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Just thought others may have photos/thoughts on this subject!

Ken 

A leading Kiwi epidemiologist says rapid antigen testing (RAT) before people board planes from China would help protect passengers from coronavirus infections on flights.

But he doubts there is any point in reintroducing testing for Covid-19 at our borders.

The scale of the Covid-19 outbreak in China has prompted some countries to impose new travel rules, although there are no plans to reintroduce Covid-19 tests at New ZealandÔÇÖs border once residents of China are free to travel overseas and return without quarantine next month.

So we are going to get all the Covid-19 infected Chinese come into New Zealand and pass it on to us, makes you wonder if all the lockdowns and Isolation we did and not letting our own back into the country etc. was worth it if this is going to happen with no restrictions. As far as Im concerned its a bloody disgrace!!

The government want New Zealand to be smoke free by 2025 (good luck with that) Im a non smoker so cant comment on what all the smokers are going to do or when smoking tourists get off the boat/plane to come visit, are they going to be told sorry you cant smoke here? So what is to happen? I agree that smoking is a health hazard and clogs our health system up and on the other hand I think that putting the price of smokes up over the past several years has contributed to our crime rate, so its a damned if you do and a damned if you dont huh?

Was a 4.3 in TeAroha, gave us a good shake in Tauranga.
Auckland would likely have felt it too.

Speaking of Aljazeera, (in the 'space is huge' thread), I caught this Dataland doco on their channel a few nights back. Intriguing expose' on the inroads being made by AI in our daily lives. The extent to which China has run with this as covered in the second part is disturbing to say the least and more than just a bit reminiscent of Black Mirror.

Ye Olde PCWorld has faded into heresy or oblivion, so why not each post a picture of our desktops before 2022 sputters out? Free pixels are available for those with tablets and phones which may be short of the necessary dots

Did you watch "The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams? If so, you might remember him saying; "Space is big. You might think that it's a long way down to the dairy, but that's peanuts to space."

So I thought that you might be interested in just how big.     

You canÔÇÖt count the number of stars anymore than you can count the number of grains of sand on the beaches of the world. There are only about 3,000 stars visible to the naked eye but with todayÔÇÖs technology we can now see 100b to 200b galaxies. Each galaxy contains about 100b stars - thatÔÇÖs a one with 22 zeros after it. ThatÔÇÖs an incomprehensible number. If you could count one star per second it would take you over 3 quadrillion years. That is far beyond human effort. There are billions of stars in the universe in an amazing variety and diversity.

Source: TV programme "Creation Astronomy" on the Hope channel, Tuesday 1400, and if you have an interest in astronomy you will find it a most enlightening programme.

They really are the most ignorant, hate filled group of men in the world at present.
Not content with restricting the lives of Afghan women, they've now allowed their misogyny free rein & banned women working for foreign aid groups.

Even the Taliban cannot possibly be so very ignorant as to not comprehend that their ban will certainly mean that some women & children will die, many due to starvation.
They must be aware of this; therefore its blindingly obvious that they simply do not care. They are evil boys, wielding power over those least able to fend for themselves or fight back.

Imagine the world wide outcry, if it was a group of religious women imposing such harsh restrictions on men...


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64090549



Five top non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have halted work in Afghanistan after women were banned from working for them by the Taliban government.
Care International, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Save the Children said they could not continue their work "without our female staff".
The International Rescue Committee also suspended services while Islamic Relief said it was stopping most of its work.
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban have been steadily repressing women's rights.
The latest edict on NGOs came just days after the Taliban banned women from attending university.
Abdel Rahman Habib, spokesman for the Taliban's ministry of economy, accused female workers at the foreign aid groups of breaking dress codes by not wearing hijabs.

The Taliban threatened to cancel the licence of any organisation that did not swiftly comply with the ban.
A number of aid groups have since spoken out, demanding that women should be allowed to continue working for them.
"Islamic Relief is calling on the Afghan authorities to immediately lift the ban on female NGO workers," the organisation said.
"The ban will have a devastating humanitarian impact on millions of vulnerable men, women and children across the country. We are dismayed that this ruling comes just a few days after increased restrictions on Afghan girls' access to education."





https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/d...g-for-ngos



The IRC, which employs 3,000 women in a staff of 8,000, said in a statement: ÔÇ£The exclusion of women from humanitarian service delivery will have catastrophic consequences for the Afghan people because our services depend on women workers.ÔÇØ
One of the strongest reactions came from the German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, who said: ÔÇ£We will not accept that the Taliban are making humanitarian aid a pawn in their misogyny. They rob half the population of another fundamental right, violate humanitarian principles and endanger peopleÔÇÖs vital needs.ÔÇØ

Top US officials, including the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the charg├®e dÔÇÖaffaires to Afghanistan, Karen Decker, condemned the move.
Decker, tweeting in the Dari language on Sunday, said: ÔÇ£As a representative of the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, I feel I have the right to an explanation of how the Taliban intends to prevent women and children from starving, when women are no longer permitted to distribute assistance to other women and children.ÔÇØ

Her remarks triggered a response from the Taliban-led governmentÔÇÖs chief spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, who said all institutions wanting to operate in the country were obliged to comply with its rules and regulations.
ÔÇ£We do not allow anyone to talk rubbish or make threats regarding the decisions of our leaders under the title of humanitarian aid,ÔÇØ he said in a tweet."

I am trying to insert an image in my post, when I click the 'insert an image' icon, a drop down window appears but there is no option for me to select the image file from my PC

Please help.

Visit western Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Key8y1yg2yQ


Honest govt ads, 5 year special

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KikwAjmX64