New Zealand Skepchicks!

As we all know, Skepchicks are cool, but what is even cooler: Skepchicks in our country that are changing the world!

It started as a simple idea. Jenny Suo and Anna Devathasan of Pakuranga College decided to look at vitamin C content in juice for the Manukau Institute of Technology science fair. They tested a number of products, but included Ribena, king of those annoying blackcurrent ads. To their surprise, no vitamin C!

GlaxoSmithKline, maker of Ribena, is a large coporate giant, but clearly decided to save on their drink content, and are now paying for their mistakes, to the tune of over $200,000. (That said, it's not like they would notice any damage to their pocket book immediately. Damage to reputation, yes, and maybe some long term loss of customers, but I doubt they are crying into their profit margins...)

The most amusing part of the article was the end: Consumers' Institute head David Russell felt yesterday's court decision showed the system was working. "The consumer isn't able to lab test these sorts of things themselves, but the authorities can," he said.

Eh? I thought it was the consumer testing these things? And it wasn't until then that the system started to do anything! If anything, this shows the opposite!

So we salute those two school girls and bask in the reflected pride of our own NZ Skepchicks.

And, hey, it's already up for comedy!

EDIT: Oh, and even more comedy!