Choice (Chippendale, Australia) articles from March 2005

Choice (Chippendale, Australia) archives from March 2005

Cereal or waffle?(Editorial)
March 1, 2005... CHOICE regularly looks at the breakfast cereals market (see page 8) for our latest report), because for many people they're a staple food, new ones are released all the time. and subscribers tell us the most important factor for them when...

Burn, baby, burn ...(choice cuts)(Cancer Council Victoria )(Buyers Guide)
March 1, 2005... Many solarium operators in Melbourne are neglecting their responsibility to protect their customers and are disregarding the voluntary Australian and New Zealand standard on solariums for cosmetic purposes, according to the Cancer Council...

Consumer rights still valid online.(choice cuts)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... If you're buying something online you have the same rights as if you make a purchase at a shopping centre, even if the internet site you're buying from tries to tell you otherwise. According to a survey by the Australian Competition and...

TV topples toddler.(Update)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Following our recent article (CHOICE, October 2004) highlighting the dangers of unstable televisions toppling onto young children, we were contacted with a story that illustrates exactly how easily this can happen. In late November 2004,...

Fighting the flab.(choice cuts)(Parents Jury)
March 1, 2005... The Parents Jury is a web-based network for parents who want to improve the food and physical activity environments for children in Australia. It was launched in August 2004 by the Cancer Council Victoria, Diabetes Australia--Victoria and the...

Urban myth: air freshener fire hazard.(choice cuts)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... CHOICE subscribers often forward us information about faulty products. Sometimes they alert us to a new problem we should investigate, but other times, well, what they've found is some good old internet myth-mongering. Like the following story...

Fast-track your mortgage.(choice cuts)(Buyers Guide)
March 1, 2005... Is your mortgage stuck in the slow lane? CHOICE Money & Rights magazine suggests five ways to cut years and thousands of dollars in interest off your loan: * Pay a lump sum. As long as your tender doesn't penalise extra payments, you...

Beating bureaucracy.(World Consumer Snapshot)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... When a travel agent bungled one UK resident's daughter's name on a flight ticket and she faced missing the family holiday in Florida, he resorted to unusual means to beat a bureaucratic nightmare, reports the UK Which? magazine. If they'd...

Healthier milk, naturally.(World Consumer Snapshot)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Irish research has found that cows fed a diet rich in rapeseed oil produce milk that's lower in saturated fat and healthier for human consumption. The study showed that adding 600 g of rapeseed oil to cows' daily feed produced milk with 26%...

Inspecting the inaccessible.(World Consumer Snapshot)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Management at the 14th century cathedral in York has come up with "most inventive means" to inspect inaccessible areas in the building without having to put up scaffolding and disturb the congregation. Ireland's Consumer Choice reports that...

Potential rainwater hazards.(your letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Thank you for your article on rainwater tanks. An issue I bring to your attention when using rainwater for drinking is the potential for contamination. Rainwater picks up particles from animal and bird droppings and vegetative remnants as it...

Size does matter.(your letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... We're a household of six and recently had an almost 20,000 L rainwater tank installed and connected to the house to supply our considerable water requirements. The response from the children has been encouraging, with our five-year-old...

Using greywater.(your letters)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I recently contemplated pumping the greywater from our washing machine onto our garden via an extended hose, but a very helpful hardware store salesperson warned I would probably burn out the pump on the washing machine due to the increased...

Snow Gear Recycle.(Thumbs Up!)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Anne Maloney, via email, awards a thumbs-up to SNOW GEAR RECYCLE in Keperra, Queensland, which exchanged, on Christmas Day last year, ill-fitting thermal underwear she'd bought for her son, who was leaving for Bulgaria (and sub-zero...

Max's Department Store.(Thumbs Up!)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Barbara Little of Caulfield, Victoria, gives a thumbs-up to MAX'S DEPARTMENT STORE on Norfolk Island, where she'd bought a handbag on the Last day of her holiday. On discovering at home that the bag had a defect, she emailed the store, which...

Breakfast basics: what's good and what's not: it's time to take cereals seriously.(Food: breakfast cereals)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2005... For many of us, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals are still a staple food, and a good one can be the perfect kick-start to the day. It's commonly acknowledged that breakfast is an important meal, so it's best not to skip it. If you don't have the...

Small win with credit files.(hip pocket)
March 1, 2005... Over a year ago 50 CHOICE subscribers asked for a copy of their credit file from Baycorp Advantage, the main company that keeps credit files. Thirty per cent of the files had one or more mistakes in them. These files are used by your bank and...

Don't get skimmed by scamsters.(hip pocket)
March 1, 2005... Joel from Sydney was puzzled when he received a call from a customer service officer at his credit union, asking if he'd made an EFTPOS transaction at a service station in Sydney's south. "When I said I'd used the petrol station, she told...

Is your bank a hare or a tortoise?(hip pocket)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... How quickly does your bank respond when you send an email? Does it take hours or weeks to answer your questions? AC Nielsen Consulting sends anonymous emails to 23 financial institutions each month to test how quickly and thoroughly they...

Flamin' great? They're popular for al fresco restaurant dining, but will an outdoor gas heater work in your backyard?(Test: outdoor gas heaters)(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 1, 2005... No winter's trip to Melbourne would be complete without dinner or coffee on Lygon or Ackland Street, probably nestled under an outdoor gas heater. But have you ever wondered how one would go in your backyard? That's what they're being sold for...

Pay TV: your questions answered; want to get pay TV but don't know your choices? We explain the basics--your options, the costs and what's involved.(Report: pay TV)(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 1, 2005... Nothing worthwhile again on the box tonight? You might have five or six free-to-air television channels to choose from, but the offerings are often mediocre or worse, especially during non-ratings periods. So what about pay TV? For a monthly...

Hung out to dry? Washer-dryers have two-in-one convenience, but do you get twice the performance or double the problems?(Test: washer-dryers)(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 1, 2005... If you live in a flat or have a holiday house, a washer-dryer seems like the ideal solution to space problems, combining both washing and drying functions into one unit that can easily sit under a kitchen bench. But do you really get a...

What's up with our power supply? Consumers in some states are facing blackouts and higher power prices. What's gone wrong?(Investigation: the cost of electricity)
March 1, 2005... The last few years were meant to be good for consumers when it came to electricity. A series of big changes to the power industry, including the break-up of the big old monopoly power companies, electricity becoming a traded commodity, and...

Safe as houses? Flyscreens are great for six-legged pests, but not so good against the two-legged variety--especially those brandishing a knife or screwdriver.(Buying guide: security screen doors)(Australian Security Industry Association Limited)(National Security Screen Association)(Buyers Guide)
March 1, 2005... Security screen doors are designed to let you safely open up the house to air and light while you're at home--upstairs or out in the garden, say. They should prevent someone from sneaking quickly and quietly into your house when your main...

Reader car reviews: four popular small to medium-size models under our readers' microscope.(Report: cars)(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 1, 2005... Researching a new car purchase has become quite easy--the internet offers a wide range of readily accessible information, from a model's specifications, features and price to road test reports and crash test results. However, information...

Perfect rice made easy: if you eat a lot of rice, it's well worth getting a rice cooker.(Test: rice cookers)(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 1, 2005... Does your family eat lots of rice? Or can you just not get it to cook perfectly on the stove or in the microwave? An electric rice cooker might be the answer. Our test of 12 models shows they all make it very easy to cook perfect rice...

Spray and wipe: in these times of water restrictions, are waterless car cleaners a reasonable alternative to washing your car?(Test: waterless car cleaners)(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 1, 2005... Water is a very valuable resource in Australia, and in some areas water restrictions are currently limiting the methods you can use to wash your car. So a product that lets you wash it using no or only very little water sounds like a pretty...

Power-packed: many high-tech devices, such as digital cameras, need batteries with plenty of grunt. Are rechargeables up to the job?(Test: rechargeable batteries)(nickel-metalhydride (NiMH))(Product/Service Evaluation)
March 1, 2005... They run and more portable high-tech products are entering our lives, and digital cameras in particular have become very popular. They run on batteries and require lots of power compared to other battery-operated devices such as a motor toy...

Cooking with science.(food bites)(molecular gastronomy)(flavour combinations)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Fancy a sardines-on-toast sorbet? Or caviar with white chocolate? These are some of the delights spawned by the new science of 'molecular gastronomy'. Food scientists have been looking at cooking from a new angle and have come up with some...

Healthy image?(restaurant logo's and public perception)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... We were amused to read that the UK roadside restaurant chain LITTLE CHEF had planned to slim down its chubby chef logo to a toned version in a tracksuit--it was thought that a slimmer mascot would be more in line with current thinking about the...

No more GM white lies.(inclusive labelling for chicken products)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ruled that labelling chicken as 'not genetically modified' could be misleading (if technically correct) when the chicken has been fed on GM soy or corn, for example. Baiada...

Recalls & bans.
March 1, 2005... Nowadays there are so many product recalls we may not be able to print all of them in CHOICE. For comprehensive recall information go to the Federal Treasury website: www.recalls.gov.au. If you don't have web access, call the Consumer Safety...

For protection and a fake tan.(timber oil as suntan lotion)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Just slip slop slap some timber oil on your skin! Or are they suggesting your outdoor furniture should be wearing a t-shirt and hat?

Peanut lovers beware?(peanuts traces in blackcurrent sports drink)
March 1, 2005... If these peanuts "may contain traces of peanuts and other nuts", we wonder what constitutes the bulk of the product? At least the alleged peanuts may contain traces of peanuts: the same can't be said for blackcurrant in this blackcurrant...

Slip slop slap.
March 1, 2005... Take care of your timber the same way you care for your skin, Give it o coot of timber oil every three months to ensure it's protected.

2004 Nobilo Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.(Top Notch NZ)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... We have been searching for a quality Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that we could sell to our loyal customers for under $10 for a long, long time and boy did we find it. Do not let this one pass you by, it is a gem.

Well, actually, no, you didn't find it.
March 1, 2005... You'd better get back to it and make it a long, long, long time searching (though surely that can't be too bad a job!).

Would this be a cookie wallah cookie, then?
March 1, 2005... It popped up in a bag of goodies handed out on a Qantas flight...