Issue 25, April 2, 2015 Vol. 66

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Lunar eclipses (when the earth gets in between the sun and the moon) are rare and amazing spec-tacles to behold. This year we are expected to expe-rience two!

This Saturday, April 4, from 4-10 p.m. a partial lu-nar eclipse will be darkening our skies. At about 7:00, our moon will be almost en-tirely in Earth’s shadow.

Full lunar eclipses oc-cur when Earth, the sun, and moon are arranged in a perfectly straight line. The earth needs to be directly in front of the moon for one to occur. Once it is, the moon be-comes barely visible and that part of the world darkens.

Partial lunar eclipses

occur when the three cosmic objects almost line up. From Wiscon-sin’s perspective, the moon will be just off center and won’t be completely covered by shadows, but from East Russia to Alaska, it will appear as a total lunar eclipse.

You don’t have to go

all the way to Alaska to see it, though, because we are expected to get a total lunar eclipse in September of this year. Each kind of lunar eclipse, whether it’s par-tial or total, are spectac-ular sights that you shouldn’t hesitate to go see. It’s as easy as look-ing out the window. Online@ www.nw-tigers.org/the-octagon

Volume 66, Issue 25 April 2, 2015

If you are interested in seeing what it is like to work in the medical field, the Essentia Health Junior Volunteer Program may be a great opportunity for you. In order to participate in the program, you must be able to commit three-four hours per week from June 15-August 28. Interviews will be conducted in April and May, which

will be followed by an orientation on June 11. The orientation will be held at St. Mary’s in Su-perior to introduce you to the campus as well as to various health care protocols.

Some of the volunteer opportunities vary from doing office work to working with the pa-tients. Jobs include help-ing patients, staff, and visitors, putting together education packets, working in the gift shop

or garden cafe/coffee shop, running errands/ delivery, mailing/filing/ labeling, and assisting children or adult pa-tients.

If you are interested, look in your school email for an application or on the St. Mary’s website under the “volunteer” link. If you choose to submit an ap-plication, mail it to Es-sentia Health Volunteer Services no later than Friday, April 3.

By Alissa Ormond

 Today:

Last Day of

Third Quarter

Softball: JV @

Brule vs. Proctor

Baseball:

Var-sity @ Iron River vs. Mel-len

 Tomorrow:

No School

 Tuesday:

Baseball:

JV&V @ Iron River vs. Ash-land

Softball: JV&V

@ Brule vs. Grantsburg

 Wednesday:

Blood Drive

 Thursday:

As of Wednesday, the scores for the March Brackets are as follows: Ricky Schiff– 90 Mrs. Luostari-89* Mr. Polzin– 72 Katie Johnson-36

*Although she

is behind in points, Mrs. Lu-ostari is a part of only 1.8% of brackets to be accurate in picking the Fi-nal Four.

Pg. 5 Sharks

By Luke Rutten

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Mrs. Lahti was sur-prised recently when she asked her Foods for To-day class how many of them had ever broken one of their bones, that almost half of the class raised their hands. This percentage supports the

percentage that she had read concerning how much calcium teenagers are getting, and appears to confirm the hypothesis that teens are failing to achieve the recommend-ed 1300 mg of calcium per day.

Why are young adults lacking in calcium? Well, for starters, they’re putting down that healthy glass of milk and picking up caffeinated beverages. Not only do such bever-ages offer little nutrition-al vnutrition-alue, but they nutrition-also interfere with the body’s absorption of the calcium they consume.

In a poll conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only a little over half of the partici-pating teens said they drink milk daily, as com-pared to 75% of teens back in the 1970s. If the body lacks calcium, it will extract it from the

bones. As such, those who don’t get enough calcium in their diet are more susceptible to stress fractures.

Fortunately, there are many ways to incorpo-rate calcium into an eve-ryday diet. Ideally, peo-ple should consume a variety of dairy products, such as milk, cheese, and yogurt. As mentioned before, teenagers are rec-ommended to get 1300 mg of calcium/day, which equals about four and a half glasses of milk.

According to healthy-children.org, milk and milk products account for 75% of the calcium in the “American diet.” Other ways to increase one’s intake of calcium include eating sardines, salmon, and other canned fish with soft bones, as well as dark-green, leafy vegetables. Don’t forget

that vitamin D is also required for the proper absorption of calcium from your foods.

Calcium deficiency is Why doesn’t

North-western offer sex ed clas-ses? Or does it? The state of Wisconsin re-quires certain topics be covered in what it classi-fies as the Human Growth and Develop-ment curriculum. North-western offers a few classes that cover some topics that teach students about sexual reproduc-tion, and about related diseases, but is it enough?

Health 9, taught by Mr. Windt, for example, addresses a variety of topics such as relation-ships, abstinence, peer pressure, preventing and treating STDs, life goals, and how pregnancy or an

ture.

A real issue that arises is the gaps that remain after Health 9, and how can those gaps in infor-mation and education be filled to ensure that stu-dents leave high school adequately equipped for everyday life.

The curriculum in Health 9 is very similar to what is covered in 7th and 8th grade, and admit-tedly, there are younger aged children in the classroom. Consequent-ly, the curriculum doesn’t go as in depth and the students don’t always fully understand or pay attention to the topics being covered. Perhaps offering a health class junior year,

low for more interest and understanding on the part of the students as well as provide an opportunity for a teacher to present more technical and ma-ture topics.

Mrs. Lahti offers three different classes that cov-er some of the curricu-lum approved by the Ma-ple School District for grades 10-12, but the problem is that they’re electives, so not every-one takes them and learns the topics that she covers.

In Teen Living, Fami-ly Relations, and Parent-ing, she gives lessons about the reproductive system, puberty, the menstrual cycle, rape and sexual assault, and birth

depth of coverage also varies from class to class. Either way, it appears that gaps still exist in the current NHS sex educa-tion curriculum. For in-stance, information about when ovulation occurs is not currently covered in any class, and most like-ly should be. Other top-ics and valuable infor-mation needs to be dis-cussed, so another look at our curriculum and its timing and gaps is a ne-cessity.

Before students leave for the “real world,” they need more depth in-formation, especially re-garding their bodies and how they work.

By Cassie Harvey

Today Sara Garland

4/3

Bailey Evans Jacob Evans Lindsey Evans Kathryn Jamison Kaylee Wicklund

4/4

Abby Schultz

4/7 Lexus Gary Madison Matherly

4/8

Riley Stowers

Happy

Birthday!

Senior Editor/ For-matter:

Nik Sauer

Text Editor

Brooklyn Smith

Staff Members: Katie Johnson

J. Gaare Richard Schiff

Luke Rutten Evan Simmons Mikayla Maijala

Cassie Harvey Alissa Ormond Chaede Vig

Advisor:

Mrs. Thompson

By Mikayla Maijala

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From left to right: Tiia Sznaider, Brittney Copp, and Nathan Johnson.

What are your plans for after high school?

Attend the University of North Dakota to become a special education teacher.

What’s your favorite hobby?

Do it yourself projects -- only using items from Dollar Tree.

If you could travel an-ywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

Paris, France. One of the world’s fashion cap-itals and supposed “City of Love.”

What’s your favorite high school memory?

Prom 2014. I had the best most handsome date ever and my group was so good-looking!

What is the number one most played song on your iPod?

I don’t have music on my phone because 8gb iPhones suck.

Would you rather have a dragon or a dinosaur as a pet? Feel free to elaborate.

Whichever one wouldn’t eat my nine pound, cross -eyed canine.

What’s your least fa-vorite school lunch?

California burger be-cause it doesn't even come close to being as good as Copp’s black angus beef.

Attend the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Fútbol -- way cooler than football.

Boys’ basketball

win-ning regional champs this year. USA USA USA.

What was the hardest year in high school for you? Hardest class?

First semester of senior year. Honors Bio was definitely hard but very rewarding + Mr. Cowley is the bomb.com.

What is the number one most played song

on your iPod?

“Fergalicious” by Fergie for obvious reasons.

A giraffe.

Anything that doesn’t have a side of potato smiles. :)

By Ricky Schiff

Brittney

Copp

Nathan

Johnson

Tiia Sznaider

I’m going to Lake Supe-rior College for my gen-erals and then the Uni-versity of Minnesota-Mankato for automotive engineering.

Building knives and run-ning around in the woods, typical home-schooler stuff!

If you could travel any-where in the world, where would you go and why?

Australia, so that I would appreciate that we don’t have deadly spiders eve-rywhere.

Being a part of track and cross country.

What was the hardest year in high school for you? Hardest class?

This year, I suppose? Spanish III with Mrs. Pflug.

What is the number one most played song on your iPod?

Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”

Make up your own question and answer it.

Most embarrassing mo-ment? When I threw up at prom… oh wait, that was Hunter Ruppe.

Ummm... a dragon! So that I can fly.

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ISIS has reportedly infiltrated a refugee camp in Damascus,

trapping 18,000 refugees.

By Nik Sauer

Around this time of year, we all have our own traditions that we think is normal. In honor of Easter, here are some unique traditions around the world; the five loca-tions that are explained are Bermuda, Norway, Sweden, Europe, and Haiti.

Bermudians celebrate Good Friday by flying homemade kites, and

eat-ing codfish cakes and hot cross buns. The tradition of kite flying came about when a teacher from the British Army had trouble explaining the reason Easter is celebrated. He made a kite to illustrate the Ascension. Tradition-al kites are made out of tissue paper, long tails, wood, metal, and string. Norwegians have an interesting tradition of “Easter Crime,” which is

called Paaskekrim. In Norway, many people read mystery books or watch crime related shows. It is also common for families to take vaca-tions up into the moun-tains to ski resorts. While in the mountains, it is a popular past time to play Yahtzee.

In different parts of Europe, it is common to have large bonfires, called Easter Fires. The point of the bonfires are to bring communities together, and are festive with heavy consumption of gin, lager, and snacks. The tale that started this origin is that Easter is a time when spring is vic-torious over winter and the fires chase away the darkness of winter.

In the Swedish culture, Easter is celebrated with meals of eggs, herring, and Jansson’s Tempta-tions, which is potato, onion, and pickled sar-dines baked in a cream. In the days leading up to

Easter, they have a tradi-tion somewhat similar to our Halloween. Children tend to dress up in old and discarded clothing as Easter witches. As they travel from house to house in the neighbor-hoods, they trade paint-ings and drawpaint-ings in ex-change for sweets.

Last but not least is Haiti. Holy Week is the time of colorful parades and “rara”, which is tra-ditional music. The mu-sic is played on bamboo trumpets, maracas, drums, and coffee cans. In Haiti, Easter is a com-bination of the Catholic holiday and Voodoo tra-ditions. For those who are Voodoo believers, they make their annual pilgrimage to the village of Souvenance. There, the celebration is marked by a ceremony that shows devotion to the spirits. At this ceremony, there is drumming, chanting, and animal sac-rifices.

a major problem in teen-age girls. According to the National Institute of Health, only one out of every ten girls get enough calcium, as com-pared to one out of every four boys.

Healthday.com adds that most girls age 9-18 only get 814 mg of calci-um (almost 500 mg un-der the suggested in-take). This is a serious problem because people obtain 90% of their adult bone mass by age 17 and

95% by age 20. By 30 years of age, people stop attaining bone mass and their bones actually begin to deteriorate. This can lead to osteoporosis, a condition in which the bones become weak and brittle.

Osteoporosis is quite common in older wom-en. As said by livestrong.com, “the Sur-geon General warns that unless people change their dietary habits, half of Americans over age 50 will have weak bones by 2020.”

‘Ca

+2

’ From Pg. 2

By Alissa Ormond

Google and Asus have developed a ‘Chromebook on a stick’ that oper-ates via HDMI. Gary Ross Dahl, creator of

the Pet Rock, has died at 78.

The American Road & Transpor-tation Builders Association has deemed 61,000 of America’s

bridg-es to be ‘structurally deficient.’

California’s Governor has issued mandatory water restrictions in order to combat “one of

the most severe droughts on record.”

Colorado lawmakers are scrambling to create a bill allowing the state to

keep millions of dollars in marijuana taxes. Spanish scientists have deemed the

Mediterranean Sea an “accumu

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I love sharks -- proba-bly too much: when I was a kid and watched the Jaws movies, I was always like, “Why won’t they stop complaining and appreciate that this beautiful animal is grac-ing their internal organs with its teeth?” Just kid-ding, the franchise made me afraid of my bathtub for two weeks, but I still think that sharks are in-credible, and possibly #8 on my list of the Top Ten Greatest Nouns (between Spock and bass guitars),

so here are my favorite sharks.

Whale sharks-Whale sharks are just 40-foot-long ocean cows and should be protected at all costs. They’re so docile that divers often try to “hitch a ride” with the animals, because divers are awful and notoriously lazy.

Mako

Shortfin makos are known for their extreme speed (they can reach speeds of 25-45 miles per hour!), jumpiness (heights of 30 feet!), in-telligence, and

aggres-sion. There have been many (ironic) reports of makos attacking their hunters after they’ve been dragged upon a boat for slaughter. Ma-kos are frequently hunted for food and sport, so while they’re among the most likely suspects be-hind shark attacks on hu-mans, mankind is a far greater threat to them than they are to us.

Great White- This is a given, isn’t it? Quite like Rush’s “Tom Saw-yer,” or GN’R’s “Welcome to the Jun-gle,” it’s the most popu-lar for a reason and I will not be the pretentious, hipster aficionado who doesn’t include it despite the fact that it deserves all the praise it can get. Hammerhead- Soph-omore Luke Rutten de-scribed the hammerhead

as “spooky,” and for ade-quate reason: they look wonky. And… no, that’s about it. They very rarely attack humans.

Frilled- To be com-pletely honest, I should have included this abom-ination in my list of the most horrifying creatures in the ocean. The frilled shark looks like a large, frilly-gilled eel with nee-dle teeth, but luckily, hu-man-frilled shark interac-tion is extremely rare. Basking- Basking sharks closely resemble me at Chinese buffets, so I identify with them. Their mouths can reach a circumference of three feet, but they, like the whale shark, sustain themselves by filter Yemen has been in a

slight state of civil war and unrest for the past several years. The main instigators of this skull-duggery have been the group known as the Houthis (pronounced hoo-thee).

This movement, com-prised of somewhere be-tween 1,000 to 3,000 members (or 100,000, if you believe the Yemen Post) and are attempting to overthrow the current government to combat “widespread and system-atic discrimination.” However, many out-side sources claim the Houthis are instead in-stalling and imposing their religious ideology upon others. There have also been allegations that they are receiving sup-port from Iran, who has a Shia-majority govern-ment, which is sympa-thetic to the Houthis. The Houthis have countered these reports, however, by accusing the Yemeni government of receiving support

from groups that are strictly anti-Shia, includ-ing such radical groups as Al-Qaeda. These groups’ dislike for each other has recently be-come more and more violent, with the Houthis gaining control over northern regions and pushing to the south and the capital.

So, you may be won-dering what the differ-ences are between these groups’ religious ideolo-gy. There are actually few differences, but they have become points of conflict between the two. Essentially, the Sunni sect is a more traditional version of Islam, while Shia has a bigger focus on elements of grieving and martyrdom. Shia muslims are also a mi-nority in most of the Middle East nations, ex-cept for Iran, Azerbaijan, and according to esti-mates, Yemen.

The vast majority of the Middle East is Sunni. Because of this, Shia muslims have often felt

Do you need the last half credit for phys ed but hate gym so much that you are cringing just at the thought of having to go another whole se-mester or quarter? If you have passed Phys Ed. 10, there is good news for you!

This was the first year Fitness/Aerobics was introduced as a gym credit, which is a great alternative, especially if you aren’t into competi-tive sports. In Fitness/ Aerobics, everyone gets involved while being able to work at a level that each is comfortable with, while still benefit-ting.

In Fitness/Aerobics, the emphasis is on

infor-mation and skills that need to be developed. The main skills under this category are cardio-vascular endurance, muscular strength, mus-cular endurance, and flexibility. A variety of activities incorporated into the class to help stu-dents work on these skills, include step aero-bics, yoga, pilates, jog-ging/walking, basic cal-isthenics, insanity, tae bo, and Zumba.

If any of those sound fun to you, there is a pretty great chance that you will enjoy this class. Forget sitting on the sidelines waiting to be put into the game that you aren’t even thrilled about being part of in the first place, take Fitness!

By Alissa Ormond

‘Yemen’ Cont. Pg. 6

By Evan Simmons

By Brooklyn Smith

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resentment to their Sunni counterparts, and have sometimes attempted to impose their sect upon different territories. Iran, and its funding of certain shia terrorist groups, is a very good example of this.

And now, this is

oc-curring in Yemen. The Houthis are under the Zaidi branch of Shia Is-lam. The Zaidi is minute-ly different from Shia by being slightly more harsh in its governance of fol-lowers. The Houthis mainly have control in the northern regions of the country, and have been moving steadily towards the country’s

capital, Sana’a. This con-flict has divided a coun-try that has traditionally been not present in con-flicting relationships in the Middle East, with sides accusing each other of discrimination by race

and supporting radical elements of their own faith. We can only hope that the situation will sta-bilize, and that people will be able to find more constructive ways to set-tle their differences. The year is 3025, and

archeologists are delving into the past digital worlds. Unearthing the ruins of Tumblr and pho-toshopped items, they have declared internet icons such as Taylor Swift, Misha Collins, Benedict Cumberbatch, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Lupita Nyong’o, to be deities.

Based on the evidence uncovered, the archaeol-ogists deduce that be-cause these individuals were worshipped with shrines, television shows, artwork, and awards, that surely they must have been the gods of the 21st Century. Taylor Swift, the god-dess of cats, meddled with music. Misha Col-lins supported an alter-nate identity as the angel Castiel. Benedict Cum-berbatch was the god of many names, Leonardo DiCaprio, the spirit who resided in golden statues called “Oscars.” And Lupita Nyong’o was the respectable goddess of beauty who was adorned with pearls.

Archaeologists also believe memes to be the artifacts that define the Millennial Era, a surviv-ing and confussurviv-ing tribute to these times. Archaeol-ogists spent hours trying to decipher the meaning and purpose behind these images which they dis-covered posted all over the walls of the world

They discovered thou-sands of different memes, and believe that they were used as a form of communication, the pictures conveyed mean-ings and emotions. Memes could be as sim-ple as a few words, pic-tures, or small videos played on repeat in the form of an image called 'gifs'. They were often obscure, out of context, and retired over the course of weeks to months.

Another puzzling ele-ment for the scientists has been the abundance of acronyms. Acronyms were used as replace-ments for words, either spoken, texted, or used as names for organiza-tions, clubs, businesses, and identities. Spoken acronyms include ROTFL (rolling on the floor laughing) SMH (shaking my harpsi-chord) and BRB (be right back). Thanks to reliable sources which have evolved over the ages, such as Urban Dic-tionary, Wikipedia, and Google, these acronyms were able to be accurate-ly interpreted.

The year today is still only 2015. What I have written in the perspective of a future generation, may seem slightly accu-rate but lacking complete comprehension. Makes you wonder how much we are assuming about our ancestors, and how much is actually true.

‘Yemen’ From Pg. 5

Bull sharks- Luke Rutten: “Bull sharks by far the spookiest.” This is likely due to the shark’s ability to survive in both salt and fresh water, which, coupled with their love of swim-ming in shallow areas, is why bull sharks are among the top three most dangerous sharks to humans.

Tiger- I’m actually not certain anymore how much the average child knows about sharks, but I’m guessing you’ve all heard of the sharks that have been killed and had their stomachs exam-ined; you likely were amazed to hear that fish-erman often find license plates, shoes, violins, or the Eiffel Tower in the recesses of sharks’ abdo-mens, and I’m sure you’ll be just as aston-ished to learn that most of these stories are the result of one species’ zany eating habits: that of the tiger shark.

Zebra sharks- You’ll be happy to know that zebra sharks are known for their spots.

Nurse-By this point it should come as no shock (this is a British pun, please laugh) to you that I established fairly early on which shark I would like to own as a pet if the situation requiring me to

vious triad in the Coolest Pet Shark category (white sharks, hammer-heads, whale sharks) don’t have a good track record for surviving in captivity, and who has the money to haul a Great White to

Wiscon-sin every few week? Certainly not this Sela-chimorpha enthusiast, so I chose the shark that has the best luck thus far (and thus is the shark about which we know the most, which is anoth-er point in its favor; I’m not going to be an amattture shark collec-tor), and stuck with my decision for years.

For porpoises of this article, however, I did a little research (and I do mean “a little.” It turns out that I know a lot about sharks), and my long-held assumption that the nurse shark was only in the 3-4 foot range was enormously false. Nurse sharks can reach lengths in excess of thirteen feet, so my theoretical venture in owning one would likely have been similar to that of the Howard family’s when they naively adopted Clifford the Big Red Dog.