Inside this issue:

—Skinhead Removes Hateful Tattoos, page 2 —Why Leap Day? page 4 —MBMS Drama: Cinderella, page 5 -McDonald’s Pink Slime Issue page 6 —Super Bowl Ads Impress, page 7 —Arts & Entertainment, page 8 —NBA Midseason Review , page 10 —Confidential Corner, page 11

c h r o n i c l ec h r o n i c l ec h r o n i c l e C A N I N E Volume II, Issue 4 March 2012 Mount Baker Middle School

Auburn, Washington

IthacaLibrary.com

Wash. State Approves Same Wash. State Approves Same Wash. State Approves Same---Sex Sex Sex Marriage, page 3Marriage, page 3Marriage, page 3

Imagine getting 25 surgeries to remove tattoos. Bryon Widner had to have 25 surgeries to remove racist tattoos on his face. He was one of America's most violent and well-known white supremacists, and his tattoos, that he has all over his face, showed it proudly. But after shunning his racist beliefs, Bryon Widner was still unable to get work because of his horrible racists tattoos all over his face, so Bryon went through a long and complicated journey to have the tattoos removed from his face, in the hope of starting a new life with his wife and his children. When people saw Bryon Widner they grabbed their children as he swaggered into a store, they also low-ered their voices when he entered a restaurant, and sidled away when he strode up to a bar. But Bryon reveled in it — how he made people scared. That inspired him and gave him power. He felt like Super-man.

Bryon Widner had symbols of racist violence carved into his face and the letters H-A-T-E stamped across the knuckles of his right hand — the same hand he used to knock out countless victims, sometimes leav-ing their teeth embedded in his skin. “Blood & Honor” was tattooed across his neck, while “Thug Reich” across his belly, swastikas adorned his shaved scalp. On his forehead, a thick, black, upward-pointing arrow symbolized his willing-ness to die for his race. After a while Bryon Widner felt like an utter failure because wherever he turned Bryon was shunned like on job sites, in stores and restaurants. People only saw a menacing thug in him, not a loving father. So Bryon and his wife searched the internet trying to learn how to remove facial tattoos safely. But exten-sive facial tattoos were extremely rare, and few doc-tors have performed such complicated procedure.

Either way they couldn’t afford the surgery because they had such little money, and no health insurance. After getting married in 2006, Byron and his wife, former pillars of the white power movement, had worked hard to try to put their racist past behind them. They had settled down and had a baby. Bryon Widner really wanted to have those hateful tattoos removed from his face, so he provided the firm with sensitive information about how specific skinhead groups operate and details about their in-ternal structure. He also spoke at their Skinhead Intelligence Network Conference, equipping police with knowledge to help them tackle white supremacist groups. In exchange the SPLC searched and ultimately found a donor to pay for Widner’s surgery. After having 25 surgeries Bryon’s past and tattoos were now erased, leaving Bryon a happy father and an employed member of society.

Former Skinhead Removes Hate Tattoos Amina Abdalla, Photography Editor

Bryon Widner, a former white supremacist, removed all of his hate tattoos from his face to become a better father, good neighbor, and to let go of his past.

PLEASE NOTE: The MBMS Journalism 8 class produced this limited-voice newspaper with intent to report event accurately, without bias. The opinions presented in articles are provided to represent the views and perspectives of students and individuals in our student population, not the whole.

News & Features 2 * Volume II, Issue 4

Editors Rachel Filler Chris Sader Amina Abdalla Colton Roberts Rolf Ludviksen Leighton Hess

Reporters Jessica Peterson Aaron Baker Myra Nguyen Lauren Smith Sean Canonica Brandon Canonica

Technical Support Jay Kemp John Lees Advisor Peter Warring

THE CANINE CHRONICLE

Staff

AP Photos

Marriage Laws Change in Wash. State Jessica Peterson

Recently, Washington State’s current governor, Chris-tine Gregoire, signed off on a bill allowing same-sex marriage which will take effect July 7, 2012, unless those protesting get enough petitions opposing it. If the opposition to the bill gains enough signatures, there will be a ballot to decide the issue in November. The bill makes Washington the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage. In Washington, the bill currently granted domestic partnerships equal rights of marriage on July 7. If the petition is not met, there will be no need for a Novem-ber ballot, officially legalizing gay marriage in Washing-ton State. However, most of the U.S. continued to follow the Defense of Marriage Act, which declared that marriage is between one man and one woman. Washington joined the ranks of New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, Massachusetts, and District of Columbia, as well as the now most recent; Maryland. In California, there was a ban against gay marriage that was repealed by the Supreme Court recently. Many supporters of same-sex marriage considered the Cali-fornia ban to be nothing more than a derogatory state-ment that implied gays did not receive equal rights. Now in California, one of the most populated states, equal marriage rights have been given to same-sex domestic

partners. Many Mt. Baker students have formed their own opin-ions on same-sex marriage, like eighth grader Soojin An. “What makes them different?” she said, “Just be-cause people are different, it doesn't mean they should-n't be able to [have the same rights].” Eighth grader Rachel Grey agreed with Soojin An in the argument that limiting marriage rights should be considered unconstitutional. “If people are in love you shouldn't stop them, even if they are the same sex. That doesn't change the fact that they love each other.” Rachel Grey said, “If a male and a female are allowed to get married, a man and a man or a woman and a woman should be able to also.” In five separate studies, UCLA researcher Gary Gates estimated 4 million adult Americans, almost 2 percent of the U.S. population, to be considered “gay”, but he cited the numbers were difficult to calculate because people were apprehensive to share honestly. In the 2000 Census, 1.2 million Americans were part of a same-sex “couple” or partnership. According to Pew Research Center in a 2011 poll, 47 percent of Americans did not think same-sex marriages should be legal, while 43 supported it and 10 percent were undecided on the issue.

Some think it should be in the U.S. Constitution to guarantee that right, because it seemed as though same-sex couples were not given the same equal rights. Soojin An said, “Even if it may not be human nature or what’s considered to be normal, everyone should be allowed to choose what they want to do with their life and have the right to decide who they marry.” The U.S Constitution guarantees equal voting rights, no matter your race or gender. Supporters of same-sex marriage believed the same applied here, although it may not be suffrage, or voting rights that they’re fight-ing for, but rather the right to legally marry. Yet, some of the opposing side either believed that same-sex marriage was against religious beliefs, be-cause it did not follow the laws of procreation. Others argued that humans have evolved as people and as a country, and people keep evolving and taking the next step; that procreation is no longer what marriage truly means to some. No matter your opinion on the matter, changes in marriage rights have steadily spread throughout the U.S., and Washington could possibly be the next to follow the trend.

News & Features March 2012 * 3

Gov. Christine Gregoire, along with supporters and legislators, celebrates the signing of a bill that allows same-sex marriage in Washington state on Feb. 13, 2012.

DailyCaller.com

Feb. 29: Why Do We Have Leap Day Every Four Years? Rachel Filler, Managing Editor

You’ve most likely heard about Leap Year in your lifetime, but have you ever really taken the

time to discover what exactly a “Leap Year” is?

There is a lot of history behind Leap Year that dates back thousands of years ago that helps keep the way we mark days and keep track of

time even.

A year is actually 365.242199 days. It is not exactly 365 days as it is commonly referred to, so in result, we have to make up for the extra time. To do so, we have a Leap Year every four years. Leap Years are 366 days long. We make February 29 the added day that we make up for

not having an exact amount of 365 days in a year.

Julius Caesar, commonly known as “Father of Leap Year” was behind it all. In early Roman times, about 2000 years ago, they had 355 days in a year. To keep celebrations and important events occurring around the same time every year, there was a 22 or 23 day month established every second year. Julius’s purpose was to sim-plify it by adding days to different months to even it out to make a 365 day calendar and to make months more even in days. Caesar’s astronomer, Sosigenes, did the precise calculations by discov-ering every fourth year following February 28, one

day would be added to make the calendar even.

Leap Years were created to organize our calen-dar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun. If we didn’t have Leap Years, we would lose about 6 hours every year. Eventually, after only 100 years, the calendar would be off by

approximately 24 days.

Leap Years have to be skipped as well to keep

our calendar accurate. There cannot be a Leap Year without the year being able to be evenly di-visible by four or 400. This explains why 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not Leap Years, but 1600 and 2000 were. If we didn’t skip certain centuries, our seasons would not match up to the months associ-

ated with them.

The Gregorian calendar came into play after realizing the Julian calendar made a mistake how-ever. It was created by Pope Gregory XIII, in Febru-

ary 1582. It is the “civil calendar” we use today.

The Gregorian calendar corrected Julius’s mis-take of making one day every 128 years. This new

calendar helped allow realignment with the equi-nox, although 11 days did have to be dropped in

order to correct this.

Certain facts some people are not aware of is that Egyptians were the very first to add a Leap Day every four years, but Romans were the first to give it the date of February 29 and to make the

exact calculations.

The actual chance of being born on a Leap day is 1 in 1500. There are 187, 000 people born on this day in the United States and about 4 million world-

wide with birthdays on a Leap Day.

February 29 is the extra day added on a Leap Year.

News & Features 4 * Volume II, Issue 4

If you want to have a voice, you have to STAND and SPEAK up to be heard. *Tuesday, 2-3:30 PM.

*Newspaper club is for those who love to take pictures and write, wanting the opportunity to be heard and seen in the school newspaper. If your inter-ested, go to room 406 on Tues-days after school. This is your opportunity, TAKE IT.

The

R. Filler

Mount Baker News & Features March 2011 * 5

Cindere l la Comes to Baker Rachel Filler, Managing Editor

Here at Mt. Baker, our drama and choir teacher, Mr. Char, has played a huge part as director of our school’s plays. You’ve most likely been a part of the audience one or two times depending on how long you have attended Mt. Baker. This year, he is cur-rently putting together Cinderella. Though, he has made certain changes. “The best part of this year’s cast is that their all wacky, goofy, creative, and that’s a good thing!” stated Mr. Char. He went on to say that the reason behind choosing Cinderella for this year’s production was because he saw many talented girls and some boys and thought that this year it should be more “girly”. He also claimed to have made certain changes to the original Cinderella by adding the mice and borrow-ing from other scripts. Eighth graders, Raelene Samuelson, Autumn Kol-zow, and Jaclyn Leigbryant were the few of the cast members that were available for interviews. Raelene Samuelson is playing Cinderella along with Cami Werden, since there are two casts. Autumn Kolzow will be playing the part of the evil stepsister,

Porche. And Jaclyn Leigbryant will be taking up the roll as the evil stepmother. “I’ve done plays before and decided to do some-thing special for the last year I’m here at Mt. Baker. It’s like a family.” claimed Raelene Samuelson. Autumn Kolzow stated, “The play is really fun and I love acting!” Jaclyn Leigbryant also went on to say, “It’s way fun! I’ve been a part of the plays for the past three years!” There is a lot of work that goes into producing a great play. Costumes can be arranged by either using the ones provided by the school, making your own, or purchasing them. A lot of rehearsing goes into it all as well. The cast is going to be rehearsing for a total of 2 months. Previous plays took up to 3 to 4 months. The cast members rehearse 5 days a week for 2 hours a day. There is 10 hours of practice a week for 8 weeks total. The performances will be April 12 and 13.

A. Abdalla

Producing a great play takes a lot of time and effort. Mt. Baker cast members spend hours a week after school helping make that possible.

Mr. Ludwigson is our substitute teacher for Mr. Carter’s math class. He enjoys children and teaching math.

Mr. Ludwigson was a track coach and math teacher at Rainier Middle School for three years.

He attended Central Washington University, where he got his bachelor’s degree in ele-mentary education and a minor in middle level mathematics.

Outside of the classroom, he enjoys staying active and participating in activities such as bungee jumping, sky diving, traveling, and seeing his friends.

He grew up in the Bonney Lake, Auburn area.

Since Mr. Carter fell from a 40-foot bluff, he has been paralyzed in his lower body ever since.

But he has been doing well and Mr. Ludwig-son has taken his position as our algebra teacher and has done a great job.

Many Mt. Baker students will be looking forward to the rest of the year with him as our math teacher.

Carter’s Substitute Works Well with Students Rolf Ludvikesen, Information Editor

C. Sader

Mr. Ludwigson grades tests during his planning period, since he

started teaching Mr. Carter’s math classes in January.

Energy Drinks Shake Teens Aaron Baker

Ahhhhhh, the invigorating taste of a Monster Energy Drink. It is what gets you going and ready for the long, tiresome day ahead. But what really goes into these energy drinks anyway? Why do you have all the energy in the world, and then suddenly crash? Studies show that caffeine is the primary ingredient in Monster Energy Drinks, which is the most popular brand of energy drinks. There are many side effects to caffeine consumption; one includes high blood pressure, which is what energizes you. One 16oz. can of Monster Energy Drink contains around 160 mg of caffeine. A 16 oz. (A plastic bottle) of Coca-Cola contains only 47 mg of caffeine. Caffeine consumption is not only unhealthy; it can be dangerous, too. “Too much caffeine can lead to serious heart prob-lems,” said Bill Gotleib, an expert on caffeine. “Many adults have heart problems after excessive consumption of caffeine.” The most caffeine that has been commercially sold in a single energy drink is an “Amazing Energy Source” of Redline; seven hours. A mere two oz. of Redline contains 326 mg of caffeine. That makes a whopping 163 mg in one ounce! Although caffeine is bad for your heart, it has positive side effects, too. Caffeine is excellent source of energy; it has been proven to be “one of the most effective energiz-ers that can be bought without a prescription,” according to many energy drink ads. Also, caffeine raises your attention throughout the day, as well as lowers the chance of liver cancer and Alz-heimer’s disease. So how does this caffeine stuff work, you ask? Profes-sor James Lane, PhD, said that “caffeine exaggerates how human brains react to stress. At the cellular level, caf-feine locks the receptor normally used by adenosine, a brain modulator that provides feedback to avoid over-stimulation of nerve cells. If adenosine is locked up, noth-ing keeps the nervous system from getting too excited at a cellular level." There are many pros and cons to caffeine, it really all depends on your perspective.

News & Features 6 * Volume II, Issue 4

McDonald’s Pink Slime Fill Hamburgers Amina Abdalla, Photography Editor

Have you ever eaten pink slime? Okay, let me put it this way. Have you ever eaten at any fast food restaurant? Well if you have then you probably have eaten pink slime. Pink slime is a substance created when a cow is butch-ered; there are pieces of a cow that are cut off that aren’t considered for human consumption. Sam Sandures said, “Killing a cow is wrong but what is worse is taking the leftover things from the cow and putting it in our food, and not only do they do that they also put ammonia, I mean what the heck you use ammo-nia to clean not to eat.” “If you are going to make food and feed it to people, it should be healthy but, how the fast food restaurants are adding leftover scraps from cows and putting chemicals in our food is not health and it’s just disgusting," said Paul Parker. There is a greater risk for E. coli and other nasty stuff in those parts of the cow. This pink slime use to be only for pets, because an animal’s stomach can handle that kind of stuff, while ours can’t. But now this leftover cow parts (pink slime) were ending up in our foods. They start by using a centrifuge that can separate the fat from the meat and once they salvage this meat, there still is the concern of potential illness in humans. So to make sure there won’t be a problem, they pull out a chemical – ammonia. Yes, the meat industry actually

uses ammonia to kill anything that might be in the meat and the FDA is perfectly fine with it. In fact, they are so fine with it that no one has to list on their labels that ammonia was ever used inside the meat. The meat indus-try convinced the FDA, that the ammonia is just a “processing agent”. There are some limits to using pink slime. You can’t use more than 15% of it in ground beef. So the pink slime is basically just used as filler, but that filler that they use saves the meat industry some really serious dough. Marie Schibig was asked what she thought of pink slime and she stated, “I can’t believe they would put that kind of things in our food that is just sick and nasty.” The good news is that McDonald's announced the prod-uct was no longer used in their burgers. According to Time reports, “This decision was a result of our efforts to align our global standards for how we source beef around the world.” Be careful on what you eat unless you know what's in it.

Above is a picture of pink slime; that’s the leftover

cow parts they put in your burger. To the right is the

burger many Americans love, thinking it doesn’t have

anything in it.

Many eighth grade students start their day with energy

drinks, consuming over 300 mg of caffeine before the first

class.

C. Sader

CreativeCommons.org

News & Features March 2012 * 7

Super Bowl Ads Don’t Disappoint Colton Roberts, Managing Editor

The Super Bowl had many funny and hilarious advertisements, but some were just better than others. The number one ad of the Super Bowl was the Doritos “Sling Baby”. The ad was about a boy who was taunting a grandma with Doritos. The grandma took a baby that was next to her and pulled him back on his spring loaded baby holder. She let him go and the baby flew through the air, snatching the bag of chips. The commercial ended with the grandma and baby smil-ing and eating Doritos while the boy was drowning in his sadness. The ad received 4.33 out of 5 according to USA Today. The assistant director Andrew Peters won $4000, which was part of the $1 million given out to the crew who produced the ad. “It may not be much, but you can't turn down $4, 000,” Mr. Peters said.

It was also the #1 Super Bowl ad voted on Face-book. Next is the M&M “Sexy and I Know It” commercial. This ad was definitely the funniest of all. It got a 4.22/5, which was pretty good, but I think it should’ve gotten a higher score. The commercial started off with a woman M&M talking to two ladies. Then the song “Sexy and I Know It” came on, and a guy M&M took off his shell and started dancing, Then the ad showed some actual M&M’s reaction, and the commercial went back to the guy M&M doing the “wiggle” at the end of the song. Many Americans could not stop laughing the whole time, stating “the commercial never gets old.” The Doritos “Man’s Best Friend” commercial came in a close fourth place. It scored a 4.21/5 right be-hind the M&M ad. At the beginning, a man was planting flowers in his garden, and he noticed a missing cat flyer. He

looked over and saw his dog burying a cat with the same name as the flyer on its collar. The dog went up to the man and gave him a bag of Doritos with a note that saying, “You didn’t see anything.” The man took the chips and didn’t say anything about the cat. And last but not least is the Chevy “Mayan Apoca-lypse” advertisement. According to USA Today it was good enough for a 4.15/5. It took place in 2012 after the apocalypse, everything is destroyed and obliterated. Then a Chevy truck comes out from under a pile of rubble. The man was smiling, and they drive to a meeting place with a few other friends, who also have Chevys. The man asked, “Where’s Steve?” His friend told him that he didn’t make it because he was driving a Ford. Then his other friend gave him a Twinkie, and it starts raining frogs. All in all it was a very good year for Super Bowl advertisements.

Doritos “Sling Baby” has launched. The number one ad of the Super Bowl was the Doritos “Sling Baby”. The ad was about a boy who was taunting a grandma with Doritos.

TheFW.com

‘Same Old Now’: Band Review Myra Nguyen

Before the Valentine’s Dance, many were focused their attention on whom their dates would be, what they were going to wear, and many other worries that come with a dance. Although what everyone seemed to forget was the music. Though Mr. Carter was DJ-ing the dance, the same band that performed last year, was set to share the stage and perform one last time before moving on to high school. I’m of course taking about the band “Same Old Now,” consisting of eighth graders Alonso Tirado (drummer), Jacob Cowan (lead guitarist), Micah Metje (rhythm guitar and vocals), and Harrison Tyrie (bassist). If the name doesn’t sound familiar, then that’s probably because of the bands numerous name changes, with their most known name being “White Rain”, although they deemed this name completely wrong. Formed in the spring of 2009, Tirado and Cowan had only wanted to perform in the talent show as a duo, but soon found Tyrie and Metje tagging along, at the time forming “White Rain”. At first, they hardly knew each other, but soon had begun to form a bond through music. Receiving inspiration from everyday life to write their songs, everyone had a role in writing the songs, but none more than Micah. They also drew musical influence from artists such as Switchfoot, Relient K, and Skillet, leading them to proclaim themselves as “alternative-rock”. In the past year, they have performed at four venues; last year’s Valentine’s Day Dance, last years MBMS Talent Show, the Puyallup Fair, and this years Valentine’s Day Dance. Admitting that they scarcely practice, they acknowledge the fact that their performance would be much better if given the opportunity to practice more often, although stating that they still do fine. Through fights, few practices, and students, and some-times even parents, criticizing them with harsh words such as, “they suck”, or “Couldn’t they play better?”, the band continues overcome these obstacles, dusts the comments off, and do what they do best—Play music.

Arts & Entertainment 8 * Volume II, Issue 4

Adele Steals Show at 2012 Grammy Awards Chris Sader, Photography Editor

No surprise here. The best-selling artist and album of 2011, Adele, swept the 2012 Grammys in all of the major categories. Adele is the antidote to all that ails the supposedly wretched state of pop music. Costumes, dancers, and showmanship are now lobbed under the derogatory term "gimmicks." And Adele, who painfully takes strides to do nothing more than dress in all black and sing, is tastefully gimmick-free. As a soul singer with massive record sales, immense talent and the backing of record industry powerhouses, Adele's victory was a shoe-in. And the National Acad-emy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) did not hesitate in rewarding the British superstar every step of the way. Adele scooped up Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album and more. The sweep nature is common with the Grammys. Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill and Beyonce have all swept the Grammys awards in a similar fashion, as having an artist rack up awards. But Adele wasn’t the only person at the Grammy Awards fresh from an extended vacation, Rihanna took to the stage and left the audience spellbound with a glorious performance of her hit single, "We Found Love" followed by her duet with Coldplay, "Princess of China." Rihanna brought her dancing shoes to the Grammys and her vocals were emotive and rich. Ri-hanna definitely shined bright, even though she went home empty-handed.

The Whitney Houston tribute wasn’t completely on point, but gave the Grammy producers a break. They had very short notice to even stick something into the broadcast; there stood Jennifer Hudson, alone, in an elegant evening gown, belting out a restrained and controlled rendition of the singer's signature hit "I Will Always Love You." Jennifer did a great job honoring Houston’s legacy with this honest and pure perform-ance. Though he wasn't in the building, Kanye's presence was felt at the 2012 Grammys. His bodies of work; left a good note in the heads of Grammy voters, as he was richly rewarded in the Rap categories. And with 18 Grammys, Kanye is running out of room on his shelves. It’s not often that someone can celebrate 50 years doing much of anything but for 50 years, the Beach Boys (in one way or another) have been entertaining America. The Grammy producers tried to find pop stars with roots to honor them, and found them in Maroon 5 and Foster The People. I knew Adam Levine of Maroon 5 had the vocals to do this, but was worrying of Foster The People. I only knew them from their grating summer hit “Pumped Up Kicks,” and didn’t think they had the goods to really make it happen. Ends up, they had enough to get by. Adam Levine opened, putting his signature falsetto to good use on “Surfer Girl.” Digital waves crashed in the background screens as Foster The People tackled “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.” Like I said, they did enough. It sounded great,

Adele and Carrie Underwood celebrate Grammy victories on screen in New York.

Same Old Now performs their original song an the Choir-

sponsored Valentine’s Day Dance.

Photofunia.com

M. Nguyen

Arts & Entertainment March 2011 * 9

Indiana who? In Temple Run, you run away from flesh-eating monkeys who want their idol back

from the temple you are running away from.

Swipe left or right to turn right, swipe up to jump, swipe down to slide/duck. This game calls for focus, skill, and reflexes like a ninja otherwise, you won’t get very far. Gain points by collecting coins, and make sure you don’t run into anything—if you do, those monkeys might just get to you. You start out with about 300 points coming out of the

temple.

Even though people get frustrated with this game, it’s too addicting to stop playing. This is a free app for the Apple products, and according to the Apple website, the Temple Run app will not be coming out for the Android Market like planned. “Best endless game in the App store,” said Apple-

NApps .

The main reason as to why Temple Run score is very important is because it is the objective of every player of the Temple Run game. Indeed, any fan of this game strives to beat his/her own re-cords in terms of scores, while experienced play-ers are often striving to get the best Temple Run

Score ever recorded.

Your goal is to ensure that your Temple Run score gets higher and higher each time you play the game. When the game is complete and your Temple Run Score is displayed, you can post your score on Twitter, Facebook, and the game center

for your friends to see.

On the game center, the highest score for Tem-ple Run stands at 2,147,483,647 points. However, this may change as people get higher and higher

scores in Temple Run.

‘Temple Run’ Apps Goes Viral on Smartphones Lauren Smith

BudgetGamer.com

The Brad Pitt movie, Moneyball, is based on the Mi-chael Lewis book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which explained how Beane, an ex-big leaguer and GM (General Manager) of the A’s, put together a playoff team despite having three of his star players lured away by teams with big bucks.

Beane did this not by watching men swing bats or run bases, but by looking at their statistics that told him which players could produce the most runs while forcing opponents to score the fewest. It’s safe to say that few if any GMs today ignore such data.

Screenwriters Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian cut through all those equations and mathematical formu-las to tell a relatively simple story: how a guy with almost no chance of winning develops a secret strat-egy.

Helping Beane would be a terribly young and highly unathletic Yale grad, Peter Brand, who sees an en-tirely different game than scouts and coaches do—where an old-time scout judged a guy’s swing or how attractive his girlfriend was. Peter looked for a guy with a great on-base percentage. After all, more guys on base mean more opportunities to score.

Coming off a highly successful 2001 season, the Yankees and the Red Sox, with amazing amounts of money, flash there cash and scoop up all of Oakland's best players, making off with what seems like the heart and brains of the team.

But in a rival team’s office, Billy happens to meet Peter. Having really nothing to lose other than games

he’s bound to lose anyway, he buys into Peter’s ap-proach. This happens in the movie rather too abruptly, but Billy is, quite rightly, portrayed as an unusual GM. First of all, he played the game, which few usually have.

The movie proceeds through the improbable 2002 season with continual flashbacks to Billy’s own story — how he was a can’t-miss player, who signed for big money rather than accept a Stanford scholarship. But this never worked as he intended.

The heart of the movie lies in the vindication of Billy’s big gamble. This gets personified in two char-acters: the team’s manager, Art Howe, a grumpy old man looking out for his own self-interest, and Scott Hatteberg, a washed out catcher transformed into a first baseman to get his terrific on-base percentage into the lineup.

Don’t like to see too much baseball, you say? Well, join Beane. He never watches a game. He stays in the clubhouse, catching moments on radio or TV or gets text messages from Peter. So the movie is about a master working behind the scenes like a political strategist or boxing trainer, not about the game it-self.

So, the film fits nicely into the realm of The Bad News Bears or Major League, of underdogs who shock the world. Director Bennett Miller, like Beane, is not one to do things according to old formulas. Neverthe-less, this Moneyball stands on its own as a strong, rewarding effort to pull unusual personalities and a timeless story from a welter of Inside Baseball.

‘Moneyball’ Hits Homerun in Theaters Chris Sader, Photography Editor

Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) scouts players with the Oakland A’s assistant coach at 2002 spring training in the movie ‘Moneyball’.

Linta.com

We have all heard of party crashers, but what about sports event crashers? A stocky man shows up in a basketball uniform for a game at Century High School in North Dakota. Players and coaches assumed he was a fan who had come with another team, so nobody objected when he began to pitch in around the bench. When the game was over, the young man hung out with the winning team on the court and asked if he could get a piggyback ride. One shocked and caught off guard player gave him one. What they learned they had been dealing with the night of Feb. 4 was the Piggyback Bandit. Sherwin Shayegan of Bothell, Washington, is a 28-year-old man who ingratiates himself with high school sports teams. Once he has blended in and gained acceptance, he then hoisted him-self onto the backs of the student athletes. Shayegan’s strange behavior went back to 2008, but he remained confined to Washington and Oregon. He has since expanded his horizons beginning last fall and has worked his way east to Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. He has left a trail of shell-shocked athletes along his way.

Shayegan has asked for piggybacks, attempted to pay for piggybacks, and just sprung some on unsuspecting kids.

He favors basketball games, but he also has leapt onto hockey, soccer, and football players. Shayegan has a long criminal record in Washington. He also had nine out-standing warrants in one town in that state. Due to his piggyback games, he has been banned from high school sporting events in Washington, Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. No one knows why he does this or who gave him the “Piggyback Bandit” nickname. Although Shayegan pleaded guilty on Feb. 1 to two misdemeanor assault charges, was fined $730, given a 360-day suspended prison sentence, told not to go to any more Montana high school events, and told by the judge to, “Go back to Seattle and behave.” He didn’t stop. It was three days later when he attended the Bismarck basketball game and received another piggyback ride. He also received a piggyback ride from a hockey player after a hockey game that same day. “What has this world came to when a 28 year

old man asks a bunch of high school student’s for piggy back rides?” said eight grader Bree Sprague.

Piggyback Bandit Strikes Again Chris Sader, Photography Editor

Sports 10 * Volume II, Issue 4

Surveillance footage of Sherwin Shayegan reveals his tactics as he approaches an unsuspect-

ing group of coaches at a high school basketball game.

NBA Season Hits Midseason, Who Leads the Pack? Rolf Ludvikesen, Information Editor

This year the NBA has taken a few spins like “Lin-sanity” and Chris Paul being traded. Both of these top stories have made this shortened 66-game season very interesting for NBA fans. This year the front running teams going into the All-star break are the Miami Heat with the Big 3 lead-ing there team, Miami are now playing like the team everyone expected them to be when LeBron James decided he'd be taking his talents to South Beach. The Big Three of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are just demolishing teams. Miami come into the break on an 8-game winning streak, with all of those being by at least 12 point margins. The question is whether any of this matters. We know the Heat can be great in the regular season, but for this year to be successful, they need to win the NBA title. The Oklahoma City Thunder were the favorites to come out of the Western Conference before the sea-son and so far, they've only lived up to the hype. The team is young there's no denying that, but it's also extremely talented. Kevin Durant is an offensive mon-ster and an MVP canidate. Russell Westbrook is super fast. James Harden is a Sixth Man of the Year Award contender. Plus, there's the defense of Serge Ibaka

and Kendrick Perkins to stop teams from scoring in the paint. This team is stacked! The games have been awesome this season—not many can catch up to the young Thunder The Chicago Bulls can't be left out from this group. Derrick Rose is as good as last year when he won the MVP. Even as he's missed games with injury, the team has responded well and has the second best record in the Eastern Conference behind Miami. Their road to The Finals will most likely go through Miami. They might have what it takes to beat the Heat, but it would definitely be a great series to watch for NBA fans. The Orlando Magic with Dwight Howard possibly the most overpowering big man in the league, San Anto-nio Spurs with veteran Tim Duncan, and the Los An-geles Clippers/Lob City are all contenders this year. The best rookies so far this year are Kyrie Irving averaging 18.1 points per game and 5.1 assists per game. Right behind him is Ricky Rubio averaging 11.3 points per game and 8.4 assists per game. The Most Valuable Player award this year has been a battle between Lebron James and Kevin Durant both players leading the league and their teams in

points and many other statistics,. Only one person can when MVP so we will see who plays better in the second half of the season.

Jeremy Lin dunks the basketball against the Washington Wizards.

CreativeCommons.org

FoxNews.com

Mt. Baker Barks March 2012 * 11

Confidential Corner: March of Heartbroken Long-Distance Confusion Amina Abdalla & Rachel Filler

What Grinds My Gears: March of Phobias, Rage-Quitting, Poor Driving Chris Sader, Rolf Ludviksen, Colton Roberts

What grinds my gears is how people have the most stu-pid phobias cause when you go hang out with them they start randomly FREAKING out over a little butterfly. It’s like really! Really? How are you that afraid of a butterfly; it’s not like it’s venomous. It doesn’t bite; it can barely fly. What are you sooo afraid of a little butterfly? Another weird phobia is the fear of bouncy castles, Yeah, you heard me right—the fear of bouncy castles. One day, I was walking around a carnival, and there were these full grown adults fearing for their lives because their kids were forcing them to go in with them. I expected maybe a couple kids to be afraid of a bouncy castle, but not two adults. I mean, come on now. But the worst phobia for me is the fear of Muppets, and I’m not lying to you. There are people out there that are scared for Muppets— you know, Kermit the Frog. Is he very scary? I’m sure not afraid of Kermit. Are you ? —CS

Do you want to know WHAT GRINDS MY GEARS? People that have a license and don’t know how to drive. How did they pass their driving test? I don’t get why people are in traffic and stay a whole three car lengths behind the car in front of them. It’s like, you can go a little farther come on you can do it. I hate when I’m going to school and some stupid person in front of us stops in the turn lane and doesn’t turn when it’s perfectly ok to turn

into the school. But, NO! They have to wait a whole five minutes to turn into the school. I hate especially when somebody cuts in front of you, and then they “communicate their frustration with hand sig-nals,” because they cut you off. It makes no sense; its like they are stupid or they are being a jerk for the fun of it. How did these people pass their driving test nobody knows?—RL

Do you really know what grinds my gears? Video-game- rage-quitting. Rage-quitting is when somebody is playing a video game, any game, and they get mad, then quit like little babies. Sure, I’ve raged plenty of times, but for good reasons. It’s usually because I’m doing really well, then I die or mess up. Not because I do really badly, because I’m just plain bad at it. Seriously, if you’re not good at the game DON’T PLAY IT! When you rage you affect your team too, because they lose a team member, which could make a big difference and make some little kid, who probably shouldn’t even being playing that game, start to cry. Do you really want that? And if you’re too stupid to quit and you keep whining and complaining and saying how it’s the games fault and eve-rybody sucks and they are cheating? When in reality you are the only one that is doing badly. If you’re that much of a baby, then maybe you should go watch Elmo and eat some applesauce. There are tons of games that you can play. If you always rage at one, PLAY ANOTHER GAME! Nobody wants to hear you crying about a video game. Grow up! Especially if you’re an adult, that’s just ridiculous. —CR

Disagree? The segment ‘What Grinds My Gears’ is presented as

opinion and does not express the views of all MBMS students or

The Canine Chronicle. If you would like to express your opinion,

write us a letter and you may be published in our next edition.

FamilyGuy.com

Dear Confidential Corner, There is this guy that was my best friend but he did something really terrible and my mom found out. Long story short, she has forbidden me from being friends with him. I don’t think you can possibly understand how much I cared for him. I know he would never even con-sider hurting me, so my mom shouldn’t even be afraid of me hanging out with him. I’m probably safer being with him than being alone at Mt. Baker. He was my best friend, I can’t live without him, and I won’t. What should I do? He was like my brother. I love him. Please help me! Sincerely, Heartbroken

Dear Heartbroken, If your mom has forbidden you from seeing him, then you shouldn’t see him. Your mom is just trying to protect you; she wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you if he were to do something by surprise. I’m sure you probably wouldn’t have expected him to do that to that girl, just like how you can’t expect to know what he is capable of. Maybe don’t end your friendship, but take a break from it. Do what your mom has told you and things could get better in time. People change just when you think you know them. Sincerely, Confidential Corner Dear Confidential Corner, I need some suggestions on how to handle a long dis-tance relationship. I have a girlfriend that just moved to Indiana over Presidents Day weekend. Please help. Sincerely, Long Distance Lover Dear Long Distance Lover, People come and go in our lives, no matter how close we are to them. It can be difficult to stay in touch and still be close if you can’t see each other ever. This could mean it’s time to move on. There is no reason why you can’t still be friends, but long distance relationships are already difficult as it is, and can be a lot more difficult when you’re only in middle school. See how things go for a little while, but if you

begin to notice you guys have grown apart, that is when you should make a decision. Sincerely, Confidential Corner Dear Confidential Corner, There is a guy that I really like and I think he knows that I like him. I don’t know if he likes me back…I don’t really talk to him, so there is no real way I can find out. What can I do to find out? What are some signs? Sincerely, Confused Dear Confused, If you can never really talk to him, are you sure you know him well enough to really like him? And if he does indeed like you back, you guys would have to find a way to see each other more or else the relationship most likely wouldn’t last too long. Since you guys never really see each other, I don’t know what kind of signs there could be. If he tries talking to you a lot, and wants to stand or sit close to you, that could be a sign. Just be careful not to mix up what you think is someone liking you, with someone who just is being friendly. If he tends to want to associate with you a lot or hang out with you, that could be a sign, but also just being friendly. I would say go for it, there isn’t really any other way to find out how he honestly feels. Sincerely, Confidential Corner

March St. Patrick’s Day Puzzles Leighton Hess & Rolf Ludviksen

The Costa Concordia, one cruise ship all over the news. The cruise ship is famous now because it

crashed off the coast of Italy. The $563 million boat,

carrying more than 4000 people, crashed recently

when the captain deviated from the original course to

show off his boat.

The captain, Francesco Schettino, may face criminal

charges of manslaughter, failure to offer assistance,

and abandonment of the ship. After the boat crashed,

the captain abandoned the ship, leaving it in total

chaos.

On January 29, 2012, rescue groups had found 17

people. There have only been three survivors found in

the wreckage. Rescue crews are still searching for

survivors, but they haven’t been so lucky lately. Divers

have to be very cautious because the ship is sitting on

a rock ledge and seems to be shifting.

The captain of the ship abandoned ship without help-

ing any passengers on the ship.

When the captain abandoned the ship, people had no

idea what to do to evacuate the cruise ship. When the

ship hit the reef, the power went out on the ship and

one of the crew came on the intercom saying that

there was no problem and the power would come back

on. The ships passengers knew something was wrong

because the boat was tilted to the side. Then the crew

told people to evacuate the entire ship. During the

evacuation the crew had no clue what to do. The pas-

sengers were clueless on what to do for an evacua-

tion. Everybody had to slide off the ship and into the

cold water in the dark.

The company carnival has estimated that the finan-

cial impact of the crash to cost around $95 million .

The cruise industry is being hurt from the images of

the ship half sunk. Carnival and other companies have

all ready dropped their prices on cruises because of

the low demand.

The cruise industry will not pick up until confidence

is restored to the public.

Texting Causes School Shut Down Chris Sader, Photography Editor

Smartphone auto-correct doesn’t help all the time. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, go out every day, but they may need to set up a Hall of Fame for one Florida teen. The high-school student accidentally shut his school down and blamed auto-correct and a wrong number for the mishap. According to the Gainesville Times, a series of unfortu-nate phone-related events landed a Florida teen in the hot

seat after he failed to review a text message before sending it. The West Hall student meant to type “gunna be at west hall today,” but his phone’s auto correction changed “gunna” to “gunman.” The student then sent the text message to a wrong number. The person who got the text was understandably alarmed by the text and alerted the police. The police did not take the situation lightly and immediately ordered that the middle and high schools of West Hall be locked down until an investigation could take place. The police were then able to trace the text message to the student who had sent the alarming auto-corrected message. The police soon realized that there was no cause for concern and the schools were able to return to normal. In an interview with eighth grader Lyzelle Maranan, she reacted, “Really how does all these thing keep happening to schools?” Across the country schools face heightened anxiety from students, parents, and even administrators in light of the recent school shooting at Chardon High School in Ohio, in which three students were killed. Travis Tran a freshman at Auburn-Riverside responded, saying “Auto correct is a pain, but I never thought that it could cause such a BIG threat.” All of this could have been avoided if the student had simply reviewed his text message before hitting send.

THE CANINE CHRONICLE

News & Life March 2011 * 12

Divers are struggling to search for survivors because

the ship is teetering on a rock ledge.

Cruise Ship Crashes in Italy Leighton Hess, Information Editor

CreativeCommons.org

X H D G R J S B S I J V B G A V P G K X

V M D K L I T Q B H E H Q U D O U R P U

M P C Y D K P R P L A A H G C N T E Q I

P H O U K K A X E J O M P P X Z P I V S

V O Q C S B T V A W F V R T G T O Z V A

F U J W S L R H Q C P G S O G R I N Q N

N D P N F J I Z C N O H V P C W E H N U

O I A K O E C I R I S H J F Z K R E P Z

P G W L V D K C N H S I L C A A Y S N H

M H P S L E P R E C H A U N I K G V A C

L B U H M I L O H Q D F R N C V O V L R

C M G L T R R J B B R T B U Y S L Z H A

R E V O L C A H Z K V O L R D N D U W M

I O Z P O D V H S W W P P G Y K G L Y U

F D H X P D E U C L H Z A M K X E A T I

D B J Q X Q C E J O R P U G Y G Y V K E

C R H U S U J O Y Z J Z R W P Z U F S K

N R W O C P A Q Z H J N R H K R N Z W T

E R C O R N N L R B S R S U F K D B A L

Y F C R Y B G Q J J C B I V O C C H J M

CHARMS

CLOVER

GOLD

GREEN

IRISH

LEPRECHAUN

LUCKY

MARCH

RAINBOW

SHAMROCK

ST. PATRICK

While smartphone auto-correct features can lead to some

humorous or strange text responses, a Florida learned this

lesson the hard way.

DigitalTrends.com

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