Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Every Saturday morning I start the show with a little editorial. I give you an opinion on something. I ask for your feedback. And after I finish the piece, the written version lives on the Newstalk ZB website. You know the one! And from there, our digital teams will share a link on social media.  But if you just happen to be tuning in from Australia this morning - as I know many listeners do - and you log in to Facebook afterwards, you won’t see a link to this piece. The stoush between Zuckerberg and the Australian government shows no sign of being resolved any time soon.   Part of me is torn. I look at this issue from a few different sides. Part of me thinks, actually, we know that people get so much information from Facebook that if they aren’t able to access reliable news sources on Facebook, the information they will be accessing instead is going to be the dregs of the dregs. Part of me thinks I’d feel a bit better about the Australian government’s position and their proposals to make big tech pay for new

This time of year, we think about lack of water and extra water bills. Would having your own rainwater tank be wise or affordable?  Doing the numbers  An average kiwi homes use 150,000 litres a year. There is usually a fixed charge for being in the system then a usage charge for the number of litres you use.  In Auckland that’s $190 fixed and about $500 usage.   If you got a 5000L tank, this would be refilled every time it rains. Estimate this saving at least half your water use or around $250 per annum. A 5000L tank can be as cheap as $950. Or top of the line fancy slim tank that fits anywhere or maybe an in ground tank, $3500 So in 4-10 years (water prices are only going up) you have paid for it and you are saving that amount of money every year.  How to collect rainwater? My favourite way is to a system that collects water for a while, catching pollution and bird dropping sfrom the roof. You then ditch this, and the cleaner water is sent to your tank If you don’t trust the rain water then it can be directe

Environmental Education in 2021  So what is this “environmental education” all about? Most people think of Enviroschools and waste minimization plus vegetable gardening at school. Quite a number of schools have compost bins, worm farms and chickens running around. For more than a dozen years, Project Crimson and Mazda Foundation have planted outdoor classrooms in school grounds – forest type vegetation. Hawkes Bay's Cape to City linked all this to a large landscape project around Cape Kidnappers and 20,000 hectares of surrounding land. It encourages school kids and teachers to do the learning outside, using the environment as a context for education. Putting it into practice  I got a request from a Christchurch teacher to help the school create a butterfly garden. Of course they had monarchs in mind. But I had other ideas! There’s this gorgeous deep purple Lycaenid butterfly which is native to Canterbury. We’ve just discovered (via Hamish and Brian Patrick) that it is different from all the other “boulder cop

Movie reviewer Francesca Rudkin has been watching period romance Ammonite and Korean-American movie Minari.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Book reviewer Catherine Raynes has been reading The Chanel Sisters by Judithe Little and The Frenchman by Jack Beaumont.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a City Rises —The People’s Story: as the 10 year anniversary of the second Christchurch earthquake approaches, this documentary follows Christchurch’s recovery in the days, months and years following the devastating earthquake (TVNZ 1, Sunday 8.30pm and OnDemand)  Coyote: After 32 years of service, Border Patrol agent Ben Clemens finds himself helping people he has always tried to keep out of the United States (TVNZ OnDemand).  Men in Kilts: two stars from the time-travelling drama Outlander - Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish - team up in this lively road trip across Scotland, showcasing the very best of the country’s culture, history and traditions (Neon, 16 February).  LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Campbell's Best Buy for this week is the 2020 Clearview Coastal Chardonnay, which will set you back around $22.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Movie director Chloe Zhao has a huge year ahead. She’s the hot pick for the directing Oscar for her new film Nomadland, which stars Frances McDormand. It was first movie to win the top prizes at this year’s Toronto and Venice film festivals.  If she did take the Oscar, she’d be only the second woman ever to take best director.   On a completely different track, Chloe has also directed new Marvel film, Eternals. As one critic put it ‘Acclaimed festival darling sails into the big-budget arms of Marvel Studios.” She's been talking to Jack Tame. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Weezer has a new album out, OK Human, and Estelle Cliffords been taking a listen. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Free-form potato & courgette pie What to do with all those courgettes that keep threatening to turn into marrows? Make this, you’ll love it!  Serves 2-4  1-2 potatoes, sliced thinly  2-3 courgettes, sliced thinly  1/3 cup plain flour  1/3 cup grated parmesan  1 tsp sea salt  ½ tsp black or white pepper  Pinch chilli flakes  Big bunch basil leaves  Splash of olive oil  Heat oven to 190 C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.In a big bowl, mix potato, courgette, flour, cheese and salt, pepper and chilli flakes until vegetables are well coated in flour. Drizzle over some oil. Pile half ingredients onto tray in a big circle, top with torn basil leaves (reserve some of scattering over once cooked), then add remaining potato/courgette mixture. Drizzle over bit more oil. It will settle down into itself as it bakes.  Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden and crispy on the edges and potatoes are cooked through. Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before scattering with basil leaves then slicing or scooping up portions.

Mike Yardley has been taking a mini-break in Murchison. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rumors are flying that Apple is building a car According to reports they've been talking to manufacturers about some kind of partnership. Bloomberg says Kia and Hyundai were in conversation with Apple, but those talks have now paused. These aren't new rumors - they apparently started working on a car in 2015 but have never confirmed or denied that. I don't see the upside for a car manufacturer. Apple is going to want epic control over every detail and you'll be stretched to the limit to produce enough cars to meet demand. Apple isn't known to be very good at sharing either so their partner isn't likely to get access to their tech.   Instagram is losing in its battle with TiktokThey have a problem.. they desperately want to be TikTok - the product - but don't want to be featuring TikTok content. That's most of what Reels is right now.. recycled TikToks, complete with the TT watermark on it. Instagram now says that any TikTok watermarked content will be downgraded in their recommendation engine to promote peopl

Kevin Milne's on an unusual mailing list ....  and it's made him think he might be in the market for a new hobby.LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Monday, the Māori Affairs select committee will consider changes to the laws around Māori wards on local councils, and it seems extremely unlikely at this stage the new proposal won’t be supported and passed into law. If so, it’ll mean any local councils that establish Māori wards won’t be able to scrap them for at least two elections. At just two days, the submission period  for the law change was unreasonably short. But given how few people care enough about local body politics to actually vote in local body elections, it seems extraordinary there’s much opposition to the law change, except of course this issue involves something Māori, and the perception for some people that Māori might be getting special treatment.Of course, both of those points are 100% right. The issue does concern Māori, and Māori don’t just deserve special treatment but are contractually guaranteed a form of special treatment under the Treaty. Martin van Beynan wrote a really thoughtful piece last week in which he asserted that New

The Foo Fighters have released a new album, Medicine at Midnight. Estelle Clifford has been taking a listen. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Relationship expert Steven Dromgool has some tips on how to stop a fight before it's even started. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Catherine Raynes has been reading The Terminal List by Jack Carr, and Girl A by Abigail Dean. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Planting for autumn  I know, I know … it’s still summer. But now is the time to think of autumn onwards. It’s the perfect time to sow a heap of wild-flowers. Honestly, it’s always brilliant to get that major flush of colour when days are getting shorter and temperatures make you reach for the firewood in the wood shed. There are many suppliers of wildflower mixes in NZ: Wildflower World (Tauranga), Kings Seeds (Katikati), Yates, Egmont, Mr Fothergills. Take your pick! They tend contain a wide range of really pretty flower species: Calendula, larkspur, cornflower, eschscholtzia, nigella, poppy, anagalis, cynoglossum, stock, reseda, gypsophila, and cosmos. Some will flower in autumn, some might pop up in early spring. Soil temps of 15 degrees or more are ideal for germination. Wildflower sowing is optimal when you would re-sow lawns – they have similar requirements. Make sure the patch is weed-free as much as possible: then the wildflowers take over and shade the weeds out. Some light cultivation (especially on

This week, Medsafe conditionally approved the Pfizer vaccine for use in New Zealand. But there are lots of people who still have conerns about getting the jab. Jack Tame has been clearing these up with Dr Bryan Betty, who's the Medical Director for the College of GPs and on the Covid-19 advisory committee.  LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos is stepping down from CEO After 27 years, he'll step into the role of Executive Chairman and focusing his time on his charitable funds, space exploration company Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and his other passions - whatever those are. Andy Jassy, the current CEO of AWS, will be the new CEO. Currently AWS is 60% of Amazon's profit. Jassy has been with Amazon since 1997 after completing his MBA. It seems the markets approve of the change because the stock price is up on last week's close.  Bezos will still hold around 10% of the company so don't expect him to stop having an interest in what's next for Amazon!  Uber's getting into the booze business They've scooped up alcohol delivery platform Drizly which connects liquor stores to delivery people. They'll be folding it into their Uber Eats app. Haven't heard any plans for adding this to their NZ service just yet though. Uber has been more pragmatic lately - in the past year shutting down its flying taxi and autonomous car divis