Zika: a virus that could change our world

by Miguel Garduno

Zika is the most recent virus that is affecting tropical areas around our world. The virus was originally found in a Ugandan forest that is called the Zika forest, and the first infection was found in a monkey.

Zika so far has caused brains to not develop properly and paralysis, but if it mutates then it can cause organ failure and seizures could also be a possibility. Zika has common systems like rash, joint pain, fever, and conjunctivitis (pink eye). It can cause birth defects, and it can be sexually transmitted from one partner to another. Zika is spreading into hot and humid countries, and soon it will infect the United States.

Zika is mostly transmitted by mosquitoes, and the mosquitoes that transmit Zika can also spread the Dengue and Chikungunya viruses. The mosquitoes spread Zika by laying eggs in water, or by just biting a person. The mosquitoes Aedes Aegypti and Aedes Albopictus are aggressive daytime biters, though they can also bite at night. There are a few different ways to prevent a mosquito bite. One way is to wear long sleeved shirts and long pants. Another way is to sleep under a mosquito netting. A third way to protect yourself is mosquito repellent. If you have a child, you should put a mosquito netting around their crib.

The larvae of the mosquitoes that transmit Zika.

People think that the Zika virus was actually engineered as an experimental biological weapon by the biotech company Oxitc. A genetically modified mosquito for Zika is when a female mates with a GMO male, they lay eggs that hatch but the larvae dies before adulthood. In Brazil in 2012, Zika case maps reportedly matched the locations of tests conducted by Oxitec. the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) say that the virus was first discovered in 1947, and had further outbreaks in tropical Africa, southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands.

I think that Zika is a a serious problem, because it is spread by mosquitoes in tropical areas, which means that there will be more infections in the summer. People say that in 10 years, everyone will have Zika but there will be a cure by then. Zika is not deadly so far, but it’s very infectious, and at some point it could be worse than the Black Death. Scientists are looking at the DNA of the virus to see how it spreads in the human body.

Scientists are working on a cure for Zika, but we may not have enough time to develop it before it spreads all over the world.

5 places in the world that the public is prohibited from going

by Justin Mendoza

You’ve probably thought about a bunch of the places you want to go, for one reason or another. But have you ever thought about the places in this world you are prohibited from visiting? Well, you’re about to learn about a few in my list of the top five places in the world the public can’t visit.

5: IIha da Queimada Grande                          

IIha da Queimada Grande, also known as Snake Island, is one of the most interesting places in this world you are not allowed to go and see. Snake Island is located off the coast of Brazil, and if you guessed that this island has snakes on it, you are correct. In fact, Snake Island is infested with snakes! Some estimate that the island has one snake per every square meter. This island is closed to the public, in order to protect its population of rare snakes such as the critically endangered and venomous Bothrops Insularis, which lives on a diet of birds. Some of the most deadliest snakes in the world live on Snake Island. Occasionally, some scientists are granted the opportunity to visit Snake Island..but unless you’re one of them, you probably won’t ever get to see it.

4. Mount Weather Emergency Operation Center

The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is a place you probably wouldn’t want to go unless, as one Google reviewer states, “it’s the end of the world.” The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is controlled by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. It’s been in use since 1959. The facility is a major relocation site for the highest level of civilian and military officials in case of national disaster in the U.S. Still, this facility proves to be helpful in other ways. According to a letter to the editor of The Washington Post, on the day of the September 11th attacks most of the congressional leadership was evacuated to Mount Weather by helicopter.

3 RAF Menwith Hill

If you like giant golf balls, then you’re going to like this location. The Royal Air Force Menwith Hills is a Royal Air Force station near Harrogate, North Yorkshire in England. This facility was built in 1954, but it has been in use since 1958. The facility was also in use during the Cold War. The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War 2, between the powers in the so-called Western bloc and the powers in the so-called Eastern bloc.

2 Area 51

This list would not be complete without Area 51. “Ahh–Area 51! The aliens are coming!!!” No, this list is only including real facts and theories. I’m not trying to say whether I do or I don’t believe in aliens; I’m just saying that anything mentioned in this article is backed up with evidence. The United States Air Force facility commonly known as Area 51 was a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base, within the Nevada test and training range. The Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] says that the facility’s correct name is Homey Airport and Groom Lake. The special-use airspace around the field is referred to as a restricted area. The base’s current primary purpose is unknown, but from its history it most likely supports the development and testing of experimental aircraft. The intense secrecy around the base is the main reason for conspiracy theories about aliens or UFOs (unidentified flying objects).

1 Moscow Metro-2

The Moscow Metro is the informal name for a purported secret underground metro system which parallels the public Moscow Metro. The system was built during the time of Joseph Stalin, and was codenamed D-6. It is supposedly still operational. The length of Metro-2 is rumored to exceed that of the public Metro. It is said to have four lines, and to lie 50–200 meters deep. It is also said to connect the Kremlin with the  Federal Security Service (FSB) headquarters.The public is not allowed on it, because the controllers of the Moscow Metro are doing something in the facility.

The Moscow Metro-2, Area 51, RAF Menwith Hill, Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, and Snake Island are all places in the world you are prohibited as a civilian. These places are obviously not all the places in the world you are prohibited to go, to but these are a few of them. Hopefully you will take a hint from this post, and not attempt to go to any of these places.because that would be a bad idea.

The chosen one.

Entry 1

Today is my last day at Battle Ground High. My name is Apollo Ren.  I found out that I was one of the chosen ones for something big today. I have been through multiple things that kids should not go through.

Air Ride was reading the personal journal of his friend, Apollo Ren, who gave it to him so he would know the story of how his life was before crazy things started happening.

Apollo was reading a book on weapons and how to make them. As he was reading his book a girl with light gray hair sat next to him and talked to him. “Hey Apollo”said Amy. Apollo got up from the chair and ran for his life. Apollo felt like his heart was going to fall out his chest every time he was next to Amy. He ran to his room and tried to for get about what happen by going to sleep. He made him self some food and went to bed. As Apollo was sleeping he has been having a dream about a door. Every night he would try and run and open the door.But on the other side of the door was the unknown. Until today, he ran and ran and got to the door. It was a little light then started to lighten up the dark dream. He awoke from his dream and had a sigh on his arm. He felt weird then the mark started to glow. When he rubbed the mark it started to cover his body with a white glow. Apollo got nerves and started to float off the ground then it stop. He did not care about it for the rest of the day. He saw Amy And did not act weird for the first time.

 

Games that involve difficult decisions

by Jahiem McCoy

There are some video games where you make decisions that involve real life situations. Some of these are really hard situations, which will be discussed in this article.

One example is a game called One Chance, which is about a scientist who made the world think he cured cancer but he really created a deadly gas which destroys every living cell, including plant cells. You have the decision to try to fix the problem, even though it might not work, or spend time with your family. You can only choose one option, and you can’t undo it, so deciding is hard to do.

There are also decisions in video games that aren’t really about real life, but still involve hard decisions. For example, there is a game called Splatoon. Splatoon is a game where you fight for your turf and regularly the teams are random but with a thing called Splatfest, which is something that asks you a question which gives you two options. These options determine which team you’re going to be on, and which team you’re going to be fighting. The questions update frequently, and you only get to come across them once. One time, the options were love or money, which is a hard decision in real life.

There are also other games, like Bioshock, In Bioshock, the game starts when player-character Jack is a passenger on a plane that goes down in the Atlantic Ocean. As the only survivor, Jack makes his way to a nearby lighthouse that houses a bathysphere (a chamber for deep sea observations) terminal which takes him to Rapture. Jack is contacted via radio by a character named Atlas, and is guided to safety from the Splicers and the perils of the nearby city, which is rundown and dangerous. Atlas requests Jack’s help in stopping Ryan, who he claims has trapped his family in a docked bathysphere. When Jack encounters a wandering Little Sister and its fallen Big Daddy, Atlas urges Jack to kill the Little Sister to harvest her Adam for himself which makes you confronted with a serious choice: do you want to do the right thing and be less powerful? Or do you want to be evil and have an easier time at the game?

There is another game that has many hard decisions; the game is called Telltale. In Telltale, almost every choice you make is one where there’s no ultimate right and wrong. They put a very short timer on each decision, so that you don’t have the time to look up what decision does what, making it almost impossible to cheat like most other video game decisions–thus making them have hard choices to make in that video game.

These are games that include hard decisions, and will make you think about consequences when you play them.

Interview with Kobe Evans, Student Body President Of Eagle Academy

by Miles Graham

What or who inspired you to be President?

Miguel Perez inspired me to become president. He was president from 2013 to 2015. It was very intriguing to see his goals and what he did as president.

What are your goals as president?

Photo credit: Melvin Prudente

My goal is to one day see Eagle grow to be more student-led. One example is town hall. That’s supposed to be a student-led process; but instead we don’t have enough leaders stepping up to take that role. So instead what we do is have staff members take over that process. So one of my goals is to see that grow and expand. Another one would be YSI, cooperating with Bell’s program, ensuring that what your class does–like with the Eagle Express, and journalism, and your photography class–to be displayed around the school. So we’re trying to expand that. They recently added the boxing class and other classes, and I’m pretty excited to see where that’s headed.

Do you feel like you’ve made a change to this school?

Absolutely. Just the fact that I’m able to have more of a presence in the hallways, and among faculty and staff…I mean, in the past we never had a student constitution. Most schools don’t really have a student constitution on the high school level, until you get to college, and that’s where the action really begins. Because of that, we try to mimic that process–so when students go off to college, they’re able to start a club, or help someone run a campaign, or participate in student affairs. Whatever it is that has to do with student government, or has to do with organizing, they will be ready to go on and execute. That’s one of my biggest things, is to prepare guys to execute on the next level. That’s why I do what I do every single day.

Do you think that you’ve accomplished this?

Well, students are stepping up into more leadership roles. The chairman of the senior committee, Amir White, he’s the most phenomenal young man I’ve ever met in my time here at Eagle Academy. He really exemplifies what it means to be a leader, and is really stepping up to the podium and executing the things that the students need. A big part of it is representing the students. So I can’t say I am not proud or happy…I believe I’m making a change.

How has being president affected your academic and personal life?

Wow, that’s a good question. Because when you talk about it, it take a lot to be outside the classroom, and to takes a lot to be inside the classroom. What I mean by that is, there are so many things going on in the school, there’s always something occurring, and there’s always something that you have to do. And it gets to a point where you wonder, am I doing enough, and can I do more. And answering those questions, and filtering those questions in my mind, it takes me from what I have to do in the classroom. It puts me behind, and I have to catch up on my classwork. And a big part of what’s important for me, especially–I recommend for any student to build a teacher-student relationship–it’s a big part for me, because I’m missing class so much. I’m always out of class, I’m always doing something. So I have to build that relationship, where I’m on that steady platform. I remember I struggled my first half, because I was managing being in the classroom and being outside the classroom. So it makes me a little more stressed, because I have to meet the teacher after school, because she’s not gonna talk to me on her lunch, and she’s not gonna talk to me on her prep…it’s just the way that things are. He or she may have five classes for the day, and may only have one prep or one lunch period. So I have to say, okay, they are stressed out, because the pressure’s on them to meet a certain mark. So by me trying to pull them from what they’re trying to in the classroom to attend to me as an individual, that’s kind of selfish from their perspective. I chose to do this, and be out of the classroom doing other things, so I had to make some time and negotiate making up assignments and making up grades. And it’s good because it teaches you time management. I never knew what time management is until I had to manage all this. And I’ll tell you the truth, I have no personal life. Because when you think about all the pressure, and all the stress…your mind can’t say, lemme go have fun with some friends, lemme go to the movies, when you know you have to catch up on an assignment, when you know you have to get out a proposal, send an email, do all these things. it becomes very stressful and time consuming. So I stepped away from this personal life because I invest in my work. I often tell people, what I do here is a way of life. It’s something that I want to do for the benefit of others. So if I can give up my free time to ensure that someone else has a happier life, I have no problem doing that.

So would you consider what you do here your personal life?

Photo credit: Justin Mendoza

Absolutely! I mean, I live here! When I say I live here, I get things get done…when I get home, sometimes it gets noisy, and family gets in the way of things, so you often can’t…max out how you want to max out. So because of that, I’m here oftentimes at six o’clock, seven. I remember when the varsity basketball team was here, they would be leaving at eight o’clock. And I would literally be in the building until eight o’clock, until their practices ended and they’re leaving. So that’s the type of grinding that I do every single day. It’s very interesting to note that…this is a thankless job. No one’s gonna slap you on your shoulder and say, hey, you’re doing a great job. No one’s gonna, punch you and say, you know, hey pal, you’re doing an awesome job. No one’s gonna do that. They would rather tell you that you’re doing an awful job than tell you you’re doing a good job. So that’s how it is. So I have to be on my grind to make sure that these things don’t happen, that I don’t hear a lot of negative things.

Have you ever considered resigning from President?

Um, no, no, no…I haven’t. Because being a president isn’t about dropping a baton, it’s about dropping a baton, this is what I signed my life over for. I knew what I was getting myself into before I got into it, so I was pretty much prepared for what was gonna come my way. I’ve felt frustrated, I get frustrated a lot; but to a point where I say that I wanna resign, or I wanna quit? No. I mean, I’ve had a lot of people resign; it’s just the intensity of what I do. There’s a lot of pressure that I put upon various elected officials, and a lot of people tell me straight up, I can’t handle it. And I’d rather for someone to straight up tell me that, rather than, you know, beat around the bush when I ask them to jump on a project or an assignment, and give me an attitude; it makes the process a little bit longer, and there are a lotta channels I have to go through to get that person removed. So…if you did your time, you did your duty–I love to say this is civil duty, you’re doing it for your school, you’re not doing it for Kobe, you’re doing it for Eagle Academy. So whatever you do, whatever investment you make, you’re making it to the school. So I love to say I am doing my civil duty as a citizen in the school community here.

What do you want to do when you leave Eagle?

My plan is for the next president to build on what I have done. I don’t wanna leave here with a lot of accolades, feeling like I’m the man. That’s not what public service about. I couldn’t care less what praise I might get at the end. I care about letting that legacy, what was started under my administration, to continue along with the new president that’s coming in, and what he plans for his administrations…and that’s how government evolves, that’s how government grows. So when you ask what I want, that’s exactly what I want. I want, when I come back 15 years from now, Eagle Academy For Young Men student government has established itself to the max, where I would have never dreamed of. I don’t want to think crazy, for my plaque to be on the wall so when people walk in the building they could see I was a former president. No, that’s not what I’m all about. I am all about seeing what was started, continue for years and years to come.

Has being president changed you in any way?

Well, when you become a president it takes away a lot from you being you. Let me make that a little bit clearer. When you become president, you can’t do the things that you used to do before. You have to start doing things that require you being in the public eye a little bit more. So because I’m in the public eye a little bit more, yes it changed me tremendously, because now everywhere I go, people know who I am! I can’t walk in the hallway without somebody stopping me and saying, can you get that done? Can you get this done? Hey, Kobe…you know, it’s that my face is all over. And because my face is all over…now I have to learn how to communicate efficiently. Because now I can’t, say, if I’m having a bad day, somebody comes up to me and asks me a question, I can’t start barking on them because I’m having a bad day. I have to somewhat remember, hey, I’m the president here, and this is a student or a citizen of the school community who is asking me for a request. So no matter what it is, I have to hold up a level of professionalism so that I’m able to keep up that image of what a president is supposed to be. So it changed me tremendously, and I think it’s a positive change. You know, sometimes when you think about change, you think about negative, negative, negative. But this change that I’m talking about is a positive change.

Why do you consider it a positive change instead of a negative change?

The world is made up of good and evil. And everywhere you find good, you’re gonna find bad–and everywhere you find bad, you’re gonna find good. My thing is, you don’t dwell on the negativity, you dwell on the positive things. So I hate to say this, but I couldn’t care less about anything that’s negative. I only care, I’m only concerned, about what is positive. And anything that’s positive, I am driven by that…and anything that’s negative, I tune that out. Because that’s not gonna get me forward…or make me make any progress.

Do you think being viewed in the public eye is good or bad?

Photo credit: Miguel Garduno

It’s definitely a good thing, because when you think about being in the public eye, it makes you very responsible. Because you’re being very careful of your actions. Whenever you’re not in the school building, you’re still thinking about, what if a student sees me–what would their response be? What if a staff member sees me, what would their response be? So even when I’m not in the building, I am still upholding that level of responsibility as a president.

How do you interact with the faculty here at Eagle?

You know, I feel like everyone is here for a purpose, everyone is here to fulfill some part of the mission of Eagle Academy as a whole. As we all work, sometimes we miss the whole concept of calibration, working with each other. We’re all here to work for the bigger purpose. We’re all here working towards a bigger goal, and that is to get students ahead. Whether that be in the classroom, whether that be socially, personally…this is why we all have different roles in the school, because each person plays a significant role for a student. And sometimes that gets forgotten…that we must calibrate. We must work together, and we must communicate. And that’s what my message is to any of the readers…that we are here to calibrate, we are here to work with each other.

It’s been great talking with you. Is there anything else you want to say to the people who are reading this interview?

Well, my message to is never be afraid to approach me. I’m always available, to staff, to parents, to students…I’m here. That’s the main job here, is to be available. If you ever need me, I’m here. I work for the students here, I don’t work for anybody else. So anything to do with the students, I will be available.

Okay, Kobe, thanks for coming in and talking with us.

Thank you so much, Miles, and it’s a pleasure to be interviewed by you.