December 2017 Issue
Volume 6, Issue 2
What’s in this issue? MASSACRE, PRAYERS, REPEAT, 1 A US HISTORY OF GUN VIOLENCE, 3 TRUMP WATCH: NOVEMBER/DECEMBER, 5 CLUELESS POLITICS, 7 COAL ANYONE?, 9 BEST AND WORST GIFTS, 10 ’TIS THE SEASON, 11 A LESSON FROM HISTORY, 12 TOP 5 UPCOMING MOVIES FOR THE HOLIDAYS, 14 PARASITE FOUND: ANOTHER STORY TOLD, 16
STAFF
Editor-in-Chief
Artists
Nicholas Accattatis
Grace Ihle Jacqueline Obert
Co-Editors Isabella Lovalvo Joseph Donald Bolton
Layout Editors Jacqueline Obert Giulia Oosterwijk Joseph Donald Bolton
Advisor John Pitonzo
Cover by Grace Ihle Back cover by Jacqueline Obert
Massacre, Prayers, Repeat By Nicholas Accattatis Cuz there's no time to come together Express sorrow for the sad When people have a right to own something I don't want them to have Above is an excerpt from a song written by YouTube star GoRemy for ReasonTV, a libertarian media organisation, about reacting to mass shootings. It’s funny, political, and has a catchy tune, yet it typifies everything wrong with the debate about gun control in the US. Before I say anything else, a slice of history. In 1776, the United States liberated themselves from the British Empire and the Founding Fathers got to work drafting plans for how their new country should take shape. The Bill of Rights, a series of ten amendments to the Constitution, was born out of concern that future governments might take on too much power and infringe upon individual civil liberties. Important to this debate is the Second Amendment which states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
The principle is a noble one; Americans knew what it was like to live under an overbearing, authoritarian government. Therefore, it made absolute sense to bestow upon the people the right to defend themselves in the event that the government began abusing its power. However, invoking the second amendment whenever movements pressure their representatives to introduce gun control legislation is not an adequate response, both logically and morally. GoRemy’s song does just that; it insists that we accept this senseless violence because of people’s fundamental right to own guns. Massacre, pray, repeat. It is the unofficial motto of all those blocking common sense gun control legislation. They attack straw men, swearing that the government wants to take their guns away when, in truth, no ban on guns has been proposed and it is the people that approve of such stricter regulation. More than 50% of those surveyed in a mass New York Times study expressed support for tighter regulation on guns. Measures ranging from the imposition of universal background checks for those wanting to purchase a firearm to a full ban on assault weapons - the infamous AR-15 appears in almost every mass shooting - received 89% and 67% support, respectively. None of the measures, however, asked for a total ban on firearms. Responsible gun owners, who happen to be those most aggrieved at the slightest mention of gun control happen to be, should have no problem doing a bit of paperwork to ensure that they can keep their firearms if they feel so strongly about them. Yet, some argue that simply conducting background checks is already infringing upon the Second Amendment.
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Thanks to this thinking, despite being on the terrorist watchlist, Omar Mateen, the man responsible for the Orlando nightclub shooting, was nonetheless allowed to purchase firearms at will. This points to a grave inconsistency. They sanction the infringement of rights when state surveillance programs pierce deep into private lives of their citizens, citing national security reasons as justification, however they point to the Second Amendment when motions banning the sale of guns to those prepared to wield them harmfully arise. These people are too intelligent not to realise this contradiction in their policies. Unfortunately, admitting it and establishing coherence hits them in the pockets. The National Rifle Association, the main gun lobby organisation, spends millions to ensure that candidates do not budge an inch on gun reform, lest gun sales be reduced, harming profits.
In 1776, the right to bear arms was a provision devised to guarantee individual civil liberties. Today, it seems we have become slaves to the very ideals designed to emancipate us. After the Sandy Hook shootings, when 28 people were killed including 20 children aged six and seven - a despondent Barack Obama appeared on national television, saying that "we're going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics." It appeared that the country was now united in pursuing stricter gun regulation. However, it was to be the politics that stalled his drive for greater gun control. Defeatism set in: “If Sandy Hook didn’t change gun laws, nothing will,” has become a popular saying. Here would be the sentence spinning the situation around to show the silver linings. As things stand, there are none. Thus: Let’s make time to come together Express sorrow for the sad.
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A US History of Gun Violence By Grace Ihle No one can argue with the fact that there is a horrible problem in the United States regarding mass shootings and gun control. The USA’s rates of death by gun violence soar above those of any other country in the world. While there are plenty of factors that attribute to the culture of gun violence in the United States, the context and history of shooting outbreaks can help us to understand the issue we face today. Guns have obviously been prevalent in American society since the passing of the second Ammendment to the US Consitution, which gave Americans tthe right to own personal weapons so that they could protect themselves from the governmnent’s militias. The first known Amreican mass shootings was 1764, at a Pennsylvania schoolhouse, when three armed men came and shot ten people. Thankfully, there wasn’t much more activity until the twentieth century. Aside from those committed by terrorist groups like the KKK, the first substantial mass shooting in America was on September 6th, 1949, when war veteran Howard Unruh bought a 9mm pistol for $37.50 and shot down from his apartment onto a busy street, killing thirteen. Another mass shooting took place in 1966, at the University of TexasAustin,
when twenty-five year-old Charles Whitman shot his mother and then forty-eight people from an observation deck, killing seventeen of them. Three decades perhaps the most prominent mass/ school shooting in America took place on April 20th, 1999 at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Two teenage boys had attempted to bomb their entire school, but when the bombs failed to detonate, they went in on their own, killing thirteen people, injuring twenty, and subsequently committing suicide. The Columbine shooting was a wake-up call for the entirety of the United States to realize that something had to be done to prevent something like it from happening again. When the laws remained unchanged even after a country’s poor gun regulation, many people lost hope that things would ever change. Ever since the September 11th attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001, national attention has shifted from mass shootings to preventing further acts of terrorism, even though the number of deaths by terrorism are absolutely miniscule compared to those caused every year by gun violence. Regardless, mass shootings have continued in the United States relentlessly. In fact, in 2017 alone, there have been a total of 320 mass shootings so far.
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For several years after the 9/11 attacks, gun activity was minimal, but it was spurred up again in 2007 at Virginia Tech, when a senior shot and killed thirty-three people, injuring at least twenty others. After numerous other incidents in the next few years, 2012 racked up sixteen mass shootings, capped off by the infamous school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which twenty children, six teachers, and the shooter’s mother were killed. The number of mass shootings skyrocketed in 2013, increasing to 253 total mass shootings, and in 2014, 273.In 2015, there were 332 mass shootings, including the Charleston shooting, where nine people were murdered in an African American church, the Umpqua Community College shooting in Oregon, where at least ten people died, and the San Bernardino shooting that left fourteen dead and seventeen injured. In 2016, the worst incident America had ever seen took place in Orlando, Florida, at a gay nightclub, where forty-nine people were killed, in addition to the other fiftythree that were injured. However, that was just one of the year’s 382 mass shootings.
2017’s most devastating mass shooting was in October, at a live concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the death count reached a total of fifty-eight people, with around 500 more suffering gunshot injuries. As the number of deadly mass shootings rises steadily each year, it almost appears as though mass shootings have become normalized in the American society. They are so common in the United States that they’ve made their way into popular culture, whether they serve as a theme for songs such as Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” or as inspiration for dark humor, leading one to perhaps view this as a sign of many giving up the battle against gun violence, as the feeling of helplessness among the American people has grown and their continuous efforts to establish change remain ineffective.
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Trump Watch: November/December By Isabella Lovalvo Another month sees the Trump Administration grapple with more criticism and controversy
Trump Formally Endorses Roy Moore Earlier this month, Trump formally endorsed Republican Roy Moore in his race for senate, a move that has since earned him criticism from many. As White House press secretary Raj Shah stated, “The President had a positive call with Judge Roy Moore during which they discussed the state of the Alabama Senate race and the President endorsed Judge Moore's campaign.” Trump’s endorsement does not come without controversy, as Moore is facing accusations of sexual assault from half a dozen women, some of whom claim that they were minors at the time of Moore’s alleged actions. Despite the president’s endorsement, Moore failed to win the race, as Democrat
Doug Jones narrowly beat the Republican by 20,000 votes. Jones will be the first Democrat to hold a position in Alabama’s senate for more than two decades. Moore is certainly not the only politician to have been accused of sexual assault recently, not excepting President Trump, whose infamous Billy Bush tape saw the president bragging that his fame allowed him “do anything” to women and almost cost him the 2016 Presidential Election. Since the tape’s release, more than a dozen women have made accusations against Trump, all of which the White House has vehemently denied, with Trump calling the claims “false” and “fabricated,” additionally claiming that he “doesn’t know” or has “never met” his accusers.
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Trump Makes Decision to Shrink Utah Monuments Earlier this month, President Trump made the decision to reduce the size of two national monuments in Utah. Trump’s plan will see the 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase Escalante Monument reduced by 50% and the 1.3 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument done so by 85%. The move has sparked criticism from Native American and environmentalist groups throughout the nation, many of whom, such as clothing brand Patagonia, plan to file lawsuits in an attempt to reverse it. It has additionally incited protests, as recently thousands took to the streets in opposition. Concerning the decision, Trump stated, "Some people think the natural resources of Utah should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington. And guess what, they’re wrong.” May Criticises Trump Over Retweet of Britain First Video UK Prime Minister Theresa May criticized Trump’s actions in retweeting three unverified videos from Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of Islamophobic group Britain First. The first of the videos, which has since been debunked by Dutch officials, purportedly contains footage of “Muslim migrants beating up a boy on crutches,” while the second and third, according to their captions, show an “Islamist mob” beating and killing a teenager, as well as a Muslim man demolishing a statue of Virgin Mary.
In response, May stated, per spokesperson, that it was “wrong for the President to have done this.” Trump took to twitter to reply, refusing to apologize for his actions and instead tweeting, “.@Theresa_May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom,” prompting many groups to call for May to cancel Trump’s state visit to the UK, though she has as of now refrained from doing so. Supreme Court Upholds Travel Ban On Monday, 4 December, the United States Supreme Court allowed the Trump Administration to fully implement the third version of their ‘travel ban,’ which blocks or restricts entry into the US for nationals from eight countries, six of which are Muslim majority. Their orders also overturned a previous condition to the travel restrictions implemented in June, which allowed those with a “bona-fide” relative in the US to enter regardless of citizenship. Though the ruling is not final and legal challenges are expected to continue in lower courts, the move suggests that the Supreme Court may ultimately rule in favor of the ban’s legality.
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Clueless Politics by Grace Ihle If you’re like me and you simply don’t –get– politics, join me in unraveling the layers of the world’s most pressing issues. From economic explanations to the history behind political battles, I want to figure out exactly how things work, and share them with you in a way that makes sense for all of us. This is Clueless Politics: if I can understand it, anyone can! Just when you thought you knew all the drama between countries in the Middle East (just kidding; no one thinks that), the age-long dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran has worsened, and threatens to drag more countries into the problem along the way. Firstly, it’s important to understand the divisions within the Islamic religion. Yes, Saudi Arabia and Iran are both Muslim countries, but Islam has two prominent sects – Sunni and Shi'a– that don’t get along very well, but not for the reason you might think. The religion first divided after the prophet Muhammad's death, when the Muslim community appointed the prophet’s close friend, Abu Bakr, to succeed Muhammad as the Caliph. However, there were some Muslims that believed that the prophet’s cousin, Ali, was the rightful caliph, and they later became known as Shiites. After this disagreement, the two sects developed different traditions and interpretations of the Qur’an. It’s said that Sunnis and Shiites weren’t resentful of each other in the past, but they sure are now. Why? Political divisions have been drawn over the lines that separate them religiously. Because of this, it is more appropriate to describe the disagreement between Shi’a and Sunni muslims as political rivalry wearing the mask of religious rivalry. With 85% of Muslims identifying as Sunni, and Saudi Arabia being the home to the holiest cities in Islam,
Tensions surfaced again in a period called the “Arab Spring” in early 2011, when protesters in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, and Yemen rose up against their dictatorial leaders in hopes of implementing a democratic government. This was a terrifying prospect for the Saudi government, who stood at the head of the Arab world and wanted everything to be under control in the Middle East. However, it was a stroke of luck for Iran, who, according to former Persian Gulf military analyst Kenneth Pollack, “had been trying for decades to overthrow the regional order.” Saudi Arabia and Iran both supported opposing forces in countries all over the Middle East and North Africa, effectively wearing them out from all the pressure of fighting the cold war between the two countries for them. Today, the cold war rages on indirectly from actual wars or political conflicts happening in Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and more, as a direct war between the two grows more inevitable day by day. Muslim world. Iran, however, has the largest Shi’a population. This likely creates a sort of battle for power over the Muslim world, but it would be naïve to think that the conflict between the two countries is so great just because of their religious disagreements. A war for which Iran would later blame Saudi Arabia waged on for eight more years in Iraq, killing almost one million people in the process.
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the country is essentially the head of the Saudi Arabia and Iran developed in similar ways during the 20th century, but with markedly different outcomes. In 1979, a massive revolution in Iran overthrew its monarch. Out of fear the they might try to tap into their oil reserves with this revolutionary momentum, Iraq invaded its neighbor Iran in 1980, but it reached a stalemate. The Saudi government was scared such a revolution might occur in its own country, so it sent reinforcement to the Iraqi army to keep fighting and create a buffer between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In 2003, the US overthrew Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, but it didn’t really know what to do after that, so the territory broke down into different Sunni and Shi’a armies. Saudi Arabia and Iran supported the groups of their respective religious sect in an effort to achieve control of the region.
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Coal, Anyone? by Isabella Lovalvo We asked ISF teachers: “If you were getting coal in your stocking, what would you have done to deserve it?” “I was a bad girl.” - Ms. Van Forst “I caught some middle schoolers doing something wrong yesterday, and I got mad and yelled at them and enjoyed it.” - Mr. Landolfa “I probably ate all the chocolate cheesecake.” - Ms. Evans “For stealing sweets from Mr. Cook’s drawer. Sorry, Paolo!!” - Mr. Dean “I’ve probably been too mean to my kids.” - Mr. Fitton
“See, I just don’t ever get coal in my stocking, so I wouldn’t know what to say to that. It’s impossible; no solution.” - Mr. De Grazia “If I got coal in my stocking, it would be a good thing, not a bad thing, as my father was a coal miner, so it’s linked with my family and home.” - Ms. Morus “Lived too far away from my grandchildren, because I can’t see them every day.” - Ms. Yiannakis “Not celebrating Christmas.” - Ms. Stanton
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Best and Worst Gifts by Isabella Lovalvo
Best
Worst “I was once given this really, really ugly ceramic sheep...thing. It wore a dress and it was by far the ugliest, creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.” - Nadia, 11th “The gift of life.” - Smilla and Elda, 11th “Either my alarm clock or a huge collection of classical literature by Goethe that my mom gave me to read over the holidays.” - Zoe, 11th “Underwear.” - Tommaso, 11th “The calculus book my mom gave me when I was five.” - Fede, 11th “A toothbrush in my stocking, three years in a row.” - Grace, 11th “My dad gave me period pads one Christmas.” Camilla, 9th “My second cousin gave me socks. They weren’t even good socks; they had a really ugly design.” Nelson, 9th “A coat hanger.” - Rita, 9th “A barbie doll, last Christmas, regifted from the previous year.” - Emily, faculty
“A Pitbull t-shirt and pillowcase, so the last thing I see before I close my eyes every night is Mr. Worldwide’s beautiful face.” - Joseph, 12th “My dog.” - Nadia, 11th “For Christmas, when I was super little, I got a massive pink, stuffed dog. I named it Jelly Belly and I had it for such a long time. Also, I’d have to mention an Easy-Bake oven.” - Grace, 11th “The jar of air which my mother gave me last year.” - Danny, 11th “A really nice computer.” - Tommaso, 11th “An iPad.” - Rita, 9th “A weekend away.” - Ms. Millenaar, faculty
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’Tis The Season by Niccolò Platt
Christmas season in Florence is one of the most important periods of the year for the city. There are many things to see, like the tree and nativity scene in Piazza Duomo, while the streets get flooded with tourists and markets. Typically, when we think of Christmas, the first things that come to mind are presents, pandoro and hot chocolate, but this holiday should be much more than that. It’s a time of mindfulness, charity, and caring for others, but this is often forgotten. Around this time of year, there are many volunteering events around town which are neglected by the majority. There are many organizations that are very active at the moment, and should be considered and supported more. One of these is called Angeli della Citta’, a non profit association that assists the needy through donations of food and clothes. They also provide breakfast to the homeless every Wednesday at the Santa Maria Novella station. Through this organization, it is very simple to assist those in need, who are out in the cold with nothing to eat. By visiting their website , you are given all the information about the movement you need. Impacchettiamo un Sogno is an event held by Cesvi at all Mondadori stores around the city. You can volunteer by showing up at one of the bookstores, where you spend the day wrapping gifts. The objective of the organization behind the event is to raise money for less fortunate kids in Zimbabwe,
so they can have a home and somewhere to sleep. Information about this can be found on the website www.volontariperungiorno.it, which that lists many different volunteering activities across Italy. It is very easy to access, and find interesting events near you. Serving food to the homeless at the Mense around Florence is another very useful way to get involved in the volunteering scene. The events are supported by Caritas Firenze, and take place in several locations, so you can choose the one closer to you. By working there for a day, not only you get the opportunity to feed those in need, but you help reintroduce them to a warm, friendly place, which they don’t have access to very often. By accessing the website www.caritasfirenze.it you can easily find the solution that works best for you, and contact the head of the events. Embrace the Christmas spirit by joining one of these projects, and helping the needy in holiday season. It’s not difficult, with a short research online, you can find many different options and choose the one that suits you best. This holiday is also about helping others, and trying to make life better for them. Though, this doesn’t mean you have to stop decorating your tree or exchanging presents on the 25th. It just means you should change the way you see Christmas in the future, on a personal, and social level. Keep in mind other people’s struggles, and make yourself available to volunteering organizations, so you too can contribute to making everyone’s Christmas as enjoyable as possible.
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A LESSON FROM HISTORY By: Nicholas Accatatis Amidst a hail of bullets and artillery fire, a sailor yanks the red flag from the cold hands of his fallen comrade, murdered by the imperial troops, stands up and waves the flag to rally his men. “Onwards, comrades!” Inspired by this courageous act, the Bolsheviks pressed forward into the Winter Palace, cementing their place in history. You could be forgiven for believing this glamorous portrayal of the Storming of the Winter Palace, illustrated by Pavel Sokolov-Skalya. In reality, the whole ordeal was slightly less dramatic. Very few shots were actually fired, and most of them were actually blanks. Yet, in spite of this rather anticlimactic beginning, the Bolshevik Revolution, 100 years ago today, l i t e r a l l y changed the course of history. For better or for worse is up for debate. The October Revolution was the culmination of a series of upheavals stretching back to 1905. By the turn of the 20th century, compared to other European powers, Russia was a backwards agrarian economy with an entrenched feudal system, ruled by a bloodline dating back hundreds of years. The Czar’s authority rested on the divine right of kings, a notion challenged by Russia’s European rivals many years before, notably in the French Revolution. Change in Russia was long overdue.
In 1905, the Czar was pressured into granting the people nominal democratic concessions, namely a parliament - the Duma. However, this only succeeded in stirring the people to agitate for more. With World War I going terribly, shortages ravaging the people at home, and a scandal involving a mad monk, vodka, and the Czar’s wife, the people had had enough. The February Revolution saw the abdication of the Czar and the installation of a Provisional Government. At this point, the Russian people only wanted three things: bread, peace, and land. When the Provisional Government failed to deliver, the Bolsheviks - from a position of relative obscurity seized the initiative and after one unsuccessful attempt, they managed to seize the Russian state. The rest is history. It would be easy to brush aside the B o l s h e v i k Revolution as being a work of pure evil and nothing else. After all, it led to Stalin, gulags, millions of deaths, chronic shortages, the Cold War, and so much more. Nevertheless, however contradictory this may sound, whatever your political beliefs, we can all agree that the revolution generated a positive force for progressive change. “What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own gravediggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.”These are the words of Karl Marx, taken from The Communist Manifesto. Marx, in 1848, had declared that capitalism would inevitably be swept away by the proletariat.
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Yet, decades later, the revolutionary uprisings that Marx predicted had simply not occurred. The Bolshevik Revolution gave new life to Marx’s theory, inspiring millions, and igniting fear in millions more. The attitude was that if Russia, a bastion of imperialism, capitalism, elitism, feudalism, conservatism, capitalism, imperialism, and more capitalism, had fallen into the clutches of communist chaos, who would be next? Which country would now be consumed by the spectre of communism? The Bolshevik Revolution shocked both oppressors and oppressed. It showed that the powerful could be toppled. From now on, any serious threat to the established order had to be taken seriously. If not, they risked meeting the same fate as the bourgeoisie in Russia: either dead, in a concentration camp, or refugees on far away shores. As a result, the weak had a much stronger hand at the negotiating table, even in the United States, a haven of capitalism. One of President Roosevelt’s motivations for implementing the momentous New Deal program was out of fear of total social upheaval. To paraphrase Professor Richard Wolff of MIT, Roosevelt went to the elites, the barons, the Rockefellers, and pointed to the demonstrations organised by the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and other prominent trade unions. They were chanting slogans decrying the evils of capitalism that had left them homeless and jobless since the Wall Street Crash, and proclaiming the merits of a new socialist order that they felt would deliver jobs, homes, security, and true freedom. In order to preserve a system which, to Roosevelt and his friends, had given so much, they had to make a decision. They could keep business as usual, maintaining the status quo, and risk losing it all in a violent revolution similar to the one across the pond in 1917, or give up a share of power and wealth, reforming capitalism, to satisfy the hungry masses.
Roosevelt endorsed the latter option, ushering in an era of progressive change that saw tighter regulation of the financial sector, higher taxes on the rich, an expanded social safety net, and so much more that bettered the lot of the poor and downtrodden. Similar concessions took shape around the world. After years of economic stagnation and shortages, Great Britain voted for the Labour Party in 1945, carrying out a radical program which, for the most part, profoundly changed British society for the better. The examples are endless. All because a few hundred Russians decided to seize power one hundred years ago. Despite its significance, the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution was not officially acknowledged in its own cradle. The Kremlin, seeing no propaganda potential to be had by celebrating the occasion, stayed silent. Russians themselves did not seem fussed at all; one survey by the Russian Academy of Sciences found that almost one-third of respondents were unable to articulate an opinion about the revolution. For such a momentous event to be tossed into “the dustbin of history,” to quote Trotsky, is not only a shame but a tragedy. In an age when it seems we have lost the ability to recognise what is important and fight for it, we could learn a thing or two by revisiting the past and seeing what it has to offer.
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TOP 5 UPCOMING MOVIES FOR THE HOLIDAYS By: Clarissa Fraschetti
1. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi Release date in Italy: 13 December
Academy Award material for costume design, cinematography, and original score.
Top cast: Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Adam Driver Taking off just where Episode VII left off, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, the most awaited movie for this holiday season, is the eighth chapter of the famous saga with millions of fans all over the world. The Last Jedi will bring back the character of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and it will be the last on screen appearance of the beloved Carrie Fisher, (Princess Leia) who passed away last Christmas. The title The Last Jedi, as well as various rumors surrounding the film suggest that it will be darkest Star Wars movie so far.
in Italy: 28 December Top cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renée Victor This year’s PIXAR movie tells a story of family and music, following the story of Miguel, a Mexican child who dreams of becoming a musician and begins a journey of self-discovery through his music, culture, and family through the Land of the Dead. The movie is highly anticipated not only
2. The Greatest Showman
because is a production
Release date in Italy: 4 January
of PIXAR, whose
Top cast: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Zendaya,
movies are known for
Rebecca Ferguson The Greatest Showman is a musical drama about the story of the inventor of modern show business, P. T. Barnum. It is one of this year’s most awaited movies, not only because it stars blockbuster actors famous for their singing abilities and iconic singing roles, but also because it is expected to have
3. Coco Release date
their ability to bring both children and adults to the cinema and tell stories about important morals, but also because it explores Mexican traditions during a difficult political time period of a wonderful culture and nation.
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4. Murder on the Orient Express
5. Dickens: The Man Who Invented Christmas
Release date in Italy: 1 December
Release date: 21 December
Top cast: Kenneth Branagh, Johnny Depp, Daisy
Top cast: Jonathan Pryce, Dan Stevens,
Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi
Christopher Plummer
Dench, Penelope Cruz
This Christmas movie narrates
A reboot of Agatha Christie's famous 1934 novel already adapted on the big screen in 1974, this new version is directed by the famous actor and director Kenneth Branagh, who also interprets the main character Hercules Poirot. In this adventure, Christie’s famous Belgian detective has to solve a murder on a derailed train in Europe’s snowy mountains. The movie is eagerly awaited, as it is not only full of blockbuster actors such as Depp, Dench and Cruz, but was also filmed with four Panavision 65mm cameras, giving it a different kind of footage.
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the story of how Charles Dickens wrote his classic Christmas novel A Christmas Carol in the midst of a very difficult economic time and while suffering from writer’s block. Apart from being a Christmas tale, the movie is eagerly anticipated for the way in which it is expected to convey how one of the most magic stories of all time came to life.
PARASITE FOUND: ANOTHER STORY TOLD Hundreds of sharks are killed every year by knowing human hands in order to obtain their precious fins. While this is an important issue ー one we can hopefully educate and potentially put an end to ー another one has recently come to light. Could it be possible that while some of us consciously hurt this group of animals, we also inadvertently do them harm? Sharks belong to the clade (biological group) Selachimorpha, a sister group to that of rays. Starting in February of 2017, these and other closely related groups have been washing up on the shores of California by the thousands. It has only been recently, however, that scientists have discovered the reason behind the sudden massive amount of deceased sea animals. After closely examining the corpses of some of these victims, most of them being leopard sharks and bat-rays, scientists discovered that the deaths were due to parasitic infection. Okihiro, a volunteer scientist at the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation, found lesions all around the sharks; brains; something had entered through the nose and infected them. Researchers went more in depth on the finding and analysed the RNA sequencing of the brain tissue. Most of it was normal, but one sequence stood out: the genetic coding of the fish parasite, Miamiensis avidus. M. avidus, scientists explain, is able to infect the brain of a fish, slowing eating away at it and causing its host to become disoriented and eventually die. This parasite, however, has never been known to infect sharks and rays in such a way. Before this discovery, it had only been a prevalent issue for fish in farms located in Japan and South Korea. As M. avidus is a parasite, it is extremely probable that it infects fish everywhere around the globe, therefore, the fact that it has been found in California is not the problem. Rather, scientists are asking how and why the species has begun to affect members of Selachimorpha.
While researchers agree that sharks and rays are now able to be infected due to a weakened immune system, they question how the immune system was incapacitated to such an extent. It is possible that one of the reasons behind the sharks’ newly debilitated immune systems is the reduction of water salinity. This is believed to be due to an increase in rain pour, human toxins, and waste. The rain runs these toxins and waste into the ocean water, and consequently reduces the salinity. Additionally, the issue could be attributed to overcrowding in the breeding areas of sharks and rays, which are typically known to be relatively shallow. Changes in water flow due to human construction near water may accidently damage some of the locations for shark and ray breeding sites, forcing them to concentrate themselves within certain areas. This overcrowding consequently decreases their immunity, although researchers are not completely certain how or why at this time. Although it is not known for sure that human activity has indirectly caused this newly occurring phenomenon, scientists seem to believe there is a large probability that this is the case. Sadly, this is nowhere near the first time we have the potential to be blamed for such biological changes, even if they are accidental. We are the most advanced species on the planet and thus tend to control the environment around us, whether we are aware of this or not. We have heard of many environmentally cautioning tales: the melting ice caps and endangered polar bears, as well as the coral reefs dying beneath us. Though this one is more recent and less known, the idea is the same: we have an impact, whether we realize it or not. How many more tales will have to be told until we make a change?
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