Could it really cost less than a cup of coffee to power your home for an entire year? Mark Hanna investigates the New Zealand Herald’s extraordinary claim. Yesterday afternoon, the New Zealand Herald broke a huge story about something that, if true, could revolutionise our way of life and possibly even solve climate change. It … Read more
People keep dying in police pursuits. Despite this repeated cycle of calls for change, has anything actually changed? Mark Hanna looks at the evidence This week, as it does every couple of years or so, a police pursuit has hit the headlines because people died. Such incidents generally prompt criticism of police pursuits, sometimes including … Read more
In any country, Stuff’s news story assessing ‘edible sunscreen’ would be questionable. In New Zealand, the melanoma capital of the world, it’s downright irresponsible, writes Mark Hanna. I have a mental checklist of bits of my body I must not forget to put sunscreen on. The back of my neck, the tops of my ears, … Read more
We need a new law to plug the big gap in our regulation of health products, argues Mark Hanna Winston Peters has decided that we don’t need an incoming anti-quackery bill. He’s wrong. In a press release earlier this week, Peters called for the poorly named Natural Health Products Bill to be scrapped: “This Bill is regulatory … Read more
Mark Hanna’s greatest passion is debunking bad science. Here, he looks at the New Zealand Beverage Council’s recent media campaign claiming soft drinks aren’t a big factor in obesity. The New Zealand Beverage Council’s president was interviewed on Morning Report today about a curious, conveniently self-serving claim he’d made in a recent media release: “Olly Munro, President of the … Read more