"Teens strive to be unhappy, study says"

"Teens strive to be unhappy, study says"

Source: The Vancouver Sun

By: Misty Harris

When you look around teens are always in a funk, moody, or just have a negative attitude in general. Researchers discovered that teens try to maintain a bad mood 25 per cent of the time. People who are 60 years or older try to maintain a positive attitude showing a greater desire and higher frequency to boost their attitude and emotions. "Our study suggest that some of the age-related differences in everyday emotional well-being may be brought about by differences in how individuals wish to influence their feelings," says Michaela Riediger, research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany. The experiment went as follows, 378 participants ages 14 to 86 carried mobile phones for three weeks. Over that time, they were signalled to answer question about their moods in 54 different situations. Participants were to indicate what activity they were engaged in, who they were with, and whether they wished to dampen, enhance, maintain or not influence at all each of the six listed feelings: joyful, content, interested, angry, nervous, or downhearted. Those 14 to 18 expressed a desire to either maintain or enhance negative emotions, or suppress positive ones.

What I learned from this article is that teenagers always carry a negative attitude. I am a teenager so I know what Harris is talking about in the article. We put too much pressure on ourselves and make everything seem worse than it really is. Instead of trying to be happy and create a positive attitude for ourselves we decide that we want to be depressed and unhappy instead for no reason at all.

I really enjoyed this article and the way that Misty Harris wrote it. I haven't seen an article about this before and when I came across it in the paper I went "Hey this seems interesting." I enjoyed how she got the experts to speak about the results from the experiment as well as informing us to what the experiment was. Overall this was an interesting piece and I enjoyed it very much.

"Twilight relationship unhealthy, professor says"

"Twilight relationship unhealthy, professor says"

Source: The Vancouver Sun

Twilight is one of the largest selling book series and movies today. The movies and books revolve around vampires, werewolves and humans showing feelings of love, hate, and lust. A University of Victoria professor is warning parents and young Twilight Fans that the series depicts unhealthy relationships between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. The Stephenie Meyer's books are about the romance between the mortal, Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart, and vampire Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson. Scientist Janni Aragon believe the main female character isn't a good role model for young girls. Swan is portrayed as a clumsy and silly girl while Cullen is mature and all-knowing. "He loves her humanity, but the way- especially in the books- he is portrayed is somewhat problematic," said Aragon. "At times he can be condescending. He watches her while she is sleeping. He is uninvited- and in the real world, that's called stalking. That's not the same as being in love with someone so much you're obsessed." Through the new movie "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" Bella feels numb and alone through her senior year of high school. She is somewhat depressed. Being in love with Edward pulls Bella into greater and greater risks which brings the action to the movie.

What I learned from this article is that professors have way too much time on their hands. Instead of conducting an important research, Aragon is studying and analyzing the Twilight series. When I was going through The Vancouver Sun, I spotted this article and thought it was hilarious. I never thought of any of the things that Aragon said. I just watched the movie and never thought any more of it. So after reading this article I actually understood what she wrote and analyzed in the movies and books. If these characters were real they would be very "messed up" and their relationship wouldn't work out, but since they aren't real it's okay to imagine and believe what we want to and Aragon ruined it a little for me.

I enjoyed how the Journalist explained the Twilight movie to us just in case the reader hadn't seen it or read the books. She explained what Aragon saw as the problem as well as proof to her statements with sources from the book and the movies. Sandra McCulloch, the journalist, also included quotes from Aragon, as well as Twilight fans. She also included a female character from another movie that she thought was a better role model than Bella Swan.

"B.C. police investigate attempt to auction flu vaccine"

"B.C. police investigate attempt to auction flu vaccine"

Source: The Vancouver Sun Online

B.C. police are investigating a possible attempt to auction off a H1N1 vile on an advertisement.

It has said to be a registered nurse who put up the the ad auctioning off the vaccinations.

"Hello, I am a nurse with an extra vial of the H1N1 vaccine. One vial will do 10 shots. I am willing to administer these shots to the highest bidder," stated the ad.

A nationwide shortage of the vaccination has caused long line ups giving pregnant women and children the priority to get them first. A serious investigation has been launched as this is considered theft. However, B.C. police do not know what kind of charges will be pressed when the culprit is found.

What I learned from this article is that people are so afraid of this flu that they will bid on the vaccine instead of waiting for their turns to get it. It shows how afraid society is today. I think that bidding on the vaccination is wrong in many ways. Why should people have to pay to get the vaccination when the health clinics will be giving them out for free. This is not America. Another reason I find this wrong is that nobody knows if this was a scam or if the vaccination was even legit.

I enjoyed how the journalist used an inverted pyramid and then got right into the story. They stated what the advertisement said on it and then gave the rest of the story. I found this story very interesting. The journalist pulled me in with the lead which made me want to continue reading it.

"Protester refuses to apologize for torch disruption"

"Protester refuses to apologize for torch disruption"

Source: CTVBC

Anti-Olympic protesters caused a disturbance Tuesday after disrupting the route of the Olympic torch relay in Victoria. Seventeen year old Nicholas Dronsfield, who has cerebral palsy was determined to run the torch on his own on Tuesday and was upset when he couldn't due to the protesters blocking the way. Dronsfields travelled to Nanimo the next day to fulfill his lifelong dream. Anti-Olympic protesters felt that it was not necessary to apologize to the teenager after destroying his Olympic moment. Dronsfield said that an apology wouldn't mean much to him anyways, "I don't think that an apology from the protesters would have much meaning to me right now," he said. "The way they expressed their opinion just was so negative and destructive that an apology would be so meaningless to me."

What I learned from this article is that people are very rude and inconsiderate. This young boy with a disease gets his moment to shine, and careless protesters ruined his special moment. It is quite sickening. Maybe this time it wasn't about protesters causing mayhem, but about this young man having the chance to run with the torch. People are so selfish these days thinking only of themselves. I don't see the point in people protesting about an event that is still going to happen no matter what they do. I think these protesters owe Dronsfiled a heart-filled apology for disturbing the peace of the Olympic torch relay.

I really enjoyed reading this article. Not only did I enjoy what it was about but that the journalist portrayed this story very well. The journalist showed both sides of the story, from the boys perspective and the protesters.