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ABC Listen. Hello, my friends.
It's Ruby here, and you're listening to News Time.
Hi, Ruby. Hello, Ruby.
On the show today, I've got books, birds, blimps and bubbles for you.
Sound intriguing? Let's jump straight in.
I'm ready. Story number five.
The Royal Hobart Show is held every year in Tasmania.
It's a celebration, bringing country life to the city.
There's lots to do there.
You can see animals like cows and pigs.
You can watch some wood chopping, go on a ride or enter a craft or kookery competition.
Do you like doing crafts?
Every art and craft there is.
I use lots of sorts of painting tools and I make lots of sorts of abstract art.
I just love drawing stuff.
I don't know how to crochet, but my grandma does and she says she's going to teach me.
Oh, lovely. This year, more people than usual entered the craft competitions at the Royal Hobart Show and there were hundreds more categories for people to be part of.
The best entries are put on display at the show and they were arranged in halls for people to admire.
You might have seen something similar at an agricultural show near you.
Yeah, I did have a look at that because I go to a pottery class and one of the people in my class had entered a pottery piece and their piece got third place.
The organisers of the Royal Hobart Show say that it's the best result they've had in 12 years.
They think maybe it was the COVID lockdowns that gave people the time and the space to learn and practise a craft, like crochet or knitting.
There's more types of arts and crafts now, especially like knitting and stuff.
And now that there's like videos, it makes it much more easier because it makes sure they're like focused because they want to use their imagination.
That's exactly it. There are more reasons to do arts and crafts than just entering or winning a competition.
Lots of scientists say that making art can help people feel relaxed.
It can also make them better at problem solving or help them improve their memory.
So, what will you create?
Story number four. Train stations can be full of hustle and bustle.
Sometimes there can be a very noisy place.
Train is about to arrive into it.
Train arriving on platform one.
This train is not stopping a platform on platform two.
Please start from the yellow line.
Please stand clear.
Sounds about right.
There are dozens of announcements being made telling travellers how to get where they're going.
There's loads of peoples and loads of noisy trains and they have really quirky speakers.
I can't really hear anything, so all I hear is...
Like... Uh -huh. It can be hard to understand what the announcers are saying over the loudspeaker sometimes, and especially for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Then it's even trickier.
Like if a last -minute announcement is made to let passengers know that a train is actually going to leave from a different platform.
Someone who is hard of hearing, they might not get the information they need.
They'd probably miss the train.
They would have to wait another half an hour or something.
Yep, and it can be pretty frustrating.
Stressful, too. A team of scientists at the Queensland University of Technology decided to do something to help.
They worked with members of the deaf community to figure out how technology could make train travel easier.
They know how it feels when they miss their train and it's really annoying, so they thought, I want to help from...
After lots of conversations and research, the scientists started working on a special form of AI.
That is artificial intelligence.
The AI computer would listen to the sounds of the train station and if it detected that an announcement was being made, it could translate it into sign language, and that could be shown on a video.
The video would be instantly generated on somebody's phone, so someone who's deaf or hard of hearing could get the information at the same time as the hearing people at the station.
That's a really good idea, but how are they gonna make it?
The team is working hard to make sure that their avatar, that's the name for the person in the video, has clear hand movements, so the signs are easy to understand.
They say the most important thing is that scientists keep working with the deaf community so they can best help them to feel safe and confident in everyday life.
Story number three.
Birds can be very clever creatures, but sometimes they can get stuck in places they'd prefer not to be.
Yeah, so, like in Woolies, there was like a little Indian minor bird that was just hopping around.
Well, there's this pigeon, this one pigeon, that keeps going into my bag and keeps eating my food, comes into the classroom, and then, one time he pooped on the floor.
Well, a cockatoo named Mickey was stuck in a shopping centre in Campbelltown in New South Wales.
The shopping centre Mickey was hanging out in is massive.
It's got heaps of floors and escalators and confusing corners, so once he'd made his way in, it was hard for a bird like Mickey to find his way out.
I think he felt sad because he wanted to get out.
Tell, like, the people that work there.
The people working there tried not once, not twice, but 20 times to capture Mickey and release him back into the wild.
And they had no luck.
It seemed like the white and yellow fellow was there to stay.
I would probably catch him at my first try.
Finally, after all these failed attempts, wildlife expert Ravi Wasan was called in to help.
He tried a different technique.
Ravi brought along another cockatoo.
This was a female cockatoo named Old Lady Doris.
She was brought in to the shopping centre, and it seemed like she helped relax poor little Mickey.
Ravi started giving Doris treats, and Mickey wanted some too.
When Mickey and Doris were happily munching, Ravi sneakily lured them into a big cage.
He shut the door and took them outside.
He would think, oh, I'm free again.
Mickey the cockatoo has been released back into the wild, and he's free to spread his wings and go up, up and away.
Hopefully, he still enjoys flying just as much as he did exploring Isle 3.
Story number two. Nikko Hines is a rugby league player, one of the best in the country.
He plays for a team called the Crannulla Sharks and represents New South Wales and plays on the Indigenous All -Stars team.
Nikko has scored hundreds of points and won heaps of awards with his awesome skills.
Nikko's great at footy, but it seems he has some other hidden talents too.
He recently wrote a picture book called Stand Proud about the day he learned he was Aboriginal.
People who watch him would be like, oh, did he write a story?
I want to read it because I like him.
In the book, Nikko talks about a day at school when he was much younger.
There was a talent show in his school hall, and Nikko's friend Bruce did some traditional dancing and singing songs and clapping sticks together.
Nikko says he felt drawn to Bruce and the music.
After that, he and his family learned more about their heritage.
Nikko began to explore his Indigenous culture and what it means for him and his family.
Now he's a proud Wiradjuri man and he's excited to share his story with more people.
They want people to know that it doesn't matter what your skin is and everybody should accept who you are.
The book is illustrated by an Indigenous artist called Black Douglas.
He says he could really relate to Nikko's story.
He felt similar things about being Aboriginal.
That's why he wanted to create beautiful art to sit alongside it.
The illustrator uses a lot of shapes.
The trees are like circles.
Clouds are like cube -ish.
Really colourful, so maybe like, respect their land and of how colourful and beautiful it is.
Nikko isn't going to hang up his footy boots to become a full -time author anytime soon, but he plans to keep exploring his Indigenous culture and maybe even learn the didgeridoo.
Finally, my friends, it's time for...
Wow, the witch! This story made me go wow because of everybody's ideas and how they use their imagination.
If you spend enough time looking up, you can spot lots of cool things zooming across Australian skies.
Birds, planes, helicopters, kites, hot air balloons, but there's another form of flying transport that we don't see very often.
A blimp. That's a blimp.
An airship. Yes, an airship or a blimp.
It's sort of like a cross between an aeroplane and a hot air balloon.
They're big and round, and they used to be a lot more popular than they are now.
They remind me of a big watermelon.
They remind me of a flat plane.
It turns out blimps might be an environmentally friendly alternative to planes or trucks.
Blimps can carry heaps of cargo across the country using far less fuel.
A group of people are planning to bring blimps to Australian skies in the next few years.
They're planning to build six bases across the country.
The first one will be in Mount Isa in Queensland in the year 2028.
It's amazing! What if it's too heavy?
If you go near a really sharp tower and it pops...
..instead of the blimp just falling down and going like...
..like a balloon, like...
No need to worry. These blimps will be strong and fly with plenty of space between them and the buildings and the wind turbines.
They'll also be a lot safer than the blimps that used to fly years and years ago.
It seems like this older technology might be the future of transport.
Have you got any other ideas for a high -tech future?
Teleportation. This robot turns into, like, a car.
Hoverboards. Actual hoverboards.
Daily air bubbles that you can fit inside and fly around in.
I like the way you think.
Maybe one day. And look out below.
We're coming into land at the end of another countdown.
That was great. Thank you, Ruby.
You are very welcome.
And, hey, while I round up five more stories, try the Newstime quiz.
The questions and the answers are in the description.
Bye, Ruby. Bye. See you later.
Or, as they say in Hausa, Saeanjima.
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