Tag: grade 8

News

WWII Bomb Successfully Defused In Germany

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A whole town in Germany had to be evacuated last week, while an enormous bomb was successfully diffused. Diffused means dismantled so it wouldn’t blow up.

The bomb was from World War II (WWII). It had been dropped on Germany by the Allies (the coalition of countries, including Canada, that fought Germany in the war) in the mid-1940s.

There are many unexploded bombs in the country, but this one – at 1.8 tonnes – was one of the biggest. There was another, smaller, bomb there too, which had been dropped by U.S. forces.

The bombs had been laying at the bottom of the Rhine river in a town called Koblenz.

When the water level in the river fell, due to a dry period, the bombs were discovered.

Because they had been sitting in water for a long time, they were very dangerous.

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Entertainment Lighter

The Mythbusters Accidentally “Bust” Someone’s House

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Usually they’re busting myths, but this time they busted a house – and a minivan.

Mythbusters is a popular television show in which scientists – led by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman — try to figure out if certain “myths” are true.

For instance, there is an idiom about someone who is clumsy being like “a bull in a china shop.”

The Mythbusters crew filled a shop with china and brought in several 1,800-pound bulls to see whether that “myth” was actually true.*

A big part of their show is that they often perform outrageous scientific stunts, like blowing up things or setting things on fire to prove or disprove the myths.

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News Sports

Maple Leafs, Raptors, and TFC Sold

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Some of Toronto’s most popular sports teams including the Maple Leafs, Raptors, and Toronto Football Club have new owners.

They have been bought for more than $1-billion by Rogers Communications and Bell Canada, two Canadian companies that sell phones and TV and internet services. Bell and Rogers also own the country’s two main sports-only channels, TSN and Sportsnet.

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Kids Lighter Sports

Manchester Signs Five-Year-Old

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The famous Manchester United soccer team has waited two years to sign Charlie Jackson to the team.

That’s because he was only three years old—they waited until he was five.

Coaches at United say that Jackson is going to be a superstar player.

Even at three years of age, he impressed talent scouts with his ability to handle and control the ball.

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News Politics

Harper And Obama Agree On A New Border Plan

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Canada and the United States are working together to make it easier for people to travel across their common border.

This week, U.S. President Barack Obama and Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, agreed to a “cross-border plan” to make it easier and quicker for Canadians to travel to the U.S. It will also help companies in both countries to do business together.

Harper has agreed to a “common perimeter”–a type of border all around North America–so more careful checking can be done on who and what comes across the borders from Canada. Canada has also agreed to get more information about people when they come into Canada from other countries and to put in American-style bomb detection machines for checking luggage.

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News

Subaru Canada Apologizes To Truckers

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The car maker, Subaru Canada, has had to take one of its radio ads off the air.

The ad tells people that “roads are an unpredictable place, so drive with confidence.”

It then tells people that Subaru cars are very safe.

To demonstrate what it means by “unpredictable place,” the ad describes a truck driver who hasn’t slept in two days and is nearly asleep at the wheel.

The trucker is also described as eating a bag of ketchup potato chips while he’s driving.

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News Politics

Gap Between Rich-Poor Growing: OECD

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Canada’s rich people are getting richer and the country’s poor people are getting poorer.

That’s because the gap — or distance — between the amount of money the richest and poorest people earn at their jobs is widening.

The richest Canadians earn 10 times more than the poorest.

That means if the average rich person earns about $100,000 a year, the poorest earns only about $10,000 for a whole year.

A new report by an international organization called the OECD* said the same thing has been happening in many countries including the United States.

It has been happening since the 1990s, before the new millennium.

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News Politics

Who Will Fill Jack Layton’s Shoes?

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The New Democratic Party (NDP) is going to elect a new leader.

The NDP is Canada’s official opposition party.

The leader of the NDP was Jack Layton. He passed away last August from cancer.

It will be hard to fill his shoes, because he was well respected and liked not just by members of his own party, but by Canadians across the country.

There are nine candidates vying to be leader of the NDP.

On Sunday night they held a leadership debate.

A debate is when candidates talk about the issues, and say why they think they’d make the best leader.

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Xenia Benivolski (l) and Stephanie Guthrie help two kids who have come to make a donation to help Attawapiskat. Image: Joyce Grant
Breaking News Politics

From Our Homes To Theirs – Responding To Attawapiskat

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When Xenia Benivolski heard about the problems in Attawapiskat, she wanted to do something to help.

The people in the northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat are living in terrible housing conditions, often without heat or running water.

Temperatures there drop to -20C at night.

The community has declared a “state of emergency.”

Benivolski set up a Facebook page, asking people to donate items to help the community.

“Then people started Tweeting it… and it just kind of snowballed,” says Stephanie Guthrie, a friend who is helping with the drive. “You see something (like this) happening and you just can’t not do anything.”

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