All posts by HPSH Plaid Line

Minnesotan winter activities and climate change

By: Gabriella Bell

Minnesota is most commonly recognized for its drastic weather changes, harsh summers and winters alike. It’s also known for its diverse range of winter activities such as hockey, skiing, ice fishing, and more. Although in order to partake in these recreational hobbies, the most important factor is for there to be cold enough weather, and most importantly snowfall. In Minnesota this would normally never be much of a problem, however as of recent years, data is demonstrating that climate change is having a severe impact on not only these winter sports, but also local wildlife as well as our environment.

According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, worldwide climate change is also leading to a warmer Minnesota. Their stats represent an increase in the daily minimum temperature of 7.3f in the northern regions of Minnesota, 6f in the central regions, and 4.9f in the southern regions (per data from 1895-2021).

Another major impact that climate change has is in our ice cover, with an observed 10-15 days less as of these past few years. With these changes, it is ultimately impacting Minnesota fish as well, considering they are losing necessary days of ice cover, which protect them from the harsh winters. With the lack of ice, it is also contributing to the inability to begin and prolong ice fishing, ice skating and other ice-related activities that many people participate in during our Minnesota winters. Along with this unpredictable ice cover, it’s affecting the amount of flooding that the state receives, as the ice forms and then melts soon after. It then continues to follow this repeating cycle throughout the winter months until late spring.

Another factor is the inconsistent snowfalls that have been recently scattered across the winters. One of Minnesota’s most notable aspects is their snow! Not only does this affect the ability to play certain winter sports such as skiing or snowmobiling, but it also impacts the enjoyment of participating in them as well.

Per stats from the EPA, carbon dioxide levels across the world have risen over 40% since the late 1700’s, which is what’s contributing to the immense amount of climate changes worldwide, as well as in Minnesota. Not only is this a serious issue which is affecting our environment, but Minnesota’s winters are progressively growing to be much shorter, warmer and unpredictable than ever before.

As a unified community I believe that we can make changes in our lives, even small ones, in order to begin to help the restoration and conservation of our Minnesota winters, as well as the environmental health of our world.

For more information, please visit:

Benefits of eating your fruits

By: Samson Belihu

Let’s talk about common fruits you’ve hopefully eaten before, but perhaps don’t know the benefits of.

First, you should eat your apples because they are rich in fiber, which can help reduce the risk of chronic diseases and improve the heart’s health. As they say, “An apple a day keeps the doctors” away.

A banana is high in potassium, vitamin B6, and vitamin C. Due to its carbohydrate content it also provides quick energy making them great for pre- or post-workout snacks. It contains dietary fiber, which helps in digestion, and it is said to contain tryptophan, which may help improve mood and reduce anxiety.

Oranges are rich in vitamin C, fibers and antioxidants like flavonoids. Vitamin C helps boost the immune system, which helps fight viruses. Antioxidants help fight free radicals, and reduce skin damage, so if you’re trying to find a natural remedy to heal your skin it is suggested that using oranges can help with the healing.

Now, pineapples are also rich in vitamin C just like orange, but it also has manganese, and bromelain. Manganese helps the body form connective tissue, bones, and blood clotting while bromelain may reduce swelling, bruising, healing time, and pain after surgery and physical injuries.

Watermelon, which is high in vitamin A and C, and contains citrulline, is also a good fruit to eat. Fun fact: The name citrulline comes from Citrullus vulgaris, the Latin term for watermelon. Watermelon is composed of 92% water, making it excellent for hydration.

In the end, you should at least try to incorporate some of these fruits into your diet, as they have numerous health benefits to offer. Personally, I try to eat some apples, bananas, and oranges at least 4 times a week, and I think you should too.

For more information, please visit:

I think you should check them out and see what they have to offer.

The new ‘Life Series’ season: ‘Wild Life’

By: Julia Yang

Warning: this article will of course include spoilers for ‘Wild Life’

The ‘Life Series’ is back, and more chaotic than it’s ever been! This season, Grian brings back every member that has ever been in the series and throws them all for a loop!

‘Wild Life’ isn’t actually about animals, it’s about how everything in this series is going to be wild. Every session, a “wild card” will activate. Wild cards are the random ongoing mods, events, and/or changes. No player knows what the event is and will have to figure it out on their own— except Grian; Grian is the one who creates the wild cards. These wild cards will disappear in the next session, and a brand new one will occur. One other change is that all players start with 6 lives and red and yellow names will gain a life by killing dark green and yellow names.

Now that we have the gist of the season, let’s do a recap of sessions 1 and 2!

Session 1

In the first session, there was a change that everyone seemed to find super fun, and barely caused any deaths: players were able to change size! If someone were to crouch, they would shrink, if someone were to jump, they would grow, but only ever so slightly over time. Players could grow up to 5 blocks tall and shrink down to half a block.

The poor souls to die this session were Scar and Pearl. Funnily enough, they both died due to falling off the same mountain.

Scar died because he was in F5 mode facing himself (F5 changes a players POV) obscuring his view of what was in front of him, and was walking down the mountain. Sadly with his luck, he walks straight off the steep end and falls to his death. His death doesn’t even have anything to do with the wild card, that was literally just him.

Pearl on the other hand was shrunk down to half a block and was crouching overlooking a dangerous cavern. The mod for whatever reason thinks that players are bigger than they actually are in this circumstance and thinks she’s off of what she should be standing on, thus making her walk off the block, falling to her death.

No other deaths occur this session and I will be showing you the groups that were formed as well as each player’s death count:

Session 2

The next session happens, and the wild card is dramatically worse than the previous one. In this session there were 11 deaths. Things were bad.

The wild card this session was that players would be quickly and passively losing hunger and would need to eat anything they could, and I mean anything. Players for this session are able to eat blocks, flowers, buckets, armor, tools— anything they could pick up could go into their mouth. Even so, only a few select things would actually fill their hunger bar. For example, they could eat a grass block, but it may not fill up their hunger bar. The players had to scavenge for what would fill their hunger bar so that they didn’t die of starvation, which was a pretty hard thing to do considering the fact that this mod included every single item in the game.

Not only did they have to scavenge for what fed them, they also had to make sure that they didn’t eat anything with extreme consequences.

You see, the things they ate could also have potion effects. They could eat oak planks and get levitation, or maybe they’re a little more unfortunate and eat an iron shovel that poisons them.

A smaller more minor thing is that sometimes the things they ate would make weird and loud sound effects after consumption. There were no consequences for this.

To make things worse, what you ate that would hurt you, feed you, and benefit you would be re-rolled every, what I think is, 30 minutes. So, everything that you would have learned about your food would go to waste and you’d be back to square one. Most of the deaths this session were caused by lack of food; dying of starvation. A few of them, though, were caused by players and other unfortunate events.

Skizz, for example, ate some dirt that made him levitate up probably around 50 blocks in the air. He was over a river, so he wasn’t worried about dying or fall damage (landing in water cancels out fall damage), but he had an audience. There were 3 players watching him fly up and fall down, one of them being Tango. As Skizz was falling down into the river, Tango placed 3 dirt blocks underneath where Skizz would land and killed him. Because of this, Skizz’s group had then deemed Tango their number one enemy and would attempt to get him killed multiple times.

Tango, though, died later on due to his own mistakes. He gets word from Martyn that spruce leaves are a great current food source, so Tango headed over to a cluster of spruce trees and collected the leaves. Tango then opened his inventory to grab them and try them out, but a creeper came up right in front of him and exploded. He actually tried to shield the blast because he had a shield in his off-hand, but since the right mouse button is to eat and shield, he instead started eating what was in his hand.

Pearl was mining on her own earlier this session when she died to a creeper as well. Swimming in an underwater cave, a creeper landed right on top of her from a hole above, causing an immediate death. Just like Tango, she tried to shield, but instead consumed her diamond sword.

For the last creeper death of the session: Jimmy would die from a creeper whilst attempting to steal from the Swole Patrol (Ren and Martyn). Jimmy decided to trap Ren in his own base while Martyn was away and stole two sheep from their pen because they had stolen from him in the previous session. This would end horribly. As Jimmy is confidently walking away, speaking all cocky to Ren, a creeper came up to him and exploded both him and the stolen sheep.

Cleo died from a skeleton. As Cleo was coming home to the Final Girls, she was bombarded by a load of hostile mobs, one of them being a witch and another being the skeleton. The witch threw a potion and poisoned her, and at the same time she was taking arrow shots from the skeleton. The poison effect brought their health to half a heart, only then would the skeleton take the final shot and kill her, right beside their base.

For the final unique death of this session, Mumbo would die due to fall damage. Mumbo was testing out things to eat since the effects were just re-rolled, and ended up eating cobble slabs that brought him up 50 blocks. Levitating was of course an accident, unlike how Skizz was seemingly prepared, so there was no source of water nearby that he could get to quick enough. Mumbo fell down and died.

Those are all of the deaths that weren’t connected to starving (explaining all of the starvation deaths would take a while and usually they’re all the same), so here are the results for this session:

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‘Internet Hometown Hero’ music review

By: Persephone Pond

‘Internet Hometown Hero’ is an EP (extended play) written and produced by a small indie-pop artist MICO. Released on October 25th, the album includes 8 tracks, 3 of which were singles that were released on earlier dates. This article will tell you what you need to know about this album and artist.

MICO is an indie artist based in Toronto, Canada. He started making music early in his life, but blew up after releasing his debut single, “Who Do You Love” in the summer of 2019. He released his debut EP, ‘21st Century Heartbreak’ in 2020, and has released 4 EPs since, including ‘Internet Hometown Hero’.

With around 1.8 million streams since its release, ‘Internet Hometown Hero’ is MICO’s most successful EP yet. The tracks (in order) are: “TV”, “The one to fall”, “Idontwannaknowyou!”, “glhf<3”, “HOMESICK”, “Senses”, “Tears in your eyes”, and “What you’re not”.

3 tracks were released as singles before the full EP release. “glhf<3”, “HOMESICK”, and “Senses” were released in the order listed, having their releases staggered through September and early October to gain traction for the full EP . “Senses” is currently the top streamed song from the EP.

Though MICO tends to write songs about his own heartbreak, this EP is slightly different. The songs reflect on unrequited love from both perspectives in a relationship, giving a deep understanding of how empathy is important and how to look at a situation through someone else’s eyes. This message is consistent though many of the tracks.

Personally, I can’t pick my favorite track from the EP. Every song is a perfect mix of slow, emotional lyricism and faster, upbeat components. No matter what pace of music you’re looking for, this EP has it.

Overall, this EP showcases MICO’s incredible songwriting talent, singing range, and emotional power. I would highly recommend giving MICO a listen on any streaming platform.

Why 43 is the largest natural number that is not an original McNugget Number

By: Ian Larson

Did you know that 43 is the largest natural number that is not an original McNugget number?

McNugget numbers are based on the idea of Frobenius numbers AKA coin problems which were made by Ferdinand Georg Frobenius. These coin problems were to see what the maximum number of values that you can’t make with 2 values is, as if they are the values of coins. For example, if you had a coin worth 3 and a coin worth 5, you could make any number above 7.

McNugget numbers were introduced by Henri Picciotto in ‘Games Magazine’ in 1987. A McNugget number is any number of McNuggets you can order, and originally the McNuggets came in boxes of 6, 9, and 20. This meant that the largest number of McNuggets that you were
not able to get was 43 McNuggets. You can prove this by the fact that you are able to get 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49 McNuggets, and if you add boxes of 6 to any of these you are able to get any number greater than 43.

In modern day, you are actually able to get 43 McNuggets. In most locations in Europe and Asia, a box of 4 McNuggets was added to the menu. This made it so you were able to order 43 McNuggets. I was personally able to order 43 McNuggets, as is shown in the image for this article. With this 4 piece box, you are actually able to order any amount of McNuggets that is greater than 11. In fact if you are able to get McNuggets from one of these locations and Japan, which has their McNuggets in boxes of 5 and 15, you are able to order any amount greater than 7. It is likely that nobody has ever ordered 11 McNuggets because you have to order McNuggets from multiple countries.

McNugget numbers are a very interesting and weird math concept. I hope McNugget numbers were as interesting to you as they were to me.

Pumpkin bread recipe review

By: Norah Hoglund and Max Cahoon

Pumpkin bread is a great option for breakfast; it isn’t too hard to make and lasts throughout the week. This recipe is healthy and delicious. We tried out this recipe because we both love to bake things, we both love bread, and to see if it’s good enough to recommend to anyone. This recipe is from my mom, and we already know it tastes good because she makes it a lot.

Review

Taste

This bread has really good and savory flavors; you can taste the fresh pumpkin flavor and the hint of cinnamon in it from the first bite. The chocolate chips add a great texture, color, and taste to the bread allowing people who want it as a treat to enjoy it too.

The texture of the bread itself is crispy and flakey on the top but once you bite inside you feel the softness of the bread and the melted chocolate chips slice through your teeth like butter.

We know a lot of people that don’t enjoy the flavor of pumpkin but this recipe has a great pumpkin flavor mixed with all of its other ingredients which makes it even more delicious.

Also, for anyone worried about how unhealthy it may be and the calories, this recipe has 1 scoop of protein powder making it gym rat friendly and can help maximize your gains in the gym.

From the sweet but salty flavor and the crispy but soft texture, we rate this recipe a 9/10. Easily one of the best loafs of bread we have ever tried and highly recommend it to anyone that loves a sweet and salty treat or breakfast item.

Baking

This recipe is very forgiving and easy to make. It doesn’t matter what order you put the ingredients in, so you don’t have to worry about it. It takes less than 10 minutes to mix up, and you just have to let it bake for an hour. It is a very quick and easy recipe for the wintertime to have as a snack or breakfast or to have it anytime you want.

Some tips for this recipe would be if you like your bread soft all around we would recommend 55 minutes inside the oven, if you like a perfect in between we’d recommend 1 hour and 5 minutes, and if you like it very crispy we’d recommend 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Overall

This recipe is overall very very tasty and a really good recipe for pumpkin bread. It is easy to make and has healthy ingredients, especially as compared to some other recipes with a lot of sugar. We rate this recipe a 10/10.

Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 stick butter, soft
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 C coconut sugar
  • 1/2 C almond flour
  • 1 + 3/4 C flour
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 scoop protein powder (we use Equip, unflavored)
  • 1-2 t pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
  • 1/2 C chocolate chips, nuts, or raisins

Instructions

Blend all ingredients together, in any order. Stir in chocolate chips, nuts, and/or raisins. (We decided to use just chocolate chips; it’s completely up to you!)

Pour into a parchment-lined large loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour (see notes above about other baking times).

Test with a toothpick – may need 5 more minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Notes

This recipe also makes an EXCELLENT banana bread – just omit the pumpkin and add 3 soft, overripe bananas. We use 1 tsp vanilla instead of the pie spice, but many people like to keep the spice in – totally up to you!

Zentangle 2

By: Pwe Doh Gay

This is another picture of a zentangle but in a triangle shape. I liked how the other turned out, so I wanted to make another one. Zentangles are just a cool and simple thing to make. You can make any design, and it will look cool.

In this drawing, I first used a pencil to make all the patterns and shapes. Then I went over that with an ultra-fine point Sharpie. I then filled in some of the white spots with a fine-point Sharpie.

I really like how I filled in more of the white spots compared to my first zentangle. It makes the zentangle look a lot better and cooler. In this drawing, I like all the patterns I made; they all looked cool to me.

For my next picture, I don’t know what I will draw, but I will draw something.

Turkey Trot

By: Kara Fini

For many families the Turkey Trot is an annual Thanksgiving tradition. Usually held on Thanksgiving morning, people of all ages and running ability participate in local fun runs held all over the United States. The races differ in lengths, but the most common length today is a 5k.

The Turkey Trot originated in Buffalo, NY back in 1896. Only 6 people ran, all men, and they ran five miles in downtown Buffalo. Only 4 of them finished after one dropped out in the first two miles and the other couldn’t keep down Thanksgiving breakfast. They continued to hold this race as it gained more and more popularity over the next couple years. They thought it was a way to burn off calories before eating a bunch for Thanksgiving.

Every year since then, the Turkey Trot in Buffalo has been held. It reached cities like New Orleans in 1907, and Cincinnati in 1909. Even with the quick growth of the race, it wasn’t until 1972 that a woman raced the Buffalo Turkey Trot.

Now the Turkey Trot is a family fun run in many local neighborhoods and towns. From toddlers and babies in strollers to grandmas and grandpas, there are nearly 1 million people in the United States who run this fun run every year.

If you want to participate in the future, Highland Park hosts their own Turkey Trot that is 5k long. It costs around $35 for adults and $15 for kids under 17 to participate. The route starts and ends on the north side of Highland Catholic School. It goes south on Cleveland road and then turns to the west where you will run on River Road. Then you follow Highland Parkway back up to the start. Afterwards you are able to stop at Tiffany’s, a local restaurant, and have a free breakfast for participating.

For more information, please visit:

Movie review: ‘The Mist’ (2007)

By: Kumari Mia Wijetunge

*Warning: This review contains major spoilers for this movie.

Stephen King’s ‘The Mist’ was originally a book written in 1980 as part of his collection called ‘Dark Forces’. The movie was released in 2007, directed by Frank Darabont, it follows King’s original story where a mysterious mist, that coms with terrifying creatures, engulfs a small town. Darabont did change the ending giving a darker twist compared to the original story.

In Stephen’s book the ending was purposefully left open, creating a hunting sense of uncertainty. After escaping the grocery store where they had been hiding, David Drayton, his son Billy, and two other survivors, Amanda and Dan, drove through the mist, hoping to find a safe place free of deadly creatures. As they travel they run out of places to seek refuge and when they eventually pick up a faint word on the radio, “Hartford,” this gives them a feeling of hope that there might be a safer civilization somewhere. However, King leaves the reader with David’s final uncertain thought as they continue driving into the unknown. The fate of characters is unknown, creating a lingering sense of dread mixed with just the slightest possibility of survival.

In contrast, the 2007 movie ending is much darker. The protagonist David, and four other survivors run out of gas as they are in the mist. Believing there is no escape and fearing the worst if the creatures find them, David decides to kill the others including his son. Moments after he does this, the military arrives clearing the mist and saving everyone else. The twist is much more tragic, if David had just waited a little longer they would have all survived.

I personally really enjoyed this movie. Where the movie mostly takes place in the grocery store adds a really stressful and intense environment to the movie and really puts you on the edge of your seat. I would give ‘The Mist’ a 9/10.

You can watch ‘The Mist’ (rated R) on Amazon Prime, or rent it on other streaming services.

Sports schedule for: Dec 2-7

ATHLETIC EVENTS SCHEDULE: DECEMBER 2 – DECEMBER 7  
MONDAYDECEMBER 2 
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
  Boys Swimming Practice Starts 
TUESDAYDECEMBER 3
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
B: 4:15pm JV: 4:15pm V: 6:00pm Boys Basketball vs. Mounds ViewHOME
JV: 4:15pm V: 6:30pm Girls Hockey vs. HastingsHastings Civic Arena
WEDNESDAYDECEMBER 4
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
5:00pm Wrestling Triangular vs. Armstrong and HopkinsHOME
6:00pm Gymnastics Conference PreviewJohnson High School
THURSDAYDECEMBER 5
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
B: 4:15pm JV: 4:15pm V: 6:00pm Boys Basketball vs. Hill-MurrayHOME
FRIDAYDECEMBER 6
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
5:00pm Girls Basketball vs. WashingtonHOME
JV: 5:00pm V: 7:00pm Boys Hockey vs. BaldwinCharles M. Schulz  Highland Arena
JV: 5:00pm V: 7:00pm Girls Hockey vs. Moose LakePhalen Arena
6:00pm Gymnastics vs. South St. PaulHOME
SATURDAYDECEMBER 7
TIMEBUS TIMESEVENTLOCATION
9:15am 9:15am 11:00am Boys Basketball vs. SPAHOME
10:00am Wrestling InviteRush City High School