lawyers pose health risk

I stumbled across this little gem today and couldn't resist the temptation to stir things up a bit.

New medical research suggests lawyers could be bad for your health. The study demonstrated an inverse relationship between lawyers and the recovery rates of accident victims. Dr Richard Gun, lead author of the research reported in this week's Medical Observer, has found patients who engage a lawyer after receiving their injury are five times less likely ever to return to work.
He says they also appear to suffer more pain and for longer periods than accident victims who do not have lawyers.
"We did find that people who consulted a lawyer did certainly appear to have a delayed recovery," he said.
"I suppose some lawyers may argue that people who have more disability - who feel more pain - are the ones who are more likely to have a prolonged recovery and also the ones who are more likely to consult a lawyer."
But he says the research suggests consulting a lawyer itself does have some independent effect of its own in prolonging recovery.
Dr Gun does however caution that there are a number of factors that influence recovery time and lawyers are not the whole reason.
He says the research may have implications for the insurance industry in terms of trying to reduce litigation and speed up the settlement period.

For a full copy of the story click here.

sign of things to come

Whatever your political persuasion, living in a country with no opposition party can be a very very trying exercise.

In what is probably a sign of things to come, the Government have just announced to increase (yes increase) the number of troops serving in Iraq. The ABC reports that this is to replace the withdrawing Dutch contingent in a "reasonably violence-free" area of southern Iraq. According to the Prime Minister "Unless additional security could be provided to replace the Dutch, then there was a real possibility the Japanese could no longer remain there and that would be a serious blow to the coalition effort".

In all honesty John, why give a pathetic excuse for this stupid decision to endanger the lives of more Australians in a war we have no right to be involved in when you and your weak a piss colleagues know that no-one can stop you anyway.

Oh and if your wondering that sound you can hear is the opposition leader voicing his concern.

the gift that keeps on giving

Last night I saw a documentary on the use of depleted uranium in weapons used by the US and British Military in the Balkans and Iraq (twice). Without boring you with detail, depleted uranium tipped projectiles are great for penetrating armour and are particularly handy at stopping your regular everyday garden variety tanks. According to those in the know, our friends in the British and US military use depleted uranium because it gives them a significant advantage over the enemy*.

The problem is this. Depleted uranium is not as the name suggests depleted but is in actual fact a nasty and highly toxic heavy metal bi-product of nuclear power stations that when ingested has all sorts of nasty consequences. Most disturbing of all is it doesn't just make those that come in contact with it sick, it has long lasting affects which actually cause horrific and often non compatible with life birth defects and increased incidents of cancer (leukemia) in children and adults.

In both the Balkans and now in Iraq the legacy of war is no longer restricted to just missing limbs but will now and forever (4.5billion years) live on in the form of depleted uranium. The gift that keeps on giving. On behalf of us all, thank you Tony and most of all thank you GW*.