Readable, teachable news.
Friday, December 27, 2024
How much would you pay for a book? $15? $20?
How about more than $14-million?
That’s what businessman David Rubenstein paid for one on Tuesday.
It’s the most expensive book ever purchased in an auction.
It is believed to be the first book ever printed in what is now the United States of America.
It’s called the Whole Book of Psalmes, or the Bay Psalm Book for short.
Comet ISON is about to put on a show.
Scientists around the world are watching as ISON streaks, ever-faster, towards the sun.
NASA has been studying ISON since December, when it was more than 800 million kilometres away.
Experts are calling Comet ISON as “the comet of the century.”
What is a comet? Here’s how astrophysicist Julie Abraham describes a comet: “It’s basically a big ball of dirty ice in orbit around the sun that gradually melts or burns up, spewing out debris and water in a plume blown out behind it.”
Scientists have discovered 60 species of previously unknown plants and animals living in a remote rainforest in southeastern Suriname.
Suriname is a small country on the northeastern coast of South America, just north of Brazil.
It is located in a geographic area called the Guiana Shield, which contains more than one-quarter of the world’s rainforest.
An expedition of 16 field biologists spent three weeks in Suriname in 2012, exploring the remote, mountainous rainforest region.
Thirty indigenous men helped transport their food and equipment by boat and guided team through the forest.
Think of some of the things that used to be very popular, but which practically don’t exist anymore. Like vinyl records. Or fax machines. Or… door knobs?
Door knobs may become a thing of the past, with door levers taking their place.
That’s because Vancouver, a large city in British Columbia, recently changed its building code to say that new buildings will be built with levers instead of knobs.
The city’s building code is changing to levers because they are easier to open. People with arthritis, for instance, often find door knobs difficult.
Using levers will make doors as accessible to as many people as possible.
This week, a “robotic explorer” left Earth on its way to Mars.
It should get there next September. Mars is more than 700 million kilometres away.
The explorer is going to Mars to try to solve some of the planet’s mysteries.
For instance, why is Mars now a cold, dry planet when it started out warm and wet?
The Associated Press reports that “the early Martian atmosphere was thick enough to hold water and possibly support microbial life.”
Scientists at NASA want to know what happened to change that.
“Selfie” has been named the word of the year.
Oxford Dictionaries chose the word because its usage increased by 17,000 per cent over last year.
A “selfie” is a photo that a person takes of himself, usually with his smart phone.
Have you ever seen a picture of a person that he took by holding his phone out in front of him? That’s a selfie.
A selfie can also be taken in a mirror or with a webcam.
Another term for selfie is “self portrait.”
The term was first used in 2002, in an online chat in Australia.
The good people of San Francisco, California can sleep a little more soundly.
Last Friday, their city was been made safer by a very special superhero.
Batman and a special Batkid spent the day patrolling the streets and battling crime.
Batkid’s real identity (ssssh, don’t tell anyone!) is five-year-old Miles.
Miles has been winning his own battle, ever since he was just one year old—against a disease called leukemia, which is a form of cancer.
Miles’s leukemia is in “remission,” which means that he is doing very well now. In fact, he started kindergarten this year.
On Tuesday, someone paid more than $142-million for a painting.
It’s the most anyone has ever paid for a painting sold in an auction.
The painting is called “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” by an Irish-born painter named Francis Bacon.
It’s actually three paintings that go together. That is known as a “triptych.”
The sale took just six minutes.
Because it was an auction, people had to bid for the painting.
Some people were bidding in person, and some people were bidding over the telephone.
The auction house is not saying who purchased the painting.
Last month the Canadian community of Behchoko received an important visitor.
National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, of the Assembly of First Nations, travelled to the remote northern community on Oct. 30.
There, he met with the leaders of the Tłı̨chǫ government and toured the Chief Jimmy Bruneau and Elizabeth Mackenzie schools.
Behchokǫ is 100 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.
The Tłı̨chǫ government is one of several First Nations governments created in Canada through a modern treaty negotiation process between the First Nations and the Government of Canada. The Tłı̨chǫ government was established in 2005.
Chief Atleo had a full day of activities in Behchokǫ, beginning with a lunch at the Chief Jimmy Bruneau High School with Tłı̨chǫ chiefs and advisors.
The Olympic torch has been to outer space and back.
The torch has even been on a spacewalk.
It’s the first time that has ever happened.
The torch will be used to light the flame that will launch the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, hosted by Russia.
On Nov. 7, a spacecraft called the Soyuz TMA-11M left Russia carrying three crew members and the Olympic torch.
It was bound for the International Space Station (ISS), which is in orbit around the Earth.
Two Russian cosmonauts on the ISS received the torch. Later, they brought it outside and symbolically handed it off to each other in open space. The hand-off took about an hour.
