February 11 in history

On February 11:

660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.

1531 Henry VIII  was recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.

1752  Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, opened.

1790 Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitions U.S. Congress for abolition of slavery.

1794 First session of United States Senate open to the public.

1808 Anthracite coal was first burned as a fuel, experimentally.

 

1809 Robert Fulton filed a patent for improvements to steamboat navigation.

1812 Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry “gerrymandered” for the first time.

1814 Norway’s independence was proclaimed, marking the ultimate end of the Kalmar Union.

1826 University College London was founded under the name University of London.

1826 Swaminarayan wrote the Shikshapatri, an important test within the Swaminarayan faith.

1840 Gaetano Donizetti’s opera La Fille du Régiment received its first performance in Paris.

1843 Giuseppe Verdi’s opera I Lombardi received its first performance in Milan.

1847 Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor, was born.

1855 Kassa Hailu was crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III.

 

1861 United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.

1864 Charles Heaphy was recommended for a VC for rescuing a soldier while under fire.

  1873 King Amadeus I of Spain abdicated.

1904 Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister of New Zealand, was born.

1905 Pope Pius X published the encyclical Vehementer nos.

1916 Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control.

 

1917 Sidney Sheldon, American author, was born.

1919 Eva Gabor, Hungarian-born actress, was born.

1919 Friedrich Ebert (SPD), was elected President of Germany.

1920 King Farouk I of Egypt, was born.

1929 Italy and the Vatican signed the Lateran Treaty.

1934 Mary Quant, English fashion designer, was born.

1936 Burt Reynolds, American actor, was born.

1938 BBC Television produced the world’s first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of  the Karel Capek play R.U.R., which coined the term “robot“.

 A scene from the play, showing three robots.

1938 Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer, was born.

1939 A Lockheed XP-38 flew from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.

1941 The first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for “Chattanooga Choo Choo“.

1943 General Dwight Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.

 

1948 John Costello succeeds Éamon de Valera as Taoiseach of Ireland.

1963 Julia Child’s show The French Chef premiered.

1964 Sarah Palin, 11th Governor of Alaska, was born.

1969 Jennifer Aniston, American actress, was born.

1971 Eighty-seven countries signed the Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in international waters.

1973 First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam took place.

1978  China lifted a ban on works by Aristotle, Shakespeare and Dickens.

1979 Islamic revolution of Iran achieves victory under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

1987 Philippines constitution went into effect.

1990 Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, was released from Victor Verster Prison.

1991 UNPO, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, formed in The Hague.

1997 Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

2006 Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington in the face, neck, and upper torso while hunting quail.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Christchurch Town Hall, 1978.

The backing band came ons tage to tune up, started jamming, the audience picked up the rhythm and began clapping in time.

By the time Roberta Flack came ons tage we were well and truely warmed up and she took us even higher, singing just like this:

Happy birthday Roberta, 73 today.

Wanna be a blog idol?

Stuff is calling for entries for its second Blog Idol competition.

All you’ve got to do is:

Write your best blog post, on any subject, up to 150 words, and send it together with your name, address and contact details to blogidol@stuff.co.nz.

Impress our Stuff panel, and you’ll be a finalist, blogging with a “voting” audience of thousands of Stuff readers. The winner of Blog Idol 2 will win a fantastic new Nokia N95 cellphone, courtesy of Vodafone, plus a contract to blog on Stuff.

The end of free milk in schools

On this day in 1967 the provision of free milk in schools ended.

It had been introduced in 1937 as part of the Labour government’s plan to boost the health of children.

By the time it finished it was costing the government about 840,000 pounds a year.

At Oamaru South School the milk was delivered to the gate where it sat in all weathers until the milk monitors – some of the bigger standard four boys – brought it in and delivered it to each classroom.

In winter it was freezing, in summer it was warm.

This was long before the days of homogenised or skim milk and each half pint bottle was topped with a large glob of cream.

In all seasons it was awful and the end of the daily torture by milk was celebrated by my generation of school children.

8 sheep and a cow each

The sheep population has dropped and the  dairy cow population has climbed according to Statistics NZ’s latest animal production survey.

Total dairy cattle numbers hit a record high of 5.8 million in 2009, 4 percent higher than in 2008. Since 1979, numbers in the overall dairy herd have doubled according to the annual survey, which collects information on livestock and arable farming, horticulture, forestry, and selected farming practices, including fertiliser and cultivation.

At 4.6 million, the 2009 milking herd, identified as cows and heifers in milk or in calf, was 250,000 larger than in 2008. This expansion was due to both dairy conversions and growth in the number of milking cows in existing herds. “Increased numbers in the milking herd have resulted in there being one milking cow for every New Zealander”, said agriculture statistics manager Gary Dunnet.

The increase in dairy cows was one of the reasons the sheep population dropped -  down 5 percent on 2008 to 32.4 million in 2009. that’s below the peak of 70 million reached in 1982.

The beef cattle population at 4.1 million was similar to the previous year and the 1.2 million deer was 6% fewer.

If you divide the human population by that of farm animals we’d all have just under 8 sheep, a dairy cow, a beef cattle beast and 1/4 of a deer each.

It’s only a couple of decades ago that a design-a-tee-shirt- contest was won by one with the slogan: NZ, we’re “ewenique”, 60 million sheep can’t be wrong.

But New Zealand’s not the only country with a declining number of sheep. In Australia drought and conversion to cropping have led to a big drop in the ovine population. It was about 120 million in 1997, now it’s around 70 million.

Water will take us past Australia

The government’s plans for water storeage, which were outlined by John Key in his Statement to Parliament have gained the approval of Federated Farmers.

“New Zealand can pass Australia because we have the water and they don’t,” says Don Nicolson, President of Federated Farmers.

“While there’s no numbers in the Prime Minister’s speech, Federated Farmers’ intense lobbying on water storage has water firmly on the National Infrastructure Unit’s work programme.

“Water is to our economy what minerals are to Australia’s. Harnessing water to grow grass and crops that would otherwise run out to sea is economically transformational. . .”

It doesn’t have to be irrigation for increased agricultural production or minerals. 

If a little of what’s under conservation land with little environmental value can be mined, it could be both.

February 10 in history

On February 10:

1306  Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn, his leading political rival sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence

1355 The St. Scholastica’s Day riot broke out in Oxford leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.

1567 An explosion destroyed the Kirk o’ Field house in Edinburgh. The second husband of Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley was found strangled, in what many believe to be an assassination.

 1567 drawing of Kirk o’ Field after the murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley drawn for Cecil (William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley) shortly after the murder.

1763 The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended theFrench and Indian War and France ceded Quebec to Great Britain.

1775 Charles Lamb, English essayist, was born.

1798 Louis Alexandre Berthier invaded Rome.

1814 Battle of Champaubert

1840 Queen Victoria  married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

 Marriage of Victoria and Albert by Sir George Hayter

1846 First Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Sobraon – British defeated Sikhs in final battle of the war.

 Raja Lal Singh, who led Sikh forces against the British during the First Anglo-Sikh War, 1846

1870 The YWCA was founded.

1893 Jimmy Durante, American actor/comedian (, was born.

1894  Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister, was born.

1906 HMS Dreadnought (1906) was launched.

1920 Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performed a symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.

 

1923 Texas Tech University was founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock.

1930  Robert Wagner, American actor, was born.

 

1931 New Delhi became the capital of India.

1933 The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.

1934 Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet, was born.

1937 Roberta Flack, American singer, was born.

1947 Italy ceded most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.

1950 Mark Spitz, American swimmer, was born.

1952 Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore. was born.

1955  – Greg Norman, Australian golfer, was born.

1962 Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers was exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

  

1964 – The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (R21) collided with the destroyer HMAS Voyager (D04) off the south coast of New South Wales.

 Animation showing the courses and positions of the two ships leading up to the collision

1967 The provision of free milk in schools ended.

 The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.

1981A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino killed eight and injured 198.

1982  Iafeta Paleaaesina, New Zealand rugby league player, was born.

1989 Ron Brown became the first African American to lead a major American political party when he was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

1996 The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov for the first time.

 

2008 The 2008 Namdaemun fire severely damaged Namdaemun, the first National Treasure of South Korea.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

9/10

So close, but not quite close enough in this week’s NZ Historyonline quiz.

PM shows where to from here

The Prime Minister’s Statement to Parliament  leaves no doubt that the government is serious about the aspirational goals on which it campaigned.

John Key spoke of the need to maintain tight control of spending.

We are keeping a tight lid on new spending over the foreseeable future, which will enable us to get the budget back into surplus and keep public debt under control. Tight control of spending will also help to keep pressure off interest rates, which means lower mortgage costs for New Zealanders.

Overall, our economic policies are aimed at shifting the economy more towards exports and productive investment, and away from consumption and borrowing.

2010 will be about putting in place policies to grow the economy and create sustainable new employment, not just this year but over the longer term. This Government was elected to achieve a step change in our overall economic performance and that is what we intend to deliver.

The Government’s other priority this year is to make significant reforms in social sectors like the welfare system, education, the justice system, health and state housing. New Zealanders deserve a future with less unemployment, welfare dependence, crime and all the social problems that go along these. To secure this brighter future we have to get to grips with some of the big issues in these areas which have long been left unaddressed.

We owe that not just to the people who receive these important public services, but to all New Zealand taxpayers.

Government priorities include include  a growth enhancing tax system:

We need a tax system that creates incentives for people to work hard, improve their skills and get ahead here in New Zealand.

And we need a tax system that encourages saving and boosts the productivity of investments.

In both these ways, the tax system helps to drive economic performance and create jobs.

Furthermore, we need a tax system which is not difficult to comply with or administer, which is regarded as fair, and which limits opportunities to divert income and reduce tax liabilities.

In other words, we want people to pay their fair share of tax. Fairness is a very important consideration to this Government. In working through reform options we are keeping the equity of tax changes squarely in mind.

He also spoke of promoting economic growth through science and innovation, trade, better regulation and unlocking resources:

New Zealand’s natural resources have the potential to significantly raise New Zealand’s economic performance.

It is a little-known fact that in 2008, New Zealand’s third-largest export earner was oil. Last year the Crown received nearly $1 billion from petroleum production with $543 million being from royalty payments alone. This is revenue that has benefited all New Zealanders.

During this year the Government will progress an action plan to unlock New Zealand’s petroleum potential. Estimates are that the petroleum sector could generate many billions more in export revenues by 2025.

There is also extraordinary economic potential in the mineral estate residing in Crown-owned land.

Mining in New Zealand uses just 40 square kilometres of land, less than 0.015 percent of our total land area. The export value of that land however is $175,000 per hectare, which makes mining an extremely valuable use of land.

The Government will shortly be releasing a discussion document for public consultation on potential changes to Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act. Schedule 4 is the part of the Crown Minerals Act which prohibits mining or prospecting on specified areas of Crown land.

The discussion document will recommend that some areas of Crown land be removed from Schedule 4 and in addition that some areas currently not in Schedule 4 be added to it.

Notwithstanding the public consultation process, it is my expectation that the Government will act on at least some of these recommendations and make significant changes to Schedule 4. This is because new mining on Crown land has the potential to increase economic growth and create jobs.

I know some people have expressed concern about increased mining but I can assure New Zealanders that any new mines on conservation land will have to meet strict environmental tests.

Moreover, the Government is also proposing to establish a new Conservation Fund, potentially drawing on royalty revenue from mining operations on Crown land. The Conservation Fund would resource special conservation projects around the country. That means that if there is an increase in mining activity, New Zealand’s natural environment would also be improved.

This will upset people who think every square centimetre of conservation land is pristine and beautiful. It’s not. If some which isn’t can yield minerals without damaging the environment it is in our interests to allow that to happen.

I was also pleased to see the emphasis on water:

The Government will also take action this year to remove particular regulatory roadblocks to water storage and irrigation in Canterbury. This will be in addition to the work already being carried out by the National Infrastructure Unit and the Land and Water Forum on progressing water storage infrastructure throughout the country.

Overall, the Government is committed to ensuring that water storage and irrigation projects which meet environmental standards, and which are good economic propositions, can happen in a decent time frame.

The Government will introduce legislation this year to change the regulations governing the aquaculture industry. This is an area where the current regulations are stifling all prospects of growth in the sector.

Reform of the benefit system is another priority:

I need to be able to look taxpayers in the eye and assure them that their hard-earned wages are not being used to support those who lack the will or desire to work as hard for their living as their fellow New Zealanders.     

There are many people on a benefit who will realistically never be able to work, and the welfare net will continue to support them.

But for most people, a benefit should only provide temporary support until they can return to work. In fact there is little chance of a better future for beneficiaries and their children unless they do come off a benefit and work for an income. Long-term welfare dependency imprisons people in a life of limited income and limited choices.

Our benefit reforms will therefore be squarely focused on helping people get back to work as soon as possible, and ensuring that they do so.

He backs up the benefits of this with statistics:

These welfare reforms will have positive effects not just for beneficiaries themselves but for the sustainability of the welfare system.

If, for example, just 100 DPB recipients were to move off their benefit and into work, the welfare system would save close to $10 million over their lifetime. If we were to assist five percent of the sole parents whose youngest child is aged over six years into work, we would save almost $200 million over the next 10 years.

Concern over the increasing welfare bill has prompted the government to  appoint a working group of experts to recommend ways to reduce long-term welfare dependency and thereby reduce the welfare bill future generations will face. 

Kiwiblog gives a summary or the speech and says:

Overall pretty encouraging that the Government is going to pursue some economic reform that will increase the size of the national cake, rather than merely get obsessed with how to divide it up as the left do. If we grow the cake, then everyone benefits in time. . .

. . . Overall I give the package a solid B. If the GST was 100% confirmed (I judge it 90% confirmed) and they had gone for land tax also, I would have gone for a B+. And if they left out the nonsense about the number of liquor outlets being a problem I may have even gone for an A- after a few rum and cokes

Colin Espiner says: 

Overall, I’d give Key an Achieved, plus a grading of “above the National standard”. There’s still a lot left unsaid, though, and the proof of just how radical National is prepared to be this year won’t be known until May.

February 9 in history

On February 9:

474 Zeno crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1555 Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper was burned at the stake.

 The Martyrdom of John Hooper as depicted in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

1621 Gregory XV becomes Pope, the last Pope elected by acclamation.

1770 Captain Cook completed his circumnavigation of the North Island.

1773 William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States, was born.

1789 Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, German inventor of the stenography, was born.

 1825 After no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the United States House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams President of the United States.

1849 New Roman Republic was established.

1865 Mrs. Patrick Campbell, British actress (b0rn Beatrice Stella Tanner), was born.

 

1870 – The U.S. Weather Bureau was established.

1874 Amy Lowell, American poet, was born.

1885 The first Japanese government-approved immigrants arrived in Hawaii.

1889 The United States Department of Agriculture was established as a Cabinet-level agency.

1891 Ronald Colman, English actor (, was born.

1895 William G. Morgan created a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.

1897 – Charles Kingsford Smith, Australian pilot, was born.

 

1900 Wanganui Opera House opened.

 1900 The Davis Cup competition was established.

 Monument to the Davis Cup at Stade Roland Garros in Paris

1920 Under the terms of the Spitsbergen Treaty, international diplomacy recognised Norwegian sovereignty over Arctic archipelago Svalbard, and designated it as demilitarized.

1926 Garret FitzGerald, 7th Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, was born.

1934 The Balkan Entente is formed.

1936 Stompin’ Tom Connors, Canadian country singer, was born.

1940  Brian Bennett, British musician (The Shadows), was born.

1940 – J. M. Coetzee, South African author, Nobel laureate, was born.

1942 – Year-round Daylight saving time was re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.

1942 Carole King, American singer, was born.

1943 World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.

1944  Alice Walker, American writer, was born.

1945 Mia Farrow, American actress, was born.

1945 The Battle of the Atlantic - HMS Venturer sunk U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.

1947 Carla Del Ponte, Swiss UN prosecutor, was born.

1950 Second Red Scare: Senator Joseph McCarthy accused the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.

1955 Charles Shaughnessy, British actor, was born.

1960 Joanne Woodward received the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1960 Holly Johnson, British singer (Frankie Goes to Hollywood), was born.

1962 Jamaica became independent.

1964 The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a “record-busting” audience of 73 million viewers.

1965 The first United States combat troops were sent to South Vietnam.

1969 First test flight of the Boeing 747.

1970 Glenn McGrath, Australian cricketer, was born.

1971 The 6.4 Richter Scale Sylmar earthquake hits the San Fernando Valley area of California.

1971  Satchel Paige became the first Negro League player to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1971 Apollo 14 returned to Earth after the third manned moon landing.

1975 The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returned to Earth.

1991 Voters in Lithuania voted for independence.

1994 Vance-Owen peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina is announced.

1995 Space Shuttle astronauts Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale become the first African American and first Briton, respectively, to perform spacewalks.

  

1996 The Irish Republican Army declared the end of its 18 month ceasefire shortly followed by the explosion of a large bomb in London’s Canary Wharf.

2001 The submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) accidentally struck and sunk the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel.

 Divers inspect the wreckage of Ehime Maru off Oahu, November 5, 2001.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Tuesday’s answers

Monday’s questions were:

1.What’s the difference between a raisin and a sultana?

2. What is moss stitch?

3. What does, “He aha te mea nui ot te ao?” He tangata! He Tangata! He tangata!” mean?

4. Who wrote, Cold Comfort Farm?

5. Who said: “I have an idea that the phrase ‘weaker sex’ was coined by some woman to disarm the man she was preparing to overwhelm.”?

Everyone who was on the right track with the raisin and sultana even if it wasn’t the full answer can have a point and then:

Paul got two correct, an on-the-right-rack point for the raisin, and can have a bonus for humour and a half for his answer to 4 which was nearly right.

Andrei got two and an on-the-right-rack point for the raisin with a bonus for making me smile with his oh fie.

David got two, a bonus for his extra information with sultana and a half for an educated attempt with the quote.

Samo got one right and an on-the-right-rack point for the raisin.

Gravedodger got the an on-the-right-rack point for the raisin plus three right  (and Mrs GD can have a bonus for her contribution); and since he asked so nicely he can have the wee bit for trying with 5.

Deborah got the an on-the-right-track point for the raisin plus three with a double bonus for extra info on Cold Comfort Farm and “He aha te mea nui ot te ao?” He tangata! He Tangata! He tangata!”.

PDM gets a point for trying with the raisin and a bonus because I believe he’d have given the sultana answer if David hadn’t got there first and a half for raising a smile with his answer to 3.

Tuesday’s answers follow the break:

Wanted!

A police officer from Christchurch airport has just phoned to tell me they know who took my laptop – but they can’t find him.

To recap – I’d put the laptop and my suitcase on the ground while paying for the car park last Wednesday, picked up the case but not the laptop and when I realised just a few minutes later what I’d done I went back and the computer had gone.

The police officer went through video footage and saw it all happen. A bloke behind me in the queue picked up the laptop and walked off with it. The officer went through the video of the entrance and exit as well and saw the bloke arriving in a red Nissan station wagon.

He checked the registration and identified the driver as Daniel Morgan. His last address was that of an ex-girlfriend who wasn’t very complimentary about him. The officer then traced former employers and discovered he also goes under the names of Daniel Barr and Daniel Erickson but no-one knows where he is now.

I’m very impressed with the police officer and his detective work I’ll be even more impressed if he can tack him down.

And I’m very unimpressed with my own carelessness.

NZX plans June launch for milk futures

NZX is to launch its first dairy futures market in June.

Exchange derivatives manager Katherine Jaggard said interest had been high, both locally and internationally, which was an indication the dairy sector lacked such risk management tools compared to other traded commodities, like grain and coffee. . .

 . . . Farmers were interested in hedging their income against price fluctuations, but initial activity was expected from others in the industry, such as processors, buyers and traders. . .

Eventually, she would like dairy farmers to view the NZX dairy futures market on a daily basis, as they did now with the exchange rate.

“We see the exchange rate every day. It would be great to see the whole milk powder price every day.

“The data would be helpful to farmers. It would give them an idea where demand levels are,” she said.

I can see how hedging might appeal and that this market might be of interest to investors but I’m not sure if knowing the day to day demand is going to be useful to farmers.

If you’re producing widgets you might alter the supply at the whim of the market but milk harvesting isn’t like producing widgets.

A consistent trend in the price might help with a decision on whether or not to feed supplements but you can’t turn milk supply on and off to take advantage of market fluctuations.

Key’s flag doodle on TradeMe for Cure Kids

The doodle John Key did on Breakfast yesterday morning has been listed on TradeMe and the money raised from the sale will go to Cure Kids.

A media release from TVNZ said:

Prime Minister, John Key was asked to draw his version of an alternative NZ Flag by TVNZ’s Pippa Wetzell on Breakfast at 7:15am this morning. 

By the time the programme went off-air at 9am, TVNZ had received many pledges of money for the A4 sized doodle, the highest being $1000.  Mr Key gave his consent for the drawing to be auctioned for charity and it has been listed on Trade Me this afternoon with all proceeds going to the children’s charity, Cure Kids.

Mr Key described his drawing as a “silver fern”.  Pippa Wetzell described it, perhaps more accurately, as a “lop-sided Christmas tree”.

In case there’s any doubt that this is the Prime Minister’s own work, here’s a screen shot of him drawing it:

And the video:

 And how good is the doodle? Here (Hat Tip Kiwiblog) it is:

February 9 in history

On February 9:

Things happened and people were born.

But I used up all my advance posts while I was away and the theft of my laptop meant I didn’t have the opportunity to do any more. I got home late this afternoon and had to prepare dinner for guests who’ve only just left so exactly what happened and who was born will have to wait for later in the day.

Monday’s quiz

1. What’s the difference between a raisin and a sultana?

2. What is moss stitch?

3. What does, “He aha te mea nui ot te ao?” He tangata! He Tangata! He tangata!” mean?

4. Who wrote, Cold Comfort Farm?

5. Who said: “I have an idea that the phrase ‘weaker sex’ was coined by some woman to disarm the man she was preparing to overwhelm.”?

There’s diets that work . . .

 . . . then there’s this one:

*  If it is good for you it’s not fattening, so as long as you are eating it for the calcium content there’s no need to worry about the kilojoules in cheese and ice cream.

* Kilojoules only count when you’re enjoying eating them.

* Following from that: anything you don’t like isn’t fattening so if you develop an aversion to chocolate or champagne it’s fine to have as much as you like, even if you have to indulge in quite a lot of them before developing the aversion.

* Kilojoules shared are kilojoules halved. Any amount of food divided between six meals will have only half the energy value of the same amount of food consumed in three.

* Anything eaten to protect someone else from temptation is kilojoulefree becuase you are performing a service.

Dedicated with tongue in cheek (a good diet tool because it’s hard to eat when you’re doing that)  to Busted Blonde who’s just finished the first week of her journey to  Fab & Fifty.

Things you don’t want to hear from a pilot

“Because of the weather, there is no smooth flight path into Brisbane . . .”

That’s what the pilot told the passengers flying from Townsville yesterday.

We followed his instructions to fasten seatbelts and waited with varying levels of trepidation but all we got were a couple of minor shakes.

Whenever pilots have warned of turbulence when I’ve been flying into New Zealand airports it’s meant a stomach-swooping buffeting.

Maybe Australians have  a stricter definition of a rocky ride, or perhaps it’s just we were lucky that yesterday the forecast didn’t live up to expectations.

Things I learned

*Walking 3 kilomteres up Castle Hill in Townsville when it’s 28 degrees with 90% humidity is harder than walking about 1/3 that distance up Mount Iron in Wanaka when it’s 20 degrees with 0 humidity.

* Australia has insects which bite, even when you’re moving.

* The bites itch.

* Drinking lots of water and sweating lots without compensating for what you’re losing can lead to cramp.

* Walking down hill with cramp in one thigh isn’t a lot of fun.

* Getting cramp in the other thigh makes it worse.

* There’s a great sense of satisfaction when you’ve done it.

* Doing it the second day without the cramp feels even better.

* Doing it the third day is better still, in spite of the blisters.

February 8 in history

On February 8:

1575  Universiteit Leiden was founded, and given the motto “Praesidium Libertatis”.

1587  Mary, Queen of Scots was executed at suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England.

1612  Samuel Butler, English poet, was born.

1622 King James I disbanded the English Parliament.

1692 – A doctor in Salem Village suggeseds that two girls in the family of the village minister may be suffering from bewitchment, leading to the Salem witch trials.

1693  The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia was granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.

1726 The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.

1807 Battle of Eylau – Napoleon defeated Russians under General Benigssen.

 Cavalry charge painted by Simon Fort.

1817  Juan Gregorio de las Heras crossed the Andes with an army to join San Martín and liberate Chile from Spain.

1828  Jules Verne, French author, was born.

1837 Richard Johnson became the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.

1849 New Roman Republic established.

1855  The Devil’s Footprints mysteriously appeared in southern Devon.

1856  Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei abolished slavery in Wallachia.

1865 Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery.

1867 The Ausgleich results in the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.

 

1879 Sandford Fleming first proposed adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.

1882 Thomas Selfridge, first person to die in an airplane crash, was born.

1887 The Dawes Act authorised the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.

1900 British troops were defeated by Boers at Ladysmith.

1904 Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China started the Russo-Japanese War.

1910 The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated by William D. Boyce.

1915  D.W. Griffith’s controversial film The Birth of a Nation premiered in Los Angeles.

1922 President Warren G. Harding introduced the first radio in the White House.

1924 The first state execution using gas in the United Stats took place in Nevada.

1931 James Dean, American actor, was born.

1931 All three people on board  a Dominion Airline DeSoutter were killed in a crash near Wairoa. This was the first fatal air service accident in New Zealand.

 

1932  John Williams, American composer and conductor, was born.

 

1941  Nick Nolte, American actor, was born.

 

1948  Ron Tyson, American singer (The Temptations), was born.

 The Temptations in 1984. Pictured L-R: Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, (from top) Richard Street, Ali-Ollie Woodson, Ron Tyson

1952 Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen of the UK.

 Elizabeth changes a wheel during WWII.

1955 John Grisham, American writer, was born.

1955  The Government of Sindh abolished the Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km²) of land thus acquired was to be distributed among the landless peasants.

1960 Queen Elizabeth II issued an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants would take the name “Mountbatten-Windsor“.

1962 Charonne massacre: 9 trade unionists were killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.

 

1963 Mohammad Azharuddin, Indian cricketer, was born.

1963 Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba were made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.

1968  The Orangeburg massacre, a mass killing in Orangeburg, South Carolina of black students from South Carolina State University who were protesting racial segregation at the town’s only bowling alley.

1969 Allende meteorite fell near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico.

1971 The NASDAQ stock market index debuted.

1974 The crew of the first American space station Skylab returned to Earth after 84 days in space.

1974 – Military coup in Upper Volta.

1978  Proceedings of the United States Senate were broadcast on radio for the first time.

1979 Denis Sassou-Nguesso became the President of the Republic of the Congo.

1983  The Melbourne dust storm hit.The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, the 320m deep dust cloud enveloped the city, turning day to night.

1989 An Independent Air Boeing 707 crashed into Santa Maria mountain in Azores Islands killing 144.

1996 The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.

1996 – The massive Internet collaboration “24 Hours in Cyberspace” took place.

1998 First female ice hockey game in Olympic history: Finland beat Sweden 6-0.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.