Embedded Files
Game Review
Game Review
By Blaise Barger
Mario Jumps Up in the Air
Mario Jumps Up in the Air
Mario is one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises to ever exist, and now almost eight years ago from today, “Mario Odyssey" was released. “Mario Odyssey” is one of the most sold games on the Nintendo Switch system. The game involves going across several small worlds in order to defeat several bosses, collect moons, and obviously save Princess Peach. The main villains of the game are the Broodals and the big bad boss Bowser in order to stop Mario from making it to Peach.
Just like most Mario games, the game has a very vast setting. First, the player starts at a normal grassy field with a few mountains, but the farther they go, the more abstract the world becomes. At one point, the player goes to a world filled with a poisonous ocean where the player instantly “respawns” if they touch the poison. Then, if the game couldn’t get any weirder, the game ends on the moon. The moon includes the final boss fight with Bowser where Mario leaves him behind to be stranded on the moon.
In conclusion, “Mario Odyssey" is a staple point in the Mario franchise. Its setting is very abstract, but not too much. Furthermore, “Mario Odyssey” has a great amount of gameplay that includes bosses and moons to collect which keeps the player involved in the game for hours. Picture Source:
'Silksong,' a Game for the Strong
'Silksong,' a Game for the Strong
The most recent game in the “Hollow Knight” gaming series was just released on Sept. 4. The game is a sequel called “Hollow Knight: Silksong” and is a continuation of the story in the original game. Silksong had been in development for eight years before its release just this month, and fans have very mixed feelings about the new game.
First, the negatives. After just a few weeks of the game, fans have already started complaining about the game’s difficulty being too hard for many players. In fact, they complained so much that the game’s developers actually updated the game to make certain bosses easier in order to satisfy the raging fans. Furthermore, the game was actually released with almost no play testers, so when the game was initially released, there were actually many bugs that negatively affected the game. One of these bugs were NPC’s not giving hints to players about where they needed to go next in the story; this caused many players to waste hours of trying to figure out what they were supposed to do next, but due to this bug, they were not able to.
Now, even though there were a lot of negatives for when the game came out, there are still a lot of positives. First, many bugs have already been fixed just a few weeks after the release of the game. Next, “Hollow Knight: Silksong” is just a beautiful game with a 2D aesthetic that follows the precious game perfectly. Furthermore, even though the boss fights are definitely more difficult than the first game, they are still very well made and look amazing.
In all, “Hollow Knight: Silksong” had a very shaky beginning, but deserves to be played because of the developers' will to fix the game as soon as possible, for its very good 2D graphics, and challenging yet amazing boss fights. Source: Picture Source:
Endangered Animals
Endangered Animals
By Jasmine Dunaway
The Amur Leopard: On the Brink of Extinction
The Amur Leopard: On the Brink of Extinction
The Amur Leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is a leopard subspecies native to the Primorye region of southeastern Russia and northeastern China. It is listed critically endangered on the IUCN Red list, as in 2007, only 19-26 wild leopards were estimated to survive in southeastern Russia and northeastern China. As of 2015, fewer than 60 individuals were estimated to survive in Russia and China. Camera-trapping surveys conducted between 2014 and 2015 revealed 92 individuals in an 8,398 km^2 (3,242 sq mi) large transboundary area along the Russian-Chinese border. As of 2023, the population was thought to comprise 128-130 sub-adult and adult individuals. Results of genetic research indicate that the Amur leopard is genetically close to leopards in northern China and Korea, suggesting that the leopard population in this region became fragmented in the early 20th century. Amur leopards can run up to speeds of 37 miles per hour and can leap more than 19 feet horizontally and up to 10 vertically. The Amur leopard is solitary. Nimble-footed and strong, it carries and hides unfinished skills so that they are not taken by other predators. It has been reported that some males stay with females after mating, and may even help with rearing the young. Several males sometimes follow and fight over a female. They live for 10-15, and in captivity up to 20 years. Amur leopard - Wikipedia
African Forest Elephants
African Forest Elephants
African Forest Elephants are the elusive cousin of the African Savannah Elephant. It is the smallest of the three living elephant species, reaching a shoulder height of 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in). They inhabit the dense rainforests of west and central Africa. Their preference for dense forest habitat prohibits traditional counting methods such as visual identification. The forest elephant lives in highly sociable family groups of up to 20 individuals. Since they forage primarily on leaves, seeds, fruits, and tree bark, they often have been referred to as the ‘megagardener of the forest’; the species is one of many that contributes significantly to maintaining the composition, diversity and structure of the Guinean forest of West Africa and the Congolese rainforests. Seeds of various plants will pass through in the animal’s droppings (likely a new location where they will sprout), thus helping to maintain the spread and biodiversity of the forests. Forest elephants also have much slower reproductive rate than savannah elephants, so they cannot bounce back from the population declines as quickly at the same rate. Sources: African Forest Elephant | Species | WWF
African forest elephant - Wikipedia
African Forest Elephants: Custodians of Congo's Ecosystem - Tsavo Trust
How To...
How To...
By Johnathon Schonter
(Click on the picture and the article will drop down)
...Make a Paper Airplane
...Make a Paper Airplane
To make a paper airplane, first you have to get a piece of paper, whether it be line, printer, graph, etc. Make sure the piece of paper is whole, otherwise the paper airplane won’t be full sized. When you get the paper, make sure to lay it flat on a flat surface. Then, you want to fold it in half. Make sure to fold it as perfectly as you can. Next, unfold the paper and fold the top right corner towards the center crease. Do the same thing to the other side, and make sure both sides align with the center crease, otherwise it will be off. Once you do that, fold the paper in half again, doing the same exact thing you did on the first step. After that, fold each half in half, to make the wings. You can leave it like that, or draw windows on each wing. Finally, throw it as hard as you can, and watch it fly. WARNING: DO NOT set one off in the middle of class, otherwise you WILL make your teacher angry. Picture source:
...Get a Job
...Get a Job
To apply for a job, first you need to find a hobby that you enjoy, like cooking, woodworking or welding. Make sure you have a degree for some types of jobs, like pipework or HVAC. Once you find a job you like, you set up a time for an interview. Make sure it’s on a day you have nothing to do. After that, if you’re going to a business job, make sure you wear a good suit, but if you are going to work in a hands-on job, then you shouldn’t wear something very fancy, but something that would impress the interviewer. Once you get the job, make sure you have the right type of clothes if your boss doesn’t give you an outfit for the job. And make sure you have a good vehicle, unless the job you work at has vehicles for you to use. Finally, make sure you do well in your job, and don’t mess up, otherwise your boss might not trust you and either fire or lay you off. Picture source:
Holidays
Holidays
By Jasmine Dunaway
Christmas: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Christmas: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Christmas is Christian Festival celebrating the birth of Jesus. The English term Christmas (“mass of Christ’s day”) is a fairly recent origin. Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Christmas preparation begins on the First Sunday of Advent, and it is followed by Christmastide, which historically in the west lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries, is observed religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as celebrated culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the annual holiday season. There are different hypotheses regarding the date of Jesus’s birth. In the early fourth century, the church fixed the date as December 25, the date of the winter solstice in the Roman Empire. It is nine months after Annunciation on March 25, also the Roman date of the spring equinox. Most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, which has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world. Christmas - Wikipedia
Christmas | Origin, Definition, Traditions, History, & Facts | Britannica
Thanksgiving: The Nation's Tradition
Thanksgiving: The Nation's Tradition
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries such as Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory of Norfolk Island. Thanksgiving started with a 1621 feast between Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag people to celebrate a successful harvest. The event was inspired by earlier European harvest festivals. In the English tradition, days of Thanksgiving and special Thanksgiving religious services became important during English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII. Thanksgiving Day did not become an official Holiday until Northerners dominated the federal government. While sectional tensions prevailed in the mid-19th century, the editor of the popular magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Josepha Hale, campaigned for a national Thanksgiving Day to promote unity. She finally won the support of president Abraham Lincoln. On October 3, 1863, during the Civil War, Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26. Thanksgiving - Wikipedia
Thanksgiving Day | Meaning, History, & Facts | Britannica
When Is Thanksgiving Celebrated? A Quick Guide to the Annual Tradition
Fun Fact Fish Fridays
Fun Fact Fish Fridays
By Aidan Isabelle
The more streamlined body of the saltwater Striped Bass.
Hybrid Striped Bass--or "Wiper"
Hybrid Striped Bass--or "Wiper"
Some call them Stripers– but they’re shaped more like a football than a torpedo. Some call them Hybrids, but they’re more like monsters. Some think they’ve just caught the world record White Bass on steroids. It’s not the saltwater icon, the Striped Bass, and it’s not a supersized river-going White Bass either. It’s what happens when you cross a female Striped Bass with a male White Bass, and ultimately you get a creation that fights like it purposely wants to break your rod– and more often than not, it will.
The “Wiper” is the fish on every freshwater angler’s checklist– their insane body leverage allows them to brutally force themselves through the water, especially in the primary environment they live in, which is right below the tailwaters of massive river dams and in the eddies of America’s rivers– they can even thrive in large lakes, where they feed on shad balls the same way they would in rivers. The sole purpose of their existence was to control the shad populations of the United States, where fish like Gizzard Shad and Alewife often overpopulate and would otherwise need to be chemically treated. Wiper are very effective as population control, since their rapid growth and high numbers allow them to behave in a similar manner to their saltwater sibling, schooling up in large groups and busting bait out of the water to eat, until not a single fish is left. This allows other, more important fish species to have better reproductive success, especially endangered species like the Shovelnose Sturgeon, as the shad would otherwise eat the eggs of the Sturgeon on the bottom. You can find this fish in almost every single American river, warm or cold, partially because of their ability to withstand almost any freshwater environment– the only exceptions being extremely polluted or muddy water, with low oxygen content. Like Godzilla feeds on radiation, Wipers feed on oxygen– the more oxygen they have, the harder they fight. Since these fish can live about anywhere and eat about anything, I’ll primarily discuss the angling experience, contrary to other fish I’ve done so far. Their attitudes change dramatically throughout the seasons, but even on a daily basis they can change. Similar to other bass species, their behavior depends entirely on the conditions of the environment. Currently, Wiper season is coming to an end in Ohio, as water temperatures begin to cool down, and these fish act more and more sedentary, becoming opportunistic feeders. As water temperatures rise in the mornings, you’ll commonly find these fish flying out of the water in the brutal tailwaters below dams, in large groups of 50 fish or more. They’re schooling up, eating all of the baitfish that are stunned after plummeting from the massive spillways– it’s a total buffet for them. This is the perfect time for the angler, sometimes in the fall season it’s the only window that they can be effectively caught. When fishing for large Ohio River Stripers (including the elusive Striped Bass in the spring time), anglers almost have to pretend that they are fishing the Atlantic Ocean from shore. Surfcasting rods are almost necessary to be able to reach the distance, but also to be able to withstand the incredible power that hybrids have, nonetheless when they are using the current of the spillways to their advantage. Medium Heavy to Heavy power rods of 10,11, and 12 foot variants are recommended, with the average lure weight being from 1oz-3.5oz.
American Eel
American Eel
Is the American Eel really a fish, or is it more like a snake that suddenly developed gills and decided it preferred the blood of every angler’s dream 10 pound Ohio Largemouth? Well, this eel is certainly not a cold blooded killer in the slightest, and neither is it a snake or some form of amphibian that lost its legs– eels are one of the first species of fish that came from the process of evolution, and they just haven’t really changed ever since. While they certainly do grow large, they have no chance of eating any large fish because of the size of their mouths and lack of any sharp teeth like a pike. Their maximum size of 5 feet long and 16 pounds is rarely ever achieved, and that is only for females. Typically, both genders are only about 2-3 feet long. While size is not on their side, their sense of smell is, and their ability to camouflage themselves to the watery environment that they choose to live in. The American Eel is also the only catadromous fish which exists in the United States, meaning that they spend almost their entire lives in freshwater, only going to the seas to reproduce. Essentially, they are the complete opposite of species like Atlantic Salmon or Steelhead Trout. While there is research and information about this odd species, the American Eel really is an incredibly elusive species that has puzzled American scientists for years. Their life cycle is a great mystery and not much is understood of how they survive, but we do know for sure that their population has been on a great decline. We also know that their daily life follows a fairly repetitive pattern, only living in large to moderate rivers, and staying in deep pools during the day time, or completely burying themselves under sediment. When night arrives, they stalk throughout the rivers, eating anything that they can fit into their mouths, which is usually just smaller fish species and crayfish. The American Eel’s status as an endangered species makes it one of the fish species which should be admired and studied, and in no way is it a sportfish. They can theoretically be found in all of Ohio’s main rivers, but they could be labeled as even more rare than certain American relics, like the Paddlefish or the Shovelnose Sturgeon. But, it’s nice to know that America still has its only native eel.
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