Tuesday, 12 October, 2021
Zoo animals get ready for their close up; Bosnia’s spinning house; Rugby world cup for Australia; and who wants to be a puppy nanny?
LINKS
Bosnia’s rotating house: https://apnews.com/article/oddities-lifestyle-c70210f7624f4cf8c368bed26b1b30a0
Squiz Kids Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/squizkids/?hl=en
Got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out? Send us an email at [email protected]
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
——
There were scenes of relief and jubilation in Australia’s biggest city, Sydney, yesterday, as months of hard lockdown came to an end and life began returning to normal.
But it wasn’t just humans who are getting ready to mingle. Zoo animals are also getting themselves prepped to receive visitors, with zookeepers launching a program to get their animals used to seeing real life humans again.
Zookeepers have been dressing up as normal members of the public and hovering outside animal enclosures to get the zoo animals accustomed to visitors.
Staff at zoos say that animals love to people watch – just as much as people love looking at them. And by slowly exposing zoo animals to more and more people before flinging open their doors to the public, zoos are hoping to ease the shock of the sudden return of crowds.
And it’s not just humans who are being vaccinated against COVID … it hasn’t started rolling out in Aussie zoos, but programs are underway in some 27 zoos in the United States to get animals vaccinated against the coronavirus. Because when they say everyone needs to get vaccinated – they mean it.
..
Meanwhile, Queensland may soon be opening to NSW and Victoria – if Queenslanders continue to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated. The Queensland government gave the strongest indication yet that if vaccination rates continued to grow – its borders could be open in time for Christmas. Fingers crossed.
SPIN THE GLOBE
——–
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops, and today we’ve landed in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where a 72-year-old man has shown his love for his wife with recycled electric motors and the wheels of an old military vehicle. More precisely, Vojin Kusic has used that equipment to build a rotating house for his wife. Rotating is a fancy word for spinning. When they first got married, Vojin’s wife wanted all of the bedrooms in their home to face the sun. So that’s how he built the house. But then the living room was facing away from the road, and they couldn’t see who was coming into the front yard. So Vojin retrieved his construction equipment and remodelled. Which is a fancy way of saying he knocked down walls and swapped the rooms around. When the kids left home, Vojin decided to make a house that spun on its axis – so his wife could have whatever view she wanted, whenever she wanted. And the best bit – whenever they see someone coming down the footpath they don’t want to see, they just spin the front door away from them. Genius. There are photos of Vojin’s spinning house in today’s episode notes.
SPORT TIME
—–
Lovers of rugby union … start limbering up … according to newspaper reports yesterday, Australia is looking more and more likely to be the host nation for the 2027 Rugby World Cup (CHEER). The rugby world cup is big rugby competition where countries from all over the world send teams to compete against each other. It’s like the Olympics but for rugby. And with many fewer countries. And like the Olympics – it happens every four years. The next World Cup is happening in France in 2023 .. oh la la … and at the moment, the shortlisted countries to host the 2027 World Cup are Australia and the United States … with your favourite southern hemisphere country and mine – Australia – looking like it has it in the bag. Start practicing your Wallaby war cry …
Speaking of big sporting news … a big congratulations to the Australian women’s cricket team – which held off rivals India to wrap up the T20 series on Sunday night .. lovers of cricket will be excited to hear also that the Women’s Big Bash League kicks off on Thursday – and England has named the squad to fly to Australia later this year to fight it out for the Ashes. Sportsapalooza …
ANIMAL KINGDOM
—-
There’s no doubt COVID has been the cause of all sorts of nastiness .. but one upshot of the pandemic has been the rise of the puppy nanny.
Airlines in the United States have reported an increase in the number of puppies being flown around the country since COVID became a thing.
Turns out that puppy adoptions have skyrocketed in lockdown -because who doesn’t want to share their lockdown with a furry bundle of happiness? But at the same time – no one wants to, or is able to jump on a plane to retrieve the new member of their family. So a whole new profession has been created: that of the puppy nanny. Men and women whose job it is to pick up your pooch, plonk him or her on a plane and accompany them across state lines to be delivered to your home.
I think I want to be a puppy nanny when I grow up.
THE S’QUIZ
—————–
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What big sporting event looks like it’s coming to Australia in 2027?
- A man in Bosnia has renovated his house so that it now does what?
- Nannies are being employed in the United States to transport what precious cargo across state lines?
SHOUT OUTS
——————-–
It’s October 12 … today is Ada Lovelace Day … celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths … Ada Lovelace lived in England in the 1800s and is widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer. I’ve stuck a link to an excellent video about Ada in today’s episode notes..
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today… Archie from Gosford East, Lachlan from Goomalling, Anton from Brisbane, Yash from Canberra, Max from The Rock, Grace from Oatley, Emma from Ermington and Felix – who’s listening all the way over in Houston, Texas.
And a belated shout out to Aria from Shoal Bay.
And finally … because our friends in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney are in lockdown we are still sending out home learning herograms …
First one goes to Ms Dahle at Shoal Bay Public School and a very happy birthday today from her students in 3/4D. Another herogram to the Grade 4 classes at Mount View Public School in Glen Waverley. Asha from Wollondilly Public School sends a herogram to her teacher Miss Bright and Class 3H from Minnamurra Public School send one to their teacher Mrs Hughes – and say thank you for always being so positive and supportive.
Another herogram shout out goes to all of Grade 6 and the teachers at Gardenvale Primary School in Melbourne from Milla. Lastly a home learning shout out to Ben of Mount Riverview who has been working really hard and his mum is super proud.
And finally – classroom shout outs go to classes K, 1 & 2 at Trinity Catholic School in Murrumburrah and to year 4&5 at Leeton Public School. Both schools are in regional NSW and very lucky not to be in lockdown.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Rugby World Cup
- Spins
- Puppies