East Side News | The Official Newspaper of Williamsville East High School Since 1992

Trans-Pacific Partnership: Good or Bad?

International

-

November 5, 2015

By: Ananya Murthy

Historic. Landmark. Groundbreaking. Revolutionary. These are among many of the words that have been used lately to describe the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, which was finally signed in Atlanta last Monday by 12 participating Pacific Rim nations.

Other words that could be used are: Disastrous. Detrimental. NAFTA. Essentially, the TPP is meant to deliver unprecedented free and fair global trade among the 12 participant nations. Once ratified by each country’s congress or parliament — which is likely to happen in early 2016 — many as 18,000 tariffs are expected to be eliminated. It will remove barriers to foreign investment, streamline customs procedures and create an international investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, in addition to much more.

Currently, the 12 members control more than a quarter of all global trade, representing close to $10 trillion, but it is estimated that after TPP is put into place, they will control approximately 50% of all trade. Additionally, if China joins this trade agreement, the percentage will only increase. China has chosen not to join due to the strict regulations and restrictions placed on trade by the TPP, but many believe that it will join in the following years due to the huge predicted success of TPP.

While TPP may seem like sunshine, rainbows, and the solution to all global economic problems, it is quite the opposite for America. TPP is essentially an extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which has spurred massive U.S. trade deficits and job loss, downward pressure on wages, unprecedented levels of inequality and new floods of agricultural imports. The TPP not only replicates, but expands NAFTA’s special protections for firms that offshore U.S. jobs. U.S. TPP negotiators even used the 2011 Korea Free Trade Agreement – under which exports have fallen and trade deficits have surged – as the template for the TPP. Many American progressives, like Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as very few conservatives, are decrying the TPP for its poor pharmaceutical policies, movement to offshore American jobs and increased income inequality, ability to empower corporations to challenge US environmental and health safeguards, and undermine human rights.

Most of this would occur because the TPP would elevate individual foreign firms to equal status with sovereign nations, empowering them to privately enforce new rights and privileges provided by the pact by dragging governments to foreign tribunals to challenge public interest policies that they claim frustrate their expectations. The tribunals would be authorized to order taxpayer compensation to the foreign corporations for the “expected future profits” they surmise would be inhibited by the challenged policies.

Additionally, the only information about the TPP is thanks to leaks – the public is not allowed to see the draft TPP text. Even members of Congress, after being denied the text for years, are now only provided limited access. Meanwhile, more than 500 official corporate “trade advisors” have special access. This limited access is concerning, as this trade agreement will affect millions worldwide, including the entire American working class. Obama should consider the wellbeing of his own citizens before he signs NAFTA 2.0.

How Asteroids Can Help Us Reach Mars

The East Side News

-

November 5, 2015

0

By: Sherrie Chen

With technology developing rapidly, we step closer and closer to the Universe. Mars is always the one on the top of the list. And we have already search it through many ways. Yet it is still hard to send people to Mars and bring them back safely.

The reason for that is mainly due to the long distance in between Mars and Earth, which is about 140 million miles away. This is 620 times more than the distance between Earth and Moon. The mission to Mars would at least take 150 days and there is no spacecraft can carry the huge amount of supply and fuel .

However, here is a flame of hope now in front of the scientists. They are relying on asteroid mining, which is possible to be the place for refueling.

Asteroids are the rocky fragments circling the sun, made up by water, oxygen, metals and other elements that could be used to produce fuel and life to support systems in space. There are thousands of asteroids in space with variety of sizes.

Unfortunately, extracting these resources can be a huge task. Not only it would be costly, but it also would be extremely hard. Still, there are several private companies that think they are up to the task.

According to Chris Lewicki, the former NASA Mars mission manager, his company can do it in five to ten years. Lewicki is chief engineer at Planetary Resources—a Seattle-area company that wants to extract water, platinum and other resources from near-Earth asteroids.

Another problem is whether space mining is legal. The U.N.’s 1966 treaty on outer space, signed by the United States and more than 100 other countries, states that nations can’t own territory in space. But the attraction of space mining is huge. Planetary Resources co-founder Eric Anderson estimates a resource-rich asteroid sizes 80-meter could contain more than $100 billion worth of materials for use in space and on Earth.

Now asteroids are clearly the hot topic on the plate. Jim Green, director of NASA planetary science, called NASA’s planned asteroid mission “a stepping stone to Mars.”

NASA has identified more than 12,000 near-Earth asteroids and is still searching for the one to target. The actual space mining is still years away. But at least we figure out a direction to reach the goal.

Don’t Believe Everything On Twitter

National

The East Side News

-

November 5, 2015

0

By: Morris Lee

These days, social media has been a huge part of our lives including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat as it has risen by 176 million users in the past year, since 2014! Kids in elementary school already have smartphones and tablets as elders are just beginning to understand what the world has come to. Technology and the Internet have been advancing and growing so fast that now almost half the world’s population are active social media users. Kids who are in high school, middle school, and elementary school take up 71 percent of the whole social media accounts. People view millions of posts every day and thousands of videos and tweets go viral as websites and users are thirsty for clicks, likes and views. Twitter itself has 284 million users with 500 million tweets a day!

Twitter has recently implemented a new tool created by computer scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. This new tool called CREDBANK is a database compiler that sorts through the feeds and filters the tweets and help reduce the false tweets and videos that often go viral which provides false information to the world. Researchers Tanushree Mitra and Eric Gilbert began by obtaining a mere 1 percent of the tweets in Twitter’s entire feed. Next, their software filtered and trimmed all the tweets for spam and then automatically sorting the tweets by topics, later searching for false information.

What they found was astonishing. The results showed that 25 percent of the information posted and tweeted on Twitter was a hoax and had no credibility. This means that every day, 125 million tweets on Twitter contain false information. So next time you read a post or watch a short video, it may not always be true. “Don’t believe everything you read on Twitter,” New Scientist reports.

3-D Printer Saves Girl’s Life

The East Side News

-

November 5, 2015

0

By: Sherrie Chen

What can 3D printers do in our life? Most likely for printing model for architecture, engineering, etc. Who can believe 3D printers are used in medical area now?

Mia Gonzalez was a really normal girl on the outside. However, she was leading quite a different life—due to frequent colds and pneumonia, she skipped daycare and dance classes. While playing outside, Mia had to take multiple asthma medications because of her breathing problems.

It was not until several of hospital stays that doctors started realizing there was something wrong. It turned out there was a malformation in Mia’s aorta, which is the vessel pumping blood out from the heart. This closes off a part of the aorta and puts pressure on the windpipe, causing trouble breathing as well as swallowing.

Clearly, this news was shocking to the family. “We freaked out from thinking she had asthma to being told she needed to have open heart surgery,” said Katherine Gonzalez, Mia’s mom.

Luckily, Mia’s malformation was complicated in the end by using a new technology—the 3D printer.

3D printers in hospital were used to make exact replicas of organs by planning surgery, and even do practice operations. The printer uses images from patients’ MRI or CT scan images as a template and lays down layers of rubber or plastic.

By using this type of model, Dr. Redmond Burke meditated on the model of Mia’s heart for a couple of weeks. He figured out he should cut into Mia’s chest from the right instead of making an incision on the left side for this type of heart defect.

The heart model really played an important role during the process. “Without the model, I would have been less certain about [operating on Mia] and that would have led me naturally to make a larger incision that could possibly cause more pain and a longer recovery time,” Burke said. “Using the model, there was no doubt, and surgeons hate doubt.”

Mia finally got rid of her sickness and was able to enjoy her life. Her operation opened a window. Though 3D printers were not fully put into use, the value in it was clearly unaccountable.

East Students Weigh In On 2016 Presidential Race

The East Side News

-

November 5, 2015

0

East Students Weigh In On 2016 Presidential Race

By: Wladimir Sarmiento

If you’ve ever been curious to know how your fellow peers would vote in 2016 if they could, now you have the answer.

The East Side News recently conducted a poll of the student population at our school concerning the upcoming election. Students were asked two questions: Which candidate would you vote for? (with 453 responses) and Who do you think will win the presidency? (with 394 responses). It is worth noting that the poll was conducted after the second Republican debate and before the first Democratic debate, so the views of the students may very well be changed now after seeing some of the Democratic candidates speaking. In addition, some students said they did not feel they were not informed enough to say who they think will win the election, which is why the number of votes for that question is fewer. We will certainly revisit the topic in a few months to see if extensive campaigning changes the student’s mindset at all.

In simple terms of political parties, it appears that a slight majority of the school population would be voting for one of the major Republican candidates, with around 54% of the students selecting a Republican candidate and around 46% choosing a Democratic candidate when asked who they would vote for. This number could be much higher, since it is likely that most of the students that selected the “other” option had one of the Republican candidates that we didn’t have space to include in mind.

Upon further examination, however, the results get very intriguing. By far, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are the two leading candidates popularity amongst East students, with Hillary Clinton trailing as a distant third. This differs greatly from a national poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, which places Trump and Clinton at around an equal amount of support if they were to compete as each of their respective party’s nominees in 2016. It also deviates from national polls showing Sanders consistently behind Clinton by a margin of almost 20% on average.

Of the Republican nominees, it is worth noting that Trump is the only candidate for the party with any substantial amount of votes in either poll. When asked about Trump’s incredible popularity, the general consensus of various teachers and students seems to be that people are attracted to the way he speaks his mind despite how politically correct or popular his views might be. This, combined with the extreme amount of media attention he has been getting, is almost certainly the cause for his popularity both in national polls and in our own community.

While Trump’s popularity does not differ from national polls, and is probably caused by his already-dwindling explosion of popularity over the summer after extended media attention, the choice of Bernie Sanders as the second most popular candidate in our school makes a strong statement about how his views on the duties of the government to support social and economic welfare resonate with the youth of our country. Senior Eli Troen said about why he would vote for Sanders in 2016, “Bernie Sanders is more consistently set upon ideals that are in line with mine… I think individuals should have social rights, those are more important than many other things in the government.” Junior William Zhang gave a similar view on Sanders saying, “He’s more concerned about social issues, especially universal health care. I just think that’s extremely important.”

Interestingly, however, these views are very much in line with those of adults at East that support Bernie Sanders. Clearly his left-wing policies resonate equally well with voters of many ages. On the topic of Sanders’ popularity with voters, English teacher Mr. Maciejewski said, “He has a populist message that people seem to like… He’s one of the few politicians I’ve ever followed who has been consistent his entire career and is not afraid to say, ‘This is what I believe, you might think socialism is a dirty word. It’s not.’” It’s telling that a philosophy like socialism, which for decades has been considered a dirty label that will make any candidate in the United States unelectable, is actually what is propelling Bernie Sanders forward in popularity polls. In this way, his popularity is not unlike that of Trump’s: people seem to really resonate with a candidate who is not afraid to speak their mind no matter if their opinion will be, popular or not. This, combined with his consistency and attitude on certain issues certainly plays a role in his popularity.

Another interesting observation we can draw from the results is that the school’s opinion on who will actually win the election seems to be much more aligned with national polls about who people would vote for, indicating that the student body in our school is really quite politically informed and is able to separate their own views from the views of everyone else in a realistic manner. The main example of this is Hillary Clinton, who despite relatively low ratings in the popularity poll polled in second place to Donald Trump when students were asked to make a prediction for the winner of the election next year. Social studies teacher Dr. Redmond had the following to say as to Hillary’s popularity, “I think demographics are in [Hillary Clinton’s] favor, particularly the growing Hispanic population. The typical Democratic coalition is growing while the typical Republican coalition is shrinking…until the Republicans change that, they’re going to have a hard time winning Presidential elections. I don’t think Clinton is a strong campaigner however, but it’s all just demographics.”

Dr. Redmond’s analysis certainly seems to be shared by many of the students at East who believe Hillary is by far the most likely Democratic candidate for 2016. It’s intriguing that the youth in our community, who according to the polls prefer Sanders greatly over Clinton, also seem to be for the most part accepting of the fact that Clinton’s greater appeal to women and minorities make her a much more likely winner of the election than Sanders. This said, many students we interviewed shared similar concerns about Clinton’s perceived honesty. Senior Maggie Moran said in response to another student’s defense of Clinton, “What about Benghazi? She’s just deceitful.” Junior Eisa Hashmi echoed her statement, saying, “She doesn’t seem genuine. Bernie Sanders seems like he actually cares. I think she’s more popular because she’s just more moderate than Bernie.”

This election season has seen unprecedented amounts of popular attention directed at the candidates extremely early on in the election process. Positive or not, this attention has garnered people’s interest in the campaigns for various candidates, including many American youth. In our own East High School, we have seen incredible amounts of political conversation and discussion going on between both students and staff.

FBLA is Successful So Far

East

The East Side News

-

November 5, 2015

0

By: Aniruddha Nrusimha

This year has been a massive success for Williamsville East FBLA, both in terms of membership and leadership! We started off the year strong with three State Officers, including myself, who were elected last year at the State Leadership Conference, and who helped our excellent officer team quickly and effectively construct a framework for the massive influx of people who ended up entering FBLA.

From the get go we knew that the number people was huge; in previous years we have edged on 250 kids, easily making us the largest club at East High School. However, this year had an especially large turnout, with 268 members signed up, making us the sixth largest chapter in the nation as of October 23th. However, this was not our only success, because we still had not hosted our first official meeting. The meeting had excellent attendance, which, along with a record breaking Fall District Meeting showed that the people who joined are not just numerous but committed to Williamsville East.

In Williamsville East, we had a very successful fundraiser this year at the Commons Cafe. The classic French Vanilla Cappuccino sold very well, along with the Fall Special, apple cider. These healthy treats were alongside the typical menu, and the staffers performed beyond expectations given the sudden nature of the fundraiser and the lack of formal training they received compared to years past.

However, it was the excellent actions of the officer team that ensured that the lack of experience of many new faces to the team didn’t hinder customer satisfaction, with officers coming around to clock to help out. Overall, these past two months have been very successful for WEHS FBLA and are good omens for the future.

Stratford Field Trip was a Rousing Success

East

The East Side News

-

November 5, 2015

0

Stratford Field Trip was a Rousing Success

By: Leena Sen

This year’s trip to Stratford, Ontario on October 8th was another success! A much-loved opportunity to see the internationally recognized Stratford festival had students incredibly excited in this year’s production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

For those unfamiliar, the Stratford trip consists of a 3 hour bus ride to Stratford, Ontario and back, along with a chance for students to see unique shops and eat lunch in the town. Best of all, students get to see a beautifully executed Shakespearean play.

The actors of the Stratford festival never fail to make the comedies contain a slightly modern twist, and incorporate new thoughts like switching gender roles. Such differences keep the material appealing, humorous, and allow us to see Shakespeare’s brilliant work from a different point of view.

Stratford never fails to please – from the moment you get on the bus to arrive to the moment you’re cramming for that test you have the next morning, you enjoy it! The opportunity to be with friends and have an entertaining experience is something difficult to pass up…and it’s also a great way to get familiar with Shakespearean language come springtime. Field trips are often just as important as school – especially educational ones like this, so don’t let all that makeup-work from having missed classes prevent you from these once in a lifetime experiences.

Let us bid Stratford adieu for another year, but keep in mind- the trip isn’t much ado about nothing!

Despite Lack of Play, Shakespeariment Promises Year-long Entertainment

East

The East Side News

-

November 5, 2015

0

Despite Lack of Play, Shakespeariment Promises Year-long Entertainment

By: Maureen Meosky

Chances are, you’ve probably heard of Shakespeariment. If you haven’t, its’ a group in which students with an appreciation for Shakespeare’s work meet once or twice a week and eventually put on a play in the spring. These plays, though sometimes viewed as harder to relate to than plays written more recently, are actually known for being remarkably identifiable to the everyday human experience. While Shakespeare’s old English may at first be intimidating, the stories behind it are surprisingly relatable. He’s also incredibly funny, which comes across more effectively when the plays are acted out.

And this year, Shakespeare has a whole new style – instead of having one or two major events (such as plays) in the school year, Shakespeariment will now feature a wide collection of different events stretching throughout the year. This strategy will change a display of Shakespeare’s work from a seldom play or event to a part of everyday life here at East, giving perhaps the most influential playwright of all time some more of the credit he so deserves. The club meets every Monday after school in the English office.

Mrs. Pankow, one of the advisors, said, “Instead of doing a play this year, we’re going to be doing things like performing at newspaper coffee houses, in gym classes, and in the English area. We’re going to have workshops and bring in experts in fight coordination and voice and things like that. So, we’re going to be doing more with Shakespeare consistently throughout the year, just not the big [plays].”

Shakespeariment not only gives a better education in the works of Shakespeare, but lets the members be creative with their parts and express different aspects of the characters in original ways. Shakespeariment member Gillian Cavanaugh, when asked what she liked most about Shakespeariment, Gillian said that what she liked most was, “The people involved with Shakespeariment. Everyone in the club’s been really nice and welcoming.” And it’s no lie that this club’s a lot of fun. Members of the club are allowed to express themselves through the characters, which is understandably one of the main appeals of the club. The plays are performed in such a way that young people can understand and relate to, and because of this, they are enthusiastic about Shakespeare in an early point in their lives.

Mrs. Pankow said, “The idea behind the founding of Shakespeariment was to make Shakespeare more of a presence throughout the year, and to be creative in how we express our love for Shakespeare.” It’s clear to see that Shakespeariment has had a profound impact on its members’ lives. People who were in this club as teenagers have taken what they learned in Shakespeariment all the way through college and into the rest of their lives. To conclude, even though there won’t be a major play, this year is sure to be a promising one for Shakespeariment.

2016 Sabres Preview

Sports

The East Side News

-

November 5, 2015

0

By: Jason Phillips

The 2015-16 Sabres already have a completely different feel than that of teams the two previous seasons that finished dead last in the league. This team has many offseason additions like the addition of number two overall draft pick Jack Eichel, the trade that left the Sabres with center Ryan O’Reilly, and the healthy Evander Kane who was acquired from the Jets last year but never played for the team. The team also added a new goalie Robin Lehiner who managed to get a high ankle sprain half way through the first game of the year and will be out for the next month or two. The goaltending situation is one that surprised, in that the team didn’t try to re-sign goalie Jhonas Enroth after trading him for a draft pick at the trade deadline last season. He currently is the backup for the Kings, but he really does have the ability to be a starter in the NHL. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed as every Sunday morning he tweets out go Bills.

Still, the team has some issues. They really have a lack of chemistry from an offensive standpoint. I do think they have the talent to make it to the playoffs this season, but they have struggled early on based on the lack of consistency in the top three lines. New head coach, Dan Blsyma is still trying to find the lines that work well together. The defense right now is really missing injured Zach Bogosian who would most likely pair up with Josh Georges for the top pairing on the team. Still Rasmus Ristolinan has done a very good job in his place and looks to be a solid player in this league. Still, newly signed free agent Cody Franson is only someone who seems decent on the power play or penalty kill. Also, Mike Weber is just not good. He shouldn’t be in the starting lineup every single night. He turns over the puck way too much. Plus, he constantly gets beat on one on one situation, and he also takes so many penalties you would think he played for the Bills. Chad Johnson has been doing okay filling in so far. He hasn’t really been overly impressive, but he’s shown why he is a backup in the league doing his job.

The results will eventually come for this Sabre team. Once the top three lines get set and the players get familiar with each other there should be more consistent offensive production. I really do believe that this team can make the playoffs this season. Tim Murray needs to stick with the moves that he has made since he’s been gm of the team. I’m considered that he just makes moves for the sake of making moves and doesn’t really stick with guys for too long. Still, this is a roster that he has built and he should ride the rollercoaster that comes with any professional sports team. Hopefully the new group of forwards will come through lead the franchise in the right direction.

Russia Increases Syria Bombing

International

The East Side News

-

November 5, 2015

0

By: Harleen Kaur

Earlier this month Russia increased its bombing campaign in Syria, more than doubling the number of strikes than was seen at the beginning of the operation. On October 12, The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that they sent out 55 sorties in 24 hours hitting provinces such as Homs, Hama, Latakia, Idlib and Raqqa. Compared to the numbers of the previous two weeks that had been around two dozen the Russians more than doubled their numbers. Russian warplanes have also been supporting the offensive troops of those loyal to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Russian government also sees the Islamic State as a direct threat to their citizens. A statement on Interfax states earlier this month Russian officials had prevented an attack on a public transportation in Moscow and some of the captives had been trained in Islamic State camps in Syria.

European foreign officials called for an end to these attacks by saying that they would only prolong the war. Some also worry that the airstrikes may cause conflict between US and Russian aircrafts in the Middle East. The issue has ushered criticism from NATO who are questioning Russia’s true intentions.

Putin defended sending warplanes into Syria by saying, “Our task is to stabilize the legal government and create the right conditions for reaching a political compromise. We have no desire to recreate an empire and resurrect the Soviet Union.”