Other News

News

New Designs For Canadian $5 And $10 Bills “Cartoonish” And “Outdated”

The Bank of Canada is ready to show people what its new polymer $5 and $10 bills will look like.

But according to a report, some people say the new bills look too cartoonish or outdated.

The report was obtained by a news service called Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

The report says that the Bank asked focus groups what they thought about the look of newly designed $5 and $10 bills.

The people in the focus groups said they thought the space images on the bill looked too childish.

Health

Chain Restaurants Needs Calorie And Sodium Numbers On Their Menus: Public Health

Chain restaurants in Toronto should have calorie and sodium (salt) counts on their menus, according to the city’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown.

According to a news release from the City of Toronto’s public health department, nearly half (46 per cent) of adults in the city are overweight. Nearly one-quarter (24 per cent) of adults in Toronto have high blood pressure.

McKeown wants that to change.

In the news release he said that, “diners underestimate the calories and sodium in their restaurant meals.”

Having the calorie and sodium figures right on the menu will help people make healthier choices when they order their food.

News

“Bitcoin” Is A New Type Of Money

Bitcoin sounds like what it is–a type of money.

But it’s a special kind of money that could not exist without the Internet. It is digital and virtual; people can’t carry it around in their pockets or keep it in a bank.

Despite these differences from traditional money, there are places around the world that are starting to accept bitcoins to pay for things.

Some restaurants and shops in New York and San Francisco accept bitcoins, and so does WordPress, a blogging website.

A man in Alberta is offering to sell his house for bitcoins instead of Canadian dollars.

Bitcoins have been around for a few years but are becoming more popular.

News

Volunteering In Canada Worth More Than $50-Billion

In Canada, more than 13.3 million people volunteer. That means that on their own time, and without being paid, they work on a project to help others in some way.

This week (April 21 to 27) is National Volunteer Week in Canada, according to an organization called Volunteer Canada.

In a recent report, two economists* have put a dollar figure on all of that volunteering.

Volunteering creates $50-billion in economic value every year for Canadians, Craig Alexander and Sonya Gulati, economists with the TD Bank, say in a report.

They call volunteering “the life-blood that keeps (many organizations) running.”

Environment News

Earth Day Becomes Earth Month

Yesterday was Earth Day.

The annual celebration of the environment was first held in 1970.

But it wasn’t until 1990 that 141 countries put on special events at the same time to make people aware of environmental issues.

Now Earth Day is celebrated every April 22 in more than 150 countries.

In Canada, because there are so many events happening to commemorate Earth Day, the country now celebrates Earth Week and even Earth Month in some places.

News Sports

Fourteen-Year-Old Golfer Shines At Masters Tournament

This year’s Masters golf tournament was very exciting.

The Masters is the most important golf tournament of the year for professional and amateur golfers.

This year an Australian golfer won the tournament.

Adam Scott beat Argentinian Angel Cabrera in a “sudden-death playoff.”

On the difficult 18th (last) hole, Scott made a great shot that seemed unbeatable.

To tie him, Cabrera would have to make a seemingly impossible shot. Scott went to the clubhouse, with everyone fairly certain he’d won.

But that feeling was very brief.

News Technology

Texters Studied In New Research

The University Of Winnipeg in Manitoba recently tested students to see if their texting habits made a difference to the way they thought.

In one part of the study, 2,300 first-year psychology students completed one-hour online surveys.

The survey asked about what they thought was important to them as well as how often they texted.

The study found that those who texted more than 100 times a day were more interested in being rich and famous than those who texted 50 times or fewer each day.

To heavy texters, an ethical or a moral life was not as important as those who texted 50 or fewer times a day.

Another part of the study tested how students felt about different social, racial and ethnic groups. In this part, some students texted, some spoke on cellphones and some did neither.

Sports

R. A. Dickey’s Pitches, And Life, Like A Rollercoaster

When the new pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team – R. A. Dickey – throws a pitch, it goes up and down like a rollercoaster.

A rollercoaster: just like his childhood, his career and his life. Although it’s been a bumpy ride, he’s now in a good place as one of the best pitchers in the major leagues.

This year, he signed a contract for three years, for more than $25-million.

That’s a long way from the $11,000 a year he used to make as pitcher in the minor leagues.

At that time, around 2005, Dickey was a struggling pitcher throwing fastballs. But the batters were able to hit them, and sometimes knock them out of the park.

Lighter News Technology

Judge Finds Himself In Contempt Of Court

A judge in Michigan did something very unusual last week. He charged himself with “contempt of court” and gave himself a fine of $25.

People can get charged with contempt when they do something during a trial that the judge believes shows disrespect to the court.

So when judge Raymond Voet’s cell phone went off during a trial on April 13, he declared himself to be in contempt. Then he had to pay his own court $25.

It happened during a speech that was being given by one of the lawyers.

The judge’s phone started “talking,” loudly speaking some voice commands.

He thinks he may have accidentally bumped it, which turned on its voice activation–a feature the judge told MLive.com he didn’t even know it had.

News Politics

Justin Trudeau New Leader Of Federal Liberals

Justin Trudeau is the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Justin Trudeau is the son of Pierre Trudeau, who was the charismatic Prime Minister of Canada for more than 15 years in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

A new kind of Trudeaumania swept the Liberal Party on Sunday, where Justin Trudeau won the leadership of the party by a landslide.

He took more than 80 per cent of the vote, winning handily on the first ballot.

Trudeau has a big challenge—to get the Liberal party focused again, and eventually to get it back in power.

He wants to be Canada’s next prime minister.