Jaws New Story

Body of Local Teen Found On Beach

The body of a local high school girl was found washed up on the beach early this morning after she was reported missing.

                The girl, Chrissie Watson, was last seen alive last night by teen Christopher P Hoggenbottam III last night, who reported her missing to the Amity Village Police Department this morning.

                Watson’s body was found mangled and severely mauled by an unknown attacker, the police reported in a press release this morning.

                “It was an extremely grizzly and upsetting scene,” said Police Chief Martin Brody at a recent press conference concerning the case.

                At approximately 11 p.m. Sunday night Watson reportedly decided to go swimming in a remote section of South Beach near the South Beach bell buoy. Cristopher Hoggenbottam reportedly came with her, but did not swim.

                Witnesses told police that both Watson and Hoggenbottam had been drinking heavily and possibly smoking marijuana at a beach party before leaving to swim.

                It is currently not clear who or what attacked Watson, though no charges have been filed in the case at this point, and police are continuing their investigation into the incident.

                “We are exploring a range of possibilities,” said Chief Brody. “It could have been a pack of wild dogs, or some other type of animal.”

                The police report that a shark attack has not been ruled out in the case, but stress that all residents and visitors are not in danger and the beaches will remain open for swimming pending the outcome of the investigation.

                “Shark attacks are rare for this area. They are more likely in the islands down south,” said Chief Brody.

                When asked during the press conference, Chief Brody claimed that human attack has not been ruled out as a possibility as well.  

                Watson’s body has been transported to the coroner’s office for autopsy. At the time of the press conference, police were still awaiting information on said autopsy. 

New Story Workshop, a fake story about a missing cat

Spotted Leopard Reported Missing

The Romanian spotted leopard housed in the Durham Zoo has been reported missing by zoo officials and is thought to be on the loose on the premises or possibly in the neighborhood surrounding the zoo.

                “When we opened the zoo at 9:30 this morning and began feeding the animals, we immediately noticed Fluffy missing,” said Gerry Durrell, director of the zoo. “We are doing everything we can to find her and bring her back.”

                It is currently unclear what happened to the leopard, as the cage did not appear to be tampered with and the fencing was intact. The cage that the leopard is housed in is alarmed, and no alarm sounded between 9 p.m. the previous night, the last time the leopard was seen, and this morning at 9:30 a.m. when she was discovered missing.

                The spotted leopard, or Fluffy as she is affectionately named, was a gift to the City of Durham from sister city Durhamvoska in Romania. Fluffy, the only known female leopard of her kind, is said to be extremely dangerous. She weighs 146 pounds and can run up to 60 miles per hour.

                “Fluffy is a wonderful, warm, gentle cat who has never hurt anyone,” said the zoo’s chief zoologist Kitty Smith. “But if these cats are cornered – or encountered on a dark alley – their defense is to kill and kill quickly.”

                James Petronkis, a 36 year old resident of Newmarket, noticed something odd about Fluffy’s cage when he arrived at the zoo this morning. Petronkis, who visits the zoo daily to see Fluffy, knew something was wrong right away.

                “Fluffy usually draws the straw up into a nest when she sleeps, but there was no nest – there wasn’t even any straw.”

                Petronkis tried to alert zoo staff about his concerns, but they wouldn’t listen to him. He eventually pulled the fire alarm to get their attention, and after checking the cage “all hell broke loose. Police cars came from every direction and within minutes they were roughly pushing visitors to the exits.”

                The search for Fluffy will continue at the zoo until 11 a.m. If police have no luck finding her in the zoo, they will continue the search in the residential neighborhood around the zoo, which is home to an elementary school and many daycares. There are some reports that the schools in Durham have been locked down.

                Fluffy is extremely dangerous, and her species of leopard has been known to kill children under eight years old. If anyone comes into contact with the leopard they should slowly go to the ground and stay limp and lay still. People should avoid eye contact with her at all costs.

                Police will attempt to capture Fluffy using tranquilizers at first. “If nessisary, we will shoot to kill,” said Police Chief William Blair. “We have got to find her by 2 p.m. These cats are nearly impossible to find in the dark – they can see everything and we are blind.”

                The Durham Police have asked for assistance from the New Hampshire State Police and the state Wildlife Department to help in the search. The National Guard will also be supplying five helicopters with infrared scanners.

                If anyone has any information they are urged to contact the police. 

"Large Magma Reservoir Get Bigger" writing about science

Yellowstone Article on Nature

This article from the Journal Nature explores a new revelation in science this week, that the super-volcano located beneath Yellowstone National Park is actually double the size than previously thought. I think that this article is a good one to look at the understand how journalists write about science, as I am planning on trying to write a science article in the coming weeks.

This first thing I think that is important to writing about science is making sure that the reader understands everything that is talked about. That may mean trying to explain complex topics on a more basic level than the scientists may be doing. The article does a good job at keeping concepts simple. When explaining the danger of earthquakes, for instance, the author does a good job about explaining the geologic forces involved in the moving of tectonic plates without it sounding to complex.

Another important part of writing a good science article is making it relatable. This article does that by using analogy to explain certain things. For instance, when talking about the massive magma tunnels under the ground, it relates it to a sponge. The magma flows through pockets that resemble the hollow parts of a sponge.

One more piece that is important for science articles is talking about the future of the research, and what exactly is left to be discovered. This article does a good job at explaining just how much there is to learn about this volcano, and how little knowledge of it we actually have.

What I still need to learn about Journalism

When it comes to journalism, I am still a little unclear about exactly how to come up with a good person to profile. My biggest fear is to find someone who is not important enough. I need to come up with a good reason to interview someone about their life, and I am finding it difficult to think of exactly who. If I choose someone, and write about them, I think there needs to be a reason. I would hate to come up with someone, and have the reader think "So what?"

Lou Reed, Boston Globe Profile

Profile on Lou Reed


Lou Reed died on Sunday, and as a tribute the Boston Globe put out a profile. As I will be writing my own profile on someone in the coming weeks, I think this is an opportunity to look at some of the techniques used by Boston Globe contributor James Reed.

Though the profile is short, and could be seen more as a eulogy as anything else, but it goes into some details about the importance of Reed's work on our culture, and talks a little bit about his life. It talks about some of the taboo topics that Reed's music highlighted, like transsexuality and drug use, as well as some of the songs that have influenced our society such as "A Perfect Day"

Reed died at the age of 71 after complications from a liver transplant that he had received a two weeks ago.

The article also talks about Reed's relationship with journalists and journalism. "For every story written about his music, there’s at least another one about the hell and shot nerves that went hand in hand with interviewing him." writes James Reed. 

This piece is not very long, and when I plan to write my own profile on someone, I will most likely take a different approach. As I said, this is more a eulogy than anything else, so in order for this piece to dig deeper into Reed's life, more sources would need to be talked to to gain a larger picture of his life. 

I would have liked to have read a little more about Reed's influences, his life, and how he got into his career in the first place. It would be interesting to get a few anecdotes from some of the terrified journalists who interviewed him. 

I spent the last week in New York City for the annual College Music Journal Marathon. Each year the radio station at UNH sends members to attend workshops and concerts, and to meet contacts in the radio and music industries.  This was my second year attending the festival, and I really had a great time. It was also informative and I got a lot out of some of the workshops I attended.  Also, just going to New York is an experience in itself.

One of the main features at CMJ is the showcases put on by music promotion companies. These companies are hired by artists and record labels to promote music to college radio. As members of a college radio station we were invited to many of the free music showcases they put on. These showcases feature bands that the companies promote. I took this as an opportunity to discover new bands that I  hadn't heard of before.

Thoughts on the current government situation and on Boston Globe article

On Monday the government shutdown will enter it's third week, and there seems to be no signs of it stopping any time soon. As the congress continues to debate how to move forward, the situation is proving to be more complicated than it may have seemed going into the shutdown. As congress continues to attempt to work on passing a budget, no political topics seem to be off the table. Now, as we are beginning to near the debt ceiling limit, it adds another complex issue for congress to sort out.

I think that the article in the Boston Globe on Sunday the 13th (Obstacle emerges in last ditch struggle to avoid default) highlights the complexity of the situation. Though we have entered the shut down due to an effort to defund Obamacare, it is clear that that is not the only issue facing any way to get out of the mess that the country is in currently. We are clearly in a political climate that leave a lot of disrespect between sides. Each political party feels that they have to upper hand, and it is leaving the country in a difficult situation.

It feels like there are two US governments. The first government is the one that is constantly in the news. It is the president and the congress and the supreme court. These groups have a lot of say in what happens in the country, and are the ones that are in the fore front of people's minds when we think of government in general.

The second government is the people in the background, the ones that are actually keeping things running. These are the office workers, the forrest rangers, the fire fighters, the NASA employees, the CDC employees. It is these groups that keep things happening in our country and are crucial to making sure everything is working properly.

In most cases, the second group is able to continue working even if the political squabbles of those in power are particularly intense. But now, without a working budget, the second group is feeling the full force of a government unable to get anything done. For now, we all have to wait and see how things turn out.