Podcasts
Festive India, NASA crashes asteroid, fish name-change, TikTok trouble, ukulele flight
Sep 28, 2022 Episode 118
Festive season in India is underway, NASA crashes asteroid, fish called carp changes name, TikTok in trouble, ukulele flight
Episode Transcript
EPISODE 118
00.00
LEELA: This week – Indian festival season kicks off, tik tok might be fined, carp gets a new name and a flight to Hawaii gets musical.
OPENING STING – LEELA: “Hey, hey, hey. Listen up. New, new, newsy – Newsy Pooloozi!”
THEME MUSIC
LEELA: Hello and welcome to Newsy Pooloozi the news pool for curious kids and adults!
I’m Leela Sivasankar Prickitt.
MAMA: And I’m Lyndee Prickitt.
LEELA: And on this week’s world news podcast
India’s long festival season kicks off with a lot of music and dancing.
TikTok might be fined for failing to protect children in the UK.
The fish called carp gets rebranded as well, you’ll just have to listen to find out what.
And you’ll never guess what was in the goody bag of folks traveling to Hawaii.
LEELA: Alrighty then, let’s dive on in. First up, it’s the…
BIG NEWS STORY STING – VARIOUS VOICES: “The big news story of the week!”
MAMA: Well, as any Indian or long-time listener to Newsy Pooloozi knows this time of year means the beginning of India’s looooong festival season.
LEELA: Yep, it started with Ganpati down in Mumbai
MUSIC OF DRUMS
LEELA: Where the whole city of 21 million people takes to the street to party. For more than a week.
MAMA: People make very small and very, very large temporary statues of the elephant god, Ganesh
LEELA: The “God of New Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles” to Hindus.
MAMA: And for days and days often in the monsoon rain these statues are marched through the streets and eventually released into the sea.
LEELA: And then way up in the northeast of India they’re getting ready to celebrate the Durga Puja.
MAMA: For the mother goddess who symbolizes strength.
LEELA: Which is why she carries weapons in her TEN arms.
MAMA: In Indian mythology Durga is best known for killing an evil demon in a battle which lasted nine days and nights.
LEELA: That’s why the festival is called Navratri. Nav means nine and Ratri means nights.
MAMA: And, over in the west of the country, in the state of Gujarat Navratri is commemorated with (Garba) nine nights of dancing as a sign of devotion and worship. Until the finale…
LEELA: Dussehra, – as dus means ten and ahara means day.
MAMA: Which also signifies the return of Lord Rama and his wife Sita and his brother Lakshman from an epic battle. This holiday can mean different things to different Hindus. But one thing is pretty universal.
LEELA: The celebration of good over evil!
MAMA: Yes, And the big other Hindu festival of light
LEELA: Diwali!
MAMA: Is around the corner well, to be precise 20 days after Dusserhra. But more on that next month.
LEELA: Yep, it’s pretty much now: party-party. Happy celebrations, everyone!
MAMA: Now let’s have the latest
LEELA: Space news!
MAMA: Alright let’s enter the outer orbit… NASA has hit its target!
LEELA: None other than an asteroid.
MAMA: Yes, the DART spacecraft successfully slammed into a distant asteroid.
LEELA: At hypersonic speed.
MAMA: In the world’s first test of a planetary defense system. You see the earth has been hit by massive meteorites and asteroids before so in the event of it ever happening again…
LEELA: Like, probably thousands of years from now.
MAMA: NASA designed a spacecraft to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth.
LEELA: And it was a success!
MAMA: Which means we’re hopefully a little prepared if and when a big rock heads our way!
NATURE STING – VARIOUS VOICES: “The call of nature. Get on your safari suit. Or squeeze into your scuba gear. And get ready to hop into a jeep. Or submarines. Submarine. Because Mother Nature is calling! Nature.”
LEELA: So, Mama, what do you call one kind of plant or animal that takes over a place? Or I should say, “A plant or animal that is new to an ecosystem, and is changing the balance of the ecosystem.”
MAMA: What? What are you carping on about?
LEELA: Carp.
MAMA: Yeah, that’s what I said. What are you carping on about?
LEELA: Carp. Carp is what I’m “carping” about, whatever that means.
MAMA: Wait a minute. Carp is the name of a fish. And it also means to complain, dating back to the Middle English word “carpen,” which meant to speak. What are you talking about?
LEELA: Oh, both, maybe. I mean, maybe that’s why people don’t like carp – the fish. Or maybe because they’re invasive.
MAMA: I am so confused.
LEELA: Alright, let’s go to our correspondent Lani Power who’s got this week’s nature story and can tell us more. Over to you, Lani.
LANI: Thanks, Leela.
Have you ever really thought about how important a name is?
Take, for example, the Cherry Tomato.
Would you still want to eat it if it was called the Big Nose Tomato?
I know I wouldn’t!
That’s the reasoning behind why the Illinois Department of Natural Resources is giving a fish called carp the rebrand!
They’ve decided to try and change the name of the invasive species, Asian Carp.
And invasive means it is a plant or animal that is new to an ecosystem, and is changing the way the balance works already.
It’s been spreading like crazy all over the lakes and rivers in the US, overwhelming native wildlife.
So, you can imagine it doesn’t really have a great reputation.
Well, how do you get rid of all these fish? By eating them of course!
The state of Illinois has decided to rename these crowded carp, “copi!”
It does sound a lot tastier… Carp? Carp! Anybody want some Carp? No?
Copi sounds much tastier.
There’s a bit of a story behind this name, too!
Copi is short for copious – or a lot of something. It’s fun to say, but also descriptive of the fish itself!
It’s supposed to be really delicious too!
I could go for some fish tacos right now…
In Florida, I’m Lani Power for Newsy Pooloozi!
LEELA: Oh, you’re making me hungry, Lani! Thanks a lot for that report.
MAMA: Well, even Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” So, I suppose if carp is copi it’s gonna taste as good. In fact, it’s eaten a lot in Eastern Europe in Slovakia, Poland, and parts of Croatia and the Czech Republic. They love to eat it, especially at Christmastime, breaded and fried. So, I say bring on the carp I mean copi.
[SOURCE:
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/carp
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED6853]
WORLD WRAP STING – LEELA: “What’s that? I’ll tell you what. That’s the halftime bell! Which means… It’s time to hear what’s making news around the rest of the world. Hold on tight, it’s around the world in 80 seconds.”
MAMA: Cuba is completely without power after Hurricane Ian hit the Central American island. While nearby in Florida, people are anxiously bracing for life-threatening tidal surges of ocean water, heavy winds and floods.
And the hurricane is playing havoc with space travel too… In an update on our lead story last week – the launch of Artemis 1, NASA’s most-powerful ever rocket, is delayed again but this time because of the storm.
In Russia protests break out after the government calls up 300,000 reservists, those are soldiers on standby to fight in its war in Ukraine.
A self-confessed Pokémon fan, singer Ed Sheeran is about to release a video for his new single, Celestial, animated by none other than the Pokémon team.
LEELA: Well, thank you so much for that – wait for it… that whippity-whappity-zippity-zappity wrap of what’s making headlines elsewhere in the world, Mama.
MAMA: Anytime, Leela.
ACE STING – LEELA/MAMA: “Now it’s the ace part of our podcast: Arts, Culture and Entertainment. Darling.”
MAMA: Trouble for the social media video platform TikTok.
LEELA: In the United Kingdom anyway.
MAMA: Yep, the Chinese video giant could be fined around $30 million dollars or 27, millions of pounds for failing to protect children’s privacy when they use the platform.
LEELA: Uh-ooooh! You see, in the UK you’re not allowed to process the data of anyone under 13-years-old without getting consent from their parents.
MAMA: That’s right. And the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which oversees the country’s data privacy, said TikTok might have broken the law by not doing so between 2018 to 2020.
LEELA: But TikTok says it’s got its ship into shape OK, that’s not a direct quote but that’s what they’re trying to say.
MAMA: They’ve defended themselves by saying they’ve introduced many features that strengthen privacy, like allowing parents to link their accounts to their children’s and not disabling direct messages to anyone under 16. Which seems sensible.
LEELA: And now…
LEELA: And finally, let’s see what the lucky dip machine has for us this week.
ODDBALL STING – VARIOUS VOICES: “Step right up, step right up… Have a go at the lucky dip machine… What’s it gonna be today, eh? An oddball, no doubt!”
LEELA: Well, it certainly was an odd flight for some passengers from Long Beach, California who were headed on a SouthWest Airlines flight to Hawaii.
MAMA: Oh, no, this isn’t one of those guess what creepy animal ended up on a plane – story?!
LEELA: Not at all. Here’s a clue.
MUSIC OF UKULELE
MAMA: Ummm, there was a band on board.
LEELA: Almost. You see the passengers were all treated to the most unusual goody bag ever. Ukuleles!
MAMA: Ukuleles – you mean like little miniature guitars.
LEELA: It belongs to the lute family of instruments, in fact. It’s originally from the European country of Portugal, brought to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants where it really took off. And here’s another fab fact: the name roughly translates as “jumping flea” – did you know?
MAMA: I did not.
LEELA: And these passengers weren’t only given jumping fleas in their seats – so to speak – but also lessons in how to play.
SOUND FROM THE IN-FLIGHT LESSON (Not transcribed)
LEELA: Yes, making this the world’s first in-flight ukulele class. Cute or what?
FAB FACTS STING – LEELA: “And it’s time to wrap up the podcast with the top five fab facts heard today. Here goes…”
MAMA: FAB FACT NUMBER 1 – It’s festival season in India! Which all kicked off with Ganpati in the city of Mumbai. Ganpati celebrates the Indian elephant god also called what?
Ganesh
LEELA: FAB FACT NUMBER 2 – Next up is Dussehra – which is the celebration of good over evil – but literally translates as what?
Tenth day
MAMA: FAB FACT NUMBER 3 – In the US the fish called carp gets rebranded as “copi” to try to inspire people in the US to eat more of it. What does the word carp also mean?
To complain
LEELA: FAB FACT NUMBER 4 – A flight to Hawaii turns into the world’s first in-flight ukulele class. Where did the small guitar-like instrument that’s so popular in Hawaii come from?
Portugal.
MAMA: FAB FACT NUMBER 5 – And what does the Hawaiian word Ukulele roughly translate as?
Jumping flea
And don’t forget, if you want to test yourself later on, then go to the Lucky Dip page of our website, newsypooloozi.com, that’s pool-o-o-z-i, and take this quiz online in your own time!
LEELA: And that almost brings us to the end of this episode of Newsy Pooloozi!
THEME MUSIC
MAMA: But huge shout-out to O.Mawesome who left us a greeeeat review on Apple Podcast, saying, “I LOVE this podcast.” And…
LEELA: “This podcast is so awesome. I love this podcast so much. And I discovered it on the Curious Kid podcast. I listen to it as much as I can.”
MAMA: Well, thank you Curious Kid for helping us reach new listeners. And what about the rest of you?
LEELA: Pretty please!
MAMA: Tell a friend about us or leave us your own nice review and we’ll read it out too!
LEELA: Alrighty then, see you next week in the happy, splashy giant Newsy Pooloozi!
-ends-
