School News - Manhasset Schools

INDIAN INK
Manhasset Secondary School
Volume IV
February 2012
Issue:III
Contact: [email protected]
Anyway, What Is a Healthy Lunch?
By Laura Eng
On January 25th, 2012, the USDA
(United States Department of Agriculture) and
the Obama administration announced that they
will improve meals in America’s school cafeterias. Through the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine, the USDA panel plans to
make key changes in combating childhood obesity. The government-subsidized meals will add
more fruits and vegetables and reduce salt and
fat in school cafeterias nationwide.
The changes to school diets will include
the following; making sure that fruits and vegetables are offered every day, increasing the
availability of whole grain-rich foods, offering
only fat-free or low-fat milk, limiting calories
based on age, monitoring portion size, and reducing the amount of saturated fats, trans-fats,
and sodium in the food.
In the effort to preserve student learning
through healthy child nutrition, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Michelle Obama first
announced this plan a few weeks ago at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va.
―As parents, we try to prepare decent
meals, limit how much junk food our kids eat
and ensure that they have a reasonable balanced
diet,‖ Mrs. Obama said in a statement. ―And
when we are putting in all that effort the last
thing we want is for our hard work to be undone
each day in the school cafeteria.‖
This reform has become a welcomed
step in the right direction towards a healthier
nation.
―We applaud the U.S. Department of
Agriculture for issuing final guidance to help
schools across the country serve healthier meals
to students,‖ said Jessica Donze Black, a project
director for the Kids’ Safe and healthful Foods
Project. Nutrition experts such as Black have
applauded this improvement in dietary reevaluation. However, while this step in the
right direction has been commended, it has also
been hindered by various efforts of special interest groups.
Lawmakers in November barred USDA
from limiting the serving of potatoes and led
Congress to declare pizza a ―vegetable‖ because
it contains tomato paste. These actions by special interest groups are done in the effort to keep
their food products on school menus. Major
frozen pizza companies such as ConAgra Foods
Inc. and french fry manufacturers such as
McCain Foods Ltd. have defended their products to block changes that would affect the sale
of their products.
In addition, those opposed to this dietary
change argue that kids aren’t interested in eating
extremely healthy meals. Critics argue that kids
are more interested in food that tastes good, versus its dietary value.
As the new plan to revolutionize school
lunches will be launched this year, its success
and permanence have yet to be established
among students. Hopefully this new dietary
plan will be a positive impact upon children by
providing healthier lunches and reducing childhood obesity. ■
FROSH
By Grace Lee
The week before
January 7th, the
class of 2015 was
buzzing with excitement over their
first semi-formal
dance: frosh. Girls
described
their
dresses, boys asked each other who they
thought they should ask at the last minute, and a
total of 187 students scrambled to buy tickets.
The theme was ―Trapped in a Snow Globe‖—
accurately portrayed by the ticket—and when
the big day arrived, the cafeteria had really
transformed into a winter wonderland. Surrounding the room were shining Christmas
lights; on one
side of the cafeteria, a cluster
of round tables,
a big display of
food—and
a
pile of abandoned
heels.
On the other side, a crowd of dancing freshmen
formed a huge mosh pit. All night long, not one
SOPH
By Nicole Koskovolis
On February 4th, Manhasset High School's annual SOPH took place from 8-10:30 PM. All
190 sophomores, juniors, and freshmen arrived;
found the cafeteria professionally decorated to
look like a circus. Hanging from the ceiling was
a multicolored tent, on the walls were many paper animals, and the floor was adorned with cut
outs that students could take pictures behind.
Students all commented how much better the
decorations were than last year's FROSH, and
how much they enjoyed the dance.■
student seemed
to grow tired of
dancing, and
only stopped
to take off
heels
or
loosen ties. As the clock neared 10, the DJ
ended the night with one slow dance for the
couples. While students all waited around to be
picked up, they could all agree on one thing:
frosh had been a truly wonderful experience for
the freshman class.■
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School News
Manhasset to Receive Solar Energy Grant
By Zachary Winn
In one hour, more energy is released by
the sun than the entire human race uses in one
year. New technologies allow individual energy
producers to sell the energy produced by photovoltaic cells back to the grid, which result in significant energy savings. In spite of this, solar
energy has not yet been made economically viable without energy rebates, and green energy
grants. The Manhasset School District has become the most recent recipient of such a grant
from the CBS EcoMedia division of CBS Cor-
poration. Subject to Education Department approval, the 5 KW system is planned for installation upon Manhasset’s concession stand. It is
believed that the entire cost of the system will
be covered by the grant funds and LIPA green
energy rebates. It is also anticipated that the
school district will be saved 800 dollars a year
through the sale of their energy. Manhasset was
selected as the recipient of this grant due to the
major strides that the district has been making in
energy efficiency, spending 3.3 million dollars
on energy saving projects. While solar power
may currently be the most economical method
of energy generation, it is one which will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the
school district. In addition, it sets a precedent
that will allow the district to be on the forefront
of future cost cutting, and environmentally
friendly technologies. All in all, this movement
of the school district into the 21st century marks
a positive change for the district’s bottom line
and the environment.■
We Lunge Like Eagles, Attack like Bulls, and Fence as a Team
By Isabella Calpakis
A few competitive trivia questions, conversations about links to favorite songs, and a
little mockery on good terms flow through the
open gym as the fencers prepare. Welcome to a
typical day for the Manhasset fencing team.
These little moments, such as sharing fits of
hysteria with the captains over a funny joke, or
finally acing a new move, are the favorite parts
of the day for the fencers. And when a fellow
teammate is successful at teaching a new move
or how to outsmart the opponent, the unity of a
true team is prevalent.
Even though it was organized just a little
over five years ago, the thirty plus members of
the team are dedicated to the sport and the team.
Practicing six days per week, the team has become an extremely tightly-knit unit, led by Leo
Editors
Michael Domanico
Jonathan Masci
Section Heads
Entertainment – Viv Liu
Editorials – Max Hu
Technology – Bradley Spilka and Jack Wesson
Politics & News - Nicole Kiprilov
Poetry – Juliet Paterek
Health—Laura Eng
Travel – Kathleen Eng
Writing Staff
Isabella Calpakis Cale Clinton
Anam Chaudhry Julia Comerford
Tara Cotumaccio William Delaney
Frank Discolo Michael Domanico
Emma Dong Kathleen Eng
Laura Eng Chris Fu
Bradley Harmeyer Maxwell Hu
Griffin Hyde
Emma Klainberg
Nicole Kiprilov
Nicole Koskovolis
Allison Lee
Eva Lewandowski
Regan McCooey
Grace Lee
Viv Liu
Jonathan Masci
Katherine Nevitt
Carter Paterson
Adiel Rothstein
Bradley Spilka
Stephen Tranchina
Zachary Winn
Juliet Paterek
Adam Prinzo
Madeline Schwab
Megan Tomei
Priscilla Tsun
Advisor
Linda Stampler
Kvurt, a Russian fencer and multiple world
champion, and William Pilavas, a graduate of
Manhasset High School who was once a fencer
on the team himself. The success of this team
can be attributed to its unwavering coaching
staff, and its devoted captains, Austin Wong,
Albert Kim, James Haber, Bradley Harmeyer,
Caroline Hsiao, Sol Jo, Caroline Juang, and
Yeon-Joo Lee. The captains are always eager to
answer questions, encourage and instruct the
team members on ways to improve by one-onone training.
Although men’s and women’s fencing is
separated by two different fencing strips at
meets, both sides are equally supportive of the
other. Occasionally, a member of the men’s
fencing team may be seen arriving on the
women’s side, inquiring about the current score,
and successfully encouraging the girl preparing
for the next bout.
Of the men’s team, Épée captain Austin
Wong (senior) says, ―We have grown as a team,
working hard to improve the team as a whole,
and drastically improving the record from last
year.‖ The men’s’ team, now finished with all
high school matches, qualifies for playoffs. The
women’s team Épée captain Caroline Hsiao
(senior), says of the women’s team, ―The girls
have really been working hard, teaching each
other, and practicing relentlessly. It obviously
paid off.‖ The women’s fencing team is currently number one in Nassau County, with
twelve wins and only two losses throughout the
entire season.
As the season grows to a close, the fencers are saddened by the ending of practices,
home and away meets, and team-bonding pasta
parties. However, we will continue to remain
close and in contact. We would like to mention
the seniors graduating this year, who will be
missed during the upcoming fencing season of
2012-2013: Austin Wong, Caroline Hsiao,
Bradley Harmeyer, and Daniel Zhan. Thank
you all for a wonderful season of friendship,
determination, and unity.
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School News
Student Senate Constitution
Preamble and Mission Statement:
Since September the Student Senate has been working diligently to amend the Student Senate Constitution to reflect the ever changing needs of the student body at
Manhasset High School. The amended Constitution is as follows:
The purpose of the Student Senate is to represent the student body in its totality and ensure that every student’s voice is heard; to create and promote
avenues of communication among students, and between students and administration; to discuss and review school policy; to work in collaboration
with the community; and to represent the interests of the student body to the administration and when necessary the Board of Education. It is our
intention that the aforementioned organization will better fulfill the designated objectives of the former Student Union.
Composition of the Student Senate
Selection Processes and Criteria
Powers Held by and Denied to the Student Senate
For the purposes of this Student Senate constitution, the following terms will be used in reference to the varying levels of representation within the
student body:
The organization will refer to the extracurricular body of students that will serve as the initial base of student representation. The term
―organization‖ includes all service clubs, athletic teams, academic honor societies, and arts and publication groups. For instance, Voices of Youth,
varsity basketball teams, the National Honor Society, and Phoenix literary magazine would all be examples of organizations.
The function group will refer to a group of organizations that will serve as the secondary base of student representation. The term ―function
group‖ includes all organizations that fulfill a specific function.
The interest group will refer to the students who represent their function groups to the Student Senate; that is to say, the student senate will
be comprised of the students in the interest groups.
Composition of the Student Senate
Outline of Membership
Interest Group:
Arts and Literature
Function Groups:
Publications (Indian Ink, Phoenix, PoCoHo, Yearbook, etc.)
Performance (Jazz, Male Vocal, Chorus, etc.)
Interest Group:
Service
Function Groups:
Service (International Club, Key Club, SchoolStore, Green Club etc.)
Education (Best Buddies, GSA, Rachel’s Challenge, etc.)
Interest Group:
Academics and Honors
Function Groups:
Academic (1680, Chess, SciFi Club, Debate Team, Mathletes, Mock Trial, Peer Responders, Model UN, FBLA, etc.)
Honors (Exemplars, National Honor Society, Math Honor Society, Art Honor Society, Science Honor Society, TriM,
French Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, Latin Honor Society, Italian Honor Society, etc.)
Interest Group:
Athletics
Function Groups:
Boys Sports
Girls Sports
Interest Group:
Student Governments
Organizations:
Class Governments of the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Grades (VP)
* Terms in parentheses indicate the names of organizations included in the function group.
In any given year clubs, may be added or deleted from the appropriate function group.
In the case of Student Governments, the class governments are the organizations and there is no intermediary function group.
Selection Processes and Criteria
A) Options for Selection Processes at the Organization Level
Immediately following the ratification of this constitution – and then every May thereafter – delegates will be selected to represent each organization.
For Arts and Literature, Service, and Academics and Honors Interest Groups, each organization will select one delegate who will represent them to
the Function Group. This selection process may take one of four forms:
The organization may nominate interested members as a delegate. The faculty advisor will approve the nominees based on given criteria and the organization will vote on the approved nominees to select their delegate.
The organization may vote to simply send their president or another officer as a delegate.
The organization may vote to create a new office for Student Senate Delegate, or may make representation a duty of a preexisting
office. The organization will then elect a new delegate every year as a part of its election of officers.
The organization may vote to leave the selection of a responsible delegate to the faculty advisor.
For the Athletics Interest Group, two delegates will represent the Function Group, one male and one female. This selection process may take one of
two forms:
The department may nominate interested members as delegates. The coach will approve the nominees based on given criteria and the
department chair will vote on the approved nominees to select their delegate. The team may vote to simply send their captain as a
delegate. In the case that there is more than one captain interested in representing the team as a delegate, the team will vote on the
captains to select their delegate. In this case, no coach’s approval is required because it is assumed that the coach has already approved of the captains as leaders.
For the Student Government Interest Group, each class will elect its officers in May along with all the extracurricular organizations. The office of
vice president of each class will include the responsibility of representing their entire class as a whole to the Student Senate. In the case of the
senior class, the office of president can potentially include the responsibility of representing the student body as a whole to the Board of Education, and will serve as a liaison between the Board and the Student Senate as well as the President of the Senate; however, if the Senior Class President decides to opt out, a self nomination process will go into effect and the liaison between to two organizations will be selected in collaboration
with the outgoing Board Representative, Student Senate Advisor and Administration.
The selection process used by each organization will be determined by the organization every year prior to selecting a delegate, as the composition
of the organization’s membership changes.
Criteria for Approving Delegates to the Senate
The established criteria for the faculty advisors and coaches will be:
Exemplary leadership skills, as witnessed by the faculty advisor or coach
Reliability, as witnessed by the faculty advisor or coach
A minimum 3.0 GPA
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School News
CONTINUED FROM PG. 3
Attendance of 80% of all organization meetings, sponsored activities, team practices and/or games, etc. (Legal or excused absences do not count
against a nominee’s attendance record.)
After organization delegates have been selected, all of the members of organizations within a given Function Group will be given the option to vote
on the organization delegates to select a delegate from the Function Group. These Function Group delegates will comprise the Interest Group. The
Student Senate is essentially comprised of five Interest Groups, or approximately thirty-six Function Group delegates, plus the four student government vice presidents and the senior class president. This brings the membership number of the Student Senate to approximately forty senators.
Powers Granted and Denied to the Student Senate
A) Obligations and Prohibitions of Senate Powers
The Student Senate will not encroach upon any activities sponsored by Student Government, such as homecoming, class dances, fundraisers, et. al.
They will not take over any other activities or fundraisers either. That is to say, no activity will be sponsored directly by the Student Senate, but
rather the Senate will either delegate sponsorship for an activity to an organization, or found an ad hoc committee to sponsor it.
General Fund
The Senate will not specifically sponsor activities but may act as a clearing house for school wide activities.
The general fund will be managed by the Senate and placed into the Senate’s school district account and disbursed in accordance
with the parameters set for collection and District protocols.
The Student Senate cannot unilaterally enact policy; rather, it is a decision-making body with the purpose of discussing both existing and suggested
policy, canvassing student opinion on such policy, and making policy recommendations to the administration based on evidence of student opinion.
The Student Senate does have the power to survey the various extracurricular organizations and determine whether any redundancies or gaps in the
offerings exist. It will also serve as a ―clearinghouse‖ for suggested activities and fundraisers by coordinating them with the organizations interested
in sponsoring them. That is, if five different organizations all have ideas for Valentine’s Day fundraisers that will conflict in terms of time and space
required, the Student Senate has the right to coordinate them so that perhaps more than one organization collaborates on a given fundraiser in order
to maximize the effectiveness and success of each.
The Student Senate is required to assist communication within the school, particularly among the students, the administration, and the Board of
Education. The Student Senate may do this by any means at its disposal, including morning announcements (which the Senate President may make);
bulletin boards around the school (such as by the locker rooms, in the main hallway, in each of the class hallways, etc.); emails sent out to the organizations, Function and Interest Groups, and anything else that is sanctioned by administration.
Attendance of a Senator is an integral part of the success of the Senate. Once a Senator has been elected to their position in the Senate they are required to make attend monthly meetings. After a Senator has missed a second meeting – their attendance will be addressed by the Student Senate
Advisor and the corresponding activity advisor and it will be determined if an alternate might be assigned.
B) How the Student Senate Will be Run
The Student Senate is responsible for facilitating communication among the student body. There should be constant avenues of communication, specifically:
Between the Senate and the Function Groups (that is, the five Interest Groups are responsible for relaying information from the Function
Groups to the Senate, and also for relating information from the Senate to the Function Groups)
(b) Between the Function Groups and the Organizations (that is, the delegates from the organizations who comprise the Function Group are
responsible for relaying information from their organizational meetings to the Function Group, and also for relating information from the
Functional Group to the organization)
(c) Between the Organizations and the rest of the Student Body (that is, it is every member of every organization’s responsibility to spread
the word about any issues, decisions, or other information discussed in the Senate to the rest of his or her constituents)
School communication can be facilitated through various means. The Student Senate must meet once a month, or every four weeks, when other activities will not be meeting and when a quorum will be present. ■
Student Senate
School Board Happenings
By Anam Chaudhry
As the Student Senate representative to the School Board I attend each meeting, representing the student body. During the past several
Board Meetings, the heads of each department in the Manhasset School District have given presentations, which consisted of an in-depth description of each department’s curriculum.

The Board recently adopted the following:

Policy 5300.25 – Prohibited Student Conduct on December 15, 2011

Policy 5200 Extra-classroom Activities on November 3, 2011
Board members are also currently reviewing Policies 6660 (Independent External Audits), 6680 (Internal Audit Function), 6685 (Medicaid
Compliance), 6690 (Audit Committee), and 9645 (Disclosure of Wrongful Conduct).
Each review is posted on the Manhasset website, listed under the ―Board Policy‖ section. Also at the February 2 nd meeting, the Board
gratefully authorized the administration to accept a gift from Manhasset PAL, of a batter’s box, pitcher’s mound, and catcher’s box valued at approximately $4,000) on both the Varsity Baseball and Softball fields. The installation is to be completed in early March. The Manhasset Public
Schools Board of Education holds meetings every other week on Thursday evenings at 8:00 PM; all are welcome to attend.■
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School News
Club Spotlight
Science Honor Society
The French Honor Society
By Regan McCooey
By Priscilla Tsun
The Science Honor Society is a honor society composed of
juniors and seniors with an A average in all of their science classes or
about an A- average with one or more honors or AP classes. The Science Honor Society meets once a month where we discuss our future
plans as a society. The Science Honor Society is starting a tutoring
initiative where each member will have a select tutoring period in the
library. We are also working on making science demos for elementary
school students. In the spring we plan to go to Shelter Rock and Munsey Park to demonstrate scientific concepts to the elementary school
students. Our goal with this project is to get these students more interested in science. We are also hoping to do some sort of fund raising in
the near future. ■
FBLA
By Frank Discolo
Future Business
Leaders of America is a
club at Manhasset High
School that targets those
who are interested in business and how it affects our
society. Our mission as a
club is to catch the interest
of young teenagers who
have predilection for business. Over the past year we have had guest
speakers who are heads of industry from the field of hedge funds to
high powered lawyers. FBLA has also raised five hundred dollars for
the 9/11 Memorial Museum at ground zero. Our plans for the rest of
the year are to complete a phantom stock portfolio project. FBLA is
an enjoyable club that fixes the interest of many students and is welcoming of those who would like to become members. We meet in
room 165 on Tuesday mornings. ■
Italian Honor Society
By Julia Comerford
The Italian Honor
Society helps to promote
interest and understanding
in the Italian language and
culture. In order to be inducted into the Italian honor
society students need to
achieve a 3.7 average in
Italian (since 8th grade) and
an overall average of 3.5.
Over the past year the Italian Honor Society has participated in many different types of events, including hosting a welcome breakfast for the 7th graders. We had a holiday breakfast in December, and designed t-shirts for the society.
Before midterms the 7th grade Italian students were given
study guides as gifts from the Society. Each member of the society
tutors students in Italian before school in the foreign language lab.
The Society will host a Venetian Carnival on February 10th.
The carnival will showcase the Venetian masks made by the students
in Italian classes from grades 7-12, a buffet of Italian breakfast foods
will also be provided! The Society meets every other Friday morning
at 7:45 in room 266. ■
Working together as
a team, the advisor and officers meet in August to
plan a year that will take us
out of the classroom and
into the Francophone
world. Our events are designed to include all French
students, even if they are
not part of the FHS. The
aim of this organization is
to stimulate interest in the
study of French, to promote
high standards of scholarship, to reward scholastic
achievements, to create enthusiasm for and an understanding of francophone culture, promote and perpetuate international friendship and
reward the efforts toward furthering solidarity in the French speaking
world. We meet at various times because many of our activities are
evening programs; however the general meeting area is room 174 on
the third Thursday of the month. Membership requirements are a 90
average in French and an 85 average overall, as well as continued
membership in a French class. Candidates are inducted in the spring
Level 3 French.
We have a total of 23 meetings throughout the year. Our meetings range from lectures on Francophone topics to immersion dinners.
This year we visited the 7th grade classrooms, talked about the French
experience at MMS/MHS, and presented dictionaries as a welcome
gift. We also have movie nights, bake sales, dinners at ―La Petite
Framboise‖ in Port Washington, ―La Coquille‖ in Manhasset, participate in school toy and food drives, field trips to French destinations,
sell Hearts for Haiti to help the youth and Doctors Without Borders,
and we participated in the World Language Breakfast and French
week. We offer tutoring in the Language Lab every Tuesday mornings, as well as individual tutoring. This year we started a newspaper
that will come out after spring break. It’s called ―Ooh là-là!,‖ and all
French students are welcome to submit articles for publication. It
keeps the school updated on our French-speaking world.
We are a family of diverse people who share a love of the
French language and Francophone culture, and the FHS works as a
part of MMS/MHS to welcome and include all Francophiles! ■
Manhasset High School Debate Team
By Adiel Rothstein
The debate team is a conglomerate of very talented students
grades nine through twelve. Mrs.
Untracht, the advisor of the team,
has been teaching at Manhasset
High School since 1996, teaching
classes including Advanced Placement language and composition as
well as the elective course, Speech
and Debate. Students that are on the
MHS Debate Team learn the specific style of a classical Lincoln- Douglas debate. Members build confidence and the organization skills necessary for delivering an eloquent argument. Topics that are discussed are extremely interesting,
including—the disbanding of political parties, the issue of universal
healthcare, and whether or not texting improves literacy/ writing
skills. At our most recent meetings, the debate team has been preparing for our annual Great Debate. On March 15, 2012 we will have six
students, debating in a 3 versus 3 debate in the Black Box Theatre—
the resolve will be announced shortly! The Great Debate is an invitational assembly and we hope that those able to attend will enjoy the
fast paced and stimulating presentation. ■
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School News
Club Spotlight
National Art Honor Society
Sci-Fi Club
By Eva Lewandowski
By Chris Fu
The National
Art Honor Society is
open to all High
School students who
enjoy art and have
taken or are taking
any High School art
class. The Manhasset
chapter
of
NAHS, advised by Mrs. Schein, meets every other Tuesday morning
in Room 228 at 7:30 AM; check the Art Honor Society webpage on
the District’s website for upcoming meeting dates. Members of
NAHS take part in many art-related service activities, among which is
the annual ―Art for a Cure‖ art auction. This highly successful fundraiser has raised almost $8000 for the Manhasset Women’s Coalition
Against Breast Cancer. Events for the future include helping teach
younger students art in afterschool programs and other fundraisers. ■
Model UN
By Madeleine Schwab
The Model United Nations
Club meets every Thursday from 3:15
to 4:00 PM in Mr. DiRe's classroom,
next to the Social Studies Lab. All
Manhasset students in grades 9-12 are
welcome to attend a meeting or to formally join the club. Our advisor is Mr.
DiRe.
We discuss selected topics
from currents affairs as they relate to the stated goals of the United
Nations and international dynamics at large. In May, we attend the
Model United Nations conference in which students act as delegates
for UN member states. A few months prior to the conference, students
will break up into subcommittees and research their nation and topic.
Members have the opportunity to make speeches, prepare draft
resolutions, negotiate with allies and adversaries, resolve conflicts,
and navigate the Model UN conference rules of procedure- all in the
interest of mobilizing "international cooperation" to resolve problems
that affect countries all over the world. The club is characterized by its
passionate and in-depth discussions of world affairs. ■
Peer Responders
By Megan Tomei
Peer Responders is an up and coming organization
whose mission is to mentor 7th graders before they embark on the rest of their High School career.
Even though it is in its infancy, the club has already been very effective. Peer Responders consists of a
growing network of Juniors and Seniors who are willing to
dedicate their time; meet with 7th graders and help them
through probably the most difficult transition year that
they will encounter in Manhasset Secondary School.
Mr. Koondel and Mr. Novak have been working to make the PR
(Peer Responders) Program about shaping student’s minds; providing
assistance across all subject areas; by providing help with organization
skills and study tips.
Peer Responders is still in its first year and hopes to continue to
provide positive experiences for all individuals involved. The hard
work on the part of the Juniors and Seniors who are involved in this
effort will hopefully have long lasting benefits.■
Sci-Fi club is a group
where members meet once a
week to play strategy and
teamwork based games. These
games can take the form of
multiple RPG’s (Role-playing)
and sports, such as Anima, D&D, and Ultimate Frisbee. We also
raise funds through bake sales to take trips to multiple conventions
throughout the year including Comic-Con and I-Con. We also occasionally raise funds for charitable organizations such as Make-AWish Foundation.
The Sci-Fi club meets every Friday from 3:15 - 6:30 PM in
the High School library. It is currently only open to High School students. ■
Indian Ink
By Nicole Kiprilov
Indian Ink
is the Manhasset
H i gh
School
newspaper. Students are presented with an
opportunity
to
write about anything that interests them, from
technology, politics, and news, to
food, fashion, and
the arts. There is
something
for
everyone, and the
possibilities are
endless.
Indian Ink
is divided into
several sections.
Each section has a section editor, who is responsible for the success of
that particular section. Students are able to experience the realm of
editing, formatting, and ultimately creating, a newspaper. This is a
valuable and rewarding experience for all those who are willing to
show motivation and commitment. Students who are currently on the
staff of Indian Ink have said that writing different articles all throughout the year has actually helped them keep up with current events. Indian Ink is open to anyone who wishes to share his/her ideas or just
write for pleasure. Writing for the Indian Ink establishes a sense of
communication between students and teachers. Students exchange information and insight, but can also respectfully express their opinions
about school policy. The participation and dedication of students
sparks a constant flow of creativity, which passes through the writers
as well as the readers of Indian Ink.
Mrs. Stampler, the advisor to Indian Ink meets with her staff
every Monday morning at 7:30 AM in Room 165. Students who are
unable to attend these meetings are more than welcome to write for
the newspaper. All articles that are ready to be published should be
submitted to [email protected]. Please visit the Manhasset website, www.manhasset.k12.ny.us (all of the past issues are
available for viewing), for more information about this wonderful extra-curricular activity!■
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School News
Club Spotlight
Gay-Straight Alliance
By Emma Klainberg
The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) meets on Wednesdays afterschool at 3:30 PM in
room 208 for discussions about
current events pertaining to
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer topics, as
well as how to spread awareness around the school and
community. Everyone is welcome, regardless of sexual orientation. We’d love to have
you attend, whether you are a weekly meeting-attendee or a general
supporter! Come check us out to see what’s going on! Currently,
we’re discussing the addition of LGBTQ topics into the school curriculum, as well as our annual Day of Silence! Plus, we have awesome
snacks. ■
The 1680 Club
By Griffin Hyde
The 1680 Club meets bi-weekly on Tuesday mornings at 7:20
AM in room 261. The purpose of the club is to educate all Manhasset
students about:

American and International history

Current events

Politics, and


Other relevant events, past or present.
Get involved in engrossing debates and discussions; learn
about the topic, how to voice your own opinion, how to respectfully
disagree with the opinions of others, and how to apply these skills on
a larger scale, as our Senators and Representatives do in Congress.
Our advisor Mr. Gilroy, oversees the meetings and stimulates
discussion using personal opinion, knowledge, photos, and other
memorabilia. Sometimes Mr. Schoenig might even stop by and share
his personal opinion on the subject of conversation. ■
Class of 2013
By Christopher DiPreta
The mission of the 11th Grade Student Government is to advocate for the Junior Class and to aid in the communication between the
students and the faculty, administration and staff. Furthermore, the
11th Grade Student Government assembles to organize class events,
contribute a fun means of encouraging school spirit, and raise funds
for various charities. While class officers are not required to participate, other members (class representatives) are expected to attend
weekly meetings on Thursdays at 7:40 AM in Mr. Reardon’s room.
Our upcoming events include a school-wide Dodge-Ball Tournament
that will take place in the Middle School Gym at the beginning of
March and will function as a dual fundraiser for the Class of 2013 and
a charity of its choice. ■
Jazz Band
By Bradley Harmeyer
The Manhasset High
School Jazz Ensemble is a
group dedicated to excellence in
the study and performance of
jazz music. Students involved
can expect to perform literature
from various eras, as well as
many different subgenres including blues, swing, bossa
nova, ballads, and free jazz. In
addition, they are instructed in
the art of improvisation, and
each member is given a chance
to perform an improvised solo during a performance, regardless of
their instrument.
Rehearsals are held every Monday from 7:00-8:30 PM. Students that are interested are required to audition in November. Only
the most dedicated, highly qualified students are selected to participate in the ensemble; auditions also determine the preliminary seating
order.
The group has three annual performances: abbreviated sets at
the SCA Fair (May 5th) and Senior Awards Night (June 7th), as well as
a full Empire Room concert (June 8th) which contains selections from
a repertoire of 15 challenging pieces. In addition, the Jazz Band often
plays at special ceremonies such as charity events. For the past 10
years, the group has competed in the Fiesta-Val Music Festival and
received numerous first place finishes among other honors. It continues to provide an enriching environment in which students can learn
and practice the one true American art form.■
Interact Club
By Rosemarie Alcamo
Interact is the High School equivalent of Rotary International
and new to Manhasset High School. This club is still in the exploratory stages but its founders, Rosemarie Alcamo and Jillian Goldberg,
hope to make the club official by the beginning of the 2012-2013
school year. The club’s mission is to help our community by connecting students at Manhasset High School through leadership and mutual
interest in helping our community. Interact can help to break down
social barriers and cliques by uniting the high school under a common
cause. Not only will we help the organizations we raise money for, but
we will help Manhasset become a better, friendlier place to live. Interact has the potential to greatly increase the leadership abilities of all
students who participate in the club. Obviously, this club, which has
chapters around the world, emits an irresistible vibe that constantly
makes people want to join in and help. We recently completed our
first project, Operation: Shoe Box, to help the 90,000 soldiers still in
Afghanistan, and we plan to do several more projects before the end of
the school year. Exploratory meetings are held on Thursdays in room
206. For the dates of the meetings, questions, or comments, feel free to
contact Rosemarie Alcamo ([email protected]) or Jillian
Goldberg ([email protected]).■
Latin Honor Society
By Yeon Joo Lee
The Latin Honor Society is one of the four foreign language honor societies at Manhasset High School. Members meet every other Thursday with their advisor, Mr. Solly before school.
Eligible students must have completed at least a full year of Latin in High School, and maintained a minimum grade of A- . Induction into
the Latin Honor Society, takes place in May of the following year
In the past, the society has been involved in various bake sales to raise money for charities, including the rebuilding of a house in Pompeii,
and will continue this involvement. Every year we also host the celebration of Saturnalia/Christmas and invite other language honor societies to
join.
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The World Around Us
2011—A Year In Review
By Nicole Kiprilov
2011 has been a dynamic year for many. As we bid farewell to 2011 and welcome the New Year with lots of hope for a better future, we also take
time to reflect on the major international events that have taken place since January 2011.
would now have more power and freedom; their
The shooting in Tucson, Ari- prayers had been heard.
zona that took place right after
March 11, 2011
the arrival of the New Year
- Earthquake
was a tragic event that left
and Tsunami
man y dead and some
wounded, including Congressin Japan
woman Gabrielle Giffords.
The 9.0 magnitude
Thirty people were gathered
―Tohoku
Ea rt haround in a parking lot in a quake‖ was recorded as one of the strongest
Safeway store in Casas Ado- earthquakes in the world and the most severe
bes, Tucson, to hear the Congresswoman at her ever to hit Japan. The earthquake triggered a
constituent meeting called ―Congress on your tsunami, which then triggered a series of nuclear
Corner.‖ Jared Lee Loughner, a 22-year-old accidents at three reactors in the Fukushima I
young man, drew a pistol and shot Gifford in Nuclear Power Plant complex. A few nuclear
the head at point-blank range. Loughner then reactors also exploded due to the buildup of hyproceeded to randomly shoot into the crowd, drogen gas. Many were immediately evacuated,
before being subdued by a few brave bystand- never to return to their homes. The earthquake
ers. Giffords was immediately treated by her was just the start of a series of damaging disasintern, who was credited with saving her life. ters, including floods, landslides, fires, and raEighteen people were shot that day, six of diation releases that followed. There were a towhom died, including Chief Judge John Roll tal of 15,844 deaths, 5,890 injuries, and 3,451
and 9 year old Christina Taylor Green. Despite missing. The extensive structural damage across
her serious head wounds, Giffords survived, Japan left many homeless, without electricity,
proving that miracles really do happen. Giffords food, and water.
has been making very rapid progress since that
April 29, 2011tragic day.
January 8, 2011- Tucson Shooting
January 25, 2011- Egyptian
Revolution
The Egyptian uprising
consisted of a series of
demonstrations,
marches, protests, and
acts of civil disobedience in an attempt to
overthrow the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Eight hundred
and forty six people were killed as a result of
the violent clashes between citizens of different
economic levels and religious backgrounds. The
protesters were speaking out against police brutality, restrictions on freedom of speech, inflation, low wages, and economic corruption in the
government. These protests have had an impact
on businesses in the United States as well as the
global market. Oil prices have shot up 4% because of the crisis.
February 11, 2011- Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak Resigns
After the violent protests in
Alexandria, President Hosni
Mubarak resigned and handed
the power to the supreme
council of the armed forces.
Obviously, the Egyptians celebrated their victory in bringing
down the regime of the President. The people of Egypt realized that they
The Royal
Wedding
September 11,
2011- 10th
Anniversary
of 9/11
The tenth anniversary of 9/11 was observed this year at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum,
where a dedication ceremony was held to honor
all those that had lost their lives.
September 17, 2011 – Occupy
Wall Street
Movement
Begins
The Occupy Wall
Street
protest
movement began on September 17 in Zuccotti
Park. The protest was initiated by a Canadian
activist group called the Adbusters. Protesters
endorsed social and economic equality. Their
slogan, ―We are the 99%‖ refers to the wealth
among the top 1% and the rest of the people
(99%). Protesters also protested against financial greed and corruption among the 1%. These
protests eventually got way out of hand, resulting in violence and inappropriate behavior in
New York City’s Wall Street financial district,
which made it very hard for the American people to take the protest movement seriously.
The wedding of Prince
William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine
Middleton took place at
Westminster Abbey in
London. The wedding was
October 5, 2011broadcast live all over the
Steve Jobs Dies
world (180 countries),
Steve Jobs, American busisparking about 3,966 tweets per second. Estinessman, inventor, and comates place viewership of the wedding at a
founder, chairman, and chief
whopping worldwide total of 2 billion viewers.
executive of Apple Inc., tragiThe wedding was compared to the 1981 marcally passed away after a long
riage of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady
battle with pancreatic cancer.
Diana Spencer.
This man has greatly influenced the world with
his genius innovations, and he will forever be
May 2, 2011- remembered.
Osama Bin
Laden Pronounced Dead
Osama Bin Laden,
leader of al Qaeda, was
killed in Pakistan by a
United States Special Forces military unit, Operation Neptune Spear. This operation was ordered by President Barack Obama, and it was
executed by a team of U.S. Navy SEALs. This
was a major accomplishment, as it demonstrated
a sense of honor and pride for the American
people, having killed a terrorist responsible for
the death of innocent civilians on September 11,
2001.
October 20, 2011- Moammar
Gadhafi Killed
Moammar Gadhafi
was captured and
killed in Libya during
the Libyan civil war,
ending a 42 year rule.
He was captured by Libyan forces in Sirte.
Gaddhafi died from the wounds he suffered during his capture. His convoy was attacked by
NATO warplanes. Consequently, he was taken
prisoner by NTC fighters and killed.
December 15, 2011- U.S. Declares War in Iraq Over
For eight long years, our troops have fought in Iraq. Many have not survived, but those who have are now safely home and
with their families. President Barack Obama withdrew the last U.S. troops on December 18, 2011.
I hope that we can give one last look at all of the tragedies and celebrations that have occurred in the past year, leaving our
sorrow behind but taking our happiness with us. By observing these events from the past, we can apply the lessons we have
taken away to our actions in working towards a better year for everyone. ■
PAGE 9
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THE IND IAN IN K
News
The Death of North Korea’s Dictator: How Can This Impact the U.S.?
By Nicole Kiprilov
On December 17, 2011, North Korean
dictator, Kim Jong-Il, was pronounced dead at
the age of 69. Kim Jong-Il is credited with turning North Korea into one of the most repressive
nuclear nations the world. Sources say his death
was due to a long period of ―physical and mental over-work,‖ which led to a heart attack. All
South Korean troops and government workers,
still at war with North Korea, were put on emergency alert. Shortly after his death, the streets of
Pyongyang were filled with thousands of
mourning Koreans on their knees, expressing
their sorrow and fear for the future of their nuclear-armed nation. Many have already accepted
the fact that ―The Great Successor‖ is Kim Jong
-Il’s son, Kim Jong-Un. North Koreans have no
choice but to hope for a smooth power transition
and pray that Kim Jong-Il’s inexperienced son
will not abuse his powers. The reaction of the
North Koreans is not justified by the history of
Kim Jong-Il’s decisions. Kim Jong-Il was the
man who had pushed for the building of a nu-
clear arsenal, internationally isolating North Korea. This was the
man who, for twenty whole years,
has presented actions which violate the rights of North Koreans.
This was a man who had not even
bothered to attempt economic reform, but instead, decided to go
with central planning and destruction of any opposition. On top of
all that, the famine in 1994, which
resulted in about 2 million deaths,
contributed to his failure. Sources
have reported that North Korea
had test fired a missile off its eastern coast some time before Kim
Jong Il’s death. This sparked some argument
about whether the launch had anything to do
with the announcement of Kim Jong-Il’s death.
The big question now is whether Kim Jong-Un
will improve relations between the United
States and North Korea. First of all, there is very
little information about Kim Jong-Un. Clearly,
he does not have the same kind of training as his
father, and he is only in his late 20s. The problem is that he hasn’t really dealt with too many
world leaders before, so we don’t know whether
he will be able to adequately negotiate. Analysts
claim that he has not received a sufficient
amount of military support, which is very significant. Perhaps he will be a fresh start for
North Korea, allowing it to play a more active
role in the international community. On the up
side, Kim Jong Un has more exposure to the
Western world, and will most likely take an
open-minded stance in terms of trade and investments. However, things don’t look so good
for the United States. Kim Jong-Il has made
many promises to denuclearize in the past. In
fact, he had reached an agreement with the
George W. Bush administration. Unfortunately,
he entirely ignored these agreements and broke
his promises. The truth is that we don’t know
whether Kim Jong-Un will have a different approach on this issue, which is why relations between North Korea and the United States will
most likely be unstable in the near future. According to Jim Walsh, a professor at M.I.T.’s
security studies programs, ―We’re entering a
period that is especially dangerous. Here is a
young leader who may be distrusted by the military, and he has to prove himself,‖ he said of
Kim Jong-Un. ―And that can lead to miscalculation and inadvertent war.‖ There are also threats
of possible military clashes between North and
South Korea during the leadership transition,
especially in Pyongyang. This might affect the
relations between the United States and China
because China will most likely aid North Korea
in its struggle (China provides 83% of North
Korea’s commerce), while the United States
will increase its military presence in North Korea, providing aid to South Korea. It is possible
that the current instability of North Korea could
lead to a military crisis. Obviously, North Korea’s nuclear capabilities install fear in many
Americans, South Koreans, and potentially all
countries that have some sort of a relationship
with North Korea. Everything is in the hands of
Kim Jong-Un, and only time will tell if he will
be a better leader than his father. As of now, the
United States does not have any precise plans;
the government can only monitor the situation
and keep the national security team at close
hand. ■
Model United Nations
By Nicole Kiprilov
Model United Nations is an academic high
school club, advised by Mr. DiRe, which provides students with an opportunity to debate current events
and discuss International relations. Recently, members of the
Model U.N. club had the opportunity of attending a Model
United Nations conference in
Manhattan. Among the students who participated were
Alex Comerford, Hunter Dong,
Shivee Gilja, Daniel Giovanniello, Brendan Mansfield,
Madelyn Sayed, Matthew Tam,
and myself. These selected participants took on the roles of
diplomats and represented
Nicaragua and the Netherlands
in a specific committee of the
United Nations. Some students
researched the issue of HIV in
young people, and the role of
UNICEF in combating that issue; other students focused on environmental
refugees and the sustainable development of
megacities, proposing insightful solutions as
part of an effort to decrease the prominence of the United Nations committee in dealing with
these issues in that country. Each delegation the issue, and possible solutions on a national
level and global scale. This required many hours of research,
writing, and practice. At the conference, delegates were able to employ public speaking skills, active
listening skills, critical thinking
skills, group communication skills,
problem solving skills, persuasiveness, and analytical ability to negotiate and come up with a draft
resolution, which is a formal paper
on the possible solutions of the
issue. Furthermore, delegates were
able to vote for the solutions that
they felt were the most productive,
eminent, and realistic.
The conference proved to
be very successful for us, as
Shivee Gilja and I were best position paper award finalists, and
Hunter Dong and Daniel Giovanniello received an honorable menpresented a position paper, stating the position tion. It can be said that we all took something
of the country on that specific issue, including important away from this conference, as it was a
the effect of the issue on that country, the role of very rewarding experience. ■
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PAGE 10
News
Primary vs. Caucus: What's the Difference and Why Does It Matter?
By Jonathan Masci
As we all know, the race to determine
who will be the Republican Party's nominee for
President is now beginning to yield tangible results. Mitt Romney was originally declared the
winner of the Iowa caucus, but two weeks later,
it was discovered that Rick Santorum had actually won. Romney won the New Hampshire primary, while Newt Gingrich won the South
Carolina contest.
Many people don't quite understand the
difference between a primary and a caucus. The
distinction is what occurs when people arrive at
the polling or meeting place. People attending a
primary act just as they do during a general
election; they sign in, cast their votes, and leave.
However, caucuses are much more in-depth
and, in some ways, more personal.
There are slight variations in the way
caucuses are held among the 19 states that use
the caucus system, but the Iowa caucuses are a
good example of the workings of a caucus. In
Iowa, voters remain at one of the nearly 800
caucus locations throughout the state for some
time, often several hours. They hear speeches
from campaign representatives or from local
community leaders who support each candidate.
They even discuss the candidates among themselves, with voters trying to convince other voters of one candidate's superiority. Finally, after
this process, they cast their votes.
Supporters of caucuses argue that they
are much more community-oriented than primaries because they involve actual interaction between neighbors and friends. These proponents
also say that in a primary system, due to the impersonal nature and the strict notions of voter
privacy, supporters of one candidate or position
are never forced to come face to face with and
really listen to an opposing viewpoint. In a caucus, this happens routinely, and many people
feel that these clashes can open voters' minds to
finding a political middle ground, or at least
courteously agreeing to disagree.
On the other hands, some say that caucuses do more harm than good to the election
process because they require a greater time
commitment, which therefore limits the number
of participants. For example, in 2008, about
288,000 people voted in the New Hampshire
Democratic primary, while the Democratic caucus in Maine, which had almost the same number of registered Democrats, saw only 44,000
participants.
The state of New York, like a majority
of other states, uses a primary system. The New
York Republican primary will be held on April
24th.
Upcoming contests include the February
th
7 caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota and primary in Missouri, as well as the February 28th
primaries in Arizona and Michigan. ■
Twinkies Are Indestructible, But Hostess Ain’t
By Viv Liu
We all know America’s favorite, delicious, unhealthy Twinkies, but now
the legendary American brand in charge of making Twinkies, Hostess, may be going out of business. Hostess has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The
company, which has about $860 million in debt, sought protection from
creditors after failing to reach an agreement with workers on pensions and benefits. According to a press release, Hostess will continue operating its bakeries, outlet stores, and distribution centers and doesn't anticipate any disruptions to product manufacturing during the bankruptcy.
The growing awareness for obesity, especially amongst
children, is sweeping the nation. More healthy foods are appearing in American schools, as in our very own Manhasset,
where we now have eggs in our vending machines. Is this taking it too far? When most of us look back to when we are 4 or 5,
we usually picture ourselves feasting on lollipops, Kit Kats or donuts.
Has this growing awareness of obesity taken altered the lives of children today? ■
ATTENION SENIORS
DATE: February 28th
TIME: 4:30—11:30 PM
The Class of 2012 offers Seniors the
chance to see a real Broadway show, including ticket, bus fare, and dinner, for
an unbelievable price of $50.
Tickets will be sold on a first come basis
with only 79 tickets available.
On Tuesday, February 14, members of
Women's Chorus will be delivering singing
valentines throughout the school to raise
money for the Katie Oppo Research Fund.
Valentines will
be on sale in the
cafeteria during
lunch periods,
Thursday, 2/9
through Monday, 2/13, for
$4.00.
See Mr. Keen
Checks must be made payable to Manhasset Public Schools
Dinner will be catered by Moe’s in the Cafeteria at 4:30 sharp
Bus leaving at 5:30 from the High School Cafeteria and Returning at approximately
11:30 PM
Money and permission slip due no later than February 17th 2012
EXCLUSIVELY FOR SENIORS
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PAGE 11
Technology
January 18th, 2012: The Day the Internet Went Black
By Bradley Spilka
Throughout history, the usage of nonviolent protesting has been prominent, and a
successful way of pushing for reform in government. January 18th, 2012, was no different
than past examples. As means to protest the
SOPA bill, which includes high amounts of
censorship to all websites, the internet went
dark. Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia, blacked out every one of their articles.
Google, allowed people to use the search engine, but instead made a profound statement by
blacking out their logo. Some smaller, privately owned domains such as the popular
comic sites Cyanide and Happiness along with
The Oatmeal, also followed Wikipedia and prevented usage of their sites. These actions
caused many people to scratch their heads and
ask: What is going on?
The SOPA act is being mulled by Congress to prevent internet piracy. Its goal is to
stop illegal downloading of music and video.
However, with the advanced security the Act
will be providing comes the advanced censorship. The opposition to this bill says that with
the censorship, the inalienable right of free
speech will be limited along with a decline in
the profits of the technology business. With the
overflow of opposition, Congress has already
been rethinking the SOPA Act and may try to
find a better solution to the problem. Overall,
there is too much opposition and the rights of
the people will be limited in a way that conflicts with our Bill of Rights. Congress may
also fear the countless amount of lawsuits coming from ordinary people, the technology industry and websites due to the reduced right of free
speech.
In a few years from now, most people
will not remember January 18th, 2012 and the
protests online, but the results of the actions
taken on January 18th, 2012 will be present
every time you use the internet and the freedom
that comes with it. ■
Google’s New (Missing) Privacy Policy
By Maxwell Hu
Google recently announced its new simplified privacy policies, which have aroused as
much alarm as approval. These updates, in basic terms, spell out how the company will col-
lect and compile data about
the users of their various
services, from running a
search to checking your
own email. Alma Whitten,
Google’s director of privacy for product and engineering stated that, ―We
may combine information
you’ve provided from one
service with information
from other services…
which will mean a simpler,
more intuitive Google experience.‖
This of course presented some serious
doubts about Google’s confidentiality, or lack
thereof, and many privacy advocates were
alarmed that the company would further its intake of personal information. Questioning came
in the form of a letter written by eight Congressmen (both Democrats and Republicans) to
Google’s CEO Larry Page, asking for clarification on the topic. The letter read, ―While
Google suggests that the purpose of this shift in
policy is to make the consumer experience simpler, we want to make sure it does not make
protecting consumer privacy more complicated.‖ Whether or not this new development in
Google’s quest to ―make things simpler‖ harbors potential privacy dilemmas, it does clear
up their current system and may possibly do
just what they intended.■
Facebook Announces Mandatory Switch to Timeline
By Stephen Tranchina
Those of you who have a Facebook account have probably noticed that some of your
friends have switched over to the new profile
format called Timeline. This new format brings
drastic changes to your profile. Timeline is essentially a scrapbook of your entire life on Facebook, compared with the snapshot of you today
found on Facebook’s traditional profile page.
Timeline has a slider bar that starts with the day
you created your account and runs all the way
up to the current day. The timestamp of a post
puts the events in chronological order. Users
are prompted to insert events such as graduations, car purchases, and vacations to better tell
their story. Another big change is the new concept of a ―cover photo‖. The focus of the profile used to be your profile picture, but now the
cover photo dominates the profile. Although an
official date hasn’t been set for the change,
Facebook says the change to Timeline should
come in the next few weeks.
The new Facebook layout has some major changes that may not go over smoothly with
the public. The multi-billion dollar social network says you'll receive a notification at the top
of your home page when Timeline is available
for your account. When your profile is switched
to Timeline, you'll have seven days to preview
your information and hide certain items. After
the seventh day you can still hide posts and photos, but others might have seen them by then.
While Timeline doesn't expose anything that
wasn't on your Facebook page already, it could
bring back information that was previously buried and forgotten about. There is what Facebook calls an "activity log," which allows people to apply a specific privacy setting to each
post. This means, for example, that people can
decide whether all or just some of their friends
can see a particular photograph.
The mandatory change could easily cause problems for many Facebook users.
For example, Timeline may cause problems for
recent college graduates. They may have been
posting more responsibly recently in an attempt
to impress potential future employers, but now
they must consider the effect of this change and
how it makes accessing their old posts easier.
Timeline does some have positive features. You can add information from before you
joined Facebook, back to when you were born.
These events can include a day when you broke
your arm, a trip you took before you joined
Facebook and just about anything that happened
in your life. This feature helps people more accurately reveal their lives, which is the ultimate
goal of Timeline. Also, you can click on a star
to prominently feature the more important
events in your life. Finally, you can change the
date on a previous post. This will be helpful if
you took a few months to post photos from a
vacation and you want to move them to appear
with other posts from the time you took that
trip. Whether you want these new features or
not, they’ll be coming to your profile soon,
making it easier for people to see your older
posts.■
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PAGE 12
Technology
Apple Education Event - January 19th 2012
By Adam Prinzo
things. You can highlight sentences and words
and then the app will make index cards for you
to study from. Apple also introduced iBooks
Author. iBooks Author is an app for the Mac
line available for free in the Mac App Store.
iBooks Author lets anyone write an interactive
textbook very easily; it is as easy as writing a
Word
On January 19 in New York City, Apple
Senior Vice President for Worldwide Marketing,
Phil Schiller, announced Apple's entrance into
the Education Market. The iPad's iBooks app
was revamped and reintroduced as "iBooks 2."
One of the major features of iBooks 2 is the interactive textbooks. These textbooks are highly
interactive: you can search their contents by
words, page numbers, sentences and many other
Document. The textbooks can have interactive
pictures, 3D Graphics, and videos. With iBooks
Author, you can test the book on an iPad and
then submit it for approval by Apple. Most textbooks are available for $14.99 and under and
most are free. iBooks 2 is a free download or
update from the iOS App Store, and iBook Author is available for free at the Mac App Store. ■
Arts & Entertainment
And The Oscar Goes To...
By Michael Domanico
The 84th Academy Awards will take place on
Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre in
Los Angeles. Based on the numerous precursor
awards that have been given out at this point,
who exactly is favored to walk away with the
little golden men and enter the (pop culture) history books?
Best Picture: The last silent film nominated for
the Academy's top prize was nominated during
the second year of the Oscars. The Artist, the
latest in a very short list of silent film nominees,
is poised to take home the Best Picture prize
after winning praise from critics organizations,
audiences, and fellow actors. With Oscar veteran Harvey Weinstein aggressively steering
The Artist's campaign, expect the romantic
French film to make the Academy swoon just
enough to take the prize from more Hollywoodfriendly fare like Alexander Payne's The Descendants and Martin Scorsese's Hugo. And Mr.
Weinstein – if you insist on winning Academy
Awards, please continue making films more like
The Artist (charming! funny! daring!) and less
like The King's Speech (stuffy! pretentious! pure
Oscar bait! I didn't think Geoffrey Rush was
still relevant!).
Best Director: Had Martin Scorsese not won for
The Departed a few years back, this award
would probably be his for the taking. However,
having finally given Scorsese an award, the
Academy can spread the wealth and will probably end up bestowing Best Director upon The
Artist's Michel Hazanavicius. I hope whoever is
presenting Best Director has learned how to pronounce Hazanavicius' last name, for all of our
sakes. I suppose as long as Sofia Vergara isn't
the one handing out the award we should be
safe.
Best Actress: With The Iron Lady's Meryl
Streep throwing her weight behind Viola Davis,
who received a standing ovation at the Screen
Actors Guild Awards when she won Best Actress for The Help, it is safe to assume that the
Academy will listen to their most-nominated
actor of all time and reward Davis for her role
as Aibileen. Viola Davis would become only the
second black Best Actress winner if she were to
win (after Halle Berry, who won the Oscar a
decade ago for Monster's Ball).
Best Actor: ―George vs. Brad! Brad vs.
George!‖ This back-and-forth was the assumed
narrative for the Best Actor race. After all,
what's more fun than watching two of Hollywood's most popular leading men – and real-life
best friends – battle it out for Best Actor? However, with a surprise win at the Screen Actors
Guild Awards, French import Jean Dujardin revealed himself to be a major contender, with Pitt
slowly fading into the background. If anyone is
going to wrestle the award away from Dujardin,
it is going to be Clooney. But, I'd say Dujardin's
(mostly) silent performance and the general love
for The Artist give him the edge over Clooney.
And the man knows how to give a good speech
despite the language barrier.
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer has
become known for making some pretty crazy
faces when she wins awards for her role as
Minny in The Help, so expect to see Ms.
Spencer's face contort in all different ways,
shapes, and directions as she takes the stage on
February 26 to collect her first Academy
Award. I'm all for enthusiastic winners as long
as they're giddy and self-effacing rather than
overly cocky and self-satisfied (I'm looking at
you, Kate Winslet. Short of jumping up and
down, spitting in the other nominees' faces, and
crowd surfing, you've really become a pretty
insane winner on your way to the podium).
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer
has never won an Academy Award. He's 82.
And Captain Von Trapp. Need I say more? ■
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THE IND IAN IN K
PAGE 13
Arts & Entertainment
"Perhaps when a man has special knowledge and special powers like my
own, it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler
one is at hand. "
By Griffin Hyde
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, directed by Guy Ritchie,
may have come up short of the Sherlock Holmes film released in 2009,
but it is well worth seeing. Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) has finally found his equal in Professor James Moriarty, the evil mastermind
who Holmes believes to be behind the death of Crown Prince of Austria.
After further investigation, he finds the potential murder to be only one
piece of a puzzle so big that no one else can see the implications. In a
movie of adrenaline-pumping action and mind-boggling plot twists, the
two geniuses play a dark game that may very well change the world forever. For those of you who love explosions and gunfights, this is for you.
For those of you that love the Sherlock Holmes franchise for his superior
mind and witty sense of humor, stay in the theater and wait for the last
half-hour. You won’t be disappointed. ■
Album Review: Theo Katzman’s Romance Without Finance
By Emma Klainberg
This summer, I went to a concert in Manhattan for one of my favorite actors,
and his opening act was a young artist that none of us fans had ever heard of before.
His name was Theo Katzman, but he was just a guy who was on before Darren Criss
and entertaining us while Darren was getting ready. He had catchy songs, but the audience was more excited for the main act than anything else. After finding out from
my dad that Theo Katzman had grew up on my block, I decided to give his music a
listen, and I am so glad that I did. He was no longer merely an opening act; he had
hundreds of his own fans within days who, like me, realized his potential after listening to his 5-song EP that he had previously released. Once his full album was released, I was not disappointed.
Theo Katzman’s voice is unique, soulful, and just all around pleasant to listen
to. If you’re interested in real talent, check out Theo Katzman, a graduate of Manhasset High School. He achieved instant fame after opening for a concert for Glee’s Darren Criss in New York City this past summer and has recently released his album, Romance Without Finance, this past November. His songs are soulful rock, and every
single one of them is worth buying. Check out his album; you will not regret it! ■
The Walking Dead
By Stephen Tranchina
If you’re looking for a good show to
watch, I highly recommend ―The Walking
Dead,‖ which airs Sundays on AMC in the 9:00
PM time slot. The Walking Dead is based on
the ongoing comic book series of the same title.
The first season is centered on Deputy Rick
Grimes, who wakes up from a coma to find his
town overrun by a zombie apocalypse. He
leaves the hospital and discovers his wife and
son are missing. Rick arms himself and, after
hearing a rumor about a "safe zone" from a survivor, begins a perilous journey to Atlanta,
where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is said to have set up a quarantined safezone in the city, and where his family may be
hiding. He finds his wife, son and best friend
with a small group of survivors, and the action
really picks up from there. The rest of the show
follows the group as they search for a new home
away from the hordes of the undead (or
"walkers," as they are called in the show). It
follows them from city to city as they continue
to fight for survival and figure out exactly what
went wrong. The plot is focused primarily on
the dilemmas the group face as they struggle to
balance their humanity with their survival.
The Walking Dead is currently in its second season, but it only
had six episodes in its
first season, so catching
up with all the action
should be easy. After
taking a brief hiatus during the second season,
The Walking Dead returns Sunday, February
12th. It has also been
renewed for a third season after the season two
premiere broke cable ratings records in the 18–49
demographic.
Personally, The Walking Dead
is my favorite show. The
action keeps people interested week after week.
Each leaves some questions in addition to keeping viewers wanting even more. I highly recommend this show to anyone who is looking for a
great show to watch. ■
THE IND IAN IN K
PAGE 14
IS SUE III
Travel
February Vacation Getaway
By Kathleen Eng
For the ultimate February Break getaway
this winter, Phoenix,
Arizona is a good bet.
The brisk and chilly
winds of New York
have given everyone
a case of the winter
blues, leaving us all desiring those warm rays of
summer. Even though Phoenix can be brutally
warm and unbearably humid in the summertime,
the winter temperatures range from the 60s to
70s and the consistently sunny skies offer a refreshing taste of summer. While rustic mountain trails and desert landscapes cover the land,
Arizona also offers a unique balance of shopping, restaurants, and luxury resorts similar to
those that can be found in California. That being said, there is bound to be something for everyone in the family.
For the teen adventure - seekers: To enjoy
the rustic experience in Phoenix, a
host of adventure
are waiting. Visitors can horseback
on trails, ride a Segway through the
desert, ride a helicopter over the valleys, hike
the mountains, and take hot air balloon adventures just to name a few. These hot air balloons
are a major highlight in Phoenix not only because of their thrilling rides but also the aesthetic views over the beautiful valleys and
mountains. In addition, visitors can go whitewater rafting for the ultimate adventure, full of
bumps and surprises.
For the teen sports fan: Baseball fans will
love the opportunity to visit Chase Field, home
of the Arizona Diamondbacks to take pictures
and tour. Basketball fans can drop by the US
Airways Center, home of the Phoenix Suns to
watch a game or pick up some fun souvenirs.
Another popular stadium is the University of
Phoenix Stadium where the Arizona Cardinals
play as well as the Phoenix Coyotes.
For the teen shopaholic: Phoenix offers a vast
array of shopping for any shopaholic’s likings.
Teens especially will enjoy one-of-a-kind pieces
from local boutiques and designers to show off
at school. The most remarkable shopping center
in Arizona is Scottsdale Fashion Squire, which
offers a great variety of luxury shops as well as
plenty of budget-friendly stores.
For the museum junkie: Phoenix is home to a
great number of museums. Teens would enjoy
the Arizona Science Center. It is a great interactive museum to keep teens interested with
hands-on fun, more than 300 exhibits, a fantastic planetarium, a five – story giant-screen theater, and live demonstrations. Teens might also
enjoy the Phoenix Art Museum. Here more
than 18,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art and fashion design are
on display. In addition, festivals and live performances take place to entertain guests. For
the history buff, the Arizona Historical Museum
is filled with the state’s amazing and inspirational history. From the desert cities to memories of World War II, the history of Arizona is
extremely fascinating and told through the many
artifacts and stories found in this museum.
For the theater geek: Those who enjoy the
arts can also find their place in Arizona, as numerous shows of different varieties are shown
daily. Many theaters like the Phoenix Theatre
for example, show Broadway and world premier
musicals and plays. These exciting shows are
usually less expensive than a ticket for a Broadway show, but they have the same caliber and
passion as New York theatre. Premier ballet
performances can also be seen in local theaters.■
Spring Break Vacation Ideas
By Emma Dong
Can't decide where to go this spring? Take the advice of some of the country's best travel critics
Orlando- Feeling the stress of the school you
get at you? Why not embrace your inner child
and jump on a plane to Orlando? Year-round,
Orlando will not be a disappointment. You can
head off to Disney World, four
theme parks, two
water
parks,
Downtown Disney
entertainment zone and
twenty-two
themed resorts,
adding up to be
equivalent to the
size of Boston.
Take a trip down the street to Universal Orlando
and experience the life of a wizard and warlock
in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Are
you an animal person? Don't forget Sea World,
Discovery Cove and Aquatica Water Park to see
performances by Cirque du Soleil and the Blue
Man Group.
Washington D.C.- An educational, and definitely memorable vacation awaits in our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. The National
Cherry
Blossom
Festival
occurs
during our
spring
break as
well as the
Smithsonian Kit
Festival
on the National Mall.
Sea Island Georgia- Take a trip down south for
the spring! Travel down to warmer weather and
10,000 acres of forest, lawn, marshland, and
five miles of private beachfront.
California- Travel to the Golden State for a
plethora of sights. San Francisco has a variety
of experiences and sights. Farther down south,
San Luis Obispo has plenty of beaches, piers
and sand dunes. In Los Angeles, you can experience the warm water; visit Disneyland and
Universal Studios Hollywood. There are also
plenty of beaches that offer surfing lessons and
a 10,000 acre working dude ranch. Apart from
the beautiful beaches and sights, you can also
embrace the winter months as well by skiing in
Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra Nevada
range.
All Inclusive Resorts- Are you ready for a
week of nonstop pampering? Travel down to
one of the all inclusive resorts in the Caribbean
where you can go scuba diving, travel in a submarine, go to the spa, and take a walk on some
of the finest beaches of the world.
Hershey Park- Have some fun close to home!
Head down to Hershey Park! Cure that sweet
tooth going to Chocolate Town USA. Hershey
Park doesn't open until summer but you can get
a sneak
p e a k
during
the
2
weekends in
April.
50 rides
will be
running during Springtime in the Park. The perfect opportunity to have fun with friends!
Skiing- Are you a winter person? Spring break
is a perfect opportunity to ski out west. There
are milder temperatures with no icy slopes,
more daylight hours and fewer crowds. An hour
drive away from Salk Lake City, are more than
seven ski resorts. They're all convenient to fly
to; experience some of the best snow in the
country and also spend more time on them.
Canada-Quebec- Craving even more snow?
The 400-year-old Quebec City embodies the
feel of Europe. Take a walk on the snow covered streets, and have a taste of French bistro in
quaint little cafes, and enjoy meals in sophisticated restaurants. Visit the bilingual Museum of
Civilization while being surrounded by the
French and English speaking residents. Just a
few minutes from downtowns is a winter
amusement park and half an hour away is a ski
resort with over 60 runs and hundreds of miles
of cross-country trails.
Take a chance this spring! Embrace your inner
child, experience the National Cherry Blossom
Festival, go to beautiful beaches, get pampered
and go skiing!■
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THE IND IAN IN K
PAGE 15
Health
The Underlying Truth of Teeth Grinding
By Emma Dong
Teeth grinding during sleep, officially
known as sleep-related bruxism, occur in approximately 14% to 17% of children. Most commonly, this rate decreases as a child ages. It has
been proven that bruxism runs in the family;
however it hasn't been found to be attached to
any genes.
Sleep-related bruxism not only wears out
the teeth, but also wears out the jaw, causes facial pain, headaches and in the worst cases, can
cause interruptions in sleep and lead to groggi-
ness during the day.
Bruxism is divided into two groups, primary, where there is no clear cause, and secondary, caused by other disorders as well as the
use of drugs.
Grinding is associated with obstructive
sleep apnea and confusional arousals. Sleep specialists have found this common among people
who have heightened stress and anxiety and
among people of Type A personalities and hyper
-vigilant people, who are easily aroused from
sleep.
To cure sleep-related bruxism in children, it is recommended to see a sleep specialist.
In most cases, a bite guard will be prescribed to
protect the teeth and it will be advised to lower
the causes of stress in the life of the individual,
such as altering the extracurricular and academic
schedules of a student. ■
How the Brain Interprets Pain and How to Get Relief
By Leen Amin
Neuroscientists at Stanford University
conducted an experiment in order to find out if
romance could overcome physical pain. They
recruited fifteen students who were in the early
stages of a relationship and subjected their left
hands to thermal pain. When the scientists
showed the students pictures of the person they
loved, they felt less of a burning sensation than
when they were shown pictures of equally attractive acquaintances. As a result, the scientists
were able to conclude that the pain we feel is all
in our heads. Romantic feelings activate areas of
the brain involved with our bodies’ pain relievers and dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter
that is linked to cravings and rewards. This is
how pain works given the example of a stubbed
toe: Skin receptors send signals through nerve
fibers to the spinal cord and then to the brain.
Some of these fibers carry the signals rapidly,
while others travel at a slower pace. In the case
of a stubbed toe, the signals move rapidly to the
thalamus in the brain, which then sends the fibers to the sensory cortex. The brain then inter-
Think Healthy Thoughts!
APPLES
BROCCOLI
CARROTS
EXERCISE
FITNESS
FRUIT
GRAIN
JOGGING
MILK
MYPLATE
PROTEIN
SALAD
VEGETABLES
WATER
WATERMELON
prets the signals as a sharp pain. The slower impulses become a throbbing ache that is felt
throughout the entire toe. Here is another example: a football player jams his knee but does not
notice because of the excitement of the game.
This occurs because the brain is able to filter out
pain when the body is engaged in important activities. Genetics, upbringing, and cultural practices affect how pain is felt as well. For example, children who were always comforted when
they had small injuries will have significant reactions to minor discomforts as adults. If an injury such as a sprained ankle goes untreated,
diagnosis and treatment becomes more difficult
because the pain signals begin to flow within
the whole nervous system, so it becomes difficult to locate the original source of the pain. The
most effective ways of dealing with pain are:
The medicinal approach. Medicine effectively
blocks pain’s neural pathways. Antiinflammatory medications act on the nerves that
detect pain on the body’s periphery. Antiseizure medications correct the spontaneous fir-
ing of sensory neurons. Antidepressants help the
brain block descending pain signals. Synthetic
narcotics do the opposite of antidepressants. Another way to deal with pain is The homeostasis
approach. Acupuncturists place needles at several points of the body. The needles arouse
nerves and release endorphins, which activate
pain receptors in the spinal cord and brain,
therefore relieving the pain. Mind over matter
is always extremely effective as well. People
can block pain by distracting themselves with
work, family, or hobbies. Hypnosis can reduce
discomfort by decreasing activity in the anterior
cingulated cortex, the part of the brain that processes the emotional response to pain.
Mind over matter probably works the
best and is the easiest because, after all, ―it’s all
in your mind‖. People have cured themselves
from cancer just by being happy and convincing
themselves that they are healthy. Happiness and
health come from our minds. ■
Hold the Salt, Please.
By Laura Eng
Salt. Whether it’s in the ocean or the saltshaker at the table, it’s all around us. Where
salt is most prevalent however, is in our food. Salt is a big contributor to health issues
such as increasing blood pressure. Increasing blood pressure is one of the leading
causes of cardiovascular disease and stroke. However, by becoming more aware of
what we choose to eat, we can reduce our risks of getting these diseases.
Studies by AHA, the American Heart Association, have shown that Americans
take in an average of about 2 teaspoons of salt a day from food. Sodium, which makes
up 5,000 milligrams of salt, can potentially produce adverse consequences on the
heart, brain, and kidneys. The AHA recommends that people keep their sodium consumption under 1,500 milligrams a day. Less than 1,500 milligrams would be equal to
approximately less than a third of the current average person’s intake.
What’s most important in watching salt intake, is not avoiding adding more
salt, but rather avoiding purchasing food that already has a lot of salt in it. People are
typically accustomed to heavily salted food, therefore low-salt versions seem less appealing. The lessened appeal in low-sodium foods is what causes food industries to be
reluctant on cutting back on the salt.
The first step in cutting down is to be mindful of how much sodium is in the
food we purchase. Keep in mind which foods have less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium.
Try making better choices. Foods aren’t naturally salty. The salt comes from
the processing at food plants. Therefore, try less-processed foods and replace frozen
or canned vegetables and fruits with their fresh versions.
If people become more aware of the consequences and reduce salt intake, it
could greatly benefit their health. Where the greatest improvement will come from
however, is from the food industries. Once salt levels in processed foods are lowered,
we can get a start on lowering blood pressure and improving health. However, only
through public awareness and government proactivity will this become a reality. It’s
never too soon to become more conscious about salt intake. The long term benefits
will be enormous. ■
IS SUE III
THE IND IAN IN K
PAGE 16
Thoughts
A (very) Brief History of Time
By Katherine Nevitt
Picture the room that you are currently
in from an aerial perspective. Okay, easy so far.
Now picture the entire building, still bird’s eye
view. Now the town. Now the state. The country. Alright, not too mentally- straining, considering this follows the typical Google maps
progression for the curious at heart (Directions
to Panera….I wonder what it looks like from
outer space!). Now picture the Earth. Now all of
the plants. All of the stars. Now the Milky Way
Galaxy. Now all of the estimated 125 billion
galaxies. Now picture the entire universe,
which is the sum total of the aforementioned
components. Now picture what comes next.
And, this is where the suspense built throughout
this mental exercise tapers to the fact that… you
can’t. It’s like trying to imagine a number beyond infinity.
Though the above paragraph could easily be used as a lead into ―What Katherine
Nevitt Thinks About Before She Falls Asleep
At Night,‖ I’ve instead decided to devote this
article to a very rudimentary but nonetheless
interesting explanation of cosmology—that is,
unless you’d like to read about my irrational
fear of swallowing pills and having Anthrax in
my mail. Since I highly doubt that is the case, I
will proceed, and will do so by first mentioning
a name—Stephen Hawking. A renowned physicist and cosmologist, Hawking was unfortunately diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease
(Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) at the age of 21,
but fortunately he is still with us at the age of
70. He authored a book that I recently picked
up entitled, ―A Brief History of Time,‖ which is
a 212-page migraine that I retained and fully
understood only about 50% of. This is hand-totemple, ―what-the-what?,‖ reread-a-paragraphfifteen-times-and-still-don’t-understand-it kind
of material. It is a frustrating but nevertheless
fulfilling read. Being the altruistic, philanthropist of knowledge that I am, I will save you the
headache, and share some of the book’s most
interesting points.
Time is relative.—tell that to your first
period teacher the next time you walk in five
minutes after the second bell. Imagine sitting
on a train, watching a ping-pong match. Yes,
unrealistic but for the purposes of this hypothetical situation, bear with me. So the pingpong match. While the train is in motion, the
ball is hit from player A to player B and travels
one meter. The horizontal displacement from
your perspective? Easy. One meter. Now, imagine standing on the train platform and watching
this train with the ping-pong match go past you
(once again for the sake of this hypothetical
situation, the windows are entirely transparent).
Person A hits the ball to person B. What’s the
ball's displacement? Well, from your perspective, the ball physically moved 40 meters with
the train. Uh-oh. We have ourselves a problem.
How can the same object move two different
distances? The only explanation Galileo said,
was that space is not absolute. Space is relative.
Einstein would later elaborate on this and conclude that both space and time are relative, giving rise to Special relativity(dealing with constant velocities) and then General relativity
(dealing with acceleration, say due to Gravity),
which established the concept of space-time.
Space-time, the four-dimensional space whose
points are ―events,‖ establishes the notion that
space is ―warped‖ when influenced by gravity,
and so objects will move along what appears to
us as a curved path, but is really a straight path
in this entity known as ―space-time.‖ Here’s a
visual: You are traveling from New York to
Spain (it is just as cold there right now, so don’t
get too excited). New York to Spain, on a 2dimensional map , is more or less a straight line.
So once your plane leaves LaGuardia, it heads
straight to the east, right? Well, if it did that,
you’d be in for a pleasant surprise when you
landed somewhere in Western Africa! The
earth, which is spherical, is the analogy for
―space-time,‖ which is composed of fourcoordinates. The line, which is two-
dimensional, is an analogy for what we as humans see. We see space as ―flat‖, meanwhile
space and time near a massive object are actually ―curved.‖ Therefore, we see objects dropping as having curved, or parabolic, trajectories.
Well, in space-time, these objects are actually
moving straight, but our brains distort this,
since we can’t see in four-dimensions.
To help better understand the relative
nature of time, since the train demonstrated the
relativity of space or distance, imagine that you
have a twin. Don’t get too acquainted, because
I’m splitting you up. You stay here on earth,
and your twin is sent into space in a high-speed
rocket. Many years later, your twin returns to
earth and sorry—looks a lot better than you.
Why? Because he (or she) has aged less due to
the relative nature of time and space. This twin
―paradox‖ only seems like a paradox when considering it in reference to absolute time, but
when viewed with the idea of relativity, there is
no one, unique, absolute time. Instead, each individual(each twin) has his own personal measure of time that depends on where and how he is
moving. Space and time are not fixed entities—
they do not, as intuition leads us to believe, continue wholly unaffected and independent of one
another and us. When a body moves it affects
the curvature of space and time (think about the
globe example) and vice versa.
Stephen Hawking is a man whose intellect, much like the ever-expanding universe,
knows no bound. His book, though confusing at
times—actually, most of the time—is more accessible than one would expect, and even has a
glossary at the end, for newbies like me to look
up some of the scientific jargon. Look out for
the next issue of the Indian Ink, where I’ll talk
about wormholes and potential time travel, as
discussed in a Brief History of Time (selfpromotional plug), and remember to use this
one the next time you’re past your curfew—
―but ma, time is relative!‖ ■
Save Us From the Sequels!
By Cale Clinton
Throughout the history of the motion
pictures, we have truly been blessed with some
incredible movies (some of my favorites being
The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, Stepbrothers, and Pulp Fiction). However, with a
scarcity of new ideas and a lack of original
screen scripts, Hollywood has resorted to alternative, less creative, methods of making movies.
There is no escaping the franchises these days
and the more successful; the more likely they
are to repeat. In an age where Hollywood has all
but run out of fresh ideas, sequels, prequels, remakes and reboots are a way to milk a cash cow
until it is beaten in to a turns into a dead horse,
all at the film goers expense. . At which point
this dead horse is put on display and taken for
another spin around the block. If a movie does
well and makes a lot of money, it’s exploited
until it stops making money. This is the case
with movies such as Jaws 3, Caddyshack 2,
Hangover 2 and Paranormal Activity 3. In 2011,
the seven highest grossing films at the domestic
box office were franchises, with Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 topping the list.
Not to be outdone were the Transformers, Twilight, Hangover and Pirates of the Caribbean
franchises, of course. You had to travel all the
way down to #8 to get to Thor, which was actually an original idea, or at least as original as a
movie adaptation of (yet another) comic book
can be. Naturally, Thor 2 is now in the making.
As is Paranormal Activity 4. Needless to say,
the trend isn't going away in 2012. If anything,
it's gaining momentum. The average producer
doesn’t care about plot content anymore. If
something can make you scream, laugh, or drop
your jaw at an explosion, a movie can make
millions. Movies used to be about the art of acting and creative expression. In The Shawshank
Redemption, parts were played brilliantly.
There was incredible dialogue, an great story
line, and beautiful cinematography, that resulted
in a critical and commercial success. Now, movies like Transformers and The Expendables rely
on CGI, special effects, and explosions to rake
in the millions. With movies like these, it’s
really no wonder the quality of movies has gone
down in recent years. In 2012, some of the best
movies this year will come from adaptations.
Some of these are sequels to such greats as XMen, Iron Man, Bridesmaids, Thor, Crank, The
Dark Knight, Fast and Furious, Dumb and
Dumber, Taken, and even Zoolander! Frankly, I
can’t see many of these movies making much
sense beyond the obvious commercial aspirations. In the original Taken, Liam Nesson’s
daughter is kidnapped. Will Taken 2 consist of
the daughter being kidnapped again? And what
about Zoolander, are we going to be subject to a
middle aged model off? I just don’t see it. The
story seemed all locked up and in the bag. It’s a
movie about male models. What could they possibly do in the sequel? It’s redundant, really.
There’s also going to be a FIFTH Indiana
Jones. If you have ever seen the fourth movie,
you know it’s time to leave this one in the can.
Sequels are something we as a society have
grown accustomed to. As much as I hate to admit it, there are even a few sequels and prequels
that I’m actually looking forward to seeing. As a
kid that has loved Pixar’s films, I’m curious to
see what a prequel to Monster’s Inc. will consist
of. Also, as a fan of JRR Tolkien’s books, I
would love to see the new two-part Hobbit
movie. For those of you that remember The
Challenge project from 8th grade English, a remake of Great Expectations could bring back
some fond memories. No matter how loud we
complain about how much sequels compromise
the integrity and artistry of movie making, as
long as studios see the potential to make money
and we as movie goers keep buying the product,
it is more than likely Hollywood will continue
to flood the market with sequels. So, whether
you love them or hate them, sequels are likely to
be with us as long as the movie industry exists.
Let’s just hope the industry produces a few new
original classics once in a while from which sequels can regenerate.■
PAGE 17
IS SUE III
THE IND IAN IN K
Thoughts
Fly Me to the Moon (Or Maybe Not)
By Maxwell Hu
established and running by the end of his eight a brilliant idea, but the current circumstances
years in office. Crazy? Probably.
are far from that.
Having a colony on the moon would be
great and all, as being the first country to establish a fully functioning space colony could
spearhead further developments in space, but is
it really worth the immense financial investment?
Ever thought of living on the moon?
Perhaps one day we can wake up and watch the
Earth rise and see the sun in a whole new light.
That is, if Newt Gingrich becomes president.
Our Republican candidate has big dreams for
the future of science in the US, and has announced that he plans to have a moon colony
As if we didn’t have enough financial
worries, it was expected that a colony on the
moon would cost more than $700 billion dollars, when it was abandoned twenty years ago.
Well if the plan was abandoned already, why
would we try to pick it up at this point in time?
The United States are still in the middle of a
deep recession, and although some might argue
that our economy is improving, we are still covered in debt and our unemployment rates are
still high. If we were prospering and we had
enough money, the moon base would have been
I find that the idea of establishing a
moon base is wonderful, but to do so in such
grim times would be horrific for our economy
as piling debt on top of debt would not have
great outcomes. Granted, we have almost all the
technology necessary to establish the base, and
the only thing keeping us from launching the
project is the issue of money. Gingrich is on the
right track for initiating major advances in science, but now is not the time. I would rather be
fixing our economy here on earth rather than
setting up a new one in space. Gingrich has
some big ideas, some of them pointed in the
right ways and some of them not so much, but
the idea of creating a moon colony in eight
years has its merits, but lacks the financial
backing it would require, especially in times of
such fiscal austerity.■
The ―1%‖
By Carter Paterson
In the age where the media is dominated
by political discourse on the relationship between the classes of American society, we are
constantly reminded that the majority of the nation’s wealth lies nestled in the pockets of a select few. This so-called ―1%‖ of American citizens currently controls 40% of the nations
wealth. Therefore, we should condemn these
men and women, correct? At least that’s what
has appeared to be the decision of America in
the past months, as hostilities towards the onepercenters have increased, inspiring the ―Occupy
Wall Street‖ movement and various other organized protests. As the empathic gap that has stood
between middle and lower class Americans and
the one percent has widened, many have taken
this as a call to arms. A vast majority of citizens
have made their inherent dislike for their wealthier neighbors abundantly clear, but one question
still lingers: why do they hate them? Is it out of
fear, perhaps, that the power of these entrepreneurs and CEOS will soon consume the domestic economy? Or is it common childish immaturity, an unjustified envy for the success of a fellow human being? The phrase ―never judge a
book by its cover‖ comes to mind, as many fail
to examine the kind and often generous men and
women who are a part of this 1%. Bill Gates, for
example, has donated more than 58,000,000,000
dollars to charity; that’s a lot of zeroes. Warren
Buffet, the second richest man in America, has
donated over 30,000,000,000 dollars to charity
as well. Many other high-ranking billionaires on
the Forbes ―Richest People In America‖ list
have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to
charities of their own accord, including number
three ranking man Larry Ellison, who donated
151,000,000 dollars to charity. Even prominent
pop-culture faces, such as Mark Zuckerburg,
founder of Facebook and commonly harassed by
the media for his selfish marketing ascension to
fame, have signed on to The Giving Pledge, a
promise to donate half of one’s wealth to charity
during their lifetime or upon death. It is time
America took a deeper investigation into these
selfish ―one-percenters‖. Perhaps there are the
greedy self-concerned rich men of tabloid conspiracy sitting atop America’s wealth mixed in are only the minority, a one percent among the
with these kind philanthropists. But what if they one percent?■
Concussions Are More Than a Bump on The Head
By Tara Cotumaccio
Concussions are more than the physical bleeding and damage of the
brain. Damage accumulates after even minor head injuries, especially
suffered by football players. On average, a player makes contact about
650 times just in one season. The number may seem hard to grasp, but
the sport is quite rigorous. The brain is one of the most important organs
in the physiological human body, yet more people die from sportsrelated concussions every year. There needs to be more defensive and
effective mechanisms to reduce the amount of head trauma. Even the
smallest amount of damage can affect the development of a brain, especially kids at a young age. ―"We regulate a lot of things in kids’ lives and
brain trauma should be one of them," says Chris Norwinksi, the President of a sports research company. He proposed the idea that kids should
be limited to the amount of hits to the head. For example, he believes
those under 16 years of age should be limited to 1,000 hits per season.
This would reduce the amount of injury to the brain. Even NFL players
are acknowledging the seriousness of the injuries. These proposals
would give kids a lesser chance of jeopardizing their minds and future
endeavors. ■
PAGE 18
IS SUE III
THE IND IAN IN K
Thoughts
Me and My Piano
By Allison Lee
I sat at the table to cut my finger nails,
my hand over the garbage can. My fingers
curled a bit, a reflex from years of piano playing. As I cut my nails, I recalled the years of
piano lessons I’d had, and all the years since I’d
stopped having them.
My piano teacher was the devil. She’d
make me work on things again and again.
While learning ―Fur Elise,‖ I had to practice the
same 2 areas 50 times each. She made me practice single day and cut my nails, too. The summer before entering 2nd grade, my mom signed
me up for weekly piano lessons at a music
school in a church. I remember that room; I remember the stained glass windows in front of
me as I played on the piano, my teacher next to
me, the picture of a hawk close by.
A week into my lessons, I’d learned the
names of the notes, how long to hold each one,
and I had started playing with my right hand
only. It was time to learn how to use the left
hand.
―Allison; this week, I’m teaching you
how to read notes on your left hand. It’s in bass
clef. The bottom line is g. From g, the following lines are b, d, f, and a. The spaces are a, c,
e, g, and b. Got it?‖
―Um…yeah?‖ I said, too scared to ask
her anything.
―Now that I’ve explained it, go practice
this song right here,‖ she said, pointing to a
page in that book I hated.
When I got home, I sat down by the
electric keyboard my parents had bought me.
Let me say one thing: I hated that keyboard. It
was in the coldest room in our house, disconnected from the rest of it. It made me feel ostracized every time I practiced.
As I practiced, my fingers fumbled over
the keys like an uncoordinated ballerina. When
I saw my teacher again, I had to play what I’d
practiced. I raised my hands to the keys… and a
beautiful silence was shattered. Regardless, she
didn’t interrupt my playing. When I finished, I
glanced up at her, and darted my eyes back
down towards the keys.
―Allison, did you get what I said to you
last week?‖
―I thought I did…but it got confusing
and I didn’t want to ask you questions,‖ I
squeaked out.
Sighing, she said, ―Allison, you can always ask questions. Now or 5 years from now,
tell me if you don’t get something. I’ll tell you
again in another way until you get it. I’m your
teacher. What’s the use if you don’t learn from
what I say? Alright, so here’s how you do it…‖
That day made my piano career so much
clearer.
Once, at a later time, I went to a lesson
unprepared. I poised my fingers above the keys,
mind you the wrong ones, and began to play
like a tone-deaf elephant. My teacher later
asked me if I’d practiced. Hesitantly, I replied
with a ―no.‖ And that’s when the volcano
erupted. She wouldn’t have minded if I’d practiced and still couldn’t play it, but she couldn’t
stand that I had put no effort into it. Her disappointment left a bitter sting in my mouth, like
I’d taken some vile Chinese medicine.
Before I could grasp what was happening, it came time for my first performance. As I
listened to the others play, I heard a lot of variety, from Chopin to Twinkle Twinkle. Soon,
my turn came. As I walked up the grand piano,
a stark difference from the small keyboard I
practiced on at home, images of the previous
performers flashed through my mind. I
wondered if I would screw up, but remembered the practice I had been forced
to do. With that in mind, I realized this was
what my teacher had been preparing me for.
She’d wanted me to be able to play in front of
people. My performance went off without a
hitch. As I walked from the piano back into the
audience, my eyes locked with my teacher’s,
and she said four words that made me think
all the practice was worth it: ―I’m proud of
you.‖
After that recital came many more. I
learned new songs, each increasingly more difficult, and forgot old ones.
―Allison, always keep a bank of songs
that you’ll always remember and can play for
others. Create a bank of songs that you invest a
little more time into; when someone asks you to
play something, you’ll be able to.‖
One song that always stuck was ―Fur
Elise.‖ After I’d practiced and mastered it, yes,
including those 2 bars I’d practiced 50 times
each every day, I came to love it it. ―Fur Elise‖
is the piece you sometimes hear from your
teacher’s phone; it’s the piece I wanted to always know how to play.
Now about to enter the 9th grade, I realize my teacher wasn’t evil; she was strict only
because she wanted me to seek my potential.
It’s funny, when I went to camp, I’d brought
that old keyboard with me, that same keyboard
I’d hated. At camp, it was a welcoming site
when I just wanted something to sit down to do.
I can still remember the smell of that
room downstairs in the basement of that
church. A bit musty, but welcoming like the
opening notes of ―Fur Elise,‖ long ago mastered due to repetition.
I lift up my
h e a d
from my nails as I
hear the
melodic strings
o f
notes coming
from
the
piano
– yes
and ac-
tual
pianow e ’ d
b o u gh t
years
ago. It
was my
brother playing. I
finished cutting my
nails,
and went over to listen to
him and critique him, like my teacher had done
for me those years ago.
And, just for the record, I still don’t like
to cut my nails, but I guess it is a sacrifice I
have to make as a pianist. ■
American Universities or American sports teams?
By Bradley Spilka
Thousands of students each worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition, high
priced sporting events, a desire to become bigger and better: These are the qualities of modern
colleges today and why they are turning into
corporations. Colleges and universities all
around the world recognize that higher education is a vital part of our present and future. As
a means to capitalize on offering their superior
intellect, the price for colleges is starkly rising.
This results in fewer families being able to send
their children to college, and more families
pushing athletics over academics. Universities'
desire to bring in more revenue from inning
sports teams has resulted in the increase of importance of athletics. This drives more students
to go to college and focus on athletics instead of
academics. In reality, we do not need professional lacrosse or field hockey players. If a
sport gets you into college, that’s great, as long
as you focus on education. The world of sports
especially the moneymaking leagues (NBA,
NHL, NFL, MLB) is almost impossible to break
into. This emphasis on athletics has put America in a bad situation. More students are more
likely to take easier courses and get less significant degrees if they are focusing on sports, since
being a college athlete is similar to a full time
job. Colleges in America are not developing
engineers and scientists the way international
countries are. This is why America is falling
behind technologically and eventually economically. Athletes do not solve the problems of the
world. It is the scientists and engineers who
work in the shadows that help the world.
I am only a sophomore and have not
started the college process yet (though I can certainly see it on the horizon), but I am still aware
of the problem. I do enjoy following college
basketball. From what I know, many players
and student athletes in general pursue a career in
sports rather than the real world. Is it an uncovered fear adjusting to a life without sports and a
real job? Actually doing work that requires
mental analysis and critical thinking? Whatever
the case may be, America is suffering. Our
country needs people who will use their college
education to help save our world. My favorite
teacher once said a quote that I will never forget. ―If you plan on going to college for lacrosse, good for you; but I do not know a single
professional lacrosse player who makes good
money.‖ Maybe America should take his advice. ■
IS SUE III
THE IND IAN IN K
PAGE 19
Poetry
Why Write Poetry?
By Juliet Paterek
Poetry is a place where people can truly
be free. Although, we claim we are all free because we live in a free country; we all have to
abide by rules and regulations. Within the lines
of poetry, a writer is free to do as whatever he or
she wishes to express. Furthermore, there is no
―standard language,‖ but only a wide spectrum
of usage from which we select for the purpose in
hand. Even everyday speech is not a natural
benchmark since each of us uses speech slightly
differently: according to our personality, the occasion, our social standing, which we’re addressing, what we want to express or get done.
Our words may be apt or off the point, but they
are not more natural for being used loosely. We
admire the speaker who achieves exactly what is
needed in a certain situation, and that exactness,
but more honest, more personal, more considered, is what we look for in poetry. Also, poetry
is the most versatile and wide-ranging of literary
forms: things can be said in poetry that cannot
be said in prose. Poetry will always be there for
a person, thus, freedom of expression. Don’t be
afraid; let the words seep through your fingers,
confess your feelings and emotions through the
form of poetry. In his ―A Poet’s Advice,‖ E.E.
Cummings declares that a poet is somebody
who feels, and who expresses his feeling
through words. Poetry, he contends, is feeling-not knowing or thinking. To express one’s feelings, one must use fresh, innovative expression,
not the words of anyone else. Such a task is not
easy. Cummings suggests that young people do
something easier, unless they are willing, even
glad, to feel and work and fight until you die. So
I too simply dare you to write some poetry and
to contribute it to this wonderful section of the
Manhasset Indian Ink!
Untitled
Parents
By Juliet Paterek
By Juliet Paterek
I am so weak and unsure about me,
Was I really what I was meant to be?
What I am really looking for,
Everywhere I turn, there’s no open door.
I’m still not grown up inside, but maybe out,
I still have to learn what life is all about.
When I need you, you were there,
In times of growing up, in times of despair.
When I fell to my feet, when I felt insecure,
Who picked me up—who gave me more.
I am hurt so easily over things so minor and measly,
But that’s why I’m me and you’re you,
That’s why God sent me here,
I do what I am to do.
Can’t hide, cant stay in everyday,
I’ve got to stand tall and face it someway.
Each person is divided into many different parts,
But it seems to me, I received a soft heart.
I enjoy simple things in my life,
Even if I am single, or even a wife.
The big things don’t matter to me,
Can’t you understand, don’t you see?
When I was lonely, when I was humble,
Who patch me up and fixed up my jumble?
Who – when I was sick came to nurse me,
Who helped me understand life’s true quality.
Who helped me learn right from wrong,
Who gave me love, who gave me a song,
Who when I was down,
Made me smile and wiped off my frown.
Who made me feel important, made me feel love,
Who taught me what was above,
Who made me say my very first word,
Who knew I was happy, who made me be heard.
Who gave me a house and a home,
So I didn’t have to walk the streets some do roam.
Who made me so happy and sometimes so mad,
Who gave this all to me—my Mom and my Dad.
Decisions
By Juliet Paterek
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
A lonely traveler,
At a threshold stand.
Two paths lay before them,
Each leading to distant lands.
One is worn with footprints,
Sentimental of journeys through the years.
The other’s iron gate is closed,
To enter no one dares.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
The lonely traveler stands,
Each path offers a request.
Follow these footsteps,
The other dares to come contest.
Quandary fills the travelers mind,
Not knowing which is the proper kind.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
The traveler dared to open the forbidden gate,
And made their first move.
This path was their true fate:
Now at ease,
Their mind was completely soothed.
The Little Fruit
By Juliet Paterek
The tree of fruit was opulent.
It spent its money on silly things.
It bent its branches to feel the sea.
It adorned itself with gold-plated figs.
Its legacy was clearly seen.
From the sky to the greens,
Natured bickered about its things.
About how useless the carbon dioxide it breathes,
How useless, became, the rain and pretty leaves.
The tree did not care for passé things.
It was proud and portentous
And so very happy.
Then, its sap became sour.
Its bark became weak.
Then the tree cared,
For just what you think.
The aesthetics bothered it!
But it was too late.
Roots free of sand,
It turned into a man
And had to recluse into a fractious old hag.
An effable life,
A nightmarish, timorous like.
A regular,
Sheer mortal man.
IS SUE III
THE IND IAN IN K
PAGE 20
Fun Stuff
SUDOKU
VALENTINES DAY FUN
FACTS
ARROW
DATE
GIFT
ROMANCE
BE MINE
DIAMOND
HANDHOLDING
ROSES
CANDY
FEBRUARY
HEART
STROLL
CARD
FEELINGS
HUGS
SUITORS
CHOCOLATE
FLOWERS
KISSES
VALENTINE
COUPLES
FRIENDSHIP
LOVE
CUPID
LOVERS
 About 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged in US each year. That's the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to
Christmas.
 Women purchase 85% of all valentines.
 In order of popularity, Valentine's Day cards are given to teachers, children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.
 Parents receive 1 out of every 5 valentines.
 About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.
 Valentine's Day and Mother's Day are the biggest holidays for giving flowers.
 Worldwide, over 50 million roses are given for Valentine's Day each year.
 In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on
their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
 The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's
Day.
 Richard Cadbury invented the first Valentine’s Day candy box in the late 1800s.
 The oldest surviving love poem till date is written in a clay tablet from the times of the Sumerians, inventors of writing, around 3500 B.C
 In some countries, a young woman may receive a gift of clothing from a prospective suitor. If the gift is kept, then it means she has accepted his
proposal of marriage
 In Medieval times, girls ate unusual foods on St Valentine's Day to make them dream of their future husband.