Friday, 9 December, 2022
Contagious courage in Ukraine; TikTok in big trouble; World Cup quarter finals kick off; and it’s time for the Squizzie Awards!
LINKS
Time Magazine Person of the Year cover: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-63890775
Blackpink video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHNzOHi8sJs
Google Trends 2022: https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2022/AU/
Newshounds
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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You’ve heard of Ukraine, yes? Of course you have. We’ve talked about it often on the podcast this year – and you can’t turn on a news bulletin without hearing about the war that’s going on there.
As Ukrainians continue to fight back against the Russian invasion of their country – they received a little bit of moral support after being named as TIME magazine’s Persons of The Year …
So what’s that exactly? TIME magazine is a respected international news magazine – and every year it names its Person of The Year … someone, or something, that has had a significant global impact on the year just gone.
And this year’s Person of the Year was Ukraine President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy and the ‘Spirit of Ukraine’ .. you will know President Zelenskyy from the TV news – he’s the one you often see dressed in khaki – I’ve stuck a link to the magazine cover in today’s episode notes.
The “Spirit of Ukraine’ was described by the magazine’s editors as all Ukrainians around the world who have fought to protect their country.
And according to the mag, “Zelensky’s success as a wartime leader has relied on the fact that courage is contagious,” … what a nice sentiment. As well as being a nice little bit of alliteration.
The magazine also recognised women in Iran as its Heroes of 2022 – as they continue their protests against the government there – and the Kpop band Blackpink as Entertainer’s of the year.
And for a bit of Friday light relief .. I’ve stuck a link to the Blackpink video DDU-DU DDU-DU .. which has 1.9b Youtube views, and counting …
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops .. and today we’ve landed in Indiana, in the United States, where TikTok is in big trouble.
The state of Indiana has taken TikTok to court – alleging that the social media platform exposes children to inappropriate content.
Alleging is a word you will hear all the time in the media. It’s something that someone says has happened – but which a court has yet to decide HAS actually happened.
The lawmakers in Indiana claim Tikok purposely targets kids younger than 13 yo – which is the minimum age that you can be on the popular app. And that it exposes young kids to adult content – long before their brains are mature enough to process it.
The governor of the state of Texas – also in the United States – has joined the TikTok action, banning TikTok from any government-issued devices.
Both states allege – there’s that word again – that through its parent company in China, the Chinese government has access to all sorts of sensitive TikTok user data.
TikTok has not commented on the allegations.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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If our Google searches as a nation for 2022 are anything to go by – we’re a country that loves Wordle, was especially interested in election results and events in Ukraine and Tonga – and can’t get enough of the World Cup, the Australian Open and anything to do with the late cricketer Shane Warne. Oh – and apparently we’re all really keen to know the recipe for drunken chicken.
That at least are the conclusions we can draw from the topics that trended most on Google in Australia in the past year.
The top 5 trending topics overall were Wordle, Australian Open, World Cup, Shane Warne and Ukraine … when it came to the top five trending Australians, it’s sport, sport and more sport – with a little dash of politics – with Ash Barty, Nick Kyrgios, Anthony Albanese, Thonassi Kokkinakis and Dylan Alcott taking out the top five spots.
I’ve stuck a link to the web page in today’s episode if you want to have a poke around.
SPORT TIME
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Thank goodness it’s the weekend – and many of you are on school hols – because there’s not going to be a whole lot of sleeping done this weekend as the FIFA World Cup quarter finals kick off.
First up will be Croatia and Brazil kicking off at 1am, then a few hours later, the Netherlands will take on the team that narrowly beat the Socceroos – Argentina. If you’ve got the stamina and want to pull another all-night, Sunday morning will see Morocco take on Portugal at 1am, followed at 5am by the big one – France v England. Is it ok to have popcorn at 5 in the morning? I’m going to say yeah …
CHRISTMAS with LEGO
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Ah yes my friends … we’ve finally arrived at the moment of truth. The moment where we reveal just how many families Christmases are going to be made just that little bit more merry by the generosity of Squiz Kids.
As you know, for the past four weeks we’ve been asking you, our clever, generous listeners to join us in our Build To Give Christmas charity campaign. For every LEGO build you created and shared to our Instagram – the good folk of LEGO agreed to give away a LEGO set to a family in need this Christmas.
So just how many LEGO sets did you build? Drum roll please (DRUM ROLL …) 530.
Wow! Just wow! I’m so impressed. Give yourselves a pat on the back.
And you know: the thing is – it wasn’t just the number of builds that Squiz Kids contributed to this campaign: -the inventiveness, the creativity, the thought that went into each one was just astounding.
We’ve shared them all on our Instagram page for anyone who wants to have a squiz.
A huge thank you to each and every one of you that took part. You should feel really proud that your efforts have helped to make Christmas a little brighter for 530 families in need.
Aaand as promised – we have three prizes to give away . You’re all winners in my eyes – but here we go
Alright team … time to find out the winners of our Build To Give Christmas Charity Campaign with LEGO …
First up – as I said before: every single one of you that took part should feel like a winner, because you’ve helped out a family in need this Christmas – and that’s about the best present you could ever give.
But from the 530 builds that were sent in, there were some standouts .. and so to the prizes
Category 1: The Award for the Most Builds …
- Highly Commended: Scottnuffin Adventures 16 builds
- Also Highly Commended: Nathaniel (Nathaniel Lego) with 19 builds
- Runner up: Gosia, Zachary and Nataniel (account: foreveryoung_mmhy) 22
- Winner (drum roll): Chrystal and her children Chanelle, James & Lily with 70 builds … wow!
Congratulations Chrystal and Co -there’s Super Mario Lego Set heading your way.
Prize Category 2: Best School Award
- Highly Commended: 5/6 Class Hopetoun Primary School, with their cool swimming pool;
- Runner-up: Bolwarra primary school – awesome build of Amanda and I, a pirate ship and a plane;
- Winner: (drum roll) Livingstone Primary School year 6 .. for their rainbow, t-rex, colourful tower and a very cool ship.
Congrats Livingstone Primary School – there’s a copy of the Brickman’s Big Book of Better Builds – for your school library – heading your way.
Prize 3: Award for the Best Build
- Highly Commended: Reyanash (account : Shikhajej). Very cool dragon and a video entry with a Lego elevator
- Also Highly Commended: Marsha and Zachary (with a little help from Dad) (Marsha_Gomez) – for what I can only describe as a multi-storied building of awesomeness;
- Runner-up: Tim Smith who created a pulley system for his Lego man and a great airport scene.
- Winner (drum roll) : Simone and Aden (account: inquisitive_sim) – for not only creating 31 builds but showing some true creativity along the way! From Dream houses, to Santa’s house in a bottle, to ferris wheels, super hero/villian line ups and some pretty cool spaceships too. Congrats Simone and Aden – there’s a Super Mario Lego Set heading your way too!
Check out all the winners on our Instagram, @ squizkids – where you’ll also find galleries of all the entries. The BUILD TO GIVE competition continues until Chirtsmas so if you still want to participate you can.
SQUIZZIE AWARDS
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It’s that time of year again … the end of the year is upon us, and that means it’s time for the annual Squiz Kids tradition of the Squizzie Awards.
This is our special look back on the year that was – in which Amanda and I give out awards for the Stinkiest, Funniest, Weirdest, Grossest and Cutest news stories of the year …
It’s a whole lot of fun – and a great reminder of what a whacky old year it’s been. And that there’s something in the old adage that truth is very often stranger than fiction.
If you’re listening on a podcast app it should play directly after this episode, otherwise it’s searchable anytime in your favourite app or via our website squizkids.com.au ..
And don’t forget: though the daily podcast wraps up at the end of next week – we’ll still be punching out quality content right throughout the school holidays: a Shortcut each Monday, a Squiz The World every Wednesday and a Bumper Kids v Adult Holiday Quiz every Saturday. Because t’is the season to be jolly …
THE SQUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- Which social media platform has been taken to court in Indiana?
- TIME magazine awarded its Person of the Year to which country and its people?
- And which band won entertainer of the year?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s December 9 … only 16 sleeps til Xmas … I’m getting tinsel-toe excited … it’s also National Llama Day in the United State .. how cool are llamas?
It’s also a Friday – and you know what that means .. lots of birthday shout outs for today and the coming weekend … for which we’re going to need to crack out the ol’ birthday reggae tune … hit it …
It’s a happy birthday today to… Eddie from Shoal Bay, Charlie from Bellangry, Sophie from Terrigal, Logan and Lyla from Appin, Zahra from Broken Hill but currently travelling around Australia and Lucy listening in Singapore.
Not forgetting the Squiz Kids who are celebrating a birthday over the coming weekend… Anika and Mishika from Rostrevor, Harrison from Cannon Hill, Indi from Cronulla, Bella from Bradbury, Eliana from Paddington, Noor from Claremont Meadows, Olivia from Winston Hills, Vesna from Edensor Park, Mia from Wagga Wagga, Huey from Brighton, Tyler from Bray Park and Mishika from Yass.
Classroom shout outs go to… all of the year 6 students in Queensland Public Schools and congratulations for graduating primary school, to the year 6 students finishing at Treetops Montessori School in Darlington, class 4S and Mr Maddock at Christian College Geelong, Bellarine Campus and lastly to year 6 Dugongs with Mr Adams at Cambridge Park Public School.
And a quick note on Classroom Shoutouts … we’ve got only five more podcasts left in the year and over 120 Classroom Shoutouts – and counting – in the Squiz Kids mailbox queue – we’ll do our best to get through as many as possible before the podcast wraps on December 16 – but if we don’t, please accept our apologies and please get in touch when the school term resumes next year …
The S’Quiz Answers:
- TikTok
- Ukraine
- Blackpink