Squeeze Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we podcast the Turrbal and Convermary 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, October 27.
In Squiz Kids Today.
Christmas Island, Crab March, Switzerland's Rescue Robots, Big Weekend for Aussie Sports Lovers and Halloween Goes Green.
That's what's making news, kids style.
The Lowdown And we start the week with a good news story, as Christmas Island's famous red crabs begin their annual migration this week with signs that a conservation program there is working.
The annual march of more than 100 million red crabs.
Yes, you heard correctly, 100 million is one of the great nature spectacles of the world.
Right up there with the wildebeest crossing the Serengeti and the flight of the snow geese.
The crab march brings the tiny Australian territory of Christmas Island, located smack bang in the middle of the Indian Ocean, to a standstill.
Roads are cut off by the hordes of crabs, footpaths are overrun, as the crabs do, their sideways dance from the tropical rainforest to the ocean, a sight that attracts thousands of tourists every year.
But for the past few years, the red crab population was threatened by an invasive species called the yellow ant, which competes for food with the crabs and sprays an acid on the poor crustaceans, which was severely reducing its population.
But clever conservationists introduced a wasp from Malaysia which has removed a food source that the ants thrive on And that has managed to control ant numbers and give the crabs room to scamper off to the ocean uninterrupted.
A natural solution to maintain a natural wonder of the world.
How good is that?
And yes, I've stuck a link to video of the crab march in today's episode notes.
You're welcome.
Spin the globe.
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a new story from wherever it stops.
And today we've landed in Switzerland, where clever scientists and computer programmers are showing off a new breed of robots ready to come to the rescue.
Magneko is a four-legged robot with magnetic feet capable of climbing walls, which could one day save humans from dangerous work situations.
And Roboa is a robot that moves like a snake and could one day help to save people who are trapped in collapsed buildings.
Like, say, after an earthquake.
Roboa has a camera light, microphone and speaker in its head and it can slither into tiny, cramped spaces looking for survivors and even deliver through its head life-saving food, water and medicine.
How amazing.
I stuck a link to video of the clever robots in today's episode notes, because science is just so cool.
Sport time!
If you're a sports lover like me, you'll be as worn out as I am this morning after Australia's sports stars showed the world how it's done over the weekend.
The incredible sporting feats began on Friday when everyone's favourite teen sprint sensation, Gout Gout, brought his world-beating form to the Interschool Athletics Carnival in Brisbane.
The kid from Ipswich, fresh from running against the best sprinters in the world in Tokyo three weeks ago, blitzed the competition in the GPS athletics meet in Brizzy on Friday, breaking his own record in the 400 metres running 4614 seconds for his school Ipswich grammar.
Also breaking a bunch of records.
But on completely the other side of the world at the weekend was Aussie swimmer Molly O'Callaghan who carved up the competition in the Swimming World Cup in Toronto, Canada.
The five-time Olympic gold medal champion showed she is the rising swim star to watch, setting a new short course record in the 200 metre women's freestyle with 1 minute 4936 seconds.
That, my friends, is fast.
Also lighting up the international sporting stage at the weekend and flying the Aussie flag while they were at.
It were the Aussie men's rugby team, the Wallabies, who held out a determined Japan to win 19-15 in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon.
While all the way over there in London the Kangaroos, the Aussie men's National Rugby League team, smashed the English national team 26-6 with a couple of lovely tries to Reese Walsh on debut.
And here at home yesterday, the Aussie Women's National Rugby League team, the Jillaroos, smashed Samoa 60-0 in the Pacific Championships.
But then Samoa got their own back when the men's national team took on Tonga at Suncorp Stadium in front of a 40000-strong crowd, beating Tonga by 34 points to 6.
But only after a massive storm with lightning and hail interrupted the game by more than an hour and a half.
What a weekend of sport.
Trick or treat, people.
It's only four sleeps, can you believe, until Halloween.
And this year, we're all being urged to try to make Halloween green.
All those lolly wrappers, all those plastic decorations, all those fake cobwebs.
Sure, they're loads of fun and part of the whole spooky experience, but as Halloween in Australia gets bigger every year, there are calls for us to all be a little bit more mindful of the impact that it can have on the environment.
Opt for real pumpkins instead of plastic ones.
Or if you do go for plastic pumpkins and skeletons and stuff, make sure you recycle them for use again next year.
Don't single-use plastic your Halloween decorations.
One council in Adelaide has even banned fake cobwebs after local bird life and insect life were getting caught in it and dying.
There are enough zombies and ghosts and ghouls floating around on Halloween, as it is, my friends, without sending some of our native animals to an early grave.
Still have fun, of course, and fill your boots when it comes to scamming lollies off the neighbours.
Just maybe make sure you leave as light a footprint on the environment as possible.
As any good ghost would.
And as our federal politicians head back to Canberra today, it's a shout-out this morning to Henry from Brownhill for his excellent suggestion on how to get our federal politicians to behave in question time.
Henry suggests House Speaker Milton Dick he's the bloke you see on the TV news at night refereeing all those rowdy politicians does what his football coach does when kids aren't listening, and that is to stand with his hand in the air not saying a word until every kid on the field also raises their hand and falls silent.
Great suggestion, Henry.
Also I love Elodie from 17 Mile Rocks' suggestion, which is for Milton to say to our politicians hands on bottoms, now speak in quiet voices.
You know what, Elodie, I would love to see our politicians being forced to put their hands on their bottoms.
We're doing the Squiz Kids QA with Milton in a couple of weeks and he's looking for the best suggestions from Aussie kids on how he can bring the House of Reps to order.
If you have a suggestion of what he might say or get them to do, send it to squizkids at thesquizcomau, and it could be one of the ones that he reads out in an upcoming session of Federal Parliament.
Time for the quiz.
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question number one.
What's the name of the island where crabs are on the march?
Music That's right, it's called Christmas Island.
Question number two.
Which country hosted a showcase of rescue robots this weekend?
Well done if you remembered it was Switzerland.
Question number three.
Name the Aussie swimmer smashing records in the pool in Toronto.
Give yourself a pat on the back if you said Molly O'Callaghan.
Shout outs.
It's Monday, October 27.
Yesterday was Grandparents Day in Australia.
So if you're near a grandparent today, give them a belated hug or otherwise, call or text or FaceTime them so they know how much you love them.
Today is also a special day for these squiz kids celebrating a birthday today and tomorrow.
Kiva from Belmont, Spencer from Picton, Finn and Harvey from Forest Glen, Tilly and Hazel from Devonport, Natalie from Wallaroo, Dodie from Currie Currie, Harriet from Croydon, Christian from Harrington Park, Isaac from South Ripley, Nicole and Ricky from Forest Lake, Patrick from Cheltenham, Luna from Exeter, Cruz from Kallangur and Avery from San Susie.
And a belated birthday shout out goes to Ado, listening all the way over there in Tokyo in Japan.
And classroom shout outs today go to Class 4B with Mrs. Patterson at Mount Crosby State School.
Class 5C with Mrs Corrie at St John's Anglican College in Forest Lake.
Year 4 with Mr Young at Bayside Christian College in Harvey Bay.
And Class 6B and 6P with Ms Barker and Mrs Pedersen at Melanda State 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 Episode 3 of Planet Warriors, where this time we get to meet Flo, the next member of the Planet Warriors super-connected superhero gang, to tell us all about tidal energy.
In the meantime...
Get out there and have a most excellent day.
Over and out.
