Friday, 12 November, 2021
Wild and wacky weather weekend; London’s venomous sharks; Mr Beast saves the oceans; and introducing Squiz Kids Correspondents.
LINKS
Alice Springs: Todd River in flood: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2021/nov/11/heavy-rain-leaves-alice-springs-flooded-with-australias-eastern-states-on-alert-video
London’s venomous sharks: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/venomous-sharks-london-scli-intl-gbr-scn/index.html
Mr Beast cleans a beach: https://video.link/w/XVVJc
TeamSeas initiative: Teamseas.org
Frog ID week info: https://www.frogid.net.au/frog-id-week
How To Become A Squiz Kids Correspondent
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FH2HA28InnLU6UxE91wrLBAbCMT40Mua/view
Squiz Kids Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squizkids/?hl=en
Got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out? Send us an email at [email protected]
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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Rainfall records have already been broken and there’s a wet and wild weekend on the way for large parts of the country as two weather systems collide over the centre and east of Australia, causing rivers to flood and temperatures to plummet.
The Todd River in Alice Springs – in the usually dry centre of Australia – had actual water running through it this week after the heaviest day of rainfall there in just under 20 years. There’s a link in today’s episode notes to footage of the rare event.
Yesterday, it was the turn of northern NSW and southern Queensland – where daily rainfall records for November were broken and more rivers swelled and broke their banks.
South Australia too copped a drenching yesterday as what’s called a low pressure system hovered over the state. A low pressure system is a weather system often associated with rain. And that rain is expected to move east across NSW, into the ACT and down into Victoria – with weather forecasters – who are people who predict the weather – warning the southern states could be in for a very wet weekend.
And as if all of that isn’t enough: temperatures in the south are also expected to drop – with Canberra expecting a top of only 12 degrees on Saturday, and Melbourne has been told to expect a maximum temperature of only 15 degrees over the weekend.
But at least that’s mildly better than Tassie – where snow has been forecast for the weekend ahead.
Because, you know, we’re three weeks away from the start of summer … makes perfect sense.
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin, and find a story wherever it stops. And today we’ve landed in … England … where venomous sharks have been found in the river Thames.
Venomous means they produce poison.
If you’ve ever been to London, or seen photos of it or seen it on the telly, you’ll know the river Thames as the brown, dirty-looking river that runs through it. A new study of wildlife in the river has revealed there are lots more animals living in the river than previously thought – including sea horses, eels and a shark called a spurdog which has venomous spikes on its fin. Cool.
Sixty years ago, the river was so polluted that scientists declared it ‘biologically dead’ – meaning it was too dirty for marine life to live in. But a recent health check of the river has found it is much cleaner and home now to all sorts of interesting creatures.
I’ve stuck a link in today’s episode notes to photos of the venomous shark. I mean, as if sharks aren’t terrifying enough ..
POP CULTURE CORNER
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Hands up if you’ve heard of Mr. Beast, the YouTuber with over 70 million followers of his incredible—and incredibly expensive—online stunts… like “last one to take their hand off the Lamborghini wins it”? And how about Mark Rober, the former NASA and Apple engineer who is also a YouTuber with millions of followers?
Yeah, I thought so. My kids love them too. Well, Mr Beast and Mark have done it again… in just a few days they’ve raised over $14 million dollars to clean up our oceans, beaches and rivers. Hashtag #teamseas is similar to their 2019 #teamtrees effort, which raised $20 million and is STILL planting over 2,000 trees every day.
Hundreds of other content creators all over the world, like Dan TDM, are making videos for the massive fundraiser, and their online followers are responding by donating. The goal is to raise $30 million by January 1… I’ve popped links in your episode notes to Mr Beast’s video, in which he and a team spends four days cleaning 27,000 kgs of rubbish off the world’s dirtiest beach. Give that a try this summer holidays.
SQUIZ KIDS CORRESPONDENTS
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New segment alert! New segment alert!
The Squiz Kids community stretches all over Australia, and all around the world. There are Squiz Kids in outback Australia, living on farms, on boats and in high-rise apartments in big cities. Just as there are Squiz Kids tuning in from the USA, Great Britain, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Doha, Canada, France, the Netherlands … you name it.
So we’ve created Squiz Kids Correspondents – a new segment where we get to know the country we live in, and the world around us, by seeing it through the eyes of fellow Squiz Kids.
So if you live somewhere interesting – either here in Australia or overseas – we want to know what your life is like. Where you live, what you love about it, what you don’t like so much, what school is like there, what you eat for lunch, the one place you’d take us if we came to visit.
Send in the story of your life and we’ll play it on the podcast.
There’s a link to an information sheet in today’s episode notes – explaining what we want to know and how you can become a Squiz Kids Correspondent.
And to kickstart proceedings, let’s hear from Felix and Scarlett – a pair of Squiz Kids who live in Malaysia … take it away guys …
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What’s the name of the river in England which is home to venomous sharks?
- Name the YouTubers who have banded together to clean up the world’s oceans?
- What’s the capital city of Malaysia, home to our Squiz Kids Correspondents?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s November 12 … today’s the start of Frog ID week .. where you can join thousands of amateur Aussie scientists helping to take stock of the health of our froggie population .. there’s an explainer link in today’s episode notes..
It’s also a Friday – and you know what that means? An extra long birthday shout out segment … for which I’m going to crack out the birthday reggae tune .. hit it ..
It’s a happy birthday today… Heath from Inverell, Lizzie from the Gold Coast, Orlando from Thirroul, Logan from Mansfield, Aanya from
Point Cook, Summer-Rose from Melton, Angus from West Beach, Emily from Mt Isa and Ada (pronounced Ar-dar) from Fadden.
Not forgetting of course all of those Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday over the coming weekend …Liliana from Mount Martha, Terence from Epping, Tyra from Glen Innes, Eliana and Harrison from Pemulwuy, Anna from Blackburn South, Trixie from Launceston, Molly from Erskineville, Alejandro from Abbotsford, Juliet from Mont Albert North, Haylee from Malanda, Joshua from Willowdale and Ollie from Melbourne.
A belated shout out goes to Lucie from Darlinghurst.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- River Thames
- Mr Beast + Mark Rober
- Kuala Lumpur