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App Review: App Nana

February 2, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Kennedy Coverdale Staff Writer

Want to earn free Amazon, iTunes, or other gift cards ? This could be the right app for you.

App Joy, or sometimes called App Nana, is a free app that helps you download different apps that you might enjoy. Most of the apps are almost unheard of though.

Depending on which apps you choose, you earn a certain amount of points, or ‘nanas’ as it’s called in the apps. Some apps might give you 200 nanas, while other can give up to 7,000 nanas.

All these points add up and can enable you to choose a gift card for Amazon, iTunes, or Paypal. As the price of the gift card goes up, so does the amount of nanas you must earn in order to pick such a gift card.

In order to use AppJoy, you must make account only using an email and a password. No activation required or usernames.

Wondering how you get all these nanas? Actually, it’s not that difficult. You get 10,000 nanas for signing up, and 400 nanas each time you sign in. Inviting others to join AppJoy gives 2,500 nanas per person you invite. The cheapest gift card available is a one dollar Amazon gift card that costs 30,000 nanas, so they highly encourage you to get apps.

Most of the apps that it offers are free to download. Others cost money, but they will warn you before hand. Some apps require a certain action in order to obtain nanas, like registering for a website or actually playing the game.

The downfall of this app is it’s speed. it’s a bit slow when trying to get nanas, and sometimes opens a bunch of other windows doing so. I had some problems with this and it discouraged me from downloading more apps for more nanas.

It’s the Super Bowl People!- Sports Talk with the Straight Shuter

January 30, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

It’s the Super Bowl People- Sports Talk with the Straight Shuter

by Jesse Shuter

Staff Writer

Photo Courtesy of http://thepointsguy.com/2014/01/last-minute-ideas-for-getting-to-the-2014-super-bowl/

This years Super Bowl is going to be one for the record books. We get to watch the number one offense take on the number one defense. We also get to watch two of the biggest NFL story lines square off against each other. The first one being Peyton Manning’s record breaking all time best season for an NFL quarterback. The other being Richard Sherman and his huge defensive abilities, and yet even bigger mouth.

I’d like to start with my prediction for the Super Bowl champion. I predict that the Broncos will win the Super Bowl over the Seahawks, 27-20. I predict a pair of field goals, at least, for both teams. The Broncos action packed weapon filled offense, will finally meet it’s match on defense. While the Seahawks offense is pretty evenly matched with the Broncos defense, except for their super weapon, some know him as “Beast Mode”, Marshawn Lynch.

The weather in this game should play a relatively big part in this game. If it is anything like the Eagles-Lions game, which assuming its snows, it will be, then it could completely alter the outcome. In snow, my prediction stays the same, however in a blizzard or even a moderately large snow storm my prediction changes. This is because in the Eagles game, there was no secondary on the defense, and no deep pass game. In this case I have Seattle winning 28-21. This is because there will be no field goals, and also seattle has a much better run game, and even though the Broncos have a better short pass game, if Percy Harvin is healthy then the Seahawks may be able to almost keep up with the Broncos pass production.

Pro Bowl Review

I would like to start by saying, nice try Rodger Goodell. The NFL Commisioner, Rodger Goodell, revamped the idea behind the Pro Bowl for the sake of the players. He in fact was ready to get rid of it because it cost much more than it earned financially. However the players much enjoy the Pro Bowl and all it’s honor. So Goodell brought in Hall of Famers Deion Sanders and Jerry Rice to make the game more fun.

I actually enjoyed the game. Sanders and Rice made sure that the defenses were actually trying, which was nice to see, at first. The first two and a half quarters were very entertaining, but then I realized that this was getting boring. As much as I hate the no defense Pro Bowl from the past, I still like seeing these insane offenses score in crazy ways that would never happen in a real game, but none of that because the defense was too good, and the offensive line was not.

My recommendation is that the Pro Bowl be replaced by a skills competition. This way the players get to be honored and the fans get to watch really great athletes to really cool things. It could be like a more advanced NFL scouting combine, with more difficult events, and also rewards. The players would be battling for titles like, fastest offensive/defensive/NFL player; most accurate passer; strongest passing arm; best catching ability offense/defense; etc.

Next Year

In the spirit of preparing for the Super Bowl, I would like to give my (very) early picks for next year.

AFC Championship Game: Indianapolis Colts vs. Kansas City Chiefs. Winner: Colts

In this epic rematch from perhaps the biggest comeback I’ve ever seen the Colts win again, and the Chiefs realize why Andy Reid was fired.

NFC Championship Game: Detroit Lions vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Winner: Eagles

Another epic rematch from the Snow Bowl, in this scenario the Eagles fix their defense by signing Jairus Byrd/T.J. Ward/Both and the Lions new head coach Jim Caldwell realizes that there is too much talent on this team for it not to be any good.

Super Bowl: Indianapolis Colts vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Winner: Colts

As much as I HATE to say it. The Eagles do not win this year, The Colts offense goes to fast for the defense and the Nick Foles makes at least one key mistake to cost them the game.

The Price of Legacy in Putin’s Russia

January 30, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

At $51 billion the 2014 winter olympics held in Sochi, Russia clock in as the most expensive winter olympics in history.

Putin’s obsession of building an impressive olympics in Russia goes back to his political platform of building a strong Russia in 1999. This could be seen in his bid olympic bid of 12 billion–which surpassed those of South Korea and Austria, winning him the olympics.

Compared to the most recent winter olympics in Vancouver in 2010, Vancouver spent 8.7 billion total for it’s games. When you compare it to Beijing 2008, China hosted 204 more events for 11 billion dollars less.

Russia is spending around 520 million per event compared to China’s 132 billion. The high price tag is due to corruption and environmental factors that made the Sochi region hard to build on.

The site for the olympic park is not only on a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but also prone to flooding and has underground streams that make for a bad building ground.

In December 2009 a storm surged and hit Sochi’s new cargo port and had to be rebuilt, just like many of the projects all over the city further bringing up the total.

Corruption also plays a major factor in Sochi’s price tag. Allegations of many of the contracts going to Putin’s personal colleagues are widespread and construction firms have been caught inflating the prices of projects and pocketing whatever they don’t spend.

This lack oversight and strong governmental pressure to make this olympics a memorable one created a culture of wasteful spending that has Russia winning a shameful 50 billion dollar gold medal for most spent in the history of the games.

Yaffa, Joshua. “The Waste and Corruption of Vladimir Putin’s 2014 Winter Olympics.” Bloomberg Businessweek, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

Commute to School, but Don’t Talk

January 27, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By SLA Media Staff

When you see somebody on SEPTA outside of school, what do you do?

If you’re similar to most of the students in SLA’s Journalism class, the answer is: don’t say hello and avoid eye contact.

Senior DeShawn McLeod and Sophomore Soledad Alfaro-Allah experienced this exact situation on the Saturday during EduCon.

On their commute home to Mount Airy, they noticed each other on the train.

“I had already seen that she was on the train,” DeShawn said, “but I was too tired to initiate contact.”

Soledad noticed DeShawn later, when she was getting off at her stop. “I was like: should I say hi? …I’m not going to say hi. I’m going to just let her roll.”

They admitted this lack of action to each other during class on the following Monday and had a good laugh about it.

The story led to a deeper question: why don’t we talk to each other going to and from school? And why do we feel bad about it when we don’t?

One thing influencing this situation is that SLA students and teachers are already quite social at school. They’re not necessarily avoiding each other because they don’t like each other.

For example, Soledad is in Poetry Club, and English Teacher Matthew Kay is the club mentor. Mr. Kay even worked for Soledad’s mother when he was in college. But that doesn’t lead to them talking while commuting.

On the regional rail, they see each other often, but rarely speak.

“I’ll see him, and we’re close, but I won’t say anything to him,” Soledad said. “It’s like an unspoken agreement: you’re chillin, I’m chillin, I’m just going to let you go.”

On the Broad Street Line and the Trolley, the situation is different — but it doesn’t lead to more talking.

“Everyone kind of just stands there,” Sophomore Isabella Mezzaroba said. “People even get on together, but they don’t talk.”

Even when conversations do happen on public transit, they’re over as soon as ride ends.

“Ms. Dunda gets on the trolley, and then makes conversation,” sophomore Melissa Alvarez said. “But as soon as she gets off, she’s in her own world.”

Students felt that this behavior wasn’t rude — in fact, it was a common courtesy to each other.

“You’re bringing people back into the environment that they just left, or are about to enter,” said Sophomore Jesse Shuter. “It’s inconsiderate because they’re trying to either recuperate or prepare for school.”

“I think we sometimes have trouble believing that people have lives outside of school,” said Sophomore Claudia Bonitatibus. She said she’s “surprised” when she does run into somebody.

“My school life and my social life are totally separate,” said Senior Isabela Supovitz-Aznar. “When I do run into somebody from school, it catches me off guard.”

Many teachers have similar feelings.

“When I see kids on the trolley, I feel like I don’t want disturb their existence,” said English Teacher Ms. Pahomov.

The pressure to say hello seems to be most prevalent with the freshmen — they say hi outside of school, and also in the halls.

DeShawn admitted that she was once one of these eager underclassmen. All the way back during Summer Institute, she approached Mr. Kay and tried to talk to him on the train, when she later realized that he was in what she characterized as his “chill zone.”

Eventually, she got the hang of the silent treatment outside of school.

“I stopped feeling bad,” DeShawn said. “But that took four years of high school.”