Readable, teachable news.
Sunday, November 24, 2024
Some events are happening in Crimea and the world is taking notice of them.
The small peninsula of Crimea, attached to the country of Ukraine, sits in the middle of Europe. Crimea is about half the size of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia; about two million people live there.
Crimea is at the centre of a major political battle between Russia and Ukraine. The rest of world is watching that conflict closely.
For many years, archaeologists have wondered why the people who built Stonehenge – a prehistoric monument in the south of England – used huge rocks that came from more than 300 kilometres away.
Now, a team of researchers believes the rocks may have been chosen because they produce musical sounds.
Sometimes, things on the Internet seem too good to be true.
That’s when people may start to challenge them, asking questions to figure out what’s real and what’s made up.
That is what happened when a video showing people riding a “hoverboard” recently went viral.
The video was posted on a website by a “company” called HUVr Tech.
The Great Lakes were almost completely frozen over by March 2, with 90.5 per cent of their total surface covered in ice.
The five connected lakes are located on the border between Canada and the United States, in northeastern North America.
Although some sections of the lakes freeze each winter, usually only about 50 per cent of the water is covered with ice.
In 2012-2013, only about 38 per cent of the lakes was frozen over, and just 13 per cent was covered with ice in the winter of 2011-2012.
Imagine climbing all the way to the top of Mount Everest—the tallest mountain in the world—and when you get there, the summit is littered with garbage.
Over the years, exhausted climbers have left things like empty oxygen tanks, tent poles and food containers at the summit.
There are even parts from a helicopter that crashed on the mountain in 1974.
Experts say there are about 50 tons of garbage on the mountain.
Last Sunday was Hollywood’s big night.
The annual Academy Awards (known as the “Oscars”) recognize the best movies, actors and movie-makers of the year.
Four of the top awards are Best Picture, which went to the movie 12 Years a Slave; Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey, who starred in Dallas Buyers Club); Best Actress (Cate Blanchett, who starred in Blue Jasmine) and Best Director (Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity).
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, recently told the Mobile World Congress Conference that he wants to give five billion more people around the world access to the Internet.
Obesity rates in young children in the U.S. have dropped by 43 per cent.
In this case, obesity means “very overweight,” which is not good for a person’s health.
Over the last 10 years, the number of young children in the U.S. who are obese has gone down by a lot.
In 2004, nearly 14 per cent of American children aged two to five were obese. In 2012 the number went down to 8.4 per cent.
Scientists have found the oldest known piece of our planet.
A blue zircon crystal, found on a sheep ranch in Australia, is about 4.4 billion years old.
The gem is about twice the width of a human hair.
A 12-year-old boy has invented a Braille printer that costs about $1,650 less than the ones that are available today.
Shubham Banerjee is in grade seven in Santa Clara, California.
He used a Lego Mindstorms kit and added five dollars’ worth of parts he bought at a hardware store to create what he calls a Braigo.
His Braigo costs about $349 to make.
