Wednesday, 17 August, 2022
Spiderman says no to social media; a teenage shark attack hero; Japanese parents’ poo problems; and Fritz the baby hippo.
LINKS
Tom Holland’s last Instagram message for a while: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/15/entertainment/tom-holland-social-media-mental-health-intl-scli/index.html
Cute alert! Fritz the baby hippo: https://people.com/pets/fiona-the-hippo-brother-officially-has-a-name-frtiz/
Want to listen to our Squiz the World episode on Indonesia?
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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Tom Holland—whom you and I know better as Spiderman—announced yesterday that he had deleted Instagram and Twitter from his phone, and was taking a break from social media for his mental health.
The 26-year-old Marvel star recorded a three minute video for his 67.7 million Instagram followers … whoa, that’s a lot of fans … and said that he had gotten completely caught up in reading things about himself online, and had started to spiral.
“Spiralling” in the mental health sense means that you start to feel bad, and that makes you feel worse, which makes you feel even worse… imagine water going down the plug hole in a spiral pattern. That’s how being online made Tom Holland feel. And—he’s not the only one.
Earlier this year, Australia’s National Mental Health survey found that more than half of young people said that their mental health was declining, which means getting worse. And 42 per cent of them said that the main reason was social media. So if you feel worse about yourself after being on social media, you could always take a leaf out of Spiderman’s book, and take a break.
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Tom Holland is being hailed as a hero for speaking up about his mental health. Over on the south coast of WA, they’re celebrating another hero – a teenager who saved his best mate’s life. After 17-year-old Luke Pascoe was attacked by a shark, Conner Shirley pulled him out of the water, remembered the first aid he learned in school to stop his leg from bleeding, and then piggybacked him for 2km over rocks to his car, and drove him to hospital. Luke says he wouldn’t be alive if Conner hadn’t been so brave, and thought so quickly on his feet. Oh, and Luke doesn’t blame the shark—it was attracted to the fish he’d just speared.
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 Japan, where parents with kids in daycare have a bit of a poo problem. They drop their kids off in the morning in a clean nappy… and when they come back to pick them up, they’re given a bonus bag full of the dirty nappies that their kid used that day. Not all daycares have this “take home” policy, but it is very common. Now, why on earth would a parent want more pooey nappies in their life? Apparently, the main reason the daycares gave for sending the stinky stuff home is so that parents can open up the nappies and check on the health of their child’s stool—stool being the medical name for poo. Is that really what parents want? Not this mum!
NEWSHOUNDS
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Squiz-E is back with us today, to fill us in on something he’s sniffed out online. And our faithful newshound has been to space! Early yesterday morning, the Russian space agency released plans for “Ross”, a Russian built space station… which seems to suggest that Russia really is planning to leave the International Space Station after more than 20 years of collaborating with other countries. The reason for going it alone? Russia didn’t like it when those countries criticised its invasion of Ukraine.
But what Squiz-E really wanted to check were viral reports that the head of Russia’s space agency had threatened that the 500-ton space station would fall to earth if Russia left. Yikes! Squiz-E got straight to fact-checking. He found that yes, Dmitry Rogozin really did threaten on Twitter that the station could fall out of orbit. But the same person has also posted online that astronauts could get to the ISS using trampolines or broomsticks. So.. we probably shouldn’t believe everything he says. Second, Squiz-E found that Dmitry Rogozin had been replaced a few weeks ago as head of the space agency… and that the ISS will be able to stay safely in space, without the Russians. Nice one, Squiz-E.
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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Warning: Squiz Kids is issuing a severe cute alert for this segment. Click on the link in the episode notes at your own risk… you may find yourself booking a ticket straight to the Cleveland Zoo!
The American zoo’s newest social media star – a baby hippo – was born on August 3, and the animal care team asked the public for name suggestions. They received 90,000! It came down to two finalists: Fritz and Ferguson. And yesterday, it was revealed that Fritz was the name, with 200,000 votes.
Fritz has a big sister, Fiona, who weighs 900kg. Fritz is well on his way to catching up, though, having doubled his birth weight already. Fritz and Fiona… don’t you love alliteration?
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 main reason young Australians gave for their declining mental health?
- In which country do some daycares give parents a bag of their kid’s pooey nappies each day?
- What does the ISS—which is not coming crashing down to Earth— stand for?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s August 17 – Indonesian independence day! There’s nothing like fighting for freedom to unite a country of more than 17,000 islands and 700 languages! If you want to learn more about Indonesia, including its dragons, Squiz the World is visiting today. I’ll put a link in your episode notes.
And it’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today …
Cooper from Croydon North, Mia from Forest Lake, Easton from Cairnlea, Annabelle from Bondi Junction, Ardal from Kilmore, Farheen from Wahroonga and Thea listening over in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!
And a belated birthday shout out goes to Nina from Cherrybrook.
Classroom shoutouts today go to… class SP4 with Mr White and SP1 with Mr Blythe, both at St Pius X Primary School in Warrnambool, to year 3/4 and Miss M at McLaren Flat Primary School, class 4HO at Radford College in Bruce and because they are big supporters of Squiz Kids for Schools its a shout out again to class 5/6AB at Mount Carmel School in Yass.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Social media
- Japan
- International Space Station.