Thursday, June 29, 2023
The asteroid that hurtled past Earth, the tourist in a whole lot of trouble, World first for an Aussie skateboarder and Taylor ticket mayhem.
LINKS
Arisa Trew completes 720 skateboarding trick. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/27/arisa-trew-lands-720-australian-13-year-old-skateboarder-tony-hawk-event
Squiz Kids Book Club: https://www.squizkids.com.au/book_club/
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THE LOWDOWN
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Did you hear anything last night? Perhaps a big swoosh in the sky? No, I’m just kidding, you wouldn’t have heard anything but do you know what happened? Last night, an enormous asteroid hurtling through space, narrowly flew past Earth.
An asteroid is a space rock. But this was a big one, if you can imagine 7 buses parked one behind the other, it was that long. Around 91 metres in length. So if you’ve ever run the distance of a 100 metre race at school, it was just a bit shorter than that.
The asteroid is called 2013 WV44. Because the first time it flew past Earth was 10 years ago in 2013.
Asteroids that come close to Earth are not rare, however most don’t circulate into the inner solar system, near our planet – instead they usually travel on what is called the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Perhaps we need a quick recap of the planets in order from the Sun. Mercury is the closest, then Venus, then, take a guess? ………. It’s Earth, then Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
According to NASA, asteroids are left over from the formation of our solar system 4 point 6 billion years ago.
Here’s a crazy fact about the 2013 WV44 asteroid. When it flew past Earth last night, it was travelling at a speed of 11 point 8 kilometres per second, which is roughly 34 times the speed of sound.
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 Rome, the capital city of Italy, where a tourist has done something downright stupid. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say that word. So very very silly.
Rome is home to Ancient and historic buildings, like The Colosseum, the Pantheon, Sistine Chapel and the Vatican.
The Colosseum is the largest amphitheatre in the world, back in the Roman days it was where Gladiators battled each other. It was built almost 2 thousand years ago, and is one of the most popular sites to visit.
So this one tourist has fuelled outrage across Italy, when he was filmed graffetting the walls of this magnificent monument. He carved his name in the Ancient structure, now
Italian officials want to track him down, where he will be in big trouble, he may even face jail time and have to pay a huge fine.
Have you heard of the saying ‘ When in Rome’. Well, don’t do that.
SPORT TIME
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Remember this name Arisa Trew. She’s a 13 year old Gold Coast girl taking the skating board world by storm. A few days ago, the teenager became the first female skateboarder to ever accomplish the elusive 720 trick.
So the 720 trick is when you do two full rotations in the air. Even your maths teacher would be proud of this. One full rotation is 360 degrees, so two full rotations are 720 degrees. Hence the name of this unbelievable move.
Wearing her hot pink helmet, matching hot pink knee pads, she gained speed on a half pipe before nailing the 720 in front of an ecstatic crowd at the Tony Hawk vert Alert event in Salt Lake City in the US.
I’ll post a video of Arisa making history with her 720 in the episode notes.
Legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, who invented the trick was even there watching. Hawk himself first did the 720 waaaaaay back in 1985, before all of you were born. But no female has ever managed to complete the trick until now.
A huge Squiz Kids salute to you Arisa Trew.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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Were you one of the thousands of Aussies who tried yesterday to get their hands on some Taylor Swift tickets?
It’s estimated that around 800,000 people yesterday morning tried to get onto the website when the ticket sales opened. And that was just for the Sydney concerts. So in a city of 5 million people, it roughly means almost 1 in 7 tried their luck.
The unprecedented demand, overwhelmed the ticketing website. Many fans were left ticketless and disappointed, saying the app crashed, or they spent hours trying to log onto the webpage.
I know there were many of us here at S’quiz Kids who also tried with no luck.
But don’t worry Swifties, it’s not over yet. Friday morning, more general release tickets will go on sale.
So shake it off. Dream your wildest dreams. And try again tomorrow.
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 …
- I hope you were listening closely for this one. Can you name either of the two planets which are closest to Earth?
- Italy is a country in Europe, what is the name of the capital of Italy?
- Arisa Trew has become the first female to ever land what skateboarding trick?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s June 29 – Exactly 3 weeks to go until the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off.
Today is also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today …
Jacob from Junee, Andrea from Unanderra, Parker from Deebing Heights, Hunter from Geelong, Elijah from Buderim, Brent from Pitt Town, Dakota from Nuriootpa , Alyana from Chapel Hill and Abbie from Bathurst.
A belated shout out goes to… Izzy from Bowen.
Classroom Shoutouts today go to … classes 6B and 6G with Ms Paul and Ms Munro at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School in Mona Vale, class 4 Blue and Mrs Preston at St Marys Catholic Primary School in Orange, class 5/6K with Mrs O’Donohue and Miss Keast at St Michael’s Primary School in Deniliquin, classes 5 Red and 5 Blue at Mater Dei Primary School in Wagga Wagga, Class 5Z and Ms Eastlake at Tharawal Public School and lastly to class 5B and Ms Bexis at Walford Anglican School For Girls in Adelaide.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Venus and Mars
- Rome
- 720 –
Don’t forget .. if you’ve got a birthday coming up and you want a shout out – or if you want a classroom shout out – drop us a line at [email protected] or fill out the form on our website.
That’s all we have time for. Thanks for listening to Squiz Kids Today – we’ll be back again tomorrow.
In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day. Over and out.