Not so long ago, the northern seas were full of great auks–the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus.

Every summer, millions of the goose-sized birds would gather at different breeding grounds across the North Atlantic. The flightless birds were easy to capture, and passing sailors. French explorers in 1534 wrote how they loved how the birds tasted.

Just three centuries later, the species had become famous for its scarcity instead. Museums and merchants started paying top dollar for great auk eggs and skins. In 1844, members of a small expedition found two of the birds on an Icelandic island, strangled them and crushed their only egg.

That was the last confirmed sighting. In this way, the great auk went extinct.

The birds were gone before we could learn very much about them. New researches points the Balme more squarely at us, the humans.

This was a very sad article to read about, I didn’t know that species of penguin existed and now I’ll actually never know about them because they’re gone. This article could have used more interesting information, like what kind of bird they were and how they were used of the centuries, and how they lived in their temporary habitat.

Administrators at Stephen T. Badin High School in Hamilton, Ohio announces plans to testing its students for drugs and nicotine in an effort discourage drug use and vaping.

In a letter to parents this week, the drug-testing program that has been an undergoing project in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati will begin in January 2020. Students will be tested at least once a year for illicit drugs, alcohol, nicotine and other banned substances.

Students are required to consent to the test as a condition of their enrollment for the school. The potential consequences for violating the drug policy include suspension and expulsion.

I really liked the idea of this article and it was well written. The pyramid criteria I feel was met for the most part. Towards the end it mentioned how many students would need to be tested at the school, 622 students. I feel that should be more at the top with the enrollment paragraph.

In Stockdale, Texas a 300-pound llama strolls through the corridors of the local nursing home, lowering its heads to be petted by residents in wheelchairs and pausing patiently to take selfies.

Tic, a white male llama owned by Zoe Rutledge is one of 13 llamas owned by the Rutledge family. Tic and two other members his herd have passed the qualifying exam necessary to become registered therapy llamas. It’s a test that involves being touched by strangers and remaining impassive when people nearby start arguing.

Zoe and her family chose the animals they take to assisted living facilities, nursing and veterans’ homes, rehabilitation centers and walk-a-thons for groups like the Down Syndrome Association of South Texas.

I liked the creativity of this story but the organization is all wrong. It gave no background to the owner and the family, and the other facilities they go to. The important facts that piece the story together are all at the bottom when it should the top with the leads.

Tracee Ellis Ross, an actress on “Black-ish,” and executive producer on the spinoff “Mixed-ish.” As of last month, beauty entrepreneur, wanted to talk about what wellness means to her. In September, Ross released a hair care line, which features 3 different conditioners for varieties of curl patterns, a cleanser, serums made with luxurious oils, and hair tools.

 “At 18, I woke up like this,” she said. “At 46, I care for it.”

I liked this article but the author did a poor job in making it really attention grabbing. The lead was good but its following paragraphs were very bland. There wasn’t a lot of background, and the real WHY of the story. Interesting topic but it doesn’t really hit the lines of an interesting story.

American children are more likely to be hit by cars on Halloween than on any other night of the year. Instead the concerns expressed each October in the news media and among families are about the danger from candy poisoning by strangers. The average Halloween, compared with other nights, resulted in four additional pedestrian deaths. Looking specifically at 4-to-8-year-olds, the pedestrian fatality rate was 10 times higher on that night compared with non-Halloween nights.

I liked the idea of this post but the organization wasn’t the best. The author, in my opinion jumped around between unsafe candy to pedestrian accidents on Halloween. It mostly talk of candy poisoning, not a whole lot on children in the streets getting hit by more cars on this night out of the entire year.

Scientists are finding that people who feel younger than their chronological age are typically healthier and more psychologically resilient than those who feel older. They perform better on memory tasks and are at lower risk of cognitive decline. 

People with a healthy lifestyle and living conditions and a fortunate genetic inheritance tend to score “younger” on these assessments and are said to have a lower “biological age.”

This article flows very nicely from the beginning, starting off with a source from an older person. It flowed as a story and gave all the research findings/tests to inform readers about the theory. I rate this article an 7/10 in organizing and flow of the article.

When Iran’s national soccer team took the field on Thursday evening at Tehran’s Azadi stadium for an attempt to be a World Cup qualifier, the attention of the game was not in the action on the field but on who was seated in the stands.

For the first time in almost four decades, women were allowed to buy tickets and attend a match in Iran.

This was a enlightening story, the author got all the information and background information about the women’s pregame plans. The women who attended arrived several hours before the game and sat in the stand 2 hours before kick off. As the article went on, it was organized on going over the history of why the women were banned, why it changed and what it means for the country of Iran. Great article.

Physically fit young adults have healthier white matter in their brains and better thinking skills than young people who are out of shape. According to a new study of the links between aerobic fitness and brain health, findings suggest that even when people are young and are at the peak of their mental capability, fitness/or lack of fitness may influence how well their brains work.

This was an interesting article, the title was attention grabbing and its hook got right to the point. Perfectly organized its background info., its research sources and studies, also its results from different scientists. It was an informal article, not a biased or an argument based. It was simple to follow and keep engaged with new sources being introduced and keeping the main topic in mind the whole time.

Two young girls face criminal charges of harassment and assault of a 10-year-old African American girl on a school bus in a small upstate New York town. Local police of the town are associating this incident as a hate crime.

This article was informal to a point but their organization of information I believe was a little off. They addressed the two guilty parties and the victim, their age, where it happened and what is being done. It would be useful if the authors mentioned a deeper reason behind it besides the term “racial hate crime.” The children being tried and what the country will do is useful, but at the bottom of the article there are statistics of school hate crimes and how much they’ve gone up. I would like to think that would go up in the more important types but not as important. Those facts are very informal to the topic at hand.

Abortion in the United States has decreased to a new record of low levels, the decline that may be from increased access to contraception (protection) and fewer women becoming pregnant. Than by state laws who restrict abortion.

I liked the subject of this article but the author did a very poor job in organizing. The information was not in order of importance and the main point of the whole article was not fully addressed. Abortion declining in the U.S. and barely finding out why isn’t enough information.