Squeeze Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we podcast the Turrbal and Combermary people.
Squeeze Kids!
It's your daily news fix.
Fun, free, fresh.
Hello and welcome to Squiz Kids Today, your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you.
I'm Bryce Corbett.
It's Monday, September 22.
In Squiz Kids Today, Silly Science Awards, Big Weekend for Sharks Panthers, Cats and Lions, Tokyo Athletics Update and Fat Bear Week is back.
That's what's making news, kids style.
The Lowdown cows painted to look like zebras, pizza-eating lizards, and a scientist that grew his fingernails for 35 years.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's the Ig Nobel Prizes given out to the silliest science experiments of the year.
Last Thursday night in the US city of Boston, scientists from all over the world gathered to discover whose silly science experiment had won an Ig Nobel Prize, in a competition that organisers described as honouring science that first makes people laugh and then makes them think.
This year's awards had the theme of digestion, which would explain why scientists experimenting to see what pizza topping lizards prefer featured in the awards.
Why did scientists paint cows to look like zebras, I hear you ask?
Well, it was to see if the stripes meant that they were bitten less often by mosquitoes.
The answer, if you're wondering, is yes.
And how about a lizard's favourite pizza topping?
Well, if you want to know, it's four cheese, in case you were wondering.
In other important meetings of world significance news, today marks the start of the United Nations General Assembly. when leaders of the world gather in New York City at the UN headquarters there to discuss the most pressing issues facing the planet.
There will be speeches, aplenty and votes and resolutions and a lot of news coming out of the General Assembly generally, as hot-button topics like climate change and Palestine and kids and social media are all discussed.
Watch this space.
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 my favourite place in the world at this time of the year, a place called Katmai National Park in Alaska, where it's Fat Bear Week.
Yes, my friends, it's crunch time for the chunky bears of Katmai who have spent the whole northern hemisphere summer stuffing their faces with salmon, and at Brooks Falls as the poor fish try to migrate upstream to their breeding grounds.
And now, as is customary every year, the park rangers take photos of the Brooks Falls bears and post them online and get people all over the world to vote on the bear that they think has done the best job putting on weight for winter.
As you know, it's autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and bears will soon be retreating to their caves to hibernate for the winter.
Winter is a time when they get snowed in and don't want to go outside in the cold and don't eat very much for months at a time.
Which is why they spend all summer getting as tubby as possible.
So, who will win this year's Fat Bear Week?
Can Grazer, the mama bear who's won two years in a row, make it three from three?
Come on Grazer, you've got my vote.
And yes, I've stuck links to the voting page in today's episode notes, as well as the link to the Brooks Falls live feed video.
Get involved.
Sport time.
Oh man, oh man.
This time of year just wears me out.
There's so much footy to watch.
So many finals to get involved in.
It's flat out exhausting.
Imagine having to actually play one of the games.
Sheesh.
The weekend began with the AFL, where Geelong booked a space in the grand final by making light work of Hawthorne, which is also what the Brisbane Lions did the following day also at the MCG, beating Collingwood to advance to their third grand final in as many years.
The Lions will now meet the Cats in a feline-inspired grand final back at the MCG on Saturday.
Strap yourselves in.
Meanwhile, excitement levels in the NRL were dialed up to 11 on the weekend, as the preliminary finals saw a couple of epic battles.
The Penrith Panthers showed why they are a good chance to claim their fifth that's right, fifth straight premiership, after smashing the Bulldogs in Sydney yesterday.
But it was the clash between the Cronulla Sharks and Canberra Raiders that raised eyebrows on Saturday night, when the Sharkies were just too strong for the minor premiers Canberra.
Poor Canberra.
They finished the season at the top of the ladder, only to lose to the Broncos last week and then the Sharks this weekend.
It now means the Sharks will play the Storm and the Broncos will face off against the Panthers in the semis this coming weekend, with the winners there going on to contest the grand final on Sunday, October 5.
Because too much footy is never enough.
And look, it's not just all the action on the footy field that's been keeping me glued to the telly this weekend.
Did you see some of the inspirational efforts by Aussies at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo?
I'm talking Nicola Oleslegas, the Aussie high jumper who was on top of the world last night after winning the gold medal clearing two metres.
I'm talking Jess Hull, our remarkable middle distance sprinting champion who, despite taking a tumble in her 800 metre heat and finishing last on Thursday night, managed to pick herself up, dust herself off and get back on the track to come third in the semi-final on Friday and break an oceanic record while she was at it.
Incredible too was our javelin star Mackenzie Little, who threw the javelin more than 63 metres to win a bronze medal in Tokyo only two weeks after she had saved a man's life in her day job as an emergency doctor at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.
And what about Kai Robinson, the Aussie 5000 metre runner, who came from the back of the pack to finish fourth?
To all of these champions, and indeed our entire team in Tokyo, Squiz Kids salutes you.
Does it feel like you're dragging yourself through waist-high wet cement?
That, my friends, is because it's the end of the term and kids parents, teachers alike all over the country are counting down the days until the holidays begin.
Unless, of course, you're in Queensland or Victoria or the NT, in which case you're already on holidays and probably doing cartwheels.
This is our last week of daily news content for the term, but don't move that dial.
Make sure you keep listening over the school holidays via our website or via your favourite podcasting app to enjoy a heap of excellent holiday content.
There's two episodes of our brand new series, Squiz Kids Spotlight, where we sit down and have a chat with someone cool.
I'll be chatting to Annabelle Crabb about her new book, There's a Prawn in Parliament House.
And Christy has nabbed an interview with Australia's first astronaut, Catherine Ben-El-Peg.
How cool.
There will also be brain teasers to keep your grey matter engaged a school holiday movie guide, our Squiz Kids science shorts and two bumper school holiday quizzes.
The school holiday content kicks off next week and goes for a fortnight.
And remember, if your birthday falls between September 29 and October 12, your birthday shout-out will be in the Daily Pod when we return the week commencing October 13.
Time for the Squiz!
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question number one.
Who did NRL minor premieres the Canberra Raiders lose to at the weekend?
Yeah, that's right.
It was the Cronulla Sharks.
Go the Sharkies.
Question number two.
True or false?
A science experiment has found that cows painted like zebras are less likely to be bitten by mozzies.
It is in fact true.
Question number three.
What's the name of the reigning champ of Fat Bear Week, hoping to take out the title for a third year in a row?
Well done if you had your listening ears on and you said Grazer.
Shout outs.
It's Monday, September 22.
As we've discussed already, world leaders, including our very own Prime Minister, will be in New York this week as the United Nations General Assembly kicks off.
Plus, it's also World Rhino Day and Hobbit Day today.
Wow, it's all happening.
It's also a special day for these squiz kids celebrating a birthday today and tomorrow.
Alicia from Springvale, Ruben from Pakenham, Dante from Windale, Zara from Middleton Grange, Shreya from Vermont South, Isla from Indooroopilly and Cormac from Perth.
And belated birthday shoutouts go to Abhinav from Quakers Hill and Ryan and Kaz from Ganymede.
And today's classroom shoutouts go to Class 5B with Miss Karen at Iona Presentation College in Mossman Park.
Room 17 with Mrs Hutch at Hawthorne Dean Primary School.
Class 2B with Mr Gilbert at Alambie Heights Public School.
And Classes 4, 5, 6 with Mrs Currie at Dunoon Public School.
Don't forget if you've got a birthday coming up and you want a shout-out, or if you're after a classroom shout-out, drop us a line at squizkids at thesquizcomau, or fill out the form on our website.
Well, that's all we have time for.
Thanks for listening to Squiz Kids today.
We'll be back again tomorrow with a rerun of our excellent Squiz Kids shortcut to the United Nations.
Perfect timing with the General Assembly kicking off today.
In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day.
Over and out.
