Well, They Didn't Say The Connection Would Be A Long One....

A new play area at the National Arboretum designed to help children 'connect with nature' has been built beneath trees that drop poisonous berries. Two playgrounds, called Branch Out and Holford Hollow, feature climbing poles, ropes and a giant web-like structure. But they are tucked away among yew trees, which produce small orange or red berries that are attractive to children – but deadly if eaten.

Well, really, who'd eat berries they didn't know anything about?  

It comes months after a coroner expressed concern about the hidden danger yew berries pose after a boy collapsed and died from eating them during a walk in a park with his father.

Ah.  

The source, who asked not to be named, added the site for the play area had been chosen because it was a 'natural clearing' – but pointed out it was only clear because the extremely toxic yew trees had suppressed other plants.

I guess these days, we can't even expect the people who run the National Arboretum to know anything about trees... 

Last week, bosses put up some small signs reading: 'Caution. Most berries in the arboretum are not safe to eat. If you see them on the floor or in the trees please leave them where they are.' However, staff feared these signs were not obvious or specific enough.

Stick a skull and crossbones icon on them then.  

Experts! What Do They Know?

Well, as it turns out...not a lot. 

It was almost 36 years ago that experts agreed to ban the production of a damaging class of man-made chemicals, known as CFCs.At the time, research had shown that CFCs depleted the ozone layer, the protective layer of our atmosphere that shields us from cancer-causing UV rays.

But this might not be enough, as the ozone hole has been 'remarkably massive' over the last four years, scientists in New Zealand now reveal.

Whoops! 

The authors of this new study claim there's been a 26 per cent loss in the core of the ozone hole in the past 19 years – but again, they're not sure why.

They've learned a little humility then. They were sure nearly 40 years ago, and look what effort went into something as a result. 

The findings suggest that 'changes in the Southern Hemisphere atmosphere' are contributing to a persistent Antarctic ozone hole. These changes could be related to the polar vortex – an atmospheric circulation pattern that sits high above the poles, in the stratosphere.

Gosh! Will we eventually see the global warming 'experts' have to similarly admit that that huge glowing ball of hydrogen in the sky might be the main driver of rising temperatures and not humankind? 

Did You Really Think It Would Stop At Bread?

Folic acid should be added to rice as well as flour to prevent hundreds of cases of 'tragic' birth defects every year, experts have said today.

And it's not just expanding the range. It's upping the dose too! 

Up to 800 cases could be avoided every year if the nutrient was also added to rice and doses were quadrupled, they claimed.

Why are they dragging their heels? Why aren't they rolling over for these 'experts' like they usually do? 

Ministers are thought to have stalled because they feared being accused of 'mass medication' and acting like a 'nanny state'.

Oh, I think that ship done sailed... 

Professor Dame Lesley Regan, a gynaecologist at Imperial College's St Mary's Hospital Campus, said there are scientific, medical, ethical and economic reasons for administering the 'correct dose' of folic acid for 'maximum protection'.

It's amazing how easy it is to ensure that these all combine to match your own personal 'ethics', isn't it?  

Professor Neena Modi, an expert in neonatal medicine at Imperial College London, said ... Women who avoid gluten or whose main source of carbohydrate is rice will be disadvantaged, Sir Nicholas warned. And mothers from ethnic minority backgrounds, 'who predominantly eat rice, not flour', are already up to two-and-a-half times more at risk of their baby having neural tube defects, Professor Modi said.

'We have a major issue with health disparities and the current proposals will widen these,' Professor Modi said.

How dare those people not get with the programme and take their medicine, eh, Neena? 

"That Advice We Gave You About Obesity? Well..."

Britain is engulfed in a child obesity crisis, with one in four 10- and 11-year-olds officially obese.

Yeah, yeah, we know... 

However, research led by the University of Oxford suggests that slimming attempts among all children are now outpacing rising weight gain levels in their respective age groups.

Oh! 

Writing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, the experts said there was a marked increase in weight-loss attempts among children from 2011-12 onwards. This coincided with parents being given feedback on their child’s weight as part of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), which weighs and measures pupils when they are in reception and year 6.

Hurrah! Something works! Are you happy now, 'experts'..? 

They said they were concerned that the increase in weight-loss attempts “has not been matched by an increase in the provision of weight management services in England, creating a risk of unsupervised and potentially inappropriate weight-control behaviours.

*sighs* 

“Meanwhile, the rise in weight-loss attempts among children with a healthy weight raises concerns and suggests greater attention is needed to target weight control messages appropriately.”

Whatever the question of the day is, it seems the answer is always some version of 'gimmie more money/staff', have you noticed?