Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections Red Ribbon Week! Jeselys Vazquez Volume 4 Issue 1 November 6, 2023 Image provided by www.redribbon.org The SADD Club proudly presented Red Ribbon Week starting March 24th, 2023 and continued the celebration till March 31st. This was one of the major events for the SADD club where we decorate, develop a theme week of activities and what we wear, and make morning announcements on statistics about alcohol, smoking, drug abuse, and violence. Monday’s theme was “Don’t Be a Statistic Day.” Tranquil Tuesday’s theme was “Meditate, Don’t Intoxicate.” Wednesday was ‘’Stomp Out Drugs’’ Day by wearing boots. “Lei” off drugs was Thursday where we supported the idea that we should not rely on drugs as a decompress to our stress or anxiety but focus on more reliance on ourselves to be active and do what is best for mind and body as a whole. Lastly, on Friday we all wore red to support the drug and violence prevention awareness campaign. Volunteer members in the SADD club dressed all black and wore a paper on the front and back of their shirt represented a person who died from a certain abuse, such as drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and smoking abuse at a young age. According to research, “An estimated 79,117 Americans died from drug overdoses between January and September 2022” (The Commonwealth Fund). According to the National Institute of Health, “Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes.” The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) states that there are “more than 480,000 deaths annually from cigarette smoking, including deaths from secondhand smoke.” Throughout the day, a volunteer could not interact with friends and had to remain silent until the end of the school day to bring awareness and getting people’s attention just by reading and seeing how many people just die each year from overdoses and abuse in consumption. Friday is when we all wore Red to finish it off and participate together in saying no to drugs, making better decisions when come across these things, and helping others not fall into the dangerous habit of being dependent on substances because they feel it is their only solution. Society now has many ways of getting information out there - whether with a good purpose or not, people become informed much more quickly and can affect someone deeply where they know how to manage and cope, so they lean on to others’ advice or suggestions. We should always lean on to what is more wise and beneficial advice and recommendations to others to go on the right path and not make those mistakes without having a friend look out for them or correct them. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Lights On for Education Back to Sections Chelsea Ramdyal - Lights On for Education By Chelsea Ramdyal April 22, 2021 Marker Volume 1 Issue 7

Back to Articles Entertainment & Media Back to Sections A Rich Evolution of The Addams Family By Rachel Ezeadichie Volume 3 Issue 3 February 24, 2023 Image provided by Caitlyn Taylor “ They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious, and spooky, they're all together ooky. They’re the Addams Family!” This haunting family has been around since 1938 and has gone through many adaptations and revisions since. This family includes a married couple, Gomez and Morticia, and their children, Pugsley and Wednesday. It also includes their extended family, Uncle Fester, Grandma, and their giant butler, Lurch. From the first Addams Family comic strips published in 1938 to Netflix’s new show Wednesday , the Addams Family has lasted as a comical slice of life franchise for many years. Although the Addams Family is most famous for its movies and TV shows, it originally was a cartoon published in the New York Times in 1938 by Charles Addams. The family wasn’t the family we know and love today. All characters went by different names, and it wasn’t until the television series that their characters formed. The Addams Family series first aired in 1964 and truly established the franchise. This was when we first got a glimpse of the Addams Family house, and the macabre inner workings of the characters. This show shaped the characters because their actors were allowed different freedoms when acting them out. The actors used a lot of their own personalities when playing their roles. These inclusions from the actors are what made the Addams Family what we know today. The show lasted two seasons and ended in 1966 but made its mark as the start of the Addams Family legacy. The Addams Family and The Addams Family Values were the first films made about the family in 1991 and 1993 respectively. These movies gave back stories to characters and even introduced new ones. The Addams Family focuses on the Addamses getting their Uncle Fester back after a falling out between himself and Gomez. The Addams Family Values gave Wednesday and Pugsley a sibling named Pubert and showed the children navigating life with their new sibling. Other Addams Family movies were released in 2019 and 2021. They were the first computer-animated versions of the Addams Family and gave the family a different plot to follow throughout the films. All films that were made about The Addams Family have changed their image and made them more known throughout the years. The latest addition to The Addams Family franchise is Netflix’s Wednesday . The show primarily focuses on Wednesday and her personal life instead of the collective family. We meet many new characters audiences have never seen before and gain a different perspective on Wednesday’s parents and their backstories. Wednesday needs to navigate the paranormal events happening at her new school while figuring out more about her family’s past and her own interpersonal relationships. In short, the newest addition to The Addams Family legacy is living up to its name. The Addams Family has had many different adaptations throughout the years. From comic to movie to television series and even a musical (which is being performed here at North on March 31st and April 1st), the Addams Family has made its mark for its sometimes dark but always funny storytelling and characters. As it grows, we can look back fondly at its past and await its future. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles News Back to Sections The Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan: What Led Up to It and What Is Happening Now By Sahar Ali Volume 2 Issue 2 November 19, 2021 No Image available at this time AFGHANISTAN- On Saturday, May 1st, 2021, the Taliban started to take over Afghanistan, a country located in Central Asia. On Sunday, August 15th, 2021, the Taliban took over Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The country was finally taken over by the Taliban after twenty years of war with the United States. What Is the Taliban? The Taliban is a group of predominantly Pashtuns that are an Islamic fundamentalist group. They ruled Afghanistan previously from 1996 to 2001 until the U.S. invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. In 2021, when the U.S. started to remove its troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban once again started to take over. The Afghani people have been trying to flee their home country ever since the Taliban took control because they do not want to experience the harsh rules the Taliban enforced when they previously had power. What Led Up to The Takeover After the attacks that occurred on 9/11, the United States went to war with Afghanistan to eradicate al-Qaeda, the group responsible for committing the horrendous acts on September 11th, 2001. The U.S. troops stayed in Afghanistan for 20 years (2001-2021) until President Biden announced the full withdrawal of troops. Then slowly, the Taliban started to take over parts of Afghanistan, trying to get closer and closer to the capital, Kabul. The U.S. and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) trained the Afghan security forces for two decades and spent billions of dollars to equip them with weapons. Even then, the Afghan security forces could not prevent the Taliban from taking over. To make it worse, as the U.S. troops were pulling out of Afghanistan, the security forces started to weaken without support. Another factor that led up to the Taliban takeover was the corruption that took place in the Afghani government. The government did not provide the Afghani troops with enough supplies, food, or ammunition. As the Taliban started to take control over cities, there would be small battles between the Afghani forces and Taliban until the security forces surrendered. However, most cities were taken over by the Taliban without a fight. News About the President Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan, did not appear to take action to stop the Taliban from taking over more parts of Afghanistan. Instead, he released a few public statements regarding the Taliban and then fled the country. According to Ghani, he fled to prevent any further bloodshed. Ashraf Ghani fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and he is currently there. Afghani Citizens Ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the citizens have been trying to flee the country because they are worried that the Taliban will enforce the same harshly interpreted Islamic laws that they enforced in 1996. Afghanis have been fleeing to nearby countries such as Pakistan and Iran. In addition, some people have fled to Turkey, the U.S., Germany, the UAE, and Qatar. There have also been some evacuations that took place. The women of Afghanistan are also concerned that the Taliban have taken over. When the Taliban was in power from 1996-2001, they enforced strict laws that greatly affected women. Women were not allowed to have jobs and girls were not allowed to go to school and get an education. If women wanted to leave the house, they would have to cover themselves up and go to the outside world. Sometimes we do not realize how lucky we are to be able to do certain things like going to school every day. What Is Happening Now When the Taliban took over Afghanistan, they also created a new government and now are currently ruling the country. Not only that, but the Taliban also went as far as changing the flag of Afghanistan. In addition, the U.S. has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, however, the new rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban, will not receive any political recognition from the United States. What Could Happen Next It is not clear what is going to happen next in Afghanistan, but the future does not look very bright. But there are some things that can be done. Currently, Afghanistan is in a very desperate situation, and they require a lot of foreign aid. The European Union (EU), which is a political and economic group that consists of 27 European nations, and the U.S. could give Afghanistan more foreign aid and loans to stabilize the economy of Afghanistan. Without aid, it could also cause more problems of illegal immigration to nearby countries. The United States and the European Union could act to prevent these problems from occurring. Afghanistan was a beautiful country before the fighting started. Let us hope that this conflict ends so that the Afghanistan that people used to know is restored to its original beauty. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Contemplation Back to Sections Wasif Ahmed - Contemplation By Wasif Ahmed June 8, 2021 Marker Volume 1 Issue 8

Back to Articles Editorial Back to Sections Border Crisis: The Reasons Behind the Surge By Everton Prospere Volume 2 Issue 1 October 8, 2021 Image provided by BBC News In recent months, a series of migrant waves have swept the United States southern border, particularly affecting the state of Texas. Most recently, a large number of immigrants have come to Del Rio, a town located in southwestern corner of the state. As per CNN, over 14,000 migrants arrived at Del Rio, forming a temporary encampment under a bridge. The arrival of such a significant number of migrants marked an added border crisis which the government scrambles to control. However, while the Biden administration attempts to tackle this crisis, The Washington Post describes it as the biggest surge in over twenty years. In order to comprehend this rush of immigrants, several social, economic, and political reasons require evaluation. The country of origin must first be taken into account when assessing migrant surges. These immigrants have mostly come from the country of Haiti. Haiti, officially known as the Republic of Haiti, is a small country sharing the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. In modern times, Haiti is known for its political and environmental issues. The country’s president, Jovenel Moïse, was recently assassinated in his own residence by an armed group of mercenaries. This threw the already fragile and impoverished country into more political unrest, with the government unable to control most of the country. Following this political instability, the country was hit by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake, killing over 2,200 people and crippling the already-poor infrastructure, according to The Guardian. These two examples show the type of instability Haiti suffers, in turn explaining the recent migrant surge. However, most immigrants did not come directly from Haiti; rather, the majority already resided in Latin America and South America. The Associated Press reports many Haitians fled to the United States because of an extension granted during the spring to the protections of Haitian migrants already residing in the United States; despite this, online posts communicating the extension often left out the portion of the policy that announced only migrants in the United States were eligible. This misinformation created an effect in which thousands of migrants crossed the Mexican border to Del Rio, seeking refuge. A final cause to this crisis is the stability and opportunity in the United States. One Haitian migrant, interviewed by CNN, specifically stated that “[he] wanted a better life,” which continues to demonstrate the assets the United States has to offer. To immigrants, the United States is primarily a land of freedom - a privilege that many countries do not offer their citizens. With the Biden administration attempting to handle the border crisis through court cases and deportations, the rest of the country continues to follow the headlines. With recent reports of border patrol agents whipping migrants on horseback, as well as widespread disease affecting the migrants (according to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, about twenty percent of migrants at the border are ill), the country watches the unstable scenes occurring at the border. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Nostalgic Musings Back to Sections Sophia Song - Nostalgic Musings - 3 By Sophia Song February 10, 2022 Photography Volume 2 Issue 4

Back to Articles Science & Technology Back to Sections Must be Love on the Brain By Christina Ossa Volume 3 Issue 3 February 24, 2023 Image provided by Shuttershock With Valentine’s Day passing and many people in developing or long-term relationships, the question rises, where exactly does love affect our bodies? Love's most significant effect on our bodies is within several brain regions. The brain is vast, and, to some extent, confusing; we still only know around 10% of how the brain functions, but what we do know well is that love makes people do crazy things. Love is almost like a drug: intoxicating, and more of a phenomenon than anything. Even the most level-headed, practical people can fall victim to being absorbed by love. The Honeymoon Stage (Neurologically) Where exactly does love affect our brains? Why does our brain sometimes react to our deep feelings peculiarly? Well, it depends on what stage of love one is in to truly determine which part of our brains is taking the lead on controlling our emotions and reactions. During the early stages of love, the areas of the brain known as the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and caudate nucleus control your dopamine levels, better known as the “feel good” neurotransmitter. Early into a relationship, you experience the “honeymoon phase,” not only because we as humans crave new things but also because your VTA and caudate nucleus release dopamine in every interaction you have with your loved one. You love spending time around this person and can’t get enough of them because your VTA and caudate nucleus are spewing dopamine; even if the intense feelings are true, they are also biologically caused since the body is a fiend for dopamine at times causing you to feel almost a “high” from your loved one. Testosterone and estrogen are hormones released by the pituitary gland that causes the sex drive to activate in the early stages of relationships, which can also explain the addictive feelings that the honeymoon stage creates. The pituitary gland also releases oxytocin, another “feel good” hormone associated with love. The hypothalamus creates this hormone known as the “love hormone”. It is highly associated with love since, once released into the bloodstream, it causes many positive effects, such as activation of sex drive (in conjunction with testosterone and estrogen) and building of recognition, trust, romantic attraction, and even parent-infant bonding. All these hormones and neurotransmitters work together, forming the reward system in our brain. Other areas of the brain also releasing these hormones and neurotransmitters are the cerebral cortex, the medial insula, the anterior cingulate, the hippocampus, and (in the subcortex) parts of the striatum and also possibly the accumbens. Scientists are actually unsure of how these parts work together to cause us to act “lovey-dovey” with our loved ones. But, the most important thing to note about these areas is that they make up our reward system in addition to the VTA, pituitary gland, hypothalamus, and caudate nucleus. Not Just a Biological Phase If these strong feelings persist past the honeymoon stage, well, not only will one have a lifetime or long-term supply of dopamine and hormones, but also, you’ll have a healthy (hopefully) way of deflecting stressors and decreasing pain/negative feelings. Your VTA intensifies as more and more dopamine is released when you’re around this person; you’ll feel as though you’re immune to bad feelings, or at the very least, you’ll feel safe since you have a safety net of dopamine to either come home to or talk to at any moment. Dopamine is extremely important to long-term relationships. In a study, many married couples still felt intense “honeymoon stage” love for each other. They showed very similar activity to the honeymoon stage in dopamine-rich areas such as the VTA. Therefore, if you want to know if you genuinely have a “deep love” and not just a honeymoon stage fizzled relationship, think back to those dopamine-rich moments you’ve had with your partner early on. Are they still the same now as they were before? Obviously, a relationship matures and grows over time. But based on this study on married couples, the brain sometimes can’t tell the difference between these “stages”. Biologically, love seems to remain stable in the brain when one in a long-term, healthy relationship (or unhealthy too, which can be the issue in many abusive or toxic relationships). So, ask yourself throughout your relationship periodically, do you still have those feelings or has your relationship truly fizzled out? The Crash As much as many of us would love for this love to persist throughout our lives (as with drugs – you get used to the high), sometimes it doesn’t, and it’s heartbreaking. Whether the feelings are still there or fizzled out, your brain essentially experiences withdrawal after a breakup. But why do we experience these intense moments? Your brain and body exhibit behaviors unnatural to your usual personality during break-ups because break-ups activate your fight or flight response, thanks to a structure in the brain known as the amygdala. The amygdala bypasses the rationale of your brain and thoughts as it perceives danger and life-or-death situations. Clearly, while a break-up may be painful, it is not simply “life-or-death.” But your brain quite literally treats it as such. So, when in a breakup, you melt down because your amygdala is causing your body to act as if it were dying. That withdrawal of love is so powerful that it truly causes our bodies to act in a life-or-death manner. The withdrawal can persist for months in unwanted breakups, as shown by a study that scanned the activity in the brains of young adults who experienced unwanted breakups and still felt love for their people. The individuals still sent their loved one's texts and even felt depressed for months. Also, when shown pictures of their ex-partners, the reward areas of the brain (VTA, ventral striatum, and nucleus accumbens) were activated, and dopamine was released. So, even if you’ve been broken up with a person for months, you can still feel that love and dopamine rush when seeing them or even looking at a picture of them. Another series of studies showed that the pain of heartbreak could even manifest as physical pain like a severe burn or broken arm. The areas of the brain, such as the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), the secondary somatosensory cortex (S2), the anterior cingulated cortex, the insular cortex, the and the prefrontal cortex, and the thalamus, are activated as a result of the pain of heartbreak. These areas of the brain are associated with pain and activate when you are in physical pain, so even in breakups, it can be as if you’ve broken your arm. Endorphins are released as a result of the pain, and the pain persists until the endorphins act to calm your body and mind down. Love is a Biologically Taxing Process Love is complicated, even biologically. There’s still so much to learn about how love manifests in our brains and bodies, but the most crucial advice to take away is to enjoy love while it lasts. If it does last, keep enjoying it. Be with your loved one, endorse those dopamine releases, and enjoy the moment. And if that love ends, if you experience the crash, know that it’s normal and okay to feel those heart-wrenching emotions and pain. Think of it like a broken arm: you need time to heal it. So, love is not just an experience that possesses our brains and causes our bodies to act out of wack. It’s complicated but beautiful. Therefore, appreciate love because your body and brain work very hard to make it happen. References: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-goes-on-in-our-brains-when-we-are-in-love/#:~:text=More%20specifically%2C%20in%20a%202012,VTA )%20and%20the%20caudate%20nucleus . https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-neurobiology-of-love-and-relationships/ https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-does-love-do-to-our-brains#Where-in-the-brain-is-love ? https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22618-oxytocin https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/breakup-neuroscience/ https://www.physio-pedia.com/Chronic_Pain_and_the_Brain#:~:text=Studies%20using%20functional%20MRI%20have,prefrontal%20cortex%20and%20the%20thalamus . https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23040-endorphins#:~:text=Endorphins%20are%20hormones%20that%20are,reduce%20stress%20and%20improve%20mood . BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Science & Technology Back to Sections What Happened to DART? By Cody Sung Volume 3 Issue 1 November 7, 2022 Image provided by NASA While NASA was busy with many attempts to launch their Moon rocket in their Artemis 1 mission [1], they were also getting ready to crash a $314 million spacecraft into an asteroid [2]. The mission is named the Double Redirection Asteroid Test, or as it is commonly known, DART. NASA is conducting this mission to test whether spacecraft have the capability to change the orbit of an asteroid that could crash into Earth. According to NASA; however, the asteroid that DART crashed into, Dimorphos , doesn’t pose a threat to Earth [3]. Despite this, the mission would still provide useful information for scientists. By hurling DART at Dimorphos , NASA estimated that it would shorten its orbit time by around 1%, or 10 minutes [4]. Luckily, we likely won’t need to test this out soon, since according to NASA, there are no known asteroid threats to Earth for the next century [5]. Work beyond the initial conceptual phases for DART began in June 2017, and the final design and assembly phase began in August 2018. The spacecraft weighed 1,340 pounds, and its cargo includes devices needed for the mission such as sensors for navigation, a camera, an onboard computer for crash trajectory calculations, solar arrays, an antenna, and an ion thruster [6]. During the journey to Dimorphos , it had to carry an Italian spacecraft, LICIACube, which would be used to study the effects of DART’s impact. Despite all that the DART team had to accomplish, the spacecraft was completed in time for its launch on November 24, 2021, from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California in a SpaceX Falcon 9 [7]. It would be a long journey ahead. Even going at about 4 miles a second, it would take the craft 9 months to reach Dimorphos. In preparation for its impact, there were many equipment tests to make sure the craft functioned properly. Everything worked properly, and two months before the impact, DART detected the Didymos system from 20 million miles away [6]. LICIACube was released one and a half months later, 15 days before the impact. Finally, on September 26, 2022, DART crashed into Dimorphos . The mission was a success. To astronomers worldwide, it was well worth the total $330 million cost of the mission [8]. LICIACube started to send images back to Earth a few minutes after the impact, showing the debris from DART’s impact [9]. In the following weeks, images from more sources started to stream in. It became quite clear that the impact shortened the orbital period of Dimorphos by around 32 minutes [10]. Thanks to this mission, we now know that if there is ever an asteroid that could hit Earth, we have a way to prevent its impact, although NASA scientists caution that we would have to do so years in advance for such a maneuver to be a success [4]. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Sports Back to Sections NCAA College Tournament By Leah Ally Volume 3 Issue 3 February 24, 2023 Image provided by ESPN The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, more commonly referred to as March Madness or NCAA March Madness, is a springtime single-elimination competition annually held in the United States to determine the national college basketball champion. There are 68 Division I college basketball teams, the National Collegiate Athletic Association represented in the tournament. Since its first competition in 1939, it has gained vast popularity and become one of the country's most-watched annual sporting events. The champion teams from three Division I conferences are among the tournament teams along with 36 other teams selected by a committee of the NCAA. A single elimination “bracket” made up of the 68 teams separated into four regions and predetermines which teams will play each other next. At the start of the tournament 4 teams are eliminated leaving 64 teams to be “seeded”, or ranked, from 1 to 16 within its region. Seven rounds of the tournament are played to determine the national champions. The locations are determined beforehand based on venue size, hotel and airport requirements, hosting frequency, and previous attendance numbers from the venue, While this annual sporting event has been televised since 1969, all games have not been accessible to be watched worldwide and across the country until 2011. With the increase in television coverage comes an increase in the tournament’s popularity. An average of 10.7 million viewers have tuned in to the last tournament in 2022. Even among non-sports fans, it has become extremely common in popular culture to predict each game’s outcome. Every year, bracket pool competitions are estimated to attract tens of millions of American s. The 2023 March Madness tournament will take place for three weeks from March 12th-April 8th. The competition will begin in Daytona, Ohio and will continue in Houston, Texas for the 2nd round. Out of all 68 teams participating in the competition the Houston Cougars are currently the favorites to win the NCAA tournament with North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, and UCLA being close behind with 15/1 odds. Just this year alone, 45 million Americans (17% of American adults) are expected to wager $3.1 billion combined on the March Madness tournament. BACK TO TOP