It comes as no real surprise that the National government’s review of the council-based business case for a CBD rail loop has found that the council review vastly overstated the benefits. Rail enthusiasts will now all cast aspertions on this report, saying how the review has been loaded with anti-rail bias. More-or-less the opposite of [...]
Philosophically, I have a deep disquiet about the tendency of my profession to medicalise health. While I have no qualms at all about vigorously treating risk factors for heart disease such as high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, I confess to being a little dubious about the advisability of blindly treating the general population with the cocktail of drugs [...]
Harold Camping, the man who predicted the rapture incorrectly in 1994 and on 21 May this year, has revised his estimate of the end of the world. Despite the fact that Jesus himself informed us that not even he knew the hour of his return (Matt 24:36), Mr. Camping informs us that the return of [...]
The Myth of the Evil Employer Last Sunday Helen Kelly launched into a revealing diatribe about employee/employer relationships: Council of Trade Unions head Helen Kelly has accused the National government of trying to instil an attitude in which employers should be treated with deference and workers simply grateful to have jobs. Speaking to the Labour [...]
It seems that all the parties have produced mini budgets over the past couple of weeks, presumably to steal the thunder from National’s budget. Slim pickings there, then. As a service for those with little time for politics, the MacDoctor provides a brief summary of the various “budgets”: National: The “Nero” Budget Fiddle a bit [...]
I see Nick Smith has answered the MacDoctor’s question: The worrying thing here is that Mr Smith apparently has no idea whether there is a problem with ACC claims and no inclination to find out. Over 400 people have complained to the Herald and ACC lose fully one third of all their disputed claims. Yet Mr. Smith would like “a larger number”! How [...]
Aviation safety experts will tell you that the weakest link in any system is the human component. They spend their days devising new ways to remove reliance on humans beings performing error-free tasks. They know that there is no such person. All humans make mistakes. The question is why do we rely on humans to [...]
The past two weeks certainly have been interesting in New Zealand politics. Buccaneer Brash sails into the Act caucus and makes Rodney Hide walk the plank one week and Hone the Horrible blunders through the political landscape in true barbarian fashion in the next. Suddenly, the rather colourless election looming in November looks like it [...]
It is sad to watch the terrible debilitating effect of Key Derangement Syndrome on opposition politicians and their pet lap-blogs. Every week there is a new attempt to smear John Key with some sort of scandal. Each week is more pathetic than the last. This past week we have had the unedifying sight of Labour [...]
