Vivre sa Vie: One of the great existential films of all time. After all, the title translates to “My Life to Live.” It’s my personal favorite from filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. Godard brings a lot of his typical sixties- style to this film. He brings the same Brechtian distancing to the film through the use of intertitles describing what the “chapter” of the film is about, and  jump cuts.  Characters are shot from behind when they are talking, are strongly backlit, and talk into the camera sometimes. Anna Karina gives one of her best performances in this film and it has one of my favorite film scenes of all time in it– the “shootout scene.”  Don’t miss it!

Tokyo Story: When it comes to family-drama, can you think of one film even close to this? From the master of the family-drama, Yasujirô Ozu, we get a tour de force Japanese masterpiece that never leaves us. Ozu shows us the depth of simplicity through both story and style. He breaks our hearts with the simple plot of parents who come to visit their kids and end up connecting with their daughter in-law instead. With the frequent breaking of the 180 degree rule and the camera only moving once the whole movie, we are totally sucked into such a simple plot.

A Clockwork Orange: Who hasn’t seen this Stanley Kubrick classic? It is Kubrick’s finest, in my opinion. Every time I watch this film, I think about it for days afterwards. It’s the best critique of utilitarian philosophy to date. Kubrick creates a science fiction world like no other, and it is arguably the most well directed film of all time. Malcolm McDowell brings one of the greatest film characters of all time to life in an unforgettable way. My favorite film narration ever. A must see!

Taxi Driver: The best character study of all time. Martin Scorsese makes us see the world through the lens of Travis Bickle. He forces us to relate with this crazy man until the very end when we are deceived by his actions. Robert De Niro brings this character to life with his best performance to date and one of the best acting performances ever, in general. Between the brilliant character study, Robert De Niro’s performance, Bernard Herrmann’s brilliant score, and Martin Scorsese’s brilliant directing, this film is a classic that is surely never to be forgotten.

The 400 Blows: Without hesitation the best coming of age film of all time. This is really the film that launched the French New Wave. François Truffaut changed the face of cinema over the corse of his career but this is really the one that changed it the most. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the movie is that it predicted the May 1968 student riots in France. In the beginning of the film the teacher explodes at the kids because of all the graffiti on the walls, their disruptive behavior, etc.  He yells, “What will France be like in 10 years!?” It is a largely autobiographical account of Truffaut’s childhood. From the masterful camerawork inspired by Jean Renoir, to the location shooting inspired by Italian Neorealism, to Jean-Pierre Leaud’s magnificent performance, this film is absolutely beautiful and unforgettable. A universally relatable classic that should be seen by everyone.

8 ½: The film that solidified Federico Fellini’s break from the Italian neorealist movement. The film the began Fellini’s surrealist phase. This phase notoriously began because Fellini had done LSD, which completely changed his life, while shooting La Dolce Vita. Fellini develops the main character through showing us his dreams. This is one of Fellini’s most autobiographical films, and it is his masterpiece. My second favorite Nina Rota score after The Godfather and my favorite film from my favorite director!

La Dolce Vita: Fellini’s critique of celebrity life and the press. The word “paparazzi” actually comes from this movie. The title translates to “The Sweet Life.” It also is a commentary on the seven deadly sins. The movie takes place over seven days in the seven hills of Rome. It is the first collaboration between Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni, one of the great actor-director partnerships of all time. It has one of the best film scenes of all time in it: the “Trevi Fountain scene”. Yet another timeless score from Nina Rota, one of the best performances ever from one of the best actors ever; Marcello Mastroianni, and one of the most well directed films ever from Federico Fellini.

The Seventh Seal: One of the masterpieces of foreign cinema. From one of my favorite directors of all time: Ingmar Bergman. The best existential film of all time in my opinion. The best words to describe this film would be slow, monochrome, and mystical. Legendary actor Max von Sydow brings one of the best movie characters ever alive in his best performance to date. Ingmar Bergman is the best director to ever deal with existential themes.

There Will Be Blood: My favorite film of the 21st century. Daniel Day-Lewis gives the best acting performance of all time in this film, and it stands as Paul Thomas Anderson’s best film. You can tell that he is aging from watching this and his older films. He keeps some stylistic trademarks such as the constantly moving camera, the extremely loud music, and exploring themes of family. What changes is that rather than the very fast camera, the camera rather moves much slower and the shots are very carefully composed, and the pacing is slower and is much more detailed. The film is an examination of capitalism and greed that came out at the perfect time- the beginning of the Great Recession. Surely to be a classic in the future.

Apocalypse Now: Francis Ford Coppolas best film, even better than The Godfather. He shows us the horrors of war in a way that no film has before and no film ever will again. My favorite film opening of all time. The film features some of the best editing I have ever seen. It is edited so that it will show our main character and what he is looking at, at the same time. Shots will open with what he is looking at and half of the screen will dim and we will see our lead character’s reaction. Starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, Harrison Ford and more, it has one of the greatest casts of all time.

12-year-old Ananya Vinay has just become the champion of the 90th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, marking the first time since 2013 the competition did not end in a tie.

Her winning word was “marocain,” which refers to a dress fabric of ribbed crepe. In second place was eighth grader Rohan Rajeev, who misspelled the word “marram” (a type of beach grass) and lost out on his last chance to win the National Bee.

Ananya, who hails from Fresno, California, is the 13th consecutive Indian-American winner. This year, the bee added a tiebreaker challenge which made Rohan and Ananya battle it out for up to 25 rounds. Ananya won on the 21st. “It was interesting to go back-and-forth for so many rounds,” she said.

Ananya Vinay, 12, from Fresno, Calif., holds the trophy after being declared the winner of the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday, June 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Ananya had clearly spent a rigorous amount of time studying and preparing, as she never looked fazed by any of her 35 words, which included “zeaxanthin,” “wayzgoose,” and “gifblaar.” “I knew them all,” she said. She didn’t look surprised by her victory until her family ran up to the stage to hug her, prompting a smile. She later took time to comfort Rohan on his loss.

She won a $40,000 prize and plans to split it with her seven-year-old brother, and save her share to pay for her college education.

Ananya was the youngest finalist. The youngest competitor this year was six-year-old Edith Fuller, who was also the youngest person to ever compete in the bee. She was knocked out in one of the earlier rounds because she did not score high enough on the written test.

How much sleep did you get last night? Five hours? Eight? Twelve? Chances are, if you’re a teen who goes to a public middle or high school, you’re not getting enough.

Sleep is a very important function in everyone’s lives, just as much as food, air, and water. Not getting enough of it can cause serious problems. People who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to become overweight, not engage in daily physical activity, suffer from depressive symptoms, use stimulants such as caffeine and alcohol, and perform poorly in school. If that’s not enough, sleep deprivation has also been attributed to about 100,000 traffic crashes per year in the U.S., and lapses in attention, of which sleep deprivation is a major cause, are attributed to one million crashes per year — that’s one sixth of all traffic crashes per year in the U.S. This is especially magnified in adolescents.

Adolescents are different from children and adults with their circadian rhythms, or sleep cycles. Adolescence is a major stage of development, so the body needs, on average, about two hours more sleep than children and adults. In addition, the secretion of melatonin, the hormone which controls sleep, begins on average two hours later than in adults and children. The U.S. public school systems only add to the trouble.

According to the most recent Schools and Staffing Survey, which is conducted by the U.S. Department of Education every few years to provide data on the condition of elementary, middle, and high school education throughout the country, only 17.7% of middle and high schools of the 39,700 surveyed, start after 8:30 a.m., which is the start time the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urges schools to have in order to improve the health, safety, and academic performance of students. The countrywide average start time is 8:03. Only two states have average start times after 8:30, those being North Dakota at 8:31 and Alaska at 8:33. The even worse part is how early these start times get: 38.6% of schools start before 8:00, and 6.7% start before 7:30. Louisiana holds the earliest average start time, at 7:40.

A school boy sleeping at his desk.

Of an estimated 26.3 million students enrolled in public middle and high schools, the amount that have gotten enough sleep has remained at 31% since 2007, the first year that the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey included a question about it. The amount of sleep defined to be “sufficient” is 8.5 to 9.5 hours by the AAP, and eight to ten hours by the National Sleep Foundation.

Sleep is a very important aspect of life, and schools only make it more difficult for teens to get the necessary amount of sleep in order to function during daily life. Shifting school start times to even just a half hour later would benefit everyone’s health drastically. So, the next time you wake up miserably for school at 6 a.m., just know that it shouldn’t have to be the case.

Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6430a1.htm https://sleepfoundation.org/sites/default/files/sleep_and_teens_report1.pdf

North Korea has always made threats against the USA and the western way of life; lately however, things are getting much scarier. Recent missile tests proved they have the capability to reach the USA with ground-based missiles. There have been a lot of failed tests coming from the north lately, either failure to launch, missiles disintegrating mid-air, or something else. This led North Korean officials to believe that the USA was sabotaging them. The most recent test, however, proves a different point. North Korea is well on its way to developing nuclear warheads capable of taking out American cities. With a trajectory that was vertical, the newly tested missile reached an altitude of approximately 1,300 miles, estimated to reach 3,000 miles with a horizontal trajectory. With the approximate trajectory of 3,000 miles, and the US military base in Guam only 2,200 miles away, many US officials are on high alert, ready for anything.

Clash Of Rulers

Many speculate that the test was to see how high they could get a missile to go because the higher it goes, the faster and more violent the reentry is. This is related to a ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) warhead and while it was as intense as one, the duration was shorter. The threat of North Korea having ICBM warheads that could reach the Continental United States is fairly scary to think about. They never had any weapons that were a major threat to the USA, but now with these new developments, there is a possibility of war within the next few years.

Recently when Trump was in Israel, he referred to a Palestinian deal as “crucial.” The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on since the 1940s and is one of the most discussed political conflicts to this day. The movement for a two-state solution has picked up much speed in recent years from people who are sick of all the fighting. There have been a few times where a two-state solution was almost reached.

In 1937 Britain proposed the first two-state solution. It became known as the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palestinian nation they proposed covered a small part of Jerusalem, so it was rejected by the Arab community of Palestine but was accepted by most of the Jewish leadership.

In 1947 the UN proposed a partition plan that proposed a three-way division. It put Jerusalem under international control. This was accepted by Jewish leadership but rejected by Palestinian leadership as they did not want any independent Jewish presence in the area.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War was over control of the disputed land. The war resulted in the fleeing or expulsion of 711,000 Palestinians, known as Nakba from Palestinians, from the state of Israel and the 1949 Armistice Agreements. The Agreement divided the land between Israeli and Arab states. Palestine was not one of these Arab states. These lines were around until 1967.

In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, also known as the “Six Days War,” the UN unanimously passed resolution 242. Resolution 242 called for Israeli withdrawal of the territories they occupied during the war. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was strongly opposed to resolution 242 because they said it did nothing to reduce the Palestinian refugee problem. This was an important moment in the peace process because it marked the beginning of Palestinian rights.

In 1974, 56 member states in the UN General Assembly proposed adding the “question of Palestine” to the Assembly’s agenda. In November of that year in a resolution the Assembly affirmed Palestinian rights including “right to self-determination without external interference”, “the right to national independence and sovereignty”, and the “right to return to their homes and property”.

The PLO began supporting a two-state solution on an interim basis in the late 1970s with Said Hammami. In the mid 1970s the UN Security Council called for a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 lines. This was rejected by the US because they think the borders should be negotiated directly by both parties.
In 1988 the Palestinians were finally given a state. The state still exists today, but it is very small and does not include a lot of the territories where many Palestinians live. Their declaration of independence directly mentioned the UN Partition Plan of 1947 and was endorsed by Israel. This has been interpreted as an Israeli endorsement of a two-state solution. A two-state solution seems to be coming closer and closer and could happen soon.

Episodes From Children’s Shows That Addressed Serious Issues
Show: Hey Arnold
Episode: Helga on the Couch
Aired: December 4, 1999
The plot:
The new school psychologist, Dr. Bliss, takes notice of Helga’s violent behavior and bullying towards her peers. She believes that her aggressive behavior might be hiding bigger issues underneath, so she calls Helga in for an appointment and with some prying, she gives in and goes to the appointment.
Helga leaves school, freaked out. When she gets home, her parents confront her because she’s recommended for therapy and her dad, Bob complains and says that this would’ve never happened to Olga, her sister.
It is in this appointment where we get insight as to why she behaves this way. She reveals a terribly sad picture of her family life. The episode shows flashbacks to her as a young child. Her parents play favorites and gives Helga minimal attention and praise, unlike the favoritism they show to her sister Olga. This episode shows with very painful accuracy, the effects of parental favoritism. On that note, Hey Arnold doesn’t get nearly enough credit for addressing the social issues that big city kids face.
Show: Doug
Episode: Doug’s Chubby Buddy
Aired: September 27, 1997
The plot:
It is very well known that both modern society and the media shows very unrealistic standards for what beauty is. To impressionable children and teens, this can be extremely problematic. In the show, Doug’s crush, Patty Mayonnaise, has always been portrayed as very skinny. She becomes convinced that she is fat after watching and worshipping a skinny teen TV star. A commercial for a dieting kit called “Waste Away” features the TV star and it becomes her main focal point.
She unhealthily diets and excessively exercises and when Doug confronts her coach with worry, he only shuts him down and explains that only athletes diet. Eventually, she stops eating altogether. After completing a long jump, she passes out and gets an explanation for the dangers of not moderating when dieting. Originally, at the end of the episode, there was supposed to be a short monologue by the actress playing Patty Mayonnaise explaining how serious eating disorders are and how to get help. That was later taken down and now there’s a long pause before the episode actually ends.
Show: That’s So Raven
Episode: True Colors
Aired: February 4, 2005
The plot: While racism is everywhere, few shows in the early 2000s cared to address this huge issue. At the time, a season three episode of That’s So Raven called True Colors tackled it in a very straight forward manner. The episode starts with Raven and Chelsea at a retail store doing an interview. Raven nails it while Chelsea does not do as well. Back at school, the friends are chatting and she finds out Chelsea got the job and she didn’t, and it confuses her since Raven did better than Chelsea. Raven has one of her visions and finds out the owner said to Chelsea that she doesn’t hire black people, leaving her distraught. She comes up with a plan and recruits a news station to catch the racist store manager. Chelsea wears a hat with a camera in it and catches the lady saying that she doesn’t hire black peoples to Chelsea.
These are just a few examples of very important episodes of from my childhood that have impacted me. Other people will have different lists and opinions but these are mine.

College is supposed to be a time where students make new friends, discover themselves, enjoy their new found independence, work to excel academically, and on occasion let loose and have fun. So what is your ideal night of fun? Is it being forced to eat an omelet made of vomit and then chugging a cup of vinegar? Or maybe you’re more into psychological torture, such as being stripped naked and ridiculed for insecurities others see in you? For some, this is a daily occurrence that lasts roughly eight weeks, sometimes even more. One would ask why someone would voluntarily participate in these barbaric acts. Many students join fraternities and sororities to make friends, attend social events, meet members of the opposite sex, and expand their network. Sadly, in Greek life on certain campuses, some are treated so horribly that these rites of passage can ultimately lead to death. On record, there have been hundreds upon hundreds of documented hazing incidents that date back to the 1800’s. According to studies, three out of ten students report that they’d be willing to do something illegal to join a particular group of students.

The most reported cases of hazing that ended up with either severe injuries or death included alcohol. Forced binge drinking leads to fatal consequences such as alcohol poisoning, choking on one’s vomit, seizures, and falls that cause hematoma. Another horrific example of a case where hazing was involved includes the elephant walk. The elephant walk is where a group of guys form a straight line and grab the genitals of the guy in back of them with one hand and put their thumb in the rectum of the guy in front of them. Sounds pretty demeaning and absurd, right? If you have a weak stomach then you will not survive pledging. A Dartmouth student claimed that in 2012, he and other pledges were forced to swim in a kiddie pool filled with human excrement, semen, and rotten food. Yum!

You’re probably wondering why the school and government don’t take action to discipline those accused of college hazing. Surely there should be some form of law to punish these cases of abuse, especially when some lead to death. Though many fraternities and sororities keep their actions low-key and hidden from the police, there are laws that illegalize hazing. According to the New York Hazing Law, “a person is guilty of hazing when in the course of another person’s initiation into or affiliation with any organization, he intentionally or recklessly engages in conduct which creates a substantial risk of physical injury to such other person or a third person and thereby causes such injury.” The most serious charge of manslaughter was given to eight Beta Theta Phi brothers at Penn State. Along with manslaughter, they were also charged with hazing, reckless endangerment of another person, and supplying alcohol to minors. The brothers were responsible for the death of sophomore Timothy Piazza, who died from multiple falls after having too many drinks. None of them called 911 after Piazza’s fall and it seemed as if the video surveillance from the Beta Theta Phi’s house was tampered with. This proves that dire injuries can happen to those who pledge fraternities and sororities. Thankfully, numerous cases of hazing have caused many colleges to either shut down the fraternity/sorority, establish strict rules, or ban greek life. Throughout history there have been countless hazing incidents, but now repercussions are finally being taken seriously and offenders are punished.