Exactly a year ago, the world lost a musician who touched many souls. On April 21st, 2017, fans gathered together at Paisley Park in honor of Prince’s legacy. Flowers, balloons and other tributes were left to hang on the fence outside of the artist’s home and studio. Cars blasted their favorite songs while lined up from the highway to reach the parking lot. Others walked down a trail while holding strings of purple balloons. Before leaving, fans observed, took portraits, laughed, shared their sightings, and cried. Within a day, the black chain link fence transformed into an alter. As for now, memoirs, purple signs carrying messages of love, and potted violets can be spotted standing outside of the estate. In the end, we are left wondering what occurred during the years of Prince’s private life inside Paisley. In former President Barak Obama’s own words, “Few artists have influenced the sound and trajectory of popular music more distinctly, or touched quite so many people with their talent. As one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time, Prince did it all. Funk. R&B. Rock and roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader, and an electrifying performer … ‘A strong spirit transcends rules,’ Prince once said — and nobody’s spirit was stronger, bolder, or more creative. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, his band, and all who loved him.‎”

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/21/524881332/in-the-wake-of-princes-death

On April 19th, 2017, thousands of Venezuela’s citizens protested in demand of President Nicolas Maduro to leave office. In Carcas, there were at least twenty gathering points for the march. By the early afternoon, around 10,000 protestors waved flags in the air and chanted disapproval of the government. It was not too long after life-threatening situations began to emerge. Sadly, retaliation led to gun violence and two deaths. One of them being a teenager shot in the head, while the other was a young woman in her twenties. So why are people being driven to the streets when protesting has been going on for three weeks? Well, the people of Venezuela have had enough of the government making their lives miserable. Even achieving simple things like putting milk and bread on the table is a daily struggle. In response, the government has joined the street protests while wearing red and holding pro-government flags. Not only that, security forces have flooded the streets and are not afraid to use tear gas. Also, President Maduro decided to make an appearance on television at a government militia where thousands of uniforms carried guns. Speaking to the public, he wanted to clarify there will be an expansion of forces. Currently, there are tens of thousands, but their goal is to reach half a million. Venezuela is in our prayers to overcome their president’s sick intimidation tactics and receive the rights they deserve. Their voices deserve to be heard rather than being silenced!

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/19/524751554/clashes-erupt-at-anti-government-protests-in-venezuela

Since the Old Testament, psychological effects of trauma were recognized. Over the centuries, doctors have attempted finding a cure for traumatized patients by using therapy. In the 20th century, psychologist Pierre Janet developed an approach to treating the symptoms of horrific memories with hypnosis. Referred as PTSD in modern clinicians, hypnosis is still used even though it is controversial. This is because a solution is desired to end sights and sounds triggering traumatic flashbacks that cause anxiety conditions and stress disorders. The video game Tetris, however, has proven to provide a reflection of healed mental state after experiencing a trauma. Science shows playing the video game and focusing on eye movements can help coping with a tragic experience. The simple Russian video game consists of aligning falling digital building blocks into perfect rows of ten repetitively. Further research took place with seventy-one patients at the John Radcliffe Hospital emergency room in Oxford, England. These patients were asked to recall their trauma and worst memories. Afterward, they played Tetris for twenty minutes on a handheld Nintendo DS XL system. Sixty-two percent were found to have fewer invasive recollections a week after their accident. Even though the experiment was diminutive, a larger follow-up trial to test the long-term effects is currently in progress. But for this to happen, researchers are in need of funding. In McNally’s words, “Holmes’ application of Tetris shows promise. Our field needs to be open to possible breakthroughs. Just beware of people claiming ‘miracle cures!”

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/04/09/523011446/how-playing-tetris-tames-the-trauma-of-a-car-crash

Due to the public’s concern of bee colonies dying off faster than they are regenerating, action has been taken to make a difference. As of last year, the United States lost almost half of its bee colonies. This has led to the rusty patch bumble bee and seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees almost facing extinction. It is broadly known that these species are essential for pollination and the world without them seems far-fetched. But as the days go by, bees are slowing disappearing right before us. This led researcher Eijiro Miyao, at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, to design an insect-sized drone that produces artificial pollination. These robots are capable of collecting and transferring pollen due to being coated with a patch of horse hair bristles and ionic liquid gel. It was first tested whether or not they were biocompatible and eco-friendly against ants and cells from mice. After three days, there were zero harmful effects discovered. Another experiment took place which involved houseflies, and it was then discovered these devices had the advantage of avoiding predators. Because of the ionic liquid gel, the drone produced a camouflage effect once it came into contact with different sources of lights. Proven to be successful, Eijiro Miyao settled on his bee-sized drone to be sold commercially at one-hundred dollars each. Even though artificial pollination done by hand is possible, it is a time-consuming process. By using a brush, a person can pollinate five to ten trees a day, depending on their sizes. This is a problem, because in order to pollinate all of the trees in the world, it would take significant workforce and become an unaffordable budget. Marla Spivak, an entomologist at the University of Minnesota, questioned this new approach on pollination with the remark, “There are 1 million acres of almond trees in California. Every flower needs to be pollinated to set the nut. Two million colonies of bees are trucked in to pollinate the almonds, and each colony has between ten and twenty thousand foragers. How many robots would be needed?” In fact, there are twenty thousand bees in the world, each unique in their own way. The diversity of bees and flight patterns helps pollination to be more efficient and effective. This is why the robo-bee prototype is still in working progress and far from a real-world field test. Currently, at the moment, they can only be remote-controlled by humans. Eijiro Miyao admits, “It was hard to control the robotic pollinators so that they would precisely hit the target sites.” So in the future, he hopes to incorporate GPS and a high-resolution camera in each individual device. Many believe it would make more sense to protect our natural pollinators rather than to develop new technology. This has been acknowledged by the team of scientists working on the project, but they want to clarify the drones are not replacing the bees, and instead are a potential future prevention of them facing extinction.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/03/03/517785082/rise-of-the-robot-bees-tiny-drones-turned-into-artificial-pollinators

On March 30th, 2017, one of the greatest rappers of this generation released a music video for his new single titled “HUMBLE.” As for now, Kendrick Lamar is expected to release his upcoming fourth album in a just a few days on April 7th. His album is predicted to prosper due to the public’s reaction towards the music video. Fans and new listeners so far have only had positive things to say about the aesthetically pleasing visual of the song. Thanks to the vision of Dave Meyers and The Little Homies, who directed the music video, Kendrick Lamar’s verses were given a cinematic dream. Just in ninety minutes, after being uploaded to YouTube, the video reached 500,000 views. Dressed as the Pope in papal robes, sunlight shines down upon Kendrick Lamar as he opens up his first verse with the rhyme, “Wicked or weakness, you gotta see this!” Not only that, viewers are ordered to, “Sit down. Be humble.” from the beginning until the very end. “HUMBLE” consists of heavy allusions and striking imagery that is considered to be pure art in the public eye. What viewers are unable to forget, however, is Kendrick in Jesus’ seat at The Last Supper, Kendrick in a sea of black heads, and Kendrick passing the Grey Poupon. Also, the elements of an aggressive bass piano, punchy drums, and a low screeching synth are hard to get out of anyone’s head for some afterward. From a personal perspective, I was astonished at the details and creativity that gave a powerful impression of what the lyrics had to say for itself. Feeling intrigued, I rewatched the music video five times after witnessing it for the first time. I felt as though I was within the mind of the artist and given a sneak peek of his thought process. However, even though I was not offended by it, I will not be surprised to hear controversy over the rapper exploring the theme of God, religion, and personal growth. In my opinion, if the best rapper alive wants to express his entitlement within the music industry he should be allowed to in any way he pleases to do so. There has never been anything produced like “HUMBLE” before, and it is without a doubt it will be remembered for that as long as time allows it. Not only that, it is quite obvious “HUMBLE” will have an impact on the music industry and challenge other artists to compete against his legacy.

http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/03/30/522127680/kendrick-lamars-video-for-humble-is-a-must-watch

Folks from Ireland are shocked that human remains of young children have been found at a former home for unmarried mothers in Tuam. The home was operated by the Bon Secours nuns who kept their doors opened for desperate mothers in need from the 1920’s until the 1960’s. For some time, people who have lived near this region suspected there was an unidentified massive grave site on the property. Katherine Zapping, the Irish minister for children and youth affairs, announced after the official commission investigated the site, “It has been revealed that human remains are visible in a series of chambers that may have formed part of sewage treatment works for the home. It is not certain whether the chambers ever functioned for sewage purposes, but the Commission believes that there are a significant number of children’s remains there. The Commission recovered some juvenile remains for detailed forensic analysis. From this analysis, it has determined that the remains are between 35 fetal weeks and 2 to 3 years of age. From carbon dating it has correlated the age of these samples with the time period during which the home was in operation — between 1925 and 1961. This news is very disturbing and will touch everyone’s heart. There were, of course, strong suspicions about burials of this kind in Tuam for some time. … The information I have received confirms these suspicions and, importantly, they trace the remains specifically to the period of the home’s operation, rather than to earlier times in our history such as during the famine.” Since 2014, allegations of deceased children in a septic tank on the property of the home surfaced the internet. This was in result of The Irish Mail on Sunday reporting local records provided proof there was the possibility of nearly eight-hundred children’s remains left behind from more than three decades ago. A chain effect began occurring once a number of news organizations shared these claims even though no remains were yet announced to be discovered. The Associated Press questions the stories that are being released based on the number of the children, cause of death, and reason for their location of burial. Not only that, they also believe the news media easily exaggerated occurrences that were originally intriguing enough. But what it comes down to is there are still many questions left unanswered as to what happened to the children who died at the home. Who were their mothers? What were their names? Where would they be today if they didn’t die in Tuam? Why were they not given a proper burial? How did it come down to this? All we know really is the Tuam home was surrounded by an eight-foot wall that concealed these living conditions for the outside world.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/03/518333313/irish-authorities-say-remains-of-children-found-at-former-home-for-unwed-mothers

Since last year, climate change has affected the Great Barrier Reef drastically due to higher temperatures causing coral bleaching. Many are concerned as to why this is happening and want to find a way this can be fixed as soon as possible. Well as researchers have announced to the public, rising temperatures is the main contributor to this natural disaster. In Two-Way’s own words, “Coral bleaching occurs when the living organisms that make up coral reefs expel the colorful, photosynthetic algae that normally live inside their bodies, and provide them with food. Those algae give coral reefs their color and disappear when the reefs are exposed to stressful climatic conditions, such as temperatures even a few degrees higher than normal.” It has been recently documented that only 8.9 percent of more than a 1,000 reefs escaped the damage of the 2,3000 kilometers long reef off of the coast of Australia. Such numbers dominate the two previous major bleaching incidents within the Great Barrier Reef in 1998 and 2002. More than 40% of the reef escaped bleaching both of these years and during this time that was already concerning enough. Even though all three of these coral bleaching events occurred in different areas it has been discovered they overlap one another which has been beneficial to researchers. A hypothesis was tested of whether or not previous bleached coral could become resistant to the effect of high water temperatures in the near future. Come to find out, coral that had already been exposed to bleaching before 2016 had no resistance against rising temperatures. This means bleaching was just as severe on reefs that had been previously bleached than those that were never bleached. Mia Hoogenboom told Morning Edition that she was shocked when she witnessed the damage with her own eyes while diving to document the reef’s condition. “It’s confronting to go from a reef which is colorful, which is swarming with life, to a reef that’s covered in dead corals and corals that are covered in a slimy green algae,” she said. “So it doesn’t feel like the same reef and it doesn’t engender that same sense of wonder at the biodiversity that’s present in those areas.” Global action must be taken against climate change before it is too late. As for right now, research teams have received more devastating news that coral bleaching is occurring on the Great Barrier Reef for the second successive year. A question we must ask ourselves is are we willing to sit around and do nothing about climate change or take action to help save our planet?

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/16/520450521/study-urgent-action-against-global-warming-needed-to-save-coral-reefs

On March 7th, 2016, a southern white rhinoceros named Vince was found dead at the Thoiry Zoo that is located forty miles west of Paris. This however was not under natural circumstances but rather the cause of poachers breaking in, shooting the rhinoceros three times in the head, and taking what they desired. Currently, at the moment, police officers are investigating who committed the killing of the beloved four-year-old animal after sawing off his horns. Thierry Duguet, known as the zoo director, was interviewed by France’s 20 Minutes newspaper and responded, “It is extremely shocking what just happened. An act of such violence, never before seen in Europe.” It is most likely the poachers used chainsaws to cut off one of the horns while the other horn was only partially cut. Investigators believe this is because the criminals were either interrupted or their equipment became defective. Luckily, the zoo’s two other southern white rhinoceroses escaped the massacre and are safe as for now. Thirty-seven-year-old Gracie and five-year-old Bruno are still traumatized from the incident of their companion being brutally murdered. Vince’s caretaker, who was deeply attached to him, was affected just as much after finding his body the following morning after the break in. A lot of community members are concerned as to how these criminals were even capable of surpassing the presence of five members of the zoo staff and surveillance cameras. In response, Paul de La Panouse, the former director of the zoo’s African enclosure announced to the public, “Animal parks throughout Europe have been put on alert to look out … to get into these places they have to climb 3.5-meter fences, go through padlocked doors. It’s not easy to kill a rhino weighing several tons just like that. It’s a job for professionals.” In spite of international convention and French law, the demand of rhinoceroses’ horns for traditional Asian medicines has led the the black market to sell a kilogram of a rhinoceros’ horn for nearly $54,000. With such high demand, this led to southern white rhinoceroses to nearly go extinct in the late 19th century. Protection efforts were taken into action, and 20,000 animals were under protection in safe areas or private game reserves. Sadly, hundreds of southern white rhinoceroses have been murdered in recent years simply because they are unaggressive and vulnerable to hunting. This is why Vince was targeted at the Thoiry Zoo and a warning for other European zoos to be on the lookout for the next upcoming slaughter. We can all agree what happened at Thoiry Zoo was sickening and something must be done as soon as possible to put a stop to these horrific crimes.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/07/519009851/poachers-break-into-french-zoo-kill-white-rhino-and-steal-his-horn

History was made this year during the 89th Academy Awards! For the first time, black actors and actresses were nominated in every acting category in the same year. The nomination roster was quite diverse rather than having a lack of recognition for people of color. Many believe this was in response to the protesting that took place just a year ago for white favoritism dominating Hollywood. After receiving the award for best picture, Moonlight proved to be a fine example of a cast filled with black actors and actresses deserving to be recognized just as white actors and actresses are typically given without any hesitation. However, there was some unfortunate confusion before receiving their award due to La La Land being incorrectly announced the winner for best picture. Everyone was caught off guard after La La Land’s cast acceptance speech was interrupted by Jordan Horowitz who had to break the news of there being a terrible mistake. He repeated a numerous amount of times that he wanted the audience to be aware this was not a joke and held up a card which read Moonlight. The cast of Moonlight was taken by surprise not only because it is uncommon for people of color to be presented an Oscar but also because of La La Land’s cast members’ smiles turning into expressions of disbelief. It is unclear what led to this mishap but the presenter Warren Beatty announced to the audience, “I opened the envelope and it said Emma Stone, La La Land. That’s why I took such a long look at Faye [Dunaway] and at you — I wasn’t trying to be funny.” As for La La Land who was expected to win big that night, it still led with six Oscars, including best director (Damien Chazelle) and best actress (Emma Stone). Moonlight on the other hand, took home three wins, including best supporting actor (Mahershala Ali). It goes to show that on this particular night, many things occurred which typically don’t during the Oscars. Even though the audience was misinformed and quickly corrected in a mature manner, not too many people are happy about the incident that occurred. There has been a lot of gossip going around since the awards that the event is believed to be rigged and a complete setup. If you were to ask my for opinion, I believe mistakes can happen at any given moment and what happened on live television was professionally taken care of and acceptable in the public eye.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/26/516887719/2017-oscars-follow-along-as-the-winners-are-announced

Daphne Bavelier’s speech provides a different perspective on how much of an impact playing video games can have on people. Most parents are concerned about their kids playing video games simply because of the stereotype of deteriorating eyesight, short attention span, and becoming unaware of what is going on in the world. Well as research proves, playing videos games actually improves eyesight, multitasking, and tracking moving objects within a environment. I truly believe if tests have proven that video game players receive better results than other media users we should attempt to expose everyone to the appropriate amount of time of playing video games. I also look forward to seeing teams working together to release video games that will focus on educational purposes to help students improve. There is no harm in learning while having fun at the same time. Might as well kill two birds with one stone!