One of the most exciting events of the fall is the World Series. This year, the teams playing for the win were the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Red Sox ended up winning the title with a score of 5-1, in game 5. This directly reflected their successful 11-3 playoff season.
There were many highlights in the playoffs. One highlight was in Game 1 when Eduardo Nunez hit a 3-run homerun. This homerun was just the start of success for the Red Sox for the rest of the World Series. Another highlight was Mitch Moorhead’s pinch-hit in the 7th inning of the 4th game. This helped place the Red Sox to a 3-1 lead against the Dodgers.
Another important part of the World Series was the tug of war for the MVP award between David Price and Steve Pearce. Both men played incredible games, both were deserving of the award. Pearce ended up winning the award because of his game 5 play where he hit 2 homeruns.
BOSTON, MA – OCTOBER 31: The Boston Red Sox World Series Trophies on display at Fenway Park before the Victory Parade around Boston on October 31, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images)
There was unexpected news during the week of October 29, when it was reported that a couple died while taking a selfie at Yosemite National Park. The couple’s bodies were discovered after other tourists encountered their empty camera equipment and reported the incident to the staff. It was reported that the park rangers had to use high-powered binoculars to find them.
The bodies were found about 800 ft below Taft Point, and the recovery operation required technical climbing, rappelling techniques, and a helicopter from the California Highway Patrol.
This couple had more than 10,000 Instagram followers. They documented their travels, and they had traveled all over Europe, including to Venice, the leaning tower of Pisa, and at the Vatican.
Yosemite Park spokespearn, Scott Gerdiman had stated that more 10 people have died at Yosemite Park this year.
The couple’s names, Meenakashi Moorthy and Vishnu Viswanath, were revealed a few days after their bodies were retrieved. Moorthy was considered to be a “quirky free spirit” and an “ardent adrenaline junkie” and she had described her husband Vishnu as being “travel obsessed.”
The couple were both born in Indian and had lived in United States for a few years. They attended the College of Engineering, in the Alappuzha district of India’s Kerala state, and graduated together in 2010. One of their professors, Nisha Kuruvilla, had said that both Moorthy and Viswanath were both very good students and had gotten married at a Hindu temple in Kerala in southern India about 4 years ago.
While it is unclear how the couple fell to their death, their social media posts support the conclusion that the couple was taking a selfie which caused the fall.
The couple were known to take dangerous and risky photos. For example, in one photo, Moorthy posed at the edge of the Grand Canyon in a Wonder Woman costume. They did this even though Moorthy had talked multiple times about how fatal and dangerous a selfie can be, and advise her followers to not take those risks.
In one of Moorthy posts, she wrote “A lot of us including yours truly is a fan of daredevilry attempts of standing at the edge of cliff–skyscrapers. But did you know that wind gust can be FATAL? Is our life worth one photo?”
On the day to their death, a few hours earlier, another couple hiked to Taft Point too and were able to snap a photo of Moorthy. It was the last photo of her before she died. Sean Mattheson, the man who took the photo of him and his wife said, “She[Moorthy] was very close to the edge, but it looked like she was enjoying herself. She gave me the willies. There aren’t any railings. I was not going to get that close to the edge. But she seemed comfortable. She didn’t seem like she was in distress or anything.”
A study, published in October, in TheJournal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, said 259 people died taking selfies between October 2011 to November 2017. It was reported that a few of the main causes of selfie deaths included: people drowning, being washed away by waves, falling from a boat, posing in front of a train, falling from high places, or taking pictures with dangerous animals.
School leaders at St. Thomas say the university is actively investigating a racist message allegedly left on a student’s door, in a dormitory, on Friday, October 19. The racist act happened when a first-year, African-American student, living in Brady Hall, found a message spray-painted on his door. The message included a racial slur and told him to “go home.”
“I was so mad I walked inside, grabbed an all-purpose cleaner, and just scrubbed it off,” he [said]. “I thought later I did not even take a picture of it. What a dummy. But I was so pissed off.”
This of course caused conflict around the entire school, and also in the neighborhood. The president of the university created a plan to counter racism on campus as hundreds of students and faculty members staged a sit in.
He said he has received an outpouring of support from students and faculty in recent days. After he considered transferring to another campus, he said, “I decided I am not going anywhere.”
The president’s “Action to suppress the racism” includes
Encouraging faculty to address race in the classroom
Launching an anti-hate campaign
Offering trauma resources focusing on students of color
Increasing the diversity of campus counselors
Providing anti bias training to all students, staff, and faculty this academic year
Bringing in an outside organization to assess the campus’ climate and diversity efforts
St. Thomas is still investigating the Brady Hall incident and is trying to address a problem that is happening all too often across the United States, in recent years.
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