Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

QUICK HITS

12:15 Yves Behar: free specs
12:20 Wasabi
12:35 Citric acid in food
12:45 Japan: Ramen, beard bans and horrid shirts
13:10 Newspaper props
13:20 Bumpology
13:30 TLC for your septic tank
13:40 Mekong River 2: Myanmar
13:55 New customs charges

THE SMALL PRINT

First up this week, Yves Behar's the chief industrial designer of the One Laptop Per Child Programme. His new project's trying to provide hundreds of thousands of Mexican schoolkids with free glasses.

At 12:20pm we continue our series looking at some of the world's most popular sauces, dressings and condiments. This week, wasabi- it's the grated root from Japan that's good with raw fish.

Then at 12:35pm more food-related questions and citric acid in food is causing Sally a few headaches- quite literally! We speak to a food technologist about why citric acid is cropping up in so much of our food- from margarine to sausages- and what it's being used for.

And before the news we head to Japan and Justin McCurry's a big fan of ramen noodles - they're a Chinese invention that's practically become a Japanese national dish. Now there's festivals to celebrate it and even a ramen museum. Plus a local council stops its staff from having beards, much to the annoyance of Japan's facial hair advocacy group (and yes there really is such a thing!). And we check out Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama's colourful shirt.

After the news at about 1:10pm a funny story involving an identical newspaper appearing in lots of different films and TVs shows. Well an eagle-eyed TV addict spotted it and let the world know via the internet. We enter the newspaper props business to find out why the same paper started turning up everywhere.

At 1:20pm our bumpologist Linda Geddes is back with more of the latest pregnancy science. She's expecting, and this week is looking at whether there's anything you can do before conception to influence your baby's gender. Plus drinking alcohol during pregnancy- is there any such thing as a safe limit?

At 1:30pm there's an estimated 250,000 septic tanks in New Zealand. A listener's recently moved into a place which has one and has been getting all sorts of conflicting advice about what she can and can't put down there. Wastewater specialist Ian Gunn sets the record straight.
General septic tank resources
The Story of Your Septic Tank System (pdf)
On-site Wastewater Systems: Selecting a System for your Property (pdf)

Then at 1:45pm the second part of our trip down the Mekong with Michael Sullivan of NPR. Today he's in Myanmar, a place where reporters aren't exactly welcomed with open arms.

And before we go - bad news if your a fan of online shopping. New charges are coming in from Thursday 1st July every time you bring in more than $400 worth of stuff from overseas.
Import Transaction Fee changes from 1 July 2010
Import Transaction Fee - Questions and Answers

WE'RE PLAYING THESE TRACKS TOO....

Track: El Microfono
Artist: The Mexican Institute of Sound
Album: Pinata
Label: Nacional Records
Broadcast at: 12:30

Track: Njabala
Artist: Birigwa
Album: Birigwa
Label: Porter Records
Broadcast at: 13:10

Track: The Tonguing of a Broken Tooth
Artist: The Shrugs
Album: Nature's Worst (compilation)
http://www.myspace.com/naturesworst
Label: Nature's Worst Records
Broadcast at: 13:40

AND OUR THEME IS:

Track: The Green Termite
Artist: Jefferson Belt
http://www.myspace.com/jeffersonbelt
Album: Table Manners
Label: Round Trip Mars
Catalogue #: RTM 2009