Military exercise men only
Laurel Stowell's front-page article on Tuesday about the military exercise in Whanganui seems to make reference only to the "young men" taking part.
I find it hard to believe that there was not a single female or even an "old man" involved in the exercise.
According to the New Zealand Defence Force website, as at April 30, 2017, 16.5 per cent of regular force personnel comprised females, meaning 83.5 per cent comprised males. They did not break these figures further into who was "young" and who was "old".
Based on these statistics, there should be about 26 females in this exercise out of a total of 160 personnel reported as taking part.
Can you please clarify if there were any females or "old men" participating and, if so, why were they not mentioned?
Ashton Martin
Whanganui
Editor's note: The reference to "young men" was the younger soldiers learning from "more experienced" soldiers, so - yes - there were older men involved. There were no females involved in the exercise.
Confusion is aim
Let's thank Dave Hill for reminding us - just as Mr Trump does on a daily basis - that facts no longer matter, and truth is an inconvenient ... truth(?)
Misinformation abounds in this post-truth world. I see it constantly in the field of home design and improvement and, of course, we see it in anti-science arguments about climate change.
The internet is full of promoted strategies on how to "refute" the massive body of evidence showing climate change is happening, and Hill has obviously been taking an online tutorial.
First, cloud the issue by pointing out the climate has always changed. True, we have had ice ages.
Next, cherry-pick individual examples of local weather events (regional cooling) to point out the planet cannot possibly be warming if it's cold in Canada.
Next, claim your argument is "fair and balanced", just like Fox News (no bias there).
Finally, make stuff up. Claim there is no pattern of warming, which there clearly is. Make up "alternative facts" like the Trump administration.
The overall goal is to take an extremely reductionist view of a holistic situation.
This type of radical right ideology has been around for decades.
The strategy is not necessarily to win the argument but to confuse the issue so that no action is taken - maintaining the status quo while selling out our children's and grandchildren's futures is a win.
Nice try, Dave, but we can see through your online tutorial. Please include robust science next time.
Nelson Lebo
PhD Science Education
Okoia
Claim not swallowed
Chris Price (letters; May 12), responding to my letter, makes a false claim that I have a problem with fluoride dosage. My letter didn't mention dosage, rather maximum acceptable value (MAV) allowed.
Price is out of touch with recommendations on fluoride concentrations. He states: "The drinking water recommended standard for NZ is 1.5 mg". But 1.5mg is the MAV allowed, not the recommended level.
Ministry of Health-recommended levels are 0.7mg/L to 1.2 mg/L.
Price's comments that there is "no documented illness caused by fluoride levels at 0.7mg/L" and "it has been part of human lives since time began" are invalid. We are over-exposed to fluoride from all sources.
Concentration does not account for dose (amount of a drug consumed) or dosage (amount of drug per kilogram of body weight).
A 50kg woman running marathons and drinking 10 glasses of fluoridated water gets 10 times the dose of a sedentary worker drinking one. No consent, no control of dose or dosage, no monitoring or follow-up - highly unethical.
Carole Johnston
Whanganui
Chicken pickin'
I am a regular reader of your newspaper (from Auckland) and would welcome knowing more about where the McDouall chicken has proved successful in predicting any World Cup matches.
Surely the rooster has reached the pinnacle of success for any fowl and its achievements must be celebrated? I await the next part of the saga.
Anne-Marie De Bruin
Auckland