If you know me, you know how fiercely proud I am of being
a farmer.
As an MP and National’s spokesperson I
move in rural communities constantly and this month, during
Parliament’s recent three week recess I visited many more
from Timaru to Te Hapua.
I doubt many New Zealanders
would realise rural communities are this country’s second
largest city with 700,000+ people.
And despite what
people are reading or hearing in media throughout the
country, they are innovators.
So many Kiwis do not
understand the skill, innovation and guardianship our
farmers apply to their lands every day, in every weather, in
Thursday, 29 July 2021, 11:45 am
This weekend should remain mainly settled for much of New
Zealand, while a front brings rain to the lower South Island
and low pressure to the north of Aotearoa brings a few
showers to Northland through to the Bay of Plenty.
A
ridge of high pressure holds firm over the country today,
with the weather expected to be mainly settled for most.
While a weak front brings some light rain to the west coast
of both the North and South Islands by
tonight.
Tomorrow, another front makes its way onto
the far south, the warm northerly winds start to strengthen
Thursday, 29 July 2021, 11:27 am
A prototype app using artificial intelligence to diagnose
pneumonia has won the developer an international
award.
Company-X senior software developer Jiadong
Chen built the prototype for an international competition
run by Microsoft.
Chen built an image classifier for
detecting bacterial and viral pneumonia using Microsoft
Azure Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Unity, winning the
Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional Global Cloud Skills
Challenge.
Microsoft Azure AI is a portfolio of AI
services designed for software developers and data
scientists. Unity is the leading platform for creating
interactive, real-time content in 2D, 3D and virtual
reality.
“Jiadong chose this project to contribute
Thursday, 29 July 2021, 11:03 am
Flood flows on the Buller River this month were the
largest of any river in Aotearoa New Zealand in almost 100
years, NIWA measurements show.
NIWA hydrodynamics
scientist Richard Measures says records show even larger
flooding of the Buller River in 1926. It’s not the
largest river in New Zealand but it does experience the
biggest flood flows. The flood levels through the Buller
gorge are incredible he said.
NIWA environmental
monitoring technician Mike O’Driscoll used a radar gun
from the Westport and Orowaiti bridges to measure the speed
of the Buller River at its surface on July 17.
Thursday, 29 July 2021, 12:22 pm
“The total lack of preparation for Medsafe’s approval
of the AstraZenica vaccine is another example of a
Government that is always reactive, never proactive in
relation to COVID,” says ACT Leader David
Seymour.
“The approval was easy to anticipate, in
fact it was late compared with the rest of the
world.
“A proactive Government would be ready do
order, distribute, and use, or not. This Government is not
prepared, it s not a vaccine roll out, it s a vaccine stroll
out.
“With Medsafe now approving two additional
vaccines for New Zealanders, we deserve to know that the