Wednesday, 2 November, 2022

Gold Trip doesn’t slip; Disneyland in lockdown; an Australian Facebook scam; and a baby gorilla saved.

 

LINKS

 

Cute alert! Baby gorilla saved: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-31/western-lowland-gorilla-born-after-traumatic-birth/101596382 

Newshounds—Get started on our free media literacy resource for classrooms www.squizkids.com.au/newshounds

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

THE LOWDOWN

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If you go to school in Victoria, you had the day off school yesterday —lucky ducks! That’s because the Melbourne Cup horse race, traditionally called the “race that stops a nation”, is a public holiday in its home state. 

But a poll released yesterday morning, before the races, found that while almost ¾ of Australians say that the Melbourne Cup is “part of Australia’s national identity”, more than half of those same people said they had low or no interest in the actual horse race. The poll also found that 45 percent of people thought the Melbourne Cup promoted unhealthy gambling, which means betting on the outcome of the race. And one third were concerned about the treatment of the horses. In fact, in the early hours of yesterday morning, a protester poured an unknown black, sludgy substance onto the track, which had to be cleared and repaired before racing could start. Thanks to the pouring rain, the track was also very soggy. 

But a five-year-old French horse named Gold Trip seemed to have no problems with the conditions. About 80,000 people turned out on a very chilly Melbourne Day to Gold Trip race ahead in the final metres to win the Cup. His jockey, Mark Zahra, said he was so happy about winning, that he felt like crying. Aren’t adults weird? 

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Speaking of winners, Taylor Swift has done it again. Yesterday, she became the first musician in history to have the number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. That’s right, every single top 10 song comes from Tay-Tay’s new album, Midnights.  And it’s her tenth album, too… that is quite the career. 

 

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 Shanghai, where kids’ Disneyland dreams really do come true. When the city announced a snap COVID lockdown, the gates to Shanghai’s Disneyland were closed – leaving thousands of people stuck inside. And here’s the good part… the rides kept running, and the fireworks show went ahead! Just imagine – you’re at Disneyland, your grownups want to go home, and you haven’t finished having fun. Then the government tells you that you have to stay – and you can keep going on rides. Win! 

Okay, maybe it’s not everyone’s idea of heaven to be locked inside Disneyland until testing negative. China is one of the few places on the planet still trying to enforce a “COVID Zero” policy. Just ten people tested positive in Shanghai on Monday, and that’s what caused the government to lock down an entire city of 26 million. Australia’s population is just under 26 million, and we had more than 1,000 cases on the same day. 

 

NEWSHOUNDS

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It’s Wednesday… and Squiz-E the Newshound is back in the studio, continuing his fight against fake news. He didn’t have to travel far this week – because Facebook scammers have hijacked the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. Fake news articles made to look like they’re from the SMH were posted on Facebook, claiming to hold the secret to getting rich quickly. Sadly, people ended up losing money to the scammers – even though the address of the website they clicked through to began with the word “froliklock”—which seems unlikely to be the real address of the Herald (it’s actually smh.com.au). The newspaper said that it is trying to get Facebook to remove the posts, but so far, has had no luck. Examples like this are one reason that the Australian government’s Competition and Consumer Commission has sued Meta, the parent company of Facebook. They think social media companies need to take more responsibility for the content that appears on their sites. In the meantime, all that we can do is remember to Stop, Think, and Check. 

 

ANIMAL KINGDOM

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A team of doctors who usually take care of newborn babies have had the experience of a lifetime, after being called to look after a dangerously ill baby gorilla at the Mogo Wildlife Park on the New South Wales South Coast. Spoiler alert: the baby, who hasn’t been named yet, survived. Phew. 

Here’s what happened. The baby’s mum, Kipenzi, gave birth, but needed surgery afterwards. For some reason, the Dad picked up his little son and refused to give him back. He was loving and gentle, but he obviously couldn’t feed the baby… and for 14 hours, he wouldn’t let him go. When he finally did, the baby had a serious infection, and the zoo called in a team of professionals from local hospitals and clinics. Apparently, baby gorillas are an awful lot like baby humans, so they were able to stabilise the little fella. He’s now had all his tubes removed, and is recovering with his Mum. I’ve put a link in your episode notes to photos of the little guy… but a warning, he is seriously cute. Who knew a baby gorilla with a nappy, beanie, and a breathing tube could be so adorable? 

 

THE SQUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening … 

1. What record did Taylor Swift set yesterday? 
2. In which city were thousands of people locked inside Disneyland? 
3. What do you think the Mogo Wildlife Park’s baby gorilla should be named? 

 

SHOUT OUTS

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It’s November 2 … on this day in 1988, a computer science student accidentally released the first computer worm, causing one tenth of the internet to crash. Of course, back then, it was only 6000 computers…. Imagine if it happened today!

It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today… 

Jack from Shoal Bay, Alexis from Doncaster, Toby from Perth, Bis (pronounced Biz) from Carroll, Jai from Maitland, Amelia from Sandringham, Harry from Darlington and William, Lance and Jamie from Hornsby.

And belated birthday shout outs go to…Dharan from Marayong and Amaia from Hong Kong. Apologies Amaia we missed your birthday yesterday!

Classroom shout outs go to… class 4G and Miss Archer at All Hallows Catholic Primary School in Five Dock, class 6C and Miss Kelly at Mount Crosby State School, year 4 Crimson and Mrs Cale at Hornsby North Public School, class 15 and Ms Evans at Anson Street School in Orange and to the students in class 6O at Dysart State School who want to thank their teacher Miss Orr, for an awesome last year in primary school. 

One last shout out goes to 5th grade at Gymnasia 30 College in Minsk, Belarus and their teacher Ms Korolenia – who have been listening to Squiz Kids all year! 

 

The S’Quiz Answers:

1. All top ten songs on the Billboard 100
2. Shanghai, China
3. Answers will vary!