by Jason Piccolomini

The Paul Brothers celebrating Jake’s (left) win over Ben Askren

Boxing has long been one of the most popular sports in the world. Various outlets list boxing as a top-10 sport in terms of popularity, and Sports Brief has boxing ranked sixth due to worldwide participation. Once filled with greats such as Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Mike Tyson, boxing has steadily been on the decline.

Participation is the main thing keeping boxing’s pertinence. Realistically, anyone can train to become a boxer at any age. The fact that you are fighting for yourself and not for a team makes the path to the pros completely in your control. Social media stars have recently tried their hand at the sport. Influencers such as Jake Paul, Logan Paul and KSI have helped bring boxing back into relevancy.

BOXING’S RELIANCE ON SUPERSTARS

Boxing has gradually lost public interest. According to a 2021 survey on Statista only 12% of the 2,200 respondents were avid boxing fans. Casual boxing fans made up 25% of the group, and 63% were not boxing fans at all.

Percentage of men interested in boxing in 2021

Many people don’t pay attention to boxing unless a big name is involved. Floyd Mayweather has been the big name of this generation. Boxing PPV buys from 2014-2016 tell how boxing needed Mayweather for revenue. In 2014, Mayweather-Marcos Maidana was the top event, with 900,000 PPV buys. Mayweather’s 2015 megafight with Manny Pacquiao shattered PPV numbers with around 4.4-4.6 million buys. Mayweather didn’t fight in 2016, and PPV numbers declined. The highest-earning PPV was Canelo Álvarez-Amir Khan, earning close to 600,000 buys.

PPV buys between boxing and UFC from 2002-2017

Mayweather returned in 2017 and fought UFC megastar Connor McGregor in his first-ever boxing match. The PPV was the most-bought boxing event of 2017 and the second-most-bought boxing event of all time, with 4.3 million buys.

The fascination behind these numbers is that the most-bought boxing fights in those years were not recognized as the best. Anthony Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko only earned 1.6 million buys in 2017 yet won the Fight of the Year awards.

Floyd Mayweather (left) striking Conor McGregor in their 2017 bout

SOCIAL MEDIA STARS ARE BOXING’S NEW DARLINGS

The top fights of 2018 show boxing’s shift. Joshua-Joseph Parker reeled in 1.8 million PPV buys, which was the most that year. Álvarez’s rematch with Gennady Golovkin II brought in 1.1 million PPV buys and was named Fight of the Year by The Ring. In the middle of those two fights, YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI earned 1.3 million PPV buys in an exhibition bout. Paul-KSI set the record for the largest non-professional boxing match of all time in their first and second-ever boxing matches, respectively.

Their rematch in 2019 became the fifth-most-bought boxing PPV of all time with 2.0 million buys. It was also the third most streamed fight that year behind Joshua’s rematch with Andy Ruiz and Álvarez-Sergey Kovalev, according to DAZN.

KSI and Logan Paul’s rematch being ranked in the top 5 boxing PPVs of all time

Paul’s next boxing match came in 2021 against Mayweather. Despite the match being an exhibition and coming four years after Mayweather’s last professional fight, the event still earned roughly 1.0 million PPV buys. However, the attention has shifted from Mayweather being the top draw to Paul.

Two of of the five top boxing PPVs of 2021 being social media influencer events

Logan’s brother, Jake, is now a professional boxer. The YouTuber has taken the boxing world by storm since his first fight. Jake defeated former NBA star Nate Robinson on the Tyson-Roy Jones Jr card. The event garnered over 1.6 million buys, leading 2020. Jake’s knockout of Robinson led to virality, thus birthing boxing’s next star.

Nate Robinson laying down knocked out in the second round of his fight against Jake Paul

CONTINUED DOMINANCE

Jake had a successful 2021 year in the ring. His bout with Ben Askren was the most-bought fight of the year, according to EssentiallySports.com. That number ties the Mayweather-Cotto fight as the 10th best-selling PPV of all time. Later in the year, Jake’s fight with Tyron Woodley raked in roughly 500,000 PPV buys. To put that number in perspective, the last fight in the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder trilogy saw 600,000 buys, ranking fifth in the year.

Jake Paul and Ben Askren’s fight cracking the top 10 boxing PPV buys of all time

Boxing was the world’s fourth-most popular sport in 2021, according to a Harris Poll reported by BoxingJunkie.com. That same poll showed that Jake was the fourth-most recognizable active fighter. Logan and Jake’s fights were the second and third most recognizable that year, respectively.

The most popular sports among regions. Boxing is ranked second in Latin America, third in the Asian-Pacific, and fifth in the Middle East/Africa.

With Mayweather retired from professional boxing, new stars are needed. On the Harris Poll, Jake was tied for the 15^th-most-liked fighter out of the 20 presented. People watch Jake to either see him keep his undefeated streak or hope he gets knocked out. According to the Global Web Index, boxing is the second-most popular sport in the world among young people. Social media influencers will help boxing’s young demographic stay invested.

By Kaylin Flukey

Picture from gettyimages.com

The 2022 NFL season has been anything but ordinary. Teams that were projected to be top in their division are at the bottom while others that were projected to be lower in the rankings are coming out on top.

A main factor in the successes and hardships of these teams is the environment they play in. Most teams thrive in their home stadiums, whether it be the pride they feel playing for their hometown or the energy coming from the fans.

According to a study done by lineups.com home teams usually win in between 55 and 60 percent of the time. A prime example of why home-field advantage matters is the New Orleans Saints. The Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, has been the home stadium for the Saints since 1975. It is known for being one of the toughest stadiums to play in because of its structure. The Saints have maintained the fifth highest win percentage at home since 2008.

Picture from WAFB

It is nearly impossible for opposing teams to hear while on offense because of how loud the fans can get. In 2013, the arena set a Guinness book record as the loudest stadium when the loudness level reached 136.6 decibels. To put that into perspective, that is almost as loud as a military jet taking off from an aircraft carrier.

At this point in the season the Saints have maintained their home-field advantage reputation, according to TeamRankings, they stand with a record of 3-3-0 at the Superdome and an away record of 1-5-0. Another team this season that is thriving at home, is the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins play at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Florida. They have a record of 5-1-0 at home and an away record of 3-4-0.

The Philadelphia Eagles are infamous for their rowdy and loyal fan base. No matter where the Eagles play if you look in the stands you will see Eagles fans screaming and decked out in their fan gear. So far in the 2022 season, the Eagles hold a record of 12-1 putting them in first place of their division.

Chart from Statista

Throughout the 2020 season, the Eagles organization did not allow fans to attend games due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That same year, the Eagles finished with a record of 4-11-1, coming in last in their division. Not having fans in attendance was not the sole reason that the team did not have a successful year, but it defiantly had an effect.

Attendance of games around the NFL this season have increased from previous years. There are no longer restrictions relating to Covid-19 and fans are taking advantage of having a normal season back. The Dallas Cowboys are having a stellar season so far with a record of 10-3-0 putting them second to the Eagles in their division.

The Cowboys currently lead the league in attendance for home games with a total of 747,438 people in attendance after 8 home games, and averaging 93,429 per game, according to ESPN. That is 268,482 more people than the second highest team, the New York Jets, with a total of 478,956 people.

Chart from Statista.

Not only is there a disadvantage of playing in a stadium that isn’t your own, but the disadvantage also comes from the travel to the game. Recent studies have shown that teams are affecting by traveling from east coast to west coast and vice versa.

According to yahooentertainment, researchers believe that peak athletic performance occurs late in the afternoon especially for NFL players who have acclimated to 1p.m. game time starts in their respective time zones. West coast teams have struggled with 1.p.m games on the east coast, but they have dominated Monday Night Football. Between 1970 and 2010 west coast teams have won 74% of all MNF contests.

Every NFL team is different and certain teams dominate because they are just simply having a good season. However, home-field advantage really takes an effect during a close game or for a team that falls in the middle of the rankings. The environment of a game and the support from the fans can give a team that extra drive to win.

By Maggie Dougherty

Chris Murphy’s passion for gun control had not always been a large part of his political career. It wasn’t until the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 that the Democratic senator from Connecticut took it upon himself to work on the issue. Since then, he has become a leading voice in the Senate in the fight for stricter gun laws.

            On the day of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, Murphy ended up on the Senate floor just moments after the massacre. He presented a plea to the other senators, saying, “I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely. I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree to everything that I may support, but there is a common denominator that we can find.”

Shuran Huang for The New York Times

Murphy’s speech that day echoed the desperation that many Americans feel when thinking about the topic of preventing gun violence, due to the stark partisan divide on the issue. However, he also expressed hope that there could be bipartisan common ground. Data reflects these sentiments.

According to a Pew Research Center national survey conducted from April 5-11, 2021 among 5,109 adults, about half of Americans want stricter gun laws (53%). This marks a seven point decline from Sept. 2019, when 60% of Americans wanted stricter gun laws. Almost a third of adults believe that gun laws are about right (32%) and 14% say that the laws should be less strict.

Opinions about gun violence vary widely based on political party affiliation. For Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, approximately half say that current gun laws are about right while only 20% are in favor of stricter laws. Another 27% believe that gun laws should be less strict. On the other hand, a large majority (81%) of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents want stricter gun laws.

These partisan rifts apply to specific policy proposals as well. Whereas 86% of Democrats support creating a federal database to track all firearm sales, only 43% of Republicans agree. Similarly, while 83% of Democrats want to ban assault-style weapons, this number has dropped down to 37% for Republicans. GOP support for both of these proposals has declined in recent years.

However, despite these partisan divides, some gun policy proposals have broad bipartisan support. 90% of Democrats and 85% of Republicans agree that people with mental illnesses should be prevented from buying guns. A majority of Democrats (92%) and Republicans (70%) support having background checks for both private gun sales and gun show sales. Majorities in both parties also oppose letting people carry concealed guns without a permit.

“The question is, well, ‘Why are a lot of these [policies] not in place?’…When you look at voter sentiments, a lot of these seem like pretty common sense, no-brainer items,” said Mike Noble, the chief research and managing partner of the market research company OH Predictive Insights.

            The answer to this question largely lies in the gun rights lobby. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has given rise to a gun culture in America that has turned gun ownership into a political identity. Matthew Lacombe, a professor of political science at Columbia University’s Barnard College, explains how this dynamic has played out.

            “Although most Americans have historically favored gun control regulations, the minority of Americans who oppose them have historically mobilized on behalf of that view at higher rates than gun control supporters,” Lacombe said in an interview with Vox.  

            A month after Chris Murphy gave his impassioned speech on the Senate floor, the senator led the charge for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to pass through Congress. This legislation ended the nearly 30 years of congressional inaction on gun violence by enhancing background checks for potential buyers under 21, implementing red flag laws that allow officials to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed too dangerous to own them, and funding for mental health programs and school security. Furthermore, the bill closes the boyfriend loophole, tightening a federal ban on domestic abusers buying firearms.

Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times

Murphy celebrated the victory and acknowledged the work that still needs to be done.

            “Our bill is a compromise that doesn’t do everything I want, but it will save thousands and thousands of lives. It’s just the beginning of what this movement can and will accomplish, and I’ll never stop fighting to get us there,” Murphy said.

By: Luis Lopez

Vegan food has been on the rise of popularity as of recently. Although many are hesitant to give products defined as vegan, the data presented in this article justify the attempt to try vegan food and showcases the foods popularity. This rising popularity of vegan food leads to some interesting data.  Data taken from a ‘Sentient Media” article entitled “Is Veganism Becoming More Popular? Using Data to Track the Growing Trend” it is evident that “veganism” is on the rise. The article cites the Guardian and says that it estimates that there are 79 million vegans around the world, which is nothing to scoff at. For the unaware being vegan according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “a strict vegetarian who consumes no food (such as meat, eggs, or dairy products) that comes from animals.”

Comparing two of the most popular vegan food distributors, Impossible meat and Beyond meat, there is a lot of data to be pulled there. An article from “Yahoo Finance” by Heidi Chung provided the graphic above. This graphic provides the health benefits for Beyond meat and impossible meat and weights out the options for consumers to help them find a suitable provider for vegan meat alternatives. The Yahoo Finance article also cites a survey conducted by Bank of America that consisted of 1,400 consumers and was conducted to gauge the overall appeal of alternative meat. The survey concluded that on a scale of 1 to 5 56% of consumers said that the ingredient list is important when making a purchase, so having this data so widely available is beneficial for consumers.

Vegan meats aren’t the only comparable things found when researching vegan products, as vegan milk alternatives, are just as popular if not more so than alternative meat. An article from the University of Health news entitled “Milk Alternatives: A Comparison of Non-Dairy Milk Options” provided the comparison graphic above which compares seven types of milk.

Vegan milk has been rising slowing in recent years in terms of popularity, the chart above is taken from a livekindly article and explains how more and more people are buying plant-based milk products as apposed to “cow based” milk products. Vegan milk alternatives consist of many different types of milk as stated previously in the article, and allows for many options for those who are looking into drinking vegan milk.

The Good Food Institute conducted research on the retail market insight of plant-based food products in 2021. The article concluded that the retail market for plant-based foods has increased annually, going from $6.9 billion in 2020 to $7.4 billion in 2021. The article also stated that plant-based food dollar sales gave grown 6% from 2020 to 2021, and that plant-based food sales grew three times faster than total food sales in 2021.

Vegan meats and milks are not the only prominent vegan products that have extensive research and interesting data, vegan or plant-based cheese is a product that has seen a boom in popularity recently. According to Grand View Research, vegan cheese’s market value is only set to increase annually and is expected to go up 11.9% from 2022 to 2030. The chart above shows the U.S. Vegan Cheese market data. In comparison to non-vegan cheese sales, it is evident that vegan cheese is gaining popularity and higher sales than its non-vegan counterparts. Dairy Foods reported that kraft single sales have gone down -5.3 percent and Daiya cheese which is a very popular vegan based cheese has gone up 51.3 percent in comparison.

According to data conducted by BBC, there are some health benefits to vegan food. The article explained that a study involving 48,000 people over 18 years showed that people who didn’t eat meat and are classified as having vegan or vegetarian diets have a lower risk of heart disease but did have a higher risk of stroke, so that is something those who are considering becoming vegan should take into consideration. The article also cites Marco Springmann a senior researcher of environmental sustainability and public health at the University of Oxford expressed that vegan diet is one of the healthiest diets.

Vegan food rising in popularity helps it gain mainstream appeal and will potentially make it more accessible for all who are willing to give it a try.

By Brandon Fairweather

Marvel Studios is looking forward to re-structuring the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Phase 5 and beyond, following a controversial Phase 4 to fans.

On November 20th, Marvel’s parent company, Disney, re-hired former, now current, CEO Bob Iger in place of Bob Chapek following a $1.5 billion quarterly loss on Disney Plus.

Under Chapek’s leadership at Disney, Marvel released 18 total projects in two years since the start of Phase 4 in 2021, which is more projects in one phase than any of the previous three phases.

Prior to Iger taking over the reigns, Marvel had announced 15 confirmed and 8 unconfirmed projects for the MCU’s Phase 5 and 6 at Comic-Con 2022 that were originally going to culminate with Avengers: Secret Wars on Nov. 7, 2025, which would’ve resulted in 41+ projects in 4 years.

Amidst Disney’s quarterly loss, Marvel has adjusted their plans for future phases to focus on “quality over quantity”, according to CBR, after fans’ sentiments that have been reflected in their ratings for Phase 4’s shows and movies.

All the movies in Phase 4 of the MCU have been box office hits as they’ve combined to make an average of $802 million internationally, according to BoxOfficeMojo.

Although the movies are excelling in theaters internationally, a little over 57% of the seven movies released in Phase 4 earned fan ratings below 80%.

Phase 4’s movies accumulated an average critical score of 76% from the audience, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Fans have also rated the Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Black Widow, which are all movies, as the worst 4 projects of the entire phase, according to CultureCrave.

While fans have about 43% of the films in Phase 4, majority of the Disney+ projects that were green-lit by former CEO Chapek to jumpstart the platform have seen more approval than the movies.

In comparison to ratings of Phase 4 movies by fans, the projects that came out on Disney+ saw higher approval ratings.

In fact, the projects that came out on Disney+ accounted for 80% of the 10-highest-rated projects of the entire phase, with the other two projects being movies.

As far as the critical audience score goes, Disney+ content saw approval ratings over 90%, which is a 14% difference compared to the movies.

In comparison to the previous phases, Phase 4 is not far off from Phases 1-3 as it pertains to approval ratings. Phases 1-3 of the MCU saw an average rating of 83.3% from the fans, while Phase 4 stacks up in line with the previous three ratings with a percentage a little over 83%.

Although Phase 4 stacks up to the first three phases of the MCU according to the numbers, they don’t always tell the entire story.

While the studio has seen good ratings for their shows and decent ratings for their movies, fans still don’t feel like the numbers reflect the quality of the phase overall.

As seen in articles from sources such as The Daily Beast, CBR, TeensInPrint and more that discuss issues with the MCU at large, there are a vast amount of gripes that many fans have with the current state of the projects that Marvel Studios have released such as the quality of their projects that’s become associated with former CEO Chapek, the connectivity of the universe, character development, inconsistent connections amongst projects and subpar writing.

i understand mcu is at the build-up stage again after the payoff that was endgame but why are we rushing so much, why is the watchtime of phase 4 longer than phases 1 + 2 combined already, why is everything dependent on big cameo/nostalgia moments? https://t.co/Eiw7venUd0

— mimi ♡ #indigo (@kagzhina) July 10, 2022

While fans understand that Marvel Studios is attempting to rebuild their universe in Phase 4 following the events of Avengers: Endgame and introducing new characters to build towards their next big saga in “The Multiverse Saga,” fans are getting lost in what they see as no direction forward within the phase.

These are comments that Marvel President, Kevin Feige, sees all the time and in his announcement about future phases, he comments on giving fans a sense of direction:

“People used to have that guide point of when an Avengers movie would come to cap the Phase — it felt like announcing today that the Multiverse Saga and two Avengers films would cap that was something we needed to share.”

Kevin Feige, Comic-Con 2022

Although fans have had their gripes with Marvel Studios as it pertains to Phase 4, fans will have to wait for the future phases to come to see how the studio improves upon its direction as the “Multiverse Saga” continues.

By Jason Piccolomini

The rise of social media has led to a direct correlation between artists promoting new music on social media, and an increase in their music sales, according to the Musicians Institute College of Contemporary Music.

The Importance of Twitter:

         Twitter is the 14^th most used social media platform in the world with roughly 544 million users as of October 2022, according to DataReportal.com. Twitter has become one of the best platforms for marketing, as the total number of users that marketers can reach with ads have increased by roughly 21 million in the three months leading up to July 2022, which is a 4.5% growth.

         “Stans,” a term used to describe devoted fans of a particular artist, are a key part of Twitter’s engagement. According to Twitter Marketing, 48% of music listeners on the app use Twitter to follow and stay informed about musicians.

Artists Using Twitter to Their Advantage:

         There are artists who don’t need to do much album promoting to get their music to the top of the charts. Kanye West infamously misses album dates but still has managed to tie Billboard’s record for most consecutive albums to debut #1 with ten. However, success like West’s isn’t guaranteed for everyone.

         JID, a rapper out of Atlanta, has started to use social media more to his advantage. His third studio album, The Forever Story, was released on August 26^th, 2022, and had a lot of promotion. JID began promoting the album in January 2022 and remained active on social media by interacting with fans. On August 24^th, he hosted a promotional scavenger hunt in three different US cities. Those who could find a Pontiac G6, a car JID used to own, would get early access to the album. JID’s heavy promotional rollout allowed his third album to chart at #12 on the Billboard 200 and sell over 30,000 copies in its first week.

         JID’s sophomore album, DiCaprio 2, which was released in 2018, only sold 16,970 copies in its first week and charted at #41 on the Billboard 200. Although JID has gained more fame since then, he was less active in the social media game. Before he released DiCaprio 2 on November 26^th, 2018, JID only tweeted about it 15 times from October 31^st (the day he announced it) to when the album dropped.

Not Just Twitter:

         DJ Khaled, a record producer and rapper, released eight studio albums from 2006-2015. His highest charting album reached #4 on the Billboard 200. In late 2015, DJ Khaled was called the “King of Snapchat” by Coca-Cola senior VP for content Emmanuel Sage, and his stories were getting 3-4 million views, according to Wired.

Since then, Khaled has released five albums with all of them debuted top-two, and four of them topping the Billboard 200. The five Khaled albums post-Snapchat fame have all gone on to sell at least 93,000 copies first-week. The highest first-week sale prior to his social media fame was 79,000 copies.

Rise of TikTok:

         TikTok has served to be a force in the music industry. In 2021, over 175 songs that trended on TikTok charted on the Billboard Hot 100, according to CNBC which got its stats from TikTok’s annual music report.

         Many upcoming artists have been able to jumpstart careers off TikTok. One of the most notable examples is Lil Nas X, a singer who gained fame from his chart-topping hit “Old Town Road.” The song has been used over 2.2 million times on TikTok and has over 1.3 billion listens on Spotify. The 23-year-old now boasts over eight million Twitter followers and two Grammys to his name.

Future of the Music Industry:        

With the number of social media users increasing yearly, it will continue to impact music sales. New social media platforms centered around music have come into the spotlight, and there’s no telling how far social media platforms can take careers.

By Kaylin Flukey

Picture from NFL.com

The NFL hit its half-way mark in the 2022 season and the number of reported injuries is higher than in previous years.

In the first four weeks of the regular 2020 season, there were a total of 582 reported injuries compared to 2019 with 338 injuries reported, according to a study done by ScienceDirect. This increase in injuries was partially because the 2020 preseason was canceled due to health precautions of COVID-19.

Preseason is important for athletes to prepare for the regular season, however, more injuries are sustained in preseason than in the regular season. In week 2 of the 2019 preseason there were 228 injuries reported, compared to week 2 of the regular season of the same year that only reported 93 injuries.

During weeks 1-4 of the 2019 preseason there were a total of 462 injuries and only 338 injuries reported in weeks 1-4 of the regular season.

Chart from ScienceDirect

The NFL is entering week nine of the 2022 season and the Cleveland Browns currently lead the league in injuries with 27 athletes currently on the list, reported by Covers. This number includes seven players out for the rest of the season, 11 out or questionable for the next game, eight put on the injury reserve list and one out for suspension.

The team with the least number of injuries, currently, is the Philadelphia Eagles with only five. They only have two players out for the remainder of the season, two players who were reported as “day-to-day” and one on the injury reserve.

The number of injuries stands out when you look at the record of both teams so far in the season. The Browns sit with a record of 2-5 and the Eagles remain the only undefeated team in the league with a record of 7-0. This proves the importance of the health of the athletes not only for performance but also for the team morale.

Each position is at some type of risk of injury whenever they step on the field however, some positions are at a significantly higher risk than others.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that running backs are at the highest risk of an injury than any other position, the most common being ankle or head injuries. Wide receivers come in a close second with ankle, shoulder and knee injuries. The number of ACL tears is highly increasing, in 2021 there were a total of 71 ACL tears reported and only 49 in 2019, according to NFL Player Health and Safety.

Concussions are the most common injury in football but are also the most dangerous. However, unlike ACL tears, the number of concussions has decreased dramatically in recent years. In 2015, there were a total of 275 concussions reported, including games and practice, and 187 total concussions reported in the 2021 season.

Chart from NFL Player Health and Safety

The league is working to reduce concussions with a new addition called “The Guardian Cap,” which is an additional padded shell added onto a helmet. During the 2022 preseason, all offensive lineman, defensive lineman, tight ends and linebackers were required to wear the cap in practices up until the second preseason game.

NFL Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Allen Sills, spoke to NFL Player Health and Safety, “The numbers tell us that position groups required to wear the Guardian Cap during preseason practices had a 52% reduction in concussions versus the three-year average.” Sills said.

The NFL is now working to predict and prevent injuries before they even happen. A new piece of technology called “Sparta Science” is able to show the weak parts of an athlete’s body with just a few quick movements. Using a force plate, an athlete mimics certain movements they would do in a game based on their position and the technology can see which muscles are over or underdeveloped.

Picture from Sparta Science

With the help of this technology, trainers can provide workouts for athletes to help strengthen the areas that are weaker and therefore helping to prevent injuries. The main goal of this technology is to not see it as a solution and a termination of injuries but as tool to helping to prevent them.

By Maggie Dougherty

The United States is well above its peer economically developed countries in deaths by guns, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as reported by Bloomberg.

In the United States, there were 3.96 deaths by firearms per 100,000 people in 2019. This figure stands out when compared to countries with a similar GDP per capita. For instance, it is almost 100 times higher than the United Kingdom, which has 0.04 deaths by guns per 100,000 people. The rates in many economically developed Asian countries are even lower. Singapore boasts a 0.01, while Japan, South Korea, and China all have a 0.02 rate.

Chart from Bloomberg

Overall, the United States is 32^nd in the world for the highest rates of deaths from gun violence. The countries above the U.S. on the list tend to have lower GDPs as well as problems with gang violence and drug trafficking. For example, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Guatemala all have rates above 29.0 deaths per 100,000 people.

Research by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center suggests that there are links between the number of guns in a country and more firearm homicides, suicides and accidents. According to the Swiss-based research project Small Arms Survey, the U.S. had less than 5% of the world’s population but 46% of the world’s civilian-owned guns in 2018. Small Arms Survey estimated that there were 390 million firearms in circulation in the U.S. The ratio of 120.5 guns per 100 residents far surpasses all other countries. Yemen has the second highest ratio with 52.8 firearms per 100 residents.

Chart from the BBC

Data suggests that gun ownership in the U.S. has increased significantly within the past several years. In 2011, the ratio used to be 88 guns per 100 residents. A study published by the Annals of Internal Medicine in Feb. 2022 found that 7.5 million adults in the United States became new gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021. That is just under 3% of the country’s population.

Another factor that can account for the United States’ position as an outlier in the number of deaths by firearm is the implementation of strict gun laws and regulations, or lack thereof. According to an ABC News interview with David Hemenway, the director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, gun laws can make a difference.

“Compared to the other peer countries, basically what we have it lots and lots of guns, particularly handguns, and we have by far the weakest gun laws,” Hemenway said. “I think if we had basically the gun laws of any other developed country, we’d be better off.”

Picture from Pexels

For example, one country with stricter gun laws is Australia. After a mass shooting claimed the lives of 35 people and injured another 23 in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996, Australia enacted the National Firearms Agreement. Among other reforms, the NFA required permits for gun purchases, established a national gun registry, and banned semiautomatic rifles. The government also utilized a buyback program to retrieve 650,000 now-banned guns. A 2018 study by the University of Sydney concluded that Australia had only one mass shooting in the 22 years since the NFA, while the country had 13 in the 18 years prior.

Picture from Pexels

Chelsea Parsons, the former vice president of gun violence prevention at the nonpartisan policy institute the Center for American Progress spoke to ABC News about other countries’ positions on gun violence.

“What other countries have done demonstrates that you can have policymakers react quickly after a horrific tragedy to make the country and communities safer from gun violence,” Parsons said. “I think sometimes in this country, we’re too accustomed to federal policymaking being almost an impossibility when it comes to an issue like gun violence. But the experience of other countries just shows that it doesn’t have to be this hard.”

By Luis Lopez

Horror movies are an overlooked genre and are often left out of the conversation when discussing movie genres and movies in general. The horror genre is nothing to scoff at, as horror movie franchises and standalone movies have had their fair share of limelight. The 1970’s-1990’s was an important time frame for horror movies, as a lot of the more iconic horror franchises found their way to the big screen during that time.  None more prominent than John Carpenter’s 1978 cult classic “Halloween”.

The Halloween franchise is one of the longest ongoing franchises, the first film entitled “Halloween” released in 1978, and the most recent film entitled “Halloween Ends” released this year on October 14^th, 2022. According to IMDB The original Halloween film had an estimated budget of $325,000 and grossed $47,160,000 worldwide. In 2018 a direct continuation to the original Halloween entitled “Halloween” was released and had an estimated budget of $10,000,000 and grossed $255,614,941 worldwide. This film was so successful that it was able to start a new trilogy of films, with the release of “Halloween Kills” in 2021 which had an estimated budget of $20,000,000 and grossed $131,647,155 worldwide. “Halloween Ends” had an estimated budget of $20,000,000 and grossed $67,420,758 worldwide. According to BuzzFeed News and the graphic below, when pinned against each other the most successful film in the franchise is Halloween (2018), and the least successful film in the franchise is “Halloween 5: Revenge of Michael Myers” from 1989.

Each of the entries in this franchise has its own significance and varied in box office success. IMDb pinned all the movies in the franchise against one another and concluded a lot of interesting data, regarding box office numbers and worldwide gross. The movie with the best opening weekend, and the most financially successful movie in the franchise was the 2018 Halloween movie, “Halloween.” This film had a lot of expectations when it was released, not only was it the first Halloween movie in nine years, but it was also a direct sequel to the original Halloween film from 1978. Halloween (2018) has the highest gross to date amount from the entire franchise and grossed $159,342,015. The film remained #1 for two weekends which is the longest any of the films remained number 1.

The Halloween franchise has an extensive catalog of films, and all of them tend to be categorized as slasher films, and that is an accurate description of what is depicted in the movies. The website  studiobinder defines the slash film genre as the following “The Slasher film is a horror sub-genre that meets certain criteria, including and effective killer, a high body count, and non-firearm weapons. These criteria can sometimes be open to interpretation or debate but those are the basic requirements for a Slasher.” The Halloween films fit that description due to their iconic killer, Michael Myers, and his common use of a knife, and the movies tendency to have a moderate to high body count with every entry in the franchise.

The Halloween franchise has a long and complicated history. The following graphic via Adam Hlavac serves as a good simplification of the franchise and its complex timeline. Hlavac’s article does the franchise justice and explains how the movies are related, and the differences in the timelines.

Horror movies will remain as a sometimes movie genre for some, but to others it will always be the go-to genre. The Halloween franchise serves a good introduction into traditional horror and offers a lot of films with varying levels of horror elements and experimental fun.  Each entry offers a relatively new experience when watching for the first time, and non-horror fans and horror fans alike can find something to like in this long catalog of horror films.