Warnings were issued earlier today in an attempt to calm public anxiety over the newly emerging H3N3 virus.  Evidence here also points to Mexican origins where domestic animals will frequently live under the same roof as their owners and pets. The strain, which has managed to cross yet another species-gap, has gained a foothold in Mexico City’s local dog population.

Initial indications from exhaustive laboratory tests have shown that the virus is much weaker than H1N1 – commonly known as Swine Flu – and so transmission from human-to-human is unlikely.

Sex tourists to Mexico, however, were recommended to steer well clear of chihuahuas.

The picture at the top of this blog is a small version of a huge 360-degree panorama of Manchester & Salford which I took last year. I have it on three big canvasses at home and am prepared to sell copies. Get in touch!

Hardly a day goes by without the Media reporting a new juicy tidbit of the “latest research just out”. If you trust these sources, drinking alcohol will give you Alzheimer’s, and eating coloured berries will make you live longer.

These marvels of critical journalism are of course backed up with phrases such as ”investigated by scientists” or “statistically proven”. These words in themselves mean nothing, and our experts are quite likely to be a spotty student or a reporter with a calculator.

Check the methods and double-check the figures yourself. These attention-grabbing, scare-mongering headlines sell papers but provide little in the way of sound scientific investigation. I’m sure they won’t lose too much sleep over their shoddy reporting.

I recommend taking any such headlines with a big pinch of salt.

However, too much and this could raise your blood-pressure or give you cancer….