Kiwi inventor of "planking" accused of Aussie death...

A Kiwi credited with inventing the game of planking is now being blamed for death of an Australian who performed the stunt drunk on a balcony railing.

Acton Beale, 20, fell to his death after falling from a seventh-floor railing in Brisbane on Sunday morning.

A message left on Dunedin man Paul Carran's internet site claims his game is fatally irresponsibe.

The message posted on Carran’s YouTube planking clip from 2009 reads: “Your video killed a friend of mine. You seriously should take this down”.

Planking is an internet fad which involves being photographed lying face down, with your body as straight as possible, in a random place.

The game became popular in the UK in 2006 but has recently enjoyed resurgence in Australia after NRL player David Williams attempted the stunt after scoring a try.

Photos have also emerged this week of a former Australian AFL player and TV show star Sam Newman "planking" on the railing of a 40-storey balcony, taken hours before the Queensland man fell to his death.

But Carran told 3news he is not to blame for any deaths.

"It’s not like anybody, or me personally, made him (Beale) do it,” he said.

More than 7000 people like the Planking New Zealand Facebook page.
 
http://anzacbloggersunite.co.uk/

http://theblogfrog.com/Users/home.aspx

Fresh lead in 1984 Wellington Trades hall bombing that killed Ernie Abbott...

Fresh lead in 1984 Wellington Trades Hall  bombing that killed  Ernie Abbott...







Police are investigating a second new lead in one of New Zealand's most notorious unsolved crimes - the 1984 Wellington Trades Hall bombing that killed caretaker Ernie Abbott.



Wellington Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Perry says police have received a letter from a New Plymouth woman who believes her son may have been involved in the bombing.



New Plymouth police have been sent the information and plan to interview the woman.



Mr Perry said the woman had nominated her son as a suspect because she overheard him talking about making a bomb at the time of Mr Abbott's death.



Her letter followed a tip to Wellington police last December that a daughter of a possible suspect lied during the investigation about her knowledge of the suitcase containing the bomb.



It is understood that an informant, claiming ownership of the suitcase, gave evidence pointing to her father as a possible suspect.





Lengthy police investigations have continually been hampered by the lack of a definite motive by the bomber.





An initial and obvious theory was that, because it was in a union building, the bomb was aimed at a unionist, especially as there had been a bus strike the day before.



But police concluded it would have been difficult to put the bomb together and in place in such a short time.



The light green suitcase had a small Rica banana label on it.



The suitcase - booby-trapped to go off when moved - contained the equivalent of at least 1kg of gelignite.



However, the actual explosive involved was never identified.



Acknowledgements:  NZPA

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New Zealand's Kahui twins died of natural causes not from Shaken Baby Syndrome theory not accepted...

The Kahui twins died of natural causes according to a controversial medical opinion given to the coroner for an upcoming inquest into their deaths.


The report by Dr Damian Wojcik, a police medical examiner in Whangarei for 16 years, hypothesised that the 3-month-old babies died from Barlow's disease - or infant scurvy from a severe vitamin C deficiency - rather than Shaken Baby Syndrome.



Dr Wojcik has claimed that Barlow's disease could explain the bruises, subdural bleeding and fractures found in the bodies of Chris and Cru Kahui, who died in June 2006.



But the unorthodox report sent to the coroner has been dismissed by an independent pathologist and will not be aired as evidence at an inquest on the deaths of the twins due to be held this year.



Chief Coroner Neil MacLean, a District Court judge, confirmed that the medical opinion had been dismissed but declined to comment further.



All Crown and defence witnesses at the 2008 murder trial of Chris Kahui, who was acquitted, agreed that the twins were shaken to death and suffered multiple fractures.



Dr Wojcik told the Weekend Herald he was aware that his theory that the Kahui twins were not murdered would be treated with scepticism.



"It is controversial and I have to say some medical practitioners wouldn't believe a word of it."



But he said that extreme vitamin C deficiency could cause the haemorrhaging in skin, brain, and subdural spaces as well as the pathological fractures suffered by the Kahui twins.



"This is a hypothesis I mulled over for many months. When I submitted that report to the coroner, he had it peer reviewed and the pathologist basically doesn't believe a word of it."



Dr Wojcik said the forensic evidence showed that the twins did not suffer damage to the neck and spinal cord, which did not match the theory that they were shaken to death.



"This is quite a complex area and quite nuanced. I would want to try and advance the cause of truth and not end up in some ideological slinging debate with some of my medical colleagues.



"There are other explanations for pathological findings. You could make a case for an alternative hypothesis of death by natural causes, so I advanced that."



The Weekend Herald understands the Office of the Coroner was initially thrown by the natural causes theory but now considers it a "red herring".



Simon Mount - one of the Crown prosecutors at the trial - is now a barrister acting on behalf of the police at the inquest. He declined to comment on Dr Wojcik's claims but Lorraine Smith, defence counsel for Kahui, said she appreciated the time Dr Wojcik had taken to raise a theory with the coroner.



"His views may not be orthodox, but who knows what the position will be in 20 years' time? People rubbished Galileo and he was proven right," said Mrs Smith.



"But whoever, or whatever, killed the twins was definitely not Chris Kahui."



The inquest into the deaths of Chris and Cru Kahui has been delayed since a scheduled date in February. It is understood a large number of agencies will take part - including two district health boards, GPs, the Families Commission, children's commissioner, the Ministry of Social Development, police and the Crown.



Judge Maclean has previously said an inquest would take a wider view of the deaths and look at whether anything could be done to prevent similar events in the future.



However, the focus is likely to remain on debating who killed the twins rather than how to prevent further child abuse.



In the murder trial, Mrs Smith accused the twins' mother, Macsyna King, of murdering the babies and Kahui was found not guilty.



The police cannot reopen the investigation until new evidence comes to light, so a $50,000 reward has been offered by lobby groups Family First and the Sensible Sentencing Trust as an incentive for someone to come forward.



UNORTHODOX THEORY

* Infant scurvy is sometimes referred to as Barlow's disease and is caused by a lack of vitamin C.

* While cases are rare, Barlow's disease is fatal if left untreated. Doctors overseas have claimed that toxic histamine levels, caused by the vitamin C deficiency, can be misdiagnosed as Shaken Baby Syndrome.

* There is no convincing evidence to back up the theory that it has been misdiagnosed as Shaken Baby Syndrome.


NZ Weekend Herald

A memorial to the late Sgt Nathan John Blackler...

Image via Wikipedia

A memorial to the late Sgt Nathan John Blackler...






"I do not consider myself dying of cancer, but living despite it. I do not look upon each day as another day closer to death, but as another day of life, to be appreciated and enjoyed."



Sgt Nathan John Blackler



1974-2007



Funeral Service

Timaru SBS Stadium

Timaru, New Zealand

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I was hit with a deep, almost melancholic feeling of sadness the other evening - the memory of brother Bob...

I was hit with a deep, almost melancholic sadness half an hour ago - the memory of brother Bob...

I was hit with a deep almost melancholic sense of sadness half an hour ago. My second from eldest brother died of an illness in Bangkok late last year. He married a Thai woman many years ago and was still with her when he finally succumbed to his illness, most likely pneumonia. He had been busy out in the tropical heat and went to sleep in his hotel room, cooled down and caught a chill.

He had been out of work for some time, a former oil-rig driller and sixty eight years old. No social welfare in Thailand or any asian country; you rely on your family when times get tough. He had worked as a supervisor building roads in the Bangkok area for some time, but lost his job. Even Europeans come to the end of their working life some time, even a popular Kiwi. He had then had to rely on help and assistance from his brother-in-law. Pride sent him looking for work again, but when they realised he was actually ill, he wasn't wanted.

Doctors are so expensive in Thailand, and locals resort to getting pharmaceutical help - cheaper to buy some medicine or drugs. But with so many imitation drugs and medicine out there from China, it is hard to know if you actually have the real McCoy. Maybe my brother didn't?

So late in 2008 my brother Bob, Robert Lindsay Petterson, succumbed to his illness and died in his sleep.

Back in Christchurch, New Zealand, my younger brother Richard received a garbled message from our aging Aunt Mary. Our older brother, Dave, a former oil rig service vessel skipper for many years in the Southeast Asia area, and somewhat of a recluse since he returned from Thailand a widower, had received a message from Bob's wife in Bangkok to say Bob had died. It was a massive shock to all of us here in New Zealand.

Just who was this character, Robert Lindsay Petterson, one of my big brothers? He left school at fifteen years, neither an academic or sportsman, but had a love of animals. He started working for the owner of a large sheep station in north Canterbury in the South Island. He stayed there for anumber of years learning his trade as a shepherd and musterer, learned how to train and use sheepdogs, and eventually bought his own. He later moved on to the high country and worked for the largest government owned sheep and cattle station in NZ, for a number of years.

Like many a young Kiwi lad before and after him, the lure of Australia proved too much. He ended up working for a Texan owned sheep and cattle ranch in New South Wales, as a boundary rider. Bob had become a more than capable horseman during his years as a musterer in New Zealand. His new job as a boundary rider for the King Ranch, took a fornight at a time to circumvent this huge property in NSW.

He moved on and changed jobs in a variety of places over a number of years, but ended up in Broken Hill as a supervisor in an open cast mine there.

Somewhere or other he became involved in drilling, firstly for water and then for oil. He obviously became expert as an oil driller on land, and then on an oil-rig off Indonesia somewhere. On one trip he ran into the skipper of a small service vessel which serviced his rig - our eldest brother, Dave.

Bob began a life as a driller and like Dave, married a Thai woman and bought a home in Bangkok, which became his base for whereever he worked in Southeast Asia over many years.

During the 1970's Bob returned to New Zealand regularly, and invested in small farm outside of Christchurch, which our younger brother Richard lived in and developed to Bob's instructions. But they were not good partners and became alienated after a few years; Bob maintained that the farm wasn't being run to his satisfaction. In the end he had to sell it for what he could get for it.

During Bob's visits home to NZ, he always called in to see us in Lower Hutt, ten miles outside of New Zealand's capital city of Wellington. My wife would cook him a great meal and we would indulge in a few browns and natter (and sometimes argue) to the wee small hours.

I last saw my brother in 1978, and I miss him greatly. He always had great ideas that he wanted to explore, but unfortunately others always picked his brains and used his ideas as their own. Bob was actually the first person to come up with the idea to freeze bull semen for artificial insemination. He went to one of the big companies in NZ looking for sponsorship to start his enterprise off. They declined, but picked his brains and ended up doing it themselves.

That was one of my big brothers, a generous and kind person who ended up alienated by distance and circumstances thousands of miles from his extended family. We all miss and remember you Bob Petterson.

Horse riders

Kiwi involved in tragic sea mystery - skipper fell overboard...

Kiwi involved in tragic sea mystery - skipper fell overboard to his death...



David Parkinson, whose adventures inspired the film Proof of Life, was lost at sea between Niue and Tonga.

Doc David Parkinson's final voyage (PDF)

A New Zealand man was left adrift and helpless on a yacht in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for three days after his skipper mysteriously fell overboard to be lost at sea.

Alexander McDonald, 65, found he was alone on the 40-foot sloop Santana somewhere between Niue and Tonga after he awoke about 6pm on August 20.

British yacht-owner David Parkinson, a former British Royal Marine whose adventures inspired a Hollywood film, is missing, presumed dead.

Tonga police commander Chris Kelley said McDonald was unable to sail the yacht alone but still tried to search for Parkinson.

"He effectively went around in ever decreasing circles for at least three days. He attempted to recover him, but he's been unsuccessful and he [Parkinson] was lost at sea."

McDonald told Kelley he did not know how to operate the communications equipment and was unable to call for help.

After three days adrift, he managed to activate the rescue beacon, which was picked up in the United Kingdom.



British authorities alerted New Zealand that help was needed in the Pacific, and a Tongan Navy rescue boat was sent to save an increasingly worried McDonald.

An aerial search found no sign of the missing skipper.

Parkinson's brother Chris, who lives in the United States, said in an email: "No body and I doubt there'll be one. God knows, I hope his passing was quick and painless - though I doubt it was peaceful."

He believed McDonald had weathered a storm since becoming adrift, having received a message from officials saying: "The engine was broken and the sails were broken."

It was an amazing round-the-world attempt that should never have been possible. The British skipper suffered from Parkinson's disease - yet set off after an experimental operation. Surgeons implanted a pacemaker in Parkinson's chest which sent electrical impulses to electrodes in his brain.

Friend of 20 years Michael Lewis, a photographer based in the United States, had recently sailed with Parkinson. "Having sailed a fair amount I can't imagine anything that is more horrific than being in the ocean and watching the boat leave you behind."

He said Parkinson was "well aware" of his physical limitations. He needed a volunteer crew to help him with sailing - and had given up going in the water.

"He wasn't going in at all. He was afraid he would have a seizure, he was being very cautious. David was really concerned about his ability to function properly outside the cockpit."

Lewis said his friend sought solace in the sea. "He comes alive when he is at the helm ... He was obviously an adventurous soul. He was bound and determined to complete his around the world journey despite the limitations that the disease was having on him."

Lewis said Parkinson had left the military to work for a company called Control Risks in London as a hostage negotiator. He worked often in Colombia, where one of his cases was made into the film Proof of Life with Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan. He recalled Parkinson saying: "We didn't really go in with guns blazing. That only happens in Hollywood."

Parkinson and Spanish crewman Magi Bacardi arrived in Rarotonga from Bora Bora on May 28. Bacardi left to join another yacht, and Parkinson began to search for another crew member.

He met McDonald, and Cook Island officials said the pair left for Niue on August 6. A spokesman for Niue Customs said Santana never arrived.

McDonald had been spoken to "at length" by Tongan police and was now free to leave the island, police chief Kelley said. The Santana would remain under guard at Nuku'alofa harbour until the police investigation was complete.

A spokesman for the Tongan Defence Services, which rescued McDonald, said the Kiwi seemed in good health.

Acknowledgements: MSN NZ