With the loud and consuming humming of bees in the wilderness, sophomore Jared Koopman begins another one of his many hobbies. Koopman has acquired, what some would consider, a strange set of talents, such as bee keeping.
“I had thought about starting bee keeping for quite a while , and eventually broke down and just bought my first hive,” said Koopan. Koopman has put in a lot of hard work and research in preparation of his hive.
“I had to assemble and paint the hive, as well as prepare the spot I will put it. I have to position it somewhere with good morning and evening sunlight and away from prevailing winds,” said Koopman. This spring will be Koopman’s first year of bee keeping.
“I’ve ordered my bees and queen which I won’t actually get until April,” said Koopman. “If you are trying to start beekeeping but are having some doubts, talk to an experienced bee keeper. Almost anyone can do it, even in most urban areas,” said Koopman.
Along with beekeeping, Koopman has multiple other interesting hobbies including the building of backpacking gear.
“I have a bunch of backpacking gear that I made and sewed myself, and I am a part of the outdoor club,” said Koopman.
Freedom Hall was filled with 15,000 screaming teenagers this past Friday. There could be numerous reasons for why they were so excited. However, there is only one reason for why they were there: Winter Jam 2014.
Winter Jam is a Christian concert featuring 10 bands such as Plum, The Newsboys, 10th Avenue North, Thousand Foot Krutch, Colton Dixon, Lecrae, etc. These 10 bands travel all across the U.S. within the month of January in an effort to spread God’s word with a $10 admission at the door.
Many students, such as senior Timon Stermer, have been attending this Christian concert for many years.
“I have been to Winter Jam every year for the past six years,” said Stermer.
He also shared on why he has been coming back to enjoy said experience.
“It’s a chance to discover new artists while getting to hear some of my favorite bands live.”
Some students come to see their favorite artist live and in person.
“Lecrae brought so much energy to the show, which made it a fun experience,” said junior Bradley Montgomery.
Sophomore Christine Scharrer has a different perspective on the event. She believes Winter Jam is a fun way to mix worship and music.
“It’s lighthearted and fun and it makes you feel closer to God. And it’s not just the normal contemporary Christian bands with songs that are good but you’ve heard a million times. There are contemporary, rap, rock, heavy metal. And they are all great.”
Scharrer said it can even bring non-Christian teens to enjoy worship.
“Even if you aren’t a Christian it’s great because you’re not smothered about becoming a Christian. It’s more based around being charitable and doing for others.”
“I would recommend this concert to anyone, because there is no better way to praise God than through music,” said freshman Chandler Lewis .
A recent data breach within the Snapchat mobile app has been found to have leaked personal pictures along with phone numbers to certain websites. 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers were exposed to hackers on Jan. 1. 2014 according to TechnoBuffalo. Many people were not aware of this recent issue and predict that it will change the way others use the app in the future.
Snapchat is a social media app available on smart phones that allows people to send photos with captions and filter effects to each other, but the recipient can only view the photo for a maximum of 10 seconds before it disappears.
“People usually use Snapchat because they think that what they’re sending is private and will be deleted after the expiration time. So when they find out it’s being saved and leaked they’ll stop sending such embarrassing or explicit photos,” said senior Jonathan Lynch.
This particular issue is especially relevant in high school students considering most report using Snapchat on a daily basis.
“I Snapchat all the time. I think its a fun way to have a conversation other than texting,” said junior Sequoia Bryant.
Many feel that the creators of Snapchat do not have the right to keep the pictures and phone numbers saved in the database.
“I don’t like the fact that they keep my photos. They shouldn’t have the right to own my photos. They are personal,” said senior Savannah O’Brien.
Senior Ryan Lenz agreed with O’Brien in the fact that it is an invasion of privacy.
“It seems wrong because it’s not right to use people’s private photos for their public use.”
However, others feel less affected by the issue because what they send is not inappropriate.
“It won’t affect how I use the app in the future because I use it to send funny pictures to my friends,” said sophomore Lexi Finnimore.
Senior Andrew Sung also said that he did not feel affected, although one of his friends were.
“It won’t change the way I Snapchat because I don’t send anything bad in those snapchats. I’m not too worried about everyone seeing my pictures. But my friend got every part of his phone number leaked minus the last two digits.”
However, Snapchat is making an effort to strengthen the system to prevent this from happening again in the future. Due to the hacking problem, Snapchat has provided an update for app users that allows them to opt out of linking their phone numbers to their profiles. This was done to help avoid any future API breaches that expose private phone numbers.
Bryant offered some advice to people who plan on continuing to use the app.
“Snapcat is a fun way to have a conversation: just don’t send anything risky and you’ll be fine.”
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