The Wonderland of Rocks

Hello, Newslings! · 0:00

Imagine climbing all the way up onto the roof of a giant building... and nobody tells you to get down. In China, there's a new building where that's the whole idea! Hear more in story two.

Hey Newslings! Ready to explore the big wide world? Let's go!

It's Friday, October twenty-third. Here's the plan for today. Story one, America gets a brand-new national park. Story two, a building you can walk on top of. And story three, why rice farmers in Thailand are waiting to sell their rice. Plus boats made out of pumpkins, and a poem. Let's dive in!

America's newest national park · 0:50

Story one. Let's go to Arizona, a state in the southwestern United States.

America has a brand-new national park! On October twentieth, the President signed a law that turned Chiricahua National Monument into Chiricahua National Park. It's America's sixty-fourth national park.

What's there? Rocks. But not just any rocks. Hundreds of tall stone towers, called spires, and giant rocks balancing on skinny ones. This land is part of the historic homeland of the Chiricahua Apache people. They called it the "Land of Standing-Up Rocks".

How did they get there? About twenty-seven million years ago, a huge volcano erupted nearby. Its ash turned into rock. Then ice and water slowly carved it into towers.

Some of these rocks have been balancing on one skinny foot of a rock for a very long time. Try that in gym class!

The mountains there are a sky island. That means it's a mountain range rising out of dry desert grasslands, with cool forests up high, like an island in a sea of grass.

Why does it matter? National parks belong to everyone, including you.

So remember. Chiricahua is America's newest national park, and it's full of towers made by a volcano.

Sound It Out · 2:27

Here's today's Sound It Out word. Volcano... Let's clap it. Vol... ca... no. Three beats. And it starts with the letter V, like van.

The opera house you can walk on · 2:42

Story two. Let's go to Shanghai, a giant city in China.

On October seventeenth, the Shanghai Grand Opera House opened there, next to a river. An opera is a play where people sing the story, instead of saying it. This building has three theaters, with seats for more than four thousand people.

But here's the cool part. The roof spirals around, like a fan opening up. And it's also a giant staircase. Anyone can walk up to the top, for free!

Most buildings say, "Keep off the roof." This one says, "Please walk all over me!"

Parts of the roof stick way out into the air, with nothing holding them up underneath. Builders call that a cantilever. One part sticks out about thirty-two meters. That's almost three school buses, end to end, floating in the air!

Why does it matter? This big, fancy building is a place everyone can enjoy, not just people with the tickets.

So remember. A cantilever sticks way out, with nothing underneath. And in Shanghai, you can climb all the way up a roof made of stairs.

Thailand's rice farmers wait · 3:59

Story three. Let's go to Thailand, in Southeast Asia.

Thailand grows a LOT of rice. And October and November are harvest time, when lots of farmers cut their rice at once.

That causes a problem. How much of something there is for sale is called the supply. When the supply of rice is really big, prices can go down. So farmers get less money for their hard work.

Imagine everyone on your street selling lemonade on the same hot day. Nobody can charge much! But if you wait a week, when nobody else is selling, you might get a better price.

So on October twentieth, Thailand's government decided to help farmers store their rice, and sell it later. It will lend them money, so they don't have to sell it all right away. It will pay the extra cost of the loan, and help with storing the rice. Farmers can store up to three million tonnes of rice this way. That's as heavy as about nine Empire State Buildings!

Why is that good? Farmers get the money now, without selling the rice. And they can sell later, when there's less rice around, and the price is better. And rice is on dinner tables all over the world. Is it on yours tonight?

So remember. When there's too much of something for sale, the price goes down. And Thailand is helping farmers wait, for a better price.

Kids Who Rock: Oscar Whitfield · 5:38

Now, it's time for our Kids Who Rock story.

Meet Oscar Whitfield. He's fourteen, he's from Britain, and he lives in Zimbabwe, in Africa. And Oscar was just named Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year!

So what's his winning photo? A dung beetle, pushing a big ball of... you guessed it, poo. Yep. This year's top young wildlife photo, is a beetle rolling poo.

But it's an amazing picture. Oscar had to lay flat in the dust, to take it at the beetle's eye level. And dung beetles are great helpers for the land. They bury the dung they collect, which helps keep the ground healthy. The contest got more than sixty-five thousand photos this year!

Want to see Oscar's photo? You'll find the link in the app, and in today's show notes.

So remember. Great photos can come from getting down low, and looking closely, maybe even at poo.

Around the World: Pumpkin boat races · 6:47

Now, let's take a trip around the world. Today, we're going to Tualatin, a town in Oregon, in the United States.

Every October, people there hold a very silly race: the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta. A regatta is a boat race. But these boats... are pumpkins!

Growers raise pumpkins that weigh well over a thousand pounds. That's about as heavy as a horse! They're scooped out, until there's room for a person inside. Then grown-ups in silly costumes climb in, and paddle across a lake. This year's race was on October eighteenth.

Whoa Fact: Corals that hug · 7:33

Okay, Newslings. It's time for a Whoa Fact.

Did you know... that in a lab, a piece of coral can help another piece of the same coral get better, just by touching?

Corals are tiny animals that live together in the ocean. Inside them live even tinier helpers, called algae, that make food for the coral, and give it its colors. When the water gets too warm, corals can lose their algae, and turn white. That's called bleaching, and it's a big problem.

So in the lab, scientists at Stanford University, in California, put bleached pieces of coral right against healthy pieces of the very same coral. The pieces joined together! And within three days, the algae started moving across.

After just seven weeks, all five of the bleached corals had recovered. It's the world's slowest, most helpful high five.

Corals that share their helpers, they get healthy again. Whoa!

Poem time: October's Party · 8:40

It's poem time! This poem was written by George Cooper, an American poet who lived more than one hundred years ago. It's called "October's Party". And it's about October, throwing a party for the autumn leaves.

The poem is read by a LibriVox volunteer (public domain).

Giant tortoises bounce back · 9:43

Before we go, here's something hopeful.

Let's go to Aldabra, a ring of islands in the Indian Ocean, in a country called Seychelles. It's home to giant tortoises.

In the eighteen hundreds, people hunted so many of them, that fewer than a thousand giant tortoises were left. Then, in nineteen eighty-one, Aldabra became a protected nature reserve.

And this month, scientists said there are now about one hundred eighty thousand giant tortoises there, the most ever recorded! That's more giant tortoises than people in the whole country.

Maybe slow and steady... really does win the race.

Today's Big Question · 10:38

Want to see the towers of rock, and the roof made of stairs? They're on our website, newslings dot X Y Z, with today's pictures, the quiz, and our friendly reading coach.

That's it for today, Newslings. Let's do a quick look back. Story one, America's newest national park. Story two, the opera house you can walk on. And story three, Thailand's rice farmers.

Here's your big question for the day. If you could design a building that everyone was allowed to climb on, what would it look like? Talk about it with your family, or just draw a picture.

Stay curious, and I'll talk to you on Sunday, October twenty-fifth, for our very first Sunday Edition!

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