The Town of Asbestos Changes Its Name
People in the Canadian town of Asbestos have voted to change the town’s name, saying the current name makes it hard to attract interest from foreign businesses.
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People in the Canadian town of Asbestos have voted to change the town’s name, saying the current name makes it hard to attract interest from foreign businesses. Asbestos is a mineral that was once commonly used, but is now known to be dangerous.
Asbestos is a natural mineral that was once commonly used in many building materials all over the world. The town of Asbestos got its name because of the huge amounts of asbestos found there. For years, the world’s largest asbestos mine was located in Asbestos.
But in the early 1900s, scientists began to suspect that asbestos was dangerous. Later it was learned that asbestos causes cancer. Asbestos is now banned in many countries.
(Source: Bryn Pinzgauer [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.)
In French, asbestos is called “amiante”, so the name didn’t bother local people. But in the English-speaking world, many people aren’t eager to open a package that says “Asbestos”.
So the town has now voted to change the name to “Val-des-Sources”, which means “Valley of the Springs”. The name change is expected to become official by December.
AOC Plays Video Game Online to Get People to Vote
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents New York in the US Congress. On Tuesday night, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who’s often known by her initials – AOC, played an online video game called “Among Us” for over three hours.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (above) represents New York in the US Congress. On Tuesday night, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who’s often known by her initials – AOC, played an online video game called “Among Us” for over three hours.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s game was carried live on the streaming site Twitch, drawing huge numbers of viewers. Twitch is a website for sharing videos of people playing video games. People also gather there to discuss games and other subjects.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez isn’t a big gamer, but she wanted to use Twitch to reach out to people and encourage them to vote. She played with other well-known Twitch players and Representative Ilhan Omar.
(Source: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/Twitch.tv.)
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch stream got lots of attention. At the busiest point, around 435,000 people watched Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s stream, making it one of the 20 most popular Twitch streams ever.
During the game, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez found time to discuss health care and to encourage people to “make a voting plan”. Young voters are expected to play an important role in the US election in November, but they can only make a difference if they actually vote
SSC Tuatara Sets New Car Speed Records
On October 10, race car driver Oliver Webb set several new speed records as he flew down an extremely straight two-lane Nevada highway. Mr. Webb was driving a car called Tuatara made by SSC. He hoped to break a speed record of 277.9 mph (447.24 kph) set in 2017.
(Source: SSC North America.)
When Mr. Webb finished, he and the SSC crew were shocked to learn that he had blown away the old record. His average speed was 316.11 mph (508.71 kph). That shattered the official record, as well as an unofficial one set by Bugatti last year. At its fastest, the Tuatara was going 331.15 mph (532.93 kph).
(Source: SSC North America.)
Mr. Webb says he could have driven the car even faster if there hadn’t been a wind blowing across the road, making conditions dangerous. “We were covering one and a half football fields each second,” he said, “So I needed to keep my eyes on the road.”