This week in On The Dial, we talk employment and privacy, what happens to that plastic container you’re eating your lunch out of, a unique Tinder challenge, and the latest from the cricket world cup.
If your employer could see what you were posting on Facebook, how worried would you be? The record damages payout imposed on New Zealand's biggest credit union is being hailed as a stern warning to employers who breach their workers' privacy.
Photo: The Wireless/Alexander Robertson
A recent study in Science magazine estimated that eight million metric tonnes of plastic, 1.3 times the weight of the Giza Great Pyramid and equivalent to five grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline around the world, ends up in the ocean. By 2025, this figure is expected to increase – from five grocery bags, to 10, unless we start addressing global waste management and consumption. Sophie Barclay investigates how it gets there.
The internet is full of horror stories of internet dating. Just this week Stella Grey wrote in the Guardian:
There has been a crop of men, lately, who didn’t go to university and are seriously chippy about it. “Everything I know is from the school of life,” one wrote, “and I admit to having trouble with overeducated birds like you.” I thought he was trying to be funny, and wrote an attempt at a funny response. His reply said: “I’m slipping into a coma, but I’m sure there’s someone for everyone in the world.” Then his green light went off, signalling that he had gone offline. Basically, he had hung up on me. I do wonder if online dating websites are, for some men, a safe place to be unbelievably rude to women and express their rage and misogyny. My guess is that some of them have no interest in meeting anyone.
Kate Iselin is an Australian writer who hasn’t taken that to heart. For her Thirty Dates Of Tinder challenge she downloaded Tinder, set it to view both women and men of all ages. She swipes right on everyone. Whoever asks her out on a date, she’ll go out with, and then writes about it.
We’re just over two weeks into the cricket world cup, and most New Zealand cricket fans are slightly bewildered by how well the Black Caps are doing, especially that one-wicket win over Australia. We chat to Radio New Zealand''s cricket reporter, Stephen Hewson.
On the Dial was produced by Megan Whelan, with technical production by William Saunders and Colette Jansen and financial assistance from NZ on Air. Our music was composed and performed by Eddie Johnston, and the cover image was made by Hadley Donaldson.
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