Daily Archives: April 20, 2023

Getting To Know/History

Remembering the US Army’s failed digital camouflage pattern

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By: Hoaseng Thao

You may remember the US Army’s digital camo pattern known as the Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP), which, despite its name, was not a camo pattern that could be universally used anywhere. Despite the camouflage being ineffective anywhere around the globe, unless it was a modern urban environment, or your grandmother’s couch, it was able to remain in service from 2004-2019 before it was replaced by the more universal camouflage pattern known as the Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP).

In the year 2004, The US Army announced the adoption of this brand new digital camo pattern the Universal Camouflage Pattern, which had a sparklingly resemblance to the US Marine Corps’ own digital camouflage pattern known as MARPAT (Marine Pattern), which was actually a copy of the Canadian military’s own digital camouflage pattern known as CADPAT.

The reasoning behind the UCP’s adoption was to eliminate the need of having two separate camouflage patterns for desert and woodland environments. Before the adoption of the UCP, members of the US Army were wearing the famous M81 Woodland Camouflage Pattern for woodland environments, and for desert environments they wore the Desert Battle Dress Uniform (DBCU). To make a good universal camouflage, you would have to have it blend in both desert and woodland environments, but the UCP on the other hand, had a weird color palette of gray and greenish colors that did not blend in any environment the US army was currently fighting in.

The UCP saw combat in many wars but are most commonly associated with the 2003 Iraq War and the Afghanistan War (2001-2021), but something that may surprise you is that the camo saw service in many other nations such as: India, Serbia, and Malaysia.

In the year 2010, some US army soldiers were given the opportunity to wear a different camo pattern known as Multicam by the Crye Precision Company. The reasoning for this was because the US army wanted to replace the UCP for a better alternative. By 2015, they would announce the Operational Camo Pattern (OCP) to replace the old and ineffective UCP camouflage pattern.

Despite the ineffectiveness of UCP, it remained as an icon of American soldiers serving in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as the infamous photo of the “Grandma Couch”.

For more information about the UCP camo pattern, please visit this website:

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Super Mario Bro’s’ breaking the box office

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By: Joseph Nelson

Critics were very hesitant when it came to test screening for the new Mario movie that would hit theaters soon, giving it only a 54% Rotten Tomatoes score before the premiere ,which led to many moviegoers being cautious when buying tickets to see their favorite plumber characters. Little did the critics know how wrong they would be…

The film “Super Mario Bros” is an animated film based off of the 90’s game ‘Super Mario 64’ and its adaptations afterwards so many early Gen Z babies and late Millennials were very excited to finally see their favorite plumbers on the big screen. This showed with the first weekend of the movie being out with the movie making $377 million in the box offices world wide. To put into perspective, ‘Frozen 2’ made $358 million in its first weekend, the movie sequel that followed up from the song (“Let It Go”) that many kids sang for months after release.

Many were surprised by the statistics of moviegoers with 45% of the audience being from the ages of 18-34, which to many was a total shock, but to the people who know about the games and their community, they really didn’t bat an eye.

Many also came to see their favorite A-list actors in an animated movie, as this film hosted some of the biggest actors on the scene with Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Micheal Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach. The production did not waste any money on the casting which turned out to work great. Even after many concerns about the casting, many were pleasantly surprised by how well the actors played their roles.

Two weeks have passed now, and ‘Super Mario Bros’ have now passed as the leading movie in the box offices with many viewers going twice to see the brothers again. In fact, the movie only dropped 41% in sales after its record breaking weekend, which for many critics is unheard of as usually movies drop down on average 60% of its first opening week. I like to think that this goes to show that even critics can be surprised by the success of what many were to believe as a flop of a movie.

Advice/How To, Travel/Food

Best airlines to fly

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By: Sophie Johnson

The best airline that I have flown on is Delta. The reason why this one is the best is because the environment feels very clean and organized. I have had many good experiences with Delta in the past, and they have never let me down. I love that they have free entertainment like movies and games as well as their delicious Biscoff cookies.

Delta planes seem to always be on time and have everything under control. I feel very safe and comfortable on these flights and always find something good to watch on TV.

One airline that I do not love as much is Sun Country. I have had several bad experiences with Sun Country in the past, and it always makes me nervous to fly that airline now.

One of those experiences was when I got stranded in the Newark Airport in New Jersey for upwards of five hours because of a delay. Not only did they make us all wait that long, but after five hours of hoping to get home, they announced that we had to spend another night at a nearby hotel. They could have avoided such a long wait by rescheduling the flight earlier.

One positive thing about Sun Country is that they have the internet and a website with many TV shows and games to play to entertain yourself and others on the plane. Overall, Sun Country is not my favorite but it did have some factors that redeemed it.

The last airline is Southwest. I have flown on Southwest 2 times and both have been good. Both of these flights were on time and I had an enjoyable experience.

Although this airline does not provide televisions on the back of the headrests, I still had an above average time on the flights. I always get great views out the windows and have a fun trip in the plane.