Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

A number of big websites in the US and Europe are being hit by what appears to be a large cyber attack.

It's been disrupting sites including Twitter and Netflix, as well as Spotify, Airbnb and Reddit.

Services including PlayStation Network have also been hit.

The first problems appeared on the East Coast of the United States but reports soon spread to Europe.

LISTEN ABOVE: CNN correspondent Samuel Burke speaks to Jack Tame about the apparent attack

Kevin Milne spoke to Jack Tame about bringing a new sport to the elderly - a mobility scooter race.

Jack Tame opened his show by discussing how the All Blacks are better equipped than any other team to attempt a world-record at tonight's Bledisloe Cup match.

Holding - Graham Norton, Hodder & Stoughton General Division, $29.99

Duneen is a quiet place, far enough from the big towns to have kept its own rhythms. Its residents include castdown policeman PJ who lives a lonely, uneventful life punctuated only by the next meal - until now; the beautiful and mysterious family of three spinster sisters each with their own secrets and sorrows; and of course, the town's gossip who think she knows the answers. When a grim discovery is made on a building site up by the old school, it becomes the catalyst for long buried secrets and rivalries to come to light and this silent, once innocent and repressed-seeming town is revealed to have a much darker, hungrier undertow.

 

Small Great Things - Jodi Picoult, Allen & Unwin, $29.99

'If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.' Martin Luther King Jr..'I don't want that nurse touching my baby.' Those are the instructions from the newborn child's parents. However, when the baby goes into cardiac arrest, Ruth, a nurse of twenty years' experience, sees no option but to assist. But the baby dies. And Ruth is charged with negligent homicide...Ruth is shattered and bewildered as she tries to come to terms with her situation. She finds different kinds of support from her sister, a fiery radical, and her teenage son, but it is to Kennedy McQuarrie, a white middle-class lawyer, to whom she entrusts her case, and her future...As the two come to develop a truer understanding of each other's lives, they begin to doubt the beliefs they each hold most dear. For the privileged to prosper, they come to realise, others have to suffer. Racism takes many forms and is reinforced by the structures of our society...In gripping dramas like Nineteen Minutes, My Sister's Keeper and The Pact, Jodi Picoult has explored the big issues of our time through characters whose lives resonate with us. Here we see once again her unrivalled ability to immerse us in a story whose issues will linger with us long after the final page has been turned...

Jack’s guest this morning Helen Robinson: the former chief executive of Microsoft New Zealand, now chair of at least five companies.

She’s also a board member for Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development and works with New Zealand rugby.

This week, Helen was the supreme winner at Westpac’s Women of Influence Awards.

She told Jack about her life in business.

Coastal Spring Lamb was the supreme winner at this week's 2016 NZ Food Awards so Nici thought she would share her recipe for cooking the perfect lamb rack.

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Remove any silver skin with a sharp knife as this will shrink and curl upon cooking.

Salt and oil meat.

Heat ovenproof pan to medium to high.

Lay rack in pan, meaty side down, and brown well – about 3-4 minutes. Turn and brown bone-side for 2 minutes.

Transfer to oven and cook for 12 minutes, then check by pressing meat – it should feel firm but still springy, not too soft and squidgy (like raw meat does).  Cook a little longer if need be.

Remove and rest for 12-15 minutes before serving or cutting.

 

Home-made Dukka

¼ cup mixed roasted macadamia nuts & almonds

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp coriander seeds

2 tbsps sesame seeds

½ tsp salt

Toast all seeds and nuts  - do this separately as some cook fast (sesame) and some more slowly (almonds).

Blitz together until roughly crushed.

Resident movie reviewer Darren Bevan joins Jack Tame to talk about the latest Dan Brown adaptation Inferno, the new documentary from Louis Theroux My Scientology Movie, and he also takes a look at The Conjuring 2, which is out on DVD.

Kevin Milne joins Jack Tame this morning fresh from a trip to one of the Cook Islands, and shares some thoughts on the experience.

As numerous women come forward to accuse Donald Trump of being a lecherous, serial sexual assaulter, it looks like his run at the American presidency might be faltering. 

But just one question should decide whether he gets anyone's vote, Jack Tame thinks.

Nici loves the theme of breakfasts and how much they differ depending on where you are.

For example in Egypt the breakfast staple is foul, which is beans and spices, lashings of garlic and olive oil, chopped tomatoes and more. It's delicious and fills you up all day!

In Greece, it's flaky cheese and pastry-filled pies, drizzled in honey and puddles of dark black coffee.

In Spain, it's the tortilla, and in Japan it's breakfast is dominated by salmon, nori and miso soup.