Lone Star Dispatch Issue #6 Review

FRONT PAGE:
Summary: 
This article is a summary of the StuCo presidential elections for the 2015-2016 year. It talks about the different candidates and their approach to their campaigns. The two presidents for next year will be Shelby Johnson and Marcus Gallardo. The article also talks about the candidates' passion for student council and leadership.

Graphic Elements: 
There are two photos, one of Shelby Johnson surrounded by her campaigners and another of Brad Mayo on the drum line that was used to pump people up for the elections.

STUDENT LIFE:
Summary: 
This article talks about what various students are planning to do in the upcoming three months of summer. Some students are taking on jobs to make money, others are planning on working out more, going on vacation, or just trying to get some rest.

Graphic Elements: 
This page has a graphic with a stylized map of the world with lines stretching from Austin to places all around the world, illustrating how students will be traveling all around the world this summer. There's a photo of the award that was given to the Bowie choir for their performance at Disney World. There's also a graphic displaying graduation statistics in the US.

NEWS: 
Summary: 
This article talks about the new A-day/B-day schedule for next year, and some of the concerns people have about it. Ruth Ann Widner, an APUSH teacher, and Jade Fabello, one of the candidates for StuCo president talk about concerns about inequity between the time students will get with their teachers on A-days versus B-days.

Graphic Elements: 
On this page there's a photograph of Kara Shannon performing with the color guard during a half-time show.

SPORTS:
Summary: 
The article details the season for the BHS girls' lacrosse team. They made it to state, and while they didn't win the championship they still are fifth best team in Texas. The team sponsor is interviewed, as well as a few team members about their goals for the coming year.

Graphic Elements: 
There is a photograph of Kyle Gray pitching for the baseball team as well as Cat Munoz playing lacrosse. 

ENTERTAINMENT: 
Summary: 
Kamyrn gives a stellar review of Avengers: Age of Ultron, giving it 4 out of 5 stars. She says that it's packed with action as well as giving the characters depth when it goes into detail with their respective backstories or looks into their personal lives. 

Graphic Elements: 
There's a graphic that illustrates the ACL line-up for this year for both weekends, as well as two photos of performers from the Silver Stars' performance in New York City, and a graphic shaped like a movie ticket to illustrate details about the Avengers movie.

COMMENTARY:
Summary: 
Kamryn criticizes the education system, particularly high schools, wondering why teens barely have time to actually be teens if they want to perform well in school at the same time. She talks about how much pressure is put on her and her peers, so much that it's an effort to simply get through the day.

Graphic Elements: 
There's a graphic illustrating the issues with student sharing, and another illustrates the back-breaking pressure students are put under by showing a boy being crushed by various textbooks.

3. Which graphic in this paper was the strongest, in your opinion? WHY?
I think the strongest graphic was the one for ACL. It was very visually appealing, and it also looked like the official ACL graphics with the colors, fonts, and sunflower image. 

4. Which graphic was the weakest, in your opinion? WHY?
I think the weakest graphic was the one for the student sharing article. It was confusing, and I couldn't quite tell exactly what it was trying to show.

5. Look at the political cartoon on page 7 next to the editorial. What is the artists message?
The message is about how much pressure and work is thrust upon high school students by showing a boy being literally crushed under his schoolwork.

infographics

Movie Review Exploration

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2Kevin James' Vegas-set sequel, should have folded before release 

Publication: The Daily News
Writer: Joe Neumaier
Rating: 0/10
High Points: apparently none except for the rare "smirk-inducing" line.
Low Points: everything, apparently. 
Quote: "It wouldn't be hard to be at least a little better than 2009's first "Blart," a very dumb but financially successful comedy for the former "King of Queens" star. But being worse? That's a real accomplishment."

Mad Max: Fury Road
A Visceral, Inventive Blockbuster Roars to Life in 'Mad Max: Fury Road'

Publication: NPR
Writer: Chris Klimek
Rating: 9/10
High Points: stunning visuals, action-packed, unapologetically feminist.
Low Points: none mentioned.
Quote: "A kinetic, hallucinatory, boldly feminist chase flick that, with its vibrant color palette, harrowing stunt work and show-don't-tell style of yarn-spinning, leaves every Marvel movie and every Fast & Furious in its irradiated dust. It's the most visceral blockbuster since Gravity, and it reinvigorates the doomsday genre like no film since The Matrix."

Movie Prep

1. Who are the main characters you would expect to see in the movie, based on the real life events?
Richard Phillips, Abduwali Muse, the other Somali pirates and Captain Phillips's crew.

2. Briefly, in 2-3 paragraphs, tell me what you expect the plot to be in the movie, based on the real life events?
I expect the movie to first give some exposition on Captain Phillips's job and life and sort of show the beginning of the trip being somewhat normal until the pirates board the ship and Phillips is taken captive and everything gets really intense. 
I'm sure there will also be a very intense part where the US military and the pirates have a sort of faceoff, and then at the end it'll maybe show Phillips being reunited with his family and maybe the effects the ordeal has on him (PTSD, etc).

3. Why was this story important?
It was the first time an American ship was hijacked by pirates since the 19th century. 

4. Why did the pirates try to take the ship?
It had millions of dollars worth of cargo on the ship.

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1. List the five most important actors in the film.
Tom Hanks, Barkad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, David Warhofsky, Catherine Keener. 

2. What is the movie rated?
PG-13.

3. Who directed the movie?
Paul Greengrass.

4. Who was the producer?
Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin.

5. What awards did it win?
Top Box Office Film, AFI Movie of the Year, Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay.

6. How much did it cost to make?
55 million dollars.

7. How was it received by audiences?
Very well, an average of 8/10 stars. 

8. What did other movie reviews think about the movie?
Most critics were extremely impressed, especially by Hanks and Abdi.

Infographic

Meyers-Briggs Statistics | Create infographics

Current Events Quiz 5/18

1. How many people were killed in Waco this weekend in a rival biker gang shootout? How many were injured? How many were detained for questioning? What location did this happen? Page A1 "Biker shootout…"
Nine are killed in the shootout, twenty-five to seventy were taken into questioning. This happened in Waco.

2. What are the five topics the state legislature plans to take on in the final two weeks they are in session? Page A1 "Now or Never"
Tax cuts, budget, abortion, gun bills, and border security.

3. Summarize the stats presented in the info graphic on page B1 "Rainy days by the numbers"
There have been 7.5 inches of rain throughout the week, no counties are in critical drought in Texas, and there are predicted to be only ten 100 degree days this summer. 

4. What are some of the technological inventions that real estate agents are using to help sell homes in markets where homes do not stay on the market very long? Page B5 "New face of real estate"
FaceTime, iPads.

5. Why will funding to help pay for those who died and injured in the Amtrak train wreck be limited to $200 million? Page A6 "Amtrak could pay no more…"
The cap was set to keep Amtrak financially stable should it become independent.

Short Answer: Read the story on page A2 "Will death make Tsarnaev a martyr".

What do you think about this topic? If they put Tsarnaev to death, will he become a martyr and inspire more attacks, or does it matter at this point since he has already carried out his attack?
I personally do not believe in the death penalty at all. I think that life imprisonment without parole is a better punishment for the most heinous of crimes. There are very few people I think should be put to death because not only could they become a martyr in the eyes of their supporters if it were a case such as Tsarnaev, and there is also the issue of people being discovered innocent post-execution.
I'm not really sure whether Tsarnaev has the potential to become a martyr since he was, as the article said, "more of a lone wolf with a low profile among radial jihadists." He doesn't seem like he was particularly outspoken and I haven't seen anything about him saying things that could be used as a rallying cry for people looking to martyrize him. However, it's still possible if the jihadists are desperate for a martyr.

Captain Phillips Movie Review

Captain Phillips sails at breakneck speeds

The story of Captain Richard Phillips being taken prisoner by Somali pirates made headlines in April of 2009. Its 2013 film adaptation manages to capture the constant tension and high-stakes situations that were undoubtedly present in the real-life events, each turn of the plot upping the ante. Each actor’s performance is superb and intensely emotional, only increasing the harrowing quality of the story.

Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks), the captain of the Maersk Alabama, is on route around the Horn of Africa, when a band of four heavily armed Somali pirates lead by Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi) hijack the cargo ship, and a string of heart-pounding events ensue, making it a white-knuckled ride until the very end.

Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi face off as prisoner and captor, both of their characters becoming more and more developed as the plot progresses and they are stretched to their wit’s end. While the film is an ensemble effort, those who really stand out aside from the two primary characters, Phillips and Muse, are the three other pirates (Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, and Mahat M. Ali) who outshine the members of Phillips’s own crew, the majority of which remain undeveloped in their somewhat minimal screen time after the first third of the movie. While they are objectively the antagonists, their palpable desperation to finish the job gives them a sympathetic angle, which can be summed up by a single exchange between Phillips and Muse; when told by Phillips that there are surely other options than piracy, Muse replies with a simple but profound sentence: “Maybe in America.”

With a terrifyingly true-to-life story and intense, emotional acting, the movie is exceptionably noteworthy. However, the constant moving and shaking of the camera can be somewhat nausea inducing. Though this is presumably to create the atmosphere of being at sea as well as to accentuate the “realness” of the story, it makes it rather inaccessible, or at least difficult to watch, for those with motion sickness.

The film documents a true story of courage, desperation, and raw humanity, Captain Phillips’s fortitude in his situation standing as a testament to the extreme pressure humans can endure.

Fans of thriller movies, especially ones based on true events, will be unable to tear their eyes away from the screen from start to finish. Rated PG-13, younger children, people who are faint of heart, or easily disturbed by scarily real situations may want to stay away. All in all it’s a frightening but riveting film that will leave your heart racing.