Everything's coming up peanuts

OK so Mork and Mindy will soon be saying "nanu-nanu" to each other after almost 32 years (see yesterday's post), but an allergy sufferer's body can be programmed to say "nanu-nanu" to peanuts for what may well be the first time. Here's how: doctors say a potential treatment for peanut allergy has transformed the lives of children taking part in a large clinical trial. The 85 children had to eat peanut protein every day - initially in small doses, but ramped up during the study. They started off on a dose equivalent to a one 70th of a peanut. Once a fortnight the dose was increased while the children were in hospital and then they continued taking the higher dose at home. The majority of patients learned to tolerate the peanut - the findings suggest 84% of allergic children could eat the equivalent of five peanuts a day after six months. However, experts caution the therapy is not yet ready for widespread use. Despite that one caveat, the trial really transformed participants' lives dramatically. This large study is the first of its kind in the world to have had such a positive outcome, and is an important advance in peanut allergy research. It's a potential treatment and the next step is to make it available to patients, but there will be significant costs in providing the treatment - in the specialist centres and staff and producing the peanut to a sufficiently high standard. And I hope said standard is higher than what Justin Bieber holds himself to. The 19-year-old arrived at a Toronto police station for booking last night (Eastern Standard Time) amid a chaotic scene as determined photographers, reporters, screaming fans, and the curious converged around his SUV. About a dozen Toronto police officers shoved their way through the crowd to escort Bieber, getting him through the door only after a struggle. The alleged incident happened after the limo driver picked up a group of six people outside a Toronto nightclub just before 3 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on December 30, according to a police statement. "While driving the group to a hotel, an altercation occurred between one of the passengers and the driver of the limousine," the police statement said. "In the course of the altercation, a man struck the limousine driver on the back of the head several times. The driver stopped the limousine, exited the vehicle, and called police," which I believe was the right thing to do in that situation.