“I drink chocolate milk in the morning, orangeade at lunch, cherry Pepsi during fourth block, and then some Gatorade when I get home,” said junior Joey Jackson.
What happened to drinking water throughout the day? Penn Manor seems to have forgotten, or doesn’t care, that the human body is made up of about 70 percent water.
“I only drink water when I’m doing a physical activity and feel like I actually need to put the water back into my body because I’m sweating it out,” said Jackson.
Penn Manor students are replacing water with soda and other drinks that experts say are unhealthy.
According to a forum on Nutrition and Exercise,”Soda instead of water will lead to a lot of problems. Lots of calories (weight gain), worse triglycerides in the blood (bad), more tooth decay, and much less quenching to your thirst due to the concentrated sugars.”
Unhealthy drinks that Penn Manor students seem to enjoy
“I just don’t like the taste of water,” said sophomore Samantha Horst.
Soda, sadly, is one of society’s favorite beverages. Each year, billions of gallons of soda are sold in the United States alone. Experts believe drinking soda may have serious health consequences. Obesity is a main cause of drinking too much soda, due to the fact that it is high in sugar and calories.
“I’ll be honest, I drink too much soda,” said senior Jeremy Vital, “When I’m at work I get a Mt. Dew every time I get a chance, or when I’m on my break.”
“I normally drink a lot of Gatorade when I’m at home, and sometimes soda, but never water,” said Horst.
If you drink a whole bottle of Gatorade you are still consuming about 56 grams of sugar, and this is not required in a normal sedentary lifestyle and in this situation it could be considered “bad” for you.
A few wise choices when reaching into the refrigerator
Gatorade is considered a sports drink and can be beneficial to athletes when it is drank during an activity but if it is being drank when someone is not doing physical work than it is a waste of time and can be bad for you.
According to a Nutrition and Health website, “The healthiest beverage to quench your thirst always has been, and always will be, plain old water. Water ensures proper hydration and cellular function, and these health benefits are delivered with no calories or unnatural ingredients. Drinking water also flushes out impurities and will help keep your waistline in check.”
Mattel has come out with a brand new accessory for Barbie just in time for Christmas this year. The big change? She has a built in camera with picture and video abilities. The new Barbie is causing major controversy, but not just with the consumers.
The FBI has put out a warning against Mattel’s new toy. They are worried it will encourage child pornography with the video and picture capturing options.
But, an FBI spokeswoman attended a news conference on the topic stated “there have been no reported incidents of this doll being used as anything other than as intended.”
Mattel’s new “Video Girl” Barbie. Photo courtesy of fast-autos.net
On the Mattel website, the toy description says, “girls can record and play back clips with this multi-tasking doll, which has a video camera built right in. Capture everything from a doll’s-eye-view, then watch it instantly or upload to your computer. There’s an LCD screen on Barbie doll’s back, and a camera lens hidden discreetly in her necklace. Talk about making movies in style!”
When Senior Anissa Gerlach heard about the doll she immediately responded with “What’s a little kid going to do with a camera in their Barbie? You’ll just get pictures of the floor!”
Gerlach also thinks that “parents could use the recording Barbies as nanny cameras,” and said “what a waste of technology!”
“I would be kind of creeped out,” said senior Patrick Jones. He feels like girl’s parents are unaware of everything that could potentially be result of this new product. “Do they even realize there’s a camera in her necklace that can take pictures and record video?”
Jones thinks the doll has good and bad points.
“It’s giving kids an early look into the technological future,” on the other hand, “older children or adults will do inappropriate things with the little kids.”
“In later stages (of life) kids will be more comfortable with the Internet and video chatting.”
Jones thinks Mattel’s next step will be dolls that are fully functional in ways such as walking, talking and live video streaming capabilities.
An internal view of "Video Girl" Barbie. Photo courtesy of gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com
Morgan Moses feels strongly about Mattel’s new creation.
She made it very clear that she would be angry if her 9-year-old sister received the Barbie with the built-in camera. “I don’t want her having Barbies [in general] because they’re degrading and she doesn’t need to be videoing herself. They (younger children) shouldn’t know how to video themselves.”
Moses, unaware of the FBI warnings recently made, is afraid of the “weapon” this supplies pedophiles with.
“Some guy could be sitting there with his daughter’s Barbie taping little kids. They’ll come up with anything.”
“It would be weird to have a child receive one of these dolls” and “there’s really no need to have a camera in a Barbie doll,” said Alanna Margoline.
Margoline said, “everything is becoming dependent on technology, even toys! What’s next? Cell phones for babies so they can text in the womb?”
Aside from consumers, the government is alerting police personnel as well, to ensure that items such as Barbies will not be overlooked when investigating a case. This is mainly because these electronic dolls could be holding crucial evidence inside their fake, plastic bodies.
But despite all the arguments and claims giving the doll a negative reputation, the manufacturers of the doll claim that “Mattel products are designed with children and their best interests in mind. Many of Mattel’s employees are parents themselves and we understand the importance of child safety – it is our number one priority.”
Some have said that it’s the beginning of a cyber war. Others have simply called it Wikileaks.
The events surrounding Wikileaks and the media circus that followed have captured the attention of the world.
So much information and misinformation has been bandied around that it’s difficult to find the truth of the matter hidden in the hoopla.
“The government is just trying to control what information is getting out,” said a Penn Manor student, “I don’t think that this should be such a big deal that people are making it out to be.”
Wikileaks is a organization dedicated to keeping governments transparent. Image courtesy of Wikileaks.However, many students had no idea what the word “Wikileaks” even meant, “What’s a Wikileak?” asked one, “Is that a part of Wikipedia?”
First, let’s start at the beginning. Wikileaks was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange and stated it’s reason for being: to leak any and all abuses in power in government, including torture, unlawful detention, cults, corruption, and corporate transparency. Since then, it broke stories on gag orders in the press and massacres of civilians.
Assange, 39, was born in Australia. He began hacking at 16 and was a recreational hacker. After serving time in jail for breaking into a website, he was released on good behavior. It appeared that he had simply broken the website in question just because he could.
But that was 20 years ago. Assange no longer identifies himself as a hacker.
Wikileaks was the site which released the climate scientist’s emails showing how some of the scientists had falsified data to make the climate change argument seem more pronounced than it was.
In 2010, they began to release some of the 250,000 documents collected from United States diplomatic cables. Nine hundred of these documents were published in different world news sources before in collaboration with news outlets, but now the full set is available for users to download. Many of these documents were labeled classified or secret.
“He’s heroic,” said Penn Manor student Alex Mercer, “I think this is awesome.”
Alex Mercer, along with Vaughn Stetler, has studied Wikieaks in their English class.
Assange was arrested in Great Britain recently when he walked into a police station after a warrant was released for his arrest in Sweden, where he is wanted on sexual molestation charges.
Initially, the authorities did not want to pursue his case, as the sex was consensual and the two women affected were only seeking compensation (he had sex with both of the women, but the condom was either not used or broke – which in Sweden can be considered a sexual offense). But after the cables were released, then he was suddenly an international fugitive.
The diplomatic cables were often embarrassing to the United States government, some with diplomats questioning world leaders’ right to rule. Naturally, politicians wanted Assange’s head.
The effect of the documents? Sarah Palin called for Julian Assange to be hanged for treason, although Assange is an Australian. She has been quoted saying, “He’s no journalist – he’s an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.
Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks.
“I think the man is a high tech terrorist. He’s done an enormous damage to our country, and I think he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said GOP Minority leader Mitch McConnell, “And if that becomes a problem, we need to change that law.”
Assange is not, by most strict definitions, a terrorist, since a terrorist is someone who seeks to inspire fear and terror into the populace. Assange has stated numerous times that the goal of Wikileaks is to provide a transparent insight into government.
The leaks also have been said to endanger troop safety. The newest cables were from February this year. Many of them date from as early as December 1966.
“It’s a national security risk,” said student Vaughn Stetler, “I have nothing wrong with Assange himself, but his website should be shut down. Some clarity is good in government, but leaking secret documents isn’t good.”
The military has now banned using thumb drives, CDs, and DVDs on the Department of Defense’s network, SIPRNET – which stands for Secret Internet Protocol Router Network. The penalty for violating this order? Court martial.
The military is pursuing the prosecution of army corporal Bradly Manning, who is the man taking the blame for leaking the documents. Manning downloaded the documents onto a recordable CD, and gave them to Wikileaks.
Lady Gaga had a role to play, too. According to MSNBC, Manning also “listened and lip-synced to Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” while exfiltrating possibly the largest data spillage in american (sic) history.”
There is at least one irony in the situation: the federal government just released a press statement announcing the 2011 World Press Freedom Day.
Another thing is that Wikileaks is a media outlet, whether cable news likes it or not. The message that seems to be sent out to other world leaders is that this is how the United States deals with journalists sending out things that they do not agree with.
Early in November, the cyber war began.
First, Wikileaks was bombarded with a series of attacks against it’s website, taking the official wikileaks.org site down within days. It struggled to survive, until finally going to its mirror sites. Wikileaks has over 1300 identical sites listed on its website, each one based in different locations around the globe.
The site refused to die. Then Pay Pal pulled its services from the website. That was the last straw for the internet hackers.
On Wednesday, December 8 the credit card provider Visa’s website went down under a flurry of Direct Denial of Service – or DDoS – attacks. DDoS attacks are relatively simple; send small packets of data to the website in question. With enough computers doing this, it will overload the computer’s ability to process all the data and will shut down the site.
The Guy Fawkes mask, made popular by the movie V for Vendetta, is the official uniform of Anonymous.
Eight hours earlier, Mastercard had fallen. The culprits? The internet collective Anonymous.
Anonymous has been reported by major news media as many things from internet vigilantes to a group of sinister hackers. The truth is that they are none and all of these.
Anonymous is said to have originated on the image board 4chan, where a user can post anonymously. With that kind of freedom, anything and everything can be posted. That means the 4chan is a breeding ground for memes (cultural trends spread from the internet). Over 9000? That came from 4chan, along with Leroy Jenkins, the phrase Om Nom Nom and LOLcats.
Anonymous sprung from this, when many users came together with a common goal – to take down the Church of Scientology. In what is called Project Chanology, Anon has promised to destroy Scientology and discredit all of their members. The mission to “save the internet” is called Operation Payback or CableGate. They have so far succeeded several times in knocking down the Church’s website.
Anon has been known to hack into people’s accounts and post online, just for fun. They flood online children’s games and post intentionally offensive messages in a practice known as trolling. They also believe that the internet is an almost sacred place and to violate free speech by jailing Assange is grounds to fight back. A common misconception about them is that there is a leader, which is false. The fact that the collective consciousness of the web can work single mindfully toward a common goal might be cause for enemies of Wikileaks to start getting nervous.
“We are the clear logic used to unveil wrongdoing. The general public, clouded by misleading information mostly by the media with a political agenda, fails to see and understand this wrongdoing. Because of this, those who do the wrongdoing escape unpunished. Anonymous is here to ensure punishment does not go unserved to those who deserve it,” said a supporter of Anon in a Wired.com article.
Senior Ben Clark has followed the events around Wikileaks closely.
“Anonymous is great,” said senior Ben Clark, “I wholly support Assange.”
Over the weekend, several identical flash animation websites popped up over the web – each one containing a button and a slider. All a user had to do was select the number of requests per second, and press the button. The program would then use the user’s browser to make request after request per second – DDoS made easy.
Twitter and the social network Facebook have deleted several accounts that have said that they either support Anonymous or post the dates of the attack and the sites to be attacked. The organizing websites that directed traffic were hit repeatedly by DDoS attacks.
Several members of Anonymous have been arrested in conjunction with the DDoS attacks. DDoS is illegal in the United States.
Wikileaks continues to exist on one of its 1300 mirror sites, as the original site has long ago been wiped from the servers of the Internet by self labeled “patriotic hackers.”
After a week long barrage of attacks, Anonymous has a new strategy: instead of trying to take down those who are hurting Wikileaks, now they will attempt to spread the posts far and wide. These include posting videos to Youtube with misleading tags like “Bieber” or “Tea Party,” and sifting through the documents and posting summaries of the content online.
Operation: Payback is now Operation: Leakspin.
Visa was down for most of last Wednesday. Image courtesy Visa Inc.
They might have a good strategy. During the time Wikileaks was offline, it was incredibly difficult for a user to access the documents and decide for themselves whether or not it was such a big deal. Now with the documents being distributed through the 1300 mirror sites, and the help of Anonymous, it might become very easy indeed to view the documents.
On December 14th, a British judge released Assange on bail until his hearing. He still maintained that he is right in releasing the United States documents. The guidelines of his bail are strict. He has to live in his London home until his hearing, in a sort of modified house arrest.
“My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them,” said Assange.
“The fact that everyone is making such a huge deal out of this is very silly,” said Clark, “The documents basically embarrassed the government, and that’s it.”
“He’s lucky,” said Mercer, “He isn’t under house arrest, he’s under mansion arrest.”
He also made known his disdain for the companies who have made moves to cut him off from funding, “We now know that Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and others are instruments of U.S. foreign policy. It’s not something we knew before.”
The story of Wikileaks, whether or not it turns out to decide the fate of free speech or the web, will be one that will continue to fascinate and intrigue.
As the Hollywood star takes a hit of the bong, does she think about the nightmares that might come up if the video is released to the public eye? Will she think about the plethora of kids who consider her their role-model? No. She seems to care more about smoking Salvia, a legal but hallucinogenic drug, to help celebrate her 18th birthday, than her once squeaky-clean image.
Miley at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards Pole Dancing. Photo by nydailynews.com
Miley Cyrus is at it again. Horrifying her parents, shocking fans, making parents rethink Hannah Montana completely.
Her father, the 90s country heart throb, Billy Ray Cyrus, posted on Twitter once he saw the video, “Sorry guys. I had no idea. Just saw this stuff for the first time myself. I’m so sad. There is much beyond my control right now.”
While the young Cyrus is up to her antics, students and staff at Penn Manor seem to be as disappointed in her as her parents.
“I would never let my daughter look up to her as a role-model anymore,” assistant principal, Eric Howe said.
“Miley Cyrus is supposed to be a role-model for young children,” senior Melissa Martin explained, ” This was a horrible thing for her to be taped doing and I hope she gets in a lot of trouble.”
In the past couple of years, Miley has gone from being the perfect role-model for the younger generation to just the opposite. Since she started growing into an adult, she’s changed dramatically from the icon of wholesomeness as a Disney Channel star that many parents had been happy their children looked up to.
“If I had kids, I would let them look up to Hannah Montana, but Miley Cyrus is a different story,” senior Leah Freeman said, “but then again nobody’s perfect.”
Miley has proven to the population that she is growing up. She’s pole danced during her performance in the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, she sent around pictures of her being scandalous to her, at that time boyfriend Nick Jonas, she took pictures for a magazine with her dad and some where she was only wearing a shear sheet, she gave a lap dance to her director of The Last Song, and now she has the video of her taking hits from a bong.
Miley Cyrus taking a hit off of a bong. Photo by hollywoodhumor.com
“I think if you are that famous, you should be more careful about what gets out,” junior Joey Jackson said.
“People like controversy because that’s what sells,” said Cyrus in her interview with Bazaar Magazine about her pole-dancing incident at the Teen Choice Awards.
“My job is to be a role model, and that’s what I want to do, but my job isn’t to be a parent,” said Cyrus during the interview. “My job isn’t to tell your kids how to act or how not to act, because I’m still figuring that out for myself. So to take that away from me is a bit selfish. Your kids are going to make mistakes whether I do or not. That’s just life.”
Junior Marc Summy has never seen the video, but said, “it will tarnish her reputation she had as Hannah Montana.”
The Disney channel star is definitely not living up to the perfect little girl she portrayed in the show. It remains to be seen how this will affect her career.
This year’s only total lunar eclipse is going to be visible in North and Central America early Tuesday morning.
The moon is illuminated at night by the light of the sun, but during a lunar eclipse the full moon passes through the Earth’s shadow which prevents sunlight from hitting the moon to light it up. A small amount of sunlight will still manage to sneak past the shadow and give the moon an eerie appearance high in the sky.
The stages of a lunar eclipse. Photo courtesy of anguishedrepose.wordpress.com
This year, scientists are predicting that the moon will be a more unique reddish brown color instead of the normal orange-yellow glow.
This change is being attributed to the various volcanic eruptions around the world and the large amount of dust and pollution that has been added to the atmosphere in the past year.
From beginning to end, the whole event will last an expected 3 1/2 hours. Once the moon is completely engulfed by the shadows at 2:41 a.m., the darkness will last about 72 minutes with the best time to view the change of the sky being at 3:17 a.m. This is when the moon will be the most extravagant shades of red and copper throughout the entire night according to NASA.
This lunar eclipse is set to fall on the day of the winter solstice, December 21, the time of the year when the earth’s axis is tilted farthest from the sun. This occurrence is extremely rare, happening only once since “Year 1… and that is 1638 DEC 21,” Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory stated on NASA’s website.
Don’t miss this once-a-year happening in the sky, Penn Manor. Set your alarm clocks for 3:17 and take advantage of the first lunar eclipse falling on the day of winter solstice in 372 years.
Put away your snow shovels and road salt. La Niña is here to stay.
Last year’s winter was the biggest on record for the Lancaster area. With over 6 feet of snow, the 2007-2008 winter tripled the average precipitation. Snow days were coming by the handful and it always seemed to be white outside. This year however, with the bitter wind and cold temperatures, some are wondering if we should expect the same.
According to Millersville University’s meteorologist Eric Horst, this year’s winter won’t compare. On average, Lancaster county gets about 25 inches of snow each year. This season, the community can expect the same.
“We’ll probably have a winter closer to the the average, maybe even below average,” said Horst.
Horst explained this year’s winter will be very mild. The temperatures won’t be as rough, and the precipitation will be significantly less.
Why is this winter going to be so mild? The culprit, La Niña.
La Niña is a climate factor that periodically warms the ocean temperatures. Because of the warm temperatures, jet streams and weather patterns are affected all over the world.
“La Niña winters typically have a cold start. As the months go by, the temperatures rise. The winter will be a bit warmer than normal, but towards the end colder temperatures will make their way back,” said Horst.
Overall, Horst foresees a very changeable, but mild winter.
“As of now, there are no big storms coming our way,”said Horst.
Despite a La Niña year, we’re still in Pennsylvania, the land of ice, snow and chilly temps.
Stores might be having sales for Christmas but the cost to get there is sky high.
That’s right, the gas prices have risen again even in Lancaster County.
From last week’s Pennsylvania gas price average was $2.98, it has risen to $3.09 this week. A month ago it was $2.86 and a year ago it was averaged $2.69, according to pennsylvaniagasprices.com, a website that tracks gas prices.
“That’s outrageous,” said Penn Manor student, Josh Carle. “I’ll just start walking to school or snatch a ride when I can.”
Gas prices have increased nationally. Photo courtesy of southernchestercountyweeklies.com
In the Penn Manor School District alone, the gas prices have reached a whopping $3.09 per gallon. The Getty and Turkey Hills located within miles of the Penn Manor campus all are priced at $3.09 for the regular gas.
“It’s in the middle right now, it could be worse,” said Tanner Kennedy. “I worked my butt off all summer to make it through the school year without having to work. I am going to take shorter routes or carpool to save on gas.”
For some, gas prices are costing them an arm and a leg. They thought prices were bad before, then they see the labeled signs on the corners of their local gas station and have a fit when they see the numbers.
Sophomore Jaime Reel explained how she does not pay for gas yet, but sure isn’t looking forward to it.
“I was with my mom on Monday and she needed gas. We were pulling up to the Turkey Hill in New Danville and all I heard her say was ‘oh my gosh.’ I saw her looking at the sign and I knew she was unhappy. Gas already costs her a lot because she drives an SUV that has real crappy gas mileage. I haven’t even gotten my license let alone a car yet, I didn’t even think about having to pay for gas, too. I just keep saying to myself, oh I can’t wait,” said Reel.
Others feel the same hole burning in their pockets.
“I’m not too happy. I drive a full size truck that gets 10 miles to the gallon. I also race dirt bike so I need race gas for my bike, which is a VP C12, and its $13.50 a gallon,” said junior James Frese. “I’m gonna carpool with a few of my buddies who just got their license, I’ll make them drive me around.”
No matter the size of one’s gas tank, people all over are not happy about spending any more money than they already do.
“I pay for my own gas,” said senior Jere Vital. “To save on gas, I’m gonna ‘Google Map’ the shortest routes everywhere.”
Every little bit will help, especially with the holiday season taking place.
“The gas prices suck, but I don’t holiday shop, so I don’t have to worry,” Eric Clark, a senior, said.
“Not only will my holiday shopping, but my everyday lifestyle will be affected because of these gas prices,” said Frese.
“Nobody likes to spend more money on things. But I also realize that we (Americans) still have some of the most inexpensive gasoline prices of the modernized world. Countries like England, France and Germany pay way more for gasoline than we do. So I try to see the glass as half full rather than half empty,” said social studies teacher Streeter Stuart. “It’s simply a matter of supply and demand. I walk or ride my bike to school almost everyday.”
Sixty-nine years ago yesterday was Japan’s retaliation on U.S. soil.
Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was the catalyst to the United States’ involvement in World War Two.
Penn Manor social studies teacher Dan Myers said it is important and necessary to teach students about the attack.
“It was one of the most significant events in U.S. history,” said Myers. “It was the event that actually brought us into the war. We wanted to stay out.”
Leading up to “Operation Z,” Japan’s secret name for the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt imposed an embargo on Japan’s oil exports in July of 1941 after their efforts to further expand into French Indochina.
Over the next several months, pilots were trained, equipment was amended, and intelligence was collected by Japan. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito never approved attack efforts until November 5 and final authorization was not given until December 1. By this time, the U.S. knew something fishy was up with Japan and put U.S. Pacific bases and facilities under alert.
Pearl Harbor bellowed with smoke as the Japanese take advantage of their unknown attack. Photo by eitsfan.com
But the U.S. underestimated Japan’s naval power to follow-through with more than one operation at a time due to their objective to attack the Philippines. Thus, Pearl Harbor wasn’t known as Japan’s main target and the attack soon astonished America.
Japan intended to destroy American fleet units, in return delaying America’s efforts to fight back and end their domination of expansion.
They also wanted to buy time for them to recuperate and increase their naval strength. Most of all, Japan wanted to drown American morale.
Japan’s game plan consisted of 408 aircraft in all; 360 for the two attack waves and 48 on defensive combat air patrol including nine fighters from the first wave.
The first wave’s mission was to demolish every possible armament with the second wave to finish off whatever was left. Japan sent two disguised aircraft out before the planned strike and had another four patrolling the area between their carrier force and Niihau to halt any counterattacks.
Japan originally wanted to inform the U.S. it was ending all peace negotiations 30 minutes before the attack, but the message was never delivered.
Finally, on December 7, 1941, at 7:48 Hawaiian time, the first wave soared over Oahu like a vast flock of birds releasing complete mayhem on Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor burning from Japanese surprise attack. Photo by pagotan.com
Thousands awoke to the sounds of alarms, gunfire, screams and exploding bombs.
“Air raid Pearl Harbor. This is not drill.”, were the words screamed from the headquarters of Patrol Wing Two, the first senior Hawaiian command to respond.
The attack was equivalent to a toddler in a ring versus a UFC fighter. The United States was caught completely off guard and had no means of readiness for a counterattack.
Japan wreaked havoc for a total of 90 minutes, killing 2,386 Americans and wounding 1,139. Of the 402 American aircraft in Hawaii, 188 were destroyed and 159 damaged. Of 33 PBYs, American flying boats, in Hawaii, 24 were destroyed, and six others damaged beyond repair.
On the other hand, there were only 64 Japanese casualties along with one being captured. Of Japan’s 414 available planes, 29 were lost during the battle with another 74 damaged by antiaircraft fire from the ground.
Upon the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, 15 Medals of Honor, 51 Navy Crosses, 53 Silver Crosses, four Navy and Marine Corps Medals, one Distinguished Flying Cross, four Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, and three Bronze Stars were awarded to the American servicemen who distinguished themselves in combat at Pearl Harbor.
A special military award, the Pearl Harbor Commemorative medal, was later authorized for all military veterans of the attack.
Penn Manor’s own chorus will travel to Hawaii in 2011 to perform at the 70th anniversary of the attack.
Senior Jere Vital said, “I thought the surprise attack was vicious. This event shows a trend through history where attacking heavily populated areas using planes as a weapon foreshadowed events such as 9/11.”
Several current and former Penn Points staff members won national awards for their work in the National Scholastic Press Association individual competitions, announced this month.
The NSPA has competitions divided into sections for various groups such as online newspapers, yearbooks and story of the year. Each section has three places and an honorable mention category.
Sarah Schaeffer, Taylor Groff and Kendal Phillips holding their awards
Junior Sarah Schaeffer, 16, was awarded second place in the Multimedia Story of the Year category.
“It felt wonderful to know that I won this,” she said.
Her story told of Mandy Li, an immigrant to Lancaster County from China and about her talent at the piano and in math.
Another NSPA multimedia award was given to senior Kendal Phillips. Her multimedia project won honorable mention.
The story was about the high school’s mosaic wall project progress.
“I found out about my award in the beginning of the school year,” said Phillips.
Taylor Groff also was recognized for his video contribution to both awards. Groff did some of the video and multimedia in both projects. He said he was proud of his work and of Penn Points achievements.
Cody Erb and Dessie Jackson, 2010 graduates of Penn Manor, also worked on the Mandy Li story.
Every year, the NSPA awards students and school organizations for their excellent work throughout the United States.
The clouds and wind may not go away anytime soon. So get used to them. And maybe, just maybe a bit of snow is coming our way.
Eric Horst, meterologist at Millersville University doesn’t predict a big storm any time soon. He thinks any precipitation this week will be a “mixed bag.”
That means a little rain, a little sleet and maybe a few snowflakes.
“The winds that we have been having, come from Canada due to the jet stream,” said Horst. “Though we have had flurries, that may be it. There will be a mixed storm trend but no threat of real snow (storm) like last year.”
And if you think it’s too cold for the beginning of December, you are right.
Wind and cold temperatures are making December feel like January.
“The temperature that we’ve been enduring is ten degrees below average for this time of year,” said Horst. “The average is 45 degrees for this time of year and even though it’s this cold, we aren’t getting snow.”
The winds coming from Canada may bring about a foot of snow to mountainous regions, according to weather predictors. But for Lancaster County, we won’t be getting any real snowfall anytime soon.
Thursday skies are predicted to clear and the wind will lessen. Clouds should begin to gather as a weak disturbance passes over the Northeast part of the state during the weekend.
“Sunday there may be some mixed precipitation and that trend will follow us all winter,” said Horst.
