Ed. 101 - Chiyonofuji

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Published monthly, The Talon strives to be an innovative student magazine that is entertaining, intellectually provocative, and visually engaging. We are conscious of the responsibility of writing and publishing, and we seek to create a dynamic magazine that is worthy of its readers. We show respect for our readers by exposing them to a variety of perspectives.

Ultimately, The Talon seeks to bring Graded to the world and the world to Graded.

The Talon wants to hear from you! We encourage submissions and ideas for articles and themes from all members of the Graded community. We publish in English, Portuguese, French, and Spanish. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. The opinions expressed in the articles are those of the writers and not necessarily of The Talon. For this reason, we do not accept anonymous submissions. Send submissions, ideas, and themes to talon@graded.br.

TALON STAFF 2013-2014

About the Cover

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF: Adam Hunt & Mariana Lepecki LAYOUT: Nicole Vladimirschi (Editor), Fernanda Fiszner COLUMNISTS: Daniel Almeida, Fernão Mesquita, Julia Abreu, Lucas Zuccolo, Luiza Gundim, Mendel Schwarz NEWS: Andrea Ferreira (Editor), Annie Groth (Assistant Editor), Paula Schulman, Faria Nasruddin, Pedro Werebe FEATURES: Clara Bezerra (Editor), Pooja Singhi (Assistant Editor), Karen Kandelman, Sylvia Yang ENTERTAINMENT: Kevin Bengtsson (Editor), Felipe Marquez

I was inspired by the color palette and white zigzag stripes of Chiyonofuji’s Unryū-style Yokozuna Dohyō-iri (sumo outfit), and the mountain was inspired by an old Japanese painting of Mount Fuji (which I included since Chiyonofuji’s name means “1000 years of Fuji”). On the front the large characters say Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, his whole name. “The Talon” and the theme on both the front and the back was inspired by the translated manga magazine I used to read when I was younger, Shōnen Jump, which included the title of the magazine on both sides since not all readers agreed on which side was the “front” (because Japanese is read top down, right to left while English is left to right, top down).

—Alejandro Torres

千代の富士!

(Assistant Editor), Bella Shim, MC Otani, Michael Borger BLOGGERS: Paty Kim, Carol von Mutius, Catu Berretta COVER ARTIST: Alejandro Torres PHOTOGRAPHER: Rafaela Goldlust

休日を楽しんでく ださい! Have a great vacation, Graded!

▪ ▪ ▪ TEACHER ADVISORS: Josh Berg & Mary Pfeiffer PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE CONSULTANT: Maggie Moraes SPANISH LANGUAGE CONSULTANT: Guillermo Loyola Ruiz ▪ ▪ ▪ E-mail: talon@graded.br

Because this month’s theme is a bit unusual (and perhaps inaccessible to non-Japanese readers), here is some information about the famous figure, who has inspired us: The Japanese sumo champion Chiyonofuji, or 千代の富士 is considered the greatest sumo wrestler of all time, and he continues to hold a variety of records from his 21-year career.

There is a well-known story in Japan that after winning his 1000th bout, Chiyonofuji was asked by an interviewer about his next goal. He responded without hesitation, “1001.” Our goal for this edition, is to produce a 101st edition of the Talon that is worthy of Talon history and our readers.

A green magazine, six years and counting! Since August 2007, The Talon has been printed on recycled paper.

editors-in-chief

Let’s Get Physical What we don’t say is still pretty important Adam Hunt Fertig

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he legendary sumo wrestler Chiyonofuji, the theme of this edition, was nicknamed “The Wolf” for the piercing, unnerving stare he gave his opponents. I can’t help but wonder if that helped him win, or just made him look constipated, but it’s true that society puts a lot of stock in the power of people’s eyes. History and literature are strewn with descriptions similar to Chiyonofuji’s. When an anti-Nazi police officer supervised one of Hitler’s speeches, he was supposedly “swept right off his feet” by Hitler’s “fatal hypnotizing and irresistible glare,” joining the Nazi Party the next day. Haruki Murakami, in his novel A Wild Sheep Chase, frequently refers to the antagonist’s eyes and their “arresting color.” And we all know the myth of the Cyclops, who turned savage because he couldn’t wink.

It seems kind of strange that we can get so unnerved or inspired through the movement of a few muscles. It turns out that many psychologists believe that up to fifty-five percent of our perceptions of other people come from body language.

Plenty more psychologists have challenged that number, but at the very least body language is worth investigating. For one thing, why do we do it in the first place?

In a lecture, psychologist Stephen Pinker indirectly provides some answers. He cites anthropologist Alan Fiske’s three human relationship categories: dominance, communality, and reciprocity. They are all based on either evolutionary or ancient needs, and they apply only to certain people. Dominance is a relationship where one person exerts power over another; communality is a relationship between family and friends, one where we do things to be caring; and reciprocity is a more business-oriented relationship involving mutual gain. Pinker says that when these categories are messed with, awkwardness happens. For example, if an employee were to steal food off his boss’ plate, that would be inappropriate, because he would be confusing that relationship of dominance with one of communality. However, Pinker points out that this can be avoided through linguistic “negotiation.” In the rest of his lecture he talks about this in terms of euphemisms--saying one thing and meaning another is intentionally ambiguous, so social lines can be crossed. This can also be applied to body language, though. If an employee asked a boss for a raise while leaning in seductively, the employee could extend a dominance relationship into communality. It seems that in social interactions there are two different conversations happening, one verbal and one visual.

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But, like any other language, body language has rules.

For instance, public speakers often point or move their hands for emphasis. When you think about it, it’s pretty bizarre that adult flail their arms back and forth in front of audiences, and that’s socially acceptable. It’s a visual aid, though, that helps the audience conceptualize the facts as points in space, and not abstract ideas.

Another interesting rule to keep in mind is to avoid discordance, meaning that our body language has to be consistent. Shaking someone’s hand while facing the other direction sends two distinct social signals, and it confuses the recipient. On a more extreme note, this helps explain why psychopaths in movies are scary. A grinning, axe-wielding Jack Nicholson is more disturbing than your average mad axe-man because there’s discordance in his body language.

But there’s more to it than that. Youtube vlogger Vsauce explains in a more general way why we find things creepy. In one of his videos, he claims that a lot of creepiness comes from ambiguity. Humans have survival instincts that tell us if something is safe (like a parent) or dangerous (like a predator). When something straddles both categories in what Vsauce calls “the uncanny valley,” then it’s considered to be creepy because it doesn’t fit into either cognitive box. A picture of a person with an unnaturally wide smile freaks us out, since it is kind of familiar, but borders the unknown. Masks are creepy for the same reason--they hide the wearer’s facial expressions and make their intentions unclear. I experienced this “uncanny valley” phenomenon firsthand when I passed a child mannequin at the mall with an above-average head size.

It was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen, just because it wasn’t quite human.

Now, that’s not exactly body language (unless you can change head size), but there’s a common point to be made here. Issues with euphemisms, body language and the supernatural all stem from the same evolutionary process. We subconsciously rely on our animal instincts all the time to see if the people around us should be trusted or not. If we can creep people out, make strong arguments, get raises, and win wrestling matches just by playing to humanity’s primal urges and fears, then maybe we should put more stock in that side of ourselves. That’s survival 101.

Sources: jewishvirtuallibrary.org, youtube.com/vsauce, youtube.com/thersaorg, fatladysings.us

editors-in-chief

Just One More Semester to Go...

The secrets behind motivation Mariana Lepecki

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t takes a lot of focus and ambition to keep seeking victories even after breaking the world record for the longest winning streak in sumo. Though Chiyonofuji’s strength and technique may make him seem superhuman in the ring, his drive is something most humans share. Take Graded’s athletics program.

Having been a Graded athlete for four years, I’ve seen and participated in my fair share of wins and losses. What never ceases to amaze me is Graded’s spirit. At tournaments I’ve seen teams playing to place in third, fourth or fifth with the same intensity and perseverance as if they were in the final.

But where does this motivation come from? Well, from a lot of places, as it turns out. As a social science, psychology presents many schools of thoughts with a variety of theories to explain and understand human behavior. Yes, that’s right, you have an avalanche of psychobabble coming your way.

One of the first theories presented on how motivation works was the “Instinct Theory.”

According to this theory, humans (as well as other animals) are motivated to behave in certain ways because we are all “programmed” to do so in our genes. This evolution-based behavior is the reason why some animals participate in seasonal migrations—they are never taught to do this, yet they somehow know that they must in order to survive. In humans, this theory can explain many of our instincts, such as attachment, fear, shyness, love, shame and many more. But I know what you must be thinking: motivation can’t all be related to instinct!

And you’re right, it isn’t… which is why this particular theory was set aside in the 1920s.

This brings me to the next theory, “The Arousal Theory of Motivation,” which states that humans are always seeking to maintain an optimum level of psychological arousal, or excitement. This optimum level doesn’t have a set value; rather, it changes depending on the person. For example, if you are a person that has a relatively low optimum excitement level, you might just need to watch TV or go out to lunch with friends to stay engaged. If you have a higher optimum level, though, you may need to participate in thrill-seeking activities like skydiving to keep yourself satisfied. What this means for motivation is that some people might be innately more motivated. It’s kind of an elitist theory, but if it’s valid it means that many humans

only physically have enough willpower to watch TV. That’s a bit extreme, though. More importantly, these levels of arousal can have a huge impact on success. For example, have you ever studied “too much” for a test and done badly on it? Some psychologists believe that this is related to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states that an increased level of psychological arousal can improve performance, but only up to a point. That is why if you study well for a test and feel prepared, your increased motivation will help you stay focused.

But if you study too hard, you lose the benefits of that motivation and lose focus.

The last main theory regarding motivation is known as the “Incentive Theory.” According to this theory, we are motivated do things because we want reinforcements and rewards. There are two main types of this kind of motivation: intrinsic (natural motivation) and extrinsic (man-made motivation). These two conRafaela Goldlust cepts explain why we feel a different type of drive when engaging in our hobbies or doing chores. When we are intrinsically motivated, we are actually excited about doing a particular activity, such as reading, playing an instrument, creating art, or playing a particular sport.

On the other hand, when we are extrinsically motivated, we are not naturally encouraged to do something. We engage in a particular activity because of a reward, be it a grade, money or fame. Experimentation has proven that extrinsic motivators only work for boring tasks. For problems that require creativity, the solver has to actually want to achieve something.

There you have it: a very brief tour of the study of motivation. Normally, I would apologize for possibly causing you any headaches, but I’m intrinsically motivated to learn about these kinds of things. Of course, individually none of these theories can completely explain the phenomenon of motivation. As the years go by, psychology and neuroscience will hopefully present us with even more theories to help demystify this concept. Until that happens, we will just have to suffer through long hours of tedium, and use whatever time we have left to do what we love.

Source: psychology.about.com

the talon • 3

point of view

Generation Who? Generation me belongs to the future Catalina Berretta

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y best friend has a Harvard banner hanging by her bedside. My other best friend can recite, by memory, Yale admittance statistics faster than a college counselor could. Most of the time, it feels like I’m hanging out with foreign versions of Rory Gilmore. For those who are at loss, Rory, whose one goal in life is to get into Harvard, is a character in the beloved show, Gilmore Girls. In any given episode, one is just as likely to see Lorelai with a cup of coffee as Rory with a stack of books, painstakingly writing out reports by hand. It pains me to think she was still a few good years away from the 1-to-1 program.

But, back to my best friends. They’re what you would call “over-achievers.” This entitles leading more than three clubs, actually doing their math homework before its due date and never being satisfied with grades unless it’s above a 94. Most definitely not an overachiever, I feel conflicted about our friendship. On one hand, it has advantages. While navigating the seemingly straightforward labyrinth that is college applications, their expertise (stemming from long-term obsessive research that began in middle school) allowed me to cut my own research in half.

Their hard-working, ambitious personalities are also infectious – I’ve somehow come to find myself leading clubs and aiming (for the most part) for 90+.

I still can’t make any promises about the math homework though. On the other hand, it’s hard to fight back the feeling of wanting to murder them slowly when they complain about how “low” their GPAs are. Or how their 2000+ SAT score is unsatisfactory. Mostly because in my eyes, they are some of the smartest, most hardworking people I’ve met and their achievements are anything but unsatisfactory.

Then there’s me. Without the element of self-pity at play, I can say that I am not an overachiever. Among the masses of high-class, expensively-educated privileged students, I am rather average. But to be frank, I don’t see this as a bad thing. I have areas where I excel and areas where I don’t. And that is fine by me. I am happy being just an achiever.

What does this have to do with our generation? Well, both my friends and I are grouped in the same category: Generation Me. We are all lazy, entitled, selfish and shallow.

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We are all self-absorbed and stupid. We are all materialistic and entitled. Somehow, our generation has become the epitome of everything that is wrong with this world and the term Generation Me carries the weight of that.

But the truth is, you can no longer condense modern generations, especially our generation, into a mere two words. Perhaps in the past, when global networking meant having to stop making phone calls in order to turn on the internet and send an email, one could generalize a group of people because the amount of the world that was in view was smaller. Yet now, we can see it all. The mainstream concept of Generation Me is western-centric, focused so narrowly on the experience of white teenagers and 20-something’s from suburban areas, it ignores the experiences of immigrants and refugees. What about all the teenagers living in Syria, in Saudi Arabia? Are they still part of Generation Me? The answer is yes. Generation Me includes people like my best friends, whose whole lives revolve around their collegebound trajectory. It includes people who’ll go on to take a Gabriel Civita gap year to party in Ibiza. It includes people who are apathetic and could not care less but also people who give their entire hearts into community service. It includes the kids who are fighting for their lives in war-ridden countries and it includes the kids who live in penthouses with three maids.

This isn’t a battle cry for us to come together nor is it a piece defending the flawed aspects of our generation.

It’s a PSA to all those columnists who keep insisting they can define us all in a couple words –as if that were possible. For the same amount of teenagers out there who couldn’t care less, there are twice as many who are fiercely passionate about social justice, twice as many who’ll pursue international relations in order to improve the world.

The term Generation Me is a thing for the future, when the now becomes history and academics in tweed jackets scroll through Instagrams and Facebooks in the distance of at least fifty years allowing them to piece together the puzzle that is our generation.

punto de vista

Educación Transgressora La necesidad de llevar la discusión sobre género a los colegios Marina Cortes

¿

Cuál es la diferencia entre un travesti y un transexual? ¿Qué significa ser crossdresser? ¿Por qué el color rosa es asociado a las niñas y el color azul a los niños? Estas son algunas preguntas que pocas veces nos hacemos y que difícilmente sabemos responder.

Recientemente, vi una película sublime llamada “Tomboy” que precisamente discutía sobre la cuestión de género y la identidad sexual en una niña de diez años que se presentaba como un chico, Michael, cuando se trasladaba a un nuevo barrio. La película mostraba el conflicto interno de la niña y la constante preocupación por la aceptación de su familia y de su grupo de amigos. Finalmente, cuando se descubre el “engaño”, su madre la obliga a confesar a todos sus amigos su sexo biológico, ya que supuestamente, no le sería posible mantener su identidad masculina cuando comenzasen las clases.

Después de ver aquello, me empecé a plantear la necesidad de discutir más abiertamente en colegios y facultades sobre cuestiones de identidad de género y sexualidad para combatir la desagradable exposición de transfobia a la cual deben hacer frente muchos niños y adolescentes.

Como activista en la causa LGBT, estas cuestiones siempre me han preocupado, y desgraciadamente, he podido apreciar que todavía existe mucha discriminación contra el colectivo trans dentro de la propia comunidad gay.

Jef Oliveira, una estudiante de Brasília y activista de derechos humanos que no se reconoce dentro de los géneros binarios, ha accedido a responder algunas preguntas sobre su visión y posición como parte del colectivo T. Talon: Qué significa ser T? Jef: Ser T es, en primer lugar, ser resistencia. La sociedad en la que vivimos es cis normativa, o sea, determina o impone una norma hasta el punto de ser obligado a aceptarse dentro del género que consideran legítimo en relación al sexo biológico. Las personas no saben lo que es el género, el sentido común no concibe ni comprende lo que es el género, algo que llevo observando en mi militancia y espacios. Lo que ellos llaman de hombre o mujer corresponde al sexo, sin tener una noción real de los papeles de género.

Talon: Cómo ves nuestra sociedad en relación al conocimiento de la cultura trans?

Jef: La sociedad brasileña tiene un acceso muy limitado a la información sobre género, por lo que no poseen acceso al debate de personas trans. La poca información que llega, es manipulada por los medios de comunicación. Las travestis son el principal ejemplo, son demonizadas, aquello que no

se debe ser. Son mostradas como personas abyectas de la sociedad, conocidas por sus estigmas y marcadas por tales, prostitutas, drogadictas y criminales. No existe una visibilidad de los hombres trans; de hecho, hay muy pocos debates sobre la trans masculinidad; y, es por ejemplo, mi identidad no binaria, la que no tiene ningún tipo de representación.

Talon: Crees que deberían existir grupos de discusión sobre cuestiones de género en los colegios y que estos deberían ser obligatorios dentro del currículo escolar?

Jef: Desde luego, debe ser debatido con urgencia. El género es una cosa complicada que precisa de atención. La verdad, la concepción del género es una cosa compleja, ya que es una construcción social, algo que las personas llevan modificando a lo largo del tiempo. Es necesario que sea impartido dentro de alguna asignatura, como Derechos Humanos, ya que está relacionado con la dignidad humana.

El estudio llevado a cabo por American Foundation for Suicide Prevention — UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute, en 2011, muestra que el 78% de los encuestados sufrieron violencia física o sexual en el colegio, y que por tanto, tenían un riesgo mucho mayor a cometer suicidio que el resto de la población.

Reconocer este problema abiertamente e incorporar las discusiones de género dentro de la educación es un gran paso para luchar no sólo contra la transfobia, sino también contra el machismo y la desigualdad de género.

De hecho, algunos países escandinavos, han comenzado a incluir centros preescolares dónde se usan pronombres de género neutro y no existe ningún tipo de estereotipo o regla sobre los papeles de género y los comportamientos sociales.

Muchos argumentan que criar a sus hijos con género neutro favorece la adquisición de derechos iguales y ayuda a combatir el prejuicio contra ciertas actitudes masculinas o femeninas.

Hasta qué punto es beneficial educar a un niño con género neutro, es algo controvertido, pero desde luego, llevar el debate a las escuelas y romper los papeles de género desde una edad temprana y dejar de imponer una serie de reglas sobre el comportamiento social relacionado al género es muy necesario.

Es responsabilidad de todos promover una reforma en la educación, crear campañas de concienciación e impulsar modelos sociales más neutrales, o menos estrictos y opresores sobre los papeles de género.

the talon • 5

point of view

Next Generation, Best Generation Our “narcissism”may actually be a good thing Chris Kim

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hen the media talks about my generation, I can’t help but feel as if we’re a completely different sort of human than other generations. Every now and then, there’s an article titled “How to Deal with Millennials”, “Characteristics of Millennials in the Workplace,” or something along those lines. Apparently, we’ve been reduced to a bunch of self-obsessed, narcissistic, entitled children, who don’t know how to deal with living in the “real world,” and look at our phones way too much. There’s a modicum of truth to this sentiment: narcissistic behavioral traits are more common among our generation, at least according to some studies, and there are fewer young people who want to have jobs with greater responsibility. This is backed by research: according to psychologytoday.com, a study found that approximately 70 percent of students today score higher on narcissism and lower on empathy than did the average student thirty years ago. But to me, what society perceives as selfishness isn’t necessarily so horrible. After all, the generations before us were also selfish, just in different ways.

We have the misfortune of having to inherit a world in the middle of an active ecological disaster, because of the exploitation of the earth’s resources that we weren’t part of. The development of communication technology has exposed us to more information than ever before. We’ve been forced to confront the reality of ever decreasing unemployment in the face of economic crisis and increasing automation. The reality is that the world that we live in just isn’t the same as the one we could have lived in if we were born earlier. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just different. But we have to see that if the world changes, then of course the people living in it are going to change too. Sure, we might be more tied to technology than any generation before us, but that in itself isn’t something to be vilified. We now have the ability to be more well-informed than ever before, and I feel pretty confident in saying technology has given us the ability to be the most socially conscious living generation right now. People are now taking an active interest in social justice issues, and are able to be better informed about the dynamic relations between

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different social groups. With our minds constantly bombarded with information, it has become easier to perceive just how endemic and pervasive social problems can be, more so than any era of the past. The scope of information that one could receive in the past was severely limited: if something went unreported on TV, newspapers or radio, then it might as well not have happened. Now, everything is documented, and the distribution of information has become decentralized. It no longer takes millions of dollars worth of equipment to reach a large audience; a few hundreds’ worth of electronics is pretty much all we need, at least materially.

We’re painted as self-obsessed and narcissistic, but in reality we’re probably just showing more signs of healthy self-esteem, and that’s one of the most important things about living as a human being. In reality, behavioral traits associated with better self-esteem also have a risk of being interpreted as signs of narcissism. It’s easy to be dismissed as self-centered when one’s sense of self-worth comes from within, not from the outside.

In general, we’re not particularly worse or better than any other generations, just different.

We’re operating with a different system of values from those used by previous generations, and the generation that has an overwhelming amount of power and control over the media decided that those are not the values they want. They want their millennial generation to be subservient and easy to control, but that’s not happening, so they’re afraid. They want society to vilify us for daring to value ourselves and being different. Most importantly, they want to alienate us; make people think that we’re so completely incomprehensible and foreign that people need guides that tell them how to deal with millennials, as opposed to “normal” human beings that they can just interact with. I, for one, won’t put up with this, and you shouldn’t, either. Don’t let yourself be defined by what the establishment wants you to be; that responsibility falls on you and you alone. Do your thing, not someone else’s; that’s your freedom. And if someone, anyone, tries to take that freedom away, resist it.

point of view

Response to Paris Terror Attacks How to fight back Pedro Werebe

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he world is outraged over the Paris terrorist attacks. There is a growing concern about our world’s security from groups such as ISIS. While many people have taken to social media and other internet venues to provide support for the people of France, others have taken the opportunity to point out other terrorist attacks that have occurred and not been adequately covered by the media. Most notably, people are citing an ISIS attack that occurred in Beirut one day prior where 43 people were killed and 239 wounded. Another commonly discussed story from April saw 147 students shot dead by a Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militant group.

Individuals that post the latter two stories are outraged about the lack of attention that these stories have received and tend to ridicule people on Facebook and Twitter for not having read about them. However, it appears that the people posting these stories are only aware of them in light of the press issued concerning the Paris incident. Thus, rather than calling for outrage against media sources that selectively choose which news to report, people online are attacking one another, calling each other ignorant.

It is important to consider that social media sources are major venues of discussion today. People learn about salient news stories from these sources and are often limited to a discussion of which news stories are trending.

It is helpful for us to all remember that we unfortunately do not have a significant influence on these trends. Furthermore, since none of us were personally able to visit Kenya or Beirut to investigate these reports, we cannot be held responsible for not being aware of what was occurring in these countries. In times of war, it is necessary for us to know what is occurring in each country because this knowledge helps us form opinions and create discourse that will help us determine resolutions to these problems. However, if we keep pointing blame at one another about being ignorant, we are not creating solutions.

Instead, we are contributing to the problem.

It is now important for us to consider how we will act in light of these recent terrorist attacks. Many are doing so by responding in fear to the Muslim population in general.

However, we must remember not to be afraid of a religion for the terrible actions of a few. Have you seen the faces of the refugees in the many videos posted online? They are scared.

Many of them had to leave their homes not only because they do not believe in what terrorist groups are doing, these terrorist groups are also threatening them. We must remember that the Syrian refugees have the same enemy as we do. Ultimately, they are more powerless than we are because there is nothing that they can do to counter them. Their only hope is to escape to a new land, just as many of our forefathers have, in order to escape persecution.

The debate over who is or is not ignorant on Facebook is a problem. It has become easier for people to repost information, claiming that it is their view or that they were one of the first people to have thought a certain way, when this is not the case in reality. Furthermore, there is not a significant enough discussion as to what can be done to improve the current state of affairs. Overall, it is important for each individual to take a step back and think about what they are doing or saying before they post content online. Many comments have been offensive against entire groups of people and even the thoughts that are posted to defend these groups are not without bias. Unfortunately, internet posts will not solve probusinessinsider.com blems. While they are a meaningful way for us to have a dialogue about current events, this can only occur if these comments are wellthought out and reflect factual knowledge and information to support a broadcasted opinion.

Although blaming others for being ignorant about Beirut and Kenya has become a common problem online, it is unreasonable to blame one’s Facebook friends for being misinformed about every topic in existence. For social media to work as an effective news source, it is important to remove the aspect of blame from sharing resources. It is valuable to share news stories that may have been missed by the mainstream media, but only if this is done in a socially responsible manner. Attacking people for imagined ignorance contributes to the creation of unnecessary problems, when what we really need is a solution. It is important to keep having your voice heard, but think before you post.

the talon • 7

news

Bringing MySpace Back How Justin Timberlake is aiding its return

Andrea Ferreira

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n June of 2011, a highly publicized comeback story in the making hit media by storm when the singer, dancer, actor, and comedian, Justin Timberlake, decided to take on a new, entrepreneurial, role. Channeling his character Sean Parker in The Social Network, the artist decided to purchase MySpace with Specific Media Group for 35 million dollars.

This was a rather controversial move, for prior to the purchase MySpace’s popularity had been steeply declining since the launching of Facebook. While in June of 2009 the company was reported to have 1,600 workers, in May of 2011, the company had downsized to a mere 200.

Much like the fashion industry, trends in social media and networking sites are ever present. Supermodel Heidi Klum’s famous saying of “one day you’re in the next day you’re out” was exactly what happened to MySpace. From 2005 to 2008, it was one of the most popular sites in the world, even surpassing Google on the list of most visited sites in 2006. But then something went horribly wrong, as an increasing amount of MySpace profiles were abandoned by users. Specific Media owner and one of the new owners of MySpace, Chris Vanderhook, summed up its decline stating: “Everyone had a lot of fun on MySpace at one point […] It’s easy to kick it and say, oh, yeah, MySpace sucks now, but everyone had fun on MySpace before. It’s just that they didn’t keep pace with technology and they didn’t keep up with the times.” In that same interview with San Jose Mercury News, Vanderhook even goes so far as to say that MySpace’s demise came from the leadership’s mismanagement in “trying to compete with Facebook.” He explained that the plan for MySpace’s comeback would be to return to its roots, and refocus in the music industry. This is where Justin Timberlake came in.

Timberlake was able to offer his expertise from years of working in the music industry to the rest of the MySpace staff. The goal of the new MySpace, as stated by the Vanderhooks, was to provide a way for up and coming artists to gain recognition and a fan base (almost like an online talent show, where the users are the judges). The site also aims to be a place where established artists along the likes of Mac Miller and Timberlake, who has scouted talent on YouTube before and has his own record label, might be able to bring the publicity MySpace needs. He has already influenced the company president to hire people with a name in the music industry including artist Kenna Zemedkun, who has been speaking with other renowned artists like Drake and Kid Cudi to get them to join MySpace’s campaign.

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In June of this year, MySpace re-launched to an estimated 25 million users in the United States and abroad. Pre-existing profiles and data have been deleted; so old users interested in returning to MySpace will be automatically redirected to the new account. The new website seems to already be a hit with users in everything from site design to music sharing. In terms of distinguishing itself from Facebook, a profile on MySpace allows you to pick a “profile song” which plays when someone visits your profile. Similarly to its older version. it also allows users to select their “Top 8” friends. Other pros listed by users include the expansive library of free music. MySpace users do not have an official wall, and instead post any status on to their stream, which includes updates from all of their friends’ streams. On the down side, while music sharing is made available this way, some users complained that this streaming system became annoying as in addition to mixes made by friends, the stream also shows updates every time they listen to a song. While you can eliminate any update in your stream, many users complained that this feature was time consuming, and suggested an easier way to filter musicians. Along with this, many have stated that the new MySpace is confusing, cluttering too much information that users do not want to see on the stream while not giving enough options to update user information. Some people even have complained about the new site, claiming that it was just a way for Justin Timberlake to promote himself through the Internet.

Despite these negative reviews, many agree that the concept of the new MySpace is something unique to most other social networks in existence. In fact, most have stated that the new MySpace is more comparable to Spotify or Pandora than Facebook or Twitter. In terms of music sharing, most artists have agreed that MySpace is more accessible, though it still lacks more active users. While it is too early to tell if MySpace will make its big comeback, the network has already reported some small signs of growth, with an increase from 24 million to 36 million active users.

Sources: mercurynews.com, nytimes.com, bet.com

news

Clueless Cops

How the U.S. justice system is attacking itself Annie Groth

W

hoever decided witnesses should swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth should have considered making law enforcement agents do it first. The last several months have been marked by unwanted media exposure for some policemen and even judges who were not rightfully following the law. For those who work with the law on a daily basis there is one main trap to be avoided: do not take justice into your own hands.

Detective Louis Scarcella should have kept this in mind before he tampered with various pieces of evidence.

Almost 15 years after his retirement, the detective is being investigated for some 50 homicide convictions by the Conviction Integrity Unit after various complaints were made by people in different cases against Scarcella’s conduct. The detective’s name was first looked into after David Ranta, a man convicted of killing a rabbi, was freed after spending 23 years in jail. Prosecutors determined the wrongful conviction arose from flawed police work by Scarcella and a partner who did not follow the lead on a stronger suspect in the case. A more thorough investigation also discovered the two detectives let incarcerated criminals smoke crack and cocaine and visit prostitutes in return for their incrimination of Ranta. One witness also told investigators Scarcella had told him who to pick from a lineup.

“People will look for blame,” said John O’Mara, who leads the Conviction Integrity Unit. “Our goal isn’t to look for blame.

Our goal is to correct injustice.”

And indeed there will be a lot of correction needed. The police also noticed a link between Scarcella’s cases: a common eyewitness was conveniently the only witness to various homicide investigations the detective had been assigned to. Teresa Gomez, both a prostitute and drug addict, testified she saw Robert Hill, a drug dealer, commit two separate murders. In the first murder she told the court she had seen Hill shoot another man through a keyhole in the door of a closet she was hiding in. Hill was acquitted after his family hired a private investigator who proved there was not even a keyhole in the closet Gomez claimed to be in. In the second murder charge against Hill, Gomez was once again the only witness to the crime but had several inconsistencies in her testimony with what the evidence showed, including from

12 • the talon

which angle the victim was shot.

Though investigations have not yet been concluded, Scarcella is not the only one who brought unwanted attention to his actions. Judge G. Todd Baugh of Montana has recently brought national attention to himself after he sentenced a convicted rapist to a mere 31 days in prison. Stacey Dean Rambold, 49, was accused of three instances of nonconsensual sex with Cherice Moralez, who was at the time his ninth-grade student. During the judicial process, Moralez took her own life at the age of sixteen and prosecutors entered into what is known as a “deferred prosecution agreement.” This meant all charges against Rambold would be dropped if he completed a sex-offender correction program. Rambold, though, fell short of his side of the agreement when he came into contact with children (his nieces and nephews) and had relationships with women he did not report to his counselors, clear violations of his terms.

That was when Judge Baugh and Rambold met. After prosecutors took Rambold to court for violating his agreement, Judge Baugh decided his infractions were too minor to be seriously considered and at one point even mentioned the victim “looked older than her chronological age”. He then did the unimaginable: he cleared all of Rambold’s 15-year-sentence except for 31 days.

Outraged, prosecutors appealed the judge’s decision and Baugh had to overrule his own conviction after he acknowledged what he had done was technically illegal. For the crimes Rambold had been convicted of, wikimedia.org the minimum sentence was two years, so the judge changed his sentence accordingly but did not extend it beyond 24 months. Needless to say, Cherize Moralez’s mother was outraged by the entire process saying how she could not believe “how lucky [Rambold] is.”

Because of how some law enforcement agents act, innocent people are being sent to jail while others are not receiving the punishment they deserve. Sometimes this the fault of one person, but examples like those of Detective Scarcella and Judge Baugh also show how individual mistakes can seep through the cracks of a judicial foundation. Because any justice system is far from perfect, it is still important that those who police are also policed.

Sources: nytimes.com, cnn.com

news

The Death of the Album?

Continuous decline in sales threaten the form

Paula Schulman

U

ntil the mid-1980s, listening to music was almost a completely different experience than it is nowadays. Millions of songs and albums are now just a click of a button away, while only a few decades ago, albums were bought in shops, played on turntables, and appreciated as a full package—the cover, lyrics, art, and meaning combining to form twelve songs.

The most-sold album in history is Michael Jackson’s Thriller, with 50 million copies, followed by Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, with 45 million. According to data measured by Nielsen Soundscan, U.S. album sales fell to 4.49 million in the final week of October 2013, the newest low since 1991. At number one is Katy Perry’s Prism, selling less than 300,000 copies, which was still more than the next eight titles combined (including Miley Cyrus’s Bangerz selling 43,000 copies and Elton John’s The Diving Board with around 11,000 sales). “The album is dying in front of our very eyes,” wrote industry commentator Bob Lefsetz. “Everybody’s interested in the single, and no one’s got time to sit and hear your hour-plus statement.” As it turns out, the recording industry makes about 90% of its total revenue from full-length albums, meaning the continuous drop in album sales (from 800 million in 2002 to 316 million a decade later) could be signaling the end of the line for the classic form.

Some analysts blame cheap or free streaming services such as Spotify and YouTube for the extensive declines. In spite of the harsh disapproval of Spotify by various songwriters, arguing that streaming services pay so poorly they “threaten what remains of a meager living,” streaming now accounts for 16% of the music business’s revenues.

Raising hopes that a long-sought recovery might have begun, recording industries said in February 2013 that their global sales had risen for the first time since 1999. While the miniscule increase of 0.3%, or $16.5 billion, was a long ways away from the $38 billion taken in at the peak of the industry over a decade ago, the figures reinforce the belief that a shift may be occurring. After years of attempting to compete with the temptation of online piracy, digital sales, as well as other new sources of income, grew enough in 2012 to counterbalance the continuing drop in CD sales. As said by Edgar Berger, chief executive of the international arm of Sony Music Entertainment, “at the beginning of the digital revolution it was common to say that digital was killing music. Now, it could be said that digital is saving it.”

Digital revenue continues to come in a variety of forms, including sales of downloaded singles and albums from

services such as Apple’s iTunes and, as a more promising source, subscription-based offerings. This includes services such as Spotify, Rhapsody and Muve Music, to which the number of subscribers grew by 44% to 20 million in the past year.

With consumers who are tired of buying single-track downloads turning to streaming services, the question arises: is this good or bad for the album? Ed Christman, of the industry publication Billboard, said there was no definitive data to show that streaming was cannibalizing traditional sales, but he also added that in terms of revenue, it would take 2,000 streams to equal one full album. “Is the album going away?” said Christman. “People have been speculating about that forever. It’s up to the artists to decide what happens to it.”

On the other hand, analysts have attributed much of the decline in album sales to the changing expectations of music listeners. Daniel Hopkins of the column Ask a Failed Musician in the Dallas Observer, said in an article geared towards every new, troubled band: “Don’t put out an album. Seriously. Stop it. Established bands backed by massive marketing machines like U2 or Radiohead can afford to do it. You cannot.” Hopkins argues that instead of wasting time and money on the release of one huge slab of music, the average local act might be better off putting out a series of shorter recordings in the hope of combating the “average person’s short attention span,” said Hopkins. “After a few months, it sinks in: Nobody cares anymore. You have no new music to put out because you just threw every song you had on some expensive record, and you’ve dropped below the radar.”

In spite of all these contentions, there is a small ray of hope—the revival of vinyl. In various countries including Britain, Germany, Spain, and the US, vinyl sales are running 39% above last year’s level. Unlike the first revival in the late 1990s, which was driven largely by dance music, these days the most avid vinyl enthusiasts are mostly interested in rock. Many attribute this sudden spike of popularity to a mixture of convenience and beauty. Several vinyl records come with codes for downloading the album from the Internet and fans like having something large and heavy to hold in their hands. Some even think that half the records sold are not actually played. Other than this, vinyl comes with a distinctive factor; as explained by Steve Redmond, a spokesman for Britain’s annual Record Store Day, “it is just cooler than a download.”

Sources: theguardian.com, businessinsider.com, nytimes.com, dallasobserver.com, economist.com

the talon • 13

news

LAX Shooting

Gun violence endures in America Faria Nasruddin

L

AX was experiencing its normal chaos on a Friday morning.

The check-in desk line was long and passengers’ bags were thrown onto the belt. Passengers ran through security and complained—all normal. Paul Anthony Ciancia, a 23 year-old Catholic school graduate from New Jersey, walked into LAX and took out an assault rifle. He opened fire in the airport, killed a TSA officer, Gerardo Hernandez, and wounded many others.

Ciancia was shot in the chest after he continued to walk briskly through the airport. Saturday afternoon, a federal complaint was filed, charging Ciancia with murder and commission of violence in an international airport.

Eyewitnesses later stated that Ciancia had calmly walked up to people and asked, “Hey, are you TSA?” Leon Saryan, a traveler at the airport, said, “I just shook my head, and he keep going.” According to the Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti, he had enough ammunition to kill everyone in that terminal.

Authorities are still trying to piece the case together as Ciancia had no apparent motive for shooting the TSA officers. Ciancia had no history of mental illness in New Jersey and his family members told the police that he didn’t seem troubled the last time they saw him. They also stated that he was a quiet kid in high school who normally kept to himself. Ciancia’s family did acknowledge that he had seemed unhappy with his move to Los Angeles and that they did receive texts in which he seemed “angry” and “rambling.”

When Ciancia was hospitalized, there was a note found on him when he was ranting. In the rant he constantly referenced anti-TSA and anti-government claims, as well as the New World Order, a conspiracy theory that international elites are planning to form a one-world government. Though his note focused on anger towards the TSA specifically, notably saying he wanted to kill the TSA, FBI Special Agent David Bowdich told reporters, “we are currently investigating his background and more about him” in hopes that more information unfolds.

The shooting has made officials rethink their policies, such as the positioning of police officers and whether they should give guns to the TSA. Recently LAX made the decision to move police officers from behind the TSA security checkpoint to in front of it, where they would take on the responsibility for both the arrival and departure floors of the terminal.

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According to the airport police chief at LAX, Patrick Gannon, “the threat … at the airport does not exist behind the security at that podium, the threat exists from the curbline on.” Also recently, police officers complained to the union about being bored with the assignment. This could have been why they were using their phones, iPads or reading books on the job, according to the TSA management. The agreement between the police and the TSA was that officers should be stationed outside the TSA checkpoint, but never more than two minutes away. Despite the officers being bored with their job, Gannon states that “they did what they were supposed to do.”

One possible solution to this grave shooting would be to arm the TSA officers. In the past, airlines used to focus their customer service on warmth and friendliness, but after 9/11 and large scale terrorism erupted it was clear that their job changed—it became about protecting people and getting them from point A to point B. The majority of travelers would insist that the TSA be armed to protect them from terrorism, but isn’t arming your wikimedia.org public service workers contributing to the gun violence in America?

If a TSA agent has a gun then it would make logical sense to also give guns to other public service workers, like bus drivers. Giving these people guns increases the chance of actual gun violence; it doesn’t eliminate it. Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security Secretary, states that he thinks it is “a big mistake, because you have literally hundreds and hundreds of police officers roaming every major airport in America, and I don’t think arming another 50,000 would have prevented this incident from happening.” A former TSA agent, E.T. Webster, is also not in favor of arming TSA agents. He states, “Who do you shoot at? There’s a crowd of people at these gates. You have youngsters, oldsters, and the whole nine yards. I don’t think that will solve anything.”

As much as terrorism is a concern, there is also a real question within America about gun violence. Gun violence is a major issue in the United States, as every day an average of 289 people are shot. A growing gun culture has had devastating results in this case.

Source: cnn.com

news

Obamacare Beautiful in theory

Pedro Werebe

O

bama, Obama, Obama… Five years ago he promised the United States that he would finally implement healthcare for everyone, something that up to that point had only been a distant vision.

Obamacare was an innovation for America. Before Obamacare, health insurance companies and the United States government did not support a public-health system, since they believed such a system would collapse. This view ignored countries like Canada and France, whose public health systems have proven successful. Previously, American health insurance companies would grant coverage to healthy people but not to sick people. The health insurance companies, being motivated by profit, were looking out for their own benefit instead of working for the public’s benefit, so they saw that when healthy people with no medical illnesses bought health care, more cash would flow in and not out. They would not have to spend a dime caring for people who were completely healthy. However, healthy people would be hesitant to give away money for free and buy health insurance; conversely, sick people would either be charged massive amounts of money per month or not receive health insurance at all. In such circumstances, sick people who did not receive health insurance would go directly to emergency rooms, since U.S. law forces hospitals to treat patients regardless of insurance coverage and only ask for payment after treatment. Eventually, many hospitals went into debt, because people without health insurance could not afford to pay their hospital bills.

In 2008, Barack Obama campaigned on the idea that everyone, including the sick, should be able to buy health insurance at a reasonable price. This principle was one of the main reasons he was elected president. When Mr. Obama entered office in 2009, he proposed that everyone had to buy health insurance, not just the sick but also the healthy, and if people did not do so, they would be fined. Health insurance companies also had the obligation to provide the public with full health insurance, including coverage for a comprehensive range of conditions from maternity care to mental healthcare to eyeglasses, regardless of the medical status of those seeking insurance coverage. This benefitted everyone: the health insurance companies would be flush with cash that they could keep from healthy people that did not need health care, and this meant that they could offer health insurance to sick people at a lower price. This sounds like a win-win situation. So what’s

the catch?

Before Obamacare, individuals had the option either to buy a full package of health insurance to cover all expenses or to buy a cheaper, more limited package that targeted more general healthcare but didn’t cover extras like psychologists and birth control. What Obamacare does is obligate the insurance companies to offer the public only a full package of health insurance benefits. This means that health insurance costs will go up, especially for the young and healthy who may not need birth control (for example, if they’re gay), psychologists (if they’re sane), or maternity care (if they’re men).

Another problem that Obamacare is facing is the website for citizens to sign up for health insurance. On this site, insurance companies will list their prices so customers can shop for the best deal. The problem with this is that, instead of the website being created by a private firm, which would have the incentive to do it well since private firms profit from good work, government bureaucrats built the websites themselves. As a result, the website has been a debacle. The complexity of flickr.com listing all possible insurance plans and registering millions of Americans was too much for the incompetent bureaucrats to handle, creating a huge embarrassment for Obama.

Just when it seems there can be no more problems, another one arises. How do insurance companies compete with each other if they have to offer the same package? Well, they lower prices by cutting down on the number of doctors who are part of their network of providers. So, many people are finding that, even if the website miraculously works for them, there are very few doctors for them to see and oftentimes the doctor that they have been seeing for years isn’t part of the network provided by the insurance company whose plan they are able to afford. However, recently, President Obama said he will allow insurance companies to extend existing policies, an announcement that many were relieved to hear.

Overall, Obamacare is amazing on paper. Yet, as shown in practice, it’s become a mess, and President Obama has to find a new way to either make Obamacare work or eat humble pie and admit defeat. Obamacare is a classic case of the law of unintended consequences: even when you have good intentions, things are bound to collapse in unforeseen ways.

Sources: obamacarefacts.com, huffingtonpost.com

the talon • 15

features

The King of the Ring The “Little Big Man of Sumo” and his career Clara Bezerra

O

ne thousand forty-five career victories. Ten years in the top ranks of sumo. Fify-three consecutive wins in 1988.

Eight hundred seven victories in the top makuuchi division.

One hundred eighty-three centimeters and 127 kilos of pure talent. Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, known as The Wolf, managed to break many records in sumo wrestling despite his relatively small body structure, winning more tournaments in his thirties than any other wrestler. Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, no one in sumo could match Chiyonofuji’s skill, agility, and strength.

Born Mitsugu Akimoto in Hokkaido, Japan in 1955, Chiyonofuji got his “ring name” from those of two previous yokozuna—wrestlers who have been awarded the highest rank in sumo—Chiyonoyama and Kitanofuji. Although his stature and shoulder injury put him at a disadvantage, Chiyonofuji was invited to join the Kokonoe stable of sumo wrestlers in Tokyo. There, he excelled, quickly improving in speed and strength. He became the 58th yokozuna in 1981 after winning two successive tournaments. Eight years later, he won his 968th career fight, beating the record and receiving a National Medal of Honor.

Inside the ring, Chiyonofuji appeared to have a mental advantage over his adversaries. According to The New York Times, he was known as “The Wolf” for his solitary habits, and because he would “dump his opponents out of the clay ring and then pause, for an electric moment, to glower over his beaten foe.” Chiyonofuji differed from his opponents who, weighing as much as 236 kilos, centered their tactics on force. Extremely focused, he would take advantage of any of his adversaries’ minor concentration lapses to flip his “giant foes…out of the 15-foot-wide ring” with “muscular, ballet-like grace.” Whether he won or lost, he almost always left the arena displaying little or no emotion.

This does not mean, however, that The Wolf did not excel over his opponents physically. Throughout his career he used more than 41 different wrestling techniques, in particular the overarm throw, uwatenage. In fact, his use of this trademark strategy was so effective it was nicknamed the “death grip.”

On May 12, 1991, nearing the age of 36, Chiyonofuji was defeated by an eighteen-year-old sumo sensation named Takahanada. He retired two days later. “I have reached my physical limit and lost my vitality,” he said. “Last November

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I knew that I had reached my limit, so I was ready to retire.”

However, he remains active in the sumo world as head of the Kokonoe stable, the same stable he trained in.

Chiyonofuji practically has rock-star status in Japan, and he is venerated by sumo enthusiasts everywhere. I wondered, though, if even those who aren’t familiar with him can sense his reputation and the authority he commands. To do this, I showed Graded students a video of his 1000th victory against sumo wrestler Hananokuni. These were their reactions: Mariana Lepecki: I thought that it was interesting how, even though it was his 1000th victory, he didn’t really display any excitement, which shows how focused he was.

Daniel Almeida: While I’m not a sumo wrestling expert, if I had to bet on one of them winning, I’d put my money on the larger guy. To see Chiyonofuji win was delightful and surprising, as it goes to show how amazing he was.

Adam Fertig: He seems pretty chill. youtube.com

Kevin Bengtsson: Whoa. Whoa, man!

Whoa! That was super intense. One thousand victories... That’s more than 999 victories, man. An astounding feat. That inspires me to aspire to a goal of my own: live to one thousand years of age. I hope I can do it!

Pedro Qurino: That was his reaction?! He should have been much happier. A thousand victories is an amazing number. But his reaction is understandable; he is used to winning.

Isa Bruder: I am staring at the screen in a very confused manner and trying to understand what is going on, but I think it is interesting how the crowd seems more excited than Chiyonofuji.

I would think he would be the most excited to win.

When interviewed after his 1000th victory, Chiyonofuji affirmed that his next goal was to win match 1001. He achieved this and much more, since his prowess and mental resolve are visible and inspirational. This all goes to show that, while he no longer competes, The Wolf will always be a champion.

Sources: nytimes.com; archive.metropolis.co.jp; youtube.com

features

Save the Sushi!

Sustainable fishing: why it is important and what we can do to help Pooja Singhi

N

o stranger to the Graded food-lover, sushi is one of the most talked-up foods in our hallways. From the main attraction at prom last year to the go-to party meal, sushi holds a prominent place in our community. However, our desire for this popular food was challenged recently by the Global Issues Network’s presentation on sustainable fish. Although I am a vegetarian, this presentation jolted me, inspiring me to do some more research on the topic of sustainable fish.

Created at the beginning of the nineteenth century

by Hanaya Yohei, sushi is a Japanese food consisting of cooked rice and other ingredients, usually raw fish or other seafood.

It has exponentially risen in international popularity during the past few years, especially here in São Paulo. As stated

by Casson Trenor, environmental activist and self-proclaimed “sushi-preneur,” “sushi didn’t arise as this kind of thoughtless, high-level, mechanized industry like it is now. It arose in nineteenth century Japan as a way to honor what was available during the season, in that particular place and time. It was a way to give reverence to what was available, to save and preserve for leaner times.” So what’s the problem with our eating so much sushi? Why are there organizations advocating for change, and new restaurants trying to save the ocean?

It turns out that the majority of the fish wrapped in that dark seaweed we know so well is not sustainable fish; the majority of this fish drains the ecosystem rather than preserves it. In other words, the majority of this fish kills the ocean. According to the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF), 75% of fish stocks are harvested faster than they can reproduce, with 80% fully exploited or in decline. Scientists estimate that, by 2050, world food fisheries will collapse entirely. In particular, sushi is one of the major forces that has put our underwater friends in danger. The SOSF suggests that, “coveted for their dense, dark red meat used in sushi, known as “toro,” bluefin (the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna) support an unsustainable $7.2 billion industry that has driven tuna stocks to the brink of collapse. In 2009, WWF [World Wide Fund for Nature] predicted that without drastic measures, Atlantic bluefin will disappear by 2012.” These statistics are shocking.

Unless somehting changes, that steaming fish filet and those delicious fish sticks will completely disappear in less than 40 years. Even more disturbing, those toro rolls could disappear any day. These alarming calculations lead me to wonder: what is being done to advocate for sustainable fishing?

In recent years, numerous organizations such as the Marine Stewardship Council have sprung up, making sustainable seafood accessible to consumers and raising awareness as

to why it is important. In addition, individuals such as Trenor have opened up sustainable sushi restaurants. These include Tataki in San Francisco, California, and Bamboo Sushi in Portland, Oregon. Other people have been even more revolutionary like chef Dan Barber, who declares that a farm that feeds its fish chicken is not sustainable. Barber has explored a revolutionary farming method in Spain that has reached the epitome of eco-friendliness: the ability to self-sustain. Fish feed off of what they would be eating in the wild: plant biomass, phytoplankton, and zooplankton. Moreover, birds and other wildlife are attracted to the fishing farms, not drawn away from them.

After learning about all these initiatives being taken to save the fish, I began to wonder: what can I do to save sushi? How can I, as a Graded student without my own restaurant or organization, help? As many of you know, one subsection of the Graded Global Issues Network group, has decided upon sustainable fishing as their project. In fact, “Fisheries depletion” is one of Jean-François Rischard’s 20 global problems. This GIN subsection, led by Mila Lara and Camila Isern, is trying to change our school’s fish to those that come from a more sustainable source.

Upon being asked what we can do to save the fish, Mila answered, “The first thing we can do is figure out what species of fish are endangered and avoid consuming those.

It is important to ask where the fish are coming from, from what source. For example, many of the fish from Chile come from fish farms, which are not sustainable. Asking these kinds of questions is easier especially when you go abroad because many supermarkets tell you exactly the source of their fish.”

So next time you order that temaki or get ready to dunk that California roll into soy sauce, make sure to ask where the fish is coming from, make sure you are saving our environment rather than destroying it. With enough support, we can preserve food fisheries; we can prevent 2050 from being sushi’s doomsday.

Mila optimistically adds, “I see that people are getting more aware than they were a couple years ago and that is helping. I see that organizations are trying to be international and reach out to more places. This gives hope because it means that people are trying to do something about sustainable fishing.”

Sources: tedxtalks.ted.com, saveourseas.com., ted.com, bamboosushi.com

the talon • 17

features

Stark Trek Into Darkness Just as great or not good enough?

Sylvia Yang

T

he last edition of The Talon was one that marked an important milestone, and edition numbers will no longer be double-digits. But, setting aside this achievement, the 101st edition is also meaningful, as it brings the mentality of maintaining consistency in terms of quality and effort. “101,” therefore, holds more meaning to it than the simple, initial association I made between the number and one of my favorite childhood shows: Zoey 101. After learning about Chiyonofuji’s reaction to his 100st victory and with it the importance of persisting after milestones, I was reminded of the sci-fi franchise Star Trek and the great success it generated worldwide.

The original show that marked the start of this great cult phenomenon aired on NBC on September 8, 1966.

Since then, various spin-off shows, film adaptations, and other variations—in the form of games, figurines, novels, toys, and comics—have been spawned. There are even online databases devoted to everything Star Trek, which shows the huge fan-base and popularity it has. I am not old enough to know about or have watched the show when when it was initially released; even so, I am definitely aware of the show, due to its more recent versions.

Considering the amount of Star Trek adaptations, the movie I will discuss specifically is the most recent one, which came after much wait. Released on May 16th of this year and directed by J.J. Adams, Star Trek into Darkness is the twelfth installment in the film franchise, and a sequel to the 2009 Star Trek movie. Many fans were anxious for its release, with high hopes of experiencing the greatness of the original. But did the movie stay true to the standards created by the previous installments, or was it a disappointment?

The story of the new movie takes place one year after its prequel, and therefore the plots are linked. Because of this, one might not understand the story fully if he or she hasn’t watched the previous movie or doesn’t know about the series.

The film explores relationships within the Enterprise crew and its battle against John Harrison, an intergalactic terrorist who is waging war on the Federation, the interstellar federal republic, for unknown personal reasons. The movie is visually astounding with great appeal, but had excessive lens flares that some viewers saw as annoying. It is embellished with thrilling

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action sequences and eye-catching aesthetics. Overall, it is an excellent movie and one that will certainly keep the audience captivated throughout.

But, like every other movie, not all viewers were pleased with Star Trek into Darkness. Disapproval was directed at what were seen as obvious flaws of the film, fueled by the legacy and expectations set by the previous adaptations. Disappointed comments, therefore, were centered the fact that the film was apparently not living up to the standards of the previous adaptations.

I have never been a devoted fan of any of the franchise, but I am interested by its storyline and concept. Although I enjoy watching movies very much, I am never too nitpicky about flaws. So, by no means am I the greatest critic for cinematography. However, I can say with certainty that the movie was captivating enough to keep me watching until the end. On the other hand, I do understand where the hardcore Star Trek fans are coming from when they say they aren’t satisfied with the movie, after waiting Carolina Von Mutius four years for a sequel to the series and the prolongation of the whole cult phenomena itself. It is always difficult to live up to high expectations, especially ones as widespread and popular as that of Star Trek. It seems that, when one reaches a certain milestone in its history, the audience always desires something superior than the previous one. Whether one likes it or not, Star Trek has reached many milestones in its history, and this new installment is just another one of them.

Now, the connection between Star Trek and The Talon might not seem clear, and the tangent about Star Trek may be deemed irrelevant; but, bare with me, I am trying to make a point. Unlike the divided responses regarding whether or not the new Star Trek movie was able to keep up its reputation, I believe The Talon will celebrate its important and continue to strive to reach the same success it has had until now (what can I say; sappy endings seemed appropriate for this significant edition.) Edition 101 will not be an impediment or a setback, but a stepping-stone for continual progress.

Sources: imdb.com, rottentomatoes.com

features

Be Historical, not Hysterical On perseverance in Japanese culture Karen Kandelman

T

he memory of attacks by kamikaze, members of the Japanese air force who would crash their aircrafts into enemy targets during World War II, still makes people shudder.

To give you a notion of what these would look like today, our modern equivalent might be seen as terrorist bombings, regularly exploding and killing innocent civilians. Note, however, that this parallel is not accurate. The suicidal pilots represented a national military force, a country, while terrorist bombings are perpetrated by many different groups without a unified goal. In any case, the significance behind the Kamikaze attacks was that they represented the length a country would go to, to try to achieve a goal.

Despite the fact that Japan brings us wonderful innovations and popular goods like sushi, toys and advanced technology, there was a time when they brought the world great tragedy. Officers systematically planned military suicides, and those who flew the planes were aware that they were going ahead with this strategy. As Commander Peter B. Mersky maintains in his article in the Naval Aviation News, “The Kamikazes: Japanese Suicide Units,” “ideals of family honor, patriotism and… devotion to the emperor” were paramount.

Another sign of relentless perseverance from the Japanese is evident when they refused to surrender as one of the Axis Powers in World War II. Japanese propaganda during this period was centered on the motto “Asia for Asians,” which meant they would not give up their acquired territories in the Pacific region because they did not want Western imperialist powers to intervene. Unfortunately, this behavior was one of the factors that led to the devastating 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is vital to also consider, however, the position and guilt of the United States in these circumstances: Truman did not want American soldiers to die in battle against the Japanese army, and instead accepted the toxic detonation on civilians and land. In short, although Japan may not have anticipated that its military choices would lead to those bombings, there have been instances in which Japanese perseverance proved to be negative and detrimental. But there also exists another type of Japanese perseverance that is vibrant and naturally flourishes in their culture.

Japanese dedication can be seen in the unique phenomenon denominated habatsu. Habatsu, as explained

by Alan Bird in the Encyclopedia of Japanese Business and Management, is a social mindset that structures companies as well as the Japanese lifestyle. Bird outlines the construction of corporations in Japan saying that decision-making is done in small clusters. Once one is integrated into a habatsu, then he or she must follow its goals and rules even if those are at

odds with their own personal conscience or even company policies. This can be destructive to some extent but, even so, loyalty and commitment seem to be an overarching theme in this phenomenon, which is many times viewed as honorable and moral.

A blog entry by Literature and Composition professor Taras A. Sak entitled “Reflections on Life in Japan” describes his interaction with a Japanese peer. Sak suggests that when he started talking deridingly about an esteemed professor, the student became uncomfortable and didn’t want to continue the conversation. Sak demonstrated how this faction mentality and devotedness to authority overrode what the student may have also been thinking. Moreover, it shows how habatsu, or more specifically called gakubatsu in a university setting, can disseminate to different environments. This sort of behavior can be seen in other settings, which can even include Japanese politics, where parties are in continuous rivalry because allegiance to one’s own camp supersedes any collaboration between parties.

The habatsu setup is highlighted when one visits selected Japanese cities on weekends. A tourist is awestruck when first encountering the variety of groups that gather in public spaces. These cliques, if you will, sometimes even meet in outlandish costumes and have a collective objective.

The Elvis Riders, for example, park their motorcycles in the middle of a square, listen to Elvis music, and dress like Elvis while greasing their hair. Others dress up in anime costumes and simulate fights, or act out favorite sections of comic book scenes. While some impersonate famous characters or celebrities, others change their personalities entirely and live alternatively by putting on baby-like outfits or going to themed restaurants. Whatever it may be that they do, these groups have a commitment outside the already habatsu-infused workplace.

Finally, let us consider the history of Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, who was for decades the world’s greatest sumo wrestler. His notable perseverance led him to dominate the millennia-old sport, as he followed his culture’s trait of habatsu. He was loyal to his craft and his wrestling colleagues.

Chiyonofuji showed diligence, a quality in the Japanese society that, despite being somewhat intense at times, helped him develop a strong work ethic.

Sources: daijob.com, who.int, japanintercultural.com, history.navy.mil, Robert McMahon’s “Cold War: A Very Short Introduction”

the talon • 19

features

The Curious Case of Ketchup Want good ketchup? Tough luck!

Daniel Almeida

Y

ou have been eating bad ketchup all your life. But, well, so have I. To be frank, my neighbor, your neighbor and practically everyone you know is also guilty of this crime. Come to think of it, if I had asked the names of more than three brands of ketchup, not many of us would have made it past Heinz. This begs the question: if mustard comes in dozens of varieties, why has ketchup stayed the same?

Ketchup made its debut in the nineteenth century, when the American love for the tomato met the English tradition of sauces to produce a staple of the culinary realm. Unfortunately, not many of us have tasted nineteenthcentury ketchup, characterized by its thin texture, strong tomato taste and use of vinegar. Modern ketchup as we know it came from a dispute over the use of benzoate, a preservative widely used in nineteenth century condiments. When the chief of the Bureau of Chemistry in the Department of Agriculture announced that this preservative was not safe, the ketchup world was divided. On one side stood the traditional ketchup establishment, arguing that it was impossible to make ketchup without the use of benzoates.

On the other, a band of unorthodox ketchup manufacturers maintained that they could make ketchup through the clever application of culinary science.

By increasing the concentration of vinegar in their benzoate-free ketchup sauces, essentially pickling the tomato, they were able to make superior ketchup. This new, arguably better-tasting ketchup made benzoate condiments obsolete, and the rebel ketchup makers emerged victorious. The leader of this group was none other than Henry J. Heinz.

By overthrowing the condiment establishment, Heinz can be credited as the man who changed the flavor of ketchup to what it is today. Years of refining led to the ketchup taste that we know and love: initially sweet and salty, followed by sour, and finishing off with umami and bitter flavors. Not many products in our local supermarket can dominate our sensory spectrum like that.

It might not be a surprise that a typical five year-old will consume roughly 60% more ketchup than a typical 40 yearold. At first glance, Heinz’s success with this demographic seems to have no correlation with his ability to create ketchup that covered and overwhelmed all of our gustatory senses. But there

20 • the talon

is a lesson to be learned from the culinary preferences of five year-olds. Young children, when confronted with strange options on their plates, tend to shy away from new tastes. Cod? Yuck. Spinach? Ew. Five year-olds, therefore, want to turn the unfamiliar into the familiar. What better way to overpower the taste of spinach than to add a dollop of ketchup, a condiment that delivers sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami all at the same time?

The Heinz Company now holds a virtual monopoly in the tomato condiment industry. But some, like entrepreneur Jim Wigon, think they can do better. Wigon has a simple vision: create tastier ketchup and build an empire of his own. If only it were that simple. He travels the United States peddling his World’s Best Ketchup, in six flavors, to high-end grocery stores and specialty supermarkets. If you are one of his lucky customers, he’ll pull you in close, show you to a box of toothpicks and a dozen or funnytshop.com so open jars of his ketchup and will encourage you to try them all. If you don’t, he’ll beam, “you’re doomed to eat Heinz the rest of your life.”

In a regular demonstration, he’ll impale a meatball on a toothpick, dip it in some of his ketchup and hand it to a potential customer. World’s Best has a higher ratio of tomato solids to liquid than Heinz’s, and the maple syrup gives it an unmistakable sweet kick. “You know why you like it so much?” he’ll say, “Because you’ve been eating bad ketchup all your life!”

But how is Wigon supposed to compete with Heinz?

His ketchups are too expensive to be competitive, and he just doesn’t have the reputation Heinz does. No matter how good it is, not many of us have heard about World’s Best Ketchup.

But, at the end of the day, that’s not really Wigon’s fault, or ours. Many brands of ketchup have tried adding variety to the tastes that they offered, but ultimately failed. What was true with mustard and the hotdog just didn’t apply to hamburgers and ketchup. Unfortunately, no one seems to know why.

Sometimes, ketchup is just ketchup.

Source: Malcolm Gladwell, “What the Dog Saw”

features

Classe de Atualidades enfrente a atualidade Considerações sobre Cracolândia Classe de Atualidades

D

e acordo com a CNN, órgão de imprensa mundialmente conhecido, o Brasil está entre os três melhores destinos turísticos para 2014. O que a imprensa omite, no entanto, é a miséria de grande parte da nossa população. Já foi à Sala São Paulo, por exemplo? Localizada no Centro, é a sede dos eventos mais prestigiados da cidade. A Sala é a quintessência de uma metrópole de opulência e rica cultura. Dela, contudo, bastam apenas poucos passos para qualquer pessoa se deparar com uma das realidades mais lamentáveis deste país: a Cracolândia, um quarteirão abandonado onde usuários de drogas convivem nas ruas completamente marginalizados como se fossem invisíveis à sociedade. Os moradores da região vivem em situação precária e desumana, a ponto de trocarem a vida por uma pedra.

No último dia 25, nós, alunos da turma de Atualidades, nos dirigimos à Cracolândia. Após cumprir parte do trajeto de metrô, fomos até a sede da Secretaria de Saúde, no centro, onde fomos recebidos pelos coordenadores do projeto “De Braços Abertos” - nome escolhido por aqueles que usufruem dele. Após uma conversa com os responsáveis, partimos de van para o infame quarteirão. De cara, enxergamos uma realidade inimaginável para os nossos parâmetros, uma verdadeira cena de guerra. Se não bastassem os entulhos, os prédios demolidos e as montanhas de lixo, havia muitos barracos ocupando a calçada. A distinção não era tão clara aos nossos olhos: vozes saíam do que em um primeiro momento imaginávamos ser uma pilha de escombros.

O projeto visitado tem o propósito de proporcionar assistência e certo conforto àqueles que vivem na Cracolândia. Trata-se de um espaço da Prefeitura no qual os usuários de crack podem se refugiar, assistir a TV, manifestar suas habilidades artisticas, solicitar assistência médica e psicólogica e tirar um bom cochilo, pois lá se sentem mais seguros. A despeito do propósito louvável, o projeto de certa forma não se mostra efetivo a longo prazo. O espaço funciona das 7h

às 17h, mas as necessidades dos usuários são intermináveis.

O projeto tem como objetivo principal estimular as pessoas a pedirem ajuda, mas isso nem sempre acontece e muitos usuários permanecem no mesmo estado, sem a força de vontade necessária para largarem de vez a droga.

Antes de nossa visita, perguntaram-nos o que esperávamos encontrar na Cracolândia. Todos tínhamos uma perspectiva altamente influenciada pela mídia, que associa os usuários de drogas à violência e à falta de controle sobre seu corpo e sua mente. Lá, contudo, vimos que essa visão não passa de um estereótipo, já que costumamos esquecer que o dependente dessas substâncias psicoativas é um ser humano, que ama, sente e sofre. Injustamente, muitos ignoram as razões por que essas pessoas se encontram nesse estado. Esses são indivíduos que nunca tiveram opções ou oportunidades na i1.r7.com vida e, por isso, acabaram recorrendo à droga para amenizar as mazelas do seu cotidiano. Às sextas-feiras, uma roda de samba, batucada em latinhas de cerveja e latas de lixo. Nos bolsos, cachimbos e cigarros, a realidade sofrida por trás dos cantos e batuques.

Todos são bem vindos e cantam alegres, unidos - um verdadeiro alívio. Mc Kauex lidera a roda. Seu sonho: ficar famoso, cantar rap como profissional: “Um dia ainda vou ser famoso”, disse, “Vou cantar para todos. Vocês vão ver.”, e abriu um grande sorriso, mostrando seus dois dentes. Sua perspectiva, caso se concretize, será exceção a duas constantes que permeiam o passado e o presente brasileiros: a imobilidade social e a falta de oportunidades à maior parte da população de nosso país.

Alan Garcia-Ramos, Maria Antonia Rodrigues e Luiza Mizrahi Assistência de Edward Alonso Sanchez Revisão de Alain Youssef e Mauro Dunder

the talon • 21

features

Crossword Puzzle Things having to do with 101 Andrea Ferreira

ACROSS

DOWN

2. A compact car by the former Yugoslav automaker.

1. An animated film with dogs.

4. The tallest skyscraper in the world from 2004 to 2010.

6. A song by Rihanna.

22 • the talon

3. A condition of release from the gulag in the Soviet Union.

5. A roadable aircraft design concept.

7. A torture chamber in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

entertainment

What Does Ylvis Say?

Where the geniuses behind “The Fox” might go from here Kevin Shimba Bengtsson

W

e have all heard of them. The two men who asked the question that no one has ever dared to ask: what does the fox say? Back in September, the then-enigmatic duo Ylvis uploaded their song, “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?),” to Youtube, in an attempt to answer the unanswerable. Is it “gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding” or “fraka-kaka-kakakaka-kow”? We may never know. Within days, the video had amassed millions of views—the view count is now almost at a whopping 200 million. Hitting its peak at a three-week number six spot on the Billboard Hot 100, it is the highest-ranked song by a Norwegian artist since A-ha’s infamous “Take on Me,” released in 1985. Perhaps this just goes to show the connection audiences feel with the song; who hasn’t wondered what sound a fox makes?

No one? Oh… With such massive success coming from a single single (a-ha!), many have wondered where they could go from here. It seems unlikely that the previously unknown Ylvis, now signed onto Warner Music, will ever produce a song asking a fundamental question of the universe that will incite such mania across the globe, but that’s not they were intending to do, anyway. They will continue to do what they’ve always done—be some of the most popular comedians in Norway.

Ylvis is a comedy group composed of two brothers, Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker. Together, they provide Norwegian audiences with comedic stunts during I kveld med Ylvis (Tonight with Ylvis), a popular talk show now in its third season. Such stunts include the famous “Intelevator” prank, where the duo aggravates passengers of a supposedly voice-activated elevator by misinterpreting their requests, mocking their very being or singing impromptu songs to them from a separate room. One of their more brilliant jokes is the “Radio Taxi,” in which a cab’s radio plays improvised songs (by the brothers) tailored to the passenger, putting him/her into a state of utter bewilderment and awe. Funnily enough, “The Fox” was made simply as an attempt to promote this talk show. Over the years, Ylvis has actually released several songs, all promoting I kveld med Ylvis, each one more brilliant than the next. In fact, I’d argue that many of them are more hilarious than their hit single.

The brothers have stated that “The Fox” was written as a result of “a genuine wonder of what the fox says, because we didn’t know,” but their curiosity seems endless, as one of their most hilarious songs, “Stonehenge,” poses another question— “what’s the meaning of Stonehenge?” And truly, what is the meaning of Stonehenge? Is it a massive granite birthday cake or

a prison far too easy to escape? These musings are interspersed with utter nonsense: “What car do you drive? / Drive a Civic, drive a Civic, drive a Civic.” It’s all ridiculously hilarious. The dramatic introduction to the song, complete with somber piano and Vegard crooning, “my life is so successful, I’ve got everything a man could ever need / I’ve got a thousand dollar haircut and I’ve even got a talk show on TV” sets the mood. He goes on to passionately question the purpose of the Neolithic monument: “I know I should be happy, but instead / There’s a question I can’t get out of my head / What’s the meaning of Stonehenge?” Fantastic.

Their variety of musical styles adds to their comedic charm, and alongside the electro-house vibe of “The Fox” and the rock balladry of “Stonehenge” is the Broadway-influenced “Someone Like Me.” This brilliant tune, which is a perfect imitation of the kind of song Leonard Bernstein would compose, follows a main character who cannot find a romantic partner. Why? Because nobody upload.wikimedia.org seems to share his love of dubstep. And yes, every mention of dubstep devastates the musical score, replacing it with the manic wub-wub bass of dub. It’s quite hilarious, especially when he finds the woman of his dreams—another dubstep aficionado.

Finally, there’s “Jan Egeland,” a song that praises one of Norway’s most prominent UN delegates. It praises his Oslo Treaty Plan (“oh my god, what a plan!”), his ability to stop mad dictators with guns, and his beautiful body (buttocks included). Remember, “when there’s war and all is hell, send in Jan Egeland.”

Contrary to popular belief, “The Fox” is not their only work. Nor is it their best. The Ylvisåker brothers have been in the comedy business for several years now, and after hitting their supposed peak, they’re just going to keep on at it. In a way, they’re like Chiyonofuji, who said he’d work hard toward his 1001st victory, and every one after that. In fact, they have recently released another piece of comedic brilliance, “Massachusetts,” a song praising the “14th biggest state.” As they put it, “forget New York and California, there’s a better place, now close your eyes.” That would be Massachusetts, “the greatest place on Earth.” Despite some doubtful facts—since when is MA the home of Nelson Mandela?—the song shows, yet again, that they are the funniest Norwegians in the world today. Then again, there aren’t too many funny Norwegians.

Source: wikipedia.org

the talon • 23

entertainment

Is It Game Over for Nintendo?

The House of Mario still has a few levels to run Felipe Marques

N

intendo has been having a rough time since the release of its two latest consoles, the 3DS (released in 2011) and the Wii U (released in 2012), announcing what multiple sources cite as “their first fiscal loss in 30 years.” Let’s look at the numbers: worldwide, the Wii U sold 460,000 copies one year from its release, while the 3DS sold 15 million copies two years since its release. Now compare these figures to their predecessors, the Nintendo Wii (which sold 5.84 million units one year after its release) and the Nintendo DS (which sold 35.61 million units two years after its release) and there’s a clear difference. In terms of actual money, Nintendo lost, roughly 186 million US Dollars, from the Wii U flop alone. But why has this loss occurred? And how is the Big Red N going to recover?

Generally, Nintendo’s recent history before the Wii U and 3DS has been one of equally grand hits and misses.

While there were major successes such as the Wii’s firstparty games (i.e. Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros., and the like) and the original Nintendo DS lineup of games and hardware in general, Nintendo was dubbed the “little brother” of Microsoft and Sony, for having consoles displaying generally inferior graphics and an excessive amount of horrible third-party games. These faults, along with the technical superiority of its competitors, caused Nintendo to fall in the perception of the general gaming public; going against its bigger, better rivals, Nintendo became the “kid console company.”

This view extended itself to the current lineup of gaming systems—the Wii U and 3DS were both seen as “just another Nintendo console” when announced, despite the consoles’ amazing selling pitches (3D video games for the 3DS, separate screen for the Wii U). This increased Nintendo’s need for more “serious” third-party games, made especially obvious with the Wii U, which upon release had games such as Batman: Arkham City and Watch Dogs being listed alongside Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101. The majority of these third-party games, however, were merely rehashes of games that came out a few years prior on other consoles, rendering the Wii U and 3DS practically useless.

It would seem, however, that during the last semester

24 • the talon

of 2013, Nintendo is learning from its mistakes. Recently, the company has been focusing on making quality first-party games that allow for many hours of replay. Notably, the Nintendo 3DS has had four of these games, which came out almost one after the other: Kid Icarus Uprising, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and Pokémon X and Y. The latter two caused a recent boost in 3DS hardware sales, with Animal Crossing surpassing six million copies this November and X and Y selling four million copies only two days after its release in October. The trend continues with the Wii U, where the creation of a console-game bundle with The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD as well as a drop to the console’s price helped boost the Wii U’s sales significantly.

Further major first-party games such as Super Mario 3D World and Super Smash Bros. Wii U are expected for release by early 2014, which should flickr.com increase sales even more.

The Wii U also seems to be receiving less “shovelware” (a term used to describe lowquality games that use the console’s main resources) and is releasing its third party games at the same time as its competitors (recent examples include Batman: Arkham Origins and Assassin’s Creed 4). Furthermore, some of its third-party games are being released with exclusive content, giving the Wii U a small edge over the competition.

While Nintendo’s uphill run seems to be finally paying off, they still have quite a bit of catching up to do. The PS4 and the Xbox One—the Wii U’s current competition—seem to, despite their ever-increasing prices (especially in Brazil, where prices soar in the quadruple digits), have a fantastic lineup of games, as well as superior software and graphics.

For now, the second semester of 2013, Nintendo has won the handheld battle, with Nintendo 3DS sales surpassing those of its main competitor’s, the PS Vita, but it hasn’t won the war.

One can only wait to see what Nintendo has in their item box for the upcoming major gaming conferences because, as any Mario Kart player knows, last place always gets the blue shell.

Sources: ign.com, joystiq.com

entertainment

Back Doors Exploring American and Brazilian humor MC Otani

B

oo, Wendy Testaburger, boo.” South Park, Community, like Porta dos Fundos, Barbixas, Pânico and P.C. Siqueira Two and a Half Men, Ylvis, and 9gag are some examples demonstrate how our Brazilian humor distinguishes itself from of the essence of American humor. Many of our jokes and America’s. Most of these examples are comprised of what an conversations at achool are based on references to these American would define as loudness, insults, inappropriate shows/videos/websites, for not only do they reflect what we parodies, blatant references to sex, “bundas,” and plenty of think is “funny,” but also define it. What characterizes what swearing. we (American) English speakers classify as “funny”? Sarcasm, Most notably, Porta dos Fundos, a web series that ironies, pure weirdness (“What does the fox say? Ding ding publishes 3-5 minute videos on a weekly basis and its notorious ding”), iconic lines (“legen — wait for it — dary”), cats, for its irreverence and dark humor, has become a prominent and puns are some examples of what this comedy is often aspect of Brazilian pop culture. Controversial topics such as comprised of.

Marco Feliciano’s Cura Gay, religion, racism, dwarves (making One important and equally prominent characteristic fun of them can be terribly offensive but terribly hilarious), of many of these TV shows and videos is the approach to real vegetarians, homophobia and even satanism have been life issues, particularly to homophobia, unabashedly mocked of in many of their racism, and stereotypes as a form of clips, not to mention the shameless takes humor and social criticism. And when on taboos and indecencies that are too such social issues are tackled, it’s very inappropriate to be mentioned. In other difficult to avoid offending or hurting words: their videos are not for children. certain people’s feelings. Mainstream And we love them. In spite of such shows such as Two and a Half Men, irreverence, Porta dos Fundos remains Friends, and Community manage to as one of the most popular shows in the incorporate these elements smoothly; country, with millions of Brazilian viewers their jokes on stereotypes are usually who deem it as perfectly OK. the “laughing with them, not at them” Even I find myself religiously portadosfundos.com.br type, and avoid being too offensive. accessing their channel every Monday On the other side of the spectrum lies sitcoms like and Thursday (the days in which new videos are published).

South Park, the Simpsons, and Family Guy where most of This happens because Brazilians are a lot less considerate of the comedy relies on hardcore dark humor. Because of their sensitivities when it comes to humor. One of the episodes, for mercilessly satirical content, these shows have caused much example, named “Na Lata,” explicitly satirizes names such as controversy and many still cringe when they hear South Park’s “Kellen,” directly correlating them with social class.

“Minority Song,” since making fun of Jews, Asians, blacks, In America, this subject is also made fun of, but it’s latinos, gays, whites and Jesus isn’t exactly appropriate. It’s done at a much subtler level. Rather than weaving its way very difficult to get away with anything perceived as racist or around it, Brazilian humor “puts the finger on the wound.” homophobic in the media.

Especially when it comes to the most serious of topics, Although many shows do tackle these topics, all is Brazilians tend to take everything lightly and are not afraid to done without the intention of offending any minority. When make fun of them, which can be both a relief and a drawback. nevertheless, controversies arise, they sometimes result in On one hand, our laid-back nature makes us a loving, pleasant the banning of such shows. The negative reaction to such people, but the inability to take anything seriously also holds forms of entertainment is a result of our definition of what the country back. is “OK” and what is “not OK.” This line between comedy and What we see in American and especially in Brazilian disrespect differs from one background to another. Perhaps the television reflects not only what each culture deems “funny,” disparity between Graded students’ and teachers’ tolerance but also the most sensitive issues faced by them. The different (or intolerance) to such shows comes from the fact that we takes on such issues are a direct result of different cultures are all exposed to different cultures and beliefs. and values, which may create a discrepancy between what is Taking such factors in consideration, “funny” differs acceptable and what is not. So, next time you see a Porta dos from culture to culture. My sincere apologies if I made you Fundos video, don’t feel so guilty for tearing up; remember, think of TOK right now. Here in Brazil, popular shows/vlogs it’s only inappropriate if you make it so. Eitcha lelê.

the talon • 25

entertainment

Live and Let Live The Laramie Project: Graded, get ready Michael Borger

T

he Murder On the night of October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a twenty one year-old gay college student, was savagely beaten in Laramie, Wyoming after having gone to a bar and been kidnapped. Robbed of his belongings, Matthew was found eighteen hours later by a cyclist who initially thought he was a scarecrow because of how badly he was hurt, his body tied to a fence in a remote expanse of land. After having been rushed to a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, Matthew was close to deawth, his physical state deemed too critical for any life-saving medical treatment. When the news of this LGBT hate crime spread, people all over the US rallied to support Matthew. The assailants, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, were taken into custody almost immediately, and for the first time in the United States’s history, a discussion concerning hate crime legislation surged.

On October 12, 1998 at 12:53 AM, Matthew was pronounced dead. The subsequent trials found the murderers guilty and incarcerated both for two consecutive life sentences each. However, neither was charged with having committed a hate crime, since Wyoming didn’t have any preceding hate crime legislation protecting its LGBT population. At the time, most states in the US had little to no anti-hate crime legislation in place.

The Laramie Project Written by Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project, The Laramie Project is a play that centers around the aftermath of the Matthew Shepard incident. It delineates how Matthew’s friends and family, those closest to the murderers, the Laramie townspeople, and those involved in the incident (the limousine driver, he bartender, etc.) reacted to Matthew Shepard’s untimely death. The play then goes on to depict the murder trials and how they resulted in both Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson’s murder convictions and imprisonments.

Nevertheless, the most important part of the entire play, excluding abstract concepts like morality, is Matthew’s voice. Matthew never technically appears in the play, yet the Laramie Project revolves around him. Matthew never says one word, yet I still consider him the protagonist of the piece. His silence—his indubitable, raw silence—distinguishes this play from others. His unspoken words resonate with those exposed to the piece, engendering one question to linger on the tips of the audience’s tongues: what would he say if he were still here?

Why We’re Doing It Luis Wolfrid: “It’s interesting how such an event could occur

26 • the talon

and attract almost the entire nation’s attention, but still not help solve the issue at hand. The situation barely changed the views of Wyoming’s population, and perhaps if Matthew Shepard were to have lived he could’ve worked towards achieving the human rights that the LGBT community deserves.”

Bella Shim: “I decided to be part of this play because it deviates from the norm. It’s not every day that you get to participate in a play embedded with powerful messages like those that come from discussing the intolerance of homosexuality. It’s also been a while since I’ve been part of theater. I wanted to do something for a change.”

Karen Kandelman: “I was determined to be in The Laramie Project because I had watched the movie and knew exactly what it was about. The message was key since I am always trying to find ways to bring awareness about topics that I find meaningful. In addition, I thought it would get me out of my shell in the right way because I had never been part of a play and I thought that confronting homophobia would be constructive for me and for the community.”

Daniel Torres: “Growing up, I always had trouble communicating with people; it seemed as though it was always a struggle for me. I joined the eighth grade first semester play in order to try to solve this problem. I enjoyed myself, so I decided it would be best if I continued to perform and act. I was never into all the theater stuff, but after I tried it, it was just... fun. After my first play, Nine Dragons, I went and participated in Hiding in the Open. Now I find myself a part of the current play, The Laramie Project. Thus far, I have enjoyed myself a lot and am looking forward to presenting it to my peers.”

Luiza Sayão: “When I first read the script, I knew that I really wanted to be a part of it. It is a serious play dealing with controversial issues that I feel should be addressed in our community.”

Ms. Milner: “I feel, wherever we are, that sometimes the hard discussions of who we are as a community can get lost or silenced by the rush of day-to-day life. I was hoping that this show could be a catalyst for our high school community to start some of those discussions. Talking not just about homosexuality, but violence, media intrusion, a community’s responsibility for the actions of its members, tragedy and how a community mourns, the dynamics of communities that have

entertainment a wide variety of opinions from liberal to conservative, and hate. The Laramie Project is about a small close community and how a violent and tragic event impacts them. Within every community, there are always a wide variety of perspectives and one thing I really appreciate about this play is that it gives voice to all of them. Everyone has a right to their own opinion, and each of those is crucial in the creation of the environment of that community, for better or worse. But we need to shed light on the issues that are the subtext for our day-to-day interactions so that we can have an open and honest discourse, to work towards acceptance, not just tolerance.”

Acceptance versus Tolerance One of the main themes explored in the Laramie Project is acceptance versus tolerance. Although they seem like synonyms, there’s a huge distinction between the two.

I usually don’t like using dictionary definitions to support my points, but for this one, I feel it’s necessary.

As defined by Merriam-Webster, tolerance is “sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own,” meaning when a person is tolerant, he is not only allowing a person to be different, but also “sympathizing” with the person’s “beliefs or practices.” Generally, when a person sympathizes with another, it tends to be because the person is experiencing some form of adversity or doing something otherwise considered. Thus, tolerance is perhaps little more than thinly veiled disgust. Why is it acceptable for some to only “tolerate” others’ inherent and unchangeable differences?

That’s why acceptance is key. Acceptance suggests not only a person’s understanding of differences, but also a person’s embracing of diversity and beliefs other than his own.

Acceptance signifies that there’s nothing wrong with another person’s differences, which is why it’s vital to accept rather than only tolerate homosexuality. Acceptance is allowing and encouraging others to be themselves.

In The Laramie Project, this theme is fundamental, since all one sees are the different ways that people react to the fact that Matthew was gay. For some, the mere mention of his homosexuality was enough to warrant his murder. To some, it doesn’t make a difference that he was gay, as long as he didn’t act like a “queer,” but his murder had been a nuisance for the town because of all the unsolicited attention it drew. These people frequently told the press that Laramie was a “live and let live” kind of town, opining that tolerance was the norm and hinting that acceptance was all but common. To many others, though, Matthew Shepard’s murder inflamed and inspired them to fight for equality, a world where people don’t just tolerate, but wholeheartedly embrace and accept diversity.

So, What Type of World Do We Live In? The Good: Recently in the US, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was added to pre-existing federal laws pertaining to hate crimes, expanding the definition to include violent acts motivated by a victim’s gender identity or sexual orientation.

Fifteen countries, including Brazil, recognize and perform marriages between two consenting adults, regardless of the adults’ genders.

In 2011, the United Nations passed a resolution promoting LGBT rights, including the decriminalization of homosexuality and the criminalization of discrimination; this resolution was passed with 94 member states voting in favor.

The Bad: Most countries do not recognize nor perform marriages between two consenting same-sex adults whatsoever.

A few countries, such as Russia with its government passing the bill that criminalized “LGBT propaganda,” have been retrogressing when it comes to minority rights.

Some Brazilian officials consider the “cura gay,” or conversion therapy as a “viable solution to the homosexuality epidemic.”

The Ugly: Over 76 countries have criminalized homosexuality, ranging from punishments including two years in jail to life sentences to the death penalty; of these 76, over seven of them have the death penalty for homosexual activity.

In some countries, a person can be imprisoned for knowing about any homosexual activity that happened within the country and concealing it from their government.

Internationally, most countries haven’t implemented any antihate crime legislation that extends to their LGBT populations, leaving them unprotected and consequently vulnerable to violence.

Sources: www.merriam-webster.com, karensandler.wordpress. com, 76crimes.com, matthewshepard.org, en.wikipedia.org

the talon • 27

entertainment

I Was in the Rift My experience trying out the Oculus Rift at Graded Felipe Marques

A

few weeks ago, video-game journalist Lorin Baumgarten came to Graded to talk about narrative in video games, and how a good story impacts gameplay. But that’s not the only thing he had in store. At 3:10, about 20 high school students were eagerly awaiting Mr. Baumgarden at the MakerSpace, buzzing with excitement—we already knew what was going to happen, as it had announced at the assembly, but we just couldn’t wait.

A few minutes later, Mr. Baumgarten entered, and without further ado, presented to us the Oculus Rift.

Now, if that name does not ring a bell, it is a new virtual reality video game hardware work and shaped like ski goggles with a tablet in front, made by Oculus VR. The creation of the Rift, as it’s commonly called, was primarily funded via Kickstarter, an online funding website, and those who had backed a certain amount of money received a tester’s copy—much like Mr. Baumgarten, who had brought his to Graded for the students to try out. He briefly explained to everyone present what exactly we were getting into and proceeded to connect the odd goggles to a computer, which in turn was connected to a television—this was for those who weren’t “in the Rift” to be able to see what the user was seeing—though without the 3D effect. Mr. Baumgarden proceeded to explain exactly how it worked: the tablet had a series of sensors, which allowed the Oculus Rift to detect movement in order to process the image around you, with the 3-dimensional effect created by simply duplicating the image. There were two softwares available for us to test, “Movie Theater” and “Blue Marble,” and the first students who had the chance to put on the device witnessed the former. The title is self-explanatory: the user is in a movie theater watching the 3D version of Ang Lee’s The Life of Pi. But there’s more to it. Not only was the movie in 3D, so was the theater. I’m not kidding; look to either side and you would see rows and rows of empty chairs, look behind you and you could see the light coming from the projector cabin. You could even be teleported to other chairs with only a click from Mr. Baumgarten, and depending on where you were seated you would get a different view—much like a real movie theater— though you would actually have to lift your head to see the 30-or-so-feet-tall screen if you were sitting near the front.

I didn’t try out the “Movie Theater” software, however, and took the time to ask a few questions about the Rift while the first few were testing it out. Mr. Baumgarten compared the possible future of the Oculus Rift to the setting of Ernest Cline’s famous speculative fiction novel, Ready Player One, a

28 • the talon

world where anything and everything is possible and controlled by virtual reality. He said that the use of virtual reality for advertisement is inevitable, giving an example of choosing a car from a retailer: “you’d be able to choose the color, test drive the car, without even having to leave your house.”

When asked if the Rift would be used as an add-on to an existing next-generation console such as the PlayStation 4, Baumgarten said no. However, already as early as June 2012, after the E3 conference, Valve (producers of such video game masterpieces like Portal and Half-Life) expressed interest in not only making brand new software but also adapting their classics for Rift use. Not only that, but additional software such as “VorpX” can already adapt games such as Skyrim and BioShock Infinite for the rift as well, though they aren’t as functional. According to Mr. Baumgarten, who had tried out the Skyrim demo, the gameplay is especially confusing during first-person cutscenes – since the camera tends to move on its own during those, it leaves the player confused as to where he’s looking at, since you have to actually move your head to see things with the rift. Narrative, therefore, would have to be completely reconstructed: either you’re fully in control of the story, or you’re merely observing the story from all angles as it happens around you.

After this conversation about the future of gaming via the Rift, it was my turn to test it out, this time with “Blue Marble.” The software starts off with a scrolling menu; by looking down, you would be able to scroll through songs which would play during the demo and focusing on “launch” made the program, well, launch. The screen faded to black, and when it lit up I found myself in a modern space pod. The air-locked door to the pod opened, the song started, and there I was staring at the Earth. To my left, the moon; to my right, the sun; all around me was the vast expanse of the universe, comets, stars, and nebulas. A few seconds in and a satellite went floating over my head as I circled the Earth, slowly escaping its atmosphere.

Using the Oculus Rift, even if only for four minutes, was absolutely incredible. I really did feel like I was somewhere else—a place that I was in for so little, yet miss so much. Here’s to waiting five years for the actual release.

entertainment

I Was Not Ready for This An extended metaphor Bella Shim

T

he test runs were always easy. The courses were “docile,” sparse with mild pits and traps. The clinicians were genial.

They wore masks of smiles and gave me gentle tugs whenever I needed help. I was told that I “exceeded their expectations” and that they saw potential in me. I beamed with a smile and they beamed back at me, revealing their pristine white teeth.

Life was pleasant. My nonchalant lifestyle was comprised of menial tests, meals, rest, and boundless leisure time. It was pleasant, but it was not good enough. My foolish heart ached for more. I wanted the challenge: to run the gauntlet. The time soon came. I had fit the “eligible” criteria to survive the trial. I decided to apply to become a candidate for the challenge. Once they had accepted me, they briskly led me to an intimidating gray hall. They sat me down and vaguely went over a few precautionary dangers. I dismissed them; I aced the test runs anyway, what could possibly trample me at this point? They glossed over the course: a few bumps here, some rough spacing here, and some time constraints, but that was it. I would effortlessly reach my prize in no time.

They told me my goal was to simply reach the light at the other end of the tunnel. How quaint. They conditioned me to count on the future through tales of the “other side,” which was a paradise, a utopia. They soothed me with lullabies of endless food, no responsibilities, and heaven. I was mesmerized by promises of independence, adrenaline, and freedom. You’ll love it there, they assured me. Those who pass receive a magnificent award. With a bit of luck and willpower, it would be no challenge at all.

When they offered me the appealing platinum award, I impulsively agreed. It comes with a few repercussions, they said. Slowly, the room grew shades darker. Under the shadows, they proceeded to equip a heavy chain ball to my left ankle.

Little did I know my beautifully pampered feet were to end up transforming into callous hoofs over time. Things spiraled downwards. There was no turning back.

Once the iron doors swayed open, I had a glimpse of my impending doom. I was not ready for this. The push that threw me into the arena was a sudden shove from a bulky

man. Maybe from God himself. I fell face first. I heard the piercing screeches of the iron doors closing in behind me. The room was filled with a jet-black void. The oxygen levels were low. My brain began to slowly deteriorate. I had little time before the blackout.

The terrain felt like a gigantic sphere. There was no flat, equal footing for me to properly stand on, like a hamster wheel. I was never comfortable. They told me to never idle.

Instinctively, I dragged myself around aimlessly with raised arms, desperately attempting to feel something. Anything. I was not ready for this.

As my feet were dragged across the rough ground, the soles of my feet began to blister. Soon the bubbles of warm, yellow pus popped, rendering my feet numb.

The smell of blood parched my throat. I needed nourishment.

Like the test runs, I was expecting the sound of the bells ringing, signaling the snack breaks when the sunzu.com clinicians would roll out cartons of treats. There were no recesses. This was hell.

In the dark, each hour blurred into the next. I lost track of time. I could have been in here for hours, days, or weeks.

Eventually, my reaction time and thought processes slowed down. As the oxygen depleted, a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide hugged me. There was no light source. No windows, no doors, and no cracks. I collapsed. My legs could support me no longer. My mouth began to froth. I was a desperate animal, lacking judgment. As a futile attempt, I clawed my way through the wheel, dragging the chain ball along with me, only to sharply fall on my back.

As my eyes followed their way up, I saw a tiny glint of light directly above me. There was a tiny opening of a pure, white glow. I scrambled onto my knees and tried to climb up.

I scraped my fingers through the rough surface, followed by dark traces of blood. But the force of gravity dragged me back down to the rough floor. I was not ready for this. They lied to me. I was disillusioned.

I tried to drag myself up. Gravity pulled me back down.

I saw light above me. I was not ready for this.

I dragged myself up. Gravity pulled me down. Lies and disillusion. I was not ready for this.

the talon • 29

entertainment

Category Is: Ham “Eternity is a ham and five people” Entertainment Team

K

evin: Roast Beef In this day an age, one where we have options galore (especially when it comes to food), why would anyone willingly eat ham? I mean, it’s okay and all, but it doesn’t even come close to roast beef. The way that smoky slice of tender beef exudes its divine flavor is like none other; it’s like tasting God himself. Granted, a rather unhealthy God, but God nonetheless. Every bite taken from a slice of roast beef is a religious experience, where I find myself one step closer to heaven, and one step closer to obesity.

Felipe: Mark Hamill There are two types of people that know who Mark Hamill is. There are the ones that remember him as Luke Skywalker back when he was a cheerful young lad on the set of Star Wars back in the ‘70s.

Younger generations, though, know him as the voice for the Joker from a lot of cartoons and video games.

But did you know he was also Fire Lord Ozai from Avatar? Or Skips from Regular Show? And about 50 other roles! I mean seriously the guy’s a voice-acting genius.

The voice is strong in this one.

MC: Jon Hamm A god amongst men, Jon Hamm’s looks and charm make it perfectly OK to cheat on your wife and drink 3+ bottles of whisky a day. He is so awesome, his name sounds like ham, but with an extra “m” at the end. It’s not John Ham. It’s John Ham-m. A smooth “mm” in the end, like a smothering hug on a cold Sunday night. It’s almost like a song. Jon Hamm. Even better: “Jon Hamm” in Jon Hamm’s voice. I bet he smells like hamm, too.

Michael: Hamlet Not again, not another story about a young prince trying to avenge his father’s death. Really, Shakespeare? Of course, Shakespeare may have invented that storyline, since, let’s be honest, what didn’t Shakespeare invent? He created the portmanteau “eyeball” and expressions such as “in a pickle” and “brave new world,” amongst others. The king of classic Brit Lit can be blamed for the countless hours IB Students (ha, not me… yet) spend scrutinizing and ogling seemingly incoherent texts

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written in iambic pentameter. During his life, Shakespeare was perceived as a heretical writer, defying all writing norms with his purported informality and double entendres. That gets me thinking though: if Shakespeare was a supposed informal writer, what about the other writers during his time? What novel ideas haven’t we been exposed to? Oh, and my other major concern is: how do we, described as the most inarticulate generation to date, compare to these writing leviathans?

Bella: Hamtaro When I first heard out about this month’s “Category Is” theme, I couldn’t help but think about our lovely hamster, Hamtaro (not because he’s tasty, don’t get me wrong) from the TV series. As Japanese media companies began to run out of choices of cute animals to star as their mascot, Shogakukan decided to settle on this delightful rodent. Hamtaro is a domesticated hamster owned by a ruthless owner called Laura. Whenever his master flickr.com is out of the house, he flees to his other fellow hamsters, the Ham-Hams. Together, they scheme a plan to escape the evil wrath of the humans by plotting a rebellion. Unfortunately, Shogakukan had to keep it PG-13, so they resorted to make Hamtaro a happy-go-lucky character that set out on fun adventures to make new friends. Yay! Editor’s closing statements: That’s it for this month’s “Category Is” on ham… in which nobody wrote about ham. Really? That’s like eating beans without rice, or shaving your beard with a toothbrush. My section seriously disappoints sometimes—they know all about voice actors, real actors, old English dudes and anime hamsters, but they can’t write a single word about ham? All right, I guess I’ll give it a go: Kevin: Ham Ham… mmm… Ham. Ham is so hammy I could just hammer some ham into my ham-craving stomach! Actually, no I couldn’t. No one really craves ham, do they? I guess there really isn’t much to say about ham. Disappointing. The only truly interesting thing about ham is Bill Bailey’s brilliant quote, “I’ve got ham, but I’m not hamster.” I’m not really sure what that means, but we’ll leave it at that. Ham.

entertainment

Talon Toon

We were close last time...

Felipe Marques

Monthly Update The ups and downs of November Adam Hunt Fertig

The Graded boys’ soccer team takes first place at Big 8. The cheerleading team won too, but only in our hearts.

Everyone else just lost.

Zombie Zoo was a huge success, although it makes you wonder why God gave some people vocal cords.

Isabella Besborodco, grade 12, recently announced that she no longer has time in her schedule for her daily nap. What has the world come to?

the talon • 31

clawsure

“Graded” Voices Internet people react to learning about Chiyonofuji Mitsugu’s 1000th victory Daniel Almeida

bet.com

Sally Tommlend (Grade 12): “How romantic!”

haltonparentsblog.ca

Sam Brookile (Grade 11): “Doesn’t surprise me. You give me half a bucket of grease and I’d be unstoppable in that ring.”

news.softpedia.com

Emily Westfield (Grade 9): “Whew!

Talk about a double-whammy!” academiclearninglabs.com

Larisa Suns (History department): “What is it with teens and their hiphop sumo-wrestling culture?!”

presswire.dk

Greg Maroney (Grade 10): “What has sumo-wrestling come to?”

Overheard @ Graded

F

emale student to male student: I’m not telling you to bless your uterus, but....

In TOK Student 1: It’s a religion that accepts all religions.

Student 2: Is that the Tom Cruise thing?

Student 2: That’s scientology.

In the hallway Student 1: I love that show! What about the furry god grandparents?

Student 2: You mean the Fairly Odd Parents?

32 • the talon

In Physics Student 1: I wonder what your albedo is.

Student 2: Higher than yours.

Student 1: Ooooh, you’re reflective, aren’t you?

During Talon Final Edit Sunday Teacher: What would you guys like to order from McDonald’s?

Student: McDelicia.

(McDelicia never has and never will exist.)