Thursday, 27 May, 2021

All eyes on Melbourne; Turkey’s sea snot outbreak; A-League’s big telly deal; and Tassie Devils return to the mainland.

 

LINKS

Tassie Devils: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-australia-57249491

 

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

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It’s a fingers and toes crossed kind of day today – especially for all of our friends in Melbourne – as the nation waits to see whether there’s been another jump in coronavirus cases in the Victorian capital … and crucially, whether it will tip Australia’s second biggest city into another dreaded lockdown.

Things have gotten sufficiently tense in Melbourne that AFL clubs based there have either put their players in a sort of home-based lockdown, or otherwise stuck them on a plane and flew them out early to Perth, Sydney and Darwin so they’re able to play their scheduled games there this weekend as planned.

As for footy fans in Melbourne: at this stage, crowds are still allowed at this weekend’s games, but the situation is what you might call, fluid. Meaning things could change at any moment. 

Squiz Kids … stop whatever you’re doing right now and send some good luck vibes to all our Melbourne friends – and let them know come what may we’ve got their back. 

Also on something of a knife edge – which is a fancy way of saying something is uncertain – are the Tokyo Olympics. As we’ve spoken about before, lots of people in Japan are opposed to the Games going ahead while the country is in the grip of a COVID wave. And yesterday, one of the Games’ major sponsors added its voice to the chorus of locals calling for the Games to be postponed. Watch this space …

 

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 Turkey .. where sea snot has taken over the Sea of Marmara.

What’s sea snot? It’s a mucus-like film that sits on the top of the water. And before you think it comes out of the noses of snotty fish – it’s a phenomenon caused by tiny, floating sea plants called phytoplankton – its basically a kind of algae. And while normally, it exists in the sea and helps to put oxygen into it – which fish need to breathe underwater – when the weather gets too hot and the water gets too warm, the phytoplankton grow and grow and eventually there are too many of them and they spit out the snot-like substance – which sits like a gooey blanket on the top of the water – making it really hard for fishermen to throw out their nets. Euuggh.

Hands up who wants to swim in sea snot? Not me. 

 

SPORTS TIME

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They call it the beautiful game … we’re talking soccer, or football as it is called in most parts of the world – and it’s the most popular sport in the world with an estimated 4 billion fans. And as of next year, there will be a whole lot more fans able to get into it here in Australia  following the announcement yesterday that the A League had signed a broadcast deal with Network 10. 

It means that the A League AND the W League will be on free to air commercial telly for next season – with A League games being broadcast around the country on Saturday nights and W League games being broadcast on Sunday afternoons. Sports-apalooza!

 

ANIMAL KINGDOM

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There was much excitement in a little corner of the Barrington Tops in NSW yesterday after it was revealed that a bunch of Tasmanian Devils that had been brought from the Apple Isle to the Aussie mainland as part of a conservation project, have just given birth.

That’s right. A little gaggle of baby Tassie Devils – which funnily enough are called joeys – have just been born, and it’s an event not only of the greatest cuteness imaginable – but also historically significant.

Why’s that? Because it’s believed to be the first time in 3000 years that a Tasmanian Devil has been born on the Australian mainland. 

It’s a great achievement for the Barrington Tops conservation project, which brought a bunch of devils north to see if they would breed – far removed from their home in Tassie where a nasty disease has caused untold damage to the critter’s population.

There’s a link in today’s episode notes to video of the teeny, tiny joeys – which, because they are marsupials – have a lot of growing now to do in their mummy’s pouch.

 

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. In which country has an outbreak of sea snot got fishermen worried?
  2. What sport is the most popular in the world, with an estimated 4 billion fans?
  3. What animal has just been born on the Aussie mainland for the first time in 3000 years?

 

SHOUT OUTS

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It’s May 27 … birthday of cricketer Michael Hussey, tennis player Pat Cash, golfer Minjee Lee and one of the founding fathers of Australia, Henry Parkes. Pick the odd one out …

It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today … Ava from Dubbo, Patrick from Leichardt, Gabriel from Oran Park, Piper from Kings Langley, Eliza from Furnissdale, Callum from Lane Cove, Michelle from Balmain, Mitchell from Victoria, Cassandra from New Beith and Dylan from Mosman Park, 

 And today’s classroom shoutouts go to Year 3TW From Our Lady Queen of Peace Greystanes; Room 15 Beaconsfield Primary School; Mrs Porter’s Class 14 at Romaine Park Primary School, Classes 4B and 5B at Hilliard State School and Mrs Lewis’s 3L class at Carlingford public school 

 

The S’Quiz Answers:

  1. Turkey
  2. Football .. or soccer
  3. Tasmanian Devil