Tuesday’s answers

Monday’s questions were:

1.  Who wrote “Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house/ Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse . . .?

2. Who said, about Christmas, “Bah! Humbug!”?

3. What is Peraxilla colensoi?

4. What is a Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae?

5. What was the origin of Boxing Day?

Andrei gets four and a bonus because he was first but his links diverted it to the spam and it didn’t get rescued until late afternoon.

Kismet gets three.

Paul Tremewan gets four and a bonus for imagination.

David Winter is this week’s winner with five and a bonus for humour.

PDM gets one and a bonus for restraint.

Thanks to all of you who’ve taken part, hope you and yours have a happy Chirstmas and that next year treats you well.

Quzes may or may not appear in the next couple of weeks and if it’s not they will resume sometime in January.

Tuesday’s answers follow the break.

School closure inevitable when roll drops

Thirty years ago there were four primary schools in our valley. Now there’s just one.

The closures weren’t without emotion and often most of it was from people who didn’t have children at school.

One of the reasons cited most by these people was the importance of the school for a community focus.

That might be a benefit of schools but it’s not a good reason for keeping one open when the roll’s dropping, the costs of keeping it open outweigh the benefits and the pupils can get as good an education somewhere near by.

Once a school roll starts dropping it tends to snow ball. Parents become concerned about their children having the same teacher for more than a year and see more opportunities for sport, cultural activities and friendships at a bigger school near by. They transfer their children, the roll drops and more parents become concerned.

By the time our local school closed there were only about 10 pupils at it but it employed a full time principal and four part time staff – a principal relief, teacher aide, secretary and someone who looked after the grounds. The expense of paying them and maintaining the school made the cost per child much greater than when the school closed and the pupils moved to a bigger school just a few kilometres away.

The parents, staff and community here accepted the inevitability of the closure. Some at Aorangi School in Christchurch have fought their school closure all the way to the High Court which ruled that the closure should go ahead.

If the people opposing the closure really care about the pupils and their education they should put the closure behind them and put their energy into making sure the children get the best education possible at their new schools.

Hospices get more money

Otago Community Hospice has received an extra $65,000 in government funding.

National’s Dunedin-based MP Michael Woodhouse said hospices got an extra $15 million in this year’s Budget, and the extra for Dunedin came from the $1.3 million of that which was put aside for addressing difficulties in accessing palliative care services.

Mercy Hospice in Auckland, Franklin Hospice, Hospice South Auckland, Hospice Eastern Bay of Plenty, Waipuna Hospice in the Bay of Plenty, Rotorua Community Hospice, Taupo Hospice, Gisborne Palliative Care Trust, Nurse Maude Hospice in Canterbury, and the South Canterbury Hospice also received a portion of the $1.3 million.

That’s another campaign promise kept.

Summer solstice

Today’s the summer solstice which gives us our longest day and shortest night.

In Dunedin the sun will be here for a second longer than it was yesterday and 4 seconds longer than it will be up tomorrow.

In Auckland the sun would have risen at 5.58 and it will set at 8.40. 

In Invercargill it rose at 5.50 and will set at 9.40. (If everyone lived down there we wouldn’t need daylight saving).

If memories from school geography serve me correctly the earth heats and cools faster than the sea. That explains why it’s usually warmer after the longest day and why it’s hotter in Central Otago than on the coast.

The sun’s shining as I type – for the third day in a row – but it’s only 10 degrees so there’s a lot of warming to do before we have summer weather.

December 22 in history

On December 22:

1550  Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher, was born.

1639  Jean Racine, French dramatist was born.

1805  John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist, was born.

  1807  The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, was passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.

 A political cartoon showing merchants dodging the “Ograbme”, which is ‘Embargo’ spelled backwards.

1809 The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, was passed by the U.S. Congress.

1819  Pierre Ossian Bonnet, French mathematician, was born. 

1851The first freight train was operated in Roorkee, India.

1858  Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer, was born.

1885 Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.

1888  J. Arthur Rank, British film producer, was born.

1901  André Kostelanetz, American popular music orchestra leader and arranger, was born.

1907  Dame Peggy Ashcroft, English actress, was born.

1909  Patricia Hayes, English actress, was born.

1914 Swami Satchidananda, Yogi and Spiritual teacher, was born.

1916 Peter Fraser, who later became Prime Minister, was charged with sedition following a speech attackign the government’s military consription policy.

1942 Dick Parry, English musician (Pink Floyd), was born.

1948 Noel Edmonds, English game show host, was born.

1949  Maurice Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees) was born.

1949 – Robin Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees), was born. 

 1956  Colo,  the first gorilla to be bred in captivity was born.

1962 Ralph Fiennes, English actor, was born.

1963 The cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.

1964  First flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird).

1965 A 70mph speed limit was applied to all rural roads in Britain, including motorways, for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.

1974  Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli voted to become the independent nation of Comoros.

1978 The Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.

1989 After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu‘s Communist dictatorship.

1989 – Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate re-opened after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.

1990 Final independence of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia after termination of trusteeship.

1992 – Archives of Terror  – archives describing the fates of thousands of Latin Americans who had been secretly kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay - were discovered by  Dr. Martín Almada, and a human-rights activist and judge, José Agustín Fernández. This was known as Operation Condor.

1997  Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas werre massacred by paramilitary forces.

2001 Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, handeed over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

  

2001 – Richard Reid attempted to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

God Only Knows

Carl Wilson would have been 63 today.

Monday’s quiz

1.  Who wrote “Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house/ Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse . . .?

2. Who said, about Christmas, “Bah! Humbug!”?

3. What is Peraxilla colensoi?

4. What is a Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae?

5. What was the origin of Boxing Day?

If the three wise men had been three wise women . . .

. . . they would have arrived in time to help with the birth, cleaned the stable, brought food and useful gifts; and there’d now be peace on earth.

That’s how the joke goes.

Three Wise Women, written by Mary Hoffman and illustrated by Lynne Russell, takes a less tongue in cheek view of that idea.

It’s a lovely story, beautifully illustrated and helps the reader look at the nativity story with fresh eyes.

The book is published by Frances Lincoln.

What’s wrong with choice?

National campaigned on giving workers the choice of taking their fourth week of holidays or taking the money instead.

Following recommendations from a ministerial review group, Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson has announced that this will be possible from next year.

Unions aren’t happy, employers are and I suspect most workers will be grateful to have a choice too.

Those for whom more time off is important will keep the fourth week’s holiday, others who would prefer more money will be able to take it.

Four weeks leave plus 11 statutory days off is more than some people want.

It’s also more than some can afford. The fourth weeks holiday resulted in lots of people having staycations – staying at home because they didn’t have money to spare for going away.

Since the fourth week of holiday was introduced more firms have been closing for longer at Christmas so most staff had three weeks off then. They did this because having several individual staff members off for more than a week throughout the year caused too much disruption and put to much strain on those still at work.

Opponents are painting the change as a threat to workers. It’s not, it’s an opportunity for choice.

Green beats brown

The ability of Israelis to irrigate and then cultivate the desert is often lauded.

Opinions on irrigation here are not always so positive even though the world’s population is outgrowing feed supplies.

There are environmental benefits from irrigation including less soil erosion and it can enhance the view.

Compare this:

with this which has an irrigated paddock in the background:

and this irrigated paddock of wheat:

The irrigated paddocks are obviously more productive than the dry land and, in my eyes the green is far more attractive than the brown.

The photos were all taken on the outskirts of Omarama. It’s land and landscapes like this which are the subject of resource consent applications for large scale dairying in the Mackenzie Basin.

I am supportive of the applications to irrigate this sort of country. But growing crops like wheat have much less an impact on soils and water than dairying would.

December 21 in history

On December 21:

1118  Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury was born.

1598  Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflicted a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile.

1620 William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

 The Landing of the Pilgrims., by Henry A. Bacon, 1877

1682 Calico Jack Rackham, English pirate, was born.

1804  Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was born.

 

1815  Thomas Couture French painter and teacher, was born.

1843 Thomas Bracken, Irish-born New Zealand, was born.

1844 – The Rochdale Pioneers commenced business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.

1861  Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

1872  HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sailed from Portsmouth.

 Painting of Challenger by William Frederick Mitchell

1883 The first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army were formed: The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment.

 

1892  Rebecca West, British writer, was born.

1905  Anthony Powell, British author, was born.

1913 Arthur Wynne‘s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, was published in the New York World.

1917  Heinrich Böll, German writer and Nobel laureate, was born.

1937 – Jane Fonda, American actress, was born.

1937  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater.

1946 Carl Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys), was born.

1958 Charles de Gaulle was elected President of France when his Union des Démocrates pour la République party gained 78.5% of the vote.

1962 – Rondane National Park was established as Norway‘s first national park.

1964 More than 170 years of New Zealand whaling history came to a close when J. A. Perano and Company caught its last whale off the coast near Kaikoura.

1967  Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, died 18 days after the transplant.

1968 Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At 2h:50m:37s Mission elapsed time (MES), the crew performed the first ever manned Trans Lunar Injection and became the first humans to leave Earth’s gravity.

1971 New Zealand Railways (NZR) launched a new tourist-oriented steam passenger venture, the Kingston Flyer.

1979 Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia was signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara.

 Bishop Abel Muzorewa signing the Lancaster House Agreement seated next to British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington.

1988  A bomb exploded on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.

 Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Four Flat Whites in Italy

Roger Hall has a genius for illustrating the general through the particular.

His characters are people we know and through them we see ourselves and others we recognise.

While enjoying Four Flat Whites in Italy at Dunedin’s Fortune Theatre last night, I found myself thinking, I’ve heard this conversation. Moments later  I was thinking, I‘ve had this conversation!

This is vintage Hall with good jokes, a little bit of politics, some rugby, believable characters and clever dialogue interwoven with some serious themes and moments of poignancy.

The acting was superb, the set simple but effective and scene shifts were flawless.

Last night’s performance was the season’s finale. If the play returns or is showing elsewhere, I’d recommend it.

Yes, let’s fly this fern

John Ansell has made a welcome return to the blogosphere with a post: Lets’ fly this fern.

He makes the case for a changing the flag and offers six designs to choose from, all of which feature a simple fern at the centre.

My pick is F with the blue and green symbolising land and sea.

If you’re interested in the discussion on changing the flag you might like to check out nzflag.com, the website of a trust established to promote debate about New Zealand’s national identity and, in particular, about New Zealand’s flag.

Let’s not be frightened about debating the need for change nor fear the consequences. 

Does anyone remember what Canada’s flag used to look like or the debate about changing it?

It’s time we had a flag which is distinctively New Zealand’s.

Let’s fly this fern.

Spotted at the gym

This is the view eastwards from the top of the hill I walk up most mornings – most being an elastic description related to weather and mood.

Cape Wanbrow is in the background and the crop is canary seed.

It’s grown by one of North Otago’s biggest cropping partnerships who specialise

in bird seed.

When it’s harvested it will be marketed through the Top Flite brand.

Profiting from not producing

The following letter arrived in an email.

My correspondent reckons it’s genuine, if it is, I wonder what the Minister wrote in reply?

Rt Hon David Miliband MP
Secretary of State.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA),
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR

16 July 2009

Dear Secretary of State,

My friend, who is in farming at the moment, recently received a cheque for £3,000 from the Rural Payments Agency for not rearing pigs.. I would now like to join the “not rearing pigs” business.

In your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to rear pigs on, and which is the best breed of pigs not to rear? I want to be sure I approach this endeavour in keeping with all government policies, as dictated by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy.

I would prefer not to rear bacon pigs, but if this is not the type you want not rearing, I will just as gladly not rear porkers. Are there any advantages in not rearing rare breeds such as Saddlebacks or Gloucester Old Spots, or are there too many people already not rearing these?

As I see it, the hardest part of this programme will be keeping an accurate record of how many pigs I haven’t reared. Are there any Government or Local Authority courses on this?

My friend is very satisfied with this business. He has been rearing pigs for forty years or so, and the best he ever made on them was £1,422 in 1968. That is – until this year, when he received a cheque for not rearing any.

If I get £3,000 for not rearing 50 pigs, will I get £6,000 for not rearing 100? I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 pigs not raised, which will mean about £240,000 for the first year. As I become more expert in not rearing pigs, I plan to be more ambitious, perhaps increasing to, say, 40,000 pigs not reared in my second year, for which I should expect about £2.4 million from your department. Incidentally, I wonder if I would be eligible to receive tradable carbon credits for all these pigs not producing harmful and polluting methane gases?

Another point: These pigs that I plan not to rear will not eat 2,000 tonnes of cereals. I understand that you also pay farmers for not growing crops. Will I qualify for payments for not growing cereals to not feed the pigs I don’t rear?

I am also considering the “not milking cows” business, so please send any information you have on that too. Please could you also include the current DEFRA advice on set aside fields? Can this be done on an e-commerce basis with virtual fields (of which I seem to have several thousand hectares)?

In view of the above you will realise that I will be totally unemployed, and will therefore qualify for unemployment benefits. I shall of course be voting for your party at the next general election.

Yours faithfully,

December 20 in history

On December 20:

1192  Richard the Lion-Heart was captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third crusade.

1522 – Suleiman the Magnificent accepted the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who were allowed to evacuate. They eventually settled on Malta and became known as the Knights of Malta.

 

 

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase was completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.

 

1865  Elsie De Wolfe, American socialite and interior decorator, was born.

 

1868 Harvey Firestone, American automobile pioneer, was born.

 

1894  Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia was born.

 

1901  Robert Van de Graaff, American physicist and inventor, was born.

 

 

1907  Paul Francis Webster, songwriter, was born.

 

 1913 The Great Strike of 1913, which had begun in late October when Wellington waterside workers stopped work, ended when the United Federation of Labour (UFL) conceded defeat.

1927  Kim Young-sam, first civilian President of South Korea after a series of dictatorships, was born.

 

1944  Bobby Colomby, American musician (Blood, Sweat & Tears), was born.

1945 Peter Criss, American drummer and singer (Kiss), was born.

1948 Alan Parsons, British music producer and artist, was born.

1951 The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricy.  The electricity powered four light bulbs.

Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1 in Idaho, the first power reactor.

1955 – Cardiff was proclaimed the capital city of Wales.

 Cardiff City Hall

1957  Billy Bragg, English singer and songwriter, was born.

1973 Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, was assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.

1984 The Summit tunnel fire, the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines.

 1987 History’s worst peacetime sea disaster, when the passenger ferry Doña Paz sank after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines  killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).

1988 The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was signed in Vienna

1989  United States invasion of Panama: The United States sent troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega.

1995  NATO began peacekeeping in Bosnia.

1996 NeXT merged with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

1999 Macau was handed over to the People’s Republic of China by Portugal.

2007  Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

Edith Piaf was born on this day in 1915.

Skinny Chocolate Brownie #2

I’d planned to make the Healthy Food Guide’s Skinny Chocolate Brownie for dinner but had no stewed apple.

I didn’t have any fresh apples to stew either but I did have frozen raspberries which I thawed, mashed a bit and added in place of the apple.

The result was even better than the original recipe. The colour was richer and there was a subtle hint of raspberry which enhanced the chocolate flavour.

I didn’t have walnuts which the recipe required and used hazlenuts instead.

 But I think because the raspberry seeds add texture it doesn’t need nuts at all and next time I”ll leave them out.

Getting it right from the start

Prevention is always better than cure and that’s the aim of  taking a whole of government approach to addressing the factors which lead to crime.

Justice Minister Simon Power and Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples said there will be an initial approach on four areas:

• Antenatal, maternity, and early parenting support.
• Programmes to address behavioural problems in young children.
• Reducing the harm caused by alcohol.
• Alternative approaches to managing low-level offenders, and offering pathways out of offending.

A Ministerial Meeting on the Drivers of Crime in April, hosted by the Ministers reached a broad agreement that the drivers of crime are complex, social, inter-generational, and require early intervention.

Power said:

“Though responsibility for reducing crime sits with justice-sector agencies, many of the tools to address the drivers of crime are in other sectors, such as health, education, parenting support, housing, recreation, and economic, social and community development.

“The focus will be on improving outcomes by tackling fragmentation, ensuring ministerial and chief executive co-ordination and leadership of the work programme, improving value for money, and improving the relationship between government and the community.”

 Sharples said:

“Far too many Maori end up in our youth justice and prison facilities, wasting the most productive years of their lives. Far too many Maori are victims of crime. And far too many Maori children grow up in households and communities disrupted by crime and punishment.

“Anything we can do to promote Maori control over their own destiny, community strength and resilience, and pro-social behaviour by Maori will reduce crime overall, and help improve the social and economic position of Maori in the long term.”

Mr Power said the factors that drive crime also contribute to other negative outcomes, such as being a victim of crime, poor health, early school leaving, and unemployment.

“This means efforts to reduce crime cannot be pursued separately from efforts to address other social harms, but need to be part of a co-ordinated response across sectors.

“Several other Ministers are already leading work that could make a significant contribution to addressing the drivers of crime.

Celia Lashlie got in to trouble for describing a young boy who would grow up to be a murderer. But poverty, poor parental education, drug and alcohol abuse  and other factors which give children a poor start in life also predispose them to crime.

Taking a whole of government approach from before children are born won’t be easy nor will it be cheap. But it’s an important part of any crime reduction strategy.

Getting things right from the start to prevent children getting in to trouble is preferable to trying to get them on a more positive pathway once they’re in the criminal justice system.

Vendor beware

It’s usually the buyer who needs to beware, but Federated Farmers is cautioning would be farm sellers to  conduct strict due diligence before entering into sale and purchase agreements.

The warning follows news a trust which is thought to have backing from Dubai World has signed up 28 farms in Southland.

It goes against every commercial norm for major capital items to be sold on a ‘no-deposit’ basis and farms are as big a capital item as you can get,” says David Rose, Federated Farmers rural security spokesperson. . .

“I must say that I am extremely nervous of reports that no-deposits are being taken. It’s pretty fundamental that a deposit be exchanged as a tangible sign of good faith.

“Our second concern relates to the financial backer being reported as Dubai World – the Emirates’ owned and controlled corporate lender.

“On 27 November, the Federation warned that Dubai World was close to defaulting on a substantial part of its $82 billion (US$60 billion) debt. Only on Monday, another Emirates, Abu Dhabi, injected US$10 billion in order to save Dubai World from an immediate default.

“Given these pressing business issues, we are naturally concerned that the supposed backer may not be prioritising the purchase of Southland farms. The fact that a reported deposit milestone has already been missed is further cause for alarm. . . “

Another factor which requires caution is the possible need for these purchases to go before the Overseas Investment Commission which could delay sales or derail them completely.