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Looking into popular blocked websites

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     Many students at Stow-Munroe Falls High School become frustrated over the wifi and why they cannot use their favorite apps and go on certain websites. These students go through the constant struggle of having to get on and off wifi to use these apps.

    The person who updates the web filter for the high school is Sean Fitch, and he works for the school district’s tech department.

    Some students realize some of their favorite apps on their devices are blocked and want to know what other websites and apps are blocked, and why they are blocked.

    “The website we block generally speaking fall into two categories things that are inappropriate and things that are a distraction. Things that are considered inappropriate would be porn, blood and gore, online gambling, information on weapons, and other things of an R-rated nature that is not considered educational. Things that are a distraction would be online games, social media and video search engines; however, there are exceptions such as youtube [that] is unblocked due to the large amounts of educational content available,” Fitch said.

    The technicians that work for the school district update the websites as often as they get a request.

    “We get more requests to unblock sites than to block them,” Fitch said.

    The filter is setup by an outside company called neonet. The filter system has categories and terms it chooses what to block based on what the company decided is irrelevant for students.

    “Beyond what the program decides is inappropriate for students, teachers, principals, and administrative staff can ask us to block or unblock sites that the filter missed or blocked on a faulty premise. If we are unsure if a request is reasonable, it will get escalated up the chain of command,” Fitch said.

    The technicians have the capability to block sites themselves as well as the ability to block search terms.

    “The three of us techs do it by ourselves. Whoever gets the ticket first does it unless they feel the need to ask whether a site should be blocked or not. If we have to escalate the request it goes to our boss the temp Tech Director Jim Gotshall, he can escalate it to his boss Mr. Fritz who is a business manager, and finally if all of us are unsure the request will go to the superintendent; however, this has only happened once, and it was for unblocking a site,” Fitch said.

    Sometimes problems arise, and it can be difficult to block and unblock things online.

    “Sometimes we have issues getting a site blocked or unblocked if this happens then we can send a request to Neonet for help.  The issues have a lot to do with the way websites are programmed,” Fitch said.

     Working with the web filter has been part of Fitch’s job since he started back in August (2015).

    “My job is to handle all technology issues with few exceptions, as such the web filtering was given to me as it is a technology issue,” Fitch said.

    As far as working with technology in general, Fitch has been fascinated by machines since he was a child.

    “I always wanted to work with some sort of technology. I started doing IT for KSU while I was a student there, and this is my first job out of college. As far as doing the filtering, I like working on sites that are difficult and don’t want to be blocked or unblocked. I find the challenge fun,” Fitch said.

Feature

Root words give origin to English words

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Most people know the connotation of the words they use daily but rarely ever recognize the origins of such words. Most words can be broken down and traced back to other languages.

According to dictionary.com,  “About 80% of the entries in any English dictionary are borrowed, mainly from Latin. Over 60% of all English words have Greek or Latin roots.”

With the majority of English words stemming from Greek and Latin, identifying which words come from which original language can become difficult as there are a plethora of roots from both dialects. Many of the roots are actually the same from both Latin and Greek.

A root is similar to a prefix of a word yet is not always placed in the beginning of the word. They give a word a base meaning, or alludes to a specific definition.

Starting with Latin, some common roots are ante, bio, epi, gen and retro. These roots form words all around, like antebellum, biology, generation and retrospect; however, these are not just coincidental words with the same three or four letters in sequence.

Ante actually means before. This root is not only used in English: the root can also be found in other languages, as ante directly translates to before in Spanish. Many roots and meanings of words are more directly related in multiple dialects than many may realize.

Bio means life. One can see this in the word biography, which is a written account of another person’s life.

Gen means race, family or kind. Such words like generation and gender use the root gen to derive their meanings.

Retro means the same as it is used regularly: backward. Even though the English language has retro as its own word, the root makes an appearance in other words such as retrogress and retrospect.

When looking at Greek roots, but also Latin, many can be used to compose a single word.

The word bibliophile, according to dictionary.com, is a person who loves or collects books. This definition is perfect for the word, as many definitions seem to be once a person discovers roots of the word. The root bibli means book, as in bibliography and Bible. The root phil means love, such as philosophy and pedophile. The two roots together form an extremely fitting meaning of lover of books.

Another simple word, sympathy, has the same composition. Sympathy, according to dictionary.com, is the “harmony of or agreement in feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another.” Breaking the word up reveals there are two roots constructing the word: sym and path. Sym means same, and path means emotion; the roots together correlate exactly with the definition of the word.

As many everyday words contain specific segments of letters that give the word a definite meaning, one can learn many new and interesting meanings and origins of the English language.

Simply learning of roots can make English much more intriguing and could even serve a traveler well since other dialects also use the same roots.

Next time when reading a book, speaking out loud or even going abroad, try to recognize the composition of words because they are likely made up of parts from other languages.

No matter if one is getting into an automobile, walking into geology class or celebrating someone’s birthday, roots are all around; it is about time English speakers give roots the recognition they deserve.

Feature

Hudson Haunted House provides new experience

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By Mae Phillips

When I walked into the Hudson Haunted House, ready to interview the actors and take some pictures, I never expected to be put in one of the rooms and become an actor myself; however, I jumped at the opportunity as soon as I was asked.

I was then handed an oversized black sweatshirt and a glow in the dark mask. My job was to stand in a dark room full of similar masks and three other people dressed like me. We blended into the scene, so it was hard to tell which masks were worn by actual people and which were fake. When people walked through the room, we were to stand as still and quiet as possible and then jump out when the people least expected it.

Once I had my costume, I was led through a hidden hallway and screams from all directions rang through my ears. There was even growling and maniacal laughter that followed loud bangs echoing off the walls.

Being an actor was weird, but it was also really fun. Some people are harder to scare than others, and so many different people came through. I learned that it is not always the jump scares and loud noises that scare people the most. You have to work with different situations and be creepy rather than just do the same thing over and over.

I did scare a few people pretty badly, and it was funny not to be the scared one for once. It was a pretty cool experience, and I would love to be a volunteer.

The house has so many different characters and being able to make them come alive is hard work. I will definitely be going back next year.