The Student News Site of The American School in Japan Thu, 13 Apr 2023 03:21:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 /features/on-humor/ /features/on-humor/#comments Thu, 13 Apr 2023 03:21:50 +0000 /?p=4204 Reading Time: 2 minutes Humor is like a fine wine: Best enjoyed with friends, it leads to a headache when pondered upon in excess. But what makes something funny? What is the essence of goofiness? Philosophers have attempted to answer this question for centuries, and have developed several theories of humor. One popular theory is the incongruity theory. It...]]> /features/on-humor/feed/ 3 /opinion/cryptomania-a-digital-epidemic/ /opinion/cryptomania-a-digital-epidemic/#respond Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:28:40 +0000 /?p=3856 Reading Time: 3 minutes The world of economics is shifting. Enter cryptocurrency: a digital asset completely composed of 0’s and 1’s. Once mocked as a silly trend, its marketability has, instead, catalyzed a global switch towards digital finance.  Countries such as El Salvador have adopted cryptocurrency as legal tender, while a bustling, virtual “crypto-market” houses the online sale of...]]> /opinion/cryptomania-a-digital-epidemic/feed/ 0 /features/awakening-your-creativity/ /features/awakening-your-creativity/#respond Mon, 09 May 2022 10:40:56 +0000 /?p=3815 Reading Time: 2 minutes If you’ve ever stayed awake past midnight, you’ll understand the exhaustion that comes with neglecting a reasonable bedtime. That lethargy dragging down your eyelids is the body’s circadian rhythm telling you to rest. It’s a biological alarm clock that alerts you that it’s time to sleep.  All of this should be obvious to anybody who...]]> /features/awakening-your-creativity/feed/ 0 /features/womens-history-month-female-faculty/ /features/womens-history-month-female-faculty/#respond Sun, 10 Apr 2022 12:51:19 +0000 /?p=3716 Reading Time: < 1 minute In the United States, March was recognized as Women’s History Month, a month to commemorate the outstanding contributions of women to society and in history. In the past century, the world has slowly but surely taken steps in the right direction to achieve gender equality. Yet, many women—especially those with intersecting marginalized identities—are still not...]]> /features/womens-history-month-female-faculty/feed/ 0 /opinion/to-%f0%9f%85%bf%ef%b8%8f-or-not-to-%f0%9f%85%bf%ef%b8%8f/ /opinion/to-%f0%9f%85%bf%ef%b8%8f-or-not-to-%f0%9f%85%bf%ef%b8%8f/#respond Wed, 16 Mar 2022 03:34:00 +0000 /?p=3648 Reading Time: 3 minutes 🅿️. The gleaming, blueberry-tinged phenomenon that has swept the world by storm. Since January, this emoji has surfaced in our social media, monetary interactions, and daily conversations. “Hey, you’re looking 🅿️ today!”, or “Keep pushing that 🅿️!” riddle the school hallways. When discussing finance, students refer to money as “🅿️.” Just yesterday, an Instagram post...]]> /opinion/to-%f0%9f%85%bf%ef%b8%8f-or-not-to-%f0%9f%85%bf%ef%b8%8f/feed/ 0 /opinion/ghost-guns-in-the-hands-of-children/ /opinion/ghost-guns-in-the-hands-of-children/#respond Wed, 16 Feb 2022 00:02:28 +0000 /?p=3577 Reading Time: 3 minutes Andy Greenberg proclaimed “no technical understanding of firearms,” but he still managed to construct a gun in less than a day. The assembly took place in a backroom at his Wired magazine office in San Francisco. In his article, “I Made an Untraceable AR-15,” Greenberg fed aluminum to a $15,000 milling tool dubbed the “Ghost...]]> /opinion/ghost-guns-in-the-hands-of-children/feed/ 0 /opinion/apes-for-sale-the-world-of-nfts/ /opinion/apes-for-sale-the-world-of-nfts/#respond Tue, 25 Jan 2022 04:41:18 +0000 /?p=3507 Reading Time: 3 minutes Recently, a population of apes has overrun my Instagram feed.  They have come in a variety of fashions and styles: alien apes wearing rhinestone sunglasses, pirate apes donning Adidas-branded tracksuits, mutant apes oozing acid out of their fur. These are merely a few of the species that have popped up on posts, stories, and profile...]]> /opinion/apes-for-sale-the-world-of-nfts/feed/ 0 /opinion/tekashi-6ix9ine-hip-hops-cautionary-tale-against-attention-seeking/ /opinion/tekashi-6ix9ine-hip-hops-cautionary-tale-against-attention-seeking/#respond Fri, 14 Jan 2022 06:10:09 +0000 /?p=3472 Reading Time: 4 minutes Even within the glamorous, chaotic world of hip-hop, Daniel Hernandez, known by many as the rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, has always been a loose cannon.  From his neon-rainbow attire, to “snitching” on gang members, the Brooklyn rapper has proven time and time again that his personality is more volatile than the firearms he wielded. But for...]]> /opinion/tekashi-6ix9ine-hip-hops-cautionary-tale-against-attention-seeking/feed/ 0 /opinion/jazz-or-classical-why-not-both/ /opinion/jazz-or-classical-why-not-both/#respond Sun, 07 Nov 2021 06:43:19 +0000 /?p=3363 Reading Time: 2 minutes The playful, downswing blues of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” Chopin’s grandiose, melodramatic “Fantaisie Impromptu, Op. 66.” Both are brilliant compositions, so why do many people choose sides, either jazz or classical? In my experience, it seems one must pledge allegiance to either jazz or classical music. As a classically trained pianist, I was taught to...]]> /opinion/jazz-or-classical-why-not-both/feed/ 0 /opinion/the-generosity-of-self-reflection/ /opinion/the-generosity-of-self-reflection/#respond Mon, 07 Jun 2021 00:03:24 +0000 /?p=3092 Reading Time: 2 minutes In a society where honesty is often interchangeable with naivety, secrecy has become the new norm. Our personalities have become layered constructs: multi-faceted psyches reflecting artificial traits. To integrate into society, we create, remove, and switch these personalities as easily as CDs. With this shroud of fakeness that surrounds us, distinguishing the true character of...]]> /opinion/the-generosity-of-self-reflection/feed/ 0