Hi and welcome to another exciting, even slightly unusual
Geo Junior. On today's show, we'll move
over to Russia where there has been a very exciting find, the
remains of a 40,000 year old mammoth.
Find out why these students in the United Kingdom all want to get into the
same car. In extra time
Mhm
And visit Thailand, where one ice-cream man is serving up a show
that you just don't want to miss.
So hold on to your seat because here we go.
To Russia first, where one dance troupe is taking on some
very special ballerinas.
The Yevgeny Panilov ballet troupe doesn't take
just anyone. There is one strict entry
requirement. Ballerinas must weigh over
100 kg.
The troupe has been performing for 6 years with a regular cast
of 20 dancers. Nearly all hold regular
jobs, among them are medics, teachers,
accountants and entrepreneurs, and none of them are professional
dancers.
Marina, a nurse, said that she hasn't danced formally since
3rd class and was afraid to go to the auditions.
But the dancers have a rigorous program and a strong tradition behind
them. They are based in the central Russian town of Perm,
where the ballet tradition goes back to World War II.
They also work under the direction of respected Russian theater
director Yevgeny Panilov, who founded the troupe six
years ago. Panfilov says that his work is a
collaboration between his ideas and the natural movements of fat
people. Panfilov's troupe has won a reputation in
Russia as an art form that goes beyond the novelty of big ballerinas.
The present performance, Babbi, Russian for peasant woman,
1945, examines how Russian women on the home
front survived and suffered during the war.
The crowd thought the performance was great and the ladies were
fantastic, opening up a whole new avenue for big
dancers in the arts. Oh yeah
Speaking of big, a mammoth skull is the latest find in a series
of mammoth bone discoveries at Kostoini in the Central
European section of Russia.
This mammoth is believed to have lived about 40,000 years
ago, the period when ancient humans had developed into small hunting
groups and were using primitive tools.
Mammoths are believed to have grown a tooth each year that they lived, and this
mammoth's jaw has 20 teeth sockets, making it 20 years old
when it died.
Mikhail Anikoff from the Academy of Science in Saint
Petersburg says that this find and others in the region have given the
scientists a great look at how humans captured and subdued an
ancient animal, as well as understanding how life was
40,000 years ago.
The scientists believed that humans at the time rarely killed the mammoths for
food. There were other smaller, less dangerous game for
that, but the ancient community gathered up the mammoth bones
and built with them.
In fact, the mammoth bones provided such solid building tools
that the walls of human houses made from mammoths were still in
sturdy condition when dug up at the excavation pit.
Excavations at Kostoinki, which means bone, in
Russian, have been going since 1879.
The site has revealed 26 construction layers
from successive historic periods.
The latest mammoth skull is the 17th found and the
excavation team say they're certain that more treasures remain to be found
under the earth at this site.
It's time to leave Russia and travel west around the globe to.
Yeah
The 1932 film Night and Day.
Yeah. I.
And.
I'll take her strolling down the road with my dancing.
I can't go wrong and tender song, and she'll discover my
charms, some fancy taps, and she'll collapse and fall
right into my arm. Get him.
Capture
Oh no, you haven't a chance when I go into my dance.
And that people stay in the same position rather than wabbling around.
comes to body shapes, I don't think.
You have to go straight to like a.
OK, well, thanks everybody, the whole.
And the winning couple is Richard and Jemmy Funnell.
Here she comes down the street. My oh my,
ain't she sweet. Why, here comes my hot toddy. Look out
over my dead body.
Capture
Just wait until she gets a load of my dancing.
Yeah, OK, so, OK.
In extra time, And we've already got 3 in the back.
the duty of Paasco.
No.
The English team are confident that they're in now. They're confident that they
can do this.
OK, but if it's a bit better on this side, man. That's in the back
Close that door. If you think I'll close. We
You And
Yeah
do You know.
Somebody
We'll leave all that stuffing now and head east to visit
Thailand. Here for hundreds of years,
buffaloes played a major role in Thailand's countryside,
working alongside farmers, plowing the land and carrying heavy
loads. But with modern farming methods, tractors
have taken their place. There is hope though for these calm
beasts because of a farm in northern Thailand. It has
dedicated itself to saving the traditional Thai farming methods and
putting them on display for people to come and see.
Buffalo used to be a great tool for a farmer to have.
Using the animal's strength, the farmer would plow the fields to get them ready to plant
rice. Because tractors and other
machinery make the job faster and easier, the buffaloes are no
longer required for work. But in northern
Thailand's Chiang Mai province, there's a small place called Bang
Kuai Thai Buffalo Camp, a sanctuary for
18 lucky buffaloes. The
camp is open to the public, and each day dozens of tourists are
given the chance not only to learn about Thai farming, but also to
join in. Tourists are shown
how to plow fields and plant rice.
They're also allowed to ride the beasts around the lush green rice
paddies, a special experience according to those who take part.
The managers of the buffalo camp say many children growing up in Thailand
have no idea about how important the buffaloes have been in the
country's farming history and how much needs to be done to save
them. In 1981, there were
6.1 million buffaloes in Thai fields. By
last year, the number had dropped to just 1.2 million.
Rice is the most important crop in Thailand, with 2/3 of the
working people employed to work in paddy fields.
Unfortunately, due to the population growth, there are
59,510,000 people in
Thailand alone. The demand for rice is high and the
buffalo are finding it hard to keep up.
Here the buffaloes are fed, taken care of, and even make new
friends. People can see how sturdy they are and get involved
in everyday life as it used to be.
Koi Farm is a project that is kept running by donations from
visiting tourists.
The camp hopes to encourage others in Thailand to set up buffalo camps
to ensure the survival of the gentle beast.
In NO Pathom, a small provincial town 80 kilometers
from Bangkok, there's an ice cream store like you have never
seen before. The flavors of the ice cream may not be so
unusual, but the way it enters your bowl or mouth is.
Appyarch Prepcha is one of the most popular ice-cream
shops around, serving ice cream in a kung fu style that
guarantees entertainment as well as a cool sweet dessert for the
customers. The kung fu
style is something Apear has been perfecting for 15 years at his
sales pitch outside the town's main Buddhist temple.
It involves tossing scoops of ice-cream in the air and twirling
around, catching the ice-cream in a bowl behind the back or under the
arm, all against the background of traditional music.
Since I have discovered and developed kung fu ice cream, I managed
to attract customers from all over Thailand and abroad. They
like to come here, taste my ice-cream and enjoy my show, the
former stuntman said. And his customers
agree. I've come here dozens of times. The ice cream
tastes great and the show is exciting. We have great fun here, said
one young woman, enjoying the ice-cream with her son.
Apiar's fascination with the martial arts dates back to his
childhood when his parents would tell him stories about Chinese folk heroes
and their skill with karate and kung fu. He's been
practicing the art for the last 20 years. The skilled salesman
enjoys audience participation as well, flinging scoops of ice
cream across the main square where hungry passerby tried to catch it in
a bowl or straight in their mouth.
Proving that any job can be turned into a source of entertainment
and joy. And our
final story from Thailand is about 56 year old Chats
Samarran Kabal Singh, who has become the first Thai woman
to be ordained as a novice monk. You may think
that this is not much of an unusual story, but it is. If
she is able to remain in the order for 2 years, she could become
the first female Buddhist monk.
Before being ordained, Chetsamaran taught Buddhist philosophy to
students at a Bangkok university for 20 years.
She has also written more than 40 books in Thai and English
on the subject. So we think she knows a fair bit about being
one. Thailand is mostly a Buddhist
country. Chits Samaran could be the first female monk among
more than 300,000 male monks.
Thai law has been unchanged since 1928 when
Sangha, the Supreme Buddhist council in the country, passed a law
prohibiting Thai monks from ordaining women.
Chatsamaran was ordained in Sri Lanka in February in the presence
of five senior monks and was given the ordained name
of Dharma Madden. She hopes that the
current laws and restrictions can become things of the past in modern
Thailand and will be changed in the near future.
However, first reactions from the council have not been encouraging,
as they have not recognized Chit Samaran as a fully ordained
novice. She may later become a monk, but
only in Sri Lanka. Still, Chatsamaran hasn't lost
all hope and believes that Thai society is changing and
will soon allow women to participate equally in religious life.
Until then, she's going to keep praying in hope.
And finally, this is Marsha, and she's stuck up a tree,
a very big tree in fact. Calling out helplessly, she doesn't
know how to get down and her owners look on with great concern.
The 20 m tall tree would be a hard height for anyone to tackle, but
there is help at hand.
Valery Surabo, pet detective. Valery,
a former Russian investigator, has turned his skills to saving
animals' lives. He has devised
his own detective tools, such as the cat pole for his new
trade. And when the pole doesn't work, he calls upon a crack
team of animal rescuers. These
guys will go anywhere, the bigger the challenge, the better.
Valery and his team call themselves the Goodwill Movement,
and they estimate they have saved hundreds of animals, cats,
dogs, snakes, and birds over the past 10 years.
Their budget comes from donations and their headquarters are
inside Valery's two-room apartment that he shares with his slithering
friends.
Valery says that animals inspire him and hopes that others will come
to understand how much animals can teach humans.
But if people don't respect Valery's four-legged friends, then he'll track
them down and bring them to justice.
What.
And there's plenty of work for him, heaps of pets go missing each day
in the Moscow area, and several worried owners call Valery
each day.
His next assignment is to find missing dog Cairo.
Armed with a snapshot of the dog and a map of the neighborhood parks,
Valery and his assistants shake the bushes and question the locals to
find their dog.
With a neighborhood as dense as this one, no wonder the animals get
lost. Still, Valari is offering a great
service to worried owners. They are even in their own way, teaching
people to be more aware of animals and to keep a close eye on them.
What With Caro safely caught, the
members of the pet detective team call it a day, only to