Issue 8 Volume 17 Noblemans Art Sports Classes Grubs Features · CYAN MAGENTA YELLOWYELLOW BLACK Issue 8 Volume 17 Tal n January 29, 2009 THE Noblemans Art Sports Classes Grubs Features

CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACKCYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACKCYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

Tal nIssue 8 Volume 17 January 29, 2009

THEClasses GrubsSportsArt FeaturesNoblemans

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Kaleigh Theriault ‘11

The Freeland SportsZone is kicking off the forty-fourth Annual Super Bowl on Sunday, February 7, 2010 with its Second Annual Super Bowl Party fundraiser hosted by the Freeland SportsZone.

“This year will be the sec-ond Super Bowl Party Fundraiser. Last year was the first year of the event,” said Heather Forbes, the Tittabawassee Township Rec-reation Director. “There were around 300 people that attended the event.”

The 300 people in attendance at the party last year raised money which was used towards activities at the Freeland SportsZone for SportsZone members.

“The money raised will go to the Freeland Community Sports Association (FCSA), a non-profit organization that is responsible for the Freeland SportsZone,” said Forbes. “The FCSA uses this money to fund programs, equip-ment, and many other things at the SportsZone. This money also helps keep the price of membership lower and more affordable.”

As most can recall, last year’s party took place before the Free-land SportsZone construction was completed. The amount of people in attendance at the party and the amount of money raised exceeded

expec-tations.

“The Super Bowl Party Fundraiser raised

over $8,000 in 2009 to help support the Freeland SportsZone,” said Forbes. “We hope that the event is even bigger than last year!”

The event consists of large screen TVs, an assortment of food, hors d’oeuvres, and various alco-holic and non-alcoholic beverages. Additional activities include Texas Hold’em, raffles, 50/50 drawings, and football boards. Because of the gambling, the party is limited to adults 21 and older.

While at the party, tours of the SportsZone facility are also available.

Tickets to the party are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Tickets may be purchased today at the Tit-tabawassee Township Office or the Freeland SportsZone. Doors open at four o’clock p.m. and kickoff for the game is at 6:20 p.m. The New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts are competing in Super Bowl XLIV taking place at Sun Life Sta-dium, Miami Gardens, Florida, but at the Freeland SportsZone, you can get the real affect from the large screen TVs.

Additional information can also be found online at freeland-sportszone.com or by contacting the Tittabawassee Township Office at (989)695-9512 or the Freeland SportsZone at (989)695-2000.

Jon Benson '11 Each January, in a mysterious parking lot hidden behind

River Place, in Frankenmuth, Michigan, a mob of high school students congregate around several tall blocks of snow and ice. What is this strange event? It is, of course, Zehnder's Snowfest snow carving competition. As a matter of fact, this year's Snow-fest falls on January 24 and 25.

Snowfest is an annual snow- and ice-carving competition in Frankenmuth. High school, state-wide, and international competitions are held around town. Each high school team has four members, and is given a giant block of snow, precisely eight feet tall with a six foot square base. The teams can work all day on Thursday,

This is the second year that Freeland is sending a team to compete. This year's team is comprised of three returning members, Juniors Tessa Poag, Maryssa Lyons, and Jon Benson, as well as a new member, Sophomore Cody Marecek.

“I feel really good about being on the team. I know it'll be a pretty rad time,” Cody said.

Last year, the team created a giant ketchup bottle, as well as salt and pepper shakers. While they didn't place in the com-petition and received less than honorable mention, the team members did nominate their own sculpture for several awards, including most creative, most ketchup-related, most physically attractive, and “the bomb-diggety.”

To be more prepared for their second journey into the world of snow sculpting, the team has been meeting at least once a week since the beginning of the year to plan. The gang spent a few weeks coming up with a concept, and since then has been working hard to create a detailed clay model of the sculpture.

While the subject and details of the team's sculpture have been kept under wraps (to some extent), the skilled artists are fairly confident that their final product will be an awesome

sculpture of extraordinary classiness…. so they hope.“I just want to make our sculpture look moderately the way

it’s supposed to,” said Tessa. “That would be awesome.” Yesterday, January 24, the team set out early in the morn-

ing for Frankenmuth to get to work on their fantastic piece of art, and are continuing to work today. The team plans to try their best, put the members don't really care that much about winning.

“Since we're so non-com-petitive, I think we'll just have a good time and not worry about the other teams,” Tessa said.

The sculp-tures wi l l be up on display beh i nd R i v e r Place until they melt , and are open to public viewing during the contes t a n d a f t e r -ward. And if possible, come on out today and support the team!

Morgan LaDouce ‘12 “Move your feet lose your seat,” is becoming a popular

saying within some of the classrooms in Freeland High School. With 36 different classes over 30 students, there may not be enough desks to go around. That’s the bleak picture painted, as most students begin their third week of the new semester. Although classes have been slightly reduced since day one of the semester, many remain large without much flexibility to reduce the numbers.

Some of the worst classes are Drawing with Tamara Klida, Algebra II with Nickole Clark, and Family Living with Becky Gascon. These classes are all above the school board’s set cap of 32 per class. In addition to classrooms larger than normal, many teachers have volunteered to take on independent stu-dents on top of their regular classroom load to keep numbers to a minimal. This semester alone, we have many students serving as independent studies under different teachers supervision. Business teacher, Janene Chisek currently has nine indepen-dent students throughout the day and as many as five different subject areas taking place during the same hour.

Classes of this size are in part due to losing a history teacher and not replacing her. If the teacher had been replaced classes could be smaller because other teachers wouldn’t have to cover the gap that was created. The high school had 575 students last year, and that number has increased to 605 students for this year which also caused an overflow in some classes.

Although teachers are doing their best, it can be expected that with larger class sizes students will receive less one on one time and classes tend to take more time to get started.

“The noise level makes it hard to get through class, which

can make the volume of the homework go up. Some classes don’t have enough seats. There isn’t a lot of one-on -one time. There are some classes with eight people and some with thirty,” sophomore Cori Kravat said.

The schedule change at semester to give students classes that they want may also be hurting them. When some classes are locked into an hour that class cannot change, leaving a person with multiple locked hours no real choice as to the size of their other classes. Examples of such locked hours are Yearbook, Advanced Physics, Talon, and band.

“It’s difficult to build rapport in such a large class,” Spanish II instructor Mindi Hannon said.

The fluctuating class sizes should be settled by the second week of the semester, although some classes don’t have much of an alternative to their current size. For Freeland class sizes of 30 or more are becoming far more common than they used to be.

“I believe an increase in class sizes at FHS is due to the three largest grade levels of students in Freeland all being at the high school, and the district being fiscally responsible and not hiring staff that will not be needed in the future, due to the smaller class sizes in our Kindergarten through eighth grades,” Superintendant Matthew Cairy said.

The classes might seem big to a Freeland born and raised student, but with budget cuts across the state, it seems is expected that classes are going to continue to remain tight. Although classes might be a tad on the snug side for the current times, just remember to advocate for yourself and give it your best for the final semester of the 2009-2010 school year.

Molly Woodman ‘12 Recently, Freeland High School teacher Matt Forsberg

gave a new definition to the term ‘field trip’. Instead of the standard planetarium or museum, he took a select few students from his industrial arts class to Las Vegas, Nevada. They went for the International Home Builders Show, and it seemed to be a great experience for all attendees, despite the weather that wasn’t quite up to par.

“The weather was poor. It rarely, if ever, rains in the desert and it rained every day we were there. The good things: the builders show was massive, the displays were unbelievable. Seeing the city was neat, and the mountains, desert, and Hoover Dam were amazing. Just seeing the different architecture and styles of the area was worth it,” said Forsberg.

Although the International Home Builders Show was every day, the curious explorers decided to play hooky and skip off to Hoover Dam for a day.. They all enjoyed it, and each student had their own favorite experience, but for some, it was hard to choose just one.

“The experience as a whole was my favorite part of the trip. The show was mind blowing. Unlike anything I have ever seen. The lights of the big city over the moun-tains. The Hoover Dam (I have never felt so small!). it was not the trip itself that I liked most, but the things I experienced, the new friends I made, and the memories,”

said senior Rachael Lutz. It wasn’t all fun and games though. It was meant to be

a learning experience, and it definitely was. The schedule wasn’t totally set and stone; there was room for changes. Obviously, Las Vegas can get a tad distracting, but luck-ily, these students stayed on task and did not forget the reason that they were there in the first place.

“The builders show was huge and it showed all the latest and greatest things. I learned a lot from the whole experience,” said senior Mike Schauman.

It was definitely a unique, one of a kind experience that these students were lucky enough to attend. Hope-fully, this trip will happen again in the future. If so, follow the advice of someone who has been there.

“Take a suitcase with wheels, take extra money, be decisive and force Forsberg to go up the stratosphere, don’t go to pawn shops at night, never walk the strip in heels, and accept that the postcards are going to look ten times better than the pictures you take. Also, take a tally: how many circles will Forsberg take you in?” said Rachael.

There were many stories to tell after the trip. The experiences that these students went through are sure to help them in the future, and all of the memories that they now have are sure to stay with them. Most wouldn’t change anything on the trip, however, it was agreed by all, including Forsberg, that if this trip is taken again, they’re going to need a different driver.

What Happened in Vegas?


Fr ntIssue 8 Volume 17

THE TalonJanuary 29, 2009

Editor in ChiefKatie Ott ‘10

Section A Page 2

Sara Reisinger ‘12

Want to go to Disney World for free? Well, now you can! Disney Resorts are teaming up with HandsOn Network to give the first one million people free tickets, but there is a small catch. All a person has to do to receive this trip is to vol-unteer for one day at a par-ticipating organization. The Disney campaign is being called, “Give a Day. Get a Disney Day”. For one day of volunteering a person can get a free ticket to either Disney World Resort in Flor-ida or a ticket to Disneyland Resort in California.

"We are trying to inspire 1 million people to volun-teer in their communities and we're inspiring them to do that by giving them a free day at a Disney park," Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said in a phone interview with The Associ-ated Press.

This volunteering promotion replaced the "Celebrate Today" promo-tion that was happening. The "Celebrate Today" let people get a free ticket to a Disney Resort on their birthday for free.

The "Give a Day. Get a Disney Day" promotion is meant to be an inspiring yet easy way to get a ticket to a Disney Resort. After a per-son signs up on the Disney website and has their vol-unteer session verified they will get a email confirming their session. The email will contain a voucher for the free ticket.

Before a person volun-teers they must make sure that their organization is on the list. To find the list go to

www.disneyparks.com/celebrate. Everyday there are more and more orga-nizations that are being added to the list, so contin-ue to check to see if there is one close by that would be easy to volunteer for.

“You must pre-register and sign up through this site to volunteer and complete your service at an eligible volunteer opportunity in the fifty United States, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or Canada to receive a ticket after verification of such service,” said the internet site Disney.go.com

Disney is trying to keep the "United We Serve" cam-paign that Barack Obama is running in America. They are hoping to inspire each and everyone to volunteer. This time volunteering comes with a prize with it, but the whole promotion is to inspire Americans.

The promotion is very beneficial to both the recip-ient of the ticket and for Disney Resorts. The recipi-ent gets a free ticket and a vacation, and Disney gets people to come to their parks. Both parties are pleased in the end. Not only are both parties pleased, but the organizations that had work done for benefit from it also.

There are a total of ten volunteering organi-zations in Saginaw, ten in Midland, and eleven in Bay City. There are plenty of places that anyone can sign to give their time. With one inspiring moment of volun-teering, you can get a free ticket, so don't hesitate to sign up, because there are only one million tickets available. Remember, Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.

For A Day

1. Would you do a volunteer job for a free ticket to Disney World or Disney Land? Why?

I would defiantly volunteer for a free ticket. The cost of one day of working at a job wouldn’t even be equivalent to the cost of a ticket. One day volunteering would therefore be extremely easy.

2. Where would you want to volunteer?I would like to volunteer somewhere I could

actually make a difference.

1. Would you do a volunteer job for a free ticket to Disney World o r Disney Land? Why?

Yes, because it would be fun to go back to Disney World and volunteering is always a good thing to do.

2. Where would you want to volunteer?At my church or in the community anywhere


I would volunteer to get a free ticket because I like volunteering because doing things for others makes you feel better. Plus when you volunteer you can get a day pass to a Disney Park.

2. Where would you volunteer?The shelter in Saginaw, Saginaw County Animal

Care Center


Yes, I have never been to Disney Land, only Disney world a few times.

2. Where would you want to volunteer?A tutoring center or recreational center.

Holly Baranowski ‘12

When walking into Free-land High School every morn-ing, most might take for granted the fact that everyone knows each other. Schedules are followed, and friends have already been made. For the new student teachers, how-ever, this luxury isn’t avail-able. They have to walk into this new place, not knowing anyone. Student teachers, such as Jerry Wichman, have to find their own way to deal with this dilemma and still be able to still teach.

Hoping to learn some life lessons along the way, Jerry has come to Freeland with his dream of becoming a teacher. After attending Oxford High School and then Saginaw Val-ley State University, he found Freeland, thinking that this would fit for him. Jerry will be teaching Government for 2nd, 5th, and 7th hour for Matt Samocki.

“I wanted to do something that I would enjoy doing for the rest of my life,” said Jerry. “I love working with students and hope to positively influ-ence them the way my teach-ers did for me.”

Jerry has to get time observing the classes first and then he will be teaching. As with anyone, he hopes to grow as a person and also a teacher when finished with this experience. He wants to be able to adapt to his stu-dent's wants and needs and also hopes that his lessons will be interesting, diverse, and always changing. These types of things are the things that create a good teach-er; one that students will remember for years after they've left, and also bring the life-lessons along with them.

A teacher has to be able to connect with their students on some kind of level in order to make a good teacher. The ones that achieve this are the teachers that can also learn from their students. Since most students learn best when they are enjoying what they’re learning, either with activities in the classroom or if they can relate to what’s being learned. Jerry hopes to make his classes’ fun and exciting on top of this.

"I want my class to be about more than just a lecture and bookwork," said Jerry. "Hopefully as I get to know my students, we can have some fun this year."

Being and also becoming a teacher is a difficult task. It isn't always easy to be able to connect with young people, and at the same time, teach them valuable lessons. Jerry Wichman has decided to take on that task himself, and grow as a person as he starts a jour-ney that will take him miles. He's very excited to be here and also looking forward to getting started.

Rachel Schafer ‘12

With a new semester, come new changes. Different sched-ules, new classes, and new stu-dent teachers. With all these new things going on, it might be easy to miss Heather Platte, student teacher from Saginaw Valley State University, who will be helping out with some classes here at Freeland.

Platte will be teaching Lynn Hoffman’s fifth, hour Spanish 1, and also her seventh hour seventh grade Spanish class. In addi-tion to teaching Spanish, she will be heading down to the middle school to help out with some of Beverly Murray’s seventh grade English classes.

After graduating from Ovid-Elsie High School in 2005, Platte is currently attending SVSU and will be graduating in May. Platte said she has not wanted to be a teacher all of her life, but ever since she was a teenager, she has had dreams of becoming a teacher, always wanting to help people learn.

“When I was 15 years old, I volunteered to teach a Hispanic migrant family in Elsie, MI Eng-lish,” said Platte. “As they spoke very little English and I spoke very

little Spanish, we taught each other. Not only did we teach each other languages, we taught each other life's values. This family and the children really made an impact on my life. Their motiva-tion to learn English inspired me to want to teach others languages worldwide.”

Though she likes teaching in America, her ideal place to teach would be abroad. Platte has a dream of being able to someday travel and teach both Spanish and English classes worldwide, mostly in Asia and the Middle East. Also, she would like to teach either Middle School or High School students.

Freeland isn’t the first place she has taught at. Platte has previously taught at Clarkston Middle School and completed her English as a Second Language student teaching. Even though she hasn’t started teaching yet, she knows what will be the hard-est and most difficult aspect of student teaching.

“I think that having to leave and saying goodbye at the end to all of the students will be the hardest part of my experience,” said Platte.

Platte hopes to gain a heart-touching experience while at Freeland, and she will gain life-long lessons that she wouldn’t have gotten in the classroom. The students are friendly at Free-land, and Platte shouldn’t have a problem adapting into the envi-ronment here. She’s only just starting here, and still has a long way to. The road ahead will be bumpy and hard, but the reward in the end is more than Platte could ever ask for.

“When you get that feeling, you know this is the career for you,” said Platte.

Kinsley Formsma ‘12 With every new semes-

ter come new students. They have to start all over at a new school and get to know everyone all over again. It’s not always easy being new. Seeing new faces and not having any-one there that you know can be difficult. This case it’s a little bit different. Miss Tunney is a Saginaw Valley State University student who will now be at Freeland High School, and this time she is going to be teaching not a student.

“While I am teaching here at Freeland, I am looking forward to a great semester of learning and growth for me and my stu-dents,” said Tunney.

She will be working with two different Free-land High School teachers. Mr. Franz and Mr. Short will be sharing her throughout her stay here at Freeland. Her schedule will consist of three classes of Algebra I with Mr. Short and three classes of World History with Mr. Franz.

“When I become a

teacher I would like to teach mathematics, spe-cifically Algebra, Pre-Algebra, and Geometry. Also U.S. and World Histo-ry with advanced courses in each,” said Tunney.

She has been placed perfectly subject wise. It always helps a person to get expierence in the area that he or she would like to go into. With Tun-ning teaching math and history, she will now be moving one step farther to her future.

“My biggest fear is not being able to help a

student or not to be compli-ant with all of the rules and regulations,” said Tunney.

Everyone has a reason behind their decisions or choices. Tunney has her reasoning behind wanting to be a teacher. She would really like to show that Math isn’t so difficult. Also she would like to help make all students logical thinkers. Lastly she wants to make a difference in the lives of others. Teaching can be a difficult at times but when the teacher is successful in anyway it all pays off.

“I would like to teach grades seventh through tenth but I am very willing to teach any upperclass-man,” says Tunney.

Starting January 19, Tunney will be taking over as a student teacher. It is not easy being new and we should all remember that as she is here. It is always good to make a warm wel-come therefore we should welcome her with comfort-ing smiles and respect. We wish her all the best of luck while she is here teaching.

Mr. Samocki’s: Jerry Wichman

Mrs. Hoffman’s: Heather Platte

Mr. Short/ Mr. Franz’s:Breann Tunney

Katie Ott ’10

Oí! Hello from Brazil, compliments of Freeland’s newest foreign exchange student, sixteen year old Vivian Rudnytskyj. With her home language of Por-tuguese, Viv brings another unique accent to add to Freeland’s melting pot of foreign guests. Two weeks ago she was in her home town São Paulo, Brazil and she has traveled all the way north to Michigan to join the rest of the falcons in the second semester. She has from now until June 20 to enjoy everything she can here in the States.

Vivian who was a student at Diocesano (her former school) has now become a green and white Falcon. She came from a five person family and is now cur-rently staying with the Taylor family, who resides right in Freeland. Her host father, Mr. Taylor, works with ship management; while her host mom is a leas-ing consultant. They have three kids, two who are in their mid twenties and a teenage girl in middle school. They have welcomed Vivian with open arms to help her enjoy her stay here in Michigan.

“My host family is very cool, active and easy going,” said Viv. With many new things to experience in America, Vivian will enjoy her stay

at Freeland. She enjoys the weather, delicious food, and English language here

in the United States; but she misses her friends and family back home. In São Paulo Vivian played soccer and basketball, and plans on possibly trying out for the soccer team in the spring. She is hoping to somehow be a part of the pompon team even though it’s a late start into the year, hopefully she finds a chance to be a part of it.

“I want to do a lot of things, be involved in sports, parties, and clubs and whatever else people do,” said Viv.

Viv has adapted well to the American life as she participated in last week’s Nobleman’s spirit week and she attended the dance, instantly making friends. Freeland has a lot in store for her to experience while in the states before she leaves. The countdowns to spring break, prom, graduation, and everything in-between have only just begun.

“I am looking forward to spring break, I might be going to the Caribbean, and I am excited for Prom to get dressed up. We have prom in Brazil too,” said Viv.

Hopefully Vivian enjoys her stay in the small town of Freeland, Michigan. Her adventure here in the United States has just begun. There is a whole new world for her to experience in the States.


FrOnt Issue 8 Volume 17


Section A Page 3

Mitchell Kloc ‘11 The American people have pulled off a huge politi-

cal upset with the election of Scott Brown in a special election to fill the open Senate seat in Massachusetts. The seat, which was held by the late Democrat Ted Kennedy for 46 years, now belongs to Scott Brown, a Republican. He defeated Democrat Martha Coakley 52 percent to 47 percent.

This Senate race attracted national attention after polls showed much closer numbers between Brown and Coakley than what was expected to due to Massachu-setts’ Democratic nature. The seat was crucial for both Democrats and Republicans. If Coakley won, then the Democrats would have their sixtieth Senate seat and supermajority, meaning that their Health Care bill was almost sure to pass without hesitation. With a Republi-can victory, the filibuster has been brought back, which could delay or even stop attempts to pass the bill.

The unbelievable part of this election is that Massachusetts is overwhelmingly Democratic, with a registered Democrat-to-registered Republican ratio of over three to one. However, over half of the state’s citizens do not belong to a specific political party, thus being considered independents (who tend to vote Democratic). The state has a very Democratic history. Barrack Obama won Massachusetts by a 26 percent margin. The state legislature is composed of 90 percent Democrats and only ten percent Republicans.

"To have a Republican senator, that's unheard of. ... This is monumental. This is epic,” said Former Mas-sachusetts Governor Mitt Romney on “Hannity.”

Taking these statistics into account, how did a Republican win the Senate election? It was undoubt-edly a protest against the path that our government is currently taking. The people of the United States are trying to send a message to the government that they oppose the current agenda of this administration.

“This Senate seat belongs to no one person, no one political party. ... This is the people's seat,” said Brown.

President Obama campaigned for Coakley before the election. It was obviously very important for the Democrats to win the seat, and this election was a major disappointment for the party.

“I understand that, why after the Massachusetts election people in Washington were all in a tizzy trying to figure out what this means for health reform,” said Obama during a speech after the election.

Obama says that he will not let up in an effort to pass the health care bill, though.

The election of Scott Brown could be a turning point for the people of this nation. The 2010 midterm elec-tions are expected to have similar results. It seems that after four years of Democratic control, the Republicans are becoming increasingly favored in the legislature.

Jacob Mojica ‘11

After suffering a massive earthquake, the island nation of Haiti in the Caribbean Sea is struggling to rebuild its dev-astated landscape and shattered society. Hundreds of coun-tries across the globe are reaching out to the impoverished nation by giving medical assistance, making financial loans, or helping maintain security. However, there are concerns that some aspects of the recovery are being overlooked. Although countries all over the world have covered Haiti’s short-term needs, some believe that the nation’s long-term plans will be neglected.

“My belief is that Haiti, which has been incredibly hit by different things—the food crisis, the hurricane, then the earthquake—needs something which is big, not only a piece-meal approach, but something that will be much bigger to deal with the reconstruction of society, some kind of Marshall Plan,” said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund to CBS News. “The urgency today is to save the people.”

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince almost completely leveling the city. About 72,000 have been declared dead with over two million being displaced in the city after the quake. To make matters worse, as rescue efforts were taking shape, a 5.9-magnitude aftershock on January 20 stopped efforts at the city’s pier for about three hours. Some think that there were more to follow.

“The weird thing is that afterward you will swear that it lasted twenty minutes, but it really lasted sixty seconds,” said Kip Scheidler, a survivor of the 1986 earthquake in El Salva-dor, to Time. “I was sickened by the news of Haiti because it reminded me of the hardship we suffered as family members identified the bodies of others pulled from the pile of rubble. It’s something that you never forget. I can’t imagine the people going through that right now.”

Reopening Port-au-Prince’s pier was crucial for relief efforts; more supplies can be carried by ship than by airplane.

In addition to the global effort, the U.S. has deployed around 13,000 troops in or around Haiti to help in the relief effort and to maintain security. With thousands displaced from their homes, experts say that deaths will continue with untreated wounds and allow diseases to thrive. On top of it all, poverty has become a bigger issue.

“That creates a lot of challenges,” said David Gazashvili, leader of the humanitarian group CARE, to CNN, “because Haiti is a country that’s in a chronic emergency in terms of food insecurity, in terms of access to clean water, and in terms of income. It’s compounded by the fact that the state structure is so severely hit and the existing humanitarian structure has also been severely hit. And we have had to deal with that.”

Even before the earthquake, only fifty percent of Haitians had access to clean drinking water. Sanitation was at an all-time low and now many say it’s even worse after the immedi-ate shock. Many doctors and nurses have had to improvise to provide makeshift care for hundreds of patients for they lack the proper medical equipment. Considering the lack of medi-cal supplies, many of the wounded are one step closer to not surviving the disaster.

“People aren’t getting treated quickly enough,” World Health Organization spokesman Paul Garwood said to CNN. “There’s a priority to ensure we can treat the injuries and prevent infection. These conditions are imposing enormous difficulties in managing the supply and distribution of the massive amounts of aid that are pouring into the country. It’s such a unique disaster when we see the scale of damage. We all have to work together.”

As the Haitian government struggles to coordinate relief efforts for its devastated nation, they are finding tremendous support from the international community. However, the island nation needs to also work together to help rebuild their homes. Disasters can bring out the best in human nature help-ing to unite a group of people. The rush to do good may be welcomed now, but long-term issues need to be addressed as Haitians face the days ahead.

Jan Meyer ‘10 Life in the United States

sure is different from life in Germany – but when people ask me what is different spe-cifically, I sure think about the school system. Having experi-enced the same school system in Germany with only minor changes, the new system is a big difference.

But what is different? And what do I like and maybe dis-like?

The first aspect that comes into my mind are the classes. While being able to take such classes as Essential Living, Writing the News, Video Pro-ductions, Psychology or Graph-ic Arts, the German schools focus on the basic subjects, including Math, Science, and Languages. This makes it hard-er to really specify what you might be interested in and most of the time - you end up discovering and improving your talents in your free time.

But many of these classes are required to take for years. They are usually not divided up (Algebra I, Trigonometry, Calculus, …) but considered as one class (Math).

During my school career, I began learning German (spell-ing and reading), Math, Sci-ence, Religion and other class-es in first grade, still learning them after tenth grade. Art and Music are required also.

I have to admit that because of the longer time a class has to be taken, specific topics can be handled more specific and with more time. I remember spending a semester on the topic of linear motion in Physics, while this topic was done in maybe a grading period here. Sometimes, I feel like in the US we are rushing through the topics instead of thinking deeper.

Germany requires students to go to public schools – home schooling is illegal. You are allowed to support your chil-dren, but every child has to attend a public school.

The education normally starts with the kindergarten (a German word), then the young students may go to preschool (where I never went) and to elementary school from first to fifth grade. A couple of years ago, the ‘Orientierungsstufe’ contained grades 6 and 7, espe-cially supporting the students in their decision about the next kind of school they would attend; however, my region has removed them. Students may now go to the ‘Hauptschule’, the ‘Realschule’ or the ‘Gym-nasium’, from worst to best grades. Gymnasium is not the name of a sports hall but rather the name of the highest school to attend after Elementary.

In Germany, you can gradu-ate in some different areas, such as the mathematic-sci-entific area (Math, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics) or the social area (History, Geography, and Politics). While this may support the individual interests of the students, these areas are still very broad areas. You graduate after twelfth grade if attending the Gymnasium and living in Lower Saxony.

In conclusion and my opin-ion, the American school sys-tem and the German school system even have different goals. While the American school system relies on offer-ing a large amount of classes to help students to discover and improve their abilities and talents, the German school system wants to give every student a similar education on a level as high as they can.

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Megan Flattery


N BlemansIssue 8 Volume 17


Section A Page 4

Britnie Bell ‘10

Morgan Rousseau ‘10

Nobleman’s this year was changed back to its original traditions this year which only had boy’s on court this year. The Nobleman’s season started off by having the theme chosen by the Student Council which was Disney Movies.

Then the next part was having each grade vote for their representatives on court. The representatives for the freshman were Matthew Schauman and Dillon Brousseau. The sophomore representative was Blake Behnke. The junior representatives were Mason Schriber and Brandon Gannon. Lastly, the senior representatives were Marshall Mannion, Neil Noack, Michael Schauman, Brian Rusk, and Francesco Pra Mio.

“It was an honor to be chosen by my classmates. I wish I could have been here to get the full experience,” Senior Representative Mike Schauman.

Not only did the court have some time in the spot light during halftime but also at the court assembly. Each had a personal performance with their escorts for court idol. A couple of the performances were to Love Story,and If you want to be my lover. Marshall was escorted by Brittney Phillips in which they did their performance to Party in the USA. Marshall and Brittney took first place by receiving all tens from the judges which gave the seniors fifty spirit points.

“I loved the assembly. It was cool how we all got to do something to show off our singing skills,” Marshall said.

The Nobleman’s Court went fishing last Friday, January 22 and the halftime of the Boy’s Basketball game against Chesaning. Each court member was recognized by being

escorted with their parents. The Senior Court was high-lighted by having a box that looked like a fish tank that was full of paper shreddings. Then they had to dig in the box to find their piece of paper that had their name on it. Then they had to wait until the count of three to open the piece of paper in which had a crown on the King's paper.

At the count of three, all the boys opened their piece of paper and Senior Marshall Mannion was crowned Nobleman's King. Marshall was voted the top person for the crown against the other four senior representatives. This was not the only time that Marshall was voted by his peers to be on court; he was on court his sophomore year along with Eric Matula.

“It was overwhelming. I really did not think that I would win the crown,” Marshall said.

Marshall is a well rounded guy that is involved in many things throughout the school. Marshall was part of the football team for three years. Also, he has been part of the basketball team for four years. Not only is he well-known in athletics but he is also part of the Health Occu-pation Students of America or HOSA. HOSA is a group for students that are planning to get involved in the Medical field when they graduate.

“I voted for Marshall. He is a great role model for the juniors on court this year,” Mason said.

Marshall was a great candidate for king because he is involved in many different things throughout the school. He had a great time during the dance and with friends. Congratulations to Marshall Mannion for becoming the 2010 Nobleman’s King.

Holly Baranowski ‘12

When January rolls around, most students need a break. Mid-terms have just been done, the weather is still glum. There are still a couple of months till spring break, and even longer till summer. In the midst of all this, one thing that students have to get excited about is the Nobleman’s Dance, last year known as Snowcom-ing.

For many years now, pep-assemblies have been an easy way to get students excited for an event, and the Nobleman’s assembly did its job in doing so. A few days before the dance, Student Council and faculty arranged a few events to get the school ready and excited. It took quite a bit of work to get this set-up, and many people were involved in it.

“We had to plan the activities, practice with the court, and organize the supplies needed as well as set up and reserve the gym,” said executive council advisor, Jennifer Peruski.

The decision to make the switch the court to hav-ing just boys, was also made. Student Council decided on this, just because they preferred how it used to be done. This was also done for Homecoming this year.

Luckily, no problems were experienced while getting the assembly ready, and they were able to showcase the court, and also give recognition to the boys that have been chosen to represent their graduating class. When

it was time for the assembly to actually take place, everything ran smoothly. The boys on court, and also their escorts, were introduced. The court also had to take part in some games that had been planned, such as answering some questions about different Disney movies, and also playing their own version of American Idol.

After that, the boys had to do the Varsity Pom routine for the Fight Song. They students got a good laugh out of that, watching the boys try to kick their legs that high.

“The overall event was really funny. I enjoyed it, and couldn’t stop laughing,” said freshman Erika Krenzke.

After the singing and dancing had been finished, it was time to announce the winner of the Prom Fund-raiser. The person that had had the most money donated towards them, had to shave his head, and senior Joey Lamont won. He was called down, and had his once long hair, shaved in front of the student body.

“Since they asked me, and I agreed, I wasn’t very nervous until it actually came down to it,” said Joey.

When the assembly was over, the students were all very excited for the dance. The pep assembly did its part in getting the students excited, and ready to dance. While January can be a month to drag on, hopefully the assembly and dance is something to get everyone through the slow times.

Left: Senior Court members search for their envelope to determine the King.

From Left to Right: Franches-co Pra Mio, Marshall Mannion, Neil Noack, Brian Rusk, and Michael Schauman.

Phoro Credit: Haley Niedz-wiecki

Right: Snowcoming Queen, Alisa LaFramboise, crowns Marshall Noblemans King while Snowcoming King, Thomas Gran-tham, looks on.

Top: Franchesco congratu-lates Marshall.

Bottom: Marshall is escorted by his parents, Tom and Lou Ann Mannion.


N BlemansIssue 8 Volume 17


Section A Page 5

Sara Reisinger ‘12

With a New Year brings new things, but this year the New Year brought back an old tradition. It brought back the all boys Nobleman’s court. Last year student council made the decision to combine both boys’ and girls’ court for Homecoming and, Snowcoming. However this year it went back to the traditional way of naming it Nobleman’s and having an all boys' court.

“I like the all guys’ court because its tradition and I think we should stick with it. Plus, the girls get all the spotlight at homecoming, so the boys need their time to shine too,” said Senior Libby Scherzer.

Nobleman’s week started with sprit the days. First came pajama day. Then came class color day on Wednes-day followed by stoplight day on Thursday and green and white day on Friday. The seniors won the spirit contest with one hundred and fifty points. Marshall Mannion and Brittney Phillips contributed to the points winning the “Court Idol.” Next came the Freshman with one hundred points. Coming in second to last were the Juniors with a total of seventy five points and the Sophomores coming in at last with twenty five points.

The court assembly was on Wednesday. All the guys showed off their voices and dance moves, and the assem-bly was a crowd pleaser. The court got their chance to show the crowd their personalities’ by lip syncing to a given song.

At the game, they revealed the king. All the court members where escorted by their parents onto the

basketball court, except Freshman Matthew Schauman. Matthew had to have “temporary parents” while his real parents went back to escort Brother Michael Schauman. Robert White and Natalie Puia were generous enough to come out of the crowd and escort him.

The Senior court members went “Fishing for the King” by rummaging through a box of shredded paper to find an folded orange slip of paper with their name on it. When all five of them had theirs they counted to three and opened the paper revealing Marshall Mannion as the Nobleman’s King.

Saturday night brought the dance. Starting at nine o’clock, which gave people plenty of time to go out to dinner and have a good time.

“For dinner we went to Harvey’s in Saginaw and ate, and then we went to the dance after,” said Senior Ali Gatz.

The dance lasted from nine o’clock to eleven forty five. With a great DJ, the dance was a success. Although numbers were down compared to homecoming, which is expected, the dance ended well. It got very positive feedback from the attendees including, sophomore Blake Behnke

“My favorite part about the dance was getting all spiffed up and going out to eat. I had a great time, espe-cially after the dance. The dance was a success in my books.”

The 2010 Nobleman’s ended as a success, and there are high hopes for next year. With all the changes that were made, they seemed to be the right ones.

Best Dressed: Girl: Sara Slachta Guy: Neil NoackCleans up the Best: Girl: Erica Arias Guy: Eric EatonMost Photogenic: Girl: Katie Ott Guy: Marshall MannionBest Dancer: Girl: Autumn DeGroat Guy: Mario BaluhaCutest Couple: Neil Noack and Haley NiedzwieckiDJ Ranking: 8Best Song: Party in the USA by Miley CyrusWorst Song: Shout!/Oldies

Best Dressed: Girl: Courtney Payk Guy: Tim Murphy Cleans up the Best: Girl: Courtney Payk Guy: Jacob MojicaMost Photogenic: Girl: Samantha Payk Guy: Zach VasoldBest Dancer: Girl: Shannon Riffel Guy: Robert WhiteCutest Couple: Abe Bonn and Jaclyn TrahanDJ Ranking: 8Best Song: SandstormWorst Song: Michael Jackson mix

Best Dressed: Girl: Kelsey Finney Guy: Blake BehnkeCleans up the Best: Girl: Kinsley Formsma Guy: Blake BehnkeMost Photogenic: Girl: Taylor Landeryou Guy: Myles SakshaugBest Dancer: Girl: Nicole Toyzan Guy: Cody MarecekCutest Couple: Arianna Batterson and Justin WillettDJ Ranking: 7Best Song: Drop It LowWorst Song: Michael Jackson mix Best Dressed: Girl: Abbye Wenzell

Guy: JC WegnerCleans up the Best: Girl: Emilie Martin Guy: Chris GraebnerMost Photogenic: Girl: Sarah Elliott Guy: Chris GraebnerBest Dancer: Girl: Kim Sampson Guy: Eric SheffieldCutest Couple: JC Wegner and Emilie MartinDJ Ranking: 8Best Song: Tik Tok by Ke$haWorst Song: ChaCha Slide

Soph m res


ART Issue 8 Volume 17


Section A Page 6

Justin Burns brENDAN bELL

sara scharm


SP RTSIssue 8 Volume 17


Section B Page 1

Editor in ChiefAshley Beyer ‘10

Britnie Bell ‘10

Freeland defeated Hemlock 60-44. The Huskies came out strong leading after the first quarter 16-8. Tori Jankoska led the team by hitting four 3-pointers to outscore Hemlock 12-2 in the second quarter. The Lady Falcons outscored Hemlock in the second quarter 12-2. Tori finished the game with 24 points followed by Jenni Jankoska with 19 points and 6 rebounds. Britnie Bell added 4 steals, 11 assists, and 3 rebounds.

“We started off very slow in the first quarter but after the first we got it together and took over from there,” Tori said.

The Lady Falcons continued their winning streak defeating Ovid Elsie last Tuesday. The girls had a 30 point lead by halftime and 8 girls scored in the first half. Freeland played well defen-sively only allowing Ovid Elsie 11 points in the first half. Freeland’s pressure defense forced Ovid Elsie into many turnovers; Britnie added 7 steals while Ashley Beyer had 4. Jenni led the team with 14 points. Tori followed with 11 and Britnie added 10 points and 6 assists.

“Our defense was able to shut them down and cause turnovers. Our offense was able to execute and the break away layups helped give us a good lead,” Emily said.

The girls continued their winning streak last Friday after defeating the Indians of Chesaning. The first half had a lot of score changes and the girls had a hard time getting a safe lead. The Lady Falcons led by only six points at half time. During the second half Freeland increased the lead to 15 points only to have Chesaning come back to make it an 8-point game. Freeland made 9 of their 10 free-throws during the game and won with the final score of 59-49.

Brittney Phillips led the team on the boards with 8 rebounds and she also added 14 points. Jenni led the team in scoring with 21 points followed by Tori with 17. Jenni also added 7 rebounds.

“Our team executed well on defense in the first half and we played some good team ball. We are playing how we should be now that it is getting closer to the tour-nament,” said Ashley.

They Lady Falcons continued their winning streak Tuesday night after defeating the Shepherd Blue Jays 70-31. Ten of Freeland's play-ers scored during the game and they were led by Jenni with 18 points. Their pressure defense made it hard for the Jays to set up any offense and forced them to rush shots and led them to many turnovers.

The girls will play the Blue Jays in the first game of districts later in the season.

Mason Schriber ‘11

The Freeland Varsity Hockey team has had quite a few close scoring games this year. Five games of their fifteen games, have been decided by two goals or less and also three ties. Last week, the Grizzles added one game of each to their record.

On January 16, the Grizzles faced off against the Tri-City Storm. With 48 seconds left, to break the tie, Senior Captain David Thurlow scored making the score 7-6, with the Grizzles on top. With two seconds left, a Storm player put the puck past Senior Goaltender Taylor Weadock to tie up the score 7-7 and forced the game into overtime. Nobody scored in the overtime period so the game was ended at a tie with the score 7-7.

“That game was the most fun I’ve ever had playing in a hockey game in my high school career. We had a loud fan section and the whole team was amped up wanting to win. It was great,” said Senior David Thurlow.

Senior Captain Brian Rusk scored three goals and also had two assists. David Thurlow added two goals and two assists. Goaltender Taylor Weadock had 45 saves.

On January 20, the Freeland Grizzles faced off against the Swan Valley/Hemlock Titans at their home ice in Midland. The first goal was tailed by the Titans in the first period. The Grizzles first goal was scored with four seconds left in the period by Senior Chris Thayer. Both Senior David Thurlow and Junior Alec Castillo got the assist on the goal which made the score 1-1 going into the third period.

“The third period was probably the best period that both teams played great defense. Neither

team got an advantage of having the puck in their offensive end and getting very good looks at the goal,” said Junior Alec Castillo.

With five seconds left in the game and the puck in the Grizzlies defensive side, the puck was shot and ricocheted a few times off a few players and finally into the net. The Titans had won the game on that shot with a score of 2-1 which made the Freeland/Carrollton Grizzles fall to (2-9-3). Goaltender Taylor Weadock finished the game with 32 saves.

“We played pretty good throughout the game. We had some decent scoring chances, but in the end, they (The Titians) got a lucky bounce off a skate and the puck got by. We just can’t catch a break right now,” said Senior Goaltender Taylor Weadock.

In the Grizzles next game, they faced the tough nosed Midland Dow Chargers at the Midland Civic Center. There was no scoring in the first period, but the second period was a whole other story. Junior Mason Miller was the first to put the Grizzles on the board with eighth goal of the year. Within a minute, Dow had scored to tie up the game at 1-1. Within ten minutes, the Grizzles ended up scoring a total of three more times making the score 4-1 until Senior Brian Rusk scored with one second left in the period. In the third period, one more goal was tallied by the Chargers to make the final score of 5-2.

The Grizzles next game is today January 29, against once again the Midland Dow Chargers at the Midland Civic Center. After that game, the Grizzles skate over to Goodrich to take them on at their place.

Lauren Schafer ‘12

What helps a team make it to States? High scores, team work, and motivation are three things that contrib-ute to having a team do really well at a competition. The Freeland Varsity Gymnastics team is doing all they can to not only qualify for Regionals, but also compete for a spot at the State competition.

The girls had a meet at Haslett High School on January 16 and continued to have great improvement. Their team all around was a 134.55, which is their highest all around score of the year. Every meet the team’s all around score continues to jump higher and higher, so they hope to continue the trend for the rest of the season.

“We are improving each week as a team and individu-ally getting stronger in skills and confidence with each performance. Our team goal is to make to States as a team and we have six weeks until the Regional competi-tion. Each competition will make us stronger to achieve this goal,” said Head Coach Suzy Weldon.

At Haslett, the girls placed fourth out of ten teams. When the meets are this big, there are about one hundred competitors. Freshman, Taylor Spitz had an all around score of 35.5 with the help of an awesome floor score of a 9.3 and a bar score of a 9.1. She took a fifth place on floor, seventh place on beam, and a fifth place all around. Junior, Sophie VanKirk also did well with a score of 8.65 on bars. Sophie took eleventh place on bars. Sophomore, Lauren Schafer took eleventh place on beam with a score of 8.65.

“I think we are doing really well this year. You can tell that everyone is working as hard as they possibly can to reach their goals. Our team definitely has what it takes!” said Freshman Michaela Maul.

The girls are just shy of hitting their team goal of 135 points for an all around score. Their most recent meet was this past Tuesday, January 26 at Vassar High School. The girls continue to improve and are getting closer to having each person on the team qualify for a spot at Regionals.

“We are a really supportive team and I think everyone is doing really well and improving. Everybody is adding newer and more difficult skills to their routine and it makes it a lot more fun to watch. I cannot wait to see all of us do great at our home meet and Regionals!” said Freshman Alison Schark.

The team is doing great this year but with only seven weeks left of the season, they will need to work hard to continue to improve and be at their best so they will have an edge against some tough competitors at Regionals.

Some of the meets that are left on the schedule include tomorrow, Saturday, January 30 at Troy Athens High School, Vassar High School on February 2, and one of their biggest meets of the season at Canton High School on February 6. They especially hope to bring in a crowd at their home meet which will be held at the Sportzone on February 20. The team is staying focused and hopes that their positive energy continues to pay off as they are on their way to a successful season.

Ashley Beyer ‘10

The Freeland Falcons, with a record of 6-2, have hit their first winning streak of the sea-son after beating opponents of Hemlock, Bullock Creek, Ovid Elsie, and Chesaning.

In the game against Ovid Elsie the Falcons played an inconsistent game. After racking up the scoring in the first quarter and beating the Marauders 21-6, Ovid Elsie came back and cut their lead to merely 5 points in the sec-ond quarter. Coming out of the half the Marauders cut the lead again. Finally the Falcons pulled away in the fourth quarter and sealed the deal winning 74-57.

“It feels good to finally hit a winning streak and to get our team to be playing better like we know we can,” said senior Ryan Galbraith.

Sophomore David Ruhlman added 18 points while older brother Joe Ruhlman put in 20 points. Senior Marshall Man-nion also chipped in with 13.

Next on the schedule was the Chesaning Indians. It was a tight first quarter and Free-land was only up by three. And after a run in the second quarter they went into the third with a lead of 12 points. The falcons kept up the pace all game and kept the score apart for a win of 56-44.

“We would go on runs and get a good lead they Chesan-ing would cut into our lead

and stay in the game. We just couldn’t keep a good lead,” David said.

Ryan led the team with 16 points and 12 rebounds and Marshall contributed 11. David added ten points and five assists and senior Mario Baluha chipped in with ten.

In the conference game against Shepard the boys were playing for the con-ference title. The game was an intense game from the beginning. After a tough first quarter the Falcons came out with the lead 19-16 and after another hard second quarter the boys went into half time down by one. Free throws were the deciding fac-tor after that. The second half was a close match but Shepard walked away with the win by 2, 60-58, after a missed one-in-one free throw by the Falcons.

“We needed to stay out of foul trouble, but mostly we just lost because they simply outscored us,” Ryan said.

In the game the Blue Jays shot 14-21 from the line and the Falcons only shot 6 of 13. Joe led the team in scoring, collecting 27 points for the Falcons. Marshall brought in the boards bringing down ten and also adding ten points for a double-double.

The Falcons next game is today away at North Branch for the start of the cross-over series.


SPORTSIssue 8 Volume 17


Section B Page 2

Mason Schriber '11

In late January to early February, the teams in their respect-able leagues take a break to either play in or watch their All-Star Games. We have coming up in the near future the NFL, NBA, and NHL All-Star games. The only All-Star game not coming up until July is the MLB All-Star, but we're still going to comment on that. In this week's article, I'm going to give my make on all four All-Star Games in all four leagues.

Each All-Star Game in each league is the only time where all the best players are on the same field/court/ice all together showcasing their skills to a sold out stadium. It also gives every team a break from the schedule. The most recent game coming is the NFL Pro Bowl. This year it takes place January 31, a week before the Super Bowl. Players are chosen by the other play-ers in the league to represent both the American and National Football Conferences. My make on the Pro Bowl, for the way they play the game, is they shouldn't play with pads. They might as well play in shorts and t-shirts because they don't want to get hurt. They're just there to have fun, enjoy the parties, and provide (boring) entertainment. In case LaMarr Woodley was to read this article, the previous statement excludes him because I know he'd go all out and perform at Pro Bowl level and also I don't want to get beat up.

Hockey is taking a year off this year from their annual All-Star game because of the Olympics (thank goodness). This All-Star game, where the starters are chosen by the fans, is a game played with no defense and what seems like no goalies at all. It’s the only hockey game where you will see double digits scores from both teams and absolutely no hitting or drawing of blood.

My make on the hockey All-Star game is that its ten guys figure skating and shooting projectiles into an empty net. My sugges-tion for this All-Star game is to take a three hour nap because that's about how much action you'll see in the game.

The basketball All-Star game is always a big spectacle which always brings the best players to strut their stuff on the basket-ball court. Now to me, all the stuff leading up to the All-Star game is more interesting then the All-Star game itself. All the stuff I'm talking about is the Celebrity All-Star game, the Rookies vs. the Sophomores game, the three point contest and finally the slam dunk competition. In this All-Star game, the starters are voted by the fans and the reserves are voted by the peers. This year, the fans of the NBA decided to act dumbly and vote Allen Iverson as a starter. He started this year playing three games, then retiring, waiting for a contract from someone, and finally signing with the 76ers. He's only averaging 14 points a game, definitely not an All-Star starter amount. My make on the NBA's All-star game is if you want to see an organized street-ball game this is for you because there is not much defense involved and they're just putting on a show which they actually do a good job of.

Finally on the list is the MLB All-Star game, this game doesn't take place until mid-July. In this game, the starters are once again voted by the fans and the reserves are voted in by the coaches of each American and National league teams. In this game, the players actually try their hardest because whichever league wins the game, gets home field advantage for the World Series. My make is that I prefer this All-Star game for personal reasons; it's July, I'm not in school, and it's warm outside. At the game level, they actually play defense which results in a

great game. So in conclusion, All-Star games are great to showcase the

best players and their skills, mostly offensively. In my honest opinion, besides baseball, it’s a waste of a game. So, my final suggestion for the All-Star games is to catch up on you're read-ing, reacquaint yourself with your family, and wait for the regu-lar season to resume. Like a famous person once said, “Give me a ticket to a n A l l -S t a r i s like giving me a tick-et to the c i r c u s , e x c l u d -i n g t h e c l o w n s and ani-m a l s . ” Don't ask me who said that because I don't have a clue.

Morgan LaDouce ‘12

Brett Favre’s comeback year with the Vikings ended in a 31-28 overtime loss to send the New Orleans Saints to the franchise’s first Super Bowl. The Vikings capped off their five turnovers with Favre’s interception late in the fourth quarter. It was all New Orleans from there.

Going into overtime, tied 28-28, rules state that the first team t o score wins the game. The Saints won the coin toss and chose to receive the ball first. In the end the winning points for the Saints rested on their kicker Garrett Hartley, who had yet to make a field goal from more than 38 yards out this season. He split the uprights with a forty yard field goal to give the Saints their first ticket to a Super Bowl. With a win for the Saints, the parties on Bourbon Street were parties that no one ever thought would occur after Hurricane Katrina.

“In reality, we had to lean on each other in order to survive and in order to get where we are now. The city is on its way to recovery, and in a lot of ways had come back better than ever. We’ve used the strength and resiliency of our fans to go out and play every Sunday and play with the confidence that we can do it, that we can achieve everything we’ve set out to achieve,” Saints quarterback Drew Brees told ESPN.

Favre didn’t really want his comeback season to end this way, but according to him, grow-ing up and cheering for the Saints it really didn’t matter either way to him. Both teams gave it everything they had right up until the last seconds, but in the end the Saints prevailed. Super Bowl 44 will showcase the two teams that were projected to go all the way at the beginning of the season.

Morgan LaDouce ‘12

Peyton Manning broke the tie between Kurt Warner and Joe Montana with seven postseason games with 300 or more yards. Pierre Garcon put himself into an AFC title game record with 11 total receptions. Even though the statistics show that the Colts should have had the better game, they just managed to squeak by, as they have most of the season.

Manning and the Colts are heading back to Miami, their favorite city, and the site of all four of their Super Bowl games, two of which they have won. The Colts only lost one fumble, com-pared to a Jets fumble and Mark Sanchez’s interception.

“We’ve been here before; we had seven comeback wins this year. I think the guys were a little rattled at first, I think we too their best shot, but we came back. I think we did a great job of being the hunters and imposing our will today,” Colts linebacker Gary Brackett told ESPN.

T h e Colts punched their ticket to the Super Bowl w i t h a 30 - 17 win over the Jets. The number one ranked defense of New York couldn’t control Man- ning, sacking him only once throughout the game. Man-n i n g a l s o sent passes right through the hands of the defenders into Colts players’ hands. With the Colts win Jim Caldwell became only the fifth rookie coach to take a team to the Super Bowl.

“ T h e guys have always bee a very confident bunch and they do a great job of hanging in there. Peyton had just an outstand-ing game. He’s one of those guys that can adjust to different situations….A real champion,” Caldwell said to E S P N a f t e r the game.

Both teams gave the game their all, but in the end on ly one can go to Miami. This year was the Colts turn once again, although the Jets had a pretty good chance going into halftime staying within three points of the Colts. Good luck to the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl 44.

P e r -sonal goal for the season: To be a great Captain and win the TVC and Districts

Highlight of the season: Joe throwing an alley oop to Ryan for a real close dunk

Favorite sports memory: I have started every basketball game this year and last, and going to the district final game last year

Quote from Coach: “Marshall Is a team player, who always thinks about the team first instead of himself. He is a very quiet person, who many times leads by example versus verbal.

Pre-game ritual: Stretching and hardcore music in the locker room.

Favorite athlete: Brendan Sha-nahan.

Favorite sports memory: Clio hockey brawl, two years ago and Thom’s speeches.

Future Plans: Attend Ferris or Grand Valley to get a criminal justice degree.

Brian Rusk.

Pre-game ritual: Ride with Mill-er, Juice, and Dawson; and rock-ing out to Devil Wears Prada with Wedock in the locker room.

Favorite athlete: Martin St. Louis and Justin Christensen.

Favorite sports memory: The game against Gladwin, I had three goals and two assist.

Future Plans: Either play junior hockey with Ben Kitts or attend a welding program.

Pre-game ritual: Listen to some music.

Favorite athlete: Steve Yzerman.

Favorite sports memory: State semi-finals in soccer this year.

Future Plans: Northwood for four years, then make lots of money.

Pre-game r i tua l : Stretch, then re-tape and wax my stick. Then get ready.

Favorite athlete: Nicklas Lidstrom- the smartest defenseman in the NHL.

F a v o r i t e s p o r t s memory: Pretty much breaking Hemlock’s quarterback in half last Football season.

Pre-game ritual: Ride to the game with Juice, Rusk, and Dawson. Lis-ten to music and relax.

Favorite athlete: Mike Modano.

Favorite sports mem-ory: Getting the game winning hit to win the Pinconning Tournament back to back years

Chris Brian David

Justin Mason


CLASSES Issue 8 Volume 17


Section B Page 3

Morgan Rousseau ‘10

Taylor Landeryou ‘12

Lurking in the back of every high school student’s mind are those dreadful weeks in January and June when they are tested on everything they have learned from the previous semester. The thought of exams may bring forth emotions of anxiety and trepidation; however, there are still a few diamonds in this rough. The pros may not nec-essarily outweigh the cons, but since when is life fair.

“The best part [of exam week] was not having home-work,” said sophomore Justine Clunie.

Most students are in consensus that one of the major positive aspects of exam week is the lack of homework. Naturally, studying for the subsequent day’s exam is in lieu of tangible homework. Although studying may be a difficult task, it does seem less menacing than typical homework. Studying can be difficult when figuring out what exactly to look over, which takes longer than the actual studying.

Many students reject the thought of studying for exams prior to exam week. On the other hand, if stu-dents would begin to review a week before, maybe stress levels would decrease and students would feel more confident when it comes to being prepared.

It is empirically proven that memorizing things right before you sleep are remembered to a greater degree. However, memorizing an entire semester worth of a subject in one night is just not possible. It is much more efficient to review things over a long period, even if it means going over topics multiple times.

Besides major studying, exams come with a bucket-

ful of anxiety and stress. Midterms may only be twenty percent of a final grade, but with a single bad exam, grade point averages can be obliterated. When students are not spending time studying, they are fretting over their grades.

“I had a lot of questions over material that we barely looked over,” said sophomore Evan Vowell.

After exams, a wave of relief rolls throughout the school and allows even the worst of worriers to mellow out. Especially the seniors, who for the most part would not have to take exams again until college, felt this relief. What better way to enjoy that liberation than with a relaxing three-day weekend.

“I thought the best part about exam week was the long weekend after it,” said sophomore Melanie Dupuis.

Another important benefit of exams is preparation for SAT, ACT, and other significant tests. For seniors it is also training for college exams. The skills learned while taking high school exams will carry on to college and later years. The energy put into learning these essential skills will eventually pay off whether it is put to use during college, entrance exams, or certification tests.

“[The best part about exam week is] feeling like you did well on a hard exam,” said Evan.

It is not a secret that students loathe exams. None-theless, it is still a part of life. Some deem exams as worthless experiences; however, they help face the realities of college. It can be stressful at times, but all of this work now will make our futures brighter.

Best Worst No Homework •L a s t E x a m s •fo r S e n i o r s unless to many absencesLong Weekend•Preparation for •SAT, ACT, or any other signifi-cant testsFeeling like you •did well on a dif-ficult exam

Testing all day •longL o n g s t u d y •hoursTesting over a •full semester of workAnxiety•Stress•20 % o f f i n a l •gradeWorrying about •grades

exams

What are your relationships like? Everyone has a different answer to this question, but when you get to the depth of it, they all have the same basics. Everyone’s insight on relationships vary, and many students at Freeland High School are more than happy to share these opinions in Rebec-ca Gascon’s family living class. This class teaches the basics of all different relationship types and allows students to plan their own wedding in explicit detail. Actually, plan-ning the wedding is a main reason that many students joined the class in the first place, but it is no surprise that the students also came back because of Gascon’s well known teach-ing skills.

“I took personal liv-ing last semester and I liked the way that Miss Gas-con teaches. I also want-ed to learn more about my family and plan my own wed-ding. I am hoping to learn how it is to have my own family,” said senior Petra Fusko- va.

When most people think ‘relationship’ they immediately think of significant others. However, ‘relationship’ refers to many different situations, and this class touches on the most of them. The majority of these include family relationships, dating, marriage, divorce, and of course love. This leaves an endless amount of possibilities for the students who are willing to learn.

“I am hoping to learn more about the rela-tionships I’m in and how to improve them,” said

junior Emily Hardy. The feedback many of the students, as well

as Gascon, have gotten from the class is com-pletely positive. It is evident that the word of this class really got around, because the number of students is chart-topping, with a total of forty students in the beginning of the semester, but has been cut down. Because of all the hype and success brought in from last year’s class, Gascon has decided not to change much about it compared to last year, besides tweaking a few minor details.

“Students love this class because it relates to their

e v e r y d a y lives. We have lots of discus-

sion and the kids really seem

t o get involved and be interested,”

said Gascon. In some classes, students

have a hard time speaking up, whether they aren’t

quite sure what to say, don’t really have an

opinion, or just don’t want to get involved. This situ-

ation very scarcely happens in family living.

With all of the variation of discussions and the enthusiasm of

everyone in the room, it has a tendency to rub off on those shy students, who just can’t help but put in their two-cents. This definitely creates an exciting, energetic environment that many students crave. It’s what would be consid-ered a silver lining to their plain daily routine day. It’s no wonder so many students are trying so hard to get into this very unique class.

www.edwardjones.com Member CIPFJustin HerbolsheimerFinancial Advisor.7305 Midland Road Ste 3Freeland, MI 48623989-695-4820

WE SUPPORT THE FREELAND COMMUNITYSCHOOLS, "GO FALCONS".

Member SIPC

Ryan Baxter ’12

The Advanced Physics course at Free-land High School has seen some rather large changes since the previous year. First of all, the course was made available to sopho-more students during the latter half of the 2008-09 academic term. Due to this, the course had to be adapted to fit the educa-tional needs of the younger students who would be taking it in place of the regular tenth grade Physics class. Therefore, the course would not include some of the more advanced concepts meant to be taught in the class. Said concepts have now been moved to a new Advanced Physics class to be taken next year, and the current class will now be known as Honors Physics.

The decision to make this sudden switch was made by Freeland teachers Nickole Clark (Advanced Physics) and Robert Peter-son (Physics). After careful consideration, the conclusion was reached that the current Advanced Physics course was too similar to the regular Physics course, it is simply more math based. Now that the course is being considered an honors level version of Phys-ics, there will be a new advanced course offered next year.

“It is the same curriculum, just with more math,” said Clark.

The change will have somewhat, how-ever small, of an effect. For seniors, it will not have much of an impact at all. For sophomores and juniors, an honors course will appear on their transcripts. They will

also be able to take the new advanced course next term.

“They could take advanced physics next year, but it will be a different course,” said Clark.

There is, as of yet, very little informa-tion on the second advanced physics course. It is still unknown what its official title will be or who exactly will be teaching it. Clark hinted at the possibility of Peterson taking the position when she addressed her cur-rent Honors Physics class on the issue last week, at the start of the new semester. In the new course, many concepts not covered in Honors Physics will be studied.

“[There will be] heat, thermodynamics, atomic physics, modern electronics, and subatomic physics,” said Clark.

This change seems to yield, so far, a rather positive series of results. First of all, the current students of the class will have an honors course, as well as an advanced course if they choose to take part in the new class next year, on their transcript, which always proves advantageous to the advanced scholar. It will look even better on the transcripts of sophomores, having taken it so early. Second, future students will now have two opportunities throughout their high school career to receive a thor-ough and advanced education in the mag-nificent field of scientific study that is phys-ics. Clark seems to feel that the change for the best, for when asked she replied quite concisely that it was “good”.

“I thought exams were really easy. However, sophomore English was the worst one,” said Sophomore Lane Compton.

“I thought exams were really hard and I thought I was going to die,” said Freshman Patrick Peck.

“Exams were pretty easy if you prepared for them,” said Freshman Darby McCracken.

“Exams weren’t that great. Sophomore English and Spanish I thought were hard,” said Sophomore Nicole Bowman.

The reason that Dawn Shea is selected for teacher of the issue is because she is not just a math teacher for most of the students but also a caring adult. That is there for all her students whenever they need her, and always willing to give out a helping hand. She is the type of teacher that will go through things as much as someone needs until they understand it completely. She made up a song to the quadratic formula and some students still use it today in their math class. She is the teacher that students will not forget; she is always happy and enlightens the mood when students are in her classroom. She is truly a great teacher, and those who weren’t able to experience her presence have missed out greatly.

Mrs.

Shea

Grade: 101. What school did you transfer

from?: Arthur Hill

2. How do you like Freeland so far?

It’s great

3. What sports or activities or extracurriculars do you plan on being involved in?

I don’t know yet

4. How are people here at Free-land?

Friendly

5. What is the biggest differ-ence between your former school and Freeland?

Less fights

6. What do you miss most about your former school?

My friends

7. What do you like best about it here?

The students

Grade: 101. What school did you

transfer from?: Arthur Hill High School

2. How do you like Free-land so far?

It is good

3. What sports or activi-ties or extracurriculars do you plan on being involved in?

I have none yet

4. How are people here at Freeland?

Friendly

5. What is the biggest difference between your former school and Freeland?

Freeland is much smaller

6. What do you miss most about your former school?

My friends

7. What do you like best about it here?

Lunch

Jacob Arn

Aaron Arn


CLASSESIssue 8 Volume 17


Section B Page 4

Check out what we are doing by checking

our page on the school web site! All meetings in the High School cafeteria

starting at 7 p.m. Join us as we work to provide an edge

for our Falcons!


For the second year in a row, Rebecca Gascon’s Essential Living Skills class have been spicing things up for their exams. Along with a written exam, the students have to put the cooking skills they learned during the semester to good use. The competition is named “The Iron Chef.” The catch is that they have to use the secret ingredient chosen by Gascon, and they have to use it better and more creatively in order to win. This time, the secret ingredient was cheese.

The kids are broken up into small groups, about 5-6 people each. Each group comes up with 3 dishes that they want to make for the judges. They are graded on taste, plating, and originality of their dishes. For each class there are three different judges. The judges can be anyone from teachers, parents, or any other adult that would help out.

“It’s hard for the judges because there is not a lot of time but when it comes down to it, the kitchen that used the secret ingredient the best wins,” said Gascon.

The competition isn’t just for fun, but it also teaches the kids a lot and helps them

further develop their cooking skills. By competing, the students learn how to work as a team, multitask while cooking many different dishes, and it develops their comfort l e v e l with cooking because they are using the tools and are in the kitchen even

more. “I think that competing was a very good cooking experience for

everyone,” said sophomore Tom Taugher. Keeping the secret ingredient in mind, Tom’s group made chili

con queso, quesadillas, and Mexican style cornbread. They even took the extra measure to impress the judges and wore Mexican clothing; sombreros and ponchos.

“The cornbread took the longest and the chili con queso was the hardest, but overall I think our group did prime!” said Tom.

The students not only take away the fun they had but also all of the skills they learned over the course of the semester, which they put into use during “The Iron Chef” competition. It’s a great way to wrap up the semester and test out their new skills.

“When students enter my class at the beginning of the semester, some have never been in a kitchen before or even cooked before, but after the class they really learn a lot and really get into cooking and being creative,” said Gascon.

Caitlyn Skornia ‘12

Most people when they think of worms they think of rain that brings them out of the ground, the smell of them in the rain, and catching them for fishing. But there is another use for worms besides fishing. Instead of using them to catch food worms can be a factor in growing food.

Special Education teacher, Dennis Andrews, and his class is dabbling with this very idea. There is a special word used for recycling with worms, it is called Vermacomposting, in a simpler term it is called a worm bin. Basically what this means is the experimenter has a box with worms, a controlled environment, garbage, and maintaining their box using their waste as fertilizer.

“I am so excited about the Vermacomposting project because this is a new experience for me. This will help out the environment, and hopefully make our plants look awesome. Mr. Andrews and Mrs. Burke are teaching us a lot of new and exciting things in the green house,” said Junior Miguel Lara.

Before Andrews’s class could get started with this experiment, they decided to remodel the greenhouse. Remodeling the greenhouse was a huge project for the kids because it needed a lot of attention, repairs, and cleaning.

“We started the greenhouse project in the fall of 2008. It took time to clean and repair the greenhouse because it had not been used for several years. It

took us until the spring of 2009 to actually see the fruits of our labor,” said Andrews.

The class cleaned out the greenhouse, took out old potting tables removed an old sink and cupboard, painted, organized supplies. Woodshop teacher, Barry Duke and his class built them new potting tables. The class sold treats to the teachers to earn money to fund their project. Life Skills teacher, Becky Gascon supplied them with plants from her family’s greenhouse in Fowlerville. Andrews’s class worked daily on this project for one to two hours each day.

“One of my favorite things about fixing the greenhouse is that we made the school look and smell much better. It was just sitting there unused for so long. The second favorite thing about fixing the greenhouse was that the students and staff can be proud of good old Freeland High. I am proud to have been apart of it. I give thanks to Mr. Andrews, Mrs. Burke, and my class we were able to give back to Freeland,” said Senior Travis Ramon.

Now that Andrews’s class has fixed up the green house, their project is taking place in the new environment. They keep their composter in a cool place in the new greenhouse. Now when you’re walking in the rain, and you look down and see worms lying around, think of how much they are able to impact the environment in a natural way.

The Advanced Communications Class recently introduced themselves through the ABC’s. They had to have something for each letter of the alphabet to describe them.

The of the Advanced Communications class.’

+ = Vermicomposting


GRUBS THE TalonJanuary 29, 2009

Section B Page 5


Issue 8 Volume 17


What did you do?Amanda: Job shadowed a cardiologist for the day. I

got to see five different procedures- All were stinting, two in the carotid arteries, one in the leg and the other two were in the coronary arteries. The second proce-dure I was able to stand in the operating room.

Jackie: I watched television and went to three practices.

Katy: I woke up at seven and went to the doctors. Then I had to run errands with my mom until prac-tice.

Ryan: I went to a friend’s house.

What is your ideal day-off?Amanda: Being at the beach with the heat and sun.Jackie: The perfect day would be spent outside in

eighty degree weather on a beach.Katy: Doing something fun, like going shopping or

hanging with friends.Ryan: Party!

What would be the worst way to spend your day-off?Amanda: Shoveling snow.Jackie: Stuck in the house with siblings.Katy: Being grounded and not being able to do anything fun.Ryan: Doing work or chores.

Dakota Burch ‘11

Have you ever wondered what it was like to go skiing? I’m sure many of the people reading this article have gone skiing, and oth-ers however, are probably scared out of their minds when it comes to skiing, because they are afraid of getting hurt or badly injured.

I myself have gone skiing, and I thought it was a fun trip. You are probably wondering how a blind man skis without getting badly injured. There is a special program that visu-ally impaired individuals and their families can go to get training. It takes place in late January, early February. This special program is called Challenge Mountain. It takes place close to Boyne Mountain. There is a smaller hill that the skiers get their training on.

There is some preparation that is needed before anyone can go skiing. To get ready, the participants need to find the right boots and skis that fit them well. They also have to make sure they are wearing a snow suit so that they don’t get soaked out on the hill.

Everyone who wishes to get training will be placed with an instructor that will help them throughout the day. Those that haven’t skied before, or think they need more train-ing, can go in a beginner’s course. This course will teach the basics of skiing. This will help the people out so that they can then try their luck on the whole hill, instead of just a small portion of it.

There are three main commands that the instructor will give those that are participat-ing in the skiing event. These include “left”,

“right”, and “down”. Left means you must turn your skis left, right means you must turn your skis to the right, and down means you should just let yourself fall to the ground. The “down” command is used when there is a slight chance that the person will get injured, either by running into an object that may be on the hill, or just running into another person. These commands are used so that everyone remains safe on the hill while they are skiing.

Some people may get mad if they fall when they first start to ski. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. I know I fell my first time skiing, and I still do every year until I can man-age my balance up on the hill. I don’t give up though, I just keep trying until I succeed and make it down the hill. After two or three times going down the hill, I am usually pretty balanced, and ready to have some fun. Then, I just keep skiing many times throughout the day.

There are other things the participants can do while at the skiing hill. They can go back inside if they happen to get bored out on the hill. Inside, people can drink hot chocolate; eat some snacks, or just sit around talking with their friends. That is what I am pretty good at. Sometimes, it just gets too cold outside, and some people need a break.

This year, the event takes place from Janu-ary 29 until January 31. Many people will be attending the event and it should be loads of fun for everyone. It just shows us that every-one can do most of the same things, if they put their minds to it.

Amanda Slezsak Senior

What could have improved the day?Amanda: Nothing.Jackie: Being able to sleep in and only have one practice.Katy: Not waking up so early, not going to the doctors.Ryan: Finding out that we had the rest of the week off.

Prom is approaching fast, and fundraisers along with it. Courtney Payk, President of the junior class, held a fundraiser during the days leading up to this winter’s Nobleman’s dance. Courtney got this idea off of the internet and then made it unique in her own way by select-ing four students from our school.

The purpose of the “Bald is Beautiful” fundraiser was to raise money for Prom of 2010. The rules of the fundraiser were that four boys would be chosen and whichever contestant brought in the most donations from students was to have all of their hair shaved off during the Nobleman’s assembly, in front of the entire student body and staff at the high school. The winner was also to receive a free ticket to Prom.

The fundraiser was held for approximately two weeks during the lunch hours at the high school. Students were able to put money into containers, specified for each contestant. The four gentlemen chosen were Brendan Hoff, Justin Christensen, Joey Lamont and Chris Thayer. These four students were all cho-sen, and begged, by Courtney. Each of them admits to being a little nervous at one point or another during the competition.

“At first, I was worried about having to shave my hair, but near the end I got over it,” said senior Chris.

Chris participated in this fundraiser to

help raise money for Prom and he also thought it would be exciting. Justin participated in this fundraiser for the benefit of Prom and also because he has not had short hair since his freshman year. Brendan claims he helped with this fundraiser because Courtney jokingly threatened to “beat him up”. However, despite their legitimate reasons participating, none of these boys were the winners. Senior Joey was the winner by a landslide. He collected about eighty dollars from his peers, bringing the grade total of this fundraiser to around 170 dollars.

“The worst part about being bald and beau-tiful is how cold it is outside,” said Joey.

Joey participated because he thought it was fun when Courtney asked him. He had a feeling that he was going to be the winner, but wasn’t worried about loosing his hair until the very end when it was announced he had won. He is not completely saddened by his new do and thinks it is actually “tight”.

“The money raised from the fundraiser goes towards Prom of 2010, at this point it is mainly for the decorations at Prom,” said Courtney.

Courtney believes that this was a very suc-cessful fundraiser, especially because it had no output cost. She also plans on doing it again, possible with more popular results the second time around. Courtney would also like to thank Mrs. Seibert of Alternative Hair Salon for donat-ing her time and talent to shave Joey’s head.

Amanda LyVere ‘11 Are you a person that wants to get involved? Positive Peers is a great

way to do this. Helping the children from the Learning Center and Elemen-tary, making a design for a t-shirt to be sold to students, or even pledging to be Safe and Sober over Spring B r e a k .

T h e s e are a few of the t h i n g s that the Posi-t i v e Peers take p a r t i n e a c h year.

Get the creative juices flowing and create a shirt design for the school. The Positive Peers are having their second annual t-shirt design contest. All that is needed to win is a great Drug Free design and there will be fifty dollars in your hand.

The designs are due to Mrs. Klida by Feb. 10. The Executive Positive Peers wi l l be judging the contest on Feb 11. The one with the best idea will get fifty dollars and eventually their design will be printed on t-shirts to be sold to the students of the school. There is also a second place design gets the honor of having their design also printed. The second place winner will be awarded with twenty-five dollars, as well. This is a fun way to be original with the designs. Get those designs into Mrs. Klida by Wednesday Feb 10, because that is the last day to turn them in and possibly win fifty dollars.

“We decided to do another t-shirt contest because this was a fun way to get artistically known, it is a fun way to create a great design and see it

everywhere around the school, said Positive Peers advisor Tamara Klida.

The Positive Peers are also tak-ing part in Pizza and Picasso at the Elementary school on Jan 28. This is a new experience for the Positive Peers, but it will be a fun night help-ing children. The group members will be helping the Elementary and Learning Center kids to have fun and take part in stations of crafts. The PTO has decided to let the children make a collaborative mural on this day. This is a free fun day for the whole fam-ily. There will be pizza served and there will fun stations, there will even be door prizes.

“This is the first year that the Positive Peers have taken part in the Pizza and Picasso. This sounded like a fun activity to take part in and I thought we would be great help for the m u r a l that will be made this year,” said Klida.

The Positive Peers have taken part to be Safe and Sober over Spring Break. Spring Break i s right around the corner. On Apr. 1, the Positive Peers that would like to pledge to be Safe and Sober will get a smoothie at lunch after they pledge. Yo u could change these days. The students can pledge to be Safe and Sober over the break.

These are a few of the many different things that the Positive Peers are involved in. Do not forget the designs for the t-shirt contest. There is a great prize and it will be all over the school for the students to buy. If you are Safe and Sober, Pledge and then you get a free smoothie. These are a few

of the different ways to be involved in Positive Peers and have fun at the same time.

Ryan WirtzSophomorej a c k i e

Kendall Senior

Katy Baase Junior

Emily Wegner ‘11

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FEATURESIssue 8 Volume 17


Section B Page 6

Kaleigh Theriault ‘11

Jan Meyer ‘10

German and French government warn: The browser shows major lacks in security --- Unwanted code can attack the computer.

The use of the right browser does not really concern most people – after all, it is ‘just a browser’. What they do not know: Most of dan-gerous code still is on websites spread over the web. And these websites might not even look dangerous at all.

Modern browsers such as Mozilla Firefox 3, Apple Safari or Opera try to add an additional protection to the computer, supporting the anti-virus software installed. The Internet Explorer by Microsoft continued lacking secu-rity features. Right now, another error in the browser has been found by Chinese hackers.

Experts consider them Chinese cyber-spies. Various companies, including Google and Adobe have already been attacked. On Thursday, January 21st, Microsoft announced a “Vulnerability in Internet Explorer (That) Could Allow Remote Code Execution". German and French government warned shortly after.

The security breach enabled the attackers to install danger-ous code on computers and run it. The attackers used this to download an installer for a Trojan horse. Trojans horses can have multiple purposes – most likely was the use of ‘key logging’ to steal passwords. In this mode, Trojans horses log every key pressed and can so get pass-

words to damage an individual or a group. It might get your password for Face-

book, your email-account or even your online-banking pass-word and username. Also, the program downloaded files from

the internet that established a so-called ‘backdoor’ connection. The attacker can now access your computer without any restric-tions at anytime. He can see,

save, edit, delete files, he can see your desktop and control it how-

ever he wants, even with you being unaware of it.

However, Microsoft is aware of the problem and said that they are working on an ‘emer-gency patch’ that they will release soon. The

‘protected mode’ of the Internet Explorer does not solve the problem by the way – it does noth-ing to prevent the attack. On Monday, the IT security arm of France, the CERTA, followed the warning of the German BSI that attackers can “start and lock computers that have a Windows operating system.”.

The recommendation of Germany’s Federal Department for Information Technology Secu-rity (BSI) and my recommendation is to change your browser to an alternative one, such as Firefox 3 by Mozilla. Also, make sure to have an anti-virus program installed and updated all the time. According to the BSI, you should also 'Keep informed about the civic-CERT; it and the BSI warn citizens and small and medium enter-prises from viruses, worms and vulnerabilities in computer applications.

Dakota Burch ‘11

One of the latest sensations to country music is the country music group Lady Ante-bellum. Lady Antebellum was formed in 2005, with the members Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott. Hillary Scott is the daughter of country music singer Linda Davis. Charles Kelley is the brother of pop singer Josh Kelley.

Charles Kelley con-vinced Dave Haywood, an old classmate of his to join him so they could write music together. Soon after Charles and Dave start-ed writing their music, Charles started talking to Hillary Scott. After meet-ing her at a Nashville music club, they asked her to join the band. That is when the three formed the group they called Lady Antebellum.

After the band was formed, Lady Antebel-lum would play in various venues. In July of 2007, Lady Antebellum signed a contract with Capitol Records Nashville. Soon after signing the contract, Lady Antebellum started get-ting famous with their music. This was when Jim Brickman, an adult contemporary artist asked them to sing on his single, entitled Never Alone. Lady Antebellum also wrote a song for the MTV reality series The Hills.

Lady Antebellum released their self-titled album on April 15, 2008, on Capitol Nashville Records. This was the first album

by any new duo or group to debut number 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts. This album features the singles Love Don’t Live Here, Lookin’ for a Good Time, and I Run to You.

“Lady Antebellum rocks! Their better than Taylor Swift in my opinion,” said an anonymous user on Billboard.com.

You can tell that many people enjoy the music of Lady Antebellum. Lady Ante-bellum’s single I Run to You, was their first number 1 song of their career. This made Lady Antebellum, along with many others pretty happy.

“Clean country music, recommended, one for the car or that odd day after work,” said an anonymous user on Billboard.com.

Lady Antebellum released another single on August 5,

2009, entitled Need You Now. This single became Lady Antebellum’s second number 1 in the week of November 28, 2009. The song quickly climbed the charts because it was loved by so many people after it was released to radio.

Their second album, entitled Need You Now, was released on January 26, 2010. This album features the hot single Need You Now, and 11 other various tracks recorded by the band.

Lady Antebellum has been a big hit and a sensation to many people. Many people enjoy their music and hope they keep coming out with much more new exciting singles.

We Need You Now,Lady Antebellum


Based off the attention grabbing book, the new movie, The Lovely Bones, hit box offices this month. In the story, 14-year-old Susie Salm-on, the oldest child in the Salmon family, gets brutally murdered by her neighbor. During most of the movie, Susie is stuck in-between heaven and Earth, watch-ing down over her family and friends not wanting to let go of her life that is still going on without her.

After Susie’s death, the tension between her family grows. The mother has an especially hard time letting go of her daughter, even after a good six months have passed. This causes Susie’s parent to start drift-ing, and her mom ends up leaving them. Once the children’s mother leaves and heads to California, Susie’s grandmother moves in with them to take care of the kids. Meanwhile, her dad and younger sister Lindsey are still trying to figure out who really killed Susie.

While her dad searches through everyone he knows, Lindsey had a suspicion all along. As the movie goes on, the audience gets a taste of

how the family feels not having Susie around any longer, and how much her death has torn the family apart but does her family ever end up finding out who her murderer is?

For the majority, the movie is well written. Peter Jackson, the direc-tor of the film, did a very good job portraying life after someone dies and fills the audience’s mind with a beautiful mental image of what it is like to be stuck in the in-be-tween.

But the movie also has its share of predictable moments. Right before Susie runs into her creepy neighbor Mr. Harvey, the viewers know what is going to happen. There are a few other scenes throughout the movie like this one.

The Lovely Bones is not for everyone. It does not show how Susie gets killed or any of the gory and gruesome scenes. If people like that kind of

stuff, this movie isn’t for you. Overall the movie can keep the audiences’ interest for a while. It is one of those movies viewers can see or can go without seeing.

Jon Benson '11

Conan O'Brien. Jay Leno. The National Broadcasting Company. When NBC decided to put Leno in O'Brien's place, the nation reacted – causing one of the most controversial and amusing television conflicts of the decade.

This conflict has roots that go all the way back to 2004. At the time, O'Brien had been hosting his own show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, on NBC. When other networks, including FOX, began to offer O'Brien more lucrative contracts, NBC decided to offer O'Brien the opportunity to host The Tonight Show starting in 2009 in an attempt to keep him on board. Leno, then the current host, accepted the change.

NBC, however, wanted to keep Leno as well, and offered him his own show at 10 PM, a strange move considering that the time slot is generally used for dramas.

All went according to plan. Leno wrapped up his Tonight Show at the end of May, O'Brien took over on June 1, and the new Jay Leno Show premiered in Sep-tember.

Unfortunately for NBC, The Jay Leno Show quickly lost most of the viewers that it gained in the first week. Put simply, it was a flop. Even more problematically, local network affiliates – complained that Leno's show was taking away lead-in viewers; that is, fewer and fewer people were sticking around until the end to watch the news afterward.

NBC decided to pull the plug, only four months after the show's premiere. Whether or not this was a good decision has yet to be seen, but their next move was even more controversial. Instead of firing Leno once and for all, they decided to give him one more chance, this time in a half-hour show at 11:35. This, however, would bump The Tonight Show back to the 12:05 time slot. O'Brien finally stepped in.

In a heartfelt statement addressed to the “People of Earth.” O'Brien firmly rejected the move.

“I sincerely believe that delaying the “Tonight Show” into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting,”

said O'Brien. In reaction to O'Brien's resistance and his ratings

(which were generally worse than Leno's had been on The Tonight Show), NBC made its next questionable deci-sion, and offered Leno his old job as host of The Tonight Show. He accepted, and O'Brien's last show was set for January 22. Leno showed little remorse for O'Brien's cancellation.

"This is all business," Leno said. "If you don't get the ratings, they take you off the air."

The Internet began to take sides, and rallies began springing up around the nation in support of O'Brien. Numerous groups on Facebook and Twitter started, many boasting the catchphrase “I'm With Coco.” Supporters with orange clothes and hair surrounded the O'Brien's studio. At one point, O'Brien even emerged on a rooftop and gave all the participants of a rally pizza, on him.

Other late-night comedians quickly began to capital-ize on the conflict. Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! even filmed an entire show dressed up as Leno, complete with a large chin, speech impediment, and the Leno's popular Headlines segment. He also appeared in an episode of The Jay Leno Show, and took every chance to hurl insults at the host.

“I told a guy that five years from now I'm going to give him my show, but then when the five years came I gave it to him, and I took it back almost instantly. I think he works at Fox or something now,” Kimmel said when asked by Leno about the best prank he ever pulled.

O'Brien's last show aired last Friday, as scheduled. After a surprise visit from The Office star Steve Carell, a brief interview with actor Tom Hanks, and a musical performance by Neil Young, O'Brien thanked NBC for the good times at Saturday Night Live and Late Night,and tearfully warned America's youth against cynicism. Finally, O'Brien grabbed a guitar and joined Will Fer-rell, Max Weinberg and the Tonight Show Band in a final performance of “Free Bird.”

Leno returns to The Tonight Show in March. O'Brien's future in entertainment, and the survival of The Tonight Show, are uncertain. But in any case, the whole con-troversy has resulted in some of the most entertaining television in years.

WHO? Senior Brooke SchneiderWHAT IS YOUR VEHICLE? 1999 Buick La Saber

“limited edition”.WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND YOUR VEHICLE?

My grandpa wanted a new car so when he bought his Impala, he have me his car.

WHAT ARE SOME MEMORIES IN YOUR VEHICLE? Back when my grandpa owned it, he used to take me to youth group. One day when I was a freshman everyone called shotgun, so he decided to make all of us sit in the back. My brother laid on the floor, my friend Alison was in the middle seat, and I sat in a car seat.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD THIS VEHICLE? Almost a year.

HOW DID YOUR CAR BECOME A CLUNKER? My car has been a clunker since the day I got it… but I treat it like a gem.

Ryan Baxter ’12

Throughout recent years, the Chinese government has become somewhat notorious for profound censorship of the World Wide Web within the country. This expurgation of internet content has extended to a variety of sites; including social networking sites, blogs, video sharing sites, and journalistic sites. Search engines have been made to block any foreign-owned content that is deemed too politically, socially, or religiously sensitive. Google, who created a search engine specifically for use in China four years back, has adhered to the communist-run government’s standards for a long time. Now, after a recent computer hacking attack on a multitude of human-rights activists from within China, Google is now considering a departure from China and the end of its adher-ence to the government’s censorship.

The attacks were made against the Gmail (Google’s e-mail service) accounts of Chinese human-rights advocates operating in the United States, Europe, and China itself. The hackings were found to have originated in China, yet it cannot be ascertained who the actual culprits were. The attacks involved the sending of an e-mail, disguised as a legitimate message from a trustworthy individual or group, which would contain a link that, once followed, would install harmful software on to the receiver’s computer which would then allow the perpetrator access to their personal informa-tion, such as passwords.

Such hacking incidents are frequent, but they have never reached this extent before. It is because of this that Google offi-cials are second-guessing their acquiescence to China’s censorship and are now considering their withdrawal. However, there are talks planned between Google and the government in an attempt to allow the search engine to forsake the China’s censorship laws and still remain in the country.

“We see these attacks and we just feel that we just simply can’t continue to operate that way,” said David Drummond, Chief Legal Counsel for Google.

As of yet, it is still unknown who is behind these e-mail attacks. It has been so far very difficult to trace the e-mails back to their source. This brings up the question of whether they came from an independent group or individual, or if the government itself is behind it. Either way, taking into account the fact that the attacks were against human rights activists, there was obviously some sort of political motivation behind them.

Google officials have stated that, in the attacks, “intellec-tual property” was stolen. This means that intelligence used by Google for innovation is now in the hands of the perpetrators. Said intelligence could include anything; ideas, formulas, or codes for example. It has been speculated that they were an attempt of China’s to gain the technological secrets of the West and thus catch up to them. Considering the motive of gaining information has been another clue pointing toward governmental involvement.

“When you see human espionage directed against specific tech-nologies like quiet submarine drive systems [or] naval propulsion systems, and cyberattacks to extract exactly the same information, a reasonable analyst will conclude that it is probably government-directed,” said Larry Wortzel, an espionage expert and member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently issued a strong statement against the Beijing, saying that it was threatening the “free flow of information” on the internet with its censorship. She also requested of China a thorough investigation of the attacks on Google. Following these statements, Beijing countered by accusing the U.S. of “information imperialism” and wrongful allegation of the Chinese government.

“Regarding comments that contradict facts and harm China-U.S. relations, we are firmly opposed. We urge the U.S. side to respect facts and stop using the so-called freedom of the Internet to make unjustified accusations against China,” said Foreign Min-istry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu.

While the culprit behind the e-mail attacks has not, as of yet, been identified, Google still grapples with the question of whether or not to leave China, and the debate over internet censorship rages on. It cannot be predicted how long the issue will take to sort out or how its sorting out will come to pass. It can only be hoped that an agreement can and will be made within a reason-able amount of time.

GooGle and China ReaCh a diveRGenCe

WHO? Senior Sara SchramWHAT IS YOUR VEHICLE? 2006

Mazda 3.WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND

YOUR VEHICLE? My parents got it for my older brother when he started to drive and when I start-ed driving we began to share it. Now it is mostly mine because he is up at college.

WHAT ARE SOME MEMORIES IN YOUR VEHICLE? My brothers and I went to Caberfae and I was being squeezed in the backseat with three snowboards. Then my car got stuck so I had to steer while my brother and some random guys pushed it out.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD THIS VEHICLE? Four years.

WHAT MAKES YOUR VEHICLE DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS? It can be gold or silver, depending on the light.

Documents

Issue 8 Volume 17 Noblemans Art Sports Classes Grubs Features · CYAN MAGENTA YELLOWYELLOW BLACK Issue 8 Volume 17 Tal n January 29, 2009 THE Noblemans Art Sports Classes Grubs Features