Author: Joyce Grant

News Technology

Word Of The Year: Selfie

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“Selfie” has been named the word of the year.

Oxford Dictionaries chose the word because its usage increased by 17,000 per cent over last year.

A “selfie” is a photo that a person takes of himself, usually with his smart phone.

Have you ever seen a picture of a person that he took by holding his phone out in front of him? That’s a selfie.

A selfie can also be taken in a mirror or with a webcam.

Another term for selfie is “self portrait.”

The term was first used in 2002, in an online chat in Australia.

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Kids News

Adorable Batkid Cleans Up Gotham City (San Francisco)

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The good people of San Francisco, California can sleep a little more soundly.

Last Friday, their city was been made safer by a very special superhero.

Batman and a special Batkid spent the day patrolling the streets and battling crime.

Batkid’s real identity (ssssh, don’t tell anyone!) is five-year-old Miles.

Miles has been winning his own battle, ever since he was just one year old—against a disease called leukemia, which is a form of cancer.

Miles’s leukemia is in “remission,” which means that he is doing very well now. In fact, he started kindergarten this year.

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Entertainment News

What Does The Fox Say? — The Picture Book

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The latest viral music video is being turned into a children’s picture book.

“What Does the Fox Say?” is a catchy music video that’s been seen by more than 200 million people.

Never heard of it? Read the TKN article about it here.

It was created by two Norwegian brothers, Bard and Vegard Ylvisaker, collectively known as Ylvis.

The video was meant to be silly and almost meaningless. But the tune was so darned catchy, it caught on, big-time.

Now, it will be a picture book called “What Does The Fox Say?”

Publisher Simon & Schuster is launching the book next month. It was written by Ylvis and has illustrations drawn by Svein Nyhus.

The brothers had thought of the idea of creating a picture book from their song even before they uploaded it to YouTube.

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News

Painting Sold For $142-Million

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On Tuesday, someone paid more than $142-million for a painting.

It’s the most anyone has ever paid for a painting sold in an auction.

The painting is called “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” by an Irish-born painter named Francis Bacon.

It’s actually three paintings that go together. That is known as a “triptych.”

The sale took just six minutes.

Because it was an auction, people had to bid for the painting.

Some people were bidding in person, and some people were bidding over the telephone.

The auction house is not saying who purchased the painting.

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News Science Sports

Olympic Torch Arrives Back From Outer Space

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The Olympic torch has been to outer space and back.

The torch has even been on a spacewalk.

It’s the first time that has ever happened.

The torch will be used to light the flame that will launch the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, hosted by Russia.

On Nov. 7, a spacecraft called the Soyuz TMA-11M left Russia carrying three crew members and the Olympic torch.

It was bound for the International Space Station (ISS), which is in orbit around the Earth.

Two Russian cosmonauts on the ISS received the torch. Later, they brought it outside and symbolically handed it off to each other in open space. The hand-off took about an hour.

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Environment News

Philippines Hit By Massive Typhoon

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There has been a terrible storm in the Philippines.

The Philippines is a country in southeast Asia.

Because it is an island in the Pacific Ocean, the Philippines often gets very bad weather, including earthquakes, volcanoes and typhoons.

However, Typhoon Haiyan is perhaps the worst natural disaster to ever befall the country.

The typhoon hit the Philippines last Friday.

Its winds of up to 300 kilometres an hour whipped up the ocean waves.

The storm also caused flooding and landslides.

The country’s National Red Cross has launched a huge program to help the people whose houses were destroyed by the typhoon.

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News Politics

Three Canadian Senators Suspended – Historic Move By Senate

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In an historic move, three Canadian senators have been tossed from the Senate.

Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau have been “suspended” (removed from their jobs for a period of time).

Members of the Senate voted to suspend the three until the next federal election, likely in 2015.

The vote was hotly debated and discussed.

Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin had made impassioned speeches to the Senate, pleading their case and hoping to avoid being removed.

But in the end, the three senators were suspended.

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Lighter

Regular Exercise Can Help Prevent Depression: U Of T Study

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Just 20 minutes of walking a day can help people improve their mental health.

That’s according to researcher George Mammen, at the University of Toronto (U of T).

He recently co-authored a study of more than 26 years’ worth of research reports.

He says the reports show that someone who is physically active is less likely to become depressed later in their life.

Most scientists agree that regular exercise is important for people’s physical health. It can help prevent diseases like stroke, heart disease and cancer.

And previous studies have shown that exercise can help to treat depression.

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News Sports

Boston Celebrates World Series Victory

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Boston finally has a reason to celebrate–and that’s exactly what Red Sox fans are doing.

Fans took to the streets last weekend to celebrate the fact that their baseball team won the World Series.

The parade made an important detour.

It stopped at the Boston Marathon finish line.

Last April, there was a terrible bombing during the Boston Marathon race, which took the lives of three people.

The city–and people all over the world–were upset by the tragedy.

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Animals News

New Ripleys Aquarium In Toronto

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Toronto has a new landmark–an aquarium.

Nestled in beside the Rogers Centre at the base of the CN Tower, the new Ripleys Aquarium opened last week.

It’s home to more than 16,000 marine animals and 450 species.

There are lots of interactive displays to let kids see and experience the fish.

In the “dangerous lagoon,” visitors board a moving sidewalk which takes them on a slow ride through a 97-metre see-through tunnel filled with 17 sharks and thousands of marine animals. Sea turtles and saw fish swim overhead as visitors file past.

“Touch pools” feature horseshoe crabs, stingrays and bamboo sharks. The pools are shallow, so people can reach in and gently pet the animals.

An exhibit called Planet Jellies houses many different species of colourful jellyfish.

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