Source: http://tinyurl.com/ylfp72t
I was quite disgusted to hear of the behaviour that took place. Not only was this poor 15 year old girl raped... but in an earlier article regarding this incident... it said that onlookers were laughing and joining in. The world is a seriously screwed up place when shit like this is happening.
In the article the 'bystander' said he did not participate in attack, but when asked why didn't he try to stop it... he says he feared he would get his ass kicked. Well perhaps he should have used his brains and left the scene and then called the police.
Now this is why you shouldn't binge drink, let alone binge drink when you're underage. If nothing else... let this be a lesson to any young girls who have read the story. Don't participate in underage drinking, especially with random guys that you have never met. If you are going to a party where there is alcohol involved, make sure you go with a large group of friends that will watch out for each other (cause we'd be fools to assume that all teenagers will behave themselves and not be tempted to drink alcohol before they're 18).
While we're on this subject, I'd like to also talk about this article: http://tinyurl.com/yhkamhd
This is relating to yet another case of gang-rape (seems like a lot of rape related crimes are flooding the news this week). One of the teens involved suffered from some retribution from the general public. In particular, I wanted to talk about this paragraph in the article:
"What goes around comes around," screamed one woman. "You filthy maggot," screamed another man who pursued Cantwell down the pavement, verbally abusing him all the way. Another screamed: "You f---ing parasite."
So essentially the mob beat up this teenager charged with gang-rape, whilst yelling this sort of stuff. Now I can understand that some people feel that they should take matters into their own hands, because the law is so slow at persecuting criminals. To an extent, I can understand and agree with this view. If you take a look at the news of various cases like kidnap, rape, murder, arson, etc... it usually takes at least a couple of years before the offender is charged and sentenced. Thats a pretty damn long time for the victims and their family + friends to wait till the offender has to do their time... and in a lot of cases, spending time in jail can not really compare to what some people have had to suffer when the offender committed the crime.
Take for instance the girl in the previous article who got raped at her homecoming dance. If you were a young girl, and you got raped by X number of guys, at 1 of the most important nights of your high school life... would you find it fair that the guys simply go to jail for that? Not only would the rape be traumatic, but the aftermath would be terrible for her as well. She would have trust issues with males, she'd be humiliated and have a hard time at school, and she could just become mentally damaged... the after-effects usually vary depending on the severity of the situation and on the individual... but pretty safe to assume that the consequences of this would be devastating.
So on that note, I can understand that some people feel the need to take the law into their own hands... however vengeance never solves anything... it tends to just extend to more people wanting to take revenge on some matter, which just becomes a continuous and vicious cycle. So finally, yes the law sucks in dealing with matters in a timely fashion, but let the law enforcers do their job. Its unfortunate that jail is really the only severe punishment available... anything further than that would be considered inhumane... but thats another topic for another time.
Final words of wisdom from South Park's Mr Mackey, "Drugs are bad...mmmkay"
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Movie Review: Star Trek The Motion Picture
This is the latest Star Trek movie, released in 2009. Traditionally, Star Trek fans are referred to as 'trekkies', and are commonly seen as nerds... much like the characters from the Big Bang Theory (which I recently covered). However, this movie is anything but nerdy... in fact its probably the best movie I've seen since the first Transformers movie. I had watched it in the cinemas when it first came out, but I watched it again last night, so I thought I'd take the chance to talk about it while its still fresh in my mind.
This movie shows briefly the past of the two main characters; James Kirk and Spock. It begins back when James was going to be conceived aboard the USS Kelvin, where his father served and his mother was in the medical bay. A gigantic warship appears out of nowhere and begins attacking the ship. The ship hails the USS Kelvin and requests the presence of the captain for negotiations. The captain takes a shuttle to the ship and leaves James' father; George Kirk, in command of the ship. The captain is killed aboard the ship, and the enemy then orders an all out attack on the USS Kelvin. The newly promoted Captain George Kirk then has the ship evacuated, including Kirk's mother, who proceeds to give birth to James whilst on the shuttle. George sacrifices himself to buy time for the shuttles to escape. From there the movie shows James' rebellious nature as a kid, which then progresses to adulthood. At the same time, the movie shows Spock's childhood difficulties being half-human, half-vulcan, being raised in a Vulcan society.
The movie is then based on James' first journey aboard the USS Enterprise, with the characters from previous Star Trek movies. I recognised some of the names from having watched The Big Bang Theory, so it was nice to put a face to the names that they mention.
The main characters are;
James T. Kirk - the son of a hero who saved many lives. He grows up to be rebellious and a womaniser... yet also a genius. He joins Starfleet with the intention of becoming a captain within 3 years.
Commander Spock - half-human, half-vulcan. He grew up suffering from discrimination for his half-human heritage, yet he excelled at his education and was considered a genius. He joins Starfleet and rises to the rank of commander aboard the USS Enterprise, alongside Captain Pike.
Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy - he meets James Kirk when they first joined Starfleet and they become good friends at the academy. He is a senior medical practitioner on the USS Enterprise.
Nyota Uhura - she is the communications officer of the USS Enterprise. She was previously a student of Spock whilst at the academy. It is clear there is a connection between them when she fights so hard to get him to change her assignment to the USS Enterprise, and he was uneasy because he felt it might have been seen as favouritism.
Hikaru Sulu - the helmsman of the USS Enterprise.
Pavel Chekov - he is the comic relief character (or at least for me, although Sulu has a lot of funny moments too), with his Russian accent causing him to make some words sound funnier... especially since he makes the intercom announcements throughout the ship. He is however very gifted at mathematics, which makes him very useful in various scenarios of the movie.
Captain Nero - the leader of the mysterious gigantic ship that you see at the beginning
Captain Pike- captain of the USS Enterprise. He was the one who convinced James Kirk to follow in the footsteps of his father. He had also previously served on the USS Kelvin, and feels that he owes his life to James' father.
Rating - 10/10. It would generally be pretty rare for me to give out a rating of 10, however I feel Star Trek is very deserving of it. It was a great adaptation of Star Trek, and I think it will help increase Star Trek's popularity. It has a nice combination of special effects, space fights, fight scenes in general, some romance, and good humour. I'd recommend it to everyone.
This movie shows briefly the past of the two main characters; James Kirk and Spock. It begins back when James was going to be conceived aboard the USS Kelvin, where his father served and his mother was in the medical bay. A gigantic warship appears out of nowhere and begins attacking the ship. The ship hails the USS Kelvin and requests the presence of the captain for negotiations. The captain takes a shuttle to the ship and leaves James' father; George Kirk, in command of the ship. The captain is killed aboard the ship, and the enemy then orders an all out attack on the USS Kelvin. The newly promoted Captain George Kirk then has the ship evacuated, including Kirk's mother, who proceeds to give birth to James whilst on the shuttle. George sacrifices himself to buy time for the shuttles to escape. From there the movie shows James' rebellious nature as a kid, which then progresses to adulthood. At the same time, the movie shows Spock's childhood difficulties being half-human, half-vulcan, being raised in a Vulcan society.
The movie is then based on James' first journey aboard the USS Enterprise, with the characters from previous Star Trek movies. I recognised some of the names from having watched The Big Bang Theory, so it was nice to put a face to the names that they mention.
The main characters are;
James T. Kirk - the son of a hero who saved many lives. He grows up to be rebellious and a womaniser... yet also a genius. He joins Starfleet with the intention of becoming a captain within 3 years.
Commander Spock - half-human, half-vulcan. He grew up suffering from discrimination for his half-human heritage, yet he excelled at his education and was considered a genius. He joins Starfleet and rises to the rank of commander aboard the USS Enterprise, alongside Captain Pike.
Dr Leonard "Bones" McCoy - he meets James Kirk when they first joined Starfleet and they become good friends at the academy. He is a senior medical practitioner on the USS Enterprise.
Nyota Uhura - she is the communications officer of the USS Enterprise. She was previously a student of Spock whilst at the academy. It is clear there is a connection between them when she fights so hard to get him to change her assignment to the USS Enterprise, and he was uneasy because he felt it might have been seen as favouritism.
Hikaru Sulu - the helmsman of the USS Enterprise.
Pavel Chekov - he is the comic relief character (or at least for me, although Sulu has a lot of funny moments too), with his Russian accent causing him to make some words sound funnier... especially since he makes the intercom announcements throughout the ship. He is however very gifted at mathematics, which makes him very useful in various scenarios of the movie.
Captain Nero - the leader of the mysterious gigantic ship that you see at the beginning
Captain Pike- captain of the USS Enterprise. He was the one who convinced James Kirk to follow in the footsteps of his father. He had also previously served on the USS Kelvin, and feels that he owes his life to James' father.
Rating - 10/10. It would generally be pretty rare for me to give out a rating of 10, however I feel Star Trek is very deserving of it. It was a great adaptation of Star Trek, and I think it will help increase Star Trek's popularity. It has a nice combination of special effects, space fights, fight scenes in general, some romance, and good humour. I'd recommend it to everyone.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
TV Show Review: True Blood
Fairly new series for you die-hard vampire fans (good job Twilight...). Currently season 1 is complete, and season 2 is starting. In this storyline, people are aware of the existence of vampires, and are trying to co-exist with each other. A product called 'Trublood' was made as an artificial replacement for blood, so that vampires did not need to feed off humans... thus the first step in co-existence. The problem is that many vampires dislike the taste of Trublood, describing it as too metallic. Thus there is tension within the vampire community between those who wish to co-exist, and those who do not.
The main story is set in a fictional town called Bon Temps. It is a small country town, thus the characters have very heavy accents... which can be annoying if you dislike that kind of accent. There are some graphic nudity and sex scenes, so keep it away from the kids.
The main characters are;
Sookie Stackhouse: the primary character. She is a waitress at the local restaurant. She has telepathic abilities... which is not an unknown factor amongst her friends and family. However, due to this ability... it makes it hard for her to be in a long lasting relationship... until she meets Bill, whose thoughts she can not read (to the Twilight readers: sound familiar?). For those who are interested, she is played by Anna Paquin, who plays Rogue in the X-Men movies.
Jason Stackhouse: older brother of Sookie. He is a suspect to multiple murders at the beginning of the series, because he was involved with the women who were killed. He works as a road crew supervisor, and is also known as a bit of a womaniser. He becomes addicted to 'V', which is pure vampire blood. Vampire blood is kind of like a drug, in that it is very addictive and causes people to become high, and also increases their sexual libido.
Bill Compton: a vampire who falls in love with Sookie. Not much more to say to him, as his past is kind of important to the storyline, so watch and see!
Sam Merlotte: a suspicious character for most of season 1, which you will find out more about later. He owns the restaurant that Sookie works at. It is clear that he is in love with Sookie, and he disapprove of Sookie's relationship with Bill.
Tara Thornton: Sookie's best friend, and is also a bartender at the same restaurant. She has difficulty trusting people, due to an abusive upraising (her mother is an alcoholic). She is however a strong and independent person, whos not afraid to speak her mind.
Lafayette Reynolds: cousin of Tara. He's probably my favourite character, because he has an interesting personality and is generally the comedy relief of the show in a lot of cases. He is openly gay, and quite flamboyant. He works as a chef at Sam's restaurant, a drug dealer, a member of Jason's road crew, and as a gay prostitute.
Rating: 7/10. Above average show. The mystery plot (the murders of various people) was quite good. Wasn't too impressed that Sookie and Bill so closely resemble Edward and Bella from Twilight. But still a pretty reasonable series, and I'm looking forward to watching season 2. The nudity and sex were a nice bonus as well =P
Below is a picture of Sookie Stackhouse.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Anime Review: Yakitate!! Japan
This anime was broadcast a few years ago now, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. The title translates to "Freshly Baked Bread!! Ja-pan" where the 'pan' means bread in Japanese. "Ja-pan" is significant, because the main character; Azuma, is trying to make a national bread for Japan. Since pan means bread, he calls the breads he makes "Ja-pan", so its a bit of a pun.
The plot is quite unique, and is a good way of seeing how animes can turn random things into something very interesting. As I said before, the storyline is based off Azuma's quest to make the perfect bread for Japan. In doing so, he leaves his hometown to join the bread company 'Pantasia'. The anime goes through various competitions that Azuma and his friends enter, against opponents who get better and better. The highlight for me, is when it comes to the bread tasting. When the various judges taste the bread, they tend to exaggerate how the bread makes them feel. For example, if the bread makes the judge feel like hes in heaven, there will be a short cutscene where hes imagining himself in heaven and stuff like that.
The main characters of the anime are:
Kazuma Azuma - as stated, he dreams of making the perfect bread. He is extremely gifted at bread baking, which is reinforced by his 'solar hands' which helps ferments the yeast in the bread faster and better than by normal hands.
Kyousuke Kawachi - he becomes kind of like a sidekick to Azuma, and the anime's major comedy relief. He is often made fun of for various reasons, but hes also reasonably gifted at bread baking as well.
Kai Suwabara - hes the 'serious' character. He is a master swordsman, but he gave up the way of the sword to bake bread (sounds a bit random doesnt it?). His swordsman past carries over to bread baking, which causes him to become a very serious and fanatical kind of character.
Shigeru Kanmuri - he is a very intelligent person, and also possesses solar hands like Azuma. In terms of bread baking, hes probably second to Azuma... although quite close in talent. He is the character that usually explains all of the strange things Azuma comes up with.
Tsukino Azusagawa - she is the female lead of the anima, and is the granddaughter of the owner of Pantasia. She also manages the store that employs Azuma and his friends. It is implied throughout the anime that she has a crush on Azuma, but its never confirmed.
Ken Matsushiro - a large burly man with an affro. He becomes a kind of mentor to Azuma and Kawachi, and helps manage the store with Tsukino. He is talented in food critic, and like Kanmuri... he tends to be another character who explains all of the strange and complex things that occur, particularly with Azuma's innovative ideas.
Ryou Kuroyanagi - he is the head of the main Pantasia branch, and the examiner for Azuma's entrance exam. He later becomes a food critic and judges many of the events. He goes to extremes to give his judgments on bread that he tastes, and tends to use puns to describe many of the breads.
The plot is quite unique, and is a good way of seeing how animes can turn random things into something very interesting. As I said before, the storyline is based off Azuma's quest to make the perfect bread for Japan. In doing so, he leaves his hometown to join the bread company 'Pantasia'. The anime goes through various competitions that Azuma and his friends enter, against opponents who get better and better. The highlight for me, is when it comes to the bread tasting. When the various judges taste the bread, they tend to exaggerate how the bread makes them feel. For example, if the bread makes the judge feel like hes in heaven, there will be a short cutscene where hes imagining himself in heaven and stuff like that.
The main characters of the anime are:
Kazuma Azuma - as stated, he dreams of making the perfect bread. He is extremely gifted at bread baking, which is reinforced by his 'solar hands' which helps ferments the yeast in the bread faster and better than by normal hands.
Kyousuke Kawachi - he becomes kind of like a sidekick to Azuma, and the anime's major comedy relief. He is often made fun of for various reasons, but hes also reasonably gifted at bread baking as well.
Kai Suwabara - hes the 'serious' character. He is a master swordsman, but he gave up the way of the sword to bake bread (sounds a bit random doesnt it?). His swordsman past carries over to bread baking, which causes him to become a very serious and fanatical kind of character.
Shigeru Kanmuri - he is a very intelligent person, and also possesses solar hands like Azuma. In terms of bread baking, hes probably second to Azuma... although quite close in talent. He is the character that usually explains all of the strange things Azuma comes up with.
Tsukino Azusagawa - she is the female lead of the anima, and is the granddaughter of the owner of Pantasia. She also manages the store that employs Azuma and his friends. It is implied throughout the anime that she has a crush on Azuma, but its never confirmed.
Ken Matsushiro - a large burly man with an affro. He becomes a kind of mentor to Azuma and Kawachi, and helps manage the store with Tsukino. He is talented in food critic, and like Kanmuri... he tends to be another character who explains all of the strange and complex things that occur, particularly with Azuma's innovative ideas.
Ryou Kuroyanagi - he is the head of the main Pantasia branch, and the examiner for Azuma's entrance exam. He later becomes a food critic and judges many of the events. He goes to extremes to give his judgments on bread that he tastes, and tends to use puns to describe many of the breads.
Rating: 8.5/10, good comedy and suitable for all audiences. If you're looking for blood and gore, you'll need to look elsewhere... but if you enjoy something different with a good style of comedy, then check this one out.
I'll leave you with some fan-service of Tsukino. The picture is coloured by a fan, but it was done pretty well.
Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
I didn't get to see Wolverine when it first came out in the movies, which is a shame... because I would have liked to watch it on the big screen. However I did recently get to watch it. It is a good movie based off the history of Wolverine. It's not exactly accurate to the comic storyline, but it covered all the important points.
In this movie, Wolverine is the half-brother of Sabretooth... which to my understanding is not accurate in the actual comic storyline, but its fine either way. It begins at their childhood, where Wolverine just discovered that he had mutant powers. At this stage, his claws were still bone. It then fast forwards to when Wolverine and Sabretooth are recruited into Team X. There are other members of the team who are actually mutants from the marvel storyline, although their hero names are never actually mentioned... only their real names are mentioned (apart from Agent Zero). For those die-hards of the comic, the mutants are; Maverick (Agent Zero), Deadpool (Wade Wilson), Kestrel (John Wraith), The Blob (Fred Dukes) and Bolt (Chris Bradley). Other mutants that make appearances in the movie include; Gambit, Cyclops and Professor X.
The movie also covers Wolverine's love story with Silverfox (Kayla), except for a couple of things... but I better not say so that nothing is spoiled. Then of course, it shows the most important moment in Wolverine's history; when he got the adamantium skeleton.
I hope that X-Men Origins becomes a starting point for future movies based off other characters. It would be good if they made movies on a lot of the more popular characters. I'd particularly look forward to seeing a movie based off Magneto, who is my favourite mutant in the X-Men storyline.
Rating: 9/10. Good action, and a nice adaptation of the history of one of the more interesting characters in the marvel universe. If you are a marvel fan, you should definitely check it out if you haven't already... if you are not a marvel fan, you will still enjoy the movie.
In this movie, Wolverine is the half-brother of Sabretooth... which to my understanding is not accurate in the actual comic storyline, but its fine either way. It begins at their childhood, where Wolverine just discovered that he had mutant powers. At this stage, his claws were still bone. It then fast forwards to when Wolverine and Sabretooth are recruited into Team X. There are other members of the team who are actually mutants from the marvel storyline, although their hero names are never actually mentioned... only their real names are mentioned (apart from Agent Zero). For those die-hards of the comic, the mutants are; Maverick (Agent Zero), Deadpool (Wade Wilson), Kestrel (John Wraith), The Blob (Fred Dukes) and Bolt (Chris Bradley). Other mutants that make appearances in the movie include; Gambit, Cyclops and Professor X.
The movie also covers Wolverine's love story with Silverfox (Kayla), except for a couple of things... but I better not say so that nothing is spoiled. Then of course, it shows the most important moment in Wolverine's history; when he got the adamantium skeleton.
I hope that X-Men Origins becomes a starting point for future movies based off other characters. It would be good if they made movies on a lot of the more popular characters. I'd particularly look forward to seeing a movie based off Magneto, who is my favourite mutant in the X-Men storyline.
Rating: 9/10. Good action, and a nice adaptation of the history of one of the more interesting characters in the marvel universe. If you are a marvel fan, you should definitely check it out if you haven't already... if you are not a marvel fan, you will still enjoy the movie.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
I'm not dead
I haven't posted for quite a while... I was in Melbourne for a few days, and then I got sick when I came back, hence the lack of posts.
I have plenty of movies, anime and tv shows that I'd like to share my opinion about... both new and old ones, so keep watching this space for those, which will start again next week.
I have plenty of movies, anime and tv shows that I'd like to share my opinion about... both new and old ones, so keep watching this space for those, which will start again next week.
Monday, October 5, 2009
News Watch: Change your Hotmail Passwords
So apparently many email details were published on a site, and you can read the article here: http://tinyurl.com/y8sd2n5
This makes me very sad... as I've never had any problems with hotmail since I first started an account back in like 1999 or something. I've had the same 4 letter password for all of these years, and I've finally had to ditch it for a longer password, since you can't have 4 letter passwords anymore.
Even though apparently only accounts starting with a and b were leaked, it is advised that everyone who has a hotmail account change their password just in case. I've been logging into my account just fine and I have not seen any signs of hacking, but its better to be safe than sorry... so I'd recommend that everyone change their passwords.
This makes me very sad... as I've never had any problems with hotmail since I first started an account back in like 1999 or something. I've had the same 4 letter password for all of these years, and I've finally had to ditch it for a longer password, since you can't have 4 letter passwords anymore.
Even though apparently only accounts starting with a and b were leaked, it is advised that everyone who has a hotmail account change their password just in case. I've been logging into my account just fine and I have not seen any signs of hacking, but its better to be safe than sorry... so I'd recommend that everyone change their passwords.
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