Special Time With Jo

Rulin Pederson is a living example of the classic rule “don’t judge a book by its cover”. At first glance, he is intimidating. He walks with intense confidence that not many people are used to encountering. He stands about six feet tall and holds his head high and chest out with his own kind of swagger, while still maintaining a professional attitude. On top of that, he has very short hair with an athletic build, as he takes physical fitness very seriously. What may take you by surprise is the fact that he is covered from chest to ankle in tattoos, each one telling a different story from his life.

Even though he is covered in ink like a book, he is not an easy man to read. Pederson explained that he lives his life with reason and purpose. “It is important to have rules. Things that keep you humble in life”. It’s clear that Mr. Pederson begins each day ready to take action. “I like to work out first thing in the morning. It helps me clear my head before I start my day”. Pederson has the title of Admissions Counselor at Morningside College, as well as being the Head Assistant Coach for the Morningside Wrestling team. Obviously, these are two very different jobs. 

As an Admissions Counselor, he invites excited new students to the school with open arms. Often times you can find him around campus with a smile on his face. He enjoys talking to students and faculty throughout the day while he is giving campus tours or promoting Morningside events. His main role, however, is to help new students get settled in as they begin their college careers. But as the workday comes to an end Pederson’s title changes to coach. 

“Coaching is what I’m really passionate about”. Things have started to go right since Coach Pederson started for the mustangs two years ago. Since he started, the team has been building quickly. The team won a GPAC conference title last year and qualified six wrestlers for the national tournament. The team has taken a strong liking to Coach Pederson. 

            “Rulin is a great coach because he takes the time to get to know each of us as a wrestler so that he can figure out what we really need to work on and get better at”, Cam Williams explained. Cam is a junior at Morningside and has been at the school since before Rulin began coaching, but he’s not the only one who feels this way. Phil Rasmussen is also a junior, and team captain for the wrestling team. “Rulin is the man. He works really well with Coach Stevenson because they look at wrestling in different ways… they are a great duo, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for the team”. 

            Pederson is doing his best to make an impact on the lives of the students and athletes that he works with every day. As relationships begin to form with these young aspiring adults, they seem to have a comfortability with him. Mr. Pederson is the beginning of a generation the bridges the gap between generations. The sky is the limit for this young professional. Whether as a coach or an admissions counselor Pederson has already begun to make a positive reputation for himself at Morningside College.       

Earlier today while people were enjoying a normal day at the mall, a large explosion occurred in the food court area leaving over 100 people injured, and two dead. No information has been found yet as to what caused the explosion but authorities are working to uncover the mystery.

There were multiple eyewitnesses but none of which seem to be sure what happened. “I was just enjoying my coffee on a stick when it all happened. It went down so fast that I wasn’t sure what was happening at first.” One student from Morningside College explained to reporters. “You don’t ever think about these things until you’re a part of it.”

Another witness had a bit of a different take on the situation. “It was very sudden and alarming. Everything seemed to be normal until it wasn’t. When I realized what had happened I rushed over to see if everyone was alright.” “I have never seen anything that gruesome before. I am just glad I was there to help.”

Captain Fuglsang of the MegaCity Police Dept. will be holding a press conference at 2:00 PM outside the mall with an update on the investigation.

The Midland Zoo seems a little more gloomy today after a beloved polar bears light has burnt out.

A 16-year-old polar bear known as Homer was found dead in his habitat this morning at around 7 AM. His cause of death is unknown, but it is believed that it was because of old age.

Head zoo veterinarian had this to say; “The zoo will perform a necropsy to try to determine the cause of death. The results will not be available for several weeks”. Polar Bears have been a key attraction of the zoo since it opened in 1985.

“We will do everything in our power to determine how this bear died. Animal welfare and preservation of species are our primary goals here at the zoo”. A quote from the Director of the Midland Zoo.

Students in the Philippines have found a way to convert poop from stray dogs into a very useful thing. These eighth-graders have decided to try and come up with a solution for one of the biggest problems that the Philippines have today. Their streets are overrun with hundreds if not thousands of stray dogs. One of the biggest problems that this brings is that the streets are littered with excrement. But these clever students found a way to make this problem useful.

This is a short article and easy to read, but if you don’t want to take the two minutes to read there is a short video explaining the project and what the students have decided to do. If you can get past the idea that it is, in fact, dog poop, you’ll be asking yourself why somebody hasn’t already come up with this creative and efficient project.

If you have never hunted before, or you don’t know anything about how it is done, it would be a good idea to read this story. In this article they tell the story of a man that tracked a deer for six years.

There are many things that go in to hunting, and a lot of people believe that it is just a bunch of red necks running around with guns shooting at innocent animals. But there is a sport to it that not many people get to see.

I like this article because it goes through what it really takes to hunt. Most people believe that hunting is simple. Something that does not take much work to succeed, just sit and wait.

The reality is that it takes a lot of time, patience, and in most cases skill. a good hunter spends time tracking the animal, setting up trail cams, and waiting for the right time to strike. Most often the best time to hunt is early in the morning as the sun comes up. This gives the hunter the most amount of daylight to find and shoot his target.

Link to the article: https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/west-virginia-hunter-17-point-buck-6-years

Coach Jacob Stevenson is a white man in his early 40’s at an above-average height at about 6′ 6″ and has a fit build. He is brimming with self-confidence and always holds his head high. When he speaks, he speaks loudly and clearly and never second-guesses himself. he has dark, short hair (around an inch long) with a cowlick in the front and I would describe it as “salt, and pepper”. He has a long face and a distinct jawline.

We talked this morning at the HPER Center. about muscle recovery and what I could be doing to better loosen up the tendons in my leg for a speedy recovery. He told me to apply icy hot throughout the day and to heat my leg before practices. He also brought in a muscle massager to break up and lactic acid that had built up.

We also talked about the upcoming assignments that I have due in my classes for next week and he asked me to send him a news assignment that I had done a few days back.

A Chicago man has built his very own Bat Mobile. There are so many cool things about this car including an accurate shade of black, a real jet engine, and he decided to make it the accurate representation of the 1989 Tim Burton Batman movie! This guy really put the time and effort to create a really cool and life-like throwback supercar. Now that I’ve successfully shown the fact that I’m a comic book fanatic, let’s get to the article itself.

This story id a short read (which is nice). The writer does a good job of keeping it simple and understandable to your average reader. It also does a nice job of finding new things to talk about instead of giving us a redundancy of information as we find in some news writings. and for those of you that don’t want to spend the time and energy to read the article they include a 3 1/2 minute video that goes into even further details about how the car got built and even hidden features that normal cars can most definitely not do.

I suggest that you give this one a read because not many people are doing things like this (unless theres a camera in their face). It even talks about some technologies that were used that most people have no clue how to use.

Link to the Bat Mobile: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/11/07/Chicago-area-man-builds-his-own-Batmobile/7671573142826/?sl=15

Computers may be faster than you, but they’ll never be as intelligent.

Recent attempts to build a supercomputer brain, show evidence that they’ll never compare to the real thing. Why? Experts say it’s because brains simply don’t work like computers. 

Researchers explain that a conscious person is aware of what they are thinking and have the ability to stop thinking of that thing whenever they decide. A computer does not have this ability. 

Some researchers firmly believe that simulating neuroscience with computers is the answer. However, there are many that believe it is impossible because consciousness is simply not computable. 

The researcher’s efforts are now being shifted to try to fully understand how our brain works. If this is accomplished scientists believe they will then be able to recreate the human brain as an artificially intelligent brain. 

There have been projects in the past, but no one has been able to come up with a conclusion to the problem. 

Beginning back in 2013 a multi-billion-dollar European research project is understood to have ultimately failed. 

However, recently Microsoft announced that they will be putting one billion dollars towards research to come up with a solution to better understand what is really going on in our heads.    

This one is a tear-jerker. This the story told by a woman who thought she had lost her husband in a war back in 1965, but he had different plans. She explains the emotions she was going through, struggling with the move to a new town, and how it was to raise her kids alone. This is the type of story that can make you feel encouraged if you’re having a rough day.

The article includes the full letter that her husband sent her to tell her that he was alive and well. It also goes through the entire interaction between her and the man who gave her the letter. It has its ups and downs but I highly recommend you take the time to read this article. The story itself is very well told by the woman. She explains in detail what she was feeling at each point in the story from extreme sadness to excitement and joy. Like I said before if you’re having a bad day, this just may turn it around if you have ten minutes to break and read this short true story.

Link to the Article: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/louise-harris-they-said-my-husband-was-dead-but-i-knew-he-was-alive

Australian Water Rats have learned how to eat an invasive species of poisonous toads without harming themselves. The intelligent rats have adapted by eating the heart and in-trails of the toads which is the only part of the toad that is not poisonous.

The toads are becoming a large problem because they have dramatically effected the animal population, driving some to the edge of extinction.

The article is well organized as it goes in to the biology of both the rats and the toads. It also includes multiple interview quotes from scientists that are researching the newly found phenomenon. On top of that they include multiple pictures of both animals. Fair warning, there are also pictures of the dead toads after they have been eaten by the rats.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/australian-water-rats-learned-eat-poisonous-toads-surgical-precision