccinated and trying not to catch the virus, so that hospitals will be able to remain open and not be burdened with thousands of preventable cases. During the Delta wave, hospitals were struggling to care for all of the patients; many of the doctors and nurses themselves had fallen ill, and there was a countrywide hospital bed shortage. Less serious illnesses and problems were being rejected to clear room for those who suffered from severe cases of covid. This was an incredibly stressful time for everyone, and it’s important to keep safe to prevent this from happening again.

Covid is moving in a pattern of waves; a wave dies off just to be met with one of a new variant. The reocurring problem with this pattern is that people will get a bit too comfortable with the wave as it tapers. As the cases go down, people will start going out more and lower their mask regulations. This provides an easier target for the next wave. Delta is probably the best example of this occurrence. The pandemic seemed to be coming to an end; more and more people were getting vaccinated, cases were going down, and mask regulations in some places were lifted for vaccinated people. This allowed Delta to gain a foothold in the unvaccinated population, and then spread like wildfire across the world. If, however, the regulations stayed in place and people continued to take the proper precautions, Delta might not have hit that hard. Now, with Omicron, it is a fast wave that will probably die out quickly. It’s only a matter of time before the next wave comes, so keeping this in mind will make sure that the same mistake is not made another time.

These are my top games to play on Nintendo Switch. Hopefully, you enjoy them!

3. Overcooked Two

Overcooked Two is a co-op game where you have to cooperate with your teammates to reach a certain amount of money in a limited amount of time. There are three game modes: campaign, survival, and practice modes. In total, there are six different worlds with each of them having six different maps to play on. You can play with up to four players in local or online multiplayer. The game was developed by Team17 and Ghost Town Games. The game is currently available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Playstation Four, and Windows. They also released the game on the Playstation Five and Xbox Series X on November 12, 2020. In the Nintendo e-shop, Overcooked two will cost you $24.99 not including DLC.

2. Mario Odyssey

Mario Odyssey is one of the newer Mario games. The goal of the game is to stop Bowser, the main villain, from forcefully marrying Princess Peach. Mario follows Bowser and travels to many different kingdoms to stop him. In each and every kingdom, you have to find differing amounts of Power Moons, which is a power source for your ship. In total there are 999 for you to collect. Mario Odyssey is different from the other Mario games because it's more open-world instead of the standard level type. You are free to explore the kingdoms for as long as you would like which makes this game feel different. Mario Odyssey was released on October 27, 2017, and sold a total of 21.95 million copies. This game will cost you around $59.99 but every part is worth it.

1. Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the first fully open-world game in the Zelda franchise. It also has the biggest map of them all. The game starts when you awake at the Shrine of Resurrection 100 years after the Calamity. You play as Link and try to save Princess Zelda where she is trapped in the castle because of Gannon, the final boss. In this open-world game, there are three key things: Divine Beasts, 120 shrines to complete, and 900 koroks to find. To start with Divine Beasts, are ancient pieces of technology that were made 10,000 years back and made for combat. When Gannon appeared, these machines were taken over and turned evil. There are four in total and you may conquer them. As for Shrines, these are mini-dungeons that award you with a spirit orb at the end and are used to upgrade your stamina or heart. These Shines are spread all across the map. And lastly, Koroks are small creatures that, when you find them, they’ll give you koroks seeds that you can exchange for more inventory space. Zelda: Breath of the Wild will cost you $59.99 which may be a lot but feels like underpaying after since this game is so much fun.

Thanks for reading this article! Hopefully, you learned something new but also enjoyed it!

In the middle of the North Pacific ocean, there are 3 islands of trash. There are many names for these islands of trash: the Pacific trash vortex, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Western Garbage Patch, the Subtropical Convergence Zone, Eastern Garbage Patch, and the North Pacific Subtropical High. This giant patch has been growing for decades and finally, someone thought of a way to help the problem; inventor Boyan Slat started the ocean cleanup in 2013 at the age of 18 in his hometown of Delft, The Netherlands. The Ocean Cleanup Project is a nonprofit organization that tries to dispose of the world's plastic ocean trash.

The Ocean Cleanup Project has 120 engineers, researchers, scientists, computational modelers, and supporting roles, working daily to rid the world's oceans of plastic. They have picked up 19,841 pounds of debris from the GPGP (Great Pacific Garbage Patch). The GPGP has roughly 1.1 to 3.6 trillion pieces and is 610,000 square miles wide between California and Hawaii. The main variety of plastics found in the GPGP are nets, ropes, and mainly fishing gear ranging from small fragments and large objects. The 1960s was when plastic first started to become a problem, since then the plastic in the ocean has tripled.

What is the effect on marine life? Marine debris is very dangerous for animals, they get caught in nets, eat plastic, and get plastic stuck on them. Over 700 species have had problems with debris, 92% of the animal's problems have to do with plastic. A study has shown that there is 180x more plastic than marine life. Animals who go through the GPGP are more than likely to get caught in the plastic debris or end up consuming the garbage. The Laysan Albatross birds of Kure Atoll and Oahu have roughly 45% of their wet mass containing plastic from the GPGP due to the many small pieces of plastic they consume unknowingly.

What is the effect on humans? The main effect of the GPGP on humans is the food chain. Once the animals who consume the plastic from the GPGP become prey, It goes to the predator and slowly makes their way to humans. For example, if a sardine eats a microplastic it will absorb the minute chemicals into its system. When a larger fish eats multiple sardines, it then absorbs the chemicals in larger amounts. This continues to grow as the food chain grows with larger predators consuming large amounts of prey. Ultimately, humans eat fish, like tuna, which has built up a large amount of these plastic-based chemicals. Along with the physical impact, plastic pollution also affects humans financially. It costs between 6-19 billion for the economic costs due to marine plastic. It is proven that it costs less money to get the plastic out of the rivers.

In conclusion, I think that the Ocean Cleanup Project is a great idea. I think more people and companies should try to do what the Ocean Cleanup Project is doing. Plastic is such a big problem in our world and when more people are helping by using biodegradable resources, helping the environment, and cleaning the ocean it helps a lot more.

A very long time ago, wooly mammoths went extinct. Scientists want to bring them back so they can restore grass and improve the ecosystem. A scientist from the University of Harvard, George Church hopes that the wooly mammoths will walk on this earth once again. They have raised $15 million dollars towards bringing them back. How are they bringing them back? Scientists are taking a frozen wooly mammoth and DNA from an Asian elephant which is the closest relative to the woolly mammoth. But, will the mammoth do all good? Here are the pros and cons of bringing back the woolly mammoths.

Pros

Church says that the woolly mammoths could help tundras turn into grasslands. After the Ice Age, the mammoths went extinct and carbon dioxide got released into the atmosphere. Bringing the mammoths back will help absorb more carbon dioxide and that can increase the grasslands, also helping with climate change. Bringing them back will also help other species of animals from going extinct. It will also uncover more scientific information and will help us in the future to find cures and bring back important animals from extinction.

Cons

Although there are a lot of pros, there are also some cons. The mammoths will live miserable lives and will be used. They will never be able to walk around freely. It's also 10,000 years after extinction so their habitat will be totally different from what it used to be. Where would we put them? The earth is very different and could affect them a lot.

There are a lot of different reasons why we should and should not bring them back. Although I don't like the idea of them being used, I think we should bring the wooly mammoths back. They will help with climate change and prevent others from going extinct. What do you think, should we bring these furry beasts back to life?

Here is a new years resolution; stop dieting and start savoring. You may agree, you may not, but there are many diets that are worse for you. I am saying this because I know many people who have gone on diets before and it did not go the way they wanted it to. This may seem like surprising advice, but diets just make you want to eat more. Research shows that when you can't eat certain foods it just makes you want to eat more. This is why you should start savoring.

Stoping a diet is really hard to do because sometimes you have already started that diet and you are used to it. Many diet programs are asking people who need to start dieting to join, but their promises never end in your favor. ¨A diet is an unpleasant and short-lived way to try to lose weight¨said, Dr. Mann. ¨You might take it off in the short term, but it comes back¨ Dr. Mann added. I think what Dr. Mann is trying to say is that once you get used to eating your normal diet then once to try to change it’s hard to go to savoring your food.

What's the alternative? It's a variety of techniques that encourage the brain to be aware of what we eat. It will help when you crave foods like candy or sugary foods. ¨The paradigms around willpower don’t work,¨ said Dr. Judson Brewer.¨You have to start knowing how your mind works¨. I think that Dr. Judson Brewer meant was that you have to know what foods you can savor and which foods you can eat. So when you want to eat foods you cant evolve around you just don’t eat them. One way to do that is to just get rid of them.

Eating habits are formed by eating a certain food every day if not a lot in a certain amount of time. This makes you want to eat that food more than other choices of food. Which leads to eating very unhealthy depending on which foods you eat. It is just like when you make a new sleep schedule it makes your brain gets used to it. So after about a month of doing it every day, your boys are just used to it. It is the same way with eating habits.

So what if savoring food doesn't happen as fast as you want it to? It will take some time to develop your brain to get used to savoring, but if you savor every day you will get to where your goal is. All in all, food savoring is one of the best ways to lose weight and stay healthy in the quickest amount of time.

All the games that I'm about to say are partial to my opinion.

4. Minecraft

Minecraft is a really fun game to play with your friends. You can play on servers, but only on some of them without a Microsoft account. You can play battle, tumble, glide, you can join other servers, and can even make your own server. You can customize your server, make it so only your friends can join, or just make it public. In the tumble mini-game, you can play shovels, snowballs, fireworks, poison that makes you float, and more. All of these games are very fun to play.

3. Marvel Spider-Man

This game has really good graphics and sound effects. There are lots of cool skins to choose from, lots of bosses to beat, and different abilities that you can use to catch the enemy. There are other story modes to play and other enemies to catch as well.

2. Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Okay, this game is really fun to play with your friends. The max number of players is up to eight players, and there are lots of different characters to choose from as well. You can select your platforms to fight on, you can make custom platforms, and you can even customize how you want to play the game. For example, you can choose whether or not you want to use items or the smash ball. The smash ball is a power-up that can eliminate your opponent. There are real smash balls, as well as fake ones. The fake one takes damage on your characters. The goal of this game is to be the last one standing. If that isn’t enough, you can go online to PVP with other players. However, it will take lots of skill to win in an online match. You can join tournaments, or you can make your own tournament to fight with your friends.

1. Mario kart 8 deluxe

This game is very fun to play with your friends. There are lots of cars, maps, characters, and speeds to choose from. Speeds vary from 50cc, which is easy, and 200cc, which is hard. You can play with your friend online, and there are also other mods you can play with. For example, there are balloon fights. The point of the balloon fight is to try to not get your balloon popped by your friends, or by bots. There is a cops vs robbers game that you can play, and they are all super fun. One more mod that you can play is that you can make so that there is no bot, only your friends. You can have up to four people in the game.

If schools started later, students would be able to focus and pay attention easier because they would get more sleep. If kids got more sleep they could get better grades and could have less depression and anxiety, be less moody, and be able to get physical activity everyday. Later start times would help students be more successful.

Number 5: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Neon Genesis Evangelion is an action anime that was made in 1995. The anime is about a high school boy named Shinji that was asked by his dad who abandoned him to come to a city called Tokyo-3. It was then revealed that he was only invited because his dad wanted him to pilot a giant robot to protect the city from Angels which are basically aliens.

Number 4: One Piece

One Piece is a very long anime with over 1000 episodes. With over 1000 episodes, it might be very long, but its story is very deep. This story is about a kid named Luffy who accidentally gave himself special abilities with the help of the devil fruit. Luffy attempts to be the pirate king, which is the person who finds the One Piece, the treasure that the pirate Gold D Roger left behind after his death. Luffy sets sail to look for comrades to recruit for his adventures across the world to become the pirate king.

Number 3: Jujutsu Kaisen

Having won anime of the year 2020, I see all reasons why this anime should be on this list. The main antagonist, Itadori Yujii, starts off the series by eating Sukuna’s finger which is supposed to kill you but miraculously survives (Sukuna, is a very powerful special grade curse with four hands that was killed thousands of years before). When he ate the finger, Sukuna became a part of his body so the current jujutsu sorcerers ordered Itadori to be executed. One of the superiors then convinced the others to let him live and execute him after he has eaten all 20 fingers since you rarely find people who won’t die from eating his finger.

Number 2: Attack On Titan

Attack On Titan is a dark post-apocalyptic anime which is about humanity, living in a huge wall to protect themselves from titans, human-eating monsters. This story begins when a huge titan, peers over the 50-meter wall and kicks a hole into it. Then, Titans start walking in and start eating people. The story follows the main antagonist, Eren Yeager, who was in the town when the titans invaded. A few years after the invasion, Eren joins the cadets to get revenge on the titans.

Number 1: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

This one is hard to explain so if you don't understand, I'm sorry. Basically, this story is about a bloodline, the Joestar bloodline. The Joestar bloodline is fated to clash with a man named Dio and his followers which is usually the main topic of each part. With six parts,(Phantom Blood, Battle Tendency, Stardust Crusader, Diamond is Unbreakable, Golden Wind, and Stone Ocean) each part follows a different Joestar in time periods. Jjba (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure) is mainly action and adventure with many very good fights. This anime is also my favorite.

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The US has struggled with gun violence for over 100 years. But since the pandemic, gun violence has gone up 30%. The pandemic is causing people to act out in dangerous ways like drug use, homicide, suicide, and gun violence. There have been more school shootings. Seems like every week we see on the news another school shooting has happened. Since 2009, at least 177 of America's schools have experienced a shooting. This high number of school shootings is unique to America. The other countries across the world do not experience school shootings on a regular basis. It leads many to question what could be done to prevent them. The supreme court is trying to take a New York law down that could save lives.

New York has a strict gun law that limits people's ability to take a gun out of their homes. If the Supreme Court takes away this law, it would make it easier to carry a gun in public. The Supreme Court is targeting New York because of its strict gun laws which potentially may be a violation of the second amendment. The second amendment says that you have a right to carry a gun for certain purposes such as self-defense.

Unlike New York, in Michigan you can carry a gun in public. 2 weeks ago there was a shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan. 15-year-old Ethan Crumbly got a gun for a Christmas present when he was young and would practice target shooting with his mom in his free time. Ethan was drawing questionable things. He drew a gun shooting someone and the words “Help, Thoughts won't stop, the world is dead,” He was soon reported. Counselors called Ethan’s parents for an emergency meeting. But the parents refused to take the sophomore out of school. The counselors later sent Ethan back to the class which they would learn later was a bad decision.

Hours later, three students were killed and 8 others injured, including teachers and staff. Since 2021 we have had 25 mass shootings and 31 school shootings. This violence is only gonna get worse if we don't do anything about it.

Some ways to prevent shootings so that they don't happen are better background checks. Background checks are a way to help keep guns from individuals who may harm themselves or others. Running a background check on people before selling a gun is very helpful because it identifies people who are prohibited from owning them. This system keeps guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them.

Background checks save lives. Since 1994 when they started doing background checks it has stopped more than 3 million illegal gun sales.

We looked at 10 years of school shootings in K-12 schools and this is what we found.

In the year 2009, there were 13 school shootings and throughout all of those 5 were killed and 14 were injured. In 2010 there were a total of 8 school shootings. Within those 8 there were 4 killed and 7 injured. In 2011 there were 3 killed and 18 injured. In 2012, there were 31 killed and 8 injured. In 2013, 6 were killed and 11 were injured. In 2014, 12 people were killed and 16 were injured. 2015, 3 were killed and 22 were injured. In 2016 there were 5 people killed and 46 people injured. in 2017 there were 8 killed and 32 injured. And in 2018 there were a total of 37 people were killed and 68 people were injured. Over the years school shootings have gotten worse and worse. Over the past decade, there were at least 180 shootings at K-12 schools in the US. They happen in big cities and small towns, at dances, during class. They are happening more and more.

All of this evidence proves that we need more gun laws. I believe if we had more gun laws our country would be a safer environment. Even though it states in the second amendment that you should be able to carry a gun for self-defense, it does more harm than good in the long run.

Do you know these brands; Brandy Melville, Forever 21, Abercrombie and Fitch, Express, Calvin Klein, and Levis? Have you heard of all the different body shapes and sizes that every wonderful person has? Well, sorry to burst your bubble but these brands are not body positive! Which in any case isn’t good because every single person has a different body type, and all of them are beautiful.

Do you know why most brands don't sell their clothing over a large size? Unfortunately, most brands have beauty standards set so that their ideal customer is in the mindset of being skinny to be pretty or you can't have a single ounce of fat on your body. Most brands want girls, guys, and non-binary pals to have a body like a Malibu Barbie or Ken which is stupid because they make girls and guys have many body-image issues.

When a brand’s target audience is people who are between sizes Xs and Medium, they are actually only targeting just about 12 % of the population. In the U.S, there are 329.5 million residents that live here, so 12 % would only be about 395,400,00 people in the U.S. Not so many people are actually Xs and mediums!

Some clothing brands don't sell larger sizes, but that doesn't mean that you can't find larger sizes at some other brands. Other brands that do sell larger sizes include Nike, H and M, Primark, Gap and so many more. Selling more inclusive clothing sizes can change people's point of view on selling a more diverse and larger range of clothing.

The reality about SeaWorld:

When taking a vacation, SeaWorld might seem like a really great option as it presents itself as a family-friendly educational sanctuary for its animals. However, the reality is that SeaWorld, like many aquariums, is inhumane and exploits the animals that they claim to care about.

The tanks the whales swim in all day might seem big to us, but for the whales, the tanks are not nearly big enough. The tanks for the animals are the same size that bathtubs would be for us. The orca tanks are 40 feet deep, which is not deep enough to shade them from the sun. Therefore, the orcas have constant sunburns every day that SeaWorld hides from the public with black zinc oxide, which matches the animals’ skin. Furthermore, in the wild, they swim up to 100 miles a day, which is not possible when they are confined in a tank.

There have been 40 orcas that died at the age of 14 at SeaWorld, while in the wild, females can live to the age of 100. The trainers don't need a marine biology education to work at SeaWorld; their only purpose is to entertain visitors, not educate them. So not only do the animals suffer physically and emotionally from captivity, but they also become dangerous to the trainers. For example, one orca named Tilikum killed three people alone, while many other trainers have been killed or injured.

Whales are very intelligent creatures and can get stressed very easily in captivity. Videos of the whales swimming around in the tanks will show them with droopy dorsal fins. This shows that they're stressed or injured. You see this a lot with whales in captivity. Activists are encouraging people to avoid SeaWorld and other animal-based shows. Documentaries like Blackfish also show the dark side of SeaWorld.

With all this information, I feel that supporting SeaWorld and other similar parks like this is a bad idea and you should take your vacation dollars somewhere else. Instead, go to someplace that does not harm animals for profit and entertainment.

The Paragon of Animation: Pixar's Ninth Symphony

We’ve all been there before. A sinking feeling of shame, dread, and the inescapable feeling that we’re just not good enough. Throughout middle school and even before, I’ve felt these feelings countless times, and I’m positive you have as well. I’m often drowning in responsibilities involving homework, science fair, and the somewhat unsettling feeling of being on a basketball team with kids that are about three times bigger than me. Yet through all of this, I inevitably find myself returning to this one seemingly unremarkable movie: Ratatouille. A movie that, through nothing but the story of an animated rat, manages to convey an inspirational theme of potential and accomplishment.

When it comes to a movie company like Pixar, the best, the greatest, and your favorite movies may all be different. Today, I’m here to talk about arguably the greatest Pixar movie: Ratatouille. Ratatouille is a unique movie in the sense that, while it’s target demographic is obviously young children, it appeals most to older kids and adults due to the fact that most of its beauty is found in the underlying messages conveyed throughout. As a kid, I always hated this movie. Young me thought it was boring, Chef Skinner (who I now realize is Remy’s antithesis, as humans are often portrayed as creators in the movie while rats are the thieves, and Skinner is a human who does nothing except leech off of the work of others) scared me, and the rat (I somehow didn’t know its name until I just googled it) didn’t get nearly as much attention as the boring humans. Not only that, but the plot seemed overly sad and grey, and I often begged my parents to put on Cars instead. However, as I got older, I found myself relating to the plot and its flawed characters more and more.

Ratatouille is conceptually a pretty stupid story. More specifically, its premise is inherently shallow and lacks a strong basis to form such a deep story. In fact, I assume the pitch meeting went a little something like this:

"Hey guys, the deadline for our next movie idea is coming. Does anyone have any ideas?"

James: "How about a movie about the emotions inside someone's head during a big change in their life?"

Tyler: "Maybe a movie on Mexican culture where a kid wants to solve a family conflict?"

"Hey George, you stayed quiet there for a while, did you think of something?"

George: "Rat make dinner."

Or something like that.

Ratatouille follows the story of Remy the Rat, a cultured foodie rat born into a pretty savage scavenger tribe of rats. Remy has one dream in his small rat mind: to cook and be with a crowd that appreciates him. Following a mishap that separates him from his family, he finds company with Linguini, a bumbling klutz who shares Remy’s dream of one day being a chef. Together they learn to overcome the obstacles and judgment given by others as they work against all odds in the greatest restaurant in Paris. However, as Linguini gains fame for Remy’s work, they both grow distant and begin to bring their problems between themselves, only furthering their divide. The story’s antagonist is just as deep. Scratch that. The antagonist is pure genius. Ego the food critic is an obvious personification of the internal conflicts between Remy and Linguini, spurred and fueled by, you guessed it, ego. Ego the critic isn’t a villain at all. It is he who finally resolves the conflict between Remy and Linguini. The scene in which he reviews Linguini's ratatouille dish is probably one of the best scenes in any animated movie. When Ego drops his pen in surprise, he remembers a time in his childhood when his mother made him ratatouille. He likely judged other chefs so harshly because he thought his mother to be the best chef in the world, and he measured other chefs to her standard. Ego isn't wrong in his judgments, or even in his beliefs that not anyone can be a culinary genius. The movie accepts this as a reasonable standpoint, and his dropping of the pen symbolizes that the words he has used for weapons for so long fall short when he truly has nothing to criticize. If this isn’t utter brilliance, I don’t know what is.

So far, I have only talked about the movie’s inner beauty. And while Ratatouille has plenty of that, it would be a crime not to talk about the film’s surface beauty. This movie is simply stunning. The use of palettes, shades, and tones stokes emotions in the audience in almost magical ways. At the beginning of the story, the outside of Remy’s house is purposefully bleak, grey, and rainy. However, the inside of grandmother’s kitchen is full of warm and vivid colors, signifying the solace Remy finds in cooking. When Remy arrives in Paris, the colors are, in one word, magnificent. Thousands of twinkling lights in a beautiful night setting, warm houses and buildings, and the awe-inspiring Eiffel Tower providing amazing contrast and light in my favorite shot in all of cinema. What better way to portray newfound hope? The kitchen where Remy and Linguini work is an expanded version of the grandmother’s kitchen, warm and inviting, beautiful and brilliant, hopeful and strangely melodic.

There is no one word to describe Ratatouille. Calling it beautiful doesn’t give credit to the deep messages conveyed in the film, and calling it deep tells you nothing about the utter beauty of the film. Simply put, this movie is a sheer pleasure to watch. A heartfelt and visually stunning commentary on real life, this movie is truly Pixar’s magnum opus. A story that teaches you that anyone can do anything they set their mind to, even if no one else believes it. That anyone and everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves.

That anyone can cook.

TomatoDial Rating: 97%

Spider-Man: No Way Home is up next.

Do I think that Ethan Crumbly’s parents could have prevented the Oxford high school shooting? Yes, I do, and let me tell you why.

On November 26th, 2021 Ethan Crumbly’s father, James Crumbly purchased a 9mm Sig Sauer SP 2022 pistol which he gave to his son as an early Christmas gift. The gun was not kept secure or away from Ethan, meaning that Ethan had 24/7 access to the weapon. That same gun was used in the Oxford Shooting.

On Monday, the 29th of November, Ethan had a meeting with school officials to discuss his odd behavior. The following day, another meeting was held, this time including Crumbley’s parents. During the meeting, James and Jennifer were told to put their son in therapy to help with his concerning behavior within 48 hours, but they refused that idea.

“Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.” That is what Jennifer texted her son after he had a meeting with the school about him using his phone to look at ammunition. In my opinion, that is not something that a mother who is concerned about their child's behavior would say to them. Now, from that, you might not think that is incriminating but shortly after the shooting took place she also texted him “Ethan, don’t do it.” Why would she text him that if she did not know anything about it?

After the shooting, Ethan Crumbly’s parents were nowhere to be seen, they disappeared. James and Jennifer Crumbley were found early Saturday morning on December 4th after a citizen saw their vehicle and called the police. The tip led officers to search through the Bellevue building, home to several businesses. The Crumbley’s were taken into custody and have not been released since their arrest. Both parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter but pleaded not guilty.

In this article, I will give a few recommendations for Indie games. This article will focus on PC gaming because it has the most support. However, most of these games have low system requirements.

The best Indie VR game is SUPERHOT VR, although a non-VR version exists. I have not played it. Currently, both versions go for around 30 US dollars.

The best Indie game released this year is Cruelty Squad. Normally, Cruelty Squad is 25 dollars but for this week it is on sale for $16. The graphics may be off-putting, but the moment-to-moment gameplay and the excellent world that raises more questions than it answers makes this the game I recommend the most.

If you like platformers, you can't get much better than Celeste. Available on most platforms, it is a good game with fun mechanics that make it like no other.

For a fun free multiplayer horror experience, SCP: Secret Lab is perfect, although it does have steep system requirements and some complicated gameplay which takes some getting used to.

Both the Karlson Demo and A Strange Hotel are fun short games that I can not recommend enough. They may be entirely different in terms of genre, but are both games that will be updated and whose development can be followed.

Christmas is almost here and people are excited. This year the gifts are cool and mostly available in places like Walmart, Target, Gamestop, and even Amazon! The tradition for Christmas and other holidays is giving. So with that in mind let's dig straight into it!

1. Oculus (Meta) has made VR 100% way more affordable with the new Oculus (Meta) Quest 2 It has an amazing processor which is the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 which is used on newer Samsung phones. The graphics are good for a standalone VR and it doesn’t cost $1,000 (like the HTC Vive Pro HMD which also needs to be hooked to a pc). If you have a powerful PC you can connect your VR and play PCVR games like Bone works, Blade And Sorcery, H3vr, Defector, and much more. It starts at $299.99 for a 128GB Quest 2 fully standalone and fun to play with. Anyone above 9-10+ can play, even including grandma! This is perfect for people who would like to explore a different reality.

2. Now I’m, not a big LEGO guy but something about this LEGO set is amazing. This is literally on my bucket list. It’s a big LEGO set from the hit movie Home Alone. Home Alone is about a kid named Kevin. Kevin is an 8-year-old and was left home alone while his family had a vacation. Then bandits try to rob his house but he booby-traps the whole house to protect the house and his family. The Mcallister’s family house is now a LEGO set! It includes Kevin, Kate (Kevin’s Mother), Old Man Marley, Marv, and Harry! It might be $249.99 and sold out but this is incredible. The house is huge and consists of 2 floors and 5 rooms and 5 minifigs. If you’re bummed about it being sold out you can wait for a restock or look on eBay. If not this LEGO set maybe another one, they are all fun and a great time killer. This gift is good for creative people, anyone who loves the movie, or Legos in general.

3. On number 3 we got the Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo Switch is an amazing console that has the newest & best game titles. Even though this console has been around for about 2 years it’s still trendy and still gets updates to this day. If you want to step up your game you can buy Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, and Mario Kart 7 Deluxe. It’s fun to play with family and friends and it's very easy too. Just snap the controller off the console and connect to your TV! It’s very portable too so it’s always ready on the go. Let’s say you have an 8-hour plane ride. Well, you can’t bring your Xbox, but the nice thing about the Nintendo Switch is that you can take it literally anywhere without taking up too much space. There’s nothing better than playing Super Smash Bros or Mario Kart with your friends and family so earn some bonus points and add an extra game to your console gift. This is an amazing gift for multi-age gamers on the go!

4. I know I've put all these high-end items that cost a lot. But giving expensive gifts doesn't mean it's a better gift. These stocking stuffers will bring joy to friends and family without costing a ton of money. The first example cost little to no money, you can add a sweet note to everyone’s stockings by telling them how much you appreciate them or love them. The second one could be adding candy. Everyone loves sugary treats. Unless of course, if you can’t have them. Adding candy like Skittles, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, M&M’s, or any of their favorites. If you don’t know just ask them but be low-key about it. Another one could be buying them cozy socks because winter is here and everyone’s feet are getting cold. And if you have the money try to buy something you know they want in their stocking.

Welcome back to the Whitford Weekly! In just under a month, it will be a new year! 2022, here we come! But before we celebrate, I want to teach you about a requirement in every state and city government. These local laws govern the very controversial topic of occupational licensing. In theory, occupational licensing makes sense. But in the real world economics of the US, it has some flaws. For these reasons, occupational licensing should be reviewed and reformed.

On the surface, occupational licenses are issued to control the quality and safety of services in many different fields of work. Theoretically, requiring people to spend time and money taking classes and tests, getting experience, and paying fees should create better services available in a field. The fact that people have to put in time and effort into their choice of career will make people who are less committed reassess their effort or choose another field. Alongside this, making people spend time learning and taking a test will weed out anyone who will not provide the best of services and who may be unsafe to the public. Overall, occupational licenses aim to protect and provide for the public. But, does this concept really work as intended in practice?

Oftentimes, the answer is no. Occupational licensing for jobs has increased from 5% in the 1950s to 25% today. Occupational licenses are increasing; yet they contradict the goal of the free market. An occupational license is the government’s permission to work. But why should the government have the right to say who can and can’t work in a field? If anything, occupational licenses succeed in weeding out competition and raising costs for already licensed workers (they then increase their profit). And, quite often, jobs that require licenses are jobs that pay lower wages.

The impacts that occupational licenses have on workers are extreme. For example, workers who work at salons have to go through many school hours and pay fees. These requirements leave many people, especially those who may not have had a lot of money going in, in debt from school and fees. The amount of money people often make in a year working at salons is small. Combined with debt and living expenses, people’s lives can be thrown off. Even worse, occupational licenses serve as deterrents for new service providers. The licenses prevent many people from entering the field, causing a lack of increase of services in a field. At this point, the prices of services rise to match the demand with the supply of services. This is often driven by other licensees. Licensed people often have power in or over the licensing board, creating an unacceptable relationship between the guidelines and the people who can reap rewards from the guidelines remaining corrupt.

But this isn’t all. All around the country, throughout state and city governments, the occupational license requirements don’t match up. For example, to be an optician (a person who fits glasses) you have to pay $200 in fees and go through two years of education to be licensed in Washington. In California, there is no education requirement, but the license fee is $424. Oregon does not license opticians at all. What are they studying for two years? Do Oregonians just have perfect eyes? This pattern of differing licenses for jobs tells me that their impact isn’t quantifiable enough to have them be the same across state lines. If their impact was so important that opticians had to go through two years of school, we should expect most or all of the licenses to have the same requirements.

Another extreme example: EMTs. The job of an EMT is to save people’s lives. It should be assumed that EMTs might have to learn some things for their job. But in Washington, an optician license requires two years, while an EMT license requires 110 hours. There is no part of being an optician that is unsafe. But by being an EMT, people are putting their lives in your hands. It just doesn’t make sense. Then we get into the education aspect of acquiring a license. When states change their requirements to decrease schooling time, schools for that occupation are quick to lower their time requirements to match state law. Schools are the ones actually teaching the workers. And if schools are so eager to lower hour requirements, it can’t mean that people really need to go to school for this long. Overall, licenses create less competition for people in the field, raise prices for consumers, make it hard to start your own business and get your life on track.

Let’s look at a real world example; this is the story of an inmate who got out and couldn’t find a job. In prison, you have the option to work a job for a small wage, and in California, that might mean fighting forest fires. These jobs give the inmates something to do, and they often enjoy them. This particular inmate spent a lot of extra time and energy on his firefighting job, and wanted to pursue this field when he was released. But when he was, he was not given a job as a firefighter; he committed two felonies 15 years ago, which barred him from getting his EMT certification, which California requires firefighters to have. This guy is willing to risk his life to fight fires, no less forest fires. He wants to turn his life around and stay away from crime. But he can’t because people won't hire him. He can’t get an occupational license. This kind of thing happens all the time. A prisoner will get out and want to turn their lives around. They want to get a stable job and stay away from crime. But when they can’t get a job, they have to steal to support themselves. Then they end up back in jail, making it even harder to get a job in the future. More than 19 million Americans have a criminal record, and an estimated 30,000 laws limit their rights because of past actions.

Overall, the government should not have the right to decide who works in a field and who doesn’t. People shouldn’t need to ask the government for permission to work. Occupational licenses are supposed to protect the public from unsafe workers, but they often make it harder for people, mostly with lower income, to get a job and work in their desired field, get their life back on track after being incarcerated, keep competition lower for licenced people, and raise prices for consumers. There are a few solutions. The government could examine each field and adjust licenses proportionately to the risk of the field. Even better, the government could remove licenses altogether, and rely on safety checks, similar to those conducted at restaurants. Even without checks, if a service is bad or unsafe, people will eventually stop purchasing it. The business will lose profit, and they will either have to lower prices, provide a better service, or find another field of work. To lower competition artificially intervenes in the powerful proceedings of the invisible hand and the market. The best way to beat competition is to have low prices and good services. With all this in mind, the government should make reforms to the occupational license system, respecting the free market. Thank you for reading my article. There are a lot more laws that need to be addressed, and the only way to do this is to be informed. I got all of my examples and research from the Institute for Justice and their research papers. They are a libertarian law firm that aims to bring justice to people when the government fails to respect their rights. Here is a really interesting research paper that I used: https://ij.org/wp-content/themes/ijorg/images/ltw2/License_to_Work_2nd_Edition.pdf

Thank you.

Due to Covid-19, Whitford’s lockers are not in use because they have been marked as a possible contributor to Covid spread. Now, I can see where the school is coming from; when everyone is in their lockers getting their supplies, the hallways can be crowded. However, the hallways are crowded even without the lockers. Students are only really at their lockers for a few minutes; if people are constantly moving past and no one is exposed to someone else for a long period of time, there is a very small chance that students having lockers will increase the chance that they will be exposed to Covid.

Studies also have shown that if everyone is wearing a mask correctly, and is not within three feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes, there is not much of a risk of Covid.

Two years ago, students in different grades had different passing times (except SUMMA). If we brought this back, it would reduce the risk even more because there would only be ⅓ of the students in the halls, which is about 257 students. However, this would be sacrificing the benefits of fitted schedules.

In many classrooms, students are seated right next to each other for long amounts of time; this is actually a greater risk factor for students than the lockers are.

Not only is the locker ban ridiculous, it’s annoying for the students and teachers alike. The students have to lug around items that they really only need for one class to every class, and they have to bring their stuff to lunch, which is a big pain if you eat lunch outside. Teachers have to deal with all the extra stuff crowding the classrooms and making activities harder to do.

Due to no lockers, there’s also a higher risk of something getting lost or stolen. Many students put their backpacks along the wall under the covered area at recess, and anyone could just walk by and take something out. I’ve seen kids messing around with other people’s backpacks before.

Overall, I think that the lockers should come back, as they pose no Covid-related threat to the students, and it will reduce clutter and stress by a large amount.

Tired of wearing the same boring shoes every day? Here are some shoes that will boost up your style, and your confidence.

We have the UNC Blue Jordan 1 High

This is a clean, but good colorway. All the colors match in with each other so it has a good quality, and feels good, but the only flaws are that you have to take good care of them so they won't get dirty or messed up; you don't want beat-up shoes. The retail price is $160, but then it got some hype after the release and now the price goes for around $350.

Black and White Dunks Low.

Clean and perfect with almost no flaws besides how the colorway is a little bit basic, but it's very nice and a good shoe for starting a sneaker collection. They have good leather quality so you could easily wear them for a while and they will still look clean and good. The retail of the shoe is $100, but since then the price has gone up so now it’s worth around $250.

Now we're gonna switch up and go for the Yeezy Cream White

These were made by Kanye West and the quality is super good and really comfy it feels like you're walking on clouds. But since it is an all-white colorway they will get dirty even wearing them for a while outside. Also if you didn't know what retail means it means the price of the shoe of when the company of the brand makes it and it's the first shoe of itself so its there price for all shoes. And then there's reselling. Resell means that after buying the shoe from the company then sell it again for double maybe triple the price and for resale it's different for what size you want. So the retail price is $220 but reselling the shoe makes it around $350 depending on the price.

Black Cats 4’s

This is a perfect shoe in my opinion. The quality of the shoe is perfect, it’s comfy, the looks on it are nice, and the colorway is good. However, this is a shoe that will age in a bad way that would lead the bottom of the shoe to crumble after years of not wearing it (deadstock). Deadstock means something that hasn't been worn at all. The retail is $190 but now they are going for a whopping $700. This is a lot but it wasn't always this price. About 4-5 years ago they were around $150 or $300, now the price has gone up by a huge amount.

I think we should make recycling a law in the United States. Recycling really impacts our life and the environment. If everyone recycles, then our earth will be cleaner. There are lots of reasons why we should recycle. It saves energy, helps reduce climate problems, and it keeps garbage out of the ocean. An easy way to start recycling is, to begin with, cans, paper, and glass.

Recycling helps save a lot of energy. When we recycle, it reduces the need to make materials from scratch. In Harmony1 it states, “By using recycled materials instead of pulling new natural resources, manufacturers can make the same products with less energy and expense.” Energy is a very important resource in our lives, so if we recycle, we will save tons of energy.

Recycling helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy consumption to make new products. If you think about it, all of the oils and fossil fuels that come from cars and factories are horrible for the environment and create climate change. One way that we can reduce the need for fossil fuels and oils is by recycling. In an article titled, Ask about Ireland states, “Install solar panels on your roof at home so you can generate more renewable energy instead of relying entirely on oil, gas, etc.” Using solar energy is a great way to help reduce your carbon footprint at home.

Recycling also reduces the amount of garbage in the ocean. There is a lot of garbage in the ocean. According to A Guide To Plastic In The Ocean, “Eight million metric tons of plastic entered the ocean in 2010, That’s the weight of nearly 90 aircraft carriers.” All the plastic that ends up in the ocean turns into little pieces of plastic called microplastics. Microplastics have chemicals in them that go into the ocean and can kill animals and the plants.

There are many ways you can recycle. Did you know in Oregon we can receive 10 cents for each can or bottle that we recycle at the bottle drop? Recycling soda cans, plastic water bottles, and glass drink containers keeps waste out of landfills. In the Oregon Bottle Drop, it states, “In 2019 Oregon recycled 90 percent of the beverage containers covered by its bottle system.” This means that a lot of the cans and plastic bottles were kept out of the landfills and oceans, and they were recycled and made into new products. This is why I think recycling should be a law, because it saves energy, reduces climate problems, and it keeps garbage out of the ocean.

On Friday, November 5th, 2021 in Houston, Texas, Travis Scott was set to perform on day one at Astroworld. If you don’t already know, Astroworld is a music festival that happens all over the world. He opened the show with his new song Escape Plan. Travis is known for having large crowds and mosh pits. He also has a history of people getting injured at his show.

Travis does not have the best track record with the safety of his fans, yet people still pack in his shows. The video I have linked shows the moment where Travis is encouraging a fan to jump off the balcony. While this may seem like a harmless act, it resulted in serious injury. The boy seen in the video was paralyzed from the fall. This is just one of the instances in which someone has gotten injured at the hands of Travis Scott.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/4028049/travis-scott-fan-filmed-2017-jumping-from-balcony-concert/

The Openair Festival in Switzerland in 2015 is another example of Travis Scott’s odd behavior. He was crowd surfing when he was met with a fan trying to steal his expensive Yeezy trainers. The rapper then stood on top of the security barrier to identify the perpetrator. He then shouted through his microphone. “ Get that motherf***r, get him!”

“F**k him up! F**k him up! F**k him up!” He repeated while encouraging the crowd to beat up the suspect. He then spat on the boy and had him removed from the crowd.

https://www.ladbible.com/news/news-resurfaced-footage-shows-travis-scott-encouraging-crowd-to-beat-up-fan-20211108

The most recent incident involving the famous rapper is Astroworld Houston. Anyone who has social media has heard about the tragic event. As of now, there are 10 confirmed deaths as a result of the concert. The video linked below is footage of an unconscious body being crowd-surfed while Travis has a birds-eye view of what is happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewesatmNWzU

In my opinion, Travis could have prevented the multiple deaths at Astroworld by stopping the show when he noticed a fan passed out in the pit. Instead, he quickly resumed on with his performance. How did he not know something was wrong when a woman got up on the stage asking to stop the show saying that someone died? He had a view of the whole crowd and did not notice the bodies being lifted over the rest and the thousands of people pleading for their lives? Given his history of having dangerous shows, it’s not crazy to think that the injuries and deaths could have been prevented. Not to mention there were many other people who performed at Astroworld such as SZA and Roddy Rich.

-Olivia Townley

The Exemplar of Mediocrity: Marvel’s Missed Opportunity

Hello, readers. I’m Emaad Khawaja here with an okay TV series. Last month, I asked you guys in a poll which movie I should review next. Maybe I’m biased, but I was kind of rooting for the Curious George Halloween special to win. At the very least, I expected Eternals to stand a chance. Instead, a whopping 30.4% (that sounded bigger in my mind) of you wanted What If..?

Huh?

Marvel’s What If..? is the latest TV series from the franchise to reach Disney+. The animated series covers alternate realities that branch off from key moments within the core Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). These realities, in a new and uncharacteristic style from Marvel, are shown in an animated comic-book fashion. This style and the series itself are inspired by the comic-book series What If..?

The series consists of four amazing episodes and five terrible ones that are independent of one another until the final two episodes. In these two episodes, the narrator/main character, the pacifist multiversal being known as The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), unites all of the heroes made in the previous episodes to fight a cosmic, all-powerful version of Ultron (the robot created by Tony Stark/Iron Man in Avengers: Age of Ultron). Each episode explores “alternate realities from the ones you know” (What If..? Intro). For example, episode one introduces Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) in a universe where Steve Rogers (played by Josh Keaton instead of Chris Evans) doesn’t become Captain America and instead becomes a knockoff Iron Man thanks to Tony Stark’s dad (Dominic Cooper).

The series, while undeniably interesting, suffers from the same problem as the Shrek movie series. The good episodes are out of this world but the bad episodes are dumpster fires. I was glued to the TV screen during episodes four, seven, eight, and nine but I was struggling to keep awake during the other five.

In all honesty, Strange Supreme (Benedict Cumberbatch), the fun animated style, and Jeffrey Wright’s deep, soothing voice are the only redeeming qualities of this overall awful series. Callbacks to previous Marvel movies feel insanely rushed and I was cringing at each and every throwback line. Moments that are emotional and important to the key MCU are absolutely ruined by being stuffed, forced, and shoved into a twenty-four minute suck-fest. Oftentimes, explored concepts simply lack emotion and appeal to almost no one. For example, no one cares about an alternate reality in which Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) saved Tony Stark in Afghanistan. The series tries to condense all of the character development from the 26 two-hour-long Marvel movies into only 24 minutes of content. This only succeeds once in episode four with Strange Supreme, a twisted, dark, heartbroken version of Doctor Strange who is left devastated after the death of his lover, Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams).

In conclusion, Marvel’s What If..? Has high highs and low lows. While it certainly hits grand slams with a few select episodes, the constituent majority are feeble. In my opinion, the biggest problem with this series is that it tries to be something it isn’t. This is especially devastating when you think about how much potential this series had. It isn’t the best view due to its many shortcomings, but it’s still an interesting and wholly unique addition to the MCU that just might be worth your watch. And on that positive note, this month’s issue of Spoiled Tomatoes comes to an end. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this, and be sure to tell me in the form below which movie you want reviewed next.

TomatoDial Rating: 43%

Since the Covid 19 pandemic began in December of 2019 in Wuhan, China, doctors, and nurses have been looking for an antidote or vaccine for Covid 19. Almost a year later, the Pfizer vaccine was approved for 12 and up. As of November 2021, the Pfizer vaccine was approved for 5 to 11. Now that the vaccine has been approved for all people 5 and up this could prevent another lockdown this season.

Now that we have the Pfizer vaccine approved for most of the population, why are people not getting the vaccine? Well, there are a lot of reasons. Some people will not get vaccinated because it's part of their religion, Others may just not feel safe getting it Because people look on social media for answers about the vaccine. A Lot of people will look on Facebook or Instagram and see what people do not know about the vaccine. Well, the truth is the vaccine is safe! Social media does not give you the right answers if you want a real answer, talk to your doctor or a pharmacist.

How do you know that the vaccine is safe? I don't want something that could be dangerous injected into my body. Well, a lot of people are hesitant about getting their vaccine. But the vaccine is run through lots of tests. And the FDA approves the vaccine. It would be illegal for the FDA to approve an unsafe vaccine.

How will getting my child vaccinated benefit them and others? It will benefit them in many ways. Your child will be 91 percent effective from Covid 19 and getting your family vaccinated will keep you all healthy. For example, if you are unvaccinated and another person is vaccinated and you are exposed to Covid 19 you could still transmit it to them it is just less likely that you will get Covid if you are vaccinated. When you are vaccinated you can still get Covid but you are less likely to be hospitalized. The benefits of vaccination are many, not just for you and your family but for the community around you as well.

In conclusion, all children 5 to 11 should get vaccinated for themselves and other people around them. The Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective. Getting vaccinated could save your life, decrease the community spread, and is a powerful step toward ending the pandemic. Get vaccinated for yourself, for your family, and for your community. You could save lives.

Racism has been going on for ages. Some people are so racist that they kill people for just being a different color or for not being born in America. Police officers have killed kids, adults, and many more because they see a “weapon” on their hand or they just assume they are doing something wrong. In reality, they aren't doing anything. I think that when police officers think they see a “weapon” on someone's hand, they should get closer to make sure it's not a weapon because they are just hurting innocent people. People should realize that just because other people weren't born in America, we are humans which makes us the same.

One night on March 29, 2021, in Little Village, Chicago, there was a 13-year-old boy named Adam Toledo. He was just hanging out when two police officers pulled up and told him to put his hands up because they saw him holding a “weapon”. The 13-year-old does but one of the police officers just shoots and kills him. I think that the fact that they just assumed he had a weapon on his hand was really messed up and unprofessional of them, and the teenager didn't even get an opportunity to show what he really had on his hand. There is a video that went out about it, which shows how scared he looked.

There is another death that happened when a 46-year-old man named George Floyd died last summer. Many people have heard of his death but if you haven't, he was held down by this cop's knee on his neck in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25th, 2020. There's a video showing what happened and many have watched it. It's sad how he was telling him to stop because he couldn’t breathe and the cop didn't care. The cop should’ve immediately stopped when he said that but instead he just left his knee there. That shows how unprofessional he was being.

There've been many deaths caused by cops, but I can’t help but notice it's mostly people with colored skin or people that weren't born in America that are getting attacked. I’ve seen videos about cops and just random people assaulting people for literally not doing anything. There was one video about a Hispanic man being at the grocery store with his family doing nothing, someone calls the police for no reason and when the police officers came, they immediately attacked him. At that moment, that shows how cruel people are. If police officers are gonna act like that, then they don’t deserve a place to be a part of the Police Department.

There are people that have been abused, treated differently, assaulted, and more. I think that's very messed up by people and it shows their true colors. I mean how would they feel if someone did that to them just because they don't like where they’re from. People should really realize the effects that they are causing. People literally call the cops on people when the person is not doing anything. A lot of people like Asians, Hispanics, African-Americans, and more have been called slurs, been assaulted, have been told racist jokes, and much more. Coming from someone with a Hispanic family that has experienced racism, it feels like you’re doing something wrong when you aren’t and scared that they might do something to you.

More information about the 13-year-old, Adam Toledo getting shot:

https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/04/15/video-shows-chicago-police-shooting-13-year-old-adam-toledo-as-he-raised-his-hands-no-video-in-story/

More Information about George Floyd death: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.hml

So, Jonathan Isdarous made an article on his top 5 best games of all time and, although it was opinion, he was SO wrong about his games. The first one he put was BONEWORKS, which if you ask every kid in this school, maybe 5 kids would say they know that name. Second, he put Mario Kart 64. How? There are about 10 games in the series and he picked the worst one. Then, he put Wii sports which actually is a pretty good game so I have nothing on that one. Fourth, he put Zelda Ocarina of Time, and let's be real anyone who likes any Zelda game besides A link to the Past and Breath of the Wild is off-base. Finally, he put Minecraft and to be honest, it's the only game on that list that deserves top 5. After seeing this, I'm making my own list to make the people happy.

#1 Mario Odyssey

Mario Odyssey is one of the newer games in the Mario series. It was made in 2017 and was a hit. It sold 21.95 million copies as of September 30th, 2021 and I see why. It is the first open-world Mario game since Mario Sunshine and consists of 15 kingdoms and 999 power moons to collect. It can take months to get everything and the satisfaction of using Cappy to get good movement or solving a difficult puzzle. Every bit of this game is amazing.

#2 Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox survival game where you craft weapons and tools to collect resources to fight mobs at night or travel between dimensions to get blaze rods to fight the final boss on a floating island over a void. If you're not into that, you can play what is called “Creative Mode” using a menu to build nice houses or even cities. You can also fly around the world at your own will. There are no mobs and you can play peacefully. The only thing stopping you from doing what you want is your imagination. With the addition of servers, you can play with all of your friends and I have never played Minecraft and not had a lot of fun while doing so.

#3 Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Super Smash Bros Ultimate isn't your average fighting game like Mortal Kombat; it is a game meant for everyone using characters from 38 different games. In total, there are 89 characters to choose from and 103 different maps to play on. Everyone has a different move set and there can be up to eight players at a time making it fun for all your friends and family members. The diversity of who you can choose and the super high-skill series makes the game really fun and competitive.

#4 Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart Wii is hands down the best Mario Kart game ever with 24 playable characters and 8 cups that have 4 stages inside of them and so many different kart options. I think this is the best Mario Kart game because it has stages from the N64, Gamecube, and DS. I think all of the different maps make the game fun and refreshing every time I play it and it doesn't get old.

#5 Animal Crossing New Horizons

Hot take, Animal Crossing New Horizons is a hall of fame game. The game for me feels like an alternate reality that is calm. There is never anything bad whether that's relaxing time doing favors for villagers or collecting resources to build houses or museums. I love the fact that it matches up with real-time so the time of day changes and shops open and close. Overall the game is relaxing fun and I would recommend everyone try this game sometime.

I hope you guys have played or look into playing these games sometime and please answer the form below of whose top 5 list was better.

There are many different sports from all around the world. From basketball to football to soccer, each sport is difficult in a different way. This sport almost combines the torment of handball and the barbarism of ice hockey or lacrosse. Everyone has different opinions on which sport is the most difficult, but my opinion is that the most difficult sport is water polo.

The official playing field is 25 yards by 20 yards with the pool being seven feet deep. The length of each quarter is eight minutes in length, but since the clock stops when the ball is not in play, the average quarter is about 12 minutes long. This sport consists of six normal players and one goalie. Similar to most sports, there are substitutions. This results in upwards of 15 players on a team. The normal players can only have one hand on the ball at a time. This causes passing, shooting, and catching to all be extremely difficult. Goalies, on the other hand, can use two hands. If a player brings the ball underwater while guarded, it results in a turnover. Players can not touch the bottom of the pool or hang it on the side of the wall. Another aspect of the game that makes it more difficult is the 30 seconds shot clock. This means that the team must shoot the ball before the clock runs out or else it is a turnover. There are three different types of fouls. These include minor fouls, offensive fouls, and major fouls. Minor fouls occur only if the defense causes the foul. It results in the offense keeping the ball. Next, there are offensive fouls that cause a turnover. Finally, there are major fouls, and if one player causes three major fouls in one game, they are ejected.

Water polo, unlike other sports, requires stamina, strength, and aerobic fitness to play efficiently. This is because one must tread water while attempting to score, pass, and get past the defender. Many injuries can and do occur in this sport. A rule that occurs in professional play because of this is that officials must check to make sure that the players’ nails are filed so they are unable to scratch opponents. Many fouls occur underwater that are unseen by the referee as well.

As you can see, water polo is a very difficult and dangerous sport. That’s all for now, but keep an eye out for my article next month in The Whitford Weekly. Check out the google form below to express your opinion on what the most difficult sport is!

"If you don't want to look like a fool, take my advice on which skateboard and bmx brands to buy

Now we are going to start with the skateboard with pictures and there durability

1.

Girl: this is a very good brand but it’s underrated and I think more people should use it. It would last around half a month if you're doing tricks and 2 months if you're just riding. It is super durable and it has a cool looking graphic on it.

2.

Baker is an amazing brand that I use and its super good resale durable lasts for a long time but it's different with each person. Sometimes it's a month for other people. It could be 2 days but it's super good and it feels amazing and with a cool but simple graphic on it.

3.

Powell Peralta this is a very good board for beginners it's affordable and it's good for a board that so you could find out if skateboarding is for you or if it's not either way, it's a good board its duribak but not a durable as the other two but its a board mostly for beginners this was my beginner board.

Now we are gonna start with the different BMX brands.

4.

This brand is called Fitco BMX bike it can come in both styles one could go with breaks and one with no breaks altho they are pretty pricey with the price is 380 to 650 it is pretty pricey. But it's very good and it is worth the money and this BMX is usually for the people that have experience but starters could also use it.

5.

The brand is called Wethepeople This is also a good brand like the Fitco bike and is usually priced around 602 to 1000 personally I feel like its a bit too much for a bike but they have many different variances, with some with breaks and no breaks and it's usually for the people who have been using BMX bikes and have some skills usually not meant for beginners because of the price

6.

Mongoose is a bike that's usually meant for kids and beginners that usually price for 150 to 300. It's usually meant for cruising and some variants are meant for tricks. They have many variances from the color to the body of the bike. This bike is kinda like you pay for what you get so if you get a cheap one it might break after using it a lot but other than that it's a really good bike for beginners.

When walking into the toys aisle, you can always notice something. One side is pink while the other side is blue. On one side you have dolls and stuffed animals while the other has cars and water guns. One category is for boys, and the other is for girls. This is no accident; this is the stores categorizing things by the stereotypes that society has assigned to the different genders.

Boy and girl stereotypes are an old and outdated thought in thinking that only girls can like pink and only boys can like blue. This mindset is like thinking that the earth is flat; it’s wrong, and it’s stupid. Girls and boys can like any color they want and can play with whatever they want. Girls can play with cars and boys can play with dolls, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Although everyone is not on board with the idea of genders stereotypes being discarded, many people have been thinking differently, companies included.

In 2019, Mattel. Inc (the creator or Barbie) released a doll nobody expected they would make, DC-073, DC-965, DC-220, and names similar to these are how the dolls are referenced. They are gender-neutral dolls; they can be a boy, a girl, neither or both. They come with two sets of hair, short and long, and with different clothing styles. The dolls have different races so that they can look even more like the people who play with them. Mattel. Inc isn’t the company you’d think would do this type of thing, Barbie is known for being an unrealistic standard of beauty put on to kids. This step in a different direction of how people can look is something that isn’t represented in kid’s toys, I believe that this is a good step. Hopefully, Barbie will make bigger changes and will make more body-positive dolls in the future.

Toy brands aren’t the only group who are changing, the fashion industry, one of the biggest influential industries in the world, is changing its ways too. In spring 2022, people had noticed that many designers used non-woman models to model their clothes. This was a change since the clothes they were modeling used to be referred to as “woman’s clothes”.

Fashion is very influential, and now that gender isn't being assigned a specific article of clothing, people are being able to freely express themselves. This is an amazing change, wearing the clothes you want and not being restricted because of your gender. These changes may not seem big, but they are making a difference. Ending gender stereotypes is something I believe should be pushed more. Ending these stereotypes can make people feel safer and more comfortable by letting them express themselves any way they like.

In the direction we are going, I'm sure there will be more changes, and slowly but surely, the world is getting rid of these stereotypes. We can only wait and see, but I'm sure these changes will be positive.

This link is an article discussing the 2022 spring fashion show and how designers didn’t assign gender to certain clothing. Please read if you are interested → The End Of Gender

A graph showing different types of stress in teenagers' lives.

Schoolwork can be a big task to get done in school and even outside of school. The studies show that 14 to 15-year-olds are working on schoolwork in school for 3 hours a day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a non-school day, and 40 hours in a non-school week. I think that it is kinda insane that kids work on homework for so long. Students are also stressed outside of school because some of them have a job on the weekends and they work early in the morning, end super late, and then have to finish their school work. Something has to change so that students are not as stressed out. One thing that can go is homework.

Teachers give homework because it can improve your learning. Homework can be very good practice if students are having a hard time understanding the stuff they are doing in class. However, these benefits do not outweigh the negative effects of homework since it can stress students out if teachers give too much and it can negatively affect their mental health. In all, I think homework should be eliminated because it stresses students out so much that it can lead to mental health issues.

The Washington State Head Football Coach has been fired after refusing to get his vaccine. This is all caused by the rules and regulations of the WSU COVID-19 vaccine policy; Rolovich put himself in a really bad situation by not getting a vaccination.

There have been many opportunities for Rolovich to get vaccinated. He had many choices, like Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Rolovich continued to resist getting vaccinated due to religious beliefs. But clearly religious reasons were more important to him than coaching football. WSU (Washington State University) gave Rolovich many options to stay, yet he continued to refuse. If I was in Rolovichs position, I would have stuck with coaching football rather than choosing to sit at home watching someone else coach my team.

Dr. Palmer, a professor, and doctor at WSU met with Rolovich to ask him a few questions on whether he would eventually get vaccinated to be allowed to coach football again. Rolovich said it was a very cordial conversation. Dr. Palmer was unsure if he would have gotten vaccinated but he does think that it is fair to say that was his major hesitancy. ¨There was a lot in the media about (how) this vaccine was developed in an unprecedented time¨ Palmer said. I believe that Dr. Palmer thinks that the media can show a lot about important things but it can sometimes be fake.

WSU was represented by some of the players to see their opinion on Rolovich´s vaccination. They wanted the players to see Rolovich's opinion for the players and not just for Dr. Palmer. Both players on media day defended Rolovich because the cougar's fans were going wild on the media. It was almost like the fans were talking down on Rolovich. Rolovich has finally started to bring his options up and is planning on following the mandate.

I believe that Rolovich could have made much better decisions for getting his vaccine. What he did, didn’t make much sense to me and a lot of cougars fans. A lot of people were extremely mad at Rolovich's decisions, especially in Washington. All in all, I believe that if you have had a dream to do something really important to you your whole life then I believe that you should not quit and keep going.

On Monday, October 19, 2021, a lawsuit was filed against Youtube. Lady Freethinker, an animal rights nonprofit, was the group who filed this in front of the California Superior Court. Youtube not only had videos up on the website of animal cruelty but had failed to take these videos down. Most of these videos have been up on the website for a couple of years. The New York Times reports, “it is unfortunate that YouTube puts profits over principles.”

Why have these videos been up for so long? Well, one of the main reasons is because 500 hours of videos are uploaded per minute. So, it is hard to find content and remove it in a certain amount of time with so many videos coming in at once. A statement from Ms. Choi, a Youtube Spokeswoman, says “ there were 10 videos up on Youtube, and only nine were removed.” The one video that wasn’t removed was a live rabbit being fed to a python. Youtube declined to say why that one video wasn’t removed.

Now, why wasn’t that one video removed? That is a question I think that we are all wondering about. My opinion is that rabbits are a normal thing for pythons to eat, but why post about it? Why video it? There were also videos on the website that showed humans abusing animals. I ask myself, why do people do this? There is no point in why people should be abusing these poor animals. Nor is there any reason to have a camera out recording.

One of my other main questions was why didn’t anyone stop this? There was obviously somebody recording this, so why didn’t they stop? Maybe they were too scared? Were they scared that the animal would hurt them too? Or, were they scared because the living human beings doing this to animals would hurt them as well?

These videos should not have been posted. Animal abuse needs to stop, and it is happening all over the world and is not okay. As humans, we need to come together and realize what we are doing. We need to find ways to save these animals and make this horrible abuse stop.

Video games are very popular, in fact, 76% of people under 18 play video games. With much popularity and games, there must be some really good ones, so I will list my top 10’s along with a Google Form for you to voice your opinions.

Arguably the best on the list is BoneWorks. BoneWorks is an amazing VR game that everyone has to try. Honestly, it should be above $1,000 for how amazing the physics, soundtrack, and story are. BoneWorks is about a man named Arthur Ford who is the person you play as. He sneaks into his company’s computer/server using a VR headset. He battles headcrabs, zombies, and things from the void. He finds out that the virus in the system was a copy of himself where at the end of the game the boss fight is fighting yourself. While he is doing all of this he is losing his sense of time while in the VR headset. The BoneWorks Wiki says

“BONEWORKS is an Experimental Physics VR Adventure. Use found physics weapons, tools, and objects to fight across dangerous playscapes and mysterious architecture.” The story is quite an adventure too. When you're finished just go in sandbox mode and start experimenting. Michael Wyckoff - The Museum (Boneworks OST)

On the list, we also have Mario Kart 64. Personally, I haven’t played it on the original N64. But I did in fact play it on my PC via an emulator, lemme tell you this it is amazing. Play with a friend and it’s double the fun. I’ve played Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Mario Kart DS. But none of them felt the way Mario Kart 64 did. It had character soundtracks, a battle mode, music in tracks (rainbow road reference). The soundtrack in general was beautifully good. One word to describe this game is FUN. Koopa Troopa Beach - Mario Kart 64

And then we got the legend, the one and only…WII SPORTS. You’re probably wondering why I would add such a forgotten game that no one plays. Well, to word it out it’s because of the nostalgia and the fun with family and friends. This game is probably my record holder for the longest time I’ve spent on a video game. You got Boxing, Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, and golf. Did I mention that the game was free with every console? I would be proud to say that this is one of my favorites. Wii Sports Theme Tune 10 hours (loop this for 10 hours for best experience xD)

One of the world's favorite series is the Zelda series, but some games pop out more than others. For me, those games are The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess & The Legend Of Zelda Ocarina Of Time. Let’s talk about Twilight Princess, the gameplay has an amazing super-cool story and is unique in its ways. I remember playing this game at age 6 on my Wii. To the people who hate on Twilight Princess and prefer Breath Of The Wild your opinion is invalid 😂. Yeah, your game might be new and cool but does your game let you transform into a wolf? I don’t think so. Moving on to Ocarina Of Time. Very good gameplay + story and it’s unique, I would put it next to Twilight Princess On The Tier List. Honorable Mention: Majora’s Mask.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time OST - Kokiri Forest

The last one would be MINECRAFT. Minecraft’s gotta be one of the best on this list. It has a long-term player base, there have been multiple con’s, and YouTube Channels everywhere. This game is amazing you can play Minecraft with your friends or family. It’s child-friendly and is a cool survival sandbox game. It’s been known as a nice game with tons of mobs and features. I enjoy this game and I recommend this!

Thanks for reading this article and please fill out the form below.

School Lunches: Are They Enough?

We all know about the new school schedule, right? Well, it’s affecting all of us who buy hot lunch in the second half of lunch. When school started we all realized that it wasn’t the same role as last school year (6th grade). With new schedules, teachers, and lunchtimes. Some people have cold lunches to which they have no problem accessing lunch since they prepare their lunches that same morning or even the day before.

But when it comes to us hot lunch people, we get little access to food. After the first half eats their food it comes to a competition to see who can get to the lunch line first and get the best option. After those who get there first, we get the scraps of the first half and the “competitors”. According to MyFitnessPal, the total calories for a slice of school pizza is 332 calories. According to EatRight, a teen 13 years old needs at least 2,000 calories which is not even close to what a school lunch can give you.

And now since there is barely any food with the first half getting it all the school came up with a “solution” with a strict schedule where you can either go first half cafeteria and second half outside or vice versa, you can also stay outside, inside, or stay in the library. The hydration at lunch is also a problem in my opinion because you can’t get water or juice and stuff like that, unlike back in 6th grade where you could get other drinking options. But overall schools “do” what they can, give what they can afford, and give us a basic lunch meal every day.

Instagram is a social media platform where you can share pictures and videos with followers. According to Omnicore, 72% of teens log on to Instagram every day. This is affecting teens’ mental health. Without Instagram being regulated, teens can go hours on end scrolling through pictures and videos. By doing this, it is causing depression, anxiety, and body image issues in teens, especially girls.

Instagram and Facebook have a product that is made to get teens addicted. For example, Instagram shows pictures and videos that are similar to what you have liked in the past. The app also gives you notifications to remind you to get back on it. Facebook and Instagram know what they are doing to teens across the world. They know that if they got rid of this software, they would make less money. So, what if we regulated Instagram and Facebook to only have one hour on each social media platform? This would be a great solution because teens would not spend as much time on social media and doing this would help all teens with mental health issues relating to Instagram. This is the best option in my opinion, but there are many other ways to solve this problem.

What exactly is social media doing to teens? Social media influencers on Facebook and Instagram usually will post pictures of them happy or having fun and pictures with filters or edits. Instagram is providing these filters. Seeing this makes teens have body image issues or depression which can later lead to suicide. Teens also use filters to take pictures that change the way your face looks. This causes teens to view themselves differently.

According to Center4research.org, 32% of teens with social media experience mental health issues. This shows that social media negatively affects teens' mental health. The content on these apps makes teens depressed if they don't look the right way or live their life the right way, even though they are only seeing snippets of other people's life.

You have to admit it, everyone likes social media. Getting off work, relaxing, sitting on the couch, and checking your social media makes us all feel good. However, in my opinion, seeing all the things social media does to teens, it is clear that social media is bad for teens and needs to be regulated for all people under 18.

Why have dress codes? Why tell people what they can and can’t wear? Since school began people have been forced to wear clothes based on the dress codes. They have to wear uniforms, or clothes that have to fit the dress codes. People around the country are getting dress-coded for wearing an oversized T-shirt, clothes with spaghetti straps, and people being told they are a distraction from wearing normal clothes. People are wearing ripped jeans and getting called out for rips above the knee, it’s one thing when it’s showing underwear, but it’s another thing calling people out for wearing something that has nothing wrong with it. Also, how is wearing something that expresses yourself a problem?

According to a recent article in the NYT, A girl in Georgia wore black ripped jeans, a Los Angeles t-shirt, and Air Force 1 sneakers. And a teacher made her put her hands down by her thighs to measure if the rip in her jeans was lower than her fingertips Because they did not meet the height requirement, she and 15 other girls were dress coded before the first period. Many dress codes are doing more harm than good. Showing girls that showing skin is “skimpy” by banning cleavage and thighs, they are teaching girls that they are objects and a distraction. They should make more dress codes that aren't so targeted at females and equal.

A lot of dress codes are doing so much harm that their giving girls low-self esteem, depression, and eating disorders.

Although Whitford does not have a very serious dress code, other schools do. On Monday Grossmont High School in San Diego, California had four students detained and later released for wearing “inappropriate” clothing. Other students are getting pulled out of class for wearing a skirt above the knee and leggings. Teachers and administrators are making kids miss class because students are wearing something that to the teachers is not okay clothing. To teachers, class time is so important that when were five minutes late to class were tardy but they make us miss 15 minutes to walk to the office because a girl’s shirt shows her shoulders or belly button.

On the other hand, some students prefer the dress code because some feel it lowers bullying rate’s from all people wearing the same thing. A lot of families can’t afford to wear different things every day, Especially since covid happened, lots of people lost jobs and families don’t have a lot of money.

In conclusion, there shouldn’t be sexist dress codes, Dress codes need to stop targeting girls. They need to stop telling girls they are a distraction, and they need to tell boys that are bodies are not just objects. Even though uniforms would help families in need no dress codes would help a lot of teenage girls not be depressed or have low-self esteem.

Hello Whitford Middle School! Today I’m going to be talking about my opinion on social media, and why there should be an age restriction of 18 years and up. Most things on Tiktok for instance are not things young teenagers should do, for example, the “throw it back dance” and the “devious lick challenge” in September. We would not be stealing soap dispensers and trash cans from our bathrooms if kids our age did not have social media.

As middle schoolers, we all tend to be always on a device. Whether that’s a game console, a tv, your phone, or any other device, we all love our technology very much. All of us have our little favorite things too, whether it's video games, tv shows, movies, or social media. In 2021, an estimated 330 million people are potentially suffering from social media addiction in the USA. We spend most of our lives, daily on social media. It could be Tiktok, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, but 330 million people are not a healthy number.

Social media might be fun. We love to get on it daily to see what our friend's post, or our favorite influencer post, but it also has its bad perks. As the amount of time teen girls our age spend glued to Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, Facebook, or Twitter, and other social media sites go up, so does our long-term risk for suicide. Girls and Boys keep comparing our selves to models on social media. At such a young age we are at we do not take social media okay. Whether that's shaming someone else on how they look, or what they do, or shaming yourself and how you look or do. Most teenagers are being brought down on social media for posting something they feel “confident” or “excited” about. In the hater's eyes, that's you “flexing” on them, which there not. Now because of haters, we cannot post things like that without getting hate.

As a fourteen-year-old year, I would say in my opinion that social media changed me. Going into middle school, you think it's “cool” to get it and fit in, but it, unfortunately, does things to you. You get insecure, or jealous, or angry and have lots of emotions. Too many depressing, and deary emotions, which is distracting in a normal teenager's life. Of course, there are lots of great things on social media, but there are lots and lots of bad. You might enjoy posting about your trip somewhere, and might be very excited to post it, but some people are gonna see that and get jealous. We can't help it. We wanna be there in that spot like you, but instead were laying in our beds scrolling on social media.

As you can see, social media is a toxic, and nonfriendly place for teenagers our age. Too much bullying, body shaming, and you start to get unhealthy sleep patterns from social media addiction. When you are eighteen you should finally get the right to get social media. Our class had a small debate a week ago, and we all agreed that social media is best for adults and not anyone under. We all will get jealous, that will never change, just when you are an adult, you're more mature and less disrespectful. We all also agreed that Instagram and Tiktok should take down their comment section. How are you supposed to give comments, if there's no comment section? You simply like the post or not.

Have you ever heard of the brands: Clinique, Nars, Benefit, Maybelline, and Bath and Body Works? If so, these brands all do animal testing which needs to be addressed ASAP. Animals need to be stood up for.

If you do use these brands, please stop supporting them because they're putting innocent animals in danger. Here’s something to take into consideration; if you were an animal and were being tested for "scientific purposes", the way you are being treated is complete B.S. How would it make you feel being poked with a needle and syringe all day with products that could kill? What kind of life is that to live?

For example, in China and the U.S, they use more than 15 Million monkeys and dogs for animal testing each year. If you think back to before people used animals to test products, they didn’t have the idea in their mind to poke large and small animals all day for a living. Those people didn’t even know what was coming back then, and what it’s turned into today. As a result of animal testing, animals can lose their eyesight, hearing and fur, and even their life. All the while, people

waste away our days using and buying products without even knowing that they are part of the problem too.

Humans have been the problem for as long as society can remember in issues like this. Do you remember when oil spilled in the ocean? Well, it still is and humans are the reason. Do you know why deforestation is happening? Because humans are tearing it down. Animal testing is not the worst thing compared to these horrible acts, but we could at least try to make a difference.

One thing we could do to try to stop animal testing has spread the word about how bad animal testing is. And next time, try to buy products that are cruelty-free to help and save these animals from hurting. Some of those brands include Aveda, Bare Minerals, Burts Bees, CLE Cosmetics, Colorpop, Covergirl, Glossier.

So far many players in the NBA could not be able to play until they get vaccinated. For example, there are players like Kyrie Irving that are making arguments or statements on how they should not need to be vaccinated to play and how they think it is not fair to others.

Kyrie Irving's aunt was quoted as saying that Kyrie was unvaccinated for reasons ”not religious-based, but moral-based ”. My opinion is that if they are not vaccinated then the players can not play. The rule is not fair because it is based on health protocols. Kyrie Irving's aunt has a great opinion because it is very surprising to see the NBA making the players be vaccinated even if they have religious reasons to not get it.

Nobody knows if they will play yet, but eventually, the players will either not be able to play for any of their games or they will fight to not get their vaccine to play. I also believe that Kyrie Irving is not very smart for not getting his vaccine because the NBA health protocols will not let him play until he gets both vaccines. Seeing Kyrie Irving not on the court would just be sad to all of the Brooklyn Nets fans.

There are also many other players like Issac Jonshon who also believes that he should not get vaccinated for religious reasons. He has almost the same opinion as Kyrie Irving. I think that they are both not very smart for thinking that they don't have to be vaccinated to play. But then again that is not what the NBA health protocols say.

All in all, I think that all NBA players should have both vaccines to be able to play. My reasoning behind this is, it's not all about the religious background or not being able to get it. It is because I know that all NBA players can afford a vaccine so there should be no excuses on how they can get it. If other people think differently then just look at the health protocols for the NBA.

On September 1st, 2021, Texas passed a law that banned women from getting an abortion after being six weeks pregnant. They enforce this law on all women, no matter if they got raped or sexually assaulted. This law is forcing women who need to get an abortion to find a clinic out of Texas and spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on their abortion.

I believe this law is taking away women's rights to do what they want with their own bodies. Instead, men who have never lived in a woman's body are choosing what is right and wrong for them. Conservatives say that they are “pro-life” but by choosing what women do with their bodies, they are taking that freedom and “life” away from them. Also, many women who want to get an abortion are not mentally or financially ready to have a child, meaning that if more states enforced this law, more children would grow up in poverty or abusive households.

Another reason I don't agree with this law is because lots of women in the US are getting impregnated without their consent. Statistics show that in 2010, 27 out of every 100,000 women got raped while in 2020, that number rose to 38 out of every 100,000. After they released the law to ban abortions, Texas governor, Greg Abbott, was asked what he would do about women who were getting raped and couldn’t get abortions. He said that he would “eliminate all rape.” Nobody took him seriously, and for good reason. It would be near impossible for him to eliminate rape and it seemed like another excuse for the abortion ban.

All in all, I think that abortions should be allowed and women should be able to make their own choices about their bodies. It's their baby, and they should be able to choose if they want to carry it or not.

Last May, kids 12 and older were approved to get vaccinated. In Los Angeles, kids 12 and older must be vaccinated or they can’t go to school. In addition, the teachers have to get vaccinated as well or they can’t continue their job. If the kids can't show proof of the vaccination they won’t be able to go to in-person learning ‘till the end of winter break, January 11th, unless they have medical problems. Some parents don’t want their kids to get vaccinated, and that's not fair for the kids if they wanna get vaccinated. Schools should have clinics so kids can easily have access to getting the vaccination. I think all kids should get vaccinated.

Some parents don’t want their kids to get vaccinated and that is not fair for the children who wanna get vaccinated. A lot of the parents get their news from Facebook and a lot of information is false on there, so maybe that is why they don’t want them to get it. Because of this, the kids think “oh my mom doesn’t want me to get it so I'm not going to get it”. If everyone in the school got vaccinated it would make everything easier and students probably wouldn’t have to wear masks anymore.

It would be a great idea if schools have clinics where students can get vaccinated. Some students don’t have access to going to a clinic outside of school so it would be very easy for them to get it at the school. Also, some kids' parents don’t want them to get vaccinated, so they won’t take them to get it, so they could just get it at the school. If schools fundraise money for the clinic we could easily get them. If we had clinics, almost everyone in the school would be vaccinated and things could go back to normal.

That is why I think all kids 12 and older should get vaccinated because we could make it happen by having clinics and having the parents read the information that is not false about it.