Sponsor's Message

With the simple wave of a plastic box plastered with LEDs and things that make a kind of buzzy noise, broken bones are set, bleeding stops and tissue is repaired. No pain, no fuss, no problem.

Unfortunately these things are still strictly in the domain of scifi right now -- which annoys me because last week I ripped my rotator cuff.

What on earth is a rotator cuff?

Well to be quite honest, I didn't even know I had a rotator cuff until I found out that just because you can lift a 50Kg tank of LPG with one arm and sling it over your shoulder, doesn't mean it's a good idea to do so.

A few years ago, if the doctor had told me I had a rotator-cuff injury I'd have probably asked him what he was talking about and then had to trot off to the library if I wanted more detailed info.

Living in a small town, chances are that I'd have found only minimal additional info there and the books I really wanted would almost certainly have had to be ordered in from elsewhere.

Boy, the Net has sure changed all that eh?

A quick search on Google left me in no doubt that I was in trouble and all manner of medical-related websites were happy to remind me that I'm now over-40, because it seems that age is one of the most prevalent factors in such injuries.

Having this huge resource of medical information at your fingertips can be very empowering -- and a little frightening sometimes. I wonder how the medical profession feels now that patients can do their own homework, come in with a fairly good idea of what's wrong with them, and discover what's needed to fix it?

There can be few things more dangerous than "a little knowledge" -- which of course leads us to spam.

I suspect that there are a small but measurable number of people who do this whole self-diagnosis thing on the Net and then fall victim to the spammers who fill their mailboxes with pitches for "pharmacy-only medicines at reduced prices."

Perhaps this is another reason to take the issue of spam more seriously?

Do we really want NZers self-diagnosing with the aid of the Net then prescribing their own medications, sourced from some unidentified and probably unlicensed supplier?

Something for the legislators to think about as they quietly push the prospect of anti-spam legislation under the carpet again.

Putting NZ On The Map Again
Well my mailbox has been slowly filling with emails from the UK during the past 24-hours.

Why? Well it's because I was on this programme which has sparked an enormous amount of interest in my jet engine technologies and even produced a couple more serious commercial inquiries.

But right now my arm is aching like hell so I'm going to stop typing until tomorrow. Where did I file that spam advertising low-cost morphine?....

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