Speeding crackdown Sunday

Sep 28, 2007 02:35 PM

Ontario, Canada’s new street car racing rule is affecting a lot on Sunday and polices predicts many "shocks and awes" over the tough new provincial legislation.

If a driver is caught going fifty (50)km over the speed limit, the police officer has right to take away the driver’s car and license for 7days with a minimum of $2,000 fine.

The safety officials are optimistic about the new law and they think that it is a very good idea and will help drivers to drive safer.

Brian Patterson, the president of the Ontario Safety League, said “This is going to be a good day for safety driving”.

On Saturday, before the legislation was made, when a driver gets caught driving at 160km/h when the speed limit is 100km/h, you would receive a summons to appear in court and be on your way.

In my opinion, this new legislation is a great idea! By this law, many people will get affected by it. This will help people to drive safe and keep them in the speed zone. I think that over the next few years, you will see a lot of changes of the driving policies in Ontario. On the other hand, it will be very busy for polices and courts for them.

Article from http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/261595

Girls study harder than boys, says StatsCan

Sep 20, 2007 09:18 AM

Statistics Canada says that young men (teenagers) are less likely to attend universities than young women (teenagers). The new study attributes the difference in academic performances, study habits at the age of 15, and parental expectations.

StatsCan says that 1/4th (26%) of 19year-old young men only attended universities in 2003 while 2/5th (39%) of 19year-old young women are attending universities.

StatsCan found out that 77% was different in the characteristics of young men and women that were available in the study. The poorer academic performances were performed by young-men which accounted for almost half of the gap. Young men performed lower overall school average in the age of 15 years old and had performed weaker performance on a standardized reading test.

Another 11% of the gap was shown that the young men are spending far less time on their homework that girls and approximately 9% was related with the lower educational expectations placed upon boys by their parents.

The study was shown that men women have different characteristics at the age of 15. For example, only 33% of young men are receiving overall average of 80% or higher in their schools while 46% of young women are receiving the same.

Also, only 20% of the young men received in the top mark in standardized reading test when here were 30% of young women were getting top mark.

In my opinion, there are students who are willing to work and who are not willing to work in both genre (boys and girls). I don’t think that girls or boys are better than each other but I think that girls are more “passionate” about studying. I recommend boys to start study harder than before and let’s catch up to the girls!

Article from http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/258680

High loonie no shopping boon

Sep 19, 2007 04:24 PM

Canadian consumers think that it is not a big saving when buying in domestic market because of the surging loonie. They are being urged by some groups to travel to the United States of America if they want to benefit from nearly parity with the American dollars.

It is possible for Canadian dollars to be equal to US dollars any point soon, following a huge leap Tuesday after United States of America Federal Reserve surprised investors by cutting its key interest rate by half a percentage point.

Today (Wednesday), the currency is now at 98.5 cents U.S., after nudging 99 cents overnight.
new record price for oil of more than US$82 per barrel and a Lower U.S. interest rates sent the loonie rocketing upwards – taking hopes of cheaper U.S. imports along with it.

Even though the loonie is at its highest level since January 1977, after the Fed announcement, many economists say “it could be up to two years before consumers see any effect at Canadian stores, if the loonie remains at current levels.”

In my opinion, there is an advantage and disadvantage for loonie’s currency to be higher and US currency is going down. The advantage is that when traveling whether for business or tour, you will spend less money than before. Also when applying for universities in US, it will cost cheaper. By making Canadian currency higher, it will be very beneficial to Canada’s image and will be beneficial to people who work in Canada. However on the other hand, because my father is working in Korea and sending money for school’s tuition and etc…, my father will have to work harder than before and will not be benefit for me.

Article from http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/258299

Man dead after online gaming binge

Sep 17, 2007 08:48 AM

In Beijing, A man from Southern China appeared to have died of exhaustion after playing Internet games. At Saturday afternoon, the man, who is 30 year old, fainted at a cyber café in Guangzhou after playing games online for three days. After the man was found fainted, the paramedics came and tried to save his life. Unfortunately, the revival lead to failure and he was announced dead at the café. The online-game that the man was playing and the name of the man were not told in the media from Beijing news.
After the paramedics declared that the man died in the café, all of the Web surfers, feeling fear, left the café.

China has more than 140 million Internet users, second only to the United States of America. It is one of the world’s biggest markets for online games, with millions of players, many of them whom are hooked into playing online games and hunkered down for hours in front of computers in public Internet cafés. In China, many cities have clinics that treat “Internet addictions” with people and many of them are children and teenagers, playing online games or suffer of the Web for days.

In my opinion, dying from exhaustion of playing games is very ridiculous. I think that it is very stupid to play online games for 3 days in a row. Personally, if I play an online game for 3 hours, I feel really dizzy and feel like my head is going to blow up. I can’t imagine how some people play games for days. Also, I think that no one wants to die by playing games in “café”. Finally, I think that playing games for fun, to get rid of stress, etc… for few hours will be fine but too much, will just hurt you.

Article from http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/257404

Tsunamis feared after Indonesian quake

September 12th, 2007 11:27 AM

It is a picture of a residence looking at the destroyed building

after the strong earthquake.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, at least 7 people were killed and injured 100 people by a massive earthquake and it also triggered a small tsunami in Western part of Indonesia. The warnings were told across most of the Indian Ocean region.

It was the earthquake magnitude of 8.2 that badly damaged the Sumatra island buildings along the coast. This earthquake was too strong that it could be felt in at least four other countries, making the buildings sway (2,000km away). Later, it was followed by many aftershocks which the strongest was magnitude of 6.6 and it also triggered for a second tsunami alert in Indonesia.

After 20 minutes of the initial earthquake, the tsunami wave of up to 3m high struck the city of Padang. Fortunately, only few of the buildings were damaged because people in Padang have been warned before the tsunami had struck. People had evacuated faster because of the reminder of 2004 tsunami disaster. Thanks to police, they went out early to warn people to stay away from the beaches. After the quake, frightened people fled their homes and ran to inland, fearing a repeat of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Sensitive to the 2004 tsunami disaster, governments issued alerts as far away as Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, telling people to leave beaches. People in Mombasa, Kenya, crowded into buses after hearing the warning over the radio. Also, Sri Lankans were told to move at least 660 feet inland.

In my opinion, because we all knew about the 2004 tsunami disaster, we were able to save more lives and we now know what to do. I think that the police in Indonesia, Kenya, East Africa, etc… were very calm, smart and did their job well to evacuate people. Indonesia, the world's largest group of islands, is prone to extreme disturbance due to its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Article from http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/255739

Minor injuries only in fiery plane crash

September 10th, 2007 - 09:17 AM

A picture of passengers in the car after the emergency landing in
Aalborg Airport, Denmark, September 9th, 2007

In Copenhagen, Denmark, during the emergency landing, a Scandinavian airlines turboprop carrying 73passengers. The plane caught on fire as it was landing on a runway in a cloud of smoke and dust. Fortunately, only 5passengers suffered minor injuries.

The plane had departed from Copenhagen’s international airport for the short flight to Aalborg airport in western Denmark. This plane, Q400 turboprop, collapsed its right landing gear during the touchdown in Sunday at the Aalborg airport. This plane was still in SAS Monday, blocking the traffic. Scandinavian airlines decided to drop all of the flights to Aalborg because the “spare” runway wasn’t big enough for its planes.

While the plane was flying up in the sky, the pilot informed the control tower because he noticed that the landing gear had a problem. He then dumped out the fuels and made the emergency landing. Ternert blamed on the airline and the aircraft maker named “Bombardier” for the problem with the landing gear.

The TV footage from public broadcasters showed the collapsing while the touchdown (the right landing gear). When the plane’s right landing gear collapsed, it tilted to the right and its wing got hit to the ground making the aircraft spinning on the runway. While this disaster, one of its propeller broke loose and cut through the cabins. Luckily, it did not hit any of the passengers.

The firefighters quickly put out a fire right after the plane landed. They put out a fire before the 69passengers evacuated form the plane and only five of the passengers got a minor injury.

Scandinavian Airlines, or also known as SAS, is the joint flag carrier of Norway, Denmark or Sweden. After this crash, fifteen of the European flights to and from Copenhagen were also cancelled because of the accident.

In my opinion, I think that the pilot tried his best to protect the passengers and that he should be awarded for this because the pilot made a smart decision on dumping out all of its fuels. If there are loads of fuels in the tank, the wires, sparks and fuels would make an explosion. I think that the airlines and the “airplane examiners” were not responsible for their work. Next time, they should concentrate more on checking what is wrong with it. Also, I think that the passengers and pilots are lucky that no one died and only few had minor injuries.

aricle from: http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/254917

Poor mothers have smaller babies, says study

Oct 02, 2007 09:56 AM

The study in Ottawa says that mothers from the poorer neighbourhoods in Toronto are more likely to have smaller babies or give birth prematurely.

The study of births in Toronto in the year 1996 to 2001 stated that mothers from the lowest-income neighbourhoods in the city were 25% more likely to have a preterm birth than mothers in the richest neighbourhoods and also 53% more likely to have an under-weight baby at full-term.

Immigrant women in the same neighbourhoods, however, were less likely to give birth prematurely, although their babies were smaller. Those smaller babies may be related more to ancestry than income, however.

The highest rates of immigration to Toronto in recent years were from China, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.

"Women born in southern and eastern Asia tend to be shorter and lighter and to have lower caloric intake than Canadian-born women – factors that contribute to smaller babies, and consequently, to lower birthweight," the study said.

Compared with mothers in the richest neighbourhoods, non-immigrant mothers from poor neighbourhoods were more likely to be under 20, to have had at least one illness during pregnancy and to give birth by caesarean section.

"Longer-term residents in low-income neighbourhoods were clearly the subgroup experiencing the highest risk of adverse birth outcomes, probably because of the influence of lasting socio-economic disadvantage."

The study contained a number of caveats. For example, while it looked at mothers from poor neighbourhoods, there was no way to pin down details such as individual income.

In my opinion, I don’t think that this is true. I think that it doesn’t matter how you look or how small you will be affected by how poor your parents are. For example, Many of the “most tallest person in the world” ‘s parents are not very rich. I think that it is one of your DNA gene and how tall your parents are determines your height. I heard from the internet that your height is determined by how tall your parents are. (DNA gene)

Article from http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/262647

Wounded biker sues strip club for $1.1M

Hells Angel says club should have checked employee for weapons

Carlo Verrelli, Toronto Hells Angels biker, is suing the Vaughan strip club for 1.1 million dollar saying that he has suffered permanent psychological and physical injuries from being shot several times by a club employee, who also fatally shot a fellow Hells Angel.

Verrelli's lawsuit claims that Club Pro Adult Entertainment should have checked its security consultant, Francisco Lenti, 60, for weapons the night of Dec. 2, 2006.

In December 3rd, Lenti was charged by York Region police with second-degree murder for shooting David (Dred) Buchanan of the West Toronto Hells Angels chapter, and attempted murder for wounding Verrelli and Dana Carnegie, also of the West Toronto Hells Angels.

Lenti had been employed for several years as a security consultant at the strip club near the corner of Highway 7 and Jane St.

He has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder and attempted murder charges.

In my opinion, I think that Carlo Verrelli wants too much from the club. I think that it is his fault that he got badly injured after few shots by the club employee. Also, I think that Yor Region police made a mistake that they did not charge Lenti Francisco for second-hand murder.

Article from http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/265283