Children exposed to fluoride in the womb at levels meeting the federal safety threshold scored measurably lower on tests of memory and problem-solving, according to a study of more than 2,500 U.S. children.
The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology and funded by the National Institutes of Health, identified that prenatal fluoride levels of 0.675 mg per liter (mg/L) were a change-point in the data.
When mothers’ neighborhood water supply reached around or above this level, each additional increase of 0.5 mg/L was associated with a nearly 3.5-point drop in children’s problem-solving scores.
To give the numbers some context, 0.675 mg is lower than the U.S. Public Health Service’s current recommendation of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter.
The study found the strongest effect in children under age 7.
Declines in Problem Solving
Researchers tracked children born between 2006 and 2019, testing their cognitive abilities between ages 3 and 17. To estimate each child’s fluoride exposure before birth, the team matched fluoride measurements from local water systems to the addresses where mothers lived during pregnancy.
The study found a link between fluoride exposure and fluid cognition: the ability to solve new problems, retain short-term information, and adapt. It did not find a link between fluoride and “crystallized cognition”—skills such as vocabulary and general knowledge that are typically built up through education and experience.
It offers an opportunity to look at never before seen photographs of the park as it was when the US Marines were encamped there during WWII.
Six new large format interpretive signs
At 11.00 on Saturday 7 November, heading home along the Kapiti Expressway the heavens opened and reduced visibility to virtually nil. It didn’t last long and fortunately had not occurred during the opening ceremony of the refurbished Memorial an hour earlier.
About 40 people were present to hear President of the Kapiti-US Marines Trust, Marines Major (retired) Larry Keim, local historian Anthony Dreaver and two representatives from local tribes speak about the significance ofthe Memorial on the site of what was Camp Russell, and what it showed.
The event was part of the Wellington Heritage Festival. The new signs are similar in style to the superb Camp Paekakariki Memorial near the southern entrance into Queen Elizabeth Park.
Covering many elements of the Marines experience in Kapiti
The original plaques of the Memorial near Mackays Crossing were very good, but the new ones are larger, more colourful and include more information and visuals. Many of the photos were taken by the excellent wartime American photographer and filmmaker Norm Hatch.
The refurbished Memorial will be a more appealing tourist attraction along with the restored Marines hut which was constructed by the Men’s Shed in Waikanae, and the piece of landing craft which commemorates the ten sailors who drowned off Whareroa Beach in June 1943 after a landing craft capsized.
There is clearly plenty to see on the Camp Russell site.
Remembering our history accurately
In early 1942 Allied leaders Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill agreed that New Zealand should be defended by American forces, mainly Marines, in the event of a Japanese invasion.
Thousands of American servicemen, mainly Marines, were despatched south and arrived in Auckland and Wellington in June 1942 in what became known as “The Friendly Invasion”.
They occupied temporary settlements that were rapidly constructed in places like the Kapiti Coast, where Camps Mackay, Russell and Paekakariki housed more than 10,000 Marines at any one time. The coastal village of Paekakariki with a population of 530 was transformed by the presence of the friendly and well-paid Americans.
The Kapiti area was perfect for military training in preparation for the fight back against the Japanese in the Pacific – there were beaches for practising landings and nearby forested hills for simulating jungle fighting in the Pacific Islands.
It is important that we remember what the Americans did and were prepared to do at that crucial time in our history.
The updated Marines Memorial on the Camp Russell site and the Camp Paekakariki Memorial at the southern end of Queen Elizabeth Park, accessible from Wellington Road, Paekakariki are wonderful sources of the history of those dangerous times. The accuracy is guaranteed by the expertise of Larry Keim and Anthony Dreaver, backed up by the photography of Norm Hatch.
If you haven’t been, get along and see
The refurbished Memorial on the Camp Russell site
The honouring of the drowned sailors
The restored Marines hut
The Camp Paekakariki Memorial
The museum displays at the Paekakariki Railway Station.
The British state is openly preparing the public for multi-day blackouts while lining up the BBC to broadcast pre-scripted government messages once the lights, water, and internet fail.
A so called “Black Sky” contingency now sits on the books: roughly 100 BBC staff would man a hardened radio studio stocked with its own fuel, food, and water for at least three days, pumping out official instructions over FM if the grid collapses.
This arrives weeks after the government launched an official “Be Ready” campaign ordering every household to stockpile three days of bottled water (three litres per person per day for drinking alone), non-perishable food, cash, a torch, and a wind-up or battery FM radio.
What happens if the internet goes down? BlackSky – the UK's emergency backup plans https://t.co/FE5XUUsCbT
Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the public that unexpected events “seem to becoming more common” and that people should keep “those supplies in the house to get you through those moments.”
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has gone further, stating that “we do live in a more dangerous and turbulent world” and warning that adversaries could be ready to attack by 2030, giving Britain “a little over 1,000 days to complete our mission: to be ready with our allies to fight and win.”
Here is an education issue that I believe is very important — parents’ free choice . Many schools have been captured by Woke agendas and prioritize social engineering over teaching the basics. Most parents are unhappy about this. In fact many parents have been unhappy with our schools for decades. Deborah Coddington has been an MP, with an interest in education for decades.
by Deborah Coddington
If the special vote count favours the left bloc, and if the Opportunity Party agrees to favour Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori into a coalition government of the left, we know for sure some 2000 New Zealand school children will have their education totally disrupted.
Labour’s education spokesperson, Ginny Andersen, has promised to abolish Charter Schools.
The left doesn’t trust parents to choose schools for their children – that job is the state’s. They want them to have choice in where they shop for groceries, but they want to control where families send their kids to schools. Particularly families in low socio-economic brackets.
Currently, parents who can’t afford to school their children at private or state integrated (semi-private) schools, or move into a so-called grammar zone where house prices are around 20 per cent higher, must either home school, or school in-zone.
If they’re lucky, there may be a Charter School nearby, but after the election, a Labour led coalition will abolish all Charter schools and absorb them into the state system.
I realise I’m comparing state-funded education (mostly) with private enterprise here, but I trust you to get my theme. The state trusts parents to choose between Foodstuffs, Woolworths, dairies, butchers, markets, Pak’n’Save, Big Fresh, New World, 4Square, Gilmours, Costco, Bin Inn, Farro Fresh, Moore Wilson’s, Asian and Pacific groceries, organic specialists, halal – you get my drift. But somehow, parents are too stupid to decide which school suits best their children’s needs, personality, talents, ethnicity, or dreams for the future.
In a recent interview (October 11, Stuff) Chris Hipkins stated loosening zones in 1989, enabled by Tomorrow’s Schools (and bulk funding) which gave parents greater choice of schools, was “an absolute failure”. Why? Because parents withdrew students from unpopular schools where kids weren’t learning. This was, according to Hipkins, a “flawed ideology”. The home zoning was reinstated in 1999 under Clark’s Labour government, and parents once more had to use schools closest to their home even if they didn’t like the school. All in the interests of ‘equity’.
Equity for whom? Families or teachers? Bulk funding meant the higher the roll, the more money paid to the school. Teacher unions weren’t happy to see outstanding teachers being rewarded; when resources formerly paid out by the regional education boards was replaced and controlled by the Boards of Trustees. Lose 200 students to another school, and the funding dropped commensurately. But instead of examining why, when given choice, parents favoured some state schools over others, the Labour Alliance government wheeled out control and command.
If a school roll drops considerably then the school needs fixing, not the ideology.
What is schooling’s primary focus? Keeping adults in a job? Or educating our children so they can learn; grow up to live a good life?
The only individuals who have any meaningful choice in our state funded compulsory education sector are the teachers – not the parents, not the pupils. This is underscored by their unions’ monikers: Education Institute, Post Primary Teachers Association, Secondary Principals Association, and the regulatory agency Teaching Council – no mention of families or students. Teachers can choose their schools, why not parents? Only recently has a small group of parents organised themselves into a ‘union’ of sorts, the Parents Alliance.
I find opposition to parental choice inconsistent, bemusing, and bonkers, for several reasons.
Inconsistent, because outside the compulsory sector parents can choose, for example, which pre-school, kindergarten, daycare, private early childcare, or in-home care, regardless of where they live. When pupils leave secondary school they might go to any university across the motu, choose an apprenticeship, trade, polytechnic, enter in-work training, be a share-milker.
Bemusing because I know many teachers, I’ve raised four kids, I’ve encountered gifted teachers who are highly intelligent, warm and caring, push their pupils to great heights. Most of us can remember at least one teacher with whom we clicked. Mine was a teacher of English who, despite my constant misbehaviour including running away, persisted and pushed me succeed, even coming to my maiden speech in Parliament.
These teachers can change a child’s future.
Bonkers because students often fail when they’re proverbial square pegs in round holes. The students whose parents can’t afford to buy or rent houses in the so-called zones, or enrol their children at private or integrated schools, children who are neurodiverse, on the autism spectrum, who are bullied, or don’t fit in for a zillion reasons. Chances are their adult life will be hard – why force them to endure misery?
The supermarket comparison reminds me of an advertisement I saw in London on the Underground, picturing a grubby-faced boy saying, ‘I want the food I ordered. And a puppy. That plays football.’ Underneath was written, ‘You spend £4000 a year on supermarkets. Start making demands.’
It was 2002, and I was at Cambridge University on a Press Fellowship to Wolfson College, studying parental choice in schooling, particularly The Netherlands and Sweden. I imagined a similar advert stating, ‘I want my child to be a rocket scientist. An award-winning novelist. Fluent in several languages,’ followed by, ‘You spend $8000 in tax annually on schooling. Start making choices.’
Twenty-four years later the closest New Zealand has in state-funded parental choice are Charter Schools, introduced two years ago by the Act party under the National/NZ First/Act Coalition government and now so popular that in mid-October the first state school, Northland’s Pakaraka School converted to a charter school. But they’re under threat. Despite David Seymour predicting 6000 pupils will be enrolled in 21 charter schools next year, Labour insists they are doomed.
There is no rational reason for this. Charter schools are not experimental. They must prove students achieve as well as state schools, using the same testing methods, and don’t drain money from the state system. Charter schools cost taxpayers roughly the same per child as state schools. Using the figures from 2024 (latest available) it costs $8,762 per primary pupil per year at a state school, and $8,8278 at a charter school. For secondary it’s $11,040 at a state school, and $10,741 at a charter school.
Teacher unions, which wield great influence on Labour, want them gone. Multi-employer collective agreement bargaining can’t be negotiated for charter school staff. Do they care more about wage agreements than the 2000 students successfully studying at the 17 charter schools (up from seven schools 12 in July 2025), kids whose parents and educators have founded a school which probably, like Pakaraka, suits a whole community? Do they know about Tipene (formerly St Stephens at Bombay) closed for 25 years, reopened last year and now flourishing because it caters specifically to its pupils needs, not being met by the state system. What will Labour tell the pupils at full immersion the charter te reo kura, autism schools, arts and performance schools, and Sisters Pacifika school?
It shows how far Labour has strayed. In 1939 Peter Fraser, Minister of Education in the first Labour government (and also Minister when he was prime minister) enunciated the role of education: ‘The government’s objective, broadly expressed, is that every person, whatever his academic ability, whether he be rich or poor, whether he lives in town or country, has a right as a citizen to a free education of the kind for which he is best fitted, and to the fullest extent of his powers.’
The process to ban the AfD in Germany is suddenly gathering pace! Indeed, German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig has just stated in an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung today, 7/11, that it was “now necessary to seriously and systematically examine whether the conditions for banning the AfD were met”! She called for “a federal-state working group tasked with carrying out this review”! She announces that she will even use the 421,000 work emails that were hacked in late October from an AfD service provider to potentially find “evidence that would justify banning the party” (the question now is: who was really behind the hack? The German government itself?…)
After the Romanian affair, after the pro-EU coup in Poland, it’s further proof of the EU’s tyrannical madness, the AfD being Germany’s most anti-EU and anti-euro party.
DEXIT — FREXIT — Quickly
EURO-DICTATURE ! ⤵️
La procédure d’interdiction de l’AFD en Allemagne connaît une accélération soudaine !
En effet, la ministre allemande de la Justice Stefanie Hubig vient de déclarer dans un entretien à la Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung ce 7/11 qu’il « fallait maintenant examiner… pic.twitter.com/aX2FvmI9Ok
In NZ no political party has ever been formally outlawed or banned by the government. But here are the 4th Reich’s autocrats plotting to ban Germany’s biggest party, recalling memories of the 3rd Reich which banned all parties except the Nazis. Perhaps doing this will backfire and accelerate the DEXIT that the AfD want. —Eds
Regardless of the final result, this election has been a disastrous performance by both Christophers. On election night neither National nor Labour received 30% of the party vote.
Labour has 15 list MPs only because it performed so poorly in the electorates.
Labour has paid the price for failing to replace Chris Hipkins.
National’s failure is even more extraordinary.
Christopher Luxon has been an exceptionally unpopular prime minister. A leader with self-knowledge would have recognised the reality and stepped aside.
Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith and Gerry Brownlee [no loss —Eds] are out of Parliament because they failed to persuade or force a change of leader.
It has been obvious all year that Luxon was leading National to a disastrous result for the party.
Who doubts that if Erica Stanford had been leading National, we would have elected a very different Parliament?
Richard Prebble CBE is a former NZ MP. Initially a member of the Labour Party, he joined the newly formed ACT New Zealand party under Roger Douglas in 1996, becoming its leader from 1996 to 2004. This article was sourced here
Two noticeable problems are happening at this time; one is curly leaf on stone fruit trees.
I have discovered that grafted stone fruit trees are prone to the disease in the early part of the season and is near impossible to prevent.
I spoke to an elderly gardener some years ago who had a big orchard and asked her the question about what she did to control curly leaf on her stone fruit. Her reply was; ‘I do nothing and my trees do not get curly leaf.’
So I asked, how come? Her reply was that all her trees were grown from stones or pips by placing the stone/pip in the place where she wanted a mature tree. OK, I know when any plant grows from seed in the area that it germinates and matures you have a far better specimen than anything that is transplanted, a fact of gardening.
Then she told me about one time when at a garden centre she spotted the dwarf nectarine and peach trees that only grow about a metre tall. Thinking they were cute she purchased one of each and planted them in her orchard. These two dwarfs give her no end of curly leaf problems every season — but it does not affect her stone-grown trees! So the graft is the weakness that is the problem.
Curly leaf in stone fruit is a disease about which you can do everything under the sun and still have curly leaf and some seasons do nothing and have little or no curly leaf — which means it is weather, temperature and humidity related.
So I have given up with all the possible controls and now I use the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff approach. Leaves and blossoms come, fruit sets, leaves curl which means they are not generating enough carbohydrates to hold the crop and some or all the fruit fall off. Then new leaves from that are not affected (conditions have past), the old curly leaves fall off but the crop is either small or none.
The simple answer is we need to get as much carbohydrates as possible into the tree to hold the fruit while the new clean foliage is establishing. Wallys Liquid Sunshine is the method: spray as often as able like every day or two till the new clean leaves can take over and even then a few more sprays to be sure. You are spraying the curly leaves and the branches and the fruit.
You make the Liquid Sunshine by dissolving a tablespoon of molasses into a litre of hot water then add 10 ml of Magic Botanic Liquid and your ready to spray. (Buy a bucket of molasses from stock and station agents such as Farmlands, PGG Wrightson it cheap when compared to small supermarket amounts)
Garlic rust is happening already because of the weather; this disease has attacked some gardeners’ garlic early this season.
Like curly leaf there is no simple answer, but by spraying the foliage every day or so with Wallys Liquid Sunshine you stand a chance of maturing reasonable size bulbs.
You can boost this by adding one 100 mg uncoated aspirin tablet. Dissolve it thoroughly in a small cup of warm water first (to avoid clogs), then add it to the one litre of Liquid Sunshine.
I have noted that the initial rust that appeared on my garlic has not so far spread; maybe as a result of a daily spray of the above. Time will tell.
I, along with several gardeners I have talked to who are using Liquid Sunshine on garden plants such as tomatoes, roses etc are noticing a great improvement in the plants treated.
A spray once or twice a week on plants that you want to be better is ideal.
With strawberries spray them every few days with Mycorrcin and watch them perform, an increase in your crop by 400% can happen.
Now a more important topic in regards to your health and well-being.
Your body needs a daily small amount of sulphur; your body uses what sulphur is available but does not store it for future use.
What sulphur does:
Protein and DNA Structure:
Sulphur is required to build and fix DNA, form structural proteins via the amino acids methionine and cysteine, and create disulfide bonds that maintain the shape and function of cellular enzymes.
Antioxidant and Detoxification Support:
It is a core component of glutathioneone of the body’s primary endogenous antioxidantswhich helps neutralize reactive oxygen species, protect cells from oxidative stress, and detoxify xenobiotics (harmful chemicals and drugs)
Connective Tissues: Sulphur supports the maintenance and repair of skin, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bones, which is why compounds like glucosamine sulfate and MSM are frequently used to support joint health.
Metabolic and Cellular Health:
It assists in metabolizing food, regulating insulin, and activating cellular pathways like NRF2, which play a role in lowering chronic inflammation and protecting against metabolic issues.
Metabolic issues commonly known as metabolic disorders or metabolic dysfunction.
When metabolism fails, your cells either lack essential energy and nutrients, or toxic byproducts and excess sugars build up in your body.
In the 1950’s & 1960’s when the Chinese market gardeners grew the vegetables we ate, they used Real Blood & Bone.
In those days when you cooked a cabbage it would stink the house out, remember? That was the sulphur from the blood & bone they used to grow the veggies. Hence we were getting our body-required sulphur from our food.
That all changed when NPK fertilisers and superphosphate were used to grow food!
We have also lost about 90% of the nutritional values in our food chain from those days to now! Look at any pics of people at the beach back in the 1950’s and 1960’s see how healthy they looked: slim and trim. Nowadays it is a very different picture.
The difference is the lack of a daily intake of sulphur. To get it as, was done 50 odd years ago, use Wallys Real Blood & Bone in your food crops. Place about a tablespoon of Real Blood & Bone in the planting hole along with Rok Solid then pop in your cabbage, lettuce or whatever food you are growing.
As the plants are growing spray them with Wallys Liquid Sunshine for all the benefits of this.
If you are unable to grow your own food, other than say doing sprouts, then you can take a supplement, MSM twice a day, first thing in the morning and last thing at night and see how your health improves and your weight balances out.
Through lack of funding our health system is broke, so you need to look after your health and cure yourselves. Sulphur is a major aspect of that.
Products mentioned including MSM are available on our mail order website.
