Number 11

T H E L A S T PA G E
T H E S P O T LI G HT P a g e 8
MUSIC
MANIA
P. 3
GLOBSTERS
FOR DINNER
AGAIN?
P.2
TEA
TIME
P. 6
SHARK
A T TA C K
P.6
THS’ Student Newspaper
D
uring the winter,
the snow and ice
kept a sacred
place hidden. A
place with secret caverns,
frozen lakes, and meteor
trails... Yes, I am exaggerating a bit, but the place is
still
pretty
cool.
Location - Crater Cavern
Time Required to Fully Explore - Couple of hours dep e n d i n g
Satisfaction Level - Nyeh,
worth
re-telling.
The Lowdown - A large
man-made quarry located
near the school, it includes a
small body of water, and
large gravel hills, and trails
that look like meteor colli-
sions. One day during the
winter season, Kyle wielding
his trusty backpack, and Josh
wielding the courage of
c h a m p i o n s
ventured towards the quarry
with great anticipation. We
safely scaled the meteor
trails down the 30-40 foot
hill until we hit the bottom.
Looking around the location
from high-ground we
mapped out a general path
across flat fresh snow. It
took about 15 minutes to
cross the desert land of ice
and snow. Over piles of tires,
and through thick bush
breaching their frozen
prison. Our adventuring instincts told us to pick up a
Volume 2, Issue 11
few rocks in case we ran into
some suspicious terrain. We
came to our goal, a very flat
barren stretch covered in untouched snow. Kyle tossed a
rock out into the opening, it
landed with the clack of ice,
and slid across another few
feet. We looked at each other
and smiled. Knowing ahead
of time, the water could only
of been a couple feet deep at
best, we decided to cross.
Using a 40 pound log as our
weight test, we rolled it
along in front of us. Kyle
wandered to the shore and
expected the tree line. Ice
was frozen on the trees, at
least a foot above our iceline. Kyle began to shout to
Josh, “The water line used to
b e
h i g h e r ! ”
At that moment, his foot fell
through the ice, before it hit
the bottom he leaped to a
tree and scaled off the ice.
Water up to his knee! With
quick thinking and a backpack full of random things,
he changed into a dry sock,
and covered it in a Wal-mart
bag to keep his now-dry foot
off of his wet boot. After
safely crossing the water, we
continued until we came to
2nd Doug Hill Rd. We continued, battle-ravaged, and
hungry... We finally arrived
at Walmart, and ate some
VERY delicious Snack
Wraps. Victory was ours.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
t h s . t h e s p o t l i g h t @ g m a i l . co m
RUGBY
ACTION P. 4
k
e
e
W
t
Nex
THS TAKES THE HILL
LORENZEN’S LAB
T H E S P O T LI G HT P a g e 2
Attack of the giant masses of decomposing flesh
A scientific look at the gross phenomenon
the Newfoundland
known as “globsters”
By Mr. Lorenzen
I
n 1896 a five ton mass
of flesh washed ashore
on a beach in St.
Augustine,
Florida and people came from
miles around to
view the remains
of what many
considered to be
an unknown species of gigantic
sea monster. A
lo cal
d o cto r ,
DeWitt
Webb,
came to the conclusion that it was
the carcass of an
enormous octopus
and gave it the
name
Octopus
giganteus. The 1896 incident was the first of many
subsequent sightings of
what have come to be
known as globsters: gigantic
masses of decomposing
flesh too large and shapeless
to be the remains of any-
thing previously known to
science.
Globsters have washed
up on beaches all over the
world; there was the Stron-
say Beast in Scotland, the
Bermuda Blob, the Glacier
Island Creature in Alaska
and the Santa Cruz Sea
Monster in Mexico, among
many others. Canada itself
has had a few: the Effingham Carcass in 1947 and
Die a horrible death Old Navy
By Carley Fraser
able or attractive to me.
But now I should get on to
D
ays
keep
ge tting
longer, and I
keep getting
more and more opinionated and angry at the
world. This week I’m
angry at the good old
folks at Old Navy. I’ve
never been a fan of Old
Navy, their commercials
are ridiculous, and they only
have a small select number
of clothing that looks wear-
the opinion. I’m disturbed
by Old Navy’s new line of
advertising. People out there
Blob
which washed up in 2001.
Some globsters are
clearly the remains of
whales or huge Basking
sharks, and occasionally a
globster is identified as the
carcass of a
giant squid.
Many have
no recognizable features
and are simply a huge
mass
of
undistinguishable
t i s s u e
weighing as
much
as
five
tons.
Often
the
blob is reported to be
covered
with white or brown fur or
stiff quills like a porcupine.
Scientists who have studied the rare globsters where
samples have been preserved have concluded that
many are masses of collagen, which is a protein
probably think that I’m
pretty stupid for hating an
advertising line. But here is
why; Old Navy’s new manikin advertisements supports the idea of obtaining
impossible beauty. A
beauty that is unrealistic,
and like I said it is impossible to achieve. I wouldn’t
have a problem with this
ad it I was just plain old,
colorless, manikins standing in one place showing
of their clothing. But, Old
Navy has to give every doll
a name, personality, and
distinct looks, making them
seem almost human. In your
found in the connective tissue of animals. Collagen is
a very tough triple-helix
molecule which grows in
long strands and is found in
bones, ligaments, tendons
and cartilage. It is usually
the last tissue to decompose
when a carcass is rotting; its
presence would explain the
so-called fur or quills that
have been reported. Since
much of the rest of the
corpse of a whale or shark
would have rotted away
leaving only a tangled mass
of collagen, it isn’t surprising that the remains are unrecognizable.
Some marine biologists
believe that many globsters
are the remains of the decomposed heads of Sperm
whales. Sperm whales were
much prized by whale hunters in the 19th century because they have a large cavity in their heads filled with
a rich oil called spermaceti
which was harvested for use
in oil lamps. The spermaceti
organ in the whale’s head
can weigh as much as five
tons. The organ consists of a
A&E / NEWS
T H E S P O T LI G HT P a g e 7
X marks the spot
By Stephane Jacques
O
ne of the number one movies
that has come
out in theatres
has definitely
lived up to its
expectations.
X-men Origins goes
nicely with
the previous
three movies
and the best
thing is that
you don’t
have to have
seen the three previous
ones.
I have to say though; this is
not my favourite X-Men
movie. There are some
really good things about this
movie. Obviously you get
the background on Wolverine which helps you better
understand him in the other
movies. There are a lot of
references in the previous
movies that really
don’t make a whole
lot of sense until
you watch this
movie. There is a lot
of action, and a
really, really cool
sword scene at the
beginning. It actually took the actor 4
months of practice
for the sword scene,
which was only like
40 seconds in the
movie. This movie also explains why they made him
the way he is and further
explains why he is such an
Old Navy is supporting
the idea of idealistic beauty,
but here is the thing its only
ideal. It’s not true beauty. If
Old navy really wanted to
reach out to people, they
would use advertisements of
normal everyday people of
all colors and sizes
NEW
RELEASES
MAY 12
MOVIES
MUSIC
Better Than Ezra
“Paper Empire”
See Mr.
Green Day
“21st Century
Breakdown”
Stanley for
details!
MAY 22-23
(Continued on page 4)
brain you associate your self
with them; inanimate objects shouldn’t have names
and personalities. It just
doesn’t make sense. People
have desires to be like them,
they want that ‘perfect’
body that is impossible to
obtain.
angry person. My favourite
part of the movie is the last
fight between Wolverine
and the ‘perfect soldier’, to
see who the best is, then
Wolverines brother comes
out of nowhere and helps
him. But get this, his brother
has been trying to kill him
the entire movie.
The only bad things I
have to say is that there are
some inconsistencies in the
movie when you compare
them to the others. Also the
‘perfect soldier’ when his
swords come out of his
hands it looks really lame.
The inconsistency that I
found was that in this movie
when he gets shot in the
head it just bounces off. In
the other movie he drops to
the ground for like five minutes. Other then that I have
to say this movie is really
good and I recommend it. I
give this movie 4.5 out of 5
stars.
Keep the receipt for this CD
By Xavier Nelson
You have heard this
band. You know the
one with the annoying guitar, and the
whiny vocals and the
same riff for 6 hours?
Yeah, I’m talking
about Coheed and
Cambria. This extremely overrated
band has been plaguing radio stations and
giving pro-rock a bad
name for 7 years now. Their
latest record, the 2007 Good
Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV,
Volume Two: No World for
Tomorrow,
(See!
Even
there
album
names
are
annoying!) is
the
definition of overrated. Opening
with a lone guitar and the
terrible whiny vocals of
Claudio Sanchez, The Reaping goes into the title track,
and for the nest hour you
are taken to realms of self
indulgence and a bunch of
bad musicians trying to be
awesome. The 22 minute
finale track tries to replicate
the prog genius of Tool and
Devin Townsend but fails
quite miserably. Honestly, I
would be quite happy if I
never heard this band ever
again. To bad everyone is
under the illusion that they
can actually play. A single
pathetic star.
Crystal Method
“Divided by Night”
Cam’ron
TOP 10 iTUNES.CA
DOWNLOADS
1. Black Eyed Peas - “Boom
Boom Pow”
2. Flo Rida - “Sugar”
3. Lady GaGa - “Poker Face”
4. Miley Cyrus - “The Climb”
5. Jamie Foxx - “Blame It”
6. 3OH!3 - “Don’t Trust Me”
7. Kid Cudi - “Day ‘n’ Nite”
8. Beyonce - “Halo”
9. Eminem - “We Made You”
10. Flo Rida - “Right Round”
OPINION / A&E
T H E S P O T LI G HT P a g e 6
NEWS
The close extinction of aquatic life?
off thousands of teeth to it’s
soon-to-be lunch. Your
friends don’t even scream,
they’re frozen on spot from
the sheer size of the wild
beast. In a matter of seconds, a simple fishing trip
with friends turns into a
horrific example of the classic “predator tuning into the
prey” situation. You watch
from afar in horror, staring
into the beady eyes of your
species bane...
Now you tell me how
you feel about whales now.
Or all aquatic life for that
matter. EVERYTHING in
the ocean wants to kill you.
Sharks, Octopi, Angler Fish,
Jelly Fish, Vampire Squid,
and especially whales. They
wouldn’t be called Killer
Whales if they didn’t have
inevitable thirst for human
blood. Help raise awareness
of these awful animals, and
eat more tuna.
The struggles of “Garrett”
One kids journey to rid the world of all
things fishy
very dumpy. Most whales
By Kyle McMillan
H
ello, my name’s
Kyle, and I have
a fear of aquatic
life. I think
fish suck. They suck a
lot. I seriously wouldn’t
be sad if most of the
underwater population
just died out. Now don’t
get me wrong, I love
animals and everything,
I hate animal cruelty.
But if all the fish in the
world just vanished suddenly, with no traces of
pain, I would be content.
Whales especially... I
seriously have a genuine
phobia of whales. There are
incredibly gigantic, and
eat seals! How easily could
a human being be mistaken
for a seal? At that size,
pretty easy. Imagine this
situation:
You’re out fishing with
your friends at the docks,
laughing drinking some
Book Review: Three Cups of Tea
By Michelle Olsen
A
lright guys, I
know
you’re
used to music
reviews
from
me, but this is something
different. When I first
looked at Three Cups of
Tea, by Greg Mortenson
and David Oliver Relin, it
wasn’t by choice. My
grandmother had sent me
the book in the mail for my
18th, thinking I would enjoy
it. Well, two months after
the fact, I finally opened the
book, and started reading it.
And what I read blew me
away.
The book is about the
failure of a K2 mountain
climber, who would go back
to the place where he failed,
and the path he walks
from that failure onwards. Greg Mortenson,
an nurse from Berkley,
brings back to the mountains with him a goal.
When he was brought
down from K2 and
nursed in the Pakistani
village of Korphe, he
noticed that the children
had no form of education, besides what they
were taught by their
elders. His goal was to
build a school for the
children of the people
who had rescued and
nursed him back to
health. The book follows
his path back and forth
from Pakistan, back to
Berkley as Greg seeks to
accomplish his goal;
what challenges he faced
(economically, socially, and
physically), the kindness of
juice, eating cookies, and all
of a sudden your close
friends feels a nudge on his
pole... He reels in, calling an
audience. Everyone watches
in anticipation. The line
approaches shore at an incredible speed, beginning to
travel towards us faster then
he was reeling. You begin
to back up,
feeling a sudden jolt in your
guts, and on
your instinct,
your few backwards strides
turn into a full
out run as you
realize the bass
you pictured in
your head is a
friggin’ KILLER WHALE.
It
thrashes
through the water, showing
random strangers, and eventually, his overall successes.
Honestly, when I first
started reading this, I wasn’t
sure if I could finish it. I
started it during THS’s silent reading, but after starting, I knew I was going
to finish it. It had me
hooked. I was captivated
by Greg’s challenges,
and the culture of Pakistan, how different it was
from our own. The storyline of the book starts in
the early ‘90’s, and by
the end of the book, its
run up to the present, and
includes a look at what’s
happening today with the
US forces in Afghanistan
(Greg Mortenson is
American, so its more of
an American POV, but
ironically, an unbiased
one) and the Taliban. I
would definitely recommend this to someone
looking for an interesting
read. I’m not usually the
person who falls for this
kind of book, but this one
had me from the first chapter
T H E S P O T LI G HT P a g e 3
failing every class. When
confronted, Garrett looked
at the Fs and calmly replied,
"I'm not failing anything."
Garrett, who had once
organized his 600 books by
the Dewey Decimal system,
could hardly read two sentences. The voices in his
head drowned out the words
on the page, he told his
mother. Garrett, who color
coordinated the clothes inside his closet, could no
longer groom himself or
shower. The voices told him
the shampoo and soap were
poisoned.
Although no one knows
where these voices originated, they could be triggered by wiring problems in
the brain, said McClellan,
who researches adolescent
psychiatry. One theory is
schizophrenia causes difficulty distinguishing
thoughts from their outside
experiences, "so they experience internal thoughts
and perceptions as voices,"
he said. Schizophrenia is a
difficult disorder to treat,
because one medication that
soothes one patient can
make another psychotic.
Garrett tried many drugs.
Some made him drowsy,
others volatile and one drug
made him gain 75 pounds.
Severe side effects often
cause patients to stop taking
medication. For now, doctors seem to have found one
that helps Garrett. Since
March, Garrett has been at a
Maryland research center
that looks into the relationship between metabolism,
tobacco and schizophrenia.
Garrett’s mother suggested
he takes this disorder as a
good opportunity: "It's not
an opportunity everyone
would jump at, but as you
rehabilitate, as you grow an
insight into your illness,
there may be things you
deal with forever. But
you've had significant experiences that you may be
able to use to help other
people. There's no place
where insight and advocacy
[for mental health] is
needed more than in politics, which is what you
[Garrett] wanted to do."
Guitar-fest
Manic Music Monday Guitar-
Fingerstyle), Jeffrey
McFadden (Classical),
Lorne Lofsky (Jazz), and
Don Ross (Fingerstyle).
They all gave their time to
show the students what they
do and what you can do to
improve your guitar playing
on the guitar. The day show
was to give you a little history, but later on that night
was the Concert where these
amazing musicians would
take the stage.
This was a great opportunity and I think our school
should consider hosting
such events like this to inspire students to get involved in the arts. So take
some initiative and help
organize really cool events
like this at our school.
By Sarah Belo
S
chizophrenia is the
result of disrupted
brain development.
Males typically get
symptoms during their teens
or early 20s. For every one
hundred people, one of them
is born with schizophrenia.
The voices told the 18year-old Johns Hopkins
University freshman, William Garrett that his father
had poisoned the family
dog, his sister had injected
crystal methamphetamine
into his pet lizard and his
grandmother had put human
body parts into his food. As
schizophrenia took hold, the
Maryland teenager became
lost within his own mind
and had to leave college
after winning a full, fouryear scholarship. In high
school, Garrett won elected
offices in student government and participated in the
lacrosse and cross country
By Mitchell Irvine
M
ay 4, 2009
the day of
music. The
instrumental
class
of
Trenton high
w o r k e d
really hard
for
weeks
upon weeks
for this day
to play us
some amazing
music
and
show
other
students that they could be part
of this to if they take an
interest in music, the stu-
teams. He was gifted student, who wanted to study
political science and biology
at Hopkins. At home, he
cooked family dinners,
helped his little sister with
homework, and surprised
his mother with pancakes on
her birthday.
In 2007, the unusual behaviors started. He slept a
lot. He emptied an entire
can of bug spray in his bedroom. When he came home
for a weekend from college,
he pointed to a blister on his
hand that had formed from
playing lacrosse.
"Look, I have gangrene,"
he said. "My hand is going
to rot." Then he tried to cut
off his hand with a paring
knife.
His family took him to
an emergency room for a
psych evaluation, but
Garrett refused to wait and
left. A week later, Garrett’s
mother got a call from the
university. Her son was
dents played the whole
lunch period and had lots of
students and even people on
the streets stop to listen to
what they had to show to
them. So the music students
at Trenton high school
would like to
thank everyone
who came out to
watch us play
and a really big
thanks to the
Principles
for
letting us play in
the parking lot,
we hope we can
do this again
another year but
with even more people being apart of it.
By Mitchell Irvine
On April 23, 2009 the
music students at Trenton
High School paid a visit to
Centennial Seco nd ar y
School for their first annual
Guitar Festival. This was a
wonderful opportunity to
learn about different styles,
techniques, and even the
history of the guitar. There
was even a chance to see
how guitars are manufactured.
The students at C.S.S
managed to get four great
musicians representing different styles and genres of
music. The artists were
Kelly Valleau (Spanish
S P O RT S / L O R E N Z E N ’ S L A B
T H E S P O T LI G HT P a g e 4
Tiger’s dominate Pocock Track report Globsters
tournament
By Danielle Skirrow
T
he Senior Girls
rugby team was in
Oakville on Friday
for their
second
tournament of
the spring
season.
With a
last minute location and
schedule
change,
the Tigers
were a
little
shaken to
start the
tournament, and played a sub-par
first half against host Philip
Pocock. The Tigers were able
to turn it around however, and
won the game by a score of
20-5. In the second game, the
Tiger’s played Country Day (A
private school in Toronto) and
ran away with a 17-0 victory.
In their third and
final game of the
day, the girls kept
their perfect record
alive winning 25-0
against London’s
AB Lucas. Although it was a
round robin tournament, the Tiger’s
record was the best
in the tournament,
out shining rivals
Bayside and Centennial for the days
bragging rights. The
Tiger’s will attempt
to defend their OFSAA title on June
3-5 in Belleville.
O
st
n Friday May 1 ,
the Tigers Track
and Field team
competed at the
Bruce Faulds Track in Belleville for the Bay of Quinte
Invitational. The Trenton
High Light of the days were
Jake Browns 2nd place finish in
the Open Boys Steeplechase.
Also, Erika Houde-Pearce got
2nd in the 3km and a 3rd in the
1500m run. Nick Tremblay
jumped 180cm in high jump to
give in second place. Kevin
Essibier finished with 5th place
in the 100 and 5th place in the
200m. Amy got double 11th in
the 100m and the 200m. It
was a really windy day, and
terrible weather... so no THS
records were broken. But
don’t you worry tigers, Dunc’s
record will be broken, and we
wont have to hear the legend
talk about it every day.
Kidz In The Hall
Hire a crazy circus guy with an
elephant to kick it!
- Jenika Hazell (Grade 11)
(Continued from page 2)
By Erika Houde-Pearce
huge sac of spermaceti oil, but
the bottom third, which can
weigh as much as three tons,
consists of a mass of very
dense oil filled with collagen
fibers. This mass is called the
junk because it was generally
discarded and thrown overboard by whalers.
The sperm whale’s junk is
one of the toughest and most
durable tissues in the animal
kingdom and is the last part of
the whale’s body to decompose. A three ton partiallydecomposed mass of this junk
which washed up on a beach
would certainly fit the description of most of the mysterious
globsters which have drifted
onto the world’s beaches.
So, the legendary sea monsters that have allegedly
washed ashore over the years
are probably nothing more
than half-rotten sperm whale
junk. Still disgusting, though.
A&E
T H E S P O T LI G HT P a g e 5
Charting the stars
Your Weekly Horoscope.
By Michelle Olsen
Aries: (March 21 – April 20)
Those April showers brought
May flowers, and now its time
for you to show off your good
looks!
Taurus: (April 21 – May 20) Its
your month, this time round- Get
ready for a boatload of good,
coming your way!
Gemini: (May 21 – June 21)
When Taurus steps out of the
spotlight, and its your time to
shine, be ready! Until then, bide
your time!
Cancer: (June 22 – July 22)
Kick back with some tunes, for
its time to relax, finally!
Leo: (July 23 – August 23)
Guys, don’t forget to studyexams are coming up, as are
culminating activities! Eek!
Virgo: (August 24 – Sept. 22)
Virgos, watch out for that
guy/girl you like- they might be
planning a surprise of sorts for
you.
Libra: (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22) The
May long weekend brings a lot
of epic things- music in Tweed,
and many long weekend parties,
and you’re going to be bouncing
all over that weekend!
Scorpio: (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21)
Eeeh… I’d stop while you’re
ahead of that one. Whatever
doesn’t seem like a good idea
really isn’t a good idea.
Sagittarius: (Nov. 22 – Dec.
21) You know that song you
hear on the radio all the time?
That’s going to be stuck in your
head for the next little while.
Have fun with that.
Capricorn: (Dec. 22 – Jan 19)
Watch your Long weekend
hangovers- they’re going to be
wicked!
Aquarius: (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18)
Alright- we know you’ve heard
this a few times, but there’s a
month left. Don’t bomb now,
yeah? As Ron Schneider said,
“You can do iiittt!”
Pisces: (Feb. 19 – March 20)
There’s SO much excitement
going on around you right now,
it’s a whirlwind! Remember to
step back and take a breather
from time to time!
WHAT’S
UP
May 18 - Victoria Day
May 15 - Bay of Quinte Tennis
May 20 - ACT students visit
Toronto Zoo
May 2020-21 - Gr. 9 Geography
Trip to Niagara Falls
May 21 –Grade 9 Geography
Trip to Toronto
May 22 - 30 Hour Famine
May 26 - Business Fair
May 27 - Grad Assembly
May 27 - Grade 10 History
Trip to the Holocaust Centre
May 28 - Grade 12 Biology
Trip to Loyalist College
May 28 - Dinner Theatre
What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Kill it!
Get Chuck Norris.
- John Andrews (Grade 9)
- Jeremy Shannon (Grade 12)
Ninja inside it and steal everything.
- Alyssa McNeil (Grade 12)
Kick it ‘till it gives it back.
- Jake Jackman (Grade 12)
Walk away and scream!
- Larissa HadleyHadley-Cowie (Grade 9)
- Sam Gervais (Grade 11)