Nine To Noon for Wednesday 19 May 2021

 

09:05 From river to lake to river: What to do with the silt of Lake Dunstan

Lake Dunstan was formed from the Clutha River after the completion of the Clyde Dam in 1992 - but it's slowly turning back into a river, leaving the community of Cromwell with a sludgy mess. Silt that would have washed through from the Kawarau River has nowhere to go, and is mounting up on the town's lake banks. The lake is helping to fuel the growth of invasive weed lagarosiphon, and the built-up sludge and weed is impacting on boaties and swimmers. The job of mitigating some of the effects of the silt falls to Contact Energy as the Clyde Dam operator. Could more be done? Kathryn talks to Boyd Brinsdon, head of hydro generation at Contact and Duncan Faulkner is project manager for the Lake Dunstan Charitable Trust Board. 

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09:20 Shaking up earthquake engineering

Award-winning structural engineer and designer of low-cost technology to make buildings more resilient in earthquakes, Dr Ashkan Hashemi has developed a means of absorbing and dissipating seismic energy. These "shock absorbers" are the result of Dr Hashemi's PhD research, which he then persuaded industry to put into action.  They've already been integrated in twelve new buildings in New Zealand and the US, including Nelson airport's new terminal and a Hutt Valley health club. Dr Hashemi is a lecturer in structural and earthquake engineering at the University of Auckland.  He speaks with Kathryn Ryan.

09:45 Australia correspondent Annika Smethurst

Annika joins Kathryn to look at the speed of the Covid vaccine rollout and whether it might get Australians travelling sooner, as business complains about the borders being closed through to 2022. The head of Virgin told the government borders should open "even if some people will die". And there's pressure on the government to organise more repatriation flights from India after a half-full flight returned last week.

10:05 Craig Piggott: From space rockets to 'cowgorithms'

You've heard of algorithms, but how about a herd farmed by "cowgorithms"? Kiwi agri-tech company Halter created electronic collars that use sound and vibration to guide and contain individual cows without the need for fences. The cowgorithm learns the animal's behaviour and translates the human intentions into signals it can understand. Halter has about 60 employees - and a new $32m dollar investment will allow for expansion by another 115. Halter's founder and CEO Craig Piggott dreamed up the idea while he was working as a mechanical engineer for Peter Beck at Rocket Lab. He joins Kathryn to explain how the technology is being deployed to a new farm in the Waikato region every couple of weeks.

10:35 Book review: Unsheltered by Clare Moleta

Luke Finnegan reviews Unsheltered by Clare Moleta, published by Simon and Schuster

10:45 The Reading

Five of the Family, part three. Written by David Hill, read by Alison Quigan.

11:05 Music with Charlotte Ryan

Music 101 host Charlotte Ryan joins Kathryn to share a new single from Crowded House's new album, one from St Vincent's new album and play a tune from Mara TK - son of legendary musician Bill TK Senior.

11:30 Garphill Games: From hobby to internationally acclaimed board game company  

What started as a hobby for Shem Phillips has flourished into an internationally acclaimed board-game company called Garphill Games.  The Kapiti-based creator is behind two award-winning historical series; the West Kingdom and the North Sea trilogies, plus a raft of other games spanning from the construction of Hadrian's Wall to the distant planet of Ryh. Garphill Games is a small outfit - with the help of co-designer Sam Macdonald, Shem designs, develops, publishes and markets the games himself. Garphill Games has picked up multiple awards and three of its games are currently ranked in the world's top 100 board games. Founder and owner Shem Phillips speaks with Kathryn Ryan. 

11:45 Intestine breathing, all teeth no bite and exotic ants in Denmark

Science commentator Siouxsie Wiles joins Kathryn to look at research out of Japan that found mammals can use their intestines to help them breathe, an analysis of the skull and teeth of the extinct sabre-toothed predator Thylacosmilus found it wasn't so scary and a citizen science project that helped uncover an exotic ant species in Denmark.

Associate Professor Dr Siouxsie Wiles is the head of Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland.

 

 

Music played in this show

Title:  Watercolours
Artist: Allysha Joy 
Broadcast time: 9:30am

Title: Hand Over My Heart
Artist: The Secret Sisters
Broadcast time: 10:05am

Title: Phoenix Foundation Ft. Fazer Daze
Artist: Beside Yourself
Broadcast time: 10:38am

Title: The Kiss of Venus
Artist:Dominic Fike
Broadcast time: 10:45am