Josie's Journey

Local merchant passes after donating “educational rides” to City Park.

Robert T. F. Ho, former owner of the Quick Stop Laundry recently passed away two days ago after he anonymously donated $11,000 to install playground equipment for local parks.

His wife Mrs. Ho said, “Robert always enjoyed watching the kids play in the park across the street. He felt sorry for the kids who had to wait to use the equipment, especially the little ones.” The compassionate businessman provided funds to install a “Hanging gate” and a “Super Slide” for toddlers to use and enjoy.

The first record of a late Jurassic pterosaur, described as the ‘flying dragon’ by The New York Post, was recently discovered in Chile by Osvaldo Rojas, the director of the Atacama Desert Museum of Natural History and Culture.

Previously, these kinds of remains from this period were only found in North America. 

Although there is no evidence of ‘fire breathing’ abilities, the discovery of this creature in the Atacama Desert of Chile helped scientists paint a bigger picture regarding Gondwana and how much land masses have moved over the past 150 million years.

According to the APP archeological journal, the remains consist of the left humerus, a possible dorsal vertebra, and the shaft of a wing phalanx all related to the same individual. Reuters described the creature to have sported wings with a pointed tail and large outward facing teeth. John Jamison of Outsider described the “dragon” to be similar to the commonly known pterodactyl.

The Atacama Desert, a vast barren dry-land once submerged under the Pacific Ocean, has become an increasingly popular area for paleontology excavation.

The discovery suggests that migration took place between North and South America during the time of Gondwana, the ancient supercontinent. Even with a sparse amount of materials, studies show that the traits of the remains classify within the ‘clade Rhamphorhynchinae’ pterosaurs. This includes pterosaurs from the Jurassic era which are located in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Originally, the reptile’s remains were discovered in 2009. Recent studies have revealed that the rhamphorhynchine pterosaur discovery is “the oldest known pterosaur found in Chile,” according to Alarcons documentation in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. It is also the first of its kind to appear in the supercontinent Gondwana which later formed the southern landmasses.

Even though there is further research to be done on ‘why’ they migrated, Jhonatan Alarcon, head scientist of investigation from the University of Chile says, “this shows the distribution of the animals in this group was wider than what was known up to now”. 

As technology progresses, researchers have a variety of ways to get answers about the past as well as get an idea for the future.

https://www.slashgear.com/flying-dragon-pterosaur-fossil-discovered-in-the-atacama-desert-14690744/

https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app66/app008052020.pdf

https://outsider.com/outdoors/flying-dragon-dinosaur-fossil-discovered-desert-scientists/

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/flying-dragon-dinosaur-roamed-southern-skies-too-scientists-say-2021-09-10/

https://nypost.com/2021/09/12/flying-dragon-fossil-discovered-in-chilean-desert/

On Thursday Sept. 9, President Biden declared that over 100 million Americans will be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine. This statement has caused an uproar amongst the working class and put pressure on the 80 million plus Americans eligible for the vaccine. Experts such as The American Hospital Association states that the requirements for the vaccine may lead to larger numbers of unemployment throughout the nation.

Ambivalently, Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees said that although the vaccines protect America’s workforce and the best way to end the pandemic, there may have to be some “bargaining” and “negotiation” within organizations because according to Kelley, “workers deserve a voice in their working conditions.” Although there is much skepticism about the efficiency of his new requirements and even the vaccine itself, Biden is persistent.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/09/09/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210909&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=158356646&segment_id=68518&user_id=7543fa28bc7ecd1c76a45358546584a9

Twenty-one year old Sha’Carri Richardson was favored to be the gold medalist for the Women’s 100 meter dash in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after her first place finish at the trials. Post Olympic trials, the United States Doping Agency announced that Richardson would not be allowed to perform in Tokyo due to a positive drug test for marijuana. According to her interview with NBC, Richardson explained that her consumption of THC was used as a coping mechanism due to recent news of her biological mothers passing. Richardson stated that the news sent her into an “emotional panic” and added that, “I didn’t know how to control my emotions or deal with my emotions during that time.”

Following the news of her suspension, Richardson tweeted “I am human”. Later apologizing to friends, family, and fans about the unfortunate news. According to the article, she explained that she doesn’t expect people to understand or sympathize with her situation. Richardson knows that people will criticize her marijuana use stating, “I just say, don’t judge me and I am human — I’m you, I just happen to run a little faster.” After Richardson’s indefinite suspension from the 100 meter dash, it was still possible for her to take part in the Women’s 4×100 relay. However, in a later article the World Anti-Doping Agency says that their deepest condolences are with Richardson, but they must maintain fairness to all athletes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/sports/olympics/shacarri-richardson-suspended-marijuana.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/07/06/shacarri-richardson-tokyo-olympics-relay/

Miller is starting her Sophomore year here at Morningside College. She chose Morningside because of the amazing campus and opportunities that are offered here. Originally, Miller is a small town girl who grew up in Rocksprings, Wyoming. Wyoming is a peculiar place with towering mountains and vast areas of just space. Although the scenery is gorgeous, a majority of the towns are settled in valleys or giant bowls of flat dessert ground leaving most of the population isolated from one another. However, Miller managed to escape the rugged mountains and travel east… to corn land (Iowa).

Here at Morningside she is majoring in Mass Communications as well as General Psychology. She chose these majors because she enjoys creative writing and mentioned that she wants to even write a book someday. Miller also enjoys photography and takes pictures of her friends as well as occasional sunset and landscape pictures on her free time.

Miller may be wicked with the camera and on the keyboard, but swimming is where her true colors show. Payton is a distance swimmer, meaning she swims events ranging anywhere from two hundred yards freestyle, to the mile freestyle swim. Now, if you watch the Olympics at home you may underestimate the true difficulty of sports like swimming because superhuman like Michael Phelps make it look easy. This sport requires good work ethic, dedication, and skill to perform and Payton has been doing so since she was 4 years old. She joined the Rocksprings Swim Club and worked her way up the food chain swimming for the middle school swim team and then for the girls high school team and continued to pursue her swimming career here at Morningside. After many enduring many relentless years of swimming practices and swimming meets Miller stated, “I believe swimming will always be a part of my life because of how many pool chemicals I’ve swallowed”.