Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

The Sentinel by Lee ChildJack Reacher gets off a bus in Nashville, Tennessee, in a quest for food, lodging and some good country music. But when he encounters a band of musicians who have been cheated by an unscrupulous bar owner, he steps in to help…A Time for Mercy by John GrishamClanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Jake’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line.LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bruce Springsteen’s new album Letter to You released at the end of last month, he’s made history as the first artist to have a top 5 album on the Billboard 200 in six consecutive decades.Estelle Clifford’s been taking a listen, and joined Jack Tame to discuss. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I Am Woman Tilda Cobham-Hervey plays Australian musician and activist icon Helen Reddy. In 1966 Reddy landed in New York with her three-year-old daughter, a suitcase and $230. Within weeks she was broke. Within five years she was a superstar, the first ever Australian Grammy Award winner, and an icon of the 1970s feminist movement.ReunionIvy is packing up an expansive old Victorian home after the recent death of her in-laws. Her husband Jack, wheelchair bound from a stroke, haunts the halls moaning and muttering incoherently.Ellie, Ivy’s estranged daughter, shows up at the front door. She has been away for years, teaching at university and now 6-months pregnant. Ellie says she has come back to be alone and finish a research book on the origins of medieval science. The mother and daughter’s initial awkward interactions gradually fall into the familiar dynamics of previous years.But the old house conjures disturbing memories for Ellie who is haunted by the ghost of her dead sister Cara. Ellie grows more erratic and confused as Ivy tries to comfort her and contain Ellie’s increasingly strange behaviours. But Ellie’s anxiety over her baby, Cara, her guilty past and the supernatural curse on her unborn baby send her over the edge. In the end, Ellie discovers horrors from her past that she never expected.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the world’s largest batteries to store renewable energy is set to be built in Victoria to help drive down power costs for Victorians.The Victorian government on Thursday announced the 300 megawatt Tesla lithium-ion battery would be installed near the Moorabool Terminal Station, just outside Geelong, and would be ready by the 2021-22 summer.Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said it would be the largest lithium-ion battery in the southern hemisphere.She said an independent analysis had showed the battery would deliver more than $2 in benefits to Victorian households and businesses for every $1 invested.She said consumers would pay for the use of the battery through their power bills, but the reduction in wholesale energy prices delivered by the battery would mean Victorians paid less for power.The battery will help reduce wholesale prices by storing renewable energy at a time when the weather makes it plentiful and at its cheapest and then discharging it into the grid when power is needed the most, such as on a 40C day.The state government said the battery would also reserve a portion of its capacity to increase the power flow through the Victoria-New South Wales Interconnector by up to 250 megawatts to help reduce the chances of unscheduled power outages in peak summer months.Global renewable energy company Neoen will pay for the construction of the battery and for its ongoing operation and maintenance.Construction of the battery was expected to create more than 85 jobs, the state government said.Ms D’Ambrosio announced on Thursday she had directed the Australian Energy Market Operator to sign a contract with Neoen to deliver the new Tesla battery.“What we want to proof against is that lack of reliability when we’re in the middle of summer, when businesses need that power to keep running and Victorians need that power at home when they crank up their air conditioners to keep cool and to keep healthy,” she said.AusNet Services executive general manager of regulation and external affairs, Alistair Parker, said it was a “terrific idea”. AusNet will be responsible for connecting the battery into the electricity transmission network that they own and operate.“The particularly smart feature of this battery is the way it enables more capacity around the network day in, day out,” he said.Ms D’Ambrosio said the service was an 11-year contract worth $84 million, and the Victorian battery would be double the size of the one already installed at Hornsdale wind farm in South Australia.text by Jack Paynter, NCA NewswireSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A posthumous album has been released by Kiwi legend Ian Morris from Th’ Dudes. Estelle Clifford has been taking a listen. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Book reviewer Catherine Raynes has been reading Impossible: My Story by Stan Walker, and Breathless by Jennifer Niven. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Resident traveller Mike Yardley has been touring Whataroa and Okarito in South Westland.FOR SOME TIPS, LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christmas isn't always a time of joy, especially when you can't be with your loved ones. Relationships expert Steven Dromgool has some tips on managing the festive season while coping with loss. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Birds in your garden. It’s breeding time! And although you may not realise it, there are likely some species making nests and breeding in dense bushes in your garden. First the story of James Russell: he’s the scientists that works of predator control and subsequent translocations of birds to pest-free islands and restored native bush. During lockdown he decided to do some bird banding in his garden. He was keen to catch his resident fantail that would visit every late afternoon, and he did! Every late-afternoon he caught another fantail – until he realised there were 36 “resident fantails” I in his garden. Moral of story: There are far more birds in your patch than you realise! Bird-banding often reveals a lot about bird populations. I have noticed, so far: 2 blackbird nests, 1 song thrush, 2 dunnocks (hedge sparrows), at least 1 gold finches, a green finch and a few chaffinches in the dense macrocarpa hedge. I also suspect a sneaky bellbird, and am hoping that the Californian quail like my dense wind-break at the bottom of the section. Code of Conduct around nests: If you do stumble across a nest in some shrubbery, while pruning, for instance, have a quick look to see if there are any eggs or young birds in it. If so, back out and conceal the nest as much as possible. Put branches back in their position asap; that gives them privacy from prey-ing eyes of predators. Most bird species can cope with a bit of disturbance – depends on how far in the brood-cycle they are. Usually when they have young in the nest, parents will keep on feeding them. Eggs are a “rather new” investment for the parent birds and they may sometimes pull the plug on that nest. Blackbirds and thrushes are often quite touchy: I noticed that as soon as the nest has been “discovered” and their privacy is breached, the young will fledge far too early and before they can actually fly away from cats and dogs! This puts them in a much more vulnerable situation.During the breeding season, the young birds sometimes do silly things, like fly clumsily into your windows. If you find those top-gun fails sitting on the ground like a stunned mullet, carefully pick them up and put them in a dark card-board box for an hour or so. Out of the light and no interaction. No feeding, watering or handling. Keep them quiet for a while and you’ll be surprised how they recover from such a knock! If your patient is a rare/endangered bird, please contact a local vet and organise some professional hospital care. LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's talk the Reserve Bank will bring back strict LVRs because the property market is so hot. If you're wanting to get in first, what do you need to consider first? Enable Me's Hannah McQueen has been giving Jack Tame some tips - and if you want to get in touch with her in person, her website is www.enable.me LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's talk the Reserve Bank will bring back strict LVRs because the property market is so hot. If you're wanting to get in first, what do you need to consider first? Enable Me's Hannah McQueen has been giving Jack Tame some tips - and if you want to get in touch with her in person, her website is www.enable.me LISTEN TO AUDIO ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Where does your Uber driver go to the bathroomThere almost isn't a type of service that isn't available on-demand in the US.. getting a meal delivered, hanging a picture frame, restocking the booze cabinet, getting a lift somewhere.. but what do the estimated 55 million gig workers do if they're out and about and need to go to the bathroom? Especially in a pandemic when lots of public restrooms are closed? Now they can open Wizz. Whizz has been developed "by gig workers for gig workers" to not only help find them a restroom, but a meal too. They can use the app to get access to a nearby restaurant's bathroom and get a discount on a meal for while they're there. A win/win. Because sometimes, even if you're delivering food for a restaurant, they won't let you use their facilities! It's starting in California, with plans to go national.What recession?! Just listen to these numbers.. Alphabet's Q3 revenue was up 14% on last years. YouTube alone bought in $5 billion. Google made $46 billion in PROFIT last quarter. Amazon made $2 billion more in Q3 than it did in Q3 of last year. Net sales reached almost $100 billion. Apple's Mac division and its services division are posting record revenues, but total revenues are flat. That quarter doesn't include the usual iPhone bump due to coronavirus production delaysYahoo has launched its own Yahoo Phone It's in that wonderful Yahoo purple too and comes preloaded with all your favorite Yahoo apps. It's basically an Android phone with some Yahoo flair. It's yours for $50, but you'll also need to get a Yahoo Mobile phone plan - that's $40 a month. You might ask whyyyyyyyyy!? Well, Yahoo is now owned by Verizon a big US phone company, so it seems they really want to make the most of that IP. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.