Tag: media

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New Designs For Canadian $5 And $10 Bills “Cartoonish” And “Outdated”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But according to a report, some people say the new bills look too cartoonish or outdated.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.

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.

Entertainment Science

Playing Video Games Can Make You A Better Searcher

Want to be a great doctor or scientist? Make sure you play video games.

New research shows that certain video games can help people “find things” better and faster.

For instance, if a doctor is looking for something on an x-ray, or if a scientist is looking at a satellite image—they may be able to do it better if they’ve “trained” by playing video games.

Certain video games, like driving games, can improve a person’s “visual search skills.” That’s the ability to see something that’s hidden in the middle of a confusing field of things. Like finding “Waldo.”

Researchers at the University of Toronto studied three groups of people: 20 people who played a shooting game called Medal of Honor, 20 people who played the driving game Need for Speed, and 20 people who played a puzzle game called Ballance.

News Science

Commander Hadfield’s Son, Evan, Helps Bring Space To Earth

Chris Hadfield is the Canadian astronaut living and working on – and commanding – the International Space Station.

He’s the first astronaut to bring the “space experience” to Earthlings in the form of regular tweets, photos, Facebook posts, videos and even songs.

Hadfield lets us know what experiments he’s working on, what the Earth looks like from his vantage point and what it’s like to live in space.

Hadfield has three children, Kyle (30), Evan (27) and Kristin (26).

Evan lives in Darmstadt, Germany.

He has been helping his father communicate with Earth, via Twitter and other social media websites such as Facebook, tumblr and Soundcloud.

Entertainment News

A New Meme: The Harlem Shake

There’s a new dance that has become popular through the Internet called the Harlem Shake.

Millions have people have watched the original Harlem Shake video on YouTube and there have been thousands of tribute videos made.

It’s hard to describe the crazy-looking dance, which is done to a happy, goofy sounding song of the same name, written by an American DJ and electronic musician named Baauer. Wikipedia describes the song this way:

“The uptempo song incorporates a mechanical bassline, Dutch house synth riffs, a dance music drop and samples of growling-lion sounds. Baauer added a variety of peculiar sounds to the song so that it would stand out.”

The videos—the original and the thousands of tribute videos that have been made since—start with one person or several people dancing. Then there’s a jump-cut to a roomful of people in costumes, helmets and masks all awkwardly jerking their bodies and happily flailing their arms.

The Harlem Shake has become a “meme” (pronounced meem). An Internet meme is a video, photo or idea that spreads from person to person and is altered or combined with other videos and photos.

Entertainment News

Oscars Handed Out At Star-Studded Gala

On Sunday night, the motion picture industry had its biggest night of the year. The 85th annual Academy Awards were handed out. They are also known as “The Oscars.” The show is seen around the world by more than a billion people.

The show was hosted by Seth MacFarlane, who is known for creating and doing the voices for the cartoon series Family Guy.

Oscars are awards given to the best filmmakers including the best director, actress and actor and the best in other areas of the industry such as special effects creator and costume designer.

The biggest award is always saved for last: Best Picture. This year it went to the film Argo.

News Science

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Debuts Song From Space

Before he left for the International Space Station, Hadfield wrote a song with singer Ed Robertson.

It’s called I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing?). ISS can also stand for “International Space Station,” which is fitting since the song is about what it’s like to leave the Earth and go into space.

Hadfield has done some incredible things during his time on the ISS. He has made his experience in space accessible to the people on Earth.

He has tweeted messages, conducted live media conferences, sent photos and kept people up-to-date on what the astronauts on the Space Station are doing.

What Hadfield is doing is unique. No astronaut has ever brought space so close to Earth before.

Politics

Day In The Life Of Canada’s PM

Want to know what Canada’s prime minister did yesterday?

Just read his Twitter feed.

Harper tweeted a picture of his cat, Stanley, sitting on a chair beside him while the prime minister ate his breakfast.

He tweeted a time-lapsed video of his drive to work; viewers could see the Canadian flag flying on the hood of his car and watch the PM leave his limo with a briefcase full of work.

Entertainment

Nine-Year-Old Up For Best Actress Oscar

At nine years old, Quvenzhane Wallis is the youngest person to ever be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

The Academy Awards (nicknamed “The Oscars”) are given to the best work in movies each year.

Best Actor and Best Actress are perhaps the most prestigious awards an actor can win.

Wallis was just five when she tried out (or “auditioned”) for the role of Hushpuppy in the film Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Environment News Science Technology

Hadfield Brings Space Life Down To Earth

When Chris Hadfield was nine years old, he watched Apollo 11 land on the moon and decided he wanted to become an astronaut.

That was in 1969, and about half a billion people around the world watched the same grainy images of the moon landing on TV.

It seems incredible, but with today’s technology and social media websites, people can see and hear what the astronauts are doing on the International Space Station every day.

We can watch videos of them, check out the view of Earth from the space station, and even have casual “conversations” with the astronauts.