Hey Titans!
It’s that awful time of the year again — Standardized test taking time! This week students in grades 9th-12th will have to put everything they have learned this year to paper. It seems throughout the last couple weeks teachers have been stressing over prepping their kids for their tests. Fortunately for us seniors late starts all week! Good luck to everyone at SMHS!
David Schall, Local Correspondant, Titan News
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
If this season has not been heartbreaking enough for the Lakernation, this past week has provided enough emotion for Laker fans to last them the rest of the season.
Laker star, Kobe Bryant, confirmed that he tore his achelies tendon on Friday’s 118-116 win against the Golden State Warriors. Bryant fell on the floor with 3:08 minutes left in the fourth quarter. He had played the entire game including back-to-back three pointers at 3:45 in the fourth quarter. ”I made a move I had made a million times and it just popped”Bryant recalls. Following his fall, Bryant stayed in the game to end the night completing two free throws until he was subbed out by Meta World Peace.
Torn achilles tendon injuries can take anywhere from 3 months to a year to heal. Bryant completed an MRI earlier this week, confirming the tear, followed by surgery. He is determined to make a comeback.
On a lighter note, the Lakers have qualified for playoffs! In a nail-biting 99-95 overtime win, with Dwight Howard leading the way. With Bryant out for the season and Steve Nash out indefinitely, the Lakers will be lead by Howard, Pau Gasol, and Steve Blake stepping up. The Lakers earned the 7th seed for the West conference. They play Sunday in San Antonio at 12 pm(western time).
The last break that everyone gets excited for before summer break. Spring break means a lot of thing to many San Marino students. For seniors, it means that they only have one more quarter to go through before they graduate and leave San Marino High School forever. Juniors and sophomores just need that break from school before they can continue on their adventure of high school and finally freshman take this break as a sign that they are about to complete their first year of their new world. As many students head to the beach, go eating at all the restaurants, or shopping, seniors take that time to go on college visits to visit the schools they have been accepted to. This year, the spring break weather was warm, but also cloudy. However, that did not stop many students to head to the beach getting in a nice tan before Prom comes along. A week goes by faster than you think. Now we are here back at school, ready to learn. Everyone is ready to wrap up this 2012-2013 school year and enjoy their summer soaking up the sun.
Manda Truong, Senior, SMHS News
Spring Break has come and gone. For many seniors this means the last stretch of high school before going off into the world! I went around SMHS asking students what they did for their spring break! Many of the students said they just relaxed at home, slept and enjoyed the time off! Teachers on the other hand seemed to travel more, as one teacher stated,
“I visited my family in Boston, it was great to get away!”
53 days left until graduation! Make the most of it Titan Seniors!!!
David Schall, Local Correspondant, Titan News
Astronomers have often wondered if carbon-based life forms on other planets exist. Rather than just wondering, NASA and MIT have paired together to find out. The partnership has just announced plans for a space mission, set for 2017, to explore the universe in search for life on distant planets.
The spacecraft for the mission, nicknamed TESS, will speed through space and use several advanced telescopes and cameras to observe and study planets outside of the solar system and identify which planets are capable of hosting life.
This project is the successor to the Kepler telescope, which launched in March 2009 and was wildly successful. The main difference between TESS and Kepler is the missions: Kepler is designed to observe and identify planets; TESS’s mission is to distinguish which planets are capable of supporting life.
Charmayne Floyd, Business and Technology Corresspondent
As one of the leading online music retailers in the world, you’d believe iTunes would have an outstanding profit margin. Sadly, you’d be wrong. iTunes just set a record of 25 billion songs sold last month (over 9,645 songs a second), yet after 10 years, they have not reached the billion dollar profits one would expect.
This isn’t due to a lack of sales or consumers; in fact, the lack of profits is intentional on the part of Apple. From the start of iTunes, Apple announced it wanted to run the company on a break-even basis, neither losing nor making money from the music sales. But even with this mentality, iTunes is currently running at a profit margin of 15%. Considering the $3.75 billion yearly costs, iTunes brings in then about $500 million in profits – pennies to the accounting people at Apple, but still fantastic for a department that wasn’t supposed to make a profit at all.
Charmayne Floyd, Business and Technology Correspondent
This week here at SMHS is going to be a very exiting and nerve racking one. Mostly all the UC’s are informing their applicants of their admission status. It is so weird to think that the last 4 years of high school have led up to this moment. All the hard work will eventually pay off. Below are some important dates to note down.
UCLA: March 22
UCSB: March 19
UCSC: March 15
UCI: March 28
CAL: March 28
Best of luck to our SMHS Seniors!!!!!
David Schall, Local Correspondant, Titan News
This week is full with exciting activities! It is great being a senior or junior, because the basic requirements to even pass high school, they’re done with it. Sophomore’s have to take a CAHSEE test on Tuesday (3/12/13) and Wednesday (3/13/13). Tuesday being the English portion and Wednesday being the math. The CAHSEE test is a high school exit exam that every students has to take their sophomore year. If one fails, he or she can retake the test next year until they pass it otherwise he or she is unable to graduate. Also on Wednesday, the freshman class has to take a physical test where they have to meet a certain time to run a mile, do a certain amount of push-ups, and many other test. California has a state standard where each freshman has to meet to be able to be known as a “healthy” student. Not having to do any of these activities, the seniors and juniors get a late start, first period starting at 10:15 a.m. What a great way to help the students who are unable to adapt to the time change that recently happened this past Sunday. From all the hard work the students have done, there is no school on Friday (3/15/13) for Professional Development Day. This week is flying by with busy events and ending with a great three day weekend. Looking forward for quarter finals next week.
It is that time of year again! The time where parents and students flock to SMHS to see all the progress students have made throughout the year! I am talking about nothing other then Open House! Is it just me or has the year gone come and gone? I feel it was just yesterday we where getting our schedules, and now us students are showing off all our hard work completed this year! Whether it be a project, or a test grade, all student work is shown on display and open house is a key event that happens every year here at SMHS. Open House is going to be this Thursday (3/7) from 7 PM – 8:30 PM. Hope to see everyone there!!!!
Normally, when people hear of a computer under $400, little alert bells go off inside their heads, warning of a ripoff or scam. But Google’s new computer, the Chromebook, is the real deal. Small, sleek, and affordable, it’s an economical option for the web user who wants a laptop for on-the-go. It’s also secure: Google is offering $150,000 to anyone who is able to hack the Chromebook system, and so far no one has claimed that reward.
While the Chromebook isn’t necessarily feasible as the only computer a person owns, it’s definitely a good backup. Currently it is not compatible with many photo and video editing programs, so if you heavily use those programs the Chromebook may not be for you. However, by creating a computer starting at $199, Google is certainly ushering in a new era of more economical but still usable computers.
Charmayne Floyd, Business and Technology Correspondent
