Wednesday, 10 November, 2021
Electric cars speed our way; Bald eagles get a bad rap; Dylan Alcott says it’s time; and the mystery of Mt Isa’s roo on a roof.
LINKS
Roo on the roof : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-08/kangaroo-becomes-stuck-on-roof-in-mount-isa-queensland/100604582
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
——
Visits to the petrol station could soon be a thing of the past, after the electric car revolution took another step forward yesterday with the announcement that thousands of new charging stations for electric vehicles would be built around the country.
What’s an electric car? Most of the cars on our roads today use petrol or diesel as fuel. But as you probably know, emissions from petrol or diesel cars are one of the causes of global warming. Electric cars, as their name suggests, are powered by electricity – and don’t emit the same greenhouse gases.
With the Glasgow climate summit still happening in Scotland this week, the world’s attention is on how we reduce greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
The Australian government yesterday announced a plan to build charging stations for electric cars in people’s garages at home, and in public spaces too. A charging station is exactly what it sounds like: a place to plug in your electric car, in the same way you plug in a phone, to recharge it.
Clever, huh?
The move is on around the world to gradually replace petrol cars with electric cars. You’ve probably heard about Tesla – the company that makes electric vehicles – you might also have heard of a car company called Jaguar – which has promised to only make electric cars by 2025. And in the United States, the President Joe Biden has set a target that half of all cars sold there by 2030 electric. The future is electric my friends, quite literally.
SPIN THE GLOBE
——–
Each day we give the world globe a spin, and find a story wherever it lands. And today we’ve landed in Minnesota, in the United States… and look who’s here! It’s Squiz E the Newshound … always so busy sniffing out fishy stories on the internet.
Squiz-E’s nose has led him to Minnesota because it’s here that a Facebook meme was created comparing the American bald eagle with the Aussie wedge tailed eagle – rather rudely dismissing the bald eagle as “basically a glorified seagull” that ate only fish. The meme claimed the Aussie eagle, in comparison, was the biggest eagle in the world that hunted and ate large mammals, including kangaroos.
The meme has definitely ruffled a few American feathers … but Squiz-E has learned that it’s claims just don’t fly. By doing his own research, Squiz E has discovered the two eagles are actually similar in size; the bald eagle eats much more than fish; and although wedge-tailed eagles can hunt in a pack and overwhelm a kangaroo, they mostly eat carcasses of animals that have already died. Yum.
Thanks, Squiz-E, for remembering to stop, think, and check!
ANIMAL KINGDOM
———
Police and fire brigade officers in Mt Isa, in north-western Queensland, received a very strange call this week when they were called out to get a roo down off a roof.
Yes, you heard right, a kangaroo was stuck on the roof of a house. No one knew how it had gotten there – and no one was quite sure how to get it down.
It was local kids who had made the call to the fire brigade .. a call which the fireys at first thought was a joke. But sure enough, when they drove to the house and saw people standing around taking photos of the marsupial on its roof, they got to work.
The roo was eventually coaxed down off the roof – jumping into some shrubs in the backyard, then hopping off into the bush.
But how did it get up there in the first place? Aliens? A kangaroo ladder? A mini-tornado? Or just a really high jump? We may never know…
SPORTS TIME
——
Oh no … say it isn’t so? Our number one favourite Aussie sports star here at Squiz Kids, the always-awesome Dylan Alcott, yesterday announced he would be retiring from tennis next year.
Waaaaaah.
Dylan is the most successful men’s quad tennis player of all time, winning 15 grand slam titles and eight doubles titles.
The wheelchair sportsman told reporters yesterday he felt like he’d achieved all he could on a tennis court, and he was ready to tackle new challenges, off the tennis court.
But before he goes: he’s going to be defending his championship title at the Australian Open in Melbourne in January – and says he wants to retire a winner and go out on a high. We have no doubt you will, big D.
THE S’QUIZ
—————–
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What’s the name of the town in north-western Queensland where a roo was rescued from a roof?
- Name the Aussie tennis star who’s decided to hang up his racquet?
- What’s the name of the majestic bird in America who’s been compared unfavorably online to the Aussie wedge tailed eagle?
SHOUT OUTS
——————-–
It’s November 9 … it’s National Ride To Work Day .. and it’s also Sesame Street Day in New York City … if you see an Elmo or Big Bird today, give them a high five.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today…
Hamish from Exeter, Lesane from Dubbo, Mason from Kempsey, Evie from Murrumburrah, Jayden from Tarneit, Oli from Abbotsford, Lucas from Toowoomba, Elsie from East Hawthorn, and Bindi from NSW.
Belated shout outs go to Romy from Exeter and Corbin from Murrurundi.
Classroom shout outs today go to… Eli and class 5M at Mary Mackillop School in Birkdale, Grade 6 and Mrs Nixon at Drummoyne Public School, class 2A & Mr Allan at North Annandale Public School, Hayley’s year 2 home room and Bryce’s year 4 home room at the Central Coast Sports College. Bryce … good name … Classroom shout outs also to classes HB13 with Mrs Nicolas and HB21 with Ms Le Loux and Miss Baker – both at Woongarrah Public School.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Mt Isa
- Dylan Alcott
- Bald Eagle