All posts by HPSH Plaid Line

Basketball, Sports

Be sure to watch the best of the best battle to win a NBA championship ‼️

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By Khadar Greer

The playoffs have been amazing so far with a lot of shocking upsets and endings that you never would’ve seen coming. Especially to East; the East was full of surprises.

I mean, look at how the Miami Heat eliminated the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks, in the semifinals with the reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo on that team.

Also, the Heat eliminated their rivalry team, the Indiana Pacers, in the first round with key players like Jimmy Butler, averaging 19.9 points per game in the playoffs, and and Bam Adebayo averaging 17.8 points per game.

They also have rookie Tyler Herro averaging 13.5 points per game in the playoffs and it’s only his rookie year⁉️ And, they have great role players coming off the bench.

At the time of this writing, the Eastern Conference Finals had the Heat with a 3-1 lead against the Boston Celtics (who had also been on an amazing path eliminating last year’s NBA champions, the Toronto Raptors, and what a fantastic battle they had).

The Celtics and Toronto Raptors went to game 7, with only one team coming out on top. The Celtics also eliminated their rivals the Philadelphia 76ers, which was a squashed series because the Celtics dominated that series 4-0.

The Celtics have some incredible talent too with 2 All Stars on this team: Jason Tatum, averaging 25.2 points per game, and Kemba Walker, averaging 19.9 points per games.

A lot of people thought that the Milwaukee Bucks we’re going to be winning this whole thing, or at least make it to the finals, but now since that’s out the picture, this series should be interesting.

Will the Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics 4-1 or will the Boston Celtics come back from a 3-1 lead to overcome the Miami Heat? Who Ya Got? 

*Note: We obviously know how that one played out now.

Now, let’s talk about the Western Conference with the Denver Nuggets shocking the world with defeating the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Nuggets came back from the Clippers having a 3-1 lead, and also came back from a 3-1 lead by the Utah Jazz. This left them as the only team to come back from a 1-3 deficit twice to win both series.

This is why NBA fans feel that the Nuggets are very underrated. It is a very crazy day to be the number 2 team in the Western Conference.

But now they have an even tougher challenge.

Right now (at the time of this writing) let’s see if they can come back from another 1-3  deficit. Though now, they’re playing the number one team in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers, and that team has LeBron James (the debatable greatest of all time everyone says that he’s a goat but it’s hard because he’s very debatable) and they also have five All Stars that have played the Lakers.

I mean, they even say LeBron is better than Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, so this series has to be tough, and and I’m pretty sure everyone’s going with the Los Angeles Lakers, but with the Nuggets being the underdogs, we can’t sleep on the Denver Nuggets. Especially with the intensity and energy they’ve been playing with so far in the playoffs. Can the Nuggets dethrone the Lakers, or will the Lakers beat them? For only one can advance to the finals: who you got?

*Note: The finals are now set, and it will be Heat vs. Lakers.

National, News, Science/Nature

California wildfires are on an all time high

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By: Aisha Dirie

With West Coast fires are at an all time high, and there is no doubt that climate change is to blame for these disasters. According to ‘Scientific American’, These fires have expanded across 1 million acres throughout the West Coast. Hundreds of people have lost their houses due to these fires, with California being a hotspot for COVID-19 currently, it’s not ideal. 

The causes for the fire is unknown but this has been happening for decades. There are some though that question whether climate change is to blame. “Jon Keeley, a senior scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey Western Ecological Research Center, argued that the study from Swain and others failed to show that hotter temperatures are driving wildfires.”

Although California has always been a hotspot of wildfires, it is not a surprise that these fires happen continuously, but this level of destruction has caused more people to wake up and look at the real life effects of climate change. 

With the wildfires, fire tornados have also erupted within those fires. Fire tornados happen when heat that is rising pulls in fire, dirt, ash, etc. and spirals into a tornado. “To have even one tornado within a fire is rare,” CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said. These are rare, and with West Coast (specifically California) fires rising and continuing to damage homes, fire tornados are happening more frequently.

According to the Los Angeles Times, “The Creek Fire, which started on September 4, has burned 291,426 acres in the Sierra National Forest and remains just 34% contained.” This is one of the fires that started on the West Coast that left many people trapped in their homes. 

All along the West Coast, people were evacuating homes in response to the fires polluting the air. There is no doubt that these fires are getting worse, and we need to take action. If you look at the fires over the years, they have gotten significantly worse, especially since 2018. Climate change is real, and it’s destroying our planet.

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Football, Sports

The NFL is back!

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By: Caden Ligman

On September 7, the Kansas City Chiefs played the Houston Texans to kick off the 2020 NFL season. Due to COVID-19 this season is unlike any other.

Most of the teams have decided that there will be no fans in attendance for their games this season, however there are a few exceptions. The Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Indianapolis Colts, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Dallas Cowboys will all allow between 2,500 and 17,000 fans to attend their games.

The NFL is also allowing individual players to opt out of this upcoming NFL season because of COVID-19. So far, a total of 66 players have already opted out with nearly half of the players who have opted out being linemen. Players who choose to opt out will be guaranteed $350,000 if they prove that they are high risk for getting the virus. Players who aren’t high risk are guaranteed $150,00.

There were a total of 16 games played week one of this year’s NFL season.

During the Vikings game against the Green Bay Packers, both teams chose to honor George Floyd in their own way. The Vikings did not sound their signature Gjallarhorn at the beginning of the game to honor Floyd. The Packers on the other hand, stayed in their locker room during the playing of the nation anthem.

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

What happened to the school lunches for SPPS?

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By: Elsie Olive

Most students have already noticed, but if you hadn’t already, the lunches served at St. Paul Public Schools have severely gone downhill between the 2018-2019 school year and this one.

In the years prior to the 2019-2020 school year, SPPS had provided a variety of nutritional foods. In fact, in 2013, TwinCities.com said SPPS lunches had gotten national attention for the incredible and healthy foods the schools were providing.

However if you look at the lunches served now, almost always the options are either some variant of chicken, hamburgers, gyros, or Italian dunkers, and every lunch is served with a side of fries.

So, what changed in the few months between these two school years?

Unfortunately, there is hardly any information that explains exactly what happened, but, by checking some of the links on the SPPS lunch menus page, there is one that takes us to Nutrislice.com. Here, at spps.nutrislice.com, it gives us a message which suggests that SPPS no longer uses Nutrislice as a means of supplying their lunches. The newest and working links on the SPPS page take us to SchoolCafé.com, where you can view current school lunch menus.

It could be that this is the only reason school lunches have decreased in value this much, but it is hard to believe that such a small change could completely offset the school’s menu. It is likely that there were some staff changes in the Nutritional Services and Wellness department of SPPS.

At this point, there isn’t much other information available, and the lack of information provided on the SPPS website about it’s staff members or exactly what changed between this school year and the last one doesn’t help with that.

However, it probably has much more to do with the relaxing of regulations for school-provided meals by the Trump Administration according to BusinessInsider.com. This particular article also mentions that the billions of dollars cut from the education budget has deeply affected the ability for schools to provide enough nutritional food for all of their students.

Advice/How To

Things to do this summer 

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By: La Dafia Dehaney

Summer is here and we have spent almost four months locked up inside the house. If you are looking for something to do, here are a few ideas: 

1. Go to a lake – Minnesota has the most lakes of any state. Some lakes you can visit are: Lake of the Isles (in Minneapolis), Mille Lacs Lake, Lake Minnetonka, Lake of the Woods, Leech Lake, Gull Lake, Rainy Lake, and Lake Vermilion (in Saint Louis County).

Lake of the Isles, in Minneapolis, is the quietest of all of the Minneapolis lakes, and also the most beautiful. Lake Vermilion, in Saint Louis County, is the fifth largest lake in northeastern Minnesota.

2. Take a road trip – Choose some states that are close to each other and tour them. Visit museums, tour buildings, and find good food to eat.

3. Get a job – You can always get a job to make some money to buy new things.

4. Try new foods – To make the best of the summer, you can drive around to new restaurants and try the food and write about them.

5. Volunteer work – Minnesota has a lot of volunteer work. You can volunteer at: the Lead Global Affairs discussions, drive cancer patients to treatment, serve meals, become a JA volunteer, or volunteer for Music Teachers for Underprivileged Children.

6. Watch movies – Netflix and Disney+ have a lot of great new movies coming this summer so you can binge watch a couple of them.

7. Re-Decorate your room – Keep yourself busy by redecorating your room by adding new furniture, re-painting it, organizing your closet, or adding new carpets.

8. Have a sleepover – Nothing better than having friends by your side, so invite friends over, watch a couple of movies, eat snacks, and gossip a little.

Tech/Games

“Unturned” the free steam game, is it worth the download?

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By: Courtney Smith

I would definitely recommend this game for people looking for adventure and combat. Anyone
familiar with the game DayZ will find this similar but not as difficult. It can also be compared to a
game on Roblox named Apocalypse Rising.

The game modes are easy, medium, and hard. Those determine how many zombies there will be, how strong they are, how much supplies there will be, and other commodities. This game can be played in multiplayer or single player.

This review is based on the single player gameplay experience.

This game’s scene is set post zombie apocalypse, where NPCs are the main predators. These
coded zombies attack you and deal damage to your in-game character. There are many types
of zombies. There are firemen, police officers, farmers, mafia members, lumberjacks, campers,
and chefs.

Those zombies can also come in different forms. Sprinter zombies run on all fours, they are extremely fast, super difficult, and my least favorite! Some zombies crawl and some walk.

When a zombie is killed it may drop supplies, for example if it’s a farmer zombie, it can drop a straw hat or pitchfork.

There are multiple maps in which you can play on, this includes: Washington (home to the
Seattle Space Needle), Russia, Hawaii, and many more regions. This scene diversity makes the
game more interesting; you can find different structures and supplies. For example, in the
Russia map there are mafia houses and in Washington, the famous Space Needle.

Defeating a zombie will give you skill points. You can use skill points to upgrade your characters
expertise. The upgrades include: stamina/speed, attack speed/damage, agricultural skills, and
many more! I enjoy this because if you don’t have the equipment to protect yourself, you can
upgrade the character to fight, farm, and run better.

The object of the game is to explore and collect supplies to aid you in your travels. There is
clothing and backpacks which can be salvaged for their components, or used to increase the
player’s inventory. Weapons, camping gear, hunting equipment, and many more items are
found all over the areas.

You have a radiation bar on your screen, if it reaches zero your character slowly loses health, same with your thirst and hunger bars. To maintain health, you need to search for food! Food can lower your radiation bar if it’s damaged. Finding medicine is key to keep your radiation and health safe.

Structures can include houses, barns, stables, warehouses, apartments, pharmacies, hospitals,
fire departments, police stations, jails, military bases, and many more.

There is a lot to find in this game and to experience; you can even craft, repair, and build items.

My favorite part about this game is the diversity you find all around, it’s extremely creative with the environment.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Community’ review

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By Oliver Kelly

Community is a 2009 sitcom available on Netflix that centers around a group of college students in a study group in community college. It’s quite funny, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to laugh.

Community starts out as cliche as it gets. You have predictable character arcs, like the handsome jerk, the rebel, and the cooky old man, but through time, their character development becomes unique and interesting to watch. The quote on quote “handsome jerk,” a character called Jeff Winger, is a former lawyer who doesn’t care about anyone, but over the course of the show he slowly comes to care for the people around him.

This show was created by Dan Harmon, so naturally it is pretty wacky. Nothing is off the table for the students at Greendale Community College. Weird events happen all the time, and on multiple occasions the main characters play paintball on school grounds. There’s even a side plot about Troy Barnes, one of the main characters, deciding if he should attend the evil air conditioning repair school, which goes on and off for multiple seasons.

I think my favorite character would have to be Abed, whose dream is to make movies, and who spends all of his time making movie references and being weird. One of the running jokes of the series is how Abed pretends his entire life is a movie, so he does all sorts of fourth wall breaking and calls out setups for cliches.

However, this show is not without its flaws. It’s supposed to last four seasons because that’s how many years it takes to complete college, but for some reason it returns for two more simply because the writers thought it should be longer. They do this by making Jeff a law teacher after his lawyer business failed, which makes enough sense, but the last two seasons are a severe drop in quality. Trust me, if you want to watch this series, you are not missing anything if you just don’t watch the final two seasons. They are really not worth it.

My final rating for this show is an 8/10.

Movies/TV/Theaters

Phase Four of Marvel

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By: Zhara Christopher

Ever since Endgame many Marvel fans have wondered what’s in store for Marvel. Lucky for us, Disney has provided us with a loose timeline for phase four.

In 2019, Disney released Disney+, a streaming service for all things Disney, National Geographic, Star Wars, Pixar, and of course Marvel.

During that time, Disney has released their plans for multiple Marvel TV series that will come out in the next three years. This will include:

  • The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a mini-series bringing back Captain America: Civil War villain, Helmut Zemo. This will be released in fall 2020.
  • A Loki mini-series, which will pick up after the events of Endgame, coming out in 2021.
  • Scarlet Witch will also be getting a show called WandaVision where Wanda and Vision live in a typical classic sitcom where everything is not what it seems. This will be released sometime in 2020.
  • Next title is, Marvels What If… a show about the alternate universe of the MCU; coming in summer 2021.
  • Other titles with dates not conferenced are Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight.

On the movie side of Marvel, they have released many tiles of movies coming out in Phase Four.

To start is, Black Widow, a movie about Natasha Romanoff confronting her history of being a spy and working to fix broken relationships she left in the past. This will be released November 6, 2020, or a different date due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Next year we will be seeing Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings, our first leading Asian superhero in the MCU. This will be released May 7, 2021.

We will also see The Eternals, a new group of Marvel superheroes following the events of Avengers Endgame. It follows a secret race of aliens that have to step out of the shadows and defeat their enemies “The Deviants.” This will be released February 12, 2020.

In 2022, Thor Love and Thunder is scheduled. Few details have been released, but we know it will come out February 12th of that year. The second movie coming out in 2022 will be Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness. Again not many details about the movie itself, but it will be coming out on March 25.

For more information, please go to: https://www.ocolly.com/lifestyle/turner-s-take-marvel-studio-s-phase-thoughts-and-predictions/article_9583e8b0-b2e6-11e9-a8e2-bbde93a8e44c.html

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile’ versus real life Ted Bundy

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By: Yanyoua Xiong

In 2019, the film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile came out about the famous serial killer from the 1970s, Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy was famous for killing young women he either seduced or lured in by playing inured. He was later convicted for several things which led to the death penalty. 

The film uses real life quotes and basically re-enacts Bundy’s whole life starting from when he gets caught the very first time for running a stop sign, twice. Obviously, there are details that can’t be thrown into the film, but it holds a lot of facts that were caught on camera.

Things like Bundy’s personal thoughts, his plans, and even his feelings were all put into the film. After my own personal research, I found that Bundy’s friends, attorneys, and prosecutors released recordings of Bundy explaining how and why he did things. They also released information about personal meetings they had with him that unfortunately couldn’t be recorded. The film captures these emotions well and it sometimes even feels like it’s truly Ted Bundy himself.

Something that interested me was during Bundy’s trials, women were stacked in the audience watching. They were scared, yet found an attraction to him. Every one of them watched his trials knowing he attacked only women, especially young women, yet they still went hoping to catch his attention.

Bundy’s attorney even noted that some women would even sneak her some notes and ask her to give them to Bundy. Bundy’s attorney wasn’t in the film but they put in the interviews of women that explained how they felt about Bundy. 

I personally enjoyed this movie even though there were some unsightly images, but it added to the realism of the film. I recommend this film to people who like thriller and mystery films. It was accurate and interesting, and really showcased Ted Bundy’s trials. 

COVID-19, Travel/Food

Shanghai Disneyland reopen

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By La Dafia Dehaney

Disneyland, in Shanghai, reopened back to the public on May 11, 2020. The SVP of Operations for Shanghai Disney Resorts, Andrew Bilstein, reported that “We have a very dedicated team of custodial cleaners that we’ve increased the number of those throughout the park that are constantly wiping down all the surfaces.”

To stay open, Disneyland is required to have only 24,000 people daily, the visitors are required to wear face masks (only costumed workers are the only ones not required to wear masks), the visitors should also practice social distancing, have their temperatures taken and have disinfectants. The park is covered with garbage cans dedicated solely for used face masks. 

Shanghai Disneyland parades have been canceled due to people always crowded at the sidewalk to watch them. The theatres there have also remained close.

To go on rides at Disney, they have placed purple social-distancing mats on the ground. To practice more social distancing Disney has decided to leave rows of seats empty on the rides, and the employees have been instructed to constantly disinfect ride vehicles and lap bars.

People who attend so far have been very respectful about the social distancing rules.

Due to the travel restrictions, only Shanghai residents, and the surrounding provinces, were allowed to go, but guests must book entry tickets online to avoid a large crowd. Also, they must show a green QR Shanghai health code, this helps the government track them if they are exposed and who they have been in contact with.

Shanghai Disneyland is the only one of the company’s parks to reopen, Disney is uncertain when they will reopen the other theme parks. But, Disney has signaled that Disneyworld in Florida might reopen next. The mall there, Disney Springs, will begin phased reopening on May 20.

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