Thursday, 6 October, 2022

Protests in the playground; Antarctica’s post office for penguins; BTS off to join the army; and one great, big pumpkin.

 

LINKS

Big pumpkin

https://apnews.com/article/oddities-business-new-york-01d93175a9d08cb5e910fe8d8603a796

 

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

 

THE LOWDOWN

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What will you do at school today? A bit of maths? Maybe some PE? An English class perhaps?

For the school girls of Iran – a country in the Middle East which is currently gripped by anti-government protests – a day at school has become a chance to flex their political muscles as thousands use the playground to express their anger. 

Why are school girls in Iran angry? They’re part of a protest movement that is sweeping the country – where many people are angry with the government following the death of a 22 year old woman who was being held by police.

Playgrounds, classrooms and streets all over Iran are currently full of school girls and young women removing their hijabs – or head scarves – with many burning them in protest. 

In Iran, women are required by law to cover their heads with a scarf. By burning the head scarf, the women say they are protesting against a government that has no right to tell them how to dress or how to lead their lives. 

In schools all over Iran, young girls are defying the strict laws and making their displeasure with their government leaders known. And the protest movement is spreading to neighbouring countries – with reports that women in Afghanistan have been protesting too. 

So spare a thought as you go about your school day today – and take a moment to remind yourself how lucky we are to live where we live with the freedoms we have.

 

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 Antarctica … where a post office for penguins has just got new staff.

Wait. What? There’s a post office for penguins in Antarctica? Who does a penguin have to write letters to? And how do you hold a pen with a flipper anyway?

No … it’s not technically a post office for penguins. It’s a post office that’s part of the British Antarctic Territory .. and for the next five months, four women from Britain who won a competition will be living in the world’s most remote post office and counting penguins while they’re there. 

That’s because other than each other, the only other living things on Goudier Island – a small rocky outcrop among Antarctica’s vast ice shelves and floating icebergs – are a colony of gentoo penguins and the occasional crabeater seal.

But counting penguins and 23 hours of daylight are not the only attraction for this posting … the post office where the four women will live has neither running water nor a flushing toilet. Now that sounds like one very COOL job (DAD JOKE ALARM) … ooops, there goes the dad joke alarm….  

 

POP CULTURE CORNER

 

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You’ve heard of BTS, right? The boy band from South Korea? Then maybe you’ve also heard of the BTS Army … which is the name their loyal band of fans has given itself. But you maybe haven’t heard of BTS going into the army … because that’s what looks like might happen as the all-singing, all-dancing members of the world’s biggest pop group face up to compulsory military service in their home country. So some countries make all young people join the army for a year or so – and yesterday the government minister in charge of the army in South Korea indicated not even chart-topping boy band members are exempt from miltary service. Watch this space.

Not that we’ll need to worry too much about the boys being out of popstar service for a year – with news yesterday the new kids on the K-pop block, a boy band called Stray Kids – have just added another Sydney and Melbourne concert to their upcoming Australian tour – after the first shows sold out. I knew i should have been a K-Pop star…

 

BIGGEST, FURTHEST, LONGEST

 

This is the segment where we celebrate great feats – and no, i don’t mean the ones at the ends of your legs. And today’s record breaking effort comes from the United States, where a pair of farmers have broken the US record for growing the heaviest pumpkin ever. 

The whoppingly large vegetable weighs an incredible 1,158 kilograms … that’s about the weight of two cows, combined. I’ve stuck a link in today’s episode notes to a photo of it. It was grown by farmers at a place called the Great Pumpkin Farm. Which is appropriate, when you think about it.

The world record for the heaviest pumpkin belongs to an Italian grower, who produced a pumpkin weighing over 1,200 kilograms. Imagine the Halloween jack o’ lantern you could carve with that baby? 

 

THE SQUIZ
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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 Middle Eastern country have school girls joined a nationwide protest?
  2. What record-breaking vegetable did farmers in the United States grow?
  3. On which frozen continent is the world’s most remote post office?

 

SHOUT OUTS

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It’s October 6  … National Badger Day in the United States, and its also National Mad Hatter Day over there .. cool.

 

It’s also the first week back after a long school holiday break – which means getting through today’s birthday shoutouts AND continuing to check off all of those Squiz Kids who celebrated a birthday over the school hols … for which we’re going to need the ol’ birthday reggae tune … hit it …

And it’s a happy birthday today to …Karl from Cannon Hill.

And today’s school holiday belated birthday shout outs go to … Olivia from Carina Heights, Rupert from Wynnum, Ethan from Sandhurst, Levi from Ivanhoe, Lacey from Hervey Bay, Ava from Wonthaggi, Adelaide – currently travelling around Australia, Elizabeth from Holsworthy, Poppy from Bathurst, Riley and Husdon from Abbotsford, Hollie from Exeter, Sammy from Walkerville, Abby from Book Book, Riaan from Edmondson Park, Zephyr from Brisbane, Jackson from Camberwell, Ernie from Point Cook, Emma and Elly from Ryde, Eden from Matraville, Phileine from Yarromba, Pippa from Beecroft, Elias and Charli from Altona Meadows, Scott from Naremburn, Liam from Cammeray, Harper from Charnwood, Tommy from Berry and Teddy from Greenwood.  And finally for today – Eliza and Huy listening in Vietnam and Samantha listening in Oslo, Norway!

 

Classroom shout outs go to class class 6T and Mrs Toffee at Labrador State School and year 3 and Mr Sproule at The Southport School.  

Lastly – a special shout out to Hugo from Leichhardt who I hear is a really special kid – not least because he listens every day and is a big Squiz Kids fan. 

 

The S’Quiz Answers:

  1. Iran
  2. Pumpkin
  3. Antarctica