Howth and Malahide

Ireland is a relatively small country and as Dublin is quite close to the cost taking a train is a great way to enjoy the rest of the island. With the DART (the Irish equivalent of the metro), you can head north to Howth, a beautiful port city, to walk alone the cliffs, and hopefully see some sea horses. If you're brave enough to go for a swim, Malahide has a lovely beach with beautiful clear water. It's even more gorgeous when lit up the sun, which, admittedly, is not very often.

Toothbrush hat

This top hat brushes your teeth as you walk. It won a 10,000 pounds (12,000€) prize in a bizarre invention competition, and will soon be produced as a real gadget!

Crustace art

A chef form Taiwan transforms lobster shells into art. Huang Mingo made these motorbikes for a food art seminar in China. Each motorbike has amazing details like wings mirrors and number plates. So, If you ever eat lobster, recycle...build a motorcycle.

About a piece of art

La Torre del Oro

“La Torre del Oro” was painted by David Roberts in 1833. It is an oil painting and it shows a landscape. The interesting scenery shows the Guadalquivir with a lot of boats in and next to the gold tower in the background at the nightfall. In the foreground there is a boat and a group of people.

This type of work is typical of romanticism, an art movement which started in Germany and UK in the XIII-XIX century. The Romantic artist attached importance to feelings, nature, violence, imagination and individualism and the North European mythology.

La Torre del Oro was bought by Museo del Prado in 1943. Before that we don't know where have been this picture.

Àlex

A review of a book or a film

The Physician

I’d like to recommend a book which I read recently, called The Physician, The author of the book is Noah Gordon.

Noah Gordon is an American author from Massachusetts, USA. His books are usually about medical history, medical ethics, the Inquisition and Jewish culture and history. Some of his books are:

• Cole family trilogy: The Physician, Shaman and Matters of Choice
• The Last Jew
• The Death Committee
• The Winemaker

The book is an adeventure novel and the setting is London, the British countryside, Scotland and Persia during the 11th century. The main character is a Christian English boy who is an orphan. This boy wants to learn medicine, so he decides to go to Ispahan (Persia) to learn medicine of Avicena, the best doctor of the world. But in Ispahan they don’t accept Christian, so this boy pretends to be Jewish.

The thing I liked most about the book was that the main cahracter gets what he want. Some of the scenes are memorables because it shows how the people live in the 11th century.

All in all, I really liked the novel, and I thought it has an open ending, I wouldn’t change it. It isn’t a very easy book to read, but it’s got still a strong message.

Àlex

An opinion

Are you in favour of home schooling or against it?

In our area, there aren't much students in home schooling, programme but I think that it is great, so I'm in favour if home schooling.

In my opinion, home schooling is good for several reasons. Firstly, it is more familiar, the teacher knows the students better than in a big school. Secondly, you can get up later because you study in your house, you don't have to move of your place.

But, I think that home schooling isn't good because you can't mix with other people like in a school.

So all in all, I think that is a good thing, I think that it should be more students that study in their house.

Àlex

A biography

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississipi in 1935. But when he was 13 his family and him moved to Memphis. In Memphis he was marginalized until he grew out his sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil. He was involved in show business when he signed a contract with Sun Records. In 1955 Evis sacked his manager and he signed a contract with RCA.

His first break came in 1956, when Elvis was recorded Heartbreak Hotel. He appeared in the film Love Me Tender. In 1957 Elvis starred Jailhouse Hotel and signed a lot of songs of the film. That film and the songs topped the charts. In 1958 Elvis was inducted into the U.S. Army, so his career was stopped. In 1960 Elvis finished his military service, so he released some song and he appeared in some films. In the next years he starred a lot of films until 1968. He did some tours and released some albums since 1968.

In 1972 he released Aloha from Hawaii, a benefical show. During this show four men attacked Elvis. In 1973 he was divorced of his wife. Since this year Elvis became unwell frequently and he became to take drugs from his doctor. Simultaneously his tours augmented until 1977 when Ginger Aldem discovered him unresponsive on his bathroom floor: Elvis was dead.

Àlex