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Current news and Competition results

Jun 26, 2020

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Hello there! This is my first episode of Season 2. And the first time I’m announcing prizes for the competition we conducted this month. Listen to some news from across the world. We covered some news about Greta Thunberg and how she’s donating her 1 million euros prize for her cause. We listen to the disruption caused due to heavy monsoons in South Asia. And ofcourse, we cannot miss out on the eventful week for space launches. It’s a lovely feeling that more and more countries are joining the space race to Mars. We end the episode after announcing the winners of this month’s painting competition. I’m way too happy for that… Hope you enjoy listening as always! Thanks!

Transcripts

CURRENT NEWS AND COMPETITION RESULTS

[0.01] {Background Music}

[0.07] Siyona: Hi Everyone, welcome to my podcast Little Mind Chats. Minds are little, Not our thoughts. I’m your host Siyona.

[0.15] Here we go! We’re starting our Season 2.

[0.19] So, any guesses on what we’ll be doing in our season 2? Let me give you a few hints. It’s the first poem we’ve learnt, it’s something we all get curious about each night, it’s the best dream come true if at all we visited. It’s the thing of greatness and attracts the best of minds. Any guesses? Ok… I’ll let it OUT, its SPACE!! Yes, in this season, we’re going to explore so much more about space. I can’t wait for the next week’s episode which will be our first space talk.

[1.02]

1) It’s the first episode of Season 2 and

2) This is the first competition we’re conducting here at Little Mind Chats. And today is the results day! Please listen till the end to know who the winners are!

[1.24] But, before we could get to the results, let’s listen to our biweekly news from around the world in the past two weeks.

[1.33]

[1.40] The 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been given the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, valued at €1 million ($1.14 million). Ms. Thunberg says she plans to donate the money.

[2.00] She Said “That is more money than I can imagine. But all the prize money will be donated, through my foundation, to different organizations and projects who are working to help people on the front line, affected by the climate crisis and ecological crisis.”

[2.16] Who is Greta Thunberg?

[2.18] The Swedish teen Greta Thunberg began the climate strike movement in 2018 by skipping school to sit outside Parliament, protesting her government’s lack of action on global warming. She has gained international recognition for promoting the view that humanity is facing an existential crisis arising from climate change. I’ve listened to her speech. I recommend you to look up some of her speeches on YouTube too!

[2.50] Heavy flooding due to Monsoon Rains.

[2.53] The monsoon this year has been very heavy across South Asia affecting many countries like Bangladesh, India, Nepal, China and Indonesia. Millions of people were moved out of their houses to keep them safe from floods.

[3.10] What are monsoons and why flooding?

[3.14] Monsoons are an expected and important part of the water cycle in South Asia. Yet they often cause problems when the rains they bring are especially heavy or sudden.

[3.29] South Asia gets its monsoons from June to September. This year, the monsoons are all the more serious as the season is still in the initial stages and still manages to displace so many people.

[3.45] Keeping Covid-19 in mind, it gets very challenging to maintain hygiene in relief centres where these millions of people are given a temporary shelter.

[3.58] Let’s look at some space news.

[4.01] Last week has been a very significant week on the space launch events. China launched its mars mission on July 23. Their launch consisted of an orbiter – meaning a spacecraft to go into the orbit of Mars and also a Mars rover – meaning a little vehicle that wanders on mars to discover more about the planet. This mission itself is called Tianwen-1

[4.33] But the other interesting event that happened on July 20th is that UAE, United Arab Emirates has launched its first Mission to Mars. The reason its noticeable is because this is the first time an Arab country is doing this. A probe named ‘Hope’ was launched successfully in this mission.

[4.58] Also, the next week, on July 30th, The US space agency NASA is scheduled to launch a new Mars rover named Perseverance.

[5.11] Here’s some exciting news about Venus. It still has some active volcanoes…

[5.19] A new study identified 37 recently active volcanic structures on Venus. The study provides some of the best evidence yet that Venus is still a geologically active planet. A research was conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland and the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and was published in the journal Nature Geoscience on July 20, 2020.

[5.52] Previously, it was thought that the coronae were probably signs of ancient activity, and that Venus had cooled enough to slow geological activity in the planet’s interior.

[6.05] What is Coronae?

[6.07] Coronae is the plural of Corona. No, Not the Corona virus. Corona is a deep curving trench surrounding an elevated plane something like a U-Shaped valley around a mountain on Venus.

[6.24] Laurent Montesi, a professor of geology at UMD said that, “This study significantly changes the view of Venus from a mostly inactive planet to one whose interior is still churning and can feed many active volcanoes.”

[6.43] And now, the part we’re all eagerly waiting for… I announced the beginning of this painting competition on the 28th of June. It’s the first monthly competition we are conducting here at Little Mind Chats. Thanks for all who have sent in your paintings, sketching and drawings. I deeply appreciate it. Guess what? I made a painting as part of this competition too! I really enjoyed making my blue marine life painting.

[7.18] To be fair to all who sent your paintings, we involved a qualified artist Mr Nageshwar Rao. He’s Studied masters in painting from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hyderabad and has been practicing paintings since 2006. He has also participated in several shows all over India. To his pride, the Birla Museum, Hyderabad, hosts a collection of his paintings too…. That’s amazing isn’t it? We’d sent all the paintings with no mention of name, place or age of the participant.

[7.59] Now, let’s listen to who the winners are! Please make sure you don’t get disappointed if it’s not your name

[8.08] The first prize goes to…. Sophia. She made a painting of a bear.

[8.12] Thanks for your amazing painting. You’ve done well!

[8.16] The second prize goes to…. Livansh. He’s 6 years old and made a lovely river scene. Thankyou Livansh.

[8.25] And the third prize, was a close tie and is shared between Vaishnavi and Sunidhi. Vaishnavi who’s in grade 4 made a lovely pencil drawing of 2 fish. Sunidhi CSS is 10years old, she made a beautiful painting of an evening scene through a window.

[8.46] Congratulations to all the winners and all those who participated too. Well done!

[8.52] We’ve uploaded all the paintings received including mine, on our website. Please make sure you visit our competitions page to see them all.

[9.03] That brings us to the end of this episode. Hope you enjoyed listening. Watch out for our next episode on a Space topic and how elegantly this scientist from ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) answers our questions.

[9.21] Please do leave your email address on my website for me to get back in touch with you. Also, follow me on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates.

[9.31] Do mail me on Siyona@littlemindchats.com. Thanks a ton for listening! Bye.