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Nights for Thursday 22 September 2016

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Jared Davidson

Jared Davidson Photo: Supplied

7:12 Domestic Postal Censorship in WW1

Not many people know that domestic postal censorship existed - yet from the outbreak of the First World War until November 1920, the private letters of mothers, lovers, internees and workmates were subject to a strict censorship. A team of diligent readers in post offices around the country poured over 1.2 million letters. In some cases, people were arrested and deported because of their private thoughts, or mail was used to hunt down objectors hiding in the bush. We talk to Jared Davidson who is currently completing a book on the topic.

Chief Post Office Mailroom, Wellington 1920. AAME 8106 W5603 Box 126, Archives New Zealand

Censorship of correspondence, ‘Secret Registry: Confidential Series’. AD10, Archives New Zealand.

Colonel Gibbon. S P Andrew Ltd: Portrait negatives. Ref: 1/1-013982-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.

Censorship of correspondence, Frank Lonnigan to D Nugent, April 1918 - May 1919. AD10 Box 10/ 19/4, Archives New Zealand.

7:35 New Horizons

Ear Candy - William Dart tastes a number of examples of the musical equivalent of sugar. Unlike food though, there are no health downsides here. We feature tracks from Linda Thompson, The High Llamas, Billy Preston and Syreeta, and The Lonely Heartstring Band among others.

8:12 Nights' Culture - Video Games

Andrew Todd on the latest innovations and uses of Virtual Reality.

8:30 Window on the World

Blind Man #2 - Peter White explores the American capital, Washington DC, through the sounds of the city. He finds a city struggling to develop a transport system, which properly caters for all communities and he explores the gulf between the well off and those living hard at heel. He is forced to navigate a strange environment without being able to see his way around: "Having been born blind, I've always travelled blind - and for me, sightseeing is more a case of 'sound-hearing."

9:07 Our Changing World

How is the air up there? -Households in Rangiora are being wired up, inside and out, with small devices to measure wood smoke. Households in Rangiora are being wired up, inside and out, with small devices to measure wood smoke. Katy Gosset joins NIWA's Ian Longley in the town and discovers that, in future, communities will be able to use these devices to monitor their own air pollution levels.

Bad air is bad for health - Air pollution is the world's leading environmental risk factor for disease, killing over 7 million people each year. Much of the risk comes from indoor pollutants such as smoke from cooking fires. While New Zealand has relatively clean air public health researchers Caroline Shaw and Simon Hales, from the University of Otago Wellington, tell Alison Ballance that long term exposure to fine particles causes about 1000 premature deaths each year.

9:30 This Way Up

Simon Morton heads to Christchurch to see the Hivemind system in action. It's being used to monitor beehives remotely so beekeepers can make sure their bees are staying healthy and producing honey. Plus he tests the best line trimmers - or weed eaters- on the market.

10:17 Late Edition

A round up of today's RNZ News and feature interviews as well as Date Line Pacific from RNZ International.

11:07 Music 101 pocket edition

Yadana Saw pays a visit to up and coming rap act Name UL, the M101 team examine the new frontier of wireless headphones and Trevor Reekie talks about the uncensored history of punk with Legs McNeil.