NBBL by: Matt & Robbie

North Bangkok Basketball league has started with many participants, and is into its third week. People can not only play basketball, but can also work as score keepers to earn money. Some people I know don’t play but they keep score at their friend’s games and earn 200 baht per game. If you do timekeeping and scorekeeping, you get 400 baht per game. This is much harder to do.

The basketball league is a good chance to have fun and meet some people. The whole point of this is to have fun. Yes, there is a championship. Some people get way too into it and yell at the referees. Some kids even get thrown out of the games. It may cost 2000 baht, but you still get a jersey and get to play. The teams are picked by the coaches, so the teams are more balanced. You play every week for about two hours against other teams. If you score keep you can get the 2000 baht back plus more. One kid last year got 6000 baht from scorekeeping.

This is also a good chance to practice your basketball skills. If you are not happy with your basketball ability level, the coaches want to make you better at it, so that you can enjoy it better.

It’s too late to join this year but next year, come on down!

Maldives in Danger - Toey and Sara

Global Warming is affecting our world in a greatly negative way every day. Currently, it’s hurting the Maldives the most, which could lead to the death of the entire nation. The Maldives are a 1,200-island nation located on the Indian Ocean. Its current average height above sea level is only 1.5 meters or 59 inches. It is home to 330,000 people. The Maldives was reminded of its vulnerabilities during the disastrous tsunami in December of 2004, nearly four years ago. Most of the nation was underwater for a few minutes. This couldn’t have been a good sign and it’s just recently been confirmed of the thought, now there are very many warning signals to the world that the Maldives is in danger, yet no one is doing much to reduce Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The projected rise of sea levels by the end of this century could mean that the Maldives would become uninhabitable to the human population. To add to the current situation, the Maldivian economy may be devastated when the rising ocean temperatures threaten their famous coral reefs and their two biggest industries: fishing and tourism. However, this would affect much more than a country you may think is not worth caring about so much. Once the Maldives is underwater, bigger and more populated places could be the next targets. Tokyo, Shanghai, New York, Jakarta, and Mumbai are also going to be worried. The world may still pretend that this is no crisis, but they have to start caring to make a change. ISB can also help by doing projects that will help slow down Global Warming and help the environment.

Here is a list of 10 things that everyone can do in order to fight against and reduce the Global Warming phenomenon: some of these ideas are at no cost, some other require a little effort or investment but can help you save a lot of money, in the middle-long term!

1. Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb

2. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner

3. Do not leave appliances on standby (turn them off when not in use)

4. Take a shower instead of a bath, it saves a lot of water

5. Use less hot water because it takes a lot of energy to heat water

6. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer

7. Plant a tree

8. Reuse your shopping bag, bring your own cloth bag

9. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen, frozen foods use 10 times more energy

10. Carpool with your friends to save gas and fuel

Above are some easy ways to help reduce Global Warming but there are many more that are very cost-efficient and every little contribution counts to helping the world become a cleaner and better place to live.

Beginning Band Bowling By Raimy

On August 28th, the whole beginning band went to bowl at J Avenue, 15 minutes from ISB. The bowling alleys were filled with excited ISB students waiting to bowl. After everyone had their bowling shoes on, their food orders ready, and names typed up on the screen, the first bowler jumped up on the slippery floor and…. STRIKE!

Friends clapping, cheering, heavy bowling balls hitting the floor, some of them bouncing on the barriers. I believe that the J Avenue bowling alleys never had so many French fries ordered at once, which was about 35 plates. Every lane ordered at least 2 plates, and some of the French fries came when we were leaving. We rushed to finish them, chewing five at a time. We didn’t care what the scores were because we were having so much fun. The good bowlers kept getting strikes and the worse bowlers kept rolling gutter balls. The staff working in the bowling alleys were kept busy fixing lanes, retrieving bowling balls, and serving drinks and food. Mr. Udagawa was having lots of fun too, taking great snapshots of his students striking, bobbing their heads to the music, and just having fun with their friends. Mr. Poling, on the other hand, was checking around, stealing French fries and congratulating strikers.

For all you people that missed it, it was great fun! It was loud, it was chaotic, but it was exciting and a great way to start a new year!

Jazz Band By Steven C & Nino S

Jazz Band plays a different kind of music; it focuses on enjoyable and thrilling music. Our favorite music is jazz and rock! During the first semester, Mr.Udagawa will lead the band and during the second semester, Mr.Poling will lead the band. There will be trumpets, trombones, clarinets, flutes, saxophones, drums, tubas, piano, and other instruments in this awesome band. Mr.Udagawa informed us that people in concert band and symphonic band can join this band. However, people not in band still can join this high-quality music group. There will be Jazz Band concerts on Nov. 13^th, 2008, and March 24^th, 2009 combining with HS Jazz Band so come and watch! Also, the Jazz band will have a trip to Khao Lak; however, the date has not been decided on yet.

Come join Jazz band or come to the concert to listen to some awesome music!

P.S Nino and Steven are in Jazz band

Quirky Facts- by Grace

I’ll bet that at least once, you’ve heard of some strange facts that surprised you, or made you want to share it with all your friends because it’s so cool. For example, did you know that the place where the New International School of Thailand (NIST) is now, used to be ISB’s campus? Also, ISB was apparently built on what used to be a cobra field.

Strange Facts.com has a whole collection of quirky facts, some of which you might never have heard of. (Sadly, they’re not related to ISB.) Here’s some:

• · In a standard deck of cards, the King of Hearts is the only king without a moustache.

  
• If you ever visit Iceland as a tourist, take note: tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult.
• · ‘Skepticisms’ is the longest word that can be typed while alternating hands.
• · No piece of paper that’s square and dry can be folded in half more than seven times.
• · Over 2 500 left-handed people a year are killed from using products made for right-handed people.
• · ‘Taphephobia’ is a word for the fear of being buried alive.
• · The longest recorded chicken flight lasted 13 seconds.
• · Slugs have four noses.
• · In the Pony Express (a fast mail service), there weren’t any ponies- just horses.
• · There is no word in the dictionary that rhymes with ‘orange’, ‘purple’ or ‘month’.
• · ‘Lachanophobia’ is a word which means fear of vegetables.
• · An average person laughs 13 times a day.

There are much more at www.strangefacts.com, or you can check Google out for other websites. I didn’t know almost all of the facts that I read on the website and it was very interesting to learn them. Maybe once you’ve read them, you can test your family and friends with these quirky facts!

Image taken from http://images.google.com/images?q=cards+Kings&um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3A*%3AIE-Address&rlz=1I7GGLG&sa=2.

Japanese Radio Exercises By: Tim

Have you heard of the Japanese Radio Exercises that are going to be held in our school organized by Mr.Udagawa? Well, it’s going to be pretty exciting because it’s going to be the first time we’re having them. Monday was the first day we had this exercise which was held in the Middle school Cafeteria at 7:05 in the morning at the hoo-haa place (the pit). There are ten people who came the first day. I hope more and more people will continue to join. I think that it is a great way to start off a day, doing refreshing exercise. I think that you will get fit and healthy because of all the exercise so come and join.

Operation Starship - Toey and Ethan

In five weeks, on October 4^th, this fall, 35 8^th graders are going to the United States of America for Operation Starship (O.S.). The trip is organized by Mrs. Chandler, and she will be one of the chaperones along with Mrs. Rockey and maybe Mr. Souza. Back in April of 2008, many students who were in 7^th grade at the time applied for O.S. The application consisted of different questions about the applicant. Students also wrote an essay and got teacher recommendations. After some hard work by Mrs. Chandler and Mrs. Rockey, 35 students were chosen to attend the O.S. trip. The students, who made O.S., had to fill out and hand in many forms dealing with passports and permission from parents. The flights that they are going to be on will all be Northwest Airlines and includes going from Bangkok to Narita, Narita to San Francisco, San Francisco to Memphis, and Memphis to Huntsville. This trip will be very exhausting for the students and the chaperones because they will all be very jet-lagged and tired from all the traveling in airplanes. They’re going to Huntsville, Alabama for 5 days at the NASA Space Camp, and then they go to Florida and San Francisco to go to Disney’s Epcot and Magic Kingdom. The NASA Space Camp is going to teach them about NASA and Space, while getting to go through simulations that real astronauts would use to train. They are also going to be visiting the Kennedy Space Center and many other places. The students who made Operation Starship will be missing 8 school days and the Parent/Teacher Conferences, so they will have to make up the work for those 2 weeks’ worth of school. When the students arrive in Bangkok, the October break will have already started. They get back Saturday night and will be back in school after the weeklong October break.

Age of Linux- Steve. J

A new age has come, an age of freedom, an age of stable computer systems. And all will know that Linux is the best compatible operating system. There are hundreds, thousands of reasons why Linux is better than Windows or Mac, but I’ll just state a few of the reasons.

First of all, many of us care about the environment, don’t we? Mac and Windows are sold in boxes, and I believe it takes more than one piece of paper and plastic to create those boxes. However Linux is downloadable from internet, which takes mathematically, approximately 0 materials! Also by using Linux you can recycle a computer from 1995. Your computer will be much faster and convenient although it is from long ago.
Secondly, Windows is too expensive; people tend to download “free” software from internet, piracy, because it is costly to buy every utility. To give an example ‘Adobe Premier’ is around $800; ‘Nero’ is $100. All of us really need these tools, but some of us can’t use them because it’s too expensive. In Linux you get all of them in your system for free. Additionally, Linux have this cool tool in the system to tell the computer users to download certain software.

Lastly, Linux have awesome tools. In Windows everything you do, you have to reboot. Have you just upgraded one or two little things on your Windows system with "Windows update"? Please reboot. Have you just installed some new software? Please reboot. Does your system seem unstable? Try to reboot, everything will probably work better after that. All these reboots can frustrate people. Linux, however, basically doesn't need to restart. Whether you install new software or perform routine upgrades for your system. It is only necessary when a part from the heart of the system has been updated, and that only happens once every several weeks. Linux also have this cool tool called cube desktop, which I like the most, you can flip around several desktops, for example you can have one desktop chatting with friends, one desktop for listening to music, and one desktop for playing games, other desktops for something else, but it won’t affect computers no matter how much program you activate on each individual desktops.

After all this if you still want to use Windows rather than Linux, there are only four reasons why. You’re a hardcore gamer, you have proprietary software you can’t live without with, you work in the book/ printing industry, or your hardware is not yet supported. Seriously, the age of Windows or Mac is over! All of middle school students and teachers should have Linux. However if you want to use windows and Linux, or Mac and Linux why don’t you try dual operating system? (I use dual operating system) You can switch to Linux and the other system just by restarting the computer. Get Linux!

Don’t Underestimate Free Hacking Tools- Steve. J

Many of us just think that, hackers require “special” hacking equipment. However people can just download free software from internet. I know you guys would be laughing about “free” software, but do not underestimate free hacking tools. Many of them can take over ISB’s system. Although they are free and easy to use, it is true. Maybe I am wrong about ISB (Since there are like twenty technicians defending the school server), but I am sure about the fact that it will take less than 20 minutes to crack into the wireless network. First of all, you can never ever defend yourself by Kaspersky, Avast, or Norton, etc, unless you are being attacked by worms, Trojans, or viruses. Secondly, never click on items, or icons you didn’t create, unless someone else you know have created them. Lastly, do not send files to people that you do not know. This is a little complicated, but if you send any files to unknown users, they can easily figure out your i.p address by back tracking their own system. By back tracking their system, they can see which i.p address sent the files.

To prevent these hacking tools

1. Don’t click on anything suspicious

2. Don’t send files to unknown users

3. Change your Windows into Linux (probably the best of the choices, hundred times higher security than windows, and computer can turn much more efficient, I use Linux too)

Free Download or Cyber Piracy?- Steve. J

All of us, teachers and students do not care about downloading free products from internet. However, for each download we take, we are killing a product. Every one of us, including me, has been downloading “free” music tracks, movies, and games from the internet, without taking much notice for the result. Now it has reached the point where entertainment industries are expressing drastic fear towards cyber piracy. No matter how much people are arrested for cyber-piracy, the number of free download is increasing. 3.6 billion music tracks are downloaded each month, which means each day the music fans are downloading 120 million tracks. Half a million movies are downloaded, a day. Hypothetically, the movie industries are losing 10 million dollars a day; think about 365 days a year. With each download we make, we are killing it, after all the entertainment industries have disappeared, then we will start to realize the mistake we had made. If you wish to download music or movies, at least watch the film or buy the music, and download it.

‘Professional’ Hackers- Steve.J

Chinese hackers claim that no sites are safe. This group of hackers even says that they are paid by the Chinese government itself. Xiao Chen, the nickname of the leader of the three ‘professional’ cyber burglars, claims that even the most sensitive sites have weaknesses. The three Chinese have been attacking government and private websites around the world, ambiguously bringing terror to all computer users. Xiao Chen has been hacking for three years, worked with 10,000 different registered users of the hacker’s website. If I’m not wrong, the three hackers claim that they can break in to the pentagon’s system, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. The real danger is that there are thousands of other hackers just as good as Xiao Chen or better. Now our virtual world has become as dangerous as the real world, or worse. Stop going through suspicious websites!

Are you looking at the notices in the internet? - Christian

Sometimes people try to read the daily notices, but they do not have time to look at it because they are late for class. Has this happened to you? Well now you can read them on the internet. You can come home from school, and you can check the notices. It has helped me a lot. This is the website: http://soarcenter.wetpaint.com/page/Notices+for+Today

It is very helpful. Try it out.

Pixar’s New Movies By:Shawnie

You’ve all have seen “Cars”, “The Incredibles”, “Monster Inc.”, and “Ratatouille.” Now Pixar is coming out with a new movie in 2009 called “Up”. This is a movie about a 70- year-old guy named Carl Fedricksen, who meets a young girl named “Ellie” when he was young. Eventually, they get married after a few years. Time passes and Ellie passes away. Now developers are forcing him to move to a retirement home. During 2009, DreamWorks will also launch ‘Shrek 4’. In 2010, Pixar is launching ‘Toys Story 3’ which was supposed to be out in 2009. Here’s a teaser trailer on the latest movie “Up”! Hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dEdVwg7to4