The Synagogue Massacre by Ula Bitinaitis

The Synagogue Massacre by Ula Bitinaitis

As flags are hanged halfway on posts and many Americans are overcome with grief and outrage, a tragic mass shooting leaves an open wound on the United States yet again. The Saturday of October 27th was met by a man, Robert Bowers, storming into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue, taking eleven lives and injuring several more. The ceremony taking place was dedicated to the naming of a child; a session that marked the beginning of their journey in the Jewish faith. Among the deceased include children, the elderly, and most of all, the innocent. Instead of a gathering of commemoration, the morning brought about sorrow and anguish in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Picture by Michael Henninger: https://people.com/crime/synagogue-shooting-suspect-treated-jewish-doctor-nurse/

Robert Bowers of 46 had been heard shouting anti-Semitic statements before he opened fire. His online posts on Gab, a typical social media website favored by white nationalists (as well as other platforms) have shown his dedication and utter disgust for the Jewish faith and its followers. What does this mean for America?

In this day and age, many can find it unbelievable that such hate crimes and terrorist attacks are still occurring. The discussion on gun control, a galvanized one that considers many age groups of all creed and background, is only emphasized by this event. President Trump has even spoken on the situation, stating that "if they had some kind of protection inside the temple, maybe it could have been a very much different situation", while also tying in the necessity for a death penalty.

Jabs at the media have also been on the rise. With massacres such as the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, the Orlando nightclub shooting and many more, people have criticized the media for either elongating the discussion on shootings, recklessly interviewing children or others who have been victims of such disasters, and in short, leeching the watchers' time for money.

When nationally impacting tragedies occur, people often want to be aware of the deep, gritty and interesting details. This includes questions such as "Who was the killer?", "What do they look like?", and many, unfortunately, are often intrigued by the prospect of seeing actual footage and sound. People say that the media takes advantage of the viewers' wants; rather than discuss matters other than gun control, there is an agreement within certain groups that they go to incredible lengths to elongate the screen time for which coverage of this information is shown, including interviewing people at the site of the shooting hours or days after the occurrence, asking them what the bullets sounded like, asking if any of their friends have died, plastering the murderer's face online and on television, showing the videos of by standards running for their lives from buildings, making sure to preview the screams for the viewers at home. The organization eschoolsafety has even found a 12% increase in threats to schools between the autumn school semesters of 2016 and 2017, and a 59% rise in violent incidents. Some go as far as to say that this coverage increases the chance of school shootings, saying that the infamous stories of shooters may provide a fame or notoriety that someone may wish to have after death. Disasters seem to sell, and many groups agree that it's an all too common habit in American news media. Rather than contribute to this, here are the names and ages of the deceased from the recent massacre.

 Daniel Stein, 71

Joyce Feinberg, 75

Richard Gottfried, 65

Rose Mallinger, 97

Jerry Rabinowitz, 66

brothers Cecil Rosenthal, 59

David Rosenthal 54

Bernice Simon, 84

Sylvan Simon, 86

Melvin Wax, 88

Irving Younger, 69

Multiple things can be agreed upon after this tragedy; the discussions of anti-Semitism, gun control, and media coverage burn hot in political discussions today. With the recent disasters of 2018 and earlier, they aren't dying out anytime soon.

Picture by Brendan Smialowski: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/suspect-in-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-charged-in-44-count-hate-crime-indictment/2018/10/31/bf2be61c-dd36-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f742292eba82

CreditCredit

Articles, statistics and picture sources below:

• https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/us/muslims-raise-money-pittsburgh-synagogue.html
• http://time.com/5436877/trump-synagogue-armed-guard/
• https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/29/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-what-we-know/1804878002/
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/suspect-in-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-charged-in-44-count-hate-crime-indictment/2018/10/31/bf2be61c-dd36-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f742292eba82
• https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/29/pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting-what-we-know/1804878002/
• http://time.com/5436877/trump-synagogue-armed-guard/
• https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-shooters-parkland-florida-shooters-students-20180218-story.html

Southeast Asia Underwater by: Mikayla Flanz

      Global warming. A gradual increase in the overall temperature of the Earth's atmosphere. It's a term kids from the past few generations have grown up with, but has now evolved into "climate change". The same meaning as global warming, only including the monumental consequences that come with it.

Up until the past few years, as a global community we have yet to reap the effects of climate change, but now that we have; hurricanes, temperatures, sea levels, and many other events have sent us spiraling. But up until now, there has never been a real threat to our ways of life.

     According to science correspondent, Josh Gabbatiss's article from British newspaper, The Independent, as opposed to the inhabitants of Southeast Asian and Pacific Islands getting the next century to keep their native lands, new research published in the journal, Science Advances proclaims that the once promised one hundred years are now diminished to a few more decades. 

Since the Industrial Revolution, more and more of the green house gases such as, carbon dioxide and methane have been released, overall warming our planet. Although this "warming" has only come to about a two degree global increase, that change melted enough of the ice caps for there to already be devastating floods throughout these islands. The constant rising sea levels exert more water onto the low lying land, here the sea water is able to leach into the soil, spill into freshwater supplies, and decimate infrastructure and farm land. 

    Narrowing in on the Marshall Islands of the South Pacific, Science Advances illustrates the 70,000 natives of these chains of islands, where due to climate change and rising sea levels they will lose access to freshwater supplies, causing their farming industry to collapse, leaving a good portion of these inhabitants with little to no income or food. Along with the fact that, the rushing flood waters will sit in the dry walls of these houses for days at a time before clearing out and drying, therefore leaving mold in it's place. However, the authors also find that these issues will soon extend to neighboring islands such as the Maldives, Hawaii, and Seychelles, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their ancestral homes.

This is definitely the most selfish and least important reason to want the islands to stay right where they are, BUT... I have always wanted to travel to these places. These destinations are stunning, the landscape, the sites, the culture, to experience it all would be extraordinary. Stepping away from my traveling fantasies, there are more important matters...

Anyway, as someone who has always dreamed of traveling the globe all their life, to now see the world being picked apart and slowly demolished is devastating, but to the people living this out and losing the only home they have ever known must be like walking through their own never ending nightmare. 70,000 people. And that is just one chain of islands, what about the more densely populated Maldives or state of Hawaii. Where are all these people going to go? What are they going to do? Some of these people know nothing outside of their island chains, are they supposed to simply adapt from thousands of years of tradition overnight? 

Not to point fingers, but those who think climate change "doesn't exist" or is a "natural occurrence" are going to be very sorry some day, and that day may be coming soon. Even though this is happening thousands of miles away, across oceans, on a different continent, who is to say this can never happen to our coasts. Already, climate change is mauling our southern coasts, nothing permanent yet, but nothing is impossible, these people native to these Pacific islands probably thought that they would die in their home, as would their children, as had their parents, and relatives before them, all before their world was torn apart.

As a global superpower, we can not stand idly by while this is happening, sure it has not directly effected us yet, but eventually it will. So what if we have to give up certain things like oil and coal, and invest for a future in eco-friendly power systems, hundred of thousands of people will have to give up their land by the middle of the century. Maybe it might be too late to save some of the islands, but do we really want to see this underwater and abandoned? Gone?



Who really wants to see this gone?








Citations:Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent “Rising Sea Levels Will Leave Islands From the Maldives to Hawaii Uninhabitable.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 25 Apr. 2018

Images:
1. https://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/world/asia/floods-south-asia-india-bangladesh-nepal-houston.html
3. https://xdaysiny.com/top-10-tropical-islands-south-pacific/

Women and Nobel Prizes - Kelly Zukowski

In October, many Nobel Prizes were given out for chemistry, physics, medicine and other subjects to a total of 12 people. However, this time there were many more women being given prizes than before. 😊

A total of 51 women were given Nobel Prizes between 1901 to 2018, with Marie Curie winning two prizes in physics and chemistry. Only one woman named Elinor Ostrom in 2009 has achieved the economics Nobel Prize. So far, women have claimed only 12 noble prizes in peace, literature, and medicine. 

A Canadian university professor (Donna Strickland) had become on October 2nd, the first woman in 55 years to get a Noble Prize in physics. Arthur Ashkin, Gerad Mourou, and Donna Strickland created a short and intense laser pulse that has ever been created which makes it easier to look at small particles and do eye surgeries. She is also the third woman to get a physics Nobel Prize. In addition, a woman named Frances H Arnold won a chemistry Nobel Prize. She is part of a small group made out of 5 women who have gotten chemistry Nobel Prizes (below is an image on when these 5 women got their prizes). Marie Curie in 1911 was the first woman to get a chemistry Nobel Prize for her discovery of radium and polonium. 

This is VERY important since only in 1920 were women allowed to vote, and now they are getting what they deserve for their contributions to the world. This shows that a woman, like me, can be acknowledged for accomplishments like a man with no discrimination against gender. In future years, the number of women getting Nobel Prizes will hopefully increase. I find this amazing since I am also a woman and hope to in the future to be able to get a Nobel Prize for a discovery that may help people in need. Everyone plays an essential role in today's society and I advise for a push for a society that helps and supports everyone.

This is a picture of the people who in 2018 got a chemistry Nobel Prize.

Links that I got the pictures and info from:

- https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/10/03/women-win-nobel-prize-chemistry-physics-first-time-same-year/1516518002/

- https://www.compoundchem.com/2018/10/09/nobelprize-women/

-https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/nobel-prize-awarded-women-3/

Pleistocene Park -- By Rachel Young

We've all seen Jurassic Park. We've all wondered what it would be like to see prehistoric roam the earth. This dream, however, this wild, unimaginable concept, could become reality in future years, with Russia working to recreate the Woolly Mammoth.
Yes, that's right. The Woolly Mammoth. The creature extinct for over 10,000 years could be making a comeback to Siberia's icy terrain as early as 2030.

Russian scientist Nikolaev explained that all this is possible because of DNA samples found preserved in the permafrost of Yakutia. The project is projected to “aim to study extinct animals from living cells - and to restore such creatures as the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave lion and breeds of long-gone horses”, according to experts. To recreate these prehistoric beasts, DNA is extracted from preserved samples and spliced with the genetic material of modern asian elephants. These cells are then reprogrammed to stem cells and are added to the egg of an asian elephant, which are then fertilized in an artificial womb. 

The recreation of this species isn't all for show, though. Woolly Mammoths could benefit the environment, helping to prevent Siberia's permafrost from melting and releasing billions of tons of greenhouse gases. The cold resistant elephants could flatten the snow-- supporting trees in the winter and heat reflective grass in the summer. The enhanced photosynthetic capacity of plant life would also help capture greater amounts of carbon. Scientists have also been working to introduce more animals, like wild cats and cave lions.

With a little hard work, a beast only imagined in stories, only seen in history books, may be right before our eyes in years to come. The procedure, already set in action, could change vegetation, animal life, and the climate as we know it. 

(By the way, my blog is highlighted, I did it by accident and im not really sure how to get rid of it!)

The End of Loot Boxes By Jon Poret

Recently, Belgium's legislature has decided that "loot boxes" or similar mechanics in video games are to be outlawed in the country, and publishers/developers who release games with these loot boxes in their games are to be fined close to $1,000,000 USD and will be put in prison for five years.

That sounds great and all, but what are loot boxes?

To put it simply, loot boxes are the video game equivalent of buying a pack of Pokemon cards. You pay to open them, but you don't know what you are going to get. This has proven to be a problem, as Belgium considers them a form of gambling and that they go against gambling laws in the country.

A loot box from the game Overwatch

The controversy with loot boxes originally started with the game Star Wars: Battlefront II by EA Games, in which reddit user /u/MBMMaverick called out EA for the loot box mechanic in the game locking away most of the playable characters. EA replied to the thread, stating that the loot boxes gave players "a sense of pride and accomplishment" for either obtaining the characters via the loot boxes, or as another reddit user stated, grinding 40 hours to unlock each hero. This was met with tons of backlash, and the comment became the most downvoted comment on reddit, with over 670,000 downvotes. EA removed the loot boxes from the game after this, so they were not targeted by Belgium with this law.

One of the games that has been under heavy fire concerning these laws, however, has been Counter-Strike: Global Offensive developed by Valve. In the game, players can obtain "weapon crates" once or twice a week while playing the game, which they can open for $2.50 in game to receive a "weapon skin," a paint job for their weapons in game that they can see in game during normal play.

It doesn't sound like an issue because players get no competitive advantage, right?

Wrong.

Items opened from these crates have a real life market value, with prices ranging from a few cents to thousands of dollars. To put these into perspective, one of the rarest skins in the game sold for about $50,000 USD. Because of their real world value, weapon skins in Counter-Strike have been used in many ways, some good and some evil. Some people use them to trade in an attempt to make money off the skin economy. I took part of this, turning about $40 into $180, just to get scammed for my items. Some websites also took to using the skins in another way, one much more nefarious. 

CS:GO skins have been used to gamble with on many sites, which is somewhat ironic considering the way you obtain them is gambling in itself. Some websites exist where you can deposit your skins onto the website for credits that allow you to gamble in hopes to withdraw better, more expensive skins. This became the center of controversy as some websites started rigging their sites, some using bots to bet against other players in 1v1 coin toss games, and some allowing YouTubers to play on the site with altered win percentages on jackpot games in hopes to get more people to gamble in their sites. 

The biggest scandals involving skins in Counter-Strike involve a few popular YouTubers, mainly "PhantomL0rd", "TmarTn", "ProSyndicate", "McSkillet", and "Anomaly". PhantomL0rd was given access to a backdoor win rate changer on a website that he was sponsored by, on which he would gamble on livestreams with altered win percentages in an attempt to get more people on the site gambling. He was eventually found out when he accidentally showed a script on screen and the backdoor he had access to. In the Case of TmarTn and ProSyndicate, they gambled on their own site against other players, altering their win percentages, while not disclosing they owned the site. McSkillet was well known for making videos about rare skins and skin combos that fit a certain theme, and had an in game inventory worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. His inventory got trade banned, meaning he couldn't trade or sell his skins. In a moment of poor judgement, he took his McLaren car, crashed into a school's fence that had a sign that said "STEAM", the name of the service Valve uses to sell games. He then went onto the wrong side of a highway driving at 100 miles per hour, crashing and killing himself and two others. Anomaly's controversy is both the most recent, and the most interesting, as this one may have caused the most damage. He was sponsored by a site for a while, and was paid about $100,000 per video he made on the site, which was owned by a Russian billionaire who was infamous in the CSGO community for running another scam site, and was scamming people on this site as well, as he would use bots with altered win rates against players in 1v1 cointoss matches for skins. Someone pointed out the issues and exposed the website in a YouTube video, and the owner of the site responded by live streaming himself on twitter, giving out the exposer's full name, his address, his family members' address, their names, pictures of all of them, and other private information that he dug up about him.

Because of issues like these and many others in similar games, Belgium decided it would be best to completely ban loot boxes in order to avoid controversies like these.

I decided to get a closer look at how bad these loot boxes really are, and recorded myself opening a few cases in Counter-Strike to showcase how bad these really are.

As you can see in the video, the loot box system in Counter-Strike is almost identical to gambling online or in a casino, as you pay money to open, and you don't know what you will get back, and when I opened my cases, I wasted my $5. 

Seeing how the loot box system really is gambling, Belgium made the right decision in banning them, as underage players can get into gambling through these games. This poses many issues, especially with children who don't understand the fact that they are gambling with money in the form of skins, which can lead them to having a gambling addiction later in life, which they may not be able to afford.

Stocks to Look Out for With the Release of the Newest iPhone By: Zachary Merold

With the release of the newest Apple product, the iPhone XS, their stock has once again skyrocketed. This time, however, not only has Apple stock gone up, but many companies tied to the latest iPhone have also recently flourished. People may think that all components in an iPhone are made by Apple themselves, but this is not the case. For example, a company named Analog Devices Inc. is responsible for the capacitive (a technology that is able to detect anything different than air) touch screens in iPhones and Apple watches. Since this company owns the patent for these certain pieces of technology, every time one of Apple's products with this component in it sells, they have to pay Analog Devices Inc. a certain percent of the sale. Currently, there is a lot of speculation about 3-D touch feature coming to Apple products soon and many people believe that Analog Devices Inc. will be the company to develop this technology, all the more reason to invest in it now. Micron Technology Inc. is another company that makes memory modules so your iPhone can efficiently multitask and run multiple programs at once (the DDR3 SDRAM model is shown below). If you would like, you can visit this link here to read about other companies tied to the iPhone supply line, and even possibly invest in some of them.

Global Warming May Soon be Irreversible By Chloe Maher

The earth's temperature has advanced so much that it may be too far gone to reverse the effects of global emissions. Global emissions are showing small signs of slowing down. Humans have to avoid going past 1.5 degrees in the world's temperature in order to avoid catastrophic events for the earth. However, in order to avoid going past 1.5 degrees humans would have to make massive efforts to help the earth. “Frankly, we’ve delivered a message to the governments,” Jim Skea declared, a co-chair of the IPCC panel and professor at Imperial College London, at a press event following the document’s release. “It’s now their responsibility … to decide whether they can act on it. What we’ve done is said what the world needs to do.” Unfortunately, world governments don't seem to be taking this report into consideration. The United States is the world's second largest emitter of carbon dioxide a major perpetrator of global warming. However, the US recently dropped out of the Paris Agreement, and environmentally friendly policies put in place have been scaled back. This makes the world that much farther from achieving goals set up by the Paris Agreement.
In order to avoid warming the earth more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world would need to make major scale backs in emissions. The world would have to reduce the nearly 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide being emitted by 1 billion. By 2050 coal would need to be nearly or completely eliminated as an energy source. But, by 2050, we'll have a projected two billion additional people on earth. Land currently being used for food, would need to be converted for growing trees as well as crops intended for energy use.
In addition to making efforts to scale back emissions, the world will need to implement negative-emission programs. However, experts are not sure if these can be implemented on a large scale throughout the world as these technologies aren't as advanced as one would hope.
Humans have a maximum ten to fourteen years to continue emitting greenhouse gases. Once the world exceeds this point, there's no return. By 2100 if we continue at this rate the world's temperature may increase by as much as four degrees. This increase in temperature will be devastating for the world as many species could go extinct. Currently, the world is going through a mass extinction, known as the Holocene extinction, the earth's sixth mass extinction. This is partially due to the rate of global warming, caused by humans. Animals are going extinct at a faster rate than seen before. Studies have shown that 50% of all individual animals have been lost in past years, a concerning amount. If we don't make efforts to prevent global warming, there could be even more adverse effects against even more species. If we're not careful, its possible that we may even be next.


Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn, https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/08/world-has-only-years-get-climate-change-under-control-un-scientists-say/?utm_term=.d1d88db7edf4

Computer Hardware: The updates with the pros and the cons Akshat Iyer

Computer hardware has been changing a lot since the past year, with the changes ranging from price to performance. Bitcoin has been changing, RAM prices have been fluctuating, and Processors and GPUs are being created with newer technologies that are able to run programs faster, and are able to use power more efficiently. I have waited for a while to give my input on this subject because I think that I have the experience that is necessary to provide information to people who are looking to purchase a computer or computer hardware to build one yourself. I will also be giving advice based on my own experiences buying and building a working rig. Anyways, let's get into the new components that have come out recently.

CPU (Processor)
The CPU market has changed a lot in the course of this year. In this year alone, AMD released their new 2nd generation CPUs. These processors sport clock speeds ranging from 3.4 GHz to 3.7 GHz, for a price range of $100 - $180, and an estimated power usage of 65W - 105W, which is a pretty good bang for your buck if you are looking to build a budget rig. Intel still slightly outperforms AMD with its new mainstream processor that is out on the market. The Intel i7 8700k is one of Intel's new CPUs, which is a great processor if you want both productivity, and gaming performance. It's multi-threading almost has it matches that of the Ryzen 7 series, and it runs it's base clock at 3.7 GHz and is overclockable to 4.7 GHz without de-lidding. With de-lidding, however, this processor can run at a crazy fast 5.1 GHz clock speed, however, if you decide to de-lid your processor, it may void your warranty. Keep in mind, however, that this performance comes at a price, and that price isn't very pretty for most of us to pay. This CPU costs $369, which is more than double of that of the AMD Ryzen Processors. If you are willing to pay a pretty penny, however, then go for it, and purchase this CPU.

RAM (Memory)
The RAM prices have been seeing some crazy price changes, but thankfully, they have finally settled, and you can get a really nice set of 16 GB RAM sticks for $130 or less. The prices in June were about $180, which was insane, because the normal MSRP value for 2 8 GB sticks of RAM is around the range of $80 to $150, which means the maximum price you were paying for memory was $30 less than what you would have paid for the budget stick 3 months ago. Since the RAM prices dropped, building PCs is a lot cheaper now for good performance. If I were you, go ahead and grab yourself a 16 GB set for a solid gaming PC performance.

GPU
Graphics cards and their prices have been going crazy over the past couple of months, with the whole cryptocurrency mining craze and the new RTX and Vega cards coming out. I will tell you from experience that you should not buy a PC during a cryptocurrency craze in effect. This would essentially make your PC seem unreasonably expensive and may cause you to be disappointed with the performance you got with the expensive graphics card. At one point, the GTX 1060 was selling for $325, about $85 above the MSRP value. However, as of October 30th, 2018, graphics card prices have gone down enough to where it is reasonable to pay the extra $10 for 1060. The GTX 1060 is probably one of the best graphics cards when it comes to the cost/performance ratio, as it is $255 but it allows the user to play games at max settings and still stream it at 144 frames per second. The GTX series is also more advanced than AMD's graphics cards in software, with NVidia having support for OBS and other games by default. NVidia has also recently released a new strand of graphics cards, known as the RTX series, which includes the RTX 2070, RTX 2080, and RTX 2080 TI. RTX apparently has new technologies, such as "ray tracing", which simulates the behavior of light in real life to bring games "to life," and DLSS, which is an AI that "trains the GPU to render crisp images" according to the NVidia website. This may seem pretty nice, but keep in mind that the lowest performance card of the RTX series costs about $599, which is a price that is not affordable for those who want to build a mid-range gaming PC, however, if you are truly feeling mad and want to go for it, you can buy the RTX series for that "maximum performance" of games. On the other hand, AMD hasn't really been releasing anything new. The Vega came out about a year ago, with its high potential for mining, but ever since the mining craze has died down, AMD hasn't really released anything new and fun for us to play with, however, the speeds of their RX 580 is still standing strong, at about equal performance to the GTX 1060, according to reputable GPU Benchmarks. The Vega also is matching the speeds of the 1070 and 1080, with the 56 and 64 respectively. However, NVidia's video cards are a bit more power efficient, so it reigns a little superiority there. Also, for the Graphics card prices, NVidia's cards have gone down quite a bit due to the release of their new cards mentioned above. The card you get depends on what your budget is, so if you are on an entry budget, go for one of the lower models, but if you are on a higher budget, go for something expensive, and if you really want to get the RTX cards, with its ray tracing ability, then by all means go for it, and please let me know how it feels.

This ends the review, so below I'll list some builds that you can go for that you can edit based on your price range. There will be 3 builds below, for 3 different price ranges. Click on them to go and check them out!

(Please note that this is only the chassis for the computer, you will need to buy yourself a monitor and a copy of whatever operating system you desire)
1. Entry Level Part List (Made by ThoughtA) ($400-$600):
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/p2MnTW/entry-level-amd-gaming-build
2. Modest Gaming machine ($1000 - $1500):
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/KgctHh
3. All-out Gaming machine ($2000 - $2500):
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XFLXdX

Subscribe to Pewdiepie! By Nick Furnari

          To be honest, I've never been a big fan of, Swedish Youtuber, Felix Kjellberg, commonly known as Pewdiepie, but times are changing. If you didn't know, Pewdiepie is the most popular Youtuber in the world, posting original content daily, and currently reaching a subscriber count of over 68 million and climbing. However, after 5 years of being at the top of Youtube, (having over double and even triple the subscriber count of the other most famous Youtubers), he is finally about to be surpassed. Out of no where, T-Series (an Indian Bollywood music production company), started growing in subscribers. It still remained relatively unnoticed, while Pewdiepie is a house-hold name. Nevertheless, the channel took off in late 2016, and now it is at 67.9 million subscribers, currently growing at about 1 million subscribers a week! What took Pewdiepie almost 9 years, was for the most part accomplished by T-Series in the better part of 3 years. This astounding growth shocked the Youtube community, with many Youtube users just learning about T-Series now, now that they are inches away from surpassing Pewdiepie.



          How? You might be asking. How did T-Series grow so incredibly fast, without most of the Youtube community even recognizing it? This was discussed and presented to the Youtube community by many fellow famous Youtubers including Drama Alert, Mr. Beast, h3h3 Productions, and Pyrocynical. Some, like Drama Alert, had a more objective stance, and others, like Mr. Beast, voiced their opinion on the matter that T-Series was about to pass the biggest Youtuber there ever was. In almost all of these videos explaining the situation, it has been stated that the reason for T-Series' immense growth was due to its location. India, with a population of 1.3 billion, is far greater than the American population of 325 million. On the other hand, Most of Europe is a main stage for Pewdiepie as well, (having being Swedish himself), but even the population of all of Europe is only 741 million. Using these population statistics, it is easy to figure that T-Series would be growing subscribers at a faster rate. It is also rumored that T-Series purchases fake subscribers just to add to their total subscriber count.




          Regardless of his fame, Pewdiepie has always been a controversial Youtuber, having made some mistakes in the past, and many people just don't understand his wild sense of humor. However, that doesn't retract the fact that he posts original content every day, always tryng to make us laugh. This effort does not go unnoticed in the Youtube community and many people think he still deserves to be the most subscribed Youtube channel. T-Series however, pumps out content several times a day, but it is important to remember that quality is better than quantity. Although T-Series releases new videos faster than any other channel on Youtube, they are mostly 3 minute music videos that are poorly directed, and poorly acted, while Pewdiepie releases original 10 to 20 minute videos for our entertainment.



          Fearing that Pewdiepie will soon fall to second place against a cheesy and unoriginal channel, Youtubers decided to band together and try to keep Pewdiepie on top. Mr. Beast, an increasingly popular Youtube channel with about 10 million subscribers, probably made the biggest contribution thus far to sustaining the first place title of Pewdiepie. He posted a video 4 days ago titled, "I Bought Every Billboard In My City For This" In which he buys adds on websites, in stores, and on billboards, and he goes to radio and TV shows to tell everyone to subscribe to Pewdiepie. He explains how Pewdiepie makes every video original and worth watching, and saying how it would be a shame if he got passed by T-Series. Overall, this remains a huge topic across Youtube, with major support for Pewdiepie being expressed through social media. As a result of the massive promotions for Pewdiepie by Mr. Beast, and other Youtubers, Pewdiepie is starting to grow just as fast if not faster than T-Series, and for now is just able to remain the most subscribed Youtuber in the world. There is a live subscriber count that was started on September 1 by Youtuber, FlareTV that represents the current total growth of both Youtube channels to see the percent change, and rate of growth, to judge how much longer Pewdiepie can hold out against T-Series.

Hurricane Mayhem By: Luke Simmons

This time of year is the infamous period of time when the news is constantly portraying horrifying scenes and clips of intense rain and winds obliterating houses, trees, and towns all together. This is known as hurricane season, or where hurricanes are most common and happen most often. While it is currently the tail end of the season, there were many serious hurricanes that occurred and made landfall, with the most recent being Hurricane Michael. This specific storm made other hurricanes look like nothing once it made landfall in Florida on October 10 of this year.
Hurricanes are put into categories based on how strong the winds are as the storm circles around the eye, with category 5 having the strongest winds and category 1 having the lowest winds. Most commonly, hurricanes are somewhere around category 2 or 3 once they hit land due to the decreased speed that is caused by the change from the storm being over the ocean to now being over land. What made Hurricane Michael unique was that it was a category 4 hurricane when it made landfall, which made the wind speed at about 155 miles per hour. This is almost unheard of when it comes to hurricanes on land, because as hurricanes hit land it is typical for the hurricane to greatly decrease in terms of wind speeds. This is due to how the hurricane loses momentum once it reaches land without the ocean under it fueling the storm. What made it even more surprising was that it was just on the cusp of being a category 5 storm, which has hardly ever been recorded in hurricanes in the recent years.

Michael made its way through Florida and up the Atlantic Coast up to around southern New Jersey before it stopped. Although it lasted only about four days total on land in the United States, it reeked havoc on almost everything that it came in contact with. Houses were destroyed, businesses lifted off of their foundations, and cars and other objects thrown and destroyed in the intense winds. Local citizens of the afflicted areas came back to nothing if they decided to return back to their homes, and were devastated to see that everything that they had ever known had dissipated with the storm.
Within my life, the most scary part of all of this was knowing that our family friends were in Florida while the hurricane was obliterating a path to the northern part of the coast. Even thought it was predicted that the storm was not going to come near them, it was still very nerve-wracking knowing that they were so close to such an intense act of nature. Just to add to the situation, weather specialists did not suspect that it was going to be very close to a category 5 at landfall, yet it was, so who was to say that the path of the hurricane couldn't change at any moment?
Although this was a very intense time, thankfully my family-friends were not harmed, yet an immense amount of others were. For days after the end of the hurricane there were numerous frightening headlines of missing people, deaths, and destruction. All of these things are inevitable when it comes to hurricanes, which is what makes them so stressful. After going through the hurricane this year and being under an immense amount of stress without even being physically near the storm, I hope that no other hurricane is as strong as Hurricane Michael, because if so then much more devastation is at hand in the near future.

One Outfit For One Hundred Days~ By Julia McEllen
            
            A middle school art teacher at the William W. Allen Middle School in Moorestown, New Jersey, Julia Mooney has decided to take a different approach when focusing her energy on more important things than clothing. By wearing the same dress for the first one hundred days of school, Julia Mooney is reflecting on the needed steps that are essential in creating awareness for the environmental costs that come with modern day fashion.



           Because of modern day "fast fashion", 21 million tons of textiles are thrown away every year in North America. Fast fashion refers to the constant changing of fashion styles in stores across North America. Many different styles are sold in stores depending on what is trending, and they are easy to access and are affordable for many purchasers. The downside to this is that since the fashion styles change so rapidly (fast fashion), Americans end up disposing of or not wearing a majority of the clothes they buy. Fossil fuels and a large amount of water which is used to make these pieces of unwanted clothing are then wasted, and this ultimately hurts the environment.


           By creating this challenge, Mooney is teaching her students the importance of eco-friendly behavior and the impact it has on saving the environment and bettering our world. Mooney also extends the challenge to her home life to show how dedicated she really is to conserving our ecosystems. Not only does she wear one dress to work everyday, but she also keeps the same dress on at home. Mooney also does not believe in washing her clothing in a washing machine because it is not eco-friendly, so she resorts to hand washing instead.
           Mooney believes it is better to help the environment than to be in style everyday just for the purpose of looking good. Through this challenge, she has opened up about her feeling toward fast fashion and its environmental costs and has also inspired many others to join her on her "one outfit for one hundred days" journey. I think it is important for people to act like Julia Mooney and bring awareness to these problems our society does not usually pay attention to. I also believe she is courageous in doing this, especially for sticking to her challenge no matter how hard it may have been for her to complete.

https://6abc.com/education/teacher-wears-same-dress-daily-for-lesson-in-sustainability/4235649/ 

News or Propaganda?

News or Propaganda

by, Jenna Bargfrede

We live in a world where our every thoughts are governed by our findings on the internet, on the television, and on social media. And subsequently, you can’t go anywhere without some kindof source exaggerating, twisting, or completely changing a story (especially when it’s become so easy to change an image through photo-shop or create fake coverages). With this new found power to sway the minds of the general populave, political parties have come to use technology as their new platform. So, we must ask ourselves is our news real or propaganda, and where does that place us as a society?
As time has passed, propaganda has proven to be one of the most effective tools to cajole a majority onto one’s side. In times of war, and World War II is a great example, propaganda is used as a powerful device to rob people of their original beliefs and brainwash them into fighting for a cause that may even be questionable. But perhaps more despicable is the fact that even children are exposed to propaganda. Before they even formed beliefs. And this in my mind, is worse than any kind of political advertisement. This is the stealing of the will of millions by plantinf subconscious thoughts and connections that aren’t their own. This is the tainting of youth and the taking advantage of innocent and naive persons. Without realizing it, a student enters school with a pre-formed bias due to where they get their “news”.
It is common knowledge that is is near impossible to find an unbiased news network, be it CNN or Fox. And even websites are scarce to be found today. But my main topic of concern will be social media and a specific website called YouTube. These two platforms are targeted toward a clear feoup of people. The youths. And no matter where I turn, I see political sentiments one way or the other (though these platforms tend to lean more to one side, and I’m sure I don’t need to say which). Now I personally have no idea where I stand on the political spectrum, but I attribute this to the obvious biases that I have grown up in my hands. It is because of this that I try to avoid politics wherever I go. So that I may find myself, and without two different voices shouting on either side of me and tellinf me what to think or believe. But, when politics is th only thing you see: in ads on YouTube and in posts on Instagram, it’s impossible to catch a break. And I— as a youth affected by the way our news system works and how its been corrupted to only tell the side they want to tell— I have no idea... now way of knowinf whether my beliefs are actuallu mine, or planted there by some politician. Whether who I an is because of what those older than me wanted me to be. It is this that is my chief concern, foe how can we see the world in our own unique way when we are looking through somebody else’s eyes? How can we create a new and better world when we are using old ideas? Everyone says that the youth is the future, but if we don’t allow them to think for themselves... If we continue to push our ideals onto them without letting them try to decide for themselves, the world will be no different. And that’s the greatest wrong that can be committed.

There Needs to Be Change by Vincent Apostolico

On October 27, Robert D. Bowers entered a Pittsburgh synagogue with an AR-15 assault rifle and 3 handguns. He killed 11 congregants when he shot into a crowd of people for several minutes. As he was about to leave the synagogue, police officers came armed with guns and got into a gun fight with Bowers. He wounded four officers in the process and then ended up surrendering. So here we are again. Another mass shooting has occurred where innocent lives have been taken at the hands of a person in possession of a gun. Many people have seen the words "mass shooting" on the news too frequently within the past year and the question must be asked, when is it going to stop? The Parkland, Florida mass shooting, that happened on February 14, was the 29th mass shooting that took place this year. The Pittsburgh shooting of the other day, marked the 294th mass shooting this year. Back in February, a huge majority of American citizens were vowing for gun law change after the horrific shooting in Parkland but unfortunately there has not been not enough change if 265 mass shootings have occurred since Parkland. Everyone in the country wants these mass shootings to stop but in order for that to happen, the gun laws must change. If 294 mass shootings have occurred this year,  it is obvious that the current gun laws aren't strict enough. A man literally just walked right into a synagogue, in possession of at least 4 guns, and purposefully killed 11 people without anyone stopping him. There has to be more effective gun laws in place so we can all avoid or eliminate the frequency of these tragic shootings. Nobody wants to lose a loved one from a shooting by a reckless and unethical human being, but it is happening all too often in the United States today. Although this issue is viewed by many as a battle of politics, it is really an issue about the safety and security of every individual in this country. In the United States, a person has a 1 in 315th chance of being killed as the result of gun violence which is 50% more likely to happen than getting killed while driving or riding in a car. In 2017, there were about 40,100 vehicle deaths in the U.S. so imagine the amount of people that will be killed if there is a 50% greater chance of dying in connection with gun violence. People want to make sure that their safety and the safety of their loved ones is guaranteed.  However, statistics show that no one is really safe. How many more mass shootings have to happen for us to finally realize that our current gun laws aren't good enough? In order to protect the safety of everyone in this country, the gun laws must be changed.  The sooner we accomplish this, the brighter the future of our safety becomes in this country as a whole.

article - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/us/active-shooter-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html

statistics - https://www.abc15.com/news/data/mass-shootings-in-the-us-when-where-they-have-occurred-in-2018

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-gun-death-murder-risk-statistics-2018-3

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/14/traffic-deaths-edge-lower-but-2017-stats-paint-worrisome-picture.html

The State of Smartphones

by Liam Rust

The Google Pixel 3 (left) and Pixel 3 XL (right).

Phones have been changing a lot in the past couple of years, and one of the big trends has been a steady increase in size. Now, though, phone manufacturers are increasing size in a different way - screen size. Increasing the size of a phone screen while keeping the phone the same size allows the phone to be hold-able, but still increases its usable area.

It seems simple enough - put a bigger screen with less bezel around it and you have a bigger screen, done! While this is a part of it, there are some issues that can be encountered. The electronics that control the screen need to be a part of the screen itself, and since there are other sensors and electronics on the top (to be discussed later), they are usually put in the bottom. This means that the screen cannot be extended all the way to the bottom simply and easily.

Some phone manufacturers, like Apple, have taken a different approach. They extend the screen all the way to the bottom, and curve it into the phone itself. The electronics are then put onto the inner section of the display, making it look like it extends all the way to the bottom from the outside.

The iPhone X with an x-ray view from the side. Notice how the screen curves into the phone

.

This fixes the bottom of the phone, but one glaring issue is the top of the phone. Since the top houses many different sensors and electronics (camera, proximity sensor, light sensor, speaker, and more depending on the phone), and some of these cannot be put under the screen, many phones have compromised with a little cutout for them colloquially called a "notch." The iPhone X was one of the first phones to have this, but many other phones have also put it into their own devices. The Pixel 3 XL is one of the worst offenders with the notch, as it has an abnormally large one that leaves wasted space.

It even has a little face!

Some sensors, though, are able to be put under the screen. One of these is the fingerprint scanner, which on most newer phones is either on the back of the phone or removed completely. Some phones, such as the OnePlus 6T, have put the scanner into the screen, scanning the fingerprint with light from the screen and becoming invisible once it is scanned. It saves space and adds convenience, as the user can once again unlock the phone with a fingerprint while it is lying on a table or surface.

The OnePlus 6T's fingerprint scanner.

The camera is one of the hardest sensors to hide, as it requires a clear view to function correctly. Instead of putting it under the screen, some phones (such as the Vivo Nex S and Oppo Find X) have actually motorized the camera, having it move in and out of the phone as needed in order to keep the phone notch-free.

The Vivo Nex S with the camera extended.

New advancements are being made all the time, though, and more and more sensors and electronics are being made to either be under the screen or be somewhere else on the phone. A recent leak from a Samsung presentation shows a couple of these advancements, such as a fingerprint scanner in the display, a camera under the display, and a speaker integrated into the display.

The leaked image from the Samsung presentation, showing off an under-screen camera and fingerprint sensor, along with a speaker that is part of the screen.

Phones are in a bit of a transitional stage right now. We are trying to make them all screen, but the current technology isn't quite there yet, so we compromised with the notch and the bottom bezel. With new advancements being made all the time, though, we may finally be able to put everything into place, and achieve the ideal, full-screen phone.

Mother Nature's Last Stand by Maddie DiMarco

Mother Nature's Last Stand

The development of the human race has always entailed the destruction of the earth. Had it ever been considered that this path was not the only one available? Had our ancestors understood the road they set their children upon? Generations previous have reveled in the filth they stained this planet with and left so many of us to clean up their mess. Most have showed no inclination to clean or the slightest ounce of empathy for those who are. But the past is unchangeable, and the future is not nearly as pliable as we once believed. The window for the earth’s salvation is shrinking.

According to the world wildlife fund, WWF, our generation may be the last with a chance of saving the nature. We have some of the technology needed to help save the environment and are developing the rest, but largely continue to operate the same way we have for the past hundred years. Worldwide wildlife populations have fallen by 60% in little over 40 years, products of the escalating crisis, fueled by man-made factors. Humans hunt and they poach, the chop down forest and burn fuels, pushing the extinction rate of species to 1,000 times higher than before human intervention. The slivers of land left uninterrupted by humans is predicted to drop from a quarter to a tenth by 2050 as disease, pollution, habitat destruction, and climate change run rampant. WWF’s director general, Marco Lambertini, referred to the phenomenon “unprecedented in its speed” and gave us “about 40 years”.

We are a generation grown on the idea that our earth is dying. Only a small portion of us attempt some solution. We still shut our eyes as we spoon feed our planet poison in an attempt to block out the truth.

Citation: Picheta, Rob. “This Is the 'Last Generation' That Can Save Nature, WWF Says.” CNN, Cable News Network, 30 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/10/29/health/wwf-wildlife-population-report-intl/index.html.

End the Violence

                                                           End the Violence by Ashley Rogers                                                        With the first anniversary of the Las Vegas Country Music Festival shooting on October 1, which killed 58 concert-goers, it seems unthinkable that once again this nation is faced with yet another mass murder. On October 27th, Robert Bowers, an extreme Anti-Semitic, took the lives of eleven innocent members of Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue as they worshipped. This incident exemplifies the violent extremism that seems to have spiked in this country, where individuals are targeted just because of their religious, ethnic, or political preferences. To combat these mass shootings, stricter gun laws and stronger background checks for those purchasing guns needs to be implemented. Legislation banning high power assault weapons, whose purpose is to inflict bodily harm or death, must be passed by Congress. To those who argue that such a ban goes against a person's Second Amendment rights, these military type weapons are not for protection or hunting and, therefore, don't interfere with one's constitutional right to bear arms.                                                                                                                                               Image from www.thenation.com/article/in-response-to-pittsburgh-we-must-come-together-as-one/                                                                                                                                                                                  Although no one could be held completely responsible for the violence in this country, except the actual murderers themselves, it is the duty of our leaders in both political parties to come together to denounce bigotry and enact stronger gun regulations. Since the contentious rhetoric can play such an overwhelming role in driving the hatred, each party must tone down their verbal attacks against the opposing side. It seems counterproductive for the President, for example, to call for unity while at the same time blaming the "fake" media for the anger prevalent in this country today. In addition, by commenting, "There is great danger in our country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news," President Trump is further dividing the nation, instead of serving as a unifying force for the people. Rather than calling for the arming of security in churches and schools, leaders need to promote tolerance and acceptance of our differences, while at the same time emphasizing our similarities as Americans. Unless hatred is eliminated, the number of shootings that occur in America on a regular basis will only continue to grow.                                                                                                                                                                                                       **article is from www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-rips-media-critics-call-him-tone-it-down-n925541                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Click here to view a video of the funeral at Tree of Life Synagogue: https://washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/29/he-is-not-welcome-here-thousands-support-pittsburgh-jewish-leaders-calling-trump-denounce-white-nationalism/