Did you know that April Fool’s Day is a holiday celebrated worldwide? For example, children make paper fish in France and hook them onto each other’s backs. Another form of this is that there’s a part of Spain where they throw a town food fight! April Fool’s Day has many names in many places, but the premise is still the same: you get to have a fun day of pranking and getting pranked!
Apophyllite is a beautiful clear white to clear green, it has a high water content just like most zeolites.
Apophyllite can turn brittle in sunlight if it’s left out for a long period of time, hints to its name Apo-Phyllite which means to flake off in Latin.
Group: This mineral is a part of the Phyllosilicate group, its chemical compound is (K,Na)Ca4Si8O20(F,OH)·8H2O and its streak is white and its specific gravity is 1.536. It has an imperfect cleavage, and a hardness of 4.5-5, and it’s slightly radioactive.
Formation: Apophyllite usually forms with Zeolites in basalt but it’s a phyllosilicate and not in the Zeolite group. It is a secondary mineral.
Tests: Apophyllite will flake off with exposure to the sun.
Hedgehogs are commonly confused with porcupines, and it’s the same the other way around. It seems like an easy mistake because they both have quills, but they’re really very different.
Starting with size, hedgehogs are typically about a foot long. Conversely, porcupines can be up to and around three feet long! It’s a pretty big difference when you think about it. Picture the tiles on the school floor, for example. Hedgehogs would fit inside one of those, but porcupines would take up two to three!
The next thing is diet. Hedgehogs are carnivores, feasting on small bugs and creepy crawlies like worms, slugs, and sometimes beetles and millipedes. Porcupines are herbivores, meaning they prefer twigs, leaves, tubers, grass, berries, fruit, and other plants.
Now it’s time to talk about their lifespan. Porcupines typically live 18 years in the wild, assuming they’re healthy. Hedgehogs live for a much shorter time, usually around 4 years. (again, assuming they’re healthy.) That means that porcupines live up to 4 times longer than hedgehogs!
Next up is their predators. Hedgehogs are commonly preyed on by birds, foxes, and wolves. Coyotes, bobcats, and owls often hunt porcupines.
Another thing to consider is that porcupines have a stumpier nose and fluffier fur on their bellies and feet than a hedgehog’s elongated snout and more bare legs and stomach.
What do you imagine a porcupine would sound like? If you said squeaks and grunts, correct you are! Hedgehogs? Picture a train. Do you hear huffing? That sounds like a hedgehog! (Although they also make noises like chirps and pig-like noises.)
Well, now you have all the facts. Which do you think is cooler?
2025 has arrived and so I thought I would do a sort of year in review of gaming by each month highlighting big releases or flops.
January: this month had a controversial release – Palworld, coined “Gun Pokemon”. It features similar gameplay mechanics with, well, guns. Also, you can essentially abuse the “pals” as well. Now, the issue is that it doesn’t take a genius to realize it is a lot like Pokemon and so the Nintendo lawyers went on offensive as they have many times (I am not sure about the result of the case at the moment). Second, we have a bunch of sludge as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League came out. There are lots of issues: bad writing, being live service just for the heck of it, etc. It stunk and was cancelled.
February: H#lldivers 2 (sorry, had to censor it) made by arrowhead and published by Sony is a critically acclaimed 3rd person co-op shooter game involving soldiers shooting bugs, robots, and aliens for democracy. It was also the fastest selling PlayStation game. Finally, from Ubisoft sailing on a ship of trash, we have Skull and Bones, a “AAAA quadruple A game” that went straight to Davy Jones locker. With issues as samey gameplay and grindy slog along with no endgame, it’s no wonder this one went straight off the plank.
March: Hi Fi Rush on XBox, a fast-paced highly-rated brawler that gives combat a uniquely satisfying momentum that other stylish-action games don’t offer, even when the platforming and targeting system drop a couple notes along the way. Oh yeah, no slop this month – yay!
April: uh, not much this month but I heard that Final Fantasy VII was good
May: uh, not much this month either. There was, uh . . . Endless Ocean Luminous, I guess.
June: hey, finally something interesting! So the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree came out this month and if you aren’t a souls-like fan, it was that one DLC to get nominated for GOTY and also that game that streamers were marathon streaming. I hear it was really good! (maybe not GOTY nominee good; I think there should be a DLC of the year subcategory).
July: uh, Nintendo World Championships, I guess?
August: hey, another GOTY nominee this month as Black Myth Wukong released. Based on Chinese mythology, you may know it as that one game whose players were really angry about Astrobot winning GOTY.
September: Astrobot is GOTY of 2024 and a 3D platformer that takes inspiration from Super Mario (especially Super Mario Galaxy) and it is very fun I hear. Next, we have The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, a 2D platformer that isn’t open world unlike BOTW and TOTK that features Zelda as the protagonist instead of link and uses the tri rod (a rod uses to summon objects and defeated enemies) to solve puzzles and dungeons.
October: First, we have Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Next is Dragon Ball Zero, a Mortal Kombat fighter but Dragon Ball Z – I hear it’s amazing. Finally, Mario Party Jamboree, another entry into the friendship-ending franchise. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that Sonic X Shadow Generations. Whoops! It’s a fast-paced platformer released around the 3rd movie.
November: Um, I don’t have much here. Mario Luigi Brothership, the best 5/10 game I’ve ever played (that rating was bull).
December: Welp, a short but sweet ending to the year as we have Marvel Rivals, a superhero hero shooter. The genre has been flooded with slop but this game I hear is a breath of fresh air and really good!
Conclusion: 2024 was fairly good for gaming and I look forward to next year thought there is a serious matter I must cover. There were 14,600 jobs lost and numerous studios closed: Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Studios, Arkane Austine and that Bethesda alone. That’s a lot of jobs and lets hope less are lost next year.
Gay-Straight Alliances (or GSAs) are a safe place at school for queer, LGBTQ+ students, or allies to be themselves. These are important to have at schools because if there is no safe space for students to be themselves, it can lead to depression, leading to poor performance in school. There are GSAs across the globe. There is even one here at Jefferson!
According to Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son: A Memoir, by Kevin Jennings, “The first GSA was started in 1988, in Concord, Massachusetts at Concord Academy by Kevin Jennings. The first public school gay-straight alliance was started at Newton South High School (Newton, Massachusetts) by teacher Robert Parlin.” That means that the first GSA was 37 years ago!
Since GSAs are global, they’re probably pretty important for students, right? As of July 2020, there’s even one in Australia! “…as reported by the media Star Observer, Australia has one gay-straight alliance set up within the Melbourne Grammar School.” (Why Australian Schools Need Gay-Straight Alliances). So, yes – GSAs are important!
GSAs are getting even more important now that Trump is president. He has started removing federal funding for businesses that support the LGBTQ+ community and people of color, and that will hurt many ‘safe spaces’ that rely on federal funding to function well (or at all). We need to create safe spaces for students who may not have access to other places due to them shutting down, and we can do that through GSAs!
If you are a queer student or an ally, you can visit our school’s GSA! You can email blacklu@u4sd.org or visit Ms. Black if you have questions.
I’m Emy, a 6th grade member of The Jefferson Post. For my first article, I interviewed 6th grade’s very own Ms. Cook! Here were the questions and her responses to each one.
Q: ”What is so compelling about history?”
A: “It’s controversial, and people can argue.”
Q: “If you could change one small thing about history, what would you change?”
A: “Hitler would never have been born.¨
Q: If you could meet a figure of history, or an event, Who or what would it be?”
A: “For sure, RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg).”
Q: ““If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?”
A: “Definitely Morocco.”
Q: “When did you start teaching?”
A: “I think I started in 2013.”
Q: “What is your favorite quote from a historical figure?”
A: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate can not drive out hate, only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
First, when you get the puppy, let it get used to you and where you live. Also, get them teething toys as they’ll probably start teething soon (if they aren’t already). Then, when you get the puppy, feed it and give it water because he or she might be hungry and thirsty. The puppy is probably tired, so show the puppy its bed. You might also wake up in the middle of the night to feed it, give it water and take it outside to go potty.
Feed them puppy food, and as they get older switch to dog food. Another good idea is to get a doggy door so your dogs can run in and out as they please. Also, a good idea is to get your puppy a collar or harness so if he or she ever runs away, the people who find your puppy will know where he or she lives so you will get your puppy back.
Here’s a list of fun things to do in the cold, snowy weather!
In winter, people often complain that it is too cold outside, but no one ever asks why it is so cold. The weather changes in these colder months because in our winter the sun is at its lowest in the sky, shortening our days and making us colder.
Another reason this happens is that during fall and winter, the UV rays that the sun produces are less concentrated and weaker.
Winter is different everywhere. For example, in the northern hemisphere, our coldest months are January and February. For someone living in the southern part of the world, their winter would be in June July, and August. This happens for the same reason that some places have different time zones. One example is in Champaign, where it is 2:55 pm and 5:55 am in Tokyo.
In summary, winter is colder because the sun changes positions in the sky.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a 2D-platforming game released for the Wii U and Nintendo Switch. For this review, I will be playing the Switch version that added a new difficulty level (Funky Mode) and character (Funky Kong).
Gameplay: the game play of Tropical Freeze is amazing. It uses the old gameplay from the original DKC (Donkey Kong Country) games and brings them to a modern setting. Donkey Kong (or Funky Kong) has several moves, the roll makes you faster and you can damage enemies. But, while rolling it is harder to maneuver, the pound has you slap the floor stunning enemies and breaking damaged blocks under you, with the pull you yank stuff out of the ground. Funky Kong has several more added on like a double jump and hover that make it easier to play.
The platforming is amazing! I love to jump my way through the amazingly-designed levels and stomp enemies and with the addition of Funky Kong (Switch only but who has a Wii U anyway?) makes the game more accessible to newer players with the better players who can use DK. There are also levels that revolve around minecarts and barrel rockets. Minecarts have been a huge part of DKC and are all about precision and timing whereas barrel rockets are newer. My biggest issue with the gameplay is . . . nothing!
Graphics: Now, graphics aren’t really that important to me personally. I don’t care how it looks, more how it plays. The graphics aren’t amazing (well, what do you expect with a Nintendo Switch title?) but it is okay. I do like the character designs though they are cartoonish and hard to take seriously (come on, nobody is intimidated by a big seal with a unibrow).
Collectables: DKC: Tropical Freeze has great collectables. There are several “Kong Letters” which are letters hidden that when all are collected spell “Kong”. When you collect all of these letters in an area you access to the “K” level that has no checkpoints and is harder. Beat all “K” levels to unlock a secret area. Next are puzzle pieces that unlock images of things from the game, for some reason these do not contribute to 100% (thank God) and you can buy the bird (squawk) from the shop to help you find them. Next is bananas, these function like coins from Mario as when you collect 100 you get an extra life, they have no other use that i know of. Next is banana coins. These are rarer than bananas but you can buy stuff from the shops.
Pros: this game has amazing platforming, levels, music, and ideas that make it an amazing game and well worth getting. Also, it has some nice support for newer players with Funky Kong being easier and if you die on a level enough you can skip it.
Cons: price is $50 (or $60 if it’s digital) and there are some slight balancing issues. Here’s what I mean: the other characters (Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong and Cranky Kong) serve as power-ups that give you advantages BUT there is NO REASON to every use Diddy Kong because his entire feature is made useless . . . because Dixie Kong is the same thing but better! Cranky Kong has a feature that isn’t a downgraded version of Dixie’s but it is mostly considered inferior. One other issue I have is that some of the bosses are way too long.
Summary: Tropical Freeze is a great game with slight balancing issues that mainly don’t affect player enjoyment. I bought the game and had a great time and enjoyed it and I would recommend it to fans of the 2d platformer genre that have a Nintendo Switch or Wii U.