Written by Ada Moore

Do You Believe In Alien Life?

Do you believe there are life forms beyond our Earth? Are they close, or far? Do you think they are very similar to humans? Are we alone?

On November 7th, 2015 there was a "UFO" sighting in LA that re-sparked the question "Do aliens exist?" With new technology being developed at a much more rapid pace, more and more people are able to catch a sighting on their phone, camera, ect. Which leads to more people believing in extraterrestrial life. 

The first people to claim to have been abducted by aliens where Betty and Barney Hill. During September 1961 they were driving just past the Twin Mountain when they saw a "odd-shaped" craft flashing multi-colored lights flying through the sky. Once they drove back home they realized they had 'lost' more than an hour of time and their car had strange marks on it. They soon after reported their sightings and it had been tracked as an unknown object. Later Betty had started having nightmares involving aliens.

With evidence going way back to the 15th century to current times, there has always been a fascination having to do with life beyond Earth. With the hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe I believe that aliens exist, and Earth being only a VERY small planet in just one galaxy there has to be more life out there. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson brings up a great point "If a super species walked by us, maybe they're uninterested in us because we're too stupid for them to even imagine having a conversation." I 100% believe this because it's true that if there were extraterrestrials out there they might not think much of humans at all, as if we were just as dumb as a small bug. 

NASA has come very close to finding life beyond Earth. For example Europa, the sixth closest moon of Jupiter. Europa has been found to hold water underneath it's surface of ice. "and we know that on earth everywhere there is water we find life" says Project Scientist Robert Pappalardo. Though not only have we discovered Europa, but also Earth's closest cousin, Kepler-452b. This Earth-like alien planet is about 60 percent wider than Earth and has a rocky surface that also has plenty of water, it also has a similar sun to our own. Many planets are yet to even be discovered that could potentially be home to any alien life forms. 

Though I think it's best to have an open mind, for some people aliens/extraterrestrials seems to be unrealistic or made up because they have not met an alien nor have seen solid prof, or that the technology should have proven it by now. Though this is true, I'm sure most people have not encountered an alien, believing in aliens is no different than believing in a religion, just like how not everyone is religious and it's okay to think different ways and believe in different things. I'm sure one day we will know the truth, but for now I want to believe.

                                      Current Events 3.2 

1) In the house of representatives they voted overwhelmingly Thursday to slap stringent - new screening procedures on refugees from Syria seeking resettlement. The bill would require that the director of the FBI, the secretary of the Department Homeland Security and the director of national intelligence confirm that each applicant from Syria and Iraq poses not threat. The measure received significant support from democrats. The senate is expected to take up the measure after Thanksgiving recess. 

Obama's response was a request for an explicit authorization of force against the Islamic State. The Obama administrative repeatedly said it would undermine American leadership in a region where Republicans have side it is lacking, and would undercut Washington's ability to command a coalition against the security threats in Syria.

2) On Thursday the Austin City Council voted to ease regulations for building garage apartments. The two primary benefits of the decision are that it provides less expensive housing and is a way to also provide supplemental income. The objection District 9 Council Member Kathie Tovo raised is that allowing garage apartments could override some neighborhood plans that had decided against
them. The similar point made by Tommy Ates was that because he lived in a garage apartment he know that it is an affordable way to live. District 3 council member Sabino "Pio" Renteria says that he also leases a backyard cottage to a tenant on his own property, which helps him remain in his longtime home. I think that people having a garage apartment is okay because it let's people to have a home in the neighborhood they want without having to spend as much money.

3) Leslie Pool is the Austin City Council member that serves my neighborhood.

4) Federal regulators on Thursday approved a genetically engineered salmon as fit for consumption, the salmon would now be the first genetically altered animal to reach U.S. supermarkets and dinner tables. One of the arguments made by the consumers and environmental groups was that if the genetically engineered fish were to escape into the oceans it could alter other wild salmon. The approval took so long because it was fist approval of it's kind and was wary of a political backlash. Ronald Stotish, the chief executive of AquaBounty said he was delighted and somewhat surprised by the approval after all this time.
One conclusion of the graph that went with the story is that the number of genetically modified foods is going up significantly and is at 115 products that are now GMO products, when in 1992 there were zero.

5) Don Zimmerman proposed a resolution that would block Austin's governments from spending money to help Syrian refugees resettle inside the city. Council member Greg Casar responded by saying "If council made any statement, it would be to express our support for families fleeing bloody conflict in Syria and refugees from all parts of the world." Mayor Steve Adler responded by saying "That's the kind of city we are and I want the rest of the world to know. Helping those in need and ensuring the safety of Austinites are not mutually exclusive goals." In Travis County, 1,225 refugees arrived in the 2013 fiscal year. The Facebook post from Sid Miller shows a mass of refugees and another depicting a cluster of snakes that says "Can you tell me which of these rattlers won't bite you?Sure some of them won't, but tell me which ones so we can bring them into the house." Texas Democrats accused Miller of fanning "the flames of fear and xenophobia."

6) Raphael Holiday was executed for setting a fire that killed his 18-month-old daughter and her two young half-sisters at an East Texas home 15 years ago. This would be Texas's 13 execution of the year. It has accounted for half of all executions in the U.S. so far this year. Lawyer Gretchen Sween argued that Holiday's court-appointed attorneys abandoned him after the justices in June refused to review his case. Holiday's attorney died an appeal saying the conviction and some trial testimony were both improper.

7)

Extra Credit

                         The Craft of Writing Editorials

1) The lead describes the details on working in a kitchen and the dangers that could come along with it. They then talk about about how the minimum wage frequently does not exceed the state minimum wage of $8 an hour.

2) The restaurant industry in the United States is exploding, just as the income gap is widening. 

3) She argues that the policies for anti-raising wages are very unimpressive and dismisses them by talking about how the number of employed citizens has increased since they stopped giving out below minimum wages. 

4) She talks about how the restaurants should raise the wages for the employees so they can take care of their children.

5) The 13 million-plus restaurant workers in the U.S. face a poverty rate that is nearly three times that of the rest of the country's workforce. It is seven on the 10 worst paying American jobs according to federal labor statistics. 

6) consumers must begin to pressure the industry or little will improve. The lawmakers should summon the courage to reject the demands of National Restaurant Association.

7) National Restaurant Association is largely responsible for Massachusetts "tipped minimum wage" under which restaurants are allowed to pay workers just $2.63 with the hard-to-enforce understanding that tips will make up the rest of the way to at least $8 per hour.

8) The restaurant owner blame these problems on slim profit margins amid these intense competition.

9) She says that raising wages would not change competition because every restaurant would have to abide.

Bring Home the Bacon (Or Not)

1) The World Health Organization reported that processed meats raises the risk of colon cancer. 

2) The meat industry reacted to this finding by saying that because the risk off getting cancer is pretty low that people shouldn't worry. The environmental groups respond by saying they want more warning labels on packaged meats. 

3) It was put into a group 1 category meaning that there is sufficient evidence that the processed meats will lead to cancer. The chairman of disease prevention says that the risk of cancer or other risks is lower than smoking and alcohol, so you can still have red meats in your diet but cutting down would probably be a good choice.

4) The cartoon shows that people are too ignorant and don't care enough to stop eating meat, even if they know it's bad for them.

5) I think the opinion Randy Bish has is that people should go vegetarian at least because they probably would't even care enough to make a comic of this topic without wanting people to stop and think about their decision to eat meat.

6) Yes, I do eat meat, and I would say kinda often, and nothing from the report is really news to me as I have read A TON of things relating to vegan/vegetarian life styles because I find them motivational as I have tried to go vegetarian before and want to in the future.

Music shaming at McCallum High School?

 A student currently attending McCallum overhears a classmate being teased for liking thrash metal, they were saying things like "ew, she likes that?" or "she's so emo!" which then resulted in unnecessary music shaming. 

 Like all people our music tastes differ from one another, just like our personalities. Many think that a combination of our social environments and our "nature" can influence our musical tastes. Does this give anyone the right to put others down for liking certain kinds of music? of course not! This is what music shaming is, basically the act of criticizing someone for having musical preferences that differ from your own. It is seen/experienced so often that it is not recognized as being much of a problem yet it definitely is, for instance you wouldn't criticize someone for liking a burger with cheese just because you like yours plain. So does music shaming happen at McCallum?

 To be sure I went to our freshman class president Isabella Hernandez to ask her thoughts and experiences on the matter. "My music taste varies from Alternative pop and I've been exposed to many classic rock due to my dad always playing Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and many other amazing bands and musicians" Hernandez says. I found this to be important because it goes back to how some of our favorite music is due to our influences. She also states that she has "never experienced direct shaming" for her music tastes, yet she also mentioned how people assume her personality based on her choice in music and stereotyping her, which she said happened at McCallum, so she concludes by saying "Yes I have experienced some shaming for my music".

 I then went to senior Maddie Moore to see if she had any experiences in music shaming or has seen it happen. "My favorite type of music is mostly electronic and though I have experienced music shaming at McCallum, it has never been at all extreme. It's mostly just comments like 'that isn't real music' ect."

 Though both Moore and Hernandez have experienced music shaming in some form. Me and many others feel the same pressure mentally like when someone new asks "what type of music do you like?" I or someone else might say something they don't mean because they don't want to deal with another persons judgement.

 I do believe that music shaming happens at McCallum to a lot of students and should be recognized more for being a type of bullying if it were to ever result in a fight, or put someone down mentally. "why start an argument when you don't have to." Moore says

Current Events Activity 2.2 

1) The two possible causes of the Hidden Pines fire in Bastrop might have been an "intentionally set" burn pile or just a "farm accident". At 10:30 am officials let displaced residents who live in the  burn area to return to their properties. The damage the fire has done (which burned 34,000 acres and destroyed 1,600 homes) is estimated to cost around "hundreds of millions of dollars". 

The interviews impacted me reading the story because it shows just how much trauma people went through during the fires and how some people lost basically everything they had.

2) In the Austin area school systems there has been a shift in textbook use, meaning they are being offered online and not in paper form so much anymore. The benefits for this change are they are cheaper and help prepare students for their computer-dependent futures. The Robertson family found a problem with the online textbooks "It's hard to flip between the examples and instructional pages with the problem" he says. So they decided to get a paper copy instead. The opinion teacher Melissa Prepster had on the story was that this is not a super new thing meaning how the digital transition gained momentum about four years ago, with things like videos full of content. What separates the Eanes district from other districts implementing technology on their campus is the Eanes district is one of the few districts that make a device available to each student.
 At McCallum so far I haven't even had to use textbooks outside of class (even though most of them are available online) so I haven't had much experience with this shift, but I know from past experiences with having to carry around textbooks that it was a hassle and sometimes unnecessary weight so having it online would make things a lot easier for for me because I have access to a computer. I do think there is a problem though because other students may not have that access, with this being a debate I would say it would be a good news story for The Shield.

3) The big news outside of Canada yesterday was that the country reclaimed liberal identity with the new prime minister. Justin Turdeau has promised some major policy changes, like legalizing marijuana, dropping out of the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State and deficit spending to pump up the economy and rebuild infrastructure. The relationship between the U.S. and Canada will most likely get stronger because Obama And Turdeau are similar.

4) Alan Guckian is among 25 semifinalists for a Grammy-related award. The award is for the 2016 Music Educator Award from the Recording Academy and the Grammy Foundation. Local inspirational musician SaulPaul said Guckian was an obvious choice for the award. Guckian later says if he won he would have a pizza party with his kids.

5) UT coach Shaka Smart is trying to change the mindset of his players heading into the upcoming season by saying that the pursuit of wisdom is "one of the oldest and most enduring human intellectual enterprises." In order to make this change happen Texas must first get beyond it's confusing, dysfunctional past which appears to be fouling up the present.

Current Events Experience 2.1

1) The perk that is "raising eyebrows" is that at ACL (Austin city limits) the people who are part of the "city's parks and recreation board" get to have two free VIP passes for one entire weekend of the music festival and also a free parking pass. The person to receive the perk was Tom Donovan, a 71 year old man who was a member of the Parks and Recreation Board. The Austin Parks Foundation defended providing it to him by saying the free tickets and parking passes are for "work purposes only" for everyone who is a member in the council. Board members Rick Cofer and council member Don Zimmerman were "foregoing" the perk because they "felt uncomfortable" taking the passes because "it doesn't seem necessary to receive two free three-day passes and a three-day parking pass for my role as a parks board member" Cofer also says "I don't think that my presence there is worth basically an $800 expense." Sabine Romero of the city's ethics and compliance division expressed to the council in an email that it's OK for the mayor and council members to accept the tickets. Council members Ann Kitchen accepted the passes and will be attending the upcoming show. Council member Ora Houston said that she gave the passes as a "thank you" to 311 operators who are filling in at her office while a staffer is on maternity leave. I don't think that giving the city's parks and recreation board free tickets is a bad thing, I just think that if one of the workers wants to not accept the tickets they shouldn't have to.

2) Oklahoma implemented a stay of all deaths because last week, two hours before an execution of Richard E. Glossip officials realized that the state supplier had sent the prison officials the wrong drug. Other states are dealing with similar issues like how in Tennessee if the lethal-injection drugs were unavailable prison officials would authorize the use of the electric chair. Also in Montana, on Tuesday, a judge blocked the state from carrying out executions, ruling that one of the two drugs it planned to use did not comply with the state law governing lethal injections. Midazolam is a short-acting sedative and is the heart of this story because midazolam, combined with a drug shortage caused by manufacturers' ceasing production or limiting how drugs could be used.

3) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel barred his ministers from visiting a contested Old City holy site. He also ordered police to stop members of parliament from going there because he also did not want them to go to the holy site. Mhuhanad Halabi was a law student at Al Quds University who was shot dead by Israeli security forces and he relates to this issue because he was apart of the defending of al-Aqsa and he got killed doing so.

4) Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for literature on October 8th. She is most famous for her deeply researched works about female Russian soldiers in World War 2 and the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It's "a rarity" that she won because her work is mainly nonfictional. Blended in her works are both literature and journalism. She looks to the future by not letting herself slide "but much work remains ahead of me, and many new turns. Now I cannot let myself slide." she says

5) The carrier decision Professor Emeritus Daniel S. Hamermesh has made is to retire from his job due to the "carry law" which he told to the Statesman reporter directly. Hamermesh's is a first for UT in the way of him being the first to actually leave because of this. Other factors that contributed to his decision are the number of students he has in each term (around 475) and he says with that many students he would not be able to tell is they have become "disgruntled" or have "mental health issues".

observation (400 Words)

 On senior picture day at McCallum I observed students in the small gym. They where in the small gym because a few other students were exercising and playing volleyball in the big gym. Around half of the seniors were in line getting ready for their pictures while wearing black gowns over their clothes. seniors do this (and not any other grade) so their pictures can be more professional. I could hear mumbling and talking between the seniors in the room, but no one was yelling. There was two camera set ups that they could go to. I also could hear the cameras as they flashed and made beeping sounds that indicated the picture had been taken. The room smelled of robust dust and wood polish as most gyms often do, it was pretty strong as well. The smell that was less strong was the smell of clothes and sweat from people doing passed exercises. Flashes from the camera went off pretty often, around thirty seconds or so apart. The majority of the teenagers in line were guys, while most of the girls were sitting against the wall in back of the gym. Not only were there people in the back of the gym but also a lot of backpacks in a array of colors, a lot of the backpacks were small and were Jansport and they aligned the side and back walls. The bottom portion of the walls were a beige brick color and the top color of the walls were a white paint color, and they both had a glossy finish. Attached to the walls there were four basketball hoops. The ceiling was painted white  and had bars going across it for support. Though because of the glossy finish on floor you could see the reflection of the bright white lights from the ceiling. The floor was a light brown color and you could see the wood panels under the smooth gloss it also had thin red, black and light green lines on it. Sitting on the floor was a teacher on his laptop computer. He was also sitting next to three tether ball polls that were attached one tire each and a couple of people were playing on them, and they were not seniors, but probably other freshman that were observing the room. The seniors were taking their pictures through out the entire 6th period, but I did not stay till they left 

Current Events Activity 1.3

1) Pope Francis's central message of his speech was that he wants congress to break out of this cycle of polarization and paralysis and use their power to "heal" the hatred, greed, poverty and pollution. 

2)The broad difference of opinion exists as to whether racial slurs triggered the incident. The likelihood that John Jay assistant football coach Mach Breed and players Michel Moreno and Victor Rojas will return to the school is not very likely, but Moreno and Rojas learned at a disciplinary hearing that they will attend an alternative school in the North side district for 75 days. Mike Motheral was frustrated though that the central figures in the incident didn't appear before the committee during Thursday's three and a half hour hearing

3) More than five dozen parents and students assembled outside of East Austin's Maplewood Elementary School on Thursday morning to protest, the people were chanting outside because they wanted the district to bring back former six grade teacher John Wetherold. By putting John Wetherold back in the school there is an overcrowding problem in the forth grade. A similar protest happened at Bryker Woods Elementary when they tried to move a fifth grade teacher to Highland Park Elementary school, but that would have caused overcrowding at Bryker Woods, so she stayed.

4)

Observation Practice

In World Geography I see students studying their papers while I hear the sounds pencils make on paper while writing. After Studying and test taking the students start to whisper, then whispers tern into loud banter and laughs, the desks shuffle on the floor and then people start walking throughout the room stomping. I hear music coming from one of their phones while someone else's hits the floor. When another student walks into the portable room I can feel the warm breeze from outside and can smell the dust being kicked up by the air. As it is time to pack up I can hear the zippers on the backpacks as they are being opened and closed, just as they finish the bell rings and I can feel people shoving to get out the door.

Sammy Stephens Quote

Q: Tell Me something bad that has happened to you.

A: "Recently I came out as Trans to my parents, which was only bad because they are insisting on not using my proper pronouns."

Current Events Quiz 1.2

1) Yesterdays presidential debate was formatted to help long shot candidates because they gave a prime-time stage to prove they are worthy of attention. Donald Trump was on center stage even when he was not yet on center stage because he was reflecting his lead in the national polls that determine participation.

2) The CIA director was on UT campus for the release of some of the most sought-after documents in Washington. At the Bass Lecture Hall, Brennan said the drive to unveil the records steamed from the white house and marked a shift toward a new level of openness in the government. The public can access the documents on the CIA's website. The PDB (President Daily Brief) is among the governments most highly classified and sensitive materials. Though the bulk of the information comes from the CIA, intelligence officials said its contents are tailored to the needs and knowledge of each president, serving as a diary of sorts.

3) Human rights groups are outraged because on Wednesday Hungarian security forces unleashed water cannons and tear gas on asylum seekers who tried to break through a razor wire fence preventing them from crossing the Hungary-Serbia border. Desperation has already led hundreds to trek through cornfields toward the Serbian-Croatian border. These routes are not good options because they risk walking through areas littered with active land mines.

4) A 14 year old McCarthur High School student was detained and handcuffed yesterday because teachers decided a home-made clock he brought to school resembled a bomb. On Monday school officials searched Ahmed and he was escorted from school in handcuffs for further questioning by the police. They said "We live in an age where you can't take things like that to school." The incident drew President Barack Obama's attention and he was invited to go to the White House. People then shortly after this news came out and started to use the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed and this was tweeted more than 520,000 times by Wednesday afternoon.

Current Events Quiz 1

1) The University of Texas is under fire because the two student graduate assistants they hired after no criminal background when they committed a hate crime towards a gay man back in 2004. They declined to comment about Darren Gay's employment but when UT hires employees the get background checks but in some rare cases they will still hire a employee with a criminal background and they "may place certain restrictions on an that employee.." I do believe that they did not know the full story before they hired the two man because if they knew the full story they should not have been aloud to be hired.

2) The deal that was announced on Tuesday appeared to be among the largest settlements in police death cases in recent years and came just days before a judge is set to decide to change the venue for the trial for six officers charged in Gary's death. The mayor supported the deal because they said that the settlement was "in the best interest of the city and will avoid costly litigation" There are also no current pending cases in Baltimore mentioned in the article.

3) Vice Chancellor Sig-mar Gabriel of Germany announced that "the migrant flow - many from war-battered Iraq and Syria - is only escalating amid a humanitarian crisis that has sharply tested European cooperation and fundamental policies such as open borders." Though some observers criticized the policy because they were offering benefits so lucrative that they had become an incentive for asylum seekers to risk their lives over land and sea. German leaders responded to this criticism by announcing a reduction in cash handouts for asylum seekers during their initial months of processing instead saying it would offer them more food stamps and in-kind aid. The larger crisis that led to Germany's actions are migrants.

4) Ted Cruz has invited Donald Trump to the Capital Hill rally for protesting the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran. Cruz is unlike the other republicans because he wanted to attract attention to the objections to the "catastrophic" deal, he did this because Trump gets a lot of attention in the media. Though Cruz says that Trump is not one of his standard targets because he has never held office.

5) On Tuesday Hillary Clinton apologized for her use of a private email account as secretary of state declining to express remorse in connection with the controversy that has shaken her presidential campaign. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chair man Ron Johnson wrote to Bryan Pagliano, who was maintaining Clinton's personal server while she was secretary of state to recover and see the emails that were sent. Clinton's earlier mistake that she did not say was a mistake was that she used the private email system when asked directly by NBC News.

RESEARCH SCENARIO PART 1

A Example of Journalism Research at Work

If I was to research and report this story I would maybe first try and get the PowerPoint that the biology teacher was using, but if he denied my access to it I would go to another trusted teacher to help me get it. I would do this because in order to say it had creationism in it I would need proof. I would then need to get some interviews of the people involved like a couple students, the principle, and maybe a parent. I also might try to see if I could get any sort of document explaining the policy on the district website of approved lesson plans.

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