Trade Your Swimsuit For a Spacesuit 🚀
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Description
🚀 Could your next vacation be on planet Mars? 🧗♀️ What can a record-setting rock climb teach you about dreams, challenges, and goals? 🏈 How did the COVID pandemic change professional sports like basketball, baseball, and hockey this year? ⁉️ Can you answer the Trivia Question of the Day? 🎄 When workers set up the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York City, what surprise did they find?
Links
🚀 Explore how Scientists May Have Found a Material for Building on Mars
🧗♀️ See rock climber Emily Harrington's inspirational message about her free climb of El Capitan
📡 Check out correspondent Kenny Curtis' amazing (and sometimes wacky) show on SiriusXM: Kids Place Live
💌 Email us! hello@thetennews.com
Photo by Ravensbeard Wildlife Center via NBC News
Transcript
Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:00] Could there be life on Mars? What can climbing a big rock teach us about perseverance? And when it comes to professional sports, how has COVID changed the game? I'm Bethany Van Delft, and we'll get into all this and more on today's The Ten News. The show where in the time it takes to recover from Baby Yoda, cuteness overload, we find out what's up in the world. Okay, let's get into The Ten News.
[00:00:30] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
[00:00:37] Have you ever imagined what it might be like to visit another planet? Let's check in with friends of the Ten, Laine Farber to find out how that fantasy might actually become a reality.
Laine Farber: [00:00:52] As the days get shorter and the nights get colder, people get antsy for warm weather. In a typical winter [00:01:00] season, thousands of people fly South in an effort to avoid the frigid temperatures. From celebrating Christmas in the Canary Islands to having a happy Hanukkah in Hawaii.
[00:01:11] People love spreading the warmth of the holiday season in places that are well warm. Oh. If you're the kind of person who dreams of a toasty holiday getaway, then I've got some great news for you. Thanks to recent scientific achievements, you may be able to travel to an exciting new holiday hotspot in your lifetime. Mars!
[00:01:38] Scientists and daydreamers alike have long envisioned a future in which people live, work, and even vacation on Mars. As technology becomes more advanced this once farfetched idea is becoming a real possibility. One company leading the way in [00:02:00] interplanetary colonization is Space X. The company created by tech entrepreneur, Elon Musk is focused on making space travel cheaper. Space X made history last month by successfully launching the first NASA certified commercial human spacecraft. The Space X Falcon Nine rocket blasted into space on November 16th, on board was a group of four astronauts known as the Dragon Crew, to be honest, pretty rad name.
[00:02:31] The Dragon crew will live at the international space station for six months. While there, they'll conduct a series of tests designed to find solutions to the challenges of colonizing a new planet, such as how to grow food and how to monitor the health effects of living in low gravity.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:02:52] To learn more from Laine check on her Nature Nerds podcast.
[00:03:00] [00:03:00] Did you know that astronauts have a tradition of bringing a dollar or a toy on board their spacecraft and releasing it to show when they've hit zero gravity. Space X's Dragon crew took along a plush Baby Yoda, which made everyone smile when it weightlessly floated around the cabin. Oh, the force was with everyone up there.
[00:03:24] This is what was causing all the fuss.
Tracy Leeds Kaplan: [00:03:30] Hey parents and awesome guardians. I'm Tracy Leeds Kaplan, executive producer of The Ten News.
Owen: [00:03:35] I'm Owen, and I'm eight and a half.
Tracy Leeds Kaplan: [00:03:37] And who are you?
Owen: [00:03:38] Your son! How would you like to know the future?
[00:03:44] Follow us at the Ten News on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok. There we drop a few clues on upcoming episodes in emojis.
[00:03:55] What's your favorite emoji?
[00:03:56] Maybe the scream emoji? The scream emoji, that's [00:04:00] fitting.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:04:03] Oh, get this! Rock climber Emily Harrington recently became only the fourth woman to complete a free climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in a 24 hour period and the first woman to do so on the Golden Gate loop specifically. A free climb is when a climber uses ropes and protective gear as a means to avoid injury, but no to assist in the actual crime itself. Not for me, maybe for you. Harrington completed, or a sense of the 3,200 foot granite wall in 21 hours, 13 minutes and 51 seconds. That's an astonishingly difficult feat. And I thought making it to my bedroom on the third floor was hard. After taking a scary fall while attempting this same climb last year, Harrington had some doubts she would be able to accomplish her goal. In an [00:05:00] Instagram post following her historic climb, Harrington wrote. "I never believed I could actually free climb El Capitan in a day when I first set the goal for myself. Impossible dreams, challenge us to rise above who we are now to see if we can become better versions of ourselves." What a great reminder to all of us to aim high and dream big.
[00:05:23] With the pandemic, keeping us all close to home we may have played more board games and video games than then ever, but how did COVID change the game for professional sports? Friend of The Ten, Kenny Curtis has more.
Kenny Curtis: [00:05:39] We're all aware that COVID-19 is affecting almost every aspect of our daily life. Right? And sports are no exception. So how exactly is COVID being handled in the world of sports?
[00:05:51] Well, it depends. Without any existing protocol to follow each league is trying to figure out how to manage Coronavirus in a way [00:06:00] that keeps players, coaches, and fans safe. So some leagues like the NBA and the NHL implemented the bubble approach, right? That's the way they combated COVID-19 by having the players quarantined together inside a specific location for the entire season.
[00:06:15] This method was very successful and no players contracted COVID-19 while living inside the NBA or the NHL bubble. Now Major League Baseball and the National Football League decided not to implement a bubble system. And during its 2020 season, the MLB did struggle with numerous COVID outbreaks. They tried to prevent the virus from spreading by developing new rules and regulations, including a strict no licking policy.
[00:06:42] Which sounds strange until you consider how often pitchers lick their fingers to get a better grip on the ball. With these policies in place, the MLB did manage to make it through the season, get to the World Series and wrap things up. Now the NFL is requiring strict social distancing protocol, [00:07:00] both on and off the field for football games and while they haven't had a major COVID outbreak, the NFL still has several players that have tested positive and are working hard to stop the virus from spreading. Even though each league faced different challenges specific to their sport. They all face the dilemma of how to play without fans. Now, fans have a huge effect on athletes, coaches and the viewers at home so when spectators weren't allowed in stadiums, everybody wanted to know, will it still feel like sports without fans? The industry has become very creative in trying to solve this problem. Fake crowd noise has been featured in almost ,every league cardboard fans are seen from time to time and as the pandemic continues, virtual fans have been introduced to the game.
[00:07:48] The NBA used 17 foot tall led screens to broadcast fans directly from their home, into the games. Cool. Fox sports partnered with Epic games, the founders of [00:08:00] Fortnight to create virtual fans that fill the stadiums for major league baseball games and the English Premier League worked with EA sports to access the soccer crowd noise that the video game company has used for decades.
[00:08:13] And the response to this new virtual sports world. Well, it's been mixed. Some people like seeing faces in the stands, even if they are cardboard, but others think the fake crowds make it even weirder than just watching athletes play in empty stadiums. One thing everybody can agree on, it's nowhere near as good as the real thing.
[00:08:34] But unfortunately it doesn't look like fans will be packing the stadiums any time soon. With COVID cases on the rise leagues are going to have to crack down on regulations and work hard to keep players, staff, and fans safe. The NFL has been dealing with new outbreaks and even postponing games throughout this past week. But that's the thing about sports, sometimes bad things, even something like the [00:09:00] Coronavirus can lead to good ones case in point, Sarah Fuller. She's the goalie for Vanderbilt University's championship women's soccer team, but she made football history by being the first woman to play in a power five conference college football game.
[00:09:16] And that includes the SEC. For those of you keeping track, you go, girl, you go girl. After COVID-19 issues left the Vanderbilt Commodores without any available kickers, Sarah was asked to step in and handle the place kicking duties in their game against Missouri, since the Commodores lost badly, Sarah only got to hit the ball once when she kicked off in the second half. It wasn't a great kick, but it got the job done and it made history.
[00:09:44] Currently, Sarah is still on the team's roster. In her words, quote, I'm sticking around until somebody tells me to go.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:09:53] Thank you, Kenny.
[00:09:58] It's time for your trivia question of [00:10:00] the day. Yay. When workers began setting up the famous Rockefeller Center, Christmas tree in New York City, what unexpected surprise did they find inside the tree?
[00:10:14] A) a tiny owl B) a giant sloth, C) millions of genetically modified mosquitoes. Did you guess it, the answer is A. An adult male saw wheat, one of the smallest owl varieties in the Northeast was discovered after the 75 foot tree had made its hundred and 70 mile journey from upstate New York to the heart of Manhattan. Amazingly, the little guy who rescuers aptly named Rockefeller was completely uninjured and able to be released back into the wild.
[00:10:56] You can see a picture of him at thetennews.com. And [00:11:00] let me tell you, he is almost as cute as Baby Yoda. Okay. He's as cute as baby Yoda. It's a tie.
[00:11:11] Time is up. That's the end of The Ten for today, but you can catch new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts and distributed by iHeartRadio.
[00:11:27] The Ten News writing team is led by Editorial Director, Tracy Crooks, with contributions from Stephen Tompkins, Laine Farber and Kenny Curtis. The creative director is Jenner Pascua. Marketing is led by Jacob Bronstein with social media and web support by Steven Tompkins and Adam Pharr. Editing and sound design by Pete Musto under the Production Direction of Jeremiah Tittle. Executive Producer Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan round out the team. If you have questions about the show, a story [00:12:00] idea, or just a fun fact you want to share, email us at hello@thetennews.com. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review The Ten News on Apple podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I am Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to The Ten News. Now go check a tree for a little owl. Oh my goodness. I'm running right out into my backyard right now. I'm looking for an owl or a baby Yoda.
