Mid week music

Ravel’s Bolero premiered 81 years ago this week.

The first time I remember hearing it was during the film 10 which starred Bo Derek.

Is this disaster day?

When compling the day in history post I don’t always include natural disasters but I did today because there were so many:

1343 A tsunami, caused by the earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

1703 The Great Storm of 1703, Britain’s biggest windstorm.

1759 An earthquake hit the Mediterranean destryoing Beirut and Damascus.

1833 A  massive undersea earthquake near Sumatra.

1839  A cyclone hit India.

1926 The deadliest November tornado outbreak in U.S. history.

1950 The “Storm of the Century“, struck the northeastern USA.

1987 Super Typhoon Nina pummeled the Philippines.

1996  An ice storm strikes the central U.S. killing 26 people.

2000  2000 Baku earthquake.

The Gravedodgers may well be sensible to delay the erection of their shade sails.

Xcheque.com worth checking

A post at Phil Clarke’s Business Blog on how to translate $NZ per kilo of milk solids into British pence per litre led to Xcheque.com .

It’s a website with a wealth of dairy industry news and views which includes a global milk calculator and blogs.

The people behind Xcheque.com are Neil Lane and Jon Hauser:

Neil Lane who grew up on his parents dairy farm in Gippsland and has been involved in the dairy industry for most of his working life. For the past 8 years Neil has run his own consulting business specialising in the provision of farm systems advice. He consults to individual dairy farmers, dairy industry projects, and milk processors as part of the Intelact group of consultants. . .  

Jon Hauser holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and has accumulated 30 years experience in research, manufacturing, and commercial management of dairy and other food processing businesses. He has also had an active role in the dairy co-operative sector as a CEO and Director.  . .

They are Australians but the website covers global dairy industry news and issues.

Oh dear, I’ve found another opportunity for work avoidance.

Three questions:

1.Why does the carbon liability for oil falls on consumers when the liability for food falls on producers?

2. Why is New Zealand criticised for our per capita emissions when we export most of what we produce form the animals that produce the bulk of our emissions?

3. Why action which reduces emissions in one place is deemed to be good, even if it leads to an increase in emissions in another place?

Unexpected consequences

A letter to the editor of the Southland Times:

We’ll meat again
Since Mr Wyatt’s suggestion (November 4) I have tried a no-meat diet of beans, greens and onions but sad to say after the increased emissions I now have no friends, am sleeping in the garage, the cat clawed the sofa to pieces, the dog bit my leg and the pigs thought I was talking to them.

It’s now back to a healthy balanced diet of meat and vegetables.

(Did you know that pigs, like most other animals and birds, also eat meat in their natural environment?)

                                                                                                                                               Neville Stronach, Te Anau              

Greenpeace still aiming at wrong target

Greenpeace protestors are still aiming at Fonterra.

This time they’re accusing the co-operative of climate crimes. 

Climate campaigner Simon Boxer says Fonterra knows its imported palm kernel comes at the expense of rainforests, orangutans, indigenous peoples and the climate.

I have doubts about the wisdom of importing palm kernel because of biosecurity risks. But I don’t understand why Greenpeace is targeting Fonterra when palm oil used in soap and food must be much more of a problem than the relatively small amount of pke used for animal food.

Federated Farmers thinks the group has lost its way in its anti-farming obsession:

“Greenpeace is only green in the first five letters of its name and is really an anti-business, anti-trade and anti-farming front,” says David Rose, Federated Farmers Southland-based spokesperson for law and order.

He said public relations stunts cause inconvenience and loss of revenue to people going about their lawful business and points out that the exports generated by farmers and Fonterra help pay for medicine, education and other services.

“At least farmers are aware of their impact on the environment and are working hard to develop management and mitigation measures. That’s why water quality today is far better than when I was a lad, except that is, in our towns and cities.

“Picking on farming is also darn odd. Among the major productive sectors in the economy, we’re actually doing the second best job at reducing emissions.

“Between 1990 and 2007 agriculture emissions grew by 12 percent yet electricity emissions grew by 120 percent despite wind farms, transport by 74 percent despite hybrid cars and industrial processes by 35 percent.

“Farmers are actively cutting emissions growth per unit of output because we farmers are doers while Greenpeace are just talkers. I’d like to see its ideas for real economic growth that doesn’t mean regressing to the dark ages. . .”

Greenpeace does seem to be more intent on protesting for publicity than solving problems.

Farmers, processors and the government are putting a lot of money into research to find ways of reducing animal emissions. Until that research bears fruit the only way to make substantial reductions in emissions is to reduce the national herd.

That would lead to food shortages, damage our economy and almost certainly increase global emissions as countries which produce milk less efficiently than we do, increased their production to fill the gap in the market.

November 25 in history

On November 25:

1491 The siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, began.

1343 A tsunami, caused by the earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea, devastated Naples  and the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, among other places.

1703 The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reached its peak intensity which it maintained through November 27. Winds gusted up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people died.

1759 An earthquake hit the Mediterranean, Beirut and Damascus were completely destroyed, 30,000-40,000 people died.

1833 A  massive undersea earthquake, estimated magnitude between 8.7-9.2 rocked Sumatra, producing a massive tsunami all along the Indonesian coasts.

1839  A cyclone hit India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa. The storm wave swept inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths resulted.

1835 Andrew Carnegie, British-born industrialist and philanthropist, was born.

1844  Karl Benz, German engineer and inventor, was born.

1867  Alfred Nobel patented dynamite.

 

1880 John Flynn (minister), Founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, was born.

1880  Elsie J. Oxenham, British children’s author, was born.

1890 Isaac Rosenberg, English war poet and artist, was born.

1903  Timaru boxer Bob Fitzsimmons became the first man ever to be world champion in three different weight divisions.

1909  P.D. Eastman, American children’s author and screenwriter, was born.

1914  Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player, was born.

1915 Augusto Pinochet, Chilean Dictator, was born.

1926 The deadliest November tornado outbreak in U.S. history struck. 27 twisters of great strength were reported in the Midwest, including the strongest November tornado, an estimated F4, that devastated Heber Springs, Arkansas. There were 51 deaths in Arkansas alone, 76 deaths and  400 injuries in all.

1940 First flight of the deHavilland Mosquito and Martin B-26 Marauder.

                                       

1947  New Zealand ratified the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.

1950  Alexis Wright, Australian author, was born.

1950 The “Storm of the Century“, a violent snowstorm, paralyzed the northeastern United States and the Appalachians, bringing winds up to 100 mph and sub-zero temperatures. Pickens, West Virginia, recorded 57 inches of snow. 323 people died as a result of the storm.

Surface Analysis showing cyclone near time of maximum intensity on November 26, 1950.

1952 Agatha Christie‘s murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opensedat the Ambassadors Theatre in London and eventually became the longest continuously-running play in history.

1975  Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands.

1984  36 top musicians gathered in a Notting Hill studio torecord Band Aid‘s Do They Know It’s Christmas in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.

Cover art for the original release (artist Peter Blake)

1986 The King Fahd Causeway was officially opened in the Persian Gulf.

1987 Super Typhoon Nina pummeled the Philippines with category 5 winds of 165 mph and a surge that swallows entire villages. At least 1,036 deaths were attributed to the storm.

1996  An ice storm strikes the central U.S. killing 26 people. A powerful windstorm affects Florida and winds gust over 90 mph, toppling trees and flipping trailers.

2000  2000 Baku earthquake.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Ten Guitars

It’s Billy Connolly’s birthday.

It’s not easy to find something by him without a lot of words my mother wouldn’t want to hear, but I think this is free from fs.

And today is?

I just phoned the Koru Club and got a recorded message telling me the office was closed for Queens Birthday.

The Entertainer

Scott Joplin was born 141 years ago today.

I was introduced to this as the theme music for The Sting, but the tune is much older than that film.

Tuesday’s answers

Monday’s questions were:

1. What is a gnomon?

2. Which New Zealand author lost his left leg in 1940?

3. Who wrote Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge?

4.  Which author rode the Queen Mother’s race horses?

5. Who said, If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research”?

No-one got all the answers:

Fairfacts Media gets a point for the speed and wit of his response.

Andrei got 3 plus 1/2 for his answer to 5.

Samo got 2 and I think another 1 for the answer to 4  – although I wasn’t thinking of  Lester Piggot I think he wrote an autobigoraphy which technically makes him a writer.

PDM gets one and a bonus for his answer to 5.

Teletext is the winner with 4.

Paul Tremewan got 1 right and a bonus for teaching me something.

Tuesday’s answers follow the break:

Lamb drop up

The national lamb flock increased  6.2% this spring  Meat and Wool NZ’s tailing survey shows.

A total of 28.95 million lambs were tailed this year, 1.7 million more than last spring when numbers reached a 51 year low.

North Island lamb numbers were up 9.1 per cent (1.1 million head) to 13.15 million head. South Island lamb numbers were up 4.0 per cent (0.60 million head) to 15.80 million head

Fewer ewes were put to the ram but good stock condition and generally favourable weather resulted in more multiple births and better lamb survival.

We had a 123 percent lambing nationally. This was 10.5 percentage points better than last season’s 111.1% when drought affected fertility. 

An increase in the conception rate for ewes, plus good weather conditions in early lambing led to excellent lamb survival boosting the number of lambs tailed.

The export lamb slaughter for 2009-10 is estimated to be 23.5 million head. This is an increase of 4.4% on last season and represents one million more lambs available for slaughter. However, some of these lambs will be retained for replacements to make up for the drop in stock numbers last season.

New season lambs have been receiving similar prices as last season. However farmers are expecting the price to fall off rapidly after the Christmas export trade due to the strength of the dollar.

Last season gave a welcome boost in returns for sheep meat but while international demand is strong it is not expected to translate into prices which are high enough to compensate for the relatively high value of our currency.

Nominations open for PM’s science prizes

Nominations have opened for three of the inaugural Prime Minister’s Science Prizes:  the Prize for Science, the Science Teacher Prize and the Science Media Communication Prize.

The winner of the Prize for Science will get $100,000 plus $400,000 for their research. The Science Teacher Prize gives $50,000 to the winner and $100,000 to their school and  the Science Media Communication Prize gives the winner $150,000 to cover the costs of a series of secondments for the winner to media organisations.

Nominations close on December 18.

Further information on the prizes is here.

4WD not amphibian

The Southland Times has the story and photo of a four wheel drive vehicle which can’t swim.

NZ a square peg in round ETS hole

New Zealand’s problem is that we’re different.

Primary production and industries based on it are our bigeest export earners; almost all our forestry is from exotic species; we have relatively little heavy industry and the bulk of our power is already from renewable sources.

The Kyoto Protocol wasn’t designed for countries like us.

The heavy reliance on primary production is much more common in developing countries. But around half our emissions come from animals and there is little, short of reducing stock numbers, we can do to reduce them immediately. Research is being undertaken to reduce emissions from livestock but practical, affordable solutions may be years away.

The rules requiring new trees to be replanted where old ones were felled was aimed at protecting rain forests and indigenous species. It seems no-one considered that a clause aimed at protecting indigenous trees shouldn’t apply to exotic timber species in a country where they grow as well as they do here.

Our private vehicle ownership is high by world standards but that reflects our relatively small, widespread population which means that public transport is neither practical nor affordable in many places.

New Zealand is a square peg and we were ill served by the negotiators who tried to fit us into the round ETS hole.

I have a lot of confidence in Tim Groser who will be working on our behalf at the Copenhagen summit.

But I thought the whole thing was a dog’s breakfast from the start and my concerns are even greater now that there are questions over manipulation of climate change data.

Over at Sciblogs Aimee Witcroft raises the possibility the leaked emails have been doctored and points to a Guardian story  on the issue. It quotes Prof Bob Watson, the chief scientific advisor at Britain’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs who said,

“Evidence for climate change is irrefutable. The world’s leading scientists overwhelmingly agree what we’re experiencing is not down to natural variation.”

 Also at Sciblogs Gareth Renowden isn’t convinced by the leaked material.

For a contrary view see:  Ian Wishart,  Adolf at No Minister,  Roarprawn, Whaleoil,  Not PC, Poneke,  Mr Tips at NZ Conservative, Thoughts from 40 South, and Something Should Go Here  who says: 

I’ll say it a thousand times, climate change activism is about politics, not science.

November 24 in history

On November 24:

1429  Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieged La Charité.

1642  Abel Tasman became the first European to discover the island Van Diemen’s Land (later renamed Tasmania).

1663 map of Van Diemen’s Land, showing the parts discovered by Tasman.

 

1690  Charles Theodore Pachelbel, German composer, was born.

 

1806 William Webb Ellis, who is credited with the invention of Rugby, was born.

1815 Grace Darling, English heroine, was born.

1849  Frances Hodgson Burnett, British-born author, was born.

1864  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter, was born.

1868 Scott Joplin, Ragtime Composer, was born.

1888  Dale Carnegie, American writer, was born.

1894 Herbert Sutcliffe, English cricketer, was born.

1897  Lucky Luciano, American gangster, was born.

1942 Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian, was born.

1944  Bev Bevan, English rock drummer (The Move, Electric Light Orchestra), was born.

1946  Penelope Jones Halsall (aka Caroline Courtney, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright, Annie Groves, Penny Jordan), English novelist, was born.

1955  Ian Botham, England test cricketer, was born.

1959 All hands were lost when the modern coastal freighter Holmglen foundered off the South Canterbury coast.

1961 Arundhati Roy, Indian writer, was born.

1965  Joseph Désiré Mobutu seized power in the Congo and became President.

1969 The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.

1974 Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discovered the 40% complete Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, nicknamed “Lucy” after The Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds“, in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia‘s Afar Depression.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Dr Who

Dr Who was first broadcast, on this day in 1963.

United We Stand

Happy birthday Sandra Stevens.

Monday’s quiz

1. What is a gnomon?

2. Which New Zealand author lost his left leg in 1940?

3. Who wrote Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge?

4.  Which author rode the Queen Mother’s race horses?

5. Who said, If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research”?

Bargains at sculpture auction

The two-week long stone carving symposium in Oamaru concluded with a silent auction yesterday.

Everyone we spoke to commented on the quality of the sculptures, most of which went for bargain prices.

Joy Harvey’s Wind Song, an Aeolian Harp in Oamaru Stone went for $4000, the highest price paid.

The top bid for Ruth Killoran’s Aegis (Protection) was just  $2100. ( I’m not sure if that reached its reserve).

Allen Harnett won the popular vote with Koru which sold for $1750.

Harnett’s Silver Fern went for $2000.

Many other works, including Trinity, which is in the background of the photo above, sold for only a few hundred dollars.

The stone was supplied by  Parkside Quarry which sponsors the symposium and several artists said how impressed they were with its quality.

Gary Kircher has some more photos at Waitaki Blog.