Afternoons for Wednesday 17 December 2014

1:10 Best song ever written

Catch A Falling Star - Perry Como.  Nominated by Adrienne Baigent. 

1:20 Music Trivia game 

No clues available here.  Sorry. 

2:10 NASA Life on Mars - Joy Crisp

Is there life on Mars? It's a question asked time and time again. And NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover may be a step closer to answering the question. The rover has measured a tenfold spike in plumes of methane. They have been detected in a small area in the so called Gale Crater, that's the 154 kilometre wide crater Curiosity has been exploring. And it's the concentrated nature of the methane which has scientists wondering about the possibility of a life form being responsible.

2.20 Word of the year 2014 - Peter Sokolowski

The word 'culture' has been named the 2014 word of the year. Merriam-Webster based its pick on significant increases in lookups this year on its website Merriam-Webster.com. Peter Sokolowski is the Editor at Large at Merriam-Webster based in Massachusetts.

2:30 NZ Reading

Peter Hambleton reads the eighth part of  'How To Catch A Cricket Match'  by Harry Ricketts.

2:45 Feature album

'High Hopes' - Bruce Springsteen (2014).

3:10 Online with Hamish MacEwan 

Google releases its list of the year's most popular searches

Star Trek ahead of its time (again)

New York City libraries soon will let patrons 'check out the Internet'

An app to help you sleep

British spies looking for younger spies   

Don't count AM/FM radio out just yet

3:30 50 Years of Whaling - Lisa Thompson

As the 50th anniversary marking the end whaling in New Zealand waters approaches, Peter Perano reflects on what it was like to be a third generation Marlborough whaler.  New Zealand Society

3:45 The Panel Pre-Show with Zoe George, Jim Mora, Joe Bennett and Matt Lowrie.