Monday, 17 October, 2022
Water, water everywhere; Nigeria’s festival of twins; Kangaroos hop to victory in England; and emojis that make you nicer.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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It was Victoria’s turn over the weekend to be smashed by flooding as rivers up and down the state broke their banks, forcing thousands to evacuate their homes.
The regional cities of Shepparton and Echuca – which sits on the mighty Murray River – were on high alert yesterday, with residents told to evacuate their homes as record rainfall in inland Australia – higher up in the Victoria’s river catchment – made its way out to sea.
When lots of rain falls across a widespread area inland, it fills up smaller rivers and creeks that feed into larger rivers – that pass through towns on their way to the coast. And as all of this water piles into the bigger rivers, it leads to flooding to those towns and cities that are built alongside them.
There were flood warnings over the weekend too in parts of regional NSW and Tasmania as rivers there swelled and spilled over their banks.
In Victoria, 400 roads were closed due to flooding – while in Maribyrnong in suburban Melbourne – locals continued to clean after flash flooding of the Maribyrnong River caused widespread damage.
One resident of Maribyrnong – Missy the dog was found safe in her flooded home after spending a night on top of a table in her owner’s dining room. Clever Missy.
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 Nigeria, in Africa, where a Festival of Twins has just taken place.
Twins from all over the world have gathered in the southern Nigerian city of Igbo Ora – to take part in the annual twins festival, celebrating how special it is to be a twin.
More than 1,000 pairs of twins took part in the festival. And the reason that it takes place in Igbo Ora every year is because nearly every family in that city has a set of twins. The city has more than 200,000 people living in it. So, you know, that’s a lot of twins …
There’s no accepted scientific evidence for why it has so many sets of twins, but locals reckon it has something to do with diet – and a local delicacy they eat a lot there, made from the yam flour.
A yam is similar to a sweet potato.
According to reports, there are just as many identical twins in Igbo Ora as fraternal twins. Identical twins, as their name suggests, look like one another, fraternal twins don’t look the same.
SPORT TIME
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And it was a huuuuuge weekend for rugby league fans this weekend as the rugby league world cup got underway in England.
The Cup opener took place in the small hours of yesterday morning, as the widely fancied Samoan team took on the English home team. And despite the Samoan team boasting no fewer than nine NRL players – including a bunch of top players from the Penrith Panthers – the English side served up a drubbing .. which is sporty term for thrashing – beating the South Pacific Islanders by 60 points to 6. Ouch.
The Aussie team, the Kangaroos, were the next team to play on Sunday morning – taking on Fiji.
And despite the Fijians putting in a strong performance – helped out by the presence of a couple of Panthers and Eels star players – the Australian national team proved too strong, winning by 42 points to eight.
The rugby league world cup brings together rugby league teams from all over the world .. today’s games will see Scotland play Italy, Jamaica play Ireland and Lebanon take on New Zealand. Game on.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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Emojis .. smiley faces, thumbs up, unicorns and poohs … there’s an emoji for pretty much every occasion … and now a new study has revealed the three emojis that make you more likeable.
Unsurprisingly: they’re the blowing a heart kiss emoji, the blushing smiley circled by hearts emoji, and the heart-eyed emoji.
All pretty straightforward. But, just as my teenage children are constantly telling me, the same study in the United States also found that the over-use of some emojis could have the effect of making you seem less nice. Depending on which generation you belong to.
Thumbs up – which I use all the time – is apparently considered aggressive by some younger peeps. And the ok emoji, the grimacing face emoji, the clapping hands emoji and monkey covering his eyes emoji are all signs that the user is old and deeply uncool.
Cue the man putting his hand up emoji…
THE SQUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- In which country has a Festival of Twins taken place?
- The popular African food, the yam, is similar to what root vegetable that we eat a lot here in Australia?
- What’s the name of the Australian men’s national rugby league team?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s October 17 … the Booker Prize will be announced in London later tonight .. it’s one of the most prestigious book prizes in the world – and this year, the youngest author ever is in the running – 20 yo Leila Mottley. Impressive …
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today…
Eloise and Imogen from Craigburn, Tom from Highton, Rosie from Abbotsford, Byron from Mooloolaba, Miles from Northcote and Hameedah from Ashmont.
Belated birthday shout outs go to …Isaac from Dayboro and Blade from Ashmont.
Classroom shouts go to… class 3/4 and Miss Munzberg at McLaren Flat Primary School, class 4C and Miss Crinnion and 4N and Miss Ng at Epping West Public School, class 2R and Mrs Ridley at Pacific Lutheran College at Meridian Plains, class 5B and Mr Barnett and 2D and Mrs Dury, both at St Columba Anglican School in Port Macquarie.
Special shoutouts go to …Ms Morrison and grade 3 at Stella Maris Parish School in Adelaide, Ms Howard and grade 3 & 4 at Exeter Primary School and Ms Ellis and Grade 2 at Ambarvale Public School – all who became members of our Squiz Kids for Schools program for Term 4. Welcome aboard!
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Nigeria
- Sweet potato
- Kangaroos