By Sydney Joa, 11th Grade The undersea Tongan volcano Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai erupted this past January 15th, leaving thousands of people without houses, supplies, and connectivity. The eruption produced a huge cloud of ash, earthquakes, and tsunamis that made it all the way to Peru’s coasts, Alaska, the United Kingdom, Russia, as well as the shores of Australia. With NASA stating that the volcanic explosion was hundreds … Continue reading Tonga Volcano Eruption: A Brief Overview of What Happened

By Ana Perez, 9th Grade Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth with a net worth of $263B, more than 40% of the general population, refuses to pay his taxes because he sucks. In 2018, he paid nothing in federal income taxes despite his fortune as a billionaire. So, why is it that the richest man in the world refuses to pay taxes? Greed and … Continue reading The Saga of Elon Musk Not Paying Taxes

By Sydney Joa, 11th Grade Princess Mako of Japan’s modest civil ceremony last month, devoid of the grandeur that royal weddings tend to presume, marks her change from Princess Mako to Mrs. Mako Komuro. Adopting her college sweetheart and commoner Kei Komuro’s surname and status has not only raised questions about Japanese imperial household laws but also about gender equality and human rights under the … Continue reading What Princess Mako’s Marriage Could Mean for the Japanese Royal Family

By Sydney Joa, 11th Grade Over the past couple of years, the TikTok app has soared in popularity among younger demographics, slowly developing into a global phenomenon. Major corporations and media outlets hopped on the TikTok bandwagon to increase their visibility among the younger user population, attempting to reach this new base of potential customers. This isn’t much of a surprise given that the app’s … Continue reading Self-Critical Companies, Capitalism, and TikTok

By Sydney Joa, 11th Grade The world came to a standstill after Facebook and its other services–Instagram, Whatsapp, and Messenger–experienced widespread outages last Monday. The unprecedented disruption had profound effects on worldwide networks, the internet economy, and global citizens as a whole. However, the incident is merely an indication of a much bigger issue–the monopoly of social media, and more specifically, Facebook’s dominance over it. … Continue reading A Social Media Monopoly