Catch 'Em All: Pokémon Day 👾
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Description
🏫 What do the updated CDC guidelines say about schools reopening? Do teachers have to get the COVID vaccine? 🌨 Why are freezing temperatures more dangerous in places like Texas than they are in other parts of the United States? Correspondents Jacob & Olivia Rozencwaig from the Curious Kid Podcast explain the massive power outages in Texas. 👾 Let's celebrate Pokémon Day on Pokémon's 25th anniversary with Five Fascinating Facts about the franchise. 🐝 Plus! The Trivia Question of the Day!
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Transcript
Various voices 0:00
Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One
Bethany Van Delft 0:07
From school days to Pokemon day, in the next 10 minutes, we'll get the lowdown of what's up in the world. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and this is The Ten News. On February 12, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention released updated guidelines for safely reopening schools amid the ongoing pandemic. The CDC recommends reopening elementary schools as long as everyone follows proper masking, hygiene, and social distancing protocols.
A Kid 0:39
You got it dude.
Bethany Van Delft 0:40
For middle school and high schools, the guidelines recommend reopening except in communities with the highest levels of virus transmission. They also suggest things like weekly testing for students and staff, and considering reducing attendance by staggering student's schedules or having some students attend school remotely. As far as vaccines for teachers, the CDC agrees that they're important, but doesn't suggest that they be required before schools can reopen. What do you think? Tell us about how you feeling about school right now. Whatever that looks like for you, email us at Hello@thetennews.com.
In our last episode, we told you about the massive power outages in Texas following a major winter storm there. Now let's go to Jacob and Olivia from "The Curious Kid Podcast" to learn more.
Jacob 1:40
In the middle of February, a huge portion of the United States was dealing with frigid temperatures. That's not such a big deal in parts of the country that are used to cold winters and are well prepared for the cold. But freezing temperatures become more problematic in areas that don't usually encounter freezing cold, like Texas.
Olivia 1:59
A winter storm hit Texas on Valentine's Day weekend, leading to the coldest temperatures parts of the state have seen since 1989.
Jacob 2:10
That's a long time ago. 32 years ago, I was your age in 1989. So the temperatures dropped so low in Texas, that weekend that parts of Texas were colder than parts of Alaska. And that's just crazy.
Olivia 2:25
Not only was it cold in Texas that weekend, but Texans were also dealing with snow and ice.
Jacob 2:31
So the nearly 30 million people that live in Texas, did what anyone would do in extremely cold weather. They put their heaters on to warm their houses.
Olivia 2:40
As a result, the power grid in Texas couldn't keep up with the demand. So homes started losing power.
Jacob 2:48
Millions of homes in Texas lost power. That left millions of people without electricity, heat, water, or a combination of those three extremely important things for days and days.
Olivia 3:01
Okay, that's bad. Texas was not prepared for the frigid cold, snow and ice that hit the state.
Jacob 3:08
There are a couple of big reasons for that. First, many homes in Texas are under insulated.
Olivia 3:14
That means they are built to release heat, because it's usually very warm in Texas
Jacob 3:20
Homes in cold parts of the country have lots of insulation to help trap heat inside the house and keep it warm inside homes in Texas don't retain heat easily because of their lack of insulation.
Olivia 3:33
But the biggest reason Texas wasn't prepared for this storm is because Texas has its own energy grid.
Jacob 3:41
There are three major energy grids in the United States. The Eastern interconnection grid serves the eastern part of the country, and the western interconnection grid serves the western part. The third energy grid is the Texas grid, which is separate from the other two and serves only the state of Texas.
Olivia 3:58
Okay. Because the Texas grid only serves Texas, it wasn't prepared to deal with abnormally high usage, which is why it failed and left millions of people in the cold.
Jacob 4:11
when other states need more energy than they can supply. They're able to buy additional energy from neighboring states because they are connected to the same power grid as lots of other states.
Olivia 4:22
But not Texas, Texas is unique. Texas is energy independent.
Jacob 4:28
So if the Texas energy grid is overwhelmed, people lose power. They lose electricity, they lose heat, and they lose water.
Olivia 4:35
We hope the incredible people of Texas are staying warm and safe as they bounce back from the extreme winter weather.
Bethany Van Delft 4:50
February 27th is Pokemon day, the official birthday of the franchise that spans trading cards and TV shows, video games, and apps. It's been around for 25 years, and it's a game that, like it's characters, evolves over time. To celebrate Pokemon's 25th anniversary, you've got to catch these five fascinating facts.
Number one, you know Pokemon is wildly popular, but did you know it's the second most successful video game franchise in the world? Only Nintendo Super Mario Brothers is bigger. Number two, the name Pokemon comes from a combination of the two words pocket and monster, pocket monster. Poke-mon. Pokemon. See, even the name evolves. Number three, Pokemon Go, the app that took the world by storm in 2016, was actually inspired by an April Fool's joke. The creator John Hanke placed a Google Ad asking for a Pokemaster to catch a bunch of Pokemon. So many people wanted to try being a real life Pokemaster, Hanke made it into an actual game. A thank you, Hanke. Number four, many Pokemon creatures are based on real life animals. The characters pollywog, poliwrath and poliwhirl are all based on tadpoles. Each of them even has a spiral on its stomach that resembles the belly of an actual tadpole. I wonder what animal Bulbasaur is based on.
Bulbasaur! Bulbasaur! Bulbasaur! And number five, the Pokemon Go app had over 15 million downloads in its first week of release. That's more people than the entire population of Belgium. Even if you don't know your poliwrath from your poliwhirl, Pokemon Go can be a really fun way to get outside with friends or family while social distancing, and a great way to celebrate Pokemon day.
It's trivia time! What is the only food that never spoils? Is it A) salt? B) honey, or C) Twinkies?
Did you guess it? The answer is B. Honey literally never goes bad. In fact, archeologists have found pots of the sticky stuff perfectly preserved within ancient Egyptian tombs. Oh yes. I'm rumbly in my tumbly. Time for something sweet. No Twinkies though. Despite their reputation, they have a shelf life of only 25 days.
A Kid 7:58
Whatever.
Bethany Van Delft 8:01
Time's up. But before we go, here's a quick note for the grown-ups. Want even more great content from The Ten News. Sign up for The Ten News newsletter, aka The Ten News-letter. It's a free bi-weekly email with even more stories to enjoy together, and we made it easy for you. The link to join is in the show notes and on our website, thetennews.com. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. The Ten News is a co production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. Our editorial director is Tracy crooks editing and sound design by Pete Musto. A recreated producer is Jennifer Pasqua. Steven Tompkins is our head of audience development and our production assistant is Sarah Olender. Jacob and Olivia Rosensweig contributed to today's episode. Our production director is Jeremiah tittle and The Ten News is executive produced by Donna Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. Would you like to be a part of the show? We'd love it! Have a grown up help you record a question, a joke, or a fun fact you want to share and email it to us at hello@thetennews.com. And you can show your love for The Ten News by going to your favorite podcast app and submitting a rating and review. It really helps others find the show so they can join us in the fun. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. Gotta catch you later
