DAN KATZ '08
Those of you who happened to walk by the entrance to the new athletic center may have noticed a change in the design of the entrance. At first glance I missed the alteration, due to the fact that our school has experienced significant architectural changes lately. However, the change jumped out at me during my second stroll past the entrance on Monday, March 3. The sign above the new building's main door, usually reading "Athletic Center," now reads "Athl__ic Center." Two of the letters (the 'E' and the 'T') are currently missing from the sign. The reasoning behind this alteration is not clear at this moment, but we at "The Beaver Reader" assume it to be a result of some sort of vandalism. While I hope for another explanation, I currently sit disappointed. Such vandalism shows a complete disrespect for the school's recent advancements, specifically the $10m project that is the new Athletic Center.
The Reader's own Maddy Kiefer met with Assistant Athletic Director Matt Thompson today, who confirmed our vandalism theory. Thompson said that the missing letters had to be the result of vandalism, as the letters where made of steel and screwed onto the metal backing of the sign. He also added that the administration is not positive when the vandalism took place.
After doing our own research, we talked to students who remember seeing the letters late last week. "Last week i walked up and i definitely saw the letters. They were right there!" notes senior Sabrina Fiori, who noticed the missing letters on Monday (3/3).
The administration sent out an e-mail to teachers asking for any helpful information, but so far little progress has been made in the search for the culprit.
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Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Vandalism: Athletic Center's Sign Missing Letters
Monday, March 3, 2008
Fun Day!!!!!!!!!!!
TAYLOR HAIGLER ’08 AND MADDY KIEFER ‘08
In retrospect, we probably should have realized this was not going to be an average Monday. First off, the teachers were all wearing jeans and sweatshirts, which is normally only allowed on casual Fridays, and the student council was gathered in the balcony during meeting. No one really noticed this, however. We were too preoccupied with the anticipation of our new courses.
Students came to school expecting to receive the exams that they failed, grudgingly start third term classes and get hours and hours of homework. But to everyone’s excitement, IT WAS FUN DAY!!!
Before this was revealed, we sat in suspense while Mr. Manning lamented the loss of his ‘stolen strawberries’ and the punishment that the perpetrator would suffer. After Clay Marsh ‘09 and Sam O’Reilly ’09 were interrogated and snitched on Michael Manning ‘09, Peter Wilmot ’08 informed the student body that it was all a hoax. Instead of reluctantly beginning our third term classes, we were treated to 45 minutes of BAGELS and CAPRI SUNS and then shuttled to Quincy and Somerville for 3 hours of INTENSE CANDLE PIN BOWLING. We enjoyed the funtivities while eating BAG LUNCHES and drinking WATER! We returned to school to watch the faculty TRUMP the seniors in a volleyball match, but they fought hard. Overall, it was a great start to senior slump… I mean… spring term.
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The Mysteries of Beaver: The Sketchy YouTube Video
MADDY KIEFER ‘08
At about 7:00pm last Tuesday, I went to the Beaver Reader website to read the college essay of the day but immediately noticed that something was different. Instead of the normal video player on the home page, there was a different video. There was a bright purple frame around the player, as opposed to the typical blue one, and in it there was a picture of a woman. Curious, I went to the YouTube link that was provided under the frame to see what the video was.
It took me about ten seconds to decide that the link to that video was not supposed to be on the Beaver Reader site. It was basically six minutes of French techno music by the artist “TenDanC'IouS RecorD,” very different from the videos of the talent show or dodgeball games that are typically on the site. Google searches turn up virtually nothing, except for a couple MySpace pages that may or may not be related to the artist. After a minute or so of complete confusion, I remembered something that happened to Dan Katz ’08 a few weeks previously. On a Sunday in mid January, he noticed the exact same video on the main page. He told Jessica Penzias ’08 about it, and she saw it on the site too. Just as Dan was about to log on and take it down, Jessica pressed refresh on her browser and video was gone; the page was back to normal.
As soon I remembered this story, I went back to the newspaper to try and take a screen cap of it to show other people, so we could get down to the bottom of this problem. But, similar to what happened to Dan and Jessica, the video was gone as soon as I got back to site. It’s interesting to note that the user just joined YouTube and posted the video two weeks ago—right around the time Dan first saw it. (Also note Dan’s comment on the video: “who are you, and why does your video come up on my website in place of another video?”)
This is definitely not one of my conventional mystery articles—for starters, it barely has any affiliation to Beaver, except that the video was on Beaver’s newspaper site. However, we would like to get as much information about this glitch as possible, so if you have seen this malfunction before, please leave a comment below. Also, if you see it in the future, try to take a screen cap of the page (for Macs press Apple+Shift+3, for PCs press “Print Screen” and paste it into a Paint document) and email it to someone on the newspaper staff.
UPDATE: OK, thanks to the unparalleled investigative journalism talents of the TBR crew, we now have a screen capture of the home page while "possessed":
We have some ideas about why this may be happening, and we'll continue to look into it. Stay tuned!
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Monday, February 25, 2008
The Mysteries of Beaver: The Book Elevator
MADDY KIEFER '08
Throughout middle school, I was puzzled by the apparent existence of a small elevator that led from the library down to the language wing below. I never really questioned what it was, but I knew that, behind the computers in the main library area, there was a metal door with a few buttons next to it, so I just thought it was an out-of-date laundry chute. I suppose that if I had took a few minutes to actually think about it, I would have realized how ridiculous that scenario was.
Turns out that it is a book chute, used for, quite simple, moving heavy stacks of books and magazines from floor to floor. There is one in the balcony area of the library, one behind the computers, and one across from the language office. The language office opening might be best explained by the fact that the entire lower floor of the science wing was once an open-floorplan Middle School area, and that there was a nonfiction books section down there. (That also sheds some light on the odd, unused, closed-off staircase to the Language Wing from the Library.)
Perhaps the most mysterious thing about the chute, though, isn’t that it’s there, but that there are four buttons, but no sign of a fourth floor.
According to Ms. Horwitz, the chute can be used for books and magazines, but, unfortunately, not people. It requires her key to operate, probably just to make sure that students don’t test the whole not-made-for-a-human concept.
Thanks to: Ms. Horwitz, Toph Tucker
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Oh FirstClass (with FirstClass tips & tricks)
Have any other good tips? Any questions? Any thoughts on FirstClass, on the purpose of the news conferences, or anything else? We welcome your comments.
TOPH TUCKER ‘08
I, like many students, have a love-hate relationship with FirstClass. During the final stretches of the Junior History paper last year, I think quite a few of us became painfully aware that it goes down from 2:00 AM to around 3:15 AM for backups. Web access is frequently unreliable, and has a nasty habit of logging you off after even the briefest spurt of inactivity—without notifying you or saving your message-in-progress. (I’ve heard it said that “FirstClass is down” is the new “My printer broke” is the new “My dog ate my homework.”)
Even when, technically speaking, it works fine, there are issues. Take, for instance, the trichotomy of Middle School News, Upper School News, and Student News. Theoretically, all-school announcements should go in Student News, Middle School-only announcements should go in Middle School News, and Upper School-only announcements should go in Upper School News. But in practice, there are very few announcements that are that specific. Usually, items just get posted everywhere they can, which results in a tremendous amount of redundancy.
A few different types of item get into these news conferences. There are, of course, the news items. There are the uploaded documents, like the Senior Yearbook Pages instruction document (which is really just for seniors) or the Support Our Troops document. But most items pertain to Lost and Found.
A few years ago, Vivek Pai ’08 designed a dedicated Lost and Found web site (akin to his Library web site) which introduced an organized and logical system for tracking those ubiquitous wayward personal possessions. Unfortunately, it was never really adopted. Other efforts have sprung up, too, ranging from fashion shows to placement in last year’s winter play. Yet the FirstClass news conferences and (to some extent) the daily meetings continue to bear the brunt of the burden.
Occasionally debates spring up. For instance, is it acceptable to campaign for class officer in Student News? A couple months ago, a lengthy discussion of the merits of various superheroes took over Student News for several days. It makes me wonder whether there should be a conference just for discussion—where better to debate school policy than on the email system that most people check regularly?
Part of the purpose of this newspaper is to provide a home for that kind of discussion. But thus far, there hasn’t been too much debate in the comments. Is it because our readership is too small? Or because our readers are hesitant to comment? Or both?
In any case, FirstClass is a huge part of our school, yet one that it not always well-understood. To help you make the most of it, we’ve compiled a list of useful tips and tricks.
Toph’s Terrific Tech Tips
dedicated to Alex Firer, who never forgave me for abandoning "Toph's Terrific Tech Tips" after just one presentation in 6th grade...
a. There are several versions each available for Windows, Mac, or Linux, and in 12 different languages. Their web site forces you to deal with a big messy table, but we’ll make it simple: Windows English or Mac OSX English. If you need something else, go here.
b. Install the software and open it up. In the upper right corner of the login window, click “Setup.” Enter fc.bcdschool.org next to “Server:”, which is about halfway down the page. Click Save.
c. Login in just like you would at school. You should be all set!
a. The site is http://fc.bcdschool.org/login (in case you forget)
b. It has a tendency to log you out while you’re writing a message without telling you. So when you try to send it, it’ll tell you you’ve been logged out, and your message will be lost. Just in case, get in the habit of copying the text of your message before sending it. (On Windows, with the cursor in the message box, Ctrl-A followed by Ctrl-C should do it. Ctrl-V pastes your message back in if you lose it.)
a. In the program: on the Desktop, go to Edit (at the top menu bar) and click Preferences. In the Messaging tab, under “Automatically forward,” type your email address in the “Forward to:” box. Select “Yes” in the drop-down boxes for Local Mail, Internet Mail, and Voice/Fax Mail. Where it says “Method,” make sure it says “Forward.” (Do NOT set it to redirect, or else it won’t show up in your FirstClass mailbox.) Click the OK button in the bottom-right.
b. On the web site: on the Desktop, click Preferences on the left. Scroll down to messaging. Under “Automatically forward,” type your email address in the “Forward to:” box. Select “Yes” in the drop-down boxes for Local Mail, Internet Mail, and Voice/Fax Mail. Where it says “Method,” make sure it says “Forward.” (Do NOT set it to redirect, or else it won’t show up in your FirstClass mailbox.) Scroll all the way down and click the Save button.
a. To change the appearance of the program, go to Edit (on the menu at the top), Preferences, and then the Viewing tab. Look at the drop-down options next to “Client interface.” “FirstClass Explore,” for instance, lets you keep everything—desktop menu, mailbox, and the message you’re currently reading—in a single window. (You can change other aspects of the appearance under the General tab.)
b. To change the appearance of the web version, again go to Edit, Preferences, and then the Web tab. There are a couple of interesting options in the dropdown menu next to “Web client interface.” For instance, “Mobile Device” gives a simplified interface optimized for viewing on, say, an iPhone or another cell phone.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Student Council Update: Senior night, "The Break Down," etc.
LIZ COBB '08
Student Council reconvened this Tuesday, February 12 after missing last week’s meeting to run the mock presidential primary. In the meeting, members organized Snack Shack for Friday’s four home games and matches (many seniors’ last home games). A group also worked on organizing and writing a proposal for a possible spring event. Additionally, we had check-ins with each grade to see how many grade events were going on. Jessica Amaizu, a member of the diversity committee came and spoke to us about future plans for a student led project called “The Break Down.” Student Council suggested and discussed its views on the project with Jessica.
As always, Student Council would love to hear your ideas. Please tell a member of Student Council if you have any suggestions or grievances, or come to our meetings at 8:00 on Tuesday mornings.
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Monday, February 11, 2008
The Mysteries of Beaver: The Evolution of Our School
INTERESTING SIDENOTE: For all the LOST fans out there, have you ever noticed that the lights in Bradley Hall have a design on them that look curiously similar to the Dharma Initiative logo? Who knows, maybe there’s curious electromagnetic activity at 791 Hammond St… (Courtesy of Mr. Camp)
MADDY KIEFER ‘08
When Beaver was built in 1924, it only consisted of the West Wing (what is now the Middle School Wing). A year later, the East Wing (Upper School Wing) was added, and there was an arcade (an open-air passageway) connecting the two. The central wing wasn’t built until 1930, and 24 years later the next addition, Sawtell Gym, was built (and subsequently demolished in 2003). The Science and Language Wing was built in 1969, the New Gym in 1994, the Visual and Performing Arts Center (VPAC) in 2004 (taking Sawtell’s spot), and the new Athletic Center just last summer (2007).
Lastly, did you ever wonder about the origin of the cubbies in the Upper and Middle School Hallways? It turns out that they used to be lockers, but, with nowhere else to sit, the students would end up sitting on the floor in the hallways. The administration decided to move the lockers to the basement and use the cubbies as a place for students to sit. Apparently it’s more important for you to have a place to rest between classes than to have a convenient place for you to leave your binders. As a result, the current lockers go mostly unused, and piles of bags litter the school in spots like the infamous Graveyard.
Although these additions and transformations are beneficial to the students, they do involve some sacrifices. Many of us are still upset over the loss of our beloved Sawtell Gym, which was replaced by the new Arts Building. Additionally, the tennis courts were destroyed in order to make room for the Athletic Center and parking, much to the dismay of Beaver’s tennis players. The saddest sacrifice, however, is most likely the playground that was demolished and rebuilt as a more “modern” playground. (60% of respondents in a Beaver Reader online poll said they preferred the old playground.) Although these losses are unfortunate, they are necessary to keep our school as well-equipped and advanced as it needs to be.
SOURCES: Mr. Gow, Mr. Camp
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