The INTL Inquirer
The INTL Inquirer
Ethan 7th
Every 4th Thursday of November, for hundreds of years, Thanksgiving has been a staple for American traditions. Thanksgiving is about giving and love, but it hasn’t always been such a happy time to celebrate. On November 11, 1620, The pilgrims (English settlers), arrived in what is now known as the United States of America. Soon after they arrived, winter came, and devoured half of their colony, eating down the 100 participants down to around 50. (Press arrow to continue)
They struggled and were compelled to steal from the Native Americans that had been already living there for hundreds of years. When they came, they brought terrible diseases, such as smallpox and leptospirosis which the Native Americans had not been exposed to, and had not been prone to them. Later, in 1621, the pilgrims and the Native Americans had made a peace agreement and formed an alliance against other tribes. They had a harvest to celebrate, and Thanksgiving was born. Now, similarly to in the early 1620s, disease is negatively affecting us in many ways. Not allowing us to socialize regularly, requiring us to wear face coverings indoors, causing death to many elderly and even young people, etc. Since Thanksgiving is coming up, we should give thanks to all of the healthcare workers, people who wear their masks, people who are vaccinated and planning to, and people who have been following state guidelines for Covid 19. Thank you, everyone, have a great and safe Thanksgiving!
Noel 6th
Citizens of Huntington Beach have started to find dead birds and fish washing up on Huntington shore. A cargo ship that was supposed to be at anchor, battered by high winds repeatedly crossed over an undersea oil pipeline that eventually broke and spilled. A total of 1,218 gallons of oily water mixture have been recovered from the spill, the United States Coast Guard said in a statement. This response is currently a 24/7 operation which the state is determined to fix. Other reports of oiled wildlife are currently being investigated. The pipeline is owned by the Houston-based oil and gas company Amplify Energy. People think that the oil has been leaking longer than we think. Currently, the oil slick plume measures an estimated 5.8 nautical miles long, and runs from the Huntington Beach Pier down into Newport Beach. An oil slick is a lot of oil that gets transported everywhere by the wind and the current. The facilities operating the pipeline were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Amplify has owned the pipeline for about nine years. The State is doing everything it can to fix the oil spill.
Emory & Ethan 7th
On the first of September, tiktok creator ‘jugg4elias’ posted a video, starting a new challenge that would last for months, called devious lick. This is how it went. He opened his backpack, showcasing a box of disposable masks, with a caption saying “only a month into school… absolute devious lick,” claiming to have stolen it from his school. This video accumulated 345,800 views, before TikTok blocked it. This was the first video of many devious lick videos. Students who saw it, began stealing other items from school such as soap dispensers, floor tiles, fire extinguishers, and even urinals, and posting videos just like jugg4elias’s on TikTok. As these videos got more abundant, TikTok had a hard time banning all of them. One action schools have been taking is closing bathrooms for portions of the day, as bathrooms are a common place to covertly steal something. Another idea would be to have someone go into the bathrooms every once in a while, and if something is stolen, then they can confer with all of the teachers that recently let a student into the bathroom. If you see this trend on TikTok, there is no use commenting or sharing it with others, as it will only promote the video to more people because of TikTok’s algorithm. If you see something missing at school, report back to an adult immediately.
Sports
Connor 7th
Basketball fans will be filled with excitement as the basketball season draws near. The National Basketball Association has been taking a break from basketball, since last year only 82 basketball games were completed. The 76th NBA tip-off has already started on October 19th, 2021. Another time to watch out for is February 20th, 2021. This date marks the day for the All-Star game, between only the best basketball players in the world. These games are played for fun and don’t matter much in the basketball world. After the regular season, 16 teams with the highest record will compete with each other in a best of seven elimination tournament. The playoffs will happen on April 16th, 2022. This is where every team has to be healthy and play at their strongest to win a Championship Ring. To top it all off, June 2nd is when the NBA Finals will start. The winner of the deciding game will receive a Championship Ring worth $20,000! This will be the deciding moment of the season and will go down in history for many years to come. Many people are predicting that the two teams in the finals are the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jasper 7th
After weeks of practice, the INTL cross country team decided to go to a competition in Bayfront to test their skills against other schools. Ryan, one of the runners, had a few strong points that he thought about how they did and how they should improve.
On 11/1, The INTL Dragons cross country team went to Bayfront park to run their final race. I asked Ryan a few questions regarding the race. He said that based on what other people said, he thinks we did well. When asked about how the team can improve, Ryan said that there were a lot of hills in the course. We practiced on concrete, so no one was prepared. A way we could improve would be to go to the course and do a test run before the race.
The cross country season might be over, but look out for other sports such as basketball, soccer and tennis. Thank you Ryan for agreeing to do this interview, stay tuned and go Dragons!
Ethan 7th
Imagine waking up to being in a massive room that you have never seen before. The lights flash on, and you are surrounded by 455 other people in strange green jumpsuits and bright pink raincoats with masks and shapes on the faces of their masks. The “pink men” announce that 6 games will be occurring and a grand prize will be awarded to the winner. This is Squid Game. Squid game is a Netflix Original show with a whopping 91% rotten tomatoes. This 9 episode rollercoaster of a show happens from the perspective of Seong
Gi-Hun, a Korean debtor that is trying to win the money to both pay off his debts and help his old mom. Squid game has been seen by 111 million households, making it currently the #1 most popular Netflix show. If you are interested in rivalry, betrayal, long term character development, tragedy, and a show that will keep you thinking days after watching it, then Squid Game might be something you’d like to watch. Only available on Netflix. (Rated MA, not for all audiences)
Noel 6th
The R.1 Variant is officially in California and there are over 50 cases in our state. Scientists confirmed that the Vaccines are still effective against this variant, but the concern is that having the vaccine is only 30% more effective than having no vaccine. The Virus variant was first identified in a nursing facility in Kentucky, and the patients were both vaccinated and unvaccinated. Luckily, the variant has not been detected in the Bay area so far.
Unfortunately, the R.1 variant can spread to vaccinated people easier than the Delta variant. This is because it can invade the antibodies produced by the vaccine. As of September 27 2021, there are 2282 cases of the R.1 variant in the US. Scientists have identified multiple spike protein mutations in this variant already. The CDC is still waiting on more data to identify this variant more closely. And more data concludes that the R.1 variant has mutated more than 20 times. The most effective way to stop these mutations is to get vaccinated. Scientists are worried that covid continues to adapt and evolve, producing more variants. Even if you are vaccinated, you should still follow all the COVID-19 guidelines and wear a mask indoors.
Last Laugh
Comic: Mateo, Crossword: Noel (6th)