The review this week is on the 1980 movie the blues brothers, starring Dan Akroyd and the late John Belushi.

The blues brothers begins with one brother, Elwood blues [Akroyd] , picking up his brother, Jake blues[Belushi] , from prison. They discover the orphanage where they grew up in is about to be torn down unless $5000 can be raised to save it. When they attend church, they receive a sign on how to save their past home.

They have to reassemble their old band.

This movie was brilliant. There were lots of really funny bits and the plot was well-done. I liked the movie because there was a lot of action mixed in with some musical scenes and stuck together with “their Mission from god”. I think that both of the actors did a really good job and the role suited them. Starring musical legends such as Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles, the cast has a lot of famous people in it. It also [at the time] boasted the record for the largest destruction of cars in a movie.

I think that this movie is brilliant and would recommend it to ages 10- onwards because it has a bit of violence and swearing but only a small amount.

If you are planning your next holiday , you could go to Greece, Rome, America…

Or, you could go to Phaic Tan.

Pronounced “fake Tan” this country is in indonesia, and the rulers have survived 25 military coups over about the same amount of years.

However, if you think this is a real country, then you are wrong. Published by”Jetlag travel guides” , the travel guide to Phaic Tan is entirely fake. Just like a real travel guide, it details places to stay, eat, and visit, like a real travel guide. But, everything in the book is totally made up. Also, is contains the language of the Phaic Tanese People, hundreds of pictures detailing the people and sights, and also has, at the back, the other, made up, books in the series.

I think that this book is particularly good because it mimics most recent travel guides although it was published in 2004. The best thing about this book, is even if you didn’t know that it was fake, you may think, because it is so detailed, that Phaic Tan is a Real country!

I would strongly reccommend this book to people who enjoy a good laugh, and people that like books that make fun of everything and anything that they can.

With the economy crashing and practically every country in crisis, I thought that the only country with their economy rising would be China- because of the amount of tourists, taxpayers and other things.

However, those aren’t the only ways that they are trying to boost their economy.

Apparently, according to the N.Z herald,  one province in China has backed down from a law the Chinese government has passed that states that officials must smoke nearly a quarter of a million of locally made cigarettes to boost that region’s economy! Even worse than that, teachers have been given quotas that they have to fullfill or they have the risk of being fined or even fired. One teacher was given an official warning when checks found cigarettes from a rival brand. Strangely enough, this encouragement of smoking clashed with the anti-smoking policies from beijing. Of the millions of people that live in china, 350 million of them are smokers and 1 million people in china die every year from smoking- and the government wants more to smoke!

I think that this idea is outrageously stupid and the Chinese government should take into consideration the feelings of it’s own people rather than lining it’s own pockets or trying to become the world’s biggest superpower. Also, if so many chinese people start smoking, so many more innocents being forced to smoke will die.

This information was found in the wednesday, 6th of may issue of the N.Z herald.

A captain of an Italian cruise ship has given the BBC a dramatic account of how his crew fended off a pirate attack near the coast of Somalia.

Capt Ciro Pinto said six pirates in a speedboat approached his ship, the Melody, and opened fire, but then fled after security men fired in the air.

He said his crew also sprayed water on the gunmen when they tried to climb aboard using a ladder.

Last year, pirates attacked more than 100 ships in the region, demanding huge ransoms for their release. Their attacks have intensified recently.

Capt Pinto told the BBC that the pirates tried to hijack his ship late on Saturday, about 290km (180 miles) north of Victoria in the Seychelles.

“One white small boat with six people on board approached the port [left] side of the ship and started shooting.”

The captain said the pirates fired some 200 rounds of shots on the vessel.

His said “our security started shooting in the air… and also we started spraying some water” to beat off the attackers.

Capt Pinto said the pirates were forced to give up after about five minutes of shooting and a high-speed chase.

The head of the Italy’s MSC Cruises, which owns the Melody, credited the captain for his “cool-headed” handling of the incident, Italy’s Ansa news agency reported.

The ship was on a cruise from South Africa to Italy. It was now headed as scheduled for the Jordanian port of Aqaba.

Somali pirates have hijacked about a dozen ships since the start of April, despite the presence of around 20 foreign naval vessels in the area.

International warships have been patrolling the waters off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden in recent months as part of an effort to counter piracy.

They have freed a number of ships, but attacks have continued.

Somalia has been without an effective administration since 1991, fuelling the lawlessness which has allowed piracy to thrive.

Shipping companies last year handed over about $80m (£54m) in ransom payments to the gangs.

Taken from www.bbc.com

I think that someone actually needs to do something about the pirates- giving ships passing through the area protection with PT boats or something, – because they are fast and relatively cheap to buy, or just station soldiers on every boat like the Melody so that they can protect passengers if pirates attack.Also, if something like this is not done quickly, many people could be injured or held to ransom, bankrupting families when the victim could be already dead. 

 

Mortal Engines starts with the main character, Tom, Saving his hero, a man named Valentine, from a girl stabbing him. He chases after the girl, and almost manages to catch her, but disappears over a railing after telling him her name, Hester Shaw. When Valentine finds Tom, and he mentions the girl’s name, he pushes him off the railing into a pit. From thereon, Tom and Hester have to make their way back to their town, London, which has set course for the main hunting ground with a secret deep inside St Pauls- a weapon named MEDUSA that will spell certain death for the anti-traction league.
I liked this book because it was easy to follow yet exciting and even funny in places. I think that Phillip reeve could have made it a little longer in some parts and that he could have filled in some pieces that I think were missing. My favourite part was when Tom comes upon Tunbridge Wheels, a pirate suburb where their leader, Chrysler Peavey, wants Tom to teach him to act ‘like a gentleman’. Then, Tom has to escape and he faces the stalker Shrike, who was employed by the mayor of London to kill both Tom and Hester, so they cannot tell anyone about Valentine. I liked this part because it was really surprising when the Suburb Captain’s plan turns wrong. Also, the quick yet exciting battle between both the stalker and Tom was full of action and it made me feel as if I was standing on the sidelines. My favourite character was Chrysler Peavey, because he was a good leader of his people and most of the remarks that he made were usually funny. Another character that I liked was shrike, because of the fact that he was the last of his kind, a “resurrected man” that had survived about a thousand years. I also liked him because his unwavering determination to kill Tom and Hester was strange.
In all, I would give this book 9/10 because it was really exciting and hard to put down, but I think that Phillip reeve missed out some parts and I think he made it too short.

Last week, on Sunday the 29th of march, 28 students from room3 [my class] TAI met at school to begin the 6 hour journey to wellington, the capital of N.Z. after a reeeealy long drive with a few stops on the way, we arrived at the top 10 holiday park in lower Hutt. After a few hours, most of us wanted to go to bed so that we could get a good night’s sleep. The next morning, we go up at 7:00 and by 8:30 we were ready to leave for the Karori wildlife sanctuary to do a program on “pests and the fence”. We learnt some really interesting things, like the fact that rats can jump about 2m! After that, we went to the surprisingly unspectacular weta cave! I thought that they would show us things that they had used in the movies and things like that but all they had was a few models and collectibles that were [I think] were overpriced. Next, we went to Te papa, where we only spent 45 minutes, but we saw things like the colossal squid, and how devastating earthquakes can be. Then, we walked to Capital E, where we made a music video with ACID 7.0, and used Sony Vegas to make the video. You can look at these by going to www.capitale.org.nz and clicking on the soundhouse, Te Awamutu intermediate, music, and then choosing one. By the time we got back, it was about 7 pm and we were all hungry and tired. The next morning, we had to get up extra early because we were going on the interislander to the south island or specifically, Picton. By 7:30 we were all on the ferry and by 9:00 we were speeding towards the south island. By the time we docked, it was lunchtime. After two hours in Picton, we boarded the ferry for another three hour trip back to Wellington and then another half-hour trip back to camp. First on day three: off to the “Cake tin” or better known as the Westpac stadium. Once we got there, we were split in two groups- one went up, and the other went down to the players rooms. I went down first, and out to look at the playing field because we were not allowed on it. Then, we went up to the top and looked out of the corporate box, down on the entire stadium. Next, we sped to St Paul’s cathedral, which is massive and the view from the top of the bell tower is breathtaking. Then, we quickly walked to parliament, where we had lunch and then entered the beehive. After a quick talk from Shane Arden, our MP, we walked around both old parliament and then into the chamber where the mps met, where our current prime minister, John Key,  gave a speech about Helen Clark, our old prime minister. After parliament, we made a dash for the cable car to take us to the bus, and then we drove to the new dowse, where we saw all kinds of new art. You can search it in Google. After the new dowse, we raced to the H20 extreme wave pool. On Thursday, we got ready for our final day in wellington. First: the national war memorial, where we saw the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the passccendale exhibition, from Belgium. After the war memorial, we drove to the wellington museum, where we did a study on the Wahine disaster. Next: the zoo. After a small presentation, we were allowed out to roam the zoo until about 3:00, when we boarded the bus once again to move to Capital E to do the ONTV, when we had to create our own T.V show. After that, we drove back to camp and packed, getting ready for the trip home. On Friday, we got ready and left the camp for the final time at 7:30 to go home.

I really enjoyed this camp because there were so many things to do that i never really had time to get bored and i enjoyed everything that we went to.

More than 130 pirates attacks were reported in 2008 Somali pirates have seized a British-owned cargo ship and a Taiwanese ship, maritime officials say, after capturing three other vessels over the weekend. The UK-owned Malaspina Castle was boarded in the Gulf of Aden, while the Taiwanese ship was seized near the Seychelles, according to reports. A French yacht, a Yemeni tugboat and a German ship were also captured in the pirate-plagued waterway at the weekend. The region is heavily patrolled by a growing international naval coalition. But correspondents say the pirates have been venturing further off coastal areas to evade the warships from more than a dozen nations patrolling the area in an attempt to deter the gangs. The 32,000-tonne Malaspina Castle, which was carrying a cargo of iron, was seized on Monday morning. The vessel, which flies a Panamanian flag, has a crew of 24 – from Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and Philippines. Andrew Mwangura, of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, told Reuters news agency it is UK-owned but operated by Italians. The Taiwanese fishing boat, with a crew of 29, was hijacked 260km (160 miles) from the Seychelles. The French yacht, with four crew, was seized on Saturday off north-east Somalia. It was being sailed by the pirates towards the Somali Puntland coast, said Kenya-based non-governmental organisation Ecoterra International, which monitors piracy. The Yemeni tugboat was captured on Sunday, a day after the 20,000-tonne German container vessel, the Hansa Stavanger, was seized. More than 130 pirates attacks, including close to 50 successful hijackings, were reported in 2008, threatening one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

I think that if the countries who are being pirated off actually want to catch the pirates they should up security and have soldiers protecting the valuable cargoes. You may remember last year, a bunch of pirates captured a supertanker full of oil. I think that if it had been better protected, the country that owned the supertanker might not have had to pay the ransom.

From www.bbc.com

here it is! sorry for it being so late.

Many of you have probably heard of the really popular 2004 game Rise of Nations and the expansion, Rise of Nations Thrones and patriots. But, in 2006, a game was published called Rise of Legends. This game, set in the land of Aio, follows the quest of a young man named Giacomo, inventor of Miana. This game shows him going after the doge, an evil general who has stolen something strange from a mianan mine that was killing all the miners. As he leaves, he blasts Petruzzo, Giacomo’s brother. Filled with want for revenge, he pursues the doge across many plains and forests, gathering powerful allies such as Distruzio, a wayward prodigy leading a rebellion against the doge. When they finally arrive at Vennuci, the hometown of the doge, there is no sign of him, but the twin tracks of massive cannon. They soon find that he has destroyed Miana and has fled to the desert….

This game will be great for people who enjoy games such as rise of nations and age of empires. This game is very different to either of these, though. The units and civilisations are so different with the vinci relying on industry and inventions, the Alin relying on magic and strange powers and the Cuotl relying on advanced technology and strange godlike powers. I recommend this game to any RTS player. 10/10!