Shortest day longest night

Today’s the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night.

The Carter Observatory says:

The Winter Solstice is on June 21 at 18:46 (6:46pm); this is when the Sun is at its most Northerly point in the sky. At the middle of the day on June 21, it reaches its lowest altitude, from the Northern horizon, for the year.

Brian Carter, Senior Astronomer at the Carter Observatory says, “This means that the longest night is June 21/22 and the shortest day is June 21”.

Jamie McKay discussed this on the Farming Show with Met Service weather ambassador Bob McDavitt on Friday.

He said that in there will be 9 hours 31 minutes of daylight in Auckland and in Dunedin just 8 hours 26 minutes.

The solstice doesn’t mean the coldest weather is over. Just as the warmest weather is usually in January and February after the summer solstice, the coldest days of winter are usually in July, after the winter one.

Memories from school geography tell me the lag in warming and cooling has something to do with being an island nation.

Water heats up and slows down more slowly than land so being surrounded by sea has a tempering affect on temperatures.

But that’s a very rusty memory and affirmations or corrections are welcomed.

We were at the Royal Highland Show in Scotland on June 21 in 1982 when the temperature wasn’t much warmer than we’d have expected in New Zealand.

Four years ago we were in Vejer de la Frontera, Spain, in June. Temperatures were much higher and children celebrated the summer solstice by making Juans and Juanas, which were paraded round the town then, like guys, burnt on a giant fire.

June 21 in history

On June 21:

1644 The Scottish parliament first imposed an exise duty on alcoholic beverages: a duty of 2s 8d “on everie pynt of aquavytie or strong watteris sold within the country.” 

Obverse of the cross.

1854 Charles Davis Lucas hurled a shell from the deck of  HMS Hecla, saving the lives of all on board, for which act of bravery he was awarded the first Victoria Cross.

1957 Canada’s first female cabinet minister, Ellen Fairclough was sworn in.

1964 The Beatles landed in New Zealand

Scroggin Biscuits

 

200g butter                      1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar            1 large egg

1/4 cup milk                       1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla            1 cup flour

3 cups rolled oats              1/2 cup cranberries

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I use hazelnuts)

1/2 cup sunflower seeds      1/2 cup chppoed chocolate

Melt butter.

Stir in sugars and egg.

Dissolve baking soda in milk and add with vanilla.

Add flour, oats berries, nuts, seeds & chocolate.

Put teaspoons of mixture onto baking tray – not too lcose because they spread.

Bake about 10 minutes at 180 C or until golden.

 

This recipe is my adaptaion of one from my mother. I thought it was one of Alison Holst’s but she gave a  a different recipe  for Scroggin Biscuits on National Radio.

Saturday Smiles

The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.    He had too much pi.

 I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

He was only a whisky maker, but I loved his still.

A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

No matter how much you push an envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was arrested for littering a public street.

A grenade thrown into carpet shop in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. 

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

If a short fortune-teller escaped from prison he would be a small medium, at large.

The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

Teop the backward poet writes in-verse.

In democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes.

If cannibals eat a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

You shouldn’t join dangerous cults, just practice safe sects.

Unintentional arrogance

Why do middle aged politicians think saying what they were doing in the 60s or 70s answers the question of whether or not they smoked dope?

When asked if she had smoked marijuana  Helen Clark replied she’d been a student at Auckland University in the 60s.

When asked a similar question her successor, Phil Goff, has given a similar answer, “I was a child of the 60s and 70s“.

I’d asked a perfectly straightforward question: Was he a dope-smoking hippy? And the rest of his reply was: “I was a child of the 60s and 70s.”

I said that of course the answer was “yes”, and he said “I’ve given you the answer” and I said “yes”, and so on.

Smoking dope might have been normal for Goff and his friends in the 60s and 70s, but that doesn’t make it the norm for everyone.

I was a child of the 60s and early 70s and a student at Otago University in the late 70s but I never smoked dope.

I’m not making a judgement on the presumption that Goff did smoke dope in the past. We all did things in our youths we might regret in hindsight and wouldn’t do now.

But his answer does remind me of the definition of unintentional arrogance at Open Parachute:

“The assumption that the way we define reality is necessarily the last word.”

We all have different realities, formed and affected by our experiences.

Failure to understand this is not just arrogant it’s ignorant and, especially in a politician, it’s dangerous because it blinds them to a variety of  possibilities for both causes and solutions.

Milk too expensive or people too poor?

Otago University researchers have found the price of milk is beyond the bugets of low-income families and they want the government to intervene.

Researchers Louise Signal and Moira Smith want the Government to bring in price controls to make milk more affordable.

They are also advocating that milk be included in the new “breakfast in schools” programme in low-income areas.

. . . The researchers say the Government contributed to rising milk prices by removing subsidies and control from the milk industry, applying GST to food, and by the linking of retail prices to international commodity prices.

Including milk in breakfast in schools programme might be a good idea but the other suggestions have no merit.

Price controls are simply a tax on production and if they were imposed on farmers they’d stop supplying the domestic market in favour of exporting or change from dairying to something more profitable.

Argentina put export taxes on beef and dairy produce last year to keep domestic prices low. Farmers then turned to other more profitable produce leading to shortages and the possibility of needing imports to satisfy demand.

Removing subsidies was painful at the time but it has made the New Zealand dairy industry the most efficient in the world.

Reintroducing subsidies would not only cost taxpayers and consumers it would sabotage our exports and the slow progress we’re making towards freeing up world trade.

A good tax may be an oxymoron but a simple tax is better and GST is simple. Removing it from food would add to compliance costs, make business much more complicated and more costly for retailers and require raising tax elsewhere to compensate for lost income.

Linking retail prices to international commodity prices is nothing to do with the government. It’s simply the market. If farmers could get more for producing for export than for the local market that’s what they’d do.

The problem isn’t that milk is too expensive, it’s that people are too poor and that’s because of our poor record of economic growth.

Feds to recognise Cream of the Crop

Federated Farmers plans to recognise the best of New Zealand Agriculture with the Cream of the Crop awards at its annual conference.

The Agribusiness Person of the Year and Agribusiness Personality of the Year will be judged by farmer and former All Black Sir Colin Meads, business woman Anna Stretton, Auckland Mayor John Banks and David Walker from Geni.

President Don Nicolson said other agribusiness award winners would also be honoured, including: the winners of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards; The National Bank Young Farmer of the Year; The Ahuwhenua Trophy – BNZ Maori Excellence in Farming Award; Lincoln University Foundation South Island Farmer of the Year; Rural Women New Zealand Enterprising Rural Woman Award winners; New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards Sharemilkers of the Year; New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards Farm Manager of the Year  and New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards Dairy Trainee of the Year.

The awards ceremony will take place in Auckland on July 1.

June 20 in history

In 1837 Queen Victoria suceeded to the British throne.

 1945 Canadian singer Anne Murray was born.

1987 The All Blacks won the inaugural Rugby World Cup. 

 (Does that provide motivation for this evening’s test?)

How journalism used to be

Those were the days . . .

Hat Tip: Press Pack

Common Cold

This Friday’s poem was chosen because Ogden Nash’ Common Cold depicts so well how I’m feeling.

          – Common Cold –

Go hang yourself, you old M.D,!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
In not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever’s hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

Give ear, you scientific fossil!
Here is the genuine Cold Colossal;
The Cold of which researchers dream,
The Perfect Cold, the Cold Supreme.
This honoured system humbly holds
The Super-cold to end all colds;
The Cold Crusading for Democracy;
The Führer of the Streptococcracy.

Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne’er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba.

A common cold, gadzooks, forsooth!
Ah, yes. And Lincoln was jostled by Booth;
Don Juan was a budding gallant,
And Shakespeare’s plays show signs of talent;
The Arctic winter is fairly coolish,
And your diagnosis is fairly foolish.
Oh what a derision history holds
For the man who belittled the Cold of Colds!

            – Ogden Nash -

Starting at the wrong end of education

Pita Sharples has tempered the comments he made yesterday about Maori having open entry to university by saying that would only be if they meet certain standards.

This afternoon Dr Sharples clarified that he did not expect unqualified Maori to be immediately accepted into courses.

“It’s just providing entry for people to attend a student learning centre where they can reach the standard to do a degree.”

Universities already run pre-admission courses and Dr Sharples is still focussing on the wrong end of the education system.

The problem is not that too few Maori are going to university it is that too few have the required literacy and numeracy skills to gain admission and succeed.

Solving that starts by ensuring pre-schoolers have the skills to get the most out of school from the start – just simple things like being able to count to at least 10, recognising and being able to name colours, knowing how to hold a crayon or pencil, how to hold a book, that the pictures related to the story and that reading is fun.

Once they’re at school, children who are struggling need to be identified early and given extra help. Families and whanau may need assistance too so they are capable of giving children the home support which is an important part of succeeding at school.

It’s not easy to do but it would be far more effective than trying to get more people into university if they don’t have the ability and will to succeed there.

Kiwiblog shows the problem isn’t too few Maori entering university but a disproportionate number who fail to complete their courses.

University isn’t the right  place for everyone and, as Macdoctor points out, you don’t have to be tertiary educated to succeed:

. . . whereas a good, basic education is essential, it is simply not true that a tertiary education is necessary for one to be successful. . . But the majority of business owners appear to have relatively low levels of education. One can only conclude that, while tertiary education will help in the job market, you do not need it to be a success. What you need is the motivation to be successful.

Giving Maori an easier route to university would set up more for failure once they were there and also reflect badly on those who got there on their merits.

Giving everyone better than basic literacy and numeracy skills would provide them with the choice of a tertiary education or taking another route to success.

It’s only a common cold

My throat was sore, the morning light hurt my eyes and my nose was running. I’d have liked to have turned over and gone back to sleep but I had no excuse for that because it was only a common cold.

The kitchen was full of morning busyness – radio on, phone ringing, toast cooking . . . I wanted to leave it and return to bed but I couldn’t do that because I wasn’t really sick I only had a common cold.

My farmer went out. Peace reigned but so did mess. Yesterday’s papers were strewn across the sofa, dishes cluttered the bench, in the laundry a pile of washing waited for attention. I wanted ignore it, sit down beside the fire and have a wee nap. But I couldn’t do that because I wasn’t really sick, I only had a common cold.

The phone kept ringing and all the callers started their conversations by asking, ‘how are you?” Of course I answered ‘fine thanks’ because they were not really interested in my well-being and although I wasn’t fine at all there was nothing to make a song and dance about. I only had a common cold.

The box of tissues was empty but the pretty bits of cotton and lace in my drawer would have been soaked by a single blow. I found more substantial handkerchiefs in my farmer’s drawer, hoping he wouldn’t mind me using them in an emergency. Not that this was an emergency. It was only a common cold.

It was nearly lunchtime but I wasn’t hungry, nor would I have been able to taste anything had I had an appetite for it. What I really wanted was to tuck myself up with a large lemon & honey drink and leave the day to get on without me. But I couldn’t do that when I only had a common cold.

It felt like someone had filled my sinuses with putty and one ear was a bit sore. I thought about ringing my doctor but the medical students with whom I flatted in my youth said if you treat a cold it lasts a week and if you leave it alone it’s over in seven days. Besides, it would be silly to subject others to infection in a doctor’s surgery when I wasn’t really sick and I only had a common cold.

I was supposed to be going down to Dunedin to the opening of MP Michael Woodhouse’s office this afternoon then on to Clinton where I’d been invited to speak to the Lions. I made apologies for both, knowing it would be foolish to spread any germs, but feeling guilty when I only had a common cold.

We were supposed to go to a combined 21^st and 50^th birthday party in Gore tomorrow but cancelled that too, still feeling guilty when I only had a common cold.

I prescribed myself an early night, last night and as I tried to get to sleep I thought about this “only a common cold” business. No doubt colds are common but why is something which makes you feel so lousy always prefaced with an “only”?

Fonterra’s 8th birthday not as happy as 7th

It was eight years ago yesterday that farmers voted to form Fonterra, New Zealand’s biggest dairy company.

If the company has a cake it will be more modest than the one it might have had a year ago when the milk payout was at its peak.

The new season’s forecast is a much more modest $4.55 per kilo of milk solids.

The freezing of executives’ pay  may be a symbolic gesture but it does send a signal to the industry that the white gold has lost some of its lustre.

Adding to concerns is the Reserve Bank’s warning in its May Financial Stability report that agricultural lending has increased steeply and may not be sustainable.

The reintroduction of subsidies in the USA and EU hasn’t helped matters and will slow the recovery. However, even with subsidies dairying in Britain isn’t healthy.

Phil Clarke notes a DairyCo survey conducted in February and March which showed:

The sharp decline in dairy commodity prices in 2008, which has now filtered through to farmers milk cheques, combined with rising input costs, has led to a radical reversal in this year’s Farmer Intentions Survey.

The latest document shows that just 18% of producers now plan to increase output, while the number looking to quit the industry has shot up to 13%……

According to DairyCo, the quitters will outweigh the expanders considerably in volume terms, leading to another 5% drop in UK milk output by 2010/11.

The situation gets even worse if further price falls are factored in. If prices drop another 2p/litre, then the percent who would leave the industry doubles again to over 30%, while only 6% would increase production.

The implications for the future of British milk production are frightening. Even at current prices we are going to see another significant fall in milk output and a sharp rise in our import dependency.

That bad news for British dairying may provide an opportunity for New Zealand because if Britain can’t produce enough to satisfy domestic demand for dairy produce we’d be ready and willing to fill any gaps on their shelves with ours.

June 19 in history

On June 18:

1306 Scottish King, Robert The Bruce’s army was defeated by the Earl of Pembroke’s forces at the Battle of Methven.

King of the Scots

1940 The Niagra was sunk off the coast of Northland by German mines.

1947 Indian author Salman Rushdie was born.

Not amused by $112k salary for muse

 Magaly Rodriguez is officially known as the Chief Inspiration Officer at Idaho State University  the University of Idaho and is paid a salary of $112,ooo for nine months part-time work.

The university provost defends the position but staff facing cuts and students facing fee rises aren’t amused by the idea of paying a part-time muse a monthly salary of $12,500.

Hat Tip: The NZ Week.

A day in the life of a merino

Merino Inc is seeking photos which depict the day in the life of a merino sheep to showcase the industry.

It’s offering cash prizes for the three best photos taken by merino farmers, their families or people who work in the merino industry.

Merinos are prized for their fine wool which in recent years has bucked the trend of decling prices suffered by crossbred wool. It’sbecome well known through brands like Icebreaker, popular for its lightness, warmth – even when wet, breathability and machine washability. Trampers, musterers and others who can’t have a daily shower also value it because it doesn’t get smelly.

The most famous merino is probably Shrek, a whether, which evaded musterers on Bendigo Station for six years. When he was finally captured his 27 kilo fleece was shorn and aucitoned for charity and Shrek became an ambassador for Cure Kids.

One of the reasons for Shrek’s fame was this photo of him being carried by musterer Daniel Devine on the day he was found.

 Shrek retired last year after earning about $100 million for charity.

Delia’s NZ lamb promotion prompts storm in roasting pan

British culinary queen Delia Smith is advertising New Zealand lamb on her website: 

New Zealand Lamb is produced in lush pasturelands, where plentiful native grasses, fresh air and unlimited sunshine – over 2000 hours per year – all combine to give New Zealand Lamb great flavour and eating quality. The mild temperate climate also means that livestock can remain outside all year round, feeding on grass pasture without the need for nutrient supplements and, as there’s plenty of space for the animals to roam, they are essentially free range.

And, naturally, there’s a link between what the sheep eat and the quality of their meat: it’s no surprise that feeding on juicy, nutrient-rich grass makes for meat that is also juicy and packed with flavour and nutritional value.

That sounds good to me but Delia’s getting a roasting from British farmers who reckon she should be promoting their lamb.

One concerned website reader, Lewis Palframan, said: ‘I’m gobsmacked and disappointed.

‘In the age of food miles and carbon footprints – not to mention the need for supporting British farming – what on earth is wrong with our own lamb?’

A spoksman for the National Farmers’ Union said: ‘British lamb is produced to some of the highest welfare standards possible and envied around the world for its quality.

‘We would urge consumers to buy British lamb, local if possible, and look out for the Red Tractor logo and quality standard mark.’

Delia received a CBE for her services to the British food industry. Her promotion of New Zealand lamb would be a bit like Alison Holst telling us to buy imported meat with but of course she wouldn’t do that when our lamb really is the best baa  bar none :)

First do no harm

First do no harm is a guiding principle in medicine.

If politicians and bureaucrats abided by it too we wouldn’t be saddled with the Kyoto Protocol in its current form. Nor would New Zealand be in danger of scoring an on-goal economically while at best making no impact on the environment and almost certainly  making it worse.

However, a joint report by the NZIER and Infometrics provides a glimmer of hope that reason might be brought to bear on our Kyoto commitments.

Environment Minister Nick SMith said at its release:

This report concludes that a modified emissions trading scheme is the best way forward. I am releasing this report to assist with informed public debate on climate change.

“The report highlights that the costs to New Zealand’s climate change policy are significantly greater if other countries do not put a price on carbon. This reinforces the Government’s policy of aligning our response more closely with other countries.

The report concludes:

On balance, our recommendation in the short run is to introduce an ETS with free allocation to competitiveness-at-risk sectors, with agriculture excluded if measurement of its emissions is prohibitively expensive. Free allocation should be output-linked and phased out as our competitors adopt carbon pricing. If agriculture is initially excluded it should be transitioned into the ETS, with free allocation if required, as measurement becomes economic.

The hardworking MP for Eketahuna, Alf Grumble, reckons this will give agriculture a bit of breathing space. I trust he’s lobbying his colleagues to ensure it does.

June 18 in history

On June 18:

1815 the Battle of Waterloo leads to the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte.

1928 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (she was a passenger).

 

1940 Winston Churchill made his Finest Hour speech:

What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”

1942 Paul McCartney  was born.

Too poor to help

One of the criticisms of right wing policies is that they place too much importance on economic growth.

The critics fail to understand that economic growth is a means not an end.

Only by growing the economy can a country afford the education, health and social services it needs.

Without economic growth a country is too poor to help those of its citizens in need, too poor for instance to provide a computer which gives a teenager with cerebal palsy a voice.

She is only able to signal yes and no using flicks of her eyes.

After 14 years without a voice a state of the art communicator, the my tobii arrived in Shenaragh’s world, a Swedish made computer which uses eye tracking technology.

. . . But the $40,000 communicator has only been on loan to Shenaragh – for a few weeks last year, in April this year, and a week now in June.

She is on a long waiting list subject to Ministry of Health funding that has recently been curbed.

$40,000 isn’t a lot of money in a health budget of billions. But when the budget isn’t big enough for the demands placed on it, $40,000 saved in one area can make a big difference in another.

The state isn’t the only avenue open for funding. There may be charitable people or organisations prepared to help, but their ability to do so is also affected by poor economic performance.