Final on a B Day

It’s a B-day on December 15 so we get to go home at 12:30. No, just kidding— we have a final to take first! Every other year, the schedule has stayed the same: finals are on their own days; we get out at 12 and wait until we take another final the next day

This year, the schedule has had a slight change. The first period final is right after a normal B day schedule, meaning we have three classes until we have to take a stressful final. But, why? The extra time in those classes is pointless and it is only going to stress us out even more.

By the time finals come, classes are pretty much over. We stop learning new material and the only thing left to do is review for the final; review is exactly what we should be focusing on. There is no point in having extra classes before the final to review for a different final than the one we are taking on that day. It makes no sense.

Some people may say that school is trying to help us get more review time for finals. This might be true, but reviewing for three finals before we take a final on a completely different subject is not going to help us at all.

Students study or review for finals in different ways. Teachers may think that they are giving us extra time in class to study for the final, but is there is only so much we can do in class. As students, we all study differently and having a teacher forcing us to study one specific way in not helpful. Some people study better in groups, or with art, or by speaking aloud.

Most of the time, studying at home is more beneficial. The students who review better or with the teacher always have the opportunity to do so. We do not need to school to control our study habits.

Thinking about several finals instead of focusing solely on one is just going to make us more stressed. If we review for three finals before taking the one we are going to be tested for, our minds will overload and we probably won’t do as well on the tested final. Finals are stressful enough on separate days, let alone in addition to three regular classes.

Kyra Fukawa, junior, says, “We want to spend all the time getting ready for the final instead of getting ready for the next B day. It makes no sense whatsoever.”

Priorities come into question. What is more important? The final test that we have been working all semester to ace or an extra 85 minutes of distracting study time?

This year, we got both Columbus Day and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off. This might be why we are tacking on a final after a B-day schedule. Great! More vacation days! But what is more important? Having Columbus Day off or doing well on our final?

Placing a final after three classes is going to do nothing other than stress us out, as if we aren’t stressed out enough. The schedule should be changed back to the way it was before. There was nothing wrong with the schedule before. Why change something that was fine to begin with?

 

 

Nuclear Energy – Con

Dave Barrry, a Pulitizer-winning author, once said, “If you asked me to name the three scariest threats facing the human race, I would give the same answer that most people would: nuclear war, global warming and Windows.” While he was clearly kidding about Windows, there is good justification in fearing nuclear energy. Nuclear energy has major repercussions that do not outweigh the advantages. Nuclear energy is not clean, safe, or cost-effective.

Nuclear energy is an extremely expensive energy source. Nuclear energy has received billions of dollars in subsidies just to keep these plants alive. According to Time magazine, the combination of tax breaks and other government-assisted incentives amount to a startling $13 billion per plant right now in this struggling economy. The cost for reactor production is around $10 billion and the price is still rising. According to a Renewable Energy Policy Project in 2000, from 1943 to 1999 of the $151 billion in government subsidies that were directed towards wind, solar and nuclear energy, 96% was consumed by nuclear power plants. Economists predict that if government subsidies were also removed, then the price of electricity from nuclear power plants would increase by 300 cents per watt.

Nuclear energy is also not a clean energy source. First of all, the nuclear power plants themselves require the mining of a lower-grade ore which would then be burned, releasing more greenhouse gases. For example, just the process of uranium mining in a South Australian mine uses 35,000 m³ of water each day. So far scientists have not found a safe and ethical method of disposal of nuclear waste; therefore, it is buried a mere 20 feet underground which is only a temporary containment solution because the half-life U.S. commercial nuclear waste is housed at 119 power plants in 31 states. California’s currently has 4 facilities that have 3,186 tons of nuclear waste.

Nuclear energy is neither clean for our environment nor is it clean for us humans. The main concern is radiation poisoning. Plutonium remains toxic for 800 generations. Single radiation doses of over about 1 gray, a unit measuring 1 joule of ionizing radiation, can cause radiation sickness. Acute effects of radiation exposure  include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, sometimes accompanied by malaise, fever and hemorrhage. For radiation doses less than about 1 sievert, another large unit of radiation measurement, effects are of the greatest concern because that can lead to cancer and inheritable genetic diseases.

Despite the known consequences of nuclear power, the United States, like many other countries, still has numerous nuclear power plants. The United States has housed about 100 or more and here in California there have been 17 power plants opened in 9 different sites during the last 50 years. The closest included the Livermore and Pleasanton plants, which are only about 30 miles from San Jose.

When asked about the actualities of nuclear accidents, some respond that Chernobyl was the only “real” accident. However, this completely overlooks the many numerous spills that destroy and pollute. For example, there is the Three-Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979 where 13 million curies of radioactive gases were emitted as well as 40,000 gallons of radioactive waste water dumped directly in the nearby Susquehanna River. There was also a another accident at a plant in Perry, Ohio owned by the companies FirstEnergy and Duquesne Light in which the zirconium tubes covering the uranium fuel pellets were peeling off causing dangerous radiation leaks within the reactor endangering many plant workers. There was a second nuclear accident at an Idaho plant that released 1,100 curies of radiation into the atmosphere.

Another concern with advancing nuclear technology is the idea of nuclear proliferation. This concept dates back to the Cold War relating back to the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction in which the culmination of nuclear weapons both opposing nations would be an effective deterrent against nuclear war because use of the many nuclear weapons would only result in total annihilation. This theory has promoted the wide-spread existence of lethal weapons in many different countries which in turn lessens the security of many nations.

There are many other better alternatives to nuclear energy such as solar and wind power, which use real re-usable clean energy resources. These energy sources are pollution-free and not at all harmful to humans. There are research teams at Washington State University today that are investigating the use of a giant solar sail that could potential harvest 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 gigawatts of power which they say is far more power than humanity needs.

Nuclear energy is not safe for humans or the environment and it is also not cheap either. Nuclear energy poses a great threat to humans. The few advantages pale in comparison to the monstrous lethal effects of nuclear energy. The nuclear accidents in Ukraine, Japan and US are further justification of many inherit flaws in nuclear plants. Nuclear energy is a dirty, expensive and harmful energy source that should not be looked to especially when there are so many other viable clean energy sources like solar and wind power.

Prop 8 Stay: Must Remain

The Prop 8 stay is favorable for a number of reasons from avoiding confusion to maintaining checks and balances.
The stay is extremely beneficial because if gay marriages were allowed until the resolution of Prop 8 and then the proposition is ruled constitutional, the marriages that had already occurred would be in limbo. Regardless of a person’s stance on Prop 8, the most logical step out of this state of turmoil over the proposition is to stop all gay marriages until further notice.
The Heritage Foundation writes about the logic behind the stay, “In the interest of clarity and certainty about the law, the panel should promptly grant the defendants’ emergency request and keep current law in effect.”  Gay marriage is already such a controversial topic that it causes protests, so one can only imagine the chaos that would ensue if the marriages were later deemed unconstitutional and invalid.  Legal pandemonium would reign–from filing tax returns to hospital visitations–and recently established relationships would have to be torn apart.
The stay is also a good idea to ensure that a balance between the judicial and legislative branches remains in place.  Proposition 8 was passed in November 2008 with the support of 7 million Californian voters. “California voters spoke clearly on Prop. 8, and we’re glad to see their votes will remain valid while the legal challenges work their way up through the courts,” said Andy Pugno, a counselor for ProtectMarriage, to the LA Times.
It is indeed disturbing that this proposition has been overturned by the vote of one federal judge. “The initiative was upheld by the California Supreme Court as a valid exercise of the people’s initiative authority under our state Constitution. One elected federal court judge cannot be allowed to void such a decision, let alone do so without recourse to appeal,” write lawmakers from Prop 8. Until the law has been firmly established by the higher court to allow gay marriage, why should the marriage occur until then? After all, it is only a matter of four months until the debate over gay marriage in California will be settled.
Opponents of Prop 8 would argue that if gay marriage is unconstitutional, then weddings should commence immediately.  But believe it or not, the Prop 8 stay could buy enough time to sway public opinion. These four months could allow “the public opinion to continue warming to the idea of gay marriage before it reaches the Supreme Court,” says Jesse Zwich from the Washington Independent.
Ultimately, whether you are in favor of gay marriage or not, the stay is just common sense.  Until the legal issues are resolved, it’s smarter to hold off on allowing gay couples to marry when those marriages could be voided. Also, the stay serves as a check on overreaching judicial power, and even offers a chance to gain more pro-marriage support.  The stay must stay.

The New Age of Media-Encouraged Depression

Turn on the TV and you’ll probably see some trademark commercials before fifteen minutes have even passed. The red and white of Target commercials, the 80’s background music of cruise line ads…and then the probing questions of antidepressant commercials.

“Are you feeling sad?”

“Have you lost interest in your hobbies?”

“Is it hard for you to get out of bed in the morning?”

Striving to sell their products, pharmaceutical companies no longer just simply ask these questions like a personal in-house psychologist located in your TV. They have learned to present depression in various ways over the years. A woman vaguely describes the symptoms while a purple wind-up doll metaphorically demonstrates her descriptions. A depressed rock dejectedly hops through sunless days. Them BAM! A pill solves it all and suddenly life is bursting with enlightening sunlight and cheerful smiles. It seems like Harry Potter’s Felix Felicis magic potion is not fictional at all anymore. Ordinary Muggle scientists have created happiness in a simple, prescribed pill – yours, of course, for a price.

Still,happiness, as the commercials have led us to believe, is more easily attainable than ever. It is so attainable that it almost seems that something is suddenly terribly wrong when you feel sad. Since, as the commercials have described it, if you’ve lost interest in your daily activities, have little energy and feel worthless, you have depression. Following that reasoning, we all need antidepressants. Who hasn’t had little energy after a night of cramming? Who hasn’t felt dejected after a breakup? Who hasn’t felt worthless when rejected?

That type of depression is normal. The ordinary low moments of life help us to acknowledge and appreciate the good stuff about our lives. Yet the commercials do not clearly draw a line between this ordinary sadness – that will pass, don’t you worry – from the serious, even fatal clinical depression. The distinction is critical, yet is not present with either the purple-wind-up doll or the dejected rock. It leads ordinary people having a bad day or week to diagnose themselves with a serious mental illness. It not only degrades and trivializes the seriousness of those clinically depressed but also endangers those giving themselves these self-diagnoses.  

“Clinical depression needs to be professionally diagnosed as it very individualized. The dose for one person can be very different from another,” explains Diane Azevedo, a licensed marriage and family therapist. She adds further warning. “Individuals also react differently to the medication and need to be under supervision by a professional; otherwise they might not even know that it’s their medication that is causing the [medical] problem.”

The complications Azevedo mentions are alarmingly absent from those 30-second commercials we have all become so accustomed to seeing. Instead, as Azevedo describes them, “The commercials are way too generalized. The description can describe just about anybody, including those not clinically depressed. They are poorly designed and not appropriate.”

A 2005 study by PLoS Medicine, a scientific journal, not only reiterates Azevedo’s sentiments, but also provides further physiological explanations. As many of us are used to hearing, pharmaceutical companies explain they can solve our sad days by balancing out our chemical imbalances with their antidepressant pills. If we are depressed, we are simply lacking enough serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate our moods. However, in this study, researchers from the United States to the United Kingdom point out that the relation between serotonin and depression is not scientifically established. The relation is so intangible that the Irish Medicines Board, the Irish equivalent to our FDA, has banned a company from advertising such a chemical imbalance.

However, without regulation from the FDA in the United States, pharmaceutical companies – such as Eli Lilly and Pfizer – continue to advertise their magical balancing skills. In fact, as a study by Reuters found in 2007, the companies spend about $30 billion a year on their commercials and other ads.

With the lack of adequate information from these antidepressant commercials and the dangers of self-diagnosis, doctors will prescribe the medication three out of four times if a patient mentions an antidepressant while describing mild, but not severe, depression symptoms, according to an article from U.S News and World Report. Azevedo adds more alarming news. She says, “Any doctor can write the prescription [for the antidepressants]. So people don’t deal with the real problem that is causing their depression.”

Not only is it troubling for it to be seriously wrong for you to be sad, it is more disturbing to see that the 30-second commercials of a wound-up doll and a dejected rock can influence your medical prescription – and not in your best interests either. It simplifies clinical depression, a serious mental illness, to something as inconsequential as the common cold and one that should be treated as such. It is in fact much more complicated, as junior Catherine Mote can attest.

Mote began seeing a therapist after someone close to her died a few months ago. As time passed, she and her therapist noticed that she had trouble adjusting to the normal routines of life. She had difficulty concentrating and sleeping, and adopted unusual eating habits. Along with the physical signs, Mote noted that she often became emotional over nothing and had a pessimistic outlook on life. Her therapist diagnosed her with clinical depression after months of therapy and has prescribed her antidepressants.

“A couple of days after I started taking them I could feel a difference and had a more positive outlook on life, instead of being pessimistic all the time,” Mote says of her experience. She adds, “If any one feels they are so depressed that they will take their own life, they should really go see a doctor or talk to their parents.They are gambling with their life because it [depression] changes your perception of the events that are happening to you in life. I know people who have committed suicide because they were afraid to ask for the help that they needed. So my advice to people: be open and do not be afraid to tell someone how you really feel because it can ultimately save your life.”

As Mote advises, depression isn’t about popping a pill. It is your grandmother dying. It is your parents divorcing. It is bullying in school or online. Depression – even ordinary sadness – involves more than a simple “Yes” or “No” answer to the question, “Are you feeling sad?” Check with anyone who has experience asking such questions. A truthful answer will often involve tears, hugs, and much more – offering the comfort and care that no pill provides. It is something pharmaceutical companies should consider as they list the possible medical side-effects at the end of their 30-second commercials. Until they can take depression more seriously, they should be regulated and the disbursal of pills should be limited to licensed psychotherapists – and that includes the wind-up doll and the dejected rock.

Courtesy: The Lost Art

It is true that here at Presentation we do a lot of great things to help out our community. But we need to face the fact that we need to revisit the rules of common courtesy. It isn’t just we at Presentation who need to work on being more polite, but maybe we can live out our motto not words but deeds in treating people better.

Driving

It’s about 7 a.m. and you’re driving to school. You need to get over into the other lane in order to drive down Plummer Street. You notice the little Presentation blue sticker on the car next to you. You signal and speed up a little hoping that your generous classmate will let you in. Instead of letting you in, your classmate decides to speed up so that you cannot get into the lane and therefore make you miss the turn. Now let me ask you a question; how hard is it to let someone in when they need to get into the other lane? It’s not hard at all, especially if that person is someone that goes to your very own school! Instead of being the spark that can cause road rage, kindly let the person in. How would you like to be known as the student that cuts both her classmates and teachers off?

When and if the person lets you into her lane, kindly say thank you. Obviously she will not hear you unless you stick your head out the window, look back and yell it out. Instead do what is called the “courtesy wave” to let the other driver know that you appreciate her act of kindness.

Also, signaling to let other drivers know that you would like to enter another lane or exit a lane is simple, but apparently extremely difficult for many drivers to comprehend. The signal indicator is used to help prevent accidents. It isn’t there to look pretty or make your car look fancy, so use it. Though you may be far ahead of someone it is still polite to signal in order to enter the other lane.

Hallway

Let’s say that you’re juggling thirty pounds of books in your backpack, you have your soccer gear in your left hand and two cups of coffee in the right hand. A student kindly opens the door to let you in. You try to walk as fast as you can because the coffee cups are beginning to slip out of your right hand. There is a student walking in front of you and you pray that she picks up the pace a little. You notice that your locker in only a few more feet away. As you make the final steps to your locker, the student suddenly stops in front of you causing you to drop your coffee and fall backwards along with your thirty pounds worth of books. As you can see, stopping randomly in the hallway isn’t only aggravating, but can cause damage. If you are planning to make such a maneuver, walk to the very right or left of the hallway and let traffic pass through the middle.

Another issue that could have caused disaster to the student with the heavy books and slipping coffee cups is if there were a large group of students standing or sitting in the very middle of the hallway. When you get to school, sit on the side of the hallway by the lockers or against the wall to prevent a traffic jam. Also, because you are sitting against the lockers, be courteous to those students whose lockers you are sitting up against and don’t get frustrated with them. When the morning reaches around 7:30 a.m. it gets busy and crowded, so be respectful to your classmates and teachers and sit on the side of the lockers.

Many teachers close their classroom doors to prevent noise from other classes from disturbing their classes. Once the bell rings to end the class period, you’re probably relieved that the period is over so you swing open the classroom door. There’s only one problem; there’s a student standing on the other side of the door. You unknowingly swing open the door knocking over the student. The solution to this situation is simple; carefully and slowly open the classroom door to prevent hurting other students. Yes, it is thrilling that your class is over but don’t you agree that the safety of your classmates is more important?

Listening

When people are talking to you, they expect that you give them your most undivided attention. So instead of cranking up your ipod and listening to music, set it down for the five minutes that someone is talking to you and listen what they have to say. Even if you can hear them, you are not processing the full depth of what they are saying to you. Think about this; if it was a teacher talking to you, would you stick your headphones into your ears? No.

Also, in the same spectrum, texting and checking your phone while you are out with another person, is a definite no. If you are out with another person, you go because you enjoy their company and would like to talk to them face to face. It’s rude if you are chatting with another person via your cell phone while completely ignoring the person in front of you.

Overall, students need to practice being more courteous to the people around them. What better place to start then in or around their very own high school.

French Revolution

Someone should have included a fair warning. Someone should have pulled them aside before they boarded the plane and irreversibly left. Someone should have broadcasted the information loud in clear in the simplest way so that even an eight-year-old would have understood. Someone should have said something. Surely, they deserved one.

But nobody did.

In some ways, no one can be blamed for neglecting to warn the French male exchange students. It is a perplexing situation they bring to our Pres community. Their presence guarantees hundreds of girls a cultural experience, but is it the right kind? It seems that if the Frenchies were to truly experience authentic Pres culture, they would see us in all our messy-haired, slipper-wearing, makeup-free glory.  But instead, our guests are met with clusters of preening girls in and out of the classrooms during the days they are here.

It’s pretty funny to watch.  Every year as winter starts to blend in spring, the unsuspecting male French students come to Pres. They come unaware of the revolution they will start. It starts before their first footsteps even fall upon the girls-only school grounds. Once the announcement that they, those celebrated male exchange students, are coming, the student body reacts as if someone has just announced that tomorrow will be an extra day off. An excited buzz electrifies conversations in the halls as students file out and go home. The topic is obvious: Do you know who’s hosting a guy this year? Do you think there’s going to be any cute ones? O-M-G, what should I wear?!

Some students will go home to iron and straighten those long ago softened pleats of their plaid skirts. Others will actually finish homework in time and sleep early as they set their alarms an extra fifteen to thirty minutes early. Carefully applied eyeshadow will be applied to hide those dark, baggy effects from the last minute cramming of integrals, anaphase and comma rules. Unruly hair that hasn’t met a hairbrush since Christmas will be tackled. Legs will be shaven for the first time since Black and White.  Rather than spontaneous and unconcerned attire, girls suddenly care.

After all, the day the French exchange students arrive will not be any ordinary day. No, out of 180 school days, the next day will be the first of five or so days when those of the male, teenage species can freely roam the halls. For the Pres student body, it is as much of a culture shock as it for our guests. The halls are forbidden territory for most of the teenage population with a Y chromosome.  Those brave souls who attempt to breach the borders of the foyer doors are usually politely shown the way back out. But, no, these French exchange boys will be met with not the exit door, but teachers asking for introductions as if they were a shadow. For the students, the fact that these boys are French adds a sweet flair like the addition of chocolate to an ordinary croissant. There is mystery! There is allure! And oh la la, they speak the language of love!

The causes of this one-week revolution of the Pres student body do not know that they are the cause, however. The male French exchange students innocently come wandering into our halls one not-so average morning. They see girls with shining brushed hair, ironed skirts, and shaved legs. For them, this is the average Pres girl. They have not seen what was before their arrival to know what average, pre-exchange-students Pres culture is truly like.  In the next few days, these unsuspecting boys will see the polished Pres girls as they slow down in the hallways to catch a glimpse of their male faces. There will be girls the boys have never met greeting them suddenly by name in the center during lunch. More girls they have never met will ask if they can take a picture with them.

So what’s the solution?  Could Mrs. Stampfl make the arrival of the French students a surprise?  Given that she has to arrange housing for all of them, probably not. Could the teachers be allowed to give detentions for excessive giggling or hair-tossing?  That seems pretty unlikely, too.

But what if Pres allowed more male teenagers – and American ones, not just French – into the Presentation culture? What if we didn’t freak out every time a guy stepped onto the front lawn?  What if, instead of showing them the door, we welcomed them and stopped treating them like potential threats to our chastity?  Constant exposure to the teenage male presence would lessen the dramatic reactions of male students on campus. Our palms could stop suspiciously getting damp. We could stop giggling hysterically when a male voice answers a question in class.

But since allowing boys on campus isn’t on the agenda, for now, all we have is our two weeks where French boys think that Pres girls are silly, pretty, flirtatious and empty-headed.  And isn’t that the kind of culture we should be fostering?

Let the French Revolution begin.

OMG! I Lost My…

It’s the end of the day, and you’re packing up to go home. Mentally, you go through your checklist—Math book? Check. History notebook? Check. Your favorite sweater? …Uh-oh, it’s nowhere to be found. What are you going to do now?

The answer, despite what you may think, is not to send an e-mail to the entire school body detailing your predicament. Although mass e-mails have been a very popular means of communicating and dealing with situations such as lost items, they are in no way the best (or first) method you should take to achieve your goal.

If you lose something, the best thing to do—before sending a frantic e-mail to the school body—is to look for it yourself. Where was the last place you saw your sweater? Typically, that’s where you should start your search, believe it or not. Retrace your steps, making sure you didn’t accidentally forget your item in one of your classes. If that doesn’t work, the lost and found is the next place you should look. Odds are, if your sweater is going to be found, it will either be there or where you remember leaving it.

If the sweater remains elusive, then you can consider e-mailing the students. Keep in mind that it’s a good idea to run ideas by the authorities. According to Mr. Cozort, it is suggested that you get permission to e-mail the entire student body, but it is not required as of yet. “For now, we’re monitoring the e-mails, but not policing…we’re trusting that you’re responsible students and haven’t placed strict limitations.” This doesn’t mean that our access to the e-mail system can’t be revoked; it’s a good idea not to push it too far, so as not to lose this privilege.

But more than that, excessive mass e-mails can be irritating. Let’s face it—nobody likes opening their inbox to find fifty e-mails alerting the general public about a lost ring or a dire need for Black and White tickets. Not only do they clog up one’s inbox, but these messages are often ignored or only glanced over briefly. If someone hasn’t turned in your sweater to the lost and found, odds are that nobody’s seen it.

So remember, the next time you lose your sweater a frantic e-mail to the entire Presentation community is not the answer. Keep a cool head and remember that there are plenty of logical steps to take before sending out an e-mail for help. Being able to access the student body through the e-mail system is a privilege, one that should be conserved for when it is truly needed. The whole student body can help curb the problem by returning lost items they see to the lost and found for easy location. This way, we might just be able to eliminate the need for so many mass e-mails after all.