Monday, 30 January, 2023
Back to school we go!; Egypt’s golden mummy; Rinky and Jason tennis heroes; and Harry Styles splits his pants.
LINKS
Egypt’s golden mummy: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64415816
Harry Styles’ wardrobe malfunction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcPCRrq59r0
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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And we kick off this year in news, almost as we finished last year – with news from across the Tasman Sea where our friends in New Zealand’s biggest city are struggling with some of the worst flooding they’ve ever seen.
The city of Auckland was yesterday trying to recover after experiencing the wettest day on record.
Torrential rain has been falling all weekend long – cutting off roads, causing landslides and even forcing the closure of the airport as check-in counters at the terminal resembled swimming pools.
Experts say that in the space of only 15 hours, Auckland received 75% of its annual rainfall … w hich as the maths geniuses among you will know means that the equivalent of three quarters of the rain that Auckland usually receives over an entire year fell on the city over a comparatively brief 15 hours.
Wowsers.
To all our listeners over there – stay safe .. and try to keep dry.
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While rain is falling in New Zealand, kids going back to school this week in NSW are about to be hit by a storm of phonics, as changes are made to the way kids are taught to read.
An estimated 65,000 kids will be starting kindergarten in NSW alone this week – and new rules mean that they’ll be taught to read using phonics – a method that gets you to sound out letters as you go.
To all you Squiz Kids starting school for the first time this week: you’ve got this! And believe me when I tell you, as strange as it might seem at first, you’re going to learn to love it. For Squiz Kids heading back to school: be nice to your teachers – that’s an order!
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 Saqqara, a village in Egypt, where a golden mummy has been found inside four ancient tombs. Archaeologists (whose job it is to study human history by digging up artefacts) dug a 15 metre deep hole (that’s more than the height of a four-storey building) and found a huge stone coffin, called a sarcophagus, that had been sealed for 4,300 years!
The sarcophagus contained a mummy that was covered in a thin layer of gold, indicating how important the person was. We know that the man was named Hekashepes because experts decoded the ancient Egyptian symbols, called hieroglyphs.
Archaeologists will now be able to use paintings and objects found in the tombs to find out more about the day-to-day lives of ancient Egyptians! I’ve stuck a link to photos and video from inside the tomb in today’s episode notes.
SPORT TIME
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Australian tennis has a new pair of superheroes and their names are Rinky and Jason.
Doubles partners Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler went into the Australian Open as wildcards – meaning they were a last minute addition – and it almost didn’t happen at all after Rinky only asked Jason if he was up for it at the very last minute – but then went on to beat all-comers to hold aloft the championship trophy on Saturday night – quite literally on top of the world.
It means Australia has claimed the men’s doubles title at the Aussie Open two years in a row after Thannasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios teamed up last year to take out the title.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie …
POP CULTURE CORNER
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Don’t you just hate it when you’re up on stage in front of 20,000 screaming fans and your pants split?
Pop star Harry Styles was forced to finish a concert in Los Angeles late last week with a flag wrapped around his waist after one especially enthusiastic dance lunge saw his brown trousers tear at the crutch in full view of the audience.
Not that he let it stop his performance. He just kept on singing and entertaining the crowd.
You might even say he took it in all in his strides …. (DAD JOKE ALARM) … is it too early in the new year to be whipping out the dad jokes? Hmmm … i thought so.
You see: this is why I’m podcaster instead of a pop star. I don’t have to worry about wardrobe malfunctions. I could be sitting her in my underpants recording this and no-one would be any the wiser. *EUUGGGH*
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 city in New Zealand has been battling flood waters all weekend?
- In which country has a golden mummy just been found?
- Name the pop star who split his pants mid-concert in Los Angeles?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s January 30 … birthdays for footy player Buddy Franklin and cricket players Ben Cutting and Mitchell Starc …
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today … Izzy from Chinchilla, Xavier from Perth, Sophia from Forest Lake, Vlad from Sydney and Oscar from Ivanhoe.
And because we’ve been off on school hols for all of January – and we don’t want any January babies missing out on their shout out – we’re going to be doing belated birthday shout outs for the rest of this week … here goes …
Belated birthday wishes go to… Indi from Perth, Oscar and Beatrix from Fitzroy North, Jocelyn from Wattle Grove, Francis from Fawkner, Ethan from Brisbane, twins Eloise and Margaux from Paddington, Will from Centennial Park, Anda from Sydney, Georgia and Frankie from Forest Lake, Edmund from Springfield, Lucas from Hurstbridge, Ruby, Milla and Ava from Mount Martha, Harry from Helena Valley and Amelia from Rochedale.
The S’Quiz Answers:
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- Auckland
- Egypt
- Harry Styles