By: Ashley Armitage

Again today the police caught another Myspace sex offender. The gentlemen was caught after a police posed as a 16 year old girl and the gentlemen was asking the girl(police) to have sexual relations with him. Of course the police agreed and the gentlemen got on a plane and flew down to
Atlanta. When he got there the police arrested him and took him into custody. No bail has been posted yet.

Myspace has agreed to give the names of all sex offenders and all of the messages that have been sent and received from the sex offender and the other person. So far Myspace has deleted about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders.

The thing I want to know is what do students have to say about this I took a survey and all of the students are scared about sex offenders but none of them want to stop using Myspace and an unnamed source said that they will take the chance to come across a sex offender. My advice for everyone with a Myspace is to watch out and make sure your just talking to your friends.

by Marzia Nawrozi

As all we know societies and people are different, some parents are as strict about their children as they control all their actions and works. There are some ideas about if it is good to be too coarse about what your children do and with whom they are friends.

Sharifa Rahmani, a senior in Michigan believes that being too strict about children has a bad result for their future.  Rahmani said that it is good to be careful about what your kids do, but you shouldn’t let them know that you’re watching them. Rahmani knows some students whose parents even don’t let them to go out with their friends. When these kids see that the others have this freedom and they don’t, they get inferiority complex and it decreases their self confidence.

It has been shown that most of the people who become criminals had a bad childhood and strict or careless families. To have a good society and successful adults for future, parents should understand their job and don’t be so strict or so careless about their children.       

Some people believe being strict helps them have successful children. 

For example, if your kid doesn’t make good grades at school and you say nothing to him, of course he won’t try to improve his grades.  Also, if your kid goes to a party and you don’t care who is there or what they will be doing, maybe he or she will fall to peer pressure.  Friends have an important influence on children’s lives and behavior.  If your kid has friends who use drugs and you don’t care, maybe it will happen to your kid too.

Click here to go back to May 18th homepage

continued from the main page

 by Nicholas C. Delos

Hearing begins with air vibrations shaking the ear drum. These vibrations are transmitted into the inner ear where they are picked up by hair like sensory cells, which, when stimulated by the vibrations, send electrical signals to the brain where the signals are interpreted as sound.

It has long been known that over stimulation from very loud and or prolonged sound can cause the hair like sensory cells to die off. Recently, however, some neurologists and audiologists have raised concerns that when the sensory cells die they may be damaging the brain as well. These scientists hypothesize that when the cells die, the release a neurotoxin that, in large amounts, not only permanently damages the brain, but does continued to do additional damage long after the over stimulatory sound has ceased.

Links to related offsite studies and articles can be found here:

http://www.northwestern.edu/observer/issues/2006/01/11/hearing.html

http://www.livescience.com/health/ap_050912_headphones.html

http://www.unk.edu/uploadedFiles/academics/gradstudies/ssrp/2005/Potts%20Paper.pdf

Click here to go back to May 18th homepage

by Anna Zogby

The massacre at Virginia Tech is something that has affected us all, even if we have no relations to anyone there. When such horrific events happen, such as 9/11, it brings everyone together. While it is still not known exactly why the young man did this, the grieving process still continues for many.

Many are still having trouble accepting the aftermath of Monday’s events. On Tuesday April 17th, the day after, a convocational ceremony was held at the university remembering those lost. President George W. Bush gave a speech stating his sympathy, and that these students and professors were simply “In the wrong place at the wrong time.” The loved ones lost on April 16th at are still being remembered.

Students have set up a memorial shrine on campus for the more than 30 people who are now gone. “On this terrible day of mourning, it’s hard to imagine a time will come when life at Virginia Tech will return to normal, but such a day will come,”-George W. Bush

Back to April 20, 2007

photo by Molly Palmer

photos by Parvin Sahraei

back to April 20, 2007

by Andres Ruiz Morris 

After Monday the 16^th’s tragic events, many people with connections to those who attend Virginia Tech were left without any information, worrying night and day to find out the fate of their friends and loved ones. For those of us who live in Northern Virginia, knowing that a large portion of our students go on to Virginia Tech, a wave of panic spread amongst the high schools of Fairfax County Public Schools.

Diego Rodriguez, junior at Oakton High School, found out on Wednesday that a long time companion and neighbor, was recently announced to have been amongst the victims of the massacre. By request of Rodriguez, his name will be withheld but his death has been a deep shock to all those who had a chance to know such a caring, loving young man, who like most of the many victims of the massacre showed nothing but promise and knowing that they are gone leaves the world a little less brighter.

In a final reflection, Rodriguez said about the victim “He always pursued his dreams. And nothing could stop him. He always had a smile on his face.”

Back to April 20, 2007

by Eliana Diaz 

As the world tries to reel from the reality of the shooting at Virginia Tech, many students and people from all over the world gather online to grieve and vent.  From blogging to cell phone videos, technology has forever changed the way we process and communicate about tragedy- in good and bad ways.

Almost immediately after Monday’s deadly shootings, Virginia Tech students created memorial pages and survivor lists on Facebook to let one another and their loved ones know that they survived. Other students posted photos and cell phone video on their own sites, or shared it just hours after the shootings with news organizations.

Even before the names of the victims were officially released, a few students created Facebook memorial pages for some of the dead- though others worried that it was too soon, especially since family and friends were still being notified.

In addition to using the university’s Web site to communicate with the world, Virginia Tech officials have planned to set up a site where families of the victims could post photos.

TechSideline.com, a site for VT sports fans, also quickly morphed into a meeting place where students, family and friends could communicate especially when phones were jammed.  As a show of support, many students, including scores from other colleges, replaced their Facebook profile photos with a VT logo shrouded in a black ribbon.

Just as the memorial pages are used as a form to grieve, many people have taken it upon themselves to create several pages that included hateful, sometimes racist remarks toward shooter Cho Seung-Hui, other Asians and his family.

One has to wonder at that at times like this, in the face of disaster and sorrow, the help that the Internet provides during tragedies like these is powerful and undeniable.

Back to April 20, 2007

by Ashley Armitage  

Why did he do it? What made him angry? Why take it out on other students? These are the questions running through everybody’s mind after the massacre at Virginia Tech yesterday. The killer was Cho Seung- Hui. He lived in Centerville, VA, and nobody is sure of what made him mad and why he killed all those people.

Some news sources say that he and his girlfriend had gotten into an argument and that he shot her first. He killed 32 people including himself. In his room there were no suicide notes there were just rants about the rich and privileged.  Police also are uncertain why Cho stopped and shot himself to death in Norris Hall, where most of his victims laid around him.

Weeks earlier Cho took pictures of fellow students and wrote death to their names. During his English class Cho wrote a more sinister poem about death. The students were afraid of him so for the next class no one showed up. His then told him that if he didn’t lighten up with the poems that he would have to drop the class and his reply was make me. Later the teacher suggested that he go to counseling and he just walked away. He wrote a lot of plays that were very morbid and grotesque. Today as students walk through the halls remembering the massacre that happened yesterday a lot are still shook up, but for them classes are canceled until further notice.

Back to April 20, 2007