Andrew Dickens Afternoons

Engineers want to build an underground lunar ark, filled with millions of seed, spore, sperm and egg samples from Earth's species, hidden in a network of tubes on the moon to provide a genetic backup for the planet in the event of a doomsday scenario.Scientists from the University of Arizona have proposed an ark, dubbed a "modern global insurance policy" for 6.7 million species from Earth, cryogenically preserved and hidden inside a series of caves and tunnels under the moon's surface.They said the vault could protect the genetic materials in the event of "total annihilation of Earth" which would be triggered by a major drop in biodiversity -- but any move to build such a bunker is a long way off."Earth is naturally a volatile environment," researcher Jekan Thanga, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering in the University of Arizona College of Engineering, said in a statement."As humans, we had a close call about 75,000 years ago with the Toba supervolcanic eruption, which caused a 1,000-year cool

I spent the weekend in Wellington and it was fabulous. I went for my son’s 22nd birthday using the tickets I bought for his 21st birthday that I couldn’t use because some sort of virus was floating around. I arrived on Friday and had a good shop and a great dinner at Havana where the octopus and the gnocchi are to die for. Saturday was a blinder of a day.  The clearest blue with a steady Northerly.  You wonder why they don’t have the America’s Cup in the capital if you’ve got a problem with wind. People were buzzing around doing stuff as only Wellington can on a sunny Sunday.  Maybe it’s the promise of beautiful weather, or the fact that so many public servants are let out of the state architect designed concrete prison cells to do what they want, but Wellington crackles on a Saturday morning the way few places do. We enjoyed the waterfront, went to Makara, had fish and chips on the South Coast as the sun went down behind the South Island. And I thought to myself, who said Wellington was dying? Who said it ha

Let’s try this again - take two on 2021 - because we screwed the first take up. I had high hopes for 2021.  Particularly when the first three day lockdown had the ambition of being a short sharp surgical shock.   I was hoping that the systems and procedures had been sharpened over the previous year to a point where bringing the economy to a screeching halt was unnecessary I was thinking that this was the start of a new normal.  A lockdown that honed in on the viral outbreak like a laser guided missile, quickly identifying those infected and isolating them, cutting any spread before it happened. But I was wrong. We missed three viral vectors. Three people who through either ignorance or disobedience allowed the chance of the virus spreading to a wider community. Faced with learning on a Saturday afternoon that an infected person had been at the gym, the authorities panicked that the gym goers were heading out for a Saturday night to super spread Covid.  So the entire country was punished. I felt for everyone. 

As I watch the news last night I wondered how the young lad at the centre feels as event after dream after hope gets cancelled.  I wonder why the link between his family and the originally infected family was never revealed to the contact tracers.  Did they know what they did was wrong? Was there some link between the families so powerful it made them forget the rules?  Or did they not know the rules in the first place?I wonder about the motivations of the apologists. The counsellor claiming the messages of a year have gone past people because there are 20 languages in South Auckland.  We don’t have enough translators.  How on earth do any of these New Zealand citizens and resident survive if they don’t understand a rule as simple as stay at home if you’re sick?  Or stay at home if you’ve had a Covid test? Don’t visit another family under Level 3?I also wonder how every other denier and complacent feels. They fuel a climate of dissent and lack of responsibility that results in greater anarchy Day in and day o

An Alaska woman had the scare of a lifetime when using an outhouse in the backcountry and she was attacked by a bear, from below."I got out there and sat down on the toilet and immediately something bit my butt right as I sat down," Shannon Stevens told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I jumped up and I screamed when it happened."Stevens, her brother Erik and his girlfriend had taken snowmobiles into the wilderness Feb. 13 to stay at his yurt, located about 20 miles northwest of Haines, in southeast Alaska.Her brother heard the screaming and went out to the outhouse, about 150 feet (45.72 meters) away from the yurt. There, he found Shannon tending to her wound. They at first thought she had been bitten by a squirrel or a mink, or something small.Erik had brought his headlamp with him to see what it was."I opened the toilet seat and there's just a bear face just right there at the level of the toilet seat, just looking right back up through the hole, right at me," he said."I just shut the lid as fast as I co

Firstly today my respects to Christchurch.  10 long years. I was at the first memorial in March of 2011, one month after the event.  Prince William was there and spoke.  He told tens of thousands of Cantabrians this: "My grandmother once said, that grief is the price we pay for love. Here today, we love and we grieve." I saw a young lad who had lost his Mum uncontrollably sobbing.   Towards the end of the service we looked towards the Port Hills and saw hundreds of first responders who walked right across Hagley Park to join us and they were given a standing ovation. It was a blue sky day and a kite was in the air saying “Rise Up Christchurch”. I’m sure all these sentiments will be present today.  10 years is no time at all really. But today will also see the Australian cricket side play against the Blackcaps in Hagley Park. Our best venue that was born out of the quake which also shows you how far we’ve come. On the Covid front we have a possible change from Level 2 to 1 for Auckland.  I think this is on the

Yesterday morning, I thought I’d start my programme with another call to rationalise or even nationalise our water and wastewater operations. This is prompted by situations facing Waikouaiti, Karitane and Turnberry who have now been joined by Akaroa.  Towns whose basic necessity, water, has been poisoned by lead and opossums.  They join a long line of shameful water management including our capital. If the government wants a shovel ready infrastructure project to get their teeth into then fixing the nation’s water supply should be at the top of the list. But that was yesterday. Today we’re back in lockdowns.  Called faster than ever before, which caused a strange pandemonium. I have a great sympathy for all the Cafes and hospitality businesses, who suddenly had just minutes to hours to sort their stock out.  Frantically trying to save food before being forced to throw it all out and the money it represents. But I understand the need for health services to crack on.  I’ve always found it strange that having de

I want to talk about governance.Governance is defined in the dictionary is the way rules, norms and actions are structured, sustained , regulated and held accountable. It’s the job of governments in public life and board in corporate life. But I view governance differently.To me, governance is the trick of actually doing something, actually achieving something and actually running something for the greater good.  You know, governing.I’ve been moved to talk about governance because of continuing failures in this nation and overseas by the people who are charged with it. In reality, Governance is not what governments do.  Politicians can’t run a thing.  Sure, they make decisions and plot directions but they then hand the job over to a workforce who are supposed to be professionals at getting stuff done. The professionals at governance. When Phil Twyford said the last government would build 100,000 houses he made an enormous blunder.  But part of that blunder was the inability of the public servants in his charg

For as many foes as the superhero fends off, Batman has a formidable team of supporters starting with his sidekick Robin, Gotham City Commissioner James Gordon and his ever-loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth.But one of the Caped Crusader's most fervent supporters lies not in a comic book, but in the US Senate, and he's known the Bat for more than 80 years.Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and the longest-serving member of the current Senate, is a Batman aficionado who's turned his fandom into philanthropy. He's even used the comics to forward his legislative agenda.Now President pro tempore of the Senate, Leahy is third in the presidential line of succession. Though it's unlikely he'll ever have to serve as President, his high-profile position shines a brighter light on his colorful resume -- which includes multiple appearances in the "Batman" films.When he's not working in the Senate chambers in Washington, Leahy retreats to Gotham, where Batman fights cartoonish villains and mans the Batmobile. It's

So Covid is in the Community. No great surprise, we all knew it was just a matter of when. Last week I hosted ZB's Drive Show and started with an editorial as you always do. In it, I railed at New Zealanders pathetic usage of the Covid App. I criticised opinion writers like Peter Dunne and Richard Prebble who spent the summer dissing the app.  I shamed the vast majority of customers at my supermarket who breezed past the QR code without scanning it when the process takes seconds.  I know that because I got my son to time me. I got a lot of support but also a lot of criticism. One comment stuck in my mind from a bloke called Michael.  Michael told me to “Jump in the River, Mate. You’re so self righteous.  I’ll scan when there’s community transmission and not before”. So, how are you feeling about that now Michael? The infected woman left MIQ on Wednesday January 13.  She started feeling iffy on Friday 15.  She finally got tested on the Friday 22, it was confirmed on Saturday and announced yesterday. So the vir

Speaker Trevor Mallard has been accused of destroying an innocent man’s life, after falsely accusing a parliamentary member of being a rapist.Mallard's in the firing line amid revelations taxpayers footed a $330,000 bill for his settlement and legal costs of a defamation action - after he wrongly called a staff member a rapist.Newstalk ZB Political editor Barry Soper told Andrew Dickens the Prime Minister and Labour Party are not living up to their own words and values.“If Jacinda Ardern pleads well-being and kindness as she does, there has been none of that applied to the man at the centre of this.“He’s now very ill as a result of the accusation made against him, his life has been destroyed. That is not well-being or kindness.”LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mallard, Bubbles and how good are those Black Caps. They seem to be our current pre-occupations. Let me deal with the dead duck walking, Speaker Trevor Mallard. The calls for him to resign or be sacked have been almost universal. They will be universally ignored because Labour controls the House. Not just controls. Dominates. There is no need for them to spill their own blood on the floor and in the scheme of things a third of a million is chicken feed compared to the welfarism they continue to fund.  For instance yesterday over $170 million was pledged to keep air freight moving. But here’s why I think Labour should give a damn about the Speaker and give him the boot. In all the debate thus far we’ve heard about 2 men. One who accused the other of being a rapist who in turn claimed he was defamed. But what about the woman who raised concerns in the first place. The woman whose case was described so glibly by the Speaker that resulted in the stalemate we’ve reached. Her concerns appear to have been buriedThe

So we’re talking Whakaari White Island again. That’s not surprising as the one year anniversary arrives on December 9.  But it is surprising we’re also talking about Worksafe prosecutions  Last week, Worksafe announced that it would be taking 13 parties to court, including 10 organisations and three individuals. Those charges and what they were charged with remains confidential allowing the parties to apply for suppression when  the charges are presented to the Court. However a number of organisations including GNS have been prepared to admit they’ve been charged. The release of the intention to prosecute so close to the anniversary I thought was not very worksafe by Worksafe.  Employees already wearing the emotional baggage of shock and guilt were suddenly named and by inference shamed. I know I was already reflecting on the day.  I was on air at the time and I clearly remember discovering a timelapse CCTV shot of the crater featuring a party walking towards the crater.  A moment later the time lapse showed

Everything is relative, said Einstein. Nothing can be measured and assessed if we don’t have a focal point where everything can be measured and assessed on. Apples can only be measured against apples and oranges against oranges. It something that you should bear in mind when assessing our response to Covid. If you look at New Zealand in isolation then it is fair to say the actions of the Government have been a dreadful burden for the country to bear. And in doing a series of lockdowns, we have caused unprecedented economic damage. But to put to assess it correctly you need to look at it relatively. First thing to do is look at it with a time scale.  This is an evolving situation stemming from a single time point in late March.  Every day that goes past alters the relative effect of the actions.  Every day that we have Covid free is a day that improves the outcomes and its relative effectiveness. In the early days of the Covid battle, much was made of the countries with more lenient lockdowns and measures and

Nicole Grey first dreamed of becoming a cop as a teenager, and, at age 24, she thought it would finally become a reality.However, after waiting for about two years to get a place, she says she was told just days before she was due to start training in Wellington that she couldn't attend.She'd had a busy couple of years - in the space between applying and getting accepted she went through a marriage breakdown, did a tester course on what police life would be like and worked part-time to support her two young children."The same 24 hours that I signed my contact into police college, which in itself is an achievement, I stumbled across an article on the internet which mentioned adult ADHD."Listen above as Grey shares her story with Andrew DickensSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Auckland Council is warning that they’re going to be in financial doo-doo because of Covid for at least four years.   There are rumours of dramatically increased water charges and rates amidst a reduction of services. Auckland is not alone.  Wellington is talking about rate rises of 23 per cent. It’s not good. There’s a billion dollar hole in Auckland’s finances.   One of the reasons is that 60 per cent of the council’s revenue comes from Auckland Airport and City Events.  That’s gone. Blame has also gone onto declining dividends from the Ports of Auckland.  But can we blame Covid for that?  I don’t think so. There are now supply chain warning all over the place in the New Zealand economy.  My chemist has run out of my aftershave and says there is no sign of new supplies.  There’s a 16 week wait for wallpaper to arrive. There are warnings that Christmas orders will never appear. Covid is being blamed for the situation at our number one import port in Auckland.  But how come imports are being transferred t

Some of New Zealand's most legendary musicians are headlining a variety concert this summer.The Kiwi Concert Party will take place at Auckland's Villa Maria Winery on January 23, 2021, and promises to be a two-hour entertainment with something for everyone. Tim Finn, Bic Runga, the Topp Twins and the Hātea Kapa Haka group are headlining. Runga, Finn, and the Topps will perform live on stage together and will also perform each other's songs.Finn says in a statement the concert will be a great way to "shift the mood" of the past year."I thought after everything we'd been through together in 2020, a mix of music and comedy would be a great tonic," Finn said. The variety show will also feature singer-songwriter Reb Fountain, who will open the show, plus DJ Manuel Bundy."The idea for a Kiwi Concert Party starring Bic Runga, the Topp Twins and myself felt both classic and timely. Add into that mixture the Hātea Kapa Haka group with their amazing vocal harmonies, a musical director of the calibre of Karl Stevens, ac

The stars and stripes have been fluttering all week on the streets of Ballina -- the town of just 10,000 in the west of Ireland where US president-elect Joe Biden's Irish ancestors hail from.Ten of the former vice president's 16 great-great-grandparents were born in Ireland, according to the Irish for Biden campaign, with Edward Blewitt, Biden's great-great-great-grandfather, providing the Ballina connection.On Saturday, as CNN projected Biden's White House win, Ballina residents came out to celebrate their distant kin's success."I think Ballina has saved the world tonight, because without Ballina, there would be no Joe Biden," Smiler Mitchell, a local publican, told CNN.Balloons were tied to cars and the crowd sang "The Green and Red of Mayo," a famous ballad about the county where Ballina is situated. One car with a cardboard cut out of Biden in the front seat had a license plate which read, "PENNSYLVANIA BIDEN #1."In the lead-up to the election, the community held a "Ridin' for Biden" event around the brid

So it’s over.The power of good and righteousness has finally defeated the evil that has occupied the White House for the past four years.Well, that’s what some are saying.  The fact of the matter is that little really changed. Just like Clinton before him, Biden has won the popular vote, this time with a record number of votes.  But Trump also polled very well. Biden got 75.2 million votes, while Trump got 70.8 million. Both men getting more votes than any President ever. There is an enormous bloc of Americans who find nothing wrong with Donald Trump and were more than happy to give him another mandate.  This is not a sweeping victory in fact it is a concern for the Democrats, faced with a universally derided President they failed to convince nearly 71 million people that they could do better.What is their vision?  Biden ran on the ticket that he is not Trump.  Pure and simple.  He said little about Covid and post pandemic recoveries. Often people ask how could people vote for Trump. Well, go and ask many of

What a walloping, and now the recriminations begin for one side and the plans for the successful government start to fall into place. Starting with National, this is a disaster and their only hope is to realise how and why they got it so wrong over the past three years. It is all their own fault and they should not shift the blame. It started in 2017 when they failed to secure a coalition partner gifting government to Labour. National supporters blame Winston.  But there was little chance after the way the party treated Mr Peters for an extended period of time.  John Key knew this.  As soon as the Māori Party started to crumble as their kaumatua retired, Mr Key knew he had no friends left so flew the coop. A smart party would have built a bridge to Winston. But they didn’t. After the shock loss the dithering began.  They lost Stephen Joyce and with him a number of other talents. The election of Bridges and Bennett split the party and no Bridges-bridges were built.  Simon believed that the party needed to be a