A 24-hour recording of Radio New Zealand National. The following rundown is sourced from the broadcaster’s website. Note some overseas/copyright restricted items may not appear in the supplied rundown:
23 April 2015
===12:04 AM. | All Night Programme===
=DESCRIPTION=
Including: 12:05 Music after Midnight; 12:30 One in Five (RNZ); 1:05 Discovery (BBC); 2:05 The Thursday Feature (RNZ); 3:05 Tu, by Patricia Grace (F, RNZ); 3:30 NZ Books (RNZ); 5:10 Witness (BBC)
===6:00 AM. | Morning Report===
=DESCRIPTION=
Radio New Zealand's three-hour breakfast news show with news and interviews, bulletins on the hour and half-hour
=AUDIO=
06:00
Top Stories for Thursday 23 April 2015
BODY:
Women MPs weigh in, as ponytailgate continues to gather momentum. This hour, the PR pitfalls and the parliamentary implications. As foreign buyers are encouraged to invest in Auckland's property market -- we ask if it's salesmanship or scaremongering, the company doing the advertising responds to its critics and it's one hundred years on Saturday since New Zealand troops began landing on Gallipoli.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 28'57"
06:06
Sports News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'06"
06:10
Judith Collins back's PM's handling of complaint
BODY:
The Prime Minister's been accused of abusing his power and embarrassing the nation.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: ponytail, John Key
Duration: 2'13"
06:17
Pacific News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
The latest from the Pacific region
Topics: Pacific
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'48"
06:21
College students build Gallipoli into a video game
BODY:
Dozens of Auckland teenagers have spent thousands of hours painstakingly recreating a virtual 1915 Gallipoli.
Topics: history
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: WW1, Anzac, Gallipoli
Duration: 3'03"
06:24
Morning Rural News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
News from the rural and farming sector.
Topics: rural, farming
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 4'12"
06:28
Te Manu Korihi News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
Tūwharetoa is purchasing a large amount of land from the Department of Corrections, in a buy-to-lease deal. The Waitangi Tribunal will have to cut through arguments over when to launch the second stage of hearings into fresh water and geothermal resources. The Ministry for Primary Industries is supporting a plan to help Māori get the most out of their undeveloped land. The Māori Anzac memorial service in Whanganui will be held at a different venue this year because the cenotaph that's being restored at Pākaitore, Moutoa Gardens won't be ready in time.
Topics: te ao Maori
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 3'30"
06:41
Women's Council say Key is downplaying of hair-pulling
BODY:
The National Council of Women is disappointed the Prime Minister is downplaying his repeated pulling of an Auckland waitress' hair.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: ponytail, John Key
Duration: 2'14"
06:49
Opus International to close three Aust. offices, cut 27 jobs
BODY:
Opus International Consultants is closing offices and cutting staff across the Tasman as difficult overseas trading conditions bite in Canada and Australia.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: Opus International Consultants
Duration: 2'24"
06:51
Baches, boats and BMWs for baby boomers
BODY:
Baby boomer business owners are more concerned about increasing their leisure time, than making their companies more productive.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: baby boomers, productivity
Duration: 3'10"
06:55
Oravida sells NZ water to China
BODY:
Oravida is banking on bottled New Zealand water being the next big thing in China.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: Oravida
Duration: 1'00"
06:58
Property for Industry buys Manukau site
BODY:
Property for Industry has bought a site in Manukau for just over 18 million dollars.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: Property for Industry
Duration: 19"
06:58
Morning markets for 23 April 2015
BODY:
Wall Street is up after news about Visa's possible entry into the Chinese domestic market.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: markets
Duration: 58"
07:07
Sports News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'05"
07:11
Prime Minister embarrasses nation with hair pulling
BODY:
The Prime Minister's been accused of abusing his power and embarrassing the nation for repeatedly pulling an Auckland waitress's hair
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: ponytail, John Key
Duration: 4'40"
07:15
Political scientist and former MP comment on ponytailgate
BODY:
Some members of the public spoken to by Radio New Zealand did not think Mr Key had done anything wrong. Marilyn Waring and Claire Robinson also discuss this with Kim Hill.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: ponytail, John Key
Duration: 8'12"
07:25
Foreign buyers of new apartments doing New Zealanders a favour
BODY:
An advertisement has been playing on a classic hits radio station in Singapore, urging investors to take advantage of the booming Auckland property market.
Topics: housing
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: All Property Solutions
Duration: 3'20"
07:28
Akl Museum prepares for 1000's at anniversary Dawn Service
BODY:
In two days time, the Auckland War Memorial Museum will host tens of thousands of people for the country's biggest Dawn Service.
Topics: history, defence force
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: WW1, Anzac
Duration: 3'36"
07:35
French police arrest suspect allegedly planning church attacks
BODY:
Police in France have arrested a student suspected of planning attacks on churchgoers.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: France, terrorism
Duration: 4'19"
07:40
Police failings highlighted at Livingstone inquest
BODY:
The second day of a hearing into the shooting of two Dunedin children has heard of a series of failures by the police to follow up on information that could have saved their lives.
Topics: crime
Regions: Otago
Tags: inquest, Edward Livingstone
Duration: 4'12"
07:44
Standoff between Akl Council and port could break next week
BODY:
The end to a three-week standoff between the Auckland Council and its port company could be in sight.
Topics: transport
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: Ports of Auckland, wharf extentions
Duration: 2'42"
07:49
Save the Children in Sicily to witness more migrant rescues
BODY:
The calls are growing louder for Europe to take more responsibility for the unfolding migrant crisis on the Mediterranean Sea.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: EU, migrant crisis, Italy
Duration: 3'52"
07:53
The countdown continues to ANZAC Day commermorations
BODY:
In one of the many moving Gallipoli stories we're covering this week, the man who led New Zealand troops in the first Anzac Day service - in 1916 - was also one whose way of fighting the Turkish soldiers bore the most Kiwi of hallmarks.
Topics: history
Regions:
Tags: WW1, Anzac
Duration: 4'39"
07:58
Rehearsals overnight at Chunuk Bair
BODY:
And live to Gallipoli now, where a dress rehearsal for Saturday's centenary service has been held at Chunuk Bair.
EXTENDED BODY:
And live to Gallipoli now, where a dress rehearsal for Saturday's centenary service has been held at Chunuk Bair. Susie Ferguson reports.
More about the tattooed bugle
Topics: history
Regions:
Tags: WW1, Anzac, Gallipoli
Duration: 2'12"
08:07
Sports News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'06"
08:10
Radio NZ's political editor comments
BODY:
The Prime Minister, John Key, is due to join world leaders in Turkey tonight for a peace summit and to attend Saturday's Anzac centenary commemorations at Gallipoli.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: ponytail, John Key
Duration: 5'40"
08:17
Hair pulling fits govt definition of workplace bullying
BODY:
Some commentators have compared Mr Key's behaviour with the actions of Roger Sutton, who resigned as head of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority last year.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: ponytail, John Key
Duration: 8'26"
08:25
New blog from Alk waitress about ponytail complaint
BODY:
In latest developments in this story a second blog has been published by the waitress at the centre of the story. In the blog she questions coverage of her story in this morning's New Zealand Herald.
Topics: politics
Regions:
Tags: ponytail, John Key
Duration: 23"
08:29
Pacific communities vent frustration
BODY:
Members of Auckland's Pacific communities have vented their frustration at council organisations, saying they're not having enough input into their annual Pasifika cultural festival.
Topics: Pacific
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: Pasifika cultural festival
Duration: 4'50"
08:34
Markets Update for 23 April 2015
BODY:
A brief update of movements in the financial sector.
Topics: business, economy
Regions:
Tags: markets
Duration: 58"
08:39
Firewood shortage to hit Wellington hard this winter
BODY:
The heat has gone on the Greater Wellington Regional Council as the region faces a major shortfall in firewood, so close to winter,
Topics: business
Regions: Wellington Region
Tags: firewood
Duration: 3'07"
08:42
Scientists investigate gas flares under the ocean
BODY:
Niwa scientists are trying to find out whether methane emerging from the seafloor off the Gisborne coast is contributing to climate change
Topics: science, environment
Regions: East Coast
Tags: methane, seafloor
Duration: 3'43"
08:46
Te Manu Korihi News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
The Waitangi Tribunal will have to cut through arguments over when to launch the second stage of hearings into fresh water and geothermal resources. Tūwharetoa is purchasing a large amount of land from the Department of Corrections, in a buy-to-lease deal. The Ministry for Primary Industries is supporting a plan to help Māori get the most out of their undeveloped land. The Māori Anzac memorial service in Whanganui will be held at a different venue this year because the cenotaph that's being restored at Pākaitore, Moutoa Gardens won't be ready in time.
Topics: te ao Maori
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 3'26"
08:50
Son of most decorated Gallipoli survivor hears father's voice
BODY:
For the son of a Gallipoli veteran in Nelson, this year's anniversary holds extra poignancy.
Topics: history
Regions: Nelson Region
Tags: WW1, Anzac
Duration: 5'00"
08:55
Nurses unsung heroes of WW1
BODY:
Some of the unsung heroes of Gallipoli, were the New Zealand nurses who worked on hospital ships and in field hospitals.
Topics: history
Regions:
Tags: WW!, Anzac
Duration: 3'57"
=SHOW NOTES=
===9:06 AM. | Nine To Noon===
=DESCRIPTION=
Current affairs and topics of interest, including: 10:45 The Reading: The Godley Letters, read by Ginette McDonald and Sam Neill (9 of 10, RNZ)
=AUDIO=
09:08
Targetting of offshore investors to buy property in Auckland
BODY:
An advertising campaign has been running in Singapore, encouraging investors to buy apartments or houses in auckland, because they will get high rent returns - which it says is around half a weeks paypacket for most people. Yi Wei Lowndes is an Auckland real estate agent with Barfoot and Thompson who advertises properties directly to Chinese buyer online. Mark Graham, of the NZ Building Guide, Design Guide, Bob the Builder and now Yiju magazine targetted at Chinese investors. Bernard Hickey - Financial Commentator, interest.co.nz, and the editor of Hive News.
Topics: housing, economy
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: foreign investment, foreign ownership, real estate
Duration: 28'23"
09:37
Nigeria's new president's pledge to combat Boko Haram
BODY:
Amnesty International Nigeria Researcher Daniel Eyre.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: Nigeria, Boko Haram
Duration: 6'41"
09:44
Anzac parade
BODY:
Just over one hundred years later, a major parade is planned for Wellington tomorrow as part of Anzac day commemorations. Military personnel will join veterans and their descendants, will join the procession which has been eight months in the planning. It will feature vintage vehicles, a biplane flyover, a horse-drawn gun carriage and one hundred extras wearing world war one military uniforms. The vehicles and uniforms come from the collection of Sir Peter Jackson. Kathryn Ryan speaks to event organizer Jamie Wilson, who oversaw the premieres of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.
Topics: history
Regions: Wellington Region
Tags: WW1, Anzac, parade
Duration: 7'55"
09:52
UK Correspondent Jon Dennis
BODY:
General election campaign: Tories warn of Scottish Nationalists threat, Lord Janner 'unable to stand trial' over paedophile allegations, Iraq war inquiry report delayed until 2016.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags: UK
Duration: 7'48"
10:10
Why more NZ women, particularly Maori are being jailed
BODY:
Dr Tracey McIntosh is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland. She has been looking at the experience of young Maori girls and women in prison and says greater investment in the social needs of young New Zealanders needs to be a priority in order to help to reduce our prison populations. She has done extensive research on the incarceration of both male and female prisoners (particularly of indigenous peoples), and has found many common threads including the state as a parent morphing into the state as a prison warden. Dr McIntosh who is of Tuhoe descent is also the Director of New Zealand's Maori Centre of Research Excellence. In 2012 she was the co-chair of the Children's Commissioner's Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty and she sits on a number of governance boards particularly in the area of social harm reduction, Dr McIntosh also teaches a creative writing course in Auckland Women's Prison.
EXTENDED BODY:
Dr Tracey McIntosh is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland. She has been looking at the experience of young Maori girls and women in prison and says greater investment in the social needs of young New Zealanders needs to be a priority in order to help to reduce our prison populations.
She has done extensive research on the incarceration of both male and female prisoners (particularly of indigenous peoples), and has found many common threads including 'the state as a parent' morphing into 'the state as a prison warden'.
Dr Tracey McIntosh talks to Kathryn Ryan.
Dr McIntosh, who is of Tūhoe descent, is also the Director of New Zealand's Māori Centre of Research Excellence. In 2012 she was the co-chair of the Children's Commissioner's Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty and she sits on a number of governance boards particularly in the area of social harm reduction, Dr McIntosh also teaches a creative writing course in Auckland Women's Prison.
Link: Maramatanga
Topics: crime, law
Regions:
Tags: Dr Tracey McIntosh, prison, women in prison, sociologist, jail
Duration: 32'42"
10:43
Book review: 'A Reunion of Ghosts' by Judith Claire Mitchell
BODY:
Published by Fourth Estate. Reviewed by Elisabeth Easther.
Topics: books
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 3'41"
11:07
New technology with Sarah Putt
BODY:
Mobilegeddon, social media cleansing app, farewell to CallPllus founders who did a lot for competition.
Topics: technology
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 11'09"
11:23
Parenting with Joseph Driessen
BODY:
Joseph Driessen is an education consultant and parenting commentator.
EXTENDED BODY:
Guiding children as they navigate tough times and disappointments in life is a big job for many parents, especially if their children struggle with self-esteem.
Education consultant and parenting commentator Joseph Dreissen says there are four things a child needs to learn to deal with the realities of life.
The most important, he says, is belief in his or her own strengths.
He discussed these strategies with Kathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon.
Topics: education, life and society
Regions:
Tags: parenting, Joseph Dreissen
Duration: 25'53"
11:52
Film review with Dan Slevin
BODY:
Dan reviews Samba, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Topics: arts
Regions:
Tags: film, movies
Duration: 7'24"
=SHOW NOTES=
09:05 Targetting of offshore investors to buy property in Auckland
An advertising campaign has been running in Singapore, encouraging investors to buy apartments or houses in auckland, because they will get high rent returns - which it says is around half a weeks paypacket for most people. Yi Wei Lowndes is an Auckland real estate agent with Barfoot and Thompson who advertises properties directly to Chinese buyers online. Mark Graham, of the NZ Building Guide, Design Guide, Bob the Builder and now Yiju magazine targetted at Chinese investors. Bernard Hickey, Financial Commentator, interest.co.nz, and the editor of Hive News.
09:30 Nigeria's new president's pledge to combat Boko Haram
Nigeria's Presidential Elect, Muhammudu Buhari's op ed on defeating Boko Haram.
09:40 Anzac parade for Wellington
A major parade is planned for Wellington tomorrow as part of Anzac day commemorations. Military personnel will join veterans and their descendants, will join the procession which has been eight months in the planning. It will feature vintage vehicles, a biplane flyover, a horse-drawn gun carriage and one hundred extras wearing World War One military uniforms. The vehicles and uniforms come from the collection of Sir Peter Jackson. The event organiser is Jamie Wilson.
Crowd at a farewell procession for World War 1 troops, Manners Street, Wellington, 1915. Image: City Archives, Wellington City Council
09:45 UK Correspondent Jon Dennis
General election campaign: Tories warn of Scottish Nationalists threat, Lord Janner 'unable to stand trial' over paedophile allegations, Iraq war inquiry report delayed until 2016.
10:05 Why more NZ women, particularly Maori are being jailed
Dr Tracey McIntosh is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland. She has been looking at the experience of young Maori girls and women in prison and says greater investment in the social needs of young New Zealanders needs to be a priority in order to help to reduce our prison populations. She has done extensive research on the incarceration of both male and female prisoners (particularly of indigenous peoples), and has found many common threads including the state as a parent morphing into the state as a prison warden. Dr McIntosh who is of Tūhoe descent is also the Director of New Zealand's Māori Centre of Research Excellence. In 2012 she was the co-chair of the Children's Commissioner's Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty and she sits on a number of governance boards particularly in the area of social harm reduction, Dr McIntosh also teaches a creative writing course in Auckland Women's Prison.
Links:
Maramatanga
10:30 Book review: 'A Reunion of Ghosts' by Judith Claire Mitchell
Published by Fourth Estate. Reviewed by Elisabeth Easther.
10:45 The Reading: The Godley Letters
Correspondence between Major General Godley and Lady Louisa Godley May to August 1915. Edited and arranged by Jane Tolerton. Read by Ginette McDonald and Sam Neill (9 of 10, RNZ).
11:05 New technology with Sarah Putt
Mobilegeddon, social media cleansing app, farewell to CallPllus founders who did a lot for competition.
11:30 Parenting with Joseph Driessen
Joseph Driessen is an education consultant and parenting commentator.
11:45 Film review with Dan Slevin
Dan reviews Samba, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
=PLAYLIST=
Artist: Melody Gardot
Song: Preacherman
Composer: Gardot
Album: Currency Of Man
Label: Universal
Broadcast time: 10:05am
Artist: SJD
Song: Unplugged
Composer: Donnelly
Album: Saint John Divine
Label: Roundtripmars
Broadcast time: 11:19am
Artist: The The
Song: The Beat(en) Generation
Composer: Johnson
Album: Mind Bomb
Label: Inhouse
Broadcast time: 11:49am
===Noon | Midday Report===
=DESCRIPTION=
Radio New Zealand news, followed by updates and reports until 1.00pm, including: 12:16 Business News 12:26 Sport 12:34 Rural News 12:43 Worldwatch
=AUDIO=
12:00
Midday News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
The Prime Minister may be investigated by the Human Rights Commission. Earthquakes rock central New Zealand.
Topics: politics, environment
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 15'22"
12:17
Transpower can recover some but not all of grid cost overruns
BODY:
Transpower will be able to charge customers more to recover some, but not all, of the cost overruns on its recently completed North Island Grid Upgrade Project.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: Transpower, electricity
Duration: 1'11"
12:18
Auckland boost DNZ's portfolio by $33m
BODY:
Auckland's strong property market has given DNZ Property Fund's portfolio a near 33-million-dollar boost, in first three months of this year.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: real estate
Duration: 49"
12:19
Visitor arrivals hit a March high, migration at annual high
BODY:
Vistor arrivals have hit new highs, helped by the Cricket World Cup.
Topics: refugees and migrants
Regions:
Tags: migration
Duration: 47"
12:20
Markets Disciplinary Tribunal hears twice as many cases in 2014
BODY:
The NZX has doubled the number of cases it's refererred to the Markets Disciplinary Tribunal in the past year.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 59"
12:21
Pushpay raised $13.8m for US growth
BODY:
Pushpay is seeking to raise just under 14-million-dollars to help pay for its expansion in the United States.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags: Pushpay
Duration: 1'03"
12:21
Goldman Sachs reports loss
BODY:
Goldman Sachs's New Zealand arm has reported an annual loss of nearly 3-million dollars.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 26"
12:23
Midday Markets for 23 April 2015
BODY:
For the latest from the markets we're joined by Brad Gordon at Macquarie Private Wealth.
Topics: business
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 3'13"
12:26
Midday Sports News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
New Zealand's rugby league coach rules Benji Marshall out of next month's Anzac test.
Topics: sport
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 2'39"
12:32
Long Range Weather Forecast for 23 April 2015
BODY:
Long Range Weather Forecast for 23 April 2015.
Topics: weather
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 3'43"
12:35
Midday Rural News for 23 April 2015
BODY:
News from the rural and farming sectors.
Topics: rural
Regions:
Tags: farming
Duration: 7'18"
=SHOW NOTES=
===1:06 PM. | Afternoons===
=DESCRIPTION=
Information and debate, people and places around NZ
=AUDIO=
13:08
Your Song - Jungle Drum
BODY:
Jungle Drum by Emiliana Torrini. Chosen by Iris Richter of Auckland
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 10'18"
13:20
New Zealand A to Z - Stargazers
BODY:
Alan Gilmore from the Mt John Observatory in Tekapo Jennie McCormack from Farm Cove Observatory in Auckland Ash Pennell, President of Dunedin Astronomical Society, the oldest star-gazing society in New Zealand Stu Parker, a dairy farmer from Canterbury with a world class record for finding exploding stars
Topics: life and society, science
Regions:
Tags: astronomy
Duration: 41'04"
14:08
100 year old Biscuit - Bruce Gatward-Cook
BODY:
Bruce Gatward-Cook talks about the not-so-tasty and very hard biscuit his grandfather brought back from WW1
EXTENDED BODY:
Bruce Gatward-Cook talks about the not-so-tasty and very hard biscuit his grandfather brought back from WW1.
Topics: defence force, life and society
Regions:
Tags: Anzac, WW1
Duration: 7'53"
14:15
Jody Direen
BODY:
The Wanaka singer-songwriter Jody Direen is described as one of the hardest working musicians in the business today - and that hard work is starting to pay off with big gigs and award nominations rolling in.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 13'47"
14:45
Feature Album - Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards
BODY:
Today we feature this Tom Waits album 'Orphans - Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards'
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 14'16"
15:08
Expats - Andrew Stanisich
BODY:
Our kiwi expat this week has just launched his third cafe in LA. Two Guns Espresso caters to hoards of people - many of whom have been converted to the kiwi flat white.
Topics: life and society
Regions:
Tags: USA, coffee
Duration: 15'59"
15:45
The Panel pre-show for 23 April 2015
BODY:
Your feedback, and a preview of the guests and topics on The Panel.
Topics: life and society
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 12'08"
21:20
Treating Tendon Injury with a Laser
BODY:
Physiotherapist Steve Tumilty has been trialling the use of a laser plus exercise to treat tendon injury with positive results
EXTENDED BODY:
Anyone who has had an Achilles tendon injury knows how painful it is.
And the treatment - a twice-daily exercise programme which lasts for 3 months – seems to be just as much as a nuisance, with many sufferers failing to complete it. But new research has convinced a once sceptical physiotherapist that less exercise combined with laser treatment is an exciting, and more effective, alternative.
“It was only really by accident that I got into the laser research, and I’m sort of converted with regards to musculoskeletal problems anyway,” says Dr Steve Tumilty from the University of Otago. “Saying that I would never use it as a standalone treatment, and I don’t think any physio worth his salt would ever use the laser as a standalone treatment.”
Steve, who is the Associate Dean of Postgraduate Studies at the School of Physiotherapy has found a statistically significant improvement of anywhere between 10 and 15 point difference in the scores on a 100 point scale, when using the laser in addition to exercise.
Currently, the gold standard treatment for Achilles tendon strains, or tendinopathy, is eccentric exercises.
Eccentric exercises work by shortening the muscle, then putting a load on it, and then lengthening the muscle through the load. So for example, standing up on tippy toes while lifting weight, then lowering the foot on the injured side back down again. There is some pain associated with the exercise but this is to be expected.
“The cells respond to the mechanical load you put on them, and they produce proteins and enzymes to help rebuild the tendon and improve its tensile strength,” says Steve.
The current recommended treatment requires people to do these eccentric exercises twice a day, seven days a week, for 12 weeks.
“When I first read that all those years ago, I thought I’m never going to get Kiwis to do that. And that’s basically what my research has shown over the past few years, when you look at compliance with the exercise regime very few will put up with that,” says Steve. “It’s quite awkward to be able to get to a gym just for ten or 15 minutes just to do these exercises.”
Steve has been trialling the use of a near infrared laser, before participants do these exercises. The laser is used to irradiate the tendon on three sides, the back, inside and outside of the tendon. The probe is run 10cm down the side of the tendon for a minute on each side. The laser is not strong enough to burn, it just creates some gentle heating.
"It's very mild heat, no pain, nothing," says Angela Spontelli Gisselman as she experiences the laser treatment. "Just a little bit of heat."
According to Steve, the laser enhances the exercises because the mitochondria in the cells absorb energy from the laser, prompting greater metabolism from cells. This leads to greater collagen production for the fibres of the tendon. It also gives a general boost to the immune system.
The laser in Steve’s clinic is applied for two sessions a week for four weeks, but the eccentric exercises would continue for at least another eight weeks.
In Steve’s recent trial he had four groups: two groups that compared the laser against placebo laser with eccentric exercise twice a week, and two groups that compared the laser against placebo laser with exercises conducted twice a day, seven days a week, for 12 weeks.
In terms of compliance to the exercise regime, Steve found that those who exercised twice a week had 100% compliance, but for those who did it twice a day, seven days a week compliance was only 55% or 65% of the required sessions depending on the group.
For those groups that received the laser, Steve found anywhere between 10 and 15 point improvement in the scores on a 100 point scale compared to the group that got the placebo.
“The group that had the combination of twice a week exercises plus laser the average score of that group, we’re talking about 20 people in each group, was 98.95. So almost a perfect score,” says Steve.
Also, the number of people in that group that did get a perfect score was much higher than the other group.
“As far as this trial is concerned, two major things came out of it, twice a week is just as good if not a little bit better than twice a day. And if you wanted to add laser to it, you can enhance the process even more,” says Steve.
However, finding a physiotherapist who uses laser treatment for people with tendinopathy might be difficult. Lasers are unfashionable in the profession, and the benefits, such as two weeks quicker recovery time, may not be justified given that a machine costs US$30,000.
However, Steve wonders why the professional sports teams aren’t using laser treatment. “Because those guys need to get the guy back on the field in a week,” he says.
Topics: science, health
Regions:
Tags: laser, Achilles, tendon, injury, treatment, exercise
Duration: 22'15"
=SHOW NOTES=
1:10 Your Song
Jungle Drum by Emiliana Torrini. Chosen by Iris Richter
1:20 New Zealand A to Z - Stargazers
Alan Gilmore from the Mt John Observatory in Tekapo
Jennie McCormack from Farm Cove Observatory in Auckland
Ash Pennell, President of Dunedin Astronomical Society, the oldest star-gazing society in New Zealand
Stu Parker, a dairy farmer from Canterbury with a world class record for finding exploding stars
2:10 Latest stories from around New Zealand and the World
The 100-year-old Anzac biscuit, brought back from WW1. Credit: Bruce Gatward-Cook
2:15 Jody Direen
The Wanaka singer-songwriter Jody Direen is described as one of the hardest working musicians in the business today - and that hard work is starting to pay off with big gigs and award nominations rolling in
2:30 NZ Reading - The Patriot
Is the man who gives up his horse and does the work of two a greater patriot than the youngster who signs up for war?
2:45 Feature album
Tom Waits: Orphans - Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards
3:10 Expats - Andrew Stanisich
Our kiwi expat this week has just launched his third cafe in LA. Two Guns Espresso caters to hoards of people - many of whom have been converted to the kiwi flat white
3:20 BBC Witness - Albert Einstein
The Nobel prize winning physicist and father of the theory of relativity, Albert Einstein, died on 18th April 1955. Witness talks to the son of one of Einstein's closest friends, Gustav Born, about the science and the humanity of the 20th-century's greatest scientific thinker
3:35 Tendon Re-Hab - Ruth Beran
Anyone who's experienced a tendon injury knows how painful it is. Currently, the gold standard treatment is a strict exercise regime, but physiotherapist Steve Tumilty from the University of Otago has been trialling the use of a laser plus exercise to treat tendinopathy, with some surprising results. Stories from Our Changing World.
3:45 The Panel Pre-Show
What the world is talking about. With Bridget Mills, Simon Mercep, Tainui Stephens and Irene Gardiner
===4:06 PM. | The Panel===
=DESCRIPTION=
An hour of discussion featuring a range of panellists from right along the opinion spectrum (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
15:45
The Panel pre-show for 23 April 2015
BODY:
Your feedback, and a preview of the guests and topics on The Panel.
Topics: life and society
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Tags:
Duration: 12'08"
16:07
The Panel with Tainui Stephens and Irene Gardiner (Part 1)
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A Nelson woman is being tested in Wellington Hospital for Ebola after returning from Sierra Leone. A sexual harrassment complaint against the PM has been filed with the Human Rights Comission. Dean of law at the University of Canterbury Dr Chris Gallavin joins then Panel to discuss the complaint. A Kudish community leader says some men wanting to fight ISIS in Iraq have been talked out of it. Why? Surely it's their choice?
Topics: politics
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Duration: 23'15"
16:07
Panel intro
BODY:
What the Panelists Tainui Stephens and Irene Gardiner have been up to.
Topics: life and society
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Tags:
Duration: 5'28"
16:13
Nelson nurse being tested for Ebola
BODY:
A Nelson woman is being tested in Wellington Hospital for Ebola after returning from Sierra Leone.
Topics: politics, health
Regions: Wellington Region
Tags: Ebola
Duration: 1'15"
16:15
Sexual harrassment complaint against PM
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A sexual harrassment complaint against the PM has been filed with the Human Rights Comission. Dean of law at the University of Canterbury Dr Chris Gallavin joins then Panel to discuss the complaint.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 16'10"
16:33
The Panel with Tainui Stephens and Irene Gardiner (Part 2)
BODY:
The 7 Battalion Reserve Army band won't be playing at Wellington's ANZAC dawn service this year. It's the end of a 50 year tradition. We talk to bandmaster Rick Herderson about what that means to the members and where they will be playing this weekend. A report on the origins of our clothes isn't good reading. Gershon Nimbalker of Baptist World Aid Australia talks to the Panel about the The Truth Behind the Barcode: Australian Fashion Report 2015. Some companies with branches in New Zealand don't fare well. The subject of passport-free trans-Tasman travel's been raised again. Should we be opening our borders when we hear so much about the "terrorist" threat? A Wellington flat with a grim past has a new tennant. But he wasn't told by its Council owners about two deaths in the flat where the bodies weren't found until sometime later.
Topics: politics
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Tags:
Duration: 26'51"
16:33
Fifty year tradition ends for band
BODY:
The 7 Battalion Reserve Army band won't be playing at Wellington's ANZAC dawn service this year. It's the end of a 50 year tradition. We talk to bandmaster Rick Herderson about what that means to the members and where they will be playing this weekend.
Topics: defence force
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Tags: Anzac
Duration: 6'52"
16:40
Panel Says
BODY:
What the Panelists Tainui Stephens and Irene Gardiner are thinking about.
Topics: life and society
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Tags:
Duration: 4'16"
16:44
"F" for ethical clothing fail
BODY:
A report on the origins of our clothes isn't good reading. Gershon Nimbalker of Baptist World Aid Australia talks to the Panel about the The Truth Behind the Barcode: Australian Fashion Report 2015. Some companies with branches in New Zealand don't fare well.
Topics: business
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Tags: Australian Fashion Report 2015
Duration: 9'22"
16:57
Dead man's flat
BODY:
A Wellington flat with a grim past has a new tennant. But he wasn't told by its Council owners about two deaths in the flat where the bodies weren't found until sometime later.
Topics: life and society
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Tags:
Duration: 2'13"
=SHOW NOTES=
===5:00 PM. | Checkpoint===
=DESCRIPTION=
Radio New Zealand's two-hour news and current affairs programme
=AUDIO=
17:00
Checkpoint Top Stories for Thursday 23 April 2015
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Some Carterton balloon passengers could have been saved, Our reporter on the coroner's findings, Civil Aviation responds to claims it was too slow, Peters questioning why police didn't stop Key. Analysis from Mediawatch, No need to worry: Govt advice as new nurse has ebola test.
Topics: law, politics
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 23'57"
17:07
Some Carterton balloon passengers could have been saved
BODY:
A coroner says some of the 11 people killed in the burning Carterton balloon could well have been saved if only the pilot had done a standard emergency landing.
Topics: law
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Duration: 2'37"
17:10
Our reporter on the coroner's findings
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Our reporter Ruth Hill has been reading the Coroner Peter Ryan's report, which shows he's not convinced the rules as they stand are strong enough to stop stoned pilots taking to the air.
Topics: law
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Tags:
Duration: 3'16"
17:13
Civil Aviation responds to claims it was too slow
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Alan Still holds CAA partly to blame for the tragedy, saying it should not have taken so long to bring in tougher rules on drug and alcohol testing.
Topics: law
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Tags:
Duration: 5'56"
17:20
Peters questioning why police didn't stop Key
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The New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters, is questioning why police did not stop the Prime Minister from repeatedly pulling the ponytail of an Auckland waitress.
Topics: politics
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Duration: 2'48"
17:22
Analysis from Mediawatch
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The Minister for Women Louise Upston is standing by the Prime Minister.
Topics: politics
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Duration: 4'50"
17:27
No need to worry: Govt advice as new nurse has ebola test
BODY:
A nurse in isolation in Wellington Hospital is being tested for ebola after returning from Sierra Leone on Saturday.
Topics: health
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Tags: Ebola
Duration: 4'09"
17:34
Today's market update
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The New Zealand dollar tumbled this afternoon, following a Reserve Bank Assistant Governor's speech which opened the possibility for an interest rate cut, as long as inflationary pressures remain weak.
Topics: business, economy
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Tags: markets
Duration: 2'34"
17:37
Medical system fell down in Livingstone case
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The Livingstone inquest has heard the medical system did not collect important information about the risk posed by the 51 year old who killed his children.
Topics: crime, law
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Duration: 6'15"
17:44
Minister vows to hold slum landlords to account
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The Maori Development Minister is vowing to hold slum landlords in Christchurch to account - but doesn't know if he should name and shame them.
Topics: politics
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Tags: housing
Duration: 3'57"
17:47
radioactive drone found on Japan's parliament building
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A drone carrying radioactive material has been found on the roof of the Japanese prime minister's office in Tokyo sparking fears it could be the work of terrorists.
Topics: politics
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Tags: Japan
Duration: 1'59"
17:50
Cafe-goers save woman from a car attacker
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Young men at a cafe heard a woman's screams and her frantic tooting in her car, running out and saving her from a man assaulting her.
Topics: crime, law
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Duration: 3'48"
17:54
Marae project to teach coding & computer building
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A Whangarei marae's launching a two-year project to teach anyone who wants to learn how to build and use computers, apps and software.
Topics: te ao Maori, education
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Tags:
Duration: 3'07"
17:57
Seddon emerges unscathed from quakes
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The small Marlborough town of Seddon has emerged unscathed from two earthquakes this morning.
Topics: environment
Regions: Marlborough
Tags: earthquake
Duration: 2'31"
18:07
Sports News for 23 April 2015
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An update from the team at RNZ Sport.
Topics: sport
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Tags:
Duration: 2'47"
18:11
Two days out from Anzac Day frantic prep at Gallipoli
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With just two days to go before Anzac Day, preparations at Gallipoli are in full swing. Ten thousand New Zealanders and Australians will attend the Dawn Service, followed by an Australian service at Lone Pine and the New Zealand service at Chunuk Bair. Our Veterans' Affairs reporter Andrew McRae is at Gallipoli.
Topics: defence force
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Tags: Anzac, Gallipoli
Duration: 3'44"
18:15
NZQA cracks down on English language rules
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The Qualifications Authority is cracking down on abuse of English-language tests for foreign students.
Topics: education
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Tags: ESL
Duration: 3'06"
18:22
Clean up begins in Australia's east coast
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The clean-up has begun in New South Wales after days of wild weather which killed four people and swept away several homes.
Topics:
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Duration: 3'57"
18:34
Australian Minister accused of torturing girl, 5
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To Australia where a Greens Senator is accusing the Immigration Minister of mentally torturing a disturbed girl by trying to keep her in detention.
Topics: politics, law
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Tags: Australia, Nauru
Duration: 4'54"
18:44
Elderly man not guilty of sexually abusing wife with dementia
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An elderly American man has been found not guilty of sexually abusing his wife, who is an Alzheimer's patient, by having sex with her.
Topics: law
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Tags: USA
Duration: 4'41"
18:49
Te Manu Korihi News for 23 April 2015
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A Whangarei marae's launching a two-year project to teach anyone who wants to learn how to build and use computers, apps and software; The son of a Maori Pioneer Battalion soldier is warning tangata whenua not to ignore their heritage, saying it's their responsibility to keep the war stories of their ancestors alive for generations to come; A two-hundred-thousand-dollar project paying tribute to a historical Marae site in the Papamoa Hills is taking shape alongside the Tauranga Eastern Link.
Topics: te ao Maori
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Duration: 3'31"
=SHOW NOTES=
===7:06 PM. | Nights===
=DESCRIPTION=
Entertainment and information, including: 7:30 At the Movies with Simon Morris: Current film releases and film related topics (RNZ) 8:13 Windows on the World: International public radio features and documentaries 9:06 Our Changing World: Science and environment news from NZ and the world (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
19:10
Half Nude For Laughs
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American comedian Adrienne Truscott is here for the Comedy Fest with her show Asking For It, with performances that will mostly likely make an audience feel uncomfortable.
Topics: arts, life and society
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Tags: comedy, Asking For It, nudity
Duration: 21'20"
20:45
Poetry
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VUW Modern Letters Creative Writing workshop convener Cliff Fell recites the influence of the "classic" poems and poets; more on Russian Anna Akhmatova, who was a great love poet.
Topics: arts
Regions:
Tags: poetry, Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet, love
Duration: 15'27"
20:59
Conundrum Clue 7
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Listen on Friday for the answer.
Topics:
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Duration: 07"
21:59
Conundrum Clue 8
BODY:
Listen on Friday for the answer.
Topics:
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Tags:
Duration: 27"
=SHOW NOTES=
7:10 Half Nude For Laughs
American comedian Adrienne Truscott is here for the Comedy Fest with her show Asking For It, with performances that will mostly likely make an audience feel uncomfortable.
7:30 At the Movies
=SHOW NOTES=
=AUDIO=
19:30
At The Movies for Thurs 23 April 2015
BODY:
Simon Morris goes to the theatre - the Broadway version of Of Mice and Men, starring James Franco. He also reviews two contrasting features - action movie The Gunman, starring Sean Penn, and The Age Of Adaline - fantasy romance about a women who never ages.
EXTENDED BODY:
The Age of Adaline.
On stage in Of Mice and Men, James Franco is rather different from his lightweight film comedies,
Sean Penn decides he needs a hit – a hit with a title like The Gunman…
And The Age of Adaline – thereby hangs an old-fashioned tale…
The big picture with Simon Morris
Every year – in fact, sometimes it feels like every week – a new buzz-word or phrase pops up, offering not just a new name for something familiar but, it seems, a whole new thing.
How did we wrestle with the concepts of ‘paradigm shifts’, ‘memes’, ‘tropes’ and ‘meta-data’ when there were no such words?
In the movie-commentary world, one word appears more often than most, and that’s ‘meta’. Not meta-anything, just ‘meta’ on its own. It means, often, that the most interesting thing about the film is stuff surrounding it and where it fits in the culture, not the movie itself.
Case in point – the Oscar-winning Birdman. Most of the write-ups stressed the way it was filmed – as if it was one, reality-TV shot. Very meta. Or the fact that the star, like the lead character, had been part of a superhero franchise, and had quit. Or that co-star Ed Norton, like his character, had a reputation of being hard to work with.
Films about films, of course, are nothing new. Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin made them back in the silent era. But it’s the know-all, smirky quality about modern, self-referential movies that clearly needed a pseudo-Greek catch-phrase. And much of today’s movie reviewing assumes we’re all as smart-Aleck as the writer.
This year, any action movie starring someone older than, say, Daniel Craig is described as part of a movement – generally referred to as the “post-Taken movement”. And when one fails - like the new Sean Penn film The Gunman - the meta-argument goes that audiences have reached the end of that particular meme, trope or paradigm shift.
For some reason fantasy films are mostly discussed today in terms of two previous films. Is it a Lord of the Rings-type fantasy film – swords and sorcery – or is it a comic-book hero fantasy film – super-powers and alien invasions?
A quiet little film like The Age of Adaline goes back to an earlier definition – the tales of Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde and television’s Twilight Zone. I’m not sure what the meta-argument of The Age of Adaline would deal with – the fascination with staying young forever, or the trendy phrase “an old soul” carried to excess?
And what about the reaction against special effects-driven movies, as audiences flock to see coverage of live theatre? The latest example is the hit Broadway production of John Steinbeck’s classic 1937 play, Of Mice and Men.
Topics: arts
Regions:
Tags: film
Duration: 23'39"
19:31
Of Mice and Men - film review
BODY:
Simon Morris reviews the hit Broadway production of John Steinbeck's classic 1937 play, Of Mice and Men.
EXTENDED BODY:
Simon Morris reviews Of Mice and Men - live performance at the National Theatre, New York, starring James Franco and Chris O'Dowd
This hit Broadway production of John Steinbeck’s classic 1937 play, Of Mice and Men stars James Franco and Chris O’Dowd as smart George and dumb Lenny. It’s very theatrical, which is easy to get into the swing of, and very much of its time, which is slightly harder.
Of Mice and Men is – like many American classics – about the American Dream – George and Lenny’s search for the ideal happy ending for two bums with nothing to trade but their hard work.
Back in the Thirties Great Depression, Steinbeck’s American Dream had nothing to do with today’s X factor fantasies of fortune and fame. For George and Lenny, the dream was simply a tiny slice of America’s plenty – a little farm of their own, one where they could work when they wanted to, not when they were told to.
It was socialism, if you like, but a very American idea of socialism. And the point was that Steinbeck, and his audience – then and now – were well aware that this modest goal was beyond the hopes of the Depression-era masses. But countering this Big Lie was something more real. Ironically, it’s the thing that drives today’s social media – simple friendship. When things go wrong for George and Lenny, as they inevitably do, they still have one thing they can rely on – each other.
And you start to realise the Depression wasn’t simply a financial failure. It was a social one too, driving just about everyone apart.
The fact that the 2015 theatre-going public of New York – and here – flocked to see a play about an America so apparently divorced from what’s happening now is strangely touching. It’s the equivalent of Britain’s memories of the Blitz, maybe, or our own Anzac spirit.
I have to say that seeing the stars of so many, rather less improving, movie comedies capturing that era so powerfully in two hours on stage is uplifting in more ways than one.
It’s good to see that new media and ever-shorter attention-spans haven’t killed off one of the oldest and most direct forms of story-telling there is. Not yet.
Topics: arts
Regions:
Tags: film, film review, Steinbeck
Duration: 6'13"
19:40
The Gunman - film review
BODY:
Simon Morris reviews action movie The Gunman, starring Sean Penn.
EXTENDED BODY:
Simon Morris reviews The Gunman - starring Sean Penn, Ray Winstone, Javier Bardem and Mark Rylance. Directed by Pierre Morel.
In purely industry terms, The Gunman got its green light off the back of Liam Neeson’s Taken films – middle-aged action-man is called back to duty.
The Gunman opens with Jimmy – Sean Penn – and his Italian girlfriend in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She’s a hard-working, good-doing nurse. He’s got a shifty, unspecified job that involves working nights, armed to the teeth.
It turns out he’s a gunman – one of a group hired by a shady mining company. And the job he’s off to is to be part of an assassination squad to hit a local politician. Jimmy draws the short straw. He has to do the deed, then leave Nurse Anne behind.
Jimmy manages to put his past behind him for a few years, and changes careers – from gunman to social worker in Africa. Social worker and social surfer, in this case.
I’m assuming the surfing bit was an attempt to add layers to a character that could use a few. It also gives Sean Penn a chance to take his top off. Considering Sean’s maturity, he’s in remarkably good shape. I know this because that top comes off regularly throughout The Gunman.
Like all the Taken films, The Gunman - once it gets going - is an extended chase movie, with our hero out to save his girlfriend and unmask the bad guys.
Unlike most of the Taken films it takes forever for the plot to unravel enough to get on with the chasing.
It’s a mess – one of those films where every single one of the producers managed to get his or her idea into the script, whether it fit or not.
Interestingly, the meta-argument about The Gunman is that it proves that audiences are tiring of middle-aged, male, action films. No they’re not. They’re tired of films that aren’t any good, but then they always were.
Topics: arts
Regions:
Tags: film, film review
Duration: 6'08"
19:50
The Age of Adaline - film review
BODY:
Simon Morris reviews old-fashioned fantasy romance tale The Age of Adaline.
EXTENDED BODY:
Simon Morris reviews The Age of Adaline - starring Blake Lively, Ellen Burstyn, Harrison Ford and Michiel Huisman, Directed by Lee Toland Krieger
The story of The Age of Adaline, like the character’s name, is oddly old-fashioned.
It’s not modern sci-fi, or fashionable magic fantasy. It’s more a trad Tale of Mystery and Imagination, the way Edgar Allen Poe, Somerset Maugham and Dean Spanley’s Lord Dunsaney used to tell them. With an engaging narrator.
We see Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) get married, have a baby girl, and then lose her husband. Shortly afterwards she’s driving along a Californian highway, and encounters that rare West Coast phenomenon, a snow-storm.
Adaline plunges into icy water, then gets struck by lightning. You’d think her life would be over, but no. Quite the contrary, as it turns out.
So, the film asks, what would happen if all the promises made by make-up manufacturers, vitamin salesmen and keep-fit promoters actually came true?
Adaline passes through the Twentieth Century looking exactly how she looked in 1935. She’s a freak, and is terrified someone will discover her secret.
The only person who knows the exact Age of Adaline is her daughter – a spritely 80 when we meet her, played by Ellen Burstyn.
Adaline meets the incredibly good-looking, rich and yet unspoiled Ellis, played by Game of Thrones’ Michiel Huisman. Lowering her guard she agrees to visit Ellis’s family, and discovers another golden oldie in the shape of Ellis’s Dad. It’s Harrison Ford – coincidentally a very old boyfriend of Adaline’s - and she’s got some fast talking to explain that away.
Finally, we get to the point of the story – that Adaline’s permanent youth is really a curse. She can’t stay anywhere long, she’s got no friends, she can never fall in love.
I found myself warming to The age of Adaline rather more than I thought I was going to. Its old-fashioned story-telling is a refreshing change from all these more modern fantasy films that are all so numbingly similar.
Topics: arts
Regions:
Tags: film, film review
Duration: 5'51"
7:30 At the Movies
Films and movie business with Simon Morris.
8:10 Windows on the World
International public radio documentaries - visit the Windows on the World web page to find links to these documentaries.
8:40 Poetry
VUW Modern Letters Creative Writing workshop convener Cliff Fell recites the influence of the "classic" poems and poets; more on Russian Anna Akhmatova, who was a great love poet.
9:06 Our Changing World
=SHOW NOTES=
Coming Up On Our Changing World on Thursday 30 April 2015
Cutting livestock methane emissions, electrical stimulation and stroke recovery, genes for bulbing in onions, and recording underwater sounds in the Hauraki Gulf.
=AUDIO=
21:06
Pateke - New Homes for a Rare Duck
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The pateke or brown teal population on Great Barrier Island is increasing due to cat trapping and the creation of new wetland homes
EXTENDED BODY:
By Alison Ballance
“Pateke used to be really widespread on mainland New Zealand – by around the year 2000 they went down to about 700 individuals, and they were categorised as Nationally Endangered”, says the Department of Conservation's George Wilson.
Fifteen years later, an intensive captive breeding programme, targeted cat trapping in key habitats and the creation of new wetland habitat has seen pateke, or brown teal, numbers climb to about 2500 birds nationally, with most of them occurring on Great Barrier Island or in Northland, east of Whangarei. They are now classified as recovering.
“Intensive predator control seems to be a factor in halting the rate of decline here in [Okiwi] basin,” says George. “Numbers seem to have stabilised and to be increasing slightly.”
An intensive study on Great Barrier Island in the early 2000s, using radio-tracking to follow the birds, not only identified predation by feral cats as a major cause of adult deaths, but it highlighted the problem that many young pateke were finding it difficult to get enough food in dry summers, when the ground is very hard. To solve this, the Department of Conservation have been creating a series of little wetlands on Okiwi Station, which the Department bought from Landcorp about 15 years ago specifically because it was a known pateke hotspot. By damming naturally wet areas on the farm, and then replanting native wetland plant species, DoC is slowly constructing a network of breeding ponds and nearby feeding areas. The planting has been carried out with the help of students from Hillcrest College and Otumoetai College.
Although once a forest duck, pateke have adapted well to farmland, and George says that at night the pastures of Okiwi Station – which are still grazed by cattle – are covered in pairs of ducks foraging in the short grass.
Pateke breed in winter, and pairs are quite territorial, which is why it is better to build a number of small breeding ponds rather than one large one. George says they are experimenting as they go, to find out how close together they can put the wetlands – and how many breeding pairs they can fit in.
In late summer and autumn pateke gather in roosting areas, in large flocks. Whangapoua estuary on the edge of the Okiwi basin is home to the island’s largest pateke roost site. At low tide the birds come out to forage on the mudflats, searching for marine invertebrates.
Craig Mabey from the Department of Conservation has been running a predator-trapping programme for 15 years, focusing mainly on feral cats. He used to catch about 120 feral cats a year on Okiwi Station, and now that he traps mainly in winter, during the pateke breeding season, he is still catching about 70 cats a year.
Pateke occur all over Great Barrier Island, but in some other catchments, such as the Awana, the birds are not doing so well, probably because of the lack of predator-control.
Topics: environment
Regions:
Tags: birds, waterfowl, ducks, wetlands, predators, conservation, threatened species
Duration: 13'23"
21:20
Treating Tendon Injury with a Laser
BODY:
Physiotherapist Steve Tumilty has been trialling the use of a laser plus exercise to treat tendon injury with positive results
EXTENDED BODY:
Anyone who has had an Achilles tendon injury knows how painful it is.
And the treatment - a twice-daily exercise programme which lasts for 3 months – seems to be just as much as a nuisance, with many sufferers failing to complete it. But new research has convinced a once sceptical physiotherapist that less exercise combined with laser treatment is an exciting, and more effective, alternative.
“It was only really by accident that I got into the laser research, and I’m sort of converted with regards to musculoskeletal problems anyway,” says Dr Steve Tumilty from the University of Otago. “Saying that I would never use it as a standalone treatment, and I don’t think any physio worth his salt would ever use the laser as a standalone treatment.”
Steve, who is the Associate Dean of Postgraduate Studies at the School of Physiotherapy has found a statistically significant improvement of anywhere between 10 and 15 point difference in the scores on a 100 point scale, when using the laser in addition to exercise.
Currently, the gold standard treatment for Achilles tendon strains, or tendinopathy, is eccentric exercises.
Eccentric exercises work by shortening the muscle, then putting a load on it, and then lengthening the muscle through the load. So for example, standing up on tippy toes while lifting weight, then lowering the foot on the injured side back down again. There is some pain associated with the exercise but this is to be expected.
“The cells respond to the mechanical load you put on them, and they produce proteins and enzymes to help rebuild the tendon and improve its tensile strength,” says Steve.
The current recommended treatment requires people to do these eccentric exercises twice a day, seven days a week, for 12 weeks.
“When I first read that all those years ago, I thought I’m never going to get Kiwis to do that. And that’s basically what my research has shown over the past few years, when you look at compliance with the exercise regime very few will put up with that,” says Steve. “It’s quite awkward to be able to get to a gym just for ten or 15 minutes just to do these exercises.”
Steve has been trialling the use of a near infrared laser, before participants do these exercises. The laser is used to irradiate the tendon on three sides, the back, inside and outside of the tendon. The probe is run 10cm down the side of the tendon for a minute on each side. The laser is not strong enough to burn, it just creates some gentle heating.
"It's very mild heat, no pain, nothing," says Angela Spontelli Gisselman as she experiences the laser treatment. "Just a little bit of heat."
According to Steve, the laser enhances the exercises because the mitochondria in the cells absorb energy from the laser, prompting greater metabolism from cells. This leads to greater collagen production for the fibres of the tendon. It also gives a general boost to the immune system.
The laser in Steve’s clinic is applied for two sessions a week for four weeks, but the eccentric exercises would continue for at least another eight weeks.
In Steve’s recent trial he had four groups: two groups that compared the laser against placebo laser with eccentric exercise twice a week, and two groups that compared the laser against placebo laser with exercises conducted twice a day, seven days a week, for 12 weeks.
In terms of compliance to the exercise regime, Steve found that those who exercised twice a week had 100% compliance, but for those who did it twice a day, seven days a week compliance was only 55% or 65% of the required sessions depending on the group.
For those groups that received the laser, Steve found anywhere between 10 and 15 point improvement in the scores on a 100 point scale compared to the group that got the placebo.
“The group that had the combination of twice a week exercises plus laser the average score of that group, we’re talking about 20 people in each group, was 98.95. So almost a perfect score,” says Steve.
Also, the number of people in that group that did get a perfect score was much higher than the other group.
“As far as this trial is concerned, two major things came out of it, twice a week is just as good if not a little bit better than twice a day. And if you wanted to add laser to it, you can enhance the process even more,” says Steve.
However, finding a physiotherapist who uses laser treatment for people with tendinopathy might be difficult. Lasers are unfashionable in the profession, and the benefits, such as two weeks quicker recovery time, may not be justified given that a machine costs US$30,000.
However, Steve wonders why the professional sports teams aren’t using laser treatment. “Because those guys need to get the guy back on the field in a week,” he says.
Topics: science, health
Regions:
Tags: laser, Achilles, tendon, injury, treatment, exercise
Duration: 22'15"
21:34
Peat, Pumice and Archaeological Mysteries
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Peat uncovered during major roadworks on the Kapiti Coast is shedding light on early Maori occupation, while the discovery of pumice might be the sign of an old tsunami
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By Alison Ballance
Archaeologist Bruce McFadgen hopes that peat being dug up during large-scale road works will provide key pieces to the puzzle of historic Maori occupation along the Kapiti Coast – but so far all the peat has revealed is a new puzzle, in the form of a thick layer of pumice, which may – or may not – be evidence of a tsunami.
Tsunamis are devilish difficult things to identify. We can have events that we know happened, yet they leave virtually no signature at all.
“Maori occupied [the Kapiti] coast and in the early period their settlements were very close to the sea,” says Bruce. “They were small hamlets with the odd house, flaking floor, shell midden, ovens, that sort of thing, where people had lived for a reasonable time. But in the later period that coastal occupation seems to have been abandoned and they settled along the rivers. So something was going on about 4-500 years ago that we would dearly like to know more about.”
Peat forms from partly decayed wetland vegetation that accumulates in wet, low oxygen conditions.
“Peat is a record of things like vegetation change,” says Bruce. “Sand dune movements, for example if sand has blown inland and got into the peat then we can see that. It may give us information about tsunamis … and uplift and subsidence, and what’s been going on seismically up and down that coast.”
Bruce McFadgen is an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Maori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. His interest in the peat being exposed during the construction of the MacKays to Peka Peka highway on the Kapiti Coast follows a lifetime of archaeological research up and down the nearby coast. During that time he’s been collecting pieces of information that variously suggest that subsidence of the ground, or conversely uplift of the land, or the build-up of sand dunes might have been responsible for changing patterns of vegetation and Maori settlement seen over 600 or so years.
At an early archaeological site in coastal Manawatu he recorded a dryland ecosystem suddenly becoming a wetland, coinciding with the abandonment of a Maori settlement there. For about 50 years he thought that the sudden rise in the water table might have been a result of sand dunes building up nearby and blocking the drainage.
The discovery five years ago of about 100 large tree stumps on a farm at nearby Te Horo added a supporting piece of evidence to this idea, as the date when the forest there died and was replaced by a wetland because of rising water levels matched the date of the Manawatu site.
However, the discovery a couple of years ago of a series of old shore lines at Peka Peka raised the new possibility that instead of the water rising to meet the land, the land itself had subsided. This idea was supported by further evidence around Pauatahanui Inlet to the south, and a pattern of old shorelines south of the Otaki River.
So, what Bruce is hoping is that the peat might hold some more significant pieces of this puzzle. He is working with a group of Honorary Research Associates in the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington, who are each bringing a particular skill to the project. Margaret Harper is a world expert in diatoms, tiny marine organisms whose exact identity will suggest whether sand that might be mixed up in the peat comes from shallow coastal waters, or from offshore deeper water, which would suggest a tsunami.
To find out the changing composition of vegetation at the site Aline Home studies plant residues, Bill McLea looks at pollens, while John Carter studies phtyoliths, tiny bits of silica whose shape is unique to a species of plant and which often remain once all other evidence of the plant have disappeared.
Also up for analysis is some mysterious pumice. There are several layers of pumice, up to 20-centimetres thick, containing pieces ranging from 3-millimetres to 30-centimetres in size. Bruce and his colleagues say the pieces are nothing like pumice from the Taupo eruption, and that at the moment “the idea is that they are from the Kermadec [volcanoes]. It’s older than 2000 years, because it’s inland from the Taupo pumice shoreline which is about 1800 years old, and my guess is its going to be around 3000 years – although we’ll have to wait and see.” There is another well-known layer of pumice, that originated about 600 years ago from the Keramdec Arc and is known as Loisels pumice, and is found on the east coasts of the North and South islands, but Bruce says while the new pumice shares some of its characteristics it is not exactly the same. The new pumice is currently being cut into thin sections at Victoria University and Bruce is hopeful that close analysis of the pumice might reveal more information about its source. Meanwhile, the information about sand grains and diatoms might also help decipher whether the pumice was washed ashore during a large tsunami event.
Topics: science, history
Regions:
Tags: archaeology, Maori history, Kapiti Coast, Manawatu, sand dunes, peat, pumice, wetlands, tsunami
Duration: 17'31"
21:46
Pulling Funds out of Fossil Fuels
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A discussion with organisations and individuals who decided to move their investments out of the fossil fuel industry.
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By Veronika Meduna
As investors we have some clout actually, we have the capacity to make a difference on this issue. What are we doing with our money? Are we profiting from climate change? _ Matheson Russell
At a time when the New Zealand government is opening up large areas for exploration by oil and gas companies, some of the country’s institutions have decided to pull their investments out of the fossil fuel industry.
Globally, the idea of fossil fuel divestment – the deliberate withdrawal of funds from oil, gas and coal companies to help accelerate a transition to renewable energy sources – is beginning to have an impact, totalling about $50 billion in investments that have been moved out of fossil fuels. Recently, the Guardian newspaper joined the campaign, asking the world’s largest charitable foundations to divest their endowments.
In 2014, new installations of carbon-free renewable power plants, driven by a rapid expansion in developing countries, surpassed 100 gigawatts of capacity for the first time, according to the UN Environment Programme’s latest Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment report (pdf).
In New Zealand, one of the first organisations to make a commitment to divest its funds was the Anglican Church of New Zealand, motivated largely by a sense of urgency to take action on limiting the impacts of climate change.
The Anglican Church represents almost 10 per cent of New Zealanders (according to the 2013 Census) and has large investments in property and shares. Matheson Russell, the convener of its climate action group in Auckland, says the church leadership has been concerned about climate change for a long time.
Back in 2006, the body of bishops and archbishops issued a statement where they said publicly that climate change presents a real and present danger to the environment and also to the human species and they urged strong action in response to climate change.
The first effort was on reducing the church’s own carbon footprint at the level of local parish churches to reduce “our complicity as consumers of fossil fuels”, but the divestment campaign has now added a new focus on investments. “As investors we have some clout actually, we have the capacity to make a difference on this issue. What are we doing with our money? Are we profiting from climate change?”
Matheson Russell says the Anglican Church has committed to a two-year time frame for its divestment, which it sees as an issue of social justice. “Every year at our regional assemblies, when we meet with our friends and colleagues in the Pacific Islands, they tell us about the effects of climate change they are already experiencing. Morally responsible organisations like churches need to take action swiftly and need to show moral leadership on these issues now.”
A similar sense of urgency is one of the reasons behind Victoria University’s decision to divest. Last year, Victoria University became the first university in New Zealand to take this step, and joins several tertiary institutions worldwide.
Students’ Association president Rick Zwaan says he was motivated by his frustration with the slowness of international negotiations. In 2009, during his last year at school, he was a youth delegate at COP 15, the 15th annual meeting of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Copenhagen.
Seeing what he describes as a “failure of world leaders to take action on climate change” motivated him to take action locally and to start campaigning for divestment at Victoria University, where he now studies geophysics, environmental science and politics.“It’s really heartening to see the university taking the lead on this. It was one of the moments when I was really proud of being a student at Victoria.”
Vice-Chancellor Grant Guilford says the university has already honoured the first step of its commitment by selling shares it held directly in fossil fuel companies. The next step, he says will be more difficult as fund managers are being asked to shift mixed portfolios to more sustainable funds. “That’s becoming easier. The world is moving quite rapidly on this and there are more and more sustainable investment funds available.”
Divestment campaigns have been used in the past, targeting a host of issues including sweatshop labour, tobacco advertising, and the Apartheid regime of South Africa. Grant Guilford says faith groups and universities are usually at the forefront of such campaigns, but larger funds tend to follow.
Sometimes, he says, they accept the moral and ethical duties that stimulate the faith groups, but sometimes there are more pragmatic reasons such as the increased risk in investing in what could become stranded assets.
“For example, the Norwegian sovereign fund has announced it’s out of coal companies. It was a risk-based decision for them because they see a high risk that coal will be affected by regulatory changes related to climate change.”
The main motivation for Victoria University’s decision was “that we should align our investment decisions with the public stance that we take on climate change, which in turn is derived from our research on climate change. There is no doubt in the university community that climate change is a major threat to the world and the people in it and the biosphere as a whole.”
In the meantime, however, the university maintains its Masters programme in petroleum geoscience.
'The world is still dependent on this industry. And the people in that industry are still doing a very valuable job to maintain energy supplies that the world needs. We’re not intending to vilify the people of the petroleum industry in New Zealand by this decision. What we’re intending to say is that this transition away from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources needs to pick up pace if the world is going to be habitable in the future.
_ Grant Guilford
The Kennett Brothers, New Zealand's leading publishers of cycling guide books and the pedalling force behind mountain biking events such as the Karapoti Classic, have decided to divest both their business and personal funds.
Jonathan Kennett says the first discussions arose when they were considering sponsorship for cycling events. "Our business has formed to promote healthy and environmentally aware lifestyles, and cycling is the biggest part of that. We decided pretty much from the word go that we wouldn't accept tobacco sponsorship. There a number of other things that we wouldn't accept sponsorship from and now we've added to that list sponsorship from the fossil fuel industry."
Divestment was the obvious next step.
We have control over our own lives, and we have responsibilities for our own actions. ... We want to take that responsibility seriously and avoid contributing to climate change where we can. There are a number of things that are relatively easy to do. Divestment is one of them. _ Jonathan Kennett
Topics: environment
Regions:
Tags: climate change, fossil fuel industry, divestment, UNFCC, Anglican Church of New Zealand
Duration: 17'54"
9:06 Our Changing World
Science and environment news from New Zealand and the world.
10:17 Late Edition
A review of the leading news from Morning Report, Nine to Noon, Afternoons and Checkpoint. Also hear the latest news from around the Pacific on Radio New Zealand International's Dateline Pacific.
11:06 Music 101 pocket edition
A contemporary music magazine with interviews and music from New Zealand and overseas artists, coverage of new releases, tours, live sessions, music festivals and events.
===10:00 PM. | Late Edition===
=DESCRIPTION=
Radio New Zealand news, including Dateline Pacific and the day's best interviews from Radio New Zealand National
===11:06 PM. | Music 101===
=DESCRIPTION=
Music, interviews, live performances, behind the scenes, industry issues, career profiles, new, back catalogue, undiscovered, greatest hits, tall tales - with a focus on NZ (RNZ)