Don Quixote is dubbed the greatest work of Spanish literature, the first modern European novel, a timeless classic. The timeless tale dives into Don Quixote’s quixotic goal toward chivalry while exploring social issues of 17th century Spain. Yet the author, Miguel Cervantes died of poverty and his body is nowhere to be found. Legend has it Cervantes was buried underneath the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians. Recently, the Spanish government announced its plan to search for and exhume the body of Cervantes. They plan to spend over 100,000 euros to locate the body of the author using radar technology. The goal is that the investigation will reveal more information on the mysterious author. Even after centuries of death, forensics can still analyze the injuries for possible sources of death. Investigators hope to find evidence that could lead to answers. The only clues we have of Cervantes is found his his writing for he frequently referenced himself in them. We know that he supposedly has several bullet wounds from his days in the navy as well as only six teeth.

There is a close parallel between the fate of William Shakespeare, who died of an unknown cause and is buried in the Holy Trinity Church in his hometown of Stratford, Warwickshire. A few years ago, a group of scientists asked for permission to exhume the body of Shakespeare. However, the English government rejected the proposal.

Famous authors are often subjected to the intense investigation of the media as celebrities nowadays face. Shakespeare’s writing is tainted by myths of his corrupt character. Many people do not read his plays because they believe Shakespeare was a fraud or he married a woman eight years his senior.The substance of literature too heavily depends on the identity its creators.

It might be best to respectfully leave Cervantes in peace and remember Don Quixote on as we do now, unaffected by the corporeal being who wrote it.


Tonya Chen
News Editor

Earth's Twin - blog 4

James Fang - 4th

NASA revealed the first discovery of an Earth-sized, prospectively habitable world in the universe on April 17 by the Kepler telescope. The planet, named Kepler 186-f, is an exciting development in the search for extraterrestrial life and potentially space-colonization.

Such a planet has been extremely difficult to find due to the vast number of conditions that must all be met for life as we know it on our planet to exist. We are therefore looking for an Earth doppelganger in the vast universe.

For the temperature on the surface to be habitable, the world must be the right distance from its star, the goldilocks zone - not too hot and not too cold. This is required for the existence of liquid water which in turn allows for biological life. Next, in order to protect planetary organisms from the harmful radiation of the star, the exoplanet must have a protective atmosphere. Another prerequisite, more geared towards human colonization of space, is the similar size of the exoplanet to that of Earth’s in order for ideal gravity as well as planetary composition (ie. solid rock instead of gaseous surfaces of larger planets or liquid surfaces of smaller planets).  

Kepler 186-f has all the hints of meeting these requirements, but being over 490 light years away, the planet cannot be thoroughly investigated by current space technology. It appears to orbit a dwarf star and is at the far edge of the preferred goldilocks zone. This is important because: 1) the fact that the star is a dwarf star means the star is in its older years, suggesting that 186-f has been around longer than Earth has, which means any life on it would have had potentially billions of years to develop (perhaps, we may find advanced, intelligent life-forms) and 2) regardless of atmosphere or not, the distance from the star and the smaller amount of energy emanating from a dwarf star would protect life on the planet from harmful radiation. The size of the planet, having a diameter of 8,700 miles, is only 10% bigger than Earth’s at 7,918 miles. This suggests that surface is rocky and suitable for lifeforms like those found on our planet.

Bay Area Environmental Research Institute's Thomas S. Barclay said, "It's a progression. ... This is a very, very exciting milestone discovery. It has a much higher probability of being habitable. This planet really reminds us of Earth."

Future developments in space technology may help us confirm the composition of Kepler 186-f, but the discovery of such an exoplanet has broken our idea that Earth is alone in the universe. Further investigation may even reveal that we, as intelligent lifeforms, may also not be as alone as we think.

For more information:

http://www.policymic.com/articles/87881/nasa-discovers-the-best-evidence-yet-that-life-exists-outside-our-solar-system

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/tech/space-earth-size-planet/

Blog #3

Michael Pineda, New York Yankees' starting pitcher, was suspended for 10 games for having smeared pine tar all over his neck while playing against the Boston Red Sox.

The 25-year-old's action was a clear violation of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Rule 8.02, which states that a pitcher "shall not apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball" and warns of a 10-game suspension in the case of an offense. 

Which sounds perfectly law-abiding and all (it follows the rule to the T--pun intended) except for one thing: pine tar is a generally-accepted part of baseball, at least as far as hitters and managers are concerned. (http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/michael-pineda-suspended-10-games-by-mlb-after-pine-tar-incident-190834347.html).

In other words: Pineda was not punished for violating MLB's rule; he was punished for blatantly violating MLB's rule, for slathering the substance all over his neck and for not being (successfully) sneaky about it (though Manager Joe Girardi did admit to not having noticed the paste, so it must have not been too conspicuous).

This incident was the first pitcher’s suspension for use of a foreign substance in baseball since that of Joel Peralta (in 2012). Pineda began serving his suspension Thursday.

Allie Lefkowitz

Staff Writer

Period 4

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/the-new-york-times-wins-two-photography-pulitzers/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0


The photo from the lens.blog shows a young man on a therapy bed after having his legs amputated because of the pressure of the 2 pressure cooker bombs at Boston bombing taken by Josh Haner. This photo is very centered and expresses the man's emotions as he is looking up at the ceiling.

The article talks about the New York Times photography won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize. It talks about how Josh Haner was awarded Pulitzer for his photography during the recovery process for a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing.Another photographer Mr hicks has won many international award such as Newspaper Photographer of the year.This shows how New York times photography is getting better day by day.

Here are some of the photos taken by Tyler Hicks.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/tyler_hicks/index.html

They follow the rule of thirds and expresses emotions.One can definitely see the situation just by looking at the photos.

A case for why classic bands who no longer exist should come back together occassionally

For rock bands that reach seminal status, but no longer exist, tributes often consist of numerous versions of their songs as well as numerous cover bands. While both song covers and tribute bands are a good way of respecting the artist, no one can outdo the original band.

Throughout musical history, popular rock acts have lost members to a myriad of causes. Often, A member’s death can cement the band’s status, but lead to an uncertain future for the band that depends on the people in it. Led Zeppelin and Nirvana called it quits after John Bohnam’s and Kurt Cobain’s deaths (drummer of Led Zeppelin and frontman of Nirvana, respectively). However, the Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) continued under the same name after guitarist Hillel Slovak’s death, and the surviving members of Joy Division continued as New Order after frontman Ian Curtis’ death. Still others split and members established distinguished solo careers for themselves.

The bands that continued on honored the influence of the deceased, but did not let it overshadow their own new work. In a twist of fate, RHCP and New Order arguably entered one of the most critically and artistically successful periods of their career. RHCP's second album not to feature Slovak reached 15 million in sales and was called by Steve Huey of Allmusic, “…probably the best album the Chili Peppers would ever make.” New Order expanded from Joy Division’s depressing post-punk into the electronic and dance genres in the 1980s.

For the bands like Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, however, there was no group evolution or future albums. While getting back together may not be feasible, occasional reunion concerts are – and something I very much support. The two surviving members of Nirvana, after their band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, joined the stage on their original instruments. Several artists across decades, some influences on Nirvana, others influenced by them, handled vocal and other duties. Led Zeppelin has played with John Bonham’s son on drums, and lead singer Robert Plant has said he is open to a possible Led Zeppelin reunion.

With these two bands as an example, this approach is excellent. It honors their legacy – when the band was at their creative prime – in a responsible way. Whether the results of all occasional reunion shows may not turn out so well, I believe it is always worth a try for the fans, for the music they created and for any band members are with them. I genuinely hope and urge more bands to have reunion concerts.

Instant Replay in the MLB: Pros & Cons

This season is the first season that Major League Baseball will allow instant replays of certain plays in its games. Replays are available for plays that are crucial to player statistics. Debates about the MLB's allowing for instant replays of certain plays began about two seasons ago, and people were certain this allowance would happen very soon following the beginning of these debates. Now that they have been implemented, many pros and cons have arisen. 

Time concerns are the first con to this new rule in major league baseball. Games already take upwards of three hours for just nine innings, and that’s excluding games that go into extra innings. Adding replays can add time to every single play that happens, especially in big games between rivals where the games are hard-pressing. There is no arguing that adding instant replays to the game of baseball would add considerable amounts of time to each game. Where this might not be an issue is that baseball fans already know how slow the game is, so what negative effects would extra time, or “free baseball” have on them?

Instant replays in other sports have led to increased tenseness on the bench and from the coaches toward the referees and now umpires who could miscall the play in the replay. The umpires will inevitably make bad calls, but just how many they make could enrage fans even further than current bad calls. Following this, judgment calls are also a pressing issue while replays could make the proper call more obvious to fans who better know the rules than the umpires might. How an umpire determines pitches will always fall under the judgment category. Unfortunately, this is a way that fans get the most worked up against the referee.

Another issue would be the camera angle. When concerning whether a player has completely swung for a strike or not, camera angle is extremely important. Every ballpark has different cameras which could lead to different interpretations of the play in discussion. This could lead to further controversies about the issue of allowing instant replays in MLB games.

While these are all negatives with hidden positives, more accurately being able to call every game will not have bad effects. Similarly, not too many plays should have to be reviewed, so not too much time should be added to every game.

The argument about whether the MLB should continue to allow replays has become more of a historical argument on big mistakes that umpires have made in the past, big plays they have called incorrectly that have led to sweepingly different results from the season than should have occurred. It will be very interesting to see if instant replays remain in the professional game of baseball forever and if they will in any way be changed.

Leslie Cundiff

Senior Sports Writer 

The Rider online
Layout is very similar to ours but they have a very strong masthead that we are lacking. I really liked "MTV Quality" a column about how MTV has changed. I also do not like how they have veered away from actual music program it actually used to be a channel that only played music videos. The Rider also has very good head shots for their staffers rather than mugshots. The website is very easy to navigate and has lots of content for each section

The Red Ledger
I really like their entertainment section they have a rating system, good headlines, and they even have the trailer above the review. The headlines for the reviews are also cleaver not just "movie review".
I enjoyed the story about the student who was in "Noah" it was really cool that they had a student in a movie. The article was also well done and the interviewee asked good questions.

The Pride Online
The format is the same as ours but they also have a really strong masthead. I think our site has too much white the background should be grey. I like that they had a story about how they wrote a story about what they were doing to interact with their readers.