Alexander Lee

News Editor

This is the 2nd issue of the “News that you NEED to know”, the November Review. This month, a lot of pleasant surprises occurred, and thus it is fitting for the November Review’s theme to be “the adventitious” (lucky).
1. New Pablo Picasso paintings:
On November 29th just before the end of the month, retired French electrician Pierre Le Guennuc released 271 never-before-seen paintings, sketches, and watercolors to the world. Experts already estimated this collection to be worth 80 million dollars. Le Guennuc, who is currently 71, is claiming that the works were given to him as gifts by Picasso himself. However, Clause Picasso, the son, is skeptical and is filing a lawsuit against Le Guennuc. Though there may be dispute regarding how the paintings were acquired, there is no doubt concerning their authenticity, and thus these findings will prove to be monumental to the art world.

2. Baseball announces Cy Youngs and MVPs:
In the latter half of November, Major League Baseball revealed the winners of the Cy Young and MVP awards. In the American League, Seattle Mariner Felix Hernandez won the Cy Young and Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton won the MVP.
In the National League, Philadelphia Philly Roy Halladay won the Cy Young and Cincinnati Red Joey Votto won the MVP. Particularly remarkable was Roy Halladay’s season. Since the preseason he was expected to excel in the national league, and he fulfilled all, if not exceeded, his expectations. He led the league with 21 wins and posted a 2.44 ERA. Not only this, but Halladay also threw a perfect game on May 29th. His dominant performance earned him 32 out of 32 first place votes for his second career Cy Young award.

3. Two year salary freeze for federal employees:
President Barack Obama has announced that he will freeze the salaries of top White House officials and political appointees.
This will occur for two years and will supposedly save 2 billion dollars in 2011 and 60 billion over the next 10. However, the freeze will not affect Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. On Tuesday December 8th, he will address this as well as other issues regarding the federal deficit in his annual state of the union. Hopefully, this change will prove to be a fruitful one.

4. Microsoft and Xbox 360 on the rise
The Xbox 360, a game system introduced by Microsoft in 2005, had always been one step behind its Nintendo counterpart, the Wii. The Wii was always thought to appeal to a larger audience due to its “casual-gamer” friendly games and settings. However, last month, the Xbox reported 1.075 million sales, which is 31% higher than last year’s. More importantly, the Wii reported only 975,000 units sold, a 24% decline. In addition to this, Xbox 360 games alone have been reported to have brought in 700 million dollars, which is probably due games like Call of Duty: Black Ops. These numbers indicate a very bright future for Microsoft, and perhaps in the near future the Xbox 360 will be considered second place no more.

5. First synthetic life form created
As astounding as it sounds, scientist Craig J. Venter has created the first ever synthetic life. Venter, who had been a part of the team that had sequenced the 25,000 genes in the human genome project, created the first self-replicating piece of DNA.
This work is proving to be groundbreaking, for it could have many practical uses such as oil generating. After his work was analyzed by various different scientists, they concluded it to be completely authentic. Both Science Magazine and hit news show 60 Minutes did specials on him, and it would not at all be shocking if he wins the Nobel Prize for science.