Mike Yardley: History, artistry, and nature on display in Ōamaru

Kiwi ecologist and best-selling natural history author Robert Vennell is back with a new book. He published his first book seven years ago – 'The meaning of Trees' looking at the history and use of New Zealand's native plants. Since then, he's published 'Secrets of the Sea', 'The Forgotten Forest', and just last month released 'Song of the Birds', looking at the history of our native birds. In the book, Vennell looks at both how humans have impacted and shaped the lives of birds, and also how birds have shaped the lives of humans. "They've shaped our culture, and our, our language, and our worldview in lots of different ways," he told Jack Tame. "The book kind of explores the influence of birds on Te Ao Māori, sort of through the culture, through how birds have influenced the language, through whakapapa, through waiata and poetry..." "But also how birds have come to be this kind of shared New Zealand identity, a big part of how we think about ourselves is these kinds of distinctive, unique creatures in this little island in the South Pacific." LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Milne has a conundrum. The Election is officially one week away on November 7th. Also on November 7th is his wife Linda's birthday. This puts Kevin between a rock and a hard place, as he loves watching the Election Night coverage, whereas Linda's not so keen. He put it to Jack Tame whether he should join her and their daughter for celebrations, or spend the night in front of the television. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Five years after releasing his debut album, Kiwi musician TEEKS is back with something new. 'Lovers Comet' explores desire, intimacy, identity, and love through the lens of celestial bodies and cosmic phenomena. Chris Schulz joined Jack Tame to share his thoughts on the album. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chain Reaction by Lee Child and Andrew Child Jack Reacher is a hard man to track down. And that’s just the way he likes it. But General Susan Turner, based deep inside the Pentagon, has the means, and the motive, to do so. She needs his help. A member of her team has been brutally murdered on covert duty. She can’t trust anyone she works with, not even her deputy. She needs someone from the outside. Someone who solves problems and disappears without a trace. Reacher heads to Summertown, Colorado. A town as remote and bizarre as it gets. One diner, one motel, five massive data centres, two giant solar farms humming away in the dust. Total population: four people. And one of them is watching him. But Reacher isn’t built to run. He’s built to finish things. General Turner knows: if they come for him, they'll regret it - all the way to the top of the chain.

Paracetamol is one of the most widely used over-the-counter medications we have and most of us probably use it for common things such as headaches, muscle aches, etc. Unlike anti-inflammatory medications which work directly at the site of pain by reducing inflammation, paracetamol acts on our brain and nervous system to reduce our perception of pain or the strength of the pain response in our brains. Given it works directly on our brains, it may not be surprising that if could have other effects on us as well, for example, impacting our emotional response to pain. In fact, previous research has found that paracetamol reduces emotional responses to things like their own social rejection and empathy for others' pain. New research looked at how paracetamol might impact people’s sense of fear, an emotion which is linked to pain, as it can keep us safe by making us more careful around potentially dangerous situations. To test this out, researchers gave participants either paracetamol or a placebo an hour before doing a task. Their task was to play a VR game called “Richie’s Plank Experience”. In this game people go up to the 80th floor of a skyscraper and walk as far as they can along a 2-metre plank. To make it even more real, the researchers got people to walk on an actual plank while playing the game. In the game itself you can jump off the plank and fly around the city putting out fires. The researchers measured a variety of characteristics indicative of fear and found that those people who took paracetamol: Stepped onto the plank sooner Walked across the plank faster Had a smaller increase in heart rate while on the plank Interestingly, participants did not report dramatically lower fear levels when directly asked how frightened they felt. However, their behaviour and physiological responses suggested they were reacting less cautiously to the threatening situation. The researchers believe that paracetamol may influence brain regions involved in evaluating the significance of events. If dangers seem less threatening, fear responses may become weaker. This could explain why people on paracetamol moved more quickly and appeared less cautious when doing this task. The findings raise an important question: if paracetamol reduces fear-related caution, could it influence behaviour in real-world situations? Fear often serves a protective purpose. It encourages people to: Slow down Assess risks carefully Avoid dangerous situations Pay attention to threats If a medication reduces some of these protective responses, it could theoretically affect decisions in situations such as driving, operating machinery, working at heights etc. BUT – it's important to say not to stop using paracetamol based on the strengths of this one study! Nor should people try and use more as a way of self-medicating, as there are considerable dangers in overusing paracetamol, particularly liver damage. However, it is interesting to be aware that side effects of a common medication could be much wider than we initially think and it’s good to understand these. Here’s the reference in case anyone is interested: Behavioural consequences of blunting fear with acetaminophen. Emotion, 26(6), 1315–1322. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.