by Kenny Hershberger

This past weekend Felix Baumgartner broke the sound barrier as a skydiver. He was sent up in a space capsule and then, at 24 miles in the sky, he jumped out into free-fall  This is just about three times the cruising altitude of jetliners. He fell for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Brian Utley, who is in charge of FIA certification, stated that at about one minute into his free-fall he hit a speed of 833.9 mph. This speed means that he hit, in the first minute of his decent, Mach 1.24 and this also set a record for speed held by a skydiver. Felix said that there were only two scary moment for him was when he had gotten thrown into a very dangerous tumble a few seconds after he started his decent. If he had not gotten out of this tumble as quick as he did, he could have easily died. The second was that through out his free-fall his face shield kept fogging up. Felix said that before he jumped he was thinking “I wish the whole world could see what I see”. This statement shows that the height he reached was humbling and just miraculous. Red Bull was the company that designed everything in this world record task. They built the suit that Felix wore and the balloon/space capsule he was taken up in.

All in all, this amazing feat was accomplished by Felix Baumgartner will be in the history books for a very long time and will always be remembered.

Media and the Effect on Women by Kelsey Fredericks

Media has a lot of influence on people today and more specifically, on young women. Women look at these models or actresses or stars and compare their life with someone they should not be comparing it with. The media can sway a woman’s decisions or actions very easily. This is not healthy for a lot of people out there who are wishing they were more like the “perfect” people. No one is perfect.

Women look at these models inside magazines and think to themselves “This is who I am supposed to be”. Women began to diet, but not in a healthy way. There are many cases where girls do things such as stop eating or even become bulimic. This is very dangerous and can cause so much harm to not only yourself but loved ones too. Just because you might see yourself getting thinner does not mean that it is healthy when in fact it is the complete opposite. You are not getting the nutrients and things you need in order to survive when you don’t eat or throw it up after consuming it. I cannot believe that the media has this big of an effect on people. In all honesty, the photographs in magazines are not even real. They have to touch them up in order to get them to look the way they do.

Women also look at theses actresses or stars and not only gaze at their beauty but at the materials they gain as well. Women want to be in their place because of all the money they earn and the different husbands they have. Yes money is great to have, but when you have as much as they do it could get you into trouble, but most stars have so much money they don’t know what to do with it so they end up spending it on things like drugs. The actors and actresses who should be influencing you are the ones who stand above drugs and trouble and give money to charities and people who actually need it. We should look at that and follow in their examples. I’m not saying we all have to give money up for different charities and events, but we should be more focused on that point rather than looking at it in a material way.

Models, actresses, and stars are all people that a lot of others look up to. Just because they seem really thin and perfect does not mean they are and just because they have money and everything they could ever ask for does not mean they are completely happy. We are all different and made for Gods purpose. If He wanted us all to look like the models than He would have created us to look like that from the start. It is time to focus on who you are and who you are meant to be and stop focusing on who we are not and who we want to be. We are special and made for a specific reason and God knows exactly what it is.