lol just thought this was rad.


http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/12/18/world/europe/18reuters-russia-greenpeace-amnesty-vote.html

This is a trend I've been wondering a lot about lately and quite frankly never had a good feeling about. It scares me that so many people are hopping on the bandwagon of a largely undocumented scientific experiment, and I can only think of how shoe salesmen used to x-ray people's feet to see if the shoe fit, entirely unaware of the extremely harmful radiation it produced and illness it could cause. As for this issue, I also found it interesting that 12% of e-cigarette smokers have never smoked a conventional cigarette before and the first thought that popped up in my mind was that number is probably largely comprised of younger kids, which is also very worrisome. I would like to know what the harmful chemicals they keep talking about but not specifying in this article are, and also how they could be more damaging to someone who has never smoked and isn't addicted to nicotine as opposed to someone who is. Regardless, I think this issue should be more commonly talked about and I was glad to see the bark do a feature on it to reach the demographics of kids who might be riding this fad without knowing where it's headed.

After working on the feature 'Something Worth Fighting For: San Rafael High's Homecoming Embraces Change' about Tenaya Raives, a gender fluid / gender neutral student I've thought a lot about the traditions of events like prom and homecoming. Although our community claims to have a progressive and "liberal" attitude towards these types of issues, it always amazes me when there's a big unmentionable that everyone just accepts… like powder puff or the ancient ways of prom. That's not to say I don't think these kinds of events should be put on, I just feel as if they need to be seriously reconsidered and restructured. Tenaya's story was inspiring to everyone who worked on it and read it and I can't wait for something like that to happen at tam so hopefully we can break out of the rigid perpetuations of unspoken rules such as those surrounding prom.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/opinion/why-machiavelli-matters.html?_r=0


A lot of us seniors (and juniors in aim) read excerpts from Machiavelli's The Prince this year, and although some of us may not have enjoyed it, or fully understood it for that matter, this article has me fairly convinced that Machiavelli's claims do still relate to modern politics. Do you agree? Do you think we should read Machiavelli at all? Do you think Obama displays Machiavellian characteristics?

this is awesome. I think it's super dope that she can get so much out of his music because I have only ever really seen Lil B's music as kind of a joke and just "there." for this reason, I'd like to hear what Lil B has to say and maybe read up a little more on his philosophies which to be honest I don't know much about (other than that he aspires to be ellen degeneres lolz). however, I think this girl's story is super rad and that she turned a negative experience into a positive one by extracting meaning from an art from to create more art. word up bbgirl

ps. shout out declan for being $$$

"Students raised on a diet of Internet posts and instant messages may be unlikely to be future newspaper readers".

I liked these two quotes a lot. The first I feel pretty accurately reflects what is known as the modern teenager (aka us lol) but just because we may not read black & white prints in the future, doesn't mean we won't be reading news at all. This relates to what Emma and Markita were saying in that adapting to a new method of publishing stories doesn't mean new will die along with the classic newspaper.

I agree with all y'all in that these are super rad and we should definitely look into maybe trying out a couple vids. I particularly enjoy how the videos cover a wide range of topics (diving, student profiles, chemistry class, marine mammal centre) because not only do the videos then appeal to a broader demographic of student interests, but then you get more students involved (if you include someone in a video and / or article then they will look at it as well as their close friends and maybe parents or something).

as for current videos at tam, the publicity committee of leadership has been working on getting up monthly videos about upcoming events, etc but the problems that have been presented with that have been planning, time management, keeping them interesting, and getting them done on time so I think that if we had videos more like visual articles instead of announcement-y stuff that would be more beneficial fsho. also we need to makes sure that if we're going to try a few videos, that people stay committed to a project once they've signed up for it to make sure it actually turns into a final product.

one part of this article that stuck out to me was the idea that raising the legal age at which you could buy cigarettes to 21 "...could cut the smoking rate for 18 to 20-year-olds by 55 percent and decease the smoking rate for 14 to 17-year-olds by 67 percent, NY1 reported." I honestly don't think these percentages are accurately predicted, because they are such large numbers and the true statistics of underage smokers can be hard to portray.

Overall, I think this proposal, while definitely motivated with essential and important goals, might be taking on too much too soon. what I mean by this is that perhaps instead of changing the legal age to 21, New York should first try out 19 or 20 like in Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah. This would still put a slightly stricter law in place, but give people time to adjust.

Also, as kids of binge valley, we know that just because the law may technically prohibit one from partaking in a certain behavior, such as smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, that doesn't neccessarily stop the problem and for the most part such behaviors still go on regardless of age. Because of this I think that New York's campaign to raise the age for smokers should be a little more tactful in their approach to the subject.

for her term project, a girl in my physio class chose to explore the topic of listening to music and its relation to the brain. it was a very interesting idea, as so many of us listen to music, and we were given more insight into the activity of the brain during a period of hearing music. this article provides a similar slice of info and I just thought it was cool.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/why-music-makes-our-brain-sing.html?smid=tw-nytimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/arts/music/vinyl-records-are-making-a-comeback.html?src=me

weee I just liked this article. plus, as it mentions, there has been a big increase in vinyl interest with popular LP releases such as Daft Punks, "Random Access Memories." ("When you look at the sales for a group like Daft Punk," he said, "you're seeing young kids collecting records like we did when we were young.")

do you think vinyl is coming back in a big way or is it just for "hipsters" lol

how do you think this relates to technology, especially in comparison with vinyl vs. cds and vinyl vs itunes?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/nyregion/in-hamptons-ethnicity-class-and-suicide-lead-school-to-reach-out.html?pagewanted=2&src=mv

interesting and yet sad glimpse of a community that is described oddly like tam / mill valley at first.

do you think our community might have some of these problems desribed later in the article as the school not having known about?

do you think we have an outcast population at tam?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/how-not-to-be-alone.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&src=me

woweow. I think is an important read for almost everyone - especially us, students as we are "the technology generation".

I think we've all had those moments when we see someone we know but want to pretend like we don't and so we mindlessly flip through the pages of our iphone home screen to avoid what has now become an awkward and even painful face to face encounter.

another thing that spoke to me was Simone Weil writings that "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." this is something that gets me everyday as I often find myself extremely annoyed when someone continues to text while I'm telling a story, and disappointed with myself if I ever do the same.

do you agree with Jonathan Safran Foer's interpretations of how technology is causing us to elvolve?

do you agree with the Simone Weil quote that "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." ?

what would you have done if you were in his position with the crying girl (you don't have to write this but at least think about it honestly) ?

honesty just reflect however you want, this article raises enough interesting questions as is

really interesting & sad topic. why do you think these stats are on the rise?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/us/baffling-rise-in-suicides-plagues-us-military.html?pagewanted=all

Recently there's been a lot of hype over French DJ duo, Daft Punk, and their new album "Random Access Memories." In the article it talks about how they wanted to create a compilation of tracks that would look back into the past from the future but, for listeners, do you think they achieved that? Even without listening to the album, do you think such a thing is possible or is it only a pretentious excuse for wanting to sound different from everyone else? How do you think this relates to the future of music? The article also references kids in bedrooms that can become famous.. a couple acts that came to mind when I read that were XXYYXX, Shlohmo, Flylo who have all praised the haven in which they can create "bedroom tunes" - not in the Marvin Gaye "Let's Get it On" way but the solitary confinement with a duvet type. Anyways yeah enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/arts/music/daft-punk-gets-human-with-a-new-album.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I think this is a really important and interesting issue that people often make light of - as the article mentioned one of the schools doing. To me, using Adderall and other similar medications with the intention of boosting your grades, when you're not prescribed the drugs for disorders such as ADHD, is considered cheating because you're technically messing with the bar of equality supposedly set within the educational system... but then again I feel like this "level playing field" never truly existed anyways so meh.

I do agree with the course of action some schools are taking in order to tighten their policies and attempt to control the drug flow through their campuses, but I think this is one of those issues that students will engage in regardless and needs to be brought to light by college kids themselves.

I'd also be really curious to know if there are any harmful or long term effects from misusing the drugs or taking them when you don't need them. Because, as I see it, it's not like taking Adderall will make you smarter for a test, just give you an ultra capacity for concentration. idk mayn honestly this freaks me out so much to think that 35% of college kids partake in pill-poppin study parties & I feel like it just creates a suuuper unhealthy environment of stress and competition when college, to me, is when you're supposed to be pursuing stuff that you're legitimately interested in & being happy yo


ps. is it bad that the whole time i was reading this article I was singing the line from Kreayshawn's song "gucci gucci" when she says "Gnarly, radical, on the block I'm magical, See me at your college campus baggie full of Adderalls".. >.<

I retweeted this story last week from the NYT after having a good laugh at the absurdity of this "investigative" column. If you know anything about Williamsburg / Brooklyn alike, you might be familiar with its increasing rate of "trendy" inhabitants. This article captures the hip culture reproduction rate in a sweet yet still totally ridiculous way. My question is, do you guys see this becoming a trend in SF (hipster heaven).. or is it already? What do you think are the defining characteristics of OUR generation and how do you think we may be dissected under the lense of a more seasoned observer. #holler


ps. this story was renamed from "Will.i.am.sburg" to "How I Became a Hipster" - if you know anything about the will.i.am / anjunabeats scandal, why do you think the author chose for this to be the title?

Living in Mill Valley, we are very fortunate to receive such a good education, and we know it. We spend hundreds of dollars on SAT prep, AP tests, tutoring, and whatever else we can lay our hands on in exchange of our money for a better grade. What I'm wondering is, do you guys feel like this actually helps prepare us in terms of readiness for college? Do you think we have an education gap between low and high income students at Tam? What do you think of the study that says this gap is often determined by how prepared students are upon entering kindergarten? How do you think the government could better close the gap between classes and education level?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/no-rich-child-left-behind/?src=mv