 We all know that soccer is arguably one of the most played and viewed sports in the world. Soccer in many places is actually called futball, America is the only place in the world it is called soccer. Just in Asheville, there are at least two different soccer organizations that train kids of almost all ages. Still, over 240 million people play soccer daily. Some of the first rules in soccer came from England. These included preventing the players from tripping each other and from handling the ball. The English also takes credit for making the first uniforms. Then in 1891, the penalty kick was introduced into soccer.
The first game of soccer dates back to 2000 years ago in ancient China and Greece. It is also said that Rome and parts of Central America also had their own versions of soccer during this time. These versions are said to have been popular for 500-600 years, and some are still played today. Another form of soccer originated in Japan and is still played today, where people stand in a small place and try and not let the ball touch the ground. Today this might be called hacky sack or juggling. This game remained popular for 700-800 years by the Romans and then was carried over to England. After this, the English made the first rule book for soccer. As said before soccer’s first rule book was made by 4 British associations who then formed the International Football Association Board. After that FIFA joined the International Football Association Board in 1913. FIFA stands for the Federation Internationale de Football Association. FIFA today is now responsible for developing and evolving the game of soccer. Now how did soccer first become a sport? Well, it wasn't actually considered a sport until 1863 in England. Soccer still made changes and advancements as the years went on, some of these included the penalty kick in 1891, yellow and red card in the 1970’s world cup finals, tackles from behind becoming red card offenses in 1998, and disallowing goalies to make intentional passes back to their teammates in 1992. Story by Hadley Wallace Sources: https://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-soccer-football.htm https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/the-game/index.html https://www.topendsports.com/sport/soccer/history.htm  Imagine this, when someone is born you may see a resemblance to their parents, but then you notice that the eyes of the child are different than the parent’s eyes. According to https://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/eye-color-chart.htm
This is very normal to happen, since genes are not in charge of what the color of the eye is going to be, instead the genes decide how much melanin is going to be int he iris ( the part of your eye the contains the color) Melanin is a dark brown or black pigment that determines what your hair, skin and the color of the iris. But you may ask yourself “if melanin is dark how can people have lighter eyes like blue or grey?” how I said the genes are responsible for how much melanin to put in the eye, so the much more melanin the darker the eye will be creating a dark the color brown in the eye. While the less melanin in the iris the lighter the eye color, creating the Blue and grey eye colors. Albinism is a rare disorder that makes the skin and hair to contain no melanin. this means that there is no melanin in the iris so the eyes of an albino person will be red since the thing that makes it red is not melanin it will be the blood flowing through the blood vessels that are visible explains https://www.edow.com/general-eye-care/eyecolo. The main eye colors in the world are Brown, Blue, Green, hazel, amber, and grey. Some People with albinism have red eyes (due to the extreme lack of melanin the blood vessels are visible) says https://www.edow.com/general. Brown eyes are the most common eye color according to https://www.edow.combrown is approximately 55%-79% of the world, this suggests that more than half of the people on earth have brown eyes, think about it there are about 7 billion people on earth! Besides being the most common, the brown eye has more melanin, some people have such dark brown eyes that it no longer looks like brown but black because of the high levels of melanin in the iris. The blue eye has little pigment. And 5% of the people on earth possess a blue eye color. Did you know Scientists say people with blue eyes are related? Many years ago a mutation led to the blue eye and to a gene that prevents the production of melanin in the eye, now that racial groups intermarrying people with blue eyes are becoming rarer every day. The grey eye is often mixed up with the blue eye and it appears to change color depending on the lighting, clothes, and mood. About 1% of the people have a grey eye in the world. Scientist says that 5% of the people have hazel eyes. The hazel eye consists of mixtures between blue, green, and brown and along with grey the iris also appears to change color. green eyes are the least common color about 2% of the people have, but it is most common in Europe and It is often confused with hazel, the green eye has a black ring around it, contrary to the hazel. That is all I have for you today, now go and stare at your beautiful eyes in a mirror now that you know more about them! Story by Genesis Cruz-Herrera  The Red Wolf (Canis Rufus) has lived in North Carolina for over 30 years. Before it lived in North Carolina, it lived everywhere from New England throughout the Southeast, and even as far west as Texas. When the Europeans moved to those shores they started killing off the wolves, selling them for hundreds of dollars. The settlers started moving farther back into the land, causing the whole population of the wolves to be pushed back into the distant corners of Louisiana and Texas. The population started declining and declining until finally, the Red Wolf was listed as an endangered species.
That's when people started helping, or at least trying. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released four pairs of wolves into the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina, in hopes of them thriving, and increasing their population. Their effort seemed to be succeeding for a while. The population grew up to 120-130 wolves for a short time. It was steady until around 2012. But then, the Red Wolf was taken off of the endangered species list, because their numbers were high again. On November 4th, 2018, the law that all Red Wolves were being conserved resigned, allowing the immediate killing of any Red Wolf on private property, or on non-federal land, in what previously had been a designated five-county Red Wolf Recovery Area. The wolf is still off of the Endangered Species list, even though it is the most endangered species in the world, with only 8 alive in the wild right now. There are actually people in Asheville helping to save the Red Wolves. In our Nature Center. We took in a pair of Red Wolves, Garnet (Male), and Karma (Female). They are being used for potential breeding, hoping to have babies that they are able to train to live in nature, and maybe even release someday. The Nature Center doesn´t just take in Red Wolves. They take in all endangered animals, From turtles to tigers. We can help by donating to them to help pay for food, bedding, and medicines for the animals. Let's help bring back the population of Red Wolves by trying to do at least one of the following:
Story by Astrid Laughlin  People love to go on vacation but some airports can get claustrophobic and others provide a break from the stress of airplanes and flight tickets. Some airports are really bad, like the top 10 worst-ranked airports in the world, especially the Kuwait airport in Kuwait. On the other hand, airports like the Changi airport in Singapore are considered to be nicer. This airport was also featured on CNN 10, which many people here at AMS probably recognize. These airports show very different sides of modern travel. Although modern airports are significant to our society because people travel more now than ever, there are many differences between the essentials and the world's best.
The Worlds Worst Airport Kuwait airport in Kuwait was labeled the world's worst airport by passengers. People say that it is disorganized and crowded. This needs to change. I don't have much information because the website is very disorganized and unclear. Part of this is due to unclear translations from Arabic to English. One passenger said, “This airport is a total disgrace”. Kuwait airport has many problems; some are linked to how old the airport is. The airport is old and no money has been put into renovating it. The bathroom tiles are cracked and the paint is falling. As you can see, the airport has many problems linked to stress and condition, I hope that they put some money into it to fix it up. The Worlds Best Airport Singapore is a major city in Asia. Many people visit Singapore for its city and amazing attractions. People have also been visiting Singapore for the airport. People have gotten in trouble for buying airline tickets just to enter the airport without actually taking the flight. The Singapore airport has always been in the top ten, but never number one until recently after it made a big renovation. The airport now has many special features including, swimming pools, movie theaters, play areas, art rooms, family rooms, supermarkets, spas, a hotel, and baby care rooms. The most impressive thing about Changi, the Singapore airport, is that it is the owner of the world's largest indoor waterfall. This airport has many amazing accessories, but it's not free, it costs over $1,000 per person to fly there from Charlotte airport. According to CNBC, only 39% of Americans have more than $1,000 in savings, and that money, for most, is in case of an emergency. If you want to visit the Changi Singapore airport, you might want to save up! Honorable Mentions It was not just the Singapore airport that did a good job in customer service, flight schedules, and organization. Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) and Incheon International Airport also did a great job. They were second and third in the top ten list. They are both located in major cities, which makes it necessary that they are on this list. Tokyo, however, has both of its airports on the top ten list with Haneda in second and Narita in tenth. The Haneda airport was in first place for six years before the Singapore airport update. Both of these airports are beautiful and large in design, making them convenient and efficient. Story by Anabel Kehoe  At this point, you’ve heard the talks in school or by your parents. Don’t click on ads. Never ever talk to strangers. All strangers on the web are hackers and terrorists. Well, first of all, they aren’t. Second of all, some of them might be. And you probably don’t want your data stolen by those people who want it. So here are some better tips about internet safety.
The media, Common Sense Education says, paints the picture of a “child predator” being a sleazy guy at a computer. Well, most risky relationships happen between two teenagers, or a teen and young adult. An online solicitor is more likely to be a teenager or young adult, who target teenagers and not 8 year olds. Most likely, they will also be blunt about it, just asking upfront. Instead of thinking about predators, think more on general online relationships. This type of thinking will make you be more aware of the more common type of risky relationship. Just because it’s more common doesn’t mean it’s never going to happen, however. Make sure to be aware of everyone. As Kaspersky says in their internet safety article, public internet connection can’t always be trusted. Going to internet cafes can be fun, sure. But don’t enter in anything important. People can access public Wi-Fi networks and take your information off of them. If, for example, someone logs into their bank account. A hacker could steal their information off of the public connection and transfer all the person’s money to their own account. So enter in your more private information while on a home or private network. Last but not least, keeping your information safe (while you’re still on a private network). While I was scouring the net for sources, two of my sources did this. They had a full-screen pop-up. It asked for my email to sign up for their newsletters and such. One of the sites didn’t even let me access any information if I didn’t put in my email, so I had to use a different source. If you put in your email on random pop ups, you’ll probably going to get unneeded newsletters you don’t want. Entering any information on something you don’t trust is a really bad idea. So, there you go. Three pretty important tips to keep in mind on the internet. Make sure to be wary of all online relationships. An online solicitor isn’t always an old man. Don’t enter information on public internet. People could steal your information. And don’t enter in information in things you don’t recognize. It could either be annoying or dangerous, and you don’t want either. Story by Nash Klein  There are many types of cults throughout the world. There are many different reasons you or someone you know may join a cult. You may join a cult because you are into politics, religion, or because you want to improve your life.
Many cults have reputations as being bad because bad things have happened in some famous cults. One cult you may have heard of was The Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. Jones became a powerful man in his cult who had ultimate control over his followers. He hurt many people. When people first joined his cult they probably thought it would help them live better lives. In the end, approximately 900 people died. Jones got support from many well-known, and trusted people. In 1977 people found out about the brainwashing and abuse that occurred in the cult. Jones decided to move his followers to a new place away from other people.. The new place seemed to be ideal to many followers but was actually like being in a prison. Once the world found out about the conditions at the camp, they tried to stop Jones but it was too late. He had convinced his followers to kill themselves with poisoned Kool Aid. All 900 followers died, including children. Cults are not all bad. There is a cult of people preparing for the end of the world, by living as people did before electricity and other modern technologies. There is another cult that believes that people were created by extraterrestrial life. These cults may have unusual beliefs but exist without doing harm. A cult is a group of people devoted to a single purpose or belief, which may be religious, political or self-improvement. If you are thinking of joining a cult, my advice is to research it first and talk to its members to make sure it is a good fit for you and does not put you in danger. Also, stay away from the Kool Aid. Story by Alana Bridger Sources: https://www.history.com/tag/cults https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB-dJaCXAxA https://allthatsinteresting.com/insane-cults  Eyeglasses can be annoying , whether you own a pair or you know someone who does, you can see that they can be a little tedious at times.. What if I told you that there was a way that without contacts you wouldn’t need glasses anymore. The procedure is called LASIK and it stands for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis
This procedure is where a doctor changes the shape of the cornea so that patients can see without glasses. To get LASIK the patient must see their eye doctor and get a careful examination before consideration of the surgery. Then the doctor will measure the cornea and look for any irregularities. “Doctors generally use wavefront-guided technology to evaluate your eye in detail before LASIK surgery.” According to doctors at the Mayo clinic. The more accurate the measurements the more precise the surgery will go and will most likely go right. If the patient was needing contact lenses then they would need to take them out and wear glasses for the following weeks until the procedure. The reason the patient needs to do this is because contacts can change the shape of the cornea. Once the patient knows the risks of the procedure the doctor can start the procedure. The process takes 30 minutes or less. According to Dr. Hood, M.D. clinical professor, the patients are given a Valium before the procedure to calm the nerves of the patient. After numbing drops are put in the patient's eye an instrument is put in the eye to hold the eyelids open. “Your eye surgeon uses a small blade or cutting laser to cut a small hinged flap away from the front of your eye. Folding back the flap allows your doctor to access the part of your cornea to be reshaped.” According to Mayo Clinic Doctors. Then the doctor takes a laser and shaves of the parts of the cornea that need shaving. Patients tend to smell an odor like burning hair when this happens. When the surgery is done the doctors tape plastic glasses that you are instructed not to take off so that the eyes aren’t hurt by light. The patient is told to sleep after the surgery till the next day to rest eyes. The results after surgery are quick so the patient will be able to see. However, the results will not be crystal clear until 2-3 months later. So now that you know about the surgery what are some symptoms that can happen in and after surgery? One side effect of eye surgery is that you can get dry eyes. Dry eyes is when our eyes don't make enough moisture or tears which can cause irritation , burning and/or blurred vision according to Kirestan Boyd an eye doctor on her article What is Dry Eye? Another Con according to Michigan Health doctors you may need LASIK again after many years, and a second operation can have more risks. The three family members I know that have had lasik in the past now are returning back to glasses and all three have dry eyes due to the surgery. My father said “ I regret getting the surgery because it was very costly, has caused me burning/irritation in the eye, and after 5 years I need glasses again. “ So I will let you choose if LASIK eye surgery is worth the risks and side effects just not to have glasses anymore. However, through this all you won’t need to put on or take off glasses anymore, or will you? Story by Sierra Stock  When we think of the future we think of flying cars, skyscrapers reaching the stars, and colonies on distant planets. One that captivates most is the thought of flying cars. Watching Back to the Future and seeing flying cars in the year 2015 before 2015 was a real wonder but then 2015 came around and there were no flying cars in sight. Maybe the day has come, maybe we are reaching the future, after hearing the news of the works in Japan. In the vast lands of the country, the electronic giants NEC corp is working to achieve the flight of cars. The small four-winged craft hovered off ground for 1 minute during a test experiment. You may think 1 minute is not extraordinary but it is the first step of many more to achieve flight for cars. NEC is a multinational provider of technology services and products and their main goal right now is working for a faster and more reliable way of shipping. On technologyreview.com they reported that NEC has been spending their time for about one year trying to master take off. Author of the article Charlotte Jee said that ̈developing the model, which weighs about 150 kilograms (331 pounds) and is 3.9 meters (12.7 feet) long ̈ proving to citizens that it is a big achievement for the craft to stay in the air for 1 minute. NEC isn't the only one trying to achieve flight other companies such as Boeing, Airbus, and Uber are trying but none have gone as far as NEC. The author of the article by the Washington post said ̈The technology still has several kinks to work out, such as battery life, safety, and regulation ̈. Even though there are still problems with the testing they are trying to tone down the size, noise, and controls of a normal helicopter. They are hoping to tone down the noise and size by making the wings in the form of a drone-like structure. While NEC isn't necessarily worrying about flight of cars just yet they are hoping for it in the future. Right now they are just focussed on making delivery drones for faster shipping. The company says that they hope and think to have flying cars in the 2030s. While being asked Norihiko Ishiguro, vice president of the company what the big fuss was for faster shipping while there already is relatively fast shipping he replied with ̈We at NEC believe that a revolution of travel centered on flying cars will occur ̈. The company hopes to be up and going delivering goods in the year 2023. Japanese wants these drones to be flown in densely populated cities for easier transport and not as much road traffic chaos on the ground. In the United States, Uber hopes to have the same thing as the Japanese do while in Dubai they wish to gain police hoverbikes. Though technically flying cars do not exist yet you can sure say were headed in the right direction.  Friendship is an important opponent of life. Our friends are the ones who help us through the great obstacles of life. The ones who laugh with us and share our secrets. The ones who get us through a long night, or scary movie. The ones who gossip and play with us. The ones who laugh at our jokes (even if they aren't funny), and hug us when we cry. Friends are important in life, and in school.
There are so many things that our friends help with at school. Have you ever hoped you get a class with one of your friends? Have you ever wished you were in the same pod so you could see them every day? Have you used a bracelet to sit with your friend? Of course, you have!!! Friends are super important to have in school. They influence our lives, for example, they can make us study harder, or eat healthily. Our friends might play Basketball, influencing us to play too, so we can see them, but also get healthier. But our friends also make us feel better. For example, our pod went on a Field trip on Wednesday, October 11, 2019, and my friend and I were in the same team-building group. There was a rope course, but it was tall. My friend ( we’ll say Ava ) was scared of heights, but I wanted her to be brave and go on the rope course. Ava didn't really want to go, but after I encouraged her, she agreed to do it with me. I was really glad she did because she got to face her fear! I gave her a little bit of peer pressure. Peer pressure isn't always bad. Peer pressure is when your peers (friends) are influencing you to do something. It does not always have to be bad. Peer pressure can be your friends getting you to study for a test, or give them that other cookie you have so you can be healthy. But, peer pressure also isnt always good. You should never let someone pressure you into doing something bad, like running in front of a car or having a beer. If your friend tries to peer pressure you into doing something dangerous or bad, tell an adult. Your friend should NOT be your friend. Don't let people take advantage of you, your better than that. To wrap it up, let's just think of what life would be like without our friends. Not very good. Our friends are trusted people who we love, and listen to. Our friends listen to us, share with us, and laugh at/with us. Our friends are the ones who support our decisions no matter what and stick with us through anything. They are one of our most important things. Thank you to all of my friends, for always supporting me. I love you all. Story by Veda Dougherty SOURCES Link 1 Link 2  Have you ever been in a completely dark space? If not try it, go into a closet and close the door. What do you feel? What do you hear? Do you smell anything? Can you touch anything? Do you notice anything different? Take a second and pay attention to each of these. The longer you stay in this space the more you may realize your senses become heightened. This experience gives you the tiniest glimpse of life as a blind person.
When you lose your sense of sight your body does everything it can, to compensate for that. According to https://www.livescience.com "there is tremendous potential for the brain to adapt.” For example, the portions of your brain that are associated with hearing, touch, and smell become more sensitive to stimulus when you are blind. There's evidence through MRI technology that the brains of blind people will rewire themselves to allow for the other senses to work more acutely. In an article by the Smithsonian, they state that “the brains of blind people appeared to be wired differently when it came to things like structure and connectivity.” The area of your brain called hMT+ is responsible for tracking moving visual objects. In blind people the hMT+ tracks auditory objects such as moving cars or people. Have you ever happened to notice a blind person crossing the street, or doing a day to day activity? Take a second to notice their movements and actions? Do you notice them tilting their head? Or maybe using their hands? This is an example of the hMT+ region of the brain working efficiently. The heightened activity allows for these other senses to kick in. The is the human body working at it's best. Story By Talula Perry SOURCES: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-do-blind-people-see-4153577 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190422151020.htm https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/blind-peoples-brains-rewire-themselves-enhance-other-senses-180962653/ https://www.livescience.com/58373-blindness-heightened-senses.html https://morninggossip.com/2017/03/blind-peoples-brains-rewire-enhance-senses/ |
