Wednesday, 1 June, 2022
LINKS
The Mona Lisa is smeared with cake: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/30/mona-lisa-smeared-cake-suspected-climate-protester
Baby sloth reunited with its mum: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/05/30/baby-sloth-reunited-with-mom-orig-jc.cnn
Squiz Kids for Schools – Free 30 Day Trial: https://www.squizkids.com.au/squiz-kids-for-schools/
Squiz Kids Apple Subscriber Content – Free 7 Day Trial: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/squiz-kids/id1494238283
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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Today, newly elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be getting a Cabinet and a front bench. Which, to any reasonable person, sounds like he’s buying new furniture. But actually, the PM will be officially swearing in his government ministers, who sit right in the front row of Parliament when it meets. That’s why they’re called the front bench.
Back up, Amanda. What’s a minister? Well, it’s a member of the Australian Government who has been given an area of responsibility for how Australia is run. For example, there’s a minister for health; for education; for foreign affairs; and so on. There are about 20 ministers in the House of Representatives; and 10 in the Senate.
The opposition – the Liberal and National party coalition that Bryce told you about yesterday – also appoints what’s known as shadow ministers, who think and talk about those same areas of responsibility, from the opposition’s point of view. They sit in the front row opposite the government, so they’re known as the “opposition front bench”.
So much for the PM’s new bench. What about his Cabinet? Well, that’s a smaller group formed by the most senior and experienced ministers. The Cabinet meets regularly with the PM, and makes most of the major decisions of the government. And, to be very clear, the fact that they’re being sworn IN today does not mean that Albo will be swearing AT them. A swearing-in is an official ceremony, in which a person who’s starting an official new job promises to be honest, and perform the job to the best of their ability.
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 Paris, where the world’s most famous painting has been attacked with a cake. Thankfully, the Mona Lisa has protective glass in front of her, so when a man—who disguised himself as an elderly woman with a disability— leapt out of his wheelchair and smeared cake all over the glass, nothing whatsoever happened to Leonardo DaVinci’s masterpiece. The bizarre attack was apparently a protest against the art world not doing enough for the climate… and the 36-year-old perpetrator was arrested and taken to a hospital for people with mental illness. I’ve put a video of the attack in your episode notes, although honestly, the thing I find most incredible is how many people are crowded around the painting, trying to take a photo of it, before someone comes and smooshes cake on the glass.
NEWSHOUNDS
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It’s Wednesday… which means Squiz-E the newshound is here, to tell us what he’s sniffed out on the Internet lately. And he’s brought in something really interesting. Have a listen to this story, written a couple of weeks ago before the federal election:
“Whoever wins the election, it is sure to be a close and hard-fought contest. With the country facing challenges on many fronts, the next government will have its work cut out for it.”
Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? But the same story said that the election would be held on July 2. As we all know, July 2 is in the future. And the election is in the past.
It turns out that this story was written by artificial intelligence. And Squiz-E was surprised to learn that AI is creating a lot of what you, your parents, and your teachers are reading every day: ads, reviews, social media posts, business proposals, even high school essays! Squiz-E spoke to people who are using AI to produce content for their businesses, and learned that while the writing style is good enough to sound like a human, AI makes up facts! Scrupulous businesses – scrupulous means careful and honest – go through and fact-check before publishing … but once again, we need to Stop, Think, and Check before we believe what we read. It may not have even been written by a human.
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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Have you ever gotten lost from your mum or dad? Scary, right? Now imagine that you’re a baby three-toed sloth in the jungles of Costa Rica, and you’ve fallen out of the tree that your mum is in! Workers at a Jaguar Rescue Centre were out in the jungle recently, when they heard the cries of the baby sloth. Their vets examined the bub after its fall, and said it was totally fine – but when they went back to the tree, the sloth’s mum was so high up she couldn’t hear her baby.
So those resourceful animal rescuers recorded the baby’s cries, then played them on a loudspeaker until the mum heard. Watching her come down the tree is about as frustrating as watching that sloth scene in the movie Zootopia… you know she’s desperate to get to her kid, but wow, do sloths move slowly. Finally, she gets low enough for the human helpers to hand her baby up to her. The hug that the mum and baby give each other is enough to melt the hardest heart. And of COURSE, I’ve put the video in your episode notes. It would be cruel not to.
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 for a small group of senior ministers in the government?
- Which famous painting had cake smeared on its protective glass?
- In which country was a baby sloth reunited with its mum?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s June 1… Madaraka Day in Kenya! What’s Madaraka Day? It’s the anniversary of Kenya breaking away from Britain and achieving self rule. Want to know more about Kenya? Like, why there are an average of 60 kids in primary school classrooms, with only one teacher? Yikes! Jump into this week’s Squiz the World episode, available to all SK4S classrooms as well as subscribers to our Apple Specials. Not a member? There are links to free trials in your episode notes. Okay, enough self promotion.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today …
Mia from Yass, Bonnie from Dulwich Hill, Sophie from Queanbeyan South, Alex from Dakabin, Oscar from Glebe, Liz from Carlingford, Jarvis from the Gold Coast, Grace Kim from Spring Farm and Hannah from Macleay Island.
And classroom shout outs are going out today to… all the grade 5 and 6 students at Windsor Public School, class 5/6E with Mrs Edwards and Mrs McHutchison at Thornleigh West Public School, Miss Campbell and Miss Guy’s year 6 class at Murrumburrah Public School and lastly to the year 5/6 students with Mrs Dudek at Williamstown Primary School.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Cabinet
- The Mona Lisa
- Costa Rica