Close to the mouth on Waikanae Beach, a photo by Simon Nathan on the teara.govt.nz website, date not stated. The whitebaiting season began on 15 August, although Lockdown may have made some people nervous about being on the river. The season lasts until 30 November.

Back in July we reported:

Last Friday, 16 July, Stuff itself announced in an article headed “NZ On Air dishes out $9.6 million to journalism” on its website that “Stuff will receive $591,465 for its The Whole Truth project which is designed to counter misinformation where it occurs about Covid-19.“

We knew what this would mean: if the NZ Herald is like a timid chihuahua, Ms Boucher’s Stuff is a pack of pitt bull terriers ready to savage anyone in a public spotlight who dares challenge the Jacinda party line and so keep coming the big handouts of Taxpayer money. And a District Councillor is as good a target as any for Ms Boucher’s money-motivated malevolence.

It was to be expected that the paid Vaccine Sales Force would ridicule any critical/skeptical observations about the rushed experimental treatments touted as vaccines by their Big Pharma manufacturers — there’s billions of dollars involved. Unsurprisingly, a few of them have shown up as commentators on here; although the only one with the courage to use her real name has been Marie O’Sullivan; the rest have used numerous fake names on various platforms.

But there is a big difference between that and public pillorying by Stuff which, despite its rapidly shrinking readership, is still significant as an opinion influencer.

Yet another black mark against this scurrilous media organisation.

from the Times of Israel

Hospitalized Cv patients are far more likely to die or to end up in severe or critical condition if they are vitamin D-deficient, Israeli researchers have found.

n a study conducted in a Galilee hospital, 26 percent of vitamin D-deficient coronavirus patients died, while among other patients the figure was at 3%.

“This is a very, very significant discrepancy, which represents a big clue that starting the disease with very low vitamin D leads to increased mortality and more severity,” Dr. Amir Bashkin, endocrinologist and part of the research team, told The Times of Israel.

For much of the pandemic, many scientists have suggested that the so-called sunshine vitamin may help people fight the disease. The new study represents one of the most compelling pieces of supporting research yet.

“In short, after conducting this study I would say to people that during this pandemic, you certainly want to make sure that you have adequate vitamin D, because if you contract the coronavirus it will help you,” said Dr. Amiel Dror, who led the research.

He analyzed data on 1,176 patients admitted to the Galilee Medical Center, 253 of whom had vitamin D levels on record, for a study that has been published online but not yet been peer-reviewed. Half of those with recorded levels were vitamin D-deficient.

Full article

The agenda to the KCDC Strategy and Operations committee meeting this Thursday includes a report commissioned of Research First Ltd to find out the level of satisfaction among Kapiti citizens and ratepayers with the Council in various areas. This is an annual exercise.

Most notable this year is the statement in (5) below — overall adjusted satisfaction down to 65% from 80% the previous year. Also notable is the mention in (6) of the Guru (‘Uruhi’) Gateway and the increase in Rates in the Long Term Plan as reasons, and the statement in (7): “Perceptions of trust, whether the council is going in the right direction, value for money and making good decisions all drove scores down at the end of the year.”

Only 53% were satisfied with value for money and even less — 48% — thought the Council made good decisions.

Wow, that’s certainly telling Council boss Mr Maxwell and his supporters at the Council Table like it is!

This opening page of the report reproduced below provides the results summary. The full report occupies page 252 to 314 of the Agenda accessible here.

What it looks like 35 years after the nuclear disaster.

This is planned to be in the Paraparaumu area by the Wharemauku Stream east of the ‘Ewy’. More info is on the website — this includes the latest report dated 10 August 2021.

by Kiwi4Justice

Talk about the cure being worse than the disease!

Jacinda has locked down New Zealand again to save us all from the dreaded ‘delta variant’. Well, I tell you what, I’d take my chances with the delta variant any day of the week thank you very much. When we look at the true risk from the delta variant, it is utterly delusional for Jacinda to be taking the action she is taking for the level of ‘threat’ that the delta variant poses. The name delta sounds bad doesn’t it. It sounds like some kind of military code name, so it must be really bad. Bad enough to put the fear of God right through the whole nation and have everyone walking around in masks terrified of each other like some kind of dystopian zombie horror movie.

How bad is the delta variant? At last count there were around 550 reported cases of delta in New Zealand. How many have died from this supposedly super deadly virus with a scary military type name? Zero. So far. None out of approximately 550. The number is likely a lot higher than 550 if we assume that there will be many Kiwis who have caught the delta virus but have not been tested because the symptoms are mostly so mild.

In Australia where the delta variant has been around longer, there have been a few deaths reportedly caused by it. But overall the reported mortality rate in Australia from the delta variant is only around 1 in 500 (0.2%), and in the UK, where more than 300,000 cases of the delta variant have been reported, the mortality rate is 1 in 3,500 (virtually zero) for under 50s, and overall around 1 in 400 across all age groups (0.25%).

Full article

Press reader view of the article which suggests blood clots are the likely cause is here