Nine To Noon for Thursday 11 April 2024

09:05 Debate heating up on management of domestic and feral cats

Cat owners in Hutt City are now required to register, microchip and desex their felines to help reduce the feral cat population under a recently passed bylaw. It's a move that Parliament's Environment Select Committee endorsed last year when it recommended the establishment of a nationwide cat management framework. Later this year, the public will be invited to give feedback on whether feral cats should be added to the Predator Free 2050 strategy. Currently, that strategy only focuses on the removal of rats, stoats, ferrets, weasels and possums. The Predator Free New Zealand Trust says if the country is to be pest-free in 26 years, feral cats must be included, and better management of domestic cats has to be the starting point. But will cat owners and other councils get on board? Predator Free New Zealand Trust Chief executive Jessi Morgan and Hutt City Councillor Andy Mitchell join Kathryn Ryan.

09:30 Kiwi gaming entrepreneurs with a new title set for Apple's VR headsets

Gaming studio Beyond has launched its game Runaways on the Apple Vision Pro headset - the first game made here to release on that platform. It's been a roller-coaster journey for Beyond's co-founders Jessica Manins and Anton Mitchell. The company started in 2018 their first hit was Oddball - an eight-player game on the VR headset Oculus Quest. The company is now known for its free-roam, multiplayer virtual reality games. Oddball was just beginning to make waves, proving popular with celebrities, but it was February 2020 and the pandemic soon changed the landscape. Investors pulled back, realising Beyond's game needed to be played at a location like an entertainment centre - but people were being told to stay home. Jessica and Anton had to tell their team of six they'd run out of money and let everyone go. Not long after that, they got a deal over the line with Weta Workshop and another studio and slowly rebuilt the company. They've largely done that now - releasing a game in 2022 and this month - their latest game - Runaways.

09:45 UK: MP sorry over WhatsApp honeytrap, David Cameron in US

UK correspondent Dan Bloom joins Kathryn to update a story he broke about a spear-phishing scandal at Westminster. Tory MP William Wragg has apologised and "voluntarily" given up the whip after he was targeted in the honeytrap plot and passed on some of his colleagues' numbers. Meanwhile Foreign Secretary David Cameron has been in the US, talking up aid for Ukraine and confirming the UK government won't suspend arms exports to Israel. 

Dan Bloom is senior author of Politico's London Playbook 

10:05 3 Body Problem's Kiwi lead 

Netflix's new sci-fi series '3 Body Problem' is one of the most talked about shows on the planet right now - and it stars a Kiwi actress in one of the leading roles. Jess Hong is an Auckland born New Zealand actress of Chinese descent, known for her roles in local dramas, The Brokenwood Mysteries, Creamerie, and Inked. Now, her latest part see's her playing a genius physicist, Jin Cheng, one of five young scientists navigating a fraying world as the laws of the science begin to crack - threatening humanity. '3 Body Problem' is from 'Game of Thrones' creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and 'True Blood' writer Alexander Woo. Not too mention one of the shows producers is Brad Pitt - not a bad gig for a young actress from Palmerston North. Jess Hong speaks to us ahead of next months Auckland Writers Festival where she's one of the panelists speaking about the science behind science fiction, and how it can communicate some of the world's most complex ideas to even the most science-averse readers. She spoke with Kathryn Ryan about her life-changing role. 

10:35 Book review: Nine Girls by Stacy Gregg 

Joanna Ludbrook from Chicken and Frog Bookshop reviews Nine Girls by Stacy Gregg published by Penguin Random House NZ

10:45 Around the motu : John Freer from the Coromandel

There's a plan to boost aquaculture exports from the region. New territory has been broken with 17 of the district's residents and ratepayers associations having formed an alliance to lobby issues, initially targeting the Thames Coromandel District Council. And John talks to Kathryn about the ongoing saga of an off-limits Cathedral Cove.

CFM local news reporter John Freer from the Coromandel Peninsula

11:05 Tech: Software code libraries and their vulnerabilities

Tech correspondent Juha Saarinen joins Kathryn to talk about software code libraries: what they're used for, where they're vulnerable and the impact AI could have - including creating ones that don't exist that are then used by developers.

Juha Saarinen is a technology journalist and communicator

11:30 Using music therapy to build confidence in children

We intuitively know music is powerful. Songs have the ability to shape the way that we feel about and interact with the world. Music therapists harness that power to help people overcome metal and physical challenges. It can be particularly useful for children who need a little extra push to meet their development goals. Sessions involve celebrating music in all its forms, singing songs and playing instruments. To celebrate World Music Therapy Week, which runs from the 10th to the 15th of April, Kathryn Ryan is joined by registered music therapist and clinical services manager at Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust Rachel Foxell.

11:45 Screentime: Scoop, The Lost Boys of Dilworth, The Sympathizer

Film and TV correspondent Tamar Munch reviews Scoop (Netflix), a film dramatisation of the infamous interview Prince Andrew did with the BBC's Newsnight programme in 2019 over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. She's also look at The Lost Boys of Dilworth (TVNZ), a docu-series on the abuse of boys at a central Auckland school. And The Sympathizer (Neon), is based on a book by Viet Thanh Nguyen about a plant embedded with the South Vietnam army who flees to the US and ends up as a spy for the Viet Cong.