Stanley Yip

The Mechanical Science and Engineering Team (M-SET), or commonly known as the robotics club, is competing at the Silicon Valley Regional of the FIRST Robotics Competition held at San Jose State on April 5-6.

For the first time, the Mechanical Science and Engineering Team (MSET), or informally known as the robotics team, has implemented a waiting list for membership.

If you could ask the president of the United States a single question, what would it be about? The economy? The presidential campaign? His favorite food?  

In the relative safety of Internet anonymity, leaders of hacking groups, such as Anonymous and Lulz Security, command their followers to launch attacks on whomever of their choosing without much worry of being caught. But recently, federal agents have begun zeroing in on these leaders with inside help.  

Sophomore Sasha Samilov quietly surfs the web on his iPhone, loading web pages and videos in a relatively short amount of time. However, upon the next link clicked, Samilov’s Internet speed drops to a complete crawl.  

On Jan. 18, visitors to Wikipedia were greeted with a black screen saying, “Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge.” A black rectangle censored the Google logo and directed users to sign a petition against Internet censorship. Numerous other websites—Tumblr, Reddit, Craigslist, and more—all engaged in some sort of protest.

In a perfect world, every argument would end with the opponent cowering in fear of your flawless rhetoric. In reality, both sides must compromise and be willing to yield to solve the problem at hand for the betterment and progress of all involved. Unfortunately, Congress is still stuck in dream land.

Imagine your right hand is tied to a high-achieving student and your left hand is tied to a student who struggles in the class. The expert student wants to pull you forward, while the other wants to pull you back. Which way should you go?

The boys’ water polo team managed to topple then undefeated and top-seeded Lynbrook 16-13 on Oct. 20 as well as longtime rival Wilcox 8-6 on Oct. 18, producing a glimmering hope to snatch the CCS spot.

Every year, the ASB is bombarded with requests from of students requesting to form a club. The wide variety of skills and interests at SHS has led to almost 61 clubs, with five more impending on campus for a school population just under 1,400. However, the sheer number of clubs has become a problem.

Water polo players from both Wilcox and Saratoga wearing their swimsuit and a cap leaped into the pool as they subbed in, but senior hole defender and hole set Nicolas Doyen jumped in with the addition of a menacingly large black shoulder brace.

The Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) team, which is a part of the Mechanical Science and Engineering Team (M-SET), placed 61st out of 100 teams at the national TARC competition held in Washington, D.C., on May 14. The team consists of junior Mark Van Aken, sophomores Benjy Yang and Michael Shang and freshman Ivan France.

The Mechanical Science Engineering Team (M-SET) is closing this year with a moderately successful robotics season, but with an amazing rocketry season for the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC), qualifying for the national finals to be held on May 14 in Washington, D.C.

“Don’t play with fire” is a popular warning, especially among parents with unruly kids. However, junior Nick Turpin frequently does the opposite, and with his parents’ support. Since the Falcon last interviewed Turpin last spring, he has learned many new tricks.

Sometimes in those brief periods—most likely half-seconds for some of us—when we can actually take a breath from schoolwork, our mind drifts back to our childhood: when life simply entailed school, at most 30 minutes of homework and several hours of free time.

The swim team gathered around in a huddle, leaning their heads inwards. After an enthusiastic roar of “Toga!” the JV girls rushed up to the starting blocks to begin the Monta Vista away meet on April 1.

The swim team gathered around in a huddle, leaning their heads inwards. After an enthusiastic roar of “Toga!” the JV girls rushed up to the starting blocks to begin the Monta Vista away meet on April 1.

With the spring sports season charging into full speed, boys’ swimming team encounters a few new changes. Along with returning coaches Christian Bonner and Kristen Thomson, Brett Slayton, Courtney Crase and Heather Bridges will join the staff.

With its dazzling acrobatics and incredible flexibility, gymnastics is clearly a sport, but what if it’s done underwater? According to freshman Isabel Malcolmson, a member of nationally ranked synchronized swimming team, “Santa Clara Aquamaids,” synchronized swimming is just like underwater gymnastics and should be considered a sport.

Without a question, band members spend many hours practicing and attending competitions. Their hard effort has led members to believe band qualifies as a sport; participants even receive PE credit for taking this elective. However, others outside of band feel differently, which has led to numerous debates if band should be considered as a sport.

In France, families celebrate Christmas with their own special cake of sorts called a “bouche de noel.” That same tradition came to life Dec. 7 when nearly 85 students from French classes at Los Gatos and Saratoga held a friendly decorating contest at LGHS’s community room.

If football is one of America’s favorite pastimes, then filing lawsuits must be another. In the third episode in three years, a group of about 6,000 retired NFL players have recently filed a lawsuit against video game giant Electronic Arts (EA). The ill-conceived lawsuit states that EA unlawfully used the players’ likeness without paying licensing fees for using their image in their Madden NFL games.

Most of us have allowed some insignificant dilemma escalate into a massive problem. This is potentially the situation in the latest schism between China and Japan.

Albert Gu laughed when he opened a letter over the summer to find a certificate with the words “Congratulations to Albert Gu from Lynbrook High School.” The senior claimed first place in the Asian-Pacific Math Olympiad (APMO) contest on March 8 to win this award, placing him among the top high school mathematicians in the U.S.

After an amazing victory for the Mechanical Science and Engineering Team (M-SET) last May in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, the team is now gearing up for another year of activities with more than 20 new members. "I think we will be way more able to accomplish many more goals than we were able to do last year," vice president junior Michael Zuccarino said.

Having scuba dived all over the world, math and computer science teacher Debra Troxell found her biggest thrill in the ocean off the shores of Carmel. Three years ago Troxell had the honor of coming face to face with a mother humpback whale and her baby on the way back to shore after a dive. The enormous whales glided by just 20 feet from her face, leaving her in awe. “It was just majestic,” said Troxell, as she fished for words to describe the event.