“Talking to strangers is one of the things people fear the most”. With this sentence, Ross sent us out and made us talk to strangers. Our goal was to acquire two specific items and to write about the experience we had while collecting them.

The first person I talked to was Dr. Jeffrey Zink, a professor in the Business department. When walking into the room and asking Dr. Zink if he had time for a short conversation he said yes right away. I proceeded with explaining Dr. Zink what my assignment was and asked him if he could provide me with an autographed Post-it note. Dr. Zink happily replied, telling me that he has different kinds of Post-it notes. He mentioned that some people might not find them appropriate for work. Dr. Zink then went on to search for them and while doing so he told me why people might not like them. He said that the notes have the letters ‘WTF’ written on top of them. After not finding any of the ‘inappropriate’ Post-its, Dr. Zink took a normal note and asked “should I write Hi Ross on it?”. I told him that I think it would be funny so he did that.

After receiving my Post-it note from Dr. Zink and thanking him for his time, I went on to look for a second person that I could talk to about their pet peeves. I went to the tech-service room and asked everybody in there if one of them would have some time to talk about their pet peeves. The guy who I think was the boss then pointed at one of the student workers and told me that he has just the right person for me to talk to. I introduced myself to her and then asked her for her name. Liberty Nordstrom, is a student worker at tech-services and seemed kind of confused at first. I then went on to ask Liberty about her pet peeve’s and she told me that she doesn’t like unorganized areas, or people talking while eating. I realized that those are things I also don’t necessarily like and told her that those were pretty good choices. Because I didn’t want to end the conversation so quickly, I also asked Liberty for her opinion on this assignment. She replied saying “I think that’s a good idea. Not many classes do that.”. I agreed with her and thanked her for her time.

Germany Investigates Russia Over Pre-Election Hacking

The article from the N.Y. Times is about an investigation of the German prosecutor’s office after multiple hacking attempts from Russia. Obviously, the article also mentions the timing of this hacking attack, as it is very close to the upcoming elections in Germany.

The author of the article mentions how multiple politicians have been targeted by suspicious emails and other attempts to steal passwords, but in the beginning, it wasn’t clear who was responsible for these attacks. However, from a statement that was released from the Foreign Ministry, it was clear that the investigations were concentrated on Russia. According to the prosecutors, they found a connection to a so-called “Ghostwriter campaign” that can be attributed to the Russian intelligence service.

Moscow denied that it was involved in any of those attacks and called those allegations an “extraordinary P.R. story”. They furthermore said that it was the work of some individual politicians that wanted to create rumors on purpose.

The article also mentions the economic ties between Russia and Germany and the fact that even though they do have those ties, Russia was found to have hacked into the computer systems of the German parliament in 2015. In addition to that, they also breached the German government’s data network three years later.

I think that the article is very well written and also states a lot of important facts that are important to create a cohesive picture. The lead of the story is very informative. It is a little bit longer than usual but it makes me want to keep reading the story to find out what exactly happened. The article includes quotes from the German prosecutors, showing that they are investigating Russia, but also mentions Russia’s reply to the allegations, which is very important in writing a story.

After looking up some more information on this news story, I realized that not a lot of major news outlets have published stories about this, which, in my opinion, is weird. I think that this article is very much newsworthy and the fact that Russia is trying to do the same thing they did in the U.S. elections deserves more attention.

Source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/world/europe/germany-russia-hacking-investigation.html?searchResultPosition=1

$382 robbery at a local store last night, leaves no people injured, as store owner decides not to resist.

In a robbery in ‘BJ’s Drug’ at 450 Stanley Street, two men wearing ski masks got away with $382.65 from the cash register. The robbery was over in less than a minute. While one of the robbers held a gun to the store owner’s head, the other one removed the money from the register. The two men then proceeded to their car that was parked in front of the store with its motor still running.

The store owner, Barney Joseph Jr., who kept a pistol under his counter, decided not to reach for his gun during the robbery, as he didn’t feel like it was a smart thing to do. This decision was most likely influenced by the story of his father, that was shot in the same store 25 years ago. Based on this, Joseph Jr. said that he’d rather part with his money than his life.

Are Covid-19 vaccine boosters necessary?

Covid-19 vaccine booster shots won’t be necessary for the general public, according to an international group of scientists. It is the result of a review published in “The Lancet” on Monday. The results oppose the plan of President Biden’s administration, who wants to start administering booster shots next week.

Health officials with the Biden administration called for the government to start administering booster shots to the general public, but others were skeptical.

The N.Y. Times mentions data from Israel that suggests high effectiveness of booster shots, but scientists urged caution about studies affected by “confounding and selective reporting”. The Israel data was collected a week after those third doses, so there was no long-term data available in this case.

Fox News mentions that because of the danger of selective reporting and the general lack of fundamental reviews on this topic, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting commissioner of the FDA, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, recently told the White House that they needed to have more time to review all the data. They both wanted to avoid conclusions without the necessary evidence.

The group of scientists, who published their article in the peer-reviewed journal called “The Lancet” found out that the advantages of a booster shot aren’t enough to make them available to the general population. According to an article from the N.Y. Times, “the vaccines hold steady against severe illness in all age groups”, therefore a booster shot isn’t necessary.

The review points out that people with weak immune systems could find some use in a booster shot.  But in general, the experts want to use those doses on people that are not vaccinated yet, as they call the booster shots “not appropriate at this stage in the pandemic.”

An article from CNBC mentions how this new review came out exactly one week before the current administration planned on offering vaccine boosters to the general population. CNBC further mentions how there has been repeated criticism from scientists and health experts on this plan, as the data that has been collected so far wasn’t compelling enough.

The group of scientists that published the review included two FDA officials who were against the booster shots. Both of them are going to be stepping down from their job after repeatedly criticizing the plan of the current administration. Fox News calls these resignations over the booster plan a “mess for the administration”.

After the release of the review in “The Lancet”, it is not clear what the Biden administration will do. There is an FDA advisory group that is scheduled to meet on Friday to talk about the use of boosters for the general public.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/09/13/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine#covid-vaccine-booster-lancet

https://www.foxnews.com/health/covid-19-vaccine-booster-unnecessary-fda-resigning

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/13/covid-booster-shots-data-shows-third-shots-not-appropriate-at-this-time-scientists-conclude.html

 

Today, a woman filed a lawsuit against Amburn’s Produce Market after slipping and breaking her hip.

Ellie Maston filed a lawsuit against Amburn’s Produce Market for negligence, after an accident that occurred to her on April 2 of this year.

After breaking her hip from slipping on green beans that were allegedly left on the floor, Maston is suing the produce market for $100,000.

According to the lawsuit Maston “suffered permanent bodily and mental injuries, incurred medical expenses and lost income.”

Yesterday, a 65-year-old South Iowa City resident, died in a car crash after his vehicle struck the rear-end of another driver’s truck.

After trying to pass a car on the highway Moyer Quick’s truck collided with another truck, driven by 17-year-old Randy Radin. The impact sent both cars into a ditch on the side of the road.

Three people were transported to a hospital. Two passengers from Quick’s vehicle are in “fair” conditions, while Radin’s condition is still “critical”.

According to Patric Stewart, a South Iowa Highway Patrolman, the accident occurred on a road that was clear and dry and is still under investigation.

The East Dakota Highway patrol ordered a ban of hand-held radar guns, because of health concerns for the troopers using them.

Yesterday, the East Dakota Highway patrol ordered a ban of hand-held radar guns because of concerns that troopers could develop cancer from being exposed to the devices’ radiation waves for too long.

This now means that 70 radar guns will not be used anymore. However, the troopers will continue to use units with transmitters that are mounted on the outside of their cars.

Spokesman, Adam Smith, mentioned that “The whole situation is under review.”, as the ban was ordered as a precaution. “The feeling here is to err on the side of caution until more is known about the issue,” Smith said.

This move is considered to be the first of its kind by a state police agency. It comes two months after three municipal officers in Central City filed workman’s compensation claims, saying they developed cancer from using the hand–held units.

The Masked Professor vs. the Unmasked Student

The article from the New York Times is about university professors and their fear of getting infected with Covid-19, due to their students not wearing masks in the classroom.

It mentions how professors that encourage their students to wear masks in the classroom are being surprised by the amount of people choosing not to wear a mask. Even though some professors seemed eager to go back to in-person teaching, the spread of the new Delta variant made them rethink their decision. Some professors even went so far and quit their jobs because they didn’t want to teach in a classroom where masks weren’t mandated.

I think that the author of this article did a great job in showing the problem at hand. There were a lot of examples of professors that didn’t agree with the way the universities handled the situation and therefore resigned. Furthermore, the article also showed both sides of the story as it mentioned universities with and without certain Covid-19 related rules.

In addition to that, there was also a drop-down box within the article that showed all the different mandates surrounding the topic in the U.S. In my opinion, that was also a great addition to the article, in order to help people that might not know all the exact mandates that are in place.

In general, I can just repeat that this was a great article, that showed the readers how many of the professors at universities feel about teaching in these times, especially when masks are not required.

Source:

New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/us/professor-unmasked-students-delta.html

It’s Election Season in Germany. No Charisma, Please!

The article from the N.Y. Times is about the upcoming election in Germany and the top candidates for the chancellor position. It also tries to explain and answer a question asked at the beginning of the article, namely if this would be the “most boring election ever.”

After Angela Merkel’s 16-year period as Germany’s chancellor, it’s time for the people to elect someone new. The two main candidates for this election are from the two governing parties. Both candidates are rather calm and collected, as they are trying to “channel their inner Merkel”. On one side there is Olaf Scholz from the Social Democrats, who is also the vice-chancellor under Angela Merkel. On the other side, there is Armin Laschet, who is the candidate for Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

While the article describes both main chancellor candidates, it also briefly mentions a third candidate, Annalena Baerbock, from the Green Party in Germany. However, she hasn’t been very strong in the latest polls, which is why the article mainly focuses on the two main candidates. It describes the two men as rather “boring” and also mentions that the public is missing a “sense of urgency” from both main candidates in times of multiple crises.

In general, the article also explains why Germany’s voters like candidates, similar to the two main ones and why “a Trump character could never become chancellor” in Germany. The German election system is different from the American system and usually, there are always more than two governing parties. This doesn’t allow for a lot of rudeness towards other candidates during the election campaigns, as the closest competitor could become an important coalition partner after the election. In the end, the article also quotes a famous German comedian. He called out both chancellor candidates for not communicating a clear political vision. With this, he wants to urge them to get away from the political “boringness” and change something in the country.

The author of the article does a good job of summarizing the atmosphere under the German voters, but also only focuses on the two main candidates in the race for becoming the next German chancellor. The article also has a rather negative view of both main chancellor candidates. Both candidates are people that are very experienced politicians and calling them boring is overexaggerating. It is true that there are candidates from other parties that show more enthusiasm and have more clear goals regarding multiple topics but in general, it is fair to say that every Party wants to stay “calm and collected”. This is one thing that the article pointed out very well, as the German people would rather vote for a candidate that can promise them stability, than someone like Donald Trump. German voters want to vote for someone they can trust and someone that doesn’t experiment. In general, it can be said that Germans are perfectionists and while looking for the perfect chancellor candidate, they are known to be extra picky (the exact German translation for this would be “Meckern auf hohem Niveau”).

Source:

New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/world/europe/germany-election-scholz-laschet-baerbock-merkel.html?searchResultPosition=1

Luc Mai is a 21-year-old student here at Morningside University. He studies Business Administration with an emphasis on Marketing and is also part of the soccer team here at Morningside.

After going to an international high school in Frankfurt, Germany, where he was born, Luc got a call from one of his friends who studied at Morningside to come join him here. Knowing that he can combine his passion for soccer with his wish to study Business Administration, Luc was highly motivated to join Morningside. In addition to that, this call also allowed Luc to escape from everything that was happening at home during that time. In a very complicated case, Luc’s father was convicted of murder. Because of these circumstances and the one-sided media coverage about this case, it was very important for Luc to find a calm place where he could feel at home away from home.

Nowadays, Luc is very engaged in communicating his and his father’s side of the story to the public. Luc doesn’t want people to judge his father “based on one side of the story and to show them that there is another side to this story”. In addition to that, Luc also started to talk about the motivation that helped him with his situation and keeps him going, on his Instagram channel @luc_mai.