8/26/2008

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince coming next summer by Steven Chang and Nino S.

Harry Potter’s sixth movie is coming out next summer! Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is written by J.K Rowling and directed by Steve Kloves. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released on July 17th, 2009 in public. However, the date may be changed because the studio is still discussing the release date for three or four weeks.

No matter what the date is, the story seems very thrilling! As Harry Potter begins his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry he discovers an old book marked mysteriously "This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past.

So far all the Harry Potter movies have been big successes and we all hope that this will be too!

Christian: I’m quiet excited, because I read this book already and I want to see if the movie is going to be as good.”

Benedict: I’m too~ EXCITED!

8/25/2008

Cross Country by Steven C & Nino S.

Cross Country is a popular afterschool activity that helps you get fit, in-shape and looking good. And by joining cross country, you learn to take pleasure in running. Joining cross country can help you with the BEEP test, the 12minute run, sit-ups, pushups and it will make you more comfortable with your body. However, many students don’t enjoy running, so the friendly coaches Mr. Huttner; an 8th math teacher, Dr. Everett; 8th grade humanities teacher and Mr. Tague; a 6th grade humanities teacher are trying to make running enjoyable.

Mr. Huttener’s plan is to provide students with a good opportunity to exercise and socialize with other students. He also supposes that cross country can help students build their upper body, abdominal muscles, strength, and endurance. He leads this program with a variety of games, which of course, are related to running.

By the way, on September 20th there will be an inter-school competition, a 2km race with other school such as Bangkok Pattana, ASB, and Shrewsbury. The race will start at 9.a.m and everyone can join- U13 and U15. Anyone who finishes the race will be rewarded with medals.

Let’s hear some opinions about cross country.

Vigdesh: “I think it will be very tiring.”

Nino: “Cross country is like P.E, it’s not just running. You also play games.”

Trevor: “When you join cross country for the first time, you’ll think it’s hard and boring, but, after a few sessions, you’ll feel like it’s a breeze and P.E. will be even easier!

Cross country is 30 minutes of fun and easygoing workouts. Come to cross country, it’s still open for you. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, come and have fun!

10 Healthy Foods by Tim and Ethan

As we go through our everyday lives we eat, of course! But when you eat, do you even know what is in the food you’re eating? Many times people THINK they are eating healthy foods, but in fact they are eating foods that are high in fat. For those of you who are constantly eating fattening foods and want to improve your diet, here are a few tips on what you should eat. This is our healthy food countdown:

10. Spinach

Remember Popeye, the sailor with no hope for a 6-pack, until he ate his can of spinach? As appetizing as it looks, it is actually a really healthy vegetable for your body because it is loaded with all kinds of Vitamins and other minerals such as potassium.

9. Squash

NOT the sport, but the yellow odd-shaped vegetable. Squashes are rich in Vitamins just like spinach, but are also rich in Fiber which keeps your digestive tract healthy.

8. Citrus fruit

We are talking about fruits like oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines, and mandarins. These sour-tasting circular joys of wonder keep us living our everyday lives because they are packed with minerals like Vitamin C, folic acid, and the most famous fiber.

7. Brown Rice

Brown rice is natural rice that is unrefined. Without refinement the rice is much more nutritious. The brown rice has fiber again, magnesium, vitamins, copper, zinc and an abundance of other nutritional minerals.

6. Whole grain crackers

FIBER AGAIN!!!! And you know what that means. Crisp crackers are usually fat free due to the all natural grain wheat.

5. Wild salmon

The Omega 3 fats in wild salmon help reduce the risk of sudden heart attacks. Wild salmon is also known to be more nutritional than farmed salmon.

4. Broccoli

Also known as the mini tree, it has a load of Vitamin C and folic acid. Since broccoli is a plain vegetable you can add a pinch of pepper and maybe a drop of lemon juice, but it hardly affects the broccoli’s nutrition facts

3. Fat Free Milk or 1% milk

This milk is jam-packed with calcium which is good for your teeth and bones. It also has protein. This milk also has less fat than normal milk. If you enjoy drinking soy milk, it is also nutritious like fat free milk.

2. Grape tomatoes

These small baby-like tomatoes are sweeter and firmer than regular tomatoes. They are perfect for whole bites rather than bite by bite. Grape tomatoes are also packed with Vitamins such as vitamin C and A. And again you can obtain fiber by eating grape tomatoes.

1. Sweet potatoes

These orange tubers are packed with potassium and vitamins. And in the end sweet potatoes come with a free package of the most important mineral, FIBER!!

We interviewed some students about what they think is good for your health

Matt states, “Carrots are the bomb”

Tim said, “Salad is the greatest.”

Win said, “Fruit is awesome.”

Sasha exclaimed, “Crème Bruleé”

“I love and think that vegetables are a good source of vitamins,” Robbie stated

Not all these foods are unappetizing, but they are also at times tasty. You don’t have to eat these food items just by themselves to have a healthy diet, but you can add some tasty yummy delicacies that are also healthy to make your meal tasty and also heart healthy

Sports Bash by Sara

Ready. Set .Sports Bash! Coming up on September.5 2008, it will be the first dance of the year. To all our new comers this year, the Sports bash is basically a dance split in half. For about an hour, there will be sports and activities to do, and the other half will be dancing! The Sports Bash will be from 3:00 to 5:30 P.M. The dance bit of the Sports Bash will be in the MPB above the Zigzag and the athletics will be held in the ES Gym. Some of the sports that are going to be held are Soccer, Basketball, Ping Pong, Swimming, and Volleyball. If you’re confused on what to wear, find something sporty, like a soccer or basketball jersey with a pair of shorts. Permission slips are being handed out now until the 3rd of September. More information will be on the slip. The dance costs 300 baht. If you live downtown and need transportation back, there will be a couple buses’ there, but you will have to pay an extra 100 baht. You will need your parents’ permission to go, otherwise, no Sports Bash. The PTA organizes the dances most of the time with the help of the student council. The money is used for the little snacks there will be at the dance. For the past years I have been going to the dances, they usually serve pizza, pop, and sometimes cupcakes and cookies. Yum! The Sports Bash will be a great time for everyone to get together and have some fun! Hope you all can make it because if you don’t go, you won’t know what you’re missing out on.

Artemis Fowl: A Series Review By Sasha

Anyone ever heard of the book Artemis Fowl? No? Well it isn’t too late to read it, as it is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and even though it has been seven years since its release, it is still available in Emporium’s Kinokuniya, for anyone who’s interested. Anyway, the book is all about a young Irish criminal mastermind named Artemis Fowl. He is desperate for a certain book, and that book turns out to be the fairy People bible. He gets into a whole mess up with the fairies when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short so he can have a large ransom: Fairy Gold. But I won’t ruin the ending for you. You can do that yourself.

Anyway, there are six books in total: Artemis Fowl, Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident, Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code, Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception, Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony, and Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox. I would give this series a 10/10, simply because of the mixture of crime, magic, and smarts. This combination gives you a feeling of strange giddiness whenever you read the books in this series. The series’ author is Irishman Author Eoin (pronounced ‘Owen’) Colfer.

IPod Nano Fires by Margaret


Everybody knows what an iPod is because a lot of people have it as an mp3 player. Because it’s very expensive and it‘s popular, you think it might be safe but it isn’t as safe as you think.

On August 19, 2008 Japan warned consumers over the iPod after receiving 3 calls about iPod fires which were caused by the iPods overheating. Also, the ministry of economy said that there were 14 other similar problems with the iPods.

But, Apple said that this was a “very unusual case”. And these problems can happen with the iPods sold between September 2005 and December 2006.

These iPod nanos use a rechargeable battery which you need to charge through your computer. There were reports that these fires happened because people tried to charge the iPods on Sony’s laptop. Also, there were some reports that other cases happened because of the LG Electronics’ laptop.

Finally, I think we should beware not to make fires because of charging the iPods for a long time. And, I think that the companies should beware making electronic things so it doesn’t make fire.

Information from http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2211798/ipod-nano-fire-japan-reported and http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cd9f2e40-6e4f-11dd-b5df-0000779fd18c.html

Photos from http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2008-24,GGLG:en&q=iPod%20nano&um=1&sa=N&tab=wis

Disney film gets 'Enchanted'- by Grace

Image comparing a scene from Enchanted to a scene from Snow White, taken from http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3832976896/tt0461770.

Over many, many years, Disney has charmed the world with many films that have, by now, become classics- like Cinderella (the girl who left her shoe behind), Sleeping Beauty (the girl who just refused to wake up until her Prince Charming arrived) and Snow White (ditto Sleeping Beauty, except replace the enchantment with a rotten apple).

Some time ago, Disney released yet another film set to charm us: however, unlike its predecessors, ‘Enchanted’ is a modern spin-off of classics, containing bits from various tales, such as the ones listed above. The film also cleverly finds a way to turn its slightly clichéd 2D animated characters –you name them, you have them; the evil power-hungry queen, the charming handsome prince and the princess in distress- into 3D, real-life people.

The evil power-hungry queen comes in the form of Susan Sarandon, whose greediness has caused her to hide her son Edward (James Marsden) away from all women whom he might fall in love with (which, following their marriage, would cause her to lose her throne). To the voice of narrator Julie Andres, the tale opens up with Edward on a troll-hunting trip.

He comes across Giselle (Amy Adams), a pretty young woman who sings of her desire for a ‘true love’s kiss’. Despite knowing each other for only a day, (as is typical Disney fashion) they decide to get hitched the very next day. However, on the day of their marriage, the queen tricks Giselle into visiting a so-called magic well which would make all her dreams come true. Once Giselle’s eyes are closed, she is pushed violently from behind- and thrust into the crazy, un-fairy-tale-like world that is New York City.

She makes friends with a pessimistic, lawyer named Robert (Patrick Dempsey) whose wife died, and his cute, innocent daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey). The tale goes rather obviously from there- Edward appears in pursuit of his damsel in distress, with the aid of a chipmunk named Pip (who is unsuccessfully silenced by the queen’s follower Nathaniel), finds Giselle eventually- and discovers that she’s actually reluctant to leave NYC.

They have a ball, where the queen appears –furious that Edward has found Giselle, unknowing that Giselle’s trip to NYC has turned their destiny upside down- and poisons Giselle with –yes you guessed it- a poisoned apple. I shan’t disclose the ending, but I can tell you it involves the tip of a very tall tower, a dragon, a princess wielding a sword, and some wet people.

The only problem with this film is that it’s rather predictable, a la Disney happy endings. However, it’s also a very cheery and cute film with catchy songs, so if you like modern romantic comedies, you might want to catch ‘Enchanted’.