Friday, October 19, 2012

No more THS period- Article Preview


By: Ben Stone, Reporter

            Along with the new schedule changes, there is no longer a THS period at the High School anymore. THS period was a time on Thursday block days where for an hour a student could get extra help from teachers and various clubs and activities would meet once every week.

            With the new schedule, block days were dropped and so were THS. Many clubs were affected by this. Many clubs did indeed find THS period very handy to be able to get all the students together for one day a week and now are having to try and find ways to meet together which can cause some difficulty, but this did not go for all clubs.

            Mr. Schieb, club advisor for Key Club, said, “It was handy for meeting of clubs, but it's not the only time.” He went on to add that the club had met many times after school especially when they had gotten close to running an activity. Although when asked about how the club is finding time to meet, Schieb did say that it has been a “struggle” to get enough people to solidify a meeting time and that they will have half the club meeting before school and the other half meet after school. Despite the drawbacks, Schieb wouldn’t go back. “I think that we are more productive as a school without it.”

Check out the full story next Tuesday in the Raider Times! Get your copy for only $0.25!

Mrs. Comito Interview- Spanish Teacher


By: Rosa Hernandez, Reporter

This year Torrington High School added a new Spanish teacher, Mrs. Susan Comito. Comito was born in Waterbury. She went to Watertown High School,

Mrs. Comito came from working on cruise ships for 4 years when she was in her twenties and has seen the majority of the Caribbean. She has spent quite a bit of time in Puerto Rico and has lived in England like our own Mrs. Sullivan who lived there for 4 months; Comito lived in England for 5 years and in Spain for 5 and worked in Southington before coming to Torrington.

Would like to know more about Mrs.Comito? Check out this story in the Raider Times coming out on Tuesday! Buy your copy for $0.25!

New Staff at THS Preview..

By: Andres Macias, co-editor
 
          THS recently has added new members to its staff over the summer. One new member to the science department is Mr.Pepe. Pepe is a biology teacher here at THS and was offered the job in August.

          As a teenager, Pepe went to Platt high school in Meriden CT and what made him come to THS was his past teaching experience. Pepe says, “I taught in the college level and I liked sharing what I learned in my past career to the high school students better.”

          Pepe enjoys the schedule system here at THS as well as the school spirit. “School spirit here is great after the Ansonia football game.” In his spare time, Pepe enjoys listening to classic music stations such as 106.9 and loves working with animals.

Check out the full interview with Mr. Pepe and read about the other teachers who are new to the building next week!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

NFL Replacement Referees


By: Andres Macias, co-editor
What is going on in the NFL? The NFL season has gone nearly 4 weeks now with their newly acquired referees and has drawn more than an efficient amount of criticism from many NFL fans.                                                                    
The normal game officials are in a current lockout due to a lack of pay in their perspective. Mark Maske from the Washington Post reported that the referees’ pension proposal calls for an annual league contribution of $38,500 per official while the league would rather eliminate that plan and replace it with a 401(k) plan.                                                                                                          
Yahoo.com reports that a current official on the NFL roster was an ex-official in the LFL (Lingerie Football League) and was dismissed for poor performance and several missed calls during games.  Mitch Mortaza, (commissioner of the LFL), says the NFL “lowered” its standards on game officials.                                                                                                              
The replacement officials received even worse criticism this week when they were held responsible for the Green Bay Packers 12-14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in a controversial last play of the game call.                                              
What should have been an interception by Packers’ M.D. Jennings was instead ruled a touchdown for the Seahawks in a last second hail mary pass. The one call cost the Packers a game and could potentially come back to haunt them later on in the playoff seeding.                                                                             League spokesperson Greg Aiello confirmed Commissioner Roger Goodell “does not have authority to change the outcome of a game when it concerns judgmental errors or routine errors of omission by game officials.”                                    
President Obama even chimed in after the Packers vs. Seahawks game and said on twitter, “NFL fans on both sides of the aisle hope the referees lockout is settled soon.”                                                                                         

iPhone Breaks Records.... and Abuses Children?


By: Andres Macias, co-editor

The iPhone 5 was just released and make a record breaking 5 million sales on its’ first three days on sale. The record-breaking phone is taller, thinner, and overall 20 percent lighter than the iphone 4s according to Cnet.com.                  

Cnet.com reports that the iPhone 5 is twice as fast with a new A6 chip and will have a better display of wide-screen movies with 44 percent more color saturation than the iPhone 4s.        
                                                                    
As much as most people around the world enjoy purchasing and using iphones, we still need people to create them for us. Apple’s manufacturing partner in China, Foxconn Technology, has been receiving criticism over labor practices that students are working at the iPhone plants.                                              

Foxconn reports students are “interns” on manufacturing lines and “free to leave at any time.” Mr. Li, (founder of China Labor Watch), reports 10 of 87 workers on an iphone assembly line were students. Li says, “They don’t want to work there, they want to learn.”                                                                                   

Foxconn reports 2.7 percent of iPhone assembly line workers, nearly 32,000, were students.      

Snowstorms to be named by The Weather Channel

By: Tom Niziol
During the upcoming 2012-13 winter season The Weather Channel will name noteworthy winter storms. Our goal is to better communicate the threat and the timing of the significant impacts that accompany these events. The fact is, a storm with a name is easier to follow, which will mean fewer surprises and more preparation.

Naming Winter Storms

Hurricanes and tropical storms have been given names since the 1940s. In the late 1800s, tropical systems near Australia were named as well. Weather systems, including winter storms, have been named in Europe since the 1950s. Important dividends have resulted from attaching names to these storms:
  • Naming a storm raises awareness.
  • Attaching a name makes it much easier to follow a weather system’s progress.
  • A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own, which adds to awareness.
  • In today’s social media world, a name makes it much easier to reference in communication.
  • A named storm is easier to remember and refer to in the future.
The question then begs to ask “Why aren’t winter storms named?” In fact, in Europe the naming of weather systems has been going on for a long time. Here in the U.S., summer time storms including thunderstorms and tornadoes occur on such a small time and space scale that there would be little benefit and much confusion trying to attach names to them. However, winter weather is different. Winter storms occur on a time and space scale that is similar to tropical systems.
In fact, historically many major winter storms have been named during or after the event has occurred. Examples include “The President’s Day Storm” and “Snowmageddon.” Yet, until now, there has been no organized naming system for these storms before they impact population centers.
Naming winter storms will raise awareness, which will lead to more pro-active efforts to plan ahead, resulting in less impact on the public overall.
Tom Niziol
One of the reasons this may be true is that there is no national center, such as the National Hurricane Center, to coordinate and communicate information on a multi-state scale to cover such big events. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s Hydrologic Prediction Center (HPC) does issue discussions and snowfall forecasts on a national scale but it does not fill the same role as the NHC in naming storms. Therefore, it would be a great benefit for a partner in the weather industry to take on the responsibility of developing a new concept.
This is where a world-class organization such as The Weather Channel will play a significant role. We have the meteorological ability, support and technology to provide the same level of reporting for winter storms that we have done for years with tropical weather systems.
In addition to providing information about significant winter storms by referring to them by name, the name itself will make communication and information sharing in the constantly expanding world of social media much easier. As an example, hash tagging a storm based on its name will provide a one-stop shop to exchange all of the latest information on the impending high-impact weather system.
There will be many differences from the “tropical model” for naming winter storms. Unlike tropical systems, winter weather takes place at latitudes under extreme energy and forcing from the atmosphere.
Often a weather system that is expected to strike a metropolitan area three days from now has not even completely formed in the atmosphere. Therefore, naming of winter storms will be limited to no more than three days before impact to ensure there is moderate to strong confidence the system will produce significant effects on a populated area. In addition, the impacts from winter systems are not as simple to quantify as tropical systems where a system is named once the winds exceed a certain threshold.
The process for naming a winter storm will reflect a more complete assessment of several variables that combine to produce disruptive impacts including snowfall, ice, wind and temperature. In addition, the time of day (rush hour vs. overnight) and the day of the week (weekday school and work travel vs. weekends) will be taken into consideration in the process the meteorological team will use to name storms.
This is an ambitious project. However, the benefits will be significant. Naming winter storms will raise the awareness of the public, which will lead to more pro-active efforts to plan ahead, resulting in less impact and inconvenience overall.
Coordination and information sharing should improve between government organizations as well as the media, leading to less ambiguity and confusion when assessing big storms that affect multiple states. It will even make it easier and more efficient for social media to communicate information regarding the storm resulting in a better informed public. And, on the occasion that different storms are affecting separate parts of the country, naming storms will allow for clearer communications.
Finally, it might even be fun and entertaining and that in itself should breed interest from our viewing public and our digital users. For all of these reasons, the time is right to introduce this concept for the winter season of 2012-13.

Credit: The Weather Channel

Obama Disses Replacement Refs


By: Andres Macias, co-editor

Controversial call at Seahawks game
What is going on in the NFL? The NFL season has gone nearly 4 weeks now with their newly acquired referees and has drawn more than an efficient amount of criticism from many NFL fans.                                                                   
The normal game officials are in a current lockout due to a lack of pay in their perspective. Mark Maske from the Washington Post reported that the referees’ pension proposal calls for an annual league contribution of $38,500 per official while the league would rather eliminate that plan and replace it with a 401(k) plan.                                                                                                                    
Yahoo.com reports that a current official on the NFL roster was an ex-official in the LFL (Lingerie Football League) and was dismissed for poor performance and several missed calls during games.  Mitch Mortaza, (commissioner of the LFL), says the NFL “lowered” its standards on game officials.           
The replacement officials received even worse criticism this week when they were held responsible for the Green Bay Packers 12-14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in a controversial last play of the game call.            
What should have been an interception by Packers’ M.D. Jennings was instead ruled a touchdown for the Seahawks in a last second hail mary pass. The one call cost the Packers a game and could potentially come back to haunt them later on in the playoff seeding.                                                                           
League spokesperson Greg Aiello confirmed Commissioner Roger Goodell “does not have authority to change the outcome of a game when it concerns judgmental errors or routine errors of omission by game officials.”
President Obama even chimed in after the Packers vs. Seahawks game and said on twitter, “NFL fans on both sides of the aisle hope the referees lockout is settled soon.”