Thursday, 25 November, 2021
Out with the old, in with the new; Einstein’s $20m scribbles; The Weeknd’s top song of all time; and meet Boone: the hero dog.
LINKS
Power station demolition video: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-australia-59397899
Albert Einstein’s $20 million manuscript: https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/einstein-notes-with-sketches-relativity-theory-sold-paris-auction-13-mln-2021-11-23/
Blinding Lights – TheWeeknd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHI8X4OXluQ
The Twist – Chubby Checker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im9XuJJXylw
Boone: the therapy dog: https://herodogawards.org/dog/boone/
How To Become A Squiz Kids Correspondent
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FH2HA28InnLU6UxE91wrLBAbCMT40Mua/view
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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There’s an expression you might have heard that goes ‘out with the old, in with the new’ .. and there was a perfect illustration of it yesterday in the NSW country town of Lithgow when an old coal fired power station came crashing to the ground.
The power station – which was built more than 60 years ago – was partly demolished in a spectacular controlled explosion yesterday morning – which sent two enormous chimneys crashing to the ground in one of those cool controlled explosions you sometimes see on TV … I’ve stuck a link to video of it in your episode notes.
And while the demolition of an old power station is not all that significant – old stuff gets knocked down all the time – the fact that a large grid-scale battery is being planned for the site is a sign of the times.
What’s a grid-scale battery? It’s a huge battery designed to store energy which could be used to generate the electricity that we need to run all the stuff that makes our modern world go around. It’s part of what’s called the renewable energy mix. And as we learned from the recent climate change summit in Glasgow, in order to slow down the global warming – we’re going to need to be using less fossil fuels – like coal – to generate electricity, and rely instead on more renewable energy – like energy we get from the sun or wind.
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 Paris, France, where someone yesterday spent over $20 million to buy 54 pages of messy writing, with bits crossed out and a whole bunch of mistakes.
Okay, so the pages were co-written by Albert Einstein in 1913 and 1914, as he worked out the theory of relativity. That theory, which was published in 1915, includes the famous equation e=mc2, and has changed the way scientists understand space, time, and gravity. So, you know, no biggie.
The German-born physicist, who is arguably the most influential scientist of all time, didn’t usually keep his notes, and this manuscript (which is the word for a document that hasn’t yet been published) was saved by his co-author and colleague. The buyer hasn’t been revealed, but in case it’s not a museum where the manuscript will be on display, I’ve popped a link in your episode notes so you can see the black ink scratchings for yourselves.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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You know the pop star The Weeknd, right? And you for sure know his chart-topping song, Blinding Lights? If you don’t recognise the title, you’d definitely recognise the melody. Well yesterday it was named the number one song of all time on the Billboard singles chart – bumping off a song your grandparents would have listened to, called The Twist, by Chubby Checker.
Blinding Lights was, according to Billboard – which measures how many times a song is purchased, streamed and played – spent a remarkable 90 – that’s 9-0 – consecutive weeks on the Billboard charts following its release in November 2019.
The Weeknd – whose real name is Abel Tesfaye – how about that? – yesterday said he was incredibly grateful.
And because it;s a Thursday and we’re near the end of the school term, I’ve stuck links in today’s episode notes to videos of both Blinding Lights and The Twist. I dare you not to get up and dance …
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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And today’s Animal Kingdom is a celebration of Boone – the pup who has won the top prize in this year’s American Humane Hero Dog Awards.
Each year – awards are given to dogs that do extraordinary things to help humans – and nominations come from all over America: police dogs, military dogs, guide dogs, shelter dogs and search + rescue dogs are all honoured.
And this year’s overall winner is Boone .. a dog who suffered awful cruelty as a pup, now gets around in a doggy wheelchair and spends his days working as a therapy dog – helping kids in special schools and bringing comfort to people in aged care homes and hospitals.
I’ve stuck a link to a video of Boone in today’s episode notes. Trust me, he has a story and a smile that will melt your heart.
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 …
- What’s the name of the song that The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights toppled to be named the number one song of all time?
- What’s the name of the famous physicist whose scribbled notes just sold for $20m?
- What’s the name of the therapy dog who’s just taken out the Hero Dog of the Year award in America?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s November 25 … its a holiday called Thanksgiving in the United States – which is pretty much what it sounds like. Families and friends get together and give thanks for what they have.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today…
Josie from Frenchs Forest, Lucas from Cecil Hills, Lily from Abbotsford, Francis from North Bondi, Jake from Mt Pleasant, Molly from Mansfield, Athrun (pronounced Afren) from Nowra, Skye from Sydney, L from Newcastle (Liliana but goes by “L”) and Myrtle listening all the way over there in Phuket,Thailand.
And a belated birthday shout out goes to Zane from North Ainslie Primary School.
Classroom shout outs today go to… class 3KC at Ivanhoe Primary School with Mrs Kittler and Ms Crowley, Year 4 and Mrs Cochrane at Saint Aloysius Primary School in Cronulla and to class 5ZB and Mrs Barber at Lane Cove Public School. Miss Newling at Glendore Public School sends her class 4R a shout out and congratulates them for all of their hard work since returning to school this term! And final shout outs go to class 5B and Mrs Hayes at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School in Albion Park and to all the Year 4 students at Pymble Ladies’ College.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- The Twist
- Albert Einstein
- Boone