Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
A note from your editor
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Gothic fiction
Around 1764 the first Gothic fiction novel, Castle of Otranto, was published and ever since genre seemed to gain more and more popularity. As it grew and developed, the genre came to be defined as a "neoclassical Enlightened Establishment”. I know that does not sound like English, so instead we can concentrate on the elements of Gothic fiction which are romance, foreign dark atmospheres and most importantly the supernatural element. So if a book talks about forbidden love between two educated handsome young people in some beautiful haunted European castle then it is probably gothic. After the castle of Otranto a lot of novels and more importantly writers came along. At first (that is in the 1800 let’s say) these writers seemed to be collecting folklore and combining it with classic Gothic literature elements and the results, fantastic. To prove it look at the books this time period produced, Edgar Allen Poe's tell tale heart, his fall of the house of usher, Bram stoker's Dracula not to mention the Brontes' Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
A little later on parodies of Gothic fiction started to become popular as well, one example would be Jane Autsen's Northanger abbey, in this particular and I quote, " the naive protagonist, after reading too much Gothic fiction, conceives herself a heroine of a Radcliffian romance and imagines murder and villainy on every side, though the truth turns out to be much more prosaic." 1 Nowadays Gothic fiction has been seriously modernised and all the forbidden love, fair maidens and young educated gentlemen were turned into, street dancers, school teachers and misunderstood teenagers. Now, some writers managed to pull this off without affecting the classic elements of the Gothic fiction or the image of some characters/creatures, examples include Stephen King's works, Anne Rice's works and some other novels like the Red Room by H.G.Wells. Others on the one hand have completely destroyed the image of a number of classic Gothic fiction protagonists/antagonists and released a wave of cheesy and quite dump novel , namely our darling dearest Stephenie Meyer.
So in short we can see that gothic fiction has almost always been a popular genre and will probably remain so. We can also see that the plots and characters of this genre have gone through drastic changes at times resulting in amazing works and at other resulting in glittery disaster. At the end I would like to leave a small comment: next time you are in the library, hit the thriller section, look up some classics and read you will love it, promise.
Interesting facts:
· There are quite a number of novels that people read but do not know that they are classified as Gothic fiction, one example is a book taught in our school now and that is The Picture of Dorian Gray, another is Frankenstein.
· Although the castle of Otranto is the official first gothic novel there is a number of gothic novels/plays the preceded it, such as Shakespeare's Macbeth, Bewolf and Faust.
Written by: Jude Khashman
With the help of: Shatha Degachi
With the help of: Shatha Degachi
All of the Lights
The song "All of the Lights" if the fourth single for the hip-hop singer Kanye West in his fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy the song was released in January 18, 2011. The song was written by Kanye West, producer Jeff Bhasker, rapper Malik Yusef, and rapper Really Doe. After the song was released it took number 23 on US Billboard Hot 100.
The Lyrics:
The lyrics of the song talks about various stories and ideas. One of the main ideas that the song talks about is the road to fame, West talks about his experience and how he had to walk through all of the lights to reach fame, the lights that he starts talking about are the lights of the small gigs he did, and then when he finally became famous he was under the light of the camera's it’s as if his life has been put under a magnifying glass.
In this song West dedicates his album to Michael Jackson in honor of him, and this is when he says the lyrics MJ gone.
The incident that happened with Taylor Swift last year is mentioned in the song as well (When he stepped into the stage when Swift was saying her thank you speech for getting the award of having the best music video of the year). He refers to this incident in his lyrics I slapped my girl, she called the feds.
And then after this sentence he says
I did that time and spent that bread I'm heading home,
I'm almost there
I'm on my way, heading up the stairs
I'm on my way, heading up the stairs
He is saying here that after he took some time off after this incident it was like a vacation to him but when he came back he wasn't on top anymore
(his place was taken by other singers like Nikki Manaj and Drake) his fans turned their back on him and at the same time his girlfriend left him , so he had to do everything again, in order to get into the lights again.
Kanye West talks about how he need everyone to see him again, to notice him again, he wants to get back under all of the spot lights.
you know what I need, want you to see everything
want you to see all of the lights
want you to see all of the lights
So mainly the song is talking about the mistakes and experiences that Kanye West went through, and how everyone needs to work hard to get into the life that has all of the lights.
Music Video:
The music video for "All of the Lights" was filmed in January 2011 and the video premiered on February 19, 2011. The first video that was published had a lot of flashing bright lights in which caused seizures to a lot of its viewers so an alternate video was posted which starts with a warning that says that it might cause seizure and the neon colors at the introduction were cut out.
Resources:
Written By: Haya Haha, 10
With the help of: Marah Zada, 8
Yoga
Most people hate sports and don’t like to be involved in them when there are some kinds of sports that don’t take a lot of effort from us, such as: Yoga. Yoga is a sport that needs concentration and balance.
So what is Yoga? And how is it helpful?
Yoga is like a trend that began more than 3,000 years ago. Yoga refers to the traditional physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines, originated in India. The word yoga is Sanskrit (one of the ancient languages of the East). It means to unite the mind, body, and spirit. Yoga has been lauded for centuries for improving strength, posture, flexibility, concentration, heart and lung health, and so much more.
Yoga is like a trend that began more than 3,000 years ago. Yoga refers to the traditional physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines, originated in India. The word yoga is Sanskrit (one of the ancient languages of the East). It means to unite the mind, body, and spirit. Yoga has been lauded for centuries for improving strength, posture, flexibility, concentration, heart and lung health, and so much more.
The goal in this sport is to attain a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility. Yoga requires no equipments in order to sooth your soul and tone your body. This sport also helps strengthen your cardiovascular system, stretches your muscles, and improves your mental fitness.
Yoga helps you train your mind, body, breath, as well as connecting with your spirituality. Yoga is really helpful; it doesn’t only give you balance, but it gives you flexibility, strength, deep breathes techniques, meditation, relaxation, stamina, better sleep, and mental clarity. In addition, it reduces anxiety, and lowers stress levels
Yoga can prevent cold and flu. There has been a new study that showed people who exercised 5 days a week and got sick for 40% fewer days than those who did.
Yoga is a great option for reaping this benefit, since each person practices to his or her own ability so as not to be hard on the body. Yoga does not need to be only for woman. It can be very useful for men and kids as well. For men; it can go with weight training and can also help in obtaining a healthier body. For kids; it gives them relaxation from the outside pressures like after-school activities, peer pressure and workloads.
Written by: Ghena Haykal, 7
With the help of: Tala Nasser, 8
The Cultural Village Festival
Cultures from all over the world were held together in one place, can you believe it?? The Ahliyyah School for girls and the Bishop’s School for Boys organized a Cultural Village Festival on the 8th of March. This is a festival that showed traditions of many different civilizations, starting from Jordan to Germany. Many different private schools participated in the festival, where each one represented a country’s culture through traditional costume, traditional foods, folk art/literature, media …etc. This event had magic shows, puppet shows, songs, dances, lottery tickets sold and prizes given to the winners, and more. It included a range of stations, like handicrafts, food stations, theatre, bazaar, and children’s area. The festival also had a camel hidden behind one of the Arabian tents, which you could ride on, I wonder where that got it from?? You don't usually find camels wandering around Amman. At around 2:30 P.M it rained very heavily for about a few minutes and it was freezing so everyone cleared to the tents and the yard was almost empty. And many dancers were very worried that they wouldn’t have a chance to perform because of the rain. However, before we knew it the sun shone and dried up the rain and everyone came back out. The Ahliyyah School for Girls participated in the dabkeh dances, which represented the Lebanese and Iraq cultures. And two talented girls from our school also participated in the show. Lujain Al-Majali played Spanish music and Rand Farmawi sang. Our school also represented the Circassian culture by dancing and playing its music. The festival encouraged group work and team spirit between students and schools. In addition, it was like bringing world cultures together
Written By: Zein Alami, 7
and Lara Nassar, 7
Robotic Surgery
Yes, try to repeat those words again. Robotic surgery. Don’t you just love how the name rolls off your tongue? It is said that in a few years, a robot will actually be able to perform a surgery, without the need of a surgeon. Frightening? Cool? Or perhaps a combination of both?
In the 20th century, people used to say: “A computer? Why, never in all my years have I heard such an outrageous word as that! I say, Gwendolyn, fetch me my monocle!”
Okay, maybe not exactly like that. However, you can’t deny the fact that when talking about computers and robots, only science fiction writers predicted the magnificent boom of technology.
Okay, maybe not exactly like that. However, you can’t deny the fact that when talking about computers and robots, only science fiction writers predicted the magnificent boom of technology.
Where were we? Ah, yes. Robotic surgery can mean two things:
- Using a computer to perform operations from a distance
- Artificial intelligent robot which can perform a surgery on its own
The main difference between these types is the involvement of the surgeon with the surgery. In the first type, the surgeon is performing the surgery, which is usually extremely delicate, with the assistance of a robot. This means that he does not have to stand beside the patient in order to execute the surgery. As a matter of fact, the surgeon only controls robotic arms from a computer station, and the arms move according to the surgeon’s movement.
So you could say it’s a bit like a video game. Except in this case, there aren’t any extra lives. Yikes.
The advantage is the increased accuracy. You see, a surgeon is only human, and there is a chance that the surgeon might have shaky hands or might have a spontaneous sneezing fit. Who knows? Another advantage is the fact that this has opened new doors: a surgeon will be able to perform a surgery even though he is miles away! However, there is a disadvantage. Robotic surgery equipment is extremely expensive!
As for the second type, the robot performs the surgery on its own. The robot is programmed; it uses many different sensors and is able to carry out the surgery with no human assistance whatsoever. The movement of this robot is precise, and therefore accuracy increases. One example of this kind of surgery is in Italy, where a robot by the name of ‘The Da Vinci Robot’ has performed more than 40 surgeries.
A superb advantage is instead of making an incision large enough for a human hand, the robot makes an incision large enough for the robot’s hands (which are about the size of a US dime). A smaller incision means fewer traumas for the patient, and therefore healing is quicker. It also decreases the chance of infection. Another advantage is precision, so there will be no need for the fear that the robot will go ballistic and accidentally cut the patient’s leg off. However, the disadvantage is the lack of human comfort. Some may find that a robot performing surgery on them creeps them out.
To conclude, there is no denying that robots will become a huge part of our lives in the future. We have already seen how robots have affected the manufacturing of goods, and some even own robotic pets! Will the artificial intelligence field rule the 21st century? Bring it on!
Resources:
Written by: Sara Almasri
The Haves and the Have-nots in the 21st Century
Since her mother left, 14 year old Leeda from Cambodia has been in charge of the household. Every day she cooks, cleans and takes care of her brothers. A phone number to contact her mother in case of emergency is carved on one of the house's wooden beams.
Leeda is now in the seventh grade at the Dey Thoy School with a scholarship from the OPTIONS Programme, which is run by World Education with support from UNICEF, the United States Department of Labor and The McKnight Foundation. Despite her family's acute poverty and her responsibilities as her brothers' caretaker, she dreams of attending university and becoming a health worker, however, no one really knows if her dreams will come true, for if she does not have enough money to fulfill her dream, she knows that she'll be spending the rest of her life taking care of her siblings, trying to scratch and get any dime she can get to survive.
In every country, there are thousands, if not millions of families who are suffering each day, children and elderly people living in the midst of poverty and neglect, somehow surviving on less than one dollar a day. Based on World Bank figures which are used for official global poverty statistics, the number of people living below the international poverty line of $1.25 per day fell from 1.82 billion to 1.37 billion between 1990 and 2005.
It has been estimated that the continent with the biggest percentage of people living below the international poverty line compared to its population is Africa with 91 to 121 million in sub Saharan Africa alone. It has been estimated that THE poorest country in the world is Zimbabwe where 80% of the population is unemployed, 1.8 Million Zimbabweans live with HIV and receive no treatment as the health system has collapsed, due to of course financial issues.
When it comes to Jordan, the poverty line, based on 2008 figures, was JD57 per person per month and JD3,876 per household (5.7 people). That is, in order for one to consume a certain number of calories and meet basic needs, the household has to have an income of JD3, 876 per year, or JD323 per month. Note that a family that is provided for by one working person who is making less than JD323 per month will be considered poor.
There are so many people in need around the world, so many who need our help, our support, and our love, and the way to achieve that is not by sitting here reading about this, sympathizing for a few minutes then you forget you ever read this, because that won't help, support of give love to those in need, luckily, there are several given ways as to how to help eliminate poverty, try them!
- Spread awareness
- Donate food, money, clothes...etc
- Help those in need find proper, affordable shelters or jobs
- Volunteer: When you are on holiday or if you have free time, volunteer at shelters and children's homes
- Share with others how much giving and contributing helped you and motivate them to help out too, spread the love!
There is so much pain, suffering, hunger and poverty in our world, and we have to do something about it really soon before all our current choices narrow down to only one, we need to take action, we need to help.
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” - Dalai Lama
Name: Meera Maaytah, 8
Land Day
What is the land? How valuable is the land? Is it easy to give up the land?
It’s not just any piece of land, our father’s and grandfather’s land. They were born there, and they planted it with their bare hands. They waited for their crops to grow, and anticipated the harvest season impatiently. They lived on the land and lived off of it too. Until one day tanks and planes took over the land, they kicked the people off the land and claimed that it was their own. People were alarmed, and had no choice but to abandon their oranges and leave.
Before the establishment of the Israeli State, 75% of the Palestinians made their living off the land. After the Palestinian exodus and the effects of the 1948 Arab-Israel war, land continued to play an important role in the lives of the 156,000 Palestinian Arabs who remained on their land, serving as the source of honor and pride. The Israeli government adopted the “Law of Return” to smooth the progress of Jewish immigration; as a result many Jews are occupying the land and living on it. The Israeli government encouraged the Jews to move to Palestine and to live there in especially built settlements on the land.
Absentees’ Property Law
This law transferred the property rights of absentee owners to a government-appointed Custodian of Absentee Property. This legalized the confiscation of lands belonging to Palestinians who fled or were expelled from the area in 1948. The number of absentees from among 1.2 million Palestinians is estimated in 2001 to be 200,000 or some 20% of the total Palestinian Arab population.
During the Six Day war of 1976, many citizens were killed, hundreds were wounded, and plenty arrested. In addition to that, the Israeli forces took hold of hundreds of acres of land. They took the land that belongs to our ancestors, they took our olives and oranges, and they mistreated our history. On March 30th, we honor our land, and we teach the young generations to honor the land as well.
For the Palestinians, Land Day has become a day of honor and tribute to those who have fallen in the struggle over the past decades to hold onto their land and identity. Our grandparents talk about the land, they talk about their trees, and they talk about the well. They pass on their memories and past to us, hoping that we value and appreciate them and pass them on to the coming generations.
Written by: Hoor Al-Amin, 10
With the help of: Leen Kurdi, 8
Carolyn Thomas: The Wake-Up Call
Inspiration is when something or someone touches your soul and stays forever in your memory impacting most of your actions. I watched an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show about 6 years ago, and it was about a lady called Carolyn Thomas who dated a very abusive and control-oriented boyfriend.
Basically the story of survival went like this: “On December 5, 2003, Carolyn Thomas and her mother Janice Reeves were attacked by Carolyn’s abusive ex-boyfriend. Carolyn’s abuser shot and killed Janice Reeves, Carolyn’s mother and shot Carolyn in the face with a ‘44 magnum’ Carolyn did not die, she is a survivor”. Since then Carolyn has had to endure 12 cosmetic surgeries. Why? Because the impact of the bullet in her face took her eye, nose and a huge part of her jaw out. This evening, I watched the season finale of Oprah and she included the “Woman who Survived” talking about her recovery process.
Carolyn has had 17 months of surgeries and trips between her home in Waco and her doctors in Houston. Meanwhile, with the help of Diane Jackson, her counselor, Carolyn began building the reputation as the woman who not only survived a horrific attack from an abusive boyfriend but found the courage to speak out against domestic violence. Her speeches have taken her all across America, and she is planning at the moment, as said on Oprah, a charitable foundation, through which she will help other women escape domestic violence.
All in all, Carolyn inspires me greatly. No, not because I have an abusive boyfriend, but because she is an awesome example of how it took a bullet to her face to tell her and every woman out there that if a man hits, he will hit again.
Today, Oprah restated a very recurring quote that when a man hits his wife or partner, he will do it again. Her mission statement today is :"To promote the emotional, physical, and mental well-being of domestic violence victims/survivors on various levels in order to enrich their lives and maximize their independence, including support of programs/organizations dedicated to making positive changes within the domestic violence movement for victims and survivors of domestic violence."
Written by: Jenny Jumaian, 10
Final
How many of you have every run a race? Although you may not be on the track team, I am sure most of us, at one point in time have ran in a race with our friends. There is a thrill in running, especially at the end of the race, when you get to the last few meters, and your legs feel like jello. You are exhausted, but from somewhere deep inside you find the strength to go on, your legs feel like they are moving on their own and you fly across the finish line.
Now imagine yourself on a hot summer’s day at the pool. Your friend just dared you to race her in a swim across the pool. We all know that in order to be as fast as possible, the least amount of surfacing for air is important. You are only 2 meters away from the end of the pool, and your breath starts to run out. You are kicking faster and faster, but although you are so close to the wall of the pool, you feel like giving up. The breath of air you took before diving in must not have been enough. You can hardly lift your arms and feel like you might burst.
Now as we all know, we are in the month of May, and for me May can be summarized in one word final. May is the final month of school, packed with final classes, final homework, final projects, oh and lets not forget final exams. But this is not a “fling across the finish line” finale it, it is a boring, seemingly pointless, “last 2 meters of the pool”. The energy you fueled up on in September from last summer, is all used up, you feel like you might explode. Knowing that there is only one month left to school doesn’t even help, it almost makes things worse. The hot sun outside, leaves us all dreaming of the pool, we are grieving the loss of the ice-cream at school (taken away due to health orders), our uniforms are wrinkled and sticking to us from the sweat. Spring is over, and is not fun anymore. No one feels like trying, it is as simple as that.
My purpose behind this article was not to depress you, yet I don’t really have any encouragement to give. I am only expressing a feeling that I know many of us can relate to. It is my hope that somehow we will all pull through, that not one of us will cave under al of the stress and that you all will somehow find the energy to finish this final month and cross the finish line on June 16th feeling proud of yourselves.
Written By : Aimee Knaus, 10
Dry lips
With changes of weather, our lips dry. So we need something to moisturize them or to remove dead skin. To remove dead skin, you can use a wet washcloth or a soft toothbrush and gently rub it off. Or you can use this recipe.
You will need:
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of honey (If you don't have honey or if you are allergic to honey, use Olive Oil instead)
A little bit of Vaseline
And a small container
Stir them all together until it has a gritty texture.
Then wipe up the scrub and notice how soft your lips are.
Honey will hydrate and moisturize the skin leaving it looking and feeling beautiful. It’s also an anti-irritant, making it suitable for a number of sensitive skin issues.
Vaseline is a petroleum jelly which also helps moisturize your skin.
Sugar: Natural glycerin moisturizes the skin softening the texture. It also works as a scrub.
Now, your lips need color?
You can make your own home made lipstick at home!
You will need:
-An unused blush, pink eye shadow or whatever color you desire (basically anything that contains pigments)
-Vaseline
Put some Vaseline in a small container, and then add the color to it and mix them together.
It is safe on the lips (Most of your lip glosses are made from pure pigments anyways) so don’t throw away your old blush or eye shadow, turn them into lip glosses and save money !
Written by: Mais Abu Shamat, 8
Child Labour
Child labour is a word that most people don’t know the definition of. I have the classification; small children between the ages of 4 to 18 who are working instead of getting educated. Even though working in Jordan is allowed at the age of 18, those children don’t care because they want money to buy food and support their families. That verifies that 1 in 3 children in Jordan are working under the legal age, why? Because of poverty and careless parents who don’t work. Furthermore, most children that work are not getting enough money so they can buy daily life necessities.
In order to decrease the number of the children working before the age of 18; people should work harder to help those children. This would happen if everyone collected money in boxes specified for this issue in shops, schools, and malls to help those children’s parents. Another important
One of the important goal is to make sure that children at least can go to Universal primary, because those children are the basic in live, besides getting knowledge is like you’re making or building up a personality for those poor children.
Moreover getting those children educated will help them to cope with the environment by knowing how to read and talk since they are the next generation. Some of those children will become leaders in the future and they will have to work in order to have a good successful life, based on their knowledge.
In my opinion, I believe that the education I am getting will help me become the successful lawyer I want to be one I grow up. Hence, those children that are not getting their full rights have the same dreams each and every one of us has. Donating by a small amount will not affect us but will affect those needy children.
Written by: Ghalia Abu-Sitteh, 8
With the help of :Shahd Al-Hadid, 7
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