And now, a list of the

worst-everpasswords Come on, Einstein!

You can do better!

Before January slips away, let’s have one fi nal “Best of” list for 2013. Only this is a “Worst of” list, and if you fi nd yourself on it, maybe you should think a little harder about Internet security!

Splashdata has released its annual “Worst Password” list for the past year. Actually, it’s the “25 Most Common Passwords,” but that’s pretty much the same thing: It’s also a list of passwords that Internet pranksters and crooks would try fi rst if they wanted to break into your on-line life.

The most common (so absolutely worst) password was “123456.” Yeah, nobody would ever guess that! Next is “password” and after that comes “12345678,” which is much more complicated than “123456.” For the whole list of really, really bad passwords, catch the link at ColoradoNIE.com

2013

ColoradoKids CK ReporterInnagen Roberts,

Lakewood

He’ll Help you See SoCHiOver 88 million people

turn on their TVs every day to watch sports.

They don’t often wonder who is showing them the event.

Cameraman Bo McWilliams of Arvada is one of the many people who bring sports to your TV.

This year he will travel to Sochi, Russia, for four weeks to fi lm the Winter Olympics.

He last fi lmed the Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010. McWilliams is excited to shoot his seventh Olympics.

There are many bonuses to being a cameraman.

According to McWilliams, it’s one of the best things in the world to be working with a big team on a huge project.

“It is like a big party being orchestrated by the director,” he says.

Videographers (also called “camera operators”) can be awarded Emmys, and McWilliams has won three for technical achievements, something he admits he feels “really is cool.”

Though being a cameraman has its ups, there are

a few downs as well. McWilliams loves

going to new places to fi lm and see new things, but there are a few things he misses.

“Leaving my two kids, my wife, and my three cats is the hard-est part,” he states.

Can you imagine being away from your family for a month?

McWilliams is also a very skilled sports-man.

In events such as the Winter X Games held in Aspen, he’s had to ski backwards while fi lming.

At the Olympics, he will have to crouch on a platform while holding a hand camera which has a lens two- and-a-half feet long.

He won’t be the only one fi lming each event.

Fourteen other vid-eographers will join him to shoot every event.

At the Olympics, he will be shooting the free-style skiers and snowboarders. Different camera operators will take care of the other venues.

If you want to see what McWilliams shoots, just turn to NBC, starting February 7.

Start here: You learn in science that a “calorie” is a unit of heat.

And when people talk about exercising, they sometimes call it “burning some calories.”

And when they eat a lot of rich food, what do they worry about getting too many of?

Exactly.So this makes sense: Dutch

researchers say turning your heat down for a few hours a day can help prevent obesity.

To start with, shivering is a way your warm-blooded body responds to cold to make heat.

After people in the Dutch study got used to having their thermostats set at 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahren-heit) for six hours a day, they stopped shivering.

But they still generated heat and burned calories: In a Japanese study, people whose thermostats were set at 17 (63) degrees for just two hours a day had less body fat.

Talk about a cool diet!Photo by Steve Evans

neW FAmily diet:turn doWn tHe

tHermoStAt

By Vivien Weigel10, a CK Reporter from Arvada

Local talent Bo Williams, hard at work in his offi ce. The Arvada man is headed to his seventh Olympic games Photo by Reid Nelson

list of really, really bad passwords, catch the link at

January 28, 2014

“All That Glows,” by Ryan Graudin, is the story of Emrys, a fiery

red-headed girl who loved her simple life in the Highlands.

She spent her days shuffling Kelpies into pastures.

However she is summoned to London, where her magic is weak, to rejoin the Faery Guard.

When she arrives back in London, Emrys isn’t given any ordinary task: She is assigned to guard Britain’s notorious bad boy, Prince Richard.

With the prince’s royal blood and careless actions, he is irre-sistible to the dark spirits, who feed on mortals.

Emrys has no choice, but to go on an adventure filled quest

through London’s magical underworld, facing many obsta-cles, to put her magic and heart to the test.

Emrys needs to know if she has enough power to save Prince Richard.

During all this chaos, Emrys discovers a force that is more power-ful than magic: love.

“All That Glows” was easy to follow and had imag-ery that helped me picture what was happening, as if I were seeing it through my own eyes; in fact, Ryan Graudin made me feel like I was in the story.

I could picture Emrys search-

ing through the magical under world and fighting the dark spirits.

Within the first couple of pages I was hooked, and, after that, there was no way you could have made me put the book down.

Each page was filled with mystery and suspense that kept me on the edge of my seat.

This story was unpredict-able. It was hard for me to guess what was

going to happen next.I would recommend “All That

Glows” to anyone 12 to 15, who likes adventure, mystery and a little bit of a love story.

Adventure, mystery, and a little love

Splendiferous, spindiddly, facto-fabulous!

In “A Snicker of Magic,” by Natalie Lloyd, word-collector Felicity Pickle is a sixth grade girl who lives in a small apart-ment with her sister, mom, aunt and uncle.

Felicity knows for a fact,

though, that they will not stay there for long. Felicity’s family is always traveling.

They have lived all over the world and they still haven’t settled down in just one place.

Felicity and her younger sister Fannie Jo hope that Mid-night Gulch is the final place to call home.

Midnight Gulch used to be a magi-cal place, but ever since the Threadbare brothers left the town, magic is slowly disap-pearing.

Almost everybody still has

magic in their veins, but they choose not to use it.

Felicity, on the other hand, doesn’t have a choice.

She is a word collector.

She sees words floating around people’s hair, on walls, on posters, everywhere.

Stone and Berry, the two Threadbare brothers, had musical magic.

When they played their instruments, everything would dance:

trees, clouds, people, and even the grass!

Stone and Berry eventually

became very competitive and decided to have a duel to see who was a better magician.

The loser would be cursed for life and would have to leave the town immediately, using no more magic ever again.

The curse read: “You’re cursed to wander through the night, till cords align, and all’s made right. Where sweet amends are made and spoken, shadows dance, the curse is broken.”

The rest of the story takes you on an adventure with Felic-ity and her best friend Jonah as they try to figure out the mystery of Midnight Gulch.

I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it for the average reader ages 10 and up because of the incredible vocabulary.

“A Snicker Of Magic” is very entertaining and I just couldn’t put it down!

On Page One and Page Four of this week’s CK, you’ll find stories about people with jobs a lot of sports fans would really enjoy. But there are great jobs in many places. Look through today’s newspaper for people at work and choose a job that looks to you like fun. Then find a Web site that tells what it takes to get a job like that.

Beyond these four pages

A magical, entertaining novel for word collectors

By Kaiya Cox,9, a CK Reporter from Aurora

Colorado Kidsis produced by

Denver Post Educational ServicesExecutive Editor: Dana Plewka

dplewka@denverpost.comCK Editor: Mike Peterson

coloradokidseditor@gmail.comWe welcome your comments.

For tools to extend the learning in this feature, look under“eEdition lessons” at:

www.ColoradoNIE.com

eEditions of the Post arefree of charge for classroom use.Contact us for information on all

our programs.

Denver Post Educational Services101 W. Colfax Ave.Denver CO 80202

(303) 954-3974(800) 336-7678

By Nikki Dresen,12, a CK Reporter from Winter Park

Talks began this week in Geneva, Switzerland, in hopes of ending the civil

war in Syria.But, while talking is better

than not talking, there seems little hope of peace.

The war has been going on for three years, and has killed about 100,000 Syrians.

In addition, 2.3 million people have fled the country, accord-ing to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

The largest number, 869,000, are in Lebanon, while 600,000 are living in Jordan, 582,000 are in Turkey, 213,000 in Iraq and 132,000 are in Egypt.

The UNHCR estimates that 6.5 million more have been made homeless by the fighting but are still in the country.

To understand this, it helps to know that Syria’s total population is about 22 million, compared to the United States,

which has a population that is about 14-and-a-quarter times that of Syria.

Syria has been led by Bashar al-Assad since 2000, but harsh laws made many people unhap-py with his government.

Open rebellion began in 2011, and it has been very hard for anyone to make peace because the rebels are made up of sev-eral groups.

Many of these rebel groups are Syrian, but others are part of al Qaeda and the groups do not all trust or like each other.

Russia and the United States, along with the European Union and the Arab League, have co-operated with the UN to set up peace talks.

But the Syrian government says Assad will not step down, and the rebels say they will not cease fighting until he does.

That is not a very promising way to talk of peace.

Can talking solve Syria’s nightmare?

Teachers!It’s time to register for the

Colorado Council for International Reading Association Conference

• 21 Featured Speakers• 18 Featured Authors• Hundreds of break-out sessions• Vendors• University credit

VisitCCIRA.orgto register.

SudokuRules: Every row across, every column down and each of the six smaller boxes must contain numerals 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, one time and one time only. The solution to this week’s puzzle is on Page 4.

1

3 6

6 4

5 3 2

2 5

2 6

School continues for these Syrian students in a United Nations refugee camp just outside of Amman, Jordan. Their teacher is also a refugee from the war. AP Photo: Mohammed Hannon

ck Kids and adults can find live links to information about stories in Colorado Kids at www.ColoradoNIE.com

The equipment manager of the Denver Broncos, Chris Valenti, and his

staff have a lot on their plate every day, and especially now.

They take care of everything from hel-mets on the field to bow ties for press confer-ences.

Valenti, who is my uncle, has been equipment man-ager for 17 years, and was voted NFL Equipment Manager of the Year in 2011.

If you are like me, you sit at home with your family watch-ing the Broncos on Sundays.

As the game unfolds, though, questions enter my mind, and, during a visit with my Uncle Chris I got some of them an-swered.

For instance, I see Knowshon Moreno lose a shoe while gain-ing a first down. How many pairs of shoes does a player have?

It differs from player to player: Some use one pair as long as they can, others get a new pair each week.

Each player is given one hel-

met per season. It is polished and repaired before each game, and the Broncos go through 750 pairs of helmet stickers per season.

Every Bronco fan dreams of owning a Peyton Manning jer-sey, but how many jerseys does each player get?

Each player has one active jersey and one back-up in each color (orange, blue and white). The Broncos only wear their

blue jer-seys twice a season.

Before each game, an NFL official watches the team warm up, looking to see if any of the

rules of attire have been broken. Shirts must be tucked in, pants

must go past the knee, socks must be pulled up and even the color of the shoelaces must match the tongue of the shoe.

Any violation of these rules is reported to Valenti before the game so that the players can fix the problem and not be fined.

In addition, the NFL only allows Nike and Under Armour logos to show. Any other logos must be covered.

Fans see the players out on the field, but they don’t see how much work goes into a three hour game. The game can’t go on, though, without the equipment staff.

Who wants a valentine custom-made by kids? Everyone!

Especially when the card is made 100% by creative kids as part of a writing workshop.

You could give one to your Valentine, to a family member, or to a friend.

This work-shop has long been a popular tradition at Metro Denver Promotion of Letters (MDPL), a special event in which kids make original cards for Valentine’s Day.

It starts with a two-day work-shop, dedicated to Valentine’s Day. Kids learn about differ-ent types of poems and create hand-made cards using collage and craft-making tools.

But of course, 8 to 12 year olds are making the cards, so they are extra fun and funny.

Then, inside each unique card, the kids write a poem of your choice.

It could be an acrostic, cou-plet, or haiku, and anything per-sonally memorable might find

its way into the poem based on a quick checklist you fill out.

The card could be sad, happy, romantic, funny or even sassy.

While you give Valentines in the spirit of love, the kids will have fun making your Valen-tine’s card.

For me, writing them is like being at an important job, but an exciting one.

Whenever I am at MDPL, I am always ready to write

because they make it fasci-nating. I get to share my ideas, and I don’t feel shy.

Every month, old and new writers come together to write, but at this workshop the kids are

writing for people all over the USA.

The cards are made especially for your Valentine and then delivered.

All the proceeds go to help pay for free creative writing workshops and after-school tutoring for kids of all ages.

You can order cards online until February 8, or you can have one made right before your eyes at the Tattered Cover Book Shop, 2526 East Colfax, Saturday, Feb. 8 from 10 to 3.

For more information on cus-tom MDPL Valentines, see the link at ColoradoNIE.com

BronCoS Suit up poetry And Art mAke lovABle vAlentineS

Sudoku

Solution254613

316425

561234

145362

632541

423156

By Izzy Valenti,11, a CK Reporter from Golden

By Mia Schwinghammer, 10.a CK Reporter from Denver

Photo by Izzy Valenti

Photo by Mia Schwinghammer

Youth-written stories that appear here also appear on

Come read more stories, and maybe write one yourself!

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