This Way Up for Saturday 26 June 2010
Yves Behar - free specs
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 school kids with free glasses.
Wasabi
Our series looking at some of the world's most popular sauces and condiments with Maggie Forest. This week, wasabi- it's the grated root from Japan that's good with raw fish.
Food additives: citric acid
Citric acid or E330 is causing a listener a few headaches. Food technologist Torben Sorensen on why citric acid is cropping up in so much of our food.
Japan: Ramen, beard bans and horrid shirts
Our Japan correspondent Justin McCurry's a big fan of ramen noodles: they're a Chinese invention that have practically become a Japanese national dish. Plus a local council imposes a beard ban of its staff.
Newspaper props
Why an identical newspaper's been appearing in lots of different films and TV shows. We enter the newspaper props business with Gregg Bilson, Jnr of ISS Props.
Bumpology
Linda Geddes is back with more pregnancy science. This week, is there 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?
TLC for your septic tank
A listener's getting all sorts of conflicting advice about what she can and can't put into her septic tank. Wastewater specialist Ian Gunn sets us straight.
Mekong River 2: Myanmar
The second part of our 5,000km trip down the Mekong River with Michael Sullivan of NPR. Today he's in Myanmar, a place where reporters aren't exactly welcomed with open arms.
New customs charges
Bad news if you're 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. Conrad Petersen of the Customs Service has the details.