Asteroid Sample Returns Back To Earth by Kale Cunningham

On Sunday, September 23rd the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample touched down in the sandy plains of Utah. The capsule contains a sample from a 4.5 billion year old asteroid, named Bennu. This is a very exciting time for space scientists, after waiting for 7 years they can finally start studying the asteroid sample. 

7 Years of Waiting  

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (Its a hard name to pronounce but maybe to make it easier you could go by its original name: The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer?) was launched in 2016, with a goal of collecting an asteroid sample from asteroid Bennu. NASA had chosen Bennu because of its age, it is 4.5 billion years old. The asteroid’s birth dates back to the early solar system. Space scientists wanted to study a small sample from Bennu in hope to unlock some mysteries of the early solar system. After launch the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was traveling at a speed of 5 miles per second, (Around 18,000 miles per hour!) but it still took it a two year trip to reach the asteroid. 

After successfully entering orbit around the Empire State Building sized object, the spacecraft began another two year mapping trip. From 2018-2020, OSIRIS-REx orbited and mapped the asteroid searching for a good place to take a sample. In late 2019, NASA announced that they had found a target that OSIRIS-REx could sample. 

In October 2020 the spacecraft’s robotic arm touched the surface of the asteroid for a split second, in that split second the robotic arm grabbed a rock sample that weighed around 200 grams (the plan was to grab a sample that weighted at least 60 grams) and then fired up its engines. After the spacecraft was back into orbit the robotic arm stored the sample in a protected capsule. In May 2021, OSIRIS-REx departed Bennu and started a course for Earth. 

Landing

After two years of traveling through space, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft finally came within 1 million miles of Earth, where it released its capsule into Earth’s atmosphere. OSIRIS-REx then departed by firing its engines to get away from Earth’s firefly atmosphere to continue its trek in space. 

The asteroid sample was protected from Earth’s atmosphere by a heat shield, after being clear of the burning atmosphere the capsule opened up a parachute and landed safely on the ground.

Studying The Sample

The asteroid sample was transported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Where it will be studied by the top space scientists of the world in the upcoming weeks. The research team will study the asteroid sample in a room that has been modified so that germs and DNA from Earth can not attach itself onto the asteroid and give false readings in the testing process. NASA plans to release the research findings sometimes in mid to late October. 

A New Target 

Only OSIRIS-REx’s capsule with the sample got to come back to Earth. It was originally planned that the spacecraft remaining in space would be powered off. But all of the scientific instruments onboard are still in good health so NASA is recycling the mission into something new. OSIRIS-REx is currently heading for a new target called Apophis. It is a similar size to asteroid Bennu. Because of its new target OSIRIS-REx has now been renamed to OSIRIS-APEX ('APophis EXplorer') however it's still going to be another long joinery, the spacecraft wouldn't reach it until 2029! 

Bring Back Recess by Zoe Yan and Heidi Hoffman

As you may know, after 6th grade there is no more recess. We both agree that this is a big problem and we think that by bringing back recess this will help our brains by having a break before our classes. Sitting down for many hours can be tiring and sometimes we just need to get up and stretch. Sure there is lunch, and walk and talk, but sometimes we need a little more of a break than that. Friends may not be on the same team, and in 6th grade, recess is one of the ways to connect with them. 7th and 8th grade is different. There is almost no time to socialize with friends that aren’t in any of your classes, so recess is a time to expand who you hang out with. You can meet new people that are playing the games or sports that you also play. Also there's no point of having a whole “playground” for just one grade. In conclusion, 7th and 8th grade deserves recess just as much as 6th graders do. 

TROPICS, A New Series Of Hurricane Satellites by Kale Cunningham

Summer is almost here! Summer is one of the best seasons. All of the positive things are delightful: swimming, hot dogs, and movie nights. But down in the Southern Hemisphere, things are a little more intense. Summer down here is Hurricane season. And with the problem of global warming, hurricanes and tropical storms are getting rougher and more powerful than ever before. Even with our current technology, it’s still a problem - we detected a Hurricane forming only one week before it hit land. That is a very limited time window to warn and evacuate the area. But NASA has a new group of satellites that could help. 

TROPICS

TROPICS (short for Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity) are microwave-sized spacecraft that are launching throughout the next few months. These spacecraft are called Cubesats, a new kind of technology that NASA has been testing out for the past few years. There are 4 TROPICS satellites in the group that have many different goals in detecting a possibly dangerous storm. First, they must measure the temperature in an area.  If this area shows an unusual amount of heat, then the TROPICS spacecraft must measure moisture and precipitation in the area as well. If they find that this area of the ocean is unusually high in all of these measurements, then that could mean a possible storm is coming. This could warn people much earlier if in fact that a storm is coming.     

A Constellation Group 

The TROPICS are being called a “Satellite Constellation,” not just because they make up a group in space, but also because they will be visible like stars in some areas of the United States. These spacecraft will orbit the Earth extremely low as well. So if this summer you see something that looks like a dim star orbiting the Earth, just say a simple thank you to it. It might just save thousands of lives this summer and maybe in the future too. 

The GIGARANKING by Sam Rockmore

Disclaimer: This article contains ALL items ever ranked, so it’s gonna be long. Don’t skip this; each item gets a new paragraph!

ABSOLUTE TRASH

“Wow, much garbage.”

100. Fortnite. You know my views on Fortnite. If I was forced to pick between playing Fortnite, or licking a public toilet seat, I wouldn’t even stutter in picking that toilet seat. This game is horrendous and would leave a worse taste in my mouth than if I licked a public toilet seat.

99.  Reese’s. This is basically arsenic, but tastes disgusting. 

98. Arsenic is Reese’s but it tastes better. (It has no taste.)

97. The flag of Pennsylvania is an insult to our culture. This flag is hideous. My eyes burn when I look at it. First of all, the shade of blue is horrendous. The state seal would be okay if forty or so states didn’t do the exact same thing. Take inspiration from our neighbours; Ohio and Maryland. (It pains me very much to say anything about Ohio doing better than Pennsylvania, but their flag is sooooo much better than ours.) Both of those flags are beautiful, and original, which our flag is neither. I could go on insulting it all day, but I should stop now.

96. Football. Oh… Football. I know all of you jocks are gonna be out for my head after reading this, so just skip this. Okay, now that all of them have moved on, I can rant about football. It sucks. It sucks soooo much. First of all, the people who play this game are paid way too much. Second, the people who play this game are also very likely to damage their brain, but seeing that they play this game, there’s not much to damage. Third, this game fills our town with people from all over the place, which causes so much traffic that trying to do anything in town on a football weekend is basically a suicide mission for your brain cells and also means you can’t do anything due to all the traffic. (This is extra angering because the stupid Blue and White game falls on my birthday weekend.) We should honestly get rid of Football and turn the stadium into a fancy mall or something. There are about a million better uses for that cool looking building.

95. Coffee. People have tried to convince me that it’s good, but I’m doubling down. It’s now in 95th place. If you would like to argue, pay the five dollar arguing tax. It tastes like dirt. Fight me.

94. Mud. *blinks intensely*

93. Mott’s fruit snacks. These claim to be fruit snacks. These are barely fruit snacks. These sicken me. Just get Welch’s fruit snacks. They’re so much better!!

92. Chunky milk. I mean, better than coffee.

91. Skittles. It has come to my attention that some freaks actually like these. Do you even have taste buds? Something something fake M&Ms something something.

90. The US school system. *Blinks very intensely*

89. Mint-flavored anything. This garbage just burns. It has no taste, just the horrible pain.

88. Galliker's chocolate milk. Ebrecht sich auf zu Gesicht. This stuff is probably poisoned, because there’s no way that anybody can make chocolate milk this bad without poisoning it. This is the stuff the school has.

87. Raisin cookies. The devil’s chocolate chip cookies. When I founded the glorious nation of Flaerhart, the second law I made was banning raisin cookies, and giving an extremely harsh punishment to anyone who makes them. Raisins are the devil’s chocolate chips.

86. Tootsie Rolls. Ah, yes, half-decomposed plastic to be given to kids. This sure is a great idea!

85. Candle Corn. Oh, sorry, candy corn, but they are basically the same thing. If you melt down candy corn and stick a wick in that, you now have a candle. My friend claimed candy corn was good, and now for his birthday, he will get a candy corn candle. CANDLE CORN

84. March. I believe this was the first thing in my first ranking. The first object to be made fun of and slandered. Little did it know what it being dissed upon would bring about… Anyways, March is a horrible month and is muddy, rainy, polleny, and misery. Also, it can’t make up its mind if it would like to snow or burn us alive.

83. Animal Crossing. This game is horribly boring and is designed to be that way. It’s one of those games that’s meant to hold your attention for twenty minutes. I can pay more attention in my classes than I could for this boring game.

82. Stools. The chairs in our classrooms are already horribly uncomfortable, but in our science and art classes, we have these monstrosities. I feel like these were invented by someone who hates kids. They were probably thinking, “Hmmmm, how do I make these brats suffer more? Ah, I have the most perfect idea!” So that evil jerk went into his classroom and removed the backs from all the chairs; he likely took great pleasure in seeing those children suffer. Stools still cost as much as chairs. These are almost definitely only here to make us suffer.

81. July. If you like watching your own skin melt, then you must adore July. Go boil to death playing sports all you want, but I’ll be inside with my Xenoblade games and my ice cream. Fireworks and no school are the only good things in the whole month. As for me, the Cons much outweigh the Pros.

BAD

“These objects got nowhere close to the top.”

80. Cuphead. This game is only for people who hate their life. I mean really.

79. Chocolate water. It pains me to put it here, but it’s actually terrible. But hey, it’s still better than the school’s chocolate milk.

78. Year-Old Starburst. Bricks, but you can’t build with them.

77. Brick. Year-Old Starbursts but you can build with them.

76. Stale Cookie. Not much to say other than it’s way too crunchy, so I’m going to tell a partially related story. Okay, so I was baking cookies, and my mom was complaining that she thought they were underbaked so with the next batch, I burnt them and I was basically like, “You asked for a crispy cookie. Here’s your crispy cookie.” and gave her a burnt cookie. The best cookies are the soft ones.

75. September. It’s here to round off the bad section. Not much notable, just the first full month of school. The torture begins for both students and teachers. Nobody likes September.

MEDIOCRE

“The objects narrowly escaped the eternal torment of the bad tier.”

74. Minecraft. Not good, not bad; overrated. NEXT!

73. August. It’s hot and school starts. Not sure what else there is to August. Also it has no holidays whatsoever. 

72. June. Hot. That’s all.

71. May, it sucks. It hurts my eyes and is too hot.

70. Frosted muffins or “cupcakes” as the neanderthals would call it, are a careful balance between frosting and muffins, but people are bad with the careful balance.

69. Smarties. These are okay. Not good. Not bad. Just powder, packed into little disks… Sound familiar? These are just sugar pills.

68. Dum-dums are people who don't read my articles  a brand of lollipop, where how much you like them solely depends on which flavour you get.

67. Coke. The funny powder… Oh, you mean the drink? It’s overrated and I don’t have much more to say, so I’ll whack a fun fact here. Fun fact: Coke (The Drink) used to contain Coke (The funny powder)

66. Flag of the US. It’s overrated. The flag itself is fine, but we whack that thing on everything. Candies, backpacks, clothing… Like, what other country puts their flag on a shirt? I want a shirt with the flag of any other country on it! (Update: For my birthday, I got a shirt with the flag of Kazakhstan on it.)

65. Pokemon Scarlet. Yes, this game was actually good, but due to all the glitches, it cannot reach stardom.

64. Unfrosted Cupcakes. With these, you needn’t worry about the frosting, because these don’t have frostings. Chocolate chips go great in these, and if people would be rational and just put chocolate chips in these, they’d be much higher, but some stupid people will put the devils chocolate chips (Raisins), blueberries, dates, and so much more garbage.

63. January. You people are jerks to January. Go put yourself in time out or something, you hurt its feelings. Okay, but being serious, January is kinda underrated. I don’t love January, but I will protect it. Yeah, it’s cold, so what? The cold is nice. You people think the scenery is ugly because all the plants are dead? No, that’s March. Yes, the plants are dead, but all the beautiful snow makes up for that tenfold. 

62. Chairs. These are gonna land right about here. There’s a lot of comfy chairs, but also a ton of uncomfortable chairs too. 62nd place for them.

GOOD

“These made it closer to stardom, but fell from the mountains.”

61. Homemade Chocolate Milk. If you get the ratio right, it’s good, if you get the ratio wrong… well… Ebrecht sich auf zu gashicht. 

60. Barbeque chips. These are really good, but everything beats them. They’re sweet with just a hint of spice, making them really good. 60th place. Pretty good.

59. Mario Kart. I quite like this game, and play it with my younger sister Callie. This game tends to be quite competitive, but also quite fun. Overall, good game.

58. Bowling. The sport for people who don’t like sports. I was on a bowling league with my friend Vin, who is seen in one of the pictures in my interview on the SCASD website. (Go read that, it’s really good!) But, anyway, who doesn’t like hucking pounds of concrete at little pins to try to knock them all down? And actually, me and Vin’s team, Clever Name, won a trophy for second highest score including handicaps. So, yeah. Bowling is good.

57. Lemonade. Good? Yes. Sour? Yes. Sweet? Yes. Overrated? YES. 

56. Meyer Dairy. It’s good. But, since Mrs. Thompson reads my articles, I am inclined to say, MEYER DAIRY IS OVERRATED!!

55. Valewood. Brings a tear to my eye. You used to be terrible, flavorless even. After the chocolate milk ranking, you really had a glow up. I’m so proud. You go from being at the bottom to being in the middle. Keep it up! Good job, Valewood!

54. Starburst is okay, but the red and pink flavours are bad, which is weighing it down. Now, if it were just Orange and Yellow, these would be much better.

53. OJ. OJ doesn’t stand for Orange Juice, it stands for Overrated Junk.

52. Lemon Juice. Sour. Sweet. Gone.

51. Water, or Wo’er as the bri’ish would call it, is just overrated. It doesn’t even taste like anything!!

50. February. Snow. Valentines. That’s it.

49. Tea. I mean, better than coffee. It’s a go to when you’ve already had hot chocolate and need a different hot drink.

48. Milk. Milk itself may not be great, but it’s the father to many higher ranking creations. Carbonated Milk, The Creamery’s Chocolate Milk, Halo Farm, and best of all, Mr. Byler’s choccy milk!

47. Flag of Ohio. I mean, yeah. Ohio, terrible state. Ohio flag, fantastic.

46. Cake. If done right, cake is amazing. If done like someone from “How-to Basic”, well… just… know where the closest toilet is.

45. 7-up. This used to be my favourite soda, but something overtook.

44. Brownies. Overrated but good. That’s it.

43. Hershey bars. There’s about a million better chocolate bars, but some of the other Hershey products are really good, but the straight chocolate bars? Ehhh, too sweet, but good. Honestly, I prefer dark chocolate. I’m gonna put them here because they make many better chocolates.

42. Swedish fish. I was just gonna whack some Swedish Flags here, but it wouldn’t work.

41. Crunch bars. These are delicious. 

SEHR GUT

“These objects are so close, yet so far.”

40. Lemon squares. These are fantastic. If somebody can make these not taste good, they’re trying to make it taste bad. That’s all.

39. Carbonated Milk. Friendship ended with 7-up. Carbonated milk is my favourite soda now. Okay, this should not be good. But it is. It’s weird, but delicious. When you’re drinking it, it tastes like a soda, but has the aftertaste of milk. Why does this work? WHY DOES THIS WORK?? This shouldn’t work! Oh, by the way, if you’d like to experience carbonated milk, there’s an East Asian Market off Atherton that sells carbonated milk!

38. Kazoo. These, just like whistling, you don’t actually need to be musically talented! I know I’m not! Anyway, these are fun to play, and sound nice too! People try to complain that these are annoying. First of all, Shut up. Second, Shut up. Third, once you feel like you’re done shutting up, shut up some more, why dontcha? I made my own Kazoo out of hot glue, wood, screws, and a little bit of a Walmart bag.

37. Flag of Nepal. This is the only non-rectangular flag, and it rocks that. Very nice.

36. Super Mario Odyssey. This game was the first I had played on an actual console, and it was fantastic. Very good. Not much more to say.

35. Recliners. These are the most comfortable chairs, easily. Not much more to say.

34. Burger King. It’s the best in fast food. Don’t even try to say McDonalds. Burger King is definitely better.

33. Legends of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. So, me and my father recently got Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to BOTW, and it’s amazing, and so is this game! No matter what your level is, you should play this game.

32. Hot Chocolate. Really nice drink in the winter, but in summer? Nope. It’s too hot already because my mom refuses to turn on the AC. Can’t get more hot.

31. Welch’s fruit snacks. These are the best fruit snacks. If you disagree, you should get new taste buds. 

EXTREMELY GOOD

“The top was in sight, but these objects couldn’t reach the top.”

30. Rickrolling. I wasn’t actually sure what to say, so I’m just gonna tell a little story. When I was in the fifth grade, I was doing class online. It was my birthday and I was forced to go to online school even though it was my birthday;  short story short, I was upset about this. I rickrolled my class like 50 times that day.

29. Ice Cream Cake. It’s good, but with one exception: strawberry ice cream. This doesn’t taste like strawberry, it tastes like cough syrup and hand sanitizer.

28. Onion rings. These are absolutely delicious, but restaurants charge more for these? That is the only thing putting french fries above, because otherwise this would be a tie.

27. French fries. Very good, you can do a lot of things with these. Some of the best fries are: Parmesan Truffle (The Field), the governors pub fries, Poutine (Canada), Waffle fries (Chick-Fil-A) and Curly Fries (Northland Bowling).

26. M&Ms. These are fantastic. Not much more to say.

25. Chocolate. The holy snack. It would be much higher, but people messed up chocolate with things like white chocolate, and Reese’s Cups.

24. Mr. Beast bars. These are actually good unlike other Youtuber brands.

23. November. A nice month, albeit housing the most overrated holiday. Don’t try to argue. Thanksgiving is a stupid, overrated, garbage holiday. 

22. Turnip Boy commits tax evasion. Yes, this is real, and it’s actually a great game! The music is great, the story is surprisingly good, and the gameplay is fun! Really weird game, but great!

21. Jolly Ranchers. These would be even higher, but the reds hold them back. If it was just Blue Raspberry, Green Apple, and Grape, that would be so much better. 

SUPREME DOMINANCE

“These are above all the other objects! But wait… is that…?”

20. Mallo Cups. These are really, really good, and you can get them straight from the factory if you wanna; they’re made in Altoona! Yeah, not much more to say.

19. Just Shapes and Beats. This is one of the best party games on the Switch, and is quite fun, but too difficult for most people, so it’s here.

18. Flag of Maryland. When I ranted about the flag of Pennsylvania, I mentioned how much better Maryland’s flag is. I’m not even gonna talk about it more. Just google it and stare at its beauty. This flag is epic.

17. Flag of Quebec. This flag is also beautiful. I spent a week in Quebec Province, and saw this flag so many times. It’s a really pretty flag, trust me, just look it up.

16. October. This is a very nice month. It’s pretty and you have Halloween. That’s basically it.

15. April, you made it much farther than anyone would expect. My birth month. Sadly, the weather in this month puts it in 15th.

14. Smash Bros. This game is very fun, and I like clobbering people at it. I don’t even have the full DLC, I just bought the Xenoblade characters.

13. Berkey Creamery’s chocolate milk. This choccy milk was voted best choccy milk on earth, so it is overrated. It is good though, but so overrated. Even more overrated than Meyer Dairy’s choccy milk.

12. Flag of Kazakhstan. This flag is very cool looking. Look, I don’t know how to explain flags, just Google it.

11. Undertale. This is a fantastic game, but just narrowly missed the top ten. The story is fantastic, the music is great, the gameplay is fun, and the characters are some of the best in video games.

ASCENDED

 “When these objects thought they reached the top in the Supreme Dominance tier, they ascended to an even higher level, dwarfing those lowly objects in the Supreme Dominance.”

10. Halo Farm’s Choccy milk is creamy and delicious. Sooooo good. Second best choccy milk, easily.

9. December is such a nice month. The snow, the holidays, and all the new stuff. December has NO flaws. Cold is not a flaw. Cold is great, cold is life, why not embrace the cold?

8. Whipped Cream. Oh, this is getting hard now. For a while, picking between objects was super easy, but now? Oh, that’s hard. Whipped cream is my favourite food, and I think eighth is respectable for it. Delicious.

7. The end of School is liberation for all of us, trapped here all year. A joyous, yet solemn day, knowing you’ll not see some of these people for a long time, but maybe that’s a good thing with some people.

6. Legends of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom. This is BOTW on steroids. It fixed most of the things I disliked about the first game, and introduced some new, cooler features. It’s 27 spaces above its predecessor. 

5. Finland. Yes, I put an entire country in my ranking. Finland has an excellent school system, and great human rights! Also, it’s cold there, which is nice.

4. The Flag of Flaerhart. Since you can’t google it, I’ll just whack it here. 

I’ll also just say a couple facts about Flaerhart.

• It’s a Socialist Tsardom

• Our currency runs on the Fruit Snack Standard 

• Disrespecting Choccy Milk results in death by pit of fire. (Some exceptions apply)

• Peanut Butter is banned.

• Raisin Cookies are banned.

• Orange is the National Color.

• Choccymilkism is the national religion.

3. Xenoblade Two. This game has sooo much nostalgia to me, but Xenoblade Three took its spot as my favourite game.

2. Xenoblade Three. Xenoblade Two had one really good character, but the third game has a ton of really good characters, and I think the story made more sense, also, just like Tears of the Kingdom, this game took the good parts about its predecessor, and then added some new features. This game is near perfect.

1. Mr. Byler’s Choccy Milk. What else? This choccy milk is the best choccy milk ever. I’ve been drinking this choccy milk for ages, and we continue to visit the Farmer’s Market solely to talk to Mr. Byler and buy some of his choccy milk. 

That’s it.

I’ll see you next school year!

Also, drink some Mr. Byler’s Choccy Milk. 

You will not regret it.

National Teacher Appreciation Week By Carolyn Frank

They help us to learn,

And give us advice,

They make us better people,

And watch us grow up,

Our teachers are awesome,

So let's give them our love,

Our respect and our gratitude

HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK!!!

Exploring the Debate Surrounding Banned Books by Samantha Lozinski

You might have heard about banned books before, but what exactly are banned books?
“When a book is successfully “banned,” that means a book has been removed from school curriculums and/or public libraries because a person or group has objected to its content.” A recent article by USA TODAY states.

This is how it works… “An attempt to get a book removed is called a challenge.” Most public schools and libraries will have boards made up of elected officials/ people who have the power to ban books from the libraries and schools.

Banned books restrict others' access to books, and the ideas within them. And although some could buy books rather than borrowing them from a public library, some don’t have the money to do that and it is an inconvenience.

MOST BANNED BOOKS (not in any specific order)
Below are the 13 most challenged books of 2022, according to the ALA (American Library Association.)

Here are the 13 most challenged books of 2022, according to the ALA: 

• "Gender Queer," by Maia Kobabe

• "All Boys Aren't Blue," by George M. Johnson

• "The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison

• "Flamer," by Mike Curato

• "Looking for Alaska," by John Green

• "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky

• "Lawn Boy," by Jonathan Evison

• "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," by Sherman Alexie

• "Out of Darkness," by Ashley Hope Pérez

• "A Court of Mist and Fury," by Sarah J. Maas

• "Crank," by Ellen Hopkins

• "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl," by Jesse Andrews

• "This Book Is Gay," by Juno Dawson

(Links are attached for anybody interested.)

So, if you read some of the links above, what are your thoughts? Are banned books banned for a reason, or should people be able to have access to whatever they want to read?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2022/06/29/banned-books-explained/7772046001/

Weird World Records by Caitlyn Tan

1. Ever wondered what the longest time was in which someone had spun a basketball on a toothbrush in their mouth? Well, probably not, but still. Sandeep Singh Kaila spun a basketball on a toothbrush for 1 minute and 8.15 seconds, setting a world record! Such skill! 

2. The most number of cans opened in one minute with one hand was set by Jonathan Skewes with the record of 59 cans! Even more impressive though, Zac the Macaw (a parrot) was able to open 35 cans in one minute with his beak! 

3. Imagine if taking selfies was a world record. Well, it is. Literally, everything is. Who knows, maybe you’ve already broken it without knowing. In February of 2023, Akshay Kumar broke The Rock’s previous record of 105 selfies taken in 3 minutes. Now the world record is 184!

4. Can you walk 640 feet? Okay, how about 640 feet on a tightrope? Well, what if you also had to wear high heels when you walk 640 feet on a tightrope? 4-inch high heels. Yeah, not so easy now, huh? Hard to imagine, but teenager Ariana Wunderle did all this with ease. 

5. I know you’ve been wondering this for quite some time now…who’s the person with the world record of having the most world records? A man named Ashrita Furman holds this world record, with 600 official world records, and 530 still standing. I can’t imagine how silly many of these world records must be-one of them being the longest amount of time balancing a milk bottle on your head.

Thanks for reading! 

Works Cited

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/492304-most-drinks-cans-opened-with-one-hand-in-a-minute 

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/12/13/10-oddest-Guinness-World-Records-of-2022-listicle/9521670799798/ 

https://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/weirdest-guinness-world-records-that-actually-exist/ 

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/378828-most-self-portrait-photographs-selfies-taken-in-three-minutes 

National Paranormal Day by Carolyn Frank

National Paranormal Day

By Carolyn Frank

Unsplash

The door slams shut,

But no one is near,

Eerie sounds surround me,

And I see a faint outline,

I confront the silhouette, 

And nothing stands,

 where the white fog was before,

Otherworldly, 

Is this place,

But for now i just keep falling,

Falling,

Falling,

Tiktok Food Wasting Trend Exposed by Tara Gopalan

How Bad The Food-Wasting Trend on Tikok Really Is

Many people of all ages use Tiktok. Out of those people, so many have seen the food-wasting trend, which has become very popular as of March 2023. Often, people just scroll past it. However, despite how innocent it might seem, the long-term effects of this trend are devastating. 

What is it?

Food wasting is a trend where different Tiktokers create ‘food’ with ridiculous quantities of each component. For example, to make cereal they would pour 3 gallons of milk and 3 boxes of cereal, only to eat one spoon while spilling most of each. According to the website Feedingamerica.org, 408 billion dollars worth of food is tossed out in the US every year. Children all over the world are starving, which makes this amount of food waste horrifying. 

Who has done it?

A Tiktoker who was well known for taking this trend overboard was @Wasildaoud, who was notorious for wasting large portions of food for views. After he was bombarded with comments complaining about his actions, Wasil decided to lay off the trend and can now be seen distributing food to the poor and homeless. Since then, many others have followed his path and started to appreciate how precious food really is. 

How can I stop this wasting?

Things have started to get better, but there are still plenty of food wasters out there who have concealed their videos with other content. If you are scrolling through any social media platform and you see a food waster, make sure to raise awareness. If you can’t comment, then tell others. If you don’t like going onto social media at all, you can still make sure not to waste anything. Don’t take food for granted, as it’s a precious resource and we should appreciate it.

Tree Kangaroos: Animals That Could Disappear Forever by Tara Gopalan

Most people have never heard of a tree kangaroo. These adorable animals are often forgotten, as they are very secretive and not many people know about them. However, those people may never know about them if they go extinct forever.

What Are They?

Tree kangaroos are Marsupials, just like red kangaroos. They are most closely related to Possums and Rock-Wallabies. Unlike red kangaroos, they can’t hop. They have short stubby legs and strong forearms for climbing trees. Tree kangaroos aren't that heavy, as they can only weigh up to 32 pounds on average.

Where Do They Live?

They live in the tropical rainforests of New Guinea and Queensland, Australia, along with some islands surrounding them. They are most commonly found in mountains in the region, but some species live in lowlands too. They are great at climbing and spend most of their life in trees. 

What Do They Eat?

In the wild, tree kangaroos mostly eat leaves, various plants, moss, tree bark, and orchids. Sometimes, they eat eggs, small birds, buds, insects, and fruit if it’s available. Their favorite food, however, is grass. Grass has minerals, nutrients, and vitamins A, B, and D, which are very beneficial to the tree kangaroo.

Why Are They Endangered?

Tree kangaroos are endangered mostly because of habitat loss and poaching. There are approximately 2,500 fully developed tree kangaroos left in the world. This is very bad for the forests where tree kangaroos live because they are pollinators and they spread the seeds of trees. Without them, the forest will start to die off, as many other pollinators are endangered too. This will do nothing but encourage climate change to get worse.

How Can I Help?

There are some programs already working to save tree kangaroos, like WWF (World Wildlife Fund), but they can’t do it by themselves. The best way you can help save these amazing creatures is to spread awareness. Tell your friends about tree kangaroos and their plight, and use fewer paper/paper products to spare trees. If everybody helps a little, then maybe tree kangaroos could have a chance at survival.

Image: Critter Science