Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Aussies make history at US Open; Ethiopia’s skater girls; turning crab shells into batteries; and here comes the Poopy Diaper song.
LINKS
Ethiopia’s skater girls: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-62690976
Poopy Stupid Butt: https://youtu.be/x273hYfUoM4
The Poopy Diaper Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yd57PpDmXc
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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For the first time in 38 years Australia has a man and woman into the US Open quarter finals after Nick Kyrgios and Ajla Tomjlanovic yesterday won their matches in stunning fashion.
For both players, it’s also the first time either of them has reached the quarter finals of the prestigious tennis tournament.
In front of a packed stadium in New York city yesterday, and with the help of no fewer than 21 blistering aces, Kyrgios smashed his way to victory, beating Russia’s Daniil Medvedev – who’s currently ranked number one in the world. As well as being the world’s top ranked player at the moment, Medvedev won last year’s US Open championship – so another reason for Team Kyrgios to celebrate.
His win has even prompted some commentators to suggest he could go all the way – not least because he made the grand final of Wimbledon back in July and lost to Novak Djokovic.
For her part, Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic – fresh from beating crowd favourite Serena Williams on Saturday – managed to make light work of her Russian opponent Ludmilla Samsonova yesterday – winning in straight sets.
Straight sets means winning without letting your opponent claim a set.
After the game Ajla said she surprised even herself – saying that she came into the game feeling flat, exhausted by the emotional effort that had been required two days earlier to defeat sentimental favourite, Serena.
Sentimental favourite is an expression used to describe a player that has the backing of the crowd, even if they’re not expected to win.
But finally, Ajla told herself: This is not where I stop. I need to give it my all even if I go down.
And that, friends, is the mark of a champion.
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 Ethiopia – a country in the east of Africa – where girls are breaking all the rules and have set up their own skateboarding club.
Ethiopian Girl Skaters is a group of girls in the capital city of Addis Adaba – who get together every week at the local skate bowl, push the boys out of the way and skate to their heart’s content.
Now – skateboarding for girls might not seem such a big deal here in Australia – where, hopefully, girls feel like they can do any sport they want. But in Ethiopia – where gender roles – which is to say, society’s expectations about what girls can and can’t do – are less flexible.
So the fact girls are taking the bull by its horns – or rather, the skateboard by its wheels – and teaching themselves to skateboard is a big deal.
I’ve stuck a link to videos of the girls in the skate bowl in today’s episode notes.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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Do you remember that when you were 4 or 5 —or maybe even a bit older—you thought there was nothing funnier than the words poo, bum, and fart? Well, it turns out that those words can make you a LOT of money. You see, young kids have learned how to talk to Alexa and Siri—those robot assistants on Amazon and Apple devices. And because the kids are obsessed with poos, bums, and nappies – or, if they’re American, poops, butts, and diapers – they’re saying things like “play poopy diaper.”
And to their parents’ surprise, the machine says… “Playing Poopy Diaper on Spotify”.
For lots of reasons, there really are songs on the Internet about these stinky topics. And each time a song is played, the musician earns a few cents. The man behind the smash hit “Poopy Stupid Butt” has made $10,000! His song, which of course I have linked to in your episode notes, came about from a music class when he allowed four year old kids to write the lyrics.
And in case you were wondering whether this was just a phenomenon in the English language… the French song “la chanson du caca”, or “the poop song”, has more than one million plays on Spotify.
Pooh – it’s funny in any language, you see?
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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If you were to ask a crab in a rockpool or mudflat or seafood shop whether they knew they were a battery – they’d probably say no.
Assuming of course they could talk.
But thanks to the efforts of scientists in America – crab shells may soon be being used to make renewable batteries.
You see – there’s a chemical in crab shells called chitin – it’s the chemical that makes their shells hard. THis same chemical has been manipulated in a lab to create a firm gel membrane and used as an electrolyte for a battery. An electrolyte is the liquid, paste, or gel inside a battery that helps ions – charged molecules – travel between one end and the other of a battery, allowing it to store energy.
Why is this even a thing? Because currently, batteries are made with chemicals that take thousands of years to break down … whereas crab batteries can break down into soil once exhausted.
How cool is that?
THE SQUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What’s the name of the tennis tournament that has two Aussies now in its quarter finals?
- What sort of marine animal’s shell is being used to make a new generation of renewable, recyclable battery?
- In which country have girls started taking over the local skate bowl?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s September 6 …. Australia takes on New Zealand in a One Day International in Cairns today. .. and nominations for one of the most prestigious book prizes in the world, The Booker Prize are announced today .. talk about covering off all interests …
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today …
Isabella from Helensvale, Piper from Mandurah, Alfie from Launceston, Annabelle from Bathurst, Isla from Adelaide and Maddie listening from Oahu in Hawaii.
Belated shout outs go to Cailin from Canberra, Lulu from Petersham and Jules from Tynong North.
And classroom shoutouts today go to …class 6 Red and Mrs Ramsay at All Saints Primary School in Albany Creek , class 5/6 Clarence with Mr West at Sturt Public School in Wagga Wagga, class 3H and Mrs Brown at St Peter’s Anglican Grammar School in Campbelltown and to class 3M and Miss Mac at Balgowlah North Public School – who love using the Squiz Kids podcast in their literacy groups every week.
Lastly a shout out to Beechwood Public School who recently became a member of Squiz Kids for Schools on our special Term 4 promo. (Link in episode notes).
The S’Quiz Answers:
- US Open
- Crab
- Ethiopia