Month: March 2012

Health Lighter News Science

Chocolate May Be Good For Your Heart

Chocolate – eaten in moderation – may actually be good for you, according to a new study.

The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, said that people who ate small amounts of dark chocolate instead of other high-fat treats, had slight improvements in the health of their heart.

For some participants, their blood pressure came down slightly. Some people had lower insulin levels.

The researchers, at the Norwich Medical School in the UK, studied more than 1,000 people. They asked people to eat chocolate (or not eat chocolate) and then they monitored them to check for changes in their blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Cholesterol is a type of waxy fat; too much of it can cause damage to the heart.

Sports

Toronto Impresses In Its Biggest Soccer Game Ever

It was arguably the biggest soccer game in Canadian history.

Certainly it was the biggest and most exciting game the Toronto soccer team, Toronto FC, had ever played.

Last night, Toronto FC played LA Galaxy, which has superstar midfielder, David Beckham (#23) on its team.

Beckham is not just one of the world’s best soccer players; he’s also a world-famous celebrity.

The teams met to play a quarter-final match in the CONCACAF Champions League, which is a tournament featuring teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

It was the first time a Canadian team had been in the CONCACAF playoffs.

Image on this page: Ryan Johnson, Toronto FC; Image courtesy of TorontoFC.ca.

News Politics

Protests and Accusations – The “Robo-Call” Scandal Continues

Canadians marched through the streets of Vancouver last Saturday to protest the use of misleading “robo-calls” during the federal election last May.

More than 31,000 people have complained to Elections Canada about the automatic voice-mails they received, directing them to go to the wrong polling station to vote.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says that his party had nothing to do with the robo-calls.

Representatives from the Liberals and the NDP have urged the people responsible to come forward.

The Liberals and NDP have also denied having anything to do with the potentially illegal calls.

Many Canadians want to know who placed the calls, and they want the party responsible for them to be held accountable.

News Sports

Toronto Maple Leafs Get A New Coach

It’s not every day you have to fire an old college roommate, but this week Brian Burke, General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, did just that.

After a six game losing streak, Burke made a tough decision.

To remove Leafs coach Ron Wilson, a friend of Burke’s for nearly 40 years, and replace him with Randy Carlyle.

Burke has also known and worked with Carlyle before.

In fact, Burke and Carlyle won a Stanley Cup together in 2007 when they both worked for the Anaheim Ducks hockey team.

(The Stanley Cup is hockey’s championship trophy.)

Kids News Technology

New Video Game Helps Kids With Autism

An amazing new “video game” is helping kids with autism show their emotions in their facial expressions.

Autism affects the brain’s development of social and communication skills.

People with autism typically have difficulty recognizing facial expressions and emotions.

The new video game, called FaceMaze, was developed to help kids with autism recognize what certain emotions look like, and what they mean—for instance, smiling, frowning or looking sad.

The video game looks and plays a lot like Pac-Man, a popular video game from the 1980s.