Articles
🧔Chad🧔 has plans for world domination!?!?
By Beni Gordon
There is a strange new occurrence taking place on the campus of the Woodstock Day School. In general, on a given day, the campus is quiet, and serene. Everyone is friendly, and all of the kids know the teachers by their first names. However there is a more sinister, underlying dark secret. An informant who chooses to remain anonymous came to us and shared that Chad, the seemingly ordinary, normal, standard, everyday, common, typical history teacher, may have more up his sleeve than you might think. The anonymous witness shared the startling revelation with us at The Howler (Awooooo). According to our source, Chad Rosenbloom was spotted entering a secret lair within his classroom. This courageous witness decided to tail him, leading to an underground cave. Recounting the experience, they mentioned, 'He stood there, glancing around to make sure no one was looking, then pressed a button under a rock. Suddenly, an elevator emerged from the ground, and he stepped inside.' Curiosity got the better of our informant, who decided to try the button themselves. To their surprise, the elevator reappeared, and they followed suit. What unfolded was truly shocking. Chad, adorned in a crown and silver robe with golden swirls, was overseeing a legion of Chadians (people from Chad). Further investigation revealed that Chad is, in fact, the president of the Republic of Chad. It appears he harbors plans to conquer America from within. Keep a watchful eye; the unexpected may be closer than you think!"
OpenAI’s New Program Sora and How it Could Change the World:
By Beni Gordon
As you probably know, artificial intelligence (AI) has been recently trending all over the Internet with people generating images, songs and stories. While this media is impressive, it pales in comparison to the brand new AI tool, Sora. Sora is a software program developed by OpenAI, the same company behind the popular program ChatGPT. While Sora is not yet available to the public, OpenAI has released a few sample videos it has generated. The videos look like they were created by a professional photographer rather than some lines of code. The quality of the videos are immaculate, with realistic joint movement and aerodynamics. It’s safe to say that Sora is a breakthrough in AI technology. On the other hand, Sora may put many people out of their jobs. Sora is a self learning AI, which means that it will only improve from the stage it’s in right now. Rather than paying for a professional photographer or videographer, you could simply enter a prompt into a computer and get a similar or even better result, much quicker, much cheaper, and much more reliably than from a human. Another issue that may arise from Sora is the ability to easily create realistic videos of people to spread disinformation. For example, imagine someone creating a video of a politician saying something they didn’t actually say to displease voters or to reduce public support. The video would be so realistic that it would be exceedingly difficult to tell if it was fake or not. It would be especially damaging to young children and elderly people who may not be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what's not. Sora is an undeniably incredible tool. It is truly a testament to human achievement and the near infinite capabilities of artificial intelligence. Despite this, it is important to consider the negative implications Sora and AI in general could have on society. Many people could be put out of work, and AI can sometimes accidentally provide incorrect or biased information. But for now, let’s celebrate this colossal leap in technology and the advancement of the human race.
A Rubiks Cube and What it is
By Beni Gordon
A Rubiks Cube is probably something you've seen around, and probably played with. There are often many misconceptions about it. You might have heard that you can solve it with “only two moves” while in reality, the people who are trying to tell you how to solve it with two moves used those same two moves to scramble it and solve it. You also might have heard that it takes a high IQ or math to solve it, yet you don't need either of those things. The six-sided rainbow puzzle only needs 4 sets of moves to complete, and you can easily do it in around 3 minutes. An algorithm (in this case) is a set of moves that can put a piece in place or take a piece out. For example, an “R” move is when you turn the right face 90 degrees clockwise, while an “ R’ “ turns the same side counterclockwise. This goes for other moves like “U” (turn the top layer 90 degrees clockwise) and “F” (turn the face layer 90 degrees clockwise). There are variations of these moves, like if it is lowercase, you turn 2 layers and not 1. These are called wide moves (“r”,”f”,”u”). If you combine these moves, you can make an algorithm. The cube was created on May 19th 1974 by Ernő Rubik. Rubik created this to teach his architecture students to solve the structural problem of moving parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart. He was playing around with the cube and he scrambled it. He spent the next month creating a solution for it and created a series of algorithms, and wrote them down. He shared his work, and the Rubiks Cube was made. Since 1974, when it was released, competitions and other events have been held for this puzzle. You could join a competition and participate in speedsolving the cube, or you could just spectate and watch other people. Overall, speedcubing has been popularized by tv, articles, and social media in general. Since the invention of this twisty puzzle, more than 450 million of these have been sold worldwide. Next time you see this cube, just know that you could easily solve it. So pick it up, dust it off and learn.
Generation Alpha: the Era of the iPad Kid
The Internet is one of the most impactful inventions, rivaling the likes of the wheel and writing. The Internet has allowed constant global communication, enabling a myriad of opportunities for learning, business, creative expression, and much more. Due to the vastness of the Internet, many people will use it maliciously. Some examples include scam calls, malware, and disinformation. However, there is another form of malicious behavior that commonly goes under the radar: kids content. Kids content comes in many shapes and sizes, from animations, to toy reviews, to the abomination that is Skibidi Toilet. The common denominator between all of these videos is that kids, especially very young children, spend hours watching this content often dubbed “brain rot”. Brain rot negatively affects young children in many ways. Kid's content is often extremely addictive for young children, with its overly saturated color scheme and constant stimulation. Kids' brains naturally react more to stimulation. This is because childhood is the time where the brain has to learn vast quantities of information so the child can be prepared for the world. Brain rot content leads to large quantities of screen time. Especially in children under the age of 5, when the brain is sopping up as much information as possible, excessive screen time can lead to diminished language, literacy, and cognitive skills. When young children, especially those of elementary age, are exposed to large quantities of screen time, generally exceeding two hours, they fail to develop necessary social skills. Furthermore, viewing videos that provide no educational or developmental value on a daily basis promotes a sedentary lifestyle which can lead to childhood obesity. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), obesity has been proven to lead to health issues such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, many types of cancer, high triglycerides, mental health issues such as depression, and many other serious complications. Kid’s content almost always provides extreme amounts of constant stimulation, which is extremely negative for a child’s idea of the world. Research shows that when children are exposed to “boring” situations in which they receive low amounts of stimulation, they are able to develop planning and problem solving skills, as well as creativity and flexibility. These skills are of vital importance in the classroom and the adult world. People who lack these skills tend to be less effective at overcoming obstacles, entertaining themselves, thinking strategically, and innovating. Taking all of the previously mentioned information into account, it can be concluded that children should not be exposed to large amounts of screen time at a young age. Generation Alpha has seen a massive spike in time spent on screens during early childhood, and the chief culprit is kids' content.
By Aiden Wheeler-Rappe
WDS English Teacher Illiterate, also Secretly the God of Improv??
By Beni Gordon
You might not know this, but Xhosa Frazier, the seemingly innocent middle school English teacher, who resides in M2, is the god of improv. Born by leprechauns and raised in Ireland, he actually has an Irish accent, but because of his 1000 IQ, he can immediately absorb information around him with one glance or even just a second of listening. His American accent is not real, and is just an example of his improv Skills. The craziest part is that Xhosa CAN'T READ! Because of his unbelievably high IQ, and him being so good at improv, he can just listen to people speak. In his head he puts together sounds, and shapes words in his mind. He then recognizes them on paper, and pronounces them. In 2011, he won the championships for best improv of Ireland. Instead of going to Broadway or Hollywood to pursue a career as a comedian, he decided to lay low as an English teacher in the Hudson Valley. Don't mention any of this information to him, as we found out secretly that his childhood was very rough. When he was just one year old, his parents ate his favorite dessert, flan with melted tootsie rolls on top, which made him very angry. To this day Xhosa still uses this as an excuse as to why he never found success on Broadway, even after years of therapy he is still not recovered from the great dessert stealing of 1975. All of this being said, next time you see him, thank him for single handedly creating improv, and popularizing it as an artistic medium.
A God???
UK Government Attempted to Spy on its Citizens, but What Does This Mean?
Recently, the United Kingdom allegedly issued a request to Apple to add a backdoor to their encryption software. This backdoor would enable the UK government to secretly access encrypted data from users, allowing for extreme levels of surveillance. This is effectively the digital equivalent of the government placing hidden cameras around your house without your knowledge to collect information about you. But why does the UK government have this power? In 2016, the UK passed the Investigative Powers Act (IPA). The IPA decrees that the government can secretly order tech companies to relinquish protections on user data. It is likely that this act was used recently to order Apple to install the backdoor. Apple, however, refused this demand. As a result, Apple was forced to remove their Advanced Data Protection option from the devices of users in the UK. But what does this mean for those affected? Normally, with Advanced Data Protection, when a message is sent on an Apple device, it is end to end encrypted. In simple terms, the messages are turned into code that is complete gibberish unless one possesses a key to decode it. The only people that have access to this key are the sender and the recipient of the message; not even Apple has a key. The same thing applies to photos. However, due to the actions of the UK government, this normally ultra-safe data could be compromised. And this doesn’t just affect the UK. An order like this sets a new precedent worldwide, potentially encouraging other governments to request backdoor access to their citizens' data, thus further compromising privacy on a global scale.
By Aiden Wheeler-Rappe
TOOL's Fear Inoculum: Is it a good Album?
By Beni Gordon
TOOL (drummer Danny Carey, bassist Justin Chancellor, guitarist Adam Jones, and singer Maynard James Keenan) is known for their harsh and gritty sound, weird time signatures, lengthy songs, and being one of the greatest progressive metal bands aside from Dream Theater. Their most recent album was released in 2019, Titled as “Fear Inoculum”. The album starts off with “Fear Inoculum”. The intro for this song, like almost all TOOL songs, is 4 minutes long. The song is a great opening song. It is the hook for the album, and it solidly reestablished their sound of strange time signatures, lengthy songs, and constantly changing tempos. The second song (Pneuma) is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs on the album, and one of my favorite TOOL songs all together. This song’s feel is really firm and tight because of Danny’s brutal drumming and Adam’s great guitar intro at the start, and changes throughout the song with many classic TOOL tempo and time signature switches. The third song, “Litanie contre la Peur”, sounds like a bunch of vocoded synthesizers. The title of this song in English means “Litany against fear.” Litany is a repeating sequence of chants. This song leads into the next song, Invincible. Invincible has one of my favorite guitar intros on the album, and it is short and tight. It makes you want to keep listening. Song number 5 is another double song, meaning this song and the next are connected. The first song, “Legion Inoculant” makes a reference to the album’s title, saying “Bless this immunity”. An inoculum is a vaccine that gives you immunity against something. A “fear inoculum” would be a vaccine against fear. The second song, “Descending”, fades into another great guitar intro. The choruses are very aggressively laid back, and they feel sort of lifting. “Culling Voices”, the seventh song, is very ominous, and the vocals are very clear, but are up for interpretation, like all of the other lyrics on the album. Maynard keeps on repeating “don’t you dare point that at me.” I think that this song is about a person who has hallucinations, and this is ruining their relationships. Maynard says “heated altercations we’ve never had”, meaning that this person is being ostracized by the culling voices. The overall theme of the song is about someone who is hallucinating and paranoid. “Chocolate Chip Trip”, the eighth song, is one of the strangest on the album. It starts off with wind chime sounds and fades into a big drum solo (amazing work, Danny). The song has a constant repeating pattern of weird synthesizer noises. The second to last song on the album is the longest. It is called “7empest” and has a runtime of 15 minutes and 43 seconds. The intro consists of Danny’s drum triggers which are creating the marimba sound throughout the album. After the cool sounding intro, there is a very solid yet loose feeling. This is one of the heaviest songs on the album with its open sound and gritty guitar work. The song is like a big jam session between all of the band members. The last song, “Mockingbeat”, is a bunch of jungle noises that slowly get more distorted as the song goes on. In my unbiased opinion this album is a 7/10. Its overall feel is a constantly changing, up and down bundle of amazing progressive metal. If you have some time to spare, listening to this would be a good choice. While an hour and 30 minutes is a long time for an album, you will be surprised with their intricate songs and how complex some parts of their songs are, for example, Danny’s drum solo in Chocolate Chip Trip.
Tesla Stock Plummets Amidst Widespread Protest
By Aiden Wheeler-Rappe
Recently, numerous Tesla cars, dealerships, and charging stations have been vandalized or become victims of arson attacks. These attacks are just one of the newest effects of the backlash to Elon Musk’s powerful influence on the US government. After Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20, he issued numerous changes to the government. These included establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE is technically not an actual government agency, rather an advisory board part of the Executive Branch. DOGE has representatives that advise the President on budgeting. According to the branch’s head, Elon Musk, DOGE has saved over $1 billion dollars of government expenses by cutting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) contracts. In addition, DOGE has gained access to the Treasury Departments payment system. This system stores vast amounts of sensitive data about most Americans, including social security numbers and banking information. Furthermore, tens of thousands of federal employees have been laid off. These actions have sparked public outcry, leading to protests around the world. While many protests consist of organized marching, some people have chosen another method: instances of arson and gunfire attacks on Tesla cars, charging stations, and dealerships have erupted across the globe. These protests have brought international awareness to the criticism Musk and DOGE are facing. As a result, Tesla stock has plummeted a whopping 53% since its all-time high in December of last year. Recently, Tesla stock experienced a slight 5% rise, before being beaten back down shortly after. It is difficult to say whether or not the value will continue to drop.
"Above The Earth, Below The Sky": is it a Good Album?
By Beni Gordon
The band If These Trees Could Talk consists of guitarists Jeff Kalal, Cody Kelly, and Mike Socrates, bassist Tom Fihe, and drummer Zack Kelly. Their sound is instrumental post rock with a sprinkle of metal. Their 2009 album “Above The Earth, Below The Sky” greatly reflects this with huge crescendos, fast melody playing, and amazing drum rhythms. It’s impressive how they can make great songs without any lyrics. The first song, “From Roots to Needles” really makes you believe this. How would any lyrics fit in this song? The song firmly establishes itself as the hook for the album with a sad but ominous intro that leads into one of the biggest crescendos. The second song, “What’s in the Ground Belongs to You” pulls you right in with a very fast guitar intro. The choruses in this song feel like the band members are trying to play their best, but are also not trying at all (in a good way). The serenity of the chorus helps contrast between their fast guitar playing throughout the song. Almost all of the songs on this album are connected to each other. “What’s in the Ground Belongs to You” connects to “Terra Incognita,” which then connects to “Above the Earth,” and then “Below the Sky.” “Above the Earth” and "Below the Sky” have similar but different feels. Above the Earth is more relaxed and short, while Below the Sky is more fast paced and is one of the longest songs on the album, with a length of 7:20. “Below the Sky”, similarly to “From Roots to Needles”, has some insane crescendos. “The Sun is in the North” (the sixth song), takes you through some of the most complicated playing on all of the album. This isn’t just one specific instrument, it’s all of them combined. It’s like going through a spiderweb of professional musicianship. In my opinion, this is also one of the most metal-y songs on the album. Its choruses are rough, strong, and gritty. “The Sun is in the North” connects to “Thirty-Six Silos”, which is song number 7 out of the 10. This one features less drums in the first 2 minutes than all of the other songs on the album (other than the intermission songs). I think, in a way, they’re preparing you for an extremely fast guitar riff which sparks a short but driving chorus. When you’re not expecting it, drums come back in with another fast and loud chorus. “The Flames of Herostratus”, which is the eighth song on the album, feels quite happy and less driving than the other tracks for the intro. Just like the other tracks, it ascends into a big crescendo. The crescendo ends, and the song is reminiscent of being in a field on a sunny day.
