 You may have heard of Dippin’ Dots, the sweet ice cream pellets that many people now enjoy. Originally, they were not actually invented by an ice cream company or even someone in the food industry. The sweet treat, believe it or not, was invented by the microbiologist Curt Jones, who was working on a project in 1987 for a biotech company in Kentucky. His job at the time was to figure out more efficient forms of feed for farm animals. Jones eventually came upon the idea that freezing already existing cow feed at 350 degrees below zero would form little cow feed pellets. It may seem off, but cow feed was what led Jones to his discovery. Jones happened to be an avid ice cream lover. When he finished his farm animal feeding project, he took his idea of turning farm animal feed into pellets and applied it to ice cream. When Jones flash froze the ice cream he ended up with tiny pellets just like he did in cow feed. Thus the sweet pellets we now know as Dippin Dots were born.
Jones was born and raised on a farm near Grand Chain, Illinois. Even as a kid, Jones was a bit of a businessman. At a young age, Jones had begun a small business by fixing radios, tending to other peoples' barns, and sometimes even broom making with his grandpa’s tools and equipment. After graduating high school, Jones went to college at Shawnee community college and received a BA and a MA in microbiology. After Jones established the company, he realized that the treat could not be sold in grocery stores due to the fact that they would melt in the freezers because they were not cold enough to house the frozen treat. So, Jones decided to sell the treat at fairs and other events like baseball games so the Dippin Dots could still be sold to the public. In 2002 the company started selling both the ice cream and their merchandise online. In 2002 the company was also said to be the fastest growing franchise and was voted number one for new franchise company. These accomplishments may seem small compared to the idea of ice cream pellets, but for the company these were huge! So whether or not you think this sweet treat is the ice cream of the future or not, you have to admit their past is pretty interesting. Story by Stella Coffey Sources: history.com and CNN  Throughout history, women have been the considered the “second sex”, objects, and were told to “stay back and let the men do it”. Oppression like that was more apparent and obvious decades ago, and even more so, centuries ago. Today it isn’t as easy to see, but it is still there, and it still affects women everywhere.
A century ago, women's day to day lives looked a lot different. Back then, women weren’t, “ considered a ‘person’ in the eyes of the law,” says The Telegraph. Women weren’t allowed to vote, serve in a jury, or become a lawyer. “For centuries, women were told to stay at home, take care of the cooking and cleaning, and not to push the boundaries,” a quote from the Women's National History Museum claims. However, women’s rights movements, peaceful protests, and changes in legislation have made a huge difference in the injustices women face. Today, women have achieved and are able to do astounding things as social norms. Two years ago, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated as a presidential candidate by a major party, and even won the majority vote for president. But our past still lingers in the lives of women - especially young women. Sexualizing women has been one of the main challenges a lot of women have to face, especially teens. In school, dress coding is something teen girls face almost daily. So is being called derogatory names by peers, like slut, hoe, and whore. Feeling ashamed of your body, or embarrassed by wearing a shirt or shorts that are too short is something girls feel all the time. It isn’t right for society to be teaching young girls that they are a distraction to others, namely boys. Girls also aren’t just called out in school, even just walking down a street, sometimes women are catcalled and even harassed. Even though times have changed, from women not being allowed to vote to women winning the majority vote for president, there is still a lot more that needs to change. The sexualization of young women is real and felt by millions of girls, and change needs to come. Story by Olivia Agan  Hurricane Florence Hurricanes played a big role in the exploration of the new world, and caused the colonies damage all over the Caribbean plus the east coast. The first recorded reference or sighting of a hurricane was actually made by Christopher Columbus off the coast of Hispaniola, when he encountered a tropical storm. But one of the first reference to a hurricane was in greek mythology after Poseidon supposedly lost Athens to Athena, and a cyclone came, witch is what a hurricane is called over there.
In two instances a hurricane destroyed Spanish and French fleets, which slowed the exploration of the new world down. In 1635, the new colonial hurricane hit right in between Plymouth and Boston and destroyed a lot of houses and trees according to sun-sentinal.com, no further number on how many is given. Another example of the wreckage on the east coast happened in Virginia in 1749; a hurricane wrecked where present day Fort Monroe is. Then in 1752, a hurricane destroyed over 500 homes. Then last of the early hurricane references is the great hurricane of 1780, which killed an estimated 22,000 people in the Caribbean. There is a Greek myth about these things called ANEMOI THUELLAI, they are spirits of violent winds so that must be the greeks reason for hurricanes, They're also known as harpies (female) and dominoes (male), they are the sons and daughters of the hurricane giant Typhoeus, according to theoi.com. Huracan is a Mayan god. His name is where the word hurricane came from. He is the Mayan god of natural disaster, they thought that he usef natural elements to cause disasters, according to mayansandtikal.com So over all, hurricanes have really affected the development of the world. With hurricanes like Harvey and Florence, we know the damage that they cause and they are not something to be reckoned with in our current world. Story by Garrison Hunt Sources: https://www.dogonews.com/2018/9/20/tropical-storm-florence-causes-widespread-flooding-in-the-carolinas Ever since I was a little kid, I thought that playing certain video games was bad because it would make me violent. Now that I’m older and most kids my age play violent video games, I know this to be not true. I believed it was true because social media was giving me the wrong information. I myself play violent games like Fortnite and I am not a violent person. In a Study in 2018 done by the University of York with over 3,000 participants, They found that video games do not start aggressive behaviors/tendencies. This isn't the only study done with these sort of results. A Study by Whitney Decamp, A professor at Western Michigan University, says “the evidence points to either no relationship between playing video games and violent behavior or an insignificant link between the two.” He also says that the reason some studies come up with the result of violent video games causing aggression is because aggressive people tend to play them in the first place. Not that the game is making them violent. Most parents don't let their kids play violent video games like Fortnite or Call of Duty because of the violence, but almost all video games have some sort of violence. For example, Pokemon has violence. In Pokemon, you are putting 2 creatures up to fight until one is knocked out. Another example is Mario. In every Mario game, Mario runs and crushes goomba after goomba. Then he fights bowser, most of the time knocking him into lava and in the newest Mario game Super Mario odyssey, Mario takes control of Bowser then leaves him on the moon. Those are just a few examples of games that you wouldn't think have violence. Most Parents let their kids play those games and you don't see people who play those games having aggressive behaviors.
 Image from TalkSpace.com Have you heard of the feminist movement? In 2018, you could ask anyone what a feminist is and they would know. The definition of feminism is “the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes,” or in simpler terms, somebody who supports the fight for women to be treated equally. Throughout time, feminism has always been present, but in the past decade, society has become more familiar with the idea.
One of the biggest causes for the sudden growth of feminists was the #metoo movement. Social media has always been a platform used to share and connect, but after Alyssa Milano shared the hashtag “me too” in support of friend Rose McGowan’s allegations of sexual harassment against Harvey Weinstein, the social world was forever changed. Women used this form of communication to reach out and share stories about how they were mistreated by men in power. This was the day when feminism had a positive major uprising. Twitter immediately blew up with posts using the hashtag “me too”. An article I read about the Me Too movement, written by a social media company called Envi, said, “For the first time, we are able to "call out" politicians, companies, and leaders about their shortcomings.” Today the #metoo movement has gotten men fired and charged for their crimes. #Metoo is still present and helping women worldwide speak up for their rights. Social media has changed the world of feminism, but what was this idea before it could be shared on the web in seconds? Society believes that we have had 4 waves of feminism. With each wave, the movement has taken huge steps and grown dramatically. The first wave lasted from the 1830’s to the early 1900’s. This was the period of time when women realized that they should have the same voting rights as men. When the second wave started, World War 2 was in full swing and women had to take over the recruit’s jobs. Women finally had the opportunity to be employed and paid! The third wave took place from 1990’s to the early 2000’s. Feminism branches out into multiple categories. They all focused on the same outlook; women earning equal pay to men. The fourth wave of feminism is ever present. Social media is influencing our world and spreading messages of equality. Story by Lily Crum Sources: https://www.envimarketing.com/blog-interface/2017/10/31/how-social-media-is-changing-the-feminist-movement https://www.instyle.com/news/who-started-me-too-movement https://www.dictionary.com/browse/feminism?s=t https://www.progressivewomensleadership.com/a-brief-history-the-four-waves-of-feminism/ IMAGE: https://www.talkspace.com/blog/2017/08/mental-health-feminist-issue  90s fashion trends Over the decades clothing has changed drastically. For example, in the 1980s style was widely and heavily influenced by music. According to The Jerusalem Post, “style in the 1980s was influenced a lot by music.” Over the years along with the time, the trends have changed too. In the 1980s the heavy influence was music, including punk rock, rap, and heavy metal music. Women's trends were much different. They wore big hair and big jewelry. Surely lots of bright colors as well. Another example of how music influenced clothing trends was, in the 1980s, if you were involved and interested in punk rock, then you may like to wear a lot of black. Also, men and women would be a lot of fitness clothing which is similar to the present day where many people wear fitness clothing.
In the 90s, the trends were fun! In the 90s people liked to wear a lot of different fun things including mood rings and roller blades. Girls clothing trends included plaid and barbie dresses. These trends are similar today because people love to wear plaid and love to bring back the trends of the past. Girls and adult clothing have changed and even fitness clothing has trends that are coming back. In the 1990s fitness trends included bike shorts which are coming back, just look at Kylie Jenner! Even celebrities are bringing back the great trends of the 90s. The trends from the past are clearly coming back, let's take a look at some of the trends in the 90s that are popular today. For example, mom jeans are so popular today, I even have a pair! Could you imagine someone walking around with mom jeans and a plaid shirt, then going to work out in bike shorts? Of course, I could! But really all those things are trends out of other decades that are coming back to the current day. So overall fashion trends have changed from some decades but the trends of the present day are a spin-off of other decades like the 90s that are coming back around! Story by Brooke Darby Sources: https://www.jpost.com/Israeli-women/How-Grunge-influenced-the-way-we-dress-477886 https://www.complex.com/style/the-90-greatest-90s-fashion-trends/  Red Wolf pups at our WNC Nature Center. Red wolves are very interesting animals. Red wolves eat rodents, rabbits, raccoons, and deer; mostly meat that is hunted in the woods. As you can tell, wolves are very good hunters. These beautiful creatures live in southeastern Texas and have slowly been moved to central Pennsylvania. Some of the only other places you can find them wild is in eastern North Carolina and the Albemarle Peninsula.
Red wolves are a very endangered species and there are only around 130 still in the wild, the rest of these wolves are held captive in breeding facilities across the country. There are only 200 at those facilities, but scientists are working on repopulating them This is the latest event in an existence full of ups and downs. The red wolf, which still isn’t designated as a true species, was first classified as endangered in 1967 under the Endangered Species Protection Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Acts predecessor. “In 1987, red wolves were reintroduced at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina,” says myfwc.com. This was done by a group of people called U.S fish and wildlife services; they released around 100 red wolves at the Alligator River and the U.S. wildlife services watched as the population grew to around 225 wolves. Fun facts 1. Red wolves scientific name is Canis Rufus. 2. As far as people know, no red wolves have attacked any humans. 3. Red wolves can live up to 15 years in captivity but only live up to 6 or 7 in the wild. Story by Stella Ballard E3. If you haven’t heard of it by now then either you have been living under a rock since 1995, or you have a decent social life like most people. If you fall under either of those categories, let me give you a quick rundown of what E3 actually is. First of all, E3 stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo. This convention has been happening annually since June of 1995. Now you may be wondering what kind of convention E3 is. Well, to put it simply, it's a video game convention. E3 showcases upcoming games every summer and companies like Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and Bethesda come from all over the world to Los Angeles to showcase what they have in store. I am going to be talking about E3 2018, which was one of the best in a while... in some cases. Let's start off with Sony: They showcased a decent amount of upcoming games and DLC (Downloadable Content) for well-loved games, including The Last of Us Part II, Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, and more. Now let’s move on to another well-known company-- Microsoft (Or Xbox.) Microsoft had their biggest presentations ever this year. During their presentation, they showed off a whopping 15 Xbox exclusive titles, including Halo Infinite, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and Crackdown 3. Microsoft is planning on showcasing even more content later this year. We are now walking into what is the most anticipated presentations of E3; Bethesda has showcased an amazing amount of games coming in the future. Many fans are extremely excited about games like Fallout 76, DOOM Eternal, and The Elder Scrolls: Blades. Last but definitely not least: Nintendo. Nintendo took the world by storm with only a few games announced during their showcase. Fans are hyped for games like Super Smash Bros: Ultimate, Super Mario Party, And Fortnite for Nintendo Switch. E3 2018 was an amazing convention this summer. Each company mentioned is so excited to release everything mentioned on this list (Some are already released.) If you would like to learn about E3, Click here.
Story by Juvae Mullings
Image links https://media.playstation.com/is/image/SCEA/marvels-spider-man-screen-03-ps4-us-30mar18?$native_xxl_nt$ https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/ori-will-wisps-release-date-3297183 https://bethesda.net/article/4L5KJfIHleWyamaisEI0CG/fallout-76-atomics-for-peace-nukes-video?_ga=2.7472818.1847203280.1538081695-1333265203.1538081695 https://media.nintendo.com/nintendo/bin/Stp9ngxtWoFnjSSUZf0kuc3cdM90H2Yl/BbjDdgZIOF3pOdWOiGM3UUEkP4_bc5Lz.jpg  From washed-out sea blue to chocolatey brown, everyone has their own unique eye color. But where do you get it from? Genetics. Your parent’s genes determine not only what your eye color is, but many other things too. Inside your cells hold something called a nucleus. The nucleus stores DNA. It also holds 46 chromosomes. Then, the chromosomes are split up into 23 pairs. When you were born each parent gave you one part of the pair. Chromosomes are made up of parts of your DNA otherwise known as genes. According to, Who Am I Science Museum of the UK you are made up of about 24,000 genes. Each gene makes up a part of who you, are from how long your fingers are to the size of your nose. Up to 16 genes determine the color of your eyes. Each gene is composed of alleles. Alleles decide what traits you get from each parent. There are three different alleles which could determine your eye color; green, blue, and brown. Each parent gives you one allele. Green alleles overrule blue alleles and brown alleles are dominant over both. So, if one parent gives you one blue allele and one gives a brown one, you are going to have brown eyes. If one parent gives you a green allele and one gives a blue, you are going to have green eyes. The only way to get blue eyes if both parents gave a blue allele. Have you ever noticed that when you are a baby, your eyes were a different color? Wonderopolis has, they say your genes also have a say in how much melanin your iris has. Melanin establishes how light or dark your eye color is. The more melanin you have, the darker your eyes are. Since the melanin process doesn’t begin at birth, you may not know what your permanent eye color is until you’re almost 3 years old. The way you can inherit hazel eyes is the melanin isn’t distributed evenly between throughout your eyes. This happens as well with other eye colors, like gray and amber. Eye color is essential to how you are as a person and the color of your eyes is unique in its own way. That said, some eye colors are more frequent than others. For example, one in every two people has brown eyes, but blue eyes is more like 1 in every 5 or so. In the chart above you can see how rare your eye color is. But whatever your eye color is, it was meant to be, and was determined by a very complex process.  DNA  The history of cake is very interesting, and has been used on different occasions, but a long time ago is was used very differently. The first cake was created in the 13th century by the Egyptians, but it wasn’t called a cake to them is was called a kaka. Medieval European bakers made fruit cakes and gingerbread. The ancient greeks also made cake or “πλακοῦς” it was baked using flour, eggs, milk, nuts, and honey. They made sponge cakes too, and cake had originated from the Renaissance.
There are a lot of flavors of cake; red velvet is one of the most popular along with chocolate, vanilla or yellow cake, lemon, coconut, lime, champagne, and carrot cake. There are lots of cakes and lots of national cakes days for some of the types and flavors. Like, January 27th is chocolate cake day, March 29th is lemon cake day, April 7th is coffee cake day, May 19th is devil’s food cake day, June 11th is German chocolate cake day, and November 26th is national cake day. Cake is very popular and the uses for it today is different from what it was when it was back then. Today most cakes are for a significant dates like birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and other celebrations. What they used caked for back then was for honoring people like kings. and is very different from today. The ingredients for a simple cake now are: sugar, butter, eggs, yeast, flour, oil, water, and milk are the main ingredients for a basic cake. Story by Taylor Jones |
