Melody Zhang

The Amnesty International club held a benefit concert on March 26 to raise money for “Women of Zimbabwe Arise,” an organization dedicated to helping Zimbabwean women gain courage and independence within their communities, and “Pennies for Peace,” which educates children in making positive impacts on a global scale.

Neither of them saw it coming. The two friends are hard workers, one dedicating himself to music and basketball, and the other dedicating himself to The Falcon and Key Club. At first tied together through their willingness to always do their best, seniors Thomas Wang and Michael Chen were brought together again for one of the highest achievements possible in one’s high school career: having the highest grade point averages for the class of 2009. Wang and Chen were notified shortly before February break that they were the valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, of the class of 2009.

Video games cause violence. Video games cause the stunting of brain growth. Video games cause obesity. It seems that video games are causing an apocalypse, and according to anti-video-game activists, gamers are wasting their time and money.

Known for previously being the third fastest Rubik’s cuber in the world and for continuously succeeding in math competitions, senior Andy Tsao took home second place for the Santa Clara Valley Math Association (SCVMA) Senior Olympiad on Dec. 13, winning a trophy and a book as a prize.

The girl’s bag contained marijuana, a pipe, empty plastic bags, a large quantity of money in $1 bills, an index card that appeared to list students who owed her money, and two letters that implicated the girl in dealing marijuana. Tracy Lois Odem, a freshman at Piscataway High School in New Jersey was having her bag searched by her principal for cigarettes but was instead caught for illegal drug use in 1985.

The fastest recorded tennis stroke belongs to Andy Roddick at 153 mph. The fastest recorded squash stroke belongs to John White of Scotland at 172 mph. The fastest recorded badminton stroke belongs to Fu Haifeng of China at 206 mph. The shuttlecock may be composed of merely cork and feathers, but its power and speed should not be underestimated. In a world where tennis reigns supreme among other racket sports, badminton is pushed aside and seen as weak—if acknowledged as one at all.

Forget teaching students biology or algebra, it’s time to go back to basics, back to when teachers had to remind students not to take other’s belongings and to tell the truth.

Mention the term “anime” to anyone and that person will most likely either run away or hysterically squeal and obsess over the latest episode of Soul Eater. Senior Mridula Nadamuni, however, calmly yet enthusiastically tell you that while anime is fun, manga and doramas (Japanese live action dramas) are better.

Yes, I’m a senior now. Yes, I’ve finally joined the ranks of the college application victims—those whom I have mocked from afar for three years. Yes, I too suffer from extreme procrastination. But my one biggest problems is an unusually bad case of indecisiveness. I suppose that’s why my parents have initiated an intervention to prevent a looming teen-life crisis and have taken it upon themselves to determine my future.

The Olympics have rarely before been so riddled with controversies as the recent Beijing games were. Before it had even started, protests erupted over China’s human rights record. These rallies did not coincide with China’s view of the Olympics as a chance to show itself as the country of the 21st century. It is completely illogical for China to be able gain international prestige when its government is so clearly a tyrant.

The class of 2012 timidly filed into the large gym on Aug. 22 for the first time as high school students. Unsure of what exactly was planned for them, they were placed in the care of 104 Link Leaders for the day, who led them through a series of activities and a tour of the school.

After a long and stressful school year, students take their separate paths to summer relaxation. Often overlooked, teachers also find activities and jobs during the break. For instance, math teacher Laressa Ridge, who also stands in as the Cheer team adviser, has been an integral part of the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) every summer since 1997. A cheer enthusiast, Ridge started the sport in high school. Her deep love for cheer stemmed from several years of experience as a competitive gymnast, which she continued through her college years, performing at Chico State, University of Washington and Sacramento State.

Do you ever wonder whether or not chocolate is a guilty pleasure for girls? Have you ever wanted to know if sleeping can prevent sicknesses? Or if having multiple piercings can affect your GPA? For the past month and a half, statistics students have been researching the answers to these questions.

I have a love-hate relationship with anime. I binge-watch anime, Japanese animation, to the point where I can consume a 30 episode series in a week - that's about 20 hours of TV - and then spend the next three days in withdrawal, moping. It’s hard for some people to understand this addiction. People eye me strangely when I rant about the amazing time I had at Fanime, a huge anime convention 10 months ago, and just muttering the word “cosplay” causes many to shudder in fright at the thought of massive groups of people dressed as the same character from a favorite show. And it's because of these kinds of reactions that so many people, like myself, stay closet anime fans.

During the infamous second semester of senior year, most seniors are relaxing and enjoying their last few months before college. Two seniors, however, will continue to work much harder than their peers. Seniors Michael Song and Jonathan Tien have been working as interns for Cisco after alumna Christina Lee, from the class of ‘08, left Cisco Systems and went to Caltech as a junior.

The issue of global warming has become an important one in the upcoming elections. All the candidates have accepted its existence and have promised to combat it using various methods. On the other hand, there are many who deny that global warming is actually happening. They argue that environmentalists are merely blowing the phenomenon out of proportion.

“O hai, this r intrstng stuf! Luv teh dyagramm!” commented a user on icanhascheezburger.com. The post, made about an article that analyzed the evolution of language on the web, is an accurate representation of the language teens use.

Ten years ago, it probably would have been inconceivable to imagine parents playing video games with their children, and hard to find a girl who could be truly labeled as a "gamer." In recent years, more people with different ages, genders and backgrounds are picking up game controllers mainly due to a wider variety of video games and game consoles.