Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article You can always count on the Herald to provide some good spam but yesterday they have outdone themselves by providing Front Page spam for us. Drink driving: why the law must change A test in which a Weekend Herald [...]

I blame the feral response to National’s announcement – that they will not be dropping the legal blood alcohol limit to 0.05 g% – squarely on the media. I am certain that it is the media’s propensity always to give the maximum amount of airtime and newsprint to the most hysterical over-reaction that encourages people [...]

Some newspaper articles cause me to wonder what is NOT being said. The Herald today runs the headline: Denied help for sexual abuse, dead days later A review of new rules for sexual abuse counseling has come too late to save a South Auckland mother who died four days after her claim for ACC-funded counselling [...]

David Farrar appears to have scooped the newspapers with a leaked version of The Law Commission proposals on alcohol. The Stuff version is here. David’s summary runs: A massive 50% increase in the excise tax on alcohol. This would result in an extra $500 million of revenue to the Crown at the expense of everyone who drinks. Banning [...]

Once more the media appear to be wading in to the campaign to lower the legal driving limit for blood alcohol to 0.05%. Strangely, they quote the recent spate of road traffic fatalities as if this somehow bolsters their argument. This is simply lazy journalism. There is plenty of evidence that lowering the legal Blood [...]

That, apparently, was the defense that was put forward by the killer of Navtej Singh, the man shot by thugs in his liquor store and left to bleed to death. Anitelea Chan-Kee, the man behind the gun that ended Navtej Singh’s life claims that the killing was “accidental” because he “did not realise the gun was [...]

Looks like the government is set to reduce the legal blood alcohol limit from 0.08 to 0.05 for driving. I have blogged quite extensively about this already so I am not going to add much more. It is not a matter of great note, but the lawyers who are saying that it is the law-abiding [...]

It is all so unpredictably zany… Today in the News Millions wasting their time trying to get fit, says study Apparently exercise is a complete waste of time for about 20% of the population. Of course, that means for 80% of New Zealanders it is every bit as good for you as doctors have been [...]

The Sunday Star Times makes the rather obvious connection between the spread of the Superbug ESBL and the lax hand-washing practices of staff, particularly doctors. I will be the first to admit that we doctors are a slack bunch in general when it comes to hand-washing. “There are many excuses healthcare workers come up with [...]

While no-one disputes that driving under the influence of the drug alcohol makes your driving worse, a new survey reports that people driving under the influence of cannabis say their driving is unaffected or even improved by cannabis. Unfortunately, this is simply not true. Although the dose of cannabis per smoke is variable, a single [...]