Honest Universe

Pharmacies are an integral part of the healthcare industry. They provide a valuable decoupling between the doctor you see for an examination and potentially a prescription, and the institution that stands to profit from the medicine you pay for. Without this separation, there’s the potential for a conflict of interest where the physician examining you […] … Read More

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) is part of the healthcare system in New Zealand. To quote themselves on their purpose, they provide “comprehensive, no-fault personal injury cover for all New Zealand residents and visitors to New Zealand”. To put it simply, if you hurt yourself in an accident in New Zealand, ACC will likely pay […] … Read More

In last month’s issue of my local community newsletter, Onehunga Community News, an article was published about water fluoridation. For those of you who are non-locals, Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland, and in general drinking water in Auckland is fluoridated. The article mentioned some of the recent national news about fluoridation, which I won’t […] … Read More

In the Herald today, a letter to the editor from a Mr Barry Davis was published regarding an article about a recent scientific report on the evidence regarding homeopathy published by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council: Effectiveness of Homeopathy for Clinical Conditions: Evaluation of the Evidence The report evaluated the evidence regarding […] … Read More

As I mentioned in an earlier post, after looking up at the night sky through binoculars for the first time over my summer holiday, I decided to buy a telescope this year. On the 27th of January, I went to see a show at the local observatory, Stardome, and ended up talking to one of […] … Read More

This morning I saw an article in the NZ Herald on the “paleo diet” that rather frustrated me. It seems like a great example of poor science reporting, trying its hardest to turn a study into a story instead of doing any actual science reporting. The role of a science reporter is not to sensationalise, […] … Read More

Yesterday, the Advertising Standards Authority released a decision regarding a TV advertisement for Panadol Extra. The advertisement claims that the product is “37% more powerful than standard paracetamol tablets”. Although this is not the claim that was challenged in the complaint, the advertiser, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), provided a citation in attempt to substantiate their claim. However, […] … Read More

UPDATE 2014/17/01 1:54pm NZDT: The content of the page has now been updated for the better, although its title still says “Telescopes for astronomy or land viewing; a great gift for him”. Over the summer holidays, for the first time ever I took some binoculars outside on a clear night and looked up at the […] … Read More