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The Student News Site of Vel Phillips Memorial

Sword & Shield

Sword & Shield

Sword & Shield

The Student News Site of Vel Phillips Memorial

Photograph attributed to catAsmith

On the Importance of Children’s Horror

Amalia Weix November 1, 2024

When I was but a wee lad, I was utterly terrified of the undead. Zombies, ghosts, ghouls of all sorts—even vampires, which aren’t especially scary in modern day depictions—had me quaking in my tiny...

Photo attributed to Granny Enchanted

Why Does This Children’s Book Have So Much Eugenics??

Thomas Heinz November 1, 2024

Keeper of the lost cities. Some of you all may be familiar with the name, likely having read it in elementary school or middle school. I too was once like you, having been gifted the book by my grandparents...

Photo by mpclemens

NaNoWriMo, AI, and the Death of Process

Amalia Weix September 30, 2024

If you’re a huge nerd about writing, you already know what this article is about. But for those of you who aren’t, some context: on September 2, 2024, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, a nonprofit...

A Day at the Madison Comic-Con

Amalia Weix and Thomas Heinz September 30, 2024

The first-ever Madison Comic & Pop Culture Expo (MadEx) produced by Nerd Street—a prolific supporter of comic-cons across the country—took place on September 14-15 at the Alliant Energy Center....

The Atlas Six Atlas Sucked

The Atlas Six Atlas Sucked

Amalia Weix September 30, 2024

I read a lot of bad books. It's just a natural product of reading a lot of books—eventually, you hit one that isn't very good. Additionally, you can't really tell if it's a bad book until you read it....

Gleam Review

Gleam Review

Jocelyn Pfleger September 30, 2024

Each year, Olbrich Botanical Gardens hosts GLEAM, an event where glowing art is set across the 16 acre gardens. For the past 3 years, I’ve had the pleasure in getting to experience this event and it...

Photo by Simon Schlegl

Top Ten Best Plants

Thomas Heinz September 30, 2024

Here are ten plants that are pretty cool. This is pretty heavily biased, so please take my rankings with a grain of salt. 10) Japanese Blood Grass Known scientifically as Imperata cylindrica, this...

Screenshot by Adam Robinson-Yu

On the Benefits of A Short Hike

Amalia Weix September 30, 2024

A Short Hike, an indie game designed by Adam Robinson-Yu and released in 2019, is exactly what it sounds like: a short hike. You play as Claire, an anthropomorphic bird, as she attempts to scale Hawk Peak...

Photo attributed to Astronaut David R. Scott, Apollo 15 commander., Public domain, via Wikimedia Common

The Moon Landing Should Be A Holiday

Amalia Weix August 31, 2024

The Moon Landing is, objectively, one of the coolest things America—and humanity as a whole—has ever done. We put a human on the moon, something that is still extremely complex with modern technology,...

Logo property of International Olympic Committee

The Youth Olympics Has No Reason To Exist

Amalia Weix August 31, 2024

Pretty much everyone knows about the Olympics. It’s the greatest international sporting event in the world, drawing competitors and viewers from across the globe. Lesser known is the Youth Olympic Games...

Photo attributed to JulieFurgason at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Do We Love Dogs?

Amalia Weix August 31, 2024

A lot of people love dogs. That isn’t an opinion, that’s a fact. People go so absolutely stupid bonkers crazy over dogs—they put them in little outfits, they train them for weird little dog sports,...

"Robert Downey, Jr." by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
"File:Deadpool 2 Japan Premiere Red Carpet Ryan Reynolds (cropped).jpg" by Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Deadpool and Wolverine, RDJ, And The Empty Void Of Cameo Culture

Max Knight August 31, 2024

Spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine. Multiple times throughout the 2-hour runtime of Deadpool and Wolverine, the titular merc with a mouth refers to himself as “Marvel Jesus”, positioning himself...

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