May 23, 2013 – The person or people who purchased the winning ticket of the highest Powerball jackpot in history has yet to claim their enormous prize of $590.5 million!

We do know that the winning ticket was bought at a Publix in Zephyrhills, Florida, a small town with a population of 13,000 located 48 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of the city of Tampa. Zephyrhills isn't a glamorous big city like New York or Los Angeles but it's known for its brand of bottled water with the same name.

The winner or winners will have two months to claim their massive cheque. If they want to take their winnings all at once they will walk home with $376.9 million, but if they want to spread their winnings out over 30 years they will get their total winnings of $590.5 million over 30 years with a payout of $19.7 million per year. Which would you take?

Winners don't usually collect their cheque on the same day they found out they won– they will usually contact their accountant and/or attorney so that they can get all of their affairs in order.

Five hundred and ninety million, five hundred thousand dollars is so much money that it's hard to wrap your head around exactly how much money it is. To compare, this year's budget for Zephyrhills is $49 million and the Powerball jackpot is 12 times larger than that!

Even though we don't know who the winner or winners are yet we will definitely find out once they claim their prize. Under Florida state law the names of lottery winners as well as the city where they live must be given to anyone who wants to know.

What would you do with $590.5 million? 

May 23, 2013 – On May 11 a man from South Florida caught the biggest Burmese python ever captured in Florida. It measured an enormous 5.7 metres (18 feet, 8 inches) long!

The man, Jason Leon, was driving around in a rural area when he saw one metre (three feet) of the python's tail sticking out from brush on the side of the road. Leon got out of his car and grabbed the snake behind its head and started dragging it out of the brush, but then it started wrapping itself around Leon's leg. Leon called for his friends in the car to help him and he killed the python with a knife so that it didn't kill him first.

Pythons are a big problem in Florida and are eating native animals and birds in the Everglades. They got released into the wild by owners who couldn't take care of them once they got too big. Pythons also breed very quickly and give birth to a lot of eggs at once, so their wild population has grown very fast.

The previous record for the largest Burmese python captured in Florida was 5.35 metres (17 feet, 7 inches)!

May 22, 2013 – The state of Oklahoma is trying to recover, rescue, and rebuild the city of Moore after a severe tornado devastated the community on Monday afternoon.

The three-kilometre-wide (two-mile-wide) tornado's peak winds reached 320 kilometres (198 miles) per hour and it completely destroyed two elementary schools, the hospital, and a large number of houses.

Sadly 240 people were injured and at least 24 people were killed in the storm, but that number is less than half of the original number of people that officials thought had lost their lives. The original 51 people reported dead likely included double counts because everything was so chaotic. 

Yesterday President Barack Obama announced that Oklahoma will be getting federal emergency aid to help restore the lives and homes of the people who were effected.

"The people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground there for them, beside them as long as it takes for their homes and schools to rebuild," Obama said. "There are empty spaces where there used to be living rooms and bedrooms and classrooms and in time we're going to need to refill those spaces with love and laughter and community."

The tornado was ranked as an EF5 twister by the National Weather service, meaning it was the most powerful category of tornado. EF5 tornadoes have winds between 320 and 510 kilometres (198 and 318 miles) per hour.

Sadly it is very difficult to stay safe in an F5 tornado if you are above ground and that is why so many people died in this tragic disaster. A woman who survived hid in her closet, but the rest of her house was destroyed. Fifteen students at a high school also hid in a locker room and were told to put on football helmets to protect themselves, which worked!

May 22, 2013 – Bees are not often thought of as being useful, smart, or helpful creatures. They sting, they buzz, and are pretty tiny! But Croatia has decided to put the skills of honey bees to use and is training them to detect dangerous land mines!

Croatia still has thousands of land mines hiding underground that were put there between 1991 and 1995 during the Balkan Wars.  Finding active land mines is very dangerous for people because one wrong step could activate a land mine that could easily kill a person or cause them to lose a limb. To date 316 innocent people have been killed by active land mines, 66 of them were de-miners.

Just like dolphins, dogs, and rodents, bees can be trained to detect things that are too dangerous or difficult for humans to find. Since bees can fly, do not weigh enough to activate a land mine, and have a sharp sense of smell they are perfect candidates for the job!

A honey bee expert at Zagreb University has created an experiment that tricks bees into thinking that the smell of TNT is actually the smell of food. If you were a de-miner you would release a swarm of these trained bees in the mine field and the bees would swarm over the areas with active land mines. You would them use heat-tracking cameras to track the bees to make sure that you can see them.

This is not the first time bees have been recruited by the military– In 2002 The New York Times reported that the United States Air Force was experimenting with training bomb-sniffing bees and that they were going to be fitted with trackable salt-sized sensors. It is unclear how much progress has been made with these bomb-sniffing bees today.

May 22, 2013 – The state of Oklahoma is trying to recover, rescue, and rebuild the city of Moore after a severe tornado devastated the community on Monday afternoon.

The three-kilometre-wide (two-mile-wide) tornado's peak winds reached 320 kilometres (198 miles) per hour and it completely destroyed two elementary schools, the hospital, and a large number of houses.

Sadly 240 people were injured and at least 24 people were killed in the storm, but that number is less than half of the original number of people that officials thought had lost their lives. The original 51 people reported dead likely included double counts because everything was so chaotic. 

Yesterday President Barack Obama announced that Oklahoma will be getting federal emergency aid to help restore the lives and homes of the people who were effected.

"The people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground there for them, beside them as long as it takes for their homes and schools to rebuild," Obama said. "There are empty spaces where there used to be living rooms and bedrooms and classrooms and in time we're going to need to refill those spaces with love and laughter and community."

The tornado was ranked as an EF5 twister by the National Weather service, meaning it was the most powerful category of tornado. EF5 tornadoes have winds between 320 and 510 kilometres (198 and 318 miles) per hour.

Sadly it is very difficult to stay safe in an F5 tornado if you are above ground and that is why so many people died in this tragic disaster. A woman who survived hid in her closet, but the rest of her house was destroyed. Fifteen students at a high school also hid in a locker room and were told to put on football helmets to protect themselves, which worked!

May 20, 2013 – It's blue, it's wet, 70 per cent of the planet is covered in it, and every living thing needs it to survive. It's also very old, even though we might not ever think of its age. It's water!

On Thursday gold miners in the city of Timmins, Ontario found one of the oldest pieces of the planet's history: a sample of water that is between 1.5 billion and 2.6 billion years old!

The sample was discovered while the gold miners were drilling into the bedrock two-and-a-half kilometres (one-and-a-half miles) below ground. The water, which is a sample of water from an ancient ocean, most likely seeped underground and through the earth where it got stuck in its current location.

This is by far the largest and oldest piece of the earth's history discovered to date. The only water samples that have been found are much, much smaller.

The research team took the water out of the volcanic rock through cracks in sulfide deposits, making sure that it never came in contact with air which could have contaminated it. They analyzed the levels of isotopes of noble gases in the sample and determined that the water had been stuck where it was found and had not been exposed to Earth's atmosphere for at least a billion years!

Scientists plan to study the water sample, which is high in hydrogen, in the hopes of discovering ancient microscopic forms of life like scientists are currently looking for on Mars. "If [the sample is holding ancient life], that could fuel hope that the same kind of life persists on Mars, which was once covered in oceans as well," a geochemist working on the study explained.

"Almost certainly [the sample is not going to have] 'alien' life. But it's the kind of strange and alien that's exciting to certain kinds of microbiologists," said Rosie Redfield, a microbiologist and University of British Columbia.

May 15, 2013 – In a world where cities are filled with concrete skyscrapers and trees are removed to make way for cars, it's nice to know that one architecturel firm has committed to bringing green back into the city.

Boeri Studio is designing two skyscrapers in Milan that will be covered in trees, shrubs, and other plants, creating the illusion that the buildings are actually a forest growing towards the sky. Aptly so, the project is named Bosco Verticale, or Vertical Forest in English.

The project began in 2008 and the two 26 and 18-storey buildings should be finished some time this year. Aside from people moving in, the firm has to organize moving in 2.5 acres of greenery and setting them up on the balconies on the sides of the buildings.

Aside from just looking cool the trees serve an actual purpose. "Vertical Forest helps to build a micro-climate and to filter dust particles which are present in the urban environment[...] The diversity of the plants helps to create humidity, and absorb carbon dioxide and dust, produces oxygen, protects people and houses from the sun's rays and from [noise] pollution."

May 14, 2013 – What's the one thing Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield missed the most about Earth? It's something us down on Earth take for granted.

"One of the things I miss here is the smell of food...Not a lot of our food is crunchy and has real delight in eating it," Hadfield said during his last news conference from space in April. He was eating a lot of chicken and soup out of tiny plastic pouches, and he was getting sick of it!

But now he will get to eat and drink all of his favourite foods because he is back on Earth after spending the last five months in orbit!

Hadfield landed from his third space mission in Kazakhstan at 10:31 p.m. ET on a Russian space capsule after leaving the International Space Station (ISS) three-and-a-half hours earlier. Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, the same men that Hadfield blasted off to space with in December, returned to Earth with him.

Hadfield, Romanenko, and Marshburn were placed in wheelchairs because their muscles were weak from being in space for so long. Since people do not have to use their leg muscles to walk in space, they can get weaker just like any muscle on your body that you don't exercise regularly. While they were doing muscle exercises in space and will be able to walk again it was too soon for them to be able to adjust to gravity to walk off of the capsule.

While on the ISS Hadfield wasn't spending all of his time just floating around–he was constantly sharing his experiences and photos of the Earth on social media, performed over 100 science experiments, had conferences with American and Canadian students, and is credited with having made space cool again. He even created "Jewel in the Night," the first song to ever be written for and recorded on the ISS!

Hadfield also became the first Canadian commander of the ISS in March. Since he has returned back to Earth, he had to hand over the reins to Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov on Sunday.

The next time a Canadian astronaut will return to the ISS will be likely not be until 2016, and the trip would go to one of Canada's newest astronauts: Jeremy Hansen and David Saint-Jacques.

What food would you miss most if you were in outer space for five months?

There were two ducks in front of a duck and two ducks behind a duck, and one duck in the middle. How many ducks were there in total?

Three! 

On this day in 1954 Roger Bannister, then 25, became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes.

Bannister ran one mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds in front of 3,000 people on the Iffley Road track in Oxford, England. He was studying medicine at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London at the time and was running for the Amateur Athletic Association against his old school, Oxford University. 

Many people believe he is the United Kingdom's most famous athlete– he was knighted by the Queen in 1975– but he does not see himself in such a heroic light. Now 83 years old, Bannister feels that he made a bigger contribution to society working as a successful neurologist for 40 years.

"That to me is a greater source of satisfaction than happening to move my body at a certain speed for a few moments in 1954," he said in an interview in 2012.

On this day in 1961 astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American to travel into outer space.

Only 23 days earlier Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go to space. "That little race between Gagarin and me was really, really close," Shepard said. 

The Freedom 7 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral at 9:37 a.m. and it reached an altitude of 187 kilometres (116.5 miles) where it remained for only five minutes. During those five minutes Shepard experienced weightlessness and tested out the spacecraft's altitude control systems before parachuting into the Atlantic Ocean.

The entire event only lasted 15 minutes and 28 seconds from start to finish. While the main purpose of the mission was to send an American into space, it was also meant to test the spacecraft's capsule and booster to make sure that they would be ready for orbital flight, and to prove that astronauts were ready and able to fly in space.

On this day in 1979, Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party won the general election in the United Kingdom.

The election of Lady Thatcher marked the first time a woman was taking the office of Prime Minister, at 10 Downing Street, the address of the residence and office of the Prime Minister in the capital city of London.

Many agree that Lady Thatcher was one of the most dominant political figures of the century. She remained in office for 11 years, developed incredible relations with then US President Ronald Reagan and the Soviet Union's President Mikhail Gorbachev. She was nicknamed the "Iron Lady" due to her strong leadership style.

Why don't bats live alone?
They prefer to hang out with their friends!

What do you get when you cross a bat with a bag of chips?
A snack that goes crunch in the night!

Knock Knock! Who's there?
Bat. Bat who? Bat you'll never guess!

What did the ocean say to the boy?
Nothing, it just waved

You are in a dark room with a saw and a piano. There is a door but it's locked. How do you get out?

Use the saw to cut of a key from the piano, then unlock the door!

May 22nd marks the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, noted author of the great novels based on the character of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle studied medicine in his home town of Edinburgh, Scotland before starting his writing career. While his work spans the subjects of history, poetry and comedy, he is best known as the creator of the crime stories of Sherlock Holmes and his adventures.

Today is also the birthday of Apollo Anton Ohno, American Olympic speedskater. Ohno is an eight-time Olympic medalist, winning two gold, two silver and four bronze medals. When he was just 14, he became the youngest U.S. national champion in 1997 and was the reigning champion for 8 years.  Ohno has been responsible for popularizing the sport of speedskating and has become the face of the sport in the U.S. He is a great inspiration and role model for younger skaters. 

Watch this video about Apollo's training routine. 

A cowboy went to New York on Friday.
Three days later he left on Friday.
How is that possible?

He left on his horse named Friday.

Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
Because he didn't have the guts to do it!

Have you ever had to juggle an umbrella, doggie bag, and leash while walking your dog in the rain? Or have you ever struggled to text while holding your umbrella? The Brolly has come to your rescue!

The Brolly is an umbrella with a specially designed handle that makes it easier to hold so that you can use both of your hands while walking in the rain! It was designed by a design team from Chicago with comfort and durability in mind. The handle is made of soft rubber and the umbrella is made from ABS plastic and aluminum, allowing it to easily survive wet and windy conditions without turning inside out!

It even folds up into a compact travel-sized umbrella so that you can take it wherever you go so that you're always prepared for whatever you're doing in the rain– even if it's picking up dog doo doo!

September 26, 2012 – Everyone knows that while candy is delicious it isn't the healthiest snack in the world. It's hard to resist a gooey caramel chocolate bar or a handful of rainbow-coloured candies and UNREAL Candy has made it a bit easier for you to give into your sweet tooth.

UNREAL is a new brand of candy that is just as delicious, sweet, and colourful as the candy you love but it is better for you!

Almost all candy companies cut corners to make tasty candy at a low price, so they use refined sugar and corn syrup in their snacks. These forms of sugar are very unnatural and can cause the body harm and easily turn into fat.

UNREAL uses cane sugar which comes from the sugarcane plant and is much more natural. It has been used in cooking for hundreds of years, and even though it is a bit more costly to extract many say it is more delicious than refined sugar.

UNREAL chocolate candy shell peanuts have less fat, carbohydrates, sugar, and calories, and more fibre and protein than Peanut M&M's. They also have no artificial ingredients or preservatives! A pack of these candies has only four more grams of sugar than a medium orange does, while a bag of Peanut M&M's has just over twice as much.

UNREAL Candy is already available at Walgreens, Ralphs, CVS, and Staples and will be coming to Target in the future. You won't be able to miss its funky packaging so keep an eye out for UNREAL!

If you're tired of doodling on your bed sheets, or turning any surface into a whiteboard, try this outside-of-the-box way of colouring!

Burgerdoodles wallpaper comes wit cute creatures already on it, and all you have to do is give them some colour! The wallpaper is nice and thick so that the walls don't get stained when you're colouring on it, and it peels off nice and easy if you decide to take it down. You can use marker pens, felt tips, or regular old paint to make the wallpaper come alive with colour!

Burgerdoodles wallpaper costs about $55 CAD and can be bought here.

July 27, 2012 – Have you ever wanted your drawings to come to life? With the help of some special sewers around the world they can!

These websites take drawings you have made of just about anything and turn them into stuffed animals. These websites below charge anywhere from $40 to $150 to bring your drawings to life.

If you send them a photo of your drawing, they will draw up a sketch of how the stuffed toy will look and what it will be made of. Then they will send the mock-up back to you to approve, and if you like they will make it and will only ship it to you when it is exactly how you want it!

Check out these websites to see photos of some drawings that were turned into "plushies" and how you can order one:

Child's Own Studio

Sabutuca Brazil

Happy Softies

Pinocchio’s Friends

My Own Cuddly

Draw Your Toy

Trapos e Monstros

Make Be-Real

Drawn To Hold

Clever Inception

Stitched By Carolyn

Trapos e Monstros

Once Upon A Drawing 

Hall of Creative Design

UPDATE April 22, 2013 – Late on Friday night Dzhokhar was captured thanks to the help of Bostonians and hundreds of law enforcement agents. He was discovered hiding in a boat in someone's backyard. A neighbour saw a trail of blood leading up to the boat and lifted up the boat's protective covering to see who or what was inside. When he saw it was Dzhokhar he ran away and called police to let them know he had found their suspect. 

After hours of planning and waiting police were able to seize and arrest him. He is still in hospital being treated for his injuries that he likely got during his and his brother's shootout with police early on Friday morning. He is still too weak to talk to them but has been answering their questions by writing down his answers. He has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and one count of destruction of property resulting in death.

After he was captured residents of the neighbourhood he was hiding in gathered in the streets, waved flags, and applauded police and cheered  "U-S-A, U-S-A!"

UPDATE April 19, 2013 – Last night the FBI released video footage of two male suspects wearing backpacks and baseball caps walking around at the Boston Marathon and asked the public to send in any photos or videos that may contain footage of them. It was revealed earlier today that the two men are brothers named Tamerlan Tsarnaev, age 26, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, age 19.

Early this morning there was a shootout between Boston police and the brothers on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that took the life of a young police officer. The oldest of the suspects, Tamerlan, also died during the shootout. Police did not go out intending to shoot the suspects, but when they escalated the situation by shooting an unsuspecting officer, police had to prevent him from hurting any one else.

The youngest of the brothers, Dzhokhar (pronounced Jahar), is still at large. All of the state's law enforcement is looking for him and residents of Boston have been told to not go outside and lock their doors. 

The suspects' uncle said earlier in the day at a press conference that only losers could do something like they did and that he felt a lot of shame for being related to them. He had not seen the boys since late 2005 and did not have contact with them, but said that if he had known that they were capable of doing what they did he would have definitely reported them to police.

The Tsarnaev brothers were born in Chechnya, Russia. Dzhokhar was a legal immigrant and his brother Tamerlan had a green card to study in America. Tamerlan was a respected boxer and Dzhokhar was the captain of his high school's wrestling team. Tamerlan did not appear to have many friends in America but lots of Dzhokhar's friends have come forward and spoken about how great of a friend he was to them.

April 16, 2013 – What was supposed to be a day of celebration yesterday in Boston, Massachusetts quickly turned into a day of terror and tragedy.

Yesterday was not only Patriots' Day –a holiday in Massachusetts– but it was also the day of the 117th annual Boston Marathon. Thousands of supporters turned out to cheer on the 29,000 runners from 68 different countries from the sidelines.

But at approximately 2:50 p.m. local time, four minutes and nine seconds into the marathon and metres from the finish line on Boylston Street, a powerful explosion suddenly erupted behind the spectators.

Some marathoners, exhausted after four hours of running, collapsed from the force of the blast. Some thought it was a celebratory cannon at first. Some people ran away but many people like police officers and security ran towards the spectators who were now laying on the sidewalk seriously injured.

About 15 seconds later another explosion went off several buildings down from the first. The people who thought the first explosion was a cannon quickly realized that something was very wrong. One runner said that the second explosion reminded him of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

There were already paramedics on the scene to take care of injured runners, so help was not far away for injured spectators. No one knew what caused the blasts at first, but after sending the injured to hospital police discovered that the explosions came from bomb-like device and not from an electrical explosion. Since bomb-like devices caused the explosions, sadly, it means that someone put them there on purpose.

One-hundred-and-fifty-four people were sent to hospital, many of whom had very serious injuries. Although nine children were sent to hospital most of them have been released and none of the children still in hospital are in critical condition. Sadly three people have passed away from their injuries.

The area of the explosions is now a crime scene the FBI has blocked off a 13 square block area around the explosions so that they can investigate the area and to protect the people of Boston. They are not yet sure who planted the device or why but they are working very hard to find out. In an address yesterday United States President Barack Obama said, "Make no mistake – we will get to the bottom of this. And we will find out who did this; we'll find out why they did this. Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice."

Tragedy can often bring out the good in people, and yesterday's events were no exception. So many runners in yesterday's race were not from Boston so they were staying at hotels, some of which have been evacuated. To lend a helping hand hundreds of Bostonians have opened their homes to anyone who needs a warm, safe place to live for the next few days and have been sharing their addresses, phone numbers, email addresses on a Google doc. 

"We have an L-shaped couch to offer[...] Not much but we're happy to help!" one woman wrote on the sheet. "I will happily drive anywhere to pick up a runner who needs food, shelter and comfort," wrote another woman.

The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon; it not only commemorates the beginning of the Revolutionary War, but is also a celebration of the arrival of spring. Marathon organizers and trainers say that there will most likely be another Boston Marathon next year. Officials for the Toronto Marathon happening in May and the London Marathon happening April 21 say that their races will go ahead as planned, but with tightened security.

January 17, 2013 – Yesterday United States President Barack Obama announced the official launch of the government's agenda to stop gun the country's gun violence.

In his speech he recognized Americans' constitutional right to bear firearms, but also said "We've also long realized... that with rights come responsibilities." 

The last effort to decrease gun violence was made nearly 20 years ago, and many people including children think it's about time that some changes were made. Several children wrote to President Obama telling him how they want stricter gun-control. One little girl said she "hopes he tries very hard" to convince Congress to ban the sale and ownership of large, powerful, military-style weapons.

Military-style guns are able to shoot lots of bullets one after another and can cause a lot of damage in seconds. One of the guns that the Sandy Hook shooter used was a military-style weapon that sadly allowed him to kill a lot of people very easily. President Obama proposed this law in the hopes that if the United States Congress were to pass it, we would never have to see a shooting similar to Sandy Hook ever again.

President Obama also signed 23 executive actions that aim to make it more difficult for people to buy a gun. Some of the 23 actions include:

• Running full background checks on people before giving them a gun that was taken from them
• Reviewing what categories of people (like the mentally ill or criminals) are prohibited from owning a gun
• Reviewing safety standards for gun locks and gun safes
• Giving first responders, police, and teachers proper training on what to do during incidents like the Sandy Hook shooting
• Starting a national discussion about mental health
• Reminding doctors that are allowed to ask their patients if they own guns
• Developing emergency plans for schools and religious buildings in the event of a shooter 

President Obama hopes that a large number of American people will support the agenda he proposed because it will not succeed without their demand and approval. Most Americans want military-style weapons banned, and 84 per cent of American adults want people who buy weapons at gun shows to have to first go through background checks because nearly 40 per cent of gun sales made in the United States are done without background checks.

However a new poll shows that 51 per cent of Americans believe limits and restrictions on guns goes against their constitutional right to own firearms. These people do not have plans to hurt people or commit a shooting like Adam Lanza did at Sandy Hook. Many of them choose to own guns to protect themselves and their family, and many are also are strong believers that guns don't harm people–people do.

But, there is a lot of debate about whether having more guns really stops violence. The National Rifle Association (NRA), a group of people who promote owning and knowing how to safely operate firearms, said that the best way to prevent a shooting like Sandy Hook from happening again is to give teachers and "good guys" guns so that they can protect themselves and others against "bad guys." Do you think that is a good idea or a bad idea?

Do you feel that the NRA is right to oppose Obama's gun-control measures?

Is it OK for Obama to change the rights of a small group of people to try and protect his country?

What would you do if you were in Obama's shoes to try and make everyone happy?

November 14, 2012 – Research in Motion (RIM), the Waterloo, Ontario-based company that produces BlackBerry phones, has announced that the BlackBerry Z10 will launch on January 30 with lots of events all over the world!

The phone will be entirely touch screen and has some new features that are turning the heads of people who haven't been BlackBerry fans in the past. Along with the typical BlackBerry LED light that flashes when a new message arrives, this phone will also have:

• The BlackBerry Hub: Where all your e-mails, calendar events, and all other kinds of notifications all show up in one place to make them easier to find and read.
   
• BlackBerry Balance: Many grown-ups have used BlackBerrys for work, and the BlackBerry Balance feature allows the BlackBerry Z10 to easily balance your personal information with your work information. If someone asked you to wipe your phone of all work information for security reasons, you could do so without having to worry about losing your personal text messages, photos, or contacts.
   
• Time Shift: A cool camera app that lots of pictures of a person within milliseconds of one another that helps you get the perfect shot. If one person blinks or looks away, you can "rewind" the photo to choose the best shot of their face and then save the photo. This is the most anticipated feature of the phone.
   
• A new keyboard: The BlackBerry Z10 keyboard will try and predict words that it thinks you may want to say based on the words you have already typed. For example, if you were to type, "I think I –", the phone will suggest words to use next like "want," "need," or "feel." If one of those words are right, you just have to swipe the word up into the body of text and then you can keep on writing your message!

The chief executive of RIM, Thorsten Heins, is hoping that this phone will help get the company back in the game after a few very difficult years. He said that he doesn't think things can get any worse for the company, and that if the BlackBerry Z10 really catches on it could save the company!

BlackBerrys were at the height of their popularity in 2006, but when the first Apple iPhone came out in June 2007 things started to get bad for RIM. At that time most of the BlackBerrys users were people working in information-technology who liked how secure and reliable it was. Trouble started for RIM when the first iPhone came out and the company did nothing in order to keep up and assumed that regular customers would eventually like it as much as those working in information-technology.

Things didn't get any better for RIM when the first Android operating system cell phone came out in 2008 and became the world's most popular mobile operating system in 2010. Apple and Android phones have fun apps that you can help you do almost anything, but RIM was not meeting that trend in their BlackBerrys, so their popularity kept decreasing.

Today more than half of the mobile device market is dominated by Apple and Android phones.

Heins is also pitching the BlackBerry Z10 to offices as an alternative to desktop and laptop computers over time. He believes that in three to five years we won't be working on computers in offices– we'll be carrying BlackBerry Z10's around with us and connecting them to bigger monitors and keyboards once we get to work!

What do you think about the BlackBerry Z10? Would you choose one over an Apple or Android phone?

November 6, 2012 – Americans are heading to the polls today to decide if President Barack Obama will remain in office for another four years or if his Republican opponent Mitt Romney will take over.

Sometimes there is one candidate who is favoured to win an election and it is a bit easier to predict who voters will choose. This election has been tied for weeks so there is no candidate who is favoured to win. However, a poll released this week did show that Obama is slightly pulling ahead of Romney, but this does not mean that Obama will definitely be elected again.

If Americans vote for Obama again he will serve as president until 2016, but he will not be able to run again in the 2016 presidential election because the maximum term a president can serve is eight years. A presidential election happens every four years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.

The presidential candidates are competing for 270 Electoral College votes. When American citizens vote they will not be directly voting for Obama or Romney to be president, even though their names are on the ballots. They will be voting for electors in the Electoral College to vote for one party's candidate.

The Electoral College came to be in 1787 because some politicians thought that the "winner takes all" style of election at the time was too reckless. But others thought that it wasn't fair for Congress to always select the president. The Electoral College system was set up as a compromise, which allows for American citizens to vote for electors, who vote for the presidential candidates (being Obama or Romney in this election).

There are states that are called "swing states," which are states where no one political party has overwhelming support and the Democratic or Republican candidate could win. This year's nine swing states are Florida, Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Califorina, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Southern states like Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama almost always vote for the Republican candidate, while California, Massachusetts, and Vermont are typically more liberal states and would not vote for the Republican candidate. Both candidates work very hard to try and secure votes in the swing states mentioned above because it greatly improves their chances of winning.

Each of the 50 American states has a number of electors that is equal to its number of U.S. senators plus its U.S. representatives, in addition to three electors who represent the District of Columbia. Currently the number of electors in the Electoral College is 538 and in order to become president a candidate must receive half of the electoral votes plus one–270.

These 538 electors cast their vote for president and vice president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December, which falls on December 17 this year. Usually the electors vote for the person who received the most votes in that state. Most states have a "winner takes all" rule and some states electors are legally required to vote for the state's most popular candidate. However there have been times where electors vote against a state's popular vote, and this is not illegal depending on which state it is for.

The Electoral College votes are placed in a sealed envelope and are sent to the president of the Senate, who reads the votes to both houses of congress on January 6 in the new year. Whoever wins the election must receive 270 of the 538 electoral votes, and will be sworn into office at noon on January 20, two weeks later.

May 8, 2013 – Meet the newest furry, tail-wagging heroes that have been inducted into the Purina Animal Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario.

In 1968 the then president of Purina was so impressed with how a black Labrador retriever pulled his owner's boat for 3.5 hours through rough, windy waters to get to shore that he wanted to honour the dog with an award. The Purina Animal Hall of Fame was born!

The Purina Animal Hall of Fame is a 45-year-old award given to heroic animals of all sizes that have saved someone's life. To date 132 dogs, 26 cats, and one horse have been inducted– a total of 159 incredible animals.

"The tenacity of our 2013 inductees to rescue and protect people from harm – whether it's a wild animal, house fire, criminal or a medical emergency– showcases the connection animals have to humans and the physical risks they will take to keep them safe," said Purina PetCare Legacy executive director Mary Sieminesz in a press release.

The four new inductees are all paws down amazing dogs.

Teak, a German shepherd and ex-police dog for the Vancouver Police Department, was seriously injured when he tried to bring down an armed robbery suspect earlier this year. The suspect cut Teak several times in the neck while trying to get away but he had two surgeries to repair his throat and is all better now!

Bella, a two-year-old Burnese mountain dog, dragged her injured owner Chris Larocque  out of his burning house in Nova Scotia in late 2012. Her owner collapsed from an old ankle injury and he fell and hit his head. As he fell the dishcloth he had in his hand grazed the burning hot stove elements and caught fire, which quickly spread to his shirt. He threw his shirt against the wall and soon all of the kitchen walls were on fire. He called for Bella and was able to coach her to pull him out of the house. "Without Bella's devotion, strength and courage, I would have died in that fire that destroyed me home," said Larocque.

Snickers, a four-year-old border collie/pointer mix from Oshawa, Ontario, figured out how to get outside and get help for her owner with a lung disease who had collapsed and was laying unconscious. Snickers threw his body against the screen door to eventually trigger the release that opened the door and allowed him to try and get help from the neighbours. He barked and paced back and forth at the end of a driveway, trying to stop the neighbour from leaving for work. The neighbour called the police and Const. Rob Garnett followed Snickers and saw his owner and got him the help he needed.

Vicious, a 12-year-old border collie/ Labrador mix, chased a cougar that had pounced on his owner out of their house in Trail, British Columbia. Vicious came back home after the cougar was far enough away without a scratch or any other injuries.

March 20, 2013 – Two prisoners in a Québec jail managed to escape via helicopter on Sunday afternoon in a feat that looked like something out of an action movie! 

All four men– the two escaped criminals Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau and Danny Provencal, and the accomplices Yagé Beaudoin and Matheiu Steven Marchisio– were arrested after an intense police hunt that lasted into the early hours of Monday morning. The men face charges of pointing a firearm at police, breaking and entering, hijacking an aircraft, kidnapping, fleeing from police, and more.

Marchisio and Beaudoin boarded a helicopter that was being flown by pilot Sébastien Foray at 2:20 p.m. on Sunday. They pretended to be tourists who wanted a flight around the Mont-Tremblant ski resort. Once on board the helicopter, they held a gun to Foray's head and demanded that he fly to St. Jérôme prison, where Hudon-Barbeau and Provencal were imprisoned.

They demanded that Foray land the helicopter on the roof of the prison so that they could throw two green ropes down to Provencal and Hudon-Barbeau, who were in the prison courtyard. The two men harnessed themselves to the rope and Foray was forced to fly away. Two minutes later the hijackers made Foray land in a field for only a few minutes so that Hudon-Barbeau and Provencal could get in the helicopter.

Foray tried to signal for help, but the hijackers ripped his headset off. He was then told to fly to a parking lot in L'Esterel where the fugitives had a driver waiting for them to escape on ground. The fugitives covered Foray's head with a t-shirt so that he could not see which way they were going to go.

Once he felt it was safe he took the t-shirt off and reported what had happened to the authorities using a secret hidden headset that they didn't find. He flew back to his base at Mont-Tremblant and was taken to the hospital to be treated for shock, but thankfully did not have any serious injuries.

Police went on a full power manhunt. Negotiators, police dogs, helicopters, and all available units hunted for the four fugitives. A unit trailed a SUV that looked suspicious on the way to the city of Cherstey. Gunshots were fired by the officers and fugitives before they broke into a cottage in an effort to hide. The people in the cottage managed to escape and did not get hurt.

Beaudoin, Hudon-Barbeau, and Marchisio were captured by police at 8:30 p.m. and Provencal was discovered hiding in a sugar shack shortly after.

The four men will return to court on April 16.

March 19, 2013 – Today 17 Target stores opened across Ontario at 8 a.m. local time!

The stores that opened today are in the cities of Ajax, Burlington, Etobicoke, Hamilton, London, Newmarket, Waterdown, Toronto, Windsor, and Whitby.  The first three Canadian Target stores opened in the cities of Guelph, Fergus, and Milton two weeks ago.

Target purchased 220 stores of the Canadian retail company Zellers in January 2011 for 1.825 billion dollars. Target decided that 31 of the Zellers locations would be taken down and 135 of the Zellers stores will be turned into Targets. Only three Zellers stores will remain open in Canada in Etobicoke, Montréal-Nord, and Sudbury.

Target plans to open 124 stores across Canada in 2013 to add to its 1,778 stores in the United States. 

March 7, 2013 – Toronto, Ontario has become the fourth largest city in North America, taking the spot of Chicago.

A Statistics Canada report estimates that Toronto's population is approximately 2,791,140, and the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the population of Chicago in 2011 was 2,707,120. The information for the population of Chicago in 2012 has not yet been released.

The three cities ahead of Toronto are Los Angeles (population 3.8 million), New York City (population 8.2 million), and Mexico City (population 8.8 million). Toronto's growth has been steadily increasing for the last 10 years at a rate of approximately 38,000 people per year.

Mayor Rob Ford said "Toronto is a desirable location for people to live and work. We are attracting people from across North America and other parts of the world."

What did the ocean say to the boy?
Nothing, it just waved

You are in a dark room with a saw and a piano. There is a door but it's locked. How do you get out?

Use the saw to cut of a key from the piano, then unlock the door!

Why don't bats live alone?
They prefer to hang out with their friends!

What do you get when you cross a bat with a bag of chips?
A snack that goes crunch in the night!

Knock Knock! Who's there?
Bat. Bat who? Bat you'll never guess!

May 22nd marks the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, noted author of the great novels based on the character of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle studied medicine in his home town of Edinburgh, Scotland before starting his writing career. While his work spans the subjects of history, poetry and comedy, he is best known as the creator of the crime stories of Sherlock Holmes and his adventures.

Today is also the birthday of Apollo Anton Ohno, American Olympic speedskater. Ohno is an eight-time Olympic medalist, winning two gold, two silver and four bronze medals. When he was just 14, he became the youngest U.S. national champion in 1997 and was the reigning champion for 8 years.  Ohno has been responsible for popularizing the sport of speedskating and has become the face of the sport in the U.S. He is a great inspiration and role model for younger skaters. 

Watch this video about Apollo's training routine. 

A cowboy went to New York on Friday.
Three days later he left on Friday.
How is that possible?

He left on his horse named Friday.

Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
Because he didn't have the guts to do it!

May 23, 2013 – On May 11 a man from South Florida caught the biggest Burmese python ever captured in Florida. It measured an enormous 5.7 metres (18 feet, 8 inches) long!

The man, Jason Leon, was driving around in a rural area when he saw one metre (three feet) of the python's tail sticking out from brush on the side of the road. Leon got out of his car and grabbed the snake behind its head and started dragging it out of the brush, but then it started wrapping itself around Leon's leg. Leon called for his friends in the car to help him and he killed the python with a knife so that it didn't kill him first.

Pythons are a big problem in Florida and are eating native animals and birds in the Everglades. They got released into the wild by owners who couldn't take care of them once they got too big. Pythons also breed very quickly and give birth to a lot of eggs at once, so their wild population has grown very fast.

The previous record for the largest Burmese python captured in Florida was 5.35 metres (17 feet, 7 inches)!

May 22, 2013 – Bees are not often thought of as being useful, smart, or helpful creatures. They sting, they buzz, and are pretty tiny! But Croatia has decided to put the skills of honey bees to use and is training them to detect dangerous land mines!

Croatia still has thousands of land mines hiding underground that were put there between 1991 and 1995 during the Balkan Wars.  Finding active land mines is very dangerous for people because one wrong step could activate a land mine that could easily kill a person or cause them to lose a limb. To date 316 innocent people have been killed by active land mines, 66 of them were de-miners.

Just like dolphins, dogs, and rodents, bees can be trained to detect things that are too dangerous or difficult for humans to find. Since bees can fly, do not weigh enough to activate a land mine, and have a sharp sense of smell they are perfect candidates for the job!

A honey bee expert at Zagreb University has created an experiment that tricks bees into thinking that the smell of TNT is actually the smell of food. If you were a de-miner you would release a swarm of these trained bees in the mine field and the bees would swarm over the areas with active land mines. You would them use heat-tracking cameras to track the bees to make sure that you can see them.

This is not the first time bees have been recruited by the military– In 2002 The New York Times reported that the United States Air Force was experimenting with training bomb-sniffing bees and that they were going to be fitted with trackable salt-sized sensors. It is unclear how much progress has been made with these bomb-sniffing bees today.

May 21, 2013 – Navy dolphins found an extremely rare torpedo from 1883 off the San Diego coast on Sunday. 

The torpedo, which goes by the name the Howell, is 3.3 metres (11 feet) long, made out of brass, and is one of only two out of the 50 original torpedoes that still exist today. 

Only 50 were made because another company soon began making more advanced torpedoes, even though this torpedo was one of the best at the time. 

"It was the first torpedo that could be released into the ocean and follow a track. Considering that it was made before electricity was provided to U.S. households, it was pretty sophisticated for its time," said an official of the Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System.

The dolphins that found the torpedo are named Ten and Spetz and they used their very sophisticated sonar ability to detect the torpedo on the ocean floor; they then lead human divers down so they could bring it up to land.

Sonar involves using noises to "see" objects in dark places. The kind of sonar that dolphins use is called echolocation. They make a clicking noise to detect things that they cannot see. When they make the clicking noise the sound waves move through the water and, after they hit an object, bounce back to the dolphin. The louder the sound waves are when they come back the closer the object is.

Ships and submarines also use sonar to detect enemy ships when they do not want to be seen, but their systems are nowhere near as sophisticated as dolphins'.

The torpedo is no longer active because of the long time it spent underwater, but it is being cleaned and will soon go on display at the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington.

The United States military has been training and working with dolphins for over 50 years. They are excellent divers and have been used to detect mines, patrol for enemy divers, and even guard the US submarine bases in Washington and Georgia!

May 20, 2013 – Having one bee trapped inside your home can be very scary, but can you imagine finding out you have 40,000 bees hiding in your house that you didn't know about?!

Tyler Judd and his wife moved into their house in Provo, Utah five months ago and shortly thereafter noticed bees buzzing near the house. Judd didn't think anything of it until one day when he and his wife heard buzzing inside the walls of their house while watching TV!

Not wanting to investigate the noise themselves they called in expert beekeeper Al Chubak to remove the bees. To the Judd's and Chubak's surprise close to 40,000 bees were taken out of the wall!

Chubak made sure to remove the queen because the worker bees will go wherever she is. He also removed the honeycombs from the wall so that another colony does not stumble across it and decide to turn it into their home.

Chubak noticed that the bees had tried to do some renovations of their own as they had taken out parts of the insulation in the wall and replaced it with honeycomb and their hive! He thinks that the bees have been living there for as long as four years, much longer than the Judds.