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In some good news for nearly half the world's men, scientists have found that a naturally occurring sugar in humans and animals could be harnessed as a topical treatment for male pattern baldness. This discovery could deliver a non-invasive, inexpensive and safer alternative to leading treatment minoxidil. · An international team of scientists from the University of Sheffield and COMSATS University Pakistan has found that the organic compound…

Family means everything to John and Catherine and family values are firmly behind the successful operation of JB’s Flooring Xtra, operating in their local Franklin area. · John has a wealth of experience in theindustry, having completed his apprenticeship upon leaving school as a carpet layer, and continuing in the industry while Catherine, involved in several office administration and accounts roles cared for their family as they grew. After…

It’s easy to look back at the bad haircuts, beige clothes and brown Beehive carpets and chuckle. But whatever one’s views on its aesthetics, the Fourth Labour Government – elected 40 years ago on July 14 – was no laughing matter. · After nine years of economic nationalism and social conservatism under National prime minister Robert Muldoon, David Lange’s new broom left no corner unswept. In the space of a few short years, fuelled by a…

The rising price of food has been making headlines for the past decade. But prices have not been rising consistently across all food groups – and this has major health implications for New Zealanders. · Last week Stats NZ released food price data showing the biggest drop in prices in six years. The second quarter consumer price index, due out today, will give a broader overview of the inflationary pressures facing New Zealanders, including the…

There is a lot of good in Housing Minister Chris Bishop’s new housing policy – especially in relation to mixed-use developments and intensification along transit corridors. But he has also proposed the abolition of minimum floor area and balcony requirements. · Will removing minimum dwelling sizes result in poor quality housing? The short answer is yes. · The minister has justified the minimum requirements by arguing any apartment, regardless…

At first glance, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has just put in a performance for the ages in the British general election. · The incoming prime minister controls a comfortable parliamentary majority, Tory bastions have fallen to the left and the right, and any number of curtains have been brought down on the careers of Tory MPs and ministers. · Whisper it quietly, but the curtain might also have fallen on the electoral system that delivered…

Where should real political power and authority reside in New Zealand? Since last year’s election, that’s been the central question behind a number of significant policy reversals. · Water infrastructure, health, tertiary education and tax have all been affected by the political and philosophical tensions between competing models of local and central decision making. · Put simply, the previous Labour government tended to favour centralising…

The cynicism of modern-day youth presents us with a great teachable moment. We must tell history as a great myth, for myths are often the best way of expressing truths. They are also the lifeblood of civilizations. · “History is marble, and remains forever cold, even under the most artistic hand, unless life is breathed into it by the imagination. Then the marble becomes flesh and blood—then it feels, it thinks, it moves, and is…

Urb is on a mission to remake Dubai's landscape into a lush paradise. Following its proposals for the Dubai Mangroves and Dubai Reefs projects, the firm's new Green Spine envisions transforming a highway in the region with trams, park areas, farms, and the planting of more than one million trees. · Assuming for the moment that it actually goes ahead, the Green Spine will have a length of 64 km (almost 40 miles) and will be centered around…

The answers to the errors of modern times need to be given in philosophy and theology, but it is essential that we also experience the truth imaginatively. · Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all · Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. · —Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” · These famous lines of Keats have charmed and delighted readers for two centuries, but skeptics have scoffed at his claim, especially as beauty is well known to be…