Apps For Kids

Cows in Russia are getting treated to pleasant experiences, by wearing virtual reality headsets. Farmers want to see if the cows produce more and better milk, if they think they’re standing in a meadow. The cows certainly appear happier, but it seems like letting them roam on a real field would be easier!

Today is Rosa Parks Day, commemorating the date she became a hero in the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955, for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Alabama. A new statue has been erected in Montgomery Alabama, honoring Rosa and the fight for equality.

Today is Eat A Red Apple Day! Buy a whole bag and make an apple pie, since it’s also National Pie Day! Pie rhymes with tie, and guess what! It’s the beginning of Tie Month. You can wear bow ties, string ties, fat ties, skinny ties, bolo ties, or light-up ties, all month long!

Last Tuesday, officers in Oklahoma escorted an intruder out of a house. A deer had gotten inside, and locked itself in the bedroom! The police department joked that people should wait until after Thanksgiving, to put up their Christmas decorations. I think the deer left them some chocolate candy on the floor, ha-ha.

It takes a lot of coal to produce steel. The steelmaking industry burns about 1,000,000,000 tons of coal every year, and each ton of burned coal produces 3 tons of carbon dioxide, which is really bad for the Earth. But a German company has successfully built a hydrogen-powered blast furnace, which only emits water vapor. Awesome!

Recent bush fires burned millions of acres in Australia, destroying eucalyptus trees where koala bears lived. Many koalas were injured, and have burned paws, so people have been knitting mittens for them! Koala rescue groups have received thousands of mittens, and $2,000,000 in donations, to help all the wildlife hurt by the fires.

The Columbus Zoo in Ohio, welcomed a new baby on Thursday. Polar bear parents Aurora and Lee, had a cub! Polar bear cubs weigh only 1-2 pounds at birth, but could grow to over 1000 pounds and 10 feet tall! The zoo staff won’t disturb the mama and baby to see if it’s a boy or girl.

Today is Stay Home Because You’re Well Day. You can have more fun on your day off, when you’re not sick! Eat some chocolate mousse, for Mousse Day. Then celebrate Small Business Saturday by going shopping. Visit a small, family-owned business when you need something, because they need something too: your business!

Scientists have discovered a way to put microorganisms on a diet. They used gene editing, to make bacteria eat nothing but CO2, carbon dioxide. This could help biotech companies that make chemicals, that are less harmful to the environment. Maybe we can get the bacteria to eat all the extra CO2 on Earth!

Playing games keeps your mind sharp. A study of a group that was tested over a period of 68 years, found that those who played board games, had better memory function. They also had improved thinking speed. The improvements were not seen with digital games, but playing cards and doing crosswords were also beneficial.