Embedded Files
New information about lockers
By Tessa B
Congratulations everyone, we are finally getting lockers! If you’ve been following the recent announcements then you must know the details, but if you happened to miss some information let me fill you in. There is also new information in this article that hasn’t been released publicly yet.
The Student Council recently announced the idea for lockers on Willows Campus. It is now finally approved by the board. The lockers are scheduled to be installed around Spring break. After a poll was done with students on INTL, the majority voted for light blue, to match our school colors.
The lockers are planned to be placed in three locations. The first location will be against the outside walls of the gym. The second location will be placed near the area leading up to the hallway (the breezeway) to the MS lunch area. The last location of lockers will be placed just across the hallway leading to the lunch area near the field. Even though INTL has limited space for lockers, the school can ensure that everyone will be able to have the option to have their own locker.
The lockers have been a concern from the students since the beginning of the year, after an interview with Silja and Mr. Dietz, they have 2 answers about why this issue has been taking an abundance of time. The Student Council wanted to “engage with the students” in finding the solution on the lockers. Inclusive collaboration takes time because the school wants to listen to the options of the community and make the best decision that would be the most effective. a thoughtful and meaningful process to solve this matter. The second reason is connected to the global supply chain issues, “We are still waiting for the lockers to be available with our vendors.”
Let's cross our fingers that the shipment comes without any problems and mark our calendars for when we come back from spring break. This goes to show that anything is possible if you fight hard enough for it.
History of Saint Patrick's Day 🍀
By Noel L
What is St. Patrick's Day?
St. Patricks Day is celebrated on March 17th each year. It is the feast day of Ireland’s patron Saint Patrick. St. Patricks Day is celebrated in Ireland and all over the world by people from Irish heritage. It has slowly evolved into a celebration of Irish culture.
Who was St. Patrick?
Padráig (as he was named by his parents) otherwise known as St. Patrick was born in Britain in 387, to a family of priests. This was during the time Britain was occupied by the Roman Empire. One day, when Padráig was 16, he was kidnapped by raiders from Ireland. They took him back to Ireland as a slave, where he was forced to tend sheep day and night. Padráig came from a Christian family and the people in Ireland were Pagans. They learned about gods and goddesses. When Padráig was 20, he had a dream that he believed came from God. Based on his dream, he escaped from his captors and made it to the sea. There, he found a ship captain who agreed to take him back to Britain. After he arrived back in Britain, he was reunited with his family. Shortly after returning Padráig decided to become a priest, like the majority of his family. After a while he became Bishop and decided to go back to Ireland to tell them about what he believed. Paidrág was then renamed Patrick by the Irish folk. He worked in Ireland for over 40 years, telling the Irish about the beliefs of God. One of Padraig/Patrick’s signature signs was the three leaf clover. Patrick died on March 17, 461, and now in commemoration of Patrick, we celebrate St. Patrick’s day. A common tradition in honor of St. Patrick is to wear green clothes and three leaf clovers to symbolize Patrick. Irish stories are also retold to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. For example, about the leprechaun that is from an Irish folktale. Folk tales say, if you catch a leprechaun it will lead you to a pot of gold.
History of Pi
By Remy C
You may know that Pi is 3.14159…, but you may not know that Pi (π) was discovered nearly 4000 years ago, it is a number used to calculate the area of a circle. The ancient Babylonians used three as pi. In 1650 BC, the Rhind Papyrus in Egypt said that π was 4(8/9)2 or 3.16049.
Geedis Mystery
By Evan C
The start of this internet mystery started on June 21, 2017, when comedian Nate Fernald found a mysterious pin named Geedis. Nate Fernald is a huge pin collector and he posted this pin on his social media where he said “What the heck is Geedis, I found this old pin and Google has no answers, please help”.
Click below to read more:
The next breakthrough in π would come from Archimedes of Syracuse. He had a 96-sided shape inscribed and circumscribed on a circle. He calculated the perimeter of both shapes to get a lower and upper pound for pi. He found that π was between 3 17 and 31071 . In the late 5th century, chinese mathematicians Tsu Ch’ung-chih and Tsu Keng-chih emulated Archimede’s method with 24,576 sides to get an even more accurate result. This precision of π was improved with similar methods during the 16th century by people like Ludolph van Ceulen to 35 correct digits.
John Manchin discovered a superior formula for calculating π. Other formulas required calculating an impractical number of terms to get more digits. The formula discovered in 1706:π4 =4 arctan(15) - arctan(1239) . Tangent (tan) is a trigonometric function that takes the angle of between the hypotenuse and the adjacent as input, and returns a decimal equal to the ratio of the opposite over the adjacent lines of the triangle. The arctan takes the ratio between the opposite and the adjacent, and returns the angle between the adjacent and hypotenuse.It was used by William Shanks to achieve the record of 527 digits. After a year, some more calculations were done with the formula to get to 1000 digits by Levi Smith and John Wrench. At this point, further calculations were done only out of curiosity and not for greater accuracy. Only 39 decimal points is enough to calculate the area of the observable universe to within the precision of an atom.
In 1949, the ENIAC computer calculated 2037 digits in just three days. In 1961, 1 million digits were processed. In 1976, Eugene Salamin discovered an algorithm that doubles the number of digits per calculation rather than adding a set amount. This caused the number of digits to skyrocket. One billion digits was broken in 1989 by David and Gregory Chudnovsky. The current world record of 68,719,470,000 digits was set by Dr. Yasumasa Kanada and Yoshiaki Tamura. These mathematicians were not just calculating π for the fun of it, they were trying to find any rule that governed which digits would come next in π. So far, no rules have been discovered.
Click below to read more:
He also said that he has no memory of purchasing this pin. “Geedis” has four legs, the ones in the front longer and the one in the back shorter. Geedis is also in a sitting position with a very big smile on his face. He also has green eyes. If you searched Geedis on Google at this time, you would have 0 results. On August 1st Nate Fernald posted another social media post showing 4 identical Geedis pins. Finally, someone on Twitter tweeted a picture of a sticker sheet having Geedis as one of the stickers. The sticker sheet had the name of “The Land of Ta”, and soon after 2 more sticker sheets were found having the same name. But just like Geedis, when you search up “The Land of Ta '' on Google, there will be no results. This sticker sheet was made by the company “Dennison'', now called “Avery Dennison”. This is a famous company that makes stickers, but Avery doesn’t make pins. This means that Avery did not make the Geedis pins. This “Land of Ta '' must have been famous right? Why would they make pins and stickers about them? Geedis was also the only character that was made into a pin. But Geedis wasn’t even in the center of the sticker sheet, which probably means that he isn’t the main character. Why was Geedis the only character made into a pin? Why do we have zero results of Geedis and the Land of Ta? Why do we have no memories of this supposed famous series? And when are we gonna solve this old mystery?
Join the Search for Geedis.
Women's History Month
By Lois P
The 3rd month of the year, March is Women’s History Month as designated in 1987 by the US Congress. This time and for the rest of the year is used to recognize the many accomplishments of women throughout history.
A familiar myth regarding the origin of why March is Women’s History Month goes back to the 19th century. On March 8th, 1857, a group of female garment workers staged a protest demanding equal working conditions and pay as men. Eventually in 1908, National Women’s day was designated to be the last Sunday of February. Leading up to March of 1987, it remained this way. And among other problems of inequality between genders, the gender wage gap is a large one. This is what this article will focus on because this is one of the main issues of the present day.
Moreover, at INTL, it has been teachers' priority to educate us all on this. For example, most recently on Women’s day (March 8th) when many students posed for pictures putting their hands up in an ‘x’ for "Breaking The Bias! (a la the hashtag)" per the encouragement of Ms. Laura. All reasons why the focal point of this article is the gender wage gap.
Since the 20th century, women’s labor hours are far longer than men’s and women are pursuing education in higher numbers than men as well. But still, the average white woman makes 82 cents for every $1 men make, not to mention black women make even less at 64 cents for every $1, and hispanic women at an even lower rate of 56 cents. It is predicted that it will take over 250 years for men and women to receive equal pay and to end occupational segregation.
What could help prevent the gender wage gap sooner? One way to help diminish the gap is for companies to support pay transparency. Often, female workers are not allowed to discuss their pay with their colleagues if they are not being paid as their male co-workers. Being allowed to discuss your pay with co-workers is what’s called The Paycheck Fairness Act. The Paycheck Fairness Act would minimize pay secrecy, and give women better ways to address pay discrimination. This would make it more difficult for companies to pay male workers more than female workers discreetly.
Pass paid sick day legislation. Almost 40 million U.S. workers do not have access to any paid sick days. And 39% of working women have to stay home when their children are sick, over ten times the share of men (3%). These female employees often must go to work sick, send their sick children to school, or leave their sick children at home, alone. One-third of young children’s parents (mostly consisting of women) report that they will experience negative job consequences if they have to stay home from work with a sick child. Paid sick days would help close the gender wage gap by ensuring women, who often care for sick family members, would not lose pay or their jobs just because they or their kids are ill.
Paid family and medical leave. Because family responsibilities often fall to women, they are frequently required to leave the workforce when providing personal childcare. Additionally, working women are often targeted for discrimination and denied job opportunities--all because of stereotypes. Statistics show slightly more than 10% of women are denied jobs because of women spending less time in the labor force than men, originating from the disproportionate family care responsibilities. Furthermore, access to paid leave (for any gender) has been proven to shorten time away from work. Which also facilitates raised re-entry into the workforce. Also, more people are likely to return to their previous employer, all of which can help to close the wage gap. And if gender-neutral paid family leave is offered, men are more likely to take it, which reduces caregiving penalties in the workplace. But also this destigmatizes the gendered stereotype of women spending less time in the labor force than men, leaving workplaces no reason to deny equal pay between women and men.
These ideas are only the tip of the iceberg for changing this problem of inequality, but with the right mindset and fighting for what is right we can change this problem once and for all.
Stop Closing Your Apps
By Ryan C
If you use an iPhone, you might be used to swiping up to close your apps. You might think by doing this you will save battery life, however that is not the case. In fact, by closing your apps, you may further drain your battery. The belief of saving your battery from closing apps is from the common misconception that if left unclosed, your apps will drain energy in the background and/or slow down your phone. In fact, iOS, iPhones OS, is optimized for battery performance. It will close your apps automatically if the system thinks you will not open that app for a while. By closing your apps, it forces iOS to shut down it down. If you want to open the app up again, it will drain the battery booting it up. This process takes several seconds and is just time and battery wasted. Think of it this way: it takes up much more battery if you shut down your phone and then open it up after a few minutes. Having it on sleep is more efficient.
You might ask why closing apps is an option if it drains battery. This is because you might need to restart the app if it is not responding. This is closing apps sole purpose. This is also why iOS does not have a close all apps button, the system does it automatically. So unless your app is not responding, you should not close it as it only drains battery and slows down your phone.
INTL Soccer Team
By Ethan B
Since 1978, Silicon Valley International School has gone a while without a real soccer team. But this year, thanks to Mr. Frank and Oliver (9th grader), we changed that, with The INTL Dragons. With over 20 kids ranging from 6th to 8th grade, we had to split into two teams: the competitive team that plays in the games against other schools, and the practice team which only goes to practice on mondays and tuesdays. The competitive team includes Ethan, Thomas, Mateo U, Seth, Saladin, Colin, Iacopo, Abhishek, Yash, Amar, Karim, Noel, Lucas D, Alban, Remy K, Leo-Paul, and Alec. The two Goalies being Karim and Noel. Their first game was on Monday, January 24, against Synapse school. They ended up crushing the other team 9-2. Their second game was against PAC Bay, on February 8, who they beat 3-1, (Ethan scored two goals, Saladin scored one), they also beat Armstrong 4-2 , Hausner 2-2 (Ethan scored two goals), and Sea Crest in which the score was 5-1 (Leo scored two, Yacapo scored two, and Ethan scored one). So after lots of hard work and many practices, the dragons ended up winning the whole league, winning four games and tying one.
Go dragons!
What Does Putin Want?
By Noel L
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been one of the most hated people since Russia started an invasion of its neighbor Ukraine. There have been multiple reports of overnight explosions, bombings and Russian military vehicles driving into Ukraine from many parts of Russia, with a growing number of casualties counted on both sides.
When the Soviet Union had control over most of Europe, they also owned ukraine. But in August, 1991, Ukraine became independent. Putin now thinks that it still belongs to Russia even though it doesn’t. He thinks that modern Ukraine was entirely created by communist Russia and is now a puppet state that should be controlled by him. It was his pressure on Ukraine not to sign an undertone treaty with the EU in 2013 that sparked the protests that ousted its pro-Kremlin president. An Undertone treaty is an agreement that will let you join something. In 2013 Ukraine almost signed one but then Putin stopped them.
If you start protesting against the war in Russia, the Russian soldiers will arrest you and throw you into jail for 15 years. Putin does not want Russian civilians that don’t have much power to even know about the war. He has turned off all social media, radio and TV channels so they have no chance of knowing what is actually happening.
Fashion Week
By Lili B
Let's talk about Fashion week. Fashion week is a time of the year when all new, most famous designers show their collections. They're collections of clothes from spring, summer, winter and fall that they have designed throughout the year. These shows are located in the elite ‘fashion cities’ in the world where fashion is a statement not an element. These cities are Paris, New york, Milan and London also considered the fashion capitals. This event is always on different dates and it varies from which fashion week it is.This year fashion week is on February 11. to February 25. The two main months are February and September. Fashion week might be fun to watch but it is a confounding action to do when you are walking the runway or have designed the clothes on it. Makeup, Hair and outfit; It can be very stressful being a model and under all that pressure to display stunning pieces of work in front of a whole audience that came to see you walk down that aisle, everyone ready to critique. This is not only a major event in person but it is a sensational thing that goes on in the press where different statement pieces are discussed. Fashion week is obviously a great part of the fashion influence and influences new trends and new fashion ‘breakouts’ in society. Some of the greatest designer brands that have a great occupation these weeks are Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, Dior, Balenciaga, Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry, Hermès, and Prada. To conclude, in memory of Virgil Abloh who was one of the best designers from Off white and Louis Vuttion who unfortunately passed away in November. Virgil was the CEO of men's wear for Off-white and a big part of the designers for Louis Vuttion.
Duckduckgo; The Better Search Engine?
By Ryan C
We all have heard of Google, the default search engine on most computers. Google has around 92% of the market share, making it the most popular search engine. Even though it's the most used search engine, Google has a flaw: privacy. Google is known to have privacy protection issues. By default, it records your browsing history. It then uses your browsing history to create personalized ads that show up in your search results. You might think that this can be avoided by using “Incognito mode”. However, Incognito mode does very little to protect your privacy. All it does is delete your local browsing history. This mode still lets websites see your IP address (including Google itself) and keep on tracking you.
Aside from tracking you on Google platforms, Google also tracks you on different websites in the form of Google Analytics. This analytics service is installed on the majority of websites, and it tells the website owners their visitors and other traffic details. Google then gets their hands on the information as they own Google Analytics. Google processes the information and finds out things about you, such as your interest, things that you need, hobbies, and more. They then show you ads that are personalized for you. These targeted ads are designed to get you to buy things, which benefits Google and its ad partners. You might also use other Google services, such as Google Maps, Google Drive, Gmail, and more. These services can help Google build its online profile for you.
Other than personalized ads, being tracked online also has other negative effects. Google makes money when you click on something, and people usually click on things they agree with. With your online profile that Google has, it knows about your biases and will show you results of things you agree with. For example, if you are a Democrat, Google will show you mostly liberal content when you search. This then means that Google will filter out some Republican results, which results in a biased search and will lead to misinformation.
Google might be the biggest search engine but it is far from the best or the most private. There are many alternatives, and DuckDuckGo is one of the best. DuckDuckGo is a search engine that focuses on privacy and a better experience. By default, DuckDuckGo does not remember your search history. It also keeps Google tracking software away so no more personalized ads and biased results. DuckDuckGo treats every search as a new person, so there is no tracking.
DuckDuckGo isn't just a very private search engine, it includes a lot of features and benefits Google does not have. For example, it is much faster than Google because there is no tracking going on in the background which can slow down your browser. Also, there are some great features like “Bangs.” This feature lets you search on different websites from the browser. For example, if you want to search up “birdhouse” on Wikipedia, all you have to do is type !w for Wikipedia and then birdhouse. This will then redirect you to birdhouse pages on Wikipedia. There are over thirteen thousand Bangs shortcuts.
Another great thing about DuckDuckGo is that there are fewer ads than Google. Being a non-profit organization, a lot of their earnings go to other internet organizations dedicated to privacy. (add a couple more sentences)
It is really easy to switch to DuckDuckGo. On Safari, all you need to do is click the magnifying glass icon and select DuckDuckGo. On Chrome, you will have to go to the Chrome settings, search engine, and select DuckDuckGo. In conclusion, DuckDuckGo is a search engine that has even more features than Google and still being more private.
2022 Beijing Olympics
By Alia B
The 2022 Olympics have ended. This year, the Olympics were held in Beijing, China. The Olympics took place from February 4th, 2022 to February 20th, 2022. Ultimately, Norway was first in the medal count, earning 37 medals. Germany was second, and China was third. The U.S.A. was just out of the top three, being fourth in the medal count, with a total of 25 medals.
26 year old Mikaela Shiffrin who won 3 medals in the 2018 Olympic Games, was expected to win many medals this year. However she did not win any. Shriffrin did not finish in two of her races (giant slalom and slalom). She also placed ninth in the
super-G, and did not get a medal in downhill or combined.
On the other hand, Nathan Chen, in figure skating did better than expected. Chen, who placed fifth in the individual event in the 2018 Pyeong Chang Olympics, earned a score of 113.97 at these Olympics, a new record in figure skating.
Additionally, Nick Baumgartner became the oldest snowboarding medalist. He was eliminated from the men’s snowboarding cross event in the quarter finals, but he was selected to compete in the mixed team snowboard cross race with Lindsey Jacobellis. The pair ended up winning gold. At 40, Baumgartner is the oldest Olympic snowboarding medalist.
These Olympic games featured a total of 109 events. Big air freestyle skiing and monobob debuted in these olympics. Many new mixed competitions also debuted in these olympics. Records were set, and many people got the experience they will cherish forever.
Last Laugh
Mateo U
Bibliography
Geedis
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/geedis-ta-stickers-pin-dennison
Woman month
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “National Women's History Month.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 26 Apr. 1999, https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Womens-History-Month.
O'Donnell, Megan, and And. “Closing Gender Pay Gaps.” Center For Global Development, 16 Sept. 2020,
https://www.cgdev.org/publication/closing-gender-pay-gaps.
Lythgoe, Simon. “How to Overcome the Gender Pay Gap.” Volt, Volt International , https://www.voltinternational.com/blog/2019/07/how-to-overcome-the-gender-pay-gap.
President, Julia Cusick; Interim Vice, et al. “7 Actions That Could Shrink the Gender Wage Gap.” Center for American Progress, 27 Apr. 2017, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/7-actions-that-could-shrink-the-gender-wage-gap/.
Ranji Usha, and Alina Salganicoff. “Data Note: Balancing on Shaky Ground: Women, Work and Family Health.” KFF, 6 Nov. 2020, https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/data-note-balancing-on-shaky-ground-women-work-and-family-health/#:~:text=Four%20in%20ten%20working%20mothers,share%20of%20men%20(3%25).
Nelson, Sophia A. “Equal Pay Day Is Not Equal at All for Women of Color.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 5 Apr. 2017, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/equal-pay-day-is-not-equal-at-all-for-women-of-color_b_58e3ec04e4b09deecf0e1af4.
“Virtual Displays: March 2021 - Women's History Month.” LibGuides, https://libguides.viterbo.edu/virtualdisplays/womenshistorymonth.
Russia
Kirby, Paul. “Why Is Russia Invading Ukraine and What Does Putin Want?” BBC News, BBC, 3 Mar. 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56720589.
Stop closing your tabs
Greg Wyatt Jr. “Why You Shouldn't Close iPhone Apps” Youtube, Apple Explained, August 9th, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIqQbIJGYOU
Fasion week
Fashion week - Wikipedia,Fashion week,Wikipedia,March 8 2022
Chanel leaves Paris fashion crowd pleased with tweeds Morley , Jess Cartner. “Chanel Leaves Paris Fashion Crowd Pleased with Tweeds.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 8 Mar. 2022,
https://www.universityoffashion.com/blog/are-fashion-shows-still-relevant/
Sardone, Antonia. “Are Fashion Shows Still Relevant?” University of Fashion Blog, 18 Nov. 2019,
Olympic
“2022 Winter Olympics” 8 March 2022 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Winter_Olympics
“Mikaela Shiffrin” 5 March 2022 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikaela_Shiffrin
“Nathan Chen” https://www.teamusa.org/us-figure-skating/athletes/nathan-chen
Wong, Samantha “Top record-breaking moments at the 2022 Winter Olympics” 19 February 2022 https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/top-record-breaking-moments-2022-winter-olympics
Image Credit to INTL
Image Credit to Duckduckgo
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