New world map unveiled, and the Star Wars museum of storytelling

0:00Squiz Kids, acknowledges the traditional owners of the layers on which we podcast. The Turbo and Combo Mary People. Squiz Kids! It's your daily news fix. One, 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 7. And Squiz Kids today, new world map unveiled. Careers, robot theme park, the Star Wars Museum of storytelling and soiled undies and kissing bears win science prize. That's what's making news. Kids style. The low down. Hands up if you have a map of the world in your classroom or somewhere at home. Well next time you near it, take a good long look at it. Of course, it's about to be reimagined. After the United Nations voted over the weekend to resize some of our globe's continents

1:03and countries on the maps we use. Now most maps of the world are what's called a Mercator projection, which is to say they are based on a world map that was created back in the 1500s, more than 400 years ago. And the problem with the Mercator projection is that it makes countries at the top and at the bottom of our globe look much larger on the map than they actually are in real life. And it makes countries in the middle of our globe all squished up and smaller than they actually are. For instance, on the Mercator projection, the country of Greenland appears larger than the continents of South America and Africa. But in fact, it's about the same size as the Democratic Republic of Congo, one single country inside the vast continent of Africa. What the what? One theory as to why this old fashioned version of the world map has been in use for so many

2:04centuries is because it makes Europe and North America look bigger than they really are. But at a special vote at the United Nations on Friday, 164 countries of the world voted to change the world map so that it more accurately reflects the actual size of our continents and countries. So what does it all mean for Australia? Will we shrink or get larger on the new world map? The answer is get larger. As befits the world's only island continent, with of course the world's most awesome people. See you later, old Mercator. Spin the globe. Each day we give the world global spin and find a new story from wherever it stops. And today we've landed in South Korea. Where a robot theme park hopes to take on Disneyland. Visitors to the Galaxy Robot theme park are treated to K-pop dancing robots, robots to play

3:09the piano and robots engaging in kickboxing. So far, visitor numbers have been good, with lots of locals curious to see just how capable robots are of entertaining and distracting us. But critics aren't so sure. Saying that a robot K-pop dancer has none of the appeal of the humans that they're imitating and the robots at theme parks don't have any of the emotional pull of a full-blown Disney character. Relax Mickey, your job's safe. For now. Weird science. Bearing underpants to test soil, studying animals that kiss, stealing lollies from babies and studying how vicious best friends can be. Now these might all sound like crazy things to do, but they're also scientific experiments that have been honored in this year's Ig Nobel Awards. Now you've heard of the Nobel Awards, right?

4:11The annual awards given out to people doing extraordinary things in the areas of science or literature or even the pursuit of world peace. Well the Ig Nobel Awards are given out to science experiments that sound a little bit weird, even if they have a genuine purpose. And this year's winners were an experiment that saw citizen scientists bury a thousand pairs of cotton underpants underground to test how many microbes were living in the soil and how quickly the undies broke down. Random. A research project that studied animals to see if species other than humans like to kiss. The answer. Polar bears, prairie dogs and some insects all like to suck face. Random again. And the scientific study that tested whether rich people or poor people were more likely to steal lollies from babies. The answer. Rich people. Because when it comes to science, sometimes the silly is just as important and insightful

5:15as the serious. And so to Los Angeles in the United States we go, where a new museum has just opened up built by the creative force behind Star Wars, celebrating the ancient and important art of storytelling. George Lucas is famous for being the director and creative genius behind the sprawling Star Wars universe. And he has long wanted to create a museum dedicated to the art of visual storytelling. The result. A magnificent spaceship-like building filled with artworks from important 20th century painters, sculptures, comic strip makers and film makers. And yes, there's a good smattering of Star Wars memorabilia in there too. With Yoda, Grogu and Luke Skywalker all making an appearance. Sounds awesome.

6:17Speak King of Awesome hands up if you've ever watched a YouTube video. Now keep your hand up if you're a fan of YouTube creators like Mr Beast or the Norris Nuts or Australia Zoos Robert Irwin or YBS Youngbloods. Maybe you've thought to yourself, I'd love to put my creativity to good use and make video content all my own. Then brace yourself to meet two of Australia's most creative, super successful YouTubers. Content creators who started with an iPhone in their bedroom 11 years ago and have now built their very own successful channel, making short films and travelling the world to meet Spider-Man cast members. They're called the McFarlane brothers and they come from Brisbane. And tomorrow they're joining Squizz Kids to reveal what it takes to become a successful content creator. The spoiler alert, it takes a lot of work. And they also tell us how any budding young filmmakers out there in Squizz Kids Land might be able to follow in their footsteps and enter the upcoming TROP Junior Short Film Festival.

7:21The podcast will be in your Squizz Kids feed tomorrow, don't miss it. And I've stuck a link to some of the McFarlane brothers' work and some info about how to enter TROP Junior in today's show notes. This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening. Question number one, what is the name of the old world map that we've been used to seeing for the last 400 or so years? Yep, that's right, it's called the Mercator projection. Question number two, in which country has a robot theme park just opened up? Yeah, that's right, it's opened up in South Korea. Question number three, what sort of bears are known to like kissing, according to a science project that's just won an Igno Bell Award? Well done if you said polar bears.

8:25Shout out. It's Monday, September 7. Today is the start of National Child Protection Week. It's also the start of the Royal Adelaide Show and today is National Threatened Species Day. There's a lot going on. It's also a special day for these Squizz Kids celebrating a birthday today and tomorrow. Gracie from Yes, Lailani from Petrie, Will from Brighton, Noah from Orange, Rachel from Brisbane, Stevie from Burpingarry, Maisie from Shull Haven Heds, Ellie from Donkaster East. Gosh, there's lots of you. Monroe from Fern Hill, Hamish from Margate, Matty from Canterbury, Cassandra from Ballarat, Maggie from Liverpool and Miss Vanta Rockas from Livingston Public School in Vermont, South. Happy Birthday to you, Miss Vanta Rockas. And belated birthday shout outs today, go to Olivia from Inner's Park, Twins, Gabby

9:25and Abbey from Fitzroy North. And Classroom shout outs today, go to Class 5 Blue and their Teacher Mrs Evans at Mary a Macular Catholic Primary School at Eagle Vale. To Class 5, 6F and their Teacher Mr Baker at a Rundle State School on the Gold Coast, and here to Owl and their Teacher Miss First at Deniston East Public School. And a special shout out to Round Out shout outs today to Isabella, who's an excellent newshound. She wrote to me over the weekend to let me know that I'd made a mistake in Thursday's podcast when I said that Sydney Swans were travelling to Brisbane to play the Lions on the weekend when in fact it was the other way around. Don't forget if you've got a birthday coming up and you'd like a shout out or if you're after a classroom shout out, drop us a line at squizzkidsatthesquizz.com.au or fill out the form on our website. Well that's all we have time for, thanks for listening to Squizz Kids today. We'll be back again tomorrow with our very special Spotlight on the McFarlane Brothers.

10:31In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day. Over and out.