Ed. 70 - Magic

editors-in-chief editors-in-chief

China’s Cyber-Cynicism Google abandons China, or is China abandoning Google?

Andrew Shim

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hina’s Internet freedom, or lack thereof, has been widely scrutinized by the world media since the growth of the industry in the late 90’s. This government-sponsored censorship was widely criticized by human rights activists, who nicknamed this rampant suppression of information as the “Great Firewall of China.” The PRC government has opted for a more defensive name: the “Golden Shield Project.”

Google’s history with China is also controversial. Since its entry into the Chinese market in 2005, Google has become the largest search engine in the country, second only to Baidu.com, an entity perfectly in line with the government’s censorship policies. Most infamously, the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests were blocked from any searches, with any attempts to search the famous “Tank Man” picture resulting in a “Search results may not comply with the relevant laws, regulations and policy and cannot be displayed” message.

On January 12 this year, however, Google cracked. It officially announced that it was no longer willing to censor results on its Google.cn network as a result of a series of cyber attacks on the Gmail accounts of certain Chinese human rights activists.

The Chinese government has officially denied involvement in the affair and Google has not made a formal accusation, but cyber-analysts believe it was indeed the work of governmentsponsored hackers that infiltrated the company’s system.

The Google controversy, while seemingly only a minor conflict between a multi-national corporation and a burgeoning superpower, presents various international implications of grave magnitude. China was relatively unscathed by the worldwide economic downturn of last year, but despite its amazing growth, it has generated some bad publicity due to protectionist policies.

A series of anti-trust laws and “national brands” protection has seen losses from various companies including Cola-Cola, despite the enormous commitment and investments the latter has put into China in recent years. Perhaps it is not China that is being capitalized, but rather capitalism that is being Sinified. Even as foreign corporations and industries are subjecting themselves to the whim of Beijing’s iron fist, their enormous profits in China largely overshadow their fears of Beijing’s attempts to gain more leverage over its partners.

Thus what the Chinese government is effectively conveying to Google is “adapt or get out,” a form of asserting supremacy over the foreign corporations that contribute heavily to China’s magnificent growth rate. Nevertheless, Coke, Google, and other major corporate institutions will probably have no

alternative but to stay. To lose the expanding Chinese market would signify an irreplaceable financial loss that no major corporation is willing to accept.

It is this sort of economic leverage that gives China the power it wields today, especially in its deteriorating relations with the United States. Despite the incompatibility of ideology and practice, neither the Americans nor Chinese have the luxury to deny the interdependency between the two states.

Critics often question the sustainability of China’s hard-line totalitarianism with its rapid capitalist growth, failure to comply to human rights statutes and internal disputes with minorities. As much as these symptoms might highlight the dictatorship’s possible demise, the character of the growing Internet culture portrays otherwise. The number of Chinese Internet users has reached over 300 million, 85% of who are males and 50% of who are under the age of 24. In essence, those who have embraced online culture are the future of the People’s Republic.

And that future looks bleak. Boosted heavily by a nationalistic element strongly endorsed by the government, Chinese netizens have turned increasingly radical and chauvinistic, heavily influenced by government propaganda. In April 2008, months before the convening of the Beijing Olympics, a Chinese student studying at Duke University attempted to mediate a conflict between a dozen Tibetan and over a hundred Chinese students, resulting in her being branded as a traitor to the country. A subsequent massive Internet campaign resulted in the distribution and vandalism of her personal pictures across the Internet as well as physical attacks on her home in Qingdai. Censorship apparently, has molded a great number of Chinese youths towards the direction the government favors, unquestionable loyalty and love for the regime.

Within this context Google took quite an important step in threatening to pull its assets in China. Lauded by human rights advocates, Google’s decision has effectively revealed the growing rift in the partnership between liberal democratic capitalism and the authoritarian regime of China. In a speech, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton compared China’s lack of Internet freedom to the Berlin Wall: a barrier of forced separation and a symbol of repression. The Chinese government has criticized its Western counterparts for excessive intrusion in its domestic affairs. It has also justified its actions by stating that “Chinese society has generally less information-bearing capacity than developed countries such as the U.S., which is an objective reality that no one can deny.”

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editors-in-chief

On the Playing Fields of Scandal Sex, drugs and match-fixing

Martin Shores

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had sexual relations with Tiger Woods. OK, no I didn’t, but I did join the Facebook group. Everyone is more than familiar with that over-publicized scandal, though I’m fuzzy on the details of whom and how many, so I won’t go into greater detail about his life. What I do know that it cost him millions of dollars in sponsorships, an indefinite hiatus from golf and his public image.

Then there’s Michael Phelps, one of the greatest competitors in Olympics history, caught red-handed with a bong. The scandal cast doubts on his future: during the Swimming World Championships, more than one cracked the joke about his inability to perform at his best without marijuana.

Asashoryu, the Mongolian-born yokozuna— the highest rank in Sumo hierarchy—has been accused of going on a drunken binge and beating up another man in a Tokyo entertainment district. Let’s not forget John Terry, captain of England’s national soccer team. Published reports say that he had an affair with the ex-girlfriend of a former Chelsea teammate. It gets worse. He’s married, has twin young daughters, and, in an ironic twist, was named “Dad of the Year” by a condiments company—although we should probably question the validity of parental awards given by a condiments company.

As disappointing as all those incidents may be, they don’t represent the real problem. What these athletes do on their own time is their own issue, as long as they don’t get caught. The more pressing concern is the complete decline of sportsmanship in, well, sports. When athletes are “on duty,” they are expected to behave at the level their competition dictates. Serena Williams shouldn’t go on a violent tirade against a lineswoman for correctly calling a foot-fault. Atheltes are expected to be able to win on their own merits. It’s why we pour so many hours into watching them. They represent the pinnacle of excellence in their (literal) fields; it’s why sports have become a spectacle. It’s why we throw money at them, although maybe that’s part of the problem in the first place.

The greater the reward, the greater the risk, so athletes have to perform that much better. Or, at least, win, and at times, this means at any cost.

This raises a few more questions. Have athletes found themselves incapable of winning based only on their own skill?

What have sports become if what leads to victory isn’t excel-

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lence, but something of greater concern, like who can cheat the best? Take the honor-bound sport of cricket, for instance.

In Australia, during a match, Pakistan’s acting captain Shahid Afridi bit the ball in full view of a TV camera. For those who don’t properly understand why that’s such a big deal, other than Mr. Afridi’s affinity for dirty leather, ball-biting is considered tampering, a clear violation of the rules of the sport. The genteel world of lawn bowls was rocked during the Asia-Pacific Championships last August when the New Zealand team threw a match to secure a better draw in the quarter finals. While this thrilling sport may not necessarily interest those who aren’t retired gentlefolk, the incident represents a definite decline in sportsmanship. Note, I did not even mention drug use. That drug use is a huge problem goes without saying.

Then there are the fans. Those who follow Brazilian football should not have trouble bringing to mind Coritiba’s shameful fall, both from the nation’s athletic elite and from grace in mid 2009. After the match that sent the team into the second division, the independent.co.uk crowd invaded the field looking to attack the referee. The subsequent battle with the police wrecked the stadium; the vandals causing damages of over R$610,000.

Graded athletes can definitely testify to some of the torment they have taken at the hands of other schools, who shall remain nameless. Name-calling, booing, and deliberately distracting our athletes at key opportunities are a few of the acts of angry fans I have witnessed. The athletes themselves didn’t behave much better either. A product of their environment, perhaps?

Once they become celebrities, competitors have to realize that they become bound to different standards. That means that they should either exercise more discretion or simply not transgress at all. They have only become the very best at something—but that doesn’t mean they aren’t human.

Perhaps the increased pressure of being a public figure gets to them and they find other ways of dealing with it. Or maybe they just can’t resist the perks in the form of supermodels.

That’s not for me to say. I, for one, would like to believe every now and then that our “role models” don’t break the rules; that they always stay perfectly within the law. Meanwhile, I will happily continue to poke fun at those who don’t.

editors-in-chief point of view

To Complete the Puzzle The trick of questioning

Sae Bom Choi

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hat is your first reaction after watching a magic trick? The most general response might be, “How did he (or she) do that?” Some of us decide to enjoy the mystery and some do not give up in pursuing the magician’s secret. The surreptitious nature of magic entertains us and sometimes causes fury among those who try to discover secrets.

We question magicians’ tricks for various reasons: simple curiosity, the hatred of being deceived and so on. According to scientists, inquisitive behavior is innate in most living beings. Truly, we live by questions from the very beginning. As babies, we responded to curiosity by using all of our senses, by trying to grab anything and observing, smelling and of course, tasting. Mothers might recall at least one memory of their minds’ going blank, not knowing how to answer some of our questions from childhood.

We still and always will live with questions, curiosity about our nature, our lives, and other people’s lives.

The dilemma starts as we face those unanswerable questions. There are many questions that mess with our minds, especially those that make it hard to reconcile our different ideas and values. One Korean show posed the question, “If you had a supernatural power, would you like to save your best friend who died in a car accident or thousands of people who died in an earthquake?” A competitor had to guess how many among 300 people from every generation would choose A: their best friend, or B: thousands of people. While the proportion of people who chose A or B varied in different age and gender groups, results favored the majority choice.

We struggle not only in taking sides on such a question but also in asking basic but important questions in our lives.

When Roger Nygard, the director of The Nature of Existence, visited our school, many of us were left in confusion. “Why do we exist?” he asks. It is a question that every one of us ponders in our lifetimes. I questioned this matter while writing my college essay, thinking there must be a mission that I have to complete before I die. In Nygard’s documentary, many people come up with different religious and cultural ideas, some objective and some subjective. Watching the film, I was questioning people’s arguments, while also questioning myself and comparing my

own beliefs to others; I felt annoyed and frustrated for not being able to find any answer and by the end of the film I felt even more confused. Reactions around me were quite similar.

Friends sitting next to me looked at each other as if they were asking, “So….did you get any answer?”

Why do we exist? What do we live for? Do we live for ourselves or for others? Is love what we really live for? Are Christians or physicists correct? Are these questions really significant? Is there any point of arguing things that do not seem to have any answer? Our heads swirl like tornados with these different questions and it seems easier to think about homework or tests.

Many people who simply worry about how to survive the next day, do not have time for this contemplation. However, there are others of us who choose to be idle about this question. I, too, stopped asking myself about the purpose of my life after finishing college applications and being notified about some college acceptances. I imdb.com thought a college education would enable me to find my role. Nygard and his film tell me this is wrong; questioning must be ceaseless.

From small questions to big questions, we try to plan for our unsure future. People who are enduring agony in Haiti question how they can get access to food. We should question why we live and what we should do as part of the community. If inquisitive behavior is an innate ability of living things, without questioning, we cannot claim ourselves to be alive. We do not have to feel frustrated by not being able to find conspicuous answers or to draw any conclusions; by simply questioning, we are already planning and steering our future. As a student confessed her confusion after Nygard’s film, Nygard responded, “I love confusion! It tells us our brain is working!”

Let’s enjoy our confusion and those unanswerable, sometimes annoying questions. Find your own magic tricks in your life and make those people around you ask, “How did you do that?” Now, let’s not stop questioning: if you had a superpower, would you restore your best friend who died in an accident, or thousands of people in Haiti?

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point of view

When You Come to Think of It Do we really have to stop believing?

Amanda Rudzit

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hen we are children, everything around us is reason for we are not alarmed when someone unexpectedly yells “boo!” laughter. The world that surrounds us is still filled with at us. Most of the kids I know would actually laugh hysterically fantasy, Disney stories, and nap times when we feel drowsy. The every single time someone played this prank on them, even if tragedies we hear about on the they knew it was coming. Hownews being watched intently by ever, when we grow older, we our parents are very distant rehave been exposed enough to alities, most times even slipping the perils of society to scream by unnoticed. Our attentions are in shock when that harmless fully concentrated on the draw“boo!” is shouted at us. Ironically ings we are coloring in front of us enough, it seems like we grow or on the cartoons that we love. more afraid as we get older.

There are no responsibilities, no This brings about the old dismajor concerns clouding the hapcussion about whether ignorance piness of our routines. is really bliss. Some argue that Life is simple, but not the only reason kids are able to shallow. The magic of our imagisee magic in every aspect of their nations keeps us busy. I witnessed lives is because they don’t know an example of this just this sumany “better.” But what truly is mer as I observed a parading better? I do not know how many group of people at the beach times I have seen a baby doing carrying around inflated stuffed the most mindless of things, like animals that “sang” children’s doodling on a paper, and wishing songs and distributed balloons to I could switch lives with her for the little kids in a clever attempt a while, back to an existence to advertise an ice cream brand. where “I” and “B” were just two I found the whole situation a letters of the alphabet and the bit freaky, but the little boys most math I had to do was count and girls around me were absohow many hours I had left to play lutely mesmerized—I could see in before bedtime. But if I was retheartdepartments.files.wordpress.com their eyes that the figures being ally offered the opportunity to brought to life in front of them were all they needed to make live forever as a child, I know I would not take it. Just as there their world sparkle for the rest of the day. They still believed is a world out there in the imagination of little kids that we canthat animals could sing, that an ice cream was the solution to not grasp, there is a whole other universe that children cannot all their problems, and that the whole spectacle wasn’t all a come close to understanding. It might not be one where the savvy advertising game. ultimate quarrel between good and bad is exemplified by the However, somewhere along the road, something sud- dispute between Harry and Voldemort, but it has some magic denly changes. It seems a gradual process at first, and then in it nonetheless. suddenly we just snap out of it. We stop believing. One day we I believe there can be a compromise between the two catch ourselves looking back at the movies we once watched worlds. Once we find the balance between being the dreamer so intensely and either laugh at how naïve we were or grow and the skeptic, we allow ourselves to have hope in difficult astonished at the rather adult jokes that Walt Disney managed circumstances and can find the magic in the most trivial of to fit into his stories. things (even if we have to be persistent). It is then life can be Take, for example, the “boo!” test. When we are kids, more like it used to be, when all we needed to laugh was to we do not realize the possible dangers the world holds and so have someone scream “boo!”

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point of view

Corrupção no Brasil A inaceitabilidade do fato

João Pedro Falcão & Istvan Zolcsak

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ra uma Corte corrupta, expressão de uma classe dominante corrupta, envilecida na exploração colonial, despojada de sentimento patriótico, inteiramente aferrada apenas aos seus interesses, que colocava acima de tudo, pronta a sacrificar os de sua gente, os do povo que, abandonado a sua sorte, chorava ou se enfurecia nas ruas, enquanto as forças invasoras se adentravam no reino, prelibando seus chefes as delicias da conquista do saque.

Era Janeiro de 1808 e a corte portuguesa chegava em navios ingleses ao Brasil colônia. Apesar de trazer sérios transtornos à cidade do Rio de Janeiro e à sua população, esse momento foi marcante pela prosperidade e desenvolvimento cultural introduzidos no território, especialmente no que é hoje a região sudeste do Brasil. Porém, esquecemos que junto com todo esse desenvolvimento viria também algo que parece impregnar nossa história, a corrupção. Hoje, escutamos com bastante freqüência sobre escândalos envolvendo políticos de todas as esferas do poder público brasileiro.

José Roberto Arruda, governador do Distrito Federal é provavelmente mais um político que vivia em anonimato para a maioria da população brasileira, mas que como muitos outros surgiu em nossas vidas pelos motivos errados, assim como José Sarney, José Dirceu, João Paulo Cunha e José Genoíno, que são apenas alguns nomes de uma lista gigante envolvendo políticos em escândalos de corrupção, que parecem inacabáveis nesse país.

Em nossa história, a corrupção existe desde os tempos da colônia. Kenneth Maxwell, historiador britânico especializado na América Latina, ressalta isso em seu livro de ensaios Chocolate, piratas e outros malandros: ensaios tropicais, no capítulo intitulado A Inconfidência Mineira: dimensões internacionais. Neste capítulo encontramos denúncias históricas sobre o governo de Minas Gerais quando o ciclo do ouro trazia grandes riquezas a Portugal.

“Interconexões íntimas e lucrativas entre abusos do sistema e emolumentos consideráveis que cabiam aos magistrados e ao governador, em decorrência dos contratos, eliminavam as possibilidades de reformas no nível local. Vacilações e suborno na época da concessão dos contratos eram previsíveis, mas os funcionários da Junta também recebiam consideráveis somas, pelo sistema de propinas, em decorrência dos contratos, tendo-as como contribuições perfeitamente legais e suas remunerações oficiais. O governador de Minas, por exemplo, recebia das propinas dos vários contratos de Minas uma quantia

que alcançava a metade dos seus vencimentos oficiais, o que se dava com os magistrados membros da Junta.”

Este trecho do artigo denuncia uma prática reprovável, que não deveria mais existir no Brasil. Mas infelizmente não é assim. O texto de Maxwell, do mesmo modo como descreve algo que ocorria no Brasil há 200 anos, pode muito bem ser usado como parâmetro das práticas de alguns políticos do Brasil atual. Por exemplo, basta ler o texto e ter e imaginar que ele está descrevendo a situação do nosso Distrito Federal hoje. O governador Arruda e muitos membros do governo do Distrito Federal recebiam propinas para favorecer empresas em concursos de licitações públicas. Há uma clara semelhança entre o que ocorre atualmente em várias esferas do governo e a corrupção institucionalizada de Minas Gerais na época do Brasil colônia, quando os abusos do sistema impediam qualquer possibilidade de reforma na localidade. Este retrato parece ser algo recorrente na história do Brasil e provavelmente o maior empecilho para o avanço de nosso país.

Aparentemente – e lamentavelmente – a corrupção parece estar presente em todas as sociedades; o que não pode estar estar ausente é a impunidade. O problema que aparenta sem solução em nosso país é a impunidade da maioria que corrompe e que se deixa corromper. Basta folhearmos apenas jornais desse início de século 21 para acharmos inúmeros escândalos como o dos Correios, todos os casos envolvendo o presidente do Senado, José Sarney e, mais recentemente o do Governador Arruda. Estes são apenas exemplos do que acontece no alto escalão da administração pública e que foram denunciados durante o governo do Presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, talvez o mandatário em cujos mandatos houve o maior número de denúncias envolvendo corrupção da história do Brasil.

Acreditamos que com a proximidade das eleições, em nível nacional, pode-se começar a resolver algo que atormenta a história de um país que possui tanto potencial para se tornar uma liderança em todo o mundo. Por isso é essencial que os eleitores se conscientizem sobre o político em quem votarão já que continuar pelo mesmo caminho não trará nenhuma mudança.

Portanto, devemos acreditar numa reviravolta e talvez num futuro mais brilhante para “o florão da América” que, sem toda essa bagunça e desvio de dinheiro público, poderá finalmente deixar de ser um país emergente e tornar-se uma potência global.

(Este artigo é parte do trabalho final da disciplina “Current challenges”. Orientação: Professor Valdemar Klassen).

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news

Two Republicans, and Child Kidnapping Profiles in the news

Danielle Aguilar

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ost of us are quite busy with homework and our everyday lives. Many of us find that we no longer have the time to tune into everyday news and pay attention to what is going on in the world. For this purpose, the Talon news team has decided to run a few short news profiles again.

Republican Senator Sworn In: On Thursday, February 4, Republican senator Scott Brown was sworn in, taking the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat. His victory on January 19 came as quite a surprise to the people of Massachusetts and to the rest of the United States.

Senator Brown will be the first Republican elected to the position of senator in Massachusetts since 1972.

Since being sworn in, Senator Brown has already shown some strong opposition to President Obama and his plans. His victory has now taken away the Democrats’ crucial 60-seat majority in the Senate. Should Senator Brown follow through with his opposition towards President Obama and Democrat plans, this will certainly hinder their ability to pass major changes in legislation. A prime example of this would be the impending health care reform in the United States. Though he has expressed some opposition, Senator Brown has also showed some signs that he is open to bipartisanship. Brown said “If I see a bill that’s good for my state first, I don’t care where it comes from. If it’s good for Massachusetts, I’ll consider it.”

Palin Plans for the Future: In early February, during an interview, Sarah Palin announced that she would consider running for President of the United States in the year 2012.

She stated that she would join in the presidential race if she truly felt that it was the right thing to do for both the United States and for her family. When questioned more thoroughly on the topic, Palin said, “I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country.

I don’t know if it’s going to be ever seeking a title, though.”

She also took the opportunity to voice her opinion on President Obama’s approach in the White House so far. Palin mentioned that it seemed to her that President Obama was acting as if he

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thought it would be better if American citizens and voters would simply “shut up” and accept his changes and policies. While Sarah Palin did in fact state the possibility of her candidacy, she also did recognize the fact that there are also many other well-qualified people who will also be competing for the position and that if she feels that the fate of the country would be better in someone else’s hands, then she will support that candidate. Whatever Mrs. Palin decides to do, it will definitely make the 2012 elections a little more interesting, a little more animated, and certainly a little more entertaining.

Child Kidnapping in Haiti: After the earthquake in Haiti, mass chaos erupted throughout the island nation. As it was already quite an impoverished country before the natural disaster, the state of Haiti afterwards was one of complete horror and unimagitopnews.in nable pain. As the world stuck together in an attempt to help Haiti, some had less admirable aims in the midst of this crisis. On January 29, ten American Baptist missionaries were caught trying to take 33 Haitian children across the border into the Dominican Republic. The spokesperson for the church group, Laura Silsby, stated that they were trying to get the children across the border in order to get them to a safer environment. The infraction with the law occured when the church group did not have proper documentation in order to take the children out of the country. Ms. Silsby stated that she and her fellow church members were under the impression that they did have all of the proper documentation and were therefore not intentionally committing the crime of kidnapping. Eight of the ten missionaries are now in Haitian custody and since they did not have adoption papers for the children signed by Haitian officials, they are facing charges under the basis of child trafficking. Recently, a letter given to a journalist by one of the imprisoned missionaries was opened to the public. At one point in the letter, the missionaries state “We fear for our lives here in Haiti.” Whether or not the statement made in the letter is true or if the missionaries actually intended to kidnap the children, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

news

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Universal’s new theme park is bound to bewitch

Eduardo Estrada

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ou don’t have to be a diehard “I-read-the-Deathly-Hallowsin-one-night” fan of Harry Potter to agree with the fact that the magical universe created by J.K. Rowling and brought to the big screen by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson is nothing short of amazing.

Who wouldn’t want to wake up on the morning of his eleventh birthday and receive a letter (delivered by an owl… yeah! I know!) which says that he has been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? Then go to Ollivander’s to find a wand that is just right for him? Ride the Hogwarts Express out of Platform Nine and Three Quarters? Get sorted into Gryffindor and walk through the portrait of the Fat Lady for the first time? Or venture out onto the castle grounds to discover the many secrets and perils that await one in the Forbidden Forest? Who wouldn’t want to take a walk through Hogsmeade? Stop for a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks… candy at Honeydukes… and maybe some pranks at Zonko’s… ah, that would be magical. If any of the above scenarios sound appealing look no further, muggle.

Thanks to a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Universal Studios, the magic, thrills and adventure of Harry Potter is coming alive in the Spring of 2010 through The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal Studios Orlando Resort’s latest theme park. Technically, it will be a theme park within a theme park since it will be an addition (a new island, specifically) to Universal’s Islands of Adventure which already hosts rides for a number of iconic cartoons and films such as Dr. Seuss, Jurassic Park, and all the DC Comics. Recreating the most famous landmarks found in the films and books, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will be centered around Hogsmeade Village where guests will arrive via the Hogwarts Express (it is still unclear as to whether or not one can actually ride the train) and be able to experience the famous wand selection whereby “the wand chooses the wizard” at Ollivander’s Interactive Experience.

Young witches and wizards will actually be able to purchase their own magic wands, and have the chance to dine at the infamous

Hog’s Head tavern or at the iconic Three Broomsticks where, if Universal wishes to avoid a strike on behalf of millions of fans, butterbeer will be served. For dessert guests will be able to indulge in an array of magical sweets such as Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans at Honeydukes.

Also located on Hogsemeade will be the theme park’s main gift shops (any theme park worth its salt has to have at least a couple of these). Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods is a selfexplanatory toy store and Dervish and Banges will sell all sorts of magical objects as well as movie memorabilia ,while Zonko’s, the famous magical joke shop, will provide trouble-makers with, well, jokes and pranks of a magical nature. harry-potter-forums.co.cc Finally, Hogwarts. Yes, the magical castle will be the most prominent landmark in the park and yes, the gates will be open for guests to explore the Great Hall and Gryffindor Common room, among others. Additionally, the castle will also house the theme park’s widely anticipated and secretive new ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

Although the nature of this ride is unclear, Universal describes it as “A new, state-of-the-art attraction that uses ground-breaking technology to bring the magic, characters and stories of Harry Potter to life in ways never before experienced.” Moving out onto the school grounds guests will be able to visit Hagrid’s Hut and attempt to tame a hippogriff in the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster, which will be quite mild in comparison to the Dragon Challenge, a rollercoaster in which guests can choose to ride either a Chinese Fireball or a Hungarian Horntail as the dragon roller coasters come inches away from collision (the existing Dueling Dragons roller coaster will actually be given a facelift to create this ride).

Yes, it’s just a theme park and it doesn’t mean that you will in fact be able to perform magic, but at the 20-acre Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which opens in the spring of 2010, you might just forget your boring muggle life and feel like a witch or a wizard for at least a few hours… and who wouldn’t like that?

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news

Becoming an “Enlightened Grown-up” An interview with Roger Nygard

Victoria Steinbruch

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hen we are children it seems like we have an abundant amount of creativity stored within us. As we grow up and mold ourselves according to the norms of society, it seems as though all this creativity just evaporates. Antoine de SaintExupéry illustrates this in his famous book The Little Prince through the narrator’s recounting of his childhood experiences.

The narrator tells the reader that “the grown-ups advised me to put away my drawings of boa constrictors, (…) and apply myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. That is why I abandoned, at the age of six, a magnificent career as an artist.”

He characterizes grown-ups as those who talk about “bridge and golf and politics and neckties.”

However, it becomes clear that he never truly abandoned the child within him for he mentions that sometimes, he came across “an enlightened grown-up” and with this person, he would feel comfortable to talk about “boa constrictors, jungles and stars.”

As I interviewed Roger Nygard, I began to realize that he was a shoe-in for the position of “enlightened grown-up.” My first clue of course, came from the fact that he never stopped talking about stars (or asking others about them as well). When I asked him what events led him to start considering making a documentary about our existence he described three events that had a major impact on him.

The first lesson came at the age of seven, when he realized that he was going to die someday. According to Nygard, it was his first existential crisis and it was initiated as he was reading a medical encyclopedia and came across the symptoms for tuberculosis. He thought, “Wow, I have all these symptoms, I’m going to die!” So he put on his snow-suit, went to a frozen lake and started staring at the stars and the immensity of the universe and waited to die. Twenty minutes later, however, he thought, “I’m cold, nothing has happened, I’m going back to the house.” But the first existential seed was planted in Nygard’s brain.

The second event occurred when he was thirteen and his father died. That event brought mortality into his home, and made death real. This ended up bringing even more ques-

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tions to the surface. He constantly wondered what happened to us once we died. What had happened to his father? Would he remain the version of himself at the time of his death? Or would he be he some earlier version? Who got to decide that?

These questions brought others to his mind, such as, What if a baby dies? Does he stay a baby or does he grow up in heaven and go to college? The predicament was that nobody could give him satisfactory answers.

Just like the narrator of The Little Prince, Nygard came to the conclusion that when grown-ups are asked about things that they don’t understand, they usually deflect them because they don’t want to admit that they don’t know. Therefore, as he hadn’t come to any answers that he particularly liked, he abandoned the pursuit of finding answers that satisfied him. That is until the third event, 9/11, happened. rogernygard.com According to Nygard, “After September 11th, for a moment, all of the United States seemed to question their mortality for about a week before everybody returned to their normal, oblivious lives.” This brought his former questions to mind, however this time, he was already a filmmaker and therefore decided that he could ask people these questions and put it on film for others to see.

When asked about the how the selection process was made for the people who appeared in the film, Nygard answers, “I decided that I wanted to speak to representatives and leaders of all major religions.” He says that the others were people that he chose to talk to because of a special personal interest, word of mouth or simply by chance. He wanted to cover the bases of major religions, so he went to Israel to talk to the Jews, Italy to talk to the Catholics, China to talk to the Confuciunists, Indonesia to talk to the Muslims and India to talk to leaders of several religions.

The other group he chose to question was the scientists. Nygard says that he probably identified more with them, because “there is a sort of philosophy in breaking down the universe.” Nygard says that all of the interviews had an effect on him because all of them changed him in some way or another.

According to Nygard, “Even the people that I disagreed with-

news the most, like Brother Jed, I learned from. I disagreed with 98 percent of what he had to say but there was 2 percent of the time when I thought that I was in sync with him. Therefore, I learned with everybody, even the ones that I disagreed with the most; perhaps it was in these interviews that I learned the most.”

This led me to ask him if he identified himself with any particular religion. He answered me that his favorite term is “rationalist”. “I am in favor of rationality and I am against irrationality,” he says. “Supernatural implies that there is something above natural, and I tend to side with scientists who instead of believing in the existence of supernatural, just believe that we don’t have enough information to explain everything yet.” Nygard added, “A person who believes in the supernatural is looking for magic, which means that this individual believes in the existence of some sort of magic. To believe in magic you must believe that humans are able to walk on water, or float in the air or make wine into water, and believing in this requires you to transmute molecules or defy the laws of gravity.”

Once Nygard mentioned magic, I couldn’t resist asking what he thought of it, not just because it’s this month’s Talon theme, but also because he had apparently counted it as something irrational. Slowly learning that I should never anticipate the thoughts of an “enlightened grown-up,” I was completely surprised by his answer. He told me that he was avidly enthusiastic about being a magician. His specialty is to make things float and disappear. To prove this, he even made a coin disappear and reappear magically out of my ear. Nygard claimed that while he loved illusions and fooling people, “When you take it a step further and say that magic is real, then, I need some proof.”

The more he talked, the more curious I became. What is his recipe for success? “Eight hours of sleep, exercise in the morning, go to work, which means going into my office in my house and try not get distracted while I plan my next trip or edit a segment or do whatever I have to do that day.”

As he began talking about planning trips, I immediately

asked which were his favorite places to visit. He confidently answered that the list included “India for the spirituality, Italy for the food, France for Paris (which he claims is the most romantic city he has ever seen), and Brazil for the people.” He added, “I always love visiting Brazil. The people here are the best, and I always receive the most positive energy.”

His advice to seniors who are embarking on new stages of their lives is, “When you continue your journey you need to do two things that are opposites. One of them is you have to specialize by picking something that you are good at and becoming the best in the business by practicing and practicing.

The other is to do the opposite and generalize by making sure that you take classes in literature and meteorology and history because knowledge is power.”

Nygard’s favorite book is Three Men and a Boat by Jerome Corey Watlington K. Jerome. He says that he started reading it by accident but it turned out to be one of the funniest pieces of writing that he had ever read.

His favorite color as a kid was green, but it became blue as an adult and now, according to him, “It changes all the time, from yellow to purple and red and now I think that it has come back to green again.” His favorite word? “It has to be ‘why’. That’s what I ask in my documentaries: ‘why do you do these things you do? Why do you behave that way? Why do you love this television show so much? Why do you collect what you collect?

Why do you believe what you believe? Why? Why? Why?’” Finally, I ask him about what was his impression was of Graded students. He answered by saying, “This is the fourth school that I have visited and here students are so driven and self-motivated. The kids here are so inquisitive. I have been amazed and shocked at how easy it was to get hands in the air when I said, ‘Are there any questions? Any challenges?’

The students here were actually challenging me.” Nygard was impressed that after he showed his movie, a middle-schooler came up to him and asked, “So, do you believe in God?” When I repeat to him the same question, the stargazer stops to think.

He finally answers with the wisdom oozed solemnly by those truly enlightened: “ I believe in the laws of the universe.”

the talon • 9

news

A Talk with The Man

The thoughts of our superintendent, Mr. Fertig Martin Shores & Andrew Shim

A

s the superintendent of our school, Mr. Lee Fertig has previously worked at the American School in Rio de Janeiro, American School of Barcelona, International Community School of Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia, and a couple of other institutions in the United States. He is married to High School English teacher Ms. Amy Hunt. They have three children, one in each division of the school. We sat down with him recently to hear his thoughts on a series of questions.

Interviewer: Looking back on your first semester here at Graded, what did you think of our school in general terms in comparison to some of the other places you’ve worked at?

Fertig: My first reaction is that the first semester flew by. I knew Graded from my years in EARJ. But I’d never worked at Graded. So working here my first reactions were most of what I expected: it’s a school that values the notion of excellence.

I thought a lot about this, what defines Graded? What oozes out of kids and teachers and parents? I’ve come up with three things for the most part: One, there’s pure dedication to being excellent. I think people are always striving to be the best they can. The second one is very much related to that I think it’s a community that is committed to learning. It’s one that is always trying to bring in new ideas. The third thing, last but not least, is that I think it’s a community that strives to create a better world. Service learning is taken very serious here, social responsibility, environmental awareness. What I like about Graded is that it’s not just lip service. We give community service priority. That’s worth something. Those are the three things that are percolating in my head: excellence, learning, power to create a better world.

So in terms of Graded students in general and its social culture, how do you feel it’s different from the other schools?

I loved all the other schools I’ve been in: EARJ, American School of Barcelona, the international school in Ethiopia, a couple other schools in the States. I’ve loved them all, all unique. I would say Graded is—this is a really good question— Graded has a climate and ethos that is pretty unique. People here, they feed off of each other in positive ways. I’ve been in schools where people feed off each other in negative ways, and I don’t get that stuff at all. I get the sense people really do push each other—in good ways. It’s kind of a constructive chal-

10 • the talon

lenge to see how much you can grow. It’s a good culture. It’s a culture of what we call in educational jargon, continuous improvement. People are always trying to continuously improve themselves and it’s intrinsic. And that’s not the culture at all schools. Also, very concretely, it’s a pretty well resourced school. That’s a fancy way of saying it’s a little richer. We have a beautiful arts center—that’s just amazing. We have an okay athletic field, better than many schools but there’s room to go. It’s situated in Brazil, and I think that Brazil is the golden child right now in the world economy. There’s a lot of vibrancy and activity that I think feeds off of Graded. So yeah, I like it.

We heard you were travelling to recruit teachers. Could you give us any thoughts on that?

It’s probably the most important thing that I do. It has to be the most important job at any school. It’s incredibly time consuming. It is mind-boggling how much time I put into this. I do have help though: the principals Mr. Dequanne, Mr. Urqhart, Mrs. Geiger all help me. Why is it so important? Earlier on I talked about excellence. I think that comes from the instructional staff, and if you hire a not-so-good teacher it can get pretty ugly. This community expects more of Graded than that. We really look for the best. And when I say the best, it’s the best not just in terms of what they know, how much they know; I mean, that’s important, but not all that important. It’s truly about best fit. Who’s going to fit in Graded? So, for example, I can find a doctor, somebody who’s got a PhD in mathematics.

But that person might not be the type of person who makes a connection with the Graded students the way Graded students expect teachers to make that connection. You’ve probably experienced some teachers who really do make that connection, and others who maybe don’t, who aren’t as comfortable with the Graded experience. So I need to find the right fit, that’s why its so time-consuming, but it’s also exciting.

Can you tell us about some of your roles at school?

I would like to be more visible. I work with all the different stakeholders with the school, that includes, staff, teachers, parents, the board, so I spend a lot of time with logistics issues, long-term strategic planning, and I have a lot of people assist me with the day to day, but my job has a heavy emphasis on working with those who govern the school for the

news future, such as its financial health, campus renovation, facility renewal, programmatic development such as new electives or service learning activities. I spend a lot of time in bringing people together. Sounds corny, but one of the things I think can be better is focused collaboration. It’s bringing people together and facilitating them into a cycle of discussion that would allow them to cooperate. So I think my job is to facilitate, a teacher of protocol, so I use structure and processes to get people together. It’s very gray, amorphorous. But research shows that more cooperation is better for the students. I am also the face of the school in the public, so I sometimes show up at parties and get involved in fundraising and other development opportunities. To tie all this together, my work comprises of advancing the mission of the school.

What are some of your short-term plans for the school?

We have created a new administrative position called the Director of Teaching and Learning, somebody who will have a dedicated set of eyes and ears just focused on learning, rather than some of the logistics our administrators have to take care of. Parking is also a problem, and we’re looking for a creative solution to this problem that plagues our school—we’re checking with consultants at this point. One of the things I would like to see is getting our students and teachers out there and share their expertise, participating more actively in society.

Talon International maybe? Because of its resources, dedication and expertise, I think Graded can be a resource for an international scope.

We’ve also been hearing about a certain ten-year plan concerning school construction. Can you tell us more?

I came into the school while this was being discussed. There was something called project 2020, which I think needs more clarification. I think while the school was growing in the last few years, people were looking at renovation of facilities that really are pretty old. But I think what has happened was that people put the cart before the horse; we didn’t know what our school was going to look like in terms of numbers, size by the year 2020. So I think this information dictates how our facilities are going to look like. Right now we have 1220 students— Are we gonna stay with this number? It remains to be seen. So we haven’t abandoned the project, but we are reframing it in order to fit how our school will look like in ten years.

Do you miss teaching? And given the choice, would you go back to it?

Yes, I do. I would go back to it in part. And I’d teach one class.

I wouldn’t go back to full-time teaching. Many of your high

school teachers pour their whole body and soul into teaching, and I just need to see things from a broader perspective. I like teaching, but I also like to have an impact on the variables that shape the learning process: the culture of the school, the recruiting process for new teachers. I enjoy working with people, diverse groups of people to make sure all of those things are in alignment, but I have tremendous respect for teachers who do what they do day in and day out.

How was the transition to Graded?

It’s been good. Graded is very welcoming, open and embracing to me. I just hired a few people for next year, and one of them wrote to me and said it was mind boggling how friendly people at Graded are, and she hadn’t even started here yet.

It’s a very positive vibe and you guys probably feel that. One of the things you in particular will feel very soon is saudades of Graded. The alumni just have Graded in their hearts. I think that’s very telling, it exemplifies how special this place is.

One of the things that I keep coming back to is what defines Graded. In South America, now, I’d say there are probably not very many schools that have the same level of internationalism that Graded has. We have 45% Brazilian students, which is great. I have a strong connection to the local culture. But that means we have 55% international students. Many schools in South America don’t have that. They have the 90% of the local culture, so many of them are really more of a local school with a little international flavor. Whereas, I think it’s very important to be the other way, what we are. An international school with a real strong connection to the local culture and that’s the way I view all the Portuguese classes and the Brazilian studies program. I highly value them especially in the context of an international school.

Is there message you’d like to give to the readers?

I’ve been meaning to write to you guys. And I really like what’s in the Talon. It’s diverse. Congratulations, it’s done in a very classy way. I would encourage the Talon to continue to do what it’s doing. It’s informative, can be a little provocative.

And I would encourage you to be provocative. Not just stir the pot just to for the sake of it, but if there’s something that’s really meaningful to you, that just doesn’t sit right with you and potentially violates the integrity of the school, yeah, write about it. And you guys do. I encourage you to do that.

I would encourage the Talon readers to continue to read and participate by contributing themselves. But also contribute by getting involved in the thousands of things that make Graded, Graded.

the talon • 11

news

Tabula Rasa

Can Steve Jobs be triumphant once again?

Felipe Fagundes

A

pple has been known for creating revolutionary products.

Before the iPod was released people, used to have to carry either tapes or CDs with them in order to listen to music.

However, after the iPod was introduced by Apple in 2001 all that changed. People were suddenly able to listen to hundreds of songs, in a gadget a lot smaller than a CD player. Combined with the resourceful iTunes store, the iPod quickly became a hit around the world. A generation was created of people who didn’t say they would “listen to music” but rather, “listen to my iPod”. Then in 2006 the introduction of video was also remarkable because people could now watch their favorite TV shows and movies everywhere. Today, 250,000,000 iPod sales later (as Steve Jobs was quick to point out), Apple expects to lead another revolution.

One day after classes at Graded had resumed on January 27, Apple held one of its very famous keynote shows. Even though people had an idea of what would be announced, the enthusiasm was great. There were even people betting on what the new tablet computer by Apple would be called. The hype was so great that the day before, The Wall Street Journal said, “The last time everybody got this excited about a tablet was when it had commandments on it.” This quote illustrates well the attitude not only among Apple fanatics but also around investors and even the average Joe. After a few short announcements, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad, which got covered in almost every newspaper and magazine that week. Apple was making the ground-breaking announcement about a product that had almost a 10-inch display (3 inches smaller than a MacBook Pro) with a touch screen. A product that was almost as thin as a pencil, that seemed almost to be magical and not possible even in people’s wildest dreams. Yet, it was in front of the world’s eyes. Apple released it hoping that it would be able to fill the gap between smartphones and laptops, something that has been attempted without success by companies like Sony with the Mylo, but has not yet been achieved.

Now that the hype is over, it is important to step back and actually look at the product. All of the capabilities Steve Jobs announced during the presentation are valid: looking at pictures, surfing the web, checking emails, watching videos and most importantly reading books. The latter one seems to be the factor that could actually make the device successful, since everyone loves to read and it would be a good solution for reducing the worldwide consumption of paper. The device also seems to be the journalistic Lost Grail, in the sense that it could be what will finally help newspapers and magazines survive by aiding the transition into the digital world. Nevertheless, a lot of people would still rather hold a book than an electronic

12 • the talon

tablet while reading, and the fact the books sold on iTunes will cost as much as the printed copies might persuade people not to make the $500 hardware investment. Also, it is important to consider that there are alternatives on the market that are cheaper, like Amazon’s Kindle. This device even has advantages over the iPad since it does not charge for use of its 3G radio, while with Apple people will have to spend at least $15 monthly for the feature. Will people really be willing to pay $500 for the 16gb version and up to $829 for the 64gb version with 3G? For that price people can buy an actual netbook (even though Steve Jobs claims they are not good for anything). For a few hundred more a person can even buy the world-renowned MacBook that is much more powerful than the iPad (and can actually perform multiple tasks at the same time).

In order to answer this question it is important to look at the trajectory of the iPhone. When it was announced it also had a similar sort of hype around it. In the long run one of the main factors for keeping that going was not Apple itself, but the third-party developers of applications on the App Store.

Taking that into account, as of now the odds for Apple do not seem too good. On the day that the iPad was announced only iWork presented genuinely interesting applications for the iPad, while all the other apps, despite being interesting due to their new designs, did not do enough to encourage people to buy them. Apple had a sample of applications from third-party developers, like Brushes, which seems a really good application for arts students. Yet, it is not the possibility of making art on the iPad or playing video games that will sell.

Statistics actually show that people would still rather buy handhelds like Sony’s PSP and Nintendos’ DS over the iPod Touch for games. The iPad will have to be better—as Steve Jobs pointed out—than a smartphone and a laptop at key things.

Fortunately, Apple is well aware of that and so throughout the keynote, Steve Jobs as well other people kept repeating that a new “gold rush” of development has started. In order for the iPad to succeed, that will need to happen. In case third-party developers keep developing only for iPhone and people have to use scaled apps, the iPad might end up becoming like the MacBook Air, an interesting product to look at but not to buy.

Apple will probably be addressing some of the product’s shortcomings in the future. Like the absence of a video camera, and the inability to perform multiple tasks at once, a task that even netbooks can handle. Even without all of the improvemnets, Apple will probably end up succeeding again, not by inventing a new product but by making it main stream in our culture, so that soon we will not be reading books but rather reading iPads.

features

Witches and Wiccans

An archetype from ancient to modern times Karen Hime very Halloween as many girls put on their black pointy

E

world worked, when people believed that magic existed, and

hats, pick up their pumpkin baskets and stick on their fake

were eager to believe any sort of superstition. These were times

crooked nose, the old question about witches comes to mind:

when the only way people could feel in control of nature was

do witches really exist? If they do, where are they and what

to invent mystical explanations for what was happening around

are they doing? Are they scared to come out publicly and be

them and mysterious rituals were very comforting. Many of

persecuted as done to others during the Salem witch trials?

these beliefs and rituals are still with us.

These questions become insignificant when thinking about more

Elderly women, usually the oldest in a village and

interesting questions such as: what do they look like? Are they

knowledge about herbs, medicines, and other lore, were usually

good or evil? Witches are such a famous archetype, but so little

the people who were suspected of sorcery. They lived alone,

is known about them.

without a husband to protect them, and were easy targets.

Witches are a symbol for all spooky and mystical be-

When bad things like famine, death, or disease happened in

ings. Without a doubt, the witch is one of the most enduring

feudal societies, people looked for something or someone to

figures in superstition and literature. Whether portrayed as

blame. These old women with mysterious ways were often held accountable.

an aged hag astride a broomstick on some mission of evil, or as girl dancing naked with her companions in a wooded grove, witches can be found in carvings of cavemen and in

Witches are such a famous archetype, but so little is known about them.

Often the people turned to their leaders, usually the church, for guidance. In the past, church leaders often looked to the supernatural for

the columns of today’s newspapers.

explanations, and evil in the form

Since the Middle Ages, writings have

of a “witch” was easy for people to

shown her as an enemy of humanity, a solitary being able to

identify with, a handy scapegoat. Although the idea of witches

make pacts with the Devil to employ all manner of supernatural

was encouraged by Christianity, witchcraft is actually a much

powers.

more ancient practice; its origins can be traced back to pagan Witches still exist, some who attempt to unite in order

rituals thousands of years.

to create sorcery together and others who feel alone against

A belief in witches has survived. During the Salem,

the world. Many of today’s witches choose to be called “wic-

Massachusetts witch trials of 1692 people became hysterical

cans,” instead of “witches”. The very name “witch” conjures

with the fear that they were surrounded by practitioners of

images associated with evil, and contemporary witches wish

witchcraft, and nineteen “witches” were executed. Any woman

to dissociate themselves with that negative connotation. They

who exhibited any sort of unusual behavior could be accused of

go to great lengths to redefine themselves by using the term

being a witch. Such outbreaks of mass hysteria were common

“wicca.” However, the word “witch” comes from the Old English

in uneducated societies.

word “wicca” (masculine) “wicce” (feminine) which means to

Today, wiccans consider themselves witches, but dif-

practice sorcery. In fact, our English word “wicked” comes from

ferentiate from the witches that were pointed out by others.

the root word “wicca” and literally means “witch-like”.

There are other people who call themselves witches and prac-

There are many sites on the Internet which promote

tice witchcraft. These people may take it seriously, or they may

this “unity of a different kind,” such as; “Are Witches Real?”

be playing at it. Whether these witches can actually practice

and “7 Witches.” These sites call to witches around the world

real magic is determined by each individual’s understanding

who feel lonely or confused about their natural talents and who

of his or her own beliefs. Those who practice witchcraft are

seek guidance. Something important to consider is that there

believed to have been able to create something supernatural,

is a difference between the people who consider themselves

and as for those witches of the past, such as in Salem, it will

witches and those who other people believe are witches. The

never be known whether they were real witches or simply in-

idea that someone could be a witch probably originated in the

nocent lives who were victims of society’s ignorance.

early centuries when most people were ignorant of how the

the talon • 13

features

If Graded Were Hogwarts Our lives would be easier

Andrea Estrada

D

on’t get me wrong, I am quite certain most of us do not wish to be “The Boy Who Lived” and have to face “YouKnow-Who,” but I am just as certain many of us do wish to attend Hogwarts. Hey, while we are at it, why not be just friends with the “The Boy Who Lived”? After all, who doesn’t dream of meeting the world’s famous Harry Potter and being able to brag about it for the rest of their life? I know I do.

Does this desire for a Hogwarts life mean we dislike Graded? No, not at all. We simply wish to add that one missing ingredient to our learning experience. Graded has everything Hogwarts has to offer: an outstanding education, brilliant, high-qualified teachers, a diversity of students, pretty good food, numerous groups or activities to participate in, and great sports (nothing with remarkable flying broomsticks, but still, Big 8 and Big 4 will do). Yet with everything our school has to offer, we do complain constantly. We students never seem to be just quite satisfied.

What we lack in our Graded life is magic. Magic opens up possibilities that only the imagination can reach. Magic makes time, and time is the number one necessity for Graded students.

Magic makes relationships, tests, grades, entertainment, and everything one could imagine into a plausible experience within our reach. With magic, the impossible ceases to be impossible.

Students and teachers would venture in a world of sparkles and bliss, if only we each had a wand to flick around and a broomstick to fly.

When asked “If you could have any magical power or object, what magical power or object they would have, what would it be and how would you use it to your advantage at school?”, students explain how magic would improve their lives at Graded.

•

I’d get myself a magic wand (just like the ones in Harry Potter) and that would allow me to do all sorts of magic for all sorts of occasions. If I could have one magic power myself it would be either flying or invisibility...hard choice.

—Eduardo Estrada

•

Liquid luck for quizzes and tests. —Maria del Carmen Serrato

•

The ability to control time, or a time-turner-like object. It wouldn’t have to rewind or even fast forward, just pause.

I feel like I’m always running out of time, we all are really if you think about it. I’d use it to do homework, to pause during assignments or tests to give myself more time to think, etc. —Danielle Bryant

14 • the talon

•

The power of having pleasure in doing homework. For I already enjoy school, it’s homework that really messes my daily routine up. Hence, with this ability I would not lose so much time procrastinating, and I would actually enjoy doing homework. —Riccardo Lemos

•

Reading minds. Or see into the future so I can prepare if there is a surprise test/quiz or project or essay that I want more time on. —Tessa Peixoto

•

If I could have any magical power, I would fly. Basically, it’s just sweet, and I could fly to school or leave to school when needed. —Cooper Franks

•

My power would be to see what an author was thinking when writing his paper/book, so that I could know exactly what to annotate. —Felipe Arenas

•

A magical object would be a Ctrl-F for books. —Meli Fizner

•

Totally time control! You could pause time in tests and go over and check other people’s answers or even go and steal from the snack bar. —Patrick Bird

•

Object: I would like to have a wand that I could use to perform any spells. I would use it to pick up my pencil, to make time go faster, to talk during class, etc. All of those fun things. Power: to duplicate myself so I wouldn’t actually have to go to certain classes (cough cough Math), but I would still take the notes and have the knowledge. Or maybe I wouldn’t even have to duplicate myself. My soul would just leave my body and fly around while my body was “paying attention.” Why am I not Harry Potter? — Naty Arenas

•

Maybe an invisibility cloak. You know, we could eavesdrop on teachers’ conversations and find out the answers on tests. —Samaya Yamout

Whether it’s a time stopper or simply the power to fly, we all could benefit from some magical power that would make life easier. A little bit of Hogwarts in Graded wouldn’t do any harm.

Then again, what is Hogwarts without the beautiful campus and the threat of Voldemort’s power? And what is Graded without all the stress yet satisfaction that comes from accomplishing so much without magic? Maybe it is too much to ask for a Hogwardized Graded, and not so bad to live with what we have. Still, a student can dream.

features

Abracadabra, Make Me Beautiful...

For now Gini Chi

W

hen I went to Korea for last summer’s holiday, I had a sleepover at my old friend’s house. As a rising junior, she was STUNNING—it literally made me sick whenever we met. Everywhere she went, boys turned their heads, while I received strong blows to my self-esteem the whole time. However, that night, I screamed when I saw a stranger in my friend’s pajamas. Her black, rugged face was marred with acne and scars. I couldn’t believe that the ugly duckling in front of me was the beauty queen I had been with earlier that day. It was then I realized the secret to my friend’s onetime beauty: she used the never-fail magic kit: make-up.

As I grew into a 17-year-old and became slightly more aware of beauty-related topics, I was truly amazed at the power of make-up. It was like magic to me—just couple of minutes of looking at a mirror amending nature here and there with a powder puff and mascara, and...Abracadabra!

Nevertheless, doubts about the magic make-up developed: can it really render a person beautiful in the end?

Nowadays guarantees of both “beauty up-grades” and perfect skin care are offered daily. Some might think that it is all right to use make-up as they wish, since the quality of the products is so good and continues being improved every day.

Even the young today are using make-up at a furious pace (my brother, who is in seventh grade, claimed that he has a classmate who wears unimaginably thick make-up for her age). So why not follow the crowd?

However, the human body has a magic of its own: selfhealing. Although it is slow and barely noticeable, the healing

process of the human body occurs on its own and is capable of continuing on its own; it is one of involuntary functions of human body like breathing. It can heal wounds without medication (although it would take a lot of time—trust me—I know). The key point about this process is that it produces substances that aid in keeping human skin young and healthy.

Despite this, everything changes once a person starts using make-up. Believe it or not, once you start using any kind of chemical on yourself, your body will increasingly become “lazy” in self-healing and will attend to itself less. Instead, it will rely on those chemicals that you apply to heal and maintain healthy skin. In other words, once you start using make-up, your body will not produce substances that keep your skin young. Your skin will become increasingly rugged and old and, not realizing what is really happening to your skin, you will just apply more makeup, making your skin older in the process. This cycle will continue, leaving nothing but withered skin in the end.

Therefore, make-up gives im91.exc.cx/im91.blogspot.com a person only very brief beauty and actually causes human skin to become older and look tired as the use of make-up increases. Some might think that my argument is invalid, since as years pass human skin gradually ages anyway. My point is this: if you keep using make-up, you are stimulating the aging process of skin and will, without make-up, in the end look older than those non-make-up-wearing woman the same age as you.

If you are thinking about using make-up more frequently, without a doubt, you can be beautiful—for now.

“Abracadabra, make me beautiful.” No, ironically this is not what you get when you use make-up. Rather, your command is this: “Abracadabra, make my skin wasted.”

the talon • 15

features

Captivated by Magic

Our Muggle dreams of Prince Charming and Edward Cullen Olivia Dupasquier

O

ver the past decade, our generation’s biggest obsessions involve magic, or some sort of supernatural world. Twilight and Harry Potter were two phenomenons which successfully captured the attention of almost all adolescents. What is it that triggers such an obsession? Why are we so obsessed with magic, with a world so completely out of our grasp? Maybe it’s just that: the fact that they’re so far out of our reach is what leads us to crave it more than ever.

Or has this world become so boring that we turn to the fascinations of magic? Are we so naïve that we continue to hope in vain that somewhere out there, it truly does exist? Of course. Or else we would just write off these books or movies as yet another form of entertainment. However, these stories have become so much more than that; after all, everyone (who has not been living under a rock for the past few years) knows of the existence of these two series. They are not just for entertainment, they have captured hearts, and, in some cases, minds, leaving some to believe that what happens in these stories is really out there, and possible.

I remember turning eleven, something I had been looking forward to for a couple of years. Not because I was desperate to turn one year older, but rather it was a special age. It was my year to finally receive the letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry inviting me to be a student at the famous school where Harry Potter and any other decent wizard learned to use their powers. Although I waited restlessly all day, needless to say, the letter never came. I was heartbroken.

The pile of presents and the delicious birthday cake were not consolation enough after finding out that I would never explore a dimension of the world that no one truly knows exists, but suspects is there. That was the only thing that mattered for the rest of the day, that I would never be invited to participate in the magical world, but instead would always remain as a mere “muggle.” Ever since that age, and even before, I had an obsession with magic. All of the princess movies had magic; it was

16 • the talon

only through the use of it that they succeeded in finding Prince Charming and living happily ever after. Although now I know that magic won’t get me my Prince Charming, and that I will never wander the halls of Hogwarts as a student, the hope that magic is out there has never really faded. That’s why this summer, when the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series came out in the movies, I was standing faithfully in line for the midnight premiere—like a true, devoted magic geek, along with hundreds of others.

That’s the addiction of these out-of-theworld stories; they make you crave what you don’t have or what you will teenvogue.com never have—the magic, the power, the protection. After all, even though Robert Pattinson, the actor who portrays Edward Cullen in Twilight, has thousands of girls screaming after him every day, if Edward was not a vampire, no one would look twice at him. His paranormal strength, which enables him to protect his true love Bella from practically every danger this world, is what makes him so appealing to the teenage girls who lust after him, wanting the same love and protection that only the supernatural can provide. The regular world (and regular boys), are no longer deemed sufficient. If one cannot pull out a wand and fly with a broom, or live forever as a beautiful, mesmerizing being, then life is not as interesting as these characters prove it should be.

The root of our addiction of all things magical is simply the desire to have a part of that in our world as well. The world does not seem complete without Hogwarts as a school and a beautiful man to swoop in and save us. As long as that continues to be absent in our day-to-day lives, then as a generation, we will simply continue dreaming of it. However, the power that magic has over us will not cease, but rather be replaced with more “realistic” dreams as we get older over the years. But I know that at least for me, I will never let go of that disappointing feeling of not receiving an invitation to be someone magical.

features

Modern Magicians

Certainly entertaining, certainly not magical Julia Greenwald

B

ack in my day, ‘magic’ only meant two things: Disney and Harry Potter. Snow White, quidditch and chocolate frogs were (and today, still are) part of an alternate universe, intangible to the naked eye, yet very real to the imagination.

If you were to go to Disney World, I can assure you, there would be many adults crying, laughing and giving Pluto a bear hug. Places like Disney World and novels like Harry Potter and Twilight continue to captivate today: however, there is an intruder waiting to replace them: “street magicians”, like David Blaine and Criss Angel are taking over magic, and making it, well, not magical.

Criss Angel, famous for his show on MTV, “Criss Angel Mindfreak,” is known as a modern magician. In his show, he performs unbelievable acts, like walking on water and levitating from one building to another, and was even nicknamed the “modern day Houdini,” by MTV standards, of course. Yet, if we were to ask Houdini, he would most definitely be ashamed of his so-called protégé. For one thing, he actually reveals his tricks. One of Angel’s most famous acts is the “Chain Around the Neck Trick.” In this trick, a chain is wrapped around his neck, while two men pull either side of the chain, and “magically” Angel escapes the killer tug. When explaining the trick, Angel reveals that his ability to distract his audience is what truly makes the trick, and he uses it to his advantage. He is able to hide the fact that the chain around his neck is tied to false loop with the help of his long hair, and he isn’t really nervous when he asks his two assistants to pull the chain with all their strength. He’s an actor, and it’s all done to fool you.

David Blaine is another modern magician; his nickname is slightly different—“Magician of the Millennium”—but his story and “magic” are similar to that of Criss Angel. He too became a household name with an ABC Special, “David Blaine: Street Magic,” in which he levitated over the streets of New York.

Since the special, his tricks have become more grandiose. He buried himself alive for seven days without food and water,

froze himself in a six-ton block of ice for 61 hours and held his breath in an open tank for 17 minutes. All of them, of course, performed on live television.

Yes, Criss Angel and David Blaine’s tricks are impressive. The illusions leave us dumbfounded, prodding for the answer we know is there. No matter how impressive they are though, their tricks are no more than illusions.

Criss Angel believes “magic is illusion” and that true magicians can distract their audience while putting on a show. On the other hand, David Blaine believes the bigger the feat, the bigger the magic—and the audience. No offense guys, but I disagree—you are not magicians, and your tricks are not magic.

Real magic is that which cannot be revealed. There is no “trick” sodahead.com or “formula” to flying a broom. it just happens, no strings attached. When Belle turned the Beast into a handsome man, she did not try and distract us so he could change out of his costume. If you don’t believe me, you can watch the movie again, it just happens.

What Criss Angel and David Blaine do is nothing more than provide us with entertainment. They perform stunts and get their audience to slowly forget what magic is. What makes magic so intriguing, fun and magical is the fact that it’s an unexplainable mystery. If J.K. Rowling wrote a book explaining all the “tricks” behind Harry’s magic, telling us it was all a lie, what would be left of the world? Our daily lives are structured, stressful and very real. A little mystery and absurdity can’t hurt us, but only give our brains some much needed time to rest, create and imagine.

I’ll admit it, holding one’s breath for 17 minutes is pretty cool, and I’m sure to many it is considered magic. Except we can easily find an answer to how David Blaine did it, and probably a YouTube video demonstrating how to do it at home (if you find such a video, please don’t attempt it at home, there are better forms of procrastination). In the end ,I’d go to Disney World over a live street magic show in a heartbeat, and I’d take Criss Angel and David Blaine with me, for their much needed dose of magic.

the talon • 17

entertainment

Behind the Trick

A Graded magician breaks the code Cassia Di Roberto and Anonymous Magician

I

n every edition of the Talon, we writers, try to provide interesting

He will point at a random card. Make sure you, the magician, are

articles for readers. However, this edition is different. There’s

the one to look at the card, and not him. Let’s say he points to an

something looming in the air, and

ace of spades.

it’s the effect of magic. How can

While looking at the card, pretend

we bring a little magic to your lives?

to be surprised by his amazing psychic

From the entertainment section we

powers and set the card down in front of

bring you the workings behind magic.

you. Here’s where you get to use those

We asked one of our school’s very

amazing acting skills. Ask him to point to

own anonymous magician to reveal

an ace of spades (which is the card you

his secrets to us. Of course, a magi-

have with you). Again, make sure you see

cian never reveals all, so we simply

the card he points to and not him. Let’s

asked for one trick. Here’s what he

say he now chooses a nine of hearts.

Once again, look absolutely dumb-

shared: “Have you ever wondered

founded and ask him how he does it. He’ll

how we magicians do it? How profes-

probably laugh uncomfortably since he

sional magicians are able to leave

has no idea what you’re talking about,

entire stadiums, halls, and even

especially because he hasn’t seen the

simple birthday parties awe-struck?

cards.

Well…I can’t really do that, or physi-

Then, ask him to pick from the deck a

cally show it in this article, but here’s

nine of hearts (the card you have with

what I can do:

you). He will once again point to a random

Since this edition is about Magic,

card. Let’s say it’s a five of diamonds.

I’m willing to teach Talon readers

Make a whole scene about how the

one simple trick that will astound

man standing in front of you should be a

your viewers and leave your family

magician and how he has no idea of the

wanting more. I call it “The Psychic

power he holds in his hands.

Audience.”

Now, to finalize the trick, you pick

First, you’ll need a deck of

out from the deck the five of diamonds.

cards. Yes, a normal deck of playing

Instead of picking a random card (since

cards. You can even use half of a

you already have the five of diamonds

deck. Pick a deck, any deck.

with you), pick the card at the bottom of

Secondly, shuffle your cards in front of the audience while you ask for an audience member to step forward to help you out.

the deck, which you asked the audience member to pick in the first place.

You now hold in your hand the four cards you asked your assistant to pick.

Third, as he (we’ll pretend

Ask the audience which cards you said

it’s a guy) comes closer, pretend you

were going to be picked. To their aston-

are looking at the deck to shuffle, when actually you are looking at the

ishment, you’ll have them all. And this is cartoon by Nina Kim “The Psychic Audience” card trick.

last card of the deck. For explanation purposes, let’s pretend this is the King of Hearts. Note: Do this carefully so the viewer does not notice what you are doing.

Please Note: If you do this trick more than once with the same person, they will catch on pretty quickly to the fact that you

Fourth, spread the cards out in front of your audience

always pick the last card. I hope you have enjoyed this quick and

member assistant. Ask him to point at the card he thinks is the

easy tutorial; may it help you help others believe in the impossible.

King of Hearts (the card you know is at the bottom of the deck).

18 • the talon

entertainment

The Wonderful World of Disney Do you know the man behind the legend?

Cassia Di Roberto When we think of magic, it may be cliché to automatically

making them spend hours on military training films. In 1953, with

picture the world of Disney. “The magic of Disney” is a phrase all

his studio back, he financed his park with a deal. The ABC network

children, teenagers, and adults have heard one too many times. As

would provide frequent updates on the construction of this new

I step through the parks, listen to the songs, watch the movies, I

park, and the rest of the program would involve Disney’s stock ani-

can’t help but to wonder where did this all come from? What sort

mated shorts. Completed in a year, the park was personally directed

of genius could come up with such...magic. This is a fitting word

by Walt. The design of the castle (Sleeping Beauty’s) was named

to describe this multi-billion dollar company that has flourished,

after the soon to be released movie. For years he had imagined

from one man’s dream, to a part of nearly every child’s life.

a “little family park” where parents could take their children for

A legend of a man, Walt Disney was born on December

a day of fun. No one had seen anything like it before. Sure there

5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. One of five

already was Cedar Point in Ohio and Coney

children, he was raised in the small town

Island in New York, but Walt believed that

of Marceline, Missouri. From early on he

he could build a “themed” park.

has interests in art, often selling drawings

The park proved to be s popular that

to neighbors to make extra money. Pursuing

the planning for a second one, Walt Dis-

this career he studied art and photography

ney World, began in 1964. After buying a

in McKinley High School in Chicago.

property in central Florida, creators began

A greater appreciation for life

realizing this second dream. Walt Disney

came out of his study of art. He began to

died on December 15, 1966. Because of

love nature and wildlife, family and commu-

Walt’s death, his brother Roy postponed

nity. He had great encouragement at home

his planned retirement to take the reins

from his mother and older brother, Roy.

of the company and start construction in

During World War I, he attempted

Florida. Magic Kingdom was then born.

to enlist for the military, but being only

While similar to the Disneyland park, it

sixteen he was rejected. He then joined

is not a duplicate. Larger, it could handle

the Red Cross, was sent to France to drive

larger crowds, though Disneyland still had

an ambulance. Amusingly, he completely

more attractions. What made this Florida

covered his ambulance in cartoons.

Once home from France, he pur-

“edition” better was the addition of Disrealbollywood.com ney-owned and Disney-operated resorts. In

sued a career in commercial art, heading to Hollywood. His first

the early 1970’s there were close to ten hotels in the Disney resort

success was a series of animated cartoons, the “Alice Comedies.”

area. In the early 80’s, EPCOT was built. One of Walt Disney World’s

In 1932 he produced the first commercially released three-color

jewels, it became a place to have fun and learn about issues that

cartoon, Flowers and Trees, winning the first of his studio’s Academy

our community deals with every day.

Awards.

In 1989 Disney’s MGM/Hollywood Studios opened its gates.

On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This park has attractions that revolve around Hollywood and its

premiered in Los Angeles, his first full-length animated musical

productions. As of today, Disney’s final park was Animal Kingdom,

feature. During the next five years he completed other classics

opened in 1998: a zoological-themed park, which they call Nathazu

such as, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi.

(Not-A-Zoo). In additions to the above parks there were water parks

But besides full-length cartoon films, Disney had always

as well, such as Typhoon Lagoon, River County, and Blizzard Beach.

dreamed of a clean, organized amusement park. His imagination

The world of Disney is a legend, and he stands as a folk

finally came to life in 1955, with the opening of Disneyland Park.

hero of the twentieth century. His world-wide popularity was based

On July 17, 1955 the park opened to star-studded fanfare, a media

on the ideals he promoted: imagination, optimism, creation and

event that has rarely been exceeded for glitz and glamour.

self-made success. Bringing people closer to the future, while tell-

The building of this park, however, was no laughing matter.

During the Second World War, the military took over Disney Studios,

ing them about the past, no other man has had the magic touch of Walt Disney.

the talon • 19

entertainment

Magic and Madness

“A little bit of magic, and a lot of madness!”

Mariana Oliveira

A

s we have certainly heard around the school or from director plans to put on a mark on Graded theater with a magical show Bruce McDonald himself during his lunchtime hunts for cast that will make the school proud: “Aside from the fun nature members in the past weeks, magic will be coming to Graded this of several of the musical numbers, I want this to be a very semester in the form of Bruce’s next musical, Magic and Mad- talked about show. Like, ‘Remember that great last show Bruce ness. “To me, that’s what theater is,” Bruce explains, “a little did?’” It promises to be yet another hit. Though all the scenes bit of magic and a lot of madness!” The show is composed of are entertaining, Bruce points out a few extra special scenes. a collection of scenes, song One of them is the scene and dance, some of which “Kiss the Girl” performed by are comical, while others the Lower School students, have a more dramatic tone, which he says should be but all very entertaining. very cute. Another one of These scenes were selected the show’s scenes, along from a variety of famous with the music, was writmusicals, including Vanities ten by Bruce himself. This and Les Miserables, as well is a comical scene called as Grease and Gypsy.

“Cannibal Delight” features As with previous the song “Ooga Booga.” Yet shows, one of the goals of another big surprise is under Magic and Madness is to get way for this semester’s proas much student, faculty, duction, “I want everybody and parent involvement photograph of Soiree Encore by Nelson Cho to come. We’ll be having as possible. To Bruce, the some exciting things in the school and the student body hold so much normally unseen show. For example, in “Beauty School Drop Out”, I want to fly talent, and he wants everyone to know it through Magic and Mr. Bair from the top of the theater down like an angel descendMadness. The production is expected to have over 150 cast mem- ing from heaven.” bers once casting is complete. There will be probably around Students involved in the play are very excited about 125 High School students, 10 to 15 Middle School students, 35 this particular production. Isabella Ryan, a sophomore, says, Lower School students as well as several teachers and parents. “This play is a lot like Soiree and Soiree Encore in the sense For now, casting for Lower School and Middle School students, that it has a variety of little skits and musical numbers in it. along with teachers and parents, is still going on.

I’m participating in two of them, ‘Beauty School Drop-Out’, For high school students interested in being a part of from Grease, and a short scene from Gypsy. We’ve only had the production, it’s unfortunately too late to join the cast since one rehearsal so far and they both seem extremely fun and rehearsals have already begun and numbers are in the process comical, especial ‘Beauty School Drop-Out,’ which will feature of being staged. However, there is still time to become a part Mr. Bair. What is also really interesting and different about the of the production staff. Volunteers are needed to do backstage scene we get to design our own costumes. We wear all black, work such as helping to run lights and sound and working on decorate a smock however we want to and do hair and make the scenery. As Bruce puts it, “They are very important people, up accordingly. This is so we each can create our individual, that’s what I always tell everybody. You can be the greatest funny, ridiculous character. It’s great that the actors are part actor in the world, but until someone pushes the button and of the show not only on stage, but can get involved in other turns on the lights, nobody knows.” ways and add in their own ideas.”

After many successful performances at Graded, includAs it turns out, there are many reasons not to miss your ing Soiree and Soiree Encore, Magic and Madness is Bruce’s last friends, parents, teachers, and High School Assistant Principal show here. At the end of this semester, he will be leaving and in this exciting final production by Bruce McDonald. Magic and moving to Mumbai, India. For his farewell to Graded, Bruce Madness will be presented in March.

20 • the talon

entertainment

Trivialities

A magical way to pass the time Luiza Justus

T • •

• •

•

•

• •

• • • • • • • • • • •

he word “fart” comes from the Old English “feortan” (meaning “to break wind”).

The average person takes seven minutes to fall asleep.

The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.

Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right- or left-handed.

Unlike dogs, pigs, and some other mammals, humans cannot taste water. They taste only the chemicals and impurities in the water.

Approximately 70 percent of the earth is covered by water.

Only 1 percent of this water is drinkable.

During your lifetime, you’ll eat about 60,000 pounds of food.

That is the weight of about 6 elephants.

Hummingbirds can’t walk.

In the movie The Wizard Of Oz, Toto the dog’s salary was $125 a week, while Judy Garland’s was $500 a week.

Someone on Earth reports seeing a UFO every three minutes.

It’s possible to lead a cow upstairs, but not downstairs.

Farmers in England are required by law to provide their pigs with toys.

Every workday, 6.7 million people commute to Manhattan.

The most pushups ever performed in one day was 46,001.

80% of all pictures on the internet are of naked women.

It is estimated that at any one time, 0.7% of the world’s population are drunk.

Famous billionaire Howard Hughes stored his own urine in large bottles.

One in three snake bite victims is drunk. One in five is tattooed.

The average person spends three years of his or her life on a toilet.

The U.S. Government spent $277,000 on pickle research

• • •

• • • • • • • •

in 1993.

In Albania, nodding your head means “no” and shaking your head means “yes.”

More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a kiss.

One punishment for an adulterous wife in medieval France was to make her chase a chicken through town naked.

• Whispering is more wearing on your voice than a normal speaking tone.

• Worms reportedly taste like bacon.

• 80% of millionaires drive used cars.

• 85% of all Valentine’s Day cards are purchased by women.

• If you flip a coin ten times, the odds against its coming up with the same side showing each time are 1,023 to 1.

• In many countries, urine was used as a detergent for washing.

• In the U.S., more than 10% of lottery prizes go unclaimed.

• More Americans have died in car accidents than have died in camatoo.com all the wars ever fought by the United States.

More than 6,000 people with pillow-related injuries check into U.S. emergency rooms every year.

The chances of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf are 1 in 67 million.

The number of births that occur in India each year is higher than the entire population of Australia.

The odds of being killed by falling out of bed are one in two million.

When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour.

It is possible to start a fire with ice.

There was no punctuation until the fifteenth century.

The word “news” is actually an acronym standing for the four cardinal compass points: North, East, West, and South.

the talon • 21

entertainment

My Mother’s Spell A short story

Luiza Justus

I

don’t believe in magic. I don’t believe in spells.

My mother thinks she is a witch. She locks herself inside her room every now and then with a cauldron and a wand, trying to get men to take her out on a date or agree to buy her a new TV. Sometimes it actually works, but it is obviously an odd coincidence. Personally, I think it is not very beneficial to her.

The more she tries and the more her “magic” ends up working out for her, the more she puts her life on hold just to try and make things happen supernaturally.

Sometimes she won’t come out of the room. She stays in there for days at a time, only coming out to use the bathroom and to ask me to make her a sandwich. It worries me a little.

She does not sleep and does not communicate with anyone but me, she simply stays in that room with her books and her herbs and her strange liquids (I don’t know where she gets them from).

One day my dad decided to come home. He arrived on a Saturday afternoon, after having left us without a goodbye three years before, his only communication being the occasional check in the mail for a so-called “child support” that could not even keep a cat alive for a week. It’s fine; Mom and I have grown used to it. I have my job at the coffee shop, which pretty much covers my books and clothing expenses, and Mom’s old job at the bakery covered food and rent. That was until she quit the bakery to become a witch.

Dad walked into the house after three years, acting as if he never left. He tried to hug me, and I responded awkwardly with a half-hug, trying to ask him what on Earth he was doing back home. Rent was three months late, and I’d quit buying books and clothes to get us food. Mom tried to conjure up a “spell” to get me a raise at the coffee shop, which, coincidentally, was right when Rob was fired, and I got the assistant manager position. So we were doing okay, other than the late rent, but the landlord was being unusually distant and understanding these past few months.

Dad walked around the whole house looking for Mom. It didn’t take him long to realize she was inside her room. The cauldron was bubbling, and the room was filled with an oddsmelling smoke. She was lying down on the floor saying some words in Latin, and when my dad opened the door she put her head up and quietly and calmly spoke, “Hello, Henry.”

“Lisa, I… I didn’t know what to do. For some reason I

thought I needed to come back. What is all of this?” My father said, astonished. My mother stood up and paced around the room. “I was expecting you. Please do sit down.” My father looked around the room at the herbs and animal parts in jars.

He turned around and ran out of the house. My mother did not go after him.

Two days later, three men from a place called the Baarne Institute came to the house asking for my mother. My father was with them. I showed them to her bedroom. They took her by the arms and dragged her out of the house. She did not struggle. The courts awarded my father with sole custody of me, and he moved into our house. I was okay with it because Mom definitely needed help.

Four months then passed, and I had visited my mom at least once a week.

She was strange. She wouldn’t talk much and when she did, it didn’t really make sense. The doctors told me that the medication was working very slowly and that she would probably be in there for a long time. The place scared me a little. I had to go through at least five huge thick doors with at least ten locks on each in order to get to the hallway where my mother’s room was. There were guards at the door of every hallway; it was an extremely high security institution.

Which is why it was so weird when we got a call saying my mother was nowhere to be found. It did not seem like anyone had broken out. None of the doors was open; none of the guards saw anything. She was simply no longer in her room.

My father took me down to the Institute, and I was given an envelope with my name on it.

The letter inside said, My beautiful daughter, I knew all of this would happen long before it did. You are powerful enough to make anything happen in your life. There are no coincidences in this world.

My father took me home. When we walked into the house, there she was, preparing dinner for us in the kitchen.

Dad dropped everything he was holding. She smiled at us and signaled for us to sit. We ate our dinner as a family.

I believe in magic. I believe that anyone has the potential to make magic happen to them. My mother knew how our story would end. But just because you don’t know how your story will end doesn’t mean you can’t be your own scriptwriter.

You are powerful enough to make anything happen in your life.

22 • the talon

entertainment

Crossword

More magical madness Andrew Shim

ACROSS 4 Disney and Goethe 7 Magic _____ has HIV. 8 Palm-reading 9 Greek mythological sorceress 10 Roger Nygard 12 Carroll’s nonsense 13 Dumbledore’s third name.

14 WWII UFOs 16 Anamori, bujuk, clover, crucifix, Ta’wiz 17 On Warner Channel Wednesdays at 8 18 The most famous street magician DOWN 1 Caribbean Syncretism 2 Musician who sold his soul to the devil 3 A property which causes levitation through mutual repulsion from magnets 5 Afro-brazilian folk religion 6 Died on Halloween 11 Medieval pseudoscience 15 Government cover-up?

the talon • 23

sports

The One Moment

Capturing the magnificence of sport Christopher Thomas

T

hat moment. The sports fan lives for each one of them.

The anguish of that misplaced pass or throw can be undone a minute later by a spectacular goal, touchdown, or basket.

Inversely, that moment of genius can be wiped out by a monumentally inept mistake only minutes later. The sports fan’s well-being is tied to these instances.

The moments that define sports are those moments where a cathartic relief of ecstasy will occur for one side whilst the compounded misery of defeat is felt by the other.

These moments can make or break careers, or be the difference between lifting the trophy or walking past it in shame.

Take the 2009 Super Bowl, involving the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals. With seconds remaining, the Steelers losing 20-23 to the Cardinals, the Steelers’ quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, completed a 40-yard pass for a touchdown which effectively won the Vince Lombardi trophy for the Steelers.

Throughout time, many other moments like this have occurred in every sport. In what might be one of the most exciting final F1 races in the last 15 years, Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship by a single point after securing the required fifth place finish on the final curve. Michael Thomas, in virtually the last play of the game, scored the goal at Anfield which gave Arsenal the 2-0 scoreline needed to win the title on goals scored.

Magic moments frequently occur in situations which would normally be balanced and deadlocked, and elevate one athlete or team above the rest. These moments, to use the age-old statement, separate the men from the boys.

There is the flipside, however, wherein a disastrous performance or moment has relegated a athlete and his team to defeat. Such was Cristiano Ronaldo’s performance in the 2009 Champions League final, in which he simply took selfish shots and refused to help his team. Or Alessandro del Piero’s

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two misses during extra time in a Euro tournament which could have won Italy the game. More recently, there was Peyton Manning’s lacklustre playing against the New Orleans Saints, when he should have been ready to lead his team to victory.

Sometimes, a moment of genius or magic is what is needed to breathe life into a mediocre performance, or in drastic cases, spare embarrassment. When a young athlete provides us with one of these moments, there is always the expectation that the next time he can do it once more, that he can become one of the future greats, and continue to repeat these feats time and time again. On the other hand, sometimes a moment of incompetence is all it takes to undo all the hard work an athlete has done to get to where he is. If an up-and-coming athlete happens to wldcup.com be the unfortunate victim of a moment like this, it could either cast him off to the depths of shame, or cause him to knuckle down and come back stronger. Such is the case of David Beckham, who was sent off in the 1998 World Cup (causing revolts on the streets and effigies of the man to be burned) —only to score the goal which ensured England’s qualification to the 2002 edition of the tournament, proving that a moment of misfortune could be reversed with a moment of greatness.

It is the dream of every athlete in the world to experience one of those magic moments, because often-times, an athlete is remembered for only one moment of brilliance.

How many people, when thinking of Maradona, don’t remember the Goal of the Century scored on England? Or Messi with his spectacular goal against Getafe? How many people don’t associate Tom Brady with his stellar performance in his firstever Super Bowl? Steven Gerrard with his performance in the 2005 Champions League final, Henry with his numerous magical goals against Manchester United, Liverpool, and Tottenham, Trevor Brooking with his header in the 1980 FA Cup final? These moments, when consolidated into history, also consolidate an athlete’s place in it, and that is one of the best things any athlete could hope to achieve.

sports

Wizard Sports Take Over the Muggle World All about Intercollegiate Quidditch

Isabella Zevallos

I

t is the geeky dream of some to be Harry Potter. It is the magical dream of many to live in a mystical and fantastical world such as the one that holds the great school of Witchcraft and Wizardry called Hogwarts. It is the wildest dream of many, even those who aren’t fans of the witches and wizards, to be able to fly.

Now, what if I told you that the closest connection to this surreal dimension has finally been established? What if even though you couldn’t levitate someone by saying “Wingardium Leviosa,” you could still be able to play the most popular magical game of the century? Yes Muggles, behold! Quidditch has finally, in a slightly different configuration (because of our gravitational issues), reached this dimension.

Quidditch is truly a magical and seemingly out-of-reach sport. But since 2005, it is no longer so out-of-reach for many college students across the world. It began as an intramural league at Middlebury College. The idea created by the Quidditch Commissioner Alexander Manshel was that the Quidditch rules from J.K. Rowling’s books could be adapted to the Muggle grass field, effectively starting what has now become a new college sporting phenomenon. The Intercollegiate Quidditch Association, or IQA, was founded in 2007, holding the first match in November of the same year. Since this date, over 200 colleges have joined this league, with most coming from the USA, as well as colleges from other nations such as Canada, Mexcio, Argentina, England, Iceland, France, Israel and Australia.

The broomstick sport has invaded the lives of many, yet something has been left unexplained: how is it that common Muggles manage to fly off and actually play the game when they were not born gifted with magical powers? Simply, the game has been adapted to fit our gravitational needs.

Different institutions play the game with different adaptations, but the official rules established by the IQA are comprised of the following.

There are still seven people on mylifetime.com each team. The

“Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it’s not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers … The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops … I’m the Keeper from Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring …

The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That’s why you have two Beaters on each team – the Weasley twins are ours – it’s their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team … This is the Golden Snitch … It’s the Seeker’s job to catch it … A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught.”

(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling, pages 167-169)

Chasers, the ones that carry the Quaffle and try to score with it, have replaced the traditional magical flying Quaffle with volleyballs. The Keeper or Goalie still has to guard the hoops from these customized Quaffles, only now the hoops are quite a bit shorter. The Beaters, who try to smack the Bludgers at their opponents, have replaced the heavy killer ball for a set of two red dodge balls. When a Bludger hits a player, for example, the player acts as if he or she has fallen off the broom by circling around the hoops and returning to her spot in order to compensate for the time that she “fell off the broom.” The Seeker, the position made famous by Harry Potter, must attempt catch the Snitch in order to earn the team an extra 150 points.

The Snitch, in this league, is actually a person dressed all in yellow that carries, attached to his back, a tennis ball inside a sock (which represents the actual Snitch that the Seekers must catch). The Snitch “flies” everywhere—literally everywhere.

The Snitch doesn’t even have to stay on the field; it can run around the entire campus if necessary. It is also worthy of mentioning that, while doing all of this, all players are expected to be fully dressed in traditional fantastical Quidditch gear. They also have to do all this while holding on to a plastic broom, or for the more sophisticated, a real broom.

The magical world of Harry Potter has taken many forms. It has truly invaded our Muggle lives. Now, even colleges have found a way to further connect us to the magic. In-college Quidditch is a rising phenomenon that brings us back to our childhood years where even flying seemed possible, and let us experience a small part of the world of magic.

the talon • 25

sports

A história não-contada O Urso Russo, Anton Volchenkov

Fernando Lima

A

imprensa esportiva americana comentoou o ano inteiro sobre a possivel troca entre times que acabou sendo concretizda nesta quarta-feira. O Atlanta Thrashers cedeu o talento russo Ilya Kovalchuk para o New Jersey Devils, o melhor time de hóquei no gelo na costa leste americana. Em troca, partiram de New Jersey os suecos Niclas Bergsfors e Johny Oduya, e a estrela das categorias de base Patrice Cormier, isso sem contar o direito a recrutar um jogador na primeira rodada do “draft” no lugar do Devils.

Mas essa história tem a ver com outro talento russo. O defensor do Ottawa Senators, Anton Volchenkov.

Do alto e seus 185 cm. e de seus 107 quilos, Anton Volchenkov é um dos melhores defensores a patinarem no gelo da NHL, a liga americana de hóquei no gelo. Até r earrisco a dizer que ele seja um dos melhores defensores da última década.

Seu pai, Alexei Volchenkov, era defe nsor do CSKA Moskva, time do Exército Vermelho. Em 1976 , a Guerra Fria tomou conta do gelo. A Super Series consistia de um torneio no qual times russos de hóquei jogavam contra times da NHL. Foi umma das maneiras encontradas pelos governantes para ganhar a guerra psicológica.

O “Urso Russo” (um dos apelidos de Anton) nasceu no dia 25 de fevereiro, em 1982 na capital Moscou. Sob a tutela de seu pai, ele deu seus primeiros passos no hóquei como goleiro. Porém, em seus anos de formação, um de seus técnicos enxergou potencial para torná-lo um defensor de primeira linha, Volchenkov se profissionalizou em 1999 no CSKA Moskva já como defensor. No campeonato mundial júnior de 2001, Anton capitaneou o time russo até o título inclusive marcando o gol da vitória.

Esse feito lhe rendeu a atenção necessária para o Ottawa Senators crescer os olhos sobre o talento russo. Deve-se

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levar em consideração que os Senators já tinham recrutado o defensor para a jogar na NHL, mas como já é praxe no hóquei, os jogadores russos ainda ficam mais uma temporada emprestados em um clube local antes de se mudar para a América do Norte e Anton ficou no Krylya Sovetov Samara, um time sem tradição.

Quando finalmente se concretizou sua transferência em 2002, Volchenkov era mais um talento num cheio de estrelas como Ryan Smyth (conhecido como “Captain Canada”), Petr Bondra, Zdeno Chara e Martin Havlat. Contudo, ele estabeleceu seu lugar cativo no time titular da franquia durante a década inteira.

Após a rebelião dos jogadores e cancelamento das temporada 20052006, o Ottawa Senators ficou esfacelado, contando apensas com o sueco Daniel Alfredsson, o teuto-canadense Dany Heatley e o eslovaco Andrej Meszaros sem contar um banquete de atletas de segunda linha. Volchenkov e os Senators foram até a final da liga sendo batidos pelo Anaheim Ducks em menos de sete jogos. pictures.zimbio.com Desde então, Volchenkov é um dos nomes frequentes nas seleções russas para torneios internacionais. Na próxima olimpíada de inverno, em Vancouver, Anton Volchenkov e Sergej Gonchar formarão um doss três pares defensivos da Rússia. Ao que ninguém presta atençãoé que este raro talento tme sue contrato temrminando em julho e ningúem corre para contratá-lo sem ceder jogadores. Também, ninguém se de conta de que os Senators dormiram no ponto e ainda não renovaram seu contrato. Agora, com a transação mais esperada pela liga já concretizada (Ilya Kovalchuk indo para os Devils, por Nicklas Bergsfors, Johnny Oduya, Patrice Cormie e mais um jogador ainda a ser recrutado, esperem novos desenvolvimentos nestta frente.

NOTA: Até o fechamento desta edição, as olimpíadas de inverno estarão terminadas e a janela de transferências fechada para os times.

sports

The Wizards of Odd The lost magic of horseback riding

Yana Ahlden

T

here is magic everywhere we look, we often just miss it.

Regard it as something natural and take magic for granted, and you make it disappear. Poof, gone. Once we realize what we’ve done, we try to mimic it, but instead of reproducing this abstract concept we bring forward pain, disease, addiction and cheating.

No sport has experienced this dramatic change more than the phenomenal sport of horseback riding. First of all, it’s not that famous to begin with. Second of all, to spectators who aren’t completely in love with it, it may seem pointless. Third, it may be the sport that has produced the most scandals during the past decades.

Horsebackriding has also created the most legends and stories that seem too magical to really be true. One of these stories is that of a young mare named Halla. Unlike many other Olympic horses, her breed, which is something that plays an important role with horses, wasunknown. Unlike other horses in general, she sometimes seemed almost human. Her story is one that is known all over the world, because of its similarity to a Grimm fairytale. It takes place in Stockholm during the Olympic games of 1956. The focus events of the day are the horses and their riders. Hans-Günter Winkler, a German jumper, has just completed the first round with his mare, Halla, and in the process he pulls a muscle. If he stops now; he gives up any chance for the gold medal. Not only for him, but also for the whole German team. His doctor gives him morphine and his friends and family lift the nearly unconscious rider into the saddle. He is pale, his bearing remarkably cramped up. Halla seems to be concentrated. Winkler rides up. The first leaps fit. But after every jump, he sinks together, groans from pain.

Each shock seems to tear him up. Halla goes over the water ditch, the leap is long. Winkler screams. Seven leaps to go. It flickers before his eyes. Halla in the triple combination. With the help of Winkler’s sub consciousness, she makes it. The first flawless run in the price of the nations brings the longed for gold medals, only this time, it wasn’t the rider that brought them home. It was the horse, all by itself.

The stories of magic and mystery that have characterized the sport of horseback riding do not stop there. This sport is much more than the jumping in the Olympic games. There are also the countless races, and those tiny jockeys that are able to bring horses to the end so fast, they seem more like flashes than really people. One of the most successful, and most mysterious jokeys was Lester Piggott. The average jockey is around 1,55 meters tall, Lester was 1,70 meters tall, and yet he was one of the most successful to date.

For the record, he’s won: just over 5,300 races in the UK & abroad, 9 Derbies, 3 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes, 11 Championships(1960, 1964-71, 1981 & 1982), 30 Classic victories in England, 25 centuries between 1955 & 1984, wins in 27 countries outside the UK, and around 465 Group race wins (jockeysroom. com) That’s not all, consider what this man had to go through to be allowed to compete. In the end, it’s not the height that is looked at, it’s the weight. The taller you are, the skinnier you have to be and the hungrier you’ll be. Lester was one of the richest people alive, and one of the hungriest. He never laughed, no one has ever seen him smile, not even after his biggest wins. Why would such a person chose a sport where he is so limited? Lester was said to be deaf, and that he couldn’t speak well. Thus, horses are probably easier to get along with.

They understood him. He never yelled, it was easy for Lester to make a horse do what he wanted, with his famous “rap-atap-tap” whip rhythm, that never gave a horse pain. He is truly a mystery. Why did he succeed?

This question does apply for the next man who has shaped horses and how they are seen in the world. The question is, how does he do it? Everyone has heard him, but few know his name.

Although he is known around the world as the Horse Whisperer, his real name is Monty Roberts. He grew up in Nevada on a horse farm. Before a horse can be ridden, it must be “broken”. This is a painful, disturbing, and horrifying experience; for both the horse and the trainer. Eschewing traditional practices, Monty doesn’t break horses, he speaks to them. He treats the horses as equals and teaches others to do the same. He has trained some of the most successful horses in history and has worked hand-in-hand with Hollywood and their actors as a riding double or a horse coach on set. It doesn’t stop there. He works not only with horses, but with people too. He has visited the CIA and had discussions with their executives. But in many ways, horses are not that different from humans. They are stubborn, and hurting them will certainly not gain their trust, but just their fear. Breaking produces fear. Monty gains trust, and so do the people he’s taught and changed, as he has said: “ I want to leave the world a better place than I found it, not only for horses, but for people, too.”

When you hear these stories, you wonder, where has this gone?

Truly, these stories embody magic; not only the true spirit of horseback riding, but the spirit of friendship between horse and man, and from man to man. This has been lost and traded for the millions that can be gained in this sport. It has vanished.

The question remains, will the magic ever come back? Only if we want it to.

the talon • 27

sports

Sports and Superstition Those nutty athletes

Ho Jun Yang

H

ave you ever seen a black cat and screamed, “Bad luck!”?

Or have you ever seen a shooting star and hoped for your wishes to come true? I’m sure that everybody has at least one or two superstitions of their own. Of course, there is no scientific evidence for these superstitions but that doesn’t stop us from tucking our lucky rabbit’s foot in our pocket, crossing our fingers, knocking on wood or even tossing a bit of salt over our left shoulder for good luck. In sports, as in life, players and fans alike have their own ways of avoiding bad luck.

One can say that the quintessence of sports is the competition and the crushing pressure an athlete faces to always be the best. Sometimes, the competition isn’t decided by soley practicing and training for weeks, but also by an athlete’s mental endurance and keenness, or even irrational behaviors and beliefs. Perhaps these rituals don’t actually make athletes perform better, but ignoring superstitions may have the psychological effect of making them perform worse.

Some sports, like basketball, baseball and hockey tend to have more bizarre superstitions than other sports. Here are the top 10 sports superstitions, according to askmen.com: Number ten is the “Madden curse.” Before Nintendo, Playstation or Xbox, there was the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, in which athletes and teams that were on the cover were injured or played horribly during that season. Now the curse has evolved and an SI cover has been replaced by the EA Sports video game Madden NFL. According to this superstition, the player on the cover of a Madden NFL game will play horribly or suffer injury during that season.

Number 9 is the act of watching one’s step. Ever heard of the expression, “put your best foot forward”? Athletes sure have. Whether it’s a rodeo cowboy saddling up with his right foot first or a tennis player attempting to avoid stepping on court lines while changing sides, many of the world’s top athletes make sure to not step on sidewalk cracks.

Number 8 is the silent treatment. In baseball, a pitcher has a highly specialized role on the team and is therefore very isolated. The unwritten rule is, if a pitcher is throwing a nohitter, then don’t think about it, don’t mention it and don’t go near that player. In fact, when a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter, his teammates should trip over one another to try and stay out of the pitcher’s way.

Number 7 is “going batty.” There are all sorts of superstitions related to pampering baseball bats. Players often touch their bats with some sort of lucky charms, spitting in their hands before grabbing their bat or even sleeping with their bats, and

28 • the talon

it’s a big taboo for a player to touch another’s bat.

Number 6 is not shaving. This was originally a hockey ritual, but it has been adopted by other sports. The superstition is that players must put off shaving while they’re still in the playoffs, hoping their scruffy faces will stave off elimination.

Number 5 deals with style and fashion. Individual athletes have their own superstitions and choose to wear their clothes in individual ways. In hockey, Wayne Gretzky tucked one side of his jersey into his pants. In basketball Michael Jordan wore his UNC basketball shorts underneath his actual uniform, and in golf, Tiger Woods always wears a red shirt on Sunday.

Number 4 is insisting on doing everything the same.

Athletes on a streak will do anything to keep the momentum going. They do everything exactly the same way day after day, refusing to change anything. Many pro bowlers insist on wearing only one outfit throughout a tournament, and a lot of athletes will refuse to clean their shirts. Their drive to win will not be curbed even by personal hygiene.

Number 3 is believing in the power of numbers. In many cultures, there are often superstitions related to certain numbers, and some numbers accorded with mystical powers, whether they are good or bad. In sports, double numbers are said to be lucky, while changing numbers when changing teams is considered unlucky. Of course, the mother of all unlucky numbers, the number thirteen, is avoided at all costs.

Number 2 is idol worship. Athletes are known to attribute godliness to the most arbitrary things and people they can find, believing that they will help them and bring them good luck. College football teams punch their school logo on the way out of the tunnel while hockey teams smack their goalie’s pads with their sticks before a game.

Finally, Number 1 is obsessive-compulsive disorder. Athletes train their minds with countless repetitions of exercises and training. Muscle memory is important for an athlete, and so are habits. Players tend to form habits and routines that they repeat while playing, like Nomar Garciaparra’s batting glove adjustments, or basketball players’ rituals at the free throw line.

Maybe professional athletes are a bit nutty when it comes to crazy superstitions, but think about all those times you sat in the same seat or wore your lucky shirt while watching a game. The truth is, sports can drive us absolutely crazy and perhaps the only way that athletes can keep their sanity in this competitive world is to be insane.