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Hello there.
My name's Emily and you're listening to Newstime.
Hello, Emily.
Hey, Emily.
And hello to Newstime listener legend, Bella.
Hi, my name is Bella.
I am nine years old.
I live in Gawler, South Australia on Garnerland.
I love listening to Newstime because it teaches me a lot about the world.
If you'd like to be a listener legend like Bella, find out how to apply at the end of the podcast.
On today's episode, we'll strap on our skis and head to Italy for the Winter Olympics.
Plus, we'll bliss out in a spa with some frogs and meet a scientist springing a little bit of stardust down to planet Earth.
What do you say?
Take it away, Emily.
Story number five.
You might remember celebrating the New Year over a month ago.
Remember the fireworks on New Year's Eve?
Well, that's New Year's if you follow the sun.
But if you follow the moon, New Year hasn't even happened yet.
Soon there'll be a new moon in the sky and that means it's Lunar New Year.
Kind of like Chinese New Year.
Like they hang lanterns all around and they dance and celebrate day or night.
We eat loads of yummy food and mommy and daddy will take me to the lion dance and we can take pictures with them.
Lunar new year is celebrated by more than a billion people around the world, including in countries like china malaysia, the philippines and here in australia.
In Australia, Lunar New Year is a big multicultural festival celebrated by Chinese Korean, Vietnamese and other communities too.
Even though it's traditionally an Asian celebration.
Everyone is invited to take part and join the festivities.
A festival with a dragon, a really long one, that curves around the street and it looks like it's about its tail.
A family feast.
And having fun.
Yeah, people celebrate with feasts and fireworks and spend time with friends and family.
They'll decorate with lanterns, usually in the lucky colours of red and gold.
Grown-ups also give younger people red envelopes called hongbao or laisi, filled with money.
Family giving each other, like, presents.
It's also considered good luck to clean your house ahead of New Year, sweeping out bad luck and inviting in good luck.
There might be Lunar New Year celebrations happening somewhere near you, like performances or markets, or you might like to just give your place a tidy up for good luck.
In the Chinese zodiac, each year is given an animal symbol or sign.
This year is the year of the horse.
Horses represent success, energy and elegance.
Powerful, strong, fast and stuff.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
Happy Lunar New Year.
The Olympic Games happen once every four years, and that's for sports like running, swimming or basketball.
The Winter Olympic Games happen once every four years too, but these games feature winter sports like snowboarding skiing, ice skating and ice hockey.
My favourite's figure skating.
The one where you are on a board and you lie back.
Well, I know about skiing and snowboarding.
My favourite is figure skating.
This year the Games are being held in the country Italy, and teams from all around the world have come together to compete in a whole range of sports to win gold, silver and bronze medals.
Most places in Australia are pretty warm all year round.
We don't get a lot of snow, so it can be extra tough to train for Winter Olympic sport.
We don't have many cold things to practice on in Australia, so they have to practice overseas.
Exactly.
Australia's team doesn't usually come home with a whole heap of Winter Olympic medals, but our chances this year are looking better than ever.
Jakara Anthony is an Aussie mogul skier.
That means she races down a bumpy slope with lots of sharp turns and jumps.
Another Aussie, Matt Graham, is also a talented mogul skier.
And Josie Baff won a snowboarding medal at the Junior Olympics a few years ago.
Could she win one at the big Winter Olympics too?
Those are just some of the Aussie names you should listen out for over the next few weeks.
Of course they're the best country, obviously.
Good luck to all the Aussie athletes in Italy.
And don't forget to keep warm.
Good luck.
Have fun and do well.
Story number three.
Austin Appleby is a 13-year-old kid who's being hailed as a hero after a massive swim to save his family.
I'll start with a spoiler alert.
Everyone was OK in the end.
Austin, his mum and his two siblings were playing with paddle boards and a kayak at Geograph Bay in Western Australia.
They headed out to sea when things started to go wrong.
They lost an oar, then the kayak tipped over and filled with water.
They couldn't swim back to shore as a group, so Austin's mum made a tough decision.
She asked Austin to swim back to shore and call for help.
And Austin did just that.
He started with the leaky kayak but found it was slowing him down.
So Austin left the kayak and finished the swim all alone.
Thanks to Austin's swimming lessons, he used a mix of backstroke, freestyle and breaststroke to slowly propel himself to shore.
The beach was four kilometres away.
That's about equal to 22 football fields lined up end to end.
Austin was swimming for four whole hours.
He was worried.
The seas were choppy and he wasn't sure what sort of creatures might be lurking in the deep.
So he did his best to stay positive.
He thought of people he loved and about Thomas the Tank Engine too.
Probably Minecraft and Pokemon.
I think it's a really good idea because staying positive can boost your ability to do something.
I think you're right.
After he made it to shore, Austin ran two kilometres to get help.
Immediately, helicopters headed out to sea and found Austin's family just before it got dark.
I think that's very impressive.
I think that's really impressive and brave.
Austin is still recovering from his big effort, but his whole family are safe together again.
Austin was heroic and this was a rare situation, but it's also a good reminder that water can be dangerous and it's important to stay close and listen to adults when you're swimming.
Story number two.
We all know that taking a moment to breathe and relax can make us feel calm and happy.
Well, it seems scientists are using a similar idea to help save certain species of frogs.
I'm just imagining, instead of a human, a frog inside a normal spark.
Scientists have created mini frog spas and saunas to try and bring back the green and golden bell frog to the Australian Capital Territory.
This species, along with a whole heap of other frog species, has become sick with a fungal disease called chytrid fungus.
This disease affects the frog's ability to breathe, and once a frog has it, the fungus is hard to get rid of.
Scientists have been working to find ways to help frogs get healthy again.
So they don't go extinct, of course.
Well, it turns out that frogs can cope in hot spaces better than the fungus can.
So a team of scientists from the University of Canberra installed warm spas and saunas for local frogs to hop into and make themselves at home.
The frogs sit in a spa with their tails around their heads and they just have fun.
I'll see it go on like a relaxing drink and a soft drink.
I think they're thinking, ah, this is the life.
The life indeed.
Well, as frogs enjoy the warm water, the fungus on their skin is killed off.
Plus, the spas are a safe place for frogs to lay eggs and have tadpoles.
Pretty good.
I think that's an amazing cure.
I think it's pretty smart.
Researchers will check on the frog numbers in two months to see whether these spars and saunas have been a success.
They're hoping that soon the green and golden bell frog will be hopping happily around Canberra again.
Good luck, little amphibians.
And now it's time for... Wow of the Week.
This story made me go wow because I didn't know you can make something from, like, space on Earth.
A scientist from Sydney is working hard to create stardust right here on planet Earth.
Stuff from dying stars.
When stars are dying and they explode, the atoms that created it and stuff turn into dust and that's stardust.
Dust from the stars that falls down onto Earth.
Spot on.
You're all over this one.
Stardust or cosmic dust is the stuff left over from dying stars.
Thousands of tons of cosmic dust fall to the Earth every year, hitching a ride on meteors and mostly getting burnt up in the atmosphere before it makes it to the Earth's surface.
Scientists love studying stardust.
There's just so much we can learn from it about outer space and the universe.
Probably how stars were formed.
I think we can learn how stars age and how stars are born.
I think we can learn about how stars are made and what happens in space with the stars.
Some scientists have spent hours carefully vacuuming the roofs of churches, looking for little specks of stardust.
But scientist Linda Lacerto decided to take matters into her own hands.
Linda has made her own cosmic dust in a regular science lab here on planet Earth.
I think it's really smart, because then you can make lots and lots of stardust and study it instead of having it to fall from the stars.
The ingredients of Linda's cosmic dust include nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene gas.
Then Linda zaps the mixture with about 10000 volts of electricity, which turns it into plasma, a sort of jelly-like substance.
Linda uses it in place of actual cosmic dust in her experiments.
It looks like a glowing purple tube.
It makes me feel happy and warm all over.
It looks like toothpaste with the lid off and nothing's coming out of it and stuff.
It.
It makes me feel really calm because the colours are fading the pink into the purple, then to the blue, then to the bright white.
And it looks really pretty.
Linda is a trained scientist.
You shouldn't be making your own stardust at home.
But maybe you can keep an eye out for any meteors or shooting stars delivering the real deal.
And it's quiz time.
Let's see how much you remember.
Question 1.
According to the Chinese zodiac, this year is the year of which animal?
It's the year of the horse.
Question 2.
In which country are the Winter Olympics being held this year?
Italy.
Question 3.
How far did Austin swim to get help for his family?
Four kilometres, or the length of 22 football fields.
Question four.
What sort of disease do they hope the frog spars will cure?
Fungus.
Question five.
Can you name one of the ingredients in the Earth-made cosmic dust?
Um...
Nitrogen, carbon dioxide or acetylene gas.
Or 10,000 volts of power.
That's us done and dusted.
Or should I say cosmic dusted.
If you'd like to be a Newstime listener legend, ask your grown-ups to head to the Newstime page on the ABC Kids Listen website.
Thanks, Emily.
Bye.
Well, I'm off to my local ice rink.
There are only four years to the next Olympics.
I better start practising.
Catch you next time.
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