Nine To Noon for Friday 9 August 2019

 

 

 

09:05 Fox rubbish spill: how much closer to pristine?

Organised volunteers are going home on the West Coast but how close is it to being returned to a pristine environment?  'Operation Tidy Fox' comes to an end on Sunday, following a devastating rubbish spill in March. Over 850 volunteers, plus NZDF staff and DOC workers have removed more than 13,000 bags of rubbish from the Fox and Cook Rivers and South Westland's coastline. Kathryn talks to DOC's Director General Lou Sanson and acting chairman of the West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board Keith Morfett.

09:20 Opt-out: A new approach to closing the gender gap

The question of how to improve women's representation in senior positions is a tricky one, but could there be a simple way to smash the glass ceiling? New Zealand ranked 33 out of 35 countries in a survey by professional services firm Grant Thornton into the number of women in senior management roles. Just 18 per cent of women held the top jobs. Lata Gangadharan is an experimental economist at Monash University in Melbourne and believes an opt-out mechanism - rather than the norm where people put their hands up for roles - could help improve diversity and women's representation in the workforce.

09:45 Asia correspondent - Hong Kong violence escalates

Ed White reports from Asia, where violence and unrest continues to escalate in Hong Kong as fears rise over a potential crackdown from China.  And in India, Jammu and Kashmir are on lockdown after the Indian government has acted to scrap special constitutional status.
Ed White is a correspondent for the Financial Times, based in Seoul. 

10:05  Simon Barnard: criminal slang from a convict nerd

Melbourne based writer Simon Barnard's new book James Hardy Vaux's 1819 Dictionary of Criminal Slang - and other impolite terms as used by the convicts of the British Colonies of Australia reproduces Australia's first dictionary, written by the three-times transported convict.  It gives an insight into the lives of Australia's criminals and the words they used to describe and hide their crimes - many of which have survived into everyday language. It soon became a bestseller among "cross coves" (criminals) and "square coves" (honest folk) alike.  Now, on the 200-year anniversary of its publication, this new edition presents Vaux's original dictionary entries, alongside Simon's tales of convicts' lives and crimes.  Simon tells Kathryn Ryan how he is a self confessed convict nerd and collector of colonial artifacts. 

10:35 Book review - Out of Our Minds by Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Tilly Lloyd of Unity Books reviews Out of Our Minds: What We Think and How We Came to Think It by Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Published by Oneworld Publications.

In our remarkable capacity to refashion the world from the visions in our minds, humans stand alone. Fernández-Armesto reconstructs our Paleolithic ancestors to reveal their subtle and profound thinking. Science, politics, religion, culture, philosophy and history are filtered through modern cognitive science to give us a tantalising glimpse into the evolution of thought - where it came from, how it is now, and where it could go. A masterful paean to the human imagination from a wonderfully elegant thinker.

10:45 The Reading

Extraction by Charlotte Forrester told by Catherine Zulve

11:05 Music reviewer Jeremy Taylor - electro-pop trio a-ha

Jeremy Taylor from SlowBoat Records is going full noise on 80's Norwegian electro-pop trio a-ha, who tour NZ in March for the first time ever. A lifelong fan, Jeremy is very excited, and curates a selection of their catalogue since their 80's heyday.

11:30 Sports commentator Brendan Telfer - All Blacks-Wallabies preview

Brendan looks ahead to tomorrow night's trans-Tasman rugby clash in Perth. Also what has happened to golfer, Lydia Ko's form?.

11:45 The week that was - snacking by food deliverers

Comedians James Elliott and Justine Smith chew over the findings of a US food delivery survey, which reveals one in four takeaway food drivers admit to helping themselves to something to eat, before drop-off.