Story 9

Hockey has been played in some form or another for 100s of years and is thought to be one of the earliest sports in the world. It was invented by soldiers based in Canada and has carried it’s way through the United States. Because of it’s cold weather, Minnesota is one state that hockey is very popular in.

Seventeen-year-old Donovan Carson from Orono, MN is a student at North Central University in downtown Minneapolis who has a real passion for playing hockey. He has played hockey for the past 12 years and has learned a lot from playing the sport.

Carson said, “I started out playing hockey because two of my older siblings played hockey. I really looked up to my older brother Cameron and he was mainly the reason why I started playing in the first place.” He started playing hockey at the tender age of five. His parents never forced or pushed him to play hockey but once he saw Cameron start to love the sport, he wanted to do what his brother was doing.

“I thought playing hockey was just alright until I saw my first Minnesota Wild game when I was eight-years-old. Seeing the professionals glide across the ice really inspired me. They players were amazing and I wanted to be just like them. That’s when I began to love hockey,” Carson said. Like any sport, hockey takes strength and determination to stick through it. Carson looks up to the hockey players who worked hard to get to where they are. “Watching these professional players work hard at something that they loved encouraged me to find something that I loved to do so I could chase after it like these hockey players did. I was so motivated after seeing that game that I knew hockey was something that I wanted to do for life,” he said.

Carson played for the Orono Spartans at Orono High School. The team is currently placed in third in Wright County for hockey. Carson made the varsity hockey team as a freshman. “It was a real honor to make the varsity team. You have to be really good at hockey to make the team as a freshman and I worked so hard to make the team,” he said. “I got to be under the mentorship of these amazing high school seniors as a freshman. I had an advantage most of the junior varsity and C-team never got. Those seniors really encouraged me to pursue my dreams even more. It was awesome,” Carson said.

Darby Henderson was the greatest influence on Carson during his hockey years. “I loved Darby. He shared my same values with being a Christian and he was a great hockey player. He had everything,” he said.

Even though hockey can be dangerous, Carson kept on playing. He got his first concussion during his first varsity game of the season his freshman year. “I had the puck in the third period and this guy who was much bigger than I was hit me really hard and my head hit against the boards,” he said. Carson was benched for about a month from hockey with the injury. Even though the doctor’s wanted him to stay off the ice, Carson wanted to persevere and just play for the team.

During the summer, Carson liked to participate in a three-week intensive hockey camp that J Robinson holds down at the University of Minnesota. All day, every day you train in weight rooms and on the ice, building up your skill for hockey. “Those intensive hockey camps required a lot of hard work, but it was so worth it. It taught me a lot of discipline. Some days, the last thing I wanted to do was put on cold, sweaty hockey equipment at six in the morning but I did it anyways. Discipline is doing what you don’t want to do, when you don’t want to do it,” Carson said.

Carson said, “If there is anything I would want people to get from my experience with hockey is to go out there and pursue your dreams, no matter what. I want to make it to the NHL (National Hockey League) and there’s nothing that will stop me from pursuing that. If I fail sometimes along the way, I’ll pick myself up and try again.”

Senators Ask Facebook for Privacy Fixes

Four senators from the United States have recently asked Facebook to modify the new changes they introduced last week. It’s called “instant personalization” where it allows Facebook’s partner websites, like Pandora, gain access to personal information from its users.

Original Article:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/senators-ask-facebook-for-privacy-fixes/?ref=technology

Story 8

In a recent study of Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), students and faculty members at North Central University were asked a serious question, is HIV/AIDS a big threat to our country?

HIV and AIDS are a disease of the human immune system. It has caused many people to die all over the world and is the 4^th highest killer of people in the United States. It is contagious and is very easy to get it if you have certain contact with someone who has the disease. Any contact with contaminated blood and needles will give you a chance of contracting the disease. Sex and blood transfusions even pass it on to people. Infected mothers can give their children HIV/AIDS through pregnancy, childbirth, and even breast-feeding. HIV can develop into AIDS and can eventually kill you within 10 years of contracting the disease. Medication can prolong your life but they are expensive and hardly available to third world countries.

A total of 40 students and faculty members were interviewed and the results varied. Some people hardly knew about it and how deadly it really is. Some people knew all about it and had their opinions of the subject.

About 34% of the people interviewed said that HIV/AIDS were hardly a big deal and that people shouldn’t over-react about it. Sheila Nyakundi said, “No, It just has to do with the immune system so I don’t think it’s a big deal. I mean people aren't educated about it and that's why they make a huge deal of it.”

47% of the people interviews said that HIV/AIDS were a big deal and that people need to start doing something about the outbreak. Sarah Lundberg said, "I think it’s sad when people give it to their kids. I mean, its kind of a big deal, I don’t have it, but it’s a pretty big deal for other people." Andrew Peterson said, “People don’t realize how big of a deal HIV and AIDS are until they know someone who has suffered from it and have died from it. I think that there are either people who don’t know exactly what it is, or they’re too scared of getting the disease to do anything about it. Yes, we need to be careful and take precautions to not get it, but we need to step up and doing something to prevent more people from getting the disease.”

There were about 19% of the people interviewed who didn’t even know exactly what HIV and AIDS were. As Nyakundi said earlier, “People aren’t educated about it.” There were a few students that, when asked, were confused by the question. Jared Anderson said, “To be honest, I hear general things about HIV and AIDS all the time at school and stuff, but, I don’t exactly know what it is.”

So whether people think HIV/AIDS are a big threat to the United States or not, they need to be educated in all of the information so they can formulate an opinion and have a basic understanding of the disease.

In January, Google was hacked into and until recently, the extent of the theft has been a company secret. A person with knowledge of the investigation has now claimed that Google’s password system was attacked. While no g-mail user’s password has been stolen, they are still investigating the situation.

Original Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/technology/20google.html?ref=todayspaper

Story 7

Students at North Central University (NCU) have a wide variety of opinions when it comes to student-professor dating on campus.

Most of the neutral opinionated students didn’t care whether a professor dated a student or not because they knew that they personally wouldn’t date a teacher. Sarah Lundberg said, “Either way is fine, I’m not going to date a faculty member, so I don’t care.” Jaron Kissner had another reason for his neutral opinion. He said, “I think it depends on the ages of the teacher and the student. If the student is older or the teacher is younger, it shouldn’t matter. That’s why they have rules though, to make sure everyone has a safe learning experience.”

There were a few “No’s” in the poll at NCU. Most of the students who said “No” didn’t really have a reason why teachers shouldn’t date students. Donovan Carson said, “Nope, professors definitely shouldn’t date their students. It makes the classroom unsafe.”

For being a Christian university, it is interesting to find that so many students have such a huge difference in opinions. Surprisingly, there were more students for teachers dating students than there were against. “If a student wants to date a faculty member, then do it,” Michael Netherton said. Anacari Jankowski also said, “I think that if they keep the relationship outside of the classroom, it is fine.” Formerly known as “North Central Bible College”, Dan Lauder said that it was okay for students to date faculty members because around the university “it’s called ‘North Central Bridal College’ for a reason.”

New Microsoft Phones Aim at a Younger Crowd

Microsoft is coming out with two new cell phones aimed at 15- to 30-year-olds to serve their social networking. The Kin One and Kin Two, designed to compete against Apple’s iPhone, will be sold with Verizon Wireless in the United States.

Original Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/technology/13soft.html?ref=technology

MGMT

Sony Music Entertainment

555 Madison Ave, 10th Fl

New York, NY 10022-3211

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Columbia Records

Office phone (212) 833-4000

MGMT DEBUTS THEIR NEW ALBUM

“CONGRATULATIONS”

The album MGMT has been working on for the past two years will finally be released this Tuesday, April 13, 2010. “Congratulations” will feature nine tracks and all of the tracks are performed by Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden, who make up MGMT.

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Vital Signs- How Much Exercise Prevents Weight Gain?

Recently, researchers from Harvard set out to discover how much exercise women need to avoid gaining weight, as they grow older. They found that women of normal weight needed an hour of physical activity a day to avoid gaining more than five pounds over any three-day period.

Original Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06regi.html?ref=health

Enterprise Proposal

My proposal is to research other PSEO students at North Central University(NCU). I want to learn more about the PSEO program, how long it has been in existence, how many people have used the program, and how much the state has spent on it. I want to see how college life has affected them compared to high school. I want to see how challenging the classes really are to them compared to high school. I want to find out how the atmosphere of a university has changed them. I also want to find out what they like and dislike about the PSEO program. I will find out how many PSEO students attend NCU. I want to see what growth high school and college counselors see in PSEO students.