[News] As students dance the night away on the quad at Dancing Without Borders on June 2, they will not only be celebrating the end of Spring Fling, but they will also be helping the Youth Community Service Club (YCS) raise money for Doctors Without Borders.—Stéphanie Keller-Busque
[News] GRT looks back on year of recovery, success—Thomas Bao
[News] Residents of Los Altos Hills have begun speaking up about their displeasure with the absence of a school district in their city. —Sasha Guttentag
[News] Next year, a new science course will be added to the list of the many classes offered at Gunn. This new AP Physics B class is an alternative to the AP Physics C class, and will allow students to learn physics on a general level.—Michelle Fang
[News] On April 30, approximately 15 Gunn students headed to San Francisco to attend a rally urging President Bush and Congress to help end the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. The rally was part of the nationwide Day of Conscience for Darfur, sponsored by Our Pledge, a coalition of local human rights and religious organizations. Some 5,000 protestors turned out for the rally in San Francisco, with an additional 75,000 attending similar events across the United States. —Caroline Hodge
[News] On May 25, Gunn held its annual Recognition and Awards Luncheon. Administrators, teachers and Gunn volunteers gathered in the gym to participate in the festivities.—Vivien Tsao
[News] Classes were suspended on May 9 and 11 to allow students to take the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests.—Andrea Yung
[News] Gunn will lose several veteran staff members this fall, and preparations have been underway to find their replacements.—Michelle Fang, Jill Fu, Gea Kang, Michelle Lee, Meilin Luh & Alex Tom
[Forum] Both teachers’, students’ effort needed—
[Forum] When choosing which social studies classes to take in required subjects junior and senior years, Gunn students must often choose between the boring, easy tedium of a regular class and the frenetic, work-intensive tedium of an AP class. The social studies department should resolve this dilemma by offering advanced or honors classes or grades.—Nathaniel Eisen
[Forum] Starting next year, the administration is making students make time somewhere during their eight semesters of high school to take a semester-long living skills class. Formerly, the course was taught in four weeks, two weeks in freshman science classes and two weeks in P.E. A semester-long course that is not only required but only offers credits solely towards graduation? This is not a fair deal for students or teachers. —Sasha Guttentag
[Forum] Summer vacation is finally here—the perfect opportunity to relax and have fun. Students should not forget, however, that summer break is also the best time to seize valuable opportunities to experience something new.—Andrea Yung
[Forum] Summer is a time for recuperating and relaxing after nine months of hard work in school.—Stephen Salazar
[Forum] While the majority of Gunn students able to drive groan about exorbitantly high gas prices, these increasing prices are actually good news for our environment and the economy.—Caroline Hodge
[Forum] Rising oil prices threaten to implode the American economy. The unrestrained increase of oil prices hurt businesses and increase the trade deficit, causing foreign investors to unload dollar-denominated investments. Eventually, this will lead to the downfall of the American economy that Alan Greenspan warned us of in 2004, at the start of the oil price surge. If oil prices are not decreased, the American economy will collapse and millions will find themselves jobless.—Thomas Bao
[Forum] Disposable plastic bottles wasteful, unnecessary in Palo Alto—Nina Nielepko
[Features] The Oracle staff takes an in-depth look at staff members leaving Gunn. —Moses Lai, Alex Tom, Michelle Lee, Gea Kang & Jill Fu
[News] The Youth Art Exhibition at the Palo Alto Center, which began May 14 and runs until June 4, features an array of artwork by students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The colorful artwork and inventive sculptures send bright messages to young artists. —Meilin Luh
[Features] The Gunn Philosophy Club is a sophisticated attempt to solve and discuss mysteries of the universe through questions. These simple yet compelling questions can have infinite answers through different discussions. Students interested in contemplating the mysteries of the universe meet every Wednesday at lunch in L-15.—Stephen Salazar
[Centerfold] The Atkins diet swept across America as one of the easiest ways to lose weight, after Dr. Robert Atkins published his book, Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution. Dropping calories became simple when Dr. Atkins described how a low-carb diet consisting of meat, cream, oils and fats would help the body. —Eric Johnston
[Centerfold] We live in a world where the “ideal image” of a person often clashes with reality. In reality, a lot of teenagers do not need to diet or lose weight. However, our culture emphasizes this “thinspiration” idea through television, glossy magazines and popular role models. This idea hits teenagers especially hard and pushes them to find different ways to alter their body image. Disastrous problems arise when teens try to diet and drop unwanted weight, which may lead to severe diet disorders.—Alex Tom
[Centerfold] Diet pills, supplements, anorectic drugs and other weight loss medications will not melt away fat and solve weight problems. Anti-obesity drugs operate through suppressing one’s appetite, increasing the body’s metabolism or a combination of the two.—Adrienne Nguyen
[Centerfold] Crash dieting is the harmful alternative to simply living a healthy lifestyle. Who would want to give up that luscious chocolate sundae or buttery bowl of popcorn? Instead, many girls will often turn to crash diets, temporarily starving themselves just before a special event such as bikini season. —Libby Craig
[Centerfold] The South Beach Diet was born when cardiologist Arthur Agatston wrote The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss in 2003. —Dan Li
[Entertainment] Ciao, America! is what over 99 students from Gunn’s concert choir will say on June 21 as they leave for their 12-day trip to Italy. The trip consists of both a performance and historical tour with participation in the Amadeus Festival in honor of Mozart and his great influence on the world of music.—Stéphanie Keller-Busque
[Entertainment] The Oracle staff compiles a list of local summer events. —Vivien Tsao
[Entertainment] Procrastinators still have time to make the most of their summer. Here are a few ideas if you’re stuck on what to do:—Eric Johnston
[Entertainment] Cars—Jonathan Gu
[Entertainment] Negative reviews from the Los Angeles Times and New York Times didn’t keep the crowds from pouring into the theaters for the greatly anticipated The Da Vinci Code. Ron Howard’s adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel made $244 million worldwide in its first weekend in the box office. —Ana Kostioukova
[Entertainment] The Gunndance film festival is returning to Gunn June 1st to June 3rd, and promises to be an exiting event for all. Held by returning hosts senior Michael Parikh and junior Noel Carey, the festival will feature nearly 20 new films, along with some sequels from past festivals.—Nathaniel Eisen & Shiv Kachru
[Entertainment] English teacher Kristina Gossard is writing her way into fame and fortune. Having gone to the Tribeca Film Festival in New York just this month, she has signed a contract for an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. But that’s not all.—Meilin Luh
[Entertainment] One of the greatest advancements the internet has brought us has been an effective method of communication. Youtube.com enhances that by making thousands of videos accessible to the public with just a few clicks. —Alex Rasgon
[Entertainment] Musicians assemble at Fandango Pizza at the corner of Middlefield Road and Loma Verde Avenue several nights every week to play three kinds of music, and high school students are more than welcome to come play or listen. “Whoever likes music, this is a good place to be,” owner Tom Kamali said. On every other Monday you can hear Old timey American music, on every Tuesday Celtic music, and on every Wednesday, Bluegrass music. I had the opportunity to attend the Old timey and bluegrass jams.—Nathaniel Eisen
[Sports] Spring season wrap-up—Stephen Salazar & Moses Lai
[Sports] A crucial member of the Gunn gymnastics team, junior Kaylyn Reyes started gymnastics as a toddler and is now a level 10 gymnast, the level preceding that of Olympic athletes. Having started with one class a week, she now practices five days a week at Airborne Gym in Santa Clara. —Sasha Guttentag
[Sports] Cheerleaders hopeful for next year despite coach departure—Libby Craig
[Sports] Energy bars are among the worst things that you can eat. Some of them are nothing more than candy bars masquerading in a “healthy” disguise. Companies try to conceal the lack of nutrition in their products with phrases like “the complete nutritional food bar” (Balance Bar) or “Fuel for Optimum Performance” (Powerbar). But when you get right down to it, energy bars contain nothing more than a lot of sugar, fat, fiber and a small amount of protein.—Alex Lee