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The Sound Kitchen

Weird and wonderful turtles

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This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear the answer to the question about the odd green haired turtle. There’s a listener essay, great music, and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the arrow in the photo and enjoy!

David Franklin/Getty Images/A Terrade
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Hello everyone!

Welcome to The Sound Kitchen. You can catch the programme on-the-air every Saturday at 6:15, 7:15, 14:45 and 16:45 universal time. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you have grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews and great music, so be sure and tune in every Saturday.

For our DX enthusiast friends: Our shortwave frequency is 11830 kHz on the 25m band, from 06.00 to 07.00 UT every day. We’ve had reception reports from Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, the UK and the US, and although the frequency is “aimed” (or however that works) towards the African continent, give it a try. You never know … and be sure and send us your reception reports. Maybe we can get more time, which would be wonderful.

You can also hear our programs on WRMI (http://www.wrmi.net/) and WRN (http://www.wrn.org/listeners/). These broadcasters diffuse our programs out of the goodness of their hearts, but unless you tell us how you heard us we have no way of knowing … so do write and tell us how you listen to us.

Fabulous News! We now have an RFI English newsletter! On the very top of our homepage, there’s a little tab that says “Newsletters”. Click on it and fill out the form, and every day you’ll receive the latest from the RFI English website.

We look forward to seeing all your names on our brand-new subscriber’s list. And congratulations to our web team for making it happen. Way to go David, Tony and Isabelle!

We want to hear from you! We have a phone number you can call to leave us a message, so we can hear your voice. Just call, give your name, your country, and a short message - something like “I love RFI”, because of course you do – and we can put you on-the-air. The number to call is: + 33 1 84 22 95 82.

The Fourth Annual RFI Clubs Football Tournament is underway! RFI provides footballs, jerseys and trophies to RFI Clubs who want to organize their own tournaments to correspond with the World Cup games, and several RFI English Clubs signed up. You’ll see their photos on our FaceBook pages and hear about their matches on The Sound Kitchen, so be sure and tune in every week.

RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write her so that I stay in the loop too.

We’ve made a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. It is a closed group, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven’t yet asked to join the group, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/583819955292977/ and fill out the questionnaire !!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).

Are you interested in forming an official RFI Club, or transforming your existing club into an official RFI Club?  Here’s how: http://en.rfi.fr/culture/20141218-how-form-official-rfi-listeners-club

This week’s quiz:On 21April, I asked you a question about the Zoological Society of London’s “Edge of Existence”  endangered species list.

The “Edge of Existence” list, as its name suggests, looks at the evolutionary trees of animals to determine which are most evolutionary distinctive – the ones on the “edge”, the rarest – and what I find rather sad – the “only”.

There was a weird and wonderful turtle from Australia on the list. They have what looks like a green mohawk on their heads – it’s actually algae, but it does look like hair. These turtles can breathe underwater using specialized glands in their reproductive organs. Yes, you read that right – its reproductive organs - which I suppose comes in really handy when you want to stay underwater for a long time, for this green haired turtle can do just that for up to 72 hours. 

You were to send in the name of this turtle.

The answer is:the Mary River turtle.  The Mary River turtle is the only species in its genus. It diverged from all other living species around 40 million years ago.

The winners are: Two RFI Listeners Club members: Kristopher Arens from Creswell, Oregon in the U-S and Samuel Francis from St Catherine in Jamaica. There’s Shahzad Shabbir, the president of the Pak France International Listeners Club in Sahiwal, Pakistan; Joseph Balikuddembe from Kampala, Uganda, and Tangeni Hahnherotha Onesmus from Windhoek, Namibia, who sent his answer via text to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. You can do that too, at + 33  6 31  12  96  82 (be sure you include your postal mailing address in your text).

Congratulations winners!

Here is the text for Njim Uddin's "My Ordinary Hero" essay on today's program.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: Rimsky-Korsakov: “The Flight of the Bumblebee”; “Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na Ase Tobe Ekla Cholo Re” from the “Rabindra Sangeet” by Rabindranath Tagore, performed by Sraboni Sen.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 13 August to enter this week's quiz. The winners will be announced on the 18 August program. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one,your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here:

 http://www.english.rfi.fr/culture/20141218-sound-kitchen-essay-contests

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here:

http://www.english.rfi.fr/culture/20141218-how-form-official-rfi-listeners-club

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