Good morning and welcome to KidNuz. I’m Tori. Today is Friday December 13th 2019and we begin with…

Two big words for a day with a historically bad rap. Triskaidekaphobia is a fear of the number 13. Paraskevidekatriaphobia is more specific; it means you’re superstitious whenever the calendar coughs up the number 13 on a Friday. No one knows exactly when it took such an unlucky turn, or why, but the unfortunate juju has been around for centuries. Some say it’s because Christian historians believe Jesus died on Friday the 13th, others point to the arrest of hundreds of knights, by the King of France during the Crusades on Friday the 13th, 1307. And then there’s the movie “Friday the 13th” which was released in 1980 and made sure the date would never be looked at the same again. Of course, there’s no real reason to fear this day. Even the doctor who coined the term Paraskevidekatriaphobia told his patients that all they had to do to be cured… was to learn how to pronounce it.

Bundle up and look skyward tonight. One of the best and most reliable cosmic showers of the entire year will peak late this evening and stretch into the early hours of tomorrow. They’re called “The Geminids” and are named for the constellation Gemini, which seems to be the starting point. Geminids are fast – moving around 79,000 miles per hour – and famous for producing orange, yellow, blue, green and red streaks of light. According to NASA, this isn’t your average meteor-shower-caused-by-a-comet. This is an annual ‘asteroid’ shower visible only when Earth passes through a trail of space debris left behind by a weird, rocky object named 3200 Phaethon.

What makes organized sports fun for kids? The answer might not surprise you, but it may come as a shock to your coaches. George Washington University studied the question and found that winning.. was nowhere near the top. Also far down the list were things like playing in tournaments and traveling to new places. The reasons most kids say they enjoy their sport is because they get to be active, try their best and work as a team. The findings were the same for boys and girls, young kids and high schoolers and across recreational and more competitive levels of play. The research is important because a lot of kids quit sports around the age of 13 or 14 when, they say, it just isn’t fun anymore.

Oceanographers have a mystery on their hands. They’ve just discovered a massive field of nearly perfectly round holes in the sea floor off of Big Sur, California. They range in size, with the largest measuring 600 feet across and 16 feet deep. All told, there are more than 15-thousand unexplained divots, about a third of which were found to have trash in them. Scientists say the garbage was likely dropped off the side of a boat, but that doesn’t explain what caused the holes to form in the first place. The find was made by researchers mapping the ocean for a planned wind farm.

Pigeons dressed like cowboys. It’s a thing on the streets of Las Vegas. Not surprisingly, video of the two birds sporting miniature cowboy hats, one red and one gray, has made its way to the internet. Naturally, everyone wants to know where the hats came from.. and how the heck they stay put. Representatives from the National Rodeo, which just so happens to be in town, deny involvement. Animal activists are concerned, but a respected ornithologist – or bird expert – says there’s no real need to worry. “They look like happy pigeons to me” he said, while adding, “It’s hard to know of course, because they will not talk to us.”

That’s it for KidNuz. Now our KidNuz quiz:

1. What’s the word for fear of Friday the 13th? Paraskevidekatriaphobia


2. What asteroid shower peaks tonight? The Geminids.


3. What was found on the ocean floor near Big Sur, California? 15-thousand mysterious holes.


4. What does NOT top the list of why kids like to do sports? Winning. Instead, kids say they have fun being active and working as a team.

In one for the road: If you haven’t heard of Baby Yoda yet, you will. The little green sensation is the starring character on Disney+’s “The Mandelorian” and it only took one episode of the live action Star Wars show to launch the tiny tyke into the social media stratosphere. Baby Yoda is animatronic, meaning he’s operated by puppeteers. And he’s got a cult following among celebrities like The Rock, who post pictures with him and report on alleged sightings.

Today’s birthday shoutouts go to Oren in New York City and Colin in Rochester, Michigan. Tomorrow, we celebrate Keaton in Gilbert, Arizona .. and on Sunday, Colin in Libertyville, Illinois, Merrick in Littleton, Colorado and Emily Lu in Walnut, California. Thanks for listening! We’ll see you back here for more KidNuz on Monday morning.

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