Tag: grade 8

Health News

Mexico Puts A Tax On Sugary Soft Drinks

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The people of Mexico drink more soft drinks than people in any other country in the world.

Last fall, the government of Mexico made a decision to increase the taxes on soft drinks with sugar.

They said that soft drinks help to create health problems like obesity and diabetes. That tax is starting now.

In the past, Mexico has done other things to reduce sugar and fat in schools, like removing unhealthy foods from vending machines.

But some people say this kind of tax to make people healthier doesn’t work.

In 2011 another country, Denmark, put a tax on fatty foods for the same reason: to improve people’s health. But they removed it a year later because it caused more problems than it solved.

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News

Bronze Bunny In “Mandela’s” Ear Causes A Stir

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A tiny bunny has created a lot of debate.

The bunny at the centre of the controversy is made of bronze—and it’s in Nelson Mandela’s ear.

Following the death of the famous world leader, officials in South Africa hired two sculptors to build a monument in his honour.

Sculptors Ruhan Janse van Vuuren and Andre Prinsloo created a majestic, nine-metre likeness of Mandela, with his arms open wide as if to embrace the world.

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Animals News

US Group Says Canadian Lobster Traps Are Endangering Whales

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Canada has failed to protect the North Atlantic Right Whale by allowing the use of old-fashioned methods to catch lobsters and crabs, according to an environmental group in the United States.

Many Canadians who fish for lobsters and crabs use nets, traps and ropes that can tangle up whales and accidentally capture other sea creatures, they say.

The magazine on earth is published by The Natural Resources Defense Council in the US.

In a recent article they said Canada has no regulations to protect the endangered right whale from the old-fashioned fishing methods.

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News

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

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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.

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News Politics

East German Man Receives Contest Prize 45 Years Later

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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.

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News Technology

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

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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.

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News Sports

Heatwave In Australia Affects Major Tennis Tournament

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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.

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News

New Study Links Teens, Music And Overall Happiness

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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.

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Environment News Science

Canada Announces Protection For Endangered Birds

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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.

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Entertainment News

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

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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.

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