Author: Joyce Grant

News Sports

Maple Leafs, Red Wings To Square Off In Winter Classic

It’ll be the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. the Detroit Red Wings out in the fresh air on New Year’s Day.

It’s called the Winter Classic, and it’s an annual outdoor hockey game that features NHL teams playing on an outdoor rink.

Today, the NHL announced which teams will be playing in the special game. The game counts as a regular-season game.

Although it’s still 11 months away—the next Winter Classic will be held on Jan. 1, 2013—fans are excited. Because it’s outdoors, things like snow, rain and glare from the sun can affect the game, which makes it all the more interesting for spectators.

Entertainment News Sports

Super Bowl Commercials Don’t Disappoint

Many people like to fast-forward through commercials on TV.

However, there is one time when many people want to watch the commercials. And that’s during the Super Bowl football game.

The Super Bowl was played last Sunday.

It has become a tradition that the commercials shown during the Super Bowl are particularly interesting to watch. Many of them are funny.

For instance, in a Volkswagen ad, a dog sees a Volkswagen go by his house. He wants to chase it, but he’s too fat to fit through the doggie door.

So he starts exercising himself to get in shape.

He chases his own tennis ball, and he swims laps in a pool.

Eventually, he is able to fit through the doggie door and chase the car.

Environment News Science

Europe In The Grip Of A Cold Snap

Some countries in Europe are experiencing a bitterly cold winter.

Ukraine, in eastern Europe, has been especially hard hit. More than 100 people have died there in the last week, as temperatures dropped as low as -30C. Many of the people who froze to death were homeless people living in the city’s capital, Kiev.

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, there have been avalanches and strong winds. The country declared a state of emergency.

One woman in Croatia had to have neighbours help her give birth to her baby after the ambulance could not reach her because of a blizzard. She later named her baby Snjezana, which is Snow White in Croatian.

Entertainment Kids News

Ontario Place Closing Until 2017

One of Ontario’s most famous landmarks is closing.

Ontario Place will shut down for five years, to be transformed “into an innovative provincial landmark,” according to its website.

The attraction opened in 1971; at the time, it cost $29 million. It was created by the Ontario government to help revitalize the city’s lakefront area. Ontario Place is located downtown, on the shores of Lake Ontario.

The provincial government built Ontario Place as a family-friendly amusement park for Torontonians and as a way to attract more tourists to the city.

Kids News Sports

14-Year-Old Wins Golf Tournament

Fourteen-year-old Lydia Ko has become the youngest person — male or female — ever to win a professional golf tournament.

The teen won the New South Wales Open golf tournament on Jan. 29.

Ko was born in South Korea but moved with her family to New Zealand in 2003. She is the world’s top amateur golfer.

Ko won the tournament by four strokes. That means that the person who came in second took four more shots than Ko did, to complete 18 holes of golf. (In golf, unlike most sports, the winner is the person with the lowest score.)

A Uganda Little League Baseball team.
Kids News Sports

Canadian Little Leaguers Travel To Uganda

In the African country of Uganda, there are two million orphans. Nearly half of the children have lost their parents from AIDS, a terrible and widespread disease.

Many children are very poor. Many live in slums.

However, some children in Uganda have found something great that helps them in their lives: playing baseball.

Uganda’s Little League team is very good. So good, in fact, that last year they beat the team that had held the regional championship for 11 years, Saudi Arabia.

It was the first time that an African team had won the regional tournament.

News Science Technology

Toronto Teens Send Legonaut Into (Near-) Space

Two teenagers in Toronto, Ont. have taken a giant leap – for themselves, and for one little Lego man.

The teens launched a Lego figure into near-space.

They hooked a helium weather balloon, a home-sewn nylon parachute and four cameras to the figure. And then they went out to a soccer field and let their contraption go.

The cameras were set to take pictures every 20 seconds.

When their figure came back to Earth, they looked at the pictures the cameras had taken.

They were shocked to see their little Lego figure, clutching his Canadian flag, with a picture of the curved horizon of the Earth in the background.

News

New Facts Emerging About Italian Cruise Ship Disaster

Since the Italian cruise ship sank off the coast of Tuscany on Jan. 13, many new facts have come out.

As you may recall from TKN’s article about the disaster, the captain of the 13-deck Costa Concordia cruise ship steered the boat too close to an island. Rocks tore a hole in the hull and the ship sank.

There were more than 4,200 people on board; some said that while they were scrambling to leave the ship, they saw the captain already in a lifeboat.

Since TKN reported on the story on Jan. 15 there have been many accusations against the captain, Francesco Schettino, who is currently under house arrest.*

He is accused of manslaughter (unintentional murder), causing a shipwreck and leave the ship when there are passengers and crew still on board.

Arts Lighter News

Mahler Symphony Gets An Unwelcome Addition

When you go to hear live classical music, it’s usually quite a formal occasion.

The audience is respectful of the musicians.

Usually people even clap only at certain times. That’s so the beauty of the music isn’t interrupted.

The New York Philharmonic is a very famous classical music orchestra.

So you can imagine what people in the audience were thinking when, right in the middle of the soft and beautiful ending of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 – someone’s cell phone started ringing.

Kids News Politics

Toronto Kids Learn Lessons At City Hall

Yesterday, some schoolkids in Toronto learned first-hand what democracy is all about.

Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, was proposing some cuts to the city’s budget.

He said many of the city’s services should go on the chopping block to balance the city’s budget, including closing down services at: 10 arenas, three daycares, three shelters, a city zoo and a farm on Toronto Island.

The city also proposed cutting services like swimming lessons at five swimming pools in Toronto schools. That could potentially lead to the pools being closed in the future.

The parents and kids at those schools went into action to try to prevent the budget cuts.