My late mother was a lifelong non-smoker. She was also an opera fan. Hard as she tried to get me enthused about opera, it never quite happened. Carmen was my mother’s favourite. This week she would have turned in her grave. For all the wrong reasons Western Australia...
Two years ago I wrote about the case of a family, which had to take down a tree house due to the stupidity and intransigence of government. It had breached some guideline of some description. Despite governments running ads extolling children to be active, it appears...
There was a meme on facebook that caught my eye. It described growing your own food as being an act of civil disobedience. This seems odd as there is no law against doing it and most of us who grow herbs or lemons would hardly regard it as some sort of statement. I do...
Two events this week remind me that we cannot believe everything we see or hear. And perhaps more pointedly how much of a news story might we not hear. In turn the omission of information can colour our impression without anything “false” being said. Regular readers...
With all the hype and paranoia about parenting and the dangers faced by children, it is really good when some facts emerge. Figures published in The Economist reveal that children in the 1950’s were five times more likely to die before age five than today. Yet as it...
A while back I received a letter from a soft drink maker. It sought to explain how soft drinks could be part of a healthy balanced diet. It also suggested that diet soft drinks were something doctors could mention to patients wanting to lose weight. As a doctor I get...
