I would imagine that there is nothing scarier for a teacher than to be confronted by a child having a full-blown allergic reaction to something. It is pretty stressful for emergency-trained doctors and nurses so it must be doubly so for a non-medical person. Schools have the dilemma of wishing to reduce the risk of [...]

Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article.
Thanks to Crusader Rabbit for pointing me to this lovely bit of medical spam at News.com.au:
Energy drinks’ ’serious’ heart risk
JUST one energy drink can cause “serious heart conditions”, a world-first study has found.
The report, according to Adelaide Now, has [...]

Yet another child has been attacked by vicious dogs and severely injured. The dogs have been destroyed but the owner, unfortunately remains very much alive and able to own more dogs. Sure, he will be banned from owning dogs, but seeing as he is unlikely to have microchipped or licensed his previous dogs, this will [...]

One would think that if one purchased an expensive item like an iPhone, one would actually read the manual for it. But no. Someone with an iPhone has got back from holiday to a nice, chunky bill from Telecom due to data roaming. Here is his tale of woe(ful ignorance):
“Our advice is don’t turn it [...]

Yesterday’s Weekend Herald contained a couple of articles on Bisphenol-A, otherwise known as BPA. BPA is used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastics – the commonest plastic used to make drink bottles and linings of cans. There have been studies in rats and mice that show that BPA causes altered sexual development, aggression and obesity. [...]

Interesting video from the last moments of the Ady Gil posted at RoarPrawn.

You will note that the Ady Gil was indeed powered down (to save fuel) and the Shonan Maru 2 turns to starboard and bears down on them, possibly to bring them into range of its water cannons but more likely to avoid the [...]

After all the scare stories about the dangers of cell phones the Herald carries an article today that is a delicious irony.
Mobile phones may improve memory – study
The headline is, of course, the usual media hyperbole. The study they are “interpreting” is one on mice that have been genetically engineered to develop a disease that [...]

Is anyone really surprised that there has been a serious collision between a Japanese Whaler and the Sea Shepherd boat Ady Gil (formerly Earthrace)? Given that the raison d’être of the Sea Shepherd crews is to engage in dangerous and provocative acts in one of the most hostile environments known to man. That requires a [...]

You may have already made them or you might make them today. New year’s resolutions. You will probably regret making them sometime within the next week or two. There will be lashings of guilt and outpourings of frustration. Fortunes will be spent on pointless Gym memberships. Garages will be filled with unused gym equipment. Your [...]

It is time to lay the myth that cellphone use causes cancer to rest. In a Scandinavian study not yet published (but available online), the authors have gathered all the cancer registry data from four countries with similar registry requirements (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) and have determined the trends in brain tumour incidence over [...]