Monday, November 23, 2015

The rush for Thanksgiving

Morgan Schroeder & Brooke Walsh
Staff Writers

As Thanksgiving approaches, everyone is preparing for the feast of the year. Thanksgiving is one of the most widely enjoyed holidays there is. Whether it’s getting together with family, eating the delicious turkey you’ve been thinking about all year, or watching the parade, it's always a time to celebrate. Most importantly, you can’t forget about the giving thanks to the people around you. Getting together with family at the dinner table while eating the well prepared food is undeniably one of the greatest feelings in the world. To remember the history of Thanksgiving, here’s how it all started.

In September 1620, a ship left England. This ship, called the Mayflower carried 102 passengers. The passengers were seeking new grounds where they could freely practice their faith. The voyage took 66 days and the ship settled near Cape Cod, which is far north of their intended destination, at the mouth of the Hudson River. A month later the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the pilgrims are known to have started their work at establishing a village at Plymouth. In March, some settlers moved ashore, where a Native American greeted them. The Native Americans taught them important skills like extracting sap from maple trees, catching fish, and avoiding poisonous plants. In November of 1621, after the Pilgrims first successful corn harvest.The Governor William Bradford, wanted to celebrate the  victory with a feast. The next year they had another feast to celebrate the end of a long drought. Then, in 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation: he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the conclusions of the country’s war for independence and successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution. After this, over time more states got involved in this tradition. So, when you’re eating your favorite foods on Thanksgiving, take time to remember the amazing history of where this holiday began.

Friday, November 13, 2015

NHS Fall Fest turns into a Fail Fest

Jacqui Vergis, Brooke Black, and Caroline Maloney
Staff Wirters

The 2015 student run Fall Festival was a very memorable one to say the least. Although many of our school’s fall sports and clubs came out to support and raise money for New Hope extracurriculars, it was clear that the event on a whole was very lightly attended. Why?

Firstly, we need to acknowledge the incredible efforts of the student government and clubs that organized this event. From the side of the students working and planning the event, it was a job well done! The “fail” aspect of the event was not the students running it, but the lack of representation from the rest of New Hope students. We interviewed students and asked for their opinions.

Claire Dougherty, a junior at NHS said “There should have been a greater turnout from students, because the whole point of the fest was to raise money for our school’s extracurriculars.” What was the reason behind the lack of attendance? Jacob McCloskey, another junior at NHS, said, “I felt as though the majority of the people there were working it, but not participating in the fun”. Each club had representatives at each stand, and that seemed to be the majority of the people there.

Those who did attend had a great time- how could you not! There was delicious treats and sweets, fun games, and prizes! But, the lack of participation from the students was disappointing. Alex Lotier, among other students, was personally disappointed by the lack of show from his peers and says “It didn’t live up to my expectations.”

To all of the students sitting at home while the fun fall festivities were happening- you really missed out! A highlight of the day was when the Lambertville Ramblers made an exciting entrance across our field. These kids strutted confidently through our festival with bagpipes in hand. Clay Asplundh says “I felt like I was in Scotland!”. What a great surprise!

Thanks to the lack of support and attendance from the students, this year’s Fall Fest was a Fail Fest. To those working and supporting the fest, thank you for your hard work and incredible execution! To the rest of the student body, FAIL.

Welcoming NHS Class of 2019

Jacqui Vergis, Brooke Black, and Caroline Maloney
Staff Writers

The arrival of New Hope’s class of 2019 has flooded our high school halls with new faces, personalities, and opportunities. As upperclassmen, we found ourselves curious to find out about how our new classmates have enjoyed their experience here at the high school within these first couple of months of the year. In addition, we wanted to hear what it’s like becoming a high school student at New Hope-Solebury in 2015.  
 To gain some insight on the matter, we chose to randomly interview three freshman. We first ran in to Gabi Roberts, who we asked about her plans and goals for this semester. Roberts said, “A goal I have set is to try my hardest in my classes and stay organized. It is important to be organized because last year, in middle school, I was very messy and it stressed me out.”
 Hannah DeVito said, “My favorite class is Intro to Psychology because it is very interesting. It is a class that is not like a typical core one and it’s cool because I get to learn things I have never heard of before. I like being able to explore different areas of education.”
 [Moving schools] is a big switch and I do not really like it that much. It is better to be on the top than on the bottom,” stated Morgan Schroeder.
These students’ opinions mirror the mindset of freshmen of years’ past. The nerves, stress, and confusion upperclassmen dealt with while entering the high school continue to drive and affect the freshman class year after year. The freshman were already aware that staying organized and being on top of their studies is essential when succeeding academically and socially in high school. So freshmen study, get involved, and have fun...good luck!

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Which Phone Will Make It In Your Pocket?

Ryan Walton
Staff Writer

During Apple’s most recent keynote that took place on September 9 they unveiled their newest iteration of the iPhone. The new iPhone 6s has brought many new and updated features from the iPhone 6.  Some of the new features include 3D touch, Live Photos feature, Apple A9 Chipset, wider LTE support and faster wifi which includes wifi assist which is where the device detects when the wifi is spotty and then uses mobile data, but there was a lawsuit that was suing over damages because the wifi assist is turned on by default and there is no clear sign that it is on and people had run up large phone bills because of this. They also  improved the camera, and not to forget, they now come in rose gold.
  The Live Photos Feature captures the moments that are just before and just after the picture is taken while also capturing movement and sound although it comes at a cost of storage it will take approximately twice a normal photo . The new 3D touch allows for the “peek and pop” in which you can preview emails by using just a light touch of the screen. Apple’s newest A9 Chipset now has the iPhone’s processor to run at 2.2 GHz. The improvements to the camera increasing the MP from 8 to 12 and allowing 4K filming at 30fps or 1080p at 30 or 60 fps. This means that photos and video will be better than ever.  While all of these upgrades take place the basic body of the phone is almost identical. The battery life is almost unchanged from the previous generation of iPhone.
 While Apple is introducing these new features, there are many other phones that are being introduced. Google has introduced their new Nexus phones the 5X and 6P, along with Microsoft introducing the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, and HTC revealed their new HTC One A9.  Google’s Nexus 5X is a 5.2 inch screen and has a 12.3 MP camera with a 5MP front facing camera, while the 6P is a 5.7 inch screen and a 8 MP front facing camera.The Nexus 5x has 2GB of ram while the 6P has 3GB of ram. Both of Google’s phones are capable to capture video in 4K, and they run Android Marshmallow. The Lumia 950  has a 5.2 inch screen and and the 950 XL has a 5.7 screen and both have 3 GB of RAM. Both the Lumia 950 and the 950 XL run windows 10 mobile, and have 20 MP cameras with ZEISS optics. The HTC One A9 has a 5 inch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass and has a 13 Mp camera with a sapphire cover lens. The HTC has 3GB of ram and runs Android Marshmallow with HTC Sense™. HTC Sense™ is a redesign of Android  with an altered home screen and keyboard, and offers additional HTC supported apps.
 The new phones that have come out all are fast and efficient. Deciding on a new phone all depends on preference. While the specs and looks play a role in the decision, one of the larger parts of the decisions is the operating system. When considering Apple’s IOS Hannah Mui said that she liked it for the “simplicity, and the fact that it was easy to use,” but also mentioned that “Once you go Apple, you don’t go back” showing that once you have grown accustomed to the easy to use IOS interface Android is very difficult to use and navigate. Android user Richard Park said that he uses it for the “customization and having the capability to use different launchers and such.” IOS users use jailbreaking to be able to customize the Apple interface. Once the device is jailbroken the warranty is null and it is susceptible to many bugs and crashing that can result from the jailbreak.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

A Flashback to the Future

Elizabeth Both
Arts & Entertainment Editor

The year is 1985, no one has ever heard of a cell phone, no selfies are being taken, and computers have not taken over the world yet. One thing is for sure though-Back to the Future was made into a cultural beloved phenomenon. In the second installment of the trilogy, Marty Mcfly and Doc Brown flew high into 2015 to save Marty’s son from being put into jail (like his Uncle Joey), but as the movie goes on, it seems as that’s not the only problem to be solved. They go from 1985 to Oct. 21, 2015, in a flash, entering a world of flying cars, hoverboards, and Pepsi Now.
 As this date recently passed, the nation devoured as much as they could to reminence on the compelling franchise. USA Today printed copies of the iconic newspaper shown in the film (selling over one million copies, making fans buy paper instead of reading news off of their cell phones, so big win for USA Today). Over one thousand theaters screened the trilogy, or at least the second installment in honor of the day, and it seems as if it worked well for them as the screening brought in almost another two million. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd made an appearance in their characters on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to poke fun at how 2015 sadly does not have flying cars, but told the two what a selfie was. One thing Nike did achieve though is that in the spring of 2016, self-tying sneakers will be auctioned/ sold off for the Michael J.Fox Foundation.
 As a nation we have been waiting 30 years for this day (technically 26 since Back to the Future II came out in 1989-not 1985), to connect two different dimensions of real life to a popular movie. In these past years, the U.S has learned a lot of devastating things, yet as a country we can still connect for one day over a film.
 Growing up I have at least watched Back to the Future II each year, a hundred times. For instance, I just saw the film last weekend as this is being printed, and I can quote pretty much every single line. I know the movie so well and have seen it so many times that I still get annoyed when Marty buys that stupid almanac. I think one of the main reasons it resonates with most people is that it can be watched during any time of the year. The predictions in the film were pretty close, but they missed one tiny little thing: the internet. A type of “Google Glass” was shown in the movie, and a type of virtual reality is revealed as well, but they missed the whole “technology will take over as-we-know-it” type of thing.

 This prominent date has officially passed and of course it’s fantastic that so many people can celebrate a good movie, but I mentioned to my family this past week how it’s sad how Oct. 21 has actually...left us. Instead of comparing what we can accomplish in the future from that film, we now live in the future. No more predictions to set, it’s as if the 21st century has officially started and it’s left for us to unfold. And that’s the biggest mystery of all.