Thursday, 30 March, 2023
Australia’s about to get bigger; the female Formula One team; new emojis released; and mammoth meat balls on the menu.
LINKS
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Today’s Quick Links:
Australia’s population surge: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/australia-will-experience-biggest-twoyear-population-surge-in-its-history-with-an-extra-650000-migrants-this-financial-year/news-story/fceff5a7690273c264db601230b5af79
Girls On Track program: https://www.fia.com/thegirlsontrack
Formula equal: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/28/motorsport/formula-equal-f1-motorsport-spt-intl/index.html
First look: New emojis: https://blog.emojipedia.org/first-look-new-emojis-in-ios-16-4/
Giant meatball of extinct mammoth unveiled in The Netherlands: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/giant-meatball-extinct-mammoth-unveiled-netherlands-2023-03-28/
Vincent van Gogh: https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/art-and-stories/art/vincent-van-gogh
The story of IKEA founder, Ingvar Kamprad: https://about.ikea.com/en/about-us/history-of-ikea/from-child-entrepreneur-to-ikea-founder
Dig Deeper:
Australia’s historical population: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/historical-population/latest-release
2021-22 Budget: Australia’s Future Population: https://population.gov.au/research/research-australias-future-population
Meatball from long-extinct mammoth created by food firm: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/28/meatball-mammoth-created-cultivated-meat-firm
How to extract DNA from anything living: https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/extraction/howto/
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THE LOWDOWN
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Australia is dusting off the old welcome mat and getting ready to receive the biggest influx of migrants it has taken in in almost three years – as the world returns to a kind of normal after the COVID pandemic.
International students coming to learn at our universities, backpackers visiting from other countries to work while they vacation and families from other countries looking to start a new life and let their kids enjoy the same excellent lifestyle that most of us take for granted are among the 650,000 people expected to move to Australia in the next 12 months.
Most of them are expected to look for a home in Sydney or Melbourne – which means things could get a little more crowded in our two biggest cities.
But as the government explained yesterday, the more people who live here, the more money is spent, the more businesses are supported by this money and the generally more healthy the economy. Migrants are also vital to help fill vacant jobs and bring really important skills to our country.
Not to mention really important cultural diversity and languages and really yummy food. Imagine not having Thai food or sushi or Italian or Lebanese food in your life. No thanks!
At the current rate of growth, Australia’s population is set to reach 27 million by June next year – and just under 30 million by 2033. Population is a fancy word for the number of people living somewhere.
For context: our near neighbour Indonesia has a population of 273 million … so you know, all things are relative.
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 England … where plans are afoot to create a Formula 1 car racing team that’s 50% female.
You know F1 racing teams right? Whether it’s the driver or the mechanics in the pit or the engineers working on the computer programs to make the super fast engines – they’re almost all blokes.
Well one man who used to work for the Mercedes F1 machine and has had lots of experience creating Formula One teams – has started work on the establishment of the sport’s first ever F1 team made up of 50% men and 50% women.
The plan to get more girls into high-powered, high-speed motor sports is being welcomed by lots in the industry who know how excellent female drivers can be, but also how super excellent girls are at maths, science and engineering – all really important skills for Formula One teams to succeed.
By 2026, it’s hoped this team – currently called Formula Equal – will have female drivers lining up on the starting grid alongside the likes of Max Verstappen, Charles LeClerc and Lewis Hamilton. As well as female mechanics in the pit, and female engineers working behind the scenes.
Already there’s an initiative called ‘Girls On Track’ – a link to which is in your episode notes – encouraging girls to get into motor sport. Because, as I didn’t need to tell you, girls can do anything. Am I right, girls?
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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Jellyfish, donkeys, moose and geese are the big winners in the emoji world today after finally being added to the list of emojis available on Apple phones.
A grand total of 21 new emojis have been added to the emoji family in an Apple iphone update that was released yesterday.
Now – as well as putting a moose in your messages, you can also add a shaking head emoji, or a high-five emoji or even a hyacinth flower emoji. Because who doesn’t want to send a hyacinth flower emoji?
Much excitement has also greeted the news that the colour of heart emojis has finally been expanded to include grey, light blue and pink. Finally .. a pink love heart emoji. Now my life is officially complete.
FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD
Imagine living in a time when mighty mammoths roamed the earth. Ok – so that’s not likely to happen – but you may soon be able to find them in the freezer aisle of your supermarket! Yep! One Australian company is taking a different approach to meat production and has successfully grown a woolly mammoth meatball in a laboratory.
Vow, the company behind the meatball, hopes to produce a more sustainable meat using less land, less water, with zero methane production and without harming animals.
So, how did they do it? Just like in Jurassic Park, scientists combined muscle DNA recovered from a frozen mammoth, with some African elephant DNA to fill the gaps and placed it in a cell from a living sheep. And voila, a couple of weeks later …. mammoth meatball! I’ve stuck a picture of the giant meatball in your episode notes.
Now, because the mammoth has been extinct for more than 4000 years, and no one knows how the meat will interact with human immune systems, no one has tasted the meatball yet, but apparently, it smells like crocodile! Mmmmm …crocodile …
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 motor sport is taking steps get more girls involved?
- What’s the population of Australia expected to be by June next year? 27m
- Which prehistoric animal is being resurrected, Jurassic-Park style, to create meatballs?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s March 30 … birthday of famous Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, and the man who gave the world IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad – one gave the world priceless paintings, the other bookcases called Billy.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today… Samir from Campbelltown, Kayden from Newrybar, Jeremy from Wantirna South, Bevyn from Box Hill, Jamal from Narrandera, Maisy W from Camden Park, Grace from Rose Bay, Sienna from Sutherland North and Beth from Warnervale.
And belated shout outs go to…. Dylan, William and Zeke all from Neerim South, James from Kew and Navya from Holsworthy.
Today classroom shout outs go to …classes 1L and 4D with Mrs Lodge and Miss Dossetor at SCEGGS in Darlinghurst, Banksia class and Mrs Pires at Galungara public school in Schofields, class 5FW and Mrs Wilson at the Junction Public School, class 5RG and Mrs Greenhalgh and Mrs Reid at Epping West Public School and class 1S with Ms Sheils at Oxley College in Burradoo.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Formula One
- 27 million
- Mammoth