This internship was given to high school students based on their academic grades. The Jewish Heritage museum honors Jewish history, especially the Holocaust.

The museum is located in Manhattan, New York.

“The training for the internship is held every other Wednesday. The real work begins on June 29th. It’s a paid internship for participation with no tax deducted, all paid in check. I’m not certain a job will be open after the internship, however, there is a possibility. For a fact I heard from previous interns is that a few percent of the intern students do have a part-time job at the museum during college and most become part of the staff after graduation,” said Clarisse.

Clarisse and the other students chosen for this internship will learn about The Holocaust, Jewish Heritage, and what goes on behind the exhibits, which is the part of the museum visitors don’t get to see.

Over the summer, Clarisse will even learn how to create an exhibit and how to lead a tour of young groups.

“We chose Clarisse for a variety of reasons being her commitment to learning about other cultures, when we saw her in a group we saw that she really fit in well with a diverse group of her peers and we really valued that Clarisse is creative,” said Museum educator Bonnie Unger.

On January 13, 2010, Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 quake. Sophomores at our school are raising money to help the people of Haiti heal.

“Fundraising for the people of Haiti is a good idea because we are able to help people less fortunate than us,” said sopomore Shara Joy Aya.

Advisories are collecting items to send over to Haiti such as blankets, tents, sleeping bags, bottles of water, gauze, gloves, bandages, and other first aid supplies. Other advisories are selling baked goods and lollipops to make money.

“Anyone can bring the specific things that are listed. We made posters and students are going around to talk to the advisories about this fundraiser. My class is raising money of their own to buy a tent to send to Haiti,” said Spanish teacher Ms. Violetta Suroweic.

Chinese teacher Ms. Pan’s advisory sold lollipops to raise a total amount of seventy-seven dollars. Ms. Weit’s advisory, on the other hand, raised about twenty-dollars and counting by having a bake sale. Similarly, Ms. Suroweic’s advisory is collecting the items listed to send to the MADRE organization.

The MADRE organization is an international women’s human rights organization. This organization partners with women to help other women all around the world. They collect donations and have helped women and families all throughout various countries such as Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru, and many other countries as well.

“After Haiti’s loss, I think it’s necessary for schools across the United States to raise Haitian relief,” said sophomore Christopher Smart.

Although, the advisories have raised a reasonable amount of money so far, they hope to raise even more money to help Haiti rebuild their nation.

“Caring for others in a time of need shows that people can really touch humanity,” said advisor Ms. Weit

The Bodies Museum is in Manhattan located at 11 Fulton Street near the South Street Seaport.

It has real human bodies that are used to showcase how the bodies work and what goes on inside the body. What better way to learn than to see it for yourself right?

The junior advisors planned the trip for the juniors in order to give them something to supplement a health credit that would be interesting at the same time.

“I truly was amazed not only at the exhibit, but at the reaction and ht behavior of the students, the kids were amazing…I did not expect them to be so into the exhibit,” said junior advisor and parent coordinator said Ms. Annette Lentini.

While at the Bodies Museum, the juniors viewed parts of real human bodies. The exhibits were amazing, the lighting and the tools the museum used brought out the colors in everything and made it look more vibrant.

The museum displayed things that students wouldn’t normally be able to see in the most interesting and mind-capturing way possible so we could be interested in the exhibits which most of were.

It looked like food!”, said junior Christina Tsang, referring to the exhibit.

In one exhibit there were babies form different stages of birth, and we were able to see what a baby looks like from the time it’s conceived until it is born.

One exhibit was full of only veins and arteries. To preserve the arteries and veins they were injected with silicone, which hardens inside them, and then the body is dipped in acid and all that remains are the veins and arteries.

It was very interesting and I was the last one to leave the exhibit” said Junior Jessica Chan.

The museum was very interesting and is definitely worth a visit.

Besides the juniors, even some of the present sophomores and seniors paid the museum a visit.

“The bodies exhibit was so fascinating,” said sophomore Anita Platis.

“The museum was so interesting and I learned a lot, my favorite part was when we saw the smokers lungs, because it was surprising to see how they actually looked in real life and not on T.V.,” said senior Adefola Adeosun

This trip was great especially for students who are looking for careers in medicine because they saw firsthand before they even entered college or med school.

After the museum the students ate lunch at the South Street Seaport…lunch sounds great after we’ve seen where it all goes right?

The lyrics pop on a screen behind him, along with video clips of people cheering or revolting against him. The lyrics of his song are about corruption in school, government, and tradition. “Our tradition is corruption. Corruption in all of Africa.”

The music is a mix of Jazz and Funk. Fast catchy beats, lights shining everywhere, and flashing as if in a club. Fela’s compound and performances is usually performed at the Shrine in Nigeria.

Fela shares with the audience members about his experience in jail, the interagation process and moments that changed his life. He also reminds and tells the world what happened to Kulakuta, a compound owned by Fela in Nigeria.

One night, soliders sent from the government raided and burned Kulakuta to the ground. The dancers were each represented as a person that was a vitim to the tragic event. A statement about how they were tormented by soliders were presented to the audience on a background screen.

“Fela was a powerful lesson in Post-Colonalism!” said history teacher Mrs. Francis. “ The play was also a contemporay political act. References to mordern issues like police violence, crisis in Haiti and corporate scandals like Enron and Halbutron.”

Students and fans of Broadway plays are strongly recommened to see FELA! and learn more about culture in different parts of the world. Sometimes history can be quite interesting.

Most people assume that there is only one book to Alice in Wonderland, when in fact there are two, both by author Lewis Carroll. The first book is titled Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This is the more known of the two books. This book centers on Alice first falling through the rabbit hole and meeting the white rabbit, the hookah-caterpillar, March Hare, Queen of Hearts and one of the most famous characters, the Mad Hatter. What people don’t realize about this book is that the Queen of Hearts is more of a tyrant then a queen, who punishes the people in her kingdom for crimes that they never committed. This is the case for the March Hare and Mad Hatter, who are both stuck at 3pm tea time due to the Queen of Hearts. Finding this unfair, Alice goes to meet the queen and well…you need to read the book yourself to find out what happens.

The second book of the series is Through The Looking Glass which takes place about three years after the first book. Once again, this book focuses on Alice, as she re-enters Wonderland, this time through the mirror in her living room. This book features Tweedle-Dee and and Tweedle-Dum, the singing flowers, and a few characters that were never introduced in the original Disney movie. This book focuses on a giant game of chess that Alice has entered between the red kingdom and the white kingdom. Alice decides to join the fight this time and assists the white kingdom in getting their White Queen free. Once again, read the book to see what happens.

In reality these two books are perfect in their humor and wit. Heck, they were even an inspiration for the new Tim Burton directed “Alice In Wonderland”. These books are good for anyone who enjoys reading. They appeal to anyone who loves humor, action, and the innocence of a nine year old girl.

“Origins,” “The Babysitter,” “Prototype,” “Homecoming,” “The Duel,” “The Package” and “Odd One Out” all detail the history of some aspects of the Halo universe and reveal many significant events that tie in with the main story of the games. These episodes include the stories of what one has to endure to become and be a Spartan soldier, the world of Arbiters, and a comedic side of Halo with Spartan 1337.

Each one of these episodes gives you a piece of the Halo story never told in the game and is presented in a different version of sophisticated Japanese animation, such as anime, Japanese water colors, and regular cartoon computer-generated imagery. They were also directed by one of seven different directors, who are all leading animators of Japan, and produced by one of five different studios involved in the Halo Legends project.

“I thought Halo Legends was a great movie with cool animations and all, but I thought it was weird that they divided it into episodes. Also, I thought it was really weird that the Arbiter wasn’t anywhere in the movie while Master Chief was, which really doesn’t make sense because Arbiter is a main character after all,” said sophomore Matthew Taylor.

Apart from the seven episodes, there are bonus features that give you the first trailer of the Halo franchise’s next game, Halo Reach. Also, the directors and production teams of each episode were interviewed in “The Making of Halo Legends,” which shows the production process of how each episode was made, and “The Halo Story So Far,” which fills in the main storyline of the first three Halo games.

The first movie from one of the best selling games of all time is a thrilling sci-fi adventure through the Halo universe. However, it is recommended that violent content throughout may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13. Halo Legends is available anywhere movies are sold or rented in DVD single or two disk special editions and Blu-Ray, and digital download.

Most netbooks have Internet access through cellular network antenna. This lets you stay connected with your friends online anywhere you go via 3g. Though iPad offers this feature; customers will have to pay extra to get the 3g-enabled model.

“The16Gb model without 3g costs $499 plus tax, and the same model with 3g option costs $629 plus tax,” said Jessica Wade, sales manager at Apple Store.

Hard drive capacity is what most users are looking for. While the simplest netbook can hold from 120 up to 500 gigabytes, the maximum capacity of the iPad is only 64 gigabytes. Seems like iPad is loosing positions, but there is more to compare.

The type of storage in iPad makes it more portable because flash storage can not be damaged physically, so when user drops the iPad, all the important information is protected. At the same time, hard drives that are used netbooks are fragile as glass, and if it falls, it looses all information.

“Hard drives, or solid state memory have more capacity, but they are absolutely not suitable for the portable devices because of its fragile structure,” said Apple technician George Mina.

The iPad, similarly to the iPhone and iPod Touch, has only one button, which makes it more portable because one button does not take that much space as the 114 buttons on a netbook. The iPad can be controlled by simple touch on its OLED screen.

The OLED screen used in an iPad is better then LCD screen on netbooks. This is because the picture is clearer and quality is better. OLED screens support higher resolution, which makes it more comfortable for a human eye.

All netbooks are running Microsoft windows operating systems like XP, Vista, and 7, which were created for desktop and laptop computers and absolutely not optimized for the netbook. Lack of optimization makes it pretty hard to use a big operating system on small screen. The iPad has a very user friendly interface, similar to the one in iPhone, which making it easier to use full power of its hardware.

“There are about 150,000 apps in the app store that makes the iPad more useful than any other portable device,” said George.

So in spite of a better hardware part, netbooks can not beat the portable and user friendly iPad.

“It’s been a good year, a good new beginning,” sings lead singer of Motion City Soundtrack, Justin Pierre on the opener song to Motion City Soundtrack’s latest album My Dinosaur Life. He’s most certainly right, since My Dinosaur Life is the first album the Minnesota native quintet has released on a major record label, Columbia Records.

Motion City Soundtrack is a band that could have disbanded when lead singer, Justin, had major issues in his life. Motion City Soundtrack survived due to the loyal support from fans and how Justin uses music as an outlet of all his emotions.

“I like Motion City Soundtrack because their lyrics are catchy and their sound is unique,” said freshman Victoria Molinari.

My Dinosaur Life is an impressive album, showing how the band has grown. Though it seems as if Motion City Soundtrack is going against their old ways and copycatting others, this album is still a great listen.

Through a calm acoustic guitar and hand clapping in the background spread across 3 minutes, the song “Stand Too Close” is a great hit to play for the radio. Lyrically, the song sounds like a man who has had awkward relationships, which is similar to Weezer’s lead singer, Rivers Cuomo’s writing style. Which is also awkward and nerd like.

With lyrics like “I fell asleep watching Veronica Mars again” and the verses where Justin sings about his life after his life changing break up, “I’m taking an online course. I’m learning to speak Japanese!” the song “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” is also another song that sounds similar to Weezer’s. The only difference is that this song has more dark undertones, and Justin’s voice sounds like he’s crying because he wants to get the girl back.

Though a remarkable album, there were a few songs that felt as if they didn’t belong. One of them is “Pulp Fiction”. The chorus of the song sounds like one huge fragment sentence.

“It’s like a bad dream, something from the back of a magazine. Black and white and cheaply put together like a slasher film. Torn in opposite directions, the plot sucks but the killings are gorgeous.”

The deluxe version of My Dinosaur Life, bought on iTunes, includes acoustic versions of “A Life Less Ordinary”, “Pulp Fiction”, “Worker Bee”, and “Disappear”. There is also a bonus track “So Long Farewell” which is alright, but is very drony due to repeating lyrics throughout the song and has a slow acoustic guitar as the main instrument.

Justin’s voice in the song and the single guitar being used, sound haunting, for a song that already sounds dark with the original track.

As a whole, the album is catchy rock, with a flavor of punk, pop and sensitive lyrics. For sure, this is Motion City Soundtrack’s best work to date.

One of the bands that competed in the concert was “West of Dennis,” which included junior Peter Grancio. Peter’s band played a set of original songs in twenty minutes and got a great response from the audience with much cheering and singing, which included many students who came out to support Peter and his band.

Peter and his band have played several shows on and off the island, a common spot being “The Cup,” on Staten Island. His band is fairly well known and they have already started to record some of their songs.

“Being the center of attention in a room is nothing like the thrill of being the center of attention on stage,” said Peter

Overall, all of the bands received a pretty good vibe from the audience. The winner of the night was Behold! The bitter truth and they chose 16 hours of recording time other than the cash prize.

“There is nothing like being on stage and sharing your music with so many people. Our band has come such a long way in so little time and winning this concert gave us more hope that one day soon we’ll be signed and have our albums out in stores,” said vocalist of Behold! The Bitter Truth, Joseph Morreale.

Some other bands that performed were Behold! The Bitter Truth, Waste Deep in Flesh, Texas in July, Zero Affiliation,Here Goes Nothing,and many other bands from around the country.

Fans and critics have already began to gossip and buzz about the new release. A good amount of the songs on the CD had already been available, and the general public seems to have gotten their hands on them… but who could blame them?

The band has been recording this album since 2008. It’s been a good 5 years since the release of “Demon Days”, and the listeners are restless.

“I heard about the album a really long time ago, and got super excited for it because I loved Demon Days,” said freshman Travis Dove.

However, not everyone shares the same opinion. Some people could care less about the release. Most people can admit to have never hearing of the artists, or having just heard singles featured around the internet and radio.

Those who have already experienced the oldies but goodies have built up their expectations of the new album, while others can only imagine the outcome of this album.

“I haven’t listened to the Gorillaz in a while, so I don’t really care about the upcoming album,” said sophomore Victoria Heshme.

It’s hard to deny that in the past years the Gorillaz have impacted pop culture, good and bad. They’ve been influenced, and influenced others.

Because of the international buzz about the Gorillaz, a webchat was hosted for the fans to ask the Gorillaz questions. In the chat, Russell Hobbs, drums and percussion, admits “there’s nothing wrong with having influences – that’s how everyone starts.”

Like most bands, they’ve formed their own opinion of the state of music today. When asked in an interview by Smash Hits about the state of “pop” today, Hobbs says, “There has always been whack music made for kiddies parties with no other aim in mind than to make a fast buck for soulless record companies, now ‘ain’t any different from any other time.”

Pop culture obviously has good and bad influence on any band. It just so happens that the Gorillaz have geared away from pop, as Hobbs states very clearly, and they’ve left their mark on the music world.