Despite rampant criticism from fans and a slew of negative reviews, a sequel to Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be released on June 3rd, 2016. This is likely largely due to the film’s surprising box office success, as the film grossed more than 477 million dollars worldwide. Dave Green (of Earth to Echo fame) will be directing the movie.
In addition to the eponymous turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 will also feature several other beloved characters in the franchise. Villains Bebop and Rocksteady will be appearing in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 alongside Casey Jones, who will be played by Arrow star Stephen Amell. Megan Fox and Will Arnett will be reprising their roles as April O’Neil and April’s cameraman Vern Ferwick respectively. No other casting information is available at this time, and no details regarding the plot have been released yet.
The original film was largely panned by critics, and received an aggregate score of 21% on Rotten Tomatoes. Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly called the film a “dismal, tedious affair” due to the underdeveloped, two-dimensional characters. Many critics, like the Los Angeles Times’ Mark Olsen, found fault with the film’s lack of purpose; to Olsen, “the biggest problem of the movie is that it can never decide who it’s for or why it exists.” Fans also took issue to appearance of the CGI rendered turtles. Hopefully, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 will manage to avoid the problems of its predecessor.
Iceman, a founding member of the superhero team known as the X-Men, was revealed to be gay in the latest issue of All-New X-Men. The comic book deal with the adventures of the five original X-Men as time-displaced teenagers who have been transported to the present day in the aftermath of a comic book event last year. Despite its unconventional premise, the series has had a positive critical reception and is fairly popular among fans.
In the most recent issue, a younger Jean Grey confronts a younger Iceman about his sexuality, revealing his sexual orientation to both himself and the reader. This announcement was met with some controversy, as Iceman has had romantic heterosexual relationships in the past. Some readers saw the announcement as a cheap ploy to sell issues. Others were concerned that the announcement carried overtones of ‘bi-erasure,’ a phenomenon where bisexuality is ignored or looked over in society. The fact that only the younger, time-displaced Iceman has acknowledged his sexuality could also complicate matters; his older counterpart had had a romantic heterosexual relationship as recently as last year. Despite the controversy, it is important to note that Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of All-New X-Men, is an acclaimed veteran comic book writer with a long list of accolades under his belt. Iceman’s announcement isn’t the first controversial creative choice Bendis has made – the premise of All-New X-Men was also initially met with a lot of controversy.
The 2015 World Figure Skating Championships were held in the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center on the last week of March. Skaters competed as solo entrants in either the men’s or women’s category, in pairs or in ice dancing. Pairs skating is a variant of single skating, and often requires more athletic jumps or spins. Ice dancing is more similar to ballroom dancing and involves more intricate footwork.
Every figure skating event has two components: a short program (referred to as a short dance in ice dancing) and a longer ‘free skate’ program (referred to as a free dance in ice dancing). Skaters must include certain technical elements within their programs, such as specific jumps for men’s, women’s, and pairs skating and specific dance steps for ice dancing.
Only Madison Chock and Evan Bates brought home medals for the United States; the pair won a silver medal for ice dancing, coming behind Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France by only three points. Both Gracie Gold and Jason Brown placed fourth in the men’s and women’s events, respectively. Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim finished 7th in pairs dancing.
Japan had a strong showing this year, with both Yuzuru Hanyu and Satoko Miyahara taking home silver medals in men’s and women’s figure skating, respectively. Canada also did well, with Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje winning a bronze medal in ice dancing and Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford winning gold in pairs skating. Russia dominated women’s skating, with Elizaveta Tuktamysheva in first and Elena Radionova in third. Tuktamysheva made history by performing a triple axel jump during the competition; only a handful of female skaters in history have successfully completed the jump. Tuktamysheva also took home gold in the European Championships this year.
Israeli elections took place March 17th this year, which ended in Benjamin Netanyahu keeping his title as Prime Minister. Weeks before the election, the Likud Party had been falling on the polls, yet due to Netanyahu’s last minute appeal to right-wing voters, the party was able to hold 29 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament. These numbers appeared from 99% of the votes according to unofficial numbers from the Israeli election committee.
Previously in Israeli elections, in order to become Prime Minister, the party must win at least 61 seats in the Knesset. But this year every party must receive at least a 3.25 percent vote to achieve any seats compared to the previous 2 percent. This means that because there were 26 parties those that do not receive enough votes will be removed, thus decreasing the number of votes that are calculated. And not only do votes get dropped, but this will also shift the left and right leaning blocs in the Knesset.
Once the Likud Party was falling behind on the polls, the Zionist Union had seemed as the party to collect the most seats. Although, after Netanyahu, the party was able to grab 24 of the seats, falling right behind the Likud Party. The Zionist Union had previously stated that Netanyahu was unable to take up the task of improving the lives of the Israelis. Yet, this was before Netanyahu appealed to the right by concerning to Israeli security.
He had stated that so long as he was Prime Minister, no Palestinian state would be allowed to exist, which was in response to his controversial speech warning the US Congress against making any deals with Iran concerning their nuclear program. His response concerning the Israeli Palestine conflict put him at odds against Obama’s two state solution. He had also released a video on Facebook claiming that massive amounts of Arabs were going to be brought in by leftist voters to vote against the Likud. Netanyahu claimed that right wing voters were in danger, thus broadcasting all to, “Bring your friends, bring your family, vote for Likud.”
It has been said that a new government has begun to form, yet many state that it will leave Israel in the same state as before the elections especially with Netanyahu still sitting as Prime Minister. Using this, Issac Herzog, who leads to the Zionist Union and was Netanyahu’s chief challenger, called for Netanyahu to relent to defeat stating that “nothing has changed.” And many argue that in his fourth term, he is doubtful to change after being in office for so long.
It was once an undebatable fact that the United States was the largest, or one of the largest, economic powers in the entire world, its economy and infrastructure uncontestable. However, recently, other countries have started catching up, some rocketing forward from seemingly out of nowhere; China is one of the most prominent examples. Now, it is seeking to expand its influence through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, backed by China, is a multilateral development bank (MDB) founded to greatly improve the infrastructure and development of Asian countries. China has ambitions of reviving the Silk Road, and wants to fund roads, ports, railway systems, and other such infrastructure that will stretch from China to the Middle East. The ADB (Asian Development Bank, a pre-existing MDB) has estimated that the Asian infrastructure funding gap is $8 trillion dollars between 2010 and 2020; the ADB’s capital base is only a bit over $160 billion, and the World Bank is $223 billion. In addition, these large banks have divided their capital to focus on other problems as well, such as environmental protection and combating gender inequalities; on the other hand, the AIIB is completely devoted to the development of the infrastructure.
China is a country that is trying to make huge strides towards progress, but has been held back by its little say in the world banks. Despite being the biggest economic power in Asia, it only has half the number of votes as Japan in the ADB, and the past presidents of the ADB have entirely been Japanese. It also has little say in the International Monetary Fund (3.81% of the votes) compared to countries like Germany (5.81%), Japan (6.23%), and the United States (16.75%), even though it has the world’s second largest economy. Reforms to increase China’s say in the fund have constantly been postponed. Many believe that China’s creation of an entirely new bank reflects its frustration due to its lack of representation.
According to the company website, “Its modus operandi will be lean, clean and green: lean, with a small efficient management team and highly skilled staff; clean, an ethical organization with zero tolerance for corruption; and green, an institution built on respect for the environment. The AIIB will put in place strong policies on governance, accountability, financial, procurement and environmental and social frameworks.” It welcomes all countries to join the bank and help out, no matter how wealthy or poor; “The Bank’s openness and inclusiveness reflect its multilateral nature.”
Despite these clearly well-meaning intentions, the United States is starting to get a little nervous. Will this development lead to China outstripping the United States, and become the new leading global economic power? The Obama administration has already shown its unease at this by attempting to persuade its allies to not join; this failed attempt is a sign to many that the U.S.’s power is starting to slip. The AIIB had given a deadline for countries to sign up by March 31, and they had expected support from their neighboring Asian countries and perhaps a few more, but an overwhelming number of 46 countries rushed to sign up to be founding members, and by April 16, the number increased to 57, including 14 of the Top 20 economic powers of today. Even Great Britain, the U.S.’s most loyal ally, has joined the bank.
So, will this bank be successful and live up to its standards and expectations? At its current rate of progress and its popularity, most likely it will; and there is also little doubt that the bank will increase China’s influence on the world. Who knows, maybe in the future we will live in a world where 90% of the products are made in Chi- oh wait.
Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis as conflict flares between Shiite rebel groups and outside Sunni forces. The rebel group, called Houthis, forced the Yemeni president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, to flee his presidential home this February. The Houthis have since taken over the capital city of Sanaa and 9 of the country’s 21 provinces. This conflict is fueled by ongoing sectarian tensions between the Shiite rebels and Sunni government of Yemen. Military forces have been divided between the two camps, and civil war looms.
Yemen is a strategically important country, located on a Red Sea waterway through which most of the world’s oil supply passes. It’s also heavily involved in the major regional power struggle between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia. Egypt and Saudi Arabia feared a Houthi takeover would threaten free passage through the seas and responded with their own military action. The Saudis led airstrikes against the rebels over a monthlong period. While these bombings received logistical support from the US, they have been criticized for massive civilian death tolls. At the same time, it’s unclear whether these strikes have been strategically useful. In the power vacuum left by the departure of President Hadi, the Houthis have formally seized power, dissolving parliament and installing an interim assembly. So far, the airstrikes have not advanced the Saudi goal of reinstating the Yemeni government under President Hadi. Instead, the only result has been what the International Red Cross describes as a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”.
This Wednesday, Saudi officials declared an end to their bombing campaign, sparking hopes for a peaceful political dialogue in Yemen spearheaded by the United Nations. Unfortunately, those hopes were quashed as airstrikes continued just hours after the cease-fire announcement. The Saudi Arabian ambassador to the US, Adel al-Jubeir, explains that bombings will continue as long as the Houthis refuse to deescalate their attacks. Ironically, the Saudis are calling this new bombing campaign “Renewal of Hope”. But as airstrikes continue to destroy homes, kill thousands, and displace many more, it seems like hopes for peace in Yemen are far from fulfilled.
Recent studies support the health benefits of coffee: preventing us from getting type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, liver disease, prostate cancer, Alzheimer’s, computer back pain and so on.
However, the answer to the question “Is coffee a health food” really depends on your genetics, your age and your habit making it.
According to Statistic Brain, the total number of U.S. daily coffee drinkers is 100 million. Total percentage of coffee drinkers who have a cup within the first hour of waking up is 68%. With such a large amount of coffee consumption, having knowledge of coffee does improve your health!
Cups and diseases
A huge study of more than 25,000 coffee drinkers in South Korea shows that three to five cups a day help decrease risk for coronary artery calcium, which is a great predictor of future heart disease.
Four cups of coffee a day was also recently found to moderately reduce one’s risk for melanoma, which is a highly dangerous skin cancer. The study supports a previous finding of a link between coffee and a reduced risk for basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer. Unluckily, it is said that decaffeinated coffee didn’t provide any protection.
Even a high coffee intake has its own good. Four to six cups a day reduces the risk of getting multiple sclerosis. And researchers want to study coffee’s impact in multiple sclerosis.
It seems like no matter how many cups we drink, coffee always works for us. But isn’t there any problem being caused?
Coffee and health
Some populations can find coffee harmful, especially those with sleep issues or uncontrolled diabetes may need to ask their doctors before adding caffeine to their diets.
And there’s a genetic mutation can affect how fast our bodies metabolize caffeine. The gene is called CYP1A2 and might contribute to blood pressure after just drinking one or two cups.
Also, the method of making coffee does matter. Cafestol, a compound being contained in the oily part of coffee that can increase your bad cholesterol. Fortunately, we can deal with it using the paper filters.
For many people, coffee is an important part of life. Coffee can do both good and bad, but it doesn’t mean we can not afford having this drink. As long as the habit is regulated, coffee is a blessing.
Cruise away from Ted Cruz and his radical Puritan ideals.
By Ananya Nrusimha
Things are heating up in the political world. Both Republican Senator Rand Paul and Democratic former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have joined the ranks of Senator Ted Cruz and former Governor Jeb Bush by declaring their candidacy for President of the United States. Since Election Day is almost two years away, it’s hard to predict what will happen on the campaign trial. However, religious freedom will almost certainly be a topic of discussion at debates, especially during the Republican primaries.
Legislation like the bill that Indiana recently passed into law have already made religious freedom a point of contention. Opponents of the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act—which essentially gives businesses the same religious freedom rights as individuals and churches—argue that its vague definition of what constitutes an attack on religious freedom makes it easy for businesses to discriminate against members of the LGBT community.
Senator Ted Cruz may try to take these ideas even further. In the speech where he announced his candidacy, he said that he would “restore that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America.” While Cruz could potentially be referring to American Exceptionalism, his specific word choice implies that he is referencing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was intended to be an ideal theological community, or a ‘city on a hill.’ Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was centered around its Puritan faith; only adult male Puritans could vote, and clergymen held a great deal of influence in the community even though they couldn’t vote. If Ted Cruz succeeded in restoring the ‘city on a hill,’ Protestant Christians would have the freedom to follow their religious doctrines to the letter. However, that freedom would likely come at the expense of everyone else’s rights.
As many of you might be acutely aware of, exam season is coming up. And although many people might be starting to prepare for long cram sessions and burning the midnight oil, the over-warned risk of little sleep still holds.
“Oh, but it’s hopeless!” you might say (or not). “I just can’t bring myself to sleep at night! I feel Snapchat calling to me with unseen notifications!” (Well, that’s your fault for getting so addicted.) But if you genuinely try to get a solid six hours of sleep a night, and are still failing to do so, we from the East Side have five basic tips to get your snooze going ASAP. And we’re not talking the impossible, like avoiding caffeine or 10 whole hours of sleep. Very basic, easy things that you can remember. Good luck on your exams.
Put on socks. Optimizing your temperature for sleep is very important; studies have shown that having a cooler core and warmer extremities is an ideal balance. By warming up your hands and feet, you’re letting your body know that it’s time for sleep. As a bonus, burying yourself in blankets also makes you feel quite warm and sleepy.
Sunshine. Being exposed to natural light in the morning actually helps reset your biological clock, which makes it easier to fall asleep later, during the night. Around 15 minutes is an optimal length, although you can certainly stay out longer than that. It’s Buffalo! If there’s sunshine, go and enjoy it.
Hide your (LED) clock. Actually, this should be your phone, but we’re being lenient here. Bright lights an hour or so before bed are terrible for sleep, so try turning your clock so it’s not directly facing your face while you’re sleeping like the dead.
Breathe. Are you reading this article? Chances are, you’re breathing. Great. But are you breathing? Take a big breath in. Hold for five long seconds. Exhale all the way out. Die of oxygen deprivation for five long seconds. Repeat a couple times. Studies show that this is effective in calming down and relaxing.
Get out of bed. Let’s face it; you’ve procrastinated on studying. If you’re still wide awake, and you know you’ll be tossing and turning for awhile, might as well get up and hit the books. Aggressively. With much anger.
The Williamsville East MasterMinds team competed in the first round of playoffs on Thursday, April 23rd. They won all three of their matches and will be able to advance to the finals in May along with the MasterMinds teams from the other two Williamsville Schools. MasterMinds is an academic competition that is similar to Quiz Bowl.
Playoffs and finals for MasterMinds use a double elimination system. In this system, a team must lose twice before they are out of the competition. At this point, only the teams from Williamsville East and Williamsville South have no losses. The teams from City Honors School, Williamsville North, and Grand Island each have one loss. It is important to note that any of these teams could be the regional champion in spite of the discrepancies in losses between the teams.
The last team standing will be the Buffalo Region MasterMinds champion. That team will be able to advance to the state competition in June, where they will be able to face off against the champions from the Rochester, Albany, and Syracuse regions for the state title. Last year, East’s MasterMinds team was the Buffalo Region champion and took third at the state championship. They hope to win the regional championship again this year.
