Know a rural woman who deserves to be pampered?

Rural Trader is looking for a special rural woman who deserves a pampering.

They’re inviting rural blokes and children to explain in 100 words or fewer why the special woman in their lives deserves a little pampering.

The winner will get a pamper package from Rodney Wayne and Life Pharmacy.

Details are here.

If you’re enetering and want to share why the lovely rural woman in your life deserves to be pampered you’re welcome to leave a comment here.

Supermarket silliness

They had been for a run and called in to the supermarket on their way home so one could buy a bottle of wine.

They were both 25, the one buying the wine had a licence to prove that but the woman serving her wasn’t going to let her buy the wine because her friend didn’t have any proof of age with her.

Surely, if she’d been going to supply someone under 18 with alcohol the minor wouldn’t have been at the counter with her.

And what happens if parents are buying alcohol with their children in tow?

Is this what the law requires or is the supermarket being over cautious?

April 16 in history

On April 16:

1178 BC; The calculated date of the Greek king Odysseus‘s return home from the Trojan War.

 

73 Masada, a Jewish fortress, fell to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt.

1071 Bari faell to Robert Guiscard, ending Byzantine rule in Italy.

 

1346 The Serbian Empire was proclaimed in Skopje by Dusan Silni, occupying much of the Balkans.

1521 Martin Luther‘s first appearance before the Diet of Worms to be examined by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the other estates of the empire.

 

1582 Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founded the settlement of Salta, Argentina.

1682 John Hadley, British inventor, was born.

1728 Joseph Black, Scottish chemist, was born.

1746 The Battle of Culloden was fought between the French-supported Jacobites and the Hanoverian British Government.

1780 The University of Münster was founded.

1799 Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Mount Tabor – Napoleon drove Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.

1853 The first passenger rail opened in India, from Bori Bunder, Bombay to Thane.

1862 American Civil War: The Battle at Lee’s Mills in Virginia.

1862 American Civil War: A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law.

1863 American Civil War: The Siege of Vicksburg – ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter moved through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1865 Henry George Chauvel, Australian general (, was born.

1867 Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer (, was born.

1889 Charlie Chaplin, English actor, writer, songwriter, composer, and film producer, was born.

1892 The New Zealand Rugby Football Union was founded.

1910 The University of Queensland was founded, with the names of the members of the first Senate published in the Queensland Government Gazette.

1912  Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly an aeroplane across the English Channel.

1917 Lenin returnedto Petrograd from exile in Switzerland.

1918 Spike Milligan, Irish comedian, was born.

1919 – Gandhi organised a day of “prayer and fasting” in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Amritsar Massacre by the British.

1921 Peter Ustinov, English actor, was born.

 

1922  Kingsley Amis, English author, was born.

1922 The Treaty of Rapallo, pursuant to which Germany and the Soviet Union re-established diplomatic relations, was signed.

 

1924 Henry Mancini, American composer, was born.

1925 The St Nedelya Church assault in Sofia – 150 people were killed and 500 were wounded.

 

1924 Rudy Pompilli, American musician (Bill Haley & His Comets), was born.

 

1927 Pope Benedict XVI, born Joseph Alois Ratzinger., was born.

1939 Dusty Springfield, English singer, was born.

1941 World War II: The Italian convoy Duisburg, was attacked and destroyed by British ships.

1941 – Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians threw the only Opening Day no-hitter in the history of Major League Baseball, beating the Chicago White Sox 1-0.

1943 Ruth Madoc, British actress, was born.

1943  Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD.

1945 The Red Army began the final assault on German forces around Berlin.

1945 The United States Army liberated Nazi Sonderlager (high security) Prisoner of War camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).

 

1945 – More than 7,000 died when the German refugee ship Goya was sunk by a Soviet submarine torpedo.

1946 Syria gained independence.

1947  Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board a freighter in port caused the city of Texas City to catch fire, killing almost 600.

 One of Grandcamp’s anchors Texas City Memorial Park

1947 Bernard Baruch coined the term “Cold War” to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

1953 Queen Elizabeth II launched the Royal Yacht HMY Britannia.

1963 – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. penned his Letter from Birmingham Jail while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama for protesting against segregation.

1963 Jimmy Osmond, American pop singer (The Osmonds), was born.

1972 Apollo programme: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1987 British Conservative MP Harvey Proctor appeared at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court charged with gross indecency.

1990 The “Doctor of Death”, Jack Kevorkian, went through with his first assisted suicide.

1992 The Katina P. ran aground off Maputo, Mozambique. 60,000 tons of crude oil spilt into the ocean.

2003 The Treaty of Accession was signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union.

 

2004 – The super liner Queen Mary 2 embarks on her first trans-Atlantic crossing, linking the golden age of ocean travel to the modern age of ocean travel.

2007 Virginia Tech massacre:  Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 and injured 23 before committing suicide.

Students gather to mourn after the shooting.

2008 Democratic senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama participated in the final Democratic primary debate of 2008.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Largo from Handel’s Xerxes

Handel’s Xerxes was first performed 772 272 years ago today.

There are other beautiful pieces from the opera, but this is my favourite.

Bewitched

Elizabeth Montgomery was born 77 years ago today.

Sometimes these old programmes are regarded as anti-women, but from my memory it was Samanthat’s husband Darren who was always portrayed as a bit of a bumbler and Sam who had not just magic, but brains.

Just wondering . . .

 . . . if “dinner is ready” means:

a) Why don’t you go and feed the dogs?

b) Finish reading the paper.

c) Phone someone.

d) Any or all of the above.

e) dinner is ready.

 

Who do you believe?

He was a prison chaplain.

The prisoners he worked with swore at him, spat at him and even urinated on him. But he kept on working with them and their families.

He is retired now but still works with prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families.

He was a tradesman before he went in to the church and he believes in offering practical help rather than preaching at people in desperate need.

He’s a good man with years of experience of prisons and prisoners. He says in his experience private prisons have a better record of running prisons well, treating prisoners humanely, rehabilitating the inmates and reducing recidivism than state run ones.

I believe him rather than opposition MPs and unions who are so opposed to the announcement by Bill English and Judith Collins that the new prison to be built at Wiri will be a PPP – public, private partnership.

Quote of the day

“I don’t really know what he’s talking about, I’m not sure if he does.”

Bill English on a deluded has-been/would-be who, as Keeping Stock reminded us, still owes the taxpayer $158,000.

Govt to Govt to get NZ apples in to Australia

Orchardists have been cautious about celebrating the news that the World Trade Organisation ruled in New Zealand’s favour in the dispute over access to Australia for our apples.

The caution is because Australia could appeal the ruling.

However Trans Tasman reports that a government to government initiative might ensure the ruling is upheld.

The Trans Tasman Political Letter says NZ is looking for a way to
settle the apple export row at Government level, after NZ’s WTO
victory. It notes NZ may have won its case in the WTO court
against Australia’s barriers on the sale of NZ apples in the
Australian market, but no-one on this side of the Tasman believes
the battle has been finally won.  

As Trans-Tasman reported earlier this week, The WTO panel has
comprehensively rejected the Aust argument, and its use of
quarantine regulation as a de facto trade barrier. Clearly the
issue should now be settled at the political level, and both
Govts may have thought it a good idea to keep the WTO report
under wraps until after the Federal election.  

Trans Tasman says each Govt received the interim report at the
end of last month, and Canberra could be wary of unleashing the
fury of Aust. Apple growers in the run-up to the election.
However with a Labor Govt in power, the influence of the apple
growers mainly in seats held by Liberal or National MPs may be
less dominant. Theoretically,the Rudd Govt should be swayed more
by the interests of consumers. The NZ Govt has been looking at
how to negotiate a settlement, based on the WTO’s panel interim
ruling.  

TransTasman says Trade Minister Tim Groser is expected to explore
what shape a fair and final resolution could take when he talks
with his counterpart Simon Crean on the sidelines of the Cairns
Group meeting in Punta del Este early next week.  

However Trans Tasman adds NZ knows from past experience, even
when the science has been overwhelmingly conclusive, the Aust
bureaucracy has always found a way to frustrate an outcome in
NZ’s favour. With the full weight of the WTO swinging behind NZ,
Aust will risk making itself a laughing stock preaching free
trade out of one corner of its mouth while it practises
protectionism out of the other.

The observation that the Rudd government may be swayed by the interests of consumers reinforces that the ban on New Zealand apples doesn’t just handicap our apple producers, it adds to the costs and limits choice for Australian consumers.

Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean had earlier welcomed the WTO decision.

“This is a great day for Central Otago growers who have pinned their hopes on gaining access to markets across the Tasman.

“It has been a complicated and sometimes frustrating journey to get to this point, but now that we’re here I know that apple growers will be relieved and delighted.

“I see this decision as a vindication for Central Otago growers who have argued long and hard that the Australian ban should be lifted.

“It will be a major shot in the arm for Central apple growers, giving the industry new hope, and new markets for the future.

“Access to Australia could be worth millions to apple growers in this country and has the potential to turn the industry around.”

The Australian market could take up to 5 percent of the national crop and be worth $20 million a year.

Not everyone is so positive, (Hat Tip Andrei at NZ Conservative) Ozy Mandias wants to send Aussies our rotten apples:

Deep down my real concern is that it won’t take them long to claim our apples as there own. As New Zealanders we are constantly being ripped off by our neighbours as year after year they take our best and claim it for themselves. From racehorses to food to bands  to celebrities they have raped and pillaged the best of our little country and the next thing on their list will be our apples. . .  

My other concern is that soon we will have nothing left in New Zealand at all. . . They say that Auckland is the capital city of Samoa. Within a few years Sydney will be the capital city of New Zealand and Wellington the capital of nothing more than a strong breeze. I hadn’t been too worried about this trend, clinging to the words of former PM Muldoon that “when a New Zealander leaves for Australia they improve the IQ of both nations”. However, I never envisaged that they would move from importing people to importing our most valuable asset, apples. I wonder if Muldoon’s quote still holds true with apples??

April 15 in history

On April 15:

1452 Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance polymath, was born.

1469 Guru Nanak Dev, the first of the ten Sikh Gurus, was born.

 

1632 Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeated the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years’ War.

1641 Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician, was born.

1642 Suleiman II, Ottoman Sultan, was born.

1684 Catherine I of Russia, was born.

1710 William Cullen, Scottish physician, was born.

1715 Pocotaligo Massacre triggered the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.

1738 Premiere in London of Serse (Xerxes) an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.

1755 Samuel Johnson‘s A Dictionary of the English Language published in London.

1783 – Preliminary articles of peace ending Revolutionary War ratified.

1802 William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy saw a “long belt” of daffodils, inspiring him to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

 

1841 Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian distillery founder, was born.

1843 Henry James, American author (, was born.

1865 Abraham Lincoln died after being shot the previous day by actor John Wilkes Booth.

1868 The first two Maori MPs ,  Frederick Nene Russell (Northern Maori) and Tareha Te Moananui (Eastern Maori), were elected to parliament.

1885 The first sod was turned on the North Island main trunk line.

1883 Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia, was born.

 

1892 The General Electric Company was formed.

1894 Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union, was born.

1894 Bessie Smith, American blues singer, was born.

1895 Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards player, was born.

1906 The Armenian organization AGBU was established.

1912 Kim Il-sung, President of North Korea, was born.

1912 RMS Titanic, sinks in the North Atlantic, after hitting an iceberg two and a half hours earlier, the previous day, killing more than 1,500 people.

1916 Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American businessman, was born.

1921 Black Friday, mine owners announced a decrease in wages leading to the threat of a strike all across England

1923 Insulin became generally available for use by people with diabetes.

1924 Sir Neville Marriner, English conductor, was born.

1924 Rand McNally published its first road atlas.

1930 Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, President of Iceland, was born.

1933 Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress, was born.

1940 The Allies begin their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by Nazi Germany.

 

1940 Jeffrey Archer, British author, was born.

1940 Robert Lacroix, French Canadian professor of economics, was born.

1941 In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attacked Belfast, killing 1,000 people.

 

1942 George Cross was awarded to “to the island fortress of Malta – its people and defenders” by King George VI.

 

1943 An Allied bomber attack missed the Minerva automobile factory and hits the Belgian town of Mortsel instead, killing 936 civilians.

1945 The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated.

1947 Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball’s color line.

1952  The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress

1955 Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman, was born.

1957 White Rock, British Columbia officially separated from Surrey,  and was incorporated as a new city.

1959 Emma Thompson, English actress, was born.

1960 Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, heir to the Belgian throne, was born.

1979 An earthquake (of M 7.1) on Montenegro coast.

1989 A human crush occured at Hillsborough Stadium,  in the FA Cup Semi Final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool F.C. fans.

 

1989 Upon Hu Yaobang‘s death, the Tiananmen Square protests began.

1992 The National Assembly of Vietnam adopted the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

1994 Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities signed the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and initiating the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).

2002 – An Air China Boeing 767 200, flight CA129 crashed into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.

Sourced from NZ History Online & WIkipedia

Regresa a Mi

Happy birthday David Miller – 37 today.

Bach’s Air on G String

Happy birthday Julian Lloyd Webber, 59 today.

One’s on the Way

Happy birthday Loretta Lynn – 76 today.

I can’t decide if this is comedy or tragedy.

From junk to funk

 The challenge was to turn junk into funk for the Harvest Home at Totara Estate.

Sixty six people responded and such was the enthusiasm for the creativity displayed it was decided the  steamjunk exhibits deserved a wider audience.

The display opens at the Oamaru Opera House today.

The inspiration for the steamjunk competition came from the success of the steampunk exhibition at the Forrestor Gallery last year.

Apropos of that, the League of Victorian Imagineers  is planning a Steampunk Gala Ball & Fashion Show on June 5th.

US dairy head calls for balance

Jerry Kozak, head of the USA’s Milk Producers’ Federation is calling for a move away from the dairy product price support programme (DPPSP).

. . . is the dairy product price support program the best use of federal resources to establish a safety net to help farmers cope with periods of low prices? Is it effective? I believe, the answer today on both counts, is no.

He says the DPPSP reduces total demand for US dairy products, dampens the ability to export and encourages foreign imports; acts as a disincentive to product innovation; supports dairy farmers elsewhere at the expense of US dairy farmers; it isn’t effectively managed to fulfil its objectives and the price levels it seeks to achieve aren’t relevant to farmers in 2010.

For all of these reasons, what NMPF is now focused upon is a transitional process that shifts the resources previously invested in the dairy product price support program, to the income protection program that I have discussed previously.

In summary, discontinuing the DPPSP would eventually result in higher milk prices for U.S. dairy farmers. By focusing on indemnifying against poor margins, rather than on a milk price target that is clearly inadequate, we can create a more relevant safety net that allows for quicker price adjustments, reduced imports and greater exports. As a result of our DPPSP, the U.S. has become the world’s balancing plant. As time marches on, so, too, must our approach to helping farmers.

He’s not suggesting an end to subsidies but it is an acceptance that the current subsidies don’t work which has been welcomed by Fonterra and Federated Farmers.

There is still a long way to go, however.

My geographically challenged post yesterday on US trade protection reminded Off Setting Behaviour of  a Washington Post story on how the dairy industry crushed  Hein Hettinga, an innovator who bested the price-control system.

It’s four year’s old and long – five pages – but an instructive, if depressing read, on the dangers of protection.

4/10

Oh dear – I wasn’t concentrating when compling the history posts this week – only 4/10 in the NZ History Online quiz.

12/15

12/15 in this week’s Dominion Post politics quiz.

The bomb scare had escaped me altogether.

He doesn’t understand how super works

The leader of Winston First has creaked into life again but his address to Grey Power shows he’s still confused.

Mr Peters told Grey Power’s annual meeting in Christchurch that superannuitants were not going to be better off under the tax changes the Government is going to announce in next month’s budget.

You’d think a former Treasurer would understand how superannuation works.

It’s based on the average after tax income. That means that if, as been mooted, tax rates decrease then superannuation increases.

Besides, the government has said that if GST increases then all beneficiaries will get a compensatory increase in their benefits.

He called his address Malice in Blunderland which gave Tariana Turia the opportunity to say:

Mrs Turia suggested he might be getting himself confused with the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare or perhaps the Dodo.

Or maybe all of the above.

April 14 in history

On April 14:

43 BC  Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar’s assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeated the forces of the consul Pansa, who was killed.

69 Vitellius, commander of the Rhine armies, defeated Emperor Otho in the Battle of Bedriacum and seizes the throne.

1028  Henry III, son of Conrad, was elected king of the Germans.

 

1205 Battle of Adrianople between Bulgarians and Crusaders.

1294 Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty with the reigning titles Oljeitu and Chengzong.

1341 Sacking of Saluzzo  by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V of Saluzzo.

1434 The foundation stone of Cathedral of  St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes was laid.

 

1471 The Yorkists under Edward IV defeated the Lancastrians under Warwick at the battle of Barnet; the Earl of Warwick was killed and Edward IV resumed the throne.

1699  Birth of Khalsa  the brotherhood of the Sikh religion, in Northern India in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.

1775 The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage  – the first abolitionist society in North America – was organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.

1828  Noah Webster copyrighted the first edition of his dictionary.

 

1846 The Donner Party of pioneers left Springfield, Illinois, for California, on what became a year-long journey of hardship, cannibalism, and survival.

 

1849 Hungary declared itself independent of Austria with Lajos Kossuth as its leader.

 

1860 The first Pony Express rider reached Sacramento, California.

 

1864 Battle of Dybbøl: A Prussian-Austrian army defeated Denmark and gained control of Schleswig. Denmark surrendered the province in the following peace settlement.

1865   Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth.

 

1865 U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family were attacked in their home by Lewis Powell.

 

1866 Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher, was born.

 

1881 The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupted in El Paso, Texas.

1890 The Pan-American Union is founded by the First International Conference of American States.

1894 Thomas Edison demonstrated the kinetoscope, a device for peep-show viewing using photographs that flip in sequence.

  

1904 Sir John Gielgud, English actor, was born.

1912  The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hit an iceberg at 11.40pm in the North Atlantic, and sankthe following morning with the loss of 1,517 lives.

 

1915 The Turks invaded Armenia.

1927 The first Volvo car premiered in Gothenburg.

 

1927 Alan MacDiarmid, New Zealand chemist, Nobel laureate, was born.

1931 Spanish Cortes Generales deposed King Alfonso XIII and proclaimed the 2nd Spanish Republic.

1932 A crowd of about 1500 rioted in Queen Street.

1935 Black Sunday Storm, the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl.

 

1935 Loretta Lynn, American singer/songwriter, was born.

1941 Julie Christie, British actress, was born.

1941 World War II: The Ustashe, a Croatian far-right organisation was put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Power after the Operation 25 invasion.

1941 Rommel attacked Tobruk.

1944 Bombay Explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbour killsed300 caused economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.

1945 Osijek, Croatia, was liberated from fascist occupation.

1945 Ritchie Blackmore, English guitarist (Deep Purple), was born.

1951 Julian Lloyd Webber, English cellist, was born.

1956 In Chicago videotape was first demonstrated.

 

1958 The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 fell from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days.

1961 Robert Carlyle, British actor, was born.

1969  Academy Award for Best Actress was a tie between Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand.

1973 David Miller, American tenor (Il Divo), was born.

1978: Thousands of Georgians demonstrated in Tbilisi against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.

1981 The first operational space shuttle, Columbia (OV-102) completed its first test flight.

 

1986 In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.

1986 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) hailstones fell on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92 – these were the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.

 

1988 The USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.

1988  The Soviet Union signed an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

1994 In a U.S. friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq, two United States Air Force aircraft mistakenly shoot-down two United States Army helicopters, killing 26 people.

1999  NATO mistakenly bombed a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees.

1999 A severe hailstorm struck Sydney causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.

2002 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country’s military.

2003 The Human Genome Project was completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

2003 U.S. troops in Baghdad captured Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.

2005 The Oregon Supreme Court nullified marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County.

2007 At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara protested against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Hallelujah Chorus

It’s 268 years today since Handel’s Messiah had its world premiere.