Nine To Noon for Wednesday 14 August 2024

09:05 National Poisons Centre on meth-contaminated lollies

Further testing is being done today on methamphetamine-contaminated lollies donated to the Auckland City Mission. The Mission was alerted yesterday by someone who said the Rinda pineapple flavoured lollies tasted 'funny'. The Drug Foundation's chief executive Sarah Helm says the sweet it tested contained potentially lethal doses of meth. She says there could be up to 300 doses of meth in each lolly. Paddy Gower speaks with the Deputy Director of the National Poison Centre, Dr Bill Boroughf.

09:20 Helping Māori and Pacific students gain University Entrance

A new study has identified why some schools are leading the way with University entrance success for Māori and Pacific teenagers. Students, their whanau, teachers, and board of trustee members were among those spoken to for the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) report. Senior Researcher and one of the report authors Esther Smaill says it is clear that the system is not equitable for Maori and Pacific students, and in most cases they get UE at half the rate as other students. Dr Smaill describes what works, and says it is totally replicable across other schools.

09:35 Homegrown app helps spot common visual condition in children 

An app created by a Massey University researcher which simplifies the diagnosis of a common visual disorder is exploding in international popularity. Cerebral Visual Impairment is a condition where brain has trouble processing vision, affecting 3.4 per cent of children - that's one child in every classroom in New Zealand. The Austin Assessment app is a simple picture-matching game which can quickly pick up signs of CVI in children. It's been downloaded in 37 countries since it was launched in January. Its creator Nicola McDowell dealt with CVI as a teenager, and is hoping it's use will lead to formal diagnoses for the thousands of children who are currently falling through the cracks.

09:45 Australia correspondent Karen Middleton

Police in far North Queensland say a young New Zealander was piloting the helicopter which crashed into the in tourist strip of the tropical holiday city of Cairns. Blake Wilson worked for the Nautilus company that owned the helicopter. He had a commercial licence to fly in New Zealand, but not in Australia. Mr Blake died in the crash.

Karen Middleton is Political Editor of the Guardian Australia

10:05 Eric Beecher on Newscorp and "The Men Who Killed the News"

Eric Beecher is a journalist, editor and media owner who has written an excoriating new book about his experiences working as an editor for Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp, and more generally about the danger of media moguls and the power they wield. Eric Beecher was hired by Rupert Murdoch as editor of the Melbourne newspaper The Herald. He describes News Corporation as "a kind of medieval fiefdom where we all lived in the shadow of a proprietor whose predilections - commercial, editorial, ideological, personal, political, economic, philosophical, racial, sociological - were insinuated into every important decision and direction we took." Years later Eric Beecher was sued for defamation by Lachlan Murdoch - who ultimately dropped the case. His book is The Men Who Killed the News: The inside story of how media moguls abused their power, manipulated the truth, and distorted democracy.

10:35 Book review: The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya 

Jenna Todd of Time Out Bookstore reviews The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya published by Orion Publishing    

10:45 Around the motu : Robin Martin in Taranaki

What the latest probe into pollution at the former Dow chemical plant in Paritūtū has revealed and the Mayor's reaction. And  New Plymouth District Council is in the process of a restructure aimed at saving $10m a year at the cost of more than 200 jobs.

11:05 Music with Ian Chapman: Remembering Martin Phillipps

Music correspondent Ian Chapman remembers his friend Martin Phillipps, front man for The Chills, and credited with the creation of the Dunedin sound. Ian plays artists and tracks that influenced Martin and that fed his information and creativity. 

Ian Chapman is honorary Senior Research Fellow in Music at the University of Otago. 

11:25 The venison boom of the 70s

David Miller remembers a time when if he shot and delivered a deer to buyers he'd rake in more than a week's pay.  Deer were introduced in the mid 19th century for hunting by English and Scottish immigrants, before being declared a pest. David says after an export market was discovered in the 70s, he and other hunters around the country realised they could make good money selling to packhouses. He's recounted some of his memories as a foot hunter in those days in a new book 'Wow' A Dollar Pound.

11:45 Science: Landmark HIV trial, 'dark oxygen', paper cut physics

Science communicator Allan Blackman looks at a trial that's been labelled a "game-changer" in HIV prevention. It showed a twice-yearly injection of antiviral drug lenacapavir prevented the contraction of HIV in more than 2000 African women. Scientists had long thought the depths of the Pacific Ocean were a no-light - and therefore no plant-producing oxygen -  zone. But four km down, they found polymetallic nodules that make "dark oxygen". And physicists have worked out which paper is the worst for shredding your fingers.

Allan Blackman is a Professor of Chemistry, School of Science, Auckland University of Technology