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Hello there.
My name's Emily and you're listening to Newstime.
Hi, Emily.
Hello, Emily.
My name is Alistair and I live in Shayla Park.
Hello from the lands of the Yuggera people.
I love all the fascinating stories and news events you report on.
If you've loved listening to News Time this week, make sure you tell your friends and teachers.
Well, in today's episode, we'll hear about a high-tech idea that has people talking.
We'll meet some zookeepers poking around piles of poo on purpose and then we'll head about as far away from poo as possible, deep into outer space, for our wow of the week.
Let's hear the news.
This is Newstime.
If you plan to go along to watch your favourite footy team in the future, you might be doing things a little bit differently.
The AFL, that's the Australian Football League, is thinking about using an alternative to paper tickets.
Actual, actual life tickets.
Like, maybe they're gonna get pieces of cardboard and put tickets on them?
Hmm, that's not quite right.
They're thinking about using facial recognition technology, also known as FRT.
The idea is that when you buy a ticket, you'll also send a picture of your face.
And then, when you pull up to the turnstiles on game day, instead of having a ticket scanned, your face would be scanned to check if it matches the ticket buyer.
If there's a match, ding, you're in.
What if someone has a twin?
Outrageous.
Some people buy the tickets and they just look normal, but when they actually go to the game, they're all dressed up with lots of paint in their faces, a face paint, and they have their hairstyles different and everything.
Like, someone could just put, like, an identical mask on and then they'll think it could be them.
These were all great questions.
FRT has already been used heaps in the United States of America for American football games.
It's also been an option for people going to the Australian Open in Melbourne for the past few years.
The company that owns the technology says that it makes it quicker to get into a sporting game.
There can often be really long lines to get in before kick-off, so that would be a nice change.
But some people are worried about having their faces scanned in public places.
What if somebody, like, hacked into the system and then could see, like, everybody's face and, like, their ticket and stuff?
Mm, that wouldn't be good.
For the moment, the tech is optional.
People can use it if they want to to speed up entry on game day, but they don't have to.
It has me wondering, though, what else might we be able to use scans of our faces for?
I would use my face to unlock everything I have.
For getting into my house.
My bedroom, so my cat and my parents don't come in without my permission.
Maybe one day we'll get facial recognition installed in the Newstime studio.
Can I have another story, please?
Zookeepers at the Monarto Safari Park in South Australia have had something that's both smelly and sparkly added to their to-do lists.
They're inspecting rhino poop for glitter.
Because rhinos are doing circus and they keep throwing glitter everywhere.
Well, not quite.
And thankfully, the zookeepers aren't looking for the regular sort of glitter that you find in craft boxes.
They're looking for traces of special edible glitter that they've given to the rhino on purpose.
Edible glitter is being used to track the health of the two youngest southern white rhinos at the zoo, seven-year-old Carrie and 15-year-old Savannah.
One of them is fed blue glitter and the other is fed gold glitter.
The glitter moves through their system and then... ..comes out the other end.
Zookeepers then drive around their enclosure, poking around at the different piles of dung to see how each rhino's doing.
To, like, check their bodies and DNA.
To make sure they're not sick.
Yeah, exactly.
The zookeepers are especially on the lookout to see if either of the rhinos is pregnant.
It's not the first time disco poo has been used to help track animals' health.
The same technique has been used to care for lions in Victoria and polar bears in Canada.
Keeping the animal pens sparkling clean.
Is that something you'd like to do?
I would say no because you have to look through rhino poo to find glitter and it's disgusting and outrageous.
I wouldn't do it because it's gross and I don't want to touch poop.
I don't think I want to go around looking for
Glitter and rhino poo.
OK, that's a pretty strong no from the News Time crew.
If you listening would like to feel like a zookeeper and inspect some pictures of this glittery poo, ask your grown-ups or a teacher to head to the News Time page on the ABC Kids Listen website.
Oh, and don't feed any animals glitter or eat it yourself.
These zoo capers are trained professionals, so no need to check your kitty litter for glitter.
Here on planet Earth, if you look up at the night sky, you can often see our one big, beautiful moon.
But if you were looking up at the sky on planet Neptune, you wouldn't see one moon.
Let's say 16.
Because you can just see so many moons in the sky and then you can just stare at them and it's so cool.
It would be so cool to have 16 moons.
Astronomers have been inspecting Neptune's moons for years, and they've concluded that they're totally bizarre.
Here's the thing.
Neptune has 16 moons.
The biggest moon is called Triton, and it's an absolute whopper.
The other 15 moons of Neptune are tiny by comparison.
Imagine 15 little marbles lined up next to a juicy orange.
Neptune isn't the only planet to have multiple moons, but it is the only planet to have moons that are so different in size and mass to one another.
It would be like having one ginormous moon and then little moons scattered around it.
I think a lot of moons crashed into each other to create one big moon.
The other weird thing about the biggest moon, Triton, is that it orbits in retrograde, the opposite way of spinning compared to its planet, Neptune.
Knowing about Triton's size and orbit and using new information from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers now think that Neptune might have had a bigger moon system.
And then, millions of years ago, big Triton travelled to our solar system, smashed up Neptune's moons, and then it got stuck in Neptune's orbit and, well, just kept hanging around.
So these tiny moons are what's left over after Triton's grand entrance.
There were lots of big moons like Triton, but maybe two?
Then he knocked his best friend over?
Like a big bully.
Fascinating.
This is still a theory.
The best way to test it would be to send a probe into deep space to visit Neptune and Uranus.
There aren't any plans for such a mission at the moment, but maybe one day.
Time to get quizzical.
Question one.
What might you be able to use as a ticket?
Your face.
Question two.
What are zookeepers searching for in the poo?
Question three.
What's the name of Neptune's biggest moon?
Triton.
And your news noodler.
Do you think it's a good idea to use your face as a ticket?
What are the positives and the negatives of the idea?
And that's us done.
Thanks, friends.
Bye, Emily.
Thanks, Emily.
You're welcome.
Catch you next week.
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