All posts by Niklas

“Can​ you dig it?” Ashley Boer can

When Asley Boer hits the court with the Morningside Volleyball team, she leaves her mark on the game from the back row.

Her duties as a back-row player mostly consist of reading hitters and defending balls hit deeper in the court, called “digging”, making sure that those hits get turned back into play. She also serves for the Mustangs.

With Ashley’s help, the Morningside Volleyball team was able to secure a spot in the NAIA national tournament for the 3rd year in a row with a win in yesterday’s regular-season finale vs. Dakota Wesleyan.

For Ashley and the now 8-8 Mustangs, the GPAC tournament will start this Saturday in Jamestown, North Dakota.

Ashley is from Rock Rapids, Iowa, which is approximately one hour and 15 minutes away from Sioux City. She found her way to Morningside to play Volleyball and pursue an Advertising degree with a graphic design minor. She also said that she came to Morningside because “it felt like home”. 

Ashley enjoys hanging out with friends, listening to music and watching all kinds of sports when she is not on the court herself. When asked what three things she likes best about Sioux City, she was quick to respond that she likes the food options here, especially Buffalo Wild Wings, the size of the city which she described as “Not too big and not too small” and the close proximity to home, which allows her to see friends and family often.

Red wedding

What was supposed to be celebration of love, turned violent yesterday, when a shooting erupted at the site of a local wedding.

Richard and Laurette Brunson were married on the front porch of their home in front of 30 relatives and friends, as well as the bride’s 3 children. At the reception following the wedding, a fight broke out which led to Richard Brunson, 50 shooting his newly wedded wife Laurette, 38 in the abdomen with a small handgun.

Let’s hear from our correspondent live at the scene.

Thank you, I am here with sergeant Mann from the Sioux City PD, who will tell us more about the events leading up to the shooting.

“The shooting occurred at 5p.m. It happened after she threw a plate of wedding reception macaroni salad at the groom. His whereabouts are still unknown.”

Thank you, sergeant Mann! With the groom still on the loose after such a traumatic event, the guests of the wedding, like Ms. Corse, are still in shock!

“I just feel so bad for the kids to see this! He ran off with no shirt or shoes.”

With that back to you in the studio!

Thank you! Mrs. Brunson was transported to St. Luke’s Hospital where she remains in “satisfactory condition” according to hospital officials.

With Richard Brunson still on the loose, police officials warn to stay away from shoeless, shirtless men on the streets.

Broadcast Writing vs. print

This article compares two new story about the current wildfire situation in California.

One story, titled “Winds will continue to spread the California wildfires” is a broadcast story by CNN, that shows the weather forecast for the region and explains what that weather could mean for the situation at hand. The other story is a collection of updates by the New York Times that is updated in real-time as new developments become available.

The CNN story does a good job focusing on one aspect of the situation which is the windy conditions that are currently fueling the wildfires. The meteorologist is easy to understand and uses simple language to describe the conditions at hand. He also does a good job staying calm and collected given the less than promising forecast he is presenting. The disadvantage of the broadcast format is that it is impossible to present all aspects of the story in such a short amount of time. This segment focuses on one aspect and does a complete job.

The NYT story is much more complete in terms of coverage but is very long and detailed, which makes reading the article time-consuming. What helps is that due to the updated format of the story, bolded headers mark different updates, which makes it. easier to maneuver through the mass of information. The authors do a good job of being detailed and complete while staying objective and calm in their writing. This story covers most aspects of the fires from evacuation plans to what major buildings and highways are threatened.

Overall the main difference between the two stories is that the broadcast story has limited time to work with while the print story has nearly endless space to be as complete as possible. This results in the very clear an concise nature of the broadcast story, while the print story is not holding back words in an effort to be as complete as possible.

Sources:

CNN:https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/california-fires-los-angeles-october-2019/h_e3ab9350057796a2220e342166fa57fb

NYT:https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/us/getty-fire-california.html

No lonely planet after all?

Scientists at UCLA discovered that earth-like planets might be more common in the universe than we think.

In a NASA funded study at UCLA, a team of astrophysicists and geochemists are using telescope pictures of burned-out stars, called “white dwarfs” to look for rocks that could stem from planets similar to earth in their periphery. The gravitational pull of those “white dwarfs” which are up to 665 light-years away from earth, swallows up asteroids and fragments of rocky planets that cross their path. The scientists observe the elements in the “white dwarf” stars to find out if these rocky structures are similar to the rocks on Earth or Mars.

“The rocks are Earth-like and Mars-like in terms of their oxidized iron. We’re finding that rocks are rocks everywhere, with very similar geophysics and geochemistry” explains Alexandra Doyle, who leads the team of scientists. The oxidation of the rocks can mean that the composition of those planets is similar to Earth and that they could potentially support life.

This discovery proves that there could be many more rocky planets like the Earth in other solar systems and that the likelihood of finding one just rose immensely.

Source:https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191017141052.htm

foreign gains

The Vox article “The emoluments clause, explained for Donald Trump” does exactly what the title says. It explains the emoluments clause and states its significance for President Trump’s plans to host the upcoming G7 summit at one of his own resorts.

The emoluments clause is a group of provisions in the U.S. constitution, which basically state that any person that is holding office in the U.S. is not allowed to receive “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”(Vox,2019)

Emoluments “would encompass sort of the profits of ordinary market transactions.” which makes this clause relevant for the upcoming G7 summit. Trump plans to host the summit at one of his resorts, which would lead to him receiving monetary gain from foreign governments in the form of their leaders and with that, violating the emoluments clause.

The article does a good job explaining these old and complicating provisions in simple terms to a younger audience. It also does a good job applying the concept of the clause to Donald Trump’s case and explaining why this is significant for the audience.

busted weights

When asking around campus what campus facilities are in most need of renovation, nearly everybody was quick to mention the HPER weight room, a facility that is surprising in two ways.

Firstly, a surprisingly large amount of people are working out in that space, especially given that it is mainly designed for the small non-athlete student population of Morningside. 

Secondly, when looking at the machines, squat racks and free weights in the room, the run down and in some cases non-functional state of the equipment is noticeable.

Madison Reed, says: “Not only is the HPER weight room, in its current condition a hazard to the well being of the students working out there, but also does not provide a welcoming and motivating atmosphere due to dim lighting and dirty floors and fixtures.” 

Madison, who worked out at the HPER weight room for over a year, observed the decay of equipment first hand. “There are eight non functional barbells in the weight room, which makes working out with them impossible. There are also many broken and missing cushions on the weight machines, which makes working out on them uncomfortable and even dangerous.” Madison also adds that “a renovation of the HPER weight room is overdue and would improve the quality of life for all students on campus.”

Her experiences working out there and the fact that more and more students made their discontent with the situation known, prompted Madison to use her position as the Morningside student government vice president to start lobbying for a renovation of the HPER weight room but unfortunately her term was over before real results were reached.

While the students that work out in the HPER regularly are certain that a renovation of the weight room is more than necessary, the fact that this weight room mainly serves the non-athlete population on campus and that this population is fairly small might make school administrators hesitant to put large amounts of money into the project. 

Since there is a weight room and strength staff for the students on campus that are in athletic teams, their urgency to push for a new rec center weight room is not exactly overwhelming. “Well, it’d be great to get a renovation but in all honesty, I rarely train there so it does not affect me too much.” says Joel Katzer, a Morningside Football player. He adds “but if there was a petition or something that would be put out where we could show our support for this renovation, I would definitely sign it.” This shows that even students that are not directly affected by the state of the HPER weight room are aware of the problem and are willing to support finding a solution when presented with the opportunity to do so.

Unfortunately, when reaching out to school officials about this topic, no specific comment was available at the point of publishing this article, but this article will be updated as soon as a comment on future plans with the HPER weight is available. 

The need for a renovation of the HPER weight room is evident, with many students being negatively affected by the bad condition of the facility and more and more athletes also becoming aware of this problem. It is up to the Morningside community to push for a renovation of a campus facility that, in the words of Morningside student Alex Paulson “really sucks”, the way it stands right now. 

Thunberg’s call for action

In a fiery speech at the UN Climate Action Summit, Greta Thunberg, a 16-year old Swedish climate activist who is credited with initiating the “Fridays for Future” movement, calls out world leadership on the topic of climate change.

She speaks on behalf of her generation. “You are failing us!” is her reaction to the action that the global leadership has taken so far to combat climate change. These actions would, according to Thunberg only provide a 50% chance of staying under a 1.5 degree rise of temperature, a tipping point that could initiate irreversible changes to this world that would be out of human control.

Her frustration with being part of a generation, potentially left with the irreversible environmental damages produced by generations before hers is evident throughout the speech.

Thunberg’s main message is “We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”. She also calls out the lack of urgency displayed by leaders across the world, calling out current approaches to combat climate change as ” just ‘business as usual'” and warns that “With today’s emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than 8 1/2 years.”

Thunberg’s speech talks with the anger and urgency of a whole generation, a generation that sees the world at the brink of collapsing due to careless and economy-driven decisions generation before have made.

And it seems that this urgency and anger that has already moved millions of students out on the streets to protest for better and more effective solutions on climate change every Friday, has made a difference once again. Today, just one day after Thunberg’s speech, 65 countries have pledged efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Article #2 draft

When entering the weightroom of the Morningside College Rec. Center, also called HPER, in the afternoon or evening, two things quickly become evident. 

Firstly, a surprisingly large amount of people are  working out in that space, especially given that it is mainly designed for the small non-athlete student population of Morningside. 

Secondly, when looking at the machines, squat racks and free weights in the room, the run down and in some cases non-functional state of the equipment is noticeable.

The students working out at the HPER weight room are overall discontent with the state of the facility. One of the students, Madison Reed, states: “Not only is the HPER weight room, in its current condition a hazard to the well being of the students working out there, but also does not provide a welcoming and motivating atmosphere due to dim lighting and dirty floors and fixtures.” 

Madison, who worked out at the HPER weight room for over a year, observed the decay of equipment first hand. “There are eight non functional barbells in the weightroom, which makes working out with them impossible. There are also many broken and missing cushions on the weight machines, which makes working out on them uncomfortable and even dangerous.” Madison also adds that “a renovation of the HPER weight room is overdue and the quality of life for all students on campus. 

While the students that work out in the HPER regularly are certain that a renovation of the weight room is more than necessary, the fact that this weight room mainly serves the non-athlete population on campus and that this population is fairly small might make school administrators hesitant to put large amounts of money into the project. 

“you determine your ​destiny”

One thing that stands out right away when talking to Morningside Alumn Alex Watters is that he has a passion for helping people. It doesn’t matter if it is during his day job as a Morningside College career development specialist or as a member of the Sioux City council, Alex Watters seems to always be focused on how to improve the lives of the people around him. So it was no surprise to me that he answered the question of what the most fulfilling part of his job at Morningside with “seeing students succeed or seeing them have that realization of what they really want to do with their lives.”

Even before a life-changing accident, that severed Watters’ T5 and T6 vertebrae and left him paralyzed from the chest down during his freshman year at Morningside College, his life was filled with service to others. As a middle and high school student he was active with local political campaigns and worked as a page at the Iowa house of representatives where he helped wherever he could and developed a passion for politics.

This passion was one of the reasons why he took an internship with the department of education in Washington DC during the summer after his senior year. During this internship, he worked with the secretary of education as well as with First Lady Michelle Obama on her initiative “Let’s read, let’s move” wich encouraged kids to read and play more aoutside.

After working as a regional coordinator for Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, where his coordinating efforts earned him a week with the most doors knocked in Iowa, even though he was not able to physically do that himself, he was able to take a position at Morningside as a first-year student advisor, which has no progressed to career development specialist. With such rich experience both in the professional field and in life in general, it does not surprise that he states: “it was mostly Life experience that helps me to advise my students.”

Alex is a man that did not let a Life-changing accident define him and who works tirelessly to enrich not only his life but to touch as many lives as possible in a positive way. He is not only aiming to make the city more accessible for wheelchairs and other forms of personal transportation through his position on the City Council but has bigger visions for healthcare and awareness for disabled members of our society, which he lobbies tirelessly to many of the influential political figures he knows through his engagement with parties and political campaigns alike.

And while he is well aware that some people have it easier in life than others, his advise is “you truly determine your own destiny! It is about how hungry you are!”

Safe to inject?

The Vox article “Cities are considering safe injection sites. A federal judge just said they’re legal.” talks about the rising movement for safe injection sites in major cities as response to the opioid epidemic sweeping vast parts of the U.S.

The article gives a timeline of the development and gives information on a court case that allowed a Philadelphia based non-profit to establish a safe injection site in their city.

The target audience is most likely a younger audience, concerned with the drug problem of the country and also with social issues in general. The author does a good job giving objective information and a detailed timeline of the events and also does a good job featuring supporters and opposing voices throughout the article.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/1/25/16928144/safe-injection-sites-heroin-opioid-epidemic