The Olb City Announcer

Volume 4, Issue 4
March 28th-April 3rd, 2021

Huge New Building Announced

By Tony Yuan

Downtown Olb City-The engineering and architecture firm S. F. Grosby & Co. announced the building of a gigantic new skyscraper, which will cover an entire block and rise 101 stories into the sky. It will be situated on the shore of Lake Ferguson. The tower's working name is the Sky101 Tower and it will be the tallest tower in Olb City upon its completion in 2025. It will be 1,400 feet tall and will feature two revolving restaurants, a modern art museum, a mall, 32 small businesses, 1000 apartment suites, and over 750,000 square feet of office space, among other things. A render shows a majestic, twisting tower with a razor-thin top and gradual setbacks along the sides. The estimated cost is 200 million Arenzos.

Arts

by Owen Miyazoi

Artist Thankkar Porganaskan unveiled a new artwork at the OCAM on Wednesday. It is a large and extremely detailed self-portrait, except the canvas is ripped in half and it is scribbled over with red Sharpie. It is titled “Social Norm”. Thankkar is the brother of new artist Raphael Porganaskan, who unveiled a new artwork about a month ago. (See Issue 31)

Sports

By Sam-Louis Alrocaet

Pearson Naskanal, the owner of the Noi City Ninjas, said that he would be moving the team's HQ to the new, 50-story Unity Tower in downtown Noi City, about 7 blocks down from where the team's current HQ is in the Ray Building. The HQ will occupy the 45th, 46th, and 47th floors of the tower.

Weather

By Mezoir Logan

Next week should be a hot 23 to 27 degrees Celsius, which will be the hottest temperature recorded in Arenztopia this year so far. There should be medium wind with gusts of up to 14 miles per hour. A storm system should be moving in on Thursday next week, but dissipating by Saturday.

Coronavirus Report

By Owen Miyazoi

Cases are at 17, and deaths remain at 0. Over 7 million people have been vaccinated with Avac and the goal is to have every adult vaccinated by May 15th.

Feature: Louis Keon

By Lorenzo Avila & Tony Yuan

Today we interviewed Louis Keon, the lead curator of fossils at the Olb City Natural History Museum (OCNHM).

Olb City Announcer: What's the coolest thing you've ever seen at the OCHNM?

Louis Keon: Well, so I remember in 2004 I was introduced to this nice woman named Dr. Katherine Sapersky, and she had recently found this huge treasure trove of fossils, and she had brought this huge heavy-looking duffel bag. I asked her what was in the bag, and she said, “Well, nothing really, just some fossils,” and she unzipped the bag and brought out this huge chunk of rock, which was literally completely encrusted in fossils: Like, I would say it was at least 85 percent fossils. And I had never seen like, 90% of them. And keep in mind, I have a PhD in Prehistoric Biology from Arenztopia Univeristy at Arenztopia City. I would estimate that there was like, literally 355 different new species in that one rock. That was about the coolest thing I've ever seen in my entire career.

OCA: That is really cool! What is the newest fossil that you've seen?

LK: Well, so just last week we had this archaeologist named Kallahan Mvwry. He's a friend of mine, and he's also a really frequent visitor. This time he brought in a skull, which was nearly complete. He said it was from one of his digs, or “ventures” as he calls them, out in the Arenztopian Desert. The skull was pretty long and thin, like a raptor, but I had never seen a raptor skull in Arenztopia before, so I asked him to take me out to see his dig site. And over at the dig site, there was just dozens of raptor skeletons, and I had never seen them before. Mvwry said that he also thought these were a new species, and that he was going to name it Keonmimus after me. So now I got a new dino species named after me, which is pretty exciting. He said he was gonna publish a paper in the Arenztopian Journal of Paleontological Proceedings by next month, so keep an eye out for that.

OCA: That sounds amazing! How many fossils are in the OCHNM's storage, do you reckon?

LK: Well, I've been the curator for 24 years, so I know the layout of the OCHNM storerooms, and I know that there are seventeen storerooms, actually more like warehouses, and each of them has 1,000 shelves which are twelve feet tall, twenty feet long, and one foot wide. Each of the shelves can hold about 240 1x1x1 boxes of fossils. Each box will hold 5 fossils, as an approximation; and the fossils department controls 2 of the warehouses. So 5 times 240 times 1,000 times 2 is 2,400,000, which means that we have somewhere around two and a half million fossils in our collection. Remember, though, this isn't all huge complete dinosaur skulls or whatever. I would say that 90 percent of it is just fragments of shells or little scraps of rock which are in some way important to the department.

OCA: Well, that looks like all the questions that we have today! Thank you for coming and telling us all these cool stories!

LK: Thank you for inviting me!

New Book Published

By Sam-Louis Alrocaet

A new book was published on Tuesday by acclaimed writer Kolan Jacphur. It is titled “Explosions: Their apocalyptic nature, deadly consequences, and importance to life as we know it”. It is about explosions, some facts about them, and how they may be more important than you think. It costs 50 Arenzos, has 400 pages, and is available on Amazon or at many important Arenztopian bookstores including ArenzBooks, Winslow & North, and Bookology.

Coco Recovers From Cold

By Owen Miyazoi

Coco, a baby horse living at the Zoo National in Arenztopia City, recently recovered from her cold, which she had caught in February. Coco was separated from her mother to prevent transmission, and Coco was reunited with her mother on Tuesday, the same day that she recovered. The Zoo National says that Coco and her mother are very happy together, and that Coco has been very active and has been receiving many treats.

Book Recommendation

By Sam-Louis Alrocaet

Welcome to our new Book Recommendation column! In this column, we'll be publishing a recommendation for a book or series every week.

This week we recommend the series Wolves of the Beyond by Kathryn Lasky. Lasky is also the author of the bestselling Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, and Wolves of the Beyond is set in the same fantasy world. It is a captivating story about a wolf pup who is left to die because he has a splayed paw, but he inexplicably survives and goes on many adventures with his freinds. The writing is captivating and vivid. If you like Wings of Fire, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, or any other fantasy animal series, you will love this series.

Poetry

By Lorenzo Avila

Spring is here
finally.
green trees
flowers
and sunny days
spring.

Obituary

By Owen Miyazoi

Local baker Delvo Tuwom died at the age of 90 on Wednesday following a 10-year battle with cancer. He was known for his kind service and friendly demeanor. You can show your support by going to his bakery across the street from the Capitol, or you can call 680-837-1792.