text
stringlengths 1
218k
|
|---|
A NASA spacecraft will aim straight for the sun next year bearing the name of the scientist who predicted the existence of solar wind — the intense flow of charged particles or plasma from the sun which releases them into space like a supersonic wind NASA announced Wednesday that the redhot mission would be named after Eugene Parker a University of Chicago professor who developed a theory of solar wind nearly 60 years ago The Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to launch next summer from Cape Canaveral Florida and will fly within 4 million miles of the sun’s surface That sounds pretty far away but it will be much closer to the sun than any spacecraft has traveled before The heat and radiation energy from the sun are very strong at that distance and the materials weren’t available until now to undertake such a grueling mission The purpose is to study the sun’s outer atmosphere and better understand how stars like ours work One important question is why the corona the sun’s outer atmosphere is hotter than the actual surface of the sun “Until you actually go there and touch the sun you really can’t answer these questions” said Nicola Fox the mission’s lead scientist Parker Solar Probe will travel seven times closer to the sun than any previous spacecraft Fox said NASA spacecraft have previously traveled inside the orbit of Mercury the planet closest to the sun The probe will travel at a blistering speed of 430000 miles per hour and zip in and out of a region where the temperature hits 2500 degrees “Solar Probe is going to be the hottest fastest mission” Fox said “I like to call it the coolest hottest mission under the sun”
|
They’re back The Cleveland Cavaliers are playing the Golden State Warriors in the National Basketball Association NBA championship series starting Thursday night To review The teams have met in the past two NBA Finals In 2015 Golden State won a tight sixgame series Last year the Cavaliers down three games to one rallied to beat the Warriors by sweeping the final three games That feat was a first in NBA history This season the Cavaliers brought back a strong starting lineup but Golden State had one notable addition to its roster superstar forward Kevin Durant Most basketball experts figured Cleveland and Golden State would be back in the Finals in 2017 About 1300 regularseason and playoff games later the experts were proved right Let’s take a close look at the key players in what should be another classic series Small forwards The Cavaliers’ LeBron James is the best allaround player on the planet and may be the greatest NBA player of all time Hoops fans everywhere can’t wait to watch this meeting of basketball giants Power forwards Kevin Love is a solid player who usually gets plenty of points and rebounds for the Cavaliers But the Warriors’ Draymond Green is even more versatile Green scores passes rebounds and is a master on defense Advantage Warriors The Cleveland and Golden State centers help out by rebounding and playing defense The Cavaliers’ Tristan Thompson is the best of the bigs Point guards Here is another fantastic matchup of supertalented players Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving is an allstar who can score 30 points or more on any night But Stephen Curry is an outofthisworld shooter who can drop 40 points or more in the bucket Shooting guards JR Smith can hit the occasional threepointer for Cleveland He is scoring just a little more than six points a game during the playoffs Klay Thompson however is a steady scorer who is a threat from all over the court If Thompson gets hot for the Warriors he could make a big difference Bench players Both teams have unselfish players who come off the bench and provide quality minutes Threepoint specialist Kyle Korver can get quick scores for the Cavaliers Still I like Golden State’s mix of bench players shot blocker JaVale McGee sharpshooter Ian Clark and defensive specialist Andre Iguodala Prediction Both teams are redhot Golden State has rolled to 12 straight wins in the playoffs Cleveland has won 12 games while losing just one I think Golden State has too much offensive firepower for even the great James to overcome I predict the Warriors will win it all in another unforgettable sevengame series Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost He is the author of 22 sports books for kids including seven basketball books His latest is called “Outside Shot”
|
Fifteen spellers have advanced to the primetime finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee where they’ll test their knowledge of Webster’s Unabridged dictionary Scripps usually takes about 10 spellers to the final rounds but the competition was paused with 15 kids left after more than four grueling hours onstage Thursday in Oxon Hill Maryland Among the finalists are Saketh Sundar of Columbia Maryland and Tejas Muthusamy of Glen Allen Virginia Tejas had two previous top10 finishes This year’s bee the 90th in history kicked off Wednesday morning with 291 spelling stars — including the contest’s youngestever competitor The bee has a new set of rules featuring a written Tiebreaker Test designed to end a threeyear streak in which two kids have shared the title of best speller When the finals conclude Thursday night the end airs on ESPN at 830 only one kid is expected to raise the trophy and earn the 40000 prize Among the 6to15yearolds who participated in the competition Wednesday was spellebrity Edith Fuller The Oklahoma native recently turned 6 and is younger than any speller in the bee’s history Before the contest Edith told Scripps a media company that her favorite words are “refrigerator” and “escalator” — although she said she wasn’t certain how that second word is spelled On Wednesday she successfully spelled tapas which is a Spanish word for small servings of food Ultimately however Edith didn’t make the finals — wire and staff reports
|
“I thought it felt good” the now 9yearold said of the squishy stretchy substance her cousin had brought to their grandparents’ house So Hannah asked the cousin to teach her how to make it She then experimented with colors and glitter just for fun “I brought it to school one day and this girl asked me to make it for her” Hannah said Soon she was making slime for other kids at White Oaks Elementary in Burke Virginia and thinking that her interest could actually be a business Fastforward to a recent Saturday when Hannah was under a tent in Washington’s Cleveland Park neighborhood selling tubs of her Slimy Hannah creations for 3 to 10 She did a brisk business making more than 400 in three hours mom Haily said Hannah was one of more than 100 young entrepreneurs taking part in the Acton Children’s Business Fair Kids from age 6 to 14 sold handmade soaps fruit pops paintings and dozens of other products They passed out samples and business cards They made sales pitches to potential customers wandering along Connecticut Avenue The event was put on by Acton DC a local chapter of an organization that encourages kids to be entrepreneurs David Kirby and Nicole Spencer DC residents with family and friends who are entrepreneurs heard about the original fair in Austin Texas and its method of encouraging kids to learn by doing “It’s very rare today to take part in realworld projects” Kirby said So the couple brought the idea to Washington one of 15 cities to host a fair last year Fortytwo local kids took part This year nearly 150 applied with some ending up on a waiting list because of limited space Kirby recruited volunteers to help organize the event and judge the businesses but didn’t do much marketing “We challenged the kids to market their own business” he said Hannah promoted her booth at the fair on the Slimy Hannah Facebook page which she said her family set up about three months ago Zoe AntczakChung and Avajane Lei fifthgraders at Horace Mann Elementary in the District also used social media to spread the word about their Little Green Home business which makes environmentally friendly skincare and bath products The girls and a fellow classmate came up with the idea in April They made fizzy bath bombs scented hand sanitizer and a few other products Zoe and Avajane came to the fair in matching green tutus and hats embroidered with their logo They weren’t shy about chatting with customers The efforts impressed the judges enough to earn the award for business with most growth potential among the 9 and 10yearolds at the fair Judge Dan Mindus said choosing the winners was no easy task “Many of the kids had a lot of passion” said Mindus who makes his living investing in businesses “They might be doing this for the next decade or two decades or three decades” Danielle McNerney of Ijamsville Maryland said she doesn’t intend to give up her business anytime soon The 14yearold is the founder of Save the Moms which sells packets of recipes she came up with to help teens learn to cook “My whole goal is to get kids into the kitchen and moms out of the kitchen” said Danielle who started cooking at age 8 and is a returning champion on this season’s “Chopped Junior” TV cooking show Her packets of recipe cards and access to video tutorials had brought in about 600 after just a week of online sales she said Next up is asking businesses in nearby Frederick Maryland to stock the packets When asked if she planned to spend part of summer vacation working on Save the Moms Danielle didn’t hesitate “This my summer” she said
|
Commander Cathy Martin wears a militarystyle uniform flies a plane and works out of an Air Force installation — Hangar 5 of MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to be precise But instead of hunting bad guys in one of her unit’s WP3D Orion propeller planes she hunts weather Very bad weather “As most people who’ve been on an airline flight know you’ll sometimes experience turbulence” she tells KidsPost speaking from her office in Tampa The “Fasten seat belts” sign comes on and the plane may shudder and shake “They’re going to try to change their altitude to avoid a storm For us it’s not necessarily about comfort” Martin 41 is a hurricane hunter with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a government scientific agency known as NOAA She studied aviation and meteorology the science of weather before joining the NOAA Corps a uniformed service similar to the Army or Coast Guard in 2000 For six months each year during the hurricane season that begins Thursday and runs through the end of November she is part of a team that collects what she describes as “vital data to save life and property” When winds pick up taking on strength near the equator and spinning toward the Caribbean and US coastline Martin and a team of pilots engineers navigators technicians and scientists spring into action About 100 people work alongside her at MacDill where she is NOAA’s chief of operations The Air Force also has hurricane hunters of its own based in Biloxi Mississippi “We’re going out there to collect data from the storm that goes into forecasting models which say how strong the storm is going to be and where it’s going to go” she says “Is it going to make a left turn or a right turn or go from a Category 1 the weakest of five hurricane classifications to a Category 3” To do this she and her flight team use instruments that look like Pringles cans with parachutes Called dropsondes pronounced dropsawnds these small cylinders are released from a tube at the back of the plane As a dropsonde makes its 10000foot descent into the sea it transmits information about air temperature pressure humidity and the speed and direction of the wind On an eighthour flight Martin’s team typically releases 15 to 20 dropsondes while flying from one side of the storm to the other trying to cover as much ground as possible They head for the center or eye of the storm where there’s no wind and also search for the strongest winds to help people on the coast prepare for what’s coming Sometimes the plane will release an unmanned aircraft or drone to gather data closer to the ocean’s surface “There are times when you’re in the clouds and can’t see anything” Martin says and when the plane passes through the “eye wall” — the part of the storm nearest its center — the rain can be “very loud” Flights through tropical storms whose winds are less powerful than a hurricane’s can be the most turbulent because the storm is still developing Once she reaches the eye of a major storm however Martin says “it could be clear all the way up and above you and you could see blue skies” Looking down she can sometimes see crashing waves “These flights can be long tiring and often several days in a row” she says NOAA’s planes nicknamed Kermit and Miss Piggy after the “Muppets” characters often take off at 2 am Those are late starts for any pilot and Martin says it can be difficult to adjust from a daytime to a nighttime schedule Still flying at any hour beats working at a desk “I wish” she says “I could fly every day”
|
Your body works thanks to cells — trillions of them — doing their jobs Some make chemicals to fight infection Others make tears to protect your eyes Still others make proteins to help you grow You might ask how this happens To understand think of cells as microscopic factories Factories typically contain people machines and raw materials Supplies are brought into the factory Workers use the supplies to build whatever products the factory makes Machines in the factory play different roles in that process Everything works together to make products customers need Cells get raw materials — including water oxygen minerals and other nutrients — from the foods you eat They let in raw materials through the cell membrane the thin elastic structure that forms the border of each cell Cells have internal structures called organelles Each organelle is like a worker or a machine that has a job to do for the cell to function properly Here are some of them ● The nucleus is like a “foreman” or person in charge because it controls cell function It contains DNA deoxyribonucleic acid the master organizer for how cells work ● Mitochondria are the “batteries” in your cells Chemical reactions within the mitochondria create the energy that powers cell functions ● Lysosomes are fluidfilled vesicles or sacs that act as a wastedisposal system for cells Like a hungry PacMan lysosomes eat bacteria and unwanted material in the cell They contain enzymes that “digest” anything they absorb to make it harmless ● Ribosomes are the cell’s molecule makers They assemble proteins from amino acids according to the blueprint in your DNA ● The endoplasmic reticulum is a system of tubelike structures that’s essential for the production of proteins and lipids fats ● Once protein molecules have been made they move to the Golgi apparatus for further processing The Golgi apparatus is like a conveyor belt that “wraps” proteins inside vesicles so they can be “shipped” out of the cell To see how these “factory” parts work together let’s look at the stomach In addition to making acid to digest food your stomach contains mucusproducing cells that protect it from being damaged by the acid The DNA in the cell’s nucleus instructs the ribosomes to make mucus Once this is done mucus is moved to the Golgi apparatus The mucus is then packaged into vesicles that travel to the cell membrane where it’s released to coat the lining of your stomach As you take the last bite of your breakfast keep the following fact in mind If those tiny factories in the stomach stopped working your body would be out of business That’s because your stomach would digest itself along with your last meal Bennett is a Washington pediatrician
|
Pop star Ariana Grande said Friday that she will hold a benefit concert in Manchester for the victims of Monday’s suicide bombing at her show in the British city Grande 23 said in a message on her Instagram account that a date for the concert had not been worked out Monday’s bombing which killed 22 people and injured more than 100 many of them young people took place just after Grande had finished performing a concert in the city She later canceled seven future concerts scheduled in London and several other European cities “I’ll be returning to the incredibly brave city of Manchester to spend time with my fans and to have a benefit concert in honor of and to raise money for the victims and their families I will have details to share with you as soon as everything is confirmed” Grande wrote in an emotional message Grande has a large young female fan base many of whom were caught up in Monday’s attack by Britishborn Salman Abedi She said that her “Dangerous Woman” concert tour was intended to be a “space for my fans a place for them to escape to celebrate to heal to feel safe and to be themselves” She said the victims would be “on my mind and in my heart everyday for the rest of my life” But she added defiantly “We will not quit or operate in fear We won’t let this divide us
|
A computer beat China’s top player of go one of the last games machines have yet to master for a second time Thursday a sign that the field of artificial intelligence is advancing faster than expected An IBM supercomputer known as Deep Blue defeated chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997 But many go players expected it to be at least 10 more years before computers mastered go which is considered far more complicated for machines to master Go players take turns putting white or black stones on a rectangular grid with 361 intersections trying to capture territory and each other’s pieces by surrounding them The nearinfinite number of possible positions requires intuition and flexibility — traits that human beings long believed a computer could never possess But then European and South Korean go champions began to fall to Google’s AlphaGo computer program The program defeated Ke Jie pronounced kuh jay a 19yearold Chinese prodigy on Tuesday and then again two days later during an artificialintelligence forum that Google organized in the Chinese city of Wuzhen woojen Ke lost despite playing what AlphaGo indicated was the best game any opponent has played against it What happened Ke said his loss was probably the result of something all too human emotion “I thought that I was very close to winning the match in the middle” Ke said “I could feel my heart thumping But maybe because I was too excited I did some wrong or stupid moves I guess that’s the biggest weak point of human beings” He and AlphaGo play a final game Saturday in a country where go is extremely popular Google says 60 million people in China watched online when AlphaGo played South Korea’s go champion in March 2016 This time Chinese censors blocked most of the country’s Web users from seeing the Google site carrying the feed None of China’s dozens of video sites carried the live broadcasts but a recording of Tuesday’s game was available the next night on one popular site The government encourages Internet use for business and education but tries to block access to material considered subversive or rebellious Social media and videosharing websites such as Facebook and YouTube are blocked and Internet companies are required to have teams of censors to watch social media and remove banned material
|
Samesex marriage is not allowed anywhere in Asia but that is set to change soon thanks to the island nation of Taiwan On Wednesday the country’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of gay marriage saying that Taiwan’s legal definition of marriage — as being only between a man and a woman — violated articles of the constitution that protect human dignity and equality The court gave authorities two years to change relevant marriage laws and a bill to enforce the ruling is already working its way through the legislature The court’s decision was greeted with applause in Taipei pronounced tiepay the capital where hundreds had gathered with rainbow flags and noisemakers Surveys show a majority of Taiwanese support samesex marriage Jamie who has been in a relationship with his partner for 22 years said the ruling was a milestone for Taiwanese society “I am so touched” said the 60yearold who asked that only his first name be used “Finally we’ve reached this moment This represents Taiwan’s human rights This is a step forward in human rights” Despite the spread of samesex marriage in a few regions since 2001 gay and lesbian couples had been allowed to marry in only 22 of the world’s nearly 200 countries More than 70 countries continue to criminalize samesex relationships
|
Clambering onto an ostrich for a ride used to be popular among tourists in a South African town known as the “ostrich capital of the world” Not so much anymore Two major ostrich farms in the Oudtshoorn area have stopped offering ostrich rides to tourists responding to concerns from European clients and others about the birds’ welfare A third farm is sticking with the feature saying its regulations include tourist weight restrictions and that an ostrich does not experience discomfort while trotting with someone on its back for 10 seconds or so The debate is part of a wider discussion in Africa and beyond about whether it’s right for humans to interact with certain animals for entertainment or other purposes Ostrich farmers stress that riding an ostrich is different from riding an elephant which would need to be trained Nor they say can it be compared with the petting of lion cubs whose time in captivity prevents them from learning how to survive in the wild But ostrich rides which used to be “something that really captured the imagination” are now viewed with distaste by many clients said Douglas Bester owner of Cango ostrich farm in Oudtshoorn The farm scrapped rides at the end of February “It’s a market demand” Bester said adding “It’s more ethical to teach kids to love the birds than to sit on them and have fun laughing when someone falls off” Oudtshoorn is in South Africa’s Karoo region and ostriches were first farmed there for their feathers in the 19th century Feathers ranked fourth behind gold wool and diamonds in the value of South African exports before World War I according to the website of the Safari Ostrich Show Farm Besides feathers there is also a market for ostrich eggs meat and leather The Safari farm started regulating ostrich rides about 15 years ago eventually lowering the weight restriction for tourists to 132 pounds and dropped the practice altogether May 5 said marketing manager Billy Engelbrecht “We saw that a lot of our local and international tourists weren’t that keen on riding ostriches anymore like they would have been 40 or 50 years ago” Engelbrecht said Highgate another ostrich farm still offers rides in its tours which include a visit to a breeder room where ostrich chicks hatch and an “ostrich derby” in which employees race on the birds while tourists watch The farm does not allow anyone above 163 pounds to sit or ride on an ostrich which can easily carry a weight of 198 pounds said owner Johan Keller “The ostriches experience no pain or discomfort with any of these activities” Keller wrote in an email
|
At 43 he was the youngest man ever elected president of the United States Everything about John F Kennedy seemed young and hip — his thick hair his cool sunglasses his stylish wife and two small children his love of touch football games Even the name he gave his presidency the New Frontier told Americans to buckle up for an adventure Tragically though his term lasted just 1036 days ended by an assassin’s bullet in November 1963 As the world moved on JFK became fixed in time his youthful image frozen in people’s memories as well as in our history books So it seems strange to say it but Monday would be JFK’s 100th birthday John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born into a large Irish Catholic family in Brookline Massachusetts on May 29 1917 He was bookish and sickly as a boy After Harvard University he joined the Navy during World War II When his patrol boat was sunk by the Japanese in August 1943 he was badly injured but became a war hero by saving 10 of his crew Kennedy’s father had planned for his oldest son Joe to enter politics and run for president one day JFK wanted to be a writer or teacher But when Joe died in the war JFK was expected to fill his brother’s shoes He did first by getting elected to the House of Representatives then the Senate and then the presidency in 1960 The 1960s were a time of great tension in the world called the Cold War Kennedy’s administration backed a failed attempt to overthrow Cuban President Fidel Castro The next year the United States got the Soviet Union to pull back from putting nuclear missiles in Cuba from where they could hit the United States Kennedy ramped up US involvement in Vietnam by sending military advisers and aid Elsewhere the Peace Corps he created sent thousands of Americans to help developing nations At home he boosted the nation’s space program and set a goal of safely landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s which did happen in 1969 And he advanced the cause of civil rights though the major civil rights laws were signed by his successor President Lyndon B Johnson in 1964 and 1965 One thing Kennedy’s team did do to fight discrimination was force the Washington Redskins to end its ban on signing black football players The president and his wife were great supporters of the arts Plans were underway to build the National Cultural Center in Washington when JFK was killed Two months later Johnson renamed the center for Kennedy Jackie Kennedy wanted her husband remembered as a great president She compared his presidency to Camelot the mythical court of King Arthur The musical “Camelot” ran on Broadway for two years while JFK was in the White House Kennedy said her husband liked the concluding line “Don’t let it be forgot that once there was a spot for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot” Want to mark the JFK centennial in a special way Here are a few suggestions What Open house at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with dozens of performers including singers dancers musicians storytellers and even some skateboarders Stages will be set up inside and out including on the roof Where 2700 F Street NW Washington For more information A parent can look at kennedycenterorgcalendareventPRAOH Some other ways to remember JFK ●Visit his gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia open daily 8 am to 7 pm ●The National Archives 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington has an exhibit through October 11 looking at JFK’s creation of the Peace Corps The museum is open daily 10 am to 530 pm For young visitors the museum’s learning center has a program through May 31 about JFK’s impact at home abroad and in space The learning center is open from 10 am to 4 pm daily except Sundays Both exhibits are free ●“American Visionary John F Kennedy’s Life and Times” is a photo exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum The museum Eighth and F streets NW Washington is open 1130 am to 7 pm daily The exhibit is free and runs through September 17
|
Nearly five years after Hurricane Sandy plunged a roller coaster into the sea in what became one of the storm’s most enduring images the ride has been replaced — safely inland this time Hydrus opened this month at the Casino Pier amusement park in New Jersey built above the beach rather than out over the water to prevent another catastrophe It’s not only thrilling riders it’s also raising spirits in a section of the Jersey Shore where not everything is yet back to normal after the October 2012 storm “This is part of the rebirth of the town” said Mayor Anthony Vaz who was among the many Seaside Heights residents forced to move from their homes by the storm “It’s like a new start for us” Seeing the Jet Star rusting away in the surf was painful the mayor said “It went from icon to eyesore” he said Vaz estimated the resort town has made a 70 percent recovery from Sandy Maria Mastoris a spokeswoman for Casino Pier said the company never doubted it would replace the Jet Star “Our team at Casino Pier has worked extremely hard since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to rebuild and come back from the devastation” she said “With our brand new roller coaster Hydrus and Ferris wheel on our brand new extended pier we can finally close the book on Sandy and start fresh” Mastoris would not say how much the ride cost to build other than to say “millions” Getting the new coaster in place took some doing The old pier jutted out over the water one of the main attractions of the Jet Star was the sensation of looking down and seeing the waves underneath But after Sandy destroyed part of the pier it was obvious that a safer plan would be to build the new roller coaster on the beach That required a complicated land swap among Casino Pier and Seaside Heights In return for permission from the state to use the beach Casino Pier donated land to the borough for additional parking and gave the borough a historic boardwalk carousel that was due to be dismantled and sold off piece by piece It will be displayed in a museum on the donated land Painted neon green and bright blue the roller coaster has a 72foot vertical drop and several loops and twists that rattle the brains more than on the Jet Star It costs about 10 to ride “It was awesome” exclaimed Alison Cornell of Belvidere New Jersey “It looked like you were going right in to the ocean You get a 360degree view of the whole area around it It was really exciting”
|
After school fifthgrader Sophia Lysantri can often be found hanging out with about 50 longnecked adorable friends in Woodbine Maryland Sophia helps her family raise and care for alpacas Native to the Andes Mountains in South America alpacas are domesticated camelids — not wild — and are related to camels and llamas Their fleece a silky natural fiber usually lighter and less scratchy than sheep wool is popular for clothing In the spring shearing — a wholebody haircut — helps alpacas stay cool during the summer One of Sophia’s favorite tasks is carding untangling the fiber before her mother handspins it into yarn Alpaca fiber comes in many beautiful natural colors ranging from pure white to black as well as many shades of brown beige and gray but Sophia loves dying the fiber to make bright colors Her family sells yarn natural fiber and homemade alpaca products Alpacas are lowimpact animals When grazing they eat just the tops of grass rather than pulling it up as cows do Alpacas’ soft twotoed padded feet do less damage to the ground than horse hooves They’re very gentle” Sophia said “The more time you spend with them the friendlier they are” And they hum — really It’s a sweet communication sound but it reflects many emotions such as being content cautious or worried Sophia who often gives tours of her family’s farm by appointment only is frequently asked whether alpacas spit “Only when they are stressed and then usually they spit at each other” she said She advises visitors to “stand quietly and let the animals come to you” cautioning that “they don’t like having their heads touched Stroke them gently on the neck or back” “You can’t have just one alpaca” said Brandon Tenney 16 who helps his family raise alpacas in Catlett Virginia “They’re very social animals” The Alpaca Owners Association notes “Alpacas have very strong herding instincts and need the companionship of other alpacas to thrive” “There’s a leader in each pasture” Brandon said Alpacas are very curious so when something new comes near the whole bunch will follow the leader often running together to get a better view whether it’s of a person or another animal Brandon a high school junior and his sister Danielle 20 have been helping raise their family’s alpacas for 11 years The day starts at 530 am with chores including feeding the 51 alpacas cleaning their stalls and making sure there is plenty of water and hay available Danielle jokes that she schedules college classes around alpaca feeding times She is studying to be a largeanimal veterinarian — one who takes care of horses cows llamas alpacas sheep etc She particularly loves newborn alpacas Brandon is tuned in to each alpaca’s personality “They’re all different” he said noting that alpacas display emotions much like humans do Around dusk his family loves watching their alpacas engage in pronking — a playful bouncing run signifying a happy feeling When the day’s work is done Brandon says “the payback is watching a baby alpaca being born and running around That’s enough reward for me” These are familyrun farms so visitors must make an appointment first What Breezy Hill Alpaca Farm Where 2820 Woodbine Road Woodbine Maryland How much 3 for ages 4 to 12 5 for age 13 and older For more information A parent can visit bhalpacacom or call 5169724541 What Greenfield Farms Alpacas Where 11353 Barnes Road Catlett Virginia For more information A parent can visit greenfieldfarmsalpacascom or call 7035087363 Check out other alpaca farms on the Alpaca Owners Association’s page at alpacainfocomfindfarms Always ask a parent before going online
|
As someone who has studied bobcats for almost four decades wildlife ecologist John Litvaitis remembers many times returning from the field without spotting a single one of these solitary and shy creatures that often hunt at dusk But bobcat numbers are rising and they have become more comfortable around humans Joining the likes of foxes coyotes and even mountain lions in rare cases bobcats are making a home in small towns and suburbs — and realizing there is plenty to eat in the cities They have turned up in recent years in such places as Manchester New Hampshire’s largest city Waverly Iowa and outside Los Angeles California They have been spotted below backyard bird feeders waltzing along streets in search of their next meal and increasingly dead along highways A website that Litvaitis set up to understand the bobcat rebound in New Hampshire features hundreds of amateur photographs — of a cat lounging on someone’s lawn another stalking a chipmunk a third sitting contentedly after gobbling up a guinea fowl and peacock “They are back in New England and at least as abundant as they were 100 years ago if not more” said Litvaitis who conducted much of his research while at the University of New Hampshire “They are adapting to a landscape that has changed You have roads and people everywhere and they have figured out how to get along with most of that” The resurgence of the animal whose scientific name is comes during a shift over the past several decades from treating bobcats as vermin to be killed to being considered a top predator worthy of protection In contrast with the 1970s when 40 states had no bobcat protections and bounties were common most now put strict limits on hunting and trapping bobcats Eight states including New Hampshire completely outlaw both The naturally bobtail cats — as big as mediumsize dogs and known for brown or rustcolored fur with black and white spots on their bellies — also are benefiting from warmer Northeast winters that allow for easier hunting as well as expansion of public lands that increased prey including whitetailed deer Bobcat numbers have almost tripled nationwide since the 1980s to as many as 36 million according to a 2010 study in the Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management the most recent national survey “Bobcats have been a real success story in wildlife conservation in the past several decades They are at the point now that they are growing or stable across their range” according to Nathan Roberts a wildlife research scientist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources who coauthored the survey In New Hampshire Litvaitis said that is exactly what has happened He estimates bobcat numbers dropped to as low as 150 in the late 1980s which prompted the state to ban hunting in 1989 Numbers have increased ever since A University of New HampshireNew Hampshire Fish and Game survey estimated their population in 2013 at 1400 The bobcat’s success also reflects its ability to eat almost anything and thrive almost anywhere from cornfields to swamps to suburban parks With cottontail rabbits declining in New Hampshire they shifted to preying on plentiful wild turkeys and squirrels “They are clever animals and creative animals” said Roberts who has attached GPS collars to 60 bobcats in the past three years in Wisconsin “We had one animal in particular in a small town that spent all of its time in town going from bird feeder to bird feeder” Not everyone is rolling out the welcome mat In Massachusetts police last month said they shot and killed a bobcat that had attacked two large dogs and was coming after officers Farmers in New Hampshire have shot bobcats “Many people enjoy seeing them but for others they are a nuisance” according to Patrick Tate a wildlife biologist with New Hampshire Fish and Game Department Many states have considered reintroducing hunting and trapping to help control the growing populations The New Hampshire proposal to offer 50 permits annually was withdrawn last year over concerns that bobcat traps could catch Canada lynx considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act In Illinois however hunting and trapping resumed last year “There has been a lot of conservation to get us back to this season” said Neal Graves president of the Illinois Trappers Association “It’s something we haven’t been able to do for 40 years”
|
The school year is almost over Are you planning a summer vacation or something closer to home such as a trip to your favorite pool KidsPost wants to go with you It’s easy to be a part of the Summer of KidsPost just like the kids in these photos from last year They traveled all across the globe to ancient cities and farnorth glaciers Recognize any of their destinations If you can name all four we’ve given you hints in the captions you’ll be entered to win one of five ticket packs to the June 24 showing of “Wonderland Alice’s Rock Roll Adventure” at Imagination Stage in Bethesda Maryland All you have to do for a chance to win is submit your guesses on the form below by June 13 It’s not much harder to get your name and photo in the newspaper as part of Summer of KidsPost Here’s what you’ll need to do ● Go on a trip anywhere and take along a recent copy of KidsPost ● Get someone to take a photo of you — and siblings or other family members — holding KidsPost Easy right Just make sure at least one person in the photo is between the ages of 5 and 13 ● Then fill out the submission form at and attach your photo Or mail it to KidsPost The Washington Post 1301 K St NW Washington DC 20071 Include the full name age and home town of everyone in the photo We also need your parent’s phone number and email address and would love to hear from you about what made the trip memorable Families can submit only one photo and it must have been taken after May 22 2017 Entries are due by August 30 which should give you plenty of time to get out and explore At the end of the summer three randomly selected families that have sent in photos will receive books and KidsPost goodies
|
As a blind woman Ann Edie has relied on her hiphigh miniature horse for 14 years to guide her through life’s obstacles The fuzzy blackandwhite service pony named Panda has led Edie across busy streets has fetched her house keys and has even stood quietly in restaurants while she ate her meals So when Panda was the one needing help Edie was glad to return the favor The little horse was stricken with a lifethreatening intestinal blockage about a year ago and Edie and her husband have drained more than 30000 from their retirement savings to pay for surgery and other veterinary care They’ve spent many months nursing her through complications and back onto the streets of their neighborhood in suburban Albany New York “Of course I wanted to do everything I could to save her because she’s very special” says Edie a 69yearold retired teacher who has been blind since birth A network of horse enthusiasts who follow a blog about Panda’s training has also kicked in more than 11000 to help pay veterinary bills that have continued to come in as she trots down the long road to recovery “As a person with a disability I always wanted to be responsible for my service animal and not ask for help” Edie says “But people wanted to do something for her They’ve been incredibly generous” Edie who taught visually impaired children has had guide dogs Her chocolate Labrador retriever Bailey died after nine years of service but two German shepherds were prone to chasing kids or animals Edie decided to try a miniature horse because they live so much longer — up to 40 years — and have traits that make them wellsuited to guide work “As herd animals horses very much live in a social environment and are attuned to their people” says Edie who has other riding horses “The communication between Panda and myself is even more acute than it was with Bailey” Edie and her friend Alexandra Kurland a horse trainer got Panda from a Florida breeder in 2001 Over the next two years Kurland taught Panda such tasks as riding in a car ringing a bell to go outside relieving herself on command and walking safely along busy streets with Edie holding her leather harness The training technique uses a handheld clicker and treats to reinforce correct behavior Panda’s success inspired other trainers to try clicker training with their horses Kurland said While there are an estimated 10000 dogs guiding blind partners in the United States there are only about a halfdozen miniature horses in that role says Dolores Arste a clicker horse trainer in Galway New York “Other people have contacted me to ask about a guide horse but they lose interest when they hear how much more work a horse is” Arste said While a dog eats twice a day horses eat almost constantly relieve themselves frequently and need a stall and room to run outdoors Panda normally spends much of her days lying around the house playing with toys nibbling veggie treats and snuggling while Edie plays Scrabble But her illness has caused chronic diarrhea forcing Panda to stay out in her stable “I hope this all clears up soon For Edie there’s no question that Panda is her ideal partner “The freedom of being able to relax and work with her walk with her is wonderful” Edie said patting Panda’s flowing black mane “It comes down to the relationship and the fact that she’s so good at what she does”
|
The Washington Nationals have the best record in the National League but they also have a big problem their bullpen Those are the relief pitchers who come in during the late innings to get the final few outs So far this season the Nats bullpen has not been very good Washington relief pitchers have given up more than five runs for every nine innings they pitch Among the 30 major league teams ESPN ranks the Nats bullpen 27th What’s worse is that the Nats relievers have given up runs when Washington was ahead late in the game So the Nats have lost several games they should have won It’s not clear what the team can do to fix the problem Maybe the Nats can add a new pitcher or two But teams don’t often make trades this early in the season So Washington has to hope that some of its current pitchers will get better It’s not crazy to think they will After all relievers such as Blake Treinen and Shawn Kelley have pitched well before And Koda Glover has lots of talent Still the Nats bullpen woes are a good lesson for kids who play sports The guys in the bullpen are not the most glamorous part of a baseball team Usually when fans think about their ballclub they think of starting pitchers such as Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg or sluggers such as Bryce Harper It’s good for kids to remember that every position on a team is important Everyone has to perform well for the team to be successful Scherzer or Strasburg may pitch great for seven innings but if the relievers don’t do their job and get the last few outs the Nats may lose It’s the same in other sports Fans don’t usually notice the offensive linemen in football or the defenders in soccer or hockey But if they mess up it’s a big problem By the way it’s the same with realworld jobs Years ago I worked five months as a garbageman to earn money for my education Working on a trash truck is tough — and smelly — work Not many people notice the trash workers or take time to thank them But if they stopped collecting the garbage we’d all be in a pile of trouble So next time your coach puts you on defense when you want to be up front scoring goals or out in right field when you would rather play shortstop don’t complain Teams need defenders and outfielders to play their best Bowen is the author of 22 sports books for young readers He will lead a sportswriting workshop for kids at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday at 1 pm
|
When researchers traveled to a tiny uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean they were astonished to find an estimated 38 million pieces of trash washed up on the beaches Almost all of the garbage they found on Henderson Island was made of plastic There were toy soldiers dominoes toothbrushes and hundreds of hard hats of every shape size and color In a report published Tuesday the researchers say the density of trash was the highest recorded anywhere in the world despite Henderson Island’s extreme remoteness The island is located about halfway between New Zealand and Chile “The quantity of plastic there is truly alarming” said lead researcher Jennifer Lavers “It’s both beautiful and terrifying” Lavers said Henderson Island is at the edge of a vortex known as the South Pacific gyre pronounced JIEur where ocean currents tend to capture and hold floating trash She and six others stayed on the island for 31⁄2 months in 2015 while conducting the study They found that the trash weighed an estimated 176 tons and that more than twothirds of it was buried on the beaches Lavers said she noticed green toy soldiers that looked identical to those her brother played with as a child in the early 1980s as well as red motels from the Monopoly board game She said the most common items they found were cigarette lighters and toothbrushes One of the strangest was a baby pacifier Lavers also said they found a sea turtle that had died after getting caught in an abandoned fishing net and a crab that was living in a beautyproduct container By clearing a part of a beach of trash and then watching new pieces accumulate Lavers said they were able to estimate that more than 13000 pieces of trash wash up every day on the island which is about six miles long and three miles wide Henderson Island is part of Britain’s Pitcairn Islands group It is so remote that Lavers said she missed her own wedding after the boat coming to collect the group was delayed Luckily she said the guests were still in Tahiti in French Polynesia when she showed up three days late and she still got married Lavers said she is so upset by the amount of plastic in the oceans that she has taken to using a bamboo iPhone case and toothbrush “We need to drastically rethink our relationship with plastic” she said “It’s something that’s designed to last forever but is often only used for a few fleeting moments and then tossed away” — Associated Press
|
Have you ever wanted really wanted to write about something that happened to you That’s how Ruth Behar felt and her memories led to her first novel “Lucky Broken Girl” Fiftyone years ago — when she was 9 years old — Behar’s leg was badly broken in a car accident To help her heal properly the doctor encased most of her body in a large rigid cast For about a year Behar had to stay in bed in that cast in her family’s apartment in New York City In her novel Behar writes about a girl named Ruthie who has the same experience Ruthie feels the same emotions — pain fear boredom — as did the young Behar She gets excited about visitors and Nancy Drew mysteries But Behar fictionalized or made up some parts of the book She changed several names In a phone interview from her home in Ann Arbor Michigan she explained that adding or deleting certain things helped her create a stronger more interesting story That winter scene where Ruthie is taken outside to see the snow It never happened But other details like the yucky prune juice and cool gogo boots are true Behar also based Ruthie’s friend Danielle on her good buddy Dinah pronounced DEEnuh Danielle helps Ruthie walk to and from school when the cast comes off and she is on crutches The girls love chatting and eating the cream puffs made by Danielle’s mother Behar is excited about sending a copy of her book to her old friend She recently called Dinah at her home in Toronto a large city in Canada “She was thrilled to learn that our childhood friendship was part of the story” Behar said “I can’t wait to hear what she thinks” of the book Ruthie and Danielle are recent immigrants to the United States Ruthie and her family came from Cuba and Danielle and her mother from Belgium They are all trying to figure out American culture and the English language Ruthie’s Spanishspeaking mother has a hard time adjusting She needs Ruthie’s help to understand English and to buy groceries She’s often homesick for the sights and sounds of Cuba “As a child I had to help my parents in this way” Behar said “And so do many children of immigrants today That year in the cast changed Behar’s life She said she felt “broken” and sad but then she began to realize that everyone must deal with loss and pain at some point Because she could no longer jump rope or play hopscotch Behar turned to reading and writing and these new interests became lifelong passions Behar’s interest in stories fueled her desire to be a cultural anthropologist In her work she travels to other parts of the world and records the stories of the people there This helps us all to better understand how others live and find a sense of purpose You don’t have to travel far to do this Behar said You can start by paying attention to stories told by family members As a kid Behar loved listening to her Jewish grandmother’s stories especially about how she emigrated from Poland to Cuba “I was impressed that she traveled alone” at the age of 18 Behar said “There were cows and sheep and goats on the ship” so this was not a “romantic journey across the ocean” Once in Cuba Behar’s grandmother worked hard and she helped pay for her mother and six younger siblings to join her in 1934 not long before World War II and the Holocaust “Had my family not gone to Cuba they would probably have perished in the war” she said These stories have so inspired Behar that some appear in “Lucky Broken Girl” And she is basing the novel she is now writing on this grandmother’s young life
|
Two DCarea students are among the 10 finalists at the 29th National Geographic Bee which is being held this week in Washington Max Garon a seventhgrader at Sidwell Friends is representing the District for the second year in a row “I was surprised to make it this far” Max told KidsPost “I guess I prepared better than last year” Anish Susarla a sixthgrader at Belmont Ridge Middle School in Leesburg Virginia will also compete in the finals The top prize is a 50000 college scholarship and a trip to the Galapagos Islands The secondplace winner will receive 25000 thirdplace winner 10000 The Washington area has had only one winner since 1989 Akhil Rekulapelli of Dulles Virginia was the 2014 champ Max and Anish were among the 54 state finalists who gathered Sunday and Monday for preliminary rounds which included a written test and 10 rounds of oral questions The winner will be decided Wednesday and the finals will be broadcast Friday at 8 pm on the National Geographic Channel — Christina Barron
|
Imagine a flying car Does it look like a fancy sports car with foldable wings Or a Jet Skilike craft that seems to float above water That sports carplane combo is called the AeroMobil Flying Car The latest model — which can be ready to fly in less than three minutes — was previewed recently with a promised arrival of 2020 The vehicle zooming above water has a name too the Kitty Hawk Flyer an allelectric creation expected by year’s end These are two of more than a dozen presentday plans What’s driving this skyhigh frenzy “Technology has changed” says Dorothy Cochrane a generalaviation curator at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington “The ultimate design of a flying car is going to be so much different than what people were trying to do for years” After all soaring automobiles are almost a centuryold fantasy What’s different now says Cochrane is that today’s creations use lighter materials than metal don’t rely on heavy engines and are more hightech Even so there are roadblocks The Federal Aviation Administration which regulates the nation’s air traffic would need to figure out what to do with them They’re also expensive The AeroMobil Flying Car will sell for more than 1 million making it more of a status symbol than a practical way to travel But that’s not to say that flying cars will always be limited to people with a lot of money Just think less personal gadget and more flying taxi The appdriven car service Uber wants to create an ondemand network of electric vehicles that can take off and land vertically called VTOLs that could be used for regular daily trips such as going to work Early versions would use pilots before advances in technology allow them to operate themselves Tests would start in 2020 That is if the machines exist By presenting this goal Uber hopes to motivate inventors to well invent them And although past dreamers needed to continually persuade supporters to help pay for their projects that’s not necessarily so for today’s crop Creators of the Kitty Hawk Flyer for instance have gotten support from Google cofounder and billionaire Larry Page who has given money to flyingcar projects for the past seven years “It was easy just 10 years ago to say ‘Never going to happen’ ” Cochrane says “Now I’m not going to say that anymore” What Look at early attempts at flying cars such as the Fulton Airphibian and Waterman Aerobile Where National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F UdvarHazy Center 14390 Air and Space Museum Parkway Chantilly Virginia When Daily 10 am to 530 pm How much Admission is free
|
First lady Melania Trump announced Monday that her son Barron will attend a private Episcopal school in Maryland beginning this fall The announcement answered one of the lingering questions surrounding the first family’s unusual living arrangement The first lady and 11yearold Barron have been living at Trump Tower in New York since Donald Trump took office in January while the president has lived at the White House Trump has said his wife and youngest child will relocate to the White House after the school year ends which meant finding a local school for Barron Melania Trump said Monday that they have chosen St Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac Maryland for their son “It is known for its diverse community and commitment to academic excellence” she said in a statement “The mission of St Andrew’s is ‘to know and inspire each child in an inclusive community dedicated to exceptional teaching learning and service’ all of which appealed to our family We look forward to the coming school years at St Andrew’s” Founded in 1978 St Andrew’s a day school has an enrollment of 580 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade according to its website Class sizes are small and all of its graduates go on to college the school said “As we came to know Barron through the admission process it became clear that he like all of our newly enrolled students will be a great addition to St Andrew’s” school administrators wrote in a letter to parents Monday A spokesman said the head of the school Robert Kosasky would not have any additional comment out of respect for students’ privacy Barron now attends Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan St Andrew’s is located in Potomac about 17 miles northwest of the White House and a 30minute drive in light traffic “School leaders are working directly with the Secret Service to ensure that logistics and security will continue to work smoothly and discreetly next year for all of our students and families” the letter to parents said The most recent schoolage children of presidents have attended Sidwell Friends an elite Quaker school with campuses in Washington and Bethesda Maryland President Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea and President Barack Obama’s daughters Malia graduated from the school President George W Bush’s daughters had graduated from high school and were headed to college when he was elected President Jimmy Carter is the only recent president to send his child daughter Amy to District of Columbia public schools She attended Stevens Elementary and Hardy Middle
|
Malaysia has seized 330 endangered tortoises that were smuggled into the country customs officials at Kuala Lumpur airport said Monday Five plowshare and 325 Indian Star tortoises had been flown into the Southeast Asian country from Madagascar on May 14 and were documented in the flight’s manifest as stones airport customs deputy director Abdul Wahid Sulong told reporters The tortoises are valued at 277000 and the local address to which they were shipped was found to be false he added Plowshare tortoises are native to Madagascar and are listed as critically endangered on International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species because of poaching Indian Star tortoises are listed as threatened Both are extremely popular as exotic pets Malaysia has been singled out by wildlife conservationists as a transit point for the illegal trafficking of endangered species to other Asian countries Earlier this month Malaysia seized more than 2 million worth of scales from pangolins at Kuala Lumpur airport in the largest haul seen in the country Pangolins the world’s most poached animal look like anteaters with scales The live in Asia and southern Africa
|
Erzsebet Nemeth’s Fourthgrade class at the school St John the Evangelist in Severna Park Maryland is the May Class of KidsPost Her 21 students are avid readers who admire their moms want the power to fly and hope to visit Hawaii We will publish just one more Class of KidsPost this school year If you would like your class considered for next year watch for a new survey in August Ask your teacher to fill it out and send it along with a class picture to kidspostwashpostcom Favorite author and favorite book It’s hard to say that JK Rowling and her “Harry Potter” series are the class favorites because they received only two votes But we can say that these kids enjoy a wide variety of authors and books Some include George Selden’s “The Cricket in Times Square” Rick Riordan’s “The Lost Hero” Eleanor Estes’s “The Hundred Dresses” and “Return to the Isle of the Lost” by Melissa de la Cruz Favorite singer or musician Mrs Nemeth’s students like old and new music Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson shared the top spot with three votes each Meghan Trainor tied for second place with a really oldschool musician Beethoven Favorite game sport or hobby These kids mentioned lots of sports but the favorites were soccer and lacrosse each with four votes Second place was also a tie Two votes each for basketball and gymnastics Person living or dead you admire most Five students said Mom was their most admired person They mentioned that she worked hard cared for her children and “taught me how to cook” Jesus took second place with four votes and Dad claimed third with two If you could go on a trip anywhere where would you go These students would love to have an island vacation Hawaii was the top pick for nearly onethird of the class Italy came in second place with three votes one of which was for the canalfilled city of Venice Favorite birthday food Steak edged out pizza for top celebratory food Third place was a tie among ice cream cake and french fries The most unusual selection Thanksgiving dinner If you could have a superpower what would it be The power to fly topped this category with four votes Secondplace powers with two votes apiece were invisibility shapeshifting breathing underwater and telekinesis that’s moving objects with your mind What do you want to be when you grow up Engineer narrowly won this category with three students making it their career choice The other professions with more than one vote were singer veterinarian gymnast and member of the military What is the biggest problem in the world and what can kids do to help solve it Nearly half the class mentioned an environmental issue as the biggest problem with pollutionlittering receiving eight votes Students suggested kids could help by picking up trash and recycling Three students chose war as the biggest problem One student’s suggestion on how to solve it “We can make peace with each other”
|
Pope Francis and pilgrims from around the world flocked Friday to a Catholic shrine town in Portugal to honor two poor shepherd children whose visions of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago marked one of the most important events of the 20thcentury Catholic Church Francis arrived in Portugal on Friday afternoon to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the apparitions and canonize the children or make them saints He is hoping the message of peace that they reported a century ago when Europe was battling World War I will resonate with the Catholic faithful today “We will tear down all walls and cross every frontier as we go out to every periphery to make known God’s justice and peace” Francis said Thousands of pilgrims waving flags from as far as Venezuela Argentina and Cuba braved a steady cold rain Friday as they waited for him many spending the night outdoors The crowd in the Fatima shrine’s huge square erupted in applause and cheers when TV screens showed the pope stepping off the plane at a nearby Portuguese Air Force base There was no official crowd estimate but authorities had said they were expecting 1 million to come The official Mass is scheduled for Saturday Over the past several days church groups families and individuals have made their way to Fatima about 90 miles north of Lisbon “For me it is the second time I am here with a pope first with John Paul II and now with Papa Francisco” said pilgrim Elisabete Fradique Conceicao “They are simple men and that simplicity makes sense when you think what happened here 100 years ago” On May 13 1917 while they were grazing their sheep brother and sister Francisco and Jacinta Marto saw the first of a halfdozen visions of the Virgin Mary Jesus’ mother They said she revealed to them three “secrets” — messages predicting World War II the rise and fall of communism and the death of a pope — and urged them to pray for peace and turn away from sin The local Catholic Church and even the children’s parents doubted the story Authorities pressured them to say that it wasn’t true but they refused In time the story gained believers and was eventually accepted as an authentic appearance by the church in 1930 The children who were 9 and 7 at the time of the apparitions died of the flu a few years later Their cousin Lucia dos Santos at 10 the ringleader of the group is on track for beatification the first step toward becoming a saint Her case for sainthood couldn’t begin until after her death in 2005 The children’s parents didn’t seek out celebrity and were reluctant centers of attention Lucia’s parents complained that pilgrims trampled their crops The shrine with its basilica overlooking a vast square now fuels the big business of this small town Stores selling souvenirs line the streets while hotels restaurants and cafes rely on a steady parade of tourists and pilgrims “Everyone used to be poor and humble” in the town said Antonio Vieira 79 and another nephew of the soontobe saints “Who’d have guessed that Fatima would turn out like this”
|
A rare Harry Potter prequel handwritten by author JK Rowling on a postcard has been stolen police said Friday as they appealed for help from fans across the world The 800word story set three years before Harry Potter is born sold for about 32000 at a charity auction in 2008 The story along with some jewelry was stolen from the auctionwinner’s home in central England in midApril police said “Please don’t buy this if you’re offered it” Rowling wrote on Twitter “Originally auctioned for englishpen the owner supported writers’ freedoms by bidding for it” The proceeds of the auction were donated to English PEN an organization which champions freedom of expression and to Dyslexia Action which supports students with reading and learning difficulties “The only people who will buy this unique piece are true Harry Potter fans We are appealing to anyone who sees or is offered this item for sale to contact police” said Constable Paul Jauncey from West Midlands Police The untitled prequel — really a short story — features the character’s Sirius Black and Harry’s father James It opens with a young Sirius and James cornered by two angry policemen at the end of a highspeed motorcycle chase After an exchange of words with the policemen the two teenagers make their escape using a touch of magic The postcard ends with a note from Rowling who said she wrote the story only to raise money for charity “From the prequel I am working on — but that was fun” The full text of the story is available online The Potterverse expanded in August with the premiere of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” a twopart play set 19 years after the series’ seventh book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” The play will make its North American premiere in New York City on April 22 2018 Asked last fall whether the plays marked the first of several new Potter stories Rowling insisted that the series was finished “He goes on a very big journey during these two plays and then yeah I think we’re done This is the next generation you know” Rowling told the news service Reuters “So I’m thrilled to see it realized so beautifully but no Harry is done now”
|
In just a few years wellmannered selfdriving robotaxis will share the roads with reckless lawbreaking human drivers That prospect is causing headaches for the people developing the robotaxis A selfdriving car would be programmed to drive at the speed limit — which humans frequently exceed by 10 to 15 miles per hour Selfdriving cars wouldn’t dare cross a double yellow line But humans do it all the time And then there are those odd local traffic customs to which humans quickly adapt In Los Angeles and other places for instance there’s the “California stop” where drivers roll through stop signs if no traffic is crossing In Southwestern Pennsylvania courteous drivers practice the “Pittsburgh left” where it’s customary to let one oncoming car turn left in front of them when a traffic light turns green The same thing happens in Boston Massachusetts “There’s an endless list of these cases where we as humans know the context we know when to bend the rules and when to break the rules” said Raj Rajkumar a computer engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who leads the school’s selfdriving car research Although driverless cars are likely to carry passengers or cargo in limited areas during the next three to five years experts say it will take many years before robotaxis can coexist with humanpiloted vehicles on most side streets boulevards and freeways That’s because programmers have to figure out human behavior and local traffic customs And teaching a car to use that knowledge will require massive amounts of data and big computing power that is super expensive at the moment “Driverless cars are very rulebased and they don’t understand social graces” said Missy Cummings a Duke University professor who studies interactions between humans and selfdriving cars Driving customs and road conditions are dramatically different across the globe There are narrow busy streets in European cities and a near freeforall exists in the giant traffic jams of Beijing China In India’s capital New Delhi luxury cars share poorly marked lanes with bicycles scooters trucks and even an occasional cow or elephant Then there is the problem of aggressive humans who make dangerous moves such as cutting cars off on freeways or turning left in front of oncoming traffic Already there have been cases of human drivers pulling into the path of cars such as Teslas knowing they will stop because they’re equipped with automatic emergency braking “It’s hard to programin human stupidity or someone who really tries to game the technology” says John Hanson spokesman for Toyota’s selfdriving car unit Kathy Winter vice president of automated driving solutions for Intel is optimistic that the cars will be able to see and think like humans before 2030 Cars with sensors designed to assist drivers are already gathering data about road signs lane lines and human driver behavior Winter hopes companies developing driverless systems and cars will contribute this information to a giant database Artificial intelligence developed by Intel and other companies eventually could access the data and make quick decisions similar to humans Winter says Someday selfdriving cars will have common sense programmed in so that they will cross a doubleyellow line when needed or speed up and find a gap to enter a freeway Carnegie Mellon has taught its cars to handle the “Pittsburgh left” by waiting a full second or longer for an intersection to clear before proceeding at a green light Still some people involved in public safety say computerized cars will never be able to think exactly like humans “You’ll never be able to make up a person’s ability to perceive what’s the right move at the time I don’t think” said New Jersey State Police Sergeant Ed Long
|
Washington basketball fans have two reasons to be excited The Wizards are still alive in the National Basketball Association NBA playoffs and the Mystics should be very good this WNBA season The Mystics made a blockbuster trade to acquire Elena Delle Donne over the offseason Delle Donne is one of the best female players in the world She is a threetime WNBA allstar and was voted the league’s most valuable player MVP for the 2015 season Listed at 6 feet 5 inches tall Delle Donne is not just big she is also a terrific allaround player She has averaged more than 20 points per game the past two seasons She connected on 426 percent of her threepoint attempts and 935 percent of her free throws last year The Mystics added more than just Delle Donne General manager and head coach Mike Thibault signed Kristi Toliver a savvy point guard who helped the Los Angeles Sparks win the WNBA title in 2016 Finally the Mystics added size with 65 center Krystal Thomas and energy with forward Asia Taylor Put all these newcomers together with returning forward Emma Meesseman and guard Tayler Hill who each scored more than 15 points a game last season and the Mystics should have enough talent to challenge the WNBA’s top teams They should definitely improve on last season’s sorry record of 13 wins and 21 losses While Washington should be excited about the Mystics basketball fans don’t seem excited about the WNBA The league has been around for more than 20 years but still hasn’t attracted a big following Despite a slight bump in attendance last season the average WNBA game gets a little more than 7500 fans That’s a steady decline from the league’s second season when it drew an average of 10864 fans per game By comparison the NBA set a record for attendance this past season averaging 17884 fans a game And the NBA has more teams and plays more games Another problem for the women’s league is that very few fans watch the games on television The WNBA games hardly make a bump in the TV ratings A lot of fans — including kids — are missing out The WNBA has the best women’s basketball players in the world The games are fun and tickets are a lot less expensive than most professional sports So go see the Mystics They open their 2017 season Sunday afternoon at Verizon Center against the San Antonio Stars A team with that much talent won’t disappoint Bowen is the author of 22 sports books for young readers He will lead a sportswriting workshop for kids at the Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 20 at 1 pm
|
While fidget spinners keep on spinning a new trend is oozing through middle schools nationwide slime a sticky homemade version of Silly Putty Made from simple household ingredients including glue contactlens solution and shaving cream slime has become such a hit that some stores are running out of glue and offering slimemaking demonstrations Slimerelated accounts on Instagram where some kids sell bags of the stuff for 1 to 5 have upward of 700000 followers The hashtag slime has more than 28 million posts Annabell Sorensen a 12yearold from Edina Minnesota describes the ideal slime as “stretchy fun to play with and a little sticky” Depending on the ingredients and amounts used slime can end up too sticky too stringy or too dry she explained Like many girls she has personalized her favorite slime recipe using food coloring glitter and even little foam balls Gigi Shapiro a middleschooler at Breck School in nearby Golden Valley has been in the slime game for about three months She sells her slime at school and lets classmates use her slime free for a class period to see if they might like to buy it According to Gigi slime is strictly a girl thing “Boys aren’t as crafty in our grade” she said “Boys don’t have good luck with slime” They tend to just poke at it or wrap it around their hands when really they should stretch it or twist it “They just can’t do it” she said “They have to have someone lead them” Annabell said she uses slime to help relax in class “It kind of relieves stress when you’re overwhelmed at school” she said “Teachers think it’s a huge distraction but it helps us” Some teachers at Breck and other schools have banished it from their classrooms “Our priority is that our kids are learning and we found that slime was more of a distraction” said Stacy Glaus the director of communications for Breck “There are other ways for our kids to stay focused” Teachers aren’t the only ones struggling with slime Rebecca Sorensen Annabell’s mom at first embraced the craze “I was on board because I thought ‘Yay social interaction’ ” Sorensen said “I was so encouraging in the beginning because I was so happy to have them off their phones and doing something kidlike” When her family took a trip to California on spring break slime helped Annabell bond with the kids she met “It’s a conversationstarter” Sorensen said “It’s an icebreaker it gets them talking” But then she started finding little plastic bags of slime stashed around the house — lots of little plastic bags of slime “It started to take over our house” she said “We spent a weekend scrubbing the cabinets because everything had a film over it” There also have been some concerns about the safety of slime because recipes can include borax a cleaning product But Liz Heinecke an Edinabased kids’ science expert known as the Kitchen Pantry Scientist said the danger is overblown “I think it’s safe enough that I let my own kids make slime and play with it” she said “although I wouldn’t recommend eating it” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
|
Diego Rosales was so terrified during his dental appointments when he was 4 that he kept biting his dentist Today the 9yearold is far calmer soothed by the presence of “Zucca” a black Labrador that helps children like him with autism face one of their worst fears A visit to the dentist can be daunting for any child but it’s especially so for many with autism They can be upset by the lights in their faces or frightened by the noises of the instruments Some have to be sedated Therapy dogs have been used in many countries to calm autistic children and aid people with many other conditions Raul Varela began the practice in Chile after noticing that his autistic child’s interactions with other people improved after spending time with the family’s black Labrador Varela quit his job and got certified by Spainbased Bocalan as a therapy dog trainer for children with autism He started a nonprofit organization called Junto a Ti “Next to You” that specializes in visits to the dentist for autistic children It uses six dogs all female because the organizers say they are more calm And the dogs get specialized training “Zucca had already been trained to be around children with autism but taking her to the dentist was different” Varela said “She needed to be able to resist the screaming the noise from the drill and to stay still in the lap of the children even when they pull their hair or their ears” So far the dogs have aided about 50 children visiting a single universityrun dental clinic on the southern edge of Chile’s capital Santiago The clinic pays the equivalent of 67 for a session with a dog though its charge for a child’s visit varies depending on the family’s income On a recent day Diego sat in the dentist’s chair with Zucca on his lap There was no biting and no screaming this time Instead Diego continued to pet Zucca long after the dentist had pulled out one of his teeth and he smiled when he got to take the tooth home inside a tiny box for the tooth fairy
|
If there’s a bigscreen character you liked a few years ago chances are that person is back for this summer of sequels “Wimpy Kid” Greg Heffley can’t escape embarrassment in “The Long Haul” The webslinging superhero returns — but younger this time — for “SpiderMan Homecoming” And Jack Sparrow is still alive for the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” film “Dead Men Tell No Tales” With so many sequels — and a few new kids movies — we had to narrow our list of recommendations We’ve picked a halfdozen that offer action laughs and maybe a bit of drama We also have a suggestion on how to see lots of movies this summer without breaking the bank Head to National Harbor Rosslyn’s Gateway Park or Capitol Riverfront for free outdoor screenings of “Moana” “The Secret Life of Pets” “The Lego Batman Movie” and many more titles You may have seen them before but why not keep them fresh in your mind “Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Long Haul” There’s more summer adventures for Greg the awkward middleschooler with the cringeworthy family The Heffleys are on a road trip to Grandma’s 90th birthday but Greg and big brother Rodrick are plotting to go to a nearby videogame conference Not all goes as planned “Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie” Twenty years after Dav Pilkey published the first in his series of hugely popular books the captain stars in an animated movie In it comicsloving pranksters Harold Hutchins and George Beard hypnotize their mean principal and make him think he’s a superhero they invented Unfortunately he doesn’t have superpowers to go with his super strange getup Score one for girl power DC Comics’ warrior princess finally gets a title role The story has an American pilot crashlanding near the isolated island where Diana is part of a tribe of Amazon women The pilot tells her that the outside world is fighting “the war to end all wars” She heads to London to put an end to World War I “SpiderMan Homecoming” Comics action continues with the return of SpiderMan who has to balance webslinging with the challenging classes at his STEM high school That’s science technology engineering and math of course Will he be able to defeat the evil Vulture and still ace his finals Imagine “The Secret Life of Pets” but with the tiny digital images The little guys are leading busy lives in the city of Textopolis One named Gene isn’t like the others who express just one emotion Gene wants a single facial expression so he and two emoji friends travel through phone apps to find the code to fix him Félicie a French orphan hopes to be a ballerina one day She teams up with a fellow orphan Victor and escapes their small town for Paris Félicie gets into the famous Paris Opera Ballet School by pretending to be someone else But her dreams and talent take her only so far Victor who has his own dreams and an unlikely mentor encourage her not to give up
|
Ten students who shared their time and talents to serve others were honored Monday at the national Spirit of Community Awards in Washington The volunteers who are ages 11 to 18 aided the homeless raised money for cancer research and provided underprivileged kids with school supplies among other projects They were chosen as state winners in February from among 31000 middle school and high school volunteers nationwide based partly on their efforts and what kind of impact they made The 102 state winners came to Washington over the weekend for the national awards which included an appearance by Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps The awards are sponsored by Prudential Financial and come with a 5000 scholarship and 5000 for the winners’ charity of choice State winners each receive 1000 The winners are ●Amal Bhatnagar 18 of Duluth Georgia for starting a club to provide firstaid kits to people who lack health care access ●Riley Callen 14 of Pawlet Vermont for founding an annual “hikeathon” to raise money for braintumor research ●Ariana DeMattei 16 of Center Moriches New York for founding a program to raise money to provide new backpacks filled with school supplies for elementary students ●Sarah Katie Eder 17 of Shorewood Wisconsin for developing a creativewriting workshop for children in need where teens are the teachers ●Bradley Ferguson 16 of Northfield New Jersey for starting a service club that refurbished an American Legion post collected and prepared food for homeless people and grew produce at community gardens ●Harmonie Frederick 11 of Columbia South Carolina for raising money to fight cancer conducting a coat drive and volunteering at a nursing home ●Lorelei McIntyreBrewer 11 of Duncannon Pennsylvania for building a volunteer network that has provided special pillows for children undergoing heart surgery ●Kelsey Norris 13 of Bonaire Georgia for giving more than 1000 volunteer hours and raising money for a wide variety of charities ●Kenan Pala 13 of San Diego California for raising money for local shelters and coordinating meals at shelter kitchens ●Meghana Reddy 18 of La Mesa California for using 3D printers to produce artificial hands for those who cannot afford them The state honorees from the Washington DC area were DC Debora Abera and Ayomide Okuleye Virginia Lucia Hoerr of Charlottesville and Shishir Sriramoju of Ashburn
|
French Presidentelect Emmanuel Macron began his transition to power Monday a day after he handily defeated Marine Le Pen the candidate for the ultraconservative National Front party in a runoff election Macron who appeared with current President François Hollande at a World War II remembrance ceremony announced a visit to Germany and a name change for his centrist political movement which when translated into English was called Forward but will be called Republic on the Move He must pull together a majority of lawmakers for the party to run in the midJune legislative election Macron has promised that half of those candidates will be new to elected politics Macron won the presidency with 66 percent of votes cast for a candidate but the vote saw a high number of blank or spoiled votes and unusually low turnout Le Pen says she will lead the opposition to Macron Monday was the first time Macron and Hollande had appeared in public together since Macron resigned in August 2016 as Hollande’s economy minister to run for president — a decision that was received coldly by the French leader at the time On Monday though Hollande gripped Macron’s arm before the two men walked side by side and then announced the transfer of power would take place Sunday Monday also marked decades of peace in Western Europe something Macron highlighted in his campaign against Le Pen Le Pen had called for France to leave the 28nation European Union and drop the shared euro currency in favor of bringing back the French franc Sylvie Goulard a French deputy to the European Parliament said Macron would make Berlin Germany his first official visit with perhaps a stop to see French troops stationed abroad as well Macron who is 39 will be the youngest leader of France since Napoleon ruled in the country around the start of the 19th century
|
After I returned from a long walk I noticed what looked like bees flying around a small hole in the ground Without thinking I picked up a small rock and tossed it at the hole to see if I could make a “basket” Two seconds later the buzzing insects came after me like a squadron of jets attacking Godzilla By the time I got into my house I’d been stung three times and confessed to my wife that she married a knucklehead Bees and wasps usually don’t go out of their way to sting you In most cases they sting humans because we’ve threatened them What I encountered were probably yellow jackets which are wasps and are very protective of their nests One of my patients went outside without shoes and got stung when she accidentally stepped on a bee Another one got stung at a picnic when he reached into his back pocket for a napkin and found a bee or possibly a wasp instead Bees are attracted to bright colors and certain smells In most cases they set their sights on flowers However they will investigate a human if you resemble a flower Brightly colored clothing and sticky hands are perfect triggers for busy bees Yellow jackets are attracted to human food and sugary drinks The best way to avoid getting stung is to keep your hands and face clean when you’re outside and to be watchful if there are any bees or wasps nearby But it’s generally not a good idea to swat at them because they may sting you in selfdefense I suggest not throwing rocks at them as well A sting can be much worse for the bee than for you In honeybees the stinger is torn from the insect’s body when it pulls away from you killing the bee Wasps and bumblebees however keep their stingers It’s important to see whether the stinger is still in your skin You shouldn’t remove the stinger with your fingers or a pair of tweezers because you could end up pushing more venom into your body The best way to remove a stinger involves using a credit card or similar object First place the card against your skin at an angle Next push the card toward the stinger to gently detach it from your skin The movement is similar to the way you shovel snow from a sidewalk Because it’s upsetting to be stung it’s best if an adult removes the stinger for you Once the stinger has been removed or if it wasn’t there in the first place wash the area with soap and water and apply ice to reduce the swelling You can also take pain medicine if needed with a parent or caretaker’s help It’s common for bee stings to become swollen The swelling can last for a few days If the area becomes redder and more painful call the doctor to make sure it hasn’t become infected Some people are allergic to bee stings They may get hives a rash that is treated with antihistamines such as Benadryl If someone develops signs of a more severe allergic reaction swollen lips difficulty breathing chest tightness etc an adult should call 911 for urgent medical attention Bees are wonderful creatures that are essential for the ecosystem because they pollinate plants They also produce honey and beeswax that enrich our lives Wasps pollinate and help get rid of other insects In most cases if you don’t bother them they won’t bother you
|
Marbled paper coverings for fancy books and journals have been around for centuries The paper features colors swirling around each other unevenly to make a unique pattern But it’s not just paper that can be turned into something beautiful through marbling We’d bet that a certain someone would love a bouquet of flowers in a custommade marbled vase Hint Mother’s Day is Sunday May 14 You may think this project looks difficult and expensive It’s not You can find the materials at your local craft store for about 10 The only trick to marbling is thinning the paint It shouldn’t be too thick or too runny And remember you need a few days to let the paint dry Great artwork after all can’t be rushed Adult’s help Yes Total time About 3 days • Newspaper or craft paper • Glass vase clean and dry • Acrylic paints at least two colors • Small paper cups Dixie cup or other brand • Plastic spoon or other stirrer • Plastic wrap • Clear spray sealant glossy Spread newspaper or craft paper on your workspace Add a small amount of water start with 1⁄2 teaspoon for every 2 tablespoons of paint to thin the paint Stir the paint and water until mixed Tilt the cup gently to make sure the paint moves around the bottom of the cup Pour a small amount of each thinned paint into the bottom of the vase Slowly turn the vase sideways and roll back and forth to cover the lower part of the vase Be sure to do this over newspapers Add more paint and continue to turn until the inside of the entire vase is covered Place vase upside down either in a plastic cup if the cup will not fall over or on a paper plate covered with plastic wrap The wrap makes it easier to remove the vase If paint has gotten on the outside of the vase wipe it off with a damp sponge Let dry overnight then change plastic wrap or cup to remove builtup paint Continue drying for 24 hours then turn right side up and dry for 24 to 48 hours Touch the inside of the vase gently to make sure the paint has dried Shake the can of spray sealant Have an adult help spray the sealant into the vase to protect the paint from water damage Allow to dry for 2 to 3 hours More craft ideas Create your own photo blocks Try these chalkboard flower pots
|
Crayola’s new crayon color will be based on a blue pigment discovered in 2009 Scientists at Oregon State University accidentally discovered the brilliant blue color when they were experimenting with materials that could be used in electronics Crayola said Friday that it’s partnering on the new crayon with Oregon State and the Shepherd Color Company which licenses the pigment known as YInMn pronounced yinmin blue The crayon maker recently retired the color dandelion Crayola is leaving it to fans to come up with a name for the replacement crayon which will make its debut this year
|
The call of the wild is getting harder to hear Peaceful natural sounds — bird songs rushing rivers and rustling grass — are sometimes being drowned out by noise from people in many of America’s protected parks and wilderness areas a new study finds Scientists measured sound levels at 492 places from city parks to remote federal wilderness They calculated that in nearly twothirds of the parks in the Lower 48 states everywhere but Alaska and Hawaii the noise can at times be twice the natural background level That’s because of airplanes cars logging mining and oil and gas drilling The noise increase can harm wildlife making it harder for them to find food or mates and make it harder for people to hear those natural sounds the researchers said Colorado State University biologist George Wittemyer said people hear only half the sounds that they would in natural silence “They’re being drowned out” said Wittemyer a coauthor of the study in Thursday’s journal Science In about one in five public lands there’s a tenfold increase in noise pollution the study found “It’s something that’s sort of happening slowly” Wittemyer said Except for city parks though the researchers are not talking about sound levels that people would consider unusually loud Even the tenfold increases they write about are often the equivalent of changing from the quiet of a rural area to a pretty silent library But that difference masks a lot of sounds that are crucial especially to birds seeking mates and animals trying to hunt or avoid being hunted Wittemyer said And it does make a difference for people’s peace of mind he said “Being able to hear the birds the waterfalls the animals running through the grasslands the wind going through the grass” Wittemyer said “Those are really valuable and important sounds for humans to hear and help in their rejuvenation and their selfreflection” The research team which includes a special unit of the National Park Service not only measured sounds across the United States but it also used elaborate computer programs and artificial learning systems to determine what sounds were natural and what sounds were made by people For Rachel Buxton the study’s lead author researching noise pollution is personal She points to a Thanksgivingweekend hike last year with her husband in the La Garita Wilderness in southern Colorado “We went to escape the crowds We went to be totally isolated and have a real wilderness experience” Buxton recalled “As we’re hiking aircraft goes overhead You’re walking along and you can hear the jet coming for ages” But there are still places where you can get away from it all Buxton said highlighting Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado Read more KidsPost As Junior Rangers kids can help protect our national parks How did the National Park Service get started
|
“Star Wars” fans with deep pockets might consider it a golden opportunity A jewelry store in Tokyo Japan is offering lifesize Darth Vader masks made of 24karat gold at a hefty price of 14 million to mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the first “Star Wars” movie The creation measures roughly 10 inches wide by 12 inches tall The Ginza Tanaka store says the masks are not designed for wearing — at about 33 pounds they would be too heavy and they have no opening for a head While the masks are its most expensive “Star Wars” memorabilia the jeweler has made pricier products In 2013 a gold Disneythemed Christmas tree was priced at 45 million Marketing manager Hirotsugu Tsuchiya said it took 10 goldsmiths three months to mold and assemble the prototype “The most difficult aspect was that each section of the mask was created by a different gold craftsman and then assembled to make one Darth Vader mask” Tsuchiya said Orders for the mask can be made at its main store in the glitzy Ginza shopping area where the prototype is on display Customers will have to wait three months after ordering For those looking for less expensive options gold coins engraved with Yoda or Luke Skywalker will also be available starting at 1200 They will go on sale Thursday which is May 4 celebrated by some fans as Star Wars Day because “May the fourth” sounds like the film’s oftenrepeated line “May the force be with you”
|
“The bestlaid plans of mice and men often go awry” Robert Burns a Scottish poet wrote those words more than 200 years ago He meant that even if you try your best to make a plan things may still not turn out as you expected I have been thinking of that famous Burns quote this past week Here’s why Adam Eaton The Washington Nationals traded three top pitching prospects for center fielder Adam Eaton this past winter The trade looked brilliant for the first month of the season Eaton scored 24 runs in 23 games as the Nats’ leadoff hitter Listed at just 5 feet 8 inches tall Eaton was also a kids favorite because he was always hustling and had a cool nickname “Mighty Mouse” Bad luck struck last week when Eaton landed poorly on first base and injured his knee He will be out for the rest of the season Michael A Taylor will take Eaton’s spot in center field The Nats should still be good but this is not the lineup they were planning on The Capitals The Washington Capitals have been working and planning to get to the Stanley Cup Finals for years This season everything seemed to be going right The Caps had a powerful offense led by veteran stars such as Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom Late in the season they picked up defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk to solidify the back line for the playoffs So what happened They beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round but fell behind the Pittsburgh Penguins two games to one going into Wednesday night’s game The Caps still have a chance But things are not turning out as they had planned Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby was out Wednesday with a concussion so the Penguins may need a new plan too NFL draft National Football League teams scout players for months study film interview weigh measure and test everyone before they make their choices in the NFL draft After the draft teams declare they are pleased with their picks Coaches often say they were “shocked” that some quarterback tackle or wide receiver was still available when their team selected him An analysis of the 32 NFL teams’ picks in The Washington Post sports section on Sunday gave 24 teams a grade of B Bplus or Bminus meaning good and four teams A or Aminus excellent Only one team the Chicago Bears received a poor grade Really My guess is that in a few years the teams will look back and be less than pleased with their draft choices Players get injured and others disappoint Teams will have to come up with another plan Because Robert Burns was right In sports “the bestlaid plans of mice and men often go awry” And Burns wasn’t even a sportswriter Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost He is the author of 22 sports books for kids His latest book — “Outside Shot” — was published in March
|
Workers in Nepal have put the finishing touches on a 48foottall wooden chariot the centerpiece of a centuriesold festival that is meant to bring a generous rainfall and successful harvest for the mountainous nation in South Asia “We have to build it strong so that it does not collapse If anything happens to the chariot there will be bad luck for the country” said Krishna Dangol 63 Dangol’s family has built the chariot a vehicle used in ancient times for generations It carries a statue of a Hindu and Buddhist rain god Rato Machindranath during a festival near Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu pronounced catmandew Pulled by thick ropes the chariot began rolling through narrow city streets Sunday The festival continues for a month This is believed to be the 1350th year for the chariot Craftsmen paint eyes on its wheels and cover its wooden beams with leaves “We are working for the gods to bring good fortune for the people of the country” Dangol said — Associated Press
|
You might think that the United States is a pretty safe place to be a journalist In nations such as China and Syria independent journalists are often jailed and sometimes killed for doing their jobs In the United States such danger is not typical But a recent report shows that the country is not a shining example of press freedom Reporters Without Borders which monitors press freedom around the world has been ranking at least 139 countries since 2002 on how well they protect journalists and allow them to do their jobs The United States ranked 43rd of 180 nations this year Two years ago its ranking was 49th and in 2007 it was 48th Only once in the past 15 years has the country ranked higher than 20th Why doesn’t the United States get top marks The organization mentions several reasons The Trump administration has blocked some journalists’ White House access Reporters have been arrested while covering protests The Obama administration pressured journalists to reveal sources of government “leaks” or information that wasn’t intended to be made public In 2013 government lawyers secretly took two months’ worth of phone records from Associated Press journalists And the government has been slow or has sometimes refused to provide public information to reporters So as we mark World Press Freedom Day on Wednesday we wanted to share your thoughts on whether the freepress guarantees in the Constitution were still important We asked readers in grades four through eight to share their ideas Jahnavi said she has studied freedom of the press in her civics class at Lake Braddock Secondary School She reads the newspaper and watches world news on TV with her parents The 14yearold wants to be an aerospace engineer when she grows up In her essay Jahnavi ties her interest in science and technology to freedom of the press “I read a lot about new technology” Jahnavi said “I always want to know if that’s true I don’t want to think something is true and later find out that it’s not true I feel that free press and technology go hand in hand” Jahnavi makes a compelling case for why we still need the protection for a free press that James Madison included in the First Amendment For her winning essay she will receive four tickets to the Newseum along with a KidsPost Tshirt and other goodies Here is her essay — Arihan Dixit sixth grade Ashburn Virginia — Tawj Tymus sixth grade Washington DC
|
Ten eastern black rhinos have been relocated from South Africa to Rwanda’s Akagera National Park 10 years after the poachingthreatened animal was last seen in the park authorities said Tuesday The relocation is the result of Rwanda’s collaboration with African Parks which manages protected areas for governments across the continent “Rhinos are one of the great symbols of Africa yet they are severely threatened and are on the decline in many places across the continent due to the illegal rhino horn trade” African Parks chief Peter Fearnhead said in a statement “The rhino’s return to this country however is a testament to Rwanda’s extraordinary commitment to conservation” Up to 20 eastern black rhinos will be transferred to Rwanda this month The Rwanda Development Board called the relocation “a historic move for the nation and the species” About 1000 eastern black rhinos remain in the wild The last sighting of a rhino in Akagera was in 2007 In the 1970s more than 50 black rhinos thrived there but their numbers declined under pressure from poachers African Parks said Akagera is now safe for the rhinos because there are security measures including a rhino tracking and protection team African Parks said — Associated Press
|
Schools won’t have to cut more salt from meals just yet and some will be able to serve kids fewer whole grains under changes to federal nutrition standards announced Monday The move by the Trump administration partially rolls back rules championed by former first lady Michelle Obama as part of her healthful eating initiative As his first major action in office Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the department will delay an upcoming requirement to lower the amount of sodium or salt in meals while continuing to allow some schools to avoid rules that all grains on the lunch line must be 50 percent whole grain Schools could also serve 1 percent flavored milk instead of the nonfat now required “If kids aren’t eating the food and it’s ending up in the trash they aren’t getting any nutrition — thus undermining the intent of the program” said Perdue who traveled to a school in Leesburg Virginia to make the announcement Before he signed the proclamation Perdue and Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts ate chicken nuggets fruit and salad with children at Catoctin Elementary Perdue said he doesn’t see the changes as a rollback but “we’re just slowing down the process” He praised Obama’s nutrition efforts as first lady but said he wants the healthier meals to be more palatable He said the department will work on longterm solutions to further tweak the rules The changes reflect suggestions from the School Nutrition Association which represents school nutrition directors and companies that sell food to schools The group often battled with the Obama administration which phased in the healthier school meal rules starting in 2012 The Obama administration rules set fat sugar and salt limits on foods in the lunch line and beyond Schools have long been required to follow government nutrition rules if they accept federal money for free and reducedprice meals for lowincome students but these standards were stricter Obama pushed the changes as part of her “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity The Trump administration changes leave most of the Obama administration rules in place including rules that students must take fruits and vegetables on the lunch line Some schools have asked for changes to that policy saying students often throw them away But health advocates who have championed the rules are concerned about the freeze in sodium levels in particular School lunches for elementary school students are now required to have less than 1230 milligrams of sodium The changes would keep the meals at that level delaying until at least 2020 a requirement to lower sodium to 935 milligrams That requirement was scheduled to begin in the 20172018 school year “By forgoing the next phase of sodium reduction the Trump Administration will be locking in dangerously high sodium levels in school lunch” said Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest Becky DomokosBays the nutrition director for Loudoun County including Catoctin Elementary said she has had a hard time adjusting sodium in popular foods she serves Kids like her chicken noodle soup she says but rejected it when she lowered the sodium content because it was thinner and had less taste About 20 people including Leesburg Mayor Kelly Burk showed up at the school to support the healthier meals One sign read “Sonny — Our children do not want big business soda chips and fries”
|
Each year 1500 babies are born in the United States without part or all of their arm according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Many more children lose fingers or hands in accidents Often they overcome their limitations thanks to medical replacements But kids quickly outgrow these devices which cost thousands of dollars Now sixthgrade science students at Alexandria Country Day School ACDS in Virginia are joining thousands of volunteers around the world in adding new meaning to the phrase “Let me give you a hand” The students are using 3D printers to create free prosthetics or artificial limbs for kids There are no motors or electronics in these roboticlooking plastic hands The model ACDS chose the Raptor Reloaded requires a bendable wrist to work Flex the wrist downward and the fingers and thumb can grip things such as bottles balls books or bicycle handles Raise the wrist to release its grip The students partnered with the nonprofit group Enabling the Future also known as eNable which matches completed hands to kids in need around the world With access to a 3D printer a hand can be produced for less than 50 Taylor Grace Peterson 12 seemed in awe as she said “It’s pretty cool how you can make a hand for a kid who needs one and it doesn’t cost a lot of money” The prostheses are created from common materials plastic filament nylon cord fishing line Velcro and screws Depending on the hand’s size and the speed of the 3D printer melting the filament to build Raptor’s 36 parts usually takes 10 to 18 hours Rough edges are smoothed then the pieces are hooked together Screws and fishing line adjust the fingers’ grip — like adjusting tension on guitar strings Nylon cord helps control the grip’s release Velcro secures the prosthetic to the recipient’s wrist The class working in teams followed written and video instructions to assemble the prosthetics “Let’s try this” “These are really cheerful looking” “It really takes patience to get the line through these small holes” were some of the comments heard as the students practiced problemsolving Within 90 minutes nine prosthetics neared completion “We can’t rush these” science teacher Scott Lieberman said “They have to work properly” The first recipient will be a 10yearold boy in New Mexico who was born without a left hand He is a huge Denver Broncos fan So the prosthesis built to his measurements is orange and blue — the team’s colors “The beautiful part of it being so cheap to build” Lieberman said “is if the prototype we send next week isn’t perfect we can adjust it and send him another one” Kids needing hands can even learn how to make their own prosthetics ENable’s volunteers will walk them and their families through the process As the child grows hands can be resized or repaired These devices increase a child’s independence But as 12yearold Alban Erdle pointed out there’s also a social benefit “Having a second hand that looks cool helps them fit in better” Those who have experience with and access to a 3D printer might want to try making a simple prosthetic hand Designs and directions are free from eNable Check out the Prosthetic Kids Hand Challenge at handchallengecom
|
Simone Biles has been busy There was the tour with Kellogg’s in the fall a victory lap through 36 cities where she performed with her gymnastics teammates from the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro Brazil Then she published a bestselling memoir “Courage to Soar” went on her first date attended the Golden Globe Awards and celebrated her 20th birthday And yes she’s started showing her moves on the ABC television show “Dancing With the Stars” dancing the Brazilian samba to the Destiny’s Child song “Survivor” — “I’m not gon’ give up I’m not gon’ stop I’m gon’ work harder” — to avoid elimination last Monday Three days later she was highfiving students in the halls of Arlington Science Focus Elementary School in Virginia in her first appearance as a spokeswoman for the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility She took time off from her sixhoursaday dance training to talk with kids about Rio peer pressure and the dangers of underage drinking “I just realized I’m really short” she said laughing while greeting kids who nearly reached her height about 4 feet 9 inches “Yes” Biles said walking across the gym floor with a mic in hand wearing a white tank top and maroon leggings “You just have to have confidence in yourself” Did she have to give anything up to become such a great athlete “Late nights with friends” of course Was it hard to dance on television “I’ve been barefoot my whole life” she said “so I call my shoes the devil” When Biles was a baby her birth mother struggled with drug and alcohol addictions Biles and her younger sister lived in foster care for a time before being adopted by their grandfather and his wife and growing up near Houston Texas She’s now working with an organization that helps foster children kids who don’t have parents who can care for them in addition to speaking out against underage drinking “You don’t need to drink like all the other kids just to feel cool” Biles told KidsPost “You’ll be a lot healthier if you don’t do it” — scientists have found that alcohol can cause brain damage especially in teenagers — “and 21 is not an old age to wait to you know” Biles said she joined “Dancing With the Stars” to try something new but also to show that she’s “normal” People “always see me in the gym” she said “but they only ever see me at my best not whenever I’m frustrated crying trying to learn something So they think I’m perfect but no one is” Despite setting a US women’s gymnastics record with four gold medals at the 2016 Olympics Biles insists that she’s pretty much a normal person She likes oatmeal for breakfast and sometimes treats herself to pizza and ice cream for dinner Her favorite subject is social studies she’s planning to attend college eventually maybe at the University of California at Los Angeles and she says she has struggled at times with doubts about her abilities Oatmeal social studies and occasional selfdoubt — these are all pretty normal things But Biles does say she has an unusual way of relaxing bowling “I’m not the best” she said in part because she’s missed many years of potential practice to focus on gymnastics “But I try”
|
The London Marathon started five days ago and Tom Harrison is nearly done It’s not that he’s a slow runner It’s that he’s a slow crawler particularly wearing his gorilla suit The man dubbed Mr Gorilla is raising money for the Gorilla Organization — so far more than 29000 has been pledged — by traveling 262 miles on hands and feet or sometimes hands and knees He’s hopeful of finishing the race Saturday with his two sons awaiting him at the finish line They will naturally be wearing gorilla suits Harrison ran the marathon last year in a gorilla suit to raise money for the endangered species but decided this year to try something harder something that would possibly raise more money Kneepads brought little relief and were ditched on the first day “It’s shoulders hamstrings glutes quads from the constant crouching” he says “We’re not really designed to do that” Harrison has taken breaks including overnight stops according to the Mr Gorilla Twitter account Harrison who works as a police officer says the money will be used to protect endangered gorillas in Africa by sponsoring ranger services and helping people living near gorilla habitats to be more selfsufficient He was inspired by a trip he took to Uganda and Rwanda in November and decided to do more to help protect them The gorilla crawl has proved popular with people along the route He’s been serenaded by children highfived by pedestrians and even received a banana or two from thoughtful strangers
|
A startling new report asserts that the first known Americans arrived much much earlier than scientists thought — more than 100000 years ago — and maybe they were Neanderthals If true the finding would drastically change the widely accepted date of about 15000 years ago Researchers say a site in Southern California shows evidence of humanlike behavior from about 130000 years ago when bones and teeth of an elephantlike mastodon were evidently smashed with rocks The earlier date means the bonesmashers were not necessarily members of our own species Homo sapiens The researchers speculate that these early Californians could have instead been species known only from fossils in Europe Africa and Asia Neanderthals a littleknown group called Denisovans or another human forerunner named Homo erectus “The very honest answer is we don’t know” said Steven Holen lead author of the paper and director of the nonprofit Center for American Paleolithic Research in Hot Springs South Dakota No remains of any individuals were found Whoever they were they could have arrived by land or sea They might have come from Asia via the Beringea land bridge that used to connect Siberia to Alaska or maybe come across by watercraft along the Beringea coast or across open water to North America before turning south to California Holen said in a telephone interview Holen and others present their evidence in a paper released Wednesday by the journal Nature Not surprisingly many experts don’t think there is enough proof to back up the report The research dates back to the winter of 19921993 The site was unearthed during a routine dig by researchers during a freeway expansion project in San Diego Analysis of the find was delayed to find the right expertise said Tom Demere curator of paleontology at the San Diego Natural History Museum another author of the paper The Nature analysis focuses on remains from a single mastodon and five stones found nearby The mastodon’s bones and teeth were evidently placed on two stones used as anvils and smashed with three stone hammers to get at nutritious marrow and create raw material for tools Patterns of damage on the limb bones looked like what happened in experiments when elephant bones were smashed with rocks And the bones and stones were found in two areas each roughly centered on what’s thought to be an anvil The stones measured about eight inches to 12 inches long and weighed up to 32 pounds They weren’t handcrafted tools Demere said The users evidently found them and brought them to the site The excavation also found a mastodon tusk in a vertical position extending down into older layers which may indicate it had been jammed into the ground as a marker or to create a platform Demere said The fate of the visitors is not clear Maybe they died out without leaving any descendants he said Experts not connected with the study provided a range of reactions “If the results stand up to further examination this does indeed change everything we thought we knew” said Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London Neanderthals and Denisovans are the most likely identities of the visitors he said Denisovans more closely related to Neanderthals than to us are known from fossils found in a Siberian cave But “many of us will want to see supporting evidence of this ancient occupation from other sites before we abandon the conventional model of a first arrival by modern humans within the last 15000 years” he wrote in an email Erella Hovers of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University in Tempe who wrote a commentary accompanying the work said in an email that the archaeological interpretation seemed convincing Some other experts said the age estimate appears sound But some were skeptical that the rocks were really used as tools Vance Holliday of the University of Arizona in Tucson said the paper shows the bones could have been broken the way the authors assert but they haven’t demonstrated that’s the only way Richard Potts of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History said he doesn’t reject the paper’s claims outright but he finds the evidence “not yet solid” For one thing the dig turned up no basic stone cutting tools or evidence of butchery or the use of fire as one might expect from Homo sapiens or our close relatives The lead author Holen told reporters Tuesday that he and coauthors were ready for such criticism “We expected skepticism because of the extremely old age of this site” he said
|
The first round of the National Football League draft will take place Thursday night in Philadelphia Pennsylvania In the draft the NFL’s 32 teams pick from among the best college players to play on their teams next season Six more rounds of picks will follow on Friday and Saturday The NFL draft is a big event Thousands of football fans watch it in person and millions more watch on television NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announces the picks The players selected celebrate with their families and friends Early picks sign contracts that are worth millions of dollars And there is endless analysis of the players picked by people who are called draft experts The first NFL draft also was held in Philadelphia but it was nothing like today’s draft The NFL did not have a player draft in the early years following the founding of the league in 1920 Teams recruited any players they could and the players signed contracts with whatever team they wanted Most of the best players signed with the best teams such as the Chicago Bears New York Giants and Green Bay Packers Bert Bell the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and later the commissioner of the NFL came up with the idea of a player draft Under Bell’s plan the team with the worst record the year before would select the first player The remaining teams would follow with the team with the best record picking last Guess which team had the worst record That’s right Bell’s Philadelphia Eagles The owners of the then nine NFL teams gathered at the RitzCarlton Hotel in Philadelphia on February 8 1936 There was no television radio or even newspaper coverage of the draft Baseball boxing and horse racing were much more popular sports than professional football in the 1930s There also were no scouts or much information about the players selected The owners simply posted a list of 90 graduating college players on the wall The owners picked from the list The Eagles picked Jay Berwanger a running back from the University of Chicago as the first pick in the draft Berwanger had been named the outstanding college player in 1935 Berwanger however did not sign a contract to play with the Eagles Instead he became a sportswriter and later a successful businessman Fewer than 30 of the 81 players selected in the first NFL draft ever played in the league One player who was drafted but did not play in the NFL became a famous college football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant won more than 300 games at Maryland Kentucky Texas AM and Alabama As I said the first NFL player draft was very different from today’s draft I doubt any of the draft picks will pass up an NFL contract to become a sportswriter Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost He’s the author of 22 kids sports books including three about football
|
A stadiumsize balloon began collecting data in the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere Wednesday a crucial step in a NASA mission to study mysterious particles from deep space The balloon was launched Tuesday from Wanaka New Zealand after seven planned launches were canceled because of bad weather The unmanned balloon is nearly 19 million cubic feet large when fully inflated and is designed to circle the planet two or three times at an altitude of 110000 feet You can track its progress online at the project’s website The instrument it carries should help scientists such as Angela Olinto the mission’s lead investigator learn more about particles of ultrahigh energy that reach the atmosphere after traveling from beyond the galaxy “The origin of these particles is a great mystery that we’d like to solve” she said in a statement “Do they come from massive black holes at the center of galaxies
|
Jeff Kinney remembers when his goal was to write a book one big book for grownups “I thought I’d write about a year in the life of a typical kid” says the children’s author known to millions for his “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series “I’d write one book that was between 700 and 1000 pages long and I’d look at every aspect of childhood within that time frame I was writing for the humor section of the bookstore not the middlegrade section” Kinney spoke to the Associated Press recently as he looked back at the decade since “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” made him one of the world’s most popular writers The first 11 novels have sold more than 180 million copies and the series has been the basis for four movies with the latest “Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Long Haul” scheduled to be in theaters May 19 Abrams Books said the 12th book coming November 7 will be called “Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Getaway” The misadventures of middleschooler Greg Heffley sketched in readers’ minds as a skinny boy with a round head and precious few strands of hair have stood out in two ways in the book world — they appeal equally to girls and boys sometimes known euphemistically as “reluctant readers” and they have consistently sold more than 1 million copies in hardcover an achievement few books attain anymore thanks in part to the rise of ebooks and the fall of the Borders superstore chain “The books are funny and appeal to all levels of readers” says Judy Bulow lead buyer for the children’s section of the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver Colorado “If there’s not a new ‘Wimpy Kid’ book they want something like it” Kinney 46 is a Fort Washington Maryland native who studied at the University of Maryland College Park and while in school created a comic strip that ran in the campus newspaper Kinney speaking by phone near the bookstore that he and his wife Julie own in Plainville Massachusetts recalls how Heffley had been on his mind for years before he got a book deal He liked the idea of a kid defined not by heroics but by “flaws and imperfections” like what the author saw in himself Heffley was introduced to many in 2004 through a Funbraincom Web series that Kinney published for free that attracted millions of visitors Two years later Kinney attended the first New York ComicCon He stopped by the Abrams booth and spoke to Abrams editorial director Charles Kochman who recalls Kinney asking him if he would look at his work “At these shows you’re constantly getting pitched stuff and most of it is forgettable” says Kochman who still edits Kinney “As he handed it to me he said ‘I have this Web comic called ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ and the image he showed me was the image we used for Book One I remember thinking ‘I wish something like this had been around when I was a kid’” The series debuted in April 2007 with a first printing of 25000 copies and early praise from Publishers Weekly which cited Kinney’s “gift for believable preteen dialogue and narration” The book was on the New York Times’ bestseller list by May and remained there long after Kinney meanwhile learned that his work had caught on with an unexpected audience “Once the book came out I started getting emails from teachers thanking me saying almost 95 percent of the time ‘You got my reluctant reader to read’” Kinney says “I had never heard that phrase before And I found out that it was a big deal that ‘reluctant readers’ was code for boys The letters I got from kids would simply say they thought the books were funny” According to Abrams Kinney’s next “Wimpy Kid” novel will find Greg on a holiday trip although “what’s billed as a stressfree vacation becomes a holiday nightmare” The author hopes to complete at least 20 in the series and likes that Heffley unlike Harry Potter can always stay the same age Kinney still thinks about writing books for nonfiction adults but for fiction he is sticking with kids “I’ve learned that I’m a children’s writer” he says “I didn’t know it when I was starting off but I know it now”
|
The poems he studied at school most of them written hundreds of years ago by British men who used words such as “thine” and “thou” didn’t seem interesting or related to his own life He was climbing trees and running around the suburbs of Chicago Illinois on nice summer days The old poets he was reading were just spouting fancy talk about pretty roses or sad women Raczka RASSkuh 53 has since warmed to poetry in part because he realized that poetry could be much more than serious and stuffy His first book of poems for kids “Guyku” 2010 was written to show boys and other young readers “how much cool poetry there is” he told KidsPost recently “That whole book is based on stuff I was doing when I was a kid” Raczka said It’s written in the Japanese style of haiku — three lines that typically contain five seven and five syllables each The poems are short but they can pack a lot of emotion “The wind and I play tugofwar with my new kite” one haiku begins “The wind is winning” Raczka says that part of the pleasure of writing and reading poetry is getting to slow down and “pay attention to something a little bit closer” “When you read a book you read to find out what happens” he says “You’re reading fast You want to find out how the plot progresses When you read a poem you don’t read like that It’s not an opportunity to find out what happens it’s an opportunity to take a break to think and contemplate” Raczka studied art and graphic design while he was in college When he’s not writing poems and other books — he began writing about 15 years ago with a series on famous works of art — he works in advertising Some of his poetry is as much about images as it is about words His 2016 book “Wet Cement” is written in a style known as concrete poetry where the words form a shape and not just a block of text “Hopscotch” for example is written in the shape of a hopscotch game The poem has to be read from the bottom of the page to the top requiring the reader to move from line to line the same way a hopscotch player jumps between chalk squares on the playground The poems in his book “Lemonade” 2011 are similarly playful Each is composed of the letters of a single word such as “friends” that is the title of the poem “fred finds ed” “It’s fun to play with words” says Raczka who is trying to figure out what poem he’ll carry around for Poem in Your Pocket Day on Thursday The event part of National Poetry Month has kids and adults pick a poem and carry it in their pocket all day taking it out to share with family or friends Raczka might pick a poem by Mary Oliver who writes a lot about nature but there’s no reason you couldn’t pick a poem you have written just for the occasion It could be a haiku or a concrete poem or a poem taken from a single word — anything that fits on a scrap of paper and Raczka says “makes you think about something” whether it’s a game of baseball or a crush at school
|
When it comes to music and visual arts American students could use help The National Center for Education Statistics reported Tuesday that in 2016 US eighthgraders scored an average of 147 in music and 149 in visual arts on a scale of 300 Some 8800 eighthgraders from public and private schools across the country took part in the test which was part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress often called the Nation’s Report Card Peggy Carr the center’s acting commissioner said the test shows that students have a lot to learn in art and music No progress has been made since the same test was administered in 2008 When asked to listen to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” for example only about half of the students were able to identify that the opening solo is played on a clarinet The arts are important not just to those interested in music or art as a career said Ayanna Hudson of the National Endowment for the Arts “Every student should have access to arts education to develop the creativity and problemsolving skills that lead to higher success both in and out of school” Hudson said — Associated Press
|
Toy shops are thriving in eastern Mosul with Iraqi children once again able to buy dolls teddy bears or action figures after Islamic State was driven out of the area The militant group banned toys with faces or eyes during the three years they controlled Iraq’s second largest city including some animal toys But when UStrained security forces drove the group from eastern Mosul in January two toy stores sprang up and there are now 15 toy wholesaler Abu Mohammed said “Under Islamic State any toys with faces we would have to make them veiled if it is female or only show eyes Now this is no longer required and there is no ban on imports” he said at his shop Alaad for Toys Abu Mohammed imports toys from China and says that most of the large toy stores actually lie in the western side of the city which is still the site of fighting between Islamic State fighters and Iraqi security forces “Most of the large toy stores are in the west so as soon as it is liberated there will be an even bigger boom” he said “Everything a child might want is available Before there was a lot of things banned like images and faces now a child can come choose whatever toys they want” he said Parents say buying these toys for their children will help them move on after three years of war and terror “Everyone was oppressed young and old” said Hassan a father who was browsing for toys “The toys are back life is back we are free”
|
Creating a recipe “from scratch” can be hard to do — or a piece of cake as a team of six students at Washington Irving Middle School in Springfield Virginia found out recently They had to come up with an original afterschool or breakfast “smart snack” that was healthful yet tasty enough that their friends would want to eat it We think they deserve an Aplus for their Fruit Salsa which didn’t take them long to get just right Chopped strawberries mandarin oranges kiwi and crushed pineapple go into the mix plus a couple of surprises chia seeds and yellow bell pepper It’s refreshing and easy to make They sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on wedges of flour tortillas and toasted them in the oven for scooping A tip of the chef’s hat to seventhgraders Abigail Geletaw Lily Jones Rachel Mitchen Lucas Parker and Julie Readnour and eighthgrader Steven Smith The crew assisted by family and consumer sciences teachers Christie Barnes and Susan Curley was one of several middle school teams that participated in the Real Food for Kids expo held in March at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke Kitchen gear Cutting board measuring cups and spoons mixing bowl sharp knife spoon plus a baking sheet for the tortillas MAKE AHEAD The salsa can be refrigerated or frozen for up to 1 day if you plan to make it more than 6 hours in advance do not stir in the strawberries until just before serving 1⁄3 cup peeled and finely chopped mandarin oranges 1 large or 2 medium kiwi fruits peeled and finely chopped 1⁄2 cup drained crushed pineapple not in syrup 1 cup finely chopped hulled strawberries see MAKE AHEAD above 1⁄4 cup seeded finely chopped yellow bell pepper 1⁄2 ounce 1 tablespoon chia seeds Cinnamon Tortilla Crisps for serving see NOTE Combine the mandarin oranges kiwi fruit pineapple strawberries bell pepper chia seeds and lemon juice in a mixing bowl stirring until well incorporated Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve NOTE To make the tortilla crisps cut 2 8inch flour tortillas into a total of 16 wedges Arrange on a baking sheet then use 1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter to brush their top sides Sprinkle with a mixture of 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon Bake in a 350degree oven for 5 to 10 minutes until the tortillas are crisp and lightly browned Nutrition Per serving based on 5 60 calories 1 g protein 12 g carbohydrates 1 g fat 0 g saturated fat 0 mg cholesterol 0 mg sodium 3 g dietary fiber 8 g sugar Recipe tested by Bonnie S Benwick email questions to foodwashpostcom Nutrition Per serving based on 5 60 calories 1 g protein 12 g carbohydrates 1 g fat 0 g saturated fat 0 mg cholesterol 0 mg sodium 3 g dietary fiber 8 g sugar Recipe tested by Bonnie S Benwick email questions to foodwashpostcom
|
Astronaut Peggy Whitson broke the US record Monday for most time in space and talked up Mars during a congratulatory call from President Trump The International Space Station’s commander surpassed the record of 534 days two hours and 48 minutes for most accumulated time in space by an American “This is a very special day in the glorious history of American spaceflight” Trump said His daughter Ivanka also offered congratulations to Whitson from the Oval Office Whitson said it’s “a huge honor” to break such a record “It’s an exciting time” as NASA prepares for human expeditions to Mars in the 2030s included in new legislation signed by Trump last month She called the space station “a key bridge” between living on Earth and traveling into deep space and she singled out the station’s recycling system that transforms astronauts’ urine into drinking water “It’s really not as bad as it sounds” she assured the president “Well that’s good I’m glad to hear that” he replied “Better you than me” Whitson already was the world’s most experienced spacewoman and female spacewalker and at 57 the oldest woman in space By the time she returns to Earth in September she’ll have logged 666 days in orbit over three flights The world record — 879 days — is held by Russian Gennady Padalka Whitson is also the first woman to command the space station twice and the only woman to have led NASA’s astronaut corps Behind her was a banner that read “Congrats Peggy New US HighTime Space Ninja” The sign arrived Saturday on the commercial cargo ship the SS John Glenn — barely in time for Monday’s celebration NASA astronaut Jack Fischer who arrived at the space station last week and took part in Monday’s call said the space station is “by far the best example of international cooperation” Whitson told the president that spaceflight takes a lot of time and money so getting to Mars will require collaboration from other countries to succeed NASA is building the hardware right now to test a new rocket that will carry astronauts farther from Earth than ever before she said “Well we want to try and do it during my first term or at worst during my second term so we’ll have to speed that up a little bit okay” Trump replied “We’ll do our best” Whitson replied The debut of the mega rocket is still more than a year away — at least The date will depend on whether astronauts are on board for the test flight which could hoist the new Orion capsule to the vicinity of the moon Both Whitson and Fischer raised a hand when Trump asked which one of them was ready to go to Mars Joining Trump in the Oval Office was astronaut Kate Rubins who last summer became the first person in space to perform entire DNA decoding or sequencing She said she used a device the size of a cellphone for the job and noted that such sequencing can detect microbes aboard spacecraft and monitor astronaut health “I’ve been dealing with politicians so much I’m so much more impressed with these people
|
A white oak tree that has watched over a New Jersey community and a church for hundreds of years began its final bow Monday as crews began its removal and residents fondly remembered the goto spot for formal photos and the remarkable piece of natural history Crews at the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church in Bernards began taking down the 600yearold tree that was declared dead after it began showing rot and weakness over the last couple of years The two to three days of chopping and pulling will draw attention from residents of a bedroom community about 30 miles west of New York and other tree fans who see it as a chance to bid a final farewell to their close friend “I know it seems funny to some to mourn a tree but I’m really going to miss seeing it” said Bernards resident Monica Evans recalling family photos during weddings and first Communions The tree has been an important part of the community since the town’s was founded in the 1700s Officials say it was the site of a picnic General George Washington held with the Marquis de Lafayette a friend who helped gain French support during the Revolutionary War The Reverend George Whitefield a noted evangelist preached to more than 3000 people beneath the tree in 1740 Arborists say the tree had stood for nearly 300 years before the church was built in 1717 It stands about 100 feet tall has a trunk circumference of 18 feet and has a branch spread of roughly 150 feet Officials say the crews plan to initially remove the large limb segments until there is a large trunk section still standing then remove that section in one piece Its death was probably due to its age Arborists determined it wouldn’t be able to withstand many more harsh winters or spring storms “It has been an integral part of the town that’s for sure” said Jon Klippel a member of the church’s planning council “It has always been there even before there was a town and over the years many people have met there been photographed there had a meal under the tree But there is a silver lining for tree fans Another white oak cultivated from the old tree’s acorns was recently planted at the church so its legacy will continue The old tree’s removal is a reminder of how older trees are starting to become less common across the nation Experts say fewer trees are replicating the old oak’s 600year life span They note that several factors — including droughts intensive wildfires and invasive insects — can greatly harm trees which become more susceptible to damage as they age Learn how to identify trees at play treerelated games at the kids site of the National Arbor Day Foundation arbordayorgkidscarly Want to plant a tree The US Geological Survey has instructions educationusgsgovkidsplantatreehtml
|
The world saw brain power take a different form Saturday In Washington and hundreds of other cities scientists students and research advocates rallied on an often soggy Earth Day sending a global message about scientific freedom without political interference the need for government spending for future breakthroughs and just the general value of scientific pursuits They came in numbers that were mammoth if not quite astronomical “We didn’t choose to be in this battle but it has come to the point where we have to fight because the stakes are too great” said Michael Mann a Pennsylvania State University climate scientist President Trump in an Earth Day statement hours after the marches kicked off said that “rigorous science depends not on ideology but on a spirit of honest inquiry and robust debate” Denis Hayes who coorganized the first Earth Day 47 years ago said the crowd he saw from the speaker’s platform down the street from the White House was energized and “magical” in a rare way similar to what he saw in the first Earth Day “For this kind of weather this is an amazing crowd You’re not out there today unless you really care This is not a walkinthepark event” Hayes said of the event Mann said that like other scientists he would rather be in his lab the field or teaching students But driving his advocacy are officials who deny his research that shows rising global temperatures When he went onstage he got the biggest applause for his simple opening “I am a climate scientist” Many of the marchers carried signs some political and some personal Nineyearold Sam Klimas of Parkersburg West Virginia held one that was red and handmade It read “Science saved my life” He had a form of brain cancer and has been healthy for eight years There was also a science fair feel where lectures were given in tents and handson science tables for kids University of Minnesota physicist James Kakalios explained the science behind Superman SpiderMan and other superheroes Rallies took place in some 600 other cities In Gainesville Florida more than a thousand people stretched for miles through the streets It was a peaceful demonstration said Pati Vitt a plant scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden in town for work at the University of Florida “We’re scientists so we’re orderly” she said with a laugh “We let the signs do the talking” Lara StephensBrown a graduate student studying veterinary medicine at the University of Minnesota joined thousands marching in St Paul They chanted “hey hey ho ho we won’t let this planet go” There are cancer survivors and doctors with signs that say “science saves lives” she said and estimated that 90 percent of the signs are not political “Science is not a partisan issue” she said meaning one related to a political party “Science is for everyone and should be supported by everyone in our government”
|
The last orca has been born in captivity at a SeaWorld park in San Antonio Texas just over a year after the theme park decided to stop breeding orcas following protests for animal rights and declining ticket sales The orca — the last in a generation of whales bred in confinement — was born Wednesday afternoon to 25yearold Takara SeaWorld did not immediately name the calf because the park’s veterinarians had not yet determined whether it was male or female “Takara will continuously swim with her calf as it begins to nurse and learn” said Julie Sigman an assistant curator “We take our lead from mom Takara will let us know when she is ready for us to meet the calf and at that time we should be able to determine the gender” Takara was pregnant when SeaWorld announced in March 2016 that it would no longer breed its orcas Orcas also known as killer whales are pregnant for about 18 months Chris Dold SeaWorld’s chief zoological officer said he expected the birth to be both happy and sad the last such event at any of the parks But hours after Wednesday’s birth Dold said the staff felt only celebratory “These are extraordinary moments” he said SeaWorld decided to stop breeding orcas and phase out its worldfamous killer whale performances by 2019 after public opinion turned against keeping orcas dolphins and other animals in captivity for entertainment The calf brings SeaWorld’s orca population in the United States to 23 All the orcas are expected to remain on display and be available for researchers in Orlando Florida San Antonio and San Diego California SeaWorld has said it will introduce new “natural orca encounters” in place of traditional shows Dold said veterinarians at the San Antonio park told him the calf was born normally — tail first — after about 11⁄2 hours of smooth labor Both orcas were swimming calmly and trainers were watching for the calf to begin nursing “Mom generally will rest but she can’t rest too much Mom’s not holding onto the calf but it’s riding in her slipstream and that’s how it gets around” Dold said “Our expectation is that all of this will go smoothly but we take none of that for granted” Researchers have said they worry that SeaWorld’s decision to stop breeding orcas will slowly reduce their ability to study orca health growth and behavior Heather Hill a St Mary’s University comparative psychologist who plans to monitor the sleeping habits of Takara and the calf said it was frustrating to see research opportunities at SeaWorld decline “This will be one of the first times we’ll be able to see not just a mother with a newborn calf but also a newborn calf with siblings” Hill said Tracy Reiman executive vice president for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a statement that the mother and her calf should be retired to a seaside sanctuary SeaWorld has no plans to move any of its orcas Dold said Dold said in March that SeaWorld remains committed to orca research and conservation calling the last orca birth in captivity “a solemn reminder of how things can change and how things can be lost”
|
British officials say they’ve been unable to trace the rightful heirs to a trove of gold coins found stashed inside a piano and worth a “lifechanging” amount of money The school that owns the piano and the tuner who found the gold are now in line for a windfall after an official investigating the find declared it treasure But a couple who owned the piano for three decades before donating it to their local school will probably miss out British official John Ellery said Thursday that despite a thorough investigation and a public appeal for information “we simply do not know” who concealed the coins The hoard was discovered last year when the piano was sent for tuning in Shropshire central England Under the keyboard — neatly stacked in handstitched packages and pouches — were 913 gold sovereigns and halfsovereigns minted in the 19th and early 20th centuries Piano tuner Martin Backhouse said when he found the pouches and slit open the stitching he thought “Ooh it looks like there’s rather a lot of gold in this” The hoard which weighs 13 pounds has not been formally valued But Peter Reavill of the British Museum has said the trove is worth a “potentially lifechanging” amount Money received from items declared “treasure” is generally split between the owner — in this case the Bishops Castle Community College — and the finder The piano was owned for 33 years by Graham and Meg Hemmings who donated it last year to the school near their home But Meg Hemmings said she’s not bitter at missing out on treasure that was right under her nose “The sadness is it’s not a complete story” she said “They’ve looked and searched for the people and they unfortunately haven’t come forward “It’s an incomplete story — but it’s still an exciting story”
|
That’s what the Washington Capitals and the Washington Wizards are hoping for this playoff season Teams in the National Hockey League NHL and National Basketball Association NBA have to win four sevengame playoff series to win a championship There’s the first round then the conference semifinals and the conference finals Finally the conference champions play in the Stanley Cup and the NBA finals The Caps and Wizards would have a long run if they played in and even better won three or four series It’s been a long time since either team had a long run The Wizards have not played in the NBA Finals since 1979 when the team was called the Washington Bullets The Capitals have had strong regularseason teams in recent years but tough luck in the playoffs They haven’t made it to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1998 So what are the chances of one or both of the Washington teams having a long run The Capitals seem to have everything a team needs for a long run Washington had the league’s best record during the regular season and outscored their opponents by more than 80 goals The Caps have plenty of offensive depth — 11 players scored 12 or more goals — and a terrific goaltender Braden Holtby But the Caps are in a tough firstround series with the young and talented Toronto Maple Leafs Washington was trailing two games to one going into Wednesday night’s game in Toronto If the Caps beat the Leafs and that’s a big if things will get even tougher Washington may have to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the conference semifinals The NHL playoffs always have lots of close games More than half of the 2016 playoff games 49 out of 93 were decided by one goal Sometimes whether a team wins or loses a series depends on what hockey fans call “puck luck” Let’s hope the Caps get some puck luck soon The Wizards may have an even tougher road in the NBA playoffs Washington — especially its allstar point guard John Wall — looked terrific beating the Atlanta Hawks 114107 in the first game of their series If the Wizards can get past the Hawks they will have to beat the Boston Celtics or the Chicago Bulls and then probably the Cleveland Cavaliers to advance to the NBA Finals The Wizards would be underdogs against either the Celtics or Cavaliers but Wall appears to be on a mission and Washington is playing well The Wizards have a chance at pulling an upset or two Could both Washington teams have a long run That’s a long shot Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost He is the author of 22 sports books for kids The last time the Wizards played in the NBA Finals was 38 years ago The last time the Capitals made it to the Stanley Cup Finals was 19 years ago
|
American high school students are generally satisfied with their lives But many of their peers in other countries are happier Asked to rank their life satisfaction on a scale from 0 to 10 American 15yearolds gave an average mark of 74 according to a study released Wednesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development an international research group American students scored close to the average of 73 among OECD’s 35 member countries But students in such countries as Iceland and Finland are doing much better And an average Mexican high schooler rated life satisfaction at 82 out of 10 American students also reported higher levels of anxiety over tests bullying or a feeling of not belonging at schools compared with many of their peers Teacher and parental support spending time with friends and being physically active make it more likely that a student will be satisfied with life according to the study But feeling anxiety over grades and spending too much time online are signs a student may feel dissatisfied “In happy schools teacher support — as perceived by students — tends to be much greater” said study coauthor Andreas Schleicher Studying hard does not necessarily mean being miserable The authors highlight the cases of Finland Switzerland and the Netherlands where good grades and high spirits exist side by side There are also some gender differences Feeling very satisfied with one’s life is more widespread among boys while feeling low life satisfaction is more common among girls across most countries and cultures Why that was the case was unclear from the report The study was conducted in 2015 with 540000 randomly selected kids who completed written tests and questionnaires Tom Loveless who researches education policies with the Brookings Institution in Washington was skeptical about the way the survey looked at US high school students He said that at the time of the study most 15yearold sophomores would have spent a little more than a year in their current high school so their wellbeing could have been shaped by other factors — Associated Press
|
With only two wolves left to feast on them the moose of Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park are undergoing a population explosion that could endanger the wilderness area’s fir trees and eventually cause many of the moose to starve scientists said Tuesday The unchecked growth of hulking moose at the Lake Superior island park shows the need to take more wolves there restoring a predatorprey balance that has benefited both species and the park’s ecosystem Michigan Technological University researchers said in a report The National Park Service is considering options to restore the wolf population but it hasn’t committed to doing so Twentyfour gray wolves in several packs roamed the Michigan park as recently as 2009 But the severely inbred population has dropped steadily and is at its lowest point since biologists began observing the relationship between wolves and moose in the 1950s During their annual winter trip to the island scientists Rolf Peterson and John Vucetich conducted aerial surveys and estimated the moose population at 1600 It could double over the next three to four years unless more wolves arrive soon they said A dip in wolf numbers during the 1990s allowed the moose to approach 2500 About twothirds of them died of hunger during a bitter winter in 1996 Peterson said the park’s balsam fir trees the preferred food for moose during winter are being overeaten Most of the trees on Isle Royale are Balsam firs “It’s a race between the slowly growing trees and the rapidly growing moose” Peterson said Northern Michigan University scientists reported in 2015 that moose browsing had gradually thinned the park’s forests and converted some areas to grassy plains Isle Royale consists of one island 45 miles long and hundreds of smaller ones Moose are believed to have arrived there around the turn of the 20th century while wolves probably crossed ice bridges from the mainland in the late 1940s The two surviving wolves a male and a female are aging and unlikely to reproduce In another sign of the wolves’ decline the island’s population of another prey species — beaver — has reached about 300 the highest total on record A Park Service report in December listed four alternatives for dealing with the wolf shortage including letting them die out The agency said its preference was to relocate 20 to 30 wolves to the island over three to five years The Park Service is expected to make a decision this fall
|
If you are curious love exploring and want to help protect our national parks’ cultural and natural resources you would make a great Junior Ranger Designed for kids from 5 to 13 free Junior Ranger programs help young visitors gain a deep understanding of each park and discover the wonders within it Activity booklets and park programs offer fun ways to fulfill the Junior Ranger motto — “explore learn and protect” — as you earn badges and certificates Hundreds of Junior Ranger programs exist across the country but you don’t have to travel far to participate Start with programs close to home Damon Davis 9 of Upper Marlboro Maryland said he could spend hours exploring Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens Known for its large ponds of colorful aquatic plants in the summer this park also contains Washington’s last untouched tidal wetland making it a haven for wildlife Damon’s patience and quiet observation skills recently rewarded him with sightings of turtles water beetles tadpoles a beaver lodge and an osprey “I really love nature” he said begging his family to stay a bit longer Junior Ranger programs highlight a park’s nature historical sites or architecture For example the George Washington Memorial Parkway’s 10stop Junior Ranger program includes Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve Theodore Roosevelt Island and Fort Hunt Park Early morning and dusk are great times to try to spot herons eagles owls and raccoons in these wooded waterside parks Rangers at the Chesapeake Ohio Canal National Historical Park recently sparked the imagination of students from Washington’s School Without Walls at FrancisStevens telling them about the tough life of 19thcentury families who lived aboard canalboats as they hauled cargo between Georgetown and Cumberland Maryland Children often barefoot were responsible for walking the mules along the rough rocky towpath The 184mile trip took five to seven days Thirdgraders Angel Phillips and Mili Quinlan disagreed on how they felt about the muletending task Angel said “It would be amazing” while Mili said “I’d rather live in a real house” Another Junior Ranger option in Maryland is Glen Echo Park the only national park that was once an amusement park Learn about its 1900s architecture and the 1960s protests that led the park to allow black visitors Some of the original buildings have been repurposed as art dance and theater spaces You can ride the colorful handcarved wooden animals on the 1921 Dentzel Carousel from April 29 through the last weekend in September Junior Rangers understand how the National Park Service emblem which is nearly 66 years old helps make connections across all parks The emblem’s arrowhead shape represents archaeological discoveries that help us understand the people who once lived and worked on these lands The buffalo and sequoia symbols represent the wildlife and plants that make these parks their home Doing your part to keep the parks clean leaving animals and plants undisturbed and sharing what you learn is part of being a Junior Ranger With your help our national parks will amaze and educate visitors for generations to come This is National Park Week so check local parks for special programs or visit npsgovfindaparknationalparkweekhtm What Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens Where 1550 Anacostia Avenue NE Washington When Daily 8 am to 4 pm through April then 9 am to 5 pm from May through October How much Free admission and parking For more information A parent can call 2026926080 Pick up a Junior Ranger booklet at the visitor center or download it at npsgovkeaqlearnkidsyouthuploadWhole20Jr20Rangerpdf Where 7300 MacArthur Boulevard Glen Echo Maryland When Pick up a Junior Ranger booklet at the ranger station from 830 am to 5 pm daily Call ahead to make sure a ranger is on duty How much Free admission and parking free park ranger tours with reservations 125 per carousel ride fees for some events For more information A parent can call 3013201400 or visit npsgovgleclearnkidsyouthbeajuniorrangerhtm For George Washington Memorial Parkway C O Canal and all other Junior Ranger programs visit npsgovkidsjrRangerscfm where you can download activity booklets or find out where to pick them up Search alphabetically or by state Click on the “i” icon on park pages for hours locations entrance fees and events
|
The longawaited offspring of Internet sensation April the Giraffe is being described as “spunky and independent” The owner of Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville New York says the notyetnamed baby boy was on its feet within an hour after its birth Saturday — and galloping around its mother within three hours Jordan Patch who owns the park with his wife Colleen says he was so excited that he was shaking when he made the calls to assemble the delivery team More than a million online viewers watched April deliver her calf in Harpursville a rural upstate village about 130 miles northwest of New York City The zoo began livestreaming from April’s enclosure in February Patch says April is “recovering perfectly” following the delivery of the calf which was 5foot9inches tall and weighed 129 pounds The calf and mother can be seen on the park’s Giraffe Cam but the park plans to turn off the camera in the next few days April who is 15 years old has three other young but this is her first since arriving at Animal Adventure in September 2015 A 5yearold giraffe named Oliver is the dad The calf will remain with April until he stops nursing at about six months At that point he will move to another zoo Giraffes are the world’s tallest land mammal and are found mostly in southern and eastern Africa In 1985 slightly more than 150000 were living in the wild according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN But as of 2015 that number had dropped to fewer than 98000 IUCN blames illegal hunting habitat loss and conflicts with humans The organization recently listed giraffes as “vulnerable” to extinction on its Red List
|
In Amy Sarig King’s new novel “Me and Marvin Gardens” a boy named Obe discovers a new type of animal It has the jaw of a pig the snout of a tapir a large hoglike mammal and the friendly personality of a dog Strangest of all It eats plastic Obe is going through a tough time and the creature becomes a good friend He names it Marvin Gardens after a property in his father’s favorite board game Monopoly Obe tries to keep Marvin Gardens a secret because he doesn’t want anyone to try to capture or hurt him But Obe’s former best friend Tommy finds out about his pet “The novel draws almost completely on my own childhood experiences” King said Like Obe the author grew up in the country close to Reading Pennsylvania She loved a nearby cornfield and creek as does Obe And she felt sadness and anger when developers bought the field and built houses on it just as Obe does King even modeled Marvin Gardens after a dog she had more than 10 years ago The dog Stella was “goofy and curious” like Marvin even if she didn’t eat plastic King said In the book Obe is bullied by Tommy and some of his new neighbors They exclude him and call him a hippie because he tries to clean up the local creek King too was bullied as a kid Like Obe she was even punched in the nose When she visits schools King frequently talks about friendship and bullying and how to deal with unkind people She encourages students to share their ideas for helping the environment “I’m always so impressed by how much they know about recycling especially” she said Obe’s science teacher Ms G talks to her students about pollution and recycling Across the United States Earth Day is celebrated April 22 But Ms G decides that April should be Earth Month and she shares a fact a day to help her students learn more about and appreciate the Earth As she researched interesting facts King made a discovery that changed the way she consumed water “It takes a plastic bottle 500 years to decompose and Americans throw away 25 million of these bottles per hour” she said King decided to get a reusable bottle for water — and so do many of her readers she added Saturday is Earth Day and like Obe and Ms G you might celebrate by helping the Earth Obe picks up trash in the creek Ms G shares important facts with others This year King and her family will celebrate with a furry friend After years of not having a pet King recently brought a cat into their home in Lititz Pennsylvania Writing about Marvin Gardens “reminded me of how lovely it is to share my life with animals” she said
|
Thousands of kids and some adults joined President Donald Trump on Monday for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll Trump’s wife Melania and their son Barron 11 and the Easter Bunny were also there About 21000 people were expected at the eggrolling event which dates to 1878 That is down from about 35000 in 2016 Among the activities were a reading nook an area to send messages to US troops and a stage with entertainment “As we renew this tradition thank you for joining us” the first lady said Moments later the president blew a whistle three times each time sending groups of youngsters to use a wooden spoon to push a dyed egg across a finish line He the first lady and Barron also joined kids at a table to color cards to send to US service members Sevenyearold Johnny Wilmer of Arlington Virginia said his eggrolling effort ended with a secondplace finish It was his first Easter egg roll and he said while he and his father Jack waited for Trump to appear that the experience had been “great” — Associated Press
|
A tiny icy ocean world orbiting Saturn is now a hotterthanever candidate for potential alien life Cassini an unmanned NASA spacecraft has detected hydrogen molecules in geysers shooting off the moon Enceladus The hydrogen may be the result of deepsea chemical reactions between water and rock which could spark microscopic life scientists announced Thursday NASA and others are quick to point out this latest discovery does not mean there’s life on Enceladus ehnSEHLuhduhs but that there may be conditions favorable for life A liquid ocean exists beneath the icy surface of Enceladus which is barely 300 miles across Thanks to Cassini scientists have long known about the moon’s geysers which spew water vapor from cracks at the moon’s south pole The heavy presence of hydrogen suggests chemical reactions between the warm water and oceanfloor rock that could support life Cassini uncovered the hydrogen during its final close flyby of Enceladus in 2015 when it dove deeper than ever through the moon’s clouds of vapor and particles The researchers reported that the hydrogen along with carbon dioxide that was also found could mean that undersea microorganisms are producing methane The gas is produced in a similar way in Earth’s oceans and waterways “It really represents a capstone finding” — or high point — “for the mission” said Linda Spilker a scientist on the Cassini project who noted that the spacecraft has been circling Saturn for more than a decade “We now know that Enceladus has almost all of the ingredients that you would need to support life as we know it on Earth” she said at a NASA news conference Observers asked the scientists questions using Twitter including whether NASA was talking about tiny bacteria or something much bigger such as giant squids “Most of us would be excited with any life” said Mary Voytek a senior scientist for NASA “We’re going to start with bacteria and if we get lucky maybe there’s something that’s larger” The findings were reported Thursday in the journal Science by a team from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio Texas Launched in 1997 Cassini is now finally running low on fuel The spacecraft will duck through the gap between Saturn and its rings 22 times before spiraling out of control and burning up in the sky above Saturn this September Cassini has no instruments that can detect life so it will be up to future robotic visitors to seek out possible life on Enceladus the scientists said Europa an icecovered moon of Jupiter that is also believed to have an ocean may have watervapor jets spewing into space as well similar to Enceladus The Hubble Space Telescope has observed what looks to be plumes or long clouds coming from Europa A spacecraft under development called the Europa Clipper could shed more light on the matter It’s set to launch sometime in the 2020s Voytek said her money is still on Europa for potential life versus Enceladus Europa is much older and any potential life there has had more time to emerge
|
Have you ever heard your mom or dad say that someone’s hormones were raging The comment is usually uttered when a teenager is grumpy for no apparent reason Although it’s true that certain hormones increase during adolescence your endocrine system has been making them your entire life The brain uses nerve impulses to coordinate thousands of actions in your body When you make a fist electrical signals from your brain direct the muscles in your hand and forearm to contract It takes about one onehundredth of a second for the impulse to travel from your brain to your muscles The brain also controls body functions with chemicals The endocrine system is the name for a group of organs that release hormones into the bloodstream to regulate cell function growth and development and sleep among other things The brain is linked to the endocrine system by an area called the hypothalamus pronounced hipoTHALamus Hormones and nerve impulses work differently but they’re both fast Nerve impulses are like emails that instantly reach their destination after you hit the “send” button Hormones are more like phone calls that take a bit longer to connect One of the coolest things about the endocrine system is that it has an “onoff” switch that works like a heating system The thermostat in a home constantly monitors air temperature Suppose the thermostat is set at 68 degrees during the winter If the temperature drops below 68 the thermostat automatically turns on the furnace The furnace then burns gas or whatever fuel it uses to increase the temperature in the home When the temperature hits 68 the thermostat turns off the furnace The air will now begin to cool When it drops below 68 the process starts all over again The principle that controls heating systems is called a negativefeedback loop and the same thing controls most of the organs in your endocrine system This system allows bodily functions to stay remarkably finetuned The scientific name for this balance is homeostasis homeoSTAYsis Here are some of the actions carried out by the major parts of your endocrine system • The pituitary gland is called the “master gland” because it plays a key role with other parts of the endocrine system It also makes several hormones including growth hormone which is essential for growth • The pineal PIneeul gland makes melatonin which is released at night to help regulate sleep Looking at bright screens such as cellphones and computers before bed can make it harder to fall asleep because light lowers how much melatonin is released • The thyroid THIroyd gland makes two hormones that are essential for cell growth and energy metabolism • The parathyroid glands make a hormone that controls calcium and vitamin D levels in your body • The pancreas PANcreeess makes several hormones including insulin which is like a biological key that lets a sugar called glucose enter cells so the glucose can be stored or used as an energy source • The adrenal uhDREEnul glands make hormones that control blood pressure and water balance • The ovaries females and testes males make hormones that regulate puberty and reproduction So the next time you have a bad day think twice before blaming it on your hormones If you read today’s article there’s a good chance your parents did too
|
Scientists have identified the oldest known relative of the dinosaurs and are expressing surprise at how little it resembled one Researchers on Wednesday described fossils of a longnecked fourlegged meateating reptile called It reached up to 10 feet long and prowled across what is now Tanzania in East Africa about 245 million years ago Teleocrater lived during the Triassic Period millions of years before the first dinosaurs Scientists called it a close cousin rather than a direct dinosaur ancestor Its appearance part crocodile and part dinosaur was different from what scientists had expected from the earliest members of the dinosaur family tree “I’m surprised by the mosaic” — or mix — “of features that it possesses” said Kenneth Angielczyk one of the researchers in the study which was published in the journal Nature “In terms of how it shakes up our understanding of dinosaur evolution Teleocrater shows that the earliest members of the dinosaur lineage” or family tree “were very unlike dinosaurs” Angielczyk said Dinosaurs belong to a larger group called archosaurs ARKuhsores About 250 million years ago that group split into two branches crocodilians which include alligators and crocodiles and another branch that includes dinosaurs birds and extinct flying reptiles called pterosaurs TAREuhsores Teleocrater is the oldestknown member of the dinosaurpterosaurbird branch Scientists had expected such a dinosaur forerunner to be a smallish twolegged predator Although dinosaur predators had two legs the teleocrater instead was fourlegged It looked similar to a Komodo dragon a large lizard that lives in Indonesia Virginia Tech paleontologist Sterling Nesbitt the study’s main author said fossils of at least four teleocraters were found in southern Tanzania Unlike a dinosaur the teleocrater had ankle joints that could rotate from side to side and flex up and down giving it a crocodilelike walking style Teleocrater’s remains were found in the same Tanzanian region as fossils of the twolegged meateater nyasasaurus which lived perhaps 2 million years later Some scientists regard nyasasaurus as the earliestknown dinosaur
|
They are supposed to make the games fun and fair for the players and fans Take the recent example of Lexi Thompson a golfer on the women’s professional tour known as the LPGA Thompson was leading by several strokes during the fourth and final round of the ANA Inspiration one of the tour’s major tournaments It looked as though she would win but the LPGA slammed her with a fourstroke penalty Thompson did not replace her ball in precisely the same spot after she picked it up from the green on the 17th hole of the third round Golfers are allowed to put down a marker behind their ball pick up the ball and place it back on the green in front of the marker No one noticed at the time that Thompson had not placed the ball down in exactly the right spot — not the other golfers playing with Thompson nor any LPGA official Thompson simply put her ball down and knocked in her 20inch putt Pros rarely miss a putt that short But someone watching the tournament on television had noticed That person emailed the LPGA saying Thompson had not replaced the ball properly on the green The LPGA reviewed the TV footage and determined that Thompson had misplaced the ball probably by about the width of a fingernail So the LPGA penalized Thompson two strokes for moving her ball and it charged her two more strokes for failing to report the first twostroke penalty in her thirdround score Of course she hadn’t known about it LPGA officials told Thompson about the penalties the next day after she had played 12 holes of her final round Despite having those four strokes added to her score Thompson tied for first place but then she lost in a playoff So if she had not been penalized Thompson would have won easily This time the LPGA and its rules got in the way of being fair First it’s crazy to have someone who is watching the tournament on TV make a penalty call that the players and officials standing nearby did not see After all only certain golfers are on TV Is it fair that they are watched more closely than other players Second where Thompson placed the ball on the green — less than an inch from the right spot — didn’t make any difference Thompson said she wasn’t trying to make the 20inch putt easier Finally it doesn’t make any sense to give Thompson another twostroke penalty for reporting the wrong score when she was not told about the first twostroke penalty until the next day How could she be expected to know about the penalty when she hadn’t been told and didn’t think she had done anything wrong I know rules are important but sometimes rules are wrong Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost His latest book for kids — “Outside Shot” — has just been published
|
Two months after the world’s youngest nation declared a famine hunger has become more widespread than expected aid workers say A northern region in South Sudan which became independent from Sudan in 2011 and has been tangled in civil war for more than three years is on the brink of starvation Without sustained food assistance about 290000 people are at risk of dying In February the United Nations and South Sudan formally declared a famine in two of the African country’s northern counties Now five counties in the area known as Northern Bahr el Ghazal face the same fate Severe hunger in the region has been fueled by its remote location harsh climate conditions and rising food prices caused by the civil war “We’ve only eaten leaves for three days” said Abuk Garang a young mother in the city of Aweil She and her 7monthold son were later given a bag of sorghum a grain from aid workers in a nearby town
|
For 48 days each spring Sophia Fakhoury keeps all meats and cheeses off her plate and — with mixed success — out of her mind She doesn’t touch a bit of bacon or lamb two of her favorite foods and she says the only dairy product she consumes is milk “because it gives me vitamin D that I need while I’m growing” The fast as this special diet is called is done in preparation for Easter Christianity’s most important holiday Children usually start the practice during middle school “It’s my favorite time of the year” says 12yearold Sophia a seventhgrader at Irving Middle School in Springfield Virginia “It’s more about giving back than taking for yourself It brings our whole community together” Sophia attends St George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Northwest Washington where her father is an usher and her mother helps lead communityservice projects for teenagers St George Antiochian anteeOHkeean is part of a group of churches with roots in the ancient city of Constantinople now known as Istanbul Turkey These churches known as Eastern Orthodox trace their roots to the very beginning of Christianity and have traditions separate from the faith’s Catholic and Protestant branches St George’s services often feature burning incense which fills the sanctuary with a spicy smell and songs and chants performed in English and in Arabic “Ninety percent of our people here are really Christians of the Middle East” says Father Joseph Rahal the church’s priest Sophia’s father was born in Jordan other churchgoers are from Lebanon Syria Iraq Sudan Ethiopia and the Palestinian territories In the Orthodox Church Easter is commonly known as Pascha PASSkuh the Greek word for Passover “It is a joyous time” Rahal says The holiday celebrates the resurrection or rising from the dead of Jesus whom Christians consider to be the son of God “If it wasn’t for that resurrection we wouldn’t be Christian” Rahal says “Everything in our tradition is centered around this You could call it the church of Easter” Not all Christian churches celebrate Easter at the same time Its date is determined in part by the phases of the moon but Eastern Orthodox churches also set the date based on the Jewish holiday of Passover This year for the first time in three years Eastern Orthodox churches and their Protestant and Catholic counterparts are celebrating Easter on the same date April 16 The Easter season kicks off with a 40day period known as the Great Lent when kids and adults avoid certain foods focus on prayer and reflection and give back to the community Sophia is helping to make blankets that will be donated to the homeless and she was among a group of kids who visited Charlie’s Place a Washington homeless center to prepare and serve soup and other foods During Holy Week — the period just before Easter — Sophia and other kids including Aaron Johnson a 12yearold from Fairfax County Virginia go to church services each evening The services are “very beautiful and sad at the same time” Aaron says The Friday evening service ends with a reading known as the vigil when some of the church’s older kids stay up all night and read the Bible from front to back Kids and teenagers take turns sleeping when they become tired and finish on Saturday afternoon The reading occurs in front of a wooden structure — it represents Jesus’ tomb — that Aaron and others help decorate with flowers Sophia says she’ll probably stay up until 2 am to prepare for the latenight Saturday service which ends at midnight with an Easter feast that can last for two hours She usually eats eggs and bacon during the celebration but just a little bit so her stomach doesn’t get woozy after going without meat for so long There’s one more big service Sunday morning when Bible passages about the resurrection are read in six or more languages Kids hunt for colored eggs a symbol of new life “and then we go and sleep” Aaron says It’s a happy day but “we’re all very tired” Passover This Jewish holiday celebrates the Jews’ being freed from slavery in ancient Egypt It occurs around the same time of year as Easter Bible The sacred text of Christianity Certain books in the Bible are also part of Jewish scripture and some stories also appear in different forms in the Koran the sacred text of Islam Palm Sunday A part of Holy Week that is celebrated one week before Easter The service traditionally features the waving of palm branches because according to the Bible tree branches were laid before Jesus when he entered Jerusalem shortly before his death Holy Friday The Friday before Easter also known as Good Friday The death of Jesus who was nailed to a cross is commemorated in church services on this day Kaak KAHyak A crownshaped Middle Eastern cookie made from semolina and dates that symbolizes the crown of thorns placed on Jesus before his death Sophia’s family makes these each Easter Judaism’s most important holiday is a time for family and selfreflection Fasting is just one part of Ramadan Islam’s holy month 12 lighthearted holidays celebrate tongue twisters ‘geekness’ and ugly sweaters How to make cascarones colorful eggs filled with confetti
|
Last month we wrote about James Madison the Founding Father who included the guarantee of a free press when he wrote the Bill of Rights We announced an essay contest to find out your thoughts on a free press The deadline for entries is Thursday which is also the birthday of Madison’s friend and fellow freepress supporter Thomas Jefferson Here are the details If you are in grades four through eight write us a short essay no more than 300 words on whether the free press is important in the 21st century and why Send it along with your name age and home town to KidsPost The Washington Post 1301 K St NW Washington DC 20071 Or fill out our form at wapostfreepressessay A parent or teacher must give permission for you to enter and provide their contact information The winner will receive four tickets to the Newseum in Washington and will have the essay published in KidsPost on May 3 which is World Press Freedom Day Send questions to kidspostwashpostcom
|
Katie Damon’s secondgrade class at Terraset Elementary School in Reston Virginia is the April Class of KidsPost These 24 students look up to family members enjoy Mo Willems’s books and would like to care for animals when they grow up We will publish a Class of KidsPost each month of the school year If you would like your class considered ask your teacher to download our questionnaire at wapostclassofkidspost2016 fill it out and send it along with a class picture to kidspostwashpostcom If your class is chosen we’ll send a KidsPost Chesapeake Bay poster a book and KidsPost goodies Favorite author and favorite book Ms Damon’s students mentioned many authors but Mo Willems was the favorite with five votes The preferred titles were two from the Elephant and Piggie series “Are You Ready to Play Outside” and “My New Friend Is So Fun” Dan Gutman who wrote the “My Weird School” series took second place with two votes Favorite singer or musician These kids are pop music fans Taylor Swift won this category with three votes Other students prefer Coldplay Nick Jonas and Flo Rida Favorite game sport or hobby Soccer scored the most votes five but close behind were baseball basketball and Minecraft with three votes apiece Person living or dead you admire most Five chose Mom and Dad as most admired with Mom in second place and Dad in third Altogether twothirds of the class most admired a member of the family including one with four legs and a tail Favorite website The mathgame site DreamBox tied for first place with videoplaying YouTube Each received three votes If you could go on a trip anywhere where would you go Three kids picked Orlando Florida or one of its theme parks as their top destination California and Hawaii each received two votes Other dream vacation spots included Paris Japan and Antarctica Favorite birthday food Cake was the clear winner in this category with eight votes or nine if cupcakes are included Second place went to pizza with five votes Two kids favored something healthful apples If you could have a superpower what would it be If these kids got their wish they would be sneaking all over school Invisibility was the superpower of choice for four students Second place was a tie between superspeed and the ability to turn into animals What do you want to be when you grow up Four students in the class hope to be veterinarians one day Another four would like careers as professional athletes although they each chose a different sport Other interesting careers clown detective and “imagineer” or someone who builds rides at Disney World What is the biggest problem in the world and what can kids do to help solve it Four kids chose Donald Trump who was a presidential candidate when they filled out the survey Their advice at the time was about voting so we hope to hear back on how they think the president is doing Four other secondgraders picked school We suspect however that they might not think it’s the biggest global problem but the biggest problem in their lives
|
Malala Yousafzai the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is to become the youngest United Nations Messenger of Peace the organization’s chief said Friday Yousafzai 19 will be appointed on Monday by UN SecretaryGeneral António Guterres and will help promote girls’ education around the world as part of her new role The Pakistani education activist came to prominence when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head on her school bus in 2012 as punishment for campaigning for girls to go to school The militant Islamic group had banned education for girls and women Yousafzai has since continued campaigning on the world stage and in 2014 became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner “Even in the face of grave danger Malala Yousafzai has shown an unwavering commitment to the rights of women girls and all people” Guterres said in statement “Her courageous activism for girls’ education has already energized so many people around the world Now as our youngestever UN Messenger of Peace Malala can do even more to help create a more just and peaceful world” Yousafzai who received medical treatment in Britain where she has since studied has also set up the Malala Fund to support girls’ education projects in developing countries A regular speaker on the global stage Yousafzai visited refugee camps in Rwanda and Kenya last July to highlight the plight of refugee girls from Burundi and Somalia
|
Over the past year Ada and Anuma have broken Marta Llanes’s television and computer keyboard chewed her telephone to pieces and ruined much of her furniture She has forgiven them each time It’s hard to stay angry at a baby chimpanzee when it clambers up your leg and into your arms and plants a kiss on your cheek in a plea for forgiveness While zoos in other countries may have specialized facilities for raising baby animals in Cuba the job falls to Llanes A 62yearold zoologist she has cared for 10 baby chimps in her apartment in Havana the Cuban capital since she started working at the city zoo in 1983 It’s hard work that requires watching the apes nearly 17 hours a day until they are returned to the zoo after their first birthday “I try to be the mother chimpanzee” Llanes said “If they say ‘hu’ I say ‘hu’ If they want me to drop to the floor I drop to the floor The only thing I can’t do is swing I used to do it but I can’t anymore but they have to be taught to swing They have to be taught everything” She leaves her home a few hours each week when another zoologist delivers milk fruit and cleaning products and cares for the animals while Llanes takes a break Meanwhile Llanes’s apartment looks like any that’s home to two very young kids In her case these infants are able to scramble up chairs tables and virtually any other object with alreadystrong arms and legs and with feet that have opposable “thumbs” The floor is covered with toys The electric sockets have been covered to prevent a dangerous accidental shock Ada the female chimp is 13 months old The male Anuma is 15 months Both wear diapers The chimpanzee an endangered species separated from humans on the evolutionary tree about 7 million years ago Chimps share about 90 percent of humans’ DNA and are known for their intelligence and use of basic tools They often live for 50 years in the wild and can live even longer in captivity Llanes who has an adult daughter says it can be difficult to get female chimps to care for their offspring in captivity and she’s been happy to step in She is raising the baby chimps because their mothers at the zoo are too young and did not learn how to feed or care for them properly “I have to be at home with them 24 hours a day” said Llanes who rises at 5 am and often watches the chimps until 10 pm with an occasional break when everyone is napping Llanes lives in a fifthfloor apartment in a building with dozens of residents virtually all of whom say the baby chimps are good neighbors “They don’t bother anyone” said Cari Dib 65 “Plus they’re adorable”
|
Question marks They are those squiggly notes at the end of sentences that ask things such as “How old are you” In sports question marks are the parts of a team you are not quite sure of as the season begins The more question marks a team has the more trouble that team may experience during the season The Washington Nationals began their 2017 Major League Baseball season Monday with a 42 win against the Miami Marlins The Nats had a record of 9567 95 wins and 67 losses in 2016 That was very good and Washington should be very good again this season Still the Nats have some question marks Can Blake Treinen be the team’s closer In baseball the closer is the relief pitcher who gets the last few outs of the game Closers are important because no team likes to lose a game in the last inning or two Manager Dusty Baker says he will try Blake Treinen as the team’s lateinning guy Treinen is talented and throws hard but he has never been a fulltime closer So no one is 100 percent sure he can do the job He did earn a save on Opening Day Will Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth be very good Zimmerman and Werth have been terrific players over their long careers But Zimmerman has missed more than 40 percent of the Nats games during the past three seasons He really struggled at the plate in 2016 hitting just 218 Are all his injuries catching up with him Werth will be 38 years old in May That’s not old for most jobs but it is old for a baseball player The Nats have to wonder whether they can count on their veteran left fielder for the long season Which Bryce Harper will show up this season Two years ago Harper was unbelievable The Nats’ right fielder batted 330 blasted 42 home runs and was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player MVP In his other four seasons in Washington Harper has been good but not as great as he was in 2015 So will Harper be good or great this season Can Trea Turner play shortstop in the majors Turner was outstanding when he came up from the minors and shifted to center field last year The speedy rookie batted 342 and stole 33 bases in only 73 games The Nats will switch Turner from center field to shortstop Turner played the position in college and the minors but not in the majors Can he play a steady shortstop for 162 games I think the Nats should take care of enough of these question marks to win more than 90 games and finish on top of the National League East Division Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost He is the author of 22 kids sports books including nine about baseball
|
An incoming Kansas high school principal resigned Tuesday after student reporters raised questions about her credentials Amy Robertson an education consultant in the United Arab Emirates was hired in March to become the principal of Pittsburg High School in southeastern Kansas Six student journalists at the school’s paper the Booster Redux started researching her background and experience They published an article on their findings Friday “There were some things that just didn’t quite add up” Connor Balthazor 17 told The Washington Post The main concern was that she had reported receiving her master’s and doctoral degrees from Corllins University an online school that is not officially recognized or accredited by the US Department of Education Robertson says she received her degrees before the university lost its accreditation Pittsburg Schools Superintendent Destry Brown said the district will probably change its hiring practices “Our kids ask questions” he said praising the students’ reporting “and don’t just accept something because somebody told them” — Staff reports and wire services
|
Scripps National Spelling Bee winners aced “Gesellschaft” and “Feldenkrais” to be named cochampions of last year’s competition but it was the word “tie” that gave organizers a headache On Tuesday the contest revealed new rules aimed at preventing ties after the annual competition ended in a dead heat three years in a row with joint winners both getting 40000 cash prizes in 2016 Organizers said they would prefer to see a clearcut champion rather than a shared title The 290 young spelling whizzes from across the United States and six foreign countries in this year’s bee will face a new written tiebreaker when they square off from May 30 to June 1 in Oxon Hill Maryland organizers said The written test introduces a fresh hurdle for participants spelling evertougher words in the bee which began in Louisville Kentucky in 1925 “During our history students have expanded their spelling abilities and increased their vocabulary to push our program to be even more challenging” Paige Kimble the bee’s executive director said in a statement Ahead of this year’s title round the finalists will be tested on 12 words which they will hand write and 12 multiplechoice vocabulary questions If it is mathematically impossible for one champion to emerge through 25 rounds bee officials will declare the speller with the highest test score the winner If there is a tie on the test judges will declare cochampions This year’s bee will draw contestants ages 5 to 15 culled from more than 11 million in the spelling program The winner — or winners — each will receive the cash prize of 40000 Last year Nihar Janga a fifthgrader from Austin Texas and Jairam Hathwar a seventhgrader from Painted Post New York were named cochampions after battling 25 rounds head to head To gain the title Nihar spelled “Gesellschaft” a type of social relationship and Jairam aced “Feldenkrais” a method of education
|
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is now halfway between Pluto and its next much much smaller stop New Horizons — which reached the milestone this week — is bound for an even more remote object called 2014 MU69 Like Pluto the object orbits in our solar system’s twilight zone known as the Kuiper belt but it is barely 1 percent its size MU69 is nearly 1 billion miles beyond Pluto The spacecraft is scheduled to swoop past MU69 on January 1 2019 “That flyby will set the record for the most distant world ever explored in the history of civilization” chief investigator Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute said in a statement With 466 million miles remaining New Horizons will go into a fivemonth hibernation later this week Although still zooming along the spacecraft is slowing down slightly as it gets farther from the sun Besides aiming for MU69 New Horizons will study a couple of dozen other Kuiper belt objects from afar New Horizons arrived at Pluto in July 2015 becoming its first visitor from Earth It launched from Cape Canaveral in January 2006 The spacecraft is currently 35 billion miles from home It takes radio signals five hours and 20 minutes to reach the spacecraft from the control center at Johns Hopkins University in Laurel Maryland
|
They thought it would be over within months They were wrong Instead the world was at war for four long years Powerful nations took sides — the Allies versus the Central Powers From 1914 to 1918 they battled across Europe and into Asia and Africa The United States supplied the Allies with goods but tried to stay out of the fighting But in April 1917 100 years ago this week it joined the Allies led by Great Britain and France by declaring war on Germany and AustriaHungary World War I brought an end to one way of fighting and the start of another Soldiers on horseback called cavalry were replaced by tanks By the war’s end more than 16 million people had died The shocking numbers of dead and wounded led some to call it “the war to end all wars” They were wrong about that too US kids don’t learn much about World War I in school For starters the war was a long time ago and it wasn’t fought here Also America joined late so its losses were limited America got into the war mostly because German Uboats subs kept sinking unarmed ships in the Atlantic Germany knew this risked pulling the United States into the war but thought it could defeat the Allies before US troops or warships were ready Instead America’s entry changed the course of the war In addition to troops the United States provided arms tanks ships fuel and food to its friends This aid helped the Allies win As in any war unexpected heroes arise Here are two American ones You could say Stubby joined the Army in 1917 The terrier pup with a short tail showed up one day at a training camp in Connecticut and became the troops’ mascot He learned their bugle calls and drills When the men left to join the fighting they smuggled Stubby onto their ship He was discovered after they arrived in France but was allowed to stay after lifting his right paw to his forehead and saluting the commanding officer On the battlefield Stubby’s keen nose picked up the tiniest trace of poison gas and he barked until everyone donned gas masks Dogs and horses also had masks Stubby’s keen ears helped him find wounded soldiers in the field He listened for English being spoken then barked until medics came to help He even captured an enemy soldier by biting him on the leg Stubby took part in 17 battles and was made a sergeant He has been the subject of several books and a movie that is due out in 2018 That’s what Alvin York wrote to explain his feelings about going to war York’s father had died when Alvin was young and he was needed at home in Tennessee to help raise his eight younger siblings But the Army had other ideas and shipped him to France In October 1918 York led an attack on a German machinegun nest With just a rifle and pistol he killed several German soldiers and captured 132 When he got back to camp he wrote later a general said “ ‘Well York I hear you have captured the whole German army’ And I told him I only had 132” Though awarded the Medal of Honor — the highest US military award — York shunned celebrity and went home to Tennessee Back on the farm the war hero with the thirdgrade education raised money to build a good high school for his neighbors’ kids
|
Wildlife enthusiasts around the world can follow the daily journey of Yosemite National Park’s black bears from their laptops and smartphones tracking the animals as they lope up steep canyons and cross vast distances in search of food and mates Park rangers on Monday unveiled Keepbearswildorg showing where select bears fitted with GPS collars are heading The tracking tool which pings the bears’ steps from satellites have already revealed surprises wildlife biologists say “I think people are going to be blown away” said Ryan Leahy a wildlife biologist at Yosemite National Park who leads the project “It’s our responsibility to keep bears wild” A bear’s location is delayed so people aren’t tempted to track it down in real time rangers said But the tracking collars alert rangers so they can block a bear from going to a campground or parking lot in search of food The goal of the website is to draw in the public so they know to slow down while driving and properly store food when they visit the park’s towering granite cliffs charging waterfalls and abundant wildlife including up to 500 black bears Yosemite attracted more than 5 million visitors last year Too often black bears — many of which are actually brown in Yosemite — are hit and killed by drivers on Yosemite’s winding roads The website shows where 28 bears were struck by cars last year many fatally The park has used as many as 20 GPS collars for the past three years learning that bears in the park begin mating in May more than a month earlier than previously thought rangers said Leahy also said that the tracking devices show that bears move more than 30 miles in a day or two moving with ease up 5000foot canyon walls The Yosemite Conservancy has spent 12 million since 1998 to help the park manage bears The latest project cost 279000 rangers said The tracking technology and website help rangers learn even more about bears’ habits to protect them said Frank Dean the conservancy’s president and it raises awareness among visitors about what they can do to save bears “People love to see bears” Dean said “Protecting them is something we can all do” Yosemite’s effort drew praise from Jesse Garcia a black bear specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife He said it’s important for park visitors to understand bears while in the animals’ natural territory “You’ve got to give them their distance and always be aware knowing that they’re there” Garcia said
|
Last spring JJ Edwards had seven furry roommates Fairley Farley Felicity Finley Fleur Fritz and Friday Sharing a room with that many animals may sound chaotic but it’s no big deal for the 10yearold JJ and his family have taken in more than 50 homeless kittens over the past six years And they expect more in the next few weeks That’s because it’s kitten season the time of year when there is a surge of kittens born Some are taken in by PetConnect a Maryland animal rescue organization where JJ’s mom Catherine is executive director The Edwards family volunteers to “foster” or provide a temporary home for some of the homeless animals The kittens usually stay at the family’s Gaithersburg home for just a few weeks until they’re old enough to be adopted Each kitten season JJ turns his bedroom into a feline romper room It’s decked out with cat trees cat toys and carpeted stairs to help the kittens climb onto his bed He gets them used to being around humans “They were tiny and super scared at first” JJ said of last year’s kittens To help them learn to trust humans JJ often sat on the floor outside his room and waited for them to come out The kittens grew more confident snuggling and purring a little more each day When JJ held up a wand toy with a dangling feather and danced it around they chased pounced and backflipped One challenge of fostering kittens is keeping things tidy JJ said The kittens he has cared for loved to scatter their toys and tip over their food bowl When Jimmy a grayandwhite kitten who stayed for almost three months got adopted JJ was sad “Letting a kitten leave is hard” he says “Sometimes I cry but mostly I’m happy they got a good home and a good life” Last Christmas JJ had a wish come true His parents let him keep a kitten he had cared for Puff Daddy now 4 months old makes friends with visiting foster kitties and helps JJ entertain them “I think the kittens appreciate me” he says “I watch them stay with them take care of them and they purr” Springtime means lots of baby animals — birds squirrels bunnies and more “Wild animals have wild homes” says Stephanie Shain of the Humane Rescue Alliance an animal protection and rescue group in Northwest Washington “But kittens need to be in people homes with a human family to care for them” She says kids can do a lot to help such as ●If you have a pet cat make sure it’s spayed or neutered to prevent more litters ●Learn as much as you can about helping homeless pets and share what you know ●Work with your parents to raise money for a rescue organization ●Check out rescue organizations’ wish lists and collect items to donate orginkinddonations or PetConnect Rescue PetConnectRescueorgmuddypawswishlist Another thing you can do is talk to your family about fostering for a rescue group near your home “We would never be able to save the lives of so many kittens if we didn’t have foster homes” Shain said Fostering kittens during spring is usually a shortterm commitment because kittens tend to get adopted quickly
|
An Egyptian excavation team has discovered the remains of a pyramid that dates to the 13th dynasty some 3700 years ago according to one of that country’s top officials in antiquities or ancient objects The head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector Mahmoud Afifi said in a statement Monday that the remains were located north of the king Sneferu’s bent pyramid in the Dahshur royal necropolis about 25 miles south of Cairo Because of the bent slope of its sides the pyramid is believed to have been ancient Egypt’s first attempt to build a smoothsided pyramid The necropolis was the burial site for courtiers and highranking officials Adel Okasha the head of the Dahshur necropolis said the remains belong to the inner structure of the pyramid including a corridor Other remains include blocks showing the interior design of the pyramid The pyramid is not as old as others in the area The Dahshur pyramids are said to have been built between 2613 BC and 2589 BC — Associated Press
|
Fed up with the theft of toilet paper from public bathrooms tourist authorities in China’s capital have begun using facial recognition technology to limit how much paper a person can take The unusual move — part of a “toilet revolution” — is another step in China’s vast upgrading of public facilities Bathrooms at tourist sites notorious for their primitive conditions and nasty odors are a special focus of the campaign a response to a vast expansion in travel within China and demands for betterquality facilities from a wealthier public “Today in China people are highly enthusiastic about tourism and we have entered a new era of public tourism” said Zhan Dongmei a researcher with the China Tourism Academy “The expectation of the public for the toilet is becoming higher” At Beijing’s 600yearold Temple of Heaven administrators recognized the need to stock the public bathrooms with toilet paper a requirement for obtaining a top rating from the National Tourism Authority But they needed a means of preventing patrons from stripping them bare for personal use So they introduced new technology that dispenses just one twofoot section of paper every nine minutes following a face scan “People take away the paper mostly because they are worried they can’t find any when they want to use it the next time But if we can provide it in every toilet most people will not do it anymore” Zhan said Launched two years ago the revolution calls for at least 34000 new public bathrooms to be constructed in Beijing and 23000 renovated by the end of this year Authorities are also encouraging the installation of Westernstyle sitdown commodes rather than the more common squat toilets Around 36 billion has already been spent on the program according to the National Tourism Administration The ultimate target Zhan said “is to have a sufficient amount of toilets which are clean and odorless and free to use” At Happy Valley the largest amusement park in Beijing around 4 million annual visitors rely on 18 bathrooms each of which is assigned one or two cleaners who must make their rounds every 10 minutes on busy days “People come here to have fun but if the toilets are disgusting how can they have a good time here” said Vice General Manager Li Xiangyang “It is the least we should do to offer a clean and tidy environment for tourists to enjoy both the tour of the park and the experience of using our toilets”
|
A few times each fall before the ground freezes and the air gets too cold Jim Bintliff takes a shovel and buckets down to the banks of a muddy river in southern New Jersey He’s there to harvest mud — odorless and puddinglike with a chocolate color to match — that has become as much a part of Major League Baseball as Cracker Jack and batting helmets His Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud is applied to every baseball used in a bigleague game to help pitchers grip the ball better as they launch it toward home plate “When fresh baseballs come out of the box they’re quite slick For a pitcher that equals danger” says Shawn Kelley a Washington Nationals reliever who will be in the bullpen Monday for Opening Day “If a pitcher were to throw a brandnew baseball most would tell you they couldn’t be assured that it would even end up over the plate” In August 1920 Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman died after being hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays a New York Yankees righthander It was the first and only time in MLB history that a player has been killed by a pitch and it led the league to look for new ways to protect batters and improve pitch accuracy Balls began to be rubbed with mud clay shoe polish or tobacco juice but the homemade mixtures often damaged the balls’ leather turned it black or simply smelled bad Blackburne a thirdbase coach and former infielder began using a better product in the late 1930s mud that he found near his childhood home of Palmyra New Jersey where the slope of a riverbank that sent water into the nearby Delaware River formed a natural goop with a thick baseballfriendly consistency The magic mud soon spread through baseball’s American and then National leagues Bintliff 60 said he and his wife Joanne now sell about 2000 pounds of mud each year to every MLB team as well as to minorleague and college squads The business has been in the family for three generations ever since Blackburne passed it along to Bintliff’s grandfather a close friend “There’s an art to harvesting mud” Bintliff told KidsPost last week He usually wades kneedeep into the muck which he said is on public land and shovels near the surface If he goes any deeper the mud becomes black and begins to smell To perfect his product Bintliff ages the mud in 35gallon trash cans for about six weeks before sending it on to buyers A “personal size” halfpound container of mud sells for 24 Each MLB team gets 12 pounds for spring training and the regular season he said Dan Wallin the Nats’ equipment manager said it takes him or a clubhouse assistant about 45 minutes to rub the mud on the 12 dozen baseballs that are prepared for a game Applying the brown stuff can “make it harder for a hitter to see the ball” he said so he and his staff try to find a nice middle ground “where the pitchers like it and the hitters don’t complain” Rawlings a sportinggoods company that makes all of the handstitched baseballs used in MLB games is working on a new ball “that is easier to grip and does not require rubbing with mud” according to an MLB spokesman The experimental ball “would change things” for Lena Blackburne Bintliff said but in the past decade he’s also found surprising new customers pro football teams The National Football League did not immediately answer a request for its comment but Bintliff said that about half of NFL teams buy Lena Blackburne mud to help their players grip the ball So his business which he plans to pass along to a daughter may not dry up anytime soon
|
Dandelion yellow has reason to be blue Crayola announced Friday National Crayon Day that it’s replacing the color dandelion in its 24pack with a crayon in “the blue family” The company says it will leave it to fans to come up with a name for the replacement color It’s only the third time in Crayola’s long history that it has retired one or more colors and the first time it’s swapped out a color in its box of 24 Other colors that previously got the boot include maize raw umber and orange yellow Crayola crayons were first produced in 1903 by Binney Smith Company
|
In the summer of 1914 tension was building across Europe In the east the Ottoman and AustroHungarian empires were threatened by ethnic groups seeking to break away or expand their reach To the west Germany was flexing its industrial muscle while the powerful British navy was the envy of the world A wave of nationalism — pride in one’s country often in the belief that it is better than any other — was sweeping over the continent Nations were busy building their militaries and forming alliances with one another for protection Even so few people thought a war would result That changed in late June when Archduke Franz Ferdinand heir to the AustroHungarian throne went to Bosnia to inspect troops Bosnia was part of Austria then but Serbia claimed it too As Franz Ferdinand and his wife rode in an open car through Sarajevo Bosnia’s capital a Bosnian Serb who opposed AustroHungarian rule shot and killed them AustriaHungary blamed Serbia and declared war Other nations united by their treaties jumped in By early August World War I had begun When it was over more than four years later the map of Europe looked very different Empires had toppled New countries had formed The war set off a century of change in Europe’s borders They shifted again when a second world war broke out just 20 years after the first one ended The map has continued to change right up to the present day The countries that fought in World War I split into two camps Russia France Belgium and the United Kingdom Great Britain and Ireland were among those that sided with Serbia They were called the Allies Opposing them were the Central Powers Germany AustriaHungary the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria A few countries — Spain and Switzerland for example — stayed neutral not choosing a side The United States largely in response to German submarine attacks on its ships joined the Allies in April 1917 Most of the fighting took place on two fronts in Europe but the war also spread to the Middle East Africa South America Asia and some Pacific islands For three of the biggest nations involved the war was a family affair Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Empress Alexandra were all cousins of Britain’s King George V Explanation George’s father Wilhelm’s mother and Alexandra’s mother were all children of Queen Victoria That made George Wilhelm and Alexandra first cousins Nicholas’s mother was the sister of George’s mother so Nicholas and George were first cousins Nicholas and George looked like twins and were sometimes mistaken for each other On Christmas Eve 1914 something amazing happened German and Allied soldiers in trenches along the Western Front in Belgium stopped fighting for a few hours Instead they sang carols exchanged food and small gifts and even played soccer in the narrow strip of “no man’s land” between the armies The truce spread along the entire front and lasted for a week in some places Germany hoped to defeat the Allies in the west quickly then turn and attack Russia But it got bogged down on the Western Front Soldiers on both sides hunkered down in hundreds of miles of trenches sometimes just yards apart This reduced the impact of exploding shells and kept machine guns from firing down long lines of men The war was fought in ways new and old As in previous wars horses pulled cannons ammunition and supplies Pigeons and dogs carried messages Dogs also sniffed out explosives and acted as guards Jars filled with glowworms lit the trenches At the same time tanks and airplanes were used in combat for the first time And weapons such as machine guns and flamethrowers were updated with deadly effect Airplanes were fairly new when the war broke out At first they were used just to spy on the enemy and direct artillery fire Later pilots chased and shot at one another in “dogfights” German pilots had parachutes though they often failed to work Allied pilots were not issued parachutes in part because officers thought pilots would bail out at the first sign of trouble Top aviators were called aces The most famous was Germany’s Manfred von Richthofen known as the Red Baron who shot down 80 enemy planes The top Allied pilot René Fonck of France had 75 The Red Baron did not live to see the war’s end He was killed in combat in 1918 at age 25 Looking to break the stalemate of trench warfare the Germans turned to chemical weapons A yellowgreen cloud that drifted over Allied troops at Ypres Belgium in April 1915 marked the first use of poison gas in the war Thousands of soldiers choked to death as the chlorine gas attacked their lungs Months later the Allies launched their own gas attacks In addition to chlorine both sides used phosgene and mustard gas which blistered the skin Gas attacks are thought to have caused more than 90000 deaths in the war The rate dropped a lot once soldiers were issued gas masks Special masks were made for dogs and horses In the east the armies of Russia AustriaHungary and Germany battled across a wideopen landscape Although the Russians claimed early victories they were soon overrun by the Germans and suffered big losses At home the Russian people were fed up Riots and strikes led to two revolutions in 1917 First the czar was forced out Then the government that replaced him was ousted The country was then led by Vladimir Lenin and his followers the Bolsheviks later called communists Lenin had promised to end Russia’s role in the war In March 1918 Russia signed a peace treaty with the Central Powers agreeing to give up vast areas such as Poland and Ukraine World War I had some of the deadliest battles in history Ypres Verdun the Somme Gallipoli and Tannenberg are names that live on in history books The cost in human lives was devastating More than half of the 65 million men who served were killed or wounded Almost as many civilians were killed The conflict raged until November 1918 The US entry into the war had helped persuade Germany to surrender The main peace treaty was signed in Versailles France on June 28 1919 — five years from the day in Sarajevo when a gunman fired the shots that set off what some had called “the war to end all wars” Czar Nicholas II the last emperor of Russia was offered a haven in Great Britain after he was forced off the throne in 1917 But his English cousin King George V nixed the offer fearing a riot if the czar moved to Britain Nicholas and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks the next year Kaiser Wilhelm II Germany’s last emperor was forced out in November 1918 He lived in the Netherlands until his death in 1941 Franz Joseph I emperor of Austria and king of Hungary remained on the throne until his death in 1916 His grandnephew succeeded him but the monarchy ended when the war did In 1918 thousands of American soldiers headed overseas to fight At the time no one realized they were carrying a virus that would prove more deadly than the war itself In fact it caused the most devastating epidemic the world has known It got the name Spanish flu because Spain had the first public reports of the epidemic Over two years a billion people — half the world’s population — reportedly fell ill Estimates of how many died go as high as 50 million far more than the 16 million to 17 million people who died in the war The flu was even said to have altered battle plans when officers realized they didn’t have enough healthy men to mount an attack Hoping never to see another world war several countries got together and in 1919 created a group dedicated to world peace They called it the League of Nations The idea was to resolve disputes peacefully or if that could not be done to apply economic and military pressure Members agreed to defend one another if threatened The league had 42 founding members Germany and Russia were not allowed to join at first They joined later with 19 other countries but did not stay members for long The United States one of the league’s biggest backers worked with it but never joined Opponents believed that joining would have forced the United States to get involved in disputes overseas The face of Europe changed dramatically after World War I Four empires collapsed the Russian Empire in 1917 the German and AustroHungarian empires a year later and the Ottoman Empire in 1922 As a result several countries were formed or grew in size New nations included Austria Czechoslovakia Finland Hungary Yugoslavia and the Baltic states Poland was reborn In the 1930s times were hard in Germany The country’s new leader Adolf Hitler and his followers bristled over the harsh punishment Germany was given in the Treaty of Versailles Hitler decided to rebuild Germany’s armed forces and create a new empire uniting Germans who lived throughout Europe Germany paid a heavy price for being on the losing side More than 25 million of its soldiers and civilians died and with defeat its empire was broken apart It lost 10 percent of its remaining population and nearly 15 percent of its land to other countries One parcel gave Poland access to the Baltic Sea while splitting Germany in two The smaller part became known as East Prussia The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to reduce its army to no more than 100000 men and banned it from having tanks military aircraft submarines and chemical weapons In addition the Germans were to pay a big penalty called reparations for wartime damage Some thought the amount was too much The total was later reduced A look at the map explains why Poland’s history has been one of strife Neighboring Russia Austria and Prussia later Germany had their eyes on it at various times They succeeded in carving it up in the late 1700s As a result the Polish people were split in World War I Polish soldiers served on both sides Civilians suffered greatly since much of the worst fighting on the Eastern Front was on their land But when the war ended land that had been taken by others was returned and the nation of Poland was reborn after nearly 125 years The Bolsheviks had promised the Russian people “peace bread and land” Instead food was scarce land was disappearing and the peace seemed fragile at best The civil war lasted until 1921 The next year Russia Ukraine which Russia had reclaimed and regions to the south formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR The Soviet Union as it was called lasted until 1991 Adolf Hitler grew up in Austria He wanted to be an artist but lacked the talent He moved to Germany as a young man fought for Germany in World War I and then entered politics He gave rousing speeches which led to his becoming head of the Nazi political party The Nazis believed Germans were a superior people They hated Jews and communists and sought to destroy them Hitler and the Nazis amassed great power in the 1930s People who opposed them were killed or sent to prisons called concentration camps Once he became Germany’s leader Hitler wanted more land First he made Austria part of Germany Then he took part of Czechoslovakia On September 1 1939 Germany invaded Poland starting World War II The war lasted six years In its last days when Hitler realized the war was lost he killed himself The term “Third Reich” describes the period from 1933 to 1945 when the Nazis controlled Germany and overran Europe The word “reich” pronounced RIKE means “empire” or “realm” The Nazis were creating a third great empire for the German people The first had been the Holy Roman Empire which Germany led from 962 to 1806 The second was the German Empire which began in 1871 and ended with World War I Hitler designed the flag for the Nazi party Its colors — red white and black — were those of the German empire that ended with World War I In the middle of the flag was a hooked figure called a swastika SWAHStickuh The swastika was a symbol of German national pride It appeared on posters armbands and military badges If people see a swastika today they usually think only of the Nazis But the swastika is an ancient religious symbol for good luck Swastikas are often seen on houses and temples in India for example The 1936 Summer Olympics were held in Berlin Germany Hitler saw this as a chance to show the world how Germany had rebounded from World War I There were big rallies for the Games new sports venues and even new sports Men’s basketball was added that year But that wasn’t the whole story Jews and others whom the Nazis thought inferior were not wanted on Germany’s Olympic team Hitler’s antiJewish campaign — which featured “Jews not welcome” signs — was going strong in 1935 But before foreign visitors arrived in Berlin for the Games those signs were taken down In their place were colorful posters promoting Germany and its belief in racial superiority The United States and some other countries thought about skipping the Games Jewish and black athletes weighed that option too But African American journalists said the athletes should go to show how wrong the Nazis’ racial beliefs were The US team that went to Berlin had nearly two dozen black and Jewish athletes Track and field star Jesse Owens won four Olympic gold medals setting or matching three world records A top German official noting the success of black athletes such as Owens wrote in his diary “This is a disgrace White people should be ashamed of themselves” On the night of November 9 1938 violence broke out across Germany Austria and the part of Czechoslovakia that Germany controlled The shops and homes of thousands of Jews were trashed More than 250 synagogues were set on fire Police and firefighters stood by and watched The violence became known as Kristallnacht or Night of Crystal It’s also called Night of Broken Glass because of the glass shards in the streets afterward Nazi officials said the violence was unplanned but that wasn’t true They had encouraged it A day later 30000 men were arrested just because they were Jews They were sent to concentration camps Because the German people seemed to accept what had happened Nazi leaders felt they could be even harsher Jews were barred from many jobs They could leave their homes only at certain times They could not go to theaters or concerts and their children could not attend public schools Kristallnacht was a major step in the Nazis’ plan to rid Germany of all its Jews Great Britain and France had allowed Germany to take over Austria and then part of Czechoslovakia thinking that Hitler might stop there But when Germany invaded Poland on September 1 1939 Britain and France considered it an act of war The two countries demanded that Hitler withdraw his troops He refused Two days later they declared war on Germany Italy and Japan joined Germany as the major Axis Powers The chief Allied partners were Britain France and later the Soviet Union and the United States By 1942 the German war machine had rolled over much of Europe With France occupied Russia under attack and the United States still gearing up to fight Germany seemed unstoppable Next it planned to invade Britain The first step was to defeat the Royal Air Force RAF For three months in 1940 pilots from both sides dueled it out in the Battle of Britain Then German bombs began falling on British cities during nighttime raids More than 40000 people died in the eight months of what was called the Blitz In the end though the RAF and the British people proved tougher than Hitler had expected As Winston Churchill the British prime minister had said just a month before the Blitz “We shall fight on the beaches we shall fight on the landing grounds we shall fight in the fields and in the streets we shall fight in the hills we shall never surrender” The beginning of the end for the Nazis came on June 6 1944 More than 150000 British American and Canadian troops landed in Normandy France The Allied invasion had been years in the planning but the Germans were caught offguard They thought the invasion when it happened would come elsewhere on the coast It may have helped that the weather was bad that day — not ideal for sending 7000 ships across the English Channel That added to the surprise Even so many men never made it off the beach as German guns fired down from the bluffs The number of Allied troops killed or wounded on the invasion’s first day is estimated at 10500 For the Germans the number was between 4000 and 9000 In the days and weeks that followed the Allies slogged their way through France The liberation of Europe was underway From 1933 to 1945 the Nazis murdered twothirds of the Jews in Europe — 6 million people The Nazis blamed Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I and the punishment that followed They thought Jews were less than human They had a plan to get rid of them They called it the “Final Solution” Under this plan Jews were first stripped of their rights Their homes businesses and synagogues were attacked In some cities they were forced into sealedoff areas called ghettos and given little food and water The most horrific part of the plan was the concentration camps Jews were rounded up and shipped off to these camps When they got there some were forced to work while others including many children were killed in large gas chambers Then their bodies were burned and dumped in pits The Nazis didn’t hate only the Jews They also killed about 5 million Gypsies Poles Catholics communists disabled people and others they didn’t like The name given to this mass murder is the “Holocaust” which comes from a Greek word that means “sacrifice by fire” Of the more than a million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust none is better known than Anne Frank Anne’s family fled Germany when the Nazis came to power The Franks went to Amsterdam in the Netherlands but eventually the Germans showed up there too Then Anne’s family went into hiding She was 13 For two years Anne her mother father and older sister hid in a secret apartment in the attic of a family business Their secret was kept by brave friends who brought them food and clothing In August 1944 German police found the attic hideaway The Franks and the others were taken to concentration camps Like her sister and her mother Anne did not survive the war But the diary she kept while hiding in the attic did When it was published in 1947 her father Otto said “If she had been here Anne would have been so proud” The war in Europe lasted six years and claimed millions of victims The Soviet Union alone counted 20 million dead a third of them civilians In the Siege of Leningrad which lasted more than two years thousands of the city’s residents starved or froze to death Germany and Poland each lost more than 6 million people in the war Germany’s death toll was half military half civilian Poland’s was almost entirely civilian When the war ended the Allies again changed the map of Germany and Eastern Europe About 25 percent of Germany’s land was given to Poland and the Soviet Union The Soviets claimed eastern Poland which resulted in Poland’s boundaries shifting to the west The rest of Germany was split in two with the Soviets controlling the eastern side and the Allies controlling the west France and Czechoslovakia regained land taken by the Germans The Soviets took back the Baltic states Estonia Latvia and Lithuania which Germany had occupied and got back a slice of Finland At the war’s end in 1945 Europe was in shambles Cities were in ruins roads bridges and factories wiped away Millions of people were homeless In some areas food and jobs were scarce Countries had no money to rebuild The United States had not felt the war in the same way Financially it was doing well President Harry S Truman and other US leaders agreed that the country should extend a helping hand to nations in need The result was the Marshall Plan named for Secretary of State George C Marshall Under this plan the United States gave more than 13 billion in assistance to 16 European countries between 1948 and 1951 That amount is equal to about 128 billion in 2014 dollars The United States helped partly because it wanted to stop the Soviet Union from spreading communism a form of government in which there is little or no private property to Western Europe Representatives from 26 nations met in Washington DC in January 1942 They approved a plan setting up a peacekeeping body similar to the League of Nations which had basically collapsed when Germany invaded Poland in 1939 But these delegates wanted to try again The new body was to be called the United Nations In June 1945 delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco California to sign the UN charter officially launching the organization Tension was high in Germany which was divided in four and occupied by Britain France the United States and the Soviet Union Western European countries became nervous about Joseph Stalin leader of the Soviet Union He wanted a weak Germany He also wanted more control in Eastern Europe He insisted that a single political party the Communist Party rule all those nations British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said Soviet control was like an “iron curtain” pulled across Europe Western European countries explored ideas for working together to counter this growing threat By 1948 Stalin worried that the economy in western Germany was becoming stronger than in the Sovietcontrolled east He blocked all ground access to the capital Berlin which was in the Soviet zone but had portions controlled by the United States Britain and France The people in those areas were cut off from supplies The three countries organized an airlift a series of airplanes trips to get food and medicine to people there The flights continued for almost a year until the Soviet blockade was lifted One pilot who became famous during the airlift was Gail Halvorsen The US pilot dropped candy from his airplane and became known as “the candy bomber” After Western Europe had been torn apart by two world wars its leaders began to consider tying their economies and militaries together to form a single stronger body French officials Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman proposed in 1950 that France and West Germany combine their coal and steel resources This would help both countries and make it difficult for one to wage war against the other It was a way to prevent World War III Italy Belgium the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed on to this Coal and Steel Community Its early success led to a bigger plan to join forces In 1957 the countries formed the European Economic Community EEC Long after the airlift Berlin remained the focus of the EastWest divide East Germany and West Germany had become separate countries in 1949 with the Soviet Union in control of the East But West Berlin was governed by West Germany Thousands of people escaped the harsh East German government by fleeing to West Berlin East German officials wanted to stop this and in 1961 they closed the border A concrete wall went up with a few official border crossings East Berliners were forbidden to cross although many risked their lives to do so The wall would stand for nearly 30 years The Soviet Union’s control of Eastern Europe always was difficult to maintain Moscow attempted to strengthen its hold over the remaining East European countries in 1955 by creating a joint military In the next three decades there were revolts in Hungary Czechoslovakia and Poland Soviet troops were sometimes used to crush those rebellions When Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader in 1985 he favored “glasnost” a Russian word that means “open discussions” He aimed to break from Soviet policies to help the economy In a 1987 speech at the Berlin Wall US President Ronald Reagan urged the Soviet leader “Mr Gorbachev tear down this wall” About two years later the wall came down and by 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed Over time the idea of creating a partnership among European countries became popular By 1986 six more Western European countries had joined the EEC and a decade later 15 were members of what was renamed the European Union Most nations agreed to give up their currency or money and adopt the euro Beginning in 2002 someone could travel from Greece to Ireland and make purchases in euros That was a big step toward a unified Europe In the past 10 years the partnership has expanded into parts of Eastern Europe The 28 members that battled one another in two world wars now mostly find common ground One part of Eastern Europe shows that peace isn’t permanent Ukraine lost a part of its country to Russia this year People living in Crimea voted to join Russia but questions arose as to whether they had been pressured to do so At the time Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wasn’t interested in other parts of Ukraine but now rebels in eastern Ukraine are fighting to join Russia In the next few years the map of Europe may be redrawn once again
|
Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States That’s the most boring thing you’ll read about him in this story Consider this For most of the people who have been president of the United States and there have been only 43 and they’ve all been men that title would be the highlight of a lifetime the accomplishment to be most proud of the first thing to appear on your gravestone Not so with Jefferson He chose three accomplishments to be recorded on his tombstone and being president didn’t even make the list We’ll get around to telling you KidsPost’s Tracy Grant recently spent a day at Monticello Jefferson’s beautiful mountaintop home Monticello is Italian for “little mountain” in Charlottesville Virginia This article isn’t meant to tell you his life story because endless books have already been written about him It is meant to give you a sense that this fun funny endlessly curious man would have been an incredibly cool person to know He totally would have had an iPad Jefferson loved science technology and innovation One of his favorite devices was a rotating bookstand that could hold five books at once Kind of like having five windows open on your computer He was a great grandfather He had 12 grandchildren and many of them lived with him at the same time He would organize races for the kids on the enormous lawn of Monticello He also taught them how to play chess and a game called Goose one of the first board games in the United States it’s a bit like today’s game of Chutes and Ladders He loved to play As a boy the frecklefaced Jefferson played with his friends on the land where he would eventually build Monticello He would explore the woods creeks and streams He was an early archaeologist He had the bones of a mastodon an animal from 40 million years ago that looked a bit like an elephant sent to him at the White House He laid the bones out in what is now known as the East Room in an attempt to build a skeleton He loved books And we really mean he LOVED books How many books do you have in your house More than 20 More than 50 More than 100 In 1814 the original Library of Congress was attacked by British troops and all the books were burned Jefferson offered his personal library as a replacement In 1815 the Library of Congress was restocked — with Jefferson’s 6487 books He loved to write letters He also used a machine called a polygraph that made copies as he wrote He loved vanilla ice cream He probably first tasted ice cream while traveling in France He brought home a recipe for it which is now in the Library of Congress He would have loved Home Depot “Putting up and pulling down one of my favorite amusements” Jefferson said about the building of Monticello It took him more than 40 years to complete the house’s 33 rooms on four floors Many of the rooms are octagonal because he loved the shape He had skylights put in the ceiling because he wanted to bring the beauty of the outside in He loved their singing and often had at least four at a time His favorite bird was named Dick What he was most proud of Now that you know how much Jefferson loved to read and to write and how much he valued knowledge here is what is inscribed at his grave “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of Independence of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom and Father of the University of Virginia” Read more from KidsPost 10 things you may not know about Abraham Lincoln KidsPost’s Guide to the presidents New museum in Virginia explores other heroes of the Revolutionary War Mount Vernon gives visitors a chance to “Be Washington” No monument for James Madison But one of his legacies is freedom of the press
|
The first time I hiked to the bottom of Grand Canyon National Park I knew I wanted to work there Now as a park ranger for the National Park Service I share the science history and beauty of this natural wonder with thousands of visitors from around the world They preserve some of America’s most beautiful and historic places Park rangers protect the parks’ animals plants land buildings artifacts and people We have a variety of jobs depending on where we work and what we studied during college Interpretive park rangers including me teach people about what makes each national park special and what we can all do to take care of it We lead hikes teach school field trips work at visitor centers and help people stay safe during their visit Many interpretive park rangers studied science natural resources or history in college Protection rangers make sure visitors follow the rules while exploring the parks They complete special law enforcement training to do their jobs They may also rescue stranded or sick visitors provide medical care fight wildfires and work at large events such as the presidential inauguration in Washington Rangers who work in smaller parks might do many of these jobs at once One of my favorite parts of my job is showing children their first view of the Grand Canyon during school field trips After walking on a trail through the forest we arrive at the rim of a huge canyon about 10 miles across and one mile deep Children are often amazed at the canyon’s size and colors I also love working outdoors in many types of weather I carry a radio firstaid kit water snacks and sunscreen in my backpack wherever I go The Grand Canyon is my office Park rangers wear a uniform The flat hat protects us from the hot sun and hiking boots allow us to walk rocky trails The National Park Service symbol on the sleeve of our uniform shirt helps visitors recognize us so they can ask for assistance Being a park ranger requires a lot of energy I walk several miles and talk with hundreds of people each day Nearly 5 million people visit Grand Canyon National Park every year interpretive park rangers must enjoy working with people and speaking in front of groups Rangers must also be prepared for any situation Recently I broke up a traffic jam caused by a huge male elk standing in the road Elk can become dangerous when they get scared so I asked visitors to park their cars and take pictures from a distance Believe it or not I also help protect people from squirrels It is illegal to feed or approach wild animals in national parks But sometimes visitors try to feed rock squirrels and end up getting bitten Park ranger jobs are very competitive so it is important to go to college Many park rangers start as volunteers or seasonal employees and work their way up to permanent jobs We often work at many parks during our careers The best way to get a job with the National Park Service is to intern or volunteer in national parks during or after college The Pathways program helps students find temporary positions so they can try different jobs The National Park Service isn’t just for park rangers It hires carpenters janitors scientists mechanics writers and other professionals too Ann Posegate offers a timeline of opportunities for kids interested in a career with the National Park Service Today Become a WebRanger at webrangersus Elementary school Visit local state and national parks Become a Junior Ranger while visiting national parks Join a Girl Scout or Boy Scout troop Middle school Learn at museums zoos and aquariums Play a team sport Rangers work in teams to take care of the parks High school Volunteer at a city or state park Work as a counselor for a summer camp or get a job working with people Exercise outdoors try activities such as hiking biking and skiing Join a Youth Conservation Corps program at a nearby national park forest or wildlife refuge College Get a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies natural resources science history or law enforcement Apply for summer internships in national parks 401 the number of National Park Service sites 3861 the number of park rangers who work for the National Park Service 28000 the number of National Park Service employees including park rangers 280 million the average number of visitors to national parks each year Read more from KidsPost National Parks are full of the deepest tallest and biggest Denali National Park has Park Service’s only sleddog team Kids in Parks encourages families to hit the trails
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.