You Can Be The Change We All Need!Author: Katelyn Basso
Fun Fact
The African Heartwood Project is a great place to start. They've been running their charity since 2008 (now that's dedication!) What They Do. They build wells for people in Africa (right now in Ghana, Liberia, and general West Africa Check Them Out. http://www.africaheartwoodproject.org
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Authors: Hannah Judelson-Kelly & Quentin Sanders On this day in history in 2007, Argentina’s first female president was elected into office with a large majority government. Although Isabel Perón was the first woman President in Argentina, leading from 1974-1976, she was not elected into office. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first elected female Argentine President, served from 2007 until 2015. During this time, Kirchner introduced many left-wing programs, such as higher pensions and a universal child-welfare grant. Argentina also became the first Latin-American country to legalize same-sex marriage during her term in office. However as a female president, Kirchner was also subject to misogynistic comments such as being called “la yegua” (the mare) by critics, as well as being referred to as simply ‘Cristina’ as opposed to President Kirchner, as other presidents would be. As if this was not enough, Kirchner was often referred to along with her husband, the previous President, as the ‘presidential couple’. However, this view of the matter is quite misinformed, as Kirchner is capable of her own decisions and independent of her husband. While the two would discuss much as husband and wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was the President at the time, and fully able to bear that responsibility. Kirchner never allowed these slights on her gender to bring her down; rather than attempting to minimize her femininity, she always opted to keep it at the forefront, through both her fashion choices, and most importantly, her continued and vocal support for women’s rights. Kirchner’s time in office was not without its controversies. Since leaving office, she has been accused of corruption and of covering for the perpetrators of a 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre - although Ms. Kirchner continues to profess that all the allegations against her are false, merely lies stirred up by her male rivals to discredit her. Despite these scandals, Ms. Kirchner has managed to win the hearts of many of the Argentinian people who have stood by her through her 8 years as president. She remains the first elected female president in Argentina, a legacy sure to inspire for generations to come. The election of a female president revealed just how far women’s rights have advanced in the past centuries; less than 100 years ago, women still didn’t have the right to vote in the United States. However, unfair standards continue to hurt women in politics; listening in on one of the presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, which have been dominating the media as of late, is a key indicator of just how far we as a society still need to go. Women seen with having power are still critiqued according to their choice of attire, as opposed to their policies, as men are. Women continue to be considered along with their husbands, rather than treated as individuals with unique opinions; and women are still subject to far too many misogynistic comments. The status of women in society has come a long way in the past few hundred years; the rights and freedoms enjoyed by women today represent the work of many dedicated women and men who have committed themselves to a vision of a more just and equal society. However, even today, the battle isn’t over; the trailblazing efforts of women like Ms. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner are still needed if we are to achieve a society of truly equal opportunity for everybody, regardless of their gender. Author: Sergiu Pocol CAMERON-BASED SCIENCE
PHYSICS Longing to master soccer? Perhaps the greatest achievement would be a banana kick, in which a precise and impactful kick sends a soccer ball along a seemingly impossible trajectory.
The answer revolves around the balls interaction with the medium it flows through. The secret to the aforementioned trick involves kicking the ball so that you put a spin on it. The spin causes a pressure gradient about the ball because air moving against it that opposes its motion will build up creating higher pressure that applies a force to the ball, pushing it in the direction of lower pressure where the airflow is in the same direction as the spin. This is called the Magnus effect and the driving force is called the Magnus force. So to “wow” the crowd, kick the ball such that the spin applied will turn the ball in the desired direction (a useful rule is that counterclockwise spins will turn the ball to the left and vice versa). Needless to say, practice makes perfect! CHEMISTRY Lukewarm pops are arguably the bane of anyone’s existence, but, as usual, science has a clever retort! To chill pop in under 20 minutes, fill a bucket with water and add copious amounts of salt then ice and submerge the cans! When water freezes the hydrogen bonds that form between the opposite partial charges on the O and H2 (due to the difference in electronegativity) causes the molecules to align in a beautiful lattice: The dissociated sodium and chlorine ions that form by dissolving the salt interrupt this lattice. Consequently, this lowers water’s melting point so water can be cooled further and still remain liquid. This in turn increases the surface area in contact with the can and cools it faster! BIOLOGY Ever wonder what manages to make garlic taste so dreadful? In garlic cells, membranes separate the enzyme alliinase and the compound alliin which is the substrate. When crushed the enzyme converts alliin into allicin which is characterized by a largely unpleasant taste. Try smelling garlic before and after crushing it for a mini-experiment. |
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