BtN: Episode 12 Transcript 16/05/17
Hi, I'm Nathan Bazley and this is BTN!
Coming up today:
• Should unhealthily thin models be used in fashion? France is now saying no but what do you think?
• We take a look at how some schools are looking to go bin-free in the near future.
• And in BTN Investigates how does the internet work? We sent Tash undercover for some reason to find out.
You can see all that and more soon but first:
Housing Affordability
Reporter: Amelia Moseley
INTRO: The 2017 budget was released last week and in it there was some bad news for uni students, the big banks and taxpayers. While there was good news for school students disabled people and older people there was also some good news in there for people trying to buy their first home. That's been a big issue recently that you might have heard called 'housing affordability'. Here's more on what that is and why it's a problem.
What would your dream house look like?
KID 1 So I would have a three-story house in the country with a big swimming pool in the back, a lot of metres with the swimming pool.
KID 2 My dream house would be in the hills. It would be two storeys and it would be accessible to cats where ever you went.
KID 3 It would be in a grassland area and there'd be umm three stories and there'd be a balcony so you could see animals walk past, there would also be a petting zoo and I'd have a pet unicorn!
KID 4 I would have a house in the middle of the desert with a movie cinema for the loungeroom and the AFL oval for a backyard.
Owning a home is something a lot of people dream about! But while the average Australian probably won't end up with one with a huge swimming pool or a movie theatre, there've been worries lately that many won't be able to afford a house at all.
Houses are the most expensive things most people will ever buy and unfortunately, they're getting pricier.
AMELIA, REPORTER Today, the average Australian house costs around $656,800. I don't know about you, but that's definitely more money than I have!
It's more money than most people have, which is why they borrow money from a bank to buy one. Then you have to pay it back plus interest, which is extra money you're charged on top of what you borrowed.
Houses have never been more expensive than now. Meanwhile, people's wages haven't gone up as much. So, to put that in perspective: Australians on average earn more than ten times what they did 30 years ago, but houses now are around 30 times more expensive than back then. That means compared to around the time your grandparents might've bought a house, houses now are more expensive to buy and harder to pay off.
We're definitely not the only country struggling with house prices, and governments everywhere are trying to work out how to fix the problem. But in some big cities, people are already finding creatively cheaper ways to become home-owners like living in a canal boat in London, or in an old shipping container in Denmark! Hmm not bad.
That said, Australians are still worse off than Britain, America, Canada and most of Europe when it comes to housing affordability! In fact, Sydney and Melbourne now have some of the least affordable real estate in the world! So now, the government says it has a plan (and no, it doesn't involve houseboats or shipping containers). In its new budget, it's doing a few things to try to help people who want to buy a house: It's making it easier for people to save for their first home, it's making it harder for people from overseas to buy homes as an investment so Australians won't have to compete against them to buy, and it's trying to encourage older people to sell their homes and move into smaller ones to make room for young families.
But some reckon there's still a long way to go, and more that can be done, to make sure people's housing dreams can one day come true!
This Week in News
Computers around the world have been hit by a massive cyber attack.
50 countries were affected including at least one Aussie business.
Hospitals in the UK were hit hardest - patient records were blocked and operations had to be postponed.
It was caused by something called ransomware which allows hackers to access your computer if you open an infected file.
If you want to find out more about how it happened check in with BTN next week for all the details!
Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered more than 17 new mummies in an ancient tomb.
They were found 8 metres below the ground in a burial chamber south of Cairo that was first found last year.
The mummies are thought to be more than 2000 years old.
NASA astronauts have performed their 200th space walk on the International Space Station.
Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer put on their spacesuits to replace an electronics box.
Whitson's done 9 spacewalks before but this was Fischer's first and he was pretty excited!
JACK FISCHER, ASTRONAUT: Oh my gosh, this is beautiful!
PEGGY WHITSON, ASTRONAUT: Isn't it!
Scientists have named a new species of dinosaur!
This spiky, tank-like dinosaur with a sledge-hammer tail has been named Zuul.
It was named after Zuul the Terror Dog in the classic 80s film 'Ghostbusters' because scientists thought it looked a bit like the character.
They even got Ghostbusters actor Dan Aykroyd to introduce it!
DAN AYKROYD, ACTOR: You're looking at a close-up of the terror dog from the movie Ghostbusters. And this is a real terror dog!
Zuul is said to have lived in the Cretaceous Period 75 million years ago and is a member of the Ankylosaur family.
It was found last year in the US state of Montana.
And Portugal has won this year's Eurovision Song Contest!
Salvador Sobral took out the world's biggest song competition with this performance.
Australia's Isaiah Firebrace put in an awesome performance coming in at 9th place.
Fellow Aussie Anja Nissen actually performed for Denmark and came 20th.
But as always it the colourful sometimes crazy acts of Eurovision that get people tuning in.
Skinny Model Laws
Reporter: Amelia Moseley
INTRO: Next up today in France, laws have recently been introduced that make it illegal to hire unhealthily thin models. Ads featuring photo-shopped images must now be
clearly labelled there, too. We find out how the changes work and ask you if you'd like to see them introduced here in Australia.
The fashion industry is all around us; on our screens, in magazines and ads. But while it might all look glamorous, fashion can have a dark side. To walk in high end fashion shows, get their pictures in glossy magazines, or become a famous face, many models, who are often still teenagers, say they feel pressure to lose weight and look thin.
Even though some people are naturally skinny, trying to be really skinny can lead to some big issues like unhealthy or even dangerous eating habits. The same kind of pressure can also be felt by the young people who see their images everywhere.
AMELIA, REPORTER Experts say these kind of pictures can have a pretty bad effect, because they can make you feel like you should look a certain way.
And looking this way isn't always healthy. Sometimes it isn't even realistic, because a lot of this stuff is digitally altered anyway.
KID 1: They're photo-shopping the images and making them look fake, like plastic.
KID 2: I do find that it's not just girls that get photo-shopped, it's also a lot of guys that get photo-shopped for perfume ads and fashion in general.
KID 3: I think it could make young people feel that they're not normal and the other photo-shopped people are normal.
KID 4 I would like to see normal bodies so that people don't have to worry about what they look like.
That's why there's been a lot of talk over the past few years about trying to change the culture of the fashion industry. Italy, Spain and Israel already have laws which ban models from working if they're unhealthily skinny. Now France is doing the same. That's
a big deal because Paris is known as the fashion capital of the world where a lot of young models get their big break.
So, from now on, for a model to be eligible for a job here they have to get a doctor's certificate to prove they're a healthy weight. If a company breaks the rules and hires a model without checking with their doctor, they could face fines of up to 100 thousand dollars and staff could get jail-time of up to six months!
The French government's also trying to stop so many unrealistic images popping up in the media.
AMELIA, REPORTER: From October, if an ad in France has digitally changed a model's appearance then it has to be honest about it and say on the picture that it's been
retouched, or advertisers could face a fine of up to 55 thousand dollars!
The French health ministry is hoping the new laws will lead the way for change
everywhere, so we'll have to wait and see if fashion starts heading in a new direction.
Ask A Reporter
Have you got a question about France's new model laws? Ask me live on Friday during Ask A Reporter! Head to our website for all the details.
Poll
And we'd like to know if you think those laws should be introduced here, too. Let us know in our online poll.
School Waste
Reporter: Jack Evans
INTRO: Now for the second part of our War on Waste special. We're visiting two schools on a mission to wipe out waste. So much so, they're aiming to soon be completely binless.
These guys are taking out the trash. But they're making sure they've sorted it first. Here at Immanuel primary talking rubbish is encouraged.
STEVIE: We're sorting the rubbish from our landfill bins into groups like organic, paper, cardboard, 10c bottles and things like that and plastic.
They're just one of the schools on a huge mission to reduce, reuse and recycle just about everything. It's all part of a program that's teaching kids how to Wipe out Waste
EMMA JANE: We're going to decrease the amount of plastic we're going to use here at the school and in each classroom
Every year Aussies throw out around 50 million tonnes of waste, which is about 2
tonnes per person. Most of that waste can actually be reused, recycled or composted at home or at school. But Immanuel isn't the only school trying to clean up their act.
REPORTER: These guys at Star of the Sea School are sorting through their rubbish and making sure it goes into the right bin, does anyone have a peg? No?
Each class has three different bins. First there's Compost; things that can break down in the environment, like food scraps, compostable papers and garden materials. Then there's Recycle; materials that can be reused, like paper, glass and anything with this logo. And finally Reduce; this is the rubbish that can't be recycled or composted which includes some food packaging and broken things that can't be repaired or recycled. This is the stuff that ends up in land fill. But these guys are hoping to reduce that waste so much that by term 4 they could be completely bin free.
JUDAH: What we are planning to do is get a lot more nude food. Getting more containers instead of wrappers and, also trying to reduce our wrappers.
RUBY: Say if you had a chip packet maybe buy the bigger chip packet and then put that into a container and then bring it home and wash it so that we are sending less to
landfill.
GEORGIE: So, what we're trying to do at our school is we're trying to reduce the
amount of landfill. So, this little bin will replace the landfill bin in our classrooms and our goal is to just fill this up each day of landfill
EVIE: At the moment, we have the bigger bins outside during recess and lunch within the classrooms we have the mini bins so and by the end of term 4 we're hoping to have no bins no landfill.
Every term both Star of the Sea and Immanuel have an audit. To make sure everything is going into the right bin and to keep them focused on their goal.
PARIS: Every class brings their bins to the middle of the courtyard and we take all the compost things to the compost bin.
JEMMA: If we see a plastic zip lock bag we would most likely take it out and put in the landfill bin ‘cause it won't break down.
At the moment both schools are working towards just one wheelie bin a week and they say it won’t be too long before they can proudly say that their school is completely waste free.
PRESENTER: And just a reminder the ABC's War on Waste special will premiere Tuesday night at 8:30 on ABC1 or catch it on iView anytime afterwards.
Quiz
And while we're still on waste let's go to a quiz about it.
Recycling one tonne of paper will save approximately how many trees?
1 6 13
The answer - 13
How does the Internet Work?
Reporter: Natasha Thiele
ELIAS: Hi BTN, it's Elias here. My question is how does the internet work?
REPORTER: Mission accepted!
It's our go to for top secret answers, it's how we snoop out our friends and it's where you can tap into some really funny videos. And we can access this stuff pretty much
anywhere at anytime. It's the internet but it's come a long way from where it started!
The internet can be traced back to the 1960s in the US. It started as a network of just four computers that were running on different operating systems which could share information. Local universities and government departments linked into that network and other countries joined it too. Turning it into a massive international network and giving it the name we use today. But the guy who helped the Internet really take off was Tim Berners-Lee. In 1989, he created a system used for sharing information on the internet which he named the World Wide Web.
Now, around 3.2 billion people around the world that use the internet. Anyone can post information on there that's why it's really important not to believe everything you read!
But how does it all actually work? Well, I went on a little mission to ask an expert!
REPORTER: Hi Jesse, how you going?
JESSE SANDERY, INTERNET EXPERT: Hello Tash! Sorry about the noise. There's a lot of computers busy at work here today.
REPORTER: Is it a bit loud! Well thanks for having me, so can you tell me Jesse how on the earth does the internet work?
JESSE: Yeah well there are millions of computers and servers just like this that connect us all around the world okay and they're connected by these very large cables but believe it or not, most of these cables that connect these together are actually under the sea.
These cables are about as thick as a can of soft drink. They're buried in shallow areas of the ocean or found in water up to 8-thousand metres deep. They carry fibre optic cables that allow internet data to travel from one place to another really quickly and they're a lot quicker and reliable than satellites because data doesn't need to travel up and then back down again. The internet wouldn't be possible without these cables so people and even sharks have tried to damage them in the past!
REPORTER: What if I wanted to send a picture to say a friend overseas, how does that all work?
JESSE: Yeah good question, so look think of every computer and every website it has what's called an IP address which is like a street address okay so if you want to send a picture to a friend of yours overseas, if we imagine for a moment that picture is like a puzzle and it had hundreds of tiny puzzle pieces connected to it okay and what we do is when we send that picture, these little pieces they get sent one by one and they have pieces of information on them that tell us where we want to send that picture to okay and once that picture reaches its destination, it stitches itself back up and you get to see the picture on the other end.
REPORTER: Well thanks for teaching me a bit more about the internet.
JESSE: No worries!
REPORTER: So, I think I've accomplished my mission! That's a wrap!
Did you know?
The world's biggest search engine processes 3.5 billion searches a day.
That's 40,000 every second.
Sport
Around 10,000 people came to Jung-Wun stadium in Shanghai to watch the first regular season AFL game to be played in outside of Australia or New Zealand!
It was a bit of a walkover. Port thumped the Suns by 72 points but organisers have called the game a success. It was broadcast on national Chinese TV and the AFL hopes it might have attracted a few new fans!
¶Daniel Ricciardo has landed his first podium finish of 2017 finishing third in the Spanish Grand Prix.
RICCIARDO: We had a little bit of fortune today with Valtteri stopping. We were fourth and then he had his niot sire his problem in the end but we take what we can and I'm really happy to be on the podium again.
¶Meanwhile a 6-year-old F1 fan got the chance to meet his idol Kimi Raikkonen after he got a bit upset when the 'iceman' crashed on the first turn of the race. Ferrari saw Thomas' reaction and invited him down to the pits to see his hero was okay.
¶In a stunning return to form Tyler Wright has won the World Surf League event in Brazil!
The reigning world champion had a tough start to the year but the win puts her equal first in the women's rankings.
¶If you reckon YOU'RE a thrill seeker well, meet 101-year old Verdun Hayes.
The second world war veteran broke a world record on the weekend becoming the oldest person to tandem sky-dive! He made the jump with his son, grandson, and great- grandson.
¶And if you thought a day of golfing could get a little boring try playing in South Africa.
These guys had to pause their game while they waited for a huge snake to slither across the course. Probably best that they just left him to it.
Screen It Competition
Reporter: Jack Evans
INTRO: Finally today, if you're a budding young film maker, animator and video game creator, this story is for you. The Australian Centre for the Moving Image has just opened entries for this year's national 'Screen IT' competition. It asks school students to create and submit a short film or video game. So, we caught up with two schools
working on their entries right now.
These guys are making sure they've filmed the perfect shot. They're working on short films that will be entered into Australia's biggest student film competition, Screen It. It's run by the Australian Centre of Moving Image or ACMI and its a chance for the next generation of screen creators to show off their stuff.
JOVANA: The competition is called screen it and many schools go head to head to see who can make the best film.
Each year ACMI sets a different theme to be used as inspiration this year's theme is time.
HENRY: we all looked at the elements of time past, present and future and we all decided to do future.
Nadia: we brainstormed what time meant some people thought of clocks time machines in the future history in the past and we came up with frozen time. So, we made out film about mute button to freeze the noise.
Now they're taking those ideas and getting creative. Making live action films,
animations, stop motion and some are even using a green screen to create special effects. The competition isn't just for film enthusiasts either Hallett Cove Primary are busy coding time themed video games to enter into the comp.
MAX: we used the movie back to the future and we also used a maze we combined that together and made a future maze.
NATALIE: Well I'm doing a maze game cause I love the way of mazes and I think mazes are my special talent.
Organisers say Screen It is a great chance for students to get creative and learn some new skills and these guys are loving it.
ISABELLE: I've learnt that film making takes time, you can't push it and it's also fun and you can make loads of new friends.
MAX: We have really enjoyed making our game and yes, we would like to make a career making our game `cause we love making video games.
Natalie: If you want to do it I hope I hope that I've inspired you for it.
Closer
And that's it for today! But there is heaps more for you on our website including all of our suggested class activities for this ep. Thanks for joining me and I'll see you on Friday for
#AskaReporter and then next week for more BTN.
