With the sudden outbreak of Ebola in Africa, many U.S. Citizens fear the worst for what might happen here if this virus were to spread. Ebola is a severe, sometimes fatal disease. According to World Health Organization, Ebola is only spread through contact with an infected individuals’ body fluids. This includes blood, organs, and mucus. It is also noted that it is possible to get infected when said fluids are in bedding or clothes.
The Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 in simultaneous outbreaks in Nzara, Sudan and Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. According to the World Health Organization, the outbreak in Yambuku occurred in a village near the Ebola River, hence its name. The virus was traced back to forest animals that could have spread the disease the same way it is transmitted through humans, contact with infected fluids.
Ebola has been contained before when it first arrived in 1976. However, it cost nearly 300 lives and startles many of its return. The Ebola Virus is currently being investigated by WHO (World Health Organization) and the CDC (Center of Disease Control). So far, the Ebola Virus has been confirmed contained in Nigeria according to USA Today.
There are many ways to prevent the Ebola Virus from spreading. The simplest way is to keep up with good hygiene and sanitation. Ebola is spread through infected liquid contact, staying clean and healthy is the first line of defense. Another line of defense would be knowing the basics of quarantine and to be aware of your surroundings according to USA Today. Remember, Ebola is only spread through bodily fluids, this includes blood and vomit.
The main symptoms of Ebola, according to Mayo Clinic, include: nausea and vomiting, red eyes, diarrhea, raised rash, chest pain and cough, stomach pain, severe weight loss, and bleeding from the eyes, ears, and nose. Usually all symptoms are present in a confirmed infected person. If this is the case, do not hide it and seek medical attention at the nearest Ebola treatment clinic or hospital. It is also recommended you do not make physical contact with unprotected individuals.
It is vital that any future outbreak is contained with ease. Equally important is that remaining calm in such situation will prevent violent outburst and spreading. Ebola is only spread through poor conditions, poor hygiene, and lack of updated medical supplies, all of which were present in the virus’s country of origin. Remember to keep sanitary, have a healthy hygiene, and make sure to learn more into preventing any spread of this virus. It is least likely for you to catch Ebola if you are calm and know what you’re up against.
In the early hours of the morning of March 8th, 2014, 227 passengers and 12 crew members boarded Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Of those 239 people, 154 were Chinese, 50 were Malaysian (including the crew members), seven were Indonesian, six were Australian, five were Indian, four were French, three were American, two were Ukrainian, two were New Zealanders, two were Canadian, and there was one Austrian, one Russian, one Italian, as well as a person from the Netherlands.
Unfortunately, none of those people have been heard from since little over an hour after takeoff. At approximately 1:30 AM local time communications with the plane and the transponder signal were lost and the plane all but disappeared. Soon thereafter, the search began.
As of March 17th, 2014, 26 countries have joined the search Flight 370 yielding little to no success. Malaysia, Australia, China, India, Japan, Russia, France, the U.S., Vietnam, and many others have been searching in an area that encompasses most of the Indian Ocean as well as many parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Theories of what happened to Flight 370 range from electronic malfunctions, to terrorist attacks.
Some experts theorize that perhaps the pilot slipped off the radar on purpose. It was thought that the pilot may have intentionally plotted a course that would lead the plane through terrain that would effectively conceal the plane from radar. The theory goes that the plane flew low to the ground—5,000 feet or less—through mountainous terrain and thus evaded radar detection. Why the pilot would do such a thing is a mystery and that question is perhaps the theory’s major flaw.
However, as with all frightening events, many people were quick to jump on the idea that terrorists had seized the plane and flew it off course. This is supported by the fact that two of the aforementioned passengers (the Austrian and the Italian) were actually from Iran and had possession of stolen passports. Though Interpol later investigated the two men (seemingly unassociated with one another) and deemed the possibility of terrorist involvement unlikely (both men seemed to be seeking foreign asylum), it should be noted how quickly our society was to believe terrorism was once again on the rise. One little hint of suspicion and uncertainty and millions scream terrorism and attack, even if both are illogical.
There are many, though, who believe that the plane did not disappeared but rather believe that the plane is no more. It was thought that the plane simply crashed into the ocean or maybe exploded in the air above empty waters. Both ideas, however, have proved to be inconclusive as no debris or oil (that would undoubtedly spilled from a sunken plane) has been found as of yet. The countries in charge of the search have even gone so far as seeking help from citizens by setting up websites that display satellite images of the watery areas it is suspected the plane may have crashed into. And while it is heartening to see so many people genuinely caring about the welfare of the passengers and their loved ones, the results are inconclusive.
And then, of course, there are the conspiracy theorists who claim the disappearance of Flight 370 was orchestrated by some of the governments who are members of the search party. These theorists point out that the mainstream media has concerned itself primarily with the flight and its disappearance, even though the news stations do little more than merely speculate as no conclusive evidence has been unveiled. These theorists claim that the disappearance is being used as nothing more than a distraction for people so that they will ignore the more severe ongoing problems of the world such as the Ukrainian/Crimean/Russian crisis which may very well lead to war and/or another Cold War with Russia.
Yet despite all these pessimistic and vague theories, perhaps the most disconcerting fact about this whole ordeal is the fact that all these superpowers are at such a complete loss in such a crisis. Such a force of nations united under a common cause has not been assembled in who-knows how long, and yet it can do nothing to solve the current dilemma. 26 of the world’s most powerful nations cannot, with all their combined resources, find one single airplane.
After all, that is the main issue here: where the plane is. It does not matter why it disappeared, it does not matter whodunit, it does not matter if this was an accident, an attack, or a conspiracy, what matters is that answers are found and that, hopefully, the passengers and crew members of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are found and safely returned to their loved ones.
Unfortunately, the sad fact of the matter is that valuable time is slipping by and the plane has yet to be located. If the plane did indeed explode, then what hope is there of finding evidence now? If the plane did indeed sink, then would we still be able to discover its whereabouts by now? If the plane was in fact hijacked, then does that not mean the perpetrators could very well be home free by now? And why have our leaders been unable to find any substantial evidence in such a long period of time?
If our leaders wish to maintain the faith we have in them, then they need to get their act together and prove to us that they can handle any situation that may come our way, including finding a missing airplane.
However, as of Monday March 24th, 2014, Malaysia Airlines have announced that the plane did indeed crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean. The Prime Minister of Malaysia said on Monday that,
“…it is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the Southern Indian Ocean.”
So now it seems as though they are no longer searching for survivors but corpses.
However, the Prime Minister and his allies are still only speculating. This answer was simply the result of a much more intense process of elimination. They still do not have an exact location. They still do not have substantial evidence. And they still have no legitimate answers.
Whether or not the plane did indeed crash, it does appear to be as if 26 of the world’s most powerful nations have simply given up. Which deeply detriments the assurance of security and protection our leaders claim we have.
In the end this tragic even has evinced some of the incompetence of our leaders and of the technology which is meant to make our world safer and better. It is an extremely disconcerting and saddening matter which we can only hope shall never be repeated.
While most Panthers sleep in and arrive at school no later than 7:30 a.m. (or at least, they should), a small group of students gather at B9 at 6:45 in the morning. These Panthers are no ordinary Panthers, they were specially chosen by Lynette Menter-Hartman, an AP/History teacher who doubles as the Acadec advisor, in order to be a part of Corona High’s Academic Decathlon; which was, for the first time ever, offered as a zero period. Also for the first time ever, Corona High was to enter two teams into the competition: the Red Team, Corona’s main team, and the Gold Team, Corona’s secondary team.
All during first semester, these decathletes spent every morning studying seven different subjects about the Academic Decathlon topic for this year: World War One. The decathletes studied the history, literature, art, music, mathematics, science, and even the economics of that era. Not only that, the decathletes also had to prepare to deliver two speeches, write an essay, and be interviewed by a panel of judges. Needless to say, the decathletes put in a lot of time and effort for their cause.
January 25th, 2014 was the first day of the competition and the day the decathletes delivered their speeches, wrote their essays, and sat through their interviews. Afterwards, each and every Panther felt as though they had performed excellently; each of them felt as though they had made a great impact on their judges and had exceeded their expectations.
The following week, the decathletes crammed like crazy in preparation for the upcoming Saturday; the second day of competing which would truly determine the results of the Riverside County Academic Decathlon Competition.
On Saturday, February 1st the subject testing began at around 8:00 a.m. and ended at around noon. Decathletes from all over the county took all seven of tests, fifty questions each (except the math test; that had only 35 questions) back-to-back. The tests were strenuous; the decathletes themselves were exhausted, but they still retained their optimism. And that optimism got them through the Super Quiz that took place after the subject tests.
This “Super Quiz” tested each division of each team (Varsity, Scholastic, and Honors) on 12 questions about any and all of the seven subjects, but giving the decathletes only 7 seconds to answer each one. While the Corona High teams did not do the best, they did do considerably well. Once the testing was finally over, the decathletes took pictures, shared some laughs, and celebrated a job well-done. Then, at around 4:30 p.m., the awards ceremony began.
At the awards assembly, the students who performed achieved the highest individual scores were given individual medals and the teams who achieved the highest score overall were rewarded with trophies. The ceremony started out well for the Panthers; two decathletes from Corona received the first medals of the night for their success in the Math portion of the testing and that made it seem as though Panthers would be receiving medals here and there throughout the evening.
However, it was not to be. Aside from the medals, given to the top scorer of each division of each team, only one more Panther received a medal that night; Vicky Le received a bronze medal for her essay. The majority of the medals were given out to students from Elsinore High School, West Valley High School, and, the big winner of the night, Hemet High School.
While the students of those three schools no doubt earned each medal they received, the Panthers felt as though they earned more than three medals and half a dozen consolation prizes. In the end, Corona’s top team, the Red Team, placed 7th whereas Corona’s second team, the Gold Team, placed 15th; in total there were 18 teams. Walking out of the theatre room where the ceremony took place, the Panthers were disappointed.
However, despite these less-than-satisfactory results, there was a silver lining. The Panthers may not have won this year, but that defeat only motivated them to work harder next year. They have realized their faults and recognized their opponents’ strengths.
Many of this year’s decathletes were brand new to the whole experience and had never experienced the bitter taste of defeat. Now that they have however, they know they must dedicate more time, effort, and passion than ever before if they hope to come out on top next year.
Junior Vicky Le, who is the current president of Corona High’s Academic Decathlon and has been a decathlete since her freshman year, had this to say about the results:
“AcaDec has definitely been a growing experience. The results of the competition were not exactly what we expected but we improved from last year! It has given us momentum to strive for the best next year. I am so proud to be a part of this nerd family, and a part of the rebirth of Academic Decathlon at Corona High!”
While they may accept this defeat, Vicky and her fellow decathletes will never forget. The results this year have only intensified the decathletes’ goal of bringing home Corona High’s first Academic Decathlon trophy.
In the end, can this defeat really be considered a loss? Or can it be seen as a wake-up call which will prompt the Panthers to work harder? Perhaps the writer Zig Ziglar said it best when he said, “If you learn from defeat, you have not really lost.”
Greatness awaits, now let’s see what a powerful next-gen console can do. Sony has brought us yet another PlayStation addition to the world. The PlayStation 4 comes out the 14th of November at midnight (12:00a.m.). The PlayStation 4, or PS4 for short, has been described as one of the next-gen consoles. On par with the Xbox One, the PS4 offers dozens upon dozens of amazing new features.
Looking back on PlayStation’s history, it may be just a shroud of darkness. The original PlayStation was on its own in 1994, no competitors, nothing to stop it from rising. It was at its best for its time until newer consoles arrived. Still alone in the market of consoles, the PlayStation 2 had arrived at the beginning of the millennium; it was considered the greatest console ever. It had even beaten out its future competitor: the original Xbox. For quite a while, PlayStation 2 dominated with many game titles backing it up.
Sony is now introducing the PlayStation 4, an amazing console with brand-new features. It gave shock and awe to the audience at its reveal in February 2013. It was slimmer, required no online to play, and even introduced interactive on-the-go experiences, which is not included on the Xbox One. It will allow tablet and smartphone connectivity to further increase gaming experience, something that is far away than its rivals. It will also include a social share-button feature on the brand-new PS4 touch-integrated controller which will allow you to compete with friends and show your best experiences to the world without requiring a recording device.
Kevin Kenson from TLD Today states, “The PS4 respects indie game titles without always relying on their console gaming exclusives, pushing toward multi-platform titles rather than just their own.”
In comparison to the Xbox One, the PS4 dominates in terms of gaming and sharing with social media. Though, the Xbox One does include better Sports Features, the PS4 is able to play it’s older brother’s games from the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 via downloads from the PlayStation Store. It is also noted that it is one hundred dollars less than its competitors; the PS4 will be sold for a total of $399, while the Xbox One will be sold for a total of $499. However, all these features come at somewhat of a cost.
Garret Soden, 9th Grade, says, “I’m really excited for the HD games that the PS4 will be able to have with the HDMI ability!”
The PlayStation 4 will require online pay. Most PlayStation Gamers will hate that they will finally have to give up their free service and start paying. However, there are some very good intentions for online pay: you will still be given access to single-player games, usage of Netflix, access to social media, and will be given more. When you pay for online play for PS4, it will carry on throughout two other PlayStation family members. PlayStation Plus is what the required pay is for, although, you will only need to make one payment to a number of PlayStation consoles. The PS3 is known for its free online play, PlayStation Plus will boost any gamers’ experience by adding free games monthly, a 75% discount off of everything bought in the PlayStation Store, and given early access to newer titles. But that is not the end of it; PlayStation Plus will also benefit the handheld PlayStation Vita with the same features.
Mauricio Castillo, 11th Grade, states, “I am looking forward for a more social system and I am looking for some new hit-releases for the PS4.”
This year, the PlayStation 4 has put all of its bargains on the table, what really matters is what will gamers expect from it. Will they throw their attention again to another Xbox? Or will they try something different and look toward the PS4?
There are over seven billion people in the world, and yet only two billion of those have access to the internet. Google wants to change that.
If you ask people what Google is, most would probably say a search engine, or a way of searching for things on the internet.
Melissa Corona, Freshman, agrees with that by simply saying, “Google is a way to search for things.”
That was their mission, when in 1997 a guy named Lary Page decided of the name, “Google”, as a play on words for “googol”, a number with a bunch of zeros after it. Formerly, it was known as “BackRub”, which uses bots and scripts to get everything notable and everything not notable on the web and organize it. In 1998, a check was written for a company that did not even exist yet, and in September they actually file to be a company. This trend continued for a while, including the conception of Google Ad words, which is why you see a bunch of ads on YouTube (really annoying for some).
However, in November 2007 something interesting happens.
The first Android smartphone
The search engine dedicated to crawling the web for anything and everything like books, movies and maps decided to buy a little operating system known as “Android”. T-Mobile was the first company to offer an Android powered smartphone, the G-1.
Why should we not overlook this? Think about it. The search engine that is, most likely, already your homepage wants to be on your phone. They want into your life.
Ever notice that sometimes when you go on a site like Amazon, search for something, then leave, you start to see ads specifically for that product? That is Google. In March 2008, Google acquired a company called DoubleClick, who serves ads relevant to you.
Again, do not overlook this. There is only one way that they know what you are looking for.
The technology is called Cookies, and it is easy to imagine; every time you visit a site like Amazon, they put a ‘chocolate chip’ in your browser, and Google goes and observes the chocolate chip for what it holds. It could be milk chocolate, dark, white, whatever. It is unique to you. They use it to pair you with an Ad. Microsoft realized this, and started a campaign about being ‘Scroogled’.
Again, the company wants to know you. We are all too busy looking at the NSA to realize that Google is where they might be getting their information from.
In April 2012, Google decided to tell what else they have been working on: Project ‘Glass’.
Google Glass is shown above
For those who do not know, Google glass is really just smart-enabled glasses. It has a screen on the front so you can use the device, while it is out of the way when you do not want it.
In the concept video, you can see that they clearly seem to be having a good time with Glass. Why? How would this enhance my life? In the same way that your phone did, they know you will use it all the time. Actually, the point here is that you do not have to use your phone all the time. You will phone will be the hub for the glasses instead of the hub for you. This is just one more step towards a world of wearable tech. It could also take video. You can video chat. Again, cheat on tests. Plus, you do not need headphones, yet you still hear the sound. In a brilliant move, while Apple just released the ‘Ear Pods’, Google has been working on a way to play sound through a bone near your ear.
But they are not done yet.
Google recently tried to patent a tattoo. This tattoo could do phone calls, and it could also function as a lie detector. While this may be the only things that the new patent reveals, the possibilities are endless. Much like Google Glass or the smartphone, only science fiction could come up with an idea like this.
First reaction: well that is creepy…
Why not though? This is the search engine where you go to search for your deepest desires, whether it is a cat video or a tutorial on how to save someone’s life. Perhaps this tattoo could save lives by you asking it to play for you how to do CPR, like the video below:
The tattoo can use the signals in your skin to know if you are lying or not, and other signals that can communicate with gaming devices, smartphones, and other devices.
But even freakier, it might know what you are thinking.
We are getting closer and closer to being able to ask Google: “what is that song I cannot get out of my head?” The day is coming fast where Google could tell us if he or she is right for us. Sooner rather than later, we can cheat on a test and no one would know it, because only we can hear the sound coming from our glasses (this technology exists today, and the sound travels through a bone by your ear).
We need to start a conversation, and fast, about how invasive we can let technology become. We have to predict when it will be enough to just have a phone.
Google will become the place for your secrets, and the world will know all of them.
Invasive? Mr. Lee, engineering teacher on campus, thinks so by telling: “Google knows a lot about us, but we do not have a choice. Compared to a search engine like Bing, Google is the only option if you want to find anything,” Lee states, and tells how Google is unstoppable “unless society anchors down and says enough is enough.”
Warning: this is a long shot. Any technology listed below here is in the complete future.
However, the technology is starting to be developed now. Research and development is starting to take place right now at the headquarters of Amazon.com, the world’s platform for buying products, in order to find a better way to get products from the warehouse to you faster.
Their solution: drones.
In a recent interview with Jeff Bozos, the C.E.O. of Amazon, by 60 Minutes, Bozos claims that the drones can carry products of up to five pounds in distance of a couple of miles.
Now make a connection.
A chip that knows your thoughts.
A drone that can carry you products.
Given the technology that may be available in the future, all you have to do is think about the want for something and within minutes it is right in front of you. It is brilliant, invasive, shocking, yet cool. It is also an idea that has only been presented in Science fiction, but like most ideas presented in Fiction, companies are bringing this to life.
Sure, it may know what you want, which is very invasive.
This kind of scary could save lives. Think about this scenario: you are running on a trail, dehydrated. You faint, and then collapse. Because you have your smart phone and the tattoo, it knows all your blood chemistry. It automatically sends an alert to 911, but it also dispatches a drone to fly to the rescue, with plans to give you medication and/or assess the situation.
All of the sudden, scary turns cool, and that is what Google wants. We need to start a conversation weighing the pros and cons.
Towards the cooler side, imagine a situation where you’re sitting at home one day and want a bar of chocolate. You think in your mind: “Google:” and you hear a sound. You then say, “Tell Amazon to send me a bar of chocolate.” You are then left, doing what you were, until about three minutes passes. You have your bar of chocolate, generously dropped out of the sky and onto your front porch.
See, if you have been paying attention lately, you would know that science and technology is starting to move more and more central to us. The brain and your DNA more specifically, and sense that game came out where by focusing on something, you can make the ball go up, I personally have been in wonder and thought about how technology can change the way that we interact with technology.
The game is changing and changing fast.
We need to become more aware of what is happening. We need limits and laws.
But most of all, we need to think of the impact we have on the next generation.
