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TechPep
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009
BENSON POLYTECHNIC HIGH SCHOOLTHE WINDOW TO YOUR WORLDVOLUME 89, NO. 4
546 N.E. 12TH AVENUEPORTLAND, OREGON 97232503-916-5100 EXT. 7211
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.TECHPEP.TECHPEP.TECHPEP.TECHPEP.TECHPEP.OR.OR.OR.OR.ORGGGGG
 Robotics team off to state
SANDRA VANTech Pep Editor
 This is the first year that The FRC FIRST (For Inspiration and Representation of Science and Technology) program be in-troduced to Benson. The team has been sponsored as arookie team to compete in state and na-tional competitions. These sponsors in-clude PGE, and Boeing One of the main competitions being participated for this team is the LUNACY regional tournament. Each team will beexpected to build a robot that will be ableto move around on the moon. The game pieces will consist of “Orbit Balls” that play as moon rocks. During thefirst 15 seconds of play, the robots will beautonomous. Then they are manually op-erated for the last 2 minutes. Seven moonrocks will be allowed on your robot prior to starting by the team.“Human players are equipped with 20moon rocks; less the number they loadinto their robot, and a quantity of empty cells and superior cells determined by theoutcome of their previous match.”This event is opened to the public and we eagerly want you to come support your school team and the progress they’vemade.“If we’re one of the three finalists at theRegional competition,” says Mr. ZenoIdzerda, the adviser of the Benson Robot-ics team, “then we will be eligible for go-ing to Atlanta for the National Competi-tion.” The second group of robotic teams at Benson includes the FTC. This team workson 18" cubical aluminum robots that alsocompete in state tournaments.
LAURA RAMIREZTech Pep Reporter
 There is a bridge my parents andbrother go over everyday, the SellwoodBridge. The Sellwood Bridge has beenknown for one of the worst bridges inPortland. The Sellwood Bridge was first openedin December 15, 1925 at a final cost of $541,000. Although the bridge has beenaround for a long time its only logical that its time has past.Problems started in 1960, then in 2004cracks were discovered in the concretecausing the weight limit to reduce for over-pass.In 2006 a team was put together to dosomething and find a solution to its se-niority. I got a hold of one of the teammembers, Michael Pullen who says“The current planning project beganbecause the bridge is wearing out and weneed to plan for its replacement or repair. We are using federal money to plan for itsfuture. There are federal laws that governthe way we plan the future of the bridge.The rules require us to do things likedeide what problem we are trying to solveand developing more than one solutionto that problem, so we can compare pos-sible solutions and choose the best one.” There team currently has 15 members ona regular basis.Money is always the key to a project. Imade a bit of a mistake implying that thegovernment wasn’t helping out.“I disagree with the assumption behindthis question. Local, state and federal gov-ernment leaders and their staffs all agreeit is a high priority to find a long-termsolution for the Sellwood Bridge andbuild it.”, Michael revealed as he clear theair. As for the “million dollar question”Michael referred to as, what’s there plan for raising money? They actually don’t havea funding plan yet, which is only com-mon.“It’s hard to put the money together for the project when we still need to decide what we will build. We have secured $25million so far, and the total project is ex-pected to cost about $300 million (in2012 dollars).” The $25 million will be spent to buy property needed for the project and todesign the bridge. They’re expecting therest of the money will come from local,state and federal governments. There were a couple of situations suchas neighbors worried about more traffic coming into their community. They arelooking at a new bridge with 2 or 3 lanesto not add a great deal of traffic. Michaelsays,“Another obstacle was where to locatea new bridge. This was controversial be-cause homes will need to be acquired nomatter where the bridge is located. The lo-cation decision will be made tomorrow,so it is not settled at this time. We try to listen to all sides and provideour decision-makers with the facts and the views of the public, including the ownersof homes that may be needed for theproject. So far, people have been pretty po-lite, even when they disagree on the best solutions.” There are not too many disagreements within the community as for most think its best to rebuild. To all cases there is a so-lution. There some unsolved questions, asto how the bridge is going to look, whichis very controversial at the moment.By working with their experts and thecommunity to review the options for thebridge width and make a decision in thenext few months. Next year they will needto decide what a new bridge would look like. They will involve the community inthat decision, and use architect drawingsto show people the options they have tochoose from. As you can see this project has come along ways from 2006. Coming from theinside eyes,“We expect our Policy Advisory Group,made up of elected and appointed lead-ers, will make a decision on a preferred al-ternative Feb. 6. So we are reaching the endof the planning phase, even though thereis still a lot of work to do before the deci-sion on an alternative becomes officialand we can start to buy property and de-sign the bridge. We expect the federal gov-ernment will approve our alternative de-cision about one year from now.”I’m happy to know that everything isgetting situated; I don’t think anyone wants to see any Head line news about abroken bridge in the Willamette.Note: want to volunteer?If anyone wants to volunteer we can usetheir help. In the future we will need peopleto write letters or testify at meetings withelected leaders saying why this project isimportant. (www. sellwoodbridge. org)
Students, parents cross crumbling bridge daily 
 Rosariansto choose princess
BY SANDRA VANTech Pep Editor
Students of every public highschool participating in the RoseCourt Festival will no longer vote for their representative. The threeBenson contestants for 2009 areEbony Foreman, Shanay Gill andShakhara Green. Next Thursday, apanel of judges will decide which of them will represent Benson. Thisjudging will not be open to the pub-lic. The results of the decision will beannounced on Friday, March 20
th
during the spring sports assembly. “I won’t even know till then!” saysRose Court advisor Shana Cora.Here are some words from your soon-to-be representatives.“I believe I should win becauseI represent the diversity that exists.Diversity that regards to culture,race, intellect, and individuality. Ihave the background knowledge of that. I believe that it is critical inbuilding a community on diversity and being an outreach. The best way to experience diversity is by learning from each other, I represent that be-cause year because no one has really been interested in competing. [Ibelieve that] me winning wouldmake the seniors step up and tellthem how much we deserve to be inthe rose festival and how muchsomeone from Benson deserves tobe in the rose festival. [I represent]individuality, leadership, Im really about being my own person andstepping up from the crowd and be-ing who you want to be and doing  what you want to do. And I just think that’s really important, espe-cially in high school.” declaresEbony Foreman, junior contestant.
A look at Ian McBride as he prepares his robot
 They take these pucks and go to the cen-ter of the arena to push them into a seriesof goals. The farther and higher you un-leash it towards the goal determines thepoint value of it.Both programs will soon have to work  very consistently on the fundraising aspect of this club. Though there is some spon-sorship, they need to begin putting timeinto planning fundraising and donationevents.“The robot itself already costs 6,000dollars.” Notes Idzerda.FTC was introduced to Benson three years ago and four students from last year  were able to go to Atlanta for the nationalcompetition. The current competition that is being worked towards is the OregonFTC Championship tournament on Sun-day, February 22
nd
at Glencoe HighSchool.During this tournament, each robot  will be placed on a 12’ by 12’ field. The ro-bots will be collecting plastic hockey pucks tilting racks that are 1 ½ feet off thefloor.
 Daylight savings time begins March 8
Daylight savings begins on March 8, which means an extra hour of sunlight inthe evening. It also means a later sunriseso early morning exercisers should pre-pare for a darker workout. The sunrise won't happen until well after 7:15 a.m. inmany parts of the country. Select parts of the country won't see the sun until closeto 7:45 a.m. A powerful light can make runners,cyclists and skiers more visible. It can alsoenable exercisers to better see the trail or street. The L3 3-Watt Headlamp fromBrunton is a bright light that shines up to207 feet. It weighs just six ounces and has200 hours of battery life. The L3 has four light modes ranging from maximum output to conservativeuse so the light can be lowered as the sunrises. It is water resistant and has a flashmode for emergencies. The battery pack is external and can be worn on the adjustable head strap or on abelt. The L3 Runners Belt is designed for active sports and reduces the amount of  weight worn on the head strap.
 
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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009
CommunicationsMajor
TECH PEP
POINT, SHOOT, CLICK:
Communication students hard at work
Roughly enough, Benson is going through a lot of changes known and possiblyunknown. Not even the Communications Department can get a break from thechanges. First, a new teacher, Ms. Pelster, abruptly taking over the Photo/Videoclass; even slightly changing the curriculum. From intensely focusing on differ-ent aspects of photography and video productions, to an even more hands onapproach to putting these skills to work. An idea of turning the class into anadvertising agency for Benson was something new and exciting. The studentsseemed intensely into the idea and had their ideas of their own.
KATHY PHOUTHIRATHTech Pep Photo Editor
Top Left: Photo project by Kathy Phouthirath; Top Right: Jessica Nguyen posing in the Communications’ Studio for a tearsheet; Middle Left: Marlene Sails takes aphoto of Cydney Williamson portraying Rihanna; Middle Right: Dale Johnsoncreates an artsy photo of a friend; Bottom Left: Josh Hickman creates a “unique”photograph of Kayla Smith; Bottom Right: Another artistic photograph by DaleJohnson.
 
TECH PEP
Newsfocus
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009
PAGE 3
JENNI HUYNH & PHILIP MELSONTech Pep News Reporters
She Says:High School life is fun; getting to try out the good life without much of its consequences and doing things that you wouldn’t nec-essarily think about doing as a kid. These things could be anything from a part-time job, an internship in a field you might later want to pursue a career in, different sports, going on dates, being in re-lationships with different kinds of people, and so on.Let’s talk about relationships for a second. How many peopledo you know are in a relationship, going on casual (or maybe alittle more) dates, or just totally crazy about somebody? Most of the time, it’s the girls that go crazy over the guys. It almost seems asif they’re letting them RUN THEIR LIFE! Take some time out to think about this. When does it ever oc-cur to you that one of your girlfriends is ditching their man for you?It always seems to be that they leave you for him.He Says:Well, I don’t want to beat around the bush, so I’ll jump right into it. Men aren’t the ones controlling women, it’s women whomare controlling men.
SANDRA VANTech Pep Editor
For all you students who remember English teacher/skateboardclub advisor, Dave Mylet, will remember his big bushy beard andmustache combo. Where did it go? You may ask. Mr. Mylet shavedhis beautiful trademark to be featured in Dale Johnson’s yearbook cover entry as Luke Skywalker of Star Wars. Though this entry wasnot chosen to be featured, “it will be a souvenir photo” says beard-less Mylet. What about Skate Club? Mr. Mylet has briefed us that he hasnot been skating lately due to a hurt knee while playing soft-ball.
SANDRA VANTech Pep Editor
 The junior class of 2010 have been hosting a “Valentine Singing Grams” event for the last couple weeks. With this program, stu-dents will be able to purchase a song to be sung for someone sig-nificant during class by another student. They committee has al-ready gotten permission from all the teachers beforehand to doso. The student will be sung a verse of the song chosen for themduring either their 5
th
, 6
th
, or 7
th
period class.
 Juniors sing to your love
He Said, She Said
 SPOTLIGHT TEACHER
 Mylet doffs beard for role
BY STEVE ALEXANDERStar Tribune (MCT)
Q. How do 3G (third genera-tion) data networks of the cellphone companies compare when it comes to Internet speed? A. The 3G cell speeds can vary because of distance from a celltower or how many other peopleare using the network. But they're usually less than the ad- vertised maximum speed.Last spring, a Computerworldmagazine study of cellular broad-band speeds for laptops found AT&T was the fastest. But it alsofound average 3G network speeds
BY DAN DELUCAThe Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)
 The unlikely duo of Led Zeppelin singer Rob-ert Plant and bluegrass fiddler Alison Krauss ledthe Grammy Award winners Sunday night in Los Angles with five, including for best album for their ethereal, country-flavored "Raising Sand."New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne, who had led wit .0h eight nominations, won four awards, in-cluding for best rap album, "Tha Carter III," whileBritish soft-rock band Coldplay took home three,including the best-song honor for "Viva La Vida.""I'm bewildered," the golden-haired Plant, 60,said during his acceptance. "In the old days, we would have called this selling out, but this is agood way to spend a Sunday." A shadow was cast over the 51st Grammys whenofficials announced just before the show that multiple-nominees Chris Brown and Rihanna would not perform at the Staples Center. Brownturned himself in and was booked last night by Los Angeles police on suspicion of making felony criminal threats in an alleged domestic-violenceincident involving his girlfriend, Rihanna, accord-ing to the Los Angeles Times.Brown was expected to post $50,000 bail. Thealleged incident took place the night before, after the couple appeared together at record executiveClive Davis' pre-Grammy gala in Beverly Hills.Neither Rihanna nor Brown won an awardSunday night (though Rihanna's Cover Girl cos-metics ads did air during the telecast). The incident  was not mentioned during the show. The evening also began on an uncharacteristi-cally serious note when, after U2 opened the showby performing "Get on Your Boots," the singlefrom their forthcoming album, "No Line on theHorizon," Jennifer Hudson took home the show'sfirst award, beating Al Green and others for best R&B album.Hudson, whose mother, brother and nephew were murdered in October, said, "I would like tothank my family in heaven, and those that are heretoday." Later, she held back tears after singing, "YouPulled Me Through."Her performance was one of the highlights of 
Plant, Krauss lead winners with five Grammy Awards
an evening that started slow but gained credibility as it went on. Rihanna was scheduled to follow U2.Instead, Green, Justin Timberlake, Keith Urban, andBoyz II Men got together to sing Green's "Let's Stay  Together." That hastily thrown-together aggregation deliv-ered a performance that was a little rough, but it least it made a measure of musical sense. Not sosome of the others. Neil Diamond, singing "Sweet Caroline," was more tuneless than usual. A particu-larly awkward pairing had Stevie Wonder backing up the Jonas Brothers before he got to sing his own"Superstition."Many of the performances later in the show,however, were strong. Paul McCartney and DaveGrohl of the Foo Fighters tore through the Beatles'"I Saw Her Standing There." With a nod toFleetwood Mac's "Tusk," Radiohead did a wildly percussive "15 Steps," from album-of-the-year-nominated "In Rainbows," with the help of theUniversity of California marching band. Timberlake joined rapper T.I. for a moving ren-dition of T.I.'s "Dead and Gone." Lil Wayne wasjoined first by Robin Thicke and later by fellow NewOrleanians Allen Toussaint and Terence Blanchardfor the sorrowful (and then celebratory) HurricaneKatrina-inspired "Tie My Hands." The killer performance of the evening came fromthe so-called Rap Pack, the teaming of a tuxedoed T.I., Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne and a polka-dotted, pregnant M.I.A. _ whose baby was due Sun-day _ for a cock-of-the-walk, standing-ovation-in-ducing "Swagger Like Us." The battle lines were drawn early betweenColdplay and Plant and Krauss, widely supposedto be the Brit band's chief competition for topawards. The singer and fiddler won for pop collabo-ration with vocals for "Rich Woman," and won twomore awards in a pre-telecast ceremony. Later, whenPlant and Krauss won the record-of-the-year awardfor "Please Read the Letter," which Plant wrote withhis Led Zep partner Jimmy Page, T-Bone Burnett, theproducer of "Raising Sand," stressed the unpredict-able nature of the project. All he could think of tosay as a thank-you was, "Good things come out of nowhere."
ROUNDUP
Led Zeplin front man Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ folk sound brings them 5 awards
 were less than half the "peak"speeds.In the test, AT&T's averagedownload speed was 755,000bits per second (47 percent of itspeak speed), Verizon Wireless'average download speed was592,000 bits per second (46 per-cent of peak speed) and Sprint'saverage download speed was494,000 bits per second (41 per-cent of peak speed). That put allthree below the definition of broadband used by research firmGartner, which is a downloadspeed of more than 1.5 millionbits per second. Another 2008 comparison(www.mobile-broadband-reviews.com/wireless-broad-band-reviews.html) shows AT&T, Verizon and Sprint in a dead heat for average download speeds. (T-Mobile lagged behind.) But  Verizon was given the edge for "bigger bursts of speed nation- wide." As recently as last month,Gartner said average cellular broadband speeds are often300,000 to 700,000 bits per sec-ond slower than advertised topspeeds.Bear in mind that these speedsare constantly being increased, so who's faster is a moving target.Q. Recent news reports talkedabout a computer worm that could affect 30 percent of Win-dows-based computers. How canI tell if my Windows XP systemhas been protected? A. If you have antivirus soft- ware, it should be protecting youagainst the Conficker or Downadup computer worm. (A  worm is a self-copying programthat works without you taking any action.)Most antivirus software is up-dated online frequently, so thechances are that you've been pro-tected since late November, themonth the worm was discovered. To make sure, click the antivirusicon on your PC's toolbar to seeif the software is up to date.Eventhough you're probably safe, the worm still infects an estimated 3million computers worldwide.Microsoft, whose Windows soft- ware was affected, is offering a$250,000 reward for informationleading to the arrest and convic-tion of the worm's creators.
Is 3G network as cracked up as it’s hyped to be?
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