News

News

Genie (And Her “Army”) Marching Towards Tennis Stardom

Eugenie “Genie” Bouchard from Montreal, Quebec, recently made tennis history for her country.

She made it to the semi-final round of a tournament called the Australian Open.

Bouchard is the 30th ranked female tennis player in the world.

On Monday she played against Ana Ivanovic, the 14th ranked female tennis player in the world.

Ivanovic had just recently beaten the world-number-one ranked female tennis player, Serena Williams. With that huge win, Ivanovic seemed poised to beat Bouchard.

However, Bouchard had other plans.

News Politics

East German Man Receives Contest Prize 45 Years Later

Gunter Zettl won a radio contest in 1969.

He correctly identified a song the radio station played, and he sent a postcard to the station with the name of the song (“Painter Man,” By The Creation).

Last week, 45 years later, he was finally given his prize.

The reason for the delay was political.

Following World War II, in 1945, Germany was seperated into two states: East Germany and West Germany.

At the time, Zettl was a teenager living in East Germany. Pop music was banned in East Germany at the time.

News Technology

$40 Tablet Comes To Canada And The U.S.

Many people use tablet computers, like the Apple iPad or the Samsung Galaxy.

The small, flat computers, which you operate by swiping their surface with your fingers, are very expensive. They can cost as much as $800.

But one company, Datawind, says they have a tablet that sells for just $40.

Datawind’s tablet is called Ubislate, and it is already widely used in India.

Datawind has just launched Ubislate (pronounced oo-bee-slate) in Canada and the U.S. There is a lot of interest as well as debate over whether it offers enough speed, screen clarity and features.

Ubislate can’t do everything the expensive tablets do, but Toronto Star technology reporter Raju Mudhar used the tablet for a few days and said that what it does, it does well.

News Sports

Heatwave In Australia Affects Major Tennis Tournament

How hot was it?

It was so hot, you could fry an egg on the tennis court at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne.

And in fact, someone did.

Tennis player Novak Djokovic sent around a picture of an actual egg on a tennis court, frying in the heat. The picture quickly went viral, meaning that many people saw it.

If it was that hot for an egg, imagine people playing top-level tennis in that heat.

Some of the players took baths in ice water to offset the effects of the heat, as the temperature climbed to 43-degrees Celsius.

Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard is emerging as a rising star, advancing to the fourth round of the tournament.

She is the first Canadian in 22 years to reach the quarter-finals in a major tennis tournament.

News

New Study Links Teens, Music And Overall Happiness

A new study shows that the way teenagers listen to music is linked to how happy they are.

“Happiness” seems like a simple concept, but you can think about it in two different ways.

First, there is feeling happy in the moment, like when you hear your favourite song on the radio.

Second, there is the happiness that comes from feeling good about your life overall.

We know that music can contribute to the first kind of happiness, but can it also contribute to the second kind?

It turns out that the answer depends on why people listen to music.

Researchers asked more than 200 college students about their reasons for listening to music.

They wanted to know if the students were listening for their own reasons–for example, because music gives them pleasure.

Environment News Science

Canada Announces Protection For Endangered Birds

Environment Canada has issued an emergency protection order that will limit construction activity and loud industrial noise near the habitat of an endangered bird species.

The greater sage-grouse is a shy bird that lives in southeastern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

There are fewer than 150 adult birds left in Canada, and environmentalists believe the species could be extirpated (locally extinct) within five years unless it is protected.

The birds’ natural habitat is long prairie grass, but much of this grassland has been destroyed by agriculture and oil and gas development over the past hundred years.

In December 2013, Environment Canada – the government department responsible for the environment – issued an order that prohibits any activity that would disrupt the birds’ habitat during the spring mating season.

Entertainment News

Neil Young Speaks Out Against “Oil Sands” In CBC Radio Interview

Neil Young is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is internationally famous.

He has been called “one of the most important figures in rock music.”

In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Young is an activist and many of his songs are political.

Now, Young is doing a four-city tour of Canada to protest what he feels is massive damage to the environment being done in the oil sands in Alberta.

News Politics

New Jersey Governor Embarrassed After Staff Member Caused Massive Traffic Jam

The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, has had a rough start to the new year.

He’s a man the Republican Party in the U.S. is hoping will become a candidate for President of the United States one day.

But what happened recently may have put an end to that hope.

It goes back to an incident that happened last September.

That month, there was a huge traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge, a bridge that links New York and New Jersey.

This wasn’t just any traffic jam.

News

Bravery Awards Given By Canada’s Governor General

Since 1972, the Governor-General of Canada has given out special awards to people for risking their lives to help someone else.

One of them is the Medal of Bravery, which is awarded to someone who has done something very brave in a dangerous situation.

In December, Governor-General David Johnston handed out 39 Medals of Bravery.

One bravery medal was awarded to a woman who helped rescue nine people from an Orillia, Ontario retirement home that was on fire.

Another medal was given to a teenager in British Columbia who saved his friend’s life by tackling a dangerous person.

Three people received a Star of Courage during the ceremony.

The Star of Courage is given to people who have been extremely brave even when it meant possibly putting themselves in danger.

The act of bravery doesn’t have to happen in Canada and the brave person doesn’t have to be Canadian, for them to be eligible for a medal.

Animals News Science

Endangered Animals Making A Comeback In Canada

Seven Canadian species that were once considered endangered or nearly extinct are beginning to flourish again, thanks to efforts by conservationists.

Canadian Geographic magazine reported in its December 2013 issue that populations of endangered whooping cranes, North Pacific humpback whales, eastern wild turkeys, swift foxes, sea otters, wood bison and peregrine falcons have increased in recent years.

Most of them are no longer considered endangered.

Several factors contributed to the disappearance of these species, including loss of habitat, pesticides, disease and over-hunting.