Sunday, October 11, 2015

Senior year’s new ending: meet the APEX project

Bailey Jaronski
Features Editor

Seniors will not be attending school beginning May 13, 2016. Instead, this year’s class will be the first to take on the APEX project.
  The APEX, which stands for Active Personal Educational eXperience, will allow students to seize the opportunity to branch out into the real world before graduation.
  Despite the necessary community service hours, this is the last project students will complete on their high school record to satisfy all requirements for graduation.
  Each student is encouraged to schedule an internship, shadowing or engaging in some type of hands-on experience that incorporates his or her passion with learning. Students are told not to expect or accept payment, as the APEX project is not an extended job.
 Students should treat this opportunity as an upaid internship on the high school level that mimcs the kinds of experiences usually reserved for college students.
  The students have to take notes to stay engaged throughout their internships and construct a presentation explaining their experience. Students will participate in check-ins with teachers throughout their APEX time to make sure they are utilizing the time for its proper purpose.
  Opportunities for internships are chosen by the student. Students are encouraged to pursue their interests and find a connection with a line of work they are interested in entering in the future.
  Mrs. Soriano and Mr. Finley are the head supervisors, along with Mr.  Malone. Students are free to meet with them as project dates gets closer.  The supervisors  can offer insight on available internships, guidelines, and recommendations.
  The value of the APEX projectwill largely be determined by the effort students put into it. This is the inaugural year, but many predict that the project is here for years to come.

Homecoming week brought school spirit

Claudia Kolinchak & Hannah Goulding
Staff Writers

Homecoming week began on Monday, Sept. 28. Leading up to this day, there were home night games to come out and watch to show school spirit.
  On Tuesday, the boys varsity soccer team played a night game at home against Lower Moreland and won 3-1. On Thursday, the girls JV volleyball team plays at 5:30 pm and varsity plays directly after at 6:30 p.m. Although originally scheduled for Friday, the homecoming football game against Bristol High School was rescheduled to Monday, Oct. 5. The football team the team handily defeated Bristol 25-8 to add to their winning record, now at 6-0 as we go to press. The Homecoming Dance was on Saturday night from 7-10 p.m. Students came to support NH-S teams and show school pride!
  To complement the evening sporting events and infuse school spirit, each school day had a dress up theme based on a candy brand. Monday was LifeSaver day with students wearing beach attire. Students paired up as twins on  Tuesday for Twix day. Wednesday was Jolly Rancher day with students dressed as cowboys and cowgirls. Thursday was Nerds day. To end Homecoming week, everyone dressed in head-to-toe school colors.
  Fall festival as been rescheduled to Oct. 24.

Donald Trump’s candidacy raises questions

Catherine Donahue
Staff Writer

When looking back at Donald Trump’s political history, an apparent favoritism towards the Democratic Party becomes evident. However, he is running for president as a Republican.
  Up until the recent elections, Trump favored the Democratic Party almost entirely, even stating to Wolf Blitzer that the economy always does better under Democrats.  His contributions include over $125,000 to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee of New York, as well as tens of thousands of dollars to politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Senators Chuck Schumer, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, many of whom were listed on a “Republican enemies” list by the Washington Post in 2011. Trump donated money to a few Republican candidates and politicians, but these donations were nominal.
  In a March 1990 interview, Trump stated he had no intentions of ever running for president at all.
  “I don’t want to be President,” Trump said. “I’m one hundred percent sure. I’d change my mind only if I saw this country continue to go down the tubes.”
  Later on in the same interview, Trump said that if he ever ran for any office position he would run as a Democrat, stating that the “working man would elect me. He likes me. When I walk down the street, those cabbies start yelling out their windows.”
  Trump said that George W. Bush was “probably the worst president in the history of the United States,” and that Bill Clinton was one of our most successful presidents in history. Trump has even said that the GOP is not a successful party.
  Although he is running as a Republican and expresses conservative ideals, it is clear Donald Trump does not fully stand with the Republican Party. People criticize Trump for his extreme ideals, but it is unclear if he really believes in them when considering his liberal actions and contributions in the past. Many people question whether Donald Trump’s run for president is even serious, since he is running with a party he previously stated he did not even support.

Facebook adds reaction emojis to its "like" button

Jacob McCloskey
Staff Writer

We’ve been waiting for this for years, and finally, Facebook’s “like” button is getting a major emotional update.
  While veteran users have been waiting for it since the site’s inception, but many high schoolers may view it as an update coming five years too late.
  At a meeting on Sept. 15, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be rolling out a beta version of a new “dislike” button. While many people had no problem with the announcement, much confusion surrounded its true purpose.
  Some believed that a dislike button could lead to cyberbullying: “There is already enough hate on the internet, and adding a dislike button will only make it worse,” said Atiq Haneef, a website user of the New York Times.
  Some users didn’t know the feature wasn’t already available: “Wasn’t there already a dislike button?” said Students Claire Dougherty and Mackenzie Carpenter.
  Facebook users tend to post about life events, positive or negative. If someone reveals negative news over Facebook, “liking” the post would often be deemed inappropriate.
  On Oct. 8,  Facebook debuted the reactions button, a series of emojis added to the traditional “like” button, expressing several different common reactions to content: angry, sad, wow, yay, haha, love. It is reasonable to assume the reactions exist as a way to convey more information to Facebook and its advertisers.

New Human Ancestors found in Rising Star

Charlotte Haigh and Victoria Siano
News Editors

A team of scientists announced their discovery of previously unknown ancestors to the human lineage in a cave in South Africa known as “Rising Star” on Sept. 10, 2015.
  Two years ago, local cavers Nick Hunter and Steven Tucker were exploring the “Rising Star” and found a narrow entrance. Upon entering it, they found skeletons strikingly similar to those of a human.   
  The two cavers contacted Dr. Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist. Dr. Berger, a professor at the University of Witwatersrand, was studying human evolution, arguing the theory that a species of humans existed between the million year gap between Australopithecus afarensis and the Homo erectus species in our evolution. He argued that this type of data would be found in South Africa. This idea proved unpopular among many other scientists, until the pictures from the Rising Star cave were discovered, showing a variety of undiscovered fossils. 
  In order to search the cave for more skeletons, Berger would need individuals that not only had scientific credentials and experience in caving, but were skinny enough to travel through the narrow cave.
  He made such an announcement on Facebook and within a week had six qualified explorers willing to do the job. Berger also hired a team of sixty scientists to analyze the evidence found by the explorers above ground. With the assistance of local cavers, the scientists were able to thread two miles of power cables into the fossil chamber, where they were be able to view the explorers’ progress via cameras.
  What they found was a human body structure unlike anything they had seen before. The species had a small skull, with a brain about one-third the size of the human brain today. Their bodies were slender, weighing about 100 lbs., and standing at an average height of five feet. Their curved fingers suggest that they might have been good climbers, and their long legs and feet that are similar to a modern human’s show they were able to walk long distances standing upright.
  This species was named Homo Naledi. Berger believes there are possibly hundreds, maybe thousands of fossils still down in the caves. Scientists are still not sure where they existed in our lineage, but with more research, hopefully, will come more answers.

Fiorina and Rubio gain support after GOP debate

Nicholas Fest
Staff Writer

After the second GOP debate on September 16, 2015, for which 11 of the 14 candidates earned a spot on the stage for, two contenders emerged as leaders in the polls.
  One of the breakout stars of the debate was Carly Fiorina. She moved up the ranks to second place behind Donald Trump in the polls after the debate. Something that caught the attention of millions of people watching was Fiorina’s statement that, "[Planned Parenthood] is about the character of our nation and if we will not stand up and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us.” Fiorina is saying that we Americans have to take charge and let Obama know what we want him to know.
  Another debater who gained support was Marco Rubio. He proved that he can compete in this elite level. "You're right, I have missed some votes, Rubio said. “Because in my years in the Senate, I've figured out very quickly that the political establishment in Washington, D.C. in both political parties is completely out of touch with the lives of our people.”
  "That's why I'm missing votes. Because I am leaving the Senate, I'm not running for re-election, and I'm running for president because I know this: unless we have the right president, we cannot make America fulfill its potential." Rubio says he can help America reach its full potential and make “the 21st century the greatest era that our nation has ever known.”
  Both candidates have seen their poll numbers go up after the  second debate.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Life in Syria is Harder Than Ever

Lexi Anderson
Editor

As refugees from Syria continue to evacuate to Europe, life in Syria continues to deteriorate.
While attention has been brought to the escaping refugees, the death toll in Douma and other Syrian cities are rising. The conflict between the insurgent groups and the Syrian government has been ongoing since 2011, and a corrupted government was present long before then.
The Assad family has been running a totalitarian regime in Syria since 1970. After Hafez al-Assad’s death, Bashar al-Assad was expected to do reforms, but he instead ordered crackdowns on the Arab Spring protestors, causing the Syrian Civil War.
This ongoing war has caused 4 out of 5 of all residents in Douma to flee, whereas once it contained around 1.5 million people. The extreme population decrease has not been helped by the Syrian government, which lately has been more violent than ever. Over 550 civilians have died in the past month, many of them being women and children.
“Neighborhoods fell on the heads of residents, the screaming can still be heard,” Douma resident Imad al-Din said of the devastation in Syria. Medics have made makeshift hospitals in basements but the equipment isn’t sterile and supplies are limited. The chaos has caused city residents to take to trapping themselves in their own homes hoping that they won’t get killed as airstrikes and artillery shells rain down on them.    
More than ever people are fleeing the country, but it isn’t that easy. It is expensive to take the boats to Europe, many people are simply stuck in Syria with nowhere to go. Even the small minority of people in support of the Syrian government, the Alawites, don’t have a future.
Options are extremely limited to those living in Syria. They can trek on towards Europe, a feat that isn’t possible for some, or they can turn back towards a war raging in Syria where hundreds are dying each month. Countries such as Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan have become less hospitable. Refugees are harassed, beaten, and tear gassed. Syrians are desperate for a solution, otherwise the population may be wiped out as whole. Thousands are escaping Syria but the conditions for those left behind are impossibly catastrophic.