Panther Express
Volume 3-Issue 1
October 2013
Prairie Star Middle School 14201 Mission Road, Leawood Kansas 66224-9718
Panther Express Staff Ellen Nangia Co-Editor
Kendrick Kramer Co-Editor
Arwa Ali
Cade Stout
Nanma Pillai
Keenan Fitzmorris
Amit Israeli
Kareem Khan
Lisa Nocita, Faculty Sponsor
Submit ar cles in Microso Publisher
format via email to ltnoci-
Ar cles can be about anything you are
interested in! Restaurant reviews, book
reviews, music reviews, apps, video
games, short stories, poems, original
artwork, and photos!
Panther Express Staff meets on Mon-
days a er school in the library! We’d
love to have you join us!
Number Song Artist
1 Royals by Lorde
2 Roar by Katy Perry
3 Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus
4 Wake Me Up by Avicii
5 Hold On, We’re going home by Drake
6 The Fox by Ylvis
7 Holy Grail by Jay-Z
8 Blurred Lines Robin byThicke
9 Applause by Lady Gaga
10 Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey
By Ellen Nangia
Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
He didn’t have the guts!
What monster flies his kite in a rain storm?
Benjamin Franklinstein!
What do you call a fat Jack‐O‐Lantern?
Plumpkin!
Why wasn't there any food le a er the monster party?
Because everyone was a goblin!
Why didn't Dracula have any friends?
He was a pain in the neck!
What is Dracula's favorite fruit?
A nectarine.
By Ellen Nangia
Here's a scary story: A babysi er taking care of two small children
called their parents late in the evening to ask for permission to cover
up the life‐size clown statue in the corner of the family room. "It's not
that I don't like it," she said. "It just kind of freaks me out with no‐
body else here. It's hard to watch TV." The parents' reac on to her re‐
quest freaked her out even more. "WHAT clown statue???" they
asked, fran cally. "Dial 911! Call the police!! DO IT NOW!!!"
A very well‐dressed man walked over to her car and started talking to
her. He explained that his rental car had died, and he needed a ride to
East Hampton for an appointment. She said she would be happy to
give him a ride. He put his briefcase in the backseat and said he was
going to the men's room quickly.
The woman looked at her watch and suddenly panicked. She drove
off quickly, forge ng that the man was coming back to the car for a
ride.
She thought nothing of him again un l she and her daughter pulled
into their driveway. She saw his briefcase and realized she had for‐
go en him! She opened it looking for some form of iden fica on so
she could no fy him about his belongings. Inside she found nothing
but a knife and a roll of duct tape!
By Ellen
Nangia
Must Reads
By: Nanma Pillai
The Trendy 12
The House of Hades
You can find these books and more at your PSMS.
Cookies
1
box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® spice cake mix
1
cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/2
cup butter, softened
1/4
cup milk
1
egg
1
teaspoon Betty Crocker® orange gel food color
Filling
1/4
cup butter or margarine, softened
4
oz (half of 8-oz package) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2
cups powdered sugar
1/2
teaspoon maple extract
1
tube (4.25 oz) Betty Crocker® black decorating ic-
ing
By Ellen Nangia
Mummies by Ellen Nangia
If you don’t like dead things‐‐stop reading here!
Mummies, one word, millions of discoveries. If you’re creepy and weird like me, you
will like this ar cle. I wanted to learn about mummies and how they’re made. I think it is in‐
teres ng how they take all the organs out and fill the tombs with their
valuables. I learned about Otzi the Iceman in Mrs.Byrd’s social studies
class and every day I wanted to come and just look at pictures and
learn about what happened to him a er they discovered him. He is
over five thousand years old and he s ll has a tongue and eye balls, let
me say it again, OVER FIVE THOUSAND YEARS OLD! It just amazed me.
Iceman is one type of mummy. He is an ice mummy. If you want to
learn more about him and other ice mummies you should get the book
Ice Mummies.
I got a book from the P.S.M.S library called “Mummies and Their
Mysteries.” It tells you all about how they make them and, as this ar ‐
cle is about mummies, I want to tell you.
The first step to mummifica on is to take out all the organs. They use a long metal
rod to take out the brain ssue through the nose. They leave the heart inside because they
wanted to be smart in the a erlife and they thought smarts came from the heart not the
brain. They took the rest of the organs like liver and lung by cu ng holes in the person’s side.
The second step to mummifica on is drying out the body. They used salt to do it just like if
we drank salt water it would dry our mouthes.it takes forty days to dry out the body. Next
they cover the body with resin to harden it and keep it safe. Then they wrap
the body with about one hundred fi y yards of linen. Finally the mummy is
put in series of coffins and put into their tombs.
15 TAG members attended the 20th Annual Heartland
Literature Festival on October 15th at the University of
Kansas. Students attended presentations by two young
adult authors, Sharon Draper and Mike Mullin. Stu-
dents then rotated through sessions including small
group discussions of either Out of My Mind by Draper
or Ashfall by Mullin, book signing, and the nominations
for the 2013 Heartland Committee to Promote Lifelong
Reading. Despite a very late bus, the weather was beau-
tiful and the sessions were action packed. Mike Mullin
demonstrated a volcanic eruption and tae kwon do
forms and breaks. When asked about how her charac-
ters might get along after the book ends, Draper re-
sponded, “People! These are not real folks! They are
paper people. When the book ends, so do they. I don’t
think about them. When people ask me why characters
do the things I do, I tell them, ‘Because I am the author
and they do what I want them to do.’” Mullin offered
writing tips to aspiring novelists. 1) Read everything
you can. 2) Write every day. And 3) Marry someone
with good health insurance. It was a great day to be a
2013
Heartland Literature Festival
By Ellen Nangia
Every day 20 banks are robbed. The average take is $2,500!
The two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zea-land likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows!
A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second!
Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete!
Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a cal-orie!
Slugs have 4 noses!
Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they cant find any food!
Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool!
By Ellen Nangia
From Your Editors:
Panther Express Literary Magazine
The months of August, September, and October have been even ul months indeed. From a new member of the United
Kingdom’s Royal Family, to a shutdown of the United States Government (see next issue), these few months have the ability to
change the course of history.
H.R.H. George Alexander Louis was born to The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. He will succeed his father, Prince Wil-
liam, to the throne of the Bri sh Empire a er his Grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II., and Prince Charles.
The Government Shutdown took place a er Congress could not agree over Obama-Care and other items. Due to this the
United States Government was shut down. This is not only limited to congress and other elected offices, but zoos, na onal parks,
and museums. The government opened once again due to the pressure of the upcoming pressure Federal Government Borrow-
ing Limit, which has now been eliminated. Whilst the Government Shutdown was in effect, health insurance was eliminated for
millions of Americans. When millions of Americans went to sign up for new health insurance, a glitch in the system caused the
website to crash. Hundreds of thousands of government employees were not working or paid during the shutdown. Now, many
large companies and corpora ons, as well as the government, are facing furloughs, or layoffs, due to the shutdown. The United
States Debt increased by three trillion United States Dollars (U.S.D.) during the shutdown.
Informing you about what you need to know,
Your Editors,
Kendrick A. Kramer & Ellen Nangia
Editors-In-Chief
Images from h p://www.salon.com/2013/07/24/royal_babys_name_announced/
h p://rt.com/op-edge/shutdown-us-financial-climax-212/
How to stay current on US and Interna onal news
Time for Kids h p://www. meforkids.com/news
CNN Student News h p://www.cnn.com/studentnews/
Scholas c News Online h p://teacher.scholas c.com/ac vi es/scholas cnews/index.html
NY Times Learning Network h p://learning.blogs.ny mes.com/
Newseum h p://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/
Na onal Geographic News h p://news.na onalgeographic.com/news/
CBBC Newsround h p://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/
Word Count 668
“The Question of Global Warming”
-Kendrick A. Kramer-
Global Warming is a hot
topic, literally. But who
should you believe? There
are two main theories
about why global warming
is happening. There is a lot
of controversy about these
two theories. We all know
that global warming is
happening, perhaps in the
next century, we will find
out the cause.
The first theory is
that humans are causing
global warming. Our cars,
which burn fossil fuels,
produce carbon dioxide.
That is the cause for the
theory of the „Greenhouse
Effect‟. The greenhouse
effect is a theory that states
that there is a blanket of
carbon dioxide that covers
the earth. Whenever the
heat tries to leave our
planet at night, it is trapped
inside the blanket; this
makes some conclude that
because of the CO2
blanket, we have warmer
temperatures.
The second theory
is that humans have
nothing to do with global
warming. Some believe
that earth has periods of
heat, and periods of cold.
The periods of cold are
called „Ice Ages.‟ The
periods between the ice
ages are the time when
Earth‟s average
temperature is warmer.
These theorists argue that
in these periods global
warming happens. Since
we have had several ice
ages and several periods of
global warming and ice
melts between the two
periods.
Some scientists
believe that global
warming will have hard
effects on Earth. The
largest effect, they believe
is climate change. They
believe that climate will
cause the following:
melting ice, extinction,
rising sea levels, and
animal migration. More
consequences are:
1James Balog
http://www.npr.org/2012/11/08
/164236520/chasing-ice-and-
capturing-climate-change-on-
film
hurricanes and other
storms will be stronger,
species will be out of sync,
floods and droughts will be
more common, there will
be less rain in dry areas;
less fresh water, diseases
like malaria will spread,
and eco systems will
change.
2http://enpundit.com/chasing-
ice-captures-the-earths-
vanishing-glaciers/
James Balog originally
studied to be a scientist but
instead decided to become
a photographer. Balog has
been a photographer for
three decades. He founded
the Extreme Ice Survey
(E.I.S.). The E.I.S. is a
long-term photography
experiment that combines
art and science; the
photographs taken give a
„Visual Voice‟ to the
Earth‟s changing eco
system. The Extreme Ice
Survey is an extensive
picture portfolio of melting
Word Count 668
glaciers. E.I.S. exists
because seeing is
believing. The E.I. S.
project uses 25 cameras in
Alaska, Greenland,
Iceland, and Montana. It
took six months of
experimenting to create a
camera system.
The cameras take
pictures of receding
glaciers every thirty
minutes, year-round,
during day light hours. The
cameras used in the project
are Nikon D200 digital
single lens reflex cameras.
The cameras are powered
by a custom made
combination of batteries
and solar panels. The
cameras are protected from
dust and waterproof cases
are mounted on tripod
heads. They are mounted
by a system of anchors and
3http://www.sundance.org/fil
mforward/film/chasing-ice/
guy wires. Each camera
system weighs over 100
pounds.
Balog put his hundreds of
thousands of images into
time lapse form for each of
the glaciers he observed.
He gave presentations
nationally and
internationally showing his
pictures. According to
www.extremeicesurvey.or
g, plans are in store for
more cameras in the Andes
Mountains, Antarctica, and
the Himalayan Mountains.
You can find out more
information about his
project and the resulting
cinematic film by going to
Chasing Ice. The results of
the E.I.S. project are
astonishing.
4http://enpundit.com/chasing-
ice-captures-the-earths-
vanishing-glaciers/
A certain glacier receded
2.5 miles in three years.
James Balog feels it is his
moral responsibility to
share his discoveries with
the world. You can learn
more about Balog‟s
background and awards by
visiting James Balog
Photography.
It is my personal opinion
that humans have nothing
significant to do with
global warming. After all,
the earth has undergone
many significant climatic
changes before. We
survived then. We will
survive now.
Inspira onal Quotes
By: Sivaanii Arunachalam
Don’t judge me, I was born to be
awesome not perfect.
You’re worth more than gold.
Fear is nothing but fear itself.
You’re a limited edi on.
You’re one of a kind.
Date Day Opponent Activity Home/Away Time Out of Class Leave/Return
A Home
B Away 2:15 2:25/5:30
A BYE
B Away 2:15 2:25/5:30
A Away 2:15 2:25/5:30
B BYE
A Home
B BYE
A BYE
B Home
A BYE
B Home
A Away 2:15 2:25/5:30
B Home
Aubry Bend A Home
Pleasant Ridge B Away 2:15 2:25/5:30
A Home
B Away 2:15 2:25/5:30
A Away 2:15 2:25/5:30
B BYE
A Away 2:15 2:25/5:30
B Home
A1 Jeff Wataha
A2 Jennifer Bartsch
B Charlie Stoltenberg
PSMS Coaching Staff
Prairie Star Middle School
Girls Basketball Schedule2013-2014
Oxford
Leawood
*Nov. 18 Monday
Oct. 30
Lakewood
Pleasant Ridge
Pleasant Ridge
Wednesday
Monday
Thursday
Monday
Tuesday
Lakewood
3:15
3:15
3:15
3:15
3:15
3:15
3:15
3:15
3:15
3:15
3:15
Overland Trail
Pleasant Ridge
Blue Valley
Harmony
Nov. 14
*A2 Team plays first
Make up games if needed: Dec 3 and Dec 5
Nov. 4
Nov. 7
Nov. 11
Nov. 12
Nov. 13
*Nov. 20
*Nov. 21
*Nov. 25
Wednesday
Thursday
Wednesday
Thursday
Monday