Thursday, 2 June, 2022
Ski fields open as snow falls; Las Vegas bans Elvis; Nadal’s epic French Open win; and the Megalodon v Great White Shark food fight.
LINKS
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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If your idea of fun is strapping on a pair of skis and schussing down a blue run on some freshly fallen snow – then you’re in luck – as the polar blast that has swept the south east of Australia has dumpedso much white stuff on the Australian Alps that the ski resorts are opening a week early.
Perisher in NSW and Mt Buller in Victoria are among ski resorts that will bring forward the opening of ski lifts to this weekend after the first day of winter exceeded expectations weather wise and saw temperatures in the mountains sink well below freezing.
Snow also fell yesterday morning on the NSW Central Tablelands – with regional centres like Bathurst and Orange copping a dusting of snow – with the ‘feels-like’ temperatures there dropping as low as minus 8 degrees. Holy ugg boots!
Meanwhile, winds of up to 100km/h lashed parts of NSW yesterday, prompting the Bureau of Meteorology – which is the agency that predicts our weather – to issue severe weather warnings up and down the east coast.
It follows news of a mini-tornado tearing through Adelaide on Monday, and a small earthquake shaking the residents of north of Brisbane on Tuesday. World’s gone mad …
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 Las Vegas in the United States … where Elvis-themed weddings are under threat.
What’s an Elvis-themed wedding? Well – weird though this might sound – in Las Vegas – a city in the deserts of Nevada famous for its casinos – there are lots of places you can get married at the drop of a hat. Don’t ask. It’s a thing. And lots of those places have Elvis impersonators who will sing at your wedding, or even help you with your wedding vows. Again, don’t ask, it’s also a thing. Elvis was the first ever pop star – hugely popular in the 1950s and 1960s, still popular among people your grandparents’ age. There’s a big Hollywood movie about him coming out later this month.
The company that controls how Elvis’s name and image is used has ordered wedding chapels in Vegas to stop using Elvis impersonators in their ceremonies – which will definitely impact a lot of businesses there.
And here I could throw in a bunch of lame dad jokes like “they’ll be lonesome tonight” or they’ll be All Shook Up – but none of you will get them so I won’t … oh, hang on.
SPORTS TIME
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It was only a quarter final, but the tennis match yesterday at the French Open in Paris between Rafael NAdal and Novak Djokovic was nevertheless epic.
It went to four sets, included a cliffhanger of a tie-breaker at the end and concluded with Nadal triumphing over his long-time rival.
But its in the numbers that you truly appreciate the scale of Nadal’s achievement.
In the 17 years Nadal has been playing professional tennis, it’s the 59th time the pair have played one another; the match went for four hours and 11 minutes and didn’t finish until 1.15 in the morning.
I bet they both slept well.
Nadal – who is playing with a dodgy ankle and only recently recovered from a rib injury – advances now to the semi-finals where will face off against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, in the hope of winning his 14th French Open. Yep. He’s won that tournament 13 times already. Amazing.
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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What do you picture when I say “food fight”? I’m betting that whatever you’re seeing in your mind’s eye, it’s not a great white shark, fighting for food against an even bigger predator, the prehistoric megalodon! You know megalodon, right? It was one of the biggest carnivores ever to live—it grew to at least 14 metres long—and it terrorised the oceans for 20-odd million years.
New research suggests that one reason the megalodon finally went extinct may have been because great whites evolved, and started stealing megalodon’s food. Now, how on earth could scientists figure that out, more than two-and-a-half million years later? Well, they analysed the tooth enamel from fossils and modern day species, and found that great whites and megalodons were both chowing down on seals and whales. Megalodon is thought to have needed 1,000kg of food every day to survive, so a new species on the same diet could have created trouble.
Just because they both ate the same thing doesn’t prove that great whites ate megalodons out of existence, of course… but who doesn’t love the idea of a prehistoric food fight?
CCC:
If your teacher is a SK4S subscriber, you’re going to get to learn more about Megalodon today, and also work with prefixes… “Pre-” means before, and “fix” means attach. Prefixes are attached at the beginning of a root word – or before that word. How about that? Our resident educator Amanda believes in using the news to teach the curriculum, so every day, she creates differentiated language and literacy activities connected to this very podcast. Get into a free 30-day trial today! There’s a link in your episode notes.
THE SQUIZ
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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 city in the United States where you can get married by Elvis?
- Name the Spanish tennis ace who beat Novak Djokovic to advance to the French Open semi finals?
- What’s the name of the dinosaur that researchers believe got into a food fight with the great white shark?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s June 2 … Aussie cricketer Steve Smith’s birthday and kids’ author Anh Do’s birthday …
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today …
Andrew from Vermont South, Ky (pronounced key) from Forest Lake, Aidan from Engadine, Ella from Cannon Hill, Jack from Middle Cove, Ashton from Ashmont, Lily from Currumbin and Harry from Stanmore.
Belated birthday shout outs go to Miles from Balmain East and Ayen from Adelaide.
And classroom shout outs are going out today to…class 5/6A and their class dog Archie at Berinba Public School in Yass, class 6D and Miss Dury at Telarah Public School, class 4 Blue and 4 Gold with Miss Erskine and Miss Wilson at St Brendan’s Catholic Primary School in Bankstown and lastly to years 5 and 6 at Harrington Public School in Cabramatta.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Las Vegas
- Rafael Nadal
- Megalodon