Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 10 (April 2010). Earthquakes By Casey (Cas*) Earthquake! Wait, what? March was a month full of earthquakes, and now you're telling me that April will be too? Not necessarily, even though the world was shaken up after Haiti, this past month, it still hasn't gotten the chance to settle down. It started in Chile. The first earthquake, 8.8 magnitude, hit February 27th. It was a massive earthquake, that caused Tsunamis to hit Hawaii and that...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 9 (March 2010). News that Affects You: February 2010 in Review By Jessie (Asylum) From entertainment to new health studies, our world is a rapidly changing one. But the news can be so boring! When you find yourself thinking "what a drag, the news is on again," never fear! If you don’t like the news, can’t be bothered with the paper, and would rather not spend your time on CNN's website, check out this section for synopses of news events from...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 9 (March 2010). Celebrating Women by Casey (Cas*) Every March, in the U.S., we celebrate women's history month. The international day for women's history also falls on the eighth of March. Why is women's history, and not men's, so important that it has its own month? Throughout history men have had more rights and acknowledgment than women. On the other hand, women were excluded from many history books and texts and weren't allowed to do many...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 8 (February 2010). January 2010 in Review By Jessie (Asylum) Despite its exciting name, we all know that news can be boring. Let’s face it; wading through websites knee-deep in articles on topics you don’t care about is a daunting task any day of the week (unless you like that sort of thing.) For those of you less inclined to dig up the stories on your own (and even those of you who enjoy the hunt), now you have nothing to worry about! Check...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 8 (February 2010). Get Thinking: World Thinking Day by Casey (Cas* ) February 22 is World Thinking Day. World Thinking Day may not be well known, but if you have ever been in Girl Guides or Girl Scouts, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't know, World Thinking Day is when different troops of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts gather together to work and learn as a community. World Thinking Day gives girls and young women around...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 8 (February 2010). Tragedy in Haiti Casey (Cas*) Haiti, the first independent nation in Latin America, still remains the poorest country in the western world. On January 12th, 2010, tragedy struck the island nation. At 4:52 p.m. local time Haiti was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.0Mw on the moment magnitude scale. The epicenter, 25km (16 miles) west of the capital and major port city Port-au-Prince, was near Léogâne. Although a 7.0Mw...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 7 (January 2010). How will you remember the 00s? (That's “two thousands'” or “oh oh zies”, if you like.) By Rob This year is a special one because it marks the start of a new decade, something that many of us have not seen before – or in the very least cannot remember much about. A lot of the time we hear elder people talking about what happened in a certain decade. The 70s brought us hippies, the 80s cheesy horror, the 90s pop bands,...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 7 (January 2010). Holocaust Memorial Day By Casey (Cas*) We see it even today, over sixty years later, in diaries, in newspaper articles, in memorials, and in novels. We see references to it in plays, in Broadway shows, in dances, and in songs. We talk to our grandparents and great-grandparents to hear their take on the situation happening at large in their own youth. Whether or not this terrifying situation, this Holocaust, as it is now...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 7 (January 2010). A Year in the Eyes of TeenHelp By Jessie (Asylum) The now-infamous “TeenHelp data loss” of December 2008 seems like ancient history to many of us. And to countless TeenHelp users it is something they have only heard about, mentioned in passing or found hidden on the TeenHelp History page, lost among happier landmarks, like reaching 5,000 members and new systems opening. But rewriting a decade of scripts and rules, rebuilding...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 6 (December 2009). The Holidays: From Creation to Commercialization By Katrina It's that time again! In 2009, the holidays are a time of waking up at wee hours of the morning to go shopped for loved ones, a time of resting from school or work and drinking eggnog or hot chocolate, a time of painting your nose red and dressing up like a reindeer to go door to door and collect donations for the Salvation Army, and a time of the sheer smiles...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 6 (December 2009). Activism Against AIDS by Stephanie (Konstantine) Each year, on the 1st December, World AIDS Day takes place. The aim of the day is to create a larger awareness of AIDS (Acquired immune deficiency syndrome) and the spread of the HIV infection which causes this, as well as attempting to raise money, tackle related prejudice and improve education upon the subject. It is traditional for the President of the United States to...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 6 (December 2009). Socialism by Casey (Cas*) Due to a misunderstanding of political parties and past events, there are currently a significant amount of negative opinions toward socialism. Many people wrongly relate socialism to National Socialism, commonly known as Nazism; although National Socialism might have had some socialist ideals, it is also mostly focused on race, socialist is not about race. By definition, socialism boils down to...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 5. (November 2009). Remembrance Day by Jessie Remembrance Day, or Poppy Day, is commonly observed on the 11th day of November to mark the day World War I ended ninety-one years ago, in 1918. On or near this day, nine nations memorialize the sacrifices of both civilians and members of the armed forces in times of war, with special events such as parades and moments of silence. On Remembrance Day many people wear paper poppies, small red...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 5 (November 2009). Obama's Nobel Peace Prize by Mai (sushi_error) With only eight months under his belt, the announcement of President Barack Obama being named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize recipient stirred praise and controversy around the globe on October 9th, 2009. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Obama was awarded the prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. In a...

Article featured in Avatar - Volume 3, Issue 4 (October 2009). Twenty-two days in October: The Beltway serial sniper by Jessie October 2, 2002. What would later be known as the largest manhunt in United States history began on a cool autumn day in Western Maryland. Barely one year after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, fear still ruled many of our lives. I was an eighth grade student and although I walked just one block to reach my school, I would be driven...