Ed. 99 - Close But No Cigar

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

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

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

TALON STAFF 2013-2014

About the Cover

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF: Adam Hunt & Mariana Lepecki LAYOUT: Nicole Vladimirschi (Editor), Fernanda Fiszner COLUMNISTS: Daniel Almeida, Fernão Mesquita, Julia Abreu, Lucas Zuccolo, Luiza Gundim, Mendel Schwarz NEWS: Andrea Ferreira (Editor), Annie Groth (Assistant Editor), Paula Schulman, Faria Nasruddin, Pedro Werebe FEATURES: Clara Bezerra (Editor), Pooja Singhi (Assistant Editor), Karen Kandelman, Sylvia Yang ENTERTAINMENT: Kevin Bengtsson (Editor), Felipe Marquez (Assistant Editor), Bella Shim, MC Otani, Michael Borger BLOGGERS: Paty Kim, Carol von Mutius, Catu Berretta COVER ARTIST: Alejandro Torres

For the 99th edition of The Talon the theme was “Close, but No Cigar.” I looked into the origins of the idiom for inspiration and determined that the expression came from the mid-1900’s and is most likely a reference to the cigars they would offer as prizes at the fair (i.e. see the back cover). I also included the central image from Magritte’s famous painting “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” adding the caption “Ce ne sont pas des cigares” because a pipe is close to a cigar, but it not a cigar and thus is relevant to both the original painting and the theme.

Disclaimer: Although the back of this edition suggests that you should “hit a duck,” The Talon in no way endorses such behavior, and we are not responsible and cannot be held accountable for any injuries, collateral or otherwise that may result from the hitting of a duck.

—Alejandro Torres

Our Milestone Twelve years ago, two Graded high school teachers and an intrepid group of student-writers (all of whom are no longer here) began this magazine. Below was the front cover of the September 2001 magazine, Edition 1. Next month we celebrate our One Hundredth Edition. Wow!

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

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

editors-in-chief

Step Right Up! Arcade culture and why you’re part of it Adam Hunt Fertig

I

f I finish this chapter I can go and get a cookie. That’s what I told myself to get through tenth grade. As you can imagine, it usually ended with me getting a few pages into the chapter, eating three cookies, and spending an hour playing Tetris.

I’ve seen this approach to homework taken to extremes, like people placing jelly beans every few lines in a book, eating them once they read to that line. Food motivation like this seems pretty harmless—maybe even helpful—but motivationdriven thinking dominates much of our daily routine.

You’ve probably heard someone talk about “needing to get motivated.” That’s an odd statement; motivation for many people has a connotation of being a man-made incentive to do something that is otherwise unpleasant. “Getting motivated to go for a run” or “getting motivated to write an essay” implies that you must be forced to want it. There are quick fixes for motivation, too: food, study playlists and parental pressure can all jumpstart motivation.

This is the mentality of “close, but no cigar.” The idiom comes from workers at fairgrounds offering cigars as prizes. If players lost, they were told that they were close, but not close enough to win. Since cigars and fairgrounds are much less popular now, a more relevant term for this type of behavior might be “arcade mentality.” Pop in a coin, hit some buttons, and try to win a prize. We have an urge to achieve, but more importantly, to have defined, material proof of achievement (the proverbial cigar). It’s a threepart mentality: that motivation has to be created, that the best way to create it is through reward or punishment, and that artificial motivation leads to success. This system has a powerful grip on how we live, but it turns out that only a part of it is true. Yes, motivation can be created, but it doesn’t have to be. Reward and punishment can stimulate some motivation, but not all. And artificial motivation leads to a form of achievement, but not a particularly interesting one.

There’s a TED talk that points out all of these flaws called “The Puzzle of Motivation,” by career analyst Dan Pink.

In it, he cites multiple experiments showing that incentives have a neutral or negative effect on performance. In 1962, psychologist Sam Glucksberg tested how long it took subjects to solve the “candle problem,” a puzzle that requires outof-the-box thinking. One test group was paid more money depending on how quickly they solved the problem while the other group was paid a fixed amount. Surprisingly, the subjects in the second group solved the problem faster than the ones in the first. Apparently, reward-based incentives (what Pink calls “extrinsic motivators”) don’t work for tasks that require creativity or critical thinking. In the 21st century,

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those are the tasks that matter. “There’s a mismatch between what science knows, and what business does,” he says. It’s not enough to just “entice people with a sweeter carrot, or to threaten them with a sharper stick.” There has to be an overhaul of how motivation is treated in modern business, education and culture.

The problem is deeply rooted, though. We even feel the need to win when speaking to one another. In another TED talk, philosopher Daniel H. Cohen explains that society treats debates as a competition, where a person tries to destroy the other’s belief. The exchange of ideas is a battle, and if you can’t convince everyone else to be on your side of the argument, you lose. This “adversarial model” of debate, as he calls it, has worked its way into language. When we talk about debates, we use militaristic terms like “strong argument,” “debate strategies,” and “attacking their views.” And no “good” debater would actually listen to the other person’s ideas (unless it was to shoot them down). Cohen questions who the real winner is in this approach to debate. If Arguer A convinces Arguer B that an argument is correct, then Arguer B has understood all the points of that argument and has learned.

Arguer A has gained nothing cognitively. He is considered the winner, though, because he has shown that he’s very good at not listening. Cohen says we’re thinking about discussions all wrong—they should be about collaboration, not domination.

According to him, the best arguers are the ones that benefit from losing. This completely goes against how our “arcade culture” works, but I think it makes a lot more sense.

Now, I’m not a communist or anything. This isn’t a rant about becoming close-minded warmongers—some arguments are convincing because they are actually good. Nor is this about being a cog in a machine, a slave to your corporate overlords. After all, stuff still has to get done, and it’s been proven that carrot-and-stick motivation works for a certain set of tasks. But there’s some pretty robust research showing that the way we think about motivation and achievement is all wrong. Our losers are the real winners, and our rewards are our real punishments. Man-made, extrinsic motivation is everywhere, but the most powerful incentives are stumbled upon. Is the solution to hurl your desk out the window and embark on a road trip of self-discovery? Probably not. If you find yourself eating cookies, playing Tetris and giving up, though, try doing something you enjoy instead. Who knows where you’ll end up?

Sources: ted.com; psych.princeton.edu

editors-in-chief

Science Has It...

A physiological look at our common foe, stress Mariana Lepecki

I

’m pretty sure that the entire Graded high school is familiar with stress. With the enormous amount of work piled on our shoulders by our classes and activities, it seems like stress has become our faithful companion. Attaching its sharp claws to our brains, it diminishes our ability to behave calmly—which is one of the many reasons why we are not the most pleasant people to be around in December and May. We seniors are already feeling the sticky droplets of sweat dripping out of our pores as we find ourselves in a close but no cigar reality where, even though we may revel at finally approaching our high school finish line, we have so many things to do that it feels like our diplomas are light years away. Nevertheless, while it appears that having too much stress is northing out of the ordinary in our school, if the Challenge Success report has taught us anything, we should really reevaluate our work habits and environment.

However, before we can find ways to dial down our stress levels, we must first understand what stress actually is. What evil is causing so much collective pain and frustration at Graded? Can we cure it? Can we live without it? Well, perhaps neuroscience can help out.

The first piece of the puzzle lies with homeostasis.

According to the Franklin Institute’s Resources for Science Learning, this complex term is nothing more than the “elusive state of metabolic equilibrium between the stimulating and the tranquilizing chemical forces in your body.” (Actually, scratch that—“nothing more” was really not the best way to describe such an intricate and vital bodily phenomenon, so I apologize in advance to the Science Department. Ok, back to the topic.) If science isn’t really your thing, you can think of homeostasis as our body’s way of finding a balance between its yin and yang, the ancient Chinese concept of balance represented by a black and white circle. In the case of stress, this can be achieved by equalizing the amount of stimulating and tranquilizing chemical forces, such as hormones, inside us.

In evolutionary terms, stress is our body’s way of dealing with threatening situations, so it is no surprise that our neurological homeostatic journey starts with adrenaline.

When our brain believes that it is in danger, it immediately sends our nervous signals to the adrenal glands, thus releasing the hormone throughout the body. This, in turn, increases the amount of sugar in our blood, our heart rates, and our blood pressures, among many other things. But how do our brains do

this? With a small yet extremely important part of our brains called the hypothalamus, whose function is to stabilize our blood pressures, body temperature, and sleep-wake cycles.

So, when we are faced with nerve-wracking situations, such as exams, our hypothalamus sends signals to glands in our bodies so that they can start to produce a hormone known as cortisol.

This hormone is key to stimulating our stress response, since it keeps our blood pressure and sugar levels high, making our bodies extra alert.

Nevertheless, if stress leads our bodies to release hormones that help us stay alert and focus, why do we sometimes not perform to the best of our ability in school when we are feeling pressured? There are many factors, such as lack of sleep, that contribute to this problem, but hormones are also important players. One of the reasons long-term stress is particularly harmful to our bodies is that too much cortisol can dampen our immune systems as well as decrease the number of brain cells in our bodies, impairing memory.

Can we cure this long-term cortisol diylol.com production? We’re getting there.

Institutions, such as Bristol University, have started developing possible anti-stress pills that could be used to treat patients with depression and severe anxiety-related problems. These pills target cortisol by blocking the metabolic pathway between the hypothalamus and the glands that release it.

All right, problem solved! Let’s just take these “chill pills” and forget about stress for good. Or maybe that’s not the best way to deal with our common foe. While stress can be harmful, it’s still a very important phenomenon that has contributed to the survival of our species. A life without stress is a life of vulnerability, for without our adrenaline and cortisol production, we would never be able to handle challenging situations.

This leads us back to homeostasis. People often describe the life of a student as a triangle of school, sleep and social life. They say that because of stress that we can only deal with two of these points while sacrificing the third.

Whether or not this is true, stress is definitely a force to be reckoned with. If harnessed, it could have a positive impact on our lives. Now it’s just a matter of knowing whether to use neuroscience, biochemistry, psychology or geometry to figure out how.

Sources: youramazingbrain.org; fi.edu

the talon • 3

point of view

The Problem with Economics Unfounded fears, or rational doubts?

Daniel Almeida

O

nce upon a time, economists argued about economics with other economists, safe from the judgment of outsiders, and all was relatively well. But, at some point around the 1970s, the same way early 20th century French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau remarked that war is too important to be left to generals, the world deemed economics too important to be left to professors at esteemed schools of economics. Yet, as our understanding of other sciences advanced, our grasp on economics seemed to lag behind. Over time, the reasons as to why economics lacked the predictive capacity of hard sciences became an obsession among theorists, philosophers and scientists alike.

To be fair, it’s not hard to understand why some might mistake economics for a science. Economists use the same quantitative expressions you might find in mathematics, the same theorems derived from previously established axioms and the same methodology that we know as the scientific method.

But some people would argue that economics lacks the single most important trait that sciences like physics or chemistry have: a track record of improvement in its predictive range and accuracy.

While some would say that this fundamental difference comes from the inaccurate assumptions economists make in their calculations, this really doesn’t seem to be the case. As much as we’d like to argue about the validity of assumptions like the rational maximizing economic agents, or the perfect information in society, this theory fails to explain why physicists get to do it with models like their ideal gas, the frictionless plane or the center of gravity. Assumptions are a necessary part of all sciences, whether they’re social or natural. The same way assumptions allow physicists to calculate the acceleration of a rocket when it lifts off, they also allow economists to make detailed calculations when making predictions about markets and industries. While claims that few economists can predict the coming of a crisis are true, scientific modeling has very little to do with that. If anything, the last five years has shown that once a crisis strikes, basic macroeconomic models work well as tools to remedy the market failure.

In recent decades a promising new school of thought has developed that seems to explain why economics and other human sciences fail to reach the same level of accuracy in predicting phenomena as the hard sciences. This school of thought, advocating for complexity theory, is built on relatively straightforward foundations.

The first is that complex systems are not designed all at once; instead, they grow through evolution or the interac-

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tion of a variety of autonomous parts. The second principle is that complex systems have “emergent properties,” meaning that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and as such, the system is bound to behave in ways that cannot be inferred from looking at the individual pieces. The third principle is that complex systems run on exponentially greater amounts of energy, and so the moment that you increase the system scale by a factor of ten, you increase the energy requirements by a factor of a thousand. This leads to the fourth principle that states that complex systems are prone to catastrophic collapse because the exponential relationship between scale and inputs exhausts the available resources.

In a nutshell, complex systems can be said to arise spontaneously, behave unpredictably, exhaust resources and collapse catastrophically. While this might seem like an easy way out of addressing the problem behind economics’ predictive capacity, complexity theory has a strong empirical foundation and has wide application in a variety of natural and man-made settings such as climate, seismology, nuclear physics and the Internet. Given this, if we were to characterize the market as a complex system, then it would be virtually impossible for any science to predict with certainty an outcome given a set of inputs.

But that’s not a problem. Working within the frameworks of complexity theory, the human sciences don’t have to aim for perfect predictive power. Economists aren’t troubled when they make predictions that go wrong because they understand that their science is a tool used to understand a wide range of social constructions—objects like markets, currencies or stock shares—that even when idealized don’t behave in a uniform way. The answer to why economics is so close but so incapable of reaching the same predictive accuracy as, say chemistry or physics, lies not in an alleged unsuitability of economics to take after scientific thinking (since, as we’ve seen, that isn’t the case), but in the very nature of complex systems.

And yet the question remains: the next time we hear economists making a prediction, should we be worried or hopeful? Should we be confident in their ability to use economics as a tool, or worry about past failures in correctly predicting an outcome? As with most things, I’d personally say the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Not too helpful? Welcome to economics.

Sources; nytimes.com, “Currency Wars,” by James Rickards, “Keynes Hayek,” by Nicholas Wapshott

point of view

Going Meta Trying to turn writer’s block around Lucas Zuccolo

T

he great beast rose out of the water with graceful serenity, causing barely a ripple in spite of its sheer size and considerable speed. As it cleared the river’s surface, it spread its awesome wings, their massive length commensurate with the rest of its body, yet no less impressive. Rivulets of water streamed off its scales, an impressive array of priceless sapphires, glittering under the bright midday sun, whose blue depths seemed to dwarf the river, so profound were their endless swirls and reflections. Its claws were shadow solidified, dark and shapeless. Its leathery wings, deceptively thin membranes that diffused the passing sunlight like parchment, were the least threatening part of this feral creature, yet still possessed of this rugged ferocity that left no doubt as to why it was the stuff of legends and fables.

But for all its flowing scales and rippling muscles, it was its head that infallibly drew your gaze. The massive jaw was lined with rows of vicious white teeth, each wider than a man’s fist, razor sharp, no doubt capable of piercing flesh and bone in a single crunch, befitting of this hunter of the skies.

In sharp contrast to this intimidating countenance were its eyes, large, infinite blue pools, the same majestic shade as its scales, reflecting the observer’s very soul, amidst a galaxy of ever-twirling stars. The eyes were not that of a mere beast, but that of... of a...

“A... timeless entity...? No, that sounds like trash.

Maybe a... an ageless wisdom? No, that’s way too clichéd... ah, dammit, it’s a freaking dragon,” I give in. “The entire description is a shameless ripoff of all the other medieval fantasy-type stories. How the hell can I write about dragons without being completely unoriginal? Maybe if I give it my own twist... like maybe... I could give it a luxurious fur coat...” I close my eyes for a few seconds, trying to picture it. When I finally see it in my mind’s eye, I gag on the sheer ridiculousness.

“God, no, it’s a giant, fire-breathing lizard, not a flying unicorn on steroids.” I shudder, trying to dispel the image.

“Well, if I can’t think of my own way to tell it, maybe I should try to write something else, start...” The words catch in my throat as I eye the couple hundred words I had already written.

It would be so much easier to just see this idea through; just a few more minutes... who knows, it might even turn out okay... maybe I could...

“Never mind, it’s hopeless,” I firmly stop myself. “Let’s just...”

I let out a deep sigh. “Let’s start from scratch, see if I can’t think of something decent.”

I stood still a moment to collect my thoughts. As soon as an idea materialized from the fog, I started typing.

I took another puff from my pipe and looked up again, scanning the early morning city street. He still was nowhere to be found, and my pocket watch told me it was already half past eight. I dropped my watch back into my inside coat pocket, only to have it fall on my lap an instant later. Oh, right, this isn’t my usual coat, I berated myself; I was afraid the kid might have caught a glimpse of me yesterday, so I was forced to ditch my coat and hat. It pained me to do so, but I couldn’t risk him recognizing me from afar. I lifted the newspaper up to just below eye level, allowing me to maintain the illusion that I was reading it (which wasn’t entirely untrue, I’d gone over the day’s comics already) while continuing to keep an eye on the sidewalk I was sure he’d come from.

After a few more minutes of waiting, I spotted him, bustling along like any other morning commuter. His gait was confident, unstrained... a bit too natural in fact, to the trained eye. He was making a conscious effort to blend in, and he was good at it. Not as good as me, of course.

I instinctively reached up to pull my hat further down over my eyes, but quickly put my hand down again. What can I say, I felt incomplete without it. It was part...

“No... I wrote a detective story last time. I can’t write another right after without continuing the character,” I berated myself. “Okay, next idea. How about... oh, didn’t I have a stub I never got around to expanding? Let me see...”

I wandered through my files, didn’t come up with anything, tried and failed again, and then finally gave in and ran a search for it. “Here we go.”

Oh, I don’t care if he misses a form here, or cuts a few corners there, but that scum is an absolute menace. Skimming off drug busts, taking bribes – I’m pretty inclined to believe that...

“Oh, no, this one’s not nearly ready to be reworked into something usable,” I stopped myself. “This scene is borderline P.I. stuff. Come on, think. What else, what else...” I closed my eyes and threw my head back, hoping inspiration would strike.

It didn’t.

“Well, I could always do some, ah... research...” I miraculously kept a straight face as I said that, then rushed out to get the DVDs. Cradling his severed stump, Luke crawled along the beam, inching further and further from the imposing black-clad figure...

the talon • 5

point of view

The Best of Both Worlds Or the worst of them...

Julia Abreu

D

isney Channel’s former sweetheart, Miley Cyrus, has embarked on a different journey of fame. Daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus, the singer and actress has always shined beside her father. We all know her from Disney’s original series, Hannah Montana, but as of recently, Miley has changed her hair, clothes, make-up, boyfriend, songs, and message to her fans, leaving us to wonder where she and her career are headed.

Fame casts a shadow over performers who step into the spotlight, especially those who gain fame at a young age.

Always beside her father, Miley seemed to be headed for a healthy, inspirational career.

That was true for a few years, and millions of young girls worldwide strived to be like Miley Cyrus, or Hannah Montana, her alter ego. However, as she grew older, Miley completely transformed herself into what is now considered her third identity. In fact, she is so different that her image is nearly unrecognizable. The question that the tabloids, fans, and friends of Miley have been frequently asking themselves: why? There are many factors that likely played a role in her drastic transformation, but none of them really provide a satisfactory explanation.

In a recent interview, Miley revealed that Hannah Montana, and the role of the sweet, country girl was never the real her. Really? If it wasn’t, then she should win an Oscar for best child actress of the century, because she really had everyone fooled. She seemed to fit perfectly into her former role, and I don’t think anyone ever doubted that. Speaking to a friend, who is still a big fan of Miley, she told me Miley’s transformation is an inspiration for teens to be who they wish to be, without feeling judged. Well, if that is true, then Miley miscalculated the dosage of inspiration, because there are certain things she has subjected herself to that shouldn’t be mirrored. In her recent music video “We Can’t Stop,” the singer is featured partying with a large crowd of drug addicts, making out with a giant stuffed bear, and “twerking” around guys, wearing very revealing clothing. Is that really an inspiration to teen fans? It certainly is original, but not the image someone so influential among the younger public should transmit. Shaving most of her hair off, although drastic, is perfectly acceptable

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for the idea of being who she wants to be, but cutting down the volume of clothes and the level of respect in her songs degrades her image.

Where does this rebellious vibe come from? The media blames it on her father. Recently, in her controversial performance at the 2013 VMAs, Billy Ray reported that he would’ve done the same things she did if he were her age. I highly doubt that the country star would be seen “twerking” and grinding beside an older singer, in front of a live audience.

Her colleagues and friends were shocked, and some don’t even recognize the new Miley.

I don’t think we can blame her parents. A father who has positively supported his daughter throughout her career could not have raised her to become a careless, provocatively sexual. Well, we don’t really have a clue what goes on in her personal life, and maybe Billy Ray Cyrus is not exactly who he appears to be. Either way, billboard.com if her transformation wasn’t his fault, then it is now, because encouraging his daughter’s tacky behavior shows a lack of guidance and concern from the parent.

Is Miley headed down the same road of self-destruction as Lindsay Lohan? I hope not, because I have been a fan ever since she first broke out as a child star, and I consider her a talented musician. However, I have been shocked by her recent profane behavior and, if she continues down this path, who knows what will become of Miley Cyrus. Long gone are the days of Hannah Montana. Miley Cyrus has taken on a rebellious persona that she claims to be her true self, but we all know this image has a bit of frustration, confusion, self-discovery, and need for attention written all over it. Some approve of her new personality, and some even encourage her to continue surprising her fans. I say that’s too much for such a public figure, especially one who’s been inspiring young girls from day one of her fame. I’m not saying she should not be whom she wishes to be, just that has become a celebrity disaster and no one knows exactly where she’s headed. Let’s just hope it’s a better place...

Source: billboard.com

point of view

Writing College Essays Dilemmas of seniors who just want to get into a good school Paty Kim

J

ust write about you. I have heard this statement from various admissions officers during my trip to the United States this summer, where I visited colleges on the East Coast. Short and simple, this suggestion makes the process of writing an essay for the Common Application seem effortless. But under the pressure of getting into the college of our dreams, writing an essay that represents our beliefs, personality and interests can be quite intimidating. From rumors about other applicants’ essays to finding a topic, many issues can surface during the process of writing college essays that we are actually proud to send to admissions offices.

As seniors in high school, we are buffeted by stories of students who achieved amazing things and wrote remarkable essays. Despite the fact that students and essays like these exist, they represent a small slice of the whole pie. A representative from Brown University once shared in an information session that the best essay he read was about a student in a fast-food restaurant—about how he got treated by the attendants and how he treated them back. In addition, another representative, this time from the University of Pennsylvania, shared that one of the best essays she ever read was about a student who found out she wanted to be an engineer by walking her dog.

A big concern that seemed to overshadow the rest when I was talking about college essays with my fellow seniors was that a lot of them thought they had never done anything that was worth writing about. After listening to what some admissions officers had to say, I understood that, as seniors, we have lived a small part of our lives and that it is “okay” to be an adolescent who has not cured cancer. The essay is the only part of our college application that we can manipulate fully. The essay is also the “human” part of our college application. Through this written part, the admissions officer can see beyond our SAT scores and grade point average, and truly peek into our personality and character. With that in mind, I learned that it was perfectly human to not have done amazing things during the first seventeen years of my life.

Another issue that surfaces during the college-essay-

writing process is finding a topic to write about. During one of the days in my summer break, I stared at my blank Word document for two hours—not knowing what would be captivating enough to write about. I then decided to go to my dream school’s website and read their “Essays That Worked” section.

After reading four or five essays, I noticed a recurring trend: all these essays offered a story that enabled the reader to understand on which axis that person spun. Many times, as students we get caught up in trying to squish an elephant into a water bottle lid—in other words, trying to include everything about them in an essay. While I understood not only my but other students’ fear of not letting college representatives know enough, I learned that it is crucial to come to terms with the fact that we cannot do so. Many times, the “essay that works” is the one that focuses on a Rafaela Goldlust story that it offers insight into a student’s perspective on a matter that he or she cares deeply about. While reading an essay about a female student who saw and swam in the sea for the first time, I understood that the essay served as a gateway that allowed you to share your world with the reader. Be it soccer, Model United Nations, the Greenhouse effect or videogames, writing about a subject that is “very you” can easily earn you points for honesty, for you can hardly fake concern or care for something that is already important to you. I have not yet written an “essay that worked,” but every time I write a draft, I ask myself: “Do I deeply care about the topic I’m writing about?”

Many members of the class of 2013 have told me that senior year at Graded is emotionally stressful. After all, besides our school work, it’s the year in which we put together our best college applications and send them to schools all over the world. I find it important to point out that the essays are not everything. In fact, according to all the admissions officers I have met, the transcript is the most determining factor. In my opinion, though, it is important to write essays that will offer a different side of a student, for 97% GPA and 2100 on the SAT cannot fully explain the fact that you are a student that wants to study astrophysics in college because your father loves blueberries.

the talon • 7

point of view

What Do You Want to Be? Reflections on education and motivation Luiza Gundim

N

o, Sister School is not only for girls and it has nothing to do with nuns. The name “Sister School,” one of Graded’s 33 community service groups, comes from the Portuguese concept of Escola Irmã. If that still doesn’t make much sense to you, I’ll explain it in a better way. Graded is the sister school of Caritas, a day care center that receives children and adolescents from less-privileged communities. In this scholastic sisterhood, therefore, Graded students teach 13 and 14 year-old Caritas students math and Portuguese, two areas of great difficulty for those who attend Brazilian public schools.

I joined Sister School as a sophomore, hoping to make a difference in these kids’ lives— or at least to make math seem more approachable to them. Little did I know how difficult that would be. My very first student was a boy named Felipe, with dark hair and a sad smile. He, unlike most of the other boys in the group who wanted to be soccer players when they grew up, aspired to be a pizza deliveryman. “Why?” I asked him. “I don’t know… I like motorcycles so it would be cool to drive one around the entire day.” He was indifferent to school and learning in general. My biggest challenge wasn’t teaching him multiplication or division, but rather motivating him to do well at school. How could I convince him that having good grades would be worth it? How could I let him know that learning math and Portuguese was his passport to a brighter future?

When the semester was over, Felipe left and Jeaziel, a quiet, pensive boy who acquired a glow in his eyes every time he was able to solve a trigonometry problem, became my next student. Jeaziel didn’t want to be a pizza deliveryman. He had a thirst for knowledge and the motivation to conquer the world of mathematics even though it seemed like an impossible task.

Notice the contrast here between Jeaziel’s excitement with trigonometry and Felipe’s struggles with multiplication. After encountering these two opposing situations, I wondered: what made these two boys of the same age and similar backgrounds

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so different? It’s been two years since I joined Sister School and I still haven’t found the answer to this question. After Felipe and Jeaziel came other students—Gabriel, José Carlos, Alicia, Raylane, and others. Some are more like Jeaziel, but most face the same challenges Felipe did. Most of them are not motivated and don’t want to learn. Most kids feel indifferent.

Of course I can’t judge or try to infer where this motivation or lack thereof comes from, since it may have roots in aspects of their lives that I’m not aware of, such as family.

But I strongly believe that schools should be responsible for trying to motivate these children. My students in Sister School constantly tell me about the absurdities of the public education system. “It’s been two months since I had Math class… The teacher left and there’s no substitute,” a girl declared once. “The teacher explains it once and I don’t get it, but she can’t help me because there are 35 other students Fernanda Fizner in my class,” confided another.

In Sister School we try to fill in the gaps left by the flawed Brazilian education system. There are some gaps, however, that we are not able to bridge, especially when it comes to motivating the students. The vicious cycle of poverty will never be broken if these kids don’t see the value of education—45 minutes of tutoring in math and Portuguese on Thursdays will never be enough to make them change their minds.

How can we try to solve this chronic problem, then?

Again, I’m still looking for answers. For now, all I can do is try to come up with creative and more entertaining ways of teaching Sister School students about multiplication and first-degree equations. Making a difference, after all, has proved to be a challenging and sometimes stagnant process. I can only hope that Felipe, Jeaziel and all the other kids I’ve had the pleasure to teach have learned something from me. “Felipe, how much is 5 million times zero?” I remember asking once. He took a while to answer. “Zero,” he responded, and that time I knew he understood.

point of view

Disaster A typical family dinner Fernão Mesquita

E

very time she tries to cook, disaster strikes. The kid would dread mealtime, and would eat very little just to avoid the misfortune of chewing on a raw piece of steak or encountering a suspicious sauce. But today is the last straw.

“Do you like it?” she asks.

“It’s very good, honey.” The husband always answers with the same vague, half-hearted compliment. He doesn’t like her food either; he just isn’t vocal about it.

The food is more atrocious than usual: watery eggs Benedict with a dry, unappetizing piece of hard toast and the usual indiscernible sauce.

“Who eats eggs benedict for dinner?” The son asks the question and immediately regrets it.

“We do.”

She answers calmly, but everyone knows she’s boiling up inside. Dinner cautiously continues with the family trying to hide their faces of disgust, while the mother admires her “masterpiece.”

“It’s a masterpiece! You know, I was reading about this recipe in Cosmo yesterday, but I never thought I’d be able to pull it off. But I’m so, so glad you guys liked it!”

There’s a funny thing about the mother. She’s always saying her cooking skills are top-notch but she never really eats the stuff, shoving it all down the family’s throats while she savors the treats she stores in her bedside cabinet.

“We didn’t.” The son responds, again. He’s at a rebellious age. Doesn’t want to suffer through culinary torture ever again. “Mom, stop! You force us to eat your crap every day without accepting a complaint about it. And you don’t even eat it!”

The mother looks indignantly at her husband, as if warning him to do something before she explodes in anger herself.

“Timmy, she’s your mother. Be respectful and eat

your food.”

“No.” “You’ll eat the damn food, Timmy!” The mother is shouting now. “I spent the whole afternoon making those eggs, only to have them ridiculed by my own son!”

The husband tries to intervene, “Honey, please, he’s just a boy, he doesn’t know what he’s saying!”

“No, honey, every time, every single time, I see his face of disgust when he eats my food. If you don’t like it, Timmy, then don’t eat it, but don’t expect anything else.”

“Then why don’t you eat it!” the boy answers, angrily. “If you at least tasted it you’d know that this food is crap. Maybe then you’d do something about it!”

The husband is also angry now.

“Stop being so hard on your mother, Timothy! She does the best she can!”

“I’m done! I’m done! I’m sick and tired of this, Dad! Of this tasteless sauce, of this hardguymag.net toast, and of this damn family! I know you don’t like it either, and she forces you to eat it every time. Look, there’s even a bug in yours!”

“That’s not a bug, it’s a crouton. I know how you like your food to be crunchy; I was just trying to make you happy!”

“Well, you don’t. You just make me sick!”

The boy leaves to his room, slamming the door behind him.

Never have mother and son been so apart.All it took was charred toast and a unappetizing egg to create this gaping chasm: Every time she tries to cook, disaster strikes.

the talon • 9

ponto de vista

Gigantes em decadência Considerações sobre Rogério Ceni e o São Paulo Futebol Clube Mendel Schwarz

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ão tenho palavras para descrever Rogério Ceni e por isso nem tentarei. Nosso capitão é o extremo oposto da proposta dessa edição, pois conquistou tudo: seu estado, seu país, seu continente e o mundo. Não foi nenhuma surpresa pra mim quando ele machucou o ombro recentemente e teve que parar por quase seis meses. Levantar tantas taças é desgastante, especialmente para o ombro.

Ouço falar muito do maior ídolo do time que mais cresceu nos últimos anos e que mais venceu. Muitas vezes o que escuto são críticas, como as de Ney Franco, que apontou Rogério como o maior responsável pelo racha no vestiário sãopaulino durante esse ano. Primeiramente, gostaria de rebater tamanha insensatez. Acredito que o problema do clube está na administração e por isso repudio os atos da Torcida Independente, que apoia o atual mandato. A administração de Juvenal Juvêncio é culpada por ter contratado um técnico que é menor que o capitão e muito menor que o clube. Se Ney Franco não conseguia controlar o vestiário é porque não tinha voz ativa dentro do grupo - coisa que não falta ao goleiro e capitão do time. Todos os técnicos agradecem aos céus por terem jogadores consagrados e identificados com a torcida como Juninho pernambucano, Alex, e Paulo Baier, pois são ótimas influências junto ao elenco, especialmente para os mais novos. E daí vem o Ney Franco falar isso? Como diria Muricy Ramalho: “tá de brincadeira né, meu filho”?

Rogério tem mais crédito com a torcida do que qualquer outro jogador. Fico triste com as críticas ao Luís Fabiano, por exemplo, pois tenho grande carinho pelo atacante por conta de suas primeiras duas passagens pelo SPFC, mas entendo plenamente a revolta de parte da torcida. Mas Rogério é outro caso. Pênalti é loteria, como diria o velho sábio da bola.

Estamos falando sobre o maior goleiro-artilheiro de todos os tempos. Pessoas tendem a associar seu baixo aproveitamento com a idade, avançada para um jogador de futebol, mas não existe nenhuma correlação. Acredito que esteja na hora dele se aposentar, mas não por causa desses erros.

Em uma péssima fase como a atualmente vivenciada pelo clube, é fácil apontar o maior símbolo da equipe como culpado. Reitero, portanto, que Rogério é meramente uma vítima da má administração do clube. Me entristece saber que meu maior ídolo terá que pendurar as chuteiras em meio a esse clima de acusações e declarações descabidas.

Juvenal Juvêncio disse que “time grande não cai”. Eu, tal como Rogério, concordo com a frase do nosso presidente.

10 • the talon

Time grande não cai, mas clube grande cai, sim. E o São Paulo é um clube grande com um time muito pequeno, repleto de estrelas que não brilham e promessas não cumpridas. Infelizmente, o SPFC chegou a um ponto em que o time é menor do que seu maior representante. Ney Franco era pequeno demais para o São Paulo, mas Autuori não, e ele já provou isso em anos anteriores como na conquista do mundial em 2005. A sua participação na formação daquele time, em que Rogério marcou mais gols que Tevez, artilheiro Corinthiano daquele ano, é questionável. Seu insucesso, em minha opinião, se deve a seus conceitos ultrapassados para o futebol moderno.

A reformulação do elenco passa pela despedida do nosso goleiro, capitão e maior ídolo, porém não deixo de acreditar que sua falta será gravemente sentida. Creio que a reformulação feita pela diretoria na comissão técnica foi errônea. Rogério disse que o time “parou no tempo” e concordo plenamente.

Mudamos a comissão porque os antigos profissionais são-paulinos não estavam dispostos a se reinventarem. Em entrevista concedida ao Portal UOL, Luiz Rosan, ex-fisioterapeuta do São Paulo e considerado por muitos especialistas o melhor de sua área, revelou graves problemas na diretoria do clube. Ele chegou a dizer que não entregaria um time de várzea para ser dirigido por Adalberto, por exemplo, que Juvenal reintroduziu à diretoria após sua demissão em Junho. Rogério parece concordar com essa linha de pensamento, pois ouviu e retribuiu duras críticas ao diretor. De acordo com o ex-integrante da comissão técnica, Adalberto é o maior responsável pela piora no estado clínico de Luís Fabiano no primeiro semestre de 2011. O dirigente teria ordenado, mesmo sem nenhum conhecimento médico, que o atacante continuasse a se tratar na Espanha, sem a supervisão de Luís Rosan, com quem mantinha péssima relação.

Não existe uma solução simples para os problemas do Morumbi. Existem reformas drásticas que terão de ser feitas.

Começando com as eleições em abril do ano que vem. Concordo com Juvenal: Rogério não pode abandonar o clube após a sua aposentadoria. O discurso do presidente acerca do futuro do nosso craque foi meramente político, pois ele utilizou a figura do goleiro mito para apaziguar o clima conturbado criado por uma série de decisões ruins tomadas nos últimos meses, mas o fato é que, como ocorreu em 2012, a ausência de Rogério criará um vácuo de poder no clube. Ceni é essencial para identidade do são-paulino e acredito que o futuro do clube, se não houver mudanças, é assombroso. Mesmo assim tenho esperança de um futuro melhor para o SPFC. Afinal, somos o clube da fé.

point of view

Different Points of View If you were a dictator, what would you do?

POV Team

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his month, the POV team decided to answer questions from our community, each with a different point of view. The first question is from Gabe Borger. Each writer created an alias.

Alias 1: “One part maverick, one part realist, one part best sleuth in the business.”

Oh, goodness gracious! It seems to be time for another round of my favorite game of “What if?”

Assuming I were a dictator that had gone through the lengthy and (arguably) boring process of rising in a single-partystate context and taken the necessary steps to consolidate my power, I would take my time. Who are you to rush me into doing things?!? I worked hard to get to where I am, and so I wouldn’t want to put that hard work to waste by simply rushing into war or health reform—those things are scary. I’d change the little things first, maybe institute a nationwide ban on the use of “paradigm” or “inductive reasoning.” No good has ever come out of using those words.

I’d start off slowly; probably cultivate a larger-thanlife personality that would include picturesque dressing styles and my own unique mustache type. Because that, ladies and gentlemen, is what every single dictator, except for Adolf Hitler, did wrong. You see, Hitler managed to achieve something no other dictator in the history of the world has ever done: he single-handedly eradicated a facial hairstyle from popular use.

Because of him the toothbrush mustache might never be socially acceptable again! As such, I intend to one-up him by having my own staple-mustache style. Heck, I’ll probably even make it the Nike “swish” logo. That’ll show those labor-exploiting capitalists who’s who.

Alias 2:

y �Y =

dy ( X )( x � X ) dx

Oh, dictator, huh? Like, ruling my own dictatorship.

Sort of like a tyrant. Except less pejorative. Though to be fair, tyrant wasn’t always such a negative word. In the original Greek, it was just a word for an authoritarian sovereign. But then along came Plato and Aristotle, and they were all like, “Oh, but a “tyrant” doesn’t follow any laws, he does stuff just for himself.” Well, okay, historically that has generally been the case, but way to generalize, Aristotle. Then again, this is the guy who said that the Earth was beneath our feet because the

earth element was the one which most gravitated towards the center of the universe. Not to mention all his ideas on motion.

Come on, dude.

Oh, and that’s not to mention Aether! I mean, hello, have you ever watched Legend of Korra? Or The Last Airbender?

There are only four elements. But before you ask, don’t watch the movie. The Avatar movie was complete crap. I could probably write a better script in half an hour in the lou. Or that other Avatar movie. I mean, I’ve seen Pocahontas, thank you very much. Same story. Except less exploding ships (and tentacle hair porn. Oh, shut up, if you’ve watched it, you thought that too). The visuals were fairly cool, I’ll give Cameron that, but I couldn’t watch it in 3D, so for me it was sort of meh.

Speaking of movies, you watched The Dictator yet?

The Sacha Baron Cohen one, not the Chaplin one. They’re both good, of course, but the Chaplin one is called The Great Dictator, totally different.

Alias 3: ToKid To answer this question, we must first unpack it by defining a few terms and connecting it to the different ways of knowing and areas of knowledge. First, the term “dictator” must be defined. A dictator, according to my definition, is a totalitarian ruler that has achieved power by force. The second step is to connect this question to an area of knowledge. To me, the most appropriate one here would have to be history, since, looking at several past examples of how dictators have acted, I can plan my dictatorship accordingly.

When we look back at the history of the rise and rule of single-party states, we notice that there are some common trends in how dictators have acted, especially regarding how they come to power. One of those is the fact that, to rise to power, the dictator has to have amazing leadership skills or must be at least charismatic enough to garner followers. Another common trend is that the leader must completely eliminate his opposition (usually violently!) in order to achieve his aim.

Once ruling, I’ll definitely control the population by instituting a secret police and creating a cult of personality around my figure: “All Hail the Mighty Mesquita!”

Alias 4: Julius Caesar II If I were to make rules for others to follow, I’d be a hypocrite. Plus, making rules is boring, long, and inconvenient.

the talon • 11

point of view

Yes, laws are necessary, but if I were a dictator I would decide, which means I’d ban ALL rules (maybe not all...). Think about it, you wouldn’t fear me, you’d just fear following rules. Society under my wing would be inverse, totally mind-boggling and antihumanitarian. But then again, who really likes following rules?

As a wise man once said, “Rules were made to be broken.” That would be my motto. As far as my authority would go, people would still kind of hate me, though. I’d be the mother of all, and I’d still be dictating everyone, just on the contrary of what has always been mainstream in dictatorial worlds.

What I realized, though, is that having no rules would never work for any society. Let’s say a man wanted to sell a loaf of bread for four reais and a consumer wished to take the bread for free. Both of them would be wrong, but both of them would also be right. It’s funny to think how dictatorship laws never really work in the end, but having no laws doesn’t work either. What works then? That is the question all dictators should ask themselves. Therefore, I’ve decided that, if I were to become a dictator, I wouldn’t accept it. I’d despise it, abhor it.

The floccinaucinihilipilification of her music sends undigested flaxen edible material up my esophagus. You say that she did not perform in this year’s Rock in Rio. I say thank the divine order that rules prominent above us. Ergo, the panacea of all ills that injure our Communist Democratic Republican State will be conquered through force. We will eliminate all previously designated artistic material by the previously designated exartist…

Finally, I will appoint Joel Santana as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Through his uncontestable knowledge of several languages, his manner of communication will undoubtedly create a system that will assist the rise of the world as the most prominent planet in the universe. Fifth, I will create the state of Wadiya. It shall be a prosperous nation as seen in the documentary The Dictator. That is all.

Alias 5: Lucidity Guys, let’s be realistic here. What are the chances of a Brazilian high schooler, who happens to be a great believer in democracy, becoming a dictator? Virtually none. The socalled international community would never let an autocratic ruler govern Brazil. Out of the 45 current dictatorships, only one of them is in the Americas (Cuba). Plus, as we saw in the past few months with the protests around the country, the Brazilian people are not afraid to complain about bad leaders and corrupt political parties when the government doesn’t meet their standards. If I were a national leader, I wouldn’t want my people to rebel against me, which would definitely be the case if I became a dictator. Seeing as there are a million reasons for me NOT to be a dictator, why even bother answering the question?

Alias 6: Walter Mellon My first decrees as a world dictator would be to honorificabilitudinitatibly legalize pugs, not drugs! In fact, pugs would be compulsory. Every constituent of the Buiacaxa World State must raise at least a pug. One pug. They are commendably organically constituted.

Second, Rock in Rio’s main stage would not be called World Stage. It would be called the Communist Usurpation of Christina Aguilera’s Dyed Blonde Hair. Why?

12 • the talon

Rafaela Goldlust

news

Why Cheat?

How low stakes foster an enviornment fit for cheating Andrea Ferreira

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or many top students, entrance to an Ivy League school is the icing on their cake to the thirteen-plus years of schooling, verification that they have reached academic success.

Students hoping to gain entrance to these institutions often face the academic pressure to present a spotless transcript, attain perfect standardized test scores, and to be leaders in their respective communities. This is where cases of academic dishonesty can come in. Over the last decade, social researchers have suggested that the high stakes involved in entrance to elite post-secondary schools are the culprit of the overall upward trend in cases of cheating; when students feel the pressure to succeed, they may decide that a couple of incidents of academic dishonesty are part of the price to pay in order to enter their dream college.

Recently, the staff of Harvard University’s newspaper did a poll of the entering freshman class (class of 2017) regarding the students’ histories of cheating. Like the questions asked on the Challenge Success survey that Graded students partook in last May, the students were asked if they had ever copied homework or cheated on an exam. Of the 80 percent of the class who chose to respond, 42 percent admitted to “cheating on a homework assignment or problem set” while ten percent admitted to “cheating on exams prior to heading to the Ivy League institution.” These results were published on various websites, where readers had a chance to weigh in on these numbers. Many readers were surprised by how low they perceived this number to be one anonymous commenter stating, “I do not know which is more concerning: the fact that 42 percent cheated, or that 64 percent of the freshman class lied about it.” While this of course is a harsh generalization, and cheating isn’t something created by students of the last decade, incidences of cheating scandals seem to be rising at an alarming rate. Many of the students who played a role in these cheating scandals have stated that getting in to these dream schools would undoubtedly provide them with increased job opportunities in the future, and that they would stop their unethical ways upon entrance.

However, this is clearly not the case, as these instances are also plaguing post secondary schools. One of these instances took place at Harvard in the spring of 2012, when the school investigated nearly 125 students suspected of cheating on their final exam (a “take-home” exam). Alison Singh, a lawyer and writer for the Huffington Post, contradicts these students’

reasoning stating, “An acceptance letter is not a baptism that washes away past sins. Just think of the 60 Harvard students caught cheating in a single course this past fall. If cheating worked in high school, why should students stop in college?”

Singh continues by claiming that “overvaluing where [a child] goes to college” is the cause of recent cheating reports and suggests that parents as well as those working in the education system should stress the importance of redefining success as not where one goes to school but in living honestly.

Fellow Huffington Post Blogger and headmaster of a prestigious private school in New York, Steve Nelson, disagrees with Singh’s opinion that the high stakes of entering prestigious universities are the driving force between cheating. He argues the contrary: that cheating is a result of the stakes being too low for today’s students witnessing cheating in the outside world (and often times this cheating goes unpunished). Also, referring to the Harvard cheating scandal nytimes.com of 2012, Nelson argues that the stakes of this test were “dismally low”—the test was a take home test in which the students had access to their course notes, an assignment that in Nelson’s words held “little consequence.” He also makes the argument that part of the problem comes from “teenagers [having] a built-in hypocrisy radar.” He continues by mentioning that “they listen to adults talk about academic honesty and ethics with one ear while tuned into contemporary political discourse with the other.”

The solution Nelson offers to the epidemic is to reform the somewhat traditional way of instructing. He argues that when only “ textbook facts” are taught and being tested, then the student “becomes engaged only with succeeding in a game.” In consequence, cheating is not seen as a major infraction, for the student’s lack of personal engagement allows them to see academic dishonesty as a means of winning this “game.”

Nelson leaves readers with a final piece of advice: to combat cheating by making students love school, and develop interpersonal relationships within the classroom. He also suggests a transition in the educational system to “meaningful assessments” as “when a student’s unique point of view or creation is invited and appreciated, cheating is neither necessary nor possible.”

Sources: huffingtonpost.com; nbcnews.com

the talon • 13

news

Fighting a War for Nearly 30 years The story of a Japanese soldier Annie Groth

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n December 1944, 22-year-old Hiroo Onoda was sent on his first mission with strict orders from his commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi: Onoda was to gather special intelligence that would help Japan win the war while stationed on the Philippine island of Lubang. Taniguchi’s orders were that Onoda was “absolutely forbidden to die by [his] own hand. It may take three years, it may take five, but whatever happens, [they’d] come back for [him]. Until then, so long as [he had] one soldier, [he was] to continue to lead him.” Onoda followed these orders.

In fact, he followed them for almost thirty years.

How did this happen? The first part to explaining this question comes from the context of the situation. After only a few months on the island, the Allies took over Lubang and proceeded to occupy the area. Most Japanese soldiers escaped into the jungle in groups of three or four; however, they were chased down and killed. Onoda’s group though, consisting of himself, Yuichi Akatsu, Siochi Shimada, and Kinshichi Kozuka, were not. They continued to fight off the enemy with guerilla war tactics as best they could while still managing to survive off the island and on raids in local farms. Eventually, after many farmers were upset they were still being exploited, local islanders left the group a leaflet. On it said: “The war ended August 15. Come down from the mountains!”

The group deliberated extensively whether or not the note was true or an Allie tactic to capture the soldiers.

Eventually they came to the conclusion the war could not have possibly ended that quickly. Indeed, for people who had no idea about the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, their assumption made sense. The islanders now had planes dropping hundreds of leaflets around the area telling the group to surrender. However, they were still suspicious because the pamphlets made it seem as if Japan had lost the war. This of course was not conceivable to the soldiers. The group decided that if Japan had won they would come for them, but that for now the Allies were still in pursuit.

Eventually the group became completely skeptical.

They believed the civilians were not citizens but instead soldiers part of the elaborated hoax. After all, every time they killed these “civilians,” search parties would come out after them.

Their realities became so twisted that after years in the jungle they did not believe even their fellow Japanese who were sent into the island to try to stop them. They decided that these had to be war prisoners forced into capturing them in exchange

14 • the talon

for their own freedom.

After five years though, Akatsu chose to surrender.

Perhaps out of shame, he did not tell the group. After he successfully managed to surrender to what he believed were Allied troops, the group became even more skeptical after one member had simply gone missing. After five more years, Shimada was killed in a skirmish on the beach. Now there was only Kozuka and Onoda left. They continued to gather more information and believed eventually Japanese officers would come for them and use their information to train other guerilla groups. After 27 years in the jungle, Kozuka was killed during a fight with a Filipino patrol. The Japanese were sure he was already dead after living in the jungle for so long; now, however, they believed that Onoda could also still be alive.

In 1972 the Japanese army sent out a search party for Onoda. Experts tried to track him down but could not find him.

Eventually in 1974 a college student, Nario Suzuki, decided to travel around the world to find “Onoda, a panda, and the Abominable Snowman.” Finally, where thousands of people had failed throughout the years, Suzuki found Onoda’s hiding place with Onoda inside. He tried to convince Onoda the war was over. Close, but no cigar: Onoda did not believe him. Suzuki then travelled back to Japan and tracked down Major Taniguchi to rescue Onoda. Now retired and working in a bookstore, Taniguchi flew to Lubang and finally made Onoda realize the war was over. In his book No Surrender, My Thirty-year War, Onoda describes what happened in that instant: “Suddenly everything went black. A storm raged inside me. I felt like a fool for having been so tense and cautious on the way here.

Worse than that, what had I been doing for all these years?”

After surrendering his samurai sword at age 52 to the Filipino President, Onoda was excused for killing 30 Filipinos and injuring 100 others. He went back to Japan but confessed the country’s values now seemed too different and so he moved to Brazil. In 1984 he went back to Japan and established a school for young people teaching them survival techniques. In 1996 he donated $10,000 to local schools in the Lubang Island but needless to say, many locals still did not forgive Onoda.

Now back in Brazil, Onoda is a successful farmer living in Mato Grosso. His is certainly a remarkable story.

Sources: todayifoundout.com; unchartedphilippines.com; veja. abril.com.br

news

Chemical Reactions Graded reactions to the Syrian conflict Faria Nasruddin

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n 1968 the United Nations passed a law banning the usage of chemical weapons in warfare. In August, the Syrian Assad regime launched chemical weapons into a rebel-based area, killing 1,429 civilians. In the past few weeks various countries have been discussing the incident and how they should respond.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, quoted in an interview about the chemical weapon attack stated, “Well, no decision has yet been taken. But let’s be clear what is at stake here. Almost a hundred years ago, the whole world came together and said that the use of chemical weapons was morally indefensible and completely wrong. And what we’ve seen in Syria are appalling scenes of death and suffering because of the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. And I don’t believe we can let that stand.”

The following week U.S. President Obama released his own statement: “Now, after careful deliberation, I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets. This would not be an open-ended intervention.

We would not put boots on the ground. Instead, our action would be designed to be limited in duration and scope. But I’m confident we can hold the Assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons, deter this kind of behavior, and degrade their capacity to carry it out. … I’ve long believed that our power is rooted not just in our military might, but in our example as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And that’s why I’ve made a second decision: I will seek authorization for the use of force from the American people’s representatives in Congress.”

In light of this situation I asked members the Graded community to take their stance on the chemical attack and the reactions to it.

Alan Garcia Ramos, gr216255: “Obama, Obama, Obama.... When he entered into office he claimed he was going to bring all the troops back home and focus on internal conflicts. Yet here we are again. I can understand that Syria’s government is killing its own people but the United States cannot afford another war. They are claiming to make an 72-hour efficient strike, but war is never that easy.”

Luis Wolfrid, gr308122: “Supporting one side is in not acceptable and it will certainly not assist when it comes to resolving the Syrian issue. On the contrary, it would probably derail the political settlement of the crisis, cause further escalation of the turmoil and let the crisis spillover to other countries in the region. The UN should not desert the chance

for a peaceful and politically obtained solution, let alone, allow intervening in this country’s sovereignty with foreign military.

Personally, the chemical attacks are terrible, but so are the bullets coming from both sides. If the US gets involved it could lead to a larger war.”

Pedro Rodrigues gr325502: “I think [Cameron and Obama] they are both correct—the president of Syria crossed the line using chemical weapons and they must send a message to the world that chemical weapons will not be tolerated.”

Daniel Felberg gr216264: “Personally, I was quite surprised when Obama announced he was planning on the U.S. resorting to military action in Syria. Obama seemed like a man who cared more about resolving internal issues, more than sending more unnecessary U.S. military action in the Middle East, like George Bush. As for England, Parliament has taken the correct stand as to deciding to not invade Syria, since it could lead to a major war. The U.S. has said they have information that Assad has killed thousands of citizens with chemical weapons, but they don’t have any evidence to support it. Honestly, it might be Israel who provided them with that info, and if the U.S. tells the media their resource was the Israeli intelligence, Syria could launch a major attack against Israel, and possibly take off the map. Or, the U.S. is just trying to find another way to get closer to Iran, in order to defeat it and take its oil.”

Vaughn Gardner, gr309481: “I feel as if the attacks were by the opposition forces and not the government. It was just a coincidence that UN inspectors arrived in Damascus that day (since Syria knew about them coming for a few months) and when the political analysts of the world began saying that the opposition would lose the war without intervention. I feel as if the reactions of the US and the UK are for alternative motives such as crippling one of the final allies of Iran rather than really helping the opposition.”

Hee Won Chung, gr309312: “I believe what Obama did was right since it is true that Obama has no national interest in Syria. The, US is recovering its position in the Middle East due to the Afghanistan conflict it has faced recently.

Clearly, there is debate surrounding what to do next.

Two questions to ponder: Without consequences is there a point in establishing an international law that bans the use of chemical weapons? And what message should we, as an international community, send?

Sources: gov.uk; washingtonpost.com

the talon • 15

news

Egypt and the Fall of the Arab Spring How non-democratic rule has come full circle Paula Schulman

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here are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place. This is one of those moments. This is one of those times. The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same. Egyptians have inspired us, and they’ve done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence.

—Barack Obama, February 11, 2011 The term Arab Spring, coined and popularized by the Western media in early 2011, refers to the revolutionary wave of protests, demonstrations, riots, and civil wars in the Arab world that began in December 2010. What set the chain of revolutions apart was the use of Internet and social media (known as media activism).

Inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia, protests in Egypt against former president Hosni Mubarak began in January 2011. As tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Egypt’s major cities, Mubarak eventually handed over his rule to the Armed Forces of Egypt. His successor, Mohamed Morsi, leader of the (until then, illegal) Islamic political organization the Muslim Brotherhood, was sworn in as Egypt’s first democratically elected president. By the end of 2012, a constitutional referendum was held that approved a constitution that divided the country as it was considered by many to be too favorable to the Islamic views of the Brotherhood, without giving sufficient rights to minorities.

By mid-2013, fueled once more by media activism, mass protests against and in favor of the government again erupted in Egypt, resulting in a military crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and the removal of Morsi from power. In what was the worst single mass killing in Egypt since the fall of former president Mubarak two and a half years earlier, Egyptian security forces and armed men in plain clothes killed over 1,000 civilians in 10 days. By the time the protests subdued, a military-appointed government had been put in place, bringing the country back to where it was before the Arab Spring.

Soon after, in a country thus harshly divided, in what was dubbed as the “trial of the two regimes,” two court cases were held simultaneously in Cairo—one against the recently freed ex-president Mubarak and the other against his bitter

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foes, the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mubarak was on trial for his involvement in the killings of approximately 900 protesters during Egypt’s 18-day revolution in 2011. At the same time, 32 of the Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders were under trial for the same serious accusation: provocation to kill protesters.

Although Mubarak and his co-accused have been tried in court on numerous occasions, the hearing against the Brotherhood figures was the first to be held involving members of the organization since Morsi was deposed. This came amid the continuing crackdown on members of the Brotherhood and arrests of senior figures following weeks of unrest due to Morsi’s removal. At the end of September, an Egyptian court ordered the Muslim Brotherhood to be banned and for all its assets to be confiscated.

Tawakkul Karman, the first Arab woman to win a shared Nobel peace prize for her pro-democracy campaigning in 2011, believes that the Egyptian army’s overthrow of Morsi has “reset the clock” on the gains made since the popular uprising that blackcommentator.com ended three decades of Mubarak’s one-man rule. On August 4, Karman was denied entry into Egypt after announcing her intention to join Muslim Brotherhood protesters at a pro-Morsi vigil in Cairo on social media. She then released a statement that this could only mean one thing: Egypt’s new government is returning to the autocratic ways of the past. “The Arab Spring is about building democracy,” said Karman, “A military coup is the antithesis of that. It undermines everything.” Additionally, Karman criticized the refusal of the United States, which gave Egypt $1.5billion in mostly military aid, to condemn Morsi’s removal by the army, characterizing it as a coup. She describes this as “shameful,” and went on to state that “supporting the overthrow of a democratically elected leader sets a precedent. It will destabilize the region and the world in the long run. The US administration has yet to learn the lesson of the Arab Spring revolution.” Whether Egypt’s military-led government will stay in power or whether there will be a resurgence of the Arab Srping remain to be seen.

Sources: theguardian.co.uk; nytimes.com; wikipedia.com; washingtonpost.com; reuters.com

news

The Federal Legislator Inmate Brazil’s corrupt system

Pedro Werebe

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n light of recent events, many people are concerned that Brazil’s justice system has gone to shreds, and violent protests will destroy everything. Just a few weeks ago, the Brazilian government was faced with another conflict dealing with the corruption within its ranks.

Natan Donadon, a federal legislator, was charged with embezzlement and conspiracy. Donadon and his brother in 1990 extracted a total of R$8.4 million from the legislative assembly of Rondônia. Since then Donadon has continued to participate in illegal schemes.

Nathan Donadon was at one point convicted by Brazil’s Supreme Court and sentenced to 13 years in state prison. The seemingly most reasonable thing to do was to impeach Donadon through Brazil’s House of Representatives, and relieve him of his duties, but the laws are not always so clear-cut, and the probable soon became the improbable. Brazil’s House of Representatives, consisting of 513 legislators, received Donadon dressed as an inmate on August 28th. For the first time in Brazilian history, a politician convicted by Brazil’s Supreme Court was allowed to speak in his favor in front of Brazil’s House of Representatives. Donadon took the opportunity and soon became emotional stating the following: “I have been locked up for two months where I am being treated as a regular inmate and a common felon (which he is, according to Brazil’s Supreme Court). It is very hard for me to be locked up in jail in total solitude. Before coming here I took a shower and there was not enough water coming out from the sink for me to finish, because in Brazil’s prisons, no showers are found, instead you use the cold water from the sink.” According to Veja some legislators began to tear up with Mr. Donadon’s speech, and when his speech time was cut short, some House of Representatives members objected and asked that Donadon finish his speech. After his speech the representatives voted in his favor; in other words, a convicted legislator could continue his work inside prison.

Before presenting his speech, Donadon remained

in Papuda, a state prison in Brasília. There he received his normal salary as a federal legislator and the bonus that came with it. During those two months, Donadon received a salary of R$26,723. Nevertheless, because of Brazil’s parliamentary quota, he was also granted R$32,700 to spend on food and R$3,800 to purchase amenities. Therefore, during his time spent inside of state prison, he received over R$100,000.

Brazil’s protests are largely based on the level of corruption; the fact that a convict receives more money than an average paid worker, for example, is ridiculous, and fuels more protest.

People believe that peaceful protests are the answer because enforcing the law can combat corruption, yet Donadon has just proven otherwise. The Supreme Court had to intervene with the House of Representative’s affairs and declare a suspension of the decision. At least the House of Representatives now has a second chance to fix its veja.com.br mistakes, though the legislators might still stand by their decision.

Many think that Brazil has to undergo a judicial reform, where politicians charged with corruption cannot serve within any governmental party. Brazilian citizens also have to be more aware as to who they are voting for. As pareviously mentioned, Donadon’s corruption has been evident since 1990; from that point Brazilian citizens could have chosen a different federal legislator. Furthermore, Brazilian citizens should also be aware as to who they are voting for in the government, because they are the ones that decide whether or not felons such as Donadon will lose his power in the House of Representatives. Protests going around Brazil today should be targeting the reform of Brazilian laws and then target corruption, because it is only then, that we can successfully achieve justice.

Source: veja.com.br

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features

Close but Cigar “I’m Al Gore; I used to be the next president of the United States of America.”

Clara Bezerra

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he results of the United States presidential election of 2000 were so ambiguous that investigators can’t agree on them to this day. The conclusion of the final dispute between Republican candidate George Walker Bush and Democrat Albert Arnold Gore towards the end of the election depended entirely on the swing state of Florida. After discussions, calculations and Supreme Court intervention, the controversial decision was made that Bush had won the election. However, after his loss Al Gore attained success and recognition in other fields.

On election night of 7 November 2000, most national television stations at first released statements that Al Gore had won a majority vote in Florida. After alternating back and forth between the two candidates and changing their initial conclusions, national media finally came to the conclusion that results were too close to call. A final count determined that Bush had won by a small margin, which led the Florida Supreme Court to press the United States Supreme Court for a statewide manual recount of the votes. This was not granted. A close analysis of the ballots in retrospect suggested that several irregularities in the voting process, specifically in Palm Beach, may have favored Bush’s victory. The whole source of confusion lay in the fact that the district used “butterfly ballots,” meaning Gore’s name was the second of the ballot, but to vote for him citizens had to punch the third hole on the ballot. For that reason, there was an unexpected spike in votes for Pat Buchanan, whose name was across from the second hole. It is possible that over three thousand voters made that mistake.

A thorough review of the Florida balloting, conducted in 2001 by sources like the Associated Press, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, came to the conclusion that Bush would still have won if the U.S Supreme Court granted the request for a limited statewide recount, even if the four dominantly Democratic counties Gore asked to include were considered. However, the study also suggests that if a broad recount of all disputed ballots had happened, Al Gore could have won by a range of 42 to 171 votes out of 6 million cast in Florida. Since the presidential candidate never asked for this

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recount, it did not take place. It’s important to note, though, that these conclusions cannot be accepted with absolute certainty. Investigators did not have access to over 2,200 problematic ballot results, which could have altered the study’s information. Because of this, there are still conflicting views on whether or not Gore could have become president. While the Associate Press suggests “Gore might have reversed the outcome—by the barest of margins—had he pursued and gained a complete statewide recount,” USA Today maintains the conclusion that “George W. Bush would have won a hand recount of all disputed ballots in Florida’s presidential election if the most widely accepted standard for judging votes had been applied.”

So, the most accurate conclusion based on this information is that maybe the results were incorrect, or maybe not.

Despite the fact that Gore lost the presidential election in 2000, he did not fall short of reaching success and changing the intersubdue-site.com national community. He is the chairman of an independently-owned cable and satellite television network called Current TV, which is meant for young people and features mainly citizen journalism. He is also the chairman of Generation Investment Management, which focuses on creating new methods of sustainable investing.In the corporate world, he is on Apple’s board of directors and is an adviser to Google.

As an environmental activist, he chairs the Alliance for Climate Protection, a non-profit organization trying to solve the climate crisis. The award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim, focuses on Gore’s crusade to restrain global warning and clear up misconceptions about it.

Needless to say, the runner-up president did not stay focused on an uncertain loss.

To Al Gore’s circumstances in the presidential election of 2000 one might reply, “close, but no cigar.” But while it was Bush who became the forty-third president of the United States, this did not stop Gore from finding different forms of success.

Essentially, the message behind his story is that failure does not necessarily prevent success in the future.

Sources: factcheck.org; phrases.org.uk; nytimes.com; imdb. com; takepart.com; nobelprize.org

features

Stop the Smoke!

How culture influences the widespread use of cigars and cigarettes Pooja Singhi

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our hundred and forty-three thousand deaths per year. Four hundred and forty-three thousand fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters and friends and colleagues. Cigarette smoking took 443,000 individuals last year alone. But, in reality, cigarette smoking did not “take” these people; these people gave themselves to tobacco.

As stated by the National Cancer Institute, “tobacco is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. It causes many different cancers as well as chronic lung diseases, such as emphysema, bronchitis, and heart disease.” In recent years, tobacco smoking has caused even more problems: unemployment, destruction of family relationships, prohibition from restaurants, stadiums, and even some parking lots. All because of one habit. One single, preventable habit. So, then, why do people smoke?

Now, most would go on to explain the addictive powers of nicotine. The accumulation of the chemical in the body, the brain’s requirement of the substance for satisfaction, the addiction, the unbearable withdrawal symptoms. Backed by countless chemical and biological studies, these mechanisms are undeniably powerful. But, let us turn our focus away from the stages of addiction and to the beginning of the process.

The first box, the first lighter, the first puff. Why do people start smoking?

With the speed of scientific advancements increasing exponentially, we often see the natural sciences as the most reliable area of knowledge. Therefore, when discussing phenomena like smoking, we are drawn to the neuroscientists, the statistics. But, I need to assert that we must not forget about the human sciences, about psychology and sociology and anthropology. We must look at these areas because, sometimes, the evidence they provide is even more reliable and relatable than that of the natural sciences. So, let us analyze a principle at the base of all these human sciences: culture.

It is important to take into consideration the role of celebrities in this situation, who are the focus of popular culture. Few citizens know of recent measures taken by the United Nations Commision on Narcotic Drugs, but many can easily rattle off Angelina Jolie’s last three films. The appalling number of celebrities who smoke has undeniably had an influence on those adults and teens picking up People, USA Today, and Seventeen. Adele, Adriana Lima, Angelina Jolie, Avril Lavigne, Pink, Scarlett Johansson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ashton Kutcher, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen, Daniel Radcliffe.

And the list continues. The biggest names in music, television, and film are often seen with that puff of smoke exiting their perfectly sculpted mouths. Dresses worn on the red carpet sell out in hours; mansions in the paparazzi-studded neighborhoods of Calabasas and Malibu receive bids for much more than the pure structures and plots deserve. Surely, when celebrities light up a cigar or cigarette, admiring fans, fans who believe Avril

Lavigne or Brad Pitt can do no wrong, become more inclined to buy that packet of Marbolo as well. However, this trend extends beyond just Hollywood and the red carpet; it extends even to the realm of the intelligentsia. The beloved literary expatriates of the 1920s, Hemingway, Pound, Fitzgerald, Joyce, Stein, and others, sit in a Paris café, smoking cigarettes as they pen the next great novels. Or Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt near 1945 Yalta, Crimea, discussing the post-World War II fates of millions of people and hundreds of countries amidst the thick aroma of tobacco. The power and idealization of these events had become inextricably linked to smoking in the minds of some, an ironic connection between arguably the most intelligent figures of their times and, in my opinion, one of the most foolish actions I have come across—a path to death.

Beyond both popular and historical celebrities, smokers often associate tobacco with familial nostalgia. Smoking a cigarette with your beloved uncle. Getting your first cigar from your father. We associate these memories with manhood and growing up. Although I am by no means suggesting that one cigarette or one first cigar causes lung cancer, here we see the association of tobacco with positive connotations of love and reminiscence rather than the negative feelings it should presage, an important warning sign. Now, of course, times have changed, with the public becoming more and more aware of scientific studies involving the harmful effects of tobacco; however, individuals just can’t seem to shake that tie to cigars and cigarettes, that feeling of community that they used to, and perhaps dangerously still, involve.

So, we are left asking fundamental questions: what do we do now? How do we change a culture? How do we change feelings and memories?

We must start by acknowledging the connection between tobacco and culture, by acknowledging that smoking does bring connotations of beauty and intelligence and love.

Some scientists have ignored this cultural aspect of tobacco usage, and chosen to focus solely on the biological and chemical. This is a fundamental mistake, not only narrowing the scope of investigation, but also providing scientific reasoning that the common population cannot directly relate to. Next, we must focus on changing this cultural paradigm, distancing tobacco from the positive feelings it currently brings. Explaining that you can remember your grandfather by looking at the letter he wrote to you rather than light that last cigar he left you. Describing that you can assume the chic aura and style of Adele without also placing that cigarette between your teeth.

Although we cannot change habits from the past or even those of celebrities in the present, this acknowledgment and subsequent replacement could allow us to change our own habits in the future. We can save those 433,000 people.

Sources: cancer.gov; science.howstuffworks.com; imdb.com

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features

Earhart’s Flight A battle against the double standard Karen Kandelman

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want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”

—Amelia Earhart The first female pilot to fly alone over the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart, has been praised as a beacon for feminism during an era when society wasn’t on board with the idea of powerful women. She was outspoken, courageous and witty; her tough disposition even led her to fly across her world. Unfortunately, in 1937 she disappeared shortly after her adventure began, and some outrageous theories have emerged: 1.

Since the United States was at war with Japan in 1942, Earhart supposedly had been strategically commanded to land at the Marshall Islands so that the American troops would have to rescue her and consequently be privy to Japanese plans.

2.

Earhart was shot down by the Japanese and tortured brutally to her death.

3.

She assumed a fake identity and lived in New Jersey until 1987.

4.

Fred Noonan, her navigator, was drunk and made the airplane crash.

Despite the tragedy of her disappearance, Earhart was successful in highlighting the importance of women. Her main argument lay with education reform—she believed women shouldn’t believe that their lives were limited to cooking and taking care of children, but that they had the possibility of working with mechanics, for example. She also applied this to men and how they should not restrict themselves to “macho” roles but could also be stay-at-home fathers.

As a public figure, her unyielding urge to stand up for women’s equality led to her stance against sexist press statements. She seemed to be bothered by the fact that reporters demonstrated her achievements as grand leaps in society just because she was a woman. Earhart criticized the celebration that ensued because she flew over the Atlantic by herself in 1932, since she believed that if a man had done it there would be no mention of it, and that it was only because women are thought to be ignorant individuals that her actions were seen as great achievements. She argued against headlines such

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as the New York Times’ “Amelia Earhart Flies Atlantic, First Woman To Do It,” believing that it drew popularity because she was an aviatrix and not an aviator. Earhart’s assertion seems especially reasonable when after Charles Lindbergh had done the same when he flew from New York to Paris, the New York Times’ headline simply read: “Lindbergh off on lone flight to Paris.”

Before her famous flight in 1919, Earhart demonstrated independence by going to Columbia University’s Medical School but later deciding that she was too curious, with interests ranging from poetry to physics. After serving as a nurse, a traditional job for women in World-War-I-stricken America, Earhart became a social worker. She enjoyed assisting less privileged people but could not let go of the world of planes once she encountered it. She continued to help at the Denison House in en.wikipedia.org Boston, but practiced her aviation skills during the weekends. A member of the Royal Flying Corps had introduced her to airplanes, and although at the time he hadn’t been able to fly due to hazardous constructed, she became enchanted. She would start flying professionally when she assisted Wilmer Stultz and Lou Gordon in their flight over the Atlantic.

Earhart was definitely a female pioneer in aviation but what was most significant about her presence was the fact that she promoted women’s involvement in the field. She talked to women around the United States in her multiple flights as a means of spreading awareness while encouraging them to break from the prescribed parameters for women.

Today, women no longer passively accept of stereotypes and misogyny, but there are still much to improve in the lives of women. Salary disparities, a lack of of education, and domestic abuse are still part of our global culture. We must eradicate the stigma that girls can’t box, can’t play soccer, or can’t fight as soldiers, because women already do those well.

Although Earhart didn’t make it back to tell her tale, our generation can live up to her dream. She was close, and we will get the cigar.

Sources: esirc.emporia.edu; nytimes.com; findingdulcinea. com

features

Season Four is Coming What’s all this excitement about Game of Thrones?

Sylvia Yang

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BO’s hit show Game of Thrones, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, recorded an impressive viewership of 5.4 million people in its third season finale, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This tremendous popularity is an indicator of some successful techniques being used to reel in viewers. From my observations at Graded, Game of Thrones fans are avid supporters of the show, and will rave about it every time a new episode comes out. Before I delve deeper into this topic, however, I’d like to point out that this show isn’t everyone’s cup of tea; in fact, viewer discretion is strongly advised because mature content is the norm. Once viewers get used to the unexpected plot twists, they realize the show is filled with magical glory and scenarios that could only be possible in the imagination. So, while loyal fans are drooling over the new season yet to come in spring of 2014, it is important to review what the show and the hype around it are about.

So, what is the plot of the story? It certainly must be captivating if it has that many viewers. Once you start watching it, you’ve basically signed yourself up for unhealthy periods of time spent watching the show. The plot is about the fight for control over the land of Westeros by seven noble families. In the beginning of Game of Thrones, King Robert of Westeros asks Lord Eddard Stark to serve as the Hand of the King, the highest official under Robert. Despite knowing this job was dangerous, since the previous Hand had been mysteriously assassinated, Lord Stark accepts it. Little does the King know, however, that his wife and her family, the Lannisters, are carefully planning an overthrow. While the Lannisters try to hide their intentions, the former ruling family, the Targaryens, also desire the throne they once lost. As a consequence, civil war over who should be king breaks out, hence the show’s name. During all of this tumult, a supernatural threat arises in the North and the only group who can save the people from what is beyond the barrier of the “Wall” are the Night’s Watch, a military order.

Some of you are probably disappointed with my simple plot synopsis, but trust me: you have to watch the show for yourself to really understand the complexity of the story. What makes the show such a success is the fact that it keeps viewers on edge. Although fans have to withstand the long breaks between each season, all the waiting adds to the tension and excitement viewers feel, making the new season even more rewarding. The show has so many “close, but no cigar” moments that the audience can’t help but feel upset for the failure of a character to whom they become attached as the show progresses. We, the audience, begin to hope that the characters will succeed, and yet they fall short of achieving it.

So, what do fellow Graded students have to say about this show? When asked “What’s your favorite thing about Game of Thrones?” this is how they responded: •

Faria Nasruddin (Grade 10): In a nutshell, my favorite thing about Game of Thrones would be the drama, how you get to understand their “politics” from both what they present and what is behind it all.

•

Michael Borger (Grade 10): My favorite thing about it would be the role of women. It’s kind of a love/hate relationship.

I love how it shows the disparity between high-class and lower-class women, how either a woman can be this powerhungry vixen or a poverty-stricken maid. On that same note, I also hate that about the TV show, since I disagree with that notion. I just can’t help but muse over just how brilliantly George R. R. Martin tears apart the foundation of gender norms, yet reconstructs them right under my feet.

•

Manny Camilion (Grade 11): I like how Game of Thrones shows certain things such as dragons, white walkers, magic, etc., yet keeps them all on the “things that just happen to be happening” level, and doesn’t really focus on them at all. I like how it is focused more on the political and plotting aspect, as well as the relationships between characters, rather than the actual battle aspect.

•

Laura Schivartche (Grade 11): Arya Stark. Enough said.

It becomes evident that the key factors of the success story of the Game of Thrones are the uniqueness of its storyline, as well as its well thought-out production and use of creative variables. Elements such as dragons are developed in ways not seen before,to make them even more provocative. I personally recommend the show, but with the warning that the mature content may be difficult to handle. It all depends on whether or not you choose to embark on an intense emotional rollercoaster of elation and grief.

Sources: hollywoodreporter.com; vulture.com; imbd.com

the talon • 21

features

Travelling in the Mayonnaise Colloquialisms from our international world Features Team or this edition, the Features Team decided to ask people in our Graded community about funny or interesting sayings from the countries they were born in, lived in, or have ties to.

These are the contributions we received:

F

Japan: “Saru mo ki kara ochiru.”

Lisa Tokoro: “It means ‘even monkeys fall from trees,’ and we use it to say how everyone makes mistakes.”

Mexico: “Entiendes Menes o te explico Fedrico?”

Helio Garcia: “If you just translated the words, it would be: ‘do you understand Mendes, or do I explain Fedrico?’

In Spanish it means ‘do you understand me or do you want me to explain it to you,’ and it’s funny because the names rhyme.”

“Neko no te mo karitai.”

Lisa Tokoro: “It translates to ‘I even want to borrow a cat’s hand,’ and we use it when we’re super busy and have little hope.”

Venezuela: “Como cucaracha en baile de gallina.”

Brian Wolfson: “It translates to ‘like a cockroach in a chicken dance,’ and we use it to say someone is out of place or lost.”

France: “En faire tout un fromage.”

Lucile Simon: “It literally translates to ‘make a whole cheese out of it,’ which basically means to make a big deal out of something not really important.”

Italy: “In bocca al lupo.”

Anais Ioschpe: “It literally translates to ‘in a wolf’s mouth,’ and means good luck.”

Argentina: “Tirando manteca al techo.”

Anonymous: “In English it would be ‘throwing butter at the ceiling.’ In Argentina it refers to someone who wastes money carelessly.”

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Spain: “Eres mas agarrado que una pelea de pulpos.”

Mila Lara: “It would literally translate to ‘you hold on more than an octopus fight,’ and we use it to refer to someone who holds on to money tightly.”

South Korea: “너 코 높다” [ni ko-ga nop-ta] evolvingweb.ca Victor Chang: “In a literal sense it means ‘you have a big or high nose,’ but it actually means ‘you are snobby.’”

India: Transliteration: “Aaniye pudunga vendam.”

Sruthi Viswanathan: “Its literal meaning is ‘no need to remove nails,’ and it means ‘you have done enough, no need to screw up further.’”

Kenya, Swahili: “Pilipili usiyoila yakuwashiani?”

Ms. Pfeiffer: Our friend Paul Wambua taught this expression to us when we lived in Nairobi. It is fun to say, and it works in lots of circumstances. And I always love a good food metaphor. The question literally says, ‘Why is the chili pepper that you are not eating too hot for you?’ and it works as a retort to people who put their noses in something they shouldn’t: ‘Mind your own business!’”

entertainment

How Björk Almost Had Her Face Melted Off Let us thank the Norse gods that it wasn’t Kevin Shimba Bengtsson

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t seems to be a law of the universe that Iceland will always be a step ahead of the rest. They have the aurora borealis (northern lights), puffins, Sigur Rós, Björk, and even, as the Sigur Rós documentary Heima would have it, rhubarb marimbas. On that list, Björk Guðmundsdóttir is probably the most well-known (and most unpronounceable) outside of Iceland. She began a prolific artistic solo career following her departure from the Sugarcubes, a pretty weird alternative rock band, in order to pursue her own even weirder music.

However, she only reached maximum weirdness, the apex of odd, after she was almost assassinated by an obsessive fan.

In 1996, Björk was in a relationship with Goldie, a British electronic musician of Scottish-Jamaican heritage. This didn’t concern anyone too deeply except for a man named Ricardo Lopez. Nowadays, he is known as the Björk Stalker, but years before he would make international headlines, he was just another Ricardo.

Lopez was born in Uruguay to a middle-class family, but he was living in southeast United States soon afterwards.

According to reports, he was very close to his mother, but spent much of his time on the streets of his town in Georgia, where he would supposedly hear true stories of racial beatings from strangers. It also appears that throughout high school, Lopez, like most introverted teenage boys, had male friends but had difficulty talking to and making friends with girls. His dream was to become a famous artist, and he dropped out of high school to pursue his dream, and perhaps enroll himself in an art school.

Lopez moved to Florida in the early 1990s and supported himself by working part-time at his brother’s pest -control business. Sounds pretty average, right? Wrong. Lopez became more and more reclusive, and he began keeping a diary when he was 18. In it, he wrote about his fantasies of fame, his struggle with low self-esteem and his shame about his own weight and genitals. Other entries were perhaps more mundane, such as those about his own job. It didn’t take long before he was distracting himself by obsessing over celebri-

ties. It was during that time that he found the love of his life: Björk Guðmundsdóttir. He admired her and how artistic she was, making unique music. He began to view her as a daughter figure, on account of her girlish looks and voice.

Two years later, Björk began the relationship with Goldie, and this sparked murderous jealousy in Lopez; he began to film a video diary as a result, immortalizing one of the most unsettling and sinister accounts of a man’s mind, ever. The diary, totaling about 18 hours of footage, is disturbing. It chronicles a young man, probably with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Schizotypal Personality Disorder, on a downward spiral of madness. The incohesiveness of it makes it all the more eerie: he rants about various philosophical issues, about Björk and her relationship with Goldie, and Lopez even shows his apartment, which he refers to as “pig sty.” The most macabre of it all, though, is that he details the construction of an acid media.npr.org bomb. This “letter bomb,” which he sends under the guise of a book sent

by Elektra Records, is set up so that upon opening, it sprays sulfuric acid over the person’s face, melting it and potentially ending his/her life. In this case, her is none other than Björk.

After Lopez mails the bomb, he makes his final gruesome diary entry: after shaving his head and painting himself red, Lopez points a gun into his mouth and shoots, while the Björk song, “I Remember You” plays in the background.

It’s awfully sickening, but imagine being Björk in this case. Even though the police intercepted the bomb, she allegedly watched Lopez’s video diary, which must have taken its toll on her. Björk, who had previously been known for her “pixie,” cute childlike image, came out of this incident with a much darker album, Homogenic—a complete image and sound shift for her. The album itself was much more personal than her previous releases, a display of catharsis in coping with what must have been a traumatizing moment.

Imagine if you almost had your face melted off. Actually… don’t. That’s an awful image for a school-friendly magazine. Still, this is probably the most bizarre tale of “close, but no cigar.” Close, but no acid? That’s terrible. I’ll stop.

the talon • 23

entertainment

“Oh, I Already Watched That.”

Brazil’s movie market needs to step up its game Felipe Marques

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ast June and July, Brazil went through a series of protests against politics, corruption, bus prices; anything and everything was a reason to revolt against the current state of affairs.

Yet there is one unsung protest that has been going around for quite some time: the fact that Brazil got all of the summer’s greatest blockbusters a month (or more) late.

This summer’s blockbusters were Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, The Conjuring, and The Wolverine, which all came out in June in the States, yet here the story is quite different. Man of Steel and The Wolverine got kicked back a month, Pacific Rim, which was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year and an Internet favorite, only got to Brazilian shores in August. Most infuriating, though, was the fact that The Conjuring, the spiritual successor to the Paranormal Activity film series and one of the best horror movies of the modern age, was released late September. As mentioned before this isn’t a singular occurrence—The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing SpiderMan, Inception, all great blockbusters, all pushed back.

There is no official reason for this—that is to say, no reason given by the local film distributors— yet moviegoers have a theory. It all has to do with the distributors themselves, as well as the theaters. The US movie market is more prepared to deal with multiple blockbusters in theaters at the same time, mostly due to the fact that the studios are often their own distributors.

When the movies make their way here though, they have to be distributed through individual companies, and therein lies the problem. There is a limit to the amount of blockbusters a distributor can release because there has to be an equal measure of blockbusters and “smaller films” (i.e., movies that won’t fill rooms but will bring in some audience profit) due to theater contracts only permitting blockbusters to be out for a certain amount of time. Theaters are also unprepared, in a sense, to house that many blockbusters, mostly due to the implementation of 3D in recent movies. Generally, Brazilian theaters will have one or two rooms equipped with 3D projectors, allowing only for one 3D mega-film which will divert most of the audiences from the aforementioned “smaller” movies.

So, what does this have to do with release dates? In

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order for theaters to have maximum profit without losing possible audiences, they will only have space for one blockbuster at a time, with several minor movies being played alongside.

Considering that June, July, December and January are major “movie months,” theaters will space out the releases into some of the “minor months,” which is why movies like Pacific Rim and The Conjuring are being released way out into August and September. As for the aforementioned 3D debacle, the example given on a fan forum post (yes, a forum post explained the situation better than any theater or distributor would) was the triple blockbuster release that was Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans, all movies destined for grandiose 3D releases. Due to the lack of 3D theater rooms, Avatar was released in June (the same as the US), Titans in July (a month later than the US) and Alice around August (two months).

This practice might work fine for the theaters (although it does disregard the general movie-watching public, to whom the theaters should pay more attention), but it is probeeendeavors.wordpress.com lematic for the original studios.

According to an article by Cultura e Mercado, a website specializing in culture and cultural industries such as cinema, “North-American producers are losing at least 240 million dollars due to online piracy.” The article goes on to state that losses went from 22% to around 40% from 2002 to 2007, which are considered the “pre-BitTorrent” and “post-BitTorrent eras,” BitTorrent being one of the main data torrenting devices of the modern age. If movie theaters received at least an iota of investment more, they would be better equipped to display more blockbusters in order to parallel the American “movie season.” Brazil’s movie market would be a bit more up to date, leaving customers and theaters more satisfied. It would also provide a temporary solution to movie piracy, with less need for wanting to watch the season’s best movies at the same time as the rest of the world. But then again, this is just an opinion from yet another annoyed Brazilian moviegoer.

Sources: forum.outerspace.terra.com.br; culturaemercado. com.br

entertainment

The Art of Writing a One-Hit Wonder How to Be Famous 101 MC Otani

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o, you didn’t have to stoop so low / Have your friends collect your records and then change your number / I guess that I don’t need that though / Now you’re just. . .You fill out the rest. It must have been quite a while since you last heard this song, but I am sure you still remember it. Love it or hate it, you know the lyrics to this song. Now, I challenge you to name any other song by Gotye. Unless you are some desperate hipster who has convinced yourself of Gotye’s true genius and sought to discover more in Making Mirrors, you probably don’t know who this Belgian-born Australian even is.

That is because, in spite of his best efforts, much like Carly Rae Jepsen, The Lumineers and Vanilla Ice, Gotye has contracted what I like to call the “one-hit wonder virus.” You only get it once. Not that anyone is complaining; Gotye probably has enough money to pay the tuition of all of Graded’s students (trips and extra-curricular programs included).

We have grown accustomed to the one-hit process: An obscure artist finds his way into the mainstream, and before we know it, we are singing to and chanting what will soon become a nasty earworm that refuses to leave our brains. Take Moony’s “I Don’t Know Why” as an example. The unforgettable pre-teen dance floor anthem was played everywhere and at all times throughout 2008 and 2009. Five years later, Moony and her hit are nowhere to be found. Throughout the past decade, this has also been the case with other artists, as with KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See,” Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen).” Can you feel the nostalgia kicking in? Like the flu, these so-called wonders come and go. As the years pass, we forget their very existence, but are overtaken by nostalgia when someone brings them up in conversation. And so we ask, what is the essence of a one-hit wonder, and why do they become so?

When we look at the most famous examples of one-hit wonder chart-toppers, they all share one trait: they are earworms which are instantly recognizable. Whether it is the xylophone in “Somebody That I Used to Know” or the ridiculously high-pitched vocals in “Barbie Girl,” this iconic element is crucial. It can be found in “Hey Ho” (where the title is repeated over a thousand times per measure), “That’s Not My Name” (they call me Staycy), “Macarena” (the infamous dance), “Gangnam Style” (the other infamous dance), and “I’m Too Sexy” (enough said). Even the sad, slow songs, such as “Bittersweet Symphony,” share a riff or solo

that is impossible to forget. In other words, songs by one-hit wonders are notoriously catchy. Just like any other hit. Wait, what?

There is no art in becoming a one-hit wonder. The hits from obscure bands who plummet into irrelevance just as fast as they skyrocketed the charts and the hits of bands who manage to stay popular have no significant difference in musical or lyrical value. Rage Against the Machine’s hit “Killing in the Name” is just as appealing and head-bang worthy as Flobot’s only hit, “Handlebars.” Why did Rihanna manage to stay on top with “SOS,” while Fun. simply approached stardom with “We Are Young” before sinking back into the deep ocean of obscurity?

The answer is the art of publicity. To begin with, all bands and artists that ever reached the Top 40 made it with publicity; not one top hit ever gets there without the help of the media through campaigns or ads. With unknown bands and singers, it usually happens through coincidence or luck, not direct investment. KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See” became popular in the United States only after being featured in the movie “The Devil Wears Prada.” Icona Pop’s “I Love It” reached popularity after becoming MTV’s Snooki and JWoww’s theme song, while Daniel Powter reached mainstream success because of the use of his song in Coca-Cola ads and in some American Idol. Unlike other bands, these one-time acts were not sponsored by Vevo nor did they have their own specific advertising branch from the very beginning. In the end, what separates a one-hit wonder which slowly drifts into irrelevance from the artists that manage to stay on top, such as Mumford and Sons, Imagine Dragons and Lana del Rey, can be summed up in three words: publicity, connections and luck.

So if you ever plan on becoming a pop star, make sure you have your contacts established before you start. If not, you can just stop right there—you are wasting your time.

Never turn down any opportunities to appear on the media, whether it is through an ad or a collaboration with another artist. And keep making music. Make sure its catchy, catchy to the point that a collective groan is heard whenever your song is played on iHeartRadio for the thirteenth time that day. And then, maybe, just maybe, you’ll avoid the notorious one-hit wonder virus.

the talon • 25

entertainment

Prequels, Sequels, and Any Other -Equels Checklist: incredible cast, huge budget, horrible plot Michael Borger

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ndrew Stanton, one of the co-writers of box-office successes such as Monsters University and Toy Story, is known and sometimes even praised for his brutal honesty when talking about sequels—“I mean, frankly, I’m not speaking as a representative of Disney or Pixar, I’m speaking as just myself as a filmmaker: I don’t go into anything thinking about a sequel”— and his apparent unwillingness to cave into making sequels for the sake of making money. His mantra seems obvious and even admirable to the frequent movie-goer, but to big movie corporations, such as Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox, his motto is nothing but deplorable nonsense.

This year has been laden with sequels and prequels, many of which have been criticized by critics and fans alike. For instance, fans received Hangover III with somewhat lethargic enthusiasm. The film was panned as the worst Hangover installment thus far, receiving a score of 30/100 from Metacritic (an aggregate of different critiques and reviews). Richard Roeper, a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times even went as far as to say, “Director Todd Phillips delivers a film so different from the first two, I’m not even sure it’s supposed to be a comedy.”

When a Hangover film is questioned on whether or not its even a comedy, there must something wrong with the film, if not the film in its entirety.

Nevertheless, 2013 has also been the year of “successful” sequels, if only commercially. Iron Man 3, that superhero movie that basically everyone went to go watch this summer, has garnered over US $1.2 billion and has surpassed Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Skyfall to become the fifth highestgrossing film of all time, right underneath Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($1.3 billion) and The Avengers ($1.5 billion). With its astounding box-office success, Iron Man 3 also brought in relatively mild, but hefty amounts of criticism. Fans and critics alike seemed to enjoy the film overall, but opined that it failed to live up to the first movie, even if it easily beat the second installment.

This year’s movies illustrate how although sequels are commercially viable, they’re not necessarily the best investments for movie franchises that are dedicated to intricate storylines and are accustomed to receiving praise. The golden rules for movie franchises when making movies based on films that weren’t originally supposed to have sequels can be summarized this way: a) have low expectations, b) promote heavily and c) if for some unfathomable reason the film does well, don’t act surprised. However, there’s almost always an exception to every rule, and in this case, it would have to be Pixar, Steve

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Job’s brainchild.

Pixar—our high school students’ main source of childhood nostalgia—has released sequels that have been considered to be quite frankly better than the originals. An example of this would have to be Toy Story 3, a movie that elicited tearful smiles and whimsical sorrow in almost every single person that was involved with Generation Y (typically from the 1980’s to the early 2000’s). Compared to its two predecessors, critics and fans alike would most likely rate Toy Story 3 the highest, so much so that it received a 92/100 from Metacritic and was named the best movie of 2010 by Time Magazine. Although Toy Story 3 is from a couple of years ago, it still demonstrates how there is always a chance that sequels may just be better than the originals if the writers craft brilliant stories.

Movies based on earlier blockbuster hits usually fall short not only commercially, but also in the fans’ eyes. Although sequels are almost always in demand after a great film comes out, many times they disappoint fans because their storylines were made for the sake of being made. Movie franchises try to compensate for this by throwing money at casting celebrities and promoting useless products. However, there’s always a chance that the sequel might just emulate the original, which was the case with Toy Story 3 on an emotional level and Iron Man 3 on a commercial basis.

As fans, all we can do is hope that sequels, prequels, and whatever the film industry wants to call its next installment is just as good plot-wise as the original. Even though not all film corporations have the emotionally manipulative and talented Pixar staff on their teams, there might just be a chance that the sequels live up to fans’ expectations. In order to do so though, movie-makers need to worry less about advertising and casting, and more about polishing and refining the sequels’ storylines.

Storylines are the foundations of movies, so when a sequel is merely is made to repeat the original movie’s success, it almost always disappoints the audience. Sequel fiascos—commercially, sentimentally, or mixtures of both—happen so frequently that some fans and critics merely expect to see the same actors, but in a worse and/or similar storyline. Sequel writers need to stop thinking about the money to be made and start focusing on the story to be written.

Sources: brainyquote.com; metacritic.com; wikipedia.org; examiner.com; filmjunk.com; thegamecritique.com

entertainment

Agora: A Movie Critique A blend of science, bigotry, and stylish togas Bella Shim

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gora is a great movie. Seriously, go watch it. From the producers Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil, this underrated movie takes place during 391 AD in Alexandria, and it outlines the brief life of a female philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer called Hypatia. The plot revolves about a headstrong, nerdy and androphobic woman who’s trapped in a love triangle with no easy solution. I’m kidding. Agora is far from being a cheesy romantic soap opera. It’s really a historical drama film that delves on the heavy subject of science versus fundamentalism.

Throughout the movie, Hypatia symbolizes an icon of feminism, science, secularism, and modernity. Virtually a perfect, beautiful and brilliant woman, she gives lectures at the Platonic school of Alexandria. There, she inevitably receives love confessions from her male students whom she eloquently rejects with a handkerchief stained with menstrual blood, demonstrating the drawbacks of love (which I assume is the fact that men have to confront the terrors of PMS) and her sole devotion to science. Simultaneously, there’s civil unrest in the Roman Empire between Christians, Pagans and Jews. Over time, Pagans are “eradicated” and many decide to convert to other religions in order to fit the social standards (it mainly grants them a free pass for security).

Then, the movie undergoes a time lapse, and we travel to a few years into the future . . . and it turns out the disputes between religious factions have grown worse. Hypatia, on the other hand, continues to live her intellectually oriented life.

And like a good astronomer should, she begins to analyze the credibility of the theories of the structure of the universe from previous astrophysicists like Ptolemy. She questions the models of the cosmos through her own understanding rather than merely accepting the information the textbook (or rather, the scroll) dictates. Hypatia, way ahead of her time, comes to realize that the universe is in fact heliocentric and that the planets revolve around the sun in an elliptical manner (by the way, this is centuries before Copernicus or Galileo). Once she recovers from her mind-blowing discovery, she rushes to spread this new information with others, but is stopped short by an angry mob of religious disciples. Deemed an unorthodox witch by the religious authorities, Hypatia is captured and consequently killed due to her overarching political influence and heretical convictions that countered conventional beliefs.

Plot-wise, it’s important to note that Agora is his-

torically inaccurate. However, it does realistically depict the riotous setting of the fourth century in Roman Egypt, and it raises some important themes that can be interpreted metaphorically. Throughout the movie, the authorities mostly fuel motivations of prejudice against opposing factions in order to gain more political power. However, these objectives are hidden under the façade of religious and dogmatic beliefs. Their loyal subjects, as gullible as ever, follow the orders of those in power without a thought. As a result, those who practice science and philosophy are also subjugated by the angry mob. In Hypatia’s case, after making some groundbreaking discoveries, she was about to share her newfound knowledge with others, but was never able to fully realize this goal because she was rejected and subsequently stoned to death by the religious mass. She came close to spreading the truth, but eventuteaser-trailer.com ally fell short due to the gullibility of the spiritual believers. Likewise, the scientific community of this era experienced the same events. There’s a scene in the movie where a horde of people literally destroy the Platonic school of Alexandria and its library, the garden of precious knowledge. That space is then reused as a makeshift barn for animals. Agora figuratively depicts the fall of classical philosophy and knowledge at the eclipse of the Roman Empire.

Therefore, the prosperity of wisdom and reasoning was, essentially, close, but no cigar.

One of the most memorable scenes was the last one when the camera slowly zooms all the way out into space, revealing the microscopic size of human beings and our activities. To me, this reinforced the role of humans in the universe (spoiler: it’s disappointingly very insignificant). And yet, here we are in the twenty-first century, as tiny microscopic humans, still bickering and waging wars due to our differences in beliefs.

The message that Agora conveys is the importance of living in harmony and tolerance. Fighting each other about our disparities is futile. Instead, let’s force humanity to stop and to take a step back from this chaos. Ultimately, let’s use rational thought in order to get closest to the truth; let’s force this relentless debate of faith to finally come to a non-violent resolution.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

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entertainment

A Double Album Review The Talon’s most pretentious music snobs take a look at the Arctic Monkeys Kevin Bengtsson & MC Otani

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EVIN: Deliciously sexy and seductive bass-driven grooviness.

That is the aesthetic that the Arctic Monkeys have found on their latest release, AM, a drastic shift from the 1950s balladry of 2011’s Suck It and See. Generally, we see Matt Helders retreating even further from the frenetic drumming antics that made the band’s first two records so exhilarating; instead, the focus is on groove, groove, groove. Bassist Nick O’Malley often seems like the frontman on this record, as it is his bass that drives most of the songs forward. “One For the Road,” “Arabella,” “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?,” “Snap Out of It,” and “Knee Socks” all benefit brilliantly from his touch.

The majority of the tracks on this album are sexy to the nth degree, which is no surprise, considering singer-songwriter Alex Turner’s genuine gift of being able to produce golden melodies and lyrics out of thin air. On AM, he shows us yet again why he’s often considered one of best lyricists in popular music of the 21st century. The opening verse and chorus of the Black Sabbath-inspired “Arabella” makes me wish I was Arabella.

A variety of influences permeate the twelve tracks on AM, making the album a strange musical field trip to the past.

On “I Want it All” and “Fireside,” we can hear “shoo wop” backing vocals, hinting at Alex Turner’s love for the music of the ‘50s. On “No. 1 Party Anthem,” Turner finds himself singing, so very ironically, a ballad that could have been on a John Lennon solo record. And if “No. 1 Party Anthem” sees Alex Turner emulating Lennon, the track that follows, “Mad Sounds,” is the Arctic Monkeys attempt at a Velvet Underground song. In fact, the album’s title was ripped-off directly from Lou Reed and Co.’s VU. The closing track, “I Wanna Be Yours,” samples words from John Cooper Clarke’s poem of the same name, setting them to brilliant music. Clarke, whose poetry has been one of the biggest influences on Alex Turner, reciprocated the praise, calling Turner a “fantastic lyricist.” The blatant influences are not a bad thing at all. As always, the Monkeys are able to make any song sound like their own. As different as they may be, they are still as characteristically Arctic Monkeys as the punk-spirited craziness of their debut, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Is it better than their flawless debut? Probably not. But it’s still pretty badass.

MC: It’s been 7 years since Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Over the course of their decade-long career, the

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Arctic Monkeys have made enormous contributions to music through their unique, fun sound and mindblowing lyrics. On September 9, their freshest album, ever so meticulously titled AM (guess what it stands for), was released, and we can’t help but vigorously nod in total assent to Alex Turner’s previous statement on the record: “It sounds like a Dr. Dre beat, but we’ve given it an Ike Turner bowl-cut and sent it galloping across the desert on a Stratocaster.”

If AM were to take place somewhere, it would probably be sitting on the asphalt of an empty street, late at night in a big city in the middle of some desert floating in outer space. It’s got a bit of everything. There are times on AM where the urge to stand up and flap your arms around and dance is too strong to resist. There are other times where you can’t help but sigh to “No. 1 Party Anthem’s” heart-wrenching perfection. But somehow, it’s never quite there.

After listening to AM several times, I realized that my body is in desperate need of some Activia. “Mad Sounds,” “I Want it All,” “One for the Road” and “I Wanna Be Yours” all have a constipated quality to them, where the first notes and bass line start off promising, but towards the middle they lose themselves in repeating the same riff over and over again, failing to get to any point and always end with a slight grimace and a sigh of disappointment. Although change is understandable, even welcome, I am not convinced that this shift in sound combined with musician Josh Homme’s probing around has been beneficial. This album will definitely be a great hit for parties and road trips, and “Arabella” and “No. 1 Party Anthem” are true gems, but the Arctic Monkeys seem to have lost the unique sound that made them pearls in the murky waters of indie music.

Lyrically speaking, Alex’s poetic prowess is sharper than ever. The lyrics on AM are masterpieces of their own.

Who am I to argue with “She’s got a Barbarella silver swimsuit/ And when she needs a shelter from reality/ She takes a dip in my daydreams”? Alex, please do write us a poetry book or something. But musically... unless Arctic Monkeys are trying to send us some twisted subliminal message, recycling the song “R U Mine” resulted in a superficially successful album, but nothing even close to what their debut, Favourite Worst Nightmare, or even Suck it and See brought to the world.

I’m loving the gritty, groovy, late-night sound, but for now, I am much better off dancing to “Brianstorm” (if that is even possible) or falling asleep to Suck it and See, thank you very much.

entertainment

Category: Washed-up Teen Celebrities Our opinions about young stars Entertainment Team

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evin: I don’t really know or care about teen celebrities, so this will be an attempt at sounding knowledgeable about something I’m utterly clueless about. Miley Cyrus. From what I can gather, years ago she was the protagonist of the Disney show Hannah Montana and all the children loved her. That went on for a while until she thought that she was old enough to be too cool for kids; children around the world experienced emotional apocalypse when Hannah Montana came to an end because Miley Cyrus had become an “adult.” A few years later, she cut her hair (no way!) and everybody was like “whoa man, that’s not cool! You’re crazy!” Then, in August, she performed at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards and it was too intense for people to handle. She danced in a racy, sexually provocative manner (I’ve never seen that before!) and adults everywhere were like, “Dude! You can’t do that! My kids are admirers of you! How dare you, you slut!” before changing the channel to “Melhores Momentos do Carnaval de 2013” or a Justin Bieber music video. Because, you know, those videos are totally PG. Felipe: Macaulay Culkin. Anyone know The Good Son? How about The Pagemaster? Or Richie Rich? No? Because these were the sorts of movies Culkin got himself into after being left Home Alone not once, but twice—honestly, you can only do the “oh, we left you alone and went to Paris” plot so many times before it gets tiresome. Apparently, Culkin’s personal life went through as much turmoil as his acting life—he got married in 98 and divorced in 2002, started dating Mila Kunis (who would’ve thought that the kid from Home Alone would go out with Mila Kunis of all people?) from ‘02 to ‘11. He was jailed in ‘04 for drug possession and may or may not have done the do with Michael Jackson (he says he didn’t, and we can’t ask Michael). Moral of the story: If you want your kids to be raised well, don’t leave them at home while you go to Paris. Not good parenting skills.

MC: Ever since age 10, Angus T. Jones played the clever Jake Harper, the eccentric son of Alan Harper, on the show Two and a Half Men, which propelled him into fame, becoming one of best paid child stars. And, like many washed-up child stars, Angus T. Jones recently snapped after almost a decade of dealing with fame and excessive attention, but not through drugs, explicit tapes, or psychological breakdowns. Through Jesus. Unlike his contemporary child stars, Angus T. Jones worked in a sex and alcohol-rich environment, which ironically led him to convert to Christianity and publicly criticize Chuck Lorre. Meanwhile,

Miley, Demi and Amanda, teens who worked on kids’ shows, found themselves piercing their cheeks, smoking bongs, and cutting themselves as parents recoiled in horror. Who knew the better role model for your child worked with Charlie Sheen?

How’s that for a “washed” (by God) up child star?

Michael: “Amanda, Amanda, Amanda Show!”—Well, not anymore. Having grown up a household name and an iconic tween celebrity, Amanda Bynes starred in Nickelodeon shows such as All That and Figure it Out. At the time though, her big-break came in the form of an eponymous sketch comedy that premiered new episodes weekly: The Amanda Show. On her show, Amanda was doing all of this while being chased by Penelope Taynt (played by herself), who never actually met Amanda because the security guards kept getting in her way. At the time, her scuffles with the security guards were funny, but her recent encounters with law enforcement have been anything but humorous. She’s gone on to endanger citizens of Los Angeles by talking on the cellphone while driving, driving under the influence, and hitting two pedestrians in two separate hit-and-run incidents, all in 2012.

Her license was suspended, but that didn’t stop her from driving anyway and later receiving three years probation for doing so. Most recently, she was charged with criminal possession of marijuana, tampering with evidence, and reckless engagement when she threw a bong out of a window from the thirty-sixth floor of an apartment building in Manhattan. She can now be found in a mental institution with 24/7 “roadside” assistance.

Bella: Here we go... Lindsay Lohan. As an adorable freckle-faced baby, she started out a child model at age three. She later starred in movies like Freaky Friday and Mean Girls. Once she created a name for herself, she broadened her career through singing.

Her studio albums became hits as well. She had a pretty flawless start, but her reputation quickly collapsed as time went on. She started wasting her time partying, drinking and doing drugs. On her movie shoots, Lohan was often hospitalized for mysterious reasons. On January 2007, Lindsay was sent to rehab.

On May 2007, Lindsay went back to rehab. On September 2010, she returned to rehab. On August 2013, not surprisingly, she went to rehab yet again. Lindsay started out as a prodigy, but that quickly deteriorated into gloom and doom. Nevertheless, she still has time to fix her career. Honestly, who even cares?

But if you’re interested for more information, you can waste your time by reading a tabloid.

the talon • 29

entertainment

Talon Toon Less ‘Murica, More America Felipe Marques

Monthly Update

The ups and downs of September Adam Hunt Fertig

Students return from class trips more cultured, more rested and more aware of the country in which they live. Except me. Where am I?

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At the Pão de Açucar marathon, I’m proud to say I achieved my goal of completing the race entirely on two feet. Sadly, this was not the case for everyone.

Students across the school, and indeed, the world, clamor for the Docket to be renamed the “Ocki Docki.”

viva voice

Sleep is Like...

A collaborative simile poem Grade 12 IB Literature Students his group poem was modeled on the poem “Sweet Like a Crow,” from Michael Ondaatje’s 1998 memoir, Running in the Family.

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a relentless embrace,

Sleep is like

Like reading a novel without a title page,

a campfire-roasted marshmallow melting over your tongue,

Odysseus’s Trojan horse,

a warm embrace, drowning painlessly in contentment,

a desperate addict getting the release he so craved,

singing in the rain,

graduating after years spent trapped in school,

wearing socks when snow falls,

the betrayal of someone you thought was on your side,

the first sip of water after a long hike,

a bat that hits you on the head after ducking once or twice,

refilling a pen,

a rabid animal, finally put down by frightened townsfolk,

a plane’s soft landing.

a sheep running in a grassy field,

a ship away from shore.

a punch in the face, Like a photograph from your childhood,

the lover you never appreciated until she has left.

hearing Christmas music in October, re-reading your favorite book,

Like Theseus in the minotaur’s maze without Ariadne’s thread,

the roots of an oak tree penetrating soft soil,

the green light of Gatsby’s dream,

a crisp white cotton shirt,

a distant old friend who doesn’t return your telephone call,

a big bite of warm apple pie and cold vanilla ice cream, a marshmallow dancing in chocolate fondue,

Like spending the day with a loved one,

opening the apartment door after a tough day of school,

rain on a summer night,

the sparkle in a child’s eyes after a magician has pulled a rabbit from his hat,

blank parchment to be scribbled on,

uploading the final version of your Extended Essay, writing in the last number in a Sunday Sudoku puzzle,

the eyes of an aging child, a day without homework, a feast to the starving man.

a child cannonballing into a pile of dried leaves, finding five dollars in your old pair of jeans.

Like our love for words.

Like lightning striking once, a vanishing field of clouds from the window of an airplane, an injection penetrating the dermis, slurping the last drops of a chocolate sundae, an unwritten hymn waiting to be sung, the last snowflake settling on the ground after a blizzard,

the talon • 31

clawsure

Hoverheard Take a break from studying Talon Sunday Crew

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his month’s Talon horoscope:

Aries — March 21 to April 19 Rekindle your relationship with the atmosphere. Show some appreciation for all that oxygen does for you. Cellular respiration isn’t easy, you know.

Taurus — April 20 to May 20 Beware of sharp objects. Your horrific lack of hand-eye coordination may affect your wellbeing in the near future.

Gemini — May 21 to June 20 Soon you’ll find the one that’s right for you – check aisle 6 for the shampoo that best suits your hair.

Cancer — June 21 to July 22 Print before you come to school: there’s a school printer malfunction in your future.

Leo — July 23 to August 22 It’s slim pickings on the savannah this month. Stock up on the wildebeest in order to survive those all-nighters, or you may have to resort to eating your young.

Virgo — August 23 to September 22 Check your zodiac symbol, dork. It’s gonna stay that way.

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verheard at (and around) Graded:

In History Class Student: I don’t know about you, but I think young Stalin was totally hot.

An adult watching Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” Video Between this and pornography, I’d rather watch pornography.

At SPMUN Student: When people don’t have guns, people usually stop dying.

Looking at Pernambuco’s Admittedly Small “Tallest Building” Student: My gawd! How does it stay up?

32 • the talon

Libra — September 23 to October 22 It’s important to be able to balance your personal life, academic success and baskets on your head.

Scorpio — October 23 to November 21 Take some time to enjoy how little work you’ve done recently.

Sagittarius — November 22 to December 21 Your academic success will be very consistent, like Sao Paulo’s weather.

Capricorn — December 22 to January 19 Your sign, the Capricorn, is represented by the mythical seagoat. Similarly to the mythical sea-goat, you are shaped awkwardly. Go see a chiropractor.

Aquarius — January 20 to February 18 Much like your patron constellation, the water-carrier, you will be honored with the duty of filling the Graded water bottles during games.

Pisces — February 19 to March 20 You will have the best month of your life. To be fair, it will be a pretty ordinary month by anyone else’s standards.

In the Hallways Student A: What do we have for flex?

Student B: I don’t know, check the Docket.

Student A: The Ocki Docki?!

Talking about Quantum Physics Teacher: So, basically, an electron is a piece… is a place… is a part of the… it’s a mass… it’s a chunk of kind of space, and we don’t really know where it is.

During Mr. Nobrega’s Assembly Student: [complicated question]?

Nobrega: Could you repeat that?

[Several minutes of trying to understand the question] Nobrega: Well, yes. Corruption is bad.

[Applause]