Best Superbowl Commercials

            While many pro-football fans looked forward to watching the actual Superbowl game, many people watch only for the commercials.

Here are the top five most popular SuperBowl XLVI commercials.

1.      “Kings Court,” the Pepsi commercial

http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/10901.html

2.   “A Dream Car. For Real Life,” Kia Optima commercial

http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/10381.html

3.   “Matthew’s Day Off,” Honda commercial

http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/7901.html

4.   “The Dog Strikes Back,” Volkswagen commercial

http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/9841.html

5.  “The Catch,” Coca Cola commercial

http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/10081.html

Compiled by: Jenna Rajczyk

Susan G. Komen v. Planned Parenthood

    

     The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation recently decided to pull the plug on its financial support of Planned Parenthood.  The reduction in funding, which has led to a nation-wide debate, has led to a spike in Planned Parenthood online donations. 

Typically, the Planned Parenthood organization receives an average of 100 or 200 online donations every day.  However, after Susan G. Komen suspended its support, this amount rose to an astonishing 6,000 online donations, raising a grand total of $400,000.

 “People respond powerfully when they see politics interfering with women’s health. That’s why we’ve seen a tremendous outpouring of support,” Tait Sye, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said.

Komen officials originally told the Associated Press that they decided to stop funding Planned Parenthood due to a new national policy that barred support for organizations under government investigation.  Charmaine Yoest, President of Americans United for Life, endorsed the national policy that places Planned Parenthood in direct violation of Susan G. Komen’s new policy. 

“I have to say, it was some of the best news of my entire life,” Yoest said about the Komen decision. “We’re so used to seeing Planned Parenthood succeed at defining themselves as the trendy place to be, and for Komen to make such a smart decision in recognizing the reality behind Planned Parenthood spin,” she adds. “As a breast cancer survivor, I was always troubled with this whole idea that the nation’s largest abortion provider was enmeshed in the breast cancer fight when they weren’t actually doing mammograms. I look at this as smart stewardship.”

Last September, a House committee initiated an examination of Planned Parenthood’s compliance with federal restrictions on funding abortions.

In response to this announcement, Planned Parenthood proposed a counter-statement that contributes the Komen’s fund cutoffs to the influence of anti-abortion activists.  Additionally, Planned Parenthood stated that the loss of funds is also partly to blame on recently-hired Komen vice president, Karen Handel, who had previously advocated for the group’s defunding in her run as Georgia governor.

            However, just a few days following the massive public backlash of this decision, Susan G. Komen founder, Nancy Brinker, released a public announcement apologizing to the family planning organization, stating that Komen will preserve its eligibility for future grants.

            “We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives. . . We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically to penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not,” Brinker announced in the statement.

 “Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That s what is right and fair,” Brinker said.


Article compiled by reporter: Emily Jadwin 

Superbowl Sunday

The sweat collects on your eyebrow and your heart races as the anticipation builds inside of you. This is no ordinary feeling; it’s the feeling you get during an excruciating close Superbowl.

            Ah Superbowl Sunday, all the grocery stores are cleared out of meat, chips, and pop; and electronic stores are wiped out of their most expensive televisions. Just for one game. This year, it was a good one. 

            There was nothing ordinary about Sunday in Indianapolis, it was Superbowl Sunday and this year, it was being hosted in there own Lucas Oil Stadium. As transients hustle and bustled about, they all were there to gather for the XVI Superbowl.

            The competitors: New York Giants and New England Patriots. Looking at their team’s history, both teams have a record of winning three Superbowls.

But if their 2011-2012 season were an indication of Sunday night’s performance, one would think the Giants would have lost. They only won a mere nine games losing seven, making it to the playoffs by the seams of their pants.

On the other hand, the Patriots won 13 games and only lost three.

The final score was Giants: 21-Patriots: 17. It is a bitter, bitter moment in Massachusetts right now, and at the same time a celebratory one in New York.

- Article compiled by: Lucas Horner 

GLHS Renaissance Rally Teacher Flash Mob

               

          The first quarter renaissance rally was a blast with games and competitions pertaining to the theme of “I Know What You Did Last Quarter.” Suddenly, during the middle of the celebration, teachers broke out into a flash-mob, surprising the entire student body.

 “I thought the flash-mob was pretty cool, my friends and I had fun watching it and I think it really got a lot of people’s attention. I really thought it added to the spirit in the rally!”

 -Abby Mauger, Freshman

“I was very surprised by the flash-mob and thought it was hilarious! It definitely made the rally more interesting and I was very surprised by some of the teachers.”

-Emily Kingsley, Sophomore

 “My first reaction to it was speechless and I was asking myself, where and when were they able to practice all of these transitions and dance moves? I really think people will remember them dancing and make the rally memorable”

-Nicko Poulias, Junior

 “My first reaction was, oh this is gonna be interesting, the teachers are gonna do a dance! As more and more teachers came out I realized what was going on. I though the high participation of the staff showed a lot of school spirit, you could tell they put a lot of work into this dance. Students will be more observant at the next rally, waiting for some sort of surprise.”

                                                                                                -Evan Moreland, Senior

View the Teacher Flash Mob video here!

- Article compiled by Morissa Cohen, reporter

Thanksgiving Traditions

     

     Thanksgiving marks the time each year when leaves begin to fall, the air becomes brisk, and an endless supply of food is paramount.  GLHS students talk about their various Thanksgiving traditions for their families.

            “Every year on Thanksgiving my mom gives us a gift. It's always festive Christmas socks to get us ready for the holiday season. I don't know why, but I love getting them every year!” junior Tara Smith said.

            “Half way through our meal, once everyone has quieted down, we go around the table and share what we’re thankful for during the past year.  Usually it’s a very funny and tearful experience,” junior Sana Selemon said.

            “Every Thanksgiving, my brother and I dust off the old NES and play Mario.  Our gaming session is followed by a nice James Bond movie marathon,” junior Stephanie McCann said.

            “My grandparents always come over and together we all watch the Thanksgiving parade.  Then we stuff our faces with delicious food and fall asleep watching the end of the dog show,” sophomore Stephen George said.

Article compiled by Ali McCathern, reporter

Favorite English Books

To some students at GLHS, receiving a mandatory English reading assignment simply means “Spark-noting” and skimming the pages of the entire novel, rather than actually reading the book.  However, to other students at the school, reading high school-required novels is not as boring as you might think.  Whether you are a senior, junior, sophomore or freshman, chances are that you have – or you will – come across a required reading book that is on a subject you can relate to.

“I was assigned to read Fast Food Nation over the summer for AP Language and Composition.  I really liked it because it opened my eyes to a side of fast food that is really disturbing, but no one really sees.  I really learned a lot from this book.” –Alex Howell, Senior

“My all time favorite book was during sophomore year when we read Me and Orson Welles. I found it more relatable than most high school books, and it was just an interesting story.  Plus, I’m a huge theatre and band nerd, and, in the novel, so is the main character, which is awesome!” -Justin Jordan, Junior

“I really liked The House on Mango Street which we read during freshman year.  It was, in my opinion, a lot different than the other books we have read.  It was based on a true story and I liked that the book was made of different memories throughout the [main character’s] life,” said Alex Hack, Sophomore

“My favorite book to read this year was Julius Caesar because it was both interesting and astonishing.  I loved how it was based off of history and how the story had such a strong meaning.” –Estifanos Yohannes, Sophomore

“So far this year, I have really enjoyed reading The Crucible.  The main reason it held my interest was the fact that it had some historical significance to it.  Knowing that these events actually happened in real life made it seem like the story was more important.” –Stephanie McCann, Junior

“One of my favorite books was Marley and Me because it was different from the usual books we were assigned to read. It was for journalism class so it had a different style of writing. It was humorous and was about an adorable puppy, so I liked it!” –Lara Wurster, Senior

-Article compiled by Emily Jadwin, reporter

Catching Plagiarism in the 21st Century

Today’s educators and administrators struggle to promote the honest, thoughtful, and legal use of information by students, in a world of ever-changing technology.  With access to billions of Internet source documents, students can “cut-and-paste” entire written passages in seconds.  This, combined with a growing emphasis on performance and assessment, has led to pervasive use of unoriginal content in student essays and research papers.  In 1996, a group of University of California-Berkeley professors recognized the problem this posed to the academic world and developed a program we know today as“Turnitin.com”.

 Currently used by over 10,000 educational institutions spanning 126 countries, “Turnitin.com” has over 150 million student papers, 100,000publications, and 14 billion web pages of information compiled in their database.  An increasing number of classes at GLHS require the site to be used for research papers and essays.  Most of these classes will have you make a login and then periodically use the account throughout the year to "turn in" papers. The site compares the writing that is turned in to all of the items it has amassed electronically and at speeds exponentially greater than any previous methods.  The goal of the site is to make students create work with more original content and learn appropriate ways to use and cite source material, all by discouraging plagiarism.  They want students to know it's okay to use information from other sources, but to know how to give credit to those sources.  But does it work?

             Well, a statistical analysis of 7 years of data from high school and college submissions to Turnitin.com, found that after two years, instances of unoriginal content and plagiarism in student writing decreased by 20 percent or more. After four years, educational institutions experienced improvements of 35 - 70 percent.  Other independent research studies show that “Turnitin.com” is substantially more effective than manual plagiarism detection methods.  Teachers no longer have to spend hour after hour using online search engines to identify plagiarism.  A recent survey of educators showed that “Turnitin.com” not only reduced plagiarism, but also helped improve student writing skills, reduced instructor workloads and increased the productivity of both students and teachers. 

Benefits like these help to maximize the educational impact that schools like GLHS can have.  However, I still think there can be ways to improve the system.  Sometimes when I'm writing a research paper that is to be sent to "Turnitin.com", I'll find myself focusing more on rewriting the information to minimize any chance of unintentional plagiarism, rather than write what I think sounds best.  Perhaps my fear of unintentional plagiarism is irrational, but I wish there was a free alternative to "Turnitin.com" that could give me instantaneous input on my writing before I sent it to "Turnitin.com".  I think a good policy for GLHS would be for teachers to explain and demonstrate how the site works at the beginning of the year, so students can clearly understand what risks there are with unintentional plagiarism.  In spite of this, I believe that the use of “Turnitin.com” greatly benefits students and teachers by deterring academic misconduct in an age of technological dominance.

By Evan Thorn, editor