Monday, 26 July, 2021

Let the Olympic gold rush begin!; Bear ambush in Alaska; Sydney’s bin-raiding cockies; and mac n’ cheese ice-cream.

 

LINKS

The Tokyo Sprint podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/sport-today/id1554210927

Mac n’ cheese ice cream: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/24/business/kraft-macaroni–cheese-ice-cream-trnd/index.html

Bin-diving cockatoos: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/23/cockatoos-in-sydney-learning-from-each-other-to-bin-dive-for-food-study-finds

Snowball the dancing cockatoo: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/08/cockatoo-choreographs-his-own-dance-moves-researchers-believe

 

Squiz Kids Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squizkids/?hl=en

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Squiz Kids is proudly supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

 

THE LOWDOWN

 

Let the gold rush begin! Australia got off the mark in its Olympic medal campaign over the weekend, with our girls winning gold in the swimming pool in Tokyo in the hotly-contested 4×100 freestyle relay. 

And not only did they win gold – they did it in a new world record time. Go girls! Sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell joined forces with Emma McKeon and Meg Harris to beat the Canadians – who won silver – and the Americans who took home the bronze medal. 

The Aussie boys did alright too – with Jack McLouglin winning silver in the men’s 400m freestyle and Brendon Smith taking out bronze in 400 metre medley. 

Our men’s basketballers, the Boomers, also got their Olympic effort off to a good start last night beating Nigeria – which is a country in Africa. While US gymnast Simone Biles once again showed why she’s the greatest of all time with a winning floor routine .

Meanwhile Games organisers are nervously watching their weather satellites – with a big storm hovering off the coast of Japan and crawling slowly closer to the Olympic nation – threatening to delay some events. Fingers crossed it keeps its distance …

And if all of this Olympic action is not nearly enough – be sure to wrap your ears around The Tokyo Sprint podcast from our clever colleagues at Sport Today. Three minutes every morning to get you across all the important bits of the the Games. Available wherever you get your podcasts .. I’ve stuck a link to it in today’s episode notes.. 

 

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 Alaska … one of most remote and least populated parts of the United States… … where a gold miner has been rescued after days of being attacked and harassed by a bear. 

Local man Richard Jessee was riding his All Terrain Vehicle – otherwise known as an ATV – which is like a 4WD motor bike – when a brown bear came out of nowhere and pounced on him. The motorbike he was riding on fell into a creek, along with Richard’s mobile phone. 

Luckily he still had his gun, so he fired a warning shot, then ran to his cabin. For the next few days the bear attacked the cabin’s walls, doors, and windows. But Richard managed to write three letters: “SOS” on a piece of plywood, and slid it up onto the roof of his shack. 

SOS is the universal way of quickly communicating that you need help – it can be tapped out in Morse code, called over a radio, or written out where you hope someone will see it. In this case, a Coast Guard helicopter that happened to be flying by  noticed the sign, and rescued Richard. That sounds beary, beary, scary to me … and that, my friends, is your dad joke for the week.

 

POP CULTURE CORNER

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I know there are some of you out there who love nothing more than dipping your fries in your sundae. But surely even you will admit the latest ice cream flavour to come out of the United States is the living, breathing definition of gross.

I’m talking about the macaroni and cheese flavoured ice cream that an American ice-cream company has just released into supermarkets. It’s yellow and cheesy and has the consistency and sweetness of ice-cream. 

And look, while I would rather eat my own ear wax – not something i would recommend you try at home – apparently lots of people disagree as the limited edition mac n’ cheese ice cream sold out within days of it being released. 

The ice cream company responsible called it the ice cream you never knew you needed… I reckon I probably did know I didn’t need it. But each to their own, I guess.

 

ANIMAL KINGDOM

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Those clever cockies! You might remember a few months back we told you about the cockatoos in a suburban Sydney street that had taught themselves to open wheelie bin lids and help themselves to the garbage inside them. Mmmmm … garbage banquet … Well now a bunch of scientists have just finished studying them and have found that the birds not only teach themselves to open the bins – they teach one another to do it. When scientists first started studying the phenomenon – which is fancy word to describe something unusual that happens – bin-diving cockies were only found in only three Sydney suburbs. One year later, there were crafty garbage munching cockies in no fewer than 44 suburbs around the city. 

Because nothing tastes better than a meal of day-old leftovers and rotting vegetables washed down with a guzzle of garbage juice. Mmmmm.

 

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 …

  1. What animal did a gold miner in Alaska have to hide in his cabin to avoid?
  2. What odd-flavoured ice cream has just sold out in the United States?
  3. What sort of bird has taken to bin-diving at meal time in some Sydney suburbs?

 

SHOUT OUTS

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It’s July 26 .. in the US, they celebrate NAtional Aunt and Uncle Day today – recognising how cool it is to have aunties and uncles in our lives .. if you’re lucky enough to have one or a few – give them a call today and let them know how much they’re appreciated. 

It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today .. Ella & Tory from Hughenden, Bucky from Lysterfield, Shaun from Bathurst, Sibilla from Kensington, Renee from Mornington, Katie from Ashmont, Ayla from Uleybury, Smava from Tasmania, George from New Zealand and Mia O and Mia G from Woodhill.

Belated birthday shout outs go to …Jesse from Ruse, Lily from Greystanes, Campbell from North Ryde, Spencer from Clovelly, Olivia from Randwick and Sebastian from Sydney. 

Plus!!  … Because so many of us are in lockdown around the country – we’re sending out Home Learning Herograms ..

Today’s herograms go to…Joshua, Elanor-Rose and Madeline who are working so amazingly hard during their homeschooling.  Your mum is very proud of you. Also Ms Ingham and Ms Douglas from Class 5B at St Johns Narraweena whose classes report are being so kind and helpful during the lockdown.

Ollie sends a shout out to his class 1/2B at Yeo Park Infants School, Ashfield and Tom sends a shout out to his class at the Montessori Learning Tree in Dulwich Hill! 

Classroom shout outs to some very patient listeners… Grade 6k and Ms Knowles from Ivanhoe Primary School, 5/6B and Miss Woollard at Upwey South Primary School, 5T at the Scots School in Albury, 4H and Mr Doran at St Mary’s Swan Hill, Year 2i at Immanuel Lutheran College in Buderim and finally Grade 3/4M with Miss Colwill at Temora West Public School

 

The S’Quiz Answers:

  1. A Bear
  2. Macaroni and cheese
  3. Cockatoos