Publications Club

Billboard’s 2018 Woman of the Year: Ariana Grande By: Aelita Arshakyan Billboard’s Woman of the Year, Ariana Grande, has never had more career momentum than she has now. Her fourth album, Sweetener , became “her third No, 1 on the Billboard 200 in August,” according to Billboard. The album has produced two top singles, so far, on the Hot 100. While promoting her new project, her ex-boyfriend, dear friend, and collaborator Mac Miller passed away. Shortly after, her engagement to comedian Pete Davidson ended. Though she went through such difficult times, she still managed to make her fans happy. Ariana Grande has always had a good work ethic. She began performing in public before she was ten and went to Broadway by the time she was fifteen. According to Billboard, “she’s the only artist ever to have the lead single from each of her first four albums debut in the top 10 of the Hot 100, and the first woman in three years to have a single debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100.” The ...

Kavanaugh By Nayiri Artounians In the past couple of months, the Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearing has rocked the whole nation. In the midst of #Metoo and Time’s Up, sexual assault allegations have been brought up against what is supposed to be the epitome of justice and honor: a Supreme Court nominee.     Decades later, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford came out to speak her allegations against Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh was being reviewed for the position of Supreme Court Justice. This was the last straw for Dr. Ford: she talked of a sexual assault during high school done to her by Kavanaugh. During the testimony, Dr. Ford said, “ I am here today not because I want to be. I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school.” And she proceeded to tell her story about her harrowing ordeal. About the bed, about Kavanaugh’s hands on her mouth, about the laughter of others and about the fear of not surviving.   ...

Do You Love or Loathe Coffee? By: Aelita Arshakyan     A nice cup of coffee is a necessary part of millions of people’s morning routines. Additionally, those who may feel drowsy throughout the day may even reach for an extra cup or two as well. Caffeine is known to affect people in various ways. How is it that most people feel jittery and too excited after just drinking one cup while others never feel a direct effect? According to scientists, the answers lie in our genes.     Those individuals who drink coffee on  a regular basis begin to develop some level of tolerance towards the caffeine in the drink. Avoiding coffee due to its ability to cause sleeplessness, nausea, or anxiety is partly due to variations in one’s DNA. The CYP1A2 gene produces a lizer enzyme which works to metabolize roughly 95 percent of all ingested caffeine. AHR controls how much of that enzyme you produce. Both these genes are responsible for the way in which caffeine ci...

Books To Look Out For and How to Break Down Your TBR By Veronica Mkhsi-Gevorkian Reading, whether it be as a hobby or for a living, has its perks. Some books are an easy read and one can fly through them. There are some books that are highly anticipated. Anticipated reads can simply be books that are gaining popularity, are hyped/overhyped by the mass majority, or everyone is excited about. Here are some books you should look out for when walking into a bookstore or browsing online… Fiction:     An American Marriage by Tayari Jones Us Against You by Fredrick Backman White Rose, Black Forest by Eoin Dempsey Mystery and Thriller: The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn The Outsider By Stephan King Non-fiction Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover The Tatooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris Young Adult and Adult fiction: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black The Wicked King by Holly Black (release date in early 2019) Ch...

Climate Change: How Is It Accelerating? By: Aelita Arshakyan Climate change has long been a problem that scientists have been concerned about. An extra single degree of heat can heavily influence all life on Earth. According to the UN organization, health and ecosystems would be in far greater conditions if our world’s leaders could somehow try to limit human-caused warming. If it can just be limited to 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit instead of the 1.8 degrees now, there would be substantially fewer heat waves, less spread of diseases and illnesses, and other improvements. More than 90 scientists have contributed to the report and more than 6,000 peer reviews have been conducted. Although limiting warming to a lower goal may seem impossible, it is truly up to governments to decide whether they should act upon this issue.     New research has shown that the world’s oceans have absorbed far more heat than previously estimated. The study shows that over the past 27 years, th...