Not satisfied with rendering cold and flu medicines ineffective by removing pseudoephedrine from general sale, Medsafe continues it’s onslaught on cold and flu meds by trying to remove all the syrups and infusions from supermarket shelves. Apparently they are concerned about the use of them in under sixes (despite the fact that fatalities are very [...]
Suppose a German Shepherd had just killed his police handler by mauling him in an unprovoked attack? This dog has a history of previously mauling the dead body of a drunk who fell into the dog’s pen and broke his neck. The same dog had also been involved in the death of another police handler, [...]
Back from South Africa, anyway. Jet lagged out of my gourd as well.
After a decade away (15 years since emigrating), South Africa now feels like a foreign land to me. The South African government claims that crime has dropped since the Apartheid years but I doubt very much that that is true. Absolutely everyone I [...]
An Australian forensic pathologist, Professor Roger Byard, wades into the herbal remedy debate with the dire warning Herbal remedies can kill. This is rather over the top, even for an aussie. Sure, there have been fatalities from herbal remedies, especially some of the Chinese ones that contain things that are suspiciously non-herbal. But you can [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
If I suggested to someone that they should let their six-year-old drive their Kawasaki motorbike down the freeway, you would rightly be suggesting that they lock me up somewhere nice and quiet. Yet that is more or less how risky it is to allow a child to ride an ATV (All-Terrain vehicle alias a Quad-bike) [...]
My little amphibian friend over at FrogBlog is having a whine (or would that be a croak?) at ACC proposed increase in motorcycle levies. He dismisses this ACC explanation as “spin”. As usual with the motorcycle debate, there is much heat and misinformation, but I thought ACC’s new release was remarkably non-spin, considering the amount [...]
There needs to be a balance between cutting ACC entitlements and increasing levies, Prime Minister John Key says.
The Herald tries to spin this as ACC choice – pay more or get less, says Key. Unfortunately, they are being a little overly optimistic. What Key is actually saying is that we will be paying more for [...]
The serious accident over the weekend involving a car ploughing into four cyclists has brought out the usual knee-jerk response from the cycling associations. This from Cycle Action Auckland:
She hoped Auckland Mayor John Banks would be prepared to discuss options such as narrowing the traffic lanes to provide more space for cyclists, and lowering the [...]
