Wednesday, 24 March, 2021
Water, water everywhere; Iceland’s volcanic hot dogs; AFL’s record-breaking night; and Pokemon Go has competition.
LINKS
Satellite imagery of flooding: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/before-and-after-satellite-imagery-show-early-impact-of-nsw-floods-20210323-p57d9b.html
NSW Schools Safety Alert website: https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/school-safety
NSW Schools Update App: https://education.nsw.gov.au/parents-and-carers/nsw-school-updates-app
Iceland’s volcanic hotdogs: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/travel/2021/03/22/iceland-volcano-eruption-2021-mh-orig.cnn
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
——————-
Water, water, everywhere. And even though the sun is starting to shine again – communities across NSW are today bracing for rising flood waters with predictions the massive amount of water flowing down rivers from inland parts of the state towards the coast are set to make things even worse.
People in the towns of Grafton on the north coast of NSW, Singleton in the Hunter Valley and Upper Colo on the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney, were among thousands across the state who have been evacuated from their homes, with rivers there expected to rise again today – and the NSW Premier warning some 15,000 people might still need to be evacuated in the days ahead.
The weather bureau yesterday said in the past few days some parts of NSW had received two thirds of the rainfall they would normally receive in an entire year.
The south-east corner of Queensland was also fighting back flood waters after days of heavy rainfall. While residents of the Gold Coast hinterland were contemplating the clean up, farmers further west in Stanthorpe were celebrating the long-awaited breaking of a years’ long drought.
A family had to be rescued from their home on the top of a hill near Port Macquarie on Monday night as floodwaters from a nearby river rose around them.
Rescuers had to step over snakes, rats and all manner of creepy crawlies that had scrambled to the hill top in search of dry land.
The wild weather is today expected to head south of Sydney, lashing the NSW South Coast.
I’ve stuck a link in today’s episode notes to a news story with an excellent series of interactive satellite images, showing the extent of the flooding.
Stay safe out there people.
SPIN THE GLOBE
————————
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops .. and today we’ve landed in Iceland – a fabulous island nation near the North Pole – where volcanic hot dogs are all the rage.
Iceland is one of those countries that has lots of seismic activity. Which is to say, it has heaps of active volcanoes which are regularly blowing their tops and spewing steam and lava about the place.
One such volcanic eruption happened this week – and Icelanders, being the resourceful people they are – have flocked to watch the eruption and brought frankfurts along with them to cook on the molten rock.
Lava is rock from the centre of the earth that is so hot, it has melted into semi-liquid form. When it cools and turns back into rock it’s called magma – and it’s still very warm. Like a hotplate on the stove in your kitchen. Hot enough to fry an egg or heat up a frankfurt.
There’s video of the hot dog-munching Icelanders and the erupting volcano and bubbling lava in today’s episode notes. Hope someone remembered the BBQ sauce…
SPORTS TIME
—–
Of all the exciting bits of news to come out of Victoria yesterday with the announcement that more COVID restrictions are going to be eased at the end of this week was the news that a crowd of 75,000 will be allowed at the MCG tomorrow night when Collingwood take on Carlton.
If Melburnians turn out in force and hit the magic 75,000 mark, it will be the biggest sporting event to have taken place in the world since the pandemic hit.
How about that?
The G, as the MCG is affectionately known, already holds the record for the biggest crowd at a sporting event in Australia since COVID hit – when 49,000 footy fans crowded in for Richmond’s clash against Carlton.
And with up to 43,000 allowed to cram into Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on Saturday for St Kilda’s face-off with Melbourne .. it’s beginning to look a lot like a semi-normal footy season is on the cards. Fingers crossed.
POP CULTURE CORNER
——
If you’ve ever caught yourself running around a park, or up and down your street or around the playground mobile phone in hand, trying to track down and catch Pokemon characters – you’ll be excited to learn there’s a new augmented reality app in the works which Pokemon’s creators reckon is going to be at least as popular.
Some of you may already know Pikmin – the popular game on Nintendo Switch and WiiU. Yesterday Nintendo announced it had struck a deal with the makers of the Pokemon Go app to turn Pikmin into a similar mobile app.
The creators of the new Pikmin app aren’t giving too much away – but they did say yesterday that it would feature “activities to encourage walking and make walking more delightful.”
So that’s good. Anything that makes walking more delightful has got to be a good thing.
All will be revealed when the app launches later this year.
ROSIE’S RECIPES
—-
Every second Wednesday we stick our head into the Squiz Kids kitchen to see what Rosie has been cooking up … and with the rain falling down outside, she’s been in baking mode. And that means cakes, cakes and more cakes.
This week she decided to bake a vanilla cake – which she iced with her favourite buttercream icing and added some sprinkles to try and make up for all the clouds outside.
She’s stuck the recipe and photos of the process and finished product onto the Squiz Kids website. The only rule if you decide to bake it, according to Rosie … whoever makes the cake gets to lick the spoon.
THE S’QUIZ
—————–
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- In which country have volcanic hot dogs become a thing?
- How many people can cram into the MCG tomorrow night with the easing of COVD restrictions in Victoria?
- What’s the name of the popular game about to be turned into a Pokemon Go style mobile app?
SHOUT OUTS
——————-
It’s March 24 … birthday of Aussie cricketer Alyssa Healy and footy player, Darren Lockyer. And in the United States, today is National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day. Mmmmmm.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today… Isaac from Ellenbrook, Ella from Bellevue Heights, Skye from Mount Riverview, Eloise from Carseldine, Archie from Melbourne, Penny from Erskineville and Sebastian from Norman Park.
And a belated birthday shoutout to … Otis from Bathurst
Happy birthday one and all.
Today’s classroom shoutouts… Class 5.3 at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Cabramatta, class 3/4K from Mount Warrigal Public School with Mrs Kelly and Mrs Ford, Mrs Croft’s 5C class at Lawnton State School, and Ms Indiana & 4Blue from Saint John the Apostle Primary School in Canberra.
And a special shoutout to Ms Pilgrim from class 2A at Ithaca Creek State School. Your students say thank you and farewell to their wonderful teacher.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Iceland
- 75,000
- Pikmin